Latest posts
Looking Back at 2024’s Best Photographs
Early on this year at Something Curated, we introduced the ‘my best photograph’ series, where we ask a photographer or visual artist we love to share an image that means a lot to them – and to tell the audience the story behind the image. We’ll continue this into 2025, inviting some of the industry’s most…
Abundance Culinary, Ohio Is a Modern Chinese Restaurant for These Times
Abundance Culinary could only exist in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. The borough and its nearly 45,000 residents centres around the Cedar Lee high street and surrounding commercial areas, where Abundance Culinary sits – a mad libs modern Chinese restaurant that opened last year. Occupying a retro-fit diner, Abundance is just a short walk from the local high…
Interview: Ndayé Kouagou Has a Message for Everybody
Paris-based artist Ndayé Kouagou’s cross-disciplinary works evolve from self-authored texts, which serve as a launch pad to explore themes of unease, power, and vulnerability. His meandering output spans performance, film, textiles, sculpture, and installation—often probing the aphoristic language of self-help gurus and online influencers. The artist’s work has recently been shown at major institutions including…
The Something Curated 2024 Holiday Gift Guide
Welcome to the Something Curated holiday gift guide for 2024 — a varied list of items, objects, and experiences for loved ones, all selected by friends of the SC community. Happy shopping and happy holidays. The Substance Candle — Slime Recommended by fashion and culture writer Lauren Cochrane. Anyone who saw The Substance has the last…
Interviews
Interview: In Conversation with Cerith Wyn Evans
Welsh conceptual artist Cerith Wyn Evans first came to attention in the 1980s as an experimental filmmaker, often collaborating with dancers and performers during this period. Today best known for his sculptures and site-specific installations, his works draw from a rich trove of references, spanning literature, music, philosophy, photography, poetry, art history and science. Employing…
Cole Lu: “The Idea of Something Born From Destruction ...
Fusing historical and literary motifs with personal experiences, Taipei-born New York-based multidisciplinary artist Cole Lu’s works tell meandering stories of dissonance and longing. Bolstered by references from ancient mythologies, Lu’s sculptures and paintings — made of burnt wood panels, linen, engraved metal, and concrete — nod to diverse cultures and temporalities. On view now and…
“Spitting Is a Dubious Act” — In Conversation wi...
Combining poetry, film, sculpture and installation, French-Moroccan artist Tarek Lakhrissi’s transdisciplinary practice centres on queer and diasporic perspectives and experiences. His installations borrow their aesthetics from literature and pop culture, often using autofiction—the interfusion of a biographical report with fictional elements—to probe socio-political narratives. Inaugurating NıCOLETTı’s new London gallery space on 91 Paul Street, Lakhrissi’s…
Butterfly in Vienna: Photographer Benjamin McMahon’s Best Shot
I made this picture in Vienna some years ago while I was there for a shoot. I was waiting for someone to turn up to have their picture taken and wandered off distracted and saw this butterfly. I always thought the picture was equal parts pretty, romantic, and sad. It’s flying gracefully surrounded by beautiful…
A First Look Inside The Reflections Room, London Docklands’ New Contemporary Art Space
This week, London Museum Docklands will unveil The Reflections Room, a new permanent space dedicated to contemporary art, with exhibitions probing the topics and historical narratives represented throughout the museum’s collections—such as immigration, colonialism, slavery, and Black British identity. The new space will be inaugurated on 29 November with the presentation of Exodus, a layered…
Interview: Through Self-Portraiture, Sang Woo Kim Is Reclaiming His Image
Born in Seoul and raised in the UK from a young age, Sang Woo Kim probes the tensions and fragmentation of identity lived by many first-generation immigrants. Carefully navigating a space of cultural duality, Kim’s self-portraits explore his experiences as a Korean man coming of age in British society. Through close-cropped compositions and varied textures—ranging…
Five Books to Read in November 2024
A selection of the best stuff that’s published in the last 30 days or so. THE QUESTION OF PALESTINE, Edward Said Fitzcarraldo Editions, pp. 384 With the International Criminal Courts issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes as I finish writing this…
Guides
Eating and Exploring in the Beautiful Alpine Town of Annecy
Almost 20 years ago, I spent a dreamy summer living with a host family in the Alpine town of Annecy, situated on one of Europe’s most magnificent lakes. The town is, in many ways, unchanged since then –crisscrossed by flowerbox-lined canals an almost luminescent shade of blue, and ever popular with package tourists in safari gear….
Where to Eat Hot, Soupy Xiaolongbao and Shengjianbao in Shan...
While China struggles to rebuild its economy after the pandemic, Shanghai still retains its title as one of the country’s most exciting modern cities. As the creative capital, from Shanghai Art Week to Shanghai Fashion Week (the draw of which even Rihanna and A$AP Rocky can’t resist), the city emanates a shine from its ‘new…
Sue Park’s Seoul: An Artist’s Guide to South KoreaR...
After earning her masters in Sculpture at London’s Royal College of Art, South Korean artist Sue Park returned to Seoul to build her multidisciplinary practice, exploring existential themes from environmental change to personal relationships — underpinned by a precarious sense of uncertainty that characterises our future. Through a mix of mediums, such as embroidery, video,…
FNT Comes to Brooklyn’s 99 Scott for an Unforgettable Night of Culture, Combat, and Community
What do you get when you mix the grit of underground fight clubs, the glamour of New York’s arts scene, and the energy of a late-night party? The answer is FNT, the brainchild of Bekim Trenova. Seeking to rekindle the spirit of “old New York,” FNT began as an illegal fight party, evolving into one…
Dreaming of Xi’an: Inside the Kitchen of ‘Chef’s Table’ Star Guirong Wei in London
During the course of the last 15 years, 36-year-old Guirong Wei has established herself among London’s preeminent Chinese chefs and the one at the vanguard of Xi’an cuisine and the culture of biang biang noodles around it. Having first put down roots at the now-cult favourite Xi’an Impression in the shadow of the Emirates stadium…
Rituals of Care: Antonio Obá at Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève
Rituals of Care marks the first mid-career survey in Europe for Brazilian artist Antonio Obá, an exhibition that reclaims historical narratives and delves into themes of spirituality and identity. Curated by Andrea Bellini, the show at the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève spans two floors, offering a compelling exploration of Obá’s layered practice. Through a seamless…
How to Cook Mambow Chef Abby Lee’s Slow-Cooked, Spicy-Sour Asam Pedas Oxtail
This is a Malay dish famous in Kota Kinabalu, a coastal city in East Malaysia. Asam Pedas translates to ‘sour and spicy’ and is best known as a fish curry, with modern variations using okra, aubergine, and pineapple. However, I have only really seen the oxtail version cooked in that region. The main difference with…
From The Archive
Meet Harris Dickinson, the Compelling Lead Actor of ‘B...
British actor Harris Dickinson plays the lead role in Eliza Hittman’s critically acclaimed Beach Rats, which chronicles a young man’s struggle with his sexuality over the course of a summer, amid the stultifying machismo of outer Brooklyn. Opening in select theatres on 24 November, the film follows Frankie, portrayed by Dickinson, as he roams the…
Interview: Ernesto Neto On Gravity, Togetherness & The ...
Since the 1990s, Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto has produced an inimitable body of work that is in equal parts informed by sensuality and spirituality. Inspired by the Brazilian Conceptualists Lygia Clark and Hélio Oiticica, as well as biomorphism, Minimalism and Arte Povera, Neto’s works engage all of our senses while asserting the human body as…
SC Exclusive: Notes on a Siren — a Film Essay by Justice Jam...
Director Justice Jamal Jones joins myth with modern themes of Black queerness and trans identity in their latest film, Notes on a Siren. Presented by Something Curated, and exclusively premiering on the site, the film was shot on location at Palm Heights in Grand Cayman. Jones expands on the thinking behind their mesmerising work below….