art basel qatar launch february 2026

Art Basel announced a partnership with Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) and QC+ to launch Art Basel Qatar in Doha in February 2026, marking the first major international art fair in the Middle East. The inaugural edition will feature a tightly curated selection of approximately 50 galleries, significantly smaller than Art Basel's other fairs, and will be held at M7, a creative hub in the Doha Design District. A director for the fair will be announced in the coming months.

jean paul engelen joins acquavella galleries

Jean-Paul Engelen, currently president for the Americas and worldwide co-head of modern and contemporary art at Phillips auction house, will join Acquavella Galleries as a director starting July 1. Engelen spent a decade at Phillips, where he helped increase auction sales by 72 percent between 2015 and 2021, and previously worked at Christie’s for 16 years and at Qatar Museums.

expo chicago 2025 report

Expo Chicago 2025 wrapped on Sunday with upbeat energy and larger crowds than usual, thanks to a scheduling change that allowed VIPs earlier access. The fair, now in its second edition under Frieze ownership, featured 170 exhibitors, a new magazine with artist profiles of Caroline Kent and Nick Cave, and a partnership with KIAF and the Galleries Association of Korea that brought 20 Korean galleries. Dealers reported healthy sales, including a sold-out presentation by Jaylon Hicks at Maximilian Williams gallery, with works priced from $3,000 to $20,000. Frieze leaders attended major events, signaling continued commitment to Chicago nearly two years after acquiring the fair.

Mexico’s art community calls for greater transparency in management of treasured collection

Over 350 Mexican cultural professionals have signed an open letter demanding greater transparency from the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBAL) regarding the management and export of the Gelman Collection. The collection, recently acquired by the Zambrano family and rebranded as the Gelman Santander Collection, includes 18 works by Frida Kahlo and other major 20th-century Mexican artists, with 30 pieces designated as national artistic monuments requiring state oversight.

Elsa Schiaparelli Gets Her UK Museum Debut at the V&A, in a Show Featuring Dalí, Man Ray, and Picasso

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London is presenting the first UK exhibition dedicated to Italian fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli. Titled 'Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art,' the show features over 400 objects, including 100 ensembles, and traces her work from the 1920s to the present under current creative director Daniel Roseberry. It highlights her collaborations with major 20th-century artists.

‘Harlem has always been evolving’: inside the Studio Museum’s $160m new home

The Studio Museum in Harlem is set to inaugurate its new $160 million, purpose-built home on Manhattan’s 125th Street. Designed by Adjaye Associates in collaboration with Cooper Robertson, the 82,000-square-foot facility nearly doubles the museum's previous exhibition space and replaces a repurposed 1914 bank building that lacked essential infrastructure like loading docks and large elevators. This milestone marks the first time in the institution's history that it will operate out of a structure specifically designed to support its mission of championing artists of African descent.

On Curating Carnage

On Curating Carnage

The Berlin-based art journal *OnCurating* published a September 2025 issue titled "Let’s Talk About… Anti-Democratic, Anti-Queer, Misogynist, Antisemitic, Right-Wing Spaces and Their Counter-Movements." The article critiques this publication, arguing it uses the language of feminism, anti-racism, and anti-Semitism as a political tool to unconditionally support Israel and demonize the Palestinian cause, thereby aligning with German state policy and a specific strain of leftist thought known as Antideutsch.

2025 Art21 at the Movies

2025 Art21 at the Movies

On October 8 and 10, 2025, Art21 hosted its second 'Art21 at the Movies' event in New York. The two-day program featured film premieres, artist talks, and screenings at venues including the Metrograph and the Museum of Modern Art. It highlighted artists from the 'Art in the Twenty-First Century' series and included discussions with filmmakers and curators.

Behold! Nina Simone’s chewing gum! Inside the show celebrating extreme pop fandom

The Guardian reports on 'Holy Pop,' a new exhibition at London's Somerset House that celebrates extreme pop fandom through personal shrines and collections. The show features photographer Alice Hawkins's Dolly Parton shrine, including leaves from Parton's garden and hair extensions, alongside artifacts from fans of Prince, the Spice Girls, George Michael, Marc Bolan, and others. Curated by Tory Turk, the exhibition includes visual art by Graham Dolphin and Tox26, as well as films and photos of fans visiting stars' graves and impromptu memorials.

What does a woman swimming in urine tell us about the state of the world? Lots! – Venice Biennale review

The 2026 Venice Biennale, curated by the late Koyo Kouoh under the theme "In Minor Keys," has been plagued by months of turmoil including countries withdrawing, artists being fired, exhibitions cancelled, funding pulled, and protests during the preview. A five-person curatorial team took over after Kouoh's death, resulting in what the critic describes as a disjointed, committee-driven exhibition that prioritizes quiet contemplation and healing over direct political engagement. The central shows in the Giardini and Arsenale feature a vast, poorly explained array of art from the global south, with installations of ceramics, textiles, slide projectors, and serene natural scenes that the critic finds anachronistic and dull.

Sea change: inside LACMA’s new curatorial strategy

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is debuting a radical curatorial overhaul within its new David Geffen Galleries, moving away from traditional 19th-century departmental silos. Led by Director Michael Govan and a team of 45 curators, the museum is implementing a cross-disciplinary approach that organizes the collection around "oceanic nodes"—the Mediterranean, Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific. This strategy allows for the juxtaposition of disparate media and cultures, such as contemporary photography alongside ancient textiles, to highlight the historical circulation of ideas and people across bodies of water.

rediscovered sofonisba anguissola portrait winter show

A rediscovered 16th-century portrait by Sofonisba Anguissola, titled *Portrait of a Canon Regular* (1552), is being shown at the Winter Show at the Park Avenue Armory in New York. The painting was found in a private collection in Durham, North Carolina, after being known only through an old black-and-white photo at the Frick Art Reference Library. Old Master dealer Robert Simon is acting as the owners' agent, and the work is priced at $450,000.

cyberattack dresden state art collections

A cyberattack targeted the Dresden State Art Collections (SKD), a network of 15 museums in eastern Germany, on Wednesday. The attack disrupted large parts of the digital infrastructure, including the online shop and visitor services, but the museums remain open and physical security is intact. IT specialists and forensic experts are working to clean up and rebuild systems, with no timeline yet for full restoration. The SKD is cooperating with the Dresden Police and State Criminal Police Office, as confirmed by the Saxon State Minister for Culture and Tourism.

van gogh roulin portraits mfa boston

The Museum of Fine Arts Boston has opened "Van Gogh: The Roulin Family Portraits," the first exhibition dedicated to Vincent van Gogh's portraits of the Roulin family—the local postman Joseph Roulin, his wife Augustine, and their children. The show brings together 14 of Van Gogh's 26 depictions of the family, including loans from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. The exhibition was inspired by a 2018 conversation between curators Nienke Bakker and Katie Hanson, who realized no show had ever focused on this working-class family that was so central to Van Gogh's portraiture.

tono festival 2026 lineup

TONO, the time-based art festival, has announced its 2026 lineup, running March 6–22 across Mexico City and Puebla. The program includes video installations, performance commissions, music events, and screenings at venues such as Laboratorio Arte Alameda, Casa del Lago UNAM, Museo Jumex, Museo de Arte Moderno, and Museo Amparo. Featured artists include Tino Sehgal, Space Afrika, Franziska Aigner, Kelman Duran, Ho Tzu Nyen, Avantgardo, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, and Melanie Smith. International collaborations bring dance works via 99 Canal and Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels, and a joint evening with Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie. The festival is also co-producing Camille Henrot’s exhibition Água Viva at São Paulo’s Instituto Bardi.

american arts conservancy venice biennale

The Trump administration has selected Mexico-based sculptor Alma Allen to represent the United States at the 61st Venice Biennale, with the pavilion organized by curator Jeffrey Uslip and sponsored by the newly formed American Arts Conservancy (AAC). The AAC, founded in July 2024 and based in Tampa, is run by executive director Jenni Parido, a pet foods entrepreneur with no prior art-world experience, and its board includes figures from construction, conservative media, and high-end event planning, raising questions about its qualifications for this high-profile role.

sue williamson retrospective iziko south africa

Sue Williamson's first-ever retrospective, "There's something I must tell you," is on view at the Iziko National Gallery in Cape Town through September 24, 2025. The exhibition spans five decades of her practice, which combines photography, drawing, and installation to explore themes of memory, remembrance, and the enduring impacts of apartheid and colonialism in South Africa. Key works include the video "There's something I must tell you" (2013), featuring conversations between anti-apartheid activists and their granddaughters; "A Few South Africans" (1982–87), a series of photo etchings celebrating influential women; and the installation "Messages from the Moat" (1997), which memorializes enslaved people brought to Cape Town. A new installation, "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying" (2024), is also featured.

londons old masters week sees rare works sell and mid market paintings struggle

Christie's, Sotheby's, and Bonhams held Old Masters auctions in London, with Christie's achieving a record £31.9 million ($43.7 million) sale for Canaletto's *Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day* (circa 1732), more than half the sale's total of £60.8 million. The painting, once owned by Robert Walpole, set a new auction record for the artist. Sotheby's evening sale brought in £14.5 million, with J.M.W. Turner's rediscovered *The Rising Squall, Hot Wells, from St Vincent's Rock, Bristol* (1792) selling for £1.9 million, seven times its estimate. However, mid-market paintings struggled, and the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery failed to acquire the Turner despite fundraising £109,000.

painter mary abbott has died

Abstract Expressionist painter Mary Abbott has died at age 98 due to heart failure, as confirmed by McCormick Gallery in Chicago, which represented her for nearly 20 years. Known for her colorful canvases and sweeping brushstrokes, Abbott was praised by the New York Times in 2008 as one of the last great Abstract Expressionist painters of her generation. Despite her early modeling career on Vogue covers and her immersion in the downtown New York art scene alongside figures like Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning, her work received little scholarly recognition until the 2016 Denver Art Museum exhibition "Women of Abstract Expressionism," which traveled to the Mint Museum and Palm Springs Art Museum.

canyon video art performance sound new york space

A new arts institution called Canyon is set to open on Manhattan's Lower East Side in 2026, occupying a 40,000-square-foot former commercial space at the foot of the Williamsburg Bridge. Founded by philanthropist and art collector Robert Rosenkranz and Joe Thompson, the founding director of MASS MoCA, Canyon will focus on video art, sound art, and performance art. The venue will include 18,000 square feet of exhibition space, a 60-foot-tall performance area, and a 300-seat performance hall. Early programming plans include a retrospective of Japanese artist Ryoji Ikeda and an expanded iteration of the video game-themed group exhibition "Worldbuilding," curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist. The architecture firm New Affiliates is redesigning the space, and Sam Ozer has been appointed curator-at-large. Admission will be $30, with free access for school groups and library cardholders.

andy warhol prints

Long-Sharp Gallery has opened a new online and in-person exhibition titled "Warhol's 1950s Printmaking: The Blotted Line" at the Conrad Indianapolis, showcasing a curated selection of Andy Warhol's early blotted line drawings from the 1950s. These works, which combine drawing and printmaking, feature motifs ranging from florals to figuration and were kept by Warhol after their creation, with provenance from his Estate. Gallery owner Rhonda Long-Sharp discusses the significance of these pieces, including a favorite work, *Roses* (ca. 1956), and shares insights into Warhol's personal history and artistic development.

TEFAF New York 2026: Contemporary Gains Ground

TEFAF New York 2026 is set to feature a stronger contemporary art presence, signaling a shift in the fair's traditional focus on Old Masters and antiques. The event will expand its contemporary offerings, attracting a broader range of galleries and collectors.

Phillips’ $115.2 Million Evening Sale Was a Testament to the Power of Pre-Planning and Priority Bidding

Phillips’ Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale on May 19 achieved a white-glove result, totaling $115.2 million across 41 lots—a 122 percent increase from May 2025. The sale saw strong performances from works by Lee Bontecou, Salman Toor, and Cecily Brown, with Bontecou’s 1985 pastel on canvas setting a record for a two-dimensional work by the artist at $4.2 million. Other top lots included Andy Warhol’s *Sixteen Jackies* (1964) at $16.2 million, a Monet landscape at $9.3 million, and a Joan Mitchell at $6.9 million. Notably, less than half of the lots were guaranteed, with Phillips’ Priority Bidding incentive—offering a 4 percent discount on buyer’s premium—contributing to the strong results, as more than half of the lots attracted such bids.

New York Art Week 2026 Frieze And TEFAF Report

New York Art Week 2026 featured major art fairs including Frieze New York at The Shed, which drew 25,000 visitors from 75 countries and launched the Sherman Family Foundation Acquisition Fund, placing works by four artists into the Brooklyn Museum and Baltimore Museum of Art. TEFAF New York at the Park Avenue Armory presented over 90 international galleries across historic period rooms, while satellite fairs Independent, NADA New York, and 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair offered focused alternatives. Auction houses Sotheby's, Christie's, and Phillips opened free spring sale previews featuring highlights such as Roy Lichtenstein's 'Anxious Girl' and the Lewis Collection.

New York Is About to Sell $3 Billion in Art. Who’s Buying?

Vanity Fair's Nate Freeman reports on New York's spring art season, where auction houses are poised to sell at least $2.6 billion in art alongside major museum exhibitions (Raphael at the Met, Duchamp at MoMA, Matisse at Acquavella) and the opening of Frieze New York at The Shed. The article follows the social and commercial frenzy, highlighting a David Shrigley gong installation at Anton Kern Gallery's booth and the enduring dominance of New York, where nearly 90% of U.S. art sales occur.

5 very different art fairs throughout two days in New York City

The article reports on five distinct art fairs—Frieze, NADA, Independent, 1-54, and Esther III—visited during New York Art Fair Week. It highlights key artists and works, including Kelly Tapia-Chuning's deconstructed serapes at NADA, Esaí Alfredo's queer nighttime paintings, Alex Burke's textile dolls at 1-54, and Laetitia KY's photographic self-sculpture. The fairs collectively emphasized themes of environmentalism, globalism, decolonization, and a growing textiles sector, with curation varying widely from commercial to conceptually driven.

The Broad Los Angeles: Inside the Museum’s Quiet Pull

The Broad in Los Angeles offers visitors a polished yet intimate contemporary art experience, housed in a distinctive honeycomb-like building on Grand Avenue designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro with Gensler. Opened in 2015, the museum displays the postwar and contemporary art collection assembled by philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad, featuring free general admission and a tightly edited selection of works that makes it approachable for first-time museumgoers. The museum is a key anchor in downtown LA's Grand Avenue arts corridor, alongside Walt Disney Concert Hall.

It’s the Most Controversial Venice Biennale in Years. Can the Art Stand Up to the Noise?

The 2026 Venice Biennale is embroiled in controversy, with the US Pavilion at the center of a political storm. The Trump administration's State Department overhauled the selection process, bypassing the usual NEA panel and commissioning a nonprofit, the American Arts Conservancy, to organize the pavilion. Artist Alma Allen, who accepted the invitation despite threats from galleries and curators, presents a show that critics find politically muted. The Biennale's jury resigned days before the opening, and annual prizes were canceled, adding to the turmoil.

First Look: See What’s Inside the Met Gala’s “Costume Art” Exhibition

Vanity Fair art and style correspondents Nate Freeman and José Criales-Unzueta preview the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute spring exhibition "Costume Art," which inaugurates the Condé M. Nast Galleries. The exhibition arrives amid controversy over the Met Gala being sponsored by Lauren Sánchez Bezos and Jeff Bezos, leading to boycott calls and New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani skipping the event. Despite this, Anna Wintour and Met director Max Hollein announced the gala raised a record $42 million. Head curator Andrew Bolton presents fashion as art, pairing garments with artworks like Warhol's Skull and Sarah Lucas's Nud Cycladic 9.

Art Events May You Cannot Miss in London

An Artlyst guide highlights several major art exhibitions opening in London in May 2026. Key shows include 'Zurbarán' at the National Gallery (the UK's first major monographic exhibition of the Spanish master in over 30 years), 'Rising Voices: Contemporary Art from Asia, Australia and the Pacific' at the V&A (a collaboration with QAGOMA featuring 40 artists), a James McNeill Whistler retrospective at Tate Britain (the first major European show in 30 years), and 'Winston Churchill: The Painter' at the Wallace Collection. Photo London is also moving to Olympia this year.