Artworks

SummaryKatharina Grosse is the featured artist for this year’s Messeplatz Project commission at Art Basel’s marquee Swiss fair.Titled CHOIR, the immersive artwork wraps the fair entrance in blooms of magenta spray, presenting a powerful meditation on freedom and control against the clamor that awaits inside.On view through June 22, the piece revels in the ephemeral and otherwordly — “as if a vast painting has flown through, landed briefly and left its residue behind,” the artist described.Katharina Grosse has long been fixture at Art Basel, and this year her contribution is more than just a must-see — it’s nearly impossible to miss. For the 2025 Messeplatz Project, the fair tapped the seminal German artist to transform the pavilion with CHOIR, her largest urban intervention to date.With an...

SummaryAward-winning director and artist Steve McQueen has opened Bass (2024) at Schaulager Basel, which is now on view through November 16.Originally presented at Dia Beacon, the piece expands on McQueen's well-known cinematic oeuvre, using light and sound to create an immersive sensory field.When Steve McQueen unveiled Bass last year, more than a few were thrown for a loop – unlike Deadpan (1997) which earned him a Turner Prizer or his Academy Award-winning 12 Years a Slave (2013), this work was image-less altogether. Rather, the artist opted for something more pared down, using only light and sound, cinema's building blocks.McQueen brings Bass to Schaulager Basel, marking his return to the Swiss institution twelve years after his landmark eponymous exhibition. Originally co-commissioned...

Of the over 800 goals Lionel Messi’s netted over the course of his career, choosing just one favorite is no easy feat, but for the Argentine footballer, his header in the 2009 UEFA Champions League final against Manchester United takes the cake. It's a moment that crowned an unforgettable year for Barcelona, sending the team on a path to win its first treble.Now, that moment is being transformed into art in Living Memory: Messi – A Goal in Life, a groundbreaking collaboration between Messi and digital artist Refik Anadol, for Inter Miami CF Foundation’s A Goal in Life initiative.Taking the form of one of Anadol’s acclaimed “data sculptures,” Living Memory: Messi - A Goal in Life is presented as an eight-minute immersive experience rendered in 16K resolution. The “memory temple,” as the art...

SummaryArtist Yinka Ilori has unveiled 100 Found Objects, a new major public installation, at London's freshly launched Fulham Pier.Enveloping the length of the pier with a constellation of flora, fauna and "found objects," the piece pays homage to the area's storied history and culture.British-Nigerian artist Yinka Ilori is bringing a floral feast to Fulham Pier with 100 Found Objects, a new major public installation, nestled in a pocket of southwest London. Known as the “Architect of Joy,” Ilori reimagines the newly-launched destination as a living archive, shining a light on the local flora and fauna, alongside the area’s rich history of craftsmanship and cultivation.Set against the backdrop of the iconic River Thames, the piece transforms fragments found along the Thames into symbols o...

SummaryArtist Kenny Scharf and Hot Wheels come together for a collaborative collection dropping June 9.Central to the project is a full-sized and 1:65 version of one of Scharf's iconic "Karbombz!" art cars.Ever wanted a piece from Kenny Scharf's “Karbombz!” series, but couldn’t commit to copping a full-sized ride? You’re in luck. The graffiti legend is teaming up with Hot Wheels to bring his cosmic chaos to the 1967 Ford Thunderbird – in full and toy-sized versions.The collaboration marks a full-circle moment for Scharf, who grew up in the buzz of LA car culture and, like many, had an obsession with Hot Wheels as a child. The car, titled “Zooom!,” transforms one of the brand’s “Original 16” models with a cast of fiery red, spray faces. Finished with American Racing 500 Mono Cast wheels and...

SummaryA 30-year-old domestic tourist damaged two warriors of China's esteemed Terracotta Army in an incident last Friday.The man, who officials believe “[suffers] from mental illness” is currently under investigation after he climbed the protective fence and jumped into the 18-foot-deep restricted pit at the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang in Xi’an, China.A man damaged two prized terracotta warriors after scaling a fence and jumping into a restricted area of the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang in Xi’an, China last Friday.The 30-year-old domestic tourist “climbed over the guardrail and the protective net” before diving more than 17 feet into Pit No. 3, according to an official statement issued on Saturday. Once inside, he reportedly “pushed and pulled” several warriors which were “damaged to varying...

SummaryPussy Riot co-founder Nadya Tolokonnikova will stage a 10-day-long performance inside a mock Russian jail cell, running from June 4 through 15 at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.The installation explores themes of confinement, control and surveillance, and will be viewable via surveillance camera footage and peepholes.In 2012, punk rock band Pussy Riot took to Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour for a sub-minute performance of their song “Punk Prayer.” While the piece has since been heralded as one of the best artworks of the 21st century, the event landed Nadya Tolokonnikova, the group’s co-founder, in a Russian prison for two years on the grounds of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.” Now, over a decade later, Tolokonnikova is going back behind bars, bu...

SummaryOfficina Sculture Veloci's sculptures are based on iconic racing and grand touring carsFrom the skeleton to the finished work, everything is made by handThe collective avoids digital tools in favor of manual shapingOfficina Sculture Veloci, based in Modena, creates sculptures based on iconic racing and grand touring cars. Rather than focusing on speed or performance, the atelier isolates form as they treat cars like the Ferrari and Porsche as art objects worth preserving. What's more, everything is made by hand.Each project begins with selecting a model which then pivots into a deep study of its lines, proportions and visual balance. Technical drawings and photo archives are used to understand how the car was originally shaped and how best to translate that into a sculpture as the c...

SummaryA new documentary, titled Secret Mall Apartment, chronicles the story of a Rhode Island art collective that made Providence Place mall their home.Directed by Jeremy Workman and produced by Jesse Eisenberg, the film recently debuted at SXSW and has started rollout in theaters across the U.S.Back in 2003, a group of Rhode Island artists transformed a forgotten corner of Providence Place mall into a secret 750-square-foot headquarters – now their story is hitting the big screen.The group is the focus of a new documentary, Secret Mall Apartment, which made its debut at SXSW last spring. Directed by Jeremy Workman and produced by Jesse Eisenberg, the film centers around artist Michael Townsend, the “ringleader” of the covert operation, and the seven other members of the informal art coll...

SummaryLionel Messi and Refik Anadol come together to create an AI-generated artwork based on Messi’s favorite career goal.The final artwork, co-signed by Messi and Anadol, will be auctioned at Christie’s New York on June 11.Funds from the sale will benefit the A Goal in Life initiative, which empowers youth education initiatives in Latin America and the Caribbean.Lionel Messi is teaming up with Turkish artist Refik Anadol for a new AI-generated artwork based on his favorite goal. The final artwork, which will go under the hammer at Christie’s New York on June 11, is presented in two parts: an image of the goal itself, and Anadol’s AI-powered interpretation of the moment generated from millions of data points linked to the game.Over the course of his illustrious, two-decade-long career, th...

SummaryArc ZERO: Eclipse by Studio JT brings a glowing ring of mist and light to SeoulThe installation uses water and light, not screens, for a real-time atmospheric effectBuilt with The Ton, it follows a CODA Award-winning version in TaiwanA monumental new public artwork has landed in Seoul, turning heads and shifting the skyline with an ethereal presence. Titled Arc ZERO: Eclipse, the large-scale oculus installation by designer James Tapscott and his team at Studio JT forms a ring of mist and light suspended in space.The structure, fabricated with a bespoke diamond-profile ring, disperses water vapor in a precise, controlled flow. As the mist rises, it catches the shifting light of Seoul’s day and night, creating a glowing halo that subtly evolves with the atmosphere. Designed to minimiz...

This fall, acclaimed artist and activist Ai Weiwei will plant a major outdoor installation at New York's Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park, kicking off the park's Art X Freedom  program which commissions artists to create public, site-specific works circling visions of social justice.Titled Camouflage, the installation will transform the park's 3.5-acre landscape. An open-air structure clad in camouflage netting will rise at the park's southernmost tip, cloaking over the bust of Roosevelt and his engraved Four Freedoms. The granite embankments flanking the park will also be covered, creating a shifting play of light and water, with views across to the United Nations headquarters.Drawing on the park's Louis Kahn-helmed design, history and symbolic link to the UN, the piece inte...