Aruna D’Souza will write a series of articles that meld criticism, journalism, and activism, focusing on artists of color (especially women) whose work offers models for being in the world today. Whether it is through their activism, their overtly political work, or—perhaps most importantly—their purely conceptual and formal strategies for art-making, D’Souza’s writing will examine the ways in which today’s most challenging art reveals the mechanisms by which powers such as white supremacy and capitalism assert themselves while also allowing viewers to experience its material, sensory, and intellectual pleasures.
Aruna D’Souza is a critic whose work appears regularly in 4Columns, where she is a member of the editorial advisory board. D’Souza is the author of Whitewalling: Art, Race, and Protest in 3 Acts (Badlands Unlimited, 2018) and Cézanne’s Bathers: Biography and the Erotics of Paint (Penn State University Press, 2009). Her writings have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, CNN.com, Art News, frieze, Canadian Art, the Paris Review, Garage, Bookforum, Momus, Art in America, and Art Practical. D’Souza has a PhD in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University.