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Gagosian Quarterly

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Rennie McDougall

Rennie McDougall

Rennie McDougall is a writer based in Brooklyn. His work has appeared in the Brooklyn Rail, frieze.com, Guernica, T Magazine, the Village Voice, and other publications. He received an Anthony Burgess Prize for Arts Journalism in 2018. His first book will be published by Abrams Press in 2025.

Five dancers huddle together under a white light

The Road Opens: In Conversation with Okwui Okpokwasili

Multidisciplinary artist Okwui Okpokwasili’s new work adaku, part 1: the road opens is a continuation of her efforts to bring West African forms of dance, poetry, song, and theater into a contemporary framework. Catching up with Okpokwasili after the work’s premiere in Los Angeles this past spring, Rennie McDougall traces adaku’s artistic lineages ahead of its New York debut in the fall.

Tony Ward and Madonna from Sex (1992)

Fashion and Art: Madonna’s Sex and Saint Laurent Rive Droite

This year’s edition of Art Basel Miami Beach brought Saint Laurent to America for a special exhibition curated by creative director Anthony Vaccarello celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the publication of Madonna’s groundbreaking book, Sex (1992). Staged on the Miami beachfront, the ephemeral exhibition was presented on the occasion of the reissue of Sex by Rive Droite and Callaway, New York, and featured large-format prints of Steven Meisel’s iconic photographs from the book, as well as unpublished images from the original photo shoots. Rennie McDougall reflects on the momentous impact of the publication, tracing Madonna’s ongoing influence on and provocation of popular culture.

Shirley Clarke behind a camera on the set of The Connection (1961).

Shirley Clarke’s Indefinite Truths

Rennie McDougall traces the blurred line between truth and fiction in the cinema of Shirley Clarke, with particular attention to the 1967 documentary Portrait of Jason. From her early dance films to later feature-length movies, themes of race, performance, and the body emerge in Clarke’s examination of the real.