The Museum of Contemporary Religious Art (MOCRA) at Saint Louis University is closing to the public on May 31, 2025, after more than three decades of operation. Its final exhibition, 'Liminal,' features works from 47 artists, many drawn from the museum's permanent collection. The closure, announced last year, is a result of university budget cuts.
The Maude Kerns Art Center is currently hosting two concurrent exhibitions, "Witness: Earth & Sky" and "Consume & Dispose," curated by Liberty Rossel. The shows feature the work of four artists—Rich Bergeman, Amanda Thomas, Rolf Huber, and Jennifer Bucheit—whose practices converge on themes of environmental stewardship, colonial history, and social justice. From Bergeman’s infrared photography documenting indigenous Kalapuya lands to Thomas’s use of toxic mine drainage in her ceramic glazes, the works utilize specific materials and historical research to challenge viewers' perceptions of the landscape and industrial impact.
Renowned York-based artist Mark Hearld is hosting an independent five-day exhibition at his private residence in The Mount. The showcase features twenty new collages and a series of prints, including works inspired by a recent trip to Jaipur and a collaborative screenprint with Penfold Press. The event is notable for being held outside the official York Open Studios program, a circuit Hearld has participated in for two decades but was not selected for this year.
The Arts Garage (TAG) in Port Clinton has launched "Rooted," a group exhibition featuring six artists who explore the intersection of nature and human emotion. The show highlights the work of mixed-media artist Chad Cochran, known for his landscape-based album covers for Nashville musicians, and Susan Danko, whose abstract paintings translate the atmospheric moods of the forest into monochromatic and experimental forms.
The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago has launched "Dancing the Revolution: From Dancehall to Reggaetón," an interdisciplinary exhibition exploring the political and cultural impact of Caribbean music genres. Curated by Carla Acevedo-Yates, the show was inspired by the 2019 "perreo combativo" protests in Puerto Rico that led to the governor's resignation. The exhibition features a diverse array of media, including paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Denzil Forrester, sculptures by Michael Richards, and archival materials like Dancehall posters and sound system equipment.
Vanderbilt University has announced its inaugural participation in the Venice Biennale, marking a major milestone for the institution's arts program. Faculty artists Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons and Kamaal Malak have been selected to present works in the 61st International Art Exhibition, curated by the late Koyo Kouoh. To complement the exhibition, the university will launch "Resonance: Vanderbilt University in Venice," a two-month public program series featuring sonic inquiries, performances, and scholarly convenings.
Lakota artist Dyani White Hawk is presenting a solo exhibition that bridges the gap between traditional Indigenous art forms and contemporary abstraction. The showcase features a range of media, including painting, photography, and video, all centered on the enduring power of Lakota storytelling and the preservation of cultural heritage through visual language.
Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota has debuted her first Bay Area solo exhibition, "Two Home Countries," at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. The show features Shiota’s signature immersive installations of red thread, most notably the 88-foot-long work "Diary," which suspends handwritten journal pages from World War II soldiers and postwar civilians within a dense crimson web. The exhibition also includes sculptures, video, and performance-based works that explore themes of memory, displacement, and the psychological state of living between cultures.
South Korean artist Lee Bae has opened a major solo exhibition titled "En attendant" at Museum SAN in Wonju, marking the first time the institution has dedicated its entire grounds to a single Korean artist. The retrospective spans thirty years of Lee’s career, showcasing his deep engagement with charcoal as a medium that bridges his heritage as a farmer’s son with the traditions of East Asian ink painting. The exhibition features monumental sculptures, installations, and video works that transform the museum’s indoor and outdoor spaces into a meditative journey.
Artist Rina Banerjee has opened a major solo exhibition, "Make Me a Summary of the World," at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. The immersive installation features fantastical sculptures and environments constructed from materials like blood-red resin, mud, feathers, and synthetic cobwebs, exploring themes of migration, colonialism, and diaspora.
The exceptional collection of Minimalist art assembled by Henry 'Hank' S. McNeil, Jr. will be sold at Christie's New York in May. The sale features masterworks by Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, Carl Andre, and Sol LeWitt, which were famously integrated into McNeil's Philadelphia home, allowing him to live intimately with these significant works.
The Museums of Poitiers in France have officially acquired 'La Musée,' a landmark collection of 523 works by women artists spanning the 17th to the 21st centuries. Assembled by artist and historian Eugénie Dubreuil since 1999, the collection includes paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts intended as a 'counterproposal' to the male-dominated art historical canon. The acquisition was finalized in March 2024 following a rigorous two-year review process and was accompanied by a €150,000 grant from the Les Beaux Yeux endowment fund to support a five-year project dedicated to women artists.
The statute of limitations has officially expired on the 2006 heist at the Museu da Chácara do Céu in Rio de Janeiro, one of the most significant art thefts in Brazilian history. During the chaos of Carnival, armed thieves overpowered guards and stole masterpieces by Claude Monet, Henri Matisse, Salvador Dalí, and Pablo Picasso. Despite the works being valued at over $10 million and listed on international databases like Interpol and the Art Loss Register, the perpetrators were never identified and the art remains missing.
Art historian William E. Wallace explores the parallel lives and artistic philosophies of the two greatest masters of the Italian Renaissance, Michelangelo and Titian. The narrative examines the traditional art-historical divide between the Florentine emphasis on 'disegno' (structured drawing and design) and the Venetian mastery of 'colore' (spontaneous, painterly execution), while highlighting how these two titans influenced one another despite their distinct approaches.
Curator Donny Caltrider recently concluded "Magic: The Gathering in Miniature III" at Gallery Nucleus in Los Angeles, a specialized exhibition featuring 333 artist proof cards. The show brought together original sketches, inks, and paintings from 111 global artists associated with the iconic trading card game. Marking the third iteration of this series, the event saw record-breaking attendance and a significant commercial reception, with over 70% of the works sold during its two-week run.
The Julia Stoschek Foundation has launched its first major U.S. exhibition at the historic Variety Arts Theater in downtown Los Angeles. Curated by Udo Kittelmann, the show features over 40 time-based works ranging from early cinematic pioneers like Georges Méliès and Alice Guy-Blaché to contemporary icons such as Arthur Jafa and Doug Aitken. The exhibition utilizes the labyrinthine spaces of the 1924 Italianate theater to create a dialogue between the history of Hollywood and the evolution of media art.
The curatorial team for the 61st Venice Biennale has unveiled the details for the 2026 exhibition, titled "In Minor Keys." The project follows the vision of the late Koyo Kouoh, the first African woman appointed to curate the Biennale, who passed away in May 2024. The exhibition will feature 111 artists and collectives, with a significant focus on the Global South and themes such as Shrines, Schools, and the Creole Garden. The team emphasized that the show is designed as a "collective score" rather than a traditional commentary on world events, prioritizing spiritual rest and radical social connection.
The CONTACT Photography Festival has announced its inaugural fundraising gala and auction, titled PICTURE THIS, to be held on February 24, 2026, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto (MOCA). The event celebrates the festival's 30th anniversary and features a high-profile auction of works by renowned artists including Edward Burtynsky, Carrie Mae Weems, and Suzy Lake. Led by auctioneer Stephen Ranger, the evening aims to secure the financial future of North America’s largest photography festival.
The Hanwha Foundation will present a solo exhibition by Korean American artist Michael Joo titled 'Sweat Models 1991-2026' at its New York space, Space Zero One, from February 20 to April 18, 2026. This marks the first exhibition of the year for the Tribeca-based platform, which opened in November with a mission to support emerging artists internationally.
A new exhibition at the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) in Doha, titled *Empire of Light: Visions and Voices from Afghanistan*, highlights Afghanistan’s art and history from pre-Islamic times to the present day. Running until 30 May and timed to Art Basel Qatar week, the show draws primarily from MIA’s collection, with loans from Qatari institutions and international lenders such as the National Museum of Asian Art at the Smithsonian. It includes historical objects like a 13th-century ewer and a 9th-century Qur’an folio, as well as contemporary works such as Khadim Ali’s *Un-Safe Heaven* (2025), a textile piece embroidered by Afghan men and women. No objects come from Afghan museums, but large-scale wooden models and glass vessels were produced in Afghanistan with help from the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.
Pictorial Foundation, an organization born from the international photography magazine The Pictorial List, has opened a new gallery space at 105 Ann Street in Newburgh, New York. The 1,500-square-foot gallery, located within the ADS Warehouse complex, debuts on February 7 with the group exhibition “Foundations of Practice,” featuring 19 artists whose work emphasizes process over finished results. Founder Karen Ghostlaw Pomarico, a Pratt Institute-trained artist, collaborated with her husband, architect Michael Pomarico of Pomarico Design Studio, to create a flexible system of suspended partitions that can be reconfigured for each show. The gallery grows out of a desire to move beyond the limitations of online art visibility and create a physical space for slow, thoughtful engagement with art.
The Hilliard Art Museum at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette has announced its spring 2026 exhibition season, titled 'Spring Awake.' The season features a major focus on Pop Art and its legacy, with exhibitions including 'Andy Warhol: Plus One,' showcasing Polaroids gifted by The Andy Warhol Foundation, and a new exhibition by contemporary artist Rachel Libeskind. The program also includes 'Gulf Streams,' an exhibit blending field recordings from the Atchafalaya Basin with contemporary art, and continues the immersive installation 'Nervescape XI' by Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir (Shoplifter). The museum will host several public events, including an opening preview, a day-long fête, and an outdoor fundraising picnic.
The AU Museum at American University is launching five new contemporary art exhibitions on February 7, 2026. The shows include 'Humanist Touch: Works from the Weber Collection,' featuring over 80 works by primarily local DC artists, and 'Ilana Manolson: The Air We Share,' which focuses on paintings of weeds as a form of environmental advocacy. The exhibitions showcase a variety of mediums and will be on view through May 17, with an opening reception on February 7.
On February 4th, 2026, the Monte-Carlo Auction House will hold a sale of modern and contemporary art featuring over 30 lots. The highlight is Fernand Léger's 1932 oil on canvas "Contrasting Objects on a Blue Background," estimated at €600,000–800,000. Other notable lots include a bronze sculpture by Robert Indiana (€140,000–180,000), a Chu Teh-Chun oil on canvas (€200,000–300,000), and works by Edgar Degas, Victor Vasarely, Niki de Saint Phalle, and Picasso. The sale also includes decorative pieces by Roger Capron and Maison Pergay.
A new documentary, *Once Upon a Time in Harlem*, is screening at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, offering an intimate look at the Harlem Renaissance. The film is assembled from 28 hours of 16mm footage shot in 1972 by the late filmmaker William Greaves at Duke Ellington's home in Harlem, capturing a gathering of key figures from the movement. Greaves's son David, who was one of the original cameramen, completed the film after his father's death. The footage includes interviews and reflections from artists, writers, musicians, and activists such as Romare Bearden, Aaron Douglas, James Van Der Zee, Eubie Blake, and Arna Bontemps.
Christopher Green, a leading scholar of Cubism, has published a new book titled *Cubism and Reality*, which reexamines the origins and intentions of early Cubism through the works of Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, and Juan Gris. The book focuses on the years immediately before World War I, arguing that Cubism was not a step toward abstraction but a deliberate reinvention of reality based on lived visual experience. Green draws on decades of research, including his own earlier works and the foundational 1959 study by John Golding, and contrasts the movement with mass-produced imagery in chapters on Roy Lichtenstein and Francis Picabia.
The Ceramic Brussels art fair in January showcased a wide range of ceramic works, from monumental sculptures by Jun Kaneko to tiny food renditions by Nellie Jonsson. The fair highlighted emerging talent through its Jury Prize and laureate program, with 10 new artists selected for their innovative approaches. Among the eight standouts profiled are Danny Cremers, who creates colorful, reassembled porcelain vases; Marie Pic, a French artist making 2D decorative panels inspired by Art Nouveau; and Faye Papargyropoulou, an Athens-based former advertising creative director exploring fragility and strength. Other notable artists include Kira Fröse, Lorie Ballage, Angelika Stefaniak, Ninon Hivert, and Walter Yu, each bringing unique perspectives to clay as a medium.
Guild Hall in East Hampton is opening two exhibitions on Sunday: “Jason Bard Yarmosky: Time Has Many Faces,” a decade-long series of meticulously rendered portraits focusing on the artist’s aging grandparents, and “Liberty Labs: A Decade of Design,” featuring furniture, lighting, and objects by 33 current and former members of the Liberty Labs Foundation design collective. The portraits blend 17th- and 18th-century painting techniques with contemporary, often playful imagery, while the design show highlights collaborative experimentation. Museum director Melanie Crader, who curated both shows, notes that the artists share Brooklyn bases and East End ties.
The Kimball Art Center in Park City, Utah, has opened two new exhibitions, “Returning To Wonder” and “All Sketches Wish To Be Real,” featuring international and local artists. Among the featured artists is Alexandra Fuller, a multidisciplinary artist whose work includes cyanotypes of wildlife and who has ties to the Sundance Film Festival—her short film “Sister Wife” was accepted at the 2009 festival. The exhibitions also include works by Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist, American artist Lia Halloran, and Utah-based artist Antra Sinha. The center will host a series of public programs, including artist talks, workshops, and a book discussion, to engage the local community.
The Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art at Utah State University will open a new exhibition titled "The Lure and Lore of the West" on January 20. The show examines the blurred boundaries between Western myth and history, featuring works from the late 19th century to the present, including a life-sized Bigfoot skeleton by artist Clayton Bailey. Themes include exploration, monsters, cowboy legends, and the Western sublime, with works by artists such as Roy De Forest and Ansel Adams drawn from the museum's collection and loans from several university archives and private collectors.