Take a look at the top of the 2023 Newport Jazz Festival poster and you’ll see some familiar names. Diana Krall, Jon Batiste, Thundercat and Kamasi Washington are all jazz superstars. Then there are the octogenarian living legends: Herbie Hancock, Charles Lloyd and Charles McPherson will all be bringing their bands, while Bob James will be part of Christian McBride’s Jam Jawn. And it’s no surprise that Samara Joy and the duo of DOMi & JD Beck are getting invited back after both were nominees for Best New Artist at the most recent Grammys, a category Joy won.

But there will be plenty of new faces making their Newport debuts as well. Some have played the fest before as side people but are now stepping out on their own, while others are making their first-ever trek to Fort Adams State Park during the festival’s run Aug. 4-6.

Lakecia Benjamin

Any question that the jazz patriarchy has been permanently smashed was answered by “Phoenix,” the urgent and powerful LP that alto saxophonist, vocalist and composer Lakecia Benjamin put out earlier this year. Produced by Boston’s own Terri Lyne Carrington, the compositions highlight the galaxy of female jazz greats that appear as guests — as do activist Angela Davis and poet Sonia Sanchez. Aug. 4

Durand Jones

Before jazz purists scoff at the heavy dose of R&B that’s presented at Newport Jazz in recent years, it’s worth keeping in mind that decades ago the likes of Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and James Brown all played the festival. These days Newport tends to showcase edgy indie R&B like 2023 artists Cautious Clay and Durand Jones. Jones first came to attention fronting the Indications, which started as a somewhat retro outfit reviving the slow soul ballads of the 1970s. Jones has recently released his first solo album, “Wait Til I Get Over.” This significant artistic leap forward is a heavily orchestrated meditation on growing up queer and Black in rural Louisiana. Aug. 4

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Endea Owens and the Cookout

Endea Owens’ debut album “Feel Good Music” isn’t even being released until Sept. 1, but the Juilliard-trained bassist has already made her mark. She’s been a member of “The Tonight Show” house band led by Jon Batiste, done an NPR Tiny Desk concert, and had a composition about Ida B. Wells performed at both Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. The Cookout isn’t just the name of her hard-swinging sextet. It’s also a nonprofit she leads that’s served meals and live music to those in need. Aug. 4

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Julius Rodriguez

At only 24, keyboardist Julius Rodriguez is often named as one of the most exciting young jazz talents to break out in recent years. Rodriguez can play jazz as well as anyone when he wants to. He can also branch out into electronic, pop and hip-hop with ease and authenticity — often in the same song! When asked to categorize his 2022 major label debut “Let Sound Tell All,” Rodriguez simply called it “the music.” Aug. 4

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James Brandon Lewis

For fans of avant-garde jazz, this should be one of the most anticipated sets of the weekend. The fiery saxophonist James Brandon Lewis certainly draws on the great free and spiritual jazz traditions, but he also has enough classical and rock influences that his latest power trio album, “Eye of I,” features cellist Chris Hoffman instead of a bassist — and was the rare jazz record released on the rock and roots label ANTI-. Aug. 5

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Keyon Harrold

Trumpeter Keyon Harrold has managed to successfully maintain careers as both a highly respected jazz musician and a first-call sideman for hip-hop stars like Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg. He’s played Newport in the bands of DJ Logic and Mos Def but is making his debut as a leader. In 2020 Harrold, a native of Ferguson, Missouri, wound up in the news when his teenage son was racially profiled and attacked in a New York hotel by a woman who claimed the boy had stolen her phone. Harrold has a new album due out soon that he’s hinted will address both the political and the personal. Aug. 5

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The Soul Rebels featuring Rakim & Talib Kweli

This set will be the perfect celebration of the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. New Orleans’ fierce brass band The Soul Rebels played Newport last year. Now they’re returning with two of the greatest MCs of all time: the pioneer of lyrical craftsmanship Rakim, and the beacon of consciousness Talib Kweli. Aug. 6

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Cimafunk

Another Newport Jazz tradition is the presentation of Afro-Cuban sounds. That used to mean traditional Cuban jazz and salsa stars like Mongo Santamaría and Celia Cruz. Now the new sounds emerging from the island are being represented by the charismatic singer Cimafunk and his large funky band, which is apt to start a dance party wherever they go. Aug. 6

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Melvis Santa

Here’s another case of an artist emerging as a leader. Cuban singer, pianist and percussionist Melvis Santa appeared at Newport in 2018 as part of the all-female Jane Bunnett and Maqueque. She’s also appeared in concert halls and at NPR’s Tiny Desk with saxophonist Kenny Garrett. She’ll be doing double duty at Newport, appearing as part of Christian McBride’s Jam Jawn on Saturday before returning on Sunday with her spiritually-driven group that explores the Afro-Cuban Yoruba tradition. Aug. 5 & 6

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Scary Goldings featuring John Scofield

There’s a lot of funky jazz this year at Newport thanks to the likes of Thundercat and the hard-touring Butcher Brown. One of the tightest sets is bound to be from Scary Goldings. The who and the what are slightly complicated: There’s Scary Pockets, keyboardist Jack Conte and guitarist Ryan Lerman, who like Cory Wong, use YouTube to air their popular sessions with a rotating cast of musicians. When they join master organist Larry Goldings they’re known as Scary Goldings. That group also rotates its guests, which on this occasion will be legendary guitarist John Scofield, who also guests on their straightforwardly titled upcoming LP “Scary Goldings LIVE! Ft. John Scofield.” If you can’t keep all of that straight, just show up and get in the groove. Aug. 6

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Bonus pick: Charles McPherson

There’s no question that Charles McPherson has played Newport before — But I can’t find any evidence that the alto master has ever led his own band at the festival, and festival artistic director Christian McBride Either way, the 84-year-old hard bop icon, a longtime Californian who appears far too infrequently in these parts, is still at the height of his artistic powers, most recently recording a series of suites that he composed for the San Diego ballet. And he’ll have a tremendous band with him: trumpeter Terell Stafford, bassist David Wong, pianist Jeb Patton and bassist Billy Drummond. Aug. 6

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Tickets for Aug. 4 and a waiting list for the sold-out Aug. 5 and Aug. 6 days of the festival are available at NewportJazz.org

Around 45,500 years ago, ancient humans on the world’s eleventh-largest island, Sulawesi in Indonesia, painted a warty, wild pig known as Sus celebensis, in Leang Tedongnge cave. Archaeologists believe it’s the world’s oldest drawing of a creature and the first figurative artwork.

Depictions of animals, whether realistic or symbolic, are ubiquitous in art history and most often serve to inform or amuse. Stone age caves were decorated with animals hunted for food. Ancient Egyptians depicted gods with animal heads.Tribal artists around the world combined animal and human features to symbolize the human relationship with nature. Middle Ages artists adorned medieval manuscripts with everyday animals to convey clandestine symbolic associations. Artists in the 17th century painted dramatic hunting scenes to illustrate the potentially deadly conflict between humans and animals. Artists in the 18th century glorified the natural beauty and majesty of animals in their natural habitats. Victorian artists painted sentimental pictures of domestic pets and livestock. By the 20th century, artists began exploring multiple genres, again with the vast majority celebrating animals either in their own environments, with humans, or in imagined situations.

Two regal lions peacefully gaze at the viewer as they lounge gracefully in their natural habitat in French animal painter Rosa Bonheur’s Lions at Rest (1892). Bonheur is perhaps best known for large-scale masterpiece, Le Marché aux Chevaux (1853). Bonheur and her partner Nathalie Micas kept a menagerie including stags, mouflons (wild sheep native to the Caspian region), wild boars, a gazelle, and lions, at their Château de By, near Fontainebleau, which is now the Musée de l’Atelier de Rosa Bonheur. Ahead Of her time, Bonheur attained police permission to dress as a man to avoid being noticed when she worked.

Alexandra Klimas goes beyond tongue in cheek, with her playful portrait of Mila the Cow, who looks us in the eyes as her tongue enters her nostril The realistic depiction contrasts with the split black-and-white backdrop. She strives to amplify the “forgotten animals” in a culture that covets pets and copiously consumes animals bred (and often mistreated) for the meat industry.

“I am not an activist,” she writes on her website, “I am an artist and I make art. Art should touch people and make them think. I don’t want to shock people. I am satisfied when people feel more connected to this group of ‘forgotten’ animals. I get to know them as I sketched them at the farm. Their personalities, too. I try to paint each animal as lifelike as possible and to properly depict their unique personality and emotion.”

Amid growing concern for animal law, such as the status of animals as legal objects, the protection of animals in laboratories, and the preservation of wild animals, there’s a lack of scholarship focused on the intersection between animal law and the freedom of speech of artists.

“While these might seem disparate and mutually exclusive, they are not. A small but notable number of artists use, harm, or even kill animals in the creation of artwork,” Yolandi M. Coetser, a senior lecturer philosophy at North-West University in South Africa, writes in “Exploring the Legality of Artists’ Use of Animals: Ethical Considerations and Legal Implications,” a recent article published in a special issue of Basel, Switzerland-based ​​MDPI, a publisher of open access scientific journals. “Elsewhere, this practice has been termed ‘cruel art’, defined as ‘the infliction of physical and/or emotional pain on non-human animals for the sole purpose of creating art that steps beyond the confines of the artist’s right to freedom of speech’.”

Throughout history, philosophers have grappled with the complex relationship between animals and humans. Aristotle believed animals possessed souls, an internal governing principle, but differentiated them from humans, who, in his view, also possess deliberative rationality, and form complex communities built on familial, social, economic, and political relationships. Simply put, Contemporary Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben argues that the difference between man and animal is a division within the category of the human itself.

Regardless of your scientific or philosophical beliefs, it should suffice to say that most humans, and therefore most artists, oppose animal cruelty.

Coetser defines “cruel art” as “the infliction of physical and/or emotional pain on non-human animals for the sole purpose of creating art that steps beyond the confines of the artist’s right to freedom of speech.”

In 2017, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York removed three pieces of art from its hotly-anticipated Art and China After 1989: Theater of the World before the exhibition opened, including the focal piece, Huang Yong Ping’s installation Theater of the World, which was to showcase live insects, geckos, lizards, and other animals trapped in a manmade habitat. Under protest from animal rights activists, including PETA and the ASPCA, the museum removed the controversial works, including Theater of the World, which made its debut elsewhere in 1993.

“Although these works have been exhibited in museums in Asia, Europe, and the United States, the Guggenheim regrets that explicit and repeated threats of violence have made our decision necessary,” the museum said in a press release.

A far more grotesque example was the August, 2007, display of Guillermo Vargas’ Exposición N° 1 in the Códice Gallery in Managua, Nicaragua, which included the burning of 175 pieces of crack cocaine and an ounce of marijuana while the Sandinista anthem played backwards and an emaciated dog was tied to a wall by a rope with “Eres Lo Que Lees” (“You Are What You Read”) scrawled on the wall in dog food. The dog reportedly starved to death.

Most “cruel art” doesn’t include animals being killed or physically harmed, and instances are rare.

Coester concludes that “While there are only a few instances of animals being harmed or killed for artwork, these instances are significant enough to warrant close scrutiny of the practice, both ethically and legally.”

It’s essential to note that most contemporary artwork depicting animals celebrates their existence, often elevating them above the human who repeatedly and increasingly causes the greatest harm to the world.

Details

By Neely Bardwell

July 31, 2023

The New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) has recently opened a new exhibit “Fashioning America: Grit to Glamour” that features over 100 designers including Indigenous, Black, immigrant, and women designers. 

“This sweeping presentation reflects the American spirit of ingenuity and underscores important stories of opportunity and self-innovation,” the NOMA website explains. 

The exhibit uses historical garments, including one from the 19th century, in addition to modern garments, to demonstrate the impact of media and celebrity culture. It will be open for viewing through November 26, 2023. These garments on display help amplify the voices of communities often left out of the mainstream or dominant narratives of American fashion history. 

Those who decide to visit can expect to see an elegant day dress by Cherokee designer Lloyd “Kiva” New, a pivotal figure in the history of modern Indigenous design; beaded canvas high-heel sneakers by Kiowa designer Terri Greeves; and a peacoat by Pueblo designer Virgil Ortiz.

At the opening of the exhibit, United Houma Nation Principal Chief Lora Ann Chaisson presented a land acknowledgement. 

“Indigenous art and fashion are integral to the American story, and Fashioning America provides a platform for the talent of Native American designers to be shared with a greater audience,” said Chaisson. “Thank you to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and NOMA for including the Indigenous community in this exciting exhibition.

NOMA was opened in December of 1911 with only nine works of art, making it New Orleans’ oldest fine arts institution. Today, the museum hosts a permanent collection of nearly 50,000 artworks. 

“Fashioning America: Grit to Glamour” was previously at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in September 2022, as the museum’s first exhibition dedicated to fashion.

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About The Author

Author: Neely BardwellEmail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Neely Bardwell (descendant of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indian) is a staff reporter for Native News Online. Bardwell is also a student at Michigan State University where she is majoring in policy and minoring in Native American studies.

Nestled in a plaza with a hair salon and pull tabs store in the heart of Kenai, there’s a new home for artists and crafters from across the Kenai Peninsula.

Karen Trulove opened the Alaskan Artisans and Crafters Guild in May. Trulove is an artist who said she has a penchant for entrepreneurship. She’s also a seventh-generation Seldovian and a traditional healer with the Kenaitze Indian Tribe.

Trulove opened the guild to address what she saw as a lack of opportunities for local and Alaska Native artists to market their work on the peninsula. She said it was easy to find artists who wanted to sell work at her store.

“I actually advertised one time on Facebook, and I had about 63 people reach out within 24 hours, so I was like well, this might be a needed thing in our community,” she said.

The store currently carries work from about 80 artists, most of them local to the Kenai Peninsula. There’s furs, beadwork, photography, watercolor, dishware, ornaments, endless jewelry and pieces that defy categorization.

In the shop, Trulove pointed out soaps made of goat milk from Nikiski, wrapped in pastoral alpaca fur casings that make them their own washcloth. She said that’s one item that’s often sold out. Nearby were glass ornaments made of sand from the Homer Spit and kuspuks, both regular-size and doll-sized, designed to fit on American Girl dolls. There was also locally carved ivory, drums made by kids from the Salamatof Native Association and beaded earrings galore.

Trulove said the purpose of the store is to create a reliable year-round venue for local artists.

“In the wintertime, it’s tough because we don’t have a lot of craft fairs. We have a few, but it’s not like the Wednesday Market or Saturday Farmers Market,” she said. “Sometimes people are busy in the summertime. They’re out trying to get their fish in, family’s visiting, and they don’t have time to sell their items. So it’s really nice to be able to bring them into a local store, drop their stuff off, and we handle everything from there, and get them a check at the end of each month.”

She said there’s also a new community of artists in the area, who realized they had a talent for crafting during the pandemic and are newly selling their wares.

“Since COVID, when everyone was in their homes, not able to get out, I think a lot of people figured out that they actually have a talent. And they’re starting to make a lot of new items,” Trulove said. “And it’s good, because our community needs that. And a lot of our local businesses closed during COVID, so it’s nice that we have the support from the community to help a little bit of everyone.”

Trulove said she’s planning on having auction-style events in the future to support local youth organizations.

The guild has also brought a new face to downtown Kenai: a 14-foot-bigfoot statue that sits right off the Kenai Spur Highway. Trulove made the cutout bigfoot herself with her husband, and they may start selling them if there’s an interest.

She said the reception to the store has been good so far, from both locals and tourists.

“Sometimes we get busloads, literally,” she said. “We’ve had like 35 people in here, where a bus just pulls up and people come in.”

The guild is open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week, except when employees are participating in craft fairs or markets. Trulove said there’s a trick: If the bigfoot is out, the store is open.

The Sioux Indian Museum in The Journey Museum proudly hosts the remarkable art exhibition of Gene Swallow, a talented artist with roots in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

From June to August, visitors have the opportunity to witness the captivating display of contemporary Native American art through Swallow’s unique textile sculptures and dolls. With a strong cultural influence and a passion for relatable and imaginative creations, Swallow’s artwork weaves a tapestry of tradition and creativity that will leave an indelible mark on all who experience it.

A Serendipitous Artistic Journey

Gene Swallow’s path to becoming an artist was serendipitous, an unplanned adventure that found its roots in the artistic circles that surrounded him. Growing up in the small community of Red Shirt on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Swallow had a childhood filled with fond memories of toys that have since inspired his artwork.

Though his background lies in elementary education, his artistic friends and encounters with galleries and markets sparked a desire to create art of his own. Encouragement from a friend led him to enter his first piece in the Red Cloud Art Show, marking the beginning of his artistic journey.

Textile Sculptures and Dolls

Swallow’s chosen medium, textile sculptures and dolls, reflects his desire to honor both his cultural heritage and the toys that enchanted his younger days. These dolls are characterized by the presence of buffalo-inspired traits, incorporating horns and braids, emblematic of his artistic identity.

Swallow’s style continues to evolve with each series of dolls, ensuring that they remain relatable, covetable and sparks of imagination akin to cherished playthings found in toy stores.

Natural Fiber Magic

A key element of Swallow’s artistic process lies in his use of natural fibers, such as linen, wall cottons, wool roving and silk. The selection of materials plays a pivotal role in dictating the direction of each project.

Swallow’s preference for natural fibers not only ensures the quality of his creations but also brings an organic touch to his art. By letting the materials guide him, Swallow avoids the struggle of disguising imperfections, allowing the essence of his vision to flow effortlessly into the tangible form of his dolls and sculptures.

The Journey of the Exhibition

Gene Swallow’s exhibit at the Sioux Indian Museum commenced on June 16 and will continue its inspiring journey until August 27. This showcase of contemporary Native American art holds special significance, as it aligns with a growing movement that celebrates the cultural essence of Native American heritage through various artistic mediums.

Encouraging Creativity and Expression

As a pioneering figure in the world of contemporary Native American art, Swallow seeks to inspire others to explore their creativity and express their unique identities through doll-making. He recognizes that the craft of doll-making is not new, but it is experiencing a resurgence among artists who are finding joy and fulfillment in this age-old art form.

Swallow encourages people to explore their artistic potential, fostering a growing community of doll-makers who breathe life into their creations.

The first sense activated as you approach Harry A. Nottingham Park to attend the Avon Arts Celebration is, unexpectedly, your hearing; an artist himself, the event’s curator, Darren Skanson, plays the guitar, and has a friend on the keyboard. Skanson, whose summer art festival series is called Colorado Art Weekend, traffics in stories—he has formed personal connections with each of his artists, and cares deeply about giving them the ability to share their experiences.

The Avon Arts Celebration, which is in its fourth year, has weathered its fair share of complications. The show began in the pandemic summer of 2020, with around 45 artists, and then endured the Avon mudslide of 2021 that forced many artists to move their booths. The conditions were more amenable this weekend; patrons strolled around with free mimosas in the Sunday morning sunshine.

To Skanson, the quality level, and the number of artists, sets his event apart from other art shows in the area, as well as the culture. “I’m pretty laid-back, Colorado,” he said. As he walked through the more than 100 booths he has brought to Avon, he has a word for or about each of his artists, their work, and their stories.

“I originally painted on a dare in the 1980s,” said watercolorist Peter Freischlag. Newly married and living in Chicago, he told his wife that he could recreate a $300 painting they both loved. He has been showing his work ever since, creating art full-time since 2017 in Golden and in Gilbert, Ariz.

Freischlag described his style as painting feeling and color. “I am a contemporary impressionist,” he said. His large-scale, one-of-a-kind watercolor paintings are treated with a beeswax resin, making them UV protected and waterproof. They are mostly brightly colored and incorporate elements of nature, and, recently Western cowboy culture. Freischlag is constantly looking to expand and improve his gallery. “Inspiration can come from photographs, it can come from nature. It can come from a butterfly encounter—when I was cycling, at the top of Deer Creek Canyon, where I ran into the monarchs. They all landed on me, I had to stop, and so I started painting butterflies. I had never painted butterflies before,” Freischlag said.

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“The people are very qualified that are coming here. Some of the most wonderful, richest people in the world come (to the Avon Arts Celebration),” said sculptor Charles Sherman, whose latest project has been tall, unique, steel structures that he calls miracle towers. The towers consist of triangles that form pyramids, all balanced on a one-inch wide base. Many of the miracle towers are also decorated with mirrors, glass, and fossils, among other materials.

“They have pyramid energy,” Sherman said. “Pyramid energy is strength and balance. It’s also wisdom,” Sherman said. The energy of the miracle towers, some of which measured 10 feet tall, drew a constant stream of visitors in Avon, who also may have appreciated the designs Sherman painted on his face to accompany his zinc sunscreen.

Ray Goodluck, a Diné (Navajo) Native American who works with acrylic paint, paints in the face of fear. Confronting familial history, to him, is one of the most powerful ways to do this. Goodluck tries to bridge two generations in his painting—grandparents and grandkids. He believes there is a fundamental miscommunication between the two, because they were raised in such different environments. The majority of Goodluck’s paintings are portraits of Native American people, or images of animals that are important in Diné culture. “It’s combining two generations: The elderly’s teachings, which is the subject matter, and the bright colored designs (represent) the young generations,” he said.

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Goodluck came to painting by way of setback: After a 2019 work injury put him temporarily in a wheelchair, he began painting as a way to communicate his interpretation of life. Goodluck works to inspire those who view his paintings to defy fear, and learn to lean on themselves. “You could go anywhere in the world, and they’ll teach you how to think. But there’s nowhere—no school—that will teach you how to pay attention to your feelings, your instincts, your gut. Why? Because that’s more pure, more honest, more direct,” he said.

At art shows, Goodluck looks for people who connect with his paintings. Rather than trying to sell his paintings to visitors, he shares the stories behind them with those who ask. It’s the connection with the paintings that will hold meaning for those who keep them in their homes. “A simple painting will lift you, when there are days when you are down, lift you up and move you forward,” Goodluck said.

Lee Hendrickson, a former research scientist, photographs crystals through a microscope. Before getting into art full-time, he worked in university labs, and then in biotech, and has a degree in biomedical photography. The images of his crystals mimic scenes seen in nature, without any manipulation. Many of the crystals left behind by the evaporated liquid form of chemicals such as acetaminophen, citric acid, and caffeine, resemble forests and sunsets. “People are drawn to the organic fractal quality of the image and the colors. You don’t have to know what it is to still enjoy the composition, and the patterns that are created by nature. The story adds an extra layer that is fun to tell people,” Hendrickson said.

It was impossible to leave this year’s Avon Arts Celebration without feeling uplifted, buoyed by the knowledge the artists all seemed to hold that their work could be a gift to those who took the time to get to know their stories.

Puerto Rican artist Pepón Osorio’s large-scale multimedia installations have catapulted him to the upper echelons of the art world. But his beginnings were modest. Born into a middle-class family of African descent in 1955, he began making art as a child in the San Juan neighborhood of Santurce, where he drew constantly and constructed simple pieces with found objects.

Like many Afro-Latino creatives, the young Osorio couldn’t envision himself as an artist in the traditional sense, in large part due to the overwhelming whiteness of the art industry. He felt a calling to help his community, so in 1973, he enrolled in the social work program at the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico.

Two years later, in 1975, Osorio immigrated to the South Bronx in New York City and registered at Herbert H. Lehman College, where he majored in sociology. He received a master’s degree in that same subject from Columbia University in 1985, while working as a social worker in the Bronx. Initially, Osorio practiced art alongside his social work. But he eventually grew disillusioned with the field and decided to focus on art full time.

Osorio’s experiences as a social worker exerted a profound influence on his art, and his projects ever since have engaged with Latin and Afro-Latino communities. “My principal commitment as an artist is to return art to the community,” the artist has said.

Osorio is best known for his big, bold installations, such as No Crying Allowed in the Barbershop, a 1994 work about Latino masculinity and vulnerability. The installation references the artist’s visit to a barbershop when he was 5 years old. “What was meant to be a celebration became a disastrous event” because the barber was unaccustomed to working with curly hair, Osorio recalled in a 2001 episode of the television series “Art in the 21st Century.” He added that the experience represented “a combination of race and rite of passage into becoming a little man, and … both came together simultaneously.”

Another large-scale piece, Las Twines, a 1998 installation whose name is slang for “Twin Girls” in Spanish, featured two mannequins, one white and one Black, that represented the duality of the Afro-Latino experience. The Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) in Washington, D.C. acquired the mixed-media work last year.

Throughout his career, Osorio has developed a form of participatory art in which a given community becomes involved, both materially and conceptually, in the artistic process. From the start, he engages locals in conversations about issues they want to address and works to select materials that are meaningful to the community. Osorio’s experience of practicing art with the community led him to view installation work as the fullest way of honoring his roots. “The only way that I can connect [is] by doing installation work,” he said in the 2001 episode, “because I [felt] that I needed to say something that had to be beyond something on the wall. … I need to create a space that is overpowering.”

In 1988, Osorio created what may be his signature work: El Chandelier, a crystal chandelier decorated with baby dolls, plastic palm trees, tropical ferns, dominoes and pearls, as well as sculptures of saints and coquís (a rainforest tree frog native to Puerto Rico). Part of SAAM’s collection since 1995, it pays homage to the artist’s roots and his Afro-Latino conception of beauty, spirituality and culture. As the museum notes, “The illusion of abundance masks the realities of life in poor urban communities. Osorio saw this kind of making-do aesthetic—creating something wonderful out of nothing—in the apartments he visited when he worked as a social worker.”

Osorio’s careful choice of materials in El Chandelier tells a story of longing and loss, of the struggles and exclusions experienced by the Afro-Latino community. Within the constraints of poverty, he suggests, beauty comes from the reality of the materials at hand, rescued from mass production and daily use, and elevated to a conceptual plane. The artwork also evokes Afro-Latino people’s connection with nature—one that many immigrants must leave behind when they emigrate to other lands.

With its mix of kitsch Americana, natural Puerto Rican imagery and quotidian objects, El Chandelier establishes a dialogue between what different cultures regard as art and serves as a vivid embodiment of Osorio’s artistic philosophy.

The artist’s work is deeply rooted in the Bronx, where he often installs informal exhibitions in streets, stores and public places. In this way, he evokes beauty in places where beauty must contend with poverty and social marginalization. Osorio insists on making art public and accessible to everyone: “My art is for people who go to museums and for people who don’t go to museums,” he told the New York Times in 1999. “It’s an old notion that people go to the museum. It should really be the museum going to the people.”

Also in 1999, the MacArthur Foundation awarded Osorio one of its “genius” grants. Though his reputation is now global—he has exhibited at the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid, the Alejandro Otero Museum in Venezuela and the Kathmandu Contemporary Arts Center in Nepal, among other institutions—he remains deeply committed to communities closer to home, too. Today, he splits his time between San Juan and Philadelphia.

For the ongoing project Convalescence, Osorio consulted cancer patients, first responders and healers, creating a three-part installation that offers powerful commentary on illness and the for-profit medical industry. The work is now on view in a major exhibition of Osorio’s works: “My Beating Heart/Mi corazón latiente” at the New Museum in New York City.

As Osorio tells Smithsonian magazine, “Nowadays, I am very concerned with finding new ways of closing the gap between museums and communities. I keep searching for ways to make art real.” A lecturer at Temple University in Philadelphia, he encourages his student-artists to create projects in their communities—projects that defy dominant notions of beauty and who deserves to live surrounded by it.

For more than 30 years, the US artist Gary Simmons has examined the histories of racism as reflected in multiple aspects of American culture, from cinema to sport, creating an arresting body of work that includes large-scale “erasure” paintings, sculptures and video. From the beginning, Simmons’s work has been in alignment with conceptualism and produced with impeccable skill. In the survey exhibition, Gary Simmons: Public Enemy, it is clear that Simmons’s work remains more than up to the task of exposing and challenging persistent injustice at a time when we need it most. While all that is necessary, so is delight—and we get that here too.

Simmons—a native New Yorker with West Indian roots who is now based in Los Angeles—attended the School of Visual Arts in New York. He graduated in 1988, then moved west to study at the California Institute of the Arts. As well as making sculptural objects, he also began developing his erasure paintings after coming across a stash of chalkboards that were being stored in his first studio in a decommissioned school. As a surface for learning, the chalkboard inspired a number of ideas and techniques that led Simmons to create the monumental and energetic wall paintings that he is perhaps best known for: covering large surfaces with blackboard paint before going through countless pairs of gloves to blur the image or text he had so carefully created. In the smaller, earlier works, Simmons borrowed imagery from racist cartoons and then attempted to erase the drawings, leaving behind ghostly traces and blurry remains. His signature technique remains fresh and the themes remain horribly relevant.

Public Enemy, borrowing its name from the American hip-hop group, presents examples of Simmons’s early work along with more recent drawings of cartoons. Of the large-scale pieces on display, two will be acquired by the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago for its permanent collection. One of these is Reflection of a Future Past (2006), a pigment and oil on panel showing a doubled image of the skeletal remains of a 1964 World’s Fair pavilion in New York set against a vibrant blue background. René Morales, who co-curated the show with Jadine Collingwood and Jack Schneider, conceived the show when he was working for the Pérez Art Museum Miami—where the show will travel to in December—and brought the plans with him when he joined the curatorial staff of the MCA Chicago in 2022.

In the glass-walled atrium leading to the main galleries is Recapturing the Memories of the Black Ark (2014-ongoing), named after Lee “Scratch” Perry’s recording studio in Jamaica where the early dub reggae sound was born. The work is a movable wood stage backed by an assemblage of PA speakers that was first created in 2014 for the Prospect triennial in New Orleans from reclaimed materials and served as a set for live performances around the city. It will do the same in Chicago.

The exhibition contains early sculptural works such as Everlast Champion (1991), a series of gold-plated athletic shoes, and Lineup (1993), where an oversized police height chart is the backdrop for eight pairs of gold-plated trainers placed on the floor. The connection between sports shoes and Black culture cannot be understated. Missing bodies, empty spaces, invisibility—Simmons effectively layers themes in his practice. The work may seem simple, but the ideas are not.

In Six-X (2002, a replica of the 1989 original), half a dozen child-sized Klan outfits hang from a metal rack with their corresponding white dunce caps on a shelf above, while nearby, Klan Gate (1992), made from two big brick columns supporting arched metal gates and topped with Klan figures, flanks the opening into the next gallery as if it were an entrance to a Hogwarts-like school for racism. Simmons’s interest in pedagogy is addressed in other works such as Disinformation Supremacy Board (1989), which is comprised of five wooden school desks facing narrow slivers of white board with white chalk and no room to accommodate the words that we could never see anyway.

At the midpoint of the show is a reading room where, at the time of my visit, four visitors were seated and deeply engrossed in books pulled from nearby shelves. Many of the publications were chosen by Simmons and feature topics that have informed his work, from the architecture in Alfred Hitchcock films to the classic 1896 science fiction novel The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells. An anthology on critical race theory, centred eye-level on a shelf, seemed a proudly defiant location given the current attacks from the far right in the US on education, libraries and the teaching of Black history.

Simmons’s examination of identity extends to the concept of “white trash”—a slur that disenfranchises poor white people—in two pieces on display. In Untitled (2001), a moonshine distiller, completely covered in white latex enamel, is placed near Here, Piggy Piggy (2001), two giant bobbleheads referencing the 1972 film Deliverance, where businessmen from Atlanta have a notorious encounter with “hillbillies”—another derogatory stereotype. With these pieces, the artist introduces a broader conversation about class.

My first encounter with Simmons’s work in 2001 was a powerful one. As the artist-in-residence for the Site Santa Fe museum, he created Ghost House, a series of erasure paintings in an abandoned house situated on a remote 25,000-acre ranch in the New Mexico grasslands. It was so quiet, there were traces of shooting stars in the sky and it felt holy. The experience of being in this quite opposite environment at the MCA Chicago is nonetheless similar. With the arc of the moral universe on such a seemingly long detour on its bend towards justice, how is that possible?

Maybe it is the hope that as this disquieting subject matter continues to be exposed to the sunlight, we will finally be willing to find a cure. In the introductory catalogue essay, Morales writes about how Simmons’s work addresses the need for continued resistance, adding that “it is only through this healing of our collective memory that we may yet find a way to use the power of the past not for the subjugation of the Other, but as the key to collective liberation”.

See this show. Then go home, put on Public Enemy’s 1989 song Fight the Power, and get energised.

• Gary Simmons: Public Enemy, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, until 1 October
• Curators: René Morales, Jadine Collingwood and Jack Schneider
• Listen to our recent interview with Gary Simmons on the A brush with… podcast

As part of new campaign ORGASM, ACTIVATED, makeup brand NARS has partnered with nonfungible token markeplace SuperRare on an auction of digital collectibles celebrating its cult classic Orgasm shade.

An additional augmented reality element involving Instagram filters, live as of today, aims to bring the Web3 project to a wider audience. Fans are invited to share tagged footage via Instagram Stories for the chance to win Orgasm product.

NARS commissioned five female-identifying artists: Dr. Alex Box, Serwah Attafuah, NINOCENCE, Clara Bacou, and Damara Ingles to create NFT artwork celebrating self expression and drawing on the colors and textures of the NARS signature.

The NFTs came with physical Infinite Objects frames plus the complete NARS Orgasm Collection (valued at $315) and a 45-minute, one-on-one consultation with NARS Global Makeup Artist Jenny Smith.

The auction of exclusive single edition artworks which took place last week, saw 100% of proceeds and royalties going to the creators. Founded in 2018, SuperRare boasts over $300 million in total sales with more than $180 million earned by artists to date.

Today, July 31, which, for the record is also National Orgasm Day, NARS is releasing associated AR filters via its Instagram account. One has been created by each of the artists.

According to NARS, the goal is to “democratize access to digital collectibles and onboard women into Web3.”

Partnering with a Web3 native marketplace and digital artists, bundling the NFTs with physical products and brand experience while introducing the campaign to a wider audience via more more accessible and familiar AR technology is a good example of how to successfully deploy a Web2.5 hybrid approach.

Most recently, L’Oréal owned Maybelline and She Uemura have worked on AR features with Snap and Microsoft Teams while L’Oréal has also partnered with Ready Player Me, Zepeto and Roblox on avatar hair and makeup looks.

Using art as a medium feels authentic for NARS. As Executive Director, Global Digital Innovation & Media Gabrielle Archambault said in a statement, “artistry has been a key pillar of the NARS brand since its inception nearly three decades ago. The emergence of Web3 and digital collectibles has ushered in a new era of artistic creation and self-expression.”

“We’re excited to leverage our platform to amplify the work of these next-generation creators,” she added.

The backgrounds of these selected artists, combine technology with more traditional forms of expression.

Having trained in fine art, Dr. Alex Box has segued from makeup artist to multi disciplinary creative director. She worked with Estée Lauder on an “radiance aura” digital wearable to spotlight the beauty giant’s hero Advanced Night Repair Serum product for Decentraland Metaverse Fashion Week in 2022.

NINOCENCE, a.k.a. digital artist Nina Hawkins, is also the technical talent behind Embryo, a mobile face scanning application for consumer grade avatar creation and she has worked with the avatar division of Los Angeles based modeling agency Photogenics.

The campaign had its genesis in 2021 with first Web3 activation ORGASM, EXPERIENCED, and earlier this year, NARS also teamed up with NFT project Boss Beauties.

For both Boss Beauties and ORGASM ACTIVATED, NARS partnered with ULO (Unidentified Landed Object), a women-led creative agency founded by Snap Inc. alum Dani Van de Sande.

ULO supported NARS in creative concept, artist curation, go-to-market strategy and campaign execution. The outfit “empowers brands to authentically participate in emerging digital culture, staking their claim as leaders in the next phase of the internet, while bringing their audiences along for the ride.”