formafantasma on research, design, and the exhibition space
 
For Formafantasma, the Milan- and Rotterdam-based studio founded by Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin, exhibition design starts with looking closely at the relationship between the artworks, the building, the institution, and the people moving through it. The duo’s research-driven practice often looks at materials, culture, and the relationship between tradition and contemporary production, and they bring the same curiosity to exhibition-making. They look for what they call ‘the tension’ in a project — the moments when the artworks, architecture, curatorial idea, and established ways of displaying art don’t quite line up.
 
‘There...

Several institutional construction projects have already opened this year, with more in the pipeline

In our era of digital screens and virtually endless images and videos, it’s a challenge to imagine the time before photography existed. Two centuries ago this year, French inventor Nicéphore Niépce successfully captured the first known permanent image. He called his new process héliographie, or “sun writing,” employing light-sensitive bitumen dissolved in lavender oil, which he used to coat a polished pewter plate. After exposing the plate on his windowsill for several hours, an image of several outbuildings on Niépce’s property emerged, and photography as we know it was born. But it wasn’t until 1839, when Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre announced his eponymous Daguerrotype, that photography...

Barbara Takenaga in her Manhattan studio (photo Jennifer Samet/Hyperallergic)With tiny filaments of paint that repeat into monumental surfaces, Barbara Takenaga’s paintings thrill and seduce but do not rest in their elegance. They suggest menacing storms, disintegrating shapes, unknowable black holes, awkward interactions, and bodily processes. Takenaga describes herself as a process painter, and her work requires a stunning amount of labor. But it isn’t perfection that she is after: She values the fourth-wall breaks that disrupt illusions and the elements that throw off purist systems. As a person, she has a wry sense of humor and a humility that connects to the humanity and interruptions visible in her...

Exhibitions celebrating Arthur Jafa and Teresa Margolles, examining the legacy of Orientalism, and more are on the itinerary this season

The fair’s autumnal edition, devoted to overlooked or under-recognised bodies of work from the previous century, is taking over Sotheby’s headquarters

Bushwick, the place I’ve called home since I was born, wasn’t always known for being the cultural art hub that some consider it today. Secretly, I avoided Bushwick Open Studios for some time because it never felt like it was for us. Not to mention, my idea of a studio in Bushwick was a small nook my mom carved out for me in our living room next to the TV in the railroad-style apartment she raised me in. This year was my first time attending the festivities, and I discovered works that challenged my assumptions.The studio building at 1717 Troutman was my first stop. I was a little nervous walking in: It looked and smelled just like the building that housed a sweater factory my mom used to work in when I was...

Nelson Garrido, Caracas, 2019 (photo Vladimir Marcano, courtesy Vladimir Marcano)Venezuelan artist Nelson Garrido, who made photography a practice of absolute freedom, died on August 20, 2026, days before his 74th birthday. The news of his death was confirmed by Gala Garrido, his daughter.  Born in Caracas on August 24, 1952, Garrido spent his youth in France, Italy, and Chile, raised by his father, a painter and Army General in the diplomatic corps. At 14 in Paris, he worked for the kinetic art pioneer Carlos Cruz-Diez; at 16 in Chile, Garrido befriended and photographed poet Nicanor Parra, taking pictures that became his first published photographs.Upon returning to Venezuela, Garrido moved to a shantytown...

New York’s biggest art fair has revamped its footprint to place artists of the Caribbean and its diasporas in the foreground, as well as stalwarts of the hometown scene

A retrospective of the late Fluxus artist Alison Knowles — known for performances, prints, sculptures, scores, and more — positions her as, of all things, an author. Curated by Karen Moss and traveling from the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA), the exhibition traces Knowles’s lifetime of output through the language of bookmaking — binding, paper, sequencing, narrative — and its radical influence on American art from the 1960s to today. Knowles's capacity to absorb, translate, and communicate her surroundings proved pivotal in introducing the interdisciplinary, avant-garde, and performance-based tenets of Fluxus (meaning “to flow”) to American art in the early...

With less than a year until Documenta 16 opens in Kassel, Germany, artistic director Naomi Beckwith said in a recent interview that some artists declined to participate in the exhibition over “Germany's position on the Gaza war” and concerns about artistic freedom in the country.Speaking to the German newspaper Die Zeit, Beckwith declined to answer directly when asked about her personal stance on Gaza, stating that the more important question was “how we can overcome this divisive mindset,” and “how can we start talking to one another again?”“I understand the need for solidarity and support, but we’re not going to get anywhere with entrenched sides,” Beckwith explained when prompted....

While the swooping building is impressive and easy to navigate, the collection is patchy and the displays are at times “bizarre”

Through vivid collages layering fragments of paper and fiber, Clotilde Jiménez echoes his own mélange of experiences and histories. The Mexico City-based artist was born in Honolulu to a Puerto Rican mother and African-American father, and he grew up in Philadelphia, before attending university in Cleveland and London. Both his heritage and ties to different cities around the globe nest together in his work, which draws references from the cultural and political contexts of each locale. Using magazine clippings, Mexican craft paper, fabrics, and other pliable materials, Jiménez fashions dense portraits of his family alongside archetypal depictions of Blackness and masculinity. Fragments of burlap and thin...

‘le bruit du bois’ makes a pavilion you can play
 
High above Faverges-Seythenex in the French Alps, a long timber structure cuts across the grassy slope. It is a pavilion, but its architecture comes with a second use. Visitors can pick up a wooden stick and play it. Rows of suspended timber pieces produce a sequence of tones that travels along the structure and out into the valley. Those who have been there recall how its sounds have joined the wind and distant cowbells which already move through the landscape.
 
Called Le Bruit du Bois, or The Sound of Wood, the fifteen-square-meter installation was designed by Antoine Aunave, Flora Peyrot, Mathilde Steenhaut, and Luc Loviton for the 2026 Festival des...

To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter. Good morning! A New York appellate court has faulted investigators for seizing an Egon Schiele drawing. New documents show President Trump-appointed officials planned to deaccession the Kennedy Center’s art collection. Two visitors to the Louvre were arrested after they installed paintings near the Mona Lisa. The Headlines D.A. TO BACK DOWN? A New York appellate court has faulted investigators from the Manhattan district attorney’s office for seizing a hotly contested Egon Schiele drawing from the Art Institute of Chicago, reports the New York Times. Their ruling states that investigators should not...

PRADA BUILDS UP, AND DOWN
 
Prada has expanded its historic presence inside Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II into an eight-floor universe of retail, hospitality, art and archive. Named Prada Galleria, the project occupies the site where Fratelli Prada first opened in 1913, stretching vertically through the 19th-century arcade and, crucially, beneath it. A new subterranean passage now connects the Prada Donna and Prada Uomo stores across the Galleria’s central octagon, turning two addresses into a single destination — because, apparently, crossing the arcade at street level was no longer quite ambitious enough.
 
Developed under the direction of Miuccia Prada, the complex brings together more than...

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Motspråk turns a plywood painting into a chair
 
Motspråk by PEYTIL and lead designer Eitil Arbenz Thorén is a painting on plywood that has been cut apart and reassembled as a chair, exploring the transition from artwork to functional object. Developed during Thorén’s studies at Konstfack in Stockholm in September 2026, the project uses plywood for its layered construction and its relative ease of cutting and reshaping.
all images ©PEYTIL – Eitil Arbenz Thorén
 
 
Spruce grain and knots become part of the painting
 
The plywood surface also becomes part of the painting itself. Knots and irregularities in the spruce appear as small bodily marks, scars, or eyes, influencing the development of the...

In the early ’90s, Catherine Liu contributed regular dispatches from the downtown New York gallery scene for Artforum

On the International Space Station (ISS), a module known as the Cupola allows astronauts to float into a small, window-filled viewing area. It’s used for observing high-tech exercises, spacewalks, and incoming vehicles, but it’s also a spectacular place to view what’s right outside: Earth. Astronauts often take thousands of photos and videos of what they see from their lofty vantage point, and the Association of Space Explorers (ASE)—the professional association of astronauts who have flown on a mission, representing 43 countries—archives the footage for educational use. So far, the collection consists of more than seven million photos and movies. What to do with all of them? Enter Earth Music...

Elena Serafimova  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
 
Elena Serafimova’s Website
Elena Serafimova on Instagram

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On Diego Marcon’s sick children, dangling puppets, and suspended bodies

what happens when an acoustic guitar trades wood for stone?
 
An acoustic guitar usually depends on a thin wooden body to turn the vibration of its strings into a larger movement of air. BeBeau Builds starts with a more stubborn material. For his latest experiment, the maker replaces the familiar timber shell with a faceted body assembled from 18 pieces of slate, producing a guitar that weighs 48.7 pounds and still functions as an acoustic instrument.
 
The idea begins with sound. Struck on its own, the thick slate gives off a long metallic ring, enough to suggest that the stone could resonate once shaped into a hollow body. Its physical behavior creates the harder part of the project. The slabs are heavy...

The mezzo international anthem is so oversung that we forget how hard it is to sing.

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L’orizzonte del paesaggio siciliano, spesso ridotto a mera cartolina visiva, a stereotipo turistico o a sfondo immutabile per una narrazione oleografica, trova nell’arte contemporanea uno spazio di indagine radicale, capace di svelarne le faglie nascoste, le ferite ecologiche e le profonde stratificazioni mitologiche. È questa la direzione intrapresa dal progetto espositivo che vede protagonista Stefania Galegati all’interno della suggestiva cornice dell’Ecomuseo Urbano Mare Memoria Viva di Palermo, un appuntamento culturale di primo piano che volge verso le sue ultime settimane di apertura. Iniziativa vincitrice dell’Italian Council (13esima edizione, 2024), la mostra si sviluppa come un’opera...

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Two visitors to the Louvre in Paris were arrested Saturday after they installed two paintings in the Salle des États, which houses the Mona Lisa, according to a report by Agence France-Presse that cited police sources. According to police, they stuck two paintings (each measuring about 11.8 by 15.7 inches) onto the walls of the Salle des États with sticky tape. One painting showed one of the suspects wearing a suit of armor, while the other showed the two with a woman. The Mona Lisa, which attracts crowds from opening to close, was not damaged in the incident. The two visitors were not identified by first name and last name initial, as is common in France, but only as German nationals. They were first...

Opera San José opened its season with a new production of Don Giovanni that embraced the opera’s challenges with youthful abandon, even as it was sometimes felled by them.

By Lacey Argus Sovern, a nonprofit art gallery and healing justice center in Los Angeles, sticks out like a vibrant castle in the midst of the harsh greys of urban Los Angeles. The bright shades of pink and elaborate designs that adorn its concrete walls draw you in, as if calling you to explore the treasures within. The gallery's current showing is Into the Pluriverse, running from June 25 through October 8, 2026. Into the Pluriverse is a group exhibition inspired by the Zapatista term...

Finally, finally, a change to see Massenet's Hérodiade, albeit in concert from, though I long for a day when the Met or the Lyric Opera of Chicago would give us a staged performance.

Al confine fra sogno e realtà, Francesco Dabbicco costruisce la propria ricerca pittorica come un territorio di attraversamento tra memoria luminosa, immaginazione infantile e responsabilità civile. Nelle sue opere, l’eredità cromatica e atmosferica di Sorolla sembra incontrare una dimensione ludica e primaria dello sguardo: quella capacità, quasi pascoliana, di ritrovare nel mondo il “fanciullino” capace di stupire, far gioire e rivelare la propria innocenza. Il suo lavoro non si esaurisce, però, nella superficie dell’immagine: Dabbicco guarda al contesto urbano e comunitario come a un campo vivo di relazione. A Triggiano (Bari), il paese in cui vive, la sua pratica si intreccia con i temi della...

“50 testi x 50 artisti” è l’ennesima testimonianza della scrittura proteiforme che Roberto Vidali, direttore editoriale della rivista Juliet, ha iniziato a praticare da quando, nel 1975, ha iniziato a stilare le prime schede ciclostilate per le mostre da lui organizzate per il Centro La Cappella Underground di Trieste. Tale processo di rielaborazione soggettiva e variegata non va letta come motivo di immaturità o di evoluzione in corso d’opera, ma di ricerca e di attenzione alla diversità e all’esondazione di stampo immaginifico.
“50 testi x 50 artisti”, fascicolo aperto, progetto grafico di Piero Scheriani. Juliet Editrice 2026
Questo fascicolo, ora pubblicato da Juliet Editrice come...

Visits to Olney Gleason, Garth Greenan, David Zwirner, and more during New York's first week of fall openings

Six of the fall's new crop of gallery openings at Lomex, Maxwell Graham, Theta, David Peter Francis, Ellie Rines Gallery, and Ulrik

A fast-moving cloudburst swept through Florence on September 17, dropping nearly two inches of rain in the span of an hour and sending water cascading into the Uffizi Gallery and the historic Palazzo Pitti, sparking concern regarding the masterpieces within. At the Uffizi, rain seeped through a skylight of a gallery housing a clutch of […]

One of the most intimate windows into an artist’s practice is their studio. While some creatives thrive on methodical organization and tidiness, others reach their flow state amid a cluttered chaos where dozens of ideas unfold at once. Whether at one end of this spectrum or somewhere in the middle, these spaces offer unique perspectives on both the artist and the masterpieces that emerge from their confines. Forthcoming from Phaidon, Another View: The Vibrant World of Contemporary Black Artists invites readers into 20 distinctive studios. Celebrating some of the most prominent artists working today—such as Nick Cave, Nina Chanel Abney, Hank Willis Thomas, Carrie Mae Weems, Kerry James Marshall, and many...

Naomi Beckwith, the curator of the forthcoming edition of Documenta, said some artists had already declined to participate in the exhibition because of Germany’s stance on Israel’s war in Gaza. Documenta, which is staged every five years in Kassel, Germany, is one of the most prestigious recurring art exhibitions in the world. But ever since the controversy that faced the last edition, in 2022, the show has faced bitter criticism, with many alleging that politicians’ accusations of antisemitism at the exhibition were born of an attempt to crack down on pro-Palestine art. The controversy has also impacted Documenta 16, whose entire curatorial selection committee resigned en masse in 2023. Beckwith, the...

When Getty photographer Brendan Smialowski captured a photo on Wednesday night of Air Force One after landing at Joint Base Andrews, outside Washington, D.C., it showed president Donald Trump in a red baseball cap reading a placard that seems to read “Kennedy Center DEMOLISHED.” This led to an emergency Thursday filing by Joyce Beatty, Democratic US Representative for Ohio’s Third Congressional District and an ex officio trustee of the Center, asking the federal judge in the ongoing Kennedy Center case “to make crystal clear that its order prohibits demolishing the structure.” On Wednesday, Trump said, “For me to go and fix it and subsidize it, I think the Trump administration should have...

New archaeological discoveries at Tell Al-Abqain in Beheira are revealing details about life within the ancient Egyptian fortress, the country’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced on Wednesday. According to the ministry, they also underscore Tell Al-Abqain’s importance as a military stronghold during the New Kingdom period (1570–1069 BCE), when it was established to protect Egypt against incursions by Libyan tribes. The finds, made by an Egyptian archaeological mission, include a residential complex, stelae, and, most intriguingly, the possibly ceremonial burial of a horse. In a statement, Egypt’s minister of tourism and antiquities Sherif Fathy emphasized that the discoveries not only shed...

Measuring 28 feet wide and seven feet tall, two monumental wooden relief sculptures anchor Beyond Silence, a new exhibition at GRAY Chicago featuring works by Catalan artist and sculptor Jaume Plensa. The broad works—titled “Julia” and “Maria”—were created as part of the artist’s recent series, Beyond Silence, which shares a name with the show. The two paneled pieces transform the gallery’s open exhibition space with their rigid angles, creating a structured rhythm to complement the subdued contours of the faces they depict. As a result, a conversation arises between Plensa’s signature overarching motifs, such as the human figure, use of architectural materials, and the perception of space....

The Royal Opera House's Don Giovanni comes without an instruction manual — but features a fine lothario in Gordon Bintner.

Kübra Çetin  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
 
Kübra Çetin’s Website

Il corpo è il luogo in cui l’esperienza resiste alla sua trasformazione in immagine. Lo abitiamo prima ancora di poterlo guardare e nella cultura occidentale è stato a lungo qualcosa da osservare, misurare, desiderare. Quello femminile, più di ogni altro, è stato costruito come superficie: un’immagine predisposta allo sguardo, un territorio sul quale si sono depositati desideri, fantasie, norme e rapporti di potere. Che cosa accade quando quella superficie smette di essere soltanto guardata? Quando il corpo diventa il luogo da cui si guarda, si ricorda, si desidera, si produce conoscenza? È una delle fratture decisive aperte dall’arte femminista. Nel 1975, in Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,...

With San Francisco Opera's orchestra on strike and bass Andrew Potter retiring at 43, Miles Greenberg sees opera's ethics and economics of impracticality at a breaking point

Tutto inizia da un pastello a cera color salmone, il Caran d’Ache Neocolor II numero 7500.051, che Nicola Toffolini ha steso in maniera uniforme su un foglio senza aggiungervi nient’altro: nessun segno, nessuna figura, solo la campitura di quella tinta aranciata, opaca e sorprendentemente regolare nella texture, nonostante l’esecuzione manuale. La chiama Matrice, ed è proprio da questo singolo colore reso oggetto autonomo di contemplazione che si sviluppa Roseo, il progetto che l’artista presenta allo Spazio Kappa-Nöun di San Lazzaro di Savena (BO) dopo quasi due anni di elaborazione.
Nicola Toffolini, “Roseo”, installation view at Kappa-Nöun, courtesy the artist and Kappa-Nöun
Inevitabile...

Benjamin Styer  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
 
Benjamin Styer’s Website
Benjamin Styer on Instagram

Kosuke Ajiro
GR gallery is pleased to present Excavation Record I – Sayonara, the first solo exhibition in the United States by Japanese artist Kosuke Ajiro. The exhibition introduces Ajiro’s distinctive practice through the figure of the archeologist, who ventures into a whimsical and enigmatic imagined realm known as the “Kingdom of Sally.” Across the exhibition, each work reveals a fragment of this mysterious world, uncovering earthbound creatures and curious details before opening onto a vast, fantastical expanse. Moving between the familiar and the otherworldly, Ajiro’s works invite the viewer on a journey of mystery, magic, transformation, and discovery. As the story gradually reveals itself,...

Michael Francalanci  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
 
Michael Francalanci’s Website
Michael Francalanci on Instagram

By Jody Zellen Eileen Cowin's thoughtful, intimate, and arresting retrospective Between Panic and Paradise prompted me to take Roland Barthes' Camera Lucida off the shelf. His complex reflections on the essence of photography resonate with Cowin's exhibition. Cowin stages intimate private moments and frames them with precision and exactitude. Blending reality and fiction, she seeks to document the emotional connection that forms with her subjects — be it her family, herself and her twin...

For three decades, Harriet Mena Hill has been a resident of South East London. This area is known in the art world for its schools, such as the esteemed Camberwell College of Arts. But Hill and others who lived there for some time remember it as a historically working-class and, at times, impoverished area of […]
The post Harriet Mena Hill Brings Crumbling Concrete Back To Life first appeared on Hi-Fructose Magazine.

By Barbara Patterson Trans femme artist Pau Pescador's latest exhibition, Amor Prohibido, at Tyler Park Presents explores the volatility of becoming visible in a public space that criminalizes the existence of queer people. As anti-transgender legislation increases and security technologies evolve, the visibility of gender-nonconforming individuals becomes more precarious. A 2015 report by the National Institute of Standards and Technology describes how "intruders" in gender-segregated areas...

Marigold Santos’s spectral forms are as layered with detail as they are with metaphor. Swirling amid marbled backgrounds in a feverish dance, they serve as critical examinations of cultural injustice. Their textures materialize their celestial properties as they become fierce teachers of colonial violence, problematic histories, and forgotten ancestry. Covertly, her haunting figural silhouettes aim […]
The post Celestial Stance: The Art of Marigold Santos first appeared on Hi-Fructose Magazine.

By Betty Ann Brown "What is Art, monsieur, but Nature concentrated?"—Honoré de Balzac "Art distills sensation and embodies it with enhanced meaning."—Miguel de Unamuno Hiroko Yoshimoto's paintings concentrate nature into radiant and dynamic beauty, distilling visual sensation into poetic and environmental significance. Throughout the 2020s, Yoshimoto has worked on two series of paintings about nature: Biodiversity and Of Infinite Variety. Both series are based on observation of the natural...

By Julie Faith There is something strange about returning to a place you once knew well after being away for a long time. You recognize the architecture before you recognize what the years have done to you. As I passed through the gate at Corey Helford Gallery, crossed the lot, and headed up the stairs, I felt ridiculously, wonderfully giddy. Kid-in-a-candy-store giddy. I have been away from the gallery and much of the Los Angeles art world, but somewhere between the gate and the stairs, I...

Skeletons, tombstones, and serpents. These are just a few of the iconic images pre-v ailing throughout the works of Morgan Sorensen—all relating to the themes of struggle, sadness, pain, and death. While anyone might agree that these graphic designs would all make for killer band T’s, there’s quite a bit of depth surrounding the artist’s […]
The post Future Relics: The Art of Morgan Sorensen first appeared on Hi-Fructose Magazine.

The body is an obsession for Monica Piloni. Whether it’s a hollowed face in the Samieses series or the eerie dolls depicted in “Ilegais”, a majority of Monica Piloni’s sculptures confront the human form. And while consistently returning to the body may seem confining to some, it’s a pursuit marked by liberation for the Brazilian […]
The post The Disconcertingly Honest Self-Portrait Sculptures of Monica Piloni first appeared on Hi-Fructose Magazine.

This article originally appeared in Hi-Fructose issue 42, which is sold out. See Matthew Grabelsky’s new solo show at Thinkspace gallery here.  Matthew Grabelsky had studied tradition in Florence, lived in the cultural nuclei of Europe, but hadn’t yet found the idea that would set him apart as an artist living in the twenty-first century. […]
The post Human/Nature: Animals Go Underground In the Paintings of Matthew Grabelsky first appeared on Hi-Fructose Magazine.