An episode of the BBC One documentary series Fake or Fortune? that aired on July 23 confirmed that a previously unattributed artwork was in fact painted by the 18th century Scottish artist Katherine Read. The painting belongs to Mary-Louise Wedderburn, a retired accountant who inherited it from her uncle 20 years ago. Wedderburn presented the gold-framed painting—a portrait of a young Indian woman with a languid expression, wearing several strands of pearl necklaces and a large emerald pendant—wrapped in a sleeping bag. According to the BBC, their research team wasn’t going in complete cold: Wedderburn had an inkling that it could be by Read, who was a distant relative. The painting is estimated to be...

Sable Elyse Smith, “Coloring Book 111” (2022), screen printing ink, oil stick, and oil pastel on paper (all photos Liz Kim/Hyperallergic)AUSTIN — A sustained critique of the United States carceral system runs through Sable Elyse Smith's work. Clockwork at the Contemporary Austin, the culmination of her winning the 2026 Suzanne Deal Booth / FLAG Art Foundation Prize, consists mainly of paintings appropriating prison coloring books for visiting children on the first floor, and large-scale sculptures and installations on the second. Seen as a whole, Smith’s work co-opts Minimalism’s repetition and seriality as a metaphor for structural injustice, drawing attention to the rhythmic qualities of...

The Ecuadorian Ministry of Education, Sports and Culture on July 19 named a team led by Japanese architecture firm SANAA as the winners of the competition to design the new National Museum of Ecuador in the capital city. Collectively known as SANAA + A0-CPA-JHS and additionally comprising Quito, Ecuador-based firms Estudio A0 and Caá Porá Arquitectura; Mexico City’s Taller Capital Landscape; and Harlem, New York-based-Jerome […]

Italian art critic and curator Cloe Piccoli has been selected as the new artistic director of Milan’s miart fair for a term extending from 2027–29. The announcement, made by trade fair and exhibition organizer Fiera Milano on July 22, described Piccoli’s appointment as part of the fair’s development path, “drawing on the wealth of relationships, […]

SAN FRANCISCO — Emory Douglas honed his craft in the trenches of political artmaking. The artist first learned the basics of commercial printing while serving a 15-month sentence at a juvenile correctional facility at the age of 13; later, he became the minister of culture for the Black Panther Party, where he designed the party’s newspaper and shaped the group’s political aesthetic. Douglas’s deep-seated understanding of the strength of printed material and critical eye toward oppressive power structures have remained key features of his work for decades. Now, the 83-year-old artist is the subject of the survey exhibition Emory Douglas: In Our Lifetime at San Francisco’s African American Art and...

The small settlement of Pyramiden on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard is literally frozen in time. A former mining outpost for the Soviet Union, industrial operations ceased in 1998, and residents relocated. It wasn’t until 2007 that a handful of new inhabitants made the settlement home. Because Pyramiden was abandoned in a cold climate, it remains impeccably preserved, with remnants of its once-thriving settlement still visible. French photographer Damien Aubin visited the Arctic region and documented the still, serene environment blanketed in snow. “The place has not been abandoned. It has been left in suspension,” he says. Classroom, Pyramiden Pyramiden’s buildings and the objects inside are...

The United States has repatriated a collection of cultural artifacts illegally taken from Indonesia’s Papua region, the Associated Press reports. The handover took place on Wednesday July 22, when FBI director Kash Patel visited Indonesian president Prabowo Subianto’s residence in Jakarta. The returned artifacts are part of the cultural heritage of the Dani and Asmat tribes and […]

Following the departure of Buffalo AKG Art Museum director Janne Sirén in October, after 13 years on the job, the Upstate New York modern and contemporary art museum is turning inward for its future leaders. Today, it announced the appointment of the museum’s current chief curator, Cathleen Chaffee, as the new artistic director, alongside the promotion of its deputy director, Jillian Jones, to become the next executive director. Both will start in their new roles on November 1. “Over the past twelve years, Jillian Jones and Cathleen Chaffee have each had a transformative impact on this institution — the talent we needed was already here,” said museum board president Alice F. Jacobs in a statement....

The director of the 2028 iteration of the Aichi Triennale, one of the largest international art festivals in Japan, will be Shabbir Hussain Mustafa, the event’s organizing committee announced on Friday. Mustafa presently serves as chief curator of Singapore Art Museum, and was chosen for his distinguished track record and his ability to offer a […]

The Banco Santander Foundation announced September 8 as the new opening date for its forthcoming art center, the Faro Santander. The news was first reported by El País. The space’s three inaugural shows include a Leonora Carrington solo, an exhibition looking at the Banco Santander’s previously unseen collection of masterpieces, and “Modern Mexico in the Gelman Santander Collection,” drawing from the holdings of the Gelman Collection, which has been mired in controversy since January when the foundation revealed that it now owned 160 of the 300 works that had been assembled by Jacques and Natasha Gelman between 1941 and 1998. They were originally to go on view at the Faro Santander in June.   The...

The Venice Biennale will not exclude Russia from its events due to political pressure, the foundation’s president said Thursday in a public address criticizing the European Union’s recent confirmation that it will suspend a €2 million ($2.3 million) grant. The withdrawal of funding was made in response to Russia’s participation in this year’s Biennale for the first time since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. During the opening of the 2026 Venice Film Festival, Biennale president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco said the EU ”was ⁠a fellow traveler with whom we shared part of a journey, ​and who is now leaving us for reasons that are entirely ​political, certainly not legal, and still less...

This week, the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) announced the 2026 recipients of its annual NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship, which distributes $8,000 in cash grants to artists living in the state of New York or in one of the Tribal Nations therein. The fellowship is the product of a collaboration with the New York […]

Hand-Finished Aluminum and Carbon Fiber Reframes Ducati 821
 
Bandit9 introduces a new iteration of its Ducati 821, combining hand-brushed aluminum and carbon fiber with a surface treatment focused on the relationship between material, finish, and form. The 2026 version features new upgrades and details, with production limited to nine models.
 
The Ducati 821 is based on Ducati’s 821cc Testastretta L-Twin engine, producing 110 horsepower and 65.8 ft-lb of torque, with a 0–60 mph time of 3.3 seconds. The motorcycle is equipped with Brembo monobloc brakes and Sachs suspension at the front and rear. Bandit9, a Saigon-based motorcycle design studio founded by Daryl Villanueva, approaches the model as a...

As previews continue in advance of showtime upon its opening on September 22, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles—the starry institution conceived by director George Lucas and his wife Mellody Hobson—announced its inaugural film program at San Diego Comic Con. In a panel discussion featuring Lucas Museum senior curator and head of film programs Ryan Linkof alongside DC Comics CEO Jim Lee, actress Keke Palmer, and two founders of ConStoopid Buddy Stoodios, news dropped for what will be on offer in two designated theaters where select films will be screened “on a non-stop basis throughout the day, offering visitors an open-door, drop-in gallery-like experience.” The list is eclectic, with...

space-habitat thinking lands in zealand
 
On a wooded plot in Zealand, Denmark, a broad roof of oak shingles drops around a 35-square-meter summerhouse built for six people. SAGA Space Architects calls it EcoNeo, a compact timber retreat with two sleeping mezzanines tucked above its shared interior and a sauna set into the ground floor. The scale is closer to a studio apartment, but the silhouette echoes a traditional cabin, with deep eaves and large windows. Meanwhile, a terrace extends into the surrounding garden.
 
Earlier this year, designboom looked inside SAGA’s lunar and underwater habitats, where limited space shapes every surface and system. EcoNeo brings that experience back to Earth. The...

“When I was really little, I wanted to be one of those stackable chairs you’d see in like a school auditorium,” Felicia Chiao says. “I thought they looked cozy.” This childhood memory is the basis for a playful drawing in which Chiao’s signature characters mound atop one another. Layering reigns in this imagined world as calendars and clocks emerge from the wall in dense piles, while stacks of books and dishes rest on the floor. Chiao is known for her warm illustrations that capture emotion and the variances of mental health through surreal, flower-filled scenes. Working in pencil, ink, and watercolor, the artist renders compositions that feel both timeless and indicative of our current age, in...

Welcome to the 347th installment of A View From the Easel, a series in which artists reflect on their workspace. This week, Shahryar Nashat sculpts along to the sounds of Kelis's "Milkshake" and experiments with "a nautical glue the color of honey."Want to take part? Check out our submission guidelines and share a bit about your studio with us through this form! All mediums and workspaces are welcome, including your home studio.Shahryar Nashat, Asnières-sur-Seine, FranceHow long have you been working in this space?Three years this September. Although the space is similar to my former studio in Glendale, California, the journey couldn’t be different. Before, I drove by car through Laurel Canyon to...

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Colossal has always called Chicago home. We love highlighting artists and designers in our own community, and the Colossal Shop’s newest collection brings our creative neighbors to a wider global audience. This selection features one-of-a-kind and handmade objects from Chicago-based artists we’re excited to share a city with. From unique ceramic forms to thoughtfully designed apparel, there’s something exciting for everyone. Shop the collection now. Periwinkle Ripple Mugs With rhythmic, stacked silhouettes and looping handles, these one-of-a-kind mugs turn morning coffees into a sculptural experience. Created as a series of 8 exclusively for Colossal, each retro-futuristic mug is uniquely hand-thrown...

play is a Right that We often Treat as Optional
 
Walk through almost any city, take a look around, and it soon becomes clear what a society chooses to prioritize. Roads are measured to move traffic efficiently. Schools are planned around learning outcomes. Hospitals are designed for care, housing for shelter, and public parks for recreation. Every environment reflects a hierarchy of needs shaped by policy, economics, culture, and yet, among these strategically planned systems, one essential aspect of childhood often remains surprisingly fragile: the right to play.
 
Play is frequently perceived as something allowed to happen once more urgent needs have been met. It appears as a playground tucked into the...

Julian Adon Alexander  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
 
Julian Adon Alexander’s Website
Julian Adon Alexander on Instagram

Les Arts Florissants (lightly) stages two Charpentier rarities as a summer wedding gone wrong.

Cher public is exhorted to join the Geplauder when the annual week of broadcasts from Bayreuth begins on Saturday

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Six Facade Fragments Reframe Ragdale Ring as Open-Ended Stage
 
Front of House is the winning proposal by Gluten for the 2026 Ragdale Ring Competition at the Ragdale Foundation in Lake Forest, Illinois. Rather than defining the Ring as a single stage, the project treats it as a distributed landscape for performance, gathering, movement, and everyday occupation. A series of architectural fragments allows multiple activities and interactions to occur simultaneously, positioning architecture as an active component of the performance environment rather than a static backdrop.
 
The project takes the front facade of Ragdale House as its starting point. The elevation is scaled to the dimensions required for the...

IFDA 2027 OPENS SUBMISSIONS FOR TIMBER DESIGNS
 
Returning for its 13th edition, the International Furniture Design Competition Asahikawa (IFDA 2027) has officially launched its call for entries under a singular, provocative theme: Origin. The triennial competition invites creators from across the globe to re-examine the fundamental relationship between human lifestyle, craftsmanship, and raw timber. The theme asks designers to look closely at the intrinsic qualities of wood, pushing the boundaries of traditional technology and modern design while exploring the potential of the material.
International Furniture Design Competition Asahikawa (IFDA 2027) | all images courtesy of IFDA
 
 
CONNECTING GLOBAL...

Picture yourself in front of a giant wiener on a hot summer day right in the heart of Times Square. You watch a talent competition featuring a drag Melania Trump, a UPS worker dropping off boxes full of Epstein files, a "clay woman," and one of the jurors is Curtis Sliwa in his red beret. Am I making this up? No. That's what Editor-at-Large Hrag Vartanian saw at the very real The Most American Pageant Ever! and you know what, it's the sanest thing you've seen in a while. Speaking of bizarre things happening on this country's 250th anniversary, the quill of an 1834 statue of Thomas Jefferson broke while it was being moved inside a New York museum. In an opinion piece today, scholar and...

I trust, fellow Parterre readers, that we can all agree that Riccardo Muti is a great opera conductor.

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Air, baubles, fish hooks, domesticity and dips.

Louis Vuitton is suing a casino, and the timeline alone makes the case. Maryland Live! Casino ran a loyalty promotion... Read More

Victoria Mouraux Durand-Ruel will open Mouraux Durand-Ruel Gallery bringing a new contemporary art space to New York's Chelsea district

Nella cultura odierna orientata all’immagine, gli artisti sono costantemente circondati da riferimenti visivi – dai feed dei social media, alle scene cinematografiche, dalla storia dell’arte e dagli archivi personali. Il curatore e critico francese Nicolas Bourriaud ha descritto questo approccio come “postproduzione”: gli artisti non creano più da zero, ma rimescolano e reinterpretano immagini e simboli culturali esistenti. L’ascesa di Internet ha solo intensificato questo processo. Gli artisti contemporanei ora lavorano con flussi infiniti di immagini online, fotografie trovate e materiali d’archivio, citandoli, rimescolandoli e riappropriandosene mentre li caricano di significati...

The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) has awarded $903,000 to 132 artists across New York State in its joint fellowship program with the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA). The program gives unrestricted cash grants of $8,000 to artists working in five disciplines, which rotate every year.This year's recognized disciplines included craft and sculpture; digital and electronic arts; nonfiction literature; poetry; and printmaking, drawing, and book arts. Selected from a pool of 3,985 applicants, the awarded artists are all based in New York and range in age from 25 to 90. The NYSCA/NYFA program also announced 16 finalists, who will receive NYFA services and unrestricted cash grants of...

For Donna Wilson, there’s no reason that knitwear and home decor shouldn’t incorporate a lot of color and elicit joy. From patterned towels and socks to blankets and hot water bottle sleeves, the London-based designer celebrates vibrant patterns and playful creatures, especially in her series of cushions. What’s not to love about a pillow with personality? The soft objects ranging from bolsters to floor cushions to throw pillows are covered in knitted lambswool. Current designs include a larger-than-life banana, a whale, a toadstool, and more. The objects are produced in small batches in what Wilson describes as a “micro-factory” called the Knit Shop in Scotland, where vibrant flora and fauna, not to...

In galleries, magazines, apps and digital storefronts, clarity is often treated as a design preference. It is seen as something... Read More

By Betty Ann Brown "Beauty comes from the balance between two and three dimensions, between abstraction and representation — I seek the equilibrium behind changing appearances."—Henri Matisse Jill sykes by Eric Minh Swenson Jill Sykes creates beautiful paintings of botanical phenomena. Like Matisse, she translates three-dimensional objects into two-dimensional images, occupying the territory between abstraction and representation to achieve balance and equilibrium. From a very early age,...

For more than four decades, environmental artist Patrick Dougherty has reimagined the technical and sculptural capabilities of one simple material: twigs. Over the years, the North Carolina-based artist completed well over 300 large-scale, site-specific installations in a series he calls Stickworks, using literal truckloads of willow saplings from specialized farms in Canada that grow them for applications like fencing, basketmaking, and more. Where possible, Dougherty has also incorporated materials the local area had to offer. I first stumbled upon the artist’s whimsical constructions in Door County, Wisconsin, where “Happy Go Lucky” sits at Horseshoe Bay Farms near Egg Harbor. By the time I...

For years, the phrase “destination wedding” conjured up a very specific, almost uniform image: a sun-drenched beach, white folding chairs... Read More

While it may not be top-tier Rossini, Teatro Nuovo's mounting of Il turco in Italia is still good summer fun.

Fifty some years ago I stumbled on to John Barbirolli's recording of matchless Elgar & V-Williams music for strings and discovered my go-to conductor for life.

C’è una linea invisibile ma potentissima che unisce la frazione di un secondo in cui scatta l’otturatore di una macchina fotografica e la durata temporale di una nota musicale. Luigi Ghirri, tra i più grandi maestri della fotografia contemporanea, definiva questo legame una «strana e misteriosa parentela». Per esplorare questa sinergia profonda, Palazzo dei Musei di Reggio Emilia ha inaugurato la mostra Luigi Ghirri. A Series of Dreams. Paesaggi visivi e paesaggi sonori, un ambizioso percorso espositivo curato da Ilaria Campioli e Andrea Tinterri, con la curatela musicale di Giulia Cavaliere.
Luigi Ghirri, “A Series of Dreams”, installation view, photo Iacopo Pasqui, courtesy Musei Civici di Reggio...

All images courtesy of CHOI&CHOI Gallery and the artist Sculptor Yu Jinyoung garnered international acclaim for her striking figures, whose bodies are often partially transparent. These are individuals “who wish to become invisible,” she says: “those who exist free from external attention and interference.” These explorations of both intentional isolation and somber loneliness have always […]
The post The Once Invisible Figures of Yu JinYoung first appeared on Hi-Fructose Magazine.

Aaron Agosto  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
 
Aaron Agosto’s Website
Aaron Agosto on Instagram

La giovane e promettente artista Georgia Gardner Gray dipinge Stonehenge. Se il visitatore si aspetta quadri grigi, si sbaglia completamente: i dipinti esplodono di colore e tensione. A prima vista, i dipinti di Georgia Gardner Gray sembrano provenire dalla galleria di uno smartphone. Foto di un tempo recente, memorie di momenti vissuti. Ma, aspetta, c’è Stonehenge sullo sfondo? Una donna guarda il visitatore, i suoi tatuaggi sulla caviglia e sulla spalla sono come un codice sconosciuto allo spettatore. Le sue mani toccano appena una corona di fiori. Questa non è affatto la vita quotidiana! Il visitatore è forse entrato in un rituale, dove si fanno verticali sulla testa?
GENERATOR #5: Georgia Gardner...

By Victoria Thomas There's something about a hanging. Whether legal or not, the visual experience seems mythic, supernatural, theatrical, and ritualistic, versus the efficiency of a swift kill. If local authorities greenlight the killing, it's called a hanging. If they don't, the hanging is extrajudicial, and it's called a lynching. Anyone with even the scantiest grasp of American history will know that our country has a sordid romance with lynching — a romance which persists. And unless...

Common Objects brings together the work of 97 photographers from across the globe to explore the role of the image and its ability to shape perception. Organized not by theme or geography but by visual association, the book draws on the logic of the reference catalog—a structure built for sustained, democratic looking. Within it, photographs from vastly different cultures and contexts find themselves in unexpected proximity, generating connections and contrasts that no single image could produce alone. In this format, the photographs enter into a subtle dialogue with one another, revealing how context, sequence, and framing shape interpretation and inform visual experience.  
   
   
   
   
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All’interno dell’ex edificio industriale dell’Espace Monte-Cristo, nel quartiere del Père-Lachaise a Parigi, Diseuses de silence si configura come un dispositivo espositivo che non si limita a tematizzare il silenzio, ma lo assume come condizione epistemologica, come forma differenziale della percezione e come campo di tensione tra visibile e dicibile. Ospitata nella sede parigina della Fondation Villa Datris, istituzione fondata nel 2011 da Danièle Marcovici e Tristan Fourtine e dedicata alla promozione della scultura contemporanea in senso espanso, la mostra si inserisce in una traiettoria curatoriale che concepisce la scultura non più come oggetto, ma come ambiente percettivo, struttura relazionale...

Claudia Koh  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
 
Claudia Koh on Instagram

Il principio della sottrazione è il centro attorno al quale si articola la nuova mostra dell’artista Marco Rèa (Roma, 1975), intitolata “Silence is” allestita alla Street Levels Gallery di Firenze. Il principio della sottrazione affonda le sue radici in concetti autentici e lineari legati all’esistenza e alla visione della realtà. Lo stesso Italo Calvino in “Lezioni Americane” definisce la sottrazione come uno strumento concreto per alleggerire il peso del mondo, lasciando integra la sua sostanza. Rèa, con le sue creazioni, attinge da oltre vent’anni a un percorso che attraversa i confini tra street art, sistema dell’immagine e ricerca visiva contemporanea.
Marco Rèa, “Silence is”,...

Photos by Robert Berg, Gregory Gorman, courtesy of the Donum; with additional photos by Annie Owens Balancing awe and meditative moments, the sculptures of The Donum Collection populate a sprawling vineyard estate, with many works many commissioned expressly to respond to the lush landscape they inhabit. Seventy works of art, ranging from bronze sculptures by […]
The post Field Trip: The Donum Collection & Estate Balances Awe and Meditative moments first appeared on Hi-Fructose Magazine.

In the mountains of northern Italy, far from his studio in Madrid, David Oliver was supposed to be resting. It was early 2025 and he had gone with friends to a house in the Dolomites on a retreat to disconnect. Instead, Oliver found himself staring at images on his phone of cities under bombardment in […]
The post Grip Face Mirrors Modern Digital Anxiety With Fresh & Furry Artworks first appeared on Hi-Fructose Magazine.

Erika Nina Suárez  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
 
Erika Nina Suárez’s Website
Erika Nina Suárez on Instagram

By Betty Ann Brown Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, February 22–June 28, 2026 Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world.—Dolores Huerta The Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF, originally the Rebel Chicano Art Front) was an art collective founded in Sacramento in the early 1970s. The visual art members, who focused on printmaking and murals, collaborated with writers, musicians, performers, and teachers. Together, they...

Memory may not be a tape-recorder, but in Sasha Gordon’s work, it serves as a device for the initial transportation. Characters wander this fluxing landscape—be it a drive-through window, a master bedroom, or white suburbia—shifting through the dynamic background of her dream-like haze. As a viewer of Gordon’s narrative paintings, you are intruding on intimate […]
The post Shadow Work: How Sasha Gordon Processes Trauma With Colorful, Yet Intimate Art Works first appeared on Hi-Fructose Magazine.

Will Sweeney is a commercial artist based in the UK. With a big reach and an enormous imagination, his illustrations adorn album sleeves, shirts for big fashion brands, toys in Japan, and almost any other sort of wearable or product one could imagine. Recently, we asked Sweeney to describe a bit of the machinations that […]
The post Welcome to the Will Sweeney-verse first appeared on Hi-Fructose Magazine.

It is credited with ‘democratising photography’ on a global level – and now Shutter Hub is making its most democratic move yet. As of this month, the organisation will pass into the control of the community it was built for, in what founder Karen Harvey MBE describes as ‘a logical next step: to make things more equitable we need multiple perspectives.’ The announcement follows Karen’s decision to remove paid memberships last year, making Shutter Hub ‘fully open-access and available at no cost to all’. It’s a typically altruistic move from the social entrepreneur: also the founder of Toiletries Amnesty, the award-winning NGO. She was made an MBE in 2024 for services to people living in hygiene...

The week of Art Basel is for me the most compelling moment in the city, and this year it reaffirmed its position as the most closely watched annual event in the international art calendar.