May 13, 2023

The weather is balmy, the A/C is frigid, and the coffee is expensive — it’s art fair season in New York City, folks, and we’re here to help you keep your head above water. In case you missed our fair guide, linked below, a number of shows opened this week already, including TEFAF, Independent, and Future; we’ve got on-the-ground reports from each of them. We’re also here to remind you that it’s okay if you don’t want to attend any fairs. Perhaps you’d rather see a more manageable exhibition (check out our May show roundup!) or stay home and scream into a pillow, which is also acceptable. Personally, I will be partaking in a little bit of everything.

On a more serious note, we had some important stories in the last few days, including a lawsuit against a prominent art advisor and a report detailing artists’ allegations of mismanagement at the Queens Museum. The reviews of Tsherin Sherpa’s thangka works at the Peabody Essex Museum and a show of contemporary Indigenous photography at the Denver Art Museum are truly a pleasure to read, as are Editor-in-Chief Hrag Vartanian’s reflections on Pamela Rosenkranz's deliciously Instagrammable High Line installation.

Finally: If you love both art and independent journalism, we would be so grateful if you considered becoming a Hyperallergic member. You’ll join our growing community of supporters and help sustain our work, plus receive invites to special member-only events and one of the nicest tote bags I’ve ever seen. (And believe me, I’ve seen many.)

— Valentina Di Liscia, News Editor

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Tsherin Sherpa’s “Corrupted” Thangka Art

In Sherpa’s art, Tibet and California, thangka and pop art, Buddha and Mickey Mouse mingle and morph to create a new visual language. | Erin L. Thompson and M. T. Anderson

IN THE NEWS

• Édouard Manet’s controversial “Olympia” painting will be shown in the US for the first time in an upcoming exhibition at the Met Museum.

• An Italian art historian and researcher may have identified the bridge in Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa.”

• The city of Vienna launched a new campaign that uses AI to put a feline spin on famous Austrian artworks.

• A rare plein-air painting of Austria’s Lake Attersee by Gustav Klimt heads to auction.

• Three clients accuse New York art advisor Lisa Schiff of running a “Ponzi scheme” to fund her “lavish lifestyle” in a $2M lawsuit.

NAVIGATING NYC

A No-Nonsense Guide to NYC’s May Art Fairs

It’s May at last, which means the weather is getting warmer, the spotted lantern flies are hatching en masse, and artists and gallerists all over the world are getting their ducks in a row for the nine upcoming art fairs that are popping up over the next two weeks in Manhattan. We’ve created a quick and easy back-pocket guide to navigating each fair and its offerings.

Our writers take us inside TEFAF, Future Art Fair, and Spring Break’s “Surprise” Show. Plus, what do Kim Kardashian and Independent have in common? 

20 Art Shows to See in New York This May

This month: Wendy Red Star, Bob Thompson, Daniel Lind-Ramos, art by MFA students, and much more. | Hakim Bishara, Valentina Di Liscia, and Hrag Vartanian

It’s Selfie Season at Manhattan’s High Line

Artist Pamela Rosenkranz’s glowing pink and red tree sculpture is sure to become an Instagram hit, and that’s okay. | Hrag Vartanian

RESISTANCE & VISUALITY

What Survivance Means for Indigenous Artists

Speaking with Light addresses an Indigenous audience with a subtler message: we are now in the process of reclaiming our own representation. | Stacy J. Platt

The Artists Resisting the Myth of “White” Argentina 

The work of Identidad Marrón Collective fights systemic racism and erasure of Indigenous and mixed-race narratives in the country. | Carolina Drake

Art by Survivors of America’s Wars 

The 2023 Veteran Art Triennial & Summit proves that the tools of the colonizer, the occupier, and the oppressor can be used to resist and persist. | Lori Waxman

CAPTURED IN PAINT

The Joys of Watching Paint Dry

In contrast to the speed and bravura of gestural abstraction, new.shiver slows time, and invites viewers to ponder how one might shape time passing. | John Yau

Mokha Laget’s Visual Paradoxes

Her paintings suggest exploded-view diagrams of parts that don’t fit together, as if the shapes are derived from a pleasantly illogical Jenga puzzle. | Amy Ellingson 

Lois Dodd’s Life in Nature

From the mid-1960s, when Dodd first took her Masonite panels outdoors to paint, her production has been shaped by observation. | Faye Hirsch

MORE ON HYPERALLERGIC

The Caste Bias of Tech Platforms

From Twitter and Instagram to matchmaking apps, tech companies have helped modernize the caste system instead of dismantling it. | Priteegandha Naik

Artists Say the Queens Museum Has Failed Them

A group of cultural workers exposed some artists’ disillusionment with the museum’s residency program and one participant’s alleged experience of harassment. | Valentina Di Liscia

The Dangerous Allure of the Royal Aesthetic

The pomp and pageantry of King Charles’s coronation follows the playbook of authoritarian theatrics. | Isabella Segalovich

60 Films That Say “I Love New York”

A festival opening this week at Film Forum highlights NYC-based, critically acclaimed films throughout the decades, from Scorsese to blaxploitation. | Maya Pontone

Required Reading

In this week’s Required Reading: Social media sleuthing reaches new heights, coronation fashion, and did a journalist fabricate an MLK quote on Malcolm X?  | Lakshmi Rivera Amin

IN OUR STORE

Blue & White Peruvian Wave Napkins

This timeless textile set reinterprets a remarkable Peruvian panel fragment at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, made of cotton and camelid hair between the 10th and 15th centuries.

Browse tableware inspired by works of art!