Seaweed-Based Material Constructs Slow2 Lighting Installation
 
Slow2 is the second work in the Slow Project series developed by designer Sung Yun Jang through an auteur-driven approach to material and spatial design. First presented at Salone Satellite 2026 in Milan, the lighting installation reinterprets baramgil, a spatial principle from traditional Korean architecture in which doors and windows align along a single axis to create overlapping sightlines and natural ventilation paths.
 
Installed within a 388 × 200 × 288 cm exhibition booth, the project uses visual layering to extend the perceived depth of the space beyond its physical dimensions. The installation measures approximately 150 × 55 × 160...

Nearly half of the artists in the main exhibition of the Venice Biennale said they did not want to be considered for the show’s top honors this year, marking yet another unprecedented development in an edition roiled by controversies of all kinds. Fifty-two artists—just under half of the artists in the Koyo Kouoh–curated “In Minor Keys”—signed the statement published by e-flux on Saturday, which noted that they had done so “in solidarity with the resignation of the jury selected by Koyo Kouoh.” Those artists include such well-known names as Alfredo Jaar, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Otobong Nkanga, and Walid Raad. Published on the day when the Biennale typically holds its Golden Lion...

Before the screams of horror begin, it says 'favorite', not best.

After a lively art-world week humming with protests and resistance, from the Venice Biennale to the Met Gala to New York's American Folk Art Museum, we've made it to Saturday. Tomorrow, we celebrate the mothers in our lives, and to mark the occasion, Staff Writer Isa Farfan asked 15 artists to share the best advice they got from their moms or maternal figures. “My mother sagely advised that I would be appreciated in college, and she was right,” said Pat Oleszko, who “lost the class vice presidency to some dumb pretty chick” in high school. (Now, Oleszko's work is on view in the Whitney Biennial, so, yeah.)On the ground from Venice this week, our editor-in-chief Hakim Bishara weighed in...

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Jiumo Wang creates an interactive device for children with OSA
 
Designer Jiumo Wang, together with researchers at ShanghaiTech University and Eye and ENT Hospital of Fudan University, develops Oneiro, an affective healthcare design project that reimagines the pediatric medical experience through emotionally intelligent interaction. Created for children aged four to thirteen diagnosed with Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), the project, presented during Milan Design Week 2026, addresses the fear and anxiety often associated with procedures such as nasal endoscopy, transforming the waiting period before examination into a moment of calm, agency, and creative engagement. Conceived as an early prototype for the AI...

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In Love Letters, Hilary Pecis captures the mundane moments and under-appreciated views of daily life. The Los Angeles-based artist presents a suite of new acrylic paintings in her signature saturated style, focusing on snippets of a backyard pool, the corner of a studio worktop, and a friendly picnic complete with a radiant strawberry cake. Pecis prefers to work from photos and translates singular moments onto linen. Utilizing a uniform opacity in her paints, she incorporates both comparable and exaggerated colors and affords particular attention to texture and pattern. Frilly fronds on a plant, light radiating off the water’s surface, and the rough texture of a woven tablecloth each evidence the artist’s...

Donald Trump wants to paint the granite Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C., white. Yesterday the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) met to review the Trump administration’s proposal for the project. On April 16 plans were also submitted to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, which approved the idea on the condition of successful “testing of the proposed exterior paint.” Originally known as the State, War, and Navy Building, the Eisenhower Executive Office Building was built between 1871 and 1888 to house those entities. Now part of the White House compound, it is home to the agencies comprising the Executive Office of the President. The plan to paint the building represents...

Thousands of marchers flooded the thoroughfares of Venice to protest the presence of Israel at the Venice Biennale, with many national pavilions shuttering in solidarity. The New York Times reported that the pavilions belonging to Austria, Belgium, Egypt, Japan, the Netherlands, and South Korea closed. Austria’s pavilion bore a sign noting that some of its […]

The controversial San Francisco landmark has met its end after a contentious fight to save it failed

VENICE — Artists and cultural workers made history at the Venice Biennale today as they launched a major strike that disrupted the pre-opening of the international exhibition. It is the first cultural strike in the biennale's 131-year history. At least 27 of the exhibition’s 100 national pavilions were partially or fully shut down this morning, May 8, while artists draped or altered their works in the main exhibition In Minor Keys as part of a 24-hour strike for Palestine and for workers' rights. The Arsenale complex, one of the two exhibition venues, was shuttered in advance of the protest.Beginning at 4:30pm, a massive protest timed with the strike saw thousands of people marching on Via...

The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) on May 8 named Richard Lewer the winner of the 2026 Archibald Prize. The award, considered Australia’s top portrait honor, is presented annually in recognition of the best portrait of an individual “distinguished in art, letters, science or politics” painted by an Australian resident. The New Zealand–born Lewer, […]

It feels appropriate that Mierle Laderman Ukeles operated mostly beneath the notice of the general public for decades. As a “maintenance artist,” she focused on marginal labor, such as the upkeep of public spaces or the unpaid maternal and feminine labor that for a long time wasn’t thought of as proper work, and sometimes still isn’t. In 2017, 40 years after she became artist-in-residence at the New York City Department of Sanitation, Ukeles received her first career retrospective at the Queens Museum, which brought her wider attention. Now, the documentary Maintenance Artist (2025) has hit theaters, offering an easily digestible biography to spread the word about Ukeles.It’s opportune that the film...

Mary Frank charted a far different path from her male counterparts in the second half of the 20th century, who rejected the handmade in favor of fabrication. Frank, who is in her early 90s, and has been making work rooted in mythology and her study of dance with Martha Graham for decades, has long deserved to have her multi-genre work celebrated by a New York museum. The fact that this has not happened is not simply a matter of neglect or oversight — it is one of the many instances where, over time, prejudice against her aesthetic independence has become regarded as truth. Until that viewpoint changes, exhibitions such as Mary Frank at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects will have to do.Curated by Harvey, the...

VENICE — A seagull nesting among the national pavilions of the Venice Biennale has become one of the exhibition’s most unexpected attractions. The bird has laid eggs outside Poland’s pavilion in the Giardini, prompting bemusement among visitors as photographs circulated online and in the art press.According to the Biennale press office, organizers believe this is the first known instance of a seagull nesting in such a prominent area of the exhibition grounds. Officials said they only became aware of the situation after press coverage appeared and added that no formal guidance has been issued to visitors on how to interact with the bird or its nest. It is not known who has built a fence around the nest...

French Algerian artist, curator, and educator Kader Attia has been appointed curator of the Seventh Kochi-Muziris Biennale, to open in Kochi, India, in December 2027. Attia is known for multifaceted practice addressing themes such as social injustice, marginalized communities, and postcolonialism. He was selected by a jury led by Biennale president Jitish Kallat and additionally […]

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Despite its name, the Canadian Tuxedo is a distinctly American look. The denim-on-denim getup dates back to the 1950s, when Bing Crosby sported a full Levi’s ensemble while in Vancouver, setting a sartorial trend that continues today. The national mythology woven into this utilitarian material is also the focus of Brooklyn-based Nick Doyle, who layers denim atop denim into large wall sculptures. From a pair of aviators reflecting puffy clouds to a vast Rocky Mountain landscape framed by brick, the works evoke a sort of nostalgic road trip west, as if chasing a big break, and ultimately, realizing the American dream. “First Come the Dreamers” (2026), bleached and collaged denim on panel, 25 x 72 inches...

SOUTH GYEONGSANG, SOUTH KOREA—A genetic study of the remains of four 2,000-year-old dogs recovered from two archaeological sites on the Korean Peninsula suggests that the canines belonged to a lineage separate from other dog populations in East Asia, according to the Korea JoongAng Daily. It had been previously thought that dog populations in East Asian shared a single lineage. Hyeongcheol Kim of the Gaya National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, Suyeon Kim and A-reum Yu of the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, and their colleagues determined that ancient Korean dogs resembled the Australian dingo and the New Guinea singing dog. Korean dogs were also found to carry DNA from European...

Yogyakarta-based Indonesian artist Dian Suci beat out a series of competitors that included Betty Adii, Dzikra Afifah, Ipeh Nur and Mira Rizki to win the tenth iteration of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women, the organization announced this week.  The Art Prize, which previously centered around supporting UK-based female artists who had not previously […]

Thousands of demonstrators marched in the streets of Venice on the eve of the public opening of the Venice Biennale on Saturday in protest of Israel’s presence in the show. The protest was organized by Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA), an international group of artists, curators, writers, and cultural workers. By the afternoon, the organizers had secured a lengthy list of national pavilions that would be shut down completely or in part for a 24-hour strike, including Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Korea, Lebanon, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, Turkey, and Ukraine. They said it was the largest action of its kind in the...

AUSTRÅTT, NORWAY—According to a Science Norway report, a hiker discovered a rare gold fitting for a scabbard near the southwestern tip of Norway. The ornament, which dates to the first half of the sixth century A.D., was topped with thin gold threads twisted into patterns for a shimmering effect. “This places the object among the finest works from the period, created by highly skilled goldsmiths,” said Siv Kristoffersen, who retired from the University of Stavanger Museum of Archaeology. Such patterns, she added, were used to depict animals. In this case, the two animal heads face each other in profile. One animal was placed on the upper edge, while the other was inverted and placed on the lower edge of...

Archaeologists excavating the site of a future farmers’ market in the eastern Croatian city of Vinkovci have discovered a rare intact grave amid the ancient Roman necropolis. The news was first reported by Croatia Week. When the initial discovery of the necropolis was announced in March, Josip Romić, the mayor of Vinkovci, said the graves are believed to be from the 2nd or 3rd centuries CE. Vinkovci was known as Colonia Aurelia Cibalae when it was part of the Roman Empire, and the area of the future open-air market overlaps with Cibalae’s northern necropolis. The ancient city was the birthplace of two Roman emperors, brothers Valentinian I (born in 321 CE) and his successor, Valens (born in 328 CE). A few...

ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND—Neanderthals may have used rhinoceros teeth as heavy-duty tools, Science News reports. Some 100,000 years ago, the narrow-nosed rhino (Stephanorhinus hemitoechus) and Neanderthals both lived in Europe. Alicia Sanz-Royo of the University of Aberdeen and her colleagues used microscopes to analyze marks on rhinoceros teeth recovered from Spain’s El Castillo site and France’s Pech-de-l’Azé II. The researchers identified grooves, notches, sliding marks, and scrapes on the teeth that may have been caused by repeated hitting. Sanz-Royo and her colleagues then attempted to use rhino teeth collected from zoological reserves to shape stone tools and as anvils to cut vegetable fibers and...

In a National Capital Planning Commission meeting, one public commenter compared the project to the ending of ‘Death Becomes Her’

A federal judge ruled that cancellations to more than 1,400 grants approved by the National Endowment for the Humanities by the Elon Musk-led Department of Governmental Efficiency (DOGE) were unconstitutional. Judge Colleen McMahon of Federal District Court in Manhattan ordered DOGE to rescind the cancellations in a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs in two lawsuits contending that the cuts “violated the First Amendment and, by singling out work relating to particular groups, the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment,” according to the New York Times. “The injury is not limited to the loss of money,” Judge McMahon wrote in her ruling. “It includes the disruption of protected expression,...

Having just taken on the Met Gala as a "living sculpture", the multi-disciplinary artist came to Venice later in the week for a compelling performance

Staged a year after the death of its curator, Koyo Kouoh, the Venice Biennale’s main exhibition unfolds as a sometimes-cacophonous procession guided by sentinels and hybrid beings in a rich but uneven show

The artist’s year-long residency at the Driehaus Museum centres on a recurring dance piece in the recently renovated Murphy Auditorium

Radical Softness in the lab
 
At Friedman Benda in New York, where designboom met Joris Laarman ahead of the opening of Symbio, the Dutch designer described his work as a study in material intelligence and collaboration with living systems.
 
‘The Symbio Benches are experimental works exploring how concrete can become symbiotic,‘ Laarman tells designboom as he points toward a future where design coexists with its environment instead of just occupying it — exemplifying the concept of Radical Softness which designboom is currently exploring.
 
For Laarman, that shift belongs to what he calls the ‘Symbioscene,’ a speculative era after the Anthropocene, ‘where nature and technology merge into...

According to a survey conducted in March  by the US Government Accountability Office, a whopping 85% of all museums in the United States are in need of repair; even more dire, 77% of US museums have at least one structural issue that puts their collections at risk, according to The Art Newspaper.  While federal funding […]

Madama Butterfly at Opera Colorado plays it safe — and never fully takes flight.

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Christopher Corwin and Andrew Lokay provide dual perspectives on the National Symphony Orchestra's performances of Puccini's triple-bill.

Club Marginal Architekten Restores 1891s House in Berlin
 
Located in the Berlin district of Friedrichshagen, Friedi & Hagen is the renovation of a semi-detached house originally constructed in 1891 within a protected urban conservation area. The project, designed by Club Marginal Architekten, focuses on restoring the building’s historical proportions while reorganizing the interior to accommodate contemporary family living.
 
The attic structure was completely reconstructed and expanded through the addition of dormers, increasing usable space within the upper level. On the exterior, the facade was restored with windows incorporating the original cross-bar configuration, while several architectural...

Known for his stunning photos of wildlife and landscapes, as well as co-founding SeaLegacy alongside fellow conservationist and photographer Cristina Mittermeier, Paul Nicklen has traveled the globe to not only highlight our planet’s phenomenal biodiversity but also to shed light on its increasing vulnerabilities due to the ongoing climate crisis. Nicklen’s most ambitious project yet gathers myriad images from a career exploring the corners of the earth for more than three decades. Forthcoming from Hemeria, Reverence marks the most comprehensive collection of his work to date. The book features 160 photographs, including some of Nicklen’s most enduring images alongside others previously unpublished. From...

Photo London marks an exciting chapter in 2026 by making a new home at Olympia in Kensington. The historic venue, currently undergoing a £1.3 billion redevelopment led by Heatherwick Studios, provides a fitting setting for the Fair. The leading event spent a decade at Somerset House, where it established itself as a key moment in the international cultural calendar. Now, founders Michael Benson and Fariba Farshad promise a “significant tightening of curatorial focus,” including a mix of fresh and returning galleries from New York to Tokyo, Warsaw to Taipei, as well as a major expansion of its publishing offering.  The Main presentation welcomes back recognised London-based destinations, like The...

japan pavilion turns caregiving into collective play
 
At the Venice Art Biennale 2026, Ei Arakawa-Nash transforms the Japan Pavilion into an environment shaped through touch, movement, and shared responsibility. Titled Grass Babies, Moon Babies, the exhibition takes the form of a participatory installation in which visitors are invited to carry one of 208 baby dolls through the pilotis, garden, and interior spaces of the pavilion, temporarily assuming the role of caretaker.
 
The gesture is simple from the outset. Each visitor selects a doll and holds it close while moving through the pavilion. Yet the experience quickly accumulates emotional and symbolic weight. The babies are not presented as props or...

Elisabeth Grümmer was, of course, very good at Wagnerian prayers, but she also shines in this Verdi prayer.

Joy Like Time brings together Marina Abramović, Gillian Wearing and Kalliopi Lemos in a shared investigation into how meaning is shaped through duration, repetition and lived encounter. Set within the Sainsbury Centre’s season What is the Meaning of Life?, the exhibition resists any singular answer, instead proposing that significance is something continuously made rather than discovered once. Across performance, photography, and installation, time is treated not as backdrop but as material – something elastic, embodied and inseparable from attention itself. The works suggest that every moment contains the instant of making, the act of viewing, and the cultural residue that accumulates in between. What...

Organized by Capture the Atlas, the 2026 Milky Way Photographer of the Year saw a record number of submissions, with more than 6,500 entries representing a wide range of landscapes and perspectives around the world. Just 25 were selected as the top images, representing 12 different regions from the Canary Islands to New Zealand to Argentina. “Every year, this collection reminds us that photographing the Milky Way is not only about technique or planning. It is about curiosity, patience, and the desire to experience the night sky in places where it still feels wild,” says Dan Zafra, editor of Capture the Atlas and curator of the annual contest. “Many of these skies are becoming increasingly rare, and we...

The tenth edition of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women comes at a time when there is growing focus on how artists translate lived experience into broader social and political frameworks. The 2026 winner is Yogyakarta-based artist Dian Suci (b. 1985), whose work was selected from a shortlist of five finalists that also included Betty Adii, Dzikra Afifah, Ipeh Nur and Mira Rizki. The announcement reflects an ongoing commitment by the prize to foreground practices that move between material investigation and conceptual depth. The decision was made by a jury chaired by Cecilia Alemani, and including Venus Lau, Amanda Ariawan, Megan Arlin, Evelyn Halim and artist Melati Suryodarmo. Within this framework, the prize...

VINKOVCI, CROATIA—Croatia Week reports that excavations in eastern Croatia have uncovered an intact grave in a necropolis near the site of the Roman military and trade center of Colonia Aurelia Cibalae. “The grave structure is made of brick, but unfortunately the deceased was buried with a very small number of items,” said Hrvoje Vulić of Vinkovci City Museum. “We documented an iron object by the right foot and a fragment of bronze on the right shoulder,” he added. The well-preserved skeleton is thought to have belonged to a man who died between the ages of 40 and 45. Other graves, although damaged, have yielded glass tear bottles and brooches. To read about another recent Roman-era discovery in...

Timber platform of the crannog in Loch Bhorgastail, Scotland SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND—According to a statement released by the University of Southampton, a crannog in shallow waters in Loch Bhorgastail on Scotland’s Isle of Lewis has been evaluated by researchers from the University of Southampton and the University of Reading with a technique called stereophotogrammetry, which involves stitching together photographs taken at different angles to create a high-resolution 3D model. The study determined that the structure began as a circular wooden platform, measuring about 75 feet in diameter, that was topped with brushwood. Neolithic pottery was also discovered in the area surrounding the crannog, enabling...

“The world hums with beauty and danger, harmony and discord,” says Jake Messing. “We walk through these shifting currents every day. For as long as I can remember, I have turned toward the natural world—studying its patterns, its relationships, its quiet lessons.” In highly detailed, hyperrealistic paintings, the Northern California-based artist explores nature as a reflection of our inner lives. Abundance and beauty are sometimes confronted with tension and discomfort, and through nature, “I question the fears and unspoken rules that shape us,” Messing says. “Coccinellidaes Hideaway 2” Working in acrylic on canvas, the artist composes otherworldly vignettes of flora and fauna, often uniting...

By Coral Pereda Serras Among established and other art spaces in Melrose Hill, sits 1028 N. Western Ave., home to Western Avenue Collective artists studios. This 1922 building hosts 22 artist spaces among which is El Nido, an artist-run curatorial and research space by VC Projects. El Nido, borrowing from its Spanish name, is nested in this distinctly LA courtyard and through "Photography Into Sculpture: An Homage and An Update," emerges as a portal into the imagined memories of a Victorian...

Boston Lyric Opera’s Revolutionary War-set Daughter of the Regiment prioritizes accessibility without losing its charm.

ABOVE: Installation view, Jeffrey Gibson, boshullichi / inlvchi – we will continue to change, Kunsthaus Zürich, 2025, photo by Franca Candrian, Kunsthaus Zürich Jeffrey Gibson was far more open about the act of dreaming and the beliefs that make-up spirituality than I expected. I started our conversation saying that I like to keep things loose, […]
The post Jeffrey Gibson: More Colors than The Eye Can See first appeared on Hi-Fructose Magazine.

Orpheus Acosta  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
 
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In 1945, WWII was in its waning months. Allied forces entered Nazi occupied territories, liberating concentration camps and revealing the true extent of the horrors of the war for the first time. Adolf Hitler committed suicide on 30 April, and Victory in Europe Day was officially celebrated on 8 May. At the same time, John Baer was serving with the 644th Tank Destroyer Battalion, a unit of the US military. Here, he got a Leica camera from a captured German soldier. His earliest photographs were taken of his fellow soldiers in France and Germany, weary from war. Baer’s collection is a moving portrait of Europe and New York City in the decade after WWII. Now, almost a century on, a debut book demonstrates his...

Portrait(s), the annual photography festival in Vichy, returns as a curatorial proposition that treats portraiture less as a genre than as a system for understanding how images construct identity, power and attention. The programme brings together David LaChapelle, Paul Graham, Yohanne Lamoulère, Julia Gat and Patrick Tournebœuf, each working through different models of portraiture: staged spectacle, documentary observation, social space and architectural trace. It positions photography as a field where historical memory, institutional frameworks and contemporary image saturation intersect. At its centre, LaChapelle anchors a major solo exhibition that sits alongside documentary, archival and pedagogical...

At some point, I realized I didn’t want to choose between the past and the present. I was interested in allowing them to coexist,” says baroque-style painter Nieves González, who distorts trappings of traditional portraiture to exalt modern day women. Her recent portrait of British pop star Lily Allen, for example, places contemporary attitude—and fashion—within […]
The post Baroque-style Painter Nieves González distorts trappings of traditional portraiture to exalt modern-day women first appeared on Hi-Fructose Magazine.

By Lorraine Heitzman Erik Otsea's show, Clever Animals & Static at Alto Beta is a menagerie of a different sort. His tabletop ceramic sculptures are quirky but solemn hand-built industrial shapes that suggest machine parts found in abandoned factories or as models for obscure patent applications. They conjure Soviet-style brutalist architecture and futuristic inventions, all simple geometric forms that hint at a bygone time when we believed that life could be improved through industry. So...

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By William Moreno The painter constructs, the photographer discloses. Susan Sontag, “On Photography” William Camargo’s current exhibit of twenty-four plus works, dated 2019 through 2025, reads as a mini survey, with photographic images and installations thematically placed throughout the modest gallery. It’s his largest showing of works to date. Early in his career, the Anaheim native considered fashion and product photography, photojournalism and conflict reportage, finding the latter...

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Blake Masi’s Website
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Join us on Sunday 07 June from 1.30pm to celebrate the launch of INTO THE TREES by photographer Jo Stapleton, curated by Karen Harvey and published by Shutter Hub Editions.
INTO THE TREES is an expressionist photographic account of Jo’s interactions with trees and woodland, later remembered and reimagined in the darkroom using a range of alternative processes and techniques.
Drinks and canapés will be served from 1.30pm before the formal launch event at 2pm, including a book signing and interview discussion between Karen and Jo about the making of the book and the role photography has to play in helping to protect our wildlife and green spaces.
To celebrate the launch of the book, Jo has produced a...