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."

Fashion figure Jordan Roth wows in collage at the Venice Biennale

Multi-disciplinary artist Jordan Roth staged a performance on May 7 at Palazzo dei Fiori in Venice during the Biennale preview week, where he tore apart vinyl prints of Renaissance painter Irene di Spilimbergo and reassembled them into collages within a gilt frame. The event, presented with Performance Space New York’s Visionaries Circle, was attended by Whitney Museum director Scott Rothkopf and dealer Kristin Hjellegjerde, following Roth's earlier appearance as a "living sculpture" at the Met Gala.

Taiwan Presents “Screen Melancholy: Li Yi-Fan” at the Venice Biennale

The Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM) presents the collateral event "Screen Melancholy: Li Yi-Fan" at the 61st Venice Biennale, held at the Palazzo delle Prigioni from May 9 to November 22, 2026. The exhibition features a new video installation and mixed-media work by Taiwanese artist Li Yi-Fan, curated by Raphael Fonseca, curator of visual arts at Culturgest in Lisbon and Porto. The installation integrates large-scale sculptural fragments with video and sound, exploring how screens mediate perception and emotional experience, in dialogue with the Biennale's theme "In Minor Keys."

Lotus Kang channels desire into Bvlgari's Venice Biennale pavilion

Artist Lotus Kang has created a site-specific installation for the Bvlgari pavilion at the Venice Biennale, working across three studios including a temporary Brooklyn warehouse. Her work, which includes unfixed 35mm film on the façade of Spazio Esedra and new sculptures of plaster baby birds and rubber-wrapped tatami mats, explores themes of multiplicity, permeability, and the unfixing of meaning. Kang, known for her installations at the 2023 Whitney Biennial and Chisenhale Gallery, describes herself as a maker of objects and spaces who resists single interpretations.

Israel’s foreign ministry accuses Venice Biennale's jury of ‘politicising’ exhibition

Israel’s foreign ministry has accused the Venice Biennale's jury of politicizing the exhibition after jurors announced they would not consider for prizes countries whose leaders face International Criminal Court charges for crimes against humanity. The jury’s statement, which did not name specific nations, is broadly understood to apply to Israel and Russia, both returning to the Biennale for the first time since the Gaza war and the Ukraine invasion, respectively. The Israeli ministry posted on X that the jury had decided to 'boycott' Israeli sculptor Belu-Simion Fainaru, calling it 'a contamination of the art world.' The Biennale distanced itself from the jury’s announcement, stating the jury acts autonomously, while the Russian pavilion is reportedly set to open only for a limited pre-opening period due to budget constraints amid sanctions.

Parallax(e): Perspectives on the Canada–US Border

The exhibition "Parallax(e): Perspectives on the Canada–US Border" at The Reach Gallery Museum in Abbotsford, British Columbia, brings together archival materials from the Northwest Boundary Survey (1857–62) with new works by five Indigenous artists. The show features photographs, maps, and watercolors from British and American surveyors alongside commissions by Dr. Shawn Brigman, Dr. Michelle Jack, Deb Silver, Xémóntalot Carrielynn Victor, and Dr. T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss, who respond to the legacy of the border's creation through canoe culture, transboundary identity, and place-based knowledge.

In the Studio With Rama Duwaji

Syrian-American artist Rama Duwaji discusses her evolving art practice and her new role as the First Lady of New York City following her husband Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral victory. Known for her distinct illustrations and animations for major institutions like the Tate Modern and the New Yorker, Duwaji is now transitioning into a more public-facing life while maintaining a studio practice at Gracie Mansion. Her work, which spans hand-drawn animation, ceramics, and paintings on found materials like cardboard, continues to blur the lines between commercial illustration and fine art.

In the Whitney Biennial, Artists Explore the Horrifying Boundary Between Human and Machine

The 2026 Whitney Biennial features artists using technology to explore themes of surveillance, data extraction, and the unsettling blur between human and machine. Works like Cooper Jacoby's AI-generated piece, which scrapes data from deceased individuals' social media, and Isabelle Frances McGuire's 3D-scanned witch figures, confront the ethical and existential implications of biometrics and digital quantification.

dear auction execs column

An art world insider publishes an open letter to auction executives, accusing them of encroaching on the primary gallery market by accepting consignments of works by emerging artists and scheduling auctions to coincide with major art fairs. The author argues that auction houses prioritize financial gain over artists' long-term career stability, destabilizing prices and encouraging speculation. They call for auction houses to respect the traditional boundaries between primary and secondary markets, stop glorifying auction prices, and avoid accepting works from recent primary sales.

ai artist elias marrow cardiff museum installation

Conceptual artist Elias Marrow secretly installed an AI-generated artwork titled *Empty Plate* inside the National Museum Cardiff on October 29, where it hung for several hours before staff removed it. The framed digital print depicts a Welsh schoolboy holding a book and a blank plate, which Marrow says represents the state of Wales in 2025 and references Victorian charity propaganda. He described the act as 'participation without permission' rather than vandalism, and noted he used AI as part of the natural evolution of artistic tools.

galerie simon blais francoise sullivan

A survey exhibition titled "Françoise Sullivan: Le temps du geste" is on view at Galerie Simon Blais in Montreal, showcasing the multidisciplinary career of French Canadian artist Françoise Sullivan. The show spans works from the 1940s to the present, including painting, sculpture, photography, and choreography, and highlights dialogues between different phases of her practice. Sullivan, who signed the Refus Global manifesto in 1948, is the only active member of that group, and the exhibition features pieces such as the watercolor "Sans titre – Turquie, Ruines de Commagène à Nemrut Dağ" (1996) and the geometric abstraction "Les damiers no. 4" (2018). The exhibition runs through June 14, 2025.

spring break art show surprises 2025

New York's Spring Break Art Show has returned to its namesake season, opening alongside Frieze New York after abruptly canceling its Los Angeles edition due to January's devastating fires. Founded by artist duo Andrew Gori and Ambre Kelly, the fair is now held in a former book printing office on Varick Street, featuring offbeat emerging art and boundary-pushing installations. Roughly a third of the presentations were already planned under the theme "Paradise Lost and Found," but the accelerated timeline led to last-minute additions, with some artists joining just the night before. Standout works include Louis Sarowsky's carved stone food sculptures, Kate Rusek's zero-waste porcelain pieces molded from trash, and Colin J. Radcliffe's ceramic sculptures reimagining queer figures in classical iconography.

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.

Arts of the Earth

ARTES DE LA TIERRA

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao has inaugurated "Artes de la Tierra" (Arts of the Earth), a multidisciplinary exhibition curated by Manuel Cirauqui that examines the relationship between contemporary art and the soil. Spanning from the mid-20th century to the present, the show integrates visual arts, architecture, and ancestral Basque knowledge to explore themes of composting, terraforming, and ecological repair. Featured artists include pioneers of Land Art and Arte Povera such as Ana Mendieta, Fina Miralles, and Meg Webster, whose works are presented alongside archival materials and architectural models.

A New Show Explores the Cutting-Edge Designs of Fashion’s Mad Scientist, Iris van Herpen

Iris van Herpen's mid-career retrospective "Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses" has opened at the Brooklyn Museum, marking the designer's first major museum presentation in the United States. Originally mounted at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 2023, the exhibition features over 140 haute couture looks alongside artworks, design objects, fossils, videos, and natural specimens. The show begins with a water-themed section and includes garments made from materials such as glass bubbles, bioluminescent algae, and 3D-printed polyamide, exploring themes of skeletal structures, primordial fear, and cosmic movements. A centerpiece room, the Atelier, displays swatches, prototypes, and experimental materials, highlighting van Herpen's scientific approach to fashion design.

The Good, the Bad, and the Fugly From the 2026 Met Gala

Cultured magazine's 2026 Met Gala coverage features a roundtable of critics and writers offering candid, often humorous takes on celebrity looks from the red carpet. Emma Chamberlain's hand-painted Mugler gown is widely praised as the most on-theme, while Troye Sivan's Prada homage to Robert Mapplethorpe and Chase Infiniti's Thom Browne trompe-l'œil dress also earn acclaim. Gabrielle Richardson calls for more color, noting the theme is about art, and criticizes the monochromatic trend. Mackenzie Thomas pans Alysa Liu's look as "prom" and "quinceañera," while others celebrate Naomi Osaka's Robert Wun Couture and Connor Storrie's Saint Laurent ensemble. The article is structured as a series of short, punchy quotes from multiple contributors, each focusing on specific attendees' fashion choices.

food marcel sothebys restaurant roman williams

Marcel, a new restaurant, opened on April 17 in the lower level of Sotheby’s new home at the Marcel Breuer building on the Upper East Side. Designed by Roman and Williams in partnership with the auction house, the space features walnut-paneled walls, an open kitchen, and a pâtisserie. Chef Marie-Aude Rose, who also oversees La Mercerie downtown, created a “continental” menu rooted in French technique but influenced by Breuer’s Hungarian heritage, with dishes like chicken paprikash and lobster bisque with turmeric and ginger. The wine list comes from Sotheby’s own collection, allowing guests to purchase bottles they enjoy during their meal.

art black museums moad mocada auc

CULTURED magazine assembled a roundtable of three Black women leaders at prominent Black art museums in the U.S.—Key Jo Lee of the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco, Cheryl Finley of the Atlanta University Center Art History and Curatorial Studies Collective (AUC), and Amy Andrieux of the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA) in New York. The discussion explores how each arrived at her role, the challenges these institutions face—including financial pressures and heightened scrutiny under the current U.S. administration—and their strategies for preserving and building legacies. Lee, who joined MoAD three years ago after a tenure at the Cleveland Museum of Art, is curating the exhibition “UNBOUND: Art, Blackness & the Universe,” named one of Hyperallergic’s top 25 of 2025. Finley, a curator, art historian, critic, and author, directs the AUC collective at Spelman College. Andrieux, who came from music and media roles at Red Bull Media House and MTV World, was recruited in 2018 to save MoCADA from closure and later became its executive director and chief curator, overseeing a capital expansion in 2023.

art cherrie yu young artist

Cultured magazine profiles Cherrie Yu, a 30-year-old artist based in New York who grew up in Xi'an and Wuxi, China. Yu creates videos, performances, and prints that examine the relationship between everyday movement, dance, labor, and play. Notable works include 'Trisha and Homer' (2018), which juxtaposes a 1986 solo by choreographer Trisha Brown with the movements of a mopping maintenance worker, and 'Wrestling Study' (2017), a video reenacting a wrestling match in Chicago traffic. Yu cites mentor Bryan Saner, a woodworker and performer, as a key influence on their understanding of the laboring body as the dancing body.

beauty francis kurkdjian perfume exhibition

The article reports on "Perfume: Sculpture of the Invisible," a retrospective exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris celebrating 30 years of work by renowned perfumer Francis Kurkdjian. Curated by Jérôme Neutres and running through Nov. 23, the show features over 40 scents, including collaborations with artists like Sophie Calle, Yann Toma, and musicians Kilo Kish, alongside immersive installations such as L’Alchimie des Sens, which translates Kurkdjian's Baccarat Rouge Édition Millésime into a multi-sensory experience involving taste, sound, and sight.

art met roof garden jennie c jones

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has unveiled its 2025 Roof Garden Commission, titled *Ensemble*, by artist Jennie C. Jones. The installation features three upright sculptures made from concrete travertine and powder-coated steel, whose angular forms are inspired by musical instruments—a zither, an Aeolian harp, and a one-string instrument. A fourth red floor piece acts as a "conductor." The works are equipped with frets and strings that vibrate in the wind, inviting viewers to engage with them as both visual and sonic objects. The exhibition also includes collaborative programming, performances, and a publication with contributions from curator Lauren Rosati and artist Glenn Ligon.

art raul de nieves pioneer works

Raúl de Nieves, a queer Mexico-born artist based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is preparing for his latest institutional exhibition, “In Light of Innocence,” opening September 12 at Pioneer Works in Red Hook. The show features 40 new stained glass assemblages made from tape, acetate, and inexpensive materials, installed above a single floor-bound work—a departure from his typically maximalist style. De Nieves, who has exhibited at the ICA Boston, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Cleveland Museum of Art, and gained prominence after the 2017 Whitney Biennial, describes the exhibition as a valediction, stating it will be the last time he creates this kind of work.

art met museum man ray exhibition

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is opening "When Objects Dream," the first exhibition to examine Man Ray's rayographs in the context of his broader oeuvre. Opening September 14, the show features over 60 rayographs alongside 100 paintings, objects, drawings, and films spanning the artist's career. The exhibition is supported by the haute couture house Schiaparelli, whose founder Elsa Schiaparelli was a close friend and collaborator of Ray's, both central figures in the 1920s Parisian avant-garde.

art studio museum harlem reopening

The Studio Museum in Harlem will reopen on November 15 after a seven-year closure, unveiling a new seven-floor, 82,000-square-foot building designed by Adjaye Associates and executed by Cooper Robertson. To mark the occasion, Cultured magazine convened three conceptual artists—Nikita Gale, Camille Norment, and Sable Elyse Smith—who received early support from the museum, each reflecting on how the institution shaped their careers. Norment, featured in the 2001 exhibition "Freestyle," is creating a new installation for the reopening; Gale and Smith both participated in the 2017 show "Fictions."

aerospace entrepreneur tanya fileva art young collectors

Tanya Fileva, a 34-year-old aerospace entrepreneur born in Siberia and based in San Francisco, discusses her art collection and the Lyra Art Foundation she founded to support boundary-pushing artists. She highlights works by Yoko Ono, Sylvia Sleigh, Jenny Saville, Dominique Fung, Sarah Lucas, and Agnes Denes, emphasizing her interest in overlooked voices and artists who experiment relentlessly.

site santa fe international

Site Santa Fe has announced its 12th International exhibition, titled "Once Within a Time," opening June 27 and running through January 2026. Curated by Cecilia Alemani, who previously curated the 59th Venice Biennale, the show draws its name and dreamlike logic from a 2022 film by Santa Fe artist Godfrey Reggio. Featuring over 70 artists and more than 300 works—including new commissions, archival interventions, and contemporary selections—the exhibition uses 20 figures with ties to New Mexico as narrative catalysts, among them Navajo code talker Chester Nez, novelist Willa Cather, and the Fire Spirit from local folklore. For the first time, the International will be fully embedded within Santa Fe's urban fabric, activating sites such as a historic foundry, a toy store, and a dispensary alongside traditional cultural partners. Participating artists include Simone Leigh, David Horvitz, and Dominique Knowles, with contributions from writers Tommy Orange, Lucy R. Lippard, and Estevan Rael-Gálvez.

The Best Art Exhibitions To Visit In Hong Kong This July

This article highlights three must-see art exhibitions in Hong Kong for July 2025. At Alisan Fine Arts, local artist Cherie Cheuk presents her first solo show, 'A Wrinkle In Time,' blending traditional Chinese ink painting with pop culture motifs like Super Mario and Pac-Man. At Villepin, 'Worlds Within' unites works by four migrant-influenced artists, including a debut Hong Kong showcase for Spanish-Filipino modernist Fernando Zóbel and a record-breaking painting by Lê Phổ. Ben Brown Fine Arts hosts 'Wish You Were Here,' a group show curated by Jie Xia featuring artists such as Gerhard Richter and Hilary Pecis, exploring themes of travel, paradise, and nostalgia.

Marianna Simnett schafft eine exklusive Edition für Monopol

Marianna Simnett, one of the most radical contemporary artists known for exploring metamorphosis, myth, ecstasy, sex, and pain, has created an exclusive edition titled "The Healer" for the German art magazine Monopol. The work is a watercolor depicting a naked female figure licking a lion lying on the ground, with other lions roaring in the background. The edition is an archival pigment print in a size of 60 x 79 cm, published in an edition of 25 plus two artist's proofs, priced at 950 euros plus VAT.

Foreign Office Reprimands Goethe-Institut for Exhibition

Auswärtiges Amt rügt Goethe-Institut für Ausstellung

The German Foreign Office has formally reprimanded the Goethe-Institut for its involvement in an exhibition in Vilnius, Lithuania, featuring Palestinian-American artist Basma al-Sharif. The ministry stated that events organized by German cultural intermediaries must leave no doubt about the government's firm rejection of antisemitism and hatred of Israel, and demanded greater care in planning and conceptualizing such events with partners. The exhibition, "Bells and Cannons - Contemporary Art in Times of Militarization," was a collaboration between the Goethe-Institut Vilnius, the Contemporary Art Centre Vilnius, and the Berlin Academy of Arts.

‘We are complicit’: Austrian artist Florentina Holzinger’s immersive Venice Biennale pavilion brings apocalypse to the city

Austrian artist Florentina Holzinger has created 'Seaworld Venice,' an immersive and confrontational installation for the Austrian Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale. The work explores climate change, technology, and a dystopian flooded future, drawing comparisons to the 1995 film 'Waterworld'—though neither Holzinger nor curator Nora-Swantje Almes had seen it. Known for extreme performance art involving nudity, blood, live piercing, and heavy machinery, Holzinger's previous works have caused audience members to faint or require medical treatment. The pavilion marks a significant platform for her radical, hybrid practice that blends theatre, dance, opera, and performance art.