#GallerySoWhite: a digital exhibition exposing racism in contemporary art spaces
Art institutions are facing a reckoning over colonial histories and racist legacies. Though the issues aren’t new, calls to unpack the British art museum and heritage sector’s ties to colonialism have increased significantly over the past decade. As a result,…
Jamie Reid: the defiant punk art of the man behind the Sex Pistols’ iconic imagery
The death of graphic designer and activist Jamie Reid earlier this month was a huge loss for both the design community and the political left. Right until his death, Reid made incendiary works that incessantly attacked the political status quo….
How Yorkshire influenced the sculptures of Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore
When Barbara Hepworth died in 1975, fellow sculptor Henry Moore wrote an obituary in The Sunday Times with the headline, The Shaping of a Sculptor. Not only did it prominently feature their shared birthplace of Yorkshire, but the paper’s clever…
Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe portraits expose the darker side of the 60s
“If you remember the ‘60s, you weren’t really there”. This famous quip says much about our rose-tinted nostalgia for the decade. The fun-loving hedonism of Woodstock and Beatlemania may be etched into cultural memory, but Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe portraits…
the good and the bad of pop-up attractions
This autumn, visitors to Weston-super-Mare on the west coast of England will be confronted by the strangest of sights, a repurposed oil rig and temporary art installation and high-rise garden dubbed the “See Monster”. Located in a shallow pool at…
Polar bears have captivated artists’ imaginations for centuries, but what they’ve symbolized has changed over time
Polar bears have long held visual artists in their thrall. Over time, the mythologies around these extraordinary animals have evolved – and so have the ways artists have depicted them in their work. Reflecting a deeply respectful even symbiotic relationship…
Manipulating light can induce psychedelic experiences – and scientists aren’t quite sure why
For millennia, people have used mind-altering techniques to achieve different states of consciousness, envision spiritual figures, connect with nature, or simply for the fun of it. Psychedelic substances, in particular, have a long and controversial history. But for just as…
Give this AI a few words of description and it produces a stunning image – but is it art?
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but thanks to an artificial intelligence program called DALL-E 2, you can have a professional-looking image with far fewer. DALL-E 2 is a new neural network algorithm that creates a picture from…
Ukraine’s cultural heritage faces destruction as Russian bombing continues
Ukraine is a country with a vast cultural heritage. It is dotted with sites of profound historic, artistic and archaeological importance – from Unesco world heritage monuments such as the Cathedral of St Sophia in Kyiv to exquisite examples of…
As spiritualism’s popularity grows, photographer Shannon Taggart takes viewers inside the world of séances, mediums and orbs
The word séance conjures images of darkened rooms, entranced mediums, strange occurrences and spirit voices. For many contemporary audiences, these visions might seem like something out of the past, or perhaps a movie, rather than a living belief system. For…
