corinna durland joins kurimanzutto as senior director

Kurimanzutto has appointed Corinna Durland as the new senior director of its New York gallery. Durland, who brings over two decades of experience from roles at Schwartzman&, Art Agency, Partners, and Gavin Brown’s enterprise, will lead the Chelsea-based space in collaboration with the gallery’s founders. Her mandate focuses on strengthening the gallery's U.S. program and deepening its international reach through artist management, institutional engagement, and strategic acquisitions.

Acclaimed Wilkes Artist Ward Nichols dies

Ward Hampton Nichols, a celebrated artist from North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, died on May 5 at the age of 95 at the Kate B. Reynolds Hospice Home, surrounded by his children. A few weeks before his passing, a celebration of his life, legacy, and art was held at the Wilkes Art Gallery. Nichols, born in 1930 in Welch, West Virginia, taught himself to draw as a child and later served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean conflict, where he designed a NATO shoulder patch and co-founded a shipboard newspaper. After his service, he pursued a lifelong passion for art, painting until January of this year, and was also an avid aviator and sports car enthusiast.

At London's Barbican, Lucy Raven chronicles the destruction of a California dam

Lucy Raven's video installation "Murderers Bar" (2025) has its European premiere at the Barbican's Curve gallery in London. The work documents the 2023-2024 demolition of four dams on the Klamath River in Oregon and California, focusing on the destruction of the Copco No. 1 dam built in 1918. The film is the final part of Raven's trilogy "The Drumfire," exploring themes of pressure, release, and material transformation. It uses aerial photography, drones, lidar, and sonar animations to capture the river's reclamation of its course after the dam's removal, following decades of activism by Indigenous communities including the Yurok, Karuk, Klamath, Hoopa, and Shasta Indian Nation. The exhibition also includes a new kinetic sculpture, "Hardpan" (2025), that physically manifests ideas of force and pressure.

SAM Opens Its First Solo Exhibition By a Pakistani-American Artist

Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAM) has opened "Anila Quayyum Agha: Geometry of Light," the institution's first solo exhibition by a Pakistani-American artist. The show, running from August 26, 2025 through April 19, 2026, features Agha's intricate laser-cut steel light sculptures, beadwork, and embroidered pieces that explore cultural identity, gender, and spirituality. Curated by José Carlos Diaz, SAM's Susan Brotman deputy director for art, the exhibition marks Agha's first presentation in the Pacific Northwest and includes works such as the 2021 piece "Liminal Space."

ETAMU’s University Gallery Hosting International Artist Exhibition

East Texas A&M University's University Gallery is hosting an exhibition titled “Dan Jian: Library of Partial Things,” featuring collage-based drawings by artist Dan Jian. The show runs from August 25 to October 24, with an opening reception on September 2. Jian, an associate professor at Texas Christian University, explores fragmentation, multiplicity, and paradoxes through monochromatic compositions on paper and wall drawings.

Mexican Cultural Workers Denounce Pedro Reyes Sculpture at LACMA

A group of nearly 80 Mexican cultural workers, including artists, critics, and academics, has signed an open letter denouncing the display of Pedro Reyes's sculpture "Tlali" at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). The colossal lava stone head, unveiled earlier this month at LACMA's new building, echoes a controversial 2021 public commission by Reyes that was scrapped by Mexico City's government after protests from feminist and Indigenous advocates. The signatories accuse LACMA of ignoring the previous activism against the artist's work in Mexico, calling the museum's decision to legitimize a new version of the polemic sculpture "deceiving." Reyes has not responded to requests for comment.

high museum coo resigns 600k misappropriation probe

Brady Lum, the chief operating officer of Atlanta’s High Museum of Art, has resigned following an internal investigation into the alleged misappropriation of approximately $600,000. The Woodruff Arts Center, which oversees the museum, discovered financial irregularities in early December and subsequently referred the matter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia for potential criminal prosecution. The organization believes Lum acted alone over a period of three to four years.

Epstein Emails and the Art Market

epstein emails art market

A massive release of over three million documents by the U.S. Department of Justice has exposed the deep ties between the late financier Jeffrey Epstein and prominent figures in the global art world. The files reveal how Epstein utilized sophisticated financial structures to manage and enhance the value of blue-chip art collections, most notably for billionaire Leon Black. The fallout from these disclosures has already led to high-profile resignations, including Jack Lang from the Arab World Institute and David A. Ross from the School of Visual Arts, while others like collector Steve Tisch face renewed scrutiny.

museum of fine arts boston slashes jobs as financial woes deepen

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, has laid off 33 employees and eliminated 23 vacant positions, a 10% overall staff reduction, to address a projected $13 million budget deficit. The cuts affect a range of roles, including three endowed curatorial positions, and have sparked renewed tensions with the museum's unionized workforce, which is seeking to bargain over the decision.

government shutdown does not include smithsonian

A partial U.S. government shutdown occurred after the Senate passed a funding package but temporarily blocked additional funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Unlike the previous shutdown, this one does not affect major cultural institutions; the Smithsonian Institution, the National Gallery of Art, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) remain open because their funding was approved on time.

Minneapolis Artists Respond to ICE, DHS After Killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti

minneapolis artists against ice dhs renee good alex pretti

Federal immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis, led by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and ICE under Operation Metro Surge, have resulted in the deaths of two American citizens, poet Renee Good and nurse Alex Pretti, near major art institutions. The violence and subsequent shelter-in-place orders have directly impacted the local arts community, forcing school closures, remote learning, and causing widespread fear.

esther bell director clark art institute

The Clark Art Institute has appointed Esther Bell as its new director, effective July 1. Bell, who was the museum's deputy director and chief curator, becomes the first woman to lead the institution in its 70-year history. She succeeds Olivier Meslay, who will step down in 2026.

lisa funderburke newark museum of art director

The Newark Museum of Art in New Jersey has appointed Lisa Funderburke as its new director and CEO, effective February 1. She succeeds Linda C. Harrison, who left the position seven months ago. Funderburke joins from the Artist Communities Alliance, a much smaller nonprofit focused on supporting artists and residencies.

metropolitan museum art workers largest museum unions

Nearly 1,000 salaried and hourly workers at the Metropolitan Museum of Art voted on Friday to join Local 2110 of the United Auto Workers (UAW), creating one of the largest museum unions in the United States. The vote passed 542-172, covering staff across 50 departments including curators, conservators, librarians, and archivists. Roughly 100 ballots remain sealed due to a management challenge, to be resolved through arbitration after certification by the National Labor Relations Board. The union drive had been brewing for over four years, driven by concerns over job security, pay equity, and transparency.

smithsonian drops wall text mentioning trumps double impeachment

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has removed wall text referencing President Trump’s two impeachments from its “America’s Presidents” exhibition after installing a new black-and-white portrait of him by White House photographer Daniel Torok. The original label noted Trump’s impeachments for abuse of power and inciting insurrection, but the revised text now identifies him only as the 45th and 47th president and his birth year. The change follows years of contention from the Trump administration, which compiled a list of complaints accusing former director Kim Sajet of political bias; Sajet resigned, and Elliot Gruber now serves as acting director.

zohran mamdani quran nypl

A late 18th- or early 19th-century Quran from Ottoman Syria, held by the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, was used to swear in Zohran Mamdani as New York City's first mayor to take the oath on the Muslim holy book. The ceremony took place just after midnight on New Year's Day 2026 at the decommissioned City Hall station, administered by New York Attorney General Letitia James. The Quran is now on display at the library's main branch in an exhibition titled "The People's Quran: Making History at City Hall."

looted artworks returned turkey met museum manhattan da

On December 8, 2025, a repatriation ceremony in New York saw 43 looted antiquities returned to Turkey, including a 2nd-century marble head of Demosthenes from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a Roman bronze statue of an emperor from collector Aaron Mendelsohn, and 41 terracotta reliefs from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The returns resulted from a years-long investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit into networks that plundered archaeological sites in Turkey and sold items with forged provenance.

trump reappoints mary anne carter nea chair

The U.S. Senate has confirmed Mary Anne Carter as chair of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) by a 53–43 party-line vote, returning the same political operative to the post she held during Trump’s first term. Carter, who has no professional arts experience and previously worked for the Heritage Foundation (author of Project 2025), was nominated in May amid a tumultuous period when the Trump administration sought to defund the NEA, senior leaders left en masse, and hundreds of arts organizations had promised grants cut or delayed.

jeff bezos lauren sanchez bezos met gala

Billionaire couple Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos are sponsoring the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 2026 Met Gala, the annual benefit for the Costume Institute. The news has revived speculation that Bezos may buy Condé Nast, Vogue’s parent company, which organizes the gala. Sánchez Bezos, a former TV reporter and recent Vogue cover subject, has been increasingly active in fashion circles, attending Paris Fashion Week and sitting front row at Chanel and Balenciaga shows. The 2026 gala will be the first since Anna Wintour’s retirement, with Chloe Malle taking over Vogue, and will feature a new dedicated Costume Institute gallery and the theme “Costume Art.”

museum workers tate strike met union

Workers at two major museums, the Tate in the U.K. and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, are taking labor action to demand higher wages and job security. Over 150 Tate staff from the PCS Tate United union went on strike across four locations, with picketing at Tate Britain, Tate Modern, and Tate Liverpool, disrupting the opening of the exhibition "Turner and Constable: Rivals and Originals." Meanwhile, nearly 1,000 employees at the Met have petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for a union election, which would be one of the largest museum unions in the U.S.

la art show 2026

The LA Art Show will launch its 31st edition from January 7–11, 2026, at the Los Angeles Convention Center, directed by Kassandra Voyagis. Featuring over 90 exhibitors, the fair introduces a new Latin American Pavilion curated by Marisa Caichiolo, focusing on memory, migration, and identity. It also returns with its non-commercial platform DIVERSEartLA, titled “The Biennials and Art Institutions in the Contemporary Art Ecosystem,” which examines the roles of biennials and museums through five installations and a video presentation. Participating galleries include Rehs Galleries, Inc., Gallery Artwall, Teranarva, and Oliver Sears Gallery, the first Irish gallery to join the fair.

france dinosaur skeleton return mongolia

France returned an extremely rare 70-million-year-old Tarbosaurus bataar skeleton and 30 other paleontological finds to Mongolia on Monday. The fossils were looted from the Gobi Desert by a European trafficking network, smuggled via South Korea, and confiscated by French customs in 2015. At a ceremony in Paris, French Public Accounts Minister Amelie de Montchalin handed the items to Mongolia’s Culture Minister Undram Chinbat. The cache includes dinosaur eggs and the prized skeleton, worth over $800,000 at the time of seizure and now valued two to three times higher.

felzmann holocaust auction canceled

Felzmann auction house in Neuss, Germany, canceled its planned 'System of Terror Vol II' auction of Holocaust artifacts following international pressure from groups including the International Auschwitz Committee and the European Jewish Association. The sale, which included documents, letters, and Stars of David from Nazi victims between 1933 and 1945, was condemned as exploitative by critics such as executive vice president Christoph Heubner, who called it 'a cynical and shameless undertaking.' Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski and Culture Minister Marta Cienkowska also called for restitution of the items to Poland.

manhattan das office returns over 30 antiquities to spain italy and hungary

The Manhattan District Attorney's Office, led by Alvin Bragg and the Antiquities Trafficking Unit under Matthew Bogdanos, has repatriated over 30 antiquities to Spain, Italy, and Hungary. The returned objects include a 1st-century CE marble head of Alexander the Great as Helios, a 1675 Jesuit manuscript stolen during World War II, and several 6th-century Visigoth pendants trafficked by Robin Symes and sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1990. The items were seized from traffickers including Giacomo Medici, Giovanni Franco Becchina, Robin Symes, Robert Hecht, Eugene Alexander, and Edoardo Almagià, who is awaiting extradition from Italy.

uovo seeking to build second large scale brooklyn facility

UOVO, a collector-founded art storage company, is seeking approval to build a second large-scale facility in Brooklyn's Bushwick neighborhood. The proposed seven-story, 240,000-square-foot building at 74 Bogart Street would expand the company's footprint near its existing 150,000-square-foot Bushwick facility opened in 2020. Founded in 2013 by real estate developer Steven Guttman, UOVO operates 30 locations across the U.S. and stores collections for museums, galleries, and high-net-worth individuals, including artworks, wine collections, and fashion archives. Architecture firm S9 will oversee the design if the plan is approved by the city.

shooting washington dc jewish museum

A shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night killed two Israeli embassy staff members, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, in what authorities have called an antisemitic attack. The gunman, Elias Rodriguez of Chicago, opened fire as the victims exited a diplomatic event hosted by the American Jewish Committee, then entered the museum where he was detained by security. Police reported that Rodriguez shouted “free, free Palestine” after being taken into custody. The museum expressed heartbreak and condemned the violence, while the Israeli embassy mourned the loss of the couple, who were engaged to be married.

legal resistance grows against doge cuts

Two legal challenges advanced on Thursday against the Trump administration's cuts to U.S. cultural agencies. A coalition of academic groups—the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Historical Association, and the Modern Language Association—filed a lawsuit to stop the "illegal dismantling" of the National Endowment for the Humanities, which in April announced a 70–80 percent staff reduction and cancellation of over 1,000 grants. Separately, a federal judge issued an emergency order temporarily blocking similar cuts to the Institute of Museum and Library Services, after the Department of Government Efficiency placed its 75-person staff on leave and the American Libraries Association brought suit.

cultural projects worth 6 13 billion were finished in 2024 a big drop from 2023 report

The 2024 Cultural Infrastructure Index (CII) reports a 17% drop in completed cultural projects (from 192 to 159) and a 29% decline in total cost, from $8.58 billion to $6.13 billion. However, the value of future projects announced in 2024 rose 47% to $8.32 billion, though the number of announced projects fell from 198 to 175, indicating fewer but more expensive buildings. The report, developed by AEA Consulting, tracks 334 large-scale cultural infrastructure projects worldwide, with museums and galleries remaining the most common building type. The U.S. led with 62 new facilities, while the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza was the most expensive completed project at $1 billion, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art's new modern wing topped announced projects at $500 million.

GEORGE FEBRES: TRADUCCIÓN, IRONÍA Y LIBERACIÓN. UN ARTISTA ECUATORIANO EN LA DIÁSPORA

George Febres (Guayaquil, 1943 – New Orleans, 1996) was an Ecuadorian artist whose work blended pop art, neo-surrealism, and Southern U.S. culture, shaped by his experience as a migrant and queer individual. The article traces his life from a privileged but unstable childhood in Ecuador to his migration to the United States, where he was drafted during the Vietnam War and eventually settled in New Orleans. Febres used bilingualism and ironic appropriation of tropical imagery to create a hybrid, irreverent body of work that challenges the official historiography of Ecuadorian art.

art exhibition moma marcel duchamp retrospective

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York is organizing a major retrospective of Marcel Duchamp, the first in the U.S. since 1973. Curated by Michelle Kuo, Ann Temkin, and Matthew Affron, the exhibition titled "Marcel Duchamp" will run from April 12 through August 22 and feature over 300 artworks, including iconic pieces like *Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2* and *Fountain*. The curators describe the challenge as extreme, given Duchamp's deliberate confounding of traditional art systems, and they aim for a "deadpan accuracy" in presenting his work, including studies and replications as independent artworks.