Christina Sharpe's Appeal to South Africa
A call to reinstate Gabrielle Goliath's Venice Biennale pavilion, Ana Mendieta’s earthworks, and the California College of the Arts is no more.
How could the same government that brought Israel in front of the International Court of Justice to answer for its war crimes in Gaza also censor an artist's performance about Palestinian grief? The answer to that has to do with the choices of South Africa’s right-wing Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie.
In a must-read opinion piece today, writer and scholar Christina Sharpe and University of Buffalo professor Rinaldo Walcott rebuke McKenzie's decision to cancel artist Gabrielle Goliath's piece Elegy for the national pavilion at the upcoming Venice Biennale, calling it a "betrayal" of the legacy of the anti-Apartheid struggle. I can't recommend it enough.
—Hakim Bishara, editor-in-chief
The South African Pavilion Is Betraying Its Own History
"South Africa’s cancellation of Elegy threatens to join the ignoble set of actions meant to disappear Gaza and Palestinians from the art world’s public sphere," write Christina Sharpe and Rinaldo Walcott. "To say that this action is like a tremor from the trauma of the genocide-in-progress is not to overstate the shattering effect of an official acting as a censor on behalf of the same government whose case against Israeli acts of genocide compelled the world to bear witness."
Peter Waite: Social Memory, Paintings 1987-2025
Absence is a presence in paintings by artist Peter Waite. Large-scale architectural scenes capture the beauty and poignancy of overlooked corners, faded surfaces, and traces of life that remain when people are gone. On view through March 15, 2026, at The Wadsworth in Hartford, Connecticut.
News
- After years of declining enrollment and financial woes, the California College of the Arts will shutter and be absorbed into Vanderbilt University, a choice that raised questions in the local art community.
- Sculptor Mehdi Salahshour and filmmaker Javad Ganji are among the members of Iran’s creative community reportedly killed during anti-government protests in recent weeks.
- United States Artists, a Chicago-based nonprofit, has named 50 artists across disciplines to receive its annual $50,000 unrestricted cash award.
Grow as an Artist Without Pressing Pause: SVA’s Online MFA Art Practice
Interdisciplinary, online, and connected to New York’s art ecosystem. Applications are due on January 15.
From Our Critics
Ana Mendieta’s Injured Earth
Although many of her earthworks have been erased by time, the late Cuban-American artist’s interventions attest to her continued presence, etched into the land. | Natalie Haddad
Black Artists Create New Universes in “Unbound”
The exhibition at the Museum of the African Diaspora moves between history and futurity without settling on a singular narrative of the universe, instead prompting reflection. | Alexandra M. Thomas
Member Comment
Willa Lewis on Isabella Segalovich's "The Nightmares Beneath the Surface of 'Dreamworld'":
Opportunities
Opportunities in January 2026
Residencies, fellowships, grants, and open calls from Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, and more in our monthly list of opportunities for artists, writers, and art workers.
