Art Monthly 498
Jul-Aug 2026

Contents

Delcey Morelos, origo, 2026

Interview

On Earth

Delcy Morelos interviewed by Elizabeth Fullerton

Through my art practice, I place the viewer in a position to reconnect with the earth through their bodies and remember where they came from.

Tania Candiani, Waterbirds, Migratory Sound Flow, 2022

Feature

Art and the Hydrocene

As access to water becomes increasingly unequal, Bob Dickinson argues that it might be time for us to adopt the newly coined term ‘hydrocene’ to describe our age

The counterargument that should be presented when facing up to the great mismanagement and theft of water might be found in the increasing interest that exists in hydro-humanities, a practice that is closely linked with the concept of the hydro-commons, which insists that water sources, everywhere, all over the planet, are interconnected.

Sonia Boué, Safe as Houses, 2020

Feature

Art and Autism

Sonia Boué surveys how neurodiversity liberates us from the capitalist myth of neurological normativity and conformity

In ‘Empire of Normality’, the philosopher Robert Chapman traces the myth of ‘normal brains’ to the intensification of capitalism, which chimes with Oliver Burkeman’s writing on productivity and deep time.

Sung Tieu, Human Dignity Shall Be Inviolable, 2026

Feature

On Human Dignity

Dan Rees reflects on issues raised by Sung Tieu’s work for the German Pavilion in Venice

A guiding question – perhaps the central question that permeates Sung Tieu’s work – is what remains of dignity once it is mediated and administered through bureaucratic forms of recognition.

Nancy Lupo, Our Villas at Apollo Mainz, 2025

Profile

Nancy Lupo

Lizzie Lloyd

It frees her to follow the work’s own associative, affective and incidental connections, away from market demands for clarity, accessibility or simplified meaning, instead following a serious, if buried, logic.

Editorial

Radical Democracy

Democracy is under threat from authoritarians who are attacking its principles under the guise of defending it. We could well learn from the tactics of artists who have found ways to oppose dictatorships.

As the Republic approaches its 250th anniversary, comparisons with the decline of imperial Rome are irresistible, not least the blatant abuses of power, accusations of corruption and nepotism and, of course, the scandals that have dogged both Donald Trump administrations.

Artnotes

Excellence Everywhere

ACE abandons is previous ten-year strategy half way through while announcing a return to ‘excellence’ as a key priority; Dawn Airey, former commercial TV exec, takes over as chair of ACE, replacing Nicholas Serota, former Tate director; proposals to close Dundee’s Cooper Gallery meet opposition; artists turn to bartering to make ends meet; Barack Obama and Donald Trump unveil very different architectural structures; plus the latest on galleries, people, prizes and more.

Obituary

VALIE EXPORT 1940–2026
David Barrett

Meriem Bennani, Life on the CAPS, 2018–22, Thessaloniki Biennale

Exhibitions

Nancy Holt: MoonSunStarEarthSkyWater

Goodwood Foundation

Karen Di Franco

Joanna Piotrowska: A moment of darkness at noon

The Common Guild, Glasgow

Maria Walsh

Bogdan Ablozhnyy: Pedestrian Space

a.Squire, London

Michael Archer

Augustus Serapinas: Physical Culture

Nottingham Contemporary

Hugh Nicholson

Olivia Plender: Little Fennel’s Complaint

Modern Art Oxford

Luisa Lorenza Corna

Drawn Through Time

Lakeside Arts, Nottingham

Phil Tarrant

The Environments of Franco Vaccari

Museion, Bolzano

Martin Holman

Gray Wielebinski: Bring Me Men

Nicoletti, London

Chris McCormack

Glasgow International

various venues

Greg Thomas

9th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art: everything must change. Radical Intelligence. Saloniki 9

various venues

Sarah E James

Colectivo Acciones de Arte, NO+, 1983

Performance

Colectivo Acciones de Arte: Radical Democracy

Juan José Santos

Several original letters detail how the collective convinced Chile’s aeronautical authorities and municipal officials that their planned action – dropping 400,000 lea!lets over Santiago from six small planes – was an innocent work of ecological art.

spread from Curating and Repair

Books

Curating & Repair

Morgan Quaintance

Though the practice of curating is yet to be regulated by a set of agreed criteria, similar to ICOM’s efforts to delineate museological practice, there is a tacit understanding of modes of best practice and procedures that inform the discipline’s conventions. Unfortunately, there are moments when all of them seem to be present in this observant publication.

Kahlil Joseph, BLKNEWS – Terms and Conditions, 2025

Film

Kahlil Joseph: BLKNEWS – Terms and Conditions

Chris Clarke

A throughline is established with a speculative view into the future: a mammoth hovering ocean liner called The Nautica traverses former slave routes between West Africa, The Caribbean and Brazil.

‘No Master Territories’, Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo

Report

Looking Back at Radical Feminist Filmmaking

Juliet Jacques

The fact that the historical exhibition ‘No Master Territories’ has been held in galleries is testament to how such avant-garde, fiercely independent film cultures no longer exist in the same way: the production and screening of such works are now handled primarily by art institutions.

Alia Farid, Chibayish, 2022

Reports

Letter from Athens

Mandy Merzaban

Alia Farid’s film Chibayish is an oral storytelling of children and families who have lived along the marshes of southern Iraq for generations. Reshaped by war, state-led drainage projects and climate change, the film becomes a record of the declining wetlands.

Grant Falardeau, installation view, Boros Collection

Reports

Letter from Berlin

George MacBeth

Those were, however, more buoyant times for the German art market; the current dismal market outlook has brought the return of more gilt-edged media.

Joseph Yaeger, There is a light and it always goes out, 2021, estimate $60,000, sold for $477,300

Salesrooms

New York Sales

Colin Gleadell

At Phillips, which is the normal stronghold for young contemporaries, the record set at Sotheby’s for Joseph Yaeger tumbled again for There is a light and it always goes out, 2021, a painting of a hand holding a match as it threatens to burn the fingers, which would seem, from the lengthy catalogue note, to bear references to Derek Jarman, The Smiths, Lawrence of Arabia and Albrecht Dürer all at once.

Chris Steward, No ICE in the Cup: Los Angeles, 2026

Artlaw

No ICE in the Cup

Henry Lydiate

Artists across the US have been protesting against law enforcement raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in US cities that are staging the six-week long FIFA Men’s World Cup football tournament.