How to Keep a Gallery Open: Lessons From One of London’s Longest-Operating Dealers

London gallerist David Juda of Annely Juda, one of the city's longest-operating dealers, shares his strategies for keeping a gallery open amid a wave of closures. He emphasizes staying small, avoiding expensive art fairs for newcomers, and planning succession—handing responsibilities to co-director Nina Fellmann as he approaches 80. The gallery is moving to a new space on Hanover Square, inaugurating with new paintings by David Hockney.

Moss & Freud review: film exploring unlikely friendship ultimately fails to scratch the surface

The film *Moss & Freud*, directed by James Lucas, explores the unlikely friendship between supermodel Kate Moss and painter Lucian Freud in 2001 London. It depicts their first meeting at the National Gallery and the grueling nine-month sitting process that produced Freud's *Naked Portrait 2002*. The film stars Ellie Bamber as Moss and Derek Jacobi as Freud, with Moss serving as executive producer. However, the review criticizes the film for glossing over Freud's darker reputation—his punishingly long sittings, capacity for cruelty, and complex biography—instead portraying him as a benign, sweet-hearted old man. The script is deemed weak, failing to delve deeply into either subject or the artist-sitter dynamic.

Introducing Erich Heckel, the unsung driving force of Die Brücke

The Neue Galerie in New York is opening the first US museum exhibition dedicated to German Expressionist artist Erich Heckel (1883-1970), running from October 9, 2025 to January 12, 2026. Heckel was a co-founder of the influential group Die Brücke in 1905, alongside Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and Fritz Bleyl. Unlike the more flamboyant Kirchner, Heckel was introverted and avoided scandal, but he served as the group's organizational driving force, organizing key exhibitions and transforming Die Brücke into a promotional platform. The show features around 40 works from 1905 to 1920, including loans from the Harvard Art Museums and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Proposed Restitution Law in France Advances in National Assembly

The French National Assembly’s Cultural Affairs Committee has approved a landmark bill aimed at streamlining the restitution of cultural property looted from Africa during the colonial era. Moving away from the previous requirement for case-by-case legislation, the new framework allows restitutions to be ordered by ministerial decree, provided they fall within the 1815–1972 timeframe. This advancement follows years of debate sparked by President Emmanuel Macron’s 2017 pledge and the influential 2018 Sarr-Savoy report.

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The Smithsonian Institution has agreed to turn over internal materials related to its programming and operations to the White House, following an executive order from President Donald Trump aimed at purging what he calls “anti-American ideology” from the consortium of museums and archives. Private emails from Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch II, obtained by The New York Times, reveal that the Smithsonian will provide digital photographs of labels, placards, and other text on public display, as well as other materials, on a rolling basis to avoid losing federal funding, which makes up nearly two-thirds of its roughly $1 billion annual budget.

At Perrotin Paris, Bernard Frize Pushes Against His Own Self-Imposed Constraints

Bernard Frize’s latest exhibition, "Les 26," at Perrotin Paris marks his 21st show with the gallery and a continued exploration of his rigorous, process-driven abstraction. The exhibition features his signature interlocking grids and geometric latticework, created using wet-on-wet brushstrokes locked in resin, alongside tempera paintings on glass that follow strict linear rules. By utilizing utilitarian titles and avoiding representational forms, Frize seeks to decenter his own subjectivity, allowing the physical act of painting and the resulting optical tension to lead the viewer’s experience.

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A new digital platform called the Art Marketplace, founded in mid-2025 by Elliot Safra and a group of partners, aims to streamline private art sales by addressing common frustrations in the secondary market. Unlike traditional auction houses or gallery sales, the platform lists artworks without images, revealing only key details like artist name, description, price, and last update. Requests for images or condition reports are vetted to ensure qualified interest, prioritizing confidentiality and avoiding public exposure that could harm a work's market value. Sellers can list works in minutes, bypassing intermediaries like advisors or dealers, while buyers gain access to previously obscure off-market inventory.

Extraterrestrial Art Created During Space Observatory Residencies on View in Mouans-Sartoux

À Mouans-Sartoux s’expose l’art extra-terrestre créé lors des résidences de l’Observatoire de l’espace

The Espace de l’art concret in Mouans-Sartoux is hosting a landmark exhibition featuring "extraterrestrial" artworks created through the Observatoire de l’espace’s residency program. Since 2006, this cultural laboratory of the French National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) has invited artists like Renaud Auguste-Dormeuil, Stéphane Thidet, and Victoire Thierrée to produce works in zero-gravity environments. These creations are born aboard parabolic flights on the Airbus A310 Zero G or via stratospheric balloons, where physical laws like gravity and atmospheric pressure are suspended.

Who Were the Best-Selling Old Masters at Auction in 2025?

The article reports on the best-selling Old Master paintings at auction in 2025, highlighting Canaletto's "Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day" which sold for $43.8 million at Christie's—three times the next-highest Old Master price. Other notable sales include a $7.55 million triptych of Jesus performing miracles by an unknown 15th-century artist, noted for its pristine condition. The analysis draws from the Artnet Intelligence Report: Year Ahead 2026.

NASA’s Artemis II Returns to the Moon—and Captures a Powerful New Image of Earth

NASA has released the first images from the Artemis II mission, marking humanity's first return to the moon since 1972. During a lunar flyby on April 6, Commander Reid Wiseman captured a series of high-resolution photographs using a Nikon D5, including a striking image titled 'Earthset' that shows the planet sinking below the lunar horizon. The mission's four-person crew produced approximately 10,000 images, documenting the far side of the moon and a total solar eclipse from a unique celestial perspective.

Black.2; Family Values; Studio Exhibition

Amelia Winata reviews three concurrent group exhibitions in Melbourne galleries: 'Black.2' at Void_Melbourne (15 Nov–20 Dec 2025), 'Family Values' at Futures (6 Dec–20 Dec 2025), and 'Studio Exhibition' at Haydens (6 Dec 2025). The article opens with a metaphor comparing the gallery-goer's experience to the rescue ship Carpathia navigating icebergs, reflecting the glut of end-of-year group shows in Melbourne's commercial spaces. Winata visits each space, describing the deco-chic building housing Void_, the formalist black-themed works by artists like Nick Devlin, Elvis Richardson, Sarah Goffman, and Suzie Idiens, and the broader context of Melbourne's gallery scene.

In his own words: Antwerp museum uses AI to recreate Magritte's voice

The DEK Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA) has used artificial intelligence to recreate the voice of Surrealist artist René Magritte for its exhibition "Magritte. La ligne de vie." The AI voice reads a 1938 lecture Magritte gave at the museum—the only known text of him discussing his work—which was never recorded but survived as slides and a transcript transcribed by fellow Surrealist Marcel Mariën. The exhibition, on view until February 2026, features over 100 works and is structured around key themes from that lecture, culminating in a room where visitors hear Magritte's reconstructed voice in French with English and Dutch subtitles.

Kellogg Gallery spotlights unconventional, colorful artists

Cal Poly Pomona's W. Keith and Janet Kellogg University Art Gallery is presenting "Color & Quirk," an exhibition running from August 25 to November 18, 2025, curated by Michele Cairella Fillmore. The show features unconventional, colorful artists who avoid white, black, and gray, including Megan Geckler, known for immersive flagging tape installations like "You can never quarantine the past," Colin Roberts, who creates plexiglass sculptures inspired by glass architecture, and Seda Saar, whose work explores perception, light, and color through interior architecture and themed entertainment design.

Why Did Trump Officials Award $2 Million to a Small Art School in Queens?

The Trump administration's National Endowment for the Humanities awarded a $2 million grant to a small art school in Queens with only three full-time employees. This grant was part of a new pattern of large, handpicked awards, a significant departure from the agency's typical grant-making process which historically avoided such large sums to very small institutions.

British Museum's looted ewer set for return to Ghana on long-term loan

The British Museum is expected to loan the 14th-century Asante Ewer to Ghana on a long-term basis, following discussions between the Manhyia Palace Museum in Kumasi and the London institution. The ewer, made in England and later looted from the Asante royal palace in 1896, has been in the British Museum's collection ever since. Ivor Agyeman-Duah, director of the Manhyia Palace Museum, plans to travel to London to make a formal loan request on behalf of Asantehene Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II. The British Museum has already lent other looted artefacts to the Ghanaian museum, and the loan would likely be for three years, with Ghanaian authorities acknowledging British Museum ownership.

Storied media arts centre launches emergency fundraising appeal to avoid closure

Vivo Media Arts Centre, a storied media arts centre in Vancouver, has launched an emergency fundraising appeal to avoid closure after five decades of operation. The centre faces a 30% rent increase imposed by the city of Vancouver, which consumes all of its operating revenue from the city, leaving nothing for staff or programming. It has raised nearly C$9,500 of the C$50,000 needed by the end of the year to sustain operations through early 2026.

Storied media arts centre launches emergency fundraising appeal to avoid closure

Vivo Media Arts Centre, a storied media arts centre in Vancouver, has launched an emergency fundraising appeal to avoid closure after five decades of operation. The centre faces a 30% rent increase from the city of Vancouver, which has consumed all of its municipal operating revenue, leaving nothing for staff or programming. It has raised nearly C$9,500 of the C$50,000 needed by the end of 2025 to sustain operations through early 2026.

Prado Implements New Crowd Control Measures to Combat Overtourism

The Prado Museum in Madrid has implemented new crowd control measures to combat overtourism, including reducing the maximum size of tour groups from 30 to 20 people and restricting group access to off-peak afternoon hours. The museum is also promoting "thematic routes" to disperse visitors into less crowded galleries.

A new experimental and independent art and culture bookstore is about to open in Venice

A Venezia sta per aprire una nuova libreria d’arte e cultura sperimentale e indipendente

Rupture Arts & Books is set to open a new experimental art bookstore and cultural hub in Venice’s Santa Croce district on April 29, 2026. Moving from its previous Giudecca location to the city’s "museum quarter" near Fondazione Prada, the space will function as more than a retail outlet, incorporating an independent publishing house, a record label, and a podcast production studio. Founded by Alexandre Sap and Anne-Marie Gaultier, the project aims to redefine the contemporary reading space through a multidisciplinary approach.

The Poet of Light. Interview with Lighting Designer Davide Groppi

Il poeta della luce. Intervista al lighting designer Davide Groppi

Lighting designer Davide Groppi (born 1963 in Piacenza) is the subject of a rare retrospective exhibition titled "Un'ora di luce" (An Hour of Light), on view until May 26 at the Volumnia gallery in Piacenza, curated by Marco Sammicheli. The show, held in a deconsecrated late-16th-century church, traces Groppi's nearly 40-year career through products, prototypes, and personal artistic research, including his iconic lamp "Nulla" (2010), which won the first of his three Compasso d'Oro awards. In an interview, Groppi discusses the exhibition's themes of lightness, cosmic references, and his philosophy of subtraction in design.

In this Milan exhibition, the viewer can modify the spaces. The great artist-architect Gianni Pettena explains why

In questa mostra a Milano lo spettatore può modificare gli spazi. Il grande artista-architetto Gianni Pettena ci spiega perché

Gianni Pettena, a pioneer of the Italian Radical Architecture movement, has unveiled his immersive installation "Paper/Northern Lights" at the BiM urban regeneration project in Milan's Bicocca district. Originally conceived in 1971 as a pedagogical exercise at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, the work consists of 49 kilometers of white paper strips hanging from the ceiling. Visitors are invited to physically interact with the installation by cutting through the paper, effectively reshaping the architectural environment and challenging traditional notions of fixed space and authorship.

Monuments & Weapons: How Public Space Prepares Us for War Without Us Even Realizing It

Monumenti&armi. Così lo spazio pubblico ci prepara alla guerra senza che neppure ce ne rendiamo conto

Public squares and urban spaces are densely populated with war-related monuments that condition society to accept conflict as a historical inevitability. A study by Philadelphia’s Monument Lab reveals that nearly 60% of U.S. monuments focus on war themes, outnumbering themes of peace thirteen-fold, while Italy maintains over 12,000 memorials dedicated solely to World War I. These structures often prioritize military hierarchy and territorial conquest over themes of care, gender equality, or social diversity.

Are All Crises Equal? A Conversation with MOS’s Michael Meredith and Hilary Sample by ANY

Architects Michael Meredith and Hilary Sample of the firm MOS discuss the concept of "polycrisis"—the intersection of economic, political, and ecological failures—and its impact on architectural form. The conversation highlights a growing void between the formal aesthetic project of architecture and the urgent political realities of the modern world. Sample specifically addresses how the dominance of political and regulatory restrictions in collective housing has stifled formal innovation, often reducing architecture to a mere byproduct of governance rather than a tool for social or cultural expression.

Experimental Funding Schemes and Militant Analysis: The Experience of CERFI

The Center for Institutional Studies, Research, and Training (CERFI), a research cooperative co-founded by Félix Guattari in the wake of May 1968, sought to merge militant political practice with institutional psychotherapy. By adopting a model of 'analytical self-management,' the group utilized rotational roles and collective research to avoid the hierarchies and alienation typical of traditional academic and political organizations. This experimental structure was heavily influenced by the 'grid' system used at the La Borde psychiatric clinic, aiming to turn administrative labor into a tool for subjective liberation.

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The French National Assembly has unanimously passed a landmark bill designed to streamline the restitution of cultural artifacts looted during the colonial era between 1815 and 1972. This legislative framework aims to replace the previous requirement for individual laws for every return, fulfilling a long-standing pledge by President Emmanuel Macron to restore African heritage. While the vote was unanimous, the debate was contentious, with critics arguing over the omission of the word "colonialism" to avoid far-right backlash regarding national "repentance."

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An art world insider publishes an open letter to auction executives, accusing them of encroaching on the primary gallery market by accepting consignments of works by emerging artists and scheduling auctions to coincide with major art fairs. The author argues that auction houses prioritize financial gain over artists' long-term career stability, destabilizing prices and encouraging speculation. They call for auction houses to respect the traditional boundaries between primary and secondary markets, stop glorifying auction prices, and avoid accepting works from recent primary sales.

Is There an Ethical Path for AI Art?

An exhibition at Rice University's Moody Center for the Arts, titled 'Imaging after Photography', presents work by seven contemporary artists who use artificial intelligence in ethically considered ways. The show argues we are in a post-photographic moment where AI disrupts the link between photorealism and reality, and features artists who train their algorithms on their own images or public domain datasets to avoid plagiarism.

Morto l’artista Tullio Brunone. Il ricordo

Italian artist Tullio Brunone died on April 21. Born in 1946 in Alexandria, Egypt, to an Italian family, he trained at the Accademia di Brera in Milan. A pioneer of video art and new media, Brunone was a key figure in the Laboratorio di Comunicazione Militante (1976-1978) and later co-founded the Scuola di Nuove Tecnologie at Brera in the 1990s. His work explored interaction, temporality, and the selfie phenomenon, anticipating contemporary digital culture. He was represented by Galleria Clivio in Milan, which dedicated part of its stand to him at the most recent miart fair.

Exeter artists turn away from traditional landscapes in bold new exhibition

A new exhibition titled 'Not A Pretty Landscape' opens at Kaleider Studios in Exeter from January 31 to February 1, featuring 15 artists who present contemporary and unconventional views of the South West, deliberately avoiding traditional coastal and rural landscapes. Curated by Exeter-based artist Claire Le Day, the show emerged from an open call with no rules or experience requirements, only the condition that no pretty landscapes be submitted. Artists keep 100% of their profits, and most will be present to meet visitors and manage sales. Featured artists include Jo Beer, whose portraits have been recognized by the National Portrait Gallery and the Royal Society of Portrait Painters.

Looking Beyond the Conflict: What's driving contemporary artists from Sri Lanka?

Contemporary artists from Sri Lanka are gaining visibility across South Asia through gallery exhibitions, institutional shows, and art fairs. At Experimenter in Colaba, Pushpakanthan Pakkiyarajah's solo show 'No Race, No Colour' features installations like 'Charred Hyphal Mat' that explore organic communication and wounded ecologies rooted in the country's three-decade civil war. At the Art Mumbai fair, Hema Shironi uses fabric and green mesh to address post-war reconciliation, while earlier in Delhi, the twin exhibitions 'Homes Wrapped in Cloth, Borders Raised in Flags' and 'After Aphantasias' by Shrine Empire showcased similar themes. Artists such as Anoli Perera, Kingsley Gunatillake, Pala Pothupitye, and others are collectively presenting nuanced perspectives on memory, ecology, and joy beyond the conflict.