Shana Nys Dambrot is an art critic, curator, and author based in Downtown LA. As the Arts Editor for the L.A. Weekly 2018-24, and still as a long-time contributor to arts publications like Flaunt, Artillery, and The Village Voice, she covers the national and international art world through the multifaceted lens of Los Angeles. She studied Art History at Vassar College, before leaving her native New York for the sunny climes of L.A. where she planned to stay “a couple of years,” and where she has instead lived and worked since 1995. Her work has appeared in HuffPo, Artweek, Juxtapoz, ArtReview, Vice, Whitehot Magazine, Flavorpill (where she was West Coast editor for about a decade), Modern Painters, tema celeste, and on PBS/KCET Artbound. She has written monographic book and exhibition catalog essays for eclectic artists like Gabriella Sanchez (Museum of Latin American Art), Enrique Martinez Celaya (Monterey Museum of Art), David LaChapelle (Paul Kasmin Gallery), Amir H. Fallah (MOCA Tucson/Shulamit Nazarian Gallery), Melanie Pullen (Lancaster Museum of Art and History), Kimberly Brooks (Griffith Moon), Mark Dean Veca (Zero Plus), and scores more. She curates and juries for galleries, fairs, and nonprofits (The Brand Library, Ebell Club, DUMBO Arts Center, Intersect Palm Springs, Lucie Foundation), is a dedicated Instagram “photographer,” and in 2020 her debut novel was published. Zen Psychosis is an oneiric memoir based in dream journals — a surrealist exploration of the formative symbolism of the collective subconscious in the mode of Carl Jung, Clarice Lispector and Henry Miller, accompanied by a suite of original pinhole photographs by Osceola Refetoff. It was named one of the best books of 2020 by LA Taco. She is the recipient of the 2022 Rabkin Foundation Art Writers Prize, 2022 & 2024 Mozaik Future Art Writers Award, and the LA Press Club’s Critic of the Year Award for 2022.
Contact/Website info: www.sndx.net
Presenting: How to talk to Arts Critics
What may sound like a cheeky title is actually a very real area of concern for artists—especially independent creatives without the support and intercession of a gallery, publicist, or professional representative. I want to give the audience a sense of us arts writers as people, give a few tips and best practices for approaching us when it’s all down to you, tips for creating a media list in the our newly re-fractured journalism ecosystem, and how best to craft press communications (like press releases) in the first place. I have some tried and true methods, some out of the box insights, and some ways to remain authentic and joyful in this part of your career practice.