The heirs of the Bic family fortune filed suit in March for the return of a painting by Fra Angelico that sold at Christie’s for $5.4 million in 2018. That sale was only possible, the heirs allege, because a chauffeur for the family had stolen the work, then sold it to a prominent art dealer who then consigned it to the auction house. There is no publicly listed record for the painting on the website for Christie’s, which is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, potentially indicating that the piece may have been sold privately. Instead, the defendants are the executors of the estate of dealer Richard L. Feigen, who allegedly consigned the painting before his death, as well as Chilean billionaire...

sculptural ping pong tables show up in park in france
 
Architecture and design agency Exercice installs four geometric ping pong tables in Ingré, France, serving as interactive public sculptures to the nearby residents. Commissioned by the Région Centre-Val de Loire, each design comes in a different shape and surface geometry, resulting in a playful collection of functional tables. While they’re different in the forms, they share the same stainless steel legs that taper outward at the base and anchor into circular floor plates bolted to the ground. 
 
The leg configuration of the sculptural ping pong tables change depending on the surface shape, but the material and the anchoring method are the same....

The works of Chile’s most famous folk artist, singer and composer return to the Violeta Parra Museum, which now has enhanced security

German sculptor and illustrator Jacques Tilly was convicted on charges of spreading false information about the Russian military and insulting religious feelings, after creating carnival displays mocking Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Associated Press reported Thursday. The 62-year-old artist has been designing and building floats for Düsseldorf’s Carnival parade for nearly 40 years. His floats, like many German carnival floats, often mock political figures, both from Germany and abroad. One of his most recent floats depicted the Russian president in a bathtub filled with blood and painted to resemble the Ukraine flag. Another featured Putin biting into a map of Ukraine decorated with the words,...

One of the many reasons artists like Lee Krasner, Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, Cy Twombly, and other mid-20th-century pioneers of painterly abstraction were so innovative for their time is the use of the deliberate yet loose brushstroke. Pollock intuitively dribbled and splattered paint on surfaces spread across the floor of his studio, and Kline created bold, monochromatic paintings with just a few deceptively simple, gestural strokes of a large brush. It’s this visceral approach to visual rhythms and color that continues to awe us today. (A major retrospective highlighting both Krasner and Pollock’s work is slated for The Met later this year.) For artist Liza Lou, the calculation of brushstrokes, color,...

Christophe Leribault, the former director of the Château de Versailles, faces a “derelict” infrastructure at the Paris museum and the fallout from last year’s devastating theft

The myth of the samurai gained prominence outside Japan in the early 20th century through films, TV shows, art, and literature. This widespread interest contributed to various misconceptions about them. However, a new exhibition at the British Museum, simply titled “Samurai,” is more comprehensive and dramatic than its name suggests. The show, on view through May 4, dismantles the popular, singular image of the samurai as merely warriors, presenting a nuanced view of the class. In an interview with ARTnews, lead curator Rosina Buckland said that the show emphasizes that samurai were a complex social class, functioning not just as skilled fighters but also as talented bureaucrats, administrators, and...

a village remembered with a modern museum
 
Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Architects shapes this Lost Shtetl Jewish Museum as a tranquil space among a sloping meadow in Šeduva, Lithuania. The museum has been realized in honor of a village and its Jewish community that vanished in August 1941. It draws its meaning from the execution of 664 residents in nearby forests and from the disappearance of a culture that had shaped the town for generations.
 
Rather than reconstructing Šeduva in literal terms, the architects assemble a cluster of abstract houses with hip roofs. Each volume approximates the scale of a single family dwelling. Together they form a compact settlement that suggests a village, or ‘shtetl’,...

Britt Lucas Bennett  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
 
Britt Lucas Bennett’s Website
Britt Lucas Bennett on Instagram

Good Morning! Artist Henry Guimond, from Sagkeeng First Nation, designed a patch worn by Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen on the Artemis II mission to the Moon. The Uffizi Galleries were the target of a cyberattack in February, but deny reports of damage.  New Louvre leader ousts painting department director Sébatien Allard. The Headlines SHOOTING ART STAR. Artists often dream of having their work shown in prestigious institutions, but what about in outer space? Anishinaabe artist Henry Guimond from Sagkeeng First Nation knows a bit about what that’s like. The Manitoba-based artist designed a patch to be worn by Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen , while he makes his way to the far side of the Moon with...

The surprise of turning onto a street to see a vibrant mural—or the joy of viewing several in progress during popular festivals like Nuart Aberdeen—is essentially an ephemeral experience. Murals may be designed to last several decades, or they may be temporary installations that address a particularly interesting bit of local history or urgent social issue, but either way, the experience is brief as we walk by. Always vulnerable to the elements and new development, these pieces don’t always last long. That’s where Art UK’s archive comes in. As a digital platform, Art UK connects viewers to public collections around the nation. There are about a million artworks on the site, drawn from around 3,500...

Renowned photographer Martin Parr once described the photobook as the “supreme platform to disseminate work.” Since the very first iteration – widely acknowledged as Anna Atkin’s Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions (1843) – publishing images have been a way to give them life outside of the gallery. As Magnum Agency’s website states: “the essential role of books is to get the work out, to have the work seen. Practically, books have a wider readership than fairs; they can cover diverse geographies.” Throughout the 20th century, the medium became integral to the artistic landscape, with titles like Henri Cartier-Bresson’s The Decisive Moment and Eve Arnold’s The...

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These were sketches for paintings which were never completed - or are lost

Gearing up FOR MILAN DESIGN WEEK 2026
 
Milan design week 2026 is just around the corner, and designboom returns with it to guide you through this year’s most exciting events, exhibitions, and must-see installations! From April 20th to 26th, 2026, the world’s biggest design event is set to transform the streets of Milan into a celebration of creativity and promises an electrifying mix of design, architecture, and innovation spread across the city.
 
To make sure you don’t miss a thing (and know where to go!), we have once again curated a selection of must-see events, talks, exhibitions, and experiences that will ensure you leave Milan full of powerful new insights and lasting impressions. Chief among...

tsyuyoshi tane on his method of ‘archaeology of the future’
 
Architecture is often viewed as an act of looking forward, a race toward the sleek, the new, and the unprecedented. but for tsuyoshi tane, the most radical way to build the future is to dig into the past. ‘I believe that architecture begins from the memory of a place,’ tane tells desigboom in an interview from his paris based studio. Behind him, the walls are a mosaic of references, much like his projects: a collision of archaeological fragments and modernist ambition. ‘We are not just designing shapes; we are excavating stories that have been buried by modernization.’
 
This ‘archaeology of the future’ — tane’s personal...

The song recitals I remember most vividly were, unsurprisingly, the most vivid ones.

Happy Passover! As matzah appears on Seder tables across the world this week, artist Emily Drew Miller approaches the flatbread as a printmaking tool. Her collagraph series tenderly explores Jewish heritage and political consciousness in all its fractures and layers. Staff Reporter Isa Farfan has the story.Today, we also remember the unflinching life and work of sculptor Melvin Edwards, who died on Monday at 88 years old and leaves behind a singular political vocabulary in steel. Don’t forget to check out our Los Angeles and New York guides to help plan your April in art, plus Senior Editor Valentina Di Liscia’s weekly dispatch on news in the art world this week — including improbable artworks made from...

HIGGSFIELD MOVES BEYOND AI PLASTICITY
 
Generative imagery is finally moving beyond the stage of synthetic compositions with Higgsfield’s major evolution of its proprietary AI photo generation model Soul 2 designed specifically for the creative industry. The update marks a significant shift away from generic, auto-generated content towards creating artistic visuals. Soul 2.0’s visual quality is driven by a female team of engineers, art directors, stylists, and photographers with backgrounds in luxury fashion and brand communications. Their deep industry expertise has eliminated AI plasticity, producing images with a distinct visual quality that feels intentional and art-directed. Addressing the long...

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In this week's episode, Ben Luke discusses the UK government’s response to a report about the future of Arts Council England, talks to the curator of a new Raphael exhibition in New York, and takes a look at a work by the multimedia artist Senga Nengudi

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With the endless blockbusters exhibitions in New York City this spring — from Raphael at The Met to the Whitney Biennial to the reopening of the New Museum — it can be easy to overlook shows at galleries, independent art spaces, and smaller venues.That would be a mistake. New York’s only as rich as it is because of that constant flux of new, experimental, and occasionally batshit art that’s years or decades away from entering more established spaces, if it ever does at all. Some of these shows only run for a couple of weeks. Tough on an editor; lucky for you.Below, we’ve rounded up our favorite exhibitions this month, from an all-immigrant exhibition in Queens to DAZE’s city-inspired aesthetics to...

A 6.6-by-5.9-inch collograph from Emily Drew Miller's ongoing Mazot series (all photos courtesy Emily Drew Miller)During her final year as a painting student in the Bachelor of Fine Arts program at Carnegie Mellon University, artist Emily Drew Miller placed a piece of paper over an old heater in her studio. When she rubbed a stick of graphite over the paper-covered lattice heater, the result reminded her of something familiar: matzah. “That was around Passover in  2016,” Miller told Hyperallergic. "And since then, I've been experimenting with matzah around this time, and now that I'm saying this out loud, I realize that it is kind of my own Passover ritual.” A decade later, the now New...

This April brings several shows that highlight the power of the ineffable, the pedestrian, and the overlooked. A 60-year retrospective of pioneering LA print publisher Gemini G.E.L. and a 500-year survey of the Gruenwald Center at the Hammer Museum showcase the breadth and depth of works on paper. At ArtCenter, Dave Muller underscores the importance of social connection and the handmade in his oeuvre. Two LA performance art icons — Rachel Rosenthal and King Moody, and Bob & Bob — are celebrated in shows that gather performance documentation with physical ephemera and artworks. And a newly discovered collection of matchbook miniatures by the late Joe Brainard shows him turning the abandoned stuff of...

Art Movements, published every Thursday afternoon, is a roundup of must-know news, appointments, awards, and other happenings in today’s chaotic art world.A Museum and an Art Fair Walk Into a BarThis week, Frieze announced it will partner with several NYC institutions to present performances and exhibitions timed with its May fair. The Whitney Museum of American Art will show artist Jonathan González’s Body Configurations (2023­–25), a suite of works commissioned especially for the Whitney Biennial, while Dia Art Foundation will display David Lamelas's video piece “To Pour Milk into a Glass” (1972) and other works. Is this a sign that the cozy ties between the institutional and commercial...

Per a press release, Beijing’s Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) has announced that it will open a new outpost in Guangzhou—this will be the first ancillary location for the institution to be situated in South China. The new art space, UCCA OneM Center for Contemporary Art, is the result of a partnership between UCCA and the OneM […]

The Center at West Park has been marshalling support from famous actors led by Mark Ruffalo to stop the demolition of West Park Presbyterian Church

Donald Trump’s $400 million plan to remake the White House with a sprawling ballroom has hit a familiar Washington obstacle: Congress—and a judge who says he cannot go around it. A federal judge earlier this week, passionately and emphatically, ordered construction on the project to stop unless lawmakers authorize it, throwing the future of the ballroom into doubt and forcing the administration into a choice it has so far avoided: fight on Capitol Hill or in the courts.  On Capitol Hill, there is little sign of a rescue. Democrats have dismissed the project outright, while Republicans have largely steered clear of the issue, wary of tying themselves to a costly and unpopular proposal in a midterm election...

When the Bulls Fest—a raging celebration of the iconic and famed NBA team—first happened at Chicago’s United Center in 2022, Kyle Cobban was one of the contributing artists to The Art of the Game exhibition. It’s a piece that encapsulates Cobban’s aesthetic vision. Working with graphite and paper, the Chicago-based artist makes small, detailed drawings […]
The post Kyle Cobban Draws From The Unknown first appeared on Hi-Fructose Magazine.

According to court papers filed last month, Gonzalve Bich, Charles Bich and Guillame Bich, the French heirs to the multi-billion dollar Bic Pen fortune, are alleging that a 15th century Renaissance masterpiece originally purchased by their grandfather was stolen by their chauffeur and erroneously sold twenty years ago, Bloomberg reports.  The painting in question is Saint Sixtus, ca. 1453–55 by Fra Angelico, […]

Living in a high-rise apartment or a house with a small yard comes with the disadvantage of not having access to garden space. Fortunately, fine wallpaper manufacturer Astek has a way to bring beautiful blooms indoors. The company’s collection of dreamy floral mural designs called Eterna Nouveau reinterprets the Art Nouveau movement of the early 20th century, which historically flourished in Europe and emphasized nature-inspired motifs like flowers and birds. Eterna Nouveau’s arching, sinuous stems and leaves nod to its namesake style’s characteristic “whiplash” lines. “Aquavita,” for example, features lilies and other water plants and illustrates life both above and below the surface. And...

Private Tupper's record of burial in the 'Burial Registers for Military Posts, Camps, and Stations, 1768-1921' reads: 'Buried inside the Fort / Tupper, Geo. N. / 1 U.S. Arty [1 st U.S. Artillery] / Oct 6, 1873' MONROE COUNTY, FLORIDA—MLive reports that more information has been found about a burial site inside Fort Jefferson at Dry Tortugas National Park. The grave belonged to Private George Tupper, who died of yellow fever on October 6, 1873. Historical records indicate that Tupper had been buried in a lime pit within the fort, but his body was later exhumed and likely reinterred at Fort Barrancas National Cemetery in Pensacola, Florida. “Locating Private Tupper’s original grave allows us to honor him...

An ancient golden balaclava stolen from a Dutch museum last year has been found, The Guardian reports. Dating to 450 BCE, the priceless Coțofenești helmet was one of several gold artifacts taken from the Drents Museum in Assen, the Netherlands, by a trio of thieves who dynamited the institution’s doors in order to get at […]

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND—Archaeologists led by Anne Mayor Anne Mayor of the University of Geneva uncovered an iron smelting workshop at the site of Didé West 1 in eastern Senegal, according to a SciNews report. The workshop was used for some 800 years, between the fourth century B.C. and the fourth century A.D. “The iron-smelting workshop at the Didé West 1 site in Senegal sheds new light on the emergence of iron metallurgy in West Africa,” said Mélissa Morel of the University of Geneva. The team discovered about 100 tons of slag; 30 tuyeres, or clay pipes used to channel air into a furnace, that had been arranged in a semicircle; and 35 small, circular furnace bases. These furnaces were likely used to...

For our fourth annual Photo Awards, supported by Format, we selected 5 winners for the following categories: Colour, Nature, Portrait, Street, and Student. It is our pleasure to introduce the winner of the Portrait category: Sima Choubdarzadeh.
Originally from Iran and now based in Berlin, Sima is an award-winning documentary photographer with a background in philosophy. For the past decade, her work has focused on migration, identity, and resistance, often centering people living through tension and change.
This year’s awards were sponsored once again by Format, an online portfolio builder specializing in the needs of photographers, artists, and designers. With nearly 100 professionally designed website...

Through atmospheric, black-and-white photographs, Yamamoto Masao explores the emotional connections between image and memory. His intimate, otherworldly gelatin silver prints evoke dreamlike archival footage that has been somehow unyoked from the normal rhythms of time. His subjects vary, although he often focuses on landscapes and natural subjects, including a number of owls that roost in trees near his home in Japan. Ten Owls at Yancey Richardson marks the artist’s seventh solo exhibition with the gallery, showcasing intimate portraits of the nocturnal birds. No larger than 10 inches on the longest side, these images are intended to be viewed up close in a way that brings these elusive creatures much...

Sculptor Melvin Edwards, known for powerful works exploring the history of racial violence and the experiences of Black people in America, as well as themes of beauty and joy, died at his home in Baltimore on March 30. He was eighty-eight. His death was confirmed by New York gallery Alexander Gray and Associates, which represents […]

Parterre Box acknowledges Riccardo Muti's 600th performance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra by highlighting two of his favorite singers — under a different conductor.

Chicago-based artist Laura Berger continues her explorations of communion in a suite of staggering paintings that place her signature minimal figures in intimate fellowship with one another and the earth. Spanning six feet wide, the monumental works layer limbs and landscapes, as nude bodies merge with waves, flowers, and sun-strewn clouds. Berger frequently gestures toward past experiences and the spiritual realm, particularly focusing on the ways time fogs the clarity of memory and how transformation emerges from myriad circumstances. This body of work expands on the themes of interdependence, too, as she renders her figures in varying states of translucence as they swim through a cresting wave or lounge...

The staggeringly great Ukraine-born Jewish bass Mark Reizen sings "The Ebullient Kura Swirls" a/k/a "The Persian Love Song" by Moldova-born Jewish composer Anton Rubinstein.

 
FEELING SEEN is guest curated by Jenna Eady as part of our Curate for the Community series.
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.
FEELING SEEN is 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 emotional resonance. Its about creating the space for others to feel something.
The project aims to amplify diverse voices and create opportunities for new perspectives...

The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid has refused the Guggenheim Bilbao’s request to borrow Pablo Picasso’s Guernica, evoking reminders of a painful political history in Spain, according to Italy’s Il Giornale dell’Arte. The Guggenheim, which is located in Basque Country, had hoped to borrow the 1937 masterpiece for nine months beginning […]

A diver records Byzantine anchors on the seafloor off the coast of Karpathos, Greece. KARPATHOS, GREECE—According to the Greek Reporter, an international team of researchers has conducted a survey of the seafloor off the northern coast of the Greek island of Karpathos. The team members identified archaeological sites dating from the later seventh century B.C. through the mid-nineteenth century A.D. The sites include four ancient shipwrecks and one modern one; traces of an ancient port, shipwreck cargo packed in amphoras; and more than 20 anchors dated to the Byzantine period. To read about a famous monument on a neighboring Greek island, go to "Secrets of the Seven Wonders: Colossus of Rhodes."
The post...

NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT—A genetic study of Neanderthal remains recovered from Denisova Cave in Siberia’s Altai Mountains revealed that two individuals who lived 10,000 years apart belonged to closely related lineages linked to each other by a common ancestor, according to a Live Science report. The first individual, known as D17, was male and lived about 110,000 years ago. The second genome belonged to a female, known as D5, who lived about 120,000 years ago. “It is likely that Denisova Cave was part of a broader landscape used repeatedly by these Neanderthal populations over time, rather than a site occupied by a single continuous group,” said Diyendo Massilani of the Yale School of Medicine. The study...

Photograph of a rock art panel depicting a thylacine with sharp teeth from Injalak Hill in Australia's Northern Territory (top) and a version of the painting enhanced with DStretch (above) ARNHEM LAND, AUSTRALIA—Live Science reports that Tasmanian tigers, or thylacines, have been identified in rock art in northern Australia. It had been previously thought that that the carnivorous marsupial died out on the Australian mainland about 3,000 years ago, but the 14 drawings suggest that it may have survived in the north for another 2,000 years. These images show a dog-like animal with rounded ears and a long muzzle, sometimes with stripes. The longest drawing is almost five feet long. “The artists who made the...

Greta Kresse  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
 
Greta Kresse’s Website
Greta Kresse on Instagram

Madama Butterfly confronts anime, virtual reality, and weeaboos in Matthew Ozawa's bold production at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Parterre Box is announcing a formal partnership with Kalshi Inc. 

Authenticity and connection are two core values that drive Tina Simakova, a London-based portrait photographer. “I believe the most powerful images are born in trust and honesty,” she says. The artist is a master of natural light and minimal settings, using them to create atmospheric portraits rooted in intimacy and vulnerability. In one shot, a sliver of illumination – perhaps from a doorway, or an open window – slices through the darkness, brightening only the subject’s eyes. In another, the sitter’s side profile balances on the edge of a plush sofa, bathed in the glow from yet another unseen source. Its warmth complements their auburn hair. Elsewhere, chiaroscuro – where deep shadows engulf...

 
A figure shades her face from bright headlights, shining through a front window. Another character lies on a green velvet bedspread, quietly examining a pocketknife. Elsewhere, a woman clutches a portrait, its face obscured by rays of sunlight. These are compositions by Chrissy Lush, a visual artist born in New York and based in Nashville. Her staged works centre on moments when “composure begins to give way.” Often set within domestic and suburban environments, Lush’s figures appear to respond to external pressures that remain just outside the frame. “These are moments of slippage, when a controlled exterior falters and something unguarded briefly surfaces,” Lush says. The work explores tensions...

 
Stockholm-based Linda Westin left photography to pursue a PhD in neuroscience, specialising in super-resolution fluorescence microscopy – a group of imaging techniques that allows scientists to illuminate the structures inside cells by making them glow under specific wavelengths of light. When returning to the medium, she began to apply what she had learned, and started to look at forests, rocks, plants and stars with a newfound sensitivity. Now, Westin brings methods from neuroscience into artworks. These pictures present forest canopies as if they were neuronal dendrites, the branching extensions of nerve cells that receive signals. In the following pages, far-off mountains are framed by lush, layered...

 
One unexpected angle can offer an entirely new perspective on something we think we know. Stockholm-based Senay Berhe (b. 1979) proves this to be true, encouraging us to reconsider our surroundings through graphical compositions. As he travels across the city, Berhe captures everything from bridges to tower blocks – with the setting sun bouncing off multi-storey buildings, or balconies and satellite dishes cast in shadow. These are everyday locations shown anew. In portraiture, Berhe demonstrates an equally considered approach to framing and lighting, whilst also emphasising the depths of human emotion. One shot plays with primary colours; a model – seemingly deep in thought – is positioned against a...

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In the process of painting someone, artist Jenny Morgan reveals not only what shows, but what doesn’t show. Her vibrant and emotional oil paintings of figures hover in a place that is between realism and abstraction, where many of her subjects confront their viewer with an electric stare that braves against the vulnerable moment in […]
The post Very Strange Days: The Paintings of Jenny Morgan first appeared on Hi-Fructose Magazine.

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Growing up as a queer kid in the ‘80s, I was well aware from an early age that I was different, and that different was not okay, especially living in Missouri,” says New Mexico artist Anthony Hurd, who recently shifted away from abstracts, to delve into what may be deemed “controversial” figurative work. Not only […]
The post Boy Howdy! Anthony Hurd Embraces the Personal first appeared on Hi-Fructose Magazine.

The 78th Issue of Hi-Fructose includes a cover a feature on Nieves Gonzalez, the art of Grip Face, The landscapes of Jennifer Nehrbass, the soft sculptures of Ela Fidalgo, the stitched urban landscapes of Laura Ortiz Vega, the art Jeffrey Gibson, Yu Jin Young’s once transparent figures, and the paintings of Fatima De Juan.  Plus […]
The post Hi-Fructose issue 78 is Coming! first appeared on Hi-Fructose Magazine.