New York’s spring marquee auctions, traditionally a bellwether for the global art market, concluded with thin margins and soft demand despite an increased number of high-value "masterpiece" lots priced at $30 million and above. The results indicate that strong supply alone cannot overcome deeper market challenges. Separately, Yuga Labs, the company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club, has sold its landmark CryptoPunks NFT collection to the NODE Foundation.
A new study published in the Pompeii Excavations online journal reveals the final moments of a family during the 79 CE eruption of Mount Vesuvius. At the House of Helle and Phrixus in Pompeii, archaeologists found that the family attempted to barricade a bedroom door with a bed to survive the eruption, but perished. The remains of at least four individuals, including a child, were identified, along with a bronze amulet worn by the child and bronze kitchenware in the pantry.
The Da Vinci Festival Student Art Show has returned to the Broome County Public Library in New York after a nearly ten-year hiatus. Organized by Chenango Valley art teacher Matthew Wilson, the exhibit features artwork from students in kindergarten through 12th grade across 18 schools in seven districts. The festival had not been held since 2017 due to a coordinator stepping down and subsequent delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A new art exhibition called "TWOgether" has opened at Spare Room Gallery in Barrie, Ontario, running for a month during Mental Health Awareness Month. Curated by Sean William Dawson and Katie Green, the show pairs 12 emerging artists with 10 established artists from Simcoe County to create collaborative works exploring mental health. The project includes a limited-edition art catalogue of 200 signed copies, with 100% of sales proceeds going to the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA). A public reception and catalogue launch is scheduled for May 22, and the exhibition also features a panel discussion series titled Start Making Sense.
The Venice Biennale of Art has officially opened, showcasing national pavilions and exhibitions from around the world. The article highlights key pavilions that visitors should prioritize this year, offering a curated guide to the most notable presentations at the prestigious international art event.
Artist Jessica Smith, originally from Texas, is opening her first solo exhibition in Salt Lake City titled "35 Years of Not Painting" at the Salt Lake City Public Library's Lower Urban Room Gallery from May 11 to June 21. After a high school art teacher censored her work, Smith abandoned painting for decades, turning to theater and later creating personalized picture books for her son with autism. She returned to art during the COVID-19 pandemic, painting portraits of admired figures like Mr. Rogers, Tupac Shakur, and Stevie Nicks. Smith is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation and has become TERO Certified, allowing her to be listed as a potential artist for tribal commissions. She credits the Urban Indian Center of Salt Lake as a key support system.
Afton's Third Friday Night Art Exhibits return for the 2025 season, running from May 15 through November at 146 Main Street in Afton, New York. The monthly events, held in the HUG/HALos building (formerly the Great American Food Store), feature rotating selections of artwork from local artists, with the first exhibit showcasing youth art from Afton students. Gallery curator and artist Michael Bolde, who launched the series three years ago, organizes the shows in a community room provided free of charge by Joyce Humphrey, founder of the HALos grief counseling program. Artists who sell work contribute a 20% commission to HALos, far below the typical 50% gallery split, supporting both creators and local programming.
Art Room on 2nd in Medicine Hat, Alberta, is presenting "Remembrance," a solo exhibition featuring the acrylic works of Jackie DeBlasio, who is also a co-owner of the gallery. The show, opening May 8, 2026, presents large-scale figurative paintings on rolled canvas with sewn edges, hung from dowels to emphasize physicality and the process of becoming. DeBlasio describes the works as exploring identity, fluidity, and the tension between structure and surrender.
WHAT Museum in Tokyo is hosting a group exhibition titled “Corrugated/Coral — Eight Practices to Project Architecture Afar,” on view until September 13, 2026. The show features installations by eight teams of architects, including Altemy, Office Yuasa, Garage, Group, Domino Architects, Toshiki Hirano, Rui Architects, and Tetsuo Hatakeyama + Taiki Yoshino + Archipelago Architects Studio. One highlighted work is “Darkness, Afterglow,” where visitors follow written instructions to sit in a darkened room and interact with light and a book, offering a conceptual experience of architectural thinking.
The Lynden Sculpture Garden in Milwaukee announces its May 2026 events, including exhibitions, workshops, and outdoor installations. Featured exhibitions include Faythe Levine's "Time is Running Out," which explores the legacy of Charlotte Partridge and Miriam Frink, co-founders of the Layton School of Art, and "Slow Growing in the Time of Trees" by the mycology-focused collective mycollective. A bonsai exhibit opens on World Bonsai Day in collaboration with the Milwaukee Bonsai Society and Milwaukee Bonsai Foundation, alongside free community events like Knit @ Lynden with Sara Caron.
Studio A, a leading Australian supported studio for artists with intellectual disability, is celebrating its tenth anniversary with a retrospective exhibition titled "SAD, MAD, THINKING birthday." The show features iconic Archibald Prize portraits by the studio's finalists, works that inspired major public artworks, and standout pieces from across the studio's artists. It culminates in a dining room installation created in collaboration with designers and brands including Mud Australia, Canberra Glassworks, Alémais, Erth, and Armadillo.
The Sertoma Arts Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, is hosting a series of exhibitions throughout 2025 and 2026, featuring a wide array of local and regional artists. The current exhibition is the 47th annual Sertoma Parks Artists Association (SPAA) show, featuring over 30 artists, running from February to April 2026. Upcoming shows include a May-June 2026 exhibition highlighting artists like Adam Cooley and Natacha Sochat, and the center regularly presents themed exhibits such as its annual Student, Instructor, and Patron exhibition.
The WCU Fine Art Museum recently hosted its 58th Annual Juried Undergraduate Exhibition, featuring works by 25 student artists across various media including video, sculpture, and photography. Juried by artist Tracy Templeton, the showcase highlighted technical skill and personal expression, with top honors going to James Wood Boone for his time-based media piece "The Caretaker" and Valeria Enid Ramos for her portraiture.
Kansas City’s spring art season features a diverse lineup of exhibitions across several key local venues, highlighting regional talent and identity-driven narratives. Notable shows include a group exhibition by the Kansas City Art Institute’s AAPI Association at Leedy-Voulkos Art Center and a collaborative project between Kansas City and Chicago galleries titled "Queer Ecologies II" at the Charlotte Street Foundation, which explores the intersection of queer identity and environmental science.
Service users from Rehab Care Castlerea and Roscommon are presenting a special art exhibition at the Roscommon Library. Running from February 18th to February 28th, the showcase features a variety of creative works produced by individuals within the care program.
Elizabeth Talbot from TW Gaze explores the concept of collecting ahead of a sale of international contemporary art at Diss Auction Rooms on February 17. The auction features over 20 Australian Aboriginal works by artists like Mary Anne Nampijimpa Michaels and George Ward Tjungurrayi, six works by Chinese artist Huang Simao, and a painting by American artist Douglas Stewart, all from the estate of a Norfolk collector who sourced pieces worldwide.
The Angel Field Festival, an annual multi-arts event hosted by Liverpool Hope University, will take place from April 17th to 25th, 2026, at the university's Creative Campus in Liverpool. The festival's program includes theatre, music spanning classical to electronic, free art exhibitions, and storytelling, featuring both local Liverpool talents and international influences.
Heartware Store & Gallery in Singapore's Joo Chiat neighborhood is hosting a pop-up exhibition titled 'Ikuiku Love Hotel,' a collaboration with Taiwanese artist Ikuiku. The show transforms the space into a love hotel-themed environment, complete with a reception counter, mock hotel room, and bathroom set, all featuring the artist's vibrant, character-driven artworks that explore themes of sexuality and intimacy with playful, cheeky humor.
Casa Batlló, Antoni Gaudí's iconic Art Nouveau house in Barcelona, has opened a new contemporary art gallery called Casa Batlló Contemporary. The 230-square-meter space, designed by local studio Mesura, occupies previously inaccessible rooms on the building's second floor and will host two exhibitions annually, aiming to explore Gaudí's vision through contemporary creativity.
The ARTS at King Street Station in Seattle has announced its 2026 exhibition calendar, featuring a diverse lineup of 13 shows from November 2025 through February 2027. Highlights include "Welcome to Paradise: ¡Viva Puerto Rico Libre!" by Jo Cosme, which critiques colonial narratives of Puerto Rico; "Living and Loving Under the Carceral State" by Alison Bremner; a South Indian kolam exhibition by Anuradha Samrat; and "Tết In Diaspora" by Nhi Vo celebrating Vietnamese New Year. Other exhibitions explore Afrofuturism, Black figuration, animation, augmented reality, the legacy of Black Arts West Theater, and themes of mothering and gender-based violence.
Kansas City's winter offers a perfect opportunity to explore seven local art exhibitions, as highlighted in KCUR's Adventure newsletter. Notable shows include "Speeding" at 100,000,000 Space, featuring works by Annie Woodfill, Charlie Crowell, Mario Cuellar Ocaña, and Shaza Umran that capture urgency and motion; "One Bedroom Apartment: The Second Installment" at Gallery Bogart, showcasing bite-sized artworks by artists like Napoleón Aguilera, Monica Figueroa, and Madeline Brice to encourage accessible art collecting; and "What Work Is" at Vulpes Bastille, curated by Adams Puryear and Nina Littrell, where over 40 local artists transform factory coveralls to explore art and labor.
Perkins Center for the Arts in Collingswood, New Jersey, opens its winter gallery season with a joint artists' reception on January 10, 2026, featuring two exhibitions. In the Main Gallery, 'Room For My Lens' surveys the first 20 years of photographer Liz Wuillermin's career, pairing images with personal stories. Upstairs in the Loft Gallery, 'The Untitled Art Exhibition' presents oil, acrylic, and mixed-media works by Anthony Charles Christopher Johnson and special guest artist Jamil Ameer Cobb, exploring freedom of expression, transformation, and truth through layered surfaces and reimagined found objects. Both shows run from January 5 through February 27, 2026.
An art exhibition by painter George Gavriel was removed from the Blue Iris Gallery in Paphos after the gallery’s owner received death threats. The threats began following a social media post by a candidate for the far-right ELAM party, escalating through Saturday. Gavriel withdrew the works, which often address political and religious themes, to protect the owner, who chose not to file a formal complaint. Three young people briefly entered the gallery’s basement and removed some pieces, which were later restored.
The City Hall Galleries in Boston are hosting the Fay Chandler Emerging Art Exhibition, featuring works by local emerging artists, free to visit through January 30, 2026. Six artists have been awarded cash prizes, including Miguel Caba (Best in Show, $3,000), Pam Goncalves (50+, $2,000), Ava Chapman (New Voice, $2,000), and Juror's Choice winners Yanna Marie Orcel and Marisa McCarthy ($500 each). The exhibition is inspired by Boston philanthropist Fay Chandler, who began her artistic journey later in life, and is supported by her family.
Artist Isabelle Brourman, known for courtroom sketches of high-profile figures like Donald Trump and Johnny Depp, has unveiled a new painting titled "No Rest for the Wicked" (2025). The work synthesizes her observations from documenting the Trump administration's immigration crackdown in courtrooms across the country, incorporating imagery from the Everglades and the detention facility nicknamed Alligator Alcatraz in southwest Florida. The painting is featured in the exhibition "The Body is the Body," curated by Simon Brewer and Nathalie Martin at the Rice Hotel, a renovated former hotel in downtown Miami now used as an art studio and exhibition space.
Soul Basel, a signature cultural showcase rooted in Miami's Historic Overtown, returns December 2–7, 2025, spotlighting the art and heritage of the African diaspora. The event features exhibitions, performances, and community activations across multiple locations including the 9th Street Pedestrian Mall, Black Archives Lyric Plaza, and Brightline MiamiCentral, with highlights such as the Miami MoCAAD 10th Anniversary Exhibition and the Everyday People Exhibit.
An exhibition titled "Turn the Page" has opened in the Updike Room at the Providence Public Library, featuring works by artists who transform books into art. Curated by Brown University lecturer Andre Bassuet, the show includes pieces like Iris Wright's wearable "Book Body No. 7: Palimpsest," which addresses censorship and queer erasure, and Michael Ezzell's ongoing "The Junior Classic" series, which repurposes deaccessioned library book pages. The exhibition runs through January 31.
The Asian Art Museum in San Francisco has opened a new exhibition titled "Rave into the Future: Art in Motion," which transforms the gallery into an immersive rave-like experience featuring a copper dance floor, live DJ sets, robot Roombas swirling glitter, and nine distinct "stages" representing the lifecycle of a rave. Curated by Naz Cuguoğlu, the show brings together queer and women artists of West Asian heritage from the Bay Area, New York, and Europe, and will run through January 16.
Artist David Lewry spent a year creating 36 colored pencil portraits of people working in Bedford, including a nurse, teacher, farm worker, dog groomer, funeral director, and hairdresser. The series, titled "Bedford at Work," will be exhibited at The Basement at Bunyan Gallery in Bedford from Tuesday to Saturday. Lewry, a 72-year-old former botanical artist trained at the Eden Project, was inspired during the pandemic by his wife Liz's work as a carer and wanted to honor ordinary workers in the community.
Louis Vuitton has opened a new exhibition in Paris celebrating its influence on the Art Deco movement, staged on the 100th anniversary of the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts. Featuring over 300 objects—many never publicly shown before—the immersive show spans eight themed rooms, including a reconstruction of the brand's original 1925 stand, archival designs, and contemporary pieces by Nicolas Ghesquière, Pharrell Williams, Marc Jacobs, and Kim Jones.