Prazzle

09/24/2026

Influence in art has always run through money and through access.

TIME says half of its first art list is not artists. We counted, and the list bears that out: 50 artists and 50 people who are not. Artists make up 16 of the 25 Icons and 16 of the 25 Innovators, but only 7 of the 25 Titans. The other 18 Titans are collectors, museum directors, dealers and an art-crime prosecutor. Across all 100, collectors and the market together (25) are the largest non-artist bloc, ahead of museum leaders, curators and scholars (20). We sorted the roles ourselves from TIME's taglines, so a few placements are judgment calls.

What the list doesn't ask is what happens to everyone outside the circle. In a world this small, visibility is a form of power, and a list that mistakes it for merit can only tell us who was already in the room.
Read More https://www.prazzlearts.com/editorial/2213/time100-art-what-the-list-says-about-who-gets-to-be-called-influential

09/23/2026

On a Milan runway this week, the most powerful publication in Fashion staged a night devoted to craftsmanship and then sent out dancing robots that were not even wearing clothes.

Vogue World is the magazine's traveling runway event, staged in a different city each year. This fifth edition followed stops in New York, London, Paris and Hollywood. It took place in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, and Vogue described it as a tribute to craftsmanship and the human touch. Then came a segment called "The Age of Intelligence," where dancing robots took the stage.

Many artists, designers and critics say it betrays the human touch, and culture is pushing back on Vogue's leadership.

Humanoid robots walked the Vogue World Milano runway after an AI-generated promo drew fire. Artists, designers and writers say it betrays the human touch. Why culture is pushing back on Vogue's leadership.

09/22/2026

Acclaimed Ghanaian artist, Ibrahim Mahama has been named Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, one of France's most prestigious cultural distinctions. The title was presented by H.E. Mrs Diarra Dimé Labille, France's Ambassador to Ghana, at a ceremony held at the Residence of France in Accra, recognising the Ghanaian artist's sustained contribution to art and literature in Ghana and beyond.

Read the full story https://www.prazzlearts.com/editorial/2207/france-honours-ibrahim-mahama-with-chevalier-des-arts-et-des-lettres-title-amongst-growing-list-of-recognitions

Ibrahim Mahama, Photo: Carlos Idun-Tawiah

09/21/2026

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art has had its coming-out party. On Saturday night, George Lucas and Mellody Hobson opened the museum with an invitation-only gala, and the guest list looked more like an awards season than an art opening.

The public gets in on Tuesday, September 22, and the terms are worth knowing. Every visitor, including those admitted free, must book a timed-entry ticket in advance. Adults pay $25 and seniors $21, while children 17 and under, members and active-duty military enter free. The collection runs to 40,000 pieces, but Forbes reports that the galleries will feature over 1,300 works across 100,000 square feet.

Read More https://www.prazzlearts.com/editorial/2205/hollywood-got-the-first-look-at-the-lucas-museum-and-the-public-follows-on-tuesday

George Lucas and Mellody Hobson opened their Los Angeles museum to Hollywood first. Here is what the public gets on September 22, from tickets to free access.

09/19/2026

Bergen Assembly's A Machine as Complex as the World Itself brought together artists, thinkers and researchers to question how technology, ecology and human creativity are shaping the world around us.

Taking place at Korskirken on 12 September, the programme was convened by Filipa Ramos and Lucia Pietroiusti, convenors of Bergen Assembly’s 2028 edition.

Across the day, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev explored the “angelic-agentic” dimensions of subjectivity, Simone Kotva considered mysticism and vegetal life, and Kei Kreutler examined technology, memory and culture. Mark Thomas Young turned to maintenance and repair, while Alice Bucknell explored planetary play and Lars Bang Larsen considered ecstasy and altered experience.

The programme continued with climate scientist Ellen Viste, writer and artist James Bridle, curator and writer Lua Vollaard, and artist Marcus Coates, whose performance In Conversation with the Sky brought the day to a close.

Moving between art, philosophy, ecology, technology and science, the programme asked us to reconsider how knowledge is created, how systems are maintained and what happens when technology increasingly participates in processes once understood as distinctly human.

Photos by Stian Servoss and Astrid Olsson

Read our full reflection on Prazzle https://www.prazzlearts.com/editorial/2201/what-happens-when-humans-stop-creating-reflections-from-bergen-assemblys-a-machine-as-complex-as-the-world-itself

09/17/2026

Since June, the Festung Franzensfeste has been hosting the second edition of FORT Biennale, Reclaiming Collective, a four-part exhibition curated by Hannes Egger, Andrea Lerda and Veronika Vascotto.

Set within one of the Alpine region’s most significant examples of military architecture, the biennale takes a structure historically associated with defence, borders and conflict and turns it towards a different question: what does it mean to live together?

Reclaiming Collective responds to a world marked by intensifying conflicts, authoritarianism, climate emergency and a continuing crisis in human rights. But it also looks closer to home, considering the opportunities of the digital age alongside the breakdown of interpersonal relationships and the growing distance between people.

Learn More https://www.prazzlearts.com/events/513/a_twoyearly_contemporary_art_exhibition_reclaiming_collective_at_franzensfeste_fortress

09/11/2026

On September 10, 2026, Tschabalala Self’s Lady in Blue was unveiled on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, placing the New York-based artist’s work in one of the city’s most recognisable public spaces.

The bronze sculpture shows titled Lady in Blue, is a figure of a woman walking confidently through the city. She is not based on a historical figure or a famous person.

Lady in Blue is 527cm tall, 209cm wide and 342cm long, and weighs an estimated 3.2 tonnes. It is the 16th sculpture to be installed on the Fourth Plinth and will remain in Trafalgar Square until August 2028.

Learn More https://www.prazzlearts.com/editorial/2199/tschabalala-self-unveils-lady-in-blue-on-londons-fourth-plinth

09/11/2026

Bonhams is introducing a new way for living artists to benefit when their work is resold at auction. In partnership with The Dean Collection, founded by Alicia Keys and Kasseem “Swizz Beatz” Dean, the auction house has announced The Deans’ Choice with Bonhams, an optional royalty programme that gives artists a share of proceeds from the resale of eligible works.

The programme will launch in November 2026 with Bonhams’ 20th and 21st Century Art auction. According to Bonhams, it will make the auction house the first in the United States to introduce an elective sale royalty that allows artists to participate directly in the secondary market for their work.

Learn More https://www.prazzlearts.com/editorial/2194/bonhams-launches-artist-royalty-program-with-the-dean-collectionn

09/10/2026

Georges Adéagbo has received Hamburg’s Edwin Scharff Prize, recognising a practice built from found objects, handwritten notes, images, and the stories that connect them.

Born in Benin in 1942, Adéagbo has spent years moving between Cotonou and Hamburg, drawing from the places, histories, and everyday encounters around him. His installations bring these fragments together to examine colonial histories, cultural exchange, and the ways different histories meet.

On September 9, Hamburg’s Senator for Culture and Media, Dr. Carsten Brosda, presented Georges Adéagbo with the prize at Kultur Kontor on Klosterwall. The jury described him as a “storyteller” and highlighted his role as a catalyst for transcultural exchange.

The Edwin Scharff Prize, awarded by the City of Hamburg since 1955, carries an endowment of €15,000 and recognises visual artists whose work merits distinction. For Adéagbo, the award adds to a long-standing relationship with Hamburg and recognition of a practice that connects two cities and multiple histories.

Read the full story on Georges Adéagbo, the Edwin Scharff Prize, and the City of Hamburg’s recognition of his work: https://www.prazzlearts.com/editorial/2191/pioneering-artist-georges-adagbo-receives-hamburgs-edwin-scharff-prize

Photography: Henning Angerer

09/09/2026

Lucien Smith died this week in New York at 37.

Smith graduated Cooper Union in 2011 and within a year had a painting selling for $389,000 at Phillips. He was spraying thinned acrylic across unprimed canvas with a fire extinguisher, a technique he picked up from watching graffiti writers, and the results looked enough like weather that collectors could not resist the metaphor. By 2013 he was on Forbes 30 Under 30.

In 2020 he told Office Magazine he had wanted to be "the youngest artist to ever sell a work in auction over a million". In 2017 he founded serving the people, built to give other artists the infrastructure and support network he wished he had had before the market decided what he was worth.

That instinct carried through to the end of his life. Last year he opened FOOD, a restaurant in Chinatown named for the original FOOD. He built something for the people coming up behind him, and for the community.

Lucien Smith, 1989–2026.

https://www.prazzlearts.com/editorial/2190/a-tribute-to-lucien-smith-artist-and-founder-of-serving-the-people