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The article reports on the third annual International A.I. Film Festival held at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall in New York, sponsored by Runway. The festival featured 10 short films judged by directors Harmony Korine and Gaspar Noé. The gold medal was awarded to composer and artist Jacob Adler for his 9-minute essay film "Total Pixel Space," which explores the concept of a finite grid of pixelated color values containing all possible visual images, from personal memories to alien civilizations. The film uses AI-generated imagery to illustrate this philosophical idea without explicitly mentioning AI.

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Christie’s Old Masters evening sale in London set a new auction record for Canaletto on Tuesday, when his painting *Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day* (circa 1732) sold for £31.9 million with fees ($43.7 million), far exceeding its £20 million estimate. The work, once owned by Britain’s first prime minister Robert Walpole, drew five bidders and sold to an anonymous phone bidder via Christie’s international director Alice de Roquemaurel. The previous Canaletto record of £18.6 million was set at Sotheby’s in 2005.

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Curator, collector, and artistic director Andrea von Goetz founded Sommer Frische Kunst in 2011 as a humble artist-led retreat in Bad Gastein, Austria, housed in the historic Kraftwerk am Wasserfall building. Over 15 years, the initiative has grown from a small artist-in-residence program into an internationally recognized contemporary art festival at 1,000 meters above sea level, featuring major exhibitions, public art projects, and its own art fair, art:badgastein. The 2025 anniversary is marked by a reunion exhibition titled "Welcome back!" co-curated with Dr. Silvie Aigner.

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Phillips held its marquee May auction in New York, achieving $52 million in total sales, down from $86.3 million the previous year. The top lot was a Jean-Michel Basquiat work owned by David Bowie, which sold for $6.59 million. Four lots were withdrawn before the sale, five failed to sell, and the sell-through rate was 77.5 percent. Despite a low-energy room, five artist records were set, including four for women artists: Ilana Savdie, Olga de Amaral, Kiki Kogelnik, and Grace Hartigan, and one for James Turrell.

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A collection of 450 objects owned by the late filmmaker David Lynch was auctioned by Julien's Auctions, achieving a white-glove sale totaling $4.25 million. The top lot was a group of scripts from Lynch's unrealized film project *Ronnie Rocket: The Absurd Mystery of the Strange Forces of Existence*, which sold for $195,000. Other notable sales included scripts for *Mulholland Drive* ($104,000), *Twin Peaks* pilot ($91,000), and *Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me* ($78,000), as well as Lynch's director chair ($91,000), a personal 35mm print of *Eraserhead* ($52,000), and his La Marzocco espresso machine ($45,500).

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An augmented reality (AR) experience is reviving Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s iconic 2005 installation *The Gates* in New York’s Central Park. Starting in February 2025, visitors can use the Bloomberg Connects app to view virtual saffron-colored fabric panels suspended over 23 miles of park pathways, recreating the original work that featured 7,503 panels on metal arches. The project is a collaboration between the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation, the New York City Parks Department, the Central Park Conservancy, and Bloomberg Philanthropies, with support from former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The Shed is concurrently hosting an exhibition documenting the project’s history, including original arches and a scale-model diorama.

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Sotheby's modern art evening sale in New York on Tuesday night achieved $186.4 million with buyer's premium across 60 lots, with a sell-through rate of 83.3%. Top lots included Pablo Picasso's *Homme assis* ($15.1 million), Georgia O'Keeffe's *Leaves of a Plant* ($13 million), and a new auction record for Paul Signac's *Saint-Georges. Couchant (Venise)* ($8.1 million). However, the sale was overshadowed by the failure of Alberto Giacometti's *Grande tête mince*, a 1955 bronze bust estimated north of $70 million, which went unsold after bidding stalled at $64 million.

The glories of Francisco de Zurbarán’s paintings | Letters

Two letters to the editor respond to Charlotte Higgins's article on Francisco de Zurbarán. Paul McGilchrist critiques the physical inaccuracy of crucifixion depictions, including Zurbarán's *The Crucified Christ*, noting that most paintings fail to convey the true weight and distortion of a body suspended by nails. Jean Wilson highlights Zurbarán's series *Jacob and his 12 Sons* at Auckland Palace in Bishop Auckland, describing its history since 1756 and its connection to Bishop Trevor's support for Jewish rights.

Pussy Riot protest at Venice Biennale forces Russian pavilion to briefly close

On the second day of the Venice Biennale preview, the activist group Pussy Riot staged a chaotic protest at the Russian pavilion, forcing it to temporarily close. Wearing pink balaclavas and carrying flares, about 40 activists—including members of Femen—gathered outside the pavilion, shouting slogans like "Blood is Russia's Art" and attempting to enter before being pushed back by police. Founding member Nadya Tolokonnikova led the protest, condemning Europe for allowing Russian participation despite the war in Ukraine. Separately, the Art Not Genocide Alliance (Anga) demonstrated outside the Israeli pavilion, which was locked from inside, over Israel's war in Gaza.

Women behind the lens: ‘After state massacres, I began burning the prints as an act of mourning’

Iranian-Canadian visual journalist and artist Parisa Azadi describes her process of creating protest photographs during the 2022 Iranian revolution from exile in Dubai. Unable to return to Iran, she used open-source protest footage from social media, isolating frames and printing them with a Fujifilm instax camera to transform ephemeral digital images into physical objects. In January 2026, after state massacres and executions, she began burning these prints as an act of mourning, scarring their surfaces to echo the violence they depict.

Art for art’s sake, but for people’s health too | Letter

Art Fund director Jenny Waldman responds to a philosophical article about art's intrinsic value, arguing that while art should be enjoyed for its own sake, promoting its measurable health benefits can serve as a crucial entry point for new audiences. She cites the organization's National Art Pass adverts and recent research with King's College London, which demonstrated immediate physiological responses to viewing original art, as tools to invite people who might otherwise feel excluded from cultural institutions.

'Stray Birds': An art exhibition

Indrapramit Roy and Mark Cazalet are coming together for a duo exhibition titled 'Stray Birds' at the Shridharani Gallery in New Delhi. Curated by Jyotirmoy Bhattacharya and organized by Art Magnum, the show explores the parallel trajectories of two artists who met during their formative years in Baroda under the mentorship of Gulam Mohammed Sheikh. The exhibition features works that document lived experiences, memory, and movement through drawing and painting, often rooted in their personal sketchbooks and visual journals.

13 modern chair designs that remain utterly timeless

A recent Christie's online auction, 'Modern Collector: Design and Tiffany,' featured a range of iconic 20th-century chair designs that achieved significant sale prices. Highlights included Gaetano Pesce's 'Nobody's Perfect' series chair selling for $6,350, Hans J. Wegner's 'Valet' Chair for $8,255, and a set of four Ludwig Mies van der Rohe MR10 chairs for $5,334.

Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa “Lugar de Consuelo (Place of Solace)” at MoMA, New York

MoMA's Kravis Studio is presenting Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa's multimedia work "Lugar de Consuelo (Place of Solace)" (2020), marking the artist's first solo presentation at the museum. The work, jointly acquired in 2022 through MoMA's Latin American and Caribbean Fund and Fund for the Twenty-First Century, includes prints, drawings, costumes, sculptures, videos, and a related performance that explore political and personal histories of Guatemala.

Maya Lin Connects Nature to a New Manhattan Skyscraper and Beyond

Maya Lin, the renowned artist and designer known for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, has created new works for a Manhattan skyscraper and a Chicago project, drawing on her deep connection to nature. The article highlights her latest installations that integrate environmental themes into urban architecture, reflecting her ongoing exploration of landscape and ecology.

How an Art Event in the California Desert Became a Community

High Desert Test Sites (HDTS), a long-running, itinerant art event in the California desert, is approaching its 25th anniversary. Founded by artist Andrea Zittel, it has evolved from a series of experimental artist projects into a vital, decentralized community network that fosters collaboration and dialogue between artists and local residents.

How Duchamp Inspired These 4 Artists

Contemporary artists continue to grapple with the legacy of Marcel Duchamp, specifically his 1917 readymade "Fountain." This analysis highlights four modern creators who have directly referenced or reinterpreted the iconic porcelain urinal to explore themes of gender, domesticity, and institutional critique.

In Conversation: Arch Hades and Fi Churchman

Arch Hades will hold a breakfast conversation with ArtReview editor Fi Churchman on May 8, 2026, at the Scoletta Battioro e Tiraoro di Venezia in Venice. The event coincides with the opening of Hades's solo exhibition 'Return | Ritorno,' a major presentation of large-scale paintings, immersive sculptures, and installations supported by the Erarta Foundation during the Venice Biennale preview week.

Strike Rocks Venice Biennale Ahead of Public Opening as Pavilions Close

Thousands of protesters marched through Venice to demonstrate against Israel's presence at the Venice Biennale, leading many national pavilions to close in solidarity. Pavilions from Austria, Belgium, Egypt, Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea, and over a dozen other countries shut fully or partially, with some displaying signs reading "We Stand with Palestine." The Israeli pavilion remained closed for its exhibition opening, and armed police clashed with protesters. The main exhibition, curated by Koyo Kouoh, stayed open initially but the Arsenale closed by late afternoon with riot police outside. The 24-hour strike, organized by Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA) and Italian activist groups, was described as the largest protest in Biennale history.

$120 Raffle Ticket Nets $1.2 Million Picasso

Ari Hodara, a 58-year-old software engineer from Paris, has won Pablo Picasso’s 1941 painting 'Head of a Woman' through a charity raffle. Hodara purchased a single €100 ticket for the '1 Picasso for €100' lottery after seeing an advertisement in a restaurant, eventually beating out 120,000 other participants to claim the work valued at approximately $1.2 million.

Amy Sherald exhibit sets 21st century visitor record at BMA

The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) has achieved a historic milestone with its exhibition 'Amy Sherald: American Sublime,' which drew 84,000 visitors between October 2025 and March 2026. This figure more than doubled the museum's initial projections and set a new record for the highest attendance of any exhibition at the institution in the 21st century. The show featured 45 large-scale portraits by the Baltimore-born artist, focusing on themes of identity and representation.

Blank Spaces. Sung Tieu by Sarah Johanna Theurer

Sung Tieu's installations, characterized by austere, bureaucratic surfaces, explore the hidden architectures of power embedded in everyday systems. The article examines her series of works that deconstruct administrative forms used in asylum procedures, reducing them to blank spaces and quantified grids to expose how institutional power operates through seemingly neutral documents. Her exhibition "In Cold Print" at Nottingham Contemporary physically manifests these themes by using steel fences to control viewer movement, drawing direct parallels between minimalist sculpture and the dehumanizing design of border controls.

Can Textile Art Challenge the Status Quo?

Milan's art scene is currently anchored by a series of high-profile exhibitions coinciding with the Miart fair. Key highlights include Cao Fei’s exploration of global agricultural shifts at Pirelli HangarBicocca and Anselm Kiefer’s monumental tributes to female alchemists at Palazzo Reale. The city's galleries and institutions are showcasing a diverse range of media, from intricate textile works that challenge traditional hierarchies to immersive digital installations.

Marsha Pels Presents a Material Memorandum on Grief

Milan's art scene is currently anchored by a series of high-profile exhibitions coinciding with the Miart fair, ranging from Cao Fei’s exploration of global agriculture to Anselm Kiefer’s monumental tributes to female alchemists. Marsha Pels stands out with a deeply personal presentation that utilizes industrial materials to navigate the complexities of grief and memory.

7 Shows to See in Milan Right Now

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Milan's art scene is currently anchored by several high-profile exhibitions coinciding with the Miart fair. Highlights include Cao Fei’s exploration of global farming and technology at Pirelli HangarBicocca, alongside Anselm Kiefer’s monumental portraits of female alchemists. Other notable shows feature diverse practices ranging from historical rediscoveries to contemporary installations across the city's major institutions and galleries.

The Violent Weather of Roger Brown’s Paintings

A curated selection of seven essential exhibitions in Milan highlights the city's vibrant art scene during the Miart fair. The guide features a diverse range of artists, including Cao Fei’s exploration of global farming practices and Anselm Kiefer’s monumental portraits of female alchemists, showcasing both international heavyweights and emerging voices across the city's premier institutions and galleries.

7 Shows to See in Milan Right Now

Gallery Applications Open for Frieze Abu Dhabi

Milan's art scene is currently anchored by several high-profile exhibitions coinciding with the Miart fair. Key highlights include Cao Fei’s exploration of global farming and technology at Pirelli HangarBicocca, alongside Anselm Kiefer’s monumental tributes to female alchemists. Other notable shows feature historical and contemporary dialogues, ranging from Italian post-war masters to experimental multimedia installations.

7 Shows to See in Milan Right Now

New York: An Artist’s City

Milan's art scene is currently anchored by several major exhibitions, ranging from Cao Fei’s exploration of global agricultural shifts at Pirelli HangarBicocca to Anselm Kiefer’s monumental tributes to female alchemists. Other highlights include solo presentations by emerging and established artists across the city's commercial galleries and institutional spaces, coinciding with the Miart fair.

7 Shows to See in Milan Right Now

Could ‘The Antwerp Six’ Thrive in Today’s Fashion Industry?

Milan's art scene is currently anchored by a series of high-profile exhibitions coinciding with the Miart fair, ranging from Cao Fei’s exploration of global agriculture to Anselm Kiefer’s monumental tributes to female alchemists. Key highlights include solo presentations by established figures like Liliana Moro and emerging voices, alongside thematic shows that bridge the gap between industrial history and contemporary digital aesthetics.

Isa Genzken Asks What Stories Buildings Tell Us

Milan's art scene is currently anchored by a series of high-profile exhibitions coinciding with the Miart fair. Highlights include Isa Genzken’s architectural investigations at the Triennale Milano, Cao Fei’s exploration of global agriculture at Pirelli HangarBicocca, and Anselm Kiefer’s monumental tributes to female alchemists. These shows span the city's major institutions, offering a diverse look at how contemporary artists engage with history, technology, and the built environment.