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(11/14/21 8:20pm)
Judging by his vivid, meticulously–shot photos, you’d never guess that Luca Fontes came to photography by happenstance. Yet, the College senior with a Fine Arts and Communications major only caught the bug for his chosen medium in his senior year of high school. He did “a little bit of amateur photography” as a teenager, but everything changed when he enrolled in a digital photo class. “That [was] the first time I started to think of the concepts behind photographs, to think of projects,” Luca says. Since then, it’s been up, up, and away for the Brazilian–born photographer.
(11/16/21 7:00pm)
Twitter, the glorious hellscape of shitposts, gifs, and fights picked by internet strangers, now has a new niche for art history nerds: one with an undead twist. Rising from their graves to join the ranks of top Tweeters around the globe, fine art icons like Van Gogh, Sandro Botticelli, and hundreds more have filled the platform with their impressive works. Created by Andrei Taraschuk, “art bots" are giving Twitter users the chance to follow artists and enjoy their works during daily scrolls. These "art bots" bring art out of the museum and give it a place on social media, spotlighting painters who may have lived centuries before Twitter existed.
(11/30/21 4:13am)
On March 11 of this year, Christie’s sold a piece of artwork for $69 million. But something about this sale was special, aside from the funny number on the price tag. Botticellis, Rembrandts, and Matisses have been emptying even the fattest of wallets since the genesis of the modern art market, selling for even higher prices. These paintings differ greatly across movements and styles, yet they still have something in common that's often overlooked—they are all tangible works made from brushes, paint, and a canvas and that can hang on a wall. That’s what makes Christie’s March sale stand out. Created by digital artist Beeple, “EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS,” is a mere JPG file, and it is just one of the many forms of digital art going for millions as the NFT, or non–fungible token, market skyrockets.
(11/02/21 1:47am)
What makes Chinese different from any other language? On the surface, the most prominent difference is how it looks: Chinese employs what appear to be elaborate, blocky symbols that give no place of entry for the untrained eye. The English and Chinese languages both use sequences of characters to make sounds and meaning, but what sets Chinese characters apart is not only their seeming complexity, but also their ability to convey an elaborate history and culture behind the strokes.
(10/25/21 1:04pm)
Philadelphians often opt for a museum visit to satisfy a craving for artistic stimulation. But taking a walk around the city’s streets yields a new way to revel in creative expression—one that is just as fulfilling and even more tied to our local communities. Philadelphia is called the mural capital of the world, with over 3,600 unique art–filled walls and building facades sprinkled throughout the city. Spearheaded by Mural Arts Philadelphia, these public art installations are intended to engage artists and communities through ingenuity.
(10/31/21 11:47pm)
Every word of Woman Hollering Creek, Sandra Cisneros’s award–winning collection of short stories published in 1991, was written with the truth in mind. Sure, Cisneros jumps between narrators and outlandish scenarios with practiced ease, but there are real–life memories behind all the heartache and longing of her stories. In all her fiction, Cisneros drives toward “the real truth, especially the truth I’m not aware of.” Woman Hollering Creek is no exception, being born of a balancing act between the conscious and the unconscious—between reality and memory.
(10/31/21 6:01pm)
John Mulaney is 'right outta rehab' and it’s no surprise that his vibe has undergone a major readjustment.
(10/16/21 3:09am)
Melting glaciers, rising sea levels, and intense heat waves: The list of perils brought on by climate change go on and on, all well–documented by researchers. Global climate change plagues the future of our world, but it also has begun to threaten our record of the past.
(10/18/21 5:49am)
As every Penn student knows, the rat race can be exhausting. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the endless cycle of club applications, internships, and homework. If you’ve ever been seized by a sudden desire to let your hair down, know you’re not alone. London-based artist Amanda Ba has tapped into our shared impulse to run with the wolves—or dogs, in this case. Hailing from New York City (by way of Hefei, China), Ba’s paintings collapse the distinction between the human and animal.
(10/10/21 8:49pm)
Upon entering the Jasper Johns retrospective Mind/Mirror, viewers will come face to face with an American flag. This is a timely choice; a recent New York Times Op–Ed challenged six artists to offer their own alternatives or reinterpretations of the flag. Some of their redesigns were idealistic and others disenchanted. American flags also show up repeatedly throughout Mind/Mirror. While they're sometimes doubled or inverted, they are always identifiable. That said, visitors won’t find any easy answers about “what it all means.” The closest thing to a concrete takeaway that this retrospective has to offer is this: Jasper Johns has never viewed any symbol as sacrosanct.
(10/04/21 2:30pm)
The Barnes Foundation’s new retrospective of Suzanne Valadon, the first of its kind in North America, opens not with one of the artist’s many works—but with a painting of Valadon herself. In Gustav Wertheimer’s imposing The Kiss of the Siren (1882), we catch a glimpse of Valadon as a muse. Under Wertheimer’s hand, we see the petite, brunette Valadon doctored into a leggy, fairytale blonde. However, this is not the only deceiving representation of the model turned artist; opposite Wertheimer’s painting, we see portraits from artists including Toulouse–Lautrec. For the most part, these renditions portray the young model as exuberant and eager—but they belie the physical demands of her job, not to mention her precarious station.
(10/04/21 2:22pm)
From a very young age, Isabel Hu (C '23) was always drawing—sometimes on scrap paper, sometimes in an art book, and a little too frequently on her family’s couch. Nowadays, Isabel frequently finds herself stopping to look for the visually intriguing elements in her daily life, often snapping pictures to reference in future works of art.
(09/21/21 8:57pm)
In the digital age, the line between the tangible and virtual has become increasingly blurred. Content creators exist primarily online, and the title of "artist" has taken on a variety of meanings and mediums accordingly. However, as we become accustomed to the process of modern art production, we may ask ourselves: Is there a way to revitalize the past?
(09/21/21 8:53pm)
Roberto Lugo’s Philadelphia is a “home of Cornbread tagging in the streets,” and of “football with no pads,” where you can get “baseball bats to the face for steppin’ in the wrong neighborhood.” This Philadelphia is not so familiar to the Penn community—our home is more appropriately described by tree–lined brick pathways, long walks to DRL, and consulting club rejections. Lugo’s Philadelphia and Penn’s Philadelphia may exist in the same geographical vicinity, but they often feel worlds apart.
(09/14/21 6:00pm)
Classic Nudes is an interactive guide to an assortment of the world’s steamiest fine art. The project pairs a curated selection of erotic artworks from museums around the world with short, cheeky descriptions. From the Renaissance to Impressionism and everywhere in between, the works in the guide touch on cornerstones of art history. The guide can be found on Pornhub’s website, and for each museum it includes a map that lays out where the sexy artworks are, an audio tour voiced by Asa Akira, and a video guide for each museum included. The minute–long audio clips are playful and filled with innuendos and pop culture references. Predictably, the videos are NSFW and involve the recreation of sensuous scenes like Gossaert’s Adam and Eve.
(09/07/21 1:17am)
Just days after move–in, bright–eyed sophomores took buses up to Fairmount Hill to enjoy art, refreshments, and each other’s company. In the historic Philadelphia Museum of Art, second–year Penn students schmoozed and chit chatted, ushering in what will hopefully be a more community–driven year at Penn. It was a celebration of togetherness for the Class of 2024, marking the first time all of us have been together in one place. The Philadelphia Museum of Art, which Penn rented out in its entirety, made for a special and memorable gala venue because of its scale and landmark status.
(08/31/21 4:00pm)
After the resurgence of the Taliban in mid–August, Afghans around the country began to flee toward airports and borders in hope for an escape from the increasing human rights violations. The threat to human life, security, and freedom is immeasurable, and no freedom is too fundamental to be safe from the Taliban’s reign. Alongside the dangers faced by the Afghan people is the danger threatening the Afghan legacy, which is ensconced in archeological wonders, sculptural masterpieces, and other studied artifacts. Under the Taliban regime, in all its violence, fundamentalism, and totalitarianism, there’s an urgent and momentous danger facing the treasure trove of art and history that lives within Afghanistan’s borders.
(09/02/21 12:27am)
Yayoi Kusama was born among flowers. Her family owned and operated a plant nursery in Matsumoto, Japan that supplied the Nagano Prefecture with plants and seeds. This can be read from a placard in one of the galleries of Kusama’s new part–retrospective, part–exhibition, Cosmic Nature, at the Bronx Botanical Gardens. This particular viewing room was dedicated to Kusama’s early drawings: precise, diagrammatic sketches of tree peonies (Paeonia suffruticosa). Her dedication to realism and attention to detail at the precocious age of 16 recalls Picasso’s adage to “learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”
(06/30/21 3:54pm)
Crying in H Mart is more than just a story of grief and family—it's also a love letter to Michelle Zauner’s mother and her mother country, South Korea. Zauner, known fondly among fans of indie rock by the stage name “Japanese Breakfast,” opens her first memoir, Crying in H Mart, with a simple declaration: “Ever since my mom died, I cry in H Mart.”
(04/26/21 1:24am)
In perhaps the most paramount 81 minutes the art world has ever experienced, March 18, 1990 became much more than the aftermath of a boozy St. Patrick’s day in Boston. With two fake police officer costumes, some duct tape, and a whole lot of mobster–related mystery, 13 internationally treasured works of art were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum—including a Vermeer and the only Rembrandt seascape. This Is a Robbery: The World’s Biggest Art Heist details the story of the theft and its enigmatic aftermath that continues to leave sleuths dumbfounded. The enthralling limited series makes for a roughly four–hour Sunday afternoon binge, leaving art–crime aficionados wanting more.
