George Herms, Titan of West Coast Assemblage, Dies at 90

George Herms, a pioneering figure in the West Coast Assemblage movement, died on April 24 at age 90. Known for transforming found materials, rusted metal, and debris into poetic sculptures and collages, Herms emerged from the Beat scene in Topanga Canyon and was influenced by artist Wallace Berman. His first assemblage show, Secret Exhibition (1957), was held in a vacant lot, and he was later included in MoMA's landmark 1961 exhibition The Art of Assemblage. Over seven decades, he exhibited widely, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and Morán Morán, and created public artworks in LA such as 'Portals to Poetry' and 'Clocktower: Monument to the Unknown.'

lucia di luciano painter dead

Lucia Di Luciano, an Italian painter associated with the 1960s Arte Programmata movement, has died at age 93. Her death was announced by her Milan gallery, 10 A.M. Art, without specifying a cause. Di Luciano was known for her hand-painted, gridded black-and-white abstractions that mimicked computer-generated patterns, made with house paint and acrylic. Despite painting for nearly eight decades, she only gained wider international recognition in 2022 when her work was included in the main exhibition of the Venice Biennale, curated by Cecilia Alemani. Her career saw a late surge, with appearances at Tate Modern's "Electric Dreams" exhibition, art fairs like Frieze Masters and Independent 20th Century, and a solo show at Herald St. in London. The Maxxi museum in Rome is organizing a retrospective set to open in 2027.

bill horrigan curator video wexner center dead

Bill Horrigan, a pioneering curator who transformed Ohio's Wexner Center for the Arts into a leading destination for film and video art, died on May 15 after a long battle with amyloidosis. Over 34 years at the Columbus museum, he built a celebrated film and video program that attracted world-renowned artists like Chris Marker and Julia Scher, and organized landmark exhibitions for Mark Dion, Gretchen Bender, and Shirin Neshat. He also served as a curatorial adviser for the 2008 Whitney Biennial, helped program the Video Data Bank, and led the 1989 edition of Video Against AIDS.

michael h smith dealer curator artist dead

Michael H. Smith, an artist, dealer, and curator who played a pivotal role in developing Southern California's art scene in the 1970s and '80s, died on October 31 in Santa Barbara at age 80. Smith opened his eponymous gallery in Los Angeles in 1971, later became a partner at the Jack Glenn Gallery, and served as director of the Baxter Art Gallery at Caltech from 1977 to 1982, where he staged exhibitions for artists including Hans Haacke, Richard Tuttle, and Berenice Abbott. He also founded a consultancy for artists, taught at UC Irvine, and worked as a conceptual photographer whose works were exhibited by dealer Craig Krull.

Remembering Frank Gehry, legendary architect of Guggenheim Museum Bilbao

Frank Gehry, the legendary architect who transformed the global architectural landscape with his deconstructivist style, has died in Santa Monica on 5 December. The article traces his career from his early days remodeling his own Santa Monica home—a controversial project that used corrugated metal, plywood, and chain-link fencing—to his rise as a Pritzker Prize winner and the creator of the iconic Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (1997). Gehry, born Ephraim Goldberg in Toronto in 1929, studied at the University of Southern California and Harvard before founding Frank O. Gehry & Associates in 1962, and spent over six decades championing buildings that embraced emotion and movement over cold minimalism.

Remembering Catherine O'Hara, Beetlejuice's Delia Deetz Cover Sculptor

remembering catherine ohara beetlejuice delia deetz cover sculptor

Actress and comedian Catherine O'Hara, known for her role as sculptor Delia Deetz in the 1988 film 'Beetlejuice,' has died at age 71. In the film, her character creates abstract sculptures and achieves a fictional milestone by appearing on the cover of Art in America magazine.

Pedro Friedeberg, Whose Hand Chair Drew Outsize Attention, Dies at 90

Pedro Friedeberg, the Mexican surrealist artist and designer, has died at age 90. He was best known for his iconic "Hand Chair," a functional sculpture shaped like a hand that became a symbol of 1960s and '70s pop culture and design, as well as for his intricate, fantastical paintings of impossible architectures.

Shigeo Toya, artist who looked to nature with his wood sculptures, 1947–2026

Shigeo Toya, the Japanese artist renowned for his chainsaw-hewn wood sculptures, has died at age 79. Born in 1947 in a small village in Nagano Prefecture, Toya began his signature Woods series in 1984, carving rough textures into tall lumber and arranging the pieces like a forest. His series Twenty Eight Deaths featured stacked wooden blocks with cavities and burn marks. Toya represented Japan at the Venice Biennale in 1988 and later exhibited at the Asia Pacific Triennial (1993) and Gwangju Biennale (2000). A major survey of his work was held at the Nagano Prefectural Art Museum and The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, in 2022–23.