Bill Viola made video art ask the biggest, most universal questions
Jonathan Jones
The artist, who has died aged 73, used his medium to explore survival, reason, life, death and the soul. In a world of oversaturation, his art gave stillness
Bill Viola obituary
Video artist who melded the material and the spiritual and applied modern technology to Renaissance subjects
My bricklayer’s gone viral! Why construction workers are the new social media stars
From pirouetting diggers to dazzling displays of bricklaying, astonishing professional skills from unsung experts are winning millions of views
June 2024
Francis Alÿs: Ricochets; Anthony McCall: Solid Light – reviews
Hacked Game Boys and horseplay! Jarman award shortlist celebrates thinking outside the box
May 2024
‘Amazing revelations’: the artist who asks passersby to bare all into an old-school telephone
Reverb review – summer’s here and the time is right for dancing in a concrete basement!
‘Stress and failure’: Matthew Barney on his film about the sports accident that traumatised America
Dublin video portal to New York shuts temporarily due to unruly behaviour
April 2024
John Akomfrah’s British pavilion at Venice Biennale review – a magnificent and awful journey
Bloodied, despondent, clutching a toy: the Ukrainian artists savaging refugee portrait stereotypes
Artists’ AI dilemma: can artificial intelligence make intelligent art?
‘Another layer of pigment needed adding to the canvas’: artist John Akomfrah on changing the narrative, from Windrush to colonialism
February 2024
‘Living in Brixton allowed me not to be judged non-stop’: Zineb Sedira, the artist who makes people feel at home
An eyeful of Soho sinners: Douglas Gordon’s All I Need Is a Little Bit of Everything review
December 2023
The Observer's January cultural diet
Feast your eyes, feed your soul: the 31-day art diet for January
‘More showreel than show’: inside Luna Park’s new $15m theatre
2024 culture preview
The Last Supper recast: artist Tavares Strachan on reimagining Da Vinci’s dinner guests
Turner prize 2023 – and the winner should be…
November 2023
John Akomfrah: Arcadia review – celebration of Mayflower overwhelms the senses
Akomfrah, who is set to represent Great Britain at next year’s Venice Biennale, tackles conquest, plague and death with this five-screen installation. But there is too much going on to concentrate
