Art

Rounding out the year, Chicago's Kavi Gupta Gallery is showcasing a new solo exhibition by contemporary American artist and engineer, Willie Cole. Bypassing traditional painterly materials, Cole upcycles discarded objects destined for a junkyard to create readymade assemblage sculptures that comment on his personal experiences as well as harking to the history West African sculpture.THE B-SIDES: 1989-2022 presents a series of sculptures made from repurposed musical instruments. The exhibition stems from a recent commission Cole created for the Kansas City International Airport terminal, in which the artist created 11 hanging birds made from saxophones. The title of the series, Ornithology, refers both to its literal definition as "the study of birds," but also alluding to saxophonist Char...

French artist JR has had quite the year. From installing work amidst the Pyramids of Giza to transforming the facade of Paris' Opera Garnier, each of his projects are monumental in scale, but touch on deeply intimate subject matter. His upcoming project is no different. Unveiled at the latest Art Basel in Miami Beach, the elusive French artist spoke with acclaimed actor and Tribeca Film Festival co-founder, Robert De Niro, about how they've been working in tandem to create a documentary on the actor's late father, Robert De Niro Sr.Recognized for his largely gestural compositions of daily life, De Niro Sr. is hailed as a key member of the New York School of painters, alongside visionaries, such as Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, and Jackson Pollock. He recently was the subject of a 2019 mo...

Music power couple Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz (Kasseem Dean) will showcase their extensive art collection next February at the Brooklyn Museum. Dubbed Giants, the forthcoming show marks the first time the Dean Collection will view to the public and includes an extraordinary list of prominent and emerging artists from the Black diaspora.Housed on the first floor of the institution, the show's title alludes to the "strengths and bonds between the Deans and the artists they support," according to a release by the Brooklyn Museum. "Along with examining these links and legacies, the exhibition will encourage “giant conversations” inspired by the works on view—critiquing society and celebrating Blackness."While details surrounding the collection are still under wraps, the show will include work...

Argentina's new president Javier Milei has slashed the country's Ministry of Culture and nine other administrations just several days after being sworn into office. Having campaigned as a far-right libertarian economist, Milei is known as many things — from being a former tantric-sex coach to brandishing a chainsaw on his campaign trail — he beat out former Minister of Economy Sergio Massa by garnering support from many young voters disillusioned by Argentina's soaring inflation. As an admirer of Donald Trump, Milei too, was a former TV personality who campaigned to save the economy, "kick out politicians" from their post and gut many of the nation's social services, including public health, education and culture. He is also notably obsessed with his deceased English Mastiff, Conan (named ...

Following his inclusion at White Cube's booth at Art Basel Miami Beach, acclaimed British sculptor Antony Gormley has unveiled a new solo exhibition at the gallery's London flagship. Entitled Body Politic, the show encompasses five bodies of work that probe into the body's relationship with the industrial world.Central to his practice is an exploration into humanity's migratory nature. For nearly five decades, Gormley has interrogated bodily movements through geometric sculptures made from natural and manmade materials. Often cast by using his own body as a model, whether standing up, kneeled down or slouched on the floor, Gormley's sculptures and installations implore visitors to become aware of their own freedoms of movement.In Body Politic, the British artist presents a series of new sc...

Hajime Sorayama has publicly called out Beyoncé regarding visuals she's been using on her ongoing RENAISSANCE film tour. The graphics in question show Bey clad in a cyber femme bot headdress and suit similar to the painterly aesthetic that the Japanese artist has come to be known for. View this post on InstagramA post shared by Hajime Sorayama (@hajimesorayamaofficial)On Instagram, Sorayama reposted an image from the tour, cheekily commenting: "Yo @beyonce 🤘 You should have asked me “officially” so that I could make much better work for you as like my man @theweeknd ✊." At the time of writing, it's not clear, publicly at least, if Beyoncé's team has responded on the accusation. Fans of both sides, however, have sounded off. A neutral stated: “I’m a fan of your work, but thi...

MOCA Bangkok, along with 12 contemporary artists, have come together to pay homage to late artist Pharuephon "Mamafaka" Mukdasanit through the MAMAFAKA REIMAGINED exhibition.The show is designed to celebrate Pharuephon's life and his impact on the street art scene in Thailand, primarily through the lens of his most iconic character, "Mr. HellYeah."Mamafaka's career trajectory took him from graphic design to becoming a seminal member of Brand Of Radical Experimental Design (B.O.R.E.D.) -- a group of innovative graphic designers, formed in 2002. Following this, he joined the street artist collective "FOR" in 2011, the year he started going by the moniker "Mamafaka." It's worth noting that several artists from this collective have gone on to become household names in the art world.In the mids...

A rediscovered Rembrandt painting has fetched £10.9m GBP ($13.7m USD) when it hit Sotheby's auction in London on December 6. Entitled The Adoration of The Kings (1628), the artwork first emerged in the 1950s but disappeared from public knowledge until 2021, when it sold via Christie's in Amsterdam. The sale two years ago was initially attributed as a work created by the students of the artist, sometimes referred to as the "Circle of Rembrandt", resulting in a pre-auction valuation of around $10,000 to $15,000 USD.The largely monochromatic painting depicts the biblical account of The Three Wise Men as they encounter baby Jesus. While small in scale, just about 9.6 x 7.2 inches, the work is "particularly significant", according to a Sotheby's spokesman in an interview with CNN, noting that i...

Los Angeles-based artist Steven Harrington will unveil his first museum solo exhibition at Seoul's Amorepacific Museum of Art (APMA) in March 2024. The museum was originally established in 1979 as a space to exhibit the collection of its founder, Seo Seong-hwan, but was later expanded to include works from antiquity, as well as Korean artists and contemporary figures, such as the ongoing show on the late American conceptual artist Lawrence Weiner. View this post on InstagramA post shared by Steven Harrington (@s_harrington)Known globally for his psychedelic pop aesthetic, Harrington's sensibilities have certainly evolved over the past 15 years, including more introspective paintings that comment on pertinent issues, such as the climate crisis, as well as the creation of his canine alter e...

Chen Ke has released a new limited edition screenprint in collaboration with Perrotin. The artwork follows her ongoing solo exhibition, Bauhaus Gal – Theatre, currently on view at the gallery's Paris location. The show takes its inspiration from a photograph the Beijing-based artist observed of a group of girls studying at the Bauhaus school in Germany. "They lived 100 years ago, but they're not so different from women nowadays," noted Ke in a past interview. "They might be more avant-garde and courageous." Despite commonly being associated as one of the most radical and free-thinking art schools over the past 100 years, the Bauhaus still played into social norms of the day by limiting the type of programs women could study, resulting in visionary figures, such as Anni Albers pursuing text...

The 2023 edition of Art Basel Miami Beach is in the books and it didn’t quite match the same expectations set up over the past few years. Namely, there wasn’t ‘that’ viral moment that everyone has come to expect with the fair. Think Maurizio Cattelan’s infamous banana installation.Tucked away at the UBS Collectors Lounge, however, BMW worked closely with Los Angeles-based artist Alex Israel to reveal a unique installation that carried the same level of excitement — and not to mention, invasiveness — of a viral artwork, such as MSCHF’s ATM Leaderboard last year, but done so in a way that was less of a peanut gallery and instead emphasized the actual experience of the visitor.Entitled REMEMBR, the collaboration invited participants to download an app which utilizes AI to analyze one’s camera...