Review: “Mark Me, Too: Five Artists” at Hyde Park Art Center

The Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago presents “Mark Me, Too: Five Artists,” a group exhibition curated by Dr. Rikki Byrd, the center’s inaugural Radicle Curatorial Resident. The show features works by Lisa DeAbreu, Lex Marie, Natasha Moustache, Lola Ayisha Ogbara, and Ciarra K. Walters, each exploring mark-making as a conceptual and material practice. Highlights include Walters’ video “Eileen’s Daughters,” which uses fragile eggshell-covered suits to evoke familial intimacy and vulnerability; DeAbreu’s textile works that transform household items into visual heirlooms; Ogbara’s sculptural piece “Hopscotch (A Safe Space to Land),” combining bronze and soil to address Black beauty and West African heritage; and Marie’s reimagined American flags made from hospital blankets and beads, critiquing the nation’s relationship with Black maternity and childhood.

Museum Exhibitions On View in East Texas, South Texas & the Valley this Fall

Several museums and art centers across East Texas, South Texas, and the Rio Grande Valley have announced their fall 2025 exhibition schedules. Highlights include the Tyler Museum of Art’s "Alas…" by Alicia Eggert, a floral sculpture that wilts over three weeks, and "Assembled: A Look at Contemporary Collage" featuring Texas artists. The Art Museum of South Texas in Corpus Christi will present three shows: Jason DeMarte’s surrealist photography in "Arcadian Enclosures," the Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi faculty biennial "Quarter Turn," and "Breadth of Latino/a Voices" from its permanent collection. The Rockport Center for the Arts opens Jessica Ninci’s "A Field Guide" and Moira Garcia’s "Nepantla: In-Between." The Beeville Art Museum hosts Caprice Pierucci’s "Threads Through Time," and the Five Points Museum of Contemporary Art in Victoria will survey work by Fort Bend County artists.

Head of Carter museum in Fort Worth is leaving after 14 years

Andrew J. Walker is stepping down as executive director of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth after 14 years. His tenure included launching a community artists initiative, overseeing a major renovation, and acquiring works by over ten Indigenous photographers. The museum also faced controversy last fall when it temporarily closed the exhibition "Cowboy" without explanation, later reopening it with a "mature content" label—a decision artist Rafa Esparza called censorship. Scott Wilcox, the museum's chief operating officer, will serve as interim leader while a search for a new director begins.

New app aims to improve access to Los Angeles art scene

A new mobile app called ArtWrld, founded by Josh Goldblum (CEO of Bluecadet), has launched to improve access to the Los Angeles and New York art scenes. The app provides up-to-date listings of gallery shows, museum exhibitions, talks, and events, allowing users to search by date, view editors' picks, and save shows on Google Maps. It aims to be "the AllTrails for art," making great shows more accessible and providing context for newcomers. Other projects filling the gap in local art coverage include Shana Nys Dambrot's newsletter "13 Things LA" on Substack and the anonymous Instagram account Diva Corp USA, which offers artist-on-artist criticism.

Tate Modern weekend opening hours to be extended

Tate Modern has announced it will extend its weekend opening hours from 26 September, staying open until 21:00 BST on Fridays and Saturdays. The move follows the success of the Tate Modern Lates evening events, which have attracted over 750,000 visitors since 2016, including a curated event by rapper Little Simz that drew 18,500 attendees. Director Karin Hindsbo stated the extended hours aim to make the gallery more accessible, particularly for young people after work.

Immersive Game of Thrones exhibition blows ‘The Winds of Winter’ into Arlington

The Arlington Museum of Art will host "Game of Thrones: The Exhibition," an immersive showcase of over 60 original costumes and props from the HBO series, running from October 4, 2025, to April 5, 2026. The exhibition, produced in partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery Globe Experiences, includes behind-the-scenes sketches and design insights highlighting the historical influences behind the show's iconic looks, from Daenerys Targaryen's gowns to Jon Snow's Night's Watch gear.

‘Free art, with strings attached’: Zero Art Fair’s first edition in New York City puts a new spin on the old fair format

Zero Art Fair held its first New York City edition at the Flag Art Foundation, offering artworks for free under a novel contract system. Instead of paying upfront, collectors took home 179 works valued at $537,500 by presenting a paper card, with artists retaining certain rights. The fair, co-founded by artists William Powhida and Jennifer Dalton, involved over 300 applicants and 90 participating artists, with costs underwritten by Flag Art Foundation and Gagosian.

Artist Tiff Massey's "Baby Bling" exhibit to become permanent collection at Detroit Institute of Arts

Detroit-based artist Tiff Massey's artwork "Baby Bling" (2023) has been acquired as a permanent collection piece by the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), following the success of her temporary exhibition "7 Mile + Livernois." The sculpture, made from steel beads, woven rope, and brass, reimagines childhood hair accessories known as "bobos" worn by Black women and girls, celebrating Black hair culture and identity. Massey, the youngest artist to have a solo exhibition at the DIA, saw her "7 Mile + Livernois" show attract over 220,000 visitors from May 2024 through May 2025. "Baby Bling" will be installed in the museum's newly reimagined Modern and Contemporary wing when it reopens in 2026.

Column | I road-tripped the Midwest’s best art museums. It was anything but an escape.

Art critic Sebastian Smee embarked on a summer road trip to visit seven major art museums across five Midwestern cities over five days. The column reflects on how the rapid succession of artworks and ideas from these institutions—ranging from the Art Institute of Chicago to the Cleveland Museum of Art—creates oblique connections and correspondences, both among the works themselves and between art and the outside world. Smee describes the experience as anything but an escape, as the art continually mirrors real-world events and emotions.

‘Our pattern, our document’: this Indigenous Australian community is using design to assert its rights

A new exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) in Sydney, titled 'Yolŋu power: the art of Yirrkala', showcases the work of 90 Yolŋu artists from the remote community of Yirrkala in Australia's Northern Territory. The exhibition highlights how the community's art centre, Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka, has produced sacred clan designs known as miny'tji for eight decades, and how these patterns were used as legal and political documents to assert land and sea rights. Key moments include the 1963 Yirrkala Bark Petition, the Saltwater Project (1996) initiated by artist Djambawa Marawili, and the subsequent 2008 High Court ruling recognizing Indigenous ownership of the intertidal zone under the Land Rights Act.

Art Gallery of Algoma celebrates 50 years and Group of Seven Day

The Art Gallery of Algoma celebrated its 50th anniversary on July 7, which also marked the inaugural Group of Seven Day in Ontario. The gallery opened its current home with a ribbon-cutting by A.J. Casson, the last living member of the Group of Seven. Festivities included family art activities, live music, an exhibition tour, a talk on the Group of Seven in Algoma, birthday cake, and Indigenous art activities led by Lucia Laford. The gallery's connection to the Group of Seven dates back to its first exhibition, which featured works by the group, and the artists frequently painted in the Algoma region during the 1920s.

Tate chair floats selling Turbine Hall naming rights for ‘a minimum of £50m’

Tate chair of trustees Roland Rudd has suggested that naming rights for the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern could cost a minimum of £50 million. The proposal, reported by The Telegraph, is tied to the institution's new Tate Future Fund, launched last week with a goal of reaching £150 million by 2030. Rudd stated that endowing curators, directors, or naming the iconic space are all potential options for donors, though a Tate spokesperson emphasized the comments were hypothetical and the fundraising campaign is just beginning.

UK city council launches £100,000 appeal to buy rediscovered Turner painting

Bristol City Council has launched a one-week public fundraising campaign to raise £100,000 toward purchasing a newly attributed J.M.W. Turner oil painting, *The Rising Squall, Hot Wells, from St Vincent’s Rock, Bristol*, which is consigned to auction at Sotheby’s London on 2 July with an estimate of up to £300,000. The painting, made in 1792 when Turner was 17, was previously sold at Dreweatts Donnington Priory for £524.80 as a work by a follower of Julius Caesar Ibbetson. If acquired, the work would go on display at Bristol Museum and Art Gallery this summer and will also be included in the upcoming *Turner and Constable* exhibition at Tate Britain.

Chinese museum visitors accuse artist Heman Chong of ‘cyber harassment’

A group of Chinese museum visitors has filed a formal complaint against Singapore-based artist Heman Chong, accusing him of cyber harassment. The visitors allege that Chong reposted their selfies from his exhibition "The Endless Summer" at UCCA Dune on his Instagram account with captions that mocked them for narcissism and appropriating his work. The complaint cites China's portrait rights law, which prohibits using recognizable images of individuals without consent, and also accuses Chong of gender-based targeting for only reposting images of women. The visitors demand a formal apology from Chong and joint action from UCCA Dune and the Aranya resort.

Art, ancestors and the land: summer season opens at Art Gallery of Greater Victoria

The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (AGGV) opens its summer season with three contemporary exhibitions centered on Indigenous perspectives, identity, and land. The anchor show is Meryl McMaster's "Bloodline," opening June 18, featuring large-scale photographs, sculptural elements, and immersive video that trace her mixed Plains Cree, Métis, Dutch, and British heritage through the lives of her grandmothers from the Red Pheasant Cree Nation. Alongside it, "Lekwungen: Place to Smoke Herring" by Brianna Bear and Eli Hirtle presents a film installation on Songhees Nation language and land stewardship, while "Architectures of Protection," curated by Dr. Toby Lawrence, features works by Dana Claxton, Jessica Karuhanga, Emilio Rojas, Beth Stuart, and France Trépanier exploring care and resistance.

The Walters Art Museum: New leadership and a new exhibition

The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore has appointed Kate Burgin as its new director, succeeding Dr. Julia Alexander, who left the museum after 11 years to run a foundation in New York and passed away suddenly at age 57 earlier this month. Burgin, previously the museum's deputy director, now leads the institution while the community mourns Alexander's loss. Meanwhile, the museum has opened its first permanent exhibition of Latin American art, featuring works from over 40 cultures across North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean.

Recently discovered and restored Artemisia Gentileschi painting will go on view at the Getty in Los Angeles

A recently discovered and restored painting by Artemisia Gentileschi, depicting Hercules and Omphale, will go on view at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles from June 10 to September 14. The work, which experts believe has not been publicly exhibited for at least a century, was damaged in the 2020 Beirut port explosion while hanging in Sursock Palace. After extensive conservation by Getty conservator Ulrich Birkmaier, the painting has been attributed to Gentileschi and is considered a major masterpiece by scholars.

Best-selling memoir about being a guard at the Metropolitan Museum takes the stage

Patrick Bringley, who worked as a guard at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art for over a decade, has turned his best-selling memoir *All the Beauty in the World* (2023) into a one-man Off-Broadway show of the same name. The 80-minute play, directed by Dominic Dromgoole, features Bringley performing as himself, sharing meditative tales about visitors, colleagues, and favorite artworks, with projections of Old Master paintings on three giant screens. The show weaves together his experiences as a guard, the death of his brother, his marriage, and the birth of his children.

Water leaks into the Louvre’s Cimabue exhibition, landing close to the master’s greatest early painting

On May 3, a hailstorm caused water to leak into the Musée du Louvre in Paris, nearly damaging Cimabue's "Maestà" (1280-85), the centerpiece of the exhibition "A New Look at Cimabue: At the Origins of Italian Painting." Drops fell close to the painting, which is displayed without glass protection, and also landed on the base of a nearby sculpture by Nicola Pisano's studio. Guards initially struggled to respond, but the exhibition was closed within half an hour, and the Louvre confirmed no works were damaged.

Latter-day Saint artists ‘Lift Up the Hands Which Hang Down’ in new exhibit

The Church History Museum in Salt Lake City has unveiled 150 artworks selected for the 13th International Art Competition of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, themed "Lift Up the Hands Which Hang Down" after Doctrine and Covenants 81:5. The exhibition opened on April 24, 2025, featuring works by 584 artists from 26 countries, including pieces like "Deposition" by Sarah Hawkes and "The Parable of the Gardner: The Garden of the Lord" by Pamela Salinas Bernal. Curator Laura Paulsen Howe and BYU art history professor James Swensen, a juror, highlighted how artists visualized themes of succoring the weak and strengthening others through diverse media and personal testimony.

M.F.A. Boston Celebrates 50 Years of Flowers and Art

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its signature "Art in Bloom" exhibition, a tradition that began in 1976. The event pairs floral arrangements created by professional designers and garden club members with specific artworks from the museum's permanent collection, transforming the galleries into a multisensory experience.

A Navy Veteran Finds His Niche in the Art World

Walter Price, a U.S. Navy veteran, has successfully transitioned to a career as a painter in New York, achieving his artistic dream. His journey from military service to the art world highlights a significant personal and creative transformation.

Exciting evolution for SJIMA

Blake DeYoung is stepping down as Executive Director of the San Juan Islands Museum of Art (SJIMA) at the end of May to become Executive Director of the Skagit Valley College San Juan Center branch, replacing Randy Martin. Deputy Director Wendy Smith will serve as Acting Director during the transition. The museum board remains unchanged, and the institution views this as an opportunity to realign its structure and build on recent successes, including record attendance in 2025.

Liz Munsell Named Vice President of Brooklyn’s Powerhouse Arts

Liz Munsell has been appointed Vice President of Curatorial Arts and Programs at Brooklyn's Powerhouse Arts, a creative nonprofit in Gowanus. She will develop public programming, exhibitions, and community engagement, while overseeing artist residencies and art fairs, including the upcoming Brooklyn Fine Art Print Fair. She succeeds Diya Vij, who left to become New York City's cultural affairs commissioner.

Sold-out auctions suggest Hong Kong’s art market is back. But is it?

Hong Kong’s art market showed signs of a significant rebound during the March art week with two rare "white glove" auctions, where every lot was sold. Christie’s led the momentum with a 100 percent sell-through rate totaling HK$655.8 million, followed by Sotheby’s, which achieved HK$548.4 million and set a record for the most valuable work by a female artist sold at auction in Asia with Joan Mitchell’s La Grande Vallée VII.

Hong Kong’s live art auctions are thriving thanks to Picasso and Nara

Hong Kong’s art auction market opened 2025 with significant momentum, characterized by a shift toward high-quality, museum-grade works and selective collecting. Major auction houses like Christie's, Bonhams, and Phillips reported strong results for blue-chip artists, highlighted by the sale of Pablo Picasso’s "Buste de Femme" for HK$196.75 million. While the market has become more deliberate, the demand for rare, impeccably sourced pieces by both Western masters and Asian contemporary icons remains robust.

London’s Art Market Rebound: Sotheby’s Spring 2026 Recap

Sotheby’s London kicked off its Spring 2026 marquee season with a series of high-energy auctions, totaling £154 million across its Modern & Contemporary sales. The week was highlighted by a "white-glove" evening auction that achieved a 100% sell-through rate, led by Francis Bacon’s 1972 Self-Portrait which sold for £16 million. Significant records were set for British masters, most notably Leon Kossoff, whose painting "Children’s Swimming Pool" shattered estimates to reach £5.2 million.

Nara and Kusama Both Surpass 10 Billion KRW... What Seoul Auction’s 36.7 Billion KRW Sale Achieved

Nara and Kusama Both Surpass 10 Billion KRW... What Seoul Auction’s 36.7 Billion KRW Sale Achieved

Seoul Auction's recent Contemporary Art Sale in Seoul made history as the first domestic auction in South Korea to sell two works for over 10 billion KRW each on the same day. Yoshitomo Nara’s large-scale portrait "Nothing about It" (2016) set a new record for the highest price ever achieved at a South Korean art auction, selling for 15 billion KRW ($11.2 million). Yayoi Kusama’s "Pumpkin" (2015) followed closely, fetching 10.45 billion KRW ($7.8 million), contributing to a total sale volume of 36.7 billion KRW.

LS Lowry leads the way as North Yorkshire art auction tops £215,000

Tennants Auctioneers in North Yorkshire achieved a total of £215,990 during its Modern and Contemporary Art Sale on February 28. The auction was led by works from LS Lowry, including the signed print 'Going to the Match' which fetched £35,000 and the drawing 'Children in a Crowd' which sold for £25,000. Other significant results included works by Brian ‘Braaq’ Shields, Geoffrey Key, and a David Hockney etching, contributing to a high 96 per cent sell-through rate.

Records for English painting and Fontana's cuts push the auction

Sotheby’s London kicked off the spring auction season with a robust modern and contemporary art evening sale, totaling £131.7 million and achieving a rare 100% sell-through rate. Despite global political uncertainty, the auction saw aggressive bidding for British post-war masterpieces and Italian avant-garde works. The event also marked the debut of Sotheby’s new commission structure, which lowers fees for high-value lots to incentivize larger transactions.