The hottest Exhibitions Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Art & Illustration Topics

How to get your art into museums

Science of Art • 418 implied HN points • 23 Oct 24
🎨 Art & Illustration Exhibitions
  1. Museums acquire art through buying, donations, and exchanges. It's not just about buying; they also consider gifts and bequests.
  2. Artists should align their work with a museum's mission. If their art matches a museum's goals, their chances of being noticed increase a lot.
  3. Networking is key for artists. By participating in events and connecting with art communities, artists can improve their visibility and create opportunities for themselves.

Come See the Chair Show on Nov. 23

The American Peasant • 2036 implied HN points • 06 Oct 24
🎨 Art & Illustration Exhibitions
  1. The Chair Show is happening on November 23, and it sounds like a fun event to see lots of interesting work.
  2. The person organizing the show prefers to sell their work directly rather than through a gallery, which often takes a large cut of the sales.
  3. They haven't shown their work in a gallery before, but they are excited about the opportunity and the social aspect of gallery shows.

The Enigmas of Gerhard Richter

Justin E. H. Smith's Hinternet • 449 implied HN points • 01 Mar 26
🎨 Art & Illustration Exhibitions
  1. Gerhard Richter is often seen as possibly the greatest living painter because of his extraordinary versatility, moving from photorealistic blurred images to grey monochromes across a seven-decade career.
  2. Even though Richter claims his paintings 'mean nothing,' they repeatedly engage personal and historical trauma—World War II, the bombing of Dresden, and intimate family tragedies—and often explore the experience of looking at photographs of loved ones and enemies.
  3. Key techniques and series carry clear critical readings: the 1965 photographic blur was a major innovation, the 1980s–90s smear paintings are read as reflecting art‑world financial cynicism, and some late works like the Birkenau paintings have been judged aesthetic and moral failures.

Freshmen Fireworks: Top Prospects Dominate in Exhibition Action

Chad Ford's NBA Big Board • 79 implied HN points • 20 Oct 24
🎾 Sports Exhibitions
  1. Top freshmen are making a strong impression in exhibition games. Players like Cooper Flagg and Ace Bailey are showcasing their talent and preparing for the upcoming season.
  2. Cooper Flagg is projected as a potential No. 1 pick for the 2025 NBA Draft. He had an impressive outing with 22 points and several assists and blocks in his debut.
  3. There are emerging talents from overseas like Mouhamad Faye who could surprise everyone in the 2025 draft. Keep an eye on these rising stars as the season progresses.

Into the Golden Era of Chinese Animation

Animation Obsessive • 1704 implied HN points • 05 Dec 25
🎭️ Culture Exhibitions
  1. The exhibition 'Animating China' highlighted the rich history of Chinese animation, particularly from the Shanghai Animation Film Studio. It showed how these animations have impacted viewers across generations.
  2. Visitors at the exhibition enjoyed a mix of nostalgia and appreciation for older animations, like 'Nezha Conquers the Dragon King', which many felt had more 'soul' than modern styles.
  3. The event served as a reminder of animation's role in shaping cultural identity and personal memories, making connections between past and present for families who attended.
Get a weekly roundup of the best Substack posts, by hacker news affinity:

Bucket Art

Breaking Smart • 74 implied HN points • 15 Dec 25
🎨 Art & Illustration Exhibitions
  1. A simple doodle evolved into a 41-piece iPad painting series called Bucket Art that uses the flood-fill (bucket) tool and pareidolia to discover motifs like waterfalls and ships.
  2. The hand-painted set was used to fine-tune a generative model on titles.xyz, letting many people create, mash up, and publish new Bucket Art images derived from the style.
  3. The platform links training images as NFTs to provide clear provenance and micropayment flows to contributing artists, enabling cheap, auditable, high-volume generative art and new creative-composability dynamics.

The Spanish Visualization Diaspora: An Exhibition

Alberto Cairo's The Art of Insight • 199 implied HN points • 14 Apr 24
🎨 Art & Illustration Exhibitions
  1. Many Spanish infographic designers have moved to other countries since the 1990s, especially the USA, to find better opportunities. They often notice much better salaries and working conditions compared to Spain.
  2. Spanish designers are trained to be versatile, handling various tasks such as drawing, programming, and creating data visuals. This diverse skill set is attractive to employers abroad.
  3. Even though they face challenges when leaving their home country, many Spanish designers maintain a positive attitude and good humor about their work, making them well-liked in their new environments.

PhD, Latent Dispatch, Patterns of Entanglement

mattdesl • 42 implied HN points • 11 Dec 25
🎨 Art & Illustration Exhibitions
  1. The project pairs machine-generated, statistically averaged single-line plotter drawings with playful hand-drawn doodles from visitors, highlighting a dialogue between machine precision and human variation. Audience drawings can be used as future training data, creating an ongoing feedback loop.
  2. Technically, it combines implicit neural representations (SIRENs) to encode continuous doodles with evolutionary optimization (sNES) and CLIP-based ranking, all visualized and run in the browser to produce pen-plotter-friendly curves. This setup works without traditional gradient-based training and lets the system evolve in real time.
  3. The work is framed as ongoing research connected to a PhD and will continue to evolve, with plans to explore multi-pen colour optimization, other types of imagery, and smaller models that run efficiently on WebGPU, alongside possible academic publication and further exhibitions.

65 – A contemporary ceramics fair in Brussels

Ceramics Now Weekly • 275 implied HN points • 17 Jan 24
🎨 Art & Illustration Exhibitions
  1. The first major fair dedicated to contemporary ceramics, ceramic brussels, will take place in Brussels between January 25-28, 2024.
  2. New featured artists are showcased in Ceramics Now, presenting the work of Kensuke Yamada, Jacaranda Kori, and Maria Diletta Rondoni.
  3. Various opportunities and events in the ceramics world are highlighted, including residency programs, exhibitions, and conferences.

Saul Steinberg at play

Austin Kleon • 1338 implied HN points • 12 Jul 22
🎨 Art & Illustration Exhibitions
  1. Saul Steinberg was a unique artist who described himself as a 'writer who draws'. He inspired others to see art in new ways.
  2. His famous work, 'View of the World from 9th Avenue', is well-known and a great introduction to his style and ideas.
  3. Steinberg had a long history with 'The New Yorker' magazine, which showcases his diverse range of artistic styles and contributions.

Five... Places to See Pieces of Canadian History in London

Londonist: Time Machine • 59 implied HN points • 21 Apr 24
🏝 Travel Exhibitions
  1. London has various places with fragments of Canadian history, often overlooked, that can be explored.
  2. 128 Regent Street holds significance as the location where Lord Stanley purchased the original Stanley Cup trophy in 1892.
  3. Canada House, located in the heart of Little Canada in London, offers a gallery promoting Canadian art across different regions and eras.

Artificial Means Human-made

Reboot • 25 implied HN points • 30 Nov 25
🎭️ Culture Exhibitions
  1. AI is a human-made continuation of past technologies, not an alien force, and debates about what’s "human" versus "machine" repeat whenever new tools reshape culture.
  2. AI can evoke spiritual and communal responses by producing emergent, collective effects, and designing shared, voice-centered experiences counters the narrative of isolated, personalized automation.
  3. We need new social and legal protocols—like public-domain datasets, consent mechanisms, data trusts, and decentralized sharing—to ensure fair use, shared ownership, and cooperative discovery in the age of AI.

#48 – A list of residencies for ceramic artists

Ceramics Now Weekly • 216 implied HN points • 28 Feb 23
🎨 Art & Illustration Exhibitions
  1. A list of residencies for ceramic artists is provided, with information on various US programs with different application deadlines and opportunities.
  2. The week's news in the ceramic world includes updates on important ceramic competitions, awards, exhibitions, and events happening internationally.
  3. New featured artists in Ceramics Now are highlighted, showcasing the work of talented individuals in the field.

The Empire of Light Edition

Why is this interesting? • 301 implied HN points • 04 Dec 24
🎨 Art & Illustration Exhibitions
  1. René Magritte's painting 'The Empire of Light' sold for over $120 million, setting a record for surrealist art at auction. This highlights the growing appreciation for surrealism in the art world.
  2. The painting depicts a street at night under a daytime sky, which is a unique and captivating imagery. It's part of a series that showcases Magritte's creative style and imagination.
  3. Magritte is now among a few elite artists whose works have crossed the nine-figure sale mark. This includes famous names like Leonardo da Vinci and Pablo Picasso.

61 – A book about sustainable ceramics

Ceramics Now Weekly • 157 implied HN points • 24 Oct 23
🎨 Art & Illustration Exhibitions
  1. Yuliya Makliuk's book 'Potters Save the World' focuses on sustainable ceramics and environmental responsibility.
  2. Ceramics Now Weekly #61 features new artists and the latest news in the ceramic world.
  3. Various ceramic events, exhibitions, and discussions are happening worldwide, offering opportunities for artists to showcase their work and engage with the community.

Artist Lucy Raven on her creative process

Chance Operations • 277 implied HN points • 13 May 23
🎨 Art & Illustration Exhibitions
  1. Lucy Raven's work focuses on material transformation and technology, reflecting on globalization and the relationship between humans and the natural world.
  2. Her projects often stem from unanswered questions in previous works, leading to an organic progression in her creative process.
  3. Sustaining creative work involves a mix of exhibitions, commissions, residencies, teaching, and other opportunities, with grants playing a smaller role.

🔓 Unlock Your Weekly Guide to the Coolest Attractions and Events!

Digest // Storefronts of Bangkok • 59 implied HN points • 22 Feb 24
🏝 Travel Exhibitions
  1. Discover unique and exciting events in Bangkok like the Luck Lock Love event on the Parallel Rama 9 Bridge.
  2. Join fun activities like the HUH? x BEAM CUBE dance series for a night of music and dancing in Bangkok.
  3. Explore historical and cultural sites such as the Ancient City in Bangkok, an outdoor museum with replicas of significant structures.

Support Do Not Research in 2024

Do Not Research • 79 implied HN points • 21 Dec 23
🎨 Art & Illustration Exhibitions
  1. Do Not Research is a platform that supports artists and writers engaging with online culture, hosting events like exhibitions, film screenings, workshops, and book launches
  2. The publication began in 2021 and has featured nearly 200 contributors, with notable events at the IMA in Brisbane and the New Museum in New York City
  3. In 2024, support is needed for Do Not Research to fund new contributors, editorial work, and group projects