Dazzled by Art

This week's Press Run includes news about the latest exhibit to open at the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage in Beachwood; the campaign for the new Coventry PEACE Park in Cleveland Heights; Cleveland Heights Mayor Kahlil Seren's upcoming state-of-the-city address; and more. DEGENERATE! Hitler’s War on Modern Art BEACHWOOD, Ohio -- The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage has announced that its new exhibit, “DEGENERATE! Hitler’s War on Modern Art!”, will open on Oct. 30. The collection features art the Nazi regime labeled as “degenerate” and that was used as propaganda to sway public opinion. The exhibition will be on view at the Maltz Museum, 2929 Richmond Road, through April 20, 2025. “DEGENERATE!” showcases art from private and public collections, exploring movements, events, and outcomes of being branded “degenerate” and the role it played in public indoctrination to Nazi ideology. Part history, part art show, the exhibition di...

Let us help you put together the perfect itinerary. This year’s November art fair calendar is relatively unbusy—relative because the downtime art world insiders used to enjoy has been largely eaten up by a global market that never sleeps. That said, November’s lineup of fairs is widely distributed, which means it’s likely that only the most hardcore collectors and art enthusiasts will try to visit more than a couple. Think of this month not as a break but as a welcome lull between New York’s Armory Week in September and Art Basel Miami Beach in December (along with its many, many, many Miami Basel satellite fairs). Whether you’re staying close to home to prepare for next month’s art fair extravaganza or hitting the road on an international odyssey of art, Observer’s global guide to the art fairs in November can help you put together the perfect itinerary. ADAA The Art Show 2024 October 30 – November 2 In 2016, Observer correspondent Ryan Steadman posed a question in this atte...

Embah's Art At first glance, it can be tempting to dismiss Embah’s paintings as some primary schoolchild’s art project. This temptation isn’t completely misguided. There is a childlikeness and a sense of play in all of Embah’s work. In Anna Walcott Hardy’s interview with Embah, featured in the catalogue for the 2015 Bat Show at the Frame Shop, the artist notes he has been labelled as “primitive” or “intuitive.” Artist Dean Arlen has also made mention of Embah’s primitivism – specifically in a blog post memorialising the artist. Ashraph (Richard Ramsaran), curator of the Frame Shop, on the corner of Carlos and Roberts Streets, Woodbrook, says it’s Embah’s dreamy, whimsical take on his subject matter and that same childlike style which made him fall in love with the artist’s work. While other islands of the region, particularly Haiti, have greeted naivety in their visual arts with admiration, TT has generally been indifferent or turned away from this simp...

After flirting for years, Art Basel Paris is officially upon us. What does it mean for the future of fair-dom? Plus: updates on a Diddy-collection mystery, a Warhol Marilyn whodunit, and more in this week’s column. And then out of the house stepped Owen Wilson Why was the artist-loving actor in the City of Light, hanging out in a seven-figure design-object-slash-art-domicile? Well that’s just the magic of Art Basel Paris. Even before stepping foot inside the main event—the global fair company’s first edition at its permanent home in the Grand Palais, the fulcrum point of a week that is now a vital part of the collecting-as-lifestyle global tour—there are celebrities doing art stuff. At this moment, in this town, an art fair really seems to be seeping into the mainstream. Art Basel ads blanket the Métro stops on Line 1. Multiple Uber drivers googled “art basel paris tickets” on their phones while driving—eyes on the road, mon frere! All week, the city’s cultural offe...

Demon queller Zhong Kui features in an exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art right in time spooky season, Demons, Ghosts, and Goblins in Chinese Art. Tomb Guardians, early 700s. China, probably Shaanxi province, Xi'an, Tang dynasty (618-907). Glazed earthenware, sancai (three-color) ware; part 1: 92.3 x 43.8 x 41.9 cm (36 5/16 x 17 1/4 x 16 1/2 in.); part 2: 88.9 x 41 x 50.8 cm (35 x 16 1/8 x 20 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of various donors to the department of Asian Art (by exchange) 2000.118.Cleveland Museum of Art Unkillable “Halloween” Movie Super-Villain Michael Myers Unkillable “Halloween” movie super-villain Michael Myers was lucky to have never run into Chinese demon queller Zhong Kui. Same goes for Freddy Kruger and Jason Vorhees for that matter. Legends describe Zhong Kui as an unrecognized scholarly talent who once appeared in a dream of Tang emperor Xuanzong (reigned 712–56) to kill a harassing demon. Relieved of the demon, the emper...

Featuring peacock-shaped padlocks and a holographic Sufi master, a new museum explores the religion’s influence on Western culture – and leaves visitors wondering how the giant begging bowls were installed Cleansing the soul … kashkul bowls on display at the Musée d’Art et de Culture Soufis MTO. Photograph: Flint Culture Among the most emblematic paraphernalia of the Sufis is their “begging bowl”, known as the kashkul. That’s why nearly a dozen are at the centre of a new museum dedicated to Sufi culture and art, the Musée d’Art et de Culture Soufis MTO, which has just opened in Chatou, a quiet Parisian suburb on the banks of the Seine. The kashkul is traditionally made from the nutshell of the coco de mer palm, the tree that produces the world’s biggest seed, and what makes it all the more remarkable is that it’s a fruit from Seychelles that historically washed up 4,000km away on Iran’s southern shores. The journey through the ocean made the shells extremely poli...

Recently, the museum at Savannah College of Art and Design unveiled the dynamic lineup of exhibitions in its fall program. The Savannah College of Art and Design The Savannah College of Art and Design is more than just another school with a museum—it’s the realization of a visionary dream that transformed the historic city of Savannah into a thriving hub for creativity on multiple levels. It all began with Paula Wallace, then a 29-year-old elementary school teacher, who envisioned a school dedicated to creative disciplines, embracing cutting-edge technology long before it was mainstream. She sold everything she had, including her yellow Volkswagen Beetle, and with the help of her parents, May L. Poetter and Paul E. Poetter, founded SCAD in 1978. The following spring, they acquired and renovated the Savannah Volunteer Guard Armory, establishing what is now one of the most prestigious schools for the arts. Today, SCAD boasts campuses in Savannah and Atlanta, as well as a sea...

Nina Hald, co-curator of 'Wallace Chan: Half a Century,' shares the story of how the exhibition details Chan’s life as an artist and innovator Wallace Chan: Half a Century The Entrance to the Exhibition Wallace Chan’s latest exhibition at the newly opened Shanghai Museum East is also the largest and most encompassing to date with more than 200 of his creations in a space that properly represents his life’s work. The only unfortunate thing is that the three-month exhibition will end Monday (October 7). A Seeing Eye View The Shanghai Museum is dedicated to ancient Chinese arts and crafts. Chan’s exhibition, “Wallace Chan: Half a Century,” is the first to feature a contemporary artist and is the first in a series of contemporary exhibitions at the museum, titled “Drawing Inspiration from the Past.” Whatever exhibit that follows is going to have a tough time topping this installation. Exhibition Features Upon passing through the entrance ...

A work from ‘Plugged into Fernalia The Gray Areas of Art and AI ManilArt Fair 2024 ManilArt Fair highlights diversity, complexity and interconnectedness of creative and artistic expressions, as well as refractions, reflections and convergence, with its 2024 theme, “Prisms and Mosaics.” The fair runs from 9 to 13 October at the SMX Aura Convention Center inside the SM Aura Premier mall in Taguig City. Organized by the ManilArt Foundation with the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA), this major art fair also serves as one of key events in the celebration of Museums and Galleries Month, which banners the theme “Honoring Traditions, Fostering Innovation” this year. Convergence of Galleries Different galleries and artists will converge at the fair, creating a mosaic that provides a sweeping survey of the current Philippine visual arts landscape. “We have a stellar lineup of professional galleries representing artists who continue to push the ...