doll invasion trans auction fundraiser

Fran Tirado, editor-in-chief of Them, has launched Doll Invasion, a series of fundraising parties and an online auction supporting trans rights. The auction, held in partnership with Queer|Art and Advocates for Trans Equality, features works by artists such as Martine Gutierrez, Jeffrey Gibson, and Zackary Drucker, along with pop culture items from Chappell Roan and a cooking experience with Alison Roman. The event runs through Labor Day, with a companion party on Fire Island in late August.

art amitha raman weed moma collector

Collector Amitha Raman shares her journey into art collecting, which began with late-night classes at MoMA under art historian Agnes Berecz, where she explored empty galleries after hours. Her first acquisition was Mary Beth Edelson's "Hounds of Hell" (1973), and she now serves as co-chair of MoMA's Young Patrons Council and a member of its Black Arts Council. Raman's collection includes works by Rashid Johnson, Wolfgang Tillmans, Tracey Emin, Jenny Holzer, and Jeffrey Gibson, and she actively loans pieces to major museums worldwide.

art collector mistake guide

The article compiles personal anecdotes from several art collectors—Laurent Asscher, Suzanne Syz, Rob and Eric Thomas-Suwall, Toby Milstein Schulman, and Danielle Falls—who share mistakes they made while building their collections. Asscher recounts buying a lesser Basquiat at Christie's before quickly reselling it to acquire a superior work at Phillips; Syz regrets buying a piece because others wanted it; the Thomas-Suwalls missed out on a Dominique Fung diptych; Schulman accidentally bought a work attributed 'after Keith Haring' at a charity auction; and Falls reflects on her early eagerness as a young trustee of the Bronx Museum.

architecture hamptons barns

The article explores the architectural and cultural significance of barns in the Hamptons, tracing their evolution from medieval agricultural structures to modern design icons. It highlights how the barn typology has been adapted in local buildings, including the Parrish Art Museum designed by Herzog & de Meuron, and features four case studies of historic barns, such as the Sayre Barn in Southampton, which was converted into an antique store and later donated to a museum.

aspen summer guide exhibition art fair

Aspen's summer 2025 art scene is packed with exhibitions and fairs. Highlights include a mini-survey of photographer Anastasia Samoylova at Casa Tua Aspen, a major Sherrie Levine retrospective at the Aspen Art Museum (June 6–Sept. 29), Enrique Martínez Celaya's 'The Pale Threshold' at Baldwin Gallery (June 20–July 20), the Intersect Aspen Art + Design Fair (July 29–Aug. 3) featuring Shepard Fairey and Michael Stipe, Anderson Ranch's Summer Series with talks by Issy Wood and Titus Kaphar, and the Aspen Art Fair (July 29–Aug. 2) at Hotel Jerome.

art collector tia tanna london young collectors

Tia Tanna, a 24-year-old London-based collector and curator who serves on Tate's photography acquisitions committee, discusses her collecting journey in an interview with Cultured. She began collecting with a Sterling Ruby ashtray and now actively builds a collection that includes Middle Eastern contemporary art, textiles, fashion photography, and couture. Her father sparked her interest by starting a collection on her behalf when she was a child, and she now manages around 70 loans for exhibitions.

jill magid solo show esther kim varet congress

Conceptual artist Jill Magid has turned her dealer Esther Kim Varet's campaign for U.S. Congress into the subject of her latest solo exhibition, "Heart of a Citizen," at Various Small Fires in Los Angeles. The show features a replica of the White House Briefing Room platform, which Magid offered for Varet's political use, leading to complex negotiations around campaign finance law. The campaign plans to host a political debate on the platform in July, and a collector purchased the sculpture to donate to Varet's campaign, intertwining art, law, and politics.

amy sillman dia bridgehampton show abstract painting

Amy Sillman, a 69-year-old abstract painter based in New York, is preparing for a new solo exhibition titled "Alternate Side (Permutations #1–32)" at Dia Bridgehampton, opening June 28. The show will feature a series of recently completed silkscreen and painted works, which Sillman describes as being like Sol LeWitt's line forms but less structured. She plans to paint the gallery walls herself, creating an improvised backdrop for the works. The article also discusses her recent institutional survey "Oh, Clock!" at the Kunstmuseum Bern and Ludwig Forum Aachen, where she curated selections from their collections and painted the walls on a whim.

rodrigo padilla whitney museum collector

Rodrigo Padilla, a hairstylist who built his career at Sally Hershberger and now serves on the Whitney Museum’s Drawing and Print Acquisitions Committee, discusses his art collection with his husband Elliott Trice. The couple’s Midtown flat features works by Latin American and diaspora artists including Wura-Natasha Ogunji, Amy Bravo, Verónica Vázquez, Angel Otero, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Dagoberto Rodríguez, and others. Padilla credits Whitney trustee Brooke Garber Neidich with inspiring his collecting journey by advising him to “see everything.”

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This article from Cultured magazine covers multiple art-related stories, including a profile of restaurateur Keith McNally's memoir, a list of must-see museum exhibitions in New York for spring, a review of Mary Abbott's overlooked Abstract Expressionist work now on view at Schoelkopf Gallery, a feature on Salman Toor's major new exhibition "Wish Maker" at Luhring Augustine, and a discussion on designing more empathetic museums. It also includes a beauty and fashion trends piece with creative nominations.

rose art museum gala exhibition fund

The Rose Art Museum held its first-ever New York benefit gala, marking its return to the fundraising circuit after two decades. Co-chaired by advisor Abigail Ross Goodman and Christie’s Sara Friedlander, the event honored sculptor Hugh Hayden and philanthropist Lizbeth Krupp, the longtime chair of the museum’s board of advisors. The evening raised $900,000 toward a new $2 million Exhibition Endowment Fund, with Krupp making the first gift. Guests included artists Salman Toor, Leilah Babirye, Ali Banisadr, and Ilana Savdie, as well as gallerist Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn and Public Art Fund’s Nicholas Baume.

mary ann unger berry campbell eve biddle interview

Berry Campbell gallery in New York is presenting "Across the Bering Strait," a comprehensive exhibition of the late sculptor Mary Ann Unger, featuring the full 34-part installation of the same name for the first time in the city. The show, on view through May 17, 2025, revives Unger's meditation on human migration and includes an interview with her daughter, artist Eve Biddle, who discusses growing up in a family of artists and her mother's legacy.

salman toor paintings luhring augustine

Salman Toor's largest exhibition to date, "Wish Maker," opened May 2 across Luhring Augustine's Chelsea and Tribeca galleries in New York. The Chelsea space features new paintings, while the Tribeca show is the artist's first dedicated presentation of works on paper. The two-venue presentation is Toor's first major New York showing since his solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2020, which launched him to art stardom. The article includes an interview conducted by CULTURED contributor Adam Eli, where Toor discusses his creative process, his attachment to finished paintings, and how his need to come out as queer through painting drove the development of his distinctive style.

OSCAR MURILLO: PAINTING AS A WELL OF ACCUMULATION

ÓSCAR MURILLO: LA PINTURA COMO POZO DE ACUMULACIÓN

The article profiles Colombian-born artist Oscar Murillo and his expansive, socially-engaged practice. It details his rise to international prominence in the early 2010s with large-scale paintings that incorporate text, textiles, and studio detritus, and highlights his ongoing, collaborative project 'Frequencies,' which involves students from over thirty countries creating works on canvases attached to school desks. The piece also references his major solo exhibitions, including 'El pozo de agua' at kurimanzutto in Mexico City (2026), 'Masas' at WIELS in Brussels (2024), and 'The flooded garden' at Tate Modern (2024).

The Met’s blockbuster Raphael exhibition looks beyond the artist’s idealised Madonnas

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has opened "Raphael: Sublime Poetry," the first comprehensive exhibition of the Renaissance master in the United States. The ambitious show gathers 237 works, including 33 paintings and 142 drawings, spanning Raphael's entire career and featuring major loans like *The Alba Madonna* from the National Gallery of Art in Washington and *Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione* from the Louvre.

David Armstrong “Portraits” at Artists Space, New York

Artists Space in New York is presenting the first US survey of photographer David Armstrong (1954–2014), titled "Portraits." The exhibition brings together over 90 photographs that showcase Armstrong's experimental approach to portraiture, transforming landscapes, still lifes, and fashion imagery into explorations of intimacy, desire, and loss.

5 Must-See Exhibitions During Milan Art Week 2026

Milan Art Week 2026 features a robust program of institutional exhibitions alongside the miart and Paris Internationale Milano fairs. Key highlights include Cao Fei’s multimedia exploration of smart agriculture at Fondazione Prada, Anselm Kiefer’s monumental tribute to forgotten female alchemists at Palazzo Reale, and a major retrospective of Rirkrit Tiravanija’s architectural research at Pirelli HangarBicocca.

"A Radical Change": Art Brussels Reinvents Itself for Its Collectors

« Un changement radical » : Art Brussels se réinvente pour ses collectionneurs

Art Brussels, the Belgian art fair, is implementing a significant strategic overhaul for its 42nd edition. The fair is reducing its size by 18%, featuring 136 galleries, and consolidating into a more compact layout to prioritize visitor experience and quality over quantity. It is introducing a new artistic advisory desk to guide collectors and launching a curated section for monumental works.

Death of Artist Fabien Verschaere

Disparition de l’artiste Fabien Verschaere

The French contemporary art world is mourning the sudden death of artist Fabien Verschaere at the age of 50. Represented by Galerie Brugier-Rigail since 2012, Verschaere was known for a prolific and singular body of work that blended childhood imagery, fairy tales, and pop culture icons like Mickey Mouse and Batman into a complex personal mythology. His career was marked by significant exhibitions at major institutions including the Palais de Tokyo, the Musée d’art contemporain de Lyon, and the Grand Palais.

New Museum unveils new OMA-designed building ahead of March 21st reopening.

The New Museum in New York has unveiled its major 60,000-square-foot expansion, designed by the architectural firm OMA, specifically Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas. The project, which took a decade from architect selection to completion, required a two-year closure and doubles the institution's gallery space. It debuts with new commissions by artists Tschabalala Self and Klára Hosnedlová ahead of its public reopening on March 21st.

Ancient Treasures From Lost Egyptian City Head to San Francisco

Dozens of ancient Egyptian artifacts from the newly discovered lost city of Aten—built under King Amenhotep III in the 1300s B.C.E.—will debut in the United States this summer at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. The exhibition, titled “Treasures of the Pharaohs,” features 130 objects spanning over 2,000 years of Egyptian history, including 20 relics from the Aten site itself. The show premiered in Rome in November 2024 and is organized with loans from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the Luxor Museum, with a catalog by famed archaeologist Zahi Hawass.

Felix Art Fair Founder Mills Morán Steps Back From Gallery Duties

Mills Morán, cofounder of the Los Angeles gallery Morán Morán, is stepping away from its day-to-day operations to focus on Felix Art Fair, the fair he cofounded with his brother Al Morán and collector Dean Valentine in 2018. The fair, held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel alongside Frieze Los Angeles, has staged eight editions. Morán announced the decision in a statement shared with artists and colleagues, citing personal recalibration after nearly two decades in the art world and a desire to be more present for loved ones.

M+ in Hong Kong and Centre Pompidou in Paris Plan New Five-Year Partnership

M+ in Hong Kong and the Centre Pompidou in Paris have announced a new five-year partnership beginning next year. The agreement, announced at M+ on May 15, includes lending artworks for exhibitions, collaborative research and commissions, curator exchanges, and a four-year postdoctoral fellowship. A major exhibition focusing on visual culture in France and Greater China will debut at the Pompidou when it reopens in 2029 or 2030, then travel to M+.

‘You look at it and you just feel better’: this year’s Photoville festival highlights

The 15th annual Photoville festival in New York features over 90 photographic exhibits, ranging from whimsical subjects like cosmic-looking apples in "Old Apples" to hard-hitting reportage on wildfires, water access inequalities, and ICE's impact on communities. Notable exhibits include "Special Girls," showcasing 1990s photos of trans women from the Remsen Wolff archive, and "Point of View," pairing self-portraits by Dutch college students with Rijksmuseum artworks. Other highlights include Lexi Parra's "The Avillas," documenting a family after a matriarch's self-deportation, and "Puppies Behind Bars," a photo series on incarcerated men raising service dogs at Green Haven prison.

The Netherlands is confronting its history of Nazi occupation – but many stolen objects remain unreturned

Arthur Brand, a Dutch art detective, was contacted by a man who discovered that his family descended from Hendrik Seyffardt, a high-ranking Nazi collaborator, and that a painting looted from Jewish art dealer Jacques Goudstikker remained in their possession. The painting, Toon Kelder's *Portrait of a Young Girl*, had hung in a relative's home near Utrecht for years. The family, who changed their name after WWII, handed the painting to Brand after the story broke in Dutch media, expressing shame and outrage over the silence surrounding their history.

Independent art fair makes the most of more spacious digs

The Independent art fair in New York has relocated from Spring Studios in Tribeca to Pier 36 on the East River, doubling its footprint while slightly reducing the number of exhibitors from 87 to 76. The move creates a more spacious, single-level layout with larger stands and improved circulation, allowing for more ambitious installations. Dealers report strong early collector turnout, with over a third of exhibitors presenting solo stands by artists showing in New York for the first time, including Omar Mismar and Julia Maiuri. Notable presentations include Charles Moffett’s revival of late textile artist Silvia Heyden, James Fuentes’s cross-generational downtown New York showcase, and a large-scale installation by Gretchen Bender.

'I get strong gut reactions': Jonathan Travis on what he collects and why

Jonathan Travis, a realtor and art collector who has helped drive the migration of New York galleries to Tribeca, discusses his collecting habits in an interview with The Art Newspaper. Travis, a partner at Redwood Property Group, has found Tribeca homes for around 40 galleries and co-founded the Wolf Hill artist residency in Chappaqua, New York, with Ethan Rafii. He shares details about his first purchase (a Nicole Eisenman painting), his most recent acquisition (a Masanori Tomita painting), and his strong gut reactions when buying art in person. He also mentions works in his collection by artists such as Sasha Gordon, Jenna Gribbon, and Arcmanoro Niles, and expresses excitement for the Salvador Dalí show at Di Donna and the May auctions.

At Independent, Joel Mesler’s ‘Death Wish’ Is Part Art Exhibit, Part Market Experiment

Joel Mesler, a former gallerist turned artist, is debuting a new series of figurative paintings titled “Interiors” at the Independent art fair under the deliberately strange name “Joel Mesler Presented by The Estate of Joel Mesler.” The project includes only 12 paintings, which will not be sold through a gallery sales team; only Mesler himself and his former dealer David Kordansky can sell the work. Mesler describes the presentation as part art exhibit, part controlled market experiment, reflecting his frustration with the contemporary art market's loss of intimacy and unpredictability.

Lucy Liu Paints the ‘Emotional Truth’ of Family Memories

Lucy Liu, best known for her acting career in films like "Kill Bill" and the TV series "Elementary," is currently presenting a new exhibition of paintings titled "Hard Feelings" at Alisan Fine Arts in New York. The show features works that explore family memory and personal history, including pieces like "Family Portrait" (2016) and newer, more gestural paintings such as "What Stays" (2023) and "Hourglass" (2026). Liu, who studied at the New York Studio School from 2004 to 2007, uses layered and obscured imagery to reflect the unstable, fragmentary nature of memory, drawing on family photographs and her own childhood experiences following her father's death.

With New Tribeca Outpost, Gratin Gallery Doubles Down on Young Artists

Gratin Gallery, founded by Talal Abillama, is opening a new outpost in Tribeca at 15 White Street, leased for ten years. The space will debut on May 15 with “Blinds and Shutters,” the first U.S. solo exhibition of Spanish sculptor Mónica Mays. The gallery, which started on Avenue B in 2022 and later moved to Grand Street, is expanding despite a challenging art market. Abillama cites the need to be closer to collectors who avoid the 15-minute walk from Tribeca to Chinatown. The new location sits near Luhring Augustine and Ortuzar Projects, and will officially open in November after renovations.