Louise Benson

But first I’ll be taking a proper summer holiday, sitting by the sea and eating tomatoes, before I begin my new role in September.

My last day as Director of Digital at @artreview.bsky.social was last week. It was a real privilege at ArtReview to commission widely and ambitiously with fantastic writers, covering the art world and so much more beyond it, alongside an incredibly talented team.

🚨NEWS: I’m now Editor-in-Chief at @ocula.com, which is relaunching in the UK with a new website and editorial strategy. I’ll also be building a new team there - more details to come in the next few weeks.

What Does Feelgood Art Look Like? Like a cigarette, ‘feelgood’ art is contrary, anachronistic and fleeting in its pleasure

The sun's out, David Hockney's got a show in Paris, and everything is in bloom here in London. For @artreview.bsky.social, I wrote about the comforting allure of 'feelgood' art and the pleasant lack of being challenged by what you see artreview.com/what-does-fe...

So Long Just Stop Oil, and Thanks for All the Soup What the gentle iconoclasm of the climate action group makes you realise, fundamentally, is how powerless we all really are

‘Iconoclasts obliterate the icons, Just Stop Oil just gave those icons their five a day.’ artreview.com/so-long-just...

The Trouble with Designing Exhibitions for Kids There is plenty on offer for grown-ups in the Young V&A’s latest exhibition ‘Making Egypt’, but what really is the point of that?

I wrote about what exhibitions designed for children get wrong, the class divide when it comes to museum visits, and why outreach programmes so often fail to reach beyond a core demographic of wealthy, white, highly-educated visitors. Out now in @artreview.bsky.social artreview.com/the-trouble-...

Come to our event on 2 March! We have a banging line-up of speakers giving readings in support of Palestinian rights and culture, in response to Israel's raid on the Educational Bookshop in Jerusalem last week. Tickets going fast so don't miss out...
actionnetwork.org/ticketed_eve...

Why Israel’s Raid on a Palestinian Bookshop Matters The real threat posed by detained booksellers Mahmoud and Ahmad Muna is their willingness to engage with Jewish-Israelis amid a state narrative that presents all Palestinians as terrorists

I wrote about the Educational bookshop, and why the ugly and ridiculous attack on its owners matters. I don't know Mahmoud Muna personally but I heard him a few times and he always struck me as one of Jerusalem's most inspiring intellectuals.
artreview.com/mahmoud-muna...

Why Israel’s Raid on a Palestinian Bookshop Matters The real threat posed by detained booksellers Mahmoud and Ahmad Muna is their willingness to engage with Jewish-Israelis amid a state narrative that presents all Palestinians as terrorists

The real threat posed by detained booksellers Mahmoud and Ahmad Muna is their willingness to engage with Jewish-Israelis amid a state narrative that demonises Palestinians artreview.com/mahmoud-muna...

The Neoliberal Fantasy of ‘The Brutalist’ The film’s reductive portrayal of an exploited creative ‘genius’ places individuation as the defining feature of existence

On the exploited creative genius character and Hollywood's obsession with individuation as the defining feature of existence. Whatever happened to creative community? artreview.com/the-neoliber...

🔊Podcast producers: we are seeking a freelance producer at @artreview.bsky.social for an exciting upcoming editorial project. Ideally based in London but can be remote. Get in touch on here or email me at louisebenson@artreview.com 📩

The Monstrous Susan Sontag Rude, immoral and unashamedly intellectual. 20 years on from her death, what would the world think of Sontag today?

If you read one thing today, make it this conflicted elegy to Sontag by @olibasciano.bsky.social on the strange joy of hating your heroes artreview.com/the-monstrou...

Thanks for amplifying the callout Marijam! Pleasure to have you and your latest book on our site too, fantastic work.

The Internet Archive Lawsuit Marks an Ending At every turn, access to information is being cut off or paywalled. At what cost?

On the removal of over 500,000 books from the Internet Archive, after the courts ruled that free access was not in the financial interest of publishers, as @michelle-sc.bsky.social considered the wider implications for copyright law, for AI, and for regular readers artreview.com/the-internet...

The UK’s Arts Education Crisis Is About to Get Even Worse The future of universities hangs in the balance as tuition fees look set to rise

What the rise in student fees means for education and the arts, as @briangdillon.bsky.social took on the ongoing ‘war on universities’ and wondered at how little has changed under the new government artreview.com/the-uks-arts...

The Tangled Politics of Erdoğan’s Culture Route Festival How resistance to a government-funded festival is energising Turkey’s art scene

Reporting from Istanbul on the Culture Route Festival, Kaya Genç on artwashing, gentrification and the difficult choices that young artists have been forced to make artreview.com/the-tangled-...

The Derzhprom Building and the Erasure of Ukraine’s Avant-Garde Russia’s recent strike on Kharkiv’s Constructivist complex represents an attack on a radical yet largely forgotten legacy of anticolonialism

On the remarkable history of the 1928 Derzhprom building in the centre of Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, which was partially destroyed last year by a Russian rocket, as Owen Hatherley argued that it represents a brief yet radical chapter in the history of resistance artreview.com/the-derzhpro...

After Malayalam Cinema’s MeToo Reckoning, What Comes Next? The release of the Hema Committee Report on rampant sexual harassment reflects deeper misogynist attitudes across the country that will be harder to shake

Deepa Bhashti gave the bigger picture following a report revealing the rampant sexual harassment, misogyny and the appalling conditions faced by women working in the Malayalam film industry, even as their latest releases win plaudits at home and at Cannes artreview.com/after-malaya...

What MUAC and Ana Gallardo Got Wrong The Mexico City museum’s display of works by Gallardo caused a storm in the city’s art scene; the aftermath told us all we need to know about art and censorship today

As the recent controversy surrounding Ana Gallardo’s touring anthology exhibition at Mexico City’s MUAC evolved, Gaby Cepeda reflected upon just how ill-prepared museums are when it comes to public debate artreview.com/what-muac-an...

A Kenyan Docudrama How can we weigh present materialities against historical wounds? Zoé Samudzi questions the efficacy of a project to reenact events of the Mau Mau rebellion

Looking at 'State of Emergency', a new photobook by Max Pinckers that uses photographic reenactments to reflect on Kenya’s colonial history, Zoé Samudzi asked why Pinckers ultimately foregrounds the British historical narrative even as he seeks to transcend it artreview.com/a-kenyan-doc...

Saving the Videogame Industry from Itself How might the vast social and economic power of videogames be transformed into a force for change?

Here @jamiesutcliffe.bsky.social reflected on the politics and radical potential of videogames, as explored in 'Everything To Play For' by @marijamdid.com (published by @versobooks.bsky.social) artreview.com/saving-the-v...

At @artreview.bsky.social I am looking for new writers for opinion-led columns, expansive reviews and on-the-ground reporting to tackle social and political questions (both big and small) through the world of art and culture. Here are some highlights from our publishing over the last few months.

It’s been a year of many extremes, both for me personally and in the wider world. I’m grateful to be working in a little corner of the art + media world that remains fiercely independent, critical, questioning and, importantly, fun. And expect exciting news from us in 2025…

You can explore the full series here, which I commissioned with the excellent @alexanderleissle.bsky.social, and I’ll follow-up with a wider selection from our main digital commissioning in a separate thread. artreview.com/category/the...

Why Can’t the Artworld Tell the Truth? The year in art: in 2024, museums and galleries were unable to reconcile art and life, and so ended up saying nothing at all

And finally from the Year in Review, Mark Rappolt on how in 2024 art institutions ‘seemed to find finding more-or-less radical ways of saying nothing; all the while foregrounding the idea that they were trying to say something’. artreview.com/why-cant-the...

It Was Never About Artificial Intelligence The year in technology: AI came at us fast and hard in 2024. What is it all for?

On the ‘failed techno-revolution’ of AI, by @michelle-sc.bsky.social: ‘The power amassed by these new technocrats is frightening. But there is no reason to be dazzled by their barely functional technologies.’ artreview.com/the-year-in-...

In the Age of Demolition, We Must Do More Than Just Rebuild The year in architecture: 2024 was defined by destruction. Is ruin and decay all we have left?

Luis Ortega Govela on the year in architecture as a year of destruction. ‘This moment in our history does not offer us buildings through which we can unravel our present but rather it offers us rubble, implosions, blasted materials, tons and tons of debris.’ artreview.com/year-in-arch...

A Golden Age for Perverts The year in sex: 2024 pushed everyone toward a horizon of further abjection, in which we ventured few dreams for the future, erotic or otherwise

‘No one invokes the spectre of sexual revolution or utopia, not anymore. We venture few dreams for the future, erotic or otherwise.’ @charoshane.bsky.social on the year in sex, from the joy of a pervert’s paradise to the horror of ever-further abjection. artreview.com/a-golden-age...

Against the ‘Aesthetic Turn’ in Cinema The year in film: 2024 was the year the film industry could no longer ignore the real world

‘Cinema is supposedly “neither right wing nor left wing”, which is a little like saying cinema should have no politics whatsoever.’ Ian Wang on the story of cinema in 2024 and the industry’s silence in the face of genocide. artreview.com/the-year-in-...

Why Fashion Is Falling Backwards The year in fashion: In 2024, taste is now acquired from so many sources that the only way for the industry to keep up is to infiltrate all areas of life

Firstly, Rosalind Jana on the year in fashion: ‘Taste is now acquired from so many sources that the only way to keep up is to position oneself not just as a purveyor of clothes or cosmetics but as a mascot of deeper cultural richness.’ artreview.com/why-fashion-...