And Just Like That… Carrie Bradshaw’s Closet Hits the Auction Block

Julien’s Auctions is hosting a massive sale of over 500 props, costumes, and furnishings from the HBO series "And Just Like That…". The auction features iconic items associated with characters Carrie Bradshaw, Charlotte York, and Miranda Hobbes, including a prop Rolex watch engraved for Mr. Big, high-fashion garments, and furniture from the characters' New York apartments. Bidding began online in early April and will culminate in a live two-day event in California at the end of the month.

Caravaggio, Class, Clothes, and Street Style by Elizabeth Currie

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An excerpt from Elizabeth Currie's upcoming book "Street Style: Art and Dress in the Time of Caravaggio" analyzes the significance of clothing in Caravaggio's painting *The Cardsharps*. The author dissects the garments of the three figures—a finely dressed youth, a possibly liveried servant, and a disheveled card sharp—to reveal how their attire provides clues to their social status, professions, and the complex, often deceptive relationships between them.

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Artist Ektor Rivera has created a painting titled "The Discovery of Americans" (2025) that reimagines Emanuel Leutze's "Washington Crossing the Delaware" to celebrate Puerto Rican cultural figures, with Bad Bunny at the center. The work was commissioned by Miami art collector Seth Goldberg as a response to conservative criticism over Bad Bunny being selected to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show. The five-by-eight-foot painting places George Washington in the background while Puerto Rican icons including Jennifer Lopez, Ricky Martin, and Roberto Clemente take center stage, with Bad Bunny draped in the Puerto Rican flag. The artwork has garnered over 2.3 million views on Instagram and Facebook.

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Christie's auction "We the People: America at 250" on January 23, 2026, achieved $35.5 million in total sales, doubling its presale estimate. The top lot was a draft of the U.S. Constitution annotated by founding father Rufus King, which sold for $7.3 million. Other highlights included a signed Emancipation Proclamation ($6.7 million), a 1776 Declaration of Independence copy ($5.6 million), and the Apple Computer Company Partnership Agreement from 1976, signed by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, which fetched $2.5 million. A Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington (ca. 1804) realized $2.8 million, setting a new auction record for the Athenaeum type.

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OXH Gallery in Tampa, founded just over two years ago, presents its latest exhibition “Where Form Remembers,” featuring works by artists Avani R. Patel and Julie Gladstone. The show highlights each artist's exploration of emotion through abstraction, with Patel drawing on Indian cultural influences and organic motifs, while Gladstone uses multimedia compositions rooted in psychological experiences like memory and trauma. The exhibition runs through January 23, 2025.

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Empress Elisabeth of Austria (1837–1898), known as Princess Sisi, has re-entered the cultural spotlight after eagle-eyed historians noticed a striking similarity between Franz Xaver Winterhalter's informal portrait of the Empress with her hair down and a bridal scene in Guillermo del Toro's new film *Frankenstein*, where actress Mia Goth appears with flowing auburn locks. The comparison, shared widely on social media by historian Rachael Gibson and others, gave Winterhalter's 19th-century portrait a new viral moment, sparking renewed interest in Sisi's life and the role of hair in Victorian Europe.

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John Oliver’s benefit auction for public broadcasting set a new market record for a Bob Ross painting. On Monday, Ross’s *Cabin at Sunset*, painted for a 1986 episode of PBS’s *The Joy of Painting*, sold for roughly $1,044,000. Oliver revealed the sale on the 2025 finale of *Last Week Tonight With John Oliver*, having persuaded the Bob Ross estate to auction the work. The lot received 35 bids. The auction was part of “John Oliver’s Junk,” an online sale of 65 items that netted nearly $1.54 million for the Public Media Bridge Fund, which supports local public broadcasters after the Trump administration eliminated $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

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Oscar-winning film director Guillermo del Toro sold the first part of his macabre collection, known as "Bleak House," through Heritage Auctions in Dallas, Texas, for a total of $1.65 million. The trove included art, props, and rare objects tied to his fascination with the macabre, with highlights such as H. R. Giger's painting for the unrealized project *The Tourist* fetching $325,000 (an auction record for the artist), Mike Mignola's original illustration for *Hellboy: Seed of Destruction* selling for over $50,000, and Bernie Wrightson's cover for Meat Loaf's *Dead Ringer* album reaching $167,000. Props from del Toro's films, including a clay model of the Amphibian Man from *The Shape of Water* and drivesuits from *Pacific Rim*, also sold for significant sums.

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The Park Avenue Armory in New York is hosting the North American premiere of *11,000 Strings*, an orchestral piece by composer Georg Friedrich Haas featuring 50 black pianos arranged in a ring. The performances began last night and run through October 7, with the 55,000-square-foot Drill Hall providing a dramatic setting for the microtonally tuned pianos and a 25-member ensemble from Klangforum Wien. The piece explores texture and tone over melody, evoking composers like Ligeti, Penderecki, and Stockhausen.

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The auction of two 17th-century Dutch still-life oil paintings of flowers was halted at Apple Tree Auction Center in Newark, Ohio, after the Monuments Men and Women Foundation and the Jewish Digital Cultural Recovery Project identified them as Nazi-looted art. The paintings, originally part of Adolphe and Lucie Haas Schloss's collection, were seized in 1943 and later stored in Hitler's Führerbau before being looted again. Foundation founder Robert Edsel traveled to Ohio to alert the auction house, which cooperated by removing the works from sale and placing them in a vault. The consignor's identity remains undisclosed, and the foundation is working to return the paintings to the Schloss family.

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The Daily Beast published a lengthy article on Thomas Kinkade's legacy two years after his death from alcohol and Valium, detailing his divorce, alcoholism, and strip club visits—contradicting the idyllic scenes in his mass-marketed paintings. Despite these revelations, Kinkade's commercial empire has thrived: sales on ShopNBC have risen, most galleries report higher sales than before his death, licensing partners like Hallmark and Andrews McMeel Publishing saw double-digit growth, and Kinkade ranked #81 on Global License!'s bestselling licensed brands with $425 million in annual sales, ahead of CBS Consumer Products and National Geographic.

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An anonymous artist collective, previously responsible for an eight-foot-tall golden monument of Donald Trump crushing Lady Liberty, has installed a new unauthorized artwork on Washington, D.C.'s National Mall. The piece is a life-size, gold-painted television set playing a silent 15-second loop of Trump performing his signature slow-motion dance moves, set against backdrops including campaign rallies and a party with Jeffrey Epstein. The installation, permitted through Sunday, includes a spray-painted gold eagle and a plaque quoting a White House statement criticizing the earlier sculpture. The White House responded with a sarcastic statement from spokesperson Abigail Jackson, claiming the video brings 'joy and inspiration' to tourists.

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A 4.9-meter stainless steel sculpture titled "Chaînes de Lumière" was unveiled on March 15, 2025, in Bikfaya, Lebanon, by artist duo Pierre and Cedric Koukjian. The work, composed of seven monumental links, was inaugurated in the presence of local officials including Bikfaya Mayor Nicole Gemayel, former President Amine Gemayel, Swiss Ambassador Marion Weichelt, and several UN envoys. It is part of a series of chain-motif sculptures installed globally, with previous works like "X-Link" (2022) in Geneva, Switzerland, and future installations planned for London and Bristol.

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A collection of Abraham Lincoln memorabilia, including personal possessions, autograph letters, and campaign artifacts, was auctioned by Freeman’s | Hindman in Chicago on May 22. The sale, held on behalf of the Lincoln Presidential Foundation, featured around 140 lots and exceeded expectations, totaling nearly $7.9 million. The top lot was a pair of blood-stained white kid gloves Lincoln wore the night of his assassination, which sold for $1.5 million. Other highlights included a cuff button bearing the initial 'L' that fetched $445,000 and a handwritten math exercise from Lincoln’s youth that sold for $521,200.

‘Sensitive, sexy and surreal’: Japan’s Kyotographie festival

Kyotographie, Japan's leading international photography festival, opened its 2025 edition with the theme 'Edge,' featuring 14 exhibitions across Kyoto. The festival includes a major retrospective of Daido Moriyama, the 86-year-old pioneer of the 'are-bure-boke' aesthetic, showcasing over 200 images, 400 magazines, and 100 books. Also featured are British artist Linder Sterling, known for her punk-era feminist photomontages and album art for Buzzcocks, and Kenyan photographer Thandiwe Muriu, this year's African artist in residence, who uses patterned kitenge fabric to explore identity and female empowerment.

For the People: Lubbock’s First Friday Art Trail Engages Thousands of Art-Goers Each Month

Lubbock’s First Friday Art Trail (FFAT), now in its 22nd year, has grown from a small gathering of a few dozen attendees to regularly drawing thousands to the downtown arts district each month. In October 2025, the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts (LHUCA) distributed 6,000 wristbands before running out. The event features exhibitions, open studios, craft vendors, music, hands-on activities, drinks, and food trucks, with streets closed to traffic and visitors moving on foot or by trolley. The trail began organically in August 2004, spearheaded by artist Steve Teeters of St. Eligius Studio, and was inspired by a First Friday event in Corpus Christi.

Pre-Raphaelite exhibition explores LGBT+ stories

Cartwright Hall Art Gallery in Bradford has launched a new exhibition of Pre-Raphaelite masterpieces paired with contemporary reflections from the local LGBT+ community. Members of the Equity Partnership charity collaborated with museum staff to reinterpret 19th-century works by artists such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ford Madox Brown, and John Collier through the lens of lived queer experience.

Impact Leadership Academy Students to Showcase Artwork at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston Exhibition

Students from Aldine ISD's Impact Leadership Academy will debut their collaborative artwork in the Shared Grounds exhibition, hosted by the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH). The opening takes place on November 18, 2025, at the University of Houston's 3rd Space Art Gallery, featuring large-scale paintings created under the guidance of teaching artist Carlos Mendoza and art teacher Toby McCraw. The works explore themes of place, memory, and the future.

Untitled: Artist Takeover Oct 2025

The Denver Art Museum hosted "Untitled: Artist Takeover Oct 2025," a Halloween-themed evening event featuring performances, art installations, and interactive activities across its Hamilton Building, Martin Building, and Sturm Grand Pavilion. Highlights included a memorial installation series "Death of Baddy" by artist Moe Gram, classic horror film screenings, tarot readings, shadow puppet theater, mask-making, and a dance party with DJ 2AND2. Participating artists and performers included Justy Robinson, Miguel Garcia, Kendall Bennett, Patty McCrystal, Zora Beglarian, Lisa Frank 666, Karma Leigh, Joe Oliver, Medicine Mama Kia, Shaunie Berry, Elle Hong, and Rafael & Kristina Maldonado Bad Hand.

Two New Exhibits at Penn’s Institute of Contemporary Art

The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) at the University of Pennsylvania has opened two new exhibitions. "Mavis Pusey: Mobile Images" (through December 7, 2025) is the first major museum survey dedicated to Jamaican-born geometric abstractionist Mavis Pusey (1928-2019), featuring over 60 works from her 50-year career, including her "Broken Construction" series. Co-organized with the Studio Museum in Harlem and curated by Hallie Ringle and Kiki Teshome, the show includes archival materials. The second exhibition, "Entryways: Xenobia Bailey" (through August 9, 2026), continues ICA's collaboration with textile studio Maharam, featuring a window installation by Philadelphia-based fiber artist Xenobia Bailey, curated by Denise Ryner.

Vintage Designs Take on New Lives at Milan Design Week

Milan Design Week is showcasing a significant trend of reviving mid-century furniture classics, featuring prominent reissues such as a 1950s table by Carlo Mollino and a 1960s lamp by Carlo Nason. These historical designs are being reintroduced to contemporary audiences through the annual festival, highlighting a bridge between mid-century aesthetics and modern production.

Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Language of the Dispossessed

A major retrospective of artist and writer Theresa Hak Kyung Cha highlights her pioneering work in feminist conceptual art, focusing on videos and performances that explore displacement, language, and the violence of cultural hegemony. The exhibition, born from recent reassessments of her legacy, reconstructs the image of an artist whose brief career anticipated contemporary struggles with nationalism and identity.

'Walk this way' — Easton welcomes art lovers on First Friday

Easton's downtown art scene came alive during the May First Friday event, with multiple galleries opening their doors to the public. At the Zach Gallery inside the Prager Family Center for the Arts, a new exhibition of paintings by Paton Miller was curated by interior designer Jeffrey Parker. The TRA Gallery, run by the Talbot Arts Council, featured a photography show by Steve Waltrich, Mike Miller, and Maire McCardle. Troika Gallery, Easton's original fine art gallery, also participated, with artist Deborah Elville showing her work. Looking ahead, Zach Gallery announced a June 4 solo exhibition by Rhode Island artist Breath Day Wyndham titled "Gathering the Chesapeake," featuring cyanotypes created from flora and fauna collected from the Chesapeake Bay region.

The Clay Studio organizes "Radical Americana" exhibitions across Philadelphia

The Clay Studio has organized "Radical Americana," a sprawling exhibition series featuring 45 artists across 22 sites in the Philadelphia area. Curated by Jennifer Zwilling, the project includes a central "welcome hub" at The Clay Studio and 25 satellite exhibitions at venues such as the Museum for Art in Wood, Cliveden, and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Artists were prompted to reflect on the Declaration of Independence and envision a better future, resulting in works that explore feminism, social justice, and LGBTQ rights through media including ceramics, wood, fiber, metal, glass, paper, and bookmaking. Notable participant Roberto Lugo presents "American Crib: What's Happening?" at The Clay Studio, blending Puerto Rican heritage with historical references.

Liliana Moro “| senza | soluzione di continuità” at Platea | Palazzo Galeano, Lodi

Liliana Moro presents a new installation titled “| senza | soluzione di continuità” at Platea | Palazzo Galeano in Lodi. The work is described as a powerful yet subtle artistic gesture that renegotiates the function of the shop window as a public space, emphasizing responsibility and generosity.

art perrotin gabriel de la mora interview

Artist Gabriel de la Mora, now 57, reflects on how his childhood dyslexia and autism shaped his artistic practice in an interview tied to his latest exhibition "Repeated Original" at Perrotin in New York, on view through April 11. The show features meticulous geometric works made from fragmented eggshells and curved reflective glass, with each piece titled after the exact number of fragments used. De la Mora sources eggshells from Mexico City restaurants and churches that serve free meals, and he recently closed a major career survey at Museo Jumex, where he led 79 guided tours over six months, including for deaf children.

Adrian Ghenie: Roman Campagna | Exhibition review

Adrian Ghenie's exhibition "Roman Campagna" at a Paris gallery presents a series of paintings and charcoal drawings that subvert the romantic cliché of an artist's transformative encounter with Rome. Ghenie populates landscapes inspired by the Appian Way with grotesque, alien-headed figures hunched over smartphones, urinating on monuments, or weeping at sunsets, using brown and grey tones punctuated by bright colors. The works reference Francis Bacon and William S. Burroughs, and include direct allusions to Bacon's reinterpretation of van Gogh's self-portrait, as well as a copy of a Pompeii mosaic. The show also features large charcoal drawings on paper that reveal Ghenie's process of constructing his contemporary, alienated figures.

Exhibition | 'The Shape of Summer: From Boudin to Wesselmann' at Bailly Gallery, Bailly Gallery Paris, France

Bailly Gallery in Paris is presenting an exhibition titled 'The Shape of Summer: From Boudin to Wesselmann,' featuring works that explore the theme of summer from the 19th century to the present. The show spans artists from Eugène Boudin to Tom Wesselmann, highlighting the evolution of summer imagery in art.

A Guide To May 2026 Photography Festivals & Exhibitions

A diverse array of international photography festivals and exhibitions are scheduled for May 2026. Key events include Bieler Fototage in Switzerland, focusing on vulnerability as a social condition; Photo London, which is relocating to the Olympia and introducing new curated sections; Hard Copy New York at the ICP, exploring photocopied imagery; Fotofestival Lenzburg, an open-air exhibition in Switzerland; and several other events across Europe and the US.

Alexandria Art Galleries in April: Floral Exhibits, Events & Spring Shows

The Alexandria art scene is hosting a diverse array of exhibitions and events throughout April 2026, centered around the Torpedo Factory Art Center, Del Ray Artisans, and Nepenthe Gallery. Key highlights include Marcus Beauregard’s solo printmaking show "Paint to Print," a car-themed exhibition titled "Fast and Fabulous" curated by Kelly and Scott MacConomy, and a series of weekly receptions at Nepenthe Gallery featuring artists like Sweta Shah and the NOVA Plein Air Artists. Many of these events serve charitable purposes, with proceeds from specific sales at Del Ray Artisans being donated in memory of late local artists Donna Gallo and Rusty Lynn.