The family of the late pioneering sculptor Ruth Asawa has announced the opening of a dedicated gallery space in San Francisco to coincide with the artist's centennial celebration in 2026. This new venue will serve as a permanent home for her legacy, featuring rotating exhibitions of her signature wire sculptures, drawings, and archival materials that have not been widely seen by the public.
Six high school students from Ohio's Mahoning Valley, representing Canfield and LaBrae high schools, have been selected to showcase their work in the 2026 Ohio Governor’s Youth Art Exhibition. Out of nearly 6,000 statewide submissions, pieces by students including Mia Tisone, Zoe Dillinger, and Truly Jacops were named among the top 300 in the state. Their artworks will be displayed at the James A. Rhodes State Office Tower in Columbus from April 12 through May 15, while additional works will appear in a digital "cameo" exhibition.
A curated selection of international open calls and residencies for Spring 2026 offers diverse opportunities for emerging artists across visual arts, photography, and film. Key highlights include the Krupa Art Foundation Young Prize, which has expanded its categories to painting, digital art, and sculpture with three major cash prizes, and the 14th edition of 'Wystaw się w CSW' for independent photographers in Poland. Other notable opportunities include 'Underneath the Floorboards,' a platform for avant-garde and experimental video work seeking to showcase non-traditional artistic languages.
The Jerry Taylor and Nancy Bryant Foundation has donated $1.5 million to NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale to fund exhibition development and educational programming. The gift will provide an ongoing income stream to support the museum's exhibitions, which are central to its regional and national distinction. Philanthropists Jerry Taylor and Nancy Bryant, who established their foundation in 1999, have a long history of supporting Nova Southeastern University and the museum, including a $5 million donation for a trading floor at the university's business school.
Western Sicily is emerging as an unexpected arts hub, driven by grassroots cultural initiatives that are repurposing abandoned historic buildings. The article highlights several key projects: the Museum of World Cities in Palermo, opening in a former convent; Farm Cultural Park in Favara, which transformed a depopulated mining town into a vibrant arts destination; Fondazione RIV in a deconsecrated church; and the artist-built town of Gibellina, which was reconstructed after a 1968 earthquake with art woven into its urban fabric. These efforts are led by local figures including Andrea Bartoli and Florinda Saievi, who have rehabilitated multiple sites across the region.
The Howard University Gallery of Art is lending three works by alumna Elizabeth Catlett to the exhibition 'She Speaks: Black Women Artists and the Power of Historical Memory' at the Banneker-Douglass-Tubman Museum. The loan includes the prints 'My Right is a Future of Equality with Other Americans,' 'My Role Has Been Important in the Struggle to Organize the Unorganized,' and 'In Sojourner Truth I Fight For the Rights of Other Women.'
Savannah Penven, a 2024 graduate of Virginia Tech, has returned to the Center for the Arts as exhibitions program manager, a decade after her own artwork was featured in the center's first "Young Artists" exhibition in 2014. She now coordinates the current "Young Artists: dreamscapes" show, featuring 39 students from Craig County High School, and works to create validating, professional-level exhibition experiences for young creatives.
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Strauss & Co has launched its year-end auctions, featuring five concurrent timed online sessions from 20 November to 8 December 2025, plus a separate contemporary sale titled 'In the Now' running until 9 December. The auctions offer a wide range of modern and contemporary works at accessible price points, including pieces by major South African artists such as Irma Stern, William Kentridge, Sam Nhlengethwa, Norman Catherine, and Alexis Preller. Sessions include 'Re/View' with works from previous auctions, focused sessions on paintings, sculpture, and works on paper, and an 'Art Club' session curated by Strauss & Co specialists.
Bowling Green State University (BGSU) art history students have curated the exhibition 'Italy in the Artist's Imagination,' now on view at the Dorothy Uber Bryan Gallery until December 10. The show draws from the university's permanent collection and submissions from faculty, students, and alumni, all inspired by Italy. It highlights BGSU's long-standing study-abroad programs in Florence, including the now-closed Studio Art Centers International (SACI) and the International Studies Institute of Florence. During the curation process, students encountered authenticity questions regarding a set of Salvador Dalí prints, which led them to reframe the display as an interactive lesson on forgery detection.
A new exhibition at the Stanley Spencer Gallery in Cookham, titled *Revealing Genius, Conserving Art: Stanley Spencer’s Final Masterpiece*, offers visitors a rare chance to watch conservator Olivia Leake work on Spencer’s unfinished painting *Christ Preaching at Cookham Regatta*. The large canvas, which Spencer labored over for over a decade but left incomplete at his death in 1959, has been lowered from its usual high hanging for live conservation. Using UV light and paint analysis, Leake has discovered surprising details: extremely thin paint layers, a green water area later overpainted in blue, and multiple changes to underdrawings—contradicting anecdotes that Spencer never altered his initial drawings.
Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia will unveil a $20 million expansion on November 1, adding the Frances M. Maguire Hall for Art and Education—a converted 19th-century mansion with 14 galleries and an education studio. The project, which also includes four acres of new green space, was funded in part by a gift from the Maguire Foundation and follows the museum's acquisition of the adjacent building in 2021. The expansion allows the museum to display more of its 8,000+ works by regional artists, including Pennsylvania Impressionists and Violet Oakley's preparatory sketches.
Media artist Refik Anadol has announced that Dataland, the world's first museum of AI arts, will open in spring 2026 at the Frank Gehry-designed Grand L.A. complex in downtown Los Angeles, delayed from its original 2025 schedule. The museum spans 25,000 square feet and includes five galleries; a sneak peek was released of the Infinity Room, an immersive multisensory space featuring swirling colors, AI-generated scents, and a proprietary AI model called the Large Nature Model. The Infinity Room concept originated in 2014 at UCLA and has since toured 35 cities, attracting over 10 million visitors.
Syracuse University's College of Fine Arts, the first degree-conferring fine arts program in the United States, opened in 1873, and the Art Students League of New York opened in 1875. To mark 150 years of parallel fine arts education, the University Art Museum presents "Depicting the Everyday: A Legacy of Fine Arts Education at the Art Students League" at the Bernard and Louise Palitz Gallery in Manhattan. The exhibition draws from the museum's collection, featuring works by artists who taught at the League, including Morton Kaish, and explores everyday subject matter from urban scenes to intimate portraits. A reception and gallery talk with League assistant curator Esther Moerdler is scheduled for October 29, 2025.
Philadelphia’s bankrupt University of the Arts (UArts) sold off rare books and manuscripts from its library at a Freeman’s | Hindman auction on September 10, 2024. The 38 lots from UArts’ collection fetched $163,328, nearly 20% of the sale’s $806,519 total. Top lots included a deluxe first edition of Andre Level’s 1928 monograph on Pablo Picasso, signed by the artist, which sold for $35,200; a complete portfolio of Josef Albers’s 1965 *Die Oberflache*, which brought $21,760; and a limited edition of James Joyce’s *Ulysses* illustrated by Robert Motherwell, which sold for $16,640. UArts closed abruptly in June 2024, citing financial fragility and declining enrollments, and later filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, selling its real estate holdings for nearly $75 million.
The Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis has opened its largest-ever exhibition, "Making Their Mark: Works from the Shah Garg Collection." The show features over 80 works by nearly 70 artists, with a focus on women artists and artists of color. A centerpiece is a monumental diptych by Joan Mitchell, her last completed work before her death in 1992. The exhibition, which previously traveled from New York City to Berkeley, California, will be on view through January 5.
Elaine Wynn's personal art collection, featuring works by Richard Diebenkorn, Lucian Freud, Joan Mitchell, and J.M.W. Turner, will be auctioned at Christie's 20th and 21st Century Art sales in New York this November. The collection, titled 'Elaine: The Collection of Elaine Wynn,' reflects the taste of the legendary Las Vegas figure known as the 'Queen of Las Vegas' for her transformative influence on the city's art, architecture, and style.
Four years after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, Afghan women are using art as a means of expression and resistance. The article profiles artist Alina Gawhary, who fled to study art in Belfast, and highlights the work of the UK-based NGO Turquoise Mountain, which collaborates with women carpet weavers in Bamiyan. Afghan-British artist Maryam Omar collected poetry from illiterate weavers and designed watercolor patterns that were woven into carpets, displayed in the selling exhibition "Weaving Poems" at Sotheby's in London. The exhibition foregrounds the women's creative voices and returns profits to the weavers.
The article explores Madagascar's burgeoning contemporary art scene, centered on Hakanto Contemporary, a non-profit art space in Antananarivo founded by artist Joël Andrianomearisoa. It highlights the group exhibition "Lamba Forever Mandrakizay," featuring 21 Malagasy artists reflecting on the traditional lamba textile, and the innovative culinary-art fusion by chef Lalaina Ravelomanana. The piece also mentions the Musée de la Photo, founded in 2018, which preserves Malagasy photographic heritage.
Alison Byrne, who began as an intern at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in 2000, has been named the museum's executive director as of late September 2024. Over 25 years, she rose through roles including curator of education and deputy director, and was named Museum Art Educator of the Year by the Virginia Art Education Association in 2020. Byrne will lead the museum's relocation in 2026 to a new 35,000-square-foot facility at Virginia Wesleyan University, featuring a 21% increase in gallery space. The inaugural exhibition will showcase works by contemporary artist Nina Chanel Abney.
Pook & Pook will hold an online auction on July 16, 2025, featuring over 500 lots of modern and post-war art deaccessioned from a distinguished East Coast educational institution. Highlights include eight works by Romare Bearden, over one hundred pieces by Leonid Sokov, paintings by Mikhail Turovsky, conceptual works by Lydia Dona, and a sculpture by Frederick Eversley. The auction will be accessible via PookLive, Bidsquare, and Invaluable, with in-person previews at Pook & Pook's Downingtown, Pennsylvania gallery on July 14-15.
Sebastião Salgado, the legendary Brazilian photographer known for his monumental documentary projects capturing collective humanity and environmental activism, has died. Born in 1944 in Aimorés, Brazil, Salgado studied economics at the University of São Paulo and was exiled to France for political activism before turning to photography in the 1970s. He joined Magnum Photos in 1979 and went on to create epic, multi-year projects such as "Workers" (1986-93), "Migrations" (1993-99), "Genesis" (2005-13), and "Amazônia" (2011-19), which redefined documentary practice through total immersion and scale. His work earned him the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador role, and numerous awards including the W. Eugene Smith Grant and the Royal Photographic Society’s Centenary Medal.
Art Macao 2025, the Macao International Art Biennale, will run from July to October 2025, featuring nearly 30 exhibitions across six sections. Chief curator Feng Boyi has themed the Main Exhibition around the everyday question "Hey, what brings you here?", showcasing nearly 80 works by 46 artists from 13 countries at the Macao Museum of Art. The event is organized by the Cultural Affairs Bureau and co-organized by major casino-resort operators including Galaxy Entertainment Group, Melco Resorts & Entertainment, MGM, Sands China Ltd., SJM Resorts, and Wynn Resorts Macau.
Iraq's improving economy and security situation, despite regional conflict, is fueling a revival in its art scene. Artists who fled violence are returning, and curators from the Arab region are touring the country. Key initiatives include Tarkib, a Baghdad art platform co-founded by Hella Mewis that offers workshops and exhibitions, and Babil Performance Art, set up by Zurich-based artist Wathiq Al Ameri to focus on performance work. These efforts reflect a generational shift spurred by the 2019 Tishreen protests, particularly among young women.
The Elmhurst Art Museum is presenting "Legacies: Selections from the Elmhurst Art Museum Permanent Collection," an exhibition running through August 17 that highlights works from its permanent collection. Founded in 1981 by teachers, artists, and art lovers, the museum has grown to hold around 1,000 works focused on 20th-century art and design by Midwestern artists. The show explores how collections are built, featuring donations from over 200 donors and including pieces such as a Barcelona Chair attributed to Mies van der Rohe but designed by Lily Wright, a large painting by Michelle Grabner, and Joseph Burlini's sculpture "Circus Wagon." The museum also acquired the Mies van der Rohe-designed McCormick House in 1992, which set its path integrating art, architecture, and education.
Fifty-three students from Little Artists Art Studio in Singapore, including four with special needs, were selected to exhibit their work at Art Capital Paris: Le Salon des Artistes Français, held at the Grand Palais Éphémère in February 2025. Forty of the students, ranging from tweens to teens, traveled to Paris to present their pieces in person, marking the first time in the event's over 200-year history that children's artworks have been included. The studio also won the Prix D’Innovation award, and students received certificates from the salon's president, Bruno Madelaine, and French painter Alain Bazard.
An annual art exhibition featuring works by incarcerated individuals in Arizona sold 200 pieces on May 16, raising over $18,000 for a scholarship at Arizona State University. The show, titled "{Ink}arcerated: Creativity within Confinement," displayed more than 400 artworks and drew approximately 600 visitors to a vacant retail space at the Arizona Center in downtown Phoenix. Organized by ASU criminology professor Kevin Wright, the event has raised a cumulative total of more than $70,000 since its launch in 2017, with this year's proceeds marking the largest single-show amount to date. A second public sale is scheduled for June 6 during Phoenix's First Fridays art walk.
Cal State San Marcos President Ellen Neufeldt hosted a reception at her home on April 27 to unveil the third exhibition of student art in her home gallery. The exhibit features 11 pieces by four student artists—Emma Dill, Adel Bautista, Kaia Pappas, and Erin Wilmot—curated by professional artist and CSUSM alumna Sarah Bricke, who also curated the previous display. The show explores portraiture as a site of experimentation across photography, printmaking, and mixed media.
The South Orange Performing Arts Center (SOPAC) in New Jersey announced the return of the INSPIRED MINDS: Young Artist Exhibition, showcasing visual art by high school students from Essex County. The exhibition runs from May 15 to August 17, 2025, in the Herb + Milly Iris Gallery, with an opening reception on May 15. Over 1,000 submissions were received, with a jury selecting about 80 pieces. The opening will also feature the third annual Paul Bartick Emerging Artist Award, presented to Obenewaa Frimpomaa, a senior at Millburn High School recognized for her work on identity and empowerment.
A coalition of UK arts organizations, including Contemporary Visual Arts England (CVAN) and the Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS), has presented a new report titled 'Framing the Future: The Political Case for Strengthening the Visual Arts Ecosystem' to parliament. Written by Eliza Easton of the Erskine Analysis think tank, the report calls for a £5m grassroots visual arts fund to address the shortage of affordable studio spaces, a UK Cultural Investment Partnership Fund to encourage philanthropic donations, expanded funding for the Art & Design National Saturday Club, and reinstatement of high-cost funding for creative subjects in higher education. Artists including Tracey Emin and Larry Achiampong have voiced support, warning that arts are disappearing from state education.
The third week of the University's 2025 art studio senior thesis exhibitions opened on April 9, 2025, at the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery, featuring works by eight seniors: Kerri Bel, Beatrice Campomori Garuti, Olivia Gomez, Vicky Gong, Will Hardison, Aleah Hurwitz, Ava Liberace, and Alp Yücel. The exhibition spans diverse mediums and themes, including Vicky Gong's "Ether," which explores technology, intimacy, and alienation through material and affect; Will Hardison's "The Sand Remembers the Waves," a monotype series about memory and landscape; and Alp Yücel's "Obstructed View," a sculptural installation that challenges visual perception and physical movement through the gallery space.