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Colby Chamberlain

@colbychamberlain.bsky.social
861 followers 944 following 96 posts

Associate Professor of Art History, Cleveland Institute of Art | “Fluxus Administration,” UChicago Press, 2024 | Queens native, Cleveland resident | he/him

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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Disappointed that Naomi Beckwith sounds like Ed Sheeran here.
“Then, asked to clarify her own stance on the war, she added, “Far more important than my personal stance is the question of how we can overcome this divisive way of thinking. How can we get the conversation going again?” Moreover, she said, “I understand the need for solidarity and support, but we won’t get anywhere with entrenched positions.”
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Lithuania! This week Gerry Beegan and I are on a George Maciunas speaking tour, at the National Gallery in Vilnius at 5pm on Friday Sept. 11 and at the Kaunas Picture Gallery at 4pm on Saturday Sept. 12th. Thanks to the Lithuanian Culture Institue for organizing our visit.
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Nothing in Nolan’s “Odyssey” will stick in my memory as much as Bernadette Peters as Circe in the 1997 made-for-tv version delivering the line “You must cross the river of fire and sacrifice a ram.”
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
The erasure of Occupy from public memory (none of my students have heard of it!) was one of the motivations for this Writing Art History After Occupy roundtable. direct.mit.edu/octo/article...
direct.mit.edu
Writing Art History After Occupy*
Abstract. This conversation explores the impact of Occupy Wall Street on the practice of art history. The authors of three recent books—on the new media art of Arte Programmata, the administrative aut...
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
The surprising tidbit here is that Eakin green-lighted the NYT’s notorious Derrida obituary.
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Shannon Mattern @shannonmattern.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Of course there are quite a few aesthetic traditions — Dada, Fluxus, lots of conceptual art — that *detourn* bureaucratic instruments to as a mode of critique, parody, resistance. I hope some of that work is addressed in Gindlesparger's book! It's a central theme in Colby Chamberlain's work!
press.uchicago.edu
Fluxus Administration
A new, innovative approach to the work of Fluxus artist George Maciunas. Though widely recognized as the founder of the legendary Fluxus movement, George Maciunas has long been a puzzling figure in th...
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Soyoung Yoon has been named the next director of the Whitney ISP. This is great news! As the (now former) director the Parsons MFA program, she has the know-how to handle the admin side of the job, while also being an absolutely brilliant scholar with deep ties to the program. Knicks in five.
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
“The Left does not do mathematics!!” — Henry Flynt, just now at Emily Harvey Foundation
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
NYT today / Richard Prince 1977
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
A short piece on Melvin Edwards (1937–2026) from way back in 2010.
To say what’s timely about a Melvin Edwards survey in 2010, go back to 1958. That June, Clement Greenberg published “Sculpture in Our Time,” which pronounced a change in direction for the medium. Brancusi, the argument went, had effectively capped off the Renaissance tradition of sculpture as a solid, monolithic form––so much so that no one subsequently could add anything further. With that lineage exhausted, the new relevant precedents were Picasso’s Cubist guitar constructions and the welded-steel assemblies of Julio González. The standard-bearer became David Smith, who joined sheets of metal into floating planar compositions, as if drawing in the air. This weightless appearance was partly metaphoric: Greenberg had shaken sculpture free from the burdens of history. No longer locked into the role of public monument, sculpture could preoccupy itself with form rather than civic function. This neat trick, however, depended on Greenberg’s never considering the industrial character of the new sculpture’s chosen materials, on his never heeding Bismarck’s martial murmur that history itself was determined by blood and iron.

Cue Melvin Edwards, who followed Greenberg’s dictates and remedied his omissions. Starting in 1963 with his “Lynch Fragments” series, Edwards welded together dense arrangements of hammers, machetes, scissors, and nails––assertions of steel’s capacity to hit, hack, cut, and pierce. Gnarled by heat but nevertheless sharp, the fragments register the moral ambiguity of treating aesthetically a material imbued with violence. As much as steel has many uses, Edwards coaxes a variety of expressive qualities out of his materials, but details like the protruding ax blade in Weapon of Freedom, 1986, keeps in check a formalist reading. In Five to the Bar, 1973, rows of barbed wire are both a compositional device and a confrontational barrier.

The tradition of welded-steel sculpture that Greenberg championed no longer feels especially prevalent, though a more wide…
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
As someone preoccupied with how human beings operate within institutions, I’ve always loved Frederick Wiseman’s films. As a Queens native, my favorite will always be ‘In Jackson Heights.’
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
Rosalind Krauss, Annette Michelson, and “October” make an appearance on the UK quiz show “University Challenge.” #UniversityChallenge #arthistory
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
Rosalind Krauss, Annette Michelson, and “October” make an appearance on the UK quiz show “University Challenge.” #UniversityChallenge #arthistory
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 30/11/2025
The part he was born to play.
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @ocasio-cortez.house.gov · 19/11/2025
Trump's economy is being held up by a massive AI bubble. A recent study found that of 300 companies that owned generative AI tools, 95% reported zero return on their investments. We will not entertain a bailout of these companies should this bubble pop.
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
"By Knowles, with Knowles, through Knowles, we can locate models for collaboration and participation that remain tacky to the touch." www.artforum.com/columns/colb...
artforum.com
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Colby Chamberlain on Alison Knowles
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 11/10/2025
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
From MoMA and PS1 to the Cleveland Institute of Art, I keep finding myself at institutions that have benefited not just from Agnes Gund’s philanthropic support but her moral clarity and kindness. Rest in peace.
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
I’m giving a talk at e-flux on Thursday 9/25, 7:30pm, “The Fluxhouse Cooperatives and the Future of the City.” The program will also include a performance of Maciunas’s “Solo for Violin” by Laura Ortman. www.e-flux.com/events/67832...
e-flux.com
George Maciunas: Lecture and Performance - Events - e-flux
An evening dedicated to George Maciunas, featuring a lecture by Colby Chamberlain and a performance by Laura Ortman of work by Maciunas.
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The Baffler @thebaffler.com · 01/09/2025
It’s Labor Day! In Baffler no. 59, Dana Kopel took us inside the fight to unionize at the New Museum, where management skimped on raises but found the money to hire union-busting consultants and lawyers. thebaffler.com/salvos/again...
thebaffler.com
Against Artsploitation | Dana Kopel
Somehow, the anti-austerity politics of our work didn’t apply to those of us working at the museum. Behind the New Museum’s veneer of social justice was rampant exploitation.
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Mari Cohn @maricohn.bsky.social · 25/08/2025
Transgender studies professor Dr. Susan Stryker tears Gavin Newsom a new one while accepting the Transgender Legacy Award from the California state legislature 🔥🔥🔥 @susanstryker.bsky.social
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
Apparently Rocky Balboa is once again at the top of the Philadelphia Museum steps. I wrote about the Balboa statue back in 2008 for an early issue of Triple Canopy. tc3.canopycanopycanopy.com/contents/the...
tc3.canopycanopycanopy.com
Triple Canopy – The Balboa Effect by Colby Chamberlain
The Guggenheim Bilbao’s latest installation is a 1,400-pound bronze pun.
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
It works!!
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 12/08/2025
Did not expect to learn in the Christophe de Menil obit that Dash Snow and Uma Thurman are related.
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
The best way to think in dark times is to think with others. It has been sustaining to work with Lindsay Caplan and Nadja Millner-Larsen on “Writing Art History After Occupy,” first as a panel and now as a (no-paywall!) article in the journal October. direct.mit.edu/octo/article...
direct.mit.edu
Writing Art History After Occupy*
Abstract. This conversation explores the impact of Occupy Wall Street on the practice of art history. The authors of three recent books—on the new media art of Arte Programmata, the administrative aut...
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
Downtown Cleveland is filled with fantastic architecture (much of which is featured in the new Superman movie). Great news that this Art Deco Greyhound station will be given a new role. www.artforum.com/news/clevela...
artforum.com
Cleveland Artist to Transform Vintage Bus into Museum of the Great Migration
Cleveland-based artist Robert Louis Brandon Edwards is repurposing a 1947 Greyhound bus to serve as a museum commemorating the Great Migration.
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
The next time College Art Association makes a call for conference panels, I’m going to propose a panel on the prevalence of redundant panels. #CAA114
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jericho jennifer nelson @henkaipantomime.bsky.social · 07/07/2025
reposting with alt text
text 1 is superimposed over text 2, Instagram story style 

text 1: 
Academic friends-these recently posted humanities lecturer positions at Columbia are in fact scab positions designed to replace graduate teaching opportunities and mitigate labor power amongst students. Quite literally, applying to these positions will directly impact me and my colleagues who are still awaiting teaching appointments/funding for the coming year. Please do not encourage students or colleagues to apply to these positions. Happy to take DMs on this and discuss

text 2:
Lecturer in Discipline

Columbia University

The Columbia College Core Curriculum invites applications for positions at the rank of Lecturer in Discipline for the 2025-2026 academic year.

We are looking for experienced instructors to teach the Core courses Art Humanities, Literature Humanities, Music Humanities, or Contemporary Civilization. As the cornerstone of undergraduate general education at mbia, the Core is required for all Columbia College students and includes students from

main.hercjobs.org
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
There are now three leftist academics with children who have become prominent Democratic politicians— Marxist economist Donald Harris; Gramsci scholar Joseph Buttigieg, and post-colonial theorist Mahmood Mamdani.
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Benjamin Tausig @burrata.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
It’s wild how much politicians from Queens have shaped the national political scene in the past ten years. I’d read a take.
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 24/06/2025
Greedo ranked Cuomo first.
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
“Where are the greatest museum seats in the world? Thanks for asking. The soft modernist squares in the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna are hard to beat, as are the Ashmolean’s cosy circular sofas and benches.”
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
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The Baffler @thebaffler.com · 20/06/2025
The Baffler is seeking a new Senior Editor. Apply by July 11.
thebaffler.com
Senior Editor
The Baffler is seeking a senior editor to work closely with the editor in chief in determining the overall themes and direction of the magazine and website. With the editor in chief…
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Lauren O'Neill-Butler @laurenoneillbutler.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
Excited to be in conversation with the great Annie Ochmanek on Saturday, June 21, at 4pm at MoMA PS1.
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
Just saw the obit for Amanda Feilding, whose love of parrots and drilling holes in skulls we covered @cabinetmagazine.bsky.social www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/28/tu...
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
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Nathan Rutkowski @nrutkowski1.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
“The current avant-garde, such as it is, rightfully refuses to coalesce around any single identity, and it’s competing calls for abolition, access, decolonization, or care reflect the breadth and nuance of its viewpoints” Colby Chamberlain on Park McArthur.
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Andreas Petrossiants @apetrossiants.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
shout out to all the ISP folks who pulled out and for all these folks for writing this letter www.e-flux.com/notes/674086...
e-flux.com
To the Whitney Museum of American Art - Notes - e-flux
An open letter about the Whitney Museum’s censorship of the Whitney Independent Study Program.
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
Open letter from the alumni and faculty of the Whitney Independent Study Program. Ispalumni.org
ispalumni.org
ISP Alumni & Faculty
Friends, Faculty, and Alumni of the Whitney Independent Study Program
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Cabinet magazine @cabinetmagazine.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
Read the statement by Sara Nadal-Melsió—associate director of the Whitney Independent Study Program—regarding the Whitney’s cancellation of “No Aesthetics Outside My Freedom: Mourning, Militancy, and Performance.” www.cabinetmagazine.org/kiosk/nadal_...
cabinetmagazine.org
Statement by ISP Associate Director Regarding the Whitney’s Cancellation of “No Aesthetics Outside My Freedom: Mourning, Militancy, and Performance” and the ISP Cohort’s Response | Cabinet
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
Not mentioned in this obituary: Hans Noë was one of the Cooper Union students that Tony Smith took on his famous late-night drive on the unfinished New Jersey Turnpike. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/21/a...
nytimes.com
Hans Noë, Architect, Sculptor and Proprietor of a Famed Bar, Dies at 96
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M. TenHoor @mtenhoor.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Gregg Bordowitz is an incredible educator and it's heartbreaking to witness the kneecapping of such a widely-respected program. Thanks for sharing this...
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Brian Boucher™️ @brianboucher.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
There’s trouble at the Whitney Museum’s storied Independent Study Program. Can it maintain its vaunted independence from the larger institution? news.artnet.com/art-world/wh...
news.artnet.com
Whitney Museum Storied ISP Cancels Pro-Palestine Performance
Participants in the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program are protesting what they describe as censorship of a performance piece.
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
What I’ve heard secondhand: The Whitney’s curatorial affairs department demoted ISP director Gregg Bordowitz to “director at large” earlier this year and has since taken a stronger role in supervising (and apparently censoring) the program.
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Colby Chamberlain @colbychamberlain.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
When speaking of the Whitney Independent Study Program, the former Whitney director Adam Weinberg emphasized the “independent” part. Now under new management, the ISP is being so surveilled by museum staff that the curatorial and critical cohorts are cancelling their end-of-year events in protest.
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