Shana Nys Dambrot

For the final installment of the paper’s Arts Calendar, I leave you with thirteen things to put on your save the dates list for SS24. Area museums especially have some incredible programs coming up—hometown heroes and international icons, engagement with science and histories reimagined, public spaces activated and classics refreshed, avant-garde operas and independent art fairs and glitter in the park. It’s going to be amazing. Thank you, art lovers, for coming along on this incredible journey all these years. See you out there!

Judithe Hernández’s exhibition title— Beyond Myself, Somewhere, I Wait for My Arrival —is more than a moving line of poetry from Octavio Paz, it could be a nod to the surprising fact that The Cheech’s show is, somehow, the first major career retrospective for a gifted, acclaimed, and beloved artist whose historic oeuvre spans more than five decades. But as poetry, the line speaks directly to Hernández’s sensibility—a heady, elegant mixture of magic realism, feminist surrealism, archetypal symbolism, mythological narratives, modern realities, and full-throated aesthetic gorgeousness sparked by her cultural heritage but available to anyone who ever took the scenic route to self-discovery.

Wu Tsang M.F.A. ’10 is one of our most fascinating and talented provocateurs, challenging the very notion of what art is — and what it can be.

Zizipho Poswa's monumental ceramic and bronze sculptures hold court like an enclave of demigods. While not figurative per se, they are anthropomorphic in the way all ceramic vessels are: All are additionally crowned with towering, ornate objects that radiate ceremonial significance whether or not one is conversant in their Pan-African cultural references. However, the viewer who takes the time to learn these references is amply rewarded. Returning to the works with a fuller understanding of their matriarchal, ceremonial, artisanal characters, one finds their evocation of protective feminine forms even more powerful.

You can’t fault Taking Venice for its timing. Its theatrical release comes just weeks after the opening of the 2024 edition of the Venice Biennale, at a time when the U.S. is on a run of critical successes and public acclaim for its national pavilion curations (Mark Bradford in 2017, Martin Puryear ’19, Simone Leigh ’22, Jeffrey Gibson now ). It’s also the 60th anniversary of the tongue-wagging events investigated in director Amei Wallach’s newest art world documentary.

The Hispanic Society’s current show taps art history, architecture, and the power of a good origin story.

To draw a child well you have to do it with love — even, or especially, when the child is wise beyond their years, or has witnessed trauma, or has an attitude problem, or is your gentle but inscrutable granddaughter sitting still so you can practice your technique. Even, or especially, when that child is yourself.

Simone Leigh's presence at the 2022 Venice Biennale was monumental: Her sculptural contributions to the main exhibition garnered a Golden Lion, while her solo show for the US national pavilion generated headlines around the world and lines around the block. In the context of that venerable site—and particularly in terms of Biennale curator Cecilia Alemani's focus on global feminist surrealism—Leigh's engagement with Western art history and juxtaposition of canonical and vernacular materials (bronze, gold and ceramic paired with straw thatching, wire and cowrie shells, for example) achieved a profound aesthetic impact and delivered a searing postcolonial critique.

‘Truckload of Art’ indeed: A boundary-smashing talent gets the genre-defying biography he deserves.

World-girdling light and space – Olafur Eliasson's kaleidoscope in L.A. and his parabolic pavilion in Vejle, Denmark.