ReportWire

Tag: interviews

  • Gallery ATARAH Founder Atarah Atkinson On Building a New Exhibition Space With Old-School Ideals

    [ad_1]

    Atkinson wants to move away from what she calls “the white walls and hushed-tones approach.” Courtesy of Gallery ATARAH

    There’s a new garage-fronted gallery in East Williamsburg—one that aims to be more than just an exhibition venue. While Gallery ATARAH is as much a practical endeavor as it is a passion project, founder Atarah Atkinson says she’s drawn to the ethos of early art galleries, where the focus was on creators and their creations rather than the maneuverings of an extractive art market. And so, as legacy dealers reckon with the transactional world they helped create, Atkinson is embracing the gallery-as-salon concept: an exhibition space that doubles as a communal hub, where on any given day she might host portfolio reviews, after-school workshops, mentorship meetups or community happenings.

    “Gallery ATARAH represents a chance to establish a curatorial vision that is entirely my own—a creative home where I can channel my passion for connection into celebrating authentic artistic expression,” she tells Observer. To that end, the light-filled 700-square-foot space will also function as her personal studio. She has experience developing hybrid spaces, having co-founded The Atrium, a 2,500-square-foot creative production studio, in 2017. It, too, played host to a range of gatherings, from community events and movie nights to industry networking sessions.

    The first exhibition in the new space, “Bright Ruin,” presents 35 new mixed-media works and sculptural installations by Atkinson that explore themes of decay and renewal, beauty and destruction and the cyclical nature of death and rebirth as it relates to the self. She curated the show—her first foray into curation, and putting together “Bright Ruin” was not only a curatorial challenge but also a level-setting exercise. “Leading with my own work was a deliberate choice,” she says. “This is my creative home, and I wanted to establish its foundational energy by modeling the level of care and attention artists can expect when collaborating with me.”

    A woman with tattoos and dark hair sits in a light-filled art gallery space, looking thoughtful, with framed artworks visible behind her on the walls.A woman with tattoos and dark hair sits in a light-filled art gallery space, looking thoughtful, with framed artworks visible behind her on the walls.
    Atarah Atkinson with her exhibition “Bright Ruin.” Courtesy of Gallery ATARAH

    We caught up with Atkinson not long after the opening of the gallery’s inaugural exhibition to learn more about her motivations, what it means to have an intentionally porous gallery and how she plans to measure success.

    What inspired you to found Gallery ATARAH? Does what you’re creating now build on your earlier work with The Atrium? 

    Gallery ATARAH definitely builds on The Atrium in some foundational ways. Both ventures grew from a shared impulse: to elevate not only ourselves but our peers—to create infrastructure and resources where artistic communities could thrive. I co-founded The Atrium studio with close friend and fellow photographer Alicia Henderson when we were both finding our footing in New York. We identified a significant gap in Brooklyn for affordable, professional studio spaces that were clean, organized and genuinely client-worthy—something emerging creatives could sustain financially while building their practices. Like Gallery ATARAH, The Atrium was always about more than just the physical space; we invested in cultivating creative community. The Atrium hosted community gatherings, movie nights and organized industry networking. That experience only strengthened my understanding of what’s possible when you build spaces where artists can genuinely support one another.

    Having my own gallery has been a goal since studying at the Brooks Institute, but the driving force was always about creating a platform where voices, mine and my peers’, could truly resonate without compromise or external pressure to conform. I’m drawn to the ethos of early galleries, where the focus centered on the work and the makers rather than celebrity or the market. Gallery ATARAH represents a chance to establish a curatorial vision that is entirely my own—a creative home where I can channel my passion for connection into celebrating authentic artistic expression. Where The Atrium was beautifully collaborative, this gallery allows me to expand my own creative practice while bringing other artists into a space designed for mutual growth.

    Your inaugural show “Bright Ruin” features your own work—how do you see the gallery’s programming evolving as you bring in other artists? 

    Leading with my own work was a deliberate choice. This is my creative home, and I wanted to establish its foundational energy by modeling the level of care and attention artists can expect when collaborating with me. When artists work with Gallery ATARAH, they’re not simply engaging with a curator or business owner–they’re connecting with a fellow artist who understands the language of this life, the realities of the commitment and the nature of the work itself. “Bright Ruin” also sets a precedent for what I seek from the artists I represent, not in a stylistic sense but in the thematic undercurrents of their work. I’m interested in creatives, whether self-taught or early in their careers, who are committed to producing authentic works that delve into their unique personal experiences.

    As I bring in artists with aligned values and dedication to their craft, I am excited for our programming to evolve and create layered conversations, both literally on the walls and among the people in the space. I’m particularly interested in positioning contemporary work alongside vintage and antique pieces to explore how meaningful art transcends its moment of creation. I want to encourage today’s creatives to consider their work’s longevity. I believe that when something speaks through truth, it never loses its voice, and I am drawn to art whose impact transcends time and outlasts trends. This approach naturally fosters dialogue between different practices and perspectives.

    Showing multiple artists together, as we’ll do regularly at the salon nights, creates opportunities for peer connection, for learning about varied processes and for voices to be heard collectively rather than in isolation. It also offers an open invitation for diverse audiences to engage, connect and feel through the work we present together. I am also excited to eventually develop partnerships with other local Brooklyn spaces so that we can cross-promote complementary resources, events and programming.

    A gallery wall displays a dense arrangement of framed photographs and mixed-media works in varying sizes and styles, hung in an intentional grid-like composition.A gallery wall displays a dense arrangement of framed photographs and mixed-media works in varying sizes and styles, hung in an intentional grid-like composition.
    “’Bright Ruin’ sets a precedent for what I seek from the artists I represent, not in a stylistic sense but in the thematic undercurrents of their work,” Atkinson says. Courtesy of Gallery ATARAH

    Will the gallery have an open submission process, or will you curate primarily through relationships and networks? 

    Both, absolutely. Multiple entry points allow for more dynamic programming. Much of our initial programming features creative peers I’ve admired and collaborated with throughout my career and I’m drawing on relationships cultivated over 11+ years working as a freelance photographer in New York. For example, our winter solo exhibition features my friend and local artist Clara Rae, who will present her mixed-media practice spanning ceramics, textiles and painting.

    That said, our website features a comprehensive open submission portal outlining various opportunities—salon nights, exhibitions, workshops, artist talks—and I actively encourage artists to indicate interest in multiple formats. It matters to me that submission carries no financial barrier. I’ve long viewed submission fees to art shows as problematic within the art industry. When artists apply to work with us, I commit to responding with equal care and I personally review every submission because I understand intimately how vulnerable it feels to put forth work for consideration.

    I also welcome informal artist meetings—if an artist is curious about showing with us, I encourage them to reach out to arrange coffee at the gallery. We can discuss their practice, explore ideas and talk shop without any application pressure. Given that I’m drawn to personal, emotionally resonant work, I recognize that some artists need time and trust before opening up about their process. Establishing that foundation of safety matters deeply to me.

    You’ve mentioned salon nights. Can you tell us more about what formats you’re most excited to pilot first? 

    I’m genuinely excited about all our winter programming coming together. We have some wonderful events planned that each serve different purposes in building community and supporting artists, including workshops led by various creatives across different disciplines and artist talks that give space to hear directly from makers about their processes and experiences.

    I’m particularly excited about a floral workshop we have in the works for October. I think community workshops and hands-on experiences let people create something of their own, connect with themselves through making and learn new skills in a supportive setting.

    Even with all these different things in motion, my primary focus is getting our first salon night off the ground; I’m hoping to hold it in November. These gatherings will provide lower-pressure opportunities for multiple artists to show work simultaneously in an intimate setting, sparking creative dialogue and peer connection without the demands of a full solo exhibition.

    I believe there is something powerful about the kind of open dialogue where artists can share their journeys and audiences can ask questions in a welcoming environment. What excites me most about all these different formats is the variety of conversations they’ll generate—from the hands-on making in workshops to the reflective discussions in artist talks to the visual dialogue on the walls during salon nights. Each format welcomes different people into the creative conversation in its own way.

    So many galleries operate as exclusive spaces. What does it mean for you to create a gallery that is intentionally porous and accessible? 

    For me, it means returning to what galleries were originally created for: prioritizing longevity and community building over immediate commercial success. Early galleries were hubs of creative conversation where artists could connect with other artists, not just sell work. As a new gallerist, I’m in this to build a sustainable model that places artists’ voices and visitor engagement at the forefront.

    I want to move away from the white walls and hushed-tones approach. Galleries shouldn’t feel like spaces where you need to be silent or make yourself as small as possible. I don’t want visitors feeling like they’re an inconvenience because they’re filling the space with their energy. I want conversation in this space. When people walk in off the street, I invite them to talk with me about what they’re experiencing and how they’re feeling about the art.

    When I meet with artists seeking representation, I’m more concerned with asking, “What does your work mean to you? Why are you making it? How does it impact your life?” rather than getting caught up in, “How can we market this?” While I absolutely want collectors to visit and acquire work, I’m building on the philosophy that if you create something meaningful, they will come. Authentic work speaks powerfully when given space to resonate on its own terms. By cultivating an intentionally open, welcoming and accessible environment, the focus remains on the work itself—and in that environment, both artists and audiences can build lasting connections.

    How will you measure success—sales, attendance, or something less tangible? 

    I suppose metrics for success will be less tangible. For me, the real measure is whether participating artists feel they’re gaining something meaningful—whether that’s through artistic inspiration or collector interest. If artists engaging with the gallery feel successful on an individual level—that participating in Gallery ATARAH’s programming through an exhibition, artist talk, workshop, or salon night was a positive experience that opened new doors, introduced new ways of thinking, sparked new questions, or inspired new work—then that’s success to me.

    Additionally, I truly care about how much the artwork moves people in the community and how deeply it is engaged with. I think about a woman who recently walked in off the street. After experiencing the “Bright Ruin” exhibition, she told me how serendipitous and uplifting it felt to discover the gallery, how much the work resonated with her in that exact moment when she needed it. She felt seen. That, to me, is also success. When people experience the work and carry it with them—when it moves them in a way that stays with them personally—that’s success. And if they then share how the work made them think or feel, that impact ripples outward.

    Obviously, financial viability matters—Williamsburg rent being what it is—and business success means maintaining operations, supporting a robust artist roster and hosting well-attended exhibitions where genuine engagement happens. But Gallery ATARAH’s ability to inspire connection remains the primary success metric.

    How do you plan to sustain the balance between your own artistic practice and the demands of being a gallerist? Or do you see them as being complementary? 

    I absolutely see them as complementary. I feel as though this space might hold more value for me than it might for a typical gallery owner because it is also the home of my personal practice. That investment keeps the gallery pointed toward its true north and the best way I can uphold Gallery ATARAH’s mission of fostering connection is by activating it through my own work—serving as a strong curatorial compass grounded in my creative practice.

    Being an artist first gives me insight into what other artists are navigating professionally and what they need. I understand the business development challenges because I am working through them myself. I can support others in raising themselves up as business people because I am engaged in that same process. I speak their language—the language of the reality of being self-funded, the sacrifices, commitment and all of the hard work that goes along with being an artist. Rather than being just a curator or gallery owner, artists are connecting with someone who truly understands their journey because I’m walking the same path. This is my creative home, and I’m extending an invitation to others to participate in building it with me.

    More Arts interviews

    Gallery ATARAH Founder Atarah Atkinson On Building a New Exhibition Space With Old-School Ideals

    [ad_2]

    Christa Terry

    Source link

  • Repeating Patterns: How Artist Eamon Ore-Giron Is Keeping Ancient Deities Alive

    [ad_1]

    Los Angeles artist Eamon Ore-Giron with his sprawling panoramic piece, Tomorrow’s Monsoon. Courtesy of James Cohan Gallery

    When I visited Eamon Ore-Giron’s Talking Shit with Amaru, currently on display in “Grounded” at LACMA, I was struck by the painting’s congenial quality—the vibrant color palette, the bold shapes summoning the eye from one edge to the next. The composition borders on symmetry, though never fully embraces it, and the painting as a whole is animated by a certain verve and versatility. The negative space serves as a visual digestif, arranging itself around the striking motifs and the vivid colors, which open themselves to the viewer’s interpretation. As the title implies, Talking Shit with Amaru is a conversation, albeit a visual one.

    The painting, which depicts the transdimensional hybrid creature of Andean mythology, is idiomatic of the Los Angeles-based artist’s half-abstract, half-representational style. In his Talking Shit series, Ore-Giron has conducted an ongoing conversation with the artistic legacy of the ancient Americas, embracing symbols and forms from ancient Andean and Incan textile, architecture, mosaic and ceramic practice. He especially favors the artistic technique of contour rivalry—a visual style rooted in the Chavín culture of the central Andes. Ore-Giron’s own style has cycled through various stages of figuration and abstraction, a process by which he has developed his visual language—one that engages the expectations of contemporary Western abstraction, while communing with the arcana of ancient American artistry.

    Talking Shit with Amaru by Eamon Ore-Giron, a painted conversation depicting an ancient Andean deity. Courtesy of James Cohan Gallery

    “Depending on the heritage, a lot of abstraction lives side by side with the figure in the form,” Ore-Giron tells Observer. “Nature can provide some of the original forms in abstraction, like the pattern on a snake’s skin or the pattern on an insect.”

    Disparate ecologies: Amaru at LACMA

    Nature—and its impact—was a core theme of “Grounded,” which mapped perfectly onto Ore-Giron’s 2021 painting. “This idea of nature is not something external. It’s something internal,” he says when asked what excited him about the premise of the exhibition. “This piece, in particular, is internal in the sense that it’s a story that I carry with me—the gods that live here and still live here. Being ‘grounded,’ essentially, can actually be manifested in stories and in imagery and in a rekindling of a personal relationship to these deities.”

    Ore-Giron’s work favors the viewer’s personal connection with its subject over impressing a precise intention on its form or meaning. As such, in Talking Shit with Amaru—which appears, at first, as a vivid constellation of shapes, colors and varied opacities—takes on different dimensions the longer the viewer regards it. A body forms out of the multicolored coordinate circles, talons bookend fluid lines, a tongue bolts down the width of the linen canvas. Fittingly, Amaru is a deity with the ability to transcend the boundaries of the aerial and terrestrial worlds, a celestial interloper. He explains that, having very few depictions of this particular creature, he mostly drew from Amaru’s mythographic descriptions. In his depiction of the god, Amaru is not an ancient deity but  one that rhymes with the conventions and culture of modern-day Latin America.

    “There are so many different ways in which ancient history interfaces with modernity,” Ore-Giron explains, expressing his fascination with the ways in which ancient aesthetics and stories have survived into the modern day, and how our concept of modernity often informs our interpretation of the past. For example, the name “Amaru” carries vastly different implications in today’s Andean culture than it once did, eliciting notions of both divine power and individual identity. Among the Peruvian resistance fighters, “Túpac Amaru” was a name given to someone who fought against colonial powers. In Talking Shit with Amaru, Ore-Giron effects a portrayal that incorporates not only figure, but legacy.

    Tools of the trade: mineral paint with lids ajar, careful color palette, unrefined linen and a sketch of Talking Shit with Amaru.Tools of the trade: mineral paint with lids ajar, careful color palette, unrefined linen and a sketch of Talking Shit with Amaru.
    Ore-Giron’s tools of the trade: mineral paints, a careful color palette and stretched raw linen. Courtesy of James Cohan Gallery

    “It’s interesting that these deities then can take on these names in a culture,” Ore-Giron continues. “Even as the culture model changes so much. It goes through so many different changes, [but] doesn’t stay fixed. It’s not static. The most fascinating thing is the ways in which these deities and these ideas and the visual language all around it are constantly being reinvented.”

    Resistance, reinvention, repetition

    This theme of reinvention and resistance is present in every fiber of Ore-Giron’s work, from the subject matter to his preference for painting on raw linen as opposed to pristine, gessoed canvas. (“There’s sometimes little blades of grass that are accidentally woven in the factory,” he says of the linen. “It’s very physical.”) A musician as well as a visual artist, his creative identities often intersect at the very same juncture of reinterpretation and cross-cultural exchange. He lived in Mexico City in the 1990s and found a wealth of inspiration from the city’s DJ culture, which often sampled and mixed Peruvian music. He was fascinated by the subculture’s decision to find its primary inspiration in another Latin American culture as opposed to a Western one. “Instead of being oriented towards the north, toward the United States or toward Europe,” he elaborates. “Their primary focus was the south and to look to the south for inspiration.”

    Similarly, Ore-Giron synthesizes Latin American folk music such as Cumbia with the esoteric production techniques of artists such as MF DOOM. “I think it had a profound impact on the way that I approach visual language as well,” he says, “because it made me want to look deeper into the histories of visual language in Latin America. On a conceptual level, that’s where the music and the art really are working together.” As such, on Ore-Giron’s grounded linen canvases, where abstraction meets figuration, antiquity meets modernity and a visual rhythm that rings above all, strong and resonant.

    Talking Shit with Amaru is on view in LACMA’s “Grounded” through June 21, 2026. James Cohan Gallery in Tribeca will show “Eamon Ore-Giron” from November 7 through December 20, 2025.

    More Arts interviews

    Repeating Patterns: How Artist Eamon Ore-Giron Is Keeping Ancient Deities Alive

    [ad_2]

    Mya Ward

    Source link

  • ATHR Gallery Cofounder Mohammed Hafiz On Saudi Arabia’s Art Awakening

    [ad_1]

    ATHR is a leading contemporary art gallery co-founded by Mohammed Hafiz and Hamza Serafi with locations in Riyadh, Jeddah and AlUla. Courtesy ATHR gallery

    It took Art Basel announcing a new edition in Doha, Qatar, and Sotheby’s recently previewing its first auction in Abu Dhabi at the St. Regis Saadiyat Island for the art world to start paying closer attention to the Gulf art scene and its potential. But while the U.A.E.’s art ecosystem—which includes Dubai’s gallery network and institutional hubs like Sharjah—has long been discussed, far less has been reported about the expanding art scene in neighboring Saudi Arabia.

    Last February, in the UNESCO-protected historical city of Diriyah, just outside the capital Riyadh, Sotheby’s held its first-ever auction in Saudi Arabia. The cross-category sale featured works by Fernando Botero and Refik Anadol alongside jewels, watches, rare cars, handbags and iconic sports memorabilia, totaling $17.28 million. This was not Sotheby’s first incursion into the Kingdom. The auction house had already staged several charity sales, backed Saudi Arabia’s first Contemporary Art Biennale in 2022, supported last year’s inaugural Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah, and partnered with the Diriyah Biennale Foundation on the public program for its 2024 edition. Since 2020, the land-art biennial Desert X, conceived in California, has staged a Saudi edition in AlUla, with the next installment scheduled for January 2026—timed so visitors traveling to Art Basel Doha can continue on to Saudi Arabia.

    Still, little is known about the day-to-day infrastructure behind these initiatives or the players shaping Saudi Arabia’s contemporary art scene. Observer recently spoke with Mohammed Hafiz, cofounder with Hamza Serafi of ATHR, the Kingdom’s leading contemporary art gallery, to learn more about the current state of the art scene and its evolution, particularly under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030. Since its launch in 2016, the strategic framework has opened the Kingdom to the world and positioned culture as a central force of transformation.

    ATHR opened in 2009—well before Vision 2030 created the space to give art and culture a proper boost as the country transitions from an oil-centric economy to a global hub—and now has locations in Riyadh, Jeddah and AlUla. “We started the gallery at a time when the local art scene—and the broader cultural movement around it—was still quite slow,” says Mohammed Hafiz, noting that Saudi Arabia in the 1940s and 1950s had a vibrant artistic movement, with some of the country’s pioneering modernists emerging during that time. In 1958, the Ministry of Knowledge (then the education authority) inaugurated Saudi Arabia’s first formal art exhibition, a symbolic milestone that brought fine art into national consciousness. “For various reasons, that momentum faded over the decades, but when we opened, we wanted to help reignite that energy.”

    Mohammed Hafiz stands in front of a large black-and-white artwork resembling magnetic field lines, wearing a traditional Saudi thobe and red-checkered ghutra.Mohammed Hafiz stands in front of a large black-and-white artwork resembling magnetic field lines, wearing a traditional Saudi thobe and red-checkered ghutra.
    Mohammed Hafiz, co-founder of ATHR. Photo: Scott Morrish

    ATHR’s beginnings were intertwined with “Edge of Arabia,” a traveling exhibition of Saudi contemporary artists that launched in London and toured across Europe and the Middle East. The project became one of the key catalysts for bringing international attention to Saudi contemporary art. The 2008 London exhibition alone drew more than 13,000 visitors before traveling to Venice during the Biennale the following year, and later to Berlin, Istanbul and Dubai.

    Afterward, somewhere in 2013, Hafiz expanded the gallery’s work and launched a social initiative called 21,39. “The goal was to produce one major curated exhibition each year and build a whole week of programming around it—panels, talks and events that would bring together local curators, museum directors, collectors, patrons and artists, local and international,” Hafiz explains. The initiative had both private and public components, led by Her Royal Highness Princess Jawaher and a group of patrons, with Hafiz serving as vice chair throughout its run. “It became another important building block in the evolution of Saudi Arabia’s contemporary art ecosystem.”

    Vision 2030 marked a watershed moment: under its framework, the Kingdom elevated “culture and arts” as vital pillars of national transformation—no longer ornaments, but key drivers of tourism, soft power, identity and economic growth. “The leadership and the government recognized the importance of culture and the creative industries, not just as forms of expression but as engines of national development,” Hafiz says. As part of that shift, the Ministry of Culture was finally established as a standalone entity—previously it had been folded into the Ministry of Media.

    As part of Vision 2030, the Ministry of Culture developed its own strategy, set priorities, and built a network of specialized commissions: the Art Commission, the Culinary Commission, the Museum Commission and others—sixteen in total—each focused on a distinct cultural sector. “This has given us as operators in the art scene many opportunities,” says Hafiz. “It has allowed us to support our artists more effectively, to exhibit their work to a broader local audience, and to engage with an entire new generation of collectors increasingly engaging with contemporary art in Saudi Arabia.”

    The Ministry of Culture has become a pivotal force, spearheading initiatives like the Biennale, the Desert X exhibitions, and other major commissions that have transformed the Kingdom’s artistic landscape. These large-scale projects have given artists the chance to realize some of their most ambitious visions and have positioned them at the forefront of Saudi Arabia’s rapidly evolving cultural scene, as Hafiz notes.

    Visitors in traditional and modern attire observe a painting of a girl and Arabic text in a white-walled gallery.Visitors in traditional and modern attire observe a painting of a girl and Arabic text in a white-walled gallery.
    Curated by Rania Majinyan, the group show “Afterschool” is on view at ATHR Gallery AlUla through December 30, 2025 Photo: Scott Morrish

    This rapid evolution underscores the promising trajectory of the Saudi art scene. At the same time, it highlights how ATHR has long operated less as a conventional gallery and more as a cultural platform—a space dedicated to producing and supporting art and culture within the Kingdom while promoting their international reach. “From the start, it was never just about commercial representation. Our space has always operated more like a cultural hub,” Hafiz asserts. “What truly defines us is how we work with artists and engage with the broader artistic community.”

    Today, ATHR spans roughly 4,000 square meters across its original venue in Jeddah, its newly opened Riyadh location (ATHR JAX) and a smaller outpost in AlUla—the first contemporary art gallery in the historic city. It has also expanded to include the ATHR Foundation, which focuses on developing emerging artists and alternative art spaces.

    Hafiz was a patron and collector before becoming a gallerist. He describes his deep involvement in fostering Saudi Arabia’s art scene as a natural convergence of influences. Though his family wasn’t directly involved in art, they were active in creative industries—fashion retail on one side and publishing on the other. “There was always this dual engagement: the creativity of fashion and the amplification of voices that comes with journalism,” he reflects. “When I encountered art, I realized it merged both worlds—it had the storytelling power of journalism and the expressive creativity of fashion. It was a language that transcended cultures and touched people in a unique way.”

    Hafiz began collecting art around 2007, after selling his family business. Soon after, he felt compelled to invest in his country’s cultural potential. “Suddenly, I had the time and resources to explore something new. I thought, why not give this a try—why not build something that could help artists and create a cultural movement? That’s how it all began.”

    Cultivating an emerging art scene

    ATHR’s diversified ventures now include AKTHR, an art services agency that supports Saudi Arabia’s broader art industry. Drawing on nearly two decades of experience, the team advises and assists a growing community of individuals eager to engage with art and begin collecting.

    During the inaugural edition of the Islamic Biennale, ATHR hosted a major rooftop dinner to open their exhibition, welcoming around 2,000 guests—85 percent of them local. What stood out most was the sheer number of young attendees. “The collector base isn’t huge yet, but there’s definitely an appetite—an eagerness to experience, to see, to explore,” Hafiz confirms. “It’s incredibly refreshing to witness.”

    A lively nighttime rooftop gathering at ATHR Gallery in Jeddah, with hundreds of guests illuminated by colorful lights against the city skyline.A lively nighttime rooftop gathering at ATHR Gallery in Jeddah, with hundreds of guests illuminated by colorful lights against the city skyline.
    During the inaugural edition of the Islamic Biennale, ATHR staged a landmark rooftop dinner that drew nearly 2,000 guests—an impressive 85 percent of whom were local. Courtesy ATHR

    ATHR is also investing directly in education and collector development through initiatives like Young Art Collectors. “Through it, we organize talks with established collectors, guide new ones and take them on trips to art fairs and studios,” he explains. “It’s really about helping them develop their knowledge—understanding why they might want to collect, what their vision is and how to engage meaningfully with art.”

    One of the country’s most significant recent developments has been in education. Just last week, the Minister of Culture announced a major investment in a new arts and cultural university set to open in Riyadh within the next two or three years. The university is already forming partnerships and affiliations with international institutions across art, music, theater and other creative disciplines.

    Hafiz notes that while art programs have previously existed within Saudi universities, there has never been a dedicated art university in the country. “This will be the first institution fully devoted to the creative industries, and that’s a significant milestone.” Meanwhile, the Ministry of Culture has also launched a generous scholarship program for Saudis who wish to study art abroad. Once accepted into a pre-approved university, students receive full tuition and living expenses for both undergraduate and postgraduate studies. “It’s a major and truly inspiring initiative.”

    At the same time, Hafiz remains focused on cultivating dialogue. “One of our key objectives is building connections and bridges between Saudi Arabia and the rest of the world,” he says. ATHR supports that mission through its residency program, which invites curators, institutional representatives and museum directors to spend time in Saudi Arabia for exploration and study trips. “It’s about creating genuine exchange, fostering understanding, and building lasting relationships that strengthen the dialogue between Saudi Arabia and the global art community.”

    Visitors in traditional and modern attire observe a painting of a girl and Arabic text in a white-walled gallery.Visitors in traditional and modern attire observe a painting of a girl and Arabic text in a white-walled gallery.
    Since its inception in Jeddah in 2009, ATHR Gallery has played a pivotal role in shaping the contemporary Saudi art scene. Photo: Scott Morrish

    Championing a new wave of Saudi talent

    Saudi Arabia today can also claim a new generation of emerging artists, many of whom ATHR is actively promoting on the international stage. In terms of themes defining contemporary Saudi art, Hafiz points to two recurring subjects: religion and society. “Religion remains an integral part of our identity, so artists often reflect on it—sometimes by commenting on the past and its challenges, and sometimes by envisioning the future and its possibilities,” he explains. “Then, there’s the social dimension, especially around women’s rights. Many female artists are exploring questions related to gender, representation and the transformations we’re experiencing today.” Notably, much of this work carries an optimistic tone—acknowledging progress, engaging thoughtfully with the country’s ongoing social shifts and reflecting a shared hope for the kind of future that Vision 2030 is shaping.

    From there, the conversation naturally turned to censorship and artistic freedom, as the country continues to face international criticism over its suppression of free speech—including death sentences—and the systemic exploitation of migrant laborers. Some critics argue that the official promotion of art functions as a “cultural façade” strategy: amplifying an image of openness and modernization while maintaining tight control over which narratives are permitted.

    Hafiz acknowledges that censorship is a complex issue, noting that what may be considered sensitive or unacceptable in the West may not be in Saudi Arabia—and vice versa. “Every society has its own parameters,” and what is deemed permissible or taboo is shaped by local religious, social and cultural frameworks, which often differ from Western norms. “What I find encouraging is that Saudi artists have become very mature and intelligent in how they approach complex subjects,” Hafiz adds, pointing to the growing use of symbolic, metaphorical, and conceptual strategies. By embracing ambiguity, layering and coded imagery, Saudi artists invite multiple interpretations while making their work more resilient to censorship. “They know how to address issues creatively—how to make a point, leave room for interpretation, and allow the audience to engage with the work—while still remaining respectful of local culture and values.”

    ATHR will soon bring Saudi artists to the forefront of the international scene, with booths at both Frieze London and Art Basel Paris this October. Each presentation will focus on Saudi female artists and challenge lingering stereotypes about the Kingdom—especially those tied to female oppression—while highlighting its evolution and future ambitions.

    ATHR, in fact, does not treat art fairs as purely commercial platforms but as arenas for dialogue, exchange and shifting perspectives, as Hafiz clarifies. “Of course, when sales happen, that’s great—we love that—but the real goal is to create a long-lasting impact. We’re here for the long haul,” he says. “We don’t want to appear for two or three years and then disappear. We want to build trust, connection, and respect—staying consistent with our values and strategy, returning every year and building on what we’ve started. So far, that approach has worked well for us.”

    At the same time, Hafiz points to a growing international appetite for Saudi artists. “We’ve always had international collectors acquiring works from us and following our artists,” he says, noting that while Saudi artists may not yet be fully mainstream, many have begun gaining global visibility.

    A large circular wall sculpture made of intertwined terracotta-colored human forms displayed in a white-walled gallery.A large circular wall sculpture made of intertwined terracotta-colored human forms displayed in a white-walled gallery.
    A work in Zahrah Alghamdi’s solo show “Between Memory and Matter” at ATHR’s Riyadh Gallery. Photo: AzizJan

    This recognition extends well beyond ATHR’s roster. “If you look across the scene, you’ll find Saudi artists represented by major international galleries—Maha Malluh with Krinzinger Gallery, Mohammed AlFaraj with Athr and CAMEL, Ahmed Mater with Galleria Continua, Arwa Al Neami with Sabrina Amrani in Madrid and Dana Awartani with Lisson Gallery. These artists are already positioned within international gallery rosters that don’t look at geography as a limitation, and that’s a really encouraging sign for the future.” Hafiz also mentions names such as Mohammed Al-Sanea, Dana Awartani, and Manal Al-Dowayan, all of whom have exhibited in museums abroad and are widely collected internationally.

    At Frieze London, the gallery is presenting a two-artist booth featuring Daniah Alsaleh and Basmah Felemban, both exploring Saudi Arabia’s natural and cultural landscapes as sites in flux—continuously reshaped by the movement of people, ecologies and stories. Drawing on her research in the ancient Nabataean city of AlUla, Alsaleh incorporates mineral fragments to build a layered chronology and geology, weaving natural and human histories through material and memory. While Alsaleh looks to the past and the country’s heritage, Felemban looks forward—reimagining the landscape as an informational system. Her futuristic approach envisions new terrains and proposes multimedia, multidisciplinary ways of navigating the environment through fragments of language and data.

    The following week, at Paris’s Grand Palais, ATHR will return to Art Basel with a three-artist, female-led presentation featuring Sarah Abu Abdallah, Hayfa Algwaiz and Lulua Alyahya. Through distinct styles—ranging from suspended, symbolic compositions to conceptual reflections—these artists explore how images can mirror and translate the complex, layered experiences of Saudi women today. Approaching these perspectives from sociopolitical, anthropological, and emotional angles, their work challenges stereotypes and prejudices while offering international audiences a rare glimpse into Saudi Arabia’s evolving contemporary art landscape—studio-based, globally networked and deeply rooted in local nuance and culture.

    An oil painting depicting two suited men, two monkeys, and a woman with long dark hair against a muted abstract background.An oil painting depicting two suited men, two monkeys, and a woman with long dark hair against a muted abstract background.
    Lulua Alyahya, Untitled, 2025. Courtesy ATHR

    Challenges and opportunities

    Despite its many promising elements, Saudi Arabia’s art ecosystem remains in a formative stage and continues to face several key challenges. One of the most pressing is the limited number of galleries operating at ATHR’s level, as well as the lack of other spaces capable of supporting both emerging artistic talent and an expanding audience for contemporary art.

    Still, Hafiz notes that the traditional concept of a gallery is itself under scrutiny. “Artists today can sell directly through online platforms—straight from their studios, through Artsy, or other direct-to-collector channels,” he explains. “In that kind of environment, the traditional role of the gallery—as a representative who works closely with artists to develop their careers, secure institutional participation, and place works in collections—becomes harder to sustain.” A few new galleries have opened in recent years, which Hafiz sees as a positive development, but he emphasizes that the collector base still needs time and effort to mature.

    At the same time, Hafiz sees plenty of opportunity. Because Saudi Arabia’s art scene is still taking shape, there is room to experiment with new models—approaches that don’t rely on inherited frameworks. “We’re living in a time when every concept of museum or gallery is in question,” he says. “When you have a legacy, it’s very difficult and challenging to change the way you’ve been doing things. But when you build something new with a contemporary concept and a forward-looking strategy, you’re not held back by that weight—and that gives Saudi Arabia so much potential.”

    It may take time to build, but once the foundation is solid, momentum can accelerate quickly—especially in a region where Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E. and Qatar are all deeply invested in the arts. Each serves as a major patron, moving in concert to elevate and strengthen the regional art scene and help position it as a new global hub. Hafiz describes Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha and Saudi Arabia as complementary forces. “We’re all supporting each other and working together to build a complete ecosystem. It’s like Europe or the U.S.—you have art fairs and museums spread across different cities. That diversity is healthy. The more activity there is, the better for everyone.”

    A panoramic view of a dark gallery space with visitors walking along a massive blue mixed-media mural glowing under soft spotlights.A panoramic view of a dark gallery space with visitors walking along a massive blue mixed-media mural glowing under soft spotlights.
    You Ask, We Answer, an installation by Sarah Abu Abdallah at ATHR Jeddah in 2024. Courtesy ATHR

    More Arts interviews

    ATHR Gallery Cofounder Mohammed Hafiz On Saudi Arabia’s Art Awakening

    [ad_2]

    Elisa Carollo

    Source link

  • Tiler Peck On Bringing ‘Turn It Out with Tiler Peck & Friends’ Back to City Center

    [ad_1]

    Peck’s curatorial approach transforms the stage into a meeting place for genres, generations and creative sensibilities in constant dialogue. Photo: Riker Brothers

    In 2022, New York City Ballet’s beloved ballerina Tiler Peck curated a show for New York City Center’s inaugural Artists at the Center program: Turn It Out with Tiler Peck & Friends. The show received critical and audience acclaim in New York City, went on to perform at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London (where the piece Time Spell received an Olivier Award nomination for Best New Dance Production) and then toured Peck’s home state of California. It is now returning to City Center for an encore presentation from October 16 to 19—great news for those of us who missed the popular show the first time around.

    The program includes fresh (as in, they first premiered in 2022) works of ballet, contemporary and tap dance from some of the greatest choreographers working today. It opens with the quartet The Barre Project, Blake Works II by modern ballet pioneer William Forsythe, set to music by James Blake, followed by Peck’s sextet Thousandth Orange, set to live music by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw. After that is the duet Swift Arrow by San Francisco’s king of contemporary ballet, Alonzo King, with music by jazz composer Jason Moran. And closing the program is the City Center commission Time Spell, a collaboration between Peck, tap dance queen Michelle Dorrance, and Emmy-nominated contemporary choreographer Jillian Meyers, with music by Aaron Marcellus and Penelope Wendtlandt. Peck dances in all the works except her own, and the show’s all-star cast also includes fellow NYCB company members India Bradley, Chun Wai Chan, Christopher Grant, Mira Nadon, Quinn Starner, and Ryan Tomash, along with Boston Ballet principal dancer Jeffrey Cirio, dancer and So You Think You Can Dance season 14 winner Lex Ishimoto and tap dancer Byron Tittle.

    Observer recently spoke with Peck—always warm, humble and on the move—about her excitement for the show’s encore presentation, her bottomless desire to grow as an artist and her love and admiration for her friends.

    How did Turn It Out with Tiler & Friends first come together?

    I have curated other shows, but this is the only program I’ve ever created from scratch. None of these pieces existed before I asked the choreographers to make them. So Turn It Out with Tiler feels the most special to me, because it’s kind of like my little child.

    I started working on it during the pandemic. I’d always wanted to work with Bill Forsythe, and he had wanted to work with me, but we could never get our schedules together. So I called him and said, “Hi, Bill, I know everything’s, like, shut down, but would you want to work together? I know it’s not ideal.” And he was like, “When can we start?” And I was like, “How about tomorrow?” And so that’s how that piece came about. We just started working together over Zoom. We didn’t know what it would become. After a while, he said, “I think we need to bring some gentlemen in.” And so we did. After we finished The Barre Project, we released it on film so people could see it. But the first time it was ever performed live was at City Center for this show, and the only time we’ve ever done it with the original cast, the way he created it, is during this particular Turn It Out with Tiler show that we tour.

    What about the Alonzo King piece?

    It was the same thing. I called Alonzo and said, “I really want to work with you. How would you feel about creating something for me?” And he said, “Oh my gosh, I would love to.” And so we made a little bubble in San Francisco. There were just four of us in the room. And he created a pas de deux for Roman and me during that time, which has also only been seen whenever this show is done. My choreography, Thousandth Orange, began at the Vail Dance Festival, but this version we perform is very different. Time Spell was created specifically for this show and has only ever been performed in this show.

    How has it been returning to Thousandth Orange, a work you created a few years ago?

    It’s nice because I can adjust it for the dancers who are doing it now. It doesn’t have to be a museum piece. That’s one great thing about being a living choreographer—you can still make those changes!

    When you first performed the show and toured it, what responses did you get from the audience?

    I think Time Spell really transports people. When I’m in the wings listening to Penny and Aaron sing, I feel that, but I wasn’t sure how the audience would react. It’s really hard, I think, to try to mix styles without it looking like “Oh, there’s a tap dancer and there’s a ballet dancer and contemporary dancer and they’re all trying to dance together!” But to me, the seamlessness of how this is blended, you don’t even realize that you’re watching so many different forms of dance in one piece. And so many of the dancers are multitalented. Like Lex is tapping alongside Michelle Dorrance, but then doing a pas de deux with me, because he can do ballet too. A lot of people have told me Time Spell does not leave them. They don’t always understand how to explain it, but they’re so moved by it. And that’s been the case every time we’ve performed it.

    How did you go about making that piece?

    I wanted to work with Michelle, and Michelle had the idea to bring Jillian Meyers in, too. So the three of us really worked together. They’re so talented. I just helped blend the ballet into it. But everybody was super collaborative. Michelle is just… I don’t know, she’s just like the most talented person I know, and this is, I think, one of her favorite things she’s ever made.

    What excites you about returning to this program again?

    The nice thing about getting to do something more than once is that you get to dive deeper into each piece and role. And I feel like that’s what’s so beautiful about the show now—it’s really finding its roots, and everybody feels comfortable in it.

    These are the most incredible artists to be surrounded by. I think all of us love being in the room together, because we each feel like we grow by getting to work with one another. We all push each other. And we become a really tight family of people. I think that feeling comes across in the show because the works were created during a time when nobody was able to be together. This was the first thing we could do. We were in masks when we first started! And so it really has this feeling of longing, of not being with somebody, and then coming back, and the intersections that happen there. I feel like the more that we all understand the work, the richer it’s become. And because we don’t get to do it often, every time we dance together, it feels fresh.

    What’s it like dancing styles so different from what you normally do at NYCB?

    Growing up, I wasn’t a classical dancer at all. I took ballet so that my technique would be strong, but I was really a jazz contemporary dancer. So I think that’s why I feel so comfortable in these types of work. At this point in my career, I want to be pushed by choreographers, and not just physically. Alonzo really digs deep into the human side of dancing. He is kind of like a philosopher, and I was interested in growing that way as a dancer. When you’re in the studio with him, you learn so much about yourself and about dance and the world. He has this way of sharing that’s unlike any other choreographer, I think.

    And Bill is the most musical person ever, so working with him was like a dream. The way he would explain things like compressing and stretching time, it felt like I was getting a lesson on how to choreograph and dance at the same time every time we worked.

    And you’re so musical, too—that’s a great pairing!

    You know what’s funny? The one person who makes me feel not musical is Michelle. She can hear notes and beats that my ear doesn’t even go to, and I think I’m musical, so that’s why I’m always so interested in working with her. She’s constantly pushing me to hear and see and explore even further. What I love about this show is that it’s everything. It combines so many types of dance forms into one. I only wear pointe shoes for one of the pieces! It’s more than just a ballet performance. It’s an evening of dance.

    Turn It Out with Tiler Peck & Friends is at New York City Center October 16-19, 2025.

    More in performing arts

    Tiler Peck On Bringing ‘Turn It Out with Tiler Peck & Friends’ Back to City Center

    [ad_2]

    Caedra Scott-Flaherty

    Source link

  • The Essentials With Rita Hazan: High-Low Skincare, Anguilla and Working With Beyoncé

    [ad_1]

    Even if you don’t know Rita Hazan by name, you know her work. The New York City native has been behind the hair color transformations of some of the biggest pop stars since the late ‘90s, from Mariah Carey’s first foray into lighter locks (and eventual blonde makeover) for her 1997 album, Butterfly, to Jennifer Lopez’s post-Selena honey highlights and Katy Perry’s full range of rainbow colors. And then there’s Beyoncé, who first came to Hazan in 2013 and has been working with her ever since.

    But Hazan’s impact in the beauty industry extends far beyond her impressive list of celebrity clients. In the male-dominated field of hair coloring, Hazan carved out her own path: First by developing a coloring technique that defied (and eventually set) trends, then with the opening of her namesake salon and product line. “I didn’t even think about it as a woman; I just really loved doing color,” Hazan tells Observer of what drove her to take risks. After attending beauty school at 17, Hazan immediately went to work at Oribe Canales’ legendary Fifth Avenue salon, where she assisted color director Brad Johns (whose clients famously included Christy Turlington and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy) through much of the ‘90s. “I got promoted, and that’s where I was doing a little bit different hair color. Brad was all about chunky, very golden highlights, and I went the opposite way of that,” Hazan says. “My family background is Egyptian and Jewish, and we like to be blonde, but we don’t like to be goldy,” she adds of what inspired her more seamless approach to blonde color.

    By the early 2000s, Hazan’s work with Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez and Jessica Simpson had established her as the go-to colorist for pop It girls and up-and-comers alike. “If you wanted to create an image or change your look, you would come to me,” confirms Hazan. All the while, she was still busy at Oribe with her usual clients, one of whom first planted the idea of opening her own salon. “I was like, ‘Who the hell wants that headache?’” Hazan laughs. “But I told my client I’d think about it, and when I went home and said something to my mom, she said, ‘If you want to, just open your own place.’ So I did, and that was it.”

    Rita Hazan Rita Hazan.

    After establishing her Fifth Avenue salon as the place for A-listers and those in the know, Hazan developed her own product line, which most famously introduced the world to the first root cover-up spray (inspired by and developed for her clients as an at-home solution for grays in between color appointments). But after 20 years in the industry, Hazan was introduced to her most famous client to date: Beyoncé. “About 12 years ago, [hair stylist] Kim Kimble called me and was like, ‘Beyoncé wants to be blonde but her hair keeps turning orange, and I told her, Rita is the only person that’s going to get you the color that you want. Can you do her hair?’” Hazan recalls of the singer’s first visit to her salon. Hazan delivered, and the two have been working together ever since. The colorist is behind every Beyoncé hair look of the past decade, from her bright blonde at the 2015 Met Gala to her more dimensional, “sunwashed” color during the 2023 Renaissance tour.

    “We’ll go back and forth on color ideas, but I’m always making sure it looks good for video and with movement—Beyoncé is flipping her hair and she’s up and down when she’s onstage, so every aspect of her hair has to look beautiful,” Hazan says of their collaboration process. “She also grew up in a hair salon, so she understands what’s possible and what’s not.”

    This fall, Hazan is sharing her coloring expertise through open classes at her salon, now located on the Upper East Side. “I really like educating, and everybody is always asking me about going blonde without it getting damaged or brassy, so I’d like to do classes in the salon that are affordable and open to anybody who wants to come in,” she says. In between creating buttery blonde color for her clients (Hazan’s top trending color for fall), Rita Hazan spoke with Observer about her current essentials—from the red lip that’s become part of her everyday uniform to the at-home hair gloss with results so good, she uses it in the salon.

    [ad_2]

    Marissa DeSantis

    Source link

  • Shara Hughes’s Luminous Landscapes Open Portals into Life, Death and the Sublime

    [ad_1]

    Shara Hughes’s “Weather Report” is at David Kordansky Gallery in New York through October 18. Photo: On White Wall Studio, courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery

    Shara Hughes is one of those names that surged during the pandemic, when demand for her paintings spiked and prices climbed quickly, culminating in her record sale of $2,940,000 at Christie’s in May 2022. Yet interest in her work has not waned. Her lush, vibrant visions of nature continue to strike a universal chord, speaking to the human condition and our connection to the world in ways that move beyond market trends.

    Her new body of work, unveiled in “Weather Report” at David Kordansky Gallery during Armory and New York art week, demonstrates Hughes’s painterly command and the existential weight her practice has taken on. Each of the nine large-scale canvases on view unfolds as a dense world of thought and feeling, of self-reflection and experimentation, the outpouring of an artist confronting a pivotal moment in both her life and her creative path.

    “Over the past year or so, I’ve just become more connected to myself, and that kind of growth happens naturally as we get older,” Hughes says when we catch up after the fairs, reflecting on the many shifts in her life recently—her parents aging, her marriage, her friends having children—and how these changes inevitably shape how she sees and makes work. “I’m getting into middle age, and it feels like those kinds of things are becoming more real,” she adds. Questions about the afterlife, about the fleeting and fragile nature of emotions and existence, surface in waves, not constantly but with force when they arrive. “Last summer, I did lose someone in my family, and even though we weren’t especially close, her death jolted me into thinking, what if that were me? It pushed me into those spiritual questions: what is the afterlife, is it really so scary?”

    Shara Hughes stands in her studio wearing denim overalls, surrounded by her brightly colored paintings.Shara Hughes stands in her studio wearing denim overalls, surrounded by her brightly colored paintings.
    Shara Hughes. Portrait: Mary Inhea Kang, courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery

    While Hughes did not set out to make this show a meditation on existential themes, they inevitably shape the works. Her approach to the canvas remains instinctive, driven by an intuitive response to what colors and gestures suggest. Brushstrokes build layer by layer, forming compositions of vibrant tones and painterly currents that resist conventional representation, instead settling into an unorthodox balance.

    “The way I work is really abstract. At the beginning, I might just throw down a few colors and then respond to them, letting the painting guide me more than me directing it,” Hughes admits. “In that sense, it’s very intuitive and reactionary to both the canvas and myself,” she adds. “I’m not trying to illustrate anything specific; the painting shows me how I feel.”

    A viewer looks at two vibrant Shara Hughes paintings side by side, one filled with tropical foliage and the other with surreal trees against a blue sky.A viewer looks at two vibrant Shara Hughes paintings side by side, one filled with tropical foliage and the other with surreal trees against a blue sky.
    Hughes uses dizzying brushwork, vibrant colors and shifting perspectives to make paintings that defy many of the existing conventions associated with the landscape genre. Photo: On White Wall Studio, courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery

    For this reason, Hughes often describes her works as psychological and emotional landscapes: the progressive layering of paint and shifting colors mirrors the complexity of how we process and elaborate the surrounding reality through our senses. Her image-making follows and echoes the meaning-making process we all undergo in “being-in-the-world,” something that precedes any linguistic or symbolic codification. “Often I start without a clear goal, and the painting ends up teaching me—showing me I’m thinking about something or still upset about something agitating inside.”

    Although these works may appear semi-abstract, they represent something very real for Hughes—the reality of the psyche, and the intricate interplay of senses, emotions, and psychological, even pre-cognitive, experience. “Every single thing I paint feels deeply connected to my own experience,” she clarifies. “I hate when people use the word ‘fantasy’ to describe my work because these aren’t fantastical places; they’re real to me, part of my lived experience. They’re very much grounded in reality.”

    Hughes often describes her works as autobiographical, though they are less about recounting events than translating moods and emotional atmospheres. “‘This is how I feel about this event.’ It’s more about filtering my feelings through the idea of landscape,” she explains.

    An expansive gallery installation displays multiple Shara Hughes canvases, including a large tree-like composition at the center.An expansive gallery installation displays multiple Shara Hughes canvases, including a large tree-like composition at the center.
    Hughes’s process rarely involves reference images; instead, she transposes the psychological complexity of her interior world into lush and layered compositions. Photo: On White Wall Studio, courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery

    Her recurring choice of landscapes and nature as sites to project and reflect her feelings is tied to her upbringing in Atlanta, Georgia. “I wasn’t in wild nature every day—it was the city—but I lived on a lake, so I spent a lot of time outdoors,” she recounts. “My family also had a tree farm about two hours south, and I’d go there often with my brothers and friends. I did a lot of camping and backpacking, so I always felt a connection to nature.” Interestingly, Hughes only began painting landscapes after moving to New York, perhaps as a way of longing for the lush environments that had long shaped her life and imagination.

    What immediately strikes viewers in this new body of work is its heightened luminosity, which expands the canvas into surrounding space with an auratic, almost epiphanic presence that extends beyond the physical surface. If Hughes’s paintings have always had the ability to channel the very energy of the landscape, this series feels animated by a deeper animistic spirituality, suggesting an intensified awareness of the need to emotionally reattune with our environment and reconceive ourselves as part of broader ecologies of interdependence and symbiotic relations.

    Hughes recalls visiting Niagara Falls last summer and being overwhelmed by the sheer force of nature and the vitality of its primordial energy. That same sensation flows through these canvases, where she seeks to capture the generative power that art-making can unlock. Works such as The Good Light (2025), The Rift (2025) and Niagara (2025) transpose onto canvas the relentless vitality of flowing water and the radiant energy of sunlight colliding with cascading drops that dissolve into air before beginning their cycle anew.

    Two large Shara Hughes canvases depict radiant landscapes, one in fiery reds and oranges and the other evoking cascading waterfalls.Two large Shara Hughes canvases depict radiant landscapes, one in fiery reds and oranges and the other evoking cascading waterfalls.
    Each of the nine large-scale works on view encompasses a world of thought, feeling, self-reflection and open-ended experimentation. Photo: On White Wall Studio, courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery

    For Hughes, these paintings are less about the afterlife than about a larger current of energy that surpasses us. “It’s the cycle of life, for sure, but also the force behind it—something hopeful and exciting we can lean on,” she reflects. In Mama (2025), for example, she sought to express nature as a quilt or a hug—something stable and generative, a maternal presence, the timeless archetype of Mother Nature. “It could be a mound of flowers larger than life, or a rock that transforms into a figure you might go to for stability or even worship, like a Madonna figure,” she explains. “All of these elements are part of nature, but also part of the psychological landscapes I’m always exploring.”

    Hughes’s paintings humanize and personify nature, giving it the presence of characters. In Bigger Person (2024), the interwoven visual field between foreground and background becomes the stage for a tension between figuration and abstraction, between human and nature, which ultimately coexist in a generative exchange of forces. “Often I use trees, plants and flowers to suggest a human presence, a self-portrait or even a portrait of someone. In that way, the landscape imagery allows me to connect with everyone,” Hughes reflects. Nature becomes, for her, a platform to contemplate human existence beyond categorization and individuation, reaching instead for universality. “A tree doesn’t need to be labeled as female or male or given a certain skin color or age. It becomes universal.”

    Other paintings, like Pearl Gate (2025), appear to inhabit a liminal space beyond both the sensory and human world, evoking an archetypal and magical dimension of landscape, one historically acknowledged and embraced through symbols and rituals, often in opposition to anthropocentric, rational or scientific narratives.

    A vivid Shara Hughes painting in red, orange, and purple hues fills a central wall in a pristine gallery space.A vivid Shara Hughes painting in red, orange, and purple hues fills a central wall in a pristine gallery space.
    MaMa (2025), an eight-foot-tall forest scene is dominated by a luminous field of red, orange and yellow that cascades down from the sun-like head of a flower anchoring the composition’s top edge. Photo: On White Wall Studio, courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery

    In this sense, Hughes’s approach to landscape echoes that of Romanticism, which treated nature not simply as a subject to be depicted but as a privileged arena for probing the essence of the human condition in relation to immensity. For the Romantics, landscape was never mere scenery but rather a stage on which to confront mortality, transcendence and the fragile limits of human power against overwhelming natural forces. Hughes recognizes this legacy, acknowledging that her paintings respond to the same Romantic notion of the “sublime”: a vision of nature that provokes wonder and terror, awe and unease in equal measure.

    Ultimately, while Hughes insists on grounding her works in sensorial and emotional human perception, these syntheses of color, light and natural elements—offered to the human eye yet absent of the human subject—gesture toward more-than-human realms and beyond human time. They suggest alternative ways of feeling, perceiving and embracing the vital entanglements of life forms and cosmic phenomena on which our existence depends.

    Hughes’s works exist in and are nourished by this liminal space, poised between the sensorial and the psychological, the earthly and the unearthly—a threshold only color and paint can traverse. “I think I’m always contradicting myself in the work, and that’s important,” Hughes says. “What does continue to grow, though, is my connection to the work and my confidence in it, and maybe that comes through in the expansion of approaches and how many different types of painting are in the show.”

    Yet these luminous landscapes also function as portals between worlds, suggesting that the longing for transcendence can be satisfied by contemplating nature. In doing so, they invite us to accept both the limits and possibilities of our human position within it while rediscovering nature’s spiritual and energetic force once we reattune ourselves to its primordial powers of creation over destruction.

    An expansive gallery installation displays multiple Shara Hughes canvases, including a large tree-like composition at the center.An expansive gallery installation displays multiple Shara Hughes canvases, including a large tree-like composition at the center.
    In open-ended experiments in image-making, Hughes depicts kaleidoscopic visions of flora and fauna in processes of constant evolution. Photo: On White Wall Studio, courtesy of David Kordansky Gallery

    More in Artists

    Shara Hughes’s Luminous Landscapes Open Portals into Life, Death and the Sublime

    [ad_2]

    Elisa Carollo

    Source link

  • Kathy Ryan On Curating Joy Through Different Artists’ Lenses

    [ad_1]

    In capturing joy, Mickalene Thomas stayed close to home. Zach Hilty/BFA.com

    Those who enjoy photography have had a hard time in recent years. Because it is associated with the apps through which people of all ages communicate, it is taken for background—as that thing that distracts you from your DMs. The art boom caused the medium to be neglected at galleries (because you can’t really see the same ROI on photography that you can with painting), and now that the market is down, the only answer seems to be smaller paintings. It’s always been a little surprising that Apple, which is occasionally the most valuable company in the world, would commission a photography exhibition alongside the launch of its new iPhones. But they’ve done exhibitions for the past two releases, and the latest iteration staged in Chelsea, London and Shanghai simultaneously felt like it could have passed for your average gallery show.

    Held at the old Petzel space on 18th Street, “Joy, in 3 Parts” was curated by Kathy Ryan, longtime director of photography at the New York Times Magazine. The show brought together works by Inez & Vinoodh, Mickalene Thomas and Trunk Xu, each tasked with interpreting joy. The result was three bodies of work that were handsome and strange, a credit to Ryan’s flexibility.

    A color photograph taken at the beach shows a silhouetted couple holding hands under a pier at sunset while another person splashes in the water and others walk in the background.A color photograph taken at the beach shows a silhouetted couple holding hands under a pier at sunset while another person splashes in the water and others walk in the background.
    Trunk Xu, Untitled, 2025. © Trunk Xu

    Inez & Vinoodh used the prompt to tell a love story about their son and his partner over five images. “They saw joy as their son’s love story,” Ryan told Observer, in part because it reminded them of their own meeting at art school. The artists were inspired by Zabriskie Point (1970) and its desert landscape, and so took the opportunity to travel to Marfa, Texas, for their shoot.

    There are shades of Badlands (1973), too. In Marfa, the besotted couple is accompanied by a red fabric that becomes its own character—a veil, a flag, a cocoon. Sure, the fabric basically symbolizes the love between the two kids, but in no way does this come off as corny. “Whenever their work goes into the surreal, something magical always happens,” Ryan said. “That red cloth became almost like a character.”

    The sequence flanks three vivid color images with black-and-white portraits. One key frame—Charles and Natalie running with the red fabric behind them—was transformed when the sun broke through clouds. “You plan and plan, and then you hope serendipity kicks in,” Ryan said. “Just before the sun went down, we got that terrific rainbow flare.”

    Where Inez & Vinoodh looked outward, Mickalene Thomas stayed close to home. She chose Fort Greene Park, her local Brooklyn greenspace, and captured neighborhood life in seemingly candid encounters: dancers, rope jumpers, a couple in a hammock. Initially shot in color, the series turned during editing. “After the first morning, she said, ‘You know what: I’m seeing this in black and white,’” Ryan said. “It strips away unnecessary noise and lets you lean into rhythm, form and emotion.”

    It’s a bold move for someone associated with her use of color. According to Ryan, Thomas said politics were behind the choice. She wanted to represent Black people outside of the context of labor. “This work counters that narrative,” Ryan said, “exploring rest as a form of resistance, power, and self-reclamation.” They feel documentary, cinematic and natural all at once.

    A gallery wall shows four large color photographs side by side, depicting scenes such as beachgoers at sunset, a woman by a pink kiddie pool, a figure on a hotel bed, and people in costumes with fairy wings.A gallery wall shows four large color photographs side by side, depicting scenes such as beachgoers at sunset, a woman by a pink kiddie pool, a figure on a hotel bed, and people in costumes with fairy wings.
    How Trunk Xu visualizes joy. Zach Hilty/BFA.com

    Meanwhile, Beijing-born, Los Angeles-based Trunk Xu staged his contributions in a more obvious way and chose to confront the omnipresence of cameras in daily life. “The whole idea was fine art, not ads,” she said. But he was adamant, in a good way. To him, joy is wrapped up in the process of documenting. “The picture itself and the making of the picture is part of that dance with life.” His tableaux show skaters, beachgoers and couples photographing one another on their phones, but in subtle and unorthodox ways, with tight composition.

    Ryan closed our conversation by situating the phone within photography’s long arc: from 8×10 plates to 35mm reportage, Polaroid experiments and now pocket devices with multiple 48MP sensors. My favorite of Xu’s images involved a pool shot that seemed to be captured by several people, but ironically, you can’t see any of their phones.

    More Arts interviews

    Kathy Ryan On Curating Joy Through Different Artists’ Lenses

    [ad_2]

    Dan Duray

    Source link

  • The Summer I Turned Pretty’s Isabella Briggs on That Twist Ending and What Comes Next for Jeremiah

    [ad_1]

    But Denise’s days of romantic strife may be over. In the Prime Video series’ finale, her character couples up with Jeremiah in the months after his wedding to Belly (Lola Tung) is called off. Briggs learned shortly after filming began that her character was destined to end up with the younger Fisher brother. “Jenny sat me down and told me where the arc was going, and I was shocked,” says the actor, who revealed the spoiler to only her mother and boyfriend. Briggs says that cast members received the season’s scripts two at a time—and that all of the Paris-set portions of the final two episodes were blacked out from the versions she received.

    Although I am privy to the spoiler before our first conversation, Briggs plays coy about Denise and Jeremiah until our official post-finale Zoom call. There, she shares her theory on when things became romantic between the former coworkers and temporary roommates. “Initially, she did find him attractive, but obviously he was engaged and she didn’t take him seriously,” says Briggs. “So she was rather reserved and slightly antagonistic around him.”

    As the first person in her family to go to college, Denise is weary of the familial advantages enjoyed by “nepo baby” Jeremiah and her fellow coworker Steven (Sean Kaufman), Belly’s older brother. “She’s had to work twice as hard to get into any room,” says Briggs, “which is why I think she passes such harsh judgment on Steven and Jeremiah. That’s a fear of hers—these guys waltz in, and in six months, they’re [her] boss…. But once Denise gets to know both Steven and Jeremiah, she releases that resentment because she admits to seeing the good, the talent, the passion in them.”

    Witnessing that ambition is also what leads Denise to confess her attraction to Jeremiah in the final episode. “Talent and passion are so attractive, for Denise especially,” says Briggs. “When I was diving into why she chose to go into venture capital, I determined that she was really passionate about early-stage [venture capital] because that’s where you get in on the ground floor and facilitate growth. Now she sees Jeremiah transforming this passion [for cooking] into a viable career path, and she wants to help facilitate.”

    In the lead-up to this surprising conclusion, Briggs says, she’s had mainly positive fan interactions. “Knock on wood, haven’t got any weirdos,” she jokes, though she admits that Jeremiah has garnered some backlash for his onscreen actions—prompting the series to issue its impassioned audience stern anti-bullying guidance. “I feel defensive for all the characters,” Briggs says when I ask if she feels protective of Jeremiah. “I just want people to have empathy, but I understand any good art is going to make you have opinions.” Although she didn’t see all of the memes about Jeremiah’s love for a certain dark chocolate mirror glaze cake coming. She saw the cake mentioned in a script, but “I think I just glazed over it,” Briggs says, stopping to chuckle: “I glazed over it.”

    Raised an only child by her lawyer father (“He wanted me to be a lawyer. Apologies, dad…. I’ll play a lawyer on TV.”) and stay-at-home mother in Los Angeles, Briggs fell in love with acting as a young child while watching the swashbuckling adventures of Pirates of the Caribbean. “I begged my parents for years to let me do it. And of course they’re not going to take the whims of a three-year-old seriously,” Briggs says. “I was also saying that I wanted to be the president and a veterinarian at the time.”

    Her parents finally relented, enrolling Briggs in her first acting class at age six. She began to book commercials and print work the following year, but never made it big. “Growing up in LA and being a child actor, you’re mostly going up for Disney stuff,” Briggs says. “But I would always get the note, ‘She’s just not Disney.’ I always had this knowledge that my career was really going to start later on in life, which I’m so happy about. I feel so much more prepared for it now. I’m also a much better actor now. And I’m happy that I had a normal childhood.” One that included her own teenage trip to Paris (“I probably wore a beret and the French were probably pissed off at me for doing that”) and a Summer I Turned Pretty–esque devotion to Gossip Girl (“I’ve rewatched it 10 times at the very least”).

    [ad_2]

    Savannah Walsh

    Source link

  • John Deere CTO Jahmy Hindman Is Turning A.I. Into a Farmer’s Tool

    [ad_1]

    Jahmy Hindman, SVP & CTO at John Deere, is leading the agricultural giant’s AI transformation, including the development of See & Spray technology that reduces herbicide use by up to two-thirds and a 2026 initiative to connect 1.5 million machines through satellite connectivity. Courtesy of John Deere

    Jahmy Hindman, featured on this year’s A.I. Power Index, oversees the integration of artificial intelligence into John Deere’s agricultural equipment, transforming the tractors, combines and tillage machinery that generations of farmers have relied upon into precision-guided, autonomous platforms. Under his leadership, John Deere has developed A.I. solutions that address the unique challenges of agriculture, where technology must perform reliably in harsh rural environments and deliver measurable results for farmers who get only one chance per year to maximize their yields. Hindman is spearheading John Deere’s ambitious 2026 initiative to connect 1.5 million agricultural machines through satellite connectivity, enabling real-time operations in regions lacking cellular coverage and accelerating the company’s A.I. model training capabilities. With global food demand expected to rise as the population approaches 10 billion by 2050, and the average farmer now 58 years old working 12-18-hour days, Hindman recognizes the critical role A.I. plays in addressing agriculture’s demographic and productivity challenges. His work extends beyond traditional farming applications to predictive maintenance engines, digital twins and advanced analytics that transform each piece of equipment into what he describes as a self-operating intelligence platform, designed to help farmers “make every seed count, every drop count, and every bushel count” in an industry where precision and reliability are paramount.

    How is the application of A.I. in agriculture different from the way tech companies use it? What does this enable for farmers?

    Our customers operate in predominantly rural environments, with changing and often harsh weather conditions. This is the place our technology must perform, which is why we deploy A.I. on the edge in agricultural equipment. While models are trained in data centers, they must run efficiently on GPUs operating in the equipment. These models perform tasks beyond human capability, processing data from various sensing modalities, like camera arrays, to make real-time decisions, such as applying herbicide only where needed. They also make decisions about the environment around the equipment to enable autonomous operations.

    Improving the precision of crop inputs allows a farmer to turn a highly varied, dynamic environment like farming into a more manageable and predictable one. This is what differentiates A.I. in farming from the digital-first applications more common in tech companies. That said, the equipment operating in agriculture collects a significant amount of operational and agronomic data. This data lays the foundation for digital-first A.I. insight solutions, which is then created to enable farmers to make better management decisions through their crop cycles. 

    Computer vision and machine learning are two specific types of artificial intelligence that enhance observation and decision-making for farmers. These technologies help farmers “see” beyond human capacity to observe what’s happening at critical junctures and make precise decisions in real-time throughout the growing season. Take autonomous tractors, for example: Camera arrays can be installed on tractors for a 360-degree view of a tractor’s surroundings, enabling high-quality depth perception to eliminate false positives like shadows. This precision allows farmers to turn a highly varied, dynamic environment, like farming, into a more manageable, predictable one. This is what differentiates A.I. in farming from the digital-first applications common in tech companies.

    How does Deere build A.I. products that deliver efficient, measurable benefits to improve a farmer’s bottom line? 

    With global food demand expected to rise as the population nears 10 billion by 2050, the need for efficiency and sustainability in agriculture has never been greater. At John Deere, it’s our goal to provide farmers with the tools and technology they need to produce the food, fuel and fiber we all rely on. Our approach to A.I. starts with solving real problems that impact a farmer’s bottom line and productivity in the field. Our products are designed and tested with farmers to ensure they meet their needs. 

    One way we’re meeting this challenge is with See & Spray, which uses computer vision and machine learning to detect where every weed is in a field and precisely apply herbicide only where it’s needed. This plant-level management technology gives a machine the gift of vision, allowing it to “see” more closely with 36 cameras attached to the machine’s 120-foot carbon fiber boom. Processors determine if an individual plant is a crop or weed and send commands that deliver a precise dose of herbicide where the weed is. This See & Spray technology can reduce the amount of herbicide needed by up to two-thirds, which allows farmers to grow healthier crops. This also saves farmers money, reducing the amount of fertilizer and herbicide needed.

    The global population is projected to reach 10 billion by 2050, while the average farmer is 58 and working 12-18-hour days. How is John Deere using A.I. to address this demographic challenge before it becomes a food crisis?

    John Deere delivers highly efficient, automated farm equipment that maximizes productivity throughout the growing cycle to make every seed count, every drop count, and every bushel count. For example, our latest combine harvesters are packed with automated technologies designed to optimize harvesting efficiency. Using stereo cameras and satellite imagery, the machine continuously analyzes field conditions in real time, adjusting the speed of the machine as it moves through uneven terrain. This intelligent automation ensures every bushel is captured from the field and allows farmers to focus on other value-added tasks across the farm.

    Barron’s predicted Deere’s stock to grow by 50 percent due to the success of its A.I.-enabled solutions. Deere hit all-time highs in May. Which A.I. capabilities are driving that momentum, and how are they impacting farmers? 

    The edge A.I. solutions we’ve deployed are aimed at helping farmers do more with less. See & Spray reduces herbicide applications while protecting, and in some cases improving, crop yields. Predictive Ground Speed Automation improves the performance of the harvesting operation while reducing the skill level necessary for the operator. Autonomous tractors allow the farmer to get necessary work done at the time it needs to be done when available labor is being used on more valuable tasks. 

    Our momentum is driven by A.I. solutions that create tangible value for farmers, saving them time, reducing costs, and improving yields. Today’s farms generate vast amounts of data. John Deere Operations Center, the operating system for the farm, allows farmers to set up their equipment, create work plans for each field, monitor every machine in real-time as it completes work, and analyze the data for smarter and faster decisions on the farm. These capabilities are reshaping how modern farming is done.

    John Deere is expanding satellite connectivity to reach farmers worldwide, including regions like Brazil. How are these connectivity solutions helping farmers overcome infrastructure gaps to unlock value in their operations?

    Brazil is one of the world’s top exporters of agricultural products; however, roughly 75 percent of the country lacks secure and reliable connections. This makes it challenging for farmers to take advantage of the latest technology, some of which requires reliable internet. Satellite communication services, like Deere’s SATCOM service, fill this connectivity gap and allow farmers to improve productivity, profitability and sustainability. With improved connectivity via satellites, farmers can work more efficiently and productively, reduce downtime, and coordinate among machines for more efficient use of resources.    

    What’s one assumption about A.I. that you think is dead wrong?

    A.I. will replace farmers. This isn’t the case. Rather, A.I. enhances and complements the work of the farmer, automating repetitive tasks, reducing variability in the process and providing tools for smarter, more efficient operations. Deere shares farmers’ commitment to protecting the land for future generations. We see A.I. as a tool that empowers farmers to do more with less, leading them into the digital era while solving decades-long challenges from limited skilled labor to managing weather variability.  

    Was there one moment in the last few years where you thought, “This changes everything” about A.I.? 

    A.I. is really about compute, algorithms and data. I’ll highlight two examples. For compute, Deere charted GPU performance over time, looking at CUDA cores and clock speed. When we plotted our own embedded GPU performance alongside current state-of-the-art and projected roadmaps from our compute partners, the curve was clearly exponential—even in embedded GPUs. That’s significant because compute has traditionally been a limiting factor for embedded A.I. applications, and now that constraint is disappearing. 

    The second example is data. Deere recently began streaming 150 Mbps with 70 ms latency over satellite connections. For our applications, data is generated on the edge, and collecting it in sufficient volume is challenging, often constrained by seasonal growing cycles. With a persistent, high-bandwidth connection, we can move that edge data more quickly, which accelerates the model training flywheel and leads to faster, more robust improvements. 

    What’s something about A.I. development that keeps you up at night, that most people aren’t talking about? 

    In farming, the stakes are high. Farmers get one chance a year to do it right, so every decision and every action matters. We’re responsible for developing consistent, always-on A.I.-enabled technology that farmers trust. Farmers need to know that when they invest their hard-earned dollar into precision technology on our machines, it will perform exactly as expected every time. Making trustworthy A.I.-enabled tools for the people who need it most is what drives us to keep developing more innovative, cutting-edge technology.   

    John Deere CTO Jahmy Hindman Is Turning A.I. Into a Farmer’s Tool

    [ad_2]

    The Editors

    Source link

  • How Demet and Alphan Eşeli’s INSTANBUL’74 Reimagines Turkey’s Role in the Global Arts Scene

    [ad_1]

    In this context, the festival takes on an especially timely theme—not only relevant in Turkey but globally—by examining the increasingly blurred, liminal space between perception and truth. At its core lies a question as old as philosophy yet more urgent than ever: “What is real?” In a world increasingly mediated and digitalized, with performative social rituals and shifting modes of perception, the festival provides a platform for artists, philosophers, intellectuals and creatives to explore how reality is shaped, fractured and reimagined.

    Reality, after all, has never been fixed—it is molded, manipulated and continually bent to the needs of those who construct it. Art becomes a tool for reshaping and reimagining reality, offering alternative visions, subverting dominant narratives and exposing the fragile seams of perception. In doing so, it underscores our vulnerability at sensorial, cognitive and emotional levels.

    The 15th edition of the IST. Festival, titled “What is Really Real?”, will unfold through a series of thought-provoking panels, conversations and debates. Bridging disciplines and opening space for critical thinking, speculation and exchange, it invites artists, thinkers and audiences alike to interrogate the fault lines between the authentic and the artificial today. This year’s lineup features notable figures from across creative industries, including celebrated artist José Parlá, Judd Foundation artistic director Flavin Judd, collector Désiré Freule, actor Waris Ahluwalia, director Paweł Pawlikowski and Cultured editor Julia Halperin, among others.

    Close-up of attendees at a panel discussion, with a diverse audience listening attentively in a warmly lit venue.
    IST. FESTIVAL is a multidisciplinary festival with panels and talks, screenings, workshops and exhibitions in a free-admission program covering art, design, architecture, film, fashion, photography, music and literature. Will Ragozzino/BFA.com

    Over the past fifteen years, the IST. Festival has staged events across a wide range of venues—museums, cultural institutions, historic buildings—hosting gala dinners at sites like Topkapı Palace and panels at Istanbul Modern. Deeply embedded in the city’s cultural fabric, the festival has consistently received support from the government and the Ministry of Culture. For the first time, the festival is also partnering with Istanbul Globetrotter, which will launch a new city guide during the event, offering a curated perspective on Istanbul’s creative and cultural landscapes.

    Alongside its nomadic programming, the organization maintains a permanent home at the restored ’74 Gallery in Arnavutköy, a Bosphorus-side neighborhood in the Beşiktaş district. Housed in a three- to four-story historical yalı (waterside mansion), the space hosts contemporary exhibitions while honoring the ties to tradition and history embedded in the building itself. Presenting a diverse range of exhibitions and interdisciplinary events, the gallery has become a creative hub and connector for both local and international artists. For this edition of the festival, however, the goal is to move beyond the gallery’s walls—activating the neighborhood and transforming the city into a living laboratory, where installations, performances and ephemeral interventions disrupt and reframe the rhythms of everyday life.

    Ultimately, one of the festival’s core aims is to reclaim its role as an international platform—inviting people from abroad, connecting them with local creatives, and demonstrating just how vibrant and alive the cultural scene in Istanbul, and in Turkey more broadly, still is.

    Gallery interior featuring contemporary artworks, including sculptures and wall pieces, by artists such as Bosco Sodi and Ahmet Doğu İpek.Gallery interior featuring contemporary artworks, including sculptures and wall pieces, by artists such as Bosco Sodi and Ahmet Doğu İpek.
    “WE BELONG” was the first exhibition at ISTANBUL’74’s new space in Clubhouse Bebek, with works by Bosco Sodi, Jorinde Voigt, Anselm Reyle and Ahmet Doğu İpek, among others. KAMiL ONEMCi

    As the conversation turns to how the art and cultural ecosystem is evolving—not only in Turkey but globally—Demet Müftüoğlu Eşeli and Alphan Eşeli agree that we are witnessing a sweeping transformation across creative industries. Technological shifts, the pandemic and the rise of A.I. have accelerated changes already underway. “I’m a filmmaker, and if you just look at cinema, the landscape has completely changed,” Alphan Eşeli noted. “I believe we’re living through a historic moment of profound change—something as seismic as the Industrial Revolution, which didn’t just reshape production but altered how people thought and how they engaged with the world.”

    Today, we stand on the cusp of a similarly radical transformation, this time driven by computers and digital technology. “I don’t think it’s possible to remain untouched by it—especially in the arts. The way we create, think and communicate is already changing,” he said. “In cinema alone, the rise of streaming platforms, social media and algorithm-driven content has been a total shift. And I see Turkish artists and creatives at the forefront—many actively explore and embrace new technologies in their work.”

    Black-and-white photo of the exterior of ISTANBUL’74’s Arnavutköy gallery, a historic multi-storey Bosphorus-side yalı with ornate details.Black-and-white photo of the exterior of ISTANBUL’74’s Arnavutköy gallery, a historic multi-storey Bosphorus-side yalı with ornate details.
    Since 2024, ISTANBUL’74 has had a permanent space in a renovated five-story traditional wooden building in Arnavutköy. Courtesy ISTANBUL’74

    After a surprising detour into the global rise of Turkish soap operas—currently and somewhat unexpectedly, outpacing even K-movies in popularity—Demet Müftüoğlu Eşeli and Alphan Eşeli return to a core point: Turkey has a huge youth population, and with it a growing wave of young artists who are deeply attuned to what’s new. “There’s definitely still an underground scene evolving, especially in a city like Istanbul,” they noted. The younger generation is also far more connected to global currents, largely thanks to social media. “That kind of access and awareness is moving so much faster than it did 20 years ago, back when the internet was still limited,” Demet added. “Now, communication between international communities happens almost instantly, and I think the arts are becoming increasingly interconnected because of it.”

    Through ISTANBUL’74, the Eşelis are working to amplify and facilitate these exchanges, building bridges through new formats and channels—including Instagram, where they are notably active. Their extended ecosystem, ’74GROUP, produces culturally relevant stories across multiple divisions, spanning everything from the festival itself to ’74PODCAST, which hosts ongoing talks with creatives from around the world, and ’74ONLINE, a shop dedicated to curated collaborations with artists, galleries and designers. Also under its umbrella is ’74STUDIO, a creative agency that specializes in brand direction, strategy, design and communications across art, fashion, gastronomy and hospitality.

    A modern listening room featuring a record player, vinyls displayed on white shelves, and vintage speakers under natural light.A modern listening room featuring a record player, vinyls displayed on white shelves, and vintage speakers under natural light.
    Located in ISTANBUL’74’s Arnavutköy space, Listening Room bridges generations of music, offering era-defining classics alongside pioneering compositions. ILAY.ARTWORKS

    As if that weren’t enough, they also co-founded the arts and social club CLUBHOUSE BEBEK in Istanbul and launched a seasonal creative space in Bodrum: 74ESCAPE, a community-based platform that features a store championing craft and design alongside an online diary spotlighting travel and culture from around the world.

    Even the permanent gallery, ISTANBUL’74, has evolved into a year-round site for activations and creative connections—not only through an artist residency program for international talents but also as a gathering place for Istanbul’s younger generation. “That’s really the spirit behind what we’re doing, with the art combining with book clubs and the record and vinyl listening room,” Demet concluded. “It’s about creating spaces where people can come together, share ideas and build something meaningful.”

    The Istanbul International Arts and Culture Festival (IST. FESTIVAL) takes place October 10-12, 2025.

    Drone shot of Steve Messam’s installation on a seaside jetty in Bodrum, featuring modular platforms, pink inflatable spheres, and lush greenery.Drone shot of Steve Messam’s installation on a seaside jetty in Bodrum, featuring modular platforms, pink inflatable spheres, and lush greenery.
    Jetty, a work by Steven Messam in “BETWEEN HUMANKIND AND NATURE” at ESCAPE’74, Brodrum. © Volkan Calisir

    More Arts interviews

    [ad_2]

    Elisa Carollo

    Source link

  • In the Latest Genesis Facade Commission, Jeffrey Gibson Calls for Awareness Beyond the Human

    [ad_1]

    The latest Genesis Facade Commission, “Jeffrey Gibson, The Animal Therefore I Am.” Courtesy the artist. Image credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Photo by Eugenia Burnett Tinsley

    Following the explosion of color from his kaleidoscopic takeover of the U.S. Pavilion during the last Venice Biennale, Jeffrey Gibson unveiled his works for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s latest Genesis Facade Commission last week. Titled “The Animal That Therefore I Am,” Gibson’s intervention features a series of monumental bronze sculptures, marking his first time working with the material at such scale within a public institution and platform.

    The title of the installation is highly evocative and symbolic, suggesting a move away from a human-centric worldview toward a more fluid, hybrid identification with other species and the environment. It originates from a series of lectures by French-Algerian philosopher Jacques Derrida that Gibson first encountered in the late 1990s, the artist told Observer after the unveiling. Titled “The Autobiographical Animal,” Derrida’s lecture—originally a ten-hour seminar he delivered in 1997 at the Cerisy conference—was later published in French as L’animal que donc je suis (à suivre) and in English as The Animal That Therefore I Am.

    Jeffrey Gibson stands on the steps of the Met in a patterned yellow jacket, with one of his bronze animal sculptures behind him at the museum’s facade.Jeffrey Gibson stands on the steps of the Met in a patterned yellow jacket, with one of his bronze animal sculptures behind him at the museum’s facade.
    Jeffrey Gibson. Photo: Eileen Travell

    In his lecture, Derrida argued that animals possess a form of subjectivity and autonomous intellect—certainly more than the Western philosophical tradition has typically allowed—and asserts that, “For the most part, the philosophers … have refused the animal all kinds of attributes that one recognizes in oneself, such as the ability to respond, the ability to suffer, the ability to be aware.” For the philosopher, the relational and existential confrontation with an animal’s gaze provokes a fundamental destabilization of the human subject. “I often ask myself, just to see, who I am—and who I am when, caught naked, in silence, by the gaze of an animal, for example, the eyes of a cat, I have trouble, a bad time overcoming my embarrassment.”

    For the French philosopher, the animal gaze already reveals an unsettling glimpse into the abyssal boundary of the human—the inhuman or the ahuman, the ends of man. “I have been aware of Indigenous worldviews and kinship philosophies that honor animals, plant life and other living beings for some time,” Gibson explained. “I find that other animal species are rarely acknowledged as having their own independent intellect and autonomous relationship with the larger world.”

    For the artist, Derrida’s lectures offered a vital revelation: humans routinely fail to extend equitable respect to other animals. “This lack of respect reflects a loss of empathy, which ultimately allows for an indulgence in violent behavior toward other living beings,” he reflected, echoing Derrida’s argument that denying animals the capacity to respond reveals a broader failure of respect and responsibility in our relationship with life itself.

    A close-up of Jeffrey Gibson’s bronze animal sculpture on the Met’s facade, depicting a regal creature adorned with elaborate jewelry and sacred garments.A close-up of Jeffrey Gibson’s bronze animal sculpture on the Met’s facade, depicting a regal creature adorned with elaborate jewelry and sacred garments.
    Jeffrey Gibson, they are witty and transform themselves in order to guide us nashoba holba / wayaha / coyote. Courtesy the artist. Image credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Photo by Eugenia Burnett Tinsley

    Rising with an auratic, totemic presence before the Met’s historic facade—rooted in Western ideals of beauty and order, shaped by Classical art and framed by Neoclassicism and Beaux-Arts—Gibson’s sculptures serve as a symbolic call to shift the prevailing paradigm and narrative, challenging the cultural canons embodied by the building itself.

    Drawing on the culture, traditions and spirituality of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and his Cherokee heritage, these reimagined monuments summon the power of nature over humans, offering a resonant return to the primordial essence of interconnected existence within a broader, yet increasingly fragile, ecosystem. At the same time, they remain deeply anchored in their immediate context. Gibson pointed out that the animals depicted in the sculptures all live in Central Park—creatures he also encounters in the Hudson Valley. “I began thinking about animals as teachers, or as models for how to engage with the world. These four animals—the hawk, the deer, the squirrel and the coyote—all navigate their ecosystems differently and can offer us, as humans, new approaches to the way in which we navigate our own world.”

    A monumental bronze squirrel sculpture by Jeffrey Gibson on the Met’s facade, adorned with a crown of acorns and a turquoise cloak, holding a large acorn in its hands.A monumental bronze squirrel sculpture by Jeffrey Gibson on the Met’s facade, adorned with a crown of acorns and a turquoise cloak, holding a large acorn in its hands.
    Jeffrey Gibson, they plan and prepare for the future, fvni /sa lo li/squirrel. Courtesy the artist. Image credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Photo by Eugenia Burnett Tinsley

    Gibson’s commission arrives amid a growing institutional and curatorial interest in Indigenous artistic expression—first across museums and biennials, and increasingly within the market. Adorned with sacred vests and ceremonial ornaments and standing with the dignity and solemnity of long-venerated statues of heroes or deities, his animals simultaneously challenge the anthropocentric thinking that those human figures once embodied. Alternatively, they point toward an animistic awareness and spirituality—foregrounded by many ancient cultures but gradually erased in the course of so-called “civilization.” With their potent symbolic presence, the sculptures emerge as shamanic guides, redirecting humanity’s path toward a more sustainable and harmonious future—reconnecting with nature, the primal source of all things.

    “Jeffrey Gibson, The Animal That Therefore I Am” is at the Met through June 9, 2026.

    In the Latest Genesis Facade Commission, Jeffrey Gibson Calls for Awareness Beyond the Human

    [ad_2]

    Elisa Carollo

    Source link

  • From ‘ink’ to ‘I AM,’ Choreographer Camille A. Brown Expands Her Vision

    [ad_1]

    Brown’s I AM expands on her signature blend of storytelling, movement and community. Photo: Becca Marcela Oviatt

    After a successful world premiere at Jacob’s Pillow last summer, Camille A. Brown & Dancers brought their latest work, I AM, to L.A.’s Music Center for three nights this past weekend. It’s part of their mini-tour with stops at McCarter Theatre Center in Princeton, New Jersey (Sept. 26), followed by dates in Boston (Nov. 14-15) and then Seattle (March 7, 2026).

    The new show uses her previous show, ink, as a jumping-off point. “In that one, I was talking about the idea of Black people being superheroes, because we keep rising,” Brown tells Observer. “The idea of perseverance and the celebration of onward movement, regardless of obstacles; I wanted to discuss what it is like to move through the future with joy. I wanted this to be an experience where we’re starting at joy from the top, then where do we go? I have fifty minutes’ worth of where we go. What does it mean to start with joy, and what does that look like with their individual bodies, and as a community, brought together?”

    The piece draws its title and inspiration from episode 7 of the HBO series Lovecraft Country, in which the character Hippolyta Freeman (played by Aunjanue Ellis) moves through time and space, visiting different eras and drawing personal insight, joy and strength through her experience.

    “I thought that was so powerful and spoke to me, personally, as a Black woman, and what I have to navigate in the world,” says Brown. “I wanted us to feel we have pushed out of these four walls, the black, the space, the universe. The solo, which I created for myself, depicts the story, and my interpretation of Hippolyta’s journey and my journey as an artist. Each section is another form of spirit and joy and love and community. And it’s shown through different ways, through brotherhood, through sisterhood, through funk and R&B, the ballroom, the church, hip-hop, African dance, everywhere we can possibly go.”

    Brown won’t be dancing the solo in this iteration of the show. That honor falls to Courtney Ross, an independent contractor with the company since 2019. “While the piece is created on her and debuted by her, the story is human enough to be transferred into what I can bring to the table,” says Ross about taking over the role from Brown. “Within the solo, there is a sense of reclamation, which is something Hippolyta is going through in her journey. So, there are moments where I’m reaching for a higher place. It’s leaning more and more into my joy, and there’s the thing that becomes the strength. Camille went to Ailey, where you’re heavily trained in ballet, modern technique and jazz. We have to bring all of those technical elements into the space.”

    Brown’s choreography incorporates ballet, modern, jazz, hip-hop and African dance. Photo: Cherylynn Tsushima Photography

    Originally from Jamaica, Queens, Brown studied at The Ailey School on a scholarship, while also studying at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and the Performing Arts. Her early career was spent at Ronald K. Brown’s Evidence, A Dance Company, and she was a guest artist at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater before founding Camille A. Brown & Dancers in 2006.

    Her work on playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Choir Boy led to her first Tony nomination for Best Choreography. Her directorial debut, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, garnered two more, for Best Choreography and Best Direction. Her fourth Tony nomination came for Alicia Keys’ jukebox musical Hell’s Kitchen, followed by another last year for Gypsy, starring Audra McDonald. At the Met, she worked on Porgy and Bess as well as Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones.

    “In the shows that I’ve worked with, everyone has to do everything,” says Brown. “If it’s not a dance focus role, maybe they don’t have as much to carry as a trained dancer in the show. In Hell’s Kitchen, the dancers had to be dancers in the space. With Gypsy, dancers had to sing, dance and act. So, it depends on the requirements of the show.”

    Ross confirms that working with Brown requires multi-disciplined training. “We are very well rehearsed. Once you get into the choreography, Camille is very detailed. With the solo, I have a bit more freedom because the solo is about freedom. So, I have agency. I love this work, I AM, my family loves the work and the community loves this work. I’m excited to continue sharing and hearing the response.”

    In recent months, Black voices have been targeted by government-backed anti-DEI measures in arts and educational institutions. “If I were to isolate and look at the news, it can be a lot,” Ross says. “It’s an intentional choice to be a Black woman from the African diaspora and say, ‘I’m going to step on stage and tell these very loud and proud stories.’”

    By continuing to do what she does, Brown is committed to speaking truth to power. “It’s scary; I don’t want to negate the fear aspect of it, at all. Hopefully, it inspires us all to have conviction,” she says of the crisis. “If we start censoring ourselves and start doing these things to get a grant or a performance, then is it really our art that we’re making, or does it turn into something else? In order for me to continue in this world, I need to focus on my work.”

    The piece reflects Brown’s personal journey as an artist, drawing inspiration from Lovecraft Country’s Hippolyta Freeman and the power of reclamation. Photo: Cherylynn Tsushima Photography

    More in performing arts

    From ‘ink’ to ‘I AM,’ Choreographer Camille A. Brown Expands Her Vision

    [ad_2]

    Jordan Riefe

    Source link

  • Meet the Collector: For John Wieland, Collecting Art Is About Feeling at Home

    [ad_1]

    John Wieland’s collection, which he assembled with his late wife Sue, emphasizes discovery, encouraging visitors to see art—and consider the concept of home—in new and unexpected ways. Photo: Deanna Sirlin

    John Wieland and his late wife, Sue, didn’t plan to become art collectors. When the couple began acquiring artworks nearly fifty years ago, they didn’t even think of it as collecting—they were motivated by simple necessity. “We had a house, and we needed some art on the walls,” Wieland tells Observer. But what began casually grew into a collection of more than 400 works that today serves as a cultural magnet in the Southeast.

    Wieland built his career as a housing developer, eventually founding a firm, John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods. He achieved great success, and that success continues to shape his approach to life today. Although the couple’s first purchases were functional—a way to fill empty walls—John and Sue soon felt the need for a guiding principle, something beyond immediate attraction. Given his career and their interest in the concept of domestic life, the choice seemed obvious: their collection would focus on art about house and home.

    “Almost all of us are fortunate enough to live in a home,” Wieland explains, which makes the theme nearly universal in its appeal. In the early days of the couple’s collecting journey, their interpretation was literal. “If we saw a work of art, it would need to have a fairly good-sized house right in the middle to qualify.” Over time, though, the scope expanded, and they “broadened it out so that it can be representative of what happens at home or a portion of the house.” This evolution led to acquisitions like a mid-sized painting by Haley Barker of a Christmas tree. “You think about the holiday and faith, and of course, the Christmas tree is part of it.”

    From there, they established one of the collection’s central tenets: discovery. According to Wieland, the collection is meant to be “a new way of looking at art for the people who visit”—an ethos that would come to shape the founding of The Warehouse, the contemporary art institution that now houses the Wielands’ collection. The 37,000-square-foot warehouse on Atlanta’s west side was renovated to accommodate the growing holdings and opened in 2010. Since then, The Warehouse has served not only as a practical solution but also as a charitable way to share art and, as Wieland says, “complement the museum experience.”

    An art gallery installation view shows several works themed around houses, including colorful paintings, photographs, and wooden sculptures arranged across a white-walled space.An art gallery installation view shows several works themed around houses, including colorful paintings, photographs, and wooden sculptures arranged across a white-walled space.
    Guided by the motif of domestic life, the collection ranges from literal depictions of houses to symbolic reflections of what happens within them. Courtesy of Mike Jensen

    The Warehouse has its own leadership: director Philip Verre and curator Jack Wieland, who manage and interpret the collection beyond its ties to the family. The Wieland collection continues to grow, and since its opening, Wieland says that visitors are consistently surprised by what they encounter within its walls—few expect such breadth from a collection dedicated to house and home. While each person takes away something different, one piece that stands out is Blue Hallway (2000) by James Casebere. The photograph shows an interior hallway nearly submerged in water, with only the tops of doors and walls visible above the dark liquid. From the right-hand side, a spotlight cuts into the gloom, illuminating the edge of a doorway. In the dimness, the beam feels as bright as the sun. The work captures the complexity of the collection’s themes: the centrality of home, the sense of the unexpected—where does the light originate?—and the promise of discovery—what lies beneath the water?

    A visit to The Warehouse is eye-opening, and there’s much we can still learn from the Wielands and their vision. But above all, one truth remains: art feels most alive when seen within a home.

    More art collector profiles

    Meet the Collector: For John Wieland, Collecting Art Is About Feeling at Home

    [ad_2]

    Leia Genis

    Source link

  • Cindy Cohn Is Leaving the EFF, but Not the Fight for Digital Rights

    [ad_1]

    After a quarter century defending digital rights, Cindy Cohn announced on Tuesday that she is stepping down as executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Cohn, who has led the San Francisco–based nonprofit since 2015, says she will leave the role later this year, concluding a chapter that helped define the modern fight over online freedom.

    Cohn first rose to prominence as lead counsel in Bernstein v. Department of Justice, the 1990s case that overturned federal restrictions on publishing encryption code. As EFF’s legal director and later executive director, she guided the group through legal challenges to government surveillance, reforms to computer crime laws, and efforts to hold corporations accountable for data collection. Over the past decade, EFF has expanded its influence, becoming a central force in shaping the debate over privacy, security, and digital freedom.

    In an interview with WIRED, Cohn reflected on EFF’s foundational encryption victories, its unfinished battles against National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance, and the organization’s work protecting independent security researchers. She spoke about the shifting balance of power between corporations and governments, the push for stronger state-level privacy laws, and the growing risks posed by artificial intelligence.

    Though stepping down from leadership, Cohn tells WIRED she plans to remain active in the fight against mass surveillance and government secrecy. Describing herself as “more of a warrior than a manager,” she says her intent is to return to frontline advocacy. She is also at work on a forthcoming book, Privacy’s Defender, due out next spring, which she hopes will inspire a new generation of digital rights advocates.

    This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

    WIRED: Tell us about the fights you won, and the ones that still feel unfinished after 25 years.

    CINDY COHN: The early fight that we made to free up encryption from government regulation still stands out as setting the stage for a potentially secure internet. We’re still working on turning that promise into a reality, but we’re in such a different place than we would’ve been in had we lost that fight. Encryption protects anybody who buys anything online, anyone who uses Signal to be a whistleblower or journalists, or just regular people who want privacy and use WhatsApp or Signal. Even the backend-certificate authorities provided by Let’s Encrypt—that make sure that when you think you’re going to your bank, you’re actually going to your bank website—are all made possible because of encryption. These are all things that would’ve been at risk if we hadn’t won that fight. I think that win was foundational, even though the fights aren’t over.

    The fights that we’ve had around the NSA and national security, those are still works in progress. We were not successful with our big challenge to the NSA spying in Jewel v. NSA, although over the long arc of that case and the accompanying legislative fights, we managed to claw back quite a bit of what the NSA started doing after 9/11.

    [ad_2]

    Dell Cameron

    Source link

  • Hugo Larochelle Succeeds Yoshua Bengio to Lead Canada’s Top A.I. Lab: Interview

    [ad_1]

    Hugo Larochelle assumed his new role as head of Mila on Sept. 2. BENEDICTE BROCARD

    Hugo Larochelle first caught the A.I. research bug after interning in the lab of Yoshua Bengio, a pioneering A.I. academic, during his undergraduate studies at the University of Montreal. Decades later, Larochelle is now succeeding his former mentor as the scientific director of Quebec’s Mila A.I. Institute, an organization known in the A.I. field for its deep learning research.

    “My first mission is to maintain the caliber of our research and make sure we continue being a leading research institute,” Larochelle, who began his new role yesterday (Sept. 2), told Observer.

    Larochelle will oversee some 1,500 machine learning researchers at Mila, which Bengio founded in 1993 as a small research lab. Today, the institute is a cornerstone of Canada’s national A.I. strategy alongside two other research hubs in Ontario and Alberta.

    Larochelle “has the rigor, creativity and vision needed to meet Mila’s scientific ambitions and accompany its growth,” said Bengio, who left the institute to focus on a new A.I. safety venture he launched in June, in a statement. “Our collaboration goes back more than 20 years, and I am delighted to see it continue in a new form.”

    After his early work with Bengio, Larochelle completed a postdoctoral fellowship under Geoffrey Hinton at the University of Montreal. Bengio, Hinton and Yann LeCun went on to win the 2018 Turing Award for their contributions to neural networks—a field once overlooked but now central to the A.I. revolution.

    Larochelle’s own career reflects that shift. His first paper was rejected for relying on neural networks, but as their applications became clear, the field’s importance skyrocketed. “We felt like we were at the center of what’s important in the field, and that was exhilarating,” said the Larochelle.

    He went on to co-found Whetlab, a machine learning startup later acquired by Twitter (now X), before leading A.I. research at Google’s Montreal office in 2016. While most of his eight years at Google were highly productive, Larochelle noted that growing competition and a stronger focus on consumer products made publishing more difficult—a key factor in his decision to leave for Mila. “My passion was really scientific discovery, and simultaneously, I heard that Yoshua was going to find a successor,” he said.

    In his new role, Larochelle wants to build on Montreal’s tradition of scientific discovery. “I want to set the condition that we make the next one in the next five years, and that’s really the foundation of everything else we do,” he said. He also highlighted interests in advancing A.I. literacy, developing tools for biodiversity and accelerating scientific research.

    More broadly, Larochelle hopes to ensure that innovation moves faster—both across the industry and within Mila. “There’s definitely an interest in also making sure that our researchers, who might be interested in taking their own research and doing a startup based on what they’ve discovered, are well equipped in doing that,” he said.

    Hugo Larochelle Succeeds Yoshua Bengio to Lead Canada’s Top A.I. Lab: Interview

    [ad_2]

    Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly

    Source link

  • With Corp. Demand Tepid, Sonesta Targets Specialization

    [ad_1]

    Sonesta’s Brian Macaluso discusses:

    • Corporate demand trends
    • Changes to Sonesta’s business mix
    • The state of hotel staffing

    Sonesta International Hotels in the past five years has grown exponentially, from about 80 properties in 2020 to more than 1,200 today following the acquisition of Red Lion Hotels and other realignments. The hotel company has leaned into specialized segments, developing targeted programs for small and midsize businesses, medical meetings and government travel, among others. Sonesta SVP of global sales Brian Macaluso spoke with BTN managing editor Chris Davis last month at the Global Business Travel Association convention in Denver about the company’s evolving business mix, market approach and demand outlook. Edited excerpts follow.

    BTN: It’s been a bit of a turbulent year. What’s your read right now on where everything stands in terms of business travel?

    Brian Macaluso: At Sonesta individual business travel is still a little bit slower than expected. It hasn’t returned to where everybody thought it would be. So as we look forward, we see the year projections following what STR is saying. Everybody projected it to be a little bit more of a stronger year. And right now it’s a little bit lower than where it was expected to be.

    It’s not like it’s doom and gloom, and it’s not like it’s sunshine and roses. And some cities are stronger than others. Just like [U.S. Travel at its IPW trade show in June in Chicago] talked about for the leisure travel coming into the U.S., certain countries are stronger than they’ve ever been ,and it’s counterbalancing Canada being down. And so that’s how we’re looking at it too.

    BTN: Has Sonesta’s changes over the years altered who the typical Sonesta business traveler is?

    Macaluso: Sure. Sonesta had 50 hotels and three brands four and a half years ago, and now we have 1,100 hotels across 13 brands. During the pandemic, everything was driven by nurses and  [essential workers], and corporate travel was non-existent. As we’ve continued to move forward, we’ve enhanced our ability to welcome those travelers back. 

    We see more workforce travel, we see more displaced housing travel, and we see more extended-stay travel. We added economy, extended-stay, upscale and upper-upscale hotels. Sports has been a huge segment for us, and we developed an internal certification program that each one of our hotels takes to become Sonesta Sports certified.

    Government travel has been a huge segment that has propelled us. Obviously, at the beginning of this year it was down, but we’re seeing pockets that are still supportive. State government still continues to travel, and we saw a little bit of an impact from federal government, but we’re starting to see it come back. But we take all of our hotels through [a certification] we call Government Ready. There’s certain things that a hotel has to have in order to welcome government travelers, including CAGE Codes. So while we’ve added different hotel portfolio to welcome guests, we’ve also added training for the hotels to welcome new guests.

    BTN: Does that show up at the point of booking? Can you see that certification on the site?

    Macaluso: It depends on who they’re booking with. We’re still launching the government ready program, but we work with veterans quite a bit, work with the [U.S. Department of Defense and Drug Enforcement Administration], all those entities to make sure they know that we’re available. But the good thing is that [for government business], you won’t be able to book the hotel unless you have all of these qualifications. So we’re [preparing] the hotel to be prepared to welcome government business.

    We also signed a partnership with Meeting Professionals International on its Healthcare Meeting Compliance Certificate certification. Sonesta signed a partnership where we took all of our full-service Sonesta hotels through HMCC certification training. One person at each hotel becomes certified, and they went through a four-hour training class to make the hotel venue-verified. So now all of our full-service Sonesta hotels are venue-verified. When a meeting planner goes to book a hotel, they know these hotels are ready for medical meetings.

    BTN: Are you comfortable with the business mix Sonesta now between business, leisure and group? Are you trying to shift that mix in one direction or the other?

    Macaluso: In general, everybody would like business to come directly from their website. … We’re leaning into loyalty to help drive more loyal members for us. From a business mix perspective, we’re continuing to grow and evolve, but the main focus for us is to get the customers to come directly to the Sonesta website, become Sonesta loyalty members and drive that recognition because we want a guest to come and stay once and then come and stay again.

    BTN: Some buyers prefer travelers book through travel management companies or booking tools rather than direct. Does that create tension?

    Macaluso: I wouldn’t say tension. Our “Sonesta First” philosophy focuses on doing business with our customers the way they want to do business with us. if they choose to work with a TMC and they want to book through the GDS, we’ll make that available for them. If they want to book directly with us, we’ll make that available for them. If they want to book directly on our website using their corporate code, we’ll do that. Our Sonesta Global Preferred program gives a lot of our corporate travelers chainwide discounts, whether through [an online booking tool] or our website.

    BTN: How is transient request-for-proposals volume this year, and are you noticing anything different in that process?

    Macaluso: We see more off off-cycle RFPs, but in general, the volume of RFPs versus last year continues to increase. It’s increased year over year. Our goal is to get more exposure with all of our existing hotels as they grow. We’ve seen business cases increase for our hotels and more acceptances because [buyers are] seeing a Sonesta in a location that maybe they didn’t consider before. … We have a centralized RFP team that supports us.

    BTN: Are SMEs and infrastructure-related travelers using RFPs or are they booking more informally?

    Macaluso: It depends. A lot of smaller organizations will work directly with our hotels in the form of a local negotiated rate. Sonesta has a program called Sonesta Business Pass, which will allow an individual hotel to create a program to not only give them a negotiated rate at their hotel, but then give them a chainwide discount to use at any hotel throughout Sonesta.

    A lot of our TMC partners have specific curated SME programs. We’re seeing a lot of SMEs, instead of coming directly to the hotel to book directly, are partnering with the TMC. We’ll work with them either way, because a lot of our larger corporate accounts do the same thing.

    BTN: For a lot of hotel companies, staffing shortages were a major concern post-pandemic. Is it still?

    Macaluso: Staffing was a huge challenge from the pandemic, we’ve leaned into quality assurance with each of our hotels, quality assurance audits to make sure they’re upholding the standards of what a Royal Sonesta is, what a Sonesta is, what an ES is. Three years ago, staffing challenges would’ve been probably the biggest topic. … There’s always going to be a staffing question, but from us, from a quality-service perspective, it’s not something that’s hindering us.

    [ad_2]

    businesstravelnews@ntmllc.com (Business Travel News)

    Source link

  • How Museum Tinguely Is Keeping Jean Tinguely’s Legacy Alive 100 Years Later

    [ad_1]

    “La roue = c’est tout” with works from Jean Tinguely: Fatamorgana, Méta-Harmonie IV, 1985 (in the back), Klamauk, 1979 (in the front). 2022 (c) foto daniel spehr

    With his chaotic absurdist performances of motorized machines, Swiss artist Jean Tinguely embraced both the principle of entropy and the noise of contemporary society to create a disruptive form of artistic expression that parodied automation, consumer culture and the art world itself. A pioneer of multimedia and multidisciplinary approaches, Tinguely worked with scrap metal, discarded materials and industrial parts, aligning with Dadaist traditions while pushing them into more radically experimental territory. His work dissolved the boundaries between material, language and public interaction, anticipating both contemporary media art and relational practices. The climax of his oeuvre, Homage to New York (1960), famously self-destructed—partially exploding in the sculpture garden of the Museum of Modern Art. It was an explicit attack on the mechanization of labor, institutional authority and the commodification of art, rejecting permanence and objectification in favor of process, failure and spectacle.

    This year, 2025, marks the 100th anniversary of his birth—a milestone certain to prompt renewed interest in his multifaceted practice through exhibitions, retrospectives and critical reassessments. Since its opening in 1996, Museum Tinguely in Basel, Switzerland, has played a central role in preserving and promoting the artist’s legacy while becoming a fixture of the annual art world pilgrimage to Basel, thanks to its progressive programming and ambitious commissions. Located on the banks of the Rhine, the museum houses the world’s largest collection of Tinguely’s kinetic works—218 sculptures spanning from his early reliefs and 1960s collaborations to the darker, more monumental machines of the 1970s. More than half of these works are regularly on view and kept in working order, sustaining the spirit of movement, instability and joyful collapse that defined his vision.

    Jean Tinguely in his workshop surrounded by sculptural machine parts, wearing a blue work jacket and resting one hand on a metal beam, with kinetic components and colorful materials scattered around him.Jean Tinguely in his workshop surrounded by sculptural machine parts, wearing a blue work jacket and resting one hand on a metal beam, with kinetic components and colorful materials scattered around him.
    Jean Tinguely in front of Dernière Collaboration avec Yves Klein, 1988. Photo Credit: Vera Isler

    For the centennial of Jean Tinguely’s revolutionary legacy, Observer spoke with Museum Tinguely director Roland Wetzel about how the artist’s disarmingly playful, radically innovative and still strikingly relevant work continues to meet contemporary societal needs and how the museum’s program keeps it alive by engaging artists who share his boundary-blurring, multimedia spirit.

    For Wetzel, two perspectives connect the museum’s exhibition program with Tinguely’s legacy. “One reaches back to Dadaism and Marcel Duchamp, where fundamental questions about what art is were absolutely vital to a younger generation of artists,” he explains. “The other is that we’re still living in a time comparable to the 1960s. I’d say we are in a new epoch that began around that time, when artists started asking themselves what role they could and should play in society.”

    Tinguely was never a classical modernist bound by the fixed framework of modern art. “He constantly tried to reach beyond it—to connect with people, to expand his audience and to make his work relevant to everyday life,” Wetzel says. That impulse feels especially resonant today, when many artists are again considering where we stand, how we live and how art can meaningfully enter that conversation. “Tinguely always opened his art to daily life, and I think that’s something essential in his practice.”

    The Museum Tinguely is located right by the city beach, south facade as seen from the Rhine.The Museum Tinguely is located right by the city beach, south facade as seen from the Rhine.
    The south facade of Museum Tinguely as seen from the Rhine. Museum Tinguely ©2022Foto Daniel Spehr, Basel

    Tinguely also embraced accident and chance. He rejected the idea of a pre-established script or fixed concept, choosing instead to surrender to possibilities that emerged in the process itself—as the work interacted with its surroundings, its context and the world at large. He welcomed this dialectical relationship between the work and the world. In that sense, his practice anticipated what we now call relational art: it invited participation not only from viewers but also from the environment, always seeking dialogue with its context. His art was never a static object—it was alive, contingent, responsive.

    Wetzel also points out how deeply collaborative Tinguely’s process was. “A lot of his work didn’t come out of a studio in isolation—it came out of interactions with friends, other artists, curators,” he explains. “He was involved in organizing, curating and building ideas together. That was a core part of his practice.”

    For the centenary, the museum recreated Tinguely’s art ghost train, reimagined as a large-scale dynamic installation designed by British artist Rebecca Moss and Swiss artist Augustin Rebetez. In a nostalgic return to traditional lunapark attractions, Scream Machines takes visitors on a haunting journey through demons, monsters and other eerie figures designed by the artists, paying homage to Le Crocrodrome de Zig et Puce, the 1977 work Tinguely created with Bernhard Luginbühl, Daniel Spoerri and Niki de Saint Phalle for the opening of the Centre Pompidou in Paris. That historic project was spearheaded by Pontus Hultén, the legendary museum director who championed Tinguely throughout his career. An exhibition currently on at the Grand Palais in Paris explores the creative partnership between Hultén, Tinguely and de Saint Phalle.

    A hand-drawn, mixed-media sketch of Le Crocrodrome de Zig et Puce by Jean Tinguely, featuring a fantastical machine structure filled with crocodile-like creatures, mechanical components, and carnival-like figures. The drawing combines architectural plans, colorful ink washes, and chaotic annotations in French and German, referencing the 1977 installation at the Centre Georges Pompidou.Let me know if you need a caption or print-friendly version as well.A hand-drawn, mixed-media sketch of Le Crocrodrome de Zig et Puce by Jean Tinguely, featuring a fantastical machine structure filled with crocodile-like creatures, mechanical components, and carnival-like figures. The drawing combines architectural plans, colorful ink washes, and chaotic annotations in French and German, referencing the 1977 installation at the Centre Georges Pompidou.Let me know if you need a caption or print-friendly version as well.
    Bernhard Luginbühl and Jean Tinguely, Le Crocrodrome de Zig & Puce, 1977. Reworked exhibition flyer with black felt-tip pen, gouache and collage, 55 x 120 cm. © 2025 Pro Litteris, Zurich, Museum Tinguely, Basel Credit: Donation Prof. Dr Roland Bieber in memory of Karola Mertz-Bieber

    In researching this installation, Wetzel was struck by the extent of Tinguely’s involvement in the original Pompidou project. “He wasn’t just one of the participating artists—he helped coordinate people, manage finances, source materials,” Wetzel explains. “His role went far beyond that of a traditional artist. He was always crossing boundaries, thinking beyond the usual frameworks, reaching into new territories.”

    The installation has been a major success with audiences of all ages, showing that Tinguely’s playful chaotic spirit still resonates in an era often numbed by media overstimulation, societal alienation and both emotional and intellectual disaffection. “With this project, we’ve been able to reach an even broader audience,” Wetzel notes. “While our museum already draws a diverse public, the Ghost Train connects on another level. It’s playful, it’s accessible—you don’t need any prior knowledge to have a meaningful art experience.” For Wetzel, this kind of crossover is exactly what Tinguely envisioned—especially in his desire to reach children. “Tinguely always said children were his most important critics. If it works for them, it can work for many others, too. His art was meant to operate on multiple levels, and we’ve really tried to carry that thinking forward.”

    Jean Tinguely in his studio during the 1960s, flanked by two collaborators, all wrapped in or holding long scrolls of drawing paper covered with automatic linework, with sketches pinned to the walls behind them.Jean Tinguely in his studio during the 1960s, flanked by two collaborators, all wrapped in or holding long scrolls of drawing paper covered with automatic linework, with sketches pinned to the walls behind them.
    Eva Aeppli, Jean Tinguely and Per Olof Ultvedt with Méta-Matic-Drawings at Atelier Impasse Ronsin, Paris, in 1959. © Christer Strömholm / Strömholm Estate Photo Credit: Christer Strömholm

    Interaction with the broader public—and with public life itself—was central to Tinguely’s practice. Accessibility and engagement, even beyond the confines of the art world, remain priorities for the museum’s programming today. Part of its identity lies in creating spaces where people of all ages can encounter art in playful, open-ended ways. “We believe it’s just as important to be welcoming to older audiences and to offer meaningful experiences to people of all generations,” Wetzel says. “That openness is something we care deeply about.”

    One earlier project at Museum Tinguely involved collaborating with window-front designers. “When you do an exhibition in a shop window, you reach a completely different audience—and it’s visible 24/7 in the public space,” he explains. “These might seem like small interventions, but they’re incredibly effective ways to expand access. And that’s something Tinguely always tried to do.”

    Today, the museum serves several publics—it’s not just one audience, Wetzel clarifies. As he notes, the museum is often a place where people—especially children—experience art for the first time. “That was important to Tinguely, and we’ve really built on that,” he says, adding how programming for young children begins as early as age two. “They can come in, be active, play, explore—and leave with a positive, hands-on experience of what art can be. That kind of accessibility, that invitation to engage through the senses, is something quite unique. I don’t know many other museums that offer the same potential for early connection.”

    The museum’s dedicated Art Education Department is one of the central pillars of its mission. It collaborates not only with local schools but also with institutions such as the High School for the Arts and the High School for Music, fostering a dense and long-standing network across Basel’s educational and cultural ecosystems.

    In a dark exhibition room, visitors lie on a cushioned platform beneath a large ceiling projection that simulates the shimmering surface of water viewed from below.In a dark exhibition room, visitors lie on a cushioned platform beneath a large ceiling projection that simulates the shimmering surface of water viewed from below.
    In “Midnight Zone,” Julian Charrière invites visitors to engage with water as atmosphere, memory, movement and kin. © 2025 ProLitteris, Zürich; Courtesy of the artist. 025 Museum Tinguely, Basel; Matthias Willi

    At the same time, the museum draws international visitors—especially during Art Basel—for its special exhibitions. Museum Tinguely typically stages four major shows per year, which can be as ambitious as “Midnight Zone,” Julian Charrière’s immersive journey into the abyssal mysteries of the ocean and ecological awareness, on view through November 2.

    Set to be unveiled at the end of September, the museum’s next exhibition will feature Scenes from the Invention of Democracy, a poignant video installation by Austrian artist Oliver Ressler that interrogates what democracy still means in a world where the term is increasingly emptied of substance. A work and a question that feel more urgent than ever, as democratic rights and civil liberties are steadily eroded across multiple countries, with national politics veering toward authoritarianism dressed up as conservatism and protectionism.

    Opening in December is an extensive survey dedicated to the underrecognized yet quietly brilliant Chinese American artist Carl Cheng, “Nature Never Loses.” Spanning six decades of work, the exhibition highlights Cheng’s pioneering investigations into the intersection of art and ecology, his questioning of institutional relevance and his prescient explorations of technology’s role in society. Organized by The Contemporary Austin in partnership with Museum Tinguely, the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania and Bonnefanten in Maastricht, the show underscores the international reach of the museum’s program. In recent years, this model of cross-institutional collaboration—pooling resources and cutting costs while mounting ambitious projects—has become a strategic hallmark of Museum Tinguely’s approach.

    “When I started here 16 years ago, we focused more on Tinguely’s role models and his historical context,” Wetzel explains. “But increasingly, we’ve been engaging with contemporary artists who reflect on and respond to Tinguely’s practice from today’s perspective. That feels more relevant—and more compelling—for a younger generation.”

    Jean Tinguely standing atop a towering pile of scrap bicycles, mid-gesture as he throws a disassembled bicycle wheel into the air—an iconic performance reflecting his fascination with entropy and mechanical ruin.Jean Tinguely standing atop a towering pile of scrap bicycles, mid-gesture as he throws a disassembled bicycle wheel into the air—an iconic performance reflecting his fascination with entropy and mechanical ruin.
    Jean Tinguely looking for materials in 1960. Photo Credit: Photographer unknown

    Yet despite Tinguely’s pioneering and playful use of technology, Museum Tinguely remains focused on more materially and sensorially anchored forms of artistic expression. While the museum doesn’t reject digital work entirely, it isn’t a central focus for now, the director explains. For Wetzel, it remains crucial to create moments of real presence—tactile, embodied encounters that happen in and around the museum. “As so much of life is already spent in front of screens, it feels even more vital to offer a more comprehensive, embodied experience,” he says. “Whether it’s through Tinguely’s kinetic works or our special exhibitions, we want visitors to engage physically, emotionally and socially.”

    Today, the museum plays multiple roles within Basel’s art ecosystem, Wetzel notes. It can be a place to spend a leisurely Sunday afternoon, but it also aims to be politically and socially relevant—whether through exhibitions or a year-round calendar of talks, panels and performances. “Our programming is quite wide-ranging,” he says. “We don’t focus on blockbuster shows. We focus on education, accessibility and making art approachable.”

    Asked about the evolving role of museums in society, Wetzel stresses the importance of a clear ethical compass. For him, the idea that we can live together in a better way is a crucial starting point. “It’s not about making grand gestures, but about taking small, meaningful steps: creating space for people to come in, learn, reflect on their own lives and share those reflections with others,” he explains. “That’s how communities are formed—and I believe that’s something museums can and should help facilitate.”

    In Wetzel’s vision, the museum must function as a public platform—a space for genuine exchange. In recent years, that commitment has expanded into talks, performances, concerts and events that deepen and broaden the exhibition experience. “Over time, our role has evolved,” Wetzel says. “Maybe 20 or 30 years ago, it was just about putting on exhibitions. Today, museums need to operate as public platforms—even at a grassroots level—to foster participation, welcome diverse communities and enable open dialogue,” he adds. This includes making room for different political perspectives while also being willing to take a stance. “In times like these, I think it’s essential that we speak up, stay relevant and above all, create spaces where people can come together.”

    Black-and-white portrait of Jean Tinguely smiling mischievously as he sits among dozens of identical plates of hors d’oeuvres arranged in rows, blurring the line between artist, guest, and orchestrator of chaos.Black-and-white portrait of Jean Tinguely smiling mischievously as he sits among dozens of identical plates of hors d’oeuvres arranged in rows, blurring the line between artist, guest, and orchestrator of chaos.
    Tinguely’s kinetic art embraced chaos, chance and humor to critique automation, consumer culture and the institutions of modern art. Photo; Nanda Lanfranco

    More in Artists

    How Museum Tinguely Is Keeping Jean Tinguely’s Legacy Alive 100 Years Later

    [ad_2]

    Elisa Carollo

    Source link

  • Ron Howard on telling a true story with ‘Eden’: “We have the evidence to show it and the great actors to bring ’em to the screen” [EXCLUSIVE] | The Mary Sue

    [ad_1]

    By

    Aug 25th, 2025, 5:09 pm

    jude law shirtless standing with vanessa kerby

    When it comes to directors who have done some iconic films, Ron Howard’s name is often at the top of the list. And he’s no stranger to telling stories that are based in real life events, like his new movie Eden.

    Based on the true story of the Galapagos Affair, the film details how Dr. Friedrich Ritter (Jude Law) and his partner Dora (Vanessa Kirby) moved to survive on the Galapagos islands. There, Margret (Sydney Sweeney) and her husband Heinz (Daniel Brühl) join them with their young family. But when you maroon people on an island without civilization, things can go haywire.

    Set in the 1930s, the film is breathtakingly beautiful. Partially because of Ana de Armas’ costumes but also because of the film’s setting. As you’re watching the movie, you find yourself shocked that this is a true story and that is something that Howard loves to do with his work. I was lucky enough to speak with the iconic director for his work, especially what the trick is to telling a historical story and making it interesting.

    “It comes down to choosing the story because there are a lot of amazing events, but not all of them have the structure to be built into a movie. And Eden is a little bit unusual in that way, structurally. But you do have to adhere to the reality, especially something like Eden because you can go online and learn so much about these characters and even see more videos about sort of how they really lived on that island in the Galapagos,” Howard said.

    He went on to compare another one of his iconic films to how Eden worked out. “So what you look for are big surprises that you might otherwise say, ‘Oh, come on, that’s ridiculous. That couldn’t happen that way.’ Apollo 13, they would never make it back alive, but they did. So you get to dramatize something that’s really unusual and really extreme. And in this case, these characters are bigger than life, except they’re not bigger than life. They did live, and we have the evidence to show it and the great actors to bring them to the screen.”

    You can see our full conversation here:

    Eden is in theaters now.

    (featured image: Vertical)

    Have a tip we should know? [email protected]

    Image of Rachel Leishman

    Rachel Leishman

    Assistant Editor

    Rachel Leishman (She/Her) is an Assistant Editor at the Mary Sue. She’s been a writer professionally since 2016 but was always obsessed with movies and television and writing about them growing up. A lover of Spider-Man and Wanda Maximoff’s biggest defender, she has interests in all things nerdy and a cat named Benjamin Wyatt the cat. If you want to talk classic rock music or all things Harrison Ford, she’s your girl but her interests span far and wide. Yes, she knows she looks like Florence Pugh. She has multiple podcasts, normally has opinions on any bit of pop culture, and can tell you can actors entire filmography off the top of her head. Her current obsession is Glen Powell’s dog, Brisket.

    Her work at the Mary Sue often includes Star Wars, Marvel, DC, movie reviews, and interviews.

    [ad_2]

    Rachel Leishman

    Source link

  • Aleksandra Artamonovskaja On Technology’s Role in Art’s Evolution

    [ad_1]

    According to Aleksandra Artamonovskaja, the digital art we make today has a long lineage dating back to the 1950s. Tezos Foundation

    As the world becomes increasingly digital and technologically integrated, it is harder than ever to draw clear boundaries between analog and digital experiences. Technology is now deeply woven into how we express, communicate, share and process information and ideas, making it nearly impossible to find contemporary art completely untouched by digital tools or platforms. Artists working in traditional media inevitably engage with the digital realm in some capacity—even if only as a platform for sharing or a source of inspiration for works created in more conventional formats.

    For this reason, the term digital art can be confusing. Some interpret it broadly to include any work shaped by technology, while others reserve it for “digital-native” practices created entirely within the digital space.

    To explore this evolving landscape, Observer spoke with Aleksandra Artamonovskaja, who has worked in the Web3 art space for nearly a decade and now serves as head of Arts at TriliTech, the team behind the Tezos Art Foundation. Artamonovskaja shared her perspective on the current state of digital art, its market and the broader ways technology and digital platforms are reshaping how art is produced and circulated.

    “You have both professionals in the broader creative economy or artists whose works are exhibited in traditional institutions such as museums, falling into this category,” she tells Observer. Still, there are some defining parameters. “To me, digital art is a form that relies fundamentally on digital technology, not just the tools, but the medium itself, as the product or the process. Digital art allows experimentation across various areas, such as lighting, texture, movement and interactivity, that traditional media can’t always convey. It’s not just about using a screen as a canvas, but often reinventing what the idea of a ‘canvas’ even means.”

    Tezos began actively engaging with the digital art world in 2021. Artists and collectors on NFT platforms like Hic et Nunc, Objkt, and fx(hash) adopted the blockchain for minting and selling works, quickly making it a hub for digital, generative and experimental art.

    Established around the same time, the Tezos Foundation formalized its support for digital art soon after, launching major initiatives between late 2021 and early 2022. Since then, it has evolved into an artist-first hub within the Web3 ecosystem. Through high-profile partnerships with institutions like MoMA and Art Basel, it is positioning itself as a vital conduit for Web3 creativity.

    Since Artamonovskaja was appointed head of arts at TriliTech in 2024, she has played a central role in ensuring that the Tezos ecosystem maintains an artist-first framework. Priorities like sustainability, affordability and inclusivity are amplified through programming that raises global awareness of digital art while empowering existing talent with meaningful opportunities for growth.

    Visitors view colorful digital artworks on display in a vivid blue gallery space at the Museum of the Moving Image in New YorkVisitors view colorful digital artworks on display in a vivid blue gallery space at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York
    Sabato Visconti, barbie~world~breakdown, 2024. At the Museum of the Moving Image, as part of its partnership with the Tezos Foundation. Photo: Thanassi Karageorgiou. Courtesy of MoMI

    “Marketplaces on Tezos like objkt, along with high-profile partnerships with the Museum of the Moving Image, Serpentine, ArtScience Museum and others, help contextualise digital art within broader cultural landscapes,” Artamonovskaja says. She sees contextualization as fundamental to supporting the appreciation and institutionalization of a newly established field like digital art. “Our current programs also encompass a range of activities, including residencies, publications, and exhibitions, nurturing a creative environment that fosters artists’ career trajectories.” One major upcoming initiative she previewed is Tezos’ second participation at Paris Photo, in partnership with Paris-based Artverse gallery, where curator Grida Jang Hyewon will present a group booth featuring work by six artists who originate from, or are deeply shaped by, Asian cultures.

    Fostering awareness of these tools and technologies is another key priority. “The Tezos Foundation has supported several educational projects, including WAC Lab, which taught professionals from cultural institutions about Blockchain best practices, as well as artist onboarding programs, such as Newtro, a program focusing on Latin American artists,” Artamonovskaja says. “Through these ongoing initiatives and upcoming projects, it’s no surprise that the Tezos ecosystem serves some of the most respected voices in the digital art space, including bitforms gallery, the Second Guess curatorial collective and the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.”

    Just as importantly, Tezos has helped connect and map a decades-long history of relationships between artists and digital media, beginning with early net art and extending back to Nam June Paik’s pioneering inquiry into media and technology as a form of expression. As Artamonovskaja explains, the history of digital art runs from the algorithmic plotter works of Manfred Mohr and Vera Molnár, to Alan Rath’s kinetic sculptures fusing electronics with movement, to Paik’s groundbreaking video art, and to the browser-based experiments of 1990s net artists like Cory Arcangel and Olia Lialina. “Each era redefined what it meant to create and experience art in dialogue with new technologies, shifting from producing singular digital images to building works that exist natively within global networks. I’ve always been fascinated by how forward-thinking some of the artists were. Seeing Nam June Paik’s Electronic Superhighway in person, its glowing map of America alive with moving images, makes you reflect on how foretelling his vision was to today’s hyperconnected, media-saturated world.”

    A gallery window shows the Paintboxed: Tezos World Tour exhibition, with contemporary digital artworks on white walls visible from the street.A gallery window shows the Paintboxed: Tezos World Tour exhibition, with contemporary digital artworks on white walls visible from the street.
    The “Paintboxed Tezos World Tour” exhibition at Digital Art Mile, Basel, 2025. Courtesy Tezos Foundation

    The Paintboxed Tezos World Tour paid tribute to this long history, spotlighting the heritage of the Quantel Paintbox—the legendary 1980s commercial computer designed for artists and famously used by David Hockney and Keith Haring. “The digital art we make today most certainly belongs to a long lineage dating back to the 1950s, with interactive systems, initiatives such as E.A.T. and tools like the Quantel Paintbox,” Artamonovskaja points out.

    In the past year, the Paintboxed Tezos World Tour has appeared at major art events in Miami, Paris and New York, culminating in a pivotal exhibition at the Digital Art Mile in Basel. The Basel presentation was accompanied by a catalogue of works produced by early pioneers such as David Hockney and Kim Mannes-Abbott—among the first to experiment with the tool—alongside a younger generation of artists like Simon Denny, Coldie and Gretchen Andrew. “Recognizing these histories enriches our understanding and positions Web3 art not as a fleeting trend but as a continuation of decades of creative innovation,” Artamonovskaja says.

    She recalls first encountering Olia Lialina’s work in person at her presentation during Rhizome’s 7×7 conference in 2017, an experience that left a lasting impression. “What struck me most was not only her early, both critical and playful approach to the browser as a canvas, but also the nuanced commentary on the word ‘technology,’” she recalls, noting how the artist was vocal in her criticism of how the term had been overused to the point of losing specificity. “This reminded me how in the 1990s, ‘technology’ in an art context often meant something tangible, visible and experimental. In contrast, today it’s so embedded in our lives that we rarely stop to question it, and by doing so, in a way, we lose our power. The work and reflections of early net art artists often underscore the importance of maintaining that spirit of inquiry.”

    Creative freedom and new audiences

    For Artamonovskaja, the digital realm opens vast possibilities: dynamic experimentation, global reach and direct control. Over the past decade, she notes, social media has reshaped the artist’s role—shifting it away from reliance on galleries and institutions toward a more direct relationship with audiences. “Some artists have become their own marketers, community builders and storytellers, shaping not only how their work is seen but also how it’s valued,” she says. “This shift didn’t just change the market side of art; it influenced the medium itself. Many artists, including those working in traditional media, have begun creating works either conceived for the screen or engaging with it from a conceptual or critical perspective, responding to its formats, visual rhythms and narratives, while reflecting on how these elements shape our ways of seeing and experiencing art.”

    The rise of blockchain and NFTs has taken this further by adding new layers of transaction and interactivity. “Within the Tezos ecosystem, for example, sales platforms like objkt.com have nurtured their own curatorial voices and collector bases,” she explains. “At the same time, through our ongoing initiatives like Tezos Foundation-supported open calls, residency programs and partnerships with leaders such as Art Basel and Musée d’Orsay, we’ve created new success structures for artists.” Fully harnessing this potential means embracing both creative and structural possibilities—whether by experimenting with digital-native forms, exploring interactive or generative elements, or engaging with blockchain-native ecosystems to connect with communities and shape how their work is experienced, owned and valued.

    wo silhouetted figures stand before a large projection of shifting, kaleidoscopic digital imagery in blue and green tones at the Museum of the Moving Image.wo silhouetted figures stand before a large projection of shifting, kaleidoscopic digital imagery in blue and green tones at the Museum of the Moving Image.
    Rodell Warner, World Is Turning, 2024. At the Museum of the Moving Image, New York, as part of its partnership with the Tezos Foundation. Photo: Thanassi Karageorgiou. Courtesy of MoMI

    The importance of context in curating digital art

    Context, Artamonovskaja stresses, is just as important for digital art as for any other medium when it comes to establishing value and recognition. Digital art curation—including art on the blockchain—has evolved rapidly over the past several years, she notes. Having worked in the digital art space for nearly a decade, longer than many of her contemporaries, she has witnessed these shifts firsthand. “It may not seem like a significant amount of time in the grand scheme of things, but in the Web3 world, everything is accelerated,” she observes. “The COVID-19 pandemic forced the traditional art world to embrace virtual environments en masse. In blockchain and digitally-native art, these technological advancements that reshape how the audience interacts and experiences the work happen every few months.”

    For this reason, curating digital art already extends far beyond simply displaying work—it is about building trust and transparency with both artists and viewers. “Given the size of the digital art market and its novelty, the curator’s role is often also that of an art dealer helping artists position their work, connecting them with the right collectors and helping them navigate the commercial and technical aspects of selling digital art in a rapidly evolving environment,” she clarifies.

    “In many ways, the Web3 market functions as an accelerated mirror to the traditional art world—compressing the cycles of creation, curation, sales and audience engagement into days or weeks instead of months or years,” she continues, noting that this might not apply to every project but that, over time, it makes the discovery of emerging talent more accessible. “The same dynamics of representation and influence exist, but blockchain-enabled provenance, global marketplaces and always-on communities make the process faster, more transparent and oftentimes more efficient.”

    A woman sits in a light-filled room beside a large framed artwork depicting a flowing, abstract horse-like figure created by artist Jenni Pasanen.A woman sits in a light-filled room beside a large framed artwork depicting a flowing, abstract horse-like figure created by artist Jenni Pasanen.
    Aleksandra Artamonovskaja with a work by Jenni Pasanen. Courtesy Tezos Foundation

    Artamonovskaja acknowledges that whether this acceleration is good or bad for artists and the market is still open to debate, but she sees one undeniable advantage: the ability to engage new audiences.

    Challenges in collecting and preserving digital art

    In May 2022, the Tezos Foundation unveiled its Permanent Art Collection (PAC), curated by Misan Harriman, as its first official high-profile program dedicated to celebrating and elevating digital art created within its ecosystem. This marked the beginning of an ongoing commitment to showcase and acquire works by diverse, emerging artists.

    Artamonovskaja has been collecting digital art and NFTs for years. When asked about her criteria for identifying a significant work worth collecting, she says it often comes down to whether the piece moves her or signals that the artist is bringing a fresh perspective to her areas of interest. “Factors such as strong artistic vision, thoughtful use of technology and meaningful cultural context are also incredibly important,” she explains. “Novelty—both conceptual and visual—plays a significant role.” This is a defining feature on sales platforms like objkt, which frequently highlight advanced interactive pieces ranging from minimalist HTML sketches to fully immersive browser-based games and on-chain data experiments. Other platforms, such as EditArt or InfiniteInk, enable interactive co-creation and dynamic experiences.

    “As someone who collects the art they love, I find that the resonance within the wider ecosystem often plays a big role,” Artamonovskaja says. “Given that the market was born under the premise that there are no more gatekeepers and each artist can represent themselves, an artist’s approach to self-representation can be as important as how a gallery typically represents its artists.” Today, a community of artists exists with varied definitions of success, some prioritizing reach and community growth over traditional markers of recognition. “Perhaps this is where comparing art on the blockchain to traditional markets is a fallacy.”

    Collecting digital art also raises new questions around preservation and conservation, as these works often depend entirely on the technologies through which they are created, circulated, displayed and stored. Preservation begins with recognizing that it’s not just about maintaining the still or moving image as we see it on a platform or as we right-click save it. “If we care about the work’s association with a blockchain, we need to maintain a relationship between the smart contract and the output,” she explains. “We need to care about whether the work has an archival file, a higher resolution exhibition copy, or just the web copy we see in front of us. We also want to safeguard the metadata and the environments in which the work is intended to reside.”

    She notes that ensuring a worthwhile chain of documented provenance for blockchain-registered art requires active collaboration between artists, technologists, archivists and node operators. For a work to remain tied to a chain, archival advocates and conservation specialists may need to preserve not only the piece but also its operational context.

    Across blockchains, one of the most significant risks in recent years has been the shutdown of marketplaces. “In such instances, it was either the core team’s efforts or the community that preserved the works, ensuring they remained accessible as intended,” Artamonovskaja points out, emphasizing that this was possible only thanks to open-source access and the benefits of decentralization.

    On Tezos, for example, every artwork collected on objkt is stored on IPFS, a decentralized network designed for long-term preservation. The team ensures that each asset is pinned and remains accessible, with safeguards in place so that even if the platform were to go offline, the art would remain secure. “Tezos provides a reliable and future-proof foundation for building digital art collections,” Artamonovskaja emphasizes.

    Another advantage of NFTs on Tezos is that its self-amending blockchain and formal on-chain governance make contentious hard forks far less likely than on other chains, reducing the risk of the same NFT appearing on two separate blockchains. “Because protocol upgrades are proposed, voted on and activated within the blockchain itself, NFTs remain recorded on a single chain that all participants continue to use.”

    A darkened gallery room features large-scale immersive digital projections of glowing, abstract worlds with red sculptural seating in the foreground.A darkened gallery room features large-scale immersive digital projections of glowing, abstract worlds with red sculptural seating in the foreground.
    Third World: The Bottom Dimension is a multi-part project conceptualised by artist Gabriel Massan in collaboration with artists Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro and Novíssimo Edgar and vocalist and music producer LYZZA. © Serpentine. Photo: Hugo Glendinning

    Art, technology and A.I.

    When it comes to conversations about technology, the biggest elephant in the room is the A.I. revolution, which is reshaping nearly every aspect of our lives—and, in turn, how artists approach their work and creative process. Increasingly, artists admit to using A.I. not only to refine work but also to brainstorm or seek feedback. This has sparked ongoing debate about the role of A.I. in the creative process—as a tool, an assistant or even a collaborator.

    Asked about the opportunities A.I. presents for the art world and the risks it poses, particularly for digital art, Artamonovskaja is convinced that if it is approached as an instrument, it can help extend an artist’s vision. Its value, she argues, depends on how intentionally it is applied—whether to streamline workflow, unlock new aesthetic possibilities, or enable experiments that would be impossible through traditional means.

    “Artists like Dr. Elgammal have even credited A.I. as their creative partner. Ultimately, art is subjective, so the idea of improving it is hard to define,” Artamonovskaja considers. “For some creators, A.I. is integrated on a deeper technical level—artists like Ivona Tau or Mario Klingemann write their own systems, shaping the algorithm as much as they shape the final product. Other artists, such as Trevor Paglen or Kevin Abosch, engage with A.I. from a critical standpoint, using it to question the technology’s politics, biases and social implications.”

    At the same time, she warns of potential risks: diluting authorship, amplifying biases embedded in training data or reducing the artist’s role to that of a passive editor rather than an active creator. In 2021, she collaborated with Mike Tyka to release his renowned Portraits of Imaginary People on the blockchain, a project that delved directly into these themes. By training GANs on thousands of Flickr images, Tyka generated faces of people who do not exist, exposing how A.I. systems can reproduce and amplify identity biases. “His approach challenged notions of authenticity and sparked dialogue about technology’s influence on representation and trust,” she notes.

    With the arrival of more sophisticated tools in recent years, Artamonovskaja observes that the market is still struggling to understand and value generative artistic practices. “For me, the most compelling A.I. art is not simply about the image produced, but about the relationship between human intention and machine capability, and the conceptual story that emerges from that relationship,” she reflects, emphasizing again that it is not about the medium itself but the critical and creative approach to it—the inquiry into its potential—that transforms a work of art into a tool for better understanding, or even anticipating, the broader sociological, anthropological and political implications of these new technologies in our existence.

    Aleksandra Artamonovskaja On Technology’s Role in Art’s Evolution

    [ad_2]

    Elisa Carollo

    Source link

  • Omni Courts Corporates as it Pushes Toward Luxury

    [ad_1]

    Omni’s Jeff Doane talks…

    • Moving upmarket and catering to corporate
      travelers
    • Omni’s SME Select Business program
    • Rate outlook for 2026

    Dallas-based hotel company Omni Hotels & Resorts, which has 50 properties open in the
    U.S. and Canada, is investing heavily in its product and service as it looks to
    ascend the hotel service-tier and capture more of the corporate market. Omni
    chief commercial officer Jeff Doane, who
    joined the company last year    , spoke with BTN managing editor Chris Davis
    last month at the Global Business Travel Association convention in Denver about
    the company’s luxury ambitions, its push for small-to-midsize businesses and the
    effects of macroeconomic uncertainty. Edited excerpts follow.

    BTN: You’ve been
    at Omni about a year and a half now. How has the experience been?

    Jeff Doane: I
    love it. My background includes serving as chief commercial officer at Accor
    after it acquired Fairmont in 2016. I had worked for Fairmont for a number of
    years, and probably the best experience was helping move Fairmont from a
    four-star, upper-upscale brand into the luxury space, creating
    more of an experiential type of brand. Omni is trying to kind of do the same
    thing, and that really appealed to me. The culture here is strong, and everybody’s
    going in the same direction and is focused on the same things.

    BTN: How does
    that upmarket strategy translate to the business travel segment?

    Doane: You want
    to tailor your product around the needs of your customer. There’s a service
    experience that’s expected when you’re in that four- to five-star space. Then moving
    from one that provides just that to a brand that’s creating more unique and
    rewarding and personal experiences for travelers to me is the difference
    between four and four-and-a-half stars. Then it escalates right to Ritz-Carlton
    and Four Seasons where they have such attention on the guests. We want to be
    right in the heart of that luxury space.

    From a product standpoint, we’ve invested $2.5 billion in
    our hotels over the past three to five years, and we’re poised to do the same
    in the next three to five. We know that business traveler wants great Wi-Fi,
    great breakfast, great gym, great sleep experience. Those are the things that
    we’re really focused on in terms of specifically for the business traveler. And
    that experiential side is, why are you in town and do you want a foam pillow or
    a feather pillow? Do you want to be on a low floor or a high floor? What are
    the things that specifically turn the needle for you?

    BTN: Does that
    change the corporate customers you’re targeting, either on a corporate or
    individual level?

    Doane: Within
    every company there’s levels of travel. You may be at the midscale end of the
    market, and you may be working with Amazon, but Ritz-Carlton is working with
    Amazon too. So your customer ends up being the same, where you fall in that
    spectrum determines who ends up staying in those hotels. Certain customers will
    be like, ‘We just started working with you. This is fantastic. We love your
    product.’ So it’s new to him. I think there’s a lot of that kind of opportunity
    for us, but I think there’s also a lot of companies that we’re working with
    where maybe a different traveler within their organization stays with us. 

    BTN: Along those
    lines, all of the big hotel companies in the U.S. are multi-brand up and down
    the line, including luxury. How do you carve a niche for yourself?

    Doane: We’ve
    always said we’re not replacing Marriott or Hilton or Hyatt. They have so many
    dots on the map and cater to every traveler. It would be naive for us to think
    that was possible. But we are a complementary brand for people who want higher-touch
    service, and we think that we can win people over once they experience this.

    BTN: The
    macroeconomic picture has been volatile this year. What are you hearing from corporate
    clients? Are they cutting back?

    Doane: They’re
    just plugging along. A lot of our customers say they’ve had a pretty good first
    half of the year and a lot say the second half is going to be like the first
    half.

    [On tariffs,] we have to come with some conclusion on this
    or something’s got to give. [In a session on GBTA’s Business Travel Index] the
    speaker said if the tariffs end up at 20 percent, there will be an impact. I
    don’t know that there’s not another way to look at it. So you’re hoping that
    cooler heads prevail and it ends up in 3 percent to 5 percent range. The longer
    the uncertainty lasts, the more it’s in people’s heads.

    BTN: Are requests
    for proposals or how buyers communicate changing?

    Doane: We’re
    seeing more customers saying, you know what, we work with the big brands and we
    have that kind of relationship with them, but we’re looking to try to figure
    out how we complement that. How do we create a more diversified set of options
    for our traveler? This year, year to date, business travel revenue has grown
    for us by 17 percent and volume has grown 10 percent

    I think it’s the customer saying, ‘I don’t like to be so
    boxed in.’ And we’re a little bit more of a one-on-one relationship with the
    customer and that’s real important too because they like to know who to call.

    BTN: You launched
    the Omni
    Select Business program     in April. What’s the early verdict?

    Doane: A year ago
    I came to this show thinking we could be better at business travel. We
    learned that a number of the big brands have those kinds of programs just for
    small to medium-sized companies. Well, Omni is a small to medium-sized hotel
    company, so I think we’re a natural for that.

    We’re real happy with how it’s progressing. We thought 50 to
    75 accounts would be a good start, and we’re already at 200. 

    BTN: Does its
    success give you any ideas in terms of enhancing it?

    Doane: We came
    out with a 9 percent discount off of our normal rates, and we realized that
    probably wasn’t rewarding enough. So just recently we changed it to 12 percent.

    BTN: Are you
    integrating AI into your RFP process or operations?

    Doane: Not in
    RFPs yet, but we’ve moved our reservation system to the cloud. There’s a
    certain amount of AI involved in that in terms of knowing your guests and
    understanding them. We are working with a company called BlueConic to better
    understand our guests. If we know what a traveler wants from us, we can take
    better care of them and develop those personalized offers.

    BTN: How are you
    approaching 2026 rate strategies?

    Doane: The latest
    projection I saw from CBRE was like 1.8 percent to 2 percent growth for next
    year. [Note: CBRE
    in May projected     full-year 2025 U.S. average daily rate to increase 1.2
    percent year over year and revenue per available room to increase 1.3 percent.]
    I’m not sure we’re back to stabilized occupancy altogether in the United
    States. I don’t know that there’s enough pressure for hotel companies to really
    try to drive rate. You’ll try and move it to accommodate cost increases. We’re at
    that stage of trying to get our foot in the door with a lot of companies and
    try and expose our product to them and their travelers. And that’s not the time
    where you’re pushing for double-digit increases, you know?

    BTN: What’s ahead
    on the development front?

    Doane: We have a
    beautiful brand-new hotel opening in Fort Lauderdale in October, right at the
    marina and convention center. We are working on a project in Raleigh, N.C.,
    again right at the convention center. Same thing down in New Orleans. And then
    there’s a bunch of other projects that we’re talking to people about.

    [ad_2]

    businesstravelnews@ntmllc.com (Business Travel News)

    Source link