Art News. Vasari Codex

article culture schedule Jul 3, 2025 visibility 14 link 16 artists, 2 galleries

documentary maintenance artist mierle laderman ukeles 2661201

A new documentary titled "Maintenance Artist," directed by Toby Perl Freilich, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival this month. The film follows Mierle Laderman Ukeles, the longtime unpaid artist-in-residence with New York City's Department of Sanitation, as she reflects on her career. It traces her journey from graduate student at Pratt Institute to pioneering maintenance art, including her Queens Museum retrospective and international projects elevating everyday workers. The documentary features interviews with art historians, curators, and city officials, and highlights Ukeles's iconic performances, such as shaking hands with every sanitation worker over 11 months.

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person people schedule Sep 23, 2025 visibility 14 link 3 artists, 1 gallery

yan du project billy tang artistic director 1234753246

London-based nonprofit Yan Du Project (YDP) has appointed Billy Tang as its artistic director, effective this month, ahead of the opening of its new home in a Grade I-listed townhouse on Bedford Square this October. Tang, who was born in London to Vietnamese refugee parents, returns to the city after serving as executive director and curator at Para Site in Hong Kong, and previously held curatorial roles at Magician Space in Beijing and Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai. YDP is the second nonprofit founded by ARTnews Top 200 Collector Yan Du, following the Asymmetry Foundation launched in 2019.

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candle obituary schedule Mar 31, 2026 source 4 sources visibility 37 link 5 artists

Melvin Edwards, pioneer of Black abstraction, 1937–2026

Melvin Edwards, a pioneering sculptor known for his steel assemblages that explored Black history and experience, has died. He was the first African-American artist to have a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in 1970. His signature series, Lynch Fragments, began in the 1960s as a response to the civil rights movement and evolved over his lifetime to incorporate references to the Vietnam War and African cultural practices.

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article news schedule Dec 4, 2025 visibility 10 link 1 artist

claes oldeburg yale lipstick sculpture vandalized 1234765176

Claes Oldenburg's 1969 sculpture *Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks* was vandalized in October when the letters "ATB" were etched into its metal base. Yale University is relocating the 24-foot-tall work from the Morse College courtyard to the Yale University Art Gallery for conservation and care, following the discovery of the defacement. The sculpture, a beloved campus landmark originally installed in Beinecke Plaza, has a history of being removed and restored due to weather damage and graffiti.

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museum exhibitions schedule Nov 26, 2025 visibility 19 link 8 artists

performa 2025 aria dean diane severin nguyen sylvie fleury 1234763627

The article recounts the author's experience at the 2025 Performa biennial in New York, beginning on November 4 with the death of Dick Cheney and the election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor. The author attended Diane Severin Nguyen's performance "War Songs," which restaged historical protest concerts from the Vietnam War era, blending anti-war anthems with pop music. The piece also highlights missing performances by Lina Lapelytė and Ayoung Kim, and expresses anticipation for Aria Dean's play "The Color Scheme."

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article culture schedule Oct 15, 2025 visibility 14 link 6 artists

art heist that inspired the mastermind 1234757268

Kelly Reichardt's new film *The Mastermind*, starring Josh O'Connor, depicts a low-stakes art heist at the fictional Framingham Museum of Art, inspired by a real 1972 theft at the Worcester Art Museum in Massachusetts. In the actual heist, two robbers stole four paintings by Rembrandt, Picasso, and Gauguin, worth about $7.72 million today, and shot an unarmed guard. The film, set in the early '70s, draws on details like two schoolgirls who witnessed the crime, but Reichardt deliberately makes the cinematic version less thrilling than the real event.

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article culture schedule Jun 9, 2025 visibility 14 link 4 artists

rodins the thinker history 2649667

Auguste Rodin's iconic sculpture *The Thinker* was originally conceived in 1880 as part of a larger project—a decorative doorway for a planned Musée des Arts Décoratifs at the Palais d'Orsay in Paris. Rodin later exhibited the figure independently, and after his wife Rose Beuret died in 1917, he placed a bronze cast on her grave in Meudon, where he was buried months later. The article reveals lesser-known facts about the work, including that the first cast (1884, now at the National Gallery of Victoria) originally wore a Florentine cap identifying it as the poet Dante Alighieri, and that the plaster version of *The Gates of Hell* now sits at the Musée d'Orsay, the very site where the doorway was originally intended.

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rate_review review schedule May 3, 2026 visibility 24 link 12 artists

25th Biennale of Sydney Review: From the Margins

The 25th Biennale of Sydney, titled "Rememory" and curated by Hoor Al Qasimi, features 143 works by 83 artists and collectives from 37 countries across five venues. The exhibition explores marginalized, fragmented, and repressed histories, drawing on Toni Morrison's concept of 'rememory' as a space between remembering and forgetting. Key works include Tuan Andrew Nguyen's film on Vietnam War trauma, Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme's immersive installation on Palestinian displacement, Khalid Albaih's photographs of Sudan, and Massinissa Selmani's drawings on Algerian socialist building projects.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 5, 2026 visibility 25 link 5 artists, 4 galleries

Pao Houa Her Captivates Midway Contemporary Art with New Exhibition Through May 2026

Hmong-American artist Pao Houa Her is currently presenting a solo exhibition at Midway Contemporary Art in Chicago, running through May 2, 2026. The show explores themes of displacement, identity, and cultural memory through Her's photographs and installations, which blend personal narrative with broader social commentary on the Hmong diaspora experience post-Vietnam War. Born in Laos and raised in Minnesota, Her's work challenges viewers to confront the complexities of migration and belonging, using staged portraits and intimate compositions to subvert expectations of representation.

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candle obituary schedule Apr 8, 2026 visibility 31 link 4 artists

Siri Aurdal, Artist Who Elevated Industrial Materials Into Visions of Shared Humanity, Dies at 88

Norwegian artist Siri Aurdal, known for her pioneering use of industrial materials to create socially-driven sculptures, has died at the age of 88 in Oslo. Born into a prominent artistic family, Aurdal rose to prominence in the late 1960s by repurposing materials like reinforced fiberglass and plexiglass—often sourced from Norway’s oil industry—into modular, interactive installations. Her work frequently bridged the gap between fine art and public utility, manifesting in monumental playground structures and politically charged pieces that responded to global events like the Vietnam War.

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article culture schedule Apr 29, 2026 visibility 21 link 11 artists

GEORGE FEBRES: TRADUCCIÓN, IRONÍA Y LIBERACIÓN. UN ARTISTA ECUATORIANO EN LA DIÁSPORA

George Febres (Guayaquil, 1943 – New Orleans, 1996) was an Ecuadorian artist whose work blended pop art, neo-surrealism, and Southern U.S. culture, shaped by his experience as a migrant and queer individual. The article traces his life from a privileged but unstable childhood in Ecuador to his migration to the United States, where he was drafted during the Vietnam War and eventually settled in New Orleans. Febres used bilingualism and ironic appropriation of tropical imagery to create a hybrid, irreverent body of work that challenges the official historiography of Ecuadorian art.

newspaper Artishock Revista open_in_new Read original

person people schedule Mar 27, 2026 visibility 19 link 12 artists

art humberto moro dia foundation interview

Humberto Moro, deputy director of program at the Dia Art Foundation, discusses his role in expanding the institution's focus to include Latin American artists such as Liliana Porter, Delcy Morelos, and David Lamelas, whose major survey he curated. The interview, published by Cultured, covers Moro's career path from his early painting pursuits to positions at Museo Tamayo, Museo Jumex, SCAD's Museum of Art, and the Park Avenue Armory, and his current work at Dia alongside director Jessica Morgan. Moro also shares his personal interests in science fiction and literature, citing authors Ted Chiang, Cixin Liu, and Mariana Enriquez.

newspaper Cultured open_in_new Read original

article news schedule Dec 31, 2025 visibility 13 link 1 artist

norman rockwell antifa department of homeland security 1234768466

Daisy Rockwell, granddaughter of Norman Rockwell, stated in an interview with the Bulwark that her grandfather was "antifa," pushing back against recent uses of his paintings by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Over the summer, DHS posted cropped and edited versions of Rockwell's works, including "Salute the Flag" (1971) and "Working on the Statue of Liberty" (1946), with captions urging readers to "protect your homeland" and "defend your culture." The Rockwell family had already publicly rebutted these posts in a USA Today op-ed, arguing that Rockwell would have been "devastated" to see his art used to promote persecution of immigrant communities and people of color.

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museum exhibitions schedule Nov 12, 2025 visibility 14 link 6 artists

judson memorial church peoples flag show anniversary 1234760808

Three artists—Faith Ringgold, Jean Toche, and Jon Hendricks—organized "The People's Flag Show" at Judson Memorial Church in New York's Greenwich Village in November 1970, protesting the Vietnam War and challenging US flag desecration laws. The exhibition featured around 150 artists via open call, including Yvonne Rainer, Kate Millett, and the Guerrilla Art Action Group. On November 13, 1970, Ringgold, Toche, and Hendricks were arrested and fined $100 for flag desecration; their case was later dismissed with help from the American Civil Liberties Union. Now, 55 years later, Judson Commons—the church's nonprofit arts arm—is mounting a new version of the exhibition, again via open call, featuring over 60 artists and a week of programming in the Judson Gym.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 9, 2026 visibility 12 link 1 gallery

‘Your homes will be destroyed, your family killed’: the US has dropped millions of war propaganda leaflets – but do they work?

The United States military has been dropping propaganda leaflets in psychological operations (psyops) for over a century, from World War I through the Gulf War and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. A new interactive exhibit at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn, organized by the digital archive group Khajistan, displays hundreds of these leaflets, including those dropped on Japan during World War II and in more recent conflicts. However, declassified internal documents, such as a 1971 US Air Force report, reveal that leaflets were often used as toilet paper, cigarette rolling paper, or souvenirs by enemy soldiers, undermining the official narrative of their effectiveness.

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museum exhibitions schedule Oct 30, 2025 visibility 23 link 14 artists

Performa brings digital doubles, kids reciting animal noises and more to New York

Performa, New York's performance art biennial, returns for its 20th anniversary edition with a main slate of eight commissions, seven by women artists and one by a male-female duo. Projects include Ayoung Kim's live motion capture choreography exploring body doubles and digital avatars at Canyon, Diane Severin Nguyen's remix of Vietnam War-era protest songs with an 11-person supergroup at Bric, and Tau Lewis's staging of the Sumerian epic 'The Descent of Inanna' using textile sculptures and experimental opera at Harlem Parish. The biennial also features a Lithuanian Pavilion with Augustas Serapinas's mobile wooden shack and Lina Lapelytė's piece 'The Speech,' in which 270 children perform animal vocalizations at Federal Hall.

newspaper The Art Newspaper open_in_new Read original

article culture schedule May 23, 2025 visibility 18 link 7 artists

In The Mastermind, an art heist’s aftermath unfolds against the backdrop of Vietnam War-era America

Kelly Reichardt's new film *The Mastermind* premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, following J.B. Mooney (Josh O'Connor), a carpenter who orchestrates an art heist targeting four Arthur Dove paintings from a fictional Massachusetts museum. The heist is inspired by a real 1972 robbery at the Worcester Art Museum, and the film explores the tension between artistic value and monetary worth against the backdrop of Vietnam War-era America.

newspaper The Art Newspaper open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Nov 22, 2025 visibility 14 link 14 artists, 2 galleries

Community-Driven Exhibition Transforms Cars Into Unconventional Vehicles for Site-Specific Art

Over a crisp weekend in October, a Harlem parking lot hosted Stay Frosty, a community-driven exhibition organized by BravinLee Programs. The show transformed cars into unconventional vehicles for site-specific art, with works installed in trunks, truck beds, and on rearview mirrors. Highlights included Baloney's "Piggies Undo the World," featuring pigs attacking a red pickup; Ellie Murphy's tapestries draped over the fence; and Amy Rose Khoshbin's interactive "Altars to Agency." Artists, independent curators, galleries, and non-profits participated, turning the lot into an enclosed, vibrant environment for visual art.

newspaper My Modern Met open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Dec 4, 2025 visibility 12 link 4 artists

This Vietnam veteran lost his sight, but not his vision. Now, his art hangs in the Denver Art Museum

Jim Stevens, a Vietnam War veteran who was shot in the head and later became legally blind after a stroke in 1993, has created a new painting technique using monofilament as a canvas. His artwork, "Blues Man," now hangs in the Denver Art Museum as part of the exhibition "Beyond the Military: From Combat to Canvas," which Stevens helped organize. Stevens serves as president and director of Denver's Veterans Arts Council and has earned Veterans Affairs’ National Gold Medals for Fine Art.

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rate_review review schedule Oct 30, 2025 visibility 11 link 3 artists, 1 gallery

Exhibit Review: Revolution! 250 Years of Art and Activism in Boston – Museum Studies Blog at Tufts University

The Boston Public Library in Copley Square has opened "Revolution! 250 Years of Art and Activism in Boston," its first major exhibition in nearly a decade. The show uses a deliberately unfinished design of plywood and scaffolding to symbolize democracy as a work in progress, moving chronologically from the American Revolution through the 21st century. It features engravings by Paul Revere, portraits of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, works addressing Toussaint L’Ouverture and Haitian revolution, Boston abolitionists, the Civil War, civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, and contemporary activism including Indigenous, LGBTQ+, climate, and anti-police brutality movements.

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article news schedule May 19, 2025 visibility 10 link 1 artist

world press photo foundation suspends the terror of war attribution 1234742611

The World Press Photo Foundation has suspended the authorship attribution of the iconic 1972 photograph 'The Terror of War' (also known as 'Napalm Girl') from Associated Press photographer Nick Út. The decision follows new research presented in the documentary 'The Stringer' (January 2025) by the VII Foundation, which suggests that the image was more likely captured by stringer Nguyễn Thành Nghệ or Huỳnh Công Phúc. An independent investigation by forensic analysts and media experts, along with separate inquiries by AP and World Press Photo, found insufficient evidence to definitively confirm the original credit, leading to the suspension until authorship can be conclusively determined.

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article news schedule May 16, 2025 visibility 9 link 6 artists

who took famous napalm girl photo 2645951

A documentary film titled *The Stringer* has sparked a controversy over the authorship of the iconic 1972 Vietnam War photograph known as "Napalm Girl" (officially *The Terror of War*). Both the Associated Press and World Press Photo conducted investigations into whether the credited photographer, Nick Ut, actually took the image. While the AP decided to maintain Ut's credit due to insufficient evidence to the contrary, World Press Photo stripped his authorship, concluding that the level of doubt is too significant to keep the existing attribution. The organization found that two other photographers—Nguyen Thanh Nghe and Huỳnh Công Phúc—were also present and could have taken the shot, but it could not definitively reassign authorship.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

person people schedule Mar 31, 2026 visibility 17 link 3 artists

With ‘Doonesbury,’ Garry Trudeau Found a Way to Inform and Entertain a Generation of Newspaper Readers, One Panel at a Time

A new biography, "Trudeau & Doonesbury: The Cartoonist Who Turned the News Into Art," chronicles the life and career of reclusive cartoonist Garry Trudeau. Journalist Joshua Kendall's work, based on archives and interviews, traces Trudeau's evolution from a Yale student creating the strip's precursor to the creator of a politically potent daily comic that ran for over four decades.

newspaper Smithsonian Magazine Art open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule May 12, 2025 visibility 9 link 1 artist

American University Museum Opens Summer ’25 Exhibitions on June 14

The American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center will open four new exhibitions on June 14, 2025, running through August 10. The shows include David A. Douglas: Intersections, exploring memory and place through large-scale mixed-media works; Soaring (Narsha), a Korean-American contemporary art exhibition celebrating the Han-Mee Artists Association’s 50th anniversary; Anarchy Loosed Upon the World, featuring vintage Vietnam War wire transmission photographs from the collection of Jo C. Tartt; and The Teen Experience, a show by teenagers from Montgomery County Public Schools examining identity, mental health, and social pressures.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jan 23, 2026 visibility 19 link 9 artists

US National Portrait Gallery reveals winner of its triennial portraiture award

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, has announced Brooklyn-based artist Kameron Neal as the winner of its 2025 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Neal was honored for his two-channel video installation *Down the Barrel (of a Lens)* (2023), which incorporates surveillance footage from the 1960s and 70s obtained during his residency at New York City’s Department of Records. The work explores the relationship between police and protesters, displaying footage of Vietnam War protesters, the Black Panthers, Martin Luther King Jr., and John F. Kennedy alongside images of police filming. Neal receives $25,000 and a commission to create a portrait for the museum’s permanent collection. Second prize went to photographer Jared Soares, and third prize to painter David Antonio Cruz; the exhibition featuring all 35 finalists runs from January 24 to August 30, 2025.

newspaper The Art Newspaper open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Dec 11, 2025 visibility 8 link 6 artists

‘A passion project’ – Local artist gives voice to Vietnam veterans with powerful exhibit

Somerset artist Brian Fox has created a powerful exhibit titled “In the Valley of the Shadow,” now on display at the Narrows Center for the Arts in Fall River, Massachusetts, through December 27th. The paintings depict the harrowing experiences of Vietnam War veterans, with Fox spending hours consulting veterans like Wayne Smith, a former combat medic, and David Jennings of the 1st Marine Division to ensure historical and emotional accuracy. The project began with a single war-themed painting and has grown into a full exhibition that Fox plans to expand by one or two paintings each year.

newspaper Boston 25 News open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule May 8, 2025 visibility 11 link 3 artists

New Kensington Art Gallery to open Eddie Adams photography exhibit May 8

Penn State New Kensington Art Gallery will open "Eddie Adams: Vietnam" on May 8, featuring over 50 photographs by the late Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist. The exhibit includes his iconic "Saigon Execution" (1968) and "Boat of No Smiles" (1979), with a reception on May 28 featuring Adams' widow Alyssa Adams and former Associated Press photo editor Hal Buell. The free show runs through August 27.

newspaper The Pennsylvania State University open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule May 4, 2026 visibility 12

Grohmann Museum Exhibit Focuses on Veterans and Service

The Grohmann Museum in Milwaukee has opened a new exhibition pairing two shows by contemporary American artists focusing on military service. Ohio-born Mary Whyte's "We the People: Portraits of Veterans in America" features 50 large-scale watercolor portraits of veterans from various wars and backgrounds. Milwaukee photographer Dennis Darmek's "Boots and Sand: The Marines of 29 Palms" presents two dozen color photographs taken at the Marine Corps base in California's Mojave Desert, where Darmek himself trained in 1969. The photos capture both posed and candid moments, highlighting diversity within the modern Marine Corps, including women in combat roles.

newspaper Shepherd Express open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Sep 24, 2025 visibility 10 link 3 artists

Fall River artist Brian Fox to unveil Vietnam exhibit. See what inspired his military series.

Fall River artist Brian Fox has completed a series of Vietnam War military paintings titled “In the Valley of the Shadow: The Cost of Walking with Death,” which will debut at the Narrows Center for the Arts from October 18 through December 27, 2025. Fox collaborated closely with U.S. military veterans, who provided technical guidance and honest critique, and the series includes about 25 pieces, mostly black-and-white paintings and sketches, with one color piece titled “Vietnam Nurse.” Notably, Fox used rusting metal sheets as canvas for paintings inspired by Agent Orange, intended to deteriorate over time like the veterans affected by the chemical.

newspaper Fall River Herald News open_in_new Read original