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Ralph Lauren invites everyone to return to (his) office
NEW YORK, NY.- Having mixed feelings about return to office? Not sure what to wear? Ralph Lauren has a solution for that. On Monday night, paparazzi were camped out in front of the nondescript glass-door building at Madison Avenue and 58th Street where Lauren has his storied headquarters, there to record the arrivals of Jessica Chastain, Kerry Washington and Glenn Close, among others. The reason: Lauren’s latest … well, not show, exactly. More like episode in the long-running series he has been directing called “This Is My Life.” For the past few years (even before COVID), Lauren has been framing his collections as glimpses into his private world. There was, for example, the 2017 show held in the garage in Bedford, New York, where he keeps his collection of rare cars, including a 1938 Bugatti 57SC Atlantic once valued at $40 ... More

Remembering Carrie Burns Brown: A pioneer in the Greenville arts community
GREENVILLE, SC.- The Greenville Center for Creative Arts mourns the loss of Carrie Burns Brown, a cherished Founder whose pioneering spirit and unwavering dedication transformed the arts landscape in Greenville and beyond. Carrie passed away after a courageous battle with severe COPD, leaving behind a profound legacy that will forever inspire and shape the future of GCCA. Carrie Burns Brown was more than just a founder of GCCA; she was the driving force behind its establishment and success. Her passion for the arts, coupled with her visionary leadership, laid the foundation for GCCA to become the vibrant hub of creativity it is today. Without Carrie's vision and tireless efforts, GCCA would not exist, and countless artists would not have had the opportunity to thrive and grow in our community. In recognition of Carrie's immense contributions, ... More

Karma NY to open 'Alan Saret: The Rest of Me'
NEW YORK, NY.- Karma presents The Rest of Me, a multivenue exhibition of work by Alan Saret, open from May 3 to June 22 at 22, 172, and 188 East 2nd Street, New York. Across all three of the gallery’s New York locations, Karma presents more than 180 never-before-seen works by Alan Saret dating from 1975 to the present. At 22 East 2nd street, a selection of representational drawings and paintings reveal Saret’s complex knowledge of spiritual traditions from around the world and across time. The calligraphic and typographic works on paper Saret calls “dharanis,” on view at 172 East 2nd Street, are accompanied by a recorded selection of songs written and performed by the multidisciplinary artist, accessible to the public for the first time. Finally, at 188 East 2nd Street, Saret shares a body of kaleidoscopic works on paper ... More

Important Garrard & Co. wine cistern shines in Heritage's May 16 Silver Auction
DALLAS, TX.- From its intrinsic value to its reflection of tastes, history and culture, silver has an allure that continues to draw us in. Throughout history, silversmiths have created treasures reflecting their clientele’s status, to be used for social rituals, to commemorate an event or as a gift ranging from birth to diplomacy. Garrard & Co., the official Crown Jewelers by appointment from Queen Victoria, stands out among such esteemed silversmiths. Queen Victoria’s appointment marked Garrard’s as a symbol of unmatched quality and prestige but also set a standard for royal commissions and the crafting of ceremonial pieces that resonate with the power and elegance of the British monarchy. Garrard’s legacy is not merely about the silver it has crafted but the stories each piece tells — of empires and eras, of celebrations and ceremonies. For instance, the bacchanal- ... More

Paul Auster, prolific author and Brooklyn literary star, dies at 77
NEW YORK, NY.- Paul Auster, a prolific novelist, memoirist and screenwriter who rose to fame in the 1980s with his postmodern reanimation of the noir novel and who endured to become one of the signature New York writers of his generation, died of complications from lung cancer at his home in Brooklyn on Tuesday evening. He was 77. His death was confirmed by a friend, Jacki Lyden. With his hooded eyes, soulful air and leading-man looks, Auster was often described as a “literary superstar” in news accounts. The Times Literary Supplement of Britain once called him “one of America’s most spectacularly inventive writers.” Though a New Jersey native, he became indelibly linked with the rhythms of his adopted city, which was a character of sorts in much of his work — particularly Brooklyn, where he settled in 1980 amid the oak-lined streets ... More

Kathleen Hanna's music says a lot. There's more in the book.
PASADENA, CALIF.- The first draft of Kathleen Hanna’s memoir, “Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk,” was 600 pages long. As she worked to cut the manuscript, Hanna found herself excising page after page of male violence. “It’s pretty sad, if you read the book, because there’s still a lot in there,” she told me. “I had a joke with my editor about it.” Like, she’d already removed a rape and a kidnapping and a guy who threw a wineglass at her head! “What more do you want from me?” Hanna is super funny. When she takes the stage as the frontwoman of Bikini Kill, Le Tigre or the Julie Ruin, she plays a kind of punk trickster, shifting her voice to resemble a bratty Valley Girl, a demonic cheerleader, an obnoxious male fan. She is always subverting femininity and disarming bad guys with her spiky and irreverent lyrics. But when it came time to write her life story, ... More

Mdou Moctar's guitar is a screaming siren against Africa's colonial legacy
NEW YORK, NY.- “Funeral for Justice,” the new album by African musician Mdou Moctar, opens with a blast of angry, snarling guitar and an accusation raised like a fist against the rulers of his native Niger and beyond. “African leaders, hear my burning question,” Moctar sings, as his band churns with a ragged intensity reminiscent of vintage White Stripes. “Why does your ear only heed France and America?” Over about a decade of touring in the West, Moctar, 40, has carved out a niche as a modern African guitar hero and one of the very few voices in the pop world calling attention to the struggles of the Tuareg people, a historically nomadic ethnic group in the Sahara region. On the guitar, he is a spellbinding psychedelic soloist, with a style that draws as much from Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen as from traditional Tuareg wedding ... More

A starry cast navigates 'Uncle Vanya' and 'Every Emotion Under the Sun'
NEW YORK, NY.- Broadway shows usually come with a backstory about the yearslong slog it took to get them there. Not so with Heidi Schreck’s new translation of Chekhov’s “Uncle Vanya,” which arrived at Lincoln Center Theater’s Vivian Beaumont Theater not even 12 months after its inception. Directed by Lila Neugebauer, it is Schreck’s first Broadway show since “What the Constitution Means to Me,” in 2019, and the ensemble is a starry one. Steve Carell is making his Broadway debut as Vanya, who believes he has wasted his life running a provincial estate and its farm alongside his niece, Sonia, played by Alison Pill, to support Sonia’s largely absentee father, portrayed by Alfred Molina. William Jackson Harper, best known for “The Good Place,” plays Astrov, the eco-nerd doctor whom Sonia loves. Anika Noni Rose, a Tony Award winner ... More

'Ash' review: A Nobel Prize-winner confronts environmental collapse
MUNICH.- Twenty years ago, when Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek received the Nobel Prize in literature it was a surprise that the award had gone to an author who was barely known outside the German-speaking world. It set off a scandal, too. A juror from the academy that makes the decision resigned, calling Jelinek’s work “unenjoyable, violent pornography.” Despite her Nobel and the controversy that it engendered, Jelinek is still hardly a household name in the English-speaking world. In Germany and Austria, however, the premiere of a new play by this prolific and divisive writer is always an event. When the Münchner Kammerspiele presented the opening night of Jelinek’s “Ash” on Friday, every seat in the playhouse’s main theater was full. Outside Europe, Jelinek is known, if at all, for her novels, which include “The Piano ... More

Sebastian Silva joins BLUM with "Ivanhoe"
LOS ANGELES, CA.- BLUM announced the representation of Los Angeles-based artist Sebastian Silva on the occasion of his first solo exhibition with the gallery, opening in Los Angeles on May 18. Silva’s mode of painting is quick-witted and rhythmic, referencing the illustrative style and subject matter of children’s cartoons, then filtering this dialect through the lens of abstraction. With striking forms that pop outward against dark outlines, Silva’s intricate symbols propel themselves from the canvas as if yearning to join the space of the viewer. Rendered in rippling tones, the artist’s vibrant greens, scarlets, and aquamarines call out to onlookers—encouraging an observant spectator’s gaze to dance across the composition, all at once ingesting the work’s aura. Uncoupling character from narrative, Silva employs sketched figures, from ... More

Jessica Pratt's timeless folk music is evolving. Slowly.
NEW YORK, NY.- Jessica Pratt’s new album, “Here in the Pitch,” begins with a vintage drum beat, a gently strummed guitar and a lot of vibey room tone — the kind that recalls a wood-paneled studio from 60 years ago. “The chances of a lifetime might be hiding their tricks up my sleeve,” she sings on “Life Is,” in an enchanting melody that rises and falls with ease. “Time is time is time again.” Pratt is 37, and over three albums since 2012, she has become known for seemingly bending time. “A friend of a friend was stunned to find out that Jessica is a modern artist,” Matt McDermott, Pratt’s partner and collaborator, said over the phone. “He was convinced that she was a lost private press folk artist from the ’60s or ’70s.” “The fact that she’s hung around a lot of record stores and is very into the texture and atmospherics of older music means that her stuff appears somewhat anachronistic,” McDermott add ... More