Latest news with #artworld
Wall Street Journal
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
In New York, Group Shows Send Mixed Messages
New York The summer group show is an art-world mainstay. As collectors abandon their urban abodes for far-flung vacation homes, gallerists take advantage of the seasonal slowdown to stage exhibitions that offer a hiatus from the hard-nosed seriousness of the other months, a breezy annual break that's as welcome as a zephyr on a sweltering July day. So it's somewhat bold when a gallery tackles a meaty subject, and a pair of shows do just that, opting to investigate political power at a time when many folks have switched their phones to do-not-disturb as they sun on the beach.
Forbes
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
The Role Of Curatorial Studios In The Digital Art Ecosystem
Purgatory Edit by Ali Akbar Mehta, Digital Intimacies, Late at Tate Britain, Curated by Hervisions. In an era of incessant image production and reproduction, how does cultural relevance emerge? Who dares sift through presently developing tendencies to spotlight artists whose work is lightyears ahead of the curve, contextualizing it alongside comparable avantgarde explorations of the past? Who ventures to filter innovation from novelty? Enter the curatorial studio. Case in point: synthesis, a studio founded by Giorgio Vitale in 2017, which launched with a mission to elevate AR and VR, modes of expression Vitale felt weren't adequately represented in the artworld ecosystem. Since inception, synthesis has curated career-augmenting shows for artists the likes of Nancy Baker Cahill, Yehwan Song (FeralFile), and Cibelle Cavalli Bastos (SXSW). Cibelle Cavalli Bastos, A Picture Can't Take Me (left), AES+F, Turandot 2070, Lynx Avatar (center) ... More and Lovers I (right), I KNOW exhibition, Curated by synthesis for Feral File. As Vitale explained via exclusive conversation with Forbes: 'Our goal was to create a context where artists working with immersion were taken seriously, both conceptually and materially. It wasn't just about hanging screens and headsets on white walls; it was about crafting environments that honored the specificity of these practices while inviting broader conversations about how technology shapes identity, perception, and society.' synthesis launched because it recognized mediums that required further critical attention but, from here, evolved. Most recently, Vitale curated Material Poetry for HEK Basel, proposing a lineage of the genre in the process. From the performative poetics of budding artist Franziska Ostermann to the foundational work of Eduardo Kac, this exhibition exemplifies synthesis' role in nurturing emerging artists while collaborating with well-established names. As Vitale affirms: 'When we place someone like Kac next to Ostermann, we're not inviting comparisons but encouraging viewers to think about continuity and rupture.' A show like Material Poetry builds two types of bridges: one between legacy new media institutions and dynamically evolving modes of expression and another between artistic practices at different stages of development. Each is equally important. Hervisions, a curatorial studio founded by Zaiba Jabbar in 2015 to address the flagrant absence of femme-identifying voices in the art and tech world, recently created a third type of bridge at Tate Britain: one between institutional polish and dynamic experiential exhibitions. Both Hervisions and synthesis cite a desire to challenge the dominance of the white-cube exhibition in their approach, privileging non-traditional presentations of artworks, such as when Hervisions released a mobile-friendly video game in partnership with William Morris Gallery in 2023 or when synthesis showed Cahill's work at the former airport in Berlin's Tempelhofer Feld in 2021. When I spoke to Jabbar for Forbes, she reminisced about her studio's origins: 'I hoped to carve out space for a different kind of future, one where speculative thinking, intersectional feminism, and digital aesthetics could meet on equal terms.' Bionic Step by Nina Davies, Digital Intimacies, Late at Tate Britain curated by Hervisions. Jabbar certainly delivered this via Late at Tate Britain's art and tech program, Digital Intimacies, via which she transformed the museum into an affective landscape peppered with the works of artist like Alex Quicho, Chia Amisola, and Romy Gad el Rab in ways that privileged 'the confusion, the glitch and the beauty of love, loss and connection." A major takeaway, Jabbar cites, is the realization of "how vital it is to protect that sense of mess, immediacy, and openness within institutional contexts. People aren't just receptive to it, they're hungry for it. I'm excited to keep building on this model. Whether through nomadic formats, durational gatherings, or layered commissions, I want to continue creating curatorial experiences that centre risk, emergence, and relationality.' Often, institutions contract these services from curatorial studios; other times, they partner with the studio, even offering works commercially. An example is The Second Guess: Body Anxiety in the Age of AI, curated by Anika Meier and Margaret Murphy for HEK Basel. Intended to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of the historic show Body Anxiety, The Second Guess included a commercial component intended to fund the production of an exhibition catalogue. Emi Kusano, Algorhythm of Narcissus, AI-generated video, The Second Guess: Body Anxiety in the Age ... More of AI, 2025. However, there was so much collector interest in the exhibition's works, that Murphy and Meier transformed The Second Guess into a curatorial studio and partnered with the Tezos blockchain and OBJKT platform to present future commercially available shows. The Second Guess is focused on presenting the work of envelope-pushing female and non-binary artists, while bringing the historic work of trailblazers such as LaTurbo Avedon and VNS Matrix (who coined the term 'cyberfeminism') to the blockchain. With shows at HEK Basel, the Francisco Carolinum Museum Linz and the Center of Media Arts in Karlsruheunder their belt, this young studio is proving impactful in bridging the internet to the institution. As Meier mentioned: 'Our goal is to help both sides understand each other better and learn more about the new online art world while also respecting traditional institutions and acknowledging that we are all here because of their groundbreaking work.' Addie Wagenknecht, The Perfect Women, Computational, 2024, The Second Guess: Body Anxiety in the Age ... More of AI. A marked throughline of Meier and Murphy's first exhibition was 'the radical emergence of social media,' a new dynamic with which contemporary artists – and the artworld ecosystem at large – must grapple. Their most recent endeavor saw them bring similar themes to Basel, where they presented at digital art fair ArtMeta, adopting a gallery model. The gallery-as-curatorial-studio model is certainly not new. LA-based EPOCH Gallery, founded by curator, educator, and artist Peter Wu, functions most frequently as a virtual gallery space but also produces in situ exhibitions, as in CATALYST, which they presented at Honor Fraser Gallery in 2023. With Wu's keen curatorial eye, it's no surprise that entire exhibitions have been acquired by institutions: the LACMA recently acquired their 2022 exhibition ECHOES. EPOCH has also opened their doors to guest curators, notably April Baca, Katie Peyton Hofstadter, Nora N. Khan and Andrea Bellini, who curated a show for EPOCH at the Centre d'Art Contemporain Genève. A RADIANT FUTURE, featuring work by Claudia Brăileanu, Ceren Su Çelik, Chris Coleman, Harriet Davey, ... More Sophie Kahn, Parag K. Mital, nouseskou, and Yoshi Sodeoka; Curated by Peter Wu+. Transfer Gallery, whose founding members are Kelani Nicole, Regina Hirsyani and Wade Wallerstein, also traverses the commercial and institutional axis skillfully, adding a crucial and often-overlooked element: assistance with the conservation of time-based media works. What's more, in 2022 they curated wwwunderkrammer an exhibition of Carla Gannis' work for the Perez Art Museum. A few years later, they helped secure the private sale of one of Gannis' major works, The Garden of Emoji Delights. Transfer and EPOCH exemplify the ways curatorial studios can help artists build collector bases and secure institutional acquisitions, which can prove fateful in the long-term financial viability of daring artistic practices. Meanwhile, early players like Studio as We Are, founded by Jess Conatser, helped bring digital art into the home, curating collections for Infinite Objects, which creates stunning screen-based displays collectors can flaunt in their living rooms. Artists, too, can drive curatorial studios. Fakewhale, whose founding members include artists Sky Golpe and Jesse Draxler, brings about physical and virtual exhibitions but also provides compelling critical visions, penning articles that help amplify the stories their artists are writing. It's Dark Inside, Evelyn Bencicova, 2019 As Vitale eloquently puts: 'Curatorial studios have a kind of nimbleness and closeness to artists that big institutions often can't match. We can walk alongside artists as their practices evolve, offering curatorial frameworks while their work is still taking shape. We create spaces where experimentation is embraced, while resisting the flattening effect of trends—making sure younger artists don't just 'surface' briefly but are rooted within the larger conversations they're actively shaping.' In the case of curatorial studios, no rules are written, giving them the freedom and flexibility to be As a digital artist, I've exhibited in exhibitions curated by most of the curatorial studios presented in this article.
Arab News
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Arab News
US Qatari Sophia Al-Maria wins 2025 Frieze Artist Award
DUBAI: US Qatari artist and writer Sophia Al-Maria has been announced as the recipient of the 2025 Frieze Artist Award, one of the art world's most highly anticipated annual commissions. For the latest updates, follow us on Instagram @ The award is part of Frieze London, a leading international art fair that will return to Regent's Park from Oct. 15-19, bringing together more than 280 galleries from 45 countries. Presented in partnership with Forma, the award supports early- to mid-career artists in debuting new works. This year, Al-Maria will perform 'Wall Based Work (a Trompe LOL),' a live stand-up comedy show held daily inside the fair tent. The work marks Al-Maria's first attempt at stand-up, in which she will blend sharp humor with her long-standing interest in mythology, empire and pop culture. 'In partnership with Forma, we are proud to continue supporting artist-centered programming,' said Eva Langret, director of Frieze EMEA. 'Al-Maria's debut stand-up promises a collective experience exploring vulnerability, creativity, shared anxieties and LOLs.' Meanwhile, Chris Rawcliffe, artistic director at Forma, said: 'By wielding humor as a tool for survival, Al-Maria not only provokes reflection but actively reshapes the cultural conversation … Al-Maria is more than an artist and critic, she is a catalyst for change, and an indispensable voice in both the art world and the wider social landscape.' Al-Maria's proposal was selected by a jury of leading industry professionals, including curator and museum consultant Lydia Yee and the artistic director of exhibitions at Ikon Gallery, Melanie Pocock, artistic director of exhibitions at Ikon Gallery, as well as Langret and Rawcliffe. Based in London, Al-Maria works across drawing, collage, sculpture, film and writing. Her practice is unified by a focus on storytelling and mythmaking, often reimagining histories and envisioning speculative futures. Her work has been shown at major institutions and biennales, including the Gwangju Biennale, the New Museum and Whitney Museum in New York, the Venice Biennale, and Tate Britain.
Yahoo
29-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why the Once-Skyrocketing Art Market Fell Back Down to Earth
If the 2010s and early 2020s were boom times for the art world, the quarter-century mark might be shaping up to be a bust. It was hard to ignore the very public signs of a slowdown in 2024. Annual auction sales of fine art fell 27.3 percent to $10.2 billion—a steeper drop than during the first year of the pandemic—according to Artnet, which tracks the market. Moreover, the total number of works sold remained high, meaning the average price decreased. Even the heaviest hitters among collectors appeared to be playing it safe: Only three lots hammered over $50 million, compared to twice that number in 2023. There was also a steady drumbeat of business closures, from decades-old mainstays such as Marlborough Gallery, Washburn Gallery, and Mitchell-Innes & Nash to David Lewis Gallery, which shuttered after an impactful 11 years, and several smaller operations focused on emerging artists. One dealer was quoted calling the general commercial contraction 'a bloodbath.' More from Robb Report How Art Deco Style Continues to Influence Modern Jewelry Designs The Distillers Advocating for Radical Transparency in Whiskey Making App-y Travels: Private Aviation Has Finally Embraced Smartphone Chartering Museums, too, faced bleaker outlooks. Several announced layoffs, including the Brooklyn Museum and the Guggenheim, and others appear to be mounting fewer exhibitions as a cost-cutting strategy. Meanwhile, President Trump and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) moved to eliminate the entire staff of the Institute of Museum and Library Services and gutted the National Endowment for the Humanities, both of which award grants. In the spring, just when the industry could have used a break from the gloom, along came Trump's tariffs, which, coupled with other countries' retaliatory measures, threaten to put the brakes on international transactions. Imported original artworks themselves remain exempt for now, but art supplies and exhibition catalogs are just some of the categories that will see rising prices. In addition to increased costs, galleries, museums, and fairs all face residual damage, such as fewer foreign visitors. The stock market's convulsions in reaction to the trade measures are poised to make matters worse, leaving collectors with smaller art budgets. As if the economic uncertainties weren't unsettling enough, the current administration's hostility toward immigrants and political dissent has put cultural exchanges at risk, whether an artist talk or a BFA program stocked with students from far-flung countries—things that many art-world denizens cherish and, until now, took for granted. Best of Robb Report The 10 Priciest Neighborhoods in America (And How They Got to Be That Way) In Pictures: Most Expensive Properties Click here to read the full article. Sign in to access your portfolio
Telegraph
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Cate Blanchett and Georgia May Jagger lead the best dressed guests at the Serpentine Summer Party
1 of 29 The Pavilion is up and guests are arriving for the Serpentine Gallery's annual Summer Party, which this year is co-hosted by Cate Blanchett. Named 'A Capsule in Time', this year's Pavilion is designed by architect Marina Tabassum and features translucent canopies and kinetic elements that transform the structure into a new space. A host of names-to-know from the fashion, architecture and art worlds are in attendance at the fundraiser, scroll through the gallery to see the best dressed…
