Carrie Mae Weems Kitchen Table Photos Star in Kamala Harris Ad
Four photos from Carrie Mae Weems’s seminal Kitchen Table Series (1990) made a cameo appearance in a Kamala Harris campaign advertisement less than a week before election day turns the corner. Produced and directed by filmmakers Tanya Selvaratnam and Hannah…
Crudely Gesturing Trump Effigy Appears in Philadelphia
The anonymous artist behind two DC sculptures commemorating insurrectionist fecal matter on Nancy Pelosi’s desk and Charlottesville white supremacists’ tiki torches may have struck again — or inspired someone else, this time in Philadelphia. Charlotte Cohen, executive director of the…
10 New York City Shows to See in November
We’re deep into the fall art season and there’s much to see — and plenty of variety for everyone. Our current favorites traverse a multitude of styles, genres, and media. Make your way this month around an artistic labyrinth that…
An Erotic Puppet Theater Makes Its Grand NYC Debut
Since singer-songwriter Anna Witiuk was 16 years old, she has undergone six open heart surgeries to help treat her Marfan syndrome, a genetic condition affecting the body’s connective tissues. Her fifth surgery permanently paralyzed one of her vocal cords, altering…
Six Artists Open Up About Voting in the US Election
Arizona photographer Sama Alshaibi said Democratic canvassers frequently knock on her door, sometimes up to three times a day. But she said she feels they’re not looking for her vote as an Iraqi-Palestinian in the battleground state’s neck-and-neck race. “My…
New York City’s Art Show Gets Up-Close and Personal
I paid a visit to the Park Avenue Armory yesterday evening for the 36th edition of the Art Show, the Art Dealers Association of America’s (ADAA) annual fair benefitting the Henry Street Settlement — one of New York City’s vital…
Art’s Greatest Gift of Death
In Pompeii’s ruins, buried beneath three meters of volcanic ash, was a two-millennia-old mosaic concerning the transitoriness of all things. Now exhibited in the National Archeology Museum in nearby Naples, similarly death-haunted by the same volcano that rendered Pompeii a…
“Gay Halloween” Meme Enters the Queer Canon
“I hate gay halloween. What do you mean you’re Chappell Roan and a passenger seat?” by Motti and Britt Migs (photos courtesy Motti) Is it your polyester Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz costume purchased from your local Spirit Halloween pop-up…
Nicola L. Probes the Generative Contradictions of Womanhood
LONDON — Wearable objects resembling empty skins, replete with openings, sleeves, eye holes, and zips, populate late artist Nicola L.’s long-running sculptural series Pénétrables (c. 1960–2018). Many of them were originally designed as participatory works, with viewers invited to insert…
LA Artists Push Back Against Call to “Beautify” RV Encampment Sites
LOS ANGELES — After LA County officials issued a controversial call for public art to decorate recreational vehicle (RV) encampment sites from which unhoused people have been displaced, over 150 artists and housing advocates have signed an open letter denouncing…
Historical Lessons From Nelson Mandela’s Desk Calendar
Audience engagement is never an afterthought for Indian artist Jitish Kallat, who often plays with participatory and public art in his work. In his 2007 installation “Public Notice 2,” shelves hold 4,479 resin letters mimicking bones that spelled out Mohandas…
Weatherspoon Art Museum Receives 270+ Works on Feminism and the South
Artist Carol Cole Levin has donated over 270 artworks by more than 140 artists — including herself — to the Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina (UNC), Greensboro, according to an October 23 announcement from the school….
The Cross-Pollination Between Prints and Textiles Yields Abundance
Textiles become prints and prints become textiles in Line & Thread, a new exhibition at the New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building. Across parallel walls and in display cases, a selection of historical pieces and artworks by modern…
Can Asian-American Identity Still Be a Political Home?
In his 2022 book Model Minority Masochism, scholar Takeo Rivera argued that the influx of Asian immigrants to the United States after 1965 and the trial of Vincent Chin’s murderers in the early ’80s wholly transformed Asian-American identity. The once-radical…
The Kettering Foundation Is Focusing on Democracy and the Arts
Artist Bing Davis opens the Democracy and the Arts launch at the Charles F. Kettering Foundation with a libation. Davis is curating an exhibition of artists’ responses to the 1964 civil rights address given by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr….
Milwaukee Art Museum Presents Robert Longo’s Hyperrealistic Charcoal Drawings
On view now at the Milwaukee Art Museum, Robert Longo: The Acceleration of History features the ambitiously scaled, hyperrealistic charcoal drawings of internationally acclaimed artist Robert Longo. Over his long and distinguished career, Longo has explored the impact of images…
Sculpture of a Turd on Nancy Pelosi’s Desk Appears on National Mall
We really thought we’d seen it all in the final weeks leading up to a historic presidential election — that is, until a bronze-colored sculpture memorializing the fabled turd on Nancy Pelosi’s desk during the January 6 insurrection landed like…
Maurizio Cattelan Banana Artwork Could Fetch $1M at Auction
The much-despised and desired banana that split the art world is headed to the auction block next month, where it’s estimated to sell for upwards of $1 million, according to an announcement from Sotheby’s yesterday, October 24. Simply consisting of…
DACA-Recipient Artists Share Their Stories as Program Hangs by a Thread
The death of a family member brought Miguel Martinez, a painter and teaching artist living in New York City, back to Mexico earlier this year for the first time since he left his Guanajuato hometown for Houston, Texas, 23 years…
25K+ Artists Decry “Unlicensed Use of Creative Works” to Train AI
Over 25,000 artists and cultural workers and counting have signed a new petition with a simple, one-line message: “The unlicensed use of creative works for training generative AI is a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind…
Iranian-German Photographer Asked to Apologize for Saying “Free Palestine”
A documentary photographer who said “Free Palestine” while accepting an award from the German Photographic Society (DGPh) earlier this month is facing backlash from members of the organization, who are claiming that her statement was “anti-Israeli agitation.” Founded in 1951…
From the Ruins of the Past, Indigenous Artists Fashion New Futures
LOS ANGELES — “Maybe ‘apocalypse’ is the opportunity we are looking for, even if we don’t quite know it yet.” This message from Santa Clara Pueblo sculptor Rose B. Simpson is printed at the feet of her over-eight-foot-tall figurative sculpture…
Brooklyn Nonprofit Apologizes for Removing Palestinian-American Artist’s Work
Eight months after removing Palestinian-American employee Phil Garip’s artwork from a staff show because it included the phrase “from the river to the sea,” the Brooklyn nonprofit UrbanGlass has issued a public statement apologizing and expressing regret over the decision….
A Year After Record Floods, Gowanus Open Studios Returns
Gowanus Open Studios returned for its 28th edition this weekend with more than 400 artists, organizations, and businesses opening their doors to the public. Organized by Brooklyn nonprofit Arts Gowanus, the free public event spanned Pacific Street to 19th Street…
Carrie Mae Weems, Alex Katz, and Mark Bradford Among Recipients of National Medals of Arts
Artists Carrie Mae Weems, Alex Katz, Mark Bradford, and the late Ruth Asawa are among 20 artists who received the 2022 and 2023 National Medals of Arts at the White House today, October 21. Considered the most prestigious award given…
Tompkins Square Dog Parade Falls Victim to Its Popularity
Leonardo Dog Vinci was a little camera shy around his masterpiece, the “Momma Lisa.” (all photos Rhea Nayyar/Hyperallergic) Thousands of people and pups alike eagerly flooded a blocked-off Avenue A in Manhattan on Saturday afternoon, October 19, for what has…
The Eternal Dance Between Beauty and Decay
LONDON — The Decay of Beauty. The Beauty of Decay, a compact but ambitious exhibition at Colnaghi Gallery, examines the concept of beauty and its inevitable decay across pan-historical, pan-geographical, and pan-religious examples. The show spans ancient Rome and Egypt,…
Emily Nelligan’s Self-Portraits of Place
Communities on the Cranberry Isles, an archipelago off the coast of Maine named for its yearly cranberry harvests, have lived at the border of marine life for generations as boatbuilders and fishermen, enjoying the abundance of the islands. Since the…
When Wildlife Imitates Art
Left: “The Demolition Squad” by Ingo Arndt (Winner, Behavior: Invertebrates) (© Ingo Arndt, courtesy the Natural History Museum in London), right: Daniele da Volterra, “David et Goliath (verso)” (c. 1550s) (via Wikimedia Commons) (edit Valentina Di Liscia/Hyperallergic, photo via Getty…
Israeli Authorities Censor Film About 1948 Depopulation of Palestine
Hours before a scheduled screening of a documentary about the 1948 depopulation of the Palestinian city of Lyd, Israeli police blocked a Jaffa theater from showing the film last week. The censorship incident, which occurred at the al-Saraya Theater last…
New York Art Advisor Lisa Schiff Pleads Guilty in $6.5M Fraud Case
Lisa Schiff and Adam Singer (photo by Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images) Manhattan art advisor Lisa Schiff, who was accused of embezzling her clients out of millions in a multi-year scheme, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in a New…
75+ Artists Take Over Manhattan’s 14th Street
In the thick of a variety of free art events in New York City this weekend, it’s worth mentioning that one of the most accessible happenings — Art in Odd Places (AiOP) — is set to span nearly all of…
Required Reading
‣ Video games, which I was never allowed to play as a child, may finally be shedding their notoriety and gaining serious consideration as both works and mediums of art. Celine Nguyen analyzes a new publication that makes a compelling case…
“Kaos” Draws From Art History to Tell Its Story
In late August, Netflix released Kaos, a dark comedy reimagining Greek mythology for a modern audience. British actor and writer Charlie Covell, a self-professed mythology nerd, created and wrote the eight-episode series, relying on a heavy dose of high fashion…
The Holocaust Movie That Never Saw the Light of Day
Posted inComics Why did Jerry Lewis spend so much energy concealing The Day the Clown Cried, even in death? Tagged: Comics Ari Richter is a visual artist, cartoonist and professor. He is the author of Never Again Will I Visit Auschwitz:…
Roman Witt Residency at the University of Michigan
The mission of the Roman J. Witt Residency Program is to support the production of new work at the University of Michigan. Open to both established and emerging artists and designers, the program awards one residency each academic year. The…
Six New York City Art Shows to See Right Now
As mid-October rolls around, the chill in the air signals the season of somber reflection. There’s much to consider in the world right now, and little to inspire joy. Among our favorite shows of the moment, immersive installations by Carrie…
An Exhibition Pairs Two Artists and Somehow Both Seem Worse
François Boucher, “Pastoral with a Couple near a Fountain” (1749) (© The Trustees of the Wallace Collection; courtesy the Wallace Collection) LONDON — Flora Yukhnovich is, in short, a wunderkind. Bypassing the long gallery-climbing slog most emerging artists endure, her paintings…
The University of Michigan’s Gender Euphoria
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — What does it mean to find queer joy in an emergency? For Holly Hughes, it starts with embracing euphoria. Gender Euphoria is the title that Hughes — an acclaimed performance artist and playwright — chose for…
Divya Mehra Makes the Machinery of History Visible
LOS ANGELES — Who’s afraid of the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man? In Ghostbusters (1984), the bulbous, white mascot for a fictional marshmallow brand appears as one incarnation of the villainous Gozer, a deity who taunts the Ghostbusters team with a prompt: to…
Five Poems for Vincent
Vincent van Gogh’s “Chair with Pipe” (1881) at London’s National Gallery (image via Wikimedia Commons) The Chair This raw, unpainted, left-hand edge, With multiple nails in-driven, I regard as a wounding of sorts, A ripping away of all fatuity, make-believe,…
City Project to “Beautify” New York’s Chinatown Draws Criticism From Community
From mural art to fashion and music, the vibrance of the Chinese diaspora seeps from every pore of Manhattan’s Mott Street and showcases the community’s culture. Now, the city seems to want in on the culture, too. In February, Mayor…
Original Art Stimulates the Brain More Than Reproductions, Study Finds
A neurological study commissioned by the Mauritshuis Museum in The Hague, the Netherlands, found that viewing artworks in person elicited an emotional response 10 times stronger than viewing those same works in reproduction. Researchers outfitted 20 subjects, ranging in age…
Pesto the Penguin Waddles Into the Art History Canon
Baby Moo Deng may only be two months old, but it’s never too early to learn a lesson in sharing the spotlight. Allow me to bring some pesto to the table as an accoutrement to our beloved “bouncy pork” pygmy…
Required Reading
‣ Despite not having gallery representation, Renée Cox has been pushing artistic boundaries for decades. Photographer Gioncarlo Valentine interviews her for the New Yorker and looks back at the breadth of her underrecognized oeuvre: The I.S.P. experience charged Cox’s practice with…
15 NYC Art Shows to See in October 2024
It’s a good time for complexity in art. In both conceptual and material terms, our favorite shows of the moment refuse to take the easy route. While younger artists Nengi Omuku and Rachel Martin challenge the conventions of genre and…
Wendy Red Star and Ebony G. Patterson Among 2024 MacArthur Fellows
Four visual artists — Justin Vivian Bond, Tony Cokes, Ebony G. Patterson, and Wendy Red Star — are among the 22 recipients of this year’s MacArthur Fellowship, announced today, Tuesday, October 1. Anonymously nominated and selected for their creativity and…
The Problem With b. Robert Moore’s All-Encompassing Afro-Pessimism
DES MOINES, Iowa — Loss is intrinsic to the experience of being Black in America. This country’s centuries-long history of racial violence against Black people has resulted in a collective grief that binds all of us across generations. b. Robert…
Richard Mayhew, Painter of “Mindscapes,” Dies at 100
Portrait of Richard Mayhew in his studio (all images courtesy the Estate of Richard Mayhew and Venus Over Manhattan, New York) Renowned landscape painter Richard Mayhew died at the age of 100 in his Soquel, California home last Thursday, September…
How a Gauguin Painting Went From Real, to Lost, to Fake
Two months after the stock market crash of 1929, an American Gold Rush heiress named Eila Haggin McKee purchased a Paul Gauguin still life called “Flowers and Fruit” (c. 1889) from the Reinhardt Galleries in New York City for $5,000….
Tristan Duke’s “Gaze of the Glacier” Captures Our Planet on the Brink
On view at SITE Santa Fe in New Mexico through March 17, 2025, Tristan Duke: Glacial Optics centers on a series of large-scale photographs of Arctic landscapes, made with a lens the artist fashioned from the ice of the region’s…
The Affordable Art Fair Is Hotter Than Ever
When I arrived at Chelsea’s Metropolitan Pavilion in Manhattan on Thursday, the opening day of the Affordable Art Fair (AAF), a long line spilled out of the venue’s entrance and wrapped around the corner of 18th Street and 6th Avenue….
Did Art History Predict the Rise of Moo Deng?
Over the past month, a Thai baby pygmy hippo named Moo Deng has captured the hearts of millions. For many of us, images of the plump creature have filled our screens with hours of delight as her squishy figure distracts…
Jeffrey Gibson Records the Land’s Heartbeat in NYC Projections
Water, land, sky, animals, and people were the central focuses of a prismatic projection presented by artist Jeffrey Gibson at Brooklyn arts organization Pioneer Works yesterday evening, September 23. Underscoring the earth as a living entity with deeply rooted memories,…
Tiny Crocheted Hats for Cats Could Maybe Cure Chronic Pain
Scientists may have found a way to measure real-time electrical activity in cats’ brains for the first time — using tiny crocheted hats fitted with gold-plated electrodes. While a wool cap with small slots for pointy ears isn’t necessarily revolutionary,…
A Rare Home for Latinx Art Books and Prints in New York City
At the inaugural La Feria Latinx print media fair in New York City last weekend, I couldn’t always hear the artists speak — but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Selena’s “Amor Prohibido” blasted across one floor in a New…
What I Learned From Moo Deng’s Spiral From Adorable to Terrifying
I sent my first Moo Deng meme via Instagram on September 3 at 10:15 pm, before the Thai baby pygmy hippopotamus took the world by storm (which means I’m better and more worldly than you). It started innocently, with reposts…
The Neoclassical Painter Lost to History
WILLIAMSTOWN, Massachusetts — After descending the stairs at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, visitors are welcomed into the gallery space by a monumental reproduction of a harrowing scene from Roman antiquity: Lucius Junius Brutus presiding over his sons’…
Simone Leigh’s Monuments to the Black Femme
LOS ANGELES — Simultaneous exhibitions of an individual artist’s work can be hard to pull off successfully. The shows’ conceits might contradict one another, or differing curatorial visions can cloud the artist’s actual intent. Simone Leigh, a traveling exhibition on…
The Slipperiness of COVID-Era Cultural Memory
TORONTO — Director Lou Ye, a member of the sixth generation of Chinese cinema, a movement of filmmakers creating subversive, unvarnished depictions of urban life in post-Tiananmen China, returns five years after Saturday Fiction (2019) with An Unfinished Film (2024),…
Latinx Art Book Fair Launches at New York University
Carlos and Fernando Estrada-Lopez are social workers in Los Angeles, but in Gabriel García Román’s Queer Icons, they are a pair of haloed saints locked in an embrace, surrounded by floating messages in mixed Spanish and English that partially read…
New Conduct Guidelines at Barnard Met With Faculty Backlash
Barnard College’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), a nationwide nonprofit dedicated to protecting academic freedom, published a statement on Wednesday, September 18, condemning the school’s new community conduct guidelines. The criticism from the faculty group follows…
A Monument to Trans and Nonbinary Life Graces Trafalgar Square
A sobering celebration unfolded in London’s Trafalgar Square on Wednesday, September 18, when the latest Fourth Plinth commission by Mexican artist Teresa Margolles was unveiled. Comprised of plaster face casts, “Mil Veces un Instante (A Thousand Times in an Instant)”…
Getty Apologizes After Exhibition Kick-off Event Injures Spectators
The J. Paul Getty Museum kicked off its PST ART: Art & Science Collide event series last Sunday, September 15, with a fiery collaboration with Chinese pyrotechnics artist Cai Guo-Qiang at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Falling debris from the…
Toronto Biennial of Art Promises Joy Amid Precarity
Opening this Saturday, September 21, the third iteration of the Toronto Biennial of Art (TBA) aims to acknowledge multiple truths at once. Fittingly titled Precarious Joys, this year’s edition will address the political, environmental, and economic instability of our world,…
Second Man Buried Under Notre Dame Identified as French Poet
The second of two bodies buried in lead sarcophagi recovered from beneath the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris has almost certainly been identified two years after its discovery. Discovered during a preparatory dig to repair the fire-damaged church’s spire, the…
Christian Art Wasn’t Always So Straight
Detail of Michelangelo’s fresco “Ignudi” on the ceiling of the Sistene Chapel in Vatican City (c. 1508–12) (image via Wikimedia Commons) Contrary to what you might expect if you’ve come across tradwife TikTok, Christianity was once very queer. In fact,…
Michigan Art Dealer Sentenced for Defrauding Elderly Collectors
A Michigan art dealer accused of swindling seniors out of $1.6 million in a photography consignment scheme was sentenced to five years and three months in prison on Wednesday, September 11, according to the US Attorney’s Office in Detroit. Former…
Pia Arke’s Archives of Arctic Colonization
BERLIN — I first encountered Pia Arke’s video “Arctic Hysteria” (1996) in 2021 at the 34th São Paulo Biennial. In it, the Greenlandic-Danish artist crawls naked across a large black and white photograph of the Arctic landscape before tearing it…
Without Content Doesn’t Mean Empty
When I ventured out to see Aubrey Levinthal’s first New York exhibition in 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, I described her as a figurative painter “trying to get at the elusive and unsettling without developing a narrative…
María Magdalena Campos-Pons Leads a Procession of Hope
Around noon on Saturday, September 7, I found myself in a nondescript classroom at El Museo del Barrio giddily singing Happy Birthday to Oshun and Yemayá, two orishas of the Yoruba religion, before a pair of towering cakes generously iced…
How Ukraine Refashioned Modernist Art
LONDON — The story of a nation’s origins can be so much messier than the day-to-day of its politics. Things get papered over, then leak out between the cracks. In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine, 1900–1930s at…
Man Dies After Fall From Glasgow Museum Balcony
An unexpected tragedy unfolded at the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) in Glasgow, Scotland, when a 55-year-old man died on the premises after a fall from a balcony on Wednesday, September 11. Police, paramedics, and Glasgow’s trauma response team arrived…
In Our Words, An Intergenerational Dialogue
Stamps Gallery is proud to present Kelly Church & Cherish Parrish: In Our Words, An Intergenerational Dialogue, a major exhibition that centers the subjectivities of two contemporary Indigenous artists whose practices have sustained and bolstered the relevance of the age-old…
Borusan Contemporary Presents Doug Aitken’s First Solo Exhibition in Türkiye
Doug Aitken’s Naked City at Borusan Contemporary presents a selection of seven artworks spanning from 2006 to 2024. Curated by Jérôme Sans, the Istanbul show focuses particularly on cities, as each work explores the modern condition and the paradoxical isolation…
NYC AIDS Memorial Celebrates David Wojnarowicz’s 70th Birthday
Though he died at the age of 37 due to AIDS complications, David Wojnarowicz left a powerful legacy of avant-garde artmaking, passionate LGBTQ+ and disability activism, and withstanding friendships — all of which will be commemorated at the New York…
Art Books to Read This Fall
Books on our reading list this fall, including Hettie Judah’s Acts of Creation and Mark: Sonya Kelliher-Combs (photo Hyperallergic) The art world has begun its unofficial fall semester, and as much as I love a good syllabus, I’ve never been…
Required Reading
‣ Who were those two intelligent, poised journalists discussing art fairs on WNYC this week … oh, it’s Hyperallergic News Editor Valentina Di Liscia and Staff Writer Rhea Nayyar! Give their fantastic conversation with Alison Stewart on All Of It a…
The Rubin Museum’s Swan Song Is an Ode to Himalayan Art Now
LuYang, “DOKU – Animal #3” (2022), aluminum, LED lights, backlit fabric, 55 x 43 x 4 inches (139 7/10 x 109 1/5 x 10 1/6 centimeters) (photo by Arturo Sanchez, courtesy the Rubin Museum of Art) A gentle murmur of…
Jimmy Gordon’s Homegrown Surrealism
After I visited Surrealist at Tibor de Nagy, Jimmy Gordon’s debut New York exhibition, I did some research to learn more about who the artist was. The press release told me: “Gordon (1947–2022) was born in Lexington, Kentucky,” his “paintings…
MoMA Director Glenn Lowry Steps Down After 30 Years
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) Director Glenn D. Lowry has announced that he will step down from his post in 2025, bookending three decades at the institution’s helm. The later years of his tenure have been marked by union actions…
Art and Science Collide in Dozens of Exhibitions Across LA This Fall
LOS ANGELES — This fall, Getty’s sweeping PST Art: Art & Science Collide initiative will take place at museums and galleries across Southern California. Officially kicking off September 15 and running through February 16, 2025, exhibitions at over 70 cultural institutions…
Noguchi Museum Terminates Three Workers for Wearing Keffiyehs
The Noguchi Museum in New York City has terminated three gallery attendants who said they would not comply with a controversial new rule banning staff from wearing the Palestinian headscarves known as keffiyehs. A fourth worker, the director of Visitor…
We Can Do Better Than Just Museum Field Trips
Museums have long served as educational hubs in their communities, with carefully assembled collections and exhibitions highlighting our cultural past and present. Today, museums must find new ways to remain centers of knowledge and inspiration by partnering directly with educators…
An Anti-Institution Artist Gets an Institutional Show
LOS ANGELES — In Conversation with the Cosmos is the first comprehensive exhibition of the work of late Filipino artist David Medalla, who passed away in 2020, and the only to date that considers his art within the context of…
10 Art Shows to Visit in Los Angeles, September 2024
This month’s list encompasses comprehensive surveys of established artists and stellar solo shows from the next generation, marking the art world’s return from the leisurely dog days of summer. Chicana artist Linda Vallejo’s retrospective at Parrasch Heijnen covers five decades…
Two NYC Art Fairs Remind Us It’s Okay to Start Anew
Less than six months ago, I was sustaining myself on dining-hall rice and beans and living in a dorm room decorated with a couple of Frida Kahlo prints on the walls. So when I visited Salon Zürcher and Clio this…
Art on Paper Is Still a Wholesome Hub for Fans of the Medium
“Are you here for the art show or the fashion show?” an event staffer asked me as I approached the entrance to Lower Manhattan’s Pier 36 for this year’s Art on Paper fair. The question underscored the tumultuous lineup of…
Market Uncertainty Didn’t Dampen Sales at This Year’s Armory Show
For much of the day on Thursday, September 5, a wave of pleasant anticipatory energy resembling the first day of school rippled throughout New York City’s largest art fair, the Armory Show. Well-heeled collectors, art advisors, and other tastefully bejeweled…
What Happened to the Armory Show?
Armory Show, mon amour, what happened to you? I hardly recognize you anymore. You used to be the best of the best, the jewel in the crown, the flagship, the mothership, the talk of the town. How did you become…
Required Reading
‣ The world of paleontology is juicier than you might think, and New York Magazine‘s Kerry Howley gives us the lowdown on the latest clash between two researchers about the asteroid that devastated the earth 66 million years ago: During and…
Pioneer Works Opens Applications for 2025 Visual Arts and Music Residents
After a brief break for construction, Pioneer Works is back to accepting applications for our 2025 Visual Arts and Music Residencies! The Technology Residency, however, has now shifted to an invite-only process as we shift and evolve. During the selection…
The High-Drama Kabuki Portraits of an Enigmatic Artist
CHICAGO — Over the span of merely 10 months in the Edo period, a Japanese artist who went by Tōshūsai Sharaku created almost 150 ukiyo-e prints of actors in kabuki theater, a traditional form of Japanese classic performance. Many are…
Look Into My Eyes Is an Intimate Portrait of Psychic Healing
“In the beginning, most psychics are like, ‘Am I making this shit up?’ Then proof happens.” So explains Ilka Pinheiro, one of seven New York psychic healers followed in Lana Wilson’s provocative documentary Look Into My Eyes. Does she, or…
Rembrandt Painting Found in Attic Sells for Over $1M
A painting attributed to the Dutch Golden Age artist Rembrandt went under the hammer for a record-breaking $1.175 million ($1.41 million including the buyer’s premium) after it was unearthed from an attic in a home in Camden, Maine. The sale…
An Artwork Gifted to George Washington Could Fetch $800K This Fall
In 1790, military officer Marquis de Lafayette gifted a historical drawing from the French Revolution to President George Washington, his close friend and former commander in the American Revolutionary War who treasured the artwork until his death. Symbolic of their…
Agnès Varda, Pragmatic Dreamer
Carrie Rickey cried when her professor, artist Manny Farber, played Agnès Varda’s film Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962) for the class. It was 1971, and she had not known that women made movies. “I wanted to understand Varda not…
Donald Rodney Drew Upon His Sickness to Illuminate Society’s Ills
BRISTOL, England — Donald Rodney saw the world through metaphor. He suffered from sickle cell anemia throughout his life, meaning he endured pain, a difficult treatment schedule, and reduced mobility. Rather than shying away from these elements, he drew upon…
Celebrating Labor History Through the Art of Union Banners
Every year on the first weekend of September, millions of Americans flock to beaches and barbeques to soak up the last bits of summer, taking advantage of the country’s annual observance of Labor Day. While many may see the federal…
Child Shatters 3,500-Year-Old Vase at Israeli Museum
The shattered jar was thrown off its base at the Hecht Museum. (image courtesy Hecht Museum) As the adage goes: You break it, you pay for it. Unless, that is, you are the four-year-old boy who shattered a 3,500-year-old jar…
An Art Exhibition That Makes Rejection Look Good
The history of the Salon, the juried exhibitions that defined European art trends from the 17th through the 19th centuries, can be told from the perspective of the artists who were included — or, if you want a juicier story,…
A View From the Easel
Welcome to the 249th installment of A View From the Easel, a series in which artists reflect on their workspace. This week, artists marvel at open spaces, listen to church bells toll, and create one-of-a-kind books. Want to take part?…
What to Do When Your National Flag Doesn’t Represent You?
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Hema Shironi was, rather unusually in Sri Lanka, raised both Catholic and Hindu. Due to her father’s career as an (outspoken) government official in the early 1990s and 2000s, she had lived in four of the…
Wall-to-Wall Walz at the Minnesota State Fair Seed Art Show
Seed art by Mary Beth Leone-Getten at the Minnesota State Fair (all photos Isabella Segalovich/Hyperallergic) FALCON HEIGHTS, Minnesota — From a rotating gallery of butter sculptures to a hall bursting with quilts and embroidery, the annual Minnesota State Fair is…
Required Reading
‣ It’s been a big year for Venezuelan ceramicist and painter Magdalena Suarez Frimkess, who celebrated her 95th birthday and just got her first museum retrospective. For the Los Angeles Times, David A. Keeps chats with the indefatigable artist and those…
A Truck Exhibition on Bodily Autonomy Is Traveling Cross-Country
A 27-foot-long container truck featuring a rotating display of artwork will hit the road next week from New York City to embark on a cross-country exhibition about the myriad facets of bodily autonomy and acceptance. Spanning photography, textile work, painting,…
New Three-Year Arts Series Will Center NYC’s Latine Community
Next Thursday, September 5 in Central Park, artist Edra Soto will unveil a new sculpture from her Graft series (2013–), made from corten steel and terrazzo and inspired by the wrought-iron fencing often seen outside residences in Puerto Rico. The…
Mitchell Johnson Exhibits Small, Scenic Landscapes in “Where The Colors Are”
Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill in Massachusetts presents an exhibition of small paintings by California artist Mitchell Johnson from September 4 through 15. The gallery is open daily from 12 to 5pm, with an artist reception on…
The Unapologetic Femininity of Isabella Ducrot’s Textile Art
DIJON, France — “In a fabric, the intersection of thread during its weaving establishes an unbreakable pact between the two opposed and distinct entities, the warp and the weft, and this pact is reaffirmed at every crossing thousands of times…
The National Arts Club Presents “Jazz Greats”
The National Arts Club (NAC) is thrilled to launch its 2024–2025 exhibition season with Jazz Greats | Classic Photographs from the Bank of America Collection. Loaned through the Bank of America Art in Our Communities® program, the show includes 33…
Abstract Expressionism Scholar David Anfam Dies at 69
British art historian and renowned curator David Anfam died at the age of 69 in London last Wednesday, August 21, as confirmed by the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver, Colorado. Best known for his scholarship on Abstract Expressionism, Anfam lives…
This Summer, “TONO x PAMMTV Selects” Dives into Shapeshifting Video Art
From the cell to the pixel, TONO x PAMMTV Selects explores how bodies transform across natural, supernatural, and virtual spaces. The evocative streaming exhibition from Pérez Art Museum Miami is co-curated with TONO, a new video and performance art festival…
A Sneak Peek at The Armory Show 2024
Dindga McCannon, “Rasta Band” (c. 1990), mixed media quilt, dimensions variable (image courtesy the artist and Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London) The Armory Show is set to take over the Javits Center in less than two weeks’ time, setting off a…
Advance Your Art Career With SVA Continuing Education Courses, Workshops, Residencies
Ready to take your practice and creativity to new heights? SVACE has the resources and expertise to help you go to the next level. With a diverse range of more than 200 courses and 10+ artist residency programs, you’ll find…
Highlights From the Santa Fe Indian Market
Market goers at Santa Fe Market (photo Erin Joyce/Hyperallergic) SANTA FE — As the sun beat down on attendees, this year’s Santa Fe Indian Market felt like a hot one, but not only in temperature. The 102nd edition of the…
Director of NYC Balloon Exhibition Made Anti-Palestinian Comments
The art director of a family-friendly balloon art experience that traveled from Tel Aviv to Manhattan’s Upper East Side for the summer posted violent anti-Palestinian rhetoric on social media last year, Hyperallergic found. Israeli artist Kobi Kalimian, the face of…
The Craziest Art in Los Angeles May Be Underground
LOS ANGELES — Just after dawn on a recent weekday morning, at the edge of a nondescript parking lot somewhere in LA County, I met three members of Operation Under (OU), a clandestine collective of graffiti artists, painters, photographers, nature…
Required Reading
‣ Darcie Little Badger, a Lipan Apache novelist, pens a personal essay in the Texas Observer about the repatriation of an elder’s remains to her tribe, which is not federally recognized. She writes: A small group of people were already waiting,…
Hyperallergic Fall 2024 New York Art Guide
In times of change, art has the power to move us to see, reconsider, and reinvent, and New York City is fertile ground for some of the best art in the world and for the most creative among us to…
Washington Post Nixes Weekly Local Art Column
The Washington Post eliminated its weekly In the Galleries art column effective immediately, as first reported in BmoreArt and confirmed by Hyperallergic. In an email sent to several DC-area art exhibition spaces on Monday, August 19, column author and critic…
Lavinia Fontana, the Self-Fashioned Painter
Lavinia Fontana, “Portrait of a Pregnant Woman, Possibly a Self-Portrait” (c. 1592–1604), 44 x 34 5/8 inches, held in private collection (image via Wikimedia Commons) Possibly because of the absence of a string of nucleotides in chromosome 8, fewer than…
Making Comics Rescued These Creators During COVID-19
On April 1, 2020, it was abundantly clear that New York City was, by all definitions, not OK: Schools, bars, restaurants, and other businesses deemed “non-essential” had suspended operations weeks prior as the COVID-19 death toll steadily climbed. Gabe Fowler,…
Charting the Outer Reaches of Fandom in Art
TORONTO — Star Trek’s vast transmedia universe often reminds me of the fandom’s “infinite diversity in infinite combinations” (IDIC) philosophy. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry originally intended IDIC as a Vulcan belief in the beauty of universal acceptance, which informed the…
The Unnatural Link Between Mothering and Technological Surveillance
A year ago, amid curatorial research considering the missing datasets in the hidden work of mothering, I got stuck on the story of a 42-year-old mainframe computer. Edgar, the main character of Claudia Cornwall’s Print-Outs: The Adventures of a Rebel…
Hyperallergic Mini Art Crossword: August 2024
Rap battles, Indigenous symbols reclaimed, Esther Pressoir’s alma mater, and more in the last mini puzzle of the summer. Natan Last’s essays, poetry, and crossword puzzles appear in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Narrative, Los Angeles Review of Books, and…
Can You Spot These Mini Canvases Hidden Around Brooklyn?
Steve Wasterval’s mini painting of Transmitter Park in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, acrylic on canvas, 2 x 1 1/2 inches (~5 x ~3.8 cm) (all photos by and courtesy Steve Wasterval) There are an overwhelming number of places to squirrel away little…
Your Guide to Navigating New York City’s Fall Art Fairs
As a bittersweet reminder that our scalding summer is coming to a close, the fall art fair season is turning the corner shortly in New York City, with a steady lineup of 12 shows from Labor Day through November 2….
What Adults Can Learn From Children’s Games
LONDON — Shouts ring out, voices chant, hands clap, and children’s laughter bursts from every direction. If you close your eyes in the middle of Francis Alÿs: Ricochets at Barbican Art Gallery, you might think you’re in a multinational playground….
Rothko Chapel Paintings Damaged by Hurricane Beryl
The Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas, will remain closed indefinitely after suffering damage related to Hurricane Beryl, per an announcement Wednesday, August 14. Gale-force winds and torrential rain impacted the chapel’s roof, causing leaks and subsequent water damage to the…
Mural of Olympic Volleyball Star Defaced With Racist Graffiti
Italian officials and community members have decried the racist defacement of a mural depicting athlete Paola Egonu, who helped Italy clinch its first gold medal in women’s volleyball at the Paris Olympics on Sunday, August 11. Egonu was named the tournament’s…
A Deeply Personal Investigation Into Canada’s Residential Schools
During the 19th and 20th centuries, government programs in both the United States and Canada forcibly separated Indigenous children from their families, relocating them to residential boarding schools to “civilize” them. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada has acknowledged…
Required Reading
‣ Late poet June Jordan played an essential role in pushing Audre Lorde and other fellow Black feminist writers to commit to anti-Zionism, even to her personal and professional detriment. Scholar Marina Magloire explains for the Los Angeles Review of Books:…
Mark Zuckerberg Unveils New Statue of His Wife in the “Roman Tradition”
Mark Zuckerberg reveals the new sculpture of his wife, Priscilla Chan. (screenshot Hyperallergic via Instagram) If you had all of the money you could ever dream of and then some, how would you want to memorialize your love for your…
Judge Says Artists Can Sue AI Companies for Using Their Work
A group of 10 visual artists can proceed with copyright claims against four companies using text-to-image generative AI, a California judge ruled Monday, August 12. The artists filed a class-action lawsuit against Stability, Midjourney, DeviantArt, and Runway with the United…
Israel Announces Settlement Near Palestinian World Heritage Site
Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich confirmed a forthcoming settlement expansion near a UNESCO Heritage Site in the Occupied West Bank, detailing plans in a statement on X today, August 14. The announcement follows a June proposal from the Israel Defense…
Lulú Varona’s Visions of Puerto Rican Solidarity
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Justo ahora (right now), María “Lulú” Varona’s second solo show at Embajada gallery, presents cross-stitched and embroidered works that meditate on local concerns such as femicide and environmental destruction, affirming the political potential of solidarity. Varona’s…
Brenda Goodman’s Unknowable Language of Grief
Over the course of a seven-decade career, the one constant in Brenda Goodman’s practice has been drawing. The fluidity of her line parallels her thought process and openness to taking unexpected paths, often prompted by a memory or life event….
Lita Albuquerque’s Longing for Tunisia
MALIBU, Calif. — On July 20, 1969, artist Lita Albuquerque and her friend were driving through the Tunisian Sahara Desert when their car broke down. Together they walked toward a farm in the distance, where they found their friends watching…
Why Do We Expect Ancient Romans to Have British Accents in Movies?
The opening frames of the new Gladiator II (2024) trailer introduce us to Macrinus (played by Denzel Washington), the wealthy owner of a gladiatorial troupe and an arms dealer. The plutocrat offers Lucius (Paul Mescal) insight into the Roman imperial…
Celebrating the Legacy of “Old Lesbian” Advocate Arden Eversmeyer
“‘Older’ is a euphemism, just like ‘elder’ and ‘senior’ and ‘golden’ — these are all terms that soft-pedal around a word of denigration,” said Arden Eversmeyer, the late founder of the Old Lesbian Oral Herstory Project (OLOHP), in an interview…
Vera Molnár’s Fascination With the Glitches in the Matrix
PARIS — The late Hungarian-born artist Vera Molnár found patterns everywhere: in architectural details, in optic art, even in dreams. Spanning a remarkable eight decades of her 99-year life, Speak to the Eye, the Centre Pompidou’s compact yet ambitious exhibition…
How Michelangelo’s Dome Survived Through the Centuries
Decades ago, I lived in an apartment only a few minutes’ walk from St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. I have never loved the huge basilica, nor the triumphalism it proclaims with such confidence. At the same time, the city is…
The Marvelous and Monstrous Reality of Being a New York Artist
Marin Kosut once founded a gallery in an abandoned pay phone shell in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Now, the writer, sociologist, and curator has released her latest book, Art Monster: On the Impossibility of New York (Columbia University Press, 2024), which began…
Despite Years of Protests, Harvard University to Keep Sackler Name
Harvard University will not remove Arthur M. Sackler’s name from two of its campus buildings, concludes a 15-page report by a committee assigned to review the decision. After years of pressure from students and activists who illuminated the donor’s ties…
Where Is Mavis Beacon, the Woman Who Taught Us to Type?
PHILADELPHIA — Do you remember who taught you to type on a desktop QWERTY keyboard? There’s a chance it may have been the fictional character Mavis Beacon, a made-up entity from the popular education software game Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing…
Photographing the Lives of Black American Cowboys
The first time Ron Tarver got on an airplane was at age 24 to interview for a staff photographer position at the Philadelphia Inquirer. Next thing he knew, the paper was sending out movers to his home in Oklahoma, where…
Required Reading
‣ Wafa Ghnaim penned a must-read essay on the history and legacy of Palestinian garment and craft traditions, including tatreez embroidery. She writes in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Perspectives magazine: Al-Nakba, Arabic for “the catastrophe,” recognizes the ethnic cleansing of…
Blackfeet Documentary Wins Climate Justice Award at BlackStar Festival
PHILADELPHIA — At the BlackStar Film Festival in Philadelphia last weekend, a new feature documentary directed by Blackfeet (Niitsitapi/Siksikaitsitapi) siblings Ivan and Ivy MacDonald alongside filmmaker Daniel Glick won the Center for Cultural Power’s Climate Justice Award for the Best…
Philadelphia Announces New Armenian Heritage Walk
Fifty years after Philadelphia’s “Young Meher” statue was first erected by Armenian Americans on the United States Bicentennial, the heroic figure will be at the center of a new permanent public art exhibition slated for a 2026 unveiling. The Armenian Heritage…
Storm King Art Center Workers Celebrate First Union Contracts
Workers at the Storm King Art Center (SKAC) in New York’s Hudson Valley passed their first-ever union contracts in late July after eight months of negotiations. Workers in the Visitor Services, Education, and Conservation departments as well as the gift…
In Shocking Move, Videographer Who Filmed Vandalism of Brooklyn Museum Leaders’ Homes Charged With Hate Crime
Police arrested a New York City independent journalist this afternoon, August 6, for reportedly filming the vandalism of several Brooklyn Museum leaders’ homes in mid-June, the New York Police Department (NYPD) confirmed to Hyperallergic. Samuel Seligson, a 32-year-old videographer who…
Botched Restoration in Spanish Church Yields Uncanny Cherubim
What on earth happened to the cherubim of Soria’s Hermitage of the Virgin of Mirón? Soria Patrimonio, a group dedicated to the preservation of cultural heritage in the Spanish city, is asking this question on X after what appears to…
Anti-War Artist Released as Part of Russia-US Prisoner Swap
Russian anti-war activist and cartoonist Aleksandra “Sasha” Skochilenko is now free from a seven-year prison sentence as part of the historic prisoner swap that released Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovitz last week. Russian authorities arrested Skochilenko in April 2022…
An Intergenerational Conversation Between Black Women Artists
“We know that most gatherings of artists, curators, dealers, and critics at museums, galleries, art societies, and socials are without us,” Emma Amos wrote in a 1990 essay for M/E/A/N/I/N/G magazine, lamenting how Black female artists have long been denied…
Lessons on Black Art Writing From Toni Morrison
She had just died, and I couldn’t stop looking at a photograph of her. She held me there: in her Random House office in 1974, outstretched arms, open palms, eyes cast upwards, mouth widening into a shape of jubilation. I…
Woman Charged in Vandalism of Brooklyn Museum Director’s Home
An individual was arrested yesterday, July 31, in connection with the vandalism of Brooklyn Museum Director Anne Pasternak’s home earlier this summer, the New York Police Department (NYPD) confirmed to Hyperallergic. Pasternak was one of four museum leaders whose residences…
A View From the Easel
Welcome to the 245th installment of A View From the Easel, a series in which artists reflect on their workspace. This week, artists toggle between studios, find solace in desert plants, and feed their imagination with mountain views. Want to…
Manhattan Exhibition Pays Tribute to Teaching Artists
Pepón Osorio with Zayvionne Bristow, Jacob Rodriguez, Lynoshka Santa, Coralis Torres, Chelsey Velez, Kiara Villegas, Dante Quiñonez, and Amy Donghee Oh, installation from reForm (2014–17), mixed media installation, dimensions variable (photo courtesy PPOW) Even though school is out, an exhibition…
8 New York and Online Shows to See August 2024
Those last days of summer can be an opportunity to explore artists we might otherwise overlook in the summer group shows, and to revisit a few of our favorite exhibitions — and maybe go a little out of the way…
Tracing James Baldwin’s Legacy Through His Friendships on His 100th Birthday
August 2 marks the centennial anniversary of James Baldwin’s birth. As one of the most influential voices to come out of the 20th-century Civil Rights Movement, his words bore witness to the racial strife and homophobia he and countless others…
Required Reading
‣ Beyond their architectural and social history, it turns out porches played a key role in early American epidemiology, the New Yorker’s David Owen explains: In warm weather, flies and other insects complicated the efforts of almost anyone trying to keep…
How Dinh Q. Lê Unpacked Belonging Through Weaving
Dinh Q. Lê in his studio in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (image courtesy PPOW Gallery) Vietnamese American visual artist Dinh Q. Lê, who died in April at the age of 56, has left behind an enormous and influential legacy…
Scientists Crack the Code of Rembrandt’s Golden Luster
Scientists say they have discovered the pigment that put the “Golden” in the Dutch Golden Age in Rembrandt’s paintings. New research into the paint Rembrandt used to represent glistening embroidery details in “The Night Watch” (1642) shows evidence of rarer…
What Are Those Giant Painted Heads Floating in the Seine?
The Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games kicked off last Friday, July 26, with an extravagant opening ceremony along the Seine featuring a diverse medley of artistic events. From vocal performances by Celine Dion and Aya Nakamura, a 94-boat parade along…
American Museum of Natural History Repatriates Remains of 124 Native People
New York City’s American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is repatriating the remains of 124 Native individuals and 90 Native cultural items as it faces increased pressure to return the thousands of human remains in its holdings. The news follows…
10 Art Shows to See in Los Angeles August 2024
August can be a slow month in the art world, but the 10 shows below offer some visual and conceptual delights before the big fall openings. UPEND gathers new perspectives on feminist solidarity and activism in the face of our…
No, the Olympics Ceremony Did Not Copy “The Last Supper”
A performance involving French singer Philippe Katerine as Bacchus at the Olympics opening ceremony was incorrectly interpreted as a recreation of “The Last Supper.” (photo by Ludovic Marin – Pool/Getty Images) A depiction of Greek gods partying atop Mount Olympus…
Queerness and Nature Intersect at Wave Hill
I definitely felt there was a bit of a wink behind the choice to explore questions around nature and queerness amid a highly manicured garden on the edge of one of the country’s most densely populated cities. In two separate…
The Enslaved People Who Wrote Down the New Testament
Art and literature work in tandem to fortify myths of single-handed brilliance, creating a reverence for the proverbial “solitary genius.” Romantic depictions of the ancient author toiling away at his desk or the medieval bishop writing letters while alone in…
The $90,000 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for Graduate Studies
The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans was established to support exceptional immigrants and children of immigrants in pursuing graduate education in the United States. By awarding up to $90,000 in funding to 30 individuals each year, the…
Three-Time Olympic Fencer’s Vibrant Photos of Athletic Diversity
Enzo Lefort’s portrait of French long jump and triple jump Paralympian, “Arnaud Assoumani” (2023), photo on DIBOND (all images © Enzo Lefort unless otherwise noted, courtesy Olympic Museum) As the 2024 Summer Olympics ceremony kicks off and we wait with…
Anne Imhof’s “Wish You Were Gay” Banners Vandalized in Austria
Left: One of Anne Imhof’s six “Wish You Were Gay” banners prior to the attack (photo by Marcus Tretter); right: Damages to one of the banners outside of Kunsthaus Bregenz in Bregenz, Austria (photo by Angela Lamprecht, all images courtesy…
When the US Left Afghanistan, This Filmmaker Entered
In August 2021, the United States ended its disastrous 20-year occupation of Afghanistan with a suitably slapdash withdrawal. The Taliban, which had been expelled from power in 2001, retook control. Billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment and vehicles were…
Activists Disrupt Gallery Event, Alleging Palestine’s Erasure From Exhibition
Police were called to Manhattan’s Greene Naftali gallery on Tuesday evening, July 23, after an autonomous group of activists disrupted a book event for an exhibition on the late German filmmaker Harun Farocki. Ten anonymous activists unfurled banners and handed…
House Majority Vote Saves Millions in Funding for NEA and NEH
United States Representatives voted overwhelmingly in favor of protecting funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) during a House floor session yesterday evening, July 23. Republican Josh Brecheen had proposed…
See the Art From Protests Against Netanyahu’s Visit to Congress
WASHINGTON, DC — In protest of Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the United States Congress today, Wednesday, July 24, thousands of activists flooded the streets in massive rallies against the Israeli leader’s ongoing attacks on Gaza. Demonstrators calling for Netanyahu’s arrest…
Journalist Watchdogs Decry Egypt’s Arrest of Satirical Cartoonist
Egyptian police detained satirical cartoonist Ashraf Omar at his home in Cairo in the early hours of Monday, July 22, prompting outcries from journalist advocacy organizations and human rights activists calling for his immediate release. Prior to his arrest, Omar…
Is Upstate Art Weekend Worth It? We Asked 11 Participants
The 2024 Upstate Art Weekend was a large, sprawling affair that mapped over 140 spaces in the Hudson Valley region, from Westchester in the south to Albany in the north, or roughly a 125-mile (~200-kilometer) stretch of New York State,…
Dereck Stafford Mangus, Beloved Baltimore Artist and Museum Guard, Dies at 46
Art writer, museum guard, and artist Dereck Stafford Mangus (photo by Christopher Myers, courtesy the Baltimore Museum of Art) Dereck Stafford Mangus, a beloved Baltimore-based artist, writer, and cultural worker, passed away on Sunday, July 7 at the age of…
The Art of Touch
Joanna Piotrowska, “A Most Gentle Touch” (2019), gelatin silver print, 11 4/5 x 9 2/5 inches (© Joanna Piotrowska; courtesy the Princeton University Art Museum) PRINCETON, New Jersey — In Carolee Schneemann’s 1964 film “Meat Joy,” male and female bodies spontaneously…
London Art Institute Workers Say They Were Fired for Supporting Palestine
Berlin-based artist Rheim Alkadhi says she will pull her work out of London’s Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) if the center does not take accountability for allegedly retaliating against workers who have expressed solidarity with Palestinians. “I cannot accept for…
You Can’t Finish This Brian Eno Doc in a Single Lifetime
Brian Eno has long resisted being the subject of a documentary. Filmmaker Rob Nilsson recently told the New York Times that the shooting of 1993’s Words for the Dying was a “great cat and mouse game” due to the experimental…
Is Toronto’s Art Triennial Just for Those “In the Know”?
TORONTO — In its second iteration, the Greater Toronto Art 2024 (GTA24) triennial at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) connects art-making with ever-shifting movements in the region’s flawed formation. Until the late 1990s, when it was amalgamated into a…
A View From the Easel
Welcome to the 243rd installment of A View From the Easel, a series in which artists reflect on their workspace. This week, artists return to pieces they made in school, work with ambient soundtracks playing in the background, and share…
Photography Show Aims to Upend Xenophobic Border Narratives
As a Mexican-American girl growing up in Ohio, Nadiah Rivera Fellah looked for art that reflected her experiences living at the intersection of multiple cultures. Years later, these memories guided her curation of Picturing the Border, a photography exhibition on…
Five Art Shows to See in New York Before July 2024 Ends
Katherine Bradford “Siberian Shamanism” (2024), acrylic on canvas, 30 x 40 inches (photo Hakim Bishara/Hyperallergic). For anyone who loves color and dynamism in art, some of the best shows right now are in galleries. Mary Heilmann’s early drawings and paintings…
New York Gears Up for 2024 Upstate Art Weekend
Let’s face it — even the most diehard New Yorkers need a break from the stench of sidewalk garbage and the sweltering humidity of the subway in the summer. Following the path taken by generations who have come before them,…
Who’s Left Out of the Frame in the Viral Trump Shooting Photo?
Corey Comperatore was seated on the bleachers behind the stage at the Trump campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last Saturday when a gunman opened fire from the roof of a nearby building. The former president was spared, suffering a minor…
How Memes Unravel the Image of Trump as Martyr
Van Gogh knew a thing or two about ear wounds. (post by Roshan_Rinaldi via X, all screenshots Hyperallergic) “Trump is the man,” said M, who works at the bodega near our Brooklyn offices, when we chatted this morning about the…
Dog Lovers Rejoice! NYC Art Gallery Shows 60+ Pup Portraits
Hilary Pecis, “Mango” (2024), acrylic on linen, 55 x 44 inches (image courtesy the artist and Timothy Taylor Gallery) There are two things in this world that I love above all else: every single dog on earth, and summertime. While…
The Geometry in Motion of Nancy Holt
BERLIN — “Sun Tunnels” (1973–76), a monumental sculptural installation in the Utah desert, so overwhelmingly dominates discussion of Nancy Holt’s oeuvre that it took my walking through an entire survey to unlearn what I thought I understood. Nearly a third of…
The Lost Art of Handwriting
Esther Inglis, excerpt from Proverbs of Solomon (1599) (all images courtesy the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford) When was the last time you sat down to write a letter? In an increasingly digital existence, handwriting as a practice…
New Book From Yale University Press Reshapes Our View of Van Gogh as Consummate Nature Painter
What follows is an excerpt from a recent conversation between David Ebony and Michael Lobel. David is a writer, critic, and curator; Michael is a professor of art history at Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY, and is the…
Brazilian Conceptual Artist Steals Historic Coin From the British Museum
A little after noon on Tuesday, June 18, Brazilian artist Ilê Sartuzi entered Room 68 of the British Museum and secretly replaced a silver coin minted during the English Civil War with a replica. Sartuzi then left Room 68, walked…
Shunga Might Just Convince You That Pornography Is Art
One of the most iconic works of ukiyo-e is Hokusai’s 1814 print “The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife,” which depicts a woman amid a sexual liaison with two octopuses. It is so familiar that its outré bestialistic imagery is somewhat…
The Serious Joy of Joyce J. Scott’s Beaded Art
BALTIMORE — Joyce J. Scott’s half-century retrospective at the Baltimore Museum of Art is an invitation to wander in her dreams. Those of us who accept that invitation will likely never forget both their beauty and their urgency. The artist,…
Required Reading
Editor’s Note: The following post contains mentions of sexual assault. To reach the National Sexual Assault Hotline, call 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or visit online.rainn.org. ‣ Hannah Bonner unravels the web of fast fashion, “slow art,” and the Kardashians’ catastrophic impact on the climate through…
Käthe Kollwitz’s Profoundly Human Art
Käthe Kollwitz, “Self portrait” (1891–92), gouache on paper (all photos Alice Procter/Hyperallergic) Käthe Kollwitz is an artist’s artist. There’s a chance you’ll recognize some of her more famous works without knowing her name, but her influence on 20th-century socially and…
How Modern-Day Christian Iconoclasts Lost Their Heads
Among the most striking paintings within St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum in Russia is Leonardo da Vinci’s “Madonna Litta” from around 1490. Mary, the Mother of God, is in half-profile, her auburn hair wound tightly in the fashion of a Florentine…
Art History Majors Face Highest Unemployment Rates, Report Shows
Art History, Visual and Performing Arts, and Graphic Design majors across the nation are associated with the highest rates of unemployment compared to other areas of undergraduate study, according to data collected by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York…