The world of the Visual Arts...

Urban Art...

Damien Hirst (United Kingdom) designed a colorful façade for the Tiffany jewelry store in Miami’s Design District. The work, titled Cherry Blossom/Apple Blossom and conceived specifically for that space, intertwines the brand’s signature shades of blue with the butterflies that frequently appear in his work.

"I’ve always had a love affair with painting, with the conceptual idea of a painter. The butterfly paintings were about an imaginary painter who tried to create monochromes, but the butterflies kept landing on the surface, ruining them. There has always been an invented story behind my work," says Hirst in the book 33 Artists in 3 Acts by Sarah Thornton.

The butterfly symbolizes fragility, transformation, life, and death—recurring themes in the artist’s work. Its ephemeral beauty contrasts with its majesty, serving as a reminder of both the finite nature of human existence and the inevitability of death. These meanings lend it an almost spiritual or transcendental aura.

Cherry Blossom/Apple Blossom o Tiffany Incredible, by Damien Hirst

2:50 p.m.
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Lady in Blue: a contemporary figure in Trafalgar Square.

Sculpture

Since 1998, the Fourth Plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square has hosted a series of temporary public art interventions. The installation of Lady in Blue by Tschabalala Self marks the sixteenth commission of the program.

The sculpture, standing approximately three meters tall, depicts a woman moving forward with determination. For the artist, the figure is neither an idol meant for veneration nor a historical figure to be commemorated, but rather an everyday, contemporary woman: a tribute to those who navigate the city with optimism, purpose, and ambition.

Cast in bronze, the work incorporates a lapis lazuli patina, a material used as a pigment since Antiquity. Through this monumental presence, Self elevates a figure from daily life into the traditional language of the public monument.

Lady in Blue, by Tschabalala Self.

Fourth Plinth, Trafalgar Square, London.

3:39 p.m.
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Totem...

Sculpture

In the courtyard of the Royal Academy of Arts in London you will find Stack, a monumental, eight-meter-tall sculpture by Nicole Eisenman (b. 1965). This totem brings together figures and objects linked to the artist’s practice, offering the viewer a kind of abstract portrait of her personal and creative universe.

Eisenman summarizes the personal logic behind the work as follows: "These are the things I need in my life… the basics: food, wine, art, something to show affection to, like a cat." This list translates into the five elements that make up Stack. At the base appears Eisenman herself, wearing Birkenstocks and holding a wine glass, supporting the immense weight of a wine barrel. Stacked above her are a potato, representing food; a cat, associated with affection; and, at the very top, the seated figure of artist Phyllida Barlow (1944–2023), who carries a vase of flowers on her head. Barlow embodies the art that inspires Eisenman’s work, particularly her sculptural practice.The diversity of the composition is also reflected in the materials: the figure of the artist and the cat are made of bronze; Barlow is cast in aluminum; and the barrel is made of oak.

Taken together, Stack transforms a series of everyday needs (food, affection, wine, and art) into a monumental and deliberately unstable structure. With humor and vulnerability, Eisenman turns her personal experience into a collective image of what sustains life and creativity.

Stack, by Nicole Eisenman (2022-2024)

6:21 p.m.
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The Wedding of Cana, reinterpreted.

Temporary Exhibitions

On the Byzantine façade of the Palazzo Ca’ da Mosto, a building now converted into the Venice Venice hotel, French artist JR (Jean René, b. 1983) installed Il Gesto, a project specially conceived for the 61st Venice Biennale. The intervention offers a reinterpretation of The Wedding Feast at Cana ("Les Noces de Cana"), a work created by Paolo Veronese in 1563 that is part of the Louvre Museum’s collection.

In this work, JR replaces the biblical figures from the Renaissance composition with 176 portraits of members of the Refettorio Paris community, including chefs, volunteers, and guests. Monumental in scale, the piece explores notions of action, identity, and boundaries by depicting individuals connected to practices of service, social connection, and shared enjoyment.

Veronese’s painting was originally created for the refectory of the San Giorgio Maggiore monastery on the Grand Canal; it is currently housed at the Louvre Museum, having entered the institution’s collection following a military seizure. In keeping with Christian tradition, the scene depicts Jesus’s first miracle: the transformation of water into wine during a wedding feast.