The reviews are open to artists of any age, from hobbyists to professionals, with or without any formal training. Around 30 slots are open and will be filled on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Bringing in the art in-person is ideal, but Waxman said if that isn't practical, links with documentation or whatever artists have will work in a pinch. The reviews are done at no cost to the artist and Waxman guarantees to take the artists’ work seriously. “Critics are not meant to be cheerleaders or educators or advertisers; they are opinionated, thoughtful, informed commentators. Or so they try," she said.
Waxman has a Ph.D in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU, and an M.A. in Art History from School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In addition, Waxman has two regular columns a month, one in the Chicago Tribune and one in Hyperallergic, and is a recipient of the 2018 Rabkin Foundation Award for Art Journalism.
“Being an art critic is kind of a lonely job: I see work by myself, I go home, I write about it in my little office, I send it to my editor, it gets published, I very rarely hear back from anyone,” Waxman said. “So, this performance is a theatrical antidote to that situation, and it hopefully works for the public and the participants as well, in that they get some kind of access to the invisible critic.”“I need 25 minutes! Actually, sometimes I run a bit longer, I'm getting slower with age.