David Pagel on Mary Heilmann. I saw the 2007 show at OCMA... what I like about her is the brazenly formal means to an ultimately informal end. Also, there are still tons of female artists who are far more important than the art establishment and market can account for... Heilmann, Frankenthaler and Anne Truitt are all still under appreciated but there are plenty that are younger and just as important/active today but the museums dont seem to be willing to shake up the discussion... even when the curators are women. I have a radical art history reinterpretation regarding this.

Portland's Jim Lommason traveling exhibition What We Carried is getting attention at the Japanese American Museum LA.

PORT pal Paul Middendorf reports on a house exhibition in Houston. Portland has been doing a lot of house shows for decades now. The difference here is the extreme informality of presentation.

London's design museum hosts an arms dealer as a patron and resistance design at the same time... something has to give and what side the take says a lot.

I am definitely not comfortable with the level of contemporary shrug Ralph Ruggoff's Venice Biennial is accepting. I disagree completely, Art can do something... not just subtle shifts and slight moves towards understanding. My curatorial senses tell me he's making a huge mistake. Mark this.

On a similar note Olafur Elliason criticizes Governments as using culture simply as promotional tools. He'd know.

Temporary asks, Are you being Preached to Again?... while discussing Adrian Piper.

Fruit, murals and prisons at Manifesta 12. More on Manifesta 12.