Lifestyle

Christmas came early for a Virginia woman who turned $3.99 into over $100,000 USD when she took a Goodwill purchase to auction. Back in June, Jessica Vincent was on a usual thrift visit in Hanover county when a holiday-colored vase caught her attention. After purchasing the translucent glass vase with red and green swirls spiraling throughout, she thought to bring it to an antiques expert to get it appraised. Initially, Vincent thought the little "M" on the bottom of the vase denoted the Italian island of Murano, known globally as a hub for glassware. “I had a sense that it might be a $1,000 or $2,000 USD piece,” she told the New York Times, adding, “but I had no clue how good it actually was until I did a little bit more research.” Turns out, the vase was an original work by renowned Ital...

Rounding out the year, Chicago's Kavi Gupta Gallery is showcasing a new solo exhibition by contemporary American artist and engineer, Willie Cole. Bypassing traditional painterly materials, Cole upcycles discarded objects destined for a junkyard to create readymade assemblage sculptures that comment on his personal experiences as well as harking to the history West African sculpture.THE B-SIDES: 1989-2022 presents a series of sculptures made from repurposed musical instruments. The exhibition stems from a recent commission Cole created for the Kansas City International Airport terminal, in which the artist created 11 hanging birds made from saxophones. The title of the series, Ornithology, refers both to its literal definition as "the study of birds," but also alluding to saxophonist Char...