City Life Org - New York Art World Celebrates Angela Davis, Amy Sherald, Clara Wu Tsai, Crystal McCrary, Raymond McGuire at Awards Dinner in NYC

The Gordon Parks Foundation held its annual Awards Dinner and Auction at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City, raising nearly $2 million to support its mission of social justice through the arts. The gala honored a distinguished group of changemakers, including activist Angela Davis, painter Amy Sherald, philanthropist Clara Wu Tsai, producer Crystal McCrary, and businessman Raymond McGuire. Hosted by Kaseem Dean (Swizz Beatz) and Executive Director Peter W. Kunhardt, Jr., the event celebrated the enduring legacy of Gordon Parks and his commitment to documenting and advancing civil rights.

Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers

The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation has announced an exhibition titled "Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers." The show will feature the work of contemporary artist Rashid Johnson, known for his multidisciplinary practice encompassing sculpture, painting, photography, and installation.

Collection in Focus | Beatriz Milhazes: Rigor and Beauty

The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation has published a feature titled 'Collection in Focus | Beatriz Milhazes: Rigor and Beauty,' highlighting the Brazilian artist's vibrant, geometric abstract works held in the Guggenheim collection. The piece examines Milhazes's distinctive visual language, which blends modernist abstraction with Brazilian cultural references, and underscores the rigorous compositional structure underlying her seemingly exuberant patterns.

Weekly News Roundup: May 5, 2026

The article reports three major developments in the global art world. Saudi Arabia's Diriyah Company has awarded a $490 million contract for a new flagship space of the Saudi Arabia Museum of Contemporary Art (SAMoCA) in Diriyah, designed by Godwin Austen Johnson. The Sharjah Art Foundation has announced details for Sharjah Biennial 17 (SB17), titled "What remains, sits restive," curated by Angela Harutyunyan and Paula Nascimento, featuring 109 artists and set to open in 2027. Additionally, DATALAND, a new AI art museum founded by Refik Anadol and Efsun Erkılıç, will open on June 20 in Los Angeles, showcasing digital and immersive artworks.

ayala foundation reuben keehan kontemp arts center

The Ayala Foundation has appointed Reuben Keehan as the incoming artistic director of Kontempo, a new contemporary art space set to open in Manila. Designed by Kulapat Yantrasat of WHY Architecture, the venue will feature over 26,000 square feet of exhibition space across three galleries and nearly four acres of green space for sculptures and installations, located in the Circuit Makati development. Keehan joins from the Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art, where he served as curator of contemporary art, and has curated the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art since 2013.

The Holy See Pavilion asks Venice Biennale Visitors to Slow Down and Listen, and Other News.

The Holy See's pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale presents "The Ear is the Eye of the Soul," a multi-sensory exhibition centered on deep listening and inspired by Hildegard von Bingen, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Ben Vickers with Soundwalk Collective, featuring new commissions by 24 artists including Patti Smith, Brian Eno, FKA twigs, and Dev Hynes across two Venetian sites. Separately, Chanel and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation have launched the Chanel Culture Fund Fellowship, a transatlantic curatorial program for postgraduate scholars at the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. In other news, a father-daughter duo from New Jersey pleaded guilty to a $2 million counterfeit art scheme involving forged works attributed to Andy Warhol, Banksy, and others; Vienna's Burgtheater is offering guided scaffolding tours of Gustav Klimt's early ceiling paintings during restoration; and the sixth edition of the Head Hi Lamp Show opens in New York.

Rarely seen Matthew Wong works to go on show in Venice

A major exhibition of rarely seen works by the late Chinese-Canadian artist Matthew Wong will open at the Palazzo Tiepolo Passi in Venice from 9 May to 1 November 2025, coinciding with the 61st Venice Biennale. The show features 35 works dating from 2015 to 2019, curated by John Cheim of Cheim & Read gallery, and is organized by the Matthew Wong Foundation, founded by the artist's parents Monita Wong and Raymond KP Wong after his death by suicide in 2019. The exhibition catalogue includes a text by Nancy Spector, former chief curator of the Guggenheim Museum.

American Artist and Sonya Clark among Guggenheim Fellows 2026.

The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has announced its 101st class of Guggenheim Fellows, awarding grants to 223 individuals across 55 disciplines. Among the 30 fine artists selected for the 2026 cohort are Brooklyn-based conceptual artist American Artist, textile artist and educator Sonya Clark, and interdisciplinary artist Allison Janae Hamilton. Each fellow receives a financial stipend designed to provide the creative and intellectual freedom necessary to pursue their work without restrictive conditions.

148 News Roundup: Career Moves, Infrastructure, Controversies, Public Domain

Curator and writer Reuben Keehan has been appointed artistic director of the forthcoming Kontempo – Center for Contemporary Art in Manila, a new institution developed by the Ayala Foundation. Keehan will relocate from Australia, ending his 15-year tenure as curator of contemporary art at Brisbane’s Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art. In other career moves, Manuel Rabaté has become CEO and director of New Delhi’s Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, bringing over 25 years of museum leadership including his previous role as inaugural director of Louvre Abu Dhabi. Additionally, the Kochi Biennale Foundation has named board member and Mumbai-based artist Jitish Kallat as president of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, succeeding Bose Krishnamachari who resigned in January.

Chanel and Guggenheim Launch Transatlantic Curatorial Fellowship

Chanel and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation have announced a new transatlantic curatorial fellowship, set to launch in 2027. The Chanel Culture Fund Fellowship is a one-year program for MA- and PhD-level scholars, who will begin at the Guggenheim Museum in New York before moving to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. The announcement coincides with the start of the Venice Biennale, and the open call for fellows will begin this fall. The fellowship includes a stipend and travel support, and is designed to complement the Peggy Guggenheim Collection's existing International Fellowship.

A Think Tank and a Foundation Team Up On $1 M. in Accelerator Grants for Museum and Performing Arts Leaders—Timothée Chalamet Be Damned

A think tank and a philanthropic foundation have launched a $1 million accelerator grant program for museum and performing arts leaders. The initiative, a partnership between Remuseum (an initiative of Crystal Bridges Museum) and the Doris Duke Foundation, will award up to ten $100,000 grants and provide a year-long residency program to help leaders develop innovative strategies to boost relevance and financial stability.

thomas kinkade foundation responds dhs morning pledge post

The Thomas Kinkade Family Foundation has publicly condemned the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for using Kinkade's painting *Morning Pledge* in a July 1 social media post on X that included the phrase “Protect the Homeland.” The foundation stated it did not authorize the use of the artwork and that the post promotes division and xenophobia, which is antithetical to its mission. It has requested the post's removal and is consulting legal counsel. This follows similar complaints from artist Morgan Weistling, whose painting *New Life in A New Land* was used by DHS without permission, and criticism over DHS's use of John Gast's *American Progress* (1872), owned by the Autry Museum of the American West.

Art Dubai Downsizes Dramatically as War Reshapes Plans

Art Dubai has announced a significantly scaled-back 20th-anniversary edition, reducing its exhibitor list by 57 percent following regional conflict and logistical disruptions. Originally scheduled for April, the fair has been postponed to May 15–17 at Madinat Jumeirah and will now feature only 50 galleries, with a heavy emphasis on regional participants. To support dealers during this period of uncertainty, organizers have implemented a "risk-sharing" booth fee model where galleries pay a percentage of sales capped at their original fee.

Wagner Foundation Names Winners of $75,000 2026 Arts Fellowships

The Wagner Foundation has selected artists Tomashi Jackson, Lucy Kim, and Yu-Wen Wu as the recipients of its 2026 Wagner Arts Fellowships. Each artist, based in the Boston area, will receive an unrestricted $75,000 grant, professional development support, and will participate in a group exhibition at the Wagner Gallery in Cambridge from August to December 2026.

Barn at Henry Moore’s former home redeveloped into exhibition space

The Henry Moore Foundation has completed a £5m redevelopment of the Sheep Field Barn at the sculptor’s former home in Perry Green, Hertfordshire. The project, led by architecture firm DSDHA, transforms a former farm building into a sophisticated complex featuring improved exhibition galleries and two purpose-built learning studios. The site will open to the public on April 1, 2026, serving as a permanent hub for exploring the artist's legacy through his extensive archives and sculpture collection.

Henry Moore Foundation awards £100,000 in unrestricted grants

The Henry Moore Foundation has awarded £100,000 in unrestricted grants to fifty sculptors across the UK, each receiving £2,000 through its Artist Award Scheme. The funding, announced amid the cost-of-living crisis and cultural sector cuts, can be used for materials, studio rent, or bridging gaps. Recipients were nominated by a panel of 25 arts professionals from UK regions and Northern Ireland, including Viviana Checchia of Void in Derry and Nicole Yip of Spike Island in Bristol. Notable past recipients include 2024 Turner Prize winner Jasleen Kaur and Manon Awst, who will represent Wales at the 2026 Venice Biennale.

Jitish Kallat appointed Kochi-Muziris Biennale president

The Kochi Biennale Foundation has appointed contemporary artist and curator Jitish Kallat as the new president of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. He will chair the selection committee for the next edition's curator, succeeding co-founder Bose Krishnamachari, who resigned earlier this year.

After the Incredible Art Theft, the Magnani Rocca Foundation Invites the Public to Defend the Museum and Beauty

Dopo l’incredibile furto di opere d’arte la Fondazione Magnani Rocca invita il pubblico a difendere il museo e la bellezza

Three valuable paintings were stolen from the Fondazione Magnani Rocca in Mamiano di Traversetolo, Italy, in late March 2026. The stolen works are Pierre-Auguste Renoir's 'Les Poissons,' Paul Cézanne's 'Natura morta con ciliegie,' and Henri Matisse's 'Odissea sulla terrazza,' with a combined value estimated at several million euros. The Carabinieri's Cultural Heritage Protection Unit is investigating the theft, which occurred despite the presence of security personnel.

Getty’s Black Visual Arts Archives receives additional $1.8m in funding

The Getty Foundation has awarded an additional $1.8 million to its Black Visual Arts Archives initiative, bringing total funding to $4.5 million across 20 awards. The program supports institutions in processing, digitizing, preserving, and activating archival collections related to Black artists and arts organizations in the US. Grantees include Afro Charities, the Auburn Avenue Research Library, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Charles H. Wright Museum, Morgan State University, the South Side Community Art Center, the University of Chicago’s South Side Home Movie Project, and the David C. Driskell Center. Notable discoveries include footage of the original Wall of Respect mural from the South Side Home Movie Project.

Sharjah’s Barjeel Art Foundation Is Building its First Museum

The Barjeel Art Foundation has officially broken ground on its first permanent museum in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, with a scheduled opening for January 2028. Founded by Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, the 38,750-square-foot facility will be designed by Abdelmoneam Essa of Architecture Corner Consultants, featuring a design inspired by the traditional architecture of the Al Rigga neighborhood.

getty pst art 2030 los angeles pacific rim

The Getty Foundation has announced that the 2030 edition of its PST ART initiative will focus on the cultural and historical exchanges between Los Angeles and the Pacific Rim. Led by inaugural creative director Justine Ludwig, the fourth iteration of the massive regional collaboration aims to explore transpacific influences ranging from colonial-era Chinese porcelain to the contemporary global impact of Korean pop culture.

joan mitchell foundation 2026 artists in residence

The Joan Mitchell Foundation has announced the 31 artists selected for its 2026 residency program at the Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans. The residencies, lasting six or 14 weeks across three seasons, will host no more than nine artists at a time, beginning February 2. The cohort includes 17 local New Orleans artists and participants from cities such as New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, and Atlanta, ranging in age from 27 to 75. Notable participants include Edra Soto, who also won a United States Artists Fellowship, and two leaders of New Orleans’s Black Masking Indian tradition, Kelly Pearson Boles and Efrem Z. Boles. The selection was made by a jury of artists, curators, and academics.

theaster gates tapped for obama presidential center installation celebrating ebony and jet image archives

The Obama Foundation has commissioned artist Theaster Gates to create an expansive frieze for the Pendleton Atrium of the Obama Presidential Center (OPC), set to open on Chicago’s South Side in 2026. The installation will draw from the Johnson Publishing Company image archive and the Howard Simmons photographic collections, celebrating the visual archives of Ebony and Jet magazines. Gates, who founded the Rebuild Foundation in 2009, will join nine other artists—including Kiki Smith, Nick Cave, Marie Watt, Jenny Holzer, and Idris Khan—whose works were announced in September for the OPC campus.

julia stoschek foundation los angeles show

The Julia Stoschek Foundation, one of the world's largest collections of video art, will present its first major U.S. exhibition at the Variety Arts Theater in downtown Los Angeles. Titled "What a Wonderful World: An Audiovisual Poem" and curated by Udo Kittelmann, the show opens February 6, 2026, pairing contemporary video works by artists such as Marina Abramović, Dara Birnbaum, Cyprien Gaillard, Arthur Jafa, Jesper Just, and Lu Yang with historic films by Luis Buñuel, Walt Disney, Alice Guy-Blaché, Winsor McCay, and Georges Méliès. The exhibition spans 120 years of filmmaking and will occupy a historic 1920s Venetian-style landmark that once housed L.A.'s first women's clubhouse and a vaudeville theater.

The FLAG Art Foundation Named Founding Sponsor of Alchemy with Anthony Mason, Launching May 6

The FLAG Art Foundation has been named the founding sponsor of "Alchemy with Anthony Mason," a new long-form interview series launching May 6, 2026. Hosted by CBS News special correspondent Anthony Mason, the series features intimate 45-minute conversations with artists such as Hozier, Paul Simon, Nile Rodgers, Violet Grohl, and Taj Mahal, focusing on the transformative creative process rather than the finished work. The partnership is integrated into the series' identity, with each episode presented under FLAG's support and connecting viewers to contemporary art exhibitions, including Ellsworth Kelly: Eight Decades at the Parrish Art Museum and the reopening of the David Geffen Galleries at LACMA.

Hanwha Foundation Hosts Im Young-zoe Solo Exhibition at New York's Space Zero One

The Hanwha Foundation of Culture will host a solo exhibition of artist Im Young-zoe at Space Zero One in New York from May 15 to July 25. Titled "The Late," the show features video and installation works exploring themes of belief, anxiety, life, and death. Im gained international recognition after winning the Frieze Artist Award and being selected for the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art's Korea Artist Prize. The exhibition includes a newly reconstructed installation of her representative pieces, expanded through her recent residency in New York.

(BPRW) Getty Awards $1.8M to Increase Access to Black Visual Arts Archives

The Getty Foundation has awarded $1.8 million in grants to eight institutions through its Black Visual Arts Archives initiative, a multi-year program aimed at increasing access to archival collections related to Black artists and arts organizations. The grants will support processing, digitization, and public programming at venues including Afro Charities, Auburn Avenue Research Library, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Charles H. Wright Museum, Morgan State University, South Side Community Art Center, the University of Chicago's South Side Home Movie Project, and the David C. Driskell Center. This brings Getty's total funding for the initiative to $4.5 million since 2022, supporting 20 grants nationwide.

Gabriele Münter: Contours of a World

The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation has announced an exhibition titled "Gabriele Münter: Contours of a World," focusing on the German Expressionist painter Gabriele Münter. The show will explore her distinctive approach to landscape and portraiture, highlighting her role within the Blue Rider movement and her contributions to modern art.

Museums in New York and Los Angeles receive collection of 63 Modern works

The Henry and Rose Pearlman Foundation has announced the distribution of its 63-work collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and modern art among three major US museums: the Brooklyn Museum (29 works), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA, 6 works), and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA, 28 works). The collection includes pieces by Chaïm Soutine, Edgar Degas, Amedeo Modigliani, Vincent van Gogh, Édouard Manet, and Paul Cézanne. The foundation, established in the 1950s by Brooklyn-born businessman Henry Pearlman and his wife Rose, had long-term loans to the Princeton University Art Museum and organized traveling exhibitions before deciding to permanently place the remaining works.

Crystal Bridges Museum and Art Bridges receive 90 works of contemporary Indigenous art in landmark acquisition

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and its Art Bridges Foundation have acquired 90 contemporary works by Indigenous artists from the John and Susan Horseman Collection. Art Bridges will receive 81 works for long-term loans across the U.S., while nine pieces will join Crystal Bridges' permanent collection. Artists include Kent Monkman, George Morrison, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, and Cannupa Hanska Luger. The acquisition is part of a broader strategy to expand the museum's holdings in Indigenous and craft art, with works set to debut in exhibitions starting November 2024.