Art News. Vasari Codex

person people schedule Dec 9, 2025 visibility 14

newly established uc irvine langson orange county museum of art names kathryn kanjo as first director

The newly formed UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art has appointed Kathryn Kanjo as its first director. Kanjo, who currently leads the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD), will assume the role in February 2026, also overseeing the UC Irvine Jack & Shanaz Langson Institute of California Art. The appointment follows the amicable merger of the University of California, Irvine, and the Orange County Museum of Art, finalized this fall, which created a new entity uniting three major California art collections—the Irvine, Buck, and OCMA collections—totaling some 9,000 works housed in a 53,000-square-foot facility at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

gavel restitution schedule Dec 9, 2025 visibility 20

looted nude emperor statue marble head returned to turkey

A California antiquities dealer, Aaron Mendelsohn, surrendered a 2,000-year-old bronze statue of a Roman emperor, known as the Nude Emperor, to New York prosecutors. The statue, valued at $1.33 million, was purchased in 2007 from a defunct New York gallery but is believed to have been looted in the late 1960s from a Roman shrine in Bubon, Turkey. In a deal filed in New York Criminal Court, Mendelsohn relinquished claims to the statue without admitting wrongdoing, and prosecutors withdrew an arrest warrant. The statue was repatriated to Turkey in a restitution ceremony on Monday, alongside dozens of other objects, including an $800,000 marble head of Demosthenes seized from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

article policy schedule Jul 9, 2025 visibility 17

supreme court ruling advances trumps plan for mass layoffs of federal workers

The U.S. Supreme Court lifted a lower court order that had temporarily blocked the Trump administration's plan to lay off thousands of federal workers. The initial lawsuit was filed by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), 11 nonprofits, and local governments from states including California, Texas, and Illinois, challenging Executive Order 14210. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the sole dissenter, while liberal justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor sided with the conservative majority. The ruling allows mass firings and reorganizations at 19 federal agencies, including the State Department and Social Security Administration, to proceed, though a separate injunction protecting sub-agencies of Health and Human Services remains in place.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Apr 25, 2025 visibility 11

terracotta warriors return bowers museum

The Bowers Museum in California is set to open "World of the Terracotta Warriors" on May 24, bringing together 110 newly discovered archaeological treasures from Shaanxi, China, including Terracotta Warriors, bronze vessels, chariot regalia, and jade and gold artifacts. The exhibition, curated by Tianlong Jiao, expands beyond the famed terracotta army to showcase decades of archaeological research across Shaanxi, highlighting social and cultural changes from about 2300 B.C.E. to 206 B.C.E., with finds from sites like Shimao and Zhaigou.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule May 22, 2026 visibility 7 link 1 artist

Artist’s Perspective: Anila Quayyum Agha

Artist Anila Quayyum Agha will give a talk at the Frist Art Museum in Nashville on May 22, 2026, discussing her exhibition "Anila Quayyum Agha: Interwoven." The survey spans two decades of her practice, including immersive installations, works on paper, paintings, and sculptures that draw on themes of migration, identity, and inequality, as well as influences from Indo-Islamic architecture, poetry, and the California Light and Space movement.

newspaper Nashville Lifestyles open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule May 19, 2026 visibility 22 link 2 artists, 1 gallery

California Light and Space (The 21st Century Version) (OPENING RECEPTION)

David Zwirner gallery in Los Angeles is presenting "California Light and Space (The 21st Century Version)," a group exhibition organized by curator Helen Molesworth. Running through August 1 at the gallery's 606 N Western Avenue location, the show features contemporary artists from LA's diverse arts scene, exploring how the city's unique geography—its light, space, and basin topography—shapes their work. The exhibition draws a parallel to the Light and Space movement of the 1960s and 1970s, but focuses on a younger generation working across various media.

newspaper Discover Los Angeles open_in_new Read original

article local schedule Apr 27, 2026 visibility 15 link 1 artist

Sacramento Fine Arts Center Celebrates 40th Anniversary

The Sacramento Fine Arts Center (Sac Arts) is celebrating its 40th anniversary in April 2026. Founded in April 1986 by five independent regional art clubs, including Northern California Arts and Watercolor Artists of Sacramento Horizons, the center began in a former high school building in Carmichael, California. Volunteers cleaned and renovated the space, which is owned by the Carmichael Recreation and Park District. Over the years, the center has expanded with studio spaces, galleries, and a rental gallery, supported by community donations and volunteer efforts. The anniversary year features special events, classes, and a new banner project with 130 submissions for 21 PVC mesh banners.

newspaper Carmichael Times open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Apr 27, 2026 visibility 21 link 5 artists

‘Don’t mind if I do’: Northampton exhibit brings art to visitors in a unique and accessible way

Brooklyn-based disabled artist Finnegan Shannon's traveling exhibition "Don't mind if I do" is on view at the Smith College Museum of Art (SCMA) in Northampton through June 28. The show features a conveyor belt that brings interactive artworks to seated visitors, challenging traditional museum layouts that require standing and walking. Shannon collaborated with curator Lauren Leving and technical director Peter Reese to create the experience, which includes works by Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo, Pelenakeke Brown, Sky Cubacub, Emilie L. Gossiaux, Felicia Griffin, Joselia Rebekah Hughes, and Jeff Kasper. The exhibition has previously toured to moCa Cleveland, California State University Sacramento, and the University of Illinois Chicago.

newspaper Valley Advocate open_in_new Read original

article local schedule Mar 12, 2026 visibility 16 link 5 artists

Weekender: Student Art in Library; UC Arts Exhibition in Bay Area; Music; Square Dance

The UC Davis Library has unveiled new student-acquired artwork in its study rooms, aiming to transform traditionally drab academic spaces into vibrant environments through a student art competition. Additionally, the TANA community art center in Woodland is hosting the opening reception for the Sacramento Poderosas Mural Project, featuring a mural by Ruby Chacon and Isabel Martinez that honors the legacy of the Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF) and Xicana/o/x activism.

newspaper UC Davis open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Jan 23, 2026 visibility 16 link 6 artists

Conceptual artist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s gets expansive tribute in California show

The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) is presenting *Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Multiple Offerings*, the first survey of the late conceptual artist’s work in over two decades. Running from January 24 to April 19, the exhibition draws on BAMPFA’s substantial holdings of Cha’s art and archives, showcasing her multidisciplinary practice—including concrete poetry, mail art, textiles, ceramics, performance, and film. Curator Victoria Sung, alongside curatorial associate Tausif Noor, aims to de-emphasize Cha’s best-known work, *Dictée*, and instead highlight the fluidity of her process, revisiting themes across different media from the early 1970s to the early 1980s. The show features a recreation of her 1980 film *Exilée*, documentation of performances such as *Réveillé dans la Brume* (1977), and early ceramics and textiles never before shown publicly.

newspaper The Art Newspaper open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Jan 12, 2026 visibility 13 link 4 artists

UK Art Museum announces Spring ’26 exhibitions and photography lecture

The University of Kentucky Art Museum has announced its Spring 2026 exhibition lineup, running from February 3 to June 27, alongside the first Robert C. May Endowed Photography Lecture of the semester. The season features two main exhibitions: "Ecstatic Personas," a group show exploring joy as a radical force with works by Carlos Rosales-Silva and Shannon Alonzo, and "Harry Gamboa Jr.: The Early, The Late, The Lost," a career-spanning survey of the artist's photography, performance, and writing. Gamboa, a co-founder of the influential collective Asco, will also deliver a lecture on March 27 as part of the photography lecture series.

newspaper UKNow open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Dec 23, 2025 visibility 17 link 4 artists

UCR ARTS presents Transgresoras: Mail Art and Messages, 1960s–2020s

UCR ARTS' California Museum of Photography presents "Transgresoras: Mail Art and Messages, 1960s–2020s," an exhibition guest co-curated by Zanna Gilbert of the Getty Research Institute and Elena Shtromberg of the University of Utah. Running from September 13, 2025, to February 15, 2026, the show features over 50 Latinx and Latin American women artists who used mail art to subvert authoritarian censorship, turning the government's own postal system into a tool for creative expression across militarized borders. The exhibition includes video, sculpture, paintings, prints, and installations, organized into thematic sections addressing state control, gender, migration, colonialism, and ecology.

newspaper University of California, Riverside open_in_new Read original

article culture schedule Dec 19, 2025 visibility 9 link 3 artists

Burning Man Art: It’s Closer Than You Think

Burning Man art is increasingly appearing in museums, cities, and regional events worldwide, moving beyond the temporary desert environment of Black Rock City. Artists like Miki Masuhara-Page and Walker Babington have brought their interactive sculptures—such as 'Cosmic Messenger' and 'Burden of the Beast'—to venues including the Portland Winter Light Festival and The Hermitage Museum and Gardens in Norfolk, Virginia. The Black Rock City Honoraria Program, funded by the nonprofit Burning Man Project, supports approximately 75 artworks annually, while the Art department assists nearly 400 pieces destined for the playa.

newspaper Burning Man Journal open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Dec 2, 2025 visibility 18 link 1 artist

Mario Ayala Unveils Life Sized Van Portraits at CAM Houston

Mario Ayala's first U.S. solo museum exhibition, 'Seven Vans,' has opened at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH). The show, on view from November 14, 2025, through June 21, 2026, features seven life-size van paintings that use the vehicle's rear body as a shaped canvas. Ayala removes wheels and functional markers, turning the vans into motionless 'pseudo-portraits' that convey owners' personalities through details like faded stickers, patchy repairs, and custom airbrush work inspired by auto body painting. The artist describes his process as 'Research While Driving,' documenting rear vehicle perspectives over six years.

newspaper hypebeast.com open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Nov 13, 2025 visibility 13 link 3 artists

Radical History: Chicano Prints from the Smithsonian American Art Museum exhibition opens at The Huntington

The exhibition "Radical Histories: Chicano Prints from the Smithsonian American Art Museum" opens at The Huntington's Marylou and George Boone Gallery from November 16 to March 2. Curated by E. Carmen Ramos, the show features 60 works by nearly 40 artists and collectives, tracing over six decades of Chicano printmaking as a tool for resistance, community building, and cultural reclamation. The exhibition is organized into five thematic sections—"Together We Fight," "¡Guerra No!," "Violent Divisions," "Rethinking América," and "Changemakers"—and begins with the late 1960s Delano Grape Strike, highlighting how artists used silkscreens, posters, and offset prints to mobilize communities and confront injustice.

newspaper heysocal.com open_in_new Read original

article local schedule Oct 1, 2025 visibility 17 link 5 artists

Sunday's floating art exhibition in Norfolk is a love letter to its waterways

Lindsay Horne, inspired by the Bosch Parade on the Netherlands' Dommel River, has organized the Hague Parade, a floating art exhibition on Norfolk's waterways. The event debuts on Sunday, October 5, 2025, at the intersection of Mill Street and Mowbray Arch, ending at the Chrysler Museum of Art. Nine artist teams designed sustainable, leave-no-trace floats using canoes, kayaks, and rain barrels. Participants include students from the Governor's School for the Arts, the Barry Art Museum, and California artist Stan Clark. The parade aims to celebrate water rather than lament rising sea levels, with hopes to grow into a larger community weekend featuring a boat race and family activities.

newspaper WHRO open_in_new Read original

article local schedule Sep 19, 2025 visibility 11 link 9 artists, 1 gallery

Superchief, Beloved LA Arts Hub, Fights to Stay Open

Superchief Gallery, a longtime hub for LA’s underground art and photography scene, is fighting to stay open amid mounting financial challenges. Founder Bill Dunleavy is exploring alternative revenue models like crowdfunding to save the space, which has operated since 2014 in downtown LA and later moved to a 10,000-square-foot warehouse in South LA. The gallery has faced setbacks including a fire in 2020 and declining art sales and corporate sponsorships, despite its popularity for anti-elitist, community-focused programming.

newspaper Hyperallergic open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Sep 17, 2025 visibility 12 link 4 artists

Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art Opens Nicolai Fechin: An Artistic Journey October 2025

The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma will open "Nicolai Fechin: An Artistic Journey" on October 3, 2025. The exhibition features over fifty drawings and paintings spanning the Russian artist's career, drawn from the museum's permanent collection, the Eugene B. Adkins Collection, and a private Oklahoma collection, with many works on public view for the first time. The show explores Fechin's travels from Russia to New York, New Mexico, and Southern California, highlighting how family, training, and cultural encounters shaped his vibrant portraits.

newspaper The University of Oklahoma open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Sep 4, 2025 visibility 15 link 10 artists

Rooted in Place: Humboldt Alumni and Staff Shine at de Young’s New Indigenous Art Exhibition

Cal Poly Humboldt alumni and staff are prominently featured in "Rooted in Place: California Native Art," a new exhibition at the de Young Museum in San Francisco that highlights Northern California’s Indigenous artists. The show includes works by the late Karuk painter Brian D. Tripp, Hupa artist and gallery director Brittany Britton, and other contributors such as Robert Benson, George Blake, Lena R. Bommelyn, and Shoshoni Gensaw-Hostler. Britton's beaded chair and Gensaw-Hostler's dentalium-shell cape are among the pieces displayed in the newly reinstalled Arts of Indigenous America galleries, which focus on the Hupa, Karuk, Tolowa, Wiyot, and Yurok peoples.

newspaper Humboldt NOW open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Aug 27, 2025 visibility 14 link 6 artists

New exhibit celebrates ceramics at CU Boulder

The CU Art Museum at the University of Colorado Boulder will host 'Shaping Time: CU Ceramics Alumni 2000–2020,' an exhibition opening September 5, 2025, celebrating the ceramics program's legacy. The show features works by alumni from the past two decades, curated by faculty Jeanne Quinn, Scott Chamberlin, and Kim Dickey, who have taught together for 25 years. The exhibition explores themes of environment, domesticity, and material meaning, and includes a symposium on September 5.

newspaper University of Colorado Boulder open_in_new Read original

article news schedule Aug 22, 2025 visibility 13 link 2 artists

New app aims to improve access to Los Angeles art scene

A new mobile app called ArtWrld, founded by Josh Goldblum (CEO of Bluecadet), has launched to improve access to the Los Angeles and New York art scenes. The app provides up-to-date listings of gallery shows, museum exhibitions, talks, and events, allowing users to search by date, view editors' picks, and save shows on Google Maps. It aims to be "the AllTrails for art," making great shows more accessible and providing context for newcomers. Other projects filling the gap in local art coverage include Shana Nys Dambrot's newsletter "13 Things LA" on Substack and the anonymous Instagram account Diva Corp USA, which offers artist-on-artist criticism.

newspaper The Art Newspaper open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Aug 19, 2025 visibility 23 link 3 artists

San Francisco’s de Young Museum opens revamped Native American art galleries

San Francisco's de Young Museum will unveil its newly reinstalled galleries of Native American art on August 26, following a years-long overhaul led by a group of predominantly Native curators. The reimagined spaces, called the Arts of Indigenous America galleries, feature contemporary works alongside historical pieces—some over 1,000 years old—as well as recent acquisitions and new commissions. One gallery focuses on Native California with rotating regional exhibits, while another covers all of North America, with ceramics, textiles, paintings, beadwork, and basketry arranged thematically. The museum consulted the communities of origin for historical pieces, as required by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, and invited members to help interpret the works.

newspaper The Art Newspaper open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Jun 9, 2025 visibility 13 link 5 artists

“State Fairs: Growing American Craft” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery Explores the Stories of Craft Artists at the Fairgrounds

The Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery will present 'State Fairs: Growing American Craft,' the first exhibition dedicated to artists' contributions to U.S. state fairs, from Aug. 22 to Sept. 7, 2026. Featuring over 240 artworks dating from the mid-19th century to the present, the show includes spectacles such as Big Tex's size 96 boots, a life-size butter cow by Iowa State Fair sculptor Sarah Pratt, and a pyramid of preserved fruits by canning champion Rod Zeitler. The exhibition is the result of five years of research involving visits to 15 state fairs, collaborations with artists in five states, and contributions from 43 states and tribal nations.

newspaper Smithsonian Institution open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Jun 5, 2025 visibility 15 link 2 artists

Major show of African American quilts opening at BAMPFA — despite federal funding cuts

The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) is opening "Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California" on June 8, the first major museum survey of its vast African American quilt collection. The collection, bequeathed by Oakland collector Eli Leon in 2018, includes over 3,000 quilts, with 100 featured in the exhibition. The show focuses on migration during the Second Great Migration (1940–1970) and highlights artists like National Heritage Fellow Laverne Brackens, Rosie Lee Tompkins, and Arbie Williams, alongside multi-generational quilting families. The exhibition opens despite recent federal funding cuts for conservation work on the quilts.

newspaper Berkeleyside open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule May 27, 2025 visibility 12 link 7 artists

Whales and the stories they carry about climate change are the subject of new art and science exhibition at the IAS - UC Santa Cruz

The Institute of the Arts and Sciences (IAS) at UC Santa Cruz will present "Weather and the Whale," a major art and science exhibition running from May 29, 2025, to March 8, 2026. The show features immersive displays of original scientific research from the Friedlaender Lab, alongside newly commissioned contemporary artworks by ten artists and collectives, including Carolina Caycedo. The exhibition explores how climate change affects whales and marine mammals, using video, painting, photography, sculpture, and installations to communicate ecological threats such as environmental toxins and sea ice retreat.

newspaper News open_in_new Read original

article policy schedule Apr 28, 2025 visibility 16 link 6 artists

‘It’s much more extreme’: US institutions and artists enter a new culture war

Since President Donald Trump took office, his administration has rapidly dismantled parts of the U.S. cultural infrastructure through executive orders and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk. Key federal funding bodies—the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)—have faced staff cuts, grant cancellations, and threats of further reductions. Trump has also replaced leadership at the Kennedy Center and signaled similar moves against the Smithsonian Institution, while DOGE visited the National Gallery of Art to discuss its legal status. Arts organizations and advocates are scrambling to assess the damage and find alternative funding.

newspaper The Art Newspaper open_in_new Read original

article news schedule Apr 19, 2026 visibility 15

A New Museum in California Aims to Draw Children to Science

KidSTREAM, a new $7 million children's museum, has launched in Camarillo, California, transforming a former library site into an interactive educational hub. Founded by Kristie Akl, a former teacher, the museum focuses on hands-on learning across science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) to engage young learners through play.

newspaper New York Times Art open_in_new Read original

article policy schedule Mar 19, 2026 source 3 sources visibility 19 link 3 artists

California Museum to Remove Cesar Chavez From Hall of Fame Following Abuse Allegations

The California Museum in Sacramento plans to remove labor leader Cesar Chavez from its California Hall of Fame. This unprecedented action follows a New York Times investigation detailing allegations that Chavez sexually abused multiple girls and engaged in misconduct with women in the United Farm Workers movement during the 1970s.

newspaper ARTnews Also: Hyperallergic open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Feb 27, 2026 visibility 21 link 1 artist

ENERGY AND PATTERNS IN THE COSMOS GISELA COLON IN CONNECTICUT

The Bruce Museum in Connecticut is presenting the exhibition 'Gisela Colón: Radiant Earth,' featuring the abstract, luminescent sculptures of the Puerto Rican-American artist. The show, curated by Dr. Danielle O’Steen and Dr. Margarita Karasoulas, includes eight works such as her Pods and Monoliths, which utilize innovative materials and a self-invented 'structural color' technique to create shifting, light-activated hues. It will be on view through June 28, 2026.

newspaper Arte al Día open_in_new Read original

article culture schedule Mar 20, 2026 source 2 sources visibility 31 link 15 artists

Artists Grapple With Cesar Chávez’s Legacy After Abuse Allegations

Latine artists and cultural institutions across California are confronting the legacy of labor leader Cesar Chávez following allegations of his sexual abuse. Murals are being removed or replaced, artists are withdrawing work featuring him, and institutions are canceling events, as the community processes a profound collective trauma tied to a figure central to their identity and activism.

newspaper Hyperallergic open_in_new Read original