Category Archives: Arts & Literature

Art Exhibition Views: ‘City As Studio’ In Hong Kong

Views of City As Studio, K11 MUSEA, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, 2023. 

‘City As Studio’ — China’s First Major Exhibition of Graffiti and Street Art

20 Mar – 14 May 2023

K11 Musea, Hong Kong – From the subway yards and parking lots of 1970s New York, K11 MUSEA’s third annual Art Karnival welcomes China’s largest street art exhibition, ‘City As Studio’!

PR Newswire Asia

K11 MUSEA presents City As Studio, China's first major exhibition of  graffiti and street art, tracing the evolution of a global movement - PR  Newswire APAC

Bleeding the city with the heart and soul of the art form, we take the plunge into the world of spray paint, tags, and throw-ups that steered a global cultural movement. Presented by K11 MUSEA and K11 Art Foundation, curated by “Champion of Graffiti and Street Art” Jeffrey Deitch,the exhibition brings the extensive history and evolution of street art to the people,

Over 100 works showcase the visions of more than 30 artists, including some of the most recognisable names of the medium — from veterans Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, and FUTURA, to young bloods KAWS, AIKO, and more.

READ MORE AT e-FLUX

Nature & The Arts: Orion Magazine – Spring 2023

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Orion Magazine (Spring 2023)THIS ISSUE features exclusively works in or about translation, engaging with over twenty-five languages across six continents.

Moving the Saints

Passages from a deconstructed homeland

The Northern Mariana Islands lie in a crescent moon south-southeast of Japan. At the lower point is Guåhan, also known as Guam, an island that is geologically part of the same volcanic chain but that set itself apart by becoming an unincorporated U.S. territory instead of remaining part of the Commonwealth.

Corporeal River

On a body filled by the Amazon
Origami art by Gonzalo García Calvo

BANZEIRO—THIS IS WHAT THE PEOPLE of the Xingu call places where the river grows savage. Where, if you’re lucky, you can make it through; where, if you’re not, you can’t. It is a place of danger between where you’re coming from and where you want to go.

10 Beautiful Books in or About Translation

Our Spring 2023 issue speaks to the language of nature and features works in or about translation. Here, Orion staffers and friends pulled together a list of their favorite fiction and nonfiction books that in some way reflect this literature of etymology.

—Sumanth Prabhaker

THE BLUE FOX SJÓN

TRANSLATED BY VICTORIA CRIBB

The Blue Fox - Sjón

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

This slim fantastical novel reads like an incantation. Set in rural late-19th century Iceland, its braided, lyrical, fugue-like narrative is tender and electric. Here we find a cruel priest named after a monster, trapped in an ice cave, raving at a dead fox. But too, a kindly herbalist burying his friend with her feather collection—a young woman with Down syndrome who spoke a language of her own—who he rescued from an unthinkable fate. This was my first encounter reading Sjón, who is apparently so big in his home country he doesn’t need a last name, but the book’s otherworldliness made perfect sense when I learned he writes lyrics for Björk. This one will haunt me for a while.

Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life

By LULU MILLER

Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life - Miller, Lulu

Simon and Schuster

In Lulu Miller’s Why Fish Don’t Exist, naming becomes an imposition, an attempt at order and, sometimes, hierarchy. In this book—part memoir, part biography—Miller is searching for a reason to keep living, a sense of order in a chaotic world, and she does so by looking to a taxonomist who spent his life naming the creatures under the sea: David Starr Jordan.

Top New Museum Exhibits: ‘Hokusai: Inspiration and Influence’ At MFA Boston

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston – Thanks to the popularity of works like the instantly recognizable Great Wave—cited everywhere from book covers and Lego sets to anime and emoji—Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) has become one of the most famous and influential artists of all time.

Hokusai: Inspiration and Influence

March 26–July 16, 2023

A bright blue tidal wave crests on choppy waters with a mountainscape in the distance.
Katsushika Hokusai, Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa-oki nami-ura), also known as the Great Wave, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei) (detail), about 1830–31
Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper. William Sturgis Bigelow Collection.

Taking a new approach to this endlessly inventive and versatile Japanese artist, “Hokusai: Inspiration and Influence” explores his impact both during his lifetime and beyond. More than 100 woodblock prints, paintings, and illustrated books by Hokusai are on view alongside about 200 works by his teachers, students, rivals, and admirers, creating juxtapositions that demonstrate his influence through time and space.

A woodblock print of three boats navigating rough waters with a mountain in the background.
Utagawa Hiroshige, The Sea off Satta in Suruga Province (Suruga Satta kaijō), from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fuji sanjūrokkei), 1858
Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper. William Sturgis Bigelow Collection.
Book cover for Hokusai: Inspiration and Influence›

The great painter, book illustrator, and print designer Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) has become the best known of all Japanese artists and one of…

Members are invited to a special exhibition preview March 22–25 before it opens to the public, and can enjoy members-only hours on Sunday mornings during the run of the show. Join today!

Views: ‘Bohemia-History of an Idea, 1950–2000′(Prague)

Gabriel Orozco, Lime Game, 2001

Kunsthalle Praha, Prague, Czech Republic (March 20, 2023) – From post-war Paris and New York, through swinging London, to the free spirits of Tehran and Beijing. Kunsthalle Praha explores the idea of bohemia.

BOHEMIA: History of an Idea, 1950–2000
23/3—16/10 2023

Jules Kirschenbaum, Young Woman at a Window, 1953–1954. © Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York

Peter Hujar, David Lighting Up, Manhattan Night (I), 1985

Previews: The New Yorker Magazine – March 27, 2023

A figure wearing  very large colorful sneakers poses against a green background.
Art by Sarula Bao

The New Yorker – March 27, 2023 issue:

Will the Ozempic Era Change How We Think About Being Fat and Being Thin?

Two abstract bodies one big and one skinny gravitate towards the top and bottom of the image. The top is yellow while...

A popular, growing class of drugs for obesity and diabetes could, in an ideal world, help us see that metabolism and appetite are biological facts, not moral choices.

How the Graphic Designer Milton Glaser Made America Cool Again

Colors radiating from the tip of a pen.

From the poster that turned Bob Dylan into an icon to the logo that helped revive a flagging city, he gave sharp outlines to the spirit of an age.

Interviews: British Artist Cecily Brown At The Met

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (March 19, 2023) – Go behind the scenes with artist Cecily Brown, who discusses the inspiration and making of Cecily Brown: Death and the Maid, the first full-fledged museum survey of Brown’s work in New York since she made the city her home.

Cecily Brown: Death and the Maid assembles a select group of some fifty paintings, drawings, sketchbooks, and monotypes from across her career to explore the intertwined themes of still life, memento mori, mirroring, and vanitas—symbolic depictions of human vanity or life’s brevity—that have propelled her dynamic and impactful practice for decades. On view April 4th, 2023 through December 3rd, 2023.

Learn more about the exhibition: https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions…

Art Gallery Views: ‘Paths Crossed’ – Hilary Pecis

Hilary Pecis

David Kordansky Gallery (March 18, 2023) is pleased to present Paths Crossed, an exhibition of new paintings by Hilary Pecis, on view in Los Angeles at 5130 W. Edgewood Pl. from March 18 through April 22, 2023.

Hilary Pecis, Frog Town Pear Blossoms, 2023
Hilary Pecis
Frog Town Pear Blossoms, 2023

Pecis creates drawings and paintings inspired by the interior, exterior, and inter-spaces that surround her daily life. For her first exhibition with David Kordansky Gallery, the artist presents a selection of lush, saturated landscapes reflecting the mountainous, desert, and urban landscapes commonly associated with Southern California.

Hilary Pecis, Southern Rim, 2022
Hilary Pecis
Southern Rim, 2022

Reviews: The Top Museum Exhibitions In March 2023

Sotheby’s (March 16, 2023) – Tim Marlow is back, and this month he’s taking us from London to Tokyo on a tour of some of the most exciting exhibitions to appear this decade.

It’s the 50th anniversary of Pablo Picasso’s death and The Musée National in Paris along with The Albertina Museum in Vienna are commemorating the occasion with two outstanding shows centered around the legendary artist’s work.

The new landmark Vermeer exhibition in Amsterdam showcases 28 known works by the artist, providing a rare opportunity to see a significant collection of his masterpieces in one place. Learn about these thrilling shows and more in this video.

Arts & Culture: The New Criterion – April 2023

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The New Criterion – April 2023 issue

Poetry a special section
T. S. Eliot’s still point  by James Matthew Wilson
Singing the “Frauenliebe”  by Ian Bostridge
The foundational “Kokinshu”  by Torquil Duthie
A White Russian on the rocks  by Boris Dralyuk

Darkness visible: Auden collected  by William Logan


Three poems  by Georgia Douglas Johnson 

New poems  by David Ewbank

Paradise lost

by Peter W. Wood

A review of Peace and Friendship by Stephen Aron & Indigenous Continent by Pekka Hämäläinen.

Infinite India

by Amit Majmudar

A review of India: A History in Objects by T. Richard Blurton.

The New York Times Book Review – March 19, 2023

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The New York Times Book Review – March 19, 2023:

In Matthew Desmond’s ‘Poverty, by America,’ the Culprit Is Us

This illustration, in shades of red, white, blue and black, shows the silhouetted figures of a family around a table. The parents hover over a large tureen containing black liquid, while, on either side of them, smaller figures — their offspring — lean over smaller bowls filled with the same substance. In the background, red and white vertical stripes are visible, suggesting an American flag.
Credit…Ola Jasionowska

The new book by the sociologist and author of “Evicted” examines the persistence of want in the wealthy United States, finding that keeping some citizens poor serves the interests of many.

Read Your Way Through São Paulo

A woman is reading a book on a bench in a park with the cityscape of São Paulo in the background. A cat is sleeping next to her.
Credit…Raphaelle Macaron

Brazil’s ultra urban megacity overwhelms the landscape and the imagination. Paulo Scott recommends books that peel back its layers.

With Karl Lagerfeld, the Clothes Were Only Part of the Story

A photograph of Karl Lagerfeld surrounded by models, several of them in black sequined dresses. Lagerfeld is wearing sunglasses and has his hair pulled back in a white ponytail. He is in a black suit and tie, a white shirt with a high stiff collar, and is carrying an open fan in his right hand.

The fashion world’s hunger for larger-than-life figures glorified the designer. But a cozy new biography shows him to be more business whiz than artist.