Lifestyle

Opening on February 11 in Hong Kong’s K11 MUSEA is the debut institutional exhibition of contemporary artist and the “Godfather of Designer Toys,” Michael Lau, entitled "SPLENDID PARK" — spanning over 40 paintings and sculptures from the artist’s iconic series, alongside new works were created between 2011 and 2022.Celebrating the return of the city’s art scene, the exhibition is an ode to Spring, while the works featured within act as a retrospect to Lau’s artistic journey. Welcoming visitors at the entrance is Blossom is Awesome, which stars a row of full-bloomed, vibrant flowers against a vivid backdrop of solid red. Lau’s iconic street art elements such as the enlarged price tags and doodled post-it notes can be seen in this painting, which is completed with a splash of the artist’s si...

Never sleep on a good ol' fashioned yard sale or antique shop. They may seem unassuming and unspectacular, but there is always a jewel of an object waiting to be found. So was the case recently in the past, when a Ming Dynasty bowl was discovered at a yard sale in Connecticut. Similarly and perhaps even more eye-opening, an authentic sketch by legendary German Renaissance painter, Albrecht Dürer, was found at a yard sale in Massachusetts. Following along this trajectory, a chandelier by Alberto Giacometti is set to hit Christie's upcoming London sale, where it is expected to garner roughly $3m USD — a massive leap from the £250 GBP / $700 USD the original owner paid in the 1960s. The buyer of the artwork, John Craxton, was certain that it was authentic when he noticed the details of the li...

Skarstedt Gallery is holding a multi-city exhibition that hones in on the age-old tradition of figuration. Aptly titled Faces & Figures, the show features an array of art historical periods — from German Neo-Expressionism and The Pictures Generation, to contemporary figures who are breaking ground today. On view at the gallery's flagship location in New York, Eric Fischl's Far Rockaway (1986) and KAWS' GONE (2018) sculpture invites visitors into the space, while further on, Francis Bacon's Study for Self-Portrait (1979) reflects on the traumas felt by the artist after mourning the loss of so many others around him, where he had "nobody else left to paint" but himself, as Bacon once noted in an interview. Georg Baselitz, renders the face upside down in Trinker (Drinker) (1981) — a meditatio...

Over the past year, the US and many Western authorities have imposed strict sanctions on Russia since it's invasion of Ukraine. Those efforts have spilled into the art world, where officials in New York have subpoenaed auction houses who may be linked to Russian businesspeople with ties to Russian President, Vladimir Putin. As first reported by Bloomberg, the exact entities have not been disclosed, however, several of the major players — Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips — are amongst those being investigated. The latest developments come after nearly a year in which the aforementioned auctioneers were criticized for having worked with various art collectors, such as Mikhail Fridman and former Chelsea F.C. owner, Roman Abramovich.“We are constantly tailoring and updating our policies to t...

Alexander Calder's minimal but thought-evoking mobiles continue to enchant audiences long after first changing the script of what sculpture can be in the 20th Century. Pace Gallery's new outpost in Los Angeles writes a new chapter in that legend through an exhibition that bridges a dialogue between the work of Calder and fellow American artist, Richard Tuttle. Well-known for blurring the boundaries of contemporary art, Tuttle's work defies categorization. Over his career, the American artist continually resists the constraints imposed by Minimalism to explore materials, mediums and methods, such as wire, small-scale collage and dyed cloth, that play on perception and evoke poetry and beauty in the mundane. Made in collaboration with the Calder Foundation, Calder/Tuttle:Tentative sees the l...

Art can be found in one form or another on nearly every corner of the planet. That's not quite the case on the moon, however. But Sacha Jafri, the British-born, Dubai-based artist best known for creating The Journey of Humanity, which set the Guinness World Record for the largest canvas to sell at auction, is set to jettison a new artwork to the moon next month. The work, entitled We Rise Together — By the Light of the Moon, is a gold alloy panel depicting two figures surrounded by 88 hearts. "The original artwork was this beautiful heart motif. Two figures entwined, reconnecting and around them is blossoming flora, fauna," said Jafri in a previous interview, adding that he wants to capture "the unification of humanity through love and empathy" in his work. Developed by the UK-based techno...

Following her recent show in London, Amy Sherald is currently showcasing her first solo exhibition in Europe at Hauser & Wirth Monaco. The World We Make presents a suite of large-scale paintings, each radiating with a sky blue background that emits a message of hope.Sherald, 49, is one of the most revered American artists working today. Although she is well-known for her presidential portrait of former First Lady, Michelle Obama, Sherald most notably focuses her efforts on everyday Black subjects which she recreates in an overly saturated style that confronts the history of portraiture by inserting Black men, women, families and artists in recognizable and everyday situations. The title of the show itself is a form of healing for the artist, who understands that "as we walk beyond what we ...