Halloween Highlights set the tone for a reflective week in New York, where a costumed city blurred the line between daily life and performance. On a bright afternoon in Queens, a passerby in a vivid red dress strode past with a prop axe and a steely expression as sirens echoed blocks away. The moment, quickly placed in context by the date, captured the playful dissonance of the season.
At a convivial dinner hosted by Cabinet Magazine, founder and editor-in-chief Sina Najafi shared a photograph of tightrope artist Margret Zimmermann balancing above Cologne’s bombed Haymarket in 1946, her poise cutting through the postwar ruins as wind tousled her hair. Outside, Brooklyn’s streets reflected familiar contradictions. A man wearing a jeweled crown asked for spare change, underscoring how performance and survival often overlap in the city.
That same spirit animated Hyperallergic’s art-themed Halloween party in Brooklyn, where nearly two hundred attendees embraced elaborate looks and stayed in character. Claire Valdez, an artist and organizer now running for Congress, joined as a judge for the costume contest. Even those without outfits found ways to participate.
On a nearby screen, Marcel Duchamp’s line, “To live is to believe,” played as a child dressed as Lady Liberty held her torch aloft while crossing the street, a small scene that lingered.
—Reporting by the National Gazette arts desk
The Greatest Art Costumes From Hyperallergic’s Halloween Party
A wry procession of references filled the room, from a Dutch still life to the meme-famous “Beast Jesus,” along with several deep-cut Goya figures and two Marina Abramović and Ulay nods that avoided the usual tropes. On Wednesday, October 28, close to 200 members, readers, artists, supporters, and friends gathered at Oberon in Brooklyn for the annual art costume celebration.
Halloween Highlights
Seasonal imagery and art history converged in scenes inspired by masterworks, from Manet’s Olympia to other canonical subjects, as guests translated paintings into wearable spectacle.
News
- Ursula von Rydingsvard, known for vast cedar sculptures shaped in part by memories of post–World War II refugee camps, died at 84.
- Amid a string of high-profile museum thefts worldwide, a Los Angeles artist reversed the script by surreptitiously installing his own work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
- Researchers challenged the accepted date of Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night, citing mismatches between the night sky in June 1889 and the painting’s celestial arrangement.
- Kid Cudi said he will write, direct, and star in JEAN, a forthcoming film about the life of Jean-Michel Basquiat.
- Artisans from Mexico’s Mestiz Studio began assembling a monumental ofrenda titled “Twenty Petal Flower” in Manhattan ahead of Día de Muertos.
- A Vatican-organized exhibition series convened more than 100 artists to champion the human core of creativity as artificial intelligence advances.
- In brief art world moves: Documenta 16 announced four new curatorial team members, Catherine Opie received a Yale University honor, and Dallas Art Fair unveiled a university partnership.
Paris Art Week
Paris Art Week unfolded with a dense slate of exhibitions and fairs, drawing international galleries, collectors, and artists to venues across the city.
From Our Critics
Critics examined projects at the intersection of performance, persona, and media, spotlighting works that probe authenticity, staging, and the mechanics of spectatorship.
Opinion
An Epstein survivor urged the Museum of Modern Art to reconsider its ties to Leon Black, raising questions about institutional accountability and philanthropy in the cultural sector.
Books
Artist Martha Wilson reflected on the echoes between the Reagan-era Culture Wars and today’s battles over creative expression, recommending Isaac Butler’s The Perfect Moment for its resonant histories.
Features
Reporting traced how artists who experienced displacement and conflict have translated upheaval into practice, connecting biography to form and material across decades.
Interviews
Poet Layli Long Soldier discussed her new book, the interplay of poetry and visual art, and the ways Lakota philosophy informs her writing in a conversation with longtime friend and colleague Dyani White Hawk.
Guide
A Los Angeles art guide highlighted exhibitions and programs citywide, offering a roadmap to current shows and under-the-radar spaces.
Announcements
Calls for applications, institutional updates, and community notices rounded out the week’s bulletin, including tuition-free graduate opportunities at the University of Arkansas School of Art.