Diary
Inside Ursula’s Summer Issue
By Randy Kennedy
Our summer 2025 cover story features British artist Sonia Boyce, who sits down with us to talk about the social, political and ethereal qualities of wallpaper, a touchstone of her work. In this new conversation, Boyce takes us through her unique wallpaper designs and the highly collaborative nature of her work, which she says connects her deeply to the world. “I always thought I was part of something bigger,” Boyce says. “And that I was a useful device for talking about those other things.”
The issue includes a special section about the environment, as considered by a diverse group of artists, writers and activists. The section takes readers to Puerto Rico, where Daniel Lind-Ramos’s work is rooted in the Caribbean mangrove ecosystem and the dangers threatening it; to Los Angeles, where Charles Gaines has long fused conceptual sculpture and information conveying the speed at which environmental damage is occurring; around the world to see the imagery of the international movement known as Solarpunk, which promotes the power of hopeful imagination in the face of increasing climate threats. The section ends with a moving essay by the artist Ross Simonini, a longtime resident of Altadena, Calif., who lost his home and his neighborhood in the recent Los Angeles wildfires.
Also inside is a portfolio of buildings and interiors by cult Japanese architect Tōgo Murano (1891-1984); new poetry by Peter Gizzi; debut fiction by Margaux Williamson; Angel Otero’s Brooklyn bulletin board; a close read of a bushy assemblage by Meret Oppenheim and much more.
—Randy Kennedy, Editor in Chief
Sonia Boyce in her London studio, 2025. Photo: Lily Bertrand-Webb
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Ursula Issue 13 (Summer 2025) will be released on June 7, 2025. It is available to purchase now.