Art

The Venice Biennale, the world’s longest running contemporary art exhibition, returns for its 60th edition this week. The nearly seven month event will be curated by Adriano Pedrosa, the first individual chosen for the honor from South America, and will include 331 artists exhibiting around the theme “Stranieri Ovunque — Foreigners Everywhere.”Conceptually framed around migration, identity and displacement, Pedrosa believes this year’s edition has multiple meanings: “wherever you go, and wherever you are, you will always encounter foreigners. They—we—are everywhere. Secondly, no matter where you find yourself, you are always truly and deep down inside a foreigner. …Yet, one may also think of the expression as a motto, a slogan, a call to action, a cry of excitement, joy, or fear: ‘Foreigne...

Faith Ringgold, the fearless artist, activist and children's book writer best known for her expressive quilts that commented on the African American experience, has passed away at age 93. Her death was confirmed by her daughter, Barbara Wallace, as well as ACA Galleries, who represented the artist since 1995.Classically trained as a painter and sculptor, Ringgold first created politically charged compositions that explored issues of race and gender inequality in the 1960s. Flag For the Moon: Die N***** (1967) appears aesthetically similar to Jasper Johns' Flag (1954-55) painting of the previous decade, but hidden between the former's jagged red stripes are the words 'Die N*****' — Ringgold's "way of saying that too many American people go to bed hungry," she previously said, "while the gov...

Every club has its own set of matchday rituals. Some spawn from quirky one-off results that superstitiously stick with fans as a lucky charm over the decades; others arise from sheer lunacy. In Buffalo, the Bills Mafia are known for body-slamming each other through tables, while in Detroit, Redwings fans throw dead octopuses on the rink during playoff home games. For artist and Tottenham Hotspur supporter, Jack Hirons, visiting the chicken shop before a game is just as integral as watching the match. In his first solo show, Hirons has unveiled a new body of work at OOF Gallery inside the Tottenham Hotspur stadium entitled Fowl Play. Emblematic of the title, the show comprises of monochromatic paintings and stained glass window artwork centered at the intersection of his love for chicken an...

In the run up to next week's Salone del Mobile, French visual artist JR has unveiled a new site specific installation at Milan's Stazione Centrale, entitled La Nascita (The Birth). JR is known for creating colossal graphic interventions that have appeared across the world, from Paris' Palais Garnier to the doorsteps of the Pyramids of Giza.His latest installation features an illusionary trompe l’oeil effect, as a monochromatic depiction of a mountainous terrain forks through the entrance to the train station. “In spaces that have social issues, my work is about bringing people together,” JR told The Art Newspaper. “In a place like this, a huge range of people come to catch the train. When they find themselves in front of an exhibition, they will suddenly have a different kind of interactio...

Munich's Pinakothek der Moderne is home to one of Germany's most esteemed art collections, from Goya and Manet to Van Gogh and Warhol. Last month, however, visitors and employees alike witnessed an unexpected painting in the institution that was allegedly put on view by one of its own staff.First reported by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, the 51-year-old technician and aspiring artist was fired for hanging his own artwork next to works by Warhol for eight hours “in the hope of achieving his artistic breakthrough”, according to local authorities. “The employee considers himself as an artist and most likely saw his role in the museum’s installation team as a day-job to support his true calling,” a museum spokesperson told the Guardian. The incident first occurred on February 23, b...

Skarstedt London is showcasing a selection of five mural-sized paintings created by Jeff Koons between 2001 and 2013. The art on view was first commissioned by the Deutsche Guggenheim Berlin in 2000, and features works from the American artist's Easyfun-Ethereal, Popeye and Antiquity series'. Colorful and chaotic, Koons' oil paintings draw on the history of American advertisements, purposefully conflating images tied to mass consumerism, such as food packaging and inflatable children's toys, with more blatantly sexual subject matter — from bare feet, hands and bikinis to ancient Greco-Roman sculptures of a phallus. "My Easyfun-Ethereal paintings are very layered," Koons explained in the past. "My interest has always been to create art that can change with any culture or society viewing it....

British artist Louise Giovanelli has unveiled a new solo exhibition at White Cube Hong Kong. Based in Manchester, Giovanelli creates luminous paintings that oscillate between figuration and abstraction, representation and materiality, as she draws from art historical traditions, from the Renaissance to film. Here on Earth presents a new series of oil paintings entitled Maenad (2023–24). Similar to her Entheogen (2023) body of work, Giovanelli recreates women paused in moments of tension and ecstasy that are inspired by 1980s film stills and titled after the women followers of Bacchus (Dionysus in Greek mythology), who represented the god of wine, fertility, festivity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy and theatre. Giovanelli latest works embark on an exploration into revelation, as she al...

The city of Paris may reinstall a towering steel sculpture by the late American artist Richard Serra, following his death last month. Clara-Clara, which Serra had originally created back in 1983 for an exhibition at Centre Pompidou, features two 118-foot-long slender rusty steel sheets that extend slightly off-kilter, once forming a pathway at the Tuileries Garden just in sight of the historic Place de la Concorde.Just two years after its unveiling, Clara-Clara was purchased by the city and relocated to a smaller park in Paris' 13th arrondissement, resulting in criticism from the public who both defaced it with graffiti and demanded its removal. To the dismay of Serra, city officials would end up storing the sculpture in 1993 on the outskirts of Paris at the Fonds Municipaux d’Art Contempo...

The Donald Judd Foundation is suing Kim Kardashian for falsely claiming work by the prolific Minimalist artist during a promotional video tour of her Skkn by Kim offices. “These Donald Judd tables are really amazing,” Kardashian said in the 2022 video, describing two large wooden tables, which "totally blend in with the seats."First reported by the New York Times, the non profit filed a lawsuit today in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and also named Clements Design, who produced the tables, over trademark and copyright infringement. “Consumers are likely to believe Judd Foundation and the Donald Judd brand are connected or affiliated with, or otherwise sponsored or endorsed Ms. Kardashian,” the lawsuit states, adding, “Judd Foundation categorically prohibits ...