SGFARA – SGFARA – Singapore Fine Arts Research Association

Artist Umar Rashid on Curating a Robert Colescott Show for Blum LA

Installation view of “The Anansean World of Robert Colescott,” curated by Umar Rashid, 2025, at Blum Los Angeles. Photo Josh Schaedel; ©The Robert H. Colescott Separate Property Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; Courtesy The Trust and BLUM Los Angeles, Tokyo, New York Robert Colescott’s most famous painting might just be George Washington …

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The Most Controversial Artworks of the 21st Century So Far

The world loves few things better than a controversy involving an artist. Such brouhahas are nothing new; Caravaggio’s Death of the Virgin (c. 1605–06), for instance, was rejected by the Church fathers who commissioned it for the chapel of Santa Maria Della Scala in Rome because of its brutally realistic depiction of Mary—for whom a …

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It’s in the Cards: An Exhibition at London’s Warburg Institute Offers a History of Tarot

Warburg Institute, London. From Renaissance Milanese court painter Bonifacio Bembo to the Surrealists and even contemporary artist Claire Tabouret (who painted her home’s ceiling with images from an early-20th-century tarot deck), tarot—a centuries-old set of 78 cards—wafts in and out of art history. Between 1979 and 1998, French avant-garde artist Niki de Saint Phalle built …

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Karyn Olivier’s Elusive Art Bears Witness to Hidden Histories

Karyn Olivier in front of her work, Revelation, at Brochstein Pavilion, commissioned by the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University. Photo Frank Hernandez Karyn Olivier’s work can often read as elusive. An expansive artist whose practice floats across various mediums, her works take many forms: a white column that rests on a historical …

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Institute of Museum and Library Services Staff Placed on Administrative Leave by Trump Administration

L’Enfant Promenade in Washington, D.C., 2011. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons Work at the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) in Washington, D.C., came to a screeching halt yesterday afternoon after the entire staff was placed on administrative leave, effective immediately, by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Between 55 and 70 employees received a …

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Trump’s Executive Order on the Smithsonian Will Send Art History Backwards

The Smithsonian Institution. Photo Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images During the 1990s, artist Consuelo Jimenez Underwood was driving along the 405 Freeway in San Diego when she spotted a yellow sign showing a man, a woman, and a little girl running in fear from an unseen threat. Above these people was a menacing word: “CAUTION.” The sign, …

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Texas Politician Proposes Plan to Fine Museums for Displaying ‘Obscene’ Content

The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas. Photo Carol M. Highsmith/Buyenlarge/Getty Images A Texas lawmaker has proposed a bill that could be used to keep certain kinds of art off view, the Fort Worth Report reports. On March 6, representative David Lowe filed House Bill 3958, which outlines a proposed civil penalty against any …

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Patti Smith to Perform at Rally to Save New York’s Elizabeth Street Garden Park

Patti Smith performing at Elizabeth Street Garden rally, 2025. Courtesy Rolling Stone Patti Smith performed at a New York City rally Tuesday as part of an effort to prevent a downtown park from being converted into affordable housing. The Elizabeth Street Garden, located between between Spring and Prince streets, has long been a community gathering place …

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Trump’s Smithsonian Executive Order, Explained: What Is the Smithsonian Institution, and What Will Happen to It?

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Photo Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images Since retaking office in January, President Donald Trump has issued a flood of executive orders taking up topics such as the importation of Chinese goods, Venezuelan immigrants, union protections, and electoral politics. But one executive order has the art world particularly worried, and that …

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Sculptor Ti Pèlen, Known Figure in Haitian Arts Collective, Dies at 66

Portrait of Ti Pelen. Courtesy Leah Gordon/Pioneer Works. Haitian sculptor Ti Pèlen, whose birth name is Jean Salomon Horace, died last month at the age of 66. His cause of death remains undisclosed. His family will preserve the remaining artworks in his possession, according to a spokesperson for Pioneer Works, which featured his work in …

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