Exhibition | Tiepolo, Longhi, and Guardi between Art and Fashion
Francesco Guardi, Villa Loredan in Paese, ca. 1780, oil on canvas.
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This exhibition opens in September, as noted by Adam Busiakiewicz at Art History News (with the digitally-generated English translation from Finestre sull’Arte) . . .
Magnifica Eleganza: Tiepolo, Longhi, and Guardi between Art and Fashion
Fondazione Paolo e Carolina Zani, Brescia, 12 September — 6 December 2026
Curated by Massimiliano Capella
Danilo Donati, dress from Federico Fellini’s film Casanova, 1976. For the Roman salon scene, consisting of a sky-blue cotton velvet dress decorated with geometric motifs in burgundy velvet and gold trim, a large panier made of metal ribs covered in beige cotton, and a beige cotton petticoat.
The exhibition, housed in the new exhibition hall of the house museum, illustrates how, even as the Venetian Republic saw its political influence gradually wane, it continued to play a leading role in Europe thanks to its extraordinary cultural prestige and the refined taste and elegance that characterized its society. The exhibition brings together thirty-six works, including paintings and drawings by Pietro Longhi, Giambattista Tiepolo, Francesco Guardi, and Pietro Antonio Rotari, alongside original 18th-century garments—on public display for the first time—and a selection of costumes created by Danilo Donati for Federico Fellini’s Il Casanova (1976), which won an Oscar the following year. The works come from major institutions and collections, including the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia–Gabinetto Stampe e Disegni and Ca’ Rezzonico, the Gallerie d’Italia–Vicenza of Intesa Sanpaolo, the private collection of Mara Bertoli, the Sartoria Farani archive, as well as the Paolo and Carolina Zani Foundation’s House Museum itself.
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Nel pieno declino politico della Serenissima, Venezia conquista l’Europa con la sua eleganza: è questa la città del Settecento raccontata dalla mostra Magnifica Eleganza: Tiepolo, Longhi e Guardi tra arte e moda, alla Fondazione Paolo e Carolina Zani dal 12 settembre al 6 dicembre 2026. Ideata da Massimiliano Capella, l’esposizione propone una lettura inedita della pittura veneziana del XVIII secolo attraverso il dialogo tra arte e moda. In mostra trentasei opere di Longhi, Tiepolo, Guardi e Rotari, abiti originali del Settecento e i costumi di Danilo Donati per Il Casanova di Fellini, premiati con l’Oscar nel 1977. Le opere provengono da importanti istituzioni veneziane, collezioni private e dalla Casa Museo Zani. Il percorso rivela come i maestri veneziani siano stati osservatori straordinari del costume: nei loro dipinti, ogni dettaglio restituisce con precisione codici sociali, gusti e rituali della moda settecentesca.
Installation | Revolution!
Paul Revere Jr., after Henry Pelham, The Boston Massacre, or, The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street, Boston on 5 March 1770 by a party of the 29th Regiment, detail, 1770, hand-colored engraving and etching, second state, sheet: 11 × 9.5 inches (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. Russell Sage, 1910, 10.125.103).
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Opening soon at The Met:
Revolution!
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 19 January — 7 September 2026
Curated by Sylvia Yount, Constance McPhee, and Wolf Burchard
This special installation marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the founding document of the United States of America. Works drawn from many different areas of The Met offer a wide view of the roots, course, and aftermath of the Revolutionary War (1775–1783)—from early conflicts between colonists and Indigenous peoples and the 1765 Stamp Act imposed by the British government on its North American colonies to George Washington’s voluntary retirement, in 1797, from his two-term presidency.
Rarely seen prints reveal the transatlantic circulation of news about the struggle for independence during a fractious political era. This window into the era’s print culture highlights the global dimensions of the rebellion, the contested ideas about liberty that shaped it, and its consequential outcomes. Also on view are American and European works of art that depict a range of significant individuals. These include iconic contributors to the Declaration of Independence John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson; patriots and presidents such as Paul Revere and George Washington; the Wampanoag chief Metacomet, whose conflicts with early British colonists laid the groundwork for revolution; Mohawk leader Thayendanegea, who allied with the British in an effort to retain Indigenous sovereignty; and African American poet Phillis Wheatley, who raised her voice against an expansive tyranny in her call for emancipation. Together, these artworks acknowledge multiple complex and intertwined histories that continue to resonate in the United States and beyond, some two and half centuries later.
Revolution! is curated by Sylvia Yount, Lawrence A. Fleischman Curator in Charge of the American Wing; Constance McPhee, Curator, Department of Drawings and Prints; and Wolf Burchard, Curator, Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts.
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With this additional information from the press release:
The American Wing will also feature in its Alexandria Ballroom (Gallery 719), an historical interior focused on George Washington and his complex legacy—from fall 2025 through early August 2026—with artist Titus Kaphar’s 2016 ‘tar’ portraits of Ona Judge and William Lee, both enslaved members of the Washington family’s households, on loan from private collections. In addition, from March through summer 2026, a recent acquisition by Carla Hemlock (Mohawk) will be on view in dialogue with Rembrandt Peale’s portrait of Washington in the foyer of the Art of Native America installation (Gallery 746 South).
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The Art of the American Revolution: A Conversation with Ken Burns and Sarah Botstein
Thursday, 29 January 2026, 6pm
The Museum will present a panel discussion on the “Art of Revolution” with filmmakers Ken Burns and Sarah Botstein, co-directors with David Schmidt of their new documentary, The American Revolution; historians Philip Deloria and Jane Kamensky; and art historian Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, along with a screening of excerpts from the PBS series, produced exclusively for The Met, highlighting the creative process of visual storytelling. The conversation will provide an opportunity to reflect on the continued relevance of historical imagery and the power of art to explore the varied stories of the country’s founding.
Exhibition | Times in Tapestry
Judocus de Vos after the model by Philippe de Hond, La Rencontre des belligérants, tapestry from l’Art de la guerre, ca. 1718–24, Brussels
(Lausanne: Fondation Toms Pauli, donation Mary Toms)
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Now on view at mudac:
Times in Tapestry / Tisser son temps / Am Webstuhl der Zeit
Musée cantonal de design et d’arts appliqués contemporains, Lausanne, 7 November 2025 — 8 March 2026
mudac and Fondation Toms Pauli are proud to present this exhibition dedicated to tapestry as a vector for social and political discourse.
Goshka Macuga, Performance of Death of Marxism, Women of All Lands Unite, 2013, wool tapestry with two women wearing printed lycra suits, 560 × 290 cm, 2013.
Far from being confined to a decorative role, tapestry has always been a powerful tool for storytelling. From medieval times to contemporary creations, it provides a space for dialogue at the crossroads of collective aspirations, historical narratives, and contemporary issues. The exhibition brings together major works from the Toms collection, woven in the prestigious Brussels workshops between 1660 and 1725, alongside contemporary creations by Goshka Macuga and Grayson Perry. Tapestries, such as The History of Scipio Africanus and The Emperors Titus and Vespasian, depict glorious and symbolic episodes from Roman narratives. At this occasion two tapestries will be presented to the public for the first time, highlighting the value and prestige of this collection, owned by the State of Vaud.
These historical masterpieces resonate with the powerful creations of Goshka Macuga and Grayson Perry. Through tapestries such as Perry’s The Vanity of Small Differences and bespoke works by Macuga, the exhibition explores contemporary themes of social struggle, critiques of consumer society, and power dynamics. For this occasion, Macuga will create a unique textile work, specially created in dialogue with the Toms collection, which will enhance the exhibition with a distinctive and contemporary perspective. The confrontation of ancient and contemporary works highlights the timeless power of tapestry, with its visual language capable of conveying complex messages and fostering reflection on universal issues.
The exhibition press kit is available here»
More on the Toms Collection is available from the press release:
The Toms Collection is one of the most significant privately assembled collections of historic tapestry from the second half of the 20th century. Bequeathed to the State of Vaud by Mary Toms in 1993, it comprises over one hundred wall tapestries and decorative pieces from major European workshops, dating from the early 16th to the late 19th centuries. After amassing a fortune in real estate, British developer Reginald Toms (1892–1978) and his wife Mary (1901–1993) settled at Château de Coinsins in French-speaking Switzerland in 1958, where they discovered a passion for historic textiles. During the 1960s, they acquired over a hundred works, including furniture, carpets, and embroidery.
More than fifty tapestries in the collection originate from the leading workshops of Flanders, particularly from the 17th to the 18th centuries. The gold- and silver-threaded masterpieces on show are drawn from the original Toms collection and later acquisitions by the Toms Pauli Foundation, established in 2000. Known for its geographical, chronological and thematic breadth, as well as its outstanding state of preservation, this collection, owned by the State, has been exhibited in venues such as Payerne Abbey, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the MCBA in Lausanne, the Palacio Real in Madrid, the Cité de la Tapisserie in Aubusson and Musée Rath in Geneva. It now takes pride of place at mudac for this landmark exhibition.
While the name Mary Toms is now recognised worldwide thanks to her prestigious collection, the life of the donor herself remains largely private. Trained as a secretary, Mary Alice Winterton married Reginald Toms in 1933. Reginald had achieved considerable success in finance and real estate, allowing the couple to live an international life between Britain, South Africa, Monte Carlo, and Ireland, before finally settling in French-speaking Switzerland in 1958, where they acquired the Château de Coinsins. In the short span of just ten years (1959–1969), Mary and Reginald Toms assembled, through purchases on the London art market, one of the world’s largest private collections of tapestries from the 16th to the 19th centuries, outside royal or aristocratic holdings.
Until Reginald’s death in 1978, the couple kept their collection relatively private. Yet they were fully aware of its exceptional nature and were concerned with ensuring its preservation. In 1990, Mary Toms drew up a will bequeathing to the Canton of Vaud the Château de Coinsins, its furnishings, art collections and the surrounding vineyard. Upon accepting this legacy, the State undertook to preserve and promote the remarkable collection of tapestries that Mary and Reginald Toms had so passionately assembled during the 1960s.
Based in Lausanne since its founding in 2000, the Toms Pauli Foundation is an active institution on both Swiss and international stages. Its core mission is to research, preserve and promote collections of historic and 20th-century textile art owned by the State of Vaud. The Foundation’s heritage consists of a significant collection of European tapestries and embroidery dating from the 16th to the 19th century, bequeathed by Mary Toms in 1993, as well as textile artworks from 1954 to 2011 that are emblematic of the Nouvelle Tapisserie movement.
Lacking its own exhibition space to showcase its exceptional holdings, the Foundation regularly presented its collections abroad. Since 2020, the Toms Pauli Foundation has been based at Plateforme 10. Its offices, collections, and specialised library are housed within the building of the MCBA. The public can discover the Foundation’s historic and contemporary collections through temporary exhibitions held at Plateforme 10—such as the major 2023 exhibition Magdalena Abakanowicz: Textile Territories, organised in collaboration with Tate—and in other venues in Switzerland and beyond. At the end of 2025, another piece from the Titus and Vespasian series will go on display at the MCBA as a follow-up to the Tisser son temps exhibition.
As the successor to the Centre International de la Tapisserie Ancienne et Moderne (CITAM), the organisation behind the Lausanne Tapestry Biennials from 1962 to 1995, the Foundation also maintains artist archives from these historic events and regularly hosts researchers from around the world.
Exhibition | Flora Yukhnovich’s Four Seasons
Flora Yukhnovich in Her London Studio, 2024
(Photo by Kasia Bobula © Flora Yukhnovich)
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Opening this week at The Frick; see the preview by Ted Loos for The New York Times (28 August 2025) . . .
Flora Yukhnovich’s Four Seasons
The Frick Collection, New York, 3 September 2025 — 9 March 2026
Taking inspiration from the French Rococo, Italian Baroque, and Abstract Expressionist movements, Flora Yukhnovich (b. England, 1990) creates works that are at once modern and timeless by translating historic compositions into contemporary abstractions. Using the Frick’s Four Seasons by François Boucher as a point of departure, Yukhnovich’s site-specific mural will cover the walls of the museum’s Cabinet. This project is accompanied by the publication of a new volume in the Frick’s acclaimed Diptych series, which highlights a single masterpiece from the permanent collection by pairing complementary essays by a curator and a contemporary artist, musician, or other cultural luminary. This volume will feature a text by Yukhnovich and an essay by Xavier F. Salomon, the Frick’s Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator, on the significance of Boucher’s beloved series.
Flora Yukhnovich’s Four Seasons is made possible by Hauser & Wirth and Victoria Miro.
Xavier Salomon and Flora Yukhnovich, Boucher’s Four Seasons (London: D. Giles, 2026), 80 pages, ISBN: 978-1913875732, $30.
Lecture | Beatrice Glow on Speculative Objects
From the BGC:
Beatrice Glow | Speculative Objects
Bard Graduate Center, New York, 5 February 2025, 6pm
Beatrice Glow, Pax Hollandica (Dutch Peace), 2022. VR-sculpted photopolymer 3D print, metallic paint, acrylic paint, enamel coating, chains (Photo: Aertiron).
Responding to archival research on lesser-known public histories, artist Beatrice Glow creates objects that blend digital processes (such as virtual reality sculpting and 3D printing) with meticulous handcrafting to envision speculative futures. In this talk, Glow will introduce two of her recent projects that leverage playful artistry to foster a deeper public understanding of cultural inheritance. First, she will unpack her recent New York Historical solo exhibition, When Our Rivers Meet, in which she collaborated with culture bearers whose heritages were impacted by Dutch colonialism to create an alternative commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the founding of New Amsterdam. This exploration has continued beyond the exhibition and has taken a new form as a board game—Finding Magic Turtle (Unpacking the Four Continents)—commissioned by the Institute of Contemporary Art, San Diego. Glow will also share her current work-in-progress, Gilt/Guilt, a performance-installation imagined as a speculative auction. The hauntingly luxurious collectibles in this project reveal the cascading impacts of colonial violence and environmental extraction.
Beatrice Glow is an American multidisciplinary artist of Taiwanese heritage whose practice includes examinations of archives and collaboration with culture bearers and researchers in the creation of sculpture, installations, textiles, emerging media, and olfactory experiences to envision a more just and thriving world guided by history. Recent solo exhibitions have taken place at the New York Historical and the Baltimore Museum of Art. Her work has been supported by Creative Capital, the National Endowment for the Arts, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, Yale-NUS College, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at New York University, the Fulbright Program, and many more. More information about her work is available here.
Exhibition | Stan Douglas: The Enemy of All Mankind
Stan Douglas, Act II, Scene XII: In which Polly Convinces Pirates Laguerre and Capstern to Release their Captive, Prince Cawwawkee, for a Prize Rather than go to War Against His People with Morano, 2024, inkjet print mounted on Dibond aluminum, 150 × 200 cm, edition of 5.
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From the press release for the show, which was covered by Walker Mimms for The New York Times (17 October 2024). . .
Stan Douglas | The Enemy of All Mankind: Nine Scenes from John Gay’s Polly
David Zwirner, New York, 12 September — 26 October 2024
David Zwirner is pleased to announce an exhibition by Stan Douglas, on view at the gallery’s 525 West 19th Street location in New York. Featuring a new photographic series, The Enemy of All Mankind: Nine Scenes from John Gay’s Polly, this will be the artist’s eighteenth solo exhibition with the gallery. In this stand-alone group of nine images, Douglas stages scenes from the eighteenth-century comic opera Polly, written by English dramatist John Gay (1685–1732), using the narrative as a vehicle through which to engage a wide range of themes that remain highly relevant today, including race, class, gender, and media. One work from the series debuted in David Zwirner: 30 Years, on view in summer 2024 in Los Angeles, and this will mark the first presentation of the body of work in its entirety.
Since the 1980s, Douglas has created films, photographs, and other multidisciplinary projects that investigate the parameters of their respective mediums. His ongoing inquiry into technology’s role in image making, and how those mediations infiltrate and shape collective memory, has resulted in works that are at once specific in their historical and cultural references and broadly accessible. Since the beginning of his career, photography has been a central focus of Douglas’s practice, used at first as a means of preparing for his films and eventually as a powerful pictorial tool in its own right. The artist is influenced in particular by media theorist Vilém Flusser’s notion of the photographic image as an encoded language that is determined by a specific set of technological, social, cultural, and political circumstances.
Stan Douglas, Overture: In which Convicted Brigand Captain Macheath is Transported to the West Indies Where He will be Impressed into Indentured Labour, 2024, inkjet print mounted on Dibond aluminum, 150 × 200 cm, edition of 5.
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A sequel to Gay’s well-known The Beggar’s Opera (which was later adapted as The Threepenny Opera), Polly was censored by the British government for its embedded satire and critique, particularly of policies around the parceling out of land; as a result, it was never produced during Gay’s lifetime. Douglas further notes that Polly was ahead of its time, as it “satirizes imperial patriarchal hierarchies of race and class—as well as gender norms, which it depicts as performative” (Douglas, in correspondence with the gallery, March 2024).
Gay’s stage play follows the eponymous Polly Peachum, who travels to the West Indies to search out her estranged husband, Captain Macheath, who has disguised himself as a Black man known as Morano and adopted the life of a pirate. Upon her arrival on the island, Polly is, unbeknownst to her, sold to a wealthy plantation owner as a courtesan. After eventually securing her freedom, she is advised to disguise herself as a young man to ward off unwanted male attention, and as a result becomes entangled in a series of skirmishes between the colonial settlers, the native population, and the pirates.
To create the photographs—which were shot in Jamaica using Hollywood-level production effects—Douglas enlisted a cast of actors to read from a loose script that he adapted for the chosen scenes, modifying certain characters and elements to bring the themes in line with the present day. For example, in Douglas’s version, Captain Macheath was a Black man passing as white in London who, once in the West Indies, drops the disguise and lets his hair grow out. Rather than posing the players, he photographed them continuously as they acted out and improvised the dialogue, then selected as the final images those that best embodied the ideas put forth in the narrative. The resulting large-scale photographs are dynamically realized, taking the form of sweeping tableaux where dramatis personae and setting collide in vivid color. Retaining Gay’s sense of comedic folly and satire as well as the underlying pathos of the story, the images bear traces of the various forms of media through which they have been filtered, employing formal elements drawn from theatrical, cinematic, and photographic conventions alike. Accordingly, Douglas positions the viewer as a spectator—a voyeuristic witness to the various narrative turns and apparent absurdities in which relationships are transactional and enemies expendable.
Stan Douglas, Act II, Scene VI: In which the Wife of Pirate Captain Morano, Jenny Diver, Attempts to Seduce Polly, who is Disguised as a Man to Avoid Molestation, detail, 2024, inkjet print mounted on Dibond aluminum, 150 × 150 cm, edition of 5.
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Douglas’s use of Polly as the basis for this project arose out of his long-standing interest in maroon societies, large groups of enslaved persons who banded together to run away and start new, proto-democratic societies. Contrary to their depiction in popular media, pirate ships occasionally functioned as collaborative maroon societies in their own right. The title of the series, The Enemy of All Mankind, is taken from a doctrine of eighteenth-century maritime law (in Latin, hostis humani generis) under which pirates could be attacked by anyone since they fell outside the protection of any nation, but its core notion of defining certain groups as enemies or outsiders resonates broadly today. In Polly, the pirates—in contrast to the settlers and indigenous people—are meant to embody immorality and evil, yet in pulling out specific strands of the narrative, Douglas points to a more nuanced understanding of such sweeping generalities.
Stan Douglas (b. 1960) was born in Vancouver and studied at Emily Carr College of Art in Vancouver in the early 1980s. Douglas was one of the earliest artists to be represented by David Zwirner, where he had his first American solo exhibition in 1993—the second show in the gallery’s history.
Douglas’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at prominent institutions worldwide since the 1980s. In 2022, the artist represented his native Canada at the Venice Biennale, where he debuted a major video installation, ISDN (2022)—now in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and The Museum of Modern Art, New York—and a related body of photographs. Subsequently, the exhibition Stan Douglas: 2011 ≠ 1848 traveled around Canada with stops at The Polygon Gallery, Vancouver (fall 2022); Remai Modern, Saskatoon (February–April 2023); and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (September 2023–October 2024). A solo exhibition also titled 2011 ≠ 1848 was subsequently staged in 2023 at De Pont Museum, Tilburg, the Netherlands. In 2023, this body of work inaugurated David Zwirner’s new Los Angeles location, and it is currently on view at the Parque de Serralves in Porto, Portugal, through 12 January 2025.
Douglas has been the recipient of notable awards, including the Audain Prize for Visual Art (2019); the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography (2016); the third annual Scotiabank Photography Award (2013); and the Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography, New York (2012). In 2021, Douglas was knighted as a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture, and in 2023 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Simon Fraser University, Greater Vancouver. Work by the artist is held in major museum collections worldwide.
Exhibition | Sonya Clark: The Descendants of Monticello
Blinking eyes appear in the windows of Declaration House as part of Sonya Clark’s installation The Descendants of Monticello. Thomas Jefferson resided at the site while writing the Declaration of Independence, together with his enslaved valet Robert Hemmings. The original house was razed in 1883; it was reconstructed in 1975. (Photo by Steve Weinik/Monument Lab).
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From Philadelphia’s Monument Lab:
Declaration House | Sonya Clark’s The Descendants of Monticello
Independence National Historical Park, Philadelphia, 24 June — 1 December 2024
Declaration House is a public art and history exhibition presented by Monument Lab at Independence National Historical Park that explores the site where Thomas Jefferson and Robert Hemmings spent several months in Philadelphia during the drafting of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The project poses a central question: What does the Declaration of Independence mean to us today? By moving Hemmings to the center of this moment in history, the project seeks to illuminate the entangled legacies of freedom and enslavement at the core of our nation’s founding.
Declaration House presents the exclusive premiere of Sonya Clark’s The Descendants of Monticello, a public artwork that brings the historic house to life through a monumental montage featuring the blinking eyes of Robert Hemmings’ collateral descendants and others who are related to the over 400 people enslaved at Monticello, including descendants biologically related to Jefferson. Declaration House also includes public programs with creative residents Jeannine A. Cook and Ty ‘Dancing Wolf’ Ellis, and a Welcome Station during summer weekend hours at the historic house where visitors are invited to respond to the project’s central question with hand-drawn responses that will be collected by Monument Lab and shared with Independence National Historical Park to inform future programming and reflection ahead of America’s Semiquincentennial in 2026.
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Philip Kennicott wrote about the installation for The Washington Post (12 August 2024). More information, including additional press coverage, is available at Monument Lab.
Performance | Handel: Made in America
Image (clockwise from top-left): Latonia Moore, Terrance McKnight (photo by Julie Yarbrough Photography), J’Nai Bridges (photo by Dario Acosta), Davóne Tines (photo by Noah Morrison), Malcolm J. Merriweather, and Noah Stewart.
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Two performances, next week at The Met:
Handel: Made in America
Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 15 and 16 February 2024
Friday, February 16 at 6pm, join us for a pre-concert discussion with Juilliard ethnomusicology professor Fredara Hadley and Handel scholar (and Handel: Made in America co-creator) Ellen Harris, moderated by journalist Eric V. Copage (The New York Times)—free with ticketed admission to the performance
George Frideric Handel was the it-boy of 18th-century England. His music spread across boundaries of genre and social class, making his operas, oratorios, and instrumental works wildly popular with the British masses. But Handel rose to fame atop the burgeoning British Empire, history’s most influential global superpower, and in Georgian England, the same trading companies that underwrote arts and culture turned their profits from sinister activities: the trade of exotic goods and, most notably, enslaved people.
Through the lens of Handel’s life and works, musician and storyteller Terrance McKnight (WQXR) leads an intimate and revealing journey about art, power, history, and family, weaving his own history as a young African American man inspired by classical music with the story of Handel’s world and the money, power, and people that moved and were moved by it. Director Pat Eakin Young (La Celestina at The Met), conductor Malcolm J. Merriweather (The Ballad of the Brown King at The Met), and famed Handel scholar Ellen Harris complement a cast of star opera singers: soprano Latonia Moore, mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges, tenor Noah Stewart, and bass-baritone Davóne Tines. Commissioned by MetLiveArts. Tickets start at $35.
• Terrance McKnight, co-creator and performer
• Pat Eakin Young, co-creator and director
• Ellen Harris, co-creator and dramaturg
• Malcolm J. Merriweather, conductor
• Latonia Moore, soprano
• J’Nai Bridges, mezzo-soprano
• Noah Stewart, tenor
• Davóne Tines, bass-baritone
• Voices of Harlem, choir
Exhibition | Michail Michailov’s Dust to Dust at the Belvedere
Michail Michailov, Dust to Dust, as installed in the Carlone Hall of the Upper Belvedere in 2023.
(Photo by Johannes Stoll)
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From the press release (via Art Daily) for the exhibition:
Michail Michailov: Dust to Dust
Upper Belvedere, Vienna, 19 October 2023 — 14 April 2024
Curated by Stella Rollig with Johanna Hofer
As part of the Belvedere’s Carlone Contemporary series, Michail Michailov presents Dust to Dust, an 18-part trompe l’oeil drawing, previously exhibited at the Bulgarian Pavilion of the 2022 Venice Biennale. The modular work captures incidental, often overlooked vestiges of time, such as dust, hair, imprints, and stains, calling into question the value and existence of things.
Michail Michailov, Dust to Dust, detail, colored pencil on paper, 2022 (Photograph by Lisa Rastl).
Upon first glance, Dust to Dust may seem like a minimalist installation amid the baroque ambiance of the Carlone Hall. However, upon closer inspection, the display’s space-consuming surface reveals profound poetry. Michailov has meticulously crafted an 18-part series of colored pencil drawings that capture the often unnoticed and incidental vestiges of time. The work is a microcosm touching on fundamental questions of value, transience, and existence with striking simplicity. The realism of Michailov’s trompe l’oeil technique can also be observed above the installation, in the Triumph of Aurora ceiling fresco, which portrays the victory of light over darkness.
Michail Michailov states: “While science explores matter through its composition, I try to understand its meaning through art.”
General Director Stella Rollig states: “Michail Michailov is interested in providing his audience with an experience that only art can make possible. The old master technique of trompe l’oeil that he employs in the Carlone Hall seeks to amaze, amuse, and fascinate. Whether in a large-scale installation or a sheet of paper, Michailov’s work challenges the senses to set the mind in motion.”
Michail Michailov was born in 1978 in Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria, where he studied fine arts. Since 2002, he has lived and worked in Vienna, where he completed a degree in art history. His artistic practice moves fluidly between the fields of drawing, installation, film, and performance. The Carlone Contemporary Series showcases contemporary works in the Carlone Hall of the Upper Belvedere. From the frescoed ancient world of the deities Apollo and Diana to the present day, artists bridge the Baroque pictorial program with fresh artistic perspectives.
Exhibition | Raphaël Barontini: We Could Be Heroes
From the English summary (via ArtFacts) of the exhibition opening this week at the Panthéon (Jessica Fripp’s review of Barontini’s Blue Lewoz appeared in J18 last October) . . .
Raphaël Barontini: We Could Be Heroes
Panthéon, Paris, 19 October 2023 — 11 February 2024
In October, Raphaël Barontini will unveil a major presentation at the Panthéon in Paris, focusing on the history and the memory of anti-slavery struggle. With this monument of national memory, which honors numerous and important figures in the abolitionist movement (i.e. Condorcet, abbé Grégoire, Toussaint Louverture, Louis Delgrès, Schoelcher, Félix Éboué), Raphaël Barontini aims to shine a spotlight on heroic figures of the fight against slavery. Whether well-known or not, each played critical roles in achieving abolition.
The artist has designed a monumental, on-site installation composed of flags and banners in a guard of honor. The north and south transepts will host two panoramic textile installations, Barontini is planning a live performance during the opening: a West Indian carnival procession. The collaborative creation will involve musicians and dancers. In bringing to life the memory of these struggles, they will be interacting with the textile and graphic works installed within the artist’s creation.
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