The 2025 Outsider Art Fair in New York City, featuring 68 exhibitors at the Metropolitan Pavilion, showcased a vibrant range of work by self-taught and autodidactic artists. The event was marked by strong sales and enthusiastic attendance, serving as an egalitarian counterpoint to more traditional blue-chip art fairs.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is preparing a major spring retrospective dedicated to Raphael, the Italian Renaissance master who died in 1520 before his 40th birthday. This will be his first such exhibition in the United States, aiming to reassess an artist traditionally viewed as a facile, efficient prodigy rather than a deep intellectual.
The exhibition “Our Friend, Jean” returns to Brooklyn this May at The Bishop Gallery, coinciding with Frieze Week. The show features twenty artworks alongside personal ephemera and photographs from Jean-Michel Basquiat’s formative years between 1979 and 1980, primarily sourced from the collection of his former roommate Alexis Adler. This iteration includes previously unseen items from Adler’s trove, such as hand-painted garments and postcards, and will be activated by panels featuring Basquiat’s early collaborators.
A Vincent van Gogh painting, 'The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring,' stolen from the Singer Laren museum in 2020, has been restored and returned to public display at the Groninger Museum. The painting was recovered in 2023 by Dutch police and art sleuth Arthur Brand, and underwent a meticulous, months-long restoration by conservator Marjan de Visser to repair damage and remove historical overpainting.
Nifty Gateway, a once-prominent curated NFT marketplace, has announced its closure after failing to achieve its ambitious goal of converting one billion people into NFT owners. The platform, which initially succeeded by focusing on digital art sales, leveraged social media metrics like Instagram popularity to select artists such as Kenny Scharf, Filip Hodas, and FVCKRENDER, favoring a pop-centric, visually digestible aesthetic.
On a recent podcast, artist Damien Hirst identified his manager, Joe Hage, as the most influential person he's met, praising his work with other major artists. Hirst also downplayed the role of major galleries like Gagosian and White Cube, comparing them to 'estate agents,' and revealed a new private commission: an amethyst-encrusted grotto for the Getty family.
The article profiles Marta, a prominent art dealer in Los Angeles, highlighting her recent activities and influence within the contemporary art scene. It details her gallery's program, her relationships with artists, and her specific curatorial approach that has garnered significant attention.
The article focuses on the curatorial approach and artistic ethos of the 2025 edition of the 'Made in L.A.' biennial, highlighting how artists are actively engaging with pressing social and political issues rather than retreating into quietism or abstraction. It examines specific works and the overall thematic drive of the exhibition, which is organized by the Hammer Museum and the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced a major summer exhibition titled "Giacometti in the Temple of Dendur," featuring 17 sculptures by the 20th-century Swiss master Alberto Giacometti. The show, organized in collaboration with the Fondation Giacometti, will place the artist's iconic slender bronze figures within and around the first-century BCE Roman Period Egyptian temple. The installation includes significant loans such as "Femme qui marche I" and "Femme de Venise I," marking a rare dialogue between modern existentialist sculpture and ancient architectural history.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has appointed Oluremi C. Onabanjo as its new curator of photographs, bringing her expertise in African and Black diasporic histories from MoMA. This announcement leads a series of industry shifts, including Melissa Chiu’s move from the Hirshhorn to direct the Guggenheim, and the relocation of the influential gallery 47 Canal to Chelsea. Additionally, the New York Foundation for the Arts distributed nearly $500,000 in grants to 129 artists and organizations in Queens.
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has opened the exhibition 'Frida and Diego: The Last Dream,' a collaboration with the Metropolitan Opera tied to its upcoming production of the opera 'El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego.' The show, designed by stage and costume designer Jon Bausor, transplants theatrical elements like a tree-of-life set model and blue tarp drapes into the gallery, alongside a reshuffling of key Kahlo and Rivera works from MoMA's collection.
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.
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.
Gladstone Gallery has announced its representation of the estate of the late performance and conceptual artist Pope.L. The gallery will present its first solo exhibition of his work in New York in 2027, joining existing representatives Modern Art in London and Vielmetter Los Angeles in stewarding his legacy.
A collection of 18 previously unseen photographs by legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick will make its public debut at the Photography Show in New York. Discovered by the Duncan Miller Gallery within a larger archive purchase, these images date back to 1945 when a teenage Kubrick worked as a staff photographer for Look magazine. The series captures candid, late-night scenes within the New York City subway system, utilizing a concealed shutter release to document commuters in their most natural states.
The Hopi-Tewa artist Nampeyo (1859–1942) is being celebrated as a foundational figure in modern ceramics for her role in the Sikyátki Revival. By studying ancestral pottery shards from archaeological excavations, Nampeyo revitalized centuries-old techniques and motifs, transforming Pueblo pottery into a globally recognized art form. Her career spanned from selling works at regional trading posts to becoming a celebrated figure who demonstrated her craft at the Grand Canyon and exhibited at major fairs in Chicago.
The National Gallery in London has successfully reached a target of £2 million in annual savings following a voluntary redundancy program and a recruitment freeze. Initiated in February to address a projected £8.2 million deficit, the voluntary exit scheme allowed the institution to avoid compulsory redundancies among its nearly 500 employees. While the gallery has met its initial savings goal, it must still find ways to bridge a remaining multi-million pound shortfall through non-staff cost reductions.
The National Gallery in London has selected Japanese architecture firm Kengo Kuma and Associates to design a new £350m wing, scheduled to open in the early 2030s. Chosen from a shortlist of six finalists, Kuma’s design features a Portland stone exterior and will be constructed on the site of the soon-to-be-demolished St Vincent House. The extension will provide nearly double the space for temporary exhibitions and an additional 1,500 square meters for the permanent collection, connected via bridges to the existing Sainsbury Wing and Wilkins building.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has appointed Oluremi C. Onabanjo as a curator in the Department of Photographs, poaching her from the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Onabanjo, formerly the Peter Schub Curator at MoMA, will be tasked with managing the landmark gift of over 6,500 photographs from the Walther Family Foundation and curating exhibitions with a focus on twentieth-century media.
2025 Art21 at the Movies
On October 8 and 10, 2025, Art21 hosted its second 'Art21 at the Movies' event in New York. The two-day program featured film premieres, artist talks, and screenings at venues including the Metrograph and the Museum of Modern Art. It highlighted artists from the 'Art in the Twenty-First Century' series and included discussions with filmmakers and curators.
Maurizio Cattelan has launched a participatory artwork and sales campaign titled 'The Confessional,' where people can call a hotline to submit their sins for his consideration. Selected participants will be invited to a livestreamed event on April 23 where Cattelan, acting as a priest, will absolve them. The project is tied to the re-release of his controversial 1999 sculpture 'La Nona Ora,' a miniature wax figure of Pope John Paul II struck by a meteorite.
A feature article examines Salvador Dalí's controversial religious painting "Christ of Saint John of the Cross" (1951), which was physically attacked by vandals on two separate occasions—once with a rock in 1961 and later with an air rifle. The painting, part of Dalí's "Nuclear Mysticism" phase, depicts a floating, unblemished Christ from an aerial perspective, based on a drawing by the mystic St. John of the Cross and modeled by a Hollywood stunt double.
The Turkish-Jordanian modernist Fahrelnissa Zeid is the subject of a new solo exhibition titled "Immersion" at Dirimart London, curated by art historian Adila Laïdi-Hanieh. This marks the artist's first gallery solo show in the United Kingdom this century, featuring several works from her estate that have never been publicly exhibited. The selection spans various periods of her career, highlighting her transition from monumental geometric abstractions to her late-career expressionist portraits.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has acquired a recently rediscovered Renaissance painting, 'Madonna and Child with Saint John the Evangelist,' by Rosso Fiorentino. The work, believed lost for centuries, was identified after conservation removed layers of overpaint, revealing the figure of Saint John. The Met has already placed the painting on view in its European painting galleries.
A new exhibition at the Frick Collection in New York has assembled 25 portraits by the 18th-century British painter Thomas Gainsborough. The show focuses on his depictions of the era's elite, showcasing the powdered wigs, lavish fabrics, and social stature of his sitters.
The Aspen Art Museum is presenting a solo exhibition of new and recent paintings by Jacqueline Humphries, curated by Daniel Merritt. The show runs from December 12, 2025, to April 5, 2026, and is extensively documented with 64 installation images.
Chicago's diverse landscape of pop culture and contemporary art is highlighted through a curated list of seven key destinations in the metropolitan area. The selection ranges from the Volo Museum’s collection of Hollywood vehicles and Titanic artifacts to the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago’s extensive permanent collection of over 2,000 modern works and high-tech media displays.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has unveiled the David Geffen Galleries, a $724 million concrete-and-glass structure designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor. Spanning Wilshire Boulevard, the 110,000-square-foot horizontal gallery space floats 30 feet above ground and features a non-chronological layout intended to encourage wandering. The interior is characterized by pigment-infused concrete walls, floor-to-ceiling windows with specialized metal curtains by Reiko Sudō, and a lack of traditional white-cube galleries.
The Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas has launched "Rauschenberg Sculpture," a major exhibition marking the first museum presentation dedicated exclusively to Robert Rauschenberg’s three-dimensional works in three decades. Organized by senior curator Dr. Catherine Craft in collaboration with the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, the show features over two dozen works spanning the 1950s to the 1990s, including his iconic "Combines," rotating Plexiglas "Revolvers," and experimental clay and metal assemblages.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has unveiled a selection of must-see works within its new David Geffen Galleries, marking a radical departure from traditional museum curation. Moving away from rigid chronological and geographic silos, the museum has organized its encyclopedic collection around four major bodies of water—the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, and the Mediterranean Sea—to highlight the historical movement of resources, ideas, and cultures. The single-level, fluid architectural space encourages visitors to meander through evolving installations that include high-profile acquisitions like Francis Bacon’s "Three Studies of Lucian Freud" alongside intricate Kuba ceremonial textiles.