Palestinian Embroidery Today
Perspectives of Venezuela and Cuba from exile, an exhibition of artwork made by children in Gaza, and remembering Colombian artist Beatriz González.
Good morning. The ongoing repression of dissidents in Venezuela following the US attacks reminds us that President Trump never had the interest of the nation's people at heart. The painful reality of many immigrants is one of being caught between dehumanizing forces in their native countries and in exile, and reduced to abstractions in an increasingly unnuanced “discourse” that flattens lived experience.
One way to resist this pattern of erasure is by conjuring the specificity of art. Today, an exhibition of works by Venezuelan and Cuban artists and a book dedicated to Palestinian tatreez are tangible testaments to individual gesture, the traces of human expression that no geopolitical analysis could fully capture.
— Valentina Di Liscia, senior editor
Visions of Venezuela and Cuba From Exile
Tactics for Remembering at the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington is at once a poetic exploration of migration and a timely response to displacement and exile from a Venezuelan and Cuban perspective. The exhibition “acts as a foil to prevailing media imagery of immigrants reduced to villains, victims, or collateral damage,” Courtney Levine writes, instead providing “an immersive reclamation of memory and identity in all their fluidity and impermanence.”
Apply for IDSVA’s Low-Residency PhD in Visual Arts: Philosophy, Aesthetics, and Art Theory
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News
- Beatriz González, a Colombian painter and major figure of Latin American contemporary art, died last week at the age of 93. Silvia Benedetti, who interviewed the artist in 2020, looks back at her life and immense legacy.
- The early childhood educator and YouTube star Ms. Rachel will present an exhibition and sale of artworks by children from Gaza in New York City this week. She has vocally opposed Israel's genocide in Gaza and will donate the proceeds to benefit Palestinian youth.
From Our Critics
The Contemporary Relevance of Palestinian Tatreez
“When people wear Palestinian embroidery, it’s not just decorative. It's beautiful, of course, but it is saying something,” says author Joanna Barakat. | Greta Rainbow
The Nightmares Beneath the Surface of "Dreamworlds"
The traumas of war and genocide and the fascist leanings of Salvador Dalí are among the subjects that this sprawling exhibition leaves out. | Isabella Segalovich
Mitchell Johnson: Two San Francisco Exhibitions of Large-Scale Paintings
The Bay Area artist opens 2026 with Large New England Landscapes (Selected Paintings 2008-2025) and Giant Abstract and Landscape Works (Selected Paintings 2012-2025).
Repatriation: The Game
A Video Game Lets You Take Back Looted Artifacts
Bernard Dayo introduces readers to a new game in which players join a heist crew — consisting of hackers, acrobats, a museum insider, and even a grandma — to infiltrate museums and take back looted African artifacts, such as a drum sacred to the Shona people now in the British Museum. But there's more than a heist at stake. Users must learn musical rhythms, consult elders, and participate in ceremonies to reactivate the social meaning of these objects.
Member Comment
“Forrwill” on John Yau's “When Isolation Is Your Only Companion”:
From the Archive
How Pop Became Political for Artists Across the Americas
From North to South America, artists used the bold colors, figuration, and appropriated imagery of Pop Art, but with a biting political message. | Lauren Moya Ford
ICYMI
In 2026, Democracy Needs Museums
As the United States marks its 250th, institutions must resist the pull to simply commemorate and instead communicate the relevance of history. | Ken Weine
