This week we lost a trailblazer in Jaune Quick-to-See Smith. The artist, an enrolled Salish member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation who passed away at 85 on January 24, was a tireless advocate for Native artists and rights, mixing humor and critique in her sociopolitical artworks. In other news, the Smithsonian Institution and National Gallery of Art have agreed to comply with Trump’s orders to ban federally funded DEI programs, and artist Ai Weiwei responds to AI chatbot DeepSeek’s silence on China's suppression of dissent. But don’t despair — we also learned that The Louvre plans to devote an entire room to the Mona Lisa. Our news team imagined how it could look. In reviews, AX Mina visits an annual exhibition supporting local businesses in Chinatown, while John Yau discusses the “ascetic sensuality” of artist Myron Stout. Meanwhile, Nancy Zastudil takes us into the historic Fechin House in New Mexico and I headed north to see a dazzling installation by Sonia Boyce in Toronto. Make sure to read our excerpt from Imani Perry’s new book Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People, a complex and thoughtful look at the color blue and its role in Black history. You’ll be glad you made time for this beautiful study. And learn about underrepresented craft histories and artists from our 2024 Craft Archive Fellows, organized in collaboration with the Center for Craft. The first three essays in this series of fascinating histories are online now. Happy reading!
— Natalie Haddad, Reviews Editor
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