The National Park Service removed a 24-foot-tall bright-blue Joel Shapiro sculpture from outside the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts yesterday without stating a reason. ^[1] The 16th Gwangju Biennale will officially open on Saturday and run for 72 days until November 5 in the southwestern city of Gwangju, according to the Gwangju Biennale Foundation. ^[2] Joel Shapiro was a late artist known for his quasi-abstract, dynamic stick-figure artworks. ^[3] Participating Chinese artists held a press conference saying they will withdraw from the exhibition in protest over a controversy regarding the use of the name Taiwan Pavilion for the Biennale's Pavilion Project. ^[4] The exhibition features 43 teams from South Korea and abroad presenting works themed on transformation as a continuous process. ^[5] Teju Adisa-Farrar wrote a piece on Black American natural dyeing traditions in collaboration with the Center for Craft and the 2025 Craft Archive Fellows. ^[6] The Gwangju Biennale Foundation agreed to allow the name 'Taiwan Pavilion' after artists called the erasure of Taiwan a threat to freedom of expression. ^[7] Artistic director Ho Tzu Nyen remarked at a press conference in March that the Biennale explores change as an artistic method for experimenting with new forms of life, creativity, power, and relationship. ^[8]