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Alex Needham

Headshot of Alex Needham

Alex Needham is arts editor of the Guardian

May 2026

  • Denmark pavilion. Nudity. Giardini. 61st International Art Exhibition, Biennale di Venezia, In Minor Keys. Venice, Italy. Photograph by David Levene 5/5/26

    Female nudity and art that stinks: key takeaways from Venice Biennale 2026

    Despite a call for calm, a combustible mix of politics and protest punctuated the preview week across the pavilions
  • Florentina Holzinger. Austria Pavilion. Art with a maritime (water) theme. 61st International Art Exhibition, Biennale di Venezia, In Minor Keys. Venice, Italy. Photograph by David Levene 5/5/26

    What not to miss at the 2026 Venice Biennale

    Barenaked bell ringers, banned opera singers and mind-boggling dog-owner relationships … the art at this year’s biennale has people calling the cops
  • A bright summer day outdoors in the countryside with an abstract sculpture surrounded by greenery under the blue sky2JKJ6A4 A bright summer day outdoors in the countryside with an abstract sculpture surrounded by greenery under the blue sky

    Next stop – infinity! My transcendental experience on Japan’s ‘art island’ guided by its master Lee Ufan

    Is this the ultimate location for contemplative art? Our writer travels to the legendary island of Naoshima – and meets the great creator of its most spellbinding works. Will he step through the arch and find nirvana?

April 2026

  • Kae Tempest photographed at the Guardian in March 2026 for Books Grooming: Celine Nonon @ Arlington Artists using Dermalogica and Olaplex Haircare.

    Kae Tempest on creativity and his gender transition: ‘I’m just glad to be alive’

    Ten years after his debut novel, the poet and musician has written a follow-up exploring self-discovery and a life lived on the edge. He talks about sexuality, pronouns and drawing strength from the literature he loves
  • Pet Shop Boys: Can you forgive her photo shoot by Chris Nash, 1993 © 2006 and 2026 Pet Shop Boys

    ‘Barbara Windsor smacked our bottoms!’ Pet Shop Boys on showstopping visuals, horrified bosses – and snubbing the queen

    As a 600-page doorstopper celebrates their groundbreaking costumes, gigs, sleeves and videos, the duo talk about ‘side-stepping the pop-star thing’ – and the naked trampolinist EMI had to censor
  • Guardian art critic Adrian Searle lying beneath Fiona Banner's Harriet and Jaguar sculpture at Tate Britain. Harriet and Jaguar by Fiona Banner. 2010 Duveens Commission by artist Fiona Banner, Tate Britain, London, Britain - 28 Jun 2010 This ambitious new work by the artist Fiona Banner challenges the aesthetic and physical expectations of the neoclassical Duveen galleries. Artists who have previously undertaken the Commission include Eva Rothschild (2009), Martin Creed (2008), Mark Wallinger (2007), Michael Landy (2004), Anya Gallaccio (2002) and Mona Hatoum (2000). Fiona Banner was born in Merseyside in 1966.She was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2002. Her work has featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions around the world. Adrian Searle

    ‘He’s the Pauline Kael of art criticism’: artists pay tribute to the Guardian’s Adrian Searle

    They’ve tattooed him, taken him to pole-dancing clubs, learned from and been inspired by him. Now, leading artists from Chris Ofili to Rachel Whiteread and more give their verdicts on our out-going chief art critic

March 2026

  • Tamm Reynolds in character as Midgitte Bardot - pulling a wheelie bin down a suburban street in Woolwich.

    ‘If I didn’t have dwarfism, I’d probably be quite normcore’: Midgitte Bardot on sex, drag and street harassment

    Their shows caused mayhem. Now Tamm Reynolds – AKA Midgitte Bardot – is really going for the jugular, hitting back at prejudice with a wild new act

January 2026

  • Alex Needham rests on a bench in a field

    The pub that changed me
    The pub that changed me: ‘It was a refuge from teenage pressures – and a portal to excitement’

    At the Faversham there was thumping house music, projections of lava lamp bubbles, and bottles of K Cider. Rave culture had hit Leeds, and my friends and I plunged in

December 2025

  • ‘Maybe there’s no such thing as boring’ … Whishaw.

    ‘To be really successful, you have to be sexy in a straight way’: Ben Whishaw on libidinous New York and playing Peter Hujar

    Peter Hujar captured a queer Manhattan demi-monde that is now lost to Aids. Whishaw reveals what he learned playing the photographer in a minimalist film being hailed by some as a masterpiece

October 2025

  • Cameron Crowe with Todd Rundgren in 1973.

    Book of the day
    The Uncool by Cameron Crowe review – inside rock’s wildest decade

    From shadowing a cocaine-addled David Bowie to winning over Joni Mitchell, deliciously readable tales by the director of Almost Famous

July 2025

  • Thanks for the memories … Mix Tape.

    ‘I threw it in the bin with everything else he gave me’: the mix tapes that defined our lives

    In heart-tugging drama Mix Tape, two ex-lovers are thrown back together with the music they wooed each other with 20 years earlier. Here, writers dig out their most treasured tapes and CDs full of meaning, mishaps and mega-tunes

June 2025

  • A detail from Strange Meeting, 1986.

    ‘Sometimes he cast spells over them’: the raging beauty of Derek Jarman’s black paintings

    From his unfinished film about a murdered director to a stunning series of doomy oil paintings, Derek Jarman’s work could be angry, dark and disturbing – not to mention highly relevant in these bleak times

May 2025

  • Ocean Vuong.

    ‘Buddhism and Björk help me handle fame’: novelist Ocean Vuong

    On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous made him a literary superstar. Now the Vietnamese American author is exploring his working-class roots in an ambitious follow‑up

February 2025

  • Lubaina Himid.

    ‘Artists should let the cat out of the bag’: Lubaina Himid to represent Britain at 2026 Venice Biennale

  • Linder at the Hayward Gallery, London

    The big interview
    ‘I was always obsessed with death’: how Linder turned pornography and trauma into art

January 2025

  • Photo of Marianne FAITHFULL<br>UNITED KINGDOM - JUNE 08: DOMINION THEATRE Photo of Marianne FAITHFULL, Marianne Faithful performing at The Dominion, London on 8 June 1982 (Photo by David Corio/Redferns)

    ‘There was a little bit of the devil in her’: Damon Albarn and Rufus Wainwright remember Marianne Faithfull

  • American novelist Edmund White at his residence in Chelsea , New York Monday 2nd December 2024 New York , NY Amir Hamja for The Guardian

    The big interview
    Edmund White on lust, love and literature: ‘I’d had sex with 3,000 men. A peer asked: “Why so few?”’

December 2024

  • art

    2025 culture preview
    Sensual surrealism, Kiefer’s delights and Gehry’s Guggenheim: the best art and architecture shows to visit in 2025

  • Andrew Scott

    Best films UK 2024
    ‘Love exists beyond death’: Andrew Scott on All of Us Strangers – and whether his character was dead

November 2024

  • Jordan Tannahill in New York, US, on 18 October 2024. Photograph: Jeenah Moon/The Guardian

    ‘Gimp play is a craft’: how a Canadian writer went from fetish sex work to creating powerful BBC drama

    Jordan Tannahill has turned his novel, The Listeners, into a tense, timely BBC drama inspired by cults and conspiracy theories. He talks Brexit, banging raves and exploring kinks with closeted junior Tory ministers
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