Latest posts

Remembering The Shiraz Arts Festival (1967-1977)

In 1966, the idea of organising an international festival to honour Iran’s traditional artistic heritage, nurture burgeoning creativity, and elevate the nation’s cultural standing was initiated by Queen Farah Pahlavi, known as the Shahbanu in Persian. The vision encompassed the goals of promoting a broader appreciation of Iranian artists’ work, introducing foreign artists to Iran,…

The Spooky Stories Behind Katsushika Hokusai’s Famed Woodblock Prints

Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai is a Japanese tradition in which people gather at night to exchange eerie ghost stories and personal anecdotes. This game involves the sequential telling of stories, with illumination provided by a hundred candles. After each tale, a candle is extinguished, gradually plunging the surroundings into deeper darkness. Originally, the game served as a…

The Best From The Venice Architecture Biennale 2023

Titled The Laboratory of the Future and curated by Ghanaian-Scottish architect, academic and writer, Lesley Lokko, the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale is now open to the public and running until 26 November 2023. The Biennale includes 63 national participants spread across the Giardini, at the Arsenale, and in the historic city centre of Venice. As…

Interviews

Interview: Iranian Artist & Filmmaker Gelare Khoshgozara...

Born in Tehran in 1986 during the Iran-Iraq war, LA-based Iranian artist, writer and filmmaker Gelare Khoshgozaran uses film and video to explore narratives of belonging outside of the geographies and temporalities that have both unsettled a sense of home, and make places of affinity uninhabitable. Khoshgozaran has previously presented her work at the New…

Interview: London Gallerist Angelica Jopling On The Launch O...

Incubator, an ambitious new platform for emerging artists, has launched as a permanent gallery and project space at 2 Chiltern Street, London this month. Initiated and led by Angelica Jopling, the daughter of White Cube founder Jay Jopling, Incubator seeks to foster a vibrant community for burgeoning artists, amplifying their work through a programme of…

 

Iraq Brings The Mosul Cultural Museum Back To Life

Ambitious restoration plans for Iraq’s Mosul Cultural Museum (MCM) and its invaluable collection have been announced this month. The initiative highlights the site’s significance within architectural and world history and places the museum at the centre of the region’s cultural and community regeneration. The second largest museum in Iraq, following Baghdad’s National Museum, the institution…

5 Filipino Fashion Designers You Should Know

Broadly speaking, the clothing style and fashion sense of the Philippines in the modern-day era have been influenced by the nation’s indigenous tribes, Chinese waves of immigration, the Spaniards, and the Americans, as evidenced by the chronology of events that occurred in Philippine history. Today, in a globalised world shaped by social media, prevailing fashion…

What Studio Z Taught Us

Studio Z emerged as an avant-garde art collective in the 1970s, a time when artistic expression outside the confines of the conventional, straight, white male mainstream often went unrecognised. Studio Z was founded by David Hammons, Senga Nengudi, Maren Hassinger and Houston Conwill, who welcomed the inclusion of numerous other artists. The collective first came…

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