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Soana Aholelei | Reporter / Director “I’ve spent 30 years justifying and trying to explain over and over again what I’m doing with Pacific Couture, right, which is a merging of fashion and art with my own unique aitu afa” – Linda Lepou Acclaimed fa’afafine artist Lindah Lepou unveiled her latest work at the Pātaka Art + Museum in Porirua earlier this month. The multi-disciplinary artist says her latest work Mata‘AITU (voyeur) pays tribute to her past works.  “The inspiration is part of an (AI)TU series that I developed almost two decades ago and this series is a place where I can create with my own Ngafa Aitu,” Lepou says.  “Ngafa, as in whakapapa, and Aitu ancestry spirit threaded through my work because it’s an anchor that allows me to have a more personal approach so this particular work is called Mata...

The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation denied the use of a 1981 portrait by the artist of notorious New York lawyer Roy M. Cohn for the cover of a forthcoming biography, titled American Scoundrel: Roy Cohn’s Dark Journey from Joe McCarthy to Donald Trump , because of its negative affiliation with the sitting US president, according to the New York Times . The portrait in question , simply titled Roy Cohn , captures the lawyer’s striking outward stare and scar-split nose head on, surrounded by a black backdrop, a signature of Mapplethorpe’s images during the final decade of his life. At the time it was made, Cohn was the subject of an interview for an issue of Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine. Writer and book editor Steven M.L. Aronson, who authored the piece, convinced Cohn to pose for Mapplethorpe, who was at the peak of his fame at the time. By then, Cohn was a major New York figure who, by day, represented mobsters, moguls, and med...

The Chinese ambassador to South Korea has ordered China’s artists to withdraw from the 16th Gwangju Biennale, which opens September 5, in protest of the Gwangju Biennial Foundation allowing Taiwanese exhibitors to participate under the name “Taiwan,” South Korean media reported today.  In a meeting with Gwangju Mayor Min Hyung-bae at Gwangju City Hall yesterday, Ambassador Dai Bing expressed his “regret and concern” over the decision to restore the name “Taiwan Pavilion” at the request of Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture, the Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) reported.  Speaking on behalf of the Chinese Embassy, Dai then demanded Chinese curators and  installation staff to halt their preparations and withdraw from the Hajeongung Art Museum in Gwangju, which was set to host their special exhibition. MBC reports that Min told Dai during their meeting that “political considerations should not affect the field of art.” The Gwan...

An arts complex in Tbilisi, Georgia, is being razed despite protests from its architects and some members of the local community. Following approval by Tbilisi’s city government in June, demolition work on the Rike Park Music Theatre and Exhibition Hall—colloquially known as Rike Tubes—began at the end of July and is scheduled to be completed by December. The news was reported by Reuters following a photo-essay documenting the destruction of the complex and that of a second landmark, a Brutalist former flour mill known as Silo, published in Civil Georgia . The Rike Tubes are a connected pair of glass-and-steel structures designed by Fuksas Studio, an Italian architectural firm led by husband-and-wife architects Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas. Built in the final years of United National Movement (UNM) rule (2004–2012), their ultracontemporary design symbolized the pro-Western approach of the UNM’s leader, Mikhail Saakashvili. The current governing ...

Half of the executive leadership team at Phillips is no longer with the auction house, and several other high-ranking employees have departed the company since the May sales. The two most senior departures are Miety Heiden , chairman of private sales, and Jonathan Crockett , chairman for Asia. Both will officially leave their roles next month. (Crockett’s departure was first reported in Art Asia Pacific and the Baer Faxt newsletter earlier today.)  Until now, the house’s four-person executive leadership team consisted of Heiden; Crockett; Robert Manley, chairman and worldwide head of modern and contemporary art; and Marianne Hoet, head of business development and chairman of Europe. This quartet all reported to chief executive Martin Wilson, who got the top role after Ed Dolman stepped down in 2024 to start his own consultancy firm. (In December 2024, deputy CEO Amanda Lo Iacono also stepped down from her role.)  Wilson, who came to Phill...

Sir Stephen Fry, Sharon Stone, Prince Harry, and Nobel Peace Prize winner Oleksandra Matviichuk are among the public figures taking on guest curator roles for “Postcode Ukraine: Diary of a Volunteer,” a fundraising exhibition of photographs by British, Kyiv-based artist Mark Neville. The show is slated to open on September 11 at Westwood Contemporary in Los Angeles and documents everyday life in Ukraine during Russia’s full-scale invasion. Neville’s photographs focus on volunteers, families, and communities living through the war. Each guest curator has selected a photo from the exhibition and written a short reflection on why it resonated with them. The group also includes actress Alyssa Milano, Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov, author Kateryna Babkina, and Wende Museum founder Justin Jampol. Matviichuk, who leads Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties, which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, said her selection draws attention to the people behind the statis...