The Easel

9th December 2025

Frank Gehry, masterful architect who transformed L.A.’s urban landscape, dies at 96

Christopher Hawthorne | Yahoo news | 6th December 2025

Twentieth century architecture thought “less is more” but not Gehry. A childhood spent tinkering with appliances gave him an affection for “mechanisms that spill their guts for all the world to see”. Starting with his own house, Gehry pioneered a “more expressionistic architectural language”, inspiring his profession to move beyond the pristine modernist box. Sometimes criticised for “architectural sculpture”, his best work combines “balance and elegance” with “boisterous energy”. Images are here.

Five Ways of Looking at Wifredo Lam

Staff | MoMA Magazine | 18th November 2025

Lam’s work has long perplexed the art world. Born in Cuba, he moved to Spain in his early 20’s to study art. Eighteen years later he returned, wanting to blend cubism and surrealism with a Caribbean sensibility. La Jungla, his acknowledged masterpiece, does just that, placing figures amidst sugar cane and jungle foliage. Lam said the work was “an act of decolonisation … in a mental sense”. He gave “a mystical presence to [everyday] scenes”. Says a curator “There’s so much that remains to be [understood]”.

Tyler Mitchell: the photographer of the moment

Staff | The Economist | 4th December 2025

Mitchell shot his first Vogue cover – of Beyonce – at age 23, an indicator of his precocious talent. Now 30, he has a high-profile career that straddles fashion and fine art. His focus is on Black style and beauty, often featuring black figures in playful or leisurely moments that contrast with charged media imagery. Having grown up in the worlds of skateboarding and music, he is hyper-aware of image. “It becomes about how we present ourselves culturally. The clothes kind of become this other thing”.

2nd December 2025

Recollecting Forwards

Glenn Adamson | Salon94 | 1st August 2025

Siesbye happily agrees she makes nothing but ceramic bowls. Her unadorned pieces reflect ancient Anatolian forms with a modern Scandinavian overlay. Why does such seemingly plain work get so much acclaim? Partly it’s their refined designs with tiny bases and flowing lines. More though, it’s their beguiling simplicity. As Morandi (a Siesbye favourite) demonstrated “there is nothing more complicated than simplicity.” Siesbye notes the ultimate form of her work is “decided by the clay”. Images are here.

Jennifer Packer: Dead Letter

Tony Bluestone | The Brooklyn Rail | 18th November 2025

Packer is a rising star in American art, enjoying solo shows and major awards early in her career. Her latest exhibition showcases her portraiture. It’s “a memento mori” says one writer,  “what traces [people] leave after they are gone”.  That seems apt, Packer having recently suffered a personal loss. In one work “two perfectly rendered feet touch the ground. Meanwhile, the figure drifts upward and away. Packer’s layering —of paint, gesture, and meaning— mirrors the complexity of mourning.”

Robert Therrien’s smashing retrospective is among the year’s best museum solo shows

Christopher Knight | LA Times | 25th November 2025

In the Broad Museum in LA, a 26 foot long table with matching 10 foot chairs is a hugely popular work. The key to this most acclaimed of Therrien’s works is not its size but what it evokes. Made exactly to scale, it reminds the viewer of “narratives and memories from childhood”. Similarly, a gigantic pile of plates forms a teetering sculpture that triggers our anxieties about plates breaking. Says a curator Therrien’s uncanny skill was to tap into the tension between “what an object is and what it means”.

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