Canada's Art Gallery of Hamilton gets federal funding for expansion that will double its exhibition space

The Art Gallery of Hamilton (AGH) in Ontario, Canada, announced on January 20 that it has received nearly C$1 million ($684,000) in federal funding from the Canadian Heritage Cultural Spaces Fund for a major expansion. The project will add a 745-square-meter gallery, increasing exhibition space by 70%, and is expected to attract up to 300,000 visitors annually. AGH President and CEO Shelley Falconer stated the funding will launch the first phase, including hiring an architectural firm and creating schematic drawings for a new Main Street entrance and a gallery dedicated to Hamilton's industrial history. The gallery is also exploring adding affordable housing for creative workers in partnership with City Housing Hamilton.

The new chief curator of Uzbekistan’s Centre for Contemporary Art is bringing insights from London to the youth of Tashkent

Sara Raza has been appointed as the first artistic director and chief curator of Uzbekistan’s Centre for Contemporary Art Tashkent (CCA), a restored 1912 tram depot that is currently undergoing expansion by French architecture firm Studio KO. Raza, who was born in London and grew up in New York, is a former curator at the Guggenheim Museum in New York and has curated festivals in Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan. She took up the post in January and has already launched a programme of artist residencies in refurbished traditional Uzbek mahallas, while the CCA’s reopening has been delayed from 2025 to 2026.

Ten artists accuse Arusha Gallery of non-payment of nearly half a million pounds

Ten artists have accused Arusha Gallery, which operates in Edinburgh and London, of failing to pay them nearly half a million pounds for sold works, with some waiting months or years for payment. Artist Charlotte Keates claims she is owed approximately £430,000 from sales dating back to 2023, while gallery owner Bella Arusha Collins King disputes the amount and asserts the gallery is entitled to a 50% cut from a collaboration Keates entered with Hermès. The gallery acknowledges missing payments, citing a downturn in the art market and the unexpected death of co-owner Guy Rowland Maxwell Bargery in January.

In a new exhibition, the British Museum traces the shared roots of three ancient Indian religions

The British Museum has opened a new exhibition, "Ancient India: Living Traditions," curated by Sushma Jansari, which presents devotional art from three of India's major religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. The show highlights shared roots and commonalities among these faiths, tracing their origins back to ancient nature spirits like the Yakshas, and features objects ranging from a second-century BC carving of Gaja-Lakṣmī to an 18th-century painting from Rajasthan. The exhibition also addresses colonial history and provenance, with detailed labels explaining how key objects were removed from their original sites, including the Amarāvati Stupa.

The Last Living Surrealist

Der letzte lebende Surrealist

Alejandro Jodorowsky, the 97-year-old Chilean-French artist and filmmaker, is profiled in his Paris apartment as the last living Surrealist. The article reflects on his century-spanning career, from his early pantomime work with Marcel Marceau in the 1950s to his cult films like "El Topo" and "The Holy Mountain," as well as his famously unrealized adaptation of Frank Herbert's "Dune." Jodorowsky shares his philosophy that true art has a beginning but no end, offering a retrospective on a life lived at the intersection of performance, cinema, and visionary creativity.

Oviedo to host the world's first philosophy museum

Oviedo accueillera le premier musée de philosophie au monde

The Gustavo Bueno Foundation has announced plans to open the world's first museum of philosophy in Oviedo, Spain, scheduled for January 2027. Housed in the historic Miñor sanatorium, the institution will serve as a physical extension of the Oviedo School of Philosophy, focusing on the "philosophical materialism" developed by the late thinker Gustavo Bueno. The museum aims to move beyond academic circles to engage the general public in critical thinking and the rigorous analysis of social structures.

Gallery openings and exhibits in Central Oregon this week

Central Oregon’s art scene is hosting a diverse array of exhibitions this week across Bend, Sisters, Sunriver, and Redmond. Notable highlights include Jana Charl’s mixed-media showcase "This is not a Love Story" at Art Adventure Gallery, Hilary Baker’s moth-themed "Prophets" at the High Desert Museum, and a collection of literary-inspired quilts at the Deschutes Historical Museum. The offerings span various mediums, from nomadic woven macramé and custom jewelry to volcanic science explorations and historic cartography.

The Order of Symbolism, Signs and Sensibility

The Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro (MAM Rio) is hosting a major retrospective titled 'Rubem Valentim: a ordem do sensível,' featuring approximately 180 works spanning four decades. Curated by Raquel Barreto and Phelipe Rezende, the exhibition showcases Valentim’s unique fusion of modernist abstraction with the spiritual symbols of Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous cosmologies. The presentation includes paintings, reliefs, and sculptures, culminating in monumental works like 'Templo de Oxalá.'

Open call for entries to new portrait award

ArtHouse Jersey has launched an open call for entries to its new Portrait Award, a competition open to artists aged 16 and over who live in or have a strong connection to the Channel Islands. The award is free to enter, with a deadline of September 30, 2026, and offers a top prize of £1,500 plus two runner-up prizes of £500 each. Selected works will be exhibited at Capital House in St Helier from January to April 2027, alongside works by international artists. All forms of portraiture—painting, photography, mixed media—are eligible, provided they are original and completed within the last three years.

Ephemeral Geographies: Where Land, Light and Time Shift at Gallery Pradarshak

A group exhibition titled 'Ephemeral Geographies: Where Land, Light and Time Shift' opens at Gallery Pradarshak in Mumbai on April 24, 2026. The show features ten emerging and mid-career Indian artists—Alistan Dias, Amol Pawar, Bhoomika Karbhari, Manthan Tambe, Meetul Agarwal, Pradip Suryawanshi, Rohan Bhavsar, Sharu Anjirbag, Siddhant Bansod, and Suresh Jangid—who present landscapes across mediums like painting and mixed media as evolving conditions shaped by perception, memory, and atmospheric change.

Buena Vista Artist Family Prominently Featured in Denver-Area Art Exhibition

Buena Vista area artists Bob Gray and his daughter Jamie Gray have been selected for the upcoming exhibition "Family Ties: Continuing the Creative Legacy" at the Arvada Center Galleries in metro Denver, running from January 15 to March 26, 2026. They are one of two local families featured, alongside the Strawn family (Ben, Daniel, and their late parents Bernice and Mel). The show includes twenty creative families, highlighting how artistic identity is shaped within family contexts. Both Grays work with wood: Bob creates turned-aspen vessels inspired by local landscapes, while Jamie produces abstract wall sculptures using beeswax, pigment, and hand-carved lines.

food martha stewart alison roman king borgo

On a cold January evening in Tribeca, 85 people gathered at TIWA Select, an art gallery five stories above Walker Street, for "Stories to Savor," a fundraiser for 826NYC. The event blended readings, a dinner party, and a fundraiser, featuring a lineup of New York food luminaries including Martha Stewart, Alison Roman, Missy Robbins, Andrew Tarlow, and Annie Shi. Participants read food-themed essays and poems written by former 826NYC students, while chef Woldy Reyes prepared a Filipino-inspired feast. The evening was emceed by New Yorker writer Naomi Fry and co-host Kristen Naiman of The RealReal, with guests including fashion designer Ulla Johnson and artist Simone Bodmer-Turner.

Brushes at the ready: entries open for Redland Art Awards

Entries have opened for the 2026 Redland Art Awards, a biennial contemporary painting prize coordinated by Redland Art Gallery in Queensland, Australia. The competition is open to all Australian artists, offering a total prize pool of $30,500, including a $20,000 acquisitive first prize. The lead judge is curator and arts writer Alison Kubler. The awards, which began in 1981 as a local prize by Redland Yurara Art Society, will culminate in a finalist exhibition from November 2026 to January 2027.

Gunjan Tyagi Selected for Women’s History Month Exhibition in NYC

Gunjan Tyagi, a multidisciplinary visual artist based in Schenectady, New York, has been selected to exhibit at Pen + Brush, one of New York's oldest nonprofit galleries, during Women's History Month. Tyagi's work spans painting, sculpture, site-specific installation, nature art, video, photography, and mixed media, often incorporating unconventional materials like cow dung and found objects to explore identity, cultural exchange, and humanity's relationship with nature. She also serves as organizer of the India chapter of the Global Nomadic Art Project and as a jury member at the Biennale of Seychelles.

Exhibit at Lord Baltimore Hotel by local artist Mark Anthony West Jr. evokes starry skies

Baltimore-born artist Mark Anthony West Jr. is debuting a new body of work titled "Seven Stars Between Two Skies" at the Lord Baltimore Hotel. Created during a residency in Rio de Janeiro, the exhibition features portraits of American and Brazilian creatives depicted as sovereign forces, utilizing signature elements like terra cotta noses, metallic leaf, and symbolic ribbons to explore Afro-diasporic themes and spiritual lineage.

New art gallery and studio space opens in village near Banbury

Artists Simon Allison and Jane Hamilton are launching Far Far Gallery, a new exhibition and studio space in the village of Cropredy, near Banbury. Housed in a converted barn, the venue expands upon the duo's long-standing work at the nearby Lockbund Foundry and will host a variety of individual and group exhibitions across multiple media.

Explore the 22nd Aquarius Art Exhibition at Medina Library: Jan 31 - Mar 1

The 22nd Aquarius Art Exhibition, organized by the Medina County Art League, opens January 31, 2026, at the B. Smith Gallery in the Medina County District Library, Medina, Ohio. The show features over 100 affordable works by local artists in a variety of media, with a reception on opening day and a People’s Choice Award voted by visitors. The exhibition runs through March 1, 2026, and is judged by Akron artist Carolyn E. Lewis, OPA.

US National Park Service removes slavery memorial at Philadelphia historic site

The US National Park Service has removed an outdoor exhibit titled “Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation” at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia. The exhibit, which focused on nine people enslaved by George Washington and explored the paradox between slavery and freedom in the nation's founding, was dismantled following a directive from President Donald Trump to eliminate “corrosive ideology” from cultural heritage sites. The removal, captured on social media on January 22, aligns with a March 2025 executive order instructing the NPS to emphasize American achievements and avoid materials that “inappropriately disparage Americans.”

Gallery 121 celebrates Indigenous artists in new exhibition

Gallery 121 in Belleville, Ontario, opened a new Indigenous art exhibition on January 19, 2026, featuring nine Haudenosaunee artists including David R. Maracle, Rebecca Maracle, Janice Brant, and others. The month-long show, running until February 7, opened with a smudging ceremony and musical performance by Maracle, and includes works by Gallery 121 member artists. The exhibition continues the gallery's annual tradition of showcasing Indigenous artists from the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory since 2014.

Santa Maria’s Betteravia Gallery seeking art submissions

The Santa Barbara County Office of Arts and Culture, in partnership with the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission, has announced an open call for local artists to submit works for "Post-Wild: Nature in the 21st Century," a juried exhibition at the Betteravia Art Gallery in Santa Maria. The online submission window runs from January 19 to February 15, 2026, with no application fee; selected artists will be notified in early March, and a public opening reception is scheduled for May 21. The exhibition seeks small-format works across mediums—including traditional and digital art, photography, and conceptual pieces—that address themes of environmental change, urbanization, and human impact on natural spaces.

Oregon artist’s ‘Don’t Touch My Hair’ exhibition makes complying impossible

Ashland artist Crystal Proffitt's interactive installation 'Don't Touch My Hair: An Interactive Crowned Experience' at the Langford Art Gallery in Phoenix, Oregon, invites viewers to touch the braids and locs attached to portraits of local Black models while listening to voice recordings about hair as cultural identity and resilience. The work, supported by the Oregon Cultural Trust and the Black Alliance & Social Empowerment (BASE) Southern Oregon, debuted January 3 and runs through January 24, after which it will join BASE's Black Cultural Legacy Series at the Rogue Gallery & Art Center in Medford. Proffitt intentionally allows the hair to show wear from handling, treating the erosion as part of the artwork's meaning.

ClearStory Arts Open Gallery Show Explores The Inexpressible Contained

ClearStory Arts in Chattanooga is hosting an exhibition titled "The Inexpressible Contained," running through January 31, 2026, featuring original works by 13 local artists inspired by anonymous unsent letters collected during citywide mailbox pop-ups. During the opening reception on January 2, 2026, artist Anna Wise was moved to tears when the author of one of the letters she illustrated purchased her watercolor painting, titled "Shadows." The exhibition includes diverse media such as paintings, mosaics, ceramics, fiber arts, and a full-size puppet, with a desk where visitors can write their own anonymous letters.

Two winter art exhibits opening soon on Fergus Falls campus

M State Fergus Falls will host two winter art exhibits featuring three regional artists. Emily Williams-Wheeler's painting collection “The Process of Satiation” runs from January 14 to March 20 in the Charles Beck Gallery, while sisters Cathrin and Laura Von Bank present “The Eclectic Collection” of linocut prints, portraiture, fiber art, and mixed media in the Waage Gallery from January 21 to May 16. A joint reception with all three artists is scheduled for February 12.

Harold Keller exhibition opens in newly renovated Porter Art Warehouse gallery

The newly renovated Porter Art Warehouse in Fayetteville, Arkansas, will host its first signature exhibition, "Harold Keller: Portals," from January 15 to March 8, 2025. The show features works by Harold Keller, an artist and educator whose career spanned over seven decades, curated by Matthew Bailey from the University of Arkansas Fort Smith Collection. The exhibition includes paintings, drawings, ceramics, and artist books drawn from the largest repository of Keller's work, housed at the University of Arkansas Fort Smith, where he taught in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The Alexander Gallery, named for philanthropists Bob and Becky Alexander, opened in October 2024 after a $1 million exterior restoration by the city and a $950,000 interior renovation by Walton Arts Center.

‘Augustana High School Invitational’ to Open at University’s Eide/Dalrymple Gallery

The Eide/Dalrymple Gallery at Augustana University will host its annual 'Augustana High School Invitational' from January 15 to February 6, 2025, featuring over 110 artworks by students from 22 regional high schools. The exhibition includes a range of mediums such as ceramics, drawing, digital art, photography, mixed media, painting, printmaking, and sculpture, with a closing reception and awards ceremony on February 6. The show is juried by Augustana Art Department faculty, and junior and senior artists can participate in portfolio reviews for Pro Artis Scholarships worth up to $8,000.

Grove Gallery to host opening reception for ‘Triptych’ exhibition on Jan. 10

Grove Gallery in Grove Street will host an opening reception on January 10 for "Triptych," a group exhibition featuring works by artists Kate Berry-Brown, Vanessa Filley, and Darren Oberto. The show runs through January 31 and brings together figurative photography, pencil-based portraits, and oil paintings, exploring themes of motherhood, belonging, place, and the cosmos through geometric abstraction and experimental mark-making.

MedStar Health And St. Mary’s Arts Council Showcase Art Exhibition By Local Artists

MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital and the St. Mary’s County Arts Council have unveiled the third installment of their rotating art exhibition in the hospital’s emergency department in Leonardtown, Maryland. The latest exhibit features handsewn art quilts by Washington, D.C. artist Andrea “Andi” Cullins, whose collection “Second Life Quilter” includes intricate fabric mosaics. The quilts will be on display through January 2026, following earlier exhibits of traditional paintings as part of a philanthropy-led initiative to create a more welcoming environment.

Winners of the Leicester Open announced

The winners of the Leicester Open exhibition have been announced, with Simon Farrow winning the prestigious Attenborough Award for his drawing "Clock Tower: Heaven or Hell," which depicts Leicester's Clock Tower with a street preacher and passers-by. Farrow, an amateur artist from Leicester, was selected from over 1,000 entries across paintings, sculptures, prints, and photographs. Other winners include Peter J Lester, Lisa Davies, Alexis Hutson, and several young artists in categories for ages 5-18. All winning works are on display at Leicester Museum & Art Gallery until January 30, 2026, with adult artworks available for purchase starting at £50.

Iranian-Australian artist Yasamin Khadembashi’s debut solo exhibition celebrates resilience

Iranian-Australian artist Yasamin Khadembashi will present her debut solo exhibition, "Dreaming in Farsi," at PS Art Space (PSAS) in Perth from January 16, 2026. The two-week show features large-scale sculptural paintings that blend Persian miniature traditions with Western portraiture, using materials like piped impasto oil paint, gold leaf, and rhinestones. Khadembashi, who has been working from a subsidized studio through the PSAS Studio 7 initiative and completed a residency at WFAC, will also include a performance element, painting in the gallery to engage visitors in dialogue about her process and themes.

Young Irvine artist prepares for first major solo exhibition in town

Young Irvine artist Euan Tait, 23, a recent graduate of the University of the West of Scotland, will present his first major solo exhibition at the Harbour Arts Centre in Irvine next month. The show, running from November 6 to January 10, features a range of new paintings and original prints, many produced at the Glasgow Print Studio where Tait is an active member. He has previously participated in group exhibitions at venues including the Maclaurin Art Gallery, the Dick Institute, and the Society of Scottish Artists' 127th Annual Exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy.