The first instinct of a viewer standing in front of a Russian icon is to judge it similarly to a painting. Is the perspective convincing? Is the face lifelike? Is the artist’s personality visible? However, this approach is not the proper way to read an icon because it was never meant to imitate the visible world.
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An art expert’s traditional perception of valuable, rare, and irreplaceable art is that of a static, offline object that can be touched, physically moved, and stored. With this definition dominating the industry for many centuries, online art escapes easy classification and faces varying degrees of acceptance.
Next Thursday, September 10, Auctions at Showplace invites collectors to explore a diverse selection of art, design, and vintage items at its New York City Estate Auction. An exciting set of 280 lots, including works by Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí, and Nancy Grossman, among others, is awaiting new owners. Live bidding begins at 11 am EDT, so it’s time to choose your top picks before the auction.
In the fall of 2016, water protectors at Standing Rock used an unusual form of artistic protest while resisting law enforcement personnel. They held plywood shields covered with reflective Mylar, angled so that police officers approaching them saw their own reflections. The action was part of the Mirror Shield Project, initiated by the contemporary artist Cannupa Hanska Luger.
As the low winter season comes to an end in South Africa, Nel Gallery is invigorating the local art landscape with new and exciting art events. One of them is a two-day multimedia art performance by the internationally acclaimed artist Holger Maik Mertin, held on August 26–27, 2026. On September 1, a solo show by Ina van Zyl will also open at Nel, inviting art lovers to explore her “radically classical” approach to portraiture.
The most general approach to define art is to view it as the deliberate creation of objects or experiences with formal, expressive, or imaginative value. As a rule, art is assessed for its creative qualities rather than its practical utility. Yet, this definition quickly becomes difficult to defend if you find yourself in a room with Duchamp’s urinal on a plinth. So, how have people tried to answer this question, and what are the limitations of their definitions?
Graffiti and street art have traditionally relied on a distinct form of artist identification. Creatives used tags as their names, with repeated, recognizable imagery often substituting for formal attribution. However, problems with this form of identification arose as street art gained formal market recognition and artists began building reputations in the salesroom.
Ask curators where art belongs, and the answer will often be philosophical. That’s why experimentation with spaces for art exhibitions has been ongoing for many decades. Explore some interesting examples of non-traditional exhibition spaces, each chosen with a specific purpose.