Artists

Who Was Helen Chadwick, and Why Was She So Important?

Helen Chadwick making Piss Flowers, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada, 1991 Artwork copyright © Estate of Helen Chadwick. Photo: Monte Greenshields. Courtesy of Banff Art Centre, Alberta, Canada. Helen Chadwick was obsessed with the restless, fleeting vestiges of things and feelings that had vanished—what she called “fugitive traces.” Her huge breadth of multimedia installations bloomed …

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Ahead of Art Basel, Katharina Grosse Sprays the Messeplatz with Color

Katharina Grosse. Photo Jean-Christophe Verhaegen/AFP via Getty Images Over the past 40 years, German artist Katharina Grosse (b. 1961) has gained many fans for using an airless spray machine to make eye-catching, color-saturated, and immersive paintings. Many of her works have been shown in museums and galleries—one from 2004 involved spraying paint across the Contemporary …

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This Barbara Kruger Mural from 1990 Has Become the Year’s Most Poignant Artwork

National Guard troops beneath Barbara Kruger’s Untitled (Questions), 1990/2018, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles this past weekend. Photo Jay L Clendenin/Getty Images History repeats itself, and so does Barbara Kruger. Over and over, she has created text-heavy artworks that make visible secret forms of power and control in the media. Over and …

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Grace Hartigan’s Artistic Kinship with Midcentury Poets

Unknown photographer, Grace Hartigan, n.d. Grace Hartigan Papers, Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries. By 1954, artist Grace Hartigan no longer doubted herself. Her bold vigorous paintings, which mixed abstraction with figuration at a time when both methods were strictly separated from one another, were finally receiving an abundance of critical and commercial attention. …

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10 Key Works in “The First Homosexuals: The Birth of a New Identity, 1869-1939”

Photo Collage by Daniela Hritcu. For much of human history, queerness wasn’t thought of as something one was, but rather as something one did. “The First Homosexuals,” an ambitious exhibition at Wrightwood 659, a three-story gallery occupying a former Chicago apartment building, tracks the shift from that fluid definition to a more concrete identity. Most …

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Cabaret Performer Justin Vivian Bond Dishes on the Current Cultural Climate

Justin Vivian Bond before showtime at Joe’s Pub, May 2025 Photo: Christopher Garcia Valle Editor’s Note: This story is part of Newsmakers, a series where we interview the movers and shakers who are making change in the art world. Justin Vivian Bond is a star of the stage and a powerful singer and interpreter of songs. They are …

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Adrien Brody’s Art Is Horrendous. Why Are Some People Pretending It Isn’t?

Adrien Brody beside one of his paintings at the amfAR Cannes Gala in May. Photo Dave Benett/amfAR/Getty Images for amfAR Adrien Brody has received due attention for his acting abilities: his Oscar-winning performance in last year’s film The Brutalist is the kind of work most actors would be lucky to pull off once in their …

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At 98, Thaddeus Mosley Is Still Building His Forest of Wood Sculptures

Thaddeus Mosley. Photo Jason Schmidt Thaddeus Mosley’s wood sculptures weigh hundreds of pounds and typically rise high into the air, soaring far above the 98-year-old artist, who stands just 5 feet and 3 inches tall. But despite the gigantic size and monumental weight of his sculptures, Mosley approaches his elegant creations with ease, nimbly picking …

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MoMA PS1 Chief Curator Ruba Katrib Talks ‘The Gatherers’ Exhibition and What Art Can and Can’t Do

Ruba Katrib Courtesy MoMA PS1/Photo Diana Pfammatter Editor’s Note: This story is part of Newsmakers, a series where we interview the movers and shakers who are making change in the art world. In late April, MoMA PS1 opened its marquee exhibition for the season, “The Gatherers,” a sweeping group show that considers the psychic and material “burdens” of …

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