In this round-up, Burnaway staff and editors revisit some of our favorite Burnaway pieces from 2025.
Brandon Sheats, Executive Director
eight verses for Lorraine O’Grady by Camille Bacon
Seeds are Creativity in Action / Las Semillas son Creacción en Acción by stephanie s. cortés
Courtney McClellan, Editor and Artistic Director
Matrilineal at Couchpotato Gallery, Louisville by Lindsey Cummins
I love this brief review from contributor Lindsey Cummins. It is filled with hope. The palpable energy of a vibrant, new DIY/house gallery excites me. More of this.
Carolina Potions, October Mood Ring by Annie Blazejack and Geddes Levenson
Annie Blazejack and Geddes Levenson’s Mood Ring Carolina Potions is so playful and inventive. It ties together to Southern tropes and spooky features of the Halloween season. Most of all, I love seeing the Mood Ring column expanding and experimenting.
Isabella Marie Garcia, Editorial Assistant
Carolina Potions, October Mood Ring by Annie Blazejack and Geddes Levenson
Annie and Geddes blew it out of the water with this Mood Ring, which blends hand-painted icons with humor, user interactiveness, and regional specificity to the Carolinas. From the Bojangles wrapper found by the side of a state road to a gardenia, I’m in awe of how well they captured the intricacies of North Carolina—a special part of this world I’ve spent my past three Mays in. My favorite potion recipe with the previous two ingredients, a washcloth from the YMCA, a maypop, the moon, and blackberries found under high voltage powerlines: This potion grants the brewer the uncanny ability to see in complete darkness for one night. Not through some mundane night-vision, mind you, but by illuminating the tangled webs of memory and forgotten intentions that others leave behind. The world will illuminate with the secrets of those who pass before you. Do not linger on any single thread of memory for too long, lest you find yourself lost in someone else’s narrative.
May Howard’s review of this interactive archive of an exhibition is not only illuminating, but also underscores the importance of uplifting shows that have one foot in visual art and the other in archives and history. The text dips the reader into this pocket of history while simultaneously explaining how to navigate the reading room, research displays, and the motion picture, immersing one in the knowledge and contemporary interpretation presented. My favorite line from the text is the following: Speculation is used as a means of remembrance to trouble the enduring myths and narratives rooted in a colonial imaginary.
Kristina Kay Robinson, New Orleans Editor at Large
Water as Witness: In Conversation with Jessica Monette by Bryn Evans
eight verses for Lorraine O’Grady by Camille Bacon
Madeline Benfield, Programs and Operations Coordinator
Really Free: The Radical Art of Nellie Mae Rowe at California African American Museum, Los Angeles by Amina Daugherty
Haunting: Erasure and Redaction in the Works of Joy Drury Cox by Jennifer Dudley
Natalie Willis Whylly, Caribbean Editor at Large
Anonymous: The Fourth Sister by Colony Little
This piece reads as both a bitter medicine and a balm of understanding. Little has a compelling way of pulling us into her thought process, allowing us to feel the unfolding of a painful history alongside her experience of unpacking and understanding the context of the archival image discussed. It reads as a narrativised harrowing personal encounter meets critical review of the politics of looking.
Residencies | Alternating Currents: Artist Residencies Inside and Outside of the Caribbean by Katherine Kennedy
Having dedicated space to share the nuances, strengths, and challenges of working within a Caribbean context is simply a gift. Kennedy’s long-standing experience as both an artist and a facilitator in her local and regional community shines through, lending the piece a deep and grounded understanding rooted in personal study and community work.
Robert Alan Grand, Carolinas Editor at Large
Blueprints for the Visitation by Valentin Diaconov
Incredibly tender review that shows deep consideration for larí garcia’s work, the temporal nature of materiality, and the specter of grief. Every sentence is beautiful, poignant, poetically crafted, with a striking closing: “Just like hard matter, parasocial relationships might deteriorate and whither over time, like those cucumber slices in the window, and new ones appear in their place. In garcia’s installation, just as an object is never fully there, loss is never final.”
eight verses for Lorraine O’Grady by Camille Bacon
A loving tribute and superb play with form that expands the perceptions of what art writing can encompass. I’ve revisited this one so many times, and was extra-thrilled when an AWrI participant this year brought it up as an inspiration, too.
Sophia Greeson, Editorial Intern
Sterling Allen: TWEEN by Margaret Jane Joffrion
The Alabama Landline That Keeps Ringing: Auburn University’s help desk is still answering the public’s calls 70 years on by Emily McCrary
