The Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles' exhibition Scientia Sexualis critiques the colonial and pathologizing aspects of Western medical systems regarding non-White and non-male bodies. The show features 27 artists, including Joey Terrill and Xandra Ibarra, who explore themes of bodily autonomy and representation through various mediums. Works by artists such as Nao Bustamante offer a more lighthearted approach, while others, like Joseph Liatela's "On Being an Idea," delve into critical theory and symbolism. The exhibition's disjointed feel is partly due to its large, open galleries and the complexity of its themes, which include feminist, trans, and decolonial perspectives on gender and sexuality.
https://hyperallergic.com/992612/reckoning-with-the-science-of-sexuality-ica-la/The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth is hosting an exhibit called "Diaries of Home" featuring photographs by female and nonbinary artists. The exhibit challenges traditional notions of domestic spaces in the US, showcasing works that probe preconceptions about familial and communal areas often associated with femininity.
https://reason.com/2025/02/21/texas-cops-seized-photographs-from-a-museum-and-launched-child-pornography-investigation/John Berger exchanges letters with Yves about art, sharing images of paintings by Rogier van der Weyden, Francisco de Goya, Vincent van Gogh, Chaïm Soutine, Max Beckmann, Nicolas Poussin, Caravaggio, Giorgio Morandi, and Édouard Manet. They discuss concepts like light, landscape, doubt, and the passage of time, exchanging artworks back and forth between mostly Western, mostly male artists. Berger also shares a drawing of flowers by himself from around 2010.
https://hyperallergic.com/988748/a-garden-of-ideas-in-john-berger-letters-to-his-son/Calixto Bieito, a renowned director, is set to premiere Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle at the Opéra Bastille in Paris. His production, which includes innovative elements such as cryptocurrency and AI-generated characters, has been met with both excitement and skepticism. Bieito, 61, has transformed from a provocative enfant terrible to a respected patriarch after years of pushing boundaries with his radical stagings. He cites James Bridle's book "New Dark Age" as an influence on his work, exploring themes of technology and the end of the future in his four-opera cycle. Bieito's production team includes collaborators such as conductor Pablo Heras-Casado and artist-in-residence Stéphane Lissner, who first hired him for Wagner's Ring after seeing his work with Shakespeare's "King Lear". The director's approach is characterized by freedom, intensity, and artistic personal responsibility, leaving interpretations open even for the cast.
https://apnews.com/article/calixto-bieito-ring-cycle-paris-f889e994d9d7e9742dc625763914ff39Lubaina Himid's art series "Make Do and Mend" critiques societal issues such as government accountability and class inequality. In her painting "Cosmic Dentistry", teeth scattered on a table represent human body parts that survive mortal injuries, highlighting the need for a free press to hold officials accountable for atrocities committed in the name of public order. Her work also questions the ambitions of oligarchs who dehumanize people through their power and control. The series includes paintings such as "Predicting Positions", "Bitter Battles", "Pointless Heroism", and "Divided Loyalties".
https://hyperallergic.com/987083/lubaina-himid-asks-who-gets-a-seat-at-the-table/Jordan Troeller's book "Ruth Asawa and the Artist-Mother at Midcentury" examines how Ruth Asawa and her contemporaries navigated their roles as mothers while maintaining their artistic careers. The study reveals that these women redefined key concepts of their time, such as autonomy, medium specificity, and originality, by drawing on their experiences as mothers to inform their art.
https://hyperallergic.com/984927/bold-new-books-art-visual-culture-from-mit-press/The exhibition "Questioning the Color Line" features a collection of works that explore themes of racial identity, including novels on passing, paintings, photographs, and film clips. The exhibit includes Archibald J. Motley Jr.'s painting "The Octoroon Girl," photographs by Greene, as well as scenes from Oscar Micheaux's 1932 film "Veiled Aristocrats" and John M. Stahl's 1934 film "Imitation of Life." These works portray the struggles faced by individuals who pass as white but are met with rejection or pain when their true identity is revealed to family members, highlighting the complexities of racial identity in American society during the early 20th century.
https://www.rawstory.com/the-black-librarian-who-rewrote-the-rules-of-power-gender-and-passing-as-white/Yva, a Jewish woman, was forced to abandon her career as a photographer and instead found work as an X-ray technician before being sent to the death camps. The Neue Galerie New York is currently hosting an exhibition called "Neue Sachlichkeit / New Objectivity" from February 20th to May 26th, which explores themes of modernism in art.
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2025/01/30/neue-galerie-in-new-york-examines-the-new-objectivity-movement-that-emerged-in-1920s-germanyArtist Lee has created a series of detailed portraits that capture the subtleties of human skin, including veins and individual hairs. Her work, on display at her debut exhibition "No Ground" in Hong Kong, also invites viewers to consider what lies beneath the surface, both literally and metaphorically, with the dark background serving as a symbol for hidden or repressed elements.
https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts/article/3296101/korean-artist-lee-jinjus-debut-hong-kong-exhibition-features-23-new-pieces?module=top_story&pgtype=section