I make designer dresses from fish skin — this is the A-list fan I’ve reeled in

I make designer dresses from fish skin — this is the A-list fan I’ve reeled in

These outfits are sure to help people fish for compliments.  Isabella Taylor, who goes by Isab, creates dresses out of salmon skin, saying sustainability is her top priority. The young Brit visits fishmongers and smokehouses to collect skin that would otherwise be thrown away to create her unconventional designs. “Sustainability is the only thing I … Read more

David Bordwell, Scholar Who Demystified the Art of Film, Dies at 76

David Bordwell, Scholar Who Demystified the Art of Film, Dies at 76

David Bordwell, a film studies scholar whose immersive, accessible writing transcended the corridors of academia and illuminated the mechanics of moviemaking to a generation of cinephiles and filmmakers, died on Feb. 29 at his home in Madison, Wis. He was 76. The cause was interstitial pulmonary fibrosis, said his wife, Kristin Thompson, a prominent film … Read more

Well-to-do list: The best shopping, events and art openings in NYC this week

Well-to-do list: The best shopping, events and art openings in NYC this week

New York is so saturated with exhibitions and fabulous fashions that it’s easy to miss the hottest happenings of the moment. Never fear — Alexa has gathered a list of the best luxury shopping, gallery openings and cultural events for the upcoming week. You can sip cocktails amongst the orchids, book a deluxe helicopter ride … Read more

Beloved swine artist Pigcasso dead at age 8: ‘An inspiring figure’

Beloved swine artist Pigcasso dead at age 8: ‘An inspiring figure’

She sow had a nose for art.   Pigcasso, the wildly talented pig who sold over $1 million of her paintings and was hailed “the most successful non-human artist in world history,” has died at age 8.  Joanne Lefson, the creative critter’s owner, recently announced the 450-pound visionary’s death due chronic Rheumatoid arthritis. Prior to her passing, the … Read more

Socialite Libbie Mugrabi posts ‘Wanted’ signs on Upper East Side for financiers who ‘stole’ her Warhol

Socialite Libbie Mugrabi posts ‘Wanted’ signs on Upper East Side for financiers who ‘stole’ her Warhol

New York City socialite Libbie Mugrabi says she’s the victim of an “art heist” — and is taking matters into her own hands, distributing “Wanted” posters around East Hampton and the Upper East Side to name and shame the high-powered financiers she claims did her dirty. “$10,000 reward given for returned painting,” read the flyers, which … Read more

Life Imitates Art as a ‘Master and Margarita’ Movie Stirs Russia

Life Imitates Art as a ‘Master and Margarita’ Movie Stirs Russia

By all appearances, the movie adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s cult favorite novel “The Master and Margarita,” in Russian theaters this winter, shouldn’t be thriving in President Vladimir Putin’s wartime Russia. The director is American. One of the stars is German. The celebrated Stalin-era satire, unpublished in its time, is partly a subversive sendup of state … Read more

This is… what? Jennifer Lopez’s ‘This Is Me… Now’ proves that sometimes art and amor just don’t mix

This is… what? Jennifer Lopez’s ‘This Is Me… Now’ proves that sometimes art and amor just don’t mix

Well, the good news is that it’s no “Gigli.” Jennifer Lopez’s much-anticipated new album “This Is Me… Now” — the sequel to 2002’s “This Is Me… Then,” which drops on Friday — once again revolves around her Hollywood love affair with “Gigli” co-star Ben Affleck. But just like that much-maligned romantic comedy did in 2003, … Read more

Joy for maker of tallest matchstick Eiffel Tower as record refusal reversed

Joy for maker of tallest matchstick Eiffel Tower as record refusal reversed

Guinness World Records on Thursday told Frenchman Richard Plaud that his 23.6 ft matchstick Eiffel Tower was a record height, a day after initially rejecting it for using the wrong matches to Plaud’s dismay. Plaud said he had been on an “emotional rollercoaster” this week, after spending 4,200 hours over eight years on building his … Read more

How this ex-drug addict became a millionaire artist painting portraits of Brad Pitt and Lady Gaga

How this ex-drug addict became a millionaire artist painting portraits of Brad Pitt and Lady Gaga

Lincoln Townley has gone from a seedy life of drugs and strippers to doing portraits of Jody Foster and schmoozing with Michael Caine. Celebrity paintings by Townley – besides Foster and Caine, he’s captured  the likes of Brad Pitt, Samuel L. Jackson, Muhammad Ali, Lady Gaga, Matt Damon and others – sell for hundreds of thousands … Read more

AI replaces ‘woke’ TV translators in Japanese art, sparking online debate

AI replaces ‘woke’ TV translators in Japanese art, sparking online debate

Western television and anime localizers have recently come under fire for injecting “woke” language into English dubs not present in the original work, prompting some companies to implement artificial intelligence (AI) as a way of limiting human intervention or to remove them entirely. The use of AI in the industry is already well underway. On … Read more

‘Apolonia, Apolonia’ Review: A Whole Life in Art

‘Apolonia, Apolonia’ Review: A Whole Life in Art

That fact alone sets “Apolonia, Apolonia” apart from the deluge of subject-approved documentaries that have flooded the market and film festivals in the past several years. Those movies are frequently hagiographic, though not inevitably so. The intended audience is the famous subject’s fans, or those who wish to be. Thus these films come with a … Read more

Is buying art a good investment? A guide to what makes art valuable and where to buy

Is buying art a good investment? A guide to what makes art valuable and where to buy

Art can provide a stunning addition to your house and home — and it can also make you cash in the years while it hangs on your wall.  Collectible art, just like any other investment, is not guaranteed to make you money.  All investments have some risk involved, but this risk could be worth the future reward. … Read more

Thai rice farmer makes art with plantings that depict cats

Thai rice farmer makes art with plantings that depict cats

A sleeping cat hugs a fish in a picture seen from the air, picked out in sprouting rainbow seedlings in a rice field in Thailand to illustrate a traditional proverb about abundance. Farmer Tanyapong Jaikham and a team of workers planted the seedlings at various spots in the field in the northern province of Chiang … Read more

One man’s long, strange quest to prove his Warhols weren’t fake

One man’s long, strange quest to prove his Warhols weren’t fake

In 1989, Joe Simon, a film producer and art collector based in New York and California, bought Andy Warhol’s “Red Self-Portrait” silkscreen from a respected London art dealer for $195,000. Thirteen years later, he was set to sell the piece for $2 million when he hit an unexpected roadblock: the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board … Read more

Art Basel Miami wants Jeff Bezos, Lauren Sanchez to be homecoming king and queen

Art Basel Miami wants Jeff Bezos, Lauren Sanchez to be homecoming king and queen

It is the biggest party in the art world — and it usually attracts the most glittering stars. But as artists, collectors and A-listers descend on Miami for Art Basel this week there is only one question on everyone’s lips: Will Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez turn up? The Amazon founder and his fiancée are … Read more

‘Missing’ Botticelli painting worth $109M found in Italian family’s home

‘Missing’ Botticelli painting worth 9M found in Italian family’s home

A painting by the famous artist Sandro Botticelli — one believed to be missing for nearly 50 years — has been discovered. The masterpiece depicting the Virgin Mary and the baby Jesus was discovered in a family home in the Italian town of Gragnano, south of Naples, according to CNN. The artwork is estimated to be … Read more

Street artist Banksy confirms his name for the first time ever in lost interview

Street artist Banksy confirms his name for the first time ever in lost interview

After decades of speculation, the elusive street artist known only by his pseudonym Banksy has revealed his name. When asked if he goes by “Robert Banks” in a lost — and recently rediscovered — BBC interview from 20 years ago, the graffitist admitted: “It’s Robbie.” The artist has remained largely anonymous over the years, despite his … Read more

I let my son draw on walls as a baby — now he’s a painter and my home is covered in art

I let my son draw on walls as a baby — now he’s a painter and my home is covered in art

Letting kids draw on the walls might actually be a good thing. A mother from Peru let her son draw on walls since he was just a baby — and believes that’s what led him to be a budding artist. Adianée Peña García allowed her son Santiago Daniel to draw on every wall of their … Read more