Workers at the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) are moving to unionize through Local 2110 of the United Auto Workers (UAW), a first in the organization's history. Staff cited a lack of transparency, unfair wages, and unsustainable working conditions as reasons for the push, with support from unions representing workers at major New York cultural institutions like the Museum of Modern Art and the Brooklyn Museum.
Jackie Amézquita, a Los Angeles-based artist originally from Guatemala, has developed a unique brick-making process using soil and masa de maíz (corn dough) mixed with organic materials like blue pea flower, cocoa, cochineal, and charcoal to create vibrant, colorful bricks. Her work, including the 2023 installation *El suelo que nos alimenta* commissioned by the Hammer Museum for the Made in L.A. biennial, uses soil from each of LA's neighborhoods to explore themes of migration, memory, and colonial legacies. Amézquita's practice is deeply personal, drawing on her family's migration history—her mother moved from Guatemala in 1987, and her grandmother fled Mexico during the Cristero War—and her own eight-day walk from Tijuana to LA, during which she collected soil samples as an archive of memory.
Archaeologists from Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History have uncovered a 500-year-old Aztec ritual offering at the Templo Mayor site in Mexico City. The discovery consists of six volcanic stone boxes containing greenstone sculptures, thousands of marine shells, copal spheres, and pendants, all forming a complete ceremonial assemblage from the reign of Emperor Moctezuma I (1440-1469).
The Jewish Museum in New York's exhibition 'Paul Klee: Other Possible Worlds' is missing its central artwork, Paul Klee's 'Angelus Novus' (1920). The original, owned by Walter Benjamin and normally housed at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, is absent due to "current conditions affecting international transport," a likely reference to the Israel-Hamas war. A reproduction stands in its place, alongside Benjamin's famous 'Angel of History' text, which interprets the angel as a figure witnessing the catastrophic pile-up of history.
A long-lost film by French cinema pioneer Georges Méliès has been discovered in a garage in Grand Rapids, Michigan, after sitting in a trunk for two decades. The 45-second silent short, titled 'Gugusse and the Automaton' (1897), was identified by specialists at the Library of Congress after the owner, Bill McFarland, donated a collection of nitrate reels that had belonged to his showman great-grandfather.
The Galerie Lelong in New York is presenting the first U.S. solo exhibition of Argentine-Italian artist Elda Cerrato, who died in 2023. The show features two distinct series: abstract "cosmovision" paintings from the 1960s exploring invisible energies, and more overtly political map-based works from the 1970s created in response to authoritarian regimes in Latin America.
The House Oversight Committee has released a crude drawing that President Donald Trump reportedly gave to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003. The sketch, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, features a marker outline of a naked woman with Trump's apparent signature placed where her pubic hair would be. Trump has denied creating the drawing, claiming he has never drawn, and has filed a $10 billion libel lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and its owner Rupert Murdoch. The New York Times compared Trump's signature on the drawing with his correspondence from 1987 to 2001 and found they "closely matched."
Leonard Lauder, the 85-year-old chairman emeritus of Estée Lauder Companies, has amassed a collection of approximately 130,000 postcards, many of which are a promised gift to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. A selection of 350 propagandist postcards from the World War I and World War II eras is now featured in a new exhibition at the MFA titled “The Art of Influence: Propaganda Postcards from the Era of World Wars” (through January 21), accompanied by a publication. Lauder began collecting as a boarding school student in Miami Beach, drawn to the idealized images and vibrant colors of Art Deco hotel postcards, and later expanded to historical and propagandist cards that he describes as “living history.”
A new documentary titled *Secret Mall Apartment*, directed by Jeremy Workman and produced by Jesse Eisenberg, tells the true story of eight artists who secretly built and lived in a hidden apartment inside the Providence Place mall in Providence, Rhode Island, for four years in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Led by Michael Townsend, the group—including Adriana Valdez Young, Andrew Oesch, Jay Zehngebot, Colin Bliss, James Mercer, Greta Scheing, and Emily Ustach—transformed a forgotten dead zone of the corporate complex into a living space and art collective headquarters, calling the project "Malllife." The film features never-before-identified participants and footage of their discovery by mall authorities.
This Hyperallergic newsletter covers multiple New York art stories: Joe Macken's 50-foot hand-built wood replica of New York City now on long-term view at the Museum of the City of New York, Tuan Andrew Nguyen's towering Buddha sculpture on the High Line referencing the destroyed Bamiyan Buddhas, and the MoMA PS1 survey "Greater New York." It also reports on CONDUCTOR, New York's first art fair committed to the global majority, a new experimental artist-run space called The Gallery in Brooklyn, and reviews of Mark Milroy at JJ Murphy and Kim Gordon at Amant.
Artist Natasha Tontey will unveil a major immersive installation titled "The Phantom Combatants and the Metabolism of Disobedient Organs" during the Venice Biennale at the Ateneo Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti. Jointly commissioned by Berlin’s LAS Art Foundation and Helsinki’s Amos Rex, the work combines video, sound, light, and sculpture to reimagine the story of Len Karamoy, a combatant in the CIA-supported Permesta movement that fought the Indonesian government from 1957 to 1961 in North Sulawesi. Tontey, a Minahasan Indigenous artist, uses LiDAR, quantum ghost imaging, and other technologies to explore Indigenous identity, ecology, and the blurring of history and myth.
The 13th edition of Expo Chicago has opened at Navy Pier with a streamlined selection of 130 international exhibitors. This year’s fair features a more curated and manageable scale, drawing a significant crowd of museum directors, curators, and collectors to the Windy City. Notable presentations range from contemporary Canadian artist duos to rare historical artifacts, reflecting a high bar for quality across diverse media.
The Obama Presidential Center in Chicago has unveiled its final cohort of artist commissions ahead of its scheduled opening in June. This group includes high-profile contemporary artists such as Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Jeffrey Gibson, and Lorna Simpson, who will contribute site-specific works ranging from a multi-layered portrait of the Obamas to a 34-foot stainless steel sculpture by Martin Puryear honoring the late John Lewis. These eight artists join a previously announced roster, bringing the total number of new commissions for the 19.3-acre South Side campus to 30.
Artist Michael Joo has unveiled a major survey exhibition, "Sweat Models 1991–2026," at Space ZeroOne, a new institutional initiative by the Hanwha Foundation of Culture in Tribeca. The show features career-spanning works including "Concatenations," a massive architectural installation composed of century-old aluminum baking trays and personal ephemera, and salt-block sculptures that reference his background in biology and his family's history in cattle ranching.
A painting by David Salle titled "Hatchet" (2025) was removed from his solo exhibition at Sprüth Magers in Los Angeles following allegations of plagiarism. Critics and social media users pointed out that the work's central figure—a woman in a black-and-white dress holding a sledgehammer—bore a striking resemblance to the 2021 painting "Impact" by artist Kelly Reemtsen. While Salle is a pioneer of the Pictures Generation known for appropriation, the gallery stated the work was withdrawn out of respect for both artists and to acknowledge the ongoing dialogue regarding authorship.
Los Angeles-based artist Alex Prager has opened "Mirage Factory," an immersive installation on Miami Beach's Lincoln Road, taking over the historic Beach Theatre. The project features three constructed set pieces that explore Los Angeles history, including a 1:12 scale model of Hollywood Boulevard with landmarks like Grauman's Chinese Theatre and Musso & Frank's, an orange grove with real trees and fake citrus, and a lush garden party set in Griffith Park. The installation is part of an ongoing collaboration between Capital One and the Cultivist, and includes an immersive dining experience by chef Dave Beran, with a performance by Diana Ross. The public can visit on December 4 and 5, 2025.
Acquavella Galleries, a blue-chip gallery known for secondary market sales, has taken exclusive US representation of Swiss sculptor Harumi Klossowska de Rola. The artist, daughter of painter Balthus and ceramicist Setsuko Klossowska de Rola, creates bronze and alabaster animal sculptures that blend fine art and design. Her works, priced from under $100,000 to over half a million dollars, are cast in small editions and meticulously reworked by hand. Acquavella discovered her work at the Palm Beach home of collector Peter Brant. Her first show with the gallery opened in Palm Beach, accompanied by a Rizzoli book, with new works planned for Art Basel Paris and a major solo exhibition at Acquavella's New York space in 2026.
Four artworks by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Pablo Picasso, and Diane Arbus, seized by the U.S. Department of Justice in connection with the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) scandal, sold for a combined $36 million in an online auction conducted by the U.S. Marshals Service. The lots included Basquiat's *Self Portrait* (1982) for $8.3 million and *Red Man One* (1982) for $22 million, Picasso's *Tête de taureau et broc* (1939) for $5 million, and Arbus's *Child with a Toy Hand Grenade* for $500,150. The auction, held by Gaston and Sheehan in Texas, ran from July 16 to September 4.
Brooklin A. Soumahoro, a self-taught painter based in Los Angeles, is featured in ARTnews' 2025 "New Talent" issue. Born in Paris and working in a Glassell Park studio, he creates oil paintings that blend methodical color theory with intuitive emotion, drawing inspiration from West African textile designs, synesthesia, and the Fauvist palette of Henri Matisse. His recent solo exhibition "The Open Window" at François Ghebaly gallery in Los Angeles presented works inspired by the south of France, directly engaging with Matisse's iconic paintings.
Natasha Tontey's new installation "The Phantom Combatants" at the Ateneo Veneto in Venice reimagines the story of Len Karamoy, a woman who was part of the CIA-funded Permesta resistance movement in North Sulawesi, Indonesia (1957-1961). The 22-minute film, commissioned by the LAS foundation and Amos Rex, features absurdly muscular mutant warriors and draws on Indigenous belief systems, video games, Indonesian soap operas, and B-movie aesthetics to explore themes of autonomy, resistance, and historical perspective.
This episode of 'A brush with...' podcast features Scottish painter Andrew Cranston, born in 1969 in Hawick. Cranston discusses how his work draws on personal experiences—childhood memories, family recollections, and recent rituals—filtered through the painting process. His pictures are rich with references to art history, cinema, poetry, and television, and he often paints on the covers of old hardback books. The conversation covers his influences (Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Paul Klee, Pierre Bonnard, Winifred Nicholson, writers Hugh MacDiarmid and Elizabeth Bishop, filmmakers Nicholas Roeg and Dennis Potter), his studio life, and his answer to 'what is art for?' The episode is sponsored by Bloomberg Connects.
The Association of International Photography Art Dealers (Aipad) has opened the 45th edition of The Photography Show at New York's Park Avenue Armory. The fair features around 65 exhibitors in its main section, with a new Focal Point sector highlighting 13 solo presentations by boundary-pushing artists. Returning participants include major New York photography galleries, alongside first-time exhibitors and galleries returning after an absence.
TEFAF New York returns to the Park Avenue Armory from May 15–19, 2026, with an invitation-only preview on May 14. The fair features 88 international exhibitors from 14 countries across four continents, showcasing a wide range of collecting categories including art, antiquities, design, and jewelry. Highlights include a new abstract canvas by Minjung Kim, a glass mosaic by Shahzia Sikander, ancient Egyptian and Roman works, and pieces by modern masters such as Jean Dubuffet, Martin Kippenberger, Pierre Soulages, Barbara Hepworth, John Chamberlain, and Cecily Brown.
Artist Isabel Nolan recently discovered she has aphantasia, a rare neurological condition that prevents her from visualizing mental images. Despite this, Nolan has built a successful career creating abstract sculptures, drawings, and tapestries, and her work is featured in the Irish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Her exhibition, "Dreamshook," explores themes of imagination versus reality and draws inspiration from late medieval history and the printer Aldo Manuzio.
Van Doren Waxter in New York is hosting "Portraits," a solo exhibition dedicated to the late American abstract painter Jackie Saccoccio. The show features five paintings and seven works on paper that showcase Saccoccio’s mature style, characterized by a physically demanding process of dragging, pressing, and dripping paint. These works bridge the gap between gestural abstraction and the psychological depth of traditional portraiture, drawing inspiration from both Abstract Expressionism and Roman Baroque aesthetics.
The U.K. government has placed a temporary export bar on Howard Hodgkin’s painting "Mrs Acton in Delhi" (1967–71) following its record-breaking £1.7 million sale at Bonhams. The move by the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport is intended to provide British institutions or domestic collectors the opportunity to match the price and keep the work within the country. The painting is considered a national treasure due to its aesthetic importance and its role in documenting Hodgkin's transition from Pop art to his signature emotive abstraction.
aca galleries 100 years of black art 2747885
ACA Galleries in New York is hosting "Continuum: Over 100 Years of Black Art," an expansive group exhibition running through March 7, 2026. The show features a diverse array of media—including painting, sculpture, textiles, and collage—by more than a dozen pioneering Black artists. Spanning from the 19th century to the present day, the exhibition highlights key figures such as still-life painter Charles Ethan Porter, collagist Romare Bearden, and contemporary textile artist Helen McBride Richter.
The Mayor Gallery in London is celebrating its centenary with a three-part exhibition series revisiting its history. The second part, 'Celebrating 100 years – Part 2: European Art,' is on view through February 20, 2026, showcasing post-war European artists from movements like ZERO, Arte Povera, and Concrete art, including works by Armando, Lucio Fontana, François Morellet, and Man Ray.
Tristan Unrau, a 36-year-old Los Angeles-based painter originally from Canada, creates works that deliberately avoid a singular style, instead copying or channeling a vast range of art historical sources—from Old Masters and Modernists to cartoons and photorealism. His pluralistic approach has earned him a dedicated following, and David Kordansky Gallery announced representation of the artist this fall, planning a major solo exhibition in Los Angeles in March 2026. Unrau, who earned his MFA at UCLA, is currently preparing for that show in his East Hollywood studio, producing paintings that reference artists such as Bruegel, Jean-Luc Godard, František Kupka, Emil Nolde, and Willem de Kooning.
Sam Falls has created two paintings, "Rewilding" (2024) and "King's Crossing" (2024), for Ruinart's "Conversations with Nature" program, following a residency at the Champagne house's Taissy vineyard near Reims. The works, which incorporate natural materials and ecological processes, will debut at Art Basel Miami Beach in December 2024 before traveling to Ruinart's headquarters. Falls's practice involves arranging plants on canvas and using pigment that reacts to humidity and sunlight, reflecting a collaboration with the environment.