berlin gallery societe represents edi rama prime minister albania 1234756310

Berlin gallery Société has announced that it now represents Edi Rama, the Prime Minister of Albania, as an artist. Rama, who has been in office since 2013, studied at the Academy of Arts in Tirana, worked as an artist in Paris in the 1990s, and served as Albania's minister of culture before entering politics. His work includes boldly colored ceramic sculptures and abstract works on paper, often created on repurposed official documents during meetings. Société, a well-regarded contemporary art gallery, will show more of his ceramics and works on paper, though no exhibition date has been set.

berlin gallery societe represents edi rama prime minister albania 1234756310

Berlin gallery Société has announced that it now represents Edi Rama, the Prime Minister of Albania, as an artist. Rama, who has been in office since 2013, studied at the Academy of Arts in Tirana, worked as an artist in Paris in the 1990s, and served as Albania's minister of culture before entering politics. His work includes boldly colored ceramic sculptures and abstract works on paper, often created on repurposed official documents during meetings. He previously exhibited at Marian Goodman's Paris space in 2024.

italy art police dali indian art market morning links 1234755253

Italian authorities seized 21 suspected forgeries attributed to Salvador Dalí from an exhibition titled “Dalí, Between Art and Myth” in Parma, Italy. The works, roughly a quarter of the 80-piece show at Palazzo Tarasconi, were removed after a court order following suspicions raised by the Carabinieri TPC, Italy’s art crime squad, and confirmation from the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation that it had not been consulted. Separately, the article covers India’s growing art market, buoyed by tax cuts and new buyers, though private funding dominates; the Nasher Sculpture Center awarding its 2027 Nasher Prize to Petrit Halilaj; medieval artifacts found in a Canadian thrift store; political pressure on European museums; and the opening of a new Frida Kahlo museum in Mexico City.

Long-Hidden Keith Haring Artworks Come to Auction

A collection of rare Keith Haring artworks, gifted to his childhood friend Kermit Oswald over nearly three decades, is coming to auction at Sotheby’s Breuer Building in May 2025. The trove includes a self-portrait from 1985 (estimated at $3–5 million), a painted crib and dresser ($250,000–350,000), a carved wood sculpture from 1983 (up to $800,000), and other early works on wood, fabric, and paper. These pieces trace Haring’s artistic evolution before his subway drawings and international fame, and were kept by Oswald, who was Haring’s best friend since kindergarten and later installed his shows.

Miart Turns 30 With a Bigger, Bolder Edition in Milan

Miart, Milan's international modern and contemporary art fair, is launching its 30th-anniversary edition in a new, larger venue, the Allianz MiCo South Wing. The 2026 edition, themed "New Directions: Miart, but different," will host 160 galleries from 24 countries across three levels, featuring sections like Emergent for new voices, Established for historical dialogue, and a special film project called Movements.

The Big Ideas Driving Art Paris This Year

Art Paris 2026 will take place from April 9–12 at the Grand Palais, featuring two major curated themes: "Babel – Art and Language in France," guest-curated by Loïc Le Gall, and "Reparation," curated by Alexia Fabre. The fair will include roughly 165 galleries, with sectors like Promises for emerging artists, Solo Show for monographic presentations, and French Design Art Edition.

This Small Dorothea Tanning Painting Sold for $120,000 per Square Inch—and Set a New Record

Dorothea Tanning's small 1942 Surrealist painting, 'Children's Games,' sold for £3.8 million ($5 million) at Christie's London, nearly quadrupling its low estimate. With fees, the final price reached $6.26 million, setting a new auction record for the artist and achieving a remarkable price of approximately $120,000 per square inch.

A New Brooklyn Art Fair With a Global Outlook Debuts This Spring

A New Brooklyn Art Fair With a Global Outlook Debuts This Spring

A new art fair called Conductor: Art Fair of the Global Majority will hold its inaugural edition in Brooklyn from April 30 to May 3, 2026. Organized by Powerhouse Arts, it will feature 27 galleries and 17 special projects, bringing together artists and galleries from Africa, Latin America, Asia, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Oceania, and Indigenous nations.

howard hodgkin mrs acton export bar 2752040

The U.K. government has placed a temporary export bar on Howard Hodgkin’s painting "Mrs Acton in Delhi" (1967–71) following its record-breaking £1.7 million sale at Bonhams. The move by the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport is intended to provide British institutions or domestic collectors the opportunity to match the price and keep the work within the country. The painting is considered a national treasure due to its aesthetic importance and its role in documenting Hodgkin's transition from Pop art to his signature emotive abstraction.

claire tabouret notre dame 2738599

French artist Claire Tabouret is currently the subject of a major career retrospective at Museum Voorlinden and a high-profile solo exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris. The latter showcases her full-sized maquettes for six new stained-glass windows commissioned for Notre-Dame Cathedral, depicting the Biblical story of Pentecost. These works, created in collaboration with the historic Atelier Simon-Marq, represent a significant shift for the artist as she translates her signature fluid, figurative painting style into the medium of translucent glass.

andre thomkins lackskins galerie michael haas 2740696

Galerie Michael Haas in Berlin is presenting "André Thomkins: Lackskins," a focused exhibition on the Swiss artist's experimental technique developed in the 1950s. Thomkins (1930–1985) created these works by dripping varnish onto water and transferring the floating pigment to paper, a process blending controlled manipulation with chance. The show, running through March 6, 2026, highlights a body of work rediscovered only in the last 15 years, including pieces like "Astronauten" (1962).

winter show french and company 2741124

The Winter Show at New York's Park Avenue Armory features a standout booth by the gallery French and Company, presenting a darkly themed collection. The eclectic offerings include Old Master still lifes by Willem Kalf and Willem Claesz Heda, a Victorian ceramic peacock, a 1979 painting by Susan Rothenberg, and a "horror wall" with works like Pasko Vucetic's *Hatred and Madness* and Wilhelm Trübner's *A Gorgon's Head*, all curated by the gallery's Henry Zimet.

new advisory artist money matters 2741237

A new financial consultancy called Artist Money Matters has launched in London, specifically designed to serve artists. Founded by artist and former finance executive Victoria Helena, the firm offers services including pricing advice, contract review, tax preparation, cash-flow planning, and guidance on grants and studio sustainability. It aims to provide artists with the business tools often missing from their education.

warren isensees pulsating abstractions put the act of looking to the test 2739914

Warren Isensee's new paintings at Miles McEnery Gallery in Chelsea, New York, explore optical structure with loosened rules, where warm and cool tones trade dominance across repeating frameworks. On view through February 14, 2026, the exhibition is the artist's third solo outing with the gallery and includes a fully illustrated publication with an essay by Stephen Westfall. The works interrupt their own logic, introducing irregular breaks that reroute the eye, creating a test of looking rather than a display of visual effects.

claire tabouret notre dame windows grand palais 2732150

French artist Claire Tabouret is presenting her full-scale maquettes for Notre-Dame Cathedral's new stained glass windows at the Grand Palais in Paris, in an exhibition titled "In a Single Breath." The six windows, each over 20 feet tall, were selected by a committee from over 100 submissions last December, replacing 19th-century designs by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. The project has sparked controversy: conservation group Sites and Monuments launched a petition with over 328,000 signatures and a legal case arguing the replacement violates the 1964 Venice Charter and French historic monuments law. A Paris administrative court ruled in favor of the state in late November, but the group plans to appeal. Tabouret's designs are now being fabricated by the historic Atelier Simon-Marq glass workshop.

drapery contemporary artists 2731349

A new exhibition titled “Drop, Cloth,” co-curated by Glenn Adamson and Severin Delfs, explores how contemporary artists have reimagined drapery over the past 50 years. The show features 30 works by 25 artists, spanning two Chelsea galleries—Hollis Taggart (through January 10, 2026) and Susan Inglett Gallery (through January 30, 2026). Works range from Sam Gilliam’s seminal *Little Dude* (circa 1972) to recent pieces by Kennedy Yanko, Jenny Morgan, and Chellis Baird, alongside historical pieces by Nina Yankowitz, Lynda Benglis, and Rosemary Mayer. The exhibition traces a lineage of drapery as both subject and material, including shaped canvas, paint skin, ceramic, metal, embroidery, and weaving.

alex prager los angeles 2723660

Alex Prager has created "Mirage Factory," an immersive installation inside a former Miami Beach cinema that pays tribute to her hometown of Los Angeles while critiquing its illusions. The installation features meticulously crafted sets, a new photograph, and a dining experience by chef Dave Beran, alongside a live performance by Diana Ross. It opened with private events for Capital One cardholders and the Cultivist art club, and is now public through December 4, with proceeds benefiting Heal the Bay.

dana james ink moon hollis taggart 2680938

New York-based artist Dana James presents her third solo show with Hollis Taggart, titled “Ink Moon,” at the gallery’s Lower East Side location. The exhibition marks a significant shift in her practice, moving from her signature soft pastels and feminine sensibility toward bolder, more gestural works featuring near-black hues, intense primary colors, and expressive mark-making. James created the new body of work while navigating an advancing pregnancy, which she says pushed her work in a more intense direction rather than the expected softer style.

aclj watertown school keith haring 2723444

A school district in Watertown, New York, is facing potential legal action from the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), a conservative Christian legal organization, after a middle school art teacher assigned students to visit the Keith Haring Foundation website and interpret two of the artist's works from the 1980s. Parents complained at a school board meeting that the assignment exposed 11- and 12-year-olds to sexually explicit content. The ACLJ sent a letter to Superintendent Larry Schmiegel on November 21, demanding a reprimand for the teacher, parental consent forms for future sensitive content, and counseling for affected students, threatening litigation if the district did not respond by December 1. The teacher resigned in November but was rehired as an English teacher.

tristan unrau 2719288

Tristan Unrau, a 36-year-old Los Angeles-based painter originally from Canada, creates works that deliberately avoid a singular style, instead copying or channeling a vast range of art historical sources—from Old Masters and Modernists to cartoons and photorealism. His pluralistic approach has earned him a dedicated following, and David Kordansky Gallery announced representation of the artist this fall, planning a major solo exhibition in Los Angeles in March 2026. Unrau, who earned his MFA at UCLA, is currently preparing for that show in his East Hollywood studio, producing paintings that reference artists such as Bruegel, Jean-Luc Godard, František Kupka, Emil Nolde, and Willem de Kooning.

sam falls collaborates with ruinart 2718855

Sam Falls has created two paintings, "Rewilding" (2024) and "King's Crossing" (2024), for Ruinart's "Conversations with Nature" program, following a residency at the Champagne house's Taissy vineyard near Reims. The works, which incorporate natural materials and ecological processes, will debut at Art Basel Miami Beach in December 2024 before traveling to Ruinart's headquarters. Falls's practice involves arranging plants on canvas and using pigment that reacts to humidity and sunlight, reflecting a collaboration with the environment.

american arts conservancy venice biennale 2719076

The Trump administration has selected Mexico-based sculptor Alma Allen to represent the United States at the 61st Venice Biennale, with the pavilion organized by curator Jeffrey Uslip and sponsored by the newly formed American Arts Conservancy (AAC). The AAC, founded in July 2024 and based in Tampa, is run by executive director Jenni Parido, a pet foods entrepreneur with no prior art-world experience, and its board includes figures from construction, conservative media, and high-end event planning, raising questions about its qualifications for this high-profile role.

jacob hashimoto miles mcenery gallery 2717777

Jacob Hashimoto presents a new solo exhibition at Miles McEnery Gallery in New York, featuring his signature constructions of screen-printed paper discs assembled into layered, three-dimensional compositions that blur the line between painting and sculpture. The show, his third with the gallery, includes works such as "The Promise of Other Inventions (that worked better)" (2025) and "No, No My Friends, We Will Not" (2025), and is accompanied by a fully illustrated publication with an essay by art critic and professor David Pagel.

frida kahlo auction record op ed 2718474 2718474

Frida Kahlo's 1940 painting *El Sueño (La Cama)* sold for $54.7 million at Sotheby's New York, setting a new auction record for the most expensive work by a woman artist, surpassing Georgia O'Keeffe's *Jimson Weed, White Flower No. 1* ($44.4 million in 2014). The sale sparked widespread commentary, with many framing it as a milestone for gender equity in the art market, while others noted the persistent gap between this price and those achieved by male artists like Leonardo da Vinci ($450.3 million) and Gustav Klimt ($236.4 million).

new york auctions recap 2717567

New York's marquee auction week delivered strong results, with Sotheby's and Christie's posting combined sales of nearly $2 billion. Sotheby's achieved a record $706 million evening at its new Breuer Building headquarters, driven by the Leonard Lauder estate sale, while Christie's $690 million 20th-century sale was up 41.9% from last November. Gustav Klimt's *Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer* sold for $236.4 million, setting a new auction record for the artist and becoming the most expensive Modern artwork ever sold at auction. Frida Kahlo's *El Sueño (La Cama)* fetched $54.7 million, a record for a work by a woman artist at auction.

gary tyler quilts la show book release 2711545

Fiber artist Gary Tyler, who spent nearly 42 years on death row after being falsely convicted as a teenager in Louisiana, has published a memoir titled *Stitching Freedom* and opened his first Los Angeles gallery show, “Illuminations from a Captured Soul,” at Official Welcome in MacArthur Park. The exhibition, on view through December 20, features quilts Tyler learned to make while working in Angola prison’s hospice program, depicting scenes from his life and symbols of freedom. The show was organized by gallerist Ariel Pittman, who met Tyler through curator Allison Glenn after his 2023 solo debut at Detroit’s Library Street Collective.

gary tyler quilts la show book release 2711545

Fiber artist Gary Tyler, who spent nearly 42 years on death row in Louisiana's Angola prison after being falsely convicted as a teenager, has published a memoir titled "Stitching Freedom" and opened his first Los Angeles gallery show, "Illuminations from a Captured Soul," at Official Welcome in MacArthur Park. The exhibition, on view through December 20, features quilts Tyler learned to make while working in the prison's hospice program, depicting scenes from his life and symbols of freedom like butterflies and birds.

david shrigley selling old rope 2713134

British artist David Shrigley has created "Exhibition of Old Rope," a work consisting of 10 tons of salvaged rope arranged on the floor of Stephen Friedman Gallery in London, priced at £1 million ($1.3 million). Shrigley and assistants spent months collecting discarded rope from beaches, cruise ships, climbing schools, tree surgeons, and wind farms, then cleaned and assembled it into a large pile. The work plays on the English idiom "money for old rope," which originally referred to the resale value of used ship rope in early 19th-century Britain.

david shrigley selling old rope 2713134

David Shrigley has created "Exhibition of Old Rope," a work consisting of 10 tons of salvaged rope displayed on the floor of Stephen Friedman Gallery in London, priced at £1 million ($1.3 million). The artist spent months collecting discarded rope from beaches, cruise ships, climbing schools, tree surgeons, and other sources, then cleaned and assembled it into a large pile. The work is a literal interpretation of the English idiom "money for old rope," which originally referred to the resale value of used ship rigging in 19th-century Britain.

alfonso artiaco liam gillick alan charlton 2713185

Liam Gillick and Alan Charlton, two British artists with deep ties to Modernism, are paired for the first time in a dual exhibition at Alfonso Artiaco in Naples. Gillick, a former Young British Artist associated with relational aesthetics, presents new aluminum and Plexiglas sculptures including "Euphoric Production Cycle" (2025), while Charlton, known for his lifelong dedication to grey monochromes, contributes three works featuring circles, squares, and triangles. The show runs through January 10, 2025.