Venice Biennale
Making Art on Top of the World
KINNGAIT, NUNAVUT, Canada — Just 125 miles shy of the Arctic Circle, in a hamlet etched into an icescape of rock and snow, a tiny figure clutching worn colored pencils sprawls atop a huge drawing, her frame half the size of the paper. Shuvinai Ashoona is putting the finishing touches on her latest work, a […]
Know More
Spring Auction Sales for Two Blockbuster Weeks Top $2.5 Billion
Last year, global auction sales of paintings by artists under 40 soared to $259.5 million, a 177 percent increase on 2020, according to data provided by Artprice, a French-based auction analytics company. Eager to jump on this fast-moving bandwagon, Sotheby’s has come up with a new format called “The Now” sales, focusing on works by […]
Know More
Sonia Boyce Wins Top Prize at Venice Biennale
VENICE — The artist Sonia Boyce won Britain the top prize at the Venice Art Biennale, the world’s longest-running and most high-profile international exhibition of contemporary art. “Feeling Her Way” — a sound installation of five Black British female musicians singing a cappella — took the Golden Lion for best national participation. Boyce is the […]
Know More
At Venice Biennale, Contemporary Art Sinks or Swims
VENICE — It’s a bit lost now in the brain fog of time, but in March 2020 one of the first memes of the coronavirus pandemic arose from the waters of this Most Serene Republic. Some fraudster posted a picture of dolphins supposedly swimming in the Bacino di San Marco, and swans cruising down an […]
Know More
Rushing Against War, and Time, Ukraine Makes It to the Biennale
VENICE — The 78 bronze funnels were ready, the pump tested and the backdrop was almost done. So when it looked as if war was most likely coming to Ukraine, Maria Lanko, one of the curators of the Ukrainian pavilion at the Venice Biennale, was determined to get the artist Pavlo Makov’s fountain sculpture safely […]
Know More
At Venice Biennale, a ‘Different Notion of Nation’
OSLO — Right about now, many members of the Sámi, one of Europe’s oldest Indigenous groups, are embarking on a spring migration, moving the reindeer herds upon which their livelihood and culture depend to grazing areas mostly north of the Arctic Circle. But this year, a handful are headed in the opposite direction. They are […]
Know More
In Her Last Works, Kaari Upson Explores Vanity and Decay
LOS ANGELES — On a visit last month to Kaari Upson’s studio here, it looked like she just left to grab a cup of coffee or maybe one of the “garbage burritos” she loved so much. Her art was everywhere: new paintings and drawings covering the walls, with recent sculptures of tree trunks — made […]
Know More
Russian Artists Speak Out Against War, but Fear Reprisals
The young Russian artists Kirill Savchenkov and Alexandra Sukhareva were set to represent Russia in April at the Venice Biennale, the art-world jamboree that can turn little-known artists into global stars. Now, that potentially glittering future seems to have vanished. On Sunday, the pair withdrew from the event, posting a short statement on Instagram and […]
Know More