Austrian-born, Netherlands-based performance artist Florentina Holzinger has joined the roster of blue-chip gallery Thaddaeus Ropac. This move comes just months before she is set to unveil her project "Seaworld Venice" for the Austrian Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale, marking a significant shift of her boundary-pushing, interdisciplinary practice from the theater and dance worlds into the commercial art gallery system.
10 power players paris
The inaugural edition of Paris+ by Art Basel has opened in Paris, marking a significant shift in the city's art fair landscape. The article profiles ten key figures instrumental in shaping the French art market, including fair director Clément Delépine, dealer and committee president Marion Papillon, and institutional leaders like Suzanne Pagé of the Fondation Louis Vuitton and Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel of Lafayette Anticipations.
Barbara Chase-Riboud, now 86, reflects on her transformative 1958 trip to Egypt, which she undertook on a dare as a 19-year-old student at the American Academy in Rome. The journey, during which she explored the pyramids and temples of Luxor and Karnak alone, profoundly influenced her artistic practice, leading her to create abstract bronze sculptures that evoke ancient Egyptian forms. The article traces her remarkable career as a sculptor and writer, highlighting her many firsts: the first Black female artist acquired by MoMA (at age 16), the first Black woman to earn an MFA from Yale, the first living female artist to have a solo show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the only visual artist to appear on the cover of Ebony.
Nnena Kalu, a Glasgow-born, London-based artist known for her charged abstract works driven by rhythmic repetition, has won the 2025 Turner Prize, the U.K.'s top award for contemporary art. The announcement was made at a ceremony at Bradford Grammar School, with Kalu receiving £25,000 ($33,000) for her presentation at Bradford's Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, featuring a colorful installation of suspended bundles made from found materials like VHS tape, fabric, rope, and paper. Kalu, born in 1966, is the first learning disabled artist to be nominated for and win the Turner Prize, marking a historic milestone.
Bridget Finn, who became director of Art Basel Miami Beach in July 2023, has organized the 22nd edition of the fair from start to finish for the first time. In an interview days before the VIP opening at the Miami Beach Convention Center, she discussed welcoming 286 galleries, the importance of hospitality, and the fair's role in Miami's art scene. She highlighted 34 new galleries joining this year, notable works by Augusto Machado and Roberto Huarcaya, and the fair's efforts to engage diverse audiences including VIPs, institutions, and the general public.
The article is an interview with artist Kelly Wall, conducted by Olivia Gauthier, published in the February 2026 issue of Contemporary Art Review LA. It appears within a broader issue exploring themes like scent in art, tarot, and social urgencies in contemporary practice.
Taiwanese American artist Lee Mingwei presents his largest non-museum exhibition to date, "Lorsque La Beauté Paraît (When Beauty Appears)," at Perrotin in Paris. The show brings together seven invitational projects, including works like *The Mending Project* (2009–) and *The Moving Garden* (2009–). In an interview with Australian curator Rhana Devenport, Lee discusses the political dimensions of beauty, the restorative power of gift-giving, and the courage required for small acts of kindness among strangers. The exhibition is curated by Thierry Raspail, co-founder of the Lyon Biennale and director of the Lyon Museum of Contemporary Art.
Diego Marcon, an Italian video artist known for his uncanny and meticulously crafted films, is gaining significant attention in the United States. He recently had his first American solo show at the Renaissance Society in Chicago and is preparing for another at the New Museum in New York. His work, such as the video "La Gola" (2024), features hyper-realistic, inanimate busts with animated eyes that speak about bodily experiences, blending narrative with structuralist film techniques. Marcon's films often explore family dynamics and the materiality of film, creating dreamlike experiences that haunt viewers.
Nadine Khoury, a Dubai-based collector, curator, and art adviser, founded the Young Collectors Circle in 2023 to engage Millennial and Gen Z professionals in the Gulf region with the local art scene. The initiative offers free events such as studio visits, suppers with established collectors, and group outings to exhibition openings, aiming to make art collecting accessible and educational. Khoury, who previously worked at Green Art Gallery, started the circle with friends and grew it through social media and word-of-mouth, limiting attendance to 15 people to foster a friendly, barrier-free environment.
Artsy profiles 14 influential women who are shaping India's rapidly evolving art market, including Nita Mukesh Ambani, Jaya Asokan, Shireen Gandhy, and others. The article highlights their roles as founders, directors, collectors, and patrons, with a focus on the upcoming 17th edition of the India Art Fair, which will feature a record 135 exhibitors. Each woman is described as contributing to the growth of galleries, auction houses, biennales, and cultural institutions across the country.
Victoria Miro, the influential London art dealer, reflects on her 40-year career as her eponymous gallery celebrates its anniversary. In a rare interview, she discusses her humble beginnings—displaying art in her husband's office window and hosting pop-ups—and her rise to prominence representing acclaimed artists such as Chris Ofili, Isaac Julien, Do Ho Suh, and Chantal Joffe. The gallery's birthday exhibition, "Victoria Miro: 40 Years," features works by its roster, including pieces by Kudzanai-Violet Hwami, Stan Douglas, and Grayson Perry.
Artist Dozie Kanu has debuted his first mass-production collaboration with Knoll, a line of leather-tasseled tables launched in 2026 during Milan's Salone del Mobile, shortly after the opening of his solo exhibition at Fondazione ICA Milano. The Texas-born, Portugal-based artist, who first appeared in PIN–UP magazine in 2018 as an emerging design wunderkind, has since expanded his practice beyond collectible design into art, exhibition-making, film, and music. His recent projects include a documentary short screened at South by Southwest, a two-person exhibition with László Moholy-Nagy at Meyer Voggenreiter's project space piece*unique in Cologne, and a solo show at ICA Milano that dialogues with Marc Camille Chaimowicz and Jean Cocteau, featuring works alongside selections from the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation collection.
Powerhouse Arts, a nonprofit creative production facility in Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighborhood, has appointed Liz Munsell as its new Vice President of Curatorial and Arts Programs. Munsell, who previously held senior curatorial roles at the Jewish Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, succeeds Diya Vij following Vij's appointment as New York City’s cultural affairs commissioner. Alongside Munsell, the organization hired Constanza Valenzuela, formerly of High Line Art, as associate curator to support the expansion of its exhibition and residency programs.
Artist Arlene Shechet discusses her dual role as creator and collector in an interview with The Art Newspaper ahead of Art Basel. She is installing her welded aluminum sculpture *Midnight* (2024) in the fair's Unlimited section, a work originally commissioned for her show at Storm King Art Center. Shechet reveals that she uses a portion of her sales to buy works by other artists, citing pieces by Fred Sandback, Barry Le Va, Joan Jonas, Kinke Kooi, and Marlon Mullen in her collection. She also mentions a regret over not purchasing a Louise Bourgeois drawing for $5,000 and names a medieval Book of Hours as her dream museum acquisition.
Hans Ulrich Obrist, the prolific Swiss curator and artistic director of Serpentine Galleries, discusses his lifelong passion for books in a new interview timed to the U.S. release of his memoir "Life in Progress." Obrist reveals his daily ritual of buying a book, which has amassed an archive of over 40,000 volumes housed at LUMA Arles, and shares current reading recommendations including Kenneth O. Stanley's "Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned." He also reflects on the serendipitous origins of his Instagram Post-it note project, inspired by philosopher Umberto Eco and artist-poet Etel Adnan.
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has announced its 2026 fellowship recipients, naming 223 individuals across 55 disciplines. The cohort includes 76 professionals from the visual arts, photography, and fine arts research sectors, featuring notable figures such as Sheida Soleimani, American Artist, Kenneth Tam, and Sonya Clark. This year's selection process was notably competitive, drawing 5,000 applicants—a significant increase from previous years.
Cultured profiles Jesús Hilario-Reyes, a 29-year-old New York-based artist who describes themself as “anti-disciplinary,” working across performance, sound, video, and sculpture. Inspired by queer rave culture, migration, Western carnivals, and Puerto Rico’s hurricane-worn mangrove forests, they have performed at Documenta, the Kitchen, Gladstone Gallery, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. In the interview, Hilario-Reyes discusses key influences from graduate school teachers, the importance of spontaneity and presence in their practice, and their underrated studio tool—an electrical die grinder.
Several key personnel changes occurred in the art world this week. Boston gallery Praise Shadows hired Rebecca Hayes as its new Sales Director, while Hong Kong's Para Site appointed curator James Taylor-Foster as its Executive Director. Concurrently, galleries Lehmann Maupin and Jessica Silverman announced a co-representation agreement for artist Guimi You, and London's Timothy Taylor gallery revealed it will close its New York outpost after ten years.
London-based artist Nnena Kalu (b. 1966) won the Turner Prize 2025 at a ceremony in Bradford on December 9, becoming the first artist with a learning disability to receive the prestigious award since its inception in 1984. Kalu’s practice spans sculpture, installation, and works on paper, featuring cocoon-like hanging sculptures made from unconventional materials like masking tape and VHS ribbon, as well as large-scale drawings of spiraling vortexes. She was selected from a shortlist that included Rene Matić, Mohammed Sami, and Zadie Xa, and was recognized for her presentation in the group exhibition “Conversations” at the Walker Art Gallery and her work at Manifesta 15 in Barcelona. The prize includes a £25,000 award.
Brandon John Harrington, a collector and Google executive, is featured in Cultured magazine for his role in the art world and his advocacy for queer visibility. The article highlights his collection and his work at Google, where he intersects technology with art patronage.
Bollywood star Sonam Kapoor discusses her evolution as an art collector, shaped by the women in her family—her mother Sunita Kapoor and aunt Kavita Singh, a Mumbai-based interior designer and art curator. Kapoor began collecting instinctively, drawn to South Asian modernists like Amrita Sher-Gil and Manjit Bawa, but has recently shifted toward contemporary works and underrepresented artists, especially women and those outside major art hubs. She sources art from galleries such as Jhaveri Contemporary, Chemould Prescott, and Nature Morte, as well as auction houses including Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Saffronart. Kapoor was on the host committee for the Serpentine Summer Party in London, where she admired Arpita Singh’s first institutional solo show outside India.
Kyongho Kim, a Seoul-based dentist and art collector, discusses his journey into collecting contemporary art, which began in 2019 when he bought his first painting to fill bare walls in his new home. He now owns around 250 works, including pieces by Hernan Bas, Genieve Figgis, Scott Kahn, and Jack Kabangu, and describes his philosophy as stewardship rather than ownership. The interview, published by The Art Newspaper, covers his first purchase (Byung-Rock Yoon's *Scent of Autumn*), his regret over missing a George Condo piece, and his love for art fairs like Frieze Seoul, where he acquired a work by Marina Perez Simão.
Annina Roescheisen, a German-born artist now based in New York, presents her work in Venice during the opening days of the Venice Biennale. Her paintings are created through an alchemical ritual where she mixes pigments, charcoal, ash, ink, herbs, and salts, producing pulsating fields of color that blur the line between the visible and invisible. A self-taught artist who never attended art school, Roescheisen draws on art history and philosophy, with a particular passion for medieval art. Her series "Flying Dragons" references the ancient Physiologus, and she has also produced watercolors based on drawings made with her eyes closed to explore how visual perception changes from childhood to adulthood.