Art
Rong Bao to Inaugurate Carl Kostyál’s Hong Kong Gallery
London-based artist Rong Bao first turned heads with her 2023 debut solo exhibition at Saatchi Gallery. Fitting titled Rong Bao Is Me, the show welcomed audiences into Bao's whimsical universe through a lively romp of inflatable sculptures and immersive installations. The survey transformed the familiar into something wonderful, punctuating the typical solemnity of white-walled galleries with a refreshing burst curiosity.Now, Bao will inaugurate Carl Kostyál's Hong Kong space with a new solo show. Running from March 23 through April 30, the eponymous exhibition delves deeper into her ongoing exploration of mischief and defiance through a tactility, materiality, form and her signature sense of wit. “In my artistic journey, playfulness and humor are the core elements from which I craft a sur...
Ai Weiwei Brings His Largest U.S. Exhibition to Seattle
Ai Weiwei has built a career on defiance. Whether smashing ancient artifacts or filling museum floors with handcrafted porcelain sunflower seeds, his work is a challenge to authority, a refusal to accept history at face value. Now, Seattle will host his most expansive U.S. exhibition yet.Ai, Rebel: The Art and Activism of Ai Weiwei, opening this week at the Seattle Art Museum (SAM), spans 40 years of work—over 130 pieces that confront power, censorship and cultural identity. Iconic works like "Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn" (1995), "Study of Perspective" (1995–2011), and "Sunflower Seeds" (2010) will be on view, alongside new pieces making their international debut.For the first time in its history, SAM will dedicate all three of its locations to a single artist. The Seattle Asian Art Museum ...
Notre Dame Raffles Off Fire-Damaged Stones for Restoration Funds
Notre Dame Cathedral is raffling 50 stone fragments damaged in the 2019 fire to raise funds for restoring France’s historic religious sites. Each stone is engraved with the cathedral’s silhouette and serves as a piece of history from the iconic structure.To enter, participants must be 18 or older and donate at least $43 USD by April 4 through the Heritage Foundation’s website. Winners will be announced on April 15, the anniversary of the fire. The stones cannot be sold, gifted, or traded as per Artnews.So far, the foundation has raised $247 million USD of the $912 million USD needed for Notre Dame’s full restoration. The cathedral reopened in December after a massive effort involving 2,000 artisans, who replaced 14,000 square feet of stone, cleaned 8,000 organ pipes and crafted 1,500 oak p...
Desert X Returns to Coachella Valley
Desert X is back for its fifth U.S. edition, planting a suite of site-specific installations in Southern California’s Coachella Valley. Curated by Neville Wakefield and Kaitlin Garcia-Maestas, this year’s exhibition features the work of 11 international artists, each responding to the vast desert landscape, in a living dialogue of art, land and deep time.The 2025 iteration spotlights the region’s resilient spirit, looking to the wisdom embedded in the timeless landscape as subject and focus. “Curated by the place it temporarily inhabits, Desert X reveals the [landscape] as a canvas of real and imagined histories, narrating tales of displacement, sovereignty and adaptation superimposed over visible testaments of time,” Garcia-Maestas noted in a recent statement.Works on view explore themes ...
Sagan Lockhart Pays Homage to Los Angeles in ‘I Don’t Play 2’ Photobook
The city of Los Angeles is at the core of Sagan Lockhart's photography portfolio. For the Fairfax Street unofficial historian and honorary member of Odd Future, the Southern California city's streets have long remained a key point of inspiration for the photographer.After dropping his first-ever photobook I Don't Play over the summer – an archive of stills chronicling Odd Future's come-up – Lockhart has lifted the veil on I Don't Play 2, what he describes as "a time capsule" of Los Angeles in the 2010s."This one just feels a little more special to me," Lockhart conveyed in an Instagram caption. "I wanted to create a real time capsule of the 2010s, showing the LA/California experience as I lived it. If you were there, I want this to bring back those memories, and if you weren't, I want to h...
It All Comes Back to the ‘Body’ in Bourse de Commerce’s Latest Show
The human body stands as, perhaps, one of the earliest sources of artistic inspiration. Traditionally used to explore ideas of holiness, beauty and virtue, the 20th century saw a turn in interrogation of flesh form, shifting toward conversations of identity and performance to forge a language for the many ways we move throughout the world.A new exhibition at Paris' Bourse de Commerce, fittingly titled Corps et âmes, explores how modern and contemporary artists approach this connection between the body and soul. Drawing one hundred works from the Pinault Collection, the exhibition spotlights corporeal articulations across painting, sculpture, photography, video and drawing, featuring the likes of 40 notable names, such as Arthur Jafa, Duane Hanson, Ana Mendieta, David Hammons, Kara Walker, ...
Gabriel Moses’ Biggest Show is Coming to London
British-Nigerian photographer and filmmaker Gabriel Moses is set to unveil his largest exhibition yet. Titled Selah, the show will present over 70 photographs and 20 films from the self-taught, South London-native, showcasing new works alongside his impressive oeuvre in arenas of art, music, fashion and sport.Unfolding across two floors of 180 Studios, which also hosted his debut exhibition, Selah culls a constellation of works from Moses’ career, including music videos like “FE!N” by Travis Scott and Playboi Carti, and "Lost Times" by Schoolboy Q, in addition to portraits of Skepta, Slawn, Alek Wek, Jude Bellingham and more.Also on view is the premiere of The Last Hour, his latest short film executive produced by (di)vision and GOAT. Shot in Atlanta, Georgia, 180 Studios describes the pie...
Kara Walker’s ‘Burning Village’ Highlighted in MACA Retrospective
The Alicante Museum of Contemporary Art (MACA) is hosting a monumental exhibition honoring the seminal artist Kara Walker. Entitled Burning Village, the presentation gathers interdisciplinary works including drawings, engravings, sculptures and films made by the artist from the past four decades. It's on view through September 7.A collection of forty-four works were pulled from the Michael Jenkins and Javier Romero Collection of MACA. Moreover, thirty-one pieces were donated to the institution with twelve acquired by MACA in 2024 to stage this comprehensive survey of Walker. The exhibition highlights Walker's politically-charged practice, exploring dynamics of martyrdom, iconography as well as the legacy of slavery in America. One of Walker’s earliest pieces, entitled “I’ll Be a Monkey’s U...
Anne Imhof Unveils Her Largest Performance to Date in New York
German performance and choreographer Anne Imhof has unveiled her largest performance to date in New York. Titled "DOOM: HOUSE OF HOPE," the three-hour-long immersive piece transforms the Park Avenue Armory’s 55,000 square foot drill hall into a powerful landscape of community, hope and chaos.Housed between a gym floor overlay and a striking red doomsday clock on a hanging jumbotron, audiences are immediately welcomed into Imhof’s moody, teen universe. A loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, a patchwork of props and people adorn "DOOM" – from cheerleaders and basketball players to a baby-punk band and two dozen Cadillac Escalades.Featuring a cast of 60 dancers, artists, musicians, poets and skaters – including actress Talia Ryder and Eliza Douglas, Balenciaga’s darling and I...
David von Bahr Gets ‘Energized’ at Gallery Steinsland Berliner
Often lacking a recognizable face or shape, abstract works are magic for the imagination as they leave loose interpretations--allowing viewers to impose their own meanings and interpretations without constraint. Swedish painter, David von Bahr, exercises abstraction through personal motion and physical movements. He relies on both methodical and intuitive approaches to create an obtrusive mash of paint and strokes on canvas. The artist is currently the focus of a solo show called Energized at Gallery Steinsland Berliner in Stockholm, Sweden. On view through April 5, the presentation features a bold selection of abstract pieces. One work looks like it’s on fire, entangled in a forest of wispy flames set against a black backdrop. Another painting, seemingly features a stack of spliced bio ma...
Christie’s Controversial AI Art Auction Surpasses Estimates
Yesterday, Christie’s closed out Augmented Intelligence, its highly-contested auction dedicated to artificial intelligence-generated art. The first of its kind, the sale brought in around $729,000 USD, surpassing its initial estimate by over 20%.The sale also welcomed a wave of fresh collectors to the scene, with Gen Z and Millennials making up just under half of the bidding crowd and over a third of the registrants identified as "completely new to Christie's."At $277,2000 USD, Refik Anadol’s Machine Hallucinations - ISS Dreams - A came in as the highest selling piece, exceeding its estimate of $200,00 USD. In second place, Holly Herndon & Mat Dryhurst’s Embedding Study 1 & 2 diptych, fetched $94,500 USD, also above its estimated range.In a recent statement, Nicole Sales Giles, Chr...
Leigh Bowery Receives An Appropriately Extravagant Retrospective At Tate Modern
It's an entirely impossible feat to capture the extraordinarily outrageous life of Leigh Bowery, but a retrospective at Tate Modern feels like an honorable place to start. Bowery was a larger than life figure who permeated all aspects of modern culture, even still to this day. From performance artist to club promoter to model, Bowery's wild eclecticism escaped all formal boundaries of definition. Bowery initially rose to fame as a club promoter and underground performance artist in 1980s London, among other things, working the door for the short-lived but infamous nightclub Taboo. Known as one of the hardest doors and hottest places to be, Bowery, alongside a generation of club kids, cultivated a defiant art scene that did not flinch in the face of their political context. For the first ti...
