art collaboration kyoto director to depart tap 2713429

Yukako Yamashita will step down as director of Art Collaboration Kyoto (ACK) after leading the fair since 2022. The four-day event, which concluded at the Kyoto International Conference Center, featured 72 galleries from 19 countries and regions, with 29 Japan-based galleries hosting 30 international galleries in shared booths—its largest edition yet. Highlights included Annely Juda Fine Art's sale of three David Hockney works and Kurimanzutto selling 75 percent of its solo booth with artist WangShui. The fair also launched the Bangkok Collaborate Kyoto Fellowship, awarding WangShui and Takuro Tamayama a residency in Bangkok. ACK will return November 6–9, 2025.

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WangShui, an artist known for AI-assisted abstract paintings, challenges the stereotype of tech-focused artists as isolated nerds. In a studio visit, they described their practice as a spiritual project, using machine learning to create works like 'Scr∴ pe II (Isle of Vitr∴ ous)' at the 2022 Whitney Biennial and pieces at the 2024 Venice Biennale. Their latest collaboration with Maryam Hoseini, 'The Demon and the Muse (DM),' is on view at SITE Santa Fe International, covering the facade with red oil and black ink. WangShui emphasizes that AI is a tool for exploring consciousness and healing, not a replacement for human creativity.

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The sixth edition of New York's Upstate Art Weekend, founded by Helen Toomer in 2020, runs July 17–21 across the Catskills and Hudson Valley, featuring 158 participating art organizations—a dramatic increase from 23 in its first year. Highlights include a Kishio Suga solo show at Dia Beacon, Sonia Gomes's first U.S. outdoor installation at Storm King Art Center, a group exhibition of seven women artists at Toomer's new project space Upbringing, Tomokazu Matsuyama's homage to Edward Hopper at the Edward Hopper House Museum, and a comparative show of Georgia O'Keeffe and Thomas Cole at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site.

East Africa meets Western Europe as Michael Armitage takes on Venice's Palazzo Grassi

The artist Michael Armitage opens a monographic exhibition titled 'The Promise of Change' at Venice's Palazzo Grassi, featuring 46 large paintings and nearly 100 sketches that survey his past decade of work. At 42, Armitage is the youngest artist to receive a solo show at the palazzo, which is owned by François Pinault and has previously hosted Albert Oehlen, Luc Tuymans, and Marlene Dumas. The exhibition highlights Armitage's fusion of East African and Western European artistic influences, drawing on his upbringing in Kenya and his training at London's Byam Shaw School of Art, the Slade, and the Royal Academy.

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A new video game titled 'Relooted' has been released, casting players as vigilantes in an Afrofuturistic future who must reclaim looted African artifacts from Western museums before they are hidden away. Developed by South African studio Nyamakop, the game tasks players with repatriating up to 70 specific, real-world contested treasures, including the Bangwa Queen and the Maqdala Crown, through heist-style gameplay.

ppow owen fu nicola vassell na kim industry moves 1234755010

P.P.O.W. gallery has taken on representation of artist Owen Fu, while Nicola Vassell Gallery now represents Na Kim, known for her book covers and paintings. Jessie Washburne-Harris has been named Global Director at White Cube, overseeing the gallery's U.S. growth. Chris Sharp Gallery added Mark A. Rodriguez to its roster, and Berry Campbell took on the estate of Louisa Chase. Mexico City dealers Misa Yamaoka and Yuna Cabon launched an artist residency program at Third Born gallery. The article also reports that combined evening sales at Christie's, Phillips, and Sotheby's in Hong Kong totaled $136 million, a significant drop from $208.6 million last fall, and highlights the rising market interest in 17th-century artist Michaelina Wautier.

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The Yams Collective, a group of African American artists, has withdrawn from the 2014 Whitney Biennial in protest. Their departure centers on the inclusion of Joe Scanlan, a white artist whose long-running project involves hiring Black women to portray a fictional artist named Donelle Woolford. The collective argues that Scanlan’s work, which is listed in the biennial under the fictional artist's name rather than his own, is a form of racial drag that is particularly offensive within an exhibition already criticized for its lack of diversity.

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A 17th-century British portrait at Claydon House, a National Trust property, depicts Mary Lawley and Peregrine Tyam, a Black enslaved attendant whose identity is known—one of the earliest such examples. Historian Hannah Lee published research in British Art Studies revealing new details about Tyam, including a rediscovered letter he wrote in 1699 to his enslaver John Verney, offering rare firsthand insight into the lives of enslaved people in aristocratic households. The portrait, attributed to the little-known artist Lenthall, was commissioned by Verney to mark his marriage in 1692 and shows Tyam wearing a silver collar, a symbol of enslavement.

14 best art exhibitions to see in Tokyo in 2026

Tokyo's museums have announced their 2026 exhibition schedules, featuring a diverse lineup of international and domestic shows. Highlights include 'YBA & Beyond: British Art in the 90s from the Tate Collection' at the National Art Center, a major retrospective of Hajime Sorayama at the Creative Museum Tokyo, and a solo exhibition of Lithuanian artist M. K. Čiurlionis, alongside shows by Picasso, Ron Mueck, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Minami Tada.

bana kattan selected as curator for uae venice biennale pavilion 1234754341

The National Pavilion UAE has selected Bana Kattan, curator and associate head of exhibitions at the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, to curate the United Arab Emirates' presentation at the 61st International Venice Biennale in 2026. Born in Abu Dhabi and raised in the UAE, Kattan previously served as a curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, where she organized shows for artists including Wafaa Bilal, Maryam Taghavi, and Mona Hatoum. A dedicated publication will accompany her pavilion presentation.

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Elizabeth Browning Jackson, a pioneering artist in the art-furniture movement, was rediscovered in 2021 after a phone call from Stephen Markos, founder of Superhouse Gallery, who had long admired her 1982 sculptural couch "Gloria." Markos urged Jackson to open a barn on her Rhode Island property, where she found her early works—hand-tufted rugs, cut-aluminum furniture, drawings, and prototypes—sealed away for 35 years. This rediscovery culminates at Design Miami 2025, where Superhouse presents Jackson as a foundational voice in the art-furniture movement, alongside contemporaries like Dan Friedman and Wendy Maruyama. Jackson's new exhibition "Re/construct" is also on view at Superhouse's Tribeca space through December 20, featuring reconstructed rugs based on her original 1980s designs.

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Kiang Malingue, a prominent Hong Kong gallery, is opening a new commercial space in New York's Chinatown this week. The inaugural exhibition features Japanese artist Hiroka Yamashita, marking her New York solo debut. Founders Edouard Malingue and Lorraine Kiang cite a strategy to tap into a growing community of young Asian American collectors and rising market interest in Asian and Asian diaspora artists.

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Intersect Aspen Art and Design Fair returns for its 2025 edition from July 29 to August 3, featuring the largest roster of galleries and programming in its 15-year history. Highlights include works by Shepard Fairey, Pierce Brosnan, and Fernando Botero, with artists such as Cristina Mittermeier, David Drebin, and Kay Seohyung Lee in attendance. The fair will also host talks and signings with photographer Maryam Eisler and a panel on art and the Aspen community.

Art Collaboration Kyoto holds its most global edition yet

Art Collaboration Kyoto (ACK) opened its fifth edition at the Kyoto International Conference Center, running until 16 November. The fair, launched in 2021 to connect Japanese and international galleries, has grown to a record 72 exhibitors, half from overseas. Special exhibitions are staged at historic temples across Kyoto, including shows by Isabella Ducrot at Kousei-in, Carrie Yamaoka at Manshu-in, and Shio Kusaka with Jonas Wood at Ryosoku-in. Sales were strong on opening day, with galleries like KAYOKOYUKI, Kurimanzutto, Mendes Wood DM, and TARO NASU reporting brisk transactions.

8 Must-See Solo Gallery Shows in May

Galerie magazine has curated a list of eight must-see solo gallery shows across the United States for May, spanning from New York to Miami and Los Angeles. Featured artists include Takako Yamaguchi at Ortuzar in New York, Enzo Cucchi at Vito Schnabel Gallery, Iván Argote at Perrotin, and Kang Seung Lee, among others, with exhibitions showcasing a range of styles from hybrid transnational paintings to Neo-expressionist works and conceptual installations.

How To Do New York Art Week 2025 Like An Insider

Sophia Penske, founder of Penske Projects and an art advisor at Gagosian Art Advisory, provides an insider guide to New York Art Week 2025, running May 5–12. She highlights three main fairs: Frieze New York at The Shed (May 7–11), Independent Art Fair at Spring Studios (May 8–11), and TEFAF. The guide includes notable artists to see—such as Daisuke Fukunaga at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Doron Langberg at Victoria Miro, Moka Lee at Carlos/Ishikawa, Julia Jo at Charles Moffett, Laura Footes at SHRINE, and Nicole Economides at Callirrhoe—along with nearby dining, spa, and gallery recommendations.

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South African video game studio Nyamakop unveiled its latest project, Relooted, at the Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles. The game is a side-scrolling puzzle platformer where players join a crew of thieves to steal back African artifacts from Western museums and repatriate them to their original communities. The artifacts in the game are based on real looted objects, such as the Ngadji drum held by the British Museum, and the missions involve heists from fictionalized museums. The studio spent two years researching artifacts with compelling stories of looting.

Forgotten 'environment' of 11 women artists brought back to life at Leeum

The Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul has opened "Inside other spaces: Environments by women artists 1956-1976," an exhibition restoring immersive artworks by 11 women artists from Asia, Europe, and South America, including Jung Kang-ja, Judy Chicago, Tsuruko Yamazaki, and Aleksandra Kasuba. The show revives pieces that were often dismantled after their original displays, such as Jung Kang-ja's "Incorporeal Exhibition," which was destroyed in 1970 after being deemed political propaganda under South Korea's authoritarian regime. Curators Andrea Lissoni and Marina Pugliese, who first organized the project at Haus Der Kunst in Munich, worked with researchers to reconstruct the works using archival materials, correspondence, and blueprints.

Philadelphia-born artist makes regional debut at Rowan University Art Gallery and Museum

Philadelphia-born artist Devan Shimoyama makes his regional solo debut with the exhibition “SHIFT” at Rowan University Art Gallery & Museum, on view through March 21. The show reimagines the Major Arcana of the Tarot deck through mixed-media paintings incorporating oil, colored pencil, glitter, collage, Swarovski crystals, and other materials, exploring themes of identity, transformation, and Black queerness. Shimoyama, who earned a BFA from Penn State and an MFA from Yale School of Art, previously exhibited at the Andy Warhol Museum and taught at Carnegie Mellon University.

Five must-visit exhibitions during Art Week Tokyo

Art Week Tokyo is underway, and this article highlights five must-see exhibitions across the city. Featured shows include Phung-Tien Phan's debut solo exhibition in Japan at Misako & Rosen, where she presents fabric-wrapped sculptures made from found objects; ChimPom from Smappa! Group's environmental-themed show "A Hole Within a Hole Within a Hole" at Anomaly; the group exhibition "The Clearing" at space Un, organized by curator Ekow Eshun, featuring five emerging African diaspora artists; the "Jam Session" pairing new works by Chikako Yamashiro and Lieko Shiga with the Ishibashi Foundation Collection at Artizon Museum; and Eiki Mori's photographic series "Moonbow Flags" at Ken Nakahashi gallery.

How Art Week Tokyo is opening up routes into Japan’s contemporary art landscape

Art Week Tokyo, which launched in November 2021 during border closures, has adopted a unique "post-art fair" model that forgoes a traditional art fair in favor of connecting museums and galleries across Tokyo via free buses and inviting international art professionals. The fourth full edition coincides with three major Japanese art festivals—the Aichi Triennale, Okayama Art Summit, and Setouchi Triennale—creating a powerful autumn art season. Key highlights include AWT Focus, a selling exhibition at the Okura Museum of Art curated by Adam Szymczyk, featuring over 50 artists with increased international gallery participation, and the museum exhibition "Prism of the Real: Making Art in Japan 1989-2010" at the National Art Center, Tokyo, curated by Doryun Chong.

North America's 1st large-scale manga exhibit opens at San Francisco's De Young Museum

San Francisco's De Young Museum has opened North America's first large-scale exhibition of manga art, featuring over 600 works spanning comic books, fine art, and animated features. Curated by Nicole Rousmaniere, the show includes pieces by artist Mari Yamazaki, who blends classical painting with manga storytelling, and highlights globally popular titles like "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure." The exhibition runs through January.

The 10 Exhibitions to See in September 2025

The article previews ten major art exhibitions opening in September 2025, highlighting the 36th Bienal de São Paulo curated by Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, which takes inspiration from estuaries and rivers and features artists like Frank Bowling and Huguette Caland. It also covers the Okayama Art Summit 2025, directed by Philippe Parreno, which reimagines the city as a site of balance between nature and construction, and Hayv Kahraman's solo show 'Ghost Fires' at Jack Shainman Gallery in New York, reflecting her experience as a refugee from the Gulf War.

Art’s hot this August and here is where to be this month

August 2025 brings a vibrant lineup of art exhibitions across India, from Chennai to New Delhi and Mumbai. Highlights include Akhil Anand's solo debut "Morphogenesis" at ArtSpace by KalpaDruma in Chennai, blending mathematics, mythology, and nature; the group show "The Personal is Mythical" at LATITUDE 28 in New Delhi, curated by Bhavna Kakar and featuring Bhajju Shyam, Neha Sahai, and Viraj Khanna; the all-women showcase "Objects May Appear Softer" at Black Cube Gallery; antique map and print sales at Nilaya Anthology's Gallery 2; and the Mumbai debut of London's Evoke and Bangalore's Kaash, hosted by Srila Chatterjee.

Shows to See in Japan, July 2025

This article highlights five art exhibitions opening across Japan in July 2025. Featured shows include Izumi Kato's largest solo exhibition in Japan, "Road to Somebody," at Iwami Art Museum; Christine Sun Kim's eponymous project at Mori Art Museum in Tokyo; Maya Erin Masuda's solo show "Ecologies of Closeness" at Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media; and "Van Gogh's Home" at Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts, which centers on the Van Gogh family collection. Each exhibition spans diverse media and themes, from Kato's animistic sculptures to Kim's exploration of sound and deaf experience, Masuda's ecological trauma investigations, and Van Gogh's legacy through his family's archive.

11 Must-See Museum Exhibitions This Summer

This article highlights 11 must-see museum exhibitions for summer 2025, curated by Monica Jae Yeon Moon. Key shows include Melissa Joseph's site-specific installation 'Tender' at the Brooklyn Museum, a comprehensive solo exhibition of 18th-century Dutch still life painter Rachel Ruysch at the Toledo Museum of Art and Museum of Fine Arts Boston, and a queer photography exhibition at the Getty Center. Other notable events include the Venice Architecture Biennale, Berlin Biennale, and Ljubljana Biennial, with a focus on women artists like Emily Kam Kngwarray and Takako Yamaguchi receiving overdue recognition.

Asian galleries move westward: their growing presence and influence in New York

Hong Kong-based gallery Kiang Malingue is opening a new outpost on the Lower East Side of New York on May 9, joining a wave of Asian galleries expanding into the city. The 3,500 sq. ft space at 50 Eldridge Street, formerly an artist's studio, will debut with a solo show by Japanese artist Hiroka Yamashita titled 'The Lights from the Deep Mountains.' Other recent arrivals include Manila's Silverlens (Chelsea, 2022), Taipei's Nunu Fine Art (Lower East Side, 2023), Hong Kong's Alisan Fine Arts (Upper East Side, 2023), and Shanghai's Bank (Lower East Side, March 2025).

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A painting in Japan's Tokushima Modern Art Museum, originally attributed to French Cubist Jean Metzinger and purchased in 1999 for 67.2 million yen ($426,000), has been confirmed as a forgery by notorious German forger Wolfgang Beltracchi. The museum withdrew the work, titled *At the Cycle-Race Track 55*, from an upcoming exhibition after experts identified synthetic pigments from after the mid-20th century. The Osaka-based seller agreed to a refund and return, completed in October and November 2024, and the painting has been removed from the prefectural government's inventory.

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A painting long attributed to Moïse Kisling, titled *Kiki de Montparnasse* and held by Japan's Yamada Bee Company Group, has been identified as a forgery by notorious art forger Wolfgang Beltracchi. The discovery, reported by NHK, follows a wave of Beltracchi-linked fakes uncovered in Japanese museums and collections, including a purported Marie Laurencin portrait in Tokyo and a forgery of Heinrich Campendonk's *Girl with Swan* at the Museum of Art, Kochi. Beltracchi admitted to forging the Kisling around 1990, claiming he studied the artist deeply.

What Works of Art Sank Aboard the Titanic?

Quelles sont les œuvres d’art englouties à bord du Titanic ?

The RMS Titanic, which sank in 1912, was carrying over 300 paintings, drawings, prints, and art objects according to its cargo manifest. The most famous artwork lost was the 1814 neoclassical painting 'La Circassienne au bain' by French artist Merry-Joseph Blondel, owned by Swedish businessman Mauritz Håkan Björnström-Steffansson, which was insured for $100,000. Also lost was the legendary 'Grand Omar,' a jewel-encrusted luxury edition of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, created by the London bindery Sangorski & Sutcliffe.