Artist Sanya Kantarovsky is the subject of a podcast interview. He discusses his artistic practice, influences, and the guiding principle of 'ostranenija' or 'making strange' in his figurative paintings, which blend bodies, animals, and plants in atmospheric, often threatening scenarios.
Janne Sirén, director of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum in Upstate New York, will step down in October after 13 years. His tenure included a major $230 million expansion in 2023 that doubled the museum's square footage and drew a record 340,000 visitors in the following year. However, his departure follows local media reports that he used a museum loan to help finance his $710,000 home, with the Erie County Comptroller’s Office alleging he failed to repay it and that the loan may violate state nonprofit laws. The museum defended the loan as common in executive recruitment and stated it operates in full compliance with the law.
The article profiles Tadanori Yokoo, the 89-year-old Japanese artist and graphic designer, who remains active despite a recent bout of Covid-19. It details his early life in Nishiwaki, his failed attempts to enter art school and the postal service, and his eventual career in commercial printing, which shaped his innovative approach to graphic design and painting. The piece highlights his ongoing exhibition at Tokyo's Setagaya Art Museum and his enduring influence in Japan's cultural world, including the Yokoo Tadanori Museum of Contemporary Art in Kobe.
Ist Berlin doch noch nicht over?
Çağla Ilk, who curated the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale two years ago, has presented her plans as the new artistic director of the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin. Her program reimagines theater from the perspective of visual art, signaling a major shift in the city's theater landscape. The announcement comes amid broader reforms in Berlin's theater scene, including Matthias Lilienthal's upcoming takeover of the Volksbühne, and was met with both anticipation and anxiety, reminiscent of Chris Dercon's failed tenure at the Volksbühne in 2017.
Der letzte lebende Surrealist
Alejandro Jodorowsky, the 97-year-old Chilean-French artist and filmmaker, is profiled in his Paris apartment as the last living Surrealist. The article reflects on his century-spanning career, from his early pantomime work with Marcel Marceau in the 1950s to his cult films like "El Topo" and "The Holy Mountain," as well as his famously unrealized adaptation of Frank Herbert's "Dune." Jodorowsky shares his philosophy that true art has a beginning but no end, offering a retrospective on a life lived at the intersection of performance, cinema, and visionary creativity.