Jana La Brasca

Logics of the Decoy Information Kiosk, 2026 wood, camouflage netting, decoys, books, signage 2026 Core exhibition @glassellschool Bidding a fond farewell to this curious/playful/serious/art/not-art experiment in installation…I learned SO much… BUT! Logics of the Decoy isn’t over. Thursday’s seminar is full, but my book display at Hirsch Library has been e x t e n d e d til June (at least)! So if you didn’t get a chance to peruse all the reading material you will find some of what was on display and more (!) over there as I incubate the next phase of this project … 🪺 Thank you big time to @mhandwer @donotjoegentle @meyghin and my fellow fellows @mjdaines @8in.lab @junecanedodesouza and @nick__barbee for the decoys … Thank you to everyone who took the bait and stay tuned for more! Photos by Paul Hester and me Scroll to the end for a surprise(s)…🎣🦆💚

Some snaps from our seminar “Hidden in Plain Sight: Similarity and Subterfuge” at the museum last week, which I organized as part of my project for the 2026 Core exhibition @glassellschool , Logics of the Decoy. Thank you so much to the brilliant attendees for your generous thoughts and observations—I loved every second of this! With EXTRA special thanks to Jason Dibley and @grey_ardens for a thematic walkthrough of Frida: the Making of an Icon. Photos by Paul Hester and Joe Eldredge… + artworks by: Eleanor Antin Robert Mapplethorpe Glenn Ligon Sherrie Levine Nikki S. Lee Catherine Opie Martha Rosler John Heartfield Luis Camnitzer …and more See you at the next one, May 7th, on the topic of “Objects, Desire, and the Market” … 🦆🦆🦆

“the irresistable lure” [sic] decoy research in new york, dc and maryland, featuring: 🥚lots of birds, living and non-, + one with two heads(?!) 🥬rowdy seder and a special birthday 🌷several archives 🐰lam and murray at moma, robert ryman’s palettes, grandma moses at SAAM, and some johns; plus a dulcimer by fred sandback 🌸blooms galore

a few dispatches from a week that started in marfa and ended in chicago… things are pretty bad out there but i still love art history and my job and my colleagues/mentors/friends (select all that apply). thinking about the ungovernable line, the line as edge, boundary, concept, permeable and impermeable, which is to say of course NO WALL IN THE BIG BEND!!!!

doctoral gratitude moodboard::: be careful / ur a wzrd / it hapns / i quit (jk i’m just getting started) DO NOT FORGET!!! love is alive and you don’t need to share DNA to be family ❤️‍🔥

my summer in DC was a lot of things and some of them were very very dark but there was also a lot of writing-thinking-research, some really sweet moments, and chances to connect and reconnect with friends old, very (!) old, and new (!). a fellowship at SAAM, even for three months, was a literal dream come true and i’m so grateful. all love to my brilliant fellow fellows!!! the smithsonian rules and seriously get out of here with this bullshit you know who you are xoxo PS i made it to houston 🤠

my response to what drawing can be: four responses is now up on @glasstire ! thank you to the @menilcollection and the artists for giving us so much to see hear smell feel consider @_tony_lewis_ @_jillianconrad @studio_constantinluser teresita.fernandez

I took this photo of Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Column on one one of my first walks around the neighborhood when I got to Houston last fall. I didn’t know it would be there, and then suddenly it appeared, almost like a mirage… I went to the Glassell School a bunch of times after that during my transformative nine months at the Menil, to see films, hear talks, see art, visit with artists. I applied to the Core program, and eventually, I was inwardly whispering my wish whenever I would enter the building: “please let me stay…” I left Houston a little over a week ago, not knowing whether I’d be back. And then, somewhere in Arkansas, I got an amazing phone call from @mhandwer and @donotjoegentle . The feral combination of crying and laughter and relief that erupted is like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. My wish came true! In September I get to come home to Houston, and I get to stay a while because I’ll be the critic-in-residence at the Core Program til 2027. 🥲 So come visit! And remember, as Ann said, “it’s good to want things” and as Deleuze and Guattari said, desiring is production, and as Beyoncé once said, “I love you, Houston.” 🩶

an art historian told me recently that bearing witness to positive sides of humanity, especially amid the daily horrors, is an act of resistance. this past weekend i spent some time on UT’s campus to visit exhibitions curated by dear friends (transcendence: a century of black queer ecstasy, by @philntheblank @galleriesatut and gorky and noguchi: outside in, by @lunar_asparagus @blantonmuseum ; plus a bonus spin through the HRC), each filled with works that affirm life in spite of oppression and violence. i wonder how long the university campus will continue to foster these vital spaces and experiences. we need them so much. here are some life affirming moments of the last weeks that help me remember all the good we are capable of building. images also include snaps of: toshiko takaezu: worlds within at @mfahouston , saul steinberg in the study room, and detail of a beverly buchanan spirit jar in transcendence 🦪

hanging in there i guess!

thankful + tranquil = thanquil

“I feel like everything I make has a trillion limbs…” Thank you @pazdabutler and @_anavillagomez for inviting (and trusting!) me to write about the five new paintings on view this week as part of “The Lightning is the Mother’s Song” at @the_adaa Art Show, now on view at @parkavearmory . I loved getting the chance to learn about Ana’s process and vision, which enabled me to use phrases like “mutant bits,” “nocturnal wanderers,” and “quasi-geological”… NY people swing by the booth and feast your eyes! 👀 And the full catalogue is online at pazdabutler.com Congratulations Ana!!! 🫂