Jenna Burlingham Gallery, founded in 2010, moved in 2021 to a historic compound called Rope Yard in Hampshire, England. Instead of a traditional white cube, the gallery's interiors are designed to feel like a beloved home, with furnished rooms displaying modern British and contemporary art alongside antiques. The gallery recently celebrated its 15th anniversary, attracting collectors from London and worldwide to its village location.
London-based art advisory Princedale Modern, founded by Edward Warburton in 2022, has marked its second anniversary amid significant shifts in the global art market. Warburton discusses the firm's growth, including scaling alongside the U.K. art market's rise to 18% of global share, and highlights attendance at major art fairs in Basel, New York, Miami, and Paris. He notes that while auction house sales at Christie's, Sotheby's, and Phillips have dropped nearly one-third and the overall market contracted by 12%, private sales have risen 14% and online sales remain strong at 17%.
This week's art industry roundup covers major auction activity, including Christie's $250 million sale of Barnes and Noble founder Len Riggio's collection, and Sotheby's postponement of an ancient Buddhist gemstone auction after criticism from academics and India's Ministry of Culture. Frieze New York, recently sold to Ari Emanuel, reported strong sales with a $3 million Jeff Koons sculpture at Gagosian, while Gagosian's TEFAF New York booth featuring Anna Weyant's jewelry-themed paintings sold out. Other news includes Céline Assimon's appointment as chief commercial officer at Bonhams, the Spring Break Art Show's return, and gallery representation changes.
Artist Rene Matić discusses their multidisciplinary practice and cultural influences in the latest episode of the ArtReview Podcast. The conversation explores Matić’s background as a second-generation skinhead of St Lucian heritage, their status as the youngest-ever Turner Prize nominee, and the upcoming commission for the grand opening of the V&A East Museum in April 2026.
Magdalene Odundo, the 75-year-old Kenyan-born British ceramic artist, discusses her lifelong practice and the cultural and spiritual significance of the ceramic vessel in a recent interview at her studio in Farnham, England. Her career has reached new heights following a record auction result this past summer, when an untitled 1990 piece sold for £723,900 ($995,462) at Sotheby's London, nearly tripling its estimate. This milestone coincides with her debut solo exhibition at Xavier Hufkens in Brussels, running until January 24, featuring works including the large-scale installation Transition II (2014) with 1,001 miniature glass vessels.
British photographer Martin Parr, known for his highly saturated and often humorous snapshots of everyday life, died on December 6 at age 74 after a four-year battle with cancer. Parr's work, from his early black-and-white images of rural Yorkshire to his iconic color series like "The Last Resort" (1982–85) and "The Cost of Living" (1987-89), captured British eccentricities and social pretensions with a sharp, affectionate eye. He was a full member of Magnum Photos and his images, including those of mass tourism and consumerism, have been widely exhibited and collected.
Diedrick Brackens, a Los Angeles-based artist known for his woven tapestries, is experiencing a major career moment in 2025. The Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) has opened a large-scale solo exhibition titled "The Shape of Survival" (on view through July 7), while another solo show, "Woven Stories," debuted at the Holburne Museum in Bath, England, marking his U.K. debut. Additionally, his works are featured in group shows at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Dallas Contemporary. Brackens's tapestries feature silhouetted figures against abstracted backgrounds, and his recent works explore themes of autobiography, history, and mythology, using moody dusk hues to reflect his personal journey from the American South to the West.
The Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, a historic Edwardian Baroque building constructed in 1905, requires nearly £4 million ($5.4 million) for extensive repairs to its roof, windows, doors, and facade. A committee report cited by the BBC describes the museum as being in "poor condition" with "major defects" to its exterior. The Bristol City Council, which owns and operates the museum, plans to apply to the Arts Council England for funding, noting that the financial pressure makes external funding essential.
Two men have been sentenced for stealing Maurizio Cattelan's 18-carat gold toilet, titled "America" (2016), during a 2019 raid at Blenheim Palace in England. James Sheen received a four-year prison sentence, and Michael Jones received a 27-month sentence; a third accomplice, Frederick Doe, was found guilty of conspiracy to convert criminal property. The 227-pound toilet was dismantled in a five-minute raid just two days after being publicly displayed at the palace, and despite being insured for $6 million, it has not been recovered.
A judge has sentenced two men for stealing Maurizio Cattelan's 18-carat gold toilet, titled "America," from Blenheim Palace in England during a 2019 raid. Michael Jones received 27 months in prison for burglary, while James Sheen was sentenced to four years, added to his existing 19-year term for other crimes. The theft took less than five minutes, causing major flooding and water damage when the toilet was ripped from the plumbing. Police arrested four men in November 2023, with evidence including DNA, phone messages, and CCTV footage leading to convictions. Fred Doe received a suspended sentence, and Bora Guccuk was found not guilty. None of the gold has been recovered and is believed to have been chopped up and sold.
The UK government has announced a £10 million funding boost for London’s Southbank Centre as part of a broader £128 million investment package for 130 cultural venues nationwide. Administered by Arts Council England, the grant is earmarked for urgent infrastructure repairs, including fixing leaking roofs and modernizing rigging systems, coinciding with the center's 75th anniversary. Other major beneficiaries of the Creative Foundations Fund include the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art and Firstsite gallery.
A Botticelli painting, *The Virgin and Child Enthroned* (1470s), previously placed under an export ban to keep it in the UK, has been acquired by the Klesch Collection. The work, valued at £10.2 million, will remain in England through a three-year loan to the Ashmolean Museum at the University of Oxford. The painting was bought in 1904 by Harriet Sarah Jones Loyd (Lady Wantage) from Italian dealer Elia Volpi, who had acquired it from the Magherini Graziani family.
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The UK government is considering a significant policy shift by exploring entry fees for foreign tourists at national museums to address a funding crisis in the arts. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy indicated that the proposal, alongside a potential hotel levy, follows a review of Arts Council England. Since 2001, UK national museums have been free to all visitors, a policy credited with boosting tourism, but current economic pressures are forcing lawmakers to reconsider this model.
Martin Parr, the acclaimed British photographer known for his wry, colorful images of tourists and leisure culture, died on December 6 at his home in Bristol, England, at age 73. His death was announced by the Martin Parr Foundation, which noted he had been diagnosed with myeloma in 2021. Parr was a longtime member of Magnum Photos and published countless photobooks, shot fashion campaigns for Vogue and Gucci, and created iconic series such as "The Last Resort" (1983–85) and "Small World" (1987–94). A retrospective themed around climate change and overtourism is planned for 2025 at the Jeu de Paume in Paris.
Arts Council England announced the results of the 2024-25 Cultural Gifts Scheme and Acceptance in Lieu initiatives, through which 32 artworks valued at nearly $80 million entered public collections. Highlights include Edgar Degas's pastel *Danseuses roses* (ca. 1897–1901) donated to the National Gallery, paintings by Max Liebermann and Max Pechstein given to the Ashmolean Museum, a historic desk used by Prime Ministers Benjamin Disraeli and Winston Churchill acquired by the National Trust, and 77 photographs by Bill Brandt donated to Tate. The report covers transfers from April 2024 to March 2025.
The Vancouver Art Gallery has received a transformative gift of 131 artworks from an anonymous Hong Kong collector, forming a living collection called Art Continuum Hong Kong (ACHK) that spans works by 78 artists from the 1950s to today. Meanwhile, Barbara Dauphin Duthuit, wife of Henri Matisse's grandson, donated 61 Matisse works to the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, including paintings, drawings, and etchings. Additionally, a rare 15th-century illuminated Jewish prayer book looted by Nazis and recently restituted is heading to auction at Sotheby's in February with an estimate of at least $5 million.
The Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas has awarded its 2027 Nasher Prize to Petrit Halilaj, a Kosovo-born sculptor known for works addressing his country's history and sociopolitical realities. At 40, Halilaj is the youngest recipient of the prize since its 2015 inception. The award, now given biannually, includes $100,000 and a future exhibition at the Nasher. In an unusual gesture, Halilaj will donate the entire prize purse to the Hajde! Foundation, a Kosovo-based nonprofit he co-founded in 2014 to support Kosovar artists.
The Turner Prize 2025 exhibition has opened at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery in Bradford, England, featuring four nominated artists: Mohammed Sami, Nnena Kalu, Rene Matić, and Zadie Xa. Critics have largely rallied behind Sami, a Baghdad-born, London-based painter whose large-scale works obliquely address war and memory, with several reviewers calling him a shoo-in for the award. The only major dissenter is Adrian Searle of the Guardian, who favors Kalu's sculptural works made from tape, fabric, and cable ties. The show has received mixed to positive reviews, with some critics noting the shortlist's focus on identity and diversity.
A major survey of Donald Locke's work, titled "Resistant Forms," has opened at Spike Island in Bristol, England, in collaboration with Ikon Gallery in Birmingham and Camden Art Centre in London. Featuring over 80 works spanning five decades, the exhibition includes early biomorphic ceramics, monochromatic black paintings from the 1970s, collage paintings, mixed-media sculptures, and personal writings and photographs. Highlights include the black paintings series addressing colonial subjugation, such as "The Cage" (1976–79), and later whimsical works like "Reconstructed Bottle with Pearls #11 (Pearls for Mahalia)" (2008). The show traces Locke's journey from his birth in Guyana, his time in the UK as part of the Windrush Generation, and his eventual move to the US, where he lived until his death in 2010.
Claudia Alarcón, a Wichí artist from Argentina, learned the traditional yica stitch from her mother and grandmother at age 12. Her weavings, created in collaboration with the all-female collective Silät, were a standout at the 2024 Venice Biennale, earning critical praise from Barry Schwabsky in The Nation. The works are now featured in a solo show at James Cohan Gallery in New York, as well as in Brazil’s Bienal do Mercosul, and will travel to the De La Warr Pavilion in England, the Museo de Arte de São Paulo, and the Guggenheim Bilbao.
Lubaina Himid, the Turner Prize-winning artist born in Zanzibar and raised in England, is representing Great Britain at the Venice Biennale with a pavilion that captures the 'uneasiness' of living in Britain. The exhibition features her signature paintings, prints, and cutout figures, alongside a soundscape by Magda Stawarska, designed to evoke ambiguous encounters and the gap between a question and an answer. Himid describes the pavilion as a reflection of Britain's everyday pleasantness undercut by a persistent sense of otherness, drawing on her own experience as an East African brought up by English women.
An exhibition titled "Churchill the Artist" has opened at Chartwell, Winston Churchill's former home in Kent, England. The show features personal artifacts like his paint-spattered Savile Row overalls and spectacles, alongside paintings, including the first U.K. display of his work "Quiet Waters," a gift to his friend Lord Beaverbrook.
A Nobilified, a start-up that lets customers insert themselves into classic paintings for about $140, has created a series of artworks depicting Super Bowl heroes from the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks in historical masterpieces. Patriots quarterback Tom Brady appears as Prometheus (1868) by Gustave Moreau, tight end Rob Gronkowski as Abduction of Ganymede by Jupiter (ca. 1644) by Eustache Le Sueur, while Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson is shown in Ideal portrait of a Spanish King (ca. 1643) by Alonso Cano, with other players featured in works by John Singleton Copley and Benjamin West.
Artist Ai Weiwei will unveil a new exhibition titled “Button Up!” at Factory International in Manchester, England, opening July 2. The show features monumental installations made from 30 tons of buttons he rescued from a shuttered British factory in 2019, along with over 3.5 million Lego pieces. Highlights include eight flags sewn with 9,000 buttons each, referencing the Eight-Nation Alliance that invaded China during the Boxer Rebellion, and a new version of his Lego work *History of Bombs*. The buttons were secretly shipped to China, where artisans assembled the works over 281 days.
Museums and cultural institutions are participating in a viral social media trend where staff, often older guides or curators, deliver marketing scripts written entirely in Gen Z slang. The trend, which began with a video from England's Hever Castle in early September, has spread across TikTok and Instagram, with hundreds of organizations creating their own versions. Typical phrases include "no cap," "ate and left no crumbs," and "menty b," often accompanied by the "Millennial Pause" for comedic effect. The article highlights several examples, including the Poe Museum in Virginia and the New York Historical Society, and notes that the trend has expanded beyond the art world to include accountancy firms, donkey sanctuaries, and even the NYC Ferry.
Seven notable art historical rediscoveries from 2025 are highlighted, including an early Eva Hesse painting found at a Goodwill thrift store that sold for $107,100 at Christie's, a previously unknown John Singer Sargent portrait unveiled at the Musée d'Orsay, a Salvador Dalí watercolor bought for $186 that fetched $61,400 at auction, and a John Constable drawing resurfacing after 200 years. Other finds include works by post-minimalist and old master artists uncovered in attics, estate sales, and private collections, often identified by sharp-eyed dealers or lucky amateurs.
The British Museum has organized a new exhibition titled “Ice Age Art Now,” installed at Cliffe Castle Museum in Yorkshire, England, that presents Ice Age artifacts—carved images, figurines, and engravings dating from 24,000 to 12,000 years ago—alongside more recent artworks, including a print after Goya and a charcoal sketch by Maggi Hambling. Curated by Jill Cook, the show aims to reframe these prehistoric objects as artistic expressions rather than mere archaeological curiosities, highlighting their use of line, space, and scale to capture the observed world and communicate emotion.
The Goodwood Art Foundation, a new contemporary art destination set within the 11,000-acre Goodwood Estate in West Sussex, England, opens to the public on May 31. The inaugural season features works by Susan Philipsz, Rachel Whiteread (including a monumental staircase sculpture *Down and Up*), Veronica Ryan, Rose Wylie, Isamu Noguchi, and Hélio Oiticica (whose *Magic Square #3* will be the first outdoor sculpture by the late Brazilian artist in Europe). The estate, owned by Charles Gordon-Lennox, the 11th Duke of Richmond, is historically known for sporting events like the Festival of Speed and the Qatar Goodwood Festival, and houses a historic art collection including Canalettos and works by George Stubbs.
The Tate in London has acquired a full-length portrait by Joshua Reynolds of the 5th Earl of Carlisle (1748–1825) through the UK's Acceptance in Lieu scheme, which allows art to be transferred to the nation in place of inheritance tax. The painting, valued at $6.1 million (£4.7 million), was painted in 1769 and had hung at Castle Howard in North Yorkshire for over 200 years. It will remain on public display there but will also travel to other venues including Tate Britain.
The article reports on the exhibition “Rise Up: Resistance, Revolution, Abolition” at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, England, which highlights overlooked figures of the transatlantic abolitionist movement. It features contemporary portraits by British-Nigerian artist Joy Labinjo, including her 2022 works depicting Olaudah Equiano and Phillis Wheatley, alongside historical paintings like Thomas Gainsborough’s portrait of Charles Ignatius Sancho. Labinjo’s paintings fill gaps where no visual records of these revolutionaries exist, drawing on historical sources to create accurate, vivid representations.