The Week in Art

An exhibition opens this weekend at Conditions, the low-cost studio programme for artists in Croydon, on the outskirts of south London, featuring two of the great works of art of recent decades: Mark Leckey’s Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore (1999) and Arthur Jafa’s Love is the Message, the Message is Death (2016). Ben Luke talks to Mark and AJ about showing together and the affinities and contrasts in these two contemporary masterpieces. The 12th SITE SANTA FE International exhibition also opens on Friday, and Ben speaks to Cecilia Alemani, the artistic director of the biennial, about the show, which is called Once Within a Time. And this episode’s Work of the Week is Glacial Decoy, the 1979 collaboration between the choreographer Trisha Brown and the artist Robert Rauschenberg. This landmark work is the subject of a new exhibition at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and its curator, Brandon Eng, tells us more. ARTHUR JAFA / MARK LECKEY: HARDCORE / LOVE, Conditions, 28 June-10 August. You can find out more about Conditions at conditions.studio. Listen to A brush with... Arthur Jafa and A brush with... Mark Leckey wherever you get your podcasts. Those interviews feature alongside 23 others from the A brush with… series in the book by Ben Luke, What is Art For? Contemporary artists on their influences, inspirations and disciplines, published by HENI, released on 2 September (US) and 4 September (UK), $39.95/£29.95 (hb). 12th SITE SANTA FE International: Once Within a Time, 27 June-12 January 2026. Trisha Brown and Robert Rauschenberg: Glacial Decoy, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, US, until 24 May 2026. Summer season of art scubscription offer: get 50% off a digital subscription to The Art Newspaper [https://www.theartnewspaper.com/subscriptions-SUMMER25D?promocode=SUMMER25&utm_source=podcast&utm_campaign=SUMMER25] and gain unrestricted access today. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The Art Newspaper’s digital editor Alexander Morrison is in Basel for the annual Art Basel fair. He talks to our art market editor, Kabir Jhala, about the atmosphere at the fair after a long downturn in the art market and underwhelming auctions last month in New York. While some major museums around the world would rather avoid the topic of returning objects acquired in the colonial period to their countries of origin, The Wereldmuseum in Amsterdam is attempting to get on the front foot, with an exhibition called Unfinished past: return, keep, or...? One notable aspect of the show is that it is not presenting any human remains. Ben Luke speaks to our correspondent in the Netherlands, Senay Boztas, about the future of human body parts in Dutch museums. And this episode’s Work of the Week is Untitled or Not Yet (1966) by Eva Hesse, which is in a new exhibition at The Courtauld in London, called Abstract Erotic. The exhibition unites Hesse with fellow sculptors Alice Adams and Louise Bourgeois. Ben talks to Jo Applin, the co-curator of the show. Art Basel continues until Sunday, 22 June. Unfinished Pasts, Wereldmuseum, Amsterdam, until 3 January 2027. Abstract Erotic: Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse, Alice Adams, The Courtauld, 20 June-14 September; Louise Bourgeois: Drawings from the 1960s, the Courtauld, 20 June-14 September. Summer subscription offer: get up to 50% off an annual print & digital subscription to The Art Newspaper. https://www.theartnewspaper.com/subscriptions-SUMMER25P&D?promocode=SUMMER25&utm_source=special+offer+banner&utm_campaign=SUMMER25 [https://www.theartnewspaper.com/subscriptions-SUMMER25P&D?promocode=SUMMER25&utm_source=special+offer+banner&utm_campaign=SUMMER25] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The Dulwich Picture Gallery, the UK’s first purpose-built public art gallery, is hosting an exhibition of one of Britain’s brightest young painting talents, Rachel Jones. Ben Luke visits the gallery to talk to her about the paintings—giant and tiny—in the show. The latest Liverpool Biennial has just opened in that great British city; Louisa Buck, The Art Newspaper’s contemporary art correspondent, joins Ben to review the show. And this episode’s Work of the Week, is the UK Aids Memorial Quilt, which was instigated in 1989 and commemorates the lives of 384 individuals affected by HIV and Aids. It is made up of 42 quilts made from multiple panels and a further 23 individual panels. The quilt is being shown at Tate Modern this weekend, and we speak to the writer Charlie Porter, who included the quilt in his recent novel Nova Scotia House and instigated the project to show it at Tate. Rachel Jones: Gated Canyons, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, until 19 October. Liverpool Biennial: BEDROCK, until 14 September. The UK Aids Memorial Quilt, Tate Modern, until 16 June; Charlie Porter, Nova Scotia House, Penguin, £18.99; US: Nightboat Books, 21 October, $17.95. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The fifth edition of London Gallery Weekend takes place this weekend, and opens as the global art market is at a low ebb. So what can it do to change the mood? Ben Luke speaks to Ananya Mukhopadhyay, the managing director of Ames Yavuz, which is opening a new London gallery to coincide with the weekend events, and Jeremy Epstein, co-director of the Edel Assanti gallery, who is the co-founder and co-director of London Gallery Weekend. In 2018, a devastating electrical fire tore through the National Museum of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro with catastrophic consequences. This week, it will temporarily reopen some of its galleries. The museum’s director, Alexander Kellner, tells The Art Newspaper’s digital editor Alexander Morrison about its steady rise from the ashes. And this episode’s Work of the Week is a miniature portrait of Jane Austen by an anonymous 19th-century artist. The work belongs to the Morgan Library & Museum in New York, which this week opens the exhibition A Lively Mind: Jane Austen at 250. The show is co-organised by Juliette Wells, Professor of Literary Studies at Goucher College in Baltimore, and she speaks to Alexander Morrison about the portrait. London Gallery Weekend, 6-8 June. Simon Lehner: Of Peasants & Basterds, Edel Assanti, 6 June-22 August; Polyphonies, Ames Yavuz, London, 6-26 June. The temporary reopening of the National Museum of Brazil continues until the end of July. A Lively Mind: Jane Austen at 250, Morgan Library & Museum, New York, 6 June-14 September Summer subscription offer: get up to 50% off an annual print & digital subscription to The Art Newspaper. Link here: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/subscriptions-SUMMER25P&D?promocode=SUMMER25&utm_source=special+offer+banner&utm_campaign=SUMMER25 [https://www.theartnewspaper.com/subscriptions-SUMMER25P&D?promocode=SUMMER25&utm_source=special+offer+banner&utm_campaign=SUMMER25] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

We visit major museum projects unveiled this week in London and New York: Ben Luke takes a tour of V&A East Storehouse in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, which offers unprecedented access to the Victoria and Albert Museum’s collection. He meets the deputy director of the V&A, Tim Reeve, and speaks to key members of the team that are making this radical museological vision for London a reality: the museum’s lead technician, Matt Clarke, its senior curator Georgia Haseldine, and Kate Parsons, the director of collections care and access. The Art Newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Americas, Ben Sutton, visits the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which this week unveiled its revamped Michael C. Rockefeller Wing. The wing holds the Met’s collections of work from Africa, the Ancient Americas, and Oceania. Ben talks to Alisa LaGamma, the curator of African art who is in charge of the Rockefeller Wing, and the Papua New Guinea-born, Brisbane-based artist Taloi Havini, one of a number of contemporary artists who created new works for the the project. And this episode’s Work of the Week is Down and Up (2024-25) by Rachel Whiteread. It features in a new show of Whiteread’s work, the first at the Goodwood Art Foundation, a not-for-profit contemporary art gallery and sculpture park in West Sussex, UK. Ben Luke talks to Rachel about the work. V&A East Storehouse, London, opens 31 May. The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art New York, reopens 31 May. Rachel Whiteread, Goodwood Art Foundation, West Sussex, UK, 31 May-2 November. Summer subscription offer: get up to 50% off an annual print & digital subscription to The Art Newspaper. Link here: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/subscriptions-SUMMER25P&D?promocode=SUMMER25&utm_source=special+offer+banner&utm_campaign=SUMMER25 [https://www.theartnewspaper.com/subscriptions-SUMMER25P&D?promocode=SUMMER25&utm_source=special+offer+banner&utm_campaign=SUMMER25] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.