Mexican artist Frida Kahlo was born today, July 6th, in 1907. She painted many self-portraits, including the one pictured above, Me and My Parrots (Yo y mis pericos), from 1941. The painting was on view as part of the 2020 exhibition Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925–1945 at the Whitney Museum in New York.
Her work can currently be seen in the exhibitions Frida: The Making of an Icon at the Tate Modern in London and Frida and Diego: The Last Dream at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.
“A Letter From My Father”, 1975, courtesy of DC Moore Gallery
Innovative photographer Duane Michals passed away on Tuesday, 6/9/26, at the age of 94. He was famous for both his portraits of famous artists and celebrities, and for more personal work that often included his writing on the prints, something not done at the time.
He continuously worked up until his death, even shooting the campaign, What are Dreams, for Bottega Veneta last year. Featuring actor Jacob Elordi, it includes a short film along with a photo series, both based on a poem by Michals.
Jacob Elordi and Duane Michals in Bottega Veneta’s “What Are Dreams” campaign, photographed by Duane Michals in 2025. Photo courtesy of Bottega Veneta (image via Artnet)
His 2019 exhibition, Illusions of the Photographer at The Morgan Library and Museum included The Spirit Leaves the Body, and A Letter From My Father (pictured above), along with a few handwritten notes in his distinctive style, like the one below on death. Many of his photographs reflected an interest in mortality, but there was also a lighthearted aspect to many others.
For more on the artist, also check out this 2022 interview in Aperture magazine. In it he talks about his work, his partner of over 50 years (architect Fred Gorrée), his dreams, the importance of curiosity, and more. He also had a fun Instagram worth taking a look through.
The painting above, [12:02 AM] by Nicole James, was part of Harsh Collective‘s 2024 exhibition Entropy in NYC. She is currently part of the group exhibition March Madness at Room57 Gallery, on view until 5/1/26. Loft Projects will also be showing some of her smaller paintings and mini-paintings at Future Fair in Chelsea, May 13-16th.
A little bit about the artist from Harsh Collective-
Nicole James (b. 1987, Los Angeles, CA) embraces chaos in her figurative compositions, even amidst the quest for aesthetic perfection. Using a systematic painting approach, James seamlessly integrates elements from modern photography, pop culture, and self-documentation. Her compositions, born from this fusion, offer viewers a glimpse into the beauty inherent in life’s chaos, inviting them to immerse themselves in the captivating allure of disorder while imagining themselves as the subject of the composition.
Also check out her Instagram, where James often shares videos and still shots of the process behind creating her work.
Todd Gray, “The Song Remains (assumptions about the nature of time)”, 2024, Two UV pigment prints on Dibond, artist’s frames
In LA-based artist Todd Gray’sThe Song Remains (assumptions about the nature of time), two images, one of Iggy Pop and the other of a statue in Italy, merge both visually and conceptually. It was on view as part of While Angels Gaze, his exhibition at Lehmann Maupin in NYC in 2025.
About the work from the gallery-
In The Song Remains (assumptions about the nature of time) (2024)—one of the exhibition’s smallest works, composed of just two panels—Gray depicts Iggy Pop in black and white, his image overlaid against a statue from Villa Torlonia of a figure holding a pan flute. The gesture of the statue’s outstretched arm on the left is mirrored in Iggy’s raised hand on the right, connecting the two figures across time as if by an invisible thread. The image suggests an enduring human archetype, different and yet unchanged over the course of many centuries, and invites wider questions about the essence of human nature.
Gray’s latest solo exhibition, Portals, is currently on view in Perrotin‘s new Los Angeles gallery through until 5/30/26. His commissioned piece, Octavia’s Gaze, was installed last year at LACMA in the new David Geffen Galleries, which are opening to the general public in May (they are currently open to members only).
“Early Snow – Rhinecliff Hotel”, 2017, oil on canvas
“Durham, August 14, 2017”, 2017, oil on canvas
American painter Celeste Dupuy-Spencer passed away last week at the age of 46. The images above are from her 2017 exhibition Wild and Blue at Marlborough gallery in NYC. She had also been part of the Whitney Biennial earlier that same year.
The first painting is of the Rhinecliff Hotel, a bar she frequented while growing up in Rhinebeck, NY. The second, Durham, August 14, 2017, is of the metal confederate statue that protesters tore down that year. That painting was also included in her section of Made in L.A. 2018, Hammer Museum‘s biennial exhibition of artists from the Los Angeles area. Her later work was often very political, including several paintings that are dense with imagery.
In this 2018 Bomb magazine interview, Dupuy-Spencer discusses some of her past struggles and provides insights into her practice.
Her first solo exhibition in five years, Burning in the Eyes of the Maker, will open at Deitch in Los Angeles this Saturday, 4/18/26.
The current exhibition arranges works from the past 15 years by Kay Rosen with works from 1983 by John Cage. While not an obvious aesthetic or conceptual pairing, the juxtaposition of works hopes to provide more nuanced understanding and appreciations of both artists’ approaches to observation, appreciation, chance, choice, and control.
And about the painting-
SPRING, like many of Rosen’s works, strives for efficiency and economy. It finds a way to enhance the meaning of spring without adding a word. It cannibalizes one of its own body parts, the letter N, turning spring into sprig, five little green shoots. SPRING is another one of those found works that almost makes itself. Her intervention is merely a small excision of a letter, leaving behind a new word that that suggests hope.
A ringing bell organizes our civic life, inviting us to come together in public space. Its unmistakable sound marks the hours, calls us to assemble, alerts us to danger, and announces momentous occasions. These and other modes of public address can unify communities and define the auditory landscape of our city, even when all else is silent and still.
Davina Semo (b. 1981, Washington, DC) has created five cast-bronze bells to be rung by visitors in the Brooklyn Bridge Park, recalling the maritime communication once common at this waterfront site. While their percussive function is familiar, the traditional bell form has been reimagined by the artist as an elongated streamlined sculpture that dangles aloft from a heavy industrial galvanized steel frame. The holes she has drilled through each bell create constellations of light in their darkened interiors and staccato patterns on their exterior shells. These arrangements give them unique identities that are characterized through their evocative titles: Reflector, Singer, Dreamer, Listener, and Mother. Their distinctive voices are also expressed in the subtle nuances in their tones when rung.
Semo’s bells are coated with a lustrous pearlescent paint that glows hot orange to evoke the international color of urgent alarm—meant to heighten our attention in precarious times. During this turbulent year, auditory interventions have characterized our collective experience, whether through the evening cheers for essential workers or the chanting voices of protesters demanding justice. The exhibition builds upon this moment, encouraging audiences to add their own contribution to our urban soundscape. Ultimately, Semo intends for these bells to sound an optimistic note. As we ring out the old and ring in the new, each bell reverberates in concert with its neighbors, creating a collective resonance together.
In this video she and the curator discuss the work and you can see more of the installation-
“The Juggler (The Magician)”, 1956, Oil and inlaid mother of pearl on board
Surrealist artist Remedios Varo was born on December 16th, 1908, in Spain. Throughout her life, she was a part of avant-garde circles— first in her homeland, and later in Paris and Mexico. She and several other intellectuals and artists fled to Mexico during World War II, where they were given asylum and citizenship. It was there that she would create the majority of her best-known works.
Varo’s paintings are filled with symbolism and mystical imagery. They also often reference her own experiences creating art. While Allegory of Winter (first image) is currently in a private collection, The Juggler (The Magician) can be seen at the Museum of Modern Art.
This painting’s titular juggler (or magician) stands on the platform of a carnivalesque cart filled with fantastical objects and animals. He performs before seemingly identical figures robed in a single gray cloak. To produce this composition, Varo worked in the manner of early Renaissance masters: she transposed preparatory drawings onto a gesso-primed panel, which had been scratched to give the surface variation. She also deployed decalcomania, a technique favored by the Surrealists in which materials such as paper or aluminum foil are pressed onto wet paint to transfer a pattern that may then be embellished. This textured effect can be seen in the magician’s garments and in the background trees.
His latest exhibition, Parade, is currently on view at Matthew Marks in NYC, on view until 12/20/25. The Pink Panther appears in this show as well- Da Corte depicts himself as the character painting the gallery pink.
Known for his immersive installations, sculptures, and films, Alex Da Corte’s work explores themes of identity, consumerism, and taste, challenging societal norms and reimagining the familiar in unexpected ways. The artist draws from myriad sources, including popular and consumer culture, art history, classical literature, and modern design, seamlessly weaving together disparate elements into cohesive narratives. His adept use of vibrant color and surreal imagery lends a dreamlike quality to his work that captivates viewers and blurs the lines between fantasy and reality.
Da Corte presents a new artwork for the High Line’s 18th Street Billboard, inspired by the Pink Panther, a Friz Freleng creation designed for the animated opening sequence of a 1963 Hollywood comedy that came to embody the film and has evolved, through 60 years of spin-offs and reinventions, into cultural ubiquity. Pink’s durability across many generations has allowed it to sell countless products, from fiberglass insulation foam to artificial sweetener, yet the creature’s essence remains out of reach. With neither master nor peer—and seemingly eternally unbound by the rules of others—Pink represents a certain queer freedom. Da Corte revives Pink as an icon of resistance, supine but poised, wielding a sign of universal protest, brandishing a clear pink purpose. “There is a difference between falling down and laying down,” Da Corte explains. “I call that soft power.” This billboard is an advertisement for the value of such power.
Sasha Gordon creates surreal paintings and drawings that explore themes of sexuality, gender, race, and the body. Often depicting herself as subject, Gordon is keenly attuned to art historical themes of portraiture and self-portraiture, and of the politics of representation. She approaches these categories with inventiveness and humor, using the uncanny to communicate very real concerns around self-image and identity.
For the High Line – Moynihan Connector Billboard, Gordon presents two works, My Love of Upholstery (2024) and Untitled (2024). Both hail from the artist’s most recent body of work, in which she examines challenging taboos and standards of representation. Her images present a wide range of emotional states, frequently considered through the lens of her identity as a queer Asian American woman. Through endless avatars, she portrays the othering of unconventional human bodies and her own experiences of alienation. Towering over 30th Street and Dyer Avenue, the artist’s fluctuating visage appears at massive scale, marked by a distinct unnaturalness—in My Love of Upholstery, where she depicts herself with a Pinocchio-like wood-grain body, and in Untitled, in which her face and pupils are marked with five-pointed stars. These visions are simultaneously anxious and intimate, teetering somewhere between tender fantasy and nightmare. Her avatars, looming large within their frames, offer both artist and audience an outlet for exploring contradictory emotions and complex personal experiences.
