Who Do Chicago’s Art Fairs Serve? Expo Chicago and its orbit of shows reveal both the joys and pain points of the city’s current creative environment.

Between the scores of working artists, underpaid arts administrators, and wealthy, often well-meaning arts hobbyists with cash to burn on $40 tickets and $7 bottles of Dasani, the question burns: What does Expo Chicago actually do for the local arts community?

Process Is the Point at IFPDA Print Fair “Print is a more democratic medium,” said Temma Nanas of Leslie Sacks Gallery, one of around 80 global galleries returning to the Park Avenue Armory for the annual fair.

With more than 80 galleries, print studios, and publishers from Europe, Asia, and the Americas, the IFPDA Print Fair is brimming with intriguing offerings from leading contemporary artists, including Julie Mehretu, David Hockney, and Yayoi Kusama.

The Brooklyn Fine Art Print Fair Has Taken Off Its Training Wheels Shaking off any initial caution from last year’s beta test, it has charged forward and made itself a space to showcase the radical history and present of printmaking.

The Brooklyn Fine Art Print Fair has charged forward and made itself a space to showcase the radical history and present of printmaking. Work about Palestinian liberation, Venezuelan national pride despite American intervention, and protest art about ICE were front and center.

Guggenheim Museum Appoints Melissa Chiu as Next Director After 12 years at the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum, Chiu will be joining the New York institution this coming September.

Melissa Chiu will return as the new director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum after 12 years at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in DC. This change comes at a particularly challenging time for both institutions.

The Unbearable Strangeness of Being In Cinga Samson’s haunted paintings, we do not know what we are looking at, or where we are.

“In Cinga Samson’s haunted paintings, we do not know what we are looking at, or where we are.” That was art critic John Yau’s (@jyauwrtier) takeaway after visiting the painter’s debut exhibition at White Cube. Read the full review:

Tonika Lewis Johnson: Segregation and How to Disrupt It Join us on April 15 for a conversation with social justice artist and recent MacArthur “Genius Grant” winner Tonika Lewis Johnson and Hyperallergic Senior Editor Valentina Di Liscia.

Sign up for a conversation between social justice artist and recent MacArthur “Genius Grant” winner Tonika Lewis Johnson and our Senior Editor Valentina Di Liscia on April 15. This event is for Hyperallergic members only. Join our community and register today if you haven’t already!

Rare Wifredo Lam Portrait Lands in New York The 1927 work is the first painting by a Cuban artist to enter the Hispanic Society Museum and Library’s collection.

This rarely seen painting “Portrait of a Boy” from artist Wifredo Lam’s early career has landed in the Hispanic Society Museum and Library’s collection, making it the first painting by a Cuban artist to enter the institution’s permanent holdings.

Israel's Plan to Artwash Genocide at the Venice Biennale The artwork at the heart of the pavilion promises to continue the project of denying Palestinian existence.

At the Venice Biennale, Romanian-Israeli artist Belu-Simion Fainaru will present a work celebrating Israeli drip-irrigation technology, just as Israel weaponizes its irrigation system to control Palestinians by restricting their access to water.

Required Reading This week: Compton’s forthcoming art center, a Lebanese artist’s workshops for displaced children, dog sledding in Yukon, the NGA goes viral on TikTok, stop-motion versus AI, and more.

This week we are reading about Compton’s forthcoming art center, a Lebanese artist’s workshops for displaced children, dog sledding in Yukon, the NGA going viral on TikTok, AI’s encroachment on stop-motion, and more!

Dice Are 6,000 Years Older Than Previously Believed, Study Says New research identifies more than 600 objects discovered in the United States as two-sided dice crafted by Native Americans.

New research identifies more than 600 objects discovered in the United States as two-sided dice crafted by Native Americans more than 12,000 years ago.

Trustees of Renowned West Coast Artist Residency Visited Epstein’s Island Djerassi board members Michael Molesky and Alexander Maxwell Djerassi, nephew of Ghislaine Maxwell, visited the notorious private island in 2011.

Michael Molesky and Alexander Maxwell Djerassi, board members of the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, visited financier Jeffrey Epstein’s Little Saint James island in 2011, two years after Epstein’s first conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor.

Remembering Nathan Farb, Thomas Zipp, and Christine Ruiz-Picasso This week, we honor an intrepid photographer, a punk German artist, and the founder of the Museo Picasso Málaga.

This week, we recognize intrepid photographer Nathan Farb, punk German artist Thomas Zipp, the founder of the Museo Picasso Málaga Christine Ruiz-Picasso, and other prolific individuals the art world has recently lost.

Elucidating the Esoteric with Hilma's Ghost Through research and collaboration, a feminist art collective reclaims the place of alternative spiritualities in art history.

Initially created from an Hilma af Klint’s retrospective, the collective “Hilma’s Ghost” isn’t just about the misunderstood mystic: “We  want to inspire people to work in an experimental way, to collaborate, and to do their own research to uplift people of color, women, and trans artists.”

Artists Set Islamic Futurism Into Motion Islamic visual traditions have long made space for realities beyond direct perception, and these artists work in calligraphy, installation, and speculative image-making to carry them forward.

There’s a movement of contemporary artists who draw from Islamic philosophy and visual traditions in expanded ways. What’s taking shape is a living framework grounded in inheritance, tracing back to medieval Islamic astronomers and oriented toward what comes next.

Beer With a Painter: Tom Burckhardt “My favorite phrase lately is ‘mouthfeel,’ which is used in relation to food and drink,” said the East Village artist. “I’m thinking about that textural quality as a parallel to the paintings.”

Hyperallergic cracked open a cold one with the East Village artist Tom Burckhardt to learn about his experience growing up as the child of artists, his early work, and multimedia approach. His favorite phrase recently? Mouthfeel.

Read the full interview on our website.

All About Love From a Black Medieval Angel A rare manuscript illustration casts Blackness not as a mirror of sin, but the ground from which love itself might take shape.

Images of Black figures in Medieval European visual culture aren’t rare, but love, in its fullest, most generous sense, is rarely what they seem to offer. Yet an angel with black skin in a 15th-century alchemical manuscript complicates this way of seeing.

In “Discipline,” Larissa Pham Explores Predatory Art-World Mentorship The art critic and former painter reinvents the genre’s well-trod territory in her debut novel, which makes heartbreakingly acute the consequences of teacher-student relationships.

From our latest book review by Claudia Ross: Art critic and former painter Larissa Pham reinvents the genre’s well-trod territory in her debut novel, which makes heartbreakingly acute the consequences of teacher-student relationships.

Unlike Josh Kline, I Choose New York His new article taps into deep frustrations about affordability, but I throw my lot in with those making change, rather than moving out.

Josh Kline believes NYC is no longer a city for artists. Writer and art critic @arunadsouza.bsky.social disagrees: “Kline’s article taps into our deep frustrations with the world. But we also have glimmers of hope.” Read D’Souza’s full take on our website.

The Museum Breathing Life Into New York's Downtown Performance Scene The Leslie-Lohman is figuring out how to collect art while connecting with the basic needs of the city's queer community.

A first of its kind, the Leslie-Lohman has recently become a haven for the elevation and preservation of art by and for LGBTQIA+, POC, Black Brown, and Indigenous communities, who have been subject to unrelenting and escalating political attacks.

An Overfilled Guggenheim Retrospective Dulls Carol Bove’s Brilliance A smaller survey would have allowed for something more meaningful than just showing what Bove has been doing for the past decades.

It’s wondrous that the artist Carol Bove makes steel feel like fabric. But critic Seph Rodney found himself walking through her Guggenheim retrospective for quite a while before he encountered such revelatory work again.

Archival Art Will Not Save Us Archival work has a place in historical recovery and cultural self-understanding. But not every artwork must be archival, and our politics shouldn’t end with presence rather than action.

Who else is tired of archives (or rather, of the over-romanticization of the archive as an infinite source of liberatory politics)? To writer Vinh Phu Pham, it’s a failure of representational politics when discourse ends with presence but no action.

A Dedicated Ruth Asawa Space Is Coming to San Francisco Complementing the artist’s various public works throughout the city, her family-run estate's forthcoming gallery comes on the centenary of the artist's birth year.

This May, San Francisco will open a new permanent exhibition space dedicated to Ruth Asawa. The late modernist sculptor was known for her artwork, public activation, and education advocacy within the city.
hyperallergic.com/a-dedicated-...

Beer With a Painter: Hilary Harkness If paint doesn't feel good coming off the brush, you pretty much have nothing,” said the artist, whose canvases depict humanity in all its rollicking riot and contradiction.

With a hyperrealist, maximalist approach, the artist Hilary Harkness builds worlds complete with preternatural beauty, optimism, and joy, while simultaneously littering them with human foibles — revenge, power, hubris, gore, kink.

LA Artists Honor Dolores Huerta’s Defiant Spirit In honor of the labor leader’s 96th birthday, over 30 Los Angeles artists pay homage to her lifelong fight for the rights and dignity of everyday people.

A new exhibition celebrates the 96th birthday of activist and labor leader Dolores Huerta. Over 30 artists depict the everyday farmers, migrant workers, and contemporary Chicanx and Latinx culture Huerta has fought to protect throughout her life.

Dutch Museum Discovers 8-Inch Ancient Roman Phallus The bone carving was found in a forgotten collection of 16,000 boxes containing various archaeological finds at the Valkhof Museum.

Workers at the Dutch Valkhof Museum unearthed a “noteworthy” Ancient Roman carved phallus. Made from bone and measuring 7.9 inches, the artifact was part of a forgotten collection of archaeological items spread across 16,000 containers. The museum has only opened 300 boxes so far…

Peep the Wildest Costumes of This Year’s Easter Bonnet Parade The decorous fashion show has evolved into a rambunctious and all-inclusive pageant of New York’s crafters, artists, and street performers.

“It’s the one day a year where all New Yorkers come out and share their creative spirit.” The Easter Bonnet Parade fashion show is a rambunctious and all-inclusive pageant of crafters, artists, and street performers.

Art Problems: How Do I Get Gallery Representation? Dreaming of showing at your favorite gallery? Paddy Johnson has the masterplan.

Dealers like artists with established sales records because it lowers their already considerable financial exposure. Very few business owners can afford to take on untested artists. Understanding these needs gives artists a path forward.

Don't Believe What Art Basel Qatar Is Trying to Sell You I fled Qatar to live freely as a queer person. A country that criminalizes LGBTQ+ existence should not be celebrated as a global hub of creative freedom.

Nasser Mohamed, the only publicly queer Qatari citizen, writes about the dissonance of fleeing a country that criminalizes queerness while watching artists, dealers, and collectors flock to its capital.

Beer With a Painter: Hilary Harkness If paint doesn't feel good coming off the brush, you pretty much have nothing,” said the artist, whose canvases depict humanity in all its rollicking riot and contradiction.

“When I was an emerging artist, I looked forward to being a painter in my 50s. Cézanne peaked in his 50s, and the long game appeals to me. But it is wonderful to also be a bad beginner because that’s where all the play is.” –Hilary Harkness

Salvador Dalí’s Frustrating Vision of the Divine Having abandoned the profane for only the sacred, Dalí’s “Nuclear Mysticism” renounced the richness of experience for the aridity of metaphysics.

Having abandoned the profane for only the sacred, Salvador Dalí’s “Nuclear Mysticism” renounced the richness of experience for the aridity of metaphysics.