Artworks

SummaryThe Chihuly exhibition at Maker's Mark connects the distillery's brand to art and sustainability.The "Summer of Sours" program is a new marketing strategy that uses cultural collaborations to sell a lifestyle, not just a product.Last week, I got on a plane and flew to Louisville then hopped in a car to Bardstown, Kentucky. My destination was Maker's Mark, where glass artist Dale Chihuly has an exhibition running through December with tours available here.Chihuly's glass installations amplified the place, mounted across the brand's Star Hill Farm. In the main cellar, a massive chandelier of twisted glass hung above rows of barrels. The work was a sharp, powerful piece and though its colorful forms contrasted with the cellar's pared-down atmosphere, the artist picked a commanding spot...

SummaryApartamento Publishing re-releases Kyoichi Tsuzuki's Happy Victims photo bookIt documents 87 individuals in Tokyo whose lives are shaped by their fashion brand devotionThis new edition adds an updated foreword, introduction and redesigned coverMore than 15 years after its original 2008 publication, Kyoichi Tsuzuki’s Happy Victims photo book returns in a newly reissued hardcover edition from Apartamento Publishing. First serialized between 1999 and 2006 in the fashion magazine Ryuko Tsushin, the series documents 87 individuals in Tokyo whose deep devotion to specific fashion brands shapes both their wardrobes and their living spaces. Tsuzuki’s portraits - one “happy victim” per spread - are accompanied by concise commentaries detailing each subject’s daily routine, revealing the pers...

SummaryAi Weiwei and Avant Arte have teamed up on a “Colored Vase,” a five-piece sculptural edition that probes the tension between tradition and commercializationPriced at $1,554 USD each, the works will be available for a one-week window starting August 28Ai Weiwei has built a career on turning tradition inside out, consistently returning to ancient Chinese pottery to confront politics of value, heritage and power. In his provocative 1995 piece “Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn,” Weiwei did just that, reframing destruction as its own act of preservation. In other works, centuries-old vases are graced with a logomaniac touch, weaving symbols of commercial emblems into objects of deep cultural heritage.The iconic artist and activist builds on this dialogue in a new five-piece collaboration with ...

SummaryClimate activists from Greenpeace installed Anish Kapoor's “BUTCHERED” on a Shell gas rig in the North SeaThe piece references the violence, loss and destruction wrought on by titanic oil and gas extraction initiatives and corporationsActivists from the climate organization Greenpeace have unveiled a new artwork by Anish Kapoor on a Shell gas platform in the North Sea. Titled “BUTCHERED,” the artwork arrives as the UK records its fourth heatwave of the summer, and in the words of Kapoor, is “a reference to the destruction – the bleeding – of our globe of our state, of being.”On the morning of August 13, seven Greenpeace members scaled Shell's Skiff platform, located 45 nautical miles off the coast of Norfolk before mounting a 12-by-8 meter canvas to the side of the rig. The activist...

SummarySingaporean artist Jahan Loh is set to release a “POSTCARDS FROM SPACE 天山星::KEPLER-22B” toy on August 8The figure is inspired by a painting included in Loh's exhibition of the same name, staged at Le Freeport in Chengdu last fallA follow up to his immersive, interplanetary-inspired POSTCARDS FROM SPACE in Chengdu last fall, Singaporean artist Jahan Loh is taking his iconic astronauts off the canvas in a new toy.The figures are based on one of his large-scale paintings displayed at Le Freeport, which explored the concept of "interplanetary diaspora." Here, Loh imagines a future where humans inhabit exoplanets or other celestial bodies. The body of work is rendered through a blend of  Eastern iconography, pop culture motifs, and sci-fi, making for unsettlingly surreal, digital-like co...

En Iwamura, the Japanese artist celebrated for his Jomon handicraft-inspired pop ceramics, has partnered up with London-based Avant Arte to release a pair of sculptural editions, titled “Neo Jomon: Biomorphic fantôme.”The sculptures embody the Japanese philosophy of ma, described by the artist as a presence that “exists between one thing another,” and “between moments in time.” This concept lays at the heart of Iwamura's work, as his endearing, often undulating, figures foreground the ever-flowing energy between object and space.Carved from white and red Bardiglio Nuvolato marble, each sculpture's organic form and raked textures recall the serenity of Zen Buddhist gardens, emphasizing the importance of ma, while encouraging collectors to envision it within their own lives.For those looking...

SummaryFrench artist Christelle Oyiri presents In a perpetual remix where is my song?, the debut work of Tate's Inaugural Commission.On view through August 28, the multimedia installation explores how digital and material worlds collide in the quest for the ideal formUnder the low-slung ceilings of Tate's Tanks, a sculptural symphony of flesh and machine unfolds. The London institution tapped French artist, DJ and producer Christelle Oyiri for its inaugural Infinities Commission, and her resulting work delivered nothing short of stunning.In a perpetual remix where is my song? examines the impact of digital art on the ways we construct identity, reconsidering bodily form in an age of cut-and-splice technologies and the uncanny parallels between DJing, cosmetic surgery and online image-makin...

SummaryMaurizio Cattelan’s banana artwork "The Comedian" gets devoured again, this time at Centre-Pompidou-MetzThe piece has been eaten multiple times from a viral act by artist David Datuna in Miami to a hungry student at Seoul’s Leeum Museum in 2023It was only a matter of time before someone took another bite. Maurizio Cattelan’s infamous banana artwork "The Comedian" has once again been consumed and this time at the Centre Pompidou-Metz in eastern France.The fruit, taped to a wall as part of the museum’s current exhibition Endless Sunday, was swiftly devoured by a visitor over the weekend. Security responded quickly. Within minutes, the banana was replaced, business as usual.Artnet reported: "In a characteristically tongue-and-cheek retort, the Italian artist-provocateur said he was dis...

SummaryNina Chanel Abney has teamed up with AllRightsReserved for Bravo, a new limited-edition sculpture, now available for $350 USD.Inspired by the Hasbro x NBA Starting Lineup collectibles, the 15-inch figure is an ode to the “everyday icon” in all of our lives.With a Jordan capsule, full-court murals and a host of basketball-inspired works under her belt, Nina Chanel Abney is no stranger to the court. The Perrotin-backed artist is building on this theme with a new vinyl toy collaboration with Hong Kong-based AllRightsReserved. Drawing inspiration from classic Starting Lineup action figures, Bravo pays homage to the “everyday icon” – the star who never misses at the local rec center or neighborhood court.Frozen mid-jump shot with a bright orange basketball raised overhead, the figure is ...

SummaryArt-fashion collective MSCHF is set to unveil their latest artwork, “King Solomon's Baby,” at Pioneer Works on July 10.Priced at $100,000 as a single unit, the large-scale sculpture will be split and repriced in accordance to the number of buyers.The slicing will remain on view at Pioneer Works for a two-day durational performance, or can otherwise be viewed online.After turning heads with Material Values, hosted at Nanzuka Underground earlier this year, creative collective MSCHF makes a return to its Brooklyn roots with “King Solomon's Baby”, a large-scale sculpture bound for the butcher. Debuting on July 10 at Pioneer Works, the piece revives the biblical parable with a contemporary twist, placing its fate of dismemberment in the hands of its buyers.The premise is simple: if sold ...

SummaryBritish artist Antony Gormley is presenting Drawing on Space at Museum SAN in South Korea through November 30.At the heart of the 48-piece showcase is Ground, an architectural intervention conceived in collaboration with esteemed Japanese architect Tadao Ando.Ground, which takes the form of a meditative concrete cave, houses seven cast-iron figures from Gormley's seminal Blockworks series.For Antony Gormley, sculptor is not a single, idealized figure, but means of understanding space and form through a shared field of perception. The acclaimed British artist is currently presenting Drawing on Space, his largest exhibition in South Korea at Museum SAN. Unfolding across all three galleries of the museum's Cheongjo wing, the exhibition gathers an impressive array of 48 works, alongside...

SummaryLACMA has recently announced the acquisition of Jeff Koons' Split-Rocker (2000), which will be house outside the freshly completed David Geffen Gallery building.Expected to fully bloom and open to the public in 2026, the sculpture will anchor the museum's new public art programming, taking place on its 3.5-acre, indoor-outdoor expansion.After stops at Versailles and Rockefeller Center, Jeff Koons’ 37-foot-tall Split-Rocker will call the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) its permanent home. Gifted to the museum by art collectors Lynda and Stewart Resnick, the large-scale artist proof will be planted outside the new David Geffen galleries later this year, and will anchor the new outdoor public art program integral to LACMA’s freshly completed expansion.Koons marries two halves ...