It’s been a wild week in the news: A brazen vandal shatters an Ai Weiwei porcelain sculpture at a private reception; New York Mayor Eric Adams is served an indictment on corruption charges, opening the floodgates for gloating memes; Israel bombards Lebanon, bringing art to a halt; and an adorable baby hippo goes viral, melting hearts worldwide. Times are strange and volatile,but we have art to help us cope and heal. Read my review of the Met Museum’s new facade commission by South Korean artist Lee Bul, in addition to Nereya Otieno on Simone Leigh in Los Angeles, Olivia McEwan on David Hockney’s Renaissance inspirations, Raquel Gutiérrez on art and activism, Alex Paik on the ghosts of Asian-American history, and so much more. I also recommend Isa Segalovich’s guide to outdoor folk art gems in Wisconsin, AX Mina’s Tarotscope for the fall equinox, and this week’s Required Reading, thoughtfully curated and narrated by our talented Associate Editor Lakshmi Rivera Amin. Have a lovely weekend.
— Hakim Bishara, Senior Editor
|
Correction: Last week’s newsletter mistakingly stated that artist Amy Sherald’s upcoming survey American Sublime will debut at the National Portrait Gallery in DC instead of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which organized the show. We apologize for the error.
|
|
|
|
|
You’re currently a free subscriber to Hyperallergic. To support our independent arts journalism, please consider joining us as a paid member. |
| Become a Member
|
|
|
|
|
|
Her sculptures for The Met’s facade commission look like they’ve always been there, Frankensteined in the bowels of the museum’s ethnographic collections. | Hakim Bishara
|
|
|
|
SPONSORED
|
|
|
With over 90 events and more than 70 artists, come discover why the Pacific Northwest is the leading regional hub for glass art in the United States. Learn more
|
|
|
|
IN THE NEWS
|
|
A man shattered Ai Weiwei’s “Porcelain Cube sculpture at the opening reception of his exhibition Who Am I? at Palazzo Fava in Bologna, Italy.
Jhumpa Lahiri has declined the Noguchi Museum’s 2024 Isamu Noguchi Award in a gesture of support for former workers who were fired for wearing keffiyehs.
Henry Payne and the National Review have drawn public outcry for a racist political cartoon depicting Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib with a detonated pager.
Teresa Margolles’s new monument to trans and nonbinary life was recently unveiled at London’s Trafalgar Square.
Art institutions are closing their doors to the public as a potential ground invasion looms in Lebanon.
Current and former Wexner Center for the Arts staff accuse the director of mistreatment, impulsive decision-making, and insufficient fundraising efforts.
|
|
Looking for artist residences, fellowships, open calls, grants, and more? Subscribe to our Opportunities Newsletter for the latest listings each month. Update your preferences. |
|
|
|
BEHIND THE MEME
|
|
|
Just as memes of the viral hippo range from sweet to spooky, art history is rich with terrifying, adorable, and bizarre depictions of the amphibious creatures. | Isabella Segalovich
How did our collective obsession with the moisturized and unbothered hippo spiral into cuteness aggression? | Isa Farfan
The humans (and rats) of New York are rejoicing. | Lisa Yin Zhang
|
|
|
|
SPONSORED
|
 | |
This fully-funded three-year graduate program in Southern New England supports a broad range of art making, exemplified by the work of its newest students.
Learn more
|
|
|
|
FROM OUR CRITICS
|
|
|
The core message of visual analysis and close looking in Hockney and Piero: A Longer Look is an apt mantra for the National Gallery’s history. | Olivia McEwan
Leigh’s survey split between two Los Angeles venues demonstrates the futility in prescribing a definitive role to the Black feminine in a postcolonial world. | Nereya Otieno
The artists in this exhibition know that we cannot simply “get over” the history of racialization, as well as the destructive legacy of US imperialism. | Alex Paik
An exhibition outlines 19th-century artist Guillaume Lethière’s connection to his birthplace, mixed-race heritage, and the politics of revolution. | Gabrielle Patrone
|
|
|
|
ART IN NYC
|
|
|
“You will return to me,” says the land in a short video work projected onto the Brooklyn Bridge, Chinatown’s Kimlau Square, and other locations across the city. | Maya Pontone
The Harrisons’ Survival Piece #5: Portable Orchard at The Whitney is a calm and orderly response to the dystopian possibilities of climate upheaval. | Louis Bury
Tanning’s practice shows that there is always another door to open, a new world to explore, and that art offers us another possible existence. | Natalie Weis
Concluding its nationwide tour at the Asia Society, Maḏayin gathers intricate eucalyptus bark works by artists from the Indigenous community of Yirrkala. | Isa Farfan
|
|
|
|
MORE ON HYPERALLERGIC
|
|
|
Countless displays of intense and idiosyncratic brilliance are nestled in the grassy hills of the Midwest state. | Isabella Segalovich
The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History features the work of Baldwin-obsessed artist Sabrina Nelson on the centennial of the famed author’s birth. | Sarah Rose Sharp
Robert Shetterly’s Portraits Honor Peace Activists “It’s about people with the courage and perseverance to insist that politicians and media tell the truth,” the artist told Hyperallergic. | Maya Pontone
Big and transformative energies are in the collective air as we enter into the coming months — be prepared. | AX Mina
Novelist and scholar Yxta Maya Murray elucidates how the most rigorous critiques of the law often emerge from artistic practice. | Raquel Gutiérrez
This week: a 200-year-old message in a bottle, the poetry of Marcellus Williams, Ta-Nehisi Coates changes his mind, a new Mozart banger, and much more. | Lakshmi Rivera Amin
|
|
|
|
This email was sent to newsletter@newslettercollector.com
|
|
|
|
|
