From Bottle Caps and Seals Has Come Colorful, Cascading Art

Renowned Ghanaian artist El Anatsui is currently experiencing a significant professional moment with concurrent exhibitions at White Cube in Hong Kong and Seoul, timed to coincide with Art Basel Hong Kong. The artist, known for his monumental sculptures crafted from discarded liquor-bottle caps and copper wire, recently saw his 2023 work "G6" sell for $995,000 at Sotheby’s London to benefit the Royal Academy of Arts. Now living back in Ghana after decades teaching in Nigeria, Anatsui continues to explore the fluidity of his medium, which mimics the organic processes of growth and decay.

Frieze London diary: art historical speed dating and frozen faeces

During Frieze week in London, the National Gallery hosted its 'Unexpected Views' talk series, where eight contemporary artists including Grayson Perry, Shirazeh Houshiary, and Haegue Yang gave ten-minute talks on their favorite works. Tracey Emin and British Museum director Nicholas Cullinan held a candid discussion titled 'Confessions in the Museum,' and the art collective Konn Artiss placed ice blocks containing frozen feces outside major galleries and auction houses as a protest against the art market. The week also featured a lavish Frieze Collectors' Dinner with guests including Ari Emanuel, Sadie Coles, and Christian Levett, and a secret performance by musician Sampha.

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New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art has laid off 79 employees and furloughed 181 workers, with 93 staff members taking early retirement, citing a $150 million deficit exacerbated by the pandemic. The museum's director Max Hollein and CEO Daniel H. Weiss announced the cuts in an email, noting that salaries comprise 65% of the annual budget. This is the second round of layoffs since April, when 81 employees lost their jobs, and the museum has also implemented pay reductions for top executives and frozen hiring. The workforce has shrunk by about 20%, from 2,000 to 1,600 staff, with 48% of those laid off being people of color. The Met aims to reopen on August 29 with reduced hours, pending government approval.

Ballets of Repetition

Ballette der Wiederholung

Vivien Zhang, a painter whose work blends botany, mathematics, and migration, is now exhibiting in Berlin. Her paintings feature tongue-like petals, crystalline butterflies, dewdrops, seed capsules, chromosomes, and frozen brushstrokes, all arranged in grid-like patterns that create a ballet of repetition. The forms are technoid-organic and three-dimensional, presenting enigmatic visual puzzles that explore how shapes, identities, and systems emerge anew.

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The former owners of The Art Newspaper and L’Officiel are embroiled in legal disputes with the Hong Kong-based AMTD Group, alleging they have not received full payment for the sale of their publications. Russian publisher Inna Bazhenova, who sold The Art Newspaper for an estimated $16–17 million, and the Jalou family, former owners of L’Officiel, claim that AMTD owes significant buyout funds despite the media brands being used to anchor high-profile IPOs on the New York and London stock exchanges. Bazhenova specifically alleges that shares provided as part of the payment have been 'parked and frozen' by a brokerage linked to AMTD, preventing her from accessing her capital.

Full Circle

The article reports on the impact of President Javier Milei's anarcho-capitalist economic policies on Argentina's cultural sector since his December 2023 election. Public museums like the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes face frozen budgets and loss of autonomy, the cultural ministry has been shuttered, and a climate of fear and retribution has led many in the art world to speak anonymously. The piece focuses on artist Liv Schulman's film and exhibition "Un círculo que se fue rodando" (2024) as a psychological portrait of the nation under Milei, and includes observations from a Buenos Aires gallerist and journalist about the dismantling of civic institutions.

Preemptive Listening review – artist’s film about sirens is buzzing with sonic ideas

The Guardian reviews Aura Satz's art film "Preemptive Listening," which explores the cultural and political meanings of sirens as warning devices. The film features a drone shot of a siren in a residential area, a soundtrack by composer Laurie Spiegel, and commentary from British-Egyptian actor Khalid Abdalla on sirens during the 2011 Arab Spring protests. It also covers sirens on Nakba day in Palestine, a US activist linking emergency vehicle lights to danger for Black women, clocks frozen at the time of the Fukushima disaster, and a Maori activist discussing environmental catastrophe. The reviewer finds the film's ideas interesting but notes it lacks coherence as a feature-length experience, suggesting it would be better suited to a gallery setting.

Walt Disney Animation Studios Fêtes Female Animation Talent at Animayo

Walt Disney Animation Studios is presenting a special exhibition titled "Whimsy & Wonder" at the Animayo festival in Gran Canaria, Spain, from May 7-10, 2025. The exhibition honors female talent in animation, featuring works by trailblazing color stylist Mary Blair and six contemporary female artists from the studio: Lorelay Bové, Lisa Keene, Brittney Lee, Griselda Sastrawinata-Lemay, Josie Trinidad, and Fawn Veerasunthorn. The show includes art from films such as "Frozen," "Encanto," "Moana 2," and "The Princess and the Frog." Animayo, an Oscar-qualifying animation festival, is celebrating its 20th anniversary with Disney as an official sponsor.

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The Trump administration threatened to block Harvard University from enrolling international students and revoked its SEVIS certification, a move frozen within 24 hours by a judge. The administration also announced plans to aggressively revoke visas of Chinese students, raising concerns for US art schools, which are heavily dependent on international enrollees—many with higher percentages of international students than Harvard, such as the School of Visual Arts (50%), Parsons School of Design (35%), and CalArts (30%).

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A controversy erupted on the Reddit forum r/Art after Brooklyn-based digital artist Hayden Clay Williams posted his work *Clear Boundaries* (2025) and mentioned in a comment that prints were available. This violated the subreddit's strict anti-self-promotion rules, leading a moderator to permanently ban Williams and delete all his past posts. Williams shared the exchange on X, where it gained 11 million views, sparking widespread backlash. Users spammed the forum with the word "print" and pressured the moderators, who eventually resigned en masse, leaving the subreddit frozen and without new posts for a week.

In Romagna for over a century there is a "serious" spring carnival. The story of the plaster and thought floats

In Romagna da oltre un secolo c’è un Carnevale “serio” di primavera. La storia dei carri di gesso e di pensiero

A small town in Romagna, Casola Valsenio, has been hosting a unique spring festival for 125 years, featuring massive allegorical floats made of plaster and wood. Unlike traditional carnivals, this event—called the "serious carnival"—takes place in late April/early May and focuses on social and political themes. The floats, up to seven meters long and nine meters high, are built by local youth and paraded twice (day and night) with performers frozen in tableau vivant poses. A jury, this year chaired by Roberto Cantagalli, director of the MAR museum in Ravenna, awards a winner.

Call For Artists: Dead Of Winter Exhibition & Art Sale At Frozen Dead Guy Days

Estes Park News has issued a call for artists to participate in the Dead of Winter Exhibition & Art Sale, held in conjunction with the Frozen Dead Guy Days festival. The event invites visual artists to submit work for a themed winter exhibition and sale, offering a platform for local and regional creatives to showcase and sell their art during the quirky Colorado festival.