River Phoenix’s most enduring performance may be his portrayal of Mike Waters, the narcoleptic sex worker, in My Own Private Idaho (1991). Written and directed by Gus Van Sant (Milk, Good Will Hunting) and starring Keanu Reeves as Scott, Phoenix’s character’s best friend and love interest, the film is a seminal piece of queer cinema with a cult following. Inspired by Shakespeare’s Henry V, My Own Private Idaho follows Mike and Scott as they travel from Portland, Oregon to Idaho, to Italy in search of...

If you've got an eye for the strange and unusual, put it to paper. Accessible and affordable, all you need to make beautiful paper collage art is a pair of scissors, a bottle of Mod Podge, and all those magazines you’ve been saving (even this one!). Artist Maria Rivans literally wrote the book on it (Extraordinary Things to Cut Out and Collage, Laurence King Publishing, Laurence King Publishing), and here she shares her top tips—from organization to composition to her favorite tools—for making the cut. Finders Keepers Comb...

When looking for an alternative to the grind of city life in L.A., artist Lorien Stern, known for turning subjects such as sharks and death into adorable and joyful creations, was pleasantly surprised by the tiny town of Inyokern in California’s Mojave Desert. “When we first started coming out here it was like, ‘OMG we’ve arrived on Mars!’ It’s an otherworldly experience,” says Stern. It was here, on her family’s plot of land—which Stern lovingly describes as a junkyard “full of good deals and forgotten...

Lanna Apisukh started her Everybody Skate photo project in 2018 to highlight the diversity of New York City’s skateboarding scene, in particular, to show off the growing numbers of female and queer skaters around the city. Now, in 2021, her skateboarder photography feels particularly relevant in a time in which the pandemic has created a resurgence of public space and forced personal re-negotiations of identity. Skateboarding parks offer the perfect intersection of the two: a public place for connecting with a community while performing one’s...

  “Because porn may not be considered art, but some art can definitely be considered porn.” Or so Pornhub declares in its introduction for “Classic Nudes”, the porn platform’s new interactive website and app designed to guide visitors through some of the world’s most famous erotic art.  Meant (in part) to encourage the return of museum visitors as covid restrictions ease up around the world, the site features tours of some of the world’s most famous museums and the nudist art they contain for both in-person visitors...

  Saneun Hwang is a visual artist and graphic designer based in Brooklyn, New York. Hwang moved to New York City from Seoul, South Korea eight years ago to pursue a degree in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts. There, she learned how to channel her passion for drawing and crafting into new mediums, like graphic design, mixed-media art, and photography. Her latest exhibition, “Concrete Utopia,” opens Friday, July 23 at Local Project Art Space. BUST sat down with the artist to discuss her...

As controversial as she is celebrated, Kara Walker is a prolific artist who helped define an entire generation of Black creators. Now, her collected works on paper from 1992 through 2020 have been gathered together for a new book and exhibit—Kara Walker: A Black Hole Is Everything a Star Longs to Be. Here are a few selections from that book, along with a brief essay by curator Anita Haldemann, explaining how Walker’s drawings are a “dance of skepticism and faith”  “Untitled,” 1997–1999  In the early 1990s, while...

Historic art forms and stories are on full display at the Turtle Bay Exploration Park. A new addition to the museum is an exhibit on the Jingle Dress, a traditional Native garment typically worn during ceremonies.  The Jingle Dress and its dance are believed to be a source of healing for Indigenous communities. In addition, it sheds light on violent crimes committed against Native American women. For April Carmelo of Redding, a guest curator and citizen of the Greenville Rancheria, this exhibit is personal. “This exhibit is...

Typically, when we ruminate over the inspirations behind some of the world’s most beautiful works of art, we tend to assume that artists are always drawn to the extraordinary. However, there are some who seek out simpler subjects, and through them, achieve something just as grand. London-based artist Gianna Dispenza’s solo exhibit, Overcome by Joy—being presented at the Charles Moffett Gallery in New York through June 5—is a celebration of the sentiment that there is beauty in the small things. In the following conversation with Dispenza, we...

Nine-year old Amal is not a typical girl. Standing almost 12 feet tall, "Little Amal" is a puppet that's set to travel across Turkey and Europe in search of her mother. This ambitious public art project, called "The Walk," was created by a humanitarian theatre group called Good Chance. In this project, Little Amal will travel to 70 different towns, cities, and villages, including those based in Greece, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, and France, until she reaches the U.K. The Walk Project was meant to have taken...