"Kultursenator ist kein Nebenjob"

Berlin's finance senator Stefan Evers is set to additionally take on the role of culture senator following the resignation of Sarah Wedl-Wilson, a move criticized as a stopgap solution that creates a conflict of interest between austerity and cultural advocacy. Meanwhile, the Venice Biennale faces multiple controversies: critics question how to evaluate curator Koyo Kouoh's posthumous main exhibition "In Minor Keys," completed after her death in May 2025; Israeli artist Belu-Simion Fainaru speaks out against his exclusion from the Biennale competition, calling it politically biased and reminiscent of historical persecution; and German press decries the politicization of the Biennale, particularly the exclusion of Israel and Russia from the competition.

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.

Stockholm's Market Art Fair is a new model art fair from which to learn something

La Market Art Fair di Stoccolma è un nuovo modello di fiera d’arte da cui imparare qualcosa

The Market Art Fair in Stockholm, founded in 2006 by galleries from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland, held its 20th edition from April 23-26, 2026, at Magasin 9 during Stockholm Art Week. The fair features 54 exhibitors from 8 countries and 150 artists, with 80% of works tied to the Nordic context and 20% international. Highlights include a solo presentation by Olafur Eliasson at i8 Gallery (Reykjavík) featuring his sculpture *Rare metallic plant* (2026), and a preview of the Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale by artist Benjamin Orlow at Season 4 Episode 6 gallery. The fair has recently opened its selection to international galleries, a shift welcomed by collectors.

Gabrielle Goliath’s "Elegy" Comes to Venice

South African artist Gabrielle Goliath’s installation "Elegy" was initially censored by South Africa’s Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie, who blocked it from the country’s pavilion at the Venice Biennale over its focus on Palestinian grief. After public outcry and support from several organizations, the work was instead installed in a Venice church, where critic Aruna D’Souza describes it as "hauntingly beautiful and achingly tender." The article also covers related news: a smear campaign against British-Nigerian photographer Misan Harriman for his Palestinian solidarity, and a list of summer art books.

12 Art Books to Kick Off Summer

Hyperallergic's Lakshmi Rivera Amin presents a curated list of 12 art books for summer reading, including a novel lampooning the art world, Megan O'Grady's meditation on art and living, Kory Stamper's exploration of color lexicography, Nan Goldin's reissued photo essay, and Jennifer Higgie's prose poetry novel. The roundup also features Vincenzo Latronico's 'Perfection,' Nina Burleigh's satirical 'Turn Around, Don’t Drown,' and a graphic novel by Naoki Matayoshi and Shinsuke Yoshitake, among others.

New York Galleries: Openings and Closings (04/27-05/03)

‘Quality always rules’: VIP day sales at Frieze London 2025

Frieze London 2025 opened with VIP day sales reflecting a cautious but resilient market. Gallerists reported solid sales, including Michael Landy's 'Multi-Saint' (2013) sold to the Walker Art Gallery for €125,000, and blue-chip works at Frieze Masters such as René Magritte's 'Le domaine enchanté' (1953) for $1.6m and Gabriele Münter's 'The Blue Garden' (1909) for SFr2.4m ($3m). Dealers noted a shift from speculative frenzy to more considered buying, with collectors taking longer to decide but still investing in quality works. The fair saw strong attendance, including wealthy individuals who had left London due to UK tax changes returning to buy.

Mapping the Invisible: Saudi Arabia’s A Necessary Fiction Unfolds in Venice

A new exhibition titled "A Necessary Fiction: Maps, Art, and Models of Our World" has opened in Venice, presented by the Saudi Ministry of Culture in tandem with the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. Held at the Abbazia di San Gregorio from 6 May to 22 November 2026, the show is curated by Sara Almutlaq and Aurora Fonda, with associate curators Zaira Carrer and Amina Diab. It features historical maps and contemporary artworks by artists including Wael Shawky, Nasser Al Salem, Matilde Sambo, Monira Al Qadiri, Shilpa Gupta, Reena Saini Kallat, Manal AlDowayan, Nolan Oswald Dennis, Ibrahim Mahama, Trevor Paglen, Eva & Franco Mattes, Giorgio Andreotta Calò, and Yoko Ono, exploring cartography as an imaginative and ideological act rather than a neutral science.

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.

Here’s What You Missed at MoMA PS1’s 50th Birthday Bash

MoMA PS1 held its annual gala on Tuesday night, celebrating the institution's 50th anniversary and honoring founding director Alanna Heiss and former MoMA Director Glenn D. Lowry. More than 500 guests attended the Surrealist-themed event, which featured artistic direction by the fashion and art collective Women’s History Museum, with stilt walkers, custom posters, performances, and DJ sets. Notable attendees included artists Wolfgang Tillmans and Camille Henrot, dealers Jeffrey Deitch, and musicians Swizz Beatz, along with museum leadership and collectors.

art bunker artspace queer exhibition

The Bunker Artspace in Palm Beach, Florida, has opened "Beyond the Rainbow," a major exhibition of LGBTQ+ art curated by Laura Dvorkin and Maynard Monrow, along with 19 other artists, curators, gallerists, architects, and writers. The show draws from the collection of patron Beth Rudin DeWoody and features works by Catherine Opie, Andy Warhol, Nicole Eisenman, Lyle Ashton Harris, and others, running from December 7 through May 1, 2026. The exhibition was inspired by a visit to the Centre Pompidou's "Over the Rainbow" show in Paris.

parties miami art week social playbook fashion culture nightlife

Cultured's 'Parties Miami Art Week Social Playbook' provides a curated guide to the social and cultural events surrounding Miami Art Week 2024. It lists key art fairs including NADA (Dec. 2-6), Untitled Art (Dec. 3-7), Satellite Art Show (Dec. 4-7), and the Open Invitational (Dec. 1-6), alongside parties, fashion collaborations, and talks. Highlights include a Jimmy Choo installation with Harry Nuriev, a fireside chat with ECOLOGIES moderated by Julia Halperin, and a celebration at MOCA North Miami featuring artists Hiba Schahbaz, Diana Eusebio, and Magnus Sodamin.

art paris photo fair elle perez diary parties

The article is a first-person diary by artist Elle Pérez, chronicling their experience at Paris Photo 2024. Pérez describes the fair as the art world's best-kept secret, noting its uniquely fun and intergenerational atmosphere where artists and curators genuinely enjoy gathering. The diary covers a week of events including book meetings with Aperture, dinners with photographers, and the main fair at the Grand Palais, highlighting the camaraderie and joy of being together despite the anxieties facing photographers today.

art lyra art foundation kenturah davis dominique fung

On Wednesday, artists Kenturah Davis and Dominique Fung joined LYRA Art Foundation founder Tanya Eves and CULTURED Editor-in-Chief Sarah Harrelson for a breakfast panel in New York. The conversation explored how patrons and institutions can help artists overcome limitations in resources, space, and funding to realize ambitious projects. Davis, a multidisciplinary artist working with text, graphite, and oil paints, and Fung, a painter and sculptor whose installation on death rituals and excavation opens at the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco with LYRA support, shared their experiences alongside art world leaders including Aspen Art Museum CEO Nicola Lees, art advisor Allan Schwartzman, Whitney Museum Chief Curator Kim Conaty, and Met curator Jane Panetta.

art ai digital guide brian droitcour

Brian Droitcour curates a guide to navigating the current media landscape through the work of tech-savvy artists and writers, focusing on exhibitions in Brooklyn and Queens. The guide highlights Porpentine's show "Xrafstar World" at Haul Gallery in Gowanus, which features poster-prints of drawings depicting characters from their stories and games, made with different digital brushes. Droitcour contrasts this DIY, performance-driven work with major institutions' engagement with AI, such as Sasha Stiles' "A Living Poem" at MoMA, which he criticizes for echoing technology's promises of polish rather than probing its complications.

art samsung frame tv cultured collection

Cultured magazine has partnered with Samsung to launch a "CULTURED Collection" on the Samsung Art Store, available exclusively to owners of Samsung's The Frame and QLED TVs. Starting in October, 60 artworks by contemporary artists including Adam Pendleton, Dominique Fung, Oscar yi Hou, Chris Martin, and Emma Webster will be displayed in the TV's art mode. A temporary pop-up gallery, the Samsung Art Store Gallery, will open to the public on Oct. 9–10 at 545 W 23rd St in New York, offering a preview of the collection.

art criticism contemporary art crisis trump gaza

The article, written by an art critic for Cultured, opens by describing recent U.S. government actions under Executive Order 14253, including the National Park Service's restoration of a monument to Confederate General Albert Pike and a White House letter to Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III ordering a review of Smithsonian programming to align with a directive to "celebrate American exceptionalism." The critic notes Bunch's balancing act of cooperating while asserting the Smithsonian's independent authority. The piece then pivots to the state of art criticism, referencing Domenick Ammirati's essay on the perpetual "crisis in criticism," and highlights Marco Brambilla's exhibition "Limit of Control" at bitforms gallery as the year's most under-appreciated show, praising its use of AI to explore political violence and protest.

aspen summer guide exhibition art fair

Aspen's summer 2025 art scene is packed with exhibitions and fairs. Highlights include a mini-survey of photographer Anastasia Samoylova at Casa Tua Aspen, a major Sherrie Levine retrospective at the Aspen Art Museum (June 6–Sept. 29), Enrique Martínez Celaya's 'The Pale Threshold' at Baldwin Gallery (June 20–July 20), the Intersect Aspen Art + Design Fair (July 29–Aug. 3) featuring Shepard Fairey and Michael Stipe, Anderson Ranch's Summer Series with talks by Issy Wood and Titus Kaphar, and the Aspen Art Fair (July 29–Aug. 2) at Hotel Jerome.

rose art museum gala exhibition fund

The Rose Art Museum held its first-ever New York benefit gala, marking its return to the fundraising circuit after two decades. Co-chaired by advisor Abigail Ross Goodman and Christie’s Sara Friedlander, the event honored sculptor Hugh Hayden and philanthropist Lizbeth Krupp, the longtime chair of the museum’s board of advisors. The evening raised $900,000 toward a new $2 million Exhibition Endowment Fund, with Krupp making the first gift. Guests included artists Salman Toor, Leilah Babirye, Ali Banisadr, and Ilana Savdie, as well as gallerist Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn and Public Art Fund’s Nicholas Baume.

Authorship Dispute Erupts Over ‘Hair Dress’ at the Met’s Costume Institute

British artist Anouska Samms has publicly claimed that the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute exhibition "Costume Art" includes a dress, Corpus Nervina 0.0 (2023-24), that was based on her collaborative work with Israeli fashion designer Yoav Hadari. Samms alleges that she co-created the original "Hair Dress" with Hadari in 2023 while both were residents at the Sarabande Foundation, and that the Met initially sought to acquire that piece. After negotiations fell through, Hadari instead provided a similar garment attributed solely to him, prompting Samms to demand proper credit via Instagram posts and through her lawyer.

‘This is an opportunity that will never happen again’: Syrian artist Sara Shamma on rebuilding her country

Syrian artist Sara Shamma has been selected to represent Syria at the 2026 Venice Biennale, marking the country's return to the event with a single-artist national pavilion for the first time. Her immersive installation, 'The Tower Tomb of Palmyra,' curated by Yuko Hasegawa and commissioned by Syria's ministry of culture, combines painting, architecture, light, sound, and scent. It draws on the ancient funerary towers of Palmyra destroyed by Islamic State in 2015, addressing cultural loss and the possibility of reconstruction. Shamma, who returned to Syria in September 2024 after eight years abroad, describes living through the fall of the Assad regime and the country's rebirth as a transformative personal and national moment.

Stockholm's Market Art Fair wants to prove the 'periphery is now essential'

The 20th edition of Stockholm's Market Art Fair for Modern and contemporary art opens in a new waterfront venue at Magasin 9 in the Frihamnen docks area, running until 26 April. This year, 54 dealers—mostly from the Nordics—are joined by international galleries from the US and UK, including Anthony Wilkinson gallery (London) and albertz benda (New York). The fair expanded its reach last year by opening applications to galleries without existing Nordic ties. Notable presentations include new works by Ólafur Elíasson (i8 gallery, Iceland), dystopian paintings by Munan Øvrelid (Galleri Haaken, Oslo), and textile works by Petra Lindholm (Magnus Karlsson gallery). Prices range from SEK 28,000 to €195,000, with strong early sales reported.

alserkal art month dubai art week expansion art dubai 2026

Alserkal Avenue in Dubai is expanding its traditional Art Week into a five-week "Art Month" running from April 18 to May 18. This strategic extension includes 16 gallery exhibitions, over 100 public events, and a new commercially focused group show featuring 12 UAE-based galleries. The initiative aims to provide a more sustainable platform for the local art ecosystem, especially as the Art Dubai fair has been rescheduled to mid-May and adapted in response to regional instability.

The Art of ‘The Christophers’: How the Film Created an Artist’s Fabled Oeuvre

Steven Soderbergh’s new film, The Christophers, explores the complexities of artistic legacy and authenticity through the story of Julian Sklar, a fictional washed-up artist played by Ian McKellen. The plot follows Sklar’s children as they hire an art restorer, played by Michaela Coel, to secretly finish their father’s legendary unfinished series to capitalize on his market value. To ground the film in reality, screenwriter Ed Solomon consulted with art world figures like dealer George Barker and artists Jann Haworth and Derek Boshier, while production designer Antonia Lowe and painter Barnaby Gorton created the physical artworks seen on screen.

ariana papademetropoulos thaddaeus ropac paris exhibition

Ariana Papademetropoulos has debuted a new solo exhibition titled "Glass Slipper" at Thaddaeus Ropac’s gallery in Paris. The show features a diverse range of works, including hyper-realistic paintings of dry-cleaned dresses, surrealist landscapes featuring floating chairs, and a central immersive installation. This centerpiece consists of a mattress and a fish tank filled with 150 kissing fish, accompanied by a commissioned ambient soundtrack by Nicolas Godin of the band Air, designed to evoke a meditative, ritualistic experience.

london stephen friedman gallery abruptly closes insolvency

Stephen Friedman Gallery, a fixture of London’s Mayfair district since 1995, has abruptly entered administration and closed its doors to the public. The gallery confirmed the insolvency process following its last-minute withdrawal from the inaugural Art Basel Qatar. Approximately 25 employees are expected to be laid off, and represented artists have been advised to retrieve their works immediately as the firm undergoes a financial review by FRP Advisory.

frieze los angeles satellite fairs report

The Felix Art Fair kicked off LA Art Week at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, drawing significant crowds despite logistical hurdles. While long lines for elevators slowed the initial flow of visitors to the upper floors, exhibitors reported steady interest and early sales. New York-based dealers faced particular challenges arriving for the opening due to a major Nor’easter that disrupted flights across the East Coast, forcing many to finalize their booths just hours before the VIP preview.

design miami 2025 brings out creatures and comfort

Design Miami 2025 preview drew a bustling crowd with over 70 exhibitors under the theme "Make Believe." Highlights included Katie Stout's whimsical carousel featuring marine animals, Roham Shamekh's biomorphic "Roots" sofa with integrated headphones, and ATRA's futuristic "Intelligence of Evolution" seating system upholstered in Hermès fabric. The Spanish silver brand Garrido showcased collaborations with Peter Marino, while the fair's 20th anniversary edition embraced a carnivalesque atmosphere with popcorn and mirrored walls.

untitled art miami beach 2025 exhibitor list

Untitled Art, Miami Beach has announced the 157 exhibitors for its 2025 edition, running December 3–7 on Miami Beach. The fair introduces a new “Artist Spotlight” section organized by artist Petra Cortright, alongside its main Galleries section and the reimagined Nest section curated by Jonny Tanna. Notable first-time exhibitors include Meliksetian | Briggs, PALMA, and Soho Revue in the main section, while several galleries have switched from NADA and Art Basel Miami Beach, including Kavi Gupta returning after a lawsuit hiatus. The fair also features Allison Glenn as curator of site-specific Special Projects.

lucia painted her own myth

The article profiles Lucia Wilcox, a nearly forgotten Surrealist painter born in 1899 who lived an extraordinary life—raised in Beirut, partying with Surrealists in Paris, fleeing to New York in 1938, and becoming a doyenne among expatriate artists in the Hamptons. She painted joyful, mythical women and was shown by major dealers Sidney Janis and Leo Castelli, but after her death in 1974 she faded into obscurity. Now, a tightly curated exhibition titled "Lucia Wilcox: LUCIA" at Berry Campbell in New York (through June 28) reintroduces her work, focusing on over 20 paintings from the 1940s, including the vibrant "Untitled (Jungle)" (1944).