Author: Paige Ellery
Encarna Robles, the artistic name of Encarnación Robles Navarro, is a Spanish artist whose creative journey has been shaped by an enduring passion for art, an ongoing curiosity about different forms of expression, and a deep sensitivity to light and composition. Born in León in 1951, she moved to Oviedo, the capital of the Principality of Asturias, in 1976, where she established her life and continued to develop her artistic practice. For Robles, art has never been confined to a single medium or style. Her practice moves freely between abstraction and figuration, painting and drawing, sculpture and printmaking. Rather than…
Helena Pellicer Ortiz is a contemporary artist whose creative practice explores the possibilities of photography as a means of transforming reality. Rather than simply documenting the world as it appears, she uses the photographic medium to reinterpret spaces, perspectives, and elements, creating new visual experiences that invite viewers to reconsider their understanding of reality. Her work is characterized by a fascination with perspective and the many ways in which the world can be observed and reconstructed. Through photography, Pellicer Ortiz creates spaces that may feel familiar while simultaneously appearing unexpected, allowing the viewer to move between recognition and imagination. Her…
I have this vague, flickering memory of neon orange billowing impossibly through threadbare trees like the penumbric trails of large, unseasonal fireflies. I would’ve been seven years old when the late Christo and Jeanne Claude installed “The Gates” 7,503 16-foot gates adorned with fabric flowing along 23 miles of walkways for 16 days in Central Park in 2005. Christo and Jeanne Claude: The Gates and Unrealized Projects for New York City, a pay-what-you-wish exhibition at the Shed, memorializes the temporary project 26 years in the making on its 20th anniversary. It consists of preparatory drawings and collages, video interviews projected on the…
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif, at the center of Daisy Patton’s Before These Witnesses hangs a double swing festooned with fabric flowers. Fashioned from a decrepit sofa the artist found on Craigslist, it frames vintage wedding photos of an anonymous Venezuelan couple that the artist has enlarged, printed on canvas, and embellished with bold acrylic paints. The result is “Untitled (Color Fade Wedding Couple with Purple Background and Green Vines)” (2024), an enchanted assemblage which projects both joy and grief. Visitors to the exhibition which focuses on the theme of weddings will feel its emotional impact as they enter the gallery. One of…
So you think you know Mucha? Printmaking? The ravenous classism of the art world? This month, our editors and contributors invite you to question what you think you know. Senior Editor Hakim Bishara takes a look at the first English-language translation of a book of photos by Chilean photographer Sergio Larrain with text by poet Pablo Neruda, while Associate Editor Lisa Yin Zhang reads critic Lucy Lippard’s collection of experimental fiction. Read on for more recommendations, including Editor-in-Chief Hrag Vartanian on Tamara Lanier’s moving memoir chronicling her fight to reclaim daguerreotypes of her enslaved ancestors from Harvard University and The…
An ongoing exhibition at the College of William and Mary’s Muscarelle Museum of Art in Williamsburg, Virginia, brings seven of Michelangelo’s few surviving sketches to light in the United States for the first time. Through May 28, Michelangelo: The Genesis of the Sistine, organized by Special Exhibition Curator Adriano Marinazzo, incorporates 38 objects in total, including 25 of the Renaissance master’s drawings and ideations for the Sistine Chapel along with etchings, lithographs, and other artifacts related to the monumental undertaking at the Vatican. The exhibition spans five galleries three of which have been painted a soft shade of blue to evoke…
After weeks of rallies against expected layoffs at the Brooklyn Museum and even a special oversight hearing at City Hall, District Council 37, one of the unions representing employees, said in a statement that leadership will offer some buyouts to impacted workers. In an email press release today, March 10, a week before the staff cuts were set to go into effect, DC 37 said the museum agreed to voluntary separation packages and retirement incentives alternatives the union has long been advocating for. It’s unclear how many workers will be eligible, or whether layoffs will be avoided entirely. “The outcome of these negotiations is…
Deborah Kass, “Subject Matters” (1989–90), From reinventing abstraction to recreating Barbie for new generations, we’re looking at a wide range of art this week. Make sure to catch Norman Bluhm’s unorthodox abstracts and the Museum of Arts and Design’s dizzying display of Barbie’s history before they end this weekend. After that, revisit art history’s past with a survey of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s legendary project “The Gates” and Deborah Kass’s feminist pastiches. Manuel Herreros de Lemos and Mateo Manaure Arilla’s poignant 1982 documentary “Trans” and its accompany exhibition at the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art rounds out our list.…
Days after penning a letter demanding the deinstallation of a “blasphemous” exhibition at the National Gallery Alexandros Soutsos Museum in Athens, Greece, far-right Parliament Member Nikolaos Papadopoulos vandalized several of the artworks at the museum late Monday morning, March 10. Papadopoulos was temporarily detained and questioned after attacked four works from Greek artist Christophoros Katsadiotis’s in the group exhibition The Allure of the Bizarre, a show taking inspiration from Francisco Goya’s Los Caprichos (1797–98) etchings to present oddities, hybridizations, and the grotesque thematic to Greek art. “We unequivocally condemn all acts of vandalism and violence, and any attempts at censorship that threaten the freedom of artistic expression…
Alexandra Jicol doesn’t chase trends. Her art is personal, introspective, and raw in a way that invites you to slow down. She doesn’t pretend to have all the answers. Instead, she walks alongside the viewer observing, feeling, and asking questions. Born and raised in Bucharest, Romania, Jicol came of age during a time of political tension and limited freedoms. That early experience shaped how she looks at the world with care, curiosity, and restraint. It also explains her deep sensitivity to nuance. Rather than painting for spectacle, she paints to reflect. Her work isn’t decorative. It’s an invitation to listen. Her…