The Best Art from 2024
By Keshav AnandFrom Archie Moore’s celebrated Australian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, to Naudline Pierre and Caitlin Cherry’s interactive floats at Cayman Carnival, and Mariko Mori’s luminous Peace Crystal destined for an Ethiopian cave, artists around the world have sparked important conversations about identity, community, and resistance through diverse projects this past year. Here’s a look back at some of the most remarkable art of 2024, reaffirming the possibilities of creative expression.
Who would Erwin Wurm invite to his fantasy dinner party
Austrian artist Erwin Wurm has profoundly expanded the thinking around sculpture over the course of his four-decade spanning career. Back in spring, Wurm presented a new series of works, titled Surrogates, at Thaddaeus Ropac in London. To learn more about the artist, his life and influential practice, Something Curated spoke with Wurm.
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Archie Moore’s Australia Pavilion won Venice Biennale’s Golden Lion for best national exhibition
Ahead of the 60th Venice Biennale, Something Curated published the series, Behind the Biennale. Comprising a collection of essays from the curators of select national pavilions, the series offers first-hand perspectives on some of the most talked about art of the year. Ellie Buttrose, the curator of 2024’s Australia pavilion—which went onto win the Golden Lion for best national exhibition—shares her insights on working with artist Archie Moore.
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Koo Jeong A invited us to explore the Korean Peninsula through scent
Another Venice highlight—upon entering the Korean pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale, the space appeared mostly empty but after breathing in, a warm and complex scent revealed itself. Hailing from Seoul, South Korea, artist Koo Jeong A’s multidisciplinary practice—which nods to histories of performance and conceptual art—spans over two decades. For this year’s International Art Exhibition, the artist presented ODORAMA CITIES, a multisensory and immersive installation housed within the Korean pavilion. SC chatted with the artist at the opening.
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Palm Heights mas band reimagined Carnival with floats by artists Naudline Pierre and Caitlin Cherry
In the land of Milk and Honey, artists Naudline Pierre and Caitlin Cherry created a space for Black women to escape into play. At this year’s Palm Heights Grand Cayman Carnival, curator Zoe Lukov brought Pierre and Cherry together for a large-scale immersive public art experience and celebration. Writer Auttrianna Ward spoke with the artists about their work for Elephant.
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Hannah Levy turned MASSIMODECARLO into a jewel box
New York-based artist Hannah Levy’s metal, glass, and silicone sculptures are evocative of commonplace items, from domestic fixtures and furniture, to garments and medical equipment, even appearing at times akin to human flesh or food. Over the summer, at MASSIMODECARLO, the artist presented Bulge, her debut solo exhibition with the gallery and in London. To learn more about Levy’s practice and the show, SC spoke with the artist.
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Mariko Mori made a giant crystal to be installed inside an Ethiopian cave
One of the most influential artists to have emerged from Japan in the last half century, Mariko Mori’s work is grounded in the interconnectedness of all things, delving into universal questions that sit at the junctures of life, death, spirituality, and technology. For her latest project, Mori invites us to consider shared humanity through Peace Crystal, a large-scale work planned to be installed in an Ethiopian cave.
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At Centro Botín, Shilpa Gupta gave voice to those silenced throughout history
Earlier this year, Mumbai-based artist Shilpa Gupta took over Centro Botín, a Renzo Piano-designed art centre situated on the Cantabrian Coast of northern Spain. Gupta has long been concerned with the idea of silence, specifically silence brought about by censorship and oppression. Through sound and words, she advocates for resistance, visibility, and empathy. Keshav Anand visited the show in Spain and spoke with the artist.
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Cerith Wyn Evans fills the Centre Pompidou-Metz with light
Welsh conceptual artist Cerith Wyn Evans first came to attention in the 1980s as an experimental filmmaker. Today, employing ephemeral elements, like air, light and time, as his primary materials, his works challenge the notion that the key characteristic of a sculpture should be its condition as a physical object. On the occasion of his latest show, Borrowed Light Through Metz at the Centre Pompidou-Metz, France—open now and on view until 14 April 2025—SC caught up with the artist.
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Long-time Prada collaborator Carsten Höller made his first foray into fashion
“I think art should be as close to life as possible. It’s a language. You have to learn; you have to be able to speak it. It’s something that is evolving, not static, obviously. It’s a part of life. I don’t even think it’s possible to separate it. But for me, I like it to be applicable in some way. I like it to be experiential. To give you an experience that you might not have otherwise. It’s not something you can download or understand from seeing an image of it because it’s not just something to look at,” Höller tells SC.
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Soufiane Ababri explored nightclubs as sites of queer resistance
This year marked Moroccan-born artist Soufiane Ababri’s first solo institutional show in the UK. The artist transformed the Barbican’s Curve gallery through a site-specific and cross-disciplinary presentation. Alongside a series of wall-based works, an immersive performance responding to the shape of The Curve explored the power architecture can hold over our bodies, referencing the history of nightclubs as sites of resistance for the queer community.
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Guggenheim Bilbao hosts Paul Pfeiffer’s largest survey exhibition in Europe
Paul Pfeiffer’s multidisciplinary practice interrogates themes of spectacle, belonging, and difference. For over 25 years, he has utilised early digital editing tools to manipulate footage from sporting events, concerts, and films, dissecting the psychological and perceptual dynamics of shared experiences. Open now and on view until 16 March 2025, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presents Prologue to the Story of the Birth of Freedom, the artist’s largest survey exhibition to date in Europe.
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Feature image: Soufiane Ababri, Bedwork, 2023. Between two paragraphs of Oscar Wilde’s reading. © Soufiane Ababri. Photo: Rebecca Fanuele