Visual historian and author Lucy Sante has opened two simultaneous exhibitions of her collage artwork in New York. The shows, at Karma gallery and the Center for Book Arts, feature work created from a vast personal archive of materials she has collected over decades, which she meticulously cuts and reassembles.
Los Angeles-based painter Michelle Blade is presenting her first solo show with Night Gallery in Los Angeles, titled "It's About Time." The exhibition features a new body of work focused on still lifes and landscapes from around her home, captured at different hours of the day. Using acrylic and ink on cotton poplin with a wet-on-wet technique, Blade creates luminous, shimmering compositions that blend memory, perception, and projections of the future. The show follows her recent solo exhibition at the Powerlong Museum in Shanghai and her inclusion in the group show "Superbloom" at Night Gallery.
Musician Jarvis Cocker and his wife, creative consultant Kim Sion, will curate an exhibition titled “The Hodge Podge” at the Hepworth Wakefield in the U.K., opening in May 2027. The show will feature artworks selected by the couple that challenge conventional definitions of art, spanning diverse media and time periods, with artists including Peter Doig, Barbara Hepworth, Jeremy Deller, and Emma Kunz. The exhibition will be bookended by an immersive Dreamachine, a 1959 light-art device by Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerville. Cocker and Sion have outlined their curatorial philosophy in a Hodge Podge Manifesto, celebrating beauty in chaos and disorder.
At 77, painter Archie Rand continues to create vibrant, narrative-driven works from his expansive Brooklyn studio. A new exhibition of his "Heads" series at Jarvis Art, co-curated by Max Werner and Lindsay Jarvis, features paintings that plunge viewers into the middle of unfolding stories, such as "Duck" (2025), where children sail a catboat through rough seas. Rand describes his process as chasing what lies "around the corner" in his compositions, prioritizing the mystery of the background over the central figures.
The Swiss architect Peter Zumthor's new $724 million building for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Lacma), now called the David Geffen Galleries, has opened after nearly two decades of anticipation. The swooping concrete-and-glass structure is praised for its harnessing of natural light and horizontality, creating a stunning showcase for antiquities and inviting the city inside with floor-to-ceiling windows offering views of the La Brea Tar Pits and Wilshire Boulevard. The building performs best with sculpture and decorative objects, with standout works including Liz Glynn's "The Futility of Conquest" (2023) and Manjunath Kamath's "Vikatonarva" (2024).
The global art fair calendar for 2026 is taking shape with a mix of established blue-chip events and significant new international expansions. Key highlights include the debut of Pavilion in Taipei and Hong Kong, the expansion of Paris Internationale into Milan, and the highly anticipated return of the ADAA Fair to New York's Park Avenue Armory following a strategic hiatus.
Pace Prints is expanding its operations to Los Angeles, with plans to open a new production facility and small gallery space this fall. Unlike a standard gallery expansion, the Hollywood location will prioritize providing West Coast artists with a dedicated environment for long-term experimentation in printmaking. The move coincides with the publisher's debut at Frieze Los Angeles, featuring a roster of local and international artists including Jonas Wood and Hilary Pecis.
Takashi Murakami’s latest exhibition at Perrotin Los Angeles, titled “Hark Back to Ukiyo-e: Tracing Superflat to Japonisme’s Genesis,” marks a significant return to his academic roots in Nihonga (traditional Japanese painting). The show features 24 compositions, including four monumental canvases that took over three years to complete, blending Edo-period woodblock aesthetics with 19th-century Impressionism and contemporary Pokémon imagery. The artist describes this body of work as a reflection on the non-linear nature of time and the physical manifestation of memory.
The US Department of State confirmed that Mexico-based artist Alma Allen will represent the United States at the 2026 Venice Biennale, opening next May. Jeffrey Uslip will serve as curator, and the commissioning institution is the American Arts Conservancy (AAC), with its executive director Jenni Parido as official commissioner. Allen, who has had only two museum solo shows in three decades, was approached directly by Uslip in October after the State Department had already approved him. The selection process broke from tradition: the National Endowment for the Arts was not involved due to time constraints and staffing transitions, and a prior proposal by artist Robert Lazzarini and curator John Ravenal fell through after negotiations with the University of South Florida’s Contemporary Art Museum collapsed. Allen’s pavilion, titled "Call Me the Breeze," will feature about 30 works exploring elevation and transformation, framed by the State Department as furthering the Trump Administration’s focus on American excellence.
Christie's Hong Kong is offering Pablo Picasso's 1944 painting *Buste de femme* with a high estimate of HK$106 million (about $13.6 million) at its 20th/21st Century evening sale, making it the top lot in Hong Kong's September sales across the three major auction houses. Other notable lots include Zao Wou-Ki's *7.3.63* (estimate HK$70–90 million) at Christie's and two Yoshitomo Nara works at Sotheby's and Phillips. In other industry moves, New York's Tilton Gallery is closing after its upcoming Ruth Vollmer exhibition; Esther Schipper Gallery now represents Lotus L. Kang; Başak Doğa Temür and Nilbar Güreş will collaborate on the Turkish Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale; Yan Du Project has appointed Billy Tang as artistic director; and Phillips will auction a juvenile triceratops skeleton in New York.
Matt Bangser, a longtime director at Blum gallery (formerly Blum & Poe), will join Art Intelligence Global (AIG) as senior director on September 8. Bangser spent 16 years at Blum overseeing global sales and securing major estates like Robert Colescott, and previously held senior posts at Van de Weghe Fine Art, Phillips, and Christie's. His move follows the closure of Blum's Los Angeles and Tokyo galleries last month, when founder Tim Blum announced he was leaving the traditional gallery model. AIG co-founder Amy Cappellazzo said Bangser's experience across galleries, auction houses, and artist studios made him a rare hire.
The article examines the meteoric rise and current cooling of the market for Labubu, the Nordic fanged monster character created by artist Kasing Lung. After a decade of slow development, Labubu exploded in popularity through Chinese toy blind-box manufacturer Pop Mart, leading to record auction sales in 2025. Yongle Auction in Beijing organized the world's first themed Labubu sale, where a mint-green sculpture sold for RMB 1.242 million and a painting, 'Pure' (2021), fetched RMB 1.61 million, setting successive records. The frenzy attracted a diverse range of buyers, from streetwear collectors to traditional ceramics enthusiasts, many of whom share their purchases on social media platforms like Douyin.
Tim Blum, co-founder of the influential Blum & Poe gallery, is stepping away from the traditional gallery model after more than 30 years. He told ARTnews that the decision was driven by burnout with the relentless cycle of art fairs, openings, and obligations, not by financial strain. His Tokyo and Los Angeles locations will close after summer exhibitions, and a planned New York space may not open as a conventional gallery. Blum will instead pursue a more flexible model involving special projects and collaborations, while continuing to buy and sell art personally.
Adam Lindemann, a collector-turned-dealer, announced he will close Venus Over Manhattan, the New York gallery he founded 14 years ago. The gallery's final exhibition, a solo show for painter Susumu Kamijo, will run until July 18. Lindemann revealed the decision in an opinion piece for Artnet News, citing the challenges of straddling the roles of collector and dealer, as well as the politics of art fairs. He plans to return to collecting full-time.
The top lot of Sotheby's May auction season in New York, Alberto Giacometti's bronze sculpture *Grande tête mince (Grande tête de Diego)* (1955), estimated at $70 million, failed to sell on Tuesday night. The work was consigned by the Soloviev Foundation, set up by Stefan Soloviev, son of late mega-collector Sheldon Solow, and was offered without a financial guarantee, a risky strategy that backfired when no bidders emerged. Auctioneer Oliver Barker made several chandelier bids before declaring the lot unsold at $64.2 million, shocking the packed salesroom.
Cultured magazine profiles 10 art collectors, sharing the stories of their first acquisitions. The article features collectors such as Miami real estate developer Craig Robins, hotelier Steve Wilson, Allison Sarofim, Brandon John Harrington, James Frey, and Rodrigo Padilla, recounting how they began their collections—from a Dalí sketch and a Matisse drawing to an Andy Warhol portrait and a late-night Instagram purchase. Each narrative highlights the personal, often serendipitous moments that sparked a lifelong passion for art.
Melvin Edwards, a pioneering sculptor known for his steel assemblages that explored Black history and experience, has died. He was the first African-American artist to have a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in 1970. His signature series, Lynch Fragments, began in the 1960s as a response to the civil rights movement and evolved over his lifetime to incorporate references to the Vietnam War and African cultural practices.
The Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice has announced a major exhibition for 2026 titled "Peggy Guggenheim in London: The Making of a Collector." The show focuses on the pivotal period between 1938 and 1939 when Guggenheim operated her first gallery, Guggenheim Jeune, on Cork Street. It will feature approximately 100 works by avant-garde masters such as Vasily Kandinsky, Jean Cocteau, and Yves Tanguy, alongside archival materials documenting her early career as a gallerist and patron.
The Guardian reports on 'Holy Pop,' a new exhibition at London's Somerset House that celebrates extreme pop fandom through personal shrines and collections. The show features photographer Alice Hawkins's Dolly Parton shrine, including leaves from Parton's garden and hair extensions, alongside artifacts from fans of Prince, the Spice Girls, George Michael, Marc Bolan, and others. Curated by Tory Turk, the exhibition includes visual art by Graham Dolphin and Tox26, as well as films and photos of fans visiting stars' graves and impromptu memorials.
The 2026 Venice Biennale, curated by the late Koyo Kouoh under the theme "In Minor Keys," has been plagued by months of turmoil including countries withdrawing, artists being fired, exhibitions cancelled, funding pulled, and protests during the preview. A five-person curatorial team took over after Kouoh's death, resulting in what the critic describes as a disjointed, committee-driven exhibition that prioritizes quiet contemplation and healing over direct political engagement. The central shows in the Giardini and Arsenale feature a vast, poorly explained array of art from the global south, with installations of ceramics, textiles, slide projectors, and serene natural scenes that the critic finds anachronistic and dull.
Artist Fields Harrington, after witnessing a delivery worker get hit by a car in Brooklyn, began photographing the customized bikes of New York City's delivery workers, capturing their gloves, reflective tape, and cultural markers. His series is now featured in MoMA PS1's "Greater New York" exhibition. In a direct act of reciprocity, Harrington convinced the museum to rent a delivery worker's bike and pay its owner, Gustavo Ajche, his usual wage of $21.44 per hour during museum hours. For one week each month, the bike is displayed, and every 21 minutes and 44 seconds, a notification ding sounds, referencing the wage Ajche and his group Los Deliveristas Unidos fought for.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is debuting a radical curatorial overhaul within its new David Geffen Galleries, moving away from traditional 19th-century departmental silos. Led by Director Michael Govan and a team of 45 curators, the museum is implementing a cross-disciplinary approach that organizes the collection around "oceanic nodes"—the Mediterranean, Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific. This strategy allows for the juxtaposition of disparate media and cultures, such as contemporary photography alongside ancient textiles, to highlight the historical circulation of ideas and people across bodies of water.
TONO, the time-based art festival, has announced its 2026 lineup, running March 6–22 across Mexico City and Puebla. The program includes video installations, performance commissions, music events, and screenings at venues such as Laboratorio Arte Alameda, Casa del Lago UNAM, Museo Jumex, Museo de Arte Moderno, and Museo Amparo. Featured artists include Tino Sehgal, Space Afrika, Franziska Aigner, Kelman Duran, Ho Tzu Nyen, Avantgardo, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, and Melanie Smith. International collaborations bring dance works via 99 Canal and Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels, and a joint evening with Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie. The festival is also co-producing Camille Henrot’s exhibition Água Viva at São Paulo’s Instituto Bardi.
Abstract Expressionist painter Mary Abbott has died at age 98 due to heart failure, as confirmed by McCormick Gallery in Chicago, which represented her for nearly 20 years. Known for her colorful canvases and sweeping brushstrokes, Abbott was praised by the New York Times in 2008 as one of the last great Abstract Expressionist painters of her generation. Despite her early modeling career on Vogue covers and her immersion in the downtown New York art scene alongside figures like Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning, her work received little scholarly recognition until the 2016 Denver Art Museum exhibition "Women of Abstract Expressionism," which traveled to the Mint Museum and Palm Springs Art Museum.
Frieze New York 2026 closed its 15th edition at The Shed on May 17, drawing 25,000 visitors from 75 countries and featuring 68 galleries from 26 countries. The fair reported strong sales across market levels, including seven-figure transactions such as El Anatsui's *LuwVor I* sold by White Cube for $2.2 million and Georg Baselitz's *Stunde der Nachtigall* sold by Thaddaeus Ropac for €1.4 million. The inaugural Sherman Family Foundation Acquisition Fund enabled acquisitions by the Brooklyn Museum and the Baltimore Museum of Art, with works by Bettina, Reika Takebayashi, Seba Calfuqueo, and Joanne Burke. Several galleries, including Johyun Gallery and James Cohan, reported sold-out or near-sell-out booths.
New York Art Week 2026 featured major art fairs including Frieze New York at The Shed, which drew 25,000 visitors from 75 countries and launched the Sherman Family Foundation Acquisition Fund, placing works by four artists into the Brooklyn Museum and Baltimore Museum of Art. TEFAF New York at the Park Avenue Armory presented over 90 international galleries across historic period rooms, while satellite fairs Independent, NADA New York, and 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair offered focused alternatives. Auction houses Sotheby's, Christie's, and Phillips opened free spring sale previews featuring highlights such as Roy Lichtenstein's 'Anxious Girl' and the Lewis Collection.
An unauthorized documentary about mega-gallerist Larry Gagosian is in the works, directed by Barry Avrich, who previously helmed the Netflix hit "Made You Look: A True Story About Fake Art." Titled "Shadow Man: Inside The Secret World of Larry Gagosian," the film promises to feature former employees and artists sharing insider stories about Gagosian's empire. Avrich has a track record of documentaries on high-profile figures, including Lew Wasserman and Harvey Weinstein.
The 61st Venice Biennale opens amid significant turmoil. The entire jury of the International Art Exhibition resigned after a statement about withholding prizes from countries with leaders charged with crimes against humanity by the ICC, leading to the cancellation of the Golden Lion awards in favor of 'Visitors' Lions' to be given at the exhibition's end. The event has been further marred by the sudden death of artistic director Koyo Kouoh from liver cancer in early 2025, and the death of artist Henrike Naumann, who was set to debut work in the German pavilion. Additionally, the selection process for the American pavilion artist, Mexico-based sculptor Alma Allen, sparked controversy after a delayed grant application process.
Vanity Fair art and style correspondents Nate Freeman and José Criales-Unzueta preview the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute spring exhibition "Costume Art," which inaugurates the Condé M. Nast Galleries. The exhibition arrives amid controversy over the Met Gala being sponsored by Lauren Sánchez Bezos and Jeff Bezos, leading to boycott calls and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani skipping the event. Despite this, Anna Wintour and Met director Max Hollein announced the gala raised a record $42 million. Head curator Andrew Bolton presents fashion as art, pairing garments with artworks like Warhol's Skull and Sarah Lucas's Nud Cycladic 9.
The article discusses the newly opened David Geffen Galleries at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), describing the viewing experience as seductive. The galleries are a major component of LACMA's ongoing transformation, designed by architect Peter Zumthor.