The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles has appointed Michael Wellen as its new chief curator and Regan Pro as chief of learning, engagement, and research. Wellen joins from Tate Modern, while Pro was previously at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. The appointments fill key leadership roles that had been vacant, with the chief curator position open since 2023.
The author recounts a visit to the Prado in Madrid, where his attempt to photograph a portrait by Alonso Sánchez Coello was blocked by a guard enforcing a strict no-photography policy. This experience leads him to reflect on the evolution of museum mementos, from postcards—which he used to buy and even had his children select as a curatorial exercise—to the role of social media in sharing art. He recalls his time as curator of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, where postcard sales were a key revenue and popularity gauge, and notes that Instagram now serves as a virtual window into exhibitions and art fairs like Art Basel Miami.
A rediscovered Renoir painting, *L'enfant et ses jouets – Gabrielle et le fils de l'artiste, Jean* (created before 1910), sold for over €1.8 million ($2 million) at Hôtel Drouot in Paris on November 25. The intimate portrait of Renoir's young son Jean with his nursemaid Gabrielle had remained in the same private collection for over a century, never before published or exhibited. It was offered by auctioneer Christophe Joron-Derem in the "Tableaux Modernes" sale and purchased by an international buyer, with the hammer price of €1.45 million falling within the presale estimate.
Gustav Klimt's 'Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer' (1914–16) sold for $236.4 million at Sotheby's New York on November 18, 2025, after 20 minutes of bidding. The painting, which started at $130 million, was won by a phone bidder represented by Sotheby's specialist Julian Dawes, with the hammer price at $205 million. The work was the highlight of the Leonard A. Lauder Collection sale, a 55-work trove valued at over $400 million, and proceeds will go to the Lauder trust. The portrait had been restituted after Nazi-era confiscation and was acquired by Lauder in the mid-1980s.
Solange has launched the Saint Heron Community Library, a new initiative making rare and out-of-print art books available to the public for free borrowing. The digital library, run through her Saint Heron platform, includes exhibition catalogs for artists such as Barbara Chase-Riboud, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Martin Puryear, Gary Simmons, and Pope.L, as well as texts like Cedric Dover's 1960 book *American Negro Art*. Books are loaned for 45 days, though most are already checked out. The collection also features works by Black thinkers and writers including Audre Lorde, Ntozake Shange, Octavia Butler, and Wanda Coleman.
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.
Tishan Hsu, a 74-year-old artist based in Brooklyn, is the subject of a feature article discussing his 40-year career exploring the boundary between the virtual and the physical. His current exhibition, "Emergence," at Lisson Gallery in New York (through Jan. 24), presents new biomorphic UV prints with silicone appendages that evoke fingers penetrating a computer screen. Hsu's interest in this territory began in the mid-1980s while working as a word processor on Wall Street, and his practice has consistently sought to give form to the paradox between bodily presence and virtual distance.
Los Angeles is preparing for a robust spring arts season with a diverse lineup of exhibitions across the city's major institutions. Highlights include the long-awaited opening of the David Geffen Galleries at LACMA, a retrospective of the band Sublime at the Grammy Museum, and Yoko Ono’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles. The season also features multidisciplinary showcases such as Guillermo Bert’s tech-integrated textiles at the Museum of Latin American Art and a sensory-focused group show at the Hammer Museum.
Hong Kong is hosting a vibrant array of must-see art exhibitions in December 2025, as highlighted in a curated guide. Key shows include 'Zao Wou-Ki: Master Printmaker' at M+, focusing on the artist's lithograph prints; 'Violet Veil' by Laura Zhang at The Extension, featuring meditative violet-hued works; 'Guan Yu vs. Wilson Shieh' at JPS Gallery, blending traditional gongbi painting with AI technology; and 'The Villepin House' at Villepin, celebrating the gallery's fifth anniversary with works by Zao Wou-Ki and Myo.
Art Basel has announced details for its inaugural edition in Qatar, set to take place from February 5 to 7, 2026, at the M7 creative hub in Doha's Design District. Departing from the traditional booth model, the fair will introduce an open-format exhibition centered on the theme 'Becoming,' with solo presentations by galleries responding to a central curatorial framework. Egyptian-born artist Wael Shawky has been appointed Artistic Director for the first edition, working alongside Art Basel's Chief Artistic Officer Vincenzo de Bellis to shape the curatorial vision and guide gallery selection. The fair will span two key venues—M7 and the Doha Design District—as well as public sites in Msheireb, and plans include transforming Qatar Museum's Fire Station into a platform for educational programs.
Los Angeles art institutions are presenting a diverse array of summer exhibitions, ranging from career-spanning surveys to historical reassessments. Highlights include Jeffrey Gibson's beadwork at the Broad, a survey of Barbara T. Smith's early Xerox works at the Marciano Art Foundation, a retrospective of Noah Davis at the Hammer Museum, and a group show at the California African American Museum addressing the legacy of Altadena's Black community after the Eaton Fire. Other notable shows include Nancy Buchanan's retrospective, Will Rawls at the ICA LA, Karl Haendel at the Weisman Museum, and a Jack Kirby exhibition at the Skirball Cultural Center.
Fortes D'Aloia & Gabriel in São Paulo presents 'Thapiri/Sonho', the first gallery exhibition in the city by Yanomami artist Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe. The show features paintings and monotypes that translate daily encounters in the Venezuelan Amazon—animal traces, plant structures, and natural formations—into a graphic vocabulary of lines, dots, circles, and repeating patterns. Hakihiiwe's work draws on Yanomami oral traditions and mnemonic structures, linking observed reality with dream encounters. The exhibition follows his 2023 solo presentation at MASP and includes works previously shown at MAC Parque Forestal in Santiago, Chile, and Sala TAC in Caracas.
Fulton Leroy Washington, the Compton-based artist known as Mr. Wash, is spearheading a $15 million campaign to build a 14,000-square-foot community arts center and studio in his hometown. The project is being supported by his latest exhibition, "The City of Compton: Then & Now," and a showcase at Jeffrey Deitch’s Compton space titled "Don’t Turn Your Back On Us." Washington, who served 21 years of a life sentence before receiving clemency from President Barack Obama in 2016, gained international acclaim for his photorealistic "teardrop" portraits created while incarcerated.
Fulton Leroy Washington, the self-taught painter known as Mr. Wash, has unveiled plans for a $15-million community arts hub in Compton, California. Designed by the renowned firm Morphosis Architects, the proposed Art by Wash Studio & Community Center will provide housing, studio space, and a small-business incubator specifically for formerly incarcerated artists. The project was launched alongside Washington’s latest exhibition, “The City of Compton: Then & Now,” which serves as a fundraiser for the construction.
Los Angeles artist Patrick Martinez has installed six politically charged neon sculptures at the entrance of Frieze Los Angeles, featuring slogans such as “Deport Ice” and “Nobody is illegal.” These works adapt the visual language of local mom-and-pop storefront signage—typically used for check-cashing or pawn shops—to broadcast urgent social and political messages. The installation serves as a bridge between the elite art fair environment and the grassroots protest culture of the city.
Artist Ryan Preciado has launched a new exhibition titled "Diary of a Fly" at Frank Lloyd Wright’s historic Hollyhock House in Los Angeles. The show features a mix of high-gloss steel sculptures, woven tapestries, and furniture that Preciado calls "insecure sculptures"—objects that blur the line between functional craft and fine art. By placing these contemporary works within the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Preciado creates a dialogue between his own carpentry-based practice and Wright’s iconic Modernist architecture.
The Hammer Museum in Westwood will host the seventh edition of 'Made in L.A.,' a free biennial exhibition running from October 5, 2025, through March 1, 2026. The show features 28 regional artists, with a focus on emerging and under-recognized talents, and includes paintings, photographs, video works, sculptures, and dance. Notable works include Na Mira's 'Sugungga (Hello)' 2024 and a recreation of Alonzo Davis's 'Eye on '84' by Patrick Martinez.
This fall, Los Angeles museums are presenting a diverse array of exhibitions that explore community, justice, and historical reclamation. Highlights include a historical survey of Mail Art in Latin America, a traveling exhibition of radical Chicano prints from the Smithsonian at the Huntington, a show at the Getty drawn from the Guerrilla Girls' archive, and a two-person exhibition at Skirball pairing Philip Guston with Trenton Doyle Hancock. Other notable shows include 'Monuments' co-organized by the Brick and the Museum of Contemporary Art, solo exhibitions by Guadalupe Maravilla at REDCAT and by American Artist on Octavia E. Butler, and the California Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art. The article also lists shows at Oxy Arts, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and other venues, featuring artists such as Ken Gonzales-Day, Tavares Strachan, and Stanya Kahn.
A group of 14 watercolors and drawings by Adolf Hitler, dated from 1904 to 1922, will be auctioned at the Weidler auction house in Nuremberg, Germany, between June 18 and 20. The works are expected to sell for between €1,000 and €45,000 each, following a previous sale of a Hitler watercolor that fetched €130,000 in November last year.
Johanna Burton, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles, has been appointed the next director of the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) Philadelphia, effective November 1. She succeeds Zoë Ryan, who left in January to lead the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. Burton, who joined MOCA in 2021 after leading the Wexner Center for the Arts, stabilized the institution following a period of turmoil, reinstating its annual gala, securing major gifts, and hiring senior curator Clara Kim.
A new feature-length documentary titled "The Hammer" will premiere at this spring's Cannes Film Market, chronicling the five-decade career of Swiss auctioneer and art advisor Simon de Pury. Produced by Simon Wallon, who previously made a documentary on casting director Bonnie Timmermann, the film features cameos from artists Marina Abramović, Jeff Koons, Ai Weiwei, and Chloe Wise, and includes executive producer Catherine Quantschnigg. Filming took place in New York, Tokyo, London, Cannes, Miami, and Monaco between July 2023 and February 2025.
Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips collectively fell short of their spring auction expectations, bringing in just over $1 billion in evening sales against estimates of $1.2 billion to $1.6 billion. The hammer total of $837.5 million was down from $1.4 billion in the same week last year and $1.8 billion in 2022, with a notable drop in high-priced works and fading interest in emerging artists. The top ten lots generated $278.6 million, a 63 percent decline from 2022, and only a handful of artists under 45 appeared in evening sales, compared to previous years.
Christie’s spring marquee auctions in New York brought in a combined $489 million with fees across two evening sales: the Leonard & Louise Riggio: Collected Works sale and the 20th Century sale. The Riggio collection, featuring 39 works heavy on Surrealism, modernism, and Minimalism, achieved $272 million with buyer’s premium, led by Piet Mondrian’s Composition With Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black and Blue (1922) at $47.56 million and René Magritte’s L’empire des lumières (1949) at $34.9 million. The 20th Century sale included major canvases by Monet, Rothko, and Warhol, but the hammer total of $409 million fell below the $446 million pre-sale low estimate, indicating the auction house did not meet expectations.
The article is a personal tribute by curator Erin Christovale to the late artist Ulysses Jenkins (1946–2026), chronicling their decade-long friendship and collaboration. Christovale recounts how she first encountered Jenkins's video work at the William Grant Still Arts Center in Los Angeles, and how a conversation with Otolith Group's Kodwo Eshun led to her curating Jenkins's work. She describes key moments including Jenkins's video "Planet X" (2006) about Hurricane Katrina, his 1979 work "Two-Zone Transfer" featuring Kerry James Marshall in blackface masks, and the 2021 retrospective "Ulysses Jenkins: Without Your Interpretation" co-curated with Meg Onli at the Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia, which later traveled to the Hammer Museum and Julia Stoschek Foundation.
Ulysses Jenkins, a pioneering video artist, muralist, and performer, has died at the age of 79. His passing was confirmed by the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the institution that hosted his major 2022 retrospective, "Without Your Interpretation." Born and raised in Los Angeles, Jenkins dedicated his career to using the camera as a tool for social commentary, famously documenting the Watts Festival to counter negative media stereotypes and exploring the complex relationship between mass media and Black American identity.
EJ Hill's new endurance performance, "Yearning for an Absolute" (2025), is on view at 52 Walker in Tribeca through September 13, 2025. For the duration of the exhibition, the 40-year-old Black queer artist kneels every day, all day, within a red velvet enclosure, referencing Catholic devotional practices, saintly mortifications, and his own history of durational works like "Excellentia, Mollitia, Victoria" (2018) at the Hammer Museum's "Made in LA" biennial. The installation also includes red leather kneelers for sale, framed kneeler pad paintings marked with the artist's indentations, and a neon rectangle reminiscent of Dan Flavin's church installation.
The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles has opened the seventh edition of its Made in LA biennial, running until March 1, 2026. Curators Essence Harden and Paulina Pobocha selected 28 artists from over 200 studio visits, with no predetermined theme. The exhibition features works that respond to the city's recent challenges, including the January wildfires and ongoing ICE raids, as seen in pieces like Alonzo Davis's 'Eye on ’84' and Patrick Martinez's neon sign reading 'Agua Is Life; NO ICE'.
Erica Mahinay, a 40-year-old California-born artist based in Los Angeles, is the subject of a solo exhibition titled "Rhythms" at T293 gallery in Rome. The show presents 24 intimate-scale works that explore the artist's physical, process-driven approach to abstract painting, where she manipulates pigment through pouring, dripping, and erasing to create layered, luminous surfaces. Mahinay, who holds degrees from the Kansas City Art Institute and Cranbrook Academy of Art, has work in the Marciano Art Foundation and Pinault Collection, and was included in the Hammer Museum's 2023 biennial "Made in L.A.: Acts of Living."
The Philadelphia Art Museum has opened a new exhibition surveying the career of the late American artist Noah Davis, featuring over 60 works from 2007 to his death in 2015. The show, curated by Eleanor Nairne and Wells Fray-Smith, is the final stop of an international tour organized with DAS MINSK in Potsdam, the Barbican in London, and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. It includes paintings, sculptures, and works on paper that chronologically map Davis's multimedia practice, with a final room dedicated to his last three paintings.
Gustav Klimt's portrait of Elisabeth Lederer sold for $236 million (£180 million) at Sotheby's in New York, setting a new record for the most expensive work of modern art ever sold at auction. The painting, completed between 1914 and 1916, depicts the daughter of Klimt's most important patrons and was part of the collection of the late cosmetics billionaire Leonard Lauder, who had purchased it in 1985. The sale took place during Sotheby's first evening sale at its new Manhattan headquarters, with bidding starting at $130 million and narrowing to two contenders before the hammer fell at $236 million.