The Easel

29th September 2026

Arthur Jafa, King of Pop

Stephanie Wambugu | Hyperallergic | 25th September 2026

Jafa’s diverse art, such as the video Love Is the Message, The Message Is Death (2016) has had a significant cultural impact. A large survey show illustrates the themes of his work, notably the beauty of Black culture and the persistence of racial violence against Black communities. But does it give a clearer vision of this important American artist? He has an intuitive grasp of “memes” but not all of his works are clear. “It’s a charming, playful, and rich homage, but does anyone get it? 

Pope.L’s pleasing refusal to be interpreted

Zachary Fne | The New Yorker | 10th August 2026

Pope.L’s performances included crawling along Manhattan streets and sitting for days on a raised toilet eating the Wall Street Journal. Were such deeds deranged or a lucid advocacy for those in his family who were homeless? His drawings are equally elliptical. This writer disagrees with critics who want to group his graphics and performances as a coherent whole. “Pope.L couldn’t care less about crafting an image or a brand. His work thrives on the incoherence of his own restless curiosity.”

22nd September 2026

No One Is Accountable in Taryn Simon’s Detective Story

Aruna D’Souza | Hyperallergic | 18th September 2026

Starting out as a photographer Simon has since evolved into a documentarian-artist. A major new show displays a single 10-year work focused on the career experiences of an anonymous FBI agent. Using both images and text, it highlights the social systems that impact our lives. What do we take away from an exhibition that’s a bit like a book? “There are some really good anecdotes [as well as] a sense of helplessness … [while we] retrospectively wonder at all the horrors we’ve lived through.”

The Largest Carpet Ever Woven: An Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on the Project Commissioned by Louis XIV

Staff | Finestre sull' Arte | 13th September 2026

In 1668 and living in the Louvre Palace, Louis XIV wanted further personal glorification. This resulted in an unprecedented commission of 92 carpet panels to decorate a 440m hallway. These Savonnerie carpets took 20 years to manufacture, were never displayed as intended and many were sold off during the French Revolution. A video  taken when 32 were recently hung in Paris shows their astonishing scale and detail. Four are briefly on display in New York. Gasps one writer, “Baroque masterpieces”.

On Lisette Model

Adam Shatz | London Review of Books | 24th September 2026

Failing to make it as a professional musician, Austrian-born, Model left Europe for pre-war New York. There, she established herself as a street photographer. After her death, a large archive of images of jazz musicians and jazz clubs was discovered. Her “plainspoken” images, now seen as central to her output, capture a society rife with segregation and anti-communist fever. Said Model, “I was absolutely overwhelmed by jazz because I knew that was America”.

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