In pictures: meet the newcomer galleries debuting at Art Basel

Art Basel has unveiled its lineup of newcomer galleries for the upcoming fair, featuring seven emerging and rediscovered artists from around the world. The debutants include Kyiv-based Sana Shahmuradova Tanska, whose monumental painting addresses the war in Ukraine; Japanese textile artist Junko Oki, showing embroidered vintage garments; and Italian feminist poet Mirella Bentivoglio, represented by a participatory tree sculpture. Other highlights include Parisian Ndayé Kouagou's video work on mass media, conceptual feminist Tina Girouard's wallpaper pieces from the 1970s, London-based Alexandra Metcalf's deconstructed grandfather clocks, and Georgian artist Nika Kutateladze's installation about rural depopulation. The galleries presenting these artists are Gunia Nowik Gallery (Warsaw), Kosaku Kanechika (Tokyo), Repetto Gallery (Lugano), Nir Altman (Munich), Anat Ebgi (Los Angeles), Ginny on Frederick (London), and Gallery Artbeat (Tbilisi).

The Politics of In-action: Review of In-action: Viennese Actionism and the Passivities of Performance Art

Caroline Lillian Schopp's new book *In-action: Viennese Actionism and the Passivities of Performance Art* (2025) offers a revisionist history of Viennese Actionism, a movement retroactively named in 1970 by Peter Weibel and Valie Export. Schopp introduces the term "in-action" to describe a politics of artistic action that emphasizes intimacy, hesitation, and vulnerability rather than the violent or liberatory extremes typically associated with the movement. She expands the canon to include women artists such as Anna Brus, Hanel Koeck, and Ingrid Wiener, and reexamines the work of Rudolf Schwarzkogler, whose death was mythologized as a suicide by self-castration but was actually a fall from a window. Through close readings of photographs, Schopp argues that Schwarzkogler's performances were characterized by passivity and "in-sincerity," challenging the dominant narrative of actionism as aggressive or heroic.

In Minor Keys: The 61st Biennale di Arte Venezia Opens Under Koyo Kouoh (1967–2025).

The 61st Biennale di Arte Venezia opens under the posthumous curatorial vision of Koyo Kouoh (1967–2025), the late Cameroonian-born curator who reshaped contemporary African and diasporic art discourse. The central exhibition, spanning the Giardini and Arsenale, features 111 participants including artists, collectives, and artist-led organizations from across the Global South, with works in textiles, film, sculpture, and performance that interrogate colonialism, migration, and ecological repair. The Biennale is also marked by a pronounced presence of African and diasporic narratives across national pavilions, including several first-time pavilions from the African continent.

Hamburg Culture Prize Renamed After Namesake’s Nazi Ties Emerge

Hamburg's Senator Biermann Ratjen Medal, a culture prize awarded for nearly five decades, is being renamed the Medal for Art and Culture in Hamburg after historian Helmut Stubbe da Luz uncovered evidence that the prize's namesake, Hans Harder Biermann-Ratjen, confirmed his Nazi Party membership in a 1943 application. Biermann-Ratjen, who later served as Hamburg's senator for culture, had been deemed not to have been a member during post-war de-Nazification, but the new research prompted the city to rebrand the award.

A Landmark Benjamin Franklin Collection Is Hitting the Auction Block

A landmark collection of Benjamin Franklin memorabilia assembled by sports and entertainment mogul Jay Snider is heading to Sotheby’s New York on June 24. The collection includes over 150 items—books, broadsides, letters, and manuscripts—tracing Franklin’s career from printer to scientist to diplomat. Highlights include a 1758 letter to Joseph Galloway (estimated $70,000–$100,000), a 1778 letter from George Washington introducing the Marquis de Lafayette (which sold for over $1 million in January), and a bound volume of Franklin’s electrical experiments ($75,000–$125,000). The full catalogue is valued at $3 million to $4.5 million, and 40 artifacts will be displayed at the Library Company of Philadelphia from May 5 to 7.

Rare Winnie-the-Pooh Drawings Surface for the First Time

Two previously unseen preliminary drawings of Winnie-the-Pooh by illustrator E.H. Shepard have surfaced for the first time on the centenary of the children's classic. Brought forward by Shepard’s family, the pencil sketches depict scenes from A.A. Milne’s original 1926 book that were never fully realized or published. These rare works, along with several other preliminary sketches that did make it into print, are currently on display and for sale at Peter Harrington Rare Books in London before traveling to the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair.

Rome’s Colosseum Gets a New Pedestrian Plaza

Rome has unveiled a newly restored pedestrian plaza at the southern façade of the Colosseum following a four-year construction project. Led by Stefano Boeri Interiors, the renovation features a travertine-paved square that recreates the original floor level and footprint of the ancient amphitheater. The design uses stone plinths to mark the locations of long-lost columns, allowing visitors to visualize the massive scale of the structure as it appeared nearly 2,000 years ago.

Dutch Museum Discovers 8-Inch Ancient Roman Phallus

Archaeologists at the Valkhof Museum in Nijmegen discovered a rare, eight-inch Ancient Roman phallus carved from bone while cataloging a massive backlog of 16,000 archaeological boxes. The artifact was found alongside high-quality Roman tableware during an €8 million government-funded inventory project aimed at processing collections from defunct storage depots in the province of Gelderland.

Charles Bronson Art Auction

charles bronson art auction

A collection of 500 artworks by Charles Bronson, one of the United Kingdom’s most notorious prisoners, is scheduled for auction at David Duggleby Auctioneers on March 11. The works, created using crayon, ink, and pencil on prison documents, will be sold as a single lot. The collection explores themes of isolation and endurance, reflecting Bronson’s decades of incarceration and solitary confinement.

nonprofits sue trump administration national parks

Six national nonprofit organizations have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, alleging the illegal censorship and removal of educational signage across U.S. national parks. The legal challenge, filed in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts, targets the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service for stripping displays related to climate change, slavery, and the history of marginalized groups. The plaintiffs argue these actions violate federal mandates requiring parks to reflect diverse cultural backgrounds and current scientific research.

rome colosseum metro station archaeology

Rome's new Colosseo-Fori Imperiali metro station opened on Tuesday after 11 years of construction, featuring archaeological treasures uncovered during excavation, including ceramic fragments, statues, oil lamps, stone vessels, and 28 ancient wells. The station, part of Metro Line C, also revealed a nearly 260-foot early second-century military barracks and a home with frescoes and mosaics at the nearby Porta Metronia station. Mayor Roberto Gualtieri attended the opening ceremony, and the city plans to open a museum in the station.

part man part machine robocop statue detroit monument

A bronze statue of RoboCop, the cyborg protagonist from Paul Verhoeven's 1987 film, has been installed in Detroit nearly 15 years after a grassroots campaign began. The 11-foot, 3,500-pound monument was sculpted by Detroit artist Giorgio Gikas of Venus Bronze Works, funded by a 2012 Kickstarter that raised over $67,000, and finally placed at Eastern Market after years of legal hurdles and location changes.

russian imperial faberge egg christies auction record

A rare Fabergé Winter Egg, made of crystal and adorned with 4,000 diamonds, sold for £22.9 million ($30.2 million) at Christie’s London on Tuesday, setting a new auction record for any Fabergé egg. The sale was part of a 48-lot collection titled “The Winter Egg and Important Works by Fabergé from a Princely Collection,” which achieved a total of £27.8 million ($37.1 million). The egg was created for Russia’s imperial family by Alma Theresia Pihl, one of the few women in Fabergé’s St. Petersburg workshop, and fabricated by her uncle, chief jeweler Albert Holmström. It had previously sold at Christie’s in Geneva in 1994 and in New York in 2002.

faberge winter egg christies auction

A rare Fabergé Imperial egg, the Winter Egg, sold for £22.8 million ($30.2 million) at Christie’s London on December 2, 2025, setting a new world auction record for any Fabergé work. The egg was a 1913 Easter gift from Tsar Nicholas II to his mother, Maria Feodorovna, and was designed by Alma Pihl, one of the few women working in Fabergé’s St. Petersburg workshops. It had previously sold at Christie’s in 1994 and 2002, each time setting records.

ancient egyptian iconography roman bathhouse sagalassos turkey

Archaeologists have identified ancient Egyptian iconography on a marble lintel in a Roman-era bathhouse at Sagalassos, Turkey. The carving depicts the sphinx god Tutu, flanked by two human figures wearing the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt, along with deities Horus and Sobek. Dating to the reign of Emperor Augustus (27 BCE–14 CE), the panel was found in the frigidarium and was sourced from marble quarried over 124 miles away in the Afyonkarahisar region.

milton esterow artnews editor dead

Milton Esterow, the award-winning journalist who owned and edited ARTnews for 42 years, died on Friday at age 97. His death was confirmed by his daughter Judith Esterow, a former associate publisher of the magazine. Esterow purchased ARTnews in 1972 from Newsweek and transformed it into a news-focused powerhouse, winning a National Magazine Award and two George Polk Awards. He introduced the influential ARTnews Top 200 Collectors list in 1990 and was known for his relentless investigative journalism, particularly on Holocaust art restitution. He continued writing into his 90s, using his 1950 Royal typewriter.

ugly and pornographic mermaid statue removed copenhagen

The Danish government has ordered the removal of a 13-foot tall mermaid statue known as the "Big Mermaid" from Dragør Fort in Copenhagen, following years of criticism that it is sexualized, ugly, and pornographic. The sculpture, inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, was installed without permission on a protected monument site overseen by the Agency for Culture and Palaces, which determined it disrupts the fort's military structure. Critics including Sorine Gotfredsen and Mathias Kryger condemned the work, while entrepreneur Peter Bech, who commissioned it, defended the statue's proportions.

curtis yarvin venice biennale

Far-right political blogger Curtis Yarvin has floated a proposal to take over the U.S. pavilion at the Venice Biennale with an "art ho"–themed exhibition centered on Titian's painting *The Rape of Europa* (1559–62). Yarvin discussed the idea in a New Yorker profile and promoted it in a YouTube video, which includes AI-generated imagery and a fake press release. He also reportedly rented a flat near Art Basel in Switzerland to host a party announcing the proposal. The article dismisses the initiative as a troll and a bid for MAGA cultural credibility, noting its lack of real momentum or institutional backing.

justin allen new language wendys subway

Justin Allen celebrated the launch of his debut book *Language Arts* (2024), published by Wendy’s Subway, with a live reading at Performance Space in New York’s Lower East Side. The book merges music, dance, performance, and language, including a poem "140 BPM" that recreates nights at Bushwick’s Bossa Nova Civic Club. Allen, who grew up in Northern Virginia and moved to New York City, draws on influences from experimental punk, indie sleaze artists like Santigold and M.I.A., and his own invented language, Hatnahans, to craft a work that blends leftist critique with speculative fiction and club culture.

fashion bottega veneta peter fraser venice

Photographer Peter Fraser has collaborated with Bottega Veneta on a new series of 27 photographs exploring Venice, capturing both its iconic landmarks—canals, marble floors, Byzantine façades—and its overlooked details like construction cranes, discarded plaster casts, and beached boats. The images are juxtaposed with Bottega Veneta's intrecciato bags from Louise Trotter's first collection, nodding to the fashion house's long history in the Veneto region. In an interview, Fraser discusses his approach to photographing a city burdened by its own legacy, emphasizing the need to distance himself from preconceptions and to shoot based on feeling rather than appearance.

art advisors advice new collectors

CULTURED has compiled advice from top art advisors for novice collectors, drawn from their 2026 Power Art Advisors List. The advisors caution against treating art as a financial investment, urge collectors to follow their own taste rather than trends, and emphasize the importance of looking at art extensively before purchasing. They also warn against impulsive buying, overvaluing social media, and chasing discounts that lead to poor acquisitions.

fashion chanel coco game chess jewelry

Chanel has unveiled the Coco Game chess set, a one-of-a-kind luxury object that doubles as a high-jewelry timepiece, presented at the brand's watch and jewelry boutique on Place Vendôme. The set features 32 pieces crafted from ceramic and gold, adorned with over 9,000 diamonds totaling approximately 110 carats, with each queen concealing a detachable watch. The collection also includes 13 watch designs and is part of Chanel's Haute Horlogerie line for 2026, designed by Arnaud Chastaingt, director of the Chanel Watch Creation Studio.

art mamadou abou catherine sarr collectors

Chicago-based collectors Mamadou-Abou and Catherine Sarr discuss their art collection, which spans works from West Africa, France, and the U.S., in an interview with Cultured. The couple, an investor and a jewelry designer, share how their collection began with Mamadou-Abou's discovery of contemporary African photography and emphasize a patient, conviction-driven approach to acquiring art. They also detail the SARR Prize, an initiative supporting emerging France-based artists with cash awards and a residency at Villa Albertine in Chicago.

art udo kittelmann julia stoschek los angeles

German curator Udo Kittelmann and leading time-based art collector Julia Stoschek have collaborated on "What a Wonderful World," an audiovisual poem on view at Los Angeles's Variety Arts Theater from February 6 through March 20. The project interweaves early film entries by Alice Guy-Blaché, Georges Méliès, and Walt Disney with contemporary video works from Stoschek's collection, featuring artists such as Lu Yang, Bunny Rogers, and Paul Chan. Kittelmann and Stoschek insist the work is not an exhibition but a "poem," designed to challenge how audiences consume art and moving images, urging viewers to move beyond entertainment toward a raw, emotional experience.

art rob teeters art advisor sagaponack home collecting

Art advisor Rob Teeters opens his 1950s Sagaponack home to CULTURED magazine, revealing how he curates his personal collection alongside his husband, ceramicist Bruce M. Sherman. The home features a mix of ancient artifacts, such as a third-century Roman marble head, and contemporary works by Wade Guyton, Sherrie Levine, and Matias Faldbakken, alongside Sherman's own polychrome ceramics. Teeters, who founded Front Desk Apparatus in 2006 and leads the Dallas nonprofit art space the Power Station, discusses the nuanced process of living with art and how arrangement, lighting, and even the texture of a room affect the experience.

ira sachs director peter hujars day interview

Ira Sachs's new film *Peter Hujar's Day* dramatizes a 1974 interview in which photographer Peter Hujar recounted his day to journalist Linda Rosenkrantz. The transcript, originally intended for a book project, was rediscovered and published by Magic Hour Press in 2021. Starring Ben Whishaw as Hujar and Rebecca Hall as Rosenkrantz, the film is set entirely in a Westbeth apartment, capturing the texture of New York's downtown art scene through Hujar's anecdotes about figures like Susan Sontag, William Burroughs, and Allen Ginsberg.

art young photographer hero bean stevenson

Hero Bean Stevenson, a New York-based photographer, is featured in Cultured's "29" series, nominated by Brigitte Lacombe. Stevenson has shot for clients like Maison d’Etto and Carven, co-founded the Los Angeles gallery Raum, and developed a spare black-and-white photographic style. The article includes Stevenson's reflections on portraiture, citing influences such as Peter Hujar, Robert Mapplethorpe, and a memorable 2023 portrait session with filmmaker Werner Herzog.

Pat Oleszko “Fool Disclosure” at SculptureCenter, New York

Pat Oleszko has opened a major solo exhibition, "Fool Disclosure," at SculptureCenter in New York. The show features her signature sculptures and costumes, which are designed to be activated through performance, and includes new works created specifically for the presentation.

Dyani White Hawk: LISTEN at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University

Dyani White Hawk's eight-channel video installation "LISTEN" (2020–ongoing) is on view at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. The work features Indigenous women speaking in their native languages on their tribal homelands, with no subtitles or explanatory text, encouraging viewers to physically move closer to each screen to hear and engage with the speakers' voices and surrounding environments.

Grinnell College art museum showcases dual exhibits of student and faculty curated works

The Grinnell College Museum of Art has opened two new exhibitions. 'Unruly Lines: The Art of Sonia Sekula,' curated by professor Jenny Anger and museum curator Dan Strong, occupies the east gallery, while 'Rhizomatic Intimacies: Photography from the Collection of Keith Jantzen and Scott Beth,' curated by students from Michael Mackenzie's Exhibition Seminar, is on view in the west gallery.