In elegant sculptures and grid reliefs made of bamboo and rattan, Cambodia's Sopheap Pich engages his homeland's perpetually conflicted condition.

Robert Arneson's virtuosic ceramic bust of slain San Francisco mayor George Moscone is a reminder that occasionally you can go home again.

Stephen Prina is an art polymath whose mediums include drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, installation, video and film. He is also a composer and musician who has interpreted works by Beethoven, Schoenberg, Sonic Youth, Steely Dan and many others.

European cultural subsidies have long been the envy of American artists and arts organizations. But over the last two years, as austerity-minded conservative governments took office against the backdrop of a deepening fiscal crisis, countries across Europe have targeted the arts for severe cuts.

The relationship between creativity and commerce has always been vexed—perhaps never more so than today.