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The Headlines

LIGHTS, ART, ACTION. After a three-year absence, a popular light art installation has returned brighter and revamped to the San Francisco Bay Bridge, in a sign of “commitment” to the arts, reports ABC 7. During a Friday lighting ceremony, artist Leo Villareal, who designed the work first installed in 2013, said its much-awaited, upgraded comeback, thanks to $11 million in fundraising, was due to a “communal effort.” Meanwhile, Mayor Daniel Lurie said Villareal’s swirling light piece was symbolic of the city’s pledge to boost its historic art scene, which has seen recent art school and museum closures. “Our arts, our culture has always led the way and we are doing so again and this illustration tonight … we are going to lean into our arts,” said Lurie.

IN MEMORIAM. Agosto Machado, the artist and activist known for his involvement in the Downtown New York art scene and whose “altar sculptures” are on view in the current Whitney Biennial, died on Saturday, reports Alex Greenberger for ARTnews. Machado had asked that his age be kept out of his obituary sent by his gallery, Gordon Robichaux, and on that note, once said, “A lad never tells.” The artist who has been described as an archivist and an activist, also opted for yet another descriptor: “pre-Stonewall street queen.” Machado participated in the Stonewall uprising of 1969 and the Gay Liberation Movement of the 1970s that followed, associating with a circle of artists, including Peter Hujar and Andy Warhol, to name a few. Commenting in 2022 on his ephemera sculpture shrines related to his community, he said: “Well, it’s really ancestor worship, my gratitude for all these people who came through my life.”

The Digest

France’s former culture minister, Rachida Dati, running on a conservative ticket, lost her bid to become the next mayor of Paris by a wide margin, with victory handed to left-leaning Emmanuel Grégoire. [Le Monde]