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Hyperallergic @hyperallergic.com · 1h

For artist Lu Yang, the medium of video games becomes a vehicle for awakening, translating Buddhist philosophy into digital form. The virtual world, as Lu describes, is a “container,” a temporary vessel through which consciousness flows.

The Video Game of Life

In Lu Yang’s hypnotic arcade, Buddhist cosmology refracts through gaming culture.

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Hyperallergic @hyperallergic.com · 2h

Kaari Upson’s retrospective is organized by theme. The biggest question? “When Kaari met Larry,” a section on the impact of a half-real, half-fictional man on her artwork.

Kaari Upson’s Haunted Dollhouse

A retrospective projects the fear that the world is not the nice place we want it to be, no matter how much we play pretend.

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Hyperallergic @hyperallergic.com · 3h

The quatrefoils and trefoils in Judy Ledgerwood’s paintings are comical evocations of female genitalia, a bad boy’s graffiti on a bathroom wall. And yet, what we see is not vulgarity, but the frank celebration of female sexuality.

A Funkier, Feminist Form of Pattern and Decoration

Judy Ledgerwood turns the decorous decorum of Pattern & Decoration into something fanciful, forthright, and frankly vulgar.

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Hyperallergic @hyperallergic.com · 5h

Due to the ongoing US government shutdown, the Smithsonian Institution’s museums, centers, and the National Zoo have officially closed to the public.

Smithsonian Closes as Government Shutdown Enters Third Week

The institution’s 21 museums, zoo, and research centers are shuttered indefinitely as Congress remains in a stalemate over funding.

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Hyperallergic @hyperallergic.com · 6h

The US government has mounted a coordinated repeal of the right to culture by targeting PBS, NPR, the NEH, and the NEA. But this right is fundamental, and its revocation has grave consequences for the texture of daily life.

How to Protect Your Right to Culture

The United States government’s coordinated repeal of the right to culture has grave consequences for the texture of our daily lives. But there are ways to fight back.

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Hyperallergic @hyperallergic.com · 7h

“A land acknowledgment is not enough. The land exists regardless of settler acknowledgment, which can only ever be the first step toward meaningful action. Next steps involve building relationships with that land as if it were your kin. Because it is.” —Joseph M. Pierce

Your Land Acknowledgment Is Not Enough

Land acknowledgment without action is an empty gesture, exculpatory and self-serving.

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Hyperallergic @hyperallergic.com · 8h

Brooklyn’s Powerhouse Arts has an ambitious plan: turning a 170,000-square-foot former transit power station in Gowanus into an exhibition space and performance venue that rivals BAM and the Park Avenue Armory.

A New Powerhouse in the Art World

The nonprofit arts organization plans to create a 170,000-square-foot exhibition space and performance venue.

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Hyperallergic @hyperallergic.com · 9h

Hundreds of cultural workers have signed on to a newly reignited McCarthy-era free speech group led by actress Jane Fonda, including textile artist Jody Uttal, filmmaker Kathy Brew, and the Emmy-award-winning cartoonist Joe Wos.

Artists Are Helping Revive Jane Fonda-Led Free Speech Group

The Committee for the First Amendment fought against the censorship of cultural workers during the McCarthy era.

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Hyperallergic @hyperallergic.com · 1d

Indigenous art and culture are not only surviving, they’re thriving. But sustaining that future requires support. Acknowledging Indigenous Peoples’ Day and Indigenous survivance is a start, but there’s a critical need to turn recognition into tangible action.

This Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Let’s Support Native Art

Acknowledging Indigenous survivance is a start, but there's a critical need to turn recognition into tangible action.

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Hyperallergic @hyperallergic.com · 1d

Two activists affiliated with the Spanish climate emergency group Futuro Vegetal were arrested at the Museo Naval in Madrid on Sunday, October 12, after throwing biodegradable red paint over a historic painting depicting Christopher Columbus.

Two Arrested for Splashing Paint on Columbus Artwork in Spain

Activists at Madrid’s Museo Naval called for an end to the “glorification of colonization and genocides, both historical and current.”

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Hyperallergic @hyperallergic.com · 1d

Say goodbye to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and hello to … hold onto your hats … the Philadelphia Art Museum! *crickets*

People Really Hate the Philadelphia Art Museum Rebrand

The PMA is now PhAM, with a new logo that critics say evokes a football club, athleisure, or “some kind of Cold War monstrosity.”

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Hyperallergic @hyperallergic.com · 1d

On November 5, poet, critic, and curator John Yau will sit down with the internationally acclaimed artist Sean Scully for a conversation about his decades-long career, recent work, and advice for young artists.

John Yau in Conversation with Sean Scully

Hyperallergic members are invited to join us on November 5 for a virtual conversation with critic John Yau and artist Sean Scully.

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Hyperallergic @hyperallergic.com · 2d

What to wear this morning? Are the bedsheets clean? Paper or cloth for wiping up the mess in the kitchen? We mostly take textiles for granted these days, but it was not always so.

How Textiles Weave Together the Cycle of Life

Four exhibitions currently up in Chicago each take a unique approach to the possibilities of working with textiles today, some with humor, others with gravitas.

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Hyperallergic @hyperallergic.com · 2d

Every work by Vaginal Davis plays some kind of game with scale. That old adage “size matters” doesn’t fully articulate the ways that Ms. Davis (as she’s often referred to) enlarges and shrinks her subject matter, but it reflects the punk undercurrents of her art.

Vaginal Davis Is Queercore's Fairy Godmother

For the gender-bending artist, size matters — just not in the way you think, suggests a new survey at MoMA PS1.

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Hyperallergic @hyperallergic.com · 3d

Music in the MAGA movement, writers in Gaza on making art under genocide, a feminist spice mill collective, and more in this week’s Required Reading.

Required Reading

McCarthyism 2.0, MAGA hits a wall, feminist spice mill collective, man with a giant vegetable, Tesla douchebags, and more.

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Hyperallergic @hyperallergic.com · 3d

What sculptor Elsie Siegel and painter Abigail Dudley share is “a tenderness and respect towards their subjects, a sense of what remains private.” –John Yau, critic

A Tandem Dance of the Seen and Imagined

Paintings by Abigail Dudley and sculptures by Elise Siegel showcase their absorption with oil paint and clay, respectively.

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Hyperallergic @hyperallergic.com · 4d

In this week’s A View From the Easel, artist Rember Yahuarcani brings natural dyes to life while sculptor Leopold Masterson restores vessels as they sculpt.

A View From the Easel

“When I'm painting, I think of the myths, the characters, the gods. I mentally walk alongside them.”

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Hyperallergic @hyperallergic.com · 4d

Earlier this year, the Manhattan social services nonprofit Henry Street Settlement’s longtime partnership with the Art Dealers Association of America came to an unforeseen end. Now the Independent Art Fair is Henry Street’s newest partner for its annual benefit.

Independent Art Fair Partners With Henry Street Settlement

The new alliance comes after the nonprofit’s former partner, the Art Dealers Association of America, abruptly ended its annual benefit.

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Hyperallergic @hyperallergic.com · 5d

Pepperdine University, a private Christian college in Malibu, closed an exhibition ahead of schedule following withdrawal requests from at least 12 artists after the school removed or altered art it considered “political.”

California School Shutters Exhibition After Altering "Political" Art

Pepperdine University abruptly closed the show as at least a dozen artists asked to withdraw in protest of what they called an act of censorship.

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Hyperallergic @hyperallergic.com · 5d

One early winter day in 1974, writer Linda Rosenkrantz recorded photographer Peter Hujar over a 24-hour period. What was meant to spark a larger creative project never came to fruition, but finds new life some 50 years later in a new film, “Peter Hujar’s Day” (2025), directed by Ira Sachs.

The Slow, Easy Splendor of Peter Hujar’s Day

Taking its script from a 1974 recording of the artist talking to writer Linda Rosenkrantz, a new film offers a tender portrait of Hujar’s life before art-world fame.

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Hyperallergic @hyperallergic.com · 5d

Bob Ross created thousands of paintings on PBS’s ”The Joy of Painting.” Now, 30 of his works are being sold at auction to benefit public broadcasters suffering under President Trump’s federal funding cuts.

30 Bob Ross Paintings Head to Auction to Support Public Media

The happy little fundraiser will benefit broadcasters affected by Trump’s funding cuts.

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Hyperallergic @hyperallergic.com · 5d

As the Smithsonian prepares to run out of federal funding, the National Portrait Gallery has postponed an exhibition celebrating its triennial Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition.

Smithsonian Institution Postpones Prestigious Portrait Exhibition

The National Portrait Gallery said it decided to “proactively postpone” the Outwin Competition show ahead of a prolonged government shutdown.

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Hyperallergic @hyperallergic.com · 5d

The feminist scholar and literary critic Susan Gubar argues in a new book that women artists have historically found tremendous freedom in old age, liberated at last from domestic obligations, sexual objectification, and the dominion of men.

The Women Artists Who Found Freedom in Old Age

The artists profiled in Grand Finales refused to consign themselves to what the author calls “Little-Old-Lady-Land,” and opted to keep searching, pushing, and trying new things.

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Hyperallergic @hyperallergic.com · 5d

In 1920s Hamburg, a dancer couple created wild, Expressionist costumes that looked like retro robots and Bauhaus knights. After nearly a century in obscurity, these costumes were brought to light and restored.

Avant-Garde 1920s Costumes Reemerge, Revealing Their Makers’ Tragic Story

In 1920s Hamburg, a dancer couple created wild, Expressionist costumes that looked like retro robots and Bauhaus knights.

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Hyperallergic @hyperallergic.com · 5d

For the most part, Roma art is not visible in mainstream American or European society. And yet, beneath the surface, there is an expanding Roma art landscape, including artists like Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, Ceijia Stojka, Gabi Jiménez, and more.

10 Contemporary Roma Artists You Should Know

Małgorzata Mirga-Tas’s dignified storytelling, Ceijia Stojka’s triumphant paintings, Gabi Jiménez’s expressive portraits, and so much more.

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