Latest posts
An Italian Summer on a Vespa Part 1: Riviera Romagnola and Piadina
Of course, on this occasion it would be convenient to speak once again of the enchantment and splendour of the Italian coasts in summer, to linger over the vertical photos and videos on Instagram (which are often more real than reality), over the white tablecloths overlooking the sea, smeared with coffee and fruit: in other…
Available Works Art Book Fair Returns to New York for Its Biggest Edition Yet
Celebrating the enduring appeal of printed art in all its forms, Available Works will return to downtown Manhattan this weekend. Presented by Something Special Studios (SSS*), Water Street Associates (WSA), and Wrong Answer, the two-day event will be hosted within the expansive surrounds of the recently opened cultural hub, WSA. Housed in a towering 1980s…
Black Ancient Futures: Meet the Artists Behind MAAT Lisbon’s Major New Exhibition
Inaugurating the MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology’s autumn programme from 18 September 2024, Black Ancient Futures brings together a group of African and diaspora artists to Portugal’s capital for an exhibition that reimagines the past, present, and future of the Black artistic experience on a transcontinental scale. The participating artists have been…
From Poets Returning From Exile to Artsy Emigrés Figuring Things Out – Five Books to Read Right Now
I find August to be a weird time, especially in Italy where I am writing from. Things grinding to a halt, time stretching out, heat enveloping it all, all the while a droning anxiety creeping in… Perhaps for this reason, quite a few books on this list have to do with alienation – the feeling…
Interviews
Interview: Film Director Wei Shujun on His Hit Chinese Noir,...
Beijing-based director Wei Shujun — behind Ripples of Life and Striding Into the Wind — delivers an unconventional and stylish noir with his latest project, Only the River Flows. The film follows police detective Ma Zhe, portrayed by Yilong Zhu, as he investigates a serial killer in a rural Chinese town during the 90s. Adapted…
Interview: Wu Tsang Revisits the Myth of ‘Carmen’ at MACBA...
Based between Zurich and London, filmmaker and visual artist Wu Tsang’s work traverses genres and disciplines, oscillating and blurring the lines between narrative and documentary film, live performance, and video installation. A MacArthur ‘Genius’ Fellow, Tsang’s projects have been exhibited worldwide, including at New York’s Guggenheim Museum, Gropius Bau in Berlin, Tate Modern in London,…
“Nostalgia Makes Even the Solitary Moments Seem Beautiful” —...
Kenji Ide’s sculptural works, meticulously crafted from materials as varied as wood, paper, wax, stone, and concrete, alongside personal ephemera collected over the years, can be thought of as material poetry — odes to events in the artist’s life. Each component shapes the poem’s form, while their spatial arrangement establishes a rhythm. Appearing almost like…
Preview: An Exclusive Glimpse into 1-54 London’s 2024 Edition with Director Touria El Glaoui
The leading international art fair dedicated to contemporary art from Africa and the African diaspora, 1-54 will return to London’s Somerset House from 10–13 October 2024 — this year featuring 60 exhibitors from 23 countries. Ahead of the fair’s launch, 1-54’s Founding Director Touria El Glaoui offers Something Curated an exclusive glimpse into what we…
‘Girls Will Be Girls’ Review: The Ephemeral Promise of Millennial Love
Girls Will Be Girls, Shuchi Talati’s sharply observed debut feature, begins both literally and figuratively on a mountaintop. Mira (Preeti Panigrahi) is the first girl to become head prefect at her elite, co-educational boarding school in an unnamed town in the Himalayan foothills of Northern India. Mira embodies the focus and diligence of a straightlaced…
For a Late Summer Glow Up Cook This Fortifying Roman Coratella, a Platter of Rich Offal
If you’re on Instagram then there’s a large chance you’ve come across a user named @byashleyenglish one of those who broadcasts her ‘everything I eat in a day’ reels from an idyllic pastoral location in America. While stroking ponies and walking barefoot on the beach, she’s seen sipping raw milk, smiling eerily at the camera…
Cave Churches and Underground Cities: Exploring the Surreal Rock-Cut Architecture of Cappadocia
Spanning millennia, the story of Cappadocia, a myth-steeped and ancient land in Central Anatolia, Turkey, has been shaped by numerous civilisations, religions, and empires over centuries. The region’s history dates back to the Palaeolithic era, with evidence of human settlements existing long before the rise of any organised society. However, it was during the Hittites’…
Guides
24 Perfect Hours in Rome
It’s a heatwave and I’m sitting in Bungee Space in Nolita drinking a guava cold brew from a glass with a rim coated with salted plum sugar thinking, why is New York so cool? So cool that this heatwave feels soothing. As I drink my cool coffee I’m thinking about the Matrix, and how this drink…
Preview: Shanay Jhaveri on the Barbican’s Landmark Exhibitio...
From 5 October 2024, the Barbican will host The Imaginary Institution of India: Art 1975-1998, the world’s first exhibition to explore and chart this period of significant cultural and political change in South Asia. Ahead of the exhibition, Something Curated sat down with Shanay Jhaveri, Head of Visual Arts at the Barbican, to learn more…
A Whistle-Stop Tour of Copenhagen With Klaus Wittrup, Creato...
Klaus Wittrup, a self-taught chef, has worked in diverse kitchens across Denmark, Sweden, and the U.S. Holding a masters degree in business economics and marketing, he also served two influential years as the right-hand to Claus Meyer of Noma fame. He then spent a year in Indiana, a time which he says ‘sparked his passion…
Palm Heights’ Singular Island Restaurant Tillies Arrives in New York City for Fashion Week
For the second consecutive year and building on a triumphant 2023 debut, celebrated island restaurant, Tillies from Palm Heights in Grand Cayman will arrive in New York City this week. The restaurant will be serve a family-style sharing menu from the 41st floor at WSA in FiDi for a six-day Fashion Week pop-up. Tillies’ head…
How the Aesthetics of the Islamic World Influenced Britain’s Arts and Crafts Movement
This autumn, William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow will present the first exhibition on the influence of art from the Islamic world on William Morris, one of Britain’s leading 19th-century designers and thinkers. A principal founder of the Arts and Crafts Movement, Morris was responsible for producing hundreds of patterns for wallpapers, furnishing fabrics, carpets and…
From Ancient Chinese Tombs to Outer Space: The Evolution of Origami
The word “origami” most likely conjures images of neatly folded paper cranes and centuries-old traditions rooted in Japanese history. And while Japan undoubtedly played a critical role in the practice’s evolution and popularisation, the story of paper folding as an art form is richer and more culturally diverse than many assume. To understand its…
How an Alpine Resort Town Came to Host One of the World’s Most Unique Film Festivals
Titled Meanwhile Histories, the third edition of the St. Moritz Art Film Festival (SMAFF) will take place in Switzerland’s Engadin valley from 12–15 September 2024. Under the Artistic Direction of Stefano Rabolli Pansera — Founding Director of Bangkok Kunsthalle and a former Director of Hauser & Wirth — with curatorial support from Roisin Tapponi, Leonardo…
From The Archive
The Studio Museum In Harlem Director & Chief Curator Th...
Thelma Golden is Director and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem, the world’s leading institution devoted to visual art by artists of African descent. Golden began her career as a Studio Museum intern in 1987. The following year, she joined the Whitney Museum of American Art, where she launched her influential curatorial practice….
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….