Art

The British Museum is currently undergoing a landmark investigation into one of its longtime curators, Peter Higgs, who allegedly stole priceless artifacts from its collection. The case has sent shockwaves across the world of art, particularly in many countries and institutions who have long fought to have their cultural artifacts repatriated from "The World's Museum." In particular, Nigeria and China have emerged as a vocal proponents of the British Museum's security breach, which resulted in a number of gold jewelry and gemstones, dating back 2,000 years, being sold on e-commerce site eBay for as low as $51 USD.“It’s shocking to hear that the countries and museums that have been telling us that the Benin Bronzes would not be secure in Nigeria, have thefts happening there,” said Abba Isa ...

At 89 years of age, Peter Saul is still working at a relentless pace. Over the past seven decades, the American artist has become globally recognized for his surreal comic depictions of political figures and pop cultural phenomena, always created in a graphically perverse aesthetic that humorously addresses social paradigms.Housed at New York-based gallery, Venus Over Manhattan, Saul's latest self-titled show presents paintings created between 2022 and 2023. His latest works probe into a number of pertinent issues: from Global Warming (2022 & 2023), where he satirizes the global communities neglect of the climate emergency, to Last Dime (2022) and Rain (2023), in which Saul makes humorous critiques on capitalism, in relation to society's relationship with money and natural phenomena. ...

Japan's southern island of Kyushu may not be the first destination travelers think of when visiting the Land of the Rising Sun. But it is home to some of the nation's most storied cities. Located roughly 530 miles away from Tokyo, Kyushu is known for its slow pace, natural beauty, and having the most onsens of any city — thanks to the nine active volcanoes in the area, including Mount Aso in Kumammoto, as well as the constantly grumbling Sakurajima volcano in Kagoshima. The island's cultural impact shouldn't be overlooked either, with cities like Fukuoka boasting some of the best food in the nation, along with birthing world famous labels, such as nanamica. David Abrahams grew up far away in England's northern city of Leeds. Like many, however, the British photographer fell in love with th...

Hauser & Wirth has unveiled the latest location in its global lineup of galleries, and it is arguably its most beautiful. Housed on Menorca's Illa del Rei Island at an 18th century naval hospital, the 16,145-square-foot space was recently renovated by Argentinian architect Luis Laplace with a surrounding garden helmed by Dutch designer, Piet Oudolf. Speaking on the outdoor space, visitors will first have to take a 15-minute ferry from Menorca's capital Mahón, through a sculptural garden featuring works by Paul McCarthy, Hans Josephsohn, Stefan Brüggemann, and Eduardo Chillida.To inaugurate the new location, the gallery is hosting two separate exhibitions. The first, a group show called After the Mediterranean, which will showcase works by local artists, including Ghanaian artist Adjoa ...

The Baltimore Museum of Art and Saint Louis Art Museum recently concluded a monumental exhibition chronicling the cultural impact of hip hop. For those of you who missed the show, however, creative studio Pacific has chronicled the experience in a book showcasing the over 100 artists and brands who brought the event to life. Entitled The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century, the catalog comprises of a 50 year deep dive into hip hop's global influence over the past two decades of the genre mapped across six themes: language, brand, adornment, tribute, ascension, and pose. Highlights of the show included a spotlight on Virgil Abloh's indelible legacy at Louis Vuitton, paintings by Joyce J. Scott and Tschabalala Self, as well as texts and interviews from a range of artist...

The age-old concept of time is often perceived as linear, unwavering, and absolute. Yet, The Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's (LMCC) 2023 season at The Arts Center at Governors Island asks visitors to rethink this perception, with a diverse array of exhibitions thematically centered around this intangible force.The first of these exhibitions is Where Time Runs Backwards by artist Daniel Shieh, accompanied by works from Chia-Lun Chang and Arleene Correa Valencia.Shieh, an alumnus of the LMCC's Arts Center Residency program and a Taiwanese-born artist, offers an evocative approach to the season's theme. Where Time Runs Backwards is designed to be an immersive experience composed of five new site-specific works. While traditionally, the majority of art exhibits are visual, Shieh's installat...

Baltimore-based artist Vinnie Hager is growing his potential across global corners, preparing to release public artwork in his largest project to date. Hager's playfully creative approach is equally chaotic and balanced, delivering hand-scribbled graphics that awaken your inner child. Hager will unveil his intimate personal project, "Diary," early next month, combining diverse artistic practices across detailed illustrations. "Diary" guides us through his creative evolution since 2016, releasing an open edition NFT with 100 physical drawings going to select digital artwork holders. These 100 pieces were created over seven years and tell a touching story about Hager’s personal life, including parental and personal loss.Hager's "Diary" series previews collage-style illustrations with cartoon...

Update:A private investigation has determined that former British Museum curator, Peter Higgs, allegedly stole over 1,500 artifacts from the institution's collection. The news comes off the heels of last week's Daily Telegraph report, which first named Higgs as the prime suspect in the case, stating that the 30-year curator had been looting precious gems and gold jewelry and selling them under a pseudonym on eBay — many times for far less than the actual value. For example, one of the Roman antiques resold dates back over 2,000 years and carries a value of up to $64,000 USD. A buyer on the e-commerce site claimed it for a mere $51 USD.Christos Tsirogiannis, a UNESCO-affiliated expert who deals with antiques trafficking, calls the heist “probably the worst case so far…No one expects that to...

The Metropolitan Museum of Art will be hosting New York's first art museum survey of the Harlem Renaissance art movement since 1987. The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism will encompass 160 works of art across a range of mediums.  Spanning paintings, sculpture, and on-paper works, the pieces included in the forthcoming exhibit work together to explore the comprehensive ways in which Black artists depicted everyday life in the 1920s through the 1940s in the new Black cities that arose in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood as well as Chicago's South Side and nationwide in the early decades of the Great Migration.Opening on February 25 2024 at The Met, the exhibit is slated to feature works from Charles Alston, Aaron Douglas, Meta Warrick Fuller, William H. Johnson, Archibald Mo...

When trying to discern why music is often described as "vague", American jazz violinist Matt Glaser once noted: it's not music, which "expresses human experience so specifically", that is falling short, but of language itself. Although he works in a different creative field altogether, Canadian artist Geoff McFetridge has built much of his career centered around this very thought. Not in terms of music, per say, but in the idea of describing the ineffable through paint and sculpture. Housed at V1 Gallery in Copenhagen, his latest solo exhibition The Organic Interface revolves around the following question — "How can images explain and communicate thoughts that are in between our understandings?" Displayed across a new series of paintings, drawings, and sculpture, McFetridge looks to bridge...

American artist R. Crumb revolutionized the medium of comic art in the '60s and '70s for his unapologetic reflection on society, often injecting his own fantasies and experiences through his signature cross-hatch aesthetic. While he never quite condoned some of the more grotesque depictions in his work, Crumb used his art to comment on the environment which he was raised in — or the "rotten core of America" as he's referred to it in the past. Much like his oeuvre, Crumb's latest release is deeply personal. Produced via David Zwirner's Platform art shop, Shape Up! Yoga Mat (2023) is a limited edition artwork dedicated to his late wife, Aline — a devout yogi — who passed away earlier this year. Originally made as a drawing, the artwork was translated into a yoga mat to advertise an exercise ...