inca building acoustics huaytara peru 1234759138

A 15th-century Inca building in Huaytará, Peru, known as a carpa uasi or tent house, may have been designed to amplify low-frequency sounds like drumming. Art historian Stella Nair of UCLA, along with acoustic experts led by Stanford professor Jonathan Berger, is studying the structure's unique three-walled design to understand its acoustic properties. The building survived because a Christian church was built on top of it, stabilizing the stone structure.

paintings bob ross bonhams auction public broadcasting cuts 1234756146

Bonhams has been consigned to sell 30 original paintings by beloved American artist and TV host Bob Ross, with an estimated total value of $850,000 to $1.4 million. The works are being sold on behalf of American Public Television (APT), which will direct all net proceeds to support APT and PBS public television stations affected by federal funding cuts. Three paintings—Winter’s Peace (1993), Home in the Valley (1993), and Cliffside (1990)—will be offered on November 11 in Los Angeles, with the remaining 27 offered in auctions next year in New York, Boston, and Los Angeles.

2025 gold art prize winners 1234752339

The Gold Art Prize, a biennial award series for AAPI and Asian diaspora artists, has announced its 2025 winners: Dan Lie, Stella Zhong, Morehshin Allahyari, Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork, and Kenneth Tam. Each receives an unrestricted $25,000. The prize, now in its third iteration, was launched in 2021 by adviser Kelly Huang and Gold House, a Los Angeles-based organization focused on the AAPI community. The 2025 edition is funded by the Kahng Foundation. Finalists included Trisha Baga, CFGNY, Ajay Kurian, Sa’dia Rehman, and TT Takemoto.

gary burden album cover artist gary auction 2652741

Bonhams Los Angeles is auctioning the archive of legendary album cover designer Gary Burden, who died in 2018, in a sale titled "Cover to Cover" running from June 20 to 30. The collection includes original artwork, sketchbooks, and ephemera from Burden's five-decade career, featuring iconic covers for the Doors' *Morrison Hotel* (1970), the Eagles' *Desperado* (1973) and *One of These Nights* (1975), Joni Mitchell's *Ladies of the Canyon* (1970), and Jackson Browne's 1972 debut, among others. Highlights include a lithograph for the Eagles' *One of These Nights* (estimate $10,000–$15,000) and Burden's preparatory pencil sketch for *Desperado* (estimate $30,000–$40,000).

World Press Photo 2026 winners – in pictures

The World Press Photo 2026 winners have been announced, with Carol Guzy awarded the top honor for her image of distraught girls clinging to their father as ICE agents detain him after an immigration hearing in New York City. Finalists include Saber Nuraldin’s photograph of Palestinians scrambling for aid in Gaza, Victor J Blue’s image of Achi women outside a Guatemala City court, and other powerful works documenting climate displacement in Mexico, a wedding during a typhoon in the Philippines, police detaining a priest at a pensioners’ protest in Argentina, and a social robot in Europe.

What Did Happen or What Might Have Happened or What Can Never Happen. Dustin Hodges by Nick Angelo

Dustin Hodges presents a new body of work across two exhibitions, "Barley Patch" at 15 Orient in New York and "Barley Patch 2" at Sebastian Gladstone in Los Angeles. The artist utilizes thin layers of pigment, color glazing, and distemper on linen to create compositions that superimpose cartoon motifs, such as black crows and characters from the "Arthur" series, over complex grids. His process involves a cyclical layering that drives a wedge between the logic of the image and the materiality of painting, resulting in works that feel both choreographed and visceral.

Major exhibition to transform USC Pacific Asia Museum into an immersive journey through myth and the immigrant story

USC Pacific Asia Museum (USC PAM) has announced "Mythical Creatures: The Stories We Carry," a major exhibition conceived by Los Angeles–based Korean American artist Dave Young Kim. Opening February 14, 2026, the 12-room immersive installation blends approximately 100 objects from the museum's collection—spanning 5,000 years of Asian and Pacific art—with new media technology and contemporary works by over 20 artists, including Dinh Q. Lê, Lily Honglei, Wendy Park, Momoko Schafer, Kyungmi Shin, Sanjay Vora, and Lauren YS. The exhibition uses mythology as a visual language to explore the immigrant experience, featuring environments like a shadowy night crossing, a recreated first apartment, and a gilded room with a gold Jin Chan frog. A limited public preview runs December 20, 2025–January 4, 2026.

An L.A. Artist Devoted to the Process of Paint

Los Angeles-based artist Sandy Rodriguez is profiled for her multifaceted practice that extends far beyond traditional painting. Her work involves deep research into art history, botany, and indigenous materials, positioning her as a scientist, historian, and alchemist as much as a painter.

Tracking Down a Vase From ‘Bonjour Tristesse’

The New York Times has traced the whereabouts of a distinctive blue-and-white vase featured in the 1958 film 'Bonjour Tristesse,' directed by Otto Preminger. The vase, which played a prominent role in the film's set design, was discovered to be a piece by French ceramicist Georges Jouve and had been quietly residing in a private Los Angeles collection for decades.

Off-Site Exhibitions Review: The Politics of Listening

Andrew Durbin reviews the national pavilions at an unnamed biennial, contrasting a vacuous US presentation with incisive and moving installations from Britain and Germany. The review critiques the lack of meaningful engagement in the US pavilion while praising the depth and emotional resonance of the British and German contributions.

Arsenale Review: Where Voices Resist Erasure

At the 2026 Venice Biennale's Arsenale, critic Andrew Durbin reviews national pavilions, finding the US presentation vacuous and lacking meaning, while praising the British and German pavilions for their incisive and moving installations that resist erasure. The review highlights a stark contrast in curatorial ambition and political engagement among the participating nations.

Risk and Reward: Jason Price Gets Artists Business-Savvy

Jason Price, an artist and entrepreneur, is launching a new initiative called 'Risk and Reward' aimed at helping artists develop business acumen. The program offers workshops and resources on financial literacy, contract negotiation, and marketing strategies tailored specifically for visual artists. Price draws on his own experience navigating the art market to provide practical guidance, with the first sessions scheduled to take place in New York and Los Angeles.

Ayotunde Ojo Maps Interiority Under the Public Gaze

The article, a critic's guide review by Andrew Durbin, contrasts the US national pavilion presentation at an unspecified biennial with those of Britain and Germany. The US presentation is described as vacuous and lacking in meaning, while the British and German installations are praised for being incisive and moving. The review critically examines the thematic and conceptual approaches of each national pavilion, highlighting a disparity in artistic depth and engagement.

National Pavilions Review: Who’s Afraid of Meaning?

Andrew Durbin reviews national pavilions at a major biennial, contrasting a vacuous US presentation with incisive and moving installations from Britain and Germany. The review critiques the lack of meaningful content in the US pavilion while praising the depth and emotional resonance of the British and German contributions.

Nikita Kadan Questions Whether War Ever Ends

Ukrainian artist Nikita Kadan, in an interview with Frieze, reflects on his practice and the ongoing psychological and physical toll of war, questioning whether conflict ever truly ends. He discusses his recent works, which grapple with the persistent state of war in Ukraine, the transformation of urban spaces, and the collective trauma that outlasts active hostilities.

Meriem Bennani, the artist who went viral during the pandemic

Meriem Bennani, a New York-based artist known for her shape-shifting practice of videos, installations, and immersive environments, gained viral fame during the COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020. She co-created the animated series '2 Lizards' with fellow artist Orian Barki, which depicted surreal, humorous conversations between anthropomorphic reptiles navigating the first weeks of the pandemic in New York City. The series, posted on Instagram, resonated widely and led to eight episodes. Bennani's broader work, including 'Life on the CAPS' (2018–2022) and 'Mission Teens' (2019), blends digital animation, live-action footage, and cultural critique, often exploring themes of diaspora, post-colonialism, and migration through dystopian, supernatural narratives.

rhonda saboff / (parker pine) at Hoffman Donahue

Hoffman Donahue in Los Angeles presents a dual exhibition featuring works by Rhonda Saboff and Parker Pine, curated by Sula Bermúdez-Silverman. Running from April 25 to May 23, 2026, the show brings together two distinct artistic practices, with 48 images documenting the installation on the gallery's Contemporary Art Library page.

JOSÉ WOLFF: DÍAS HONDOS

JOSÉ WOLFF: DÍAS HONDOS

José Wolff, a Guatemalan artist who grew up in the 1980s watching television with his family, has developed a unique visual language that oscillates between digital and traditional media. After studying at SCAD in Georgia and working in Miami and Los Angeles for channels like MTV Latino, NBC, and Locomotion, he created 3D animations, music videos, and TV interstitials. Now based back in Guatemala, Wolff continues to paint in oil while also producing digital installations, such as his 2026 multi-channel piece "Sin Novedad." His practice reflects a lifelong dialogue between the tangible and the intangible, influenced by artists like Laurie Anderson and Nam June Paik.

LA museums to check out this Earth Month

Los Angeles museums are marking Earth Month with a series of exhibitions and events focused on sustainability and environmental consciousness. Highlights include the Hammer Museum’s exhibition, "Several Eternities in a Day: Form in the Age of Living Materials," which features works by 22 artists using organic substances like avocado, cochineal dye, and volcanic rock. Meanwhile, the Fowler Museum is hosting an immersive look at the indigenous rice cultivation practices of the Ifugao people in the Philippines.

Yoshida Chizuko

The Portland Art Museum is hosting the first major museum retrospective of Yoshida Chizuko (1924–2017), a pioneering Japanese modernist painter and printmaker. The exhibition features over 100 works, including early oil paintings, monotypes, woodblock prints, lithographs, and mixed media pieces, many never before exhibited. It traces her career from avant-garde abstraction in the 1940s and 1950s through op art and photoetchings in the 1960s and 1970s to nature-inspired late works, and includes a planned major acquisition from the Yoshida family estate.

grateful dead david kordansky exhibition

David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles will host “An American Beauty: Grateful Dead 1965–1995,” an exhibition curated by photographer Jay Blakesberg and his daughter Ricki, tied to the band’s 60th anniversary. The show features monumental-scale works by eight photographers drawn from the Retro Photo Archive, which contains over 100,000 film photos of the Grateful Dead and other pop-culture figures. A companion book will be released on Jerry Garcia’s birthday in August.

austyn weiner levy gorvy dayan

Los Angeles-based artist Austyn Weiner presents her latest exhibition, “Half Way Home,” at Lévy Gorvy Dayan in Manhattan, on view through June 21. The show features large-scale floral paintings inspired by her surroundings in Frogtown, the LA River, and personal experiences of marriage and loss. Weiner collected flowers at various stages of life and decay in New York to create a bouquet displayed at the gallery entrance, reflecting her fascination with the life cycle of blooms. The exhibition draws early inspiration from Monet’s “Water Lilies” at the Musée de l’Orangerie, but Weiner’s distorted color fields and emotional depth mark a distinct departure.

'Two of Us' at Simchowitz, Hill House, Los Angeles, United States on 15 Feb–11 Apr 2026

Simchowitz Gallery is presenting "Two of Us," a dual exhibition featuring Ukrainian artists Andrey Samarin and Lera Derkach at Hill House in Pasadena. The show explores the creative dialogue between the two artists, who have lived and worked together in France for the past three years while maintaining distinct individual practices. Samarin’s work focuses on the physical gesture of painting, blending abstraction and figuration influenced by German Expressionism and medieval art, while Derkach’s canvases lean into dreamlike narratives, metamorphosis, and psychological tension.

Post-Fair delivers by keeping it simple

Post-Fair concluded its second edition in Los Angeles, featuring a curated selection of 31 galleries including PPOW, White Columns, and Tomio Koyama Gallery. Held in a former post office, the event maintained an open floor plan and a relaxed atmosphere that attracted high-profile attendees like artist Paul McCarthy and collectors Beth Rudin DeWoody and Maja Hoffmann. Sales were reported across various price points, with Ehrlich Steinberg selling half of its presentation of Joel Otterson’s sculptures.

New and relaunched satellite fairs spread across Los Angeles during Frieze

A wave of new and relaunched satellite art fairs is debuting in Los Angeles to coincide with Frieze Los Angeles, offering lower-cost alternatives for galleries and artists. Newcomers like the Indianapolis-based Butter Art Fair, the photography-focused Show LA, and the New York-centric Enzo Art Fair are positioning themselves as intimate, artist-centric, or zero-fee options. These ventures aim to capitalize on the influx of global collectors while bypassing the high overhead costs associated with major international fairs.

Distinctive Voices: Corey Helford Gallery presents 2 solo shows and group exhibition

Corey Helford Gallery in Los Angeles presents two solo shows and a group exhibition, running through February 14. Japanese pop-surrealist Junna Maruyama debuts her first solo show at the gallery, "Who Am I?", featuring her Gyaru Series and signature doll-like figures, butterflies, and mixed-media elements. Chicago-based artist Travis Lampe presents "The Ham-Fisted Coping Mechanism," inspired by rubber-hose animation and vintage cartoons. The group exhibition accompanies these solo presentations.

Comment | Museums are civic institutions. It’s time we acted like it

Lindsay C. Harris, director of the Oakland Museum of California (OMCA), publishes a commentary calling for museums to act as true civic institutions. She outlines concrete internal commitments OMCA has made, including voluntarily recognizing a staff union, adopting a pay equity philosophy with a minimum wage of $30.88 per hour, implementing transparent financial practices, and shifting investments toward socially responsible funds. Externally, she advocates for centering community voices, building social cohesion through inclusive programming, and measuring institutional impact through visitor surveys.

Getty Center will close for a year to undergo major renovations

The Getty Center in Los Angeles will shutter for one year beginning March 15, 2027, to undergo its most significant renovation since opening in 1997. The $600 million to $800 million project focuses on infrastructure and visitor experience, including a total replacement of the campus's aging tram system, a redesign of the welcome hall, and the renovation of 27,000 square feet of gallery space. While the hilltop campus is closed, the Getty Villa will remain open, and a new permanent space will debut on Sepulveda Boulevard.

The L.A. Museums Getting a Glow-Up Before the Olympic Games

The Getty Center and the George C. Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits have announced major renovation projects and temporary closures in preparation for the 2028 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles. The Getty Center will undergo its first significant overhaul since opening 30 years ago, focusing on structural updates, gallery revitalizations, and infrastructure improvements like the tram system. Meanwhile, the Page Museum will embark on a $240 million campus-wide transformation designed by Weiss/Manfredi, which includes a new research center, immersive theater, and modernized exhibition spaces.

LA’s Getty Center to Close for Renovations Beginning in 2027

The Getty Center in Los Angeles has announced a year-long closure for extensive renovations, scheduled to begin in March 2027. This marks the first major modernization of the Richard Meier-designed campus since its opening in 1997. The project will focus on updating the galleries, the Welcome Hall, and the tram system, while also introducing new artist commissions and improving infrastructure like HVAC systems and digital connectivity.