Art

Housed inside the Gothic chapel of MACBA’s Capella, Wu Tsang reimagines the story of Carmen with radiant motion. While she takes clear thematic cues from Georges Bizet’s original version, "La gran mentira de la muerte (The big lie of death)" both explores and interrogates the piece’s deep-seated themes, bringing together the ritual performance of death with cinema’s own haunting traditions.The opera, composed in 1875, famously centers on the tragic fate of its heroine, though unlike Bizet’s telling, the Tsang’s video and multichannel sound installation grounds itself in an elusive escape. The film hints at feelings of possibility in the face of death, capturing flecks of life through choreography inspired by flamenco and bullfighting traditions. With a visceral sense of hope, the artist se...

Martin Margiela has unveiled a new piece of artwork in the heart of Schuttershofstraat, Antwerp. After leaving the world of fashion, the acclaimed designer has turned his focus to the art sphere and has officially made his debut as an artist in 2020.Titled “Blinds,” the new work is Margiela’s first outdoor sculpture, taking on a monolithic and circular structure with a reflective finish. Conceptualized as part of Middleheim Museum's Kunst in de Stad (Art in the City) project, the installation draws reference to window blinds, but with an added layer of mystery that befits Margiela’s enigmatic tendencies.According to Middleheim Museum, “The reflective artwork also nods to the shop windows lining the street. Passersby see what’s on display, and also a glimpse of themselves,” thus examining t...

Korean artist Kukwon Woo operates at the intersection of fantasy and reality. The depictions found in his oil paintings often conflate intergenerational subject matter, from religion to art history, that he uses as a foundation to bridge a dialogue with contemporary iconography, resulting in a satirical clash of ideas. The Seoul-based artist will soon release a new limited edition print that juxtaposes biblical tales with the world of Star Wars. Produced in collaboration with Avant Arte, Valley of the Shadow of Death makes reference to Psalm 23, a biblical prayer for courage and resilience in the face of hardship, showcasing a hilltop scene in the aesthetic of a Japanese Ukiyo-e print with Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader shown as little figures perched against one another on a bridge, as a ...

The Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen is currently showcasing a retrospective exhibition on pioneering Japanese artist Yoko Ono. Presented in collaboration with London's Tate Modern, YOKO ONO. MUSIC OF THE MIND charts Ono's trailblazing artwork, music and activism from the 1950s to the present. Located at the museum's K20 location, the show includes over 200 works: from films and installations, to musical scores and photography, chronicling Ono's participatory works, such as those that stem from the Fluxus movement, and the impact it still rings on generations of artists today. Fluxus was founded by Lithuanian-American artist George Maciunas in the 1960s and merits experimental works that question the boundaries of what art can be. Ono fearlessly championed this burgeoning form of expressi...

Aya Takano, one of the first few Superflat artists under Takashi Murakami’s  Kaikai Kiki Co. group, is set to return with a new solo exhibition. Entitled LONGER THAN THE MYTH OF THE GALAXY alternative future, the exhibition will mark Takano’s first solo showcase in a decade.The first half of the exhibition’s title derived from a phrase featured in Emma Yukifune’s book, Breakfast for Lovers on Earth, which Takano was commissioned for the cover illustration. Meanwhile, the latter half of the show’s name denotes the central theme for all the featured works.Displaying at the heart of the gallery space will be a body of new oil paintings, which will be presented in a circular formation. In addition, a specially designed and crafted diorama model will also be incorporated into the space, invitin...

The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York will offer free entry to visitors aged 25 and under for the next three years, starting mid-December 2024, thanks to a $2 million USD donation from artist and board member Julie Mehretu, with additional support from philanthropist Susan Hess. This initiative follows the museum’s admission price hike last year, where standard fees increased from $25 to $30 USD and student rates from $18 to $24 USD, in line with trends at other institutions facing inflation and lower post-pandemic attendance.Mehretu, reflecting on her own challenges accessing art as a young adult in New York, emphasized the importance of making contemporary art more accessible to the Wall Street Journal. “If you want to evolve the discourse, more people need to participate,” she ...

Tokyo-based gallery NANZUKA has unveiled a new space in China. Located in Shanghai's Pudong New District, the NANZUKA ART INSTITUTE was driven by the desire to strengthen cultural exchange between the two nations, as well as cultivate a growing sector of Chinese youth within the arts.The newly minted 4,593-square-foot space will operate as a museum, rather than just a gallery, enlisting a wide array of artists that go beyond NANZUKA's roster, which includes Hajime Sorayama, Haroshi and James Jarvis. NANZUKA recently provided a teaser to its new location with a reflective robot sculpture that Sorayama specially designed towards the entrance of THE SUMMIT Tower #1, which houses the institution and a suite of office spaces and cultural hotspots.The inaugural exhibition ETERNAL LIFE will featu...

Maurizio Cattelan's duct-taped banana artwork is back like it never left. The subversive piece, entitled Comedian (2019), first bewildered audiences during Art Basel Miami Beach. As an edition of three, the first two sold fairly quickly for an astonishing $120,000 USD via Perrotin, followed by a slight price bump of $150,000 USD to an anonymous buyer linked to the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Comedian has taken quite a few turns since then, being eaten several times, first by a New York-based performance artist named David Datuna, and a South Korean student who alleged to have done the same under the guise of performance art in 2023."To me, Comedian was not a joke," Cattelan previously explained, "it was a sincere commentary and a reflection on what we value. At art fairs, speed and busi...

David Carson's archival book, The Rules of Grafik Design + Creativity, is now available after being "lost" for years. The book, created between 2003 and 2009, is not a polished design manual but a raw collection of thoughts, prompts and approaches from Carson’s practice. It offers insight into his instinctive design process, with unfinished pages, low-resolution images and printer's crop marks left intact.Originally intended as a scrapbook of eight years of work, the book resurfaced in 2022 as a single PDF—the original files are missing. The unfinished nature of the book provides a candid view of Carson's approach, emphasizing creativity through experimentation rather than strict guidelines. Despite the title, Carson notes that the book was never about "rules" but about exploring creativit...

Polaroid and Magnum Photos have unveiled the 10 emerging artists selected from their recent open call for a special showcase at the Paris Photo Fair this November. This marks the first partnership between the iconic photography brands, which received over 2,000 submissions from more than 100 countries. The competition focused on visual storytelling that reflects human experience, with winners creating works that explore themes of identity, connection and the world’s unpredictability.The artists received mentorship from Magnum photographers Enri Canaj, Jim Goldberg, and Newsha Tavakolian to refine their concepts. Highlights include Jakub Stanek’s exploration of fatherhood and masculinity, Aleruchi Kinika’s portraits on the complexities of womanhood, and Mengwen Cao’s tribute to their connec...

Dutch-Iranian artist and 550BC founder Pouria Khojastehpay has unveiled a new solo exhibition at PERMANENT gallery in Paris. The show extracts images from 550BC's catalog of books, each of which presents an unfiltered look at the lifestyles of global crime syndicates, from the Ultras that orbit European football grounds to favela drug lords and their proclivity with flaunting exotic animals. PERMANENT was co-founded by French-Moroccan designer Ramdane Touhami and French creative director Leonard Vernhet, both of which have made a significant impact on the world of contemporary graphic design over the past decade through work with ILL-STUDIO, as well as publications EPOCH REVIEW and USELESS FIGHTERS. The pairing felt "seamless," Khojastehpay tells Hypeart, "evolving naturally from our mutua...

Fondazione Prada will unveil a new solo exhibition by the Ohio-based artist duo Lizzie Fitch and Ryan Trecartin. Housed at its Prada Aoyama location in Tokyo, It Waves Back comprises of new sculptures and video installations that critique consumerism and the hyper-commodification of self in the digital age. The exhibition marks the first time Fitch and Trecartin have shown in Japan, as they populate the Herzog & de Meuron-designed space with a large-scale installation, two movies and a series of assemblage sculptures. Central to the show are two films that revisit Whether Line (2017), the first commission Fitch and Trecartin worked on with Prada. Both are on view in a wooden structure and smaller darkened space that conflates conflicting aesthetic styles, such as exposed wooden beams w...