| Good morning. “My work has always been based around service,” sculptor Nick Cave told Hyperallergic Editor-in-Chief Hrag Vartanian, “about ways to bring community together.” In a can’t-miss podcast episode we just released, Cave tells Vartanian about coming from a large family of makers — “it was just magic to me,” he says — building an identity, optimism, spirituality, and so much more. In the news, Greek far-right Parliament Member Nikolaos Papadopoulos is accused of vandalizing artworks on view at Athens’s National Gallery. Papadopoulos was temporarily detained and questioned after attacking what he called “blasphemous” works by Christophoros Katsadiotis, which feature depictions of religious icons. Here in the US, the madness continues as Trump reportedly slashes jobs related to preserving and caring for thousands of public artworks; and artists and cultural workers protest against the arrest of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent resident of the US, by immigration authorities. In Reviews, American Artist meets sci-fi writer Octavia E. Butler’s apocalyptic vision of ecological and political catastrophe with a love letter. Alexandra M. Thomas writes that the artist forges ephemera and sculptures out of the stuff of Butler’s life and work both in homage and as a form of protection. And we’re celebrating 35 years of Rasquachismo — a term Tomás Ybarra-Frausto coined to describe a Chicanx aesthetics of resourcefulness — with a review of a group show at the McNay Museum. Where else will you find works that combine nopales, car wheels, plastic jewels, and a giant bright red glass heart? — Lisa Yin Zhang, Associate Editor |
