Lifestyle

Designer Joseph Robinson, known as Joe Freshgoods, channels a sense of community in his exhibition 'A Friend Named Cousin,' held during the Paris Olympics. Inspired by the camaraderie among Black artists like James Baldwin and Nina Simone, the exhibition delves into themes of friendship, love, and authenticity, showing that family in the Black community often extends beyond blood ties."Depending on the family you have, your friends become your family as you get older," Robinson said to Essence. "Blood is just a fluid; people from different parts of the world can become family." In his curatorial debut, Robinson unveiled his first art piece, a quilt titled "Looking Over Me," inspired by Faith Ringgold. The quilt honors his great-grandfather and grandfather, featuring Pan-African colors and ...

Preserving the past is no easy task. Take a work as celebrated as Michelangelo’s iconic Sistine Chapel (1512) fresco held at the Vatican. Centuries since its completion, teams of conservators have had to devise meticulous ways to remove grime that has accumulated across the mural, without compromising the artwork beneath. Sometimes this is achieved through special gels that remove the soot, without damaging the paint itself. Other times, researchers will use technology to discern what types of paints and materials Michelangelo once used to reapply his technique again. When done right, artworks can be seen anew for generations to come, just like originally intended. When done wrong, such as in the case of an 18th century church in the Spanish city of Soria, disaster ensues. Originally built...

American artist Clotilde Jiménez is the latest figure to join the Olympic craze that has hit the art world. His latest exhibition, The Long Run, explores notions of movement, identity, community and competition in the artist's signature collage aesthetic. On view at Mariane Ibrahim's Paris location, Jiménez, who was born in Honolulu and currently based in Mexico City, dismantles the constructs of sport — probing into the collective markers that manifest through each individual athlete — from gender and personal experiences to the communities and nations they represent. By juxtaposing various figures and materials, Jiménez' collages expand on the togetherness at the heart of sports. He also simultaneously raises the contradiction that many minority athletes face, who are marginalized back h...

Over 750 artists have condemned London's Royal Academy of Arts for removing two student artworks addressing the Gaza conflict from its "Young Artists Summer Show." The open letter, signed by notable figures like musician Brian Eno, visual artists Adam Broomberg and Nan Goldin, and filmmaker Mike Leigh, includes endorsements from over 100 Jewish-identifying creatives and was published by Artists for Palestine UK.The controversy began after the Royal Academy removed the works following a July 15 complaint by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, which claimed the pieces perpetuated "antisemitic tropes,” as per a report by Artforum. The disputed artworks included a charcoal drawing by a 16-year-old named Andy, depicting women in hijabs before a swastika, and a photograph by 18-year-old Kausa...

The Guggenheim Museum's latest exhibition, By Way Of: Material and Motion in the Guggenheim Collection, is on display until January 12, 2025. The show moves beyond traditional studio art, showcasing artists who experiment outside the usual boundaries. Inspired by the D.Daskalopoulos Collection Gift, the exhibit spans from the 1960s to today.Historically, studios were sacred spaces for creation. But from the 20th century onward, artists broke free, finding inspiration in the streets, nature, and everyday life -- as the museum noted in its press release. This exhibit captures that shift with works combining various media—video in sculpture, tapestry as painting, and sound art in found objects.The exhibition features post-war artists like Pier Paolo Calzolari and Jannis Kounellis, part of the...