Latest news with #VaginalDavis
The Guardian
05-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
On my radar: Nell Zink's cultural highlights
Nell Zink was born in California in 1964 and grew up in rural Virginia. Before becoming a published novelist in her 50s, she worked a variety of odd jobs including bricklayer, technical writer and secretary, also running a postpunk zine. In 2014, with the help of Jonathan Franzen, she published her debut novel The Wallcreeper, followed closely by Mislaid, which was longlisted for a National Book Award. Her seventh novel, Sister Europe, out 24 April, charts the unravelling of a Berlin high-society party – Vogue called it 'a worldly hangout novel of 21st-century manners'. Zink, a committed birder, lives outside Berlin. Hope Against Hope by Nadezhda Mandelstam This is the book that's keeping me cheerful. It is just impossible to feel sorry for yourself if you're reading the memoirs of Nadezhda Mandelstam, whose poet husband Osip died in the transit camp to the Siberian gulag in 1938. She is incredibly wise and stoical on dealing with this Stalinist terror of the 1930s, and writes about it really beautifully, with a deep belief in humanism and a constant critique of using people as means to an end. Reading about what it was like to be on the run from Joseph Stalin, you think, wait a second, I don't have it so bad. Tristan und Isolde at Staatstheater Cottbus, Germany, until 4 May I have seen three different productions of this Wagner opera in three different places in the past year or so, and the hands-down winner was the production in Cottbus, because they took it seriously. It was a straight-up production, which the Brechtian ones in Dessau and Berlin were not. The finale was so beautiful and moving that the audience had tears in their eyes. And the theatre in Cottbus is a beautiful art nouveau building – a real destination – where the best seats in the house are €32. It's worth a trip, and Tristan und Isolde is playing again soon. Vaginal Davis: Fabelhaftes Produkt at the Gropius Bau, Berlin, Germany, until 14 September Vaginal Davis is a queer drag performer from LA who absolutely has that ironic, pop-cultural, intertextual aesthetic down cold and walks a tightrope over punk and drag, combining the two while always annoying somebody on either side. She's also a photographer and film-maker, and just somebody who is very creative and constantly churning out material that's funny and beautifully pointed. She moved to Berlin 20 years ago and now there's a solo show of her work – including some large-scale installations – at the Gropius Bau in Berlin. I haven't seen it yet but it'll be extremely interesting. Lit Link, Croatia Lit Link is the most brilliant literary festival put on by two Croatians. They invited me to speak years ago and then again in 2023. They pick different countries each year – this time it's Sweden and Norway – inviting not only writers from those countries but also editors and translators. They rent a van and go from Zagreb down to Istria, and it's just insanely pretty. Last time we stopped in Labin, a jewel of a hill town with an adorable little theatre looking out over the Adriatic. It's fun to ride around in a van and go to these unbelievably beautiful places and then read to the Croatians. Nightingale It's the time of year to hear nightingales, but they are threatened because people keep their gardens and public parks too tidy. A nightingale needs thick underbrush in which to build a nest where no one can see it. The nightingale's song is never what people think it is. It's great by the standards of the Romantic era when people sang in an incredibly sappy way that today we'd probably find unbearable. He's super-horny and whiny, like, 'Pleeeease, baby, please'. But it's important to have nightingales pestering you every night, starting in April, so don't rake up the leaves or trim the hedges; let things get a bit chaotic. Nebra Sky Disc at the Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte, Halle, Germany This is one of these precious artefacts found by accident by guys with metal detectors in Germany and it's apparently the oldest depiction of the night sky that we have on Earth, dating back to 1800-1600BC. I saw it for the first time recently and it's really gorgeous – a blue-green bronze disc with gold symbols of sun, moon and stars. They went out of their way to give it a dramatic setting in the Halle prehistory museum, with beautiful lighting and really good information. Halle is a nice town with an art academy that's worth a visit. Having art students in a town improves it, I think.
Euronews
08-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Euronews
International Women's Day: Five must-see European exhibitions
By Sarah Miansoni Between long-awaited retrospectives and extensive multi-artist exhibitions, several European museums have chosen to prominently feature art by women in 2025. Check out our favourite picks in celebration of International Women's Day. ADVERTISEMENT A 2022 study of major art museums in the United States found that 87% of artists featured in these institutions were men. Luckily, Europe fares far, far better. For International Women's Day (and International Women's Month), here are five not-to-be-missed European exhibitions centred around female artists. Female artists at work between the 16th and 19th centuries Lavinia Fontana (1552 Bologna-1614 Rome), First self-portrait at the spinet, 1575 Oil on copper, 31 x 25.5 cm Rome, Private collection Museo di Roma Where? Museo di Roma – Palazzo Braschi (Rome, Italy) By the 16th century, Rome had become a major artistic hub, welcoming art titans such as Caravaggio and Michelangelo. Female artists, however, remained largely sidelined and excluded from formal training, so much so that many of their names have simply vanished from the art history books. The Museo di Roma aims to change this. 'Female artists at work between the 16th and 19th centuries' presents about 130 pieces by 56 different artists. Featured painters include Lavinia Fontana, Artemisia Gentileschi and Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, who all came to Rome hoping to find success and cement their place in the art world. The show is a display of artworks as much as an attempt to shed light on the lives and professional experiences of these women. The museum will also offer a series of panel discussions with art historians and gender studies scholars throughout the run of the exhibition. 'Female artists at work between the 16th and 19th centuries' is on until 4 May 2025. Vaginal Davis: Fabelhaftes Produkt Vaginal Davis, 2019, Collection Vaginal Davis Photo © Hector Martinez - Gropius Bau Where? Gropius Bau (Berlin, Germany) Gropius Bau in Berlin is presenting Vaginal Davis's first comprehensive solo exhibition in Germany, 20 years after the American artist set up home in Berlin. As far as art goes, Vaginal Davis is everything: painter, performer, filmmaker, musician, writer… With seven large-scale installations, Fabelhaftes Produkt ('Magnificent Product') reflects this diversity, and spans works from 1985 to 2025. The exhibition also presents her collaboration with other artists, such as the Berlin-based art collective CHEAP. A Black queer icon, Vaginal Davis named herself after the renowned activist Angela Davis. Her work is a delightful mixture of punk, glamour and drag culture – she has often been described as a 'drag terrorist'. 'I was always too gay for the punks and too punk for the gays. I am a societal threat', she said in a 2015 interview for The New Yorker. You've been warned. 'Vaginal Davis: Fabelhaftes Produkt' at Gropius Bau opens on 21 March and runs until 14 September 2025. La Musée. Une collection d'artistes femmes La Musée Musée Sainte-Croix Where? Musée Sainte Croix (Poitiers, France) French artist Eugénie Dubreuil, now 87, spent 25 years of her life collecting art by female creators, with the dream of one day dedicating a museum to her findings. In 2024, with more than 500 pieces on her hands, she had gathered one of the largest-known collections of female artwork in France and decided to make a donation to the Musée Sainte Croix in Poitiers. The result is 'La Musée' (a pun between 'the museum' and 'the amused'), a display of 300 pieces dated from the 17th to the 21st century. Drawings, engravings and miniatures make up the bulk of the exhibition. The whole thing is an eclectic mix of unknown artists and household names such as Rosa Bonheur, Niki de Saint Phalle and Suzanne Valadon (who is the focus of a current show at Centre Pompidou, in Paris). ADVERTISEMENT 'La Musée. Une collection d'artistes femmes' runs until 18 May 2025. Harriet Backer. Every Atom is Color Harriet Backer, Chez Moi, 1887 Nasjonalmuseet/Børre Høstland Where? Kode Art Museum (Bergen, Norway) With 'Every Atom is Color', the Kode Bergen Art Museum takes visitors through Harriet Backer's personal and artistic development, as she rose to become one of the most influential painters in Norwegian history, known for her rich use of colour and light. Backer (1845-1932) was an aficionado of the private space, and many of the pieces displayed in Bergen feature scenes of interior and portraits of her friends and loved ones. ADVERTISEMENT Music is also a predominant theme in her work, and the exhibition includes a musical programme that highlights Backer's sister, Norwegian pianist Agathe Backer-Grøndahl. 'Every Atom is Color' concludes an international tour that brought Backer's work to Stockholm, Paris and Oslo over the past two years, to great public acclaim. "Harriet Backer. Every Atom is Color" is on until 24 August 2025. Linder: Danger Came Smiling Installation view of Linder: Danger Came Smiling Mark Blower - Courtesy the artist and the Hayward Gallery Where? Hayward Gallery (London, UK) She is punk, she is rock, and she wore a meat dress 30 years before Lady Gaga did. Pioneering feminist artist Linder Sterling is now the focus of 'Linder: Danger Came Smiling', a retrospective currently held at Hayward Gallery in London. ADVERTISEMENT Throughout five decades, the Liverpool-born artist has produced satirical collages and photomontages to question the representation of the female body. Drawing from pop culture, she offers a radical questioning of gender and sexual norms. The title 'Danger Came Smiling' refers to the name of a 1982 album by post-punk band Ludus, which Sterling founded. Smiles are also a recurrent motif in her work. The exhibition includes her landmark montages as well as sculptures, photographs and video installations. 'Linder: Danger Came Smiling' at Hayward Gallery runs until 5 May 2025. Hanna Benihound's work in London AP Photo And as a cheeky bonus for London-based art lovers, head to Granary Square in King's Cross to admire Hanna Benihoud's illustrations, displayed as part of the free outdoor showing 'HighlightHer'. The event celebrates 'extraordinary ordinary women' for International Women's Day.
