Willem de Kooning | Kneeling Woman (1966)

Willem de Kooning's 1966 work "Kneeling Woman" has ended its bidding process, with the listing appearing on a platform that aggregates auction results and available works. The piece, an oil on paper on board measuring 23.5 by 11.5 inches, is signed and has a known provenance including Harold Diamond, a private collection in Baltimore, Solomon & Co. Fine Art, Robert Peyser, and a Sotheby's sale in 2019. It was previously exhibited at the Nassau County Museum of Art in 1981 as part of "The Abstract Expressionists and Their Precursors" show.

Disguises abound in next exhibition at the Shepherd

The Shepherd, a former church turned art gallery in Detroit, is presenting a new exhibition titled 'A Meadow in the Clouds.' The show features nine contemporary artists, including Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Nina Chanel Abney, and Qualeasha Wood, whose works intentionally veil, disguise, or distort information, focusing on themes of communication gaps and distorted narratives.

What's open and closed on Labour Day in Ottawa?

Labour Day in Ottawa on September 1, 2025, will see most grocery stores, malls like Bayshore and Place d'Orléans, LCBO locations, and all Ottawa Public Library branches closed. However, several national museums including the National Gallery of Canada, along with the agriculture, aviation, history, nature, science, and war museums, will remain open. Some grocery stores such as Metro on Rideau and Bank streets, Whole Foods at Lansdowne Park, and select Beer Store locations will operate, while Rideau Centre and Tanger Outlets will be open with varying store hours. Municipal services like green bin and garbage collection are suspended for the day, and city beaches will no longer have lifeguards.

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A Moscow court sentenced five members of the Russian activist art collective Pussy Riot in absentia to between eight and 13 years in prison. The charges stem from a 2022 music video titled *Mama, Don’t Watch TV*, which denounced the war in Ukraine, and a 2024 protest performance in Munich. The targeted artists are Maria Alyokhina, Diana Burkot, Taso Pletner, Olga Borisova, and Alina Petrova. They were found guilty of “discrediting the Russian Armed Forces” and “spreading false information” about the military.

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Five members of the punk art collective Pussy Riot—Maria (Masha) Alekhina, Olga Borisova, Diana Burkot, Alina Petrova, and Taso Pletner—have been sentenced in absentia by a Moscow court to prison terms ranging from 8 to 13 years. The charges stem from spreading “knowingly false information” about the Russian Armed Forces, linked to the collective’s 2022 antiwar video referencing the siege of Mariupol. The sentences were reported by the state-owned news agency Tass and first covered by the Art Newspaper.

Italy’s Uffizi Hit by Cyberattack, Says Security Wasn’t Compromised

The Uffizi Galleries in Florence suffered a significant cyberattack in February, with hackers reportedly stealing access codes, internal maps, CCTV camera information, and the institution's entire photographic archive. The attackers issued a ransom demand to director Simone Verde. In response, the museum moved valuable jewels to the Bank of Italy, sealed emergency exits at the Palazzo Pitti with bricks, and closed a section of the palace, though it attributes some actions to planned renovations and fire-safety compliance.

Simultaneous or Poly-Cinema

The Bauhaus artist László Moholy-Nagy proposes a radical departure from traditional filmmaking in his 1925 text, "Simultaneous or Poly-Cinema." He envisions a cinematic experience that moves beyond the static, rectangular screen, suggesting instead curved, spherical, or multi-planar surfaces that can accommodate multiple simultaneous projections. By utilizing rotating prisms and intersecting film strips, Moholy-Nagy describes a system where different narrative threads—such as the lives of multiple characters—can physically overlap and merge, creating a dynamic architectural arrangement of light and movement.

Europe: China’s censorship of cultural institutions must be challenged - ARTICLE 19

The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London has reportedly removed maps and images from exhibition catalogues on multiple occasions following pressure from its Chinese publisher, C&C Offset Printing. The publisher cited directives from China's General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP), which enforces the Chinese Communist Party's official narratives on sensitive topics like territorial borders.

Gallery Guide

A comprehensive guide lists numerous art galleries and exhibition spaces across Virginia, primarily in the Richmond area, with some in Ashland, Hanover, and Charles City. It provides details on their locations, contact information, and artistic focuses, ranging from contemporary fine art and nonprofit spaces to specialized collections like 20th-century Russian realism.

Michael Fullerton: The Politics of Portraiture

Glasgow-based painter Michael Fullerton is presenting a two-part exhibition that critically examines the politics of portraiture. The first section features 11 oil portraits of male asylum seekers he lived alongside while working as live-in staff at the Hilltop Hotel in Carlisle. These works, painted in a traditional style, depict the men with care against ambiguous landscapes, deliberately restricting personal information to names and origins, highlighting their status within systems of power.

Interview: Lukas Amacher Is Building a Chatbot for the Art World

Curator, collector, and entrepreneur Lukas Amacher, in partnership with developer David Simon, has launched CONTXT, an A.I.-powered chatbot platform designed for art exhibitions. The software allows visitors to ask questions about artworks via a chat interface, with answers sourced directly from an institution's curated materials like catalog essays and curator notes, rather than generic internet searches. The platform is currently being tested in a public preview with bitforms gallery.

Salvador Dalí | Don Quixote

A Salvador Dalí metal bas-relief titled "Don Quixote" is being offered for bidding through Palm Beach Modern Auctions. The work is a limited edition sculpture in metal with platinum patina, signed and numbered 111/175, published by Martin Lawrence Ltd. Editions. The listing appears on Artsy's platform and includes details on dimensions, condition, and auction terms.

Chantana Tiprachart Wins Han Nefkens Foundation’s Southeast Asian Video Art Grant

Thai artist and filmmaker Chantana Tiprachart has been awarded the 2026 Southeast Asian Video Art Production Grant by the Han Nefkens Foundation. The prize provides $15,000 for the production of a new moving-image work over a nine-month period, which will subsequently tour several international institutions including the Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai and Nottingham Contemporary. The jury selected Tiprachart for her ability to locate social and political narratives within quiet, everyday spaces, praising her commitment to reflection in an era of information overload.

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The Louvre Museum in Paris has ended its long-running partnership with Nintendo that provided Nintendo 3DS consoles as museum guides. Launched in 2012, the program loaned 5,000 devices to the museum, which visitors could rent for a few euros. The 3DS units featured a multimedia library of over 700 artworks, 30 hours of audio commentary, and geolocation for personalized tours. Nintendo later discontinued the 3DS in 2020, and smartphones have since become the dominant tool for accessing information in museums. The Louvre has not yet announced a replacement.

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced it will return three ancient sculptures to Iraq, collectively valued at $500,000. The objects include a Sumerian gypsum alabaster vessel (ca. 2600–2500 BCE) and two Babylonian terracotta sculptures (ca. 2000–1600 BCE) depicting a male and female head. The repatriation follows new information from an investigation into Robin Symes, a dealer accused of trafficking looted artifacts. The Manhattan District Attorney's Office reported that the Symes investigation has led to the seizure of 135 antiquities worth over $58 million, with two of the items seized by the Antiquities Trafficking Unit earlier this year.

Comment | Museums must be the leaders in a moral revolution

Dutch historian Rutger Bregman, in his 2025 BBC Reith Lectures and book 'Moral Ambition,' argues that Europe risks becoming a stagnant, museum-like relic and calls for a moral revolution to counter societal decline driven by unserious leadership. He positions museums, with their high public trust and status as democratic civic spaces, as crucial leaders in this revolution, urging them to move beyond passive neutrality and actively establish ethical standards, combat misinformation, and engage with urgent societal issues like authoritarianism and climate crisis.

Media Artist Transforms Climate, AI Data into Immersive Art

Media artist Kang Lee-Yeon delivered an immersive lecture at the TED 2026 main stage in Vancouver, using a 30-meter screen to visualize climate change and AI data. She then opened her solo exhibition 'Illumination' at Fondation Fiminco in Paris for the 140th anniversary of Korea-France relations, while also debuting works at Milan Design Week and the Loop Plus media art fair in Busan. Her projects include 'Passage of Water', created with Google and NASA, which translates satellite data into an immersive experience about Earth's freshwater crisis.

Exhibition | Kimiyo Mishima, 'FRAGILE' at Nonaka-Hill, Los Angeles, United States

This article profiles Japanese artist Kimiyo Mishima, whose ceramic sculptures meticulously replicate discarded newspapers, cans, and other trash. Mishima, who died recently, began her career with painting and collage before pioneering a technique in 1971 of silk-screening and painting thin clay sheets rolled with an udon noodle roller to create fragile, lifelike sculptures of garbage. Her work was shaped by her experience growing up in postwar Osaka and her revulsion at consumer culture's disposable nature, leading her to collect trash from the streets of New York and Paris during artist grants.

At Kohei Nawa’s studio, the world is seen through glass bubbles

Japanese sculptor Kohei Nawa has launched his first solo exhibition in Los Angeles at Pace Gallery, titled "Photon Camp." The show features 20 new works from his renowned "PixCell" and "Prism" series, which utilize glass beads and light refraction to transform everyday objects—ranging from taxidermied animals to consumer electronics—into pixelated, magnified sculptures. The artist operates out of Sandwich, a sprawling Kyoto-based creative hub housed in a former sandwich factory that employs a team of 50 across art, design, and architecture.

How Delilah Montoya’s art confronts ICE detention abuses

The Albuquerque Museum is hosting a retrospective of Chicana artist Delilah Montoya, titled "Delilah Montoya: Activating Chicana Resistance." The exhibition's centerpiece is "Detention Nation," an immersive installation created in collaboration with the Sin Huellas Artist Collective that simulates the conditions of ICE detention centers. The work features cyanotype images of detainees on prison cots, chain-link fencing, and displays of meager government-issued personal items alongside the official National Detainee Handbook.

The Sticky Politics of Wall Texts

A critic's visit to the 36th Bienal de São Paulo led to a pointed critique of the exhibition's didactic strategy. The show, curated by Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, featured floor-mounted placards with QR codes, poorly placed basic labels, and extremely lengthy omnibus section texts, creating a frustrating experience that oscillated between providing too little and too much information.

Iranian galleries close amid protests and communications blackout

Iranian galleries have closed or altered their hours as nationwide protests, sparked by economic turmoil and a crashing currency, escalated into violent unrest. The protests began on 28 December among bazaar traders and spread to artists and gallerists, with many shutting their doors or canceling exhibitions, some under public pressure. A government-imposed internet and communications blackout on 8 January has severely limited information, though one gallerist speaking anonymously described the closures as a unified act of solidarity across society, not merely a response to safety concerns. The gallerist noted that the economy is in its worst condition, with basic necessities unaffordable and even bubble-wrap prices fluctuating wildly. Another gallery founder confirmed that all projects are on hold, and staging exhibitions risks public backlash. Instagram account Galleryinfo.ir faced online criticism for promoting exhibitions during the crisis, while Bavan Gallery reversed its initial stance of "resilience is an art form" and announced it would hold no exhibitions.

Paris gallery directors join forces to launch ‘open-ended’ advisory

Two Paris-based art dealers, Samy Ghiyati and Nicolas Nahab, have launched NG, a new multi-pronged art advisory business. The venture combines traditional advisory services with a roving exhibition programme, collection management, and foundation management. Nahab previously led Mendes Wood DM’s Paris gallery and worked at Marian Goodman and Yvon Lambert; Ghiyati was a director at David Zwirner’s Paris gallery after a stint at Kamel Mennour. Their first public project will be a selling exhibition of videos by Meriem Bennani in Essaouira, Morocco, opening in December.

In Seine-Saint-Denis, the clever housing for migrants by architect Patrick Rubin

En Seine-Saint-Denis, les logements futés pour les migrants de l’architecte Patrick Rubin

Architect Patrick Rubin of the firm Canal has transformed the former National Road Information Center, known as Bison Futé, in Rosny-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis) into a housing complex for 169 migrants. The project, commissioned by social landlord Batigere Habitats Solidaires, preserves the original 1986 half-moon building by Ludwik Peretz and Gilbert Delecourt, adding a new floor and a rear half-crown structure. Rubin used 79 prefabricated modules (17–25 m² each), built in workshops near Lyon, each equipped with a bed, kitchenette, bathroom, and window. Inspired by ship cabin manufacturing in Dunkirk and traditions of tiny houses and capsule hotels by Charlotte Perriand, Herman Hertzberger, and Shigeru Ban, the modules were craned into place. The project faced delays due to differing tolerances between concrete and wood construction, pushing delivery from early 2026 to late 2026.

The artist who blocked an Ice projectile with her drawing board during protests

Artist Isabelle “Izzy” Brourman narrowly escaped serious injury while documenting protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minneapolis. While sketching the scene for her project Starring America News, a masked federal agent fired pepper balls at her at point-blank range; Brourman managed to block the projectile with her wooden drawing board, which was left with a jagged hole. The incident, captured on video by her collaborators Peter Hambrecht and Jeannette Berlin, occurred on the same day a nurse was killed by federal agents during the unrest.

Long threatened, the Palais de la découverte will finally reopen in 2027 after a seven-year closure

Longtemps menacé, le Palais de la découverte va finalement rouvrir en 2027 après sept ans de fermeture

The Palais de la découverte in Paris will officially reopen in March 2027 following a seven-year closure for extensive renovations. Located in the Palais d’Antin wing of the Grand Palais, the institution faced the threat of permanent closure or relocation to the Cité des sciences due to economic constraints. However, a joint decision by the French Ministries of Research and Culture has secured its future at its historic site, where it will feature a shared entrance with the Grand Palais to foster a unique dialogue between art and science.

Exhibition | Jens FÄNGE, 'Antechamber' at Perrotin, New York, United States

Perrotin New York presents 'Antechamber,' an exhibition of over twenty new paintings by Swedish artist Jens Fänge. The works feature distorted, labyrinthine interiors populated by people, animals, and mannequins, using layered materials like oil, vinyl, linen, and burlap to create compositions that blur the line between figuration and abstraction. Recurring motifs such as doors, windows, halos, and locusts shift meaning across the show, which draws inspiration from Hans Christian Andersen's fairytales and Nathanael West's surrealist novels.

Investor Says Artnet Layoffs Were Necessary for ‘Financial Strength’

Investor and owner Andrew E. Wolff has publicly explained the recent layoffs at Artnet and Artsy as a necessary step for the companies' financial restructuring and future growth. He framed the cuts as part of a broader consolidation strategy, merging the US businesses and organizational structures of the two digital art platforms while keeping their brands separate.

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The curator of an exhibition at the Bangkok Arts and Cultural Centre (BACC) fled Thailand two days after its opening, fearing arrest and deportation. The show, titled “Constellation of Complicity: Visualising the Global Machine of Authoritarian Solidarity,” featured exiled artists from China, Russia, Iran, and Myanmar and was curated by an artist from Myanmar known as Sai. After receiving warnings from BACC directors that Thai police were seeking his contact information, Sai learned that the Chinese embassy, Thai Foreign Ministry, and Bangkok city officials had pressured the museum over potential diplomatic tensions. The exhibition was censored: black paint covered artists' names and descriptions of Tibet, Hong Kong, and Xinjiang; a multimedia piece by Tibetan artist Tenzin Mingyur Paldron was nearly entirely removed; and flags representing Tibet and the Uyghur people were taken down. Sai immediately flew to London and plans to restage the exhibition elsewhere without censorship.

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Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) has filed an administrative lawsuit against the production company of YouTuber MrBeast (James Donaldson) over a video titled “I Explored 2000 Year Old Ancient Temples,” uploaded on May 10, 2025. The video shows MrBeast and his companions exploring Mayan sites in Yucatán, including Chichén Itzá, Calakmul, and Balamcanché, and features a scene where he promotes his snack brand Feastables as “the only Mayan-approved snack on the planet.” INAH alleges that the permit granted to Full Circle Media did not authorize commercial advertising or false information, and it demands compensation and a public retraction. The controversy escalated after Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum called for further investigation into whether the permit was violated.