Art News. Vasari Codex

rate_review review schedule Apr 16, 2026 visibility 40 link 16 artists

MoMA PS1’s “Greater New York” Is Gritty, Stunning, and Gutting

MoMA PS1 has launched the sixth edition of "Greater New York," a quinquennial survey featuring over 50 artists living and working in the city. Coinciding with the museum’s 50th anniversary, the 2026 iteration focuses on artists in the formative stages of their careers, emphasizing a gritty, raw aesthetic over the polished, market-driven surfaces often found in major biennials. The exhibition highlights photography and installation work that reflects the city's complex immigrant narratives and evolving urban identity.

newspaper Hyperallergic open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Apr 10, 2026 visibility 22 link 15 artists, 1 gallery

Chicago’s Neighbors and Barely fairs show the strengths of smaller, alternative formats

Chicago’s art week is being defined by the success of alternative, small-scale satellite fairs like Barely Fair and Neighbors, which offer an intimate counterpoint to the massive Expo Chicago. Barely Fair, located in a storefront in McKinley Park, features 32 exhibitors presenting works in 20-inch-square miniature booths. This format encourages rigorous curation and creative risk-taking from a mix of artist-run spaces and established galleries, with price points ranging from $20 to $8,000.

newspaper The Art Newspaper open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule Apr 7, 2026 visibility 25 link 4 artists

Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Made Human Again

The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) is hosting "Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Multiple Offerings," a comprehensive exhibition that draws from the artist’s complete archives. The show highlights Cha’s multidisciplinary practice, spanning film experiments, performance documentation, and her signature linguistic explorations. By pairing finished artworks with archival materials and personal ephemera, the exhibition reveals a playful, puckish side of the artist that is often obscured by the tragic circumstances of her death and the heavy themes of exile and dislocation in her work.

newspaper Hyperallergic open_in_new Read original

person people schedule Feb 17, 2026 visibility 16 link 2 artists

anne claire legendre institut du arabe monde

Anne-Claire Legendre, a senior French diplomat and advisor to President Emmanuel Macron, has been selected to lead the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris. Her appointment follows the abrupt resignation of former director Jack Lang and, if confirmed, will make her the first woman to head the institution in its 40-year history.

newspaper ARTnews open_in_new Read original

article policy schedule Feb 13, 2026 visibility 14 link 4 artists

university of north texas victor quinonez exhibition censorship

The University of North Texas (UNT) abruptly canceled and removed artist Victor "Marka27" Quiñonez's traveling solo exhibition "Ni de Aquí, Ni de Alla" from its CVAD Gallery, locking the gallery doors and drawing blinds over the windows. The university terminated the loan agreement with Boston University Art Galleries, which originated the show, and scrubbed all mentions of the exhibition from its website and social media without providing a reason to the artist.

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article news schedule Jan 20, 2026 visibility 9 link 1 artist

philadelphia art museum executive rebrand resigns

Paul Dien, the chief marketing officer behind the Philadelphia Museum of Art's controversial rebranding, has resigned effective February 1. Dien, who joined the museum in 2023, oversaw the institution's name change to "Philadelphia Art Museum" and a new visual identity that drew widespread public mockery on social media. The rebranding was intended to boost attendance, but faced backlash from locals and critics. Dien's departure follows the ouster of former director and CEO Sasha Suda in November, who has since filed a wrongful dismissal lawsuit against the museum.

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article news schedule Jan 16, 2026 visibility 20 link 1 artist

metropolitan museum art workers largest museum unions

Nearly 1,000 salaried and hourly workers at the Metropolitan Museum of Art voted on Friday to join Local 2110 of the United Auto Workers (UAW), creating one of the largest museum unions in the United States. The vote passed 542-172, covering staff across 50 departments including curators, conservators, librarians, and archivists. Roughly 100 ballots remain sealed due to a management challenge, to be resolved through arbitration after certification by the National Labor Relations Board. The union drive had been brewing for over four years, driven by concerns over job security, pay equity, and transparency.

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article news schedule Dec 22, 2025 visibility 19 link 1 artist

zohran mamdani signs open letter met museum union

New York City Mayoral-Elect Zohran Mamdani has signed an open letter supporting roughly 1,000 workers at the Metropolitan Museum of Art who filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to form a bargaining unit. The vote is scheduled for January 13 and 15, 2026, and if approved, the Met would become the largest unionized museum in the country. The letter, released December 18 by the United Auto Workers (UAW), was also signed by Comptroller Elect Mark Levine and Manhattan Borough President Elect Brad Hoylman-Sigal, among other officials. The proposed union would cover curators, conservators, educators, and retail staff, citing long-term pay inequities, lack of job protection, and increasing workloads.

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article news schedule Dec 15, 2025 visibility 25 link 4 artists

museum workers tate strike met union

Workers at two major museums, the Tate in the U.K. and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, are taking labor action to demand higher wages and job security. Over 150 Tate staff from the PCS Tate United union went on strike across four locations, with picketing at Tate Britain, Tate Modern, and Tate Liverpool, disrupting the opening of the exhibition "Turner and Constable: Rivals and Originals." Meanwhile, nearly 1,000 employees at the Met have petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for a union election, which would be one of the largest museum unions in the U.S.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Dec 2, 2025 visibility 14 link 1 artist, 2 galleries

gail morris bonner david galleries

Artist Gail Morris presents "Blue Note," a solo exhibition at Bonner David Galleries in New York, featuring bold abstract paintings that explore the emotional and psychological experience of light, space, and music. The show's title references the musical concept of a "blue note," which Morris reinterprets as a compositional strategy to create tension and balance in her works. While starting from physical landscapes—such as natural sites, urban parks, or islands—Morris obscures specific details, using titles like "Down By the River" (2025) and "Bird of Paradise" (2025) to evoke universal moods rather than literal scenes. The exhibition runs through November 29, 2025.

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article culture schedule Dec 2, 2025 visibility 15 link 5 artists

art bites zuccaro drawing banished from rome

Federico Zuccaro, a 16th-century Italian Mannerist painter, was banished from Rome in 1581 after presenting a satirical drawing at a feast in the church of Saint Luke. The 13-foot work, 'Porta Virtutis (The Gate of Virtue),' depicted King Midas with donkey ears as a thinly veiled attack on papal steward Paolo Ghiselli, who had rejected Zuccaro's altarpiece. Zuccaro explicitly identified Ghiselli as the foolish Midas and labeled Bologna the 'Reign of Ignorance,' leading Pope Gregory XIII to sentence him for 'excesses' and banish him from the city. He avoided prison by paying a 400 scudi bail.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 24, 2025 visibility 10 link 3 artists

cia kryptos sculpture code auction

An anonymous bidder has won the solution to the final unsolved puzzle of Kryptos, a famous encrypted sculpture at CIA headquarters in Virginia, for $962,500 in an online auction by R.R. Auction. The artist, Jim Sanborn, offered the handwritten code for the fourth message (K4) along with other unpublished items and a prototype, far exceeding the presale estimate of $300,000–$500,000. The sale came after the solution was accidentally leaked to journalists Jarett Kobek and Richard Byrne, who discovered the plaintext in Sanborn's papers at the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art, though they have agreed not to release it.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

article news schedule Nov 18, 2025 visibility 27 link 1 artist

metropolitan museum of art workers move to unionize

On Monday, Local 2110 of the United Auto Workers (UAW) filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board to unionize roughly 1,000 salaried and hourly workers at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The union cites long-term pay inequities, lack of job protection, and increasing workloads as motivations. The Met currently has two smaller unions for security guards and projectionists, and a museum spokesperson expressed respect for the right to seek representation. Employees reportedly first reached out to Local 2110 in 2022, and the drive has gained momentum in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

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article news schedule Nov 5, 2025 visibility 12 link 1 artist

mowaa archeological project findings benin city nigeria

The Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) in Benin City, Nigeria, will open its MOWAA Institute next week, the first completed building of a planned 15-acre campus that will also include the Rainforest gallery and other facilities by 2028. In advance of the opening, Antiquity magazine published an updated report on the MOWAA Archeological Project (2022–2024), a collaboration among MOWAA, the British Museum, and Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments, with Cambridge Archaeological Unit and Wessex Archaeology as delivery partners. The excavations, the first at the royal palace complex since the 1960s, used both digs and ground-penetrating radar, with radiocarbon dating revealing artifacts spanning from before the Benin Kingdom through its collapse and colonial and postcolonial eras.

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article news schedule Oct 24, 2025 visibility 11 link 5 artists

louvre robbery history behind stolen crown jewels

Eight pieces of the French Crown Jewels were stolen from the Louvre Museum on October 19, including a pearl-and-diamond tiara and a bow-shaped brooch that once belonged to Empress Eugénie, as well as a sapphire parure and diadem owned by Queen Maria Amalia. The theft has drawn attention to the jewels' complex history: most of the Crown Jewels were auctioned off in 1887 by the French government to eliminate monarchical symbols, and the stolen pieces were among the few remaining in the Louvre's collection, some repurchased at great expense in the 1990s and 2000s with help from the Société des Amis du Louvre.

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museum exhibitions schedule Oct 14, 2025 visibility 20 link 4 artists, 2 galleries

harlesden high street mayfair

Jonny Tanna, founder of the London gallery Harlesden High Street, has launched a pop-up project in Mayfair during Frieze Week, in collaboration with Düsseldorf- and Berlin-based gallery Setareh. The inaugural exhibition, “Forces of Nature,” features London-based artists Abbas Zahedi and Jamiu Agboke, presenting conceptual installation and atmospheric painting. Tanna emphasizes that this is not a permanent relocation but an itinerant extension of his gallery, which exclusively shows artists of color and is known for its community-focused, unvarnished approach.

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article news schedule Sep 23, 2025 visibility 9 link 1 artist

unknown roman matron identified chersonesos taurica crimea

Researchers have identified a marble statue head unearthed in 2003 in Chersonesos Taurica, an ancient Roman colony in Crimea, as depicting a Roman matron named Laodice. The discovery, published in the journal Nature, was made by scientists at Poland's Adam Mickiewicz University, who matched the head to an inscribed pedestal found in the archives of the Archaeological Museum in Odessa, Ukraine. Laodice was the wife of city councilman Titus Flavius Parthenokles and was honored with the statue around 140 CE, when the city was granted eleutheria (self-governing status). The statue, carved from Parian marble and originally over six feet tall, is one of only five marble sculpture fragments found at the site in 200 years.

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gavel restitution schedule Sep 18, 2025 visibility 13 link 1 artist

maine museum return funerary objects wabanaki nations

The Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor, Maine, is repatriating 17 items—including a human tooth and funerary objects such as tools, animal hides, and fabric—to the Wabanaki Nations, a confederation of four local tribes (Penobscot Nation, Passamaquoddy Tribe, Mi’kmaq Nation, and Houlton band of Maliseet Indians). The objects, many excavated by Warren K. Moorehead in the late 19th century, passed through the R.S. Peabody Museum, the Bangor Historical Society, and the Abbe Museum, with some lost due to undocumented loans. A Field Register notice from the National Park Service, published September 11, 2025, details their complex provenance. The repatriation is set to occur on or after October 14, 2025.

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article news schedule Sep 10, 2025 visibility 14 link 1 artist

new york foundation for the arts workers move to unionize

Workers at the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) are moving to unionize through Local 2110 of the United Auto Workers (UAW), a first in the organization's history. Staff cited a lack of transparency, unfair wages, and unsustainable working conditions as reasons for the push, with support from unions representing workers at major New York cultural institutions like the Museum of Modern Art and the Brooklyn Museum.

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article news schedule Jul 31, 2025 visibility 16 link 4 artists, 1 gallery

uhaul gallery and art fair new york

James Sundquist and Jack Chase founded U-Haul Gallery in May 2024, a commercial art space operating out of rented U-Haul trucks to bypass New York's high real estate costs. The gallery mounts pop-up exhibitions in unconventional locations, such as public parks and sporting events, and recently staged a performance titled "Show of Stolen Goods" by artist Victoria Gill. This September, the duo will launch the U-Haul Art Fair, running concurrently with the Armory Show in West Chelsea, featuring 10 exhibitors each stationed in their own U-Haul truck.

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trending_up market schedule Jul 28, 2025 visibility 24 link 4 artists, 9 galleries

taipei dangdai cancels 2026 edition art assembly

Taipei Dangdai, the art fair in Taiwan, has canceled its 2026 edition as organizers undertake a "strategic re-evaluation" of the fair's model, timing, scale, and format. The fair, which held its sixth edition in May 2025, is part of The Art Assembly, a conglomerate overseeing three regional Asian fairs including Art SG and Tokyo Gendai. The number of participating galleries dropped from over 90 in its 2019 inaugural edition to 54 in 2025, with no mega-galleries participating this year. The announcement follows a similar "strategic pause" by the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) for its flagship fair, The Art Show, and comes amid broader challenges for the fair's organizer, Angus Montgomery Arts, which also canceled recent editions of Photofairs in Hong Kong and New York.

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gavel restitution schedule Jul 1, 2025 visibility 13 link 5 artists

senegal ivory coast france repatriation

Senegal and Ivory Coast have formally requested the repatriation of thousands of artifacts from French museum collections, following a groundbreaking French government report published on November 23 that recommends returning colonial-era objects taken before 1960. Senegalese culture minister Abdou Latif Coulibaly announced plans to file a formal request for up to 10,000 Senegalese objects, while Ivorian authorities have submitted a list of about 100 masterpieces, with director Silvie Memel Kassi noting up to 4,000 Ivorian objects remain in Paris's Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac Museum and New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

article news schedule Jun 26, 2025 visibility 10 link 2 artists

hatshepsut statues destroyed research

New research challenges the long-held belief that Pharaoh Thutmose III destroyed statues of his predecessor Hatshepsut out of vengeful rage after her death in 1458 B.C.E. Jun Yi Wong, a research fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, examined hundreds of statue fragments from Hatshepsut's mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri in Luxor. His study, published in Antiquity on June 24, reveals that the statues were broken according to a ritual practice called deactivation—snapped at the neck, waist, and knees—while faces were left intact. Wong found that the fragments were not immediately buried but later reused by everyday Egyptians as building materials, suggesting pragmatic reuse rather than targeted erasure.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

article news schedule Jun 17, 2025 visibility 10 link 1 artist

ai art restoration conservation mit

MIT mechanical engineering student Alex Kachkine has developed a new AI technique that could dramatically speed up the restoration of aged or damaged paintings. The method uses a high-resolution scan of the artwork, an AI algorithm to identify cracks and missing patches, and a digitally printed polymer film—called a "digital mask"—that is overlaid onto the painting and sealed with varnish. The mask can be removed without trace using conservators' solvents. Kachkine tested the process on a 15th-century oil-on-panel painting by the Master of the Prado Adoration of the Magi, where the AI identified 5,612 damaged sections and the restoration took just 3.5 hours—66 times faster than conventional hand inpainting.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule May 28, 2025 visibility 10 link 3 artists, 1 gallery

galerie simon blais francoise sullivan

A survey exhibition titled "Françoise Sullivan: Le temps du geste" is on view at Galerie Simon Blais in Montreal, showcasing the multidisciplinary career of French Canadian artist Françoise Sullivan. The show spans works from the 1940s to the present, including painting, sculpture, photography, and choreography, and highlights dialogues between different phases of her practice. Sullivan, who signed the Refus Global manifesto in 1948, is the only active member of that group, and the exhibition features pieces such as the watercolor "Sans titre – Turquie, Ruines de Commagène à Nemrut Dağ" (1996) and the geometric abstraction "Les damiers no. 4" (2018). The exhibition runs through June 14, 2025.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

article news schedule Apr 22, 2025 visibility 13 link 1 artist

cultural projects worth 6 13 billion were finished in 2024 a big drop from 2023 report

The 2024 Cultural Infrastructure Index (CII) reports a 17% drop in completed cultural projects (from 192 to 159) and a 29% decline in total cost, from $8.58 billion to $6.13 billion. However, the value of future projects announced in 2024 rose 47% to $8.32 billion, though the number of announced projects fell from 198 to 175, indicating fewer but more expensive buildings. The report, developed by AEA Consulting, tracks 334 large-scale cultural infrastructure projects worldwide, with museums and galleries remaining the most common building type. The U.S. led with 62 new facilities, while the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza was the most expensive completed project at $1 billion, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art's new modern wing topped announced projects at $500 million.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

person people schedule May 2, 2026 visibility 19 link 5 artists

collector questionnaire yu chi lyra kuo technology art

Yu-Chi Lyra Kuo, an entrepreneur, investor, and Harvard-educated lawyer, is profiled for her pioneering work at the intersection of frontier technology and art. A former Princeton academic and one of the youngest board members of the Shed in New York, Kuo began collecting art as a child with a jade gourd from her grandfather's museum of Asian carvings. She was an early entrant into blockchain in 2011, co-founded OpenSea 2.0, and now advises frontier tech companies like Orchid Health. Kuo believes technologies such as AI and robotics can enhance human creativity, enabling individualized artworks, autonomous creations, and robot performances, rather than replacing human cultural meaning.

newspaper Cultured open_in_new Read original

person people schedule Apr 23, 2026 visibility 20 link 7 artists

art nicole eisenman paintings interview

Cultured magazine profiles artist Nicole Eisenman as part of its 2026 CULT100 honorees, featuring a short interview accompanied by photography by Lee Mary Manning. Eisenman discusses her daily life, creative influences, and art-world politics, mentioning her sofa, friends, and a hypothetical obituary headline. The piece highlights her role in the revival of figurative painting and her work in large-scale public sculpture.

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article culture schedule Apr 9, 2026 visibility 21 link 13 artists, 4 galleries

art peter hujar paul thek andrew durbin

In 2015, photographer Peter Hujar experienced a mainstream resurgence when his work appeared on the cover of Hanya Yanagihara's novel *A Little Life*, in a campaign for menswear designer Patrik Ervell, and at Christie's, where his 1973 photograph *Candy Darling on Her Deathbed* sold for $50,000. Now, two new publications—*Stay Away From Nothing* and *The Wonderful World That Almost Was*—focus on Hujar's complex relationship with sculptor Paul Thek, who died nine months after Hujar from AIDS complications. Author Andrew Durbin, who wrote *The Wonderful World That Almost Was* and curated the group show "How Beautiful This Living Thing Is" at New York's Ortuzar gallery, discusses their elusive bond, rivalry, and the queer social dynamics that shaped their lives and art.

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person people schedule Mar 27, 2026 visibility 20 link 12 artists

art humberto moro dia foundation interview

Humberto Moro, deputy director of program at the Dia Art Foundation, discusses his role in expanding the institution's focus to include Latin American artists such as Liliana Porter, Delcy Morelos, and David Lamelas, whose major survey he curated. The interview, published by Cultured, covers Moro's career path from his early painting pursuits to positions at Museo Tamayo, Museo Jumex, SCAD's Museum of Art, and the Park Avenue Armory, and his current work at Dia alongside director Jessica Morgan. Moro also shares his personal interests in science fiction and literature, citing authors Ted Chiang, Cixin Liu, and Mariana Enriquez.

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