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    Priscilla Frank

    Priscilla Frank

    Arts and Culture Reporter, HuffPost

  • Artist Combines Architecture And Ecology For Spellbinding Public Intervention

    "I created 'Golden Waters' so when the public engages with the work, they are not only drawn in, but are able to stop, think and observe," artist Grimanesa Amoros explained to the Huffington Post. Amoros is the mind behind "Golden Waters," an electric artistic intervention spread atop the 50-mile-long body of water that is the Arizona Canal. Using an LED tubing system, Amoros crafts a glowing serpentine stream at the nexus of light and water, nature and metropolis.

  • Your Favorite Political Leaders Get A Hipster Makeover

    Artist Amit Shimoni imagines such a world in his illustrated series "Hipstory." And though they may not be accomplishing quite as much in the way of political activism or diplomacy, we have to admit they look damn good. Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

  • Unseen Photos Of The Civil Rights Movement Are As Relevant Now As Ever

    "What happened in the Misisssippi Delta was profoundly significant because it was a view of human potential that people still don't see when they see the civil rights movement," Mary Elizabeth King explains in her video on Kickstarter. "They think of big leaders, but the essence of the civil rights movement was much more diffuse -- in the awakening, the arousal, the inspiration.

  • This Mysterious Mountaintop Tearoom Is Captivating LA

    If you head to Los Angeles' Griffith Park, start on the Charlie Turner Trailhead for the Mt. Hollywood Hiking Trail, across the parking lot from the entrance to the Griffith Observatory. Keep walking through the Berlin Forest until you cross a bridge spanning the Mt. Hollywood Drive Canyon Road tunnel. When you arrive, you'll see an 80-square-foot teahouse, plopped into the middle of mother nature.

  • Former Burlesque Stars Prove Eroticism Has No Age Limit (NSFW)

    In her series "Legends," photographer Marie Baronnet photographs the former legends of American burlesque in all their scantily clad glory. Baronnet was inspired to embark on the series after meeting and then interviewing and photographing burlesque icon Dixie Evans. The photo shoot compelled Baronnet to expand the project and seek out other former burlesque luminaries around the country.

  • Special Nude Drawing Classes Help Japan's 40-Year-Old Virgins With Women

    This article originally appeared on artnet News. There's an unusual social problem in Japan: a growing group of middle-aged men who seem unable to lose their virginity. The efforts to help this population include a special course, with nude figure drawing sessions designed to familiarize them with the female form.

  • Look Inside Some Of The Last Remaining All-Female Communes

    Donning face paint and feathers and furs, the subjects occupy a territory outside of past and present, capturing the sweeping history of the feminist movement.

  • Artist Finds Possible Picasso Painting Hanging Out In His Attic

    This article originally appeared on artnet News. Scottish pop artist Dominic Currie may have discovered a Pablo Picasso rolled up in a suitcase given to his mother by his father, a Russian soldier, in the 1950s. Currie never took his mother seriously when she claimed that she had a painting rolled up in a suitcase in the attic.

  • Step Inside The World Of A Muslim Beauty Pageant

    Yes, there are a lot of differences separating Miss Muslimah, a Muslim beauty pageant in Yogakarta, Indonesia, from those broadcast across the Western world. "I believe that this idea that the West has that the lives Muslim women lead are so different from ours is outdated and naive," Jaques explained to The Huffington Post. Jaques discovered the competition online and was intrigued to see what shape the competition would take.

  • Lucky Art Dealer Discovers Unknown Monet Pastel Taped To The Back Of Another Artwork

    In 2014, Jonathan Green, director of London's Richard Green Gallery, purchased two pastels by Claude Monet at a Paris auction for an undisclosed sum. Later, upon examining the works, Green was pleased to discover a third Monet pastel taped to the back of one of the works. The previously unknown pastel depicts a jetty and lighthouse in the city of Le Havre in France's Haute-Normandie region, where Monet grew up.

  • Global African Artists Explore The Meaning Of Disguise In The 21st Century

    Don a disguise, whether a helmet for a sports match or a costume for a masquerade, and be liberated, freed from a fixed identity and thrown into a space with limitless potential. A group exhibition at the Seattle Museum of Art entitled "Disguise: Masks and Global African Art" aims to dismantle our concepts of identity and disguise, commissioning eight artists from Africa and of African descent to address the present and future language of masks, veils, cloaks and screens.

  • Baltimore Students Team Up For #BlackLivesMatter Street Art Takeover

    In 2011, street artist JR made a call to art and a call to action -- a call he hoped would reach people around the world. Now, the students of Morgan State University’s Visual Arts Department are taking a hint from JR and collaborating, along with Computer Graphics II and Computers in Art Design professor Chris Metzger, on an "Inside Out" Group Action project, a visual response to the #BlackLivesMatter Movement. From June 17 to June 19, students teamed up to take on the facade of the future home of Open Works in Baltimore City, a space meant to serve as an incubator for Baltimore's creative economy.

  • Four New Projects For The Future Of Public Art

    Powerful works of public art can change the way we see, the way we live. The surreal vision was the work of artist duo Christo and Jeanne-Claude, whose work was hosted by then Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. It actually took the artists 26 years to persuade New York officials to let their elaborate public artwork, titled "The Gates," come into being.

  • New York's Flex Dancers Test The Limits Of The Human Body

    Adams' nickname -- "Bruk Up" is Jamaican slang for broken -- pays tribute to his childhood bone infection, which gave way to the adrenalized jerks and jolts that characterized his movement. Adams immigrated to New York in the mid '90s and brought his signature moves, like the crabwalk, the shoulder pop, and the ghost walk, along with him. Photographer Deidre Schoo discovered the underground dance phenomenon by chance, after being blown away by a dancer named Storyboard Professor in Harlem.

  • 52 Times Western Art History Was Hella Body Positive (NSFW)

    This week, we simultaneously laughed and cringed reading Maddie Howard's xoJane essay, recounting her experience sleeping with an unworthy OKCupid D-bag who used art history to body shame her. Specifically, the first words out of his mouth on the date were, "You’re a little more Rubensian than I expected," referring to the Flemish Baroque painter's penchant for voluptuous physiques. "All of those 'broadening' elective Art History credits suddenly came in handy, because I knew immediately that he was being an asshole," Howard wrote.

  • This Is What Taking Selfies On Mars Looks Like

    Imagine a world some time in the semi-distant future where space travel is a banal indulgence not unlike a luxury cruise. What would you do upon stepping on Mars soil, an astronaut helmet over your head and Earth but a small speck in the distance. French photographer Julien Mauve juxtaposes the looming potential of space exploration with the stereotypical actions of earthly tourists in his narrative series "Greetings From Mars." The sci-fi photos combine alien landscapes with behavior that's all too familiar -- performing for the camera, inserting oneself into foreign landscapes, and striking a pose.

  • Anish Kapoor's 'Vagina Sculpture' Vandalized At Versailles

    This article originally appeared on artnet News. Unknown vandals splattered yellow paint on Kapoor's Dirty Corner (2011). Unknown perpetrators have vandalized Anish Kapoor's controversial sculpture Dirty Corner (2011), installed in the gardens of the Palace of Versailles in Paris, splattering the inside of the conical artwork with yellow paint.

  • MoMA Acquires Iconic Rainbow Flag Just In Time For LGBT Pride

    In 1978, artist Gilbert Baker created the rainbow flag hoping to craft an iconic image of LGBT pride, by the community, for the community. The original artwork was just acquired the by Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) for its design collection, just in time for Pride month, and we couldn't be happier. In an interview with MoMA curatorial assistant Michelle Millar Fisher, Baker described first noticing the peculiar powers of a flag in 1976, on the Bicentennial of the United States, when processing the omnipresence and immediate legibility of the American flag.

  • Single Father Photographs The Complexities Of Raising A Daughter With Disabilities

    Being a single parent, of course, requires even more responsibility and sacrifice. Being a single parent to a child facing severe intellectual disabilities, however, is a trial few among us could even imagine. Leon Borensztein, a Polish-born photographer and single father, lived this challenging tale.

  • Enchanting Photos Capture The Modern-Day Witches Of Poland

    For photographer Katarzyna Majak, who was raised in predominately Catholic Poland, her vision involved a deformed creature with a black hat and broomstick -- like the representations that often populate fairy tales and mainstream movies. This was, of course, before Majak embarked on a mission to seek out spiritually empowered women, be they witches, healers, druids or whisperers. Majak was inspired to begin her journey after growing frustrated with the monoreligious culture she was brought up in, specifically with the established roles available to women.