Art

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 ...

Sotheby's is gearing up to host an auction filled with Renaissance art and books worth up to $25m USD. Commencing in October, the sale includes publications and bindings from the collection of acclaimed American scholar, T. Kimball Brooker, who spent 60 years putting together one of the finest rare-book libraries in the world. Highlights of the sale include an early manuscript of Leonardo da Vinci's Treatise on Painting, which was copied and compiled by the Italian polymath's lifelong assistant, Francesco Melzi, around 1638 to 1641. The auction also includes nearly 1,000 editions from Venetian publisher Aldine Press, which were all printed between the 15th and 16th century. “This constitutes the largest collection of Aldines to grace the market in the modern era,” said Sotheby's book and m...

KAWS is making its way to Canada this fall, marking the first time the work is debuted at a Canadian museum. Heading to Toronto's Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), KAWS: FAMILY features artist Brian Donnelly's renowned larger-than-life sculptures and paintings of his iconic characters. The exhibition, which is curated by Julian Cox, AGO's Deputy Director and Chief Curator, features over 70 artworks from the artist's past two decades. The curation organizations the works in a series of encounters, with families of related pieces installed across the second level of the museum. Amongst these displayed will include the larger-than-life wood sculptures and augmented reality installations. Works in bronze, wood, on paper and canvas, plus toys and stainless steel will be exhibited. Adapting features...

Italy has faced multiple accounts of vandalism this year across some of its most hallowed sites. Back in June, a couple on holiday carved the words “Ivan + Hayley ‘23'” on one of the arches of the Roman Colosseum, while in that same month, an American tourist threw a e-scooter down the Spanish Steps, causing $26,000 USD in damage. Tourists are back at it again, as two German students defaced Florence's historic Vasari Corridor along the river Arno. The incident occurred earlier today at 5:20am (local time), when the two unnamed suspects, who were a part of 11 students staying in one of the city's Airbnb's, vandalized the 460-year-old corridor by spray-painting "DKS 1860" — which refers to the German football team, TSV 1860 Munich. While it is unclear, and highly unlikely, that the students...

US customs agents have returned around 281 Mexican artifacts, including Olmec figurines and ceramics dating back to 900 BCE, in a handover ceremony that took place in Memphis, Texas. This event was attended by officials from the US Customs and Border Protection, Homeland Security Investigation, and Mexico's Ambassador Carlos Giralt-Cabrales, as per a report by Artnews.According to a press release provided by customs officials, these items were sent from Mexico in nine shipments between 2016 and 2021, destined for locations in California, South Carolina, and Florida. Among the items seized were Olmec sculptures, various body adornments, ritual figurines, as well as clay and stone earmuffs. The customs release mentioned that officers suspected these items to be cultural artifacts and subsequ...

Craig Redman and Karl Maier, known simply as Craig & Karl, are an artist duo based in New York and London. Despite the nearly 3,500 miles that separates them, distance has never hampered their process of collaboration. In the past, this has translated into vibrant multi-floor installations at Siam Center in Bangkok, magazine covers for Billboard, and a portrait installation displayed at Manchester United's home stadium. Housed at K11 Art Foundation in Guangzhou, Inside Out is Craig & Karl's first solo exhibition in China and presents a series of thought-provoking works that expand on their cheerful vernacular. The title of the show alludes to the idea of the interiority and exteriority of our inner worlds and emotions. The artist duo approached this theme by creating a playground o...