10 New Art Spaces to Visit in New York City
When one door closes, another door opens — an art gallery door, that is. Yes, there’s a not insignificant number of New York spaces calling it quits, but there’s also a blossoming of artistic endeavors throughout the city that deserve…
Affordable Los Angeles Art to Shop This Holiday Season
LOS ANGELES — Holiday shopping can be a challenge when you’re trying to find thoughtful gifts for friends and family without feeding into commercial excess. To aid your search, we’ve compiled a list of 11 LA-area (and online!) artist-run sales,…
How Affordable Are New York City Museum Cafes?
Have you ever heard your own stomach grumble so loudly in a quiet exhibition gallery that visitors turned to stare? … Me neither. When hunger pangs strike during a moment of artful contemplation, many of us turn to the closest…
A View From the Easel
Welcome to the 261st installment of A View From the Easel, a series in which artists reflect on their workspace. This week, artists toggle between graphic design, painting, and tattooing, and savor the power of sunlight filtered through a studio…
Required Reading
‣ You’ve seen Florence Owens Thompson before, though you may not realize it. For Places, Myriam Gurba writes about the woman pictured in Dorothea Lange’s “Migrant Mother,” a symbol of Great Depression-era poverty that erases its subject’s Cherokee heritage: Mr. and…
The Embodied Eroticism of Louis Fratino’s Art
PRATO, Italy — Earlier this year, something drew me back to the diaries of Anaïs Nin. I’d read several volumes decades ago. Tracing the French-American author’s libertine, literary life in Paris and New York starting in the early 1930s, these…
NYC Housing Stories: Miguel Robles-Durán and “Jerzy”
This is the fifth of a series of comics depicting transformative moments in the lives of artists, activists, and organizers on the front lines of the housing affordability crisis in New York City Miguel Robles-Durán Urbanist and professor at the…
An Unintellectual Theory of Tastiness in Art History
I’m of the belief that a well-rounded life demands a bender here and there. I’m not suggesting a dip into hallucinogens, per se — rather, a little break from the superego, a little indulgence in the id. Turn off that…
Long-Lost Thanksgiving Recipes of American Artists Discovered
Just in time for Thanksgiving, an archivist at the Smithsonian Institution has stumbled upon a treasure of culinary and visual art history. In a dusty storage room, a box mistakenly labeled “the nicer china for trustee dinners” held a trove…
MFA, MA, and PhD Programs to Apply for by Early 2025
Northeastern United States Bard Graduate CenterEmerging curators, researchers, educators, and museum professionals learn to ask new questions about the cultural history of the material world through the NYC institution’s MA and PhD programs. Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College (CCS…
Dreams of a Gaza Biennale Amid Loss and Ruin
Days before the Venice Biennale closed this year with the second-highest visitor turnout in its history, over 50 artists from Gaza announced their decision to form their own version of the contemporary art festival: the Gaza Biennale. “The biennale will…
ArtYard Exhibition Reimagines Barriers as Porous Portals
Gates, fences, windows, and walls are mundane and monumental barrier architectures designed to separate, enclose, protect, or distance. The 12 artists whose work is on view in ArtYard’s exhibition Barrier engage with these architectures — and more — with the…
The 30 Best Art Books of 2024
We’re proud to present our list of the best art books of 2024 for your holiday reading, and perhaps to inspire your gifting this winter. Our editors and critics read across genre, subject, and pace this year, from memoirs and…
Art from the Martin Wong Graffiti Collection
New York’s modern age of graffiti — both notorious and celebrated — began in the early 1970s. The subculture created by the city’s youth came of age over the next 20 years, transforming into a new, consciously artistic movement. By…
Danny Moynihan’s Landscapes Look Back at Us
I first met the multitalented Danny Moynihan in the early 1980s, but I did not see him again until recently. During that time, he’s worked as a gallerist and an independent curator, published a satirical novel about the art world…
Art That Rides the Radio Waves to Resistance
ALBUQUERQUE — Where is the artist’s voice in the museum? This question, posed during an artist roundtable on opening weekend of the exhibition Broken Boxes: A Decade of Art, Action, and Dialogue, is answered in part by the exhibition itself. …
Chicano Art Patron Cheech Marin Gets Life-Sized Bronze Statue
A new life-sized statue celebrating actor and Chicano art collector Cheech Marin was unveiled on Tuesday, November 19, outside his namesake arts and culture center in Riverside, California. Entitled “Meet Me at The Cheech” in honor of the nickname for…
The Banana That Made Me Sick to My Stomach
Last night, November 20, Maurizio Cattelan’s “Comedian” (2019), a work that consists of a banana duct-taped to a wall, sold for $6.2 million at a Sotheby’s auction. This is wrong. It’s beyond wrong. It’s obscene and immoral. It’s the ugliest…
Member Tour of the Gochman Family Collection
’Tis the season! At Hyperallergic, we are especially grateful to the members who make our work possible. To celebrate, we are hosting a holiday member event at the Gochman Family Collection in New York, where guests will enjoy an intimate…
Required Reading
‣ Almost a century ago, the K’ëgit totem was bought and carried off by a Swiss artist. This week, a delegation from the Wet’suwet’en Nation was finally reunited with the cultural gem in Paris, CBC News reports: Connauton, who was also part…
A View From the Easel
How long have you been working in this space? Six months. Describe an average day in your studio. An average day in my studio typically begins early, around 8:30am or 9am. I like to ease into my practice with some…
Italian Authorities Seize Etruscan Antiquities Looted by “Clumsy” Tomb Raiders
Italian authorities have seized numerous well-preserved artifacts dating back to the third century BCE that were initially plundered from an Etruscan necropolis in the central region of Umbria, according to an announcement from the country’s Ministry of Culture yesterday, November…
Banana Artwork Sells for $6.2 Million
Maurizio Cattelan, “Comedian” (2019) was offered at Sotheby’s with an estimate of $1–1.5 million. (image courtesy Sotheby’s) Back-to-back typhoons are ripping through villages, humanitarian crises are raging, and New York City is so dry it’s burning — but tonight, November…
Brooklyn Navy Yard Seeks Public Art Proposals
The Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation (BNYDC) seeks to tap the well of local talent for a large-scale public art installation along Flushing Avenue in mid-2025. Applications are now open through December 15 for artists residing and working in Kings…
Republican-led Bill Would Give Trump the Power to Squash Arts Nonprofits
Elections have consequences. The House, which will continue to be under the control of Republicans along with the Senate and the White House next year, is already considering a new bill, the so-called Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American…
Smithsonian American Art Museum Director Reportedly Removed Over Staff Complaints
The Smithsonian Institution removed the director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) in Washington, DC, following years of staff complaints of tumultuous leadership, according to a Washington Post report published today, November 18. Stephanie Stebich vacated her role as…
UK Judge Sides With Fish Giant in Lawsuit Against Satirical Artist
A London judge sided with Icelandic fishing giant Samherji in an intellectual property lawsuit against conceptual artist Odee Friðriksson (ODEE), whose work “We’re Sorry” (2023) called attention to the company’s alleged involvement in the transnational “Fishrot” scandal. In a summary judgment…
Turkey’s Queer Art Community Walks a Thin Line
ISTANBUL — When curator Alper Turan and his collaborators from queer and feminist groups around Turkey discuss plans for their upcoming Istanbul exhibition, they have more to consider than which artists to include and how to hang the works. “To…
A Photographer’s Unflinching Hymn to Her Aging Body
Photographer Rosalind Fox Solomon was not afforded the opportunity to come into her own as an artist until her early 50s. For this reason, the visual component of A Woman I Once Knew — a decades-long archive of unflinching self-portraits…
Required Reading
‣ An independent, Michigan-based magazine by and for lesbians marks its 50th anniversary this year, and reporter Sydney Boles tells the story of its inception and evolution for Autostraddle: To call the early years of Lesbian Connection a shoestring operation is an…
Dartmouth’s New MFA in Sonic Practice Invites Fall 2025 Applications
Dartmouth’s MFA in Sonic Practice is a three-year, fully-funded graduate program for composers, artists, and scholars working expansively with sound. The program draws together a close-knit community of makers and thinkers concerned with the visceral and social force of sound:…
Chicana Artist’s Once-Censored Mural Finds a New Home in LA
Barbara Carrasco’s L.A. History: A Mexican Perspective” (1981) at the NHM Commons (all photos Matt Stromberg/Hyperallergic unless otherwise noted) LOS ANGELES — After more than four decades, Barbara Carrasco’s 80-foot-long mural “L.A. History: A Mexican Perspective” is finally getting a permanent…
Six New York City Shows to See November 2024
Before holiday fever kicks in, take advantage of all that the city’s museums and galleries have to offer. The Met’s Flight into Egypt: Black Artists and Ancient Egypt, 1876–Now and El Museo’s triennial Flow States are rife with provocative ideas…
“Subway Therapy” Displays New Yorkers’ Post-Election Thoughts
In 2015, artist Matthew Chavez was recovering from a motorbike accident that left him in the hospital for three weeks and unable to walk for months when he planted the seeds for Subway Therapy, a public participatory art project that…
How the Women’s Studio Workshop Shakes Up the Art of Bookmaking
ROSENDALE, New York — It was the summer of 1974 when college friends Ann Kalmbach, Tatana “Tana” Kellner, Anita Wetzel, and Barbara “Babs” Leoff Burge rented out a two-story single-family house in the working-class town of Rosendale, about two hours…
Oldest Known Inscription of Ten Commandments Heads to Auction
A marble tablet inscribed with nine of the Ten Commandments, said to be the oldest intact version of its kind in stone, is set to go under the hammer next month in a single-lot sale at Sotheby’s in New York….
Jordan Withdraws Artsakh Film From Oscars, Citing “Diplomatic Pressures”
The Royal Film Commission (RFC) of Jordan withdrew its submission of an Armenian-Jordanian filmmaker’s documentary about Artsakh for the 97th Academy Awards’s Best International Film category last week, citing “diplomatic pressures.” Director Sareen Hairabedian’s My Sweet Land (2024), a grim…
5 Art Books to Light Your Path Through November
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: November is the Sunday of the year. And given the particularly intense Sunday scaries that have befallen us, we’re keeping our art-reading list short and sweet this time around, with what…
Australian Public School Wins “World Building of the Year” Award
How can architecture change the world? This year’s World Architecture Festival (WAF), held in Singapore’s Marina Bay, provides a glimpse into how design meets visions for the future. In last week’s iteration of the annual festival, launched in 2008, judges recognized…
The Intimate Vignettes of the New Jersey Arts Annual
MONTCLAIR, New Jersey — Diversity, equity, and inclusion: The refrain has climbed its way into common parlance in the last few years, after a nationwide racial reckoning in the summer of 2020. According to Indeed, corporate hiring for roles in that…
Albuquerque Artist-Run Space to Rebuild After Fire
An art complex in Albuquerque’s Barelas neighborhood suffered damages and is temporarily shuttered after a fire broke out earlier this month. Sections of the nonprofit Fourteenfifteen Gallery, its Alpaca event space, and the adjoining Minnow music venue caught fire in…
US’s Biggest Documentary Festival Comes to NYC This Month
In 1967, while living in exile in New York City, South African freelance photojournalist Ernest Cole published his seminal and only book House of Bondage, exposing the violent atrocities of Black life under apartheid to the rest of the world…
Memes Take a Dark Turn Post-Trump Election
Les-be honest, lady liberty. (screenshot via @CISFAKER on X, all screenshots Hyperallergic) I hate to say it, but when I saw that lubricated hippo go for the Trump cake, I knew it was over. Months ago, I predicted the downfall…
Could One of These Images Be the Next Iconic Windows Wallpaper?
When Microsoft debuted its landmark operating system Windows XP in the fall of 2001, the default desktop wallpaper “Bliss” ended up becoming the most viewed photograph in the world. You might not recognize it by name, but thinking of the…
When Copyright Transforms the Right to Remember
A few weeks ago, dozens of photographs of the “We Are Our Mountains” (“Tatik-Papik”) monument in occupied Artsakh disappeared from Wikimedia Commons. A red text box emerged, warning against uploading new images in which the monument features prominently, as it…
UN Removes Pro-Palestine Art From Public Quilt Exhibition
United Nations (UN) exhibition staff removed part of a public art exhibition in its General Assembly Lobby in New York City after Israel’s Permanent Representative to the UN Danny Danon condemned references to Palestine contained in some of the works….
“Chinatown is Not a Museum,” Protesters Chant at MOCA Gala
As many as 45 members and allies of the Coalition to Protect Chinatown and the Lower East Side gathered outside of a Tribeca event venue yesterday evening, November 7, to protest the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) during its…
Required Reading
Small experimental press Spiral Editions has published a new print, timed with an election that fried all of our nerves. Queer Commune, an artist studio in Minneapolis, designed a visual reminder of the movements for justice that continue full-steam ahead,…
A View From the Easel
Welcome to the 258th installment of A View From the Easel, a series in which artists reflect on their workspace. This week, artists commune with a creek, regard their workspace as a sandbox, and build community in their red town….
An Anti-Monument to Match Our Moment
WASHINGTON, DC — I knew I didn’t want to see the wannabe-Beaux Arts buildings of Capitol Hill, the erect dick of the Washington Monument, the cliché of looking out glumly at the reflecting pool. I didn’t even want to hide from…
A Different Kind of Joy
Kamala Harris sold us “joy.” Instead, we got a crushing defeat and a return to the miserable days of Donald Trump’s presidency. I’m looking at a photograph taken by Stephanie Keith at an October 5 rally for Gaza and Lebanon…
Babe, Wake Up, New Chopin Waltz Just Dropped
Talk about a crafty release strategy — a waltz by the Romantic Polish composer Frédéric Chopin just dropped, about 200 years after his death. Measuring four by five inches (~10.2 x 13 cm), the manuscript was first discovered in 2019…
Maura Brewer Pulls Back the Curtain on Art Investors
Installation view of Maura Brewer: Leverage at Timeshare, Los Angeles (all images courtesy Timeshare gallery, photos Brandon Bandy unless otherwise noted) LOS ANGELES — Maura Brewer’s video essay “Leverage” (2024) unpacks the contemporary phenomenon of art as asset class by…
Three Charged With Hate Crimes for Vandalizing Homes of Brooklyn Museum Leaders
Three individuals have been charged with “making a terroristic threat as a hate crime” in connection with the vandalism of four Brooklyn Museum leaders’ homes this summer, according to a statement from Brooklyn District Attorney (DA) Eric Gonzalez today, November…
Artworks Encourage Voter Turnout Ahead of US Election
Beverly McIver’s “VOTE Black Beauty” (2024) references reproductive rights policies. (image courtesy Artists for Democracy) On November 5, millions of voters across the United States will head to the polls to cast ballots for the country’s next president. The election…
Reclaiming Palestinian Beauty, One Wall Label at a Time
On October 7, 2023, I had plans to meet at the Brooklyn Museum with my close friend, Palestinian fashion designer Suzy Tamimi, and to view the groundbreaking exhibition Africa Fashion. Despite the immense emotions that overcame us with the news…
Candice Breitz Launches Clothing Fundraiser for Gazan Journalists
Berlin-based artist Candice Breitz launched a line of clothing items to generate funds for the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate. (all images by and courtesy Studio Breitz) Berlin-based South African artist Candice Breitz has created a clothing campaign to raise funds for…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Award-Winning Photojournalist Paul Lowe Killed in Stabbing
British photojournalist and educator Paul Lowe has been identified as the victim of a fatal stabbing in the San Gabriel Mountains near Los Angeles last weekend. The award-winning photographer, who was 60 years old, was known for his impactful images…
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…
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…
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…
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:…
Manny Vega Tells the Stories of El Barrio
Manny Vega, “Bomba Celestial” (2009–10) (image courtesy the Museum of the City of New York) To me, one of the most distinct demarcations of New York City’s El Barrio — Spanish for “the neighborhood” — are the glistening mosaics adorning…
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…
Japan Society Presents “Bunraku Backstage” and “Acky Bright: Studio Infinity”
Japan Society is delighted to present two new exhibitions, Bunraku Backstage and Acky Bright: Studio Infinity, on view in New York City this fall. Alongside live bunraku performances held at Japan Society, Bunraku Backstage offers a rare glimpse behind the scenes…
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….
You’re Sleeping on Atlanta’s Art Scene
Autumn isn’t just a busy art-world season for New York City: True to its climate, Atlanta is blazing forward with stellar exhibitions across the city and debuting its first art fair. Despite being home to an abundance of exceptional artists,…
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,…
Is the “Lion of Venice” Actually From China?
Poised atop a column of Egyptian granite, the bronze “Lion of Venice” looks out on the sprawling Piazzetta San Marco. The massive statue has been a symbol of the Italian city since at least 1293 and is connected to the…
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…
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…
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…
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…
My Love Story With a Dentist in Gaza
On March 24, I was part of an international group of artists and activists who unfurled a monumental quilt measuring 30 by 50 feet (~9.1 by 15.2 meters), protesting for a free Palestine on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum…
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…
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…
Titanic Expedition Uncovers Long-Lost Statue of a Woman
A small bronze replica of Diana of Versailles once stood on the mantle of the Titanic’s First Class Lounge. It was last photographed in 1986 after the discovery of the shipwreck, but an expedition to the wreckage in July pinpointed…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Volta’s Ukraine Pavilion Brings the War to New York
“These works are all about the war,” Maria Filimonova, who helped organize Mriya Gallery’s showing at the Ukrainian Pavilion at Volta, told me as we toured the exhibition on opening night this Wednesday, September 4. She paused for a long…
Columbia University’s “Alma Mater” Sculpture Drenched in Red Paint
Unidentified protesters poured red paint over the bust of the famous “Alma Mater” (1903) statue on Columbia University’s Manhattan campus on the first day of classes, Tuesday, September 3. The apparent protest action comes after the group named Columbia University…
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…
What’s Going On With Berlin’s Pergamonmuseum?
The Pergamonmuseum, the largest of the five historical institutions in Berlin’s famous museum complex, has been closed entirely since last October as part of a massive refurbishment and expansion project that began in 2013. Although its scheduled reopening is already…
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…
Simone Fattal Stages Battles Between the Mortal and Heavenly
VIENNA — When I think of Simone Fattal’s work, which I first saw in 2019 at MoMA PS1, I envision figures looming at a threshold of sculptural articulation: two long legs connected by an arch-like segment, something suspended between architecture…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Art on Paper Returns to Armory Arts Week This September
Art on Paper returns to Pier 36 in New York City from September 5–8, featuring paper-based presentations from leading domestic galleries alongside important programs from around the world. Join us for Art on Paper’s 10th edition, celebrating the beloved medium…
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…