artMonday, June 22, 2026
Today's art coverage spans a surprising range: a surprisingly smart Minions sequel, a tragic backstory for a late-career folk album, and two directors arguing that bad books make better films. The thread is artists finding creative freedom in constraints, whether those constraints are franchise expectations, obscurity, or AI's lack of innocence.
Two creative projects that punch above their weight: a blockbuster sequel and a late-career folk album.
The seventh Minions movie is getting serious critical praise for its first half, which explicitly channels Buster Keaton and vintage slapstick, a rare creative high for a franchise often dismissed as pure commerce.
Tucker Zimmerman's follow-up to his Big Thief-backed comeback is shadowed by tragedy: he and his wife died shortly after completing it. The album is a sequel in more ways than one.
Two conversations about what gets lost and gained when art is remade, by humans or machines.
Albert Serra and Bi Gan, meeting for the first time, agreed that bad books often yield better films because they leave more room for invention. Serra also argued that AI lacks the innocence needed for true art.
Dataland, the Museum of AI Arts, opens at Frank Gehry's the Grand LA with an exhibition by Refik Anadol Studio that treats the museum as a site of continuous, real-time art production, not static display.
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