Lexie Patterson These photos aren’t about the wealthy, the glamorous, or the posh city folk. Mr Whippys melting on the beach, dodgy sunburns, early mornings on the school run, and cod and chips served in a polystyrene box. Martin Parr’s photographs wryly captured British beauty where most would look away, in saturated colour. Through Parr’s eyes, even grandma’s florals take on a kind of kitsch glory. The Last Resort 23, 1983–86, New Brighton, England. © Martin Parr / Magnum P

Jo Leuenberger Photograph taken from https://www.housebeautiful.com/uk/decorate/a69636544/pantone-2026-colour-of-the-year-cloud-dancer/ . Pantone has announced its 2026 ‘Color of the Year:’ Cloud Dancer, Pantone 11-4201, a rather pallid shade of white. The choice has not been well-received. Choosing white during the latest rise of fascism in the United and Europe has made it a jarring choice, and it’s difficult to believe that no one in Pantone’s executive leadership was info

Nicole Hartwell Le Musee d'Orsay. Photo: Nicole Hartwell The Musee d’Orsay’s exhibition Sargent: Dazzling Paris marks the centenary of the artist John Singer Sargent’s death in 1925. Born in 1856 in Florence, and exhibiting artistic talents from a very young age, with the encouragement of his American expatriate parents, Sargent moved to Paris at 18, enrolling at the École des Beaux-Arts, and later studying under the tutelage of the artist Carolus-Duran (1837-1917). First sh

Lexie Patterson Don’t ditch the New Year’s resolution just yet, there are other you’s to be discovered. “We’re all playing a part; it’s all smoke and mirrors.” Cindy Sherman, Untitled #479 (1975) The bells chime. It’s 2026 and the annual theatre of self-reinvention begins again. As the Christmas lights come down and the turkey’s been polished off, we enter the darkest, coldest months of all. Despite the challenging bleakness of this time of the year, we insist that this is

Zoe Smith-Holladay “ The reason why it’s “culture wars” is because that's the terrain that matters. It becomes the proxy for politics because we define our identity, our understanding, our perspective on the world through art and culture.” Gus Casely-Hayford. Photo courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London © V&A 2019 Last week, I sat down in the V&A South Kensington’s Members Room with Gus Casley-Hayford OBE, Director of the V&A East and former Director of the Sm

Lexie Patterson Should we rise up and give it up for the standing ovation or is it quite frankly time to sit back down? Jonathan Anderson’s standing ovation: A triumph. (Photo: Julien De Rosa/AFP via Getty Images) I have a fraught relationship with the standing ovation. As someone who will always just rise along with everyone else even if I have absolutely detested the show, I have begun to question this embarrassingly near-uncontrollable social programming. Why do I leap t

Alice Ardern-Norris A reliance on images highlights the tension between digital visibility and the irreplaceable experience of the physical object. Jewellery specialist Kristian Spofforth reflects on this tension, and an optimistic future for art and technology. In an age when the internet too often feeds into vanity, misinformation and endless distraction, UNESCO’s new Virtual Museum of Stolen Cultural Objects offers a glimpse of what our digital world can be when thought,

Swear by my waters all hopes and prayers the pinky promise of young hands the dearest oath of the pious to placate to assure I care not for. May the deceivers drown The mean-wellers lament. The follow-uppers resent. Swear by my waters it’s only your breath. I offer you a drink. Cheers to the memories! What memory? Footprints in the sand washed clean by waves. Lifelines swept away in the weave. However large or mundane, I consume, so let troubles wane. Take the drink. Never

Jo Leuenberger Alison Knowles, Big Book , 1966, Photograph taken from torpedobok.no/The-Big-Book-Alison-Knowles Alison Knowles, the luminary artist and founding member of Fluxus, has died. Known perennially as the First Woman of Fluxus, Knowles was the last living original member of Fluxus. She was also the only woman. Despite her artistic and infrastructural necessity to the success of early Fluxus, until recently, Knowles has escaped notice by mainstream art criticism. Inst

Eliza Pritchett Conversations in Couture: What They Wore, What They Said: Frieze Week, London 2025 At the edge of Regent’s Park, a quiet, pensive queue of people moves up the gentle ramp: slow, sludgy, and rich. The sort of crowd you never see on an average London day. The ramp may as well be a red carpet. Judging by the number of Birkins being clutched by women (and men), the fair was in for a profitable weekend. Behind me, a French family of four. I admired twins in matchin