Osaka’s Long-Overdue Luxury Hotel Moment Has Arrived

Osaka’s Long-Overdue Luxury Hotel Moment Has Arrived

Osaka is not Tokyo. It has never tried to be. Whereas the country’s capital exudes a buttoned-up beauty and a cosmopolitan charisma found in only a handful of global megacities, “tenka no daidokoro,” which translates to “Japan’s kitchen”—a nickname dating to the Edo period when the city was a major rice-trading hub—has a far more…

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What to Say When Someone Tells You to Smile More

What to Say When Someone Tells You to Smile More

Four words have echoed across every boardroom, dating app, and city street in the world: You should smile more. Anastasia Ryan has heard it her whole life, but perhaps never more than in a role where the people she was speaking to couldn’t see her at all. “The majority of what I did was over…

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Why You Should Handwrite Someone You Love a Card

Why You Should Handwrite Someone You Love a Card

Dashing off an email or text takes seconds. Handwriting a card takes a little courage—and five minutes with a pen. Putting in the extra time and effort matters more than you might think. “We all have a need to matter—to be considered and to be seen,” says Alison McKleroy, an art therapist in San Francisco.…

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One Fine Show: “Michael Rakowitz, Proxies for Poets and Palaces” at the Stavanger Art Museum

One Fine Show: “Michael Rakowitz, Proxies for Poets and Palaces” at the Stavanger Art Museum

Michael Rakowitz, The Ballad Special Ops Cody, 2017. Photo: Erik Sæter Jørgensen, Courtesy the Stavanger Art Museum Welcome to One Fine Show, where Observer highlights a recently opened exhibition at a museum not in New York City, a place we know and love that already receives plenty of attention. Few contemporary artists create work about war…

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London School Icons from the Lewis Collection Will Headline Sotheby’s March Sales

London School Icons from the Lewis Collection Will Headline Sotheby’s March Sales

Francis Bacon, Self-Portrait, 1972. 
Estimate: £8-12 million. Courtesy Sotheby’s As the London auctions approach in March, we are beginning to learn more about the major consignments the top houses have secured for this sales cycle—an auction round that will once again test the market, which entered 2026 with renewed hope following the positive close of…

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Elon Musk Loses Half of xAI’s Founding Team—Where They’ve Gone Next

Elon Musk Loses Half of xAI’s Founding Team—Where They’ve Gone Next

Elon Musk’s xAI has lost half of its 12-person founding team. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images Just days after Elon Musk merged his A.I. startup, xAI, with SpaceX in preparation for a widely anticipated trillion-dollar IPO later this year, two of xAI’s founding employees—Yuhuai (Tony) Wu and Jimmy Ba—announced their resignations. That means half of…

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In Chicago, Yoonshin Park Explores the Boundaries of the Book

In Chicago, Yoonshin Park Explores the Boundaries of the Book

Park’s work explores the boundaries of the book as both object and language, inviting viewers to “read” through form, texture and absence. Courtesy Hyde Park Art Center “Sometimes stories can be delivered without saying words,” artist Yoonshin Park tells Observer. “They can be delivered through shapes, materials, colors—a more direct way of delivering messages.” Park’s…

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Starting in the Dominican Republic, Elsa Maldonado and Nicole Bainov Are Forging Global Pathways for Caribbean Art

Starting in the Dominican Republic, Elsa Maldonado and Nicole Bainov Are Forging Global Pathways for Caribbean Art

Installation view: “The Fragility of Ancestral Time” at Casa Velazquez in Santo Domingo. Courtesy Heliconia Projects While contemporary Caribbean artists—particularly those working within the diaspora—are beginning to receive greater commercial and institutional attention internationally, much of what is unfolding in the region’s local scenes remains disconnected from the global art world. The newly launched nomadic…

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Charlotte Edey Creates Mesmerizing Portals Linking Body, Psyche and Environment

Charlotte Edey Creates Mesmerizing Portals Linking Body, Psyche and Environment

Installation view: Charlotte Edey’s “Corner/Fold.” © Charlotte Edey 2026. Image courtesy of the artist and James Cohan, New York. Photo by Dan Bradica Studio What is striking about Charlotte Edey’s work, particularly upon first encounter, is its ability to navigate—in masterfully crafted, physically tactile structures of wood and textile—the dialectical tension between inner and outer…

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