Today, powerhouse British vocalist Adele released “Hello”—her first song in three years.
Next month, the Grammy-winning artist will release her first album after almost five years. The New York Times explores “Hello” as the first music video filmed with IMAX cameras. The Telegraph calls the single a “supremely confident comeback, a monster ballad.” Forbes predicts the songstress’s new album will become the bestseller of 2015 in only five weeks. Together, Adele’s past two albums reached over 13 million in record sales—less than two million behind the combined five albums by Beyoncé.
Front-Page Femmes
Art collector and Walmart heiress Alice Walton wants to change the art world. Walton cares about “access to the arts for all people.”
With a no-shoes and no-phones policy, Amalia Ulman screens her latest video work at Frieze London.
17th-century illustrator and naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian devoted her life to the scientific study of live insect specimens.
Seattle-based artist Carol Milne creates knitted glass sculptures.
Jennifer Angus installs a trompe l’oeil wallpaper at the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery using 5,000 weevils, beetles, cicadas, and other insects.
Michelle Angela Ortiz makes large-scale public artworks around Philadelphia based on stories of undocumented families whose lives were affected by deportations.
London-based Bulgarian artist Gery Georgieva incorporates folk culture in her reinterpretation of “Single Ladies.”
The Huffington Post describes how Yayoi Kusama’s immersive installations beg to be photographed.
Feminist graffiti artist Bambi tells The Guardian, “I want to save the world and that’s why social commentary is always present in my work.”
Hyperallergic interviews Guerrilla Girls Käthe Kollwitz and Frida Kahlo.
Washington Post dance critic Sarah Kaufman’s new book explores the early years of Motown.
NPR reviews the latest mystery novel by J.K. Rowling—published under her pseudonym, Robert Galbraith.
D.C.’s Women’s Voices Theater Festival shows “gender parity is possible.”
Room author and screenwriter Emma Donoghue discusses her “deeply feminist” film and gives advice for women breaking into the male-dominated film industry.
Slate explores Jennifer Lawrence’s essay about gender disparities in actors’ pay.
Filmmaker Laurie Anderson’s Heart of a Dog is a personal film about “forgetting and resurrecting.”
Shows We Want to See
The Reginald F. Lewis Museum hosts Ruth Starr Rose (1887–1965): Revelations of African American Life in Maryland and the World. Featuring large-scale paintings, portraits, and illustrations, the exhibition offers a rare glimpse into African American life at the turn of the 20th century.
Hyperallergic highlights the New York Public Library’s exhibition about forgotten women printmakers from the 16th through 19th centuries.
The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo showcases pictures by Yoko Ono taken from her New York apartment. ArtInfo says the show “suggests both a view of artistic practice from Ono’s unique perspective but also the transparent, participatory elements of her work.”