All history is to some extent narrative. You cannot tell a story without in some way editing it, reducing it, compressing it. Which means that anybody telling a story about a historical event, particularly one from the relatively recent past, risks outraging those who have studied it or who remember it. Often those complaints are pedantic, trivial, but sometimes they are not. It's one thing to elide two minor characters or to tweak the timeline to simplify a story, quite another to imply misleading motivations.
The first time Jake and I crossed paths was at a circus festival in Bathurst. It was 2010 and I was in my last year of high school. Aspiring circus troupes from across the country had gathered to showcase their acts. It felt like all eyes were on Jake's group from Adelaide, they were incredibly talented. I definitely remember him I even took one of his workshops but didn't think much more of it.
The 31st edition of the LA Art Show is back this week at the downtown Convention Center, more than a month before Frieze, Felix, and Post-Fair roll into town. Although it is LA's longest-running art fair, the show is somewhat of an outcast, snubbed as pedestrian, too commercial, and out of touch with the cutting edge of the global art world. But at the rear of the cavernous exhibition hall, a pair of projects organized by curator Marisa Caichiolo gives visitors a sense of the fair's cultural and political relevance.
Singapore, Michigan, was a thriving lumber town in the late 1800s, until erosion from mass deforestation caused the surrounding sand dunes to shift and swallow it whole. Yet just as quickly as the town disappeared under sand, its namesake in the East emerged from it: Around the world, Singapore is renowned for its use of land reclamation - importing sand to increase landmass and spur urban development.
For Derrick Guild, portraits of the likes of the Infanta and the Spanish royal family, such as Velázquez's seminal" Las Meninas," provide the starting point for a painting practice that examines social status, mores, and expectations. Through 17th- and 18th-century portraits, Guild examines art as a vehicle for social and diplomatic relations, considering how painting was used to impart very specific messages and emphasize prestige.
According to the White House, two international groups working on cultural heritage preservation and arts policy are "contrary to the interests of the United States" and "waste taxpayer dollars." The International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) and the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies (IFACCA) are among 66 organizations or treaties from which President Trump withdrew in a memorandum on Wednesday, January 7.
The Brooklyn-based artist is formally trained as a painter and self-taught as a ceramicist, and she fuses the two modes of working into a complementary practice. Hier begins by sculpting a wide range of forms, and after several rounds of firing with both handmade and commercially available glazes, she adds a painting. The pairings arise intuitively, sometimes through free association, trial and error, or by homing in on a color.
Find what brings you joy with the kickoff of San Francisco Art Week, SF Sketchfest, and the Napa Lighted Art Festival this week. Engage in some art of your own at a mosaic-making class or find your next favorite thing at vintage shows this weekend. For a final dose of reflection, don't miss the send-off tribute to Claude on Sunday.
Both of those ideas were torpedoed when I read this article about Daniel Lurie's's 31 hand-picked avatars meant to reshape San Francisco's charter (and we all know that his picks never result in any blunders). I looked at this 31-faced cavalcade of (mostly) capitalists and thought it only slightly less oligarch-ish than his onboarding team from last year. Sure, this one doesn't have Sam Altman, but this one's so nakedly appealing to business interests that it doesn't need Altman.
Peter is a weird guy and a bit younger than Agnes, but he's polite and willing to keep her company, to drink her wine and smoke some crack. (He won't snort powder cocaine, though: that stuff is bad for you, he explains.) And then he wakes up with a bug bite. When Agnes can't see a bug that he points at, frantically, he urges her to look closer. She does-and maybe she sees something.
On February 8, 1977, Indianapolis businessman Tony Kiritzis (Bill Skarsgard) kidnapped Richard Hall, a mortgage company president (Stranger Things' Dacre Montgomery), claiming that Hall's company had sabotaged his real estate investment. Kiritzis rigged a 12-gauge shotgun with a hair-trigger "dead man's wire" around Hall's neck, ensuring that Hall would die if police sharpshooters tried to kill him. He held Hall for three days as police, family members, a charismatic local radio DJ (Colman Domingo) and TV reporters were drawn into the standoff.
As 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, the auction house Christie's is hosting multiple auctions later this month as part of "Americana Week." Was I the only one who didn't know that Jimmy Carter was also a painter? The lots include a painting by that president, Gilbert Stuart's portrait of George Washington for James Madison, and Grant Wood's original study for "American Gothic" (1930).
A double dose of alma is on tap at the library's West Branch with tamales karaoke, a song session for tweens, teens and anyone who wants to unleash their inner Bad Bunny (or Selena), combining pop songs with a yummy Mexican dish.
The Napa Lighted Art Festival is a celebration of creative arts, technology and lights, and supports innovative techniques using light and light technologies as a growing art medium. This walkable outdoor experience is free in Downtown Napa, featuring 15 lighted art installations for 5 weeks from January 17 - February 15, 2026. Projection artwork will be displayed on three iconic downtown buildings for the first 9 nights of the festival: January 17-25, 2026.
The Napa Lighted Art Festival is a celebration of creative arts, technology and lights, and supports innovative techniques using light and light technologies as a growing art medium. This walkable outdoor experience is free in Downtown Napa, featuring 15 lighted art installations for 5 weeks from January 17 - February 15, 2026. Projection artwork will be displayed on three iconic downtown buildings for the first 9 nights of the festival: January 17-25, 2026.
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... Whether you want to catch a cool concert or the Golden Globes, or just settle down to a decadent lasagna dinner, we are here for you. So let's get to it, shall we? (As always, be sure to double check event and venue websites for any last-minute changes in health guidelines or other details.) Meanwhile, if you'd like to have this Weekender lineup delivered to your inbox every Thursday morning for free, just sign up at www.mercurynews.com/newsletters or www.eastbaytimes.com/newsletters.
