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Last week, ARTnews reported that a fireworks show by Chinese artist  Cai Guo-Qiang  at the base of the Himalayas in Tibet was being hotly criticized online, leading to public apologies from both the artist and Arc’teryx, the outdoor apparel brand that sponsored the project. Now, according to the Art Newspaper , the same artwork has incited protests outside of one of White Cube’s London gallery spaces, where Cai is the subject of a just-opened exhibition. Two UK-based groups, Tibetan Community in Britain and Free Tibet, led a gathering outside White Cube last Thursday to protest and said in a statement, “Cai Guo-Qiang has committed an act of cultural violence that is ethically indefensible; an act that now renders his London show highly controversial.” The fireworks piece, The Rising Dragon , was staged September 19 at a plateau 18,000 feet above sea level in Shigatse, a city in China’s Tibet Autonomous Region. The outcry online was over environmental concerns that, accord...

On September 18, ARTnews celebrated the 2025 edition of the annual Top 200 Collectors list with an issue launch party at the newly opened Faena New York in Chelsea.     The evening’s cohosts were Beth Rudin DeWoody and Miyoung Lee, two exceptional Top 200 collectors who both serve on the board of trustees of the Whitney Museum in New York. By way of introducing the two hosts, ARTnews Editor-in-Chief Sarah Douglas described Rudin DeWoody as a collector who “constantly comes up as a source of support and what I like to think of as a true believer in art” and Lee as “representing a younger generation of collectors.”     During their remarks, Rudin DeWoody and Lee reminded guests about how special the art community is and the importance of being an art lover and patron. Rudin DeWoody spoke about the art world’s changing landscape. “I think this is a great time for people to collect,” she said. “I think it’s a great time for young collectors to come into ...

Artnet AG CEO Jacob Pabst resigned late Sunday, the night before the Berlin-based company’s annual general meeting. Pascal Decker, the chairman of the company’s Supervisory Board, told shareholders about the resignation as the meeting began. While Pabst’s contract had expired at the end of August, he cited a failure to reach an agreement on continuing in the role, according to the German language business publication Handelsblatt . Pabst is the son of Artnet’s founding CEO Hans Neuendorf,  who stepped down in 2012 . Andrew E. Wolff—who holds about 98.93 percent of Artnet shares, according to boerse.de, and also owns rival platform Artsy—will serve as interim chief executive. Earlier this year, Wolff’s Beowolff Capital offered a voluntary public takeover  of the company. Jan Petzel, managing director of Wolff’s Leonardo Art Holdings, said he was surprised by Pabst’s resignation but pleased the annual meeting went forward. According to an Artnet AG corporate announcement , s...

The University of California, Irvine (UCI) has officially acquired the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA). As part of the acquisition, UCI will merge OCMA with the UC Irvine Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art (Langson IMCA); the new institution will now be named the UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art. UC Irvine will oversee the OCMA’s 53,000-square-foot, $98 million facility, which opened in 2022, within the Segerstrom Center for the Arts campus in the neighboring city of Costa Mesa, California. At the time of the merger, the modern and contemporary art museum had 4,500 objects in its collection; these will be integrated alongside some 9,000 works from the Irvine Museum Collection and the Gerald Buck Collection, which was bequeathed to the university in 2017. The Langson IMCA will continue to support research, student training, and integration across academic programs from an on-campus location, in addition to its regular exhibition pr...

The two teams met in their eighth round Heartland Championship match at Levin Domain on Saturday 27 September, with the home team winning by a point in a tightly fought match dominated by turnovers and penalties. There were plenty of errors early in this match as Horowhenua-Kapiti posted the first points with a penalty to...

MC and Va’ine Fresh mentor Rhiannon McCall leads the ten new female Pacific stand up comics on stage. Photo: Anaru Church from Smoke Photography Ltd.  Aroha Awarau | Guest Writer It wasn’t the call of a drum that opened the night, but the unmistakable funky intro of Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love” – setting a bold tone of female empowerment. This was Aotearoa’s first stand-up comedy show to spotlight 10 brand-new Pacific Island female comedians. Answering the call of the Va’ine Fresh initiative – a six-week training and mentorship programme created to support Pacific women breaking into stand-up – the ten novice comics took to the stage, bringing the house down as the inaugural programme culminated in a vibrant showcase at the Māngere Arts Centre on Saturday. MC for the evening, seasoned Cook Islands New Zealand comedian Rhiannon McCall – also the driving force behind Va’ine Fresh, alongside Samoan producer Sarah Richards – was the perfect host for a night like this. By...

Photo: Pasifika Medical Association / Supplied The aim for more heart surgeries for children in the Pacific region is an initiative made possible through the New Zealand Medical Treatment Scheme (NZMTS), which is managed by the Pasifika Medical Association Group (PMA Group) and funded by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT).  NZMTS ensures Pacific people have access to specialist medical treatment not available locally, while also supporting in-country health services and building sustainable regional capacity. Dr Krupali Tappoo, COF, Director of SSSSCH, reflected on the impact. “Were very grateful for this partnership and hope that we can continue working together so that children in the Pacific will have hope. After the surgery is conducted, many children tell us that they want to become doctors, nurses & heart surgeons” “What they will do in their lives and the opportunities that are available to these children once they have a new gift of life...

A good last game of the season for the Wellington Māori and Centurions U18s teams, with the Māori winning 30-22. Photo: Andy McArthur. The Wellington Lions have one more match to come in their 2025 NPC campaign, hosting the Bay of Plenty Steamers this coming Saturday at Porirua Park, but for home fans there is...

A New York judge has ruled against billionaire investor and art collector Ronald O. Perelman in his bid to collect $400 million from insurers for five paintings he said were damaged in a 2018 fire at his East Hampton estate, according to the New York Times . Justice Joel M. Cohen of State Supreme Court in Manhattan found on Friday that there was “no visible damage” to the works—two by Andy Warhol, two by Ed Ruscha and one by Cy Twombly—and “nothing traceable to the fire” that would reduce their value. “The artworks [can] be enjoyed as they were before,” Cohen said in his bench ruling. Perelman, once among the richest men in America,  claimed the fire  robbed the works of their “spark” and “oomph.” His lawyers argued that high humidity, smoke, and soot penetrated the protective frames, dulling color and contrast, even if the damage was not immediately visible. “All of the pictures lost their luster, lost their depth, lost some of their definition and lost a lot of their...

The granddaughter of actor Steve McQueen is suing a South Carolina lawyer for a Jackson Pollock painting valued at $68 million. Lawyer Brent Borchert told the Mirror that he grew up with the Pollock painting hanging on the walls of his parents’ home. Following the deaths of his late parents Rudolph and Pamela, Borchert and his sister Bettina were bequeathed the Pollock painting, along with the rest of their art collection in Malibu, California. Borchert now lives with his family in South Carolina. In August, McQueen’s granddaughter, Molly McQueen, filed a lawsuit with the superior court of California in Los Angeles County, claiming that the late legend was the painting’s legal owner. In the suit, she alleges that “actor Steve McQueen transferred a Jackson Pollock drip painting to Rudolph and Pamela Borchert, in anticipated exchange for a motorcycle and Latigo Canyon property. However, one of the Borcherts crashed the motorcycle and the property never changed title.” The suit alle...

Canada’s shipbuilding renaissance under the National Shipbuilding Strategy (NSS) has just taken another decisive step forward. Irving Shipbuilding has awarded L3Harris a major contract to deliver the Visual Surveillance System (VSS) for the River-class destroyer (RCD) fleet—Canada’s largest and most complex shipbuilding program to date. This milestone builds on L3Harris’ earlier role in providing the Integrated Platform Management System (IPMS) and Control & Instrumentation, bringing the company’s total contract value for the first three destroyers to more than $170 million. Together, these systems will form the digital nerve centre of the ships that will replace the Halifax-class frigates and become the backbone of the Royal Canadian Navy’s combat fleet. Building the Future Fleet Construction of the first three River-class destroyers began in April, marking the full-rate production phase of a fleet that will shape Canada’s naval power for decades. Designed with advanced techn...

A submerged port discovered near a temple complex west of Alexandria, Egypt may be the key to finding Cleopatra’s lost tomb, according to archaeologists.  The port was found outside the ruins of the Taposiris Magna temple complex. In its prime, the complex and its surrounding town was a crucial hub for trade, with goods transported across the lake or ferried through via overland merchant routes bound for Alexandria. However, the true significance of the site may have only been recently guessed. In a landmark study spearheaded by  archaeologist Kathleen Martinez, working in partnership with oceanographer Bob Ballard—of the RMS Titanic fame—and a crew of underwater archaeologists, located the submerged port offshore from Taposiris Magna at a depth of 12 meter.  As first reported in Heritage Daily , the underwater site consists of a vast series of structures measuring some 6 meters high, arranged in rows, and including columns, cemented blocks, polished stone floors, and...

A painting thought to have been made by a celebrated Polish Realist artist and later determined to be a forgery is now back on view at the National Museum in Poznań, Poland. The piece, titled Vegetable Market at Żelaznej Bramy Square in Warsaw , was attributed to impressionist painter Józef Pankiewicz and dated 1888. The following year, Pankiewicz was awarded a silver medal for the painting at the Universal Exposition in Paris, France. It was subsequently acquired by the National Museum in Poznań in 1948. In 2017, Michał Haake of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań noticed differences between the painting in the museum’s collection and reproductions of the original that had been published in post-war magazines. Namely, a woman carrying a basket who is one of the central figures had larger eyes, a broader nose, a smaller chin, and her head was less tilted making her ear visible—the latter a feature that cannot be seen in the museum version. The museum later investigated the claims...

No artist is more American in terms of subject matter and sensibility than Wayne Thiebaud, who painted food and features of postwar culture in still lifes that pair Pop art’s wide-eyed reverie with signs of high-minded refinement. Before he starting showing his work in galleries in the 1960s, Thiebaud worked as an illustrator and designer, including stints in animation for Walt Disney Studios and graphic design for the military during World War II. After that, he commenced a singular career as an artist in the Bay Area who made all of America his home before he died in 2021 at the age of 101. (See an ARTnews primer on Thiebaud for an overview of his life and work.) Starting October 10, Thiebaud will be the subject of what’s being touted as his first UK museum exhibition: a survey at the Courtauld Gallery in London titled “Wayne Thiebaud: American Still Life.” The show includes loans from private collections and institutions including the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C....

Franck Slama, the anonymous French artist who goes by the moniker Invader, known for his pixelated mosaic artworks using ceramic tiles, recently sued the parent company of Julien Auctions for copyright infringement, theft, and violations of the visual artists’ rights act. The lawsuit alleges that 15 original artworks Invader installed at various locations around the world “were stolen from their places of installation without Invaders knowledge or consent and in such a manner that each of the works appear have been noticeably damaged, mutilated, or distorted”. Two of the mosaics were originally installed in Tokyo, Japan, in 2014, while five were installed in various locations across France last November. The oldest work was installed in Paris in October 2000. The 15 artworks were then offered as part of the auction house’s “ Street Art: Paint & Pavement ” sale on September 25, despite Invader demanding the items be removed from the auctioned and returned to him. The mosaics ar...

Ōtara-raised barrister Ted Johnston is the only Pasifika candidate in Auckland’s 2025 mayoral race. Photo: Scoop Local Democracy Reporting | Free Public Interest News Service By Mary Afemata of Local Democracy Reporting Ōtara-raised barrister Ted Johnston says low voter turnout is silencing Pacific voices in Auckland’s democracy. He urges people to “get their votes off the fridge” and support competent Pacific candidates so their communities are properly represented. Electoral Officer Dale Ofsoske says the turnout in 2022 was 35.5 per cent, and has reminded voters of their responsibility to participate in the electoral process and to “make their voice heard this year”. In an interview on  Pacific Mornings , Johnston says, “We need to flex our power as Pacific people in democracy to vote, and that means get out there and find candidates and support our Pacific candidates if they’re competent. “There are so many Pacific Island people, only 35 per cent vote of the whol...

The curator of an art exhibition on authoritarian regimes at the Bangkok Arts and Cultural Centre (BACC) fled Thailand two days after it opened over fears of possible arrest and deportation, report s the New York Times. The show, titled “Constellation of Complicity: Visualising the Global Machine of Authoritarian Solidarity,” was curated by an artist from Myanmar, who goes by the name Sai. It features work by exiled artists from countries like China, Russia, Iran and Burma and aims to illustrate how authoritarian regimes “collaborate, affirm one another, and reproduce forms of violence under the guise of sovereignty and order,”  according to the museum’s website . Sai told the New York Times that he received digital messages from directors of the BACC warning him that Thai police officers were asking for his contact information. ““We expected there would be some kind of formal hindrance, but we didn’t expect it to be that immediate,” he said. The New York Times reporte...

By Steven White and contributors Pat Quin, who passed away last week, had a long association with many clubs, teams and people in the Wellington rugby community, including this website with the company he founded Rob Law Max being a key supporter and sponsor of this website the past decade. As one of many posters...

Ever since it starred in the momentous 1970 MoMA show “Information,” about Conceptual art conceived for a newly dawned mass-media age, Dial-A-Poem has been a source of fascination—and more than a little fun—for followers of poetry in the expanded field. The conceit of the work, created by downtown New York artist and connector John Giorno in 1969, is simple in an analog way: dial a phone number, hear a reading of a poem. Now it has followed the march of so much other content to a new home online.   Related Articles John Giorno’s Former Home Is Now One of New York’s Coolest Alternative Art Spaces Remembrance of Flings Past Clicking on the rendering of an old phone with a thick curly cord calls up randomized readings of poems created for the early days of Dial-A-Poem as well as newer ones written, recorded, and transmitted in the decades since. A small sample set gathered on the site’s first day includes “To the National Arts Council” by Peter Schjeldahl...

J.R. [James Russell] Watt was a leading midfield and outside back in Wellington club and provincial rugby over several seasons as well as an All Black wing who made three tours overseas with the national side. Watt attended Otago Boys’ High School school he represented the Kaikorai club in Dunedin before making his debut for...

Excavations along a popular pilgrimage route on the southern shore of Lake Mareotis in northern Egypt revealed a well-preserved Christian church from late antiquity, according to a new study published in the journal  Antiquity . Archaeologists from the University of Warsaw’s Faculty of Archaeology and the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology have been working at Philoxenite, a stop along a popular pilgrimage route to the shrine of St Menas at Abu Mena, from 2021 through 2024. There, not far from the town square, was an L-shaped church, measuring 32 feet by 89 feet. Ashlar limestone blocks were used to construct the foundation, while the walls are made of dressed limestone bonded with lime mortar and covered with ash plaster. On the floors, there are stone pavements with sections of inlaid opus sectile patterns. The corners were externally supported by semi-circular buttresses. Earlier phases of the building remain below. The floor plan includes a number of annexes, among...

“I like the strong personal visionary stuff that generally doesn’t fit in the mainstream,” the artist Robert Crumb once wrote in a letter to the cartoonist B. N. Duncan. Dan Nadel quotes that letter in Crumb , his recent biography of the artist , but it’s a statement that may as well apply to Nadel himself, a curator whose work has centered those who exist on the margins of American art history. Open-minded comic artists, wacky sculptors, and weirdo painters recur throughout Nadel’s exhibitions, books, and writings. Many of these artists were active during the postwar period, and almost none of them made work that conformed to the dictates of New York–based art magazines, which preferred styles like Pop, Minimalism, and Conceptualism. Now, it’s voguish to scour art history for figures such as these, to ask ourselves: What else don’t we know? But it was not always that way—not even in 2014, when Nadel curated “What Nerve! Alternative Figures in American Art, 1960 to the Present” for...

Art collector Bernard Arnault, one of the richest men in the world, spoke bitterly against plans for France to institute a tax on the ultra-wealthy, calling the proposal “offensive.” The plan is the brainchild of the economist Gabriel Zucman, whose proposal would see particularly rich people pay a 2 percent tax on their wealth. Zucman has claimed his plan will rake in 20 billion euros ($27 billion). “Unprecedented wealth concentration—and the unbridled power that comes with such wealth—has distorted our democracy and is driving societal and economic tensions,” he previously wrote in the Guardian . Right-wing politicians have claimed the tax would severely undermine the economy. Arnault, whom Forbes says is worth $156 billion, had a similar bone to pick, telling the Sunday Times that the tax plan is “deadly for our economy.” He went on to claim that he was “certainly the largest individual taxpayer and one of the largest professional taxpayers through the companies I run.” Those c...

A fireworks show staged by Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang at the base of the Himalayas in Tibet has led to stinging criticism online. Amid the outcry, both the artist and Arc’teryx, the outdoor apparel brand that sponsored the project, issued apologies. The Rising Dragon , a piece related to Cai’s 1989 gunpowder drawing Ascending Dragon: Project for Extraterrestrials No. 2 , featured fireworks that emitted colored smoke in dramatic patterns on a plateau in Shigatse, a city in China’s Tibet Autonomous Region. The performance was staged at an elevation some 18,000 feet above sea level. Criticism mounted after pictures and video made their way online and prompted questions about environmental concerns raised by the artwork, leading Chinese authorities to address the matter. “The Shigatse party committee and government take the matter seriously and have set up an investigation team to send to the site immediately to investigate,” the city’s local communist party committee said in...

Stanley Solomon runs around to score in Wellington’s record-breaking win over Southland on Sunday, against some of his future teammates when he joins the Highlanders later this year. Photo: Stewart Baird. The rugby spotlight falls on Whanganui this week with the three-day HYRC U16s tournament.  There has already been one round played last weekend, but...

Risk is the price you pay for opportunity – Tom Selleck Did I actually just pen that subject line? I have often opined that Canada enjoys the equivalent of master class status in terms of risk aversion, and I am not alone among observers in raising this concerns It is especially prevalent and damaging when dealing with very expensive weapons systems platform acquisition projects. However, there have been two recent indications that the federal government may be opening a new chapter in this novella, both of which are in the shipbuilding bossiness. One relates to Polar Icebreakers for the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG), and a second involves the Canadian Patrol Submarine Project for the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). Admittedly the details in the public domain lack transparency, as briefings to the public seem to have been lacking outside of the announcements by the Minister of Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC). Nevertheless, there are indications that we should not ignore. Pol...