UC Irvine finalizes acquisition of Orange County Museum of Art

The University of California, Irvine has finalized its acquisition of the Orange County Museum of Art, creating a new unified institution named the UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art. The merger combines OCMA's 53,000-square-foot, $98 million facility in Costa Mesa with UC Irvine's academic resources, bringing together over 9,000 works of art. The museum will also showcase UC Irvine's Gerald Buck Collection and Irvine Museum Collection, while the Jack and Shanaz Langson Institute and Museum of California Art continues operating on campus. OCMA staff have joined UC Irvine, and a national search for an executive director is underway.

Kerry James Marshall, National Gallery expansion, Picasso’s Three Dancers—podcast

This podcast episode from The Art Newspaper covers three major art stories. Ben Luke tours Kerry James Marshall's retrospective 'The Histories' at the Royal Academy of Arts in London—the largest European survey of the US artist's work—with curator Mark Godfrey, and visits a related exhibition of Marshall's graphic novel 'Rythm Mastr' at The Tabernacle in Notting Hill. The National Gallery in London announces a £400m expansion called Project Domani, the largest transformation in its 200-year history, with £375m already raised, and a shift in its collecting boundary beyond 1900. Finally, Tate Modern's centenary exhibition 'Theatre Picasso' centers on Pablo Picasso's 'The Three Dancers' (1925), discussed with co-curator Natalia Sidlina and designer Enrique Fuenteblanca.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art Announces Historic Expansion Opening

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, has announced a historic expansion, increasing its size by 50 percent to 114,000 square feet, with a grand opening scheduled for June 6 and 7, 2026. The expansion, designed by Safdie Architects, includes fully reimagined galleries and is celebrated by two landmark gifts: 18 major works by women artists donated by chairperson Olivia Walton and her husband Tom Walton, and 200 artworks by over 100 artists donated by collectors Candace and Michael Humphreys. The Walton gift features artists such as Yayoi Kusama, Alice Neel, and Njideka Akunyili Crosby, while the Humphreys gift introduces many new artists to the museum's holdings.

Crystal Bridges Museum's expansion will open in June 2026

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, announced its expansion will open on June 6, 2026, adding 114,000 square feet—a 50% increase in size. Designed by Safdie Architects, the project began in 2022 and includes hundreds of newly donated works, the largest gift in the museum's history: over 200 pieces from Dallas-based collectors Candace and Michael Humphreys. Additional donations from board chair Olivia Walton and her husband Tom include 18 works by women artists, honoring her late mother, gallerist Monique Knowlton.

Inside Pauline Karpidas’s Legendary Surrealist Collection Bound for Auction

The legendary Surrealist collection of the late Pauline Karpidas, a renowned art patron and collector, will be auctioned at Sotheby's London in September 2025. The sale spans approximately 250 lots from her eccentric London home, featuring masterworks by René Magritte, Leonora Carrington, Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, and Les Lalannes. The collection is expected to fetch over £60 million ($81 million), the highest estimate ever placed on a single collection at Sotheby's Europe. Highlights include Magritte's 'La Statue volante' (1940–41), estimated at £9–12 million, and works acquired directly from the estates of Surrealist figures like André Breton and Paul Éluard.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Announces Its MetLiveArts Fall and Winter 2025–26 Season

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced its MetLiveArts fall and winter 2025–26 season, featuring world premiere performances and commissions created specifically for the museum's galleries, as well as concerts in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium. The season highlights a significant number of new works by female artists, including composers and musicians Gabriela Ortiz, Wu Man, Hanzhi Wang, Emily Wells, Layale Chaker, and Leilehua Lanzilotti. Performances will draw inspiration from the Met's collection and special exhibitions like 'Man Ray: When Objects Dream,' with events beginning September 9, 2025, featuring Wu Man and The Knights. The season also includes the JACK Quartet as the museum's 2025–26 Quartet in Residence and the appointment of Sarah Jones as Head of Live Arts.

These Are the 44 Best Art Museums in the U.S. Right Now

Time Out has published a list of the 44 best art museums in the U.S., ranking institutions like the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) at the top. The article highlights each museum's collection highlights, architectural features, and visitor tips, with prices and recommendations for immersive experiences.

The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth announces the exhibition - David-Jeremiah: The Fire This Time

The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth will present "David-Jeremiah: The Fire This Time," a solo exhibition organized by guest curator Christopher Blay, running from August 17 to November 2, 2025. The show features new works by multidisciplinary conceptual artist David-Jeremiah, including the final polychromatic EE (Emma Esse) series of seven paintings, and continues his exploration of Black identity, humanity, and ritual through inverted-performance installations centered on the Lamborghini as a symbol of beauty and violence.

Pennsylvania college moves to sell its entire art collection amid $20m budget shortfall

Albright College, a liberal arts institution in Reading, Pennsylvania, is selling its entire art collection of mostly works on paper to address a $20 million budget shortfall. The online-only sale, held on July 16 at Pook & Pook auction house, includes 524 lots featuring works by artists such as Karel Appel, Romare Bearden, Jasper Johns, Jacob Lawrence, and Bridget Riley. College administrators, including vice-president James Gaddy, describe the collection as "not core to our mission" and estimate the consigned pieces are worth $200,000, while the cost of maintaining the gallery and collection exceeds $500,000 annually. The sale is part of broader cost-cutting measures that have already included laying off 53 employees and selling non-contiguous properties.

Ten essential works of art to see at the National Gallery in London

The National Gallery in London, home to over 2,300 paintings spanning Western European art from Giotto to Cézanne and including early modernism by Picasso, has recently completed a comprehensive rehang of its collection at its Trafalgar Square site. This coincides with the reopening of the Sainsbury Wing after a two-year renovation. The article highlights ten essential works to see, including Jan van Eyck's *The Arnolfini Portrait* (1434), Leonardo da Vinci's *The Burlington House Cartoon* (around 1506-08), and Paolo Veronese's *The Adoration of the Kings* (1573), emphasizing the gallery's free admission and its role as a cultural treasure.

Review: Alex Da Corte’s colorful, pop-inspired art show in Fort Worth

Alex Da Corte's exhibition "The Whale" at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth is the first museum show to focus on his relationship to painting, though it defies traditional definitions. The show features a variety of works including "puffy paintings," "slatwall paintings," and "reverse glass paintings," alongside a video where Da Corte portrays Marcel Duchamp. Curated by Alison Hearst, the exhibition also integrates some of Da Corte's works into the museum's permanent collection galleries, a first for the institution.

Lacma will plant towering, flowering Jeff Koons sculpture outside new building

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Lacma) has acquired Jeff Koons's monumental floral sculpture *Split-Rocker* (2000), a 37-foot-tall work featuring two halves of children's rocking toys embedded with over 50,000 flowering plants. Donated by collectors Lynda and Stewart Resnick through their foundation, the sculpture will be installed outdoors later this year, ahead of the museum's $715 million David Geffen Galleries opening in 2025. The work has previously been displayed at the Palais des Papes in Avignon, Château de Versailles, Fondation Beyeler, Glenstone, and Rockefeller Center.

Art Basel Qatar

Art Basel has announced the launch of Art Basel Qatar, a new international art fair set to debut in Doha. The fair will be held under the patronage of Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, chairperson of Qatar Museums, and is expected to bring together leading galleries from around the world. The announcement marks a significant expansion of the Art Basel brand into the Middle East, following its existing fairs in Basel, Miami Beach, Hong Kong, and Paris.

US National Gallery of Art receives trove of Modern and contemporary drawings

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, has received a gift of more than 60 Modern and contemporary works on paper from longtime benefactors Lenore and Bernard Greenberg. The donation includes the first Bruce Nauman drawing to enter the collection, along with works by Susan Rothenberg, Philip Guston, Ed Ruscha, Vija Celmins, Alberto Giacometti, Franz Kline, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Willem de Kooning, Shahzia Sikander, Cy Twombly, and others. Photographs by Roni Horn, John Baldessari, Uta Barth, and Hiroshi Sugimoto, as well as a wire sculpture by Alexander Calder, are also included.

Empathy is in short supply today – artist Saya Woolfalk intends to change that

Saya Woolfalk's largest survey exhibition, 'Empathic Universe,' has opened at New York's Museum of Arts and Design. The show introduces visitors to the Empathics, a fictional plant-human hybrid species that embodies profound understanding and interconnection. Organized by curator Alexandra Schwartz, the exhibition spans two decades of Woolfalk's career and includes video, sculpture, installation, works on paper, and artist-fashioned clothing. It explores themes of empathy, hybridity, and utopia, drawing on Afrofuturist thinkers and science fiction, while addressing issues of racism and sexism in a polarized world.

Christie's 20/21 sales achieve $693 million

Christie's 20th and 21st Century Art sales in New York from 12-15 May 2025 achieved a total of $693 million across six sales, reaching 123% of the low estimate. The top lot was Piet Mondrian's 1922 painting *Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black and Blue*, which sold for $47.56 million. Other highlights included Claude Monet's *Peupliers au bord de l'Epte, crépuscule* (1891) at $42.96 million, and Marlene Dumas's *Miss January* (1997), which set a record for a living female artist. The Leonard & Louise Riggio collection alone brought $272 million, while the 20th Century Evening Sale achieved $217 million with a 100% sell-through rate. New artist records were set for Dorothea Tanning, Remedios Varo, Louis Fratino, Simone Leigh, and Emma McIntyre.

Marlene Dumas’s $13.6m semi-nude breaks auction record for a living female artist

Christie's 21st century evening sale on Wednesday achieved $79 million ($96.5 million with fees), falling within revised estimates but below original projections and prior sale totals. The standout lot was Marlene Dumas's 1997 painting *Miss January*, which sold for $13.6 million with fees, setting a new auction record for any living female artist. The sale saw three of four records set for women artists, including Simone Leigh, Emma McIntyre, and Louis Fratino, though bidding was subdued overall with heavy reliance on third-party guarantees.

Despite record-breaking results for four women artists, Phillips’s evening auction in New York sparks few fireworks

Phillips’s evening sale of modern and contemporary art in New York on May 13 achieved a total hammer price of $44.2 million ($52 million with fees), falling just below the low pre-sale estimate of $45.3 million. Four works were withdrawn before the sale, and five lots failed to sell. Despite the subdued overall results, the auction set new auction records for four women artists: Kiki Kogelnik, Ilana Savdie, James Turrell (Light and Space artist), and Grace Hartigan. Other strong performers included works by Yu Nishimura, Olga de Amaral, Barbara Hepworth, and Danielle McKinney. The top lot was Jean-Michel Basquiat’s *Untitled* (1984), formerly owned by David Bowie.

A young Richter’s painting of an even younger Polke and a once-grimy Brazilian landscape by Frans Post: our pick of the May auctions

The article previews five major lots coming to auction in New York in May 2025, spanning Phillips, Sotheby's, Christie's, and Bonhams. Highlights include Gerhard Richter's 'Mann mit zwei Kindern' (1966), a portrait of Sigmar Polke estimated at $4–6 million; Frans Post's 'View of Olinda with Ruins of the Jesuit Church' (1666), estimated at $6–8 million and expected to break the artist's record; Andy Warhol's 'Big Electric Chair' (1967–68), estimated around $30 million; and Fernando Botero's 'The Bed' (1982), estimated at $700,000–$1 million. Each work is making its auction debut or is a rare market appearance.

Jewelry By Picasso, Dalí on Display at Florida Art Museum

A new exhibition titled "Artists’ Jewelry: From Cubism to Pop, the Diane Venet Collection" has opened at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida. It features over 150 pieces of artist-designed jewelry from the personal collection of Diane Venet, including works by Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Alexander Calder, and Yoko Ono, displayed alongside about sixty companion works from the museum's permanent collection.

Pharrell Williams’s auction platform Joopiter teamed with Martha Stewart for first contemporary art sale

Pharrell Williams's auction platform Joopiter has partnered with Martha Stewart for its first contemporary art sale, titled 'The Contemporary Take,' running through May 6. The 48-lot sale features works by blue-chip artists including George Condo, Jeff Koons, and Ed Ruscha, alongside emerging names like Tschabalala Self and Toyin Ojih Odutola. Stewart personally selected six lots, highlighting pieces by Amy Sherald, Damien Hirst, Ai Weiwei, Louise Bourgeois, Roy Lichtenstein, and Alex Katz. Estimates range from $4,000 to $1.2 million, and early bidding has been active, with works by Amy Sherald and Roy Lichtenstein drawing significant attention.

Auction record

A new auction record has been set, with a significant artwork selling for a high price at a major auction house. The sale took place recently, drawing attention from collectors and the art market.

parties cult100 cultured magazine guggenheim

CULTURED magazine hosted its second annual CULT100 party at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, in exclusive partnership with Valentino and Valentino Beauty. The event celebrated the magazine's spring issue, a 400-page edition honoring 100 luminaries and rising talents across food, film, art, fashion, and more. Guests including Keke Palmer, Lena Dunham, Naomi Watts, Adam Scott, and Anne Imhof gathered in the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed rotunda for cocktails, a Valentino Beauty lounge, and a program that coincided with artist Carol Bove's ongoing museum survey exhibition at the Guggenheim.

risd design aesthetics recession

A writer revisits the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) alumni magazine after being assigned to explore how a group of RISD graduates from the late 2000s helped shape contemporary American material culture. The article focuses on the cohort that studied at RISD during the 2008 financial crisis, a time of institutional dysfunction and curricular drift, and includes figures like fashion brand Eckhaus Latta (co-founded by Mike Eckhaus and Zoe Latta), designer Adam Charlap Hyman, artists Katie Stout, Misha Kahn, F Taylor Colantonio, and Martine Gutierrez. The author reflects on shared memories and the unique conditions that produced this influential group.

Required Reading

Required Reading

Thousands marched in Buenos Aires on March 9 for a 24-hour women's strike, with one group staging a symbolic artwork by wrapping a continuous blindfold across their faces to protest patriarchal control. This followed a UN report urging Argentina's government to address gender-based violence. Separately, a *Guardian* investigation revealed UK museums hold over 260,000 human remains, many taken from former colonies, which MPs have condemned as a barbaric legacy of imperialism.

New Met Gala fashion exhibit seeks to ‘reclaim’ body types that art history has ignored

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute will launch a new fashion exhibition titled "Costume Art" at the 2026 Met Gala, curated by Andrew Bolton. The show features 400 items across sections exploring body types historically marginalized in art, including the corpulent, disabled, pregnant, and aging body. It debuts in the newly renovated Conde M. Nast galleries on the museum's main floor, with custom mannequins modeled on real individuals such as Sinéad Burke, Aariana Rose Philip, and Goddess Bunny. The exhibition pairs fashion garments with art objects to argue that fashion is art, and will be open to the public from May 10 for eight months.

dealer michael ward charged by manhattan da

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has charged veteran New York antiquities dealer Michael Ward with criminal facilitation following an investigation into the illicit trade of cultural property. Ward, who operated his Upper East Side gallery for nearly forty years, was convicted in September for his role in facilitating the sale of stolen artifacts, including a 1st-century gilded bronze plaque. Court documents reveal a broader pattern of misconduct involving 40 objects stolen from Italy, Greece, and Turkey, with a total value reaching into the millions.

parties moma ps1 50th anniversary

MoMA PS1 kicked off its 50th anniversary year with an intimate cocktail event at the Tribeca townhome of board member Michi Jigarjian, hosted by the museum's patron group the Greater New Yorkers. Over 100 guests—including artists, collectors, dealers, and curators—gathered for remarks from Director Connie Butler, Chief Curator Ruba Katrib, and co-chairs Leslie Fritz, Ed Tang, and Amitha Raman, followed by a performance by experimental cellist Dorothy Carlos. Attendees received a first look at the upcoming quinquennial exhibition "Greater New York 2026," which will feature over 50 New York-based artists, with a partial list including Farah Al Qasimi, Fields Harrington, Hardy Hill, Sofia Sinibaldi, and Julia Wachtel.

parties young artist prize 2025 mz wallace

CULTURED magazine and fashion brand MZ Wallace celebrated the 10-year anniversary of their Young Artists List with an event at (SUB)MERCER in SoHo, where they announced Iraqi-born, Los Angeles-based artist Ali Eyal as the winner of the 2025 Young Artist Prize. Eyal received an unrestricted $30,000 grant, selected by a jury of curators from the Met, the Hammer, and MoMA, for his multidisciplinary practice reflecting on violence endured during his upbringing in Baghdad.

WALTER OTERO A TROPICAL GALLERIST IN AMERICA S ECOSYSTEM

A new book titled "Walter Otero: un galerista tropical" is being published this March. It features an interview by curator Omar-Pascual Castillo with Puerto Rican gallerist Walter Otero, chronicling his journey from personal assistant to painter Arnaldo Roche Rabell to founding his influential San Juan gallery, Walter Otero Contemporary Art (WOCA). The book details the gallery's history, its roster of artists, and Otero's adaptation to the digital age and crises like Hurricane Maria.