Looking Back 2018

Standout performances and site-specific installations studded a year characterised by turbulent politics

We said goodbye to Cecil Taylor, Sam Miller, Takehisa Kosugi and many others. New York also welcomed the return of two prominent non-profit institutions

Latin American artists respond to nationalism, climate change, and other urgent crises

Is 2018 the year that we abandon an outdated form of stand-up comedy?

The curator, author and director of Dortmunder Kunstverein reflects on a year of shows dealing in magic and mythologies

The Berlin-based artist Veit Laurent Kurz shares his favourite shows of the year

2018 gave glimmers of hope for those hoping to defy tech giants – but now is the time to remain vigilant

This year saw the publication of a rich vein of books about motherhood and women’s work

The glitter of Shanghai’s international art week masks darker changes in the cultural sphere of the People’s Republic 

At Studio Voltaire, London, the artists have transformed the former chapel into a wild Wilde Gesamtkunstwerk

A private show in Stuttgart to neo-Nazi demos in Berlin, queer lessons in times of change

In a year marked by anger and powerlessness, artists set their sights on empowering counter-narratives

From environmentalist epics to Norse mythology and the re-emergence of Russian cosmism: John Holten surveys the best books of 2018

From Charlotte Prodger’s Turner Prize win to Glasgow School of Art’s gutted Mackintosh building, a sometimes fraught and rarely dull year in Scotland

Despite the ‘golden age of television’ now behind us, several convincing and self-confident series caught our attention

It is not unusual for Cuban artists to grumble about excessive state meddling, but it’s rare for complaints to be aired publicly and collectively