Kelsey Henderson paints strangers she meets over the internet or through loose friend-of-friend connections. Although technically precise with a vivid attention to the details that physically define an individual (a freckle here, a slight curve in the eye-lid there) her work resists an exploration of personality, preferring instead to linger on the surface. Lavished in translucent light and draped across crumpled sheets, her subjects become a celebration of the newly discovered, the outsider’s gaze, the place just before the beginning.

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Lauren Elkin chronicles the rock and roll bird-watching and Hermes scarf-tying at the least muddy festival in Britain. Complete with drawings by Joanna Walsh, aka Badaude.

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From her ‘70s publication Radical Software, to her own studio practice, Beryl Korot pushes the line between technology and communication. Watch a video of her work and listen to a podcast of an artist’s talk she gave at the Aldrich Museum.

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The Whitney’s Off the Wall: Part 1 raises questions about museums’ duty and capacity to preserve and re-present performance art—the extent to which it can be preserved, and the ethical implications of bottling, as it were, such an immediate form of artistic expression. John Sherman reviews the show.

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What better way to luncheon in the garden than on Sean Mellyn’s subversive/commemorative Monet inspired Chinette? Laurie Simmons speaks with Mellyn about his residency in Giverny and the work that sprung forth from the lily pond.

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Alexandra Kleiman’s Digital Flux opens Saturday, July 31 at 7 Dunham Place #4N in Williamsburg. The independent curator discusses her active curation and everybody’s favorite topic Facebook.

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Powered by the refrain-directive “write,” and “cross out,” the content of poet and collage artist Lucy Ives’ most recent work, Anamnesis, remains under active, sustained deliberation throughout. BOMBlog’s Claire Wilcox emailed with Ives, discussing practice, poetry, and power of fortuitous error.

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Robin Black’s debut story collection, If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This , is chock-full of impeccable examples of how and why the American Short Story remains a vibrant, meaningful genre. BOMBlog’s B.C. Edwards asks about the how and the why of first-time publication, readers’ approach to the short story, and inevitability of negative feedback.

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Lynn Maliszewski talks with artist Rachel Beach, tracing Beach’s preoccupation with transitions in perception, from the sculptural disorientations shown at Like the Spice Gallery to her upcoming residency at the Lower East Side Printshop.

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Paul Killebrew’s debut collection of poems, Flowers, is excitingly fresh, mining a strong vein of modern American poetry with a deft touch. BOMBlog’s Jack Palmer talks to the poet about form, simplicity and the poetics of tax law.

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