What the Butler Saw

WALL/WOMAN GIANT EYE watches tiny figures walk beneath her painted GAZE Who is real? The woman on the wall: ENORMOUS never moves The woman on the street: human-sized always moving PAINTED = permanent WALKING = temporary But which one will be remembered? صورة ←→ PICTURE PAST ←→ PRESENT ICON ←→ HUMAN Scale shifts meaning: The larger you are painted the smaller you become in time The smaller you walk the larger you grow in living... Read more →

Yazan Abu Salameh turns geometry into testimony. His mixed-media works transform occupied Palestine's reality into visual metaphor. Through meticulous ink lines that suggest both barcodes and architectural plans, he creates works that move between documentary and poetic abstraction. The sun's distinctive orange circle appears throughout his work - sometimes whole, sometimes fragmented, sometimes hidden behind buildings. It both witnesses and contrasts with the cramped urban landscapes below. Abu Salameh's art stems from his background in... Read more →

Bashir Makhoul, a Palestinian-British artist and academic, has spent decades exploring how displacement, identity and political resistance intersect. Born in Galilee in 1963 and based in the UK since the 1990s, Makhoul works across painting, installation, photography and sculpture, alongside his roles as university administrator and scholar. His artistic journey began in Galilee, where the landscape and political realities of the region first influenced his work. After moving to the UK, Makhoul developed a visual... Read more →

Hosni Radwan's "Lines in Motion" works through simple means. Where other artists might overcomplicate, his watercolors create emotion through restraint. His flowing lines show human forms in states of thought, joy and quiet sadness, making poetry from minimal marks. The exhibition shows an artist tackling displacement. Born in Baghdad, having worked in Beirut and Palestine, Radwan creates figures that exist in between spaces, neither fully present nor absent. Women predominate his compositions, their bodies fragmented... Read more →

Catalina Swinburn's "Devotional Landscapes" explores the spiritual terrain of Zawiyas - Sufi sanctuaries that dot North Africa's religious landscape. Through her precise paper weavings, she turns archaeological fieldwork into art that connects physical materials with spiritual experience. Swinburn's exhibition stands out through her skillful blend of cultural research and artistic creativity. Her sculptural works don't merely represent Zawiya sites; they embody the meditative processes inherent in both Sufi spiritual practice and traditional craftsmanship. Her collaboration... Read more →

GEOMETRIES OF EXILE In this land of fractured light I recognize myself - divided, city upon city stacked, mathematics of separation. Orange flames consume the borders, blue waters rise against the night. Who taught us to build these walls when earth belongs to no one? Between two fragments lies a path, black and wordless. Call it the passage of those who cannot return. Call it home. We walk through cities made of memory, grids that... Read more →

In "Reveal," ArtCenter College of Design's first graduate exhibition explores the concept of unveiling. Co-curated by Gerardo Herrera and James Meraz, the exhibition reveals how artists create, not just their finished works. Nine graduate students from Industrial Design to Film have transformed the new Graduate Studies Gallery into a workshop of visible creation. The exhibition shows how artists make things, not just what they finish. Installations, augmented reality elements and models connect disciplines that might... Read more →

Odalys Nanin's reimagined "Frida - Stroke of Passion" transforms the traditional theatrical experience into a sensory journey that collapses the boundary between audience and art. This immersive staging resurrects Kahlo’s final days with haunting immediacy. The production doesn’t sanitize Kahlo's complex reality: her physical agony, her sexual fluidity, and her defiance of social conventions emerge unvarnished. The narrative architecture balances historical accuracy with artistic interpretation, particularly in exploring the mysterious circumstances surrounding Kahlo's death. Nanin's... Read more →

In "The Promise," Bashir Makhoul turns Zawyeh Gallery into a meditation on displacement through simple architectural forms. His work rebuilds houses as containers of memory. The recurring motif - a cube with door and window - creates a visual vocabulary both minimal and rich with meaning. The exhibition strikes a balance between aesthetic beauty and political urgency. His electroplated 3D prints give the dense house formations a crystalline quality, making them appear both fragile and... Read more →

In "Augenblick," Katrin Korfmann disrupts our conventional understanding of the photographic moment through compositions that collapse multiple temporal dimensions. Her work deliberately subverts Henri Cartier-Bresson's "decisive moment" by creating layered visual narratives where urban spaces become stages for human performance and social interaction. Korfmann's images of freerunners navigating Amsterdam's architecture and surfers riding artificial waves in Munich reveal how citizens reclaim and transform public spaces in unexpected ways. These works function as documentation and artistic... Read more →

In "Sound Formations," the Claremont Lewis Museum of Art bridges sonic utility and visual aesthetics. Co-curated by Michael Kotzen and Martin Maudal, this exhibition reveals Claremont's rich musical heritage while celebrating craftspeople who turn instrument-making into fine art. The show doesn't just display instruments; it reveals the relationship between maker and musician, material and sound. The curators go beyond mere display. They've created a sensory journey that shows how these handcrafted objects work as both... Read more →

Swaptik Chowdhury's column "AI for Artists" serves as a critical bridge between rapidly evolving AI technologies and a creative community caught in their crosshairs. His approach is twofold: he explains the technical underpinnings of generative AI and contextualizes them within the real challenges artists face. What makes Chowdhury's perspective valuable is his dual positioning as both an AI researcher and an advocate for artistic integrity. The column walks a tightrope between technological enthusiasm and ethical... Read more →

bG Gallery's "Regenesis – Phase Two" presents a powerful narrative of resilience through female artistic voices. The exhibition, which coincides with Women's History Month, chronicles transformation rather than merely showcasing art. The collected works show a progression from devastation to renewal without sentimentality. The diverse media on display - paintings, sculptures and mixed media - serve as different languages expressing similar themes. Each artist brings her personal experience of adversity to the work, translating emotion... Read more →

In "Regenesis," bG Gallery presents a timely exploration of renewal and resilience through the lens of contemporary art. The exhibition convenes diverse artistic voices, including Danielle Eubank's work, in a narrative that speaks to both personal and collective recovery. Set against the backdrop of Los Angeles's ongoing dialogue with natural disasters, the show transforms bG Gallery into a space where art becomes a vehicle for community healing. The exhibition serves dual purpose: while serving as... Read more →

Li Jun's exhibition "Purple Air Coming from the East" reveals an artist who... Read more →

In Angela Beloian's paintings, fantasy and reality intertwine in a mesmerizing underwater ballet. Her mixed media works reveal a vision of ecological harmony where microscopic and macroscopic worlds coexist. Drawing from both scientific precision and imaginative freedom, she creates luminous aquatic dreamscapes that pulse with life. Her delicate line work traces jellyfish tendrils, sea anemones, and coral formations against watercolor-like backgrounds that shift between cerulean blues and misty grays. The paintings function as both biological... Read more →

In "The Land and I" at Zawyeh Gallery Dubai, Palestinian artist Nabil Anani transcends conventional landscape painting through his innovative use of organic materials. His work transforms the physical elements of Palestine - wood, straw, herbs, seeds - into powerful statements about identity and belonging. Anani's technique of incorporating these natural materials directly into his paintings creates a literal and metaphorical fusion of art and earth. This materiality serves dual purposes. It grounds the work... Read more →

Lisa Adams’ haunting composition "The Master Narrative" presents us with a dramatic confrontation between the mathematical precision of geometric abstraction and the raw, indifferent force of nature herself. Against a turbulent sky of both light and menacing clouds, a fractured mechanical form ascends – or perhaps plummets – like some fallen angel of the industrial age. Adams deploys a stark color palette that seems to mock the very notion of natural harmony. The sharp reds... Read more →

In "Control Anatomy," Mahmoud Alhaj crafts a haunting visual meditation on surveillance and colonial violence in Palestine. Through his mastery of digital media, Alhaj deconstructs and reassembles images that have lost their initial impact, breathing new life into forgotten visual documents of oppression. His work "402 of Gray" notably resonates, dissecting the apartheid wall while drawing parallels to Gaza's containment - a prescient commentary on containment architecture. What distinguishes Alhaj's work is his methodical approach... Read more →

In "Control Anatomy," curator Rana Anani presents a haunting examination of colonial surveillance through the lens of Palestinian artist Mahmoud Alhaj. The exhibition, sited at Zawyeh Gallery, investigates the evolution of control mechanisms deployed across Palestinian territories, with particular focus on Gaza. Alhaj's work transcends traditional documentary approaches. It deploys digital manipulation and archival imagery to deconstruct the colonizer's gaze. His series "402 of Gray" dissects the apartheid wall's oppressive presence, while "Fragile" uses empty... Read more →

Tan Jazz Mont’s exhibition “One of Your Girls or Your Homies” marks a significant moment in contemporary Chicanx art. Presented alongside the Garcia Collection’s historical survey of some of the most important Chicanx artists of the last 50 years, Mont’s work both honors and expands upon traditional narratives by introducing new perspectives on identity and representation in the twenty-first century. Mont’s paintings and sculptures navigate complex territories of cultural heritage and personal truth. His work... Read more →

In "Living On Hart" at CANADA Gallery, Janis Provisor presents a body of work that navigates the delicate boundary between abstraction and representation. Her approach to paint application - alternating between watery washes and impasto-like textures - creates surfaces that pulse with psychological depth. The exhibition showcases her handling of "saturated yet muted color," often laid over dark grounds that imbue the works with a nocturnal quality. Provisor's technique of incorporating handwritten notes beneath layers... Read more →

Cristina Barroso's "La rivière intérieure" explores the intersection of identity, geography, and memory through a blend of cartographic art and personal narrative. The Brazilian-born artist, who works between São Paulo and Stuttgart, transforms traditional school maps into complex visual meditations on displacement, belonging, and cultural hybridity. Drawing from the Brazilian Anthropophagic manifesto of 1922, Barroso "digests" Western cartographic conventions, reimagining them through the lens of native symbols and narratives. Her work particularly shines in pieces... Read more →

The convergence of desire and metamorphosis that unfolds before us cannot be mistaken for anything but a supreme moment of what we call le merveilleux quotidien. Here, we witness the precise instant when reality surrenders its tedious logic to the superior logic of dreams. What more perfect assassination of reason could we demand than this fusion of man and beast, where neither maintains the integrity of their original form? The horse - that ancient symbol... Read more →

Gabriel Grun’s work inhabits a surreal space between classical figurative techniques and contemporary narrative concepts. His richly detailed oil paintings blend Renaissance-inspired execution with fantastical, often unsettling hybrid figures and scenarios. They explore themes of metamorphosis, scientific inquiry, and the intersection of human and natural worlds. A self-taught artist deeply influenced by Old Master techniques, Grun utilizes traditional methods like verdaccio underpainting to achieve rich depth and luminosity. His subject matter, though, is undeniably modern,... Read more →

jinseok choi’s “Before the Last Spike” at ArtCenter’s Peter and Merle Mullin Gallery is a potent exploration of invisible labor and immigrant experiences. Through his use of reclaimed materials, choi weaves a narrative that’s both personal and political. His fabric installations, stained with rust from antique railroad spikes, serve as a resonant metaphor for the overlooked contributions of Chinese immigrant workers in America’s railroad history. The artist’s mask series, crafted from woodworking scraps, further emphasizes... Read more →

Catalina Swinburn’s “Healing Rituals” revalidates the place of women throughout history. Swinburn uses weaving as a metaphor for female expression, a practice that has historically substituted for the silence imposed on women across time. Her works, which she calls “anticipated archaeology,” describe the presence and accumulation of fragments that provide new meaning to the whole. The UV prints on Arches Aquarelle, each 105h x 75w cm, depict heads of female stone, terracotta, and bronze sculptures... Read more →

Art collective Slavs and Tatars have once again demonstrated their ability to fuse historical narratives with modern conceptual art in their latest exhibition, “Simurgh Self-Help.” Drawing inspiration from Marcel Broodthaers’ pioneering work of institutional critique, “Musée d’Art Moderne: Département des Aigles,” this exhibition translates the secular symbolism of the eagle into the mystical and spiritually significant Simurgh. The Simurgh, a mythical bird from Persianate mythology, represents a metaphysical counterpart to the eagle’s nationalistic and imperial... Read more →

Mohamed Saleh Khalil’s work explores cultural identity, memory, and the human condition by synthesising traditional and contemporary art practices. His art is distinguished by his meticulous attention to detail, vibrant colour palettes, and the seamless integration of various mediums and techniques. His works transcend visual representation; instead, they invite us to engage in a reflective dialogue about the complexities of modern existence and the enduring impact of historical narratives. His use of traditional motifs and... Read more →

In the quiet chambers of modern consciousness, where the din of digital connectivity often drowns out the murmur of inner voices, Lisa Adams' virtual exhibition, "Whispers of Solitude," emerges as a compelling counter-narrative. Curated to explore the nuances of solitude, the work reveals Adams' profound engagement with isolation, both as a physical reality and a metaphysical contemplation. Adams' canvases are arenas where the personal and the universal collide and coalesce. In works like "A Year... Read more →

The "Carter 1960-1980" exhibition at Champ Lacombe Gallery offers a long-overdue retrospective on a pivotal period in the career of the British sculptor John Carter. It highlights Carter's emergence as part of the influential "New Generation" group of sculptors in the 1960s London art scene. This movement, spearheaded by Anthony Caro's tenure at St. Martin's School of Art, ushered in a radical rethinking of sculpture. Rejecting traditional materials and modes, the New Generation artists experimented... Read more →

Bryan Ali Sanchez's show, "Siempre Presente / Ever-Present" at Albert Projects, explores stories of the working class. He does so with a focus on resilience and emotional depth. He comes from San Diego's Barrio Logan and has a Mexican American background. His work reflects his own experiences and as well as shared memories. Sanchez's technique generates two dynamics: motion/stillness and transparency/opacity. These dynamics reflect the complex nature of struggle and perseverance. His work is physical.... Read more →

Jainisha Vira, an aspiring graphic designer, presents a vibrant fusion of traditional Indian art styles with contemporary digital techniques. Her portfolio reveals a deep engagement with her Indian cultural heritage, notably in her investigation of Warli and Phad painting styles. These traditional Indian art forms are characterized by their distinctive approaches to storytelling and visual representation. Warli focuses on simplicity and monochrome; Phad narrates elaborate religious tales through colorful scrolls. Her work, however, doesn’t just... Read more →

"Rooms? 1,2,3: Forgotten memories of my life as a weed", set within the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Botanical Gardens in Kumasi, Ghana, represents a radical departure from traditional art spaces. Conceived and executed by Lisa C Soto and Gershon Gidisu, this installation redefines gallery space through a series of 8x8x8 cubes that push physical and conceptual boundaries. These structures elicit a dialogue set within the context of a natural environment. The... Read more →

Danielle Eubank’s “Ripple Effect,” on show at the Pamela Walsh Gallery, contributes to a needed discussion of the complex interplay between water as both motif and metaphor within the environmental discourse. This exhibition, an extension of her “One Artist Five Oceans” series, examines the nuanced relationship between humanity and water, focusing on the San Francisco Bay area’s aquatic ecosystems. Poised between abstraction and realism, her work challenges conventional representations of water, reflecting her evolving methodology... Read more →

Christopher Astley’s “Terrain,” opened at Martos Gallery on February 15. It marks a pivotal moment in the artist’s career. Known for his intricate blend of abstract and representational forms, Astley’s work explores the essence of landscape painting, challenging and expanding its traditional confines. This exhibition, which also features select pieces from his “Seven Years Below” series, offers an exploration of the interplay between human cognition and the environment, presenting landscapes that exist at the intersection... Read more →

“This is not a chair”, opening on February 2nd at the Claremont Lewis Museum of Art, examines the intricate, sometimes blurred relationship between art and functionality. Inspired by Rene Magritte’s thought-provoking painting, “The Treachery of Images (“Ceci n’est pas une pipe”),” the show questions the essence of what constitutes a chair. It's an exhibition of chairs or objects for sitting as well as a storytelling medium, a tool for social engagement and a work of... Read more →

Nancy Nieto is a distinguished artist renowned for her vibrant fusion of Mexican folklore, realism, and American pop art. Born into a culturally rich Mexican American family, she was deeply influenced by her grandmother’s tales, which ignited her passion for art and culture. Initially pursuing modeling and acting, Nieto transitioned to painting, where she found her true calling. Her unique artistic style is characterized by a bold use of color and a blend of cultural... Read more →

Guest-curated by Inass Yassin, the Palestinian Museum’s exhibition, A People by the Sea: Narratives of the Palestinian Coast, documents the history of the Palestinian coast. The exhibition spans two hundred years, from the mid-eighteenth century to 1948. It features archival images, videos, historical artifacts from Palestinians’ daily life, interactive stations, maps, oral history testimonies, historical documents, and works of art. Artists include Manar Zuabi, Bashar Khalaf, Dima Srouji, Shareef Sarhan, Essa Grayeb, Amir Zuabi, and... Read more →

Bryan Ali Sanchez, born in San Diego, California is a painter whose work examines the inequalities of class structure, cultural polarities and overlaps from personal experiences. He received an AA from San Diego City College in Visual and Performing Arts with a Two-Dimensional Art Emphasis. He received his BFA from California State University of Long Beach with a Concentration in Painting and Drawing. He has exhibited throughout San Diego and he recently exhibited at The... Read more →

Emily Hoerdemann is a Los Angeles-based artist working primarily in collage, incorporating painting, and photography. Her work melds text, paint, and process in colorful collages with select pop references, slang words and catch phrases, paired with fashion or fine art cut-outs. Her work draws on her obsession with organization and as a result, each work is a delicate placing of aesthetics and color. Below follows a conversation in conjunction with her exhibition, One Word Poems... Read more →

Marjorie Muns’ motifs are simple ones. They are the pictorial equivalent of chamber music. Rocks, fruit, and muffins, Flowers, postcards (postcards showing works of art!) and vessels. Animals (ceramic and glass, giraffes and ducks) and Japanese screens. Nothing looks out of place. The renditions are humble and attentive. Objects don’t look posed; they glow in a moment of epiphany. In a space that is more narrow than shallow, the better to focus on the things... Read more →

Removing the friction from a system is an aesthetic joy. Clive Thompson, “Efficiency is Beautiful,” Wired Magazine, April 2019 ABSTRACT: In "The Poetically Intelligent Design of Andrew Wenrick," the author examines the artist's unique approach to transforming ordinary maps into complex, multi-dimensional art pieces. Through descriptive and analytical prose, the article highlights how Wenrick repurposes the visual and conceptual elements of maps, such as the Thomas Brothers Guides, into synthetic realities and fictional geographic networks.... Read more →

Nathalie Hartjes studied art history and Archeology (MA, 2004) at the Leiden University. Since 2015, she has been the director of MAMA, a platform for visual culture and young talent in Rotterdam. MAMA is one of the pioneering institutions in the area of talent development in the Netherlands, working in a participatory manner with a large group of budding professionals in their twenties (Team MAMA) both behind and in front of the scenes. In 2014,... Read more →

Besides this CMOA exhibition, London-based Conceptual artist Andrew Wenrick has had solo exhibitions in London and Luzern, Switzerland. He has participated in group exhibitions in London, Bristol, Oxford, St. Andrews, Luzern, Vallauris (France), Boston, and Detroit. His work is in private collections in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, China, United Arab Emirates, Canada and the United States. Museum hours are Friday through Sunday, noon to 4PM. The exhibition runs from May 10... Read more →

"Alice Sparkly Kat is a queer astrologer of color with four years of experience in individual consultation, lectures, workshops, and writing. They use astrology to speculate on the ways culture inhabits biology. To them, astrology is a process of imagining the cultural alien through the metaphor of outer space. This work has inhabited MoMA, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Hauser and Wirth. Their Astrology and Storytelling book (for sale on their website) is a workbook... Read more →

13 years ago, Freek Lome founded the public gallery/publishing firm Onomatopee Projects in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. He has directed it ever since. Its mission is to inspire in-depth experiences and to provide critical nourishment. He is also a freelance curator, lecturer, moderator, and writer. Onomatopee Projects is participating in this year’s POPPOSITIONS. (Also interviewed were Niekolaas Johannes Lekkerkerk, Artistic Director, Dries Segers, artist, and Alice Sparkly Kat, artist.) JS: It is written that Onomatopee Projects... Read more →

Dries Segers is an artist who lives and works in Brussels, Belgium. He is represented by DMW Artspace. He graduated from the Listahaskoli, Icelandic Academy for the Arts in Reykjavik (2011) and LUCA School of Arts, Sint Lukas Brussels (2013). His work has been shown in solo- and group shows like The Weekend Room (Seoul, South Korea), De Brakke Grond (Amsterdam, Netherlands), Musee and Galerie Botanique (Brussels, Belgium), Neue Galerie (Ausberg, Germany), Warte für Kunst... Read more →

This 8th edition of the POPPOSITIONS art fair is entitled The Capital of Woke: On formulating resistance to capitalised ideologies. Comprised of work chosen by a 5-person selection committee, It will feature 25 participants from 12 countries. (See below). For the third time, Niekolaas Johannes Lekkerkerk will be the artistic director. His co-director will be Rachelle Dufour. Mathias Prenen will design the space. A cross between an art fair and an exhibition, the production will... Read more →

Below is an interview with Algerian artist, Massinissa Selmani. Along with Tunisia artist Nidhal Chamekh, his work was shown at the recent Armory Show in New York. He's represented by the Selma Feriani Gallery JS: Growing up in Algiers, who or what were your early artistic influences? Are they the same as today? MS: My first influences come from Algerian painters such as M'hamed Issiakhem, Mohammed Temmam or Baya, but also cartoonists such as Ali... Read more →