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Against the Pyramids of Giza, Vhils’ Etched Portraits Are Monuments of the Everyday

by Aurelia Butler 12 November 2025, 17:57

All photos by Jose Pando Lucas, courtesy of Vhils, shared with permission

Against the Pyramids of Giza, Vhils’ Etched Portraits Are Monuments of the Everyday

November 12, 2025

Art

Grace Ebert

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The poetic idea that “doors are the architecture of intimacy” grounds a new installation by Portuguese artist Alexandre Farto, a.k.a. Vhils (previously). Against the stunning desert backdrop of the Pyramids of Giza, “Doors of Cairo” is a site-specific work featuring a layered collection of Vhils’ distinctive etched portraits. Faces peer out from the weathered structures, some of which nest in the sand while others tower above on scaffolding.

Contrasting the ancient tombs with an installation that will dot the landscape for just a month, Vhils explores the ways we mark the world and how our imprints endure over time. “The pyramids were built for kings and gods, meant to last forever. My installation is made from wood and memory, and it will soon disappear,” he says. “Yet both belong to the same human impulse, to build, to remember, to leave a trace.”

“Doors of Cairo” is part of the fifth Forever Is Now project, an ongoing exhibition curated by Art D’Égypte with the support of UNESCO. Vhils is the first Portuguese artist invited to participate in the project, and he tethers his homeland to the historic site. All 65 repurposed doors were sourced from demolition sites and renovation projects between the two countries, and each bears traces of former use, whether chipped paint, scuffed surfaces, or faint fingerprints that linger in a well-worn spot.

The fragmented portraits don’t depict anyone specific but rather function as stand-ins for people past and present. “A single face can represent one person, but it can also stand for a community, a generation, or a shared emotional landscape,” the artist says. “It speaks to how people and places are inseparable, how memory becomes embedded in matter, and how identity is built from many invisible layers.”

After six months of carving in his studio—and creating a smaller, sculptural iteration that will live beyond the outdoor installation—Vhils spent three days working on site, shaping and reshaping the composition. “It evolved intuitively, door by door, guided by their scale, texture, and rhythm,” he shares. “This project is a dialogue between the everyday and the eternal, between the wooden doors of ordinary lives and the stone pyramids that have outlasted civilisations. It is a reminder that even what is temporary can carry the weight of time.”

“Doors of Cairo” is on view through December 7. Find more from the artist on Instagram.

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This October, a Global Public Art Project Turns 35 Cities into Playgrounds
by Aurelia Butler 17 October 2025, 20:12
Nomad Studio, “Socarrado (Scorched)” (2025), Parque Natural Sabinares del Arlanza – La Yecla, Castilla y Leon, Spain
This October, a Global Public Art Project Turns 35 Cities into Playgrounds
October 17, 2025
Art
Grace Ebert
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This month, urban centers around the world are hosting a massive public art project helmed by Nōvo Collective. uncommissioned has tapped 54 artists for a global initiative that sees the city as a playground, inviting participants “to slip playful, overlooked, or quietly defiant gestures into the cracks of everyday life.”
In Stellenbosch, South Africa, Strijdom van der Merwe installed sun-activated text works displaying heady phrases like “the visible is a shadow cast by the invisible.” Escif painted tiny fruits among the architecture near his home in Valencia, while Vhils painted a collection of fragmented portraits atop a Munich cultural center.
Vhils, “Antennas” (2025), KUNSTLABOR 2, Munich. Image courtesy of Jose Pando Lucas, MUCA
Perhaps most striking is Nomad Studio’s wooden structure erected in a park in Castilla y León, Spain. Appearing to fan outward in a circle, a collection of branches forms a meditative space with an opening to the sky that lets light stream inside.
uncommissioned continues throughout October with works by Cannupa Hanska Luger, Jason deCaires Taylor, Stephanie Brown, and many others slated for 35 cities total. See more on the project’s website.
Nomad Studio, “Socarrado (Scorched)” (2025), Parque Natural Sabinares del Arlanza – La Yecla, Castilla y Leon, Spain
Nomad Studio, “Socarrado (Scorched)” (2025), Parque Natural Sabinares del Arlanza – La Yecla, Castilla y Leon, Spain
Strijdom van der Merwe, “Shadow Words” (2025), Stellenbosch, South Africa
Strijdom van der Merwe, “Shadow Words” (2025), Stellenbosch, South Africa
Leon Reid IV, “Of a Free Will” (2025), Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Photo by Leon Reid IV
Escif, “Infinite Still Life” (2025), Valencia. Photo by Escif
Escif, “Infinite Still Life” (2025), Valencia. Photo by Escif
Vhils, “Antennas” (2025), KUNSTLABOR 2, Munich. Image courtesy of Jose Pando Lucas, MUCA
Vhils, “Antennas” (2025), KUNSTLABOR 2, Munich. Image courtesy of Jose Pando Lucas, MUCA
Emmanuel Aggrey Tieku, “HOW TO HEAL A B-R-O-K-E-N WORLD-Cemetery of Belongings” (2025), Osu Cemetery, Accra, Ghana
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A Vibrantly Embellished Electric Art Truck in East London Is a ‘Home Away from Home’
by Aurelia Butler 6 October 2025, 20:00
All images courtesy of Colours of Redbridge, shared with permission
A Vibrantly Embellished Electric Art Truck in East London Is a ‘Home Away from Home’
October 6, 2025
ArtSocial Issues
Kate Mothes
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In the northeastern London borough of Redbridge, a community arts program has transformed a simple electric truck into a vibrant, mobile artwork. Clad in richly embellished metal panels, the touring project is titled “Home Away from Home” and is inspired by the vivid, hand-embellished trucks found in South Asia, especially around Pakistan and India.
“Home Away from Home” is the final installment of a broader series of social art presentations called Other Worlds, organized by Colours of Redbridge. The local charity is part of a broader Arts Council England program called Creative People and Places, which focuses on bringing arts and culture to communities where involvement in mainstream culture and creative expression is low relative to others.
The ornate truck was “designed by local groups to reflect what home means to them, exploring local heritage and identity in Redbridge, East London,” the organization says. “Bespoke panels reflect different themes such as music, sports, local landmarks, pets, and food—all of which are important to local community members and where they live.”
Abid Bhai, an accomplished truck artist, created the panels in Pakistan, then shipped them to the U.K., where local blacksmith Felicity Jones affixed the colorful elements to the sides, top, and even the wheels. London-based artists Momtaz Begum-Hossain, Sheyamali Sudesh, and Bailes+Light were also instrumental in the collaborative work. “I’ve especially loved running the community metal workshops, where participants poured their own ideas into custom panel designs,” Jones says.”Seeing people grow in confidence and express themselves creatively through metalwork has been a real highlight.”
Both Colours and Redbridge and Creative People and Places aim to not only break down barriers to the arts but to listen to residents’ real needs and wants. The overarching goal is to build and sustain healthier and happier communities. Through public engagement, the Colours of Redbridge also adheres to a mission “to reduce the impacts of the key issues residents face, such as the cost of living, health and wellbeing, or gaining skills and employment.”
The inaugural appearance of “Home Away from Home’s” included dance performances, music, craft workshops with artist Zareena Bano, and more. Follow updates about where the truck is headed next on Colours of Redbridge’s website.
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Craig & Karl’s ‘Mateys’ Bring Vibrancy and Joy to Bridges in Brisbane and Beyond
by Aurelia Butler 1 October 2025, 17:00
Detail of “Converge.” Photo by Alex Chomicz
Craig & Karl’s ‘Mateys’ Bring Vibrancy and Joy to Bridges in Brisbane and Beyond
October 1, 2025
ArtDesign
Kate Mothes
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In vibrant colors, patterns, and shapes, the immersive works of Craig & Karl invite us to relish moments of joy and surprise. While Craig is based in New York, and Karl is based in London, the two collaborate across the pond—and around the world—to produce multimedia installations that revitalize urban spaces and celebrate the power of play.
As part of the 2025 Brisbane Festival, Craig & Karl created a pair of large-scale inflatable interventions on two of the city’s bridges, both riffing on the idea of the arch as passageway. Additionally, numerous illustrations, interactive sculptures, and inflatable “Mateys” — a series of quirky characters with expressive faces — pop up on buildings and sidewalks to enable joyful encounters as part of the expansive, city-wide exhibition titled Rear Vision.
“Walk This Way” (2025), Kangaroo Point Bridge, Brisbane. Photo by JD Lin
Collectively titled “Walk This Way,” the bridge installations encourage Brisbanites to see their city with fresh eyes. The expressive, flexible characters are also immanently relatable for viewers of all ages. “The Mateys serve as companions that help foster community and shared experiences, welcoming us into different corners of the city,” says a festival statement.
Craig & Karl are known for their vivid participatory projects, which range from mini-golf courses to playgrounds to murals. The artists initially met 30 years ago while studying at Griffith University in Brisbane, and since, their collaborative practice has included partnerships with global brands and publications like Adidas, Nike, Apple, Chanel, The New Yorker, Variety, and more.
While the bridge installations came to a close at the end of September, you can still stroll along the Public Art Trail through October 20 to spot Craig & Karl’s sculptures and installations in unexpected places. Then, drop by the exhibition Double Vision at the Griffith University Art Museum, which continues through January 7.
Plot your course on the Brisbane Festival website, and see more of the artists’ projects on their site and Instagram.
“Mateys” (2025), part of ‘Rear Vision’ Public Art Trail, Brisbane. Photo by Claudia Baxter
“Mateys” (2025), part of ‘Rear Vision’ Public Art Trail, Brisbane. Photo by Alex Chomicz
Detail of “Converge.” Photo by Alex Chomicz
“Converge” (2025), Neville Bonner Bridge, Brisbane. Photo by JD Lin
“Prismatic,” Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong
Detail of “Unfold,” Suzhou, China
“Cosmos,” Melbourne Central, Melbourne
Detail of “Cosmos”
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Millo and Seth Globepainter Trade Concrete for Canvas in ‘Beyond’
by Aurelia Butler 26 September 2025, 16:00
Images © the artists, shared with permission
Millo and Seth Globepainter Trade Concrete for Canvas in ‘Beyond’
September 26, 2025
Art
Jackie Andres
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Street artists Francesco Camillo Giorgino and Julien Malland (a.k.a. Millo and Seth Globepainter) have painted in more than fifty countries combined. In a new exhibition titled Beyond, the pair takes their expansive mural practice indoors with thirty new works and their first collaborative canvas installation.
Beyond is grounded by a vast map at the entrance of the show, charting the far-reaching and meandering paths both artists have taken across the globe. Though they’ve crossed paths before, the exhibition emphasizes their convergence once again at Goldman Global Arts Gallery, where their monumental works have been reimagined within the context of gallery walls.
Both Millo and Seth radiate a childlike wonder within their works, evoking a sense of joy and curiosity. While Millo’s compositions usually feature monochromatic figures and architectural components expressed with robust line work and bold pops of color, Seth’s pieces illustrate his signature optical illusion perspectives, executed with vibrant yet soft palettes.
Installed together, the works visually complement each other and amplify overlapping themes of surreal dreamscapes, everyday whimsy, and the power of imagination.
Beyond continues through November 16 in Miami. See more work on Millo and Seth’s respective Instagram accounts.
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Descend into the Underworld via Anish Kapoor’s Sculptural Subway Station Entrances
by Aurelia Butler 17 September 2025, 15:01
All images courtesy of Anish Kapoor, shared with permission
Descend into the Underworld via Anish Kapoor’s Sculptural Subway Station Entrances
September 17, 2025
ArtDesign
Kate Mothes
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West of Naples, along the Tyrrhenian coast, sits the storied Lake Avernus. Situated in a volcanic crater, its Latin name is synonymous with hell or the underworld, and to the ancient Romans, it was considered the portal to Hades. Dante Alighieri echoed the belief in his seminal Inferno. More recently, Anish Kapoor set out to explore the notion in a striking new entrance to the Monte Sant’Angelo subway station in central Naples. “In the city of Mount Vesuvius and Dante’s mythical entrance to the Inferno, I found it important to try and deal with what it really means to go underground,” the artist says.
Kapoor is renowned for large-scale sculptures and installations that tap into visceral psychological experiences, from a perpetually swirling whirlpool of black water in “Descension” to a meat-like slab of wax being wedged through a doorway in “Svayambhu,” which references a Sanskrit word meaning “self-born.” And, of course, there’s the iconically mirrored “Cloud Gate,” known fondly as “The Bean,” in downtown Chicago.
University entrance
“At Monte Sant’Angelo station, three integral themes of Kapoor’s practice have coalesced in more potent form than ever: the mythological object, the body, and the void,” a statement says. The artist’s design for two separate entrances, initiated more than two decades ago, tap into his interest in dualistic relationships like internal and external experiences or lightness and darkness.
Kapoor’s two entrances exist in dialogue with one another, as one is made from weathered steel with a rusty patina that suggests an amorphous bodily form. The other is conceived as something of the inverse, where a tubular steel form is presented more smoothly and “cleanly” while likewise hovering over travelers like a mysterious system or gigantic conduit.
“The station is a remarkable symbiosis of sculpture and architecture, a dynamic that has always been a central force in Kapoor’s work,” a statement says. “Kapoor’s work both holds and creates the new space in which it is experienced.”
Explore dozens of works on Kapoor’s website, and discover even more artistic subway stations around the world.
Looking up from within the Traiano entrance
A side view of the university entrance
Looking down into the university entrance
Traiano entrance
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Giant Inflatable Sculptures by Steve Messam Reimagine Everyday Environments
by Aurelia Butler 11 September 2025, 14:10
“Accommodation:Occupation.” All images courtesy of Steve Messam, shared with permission
Giant Inflatable Sculptures by Steve Messam Reimagine Everyday Environments
September 11, 2025
Art
Kate Mothes
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From bubble-like bulges amid the arches of London’s iconic Old Billingsgate to a 15-meter-tall red droplet frozen in the center of a disused swimming pool in Aberdeen, Steve Messam explores scale, form, and our experiences of the built environment in large-scale installations.
Messam is known for his large-scale inflatable works that reinterpret architecture and explore human influence over the landscape. Often, he fills apertures like arcades or underpasses with forms that balloon and billow, drawing attention to structural forms while considering their fundamental function as places to enter or move through.
“Facade”
In “Accommodation:Occupation,” Messam delves into the history of 19th-century infrastructure in the U.K. through an exploration of what are known as accommodation and occupation bridges—railroad crossings designed for rural areas that provided a tunnel beneath, so that farmers could still access their land on the other side of the tracks. Some of these historic bridges still exist, often on private land, such as two in County Durham along the former route of the Stockton & Darlington Railway.
For “Below,” which Messam situated under a bridge in Tianfu Art Park in Chengdu, China, the site’s use as a thoroughfare is retained by creating two symmetric forms with a gap between them, which people can walk through while immersing themselves in the installation.
Whether popcorn-like, spiked, bubbling, or cascading, Messam’s playful interventions prompt us to view our surroundings with renewed attention. Explore even more on the artist’s website and Instagram.
“Below”
“Facade”
“Packaged”
“Cascade”
“Accommodation:Occupation”
“Accommodation:Occupation”
“Below”
“Below”
“Packaged”
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In Rural Wisconsin, Pat Perry Connects the Various Forces That Shape Our World
by Aurelia Butler 9 September 2025, 16:10
“27 Schoolteachers and a Volcano.” All images courtesy of Pat Perry, shared with permission
In Rural Wisconsin, Pat Perry Connects the Various Forces That Shape Our World
September 9, 2025
Art
Grace Ebert
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In a rural Wisconsin city of just more than 1,200 people, the hyperlocal and the universal converge in a new mural by Pat Perry (previously). “27 Schoolteachers and a Volcano” is just as its title suggests: the large-scale piece depicts snow-capped mountains with an explosive volcano at its center, while small portraits of local educators line the top and bottom borders.
Commissioned by Princeton Art Collective, the mural captures the vertiginous experience of life today, particularly as we consume more information than ever before and must confront seemingly endless disasters and devastations around the globe. Perry wanted to highlight how we can “find meaning in ordinary life while constantly witnessing things happening in the world beyond your control.”
“Even in a small rural town, you’re not insulated from the immense forces that shape the world. History happens. Economies rise and fall. Wars begin. Continents drift and mountains erode. One day, the sun will expand and swallow the Earth. Most of us don’t get much of a say in any of it,” he says.
To conceptualize the work, the collective helped to contact and secure permissions from the teachers pictured, and with the exception of the woman in the red floral garment at the bottom of the piece—she’s the artist’s mother and a retired educator—all work in the area. And why teachers? Perry explains:
Day after day, people find purpose. They wake up early, show up with intention, and try to make sense of things—not just for themselves, but also for others. Teachers do this every day. Not for recognition, and rarely for much pay. It’s a repetitive act of maintenance that holds things together.Choosing to shoulder that task, even while standing at the edge of something vast and indifferent, is a quiet act of defiance. Amidst overwhelmingness and uncontrollableness and unanswerableness, teachers—and all custodians of human affairs—keep meaning in the world by steadily and stubbornly tending to it.
“27 Schoolteachers and a Volcano” is located in Princeton, Wisconsin. Find more from Perry on his website and Instagram.
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Banksy’s Already Covered Painting in London Comments on the U.K.’s Palestine Action Crackdown
by Aurelia Butler 8 September 2025, 16:46
Banksy’s painting at Royal Courts of Justice, London, © Banksy 2025
Banksy’s Already Covered Painting in London Comments on the U.K.’s Palestine Action Crackdown
September 8, 2025
ArtSocial Issues
Kate Mothes
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On a wall outside the Royal Courts of Justice in Westminster, London, a new piece by Banksy appeared this morning before being covered up within hours. The short-lived artwork, which the artist shared on Instagram and the front page of his website, depicts a judge in traditional robes and a large wig beating a protester with a gavel as blood spatters across the demonstrator’s placard.
The piece by the anonymous artist is likely a response to the arrests of nearly 900 protestors during a rally against the ban on Palestine Action, a group that Britain has declared a terrorist organization. Membership in the group is considered a crime, which can be punished by up to 14 years in prison. Even though organizers insist the demonstration of around 1,500 was peaceful, The Met nevertheless arrested more than half of the attendees.
Banksy is known for his statements about current affairs and socio-political issues around the world. He’s famous for stealthily targeting charged sites, like destroyed buildings in Ukraine or a small town in Wales that the World Health Organization for a short time deemed the most-polluted community in the U.K. His striking and subversive imagery is sometimes humorous, ironic, or tongue-in-cheek, always taking a direct and purely visual approach in his critique of contemporary issues.
“What makes this work remarkable is not just its imagery, but its placement,” says Jasper Tordoff, a Banksy expert at MyArtBroker, on Artnet. “By choosing the Royal Courts of Justice, Banksy transforms a historic symbol of authority into a platform for debate. In classic Banksy form, he uses the building itself to sharpen the message, turning its weight and history into part of the artwork.”
Follow the artist’s updates on Instagram.
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public art

Latest story

Against the Pyramids of Giza, Vhils’ Etched Portraits Are Monuments of the Everyday

More stories

This October, a Global Public Art Project Turns 35 Cities into Playgrounds

Craig & Karl’s ‘Mateys’ Bring Vibrancy and Joy to Bridges in Brisbane and Beyond

Millo and Seth Globepainter Trade Concrete for Canvas in ‘Beyond’

Descend into the Underworld via Anish Kapoor’s Sculptural Subway Station Entrances

Giant Inflatable Sculptures by Steve Messam Reimagine Everyday Environments

In Rural Wisconsin, Pat Perry Connects the Various Forces That Shape Our World

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