Paula Rego, The Dance , 1988, acrylic on paper on canvas, 213.5 x 274.5 cm.  © Ostrich Arts Ltd. Courtesy: Ostrich Arts Ltd and Victoria Miro, London

Paula Rego, The Dance, 1988, acrylic on paper on canvas, 213.5 x 274.5 cm. © Ostrich Arts Ltd. Courtesy: Ostrich Arts Ltd and Victoria Miro, London

At Kestner Gesellschaft’s retrospective of Paula Rego, Kristian Vistrup Madsen eulogizes her unmasking of how women suffer and prevail through suffering.

 “The Happy Nut.” Courtesy: Kindred Black

“The Happy Nut.” Courtesy: Kindred Black

For her first column of 2023, Cara Schacter looks under the soft, draped gown of fashion’s obsession with everything angelic.

 Fourtnight Battlepass perform at Rash NYE, 2023. Photo: Nolan Kelly Mitchell

Fourtnight Battlepass perform at Rash NYE, 2023. Photo: Nolan Kelly

Minutes to midnight, Nolan Kelly wonders if hyperpop is a nostalgic rehash of too-recent hits, or a consolation for a culture exhausted by novelty-seeking?

 Stills from Olivia Wilde, Don’t Worry Darling , 2022. All images courtesy: Warner Bros. Pictures

Stills from Olivia Wilde, Don’t Worry Darling, 2022. All images courtesy: Warner Bros. Pictures

Where Don’t Worry Darling styles itself as a critique of retro-patriarchy, Steven Phillips-Horst sees a vision of womanhood stuck in a cul-de-sac of moral escapism.

 Wait till the sun shines , 2022, oil on linen, 100 x 205 cm. Installation view, Belvedere 21, Vienna, 2022. All photos: Johannes Stoll

Wait till the sun shines, 2022, oil on linen, 100 x 205 cm. Installation view, Belvedere 21, Vienna, 2022. All photos: Johannes Stoll

At Belvedere, Vienna, androgynous nudes lay around Stanislava Kovalcikova’s art-history-rich paintings as though in erotic limbo.

 View of “Sam Falls”, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Vienna, 2022

View of “Sam Falls”, Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Vienna, 2022. All photos: Jorit Aust

At Galerie Eva Presenhuber in Vienna, Sam Falls sows photographic exposures with plant and soil matter in lurid depictions of growth and decay.

 Still from Toshi Hoo, Raymond Kurzweil, Anthony Waller,  The Singularity Is Near , 2010 (detail)

Still from Toshi Hoo, Raymond Kurzweil, Anthony Waller, The Singularity Is Near, 2010

Will we still set New Year’s resolutions when our consciousness lives on computers? Adina Glickstein rings in 2023 with transhumanists, goblins, and worms. 

 View of Michel Majerus,“gemälde”, neugerriemschneider, Berlin, 19.11.–23.12.1994; © Michel Majerus Estate. Courtesy neugerriemschneider, Berlin. Photo: Jens Ziehe

View of Michel Majerus,“gemälde,” neugerriemschneider, Berlin, 19.11–23.12.1994 © Michel Majerus Estate. Courtesy: neugerriemschneider, Berlin. Photo: Jens Ziehe

Was Michel Majerus the 20th century’s last conceptualist, or our own millennium’s first art-world troll? By Colin Lang

 Rachel Rossin,  Moulting keyholes ad you tell me now  (2022) (detail)

Rachel Rossin, Moulting keyholes ad you tell me now (2022) (detail)

Rounding out Spike x Liste Expedition Monthly Picks for 2022, Geoffrey Mak finds in painter-hacker Rachel Rossin’s works a melancholy embrace of our fractured lives.

 Kylie Jenner’s campaign for her makeup line, 2021

Kylie Jenner’s campaign for her makeup line, 2021

For his closing column on Spike, Dean Kissick wonders why everyone is a satanist and if we should take a hold of the world in all its glory

 Vegas-Lady delivering announcements over the microphone, Haus der Berliner Festspiele, October 2022

Vegas-Lady delivering announcements over the microphone, Haus der Berliner Festspiele, October 2022

Invited to expertise at a speed-date swap meet for discourse in twenty-seven languages, Daniel Moldoveanu looks askance at the doomed pageantry of trying to get one’s point across.