Calabashes, Cartons, and Memory: Sipho Mabona Honors His Father
In The Calabashes We Never Drank Amasi From, Sipho Mabona transforms calabashes with recycled milk cartons, mirrors, and audio of his father, Mongameli Mabona, creating an audiovisual tribute displayed on earthen plinths that reference rondavel huts. An installation view from 2024 appears at Kunstmuseum Luzern.
The Rumpus unveils El Alboroto, a new Spanish-language vertical
The Rumpus has launched El Alboroto, a Spanish-language vertical dedicated to commissioning original work—across criticism, essays, interviews, fiction, poetry, and comics—led by Alejandra Márquez and Vasthi Jean-Michel. The initiative follows a revival by Roxane Gay and Debbie Millman and aligns with a broader Rumpus 2.0 strategy rooted in California.
Record-Breaking Solar Close-Up Reveals Rippling Instabilities on the Sun
Captured at 416 nm by the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope on Maui, the highest-resolution image of the Sun’s photosphere reveals Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability and features smaller than 12 miles across, offering new clues to magnetic energy build-up and solar heating.
Renaissance echoes, modern matter: Suzanne Jongmans portraits made from the thrown-away
Suzanne Jongmans fashions Renaissance-style portraits from padded packaging, fruit mesh, and even copper coils salvaged from appliances, pairing humble materials with velvet, deep backdrops, and composed sitters. Works like In Resonance, Kindred Spirits Childhood, and a pandemic self-portrait, In the Midst of It All, explore femininity, concealment, and the place of wonder in a technologized age.
Signals of the tangible: AI watermarks, vinyl waitlists, and a $6B theatre buy
Spotify will tag AI “personas” and remove them from recommendations, Anthropic says all model outputs carry watermarks, and Suno added watermarks and opened a vinyl waitlist. Meanwhile, Time projects half its revenue from live events, public radio’s audience is up 9.6% in two years, poetry is booming live, Ari Emanuel’s Mari acquired ATG for a rumored $6 billion, and the National Symphony expects roughly half its budgeted ticket revenue.
Wind, dreams, and “Bound Species”: Jennifer Latours botanical sculptures step into the wild
Vancouver-based artist Jennifer Latour pushes her ikebana-style, hand-built floral sculptures outdoors for her Bound Species series, battling wind to photograph the ephemeral works. Her images are currently in group exhibitions in Montreal and Palma, Mallorca, with trips to Arizona and the U.K. seaside ahead and a solo show planned for 2027.
Finalists for Ocean Photographer of the Year Balance Awe with Alarm
Presented by Oceanographic magazine and Blancpain, the Ocean Photographer of the Year highlights finalists across categories like Adventure, Human Connection, Ocean Unseen, and Conservationwhich is split into Hope and Impact. Winners will be announced in September.
At the Nasher, “Turn the volume up!” maps free speech and civic action through art
Drawn from the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, Turn the volume up! surveys free speech and civic action across five themes and features works by Spider Martin, Kara Walker, the Guerilla Girls, Carrie Mae Weems, Kiki Smith, Bruce Davidson, and more. The exhibition opens on August 27 and continues through July 11, 2027.
Phaidon’s Great Women Photographers maps two centuries of vision across 68 countries
Phaidon’s Great Women Photographers surveys work from 68 countries across nearly 200 years, highlighting more than 250 women in an alphabetically organized volume with new texts by leading scholars. The book, introduced by Fiona Rogers and due October 14, 2026, follows Great Women Artists, Great Women Painters, and Great Women Sculptors.
Diagnostic publish test 1786732220394
diagnostic — will be deleted