We are only nine days away from a fateful and unpredictable presidential election in the United States. The race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump couldn’t be tighter; the stakes couldn’t be higher. Why, then, do many of us feel so numb?
In the beginner’s guide to right-wing authoritarianism, scapegoating migrants for the hardships of the working class is at the top of the list. In a must-read opinion piece this week, Haitian-American artists Rejin Leys and Vladimir Cybil Charlier respond to the xenophobic venom that Trump and his running mate JD Vance have spewed against their community. They also explain why Haiti in particular has “terrified White Americans for more than two centuries.” It’s worth your time. Also, our Staff Reporter Isa Farfan spoke with artists with DACA who are anxious about the rising anti-immigrant sentiment in the US and legislative initiatives to revoke the Obama-era policy. In the news, Thomas Heatherwick’s loathed “Vessel” in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards reopens with suicide-prevention nets, while an Israeli airstrike in Gaza kills 32-year-old artist Mahasen Al-Khatib. Read more below about the unruly life story of South African photographer Ernest Cole, Japan’s unsung women photographers and the filmmaker who launched the #MeToo movement in the country, the artists keeping the tradition of Indigenous puppetry alive, and much more. Finally, we’d love to hear how Hyperallergic’s arts journalism has made an impact on your life, career, or community. Fill out our short form below to tell us your story, which could be shared with our readers (with your permission). In the meantime, have a great weekend. — Hakim Bishara, Senior Editor | |
|
|
|
You’re currently a free subscriber to Hyperallergic. To support our independent arts journalism, please consider joining us as a paid member. | | Become a Member |
|
|
|
| | | Despite the venom Trump and Vance direct toward our community, Haitians are not the impoverished, alien invaders they want us to be. | Rejin Leys and Vladimir Cybil Charlier |
|
|
|
SPONSORED | | | | Paintings and drawings by Rita Blitt are featured alongside works by Elaine de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Lee Krasner, and Joan Mitchell in this exhibition in Topeka, Kansas. Learn more |
|
|
|
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! | | | Tell us your story! |
|
|
|
SPONSORED | | | | Democracy is a big idea. To many, it may seem abstract — but the arts can make democracy personal, relevant, and tangible. Learn more |
|
|
|
FROM OUR CRITICS | | | | The artist’s work revolves around the notion of displacement, some of it cultural, much of it the broader angst and rebellion of adolescence. | Ela Bittencourt
A stellar curation of stirring contemporary works and archival material expose the links between labor and health. The show calls, in turn, for a bit of visitor effort. | Mark Sheerin
The show Teresita Fernández / Robert Smithson traces the ways that the two artists’ sociopolitical positions shaped their perspectives. | Edgar Picazo Merino |
|
| | | | A London show examines the concept of beauty and its inevitable decay across pan-historical, pan-geographical, and pan-religious examples. | Olivia McEwan
Rhee’s paintings change from pictorial presentations of a lush, dreamy world to a tangled web of different viscosities when we approach the surface. | John Yau
In charcoal and ink, the artist tends to the land with the intimate repetition of a life-long student. | Irene Lee |
|
|
|
NEW IN PRINT | | | | Ernest Cole’s life story is an anti-colonialism epic, Cold War thriller, and a tragedy. | John Edwin Mason
The expansive catalog offers an essential compilation of essays, interviews, and profiles of Japanese women photographers from the 1950s through the present day. | Lauren Moya Ford
The subject of festivals and even a Warhol painting, the beloved comic is available at last in a published compilation for cartoonists to study and absorb. | Nathan Gelgud |
|
|
|
MORE ON HYPERALLERGIC | | | | “I wanted to question power,” Shiori Ito told Hyperallergic regarding her new documentary. “The system was always the focus. | Dan Schindel
They have completed arts degrees, exhibited their work, and received grants, but some artists say the immigration policy offers limited paths to legal status.| Isa Farfan
The inaugural Indigenous Puppetry Institute saw the convening of contemporary practitioners of a form practiced for centuries. | Joelle E. Mendoza (JEM)
Nicole Eisenman’s new public artwork has everything to do with land use decisions and urban development in New York City. | Rhea Nayyar
This week: Courbet gets the electoral treatment, the politics of the waistline, ugly medieval dogs, and what happens when you fall out of love with an artwork? | Lakshmi Rivera Amin |
|
|
|
|
