Valuable Art Collection Featuring Frida Kahlo Set To Leave Mexico Sparks Concern in Art Community

The Mexican art community is voicing alarm over the relocation of the prestigious Gelman Collection to Spain, where it is slated to become the centerpiece of the new Foro Santander cultural center. Managed by Santander Bank and previously acquired by the Zambrano family, the collection includes 160 works by modern masters such as Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros, including 18 rare paintings by Frida Kahlo. Critics and academics have signed an open letter demanding transparency from the Mexican government regarding the legality of this long-term export, given that many of these works are designated as national artistic monuments.

Surrey Art Gallery spotlights Expo 86 with In the Shadow of the Pavilions, April 18 to June 7

The Surrey Art Gallery is launching "In the Shadow of the Pavilions: Expo 86 and Contemporary Art," a multidisciplinary exhibition running from April 18 to June 7. Curated by Jordan Strom, the show features archival works and documentation from over 40 artists created between 1984 and 1988. It brings together official commissions from the world’s fair alongside unofficial, parallel art initiatives that emerged during Vancouver’s Centennial celebrations, covering media ranging from kinetic sculpture to performance art.

Renowned Mexican art collection to be managed by Spanish bank

Banco Santander announced on 21 January that it will manage 160 works from the Gelman Collection of 20th-century Mexican art, following a long-term agreement with the Zambrano family, which acquired the collection in 2023. The newly branded Gelman Santander Collection will debut this summer at Faro Santander, the bank's new venue in Cantabria, Spain. The collection, started by Russian-born film producer Jacques Gelman and his wife Natasha, includes major works by Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, and others, but has been largely out of public view since 2008 amid inheritance disputes. The agreement is complicated by Mexican law, which designates many works as National Artistic Monuments, restricting their permanent export and requiring oversight by the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBAL).

Andy Warhol's Photography and Films Get a Rare Spotlight at the Zimmerli

The Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers-New Brunswick presents *Andy Warhol: On Repeat*, an exhibition featuring nearly 70 black-and-white photographs and color Polaroids from its collection—some shown for the first time—alongside a suite of films on loan from the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. Organized by chief curator Jeremiah William McCarthy, the show runs from February 11 to July 31, 2026, in the Voorhees Gallery, and examines repetition and duration as central forces in Warhol’s art, with large-scale projections, vertical Polaroid towers, and bean bags encouraging visitors to linger.

How much should art cost? The pitfalls and paradoxes of pricing works

The article examines the current state of the art market, which is in its third consecutive year of contraction. It traces how low interest rates fueled speculative price inflation, leading to a boom in ultra-contemporary art that has now burst, with collectors shifting toward Old Masters. Dealers like Larry Gagosian are now advocating for lowering primary market prices, while private sales stall due to sellers' 'anchoring' to peak valuations. The piece highlights the disconnect between high prices and long-term value, using examples such as auction records being manipulated (e.g., Patrick Drahi's anonymous bidding on a Francis Bacon triptych) and the reality that most artworks in even celebrated collections depreciate.

'What's possible for art in this city': Striking exhibition brings diverse artists to Allentown studio

Rigo Peralta Art Studio in Allentown, Pennsylvania, opened the "Hyperrealism & Realism" exhibition on a Friday night, featuring a diverse group of artists from the United States, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. Curated by Peralta and Ruddy Tavera, the show juxtaposes hyperrealistic and academic realist works, including pieces by Ismael Checo, Francisco Collado, Juanairis Collado, and others. The exhibition runs through February and aims to present a fresh artistic experience for the local community.

Banksy’s Bethlehem hotel, closed following 7 October attacks, reopens as ‘cultural platform that carries the narrative of Palestine’

Banksy's Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem, which closed after the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, and the subsequent Israel-Hamas war, has reopened. The hotel, originally launched in 2017, faces the West Bank barrier and was designed to bring tourism to the area while exposing guests to life under the wall. Manager Wisam Salsaa says the hotel now serves as a cultural platform amplifying Palestinian voices, with over 20 original Banksy works still on display. Room prices range from $70 for a bunkbed to $495 for the presidential suite.

Frieze lines up more than 95 exhibitors for next Los Angeles fair

Frieze Los Angeles will return to Santa Monica Airport from February 26 to March 1, 2026, for its seventh edition, featuring more than 95 galleries from 22 countries. The fair includes returning blue-chip participants like Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, and David Zwirner, alongside a strong local Los Angeles gallery presence and more than a half-dozen first-time exhibitors. Special sectors include Sector for emerging artists, supported by Stone Island and curated by Essence Harden, and outdoor commissions organized with Art Production Fund. The Deutsche Bank Frieze Los Angeles Film Award and the Frieze Impact Prize, presented with Titus Kaphar’s Nxthvn incubator, will also return.

A new hope: Lucas Museum of Narrative Art sets September 2026 opening date

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles has announced its opening date of September 22, 2026, more than a decade after the project was first conceived by filmmaker George Lucas and his wife Mellody Hobson. The museum, which moved from San Francisco to Chicago before settling in Los Angeles's Exposition Park, has grown from a $700 million budget to a reported $1 billion and will house over 40,000 works across 100,000 square feet of exhibition space. The collection spans ancient artifacts, canonical artists like Frida Kahlo and John Singer Sargent, comic book legends such as Jack Kirby and Alison Bechdel, photography by Gordon Parks and Dorothea Lange, and the Lucas Archives of film memorabilia.

Plains Art Exhibition Highlights Women Artists, Addresses Imbalance

Plains Art Museum in Fargo, North Dakota, is launching a major exhibition titled “Women Artists: Four Centuries of Creativity,” running from November 1, 2025, to March 1, 2026. The show features 77 works, including 40 from the museum's own collection—20 of which are being displayed for the first time—and 37 loans from the Reading Public Museum in Pennsylvania. The exhibition was prompted by an internal assessment revealing that only 10.5% of the museum's 6,000-object permanent collection is by women artists. It will also host the first North Dakota appearance by the Guerrilla Girls, who will give a presentation and lead workshops. Student-authored texts from Minnesota State University Moorhead complement the show.

Exhibition Of Contemporary Anishinaabe Art At Detroit Institute Of Arts

The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) has opened "Contemporary Anishinaabe Art: A Continuation," a major exhibition featuring over 60 Anishinaabe artists from Michigan and the Great Lakes region. The show, running from September 28, 2025, to April 8, 2026, includes nearly 100 contemporary artworks and was sparked by a request from artist Kelly Church, whose black ash top hat was donated to the DIA in 2020. Church collaborated with DIA Assistant Curator Denene De Quintal and a Native advisory board—the "Council of the Three Fires"—to select artists, blending established figures like Frank Big Bear and George Morrison with lesser-known artists receiving their first major institutional exposure.

Aryz: color, shape and essence at the Senda Gallery

Aryz, the Catalan urban artist born Octavi Arrizabalaga, presents his first solo exhibition at Senda Gallery in Barcelona, titled *Preludio*. The show features large-format oil paintings that engage with art history, reinterpreting works by masters such as Simon Vouet, Jan van Eyck, and Rubens through a contemporary lens. The exhibition marks a deliberate shift from his celebrated large-scale murals toward a more personal studio practice, emphasizing the painter's craft and cultural transmission.

Sarasota Art Museum stages an Art Deco extravaganza

The Sarasota Art Museum (SAM) on the Ringling College of Art and Design campus has opened "Art Deco: The Golden Age of Illustration," an exhibition of 100 large posters from the Crouse family collection. Curated by Rangsook Yoon, the show celebrates the 100th anniversary of Art Deco, tracing its origins from the Belle Epoque through the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris, and features works by artists such as Alphonse Mucha, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen. The Crouses, who previously lent works to The Guggenheim and the Victoria and Albert Museum, displayed part of their collection at New York's Poster House in 2023-2024.

Venice Banksy mural removed as part of ‘innovative’ restoration project

A fading Banksy mural, *Migrant Child* (2019), depicting a child holding a flare and wearing a life vest, was removed from the façade of the 17th-century Palazzo San Pantalon in Venice on Wednesday night. Restorers cut out the wall section using angle grinders and hand tools from a barge, in an operation funded by the banking group Banca Ifis, the building's owner. The work—one of only two Banksy pieces officially attributed in Italy—had deteriorated significantly due to six years of exposure to the elements, with about a third of the image lost. It will undergo analysis and restoration under Federico Borgogni, who previously oversaw the removal of Banksy's *Aachoo!* in Bristol.

Illustrative Artist: Anthony Bartley’s Journey From Science into the Gallery

Anthony Bartley, a 27-year-old artist from Chicago's South Side, is presenting twenty acrylic paintings from 2023 to the present in his solo exhibition “Words I’ve Never Said: A Community Healing and Art Exhibition” in Hyde Park. The show explores themes of love, grief, and mental health, doubling as a creative space for community engagement. Bartley’s journey began with childhood interests in anime, Pokémon cards, and video games like Kingdom Hearts and Halo Reach, later influenced by his mother Jeanette, a dean at Triton College, who exposed him to science. He initially majored in molecular biology at Washington University in St. Louis before turning to art as a form of journaling, developing a style he calls “illustrative painting” that blends pop art and street art elements.

Lee Miller at the Musée d’Art Moderne: The Future Great Photographer Who Went from Rebel Child to Vogue Model

Lee Miller au musée d’Art moderne : la futur grande photographe passée de l’enfant rebelle au mannequin Vogue

The Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris is hosting a major retrospective dedicated to Lee Miller, tracing her evolution from a rebellious child in upstate New York to a celebrated Vogue model and pioneering surrealist photographer. The exhibition highlights her early life under the influence of her father, Theodore Miller, an amateur photographer who introduced her to the technical aspects of the darkroom, and her subsequent move to Paris in 1930 where she transitioned from being a muse for photographers like George Hoyningen-Huene to a formidable artist in her own right.

Museum diplomacy in action at ICOM UK 2026: museums in a changing world

ICOM UK hosted its 2026 annual conference in Oxford, bringing together delegates from over 20 countries to explore the theme of 'Museum Diplomacy.' Keynote speaker Dr. Sascha Priewe of the Aga Khan Museum and ICOM Canada framed the current geopolitical moment as a 'GZERO World,' where no country is willing or able to lead globally, and discussed how sanctions, export controls, and shifting alliances are straining international museum collaborations. Sessions featured case studies from the Science Museum Group and International Arts & Artists, emphasizing that trust and networks, not grand gestures, are essential for enduring partnerships.

First Comprehensive Museum Retrospective For Detroit Artist And ‘Bead Man’ Olayami Dabls

The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) will present "Olayami Dabls: Detroit Cosmologies," the first comprehensive museum retrospective for Detroit artist Olayami Dabls, running from April 25 to July 12, 2026. Dabls, who began his career as a curator at the Afro-American Museum in Detroit (now the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History), traces his artistic journey to a transformative moment in the 1970s when he opened a box of African masks that his colleagues feared to handle. This experience led him to investigate how Hollywood and popular culture had demonized African material culture, associating it with horror movies and voodoo, and inspired decades of work as an artist, storyteller, cultural historian, and civic champion.

Satellite Galleries with Gravitas

The Gallery at Hotel Willa and the Encore Gallery at the Taos Center for the Arts have emerged as vital "satellite" exhibition spaces in Taos, New Mexico. Managed by the nonprofit Paseo Project under Executive Director Matt Thomas, the Gallery at Hotel Willa has transformed 2,000 square feet of hospitality space into a hub for local talent, featuring high-profile fashion installations by Josh Tafoya and upcoming ecological exhibitions like "Disturbance." Meanwhile, the Encore Gallery leverages the high foot traffic of the Taos Center for the Arts to provide local artists with significant community exposure alongside film and theatrical programming.

April 2026 Opportunities: Open Calls, Residencies, and Grants for Artists

This monthly roundup highlights a diverse range of professional opportunities for artists and designers scheduled for April 2026. Key listings include the Earth 2026 Art Awards, which offers global promotion and Artsy exposure, and The Hopper Prize, which provides grants totaling $13,000. Other notable calls include the Glen Arbor Arts Center’s "American Tree" exhibition, the fiber-focused "Fiber Forward" open call for women and non-binary artists, and the prestigious Fleurieu Biennale Art Prize in Australia.

Syracuse University Art Museum Celebrates Professor Emeritus Sarah McCoubrey's Decades-Spanning Artistic Evolution

Syracuse University Art Museum is celebrating Professor Emeritus Sarah McCoubrey's 34-year artistic legacy with a closing reception and artist talk on Sept. 10 at Manhattan's Bernard and Louise Palitz Gallery. The event highlights the exhibition “Currents: Sarah McCoubrey,” which surveys McCoubrey's multimedia environmental narratives, including her well-known landscape paintings alongside recent and never-before-seen works. McCoubrey recently attained professor emeritus status after 34 years as a painting professor in the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Syracuse University, and her career includes representation by Locks Gallery in Philadelphia and solo exhibitions at institutions such as the Everson Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

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An antiques expert and a cabinet maker have been found guilty of forging and selling nine imitation 18th-century armchairs that they falsely claimed belonged to French royalty, including Marie Antoinette. Georges "Bill" Pallot, a leading furniture expert, and Bruno Desnoues, a former Versailles restorer, sold the fakes through Paris galleries and Sotheby's to the Château of Versailles and private collectors, including Qatari Prince Tamim ibn Hamad Al Thani and an Hermès family heir. Pallot was sentenced to four years in prison (44 months suspended), fined €200,000, and banned from working as an expert for five years; Desnoues received three years (32 months suspended) and a €100,000 fine. Both must pay €1.6 million in indemnities. The gallery Laurent Kraemer was acquitted, with the court ruling it was also a victim.

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A new digital platform called the Art Marketplace, founded in mid-2025 by Elliot Safra and a group of partners, aims to streamline private art sales by addressing common frustrations in the secondary market. Unlike traditional auction houses or gallery sales, the platform lists artworks without images, revealing only key details like artist name, description, price, and last update. Requests for images or condition reports are vetted to ensure qualified interest, prioritizing confidentiality and avoiding public exposure that could harm a work's market value. Sellers can list works in minutes, bypassing intermediaries like advisors or dealers, while buyers gain access to previously obscure off-market inventory.

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The U.K. government has imposed a temporary export bar on a mid-19th century marble sculpture by Henri-Joseph-François de Triqueti, depicting sisters Florence and Alice Campbell. The work, valued at £280,000 ($367,000), sold for £117,700 at Lyon and Turnbull auction house in January 2025. The Department for Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) intervened on the advice of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art (RCEWA), citing the sculpture's rarity, outstanding aesthetic importance, and potential for scholarly study. The export license is deferred for three months, with a possible six-month extension, to allow a U.K. institution to acquire it.

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Christie’s has halted the sale of a rare 17th-century Pascaline arithmetic machine, originally scheduled for auction on November 19, after the Administrative Tribunal of Paris suspended its export license. The machine, invented by Blaise Pascal and estimated at €2–3 million, was pulled from sale at the consignor’s request following pressure from French cultural campaigners who argue it should be classified as a National Treasure to prevent its departure from France.

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The European Union's Regulation 2019/880, aimed at combating illicit trafficking and terrorism, will take effect on June 28, imposing stricter import controls on antiquities and artworks over 200 years old and valued above €18,000 ($19,500). The regulation requires importers to provide evidence that an object was lawfully exported from its country of origin, even for items exported decades ago when such documentation was not required. This reverses the presumption of innocence, placing the burden of proof on importers. Dealers and experts express concern that the rules are not based on market realities, as importers must be registered within the E.U., forcing non-E.U. dealers to rely on third-party agents or shippers. The regulation also poses challenges for ancient objects, where borders and export controls may be historically ambiguous.

Janet Werner Is Distorting Fashion’s Beauty Ideals Through Painting

Janet Werner, an artist with a nearly four-decade career, has created a new body of work titled "Landscape with Legs" that distorts fashion imagery from Vogue archives and vintage campaigns by Marc Jacobs. Her paintings transform archetypal fashion models—thin, blonde, and emblematic of privilege—into unsettling, complex figures that expose a tension between glamor and the grotesque. The exhibition runs from May 1 to June 12, 2026, at Anat Ebgi Gallery in New York, marking her second solo show there. In an interview, Werner discusses her background as a dancer, her creative process of collaging photographic images with art historical references like Watteau and Caspar David Friedrich, and the political moment that makes the show feel urgent.

A Midwest Frieze: Kate Sierzputowski Takes the Reigns as Director of Expo Chicago From Founder Tony Karman

Kate Sierzputowski has officially stepped into the role of Director at Expo Chicago, succeeding longtime founder Tony Karman following the fair's acquisition by Frieze. As the fair prepares for its April 2025 edition at Navy Pier, Sierzputowski is overseeing a significant transition that includes a streamlined roster of 130 galleries and a more integrated branding presence from the Frieze parent company.

First gallery for Pan-African contemporary art in San Francisco to open in 2026.

San Francisco’s first gallery dedicated entirely to Pan-African contemporary art, the Art of Contemporary Africa (AOCA), will open on February 12, 2026, at the Minnesota Street Project in the Dogpatch neighborhood. Founded by industry veteran Craig Mark and South African photographer Clint Strydom, the gallery represents both leading and emerging African artists working across various media. Its inaugural group exhibition, “Afropop,” features artists including Dr. Esther Mahlangu, Ayanda Mabulu, Noria Mabasa, Willie Bester, Clint Strydom, Médéric Turay, and Samuel Allerton. AOCA is the sister gallery to The Melrose Gallery in Johannesburg and has already participated in major art fairs such as Expo Chicago, 1-54 New York, the Seattle Art Fair, and the Atlanta Art Fair.

Rediscovered Rubens and a woolly mammoth head star at Brafa fair in Brussels

Brafa, Belgium's premier art and antiques fair, has expanded for its 71st edition, now featuring 147 exhibitors across three halls in the Brussels Expo convention centre. Highlights include a newly rediscovered Peter Paul Rubens painting, *Portrait of an Old Man* (around 1609), priced at over €1 million, and a 50,000-year-old woolly mammoth head from Siberia that sold for €45,000. The fair runs from 25 February to 1 March, with a strong focus on painting from Old Masters to Modern art, and a notable presence of Belgian and early 20th-century French artists.