News•Mar 10, 2026
CARNAL KNOWLEDGE
Angelo Madsen’s 2025 documentary *A Body to Live In* chronicles the life of Roland Loomis, better known as Fakir Musafar, the self‑styled “Modern Primitive” who pioneered contemporary body‑modification and ritualized pain. The film weaves archival footage, Musafar’s own photography, and interviews with collaborators to map his eclectic spiritual philosophy that blended BDSM, shamanic trance, and global ritual practices. It also foregrounds the criticism from Native American participants who accused Musafar of cultural appropriation. Screening at New York’s Anthology Film Archives, the documentary positions Musafar as both an artistic provocateur and a contested cultural figure.
By Artforum – Critics’ Picks
News•Mar 10, 2026
Curators Announced for 16th Baltic Triennial
Vilnius’s Contemporary Art Center has named artist Nikita Kadan and curator Natalia Sielewicz to lead the 16th Baltic Triennial, slated for 2027. The duo proposes a theme of grief and resurrection, reflecting the ongoing Russian‑Ukrainian conflict’s impact on the Baltic...
By Artforum – Critics’ Picks
News•Mar 10, 2026
Emerson Bowyer Appointed Chief Curator of Kimbell Art Museum
Emerson Bowyer has been appointed chief curator of the Kimbell Art Museum, officially starting on March 5. The Sydney‑born scholar arrives from the Art Institute of Chicago, where he oversaw major acquisitions such as William Holman Hunt’s *The Shadow of Death*...
By Artforum – Critics’ Picks
News•Mar 10, 2026
Roman Khimei and Yarema Malashchuk on Image-Making in Wartime
Ukrainian artists Roman Khimei and Yarema Malashchuk debut the "Pedagogies of War" exhibition in Madrid, running March 3‑June 21, 2026. The show features four multi‑channel video installations created since Russia’s 2022 invasion, each probing how conflict is visualized in a hyper‑mediated world. Works...
By Artforum – Critics’ Picks
News•Mar 9, 2026
Architectures of Air
Artforum has released a new portfolio spotlighting architect Claude Parent’s avant‑garde ideas, revisiting his 1960s collaboration with Yves Klein on “architectures of air.” The concept proposes an immaterial architecture that manipulates climate rather than erecting static structures, challenging modernist consumerism. The...
By Artforum – Critics’ Picks
News•Mar 8, 2026
Opening Day: Theo Belci’s Best and Worst of the Whitney Biennial
Theo Belci’s opening‑day review of the 2026 Whitney Biennial spotlights two divergent approaches. Young Joon Kwak’s glitter‑laden chandelier is framed as Instagram‑ready spectacle, while Agosto Machado’s shrine‑like installations honor queer countercultural figures with tactile relics. Cooper Jacoby’s AI‑driven work resurrects dead social‑media personas, creating...
By Artforum – Critics’ Picks
News•Mar 6, 2026
Russia Returns to Venice Biennale for First Time Since Invading Ukraine
Russia will have a presence at the 61st Venice Biennale, its first since canceling the pavilion in 2022 after the Ukraine invasion. The exhibition, titled “The Tree Is Rooted in the Sky,” features over fifty musicians, poets and philosophers from...
By Artforum – Critics’ Picks
News•Mar 6, 2026
Watermill Center Appoints Charles Chemin Artistic Director
The Watermill Center announced Charles Chemin as its new artistic director, succeeding founder Robert Wilson after Wilson’s death last August. Chemin, a Paris‑born protégé of Wilson, has directed the Center’s International Summer Program since 2020 and collaborated on more than twenty...
By Artforum – Critics’ Picks
News•Mar 6, 2026
Nicholas R. Bell to Lead Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum
The Royal Ontario Museum has appointed Nicholas R. Bell as its new director and CEO, effective July 6. Bell comes from a successful tenure at Calgary’s Glenbow Museum, where he launched a $250 million renovation campaign and created an endowment for free...
By Artforum – Critics’ Picks
News•Mar 4, 2026
No Right Angles: The Polemical Architecture of Claude Parent
Claude Parent, once a disciple of Le Corbusier, forged a radical architectural language centered on the “Fonction Oblique,” which replaces orthogonal stability with inclined planes that demand bodily engagement. In the 1960s he co‑founded the avant‑garde group Architecture Principe with Paul Virilio, publishing manifestos...
By Artforum – Critics’ Picks
News•Mar 4, 2026
Serpentine’s Kostas Stasinopoulos to Helm Greece’s Forthcoming Kyklos
London’s Serpentine curator Kostas Stasinopoulos has been named director of exhibitions and programs for Kyklos, a new art and culture centre slated to open in Piraeus in 2028. Kyklos, funded by the Dinos and Lia Martinos Foundation, will be Greece’s...
By Artforum – Critics’ Picks
News•Mar 3, 2026
Flash Art Founder Giancarlo Politi Dies at 89
Giancarlo Politi, the Italian critic who founded the seminal contemporary art journal Flash Art, died at 89 on February 24. Over five decades he expanded Flash Art into multiple language editions, launched the influential Art Diary directory, and established the Flash Art Museum and the...
By Artforum – Critics’ Picks