Lifestyle

The oasis art event known as Desert X AlUla returns for its third edition in the ancient Arabian Peninsula. The annual exhibition brings together a collection of ethereal site-responsive artworks made by celebrated and emerging creative figures from around the world. Curated by Maya El Khalil and Marcello Dantas, this year's iteration is dubbed “In the Presence of Absence,” which invites artists and audiences to contemplate empty, "invisible" spaces and how the works on view offer new dialogues with the surrounding desert.The latest Desert X AlUla will be mapped across three locations for the first time, Wadi AlFann, Harrat Uwayrid, and the alManshiyah Plaza, each area challenging its participants "to adjust their perspective to encounter the unseen aspects of the place with reverence, att...

VILLAZAN is excited to announce the debut solo exhibition in New York by American artist Jared Brook, titled Glimpses of Infatuation. Featuring a collection of new paintings, the exhibition will be showcased at VILLAZAN’s New York gallery starting from February 8 until February 28.Brook's exhibition introduces ten acrylic paintings on wood that delicately yet powerfully explore stages of passionate love. Through Brook's unique perspective and diverse compositional techniques, each observer is confronted with figures grappling with palpable emotions of solitude, desire, yearning, and introspection. Acting as voyeurs to these personal scenes, viewers can easily immerse themselves in the inner thoughts of the depicted characters. The paintings exude intimacy, both through the depicted actions...

Hip hop history and the world of comics collide in the artwork of Alejandro Torrecilla. Based in Madrid, scrolling through his Instagram feed is like entering the vaults of Marvel and DC Comics, but instead of Batman, Wonder Woman and Spider-Man, celebrated emcees Nas and Joey Bada$$ are reimagined as dramatic cartoon characters living out the fantasies in their lyrics.The two disparate art forms have always shared subtle and sometimes striking similarities. On one end, many characters in comic lore disguise themselves under an alias, just like rappers — from the Wu-Tang Clan to MF DOOM — the latter of which based his entire persona on Marvel’s Doctor Doom. Fans will also note that the same pitfalls that have historically befallen comics, in regards to the genre being dismissed as an artfo...

Ai Weiwei is ringing in the Chinese New Year with a new print release with Avant Arte. Entitled Guardian, the artwork makes reference to the myriad symbols and motifs that the Chinese dissident artist has employed throughout his over 30-year career, but done so in a way that is, characteristic to Weiwei's practice, a satirical commentary on global affairs.Described by the artist as "a divine self portrait", the character prominent at the center alludes to the Chinese Menshen (Door Gods), which are placed at an entrance to protect those within its barriers. Weiwei recognizes that artists are sometimes viewed as gatekeepers and harbingers of cultural change. "This self portrait serves as a visualization of my ongoing struggle within the realm of reality," noted the artist in a statement. Vie...