What’s Happening: Though it was only open for one summer in the ‘80s, the art-filled Luna Luna Park comes back to life in Los Angeles after 35 years as a reminder to stay curious and empathetic.

The Download: For the past two years, a team of restorers has been refurbishing a trove of amusement park rides created by some of the most legendary artists of our time. This is no chintzy rehash of Mickey Mouse ears or a Banksy-esque corporate teardown á la Dismaland, but a fully functioning art carnival that actually existed for one sticky late-‘80s summer in Hamburg. There was a swing ride by Kenny Scharf; a carousel enlivened by Keith Haring’s animated characters; a Ferris wheel given the Basquiat treatment; a “Dalí Dome” that perhaps laid the foundation for Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Rooms to become wildly popular decades later. Named Luna Luna, the park was the brainchild of André Heller, the mischievous Austrian artist who viewed carousels and swings as tantamount to “revolving sculptures.”

The art establishment initially scoffed at Heller’s grand plans for Luna Luna, but a reported 240,000 eager spectators showed up to witness what Life magazine gushed as “an international art carnival of the avant-garde” that “elevates the mind and makes the jaw drop.” Once the season wrapped and the carousels ground to a halt, however, the rides disappeared for 35 years. Financial, legal, and bureaucratic disputes hamstrung Heller’s plans to bring Luna Luna to San Diego and Vienna. The rides had been sitting abandoned in shipping containers near the remote Texas town of Nocona ever since, an overlooked snippet of the art canon awaiting a deep-pocketed buyer to bring the carnival back to life.

Given how Luna Luna’s lifespan preceded smartphones, scant documentation exists of it online. In 2019, though, a post from culture blog “Minnie Muse” somehow got in front of the eyes of Michael Goldberg, the founder of creative agency Something Special Studios, whose attention was piqued. He mentioned it in a meeting with DreamCrew, rapper Drake’s entertainment firm, which agreed to invest in Luna Luna’s revival. They soon acquired the park’s assets from the Stephen and Mary Birch Foundation, transported the rides to California, and began painstakingly reassembling them in a sprawling warehouse near Downtown Los Angeles, where Luna Luna’s long-awaited second act will open this month and run through the spring.

The aptly titled revival “Forgotten Fantasy” brings Luna Luna’s attractions back to life, but don’t expect to ride anything. (Modern safety codes preclude that prospect.) Instead, it’s all about basking in the carnival’s dusky atmosphere and being wowed by its very existence. Minimal interior lighting and few dividing walls allow the luminous rides to gleam kaleidoscopically, augmented by an ‘80s-themed soundtrack spanning Philip Glass to Europop. Heller, now 76, isn’t involved this time around, but the park’s roots impart an important history lesson. His father was detained by the Nazis in Hamburg; on Luna Luna’s original site, they deported Jews to concentration camps. The park and its ebullient creative experiments are a reminder to stay empathetic and curious so history doesn’t repeat itself.

In Their Own Words: “The park is always a dream space,” Helen Molesworth, Luna Luna’s curatorial adviser, tells the Los Angeles Times. “It’s like someone goes around and untightens the screws of your need to behave, your need to be good, your need to be smart, your need to be proper. You can tap into whatever it is in you that you locked up, whether it’s your childhood or sense of adventure or desire to be scared or desire to be bamboozled. Whatever it is you talked yourself out of, this project lets you re-engage with.”

Surface Says: Can’t make it to L.A.? Grab a copy of Luna Luna’s original exhibition book reissued by Phaidon.

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It’s been a big year for the self-represented Cree and First Nations artist. In October, his showcase of paintings at Art Toronto made the issue of land theft and Indigenous sovereignty unignorable at Canada’s largest contemporary art fair. Just a few weeks ago, Monkman and his longtime creative partner Gisèle Gordon celebrated the publication of The Memoirs of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle: A True and Exact Accounting of the History of Turtle Island. The two-volume memoir compiles Monmkan’s vast body of paintings to tell a story of how North America was settled from the perspective of Monkman’s alter ego Miss Chief: a queer, shape-shifting, time-traveling heroic being.

On Dec. 15, the Metropolitan Museum of Art will host an artist talk with Monkman, Gordon, and the Met’s associate curator of Native American art, Patricia Norby. The evening will also feature an appearance by Miss Chief.

Tucked away in a landmark 19th-century townhouse facing NoHo’s storied Bond Street is a brand-new neighborhood watering hole paying tribute to a departed local legend. Jac’s on Bond takes shape in the former digs of The Smile, a snug café where Authentic Hospitality laid roots and built a community of loyal regulars and friends before opening some of New York’s most in-demand bars and nightlife destinations in Pebble Bar, Ray’s, and Bar Calico. Those regulars—many friends of Jack Champlin, the beloved “Mayor of Bond Street and the bar’s enigmatic namesake—will feel at home thanks to a cozy revamp by Gachot Studios that injects tasteful touches while preserving the townhouse’s character.

“We wanted to open a place that felt like a casual hangout for our Bond Street neighbors,” say John and Christine Gachot, whose firm tempers warm minimalism with dashes of theatricality to momentous effect. “But also elevated and expertly executed, where adults could gather around a well-made cocktail and meet each other—a lost art in New York!” Sip on the signature Caprese Martini while leaning against the St. Laurent–topped marble bar, where cocktails are mixed among vintage 1920s sconces and a mahogany mirror perched behind. Downstairs, velvet seats built into arched niches forge a decadent, speakeasy vibe. Adorning the walls throughout are Janette Beckman’s photographs of New York hip-hop artists of the ‘80s and ‘90s, many of whom made their names in the area—after all, it’s important to remember your roots.

One of the most in-demand artists working today, Tschabalala Self has garnered acclaim for challenging traditional representations of Black women through evocative quilt-like portraits painted with various pigments, materials, textiles, and threads that speak to the nuances of being. So she was an ideal candidate to capture the complexities of Nicki Minaj, the world’s undisputed Queen of Rap, who recently graced the cover of Vogue’s December issue to celebrate the release of her highly anticipated album Pink Friday 2.

Self’s portrait, which covers the digital issue and uses photographer Norman Jean Roy’s cover shoot as a starting point, breaks through to Minaj as a person. That’s no easy task given the Harlem-born artist often eschews realism and Minaj is known for incorporating carefully crafted personas into her songs. She spent time meticulously articulating Minaj’s features, rendering not only her steely gaze but her strength and natural beauty. “By working on this project, I realized something I already suspected,” Self tells Vogue. “A portrait is more about capturing someone’s aura as opposed to their appearance.”

Last week, the gallery teamed up with Franco’s Bar and Le Sireneuse, the Amalfi Coast staples of fine cocktails and Positano hospitality, to ring in the art week festivities in Miami. Guests mingled poolside at The Broken Shaker over watermelon palomas and bellini margaritas. The evening culminated in a musical experience created by sound designer Arman Nafée before dispersing into the night.

When was it? Dec. 5

Where was it? The Broken Shaker, Miami

Who was there? Chloe Wise, Tyler Mitchell, Antonio Sersale, Sarah Levine, Caroline Avedon, Jack Siebert, Nikolai Haas, and more.

When: Until Feb. 11

Where: Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, Mumbai

What: With Pop Art’s deep roots in the United States, denizens from cities as wide-ranging as Pasadena, Pittsburgh, and New York have many opportunities to see works by the genre’s originators. Now, Mumbai’s Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Center is hosting India’s first exhibition of the genre, featuring foundational works by Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, and Robert Rauschenberg, along with nine other Pop Art masters. Themes of fame, love, and power guide audiences in their understanding of how the U.S.’s key decades of transformation parallel the genre’s rise, and offers a lens through which India’s current era of change can be understood.

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