Billionaire Gautam Adani is alleged to have personally met government officials in India on several occasions to advance the scheme. NEW DELHI - Stunning bribery charges in the United States against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, who is close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have ricocheted through India’s political circles and wiped billions from his firms’ market value. On Nov 20, the US authorities announced that they had charged Asia’s second-richest person and head of the Adani Group, an Indian conglomerate whose businesses extend from energy to airports, over an alleged multi-billion-dollar bribery and fraud scheme. Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani and six others were accused of promising more than US$250 million (S$336 million) in bribes to government officials in India to secure lucrative solar energy contracts. They had lied about the bribery scheme as they sought to raise US and international capital, said Mr Breon Peace, United States Attorney for New York’s eastern district. Adani, 62, is alleged to have personally met government officials in India on several occasions to advance the scheme. Arrest warrants have been issued in the US for Adani and his nephew Sagar, and prosecutors plan to hand those warrants to foreign law enforcement, Reuters reported, citing court records. US prosecutors charged Gautam Adani (centre) with participating in a scheme that involved bribing Indian government officials to secure solar energy contracts. PHOTO: AFP Describing the charges as “baseless”, the Adani Group said in a statement: “All possible legal recourse will be sought.” The bribery allegations have come as a shot in the arm for Indian opposition parties, which have long had the Adani Group in their crosshairs, alleging that Adani is bankrolling the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and accusing Mr Modi of favouring and protecting him in return, charges that the BJP has denied. Mr Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, a veteran Indian journalist who has reported extensively on the Adani Group’s alleged wrongdoing, said no industrialist “was ever as closely identified with the head of the (Indian) government as Mr Adani is today”, which is why the latest development “is bound to have an impact on India’s overall political economy”. “Politics, because the opposition will scream. And on the economy, because Adani’s stocks are very, very important in the market,” he told The Straits Times. The impact of the allegations in faraway US have already been felt in the Indian stock market. The combined market valuation of all 10 listed Adani Group firms fell sharply by 2.19 trillion rupees (S$34.8 billion) on Nov 21, according to a report from the Press Trust of India. On the same day, Adani Green Energy, which is building the “world’s largest renewable energy plant” in Gujarat in western India, cancelled plans to raise US$600 million in US dollar-denominated bonds. At a press conference on Nov 21, Mr Rahul Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition, said Adani should be arrested immediately and questioned, but acknowledged this was unlikely. “We want to show the country that Mr Adani will not be arrested, and he won’t be arrested because India’s Prime Minister is standing behind him,” he said. Mr Gandhi, a Congress party leader, also called for the sacking of Ms Madhabi Puri Buch, chairperson of the country’s securities regulatory body, the Securities and Exchange Board of India, accusing her of failing to investigate wrongdoings by the Adani Group. Congress has demanded that a joint parliamentary committee probe be conducted to look into the Adani Group’s alleged wrongdoings, with leaders from Aam Aadmi Party and All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) - both opposition parties - calling for an independent judicial probe. “This is deeply rotten... Biggest question is: how much is the involvement of Modi & BJP in this?” TMC spokesperson Saket Gokhale said in a post on X on Nov 21. At a press conference on the same day, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra refused to get drawn into the specifics of the charges and said the Adani Group would defend itself. “The law will take its own course,” he added. Mr Patra noted that the four states, including Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu, mentioned in the US indictment against Adani and his associates had non-BJP governments during the period from July 2021 to February 2022 when the bribes were allegedly promised to the government officials. Mr Patra, however, did not mention Jammu and Kashmir, a region that also figures in the US criminal indictment. A former state, the region has since 2019 been governed directly by the BJP-led central government as a federally administered territory. Mr Gandhi has said he is open to an investigation in all states concerned, including those ruled by the Congress and other opposition parties. “If Ambani and Adani follow due process, we have no problem but if they are working with criminality, working for monopolisation, working through corrupt means, then we have a problem,” he said, referring to Mr Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest person, and chairman and managing director of Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries. The charges filed in New York are yet another blow to Adani, who had an estimated net worth of US$85.5 billion on Nov 20 and was the world’s 18th richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. In January 2023, he was accused by the US short-seller Hindenburg Research of a “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme”, following which the group’s fortunes plummeted by over US$80 billion. The Indian mogul regained much of his wealth in early 2024. The indictment in the US coincides with a Nov 19 ruling from the High Court in Bangladesh that directs the government to conduct a high-level inquiry into its electricity purchase deal with Adani Power Limited in 2017. The firm’s energy exports to Bangladesh have been controversial, with claims that it forces Dhaka to buy power at exorbitantly high prices. On Nov 20, Kenya announced the cancellation of a more than US$700 million deal its energy ministry had signed with a unit of the Adani Group to construct power transmission lines. Kenyan President William Ruto attributed the decision to “new information provided by investigative agencies and partner nations”. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you. Read 3 articles and stand to win rewards Spin the wheel now
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M&S SHOPPERS are gutted after the chain confirmed it axed a beloved festive flavoured liqueur. The announcement was made in a comment by the retailing giant on social media platform X. Advertisement 3 M&S confirmed it had axed a beloved festive flavoured liqueur Credit: Getty 3 It had previously sold a Trifle Flavour Cream drink Credit: Facebook/moneysaveronline M&S had previously sold its Trifle Flavour Cream in stores and it had amassed a loyal following of fans. The drink had been popular for many years before it seemingly disappeared from shelves. However, a comment on X by M&S earlier this week confirmed the liqueur would not be on sale this year. In response to a post asking the retailing giant if it would be stocking the drink, the chain said: "It doesn't look like we're doing the trifle flavour this year. Advertisement Read More on Christmas CHOCCING UP Shopper reveals how you can bag Quality Street and Celebrations tubs for £2.50 CHOC FULL Sainsbury's is selling an iconic retro Cadbury chocolate tin for just £5 "I'll let the Food Team know you'd like to see this again." In a Facebook post from 2020 about the drink, commenters laid praise on the unique drink's flavour. One user described the drink as "very nice", while another said how they "need this" in their life. The liqueur appears to have disappeared from shelves sometime in 2021, with regular posts on X calling for its return. Advertisement Most read in Money IN HOT WATER Top TV chef's restaurant chain collapses owing over £500,000 to creditors SHOPPER'S DELIGHT Fashion chain to open new Glasgow store TOMORROW and there's a treat LIGHTS OUT Shoppers fuming as iconic Glasgow Christmas staple vanishes from busy street Exclusive UN-BEAN-LIEVABLE Costa hit by shortages as customers complain food is missing from shelves In response to a query in October 2021, the retailer said it did not "appear to be stocking it this year". However, for almost every year since, fans have begged to be able to purchase the drink again, only to receive the same response from M&S that it won't be stocked . I tried the viral Christmas cookies from M&S, and they tasted like a festive party One user even described it has their "highlight of Christmas", While it was still stocked, it received heavy praise from its wide range of fans. Advertisement One user on Instagram described the "delicious" drink as "a bit like Baileys, only fruity, desserty, and boozy." Another on X said: "Loving my purchase of M&S trifle liqueur - it will get me through to Xmas". In 2022, a third said: "A couple of years ago M&S produced a trifle flavoured cream liqueur at Christmas and it was the most delicious thing. "Have been trying to find an acceptable substitute since!" Advertisement 'CHRISTMAS RUINED' This comes as the retailer axed another festive favourite from its shelves. The popular treat had only been in stores for a few short weeks but has already disappeared leaving them devastated. Customers were baffled when they went on the hunt for M&S Chocolate Cinnamon Sugar Tortilla Rolls and the goodie was no where to be seen. One confused shopper penned a plea to the store which read: "Please don’t break my heart so close to Christmas.... Your chocolate and cinnamon tortilla rolls have disappeared from our local store and I can’t find them online. Advertisement "Say they’ll be back on the shelves again soon." A company spokesperson wrote back: "I'm truly sorry - we're no longer making these! "We'll let the food team know that you (and me and my mum) would love to see them make a return. "Fingers crossed." Advertisement Read more on the Scottish Sun WARMING UP Scots set for 21C swing as temperature rise to bring an end to sub zero freeze HOT BUY Shoppers race to Primark for fleecy £14 hoodie will keep you cosy on frosty days But fans were devastated by the confirmation. One said: "Christmas ruined M&S.....It’s gonna take a while to forgive you for this one". 3 M&S made the announcement about its Trifle Flavoured Liqueur earlier this week Credit: Getty
Subscribe to our newsletter Privacy Policy Success! Your account was created and you’re signed in. Please visit My Account to verify and manage your account. An account was already registered with this email. Please check your inbox for an authentication link. Support Independent Arts Journalism As an independent publication, we rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. If you value our coverage and want to support more of it, consider becoming a member today . Already a member? Sign in here. We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. If you value our coverage and want to support more of it, please join us as a member . 2024 was a bustling year for art in New York, with blockbuster exhibitions at museums, museum-level shows at galleries — especially a few new, nearly museum-sized galleries in Tribeca, the city’s reigning art hub — and nonprofits and artist-run spaces presenting some fresh faces and engaging programming. Art censorship also came to the fore this year as we got a glimpse into the interests and politics of museums, but despite it all, there was so much great art to see. It was hard for Hyperallergic ’s staff and contributors to compile our favorites with so many strong shows to choose from, but below are the ones that made us think, nourished our souls, introduced us to under-recognized artists, cultures, or histories, and most of all, just blew us away. — Natalie Haddad, Reviews Editor Joyce Kozloff: Collateral Damage DC Moore Gallery , January 6–February 3, 2024 Organized by the gallery I arrived on the last day of this beautiful exhibition to find a series of map works by the veteran of the Pattern & Decoration movement. Kozloff turned each graphic into a rich surface teeming with danger, cultural memory, and possibilities. Joyce Kozloff demonstrates how painting continues to be a point of conflict — not only in art but in the way we see the world or, as we’re bombarded with information, the way we refuse to look away. — Hrag Vartanian Get the latest art news, reviews and opinions from Hyperallergic. Daily Weekly Opportunities Apollinaria Broche: In the distance there was a glimpse Marianne Boesky Gallery , January 24–March 2, 2024 Organized by the gallery A moving display of whimsical ceramic and bronze sculptures that seem to have stepped out of someone’s dreamspace. There’s a sense of romanticism throughout Apollinaria Broche’s art and in this show an eerie pop soundtrack helped to transport the viewer into a space of wonder. The title was swiped from Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1911 children’s book The Secret Garden . It is a good choice as it captures the spirit of awe, tinged with fragility, that was very much a part of this show. I still think about it, not only for the wistful figures and plants that appear to be on the verge of almost disappearing, but for that spirit. — HV Medieval Money, Merchants, and Morality The Morgan Library & Museum , November 10, 2023–March 10, 2024 Curated by Diane Wolfthal and Deirdre Jackson This unexpectedly in depth exhibition focused on the culture of money in the European Medieval and early Renaissance eras, and included numismatic displays, old manuscripts, prints by Albrecht Dürer, paintings by Fra Angelico, Jan Gossaert, Hans Memling, and even Hieronymus Bosch’s riveting “Death and the Miser” (c. 1485–90) on loan from the National Gallery of Art in DC. The Morgan did a fantastic job of introducing the culture of commerce and early capitalism without falling for clichés. I left this show understanding the complexity of money and its role not only in life but in the art of the era. — HV Richard Mosse: Broken Spectre Jack Shainman Gallery , January 12–March 16, 2024 Organized by the gallery This exhibition was the soft launch of Jack Shainman Gallery’s new space by City Hall, and it seemed perfectly in tune with a collective desire these days for spaces that allow the viewer to reflect and process the world around them through art. Irish artist Richard Mosse gave us a multi-channel exploration of the environmental devastation in the Amazon. The visuals were gorgeous even when we were faced with the anger of a young Indigenous woman who will not let you forget your privilege as consumers of her resources. — HV Aki Sasamoto: Point Reflection Queens Museum , December 6, 2023–April 7, 2024 Organized by Hitomi Iwasaki, Head of Exhibitions/Curator Aki Sasamoto’s wacky humor about the drudgeries of middle-class life reached peak existentialism in her first museum exhibition. The show played a sneaky trick on viewers: Sure, you get amused by installations showing Magic Eraser cubes dancing in the air with snail shells, or by watching the artist crawl in and out of industrial pipes in her performances, but soon after leaving you struggle to push away the question: What kind of life am I living? — Hakim Bishara Kay WalkingStick / Hudson River School The New-York Historical Society , October 20, 2023–April 14, 2024 Curated by the artist and Wendy Nālani E. Ikemoto It was fantastic to see Kay WalkingStick paired with the artists of the Hudson River School, because it allowed her art to be in direct dialogue with much of the imagery she has grappled with for decades. Juxtaposed with canvases by Asher B. Durand, Albert Bierstadt, and others, WalkingStick challenged us to question what is “objective” in the colonial gaze and how the lies of “manifest destiny” continue to infect our ideas of nature in North America and beyond. — HV Jim Dine: The ’60s 125 Newbury , March 15–April 20, 2024 Organized by the gallery Jim Dine’s career has gone through many changes since his first exhibition at the Reuben Gallery in the 1960s, where he also staged the performance “Car Crash” in 1960. Because of all these transformations, and the wide range of techniques he has mastered, from printmaking to drawing to painting to sculpture, not to mention his poetry, his art cannot be characterized. What would a retrospective of his work like, if it were to cast a backward gaze from the vantage point of 2025, when the artist, who shows no sign of slowing down, turns 90? These questions occurred to me when I saw this show, which revealed two aspects of the artist’s work that I had not fully grasped in the past. First, drawing was there from the beginning. Second, Dine believes physical labor and art making are essentially interchangeable. On Templon gallery’s website, he is quoted as saying: “When you paint every day, all year long, then the subject is essentially the act of working.” For Dine, there is neither a gap between art and life (as with Robert Rauschenberg) nor a disdain for labor (as with Andy Warhol). Dine’s belief in labor explains why many of his works project a sense of joy, as the sheer act of making is one that gives the artist pleasure. Many pleasures are to be found in Dine’s work, which is far more complex and varied than the art world has given him credit for. He attached objects to all 11 paintings in the exhibition (which also included two sculptures incorporating tools or workmen’s clothing and two pairs of drawings — one based on color charts, the other depicting a paintbrush). His commemorations of industriousness are at fundamental odds with the art historians, critics, and curators who have asserted that Pop Art is about boredom and picks up where Marcel Duchamp left off; he celebrates labor while eschewing commercial products and mechanical means. As the art world focused on erasing the hand from art and championed fabrication, Dine neither wavered from nor fetishized his belief in the bond between art and labor. — John Yau Mira Schor: Wet Lyles & King , March 27–May 4, 2024 Organized by the gallery Over the last five decades, Mira Schor has forged a body of work rooted in feminist thought and encompassing its evolutions. The fact that her deceptively delicate rice-paper Dresses from the 1970s pulse with relevance today (and that her canvases from the past year, portraying faceless women in deeply hued expanses, are just as timeless) made this thematic survey an ambitious undertaking — and all the more thrilling to take in. The show captured visitors from the start with a salon-style hang of framed works at its entrance and a riveting selection of Schor’s expansive multi-paneled canvases, including “ Pardon Me Ms. ” (1989), in which an ear metamorphosing into a penis zooms through space like a projectile, inseminating a smaller ear with the liquid red stripes of the United States flag. Tender, funny, tough, and serious, WET was a spirited tribute to an artist’s living legacy. — Valentina Di Liscia Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature The Morgan Library & Museum , February 23–June 9, 2024 Curated by Philip Palmer For many, the name Beatrix Potter will immediately evoke a whimsical, cozy world of personified bunnies gathering blackberries and getting tucked into bed by an apron-wearing Mrs. Rabbit, or a group of dapper toads at a tea party. But the universally cherished British children’s book author and illustrator was also a mycologist, botanist, and committed land preservationist, among other lesser-known roles brought to the forefront in this exquisite survey. The exhibition encompassed not only artworks from Potter’s most beloved tales, but also early sketches, letters, manuscripts, books, and photographs that radiated with her deep affection for the natural world. Carefully curated, the show was tender and heartfelt, but not the least bit cutesy. — VD None Whatsoever: Zen Paintings from the Gitter-Yelen Collection Japan Society , March 8–June 16, 2024 Curated by Tiffany Lambert; the presentation at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, was curated by Bradley M. Bailey and Yukio Lippit The collection of Alice Yelen Gitter and Kurt Gitter was a great introduction to zenga , which is what the painting associated with Japanese Zen Buddhism is called. Hakuin Ekaku, considered one of the most influential figures in the genre, was showcased with his excellent “Two Blind Men Crossing a Log Bridge” (18th century), which curator Yukio Lippit explained is one of the best known zenga works outside of Japan. Among the other works on display, a large cross section of scroll paintings highlighted the intellectual interests of Zen. This show was a great exploration of the themes that illuminate why the Japanese understanding of Zen continues to have wide appeal. — HV Americans in Paris: Artists Working in Postwar France, 1946–1962 Grey Art Museum , March 2–July 20, 2024 Curated by Lynn Gumpert and Debra Bricker Balken Starting at the end of World War II, more than 400 servicemen went to Paris to study art, subsidized by the G.I. Bill, including artists of color, as well as many women. As demonstrated by this landmark exhibition, this resulted in racial and gender diversity in Paris that was not mirrored in the ascending New York art world. Among the 70 artists included, viewers got to see early pieces by James Bishop, Norman Bluhm, Ed Clark, Ralph Coburn, Shirley Goldfarb, Carmen Herrera, Sheila Hicks, Shirley Jaffe, Kimber Smith, and Shinkichi Tajiri, all of whom went on to create singular bodies of work. With the exception of Herrera, who received a major exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Carmen Herrera: Lines of Sight (September 16, 2016–January 9, 2017), curated by Dana Miller (though Herrera was more than 100 years old by then), the artists I listed deserve to be better known, even though not all of them returned to the United States or settled in New York. Being in Paris was instrumental for many, as they gained firsthand experience of different European traditions, from the chance operations of Hans Arp to the saturated colors of Henri Matisse. What this exhibition conveys is the cross pollination that took place in Paris after their eyes were opened to new possibilities. — JY The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism Metropolitan Museum of Art , February 25–July 28, 2024 Curated by Denise Murrell At the Metropolitan Museum, curator Denise Murrell arranged an enlightening collection of artworks representing a pivotal cultural era following World War I: the Harlem Renaissance. The artistic, literary, and scholarly movement traversed Black America and beyond, with the namesake New York City neighborhood at its center. The exhibition posits Alain Locke, author of The New Negro , as a vanguard of the landmark movement, highlighting his philosophies on class and racial uplift alongside the movement’s prolific development of arts and literature. Borrowing from the repositories of Historically Black Colleges and Universities like Howard, Hampton, and Fisk, the exhibition is decorated with works revealing the day-to-day curiosities, experiences, and philosophies of 20th-century Black life, like Laura Wheeler’s pensive portraits and photographs by James van der Zee. “The Block” (1971) by Romare Bearden, offers a stretching view of a bustling Harlem street across six panels; Aaron Douglas’s massive canvases depict Black American history through grandiose, mythic visuals. Other collected works help make sense of sociocultural trends — like the Great Migration, famously represented by collagist Jacob Lawrence — giving a peek at, and helping conceptualize the larger ethos of, a burgeoning Black modernism. — Jasmine Weber Video Works at the 2024 Whitney Biennial Whitney Museum of American Art , March 20–August 11, 2024 Curated by Chrissie Iles, Meg Onli, Min Sun Jeon, and Beatriz Cifuentes If anything stood out at this year’s Whitney Biennial, it was the videos. Artists including Sharon Hayes ( Ricerche: four , 2024), Nyala Moon (“Dilating for Maximum Results,” 2023), and Penelope Spheeris (“I Don’t Know,” 1970) all showed works that navigated LGBTQ+ themes with nuance and humor, while Christopher Harris ( Still/Here , 2001), Edward Owens (“Remembrance: A Portrait Study,” 1967), Diane Severin Nguyen ( In Her Time (Iris’s Version) , 2023–24), and many more explored racism, memory, and colonial histories, to name a few topics with which most of us can connect in some way. Hayes’s engrossing two-channel video installation had a homey feel, with mismatched chairs inviting visitors to listen to different generations of queer people in discussion (it’s a shame that the 60-minute film itself couldn’t be streamed on Mubi, like many of the videos). Other standout works included Seba Calfuqueo’s visually stunning “Tray Tray Ko” (2022), Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich’s poetic look at Suzanne Césaire, “Too Bright to See (Part I)” (2022), and Isaac Julien’s grand, room-sized installation Iolaus/In the Life (Once Again. . . Statues Never Die) (2022). While we all enjoyed works in various media, film and video really made this biennial. — NH Painting Deconstructed Ortega y Gasset Projects , May 18–August 24, 2024 Curated by Leeza Meksin What is a painting? That was the question posed by this exhibition, answered spectacularly by 45 envelope-pushing artists from various backgrounds and disciplines. Their paintings jumped out of the walls, burst out of their frames, or cosplayed as sculptures. It was a remarkable feat by this artist-run gallery, and a joy to behold. — HB Suchitra Mattai: We are nomads, we are dreamers Socrates Sculpture Park , May 11–August 25, 2024 Curated by Kaitlin Garcia-Maestas Half a year has passed since I visited Suchitra Mattai’s sculptures in Queens. They’ve been taken down, a chill has settled over the park where they once stood, and much has changed in both my life and the world around me. I still think about them every day. The Guyanese-American artist’s intuitive approach to line and color endowed these mirrored forms with a heartbeat. Woven from everyday saris that were previously worn and loved, they recall the ocean’s linkage to histories of Indo-Guyanese indentured labor and the shape of both South Asia and South America. The more time I spent with them, the more new interpretations they conjured. They could be coral reefs, clouds, continents, or creatures from another world, but one thing was certain: They were alive. — Lakshmi Rivera Amin Pacita Abad MoMA PS1 , April 4–September 2, 2024 Curated by Ruba Katrib and Sheldon Gooch; the presentation at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, was curated by Victoria Sung and Matthew Villar Miranda Filipina artist Pacita Abad was an empath, a roving intellectual, a truth-teller, a soul queen, a woman of the world. She journeyed between continents, visiting some 60 countries, to soak up local traditions and feel the pain of others on her skin. She stitched all these experiences into spellbinding quilt-like trapunto paintings, using everything from shells and beads to water bottle caps and toothpaste tubes. New Yorkers had a rare chance to see so many of her magnificent works in one place thanks to this unforgettable exhibition. — HB LaToya Ruby Frazier: Monuments of Solidarity Museum of Modern Art , May 12–September 7, 2024 Curated by Roxana Marcoci, Caitlin Ryan, and Antoinette D. Roberts LaToya Ruby Frazier’s MoMA retrospective lived up to its title in many ways. Monumental in scale and scope, the exhibition, featuring works from across two decades of the artist’s career, asked big questions about the meaning and enactment of solidarity, and the reasons why it’s so deeply necessary in a world that feels ever more atomized. While many know the intimate black and white photographs Frazier has taken over the years in her Rust Belt hometown of Braddock, Pennsylvania, they might be unaware of her three-act series on the Flint, Michigan, water crisis through the experiences of Shea S. Cobb, a poet, activist, and mother from the city; her moving collaboration with fellow artist Sandra Gould Ford focused on the racially segregated and dangerous realities of work inside the steel mills that once dominated the region where they both grew up; her steady and probing gaze as the final car left the line at the now-shuttered General Motors plant in Lordstown, Ohio; and her pilgrimage to capture the legacy of United Farmworkers Association co-founder Dolores Huerta. Viewers got a taste of how the artist builds intimacy, connection, and a shared sense of struggle with those she features and collaborates with in her work; we were also pushed to ask ourselves about our own community ties, and about where and when we would act for those with whom we live, work, and love. — Alexis Clements Frank Walter: To Capture a Soul The Drawing Center , June 21–September 15, 2024 Curated by Claire Gilman To Capture a Soul packed in a lot. Along with dozens of the late Antiguan artist’s paintings and drawings, two walls and multiple vitrines displayed archival materials documenting his labyrinthine genealogy, which he had made efforts to trace; his professional life — in 1948 he became a rare person of color in a managerial position at the Antiguan Sugar Syndicate; his travels throughout the UK to study industrial technology; other creative outlets, including books and poetry; and the home studio he built later in life in rural Antigua. Although Walter’s aesthetic can evoke naive art, particularly in his simplistic renderings of the human figures that occasionally enter his imagery, he was no hobbyist. Creativity flowed through his veins, and he honed it whenever he had the chance. The archival materials were important context, but his mostly small landscape paintings are Walter’s great legacy. Thin layers of oils, often with visible brushstrokes adding texture, transform abstract color fields into idyllic realms — Antigua, Scotland — pared down to basic forms and awash in radiant color. In “Untitled (Lavender sky, black bird formation),” birds blackened by the dusk light soar in formation from a black landmass against a dark mauve sky, above a crimson sea. The painting holds Rothko and Turner in the balance, but that’s beside the point: It’s sublime on its own. In another work, among the archival materials and easy to miss, Walter created an entire bucolic landscape through nothing but strata of grayish white and grassy greens. His paintings are less to look at than to live within. — NH Sonya Clark: We Are Each Other Museum of Arts and Design , March 23–September 22, 2024 Organized by the Museum of Arts and Design; Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta Sonya Clark has a unique ability to hack our culture by finding a contentious form that forces us to reconsider what we thought we already knew. Her “Monumental” (2019) project about the actual white dishcloth flag of surrender used by Confederate forces is a good example. She also frays Confederate flags in a way that makes them appear very fragile and vulnerable, while her work with Black hair is striking in the way that it renders a symbol of racist hierarchies into something that turns it into a beautiful object deserving careful attention. Each one of her projects was a delight to explore in this compact show that gracefully demonstrated her brilliance. — HV Leon Golub: Et In Arcadia Ego Hauser & Wirth , September 5–October 19, 2024 Conceived by Rashid Johnson As I wrote in September, Golub’s art “aims at the gut more than the mind.” The paradox of this show is that these searing political works were all the more gutting because Hauser & Wirth — a blue-chip commercial gallery — has the means to showcase them properly (the up side is that commercial galleries are free to enter). Still, there’s nothing like the experience of being surrounded by these massive, vitriolic paintings from the 1980s, in a space that lets them breathe but allows them to feel monumental, even overwhelming. At the right time, they could be seen in relative solitude, and in those moments the paintings’ brute figures or crimson color fields seemed to teem with perverse energy. Golub’s art treads a fine line between condemning and fetishizing violence, and the mercenary paintings on view here may be his ultimate achievement. In this fairly intimate space they were visceral enough to bring their chilling realities of police brutality, war crimes, and torture — everyday events, then as now — up close, in all their nauseating grandeur. — NH Nan Goldin: You never did anything wrong Gagosian , September 12–October 19, 2024 Organized by the gallery To be enraptured by art’s sublime beauty is the dream of anyone who’s tired of seeing things as they are. Nan Goldin had that experience in the palatial museums of Paris, where she began seeing the faces of friends and lovers from over the years in classical masterpieces portraying gods, nymphs, and satyrs. Her short film “Stendhal Syndrome” is an entrancing record of that episode. It was juxtaposed with “you never did anything wrong, Part 1” (both from 2024), a moving video work that gazes empathetically into the expressive eyes of animals during a total solar eclipse. Both films were a generous invitation to take part in a transcendental moment. — HB Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Caressing the Circle Bitforms Gallery , September 4–October 26, 2024 Organized by the gallery Rafael Lozano-Hemmer is always on the cutting edge of art and tech, but in this show his “Transparency Display” (2024), which he developed with his own “pixel glass” technology, suggested that he might be considering industrial uses for this attractive technology, potentially influencing the way we interact with windows. Lozano-Hemmer always sparks excitement and wonder in his projects, which often look like they emerged from an inventor’s laboratory. Always an innovator, his latest show was a welcome peek at the tinkering going on in his studio. More please. — HV Manoucher Yektai: Landscapes Karma Gallery , September 12–November 9, 2024 Organized by the gallery Iranian-born Manoucher Yektai is the Abstract Expressionist who is in the midst of a comeback: his gestural paintings offer a fresh chapter of the story of the New York School that has floundered in obscurity for decades. In this exhibition, his rhythmic landscapes charted a journey from European-inflected modernism to more abstract compositions that distill the mid-20th century energy of post-World War II painting. Yektai’s best paintings are situated between legibility and pure abstraction, and always made with heaps of paint. — HV Miatta Kawinzi: Numma Yah Smack Mellon , September 28–November 17, 2024 Organized by Smack Mellon Filmed in both Liberia and the US, “to trust the ground might free us (begin again)” (2024) is a moving short video that seems to wish for a world beyond flags and borders, one that heals as much as fractures. Artist Miatta Kawinzi brought a diasporic sensibility to ideas around space and belonging with this show, and transformed the Dumbo exhibition space into an otherworldly terrain that seemed to breathe with the rustle of fermenting ideas and connections. — HV Auriea Harvey: My Veins Are the Wires, My Body Is Your Keyboard Museum of the Moving Image , February 2–December 1, 2024 Curated by Regina Harsanyi Any child of the early internet will find a lot of familiarity in digital artist and sculptor Auriea Harvey’s retrospective that spanned the aesthetics of the early World Wide Web to more immersive worlds that transport you either through screen or artifact. Unlike many other digital artists, Harvey demonstrates an emotional depth that connects her work to other eras through its storytelling or metaphors. The show was a real tribute to an artist at the height of her powers. — HV Mandalas: Mapping the Buddhist Art of Tibet Metropolitan Museum of Art , September 19, 2024–January 12, 2025 Curated by Kurt Behrendt A stunning installation in the middle of the atrium in the Robert Lehman Wing of the Met Museum illustrates a thought in the process of becoming and dissipating. “Biography of a Thought” is artist Tenzing Rigdol’s atrium-size mandala bringing viewers on a journey through climate change, gun violence, and even George Floyd, as waves crash through the four sets of paintings. Throughout the installation, figures bear hand gestures that Rigdol calls “ASL [American Sign Language] mudras,” referencing natural elements and our own interdependence. Further into the exhibition, viewers are treated with a detailed view of mandalas — diagrams of the cosmos — from places like Tibet, Nepal, and China, spanning the centuries, along with physical objects, like the ritualistic vajra and a traditional trumpet, that would appear in mandalas. With 100 objects on display, plan to stay a while (it’s up into January 2025); this show rewards careful study of the various symbols, signs and images painted and woven into each mandala. — AX Mina Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That It Implies Brooklyn Museum , September 13, 2024–January 19, 2025 Curated by Dalila Scruggs, Catherine Morris, Mary Lee Corlett, Rashieda Witter, and Carla Forbes Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary and All That It Implies succeeded at portraying the aesthetic brilliance and political depth of the distinguished artist’s work across a career of 50 years. The massive retrospective displays Catlett’s prints and sculpture depicting Black and Indigenous lives and struggles for liberation. Interactive spaces for immersion, play, and reflection follow the presentation of Catlett’s immense oeuvre. The exhibition provides didactic information to narrate the leftist politics and artistic traditions undergirding the artist’s consistent references to anti-imperialist and socialist movements as well as African and Mesoamerican artmaking traditions. The exhibition accurately historicizes Catlett as a Black American feminist artist adopted into a Mexican leftist community of artists, and a true renaissance woman whose artwork transcended both medium and national boundaries. — Alexandra M. Thomas Edges of Ailey Whitney Museum of American Art , September 25, 2024–February 9, 2025 Curated by Adrienne Edwards, Joshua Lubin-Levy, and CJ Salapare Dance and visual art — two forms in close kinship but often treated as disparate — are considered anew in Edges of Ailey , a deeply moving curation of Black diasporic art anchored by the legacy of late choreographer Alvin Ailey. Despite its ambitious range of materials, this exhibition deftly stitches together artistic traditions from the diaspora and incorporates new works made specifically for the show by Karon Davis, Jennifer Packer, Mickalene Thomas, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. Some of my favorite moments during my visit were encounters with familiar works in new contexts, like the 1979 Bayou Fever collage series by Romare Bearden, a close friend and collaborator of the choreographer. Situated below a clip of performances orchestrated by Ailey, Bearden’s figures, too, seemed to dance. — LRA Flow States – LA TRIENAL 2024 El Museo del Barrio , October 10, 2024–February 9, 2025 Curated by Rodrigo Moura, Susanna V. Temkin, and María Elena Ortiz One of the anchor works of El Museo del Barrio’s triennial survey of Latine contemporary art this year is Esteban Cabeza de Baca’s “Seven circles” (2023), an 18-foot-long, multi-panel painting rendered in the artist’s idiosyncratic mode of landscape abstraction. In his vision of the US-Mexico border, he warps the region’s topographical features into a wormhole composition that dizzyingly collapses distinct spaces and times — a fitting and disconcerting image for the fate of immigrant communities at the brink of a second Trump presidency. Featuring 33 artists from around the world, this exhibition is filled with wildly inventive and truly original work, from Norberto Roldan’s haunting ziggurat-shaped altars to Magdalena Suarez Frimkess’s hand-crafted ceramics unexpectedly adorned with comic-book references. La Trienal ’s curators seem to have figured out that you can’t change people’s minds or engage them in dialogue without first drawing them in, and this show does exactly that. — VD Flight into Egypt: Black Artists and Ancient Egypt, 1876–Now Metropolitan Museum of Art , November 17, 2024–February 17, 2025 Curated by Akili Tommasino Curator Akili Tommasino’s large show examines the reception of Ancient Egyptian art by Black artists. He placed Fred Wilson’s “Grey Area (Brown Version)” (1993) at the symbolic core of this show and then included a very wide range of artists, including Betye Saar, Renee Cox, Irene Clark, Damien Davis, Kara Walker, and EJ Hill, to illustrate the real impact of Egyptian art today. His exploration of the legacy of historical Egyptian art is a good reminder of how the spirit of one of the world’s oldest civilizations continues to resonate with those who can find empowerment in its imagery and stories. — HV Vital Signs: Artists and the Body Museum of Modern Art , Nov 3, 2024–Feb 22, 2025 Curated by Lanka Tattersall, Margarita Lizcano Hernandez, and Simon Ghebreyesus Organized by Lanka Tattersall with Margarita Lizcano Hernandez, this exhibition avoids the splashy expectations of other exhibitions focused on the body, instead offering a more archival and cerebral take that explores absences and residues of the human form as much as its agency or volume. While some inclusions were expected, such as Jasper Johns’s “Painting Bitten By a Man” (1961) and Nancy Grossman’s “Untitled (Double Head)” (19171), others, like Blondell Cummings’s excerpt from “Commitment: Two Portraits” (1988) and Bhupen Khakhar’s “Kali” (1965), were welcome surprises, suggesting an expansive view of the topic. Take your time here, and hopefully you’ll find some quiet moments, as the work on display benefits from your careful attention. And be sure to see the large mural project by Martine Syms outside the main galleries and overlooking the museum’s garden. — HV We hope you enjoyed this article! Before you keep reading, please consider supporting Hyperallergic ’s journalism during a time when independent, critical reporting is increasingly scarce. Unlike many in the art world, we are not beholden to large corporations or billionaires. Our journalism is funded by readers like you , ensuring integrity and independence in our coverage. We strive to offer trustworthy perspectives on everything from art history to contemporary art. We spotlight artist-led social movements, uncover overlooked stories, and challenge established norms to make art more inclusive and accessible. With your support, we can continue to provide global coverage without the elitism often found in art journalism. If you can, please join us as a member today . Millions rely on Hyperallergic for free, reliable information. By becoming a member, you help keep our journalism free, independent, and accessible to all. Thank you for reading. Share Copied to clipboard Mail Bluesky Threads LinkedIn Facebook
BNP yesterday slammed Information and Broadcasting Adviser Nahid Islam for accusing political parties of trying to fail the interim government, warning that such inappropriate statements can create a rift in national unity. "I think he (adviser) should not have made such a remark. He didn't say the right thing. It may create a rift in national unity," said BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi while speaking at a press conference at the party's Nayapaltan office. He said it is the main responsibility of the interim government to hold a free, fair, and inclusive election within a short time, which is also the wish of the people. "But if any contradictory or questionable statements come from their (government's) side, it'll harm national unity," the BNP leader observed. He said the government can benefit from the criticism made by political parties. "Criticism is an essential element for strengthening democracy. You can't deny this element." Rizvi also said country's democratic political parties have set an example of unity amid local and international conspiracies. "You (the government) must take this into consideration." He said the political parties are urging the government to arrange elections after completing the reforms within a reasonable time. "Is the election different from other elements of democracy? In fact, the election is the most important democratic practice," the BNP leader mentioned. He said the government should not ignore the political parties' demand. Earlier, on Wednesday, Information and Broadcasting Adviser Nahid Islam reportedly said political parties are prioritising the election over reforms. During a meeting at the Secretariat with a delegation from British Global Partners Governance (GPG), the adviser also mentioned that political parties are attempting to make the interim government fail. BNP yesterday slammed Information and Broadcasting Adviser Nahid Islam for accusing political parties of trying to fail the interim government, warning that such inappropriate statements can create a rift in national unity. "I think he (adviser) should not have made such a remark. He didn't say the right thing. It may create a rift in national unity," said BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi while speaking at a press conference at the party's Nayapaltan office. He said it is the main responsibility of the interim government to hold a free, fair, and inclusive election within a short time, which is also the wish of the people. "But if any contradictory or questionable statements come from their (government's) side, it'll harm national unity," the BNP leader observed. He said the government can benefit from the criticism made by political parties. "Criticism is an essential element for strengthening democracy. You can't deny this element." Rizvi also said country's democratic political parties have set an example of unity amid local and international conspiracies. "You (the government) must take this into consideration." He said the political parties are urging the government to arrange elections after completing the reforms within a reasonable time. "Is the election different from other elements of democracy? In fact, the election is the most important democratic practice," the BNP leader mentioned. He said the government should not ignore the political parties' demand. Earlier, on Wednesday, Information and Broadcasting Adviser Nahid Islam reportedly said political parties are prioritising the election over reforms. During a meeting at the Secretariat with a delegation from British Global Partners Governance (GPG), the adviser also mentioned that political parties are attempting to make the interim government fail.BEAVER CREEK, Colo. (AP) — As the situation stands, snowboarder/ski racer Ester Ledecka has two Olympic races on the same day in 2026, at nearly the same time and in Italian mountain towns hours apart. The Czech Republic standout simply can’t make both starting gates. So she may have a big decision to make on Feb. 8, 2026 — race in the women's downhill at the Milan-Cortina Games or go for a three-peat in snowboarding’s parallel giant slalom. Unless, of course, her lobbying efforts pay off. Ledecka said she's going through her country's Olympic committee to reach out and see if one of the events can be switched. The Winter Games schedule was just recently released. “It’s like someone has broken your dream,” the 29-year-old Ledecka said after a training run in Beaver Creek as she prepares for a World Cup downhill and super-G this weekend. “So please change it. Please, please, please. It’s my biggest dream to do both. I can create a great show for people.” Ledecka is the rare athlete to do both winter sports at such a gold medal-winning level. Nearly seven years ago, Ledecka was a surprise winner in the super-G at the Pyeongchang Games — from bib No. 26, no less. A week later, she captured gold in the parallel GS (PGS). At the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, she defended her PGS crown along with finishing fifth in the super-G, 27th in the downhill and fourth in the Alpine combined. To amend an Olympic schedule would not be unprecedented. Before the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, the International Olympic Committee and the governing body for track and field accommodated a request from Allyson Felix to go for a 200-400 double. She earned a silver in the 400. In 1996, the schedule was shifted so American sprinter Michael Johnson could run in the 200 and 400 at the Atlanta Games. He won gold in both. “I would appreciate it,” said Ledecka, who started skiing at 2 years old and snowboarding three years later. “They’re fighting (for it) right now.” The current schedule has snowboarding parallel giant slalom holding a qualifying round from 9 a.m. to 11 on Feb. 8 in Livigno, Italy. The final is set for 1 p.m. Meanwhile, the women's downhill is set to take place in Cortina at 11:30 a.m. It's about a 4-hour drive between the two events. For now, she's leaning toward snowboarding. Only because a few days later she could ski race in a super-G. “I was quite sad about that fact,” Ledecka said of the conflict between events. "We'll see. It’s still quite far away.” Ledecka has 88 World Cup starts in skiing, with 10 podium finishes and four wins. She has 63 World Cup starts in snowboarding, featuring 39 podium finishes and 25 wins. “I don’t know how she does it,” said American ski racer Jacqueline Wiles, who dabbled in snowboarding as a kid. “It’s absolutely insane.” Ledecka enjoys both sports for different reasons. In skiing, it's for the speed. For snowboarding, it's the execution of a turn. It's not always easy splitting her time between the two sports, fitting in training around events. She won a PGS race on Nov. 30 in China before arriving in Beaver Creek. After this, it's off to St. Moritz, Switzerland, for more ski racing. She's currently traveling with eight snowboards and 20 pairs of skis. “You cannot believe how stacked the ski room is right now,” Ledecka cracked. “I really admire my tech guy and how he's handling it all. I’m very happy to have my team help me do this, my dream, of going from the snowboard World Cup to the ski World Cup. I'm having a lot of fun.” Notes: Lara Gut-Behrami of Switzerland had the fastest time in the second training run Thursday. Italians racers Sofia Goggia and Federica Brignone were both within a second. ... Lindsey Vonn is not expected to forerun before the third and final training session Friday. The 40-year-old Vonn still plans on testing out the course before this weekend's races on the Birds of Prey course. AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing
Donald Trump may not be able to run for president again, but he thinks his children could have a future in politics. Trump told Time magazine, in an interview released Thursday in conjunction with him being named Person of the Year , that he thinks there could be a Trump dynasty. "I have some very competent members of my family," he said when asked about their political futures. More: Donald Trump named Time magazine's Person of the Year Trump also talked about the difficulty he'll face in bringing down grocery prices , questioned the safety of vaccines and vented his frustration with the conservative Heritage Foundation for releasing its controversial Project 2025 blueprint for a second Trump administration during the election. Trump celebrated the Person of the Year recognition by ringing the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange Thursday. It's his second time receiving the honor. Here are some takeaways from his wide-ranging interview with the magazine. Trump Dynasty? Trump's second term as president will end in 2029 and the constitution bars him from running again, but he believes someone in his family could continue his political legacy. Asked what will happen to the MAGA movement when he leaves, Trump said there are "some great warriors" who want to keep it going, and added that includes his progeny. More: Trump Organization plans a Trump Tower in Saudi Arabia, Eric Trump says Pressed on whether there could be a Trump dynasty, the president-elect said "I think there could be, yeah." "My kids are very competent," he said. More: Which Trump family members could have influence in a second administration? While Trump added he's not sure his kids want to "go through this" because "they've been treated very badly," he said his oldest son Donald Trump Jr. would "do very well" in politics and also mentioned his son Eric, daughter Ivanka and daughter-in-law Lara , who was co-chair of the Republican National Committee. Lara Trump has expressed interest in being appointed to the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Marco Rubio, who Trump nominated for secretary of state. Donald Trump Jr. is extremely politically active and influential with his father, helping to select running mate JD Vance . A Morning Consult poll released this week had Trump Jr. and Vance tied for the lead in the 2028 GOP presidential primary, with each receiving the support of 30% of primary voters. More: Tariffs looming, Trump invites Chinese President Xi Jinping to inauguration He can't promise grocery prices will come down In his first big interview Sunday since winning re-election, Trump told NBC's "Meet the Press" moderator Kristen Welker that “I won on groceries. Very simple word, groceries.... I won an election based on that." Yet in his interview with Time, Trump said his presidency doesn't hinge on lowering the cost of everyday food items. Asked if his second term would be a failure if grocery prices don't come down, Trump said: "I don't think so." More: Meta donates $1 million to Trump inauguration as Zuckerberg mends fences "Look, they got them up," he added. "I'd like to bring them down. It's hard to bring things down once they're up. You know, it's very hard." Trump isn't eager to tie his presidency to the price of eggs, milk, bread and other grocery items. That may be because such costs are difficult for a president to control without interfering in the free market, even as Trump hammered President Joe Biden on the issue. Border bigger factor than economy While Trump has tied his victory to grocery prices, he told Time that "a bigger factor" was the border. "I won it in 2016 on the border, and I fixed the border , and it was really fixed, and they came in and they just dislodged everything that I did, and it became far worse than it was in 2016," Trump said. Unlike the price of milk, the border is an issue that Trump can exert a lot of influence over, both through legislation and executive action. He is expected to issue a flurry of executive orders on immigration shortly after taking office, and has promised a huge mass deportation effort . More: Justin Trudeau renews a complicated relationship with Donald Trump Trump has talked about using the military to help with his deportation effort. Questioned about the legality of that, he said: "I'll only do what the law allows, but I will go up to the maximum level of what the law allows." "And I think in many cases, the sheriffs and law enforcement is going to need help," Trump added. "We’ll also get National Guard. We'll get National Guard, and we'll go as far as I'm allowed to go, according to the laws of our country." Linked vaccines to autism In appointing Robert F Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Trump drew criticism from those concerned about Kennedy's vaccine skepticism. Asked about Kennedy's vaccine views, Trump sounded skeptical of the shots himself, despite health officials attesting to their safety. Responding to a question about whether he would support Kennedy if he seeks to end child vaccination efforts, Trump said: "We're going to have a big discussion. The autism rate is at a level that nobody ever believed possible. If you look at things that are happening, there's something causing it ." More: 'Somebody has to find out': Trump says RFK Jr. will look at why autism is on the rise Pressed on whether he believes there is a connection between vaccines and autism, Trump said: "I want to see the numbers. It's going to be the numbers." The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says may studies have looked at whether there is a connection between vaccines and autism and "To date, the studies continue to show that vaccines are not associated with" autism. Trump said he might get rid of some vaccinations "if I think it’s dangerous, if I think they are not beneficial, but I don’t think it’s going to be very controversial in the end." Project 2025 Trump continued to blast the Heritage Foundation over Project 2025, a more than 800 page document that laid out priorities for a second Trump administration. Democrats repeatedly hammered Trump during the campaign on the more controversial aspects of Project 2025. Trump disavowed the document, but has since appointed some of its authors to positions in his administration. Trump appeared to be dumbfounded that the Heritage Foundation, which he noted are people who "would like to see me win," released the document, calling it "totally inappropriate" and "a very foolish thing for them to do." "Why would they do that?" he told Time. "They complicated my election by doing it because people tried to tie me and I didn't agree with everything in there, and some things I vehemently disagreed with, and I thought it was inappropriate that they would come out with a document like that prior to my election."Rock Springs lawmakers oppose Freedom Caucus PAC’s motion to dismiss in defamation lawsuit
US goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher is retiring from international soccer
Why your favorite catalogs are smaller this holiday seasonAt more than three hours, it stars Adrien Brody as an architect after World War II and was made on a shoestring budget after years of delays.Raiders designate Aidan O'Connell to return from IR