Melissa Gronlund, Author at Syndication Bureau

Melissa Gronlund

Melissa Gronlund is a writer on art based in Abu Dhabi and London. Her writing has appeared in Artforum, L’Hebdo d’Art, BOMB, e-flux journal and The New Yorker, among other publications. She is the author of “Contemporary Art and Digital Culture,” which explores the relationship of contemporary art to the internet and digital technologies. Gronlund previously lectured on contemporary art at Oxford University’s Ruskin School of Drawing & Fine Art and co-edited the journal Afterall.

Articles By Melissa Gronlund

Are Online Exhibitions Here to Stay? If So, Expect a Smaller Art World By Melissa Gronlund - Jun 4, 2020

Almost 15 years ago, a group of artists, filmmakers, curators and critics came together at the Oberhausen Film Festival in western Germany to discuss the introduction of a new technological medium: YouTube. How would watching film and video online differ from its regular places of spectatorship, such as cinemas or the Oberhausen festival itself, which … Continue reading “Are Online Exhibitions Here to Stay? If So, Expect a Smaller Art World”

Has Orientalist Middle East Art a Place in the Canon? By Melissa Gronlund - Dec 12, 2019

In a courtyard rimmed by a brightly tiled colonnade, women sit on a dark carpet, surrounded by two male guards in swaths of fabric. Their low-cut dresses are turned suggestively toward the painting’s viewer; behind them, naked women splash each other in the pool. One extends a nude leg over a balustrade to join in, … Continue reading “Has Orientalist Middle East Art a Place in the Canon?”

At the Center of the Middle East, UAE’s Art World Is More International Than It Is Arabic By Melissa Gronlund - Feb 3, 2019

Note: The following article is not available to clients in the GCC. Over the past few decades, the UAE has positioned itself as the stable exception to the politically fraught Arab region: a safe haven for investment, capital and people. As many jokingly call it, the UAE is “Middle East-lite.” The UAE art scene has … Continue reading “At the Center of the Middle East, UAE’s Art World Is More International Than It Is Arabic”