Art

Thousands of artists are calling on Christie’s to cancel its upcoming “Augmented Intelligence” auction, the first major sale dedicated to art made with artificial intelligence, slated to run from February 20 to March 5.The auction explores the role of human agency in the age of AI, tracing the evolution of art and technology over several decades. The sale of 20 lots expects to bring in $600,000, with works by Harold Cohen, an early AI art pioneer, alongside a lineup of contemporary artists experimenting with emerging technologies, such as Refik Anadol, Pindar Van Arman, Sasha Stiles, Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst.The open letter, addressed to Christie’s digital art specialists, now contains 4,000 signatures, including artists Karla Ortiz and Kelly McKernan who filed a class-action lawsuit...

Hypeart’s Threshold at Bonhams LA will explore the tension between history and change, featuring works by Shepard Fairey, Beverly Pepper, Sam Gilliam and more. The exhibition, on view from February 18-21, will examine shifting boundaries in art and society. A special event reception and panel discussion on February 20 will bring together Shepard Fairey, renowned artist and activist; Richard Scarry, art curator and dealer; Larry Warsh, art collector and founder of No More Rulers; Keith Estiler, Managing Editor at Hypeart/HYPEBEAST; Ralph Taylor, Global Head of 20th/21st Century Art at Bonhams; and Isabel Norsten, Specialist in Post-War & Contemporary Art at Bonhams. The discussion will explore the exhibition’s themes and mark the launch of Fairey-isms, a new book by No More Rulers and p...

After retiring from his namesake label in 2005, creative polymath Helmut Lang turned his attention to art, culling his extensive garment archive into raw material for his large-scale sculptures. Though his personal collection of the brand is no longer, having been transformed into artworks and donated to art and fashion collections around the world, Lang's fascination with materials' second life stayed central to his practice.Now, Lang's chimeric sculptures are coming to Los Angeles in What remains behind, his latest solo exhibition housed at the Schindler House of the MAK Center. Curated by Neville Wakefield, the show explores, in the artist's own words, an affinity for materials “with a past, elements with irreplaceable presence and with scars and memories of a former purpose.”Lang fills...

Hauser & Wirth in Los Angeles is set to unveil a new solo exhibition by British artist George Rouy, running from February 18 through June 1. Entitled The Bleed, Part II, the show comes as the second act of the rising star's London presentation and will see a new suite of compositions in his distorted, fleshy signature, expanding on a study of "human mass, multiplicity and movement."The exhibition draws its title from Rouy’s concept of “the bleed,” which describes how figures and voids coalesce on canvas, resulting in an oozing flow between forms.  This idea is deepened by “the surrounds,” zones where flesh and bodily properties meet forces of mass, volume and entropy without mercy.With faces enfolded, blurred or removed altogether, the artist challenges the power of photographic and sc...

In the heat of Mexico City Art Week, MASA Galeria is teaming up with New York-based Luhring Augustine for their second collaborative exhibition. Housed at MASA’s historic homebase, the show brings together six artists and designers – three from each respective gallery – pairing voices from Mexico and beyond in cross-cultural, visual dialogue.Grounded by the idea of friendship and its states of flux, the show nurtures a space where, as the galleries note, “unexpected encounters among recognizable idiosyncrasies arise.” Works on view come to life through an agency of their own, reflecting an excitement to “embrace an identification, even admiration or affection, with someone considered other than oneself.”Unfolding across three rooms, the exhibition traces a series of connections in artistic...

Japanese director Nobuhiko Obayashi (1938-2020) took the world of cinema by storm with his 1997 masterpiece House. A campy, cult-classic horror, the film set the stage for his idiosyncratic signature as an artist and director, brimming with otherworldly fantasias, pop-art boldness and acidic surrealism. While the film catapulted him to fame, its towering influence has often eclipsed the range of his work overseas.Now, Obayashi’s teenage symphonies are getting their flowers in Obayashi ‘80s, a film series presented by the Japan Society in New York, running from February 7 through February 14, 2025. With six films rarely seen outside of Japan, the series presents the beloved Onomichi Trilogy alongside Kadokawa-era classics, evoking a bittersweet nostalgia for a yesteryear that exists just be...

Crypto mogul Justin Sun, who made headlines for purchasing – and eating – Maurizio Cattalan’s banana artwork last year, is suing billionaire collector and entertainment executive David Geffen over a $78.4 million Alberto Giacometti sculpture that he claims was stolen.Sun purchased Le Nez at Sotheby’s in 2021, and now claims that his art advisor, Xiong Zihan Sydney, went rogue and orchestrated the sale to Geffen through an elaborate string of fabricated documents and forged signatures.While, Sun previously “expressed an interest” in finding a buyer who would pay more than $80 million. Sun claims that the advisor made a deal without his knowledge, exchanging the Giacometti for two artworks from Geffen’s collection, together worth $55 million, along with $10.5 million in cash. Court papers sa...

Howard Universal is the limited-edition print publication by Grace Wales Bonner in honor of the legacy of Howard University, a highly-renowned HBCU (Historically Black College & University) in Washington DC. With archival imagery, alumni reflections, and student submissions, Wales Bonner's research project weaves a portrait that bridges the present and past of the historic institution.Sharing more in a statement, Wales Bonner said “At Howard University I felt the presence of an impressive intellectual lineage, one I had long been drawn to from afar. Writers, artists, poets, together on the hilltop. The campus as haven, as a shining reflection of black light. This tribute to the lineage reveals the phenomenon of everyday expression. The gesture of the student with eyes on the horizon, t...

In the early 19th century, Mary Shelley shocked audiences with her cult-classic novel Frankenstein. Neither human nor animal, this creature, even 200 years later, continues to challenge our deepest fears. Its horror wasn’t just in its grotesque or garish appearance, but the unsettling suggestion that the boundary between man and monster might not be so clear after all.Now, that same chimeric idea takes shape in The Monster, a new group exhibition at Pace Gallery Los Angeles. Curated by Robert Nava, the show celebrates “monstrous bodies and fabulations of monstrosity” in contemporary art, focusing on "fantasy monsters" rather than those rooted in everyday life. Through a mix of paintings, sculptures and works on paper, the exhibition takes viewers into a world of mythical creatures, childho...