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Bae Young-hwan, a beloved artist who represented his home country of Korea at the 2005 edition of the Venice Biennale, died on June 19 at 57. His Seoul representative, Gallery BB&M, did not state a cause in its announcement of his passing on June 20, which described Bae’s death as “sudden.” He was most widely known for his artworks that appropriated lyrics from Korean pop songs. Remaking those lyrics from pain medications, disinfectant, and cotton used to soothe wounds, Bae critiqued the optimism of these songs, suggesting that the hope offered by those words was only a temporary patch in the quest to fix a perennial sense of sadness afflicting Korean society. Born in 1969, Bae attended Hongik University in Seoul, where he received an eduction in traditional Asian painting styles. He would go on to eschew that education and take up conceptual art, showing it in vaunted Korean art institutions such as Alternative Space Pool, Art Sonje...

Visitors Paremata-Plimmerton beat Wainuiomata 19-12 in a tough fixture at William Jones Park on Saturday in their Smith & Wilson Cup match in the last round of the 2026 Swindale Shield. It was always tight and it came down to who could take their chances. Paremata-Plimmerton did just that, while also coming up with three...

The National Museum Cardiff in Wales may close for much-needed repair work, according to a workers’ union claim that it is in early discussions about a temporary closure in the wake of work last year to address what the institution’s director general described as the building’s “deteriorating condition.” As reported by the BBC, “The Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) said it understands that Amgueddfa Cymru, which runs the site, is ‘considering the possibility’ of temporary closure but that ‘no final decisions have been made.’” The union told the BBC that the talks related to “the impact on staff, the protection of collections and the future operation of the museum” after rumors on social media led to questions about the museum’s future. In a statement, Amgueddfa Cymru chief executive Jane Richardson described maintenance on the building as “an ongoing challenge.” A press release issued by the group said a design team has been appointed...

This week, the United States marks its 250th birthday, arguably no closer to agreeing on how that story should be told—or who gets to tell it. Under the second Trump administration, museums have become one of the clearest arenas for that struggle. These are places where America’s myth of exceptionalism collides with its lived reality: a contested memory of race, class, and political ambition. As the unfolding case of the Smithsonian attests, museum leaders occupy a pivotal position in American public life, balancing obligations to historical truth, institutional stakeholders, and the communities whose record they are entrusted to keep.   Against this backdrop, the California African American Museum (CAAM) celebrates its 50th anniversary, offering a blueprint for how museums can hold fast to their mission, regardless of what gathers at their periphery. Chartered by the State of California in 1977, CAAM is widely considered the nation’s first state-sup...

Health experts gathered at Fale Pasifika for the Te Poutoko Ora a Kiwa Health Research Symposium 2026. Photo: Yvonne Falealili Gladys Hartson | Senior Journalist “You need models that are actually being designed around the realities of Pacific women and Pacific communities. You need to understand the geography, culture, family, workforce constraints and the reality of daily life that they have.” Gynaecological Oncologist Dr Ai Ling Tan  The importance of Pacific research and science, women’s and mental health, the climate crisis and the use of AI tools in healthcare were among the topics discussed at Waipapa Taumata Rau Auckland University’s Fale Pasifika this week. The topics were part of the Te Poutoko Ora a Kiwa, Centre for Pacific and Global Health Research Symposium 2026 attended by leading health professionals, academics and researchers fr...

Above: Petone were awarded the Harper Lock Shield late on Sunday after the competition was declared closed after the last round was unable to go ahead on Saturday after extreme weather late last week. PHOTO: Petone Rugby Monday morning edition – updates expected later in the day: Four weeks until the end of the Wellington...

Four panels of an interconnected painting by Norman Rockwell have gone on public view for the first time at the headquarters for the White House Historical Association, a “non-profit, non-partisan organization” a short walk from its namesake in Washington, D.C. The work ran under the headline “So You Want to See the President!” in the Saturday Evening Post after it had been commissioned by Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s press secretary Stephen Early in 1943. As reported by Artnet News , “After publication, Rockwell gave the paintings to Early, but following the press officer’s untimely death in 1951, they went to his daughter and were later lent to the White House between 1978 and 2022, becoming an ever presence in the West Wing.” Last year, three years after the loan had ceased, the painting changed hands by way of Heritage Auctions for $7.25 million in a “sale [that] followed a bitter ownership dispute and cast the painting as an emblem of both Amer...

British artist, printmaker, and educator Tess Jaray, known for her hard-edge abstractions, died on May 24 at age 88. The news was first reported by the Guardian in May. Jaray was born in 1937 in Vienna into a Jewish family with artistic connections: her father was an engineer and inventor, and her mother had studied fashion; her father’s aunt was collector and gallerist Lea Bondi Jaray, and his godfather was the noted Austrian art historian Ernst Gombrich, author of The Story of Art . After Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938, Jaray fled with her parents to Britain, where they settled in rural Worcestershire. Her uncle Richard Jaray, a furniture designer and architect, was sent to the Łódź ghetto, where he and his mother were murdered. Other relatives were deported to the concentration camps Theresienstadt and Auschwitz. Jaray studied at St Martin’s School of Art from 1954 to 1957, then enrolled at the Slade School of Fine Art, graduating in 1960....

Europe is seeing a historic heat wave, but things were a bit more lukewarm in Christie’s London salesroom on Thursday evening at a two-part sale featuring 56 contemporary artworks from the collection of Anita and Poju Zabludowicz followed by a 79-lot sale of postwar and contemporary art. A £4 million ($5.2 million) Philip Guston from the Zabludowicz’s holdings led the sale. The evening totaled £25.7 million ($34 million), with the first sale making £15.5 million ($20.5 million) and the second £10.2 million ($13.5 million). The Zabludowicz works were estimated to total between £12.6 million and £19.3 million ($16.6 million–$25.5 million); the hammer total was £12.3 million ($16.2 million), just below the low estimate; with the house’s fees, the sale totaled £15.4 million ($20.5 million). Seven lots were guaranteed; three were withdrawn; seven failed to find buyers, for a sell-through rate of 89 percent. Records were set for Anj Smith, Rose Wylie, and Jakub Julia...

Ring an alarm bell—the buzziest performance of this year’s Venice Biennial is going on tour. An adapted version of Florentina Holzinger’s  Seaworld Venice , created for the Austrian Pavilion, will be presented at Gropius Bau in Berlin in spring 2027, followed by a stop at Kunsthalle Wien in Vienna that fall, before concluding its run in March 2028 at Amant in Brooklyn. Nora‑Swantje Almes, Curator for Live Programs and Outreach at Gropius Bau, who organized its Venice presentation, will oversee this new iteration. In the unlikely event you haven’t heard (of) it, a refresher: Holzinger hung upside down inside a great bronze bell recovered from the Venetian lagoon and suspended above the pavilion. Assuming the role of a human clapper, Holzinger struck its lip again and again, sending a sonorous peal across the Biennial grounds. In an adjoining installation, nude collaborators floated inside a dunk tank flanked by port-a-potties; visitors were encouraged...

Archaeologists working in Upper Egypt discovered two tombs dating to the Early Dynastic period, both of them at the fabled location known as Gabal El-Teir—or, as translated from Arabic, “Mountain of the Birds.” The tombs date from 3100 to 2686 B.C.E. and “will allow researchers to trace the development of funerary architecture,” according to Archaeology Magazine , which noted that thick walls at the bottom that taper toward the top of the structures could represent an early stage in the development of pyramids. As r eported by Ahram Online , “The first early Dynastic tomb represents a rare architectural model distinguished by its unique geometric design, while the second tomb closely mirrors it in layout and is notably better preserved.” The publication cited Hisham El-Leithy, Secretary-General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), describing the discovery as similar to the storied tomb of King Den in Abydos and pointing out that “this resemb...

The Courtauld Gallery in London announced this week that it will put on view works from the Reuben Collection alongside works from its own holdings this fall. Opening September 18, the exhibition, titled “Modern Painting from the Courtauld and Reuben Collections,” will feature works by Paul Cezanne, Juan Gris, Fernand Léger, Amedeo Modigliani, René Magritte, Man Ray, and Pablo Picasso. Cezanne’s Turning Road  (1905) and Modigliani’s Nude  (ca.1916), from the Courtauld’s collection, will “set the stage for works from the Reuben Collection by painters who built on such innovations to chart new artistic directions,” according to a release. The Reuben Collection will loan works such as Picasso’s canvases Marie-Thérèse Walter (1937), Dora Maar (1939), and  Still Life with Basket of Fruits and Flowers  (1942); Magritte’s The Dominion of Light (1949) and The Intimate Friend (1958); and Man Ray’s monumental 1915 painting Black ...

Visitors the Upper Hutt Rams came screeching back over the final 15 minutes to beat Tawa 24-19 at  windy Lyndhurst Park on Saturday. Tawa were left ruing a number of missed opportunities and a pair of second half yellow cards which cost them the game. They had earlier sprung to life midway through the first...

Israeli artist Yaacov Agam, known for his optical and kinetic artworks, has died at 98. The news was reported by outlets including the Times of Israel , Haaretz , and the Jerusalem Post . The son of an Orthodox rabbi, Agam was born Yaacov Gipstein in Rishon LeZion, Palestine (now Israel), in 1928. After studying art in Jerusalem, he traveled to Zurich in 1949 to study with artist Johannes Itten, who introduced him to Bauhaus ideas on color and abstraction; he was also influenced by Vasily Kandinsky’s 1911 treatise, On the Spiritual in Art: And Painting in Particular . In 1951, he moved to Paris, where he was still living at the time of his death. Agam’s first solo exhibition was at 1953 at Galerie Craven in Paris, where he presented two series of works. One series displayed different images depending on the viewer’s position relative to the piece. Such artworks would become something of a signature for the artist, who dubbed them “Agamographs.” He also sh...

Madonna collects her. Her work sets auction records for women artists. Netflix is developing a series about her. She’s the subject of an opera . Now, Mexican painter Frida Kahlo has another claim to fame. “Frida: The Making of an Icon,” opening this month at London’s Tate Modern, has pre-sold 41,000 tickets, a record for the institution, reports the Guardian . That beats the 32,000 advance sales for the museum’s 2017 David Hockney exhibition. “We’re pretty blown away by it,” Catherine Wood, Tate Modern’s interim director, told the publication. The museum is billing the show as the first major exhibition to explore how Kahlo became a “global icon” and a major influence on a generation of artists. Co-organized with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the show will include more than 30 works by the artist alongside documentary photographs, personal effects, and works by a host of artists reflecting her profound influence.  ...

Pacific Strongest 2026 flyer featuring champs from 2025’s event. Photo: Provided by Misa Peter Anae. Ann-Tauilo Motuga | Reporter/Videographer “Pacific Strongest is about more than lifting weights. It’s about honouring our culture, strengthening our people, and bringing the Pacific together – united in strength.”– Misa Peter Anae, Co-founder, Pacific Strongest. An insane battle of pure grit, power and island pride will take over Apia this weekend as the Pacific Strongest 2026 kicks off in beautiful Samoa. The two-day competition will take place behind the Central Bank of Samoa on Friday 26th and Saturday 27th June. Spearheaded by co-founder and President of Strongman Samoa Misa Peter Anae, the free family-friendly event will unite some of the Pacific’s strongest male and female athletes. Photo: Provided by Misa Pete...

Xavier Numia and Billy Proctor running freely during the Super Rugby Final. They won a College First XV Premiership final together in 2015 for St Pat’s Town and have now won the Super Rugby title together for the Hurricanes. Photo: Caroline Lewis. Monday morning edition – updates expected later today. It’s the last week of...

A new BDC study finds established suppliers running near capacity while a larger pipeline of prospective entrants faces financing and compliance barriers. Canada’s defence ramp-up is reaching small and medium businesses at very different speeds. A new study from BDC, produced with The Icebreaker, sorts them into three groups: defence-focused firms trying to scale now, companies moving cautiously between civilian and military work, and prospective suppliers still working out how to get in. Demand is rising across all three. The firms best placed to meet it have the least room to grow, and the firms with room to grow are the least ready. The study surveyed 268 companies active in defence and 374 interested in entering. The sample was non-probabilistic and skews to Ontario, so it describes the firms surveyed rather than all Canadian SMEs. Three speeds Defence-heavy SMEs earn most of their revenue from the sector. They have customers and demand but no slack: 2...