Bill Henson and the Saga of Australian Pornography Laws
News / Sydney
By Michael Young

The May 5 opening of Australian photographer Bill Henson’s latest exhibition at the Roslyn Oxley9 gallery in Sydney’s chic Paddington suburb proved to be a gently congratulatory affair. A crowd of about 500 of Sydney’s cultural glitterati packed the space to hear Edmund Capon, director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, describe the new photographs as “immensely satisfying in their beauty and mystery.” [more]

Yael Bartana Wins Artes Mundi
News / Cardiff
By Sara Raza

Israeli film and video artist Yael Bartana, renowned for her culturally incisive video works that examine the geopolitics of her native Israel, won the highly coveted GBP 40,000 (USD 59,000) Artes Mundi Prize at the National Museum Cardiff in Wales on May 19. Bartana’s entry consisted of two films from a planned trilogy about the return of geographically estranged Jews to their European homelands; the films take place in Poland, where three million Jews either perished or were displaced during World War II. [more] 

Shusaku Arakawa (1936–2010)
News / New York
By Ashley Rawlings

Japanese conceptual artist, architect and poet Shusaku Arakawa, who with his wife, American artist Madeline Gins, was renowned for exploring architecture’s influence on human health, died in Manhattan on May 18 after a short stay in hospital. Gins declined to release the cause of death. [more]