Nigerian art activist, scholar and bridge builder
Nigerian contemporary visual artist and scholar Yusuf Grillo died on 23 August 2021, aged 87 years. Art scholar Sule James explains Grillo’s influence and impact on art on the continent. Who was Yusuf Grillo? Yusuf Grillo was not only an…
What this collaboration between artists and health-care leaders teaches us about living through COVID-19
A new project that spotlights the strain from COVID-19 on our health systems and the people who work in them has invited health-care leaders and artists to create artworks that illuminate what it has been like leading, working and living…
a Black British artist you need to know about
From the ongoing debacle of the Windrush scandal to the UK government’s dubious race report and the pervasive online abuse endured by Black British footballers – what does it mean to be Black and British today? And what has this…
lessons from around the world
During the COVID-19 pandemic, arranging protests and political movements in the streets has proven challenging due to social distancing orders. Campaigns around the world such as the #ClimateStrike movement initiated by Greta Thunberg have moved online through the use of…
Cambodia is an inspiration for the healing power of art after a crisis
Even though history has seen different disasters and humanitarian crises, one fact remains: we try to understand what is happening by seeing how others coped, comparing our reaction to theirs. These comparisons allow us to shed light on the best…
Why it’s important to see women as capable … of terrible atrocities
Born in 1593, Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi was the first woman to establish herself as a successful artist in a profession long dominated by men. One of the most striking aspects of her work is the way she paints women….
why public art should be collective, commemorative and embrace abstraction
There was much upset when the first statue tribute to the pioneering feminist and author Mary Wollstonecraft was unveiled at Newington Green, north London. Created by Maggi Hambling (CBE), the silvered bronze sculpture features a small naked woman emerging from…
A sculptor of wind explains how to make fiber dance far above city streets
Janet Echelman says she never set out to be a sculptor of wind. But if you have ever explored Porto, Portugal, walked the streets of Gwanggyo, South Korea, or passed through West Hollywood, you might have seen her massive iridescent…
often dismissed as a timid recluse, this unique and uncompromising artist painted relentlessly on her own terms
The quiet Welsh painter Gwen John was not like any other artist, male or female – she was genuinely unique. She was neither an heiress, like most unmarried modernist women, nor a conventional academic artist, like most women who had…
Glasgow’s relaunched Burrell Collection may be unique and much-loved, but how does it fit into the cultural landscape today?
After closing for extensive renovations in 2016, the Burrell museum, home to one of the greatest personal art collections ever bequeathed to the public, reopened in March 2022. Now, as its first major exhibition opens, it’s hard to avoid the…
