Artists & Personalities

Xiaoming Ai and The Fixed Fire: Reimagining Thangka Tradition for a Contemporary World

September 23, 2026

By Lee Sharrock Artist Xiaoming Ai occupies a fascinating space somewhere between tradition and technological innovation. Ai is knowledgeable about the ancient Tibetan Thangka tradition and also possesses extensive knowledge of programming. She approaches sacred Buddhist imagery as a living visual system capable of generating new meanings through a contemporary lens, rather than viewing it as a fixed historical language. Through her practice, Ai investigates how an ancient image can retain spiritual and psychological meanings when it’s reinterpreted in the form of contemporary art. ‘The Fixed Fire’, 2026 is an intricately detailed work of art featuring a guardian deity astride a creature resembling something between a dragon and a dog. Ai creates a visual bridge between the disciplined geometry and iconography of Thangka painting and a contemporary sensibility concerned with the exploration of consciousness and transformation. Thangka is traditionally a devotional and meditative instrument, and not simply an image to be hung on a wall as decoration. Thangka is known for its carefully prescribed proportions, sacred measurements, intense colour palette and intricate iconography. All of these elements combine to facilitate the act of contemplation. In her work ‘The Fixed Fire’, Ai demonstrates a profound understanding of the underlying spiritual, meditative

Xiaoming Ai and The Fixed Fire: Reimagining Thangka Tradition for a Contemporary World

September 23, 2026

By Lee Sharrock Artist Xiaoming Ai occupies a fascinating space somewhere between tradition and technological innovation. Ai is knowledgeable about

Jhené Aiko Lands First Billboard 200 No. 1 With Westside Whimsy

Jhené Aiko Lands First Billboard 200 No. 1 With Westside Whimsy

September 22, 2026

Utah Burgess Discusses Noble Hops and the Band’s Approach to American Rock

September 21, 2026

Shakira and Maluma Reunite on New Single ‘AGUA’

September 19, 2026

Big Jon Harris Is Building His Next Chapter With Purpose, New Music and a Message That Goes Beyond Hip-Hop

September 18, 2026

CJ Shaman on Music and Personal Transformation

September 18, 2026

A Musical Identity Shaped by Change Personal transformation can influence how an artist writes, performs, and connects with listeners. For CJ Shaman, that process has become central to a musical identity shaped by country, rock, rockabilly, reggae, and hip-hop. The artist’s development began in the quiet surroundings of Chino Valley, Arizona. His path later took him through Sedona and eventually to Las Vegas, where he formed a clearer creative direction. Rather than leaving his early influences behind, he draws from them while developing music focused on reflection, tension, and change. His story shows how contrasting experiences can become creative material when an artist gives them a new purpose. Early Roots in Chino Valley CJ Shaman grew up in a conservative religious household where country music formed much of his early listening experience. He got the idea from songs around him that were centered on clear expressions, interesting characters, and deep emotional stories. Country music has never been short on examples of artists using their personal experiences to depict family hardship, place, and identity. The way stories are told in this style became a point of reference for his own writing, albeit his later music took him elsewhere. Confining experiences of

Romeo + Juliet Film in Concert Sets 2027 U.S. Tour

September 17, 2026

Romeo + Juliet Film in Concert will bring Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 film to U.S. theaters in 2027 with the complete movie on screen and a 12-piece hybrid ensemble performing its score and soundtrack live. Developed by GEA Live with Disney Concerts and Luhrmann, the production premieres Sept. 29 in Sydney. Key Takeaways The world premiere is scheduled for Sept. 29, 2026, at the Sydney Opera House The U.S. run begins Jan. 9, 2027, in Williamsport, Pennsylvania A 12-piece hybrid ensemble will perform the score and soundtrack in sync with the complete film General public ticket sales for North American dates begin Sept. 18 at 10 a.m. local time Romeo + Juliet Film in Concert is set to give Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 adaptation a new live-performance format for its 30th anniversary, pairing the uncut movie with musicians performing in real time. GEA Live announced the global tour in collaboration with Disney Concerts and Luhrmann. The production will receive its world premiere at the Sydney Opera House on Sept. 29 before reaching North America in January 2027. The central draw is not a remake or a new edit. Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes remain on screen in the original film while the

Ink and Brush Reflect the True Heart, Jiang Guangju on Contemporary Calligraphy: Finding the Way Back Amidst Alienation

September 16, 2026

By: Shawn Mars Deep within the campus of Hunan Industrial Vocational and Technical University sits a calligraphy studio filled with the lingering fragrance of ink. On the walls, running and cursive scripts flow like clouds and water, while clerical script appears ancient and profound. Within this single room, a visitor can witness the thousand-year flow of the ink brush. The studio belongs to the calligrapher Jiang Guangju. Born in 1968, he earned a master’s degree from the Fine Arts Department of Nanjing Normal University, where he studied under contemporary calligrapher Wei Tianchi and seal-carving artist Ma Shida. For decades, he has cultivated his craft, studying ancient and modern rubbings and inscriptions in depth. His work has been featured in professional calligraphy publications and recognized in national calligraphy competitions. Meeting Jiang Guangju for the first time, one finds him gentle and elegant. When the reporter turns to the current state of the contemporary calligraphy scene, though, his expression becomes solemn and thoughtful. The following is a transcript of this exclusive interview. Reporter: Mr. Jiang, your calligraphy career can be described as being rooted in tradition for many years. From “Ink and Brush Reflect the True Heart” to “Drawing from the Past

Oprah Winfrey Sets Multidisciplinary Sphere Show in Las Vegas

September 15, 2026

Oprah Winfrey is preparing “Oprah Winfrey’s AHA,” a multidisciplinary live production combining music, poetry, storytelling and visual art at Las Vegas Sphere. The three-performance engagement, scheduled for April 2–4, 2027, will feature musicians and poets including Jacob Collier, Ocean Vuong, Ajeet and Wintley Phipps. Key Takeaways Oprah Winfrey will present “Oprah Winfrey’s AHA” at Las Vegas Sphere. The production will combine music, poetry, storytelling and visual art. Performances are scheduled for April 2–4, 2027. Jacob Collier, Ocean Vuong, Ajeet and Wintley Phipps are among the announced participants. Winfrey will serve as executive producer, with Live Nation presenting the production. Oprah Winfrey Announces New Sphere Production The Oprah Winfrey Sphere show will take place across three performances at Las Vegas Sphere from April 2 through April 4, 2027. The production, titled “Oprah Winfrey’s AHA,” will bring together several creative disciplines in a live format. Winfrey will serve as an executive producer for the production, while Live Nation will present the performances. The project places Winfrey in a creative role beyond a conventional stage appearance, with the production built around music, poetry, storytelling and visual art. The announced format gives the performance several distinct creative components rather than limiting it to a

Tyran Lee Ingram: “Thank the Lord” From Camouflage Walls and Sleeping Outside to the Walk of Fame

September 14, 2026

By: Sujan Pariyar In the heart of Hollywood, where dreams are sold by the square foot, and most stories never leave the sidewalk, one man stands out not for polished fame but for raw, unfiltered perseverance. Tyran Lee Ingram’s journey stretches from the quiet streets of South Bend and Elkhart to the glittering, unforgiving Walk of Fame. A former Army National Guard member, Christian high school graduate, and self-taught musician, he has slept outside to pay for studio time, held cardboard signs for spare change, and still managed to place his song “Thank the Lord” on international platforms. His remarkable work and humble, faith-driven career have already earned him features in LA Magazine, Hollywood Times, and Los Angeles Magazine. While he continues to look ahead with quiet determination to Billboard, Hollywood Reporter, and TMZ, his path has never been easy, yet it has always been guided by faith. In this exclusive conversation, Tyran opens up about the long march that brought him here, and why he still believes the best is yet to come. You say the first song you ever taught yourself was “When the Saints Go Marching In.” Why does that still matter? Tyran Lee Ingram: Because it

Patricia Leavy Discusses Art, Love, and Sugar Sand Land

September 12, 2026

By: Patty Demarco When a writer who has published more than fifty books over a twenty-five-year career says that a new novel is the favorite thing she has ever written, it is worth paying attention to why. Patricia Leavy has that conversation about Sugar Sand Land with a directness that doesn’t leave much room for false modesty. This is the book that merges everything she cares about more than anything else she has done. And she wants to tell you exactly what that means. Art as the Constant Leavy has spent her academic career advocating for the role of the arts in research and society. She has written bestselling nonfiction books on the subject. She has used her platform consistently to argue that art is not decorative but essential, not a luxury but a lens through which the most important human questions become visible. In Sugar Sand Land, that advocacy finds its most personal expression. Emerson and Renn meet at a party where Emerson is holding court on the subject of art, demonstrating a depth of knowledge that instantly enchants Renn. From that first meeting, art is woven into the romance, not as backdrop but as substance. Both characters identify

A Former Hollywood Production Manager Wrote an Authentic YA Music Industry Novel With a Memorable Young Adult Protagonist at Its Center

September 12, 2026

By: Marco Quinn Michele Kwasniewski is not writing about Hollywood from the outside looking in. She worked inside it for more than fifteen years, starting as a set assistant on major film productions including Independence Day, Face/Off, and Evita and working her way up to production manager on television shows while becoming a member of the Producers Guild of America. The entertainment industry she depicts in Rising Star is the one she actually knows, which is why it feels nothing like the entertainment industry of wish fulfillment fantasy so often portrayed in other Holywood-based stories. In Rising Star genuine talent, dubious arrangements and complicated power dynamics all exist in the same room at the same time, often attached to the same people. Dani Truehart, her fifteen-year-old protagonist, is the vehicle through which all of that reality is filtered, and Kwasniewski renders her with a first-person authenticity that makes the novel genuinely compelling rather than simply instructive. Dani’s inner life is fully inhabited. Her doubts and her ambitions and her fears and her moments of genuine joy in her own talent are all present and all specific, and the novel never loses sight of the person inside the career even as

Never Say Never and Ashley Puckett’s Road From Pittsburgh Dreamer to a New Country Music Chapter

September 12, 2026

By: Mason Cole Ashley Puckett’s career has never been about arriving overnight. It has been about continuing to show up. For the Pennsylvania singer-songwriter, the road through country music has included early dreams, years away from performing, independent releases, chart recognition, personal heartbreak, and, increasingly, the confidence to write without hiding behind the song. Now, as Puckett prepares for the release of her upcoming single, “Stone Cold Broken Heart,” that long journey appears to be entering one of its most creatively energized chapters. Raised in North Huntingdon, outside Pittsburgh, Puckett developed her country roots far from Nashville’s Music Row. Pittsburgh, however, exposed her to a city where musical styles routinely cross paths. Country remained home. Influenced by artists including Lee Ann Womack, Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert, Jo Dee Messina, Carole King and LeAnn Rimes, Puckett gravitated toward strong singers and writers capable of putting recognizable human experiences into songs. She began performing through vocal competitions, community events, and open-mic nights before eventually appearing in bars and clubs. At 16, she picked up the guitar and started writing. But Puckett’s relationship with music wasn’t always uninterrupted. There were periods when she barely sang or wrote at all. She has acknowledged regretting

Yayoi Kusama Exhibition Opens at Amsterdam’s Stedelijk

September 11, 2026

Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum is opening a major Yayoi Kusama exhibition two weeks after the Japanese artist died at 97. The exhibition features paintings, sculptures and an immersive Infinity Mirrored Room, while also revisiting Kusama’s longstanding artistic connections to the Netherlands and the museum. Key Takeaways The Stedelijk Museum’s major Yayoi Kusama exhibition opens Friday, September 11, 2026. The exhibition became a posthumous tribute following Kusama’s death on August 14 at age 97. The presentation includes paintings, sculptures and an Infinity Mirrored Room installation. Kusama had longstanding connections to Amsterdam and participated in a landmark Stedelijk exhibition in 1965. The exhibition runs at the Stedelijk Museum through January 17, 2027. Stedelijk Museum Opens Major Yayoi Kusama Exhibition The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam is opening its major Yayoi Kusama exhibition on Friday, September 11, following the artist’s death on August 14 at age 97. The exhibition had originally been planned as a retrospective but has become a posthumous tribute to Kusama and her work. The presentation brings together paintings, sculptures and an immersive installation by the Japanese artist. Kusama’s repeated use of polka dots is present throughout the museum, including on the building’s facade and on red fabric wrapped around trees on

Beast’s “Want Justice? Here Justice” Makes Memory Part of the Wall

September 10, 2026

At first glance, Louis-Ferdinand Céline appears to have been painted directly into the remains of an abandoned farmhouse in the countryside near Reggio Emilia, Italy. His figure, approximately fifteen metres high and six metres wide, seems to share the building’s cracks, stains and erosion, as though the writer were emerging from the architecture itself. Completed in late August 2026, Want Justice? Here Justice is the latest and largest work in Italian street artist Beast‘s ongoing series “…and we hired a bloke to fix the wall”, developed over the past three years around the relationship between cultural memory and physical decay. Beast’s process begins not with the portrait, but with the wall. The surface is photographed in detail, and its particular scars, cracks, stains, missing plaster, and erosion are digitally transferred onto an image of the chosen subject. The resulting portrait is then printed at monumental scale on paper and pasted back onto precisely the same wall, with the printed imperfections carefully realigned with those of the architecture underneath. The result is an image that almost disappears into the surface supporting it, creating the impression that Céline has emerged from the abandoned farmhouse itself. Rather than hiding the building’s deterioration, Beast

Nathan Fielder’s Secret Documentary Debuts at Telluride

September 9, 2026

Nathan Fielder and filmmaker Lance Oppenheim unveiled their previously secret documentary You Can See Everything at the Telluride Film Festival. The A24 project follows Elizabeth Holmes during the 34 days before her prison reporting date and was developed over three years, with a theatrical release planned for October. Key Takeaways Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim co-directed You Can See Everything. The documentary premiered as a surprise screening at the Telluride Film Festival. The film follows Elizabeth Holmes before she reported to prison. A24 released a teaser for the documentary alongside its Telluride unveiling. The film is scheduled for theatrical release in October. Nathan Fielder Documentary Debuts at Telluride The secret screening at the Telluride Film Festival revealed You Can See Everything, a documentary directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim. The project had been made largely in secret and was presented to festival audiences without a conventional advance announcement. The film centers on Elizabeth Holmes, the former Theranos founder, during the 34 days before she was due to report to prison. Fielder and Oppenheim’s cameras document Holmes during that period as she prepared for incarceration. The documentary was developed over three years rather than remaining limited to the period immediately

Sophie Lin: Where Art Flows, Fluid in Form, Limitless in Creation

September 8, 2026

Sophie Lin builds her artistry behind the scenes of the performing arts, where the work rarely gets its own spotlight. Born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan, and now based in New York City, she has spent her career shaping how performers appear onstage. Her focus sits in makeup and hair for opera, Broadway, and Off-Broadway productions, a craft she treats as painting and sculpting by another name. Her guiding idea comes from a simple phrase: be like water, fluid in form and limitless in creation. That fluidity runs through everything she does, letting her move between disciplines without losing the thread that connects them. Treating the Face as a Living Canvas For Sophie, makeup and hair are forms of painting and sculpting with different canvases and textures. The human face becomes a surface to explore. Hair, wigs, and other materials open their own possibilities for transformation. She adapts her approach to fit each character and each stage, reading what a production needs before she ever picks up a brush. Her recent makeup and hair credits reflect that range. She contributed to DOOM: House of Hope at the Park Avenue Armory, worked across the Santa Fe Opera seasons in 2022 and

Meet Chasing Luena, Melbourne’s Indie Rock Storytellers Making Their Mark

September 6, 2026

For Chasing Luena, a good song starts with something worth saying. The Melbourne four-piece brings together indie rock and folk with raw instrumentation and emotionally honest songwriting, creating music that can hit hard without losing the stories underneath. The band brings together drummer and founder Bill Foster, vocalist Charlotte Glover, bassist Glenn Davidson, and guitarist Patrick Quinlan. Between them sits a wide mix of experience spanning classical percussion, jazz, rock, neo-soul, audio engineering and years of performing. Inspired by the likes of Ball Park Music, Angie McMahon, Ruby Fields and Teenage Dads, they have turned those different backgrounds into a sound centered around personal growth, regret and self-discovery. Live music has become an equally important part of Chasing Luena. Performing together since 2022, the band have appeared at an impressive run of Australian festivals, including St Kilda Festival, Yarraville Festival, Warrandyte Festival and Queenscliff Music Festival. They’ve also supported Budjerah, Jade Gibson, and Wilma Sights. Their growing catalog shows why that momentum is building. “Home” draws inspiration from the band’s Melbourne surroundings, using bikes, tram tracks, shared houses, and changing friendships to explore a bigger question: how sustainable our relationships and lifestyles really are. Eventually, its idea of home grows

Vivian Nicole Tesler Lights Up Las Vegas with “Glow Baby Glow”

September 5, 2026

At its heart, GLOW BABY GLOW is a love letter from Vivian Nicole Tesler to her late mother, the woman whose voice, wisdom, strength, and unwavering belief became the invisible architecture of her life. Her mother was more than a source of encouragement; she was the voice that reminded Tesler of who she was during the moments when she struggled to remember it herself. The title was born from the words her mother gave her, an evolution of “Go, baby, go” into something deeper and more enduring: “Glow, baby, glow.” It is no longer simply an encouragement to move forward. It is a charge to become fully illuminated, to use every gift, survive every darkness, and refuse to diminish the light one was born to carry. That message became even more powerful after loss. What once sounded like encouragement became a philosophy for living. To glow is not to live without pain, fear, disappointment, or uncertainty. It is to allow those experiences to become part of the light rather than the reason for extinguishing it. In bringing these words to the stage, Tesler transforms something deeply personal between a mother and daughter into an invitation for anyone who has ever

Beyoncé Releases Expanded B’Day 20th Anniversary Edition

Beyoncé Releases Expanded B’Day 20th Anniversary Edition

September 5, 2026

Beyoncé has released the B’Day 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, adding six previously unreleased recordings, Spanish-language tracks and collaborations with Maluma and Selena Quintanilla. The 31-track release also includes remastered songs and updated music videos, expanding the original 2006 album with archival material and new recordings. Key Takeaways The B’Day 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition was released September 4, 2026. The digital edition contains 31 tracks, including rare and previously unreleased recordings. The release includes “Cuerpo Tumbao (Get Me Bodied)” featuring Maluma. “Irreplaceable (Como La Flor)” uses previously released Selena Quintanilla vocals with Beyoncé. The album’s songs were remastered, while its videos were recolored and finished in 4K. Beyoncé Releases the B’Day 20th Anniversary Edition The Beyoncé B’Day 20th anniversary release adds new and archival material to the album originally issued on September 4, 2006. The 31-track digital deluxe edition combines the original album with bonus recordings, Spanish-language versions, remixes and newly released collaborations. The anniversary edition includes six previously unreleased recordings: “Morning Dew (Donk),” “Can I Watch You,” “My First Time,” “Lost Yo Mind,” “Creole” and “Back Up.” The tracklist also brings together material that had previously appeared as bonus tracks or related releases. The release follows Beyoncé’s July rollout of