Eliana Willis

Look out New Yorkers! This summer, the Bronx Zoo has been overrun by dinosaurs, and it’s an artist who helped bring them to life.
Artist and illustrator Andrew Minniear is the production designer at Dino Don, the world’s leading dinosaur exhibition company. The founder, Don Lessem, was an advisor on the Jurassic Park films, and has been building full-sized robotic dinosaurs since 2017. And the company estimates some 10 million people have visited its shows over the past 30 years.
It’s Minnear’s job to help design the mechanical frames for the animatronic dinosaurs, as well as their outward appearance, making sure that the sculptures accurately reflect the current scientific understanding about each dinosaur species.
He also helps hand paint the hyper-detailed figures, and oversees production at Dino Don’s factory in Zhegong in the province of Sichuan, west central China.
Andrew Minniear painting a dinosaur animatronic sculpture for the Bronx Zoo “Dinosaur Safari” exhibition. Photo: Andrew Minniear.
At the Bronx Zoo, visitors to “Dinosaur Safari” will encounter 52 life-sized animatronic dinosaurs and pterosaurs (extinct flying reptiles) amid two acres of hardwood forest.
It’s actually the third time the zoo has played host to life-size dinosaurs, following outings in 2013 and 2019. This year’s event features the classics, like a 40-foot long Tyrannosaurus rex, as well as less famous species such as the flying Quetzalcoatlus, the largest of the pterosaurs.
We talked with Minnear about what it’s like to sculpt these ferocious creatures.
A dinosaur model by Andrew Minniear created for the Bronx Zoo “Dinosaur Safari” exhibition. Photo: Andrew Minniear.
What is your background as an artist, and how did you come to work for Dino Don?
I went to Grand Valley State University in Michigan and studied art. I graduated in 2010, right around the time of the recession, and trying to found work was tough. I became a caricature artist at Disney World [in Orlando]. That was fun, but it wasn’t making ends meet, so I decided to try teaching English in China. That was eight or nine years ago.
I’ve always been fascinated with dinosaurs, and they have always been one of my favorite subjects to draw. I would share my work on a Facebook group dedicated to dinosaur art. One day, I saw a post asking if there was anyone in the group who lived in China and was familiar with dinosaurs and dinosaur anatomy. It was from Don Lessem, and it turned out he was kind of a big deal in the dinosaur community!
That was in late 2019. For a year, I was doing the work in my free time when I wasn’t teaching English, until I got the paperwork for a new visa.
Andrew Minniear painting a dinosaur animatronic sculpture for the Bronx Zoo “Dinosaur Safari” exhibition. Photo: Andrew Minniear.
What does your job entail?
I was brought in as a production supervisor. Don was having issues with the quality of the engineering and the appearance of final products for his dinosaurs. The animatronics were performing poorly and also did not look right. These Chinese factories do a lot of domestic business, but the theme parks here in China are not really focused on the scientific accuracy a lot of the time.
How do you design each sculpture? 
To produce the best and most realistic animatronic dinosaurs, I start by producing blueprints. No matter how good the sculpting might be, if the proportions are off, the frames won’t fit, so I allow a lot of leeway for the engineers to produce the mechanics.
I create a digital sculpture using 3-D modeling, and then a rough shape is carved out of foam with a milling machine. Then it becomes much more hands on with manual labor.
After the mechanical frame is covered with upholstery foam, sculptors will carve the basic shapes and then dedicated artists use these devices that get very hot, and they carve all the details and wrinkles onto the sculpture. We apply nylon and silicon to seal the foam and make a silicon skin, and then it’s sent off to the painters who finish the product.
A dinosaur model by Andrew Minniear created for the Bronx Zoo “Dinosaur Safari” exhibition. Photo: Andrew Minniear.
What is the coolest dinosaur to sculpt? 
Personally, my favorite dinosaur is Carnotaurus. They are very strange—they’ve got very long legs with very small heads with very large horns over the eyes. And their arms are comically small, even smaller than a T-rex, proportionally. They are a weird, frumpy-looking dinosaur that I find rather charming.
A dinosaur sculpture crosses the Whitestone Bridge to arrive at the Bronx Zoo. Photo: Julie Larsen, ©WCS.
How do new developments and discoveries in paleontology affect your work? Do you ever have to go back to the drawing board based on new scientific information?
The things that really affect what we do are specific discoveries like skin impressions that give us a better idea of the outer appearance of the dinosaur.
A few years ago, an extremely well-preserved specimen called a Nodosaur was found. It died near a salty sea and got buried very quickly in sediment and was basically mummified. It is one of the species I have been basing the reconstructions on.
And then there’s the Spinosaurus, which was the big bad star of Jurassic Park III. They recently discovered that it has a different body form. Its rear legs are much shorter than previously thought, which suggests an aquatic lifestyle. Its proportions are much more like a crocodile.
“Dinosaur Safari” at the Bronx Zoo. Photo: Julie Larsen, ©WCS.
How do you decide what color to paint the dinosaurs?
If the client has a specific color in mind, we defer to them to create the color guide for the dinosaur. But when I have more creative freedom, I look to birds and even reptiles and amphibians for unusual color patterns.
There are a handful of very well preserved specimens that have some color information. Some dinosaurs might have had camouflage, such as predators who needed to sneak up on their prey.
In the end, there is always a little bit of artistic license and give and take that can be had in the business of reconstructing dinosaurs like this—you always want it to look good.
When it comes to any extinct animal, the art and the science go hand in hand. Don’s priority is to try to make the dinosaurs as accurate as possible. But we have no way to represent these magnificent creatures other than through our imagination and through the work of talented artists who try to bring these creatures back to life, whether that’s on a movie screen or at a museum or a zoo.
“Dinosaur Safari” at the Bronx Zoo. Photo: Julie Larsen, ©WCS.
I think that some Millennials who grew up with Jurassic Park have become a little disenchanted with dinosaurs as we’ve come to realize they were more birdlike and maybe less scary. How many of your dinosaurs have feathers? 
The smaller meat-eating dinosaurs we regularly produce with a feather coating.
I know some people are enamored by the more traditional, monstrous, scaly versions of the dinosaurs from when we were growing up, but there are plenty of rather intimidating birds. If you’ve ever encountered a large eagle or a cassowary, they are quite intense. I do think dinosaurs look rather look noble with feathers!
“Dinosaur Safari” at the Bronx Zoo. Photo: Julie Larsen, ©WCS.
Was there a formative dinosaur experience for you? 
My father took me to see Jurassic Park when I was seven years old, and it sparked my fascination with dinosaurs and special effects.
And I always loved visiting museums and seeing the bones of these creatures. We have universal mythologies of dragons and monsters and things, but they were fictitious. To see the dinosaur skeletons, to see in some sense these dragons and monsters were real at some point in our distant history, really captured my imagination.
“Dinosaur Safari” at the Bronx Zoo. Photo: Julie Larsen, ©WCS.
It’s so fulfilling to produce these animatronics. I hope that sone of my enthusiasm for the subject bleeds through and inspires the younger generation and their passion for science and history.
What do you think seven-year-old Andrew would have thought if he knew he would grow up to be a professional dinosaur sculptor, bringing these animals back to life? 
My little head would have exploded!
“Dinosaur Safari” is on view through October 30, 2022 at the Bronx Zoo, 2300 Southern Boulevard, Bronx, New York.
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Co-organized with the Rauschenberg Foundation, Gladstone Gallery’s exhibition “Robert Rauschenberg: Venetians and Early Egyptians, 1972–1974” caused an unexpected buzz during Frieze New York, presenting rarely shown Minimalist sculptures by the artist better known for his mixed media canvases. But should we be surprised?
The show coincided with Thaddeus Ropac’s sale at Frieze of Wall Pond/ROCI MEXICO (1985), a large-scale wall piece made of found fabrics on which Rauschenberg silkscreened photographs he took during a research trip to Mexico, for $3.5 million. Clearly, collectors are starting to look beyond the obvious in the oeuvre of this beloved artist. 
While the art world’s focus seems to have only been on his combines paintings and silkscreen works in recent decades, Rauschenberg was always a kind of seeker, pushing boundaries and looking for the next phase of his art.
“He intentionally stepped out of the scene because I think that he couldn’t get his work done, basically, and he was an artist who worked every single day, seven days a week—always,” Julia Blaut, the senior director of curatorial affairs at the Rauschenberg Foundation, told Artnet News. “I would say he was really looking for the things that were going to continue to provide challenges, and if he knew he could do something well, he wasn’t going to keep doing it.”
Robert Rauschenberg, Untitled (Early Egyptian) (1974). © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, courtesy of the foundation and Gladstone Gallery. Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS). Photo: Ron Amstutz.
The show, running in conjunction with exhibitions at Mnuchin Gallery in New York and at Thaddaeus Ropac in Salzburg, caught the eye of many key observers in town for Frieze new York.
“We were really bowled over at the foundation,” Blaut said. “We know the work well, but it’s been a long time since we’ve seen it sort of properly installed and and given this kind of space. It just really has room to breathe. I feel like the Gladstone exhibition gives the work that opportunity to be appreciated.”
Rauschenberg created these works on Captiva Island, off the southwest coast of Florida, in the 1970s, after a fire caused massive damage at his home in New York. While the sculptures share many familiar materials and motifs found in his paintings, they lean towards Minimalism in a way that Rauschenberg’s other works don’t.
“He was always looking for the next challenge, and I think the work his peers were making at the time gave him permission to explore what art could be,” Blaut said. “The whole Post-Minimalist aspect of these works is an announcement of his engagement with that movement.”
Rauschenberg’s influence on contemporary sculpture is clear to see, but it is perhaps even more obvious when looking at this period of his work.
“We’re thrilled with the attention the show has been getting from the press,” Blaut added. “But it’s the attention from the artists that seems to be the greatest indicator.  His ongoing importance to working artists is really the most heartening taking takeaway for us.”
See images from the exhibition below.
“Robert Rauschenberg: Venetians and Early Egyptians, 1972–1974” is on view through June 18, at Gladstone Gallery, 515 West 24th Street and 530 West 21st Street, New York.
Robert Rauschenberg, Untitled (Venetian) (1973, detail). © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, courtesy of the foundation and Gladstone Gallery. Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS). Photo: Ron Amstutz.
Robert Rauschenberg, Untitled (Venetian) (1973). © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, courtesy of the foundation and Gladstone Gallery. Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS). Photo: Ron Amstutz.
Robert Rauschenberg, Untitled (Venetian) (1973). © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, courtesy of the foundation and Gladstone Gallery. Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS). Photo: Ron Amstutz.
Robert Rauschenberg, Untitled (Venetian) (1972). © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, courtesy of the foundation and Gladstone Gallery. Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS). Photo: Ron Amstutz.
Robert Rauschenberg San Pantalone (Venetian) (1973). © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, courtesy of the foundation and Gladstone Gallery. Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS). Photo: Ron Amstutz.
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London’s first permanent digital immersive arts experience is set to open this autumn. At 30,000 square feet, Frameless (as the project is know) will be the U.K.’s biggest immersive art installation ever, its organizers say. 
Frameless will be used to showcase interactive presentations of well-known masterpieces, including those by Kandinsky, Monet, Cezanne, Canaletto, Klimt and Rembrandt. The multi-sensory experience is created using 4K projection technology capable of high-definition imaging. 
The project is a collaborative effort between leaders from the the arts, technology and experiential events sectors. Among the producers are the Emmy award-winning live content creators FiveCurrents, while the gallery spaces will be curated by Artscapes U.K. 
“We have carefully selected an array of art across a multitude of genres, techniques and periods for Frameless, which we hope will offer visitors a broad and exciting visual experience,” says Artscapes U.K.’s founding director Rose Balston. “Art is for everyone and Frameless has been curated with this in mind. Whether you are a seasoned art historian, new to the subject and looking to learn, or simply just keen for a unique and visually stimulating experience, there’ll be something for everybody to appreciate and enjoy.” 
The mammoth new space is modeled on earlier projects like Paris’ L’Atelier des Lumières and Borderless in Tokyo. The London experience is housed at the recently developed Marble Arch Place. Tickets go on sale later this summer.
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Jarvis Cocker, the British music icon and ex-Pulp frontman, is the subject of an art exhibition in London marking the launch of his new memoir, Good Pop, Bad Pop. Mounted at London’s art space, The Gallery of Everything, the show charts the creative development of Pulp through an archive of personal objects Cocker excavated from an old loft.
On view through May 29, the exhibition is split across two floors, with the upstairs dedicated to an archive of mementos and ephemera that Cocker decodes in his own “Periodic Table of Influence,” from an old jar of Marmite dating to the 1980s—a rare treasure because it has one of the original metal lids before the company traded them in for plastic—to a star-emblazoned sweater, apparently all the rage in fashion before punk became a thing.
“If it could be represented in visual terms, the contents of my brain would probably resemble the contents of this loft: a jumble of things with no one factor in dominance—it’s the mix that’s important,” Cocker said in a statement. “Seemingly inconsequential items can end up having long-term effects if added to the mix in the right quantities.”
It takes a certain type of constitution to squirrel away a personal archive such as this (there’s even a super vintage pack of Wrigley’s chewing gum in there) with the belief that it might be of interest to a wider public at some point. And indeed, the future rock star’s young ambitions are evident in an old exercise book, in which a teenaged Cocker charted in great detail (and with illustrations) his band’s trajectory to world domination, calling it “The Pulp Master Plan.”
Jarvis Cocker, “Good Pop, Bad Pop—The Exhibition” at The Gallery of Everything. Photo: ©David Owens.
My favorite part of the show is a collection of broken eye glasses, something I confessed to Cocker I also have lying around in a box somewhere, unable for some reason to part ways with them. “It’s hard to throw something out that you’ve been wearing on your face for so long,” Cocker said. “It would be like throwing away a part of your face, so I get that.”
Downstairs, Cocker’s family history is exhibited through Ektachrome photographs taken by his grandfather Hugh Hoyland, and a partial reconstruction of Cocker’s childhood bedroom where he taught himself how to write songs. The installation includes Pulp posters and lyrics from the Cocker Archive, as well as the key instruments in the band’s development: Cocker’s Hopf guitar, which was a Christmas gift from his mother’s scuba-diving instructor boyfriend; an In Tensai Rhythm Machine radio cassette player, featuring a built in drum machine; and a Yamaha PortaSound PS-400 home keyboard. All three were brought to life in an intimate performance in the space by Cocker and collaborator Chilly Gonzalez. 
The gallery is also selling editioned prints of Cocker’s sketches and drawings, priced at £250 ($315), as well as color prints of his grandfather’s photographs, priced at £350 ($441) and a poster of the Periodic Table of Influences. Proceeds from sales go to support The Museum of Everything, a nonprofit itinerant institution for art.
“Good Pop, Bad Pop—The Exhibition” is on view through May 29 at The Gallery of Everything, London. Jarvis Cocker’s memoir, Good Pop, Bad Pop, is published by Jonathan Cape, an imprint of Penguin Books.
Jarvis Cocker and Chilly Gonzalez performing at The Gallery of Everything. Photo: ©David Owens.
People lining up for Jarvis Cocker’s impromptu performance at The Gallery of Everything, Chiltern Street. Photo: ©David Owens.
Jarvis Cocker, “Good Pop, Bad Pop—The Exhibition” at The Gallery of Everything. Photo: ©David Owens.
Jarvis Cocker, “Good Pop, Bad Pop—The Exhibition” at The Gallery of Everything. Photo: ©David Owens.
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One week before the 59th Venice Biennale was due to open this spring, Jimmy Ogonga, the curator of the Kenya Pavilion, still hadn’t received funding from Kenya’s ministry of culture.
It was the second time Ogonga had staged a pavilion for his home country, taking over after two scandalous editions in 2013 and 2015 in which Kenyan artists were all but left out. Ogonga was determined to correct the record and present an exhibition showcasing work by Kenyan artists that spoke directly to the socio-cultural and political issues they face.
“It is the Olympics of the art world,” Ogonga told Artnet News. “A country like ours plays a big role in the Olympics. We have some of the most amazing runners in the world. When we go to Venice, we don’t need to break records or win the Golden Lion, but we need to be there so we can be present with the rest.”
Though African countries have been increasingly visible in Venice in recent years, several national pavilions have been beset by lack of funding and local criticism of curatorial choices.
Over the past decade, prices for modern and contemporary art from the African continent have skyrocketed, making the category one of the fastest growing in the market. One could say there has been an African art Renaissance of sorts—but why has this not been felt with the same force at the Venice Biennale?
“So far, Africa’s representation on a national level in Venice has been a mess,” Cameroonian curator Simon Njami told Artnet News. “The nations have not understood that art can be a soft and efficient political tool.”
Artist Kaloki Nyama with his work at the Kenyan Pavilion,, “Exercises in Conversation,” at the 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Photo: Andrea Avezzù. Courtesy: La Biennale di Venezia.
The Case of Kenya
Ogonga said this year’s pavilion, which included artists Dickens Otieno, Wanja Kimani, and Kaloki Nyamai, has been the nation’s most successful to date. “The Kenyan art scene has worked with its government in a mutual and non-combative way,” he said.
During Kenya’s debut in 2013 and then in 2015, a couple of Italian curators presented exhibitions dominated by Chinese and Italian artists. After its second showing in 2015, several prominent Kenyan artists protested, demanding that the government provide them proper representation in Venice. It worked—and the exhibition was publicly disowned by the Kenyan government. In 2016, Ogonga was appointed to set in place a roadmap for how to present Kenya and its artists in Venice.
“There was a complete lack of synchronicity between what was shown in Venice and what the art scene in Nairobi was trying to do,” Ogonga said. He added that the history of the art scene in Kenya has been riddled with problems, including how its artists are treated and represented internationally. Part of the issue stems from a lack of art infrastructure, an issue shared by many other nations around the globe: Kenya has no national arts council, no national gallery, and poorly funded art schools.
This is what often leads to foreign players taking over national pavilions on their behalf, Ogonga said. He noted that while outside proposals may sound legitimate at first, they have, in some instances, turned out to be “self-serving” initiatives.
Ghana Pavilion, Arsenale, Venice Biennale 2022. Photo: David Levene.
Beset by Challenges
All told, this year, only nine African nations—Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Kenya, Cameroon, South Africa, Namibia, Uganda, and Egypt—were present at the Venice Biennale. While the number is certainly an increase from previous years, it is by no means representative of the breadth and diversity of 54 countries’ artistic cultures.
It is even less representative when the art of those few African nations present has been metaphorically hijacked by foreigners using national pavilions in Venice for their own gain, as some nations, like Kenya, have claimed.
A related discussion surrounded Namibia’s inaugural pavilion this year. Italian Marco Furio Ferrario curated his first-ever art show with the work of a white Namibian man born in Johannesburg, South Africa; the selection prompted outrage from the Namibian and international art communities.
Cameroon, which also made its debut this year in Venice, saw its pavilion co-curated by Sandro Orlandi Stagl, who was behind Kenya’s embattled 2015 presentation. The project has two locations: one, an NFT exhibition organized by Global Crypto Art DAO, features the work of 20 artists—not one is Cameroonian. The second presents work by four Cameroonian artists and four international artists.
Meanwhile, Ghana, which made a splash at its debut in 2019, had no government funding this year, meaning that its curator, Nana Oforiatta-Ayim, had to procure the funds herself.
Challenges persisted when this year’s Egyptian pavilion curiously remained closed during the Biennale’s opening days. It presented an installation of giant pink balloons and digital works called “an artificial intelligence media installation” by Egyptian artists Mohamed Shoukry, Weaam El Masry, and Ahmed El Shaer. A prominent member of the Egyptian art scene said the closure was due to “technical difficulties,” but Egyptian artist Moataz Nasr, who represented Egypt at Venice Biennale in 2017, told Artnet News that when he showed five years ago, the ministry had not allocated a budget to pay docents to man the pavilion. 
“I think Egypt should stop participating in the Biennale for a while until we renew the interior of the art scene inside the country,” Nasr told Artnet News.
Angéle Etoundi Essamba at the Pavilion of Cameroon “Il tempo delle Chimere/The Time of the Chimeras.” Photo: Andrea Avezzù. Courtesy: La Biennale di Venezia.
Returns on Investment
While some could criticize the Biennale itself for not having a more thorough screening process, African ministries of culture also have a role to play in ensuring their country is properly represented (they must, after all, ratify their own national pavilions). Most states do not invest enough in art and when nations refuse to get involved, the private sector takes over. 
“The investment needed to stage a national pavilion is huge and many of these countries need to invest first and foremost in public art engagement and support at home,” Hannah O’Leary, head of modern and contemporary African art at Sotheby’s, told Artnet News. She noted that the art market must be included in these considerations. “Very few artists from Africa are represented by blue-chip galleries who can provide them major financial and marketing support to participate in the Venice Biennale, safe in the knowledge that significant sales will follow at Art Basel and beyond.”
O’Leary further noted that, while we are seeing a marked improvement in the market for art from Africa over the past decade, “the fact remains that the vast majority of artists and galleries based in Africa sell at price points that do not justify that sort of investment.”
African curators like Simon Njami believe the solution lies in nations believing in the power and need for a national art program. “As long as African nations don’t have a consciousness of the importance of the Venice Biennale, then Africa won’t be well represented,” he said, adding that it costs around $300,000 to $500,000 to participate. “What does that represent in the national budget of a state, even the poorest? Peanuts. We need to build the infrastructure and the dialogue at home.”
The Egypt pavilion, represented by the artists Islam Abdullah, Ahmed Chiha, Ahmed Abdel Karim, during press previews for the 58th International Art Biennale on May 08, 2019 in Venice, Italy. Photo: Stefano Mazzola/Awakening/Getty Images.
A Brief History of Africa in Venice
The issues that have come up in recent years are not new. Though Africa has actually been present at the Biennale since the 1920s, the show has never reflected the full diversity and strength of the continent’s cultural production—especially in the years before and just after decolonization began. An exception was Egypt, which in 1952 established the first permanent—and to this day, only—African pavilion in the Giardini. South Africa debuted at the Venice Biennale in 1950, participating during the following two decades until anti-apartheid protests led to its exclusion.
During the 1960s and ’70s, the issue of independence was often the main preoccupation of African countries and their artists, so it is not entirely surprising that they rarely appeared in international art events until the 1980s. Over the years, Africa’s lack of national pavilions was partially made up for by collateral projects: In 1999, the creation of the African Art in Venice Forum led to the implementation of an exhibition program devoted to contemporary African art.
In 2007, Robert Storr, curator of that year’s biennale, proposed that an African pavilion be created. His idea sparked outrage—how could an entire continent be represented by a single pavilion? The late Congolese collector Sindika Dokolo took up the idea and funded the project, yet the pavilion remained controversial as it largely presented his personal holdings. 
Some years later, a big win came when, in 2013, Angola’s debut participation garnered it the prestigious Golden Lion Award for best national pavilion. Other participating African nations across Venice—which at the time included South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ivory Coast and Kenya—celebrated in unison.
Installation view, “Radiance – They Dream in Time,” 2022 Uganda Pavilion. Photo: Francesco Allegretto
The Victories
This year’s biennale marked successes for Africa, too. Uganda’s debut, a sleekly curated show by Shaheen Merali, featured Ugandan multidisciplinary performance and installation artist Acaye Kerunen and painter Collin Sekajugo. It was awarded a special mention for the Golden Lion.
“The Milk of Dreams,” the Venice Biennale’s central exhibition, also offered a strong showing of artists from the continent. Of the 213 artists from 58 countries invited by Cecilia Alemani, 12 represent the African continent. Notable were the dreamy large-than-life paintings of Zimbabwean Portia Zvavahera, which pair her emotional life with the spiritualism of indigenous Zimbabwean and Apostolic Pentecostalist beliefs of her upbringing. Ethiopian Elias Sime presented vibrant abstractions made from fragments of computer wire and electrical debris.
“It has been very important throughout the process of organizing this exhibition to meet artists and cultural practitioners from the African continent,” Alemani, who did much of her research and studio visits remotely, told Artnet News. She worked with three advisors from Africa—Nontobeko Ntombela, Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh, and Marie Hélène Pereira—who helped research and recommend artists. Alemani said she was particularly pleased to showcase work by three emerging talents from Southern Africa—Igshaan Adams and Bronwyn Katz from South Africa and Zvavahera from Zimbabwe.
Some, however, believe Biennale organizers and curators in general need to invest more in discovering global art scenes, including that of Africa, to bring more balanced representation to these international events.
“In this edition in particular, it is more than manifest that virtually every African artist included had been exhibited at Frieze London and or at Art Basel in the previous year, and less than half of those African-born artists in the exhibition live and work on the continent,” Valerie Kabokov, director of First Floor Gallery Harare, in Zimbabwe, told Artnet News. “If Venice is to be a genuine pulse-taking of contemporary art around the world, something has to change.”
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Whoever said you can’t judge a book by its cover never had the experience of beholding a truly illuminated manuscript, adorned with (no small amount) of solid gold. A new exhibition at the British Library in London—titled, simply, “Gold”—brings together a selection of 50 gilded books, scrolls, and documents drawn from 20 countries and spanning 1,500 years.
The objects on display literally radiate, and beyond being important texts—both religious and political treatises are on display—they are awe-inspiring in and of themselves. Even the word for the art of writing in gold, “chrysography,” sounds like an incantation.
The variation in size and technique is also impressive, ranging from a narrow strip of solid gold measuring more than 6.5 feet long inscribed with a treaty between the Zamorin of Calicut and the Dutch dating to the 17th century. It is only on close inspection that you can actually make out the script, written in the Dravidian language of Malayalam—but there it is, etched in solid gold.
There is also a 13th century Quran bound in deep red leather with the earliest known example of gold tooling, and the Queen Mary Psalter from the 14th century, one of the most extensively illustrated and gold-detailed biblical manuscripts of all time.
“For centuries, gold has been fundamental to makers across the world for embellishing the written word,” the show’s co-curator Eleanor Jackson said in a statement. “Many of these objects were originally owned by royalty, and they would have been seen by only a select few. We are so pleased to be able to bring them together on public display for everyone to enjoy.”
Below, see more objects from “Gold: Spectacular Manuscripts from Around the World” on view at the British Library through October 2, 2022. 
Treaty between Calicut and the Dutch inscribed in Malayalam on a strip of gold over two metres long, India, (1691). Courtesy of the British Library.
The Harley Golden Gospels, Carolingian Empire, (ca. 800). Courtesy of the British Library.
The Golden Haggadah, Northern Spain, (ca. 1320). Courtesy of the British Library.
A rare copy of the Lotus Sutra in a lavishly decorated scroll with gold and silver ink, Japan (ca. 1636). Courtesy of the British Library.
Charter and Gold seal of Emperor Baldwin II, Netherlands, (1269). Courtesy of the British Library.
Quran containing the earliest known example of gold tooling on a leather binding, Morocco, (1256). Courtesy of the British Library.
A tiny octagonal Quran from Persia bound with gold and contained in a jade case, 1(6th or 17th century). Courtesy of the British Library.
The Queen Mary Psalter, London, (early 14th century). Courtesy of the British Library.
Kinzan emaki illustrated scroll of gold mines, Japan, (ca. 1810-1820). Courtesy of the British Library.
Gold seal of Emperor Baldwin II Netherlands (1269). Courtesy of the British Library.
Illuminated tughra or name of the Ottoman sultan at the top of a land grant, Romania (1628). Courtesy of the British Library.
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An Anselm Kiefer at the iconic Palazzo Ducale in Venice reimagines La Serenissima’s centuries-long history, and in particular focuses on a fire that ravaged the floating city in 1577 and severely damaged the palace.
In one work, Kiefer depicts Piazza San Marco engulfed in flames; in another, the city is frozen; another still depicts the empty casket of St. Mark, Venice’s patron saint. 
“Kiefer’s work arises from the past, from the fire which erased its memory, and out of the destruction caused new ones to grow,” the show’s curator, Gabriella Belli, the director of the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia.
The show, titled “Questi scritti, quando verranno bruciati, daranno finalmente un po’ di luce (These Writings, When Burned, Will Finally Give Some Light),” marks the city’s 1,600th anniversary. It includes 14 works made of materials including zinc, lead, gold, clothing, and even parts of shopping carts, that the artist made during the pandemic. 
Altogether, the series explores themes like decay, memory, and creation. 
The paintings, also inspired in part by the Italian philosopher Andrea Emo (1901–1983), are temporarily affixed over frescoes by Tintoretto and Jacobo Palma the Younger, acting like “a layer of contemporary history over the ancient,” Belli said.
See more images from the show below.
Anselm Kiefer, Questi scritti, quando verranno bruciati, daranno finalmente un po’ di luce (Andrea Emo) (2022), installation view. © Anselm Kiefer. Photo: Anselm Kiefer. Courtesy Gagosian and Fondazione Musei Civici Venezia
Anselm Kiefer, Questi scritti, quando verranno bruciati, daranno finalmente un po’ di luce (Andrea Emo) (2022), installation view. © Anselm Kiefer. Photo: Anselm Kiefer. Courtesy Gagosian and Fondazione Musei Civici Venezia
Anselm Kiefer, Questi scritti, quando verranno bruciati, daranno finalmente un po’ di luce (Andrea Emo) (2022), installation view. © Anselm Kiefer. Photo: Anselm Kiefer. Courtesy Gagosian and Fondazione Musei Civici Venezia
Anselm Kiefer, Questi scritti, quando verranno bruciati, daranno finalmente un po’ di luce (Andrea Emo) (2022), installation view. © Anselm Kiefer. Photo: Anselm Kiefer. Courtesy Gagosian and Fondazione Musei Civici Venezia
Anselm Kiefer, Questi scritti, quando verranno bruciati, daranno finalmente un po’ di luce (Andrea Emo) (2022), installation view. © Anselm Kiefer. Photo: Anselm Kiefer. Courtesy Gagosian and Fondazione Musei Civici Venezia
Anselm Kiefer, Questi scritti, quando verranno bruciati, daranno finalmente un po’ di luce (Andrea Emo) (2022), installation view. © Anselm Kiefer. Photo: Anselm Kiefer. Courtesy Gagosian and Fondazione Musei Civici Venezia
Anselm Kiefer, Questi scritti, quando verranno bruciati, daranno finalmente un po’ di luce (Andrea Emo) (2022), installation view. © Anselm Kiefer. Photo: Anselm Kiefer. Courtesy Gagosian and Fondazione Musei Civici Venezia
Anselm Kiefer, Questi scritti, quando verranno bruciati, daranno finalmente un po’ di luce (Andrea Emo) (2022), installation view. © Anselm Kiefer. Photo: Anselm Kiefer. Courtesy Gagosian and Fondazione Musei Civici Venezia
Anselm Kiefer, Questi scritti, quando verranno bruciati, daranno finalmente un po’ di luce (Andrea Emo) (2022), installation view. © Anselm Kiefer. Photo: Anselm Kiefer. Courtesy Gagosian and Fondazione Musei Civici Venezia
Anselm Kiefer, Questi scritti, quando verranno bruciati, daranno finalmente un po’ di luce (Andrea Emo) (2022), installation view. © Anselm Kiefer. Photo: Anselm Kiefer. Courtesy Gagosian and Fondazione Musei Civici Venezia
Anselm Kiefer, Questi scritti, quando verranno bruciati, daranno finalmente un po’ di luce (Andrea Emo) (2022), installation view. © Anselm Kiefer. Photo: Anselm Kiefer. Courtesy Gagosian and Fondazione Musei Civici Venezia
Anselm Kiefer, Questi scritti, quando verranno bruciati, daranno finalmente un po’ di luce (Andrea Emo) (2022), installation view. © Anselm Kiefer. Photo: Anselm Kiefer. Courtesy Gagosian and Fondazione Musei Civici Venezia
Anselm Kiefer, Questi scritti, quando verranno bruciati, daranno finalmente un po’ di luce (Andrea Emo) (2022), installation view. © Anselm Kiefer. Photo: Anselm Kiefer. Courtesy Gagosian and Fondazione Musei Civici Venezia
Anselm Kiefer, Questi scritti, quando verranno bruciati, daranno finalmente un po’ di luce (Andrea Emo) (2022), installation view. © Anselm Kiefer. Photo: Anselm Kiefer. Courtesy Gagosian and Fondazione Musei Civici Venezia
“Anselm Kiefer: Questi scritti, quando verranno bruciati, daranno finalmente un po’ di luce” is on view at the Palazzo Ducale in Venice, Italy through October 29, 2022. 
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