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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.

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Gagosian will host a survey of Jasper Johns's "Crosshatch" paintings at its Madison Avenue gallery in New York from January 22 to March 14, 2026. Titled "Between The Clock and The Bed," the exhibition is organized in partnership with Castelli Gallery and marks the 50th anniversary of the series, focusing on works from 1973 to 1983. It includes loans from major museums such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Broad, and the National Gallery of Art, as well as works from Johns's own collection. Highlights include pieces from his "Corpse and Mirror" series, "Weeping Women," and all six "Between the Clock and the Bed" paintings.

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Gagosian Gallery, in collaboration with Castelli Gallery, will present a landmark survey of Jasper Johns's crosshatched paintings at its 980 Madison Avenue flagship from January 22 to March 14, 2026. The exhibition marks the 50th anniversary of the series' debut in 1976 and includes rarely seen works from 1973 to 1983, lent by major museums such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Broad, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, as well as from Johns's personal collection. Key works include pieces from the "Corpse and Mirror" series, "Weeping Women" (1975), "Dancers on a Plane" (1980–81), and all six "Between the Clock and the Bed" paintings (1981–83).

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Dan Nadel, a curator recently hired by the Whitney Museum as curator of prints and drawings, is opening a new exhibition titled "Sixties Surreal" that aims to rewrite the history of 1960s art. The show, co-curated with Laura Phipps, Scott Rothkopf, and Elisabeth Sussman, features a wide range of artists from Luis Jimenez to Shigeko Kubota, alongside canonical figures like Andy Warhol and Yayoi Kusama. Nadel, known for championing marginalized and alternative figures in American art, previously curated "What Nerve! Alternative Figures in American Art, 1960 to the Present" at the Rhode Island School of Design and a Gertrude Abercrombie exhibition at Karma gallery. He is also the author of a recent biography of Robert Crumb.

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The sixth edition of Upstate Art Weekend (UAW) launched with a party at Assembly in Kingston, New York, founded by Helen Toomer in 2020. The festival has grown from 23 participants to 158 across 6,000 square miles, reflecting the pandemic-era exodus of artists and collectors from New York City to the Hudson Valley region. The event featured a fundraiser for abortion-rights nonprofit Noise for Now and drew a diverse crowd of attendees.

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The 15th edition of Expo Chicago, scheduled for April 9–12, marks a significant transition as the fair's first outing under new director Kate Sierzputowski and its third since being acquired by Frieze. The upcoming edition features a streamlined roster of approximately 130 galleries, a 25 percent decrease from previous years. While blue-chip giants like Gagosian and Zwirner are absent, the fair maintains a strong lineup including Karma, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, and local mainstays like Monique Meloche, complemented by satellite events and a high-profile benefit directed by Maurizio Cattelan.

A tale of two Annas: Van Gogh’s favourite Whistler painting stars in Tate Britain show

Tate Britain will open a major exhibition titled *James McNeill Whistler* on 21 May, running through 27 September, before traveling to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam (16 October–10 January 2027) under the subtitle *Dandy and Disrupter*. The show’s centerpiece is Whistler’s iconic *Arrangement in Grey and Black no. 1* (commonly known as *Portrait of the Painter's Mother*), on loan from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and displayed in its original frame designed by the artist. The article explores Vincent van Gogh’s admiration for the painting—he wrote to his sister Wil in 1889 that it reminded him of their own mother—and traces the work’s connections to the Goupil gallery (later Boussod & Valadon), where both Vincent and his brother Theo worked.

Process Is the Point at IFPDA Print Fair

The International Fine Prints and Drawings Association (IFPDA) Print Fair returned to New York’s Park Avenue Armory, featuring 80 global galleries, publishers, and print studios. The event showcased a diverse range of works, from 19th-century Japanese ukiyo-e masterworks by Hokusai to contemporary pieces by artists such as Kiki Smith, Julie Mehretu, and David Hockney. Notable highlights included Kiki Smith’s massive 12-foot watercolor "Wooden Moon" and Paula Rego’s influential abortion etchings, which were recently acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Chicago’s Obama Presidential Center has art at its core

The Obama Presidential Center is set to open on Chicago’s South Side on June 19, 2026. The $850m institution, designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, features more than 25 site-specific contemporary art commissions integrated into its architecture and 19.3-acre campus. Ahead of the opening, the museum has partnered with Expo Chicago to preview these works, which include monumental contributions from artists such as Julie Mehretu, Mark Bradford, and Nick Cave.

Emmanuel Di Donna Mounts Major Salvador Dalí Show as Final Exhibition in Madison Avenue Space

Emmanuel Di Donna is presenting a major Salvador Dalí exhibition, "Dalí: The Great Years, 1929–1939," at his Madison Avenue gallery from April 16 to June 13. The show features over two dozen paintings, sculptures, and works on paper from the artist's most formative decade, assembled with loans from major institutions like the Art Institute of Chicago and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It will be the final exhibition in Di Donna's current space before he launches a new joint venture with Pace and David Schrader.

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Gagosian has partnered with filmmaker Wes Anderson to recreate the New York studio of Joseph Cornell at its Paris gallery space on 9 rue de Castiglione. The exhibition, curated by Jasper Sharp and titled “The House of Utopia Parkway,” will run from December 16 to March 14, 2026, transforming the gallery into a tableau that blends a time capsule with a life-size shadow box. It marks the first solo presentation of Cornell’s work in Paris in over four decades, featuring iconic glass-fronted “shadow boxes” such as *Pharmacy* (1943), *Untitled (Pinturicchio Boy)* (circa 1950), and *A Dressing Room for Gille* (1939).

Backflips, boulders and dancing dogs: the images that shaped art photography – in pictures

A new exhibition at the Princeton University Art Museum, titled "Photography as a Way of Life," celebrates the photographers who helped establish art photography as a serious movement from the 1940s to the 1970s. The show features works by Minor White, Aaron Siskind, Harry Callahan, and others, including images by Ming Smith, Donna-Lee Phillips, and Walter Chappell. The exhibition runs until September 7 and highlights how these educators and artists transformed photography's role in both the art world and higher education.

Zurbarán in London, the Carnegie International, Walter Sickert’s Ennui—podcast

This episode of The Art Newspaper's podcast covers three major art events opening this weekend. The largest career survey of 17th-century Spanish master Francisco de Zurbarán since the 1980s opens at the National Gallery in London, co-curated by Francesca Whitlum-Cooper. The 59th Carnegie International, titled "If the word we," opens at the Carnegie Museum of Art and other venues in Pittsburgh, directed by Eric Crosby. The Work of the Week is Walter Sickert's "Ennui" (c.1914), featured in the exhibition "Walter Sickert: Working Notes" at Charleston in Lewes, curated by Robert Travers of Piano Nobile in partnership with Charleston.

Our pick of the best museum and gallery shows to see in Chicago this spring

Chicago’s spring art season features a diverse array of exhibitions, highlighted by Dabin Ahn’s solo debut at Document, which explores memory and grief through fractured canvases and Korean ceramics. The Art Institute of Chicago is hosting a tribute to the late Lucas Samaras, showcasing his experimental Polaroid self-portraiture, while the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA) launches an ambitious group show examining the political and cultural impact of dancehall and reggaetón.

A renewed focus on rigour and connection at Expo Chicago

The 2026 edition of Expo Chicago marks a strategic shift under the leadership of new director Kate Sierzputowski, featuring a leaner roster of 130 galleries at Navy Pier. The fair has introduced a more spacious layout and a new curatorial role, filled by Essence Harden, to deepen institutional ties and scholarly rigor. Notable participants include local mainstays like Monique Meloche Gallery and Gray, alongside international exhibitors from South Korea, South Africa, and Nigeria, as well as high-profile New York newcomers like Karma.

Frida Kahlo: Making of an Icon

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The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, has launched a major exhibition titled "Frida Kahlo: Making of an Icon," which explores the artist's transformation from a relatively unknown figure during her lifetime into a global cultural phenomenon. Curated by Mari Carmen Ramírez, the show features over 200 objects related to "Frida mania" alongside works by 80 contemporary artists who have been influenced by her legacy. The exhibition traces her life from her childhood in Mexico City and her tumultuous relationship with Diego Rivera to her emergence as a symbol for various social movements.

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Volume Gallery, a Chicago gallery specializing in art and design, is tripling its size and moving to a new location in the West Town neighborhood. The gallery, founded by Claire Warner and Sam Vinz, will open a 3,500-square-foot space on February 13, marking its third location since its 2010 launch. The inaugural exhibition, "The Heresy of Legacy," will feature works by artists and designers including Selva Aparicio, Richard Artschwager, and Joyce Scott.

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The Winter Show returns to New York's Park Avenue Armory from January 23 to February 1, 2026, blending blue-chip modernism with decorative arts, design, jewelry, and antiques. The fair features a special presentation titled 'Study of a Young Collector,' curated by Patrick Monahan in collaboration with executive director Helen Allen, which imagines the private study of a next-generation collector using works from 11 international dealers exhibiting for the first time. Notable highlights include Jonathan Boos's presentation of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's early work 'Wrapped Toy Horse' (1963), priced at $450,000, and a rare copper and gilt mask by Harlem Renaissance artist Sargent Claude Johnson from 1933, priced at $245,000. Boccara Gallery also showcases modern and contemporary tapestries by artists like Man Ray and Alexander Calder.

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Art Basel Miami Beach is set to open this week, and Artnet News highlights four emerging artists to watch. Among them are Nour Malas, a Syrian painter whose four-panel work for Dubai's Carbon 12 gallery reflects on her childhood and the fall of the regime, blending abstraction with political memory. Zé Tepedino, a Brazilian artist from Rio de Janeiro, creates eco-minded sculptures from beach detritus like flip-flops and umbrellas, riffing on Brazil's social history and consumer culture. Other featured artists include those working with ethereal staged worlds, memory-soaked abstraction, and sculptural experiments in Lycra, offering a vivid snapshot of new voices at the fair.

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The article profiles 20th-century textile artist Ethel Stein, who remained largely unrecognized during her lifetime despite creating technically rigorous weavings. A new exhibition titled "Master of the Loom" at New York's Sapar Contemporary (on view through November 17) showcases her geometric, rhythmic works. Stein, who studied under Josef Albers at the Bauhaus and designed a unique loom now held by the Art Institute of Chicago, also had a playful side: she began her career as a puppeteer and created the puppet that became Lamb Chop, the beloved character performed by Shari Lewis on PBS. The exhibition highlights works such as "Rust Abstract," "Indigo 25," and "Black and White," which demonstrate her mastery of complex weaving structures and geometric abstraction.

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A small Berlin auction house sold a 1930 gouache by Suzanne Duchamp for just €1,500 in 2024, and a Chicago-area firm moved a 1940 painting for only $1,000 in 2004—prices far below those of unknown emerging artists today. These works are now featured in the first-ever retrospective devoted to Duchamp at the Kunsthaus Zurich, highlighting her long neglect in favor of her more famous siblings Marcel Duchamp, Raymond Duchamp-Villon, and Jacques Villon. The exhibition traces her career from Cubist beginnings through superb Dadaist creations like "Arietta of Oblivion of the Dazed Chapel" (1920) to later, more decorative works that have divided critics.

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Marley Freeman is preparing for her new exhibition "no when" at Karma's Chelsea gallery, running through July 18, 2025. The article delves into her background as the daughter of a textile dealer, which deeply influences her abstract paintings made from gesso, acrylic, and oil. Freeman's career includes breakout shows with Karma in 2019 and 2022, and her works are held by LACMA, the Hammer Museum, and the Whitney Museum. She has collaborated with artists Lukas Geronimas and Jared Buckhiester, and her current show features collaborative pieces.

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Gordon Robichaux, a gallery located on the ninth floor of a high-rise in New York's Union Square, has opened two exhibitions dedicated to the late artist and curator Jenni Crain, who died suddenly from Covid-19 in 2021 at age 30. The shows feature an unrealized floor sculpture by Crain, completed by her foundation and collaborators, and an untitled exhibition including works by artists who influenced her, such as Tee Corinne, March Avery, and Kate Millett. The gallery is also dedicating its booth at Frieze New York to Crain, highlighting her role as a friend, curator, and salesperson during the gallery's early years.

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The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum has opened "Making Home," the seventh installment of its Triennial, featuring 25 newly commissioned projects that explore the concept of home through memory, construction, and rupture. Co-curated by Alexandra Cunningham Cameron, Christina L. De León, and Michelle Joan Wilkinson, the exhibition is organized across three themes—Going Home, Seeking Home, and Building Home—and marks the first partnership between Cooper Hewitt and another Smithsonian museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The show is on view through August 10.

The 17 Gallery Shows to See During Frieze Week in New York

Frieze New York has drawn collectors, curators, and art enthusiasts to the city, but this article highlights 17 gallery shows across Manhattan that are worth seeing during the fair week. Featured exhibitions include Katharina Fritsch's return to Matthew Marks with monumental sculptures, Kim Dacres' tire-based busts at Charles Moffett, Sasha Brodsky's debut solo show at Margot Samel, Jasper Johns' "Copy/Trace" at David Zwirner, and Lucia Hierro's packing-box sculptures at Marc Straus, among others.

Matisse Is a Crowd-Pleaser. Here’s What the Crowds Rarely Get to See

Acquavella Galleries in Manhattan has unveiled a major exhibition featuring over 50 works by Henri Matisse, many of which are rarely seen pieces drawn from private collections. This comprehensive survey includes paintings, drawings, and sculptures that span the artist's prolific career, offering a unique glimpse into works that typically remain behind closed doors.

Art with Bite: Putting Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore’s Bravery on Display

An exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago, 'Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore: The Seeing Stone,' presents the collaborative and subversive work of the French artists and life partners. The show features over 200 objects, including photographs, photomontages, and manuscripts, focusing on their radical self-portraiture and resistance to gender and social norms.

Scrappy, Political and Paranoid: ‘Greater New York 2026’

The article previews 'Greater New York 2026', an exhibition at MoMA PS1, characterizing it as 'scrappy, political and paranoid'. It is presented as a critic's guide, highlighting key shows during Art Brussels, including Richard Tuttle's assemblages at Galerie Greta Meert and an expansive exhibition of Lutz Bacher at WIELS. The piece is written by Emile Rubino and published by Frieze.

“Primary Structures,” Turns 60

On April 28, 1966, The New York Times published a review by conservative critic Hilton Kramer of the Jewish Museum's exhibition “Primary Structures,” organized by curator Kynaston McShine. Kramer, disdainful of contemporary art, described the 42 American and British artists as rejecting personal expression and subjective inflection, yet he acknowledged the show as the first comprehensive glimpse of a style that would define the 1960s. The exhibition featured then-little-known artists including Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Walter De Maria, Robert Morris, Anne Truitt, John McCracken, Larry Bell, Robert Smithson, Judy Chicago, Philip King, Michael Bolus, and David Annesley, and is now recognized as the ur-survey of Minimalism—a term McShine deliberately avoided.

Iván Argote brings roving public art project to Chicago streets

Paris-based artist Iván Argote launches a new mobile sculpture titled DIGNIDAD in Chicago on June 12, installed on a flatbed truck that will travel through the city. The project, organized by the Floating Museum as part of its Floating Monuments series, begins in Humboldt Park—a neighborhood central to Chicago's Puerto Rican community—and will also visit Pilsen, Little Village, and potentially other cities like Dallas and Minneapolis. Argote, known for his giant pigeon sculpture Dinosaur on the High Line, worked with curator Carla Acevedo-Yates and local communities to create a work that responds to current political tensions around immigration and dignity.