Iman Issa’s Heritage Studies are displays based on historical artifacts, which attempt to communicate their significance to the present moment. In her process, the objects are altered: Issa changes their materials, scale, and color to a degree that the resemblance between the historic artifact and Issa’s work can be difficult to discern. Despite these dissimilarities, the artist insists on the equivalence of these objects, almost like the equivalence between a photograph and its subject. This exhibition of Issa’s Heritage Studies at the Art Institute of Chicago, is the first substantial presentation of these works in the US in a decade. Seen together, they illuminate the artist’s consistent desire to pursue an “art that is not exactly part of the world but is certainly tied to it, revealing of it, and not just because it looks or sounds like it.”

Pakui Hardware’s solo exhibition, Thresholds, at the Zachęta National Gallery of Art focuses primarily on the metaphor of the filtering membrane, as well as on biological immunity. Organisms defend themselves by telling foreign objects from their own bodies. By drawing on references to medical imaging, biology and the materiality of the body, the artists explore its limits and vulnerability to outside influence. Thresholds also enters a dialogue with the work of artists such as Zilia Sánchez Domínguez (1926–2024) or Aleksandra Kasuba (1923–2019), who explored relationships between the body, space, and materiality. The work of Pakui Hardware shows that not only does modern art explore the structure of ecosystems, but it also talks about the systems of control and supervision as well as the complex relations between the individual and society.

Paul Pfeiffer: Prologue to the Story of the Birth of Freedom presents 25 years of work from artist Paul Pfeiffer whose practice interrogates ideas of spectacle and mass culture. By repurposing the tools and systems of media production—including editing, staging, and outsourcing—Pfeiffer recontextualizes global celebrities such as pop stars, film actors, and athletes to reveal relationships between audiences and icons. As the artist puts it, “who’s using who? Is the image making us, or do we make images?” Whether through televised broadcasts of sporting events, editorial photographs of cultural icons, or the ecstasy of a soccer stadium, Pfeiffer interrogates the consumption of images and culture. For Pfeiffer, the basketball court, the boxing ring, and the stadium not only serve as platforms for grand spectacles but as sites where the body politic—of a nation, of a community, of society—is imagined, defined, and contested

Lúcia Koch’s installation Air Temperature is now on view at Islamic Arts Biennale 2025, Jeddah until 25 May, 2025. Using translucent textiles with printed gradients, Air Temperature is a labyrinthine installation which experiments with light’s chromatic effects. The work unfolds in multiple diagonals which criss-cross and fill the space. The supple and undulating textiles are constantly animated by air currents and the public’s movements, offering distinct visions according to the hours of the day, and the quality and direction of light. Immersing viewers in curtain panels with hues of red and purple, the chromatic phenomena modulate the architecture and challenge the defined physicality of the site. Optical, tactile, and kinetic, the work serves as a reminder for the passing of time and changes in the atmosphere, highlighting the constant transformation and interaction of light, air, and living entities. The thin textile veils make perceptible the evolution and fissures that occur in the environment, as well as the infinite possibility between light and printed pigments. Air Temperature functions as a gateway between the indoor galleries of the Biennale and the outdoor garden installations, acting as a vibrant intervention in this space of transit.