#post-war-italian-artists

#post-war-italian-artists

"We're constantly striving to strike a balance between work that respects academic rules of composition, established visual codes and good readability, with something more spontaneous, adventurous, playful, even naive."

Kamrooz Aram is everywhere this year, from Mumbai Art Week to the Whitney Biennial, and critic Aruna D'Souza is grateful. She pens a beautiful meditation on his work, reading his abstract paintings as not simply a denunciation of Western modernism nor a reassertion of Islamic visual motifs, but something else entirely - something gestural, exuberant, riotous, and incomparably his own.

La Nona Ora shows Pope John Paul II lying on the ground, having seemingly been struck by a meteorite; the 'ninth hour' refers to the moment Christ died on the cross on Good Friday.

The foundation's collection is exceptionally large, encompassing more than 10,000 items-including thousands of drawings, over 400 sculptures, 100 paintings, a whole collection of decorative objets d'art, prints, everything that was in the studio, all the archives. Most of the collection has never been exhibited.

The 2026 Whitney Biennial opened at the beginning of the month, providing a snapshot of current trends and curatorial interests in the art world.

Federico Seneca (18911976) emerged as one of the most influential graphic designers of the early 20th century, known for fusing avantgarde artistry with commercial clarity. As art director for Perugina and later Buitoni, he reshaped Italian advertising by replacing literal imagery with bold, metaphordriven visuals. His most iconic contribution was the Baci chocolate identity, inspired by Hayez's *The Kiss*, featuring two lovers silhouetted against deep midnight blue. Drawing heavily from Futurism and Cubism, his work embraced geometric forms, dramatic contrasts,

On Franklin Street in Brooklyn's Greenpoint neighborhood, one non-commercial gallery fosters 'a small, stubbornly human space for friction.' Friction—the ubiquitous buzzword that captures the simultaneous delight and discomfort of doing things the slow way—is at the heart of artists Pap Souleye Fall and Char Jeré's current show at Subtitled NYC. It also reflects the overall spirit of this little exhibition space and of a burgeoning movement to reject our culture of optimization in favor of a bumpier, more intimate, less alienating experience.

The longer we wait, the more difficult it will become to remedy the damage. Since 2019, state funding had all but dried up, forcing the foundation to auction works to raise funds to continue the restoration of both the iconic building and its many site-specific works.

A group of artists, preservationists, and activists is sounding the alarm against Trump's potential demolition of a prominent federal office building next to the National Mall, and the treasured artworks inside it - including several New Deal-era murals that speak to the value of Social Security in the United States. Alex Lawson, executive director of the advocacy organization Social Security Works, co-authored a petition to save the works with local muralist Absurdly Well.

MADRID - The most famous portrait of Maruja Mallo depicts the artist covered from head to toe in seaweed. She is crowned and draped with long, rope-like strands of kelp, her arms raised triumphantly like an all-powerful marine goddess. This unconventional photograph, snapped in 1945 by the poet Pablo Neruda on a Chilean beach, was no doubt carefully orchestrated by the Spanish artist, who viewed herself as an extension of her unique work, where female energy is a conduit for natural and even cosmic forces.

If the internet began as a dream of a decentralized network, why would a history of it stick to the center? Mindy Seu takes this idea to heart in A Sexual History of the Internet. A synthesis of artist book, historical study, and performance piece, the project looks to cyberfeminists, sex workers, and others who have shaped online culture from the margins.

This year's theme, 'New Directions,' ties the fair to the legacy of John Coltrane and Miles Davis, treating jazz as a working method rather than a metaphor. It's a balance of structure and freedom, shaped by listening to galleries, to collectors, and to the wider moment we're living through. The move to the South Wing at Allianz MiCo reinforces this approach with a more compact, layered layout that sparks encounters across works, media, and generations,

Last July, ADAA's Art Show coined the term when it announced it would take a year off to 'reimagine' the New York fair. Days later, Taipei Dangdai, an art fair in Taiwan, said it too would take a beat to examine 'the model, timing, scale, and format' of future events. In December, an unprecedented number of galleries sat on sidelines instead of taking a booth at Art Basel Miami Beach.