Art News. Vasari Codex

rate_review review schedule May 1, 2026 visibility 27 link 6 artists

Diedrick Brackens’s Tapestries Beckon the Light of Freedom

Diedrick Brackens presents his first solo exhibition in the Bay Area, "gather tender night," at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Guest-curated by Eungie Joo, the show features 15 tapestries from 2020 onward and three new works from 2026, including the immersive installation "clearing (2026)." Brackens, a Black queer artist and CCA professor, uses hand-dyed cotton and acrylic yarn to weave narratives of personal memory, myth, and the natural world, drawing from West African weaving, California fiber art, European tapestry, and Gee's Bend quilting. His approach, influenced by the "sloppy craft" ethos of his mentor Josh Faught, embraces unfinished edges and visible process as acts of refusal against polished traditions.

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article news schedule Apr 29, 2026 visibility 21 link 8 artists

Whistleblower Complaint Alleges Misconduct at Palm Springs Art Museum, Where an Ex-Trustee Describes a ‘Shattered Moral Compass’

An anonymous whistleblower has filed a complaint alleging misconduct by leadership at the Palm Springs Art Museum, including improper movement of funds between accounts to address cash shortages, the forced resignation of a former director based on fabricated staff complaints, and a failure to properly interview external candidates for the director position. The complaint, forwarded to ARTnews, also references a $3 million discrepancy in the reported endowment value and the departure of several trustees, leaving the board below its required size. The museum has formed a special committee to investigate the allegations, which were first reported by the Los Angeles Times in November 2025.

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article news schedule Apr 6, 2026 visibility 30 link 11 artists

Closure of DePaul Art Museum leaves collection in limbo

DePaul University has announced the permanent closure of the DePaul Art Museum (DPAM) effective June 30, citing a projected $27.4m budget deficit for 2026. Despite an open letter signed by over 3,000 students and faculty, the administration is moving forward with the shutdown of the $7.8m facility that has served as a cultural anchor since 2011. Director Laura-Caroline de Lara had successfully raised funds to keep the museum operational through the current season, but the university's leadership remains committed to the closure as part of a broader cost-cutting initiative.

newspaper The Art Newspaper open_in_new Read original

article news schedule Dec 10, 2025 visibility 19 link 6 artists

matisse prints stolen library exhibition sao paulo brazil

On December 7, two armed thieves stole eight prints by Henri Matisse and at least five engravings by Brazilian modernist painter Cândido Portinari from the Mário de Andrade Library in São Paulo. The works were part of the exhibition “From Book to Museum,” organized in collaboration with the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art, which was scheduled to close that day. Police have arrested one suspect, and some artworks were reportedly abandoned nearby.

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article news schedule Dec 8, 2025 visibility 15 link 10 artists

architecture houses lost los angeles fires

A week after wildfires erupted across Los Angeles, the city remains under critical threat as the Pacific Palisades, Eaton, Hollywood Hills, and San Fernando Valley fires have forced the evacuation of roughly 200,000 residents, destroyed about 12,000 buildings, and claimed at least 24 lives. Among the losses are culturally and architecturally significant structures, including the Bunny Museum in Altadena, the historic Will Rogers ranch, the Altadena Community Church (designed by Harry L. Pierce), the Andrew McNally House (a Queen Anne-style mansion by Frederick Roehrig), Richard Neutra's Benedict and Nancy Freedman House, and Gregory Ain's Park Planned Homes in Altadena. Adrian Scott Fine of the Los Angeles Conservancy described the destruction as "a mass erasure of heritage."

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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 2, 2025 visibility 22 link 5 artists

elephant sculptures migrate to art basel miami beach

A herd of 100 life-size elephant sculptures, handcrafted by 200 Indigenous artisans from South India, has arrived at Art Basel Miami Beach as part of "The Great Elephant Migration," a global public art and conservation project. The sculptures are made from lantana camara, an invasive plant, and are modeled after individual elephants from the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. Organized by Ruth Ganesh and the Coexistence Collective, the installation aims to promote coexistence between humans and wildlife, with proceeds from sculpture sales funding 22 conservation NGOs. The elephants have toured the U.S., appearing in Newport, Rhode Island, Manhattan's Meatpacking District, and now Miami Beach, where they have drawn enthusiastic crowds—and even a reported incident of a couple having sex on one of the sculptures, prompting police patrols.

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gavel restitution schedule Nov 25, 2025 visibility 17 link 3 artists

california revives nazi looted pissarro cassirer case

California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a motion on November 17 to intervene in the Cassirer family's two-decade-long restitution case for a Camille Pissarro painting stolen by the Nazis. The artwork, *Rue Saint Honore, Apres Midi, Effet De Pluie* (1897), is owned by Spain's Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit had previously ruled that Spanish law applied, allowing the museum to keep the painting, but California's Assembly Bill 2867, signed into law in September, now seeks to apply California law to protect victims of art theft. The case has been sent back to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California for reconsideration.

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gavel restitution schedule Nov 18, 2025 visibility 16 link 4 artists

california attorney general nazi looted picasso madrid

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has re-entered the long-running legal battle over a Camille Pissarro painting, *Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon, Effect of Rain* (1897), which was sold under duress by Lilly Cassirer Neubauer to a Nazi appraiser in 1939 for 900 Reichsmarks. The painting is now held by the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, and the Cassirer family has sought its return for decades. A new California law signed by Governor Gavin Newsom in September allows exceptions for property taken as a result of political persecution, and Bonta is now defending the state's authority to compel the return of stolen art to victims connected to California.

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gavel restitution schedule Nov 11, 2025 visibility 18 link 4 artists

stolen painting saint francis returned mexico church

A painting of Saint Francis of Assisi, stolen from the Church of San Francisco de Asis in Teotihuacán, Mexico, in 2001, has been recovered and returned to the church. The six-foot-tall work, painted in 1747 by an unknown artist, was among 18 artworks taken in a nighttime theft. It resurfaced in 2018 when it was consigned to Mexico City auction house Morton Subastas, whose due diligence with the Art Loss Register flagged it as stolen. The painting, valued at 280,000 Mexican pesos ($15,000), was returned to the church in a ceremony led by Padre Teodoro García Romero.

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article culture schedule Nov 10, 2025 visibility 10 link 1 artist

ed ruscha collaborating andsons holiday chocolate bar

Ed Ruscha has collaborated with Los Angeles-based boutique chocolatier andSons to create a limited-edition chocolate bar. The bar is molded to resemble California's Central Valley topography and contains Peruvian dark chocolate, sea salt from Tomales Bay, and blood orange olive oil from Sonoma County. Packaged in an orange box with a reproduction of Ruscha's 1971 lithograph *Made in California*, only 300 bars will be produced, priced at $295 each, available starting early December 2025.

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person people schedule Oct 13, 2025 visibility 17 link 1 artist

joan weinstein vice president getty wide program planning

The Getty has appointed Joan Weinstein, current director of the Getty Foundation, to the newly created role of vice president for Getty-wide program planning. Weinstein will continue as foundation director until a successor is named, and in her new position she will develop strategy across the institution’s four divisions: the Museum, Research Institute, Conservation Institute, and Foundation, focusing on art historical scholarship and community partnerships. She is best known for co-directing PST ART, a major Southern California cultural collaboration, and has overseen significant relief funds for artists affected by wildfires and the COVID-19 pandemic.

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museum exhibitions schedule Sep 17, 2025 visibility 34 link 39 artists, 22 galleries

frieze london frieze masters 2025 highlights

Frieze London and Frieze Masters have announced highlights for their 2025 editions, running concurrently October 15–19 in Regent’s Park. Frieze London will feature ceramics and textiles, including a presentation titled “Three Generations of Female California Ceramics” at The Pit, stoneware sculptures by Sanya Kantarovsky at Modern Art, and textile works by Antonio Pichillá Quiacaín at Portas Vilaseca. Major galleries like Gagosian, Pace, Lehmann Maupin, White Cube, and Lisson will present new works by artists such as Lauren Halsey, William Monk, Do Ho Suh, and Marguerite Humeau. The fair’s curated section “Echoes in the Present” by Jareh Das includes artists like Diambe and Tadáskía, while the Focus section emphasizes installation-based works. Frieze Masters highlights include a booth of 19th- and 20th-century paintings curated by Nicolas Party at Hauser & Wirth, a solo of Peter Hujar’s drag portraits at Pace, and a new Reflections section organized by Abby Bangser focusing on decorative art.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jul 15, 2025 visibility 16 link 5 artists

eames institute opens permanent space

The Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity has opened a permanent gallery space in Richmond, California, showcasing the work of designers Charles and Ray Eames. The gallery features over 40,000 items curated by Llisa Demetrios, the Eameses' granddaughter and chief curator, including plywood sculptures exhibited at MoMA in 1944, chairs, prototypes, and ephemera that illustrate the couple's design process. The space also houses the Institute's headquarters and archive, with rotating displays planned as new discoveries are made.

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person people schedule Jul 11, 2025 visibility 15 link 7 artists

maya man art

Maya Man, an artist who earned her MFA from UC's Media Art program in 2023, is the subject of a conversation with critic Ben Davis. Her work *A Realistic Day in My Life Living in New York City* is the first commission for the Whitney Museum's 'On the Hour' program, appearing on the museum's website for 30 seconds each hour. Man also founded the experimental art space HEART in New York City, which operated briefly but left a significant impact on the online/offline art scene before closing earlier in 2025.

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article culture schedule Jun 30, 2025 visibility 21 link 8 artists

shana moulton wellness culture buffalo interview

Shana Moulton, an artist and chair of the art department at the University of California, Santa Barbara, discusses her exhibition "Meta/Physical Therapy" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and her retrospective at the Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art. The article centers on Moulton's semi-autobiographical alter ego, Cynthia, a hypochondriac navigating New Age wellness culture through video installations, performances, and a collection of eccentric objects. Moulton explores themes of hypochondria, hospital art, and the absurdity of wellness consumerism, drawing from her upbringing in a California mobile home park and her long-running video series "Whispering Pines" (2002–18).

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candle obituary schedule Jun 26, 2025 visibility 12 link 5 artists

marcia resnick photographer punk scene dead

Marcia Resnick, a photographer renowned for capturing Manhattan's downtown art and punk scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s, has died at age 74 from lung cancer. Her sister Janice Hahn confirmed the cause of death. Resnick began with conceptual photography before shifting to portraiture, documenting figures such as Mick Jagger, Klaus Nomi, Joseph Beuys, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Ed Koch, and John Belushi. She was briefly married to MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer and taught at New York University and Cooper Union. Her work was featured in the SoHo Weekly News, and a retrospective of her photography opened at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art in 2022.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 26, 2025 visibility 17 link 6 artists

cara romero photographer hood museum exhibition

Cara Romero, an enrolled citizen of the Chemehuevi Indian Tribe, is the subject of her first institutional solo exhibition, "Panûpünüwügai," at Dartmouth's Hood Museum in New Hampshire. The show features her photography that fuses Indigenous ancestral memory with pop culture, depicting Native women as powerful agents reclaiming space against colonial stereotypes. Romero has also been featured in over 10 museum group exhibitions since last fall, including shows at the Hudson River Museum and Cantor Art Center.

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candle obituary schedule Jun 24, 2025 visibility 13 link 4 artists

architect michael graves dead

Architect and designer Michael Graves has died at age 80 of natural causes at his home in Princeton, New Jersey. Known for iconic projects such as the Portland Municipal Services Building, the Denver Public Library, and the Alessi tea kettle for Target, Graves was a leading figure in postmodern architecture. His death prompted tributes from fellow architects Tod Williams and Richard Meier, who recalled his teaching at Princeton University and his influence on the field. Graves also designed the Humana Building, Team Disney building, and Walt Disney World Dolphin Resort, and in later years focused on accessibility projects after becoming paralyzed from a spinal cord infection.

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gavel restitution schedule May 27, 2025 visibility 13 link 3 artists

yves kleins sued stuart semple blue paint

British artist Stuart Semple has been ordered by a French court to pay €16,000 ($18,200) in damages for selling a blue paint called Easy Klein, which he developed as a tribute to Yves Klein. The ruling, issued on what would have been Klein’s 97th birthday, sided with Klein’s estate and trademark holders—Blue Bay Limited, RUK (the company managing Klein’s copyrights), and Klein’s son Yves Amu Klein—who argued that Semple’s product unfairly capitalized on Klein’s legacy. Semple denies the claims and plans to appeal, stating that the packaging was a satirical riff on Calvin Klein perfume, not an attempt to confuse consumers.

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article news schedule May 1, 2025 visibility 17 link 14 artists

chanel fund high tech arts center calarts

California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) will establish the Chanel Center for Artists and Technology, funded by the Chanel Culture Fund. The initiative focuses on artificial intelligence, machine learning, and digital imaging, creating dozens of new roles, fellowships for artists and technologists-in-residence, and graduate student support, along with cutting-edge equipment. CalArts president Ravi S. Rajan described it as among the largest corporate partnerships the school has had, potentially the largest for any art school.

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article news schedule Apr 9, 2026 visibility 21 link 1 artist

Getty Center in Los Angeles Is Closing for Year of Renovations

The Getty Center in Los Angeles has announced it will close to the public for a full year starting in March 2027. This significant hiatus is required to facilitate a major infrastructure overhaul, primarily focusing on the replacement of its aging computer-operated tram system and the modernization of several gallery spaces within the Richard Meier-designed campus.

newspaper New York Times Art open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule May 8, 2026 visibility 18 link 10 artists, 2 galleries

Getting Messy in the Archive at LA’s Art Book Fair

Printed Matter's Los Angeles Art Book Fair returned to the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena for its 13th edition, featuring over 250 exhibitors—slightly fewer than last year—with about a fifth participating for the first time. A common thread across the fair was the archive: publications that excavate, remix, and repurpose historical media, from a book chronicling a 1960s hoax about animal nudity to a compendium of vintage photographs that subvert male subjectivity, and a collection of found photos from abandoned houses in rural Maine. The fair also highlighted diasporic and personal archives, including a Palestinian-American artist's cassette mixtape tracing music from the Middle East and an artist-run press focusing on translation as cultural resistance.

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candle obituary schedule May 20, 2026 visibility 7 link 8 artists, 3 galleries

Remembering F. John Sierra, Valie Export, and Mary Lovelace O’Neal

This week's In Memoriam column honors seven figures from the art world who recently passed away, including muralist and Chicano art champion F. John Sierra (1942–2026), Austrian feminist performance and film artist Valie Export (1940–2026), and painter and Civil Rights activist Mary Lovelace O'Neal (1942–2026). Also remembered are Maltese coin and monument designer Noel Galea Bason (1955–2026), Iranian-Irish gallerist and polymath Jamshid MirFenderesky (1947–2026), Philadelphia painter and educator Peter Paone (1936–2026), and Italian sculptor and installation artist Remo Salvadori (1947–2026). Each entry highlights their key contributions, from founding institutions and participating in major biennials to shaping cultural identity and challenging societal norms through art.

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candle obituary schedule May 14, 2026 visibility 12 link 13 artists, 1 gallery

Mary Lovelace O’Neal, Painter and Civil Rights Luminary, Dies at 84

Mary Lovelace O’Neal, a painter, educator, and Civil Rights activist, died on May 10 at age 84 in Mérida, Mexico. Known for her monumental canvases and inventive “lampblack” works, she moved fluidly between abstraction and figuration, using layers of black pigment to assert Blackness and presence. Her career included studies at Howard University and Columbia University, activism with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and connections to the Black Arts Movement.

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person people schedule May 13, 2026 visibility 14 link 12 artists, 7 galleries

Coco Fusco and Jeffrey Gibson’s Public Lectures, Free Admission at MCA Denver, and More: Industry Moves for May 13, 2026

This week's art industry moves include Coco Fusco and Jeffrey Gibson being named speakers for Johns Hopkins University's Sam Gilliam Lecture Series, with free talks scheduled in Washington, D.C. Other notable developments: MCA Denver received a $1 million gift from the Precourt Foundation for free youth admission through 2031; Xavier Hufkens now represents painter Richard Aldrich; Galatea will represent the estate of Brazilian self-taught painter Grauben do Monte Lima; Green Art Gallery added Sharjah-based artist Fatma Al Ali; Chris Sharp Gallery now represents sculptor Richard Rezac; and the Oakland Museum of California received a ceramics gift and $1 million endowment from the Brian and Edith Heath Foundation. Additionally, a Banksy painting from the "Crude Oils" series is estimated at $18 million for an upcoming Fair Warning auction at Tiffany & Co.

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candle obituary schedule May 13, 2026 visibility 12 link 6 artists, 3 galleries

Mary Lovelace O’Neal, Abstract Painter Who Refused to Conform, Dies at 84

Mary Lovelace O’Neal, an abstract painter known for her gestural, unruly works that defied categorization, died on Sunday in Mérida, Mexico, at age 84. Her galleries, Jenkins Johnson and Marianne Boesky, announced her passing. O’Neal produced sprawling paintings characterized by tangles of drippy strokes, often using lamp black pigment to create intensely black canvases. She rejected labels like Abstract Expressionist or Minimalist, insisting she was simply a painter. Her series "Whales Fucking" (1979) and a 2020 exhibition at Mnuchin Gallery revived her profile, leading to inclusion in the 2024 Whitney Biennial.

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rate_review review schedule Apr 7, 2026 visibility 48 link 70 artists, 9 galleries

Alex Heilbron at as-is

Artist Alex Heilbron presents a solo exhibition at the Los Angeles gallery as-is. The show is featured as a lead review in the February 2026 issue of Contemporary Art Review LA, highlighting Heilbron's continued exploration of painting and visual language within the Southern California art scene.

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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 26, 2025 visibility 21 link 11 artists, 4 galleries

meet 5 artists transforming photography

Soho Beach House in Miami has reoriented its art collection around photography in late 2025, featuring works by established figures like Isaac Julien, JR, Laurie Simmons, Marilyn Minter, and Ming Smith alongside emerging artists such as René Matić, Caroline Allison, and Walead Beshty. The rehang, overseen by chief art director Kate Bryan, spans polaroids, performance-derived imagery, collage, and cameraless prints, with a focus on artists who use photography as a tool for broader inquiry.

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article local schedule Nov 12, 2025 visibility 17 link 11 artists, 1 gallery

mr wash community center compton book fundraiser

Artist Fulton Leroy Washington, known as Mr. Wash, is establishing the Art By Wash Studio & Community Center, a 13,000-square-foot campus in Compton, California, to serve recently incarcerated individuals and local youth. Released in 2016 after President Barack Obama commuted his life sentence for nonviolent drug offenses, Mr. Wash taught art in prison for 18 years and later gained recognition in the art world, including a breakout appearance at the 2020 Made in L.A. biennial. The center, designed pro bono by Morphosis Architects and The NOW Institute, will offer art-making instruction, studio space, materials, and exhibition opportunities, with the goal of connecting emerging artists to curators and galleries. The project is currently fundraising $100,000 for its first phase, with completion targeted for 2028.

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person people schedule Nov 27, 2025 visibility 17 link 9 artists, 2 galleries

richard hambleton

Richard Hambleton, the Canadian street artist known as the "Godfather of Street Art," is the subject of a new feature by Sphere Gallery, which has championed his legacy. The gallery, founded in New York in 2015 and now based in Laguna Beach, California, specializes in artists who shaped contemporary visual culture, including Hambleton. The article highlights Hambleton's early "Image of Mass Murder" body outlines from the 1970s and his iconic "Shadowman" paintings from the early 1980s, which appeared in cities worldwide. It also discusses his relationships with Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Keith Haring, as seen in his 2016 work *The Four Friends*. Gallery founder Philippe Hoerle-Guggenheim shares his personal encounters with Hambleton's work and explains why the "Shadowman" series remains significant for its raw, psychological intensity and its embodiment of 1980s New York City.

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