Lorna Simpson’s David Adjaye–Designed Brooklyn Home and Studio Remains On the Market—At a Much-Reduced Price

Artist Lorna Simpson has significantly reduced the asking price for her Brooklyn home and studio, located at 208 Vanderbilt Avenue in Fort Greene. Originally listed for $6.5 million in August 2025, the 3,300-square-foot townhouse is now priced at $5 million following months on the market. The property, which features a double-height great room and floor-to-ceiling windows, was custom-built in 2006 for Simpson and her then-husband, artist James Casebere.

Billionaire Collector Ken Griffin’s Basquiat Buying Spree Continues

Billionaire collector Ken Griffin has significantly expanded his holdings of Jean-Michel Basquiat, notably acquiring the 1983 masterpiece 'In Italian' from the collection of Peter Brant. The acquisition came to light through press materials for an upcoming exhibition at the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) titled "Basquiat: Figures, Signs, Symbols," which will showcase nearly a dozen works from Griffin’s private collection. The show, curated by PAMM director Franklin Sirmans and Griffin’s curator Megan Kincaid, includes other high-profile acquisitions such as the 1982 'Untitled (Skull)' previously purchased from Yusaku Maezawa.

joshua johnson 2745691

Joshua Johnson, born into slavery in Maryland around 1763, emerged in the late 18th century as the first documented Black professional artist in the United States. After gaining his freedom in 1782, Johnson established himself in Baltimore as a self-taught portraitist, advertising his services in local newspapers and catering to the city's prominent families. His body of work, consisting of approximately 83 attributed paintings, is characterized by a distinct flatness and three-quarter profile compositions typical of early American folk art.

Buzkashi horsemen battling for a headless goat: Todd Antony’s best photograph

Photographer Todd Antony discusses his black-and-white series capturing the Central Asian sport of buzkashi, in which horsemen compete to grab and control a headless goat carcass. He traveled to Tajikistan to document matches involving up to 300 riders, shooting from a pickup truck and later taking portraits of riders on farms. One striking image shows three horses and their riders against a snowy mountain backdrop, with fog rolling in—a moment that inspired him to channel Richard Avedon's style using artificial lighting.

I think I didn't understand many artists

"Ich glaube, ich habe viele Künstler nicht verstanden"

Adrian Searle, the long-standing chief art critic for The Guardian, is stepping down after three decades at the publication and nearly 50 years in art criticism. In a reflective interview, Searle discusses his transition from a practicing painter and educator to a critic, noting that his early interactions with students like Peter Doig and Isaac Julien helped him realize his true strength lay in writing rather than art-making. He recounts his experiences navigating the British art scene, from the decline of Greenbergian abstraction to his encounters with formidable figures like Richard Serra.

Ibrahim Mahama awarded 2026 Arnold Bode Prize

Ghanaian visual artist Ibrahim Mahama has been awarded the 2026 Arnold Bode Prize by the city of Kassel. The prize, announced by his gallery White Cube, includes a €10,000 award in recognition of his artistic practice.

What you (perhaps) didn't know about Alexander Calder

Ce que vous ne saviez (peut-être) pas sur Alexander Calder

The Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris has launched the exhibition "Calder. Rêver en équilibre," prompting a retrospective look at the life and technical mastery of Alexander Calder. The article explores the artist's journey from his arrival in Paris in 1926 to his interactions with avant-garde masters like Duchamp and Miró, highlighting how he defied traditional artistic labels through his innovative use of movement and simple materials.

Mapping the Invisible: Saudi Arabia’s A Necessary Fiction Unfolds in Venice

A new exhibition titled "A Necessary Fiction: Maps, Art, and Models of Our World" has opened in Venice, presented by the Saudi Ministry of Culture in tandem with the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. Held at the Abbazia di San Gregorio from 6 May to 22 November 2026, the show is curated by Sara Almutlaq and Aurora Fonda, with associate curators Zaira Carrer and Amina Diab. It features historical maps and contemporary artworks by artists including Wael Shawky, Nasser Al Salem, Matilde Sambo, Monira Al Qadiri, Shilpa Gupta, Reena Saini Kallat, Manal AlDowayan, Nolan Oswald Dennis, Ibrahim Mahama, Trevor Paglen, Eva & Franco Mattes, Giorgio Andreotta Calò, and Yoko Ono, exploring cartography as an imaginative and ideological act rather than a neutral science.

How Will the Venice Biennale Impact Alma Allen’s Market?

Artist Alma Allen has been selected as America's representative at the Venice Biennale, sparking controversy due to the unusual selection process under President Trump. The pavilion is commissioned by the newly formed American Arts Conservancy, led by Jenni Parido, who previously ran a pet food lifestyle shop and entered Trump's orbit through Mar-a-Lago pet charity events. Following the announcement, Allen's galleries Olney Gleason and Mendes Wood DM dropped him, but he was quickly picked up by high-profile gallery Perrotin. The article examines how the Biennale and its attendant drama might affect Allen's market, noting his longtime collectors include Beth Rudin DeWoody, Peter Morton, Jack Pierson, and others, while his auction prices have remained modest.

Death of Artist Fabien Verschaere

Disparition de l’artiste Fabien Verschaere

The French contemporary art world is mourning the sudden death of artist Fabien Verschaere at the age of 50. Represented by Galerie Brugier-Rigail since 2012, Verschaere was known for a prolific and singular body of work that blended childhood imagery, fairy tales, and pop culture icons like Mickey Mouse and Batman into a complex personal mythology. His career was marked by significant exhibitions at major institutions including the Palais de Tokyo, the Musée d’art contemporain de Lyon, and the Grand Palais.

Alma Allen Offers a Quiet Vision in Venice—Even as Questions Swirl the U.S. Pavilion

Alma Allen's exhibition "Call Me the Breeze" has opened at the U.S. Pavilion for the 61st Venice Biennale. The Utah-born sculptor presents a pared-down, whimsical show that contrasts with the bombastic work of his predecessors, grouping new and old pieces to explore themes of conflict, mourning, and transcendence inspired by Hieronymus Bosch's *Visions of the Afterlife*. The exhibition was produced hurriedly over a few months, and Allen, who typically leaves his works untitled, felt compelled to explain his art for the first time in 30 years amid controversy surrounding his commission.

Robot dogs with Elon Musk's head 'poo' AI art in bizarre exhibition

Artist Beeple (Mike Winkelmann) has installed "Regular Animals" at Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie, featuring robot dogs with hyper-realistic silicone heads of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, and Beeple himself. The dogs roam the gallery and periodically "poo" printed images of their surroundings that have been transformed by artificial intelligence, with each dog's output reflecting the style of its figurehead—for example, the Picasso dog produces Cubist-style images. The work premiered at Art Basel Miami Beach 2025, where Beeple distributed the prints with certificates reading "100% organic GMO-free dog s**t" and QR codes for free NFTs.

Silvestre Pestana’s LED Signs Give Language Charge

Silvestre Pestana, a Portuguese artist and poet, is presenting a solo exhibition of his LED text-based works at Galeria Quadrado Azul in Porto. The show, titled 'Silvestre Pestana: The Light of Words', features his pioneering 'Poemas Pornográficos' (Pornographic Poems) from the 1980s and newer LED pieces that transform language into pulsating, illuminated objects.

fondazione dries van noten opens with inaugural exhibition at palazzo pisani moretta, venice

Fondazione Dries Van Noten has opened at Palazzo Pisani Moretta in Venice with its inaugural exhibition, "The Only True Protest Is Beauty," running from April 25 to October 4, 2026. Curated by Dries Van Noten himself, the show features over 200 works across twenty rooms, blending fashion, art, design, ceramics, glass, and photography. Highlights include archival pieces by Christian Lacroix and Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons, alongside works by emerging and established artists such as Ayham Hassan, Peter Buggenhout, Ritsue Mishima, and Misha Kahn. The exhibition avoids a fixed curatorial logic, instead using instinctive juxtapositions to explore beauty as tension and disruption.

FAD’s Fab Five: 5 Must-See Highlights at the 2026 Venice Biennale

Lee Sharrock selects five must-see highlights at the 61st Venice Biennale, titled "In Minor Keys" and conceived by the late curator Koyo Kouoh, who passed away in 2025. The Biennale runs from May 9 to November 22, 2026, at the Giardini, Arsenale, and various Venetian venues. Featured highlights include Marina Abramović's historic exhibition "Transforming Energy" at the Gallerie dell'Accademia—the first major show for a living woman artist there—the Holy See Pavilion's "The Ear is the Eye of the Soul" with artists like Patti Smith and Brian Eno, and Lubaina Himid's British Pavilion presentation "Predicting History: Testing Translation."

6 Black-owned Galleries Placing Artists in Major Museum Collections

Six Black-owned galleries—Mariane Ibrahim Gallery, Gallery Guichard, Galerie Myrtis, Richard Beavers Gallery, and Jenkins Johnson Gallery—are profiled for their success in placing artists into major museum collections. Each gallery has built institutional relationships that lead to acquisitions by museums such as the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Bronx Museum, often retaining artists through the placement stage to capture long-term market value.

‘Vandalised, disembowelled and dismembered’: Artist Jack Milroy gives books a brutal treatment with beautiful results

The artist Jack Milroy has launched a new solo exhibition titled 'Bibliophilia' at Shapero Modern in London, featuring his signature 3D cut-out artworks. The 87-year-old artist transforms books and everyday objects, such as sardine tins, into intricate sculptures where illustrated figures like birds and fish appear to escape their physical confines. The show marks Milroy's first collaboration with the gallery, which is uniquely situated beneath an antiquarian bookshop, providing a thematic contrast between preserved rare volumes and Milroy’s "vandalised" artistic interpretations.

Must-See Art Exhibitions at EXPO Chicago 2026

EXPO Chicago 2026 marks its 13th edition with a robust program featuring over 130 international galleries alongside significant institutional exhibitions across the city. Highlights include Leah Ke Yi Zheng’s 64-painting installation at The Renaissance Society, which utilizes silk and natural light, and Youssef Nabil’s career-spanning survey of photography and film at Mariane Ibrahim. Additionally, the Chicago Cultural Center is hosting a cross-cultural exploration of modernism, while The Smart Museum presents a thematic study of Alma Thomas’s color theory influenced by space exploration and music.

Texas Man Who Orchestrated $20 M. Crypto Scam Based on Fictitious Van Gogh and Picasso Masterpieces Sentenced to 23 Years in Prison

A Houston man, Robert Dunlap, was sentenced to 23 years in federal prison for orchestrating a $20 million cryptocurrency scam. Between 2018 and 2023, Dunlap defrauded nearly 1,000 investors by promoting a digital asset called “Meta-1 Coin,” falsely claiming it was backed by a $1 billion art collection featuring works by Salvador Dalí, Vincent van Gogh, and Pablo Picasso, as well as $44 billion in gold. He used forged legal and insurance documents to conceal that he owned neither the art nor the gold. A federal jury in the Northern District of Illinois convicted him on mail fraud charges in 2025, and US District Judge LaShonda A. Hunt imposed the sentence, also ordering restitution.

New biography of Chaïm Soutine pieces together illusive artist's life and works

A new biography of Chaïm Soutine, the early 20th-century painter, has been published. The book, written by Celeste Marcus, attempts to piece together the life of the notoriously private and illusive artist, examining his journey from a Belarusian shtetl to the studios of Montparnasse, his complex relationships, and the myths that have grown around his work and persona.

Pete Davidson’s Pop-Filled Art Collection Revealed in Westchester Home Listing

Actor and comedian Pete Davidson has listed his Westchester County home for $2.2 million, revealing a vibrant art collection rooted in pop culture and nostalgia. The 2,300-square-foot residence features a diverse array of works ranging from Peter Max prints and Al Hirschfeld caricatures to contemporary design pieces like the Gufram x Paul Smith 'Sunset Cactus.' The interior reflects Davidson's 'man cave' aesthetic, blending high-end collectibles with whimsical references to television, film, and his native Staten Island.

‘We put our heads above the parapet’: Lubaina Himid on winning her 40-year battle to storm the Venice Biennale

Lubaina Himid, the 71-year-old British artist, is representing Britain at the Venice Biennale with a solo exhibition in the British Pavilion. Known for her decades-long career addressing Black identity and colonial history through paintings, textiles, and cut-out figures, Himid installed her work early and even got married in the lead-up to the biennale. She follows fellow Black British artists John Akomfrah and Sonia Boyce in recent years, completing a trio of artists from the same generation to take over the pavilion.

AI Suggests El Greco Could Be the Sole Author of 'The Baptism of Christ'

Une IA suggère qu’El Greco pourrait être l’unique auteur du Baptême du Christ

A new scientific study published in the journal Science Advances challenges the long-held belief that El Greco's monumental painting 'The Baptism of Christ' was completed by his workshop. Using a deep-learning tool called PATCH to analyze the painting's surface topography, researchers from Case Western Reserve University found a technical consistency suggesting the work was executed by a single hand, likely El Greco himself, despite visible variations in execution.

Michel Bassompierre, Celebratory Animal Sculptor, Dies at 78

Michel Bassompierre, célèbre sculpteur animalier, est décédé à 78 ans

Michel Bassompierre, the celebrated French animal sculptor known for his gentle, rounded bronze and marble bears, gorillas, elephants, and pandas, has died at age 78. He suffered a fatal head injury from a fall following a fainting spell in Nantes on April 21.

Auguste Renoir in 2 Minutes

Auguste Renoir en 2 minutes

Pierre-Auguste Renoir remains a cornerstone of Impressionism, celebrated for his transition from porcelain painting to becoming a master of figure and light. While he initially pioneered plein air techniques alongside Claude Monet, Renoir eventually pivoted toward a more classical study of 18th-century masters, focusing on portraits, domestic scenes, and nudes. His career was marked by iconic works like 'Bal du moulin de la Galette' and a persistent drive to paint even as severe rheumatism physically debilitated him in his final years at Cagnes-sur-Mer.

Lubaina Himid on Representing a Changing Britain

Lubaina Himid, the Turner Prize-winning artist, discusses her latest exhibition that reflects on the evolving cultural and social landscape of contemporary Britain. The show features her signature vibrant paintings and installations that explore themes of diaspora, identity, and historical narratives, drawing on her own experiences as a Black British artist.

In Venice to Install Work for the Biennale, Artist Guadalupe Maravilla Alleges Racial Profiling by Police

New York–based artist Guadalupe Maravilla, in Venice to install his work for the 2026 Venice Biennale, alleges he was racially profiled by police after leaving the Arsenale venue. Two officers demanded his documents, called backup, and attempted to handcuff him before he de-escalated the situation and left. Maravilla, known for his 'Disease Thrower' sculptures that address migration and healing, shared the incident on Instagram and provided a statement to ARTnews.

Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani, a New Sort of Street Artist, Rises from Art History’s Margins

Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani, a late Japanese American collagist who lived and worked as a street artist in New York City, is the subject of a new solo exhibition at the Spencer Museum of Art in Kansas City, on view through June. Co-curators Maki Kaneko and Kris Imants Ercums organized the show thematically rather than chronologically, reflecting Mirikitani's fragmented life—from surviving the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and incarceration at Tule Lake to arriving in New York in the 1950s. The exhibition draws on years of research, including visits to the parks where he lived and to Hiroshima, and builds on Linda Hattendorf's 2006 documentary *The Cats of Mirikitani*.

Taiwan revokes Sakuliu Pavavaljung’s National Award for Arts

Taiwan’s National Culture and Arts Foundation has revoked the National Award for Arts granted to artist Sakuliu Pavavaljung in 2018, ordering him to return the NTD 1 million prize. The revocation follows a Supreme Court ruling on 1 April that upheld a January 2025 conviction by the Pingtung District Court, which found the artist guilty of rape and sentenced him to four years and six months in prison.

Desmond Morris, zoologist, presenter and surrealist painter, 1928–2026

Desmond Morris, the zoologist, author, television presenter, and surrealist painter, has died at the age of 98. He was best known for his 1967 book *The Naked Ape* and the television program *Zoo Time*, but maintained a parallel, influential career in the visual arts as a painter and curator.