Cristopher Canizares, a longtime partner at mega-gallery Hauser & Wirth, is departing after 16 years to launch his own venture, the Artist Legacy Bureau. This new agency will function as an artist management firm, with Canizares working directly for and being paid by a select group of five or six artists to advise on long-term career strategy across their gallery, institutional, and collector relationships.
Artnet News profiles five ultra-contemporary artists working in China today, highlighting their practices amid shifting cultural narratives, economic pressures, and technological change. Featured artists include Xia Yu, known for tempera paintings of everyday life, and Ye Linghan, who creates monumental "data portraits" from smartphone screenshots. The article details their backgrounds, notable exhibitions, market prices, and upcoming projects, emphasizing their growing appeal to collectors and curators.
Designboom has curated a list of the top 10 art exhibitions of 2025, highlighting standout shows from around the world. Key exhibitions include Yayoi Kusama's new infinity room at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Do Ho Suh's solo show 'Walk the House' at Tate Modern, Andy Goldsworthy's 'Fifty Years' land art retrospective at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh, and Steve McQueen's immersive light and sound installation 'Bass' at Schaulager Basel. The list also features A.A. Murakami's mist-filled installation at Museo della Permanente during Milan Design Week 2025.
German artist Florian Krewer, known for dreamlike paintings that blend memory and fantasy, has opened a solo exhibition titled 'Cruel The Night Café' at a former London pub, the Blue Lion on Gray's Inn Road. The show features new works and works on paper inspired by New York's evening hours. The pub was recently purchased by The Perimeter, a neighboring foundation, and will be redeveloped into an adjoining exhibition space. The article also includes a studio visit interview where Krewer discusses his South Bronx workspace, his solo practice, and his unusual Primer brush tool.
The article reports on "MONUMENTS," a major exhibition co-organized by the Brick and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA), curated by Hamza Walker, Bennett Simpson, and artist Kara Walker. The show, on view at MOCA's Geffen Contemporary and the Brick through May 6, brings together nearly a dozen altered Confederate memorials alongside contemporary works. It features Kara Walker's reworking of the Stonewall Jackson monument from Charlottesville, Virginia, among other pieces, and was eight years in the making, spurred by the 2015 Charleston church shooting and the 2017 Unite the Right Rally.
The article is a first-person diary of an art critic's trip to Aspen for ArtWeek, centered around Matthew Barney's performance "TACTICAL parallax" (2025) at the Aspen Art Museum. The author navigates travel delays, attends the dress rehearsal, and participates in a whirlwind of events including the Aspen Art Museum's AIR festival, a public conversation with artist Issy Wood, and dinners with art-world figures like MoMA board president Sarah Arison and artists Paul Chan and Aria Dean. The narrative weaves personal observations with the broader art scene in Aspen, touching on themes of the American West and contemporary art.
Cultured magazine has published its first Young Dealers List, highlighting 23 galleries under five years old that are revitalizing the art world. The list was compiled from over 100 recommendations gathered from more than 40 collectors, advisors, and curators. The article profiles one of the selected gallerists, Adora Mba, founder of ADA Contemporary Art Gallery in Accra, Ghana, who opened her space in 2020 after working as a cultural news producer. Mba emphasizes supporting emerging African artists and has dedicated her 2025 program to women artists and curators.
A blue plaque has been unveiled on the London home of pioneering British photographer Julia Margaret Cameron at 10 Chesham Place in Belgravia, celebrating her legacy. Cameron took up photography at age 48 and created iconic portraits of figures like Alfred Tennyson, Charles Darwin, and Thomas Carlyle, as well as images of her family and neighbors. The plaque was installed by English Heritage, with family members including musician Jules Cameron, singer Jasmine van den Bogaerde (Birdy), and artist Julian Bell attending the ceremony. Cameron's great-great-great-granddaughter Jules Cameron noted that the honor feels like a continuation of her work to fix presence in light and memory.
A new museum called Muzeu—Thought and Contemporary Art DST has opened in Braga, northern Portugal, housed in a former courthouse and built by the DST Group, a Portuguese industrial conglomerate. The inaugural exhibition, titled "Let Us Be Realistic, Let Us Demand the Impossible," features over 100 works by 96 artists including Alex Katz, Francesco Clemente, Franz West, and Nan Goldin. The museum prioritizes workers, opening first exclusively for company employees on 24 April, then to the public on Freedom Day (25 April), with free admission for the first week and closure on International Workers' Day (1 May).
The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona has acquired the archives of nine photographers: Laura Aguilar, Jack Dykinga, Jody Forster, Frank Gohlke, Mark Klett, Nathan Lyons, Stephen Marc, Patrick Nagatani, and Susan Wood. The collections include photographic prints as well as supporting materials like correspondence, notebooks, and working proofs that document the artists' creative processes.
MoMA PS1 has launched the sixth edition of Greater New York, its signature quinquennial survey featuring 53 artists living and working across the city's five boroughs. Marking the institution’s 50th anniversary, this iteration was organized entirely by the museum’s internal curatorial staff rather than outside contributors. The exhibition moves away from the introspective, surrealist themes of the pandemic-era 2021 edition, focusing instead on the social fabric of the city and the systemic challenges facing its residents.
Karen Archey, the head of curatorial at Düsseldorf's K20 and K21 museums, shares personal insights in an interview format. She reveals her obsession with painter Alice Neel, discusses a formative 2007 summer touring major European art events, and lists the poetry and audio currently occupying her attention.
The Museum of Fine Arts (MSK) in Ghent has launched "Unforgettable," a landmark exhibition recovering the histories of over 40 women artists who were active in Belgium and the Netherlands between 1600 and 1750. The show highlights the professional success of figures like Princess Louise Hollandine and Maria Schalcken, while also acknowledging the anonymous working-class women who fueled the luxury economy through lacemaking. It challenges the long-held myth that female artists were rare exceptions during the Flemish Golden Age.
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The Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá (MAMBO) terminated the contract of its artistic director, Eugenio Viola, earlier this month. Viola claims his dismissal came after he raised concerns with the board in September 2025 about deteriorating working conditions at the museum, concerns he says were shared by other staff. The museum stated the decision resulted from a comprehensive review and that it has begun searching for a new artistic director.
MoMA PS1 has announced the 53 artists selected for the 2026 edition of its quinquennial exhibition, Greater New York. The show, opening April 16, is organized by the museum's in-house curatorial staff and focuses on artists living and working in New York City, with a strong emphasis on early and mid-career practitioners. It notably features only one deceased artist, painter Jay Carrier.
Martin Puryear's 1978 sculpture *Self* opens a survey of his work at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, titled “Martin Puryear: Nexus,” which runs through Sunday before traveling to the Cleveland Museum of Art in April. Curated by Emily Liebert, Reto Thüring, and Ian Alteveer, the exhibition argues that Puryear's abstract, craft-intensive sculptures—like *A Column for Sally Hemings* (2021)—are not merely formalist exercises but carry political and historical meanings that are deliberately withheld, challenging viewers to read beyond elegant surfaces.
Performance artist Pat Oleszko, known for her satirical costumes and public interventions, is receiving significant institutional recognition in New York. At 78, she is featured in the 2026 Whitney Biennial and is the subject of a solo exhibition, "Fool Disclosure," at SculptureCenter, her first institutional solo show in the city in over 35 years.
The Louvre closed on Monday due to a strike by employees demanding improved working conditions and pay equity, marking the fourth closure since mid-December. Roughly 300 workers voted to extend the strike, which began December 15, after fruitless negotiations with the Ministry of Culture and Louvre management. The dispute has been intensified by an October 19 burglary that exposed systemic security failures, and workers have also protested the museum's long-term redevelopment plans, including a proposed standalone gallery for the Mona Lisa, calling them unrealistic given staffing shortages and maintenance issues.
The Louvre Museum in Paris was forced to close on Monday, January 12, 2026, after staff launched a strike over pay, staffing levels, and working conditions. The closure is the latest in a series of disruptions since mid-December, including a three-day walkout before Christmas and multiple delayed openings in early January. Unions representing employees say the museum is understaffed, poorly maintained, and workers are overworked, calling for increased hiring, higher wages, and greater infrastructure investment. The labor unrest has been compounded by heightened scrutiny following an October daytime robbery of crown jewels valued at over $100 million, and tensions have also flared over a proposed standalone gallery for Leonardo da Vinci's *Mona Lisa*, which unions deem unrealistic given existing problems.
When the Eaton Fire swept through Altadena in January 2025, artist Diana Thater lost decades of raw footage, master tapes, installation manuals, and ephemera stored in her garage. Her husband, artist T. Kelly Mason, managed to save a server and several hard drives, but much of her earlier archive—never digitized—was destroyed. In the aftermath, Thater began working with the Canyon Media Art Conservation Center (CMACC), a nonprofit conservation lab opening in 2026 that specializes in time-based media art. Led by conservator Cass Fino-Radin, CMACC is helping Thater locate surviving versions of her works in museums and private collections to rebuild and preserve her archive.
The Diriyah Biennale Foundation has announced the artist list for the third edition of the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale, opening January 30 in the JAX District of Diriyah, near Riyadh. Titled “In Interludes and Transitions,” the biennale is curated by Nora Razian and Sabih Ahmed and features over 65 artists, including more than 20 new commissions. Participants range from historic figures like Pacita Abad and Etel Adnan to emerging voices such as Raven Chacon and Dineo Seshee Bopape, working across painting, installation, film, sound, architecture, and publishing.
Louvre staff went on strike again on Monday over understaffing, working conditions, and the museum's $820 million renovation plan, echoing calls for director Laurence des Cars to step down. The walkout forced the museum to close to the public, reopening only a few major attractions like the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and Winged Victory of Samothrace. The strike, originally launched in December, was suspended briefly but resumed after all 350 staff voted unanimously in favor. Unions demand a re-evaluation of the renovation project, dubbed "Nouvelle Renaissance," arguing the high cost is unrealistic and that priorities should shift to urgent technical maintenance.
Kathleen Goncharov, a curator known for her work at Just Above Midtown gallery and the Boca Raton Museum of Art, died at her home in Boca Raton, Florida, on December 31 at age 73. Over her career, she served as senior curator at the Boca Raton Museum of Art from 2012 to 2025, curated exhibitions internationally from Rio de Janeiro to Rome, and was commissioner of the US Pavilion for the Venice Biennale in 2003, presenting Fred Wilson's exhibition "Speak of Me as I Am." She also held positions at Creative Time, the New School, MIT, the Nasher Museum of Art, and the Brodsky Center for Innovative Editions, and was a working artist for 40 years.
Artnet News asked several working artists—Manuel Mathieu, Hanna Salomonsson, Aki Sasamoto, Nigel Hall, Sharmistha Ray, and Miljohn Ruperto—to share the practical and philosophical lessons that sustain their creative practices. Topics include building trust with collaborators, navigating financial uncertainty, setting up shared studio spaces, using recycled materials, maintaining optimism at age 82, reframing rejection, and adapting to the expectation that artists must act as entrepreneurs before their first gallery show.
On December 15, 2025, the Musée du Louvre in Paris was forced to close as approximately 400 of its 2,100 employees went on strike, picketing outside the museum's glass pyramids and turning away visitors. The strike follows a series of crises at the institution, including a $102 million jewel heist in broad daylight two months prior, a flooding incident from a burst water pipe in November, and ongoing concerns about deteriorating facilities, long lines, and substandard restrooms and dining areas. Workers are demanding higher wages and better conditions, with three trade unions—CGT, SUD, and CFDT—warning in an open letter that staff feel like "the last bastion before collapse."
The Rijksmuseum, the national museum of the Netherlands in Amsterdam, has announced a partnership with the municipality of Eindhoven to build a satellite branch in the city. The 35,000-square-foot building will be located in a park near Eindhoven Central Station and is expected to open in six to eight years, presenting exhibitions drawn from the Rijksmuseum’s collection of over one million objects, including masterpieces by Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Van Gogh. Major sponsorship comes from Dutch semiconductor company ASML.
Journalist Bianca Bosker went undercover as a studio assistant for painter Julie Curtiss and other artists, revealing the gritty, athletic reality behind art-making—a world of blood, sweat, and sleepless nights. The article explores how mounting financial pressures, especially for sculptors and installation artists like Ivana Bašić, Erwin Wurm, and Lindsey Mendick, force tough decisions about studio space and production. Bašić, despite critical acclaim, lost a subsidized Dumbo studio and now outsources production to keep costs down, while a growing number of established artists pass on wisdom through residencies and assistant teams.
The Institute of Contemporary Art Miami is opening "Richard Hunt: Pressure," the first institutional survey of the late sculptor since his death in 2023 at age 88. The exhibition, running through March during Miami Art Week, features 28 sculptures from 1955 to 2010, drawn from Hunt's seven-decade career in which he completed over 160 public commissions and 170 solo exhibitions. The show highlights Hunt's innovative use of industrial materials and abstract forms, while also exploring the dual meaning of "pressure"—both the physical force used in his metalworking and the societal pressures he faced as a Black artist during the Civil Rights era.
Dorothy Vogel, who with her husband Herbert built one of the most celebrated art collections of the 20th century while working as a librarian and a postal clerk, died on November 10 at age 90. The couple amassed thousands of Minimalist and conceptual works by artists such as Donald Judd, Roy Lichtenstein, and Sol LeWitt, housing them in their rent-controlled Manhattan apartment. They never sold any artwork and ultimately donated their entire collection to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, Connecticut, has appointed Allison Blais as its new president and CEO, effective January 2026. Blais, currently executive vice president and chief strategy and operations officer at New York’s 9/11 Memorial & Museum, will succeed Jeffrey N. Brown, who held the role for five years. The announcement was made by board chair Duffield Ashmead IV MD, who praised Blais's experience with large-scale capital projects and stakeholder engagement. Blais, a Connecticut native, expressed her long familiarity with the Wadsworth and her enthusiasm for working with museum director Matthew Hargraves.