Christie’s names new global president

Christie’s has appointed Alex Rotter as its new global president, marking another leadership change at the auction house. Rotter, who previously led the 20th- and 21st-century art department, will retain those responsibilities while developing strategies for auction and private sales. He joined Christie’s in 2017 and oversaw record-breaking sales including Jeff Koons’s *Rabbit* ($91.1m), Andy Warhol’s *Shot Sage Blue Marilyn* ($195m), and the *Salvator Mundi* attributed to Leonardo da Vinci ($450.3m). The appointment was made by CEO Bonnie Brennan, who succeeded Guillaume Cerutti earlier this year.

Max Giermann is not looking for recognition with his painting

Max Giermann sucht mit seiner Malerei nicht nach Anerkennung

German comedian and actor Max Giermann has launched his first Berlin art exhibition, titled "Figuring Out," at the Janinebeangallery. The showcase features large-scale acrylic paintings on canvas depicting figures, heads, and body fragments, including a final tribute to Klaus Kinski, whom Giermann famously parodied throughout his comedy career. Although he grew up in a household of art educators and began drawing as a child, this exhibition marks a significant return to painting after a 20-year hiatus.

The Finale Cut: Lucio Fontana e la sua arte al cinema

A new documentary titled "The Final Cut" explores the life and artistic journey of Lucio Fontana, the Italian-Argentine artist famous for his slashed canvases (Concetti Spaziali). Produced by Good Day Films and Nexo Studios, directed by Andrea Bettinetti and narrated by Miriam Leone, the film will screen in Italian cinemas on May 25–27 as part of the "La Grande Arte al Cinema" season. It features archival footage, interviews with artists such as Doug Wheeler, Antony Gormley, Carsten Höller, Alfredo Jaar, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Heinz Mack, and scholars Luca Massimo Barbero and Daniela Alejandra Sbaraglia, highlighting Fontana's revolutionary approach and his first immersive installation, "Ambiente Spaziale a luce nera" (1949).

In her Venice exhibition, Hanna Rochereau wants to archive the archive

Nella sua mostra a Venezia, Hanna Rochereau vuole archiviare l’archivio

Hanna Rochereau (Paris, 1995) presents her first solo exhibition in Italy, titled "Data Divas," at Mare Karina gallery in Venice. The show explores archival systems through a dialogue between painting and sculpture: canvases depict orderly shelves and filing cabinets filled with impenetrable boxes, while sculptural elements—tailor's mannequins, scattered papers, open drawers—introduce disorder. Rochereau uses a restrained palette of white and wood tones, referencing early 20th-century cubist and metaphysical art, particularly Morandi. The exhibition runs until July 18, 2026.

In a Rome exhibition, an artist draws his own atlas: the body becomes world

In una mostra a Roma un artista disegna un proprio atlante: il corpo diventa mondo

Luca di Luzio's exhibition "Atlas ego imago mundi" at Palazzo Mattei in Rome, hosted by the Italian Geographical Society, presents a personal geography where the artist's body becomes landscape and world. Curated by Anna Cestelli Guidi, the show features around 40 maps, three large canvases, and a handmade book created between 2015 and 2023. Di Luzio uses his body as a palette, pressing skin directly onto paper or canvas to generate imaginary territories that merge sensory experience with artistic expression, referencing Merleau-Ponty's philosophy and Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man.

The ironic and intellectual painting of Renato Varese. The exhibition in Conegliano

La pittura ironica e intellettuale di Renato Varese. La mostra a Conegliano

Palazzo Sarcinelli in Conegliano is hosting a retrospective exhibition dedicated to Renato Varese (1926–2024), a versatile Italian painter, graphic artist, engraver, sculptor, and ceramist. Curated by Lorena Gava, the show marks the centenary of Varese's birth and features around fifty works spanning painting and graphic art, highlighting his ironic, intellectual, and visionary style often described as "Gothic." Concurrently, the artist's heirs have donated thirteen works to the city's civic collections, including the large canvas "Beati gli ultimi" (1997), now housed in a dedicated room named Sala L.R. Varese.

Artist and former boxer Omar Hassan exhibits his powerful gestures in Rome

L’artista ed ex pugile Omar Hassan che è in mostra a Roma coi suoi gesti forti

Artist and former boxer Omar Hassan has debuted his first solo exhibition in Rome, titled "Tempo al Tempo," at Galleria Latina. The showcase features large-scale works from his "Breaking Through" series, where Hassan uses boxing gloves to strike canvases, alongside a massive map of Rome constructed from nearly 9,000 hand-painted spray can caps. The exhibition emphasizes the physical trace of time and action, blending street art aesthetics with the energy of action painting.

130+ Artists Illuminate the Vast Creative Possibilities of the Nightlight

DUDD LITE, a collaboration between design collective Dudd Haus and The Future Perfect gallery, presents over 130 artist-designed nightlights on view through June 26. Curated from nearly 400 open-call submissions, the exhibition transforms a mundane household object into a canvas for small-scale sculptures made from stained glass, wood, sea shells, ceramic, cotton, and more. Featured artists include James Burial, Chris Wolston, Nicholas Holmes, and Mikei Huang, among others.

Exhibition | Merlin James, 'See Through' at P420, Bologna, Italy

The gallery P420 in Bologna has opened "See Through," the second solo exhibition by Welsh artist Merlin James. The show features a non-linear curation that blends works from different decades, ranging from landscapes and interiors to erotic scenes and near-abstract compositions. James’s approach treats the exhibition as a "jam session," where visual and thematic repetitions provide a structure for diverse painterly explorations.

An Ancient Ballad at Emami Art Brings Generations of Artists Together in Kolkata

A new group exhibition titled 'An Ancient Ballad' opens at Emami Art in Kolkata on 22 May 2026, bringing together 12 artists across generations. The show examines recurring motifs of nature, the human body, and animal forms in modern and contemporary art through photography, painting, printmaking, textile, ceramics, and sculpture. Historical works by L. M. Sen and K. C. Pyne are displayed alongside contemporary artists including Arunima Choudhury, Ajit Kumar Das, Alakananda Sengupta, Raja Boro, and Rahul Sarkar, creating an intergenerational dialogue on memory, mythology, and lived experience.

ROB ZOMBIE Art Exhibition 'What Lurks On Channel X?' To Open In Kent, Connecticut

Morrison Gallery in Kent, Connecticut, will host 'What Lurks On Channel X?', the first-ever gallery exhibition of musician and filmmaker Rob Zombie's paintings, from October 25 to November 16, 2025. The show features over ten large-scale works on canvas that blend pop culture icons—from Bela Lugosi and Charles Manson to Archie Comics characters and classic comedians—reflecting Zombie's childhood immersion in television.

JD Malat Gallery brings Paris-based artist Sophie-Yen Bretez to Dubai

JD Malat Gallery Dubai is presenting *The Unsaid Remains Remembered*, the debut solo exhibition in the Middle East by Paris-based artist Sophie-Yen Bretez. The show features large-scale canvases that move beyond the human figure to explore landscapes, domestic objects, and natural motifs, using symbolic thresholds like windows, tables, clocks, and fruit to evoke memory, silence, and transformation. Bretez describes her approach as a 'dramaturgy of passage,' capturing unseen moments when time overlaps and absence carries presence.

Artist Tammy Nguyen’s New Show Finds Heaven on Earth

Artist Tammy Nguyen presents her new exhibition "A Comedy for Mortals: Paradiso" at Lehmann Maupin New York, running from June 5 to August 15. The show is the final installment of a three-part series inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy, following earlier presentations in Seoul (Inferno) and London (Purgatory). Nguyen, a 40-year-old painter, professor at Wesleyan, and founder of Passenger Pigeon Press, creates dense, polymathic canvases that weave together imagery from Dante's celestial journey with contemporary references, including Frankenstein, President Eisenhower's military-industrial complex warning, and drones. The exhibition explores paradise as a journey of endless knowledge, while also delving into darker historical events like the 1815 Mount Tambora eruption.

trailer the christophers steven soderberghs film

Director Steven Soderbergh is set to release 'The Christophers', a new film centered on the London art world starring Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel. The plot follows a faded 1960s Pop Art star whose estranged children hire a former art forger to secretly complete his unfinished canvases to secure a future inheritance. Following its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, the movie is scheduled for a theatrical release in April.

the beatles white album art installation lands in liverpool

New York artist Rutherford Chang has brought his installation of over 1,000 copies of The Beatles' 'White Album' to FACT in Liverpool, the band's hometown. The piece, which took eight years to assemble, features copies of the album with handwritten notes, drawings, and other traces left by previous owners, and is on view for the first time in the UK. The exhibition, titled 'We Buy White Albums,' also invites the public to sell their copies to the artist.

forged polish painting returns to the national museum in poznan poland

A painting long attributed to Polish Realist painter Józef Pankiewicz and held by the National Museum in Poznań has been revealed as a forgery. The work, titled 'Vegetable Market at Żelaznej Bramy Square in Warsaw' and dated 1888, was awarded a silver medal at the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris and acquired by the museum in 1948. In 2017, scholar Michał Haake noticed discrepancies between the museum's version and historical reproductions, prompting an investigation. Conservators removed overpainting and found that the canvas, pigments, and composition differed from the original, with Pankiewicz's signature added after completion. The forgery, now attributed to an unidentified early 20th-century artist, is back on display alongside a photo of the original in the exhibition 'Succumb to Illusion.' The original painting has been missing since 1890.

art collector amelie du chalard gallery interview

Amélie du Chalard, a bi-continental art collector and gallery owner, discusses her lifelong journey with art in an interview with CULTURED. Starting her collection at age 16 through family tradition, she founded her eponymous gallery in Paris in 2015 and later expanded to New York. Her collection and gallery blend design objects with fine art, embracing what she calls 'haptic minimalism'—a tactile, gentle aesthetic. She shares her sourcing process, including using the Drouot auction app and Artsy, and recounts tracking down a piece first seen in a 14th-century palace.

art the contemporary austin sharon maidenberg

Sharon Maidenberg, who became the Ernest and Sarah Butler Executive Director & CEO of the Contemporary Austin in summer 2020, reflects on her five-year tenure in an interview with CULTURED. Under her leadership, the museum has navigated the pandemic, deepened programming, expanded accessibility with an ADA ramp and offerings for visually impaired and neurodivergent visitors, launched sustainability initiatives with the Teiger Foundation and Rute Collaborative, and hosted its annual Art Dinner featuring a Benefit Art Auction with works by Lubaina Himid, Ed Ruscha, RF. Alvarez, and others. Current exhibitions include “The Canvas Can Do Miracles,” “HOST: Raul De Lara,” and “Teddy Sandoval and the Butch Gardens School of Art.”

art mimosa echard amant show france

French artist Mimosa Echard presents "Facial," a new exhibition at Amant in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, running through February 16, 2026. The show features a series of palimpsest-like canvases and a video work of Times Square, inspired by Echard's pedestrian observations of New York City. Key motifs include ginkgo trees—which she links to survival, ancient sexuality, and the city's olfactory character—and the repetitive eye imagery found on beauty salon facades, which she interprets as a form of "sweet surveillance." Echard, who won the Prix Marcel Duchamp in 2022, created the works during a two-month residency in the neighborhood, drawing on her characteristic blend of botanical and digital themes.

sanford biggers sag harbor parrish museum

Sanford Biggers, a 54-year-old Los Angeles-born artist known for his "conceptual patchworking" across quilts, sculpture, and Afrofuturist themes, will be honored by the Parrish Museum at its annual Midsummer Gala in July, ahead of a solo exhibition opening next summer. In an interview with CULTURED's Hamptons Editor Jacoba Urist, Biggers discusses his connection to Sag Harbor, the museum's architecture, and his use of antique quilts inspired by Underground Railroad histories.

The true story of the Caravaggio theft by the Sicilian Mafia behind the Arte series 'The Caravaggio Conspiracy'

La véritable histoire du vol du Caravage par la mafia sicilienne derrière la série « Le Complot Caravaggio » sur Arte

The theft of Caravaggio’s 'Nativity with Saint Francis and Saint Lawrence' from the Oratory of San Lorenzo in Palermo remains one of the world's most notorious unsolved art crimes. Stolen in October 1969 by professional thieves who cut the massive three-meter canvas from its frame, the masterpiece has been missing for over 50 years. Investigations have long pointed toward the Sicilian Mafia, with various theories suggesting the work was displayed at secret summits, hidden in Switzerland, or tragically destroyed.

Bob Ross paintings will go on view at Bonhams New York.

Four original paintings by the late American television personality Bob Ross are set to go on view at Bonhams’ new U.S. flagship gallery in New York on April 22nd. These works, which Ross created during his iconic series The Joy of Painting, will be sold at the auction house's American Art sale the following day. This event marks the third installment of a larger initiative to sell 30 of Ross's works to benefit public broadcasting.

Gary Baseman fills iconic L.A. coffee shop with charming drawings on real restaurant menus

Artist Gary Baseman has opened his first hometown solo show in over a decade, titled “Off the Menu,” inside the long-shuttered Johnie’s Coffee Shop on Wilshire and Fairfax in Los Angeles. The exhibition features about 40 colored pencil drawings, mostly executed on real menus from iconic L.A. restaurants such as Musso & Frank, Canter’s Deli, and Genghis Cohen, as well as newer spots like Jon & Vinny’s. The whimsical show, which launched in conjunction with the opening of the Wilshire and Fairfax subway station, runs through June 14 and celebrates the dining culture and community of the Fairfax neighborhood.

Charles Nkomo | Siblings (Contemporary African art, Zimbabwe) (2025) | Available for Sale

Charles Nkomo's painting "Siblings" (2025) is being offered for sale through Guruve gallery in London. The oil-on-canvas work depicts two sisters embracing, reflecting the importance of family ties in Zimbabwe. Nkomo, born in 1974 in Bulawayo, trained at Mzilikazi Art and Craft Centre and was a resident artist at the National Gallery in Bulawayo. He has exhibited internationally, including solo shows at Mary Martin Gallery and Amazwi Gallery, and has worked as an Artist in Residence in the USA. The painting is priced at £1,380 and ships worldwide.

Emerging artist Charlie Gosling is being compared to Frank Auerbach. Discover his haunting portraits in London

Emerging artist Charlie Gosling, a 2023 graduate of Camberwell College of Arts, is gaining attention for his evocative portraits that draw comparisons to Frank Auerbach and Willem de Kooning. His second solo exhibition at London's Incubator gallery, titled "Good Luck with Me Here," features intimate portraits of friends and family, created through a process of layering and scraping paint to achieve an almost abstract quality. The show runs until 24 May.

The art of unlearning

Quddus Mirza’s latest exhibition, "New Works" at Canvas Gallery in Karachi, marks a significant stylistic shift as the veteran artist, critic, and educator embraces the concept of "unlearning." Drawing inspiration from the raw honesty of children's drawings, Mirza presents twelve striking paintings that shed academic discipline in favor of blunt expression and intuitive mark-making. The works frequently utilize a dominant red palette to signal urgency, revolution, and bloodshed, juxtaposing domestic imagery with symbols of global unrest.

Exhibition Review and Studio Visit Feature: Contemporary Color Field Painter Vanessa Johansson

Contemporary painter Vanessa Johansson recently debuted her solo exhibition at the Sky Garden Penthouse in Gramercy Park, New York. Curated by Jenny Mushkin Goldman of Agency Esta, the show featured Johansson’s large-scale acrylic on canvas works, which utilize fluid, transparent layers to evoke the spiritual and visual language of mid-20th-century Color Field abstraction. Pieces such as the triptych 'Windows' and the diptych 'Flow State' demonstrate her intuitive approach to motion, buoyancy, and orbital forms.

Sea-themed art exhibition to be shown at Manningtree gallery

The North House Gallery in Manningtree is set to host a solo exhibition featuring more than 40 works by artist Isabella Dyson. The show, titled "Isabella Dyson: Paintings," focuses on the transient nature of the sea and weather, utilizing a muted color palette and a mix of oil, acrylic, and pastel. The collaboration began serendipitously when the artist visited the gallery and showed her portfolio to the staff on her phone, leading to her immediate inclusion in a group show and this subsequent solo presentation.

New Exhibition Explores the Timeless and Perplexing Tradition of “Trompe l’Oeil”

A new exhibition titled "Fool Me Twice" has opened at Robert Lange Studios in Charleston, South Carolina, featuring 20 international artists who explore the tradition of trompe l’oeil—a technique that uses hyperrealistic illusion to blur the line between reality and representation. Works include George Ayers’s "Swamp Frog," where a frog appears to break through the canvas, and Sharon Moody’s "The Year of Great Shocks," a meticulously painted comic book spread. The show runs through May 25, 2025.

Post-War & Contemporary Art

Freeman's auction house is presenting a 'Post-War & Contemporary Art' sale featuring 83 lots that span eight decades of art history. The auction includes notable works such as a Richard Mayhew landscape, an Andy Warhol text-based canvas, a Robert Rauschenberg solvent transfer, a Peter Halley abstraction, and monumental outdoor sculptures by Allan Houser. Other highlights include pieces by Caio Fonseca, Jamie Nares, Beverly Pepper, and a range of contemporary voices like Ann Craven, Bunny Rogers, and Sterling Ruby.