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Since her death 25 years ago, there have been countless films made about Diana, Princess of Wales. A musical bares her name, she is a character in multiple television series, the subject of numerous books, and her face can be found on commemorative plates, dolls, tea towels, and other memorabilia worldwide.
Until Afghanistan, Vietnam was America's longest war. The images we're seeing now have a lot of parallels with that war — right down to the scenes of the chaotic, desperate final days.
[co-authored with Sarah Laskow]
In 1876, on Oak Street between Oliver and James, a long-lost block of lower Manhattan that now lies underneath a housing project built in the 1950s, a New York Times reporter found the sign he had been looking for—“Tattooing Done Here.” Inside the shop, which he described as “a tavern with a well-sanded floor,” he found Martin Hildebrandt, the most famous tattoo artist in 19th-century America.
State Route 375 is a barren stretch of Nevada highway that runs near the top-secret U.S. Air Force installation commonly known as Area 51—a facility believed to be used for experimental aircraft testing, with a busy side hustle spawning theories about aliens, UFOs, and extraterrestrial technology. Rachel, a town on the highway with a population of just 54, manages to do brisk business, too. The Little A’Le’Inn there, according to one of its managers, feeds thousands of (human) visitors a year along what has become known as the Extraterrestrial Highway.
A distant glow appears on the edge of a desolate two-lane highway. As you pull up, the buzzing grows loud, drowning out the engine and the desert crickets outside. Voicelessly, it promises color TV, a kitchenette, and a phone in every room. Symbols of American expansionism and the Space Age, these iconic neon signs once topped countless motor lodges on Route 66 and other stretches of two-lane blacktop.
From his office at the Farm Security Administration (FSA) in Washington, D.C., Roy Stryker saw, time and again, the reality of the Great Depression, and the poverty and desperation gripping America’s rural communities. As head of the Information Division and manager of the FSA’s photo-documentary project, his job was to hire and brief photographers, and then select images they captured for distribution and publication. His eye helped shape the way we view the Great Depression, even today.
“Transitions” at Chambers Fine Art presented the work of three artists who explore themes of transformation in their art. While each worked with different artistic styles and mediums, there were shared elements in the works, such as undertones of political dissidence—indicative of the recent economic, cultural and political shifts in China where the artists work—and universally relatable concepts of change that come about due to the inevitable flow of life.
Over the years, Xie Xiaoze has cemented his role as an artistic figurehead and purveyor of cultural histories. The artist continues to explore printed media in his most recent exhibition, “Endurance,” with a focus on perseverance in the face of inevitable decay.
Xie has long held an appreciation for print. His earlier bodies of work spotlighted stacks of newspapers and magazines, with the goal of highlighting social and political issues. His new paintings show a shift in focus from newspapers to libraries, thereby evoking themes of time, permanence and memory.
Nishino’s work involves creating large-scale diorama maps of cities, in some cases up to two meters wide. Each consists of thousands of photos taken during Nishino’s travels to major cities. Using mainly black-and-white film, he spends up to three months in a location capturing its moments, monuments and memories. In Diorama Map, New York (2006), the Empire State Building is made up of multiple street-level shots, while downtown is revealed from a bird’s eye view. These vantage points provide the viewer with a sense of depth; the physical limitations of two-dimensional space are void in Nishino’s photographic reconstructions.
Ahmet Güneştekin’s current exhibition at Marlborough Gallery is the Turkish artist’s first in New York since 2013. “New Works” showcases Güneştekin’s diverse practice; his ceramics, textiles and painted works transport the viewer to a place where mythology and reality merge. Here, East and West know no boundaries and time is malleable. Each work shows levels of dimensionality through the complexity of colors and shapes used to present fractured moments of ancient stories.
In his first solo show in the United States, Cheng Ran has brought a sense of mysticism to the New Museum in New York City. The multi-video exhibit, which was mounted with the support of Hong Kong’s K11 Art Foundation, was shot and edited during a three-month residency at the museum, and spans across fifteen screens in its Lobby Gallery. In an interview with New York-based media outlet SinoVision, New Museum artistic director Massimilano Gioni named the Inner Mongolia-born Cheng as “one of the most interesting artist of his generation.” In particular, Gioni pointed out that Cheng’s work draws on Western and Chinese culture, and highlights how “cinema influences imagination.” “Diary of a Madman” takes the visitor through feelings of alienation and discovery as a foreigner in a new location, specifically New York. The videos serve as emotional backdrops for Cheng’s residency and first trip to the city in 2016, a place that carries a multitude of meanings for so many people, particularly for cinephiles like Ran.
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[co-authored with Andrew Freedman]
Raging wildfires that have so far burned more than 40,000 acres across Colombia since November are expected to intensify and continue through March.
Driving the news: President Gustavo Petro last week declared a national emergency, allowing funding for other projects to be diverted to firefighting efforts.
Sunday marks 100 days since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas that killed 1,200 people. About 240 people were taken hostage.
Since then, more than 23,900 Palestinians have been killed by Israel's bombardment and ground offensive in Gaza, according to the Ministry of Health in Hamas-run Gaza. More than 130 hostages are still being held captive in the enclave.
[co-authored with Andrew Freedman]
Heat waves, floods and wildfires dominated the news cycle this year with climate-change related disasters, and global average temperatures, on the rise.
Why it matters: Every month since June has been the hottest such month on record, and the rapid warming is playing out in the form of deadly extreme events worldwide.
The Chicago Public Library is working to preserve the city's Korean American history, especially for those in the second- and third-generations who may not speak Korean nor remember Albany Park's short-lived Koreatown.
Driving the news: On this last day of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we're looking into the Korean American Archives project, which is making photographs and documents from Chicago's Korean community digitally available to the public.
[authored by Chelsea Cirruzzo, photography by Aïda Amer]
Young transgender people from all over the country came together to celebrate a Trans Youth Prom outside the U.S. Capitol on Monday.
Why it matters: It was a chance for trans kids and their families to celebrate themselves as more states propose and pass anti-trans legislation.
Talented Black artists are still underrepresented in the wider art world. A recent study showed that only 6.3% of exhibitions across 29 museums were dedicated to Black American artists.
Why it matters: Even though pieces by big names like Mark Bradford continue to be popular, acquisitions for contemporary Black artists remains low, making up 2.2% of all acquisitions across 29 museums nationwide. While this list is by no means comprehensive, it is meant to serve as an introduction to some lesser-known contemporary Black artists making waves in the art world.
Wildfires, droughts, and extreme heat waves are raging through Europe, North America, South America, the Middle East and Asia as we head into the heat of fall.
The big picture: A heat wave and coinciding drought in China have no precedent in modern weather records, given the heat's severity and duration.