Louise Benson
@louisebenson.bsky.social
Editor-in-Chief at Ocula. Co-founder of interiors magazine Scenic Views. Trustee of Wysing Arts Centre. Writing on art, photography, politics + identity. louisebenson@artreview.com
🚨NEWS: I’m now Editor-in-Chief at @ocula.com, which is relaunching in the UK with a new website and editorial strategy. I’ll also be building a new team there - more details to come in the next few weeks.
July 25, 2025 at 1:04 PM
🚨NEWS: I’m now Editor-in-Chief at @ocula.com, which is relaunching in the UK with a new website and editorial strategy. I’ll also be building a new team there - more details to come in the next few weeks.
The sun's out, David Hockney's got a show in Paris, and everything is in bloom here in London. For @artreview.bsky.social, I wrote about the comforting allure of 'feelgood' art and the pleasant lack of being challenged by what you see artreview.com/what-does-fe...
What Does Feelgood Art Look Like?
Like a cigarette, ‘feelgood’ art is contrary, anachronistic and fleeting in its pleasure
artreview.com
April 11, 2025 at 4:24 PM
The sun's out, David Hockney's got a show in Paris, and everything is in bloom here in London. For @artreview.bsky.social, I wrote about the comforting allure of 'feelgood' art and the pleasant lack of being challenged by what you see artreview.com/what-does-fe...
‘Iconoclasts obliterate the icons, Just Stop Oil just gave those icons their five a day.’ artreview.com/so-long-just...
So Long Just Stop Oil, and Thanks for All the Soup
What the gentle iconoclasm of the climate action group makes you realise, fundamentally, is how powerless we all really are
artreview.com
March 28, 2025 at 3:44 PM
‘Iconoclasts obliterate the icons, Just Stop Oil just gave those icons their five a day.’ artreview.com/so-long-just...
I wrote about what exhibitions designed for children get wrong, the class divide when it comes to museum visits, and why outreach programmes so often fail to reach beyond a core demographic of wealthy, white, highly-educated visitors. Out now in @artreview.bsky.social artreview.com/the-trouble-...
The Trouble with Designing Exhibitions for Kids
There is plenty on offer for grown-ups in the Young V&A’s latest exhibition ‘Making Egypt’, but what really is the point of that?
artreview.com
February 21, 2025 at 11:27 AM
I wrote about what exhibitions designed for children get wrong, the class divide when it comes to museum visits, and why outreach programmes so often fail to reach beyond a core demographic of wealthy, white, highly-educated visitors. Out now in @artreview.bsky.social artreview.com/the-trouble-...
Reposted by Louise Benson
Come to our event on 2 March! We have a banging line-up of speakers giving readings in support of Palestinian rights and culture, in response to Israel's raid on the Educational Bookshop in Jerusalem last week. Tickets going fast so don't miss out...
actionnetwork.org/ticketed_eve...
actionnetwork.org/ticketed_eve...
February 16, 2025 at 9:47 AM
Come to our event on 2 March! We have a banging line-up of speakers giving readings in support of Palestinian rights and culture, in response to Israel's raid on the Educational Bookshop in Jerusalem last week. Tickets going fast so don't miss out...
actionnetwork.org/ticketed_eve...
actionnetwork.org/ticketed_eve...
Reposted by Louise Benson
I wrote about the Educational bookshop, and why the ugly and ridiculous attack on its owners matters. I don't know Mahmoud Muna personally but I heard him a few times and he always struck me as one of Jerusalem's most inspiring intellectuals.
artreview.com/mahmoud-muna...
artreview.com/mahmoud-muna...
Why Israel’s Raid on a Palestinian Bookshop Matters
The real threat posed by detained booksellers Mahmoud and Ahmad Muna is their willingness to engage with Jewish-Israelis amid a state narrative that presents all Palestinians as terrorists
artreview.com
February 15, 2025 at 10:08 AM
I wrote about the Educational bookshop, and why the ugly and ridiculous attack on its owners matters. I don't know Mahmoud Muna personally but I heard him a few times and he always struck me as one of Jerusalem's most inspiring intellectuals.
artreview.com/mahmoud-muna...
artreview.com/mahmoud-muna...
Reposted by Louise Benson
The real threat posed by detained booksellers Mahmoud and Ahmad Muna is their willingness to engage with Jewish-Israelis amid a state narrative that demonises Palestinians artreview.com/mahmoud-muna...
Why Israel’s Raid on a Palestinian Bookshop Matters
The real threat posed by detained booksellers Mahmoud and Ahmad Muna is their willingness to engage with Jewish-Israelis amid a state narrative that presents all Palestinians as terrorists
artreview.com
February 14, 2025 at 4:47 PM
The real threat posed by detained booksellers Mahmoud and Ahmad Muna is their willingness to engage with Jewish-Israelis amid a state narrative that demonises Palestinians artreview.com/mahmoud-muna...
On the exploited creative genius character and Hollywood's obsession with individuation as the defining feature of existence. Whatever happened to creative community? artreview.com/the-neoliber...
The Neoliberal Fantasy of ‘The Brutalist’
The film’s reductive portrayal of an exploited creative ‘genius’ places individuation as the defining feature of existence
artreview.com
February 3, 2025 at 11:29 AM
On the exploited creative genius character and Hollywood's obsession with individuation as the defining feature of existence. Whatever happened to creative community? artreview.com/the-neoliber...
🔊Podcast producers: we are seeking a freelance producer at @artreview.bsky.social for an exciting upcoming editorial project. Ideally based in London but can be remote. Get in touch on here or email me at louisebenson@artreview.com 📩
January 28, 2025 at 10:17 AM
🔊Podcast producers: we are seeking a freelance producer at @artreview.bsky.social for an exciting upcoming editorial project. Ideally based in London but can be remote. Get in touch on here or email me at louisebenson@artreview.com 📩
If you read one thing today, make it this conflicted elegy to Sontag by @olibasciano.bsky.social on the strange joy of hating your heroes artreview.com/the-monstrou...
The Monstrous Susan Sontag
Rude, immoral and unashamedly intellectual. 20 years on from her death, what would the world think of Sontag today?
artreview.com
January 8, 2025 at 3:25 PM
If you read one thing today, make it this conflicted elegy to Sontag by @olibasciano.bsky.social on the strange joy of hating your heroes artreview.com/the-monstrou...
At @artreview.bsky.social I am looking for new writers for opinion-led columns, expansive reviews and on-the-ground reporting to tackle social and political questions (both big and small) through the world of art and culture. Here are some highlights from our publishing over the last few months.
January 8, 2025 at 12:13 PM
At @artreview.bsky.social I am looking for new writers for opinion-led columns, expansive reviews and on-the-ground reporting to tackle social and political questions (both big and small) through the world of art and culture. Here are some highlights from our publishing over the last few months.
End of the year and a few months since I've been back at @ArtReview_ from parental leave. My own year in review is marked by both the intensity of domestic labour and getting my brain back out into the world of work and art and culture. It's not always been easy but here we are.
December 24, 2024 at 12:43 PM
End of the year and a few months since I've been back at @ArtReview_ from parental leave. My own year in review is marked by both the intensity of domestic labour and getting my brain back out into the world of work and art and culture. It's not always been easy but here we are.
Reposted by Louise Benson
ArtReview’s 2024 edition of the Power 100 list is out now artreview.com/power-100/
Power 100
artreview.com
December 4, 2024 at 11:54 PM
ArtReview’s 2024 edition of the Power 100 list is out now artreview.com/power-100/
📢 Jasleen Kaur on winning the Turner Prize:
🚨“I've been wondering why artists are required to dream up liberation in the gallery but when that dream meets life we are shut down.”
🔑“I want the institution to understand that if you want us inside you need to listen to us outside.”
🚨“I've been wondering why artists are required to dream up liberation in the gallery but when that dream meets life we are shut down.”
🔑“I want the institution to understand that if you want us inside you need to listen to us outside.”
December 4, 2024 at 10:38 AM
📢 Jasleen Kaur on winning the Turner Prize:
🚨“I've been wondering why artists are required to dream up liberation in the gallery but when that dream meets life we are shut down.”
🔑“I want the institution to understand that if you want us inside you need to listen to us outside.”
🚨“I've been wondering why artists are required to dream up liberation in the gallery but when that dream meets life we are shut down.”
🔑“I want the institution to understand that if you want us inside you need to listen to us outside.”
On the Harper's cover story, the pitfalls of nostalgia, and what happens when you blame the art and not your own changing tastes... 🎨 artreview.com/can-you-age-...
Are You Too Old for the Artworld?
Complaining that most art sucks is like saying that all new music is bad because you don’t like Spotify’s Top 50 playlist
artreview.com
November 25, 2024 at 12:18 PM
On the Harper's cover story, the pitfalls of nostalgia, and what happens when you blame the art and not your own changing tastes... 🎨 artreview.com/can-you-age-...
Reposted by Louise Benson
I really enjoyed reporting this long-form piece on the resistance to “Culture Route,” a government-funded festival in Turkey, and how that is energizing Turkey’s art scene, for @artreview.bsky.social artreview.com/the-tangled-...
The Tangled Politics of Erdoğan’s Culture Route Festival
How resistance to a government-funded festival is energising Turkey’s art scene
artreview.com
November 23, 2024 at 7:40 PM
I really enjoyed reporting this long-form piece on the resistance to “Culture Route,” a government-funded festival in Turkey, and how that is energizing Turkey’s art scene, for @artreview.bsky.social artreview.com/the-tangled-...
Reposted by Louise Benson
James has written about their experience and about the wider repression of support for Palestinian rights in Gerrmany. This paragraph, for me, gets to the heart of what is so disturbing about it. artreview.com/james-bridle...
November 20, 2024 at 8:56 AM
James has written about their experience and about the wider repression of support for Palestinian rights in Gerrmany. This paragraph, for me, gets to the heart of what is so disturbing about it. artreview.com/james-bridle...
On censorship, the ethics of arts institutions, and Palestine. Proud to publish this by @jamesbridle.bsky.social today in @artreview.bsky.social artreview.com/james-bridle...
James Bridle: ‘The Denial of Genocide Is on the March Everywhere’
The artist addresses the ‘duty of institutions to act ethically’
artreview.com
November 19, 2024 at 7:57 PM
On censorship, the ethics of arts institutions, and Palestine. Proud to publish this by @jamesbridle.bsky.social today in @artreview.bsky.social artreview.com/james-bridle...
Balcony details to make your head spin. The Hallfield Estate, designed in 1951 by Berthold Lubetkin
November 14, 2024 at 8:18 PM
Balcony details to make your head spin. The Hallfield Estate, designed in 1951 by Berthold Lubetkin