All posts tagged: Art

Kim Petras On Her New Album, Detour, and her Love for Zohran Mamdani and Gucci

Kim Petras On Her New Album, Detour, and her Love for Zohran Mamdani and Gucci

Published by Sam Flores

On the X post in question, Kim Petras has been up to more than reaching out to Mamdani, who last year declared his affinity for the pop star’s music. (I’m with Mayor Mamdani, by the way—Petras does make some great hype music to get ready to.) She’s also been pre-promoting Detour, which had been trapped in limbo due to a dispute with her label, Republic Records. In addition to teasing the album’s first single “Need for Speed,” which will drop this Wednesday, she affirmed that Detour now has a release date—she wouldn’t tell me what it is, but said that, pun intended, we’re now back on track. “It’s my pride and joy,” Petras says of the album. “I really shed, I think, a lot of my previous styles. I wanted to break all the rules and reinvent myself and work with exciting artists that I love, and be rebellious against traditional pop and how clean my vocals were.” Petras, I’d say, created some of the most delicious high-energy, infectious bubblegum pop of the past decade. …

Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Art Speaks in a Language Left for Us to Translate

Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Art Speaks in a Language Left for Us to Translate

Published by José Betancourt

Theresa Hak Kyung Cha was an artist never satisfied with one mode of art-making, she flitted between mediums, selecting whichever best reflect her preoccupations: the traces of history, the movement of people in exile and diaspora, and the slippery nature of language in just one way. In her hands, no concept feels definitive or fixed; rather, these weighty ideas are always fluid, ever adapting to the moment—even now, four decades after her untimely death. Cha’s distinctive approach is perhaps best illustrated by Dictée, a short volume that merges poetry, memoir, calligraphy, and the hagiography of revolutionary women like Joan of Arc, Yu Gwan-sun, and her mother Hyun Soon Huo. Published in the fall of 1982, just weeks before her murder, Dictée cemented Cha as a singular voice whose words could resonate with readers from even beyond the ether. In the decades since, it has become an essential text in academic fields ranging from comparative literature to Asian American studies. Related Articles More recently, her oeuvre, particularly her filmic work, has gained renewed attention from the …

How to Revive the Art of Hanging Out

How to Revive the Art of Hanging Out

Published by Daniella Wilson

This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning. As the weather gets nicer, many of us feel the allure of just hanging out. We want to sit outside with friends and have a drink, go on long morning walks and catch up, enjoy the breezy night air. But where to go, and with whom? Modern life has become filled with “establishments that are either too expensive for the average American or apparently designed to disincentivize lingering,” Allie Conti wrote in 2022. “Think carefully curated faux dive bars that serve $15 beer-and-shot specials, or parks like New York’s High Line that are built to be moved through in a linear fashion.” Conti makes the case for finding a “third place”—a no-frills spot for conversation and meeting new people that doesn’t require spending a lot of money. If you find it but don’t have anyone to go with, …

It’s LACMA’s World, and Hollywood Wants to Play in It

It’s LACMA’s World, and Hollywood Wants to Play in It

Published by Sam Flores

In reaching for a comparison, I thought back to the hoopla tied to the completion of Crystal Bridges, the nonprofit art museum in Bentonville, Arkansas, founded by Alice Walton, or the debut of Glenstone, the astounding museum started by collectors Mitchell Rales and Emily Wei Rales in Potomac, Maryland. Neither was close to this. A better comparison would be the opening of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s new building, designed by Renzo Piano, in the Meatpacking District—I was there for that bash; Rufus Wainwright sang Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind” in front of the Hudson River, and the crowd went nuts. But LACMA’s new building, with its massive institutional footprint and giant budget to match—the museum placed the final cost at $720 million—puts it in another stratosphere. “Really, this might be the most important museum in the country built in, oh, I don’t know, decades?” Bob Iger, the former CEO of The Walt Disney Company, told me. He was there with his wife, Willow Bay, who has been a board member for …

Sotheby’s Reports M Gain as Art Market Recovers

Sotheby’s Reports $53M Gain as Art Market Recovers

Published by José Betancourt

Sotheby’s has returned to profit after several loss-making years, though the underlying financial picture remains complicated. The auction house posted a $53 million pre-tax profit in 2025, according to financial documents reviewed by the Financial Times, a turnaround from a $190 million loss the year prior. Sales rose nearly 20 percent to $7.1 billion, with revenue from its core auction business climbing 26 percent to about $1 billion.  The rebound reflects a modest recovery in the broader art market, which grew 4 percent last year after two years of contraction. Auction sales led the gains, rising 9 percent, with demand concentrated at the top end of the market, according to the latest Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report. Related Articles Even so, Sotheby’s has taken steps that point to continued pressure on cash. As previously reported, the company has been offering sellers interest of around 7 percent to delay payouts—what it describes as “extended settlement terms,” allowing it to hold onto cash for longer.  That pressure is also visible in a new lawsuit filed by Cushman & Wakefield, …

Denver Art Museum Returns Looted Marble Head to Turkey

Denver Art Museum Returns Looted Marble Head to Turkey

Published by Jenni Sidey

The Denver Art Museum has returned a marble head of a bearded man stolen from the ancient city of Smyrna to Turkey. This marks the latest in a growing list of successful restitutions tied to the country’s renewed campaign to reclaim its cultural heritage from museums worldwide.  The sculpture’s provenance indicates it was likely carved in the fifth century BCE in Smyrna—the ancient Greek name for present-day Izmir. Situated on Turkey’s Aegean coast, the city is among the world’s oldest continuously inhabited seaports and trade centers, a distinction that has also made it a frequent site for archeological excavations and, inevitably, a target for illicit antiquities trafficking. According to Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Minister, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, the marble head was unearthed in the city’s agora, or public gathering place. Related Articles “Through cooperation and constructive dialogue with the Denver Art Museum, we have brought this artifact back home,” Ersoy told the Turkish news outlet Yeni Şafak. The sculpture is now on view at the İzmir Archaeology Museum. In recent years, Turkey has notched a …

All the Looks From the LACMA Opening Gala for the David Geffen Galleries

All the Looks From the LACMA Opening Gala for the David Geffen Galleries

Published by Sam Flores

It’s the start of a new era at LACMA. On Thursday, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art celebrated the opening of its 347,500-square-foot David Geffen Galleries (named for a $150 million gift from the billionaire philanthropist) with a starry gala. While the evening’s guest list included artists, actors, musicians, models, board members, and more, the real star of the evening was the brand-new David Geffen Galleries, a building designed by Pritzker Prize winner Peter Zumthor, who collaborated with architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill to create the stunning structure. “This museum lets LA be present—the landscape and the ­houses and everything, Beverly Hills, the whole thing, is also present,” Zumthor told Vanity Fair’s arts and culture correspondent, Nate Freeman, in advance of the opening. “So, they interact together. We thought it’s a beautiful idea. You experience this art, which comes from the whole world, in LA and not in a box.” From members of LACMA’s board of trustees, like Nicole Avant, Carter Reum, Rich Paul, Viveca Paulin-Ferrell, and others, to musicians and art patrons …

The Triumphant New LACMA Has the Potential to Rewrite Art History

The Triumphant New LACMA Has the Potential to Rewrite Art History

Published by José Betancourt

Can an art museum tell a non-linear version of art history and still be legible to its visitors? That’s the question guiding the David Geffen Galleries, the new building for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art that opens to members on April 19 and to the public on May 4. Typically, museums narrate millennia of artistic expression as a series of progressive movements limited to the US and Europe, with everything else pushed to the margins. LACMA has historically been one of those museums, with one of the buildings it tore down to make way for the Geffen Galleries being devoted primarily to art of the Americas.   Related Articles Now, with other institutions embracing a more global art history that emphasizes plurality, here comes the new LACMA, where artworks made across multiple centuries press up against each other, as do pieces made within in the same decade but in drastically different geographical contexts. It’s a triumph. The plan to rethink LACMA’s entire campus has been in the works for 25 years, starting with …

Forget plain pink, blooming gel is the new fluid nail art trend taking over salons

Forget plain pink, blooming gel is the new fluid nail art trend taking over salons

Published by Daniella Wilson

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more After a period dominated by understated, plain pink manicures, a new wave of nail art is sweeping through salons, bringing with it a desire for movement and fluidity. The latest technique capturing attention is ‘blooming gel’, a Japanese-born innovation promising unique, diffused designs where no two creations ever look quite the same. At its core, blooming gel is a clear, highly fluid gel with a lower viscosity than standard nail varnish. This unique consistency allows it to disperse colour in ways traditional formulas cannot, creating distinctive patterns. Rhiannon Thayre, a nail art specialist from Paint Nails London, explains: “Blooming gel creates soft, diffused designs like marble, aura or reptile effects.” She adds, “It gently spreads outwards on its own, creating a blurred, almost misty …

Walker Art Center Sever Ties with Restaurant over QR Code Controversy

Walker Art Center Sever Ties with Restaurant over QR Code Controversy

Published by José Betancourt

Cardamom, a beloved restaurant at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, is no more following a controversial decision by the eatery to lay off its front-of-house workers and institute a QR code ordering system. The museum said on Thursday that such a move “does not align with our core values.” “We are committed to creating a welcoming environment for all of our guests at the Walker,” director Mary Ceruti said in a statement. “While we do not oversee the restaurant in our museum, our vision has always been to have a full-service dining option within the Walker to complement the museum experience.” Related Articles She said that the museum leadership was “caught by surprise” by the layoffs, and that the Walker and Cardamom had “decided to part ways.” Operated by chef Daniel del Prado, Cardamom has been open at the Walker since 2021. For its part, the restaurant said the decision to lay off 16 hosts and servers was motivated by shifts impacting its industry. “The restaurant was never profitable,” a Cardamom spokesperson told a …