Ahead of her appearance at the Verbier Art Summit, the pioneering Chinese artist discusses technological transformation, museum-audience dynamics, and her exploration into the future of farming Cao Fei’s practice is defined by its engagement with the rapidly shifting landscapes of technology, society, and identity. Working fluidly across film, digital platforms, virtual reality, and installation, Fei...
From painting surveys that unflinchingly examine the human body to participatory projects by children, the continent is teeming with stimulating exhibitions As spring breathes new life into Europe, museums are preparing for a season of must-see solo exhibitions. From blockbuster shows at major institutions like Tate Modern and Guggenheim Bilbao to hidden gems at smaller...
In an exhibition at Mucem, the French artist immerses herself in the Mediterranean and examines the connections between humans, living beings, and objects Men in black clothing busy themselves around a purple crane preparing to hoist a metal sculpture. Rain is falling over Marseille. The ochre color of Fort Saint-Jean, constructed during the Middle Ages...
When President Donald Trump announced that he was assuming control of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, he described the move as a triumph over “wokey” programming. He subsequently fired the 17 board members appointed by President Joe Biden and installed himself as chairman. Some critics have reacted to the move by suggesting Trump...
I teach history in Connecticut, but I grew up in Oklahoma and Kansas, where my interest in the subject was sparked by visits to local museums. I fondly remember trips to the Fellow-Reeves Museum in Wichita, Kansas, and the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. A 1908 photograph of my great-grandparents picking...
Researchers fuse the best of two popular methods to create an image generator that uses less energy and can run locally on a laptop or smartphone. The ability to generate high-quality images quickly is crucial for producing realistic simulated environments that can be used to train self-driving cars to avoid unpredictable hazards, making them safer...
Kente is a prestigious royal cloth of Ghana’s Asante people, part of their historical and cultural heritage. But there’s a debate about where it originated: the Bonwire community or the Adanwomase community in the Ashanti Region. The Conversation Africa spoke to African art and culture researcher Dickson Adom about the origins of this world famous...
Do artists and scientists see the same thing in the shape of trees? As a scientist who studies branching patterns in living things, I’m starting to think so. Piet Mondrian was an early 20th-century abstract artist and art theorist obsessed with simplicity and essence of form. Even people who have never heard of Mondrian will...
I broke its neck. When making a vase at the potter’s wheel, I torqued its slippery neck clear off the pot as I tried to thin it into a graceful curve. I find vases gratifying to make and their shapes especially pleasing to the eye. But vases also must be handled with particular care because...
When Moath al-Alwi left Guantánamo Bay for resettlement in Oman, accompanying him on his journey was a cache of artwork he created during more than two decades of detention. Al-Alwi was detainee number “028” – an indication that he was one of the first to arrive at the U.S. military prison off Cuba after it...