March 25, 2023

This week we welcomed spring after a relatively mild winter, at least here in New York. May this be a season of renewal and blossoming creativity for us all.

What didn’t happen this week is an indictment, nor an arrest, of the abominable Donald Trump. But leave it to AI image generators to render this hope into existence. These fake but convincing images are all we have, for now.

One of the most compelling pieces we published this week was by Cambodian-American choreographer Sophiline Cheam-Shapiro, who was removed from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York after performing a sacred dance to allegedly stolen antiquities from her home country. Cheam-Shapiro explains what these objects truly mean to Cambodians, and why and how they should be returned. You've seen and read a lot of articles about repatriation written by academics. This one is different and more impactful, in my opinion.

Also worth reading are three exhibition reviews by John Yau (the man is prolific), the story of an artist who creates sculptures from the ashes of loved ones, and Paddy Johnson's tips to artists on how to get a public art commission.

Finally, I’ll take this opportunity to invite you to an online conversation with Hyperallergic fellow Sadaf Padder, an independent curator based in New York. Padder's work provides a theoretical and practical framework for South Asian futurism. The conversation will start at 6pm (EDT) on Tuesday, March 28. Join us!

— Hakim Bishara, Senior Editor

Met Museum Kicked Me Out for Praying to My Ancestral Gods

My danced prayer to looted Cambodian antiquities was too much for the New York museum. | Sophiline Cheam-Shapiro

WHAT'S HAPPENING

• A new report finds that the Met holds over 1,000 objects linked to people who have been accused of or convicted of antiquities crimes.

• The online resale market for the Rijksmuseum’s sold-out Vermeer exhibition is booming, with tickets selling for over $2K on eBay.

• NYC’s iconic Flatiron Building sells for $190 million at auction, ending the protracted legal battle between its former owners. 

• Launched to inspire civic engagement throughout the city, New Yorkers don't ❤️ the new "We ❤️ NYC" campaign.

In AI news... 

• Midjourney's latest version can render realistic human hands.

•  AI-generated pictures depicting Trump being dragged away by police in front of the cameras send the internet into a frenzy.

• New guidance from the US Copyright Office indicates that some artworks generated using AI are now eligible for copyright registration.

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EMBEDDED IN ART

Rose B. Simpson Embeds Ancestral Histories in Clay

She has taken clay and used it to recall its ancestral roots in Pueblo culture and address the present history of postcolonial recovery and ongoing trauma. | John Yau 

The Sculptor Making Art With Loved Ones’ Ashes

Inspired by the three-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic, Julian Stair’s exhibition honors the lives of eight people with cinerary jars. | Taylor Michael

Kahori Kamiya Transmutes Grief Into Play

Through artworks that encourage viewers to explore varied vantages, Kamiya conveys her accrued wisdom and experiences without the weight of their pain. | Vittoria Benzine

REFLECTIONS & EXPLORATIONS

Mark Thomas Gibson’s Cartoons See the US Going Nowhere

If Thomas Nast, who is considered the “Father of the American Cartoon,” has an heir, it is Gibson, who goes one step further and elevates caricature and commentary into art. | John Yau 

Quiet Paintings at a Time of Sensory Overload

Where Kim Mikyung’s process suggests an obsessive burrowing into the self, Kim Hyung-dae casts his gaze upward and outward into the sky. | Alex Paik

Richard Hull Completes the Picture

Once known for his abstracted portraits, the Chicago artist is now exploring new directions. | John Yau 

ONE-ON-ONE

What Do Shtreimels and Cowboy Hats Have in Common?

A chance meeting on the subway introduced photographer Francesca Magnani to the multicultural world of Brooklyn milliner Richard Faison. 

Growing up in Brooklyn, I had so many cultures surrounding me that would impact me. My dad being from Trinidad and being a huge cowboy lover was one of the biggest for me. I watched Clint Eastwood movies with him and thought cowboys were the coolest people on earth. Then I found out that most cowboys were actually Mexican and Black and that piqued my interest.

— Richard Faison 

ART PROBLEMS

Art Problems: How Do I Get a Public Art Commission?

Want to leave a mark on your city or town, but don’t know where to start? Paddy Johnson has some tips.

MORE ON HYPERALLERGIC

In Search of Inclusive South Asian Futurisms

We have been dangerously siloed for far too long by colonial constructs of race, nation, and time that separate, divide, and deny us our very being. | Sadaf Padder

Padder will delve into the practices of South Asian artists imagining a decolonial, diasporic future in a virtual conversation on Tuesday, March 28, at 6pm (EDT). Register here.

Is the “Free the Nipple” Movement Too White?

Online representations of the activists lean White and thin, creating an image problem for the movement. | Emma Shapiro

MTV’s The Exhibit Is Back With an Inflatable Dolphin

Episode four, in which artists tackled themes of justice and injustice, was the most lifeless of the reality TV show so far. | Rhea Nayyar

A Museum Guard’s Ode to the Healing Power of Art

In All the Beauty in the World, Patrick Bringley revisits the many ways that art meets life, and life art, and how death is often the bridge between them. | Bridget Quinn

Required Reading

This week, the world’s lightest paint, Pakistan’s feminist movement, World Puppy Day, and were some of Vermeer’s paintings created by his daughter? | Lakshmi Rivera Amin

IN OUR STORE

Gee’s Bend Pettway Quilt Scarf

A recreation of Lucy T. Pettway’s iconographic “Housetop and Bricklayer with Bars” decorates this modal silk scarf. The original work is intentionally pictorial, depicting an imaginary aerial view of the old Pettway plantation.

Check out more art-inspired scarves!