EXPO CHICAGO 2026 Opens With Local Enthusiasm and Strong Institutional Sales

EXPO CHICAGO 2026 has launched at Navy Pier with a streamlined, highly curated format that emphasizes quality over quantity. The fair’s opening days have been defined by robust institutional engagement, with several major museums acquiring works for their permanent collections. This year’s edition features a diverse array of artists and galleries, reinforcing its position as the premier contemporary art platform in the American Midwest.

72 Hours of Art in Salt Lake City: Museum Hopping, Spiral Jetty and Sculpture on the Slopes

Billionaire Reed Hastings, the former CEO of Netflix, has transformed Utah’s Powder Mountain ski resort into a unique 'skiable outdoor art museum.' Collaborating with landscape architect Reed Hilderbrand, the resort now features major installations by artists such as Nancy Holt, James Turrell, and EJ Hill. This development positions the resort as a contemporary companion to the region's historic land art landmarks, including Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty and Holt’s Sun Tunnels.

Readers react to LACMA’s new David Geffen Galleries: L.A. arts and culture this weekend

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is preparing for the public debut of its $724-million David Geffen Galleries, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor. Ahead of the April 19 member opening, public discourse has intensified following a series of reports detailing the building's architecture, the reinstallation of Alexander Calder’s "Three Quintains (Hello Girls)," and the project's massive budget. Reader reactions remain deeply polarized, reflecting a two-decade-long debate over the structure's unconventional design and its impact on the urban landscape.

Compton’s New Canvas: Mr. Wash and the Art of the Possible, Los Angeles

Fulton Leroy Washington, the Compton-based artist known as Mr. Wash, is spearheading a $15 million campaign to build a 14,000-square-foot community arts center and studio in his hometown. The project is being supported by his latest exhibition, "The City of Compton: Then & Now," and a showcase at Jeffrey Deitch’s Compton space titled "Don’t Turn Your Back On Us." Washington, who served 21 years of a life sentence before receiving clemency from President Barack Obama in 2016, gained international acclaim for his photorealistic "teardrop" portraits created while incarcerated.

Market Maker

Amrita Jhaveri, a Brown University alumna, has transitioned from a pioneering role at Christie’s to becoming a central figure in the global promotion of South Asian art. After launching Christie’s Mumbai office in the 1990s—a time when modern Indian masterpieces sold for a fraction of their current multi-million dollar values—she co-founded Jhaveri Contemporary with her sister Priya. The gallery has gained international prestige by placing works by overlooked, female, and queer South Asian artists into the permanent collections of major institutions like the Tate Modern, the Met, and MoMA.

Berlin Art: What Exhibitions Are on Now?

Berlin’s spring art season features a diverse array of exhibitions ranging from established international names to local prize winners. Key highlights include Yalda Afsah’s spiritual film installation at CCA Berlin, Jim Lambie’s psychedelic vinyl floor works at Konrad Fischer Galerie, and the 10th Neukölln Art Prize exhibition at Galerie im Saalbau, which honors artists like Va-Bene Elikem Fiatsi. The city's programming spans non-profit institutions, commercial galleries, and experimental spaces, covering themes from folk traditions to gender identity.

The US struggles with history, Stephen Friedman Gallery closes, Tudor Heart pendant acquired by the British Museum—podcast

The United States is experiencing significant cultural and political disputes as it approaches the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in July 2026. A recent flashpoint involved the Trump administration removing the rainbow Pride flag from the Stonewall Monument in New York, highlighting deep societal divisions over history and representation. Concurrently, various cultural initiatives are being planned to mark the semiquincentennial.

Expo Chicago lines up 130 galleries for ‘a more focused’ fair

Expo Chicago, acquired by Frieze in 2023, will return to Navy Pier’s Festival Hall this April with around 130 galleries, a 23% reduction from the 170 exhibitors in recent editions. The fair frames this as a more focused, intentionally scaled format designed to deepen engagement, and it will be the first edition under new director Kate Sierzputowski, who succeeded longtime leader Tony Karman. The fair features a strong contingent of local Chicago dealers, international galleries from South Korea, Lagos, Milan, Dublin, and elsewhere, and partnerships with the Obama Presidential Center and the Galleries Association of Korea.

Eighty Years of Women Artists Transforming Abstraction

The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) in Washington, D.C., will host "Making Their Mark: Works from the Shah Garg Collection" from February 27 to July 26, 2026. The exhibition features 80 works by 69 women artists, including Magdalena Abakanowicz, Cecily Brown, Julie Mehretu, and Kara Walker, spanning 1946 to 2024. Curated by Cecilia Alemani, the show is drawn from the collection of Komal Shah and Gaurav Garg and organized by the Making Their Mark Foundation. It is structured around seven thematic sections such as "Craft is Art" and "Disobedient Bodies," highlighting the role of women in abstract art.

Inside the Brighton studio of painter David Shrigley, as an exhibition of his work opens in London

The article offers a behind-the-scenes look at British artist David Shrigley’s Brighton studio, where he prepares for a London exhibition titled 'Exhibition of Old Rope' at Stephen Friedman Gallery. Shrigley, known for his humorous, naive-style paintings and conceptual approach, describes his process of working from word lists generated by assistants, producing up to 12 paintings a day, and embracing absurdity and chance. The studio, a former office building he bought two years ago, is filled with recent large-scale works, a guitar collection, and studio paraphernalia, reflecting his playful yet disciplined practice.

Tara Anne Dalbow

Tara Anne Dalbow has been appointed as the new director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, succeeding Madeleine Grynsztejn. Dalbow previously served as deputy director at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where she oversaw strategic planning and institutional operations. Her appointment marks a significant leadership transition for one of the United States' leading contemporary art institutions.

Everyone’s a winner, baby: prizes abound during Frieze London

During Frieze London, multiple acquisition prizes and awards were announced, including the Tate Frieze Fund (supported by a private patron) which purchased works by Lubna Chowdhary and Barbara Walker for £150,000. The inaugural Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation Prize was awarded to Alex Margo Arden, while the Arts Council Frieze Acquisitions Fund grew to £90,000, acquiring works by Sarah Ball, Olu Ogunnnaike, Vanessa Raw, and Liorah Tchiprout. Other acquisitions included works by Michael Landy and Shaquelle Whyte for the Walker Art Gallery, and the Camden Art Centre Emerging Artist Prize went to Bogdan Ablozhnyy. Offsite, the Circa 2025 prize was won by Adham Faramawy for a film addressing the migration crisis.

Untitled Art Houston opens with a slew of four- and five-figure sales

Untitled Art Houston opened its inaugural edition on Thursday, September 18, with a VIP preview that generated uneven but promising sales. Lower-priced works sold well, with notable transactions including a $415,000 piece by Carlos Cruz-Diez at Sicardi Ayers Bacino, a $125,000 painting by John Alexander at McClain Gallery, and a $150,000 bronze sculpture by Clare Rojas at Jessica Silverman. Other galleries reported sales ranging from $2,000 to $55,000, with some dealers selling out their stands. The fair marks Houston's first new art fair in years, following the demise of the Houston Fine Art Fair and Texas Contemporary Art Fair.

Inaugural Brussels Art Week stakes a strong claim for the city's scene

The inaugural Brussels Art Week took place from September 5-8, organized by the non-profit RendezVous, co-founded by Evelyn Simons and Laure Decock. The event featured gallery openings, artist talks, institutional shows, performances, and offsite interventions across multiple neighborhoods, deliberately avoiding the traditional art fair model. A centerpiece was a commissioned social space by British artist Zoe Williams titled 'A Tip Inn,' a functioning bar and performance venue that hosted talks, readings, and DJ sets. Participating galleries included Xavier Hufkens (showing Charline von Heyl), Gladstone (Nicholas Bierk), and Mendes Wood DM (Julien Creuzet), while Damien & The Love Guru installed Sharon Van Overmeire's inflatable castle sculpture at Wiels garden.

These 16 Artists Are the Biggest at U.S. Museums Right Now

This article presents a quarterly analysis of which living artists are most featured in temporary exhibitions across U.S. museums during September 2025. The author ranks artists based on the number and type of shows they appear in, prioritizing career retrospectives, dedicated exhibitions, and special commissions. The list is dominated by Black and Indigenous artists whose work addresses racism, colonialism, and nature, with Jeffrey Gibson topping the chart due to his Met facade commission, Broad show, and Venice Biennale U.S. Pavilion recreation. Other prominent artists include Firelei Báez, Rashid Johnson, Anila Quayyum Agha, and Ai Weiwei, the only non-U.S.-based artist on the list.

Rising dealer Sebastian Gladstone expands in LA—what’s behind his success?

Sebastian Gladstone, a rising art dealer, is expanding his namesake gallery in Los Angeles with a new 3,200-square-foot space in Hollywood, opening on 13 September. The move comes despite a broader trend of gallery downsizing, and follows a successful showing at Frieze Los Angeles, where he placed a work with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Gladstone, who launched the gallery in 2020, now operates bicoastally with a Tribeca outpost and plans to focus on quality over quantity, including representing the estate of abstract painter Herman Cherry.

Frieze London & Masters 2025 New collaborations across arts organisations, foundations + public institutions.

Frieze has announced the collaborations, funds, and prizes for Frieze London and Frieze Masters 2025, working with arts organizations, foundations, British brands, and public institutions. Key initiatives include the Frieze Masters Art Fund Curator Programme, offering fully funded places to 18 international and UK curators in partnership with Art Fund and The National Gallery; the Frieze x Deutsche Bank Emerging Curators Fellowship, now in its fifth year, hosted by MIMA in Middlesbrough; and the return of the Camden Art Centre Emerging Artist Prize, won last year by Nat Faulkner. The fairs will also feature curatorial conversations, private tours, and offsite activations by former fellows.

Powerful Photography Explores and Reimagines Black Identity Through Classical Art History

The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) in Washington, D.C., will present "Tawny Chatmon: Sanctuaries of Truth, Dissolution of Lies," a solo exhibition of over 25 large-scale photographs by artist Tawny Chatmon, running from October 15, 2025, to March 8, 2026. The works, drawn from series dating from 2019 to the present, blend photography with hand-applied paint, gold leaf, and precious materials, depicting Black children and families in gilded frames inspired by Gustav Klimt and medieval icons. This is Chatmon's first museum exhibition in the nation's capital.

How AI Will Change Art, According to Arthur Jafa, Marilyn Minter, and Other Artists

Emily McDermott's article, published July 15, 2025, gathers perspectives from artists including Refik Anadol, Arthur Jafa, Marilyn Minter, and others on how AI will change art. It references the controversial Christie's 'Augmented Intelligence' auction in February-March 2025, which generated nearly $730,000 despite an open letter signed by nearly 4,000 individuals urging cancellation over claims that AI models exploit copyrighted material. The artists quoted offer varied views, from Anadol seeing AI as a collaborator that augments creativity to Jafa dismissing most AI-generated work as generic.

On View: 'Paris Noir' Exhibition at Centre Pompidou 'Retraces the Presence and Influence of Black Artists in France from 1950s to 2000'

The Centre Pompidou in Paris presents "Paris Noir: Artistic circulations and anti-colonial resistance, 1950-2000," an exhibition running from March 13 to June 30, 2025. Curated by Alicia Knock, the show features over 350 works by 150 Black artists from Africa, the Americas, and the Caribbean, tracing their presence and influence in France from the post-war era through the 1990s. The exhibition is organized into 15 thematic chapters, including Pan African Paris, Afro Atlantic Surrealism, and Paris Dakar Lagos, and includes public programming such as talks, film screenings, and performances.

New art fair Arrival brings collectors to the bucolic Berkshires

Arrival, a new art fair, launched its inaugural edition on June 12 at the Tourists hotel in North Adams, Massachusetts, featuring 36 exhibitors from across the US. The biennial fair, running through June 15, includes panels, talks, and off-site programming at nearby museums. Galleries set up in hotel rooms, creating an intimate, domestic atmosphere. Founders Yng-Ru Chen, Sarah Galender Meyer, and Crystalle Lacouture—who together bring 60 years of art-world experience—aim to offer a respite from conventional convention-center fairs. Early sales included works by Hayal Pozanti, Chelsea Ryoko Wong, and Pae White, and the Williams College Museum of Art acquired three works from the fair.

‘I paint extreme emotions’: Rachel Jones on her riotously colourful paintings – and her obsession with mouths

Rachel Jones, a 34-year-old British artist, is preparing for a major retrospective at Dulwich Picture Gallery, her first institutional solo show in the UK and the museum's first solo exhibition of a contemporary artist in its main space. After graduating from the Royal Academy Schools in 2019, Jones was quickly represented by Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, had work acquired by the Tate, and exhibited at Chisenhale Gallery, the Hayward Gallery, and the Hepworth Wakefield. She has since left gallery representation, expanded into sound and performance, and created a short opera titled 'Hey Maudie' (2023), now being developed into a full-length opera. Her upcoming show at Dulwich, 'Gated Canyons', will pair her large-scale abstract paintings with works from the museum's collection, and she also has a site-specific commission at the Courtauld Gallery opening in September.

Female artists and new buyers breathe life into the art market

The global art market contracted by 12% in 2024, falling to an estimated $57.5 billion in sales from its 2022 peak, according to the Art Basel and UBS Art Market Report 2025 compiled by Dr. Clare McAndrew. Despite the overall decline, the number of transactions grew by 3%, driven by a broadening collector base and increased engagement with more affordable works. The report highlights a surge in interest in female artists, with galleries raising their representation to 41%, and notes that art fairs remain the most common entry point for new buyers. The Aotearoa Art Fair, opening May 1-4 at Auckland's Viaduct Events Centre, exemplifies these trends with strong Indigenous and Pacific representation, emerging artist platforms like Horizons 2025, and affordable works under $5,000 from established galleries such as Gow Langsford Gallery.

Don’t miss these 7 fantastic new London art exhibitions arriving in May 2025

Seven new art exhibitions opening in London in May 2025 are highlighted, including Do Ho Suh's 'Walk the House' at Tate Modern, the reopening of the National Gallery's Sainsbury Wing, and the V&A East Storehouse opening. Other shows include 'Fake Barn Country' at Raven Row, 'Encounters: Giacometti' at Barbican, and 'Hiroshige: Artist of the Open Road' at the British Museum, alongside a photography takeover at Somerset House.

Fresh blood for an ancient medium: 10 young painters to watch this spring

This article profiles ten young painters to watch this spring, highlighting their innovative approaches to the ancient medium of painting. Featured artists include British painter Francesca Mollett, whose abstractions have exceeded market expectations with works like 'Two Thistles' fetching over GBP 250,000 at auction; Samuel Hindolo, whose mysterious figurative and abstract paintings have caught the attention of critic Hilton Als; and Stanislava Kovalčíková, whose provocative mythological works were exhibited at Aspen Art Museum and who runs the independent space The White Ermine in Düsseldorf. Other artists mentioned include Evelyn Plaschg, who transforms mundane objects into unsettling meditations, with a solo museum exhibition opening at HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark.

The Kyrgyzstan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale Builds a Bridge Between Two Cultures

Il Padiglione del Kirghizistan alla Biennale di Venezia getta un ponte tra due culture

Alexey Morosov presents "BELEK" at the Kyrgyzstan Pavilion of the 61st Venice Biennale, a project inspired by the mountainous landscapes, glaciers, and brutalist dams of Kyrgyzstan. Combining video, sculpture, painting, and sound, Morosov explores water as a key resource for the future and a deep cultural memory of Central Asia, linking the region's hydro-engineering transformations with the nomadic heritage of the Kyrgyz people. The project centers on the traditional equestrian game Kok-Börü, which Morosov describes as constitutive of Kyrgyz identity, and features centaur-like figures made from raw earth used in local dwellings.

If you show up in a swimsuit, you get free entry to the Cézanne exhibition. It happens in one of Switzerland's most serious institutions.

Se ti presenti in costume da bagno entri gratis alla mostra di Cézanne. Succede in una delle istituzioni più serie della Svizzera

The Fondation Beyeler in Basel, Switzerland, is hosting a major monographic exhibition dedicated to Paul Cézanne, running until May 25, 2026. Curated by Ulf Küster, the show brings together around 80 works focusing on the artist's late career, including portraits, landscapes, variations on Mont Sainte-Victoire, and bather scenes. On May 1, 2026, the museum held a "Bathers Day" promotion inspired by Cézanne's bathers and Maurizio Cattelan's playful approach, offering free entry to visitors who came in swimwear. The event attracted families and individuals, with some even swimming in the foundation's garden pond afterward.

A Blockbuster Take on Ovid’s “Metamorphosis”

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has opened a major exhibition titled 'Metamorphoses,' inspired by Ovid's poem. The show brings together Renaissance masterpieces, antiquities, and contemporary works, grouping them by the myths they depict to explore themes of transformation, desire, and gender through striking visual juxtapositions.

The great Cézanne exhibition and collector Deodato Salafia on Artbox on Sky Arte

La grande mostra su Cézanne e il collezionista Deodato Salafia ad Artbox su Sky Arte

The latest episode of Artbox on Sky Arte features a deep dive into the major Paul Cézanne retrospective at the Fondation Beyeler in Basel, curated by Ulf Küster. The program explores the French painter's late-career obsession with the act of seeing and his use of color patches to redefine nature on canvas. Additionally, the episode highlights the exhibition "Virtue and Grace: Female Figures in Baroque Painting" at La Galleria Bper in Modena, featuring insights from curators Sabrina Bianchi and Lucia Peruzzi.

French Engineer Snags $1 Million Picasso With $116 Raffle Ticket

French engineer Ari Hodara has won a 1941 Pablo Picasso painting titled 'Tête de Femme' through a charity raffle after purchasing a single €100 ticket. The draw, held at Christie’s Paris, sold 120,000 tickets globally and raised €12 million for the Alzheimer’s Research Foundation. The artwork was sourced from the Opera Gallery, which will receive approximately €1 million of the proceeds.