Husband of Gallerist Brent Sikkema Found Guilty of Ordering His Killing

A federal jury in Manhattan found Daniel Sikkema guilty of hiring a hit man to murder his estranged husband, esteemed New York gallerist Brent Sikkema. The killing occurred in January 2024, when Brent Sikkema was stabbed to death in his Rio de Janeiro vacation home. The hit man, Alejandro Triana Trevez, a former security guard for the couple, testified that Daniel paid him over $10,000 for the murder. Daniel Sikkema, who denied the charges, now faces a mandatory life sentence and has said he will appeal.

Rocked on their heels: how exhibitions can change the course of artists’ lives

Alyce Mahon's new book, *Dorothea Tanning: A Surrealist World*, explores how the 1936 MoMA exhibition *Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism* profoundly transformed the young artist Dorothea Tanning, who described being "rocked on my run-over heels" by the experience. The article also recounts similar life-changing exhibition encounters for contemporary artists Lorna Simpson and Hurvin Anderson, as discussed on *The Week in Art* and *A brush with…* podcasts, highlighting how specific shows shaped their artistic trajectories.

Robert Mnuchin’s Storied Art Gallery Townhouse Lists for $35 Million

The six-story, 17,600-square-foot Upper East Side townhouse that housed Robert Mnuchin's blue-chip gallery for over three decades has been listed for $35 million. Mnuchin and his second wife Adriana bought the 106-year-old property in 1983, and after an 18-month renovation, they lived there for 12 years before the gallery occupied the space from 1992 until Mnuchin's death in 2024. The gallery hosted major shows for artists including Willem de Kooning, Jeff Koons, Ed Clark, and Mary Lovelace O'Neal. The listing comes just months after the announcement that Mnuchin Gallery would close, and four months after Sotheby's sold $166.3 million worth of art from Mnuchin's collection.

Post-Paintings, Pyrex Bowls, and Dollar-Store Flowers: Our Critic’s Guide to Art on the UES Right Now

Eliza Douglas makes her New York solo debut with 'Ghosts' at Gagosian's Park Avenue outpost, featuring layered paintings that incorporate UV-printed portraits of her aunt, UFO journalist Leslie Kean, over reworked canvases previously shown at the shuttered Air de Paris gallery. The exhibition runs through July 31, 2026, alongside concurrent shows at Gagosian's Madison Avenue space featuring Marcel Duchamp and Robert Rauschenberg, and a pairing of David Hammons with Jannis Kounellis at White Cube on the Upper East Side.

Chanel gives Centre Pompidou financial boost with new five-year partnership

Chanel has announced a new five-year partnership with the Centre Pompidou in Paris, providing a confidential financial boost to the institution during its closure for major renovations until 2030. The partnership builds on previous collaborations, including the 2023 Assemble program and a 2025 initiative to expand the museum's collection of Chinese contemporary artists by over 30% by 2028, with works already acquired from artists like Chen Wei and Cui Jie.

Brent Sikkema’s Husband Convicted

A federal jury has found Daniel Sikkema guilty of orchestrating the murder-for-hire of his estranged husband, New York art dealer Brent Sikkema. The 75-year-old gallerist was stabbed 18 times in his Rio de Janeiro townhouse in January 2024, a crime that sent shockwaves through the art community. Senior editor Valentina Di Liscia reports on the verdict and the grim details of the case.

The Divine Powers of “Chicken Linda”

Performance artist Linda Mary Montano, now in her 80s, invited writer Taliesin Thomas into her home in Saugerties, New York, which functions as a living shrine filled with altars, experimental sculptures, and religious iconography. Montano, who calls herself “Chicken Linda” to connect with the Holy Spirit, discussed her six-decade career as an endurance performance artist, her Catholic faith, her studies with guru Shri Bhramananda Saraswati, and her influential early years in San Francisco during the First Wave feminist art movement. She also recounted personal tragedies, including the murder of her former husband Mitchell Payne, which led to her video work “Mitchell’s Death,” now in the collections of MoMA and the Museum of Conceptual Art, Los Angeles.

Back on its home soil after 375 years, the Venus of Arles magnetizes artists in an unprecedented exhibition

De retour sur ses terres après 375 ans, la Vénus d’Arles magnétise les artistes dans une expo inédite

The Venus of Arles, a Roman statue from the 1st century BCE and a copy of a work attributed to the Greek sculptor Praxiteles, has returned to Arles after 375 years for a temporary exhibition titled "Le Passage de Vénus" at the Musée Départemental Arles Antique. Discovered in 1651 in the ancient theater of Arles, the statue was gifted to Louis XIV, restored by François Girardon, and later displayed at the Louvre. The exhibition, co-curated by Ludovic Laugier and Romy Wyche, presents the goddess's journey from her mythical birth to her triumph, featuring eight thematic sections that blend ancient sculptures with works by 16 modern and contemporary artists, including Niki de Saint Phalle, Annette Messager, and Man Ray.

On Île Seguin, the new art center Large unveils its spectacular building and a first exhibition focused on Renault's history

Sur l’île Seguin, le nouveau centre d’art Large dévoile son bâtiment spectaculaire et une première expo tournée vers l’histoire de Renault

On Île Seguin, the new contemporary art center Large unveiled its spectacular building designed by Catalan firm RCR Arquitectes during a press preview on May 21. The center, backed by real estate developer Emerige and its president Laurent Dumas, will open to the public on October 17. Its inaugural exhibition, curated by Cecilia Alemani, explores the history of the automobile and the island's industrial past as the site of Renault factories from 1929 to 1992, featuring works by 55 contemporary artists including Julio Le Parc, Nina Beier, Thomas Bayrle, Mohamed El Khatib, and Giulia Andreani.

Au Mémorial de Caen, les artistes africains font face à l’histoire de la colonisation

The Mémorial de Caen, a museum dedicated to World War II and the Cold War, has opened a new exhibition titled "(Dé)colonisations: des artistes africains interrogent l'histoire" (Decolonizations: African Artists Question History). Curated by Ayoko Mensah and Jean-Yves Marin, the show features 80 works by contemporary artists of sub-Saharan African origin, including Omar Victor Diop and Roméo Mivekannin. Swiss collector Jean Claude Gandur, who is building a foundation adjacent to the museum, lent 23 works, and his foundation's curator Olivia Fahmy helped organize the exhibition. The show is a prelude to a planned permanent section on colonial history at the memorial.

Flash back: The artists creating new stories from archival photos

Nanina Guyer, curator of photography at Zurich's Museum Rietberg, has organized the exhibition "A Kind of Paradise: Colonial-Era Photography in Contemporary Art," which examines how contemporary artists repurpose archival colonial-era photographs. The show features 20 artists, including Sammy Baloji, Rosana Paulino, Sasha Huber, Dinh Q. Lê, Wendy Red Star, Omar Victor Diop, and Zenaéca Singh, who transform these historical images into sculptures, films, and recontextualized works. The exhibition is divided into four sections: artists as archivists, confronting stereotypes, healing, and a final section on repair.

Evelyn Taocheng Wang ”Sweet Landscape” at MUSEION, Bolzano

Museion in Bolzano, Italy, presents the first institutional solo exhibition in Italy by Evelyn Taocheng Wang, a Rotterdam-based artist born in 1981 in Chengdu. The exhibition, titled "Sweet Landscape," showcases her work across painting, writing, installation, performance, and fashion, featuring a visual language that blends poetry, subtle humor, and critical depth while intertwining art historical traditions and fragments.

A Roma c’è la mostra di un’artista 40enne californiana che ci racconta il valore della lentezza

Erica Mahinay, a 40-year-old California-born artist based in Los Angeles, is the subject of a solo exhibition titled "Rhythms" at T293 gallery in Rome. The show presents 24 intimate-scale works that explore the artist's physical, process-driven approach to abstract painting, where she manipulates pigment through pouring, dripping, and erasing to create layered, luminous surfaces. Mahinay, who holds degrees from the Kansas City Art Institute and Cranbrook Academy of Art, has work in the Marciano Art Foundation and Pinault Collection, and was included in the Hammer Museum's 2023 biennial "Made in L.A.: Acts of Living."

In the Principality of Monaco, an exhibition where the great painter Poussin dialogues with contemporary art

Nel Principato di Monaco una mostra dove il grande pittore Poussin dialoga con l’arte contemporanea

The Nouveau Musée National de Monaco presents an exhibition titled "Le Sentiment de la Nature," which juxtaposes works by 17th-century French painter Nicolas Poussin and his followers with pieces by about thirty contemporary and 20th-century artists. The show is organized into six thematic sections—storms and nights, forests and gardens, seas and waterfalls, deserts and volcanoes, mountains, and flowers and butterflies—each exploring the ancient concept of "miracula naturae" (wonders of nature). Featured contemporary artists include Nan Goldin, Andreas Gursky, Thomas Demand, Sarah Moon, Mimmo Jodice, Giulio Paolini, Giorgio Andreotta Calò, and Fausto Melotti, with works spanning photography, painting, video, and sculpture. The exhibition runs until May 25, 2026, and is accompanied by a catalog published by Italian publisher Humboldt Books in collaboration with the museum.

Weekly News Roundup: May 22, 2026

This weekly roundup from ArtAsiaPacific covers four major developments in the art and architecture world. Chinese architects Wang Shu and Lu Wenyu have announced the theme for the 2027 Venice Architecture Biennale, titled “Do Architecture – For the Possibility of Coexistence Facing a Real Reality,” emphasizing hands-on, context-driven design. The 2026 Sovereign Asian Art Prize winners were revealed, with Balinese artist Citra Sasmita winning the Grand Prize for her work "Poetry of the Fountain" (2025). Dubai announced plans for the Museum of Digital Art (MODA), a new institution dedicated to new media and immersive technologies, as part of a major district expansion. Finally, the Asian Cultural Council (ACC) named 70 grantees for its 2026 cycle, awarding over USD 1.6 million to support cultural exchange between the US and Asia.

브루클린뮤지엄: 패션디자이너 아이리스 반 페르펜전 'Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses'(5/16-12/6)

The Brooklyn Museum will present the North American debut of "Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses" from May 16 to December 6, 2026. The exhibition features over 140 haute couture creations by Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen, displayed alongside contemporary art, design objects, and scientific artifacts. It explores her fusion of traditional craftsmanship with cutting-edge technology, sustainability, and themes from nature and science. The show first opened at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 2023 and has traveled to QAGOMA, ArtScience Museum Singapore, and Kunsthal Rotterdam. The Brooklyn presentation coincides with the museum's annual Brooklyn Artists Ball, where Van Herpen will be honored.

What do you hear in these paintings? 'Still In Sound' at the Clyfford Still Museum asks just that

The Clyfford Still Museum in Denver has opened 'Still In Sound,' a new exhibition that pairs five of Clyfford Still's paintings with original audio interpretations created by contemporary artists. Curated by Ben Coleman and Bailey Placzek, the show invites artists like Kalyn Heffernan and Michael Schumacher to respond sonically to Still's works, drawing on the museum's archives of the artist's voice recordings and personal record collection. Each audio piece plays on a loop from speakers positioned directly above the corresponding painting, with sounds ranging from rhythmic beats and hisses to New Orleans jazz and car engines.

“A Golden Age for Whom?”, June 6 through September 20

The Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa, will present "A Golden Age for Whom?" from June 6 through September 20, a contemporary art exhibition that runs alongside the museum's concurrent show "The Golden Age: Featuring Northern European Works from the National Gallery of Art." The exhibition brings together works by artists including Beth Lipman, Oliver Okolo, Yasumasa Morimura, and Fabiola Jean-Louis, who respond to the themes and aesthetics of Renaissance and Baroque art. The two exhibitions are housed in adjoining galleries, allowing visitors to move directly between historic works and contemporary responses.

Multidisciplinary Exhibition Opens at The Parrish

A multidisciplinary solo exhibition titled "Sanford Biggers: Drift" has opened at the Parrish Art Museum in Watermill. The exhibition was organized by Chief Curator Corinne Erni and Curator Scout Hutchinson, and was marked by a public conversation between artist Sanford Biggers and Erni. The discussion focused on Biggers' use of textiles, symbolism, and layered cultural references.

Arghavan Khosravi Brings Diasporic Narratives to ‘What Remains’

Uffner & Liu in New York is presenting 'What Remains,' a solo exhibition by Iranian artist Arghavan Khosravi, running through July 2, 2026. The show features multi-paneled sculptural canvases, a freestanding sculpture, and intimate mixed-media works, including the debut of her 'Altar Series,' which reimagines medieval devotional altarpieces through a contemporary political and psychological lens.

The Pope Asks You to Write Music

"Der Papst bittet Sie, Musik zu schreiben"

This press roundup covers several art-world stories. Musician FKA Twigs discusses her contribution to the Vatican Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, describing how she was asked by the Pope to write music, blending her club and sacred practices. Artist Trevor Paglen speaks about the 'end of enlightenment' in an interview, arguing that AI-generated images and social media are destroying shared empirical reality. Critic Dean Kissick interviews documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis about the crisis of the self and the exhaustion of contemporary culture. Additionally, a review of the 61st Venice Biennale highlights political tensions, protests, and a carnivalesque trend in the artworks.

“José de Jesús Rodríguez’s Back & Forth” New Art21 Film to Premiere May 27, 2026

Art21 has announced the release of a new documentary film titled “José de Jesús Rodríguez’s Back & Forth,” premiering online on May 27, 2026. Directed by Andrea Yu-Chieh Chung, the film follows painter José de Jesús Rodríguez as he transitions into new techniques like mosaic and relief sculpture, exploring themes of personal and collective identity through references ranging from Mexican muralists to popular culture. The film will be available on Art21.org and YouTube as part of Art21's ongoing series documenting contemporary artists.

Mercedes-Benz Art Collection Debuts in Budapest with ‘Power Lines’ Exhibition

The Mercedes-Benz Art Collection is being shown publicly for the first time in Budapest through the exhibition 'Power Lines,' which opened at the Merlin Theatre on Tuesday and runs until 31 August. The show features works by over 30 internationally recognized contemporary artists, including David Hockney, Robert Longo, Sylvie Fleury, and John M Armleder, alongside Hungarian and regional artists such as Ilona Németh, Katalin Kortmann-Járay, Karina Mendreczky, and Rita Süveges. Curated by Krisztián Török, the exhibition presents the collection through a Central and Eastern European lens, exploring themes of industrialization, migration, energy, modernism, and ecology.

Clasutta Explores the Dynamics of Love in Solo Exhibition at Whitestone Gallery Singapore

Indonesian artist Clasutta presents a solo exhibition titled "Roommates?" at Whitestone Gallery Singapore, exploring the emotional dynamics of love and relationships through her playful painting style. The exhibition is part of a larger curatorial narrative called "Through Reverie: Love and Memory," which also features a concurrent presentation by Malaysian artist C.K. Koh titled "Folded Glimpses," drawing from his personal photographic archive. Clasutta's works trace the subtle shifts from lighthearted beginnings to spaces shaped by attachment, expectation, and unspoken negotiation, portraying love as fluid and ever-changing.

Dorchester gallery will host special and rare exhibition with top artist

Kerry Darlington, one of the UK's most collected and influential contemporary artists, will make a rare personal appearance at Halo Fine Art in Dorchester on Saturday, June 13. The gallery is hosting an exclusive, one-afternoon-only event where visitors can meet the artist, view a new collection of original works, and discuss the folklore behind her signature style of hand-poured resin and 3D details. The guest list is strictly limited and RSVP is required.

ARTIndia and Vadehra Art Collaborate for ‘Next/Now’ Exhibition in Delhi

A group exhibition titled 'Next/Now' will open in New Delhi on 29 May 2026, organized by ARTIndia Magazine and Vadehra Art Gallery. The show features 30 emerging artists selected from ARTIndia's '30 Under 30' list, working across painting, sculpture, installation, photography, and mixed media. The opening coincides with Defence Colony Gallery Night, and partial proceeds will support the ARTIndia Care Fund, which provides medical care for young artists.

Edinburgh Fine Art Society marks 150 years with landmark exhibition

The Fine Art Society, one of Scotland's oldest commercial galleries, is celebrating its 150th anniversary with a landmark exhibition opening June 13 and running through August 31 at its original Edinburgh location on Dundas Street. The show spans the gallery's entire history, featuring works from Victorian masters to contemporary artists, including early etchings by James McNeill Whistler, a rare landscape by Pre-Raphaelite painter John Brett, and pieces by historically overlooked artists such as Clare Atwood, Phyllis Bone, Anne Redpath, and Ishbel Myerscough. Decorative arts are represented by a Gothic Revival table by Augustus Pugin, a tapestry by Gerald Laing, and a textile by Edmund Dulac, while the exhibition closes with Philip Eglin's ceramic vessel 'Rosso' (2024), shortlisted for the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize.

Seoul Auction vs. K Auction: May Major Auctions Through Modern Masters, Contemporary Installation, and Antique Art

In the final week of May 2026, South Korea's two leading auction houses, K Auction and Seoul Auction, will hold major sales one day apart. K Auction's May sale on May 27 features 83 works with an estimated value of KRW 10.4 billion, including Park Soo-keun's 'On the Way Home' (1964) and Do Ho Suh's large-scale installation 'Cause & Effect'. Seoul Auction's 192nd Art Auction on May 28 offers 145 works with a combined low estimate of KRW 10.3 billion. Both sales focus on proven artists and rare works rather than large-scale expansion, highlighting Korean modern masters like Kim Whanki and Yoo Youngkuk alongside contemporary international names.

Orlan, Marina Abramović, Ai Weiwei and Roger Ballen lead a major exhibition on love in Paris

A major group exhibition exploring the theme of love has opened in Paris, featuring works by renowned contemporary artists including Orlan, Marina Abramović, Ai Weiwei, and Roger Ballen. The show brings together diverse perspectives on love, intimacy, and human connection through various media such as performance, photography, and installation.

Kaatsbaan Cultural Park presents Opening of the 2026 Visual Arts Exhibition

Kaatsbaan Cultural Park in Tivoli, New York, will open its sixth annual Visual Arts Exhibition on June 6, 2026, with a free afternoon reception. Titled "Earthly Delights," the show features works by nine contemporary artists, including returning artists Aurora Robson, Ian McMahon, and Portia Munson, as well as newcomers Thea Berman, Sharon Broit, Laura Battle, Kris Perry, Nadia Yaron, and Virginia L. Montgomery. The exhibition also includes two bronzes by Gaston Lachaise on loan from the Lachaise Foundation. Curated by Hilary Greene, the artworks explore planets, plants, insects, and biological forms inspired by the Hudson Valley landscape.