Author: Iris

Women’s History Museum transforms fashion from the past into contemporary art. That’s why I was not surprised when Mattie Barringer and Amanda McGowan—founders of the art collective and clothing line with a community boutique in New York—suggested that they may have met in a past life. Together, they joked “maybe we met in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.” That infamous 1911 disaster in Greenwich Village took the lives of 146 garment workers—123 of them women, and many, adolescents, some as young as 14. The workshop produced shirtwaists, Edwardian-style women’s blouses that were, by then, going out of style. The fire’s…

art marketArun KakkarCyberattacks, major lawsuits, bananas – there’s no doubt that 2024 is an eventful year for the auction market. At the top end, the combined price of the 100 most expensive lots sold at auction in 2024 totaled just under $1.8 billion, compared with $2.4 billion in 2023 and $4.1 billion in 2022. This year’s main selling season also presents an uneven picture: During New York’s big auction week in November, Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips auction houses totaled $1.3 billion – a 40% drop from the previous year. But these top-line numbers obscure a more nuanced picture of the…

It’s no secret that 2024 will be a challenging year for the global art market. Asia is not immune. Across the continent, people described sentiment as slightly subdued due to high interest rates, inflation and geopolitical tensions. Despite the market downturn, the region has remained resilient and there are many reasons to remain optimistic. January got off to a slow start, but March’s excitement was high at Art Basel Hong Kong, which remains the region’s most important fair. Shanghai’s annual art season also caused a stir last month. The representation of Asian artists in global art fairs and institutions in…

As the year 2024 draws to a close, we reflect on the artists who have produced interesting works. Among them is Romanian artist Alexandra Jicol, whose creations are both emotive and thoughtful. Jicol’s childhood in Bucharest, shaped by political oppression and limited freedoms, offered a duality that still influences her work today. Spending her time between the serenity of the mountains and the vibrancy of the city, she cultivated a unique perspective on life. Her early exposure to storytelling and visual media, thanks to her mother’s work in Romanian television, gave her the foundation to develop her distinctive voice as…

As the year 2024 winds down, it’s a fitting time to reflect on the artists who have created interesting works. One such artist is Dutch sculptor Caroline Kampfraath, whose installations are redefining how we interact with complex themes and layered narratives. Her work, widely exhibited on international stages, captivates audiences with its surreal, thought-provoking nature. Kampfraath begins each piece with an open-ended question: what material best serves the story she wants to tell? Resin, wool, bronze, lead, and glass are just some of the elements she incorporates, often juxtaposing these unlikely materials in ways that create striking contrasts. The result…

As the year 2024 draws to a close, we take a moment to reflect on the artists who the artists who have created some interesting works. Among them is Randa Hijazi, a Syrian-Canadian painter based in Laval, Quebec. Hijazi’s artistic journey has been shaped by her experiences in Damascus, Dubai, and Canada, with each chapter influencing her perspective and craft. She earned a Fine Arts degree from the University of Damascus in 2000 and later pursued Mass Communication and Media Science, graduating in 2008. This blend of art and media education honed her ability to tell stories that resonate on…

Gordon Parks, “Department Store” (1956) in Mobile, Alabama, from Race Stories: Essays on the Power of Images by Maurice Berger (Aperture, 2024) (© The Gordon Parks Foundation; image courtesy the Gordon Parks Foundation)Art critic and Harvard professor Sarah Lewis is perhaps best known for her groundbreaking Vision & Justice initiative, sparked by her 2016 guest-edited issue of Aperture of the same name revealing the role visual art plays in defining and challenging racial ideologies. Her continued collaboration with Aperture includes Race Stories: Essays on the Power of Images (2024), the first posthumous collection of writings by art critic Maurice Berger,…

The early days of Werner Herzog’s new documentary Theater of Thoughts (2024), we meet Bryan Johnson, a venture capitalist who has invested in several science companies and founded the neurotech company Kernel. We see Johnson and neuroscientist Raphael Yost (who sometimes serves as Herzog’s sidekick in the film) trying on Kernel’s diagnostic helmet, which monitors blood levels in the brain and highlights activity with color area. Yost tests the helmet by telling an “outrageous” lie and watching how his brain lights up. But the most outrageous thing he could think of was that five plus five equals 11, and the…

Holly Lane, Companions, The Three Graces (2021), acrylic and wood sculpture, 24 x 16 1/4 x 4 7/8 inches (approx. 61 x 41.3 x 12.4 cm) (Photos by Patrick Tregenza, courtesy of the artist and Wingfield Gallery; all other photos John Seid/allergic)LOS GATOS, Calif. — As carved, gilded and decorated frames fell out of fashion in the mid-20th century, another idea took hold: Modern paintings required only a simple molded strip around the edge. In addition to being expensive, this handmade frame can also be called an “antique”. When artist Holly Lane was an undergraduate painting student at San Jose…

Barbie (2023), Girl Dinner, Roman Empires, and yacht-hunting orcas were microscopic glimmers of joy in last year’s memescape, grasping at relatability, connectivity, and misplaced optimism amid live-streamed global atrocities. This year, however, was different. The disparate and chronically unserious nature of virality in 2024 stems from accepting an uncertain expiration date for our survival on a burning planet with no extinguisher in sight. Feeble and superficial connections over common interests and shared notions of 🎀girlhood🎀 were fun while they lasted, but they can no longer cover or even fog up the inscrutable fuckery around us, exacerbated by finger-wagging, virtue-signaling keyboard…