Weekly Newsletter
Artists respond to ICE’s brutality and the attack on Venezuela, Anselm Kiefer’s rustbelt romanticism, and lessons from David Wojnarowicz.
They killed Minneapolis resident Renee Nicole Good in cold blood. They shot two other people in Portland in the same week. They abducted a foreign leader, shamelessly laying claim to his country’s oil. They’re bullying the Smithsonian into submission, vulgarizing culture, uglifying art, dismantling democracy, and dumbing down an entire nation. The stories below respond to the shocking events of this week, once again demonstrating the power of art and community in the face of political oppression and violence.
At a time like this, we can’t afford apolitical and ahistorical art media owned by a handful of Trump-loving billionaires. Become a Hyperallergic Member today to support art journalism about the things that really matter.
—Hakim Bishara, editor-in-chief
Artists React to the ICE Killing of Renee Nicole Good
Staff Reporter Rhea Nayyar on how protestors both condemn ICE’s killing of Renee Good and memorialize her through art: “Carrying remembrance and anti-ICE signs, flowers, stuffed animals in reference to Good’s six-year-old son’s toys seen in her car, and remembrance candles, those who came to mourn Good honored both her life and her death.”
Five Venezuelan Artists Respond to US Attacks
Javier Téllez, Jeffly Gabriela Molina, Vero Bello, Cassandra Mayela, and Silvia Benedetti shared a mix of emotions, from hope of a better future to anger over the unsanctioned intervention and fear of what’s to come.
Columbia MFA in Visual Arts + Sound Art: Apply by January 20!
The MFA in Visual Arts + Sound Art brings together emerging and mid-career artists from across the globe for two years of interdisciplinary, rigorous studio work, critical dialogue, and dedicated mentorship from internationally celebrated artists. With NYC as an extended classroom, you’ll engage museums, galleries, and artist-run spaces while developing a practice that’s informed, uncompromising, and singular.
News
The statue of Joan of Arc without a sword following its theft, at Place Saint-Augustin in Paris on January 3, 2026.
New York City Ballet Art Series Presents Thibaut Grevet
The French director and photographer’s work will be on view at three special performances in January and February.
Opinion
Museum Leaders, Recognize Your Unions Now
Museum worker and researcher Amanda Tobin Ripley calls on museum leaders to cut their union-busting tricks and voluntarily recognize their workers’ efforts to organize. “There is a clear pattern of museum leadership weaponizing the time between campaign announcement and election to challenge the union’s power,” she writes.
From Our Critics
Anselm Kiefer’s Rustbelt Romanticism
In Becoming the Sea, nostalgia for the Rhine River of Kiefer’s childhood flows into homages to the Mississippi as a symbol of both industry and creative freedom. | Eileen G’Sell
David Wojnarowicz’s Lessons in the Age of Surveillance
The artist’s photographs of a masked Arthur Rimbaud touring New York offer timely insights about visibility and resistance. | Lavinia Liang
When Isolation Is Your Only Companion
Bill Rice’s depictions of New York’s Lower East Side are paradoxes of bleakness and sensuality, gloom and intrepid spirits. | John Yau
Ayoung Kim Is Stargazing in a Digital World
Her exhibition at MoMA PS1 synthesizes live-action footage, video game engines, and generative AI to create an interlocking series of speculative narratives | Min Park
International Rendezvous at Guatemala’s Paiz Art Biennial
This year’s biennial, The World Tree, was intended to highlight the “archetypal myth central to many ancient cosmogonies.” | eunice bélidor
Turner and Constable Face Off in London
Is there any real rivalry in Tate Britain’s Turner & Constable: Rivals & Originals, or is it a PR exercise to lure us through the door? | Michael Glover
John Singer Sargent’s Essence in a Brushstroke
Though it offers little in the way of Sargent’s artistic engagement with the city he called home for a decade, “Dazzling Paris” is a reminder of his uncommonly skillful brushwork. | Olivia McEwan
Mapping a Feminist Cosmos
Without didacticism, Sandra Vásquez de la Horra makes visible the connection between the exploitation of the natural world and the subordination of women. | Tara Anne Dalbow
Art Movements: Knights, Presidents, and Crooks
Christie’s auctions off a painting by Jimmy Carter, Trump sells a painting of Jesus, King Charles hands out honors, and painter Amy Sillman leaves Gladstone for Zwirner Gallery in this week’s roundup of industry news.
A View From the Easel
“The studio is not neutral; it operates as a container that shapes the emotional register of the work and allows making to function as sustained attention, reflection, and repair,” writes Brooklyn-based artist Desmond Beach in this week’s edition. Ain’t that the truth.
In Memoriam
Remembering pioneering Italian painter Lucia Di Luciano, avant-garde filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim, beloved curator Kathleen Goncharov, and other community members we’ve recently lost.
Required Reading
Roxane Gay on the Guerrilla Girls, the uncertain future of the dictionary, Trump’s attacks on Venezuela and manufacturing consent, anti-ICE whistles, Snoopy turns 75, and NYC First Lady Rama Duwaji’s choking hazard poster at a Brooklyn restaurant.
Guides
Installation view of YATTA: Iron + Palm Wine (photo by Olympia Shannon, courtesy Art Omi)
10 Exhibitions to See in Upstate New York This January
Joyce Kozloff’s tenacious spirit, Nina Katchadourian’s eccentric universe, Linda Mussmann’s political stance against passivity, and fun-loving mythical paintings by Michael McGrath. | Taliesin Thomas
10 Art Shows to See in Los Angeles This January
Olga de Amaral’s refined material spectrum, Marianne Vitale’s tainted minimalism, Marina Stern’s architectural precision, and the work of seven Indigenous women artists who reclaim their own representation, depicting their struggles, strengths, and resilience. | Matt Stromberg
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