Author: Sam Art

Serena Bocchino is an American Contemporary abstract artist working in the realm of painting, sculpture, and installation. Her expressionistic, methodical style displays a variety of influences, from Abstract Expressionism and modern dance to jazz music and the experimental Fluxus movement. Like her varied influences, her process is highly improvisational yet technically informed: It is a visual language created through an intermingled vocabulary of color, media, and technique. Bocchino’s studio practice is focused on the investigation and intersection of visual art and music. Her professional practice began in New York City’s East Village movement in the 1980s after graduating from New…

The UK art market is under increasing pressure from anti-money laundering (AML) legislation. HMRC, the UK’s tax authority, has fined at least 31 participants in the art market from 10 January 2021, when it began monitoring the art trade, to 31 March 2023, the latest period for which data is available.Of the 31 fines published, 30 are in the 15 months starting January 1, 2022, a rate of at least two fines per month. (HMRC data is sometimes behind enforcement, meaning the actual figures for any given period may be higher than initially reported.) Penalties were mainly triggered by failing…

Martin Derbyshire, also known as Ma Tengfei, is a British-born, Beijing-based artist whose work delves into the interconnectedness of phenomena and explores the liminal moments, spaces, and interactions that exist between them. His art is a contemplation of the pauses and peripheries that occur within the rational structures of thought, seeking to evoke experiences that prompt viewers to consider the possibility of an underlying and coherent wholeness. Derbyshire’s work is a continuous process, with each piece serving as both an end and a beginning. One of Derbyshire’s works is “Still Life: Video (9:39) 2024,” a piece that questions the boundaries…

Untitled Art, the independent fair that takes place in Miami Beach every December alongside Art Basel, has been acquired by South Florida Ventures, a rapidly expanding portfolio focused on luxury lifestyle brands in the Sunshine State.Untitled Art founder Jeffrey Lawson and his team will remain at the helm of the fair, according to a press release that says the acquisition will give Untitled Art access to more resources and offer its organizers more opportunities to scale the fair’s platform. test new markets. expand its curatorial team and improve year-round programming and events. However, there are no concrete plans to expand…

In recent years, countries in the Global South, from Nigeria to Mexico, have sought the return of treasures looted by colonizers with renewed vigor, while some European governments have passed laws or formed new agreements to dissolve parts of their national collections. If the art and artifacts in museums like the Louvre or the British Museum are the symbols of a bygone era, it seems that former colonial powers are beginning to use them to symbolically make amends for past transgressions. Meanwhile, in the United States, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has made it their mission to seize looted artifacts…

While restitution has been a central topic in the art world on and off for decades, there has no doubt been a sea change in recent years. In 2023 there was a near-constant stream of news about returned and seized objects, launched initiatives, lawsuits ongoing and settled, and agreements struck between countries in the Global South and Europe. While restitution and repatriation debates still run hot, we appear to have reached a tipping point. Most observers cite French president Emmanuel Macron’s 2017 speech in Burkina Faso—when he said he wanted “the conditions met for the temporary or definitive restitution of…

ArtMaxwell RabbPortrait of Sayre Gomez. Photo by Sam Ramirez. Courtesy of Xavier Hufkens. As a young man, Sayre Gomez worked in a photo lab. This work offered Gómez—who was studying at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago—a rare vantage point from which to observe the city. There, he witnessed city life through the eyes of strangers, and these unfiltered images stayed with Gómez, sparking his love for scenes of urban decay. Over the years, he began to collect photographs, found and taken by himself, to compile an archive that would later lay the foundations for his approach to…

Helena Kotnik, a Barcelona University and Akademie der bildende Künste, Vienna graduate, is a unique artist whose works are often described as “psychological human landscapes.” Her paintings, characterized by their colorful and somewhat naïve style, delve into the complexities of human society and the world we live in. Influenced by a variety of artists from different periods in art history, Kotnik’s paintings serve as a commentary on contemporary issues. Kotnik’s works have been recently selected by The Other Art Fair Dallas, USA. Her work often explores historical events and their impact on society. For instance, her painting inspired by the…

Aliza Thomas, an artist based in the Netherlands but hailing from Israel, brings a unique blend of cultural influences to her work. Beyond her identity as an artist and papermaker, Thomas is also an art teacher, sharing her knowledge and passion with others. But her talents extend beyond the realm of visual art; she is also a teacher of Qigong and Taijiquan, embodying a holistic approach to creativity and well-being. Adding another layer to her identity, Thomas proudly describes herself as a mother of three children and three grandchildren, highlighting the multifaceted nature of her life and art. Thomas’s work…

Florence’s newly renovated Orsanmichele, a church and former barn that houses some of the world’s most important Renaissance sculptures, had more than half the number of visitors in the first three weeks after reopening than in all of 2022.The landmark, which was closed for 14 months for a €1.1m refurbishment, had 8,000 visitors through its doors in the first 21 days after it reopened to the public on January 19, compared to 13,000 in all of 2022, the last complete year was open. Increasing the number of visitors, and putting the Renaissance structure back at the top of the Florentine…