Ocula Magazine

‘I Have True Belief in the Power of the Moving Image’: Camille Henrot Balances Fear, Grief and Wonder The Exhibitions Not to Miss This August ‘If I Want to Make Fun of Something, I Will’: Hamza Badran Brings Humour to Political Art How Crabs and Cooking Unlocked the Alchemy of Art

Conversation ‘I Have True Belief in the Power of the Moving Image’: Camille Henrot Balances Fear, Grief and Wonder What kind of joy is truly meaningful, and what kind of joy have capitalist constructs encouraged us to believe is acceptable? French artist Camille Henrot and novelist Rachel Connolly reflect on our relationship with our origins, and the expectations society has of women.

Spotlight The Exhibitions Not to Miss This August

Conversation / Palette Cleanser ‘If I Want to Make Fun of Something, I Will’: Hamza Badran Brings Humour to Political Art The Palestinian artist, now based in Basel, was a winner at this year’s Swiss Art Awards with his date‑paste sculptures of Nelson Mandela. He talks to Lydia Eliza Trail about mocking political symbols, the expectations placed on Palestinian artists, and his relationship with his brothers.

Spotlight / How I Learned to Look at Paintings How Crabs and Cooking Unlocked the Alchemy of Art In the third of our series about learning to look at paintings, artist Mohammed Z Rahman recalls how a childhood visit to the National Gallery and hours spent helping his mum in the kitchen taught him to understand the context of colour.

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14hr ago Onassis ONX Rolls Out New Commissioning Model For Tech-Based Artworks ONX Relay will support three artists in creating large‑scale works and installations and will collaborate with institutions to bring those pieces to global audiences.

5d ago Zanele Muholi and Tschabalala Self Among Prizewinners at Aspen Art Fair 2026 The Colorado fair, now in its third year, has recognised the work of a diverse cohort of artists, who will benefit from residencies and public installations.

6d ago Rock Lobster: Philip Colbert Brings His Crustacean Creations to Pompeii The Scottish artist’s lobster takeover is the historic Italian city’s first contemporary sculpture exhibition in 30 years.

6d ago ‘A Devastating Blow’: A French Village’s Artists on Losing Their Creative Home to the Wildfires The wildfires currently raging in south‑west France have severely impacted the art community in the village of Le Porge, wiping out studios and income from tourism.

7d ago Low Kee Hong to Lead Sydney Biennale as Singapore-Linked Curators Take International Stage The Factory International creative director plans to stage a “generous” edition of the Australian show with a programme encompassing music, food and fashion alongside contemporary art.

7d ago Guggenheim Abu Dhabi to Open in December The Frank Gehry‑designed space features 30 interconnected galleries that will adopt a transcultural approach to displaying its contemporary and modern artworks.

8d ago Just What the Doctor Ordered: Shanghai Museums Create ‘Healing Alliance’ for Mental Health Support A “prescription programme” launched in June connecting healthcare facilities and museums will expand to include the Duolun Museum of Modern Art, as well as libraries, botanical gardens and universities.

8d ago ADAA Reveals New Fair Name and Roster of Exhibiting Galleries The fair, which replaces The Art Show, will play host to 63 exhibitors and also has a new beneficiary partner: the Whitney Museum of American Art.

8d ago Trailblazer Betye Saar, Who Turned Black Stereotypes Into Symbols of Power, Dies Aged 99 The assemblage artist and printmaker notably reclaimed everyday items featuring racist imagery so that they prompted questions about how Black American identities were portrayed.

9d ago Canada’s Artists and Museum Workers Demand End to ‘Political Pressure’ over Palestine Exhibition Workers at the Museum for Human Rights have pushed back against attempts to “silence” and “discredit” the exhibition, following weeks of public debate and criticism.

Featured Stories

Conversation Chinese-Restaurant Aesthetics and Rod Stewart: Lap-See Lam Talks to Poet Will Harris

Spotlight The Artists Who Fell Under Venus’ Spell, from Praxiteles to Man Ray

Spotlight The Story of America in Eight Photographs

Spotlight / How I Learned to Look at Paintings Sara Baume on the Friendship That Changed How She Saw Painting

Latest Spotlights

The art, artists, people, and places shaping today's cultural landscape.

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Spotlight What to Read This Summer, According to Our Favourite Artists and Writers Ocula Editors

Spotlight / How I Learned to Look at Paintings My Love-Hate Relationship with John Berger John-Baptiste Oduor In the second of our series about learning to look at paintings, critic John‑Baptiste Oduor writes about his love‑hate relationship with the English art critic, novelist and painter John Berger.

Spotlight Real Life in America, Through the Eyes of Alice Neel Baya Simons Alice Neel’s paintings captured the nuances and imperfections of everyday 20th‑century American life. A new show in Porto brings together some of her most celebrated, and poignant, works. Curator Inês Grosso talks Ocula’s Baya Simons through her highlights.

Spotlight Abandoning the Art World’s Hierarchy, Visual Artists Are Finding Success Making Movies Aimee Walleston In New York City, a growing cohort of artists have swapped art fairs for narrative filmmaking. Aimee Walleston talks to four creatives who have made the switch to cinema.

Spotlight 10 Exhibitions to See Around the World This July Ocula Editors Ocula’s global team of editors has selected the shows not to miss during July, from New York City’s abandoned 1980s waterfront to the majesty of a Soviet‑era metro station.

Spotlight How the Art World Feels Ten Years After the Brexit Vote Dale Berning Sawa It’s been a decade since the UK voted by a small but significant margin to leave the European Union. How has the ongoing impact of this decision affected the art world?

Spotlight David Hockney’s Enthusiasm for Living Arthur Lubow David Hockney maintained a fierce love of life and of painting right up until his death. The writer Arthur Lubow, who followed his career for half a century, looks back at the artist’s contribution to visual culture.

Spotlight 8 Exhibitions Not to Miss During Art Basel 2026 Ocula Editors Away from the contemporary art fair, our editors have selected an octet of the must‑see shows in and around Basel, including a look at 19th Century queerness, paintings banned by the Nazis, and Morse code on the drums.

Latest Opinions

Informed perspectives, insights, recommendations and ideas.

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Opinion Do Artists Really Need Galleries? Phin Jennings What happens when artists decide to ditch galleries and represent themselves? In his latest art market column, Phin Jennings asks whether the gallery system is still the optimal way for artists to engage with a potential audience.

Opinion You Were Wrong About the Cinema Sophia Satchell-Baeza Cinema is experiencing a resurgence thanks to a Gen Z audience fatigued by endless franchises and AI slop. Hollywood and streamers, take note.

Opinion Making Scents: Why Olfactory Art Is Having a Moment Matteo Pini From provocative perfumes to show‑specific scents, olfactory art is moving into the mainstream. Matteo Pini speaks to some of the genre’s practitioners about why smell is an integral part of their work.

Opinion A Dinosaur of One’s Own Eleanor Biggs In a week when a T‑Rex sold for more than $50 million, Eleanor Biggs does her own excavation into why anyone would actually want to buy a dinosaur skeleton.

Opinion Is It Time for the US Art World to Secede from the State? Travis Diehl As President Trump continues to slash cultural funding, art feels less like a public forum for dynamic conversations and more like another cowed industry. Might there be another way forward?

Opinion The Power of the Publicist Phin Jennings How are art world trends created? In his latest art market column, Phin Jennings asks what role behind‑the‑scenes publicists play in bringing certain artists to press and public attention.

Opinion / Diary ‘A Strong Sense of Play’: The Beautiful and the Ugly at Art Basel Lydia Eliza Trail While the big spenders fly their private jets into Art Basel, the alternative events are the place to find the fun, Lydia Eliza Trail reflects in a new diary.

Opinion What Art History Can Reveal About the ‘Backrooms’ Aesthetic Lydia Eliza Trail The furniture‑strewn, labyrinthine corridors of box office hit Backrooms evoke a strange nostalgia in which uneasy familiarity triggers memory, a phenomenon the art world has long explored.

Latest Conversations

Firsthand from the voices shaping art and culture.

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Conversation ‘We Don’t Have to Shut Up’: Language, Music and Physicality Collide in Miet Warlop’s Performance Pieces Baya Simons The performers in Miet Warlop’s works blend theatre and visual art to encapsulate abstract feelings. Her Venice Biennale show asks viewers to inhabit a “wheel of infinity”, where humour, language and performance spin around to create emotional clarity.

Conversation / Palette Cleanser 'Those CDs Felt like Diamonds': Lee Kan Kyo Celebrates the Thrill of the Record Store Zian Chen Tokyo‑based Taiwanese artist Lee Kan Kyo painstakingly made models of more than 200 CDs for his new exhibition. He talks to Zian Chen about his practice and how the music we loved growing up shapes us as adults.

Conversation Brand Identity: The Artists Dismantling the Illusions Around Logos and Luxury Aimee Walleston What do designer goods and global consumerism mean to artists currently exhibiting at the Whitney Biennial? Aimee Walleston talks to Raven Halfmoon and the CFGNY collective about access to art, capitalism and power dynamics, and how to define “luxury”.

Conversation / Palette Cleanser ‘I Paint in Silence Because the Paintings Are Already So Loud’: What Music Means to Leyla Yenirce Louise Benson The singers in Leyla Yenirce’s chimerical choir all have something important to say. The Kurdish‑born artist talks to Louise Benson about the connection she feels with women fighting for their rights, and why walking is a key element of her artistic practice.

Conversation A Journey Into Deep Time with Lee Ufan John-Baptiste Oduor Marking a new exhibition in Avignon, the Korea‑born artist talks to John‑Baptiste Oduor about medieval spirituality, AI and what we can learn from looking at a piece of slate.

Conversation / Palette Cleanser ‘A Machine Replaces Human Labour’: Pulling Back the Petals of Rachel Youn’s Mutated Massagers XY Zhou Rachel Youn’s flowered‑up machines explore the cost of asking people to perform the same tasks over and over again.

Conversation / Palette Cleanser Sedrick Chisom, Excavator of America's 'Unprocessed History' Lydia Eliza Trail The Philly‑born, London‑based artist explores the idea that historical narratives contain unresolved trauma in his dreamy, eerie paintings. He talks to Lydia Eliza Trail about historiography and his revolutionary colour palette.

Conversation Sung Tieu Reimagines the Fascist Architecture of the German Pavilion Shanyu Zhong At this year’s Venice Biennale, Sung Tieu re‑covered the exterior of the German Pavilion to emulate government‑issue housing offered to 1980s contract workers in Berlin. It’s part of a work which seeks to empower those hidden from mainstream East German life.

Latest Partnerships

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Partnership / Contemporary Fine Arts Maja Ruznic: ‘The Painting Tells Me What to Do. I’m Very Obedient’ Louise Benson The Bosnia‑Herzegovina‑born, New Mexico‑based artist speaks to Ocula ’s editor‑in‑chief Louise Benson about intuitive painting, the beauty of shadows and ambiguity, and how her war‑ravaged family history influences her artistic practice.

Partnership Future Generation Art Prize Extends Applications Until 19 July Shanyu Zhong The prize offers not only professional recognition but support for international opportunities—past winners have shown work at the Venice Biennale.

Partnership Kiaf Seoul 2026 Highlights the City’s Upcoming Artists and Established Galleries Shanyu Zhong Helmed by an external creative director for the first time, the 2026 edition of Kiaf Seoul underlines the global importance of the South Korean capital’s art scene, with the fair championing emerging voices and the local gallery milieu.

Partnership ‘No Single Image Can Contain the Whole Truth’: Rethinking Colonial-Era Photography Phoebe Evans An exhibition in Zurich urges visitors to engage with the difficult histories contained in colonial photographic archives.

Partnership VH AWARD Open Call Invites Emerging Media Artists The seventh edition expands the global initiative’s support programme through new honorary mentions and institutional partnerships.

Partnership At Beijing Dangdai, the Fair Extends Beyond the Fairground Shanyu Zhong Now in its ninth year, the fair is fulfilling a role not met elsewhere in the Chinese capital’s art world.

Partnership Art Busan Demonstrates That the South Korean Art Market is Bigger Than Seoul Shanyu Zhong Spatial experimentation, deliberate curation and an emphasis on connection to the environment and culture of its host city have established Art Busan as a significant fair, broadening the scope of a formerly Seoul‑centric market.

Partnership The ECC Italy’s Venice Exhibition Demonstrates the Power of ‘Conscious Intermingling’ Nell Whittaker Away from the headlines and demonstrations, the European Cultural Centre Italy’s exhibition at the 61st Venice Biennale offers a glimpse of the intersectionality of global artistic practice.

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