Eliana Willis

“New Grit: Art and Philly Now” makes a heckuva case for Philadelphia as a creative capital.
The show, surveying 25 artists based in the city, opened alongside Frank Gehry’s big, highly anticipated expansion of the Philadelphia Museum of Art last month. Gehry’s work adds multiple access points, a dreamy underground promenade, and sweep of new gallery spaces—but the goal was clearly not to do anything that would disrupt the grand, stately museum’s vibe.
That leaves “New Grit” to project the museum towards the future. And its curators land the trick wonderfully.
Almost everything in the show hits. Overall, the tone of “New Grit” feels both engaged with the world and personally invested. The show has heartfelt and bracing moments, but also offbeat and even funny ones.
A visitor to “New Grit” viewing two works by Ken Lum. Photo by Ben Davis.
Wonderfully textured abstractions by Howardena Pindell play off the wonky tapestries Mi-Kyoung Lee made from twist ties. There are large, witty text paintings by Ken Lum that channel the verbose titles of 19th-century books to tell contemporary stories. And there’s a pleasingly strange installation by Doug Bucci of intricate little sculptures floating in an endless circuit on water.
There’s really too much good stuff. Here are just five artists that stick out as reference points.

Judith Schaechter
Judith Schaechter, Over Our Dead Bodies (2020). Photo by Ben Davis.
For sheer formal verve, Judith Schaechter’s intricate stained-glass works stick in my head. Radiant in color, with the feeling of needing to be read like some exciting coded surface, they are dense with details of swirling flora and fauna and suggested narrative.

Kukuli Velarde
Kukuli Velarde, San Sebas (2011) from the “Corpus” series. Photo by Ben Davis.
Equally great are Kukuli Velarde’s painted ceramic figures from her “Corpus” series. They represent pre-Columbian deities bursting forth from the shell of Baroque Catholic icons, merging into new gene-spliced contemporary entities.

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Since his tragic death from an overdose at just 27 years old in 1988, street artist Jean-Michel Basquiat has become an art-market darling and near-legendary figure, the subject of seemingly countless exhibitions, organized by leading institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum and London’s Barbican Centre, and mega-collector and former arts publishing magnate Peter Brant.
Now, for the first time, Basquiat’s family is organizing a show of its own, drawn entirely from their extension collection of his work, most of which has never been shown publicly.
The exhibition, which is billed as an immersive experience, is set to touch down at New York’s landmarked Starrett-Lehigh Building in early spring 2022.
Though largely dedicated to offices, the building is home to the School of Visual Arts’ Chelsea Gallery, and hosted a Mr. Brainwash show to benefit a throat and neck cancer charity in 2018.
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jailbirds (1983). Courtesy of ©the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Basquiat’s sisters, Lisane Basquiat and Jeanine Heriveaux, who run the Jean-Michel Basquiat Estate with their stepmother, Nora Fitzpatrick, came up with the idea during lockdown.
“Much of what has been shared about Jean-Michel, thus far, has stemmed from the perspective of those who met or knew Jean-Michel at a specific point in time,” the sisters told Artnet News in an email.
“We are constantly approached by people who want to know and hear more about who Jean-Michel was. Many are budding artists themselves who are seeking inspiration through connecting to Jean-Michel’s story,” they added. “Only we can provide the broader context of his cultural and familial roots, and how those played into the narrative of his art.”
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled (World Famous Vol. 1. Thesis), 1983. Photo ©the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat.
The show, titled “Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure,” will feature 200 “never-before and rarely seen paintings, drawings, multimedia presentations, ephemera, and artifacts,” according to a statement. The family and the estate have brought on ISG Productions and Superblue to produce the show, with Spotify and Phillips as sponsors.
Details about the experiential aspects of the exhibition, as well as specific works on view and ticketing information, remain forthcoming, but the sisters are confident the show will resonate with audiences.
“We hope they take away inspiration [and] a deeper appreciation for Jean-Michel’s humanity, journey, and all that he brought to pop culture and art,” Lisane Basquiat and Heriveaux said.
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The curator and artistic director of the next Venice Biennale, Cecilia Alemani, has announced the title and theme of the 59th edition of the prestigious international art exhibition.
The biennale will be titled “The Milk of Dreams,” a name borrowed from a book by the surrealist artist Leonora Carrington. While living in Mexico in the 1950s, the artist invented and illustrated a series of mysterious tales which, according to Alemani, describe “a magical world where life is constantly re-envisioned through the prism of the imagination, and where everyone can change, be transformed, become something and someone else.”
The exhibition, which Alemani promises will take us on an equally imaginative and transformative journey, will run in Venice from April 23 through November 27 in 2022. It was originally slated to take place this year but was pushed back due to the public health situation.
Roberto Cicutto and Cecilia Alemani. Photo by Andrea Avezzù Courtesy La Biennale di Venezia.
Alemani, who is the first Italian woman and the fifth woman ever to helm the prestigious event, announced the details this morning, June 9, with the biennale’s president Roberto Cicutto.
The curator said in a statement that the exhibition concept has been grounded in conversations she has had with artists since she was named to the role last January.
“The questions that kept emerging seem to capture this moment in history, when the very survival of the species is threatened, but also to sum up doubts that pervade the sciences, arts, and myths of our time,” Alemani said. “How is the definition of the human changing? What constitutes life, and what differentiates animals, plants, humans, and non-humans? What are our responsibilities towards the planet, other people, and the other organisms we live with? And what would life and the Earth look like without us?”
Alemani said that the exhibition will focus on three primary themes: the representation of bodies and their metamorphoses; the relationship between individuals and technologies; and the connection between bodies and the Earth.
She also expanded on the links to Carrington’s mysterious tales that have served as a jumping off point for the concept. “Told in a dreamlike style that seemed to terrify young and old alike, Carrington’s stories describe a world set free, brimming with possibilities,” Alemani said. “But it is also the allegory of a century that imposed intolerable pressure on the individual, forcing Carrington into a life of exile: locked up in mental hospitals, an eternal object of fascination and desire, yet also a figure of startling power and mystery, always fleeing the strictures of a fixed, coherent identity.”
The biennial’s president Cicutto said in a statement that Alemani’s concept ties in with the title of the ongoing architecture biennale in Venice, “How will we live together?” 
“These two choices are the product of the current times, which lack all certainty and burden humanity with immense responsibilities,” he said. Following a temporary exhibition investigating the history of the biennale last summer, which Alemani co-curated, the president added that the starting point for the next biennale seems to be “the reinvention of new and more sustainable relations between individuals and the universe we live in.”
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An astoundingly ambitious show hopes to capture the many artistic languages across the continent of Europe at a time when nationalism is on the rise and many countries remain isolated by travel restrictions.
The exhibition “Diversity United,” which will travel to Moscow, Berlin, and Paris, brings together work by 90 artists from 34 European countries that ruminate on freedom, democracy, and dignity. The show was originally scheduled to coincide with the the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, but was pushed back due to the pandemic.
Now, it is finally ready to open on June 9 across two hangars of the former Nazi airport Tempelhof in Berlin. It will travel to Moscow’s Tretyakov Gallery before heading to a final stop early next year at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. The final dates have yet to be announced. (The show was originally due to open in Moscow first, but the plans were scrambled by logistical complications.)
Anselm Kiefer Winterreise (2015-2020) Private Collection. © Anselm Kiefer. Photo: Georges Poncet.
Initiated by German curator Walter Smerling, the show is expected to bring major turnouts in each capital.
“The aim is for the countries to come into a dialogue that is beyond their particular interests,” Smerling said on a recent tour. “Europe is 44 countries, and each country is different from the other, with its own identity, history, problems, and visions. But they belong together. And similarly, each artist here has their own language but the works can communicate with each other.”
The star-studded exhibition is supported by the countries’ three presidents, Germany’s Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and French President Emmanuel Macron. Steinmeier helped inaugurate the show this week in Berlin, describing it as “an expression of the self-confidence of art and artists in Europe.”
Some might note the irony of a show about democracy having the blessing of Putin. According to DPA, there is some fear that works in the show critical of Russia might endanger the exhibition’s display in Moscow.
Flughafen Tempelhof Hangar © Tempelhof Projekt GmbH. Photo Claudius Pflug
Nine curators in different cities were tapped to pull together their own pot of artists, nearly a third of whom created new commissions for the occasion. Chinese painter Yan Pei-Ming, who has been living in Dijon, France for decades, made a brooding new painting called The Cave—so new its paint was not yet dry during a preview. Nearby, a series pays tribute to Napoleon. “The effects of Napoleon, his wars, his strategies are huge—he changed Europe,” Smerling said.
A series of 60 overpainted photographs by Gerhard Richter is installed near Anselm Reyle’s Winterreise (2015). Work by younger names, including Estonian artists Kris Lemsalu and Katja Novitskova, collective Slavs and Tatars, and France-based Kapwani Kiwanga are also on view.

One of the most memorable works in the sprawling show is Italian artist Marzia Migliora’s FIL DE SËIDA (2016), a view of two tightrope walkers in business suits wobbling against the backdrop of the Alps. After all, while the show embraces a certain celebratory air and a true variety of viewpoints, a cautious political warning tows the line: Europe and European diversity are, after all, deeply fragile concepts.

“Diversity United” is on view from June 9 to September 19 at two hangars in the former Tempelhof airport.
Diversity United. Flughafen Tempelhof Berlin. Photo: Silke Briel / © Stiftung für Kunst und Kultur, Bonn
Diversity United. Flughafen Tempelhof Berlin. Photo: Silke Briel / © Stiftung für Kunst und Kultur, Bonn
Diversity United. Flughafen Tempelhof Berlin. Photo: Silke Briel / © Stiftung für Kunst und Kultur, Bonn
Diversity United. Flughafen Tempelhof Berlin. Photo: Silke Briel / © Stiftung für Kunst und Kultur, Bonn
Diversity United. Flughafen Tempelhof Berlin. Photo: Silke Briel / © Stiftung für Kunst und Kultur, Bonn
Diversity United. Flughafen Tempelhof Berlin. Photo: Silke Briel / © Stiftung für Kunst und Kultur, Bonn
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After a year’s delay, London’s Serpentine Galleries have unveiled the latest iteration of the summer architectural pavilion.
Designed by up-and-coming architecture studio Counterspace, which is led by architect Sumayya Vally, it is the 20th pavilion to be mounted in the green space of Kensington Gardens in Hyde Park.
With its unveiling, the 30-year-old architect—the youngest to receive the commission—has joined a long line of leading practitioners including Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, and Jean Nouvel.
The temporary pavilion will be on view from June 11 through October 17.
In a statement, Vally said the pavilion “is centered around amplifying and collaborating with multiple and diverse voices from many different histories with an interest in themes of identity, community, belonging, and gathering.”
Serpentine Pavilion 2021 designed by Counterspace, Interior View. ©Counterspace Photo: Iwan Baan.
The Johannesburg-based architect has taken design inspiration from public gathering spaces across London, from mosques and other places of worship, to open-air markets, restaurants, bookshops, and libraries. 
Vally has also extended the commission outside the plush setting of Kensington Gardens by installing four fragments of the pavilion in different locations across London (New Beacon Books in Finsbury Park, one of the first Black publishers and booksellers in the UK; the Tabernacle, a multipurpose community space in Notting Hill; the Albany arts hub in Deptford; and Valence Library in Barking and Dagenham) to create new gathering spaces.
The pavilion also presents a commissioned program foregrounding the stories and sounds of lost spaces around London. Called Listening to the City, it includes works by artists including Ain Bailey and Jay Bernard.
Serpentine Pavilion 2021 designed by Counterspace, Interior View. ©Counterspace Photo: Iwan Baan.
To mark the anniversary of the  commission, and in response to Counterspace’s approach to architecture, the Serpentine has announced a new £100,000 ($140,000) fellowship program to support artists called Support Structures for Support Structures.
The funds will support up to 10 London-based artists and collectives working at the intersection of art, politics, and community practice with unrestricted grants of at least £10,000 ($14,000). The recipients, to be announced in July, will also form the beginnings of a network for support, development, and mentoring. 
“The spirit of community that has carried us as an institution throughout such a challenging year is the same that we hope to enliven this project,” Serpentine artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist and chief executive Bettina Korek said in a joint statement. “Here’s to a new chapter.”
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