Broad retired from playing after the Ashes series in England in 2023, when Australia retained the urn with a 2-2 draw.
He added: “You wouldn’t be outlandish in thinking – it’s actually not an opinion, it’s a fact – it’s probably the worst Australian team since 2010 when England last won, and it’s the best English team since 2010.
“So those things match up to the fact it’s going to be a brilliant Ashes series.”
The first Test starts in Perth on 21 November and Australia’s preparations have been hit by the potential absence of skipper Cummins, who has not played since July because of lumbar bone stress in his back.
The pace bowler is still recovering from the injury and has said he is “less likely than likely” to play in the opener.
His absence would leave Australia with a bowling attack of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Scott Boland, who are all in their mid-30s, with their other seamers inexperienced or untried at Test level.
The packed Ashes schedule – five Tests in seven weeks – also means both sides will be tested by injuries.
“Australia have been so consistent for a long period of time that you just knew who was going to open the batting, who was going to bat where, what bowlers there were – and they don’t have that,” said Broad.
“It’s very much a similar situation to 2010-2011 when England went and won there.
“The fact of the matter is Australia generally have to be bad to lose in Australia and England have to be very good.
“England have a great chance of being very good and Australia have a decent chance of being bad.
“I don’t think anyone could argue that it’s their weakest team since 2010… it’s just a fact.”
A TEENAGE girl, 17, was reportedly raped by a stranger in broad daylight as cops launch a manhunt.
The alleged attack unfolded in the village of Hassocks, in West Sussex, between 6pm and 7.30pm on Thursday.
The victim claimed to be approached in Keymer Road, near the junctions with Parklands Road and Grand Avenue.
Detective Inspector Debbie Birch, leading the investigation, said: “We are supporting the victim as we actively carry out detailed enquiries, which include CCTV and house to house enquiries.”
DI Birch added: “We have increased our police presence in the village while we investigate, and we are carrying out additional high visibility patrols for reassurance.
“Anyone who has any concerns is urged to stop and talk to officers.
“If you were in the area and noticed anything suspicious or have information that may assist us, we ask you to contact police or on 101, and quote Operation Insight.
“We will provide updates about the investigation when possible.”
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The alleged attack unfolded in the village of Hassocks, in West Sussex
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THIS is the horrifying moment a maniac brandishes an axe as he chases a man down the street in broad daylight.
Horrified neighbours can be heard yelling out at the two men as the terrifying confrontation unfolds.
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Terrifying footage shows the man swinging an axe as another man fleesCredit: CrimeLdn/X
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The footage was filmed in Smethwick, West MidlandsCredit: CrimeLdn/X
The footage was filmed in Bearwood, in the southern part of Smethwick, West Midlands.
A bald man wearing a dark gilet jacket and grey t-shirt wields the axe above his head as he confronts another man who tries to defend himself by holding his hand out and walking backwards.
Raised voices can be heard but it is unclear where they are coming from.
The dark-haired man wearing a grey tracksuit, who tries to defend himself, has his right arm stretched out in front of him as the bald man steps forward to take a swing at him with the axe.
As the man in the tracksuit steps backwards he stumbles and falls to the ground as the bald man steps forward and once again raises the axe above his head.
The bald man then stands towering over the other man who is sitting on the pavement with his arm stretched out.
Voices shout out as the bald man appears ready to attack.
Fortunately, the attacker then pauses as he appears to see sense and lowers his axe and walks away.
As he starts to walk away he then turns around pointing to the other man who is getting up off the floor and words are exchanged.
Luckily, there is no bloodshed and neither man appears to be injured.
Horrifying moment boy punched, kicked in head and STABBED by yobs as vicious brawl erupts near train station
A caption on the video says: “Man ain’t playing with the axe” while the footage was uploaded to the social media site X, formerly Twitter, on September 20.
Officers from West Midlands Police have launched an investigation into the horrifying incident and are attempting to “establish the full circumstances.”
A 39-year-old man has since been arrested on suspicion of possessing an offensive weapon, section 18 wounding and possession of a bladed article.
He has now been bailed while detectives probe the incident further.
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The man stands over his victim with the axe raisedCredit: CrimeLdn/X
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It looks as if he is about to hit his victim with the weaponCredit: CrimeLdn/X
West Midlands Police said: “We were called to Selsey Road, Bearwood just before 8.25am on Saturday (20 Sep) after reports of a man with an axe.
“A 39-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of possessing an offensive weapon, section 18 wounding and possession of a bladed article.
“He has been bailed pending further enquiries.
“We are still working to establish the full circumstances. Anyone with any information is asked to call 101 quoting 20/382697/25.”
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He apparently sees sense and walks away without using the axe on his floored victimCredit: CrimeLdn/X
A MAN allegedly exposed himself to an 11-year-old schoolgirl in a pub in broad daylight.
Police have now released CCTV images of a man they hope to speak to in relation to the incident.
It was reported that the incident occurred at a Gloucester Pub yesterday at around noon.
The man was reportedly sat near the family of two children and their grandparents.
The 11-year-old girl later reported that the man had been staring at her.
During a moment when the grandfather and other child had left the table, and the grandmother was distracted, the man allegedly exposed his genitals to the young girl.
He then reportedly proceeded to leave the pub.
The man has been described as being 5ft 9ins tall, aged in his 50s and had grey hair.
He was spotted wearing glasses, a blue and white checked shirt and dark shorts.
Officers have conducted enquiries since the report and would now like to speak to the man pictured in connection with the incident.
NEW ORLEANS — A federal appeals court has vacated a ruling that a Texas law giving police broad powers to arrest migrants suspected of illegally entering the U.S. was unconstitutional.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday vacated a ruling by a three-judge panel, and now the full court will consider whether the law can take effect.
The Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 4 in 2023, but a federal judge in Texas ruled the law unconstitutional. Texas appealed that ruling.
Under the proposed law, state law enforcement officers could arrest people suspected of entering the country illegally. Once in custody, detainees could agree to a Texas judge’s order to leave the country or face a misdemeanor charge of entering the U.S. illegally. Migrants who don’t leave after being ordered to do so could be arrested again and charged with a more serious felony.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a social media post Friday that the court’s decision was a “hopeful sign.”
WASHINGTON — This year’s most far-reaching immigration case is likely to decide if immigration agents in Los Angeles are free to stop, question and arrest Latinos they suspect are here illegally.
President Trump promised the “largest mass deportation operation” in American history, and he chose to begin aggressive street sweeps in Los Angeles in early June.
The Greater Los Angeles area is “ground zero for the effects of the border crisis,” his lawyers told the Supreme Court this month. “Nearly 2 million illegal aliens — out of an area population of 20 million — are there unlawfully, encouraged by sanctuary-city policies and local officials’ avowed aim to thwart federal enforcement efforts.”
The “vast majority of illegal aliens in the [Central] District [of California] come from Mexico or Central America and many only speak Spanish,” they added.
Their fast-track appeal urged the justices to confirm that immigration agents have “reasonable suspicion” to stop and question Latinos who work in businesses or occupations that draw many undocumented workers.
No one questions that U.S. immigration agents may arrest migrants with criminal records or a final order of removal. But Trump administration lawyers say agents also have the authority to stop and question — and sometimes handcuff and arrest — otherwise law-abiding Latinos who have lived and worked here for years.
They could do so based not on evidence that the particular person lacks legal status but on the assumption that they look and work like others who are here illegally.
“Reasonable suspicion is a low bar — well below probable cause,” administration lawyers said. “Apparent ethnicity can be a factor supporting reasonable suspicion,” they added, noting that this standard assumes “lawful stops of innocent people may occur.”
If the court rules for Trump, it “could be enormously consequential” in Los Angeles and nationwide, said UCLA law professor Ahilan Arulanantham, co-director of the Center for Immigration Law & Policy. “The government would read this as giving immigration enforcement agents a license to interrogate and detain people without individualized suspicion. It would likely set a pattern that could be used in other parts of the country.”
In their response to the appeal, immigrant rights advocates said the court should not “bless a regime that could ensnare in an immigration dragnet the millions of people … who are U.S. citizens or otherwise legally entitled to be in this country and are Latino, speak Spanish” and work in construction, food services or agriculture and can be seen at bus stops, car washes or retail parking lots.
The case now before the high court began June 18 when Pedro Vasquez Perdomo and two other Pasadena residents were arrested at a bus stop where they were waiting to be picked up for a job. They said heavily armed men wearing masks grabbed them, handcuffed them and put them in a car and drove to a detention center.
If “felt like a kidnapping,” Vasquez Perdomo said.
The plaintiffs include people who were handcuffed, arrested and taken to holding facilities even though they were U.S. citizens.
They joined a lawsuit with unions and immigrants rights groups as well as others who said they were confronted with masked agents who shouted commands and, in some instances, pushed them to the ground.
However, the suit quickly focused not on the aggressive and sometimes violent manner of the detentions, but on the legality of the stops.
U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong said the detentions appeared to violate the 4th Amendment’s ban on unreasonable searches and seizures.
It is “illegal to conduct roving patrols which identify people based on race alone, aggressively question them, and then detain them without a warrant, without their consent, and without reasonable suspicion that they are without status,” she said on July 11.
The crucial phrase is “reasonable suspicion.”
For decades, the Supreme Court has said police officers and federal agents may stop and briefly question persons if they see something that gives them reason to suspect a violation of the law. This is why, for example, an officer may pull over a motorist whose car has swerved on the highway.
But it was not clear that U.S. immigration agents can claim they have reasonable suspicion to stop and question persons based on their appearance if they are sitting at a bus stop in Pasadena, working at a car wash or standing with others outside a Home Depot.
Frimpong did not forbid agents from stopping and questioning persons who may be here illegally, but she put limits on their authority.
She said agents may not stop persons based “solely” on four factors: their race or apparent ethnicity, the fact they speak Spanish, the type of work they do, or their location such as a day labor pickup site or a car wash.
On Aug. 1, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to lift the judge’s temporary restraining order. The four factors “describe only a broad profile that does not supply the reasonable suspicion to justify a detentive stop,” the judges said by a 3-0 vote.
The district judge’s order applies in the Central District of California, which includes Los Angeles and Orange counties as well as Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo.
The 9th Circuit said those seven counties have an estimated population of 19,233,598, of whom 47% or 9,096,334 identify as “Hispanic or Latino.”
Like Frimpong, the three appellate judges were Democratic appointees.
A week later, Trump administration lawyers sent an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court in Noem vs. Perdomo. They said the judge’s order was impeding the president’s effort to enforce the immigration laws.
They urged the court to set aside the judge’s order and to clear the way for agents to make stops if they suspect the person may be in the country illegally.
Agents do not need evidence of a legal violation, they said. Moreover, the demographics of Los Angeles alone supplies them with reasonable suspicion.
“All of this reflects common sense: the reasonable-suspicion threshold is low, and the number of people who are illegally present and subject to detention and removal under the immigration laws in the (the seven-county area of Southern California) is extraordinarily high,” wrote Solicitor Gen. D. John Sauer. “The high prevalence of illegal aliens should enable agents to stop a relatively broad range of individuals.”
He said the government is not “extolling racial profiling,” but “apparent ethnicity can be relevant to reasonable suspicion, especially in immigration enforcement.”
In the past, the court has said police can make stops based on the “totality of the circumstances” or the full picture. That should help the administration because agents can point to the large number of undocumented workers at certain businesses.
But past decisions have also said officers need some reason to suspect a specific individual may be violating the law.
The Supreme Court could act at any time, but it may also be several weeks before an order is issued. The decision may come with little or no explanation.
In recent weeks, the court’s conservatives have regularly sided with Trump and against federal district judges who have stood in his way. The terse decisions have been often followed by an angry and lengthy dissent from the three liberals.
Immigration rights advocates said the court should not uphold “an extraordinarily expansive dragnet, placing millions of law-abiding people at imminent risk of detention by federal agents.”
They said the daily patrols “have cast a pall over the district, where millions meet the government’s broad demographic profile and therefore reasonably fear that they may be caught up in the government’s dragnet, and perhaps spirited away from their families on a long-term basis, any time they venture outside their own homes.”
New benchmark confirms LENSai’s ability to accurately predict binding on 17 previously unseen antibody-antigen complexes, achieving near-crystallography precision without prior training data.
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AUSTIN, Texas — ImmunoPrecise Antibodies Ltd. (NASDAQ: IPA) (“IPA” or the “Company”), an AI-powered biotherapeutics company, today announced a new validation study supporting the generalizability of its proprietary epitope mapping platform, LENSai, powered by IPA’s patented HYFT® technology. The newly released benchmark shows that the platform consistently delivers high predictive performance, even on complexes not used during training.
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“It’s generally assumed that AI can only make accurate predictions if it has seen similar data before,” said Dr. Jennifer Bath, CEO of ImmunoPrecise. “But this benchmark proves otherwise: LENSai accurately mapped antibody binding sites on entirely new antibody – protein complexes-none of which were used in training. Not the antibodies. Not the targets. Not the complexes. And the predictions aligned with wet-lab results. This is a major breakthrough in generalizing AI for therapeutic discovery, made possible by our proprietary technology, which captures functional meaning instead of memorizing shapes. It shows that AI doesn’t always need massive data to be powerful and accurate – it just needs the right kind.”
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LENSai Epitope Mapping uses artificial intelligence to pinpoint where antibodies are most likely to attach to disease-related proteins – helping scientists design better treatments faster. Unlike traditional methods that take months and require lab work, LENSai delivers results in hours – using just the digital sequences – cutting timelines, eliminating the need to produce expensive materials, reducing guesswork, and unlocking faster paths to new treatments.
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In a new benchmark study, LENSai was tested on 30 antibody-protein pairs, 17 of which the platform had never seen before. Despite having no prior exposure to these molecules, LENSai achieved prediction scores nearly identical to those from its original training data. This score, known as AUC (Area Under the Curve), is a widely accepted measure of accuracy in computational biology.
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The consistent performance on entirely new, unseen complexes confirms that LENSai’s artificial intelligence can reliably analyze and predict antibody binding – even for molecules outside its training set. This breakthrough demonstrates LENSai’s power to generalize across diverse biological structures, making it a valuable tool for accelerating real-world drug discovery.
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Why This Benchmark Matters
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In the new study, LENSai delivered high accuracy results on 17 antibody-protein complexes the platform had never seen before as it did on familiar training examples – proving true generalization, not memorization. Because no new wet-lab work or x-ray structures were required, researchers gain speed, reproducibility, and major cost savings, while freeing scarce lab resources for confirmatory or downstream assays.
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What It Means for Partners and Investors
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With LENSai already embedded in collaborations across big pharma and biotech, ImmunoPrecise is scaling access through secure APIs and custom partnerships. The platform helps researchers compress discovery timelines, reduce risk, and unlock previously unreachable targets – positioning the company and its investors at the forefront of AI-driven antibody therapeutics.
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For more technical detail and full benchmark results, explore two complementary case studies that illustrate the power and flexibility of LENSai Epitope Mapping.
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The first highlights performance on a
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“seen” target
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, where the system was trained on related data. The second – featured in this press release – demonstrates LENS
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ai
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’s breakthrough ability to accurately map binding sites on a completely
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“unseen” target
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, with no prior exposure to the antibody, the antigen, or their structure.
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New Case Study:LENSai Epitope Mapping on an “Unseen” Target [ link]
Previous Case Study:Head-to-Head Benchmark on a “Seen” Target [ link]
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These examples underscore how LENSai performs both in well-characterized systems and in novel, previously untrained scenarios—validating its generalizability and real-world readiness.
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About ImmunoPrecise Antibodies Ltd.
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ImmunoPrecise (NASDAQ: IPA) is a global leader in AI-powered biotherapeutic discovery and development. Its proprietary HYFT technology and LENSai™ platform enable first-principles-based drug design, delivering validated therapeutic candidates across modalities and therapeutic areas. IPA partners with 19 of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies and is advancing next-generation biologics through data-driven, human-relevant models.
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Forward-Looking Statements
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This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable United States and Canadian securities laws. Forward-looking statements are often identified by words such as “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “believes,” or similar expressions, or by statements that certain actions, events, or results “may,” “will,” “could,” or “might” occur or be achieved. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the performance, scalability, and broader application of the LENSai™ and HYFT® platforms; the generalizability of the Company’s AI models to novel therapeutic targets; the role of AI in accelerating antibody discovery; and the Company’s future scientific, commercial, and strategic developments.
The suit, brought by 55 attorneys general, will help compensate victims and fund addiction treatment programmes.
The attorneys general of all 50 US states, Washington, DC, and four US territories have agreed to a $7.4bn settlement with drugmaker Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin – the pain medication that allegedly fuelled a nationwide opioid addiction crisis in the United States.
The group, led by New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin, announced the deal on Monday.
“While we know that no amount of money can erase the pain for those who lost loved ones to this crisis, this settlement will help prevent future tragedies through education, prevention, and other resources,” Platkin said in a news release.
“The Sacklers put greed and profit over human lives, and with this settlement, they will never be allowed to sell these drugs again in the United States,” Platkin added, referring to the family who owns Purdue Pharma.
The company’s payment is intended to resolve thousands of lawsuits against the drugmaker. The group of attorneys general said most of the settlement funds will be distributed to recipients within the first three years.
Payouts would begin after the drugmaker wins sufficient creditor support for its Chapter 11 bankruptcy plan. Money would go to individuals, state and local governments, and Native American tribes and the Sackler family would cede control of Purdue.
According to several attorneys general, Monday’s agreements do not include Oklahoma, which in 2019 reached a $270m settlement with Purdue Pharma and the Sacklers to resolve opioid-related claims.
Platkin said members of the Sackler family have confirmed their plan to proceed with the settlement.
The settlement will also help fund addiction treatment, prevention and recovery programmes over the next 15 years, according to the attorney general.
“This settlement in principle is the nation’s largest settlement to date with individuals responsible for the opioid crisis,” his office said.
Purdue has been the subject of a backlash for years over accusations that it fuelled the US opioid epidemic. The bankrupt Stamford, Connecticut-based pharmaceutical company was known for aggressively marketing its drug to doctors and patients and calling it nonaddictive although it is highly addictive.
Purdue responded to the settlement by calling it a “milestone”.
“Today’s announcement of unanimous support among the states and territories is a critical milestone towards confirming a Plan of Reorganization that will provide billions of dollars to compensate victims, abate the opioid crisis, and deliver opioid use disorder and overdose rescue medicines that will save American lives,” a Purdue spokesperson told Al Jazeera.
In June last year, the US Supreme Court rejected an earlier settlement that would have given the Sacklers broad immunity from opioid-related civil lawsuits. The Sacklers would have paid about $6bn under that settlement.
More than 850,000 people have died from opioid-related overdoses since 1999, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, although deaths have recently declined.
Former England bowler Stuart Broad will work with South Africa in the build-up to the World Test Championship final against Australia later this month.
Broad, 38, will work for one day as a consultant at training on 9 June – his first role in coaching since retiring at the end of the 2023 Ashes.
Broad took 604 wickets in 167 Tests, putting him second on England’s all-time list behind long-time team-mate James Anderson.
He took 153 of those wickets against Australia – the most by any player in Test history.
Since retiring he has worked as a TV pundit but will help South Africa prepare for the World Test Championship final begins at Lord’s on 11 June.
The Proteas begin a warm-up match against Zimbabwe at Arundel Castle Cricket Ground in Sussex on Tuesday.
Australia are defending champions, having beaten India at The Oval in 2023.
The sculptor Robert Therrien had a deep connection with theBroad museum. He was among the first L.A. artists that founders Eli and Edythe Broad began collecting almost half a century ago, and the museum holds 18 of his works in its collection. Those pieces, along with more than 100 others, will go on view at the Broad beginning in November in “Robert Therrien: This Is a Story,” the largest-ever solo museum show of the artist’s work.
Therrien, who died of complications from cancer in 2019, is best-known for his monumental sculptures of everyday objects. His sculpture of a giant table and chairs, “Under the Table,” is among the Broad’s most photographed — and Instagrammed — pieces. Intimate work — drawings of birds, snowmen and chapels — will be on view, as will a reconstruction of Therrien’s downtown L.A. studio.
The Broad’s founding director Joanne Heyler once told The Times that Therrien’s studio was among the most fascinating she had ever visited. In an email shortly after Therrien’s death, she described the ground floor as “the ultimate tinkerer’s den, with endless tools, parts and found objects awaiting their role in his work, while upstairs were these perfectly composed galleries, every surface painted a warm, creamy white, including the floor, which charged the sculptures, paintings and drawings he’d install there with a dreamy, floating, hallucinogenic effect. That studio was his dreamland.”
An L.A. story
Like his studio, Therrien’s work exists in a liminal space — where memory fades into time. Standing beneath one of his giant tables evokes vague recollections of what it feels like to be a very small child in a world of legs and muffled adult activity above. A ruminative melancholy arises when viewing a precarious stack of white enamel plates. Therrien’s artistic voice is at once singular and universal — and specific to art history in L.A.
Robert Therrien, no title, (stacked plates, white), 1993.
(The Broad Art Foundation)
Exhibition curator Ed Schad summed up Therrien’s importance to this city in an email.
“Los Angeles is one of the most dynamic places in the world to make sculpture, and for 40 years, Robert Therrien was vital to that story while also hiding in plain sight,” Schad wrote. “From the spirit of experimentation and freedom in the 1970s, to the rise of fabrication and the expansion of scale in the 1980s and 1990, to Los Angeles’s ascendant presence on the global stage of contemporary art in recent decades, Therrien’s work has not only mirrored every shift but also has maintained a singular, unmistakable voice. This exhibition aims to show both the Therrien people know and love — his outsize sculptures, tables and chairs, and pots and pans, rooted in memory — and the Therrien that is less often seen: the brilliant draftsman, photographer, and thinker, whose work in these quieter forms is just as enchanting.”
I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt, remembering the time I spent an entire meal hiding under a table in Nogales, Ariz., when I was five. Or was that a dream? Here’s this weekend’s arts headlines.
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Here come the Tony Awards
Director Michael Arden photographed in New York.
(The Tyler Twins / For The Times)
Times theater critic Charles McNulty sat down in New York City with the directing powerhouse Michael Arden, 42. In a wide-ranging profile, McNulty discusses Arden’s path to becoming among the most sought-after directors on Broadway — and why his latest Tony-nominated musical, “Maybe Happy Ending,” is the season’s “most surprising and heartwarming.” He also writes about Arden’s new company, At Rise Creative, which he founded with scenic designer Dane Laffrey. Their production of “Parade” begins performances at the Ahmanson Theatre on June 17.
McNulty also checks in withL.A. Theatre Works, which celebrated its 50th anniversary and has found fresh opportunities for its radio plays through the rise of podcasts and on-demand streaming. “Currently, LATW’s program airs weekly on KPFK 90.7 in Southern California and on station affiliates serving over 50 markets nationwide. But the heart and soul of the operation is the archive of play recordings,” writes McNulty. This archive has almost 600 titles that can be accessed via a recently launched monthly subscription service.
The SoCal scene
Times art critic Christopher Knight examines the curious case of the art museum that wasn’t. Despite having a social media presence and a webpage, the Joshua Tree Art Museum has not manifested as an actual space for art. This is because, writes Knight, “the charitable foundation sponsoring the project was issued a cease and desist order two years ago by the California attorney general’s office. All charitable activity was halted, a prohibition that has not been lifted.”
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“Forest Therapy Class” led by therapist Debra Wilbur at the Huntington.
(Yuri Hasegawa / For The Times)
Along with other organizations across the country, the Huntington recently lost its National Endowment for the Humanities grants. The money funded the Huntington’s research programs, and the institution is nonetheless determined to honor its awards to this year’s recipients. The Huntington will welcome more than 150 scholars from around the world this year and next, granting nearly $1.8 million in fellowships — a notable achievement in a climate of shrinking opportunity for research and innovation. “Supporting humanities scholars is central to the Huntington’s research mission. Here, scholars find the time, space, and resources to pursue ambitious questions across disciplines. The work that begins here continues to shape conversations in classrooms, publications, and public discourse for years to come,” Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence said in a statement.
Skirball Cultural Center has announced its 2025 season of Sunset Concerts. The popular series began in 1997 and takes place at the Skirball’s Taper Courtyard. This summer will feature two acts each night, including Brazilian singer-songwriter Rodrigo Amarante, the Colombia-based all-female trio La Perla and the Dominican band MULA. Click here for the full lineup and schedule.
The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles announced that it has acquiredCynthia Daignault’s “Twenty-Six Seconds.”The artwork is a series of frame-by-frame paintings based on Abraham Zapruder’s famous 26-second 8mm color film capturing the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Through 486 painted frames, Daignault’s work further interrogates the tragedy, imbuing it with modern context.
And last but not least
This past weekend I took my daughter to the Summer Corgi Nationals at Santa Anita Park. It was more adorable and more ridiculous than you could imagine — with the short-legged dogs racing for the finish line in a chaotic competition that sometimes found contenders chasing one another back to the starting line.
In 2019, Jeffrey Gibson received a MacArthur Fellowship, the $625,000 award commonly called “the genius grant” that buys recipients the freedom to follow their dreams.
Gibson used the money to purchase art materials and hire studio assistants. He took a two-year hiatus from teaching and spent more time reading. Best of all, he could afford to focus on the exquisitely crafted and increasingly ambitious art — supercharged with bold patterns, bright colors, poetic messages and mesmerizing textures — coming out of his studio in upstate New York, near the town of Hudson, where he lives with his husband, artist Rune Olsen, and their children, 9-year-old Gigi and 5-year-old Phoenix.
A sequence of critically acclaimed — and wildly popular — exhibitions followed: “When Fire Is Applied to a Stone It Cracks” at the Brooklyn Museum in 2020, “The Body Electric” at SITE Santa Fe in New Mexico in 2022, “The Spirits Are Laughing” at the Aspen Art Museum in Colorado that same year, “They Teach Love” at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at Washington State University in 2023 and “Power Full Because We’re Different” at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in 2024.
The pace of Gibson’s exhibitions was relentless. He gained energy and momentum from reaching larger audiences, and he became a passionate advocate for issues dear to his heart, speaking particularly in terms of power and beauty, and the ways those forces have played out — and continue to play out — in the democratic experiment that is the United States of America.
All of that culminated in 2023, when the State Department selected Gibson to represent the United States with a solo exhibition at the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024. There are few higher honors for an American artist, and Gibson, a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians who also is of Cherokee descent, was the first Indigenous artist selected to fill that role. Other Indigenous artists, often unnamed, had represented the U.S. only once before — mostly with pottery, jewelry and textiles — as part of a group exhibition. That was in 1932, when Pueblo artists Ma Pe Wi and Tonita Peña and Hopi artist Fred Kabotie also exhibited their paintings.
Jeffrey Gibson’s exhibition at the 2024 Venice Biennial transformed the neoclassical U.S. Pavilion with dramatic works like this beaded piece, which is part of the forthcoming show at the Broad museum in downtown L.A.
(Timothy Schenck)
“Jeffrey Gibson: the space in which to place me” transformed the exterior and the interior of the neoclassical U.S. Pavilion in Venice into a vibrant stage that invited people from all walks of life to interact with the cornucopia of works. Visitors couldn’t help but discover something wonderful, whether it be a giant, stylized bird, festooned with thousands of glistening beads; a laser-sharp painting, composed of up to 290 supersaturated colors; an array of lavishly patterned flags, from places no one has ever visited; or an evocative phrase, lifted from a novel, a pop song, a poem or a document, such as the U.S. Constitution. A pair of 9-foot-tall figures looked like they had just stepped off a spaceship — or out of a psychedelic fever dream. And a trio of murals, measuring up to 18-by-40 feet, provided an intergalactic backdrop, welcoming aliens of all stripes.
That historic, well-received exhibition in Italy — “Identity politics has never looked this joyful,” read the review from the Times of London — has come to Los Angeles. Gibson’s first solo show in a Southern California museum opens May 10 in the lobby and first-floor galleries of the Broad.
Hypnotically colorful artworks by Jeffrey Gibson in the U.S. Pavilion of the 2024 Venice Bienniale.
(Timothy Schenck)
Detail of Jeffrey Gibson’s Venice Bienniale artworks, which have been reinstalled at L.A.’s Broad museum.
(Timothy Schenck)
All of the works that filled the pavilion in Venice will be at the Broad, installed to let visitors circulate freely through a layered labyrinth of figures and forms — some familiar, others disconcerting. A pair of sculptures, displayed five years ago in Gibson’s Brooklyn Museum exhibition, has been added.
For “When Fire Is a Applied to a Stone It Cracks” at the Brooklyn Museum in 2020, Jeffrey Gibson installed moccasins to an early 20th century bronze by Charles Cary Rumsey titled “The Dying Indian.”
(Jonathan Dorado)
The larger of the two is a monumental bronze figure on horseback, cast by Beaux-Arts sculptor Charles Cary Rumsey in the first decade of the 20th century and titled “The Dying Indian.” It depicts a generic Native American man astride an emaciated horse. Shoulders slouched, head bowed and wearing nothing but a pair of moccasins, the dying Indian is an emblem of extinction — or extermination.
To counteract that narrative, Gibson commissioned Pawnee-Cree artist John Little Sun Murie to create a pair of beaded moccasins emblazoned with a line from a Roberta Flack song: “I’m gonna run with every minute I can borrow.” While giving symbolic comfort to the bronze figure, the buckskin moccasins tell a story of grassroots resistance and DIY defiance, in which beauty and comfort and love have a toehold, even in a world otherwise defined by injustice and suffering.
Artist Jeffrey Gibson.
(Matthew Cavanaugh / For The Times)
“The space in which to place me” comes at a fraught moment for artists and their art, and Gibson is acutely aware of where his work stands in the current political climate.
“To me it’s almost whiplash going from Venice to what’s going on at the Smithsonian now,” Gibson says, referring to the public-private institution that includes the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Under pressure from the Trump administration, the Smithsonian closed its Office of Diversity and is targeted by the president for “race-centered ideology” that he deems “improper” under an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.”
“I don’t want to say it’s actually hard to reckon, because I’m not sure that it is that hard to reckon,” Gibson says. “I think that, in this moment, we have no distance. We have no objective distance from what we’re experiencing right now. And so there’s no way for me to be able to understand all of the circumstances that led to where we’re at.”
Detail of Gibson’s work at the Venice Bienniale.
(Timothy Schenck)
When Gibson looks at the present, he sees it as part of history, reaching back further than the divisiveness that has defined American politics for the last couple of decades. “When we look at other moments in history, you see so clearly how events and attitudes and interests aligned for those moments to happen.”
Gibson is convinced that, in the future, when we can see the present in retrospect, we will see that the current turmoil is actually business as usual.
Sarah Loyer, curator and exhibitions manager of the Broad, puts it this way: “The show takes a long view of history. It’s not reactive. It’s not about the past 10, 20, or however many years. It’s really looking all the way back.
“In this moment, that is refreshing. It is also necessary for us to ground ourselves in this longer view, this longer arc, and really think about the role of history, and how that affects the present and the future.”
Gibson photographed earlier this month at his studio in upstate New York.
(Matthew Cavanaugh / For The Times)
Jeffrey Gibson was born in 1972 in Colorado Springs, Colo., and he grew up in West Germany and South Korea, where his father worked for the U.S. Department of Defense, supplying goods to military bases.
In 1995, Gibson earned his bachelor’s degree from the Art Institute of Chicago. As an undergrad, he had worked at the Field Museum, on the staff established by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, which returned sacred objects and human remains to their respective tribes.
After receiving his master of fine arts degree from the Royal College of Art in London in 1998 — funded in part by the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians — Gibson moved to New York City, where he, like many young artists, struggled to find his voice, struggled to find an audience for his art and struggled to find time to make art between day jobs at Macy’s and Ikea.
By 2011, Gibson was frustrated by all of the struggles and considered abandoning art. But a 2012 two-gallery exhibition in New York, titled “one becomes the other” and presented at Participant Inc. and American Contemporary, redeemed his commitment to art-making. For the first time Gibson collaborated with other Indigenous artists, who specialized in beading, drum-making and silver engraving. It was also the first time he felt that people understood what he was up to as an artist.
Interest in his work spread swiftly. Solo exhibitions at public venues around the country followed: “Love Song” at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, in 2013, “Speak to Me” at the Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center in 2017, “Like a Hammer” at the Denver Art Museum in 2018 and “I Was Here” at the Des Moines Art Center in 2019.
He was 48 when he got the MacArthur.
For Venice, Gibson dreamed big. Rather than proposing what he thought was practical, or acceptable, or typical, he proposed what he wanted to see — in his most freewheeling imaginings, with no compromises or constraints. From June 2023, when he found out that his exhibition proposal had been selected, to April 2024, when his exhibition opened, he says, “I was prepared the entire time for people to call me and say, about every element of the installation, ‘We just can’t do that,’ or ‘It’s just not possible.’ And I have to say, that didn’t happen.”
That’s a testament to the team Gibson had assembled, which ultimately consisted of 180 people. Chief among them were Kathleen Ash-Milby, curator of Native American Art at the Portland Art Museum, and Abigail Winograd, an independent curator, as well as Louis Grachos, executive director of SITE Santa Fe. Gibson’s exhibition was co-commissioned by SITE Santa Fe and the Portland museum.
A rainbow of beads form a dreadlocked bust, one of Gibson’s works on view at the Venice Bienniale.
(Timothy Schenck)
“What’s so amazing about Jeffrey is that he draws on so many different realms for his work, from Indigenous histories to American queer culture, all the while exploring identities and diversity,” Grachos says, “He is an exceptionally sophisticated colorist, a great communicator and an effective educator. In the end, Jeffrey is the absolute, consummate humanist.”
Looking back at the year leading up to the Venice opening and the year that followed, Gibson has a deep appreciation of the value of time — and how long it takes to make sense of things. And that worries him deeply about the world we live in.
“We have created a culture that is overwhelming for a human being,” Gibson says. “And that overwhelming causes anxiety. It causes fear. It causes a real, not just a perceived, sense of instability. And when we feel completely unstable, the first thing we want to do is revert to something that we think we understand. We’ve taken away the ability to feel that we have the space for comprehension, the space to process and to understand.”
When face-to-face understanding gives way to stereotypes developed from a distance, Gibson says, the battle is lost. “We are again conjuring fear. And that fear ultimately sits in the soul as resentment. That resentment is going to show up. So when I look at the world right now, I think what I really see is fear.”
Gibson’s art is all about making a place in the world where fear — the feeling of being overwhelmed by the speed and volume of modern life, the seemingly intractable political divide, the malignant racism that plagues the nation — has no toehold, much less a leg to stand on.
Gibson’s exhibition is a remedy for those who sometimes feel powerless and pointless. His exuberant, color-saturated installation serves up an abundance of beauty, awe, astonishment and fun. It stimulates the senses and inspires the mind. Most of all, it uplifts. The experience is the opposite of what one feels by the image glut and sound bites of modern life, the psychologically destabilizing ether of digital distractions that can oppress the soul.
“I think that analog-world engagement is crucial,” Gibson says. “I make work that’s very much about being a living being in this world, which I see as phenomenal. And I wish for people that they could understand how phenomenal the world around us is.”
“We Want to Be Free,” courtesy of Jeffrey Gibson Studio, will be on view in the upcoming Broad museum exhibition.
(A garment of flowing yellow, orange and yellow carries the beaded message “ We want to be free.”)
Until recently, Gibson had not realized how important working with textiles and making garments would be to him. “When displayed,” he says, “the garments become a kind of banner, a kind of flag.”
They evoke the regalia worn by ghost dancers, papal robes and the outfits created by such performance artists as Magdalena Abakanowicz, Hermann Nitsch and Hélio Oiticica. They also recall the homemade clothes of punks and skaters.
“The garment is really a mechanism for transformation,” Gibson says. “You become someone other in the garment. It’s a way of extracting yourself from mass consumer culture. And all of those things just really fascinated me to want to think about an alternative, progressive, very inclusive army.”
The repetitive nature of weaving and beading and hands-on craftsmanship are important to Gibson. “The routine is healing,” he says.
During an earlier visit to Venice, Gibson was struck by gorgeous, fully beaded dresses made centuries ago. “They were made under some periods of tremendous distress,” he says. “I wondered why anybody, under those conditions, decided to make a beautiful, beaded dress. Why was beauty so important? And that question — Why beauty? — is still with me. The only answer I can come up with is that, in a weird way, beauty is a manifestation of hope.”
“I’m not a religious person per se, but more and more I feel that faith, in its broadest definition, is crucial,” Gibson says.
(Matthew Cavanaugh/For The Times)
Gibson also notes that the handing down of a treasured object to a family member or community member “is really a way of manifesting a future. It may be a small gesture, but it’s powerful.”
That’s how he looks at his life as an artist: “It all starts at a much smaller scale. It starts in childhood. It starts with socialization. It starts with people having examples of equity and fairness to mimic. If you have those examples, you really lessen the degree of violence that we see in society today.
“I know that’s not a sexy story. But I think that those things are within my control. I’m not a religious person per se, but more and more I feel that faith, in its broadest definition, is crucial. Right now. I just think that once you lose faith, hope, love — I mean, I don’t know what’s left.”
‘Jeffrey Gibson: the space in which to place me’
Where: The Broad, 221 S. Grand Ave., L.A. When: May 10-Sept. 28; closed Mondays Admission: $12-$15 for this special exhibition; kids 17 and younger are free Information: (213) 232-6200, thebroad.org
