yasunao tone fluxus dead

Yasunao Tone, a composer, theorist, and artist associated with the Fluxus movement, has died at age 90. Artists Space, which hosted his first US retrospective in 2023, announced his passing due to age-related complications. Tone was known for experimental music that used unorthodox methods such as altering instruments with ice, scratching CDs to create white noise, and producing graphic scores that resembled abstract artworks. He co-founded Group Ongaku in 1961, collaborated with key figures like Nam June Paik, George Maciunas, and Yoko Ono, and later explored digital corruption of audio files and AI. His work influenced experimental music and sound art, with a 2023 profile in AnOther Magazine stating he "changed music forever."

lupe fiasco ghotiing mit public art

Lupe Fiasco, the Grammy-winning rapper and MIT visiting scholar, has created "GHOTIING MIT," an audio tour featuring seven tracks improvised and recorded on-site at public artworks around the MIT List Visual Arts Center campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Using an iPad, microphone, and solar panels, Fiasco responds to sculptures by Alexander Calder, Antony Gormley, Jacques Lipchitz, and Jaume Plensa, among others, blending rap with field recordings to capture the immediacy of each piece. He terms this spontaneous creative process "ghotiing" (pronounced "fishing"), likening it to the Impressionist practice of painting en plein air.

venice biennale curator koyo kouoh dies

Koyo Kouoh, the Cameroonian-born curator appointed to lead the 2026 Venice Biennale, has died unexpectedly at age 57. The Venice Biennale announced her passing on Saturday, describing her as a figure of “passion, intellectual rigor, and vision.” Her husband, Philippe Mall, stated that a recently diagnosed cancer was the cause of death in a hospital in Basel, Switzerland. Kouoh had served as executive director and chief curator of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art (Zeitz MOCAA) in Cape Town since 2019, and was the second African-born curator to lead the Venice Biennale.

sistine chapel reopen after conclave selects new pope

The Sistine Chapel, a cornerstone of the Vatican Museums, will reopen after being closed to the public since April 28 for the papal conclave that elected Robert Francis Prevost as the first American pope. The closure, which lasted just over a week, allowed 133 cardinals to gather beneath Michelangelo's frescoes, including *The Last Judgment*, to select the new pontiff. The Vatican Museums, which attracted 6.8 million visitors in 2024, have not yet announced an official reopening date but have been posting related artworks on Instagram.

will the us participate in the 2026 venice biennale

As President Donald Trump cuts U.S. art programs and funding, questions surround the country's participation in the 2026 Venice Biennale. A Vanity Fair piece by Nate Freeman reports that the selection process is already behind schedule, with the U.S. State Department's typical 18-month lead time now reduced to just one year. The National Endowment for the Arts, which convenes the advisory committee for the pavilion, has been halted, and a key assistant secretary position is vacant. The application portal remains open but now includes new language requiring art that "reflects and promotes American values" and scrubbing references to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

rachofsky house dallas for sale

The Rachofsky House, a landmark contemporary art residence in Dallas designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Richard Meier, has been quietly listed for sale off-market by Compass agent Faisal Halum. The 9,000-square-foot home at 8605 Preston Road has been owned for decades by prominent collectors Howard and Cindy Rachofsky, who annually hosted the Two x Two gala there, raising over $130 million for amfAR and the Dallas Museum of Art. Howard Rachofsky confirmed the sale, citing his age (81) and ongoing estate planning.

national endowment for humanities sculpture garden trump

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has announced a new grant program to fund statues for President Trump’s National Garden of American Heroes, a sculpture garden first proposed in 2021. The garden will feature life-size statues of 250 notable Americans, with a location still to be determined. Selected artists, who must be U.S. citizens, can receive up to $200,000 per statue, which must be made of traditional materials like marble or bronze and depict figures in a realistic style. The application deadline is July 1, and the project is jointly funded by the NEH and the National Endowment for the Arts with a total of $34 million, drawn from federal grants originally allocated to other cultural programs but later canceled by the administration.

in london sadie coles expands amid stark drop in profits

Sadie Coles, a prominent London contemporary art gallery, announced plans to open a new 6,000-square-foot location in Mayfair this fall, despite reporting a steep 46 percent drop in revenue for 2024, from £52.3 million to £28.3 million. Pre-tax profits plunged 93 percent to £400,000, down from £5.5 million the prior year. Coles attributed the downturn to a slowdown at the high end of the art market, but noted the gallery carries no debt and has seen a 20 percent increase in total assets over five years, growing from £23.9 million to £28.8 million.

guy ullens collector dead

Guy Ullens, a Belgian billionaire and pioneering collector of Chinese contemporary art, has died at age 90. The news was announced by the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, which he co-founded. Ullens began collecting Chinese antiquities in the 1980s before shifting to contemporary works, amassing a collection of 1,500 to 2,000 pieces by artists such as Ai Weiwei, Liu Xiaodong, and Zeng Fanzhi. He and his late wife Myriam established the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing's 798 Art Zone in 2007, later selling it to Chinese investors in 2017, after which it was renamed UCCA. Ullens also helped build the secondary market for Chinese contemporary art, notably selling Zeng Fanzhi's 'The Last Supper' for $23.3 million at Sotheby's Hong Kong in 2013, a record at the time.

Getty Center in Los Angeles Is Closing for Year of Renovations

The Getty Center in Los Angeles has announced it will close to the public for a full year starting in March 2027. This significant hiatus is required to facilitate a major infrastructure overhaul, primarily focusing on the replacement of its aging computer-operated tram system and the modernization of several gallery spaces within the Richard Meier-designed campus.

Ibrahim Mahama awarded 2026 Arnold Bode Prize

Ghanaian visual artist Ibrahim Mahama has been awarded the 2026 Arnold Bode Prize by the city of Kassel. The prize, announced by his gallery White Cube, includes a €10,000 award in recognition of his artistic practice.

The Politics of Russia’s Return to the Venice Biennale

Russia has announced its intention to return to the Venice Biennale in 2026, marking its first participation since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The proposed pavilion, titled "The Tree is Rooted in the Sky," plans to feature 38 participants from Russia and several Global South nations. The announcement has sparked intense backlash from the European Commission and culture ministers across 22 countries, who argue that Russia’s presence undermines democratic values and serves as a tool for "dark cultural diplomacy."

Event: Hammad Nasar and Billy Tang, Off the Record

ArtReview and Ursula magazine have announced a collaborative talk featuring curators Hammad Nasar and Billy Tang as part of their "Off the Record" series in London. The event, held at the Farm Shop in Mayfair, is designed as an intimate, live conversation focused on the working methods and inspirations of creative visionaries. Nasar, a veteran curator and MBE recipient, will join Tang, the Artistic Director of the new Yan Du Project, to discuss their respective practices and the evolution of creative thinking.

LACMA Sets May 4 Opening Date for $724 Million “Curvaceous Concrete Sandwich” as Reviews Pour In

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has announced that its new David Geffen Galleries will officially open to the public on May 4, 2025. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor, the $724 million "curvaceous concrete sandwich" spans Wilshire Boulevard and replaces four previous buildings. The inaugural exhibition, organized by a massive team of forty-five curators, will forgo traditional chronological displays in favor of a thematic framework centered on global oceanic exchange, featuring both permanent collection highlights and new commissions from contemporary artists like Lauren Halsey and Do Ho Suh.

American Artist, Penny Arcade Among 2026 Guggenheim Fellowship Cohort

The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has announced its 101st class of fellows for 2026, awarding 223 individuals across 55 disciplines. This year’s cohort includes a significant number of visual artists and art professionals, such as American Artist, John Ahearn, Sonya Clark, and Fia Backström, alongside scientists, writers, and scholars. The fellowships provide varying monetary awards, typically ranging from $30,000 to $45,000, to support the recipients' ongoing creative and intellectual projects.

Valie Export, Avant-Garde Icon and Feminist Trailblazer, Dies at 85

Valie Export, the Austrian avant-garde artist known for her radical feminist performances, films, and sculptures, has died at age 85. Her gallery, Thaddaeus Ropac, announced her death, noting her groundbreaking work in the 1960s and 1970s introduced a new form of embodied feminism to Europe. Export, born Waltraud Lehner in Linz, Austria, changed her name in 1967 and became known for provocative works such as "Aktionshose: Genitalpanik" (1969) and "Tap and Touch Cinema" (1968–1971), which challenged voyeurism and the sexualization of women's bodies. She also co-founded the Austrian Filmmakers Cooperative in 1968 and was commissioned by the Austrian Broadcast Corporation for her film "Facing the Family" (1971).

Zurich’s Galerie Philipp Zollinger Closes After 7 years

Galerie Philipp Zollinger in Zurich is closing after seven years, as announced by founder Philipp Zollinger on Instagram. Citing continued global instability and a lack of conditions necessary to sustain the gallery, Zollinger explained that despite his willingness to invest further, the market no longer supports growth. The gallery focused on Swiss and Scandinavian artists working in three-dimensional media, along with artists from Southeast Asia and the United States. Its final exhibition, a dual presentation of Renée Levi and Theo Eble, closed on April 18 at Galerie Mueller in Basel. The closure follows a previous move from a nomadic operation to a physical space on Rämistrasse, which shut in fall 2025 due to an unstable art market and shifting collecting trends.

Marian Goodman Gallery to ‘Pause’ Operations in Los Angeles

Marian Goodman Gallery is suspending operations at its Los Angeles location after two and a half years, following the conclusion of Tacita Dean's solo show on April 25. The gallery's partners announced a consolidation of programming to its historic homes in New York and Paris, stating they will evaluate the space's future while maintaining an LA presence through art fairs, special projects, and museum exhibitions.

London's Southbank Centre to receive £10m government funding boost

The UK government has announced a £10 million funding boost for London’s Southbank Centre as part of a broader £128 million investment package for 130 cultural venues nationwide. Administered by Arts Council England, the grant is earmarked for urgent infrastructure repairs, including fixing leaking roofs and modernizing rigging systems, coinciding with the center's 75th anniversary. Other major beneficiaries of the Creative Foundations Fund include the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art and Firstsite gallery.

Art Movements: Meet The Met's New Photography Curator

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has appointed Oluremi C. Onabanjo as its new curator of photographs, bringing her expertise in African and Black diasporic histories from MoMA. This announcement leads a series of industry shifts, including Melissa Chiu’s move from the Hirshhorn to direct the Guggenheim, and the relocation of the influential gallery 47 Canal to Chelsea. Additionally, the New York Foundation for the Arts distributed nearly $500,000 in grants to 129 artists and organizations in Queens.

Hong Kong’s M+ And Centre Pompidou Announce Strategic Partnership

M+, Hong Kong's museum of modern and contemporary art, has announced a multi-year strategic partnership with the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The collaboration includes co-organized exhibitions at M+ starting in 2027, a joint exhibition at the renovated Pompidou around 2030, and a four-year postdoctoral fellowship funded by the Huo Family Foundation, established by philanthropist Yan Huo in 2009. The Huo Research Fellow will focus on twentieth- and twenty-first-century Western and Asian art.

What the Met Gains from the Neue Galerie

Was das Met mit der Neuen Galerie gewinnt

The Neue Galerie, a private museum for German and Austrian art founded by billionaire collector Ronald S. Lauder, will be integrated into the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) as an auxiliary branch under the new name "The Met Ronald S. Lauder Neue Galerie." The transition, announced by founding director Renée Price, is set to be completed by 2028, with the Met assuming full operational control after a planned renovation of the historic townhouse on Fifth Avenue. The merger follows years of Lauder's stewardship and ensures the long-term future of the collection, which includes masterpieces by Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Wassily Kandinsky, and Max Beckmann.

art georg baselitz artist venice death

Georg Baselitz, the influential German painter known for his inverted, upside-down artworks, has died at age 88 on April 30. The news was announced by his longtime gallery, Thaddaeus Ropac, via an obituary written by Robert Isaf. Baselitz gave his final spoken interview weeks before his death, discussing his upcoming exhibition “Eroi d’Oro [Heroes of Gold]” at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice, which opened May 6. The show features monumental gold-primed canvases with inverted portraits of himself and his wife Elke, which he described as a summary of his career and a reflection on art history.

friends fair austin 2026 exhibitor list

The Friends Fair in Austin has announced its second edition, scheduled for May 7–9, 2026, at the Loren Hotel Austin. Following a successful debut that drew over 2,000 visitors, the boutique fair is expanding its roster from 10 to 17 exhibitors, occupying an entire floor of the hotel. The lineup features a mix of returning local staples like Martha’s and McLennon Pen Co. alongside new additions from major art hubs including Los Angeles, Miami, and New York, plus non-commercial presentations by Co-Lab Projects and UT Austin MFA students.

nada new york 2026 exhibitor list

The New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) has announced the exhibitor list for its 12th New York edition, featuring over 110 galleries from around the globe. Scheduled for May 13–17, 2026, the fair returns to the Starrett-Lehigh Building in West Chelsea, showcasing a mix of 45 NADA members and 51 first-time participants. Highlights include the TD Bank Curated Spotlight, which will be organized by Anthony Elms, the artistic director of the Mattress Factory.

who will art basel draw to doha

Art Basel will launch a new fair, Art Basel Qatar, in Doha in February 2025, featuring around 50 exhibitors. The expansion into West Asia follows the fair's earlier move into Hong Kong in 2013 and reflects the region's growing wealth and cultural development. Vincenzo de Bellis, Art Basel's director of fairs, stated the company aims to attract collectors from the entire Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region as well as South Asia. The announcement has drawn interest from collectors and curators across Asia, including those from the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, and India, who see the fair as a potential turning point for Doha's art scene.

untitled art houston 2025 exhibitor list

Untitled Art has announced the 84 exhibitors for its inaugural Houston edition, taking place September 19–21, 2025, at the George R. Brown Convention Center, with a preview day on September 18. The fair, which has run in Miami Beach for 12 years, expands to Houston citing the city's $1.3 billion arts-related spending in 2022, making it the largest art market in Texas. The exhibitor list includes 17 Texas-based galleries (about 20% of participants), leading US galleries from San Francisco, Los Angeles, Detroit, and New York, and international dealers from Canada, Spain, the UK, Peru, the Bahamas, and Latvia. A Nest section offers reduced booth prices for 20 galleries, and the fair will collaborate with Houston institutions including the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, and the Menil Collection for special projects.

Felix Art Fair Founder Mills Morán Steps Back From Gallery Duties

Mills Morán, cofounder of the Los Angeles gallery Morán Morán, is stepping away from its day-to-day operations to focus on Felix Art Fair, the fair he cofounded with his brother Al Morán and collector Dean Valentine in 2018. The fair, held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel alongside Frieze Los Angeles, has staged eight editions. Morán announced the decision in a statement shared with artists and colleagues, citing personal recalibration after nearly two decades in the art world and a desire to be more present for loved ones.

M+ in Hong Kong and Centre Pompidou in Paris Plan New Five-Year Partnership

M+ in Hong Kong and the Centre Pompidou in Paris have announced a new five-year partnership beginning next year. The agreement, announced at M+ on May 15, includes lending artworks for exhibitions, collaborative research and commissions, curator exchanges, and a four-year postdoctoral fellowship. A major exhibition focusing on visual culture in France and Greater China will debut at the Pompidou when it reopens in 2029 or 2030, then travel to M+.

Coco Fusco and Jeffrey Gibson’s Public Lectures, Free Admission at MCA Denver, and More: Industry Moves for May 13, 2026

This week's art industry moves include Coco Fusco and Jeffrey Gibson being named speakers for Johns Hopkins University's Sam Gilliam Lecture Series, with free talks scheduled in Washington, D.C. Other notable developments: MCA Denver received a $1 million gift from the Precourt Foundation for free youth admission through 2031; Xavier Hufkens now represents painter Richard Aldrich; Galatea will represent the estate of Brazilian self-taught painter Grauben do Monte Lima; Green Art Gallery added Sharjah-based artist Fatma Al Ali; Chris Sharp Gallery now represents sculptor Richard Rezac; and the Oakland Museum of California received a ceramics gift and $1 million endowment from the Brian and Edith Heath Foundation. Additionally, a Banksy painting from the "Crude Oils" series is estimated at $18 million for an upcoming Fair Warning auction at Tiffany & Co.