Art News. Vasari Codex

article policy schedule Aug 25, 2025 visibility 15 link 1 artist

More than 150 US arts organisations pledge to resist political pressure

More than 150 US arts organizations and over 320 artists and cultural workers have signed a public statement affirming their commitment to resisting political pressure. Organized by the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics (VLC) at the New School, the statement does not explicitly name President Donald Trump or his administration's actions, but was precipitated by Trump's pressure campaigns against the Smithsonian Institution and the Kennedy Center, as well as deep cuts to the NEA, NEH, and IMLS. Signatories include institutions from both Democratic- and Republican-controlled states, such as the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts in New York and Diverseworks in Houston, Texas.

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museum exhibitions schedule Aug 22, 2025 visibility 9 link 2 artists

Guest Artist Exhibition Opens at Center for the Visual Arts

The University of Toledo Department of Art will host a free public exhibition of photographs and installation works by guest artist Margaret LeJeune, opening August 25 at the Center for the Visual Arts. Titled "Drawn from Memory: Mapping Salt and Time," the exhibition examines ecological shifts in Dare County, North Carolina, including the transformation of coastal forests into ghost forests due to saltwater intrusion and rising sea levels, while also addressing histories of colonialism, enslaved Africans and their descendants, and Indigenous displacement. LeJeune will give an artist talk on September 24, and the show runs through October 10.

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article policy schedule Aug 21, 2025 visibility 8 link 2 artists

White House Lists Smithsonian Exhibits It Finds Objectionable

The White House has released a list of Smithsonian Institution exhibits it finds objectionable, targeting displays that it claims promote divisive narratives or undermine traditional American values. The list includes specific exhibitions across multiple Smithsonian museums, such as those related to race, gender, and historical figures, which the administration argues should be revised or removed.

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gavel restitution schedule Jul 30, 2025 visibility 14 link 3 artists

French government adopts bill for restitution of colonial-era objects

The French government has adopted a bill that facilitates the restitution of cultural objects plundered from former colonies, eight years after President Emmanuel Macron pledged to return African heritage. Presented by Culture Minister Rachida Dati, the bill maintains that French public collections are inalienable but creates an exemption for items taken by force between 1815 and 1972. Restitution requests must come from foreign states, be for public preservation and display, and involve items allegedly stolen, looted, or sold under duress. A bilateral scientific committee will examine each case, with final approval from the Conseil d'État. The bill aims to replace the current slow, case-by-case legislative process that has resulted in only 30 objects returned since 2017.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jul 21, 2025 visibility 14 link 1 artist

Don’t Miss These August Museum Exhibits in New Orleans

The article highlights several must-see museum exhibits in New Orleans for August 2025, part of the city's Museum Month program. Featured shows include "Louisiana Contemporary 2025" at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, a juried exhibition of 53 works by 50 Louisiana artists; Vince Fraser's immersive Afro-surrealist installation "Ancestral Odyssey" at the New Orleans African American Museum; and Ben Depp's aerial photography series "Edge of Tomorrow: Aerial Views of Louisiana’s Changing Coastline" at The Historic New Orleans Collection.

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article policy schedule Jul 16, 2025 visibility 12 link 1 artist

Yale Art Gallery Withdraws Federal Grant Requests After Trump DEI Ban

The Yale University Art Gallery has withdrawn two federal grant requests totaling $200,000 for a forthcoming exhibition on Southeast African art, citing concerns that the show does not meet the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) criteria under President Trump's executive order banning Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs. The museum will instead use its endowment to fund the exhibition, which focuses on the migration of the Nguni peoples in southern Africa and is set to open next fall. Additionally, the NEA cancelled a $30,000 grant for another exhibition, Nusantara: Six Centuries of Indonesian Textiles, prompting the museum to draw on its Robert Lehman Endowment Fund.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 23, 2025 visibility 11 link 14 artists, 1 gallery

Art Vibe: June 2025

The article surveys notable art exhibitions in Kenya for June 2025, highlighting a range of venues and artists. Key shows include 'The Print Press' at Alliance Française de Nairobi (June 13–29), featuring printmakers such as Michael Soi, Mari Endo, Dennis Muraguri, and James Mbuthia, and 'The Promise' by Moses Nyawanda at Talisman Restaurant in Karen (May 27–June 27). The piece also covers exhibitions by Jonathan Sölanke Gathaara Fraser at Circle Art Gallery, Michelle Nyambura at Tafaria Castle, Annick Mitchell in Rosslyn, and Khalid Shatta and Onesmus Okamar, emphasizing both established and emerging voices across media.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 6, 2025 visibility 9 link 1 artist

Lake Charles artist presents African American art exhibit at Historic City Hall

Lake Charles artist Ryann Sterling presents a new African American art exhibit at the Black Heritage Gallery inside Historic City Hall in Lake Charles, Louisiana. The show features 15 mixed-media collages, sculptures, and photography pieces that explore themes of southern culture, femininity, and spirituality rooted in deep South Louisiana. Sterling, who has been an artist for 14 years, is debuting her first solo exhibit; her work has previously been displayed at the New Orleans African American Museum and the New Orleans Museum of Art.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 29, 2025 visibility 15 link 2 artists

metropolitan museum of art's new rockefeller wing to open this weekend with public party

The Metropolitan Museum of Art will reopen its Michael C. Rockefeller Wing on May 31, 2025, after a four-year renovation led by Kulapat Yantrasast and WHY Architecture. The redesigned wing houses the museum's collections of Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Ancient Americas in distinct galleries with improved sight-lines, filtered daylight, and a more navigable layout. A day-long public festival featuring a ribbon-cutting, live performances, workshops, artist talks, and food will celebrate the opening.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 20, 2025 visibility 15 link 2 artists

Elsa James’s exhibition in my home county, Essex, is a potent rejection of the erasure of history

Elsa James's exhibition "It Should Not Be Forgotten" at Firstsite in Colchester, UK, confronts Britain's role in the transatlantic slave trade through immersive installations. The show features a floor covered with larger-than-life photographs of the artist, recalling the diagram of enslaved Africans on the slave ship Brooks, accompanied by a cello soundscape by Kirke Gross. Other works give voice to enslaved women Phibbah and Molia, documented in the journals of their 18th-century owner Thomas Thistlewood, subverting historical narratives. The exhibition builds on James's earlier "Black Girl Essex" residency, which challenged the racist and sexist "Essex Girl" stereotype.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 9, 2025 visibility 11 link 2 artists

Tariqa Waters' 'Venus is Missing' at the Seattle Art Museum Tasks Visitors With a Galactic Mission

Tariqa Waters' immersive installation 'Venus is Missing' has opened at the Seattle Art Museum, running through January 5, 2026. The exhibition, which won Waters the museum's Betty Bowen Award in 2023, invites visitors to 'beam' into a futuristic cosmic world via a transporter beam of light. The gallery features a pink retro-futuristic spaceship, an 8-foot-tall ball-barrette sculpture, and a vinyl image of Waters' daughter, all set to staticky music blending Herbie Hancock and Luther Vandross. The installation draws from science fiction, music, and Waters' childhood memories, exploring themes of vulnerability and connection through her signature humor and pop art sensibility.

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gavel restitution schedule Apr 25, 2025 visibility 14 link 1 artist

MFA Boston to return Benin Bronzes to wealthy donor, close gallery

The Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), Boston will close its Benin Kingdom Gallery on April 28, and most of the Benin Bronzes displayed there will not be repatriated to Nigeria. Instead, all but five of the 34 objects will be returned to their donor, filmmaker and banking heir Robert Owen Lehman, who rescinded his 2008 gift after stalled negotiations with the museum. The MFA had sought to acquire full ownership of the works to ensure their display, but Lehman asked for them back. The five bronzes the museum does own will remain in its collection and be shown in its Art of Africa Gallery starting in June.

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person people schedule Apr 30, 2026 visibility 17

Une vétérane pour diriger un des musées du Smithsonian

Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, 75, will become the director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) in Washington, D.C., on September 8, ending a 17-month vacancy. Hartigan, currently the director of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, began her career at SAAM as chief curator, where she developed collections of modern, contemporary, African American, and self-taught art.

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person people schedule Apr 30, 2026 visibility 19

Olivia Bourrat revient au Quai Branly

Olivia Bourrat, a 45-year-old chief heritage curator trained at the École du Louvre, the INP, and the Sorbonne, has been appointed director of the heritage and collections department at the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac in Paris. She succeeds Anne-Solène Rolland, and returns to the museum after previous stints there, as well as at France-Muséums, the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the French Ministry of Culture, and Paris Musées.

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article local schedule May 18, 2026 visibility 2 link 3 artists

Art, research, and Night at the Museum: The flourishing partnership between UC Santa Cruz Humanities and the Museum of Art and History - UC Santa Cruz

UC Santa Cruz Humanities and the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (MAH) have deepened their decade-long partnership, marked by the MAH's 30th anniversary in April 2025. The collaboration includes co-sponsored exhibitions like "This is Thirty" and the ongoing "Night at the Museum" public event series, which brings scholars, artists, and community members together for free panel discussions and exhibits. Notable past projects include the 2016 Kinsey African American Art & History Collection exhibition and the 2023 California premiere of "Resettlement: Chicago Story."

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museum exhibitions schedule May 16, 2026 visibility 10 link 12 artists

In Kyoto, a photography festival unites artists on society's fringes

Kyotographie, an independent international photography festival in Kyoto, has announced 'The Edge' as its theme for the 2026 edition, following a focus on humanity in 2025. The festival will feature exhibitions exploring fringes, darkness, and extremes of life, including a posthumous show of Fatama Hassona's 'The Eye of Gaza', a focus on South Africa with works by Lebohang Kganye, Pieter Hugo, and a peripatetic library from A4 Arts Foundation, as well as Ernest Cole's 'House of Bondage' at the Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art—his first exhibition in Japan. Other highlights include Linder Sterling's survey 'Goddess of the Mind' at the Museum of Kyoto Annex and Anton Corbijn's 'Presence' at the Shimadai Gallery.

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article news schedule May 5, 2026 visibility 27 link 20 artists

Venice Biennale in crisis: The controversies explained

The Venice Art Biennale's official awards ceremony, scheduled for May 9, has been canceled after the entire five-member jury resigned days before the event. The jury had previously announced they would not consider countries whose leaders face International Criminal Court charges, directly impacting Russia and Israel. Instead of jury-selected prizes, visitors will vote throughout the Biennale's run, with "Visitor Lions" awarded on November 22. The event, running from May 9 to November 22, features 100 national participations, including seven first-time countries, and a posthumous main exhibition titled "In Minor Keys" curated by the late Koyo Kouoh, the first African woman to lead the show. Iran withdrew on May 4 amid Middle East tensions, while Russia's return to the Biennale in 2026 has sparked EU threats to cut funding.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 2, 2026 visibility 18 link 5 artists

Meet the Canadian artists heading to Venice Biennale

Five Canadian artists have been selected for the main exhibition of the Venice Biennale, titled *In Minor Keys*, which opens to the public next Saturday. The participants are Abbas Akhavan (featured in the Canada Pavilion), Manuel Mathieu, Rajni Perera, Marigold Santos, and one additional artist. The exhibition is the first Biennale curated by a Black woman, Cameroonian-Swiss curator Koyo Kouoh, who died suddenly in May last year after a cancer diagnosis, just six months after her appointment. Despite her death, the Biennale proceeded with her plans, with her team completing the work.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 1, 2026 visibility 20 link 5 artists

"Consequences of being" at The FLAG Art Foundation by Daniel Belasco

Deborah Roberts presents her newest body of work in the exhibition "Consequences of being" at The FLAG Art Foundation, featuring eight canvases and nine mixed-media works on paper that blend collage, painting, and drawing. The works explore the postcolonial landscape of Europe and Africa, using fragmented imagery of Black children against stark-white backgrounds to address themes of colonialism, commerce, and identity. Key pieces include "Have a seat, this may take a while" (2025), which incorporates miniature sailing ships and a collaged tiara from Queen Elizabeth II, and "Hands in the air," which critiques racist packaging from a German ice cream company. The exhibition also includes a series of eight collages titled "Many thousands gone" and a sculptural edition, "Zuri," a ceramic bust with metallic glaze.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 24, 2026 visibility 19 link 21 artists

In Dancehall and Reggaetón’s Evolution, MCA Chicago Charts a Global Awakening

The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago has opened "Dancing the Revolution: From Dancehall to Reggaetón," an ambitious exhibition exploring the historical evolution of dancehall and reggaetón as cultural movements and their influence on contemporary art. Curated by Carla Acevedo-Yates, the show features over 40 international artists including Isaac Julien, Edra Soto, Alberta Whittle, Carolina Caycedo, supakid, and Lee "Scratch" Perry, tracing the genres' roots from Afro-Caribbean traditions through their emergence in Jamaica, Panama, and Puerto Rico to global mainstream dominance by figures like Daddy Yankee and Bad Bunny.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 23, 2026 visibility 13 link 3 artists

Haiti’s Visionary: Edouard Duval-Carrié previews Venice-Bound work in Little Haiti

Haitian-American artist and curator Edouard Duval-Carrié has been selected to represent Haiti at the 61st Venice Biennale, titled "Smaller Keys." Ahead of the exhibition, he is opening his Little Haiti studio for a rare one-night preview on Friday, April 24, organized alongside the Tout-Monde Art Foundation. The preview includes a conversation with art historian Erica Moiah James and features works that were not sent to Venice but share the same themes of Haitian history, African connections, and diaspora. Duval-Carrié's Biennale theme centers on the question, "What did Africa bring to the world?" His selection was posthumously confirmed from the notes of chief curator Koyo Kouoh, the first African woman appointed to the role, who passed away last year.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 22, 2026 visibility 17 link 5 artists

Stamford Museum celebrating 90 years with portrait exhibition

The Stamford Museum & Nature Center is marking its 90th anniversary with the exhibition 'Likeness & Legacy: Portraits from the Permanent Collection.' The show features paintings, prints, drawings, and sculptures, including a John Singer Sargent portrait once stolen by the Nazis and sculptural studies by Mount Rushmore sculptor Gutzon Borglum. It runs through May 25th.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 20, 2026 visibility 11 link 2 artists

Soyinka, others to grace Onobrakpeya art exhibition in Lagos

The St. Gregory’s College Old Boys Association is set to host 'The Gregorian Art Exhibition' in Lagos, a landmark event honoring the legendary Nigerian master artist Bruce Onobrakpeya. Running from April 25 to 27, 2026, the showcase will feature a high-profile opening ceremony attended by Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, the Obi of Onitsha, and various prominent traditional rulers and political figures.

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trending_up market schedule Apr 10, 2026 visibility 18 link 3 artists

New Exhibit Gives You the Chance to Support SA Artists and Own Original Prints!

Johannesburg’s Artist Proof Studio (APS) is celebrating its 35th anniversary with a benefit exhibition and online auction hosted in partnership with Strauss & Co. Running through April 17, 2026, the event features original prints from a diverse roster of talent, ranging from world-renowned figures like William Kentridge to emerging students currently enrolled in the studio’s programs. The initiative includes a physical showcase at Strauss & Co’s Houghton gallery and a digital sale designed to engage both seasoned and first-time collectors.

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trending_up market schedule Mar 25, 2026 visibility 16 link 7 artists

MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY MIDDLE EASTERN ART - Christie's

Christie's London will host a live evening sale of Modern and Contemporary Middle Eastern Art on November 9, 2023. The auction features 58 works from artists across the Middle East and North Africa, including contemporary figures like Ahmed Mater and Sultan bin Fahad, and modern masters such as Etel Adnan and Mahmoud Sabri. Key lots include Mater's 'From the Real to the Symbolic City' and Adnan's 'Untitled'.

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museum exhibitions schedule Mar 19, 2026 visibility 15 link 17 artists

Carver Museum Exhibits

The George Washington Carver Museum in Austin has unveiled its 2026 programming, headlined by the exhibition "Who Draws the Maps?" featuring three decades of work by the late artist Steven Bernard Jones. The museum is also debuting "And Still I Speak," a window installation of century-old photographs from Clarksville, one of the first freedman's communities in the United States, alongside a new core exhibition titled "The African American Presence in 19th Century Texas."

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article culture schedule Feb 26, 2026 visibility 19 link 3 artists

The Global Influence of Contemporary African Art

Contemporary African art has transitioned from a niche regional interest to a central pillar of the global art market and institutional landscape. Artists such as El Anatsui, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, and William Kentridge are leading this shift, utilizing diverse media to address universal themes of identity, colonialism, and technology while maintaining deep local roots.

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museum exhibitions schedule Feb 25, 2026 visibility 18 link 15 artists

Venice Biennale curatorial team reveal how they are bringing the late Koyo Kouoh's vision to life

The curatorial team for the 61st Venice Biennale has unveiled the details for the 2026 exhibition, titled "In Minor Keys." The project follows the vision of the late Koyo Kouoh, the first African woman appointed to curate the Biennale, who passed away in May 2024. The exhibition will feature 111 artists and collectives, with a significant focus on the Global South and themes such as Shrines, Schools, and the Creole Garden. The team emphasized that the show is designed as a "collective score" rather than a traditional commentary on world events, prioritizing spiritual rest and radical social connection.

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museum exhibitions schedule Feb 25, 2026 visibility 25 link 20 artists

Venice Biennale Names 111 Artists for International Exhibition

The Venice Biennale has officially announced the 111 artists, duos, and collectives selected for the 61st International Art Exhibition, titled "In Minor Keys." The exhibition follows the vision of the late Cameroonian curator Koyo Kouoh, who passed away in May 2024 after conceptualizing the show and selecting the majority of its participants. The roster features a diverse global lineup including Wangechi Mutu, Kader Attia, Khaled Sabsabi, and Laurie Anderson, with a curatorial focus on quiet resistance, poetic improvisation, and the "lower frequencies" of social and psychic life.

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museum exhibitions schedule Feb 19, 2026 visibility 17 link 3 artists

New exhibition opens at the Silo Hotel

The Silo Hotel in Cape Town has launched "The Salon," a new year-long exhibition located in its subterranean gallery space, The Vault. Curated in collaboration with Brundyn Arts & Culture, the show utilizes a traditional floor-to-ceiling salon hang to present works by emerging contemporary artists alongside South African masters such as William Kentridge, Zanele Muholi, and Dumile Feni. Access to the exhibition is restricted to private, guided walkthroughs led by the hotel’s dedicated art concierge, Michael Jacobs.

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