What's Behind Beyoncé's New Album Cover?

July 4, 2022 • View in browser

Good morning. ☀️ I hope you're enjoying your day off work. I also hope you'll read the stories we prepared for you today. These include a heated debate over Beyoncé's new album cover, guerrilla posters against the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, a visit to the world's largest NFT conference, and more.

Also, I highly recommend checking out Noah Fischer's comics diary from the Venice Biennale.

Oh, and Juliette Binoche can't decide who to be with in Claire Denis’s new romantic drama Both Sides of the Blade. Have fun!

— Hakim Bishara, interim editor-in-chief

Reflecting on Nationalism at the Venice Biennale

There are 30 nations represented in the international exhibition. Some aren’t in their best moment today. A comics diary. | Noah Fischer

LATEST NEWS

Marika Wagle putting up Robbie Conal’s “Supreme Injustices” posters on June 24 (photo courtesy Marika Wagle)

Hundreds of copies of the LA-based guerrilla poster artist Robbie Conal’s “Supreme Injustices” are pasted up from Venice to Los Feliz.

“When I realized what the Supreme Court was gonna do for women’s freedom of choice, I got really mad,” the artist recalls. “I ripped through six portraits in a week and a half.” Working with his wife, the film title designer Deborah Ross, the pair designed a poster based on the six paintings and overlaid text and printed 1,500 copies.

ART & FILM

hyperallergic.comUsing Her Mouth and Feet, Lorenza Böttner Created an Immense Body of Work

A childhood accident took her arms away but the transgender artist survived to create paintings, photography, and performances focused on depicting the body. | Julia Curl

Juliette Binoche Is Torn Between Two Lovers in Claire Denis’s Both Sides of the Blade

Fans of director Claire Denis should check the film out, but as an agnostic, I find it one of her few truly awful pictures. | Sam Bodrojan

OPINION

Maybe Beyoncé’s Album Cover Isn’t Based on a White Man’s Painting

Some have compared her album art to John Collier’s 19th-century portrait of Lady Godiva, but Beyoncé can channel her radical spirit without evoking Western art history. | Sarah Rose Sharp

Crypto Believers Look for “Utility” at NFT.NYC

With a fresh Ethereum wallet ready to scoop up freebies, I attended the world's largest conference dedicated to that controversial wart on the Zeitgeist, the "non-fungible token." | Todd Fine

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