Nadezhda Tolokonnikova's solo museum show "RAGE" at OK Linz explores her experiences as a member of Pussy Riot who was imprisoned for her activism against Putin's regime. The exhibition features paintings, engraved wooden reliefs, and video installations that reflect on the psychological impact of her two-year incarceration and her defiance in reclaiming her artistic agency. Tolokonnikova merges her sex appeal with religious iconography in a way that is deeply disturbing to Russian sensibilities, highlighting the danger radical feminist art poses to political power. The show includes a reconstruction of her prison cell and video clips of Pussy Riot's performances, underscoring the artist's continued resistance against authoritarian regimes.
https://hyperallergic.com/980878/nadya-tolokonnikova-makes-an-art-of-rage-ok-linz-austria/Pippa Garner, a Los Angeles-based artist, created satirical works that critiqued consumerism in the US. Her notable projects include "Kar-Mann (Half Human Half Car)" (1969), a prototype of a car with a human lower half, and "Backwards Car" (1974), a modified Chevrolet driven backwards over San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. Garner also published a mock mail-order catalog featuring nonsensical hybrid inventions in 1982, which earned her an appearance on the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. In the 1980s, she began experimenting with body modification by taking black-market hormones, leading to a transformation of her own body as an object.
https://hyperallergic.com/980939/pippa-garner-ingenious-conceptual-tinkerer-dies-at-82/The Maha Kumbh Mela 2025 will feature a range of cultural events and performances at the Ganga Pandal in Prayagraj, India. The event will include stage plays such as actor Ashutosh Rana's "Hamare Ram" on January 25 and actress Hema Malini's dance drama "Ganga Avtaran" on January 26. Other notable performances include actor Ravi Kishan's "Shiv Tandav" on February 8 and actor Puneet Issar's epic "Mahabharat" on February 21. The event will also feature musical bands such as Indian Ocean, Agni Band, Maati Bani Band, and Thaikkudam Bridge. The cultural activities will conclude with the film "Kumbh Gatha," produced by Reliance Entertainment and Sobo Film, on February 23.
https://www.news18.com/lifestyle/kumbh-mela-2025-be-a-part-of-cultural-events-and-performances-at-maha-kumbh-mela-9176002.htmlA sculpture created by Jose Rizal during his exile in Dapitan is described as depicting a moment of tranquility, joy, and bliss with Josephine Bracken. The artwork symbolizes both sorrow and agony alongside happiness and love.
https://www.manilatimes.net/2025/01/04/opinion/columns/rizal-in-alberta/2029810Italian fashion designer Rosita Missoni, co-founder of the eponymous fashion house, has died at the age of 93. She had launched the business in 1953 with her husband Ottavio Missoni and developed a brand known for its colourful knitwear featuring geometric patterns and stripes. The couple's designs gained international recognition and awards for their distinctive patterns and avant-garde use of textiles. Rosita remained creative director for the womenswear collections until the late 1990s, when she passed the task on to her daughter Angela. The company has expanded into home collections and hotels, with Italian investment fund FSI investing in the brand in 2018.
https://www.malaymail.com/news/life/2025/01/03/farewell-to-rosita-missoni-the-icon-of-italian-knitwear-who-passes-at-93/161934The exhibition "Raul De Lara, Shanique Emelife, Sihan Guo, Tahnee Lonsdale" at Alexander Berggruen gallery in New York explores the intersection of ecological systems and spiritual phenomena. The works by the four artists - Raul De Lara, Shanique Emelife, Sihan Guo, and Tahnee Lonsdale - blur the lines between the natural and intangible worlds, challenging Western cultural binaries. Their sculptures and paintings signify personal and ecological migration, as well as the interplay between human and transcendental forms. The exhibition dismantles the narrow designation of "immigrant" in the United States, embracing a globalized ethos instead.
https://hyperallergic.com/980601/four-artists-dismantle-the-boundaries-of-immigrant/In a two-person exhibition at Soft Opening in London and PPOW in New York, artists Dean Sameshima and Felix Reynolds present works that reflect on the HIV/AIDS epidemic's impact on queer sexuality. Sameshima's "Anonymous Illness" critiques the Reagan administration's silence on the issue by using large font to emphasize the term "illness" over "anonymous". In contrast, Reynolds' work explicitly names AIDS victims in a photo tapestry of AIDS memorial quilts, drawing from his experience as an early member of ACT UP. The exhibition navigates between particular and universal experiences of queerness, often blurring the lines between biographical reading and emotional truth.
https://hyperallergic.com/980038/hunter-reynolds-and-dean-sameshima-memorials-to-queer-loss/The DF Art Agency marked the end of a notable year with an art exhibition featuring trompe l'oeil artworks by Padua, showcasing their signature technique that blends deception and emotional candor.
https://www.manilatimes.net/2025/01/03/tmt-newswire/df-art-agency-ends-international-projects-with-paduas-succes/2029469The digital art market is expanding to include cryptocurrencies, with the use of Bitcoin as a form of payment becoming increasingly popular. The artist known as "Plastikman" has sold his artwork for $1 million in cryptocurrency, specifically in Bitcoin. This sale marks one of the first times that an artwork has been sold for such a high price using digital currency.
https://reason.com/2025/01/02/photo-the-disappearing-satoshi-nakamoto-statue/