NEW contemporary art gallery to open in New York City’s Lower East Side.

Artist and curator Adam Heft Berninger is opening a new contemporary art gallery called Heft in New York City's Lower East Side on April 23, 2025. The gallery evolves from Berninger's curatorial project Tender into a permanent space, debuting with the group exhibition "Truth or" featuring generative art pioneers including Mario Klingemann, Katie Morris, Michael Mandiberg, and a collaboration between Edward Burtynsky and Alkan Avcıoğlu. The show runs through May 10, 2025, and includes works by Kevin Abosch, Gretchen Andrew, and others.

For their 30th anniversary, Pokémon enter the museum: Gotta catch 'em all!

Pour leurs 30 ans, les Pokémon entrent au musée : attrapez-les tous !

The Musée en Herbe in Paris is hosting a major exhibition titled 'Admirez-les tous ! Une exposition hommage à Pokémon' to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Pokémon franchise. The show features original Game Boy consoles, early trading cards, preparatory drawings for the animated series, and insights from the French translator who named the creatures. It also highlights how Pokémon have entered the global visual heritage.

‘Ugly’ but ‘beautiful’: LACMA finally unveils controversial new Geffen Galleries — was it worth the wait?

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has finally unveiled its new David Geffen Galleries, a $724 million concrete and glass structure designed by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor. Spanning Wilshire Boulevard, the 110,000-square-foot elevated gallery space will house 1,700 works from the museum’s permanent collection, including masterpieces by Francis Bacon, Henri Matisse, and Katsushika Hokusai. The building is scheduled to open to the public on April 19, marking the completion of a massive campus expansion that has been nearly two decades in the making.

suki seokyeong kang dead

Suki Seokyeong Kang, a South Korean artist known for blending traditional Korean heritage with contemporary abstract forms, died on Sunday at age 47 (48 in Korean reckoning) after a battle with cancer. Her New York representative, Tina Kim Gallery, confirmed the cause. Kang's work spanned painting, textiles, sculpture, and installation, often incorporating postminimalist structures, craft techniques, and industrial materials. Notable series include her precarious "Grandmother Tower" sculptures and "Mountain" pieces made from curved steel and thread. She was born in Seoul in 1977, studied at Ewha Womans University and the Royal College of Art in London, and later became a professor of painting.

top collectors best advice

Cultured magazine presents advice from ten acclaimed art collectors for newcomers navigating the art world. The collectors—including Will Bennett, Laurent Asscher, Chad Leat, Rob Thomas-Suwall, and Kelly Williams—share tips on trusting one's instincts, focusing on quality over price, visiting museums and galleries, and taking risks. They emphasize that building a collection is a personal journey, not a prestige-driven pursuit, and encourage beginners to ask questions, use tools like the See Saw app, and support local institutions.

Proud Moment! Ken Nwadiogbu Wins the 2026 Young Generation Art Award in Berlin

Nigerian-born, London-based artist Ken Nwadiogbu has been named the winner of the 2026 Young Generation Art Award. Selected from a pool of nearly 400 applicants, Nwadiogbu received the honor at a ceremony in Berlin hosted by Degussa in partnership with Monopol magazine. The prestigious prize includes a €10,000 cash award, a solo exhibition at Frieze London 2026, and a year-long international traveling exhibition.

Calvin Tomkins, Who Profiled Giants of Modern Art, Dies at 100

Calvin Tomkins, the longtime New Yorker staff writer renowned for his profiles of major 20th-century artists, has died at the age of 100. His career spanned more than six decades at the magazine, where he produced intimate and influential portraits of figures like Marcel Duchamp and Robert Rauschenberg, and authored several books including "Living Well Is the Best Revenge."

Welcome to Venice: the shows you won’t want to miss at the 61st Biennale

The 61st Venice Biennale, titled "In Minor Keys," opens with a keynote exhibition conceived by the late Koyo Kouoh and realized by her team after her sudden death in May 2025. The show spans the Central Pavilion in the Giardini and the Arsenale, featuring 110 artists and collectives. Highlights include Bracha L. Ettinger's installation at the Hotel Metropole, where she transforms a room where Sigmund Freud wrote part of *The Interpretation of Dreams* into a feminist 'borderspace,' and works by artists such as Arthur Jafa, Richard Prince, Issa Samb, Beverly Buchanan, and Daniel Lind-Ramos. The exhibition explores themes of history, colonialism, war, and environmental destruction, aiming for a 'sotto voce' tone that nonetheless delivers powerful, liberating statements.

paul slocum digital art gallery sustainable interview

Paul Slocum, artist and gallerist, celebrated the 20th anniversary of his Dallas-based And/Or gallery, a pioneering space dedicated to new media and digital art. The gallery, founded in 2006, has championed early internet and computer-based artists like Cory Arcangel and Petra Cortright, operating from a DIY ethos largely independent of the traditional art market.

iconic photos leica photojournalism

This article marks the 100th anniversary of the Leica I camera, first unveiled in 1925 after Oskar Barnack's proposal to create a lightweight, portable camera using 35mm cinema film. It highlights seven era-defining photographs made with Leica cameras, including Alfred Eisenstaedt's iconic V-J Day in Times Square (1945) and Ilse Bing's Self-Portrait in Mirrors (1931), and notes that Leica is staging exhibitions across its 29 galleries worldwide to celebrate the centenary.

L.A. vs. N.Y. vs. UK punks and so much more at a sprawling new Skirball exhibit

The Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles opens a new exhibition titled "Outsiders, Outcasts, Rebels + Weirdos: Punk Culture 1976-86," tracing the evolution of punk music and culture over a decade. Featuring nearly 400 original fliers, posters, photographs, clothing, and pins, the show highlights punk's spread from New York to the UK and then to the West Coast, with a special focus on Los Angeles' contributions and the often-overlooked role of Jewish musicians and icons. The exhibition opens as punk celebrates its 50th anniversary, with events like the Sex Pistols' upcoming tour.

Modern & Contemporary African and Middle Eastern Art at Olympia Auctions

Olympia Auctions will hold a sale of Modern & Contemporary African and Middle Eastern Art on 29 October 2025, featuring 66 lots curated by specialists Janet Rady and Elikem Logan. Highlights include works by Ben Enwonwu, Oluwole Omofemi, Johnson Ocheja, Jacob Hendrik Pierneef, and South African women weavers from the Rorke’s Drift Art and Craft Centre, with estimates ranging from £1,000 to £25,000.

New exhibition highlights work from '80s art superstars

The Lévy Gorvy Dayan Gallery on Manhattan's Upper East Side has opened "Downtown/Uptown: New York in the Eighties," an exhibition co-curated by Brett Gorvy and legendary downtown gallerist Mary Boone. The show features works by iconic 1980s New York artists including Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Julian Schnabel, Barbara Kruger, Jeff Koons, Francesco Clemente, Kenny Scharf, the Guerilla Girls, Robert Mapplethorpe, Cindy Sherman, and Louise Lawler. Admission is free, and the exhibition runs through December 13.

defaults on art loans soar impact of australias social media ban on museums writer takes aim at singapore biennial morning link for january 6 2025

The Financial Times reports that half of non-bank lenders offering loans against artworks experienced defaults in 2024, up from 17% two years earlier, according to the Art and Finance Report 2025 by Deloitte Private and ArtTactic. The art market has shrunk 12% to $57.5 billion since 2022, dragging down collateral values and triggering margin calls. Meanwhile, Australia's social media ban for under-16s raises questions for museums, with the Art Gallery of New South Wales noting minimal impact but the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia more reliant on youth engagement. Other news includes Vanessa Horabuena's speed-painted Jesus sold for $2.75 million at Mar-a-Lago, the cancellation of NFT Paris and RWA Paris 2026, and a critical column calling for the end of the Singapore Biennial.

parties cult100 cultured magazine guggenheim

CULTURED magazine hosted its second annual CULT100 party at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, in exclusive partnership with Valentino and Valentino Beauty. The event celebrated the magazine's spring issue, a 400-page edition honoring 100 luminaries and rising talents across food, film, art, fashion, and more. Guests including Keke Palmer, Lena Dunham, Naomi Watts, Adam Scott, and Anne Imhof gathered in the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed rotunda for cocktails, a Valentino Beauty lounge, and a program that coincided with artist Carol Bove's ongoing museum survey exhibition at the Guggenheim.

risd design aesthetics recession

A writer revisits the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) alumni magazine after being assigned to explore how a group of RISD graduates from the late 2000s helped shape contemporary American material culture. The article focuses on the cohort that studied at RISD during the 2008 financial crisis, a time of institutional dysfunction and curricular drift, and includes figures like fashion brand Eckhaus Latta (co-founded by Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta), designer Adam Charlap Hyman, artists Katie Stout, Misha Kahn, F Taylor Colantonio, and Martine Gutierrez. The author reflects on shared memories and the unique conditions that produced this influential group.

The artist Fabien Verschaere, creator of joyful shambles, has passed away at age 50

L’artiste Fabien Verschaere, auteur de joyeux capharnaüms, s’est éteint à l’âge de 50 ans

The French contemporary artist Fabien Verschaere has passed away suddenly at the age of 50. Known for his dense, colorful, and highly personal visual language, Verschaere was scheduled to receive the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres distinction just days after his death. His work, which drew heavily from childhood imagery and his own experiences with chronic illness, created a bridge between dreams and nightmares through a cast of recurring characters like ghosts, superheroes, and hybrid creatures.

parties young artist prize 2025 mz wallace

CULTURED magazine and fashion brand MZ Wallace celebrated the 10-year anniversary of their Young Artists List with an event at (SUB)MERCER in SoHo, where they announced Iraqi-born, Los Angeles-based artist Ali Eyal as the winner of the 2025 Young Artist Prize. Eyal received an unrestricted $30,000 grant, selected by a jury of curators from the Met, the Hammer, and MoMA, for his multidisciplinary practice reflecting on violence endured during his upbringing in Baghdad.

Tania Willard “Photolithics” at The Polygon Gallery, North Vancouver

The Polygon Gallery in North Vancouver is presenting a major solo exhibition titled "Photolithics" by artist, curator, and scholar Tania Willard. The show, on view from March 7 to May 24, 2026, is a decade-long survey featuring new and existing works that demonstrate Willard's innovative use of photographic printing and presentation techniques.

A Roma è tutto pronto per il weekend delle gallerie d’arte: mostre, progetti speciali, inaugurazioni. Il programma

The fourth edition of Roma Gallery Weekend will take place from May 15 to 17, 2026, featuring 31 galleries across Rome. The event kicks off with a new Gallery Night on May 14, where simultaneous openings and special projects serve as a concentrated prologue. Participating galleries include established names like Gagosian, Galleria Continua, and Lorcan O'Neill, as well as emerging spaces such as Amanita and Cantadora. Highlights include exhibitions of Francesca Woodman, Tracey Emin, Friedrich Kunath, and Carlos Garaicoa, alongside site-specific interventions and group shows.

È morto Paolo Masi. La lunga ricerca dell’artista fiorentino sulla trasformazione dei materiali poveri

Paolo Masi, the Florentine artist known for his lifelong exploration of poor materials and their transformation, died in Florence on Wednesday, May 6, just days before his 93rd birthday. His career spanned from informal experiments in the 1950s through a rigorous investigation of materials in the 1960s, including his first solo show at the Strozzina in 1960. He joined the aesthetic research group Centro F/Uno alongside Baldi, Lecci, and Nannucci, and later co-founded the collective spaces Zona (1974) and Base (1998) with Mario Mariotti and Maurizio Nannucci. Masi participated in the Venice Biennale (1978) and the Rome Quadriennale (1986), and his works are held by major museums and foundations internationally. His later years saw significant retrospectives at the Museo MAGA in Gallarate (2018) and at Le Murate in Florence (2018), as well as a 2023 solo show at Florence's Galleria Frittelli, which remembered him as an extraordinary artist and dear friend.

Maurizio Cattelan opens a hotline to absolve us of our sins via WhatsApp

Maurizio Cattelan ouvre une hotline pour nous absoudre de nos péchés par WhatsApp

Italian provocateur Maurizio Cattelan has launched "The Confessional," an international hotline allowing participants to confess their sins via WhatsApp, SMS, or voice notes from April 2 to April 22, 2026. This participatory performance culminates in a livestream on April 23, where Cattelan will personally grant absolution to selected participants. The project coincides with the release of a limited edition of 666 miniature replicas of his infamous 1999 sculpture, "La Nona Ora," which depicts Pope John Paul II being struck by a meteorite.

Lost bunny paintings by JFK's photographer found in ABQ storage

A trove of paintings by Eddie Johnson, an obscure artist who photographed President John F. Kennedy in 1962 as assistant to Elaine de Kooning, has been discovered in a storage unit in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The archive, saved from disposal by the artist's estate, includes a major series of bunny-themed works created between 1972 and 1995, all based on a worn plush toy. Artist Matthan Cowart organized the exhibition "Hares on the Mountain" at his gallery Desert Mystery Center, pairing Johnson's bunny paintings with works by 11 living artists including David Altmejd and Ed Haddaway.

Metropolitan Museum of Art: Spring Exhibitions in New York

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is unveiling renewed galleries and special exhibitions for spring 2026, including a reinstallation of its American Wing and exhibitions focused on Renaissance portraiture and contemporary responses to classical themes. The museum, which houses over 1.6 million artworks spanning five thousand years, is highlighted as a key destination for US travelers planning summer visits, with May weather ideal for exploring both the museum and nearby Central Park.

Islamophobia, motherhood, war and immigration: Indy artists get political

Four Indianapolis-based artists—Salma Taman, Alejandra Carrillo, Bailey Jörk, and Iryna Bondar—are creating work that directly responds to contemporary political and social crises, including the war in Gaza, immigration, and political division. Their art, ranging from Taman's Arabic calligraphy painting promoting forgiveness to Carrillo's digital drawing protesting a migrant detention center, serves as a form of personal and communal expression in a fraught global climate.

The many faces and identities of Frida Kahlo are explored in exhibition catalogue

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, has released a comprehensive exhibition catalogue for 'Frida: The Making of an Icon,' which investigates the posthumous transformation of Frida Kahlo from a niche painter into a global cultural phenomenon. The publication features eleven scholarly essays that deconstruct the various identities attributed to Kahlo—from the political activist and feminist martyr to the disabled artist—while debunking common myths regarding her relationship with Surrealism and her husband, Diego Rivera.

Weekly News Roundup: July 7, 2025

The Sharjah Architecture Triennial announced its third edition theme, "Architecture Otherwise: Building Civic Infrastructure for Collective Futures," opening in November 2026, curated by Vyjayanthi Rao and Tau Tavengwa. The Noguchi Museum appointed Hitomi Iwasaki as head curator, while London nonprofit YDP announced an inaugural Duan Jianyu exhibition and permanent commissions by Christine Sun Kim and Danh Võ. Australia's Mordant family gifted major artworks to the Newcastle Art Gallery.

Michael Asher at Artists Space review

Artists Space in New York is hosting a posthumous survey of Michael Asher, the influential conceptual artist who died in 2012. Curated by Jay Sanders and Stella Cilman, the exhibition focuses not on Asher's well-known site-specific interventions—which by their nature cannot be recreated—but on the material residues they left behind: magazines, advertisements, radio works, postcards, T-shirts, and other ephemera. A key artifact is a copy of Tom Marioni's 1975 magazine *Vision*, in which Asher glued two facing pages together, effectively making himself disappear between contributions by Doug Wheeler and Bruce Nauman. The show spans forty-five years of projects, presenting these objects as physical remainders of Asher's practice.

Frieze New York Diary: celeb sightings and a swag-filled party

Frieze New York's VIP preview at the Shed drew celebrities including CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, actor Leonardo DiCaprio, artist and REM singer Michael Stipe, and actress Sharon Stone. A party in Tribeca celebrated the upcoming Counterpublic Triennial in St. Louis, featuring a custom scent by artist Emma McCormick Goodhart. Highlights include a musical performance by Oglála Lakȟóta artist Kite and a special Look Book photo studio capturing art-world figures like collector Beth Rudin DeWoody and Frieze London director Eva Langret.

Heading for Brittany! 5 art galleries to visit in Rennes

Cap sur la Bretagne ! 5 galeries d’art à visiter à Rennes

Beaux Arts Magazine highlights five art galleries to visit in Rennes, France, a city already known for its Musée des Beaux-Arts, art centers 40mcube and La Criée, and a spectacular Frac designed by architect Odile Decq. The featured galleries include Oniris, which celebrates 40 years and the centenary of artist François Morellet in 2026; Jonathan Roze, a newcomer from Paris now located on Place du Parlement; Mica, a gallery in Saint-Grégoire run by former cabinetmaker Michaël Chéneau; and Divet, an even older gallery with a strong Breton identity.