Art News. Vasari Codex

rate_review review schedule Dec 26, 2025 visibility 28 link 38 artists, 2 galleries

the worst art we saw in 2025

Artnet News editors and writers compiled a list of the worst art of 2025, calling out works they found lazy, cynical, overhyped, or ethically dubious. Highlights include Flora Yukhnovich's site-specific painting installation at the Frick Collection, which critics deemed middling and out of place among the museum's historic masterpieces; Jeff Koons's eight-foot-tall Hulk (Tubas) sculpture, sold for $3 million at Frieze New York and described as an obnoxious trophy piece; and actor Adrien Brody's interactive gum wall installation, which invited visitors to stick chewed gum onto a canvas.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule Jun 6, 2025 visibility 25 link 12 artists, 1 gallery

raymond saunders carnegie museum retrospective review

Raymond Saunders's first retrospective, a small but potent exhibition at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, surveys 35 of his bewitching paintings. The works, described as elusive and Rauschenbergian, feature messy scrawls, collected trinkets, and media clippings, with pieces like *Passages: East, West 1* (1987) layering chess boards, paint strokes, and appropriated still lifes. Saunders, who joined Andrew Kreps and David Zwirner last year, has never before received a retrospective, despite his influential 1967 essay "Black Is a Color" and steady institutional acquisitions.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule Apr 8, 2026 visibility 45 link 10 artists, 1 gallery

Jasper Johns Keeps Looking

Jasper Johns’s latest exhibition at Gagosian, 'Between the Clock and the Bed,' serves as a profound meditation on the artist's career-long investigation into the 'things the mind already knows.' By revisiting his signature motifs—including flags, targets, and crosshatch patterns—the show highlights Johns’s rejection of Abstract Expressionist spontaneity in favor of a deliberate, analytical process using encaustic and collage. The works document a transformation where familiar symbols are rendered into a complex visual language that bridges the gap between memory and physical presence.

newspaper Hyperallergic open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule Sep 18, 2025 visibility 29 link 11 artists, 2 galleries

robert longo pace gallery review

Artist Robert Longo presents a new exhibition at Pace Gallery, featuring his signature large-scale, hyperrealistic drawings that address themes of brutality, conflict, and protest. The show is a revised version of a 2023 exhibition at the Milwaukee Art Museum, with works based on media images of events such as the war in Ukraine, Black Lives Matter protests, and migrant crises. The article critically examines several pieces, including "Untitled (Ferguson Police, August 13, 2014)" and "Untitled (Refugees at Mediterranean Sea, Sub-Saharan Migrants, July 25, 2017)," arguing that Longo's manipulations of source photographs result in melodramatic and dishonest representations.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule Jul 18, 2025 visibility 23 link 8 artists, 1 gallery

christian marclay one hit wonder clocks doors brooklyn museum

Christian Marclay's latest supercut film, "Doors," is now on view at the Brooklyn Museum after stops in Boston and Europe. The 50-minute looped video compiles scenes of famous actors opening and closing doors from various movies, following the success of Marclay's 2011 hit "The Clock," a 24-hour video-clock that synchronizes on-screen timepieces with the viewer's actual time. The article critiques "Doors" as a less profound, more self-obsessed work that lacks the emotional resonance of its predecessor.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule Oct 16, 2025 visibility 26 link 8 artists, 1 gallery

lutz bacher retrospective oslo brussels

The article reviews the first posthumous retrospective of the elusive artist Lutz Bacher, titled "Burning the Days," at the Astrup Fearnley Museum in Oslo. Bacher, who died in 2019 and whose real name was never revealed, is known for her use of found photographs and a pseudonym that led many to mistake her for a German man. The exhibition opens with her work "The Lee Harvey Oswald Interview" (1976–78), in which she discusses photography and perception by using Oswald as a stand-in, and includes other pieces such as "Jackie & Me" (1989) and "Men at War" (1975), all exploring how images and narratives produce meaning.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule Oct 7, 2025 visibility 20 link 12 artists, 1 gallery

adrien brody art eden gallery

Actor Adrien Brody debuted a new exhibition titled "Made in America" at Eden Gallery in New York, featuring paintings that incorporate pop culture icons like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Marilyn Monroe alongside collage elements and text. The show has garnered significant media attention, including a profile in the New York Times and praise from Cultured and Interview magazine, partly fueled by the sale of one of Brody's paintings for $425,000 at the amfAR Cannes Gala. However, the art press, including Artnet News, has been highly critical, with ARTnews reviewer Alex Greenberger describing the works as ugly, derivative, and lacking nuance.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule Apr 10, 2026 visibility 33 link 22 artists, 1 gallery

The Robots Were Never the Problem

The New Museum has reopened with 'New Humans: Memories of the Future,' a massive survey featuring over 150 contributors including Hito Steyerl, Precious Okoyomon, and H.R. Giger. Spanning 13 sections across the museum's new 5,500 square-meter extension, the exhibition traces the intersection of art, technology, and the human body from the early 20th century to the present. It juxtaposes interwar European works, such as Hannah Höch’s photomontages and Bauhaus ballets, with contemporary installations like Simon Denny’s sculpture of an Amazon worker's cage.

newspaper ArtReview open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule May 19, 2026 visibility 30 link 14 artists, 1 gallery

What ‘Costume Art’ Gets Wrong About the Body

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute spring exhibition, featuring nearly 400 objects, pairs garments and ensembles with Western figurative artworks from the museum's permanent collection in dyadic, associative displays. The show eschews traditional art-historical timelines and context in favor of visual and thematic parallels—comparing, for example, Rudi Gernreich's Pubikini with an Egyptian statuette, or Ying Gao's sound-responsive dress with a David Hockney drawing. The exhibition is sponsored by Jeff and Lauren Sánchez Bezos.

newspaper ArtReview open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule Apr 1, 2026 source 2 sources visibility 28 link 18 artists, 1 gallery

10 Art Books for Your Spring Reading List

Hyperallergic has published a curated list of ten art books recommended for spring reading. The selection emphasizes historical retellings through an artistic lens, featuring works such as a memoir by activist-artist Susan Simensky Bietila, a chronicle of the Jewish Bund by Molly Crabapple, and the first major catalog on artist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha in 25 years. The list also includes exhibition catalogs like "Chicano Camera Culture" and a monograph on painter Ewa Juszkiewicz.

newspaper Hyperallergic open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule Nov 17, 2025 visibility 24 link 26 artists, 3 galleries

kevin mcgarry reviews jason faragos even

Kevin McGarry reviews the debut issue of *Even*, a new print art journal launched by *Guardian* contributor Jason Farago during Frieze New York. Named after a phrase from Marcel Duchamp's *The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even*, the magazine is a small, paperback-sized publication that prioritizes text over images, positioning itself as an antidote to market-driven art discourse. The first issue features a lengthy essay on artist Joan Jonas by Elisabeth Lebovici, timed to Jonas's U.S. pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale, and a piece by Zachary Woolfe on the Björk exhibition at MoMA. McGarry critiques the journal's ambition to revitalize art criticism, noting that while its goals are lofty, the content sometimes falls back on familiar artspeak.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule Jun 12, 2025 visibility 23 link 36 artists, 13 galleries

best new york art criticism critics table

Cultured magazine's critics roundup highlights several notable New York art exhibitions. Cameron Rowland's "Properties" at Dia Beacon is examined as a landmark Land art installation that uses contractual relations to address racial capitalism, with works available only for rent or loan. Other shows include Feliciano Centurión's "Sol naciente" at Ortuzar, Joshua Caleb Weibley's "Game Transfer Phenomena" at Chart, Ian Miyamura's debut at Bureau, and Laura Owens's new show at Matthew Marks Gallery, each reviewed for their conceptual and aesthetic innovations.

newspaper Cultured open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule Apr 14, 2026 visibility 65 link 338 artists, 35 galleries

Desperate, Scared, But Social at UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art

The group exhibition "Desperate, Scared, But Social" at the UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art (Langson IMCA) explores the complexities of contemporary social dynamics and collective anxiety. The show brings together diverse artistic perspectives to examine how individuals navigate a landscape defined by political instability, environmental concerns, and the pervasive influence of digital connectivity.

newspaper Contemporary Art Review LA open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule Apr 8, 2026 visibility 74 link 17 artists

Are We Too Reverent of Marcel Duchamp?

The Museum of Modern Art has launched a major retrospective of Marcel Duchamp, co-organized with the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The exhibition tracks the artist's evolution from his early Cubist experiments and the scandal of 'Nude Descending a Staircase' to his radical invention of the readymade, exemplified by the infamous urinal, 'Fountain'. The show presents a comprehensive look at 'The Duch' through a reverential, church-like atmosphere, concluding with his later years as a dapper, enigmatic figure of the avant-garde.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule Apr 7, 2026 visibility 50 link 321 artists, 38 galleries

Alex Heilbron at as-is

Artist Alex Heilbron presents a solo exhibition at the Los Angeles gallery as-is. The show is featured as a lead review in the February 2026 issue of Contemporary Art Review LA, highlighting Heilbron's continued exploration of painting and visual language within the Southern California art scene.

newspaper Contemporary Art Review LA open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule Feb 10, 2026 visibility 40 link 320 artists, 27 galleries

Devin Troy Strother at ArtCenter

The article is a table of contents for Issue 42 of Contemporary Art Review LA, which includes a review of an exhibition by artist Devin Troy Strother at ArtCenter. The review, written by Janelle Zara, is listed among other reviews, interviews, and features in the publication's November 2025 issue.

newspaper Contemporary Art Review LA open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule Dec 10, 2025 visibility 26 link 21 artists

what are the 10 best works of art in new york museums let the debate begin

Artnet News critic Christian Viveros-Fauné has published a personal list of the ten best works of art in New York museums, sparking debate among readers. The selection includes iconic pieces such as Giovanni Bellini's *St. Francis in the Desert* at the Frick Collection, Gerhard Richter's *October 18, 1977* at MoMA, Paul Cézanne's *The Card Players* at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, James Rosenquist's *F-111* at MoMA, Diego Velázquez's *Juan de Pareja* at the Met, and Pablo Picasso's *Les Demoiselles d'Avignon* at MoMA, among others.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule Oct 22, 2025 visibility 21 link 6 artists, 4 galleries

future of the art world andras szanto review

András Szántó has published the third volume of his trilogy on the future of museums and the art world, titled "The Future of the Art World." The book compiles 38 interviews conducted between April 2024 and June 2025 with a wide range of art-world stakeholders, including artists, curators, collectors, dealers, auctioneers, art fair directors, sociologists, philosophers, and policymakers. Unlike his previous books, which focused on museum directors and architects, this volume gives significant voice to artists, who offer provocative critiques and predictions about the future of museums, art education, and digital art.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule Aug 15, 2025 visibility 20 link 14 artists

alex da corte modern art museum of fort worth review

Alex Da Corte's mid-career survey, "The Whale," is on view at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, featuring works that repurpose pop-cultural icons like Disney villains and Mariah Carey to explore themes of erasure and violence. The exhibition includes pieces such as *A Time to Kill* (2016), which obliquely references the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting through an inverted Elsa standee, and *The Great Pretender* (2021), which removes Lily Tomlin from a TIME magazine cover to comment on queer erasure.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule May 8, 2026 visibility 31 link 36 artists, 1 gallery

What does a woman swimming in urine tell us about the state of the world? Lots! – Venice Biennale review

The 2026 Venice Biennale, curated by the late Koyo Kouoh under the theme "In Minor Keys," has been plagued by months of turmoil including countries withdrawing, artists being fired, exhibitions cancelled, funding pulled, and protests during the preview. A five-person curatorial team took over after Kouoh's death, resulting in what the critic describes as a disjointed, committee-driven exhibition that prioritizes quiet contemplation and healing over direct political engagement. The central shows in the Giardini and Arsenale feature a vast, poorly explained array of art from the global south, with installations of ceramics, textiles, slide projectors, and serene natural scenes that the critic finds anachronistic and dull.

newspaper The Guardian open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule Apr 10, 2026 visibility 58 link 12 artists, 2 galleries

Michael Armitage in Venice, monumental and disturbing. What the exhibition at Palazzo Grassi looks like

Michael Armitage is the subject of a major solo retrospective at Palazzo Grassi in Venice, marking his largest exhibition in Europe to date. Organized by the Pinault Collection, the show features monumental paintings that blend African identity, local Kenyan chronicles, and mythological narratives. Armitage’s work is noted for its physical scale and its ability to transform the chaos of human affairs into a syncretic epic, utilizing traditional materials like Lubugo bark cloth to ground his contemporary subjects.

newspaper finestresullarte.info open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule Jan 7, 2026 visibility 26 link 10 artists, 2 galleries

Comment | We are living in an age of bad painting—the medium must be challenged to stay interesting

The article argues that contemporary painting has entered a period of stagnation, characterized by bloated, vapid, and market-driven works. The author cites observations from Frieze London and the exhibition "Painting After Painting" at SMAK in Ghent, noting that much recent painting lacks intellectual rigor and emotional depth. A conversation with artist Christopher Wool is referenced, where he contrasts the current lack of critical dialogue with the productive crises of the late 1970s, when painters like Philip Guston faced backlash for challenging conventions.

newspaper The Art Newspaper open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule Mar 20, 2026 source 3 sources visibility 25 link 1 artist

Matisse, 1941-1954 review – hit after glorious hit in a show of life-enhancing genius

A major exhibition at the Centre Pompidou and the Grand Palais focuses on the final, revolutionary period of Henri Matisse's career, from 1941 to 1954. The show charts his artistic reinvention following a life-threatening surgery, beginning with obsessive, reworked paintings from his Nice studio during the war and culminating in the radiant, large-scale cut-outs for which he is widely celebrated.

newspaper The Guardian Also: New York Times Art, The Art Newspaper open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule Feb 4, 2026 source 2 sources visibility 24 link 12 artists, 4 galleries

art guide new york exhibitions

The article reviews the joint exhibition "Hunks" at Bureau gallery in New York, featuring works by painter Julia Rommel and photographer Lucas Blalock. Rommel's post-minimalist abstract paintings, created through folding and stapling canvases, explore color and texture with a personal touch, while Blalock's digitally manipulated photographs blend studio effects and surreal editing. The show runs through February 21, 2026, at the gallery's 112 Duane Street location.

newspaper Cultured open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule Dec 17, 2025 visibility 25 link 24 artists, 7 galleries

art best and worst art of 2025 list

Cultured's art critic reflects on the best and worst of 2025, highlighting standout moments including Salman Toor's 2007 portrait of Zohran Mamdani (now mayor-elect of New York), the posthumous Jack Whitten survey "The Messenger" at MoMA, and Anne Imhof's epic production "DOOM: House of Hope" at the Park Avenue Armory. The article also notes Mamdani's arts-friendly transition committee and the broader resilience of artists amid political turmoil.

newspaper Cultured open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule Oct 15, 2025 visibility 23 link 47 artists, 8 galleries

art los angeles fall openings review

The article is a review of fall art openings in Los Angeles, written by Juliana Halpert for her Critics’ Table debut. Halpert surveys a range of exhibitions, including Calvin Marcus's show at Karma, Stanya Kahn's solo presentation, the Hammer Museum's "Made in L.A." biennial and its scrappier counterpart "Made in HelLA," Josh Smith's grim reaper paintings at David Zwirner, and Adam Alessi's show at Hoffman Donahue. She also recounts attending the Poetic Research Bureau's 25th anniversary party and fundraiser at 2220 Arts + Archives, where musician Jack Skelley performed. The review weaves a thematic thread of mortality and the macabre, noting how many shows this season engage with death, from fake blood and skulls to sinister landscapes.

newspaper Cultured open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule May 13, 2026 visibility 13 link 8 artists

V&A Rising Voices review – can decades of stunning global art really be squished into three rooms?

The V&A Museum in London has mounted an exhibition titled "Rising Voices" that attempts to summarize three decades of the Asia Pacific Triennial, a vast survey of contemporary art from Asia, Australia, and the Pacific organized by Queensland Art Gallery. The show crams works from multiple continents, island nations, and Indigenous cultures into just three rooms, featuring bark cloth paintings from Papua New Guinea, Indigenous Australian abstracts, shark sculptures from the Torres Strait, and Tahitian textiles. Many works address colonialism, political oppression, and tyranny, with artists like Elisabet Kauage, Pala Pothupitiye, and Svay Ken using art as resistance. The exhibition includes pieces by Maryam Ayeen, Abbas Shahsavar, Lila Warrimou, Pennyrose Sosa, Aline Amaru, Brenda V Fajardo, and Heri Dono.

newspaper The Guardian open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule May 4, 2026 visibility 35 link 19 artists

The Met’s Costume Institute Needs an Art History Lesson

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute spring exhibition, "Costume Art," pairs fashion with artworks from the Met's collection, including ancient Greek statues and Andy Warhol screenprints, alongside garments by designers from Charles James to CFGNY. Curator Andrew Bolton aims to suggest that fashion can expand understanding of art, but the show's juxtapositions often feel vague and sloppy, with only occasional resonant pairings like a Jean Paul Gaultier shirt and Joe Brainard drawing linked by queer artist lineage.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule May 1, 2026 visibility 33 link 6 artists

Diedrick Brackens’s Tapestries Beckon the Light of Freedom

Diedrick Brackens presents his first solo exhibition in the Bay Area, "gather tender night," at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Guest-curated by Eungie Joo, the show features 15 tapestries from 2020 onward and three new works from 2026, including the immersive installation "clearing (2026)." Brackens, a Black queer artist and CCA professor, uses hand-dyed cotton and acrylic yarn to weave narratives of personal memory, myth, and the natural world, drawing from West African weaving, California fiber art, European tapestry, and Gee's Bend quilting. His approach, influenced by the "sloppy craft" ethos of his mentor Josh Faught, embraces unfinished edges and visible process as acts of refusal against polished traditions.

newspaper Hyperallergic open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule Apr 20, 2026 visibility 20 link 3 artists

Martin Parr: Global Warning review – the great photographer in all his gluttonous, giddy glory

A major retrospective exhibition of photographer Martin Parr's work, titled 'Global Warning,' has opened at the Jeu de Paume museum in Paris. The show, which Parr helped plan before his death in December 2023, is on track to become the museum's most visited exhibition, showcasing his signature saturated, ironic, and unflinching observations of global tourism and consumerism.

newspaper The Guardian open_in_new Read original