Art

Update:The Florida Department of Education (DOE) has declared that it will not prohibit the teaching of Michelangelo's David sculpture, following a grade school principal's forced resignation for not disclosing the lesson plan to parents ahead of time. News of the incident garnered worldwide attention, even prompting Florence mayor Dario Nardella extending a personal invitation to the ousted principal Hope Carrasquilla, along with the parents and children of the art class to come see the 16th Century masterpiece in person.David has artistic and historical value," said Alex Lanfranconi, communications director at the DOE in an interview with Florida's Voice, adding that "Florida encourages instruction on the classics and classical art, and would not prohibit its use in instruction."The cont...

At London's Design Museum, a new exhibition, titled Ai Weiwei: Making Sense, marks the first showcase to present the legendary artist's work as a "commentary on design and what it reveals about our changing values," per the museum. Developed in collaboration with Ai Weiwei, the show hosts a mix of recent works with commissioned pieces, with central themes including humanity and activism.Inside the space, five field works, housed inside rectilinear arrangements, feature an assortment of discovered items that Weiwei has collected over the last three decades. Among them, Still Life features thousands of flea market-found Stone Age axe heads, knives and spinning wheels laid neatly side-by-side, and an untitled work unites more than 20,000 Wing ware porcelain cannonballs that were created durin...

"Escape to B-Roll" is an exhibition of 10 paintings by Stacy Leigh, a New York-based artist, which is currently on display at the WOAW Gallery in Hong Kong until April 19, 2023. This show marks Leigh's debut exhibition in Hong Kong.The paintings in this exhibition were created this year by Leigh during her stay at the WOAW Gallery's location at 9 Queen's Road Central in Hong Kong. The paintings in this series were inspired by Leigh's fantasy of leaving her apartment and moving to a house somewhere away from the noise and chaos of the city. These unplanned and freestyle paintings showcase her imagination and creativity and have resulted in a series of beautiful and thought-provoking works of art.The paintings in "Escape to B-Roll" feature bright, bold colors and have whimsical titles such a...

Marian Goodman Gallery is hosting an exhibition dedicated to the late writer, artist, and curator Dan Graham. Housed in New York and curated by fellow artist and longtime friend, Peter Fischli, Is There Life After Breakfast? presents over 30 years of work highlighting Graham's impact on the world of sculpture and video installation, as well as his lifelong interest in music and film. Most immediately present is a room-encompassing installation dubbed Hedges and Two Way Mirror Glass Labyrinth (1991). Constructed with two way mirrors, aluminum, glass and living plants, the installation taps into the visual lexicon of architecture to unearth humans' relationship with the natural world. In the North Gallery, Fischli arranges CD's and greatest hits that he and Graham exchanged over the years, r...

Rapper, skincare ambassador, jewelry aficionado, fashion icon — Pharrell Williams has wore many hats over his career. A new book aims to capture the creative process that underpins each of his endeavors through quotes said by the larger-than-life personality. Published by No More Rulers (NMR) and Princeton University Press, Pharrell-isms is the latest entry in the ISMs series, which includes past volumes on Jean-Michel Basquiat, Ai Weiwei, Virgil Abloh, and Daniel Arsham. Playing in line with past titles, the book is edited by NMR founder Larry Warsh and comes in a sleek purple pocket-sized format.Select quotations from the book:Self-awareness is a muscle that needs exercise. It needs a regimen.You’ve got to continue to reinvent yourself today, all the while thinking about tomorrow.Music i...

New York-based artist Erik Foss will soon be presenting his first-ever solo show in Japan at Kaikai Kiki Gallery later this week. The exhibition, titled Carnival, will be Foss’ first solo show since 2021 and will showcase a selection of new paintings, sculptures as well as drawings he worked on over the past six months.Raised in the deserts, Foss is a self-taught artist whose early artistic influences stem from his religious upbringing, the American cultural landscape, underground music, skateboarding, and other subcultures. Even in his more recent works, cultural identity remains to be a prominent theme that the artist explores and expands on.In Carnival, Foss depicts snakes with smiley faces in his signature airbrushed style and almost fluorescent color schemes. Carlo McCormick, curator,...

Ruttkowski;68 is playing host to a new joint exhibition by Japanese-American artist KATSU and Belgian artist Frédéric Platéus. Housed at the gallery's Cologne flagship, DAS INTELLIGENCE is a collaborative effort that fuses their unique approaches to material, form, and technique.Platéus' dynamic work harks to the world of supercars and motorsports. The Belgian artist sources an array of branded material, from fake leather, nylon, and mesh, to create quixotic forms that are aesthetically rooted in the present, but veer towards the future, such as his monochromatic MK12-325 Punch.KATSU on the other hand, employs drones to assist in the creation of his hybridized portraits and landscapes. In the past, he has tapped into the metaverse through an ambitious NFT project, along with collaborating ...

"What if Noguchi sculpted the letter N? Or Hilma af Klint painted her own initial?" A new book by designers Andrea Trabucco-Campos and Martín Azambuja seeks to find out as the two worked with AI platform Midjourney to imagine what each letter in the alphabet would look like if created by 52 historical artists. Entitled Artificial Typography, the book is as much a meditation on art history, as it is on the current hysteria surrounding AI, and the very nature of communication. By using text prompts, the two former Pentagram alumni took on the role of curator as they meticulously sifted through a pool of AI-generated imagery to guide readers along a creative journey through the alphabet. “It puts an emphasis on art direction and the idea, which is what some of the best image makers spend thei...

Tomokazu Matsuyama is set to unveil a new solo exhibition entitled Episodes Far From Home at Almine Rech's London outpost. As his first presentation with the gallery, the New York-based Japanese artist continues an exploration into his bi-cultural experience of growing up between Japan and America through a vibrant and intricate aesthetic that conflates both Eastern and Western symbology. As with his past work, there is a pattern language that emerges in each of Matsuyama's latest paintings — from floral motifs that equally evoke the patterns by 19th century British designer William Morris as they would the artwork on an Edo Period kimono, or perhaps an unassuming Sapporo bottle contrasted with a Starburst candy wrapper — a commentary on the waste ushered in by globalization. Filled with d...

Ann Veronica Janssens is a Belgian visual artist who tinkers with light and sound to transform one's sense of space. Having exhibited across the world, she is best known for her minimalistic cubic sculptures, along with her truly immersive installations that submerge audiences in a cloud of color. For Janssens' latest exhibition, she tapped into the colossal space of Milan's Pirelli HangarBicocca to present Grand Bal. As the most comprehensive show of her works to date, the exhibition comprises of new and existing art in both the Navate within the gallery, as well as the the outdoor area. Any semblance of distance is removed when viewing Janssens' artwork, in fact, user participation is essential to each of her ephemeral exhibitions. From billowing swings to video reels, circular floor mir...

Egypt's ancient past continues to fascinate scores of historians, archaeologists, moviegoers and artists thousands of years later. Despite the advancements in modern technology and the many colossal discoveries over the years, researchers estimate that less than one percent of Ancient Egypt has in fact been excavated. A German-Egyptian research team recently added a new page in that forgotten history by uncovering a series of zodiac murals buried in 2,000 years of grime and dirt in the Temple of Esna. The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities worked with the Universtiy of Tübingen to restore the relief murals unearthed which depict all twelve zodiac signs, along with fantastic animals and planets, such as snakes and crocodiles to Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars. Originally of Babylonian o...