Art
Hew Locke Challenges Empire in Birmingham
The artist realized what he previously called an "impossible proposal," building a ship around a public statue of Queen Victoria, where she's joined by five smaller replicas of herself.
Birmingham
Art
When a Contemporary Art Gallery Exhibits a Renaissance Artist
Ikon Gallery's retrospective asserts that Carlo Crivelli’s self-reflexiveness and questioning the nature of the image made him anticipate the “contemporary.”
Art
Jordan Eagles Critiques Medical Prejudice Against Queer Men Using Blood and Nostalgia
Can You Save Superman? II explores the politics of blood donation and the residual ignorance surrounding HIV/AIDS.
Art
The Modernist Revolution Along the British Coast
The seven years that a Russian Constructivist and his dog moved among British artists by the seaside.
In Brief
Hours After It Was Revealed, Someone Tagged a Banksy Mural About Homelessness
Banksy's latest mural in Birmingham, England imagined two reindeer guiding a bench where a local homeless man slept. Soon after its debut, someone spray painted Rudolph-red noses.
Art
Resurfacing the Work of a Filmmaker Who Was Obsessed with the Underwater World
In the early 20th century, Jean Painlevé used inventive film and photography techniques to capture the odd nature of marine life.
Art
Visually Mining the History of Guano Off the Coast of Peru
In the mid-19th century, the Chincha Islands were at the center of a now-forgotten resource war that involved major world powers.
Art
A Japanese Artist Who Sculpted Rather Than Painted His Canvases
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — All of the frustration and sense of dislocation the Second World War had caused Yoshishige Furukawa was visible in the self-portrait he made after all his works were destroyed in air raids that burned down his parents' home.
Art
An Artist's Take on Iranian Identity, Detailed and Filled with Drugs
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — “I’d be OK with someone rolling up my work and smoking it,” laughs artist Taravat Talepasand on the eve of her opening at Beta Pictoris Gallery in Birmingham, Alabama.
Interview
Beauty and Purpose, Disarmed
LONDON — A box of thin elastic bands, resting on a circular plinth, pose a challenge. Can you, the wall text asks, pass the length of your body through one of these rubbery rings? The answer in my case was sadly no, but taking part is what counts. “Going to a show is not enough sometimes,” says Shim