Censorship of Prophet Muhammed's Image in a New York Museum.

A SUMMARY OF THE MOST EXCITING ART NEWS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE

While we focus on Indian art, we can’t obviously function in a vacuum. It’s a small world and everything is connected, especially on the web. So, let’s train our spotlight across the world map to see what’s going on — from art trends to socio-political issues to everything that affects the great aesthetic global consciousness. Or, let’s just travel the world and have some fun!

Mat Collishaw and Haroon Mirza NFT projects

With the rise of the Ethereum Blockchain that decreases the carbon footprints caused by NFTs by up to 99%, artists are free to explore the NFT or the Non-Fungible Tokens as means of a collaborative art space. Recently, Mat Collishaw created a project called “Heterosis” wherein the audience is able to cross-breed and grow digital flowers. Meanwhile, Haroon Mirza’s project titled “Solstice Star” is essentially a digital artwork wherein the first batch of 200 NFTs out of a total of 1,000, which showcase a red-and-white fly agaric mushroom in a GIF format, enclosed by a star consisting of eight solar panels that rotate. Read more in The Art Newspaper.

Heterosis by Mat Collishaw.
Courtesy: The Art Newspaper

Prophet Muhammed’s Image Censored in New York Museum

The exhibition in the Asia Society titled “Comparative Hell: Arts of Asian Underworlds” showcases a depiction of hell in Asian religions of Jainism, Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism. The exhibition has recently gathered a good amount of heat and attention due to the blurred image of Prophet Muhammed in a virtual tour of the online exhibition. Representatives of the museum have addressed the allegations by apologizing and explaining that the blurring of the images was not done by the museum but by an outside contractor instead. Read more on ARTnews.

Asia Society and Museum Building.
Courtesy: Asia Society

The Centre for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe Closes Permanently.

The CCA in Santa Fe, New Mexico was first inaugurated in 1979 and closed permanently on 6^th April 2023. This occurred despite the centre’s efforts to initiate fundraises in order to continue its operations. The funds were insufficient for the centre to stop the termination of activities. The place was an invaluable centre for art and cinema in Southwest America. Sources point to this termination of the centre due to the museum’s shift towards showing more socially aware and relevant works of art. Instability was also cited as one of the reasons for closure as in the past 11 years the museum cycled through 19 directors. Read More on The Art Newspaper.