At least 20 demonstrators were arrested this afternoon, May 31, during a massive protest against Israel’s war on Gaza at the Brooklyn Museum. Over 500 activists overtook the New York museum, staging a protest in its lobby, waving Palestine flags above its glass pavilion, and unfurling a large banner from its rooftop that read “Free Palestine, Divest From Genocide.” Some protesters also tagged artist Deborah Kass’s yellow “OY/YO” (2015) sculpture outside the museum’s entrance with slogans including “Gaza Will Be Free,” “40,000 people dead,” and “Ur Museum Kills Kids in Palestine.” Protesters t ..read more

VENICE — While biennials have practically metastasized across the globe, the Venice Biennale is the OG — the first ever biennial that launched the whole phenomenon back in 1895. Its success can be seen in the influential biennials that have followed, including the Bienal de São Paulo, the Whitney Biennial, the Gwangju Biennale, and more than a hundred others worldwide. Unfortunately, in the last few years the curatorial frameworks for biennials are showing signs of fatigue, as introductory texts use generic artspeak that could describe most group exhibitions and provide a thin pretext for cur ..read more

“I wish you well,” Gwyneth Paltrow tells convicted felon Donald Trump in a popular online meme (screenshot Hyperallergic) As we gear up for what is surely the most soul-crushing election year in the history of our imperiled democracy, the slow-turning wheels of justice have delivered a small victory for creatures of good conscience. The 45th United States President and sack of worms in a man-suit, Donald J. Trump, was found guilty on 34 charges of falsifying business records in an effort to influence the 2016 presidential election. Whether or not this will affect his election prospects in Nove ..read more

Alison Croney Moses has been selected as the recipient of the annual BMC Prize, a grant for artists working in the spirit of Black Mountain College. Croney Moses creates wooden objects that reach out to your senses — the smell of cedar, the color of honey or the deep blue sea, the round form that signifies safety and warmth, the gentle curve that beckons to be touched. Born and raised in North Carolina by Guyanese parents, making clothing, food, furniture, and art is embedded in her memories of childhood. Croney Moses carries these values into adulthood and parenting; creating experiences, co ..read more

‣ Writer Elisa Wouk Almino, former Hyperallergic senior editor, interviews photographer Catherine Opie for the Los Angeles Times’s Image magazine about her “big-bottom girl chair,” artistic odes to queer love, and the meaning of home: I suppose it’s a common impulse to want to get to know the artists you admire, to feel like you’ve gotten closer to knowing them after meeting them. I look at Opie’s work, I talk with her for an hour, I note the gaps and try to connect the dots. With her in her studio, I feel rewarded, as she gives the impression of not holding back. She is open about her ..read more

Welcome to the 236th installment of A View From the Easel, a series in which artists reflect on their workspace. This week, artists get back to basics with pinhole photography, invite passersby into their studio, and imagine an art world free of commodification. Want to take part? Check out our new submission guidelines and share a bit about your studio with us through this form! All mediums and workspaces are welcome, including your home studio. Tamen Pérez, Williamsburg, Brooklyn How long have you been working in this space? I moved in August 2023 and get to stay until Augus ..read more

Shelley Niro (Kanien’kehaka) grew up watching her father craft faux tomahawks to sell to tourists who flocked to her birthplace, Niagara Falls. In this episode of the Hyperallergic podcast, she reflects on how witnessing him create these objects planted the seeds for her brilliant multidisciplinary art practice spanning film, sculpture, beading, and photography. The National Museum of the American Indian in New York displayed a retrospective of her work titled Shelley Niro: 500 Year Itch, set to travel this June to the National Gallery of Canada, in Ottawa, Ontario. Niro joined us in our Broo ..read more

Detail of Karl Bryullov, “The Last Day of Pompeii” (1830-1833), oil on canvas, which was painted after the artist visited the site (image via Wikimedia Commons) Around noon on a day late in 79 CE, Mount Vesuvius began to rumble and erupt. Ash and pumice rained over the cities near the volcano around the Bay of Naples, and waves of toxic gasses and fast-moving pyroclastic flows sealed the denizens’ fate. As the third and final episode of the docuseries Pompeii: The New Dig reconstructs, the final moments of Vesuvius were a terrifying but telling story. “The Final Hours,” which aired on Wednesd ..read more

Brooklyn-based photographer Phil Buehler has a few tips for visiting abandoned places: Enter through doors, not windows; “no trespassing” signs must be posted conspicuously to be valid; don’t carry things like spray paint; and if you get caught, come out looking sheepish and with your camera gear in hand.  “I just explain that I’m trying to rescue history,” Buehler told Hyperallergic. “I’ve always gotten off. Except once.” Buehler is the expert — he’s been photographing the desolate and derelict fringes of urbanscapes for the last 50 years. A new solo show at Front Room Gallery in Hudson ..read more

When New York City-based artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles became the first artist-in-residence at the Department of Sanitation (DSNY), the position was an anomaly. In 1977, the concept of an arts residency at a waste facility was unexplored territory, even for Ukeles, then a full-time mother whose own arts career was rooted in nonconformity. Still, despite its peculiarity — or perhaps because of it — Ukuleles gladly accepted the offer, and nearly 50 years later, she is still the city agency’s official (unsalaried) resident artist while other municipal sanitation departments around the country ha ..read more