The Department of State’s Office of Art in Embassies (AIE) is pleased to announce the AIE American Artist Lecture Series at the Tate Modern-London, in a unique collaboration with Embassy London. In celebration of AIE’s 50th anniversary, the three-year-long program will feature six noted American artists.

APDS Blogger: Oscar Castellanos del Collado

Between January 29 and May 6, 2012, posters of Frida Kahlo’s self-portrait were hung from light posts around Los Angeles. The portraits served as invitations to “In Wonderland: the Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States,” the first co-organized exhibition by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Mexico’s Museum of Modern Art.

The U.S. and Iran have been at odds for decades.... But in Japan, a nation that tries to maintain good relations with both countries, a major exhibition featuring the work of one of America’s most recognizable artists is showing how appreciation for good art can bring even the most intractable foes closer together.

The art exhibition, entitled Beyond the Frame...will show the work of 26 of the best-known Cuban artists and of 20 other international artists who have donated work to draw attention to the case. It is the largest collection of Cuban artists ever to be shown in the UK. Art was originally seen as a key part of the Cuban revolution.

IT is customary to mount works of art on walls during exhibitions. But the United States Department of States smARTpower Sharing Culture presentation organized by the Public Affairs Section of the US Consulate General held in collaboration with Women and Youth Art Foundation, Ibadan last week was devoid of any such thing.

While these fully functional trucks are used only for transporting goods in South Asia, Asheer Akram, a young American artist from Kansas City, Missouri has embarked on the project of building a Pakistani cargo truck with a Midwestern twist in the hope of mixing venerable South Asian traditions with modern American culture.

Some argue that when we talk of exporting Australian arts to Asia, we ought to be talking only of their role in soft diplomacy: that is, assisting Australia's political and economic agenda.....The implication is that the arts in Asia should not be valued on their own terms.

“This stands in contrast to tourist images of the city, which often focus on the large population and the ‘mass humanity' one encounters in China's capital. I wanted to focus not so much on the city itself, but on residents and their way of life, and images by people who live and work in Beijing.”