A small metal object excavated almost 100 years ago has been identified as the oldest known drilling tool yet found in Egypt. The news was reported by Archeology Today. The artifact came from a predynastic cemetery at the archeological site of Badari in Upper Egypt and dates to the late 4th millennium BCE. Part of the grave goods of an adult male, it is made of copper alloy and measures only about two and a half inches. A 1924 catalog entry at Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, where the object is housed, describes it as “a little awl of copper, with some leather thong wound round it.” But a new study, undertaken by researchers from Newcastle University and the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna...

Giorgio de Chirico, "The Red Tower" (1913), oil on canvas, held by the Guggenheim Museum (photo public domain via Wikimedia Commons)Had Century III Mall in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania not closed seven years ago, the shopping center — the third-largest in the world when it opened, with 200 tenants — would be approaching its 50th anniversary. Anchored by defunct local department store chains, including Joseph Horne Company, Gimbels, and Kaufmann’s, Century III had been constructed atop a slag heap — a mound of metallic industrial detritus produced as part of the steel-making process — maintained by US Steel. With a name meant to evoke the bicentennial of 1976, the mall made it four decades before...

In a new interview with The Guardian in advance of his forthcoming book On Censorship, artist Ai Weiwei talked about experiencing censorship not just in his native China but also in the West—including an incident involving his membership in London’s Royal Academy. After chronicling some of his storied challenges and acts of defiance against China’s communist regime, Ai told writer Lanre Bakare he feels “the same kind of surveillance, same kind of censorship in the west.” As Bakare recounts, “Pressed for an example, he tells me a story about the Royal Academy in London, an institution that gave him a landmark exhibition in 2015 and made him an honorary member in 2011 following his detainment in...

What do Kaylene Whiskey and Pyaari Azaadi have in common? Both are women of color whose art can be visually breathtaking and conceptually powerful, with feminist underpinnings — and the subjects of recent art catalogs that we can’t put down. It’s hard to resist the joyous charm of Whiskey’s paintings, while the beauty and strength of Azaadi’s activist art make her publication (featuring an essay by Hyperallergic Editor at Large Hrag Vartanian) a must-read.Also among the books we’re reading right now is the Equal Justice Initiative’s incisive study of Legacy Sites in Montgomery, Alabama, replete with compelling photographs that illustrate the struggle for racial justice in the United States. I...

Revisiting Hal Foster’s 2014 essay “Serra in the Desert”

When Victoria Dugger encountered Jasper Johns’ “Flag” during a visit to the Museum of Modern Art in 2024, she found herself contemplating similar ideas. The encaustic painting is one of Johns’ most recognizable works and revels in ambiguity: although it bears stars and stripes, it’s not an exact representation of Old Glory, nor is it solely a gestural, abstract work. Instead, “Flag” prompts questions about motif, material, and meaning that defy any singular narrative. For Dugger, Johns’ multivalent approach felt particularly apt 70 years later. On the eve of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, she began a body of work that reflects a similar set of inquiries through the lens of Blackness,...

For just about any artist, a major, permanent public commission from a giant global corporation might seem like great news. The artist might expect big budgets, massive exposure, and a ribbon-cutting with the mayor and CEO.  Even Judy Chicago, an icon of feminist art who has had solo exhibitions at institutions from New York’s New Museum to San Francisco’s de Young Museum and whose massive piece The Dinner Party (1974–79) is on permanent view at the Brooklyn Museum, anticipated a “great and historic project,” writes the artist at Artnet News, when Google commissioned her to do a public artwork as part of the multimillion-dollar renovation of the Thompson Center, a historic building in downtown...

Since the beginning of the full-scale genocide in Gaza, which has galvanized resistance worldwide, the Israeli pavilion of the Venice Biennale has been mobilizing to art-wash the nation’s brand.  Two months before the opening of the 2024 Venice Biennale, a petition written by the Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA) and signed by thousands of artists and curators called for the exclusion of the “Genocide Pavilion” and claimed that it represented a state “engaged in ongoing atrocities against Palestinians.” Large demonstrations accompanied the call, which echoed Palestine solidarity campaigns launched by artists at the 2015 Venice Biennale. Rather than engaging seriously with these demands, Ruth Patir,...

US Colonel Matthew Bogdanos has worked tirelessly throughout his career to protect cultural heritage, recovering thousands of artifacts from across the world. For his extraordinary work at the unique intersection of cultural preservation and military service, he has been awarded the 2026 Marica Vilcek Prize in Art History. “Just as one case closes, another opens,” he notes, but does not seem deterred by the endless onslaught of cases to solve.  “History warns us worse is coming,” Bogdanos says. “Once you erase a people’s historical identity, the next step is to erase the people themselves.”Bogdanos’s passion for cultural heritage began early in life. At age 12, his mother, then a waitress in...

To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter. The HeadlinesFACING PUBLIC BACKLASH, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston has denied targeting DEI employees when it fired 33 people, including the institution’s only Muslim curator, Nadirah Mansour, only Native American curator, Marina Tyquiengco, and only Black curator, theo Tyson, reports Artnet News. After news of the layoffs effective Jan. 30, 130 staff at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design demanded the museum rehire the curators, along with several other employees, while nearly 2,000 people have signed a petition to a similar end. But in a statement, MFA Director Pierre Terjanian insisted...

The latest announcements of the key players representing their countries at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia

As a child, Artem “Alfred” Nakache (1915-1983) was afraid of water. The youngest of 11 children in a Jewish family that emigrated from Iraq to Constantine, Algeria, Alfred eventually overcame his terror of the depths and actually excelled at swimming. He became so skilled that by the mid-1930s, he had won both local and French national competitions—Algeria was under the control of France at the time—and moved to Paris to pursue his competitive career. He would, however, be impacted by an unthinkable tragedy, indelibly linked to what he would eventually accomplish. A short film by director and artist Florence Miailhe titled “Papillon,” which is nominated for an Oscar this year, is based on...

Days before it was set to go on sale during Sotheby’s Old Masters auction on February 5, a double-sided panel by the Italian Renaissance painter Antonello da Messina was withdrawn from the high-profile evening sale. Today, Sotheby’s revealed that the Italian Ministry of Culture purchased the painting for $14.9 million before it could reach the auction block. Ecce Homo and Saint Jerome in the Desert (ca. 1430–79) had a $10 million–15 million estimate and was being promoted as the highlight of the auction. Ahead of the sale, Sotheby’s touted it as the only surviving painting by Antonello—out of a total of about 40 existing ones—in private hands. Christopher Apostle, Sotheby’s international head...

Cj Hendry’s latest popup immerses New Yorkers in a wash of red
 
Tony’s Chocolonely and Cj Hendry have opened an immersive Valentine’s popup in New York, transforming a cast iron storefront into a fully red environment that pairs chocolate retail with interactive installation art and a $1 mystery box concept.
 
From the snow-covered sidewalks, the address reads as a glowing block of color. Windows gleam crimson behind heavy curtains and the brand’s logotype floats in white across the glass. 
 
Industrial interiors are softened as fabric curtains pool onto the floor and wrap structural columns. Rows of modular shelving run parallel to the walls, stacked with identical red bags. The grid feels closer...

MADRID — The most famous portrait of Maruja Mallo depicts the artist covered from head to toe in seaweed. She is crowned and draped with long, rope-like strands of kelp, her arms raised triumphantly like an all-powerful marine goddess. This unconventional photograph, snapped in 1945 by the poet Pablo Neruda on a Chilean beach, was no doubt carefully orchestrated by the Spanish artist, who viewed herself as an extension of her unique work, where female energy is a conduit for natural and even cosmic forces.Maruja Mallo: Mask and Compass at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía is the Mallo's largest retrospective to date. Featuring 100 paintings, some 70 drawings, and 100 archival documents —...

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Soares Jaquier embeds small wood pavilion within concrete wall
 
Garden Folly is a small pavilion project developed with an extended temporal approach, allowing the structure to age, weather, and integrate gradually into its setting. Soares Jaquier Architects were interested in creating architecture shaped by time, where material transformation and environmental exposure become part of the design outcome.
 
The wooden pavilion is constructed entirely from reused materials and is embedded within an existing concrete wall, reinforcing a sense of continuity with the site. Modest in scale and simple in composition, the structure provides a sheltered space for reading, resting, and eating, functioning as an...

In an all-Mozart program with the San Francisco Symphony, Golda Schultz shows that her soubrette days are behind her.

Suspended from a crane, the work is meant as a metaphor for the country's ongoing precarious situation during the war

The objects’ return was delayed due confusion between the Nigerian state and the oba of Benin

Lang, 86, who has led the Parisian institution since 2013, has vigorously denied any wrongdoing after his name was found nearly 700 times within the Epstein files

Photographer Samuel Laurence Cunnane travels around the world by van, capturing fleeting scenes that result in luminous images, revealing remarkable beauty hidden in plain sight. The Irish artist makes his London debut at Southbank Centre’s Hayward Gallery with Blue Road, a show that encourages viewers to look more intently in moments of stillness. It is the fifth exhibition in the RC Foundation Project Space Exhibition series, which showcases the next generation of emerging international artists. The titular work depicts a stretch of newly tarmacked road that appears as a deep blue river, gleaming in the early evening light. Elsewhere, dense green foliage parts to reveal a figure in the distance, obscured...

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Ninawa Huni Kui has spoken out ahead of a show focused on the threatened Brazilian ecosystem of the Pantanal

HANGHAR’s casa guadalupe lands on suburban-rural plot in spain
 
In Gijón, Spain, HANGHAR completes Casa Guadalupe, a 120-square-meter single-family home fabricated entirely off-site and assembled within 48 hours. The house translates industrialized construction into a contemporary domestic setting, combining a lightweight steel structure, ventilated facade, and corrugated metal roof into a precise, workshop-controlled system. The project positions prefabrication as a calibrated architectural tool grounded in the Asturian landscape.
 
Fully fabricated in a workshop, the house was transported by semi-trailers and assembled on-site in a short timeframe, with the main structure erected in two days. This...

Revived ‘gaming’ computer is now functional with typewriter
 
Youtube channel Prototype transforms an old typewriter into a functional ‘gaming’ computer that slides to the side as users type. Retaining the original design of the used typewriter, the device keeps the metal body, round keycaps, mechanical hammers, slide carriage, and bell but is equipped with 3D printed parts to make it work for modern gaming, browsing, and typing. To make the typewriter gaming computer functional, the maker first removes some parts, including the old motor, ribbon system, and some side brackets, to create some space inside the case.
 
Since a computer needs a motherboard, power supply, and other components, he also...

SUBMIT TO A’ DESIGN AWARD AND COMPETITION 2026
 
The internationally renowned A’ Design Award invites designers, architects, and visionaries from all disciplines to submit their best works for the 2026 competition. With the deadline on February 28 and results announcement on May 1, the international platform is a fantastic opportunity for the creative community to receive global recognition.
 
From expansive countryside villas to high-density apartment complexes and forward-thinking senior residences, a curated selection of past winners in residential architecture continues to inspire new ways of living. Whether as a professional firm or an emerging talent, follow the footsteps of these award-winning...

The recent highly hyped studio recording of Puccini's Turandot left me greatly disappointed.

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February is LGBT+ History Month in the UK. Today, we’re sharing what’s going on in the art world over the next few weeks and beyond, from museums hosting dedicated tours to upcoming exhibitions not to be missed throughout the year. Discover must-visit destinations, delve into archives and learn something new. Re/Assemble, People’s History Museum, Manchester | Until 3 January In 1988, 20,000 people gathered in Manchester to protest against Section 28 – a clause in the Local Government Act that prohibited the “promotion of homosexuality” by schools and local authorities. It became the largest LGBTQIA+ demonstration in British history. This exhibition features newly commissioned artworks by Anna...

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Con More Than This, la Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna accoglie un progetto espositivo che mette in tensione due dimensioni in apparenza inconciliabili: l’istituzione museale storica e una pratica pittorica radicalmente contemporanea, nata all’interno di un contesto formativo e laboratoriale. La mostra, curata da Daniele Capra, riunisce dodici artisti formatisi all’Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia nell’ambito dell’Atelier F, restituendo non tanto una “scuola” intesa in senso stilistico, quanto un metodo condiviso fondato sul lavoro, sul confronto e sulla continuità del fare.
AA.VV., “More Than This”, installation view at Pinacoteca Nazionale, Bologna, 2026, ph. Irene Fanizza, courtesy...

The dazzling and deeply moving Complications in Sue bodes well for Anthony Roth Costanzo's stewardship of Opera Philadelphia.

“This exhibition is a tribute to the trust that comes with being truly seen and the moment when individuals reveal their inner most person.” These are the words of Tobias Regell, one of Sweden’s most important portrait photographers. His timeless black-and-white imagery renders subjects with unique presence and intimacy. Fotografiska Stockholm presents Du såg mig med orädda ögon – which translates to “You Saw Me With Fearless Eyes” – a major retrospective of Regell’s work. The exhibition brings together over 100 photographs, spanning several decades and multiple series, that trace the artist’s exploration of trust and the vulnerability that allows those he photographs to be authentically...

La sala espositiva di KAPPA-NöUN accoglie il visitatore con un’installazione che concentra in un unico gesto scultoreo la riflessione di Giovanni Termini (Assoro, 1972; vive a Pesaro) sulla memoria, sul lavoro e sugli strati di esistenza che si sedimentano negli oggetti attraversati da molteplici vite. PostAzione, il titolo di questo progetto espositivo, nella sua formulazione linguistica racchiude un duplice significato: da un lato evoca la posteriorità dell’azione, il venire dopo, l’agire in risposta all’ascolto di memorie precedenti; dall’altro designa la postazione di lavoro, quel luogo quotidiano in cui l’artista compie le sue operazioni trasformative.  Al centro dello spazio, un tavolo da...

Mona Hatoum (b. 1952) is synonymous with artworks that challenge, enthral and disturb in equal measure. She is best known for subverting everyday domestic objects, transforming the familiar into the threatening and the inert into the dangerous. Over the years, her practice has encompassed everything from barbed-wire curtains to beds constructed from steel flooring. In these works, associations of comfort, rest and privacy are denied. Instead, Hatoum confronts viewers with themes of displacement, exclusion, marginalisation and the social and political systems that govern and constrain daily life. Hatoum was born into a Palestinian family in Beirut, Lebanon. She has lived in London since 1975, when the outbreak...

Das Wunder der Heliane fuses sex with the sacred at a simmering performance at the Opéra National du Rhin.

“I guess you could say I’m like a film director but my movies have only one frame.” These are the words of Jeff Wall, one of the 20th century’s most influential photographers. His images synthesise the essentials of camerawork with elements of other artforms, including painting, cinema and literature. The result is elaborate and detailed pieces that look as though they have been plucked from the big screen, telling a complete narrative in a single still. They invite the viewer in, prompting them to question the story they’re seeing. There’s a whole group of contemporary artists who pursue this distinct visual language, think Todd Hido, Gregory Crewdson or Holly Andres. These five artists, all...

All in all, an ill-advised venture.

Bologna è la città dell’Alma Mater Studiorum, l’Università di Bologna, da quasi mille anni presidio di conoscenza. ART CITY Bologna 2026, alla sua quattordicesima tappa, per questa edizione ha scelto di proporre lo Special Program Il corpo della lingua, curato da Caterina Molteni. I lavori degli artisti proposti si inseriscono e dialogano perfettamente con varie sedi universitarie. Il corpo della lingua significa parlare di esperienza fisica, vocale e di relazione fra corpi, saperi e spazi. Il titolo rende omaggio all’omonimo saggio di Giorgio Agamben, in cui il filosofo delinea una vera e propria anatomia del linguaggio.
Jenna Sutela, “nimiia cétiï”, 2018, Laboratorio didattico del Distretto...

The Calder Foundation has announced multidisciplinary Japanese artist Yuko Mohri as the winner of the 2025 Calder Prize. The honor is bestowed biannually on “a contemporary artist whose innovative work reflects the continued legacy of Calder’s genius.” Mohri, known for her installations incorporating sound, fruit, found objects, and kinetic elements, will receive $50,000 in cash […]

A parrot confined to a too-small cage, jellyfish floating above fungi and ferns, and a spotted octopus resting as the centerpiece to a flourishing bouquet are a few of the surreal scenes in the works of Martin Wittfooth. The artist is known for his enigmatic paintings that meld flora and fauna to consider interconnection and nature’s endurance. Wittfooth currently splits his time between Savannah and Brockville, although he plans to relocate permanently to the latter this year. Before he begins preparing for a solo exhibition in spring 2027 with Hashimoto Contemporary, the artist is completing a few larger commissions. “Dam” He enjoys the balance between larger bodies of work and singular pieces: “A...

The London-based artist introduces her exhibition at Culturgest

Emmalyn Pure  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
 
Emmalyn Pure’s Website
Emmalyn Pure on Instagram

Close-up Photographer of the Year has announced the winners of its 7th edition, with Western Australia-based Ross Gudgeon’s image of the elaborate internal structure of a cauliflower soft coral taking the top spot. The population of the otherworldly pink marine creatures found in reefs off the coast of New South Wales has seen a staggering decrease in the past few years—90% between 2011 and 2021 alone. Peering up from the base, he portrays the delicate stalks as if they’re towering trees. Additional category winners include close-ups of a wide range of both marine and terrestrial wildlife, from insects and arachnids to mammals and amphibians. Colossal readers might also recognize the work of Barry Webb,...

Dal 6 al 9 febbraio 2026, in occasione di Arte Fiera, nell’ambito di ART CITY Bologna e ART CITY White Night torna Ababo Art Week con mostre, talk, eventi, installazioni e performance presenti dentro e fuori il centro storico di Bologna, oltre che all’interno dell’Accademia delle Belle Arti di Bologna, che per l’occasione diverrà uno spazio espositivo diffuso capace di esporre la ricchezza di idee e ricerche degli studenti dei vari dipartimenti.
ABABO Open Show 2025, ph Martina Platone, courtesy Accademia delle Belle Arti di Bologna
Partendo da Arte Fiera, la fiera dell’arte di Bologna, sarà possibile visitare fino a domenica 8 febbraio lo stand dell’Accademia delle Belle Arti, presso il quale...

Gothic romance and the dark appeal of a vampire lover

Four months after announcing its rebranding as the Philadelphia Art Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art is reverting to its old name, effective immediately. The institution will retain the griffin logo and brand identity that accompanied the October renaming. The museum in a press release said that its board had voted unanimously to drop the […]

Completed in 1972, the innovative 48-story building known as the Transamerica Pyramid Center quickly became an indelible icon of the San Francisco skyline. Its modernist features include blocky elements, uniform rows of windows, and it’s namesake pyramidical shape, but its design also took its surroundings into consideration, as its tapered shape meant that more sunlight could reach the ground level around it. Inside, the light-filled Annex Gallery is currently home to the similarly towering works of Tara Donovan’s Stratagems series. Made from thousands of recycled CDs that are wrapped around steel supports and placed on concrete plinths, these swirling, reflective spires directly reference skyscraper...

Dal 5 al 15 febbraio 2026, in occasione di ART CITY Bologna e Arte Fiera, la mostra Corpo Tessuto presenta una nuova e significativa selezione di opere di Simone Miccichè, artista bolognese la cui ricerca pittorica si concentra sul tessuto come luogo simbolico, linguistico e corporeo. La mostra, curata da Federica Fiumelli e Francesco Liggieri, pone al centro del progetto espositivo il tessuto. Elemento che, però, non è mai semplice soggetto rappresentato, ma diventa metafora della pittura stessa: superficie sensibile, pelle del mondo, archivio di memorie culturali e politiche. Le opere di Miccichè nascono da un’osservazione lenta e analitica delle trame, delle pieghe, dei pattern che attraversano stoffe...

 
There’s just 2 weeks left to submit your work for Feeling Seen, a community-centered photography project inviting you to share what you’re experiencing right now.
We want photographers to capture the essence of their current emotions, sensations, and surroundings. Our sense of feeling goes beyond the physical – it’s emotional, atmospheric, and relational. It’s through these feelings that we connect with one another on a deeper level.
It’s about exploring how photography can express both internal and external sensations – whether it’s the rush of anticipation, the dis/comfort of the body, nostalgia of memory or tension of conflict. This project believes in photography’s power to evoke real...

“When I look for places in the city to locate my sculptures, or take photographs, it is a bit similar to [mushroom hunting]. I like to observe the city with that gaze for little details.”Read the full article by Silke Tudor by clicking above.
The post In Plain Sight: Isaac Cordal Creates Tiny Worlds Which Mirror Our own first appeared on Hi-Fructose Magazine.

The frolicking skeleton children, bat-human creatures, and a lizard girl named Claudine embody the wild imagination of Matt Gordon, a mixed-media artist based in Plymouth, Michigan. Read the full article by Andy Smith by clicking above!
The post Secret Hideout: the Art of Matt Gordon first appeared on Hi-Fructose Magazine.

Maurizio Rampa  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
 
Maurizio Rampa’s Website

An exhibition opportunity foregrounding empowerment, representation and lived experience Unpublished Africa invites African women photographers to submit work for its Women’s Month 2026 exhibition, building on earlier research and exhibitions focused on empowerment and visibility […]

Under the artistic direction of Hoor Al Qasimi, the 25th Biennale of Sydney brings together global, First Nations and diasporic practices to examine memory as an active force shaping history, land and collective responsibility Gabriel […]

A medieval English bronze jug, its trans-Saharan journey, and the afterlives of empire—from fourteenth-century England to the royal court of Asantehene Prempeh I The Asante Ewer, c. 1340–1405. England. Leaded bronze. H. 62 cm. British […]

“A line is a line, whether it’s wool or oil,” says Zavaglia, who was trained as a painter. “The art world is finally embracing it. They're breaking down this hierarchy of art and craft.” Read the full article on the artist by clicking above.
The post Cayce Zavaglia & The Haphazard Beauty Found behind Her Fiber Portraits first appeared on Hi-Fructose Magazine.

With works that simultaneously convey the awe of nature and the whimsy of fairy tales, Clémentine Bal sculpts a world full of wonder and imagination. Read Liz Ohanesian's full article on the Hf 63 cover artist by clicking above.
The post Accepting Their Strangeness: the Sculptures of Clementine Bal first appeared on Hi-Fructose Magazine.