JOSEPH AKEL
Joseph Akel is a writer, essayist, and critic from New Zealand, currently based in New York City. His writings have appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Paris Review, Artforum, The Wall Street Journal, Interview, Frieze, The Brooklyn Rail, New York Magazine, and Vanity Fair. Essays and texts by Akel have been featured in artist monographs and catalouges, including Doug Aitken: 1992-2022 (MACK Books), Is It Tomorrow Yet: Coco Capitán (Daelim Museum), and On the Town: A Performa Compendium 2016-2021 (Gregory R. Miller & Co.). Akel holds an MA in Art History from Oxford University.
Selected Writing:
Critics Picks
Alan Saret, Karma
Jack Pierson, Lisson Gallery
“Intimate Companions,” Provincetown Art Society
Duane Michals, The Morgan Library & Museum
“African Spirits,” Yossi Milo
Alex Katz, Timothy Taylor:16x34
Elijah Burger, Zieher, Smith & Horton
Ian Wallace, Jessica Silverman Gallery
John Waters, Marianne Boesky
“A Mouse Drowned in A Honey Pot,” Galerie Martin Janda
Ruth Laskey & Suzan Frecon, Ratio 3
Tammy Rae Carland, Jessica Silverman Gallery
Jess, Tibor De Nagy Gallery
Yamini Nayar, Thomas Erben Gallery
Henry Taylor, Blum & Poe
“Taboo,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia
Conrad Ruiz, Jessica Silverman Gallery
Adam Henry, Joe Sheftel Gallery
Stan Douglas, David Zwirner
Bill Jenkins, Laurel Gitlen
“The Displaced Person,” Invisible-Exports
Nan Goldin, Matthew Marks Gallery
Ari Marcopolous, Ratio 3
“Leidy Celeste Nicole,” American Contemporary
“Night Work,” Alison Jacques
Pierre Huyghe, Marian Goodman
Tammy Rae Carland, Jessica Silverman Gallery
Diary
Tempting Fêtê:11th Annual Aspen Art Crush
Stein of the Times: Four Saints in Three Acts at YBCA
500 Words
Roger Ballen
Paul Mpagi Sepuya
ArtReview
“Geta Bratescu: Matrix 254,” BAMPFA
“Here and Elsewhere,” The New Museum
“Roving Signs,” Matthew Marks Gallery
“Subliming Vessel: The Drawings of Matthew Barney,” The Morgan Library
The Brooklyn Rail
ArtSeen
“Peter McGough: Alphabet,” Karma
“Oscar yi Hou: The Beat of Life,” James Fuentes Gallery
“Anthony Cudahy: Fool’s gold & Fool’s errand,” Hales and GRIMM Galleries
“Walton Ford: Birds and Beasts of the Studio,” The Morgan Library
“Alexandra Bachzetsis: Notebook,” Kurimanzutto
“Fetish: Photographs by Jorge Alberto Cadi,
Le Fétichiste, and Miroslav Tichý,” Ricco/Maresca
“Paul Cadmus: The Male Nude,” DC Moore Gallery
Critics Page
In Memoriam
CAA Review
“Yang Fudong: Estranged Paradise, Works 1993–2013,” Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive
Features
In Focus: Sam Lewitt
In Focus: Matt Lipps
In Focus: Colter Jacobsen
Reviews
Alex Da Corte, Luxembourg & Dayan
Yusef Lateef, White Columns
“Blood Flames Revisited,” Paul Kasmin Gallery
“Experiments in the Fault Zone,” Mills College
Taryn Simon, Berggruen
Barbara Kasten, Jessica Silverman Gallery
Breyer P-Orridge, Invisible-Exports
“Diggers, Mimes, Angles & Heads,” Jack Hanley Gallery
Interview
“A Cultural History of New York, As Seen Through Kim Hastreiter’s Stuff”
“Luke Gilford Reimagines the American Cowboy”
“10 Picks from Frieze New York 2015”
“Top 10: Frieze 2014”
“Top 10: Frieze 2013”
“Taking Stock with DIS”
“Mark Flood’s Hateful Years Weren’t Extra Bad”
Modern Painters
“Requiem for the Sun: The Art of Mono-ha,” Gladstone Gallery
Miriam Böhm, Ratio 3
Michael DeLucia, Anthony Meier Fine Art
Gilbert & George, Lehman Maupin
Hannah Whitaker, Thierry Goldberg
Julian Hoeber, Jessical Silverman Gallery
“Multiplicity: Part 3,” Invisible-Exports
Richard Serra, David Zwirner
Amikam Toren, Jessica Silverman Gallery
The New York Times &
T Magazine
“That Fenty Gent: Rihanna’s ‘Right Hand,’ Jahleel Weaver”
“A Spin Through the Flower District
with Susan Orlean”
“Portraits of the Youth of a Nation
on the Verge of Revolution”
“At NADA, A Fresh Crop of Young Talent”
“For Zhang Huang, Love’s Battlefield
Is a Ming Dynasty Temple”
“At the Independent Fair, Art Not
Quite on the Margin”
“As San Francisco Booms, So Does
its Gallery Scene”
“DIS Canonizes the Art Selfie”
“In Conversation with Brontez Purnell”
The Paris Review
Studio Visit
“A Photographic Memory: In the Studio with Lorna Simpson”
“Signs and Wonders: In the Studio with Hayal Pozanti”
Look
“Tina Barney’s Embarrassment of Riches”
Vanity Fair
“At the Havana Biennial,
the Art Is Politics...
and Vice Versa”
The Whitney Review of New Writing
“Tama Janowitz Interviewed by Joseph Akel”
Books, Essays, & Catalogues
“Introduction,” Doug Aitken: Works 1992-2022, MACK Books, 2022
“Thoughts on the Suffering of ‘Others’ Or, The Aims of Performing Resistance,” On The Town: A Performa Compendium, 2016-2021, Gregory R, Miller & Co, 2021
“An End to the Beginning,” Coco Capitán: Is It Tomorrow Yet, Daelim Museum, 2019
“Against the Clock,” Doug Aitken: Schirn Kunsthalle, Verlag für Moderne Kunst, 2015
“Signs and Wonders,” Synecdoche, Jessica Silverman Gallery, 2015