All articles tagged with #arts
LA painter Erin Wright’s solo show Fever Dream at Albertz Benda repurposes hyperreal interior scenes, blending architectural detail with deliberate glitches to critique luxury living. By painting showroom elements as if in a home and relocating canvases within a real space, Wright blurs the line between painting and architecture, inviting viewers to question fantasy, perfection, and the craft behind domestic detail.
Artist Kelly Akashi, who lost her Altadena home in the Eaton Fire, debuts a 13-foot glass-brick chimney and a walkway titled Monument (Altadena) for the 2026 Whitney Biennial, turning a year of loss into a sculptural symbol of recovery and resilience.
Becket Redfellow, a cast-off heir, murders his way through a Long Island aristocratic clan to secure his inheritance in a queasy dark comedy, anchored by Glen Powell’s charm even as the satire and violence tilt unevenly and the patriarch is gradually revealed as Ed Harris.
Cynthia Erivo stars in a new one-woman Dracula at London’s Noël Coward Theatre, delivering 23 roles via live acting intercut with real-time and prerecorded footage to create multiple Erivos on screen. The show emphasizes mood over gore, featuring stylish design and noir-esque camerawork, but at times veers into schlock and laughter that undercuts menace. While it nods to contemporary themes of race and power, the production largely serves Erivo’s virtuosity rather than deep engagement with the source, making it a spectacle likely to please her fans through May 30.
Cynthia Erivo leads a demanding two-hour Dracula at London’s Noël Coward Theatre, performing 23 characters with live-camera projections; she says she blocks online criticism to stay focused, while critics are divided—praising her energy and versatility in places, but calling the production overproduced or lacking peril in others.
Bruce Springsteen will perform in Chicago on April 29 at the United Center as part of his Land of Hope and Dreams Tour, a 20-date run featuring 19 arena shows and concluding in Washington, D.C. in May; tickets go on sale at noon Friday, with tour dates listed on Springsteen’s site. This marks his return to Chicago since his 2023 Wrigley Field shows, with the United Center last hosting him in 2016.
The Times memorializes Frederick Wiseman, highlighting his direct cinema approach and the controversial Titicut Follies, whose ban and decades-long legal battles helped shape free-speech jurisprudence; Wiseman showed that people are defined by the institutions surrounding them, a thread he pursued across more than 40 documentaries before his death at 96.
Frederick Wiseman, the pioneering documentary filmmaker behind Titicut Follies and a vast catalog of institutional portraits, dies at 96. Over six decades he produced and directed 45 films under Zipporah Films, earning an honorary Oscar in 2016 and a Venice Golden Lion in 2014 for lifelong contributions.
German artist Henrike Naumann, who was slated to represent Germany at the Venice Biennale, died in Berlin at 41 after a cancer diagnosis; her German pavilion project with Sung Tieu will still go ahead in May as the Biennale runs May 9–Nov 22.
In The Unknown, Sean Hayes embodies multiple roles in David Cale’s hypnotic solo play, turning a writer’s pursuit of a stalker into a meditation on unreliable narration. The noir-tinged production—supported by deft lighting and evocative sound—creates an intimate, radio-drama mood that feels timeless, even as Hayes’s coyness and the material’s quirks invite critical ambivalence. Running around 70–75 minutes, the show immerses the audience in a mind game about whether the mystery lies in the stalker or in the storyteller’s mind, under Leigh Silverman’s atmospheric direction at Studio Seaview in Manhattan.
Art Basel Qatar 2026 opened in Doha across three venues (M7, Barahat Msheireb, and the Doha Design District) with 87 galleries, emphasizing solo 'special projects' under the Becoming theme. The VIP opening drew figures like Angelina Jolie and Hans Ulrich Obrist, highlighting Qatar’s cultural push, while early sales were muted. The curated top booths ranged from Maha Malluh at Galerie Krinzinger and Lina Gazzaz at Hafez Gallery to Otto Piene at Sprüth Magers, Imran Qureshi at Nature Morte, Lynda Benglis at Pace Gallery, Ahmed Mater at ATHR, Matthew Wong at MASSIMODECARLO, Hazeem Harb at Tabari Artspace, Olga de Amaral at Lisson Gallery, and Jannis Kounellis at Cardi Gallery.
Amid Donald Trump’s reorganization of the Kennedy Center, the 2026 season has seen a wave of cancellations and a key relocation: the Washington National Opera moved its spring season to George Washington University, while major productions like Hamilton canceled a lengthy run and Philip Glass scrapped a symphony premiere. Numerous artists and groups—including Béla Fleck, Renée Fleming, Stephen Schwartz, the Martha Graham Dance Company, Issa Rae, and others—withdrew or postponed, reflecting a climate some say is politicized and at odds with the center’s leadership, signaling a broader reshaping of the venue’s programming.
Trump announced a two-year closure of the Kennedy Center for renovations, a move that comes amid rising artist cancellations and a drop in subscriptions and ticket sales. While some performances—from the National Symphony Orchestra to shows like Mrs. Doubtfire—remain on the calendar, many artists are left in limbo and questions loom about the impact on annual events such as the Kennedy Center Honors and the Mark Twain Prize. Critics argue the move signalsTrump’s influence and vanity rather than an arts-focused mission, while center leadership frames it as a brief, revitalizing renovation.
After nearly 40 years, Wynton Marsalis will step down as managing and artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center in July 2027, with an advisory role through 2028, as the organization pursues new leadership while expanding its performances and education programs.
Composer Philip Glass has withdrawn his Symphony No. 15 'Lincoln' from a Kennedy Center premiere, saying the center's current leadership and values conflict with the work's message about Abraham Lincoln; the Kennedy Center defended its apolitical stance and noted no performances are canceled. The move comes amid a wave of artist cancellations tied to leadership changes at the venue, with the world premiere of the piece previously scheduled for June.