MASSIMODECARLO gallery in Hong Kong is presenting "A Grass Roof," the first solo exhibition of American artist Lily Stockman in the city. The show features new oil paintings inspired by the eighth-century Zen poem "Song of the Grass Roof Hermitage" by Shitou Xiqian, exploring themes of interior refuge and infinite expanse through collapsed perspective and dissolved boundaries.
The article previews 14 artists who will have major museum exhibitions in 2026, highlighting key shows such as a long-awaited US retrospective of Marcel Duchamp, a Calder exhibition in Paris, and a Rothko show in Florence. It also details concurrent auction highlights at Christie's New York, including works from the S.I. Newhouse collection by Brancusi, Lichtenstein, Matisse, and Pollock. Specific exhibitions covered include "Krasner and Pollock: Past Continuous" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a Roy Lichtenstein retrospective at the Whitney Museum, and multiple European shows for Constantin Brancusi's 150th anniversary.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) hosted a high-profile opening gala for its new David Geffen Galleries, drawing a massive crowd of celebrities, industry titans, and art world figures. The guest list spanned various sectors of influence, including Disney CEO Bob Iger, artist Jeff Koons, and director Alejandro González Iñárritu, all gathered to celebrate the completion of the museum's new centerpiece.
The article highlights the 10 best Paris art shows of 2025, including major exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou, Fondation Cartier, and Fondation Louis Vuitton. Featured shows include Olga de Amaral's sculptural tapestries, Otobong Nkanga's multi-media works, Meriem Bennani's footwear-as-soundscape, Wim Delvoye's 'Énormément Bizarre' at Centre Pompidou, 'Paris Noir: Artistic Circulations and Anti-Colonial Resistance, 1950-2000' at Centre Pompidou, and 'David Hockney 25' at Fondation Louis Vuitton. The year also saw the closure of Centre Pompidou's Beaubourg building for renovation and the relocation of Fondation Cartier to a new site near the Louvre.
Dominique Fung, a 38-year-old artist known for painting and sculpture, created her first site-specific outdoor performance piece, "A Leaf's Pilgrimage," for the High Line in New York in early September 2025. The three-day performance traced the life of a tea leaf through scenes of growth, withering, and packaging, led by a guide from the ancient past and a present-day assistant. Fung, who has previously created large-scale murals for Rockefeller Center and installations for the Armory Show, will debut new paintings at Massimo de Carlo in Paris in January.
Pour leurs 30 ans, les Pokémon entrent au musée : attrapez-les tous !
The Musée en Herbe in Paris is hosting a major exhibition titled 'Admirez-les tous ! Une exposition hommage à Pokémon' to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Pokémon franchise. The show features original Game Boy consoles, early trading cards, preparatory drawings for the animated series, and insights from the French translator who named the creatures. It also highlights how Pokémon have entered the global visual heritage.
Artists Alexandre Singh and Natalie Musteata have won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for their dystopian French-language short, "Two People Exchanging Saliva." In a rare occurrence for the Oscars, the category resulted in a tie with Sam Davis’s musical comedy "The Singers." Singh and Musteata’s film depicts a near-future Paris where physical intimacy is a capital offense and commerce is conducted through ritualized physical violence.
Alexandre Singh and Natalie Musteata's black-and-white short film *Two People Exchanging Saliva* has been nominated for an Academy Award in the live action short film category. The 36-minute dystopian romance, set in a Paris where kissing is forbidden and punishable by death, premiered at the Telluride Film Festival and has since won multiple prizes. It is distributed by the New Yorker and produced by Misia Films and art[cc]corp, and was also shortlisted for a 2026 César Award.
Haitian-American artist Patrick Eugène has been selected by Dior to reinterpret the iconic Lady Dior handbag for the 10th-anniversary edition of its Dior Lady Art initiative. He is one of ten international participants and one of only two U.S.-based artists in the milestone edition, which will premiere at Art Basel Paris later this month before becoming available at Dior boutiques worldwide. Eugène's design draws on his Haitian roots, incorporating leather and textile patchwork, wooden beads, macramé, raffia embroidery, and straw weaving, with a standout feature of woven leather side panels inlaid with pearls referencing Haiti's historic nickname, the "Pearl of the Antilles." The collaboration will also anchor special activations during Art Basel Miami Beach in December.
Artist Sun Yitian, known for photorealistic paintings of mass-produced consumer objects that sell for up to six figures, is opening her largest solo exhibition to date at Esther Schipper in Berlin as part of Gallery Weekend Berlin on May 2. The exhibition, titled "Romantic Room," features 14 new paintings that incorporate Christian religious symbols alongside references to China's copy culture (shanzhai) and the proliferation of fakes in the 1990s. Works like "Image of Jesus" (2024) depict a Christ with facial fillers, inspired by posters in her hometown Wenzhou, while "Jingpin" (2024) playfully addresses Wenzhou's history of fabricating high-quality shoe copies. The show also includes her ongoing "Shelter" series, featuring inflatable bouncy castles from her childhood.
Musician Scotty Ramon, better known as Kid Cudi, has launched his debut solo painting exhibition titled "Echoes of the Past" at Ruttkowski;68 gallery in Paris. The show features a series of striking, flat-palette canvases centered around an avatar named Max, who navigates scenes of psychological struggle and liberation. To accompany the visual works, Ramon composed a 10-minute percussive score that plays on a loop in the gallery, intended to transport viewers into his creative psyche.
Korean artist Kim Yun Shin, who turns 90 in 2025, is currently the subject of a two-part solo exhibition spanning Lehmann Maupin's London and New York galleries. Titled after her series "Add Two Add One, Divide Two Divide One," which began in 1975, the shows opened in February 2025 at the gallery's temporary Cork Street space in London and continue at its New York location through May 31, 2025. The exhibitions draw on Eastern philosophy of Yin and Yang, exploring themes of union and division. This follows her debut at the 2024 Venice Biennale, where curator Adriano Pedrosa selected eight of her sculptures for the Central Pavilion under the theme "Foreigners Everywhere." In an interview, Kim discusses her nomadic life—from North Korea to South Korea, Paris, Argentina, and back—and how her experiences as a foreigner shaped her artistic perspective.
Kevin Troyano Cuturi, raised on museum visits across Europe and trained in physics and finance, founded Cuturi Gallery in Singapore after co-founding Mazel Gallery in 2017. The gallery now operates a Paris outpost in the former Didier Ludot boutique and runs a discoveries platform for emerging artists, a residency program hosting over 20 artists, and has nurtured Singaporean talents like Aisha Rosli and Faris Heizer.
In 2025, several established art fairs were cancelled or postponed, including the Art Dealers Association of America's Art Show in Manhattan, Taipei Dangdai, Photofairs Hong Kong, and the India Art Fair's Mumbai expo. Amid these retrenchments, a wave of smaller, alternative art fairs emerged in cities like New York, Paris, and the Berkshires, organized by gallerists and curators seeking new formulas focused on coalition, affordability, and intimacy. Examples include Esther in Manhattan (co-founded by Margot Samel and Olga Temnikova), the Arrival Art Fair in North Adams (co-founded by Yng-Ru Chen, Crystalle Lacouture, and Sarah Galender Meyer), 7 rue Froissart in Paris (organized by Sara Maria Salamone and Brigitte Mulholland), and Post-Fair in Santa Monica (founded by Chris Sharp).
Medina, New York will host its inaugural contemporary art triennial in 2026, running from June 6 to September 7 across more than a dozen indoor and outdoor venues along the Erie Canal. The event will feature over 50 local, domestic, and international artists with site-responsive commissions, and a Medina Triennial Hub will open this September with programming in collaboration with Western New York arts institutions. Initiated by the New York Power Authority and the New York State Canal Corporation, the triennial is co-directed by Kari Conte and Karin Laansoo. In other news, Sotheby's RM will host a major Formula 1 auction titled 'The Champions – Schumacher and F1 Legends' from July 24–30; the Bakehouse Art Complex in Wynwood, Miami plans to build 60 affordable artist apartments; and artist Khaled Sabsabi has been reinstated as Australia's representative for the 2026 Venice Biennale after an external review found Creative Australia mishandled his withdrawal.
The article examines the severe affordable housing crisis facing artists in major art capitals like New York, Berlin, London, Los Angeles, Paris, and Hong Kong. It draws parallels between the satirical portrayals of housing struggles in Tama Janowitz's *Slaves of New York* (1986) and Jane DeLynn's *Real Estate* (1988) and the contemporary reality, where median rents have tripled since the 1970s while artists' median earnings remain critically low. The author maps artists' precarious housing situations onto Dante's nine circles of Hell, illustrating the creative but often desperate workarounds artists employ, such as subletting, living in storage units, or having no permanent address.
L’artiste Fabien Verschaere, auteur de joyeux capharnaüms, s’est éteint à l’âge de 50 ans
The French contemporary artist Fabien Verschaere has passed away suddenly at the age of 50. Known for his dense, colorful, and highly personal visual language, Verschaere was scheduled to receive the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres distinction just days after his death. His work, which drew heavily from childhood imagery and his own experiences with chronic illness, created a bridge between dreams and nightmares through a cast of recurring characters like ghosts, superheroes, and hybrid creatures.
Valentina Akerman, an art director and architect, opened Sardine gallery in a weathered Amagansett rental last summer with her husband, artist Joe Bradley. What began as an improvised experiment has grown into a Hamptons success story, now in its second season with a Summer 2025 program featuring film series, residencies, dinners, and four exhibitions pairing painters with sculptors. The gallery also hosted a pop-up in Paris during Art Basel Paris and is organizing a group show at Le Consortium Museum’s summer space in Burgundy.
Galerie de l'Institut, a family-run Parisian gallery specializing in prints since 1954, is currently staging "Picasso. Dessin. 1903–1972," a major exhibition showcasing Pablo Picasso's prints and works on paper spanning nearly seven decades. The gallery, led by siblings Marc Lebouc and Anne-Gaëlle Lebouc (the second generation), with the third generation (Louis Lebouc) now involved, has expanded its focus from prints to include unique works and strengthened its online presence through platforms like Artnet. The exhibition marks both Picasso's 144th anniversary and the opening of the gallery's third space.
Sara MacKillop's exhibition "The Cutaway View" at Good Weather in Chicago presents sculptures made from humble analog materials like blank wall calendars, empty shopping bags, and gift wrapping. The London-based artist alters these objects with minimal interventions—such as surgically cut holes in shopping bags to accommodate vinyl records—drawing attention to the ephemera and texture of retail culture. Her series "Calendar Houses" (2021–ongoing) uses archive boxes and wall calendars to create miniature modernist dwellings that critique systems of order and self-optimization.
Europe is set to host a series of major exhibitions in 2026 that bridge the cultural divide between the East and West. Key highlights include a massive Yayoi Kusama retrospective at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, a showcase of Thai royal haute couture and Pierre Balmain’s designs at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, and an exploration of ancient Korean gold at the Musée Guimet. Additionally, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London will partner with Australia’s QAGOMA for a large-scale survey of contemporary art from Asia and the Pacific.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) celebrated the opening of its new David Geffen Galleries with a star-studded gala that raised nearly $11.5 million. The event brought together architect Peter Zumthor, museum director Michael Govan, and a high-profile mix of Hollywood celebrities, artists, and major donors. The $720 million building, Zumthor's first major project in the United States, marks the culmination of a decades-long development process and is set to open to the public next week.
The April 2026 Art Diary highlights a global trend of exhibitions exploring the intersection of spirituality, art, and the environment. Key highlights include a new scholarly essay by Hassan Vawda reinterpreting the Kettle’s Yard collection through the religious beliefs of its founders, Jim and Helen Ede, and a major group exhibition at ICA LA titled 'Speaking in Tongues.' The latter features indigenous and diasporic artists from the Global South who utilize art as a conduit for the sacred, ritual, and ecstatic expression.
Christie’s Paris has announced two major contemporary art auctions scheduled for late 2023, consisting of a live sale on December 6 and an online sale running from November 28 to December 8. The auctions feature over 200 lots with a combined global estimate of €8.5 million to €12.3 million, highlighted by two previously unseen paintings by Pierre Soulages and works by Jean Dubuffet and Georges Mathieu. A significant portion of the online sale is dedicated to "A Lifetime Collection," a prestigious private Parisian collection featuring works by David Hockney, Sol LeWitt, and Robert Combas.
Sotheby’s Modern and contemporary evening sale in London signaled a resilient recovery for the UK art market, totaling £131 million with fees and achieving a 98% sell-through rate. Despite geopolitical tensions and post-Brexit economic concerns, the auction room was notably crowded, driven by high-profile works from the collection of billionaire Joe Lewis. The evening's top lot was a 1972 Francis Bacon self-portrait, which sold for £16 million, while a major painting by Leon Kossoff shattered the artist's previous auction record.
The Courtauld in London is opening 'Seurat and the Sea,' the first exhibition dedicated to Georges Seurat's seascapes, on February 13, 2026. The show will feature 26 paintings, oil sketches, and drawings created by the artist between 1885 and 1890, including works like 'The Beach at Gravelines' and 'Seascape at Port-en-Bessin, Normandy.'
Marian Goodman, the renowned contemporary art dealer, died on 22 January at the age of 97. Her eponymous gallery confirmed she passed peacefully of natural causes. Over a 60-year career, Goodman built a reputation for representing challenging, conceptually ambitious artists, including Gerhard Richter, Nan Goldin, Anselm Kiefer, Julie Mehretu, William Kentridge, and Nairy Baghramian. She opened her first gallery in New York in 1977 and later expanded to Paris and London, before closing the London space in 2020. In her final decade, the gallery saw high-profile departures but also added new artists and opened a Los Angeles location in 2023 and a new Tribeca space in 2024. A succession plan was announced in 2021, and the gallery is now led by partners Emily-Jane Kirwan, Rose Lord, Leslie Nolen, and Junette Teng.
The article highlights a curated selection of must-see art exhibitions across the Asia Pacific region in 2026. Key shows include Zao Wou-Ki's printmaking retrospective at M+ in Hong Kong, a major Cartier jewelry exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, and a survey of Western landscape art from the Centre Pompidou collection. Other notable exhibitions feature ancient Egyptian treasures at the Hong Kong Palace Museum, as well as shows dedicated to Klimt, Van Gogh, and Vermeer in Taipei and Japan.
Tokyo's museums have announced their 2026 exhibition schedules, featuring a diverse lineup of international and domestic shows. Highlights include 'YBA & Beyond: British Art in the 90s from the Tate Collection' at the National Art Center, a major retrospective of Hajime Sorayama at the Creative Museum Tokyo, and a solo exhibition of Lithuanian artist M. K. Čiurlionis, alongside shows by Picasso, Ron Mueck, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and Minami Tada.
The article presents a curated selection of upcoming art exhibitions across major global cities in 2026, highlighting key shows in Paris, New York, and Tokyo. In Paris, notable exhibitions include a Georges de la Tour show at the Musée Jacquemand-André, a Renoir retrospective at the Musée d'Orsay, and a Henri Rousseau exhibition at the Musée de l'Orangerie. New York features solo shows of Egon Schiele at the Neue Galerie, Thomas Gainsborough at the Frick Collection, and Paul Klee at the Jewish Museum, while Tokyo focuses on women artists from the 1950s and 60s at the National Museum of Modern Art and a centennial exhibition at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum.