Does Los Angeles really need another arts publication? We think it does.

It shouldn’t be the case that so many intelligent and otherwise cultured people find contemporary fine art so inaccessible. As artists and writers, we think that’s largely due to the current state of art writing. Most art writing has become so self-indulgent and opaque that even those within the art world privately ridicule it. We want to change that. There is more to art — and art writing — than the writer’s gilded impressions or meandering abstractions.

At Art Memo, we want to write about what artists find interesting, but to reach outside the art world, too. To be less pretentious, but more thoughtful. To prioritize ideas and arguments instead of ornament and ego. And for art world outsiders, we want to acknowledge that while fine art can — and probably should — take you to the edges of human understanding, there’s something valuable to find there. We hope to show that by engaging with fine art, one can develop new sensibilities, sharpen critical thinking skills, and cultivate curiosity — and that this is all true even if art is purely “subjective,” as it’s often derided, or hijacked by market forces.

For now, Art Memo hopes to accomplish this through publishing monthly exhibition reviews, but there will be more to come as we grow and attract new writers. And whatever direction it takes us, Art Memo does not, and will not, sell advertising space. Art Memo is owned and supported by Art In Residence, and is made possible by your contributions.

If you’d like to support a change in art writing click here: donate here.

– August 2022

 

Write for Art Memo

Art Memo Magazine welcomes writers to pitch — interviews, studio visits and exhibition reviews on an on-going contribution basis. 

For more details contact by email: info@artmemomagazine.com

Writes pay scale: Click Here

 

Art Memo Team

Nathaniel Ancheta, Co-Founder & Writer

Dave Martin, Co-Founder & Writer

Ashley Ouderkirk, Chief Editor & Writer

Zachary Jensen, Writer

Brian Sonia- Wallace, Writer

Kirsten Ihns, Writer

Cooper Johnson, Writer