The voluptuous statue of a mermaid in a square in a Puglia, southern Italy, has caused a stir for being “too provocative”. Created by students at the Luigi Rosso art school in Monopoli, it is yet to be officially inaugurated. It became a target of ridicule after photos were taken and shared on social media. Marciano, the headteacher at the Luigi Rosso art school, defended the statue, saying it was a “tribute to the great majority of women who are curvy”. The students were tasked by the mayor to create statues, including one on the theme of the sea.

Troy Emery works with textiles in a sculptural practice to produce figurative forms and imagery. His artwork examines the discourse surrounding our natural world. Emery is interested in the boundaries between fine art, museums, natural history, craft, and the domestic space, seeing his works as blurring between each of these thresholds. Emery’s works function as both decorative motifs and tokens of ecological ruination and alienation. His work’s obscure forms under lurid colour and textures, exploring a materiality through the use of mass-produced decorative craft components. These function as a point of opposition to the traditions of hard figurative sculpture. https://troyemery.net/

Using large-scale projection in a remarkable new space, David Hockney takes us on a personal journey through sixty years of his ar