Author: Autumn Reese

Walk into “‘On the Verge,” Sylvia Snowden’s new show at White Cube, and the first thing you feel is that the paintings have been waiting for you not patiently, not politely, but with the pent-up charge of someone about to tell you something you probably won’t want to hear. This is especially true of the “M Street” figures. The muscular, whiplashed bodies are feel carved out of paint that’s thick enough to bruise if you get too close. They lurch toward you in their reds and ochres as if the polite conventions and hyper sexualized portraiture we see so often today were an…

ICOM’s new award celebrates sustainable practices in museums, inviting global submissions to inspire and promote long-term positive change in the museum sector. The International Council of Museums (ICOM) has announced a call for applications for the inaugural global award recognizing sustainable development practices within the museum community. This award underscores ICOM’s dedication to the UN’s Agenda 2030, aiming to inspire sustainable practices that lead to long term positive changes in the museum sector and beyond. “Accessible and inclusive, museums foster diversity and sustainability. We welcome diverse submissions from all museum types, addressing various sustainable development goals. I am proud to…

Las Vegas Museum of Art by Francis Kéré approved for Symphony Park, set to open by 2027. The project promises to transform the city’s art scene and cultural landscape. The City Council of Las Vegas has officially approved the detailed plans for the Las Vegas Museum of Art (LVMA), an ambitious new cultural institution that will soon grace the vibrant Symphony Park district. Designed by Francis Kéré, the Pritzker Prize-winning architect, the museum is set to occupy 1.5 acres of land, providing a unique space for art, community events, and public engagement. The museum’s development marks a significant step in transforming the city’s art scene…

Adam Pendleton has spent the better part of two decades making art in a language only he can speak fluently, in which mark making, pictographs, and short, all caps texts converge into a form of abstraction that hovers somewhere between early modernism, protest signage, and graffiti. While it’s a language that isn’t wholly discernible at first, it’s worth spending the time to learn how to appreciate it. Pendleton’s project is less about delivering clarity than it is about encouraging close inspection and deep introspection. These efforts are on full view in his sprawling exhibition, “Love Queen,” at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture…

A new museum dedicated to George Grosz is slated to open in Berlin this coming May. The museum, called Das kleine Grosz Museum (The Little Grosz Museum), was organized and funded by the George Grosz Estate and a number of private citizens, and while it is only expected to be in operation for a limited period, officials involved with the institution are hoping to make it a permanent fixture of the city’s scene. “It is not our intention to compete with other Berlin museums for state funding,” Pay Matthis Karstens, the Museum’s future curator, told the Art Newspaper, which first reported news of the museum.…

Alice Channer: Industrial Processes Meet Art in ‘Heavy Metals / Silk Cut’ Exhibition from July 2 to October 8, 2023 at Kunstmuseum Appenzell. In the world of contemporary art, Alice Channer, a London-based artist, is making waves with her unique approach to sculpture. Born in 1977 in Oxford, UK, Channer’s work is a fascinating exploration of the relationship between materials, bodies, machines, and industrial processes. Her upcoming exhibition, “Heavy Metals / Silk Cut,” is set to be displayed across two buildings of the Kunstmuseum and the Kunsthalle Appenzell from July 2 to October 8, 2023. The exhibition will feature new…

Most kids who are into Disney which is to say, most kids in general typically surround themselves with representations of Disney Princesses. But when Alex Da Corte made his first painting, at age 12, for the walls of childhood bedroom, he instead depicted the characters who antagonize these Princesses. Rather than sleeping beneath Cinderella, her evil stepmother loomed above his feet at night. A smiling Ursula appeared to emerge from a nearby window; Ariel was nowhere to be found. Da Corte is now in his mid-40s, but he seems no more interested in Disney Princesses now than he did 30 years ago.…

The most coveted commodity at an art fair, beside the wares themselves, is attention. At a blue chip bazaar like Frieze New York, where the crowd churns ceaselessly, and every wall aspires to be a show-stopper, a curator can’t leave discovery to chance. You might fear that Focus, the section of Frieze dedicated to enterprises 12 years and younger and to emerging talent, would be swallowed by the din. You’d be wrong. The section, curated by Lumi Tan, is an intergenerational showcase of artists hailing from New York and beyond. The works, spanning sculpture, painting, and photography, are variably raucous…

Finnish art museum corrects Ilya Repin’s nationality to Ukrainian after campaign reveals artist’s true heritage, challenging historical misattributions and highlighting the importance of accurate representation. Helsinki, Finland The Ateneum, Finland’s largest art museum, has revised the nationality of renowned 19th-century artist Ilya Repin from Russian to Ukrainian. This decision follows a persistent campaign by Ukrainians, particularly journalist Anna Lodygina, who uncovered evidence of Repin’s true heritage. Lodygina’s extensive investigation, published in Ukrainska Pravda, revealed that Repin’s family origins lie in present-day Ukraine, contradicting previous cataloging by the museum. Church records obtained by Lodygina confirmed that Repin’s father and grandfather were born in…

Rare are the shows that reveal a bona fide masterpiece to the public; the Museum of Modern Art’s rich, fascinating Wifredo Lam retrospective is one of them. I’m not talking about his iconic 1942–43 painting La jungla (The Jungle), a landmark of the Surrealist movement that has been a prized possession of MoMA’s since 1945. The real star here is Grande Composition (1949), a 14 foot wide tangle of angular, elongated creatures that twist through each other. Grande Composition was Lam’s largest work, and he made it by painting onto paper with oil so thinned down that it appears semitranslucent. Note the bottom portion of the painting, where…