Museums News

09/12/2025

09/12/2025

Museums News visited the Aesthetica Art Prize a 2025 at York Art Gallery and came away inspired. As part of the Prize’s 19th anniversary — curated by Aesthetica Magazine, which has been championing global contemporary artists since 2002 — the show gathers 25 shortlisted works spanning painting, video, installation, digital art and more.

Among the stand-outs is Sujata Setia’s 'A Thousand Cuts', a work that cuts across trauma, memory and identity — each mark a trace of resilience.

'Submergence' by squidsoup immerses viewers in a digital sea of light and motion, dissolving boundaries between body, space and technology — a haunting but hopeful comment on connection in a fractured world.

Then there is Princess Arinola Adegbite’s afro-futuristic vision. In 'Time Pops Like Chewing Gum' she blends technology, identity and future imaginings to challenge social norms and assert dignity in uncertain times.

And Hussina Raja’s 'Station' draws on South Asian and Caribbean diasporic culture, using evocative imagery to insist on representation, diversity and shared humanity.

The show pulses with technology — generative media, immersive installations, mixed media — at its core. Yet it remains deeply human in message: in an era marked by rising nationalism, fear and division, these works offer threads of hope, unity and resistance through identity, memory and creativity.

York Art Gallery, part of York Museums Trust, provides a worthy and welcoming setting: its historic architecture frames contemporary experimentation, inviting visitors to reflect on where we are and where we might go.

After seeing this exhibition, one leaves with renewed belief that art can challenge power, build empathy and imagine new futures.

Aesthetica Art Prize 2025
📌 York Art Gallery
⏰ 19 September 2025 – 25 January 2026
🎫 Info/Tickets: See link in comments

08/12/2025

Meet Alex Garant — a Canadian artist best known for her hypnotic, multi-eyed illusion portraits that bend perception and challenge identity. With her trademark “Optic Pop”.
Garant layers duplicated facial features and graphic patterns to explore duality, inner identity and outward persona.

Her major solo shows include 'Slumber' (2025) at Arch Enemy Arts and 'Dream Wranglers' (2025) at Harman Projects, among others worldwide.

Her paintings use symmetry, superposition and doubling to create portraits that seem alive, shifting before the eyes — a magical meditation on identity and perception.
I
I
I

08/12/2025

07/12/2025

At Take Back Power’s protest at Tower of London, four activists were arrested after pouring custard and apple crumble over the glass case holding the Imperial State Crown — part of the Crown Jewels — while stating:
“Homeless people are dying on our the streets. This is the most dangerous time of the year for them and we have the rich hoarding wealth. This is disgusting. Democracy has crumbled. Tax the rich'.

The stunt prompted the temporary closure of the Jewel House and was meant as a call to tax the wealthy and create a citizens’ assembly.
Source: scotnational
I
I
I

06/12/2025

06/12/2025

At Art Basel Miami Beach, Beeple unveils a mischievously sharp installation: robot dogs fitted with the heads of Picasso, Warhol, Bezos, Musk, and Zuckerberg.

Roaming the fair, they continuously “defecate” photographs while dodging one another — a satirical loop Beeple calls “a bit like humans.”

Blurring tech, humour, and cultural critique, the work pokes at ego, legacy, and the absurdity of contemporary power structures, all through a perfectly chaotic Art Basel lens.
Source: judithbenhamou
I
I
I

05/12/2025

05/12/2025

Slow-Motion Car Crash by Jonathan Schipper transforms a violent split-second event into a slow, unsettling meditation on mortality.

In this installation, two full-size cars inch toward a head-on collision at just 7 mm per hour — stretching what would be an instant into a months-long unraveling of shape, speed, and outcome.

First staged at AV Festival (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK) in 2012 with funding from Locus+, the work has since resurfaced at various international venues. It’s a powerful act of conceptual transformation — forcing us to reassess speed, destruction, and time as forms of living and dying.
Source: Jonathan Schipper
I
I
I

04/12/2025

Austrian artist Anna Vasof is known for her playful and inventive approach to moving image and sculpture, creating works that blend engineering, humour, and visual illusion.

Using everyday objects and mechanical systems, she builds kinetic pieces that come to life through movement, repetition, and performance.

Her videos and installations challenge how we read motion and meaning, turning the familiar into surprising, sometimes surreal experiences. Vasof invites viewers to keep looking — and keep discovering — with every frame.

04/12/2025

A remarkable work, 'Tank Project' by He Xiangyu, is a full-scale military tank crafted entirely from Italian leather.

Hand-sewn by a dedicated leather workshop over two years (2011–13), the piece deflates a symbol of war and power into soft luxury.

The work was shown at UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, in the 2013 exhibition 'ON/OFF: China’s Young Artists in Concept and Practice', and later featured at White Cube in London during his 2014 solo show.
Source: enigma.curation / He Xiangyu
I
I
I

03/12/2025

French artist and designer Clara Daguin merges couture and code, creating garments embedded with sound-reactive LED lights that blur the line between fashion and technology.

Working at the intersection of embroidery and computing, her illuminated textiles pulse, shimmer, and respond to sound, transforming clothing into living, interactive art.

Daguin has exhibited globally, including at Ars Electronica, Dutch Design Week, and Palais de Tokyo, redefining what wearable art can be in the digital age.
source: the_1of1_