what defined 2025 curators pick the years best art

Several international curators and museum directors, including Connie Butler of MoMA PS1, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Julieta Gonzalez of the Wexner Center for the Arts, and Madeleine Grynsztejn of MCA Chicago, selected artworks that they believe define 2025. Highlights include Ayoung Kim's video installation 'Delivery Dancer’s Arc: 0º Receiver' (2024), Beeple's 'Regular Animals' premiered at Art Basel Miami Beach, and Kerry James Marshall's painting 'Haul' (2025) from his retrospective at the Royal Academy of Arts. Julieta Gonzalez also pointed to a broader constellation of practices emphasizing collectivity, ecological thinking, and Indigenous cosmologies rather than a single emblematic work.

Artist Trevor Paglen Will Curate the Swiss Edition of Art Basel’s Digital Art Sector

Artist Trevor Paglen will curate the third edition of "Zero 10," Art Basel's digital art sector, at the fair's Swiss edition from June 17–21. Major galleries including Marian Goodman, Hauser and Wirth, and Almine Rech will present works by artists such as John Gerrard, Agnieszka Kurant, Avery Singer, and Hito Steyerl. Paglen co-curates with digital art strategist Eli Scheinman, and the presentation, titled "The Condition," surveys seven decades of instruction-based and computational art, featuring pioneers like Vera Molnár, Mary Ellen Bute, Ted Nemeth, and Ben F. Laposky alongside contemporary stars.

major native art collection plans upstate new york space

The Gochman Family Collection, a significant patron of Indigenous art, has announced plans to open two new exhibition spaces totaling 10,000 square feet in Katonah, New York. Scheduled to debut this fall, the venues will showcase selections from a rapidly growing collection of over 750 works by Native artists from the U.S. and Canada. To lead this expansion, the organization has appointed Laura Phipps, a former associate curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, as its inaugural director.

8 Must-See Shows during Gallery Weekend Berlin 2026

Gallery Weekend Berlin 2026 features over 50 galleries across the city, with a strong emphasis on painting. The event, founded in 2005 by a cooperative of local gallerists as an alternative to traditional art fairs, this year confirms the lasting power of painting despite its original anti-painting ethos.

Dingo-related work at Sydney Biennale takes on new resonance following backpacker death

A new installation by artist Cannupa Hanska Luger at the 2026 Biennale of Sydney features seven ceramic dingo skulls with whistles that create a howling sound. The work, titled "Volume III White Bay Power Station," was created before the artist learned of the death of a Canadian backpacker, Piper James, on K'gari (Fraser Island), a ruling for which found she drowned after a dingo attack.

Niklaus Stoecklin at Hauser & Wirth, Basel

Hauser & Wirth Basel is presenting a focused exhibition of works by Swiss artist Niklaus Stoecklin (1896–1982), featuring paintings and drawings spanning from the 1920s to the 1970s. The show includes several rarely seen pieces, highlighting Stoecklin's distinctive approach to depicting life—people, animals, trees, stones, and space—as he described it.

beeple robot dogs neue nationalgalerie berlin

Digital artist Beeple is bringing his viral robotic installation, "Regular Animals (2025)," to the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin this April. The work features a pack of AI-powered robotic dogs with heads modeled after tech moguls like Elon Musk and art icons like Pablo Picasso, which roam a pen, capture images of the audience, and "eject" AI-filtered prints from their rears. The presentation will coincide with Gallery Weekend Berlin and include a dialogue with Nam June Paik’s "Andy Warhol Robot (1994)."

Beeple's Robot Dogs to Roam Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie

beeple robot dogs nationalgalerie berlin

Digital artist Beeple is set to make his German institutional debut at Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie with "Regular Animals" (2025), an installation featuring ten robotic dogs with heads modeled after tech moguls like Elon Musk and iconic artists like Pablo Picasso. The sculptures, which gained viral fame at Art Basel Miami Beach, use AI to process their surroundings and "defecate" stylized prints for visitors. The 11-day pop-up presentation will place Beeple’s work in dialogue with Nam June Paik’s "Andy Warhol Robot" (1994), exploring the intersection of art, media, and mechanical reproduction.

Ornamental Carpets Release Wild Animals in Debbie Lawson’s Provocative Sculptures

Debbie Lawson presents a solo exhibition, "In a Cowslip's Bell I Lie," at Sargent's Daughters in New York, featuring her signature large-scale sculptures of life-size animals cloaked in ornamental Persian carpets. Using wire mesh, masking tape, and Jesmonite resin, she meticulously wraps each limb in carpet, creating the illusion that the animals have emerged from the textiles themselves. The show includes works such as "Wild Dog Sundown" (2025), "Red Eagle" (2026), and "Black Cougar" (2025), and draws its title from Shakespeare's *The Tempest*.

Aneta Grzeszykowska Shoots Poetic Portraits in a Mask of Herself at Age 14

Polish artist Aneta Grzeszykowska is presenting two photo series in New York: "Mama" (2018), featuring a life-like doll of herself played with by her young daughter, and "Daughter" (2025), for which she wears a mask of her 14-year-old self and poses with family members. "Mama" is included in the "New Humans" exhibition at the New Museum and previously appeared in the 2022 Venice Biennale's "Milk of Dreams." "Daughter" is on view at Lyles & King gallery on the Lower East Side through May 9, and also in the group show "Adolescence" at the Zachęta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw. The series extend Grzeszykowska's long-standing practice of manipulating family photographs, which began with her 2005 series "Album," where she removed herself from old family pictures.

art criticism new york upper east side guide

The article presents a walking tour of art exhibitions on Manhattan's Upper East Side, led by a critic. It highlights Jeffrey Gibson's monumental bronze sculptures "The Animal That Therefore I Am" (2025) installed on the Metropolitan Museum of Art's façade, depicting four anthropomorphized Hudson Valley animals. The tour also covers Alix Cléo Roubaud's first solo show outside France, "Correction of perspective in my bedroom" at Galerie Buchholz, featuring intimate black-and-white photographs from 1979–1983, and Nancy Holt's work at Sprüth Magers, including a historic photograph of her in the Sun Tunnels.

Tintoretto Genesis Cycle Restored

tintoretto genesis cycle restored

Four paintings from Tintoretto’s 16th-century “Stories from Genesis” cycle have been reunited in Venice for the first time in two centuries following an extensive restoration. The exhibition at the Gallerie dell’Accademia features three works from the museum’s permanent collection alongside a crucial loan from the Uffizi Galleries, all of which underwent a year-long conservation process to remove centuries of darkened varnish and grime.

goodman gallery laura lima

Brazilian artist Laura Lima is currently the subject of two major concurrent solo exhibitions in London. At Goodman Gallery, her show "Communal Nests for Windows, Balconies, Verandas, Gardens, and Forests" features woven, nest-like sculptures made from organic materials like jute and sisal, which she encourages collectors to install outdoors to be used by wildlife. Simultaneously, the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is hosting "The Drawing Drawing," a career-spanning survey centered on a site-specific performance piece involving life models and artists on mechanized orbiting platforms.

nyc holiday art shows

Artnet News has compiled a guide to holiday art shows in New York City for December 2025. The featured exhibitions include the Metropolitan Museum of Art's annual "Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche" (November 25–January 6), the American Museum of Natural History's "Origami Holiday Tree" (November 24–January 20) inspired by its dinosaur extinction exhibition, the Morgan Library and Museum's display of Charles Dickens's original manuscript of "A Christmas Carol" (November 25–January 11), and the New York Public Library's "Best Friends Forever: Holiday Greeting Cards" (December 3–January 4). Each venue offers a unique artistic take on the holiday season, from 18th-century Neapolitan figurines and thousands of origami animals to literary history and vintage greeting cards.

walton ford gagosian tutto cheetah marchesa luisa casati

Walton Ford's new series of paintings, on view at Gagosian in New York through April 19, centers on the Marchesa Luisa Casati and her two cheetahs. The works depict the Milanese heiress and Futurist muse in early 20th-century Venice, but the animals—not the glamorous woman—command the focal point. Ford, known for subverting natural history illustration, uses watercolor to balance trompe-l'oeil realism with painterly abandon, developing the characters across multiple canvases with Italian titles referencing literature by Casati's lover, poet Gabriele D'Annunzio.

Tuguldur Yondonjamts’s Animalistic Realm

Mongolian artist Tuguldur Yondonjamts explores the habitat of the saker falcon through a series of accordion-style books titled *The Secret Mountain of Falcons* (2011–14), created during fieldwork across Mongolia. The drawings, presented in Perspex vitrines at his solo exhibition *Wolf Loving Princess* at Gallery Ver in Bangkok, depict the falcon's perspective as imagined by the artist, blending black-and-white film-like imagery with abstract textures. The work responds to the falcon trade, particularly to the Middle East, and the species' declining population, which led to its designation as Mongolia's national bird in 2012.

Getting Messy in the Archive at LA’s Art Book Fair

Printed Matter's Los Angeles Art Book Fair returned to the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena for its 13th edition, featuring over 250 exhibitors—slightly fewer than last year—with about a fifth participating for the first time. A common thread across the fair was the archive: publications that excavate, remix, and repurpose historical media, from a book chronicling a 1960s hoax about animal nudity to a compendium of vintage photographs that subvert male subjectivity, and a collection of found photos from abandoned houses in rural Maine. The fair also highlighted diasporic and personal archives, including a Palestinian-American artist's cassette mixtape tracing music from the Middle East and an artist-run press focusing on translation as cultural resistance.

art basel miami beach report viral moments

Art Basel Miami Beach 2025 generated viral moments with Beeple's 'Regular Animals' installation featuring robot dogs with billionaire faces, while Leandro Erlich's underwater sculpture garden 'Reefline' debuted concrete cars in Biscayne Bay. The fair's priciest work was Andy Warhol's $18 million 'Muhammad Ali' (1977), sold by Lévy Gorvy Dayan. Other highlights included Katie Stout's public commission 'Gargantua's Thumb' in the Miami Design District, Refik Anadol's AI screen, and the return of Sukeban, a Japanese women's wrestling league, as a crowd favorite.

design miami 2025 brings out creatures and comfort

Design Miami 2025 preview drew a bustling crowd with over 70 exhibitors under the theme "Make Believe." Highlights included Katie Stout's whimsical carousel featuring marine animals, Roham Shamekh's biomorphic "Roots" sofa with integrated headphones, and ATRA's futuristic "Intelligence of Evolution" seating system upholstered in Hermès fabric. The Spanish silver brand Garrido showcased collaborations with Peter Marino, while the fair's 20th anniversary edition embraced a carnivalesque atmosphere with popcorn and mirrored walls.

An Incomparable Art Exhibition

Lana Jokel, a documentary filmmaker known for 18 films about contemporary art, has put her personal art collection on view at the Bridgehampton Museum’s Nathaniel Rogers House in an exhibition titled “Echoes & Nostalgia.” The show features around 100 works from artists including Andy Warhol, Ed Ruscha, Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, and John Chamberlain, many of which were gifts from the artists themselves. Jokel’s collection reflects her deep personal relationships with these figures, such as Warhol paying her with a "Flowers" series work for co-editing his film "Heat" (1972), and Jasper Johns creating custom pieces for her. The exhibition also includes works by Sven Lukin, with whom she had a long-term relationship, and a portrait by Ed Ruscha made during their romantic partnership.

Damien Hirst's studio has been recreated in Seoul for a major exhibition dedicated to him (including the original floor)

Lo studio del celebre artista Damien Hirst è stato ricreato a Seoul per una grande mostra a lui dedicata (c’è pure il pavimento originale)

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) in Seoul has launched "Nothing Is True But Everything Is Possible," the largest retrospective of Damien Hirst’s work ever held in Asia. Spanning 35 years of his career, the exhibition features over 50 iconic works, including his formaldehyde-preserved animals, diamond-encrusted skull, and a recreation of his Pharmacy Restaurant. A unique highlight is the meticulous reconstruction of Hirst’s London studio, complete with the original paint-stained floor transported to South Korea and 30 previously unseen unfinished canvases from his new "River" series.

Exhibition | Kiki Smith, 'Flight' at Galerie Lelong, 13 Rue de Téhéran, Paris, France

Kiki Smith presents her tenth solo exhibition at Galerie Lelong in Paris, titled 'Flight'. The show features bronze sculptures, two large stained-glass windows, drawings, and an imposing print, all exploring themes of continuity and unity across humans, animals, and plants. Birds such as eagles, doves, and owls carry symbolic weight, reflecting the artist's fears, desires, and dreams.

athens emst why look at animals lin may saeed

The National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens has opened "Why Look at Animals: A Case for the Rights of Non-Human Lives," a major exhibition curated by Katerina Gregos that spans seven floors and features over 60 artists. The show confronts animal exploitation through works such as Ang Siew Ching's video "High-Rise Pigs" (2025), depicting a 26-story factory farm in China, and Art Orienté Objet's charcoal map of endangered species slowly erased by a robotic arm. Other artists include Sue Coe, Igor Grubić, and Janis Rafa, with the exhibition taking its title from a John Berger essay.

Jo Ractliffe at the Jeu de Paume: “I am not a militant photographer, but when you work in South Africa you cannot escape stories of violence”

Jo Ractliffe au Jeu de Paume : « Je ne suis pas une photographe militante, mais quand on travaille en Afrique du Sud on ne peut échapper aux histoires de violence »

South African photographer Jo Ractliffe discusses her upcoming retrospective at the Jeu de Paume, reflecting on her career path that began during the isolation of the apartheid era. Eschewing traditional photojournalism, Ractliffe developed a singular poetic language focused on landscapes and animals to address the heavy histories of violence, ownership, and displacement in Southern Africa.

Viral Beeple robot dogs to go on display at Berlin museum.

Viral Beeple robot dogs to go on display at Berlin museum.

A set of robotic dog sculptures by digital artist Beeple, which became a viral sensation online, have been acquired by Berlin’s König Galerie for its permanent collection and will go on public display. The four lifelike, animatronic canines, titled "S.2122," are modeled on Boston Dynamics' "Spot" robots but are weathered and decaying, with exposed wires and organic growths. This marks Beeple's first major physical sculpture series to enter a prominent institutional collection, following his landmark $69 million NFT sale in 2021.

Cinga Samson Conjures Mystery and the Sublime in Large-Scale Oil Paintings

South African artist Cinga Samson is currently presenting a series of large-scale oil paintings in a solo exhibition titled "Ukuphuthelwa" at White Cube in New York. The works feature dreamlike, nocturnal tableaux characterized by deep pigments, spectral figures with all-white eyes, and symbolic animals that bridge the earthly and divine. The title, which translates from isiXhosa as "unable to sleep," frames sleeplessness as a state of heightened spiritual alertness rather than a medical condition.

Robot dogs with Musk and Zuckerberg heads roam around Berlin gallery in Beeple's new exhibit

American artist Beeple (Mike Winkelmann) has installed an interactive piece titled "Regular Animals" at Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie, featuring robot dogs with hyper-realistic silicone heads modeled after Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, and Beeple himself. The dogs roam the gallery and "poo" printed AI-transformed images of their surroundings, with each dog's output reflecting the worldview of its human figure—for example, the Picasso dog produces Cubist-style images. The work, first shown at Art Basel Miami Beach 2025, includes QR codes on prints that grant access to free NFTs.

Fiona Pardington’s portraits of the lost birds of Aotearoa New Zealand – in pictures

Fiona Pardington has created a new series of human-scale photographic portraits of native New Zealand birds, many of which are extinct or endangered, using taxidermy specimens from regional museums. The series, titled "Taharaki Skyside," will be exhibited at the Aotearoa New Zealand pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale. Pardington, who has Māori and Scottish ancestry, incorporates the birds' eyes with superimposed historical landscapes to evoke their lost habitats and spiritual significance as intermediaries between human and divine worlds in Māori culture.

Precious Okoyomon’s Whitney Biennial Installation Is on View After a Delay, and It’s a True Shocker

Precious Okoyomon's major installation for the 2024 Whitney Biennial, titled 'Everything wants to kill you and you should be afraid,' opened after a brief delay. The work, featuring around 50 stuffed animals and racist dolls suspended by nooses, was moved from the museum lobby to the eighth floor to provide more space for viewers to engage with its disturbing yet beautiful mix of childhood nostalgia and violence.

100 massive elephant sculptures beverly hills

The Great Elephant Migration, a public art project featuring 100 life-size elephant sculptures, has concluded its cross-country journey in Beverly Hills, California. The sculptures, crafted by Indigenous artisans of the Coexistence Collective in India from the invasive lantana camara weed, represent real elephants from the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve and the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. The herd traveled 5,000 miles via electric trucks, making stops in Newport, New York, Miami, Houston, Jackson Hole, and Montana, before arriving at Beverly Gardens Park. The artworks are for sale, with prices ranging from $8,000 to $22,000, and sales have exceeded $3 million, with proceeds supporting 22 conservation NGOs.