documentary maintenance artist mierle laderman ukeles

A new documentary titled "Maintenance Artist," directed by Toby Perl Freilich, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival this month. The film follows Mierle Laderman Ukeles, the longtime unpaid artist-in-residence with New York City's Department of Sanitation, as she reflects on her career. It traces her journey from graduate student at Pratt Institute to pioneering maintenance art, including her Queens Museum retrospective and international projects elevating everyday workers. The documentary features interviews with art historians, curators, and city officials, and highlights Ukeles's iconic performances, such as shaking hands with every sanitation worker over 11 months.

jean dufy galerie jacques bailly

French artist Jean Dufy (1888–1964), brother of Raoul Dufy and a contemporary of Picasso and Braque, is the subject of a major new catalogue raisonné. Galerie Jacques Bailly in Paris has released Volume III of the catalogue, a 495-page volume with 801 reproductions and essays by Vanessa Schmitz-Grucker and Chantal Meslin-Perrier. The book explores Dufy's use of color, his depictions of post-war Parisian life, and his lesser-known work in porcelain design for Haviland Limoges.

rhea dillon joyce joumaa baloise art prize art basel

The Baloise Art Prize, worth $36,800, has been awarded to artists Rhea Dillon and Joyce Joumaa at Art Basel. Dillon's "Leaning Figures" sculptures, made from soap and molasses, were presented by London's Soft Opening gallery. Joumaa's installation "Periodic Sights," shown by Montreal's Eli Kerr Gallery, features photographs of Tripoli and Beirut commenting on energy crises in Lebanon. The prize is given annually to two artists in the fair's Statements sector.

gunther uecker german artist died

German artist Günther Uecker, renowned for his spiritual approach to art and innovative use of nails as a sculptural material, died on Tuesday at age 95 in a Düsseldorf hospital. His family confirmed the death to German news agency dpa, though no cause was given. Uecker was a key member of the Zero Group, which sought to reset art to a "zero base," and his work ranged from nail-covered surfaces to pianos, chairs, and television sets. He also designed a prayer room for Berlin's Reichstag and participated in major exhibitions including Documenta 4 and the Venice Biennale.

10 young female artists feminism

The article profiles ten young female artists who are using their work to explore and assert feminist perspectives in the face of contemporary misogyny, particularly referencing the US president-elect's rhetoric. Featured artists include Emma Sulkowicz, known for her durational performance 'Carry That Weight' protesting campus rape culture, and Sarah Maple, a British artist whose multimedia works tackle identity and gender with provocative humor. The piece highlights how these artists address themes such as sexual violence, gender fluidity, and the reclaiming of femininity through mediums ranging from performance and video to painting and photography.

behind the scenes at chicagos art week with gallerist daisy sanchez

Chicago's annual art week unfolded with gallerist Daisy Sanchez documenting the scene for Artnet News's 'Wet Paint in the Wild' column. Sanchez, who recently co-opened Hans Goodrich gallery with Peter Anastos, attended the Renaissance Society's annual benefit, EXPO Chicago, and after-parties. The week featured artists including Joanne Greenbaum, Leah Ke Yi Zhang, B. Ingrid Olsen, and Isabelle Frances McGuire, with appearances by curators Myriam Ben Salah, Karsten Lund, and Giampaolo Bianconi, among others.

as costs rise dealers in asia take a pragmatic approach to fair participation

The article reports that two major Asian art fairs, Taipei Dangdai Art and Ideas and Art Busan, are currently running through May 11, but both have seen significant drops in exhibitor numbers. Taipei Dangdai is down 32% to 53 galleries, while Art Busan is off 16% to 109 galleries. Dealers cite rising costs, geopolitical uncertainties, and fair fatigue as reasons for a more selective, pragmatic approach to participation, focusing on regional fairs and transactional value over visibility.

artists pull work whitney isp show palestine performance canceled

A group of artists participating in the Whitney Museum's Independent Study Program (ISP) have withdrawn their work from a capstone exhibition at Westbeth Gallery to protest the museum's cancellation of a pro-Palestine performance. The performance, titled "No Aesthetics Outside My Freedom: Mourning, Militancy, and Performance," by artists Fadl Fakhouri, Noel Maghathe, and Fargo Tbakhi, was scheduled for May 12 as part of the ISP curatorial exhibition "a grammar of attention." The Whitney canceled it after viewing a recording of an earlier presentation, citing the performers' demand that attendees who believe in Israel leave the audience and the valorization of specific acts of violence. ISP Associate Director Sara Nadal-Melsió stated that the cancellation was imposed by Whitney leadership, including director Scott Rothkopf, and that the independence of the ISP has been seriously compromised.

nea funding cuts

President Donald Trump has proposed eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and arts organizations across the U.S. are already feeling the impact. After a White House budget request in May that excluded the NEA, dozens of institutions received abrupt termination notices for their grant applications, with the NEA citing a shift in policy priorities to focus on projects reflecting the nation's artistic heritage as prioritized by the President. In protest, many senior NEA staff resigned or were asked to retire, leaving the agency in disarray. The cuts are part of broader federal efforts to defund cultural agencies, including the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, which has seen a 70-80 percent staff reduction and canceled over a thousand grants. Private foundations like the Mellon Foundation and the Helen Frankenthaler and Andy Warhol Foundations have launched emergency funding programs, but the consequences for artists, educators, and community organizations are immediate and destabilizing.

tommy cash

Estonian rapper and provocateur Tommy Cash sparked controversy at the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland, with lyrics that parodied Italian stereotypes, leading Italy to call for his disqualification. Despite finishing third, the incident has drawn renewed global attention to Cash, who has long been a boundary-pushing figure in European art and music. Artnet News resurfaced a 2022 interview with Cash, born Tomas Tammemets in 1991, who describes himself as an artist working across music, fashion, and installation projects, blending post-Soviet visual language with high and low culture references.

pope francis contemporary art obituary

Pope Francis, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, has died at age 88. A Jesuit priest from Argentina, he was the first pope from the Americas and the first from outside Europe since the 8th century. During his papacy, he took progressive stances on social justice, migrants, the environment, and the LGBTQ community, and also engaged deeply with contemporary art. He oversaw the Vatican Museums, ordered the return of Parthenon marble fragments to Greece, restored Raphael frescoes, and became the first pope to visit the Venice Biennale, where the Vatican had its first-ever pavilion in 2013.

moma ice cream art

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has launched a new exclusive ice cream flavor called "Van Dough" in its second-floor cafe and sculpture garden food stand. Created in collaboration between Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG) and Caffè Panna, the flavor features vanilla ice cream mixed with MoMA chocolate chip cookie dough chunks and chocolate chips. The article traces MoMA's long history with ice cream, including its ownership of Claes Oldenburg's *Pastry Case, I* (1961–62) and *Floor Cone* (1962), a 1935 Zeroll ice cream scoop by Sherman L. Kelly in its design collection, and a 2013 ice cream social with Milk Not Jails as part of artist Caroline Woolard's project.

pope francis legacy art venice biennale restitution

Pope Francis died on April 20 at age 88, ending a transformative papacy that began in 2013. He was the first Jesuit pope, first from the southern hemisphere, and took his name from St. Francis of Assisi. Known for austerity and advocacy for the oppressed, he criticized wars in Gaza and Ukraine, apologized to Indigenous communities in Canada, and made history in 2024 by attending the Venice Biennale—the first pope to do so—visiting the Holy See Pavilion at the Women's Prison on Giudecca.

pope francis has died champion of artists

Pope Francis died on Easter Monday at his home in Casa Santa Marta at age 88, the Vatican announced. During his 12-year papacy, the first Jesuit and Latin American pontiff showed strong support for artists, becoming the first pope to visit the Venice Biennale last year, where he spoke at the Vatican's pavilion held in a women's prison. He emphasized the importance of contemporary art and women creators, citing Frida Kahlo and Louise Bourgeois, and urged artists to keep questioning and taking risks.

Arghavan Khosravi’s Intricate Paintings Find Hope amid Oppression

Arghavan Khosravi creates intricate, surreal three-dimensional paintings that blend sculptural elements with painted canvases, featuring hidden details such as creased book spines, concealed female figures, and glowing bullets. In an interview at her Connecticut studio, she explains her preference for works that reveal themselves gradually over time, rather than shouting for attention.

How to Buy Minimalist Art

Artsy Editorial offers a guide on buying Minimalist art, explaining the movement's core principles of geometric shapes, limited color palettes, and material reduction. The article highlights key artists such as Carl Andre and Polly Apfelbaum, and emphasizes that Minimalism focuses on the idea behind the work rather than the artist's technical skill.

Julie Mehretu Captures Our Contemporary Chaos in Shimmering Abstract Paintings

Julie Mehretu has established herself as a preeminent voice in contemporary abstraction by creating dense, multilayered canvases that synthesize architectural drawings, maps, and media imagery. Her work is characterized by a meticulous accumulation of marks that transform sociopolitical data and historical events into ethereal, gestural compositions. By layering information until it reaches a point of abstraction, she explores how individual and collective identities are shaped by the built environment and global shifts.

5 Ways the Art World Can Better Support Women Artists

Sculptor Thaddeus Mosley dies at 99.

Sculptor Thaddeus Mosley dies at 99.

Sculptor Thaddeus Mosley, a self-taught artist renowned for his monumental abstract wood sculptures, has died at the age of 99. Working for decades in his Pittsburgh basement, Mosley used locally sourced felled trees and traditional hand tools to create dynamic, asymmetrical forms that channeled both modernist principles and African artistic traditions. His prolific career, which began in his 30s, gained significant institutional recognition only in his later decades, culminating in a major 2022 solo exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Trisha Donnelly at MUSEUM MMK FÜR MODERNE KUNST

The Museum MMK für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt is presenting an exhibition of work by American artist Trisha Donnelly. The show features a range of her untitled pieces from 2005 to 2025, including sculptures, photographs, and other media, drawn from her own studio and various international collections and galleries.

Brushstrokes Transform into Beaded Topographies in Liza Lou’s Mixed-Media Paintings

Artist Liza Lou is presenting a new body of work that merges the legacy of Abstract Expressionist brushstrokes with intricate beadwork. Her solo exhibition, 'FAQ,' at Thaddaeus Ropac in London features mixed-media paintings where thousands of glass beads are meticulously placed atop fields of oil paint, creating textured, chromatic topographies that transform gestural marks into sculptural forms.

“The Adventure of Domenico Gnoli” at Lévy Gorvy Dayan, New York

Lévy Gorvy Dayan in New York is presenting “The Adventure of Domenico Gnoli,” a survey of the Italian artist’s work including paintings, drawings, etchings, notebooks, and letters. The exhibition is organized in collaboration with Gnoli’s widow, Yannick Vu, the artist’s estate, Mimì Gnoli, and the Livia Polidoro-Gnoli Archive, and follows his major 2021–22 retrospective at the Fondazione Prada in Milan.

The Big Review | Lacma's David Geffen Galleries ★★★★

The Swiss architect Peter Zumthor's new $724 million building for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Lacma), now called the David Geffen Galleries, has opened after nearly two decades of anticipation. The swooping concrete-and-glass structure is praised for its harnessing of natural light and horizontality, creating a stunning showcase for antiquities and inviting the city inside with floor-to-ceiling windows offering views of the La Brea Tar Pits and Wilshire Boulevard. The building performs best with sculpture and decorative objects, with standout works including Liz Glynn's "The Futility of Conquest" (2023) and Manjunath Kamath's "Vikatonarva" (2024).

Memory, Migration, Materiality: 12 Artists to Watch During Alserkal Art Month

Alserkal Art Month (April 18–May 18, 2026) in Dubai features a district-wide initiative of exhibitions and events, anchored by the group show "Déjà Vu" at Concrete, Alserkal Avenue (April 25–May 8). Curated by Kevin Jones, Nada Raza, and Zaina Zaarour, the exhibition brings together over 50 artists from 20 UAE-based galleries, centering on themes of memory, displacement, and cultural inheritance. The article profiles 12 standout artists, including Shahpour Pouyan and Juma Al Haj, whose works translate these tensions into materially inventive and conceptually rigorous practices.

The Interview: Steven Soderbergh

Steven Soderbergh discusses his new film *The Christophers* (2025), which follows a cantankerous artist and his young assistant tasked with forging his unfinished works, exploring themes of authorship, originality, and the ethics of art-making. In an interview with ArtReview, Soderbergh also addresses his recent use of AI in a documentary about John Lennon, defending the technology as a creative tool akin to his own filmmaking process, and reflects on his career spanning genres from indie dramas to studio blockbusters.

Ed Ruscha | Billy (1968) | Art & Prints

Ed Ruscha's 1968 exhibition catalogue 'Billy', designed for a show of works by his friend Billy Al Bengston, is being offered for sale. The catalogue features a flocked sandpaper cover, satin ribbon bookmark, and machine screw and hex nut binding, and was published by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for an exhibition that traveled to the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Vancouver Art Gallery. The work is listed on an art marketplace platform with a price of €62,600, and the listing includes details about its condition, provenance, and the artist's broader career.

This influential L.A. collector bought the artists no one else would. The art world is finally catching up

Eileen Harris Norton, a foundational figure in the Los Angeles art scene, is being celebrated with a major exhibition of her collection at Hauser & Wirth. The show, "Destiny Is a Rose: The Eileen Harris Norton Collection," features over 80 works, many from her home, highlighting her five-decade commitment to collecting artists who were often her friends and neighbors, particularly women, artists of color, and Southern California-based artists.

The art world remembers Valie Export, Austrian pioneer of feminist performance art

VALIE EXPORT, the Austrian pioneer of feminist performance art, died on 14 May, three days before her 86th birthday. Her death was confirmed by her representative, Thaddaeus Ropac. Born Waltraud Lehner in Linz in 1940, she developed a radical artistic language centered on the female body, known for works such as *Tap and Touch Cinema* (1968–1971) and *Body Configurations* (1972–1976). Tributes have poured in from artists, writers, and institutions, including the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin and the Belvedere Museum in Vienna, where director Stella Rollig noted their ongoing collaboration on the exhibition *Feminist Futures Forever*.

Esther fair goes out on top

The Esther art fair, a satellite of Frieze New York, opened its third and final iteration at Estonian House on East 34th Street. Founded by Estonian gallerists Olga Temnikova and Margot Samel, the fair eschews conventional stands, instead arranging 22 participating galleries and three bespoke projects throughout the historic Beaux-Arts building’s basement, salons, and upper floors. Highlights include sold-out presentations at Adams and Ollman and Management, works by Katja Novitskova, Jill Goldstein, and Elīna Vītola, and a special project by Darja Popolitova and Madlen Hirtentreu turning beauty-industry equipment into installations. Gallerists praised the cooperative atmosphere, contrasting it with larger, more institutionalized fairs.

frank diaz escalet

Hollis Taggart is hosting a retrospective of Frank Diaz Escalet, a Puerto Rican-born artist whose unique practice involved creating intricate figurative compositions from inlaid leather. Raised in New York and later based in Maine, Escalet transitioned from a master leather craftsman catering to celebrities like the Rolling Stones to a fine artist focused on the lives of everyday people. The exhibition showcases his self-taught technique of cutting, dyeing, and conjoining leather shapes to create vibrant scenes of Puerto Rican culture and urban life.