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The Headlines

UNIONERS PAY PRICE. In 2023, employees at Snøhetta, the prominent New York–based architecture firm, mounted an unsuccessful effort to unionize. Now the National Labor Relations Board has accused the firm of unlawfully retaliating against workers who supported the campaign, the New York Times reports. In a complaint issued on Friday, a regional NLRB director alleged that Snøhetta illegally dismissed eight employees for backing the union and engaging in protected collective activity, and that managers improperly questioned staff about their union sympathies. Snøhetta has denied the allegations. In a statement, partner Elaine Molinar said the layoffs stemmed from business pressures that predated the union drive and that the firm was largely unaware of individual employees’ views. The case comes amid a broader surge in union organizing across white-collar professions, which former Snøhetta employees said fueled their organizing push, made more fraught by management’s expressed concerns that unionization would alter the firm’s culture. Internal emails cited by the labor board appear to show managers tracking union supporters ahead of layoffs, evidence the agency says points to anti-union animus. The case will now proceed before a labor judge unless settled.

SPOTLIGHT ON FEMALE ARTISTS. This year’s Singapore Art Week arrives with a welcome sense of occasion, placing women artists from Southeast Asia firmly in the spotlight. Among the highlights are the launch of Krystina Lyon’s book You Are Seen: Women’s Contemporary Art Practice in Southeast Asia and “Fear No Power: Women Imagining Otherwise,” a major National Gallery Singapore exhibition bringing together five trailblazers from across the region. “It’s going to be a big women’s moment,” Audrey Yeo, president of the Art Galleries Association Singapore, told the Art Newspaper. These initiatives reflect decades of slow, determined work to secure visibility for women artists navigating hugely different political and social contexts. As Lyon notes, recognition often depends on the friction between an artist’s practice and conservative local norms, with the likes of Filipina performance artist Eisa Jocson or Indonesia’s Sasmita reaching international prominence before local acceptance follows. At NGS, “Fear No Power” (through November 15) situates performance artist Amanda Heng, who will represent Singapore at the 2026 Venice Biennale, alongside peers from Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines, revealing shared histories of activism, care, and resistance. 

The Digest

Philip Leider, the founding editor in chief of Artforum, has died at the age of 96. [Artforum]