Brandywine Conservancy and Museum picks architects for $100m expansion project

The Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, has selected Kengo Kuma & Associates, along with landscape architects Field Operations and Schwartz Silver Architects, to lead a $100 million expansion project. The plan includes a new 40,000-square-foot museum building, renovation of the existing 19th-century grist mill museum, and a ten-mile loop of walking trails connecting the two buildings to the historic studios of artists N.C. Wyeth and Andrew Wyeth. Construction is expected to begin in spring 2025, with completion in autumn 2029. Nearly half the funding has been raised, including contributions from the Wyeth Foundation for American Art and Wyeth family members.

Harnessing the winds of societal change: how art dealers have been able to shape taste for centuries

Valentina Castellani, a former Gagosian director, has authored a new book titled *Trading Beauty: Art Market Histories from the Altar to the Gallery* (out 1 May). The book traces how art dealers have historically leveraged societal changes—political, economic, and social—to reshape taste and market structures. Castellani begins in the Middle Ages, when art was made only on commission for patrons like the Catholic church and monarchies, and moves through key shifts such as the Dutch Republic's first open art market in the 17th century, which gave rise to the professional art dealer. She highlights dealers like Paul Durand-Ruel, Joseph Duveen, and Leo Castelli who capitalized on anti-establishment energy, new wealth, and post-war consumer culture to bring avant-garde art to the forefront.

V&A East Launches With a Fresh Lens on a 2.8 Million-Object Collection

The Victoria & Albert Museum has opened V&A East, a new $180 million outpost in east London designed by architects O'Donnell + Tuomey. Its mission is to engage young and local audiences by presenting over 500 objects from its 2.8 million-strong collection in thematic, non-chronological displays that connect historical artifacts to contemporary issues like identity, social justice, and environmental responsibility.

Tokyo Architect Kengo Kuma Beats Out Renzo Piano and Selldorf to Design National Gallery’s £350 M. New Wing

The National Gallery in London has appointed Tokyo-based architect Kengo Kuma to design a new £350 million wing as part of its ambitious £750 million "Project Domani" expansion. Kuma, known for the V&A Dundee, beat out high-profile Pritzker Prize winners Renzo Piano and Norman Foster for the commission. The project involves the demolition of St. Vincent House to create 15,000 square feet of new exhibition space dedicated to 20th and 21st-century art, along with new pedestrian zones and a roof garden.

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The global art landscape is set for a significant transformation in 2025 with the opening of several high-profile museum projects. These range from the long-awaited reopening of New York’s Frick Collection and the Studio Museum in Harlem to ambitious international debuts like the PoMo museum in Norway and the Fenix Museum of Migration Stories in Rotterdam. These projects feature designs by world-renowned architects including Annabelle Selldorf, India Mahdavi, and MAD Architects, often repurposing historic structures with bold contemporary additions.

The Women Artists Who Turned Ireland’s Saints Into National Icons

A new exhibition, "Collaborating in Conflict: The Yeats Family and the Public Arts," at the McMullen Museum of Art, spotlights the revolutionary contributions of sisters Susan Mary (Lily) and Elizabeth Corbet (Lolly) Yeats. Long overshadowed by their famous brothers, the sisters co-founded the Dun Emer Industries cooperative, which included a press and a textile guild, and produced embroidered banners of Irish saints for St. Brendan's Cathedral, playing a pivotal role in the Irish Arts and Crafts movement.

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The Arkansas Museum of Art in Little Rock is presenting "Architects of Being," an exhibition pairing the work of Esphyr Slobodkina and Louise Nevelson through January 11, 2026. Slobodkina, a Russian-born Jewish immigrant and founding member of the American Abstract Artists, was a painter, sculptor, writer, and fashion designer who also authored the classic children's book *Caps for Sale*. Nevelson, also an Eastern European Jewish immigrant, is renowned for her monochromatic wood assemblages. The show juxtaposes their geometric abstractions, collages, sculptures, and personal fashion, curated as a hypothetical dialogue between two kindred spirits who never met. The exhibition will travel to the Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia, and the New Britain Museum of American Art.

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The Diriyah Biennale Foundation has announced the artist list for the third edition of the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, opening January 30 in the JAX District of Diriyah, near Riyadh. Titled “In Interludes and Transitions,” the biennale is curated by Nora Razian and Sabih Ahmed and features over 65 artists, including more than 20 new commissions. Participants range from historic figures like Pacita Abad and Etel Adnan to emerging voices such as Raven Chacon and Dineo Seshee Bopape, working across painting, installation, film, sound, architecture, and publishing.

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Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha has appointed Lebanese architect Lina Ghotmeh to lead a major campus expansion, announced as the institution celebrates its 15th anniversary. The project will redesign the ground floor lobby and library as an open majlis-inspired space, expand the cafe and shop, add a monumental portrait by Yan Pei-Ming, and later transform the plaza and parking area into artist studios, ceramics facilities, glass and material labs, and a sound studio in collaboration with Tarek Atoui. Mathaf director Zeina Arida called the plan 'a new chapter' for the museum.

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A week after wildfires erupted across Los Angeles, the city remains under critical threat as the Pacific Palisades, Eaton, Hollywood Hills, and San Fernando Valley fires have forced the evacuation of roughly 200,000 residents, destroyed about 12,000 buildings, and claimed at least 24 lives. Among the losses are culturally and architecturally significant structures, including the Bunny Museum in Altadena, the historic Will Rogers ranch, the Altadena Community Church (designed by Harry L. Pierce), the Andrew McNally House (a Queen Anne-style mansion by Frederick Roehrig), Richard Neutra's Benedict and Nancy Freedman House, and Gregory Ain's Park Planned Homes in Altadena. Adrian Scott Fine of the Los Angeles Conservancy described the destruction as "a mass erasure of heritage."

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Pilar Tompkins Rivas, chief curator and deputy director of curatorial and collections at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles, has left the museum less than a year before its scheduled September 2026 opening. The museum stated it has no immediate plans to replace her, with George Lucas continuing to oversee curatorial direction. This departure follows a series of staffing issues, including the exit of director and CEO Sandra Jackson-Dumont in March 2025, layoffs of 22 staff members in May, and the earlier losses of curator Amanda Hunt and curator-at-large Dan Nadel. The $1-billion museum, first announced in 2017, has faced repeated delays due to the pandemic and supply-chain shortages.

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London's National Gallery has announced Project Domani, a nearly $1 billion initiative to collect 20th- and 21st-century art and build a new wing to house it. The institution has shortlisted six architectural firms—including Foster + Partners, Renzo Piano Building Workshop, and Kengo Kuma and Associates—from 65 entrants in an international competition, with a winner to be announced in April. About half the funds have been raised, with major pledges from Crankstart, the Julia Rausing Trust, and the National Gallery Trust. The wing will be built on the last undeveloped portion of the campus at 30 Orange Street and is projected to open in the early 2030s.

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Barack Obama discussed the Obama Presidential Center, set to open spring 2025 on Chicago's South Side, in a New York Times interview. The four-building complex will include a museum, library, auditorium, basketball court, gardens, and commissioned works by 25 artists, including Julie Mehretu, Maya Lin, Nick Cave, Jenny Holzer, Kiki Smith, and Richard Hunt. Designed by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien Architects, the centerpiece is an eight-story granite museum nicknamed "the Obamalisk," featuring an 83-foot-tall abstract glass work by Mehretu. Obama emphasized the center's role as a public space to inspire community action, not a presidential mausoleum.

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Independent 20th Century art fair has announced that its 2026 edition will be hosted by Sotheby’s at the auction house’s new flagship headquarters in Manhattan’s historic Breuer building. The move, first reported by the New York Times, marks a significant expansion for the fair and an unprecedented collaboration between an art fair and an auction house in the modern art market. Founded in 2022, Independent 20th Century focuses on overlooked and celebrated artists of the last century, with curatorial programming that reframes movements from women in Surrealism to Arab Modernism. The Breuer—a landmark of Modernist architecture designed by Marcel Breuer and recently renovated by Herzog & de Meuron with PBDW Architects—will allow the fair to grow to more than 50 galleries, up from 31 at its most recent edition.

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Sotheby's has announced November 8 as the opening date for its new headquarters in the iconic Breuer Building at 945 Madison Avenue, New York. The auction house purchased the building from the Whitney Museum in 2023 and commissioned Pritzker Prize-winning architects Herzog & de Meuron, along with PBDW Architects, to renovate the landmarked structure. The opening will feature a blockbuster exhibition of modern and contemporary art, followed by major sales the week of November 17. The building, designed by Marcel Breuer and completed in 1966, previously housed the Whitney Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Frick Collection.

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The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy has acquired 11 original pieces designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for the Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, including the lobby direction board, an armchair, three copper tables, two stools, and four embossed copper panels. The acquisition, funded by donors, was made to prevent further sale and dispersal of the items after they were sold without the conservancy's permission in spring 2024, despite being protected under a preservation easement. The artifacts are currently stored in the Dallas area, and the conservancy intends to return them to Price Tower.

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The Goodwood Art Foundation, a new contemporary art destination set within the 11,000-acre Goodwood Estate in West Sussex, England, opens to the public on May 31. The inaugural season features works by Susan Philipsz, Rachel Whiteread (including a monumental staircase sculpture *Down and Up*), Veronica Ryan, Rose Wylie, Isamu Noguchi, and Hélio Oiticica (whose *Magic Square #3* will be the first outdoor sculpture by the late Brazilian artist in Europe). The estate, owned by Charles Gordon-Lennox, the 11th Duke of Richmond, is historically known for sporting events like the Festival of Speed and the Qatar Goodwood Festival, and houses a historic art collection including Canalettos and works by George Stubbs.

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Architect and designer Michael Graves has died at age 80 of natural causes at his home in Princeton, New Jersey. Known for iconic projects such as the Portland Municipal Services Building, the Denver Public Library, and the Alessi tea kettle for Target, Graves was a leading figure in postmodern architecture. His death prompted tributes from fellow architects Tod Williams and Richard Meier, who recalled his teaching at Princeton University and his influence on the field. Graves also designed the Humana Building, Team Disney building, and Walt Disney World Dolphin Resort, and in later years focused on accessibility projects after becoming paralyzed from a spinal cord infection.

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New York City will gain a major new cultural venue in 2026 called Canyon, a 18,000-square-foot hub on the Lower East Side dedicated to durational, time-based art forms such as video, sound, and performance. Founded by philanthropist and collector Robert Rosenkranz, the space is designed by New Affiliates Architecture and will feature state-of-the-art galleries, a 300-seat performance hall, and a skylit piazza with food and beverage options. Joe Thompson, founding director of MASS MoCA, will serve as the venue's director. Canyon has already appointed conservator Cass Fino-Radin as director of art and technology and curator Sam Ozer as curator-at-large, with partners including Rhizome, Electronic Arts Intermix, and the Archive of Contemporary Music. Its inaugural exhibitions will include a major retrospective of Japanese new media artist Ryoji Ikeda and a show titled "Worldbuilding" curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist.

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has unveiled the renovated Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, dedicated to the art of Africa, Oceania, and the ancient Americas. Designed by Kulapat Yantrasast of WHY Architecture with Beyer, Blinder, Belle Architects, the 40,000-square-foot wing opened to the public on May 31, showcasing 1,800 objects from 663 cultures across 90 countries. The collection originated from Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, who began acquiring non-Western art in 1930 and later founded the Museum of Primitive Art in 1957 after the Met initially declined his donation.

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Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, has acquired a monumental Tiffany stained-glass window titled "Mountain Landscape (Root Memorial Window)," created by Tiffany Studios in 1917 and designed by Agnes Northrup. The 9-foot-tall, 8-foot-wide window, which depicts a cascading waterfall and mountains, was previously installed for 94 years at the Sunset Ridge Church and Collective in San Antonio, Texas. It is only the second Tiffany work in the museum's collection, joining a wisteria lamp donated in 2022.

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A new cultural institution called Fenix has opened in Rotterdam, Netherlands, dedicated entirely to the topic of migration. Housed in a 1923 waterfront warehouse that once served the Holland America Line—a major transporter of cargo and passengers—the museum occupies nearly 175,000 square feet in the Katendrecht neighborhood, a historic gateway for millions of immigrants in the 19th and 20th centuries. Designed by Ma Yansong of MAD Architects, the building features a central double-helix staircase nicknamed the Tornado, leading to a rooftop observation deck. Three inaugural exhibitions, including “All Directions,” showcase over 150 artworks and objects by artists such as Max Beckmann, Willem de Kooning, Sophie Calle, and Yinka Shonibare, alongside personal mementoes from local families.

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Adrien Brody won the Best Actor Oscar at the 97th Academy Awards for his role in *The Brutalist*, a film directed by Brady Corbet that premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, where it won the Silver Lion for best director. The epic, three-and-a-half-hour film follows Bauhaus-trained Hungarian Jewish architect László Toth, a Holocaust survivor who emigrates to America and struggles to rebuild his career, drawing on the lives of real architects like Louis Kahn, Mies van der Rohe, and Marcel Breuer. Shot in Budapest on celluloid for under $10 million, the film was acquired by A24 after a 12-minute ovation at Venice.

Memories Bathed in Color

In Farbe getauchte Erinnerungen

The Fondation Luma in Arles, France, has opened three exhibitions exploring memory and archives, headlined by Gerhard Richter's "Overpainted Photographs." The show features 120 works from Richter's private archive, some exhibited for the first time, created since the mid-1980s by dragging photographs through leftover paint in his studio. Richter, now 94, personally selected and hung the works chronologically starting from the fall of the Berlin Wall, reflecting his lost homeland and the passage of time. The exhibition also includes early sketches and oil paintings by the late architect Zaha Hadid, previously shown at London's Serpentine Gallery in 2016.

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.

José Dávila Makes Space the Subject in His New York Show

José Dávila's solo exhibition "The Simple Act of Positioning" opens at Sean Kelly gallery in New York, featuring sculptures that explore the relational placement of objects in space. The show includes totemic pillars of steel, concrete, volcanic rock, and automotive paint, framed by large black structures, inviting viewers to move through the gallery to fully experience the visual conversations between works. Dávila, originally from Guadalajara and trained in architecture, draws on Modernist precedents from artists like Marcel Duchamp and architects like Luis Barragán.

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Artist Fulton Leroy Washington, known as Mr. Wash, is establishing the Art By Wash Studio & Community Center, a 13,000-square-foot campus in Compton, California, to serve recently incarcerated individuals and local youth. Released in 2016 after President Barack Obama commuted his life sentence for nonviolent drug offenses, Mr. Wash taught art in prison for 18 years and later gained recognition in the art world, including a breakout appearance at the 2020 Made in L.A. biennial. The center, designed pro bono by Morphosis Architects and The NOW Institute, will offer art-making instruction, studio space, materials, and exhibition opportunities, with the goal of connecting emerging artists to curators and galleries. The project is currently fundraising $100,000 for its first phase, with completion targeted for 2028.

Iris Van Herpen’s Groundbreaking Work Presented in New Exhibit at Brooklyn Museum

The Brooklyn Museum opens "Iris Van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses," a mid-career retrospective of the Dutch fashion designer known for pioneering 3D-printed garments. The exhibition, which originated at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 2023, features over a decade of van Herpen's work, including her first 3D-printed garment from 2010, pieces worn by celebrities like Lady Gaga, Björk, and Beyoncé, and new works such as an algae dress grown from 125 million living organisms. Organized by senior curator Matthew Yokobosky, the show spans eleven themes exploring van Herpen's fusion of traditional craftsmanship with technology, science, and nature.

Gagosian Relocates to Ground Floor at Historic 980 Madison Avenue

Gagosian gallery has relocated to a new street-level space at 980 Madison Avenue in New York, opening on April 25, 2026. Designed by architect Jonathan Caplan of Caplan Colaku Architects, the 12,000-square-foot ground-floor gallery replaces the previous upstairs headquarters, offering direct public access from the street and featuring a restaurant, Kappo Masa, on the lower level. The inaugural exhibitions focus on Marcel Duchamp, including works from his 1960s readymades produced with Arturo Schwarz, and a selection of early Robert Rauschenberg pieces from the Cy Twombly Foundation.

Why Hong Kong is one of the greatest places in the world to buy art

Hong Kong has overtaken London to become the world's second-largest contemporary art auction market, according to ArtTactic. The city's commercial art scene is bolstered by outposts of top international galleries like Hauser & Wirth, Gagosian, Pace, and David Zwirner, as well as a successful annual Art Basel fair. Major auction houses including Sotheby's, Phillips, and Bonhams operate significant spaces there, with Sotheby's selling a Claude Monet for $65.5 million in Hong Kong in 2024. The city's art calendar peaks during March's Art Month, which hosts both Art Basel Hong Kong and Art Central.