The article provides a critic's guide to seven notable exhibitions to see in Brussels during the Art Brussels fair. It highlights Richard Tuttle's assemblages at Galerie Greta Meert, an expansive Lutz Bacher show at WIELS, and other presentations by artists like Tarek Lakhrissi, Mire Lee, and Tiona Nekkia McClodden across various galleries and institutions.
The Jewish Museum in New York's exhibition 'Paul Klee: Other Possible Worlds' is missing its central artwork, Paul Klee's 'Angelus Novus' (1920). The original, owned by Walter Benjamin and normally housed at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, is absent due to "current conditions affecting international transport," a likely reference to the Israel-Hamas war. A reproduction stands in its place, alongside Benjamin's famous 'Angel of History' text, which interprets the angel as a figure witnessing the catastrophic pile-up of history.
German art dealers are increasingly pivoting toward regional strategies as the national market faces a period of stagnation. While the broader European Union saw a modest rise in dealer sales, Germany’s market contracted by 4 percent between 2024 and 2025, hampered by high interest rates and a sluggish post-pandemic recovery. In response, major fairs like Art Cologne are launching satellite editions in locations like Mallorca to follow wealthy German collectors on vacation, while Art Düsseldorf prepares for a record-breaking edition despite the economic downturn.
Domenick Ammirati returns to New York after a year-long writing residency in Siena and Provincetown to cover the spring art fairs, including Frieze New York 2026. He observes a notably calm art week, attributing the subdued atmosphere to the fair's proximity to the Venice Biennale, which left key players exhausted. Highlights include a Rei Kawakubo installation at Independent, Gucci's Cruise show in Times Square, and MoMA PS1's 50th anniversary gala, where he mingles with curator Jody Graf and spots Klaus Biesenbach.
Danielle Mckinney, a rising painter known for intimate depictions of Black women in moments of repose, shares insights into her creative process in a studio visit interview. She has two concurrent exhibitions: one at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach (through Oct. 4) and one at Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York (through June 13), where she debuts a series of watercolors and continues dissolving boundaries between figures and their domestic surroundings.
The article presents a speed round of one-sentence reviews for current art exhibitions in New York's Chelsea and West Village neighborhoods, curated by the Critics' Table. Featured shows include Édouard Vuillard's "Early Interiors" at Skarstedt, Ralph Lemon's "From Out of Space" at Paula Cooper, "Art (by) Dealers" at White Columns, Nicola Tyson's "NEED" at Petzel, Anne Truitt's "Waterleaf" at Matthew Marks, Paul Chan's "Automa Mon Amour" at Greene Naftali, and a Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition at Gladstone, all running through April 2025.
Cultured magazine has published a gallery show guide for Expo Chicago, highlighting seven must-see exhibitions across the city during the fair. The guide features Oren Pinhassi's towering sculptures at The Arts Club of Chicago, Gaylen Gerber's object-identity works at Hans Goodrich's new space, Liliana Porter's found-object pieces at Secrist Beach, Nate Millstein's industrial ceramic sculptures at Weatherproof, and Leah Ke Yi Zheng's 64-painting series inspired by the I Ching at the Renaissance Society. The article also notes the concurrent group show "Unreal" at Secrist Beach and the artist-run nature of Weatherproof, led by Young Dealers Milo Christie and Sam Dybeck.
Cynthia Hawkins, a 76-year-old Black abstract painter, discusses her latest work and career in an interview with Cultured. She describes her ongoing "Maps Necessary for a Walk in 4D" series, which began in 1979, and her current exploration of a new iteration called "Fielding Space" or "Maps Fielding Space." Hawkins will be featured in the upcoming "Hard Art" exhibition at MoMA PS1 opening November 5, which places her work alongside over 40 other Black abstract artists including Sam Gilliam and Carolyn Lazard. She reflects on her early art experiences, from learning to draw Mickey Mouse with her father to rejecting paint-by-numbers, and her enduring fascination with color, particularly orange and yellow.
The Getty Center presents "Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955–1985," a traveling exhibition from the National Gallery of Art featuring 150 images by Black midcentury photographers. The show, on view from February 24 through June 14, includes works by Gordon Parks, Ming Smith, Carrie Mae Weems, Adger Cowans, Doris A. Derby, Harry Adams, Leonard Freed, John Simmons, and others, capturing moments of protest, daily life, and community resistance.
Cayetano Ferrer, a 44-year-old artist born in Honolulu and raised in Las Vegas, is featured in a studio visit ahead of his solo exhibition "Object Prosthetics" at Commonwealth and Council in Los Angeles, running from January 31 to March 14. Ferrer's work often begins in archives, exploring how time is annotated and reinterpreted; his early piece made from casino carpeting was shown at the first "Made in L.A." biennial in 2012. He has salvaged fragments from the original William Pereira-designed LACMA buildings for recent projects, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Historic Preservation at Columbia University. The interview covers his creative process, influences like Caetano Veloso's concept of antropofagia, and his use of a hot iron seaming machine called the Kool Glide Pro.
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.
Eamon Ore-Giron has taken over James Cohan's two downtown Manhattan galleries with "Conversations with Snakes, Birds, and Stars," an exhibition of new paintings and mosaics running through Dec. 20. The works draw on ancient Mesoamerican and Andean symbology, continuing his long-running "Talking Shit" series, which has previously been shown at the Contemporary Austin, Whitney Museum, and LACMA. In an interview with CULTURED, Ore-Giron discusses how he uses color, mythology, and ritual to create a universe where serpents, birds, and stars engage in dialogue with viewers and across time.
CULTURED magazine's November gallery guide for New York highlights five exhibitions across Manhattan galleries. Aiza Ahmed's debut solo show "The Music Room" at Sargent's Daughters draws on Satyajit Ray's 1958 film, featuring paintings, sculpture, and a musical composition. B. Wurtz's "13 Works" at Garth Greenan presents assemblages of everyday objects exploring consumption and waste. Ali Banisadr's "Noble/Savage" at Olney Gleason responds to visual overload with paintings, bronzes, and works on paper. Brock Enright's "I AM SO PRETTY" at Club Rhubarb showcases diverse mediums from his collecting habit. Jay DeFeo's "Garnets on the Boulder" at Paula Cooper focuses on her post-"The Rose" abstract expressionist works from the 1980s.
Brian Droitcour curates a guide to navigating the current media landscape through the work of tech-savvy artists and writers, focusing on exhibitions in Brooklyn and Queens. The guide highlights Porpentine's show "Xrafstar World" at Haul Gallery in Gowanus, which features poster-prints of drawings depicting characters from their stories and games, made with different digital brushes. Droitcour contrasts this DIY, performance-driven work with major institutions' engagement with AI, such as Sasha Stiles' "A Living Poem" at MoMA, which he criticizes for echoing technology's promises of polish rather than probing its complications.
The article, written by an art critic for Cultured, opens by describing recent U.S. government actions under Executive Order 14253, including the National Park Service's restoration of a monument to Confederate General Albert Pike and a White House letter to Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III ordering a review of Smithsonian programming to align with a directive to "celebrate American exceptionalism." The critic notes Bunch's balancing act of cooperating while asserting the Smithsonian's independent authority. The piece then pivots to the state of art criticism, referencing Domenick Ammirati's essay on the perpetual "crisis in criticism," and highlights Marco Brambilla's exhibition "Limit of Control" at bitforms gallery as the year's most under-appreciated show, praising its use of AI to explore political violence and protest.
Alex Katz presents a new body of work titled "White Lotus" at Gray Chicago, on view through September 20. The exhibition features large-scale portraits and cool, cinematic scenes inspired by a beach in Maine and Antonioni's *L'Avventura*, with only a superficial connection to the TV series *The White Lotus*. Katz, now in his late 90s, continues his seven-decade practice of prioritizing style over narrative, focusing on surfaces, garments, and glances. Concurrently, his work is also on view at SCAI Piramide in Tokyo, San Diego's Museum of Contemporary Art, and Gladstone Gallery will host a fall exhibition of his orange abstractions. The article includes an interview where Katz discusses his studio habits, influences (Fra Angelico, Veronese, Goya), and his resilience in the face of early career criticism.
The article compiles personal anecdotes from several art collectors—Laurent Asscher, Suzanne Syz, Rob and Eric Thomas-Suwall, Toby Milstein Schulman, and Danielle Falls—who share mistakes they made while building their collections. Asscher recounts buying a lesser Basquiat at Christie's before quickly reselling it to acquire a superior work at Phillips; Syz regrets buying a piece because others wanted it; the Thomas-Suwalls missed out on a Dominique Fung diptych; Schulman accidentally bought a work attributed 'after Keith Haring' at a charity auction; and Falls reflects on her early eagerness as a young trustee of the Bronx Museum.
Aspen's summer 2025 art scene is packed with exhibitions and fairs. Highlights include a mini-survey of photographer Anastasia Samoylova at Casa Tua Aspen, a major Sherrie Levine retrospective at the Aspen Art Museum (June 6–Sept. 29), Enrique Martínez Celaya's 'The Pale Threshold' at Baldwin Gallery (June 20–July 20), the Intersect Aspen Art + Design Fair (July 29–Aug. 3) featuring Shepard Fairey and Michael Stipe, Anderson Ranch's Summer Series with talks by Issy Wood and Titus Kaphar, and the Aspen Art Fair (July 29–Aug. 2) at Hotel Jerome.
This article from Cultured magazine covers multiple art-related stories, including a profile of restaurateur Keith McNally's memoir, a list of must-see museum exhibitions in New York for spring, a review of Mary Abbott's overlooked Abstract Expressionist work now on view at Schoelkopf Gallery, a feature on Salman Toor's major new exhibition "Wish Maker" at Luhring Augustine, and a discussion on designing more empathetic museums. It also includes a beauty and fashion trends piece with creative nominations.
« Un changement radical » : Art Brussels se réinvente pour ses collectionneurs
Art Brussels, the Belgian art fair, is implementing a significant strategic overhaul for its 42nd edition. The fair is reducing its size by 18%, featuring 136 galleries, and consolidating into a more compact layout to prioritize visitor experience and quality over quantity. It is introducing a new artistic advisory desk to guide collectors and launching a curated section for monumental works.
Daniel Sikkema, the estranged husband of murdered New York art dealer Brent Sikkema, was found guilty in Manhattan federal court on charges related to a murder-for-hire plot. Prosecutors proved that Daniel orchestrated the killing of Brent Sikkema, founder of the Chelsea gallery Sikkema Jenkins & Co., at his vacation home in Rio de Janeiro in January 2024, amid a bitter divorce and custody dispute. Daniel was convicted on three counts for conspiring to hire Alejandro Triana Prevez, a Cuban former security officer, who stabbed the dealer 18 times. Daniel faces a mandatory life sentence.
M+ in Hong Kong and the Centre Pompidou in Paris have announced a new five-year partnership beginning next year. The agreement, announced at M+ on May 15, includes lending artworks for exhibitions, collaborative research and commissions, curator exchanges, and a four-year postdoctoral fellowship. A major exhibition focusing on visual culture in France and Greater China will debut at the Pompidou when it reopens in 2029 or 2030, then travel to M+.
Joel Mesler, a former gallerist turned artist, is debuting a new series of figurative paintings titled “Interiors” at the Independent art fair under the deliberately strange name “Joel Mesler Presented by The Estate of Joel Mesler.” The project includes only 12 paintings, which will not be sold through a gallery sales team; only Mesler himself and his former dealer David Kordansky can sell the work. Mesler describes the presentation as part art exhibit, part controlled market experiment, reflecting his frustration with the contemporary art market's loss of intimacy and unpredictability.
Lucy Liu, best known for her acting career in films like "Kill Bill" and the TV series "Elementary," is currently presenting a new exhibition of paintings titled "Hard Feelings" at Alisan Fine Arts in New York. The show features works that explore family memory and personal history, including pieces like "Family Portrait" (2016) and newer, more gestural paintings such as "What Stays" (2023) and "Hourglass" (2026). Liu, who studied at the New York Studio School from 2004 to 2007, uses layered and obscured imagery to reflect the unstable, fragmentary nature of memory, drawing on family photographs and her own childhood experiences following her father's death.
The 2026 Venice Biennale opened with 99 participating countries, including first-timers Somalia and Qatar, under the shadow of curator Koyo Kouoh's death. Her planned theme of "enhancement" and the main show "In Minor Keys" were disrupted by political protests: Pussy Riot objected to Russia's inclusion, and a strike against Israel's participation forced several national pavilions (UK, Austria, France) to close. Key takeaways include pervasive female nudity across pavilions, debates over Russia's presence, criticism of the US pavilion's lackluster art, maritime themes dominating several shows, and the rise of olfactory art.
Alma Allen represents the United States at the 2026 Venice Biennale with a subdued, apolitical exhibition inside the US Pavilion. The show features roughly 25 sculptures—mostly in bronze, wood, and stone—many titled "Not Yet Titled," and deliberately avoids overt political messaging. This marks a stark departure from the previous two US pavilions, curated by Simone Leigh (2022) and Jeffrey Gibson (2024), which directly confronted colonialism and empire. The Trump administration’s call for proposals explicitly asked for work that "reflects and promotes American values," and Allen’s presentation has been criticized as safe, unremarkable, and lacking the incisive edge of contemporary American art.
José Dávila's solo exhibition "The Simple Act of Positioning" opens at Sean Kelly gallery in New York, featuring sculptures that explore the relational placement of objects in space. The show includes totemic pillars of steel, concrete, volcanic rock, and automotive paint, framed by large black structures, inviting viewers to move through the gallery to fully experience the visual conversations between works. Dávila, originally from Guadalajara and trained in architecture, draws on Modernist precedents from artists like Marcel Duchamp and architects like Luis Barragán.
This episode of 'A brush with...' podcast features Scottish painter Andrew Cranston, born in 1969 in Hawick. Cranston discusses how his work draws on personal experiences—childhood memories, family recollections, and recent rituals—filtered through the painting process. His pictures are rich with references to art history, cinema, poetry, and television, and he often paints on the covers of old hardback books. The conversation covers his influences (Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Paul Klee, Pierre Bonnard, Winifred Nicholson, writers Hugh MacDiarmid and Elizabeth Bishop, filmmakers Nicholas Roeg and Dennis Potter), his studio life, and his answer to 'what is art for?' The episode is sponsored by Bloomberg Connects.
A set of 15 bronze and copper mirrors by Claude Lalanne sold for $33.5 million at Sotheby's in New York, shattering the artist's previous auction record and surpassing the record price for works by her late husband and collaborator, François-Xavier Lalanne. The ensemble, which far exceeded its $15 million high estimate, drew fierce competition from five bidders over ten minutes.
Art Dubai has announced a streamlined "special edition" for its 2026 iteration, featuring a reduced roster of approximately 75 exhibitors. Scheduled for May 15–17 at Madinat Jumeirah, the fair is pivoting toward a regional core, with 60 percent of participants hailing from the Gulf and Southwest Asia. To address economic pressures and regional instability, the fair is implementing a novel risk-sharing financial model where booth costs are partially tied to sales performance.