Art
Slawn, Central Cee & Clint419 Front Hassan Hajjaj’s New London Show
Hassan Hajjaj's takeover at Sotheby's Story Café in London later this month is his personal love letter to the new class of Londoners sculpting their city's creative landscape. The show, titled My London Rockstars, End to Estates, is set to run at the Bond Street outpost from July 13 through August 7, and will take shape as one of the Moroccan-British artist's signature tea salons.For the latest chapter of My Rockstars — the artist's long-running mixed-media series where individuals are captured against pattern-happy backgrounds and outfits, framed by geometric stacks of canned goods — Hajjaj turns his lens towards breakout stars and up-and-comers, such as Slawn and the Motherlan crew, Clint419, Central Cee, Walid Labri, Joy Crookes and more.“I am so proud to introduce this new creative en...
Ai Weiwei Relives His Detention in 24-Hour Long Performance
SummaryArtist and activist Ai Weiwei is staging his first durational performance, “Sewing a Button,” in Manchester on July 3Ai reenacts the conditions of his 2011 detention in the 24-hour-long live piece, where he will eat, sleep, work, wash, and write inside a replica cellThe piece takes part in his new show, Button Up!, which confronts ideas of globalization, colonialism, and Empire through the lens of the British-Chinese textile tradeAi Weiwei is turning one of the darkest chapters of his career into a live performance. On July 3 the dissident artist and activist will stage his first-ever durational performance: a 24-hour reenactment of his secret imprisonment, called “Sewing a Button,” as part of his new Button Up! show, on from July 2 to September 6, at Manchester’s Aviva Studios.Ai w...
Lose Yourself in Taiki Yokote’s Liminal Dreamscape at Tokyo’s CON_ and parcel
SummaryJapanese artist Taiki Yokote is currently presenting a two-venue solo exhibition (to make today lovely, too and to make today lonely, too) at CON_ and parcel in TokyoThe show runs until July 26 and features an array of installations, sculptures, videos, and photography, enchanting the overlooked moments of the everydayOnly a single letter can change a world of meaning. Lovely and lonely, case in point. Such a slight yet seismic difference is the focal point of a new two-venue solo exhibition by Taiki Yokote. Now on view at CON_ and parcel in Tokyo, the Japanese artist gathers a cross-medium collection, including gentle nature photographs, rows of plush puppies and his renowned levitating rock sculptures.Like their titles, to make today lovely, too at parcel and to make today lonely,...
Lucy Sparrow is Opening Another All-Felt Supermarket
SummaryBritish artist Lucy Sparrow will present her first U.S. museum exhibition, The Beginning of Convenience, at The Momentary in Arkansas from July 18, 2026 through July 11, 2027The show takes shape as another one of her renowned grocery store installations, and will feature over 20,000 handmade felt replicasThe installation explores consumer culture through the titular “beginning of convenience” in the ‘80s and early ‘90sLucy Sparrow is at the top of the felt game. The British artist is known for her unique retail installations — like this “fauxdega,” pharmacy, or chip shop — made up of tens of thousands of handsewn, stitched, and painted sculptures. For her next act, Sparrow has touched down at The Momentary, Crystal Bridges’ extension venue in Bentonville, Arkansas, and is currently ...
Propstore Is Bringing Rare Studio Ghibli Production Cels to Auction This July
SummaryPropstore's Animation Art Live Auction on July 8 and July 9 includes a curated selection of original Studio Ghibli production cels and hand-painted backgrounds from five films spanning 1988 to 1997Leading lots include a Kiki's Delivery Service cel retaining its original Key Master background and hand-painted overlay, and a Porco Rosso cel on a hand-painted production background Propstore’s Animation Art Live Auction will offer a curated selection of original Studio Ghibli production cels across two days on July 8 and July 9, with global online, absentee, and telephone bidding. The lots span five films across nearly a decade of Ghibli’s output, from My Neighbor Totoro in 1988 through to Princess Mononoke in 1997, and include hand-painted production backgrounds, Key Master backgrounds...
Mattia Guarnera Finds Meaning in Football’s Quietest Moments
As the World Cup takes over New York City this summer, Hypebeast Cup is bringing its global tour to SoHo for its final stop. Running from June 26 through July 19, the month-long activation will transform the neighborhood into a hub for football culture, creative collaboration and community, hosting a rotating lineup of artists, designers, brands and events that explore the game's influence beyond the pitch.Among those participating is London-based artist Mattia Guarnera, who will present a selection of original artworks painted directly onto football kits throughout the activation. While football serves as a recurring subject throughout his practice, Guarnera's work is rarely about the sport itself. Instead, he uses it as a lens to explore broader themes of identity, masculinity, competiti...
How Mia Scarpa and Grace Horan Made Friendship the Medium
Puppies sleeping easy in piles of 100's, lucky rocks, affirmational text, tattooed bellies, devilish Hello Kitty, joint-slinging gremlins — a similar circus of images swarms the shuffle of paintings and sculptures in Mia Scarpa and Grace Horan’s new duet show, Kinda True. Standing inside the space, it’s hard to imagine the artists anywhere but together.The two arrived at New York’s Whaam! earlier this summer for their second exhibition together. Airbrush compositions by Scarpa and Horan’s glass lamps fill the room with flashes of humor and play, tenderness and sincerity, surrendering the gallery to their whimsical mix.One look and it’s clear that the artists are at the edge of something brewing in contemporary art: a new vanguard tuned to the fractures of digital culture, while also harnes...
Anish Kapoor’s Hayward Gallery Retrospective Is Bloodier Than Before
SummaryAnish Kapoor returns to the Hayward Gallery at Southbank Centre in London for the first time in 28 years for a new retrospectiveRunning until October, the show gathers new and iconic works, including three gallery-wide installations, paintings, and sculpturesThe exhibition centers on recurring themes, like space and perception, while also exploring ideas of violence, abjection, and existentialismAt last, Anish Kapoor is back at the Hayward Gallery. It’s been nearly 30 years since the institution hosted his first U.K. retrospective, and his Southbank Centre comeback is messier, fleshier, more macabre, pairing new and seminal works that unsettle the senses.On through October 18, the exhibition dives deep into Kapoor’s fascination with what he calls “the space of the object” — pieces t...
Romero Britto Painted the World, Now He’s Painting Skechers
Romero Britto has built a decades-long career around a simple idea: art should make people feel good. The Brazilian-born, Miami-based artist has turned his signature mix of bold colors, graphic patterns and optimism into one of the most recognizable visual languages in contemporary art, bringing his work far beyond gallery walls through public installations, global partnerships and projects that reach audiences around the world.That spirit sits at the center of his latest collaboration with Skechers. Blending Britto's unmistakable imagery with the brand's everyday comfort, the collection transforms familiar silhouettes into wearable works of art. Hearts, vibrant color palettes and hand-drawn motifs pulled directly from the artist's paintings appear across the range, bringing his joyful per...
Art Basel 2026 Brings Discovery Back to the Fair Floor
SummaryBasel Exclusive debuts with first-look artwork unveilingsStrong sales and standout Unlimited, Parcours and digital presentations throughout the fairWords by Hong YuArt Basel opened its 2026 edition this past weekend with 290 galleries from 43 countries, introducing Basel Exclusive, a new initiative designed to restore the thrill of first, in-person discovery by reserving selected works for their public debut during the VIP opening. The fair also marks Ruba Katrib's debut as curator of Unlimited, the return of the citywide Parcours sector, an expanded talks program and Zero 10's latest digital art presentation, curated by Trevor Paglen and Eli Scheinman.At 11 am CET, the courtyard where the VIP breakfast had been held emptied almost instantly. Moments earlier, it had been packed with...
Visualizing the Void: Singapore Art Museum Explores Five Decades of Hiroshi Sugimoto
Hiroshi Sugimoto: Form Is Emptiness, marks the internationally acclaimed Japanese artist's first major survey exhibition in Southeast Asia. Born in Tokyo in 1948, Sugimoto is a multidisciplinary artist whose five-decade practice spans photography, sculpture, installation, and spatial design, continuously exploring the nature of time, perception, and human consciousness. Running from May 29 to October 4, 2026, at Singapore Art Museum (SAM) at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, the exhibition brings together over 60 works across 11 series, alongside 14 rare fossil specimens from his personal collection.Deeply informed by Buddhist philosophy, the core of the exhibition draws from the Heart Sutra and its proposition that “form is emptiness”, suggesting that what appears tangible is contingent and shape...
James Turrell’s Largest ‘Skyspace’ Touches Down at ARoS Aarhus in Denmark
SummaryJames Turrell unveiled a new Skyspace installation, "As Seen Below – The Dome," at the ARoS Aarhus Art Museum in DenmarkThe artwork turns sky-gazing into a surreal act, altering one's perception of light and the color spectrumIt marks the 100th in the artist's landmark series and inaugurates the museum's new expansionLight is something just as felt as it is seen for James Turrell, the artist known for gracing the world with his perceptually playful and deeply immersive installations. This tangibility of light, something he calls its "thingness," has become a defining feature of his site-specific Skyspaces. And even 50 years on, whether you're in the desert, the heart of New York, or hitting sub-0° in Scandinavia, the series never fails to mesmerize.The artist recently unveiled "As S...
