Author: Audrey Bennett

To understand Lib Mason’s current paintings, it helps to trace the long professional road that led to them, a path that runs from editorial illustration classrooms to magazine pages to licensed product lines, before finally arriving, roughly eight years ago, at an independent oil-painting practice built on centuries-old technique. Foundations at RISD Mason’s formal training began at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she studied editorial illustration, a discipline focused on producing images that communicate clearly and quickly, often on tight deadlines and for a specific publication’s needs. That training set the technical and conceptual foundation for everything that…

A photograph can record what someone looked like at a particular instant. It cannot, on its own, explain who that person was. This gap between visual record and human depth sits at the center of nearly every serious portrait practice, and it is the gap that Sylvianne Blum Cassereau has built her entire artistic project around closing, or at least narrowing. The Limits of Likeness Physical resemblance is, for Blum Cassereau, a starting point rather than a destination. Her stated intention is to move beyond mere physical representation toward something closer to the strength, sensitivity, and essence of the person…

Yuri O’Hallorans is a contemporary Cuban artist whose multidisciplinary practice explores the complex relationship between individuality, society, imagination, and the human experience. Born in Havana, Cuba, in 1987, O’Hallorans developed a passion for visual art from an early age, beginning a creative journey that would eventually lead him to work across painting, digital art, photography, installation, and sculpture. His artistic practice is characterized by a willingness to explore different media and approaches. Rather than limiting himself to one particular technique, O’Hallorans moves between disciplines according to the ideas he wishes to communicate. This openness allows him to create works that…

Neus Colet is a contemporary artist whose creative practice moves between printmaking and sculpture, two disciplines that she uses independently as well as in combination. Her work is distinguished by an imaginative reinterpretation of familiar objects, transforming elements of everyday life into playful, ironic, and evocative artistic forms. Pulleys, gears, wheels, cars, and other mechanical objects frequently appear throughout her work. While these elements may initially seem ordinary or functional, Colet gives them new meaning by removing them from their conventional contexts and placing them within imaginative compositions. Through this process, everyday objects become something more. They can suggest memories,…

Ricardo Scofidio, an architect who helped reshape the museum landscape in the US, died on Thursday at 89. His death was announced by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the firm he founded with his wife Elizabeth Diller in 1997. Working alongside Diller and firm partner Charles Renfro, Scofidio worked on many US museum projects, from the Museum of Modern Art‘s 2019 expansion to a building for the Broad, the Los Angeles private museum of collectors Eli and Edythe Broad. The firm’s various projects included any number of projects that were not museums: Lincoln Center, redesigned with new outdoor spaces at a cost of $1 billion;…

In a cramped basement space in New York’s SculptureCenter in early February, ventriloquist Sophia Becker adjusted the metal legs of a doll with long black hair, a single guarache made from metal, and an underwear-like piece made from medical materials that looks oddly fashionable.  “Oh god that feels good,” the doll chirped in a girlish voice, before complaining that she’s stiff from a lack of play. “The lookers come but they don’t touch. I wish they would touch!” Becker was on hand for a one-night-only performance activating the exhibition, “Ideal Space for Music,” by Mexico-based artist-duo Hanya Beliá and Matias Armendaris, better known…

New York is a pretty sick town. Not in the “bro, that’s sick” way. Morbid, ill, macabre. The sickness has a lot to do with how disastrously emphasized the “New” in “New York” is with each passing generation. Forget what came before you. Just accept that things change. Enjoy the present while it lasts. While eating at the new New York restaurant Manuela in SoHo, I had only one thought: Our present sucks. To be blunt: Manuela is quite nice. The food is obviously excellent; even better are the people who work there. It’s the streets around it that are…

Liu Jiakun, a Chengdu-based architect known for his sensitive, place driven approach to design, has been awarded the 2025 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the most prestigious honor in architecture. Liu, who has spent decades crafting a body of work rooted in the traditions and materials of his native Sichuan province, is only the second Chinese citizen to receive the prize, following Wang Shu in 2012. The Pritzker jury praised Liu for using “Chinese tradition without nostalgia, but as a springboard for innovation,” crafting spaces that function as historical records, infrastructure, landscapes, and public forums. His projects, which range from museums and universities to…

This week, fashion designer Gabriela Hearst debuted her latest ready to wear fall 2025 line at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris as part of the city’s fashion week. Those in the crowd may have noticed some familiar faces namely, artist Rashid Johnson among the models. This collaboration between art and fashion is hardly new, though it’s not often that contemporary artists walk the runway themselves. For the show’s 11th look, Johnson wore a black turtleneck, wide-legged black trousers fitted with a belt, and a knee length dark brown coat. In his art practice, Johnson is known for his sharp meditations on race and…

The Canada Council for the Arts has announced the recipients of the 2025 Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts, recognizing eight outstanding Canadian artists, curators, and cultural leaders whose work has significantly shaped the country’s artistic landscape. Presented annually, the awards celebrate lifetime achievement and innovation across a wide range of artistic disciplines. This year’s honorees represent diverse backgrounds, artistic practices, and generations, highlighting Canada’s rich creative community. Kent Monkman Recognized for Transformative Artistic Career Among the most celebrated recipients is Kent Monkman, a Cree, Two spirit artist whose internationally acclaimed work challenges colonial narratives through powerful storytelling.…