Philanthropist Sonya Yu made headlines in December by funding universal admission to MoMA PS1, making the Queens institution the largest free museum in New York. Based on the West Coast, she serves on the boards of SFMOMA and the Hammer Museum. In this interview, Yu discusses her influences, her views on the art industry, and her personal philosophy, touching on topics like stagnation, curiosity, and the importance of world-building over algorithm-chasing.
Artadia, a nonprofit grantmaker, held its third annual tennis tournament at the Los Angeles Tennis Club in May 2025, moving the event from its traditional pre-Frieze slot in response to the year's wildfires. The fundraiser, co-chaired by Charles Gaines, Jennie Lamensdorf, and Rafael Flores, gathered over 130 guests including gallerists from Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, and David Zwirner, as well as curator Mia Locks and artists Ally Hilfiger, Todd Gray, and Roksana Pirouzmand. Forty-five participants played in a rotating doubles format, while others socialized; Locks gave remarks and won the tournament.
ArtReview's Art Lovers Movie Club presents Elisabeth Brun's film 'Big Tech Blues' (2025), an auto-documentary that follows a small village in northern Norway as it resists the installation of a SpaceX Starlink 'Gateway' transmission site. The film blends personal essay, documentary footage, and interviews with residents who protest the hub over concerns about noise pollution, radiation, and environmental impact on the rural coastline. Brun contrasts slick Starlink promotional material with slow, intimate scenes of the landscape and community organizing on Facebook, highlighting the irony of using digital tools to fight digital infrastructure.
The Museum of Sonoma County is commemorating the 50th anniversary of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's iconic 1976 installation "Running Fence" with an exhibition featuring blueprints, original construction materials, and documentary photographs. The temporary work, which stretched nearly 25 miles across Sonoma and Marin counties in California, required four years of negotiations with ranchers, 18 public hearings, and the first-ever Environmental Impact Report for a public artwork, ultimately costing $2.25 million funded by the artists through preparatory drawing sales.
Luke Goebel's new novel 'Kill Dick' is a satirical, chaotic takedown of the contemporary art world and its entanglement with the Sackler family, fictionalized here as the Sicklers. The book follows protagonist Susie, the daughter of the Sickler family lawyer, as she navigates addiction, familial disgust, and a numbed existence against the backdrop of 2016 America. Its prose is deliberately abrasive and shocking, mirroring the emotional state of its narrator.
Butter, the Indianapolis-founded art fair known for returning 100 percent of sales proceeds to artists, is making its Los Angeles debut at Hollywood Park in Inglewood. Organized by the cultural development firm GangGang, the fair coincides with Frieze Week and features works by Black visual artists including Micah Johnson, Micaiah Carter, and April Bey. The event includes a robust programming schedule featuring a collaborative installation by Lauren Halsey and a screening commemorating the 50th anniversary of Ernie Barnes’s "The Sugar Shack."
The Reefline, a non-profit eco-art initiative, has launched its first phase of a seven-mile underwater sculpture park and artificial reef along Miami Beach. The project debuted with 'Concrete Coral' by Argentinian artist Leandro Erlich, a submerged sculpture depicting a traffic jam designed to provide a habitat for marine life. Future phases include works by Carlos Betancourt, Alberto Latorre, and Petroc Sesti, all overseen by the architecture firm OMA and founder Ximena Caminos.
California College of the Arts (CCA), the Bay Area's last private art and design school, will close after the 2026–27 academic year, ending 116 years of operation. Vanderbilt University will acquire CCA's San Francisco campus and open a West Coast outpost in 2027, continuing some art and design programs. The closure follows years of financial struggles, including a $20 million deficit, declining enrollment from 1,800 to 1,295 students, and emergency fundraising that raised nearly $45 million—including a $22.5 million matching gift from the Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang Foundation and a $20 million state grant—but proved insufficient to ensure long-term independence.
Burnaway's May 2026 Calls for Artists roundup lists multiple opportunities with deadlines in early May. These include the Joan Mitchell Center's call for figurative works, the Michael P. Smith Fund for Documentary Photography for Gulf Coast photographers, the Center for Craft Teaching Artist Cohort offering $10,000 grants to mid-career craft artists, the Hopper Prize grants totaling $13,000, residencies at The Studios of Key West and Trillium Arts, and the National Performance Network Creation & Development Fund. Each opportunity has specific eligibility, fees, and deadlines ranging from May 3 to May 18, 2026.
The Portland Art Museum (PAM) will reopen its completely renovated campus on November 20 after nine years and $111 million in construction. The centerpiece is the Mark Rothko Pavilion, a glass structure that connects the museum's two historic buildings—the Main Building (1932) and the Mark Building (1924)—replacing a confusing underground tunnel that often caused visitors to miss entire exhibitions. The renovation touches 100,000 square feet total, including a new media gallery, upgraded spaces, and a 24/7 public passageway through the pavilion. An exhibition of eight paintings by Mark Rothko, who spent his childhood in Portland, will open alongside the pavilion.
Hastings Contemporary has launched its inaugural biennial, titled "The Open: Odyssey," featuring over 150 artists with connections to Sussex. Selected from a pool of 2,600 applicants by a panel led by Kathleen Soriano, the exhibition explores themes of marine ecology, migration, mythology, and coastal life. Notable works include Alan Patch’s large-scale hanging of plastic detritus, Kate Howe’s monumental waxed paper installation "The Moving Edge," and Kevin J J Warren’s sculptures made from salvaged fishing nets.
Takako Yamaguchi, a Japanese-born artist based in Los Angeles since 1987, will receive her first solo museum show in the city at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) starting June 29, 2025. The exhibition will feature 10 new seascapes in MOCA's Grand Avenue space, following a period of heightened attention including a 2023 show at Ortuzar gallery, inclusion in the 2024 Whitney Biennial, and record-breaking auction sales. In an interview with Cultured, Yamaguchi discusses her ambivalent relationship with the actual sea—she lives near the coast but rarely visits—and explains that her seascapes are inspired by other artists' depictions, such as Marsden Hartley and Rockwell Kent, filtered through her own lens of "semi-abstraction in reverse."
Richard Rezac has opened a solo exhibition titled "Tracery" at Chris Sharp Gallery in Los Angeles. The show, featuring new sculptural works, will be on view from February 24 through April 18, 2026.
Nashville International Airport (BNA) has launched its Winter/Spring installment of the Flying Solo exhibition series, featuring works by Nashville-based artists Amber Lelli, Kymberlee Stanley, Yanira Vissepó, and David Wilson. The seasonal installation, on display through April 19, 2026, includes mixed media, oil paintings, acrylics, and collages across airport concourses, with Lelli's "Rest in Pieces" on Concourse D and Stanley's "Windows of Wonder" near Gate D2. The exhibition is part of BNA's Arts at the Airport program, established in 1988, which rotates local artists and arts organizations to engage travelers.
A guide lists galleries in Wellfleet and Provincetown, Massachusetts, that plan to remain open during December, some through New Year's, with winter hours and by-appointment visits. Featured galleries include AMZehnder Gallery, Farm Projects, Jeff Soderbergh Gallery, Left Bank Gallery, Wellfleet Preservation Hall, Alden Gallery, Bakker Gallery, Berta Walker Gallery, Four Eleven Gallery, and Gary Marotta Fine Art, each offering exhibitions of contemporary paintings, ceramics, photography, and works on paper. The Provincetown Art Gallery Association and Provincetown Business Guild are hosting gallery strolls every Saturday in December from 1 to 4 p.m.
Governor Maura Healey of Massachusetts has unveiled a temporary art exhibition in the Governor's office reception area to celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. The display features works by four Asian American artists living in Massachusetts—Yu Cheng, Tira Khan, Timothy Hyunsoo Lee, and On Kyeong Seong—spanning photography, embroidery, and paintings. The exhibition, organized in partnership with the Mass Cultural Council, runs through May 16 and is part of Healey's broader effort to diversify the art displayed in the State House.
Mario Ayala's first US museum exhibition, 'Seven Vans,' is on view at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH) through 2025–26. The show features life-sized canvases of vans suspended in the museum's basement space, exploring car culture, memory, and community through Ayala's Southern California and Gulf Coast influences. The article includes an interview with Ayala by Rosa Boshier González, discussing his upbringing in the Inland Empire, his father's lowrider scene involvement, and his 'Research While Driving' project that inspired the exhibition.
The Museum of Somerset is hosting "A Life in Art: Roger Fry," an exhibition dedicated to the painter, critic, and curator Roger Fry, who introduced post-impressionism to England. The show features nearly 40 of Fry's paintings from a recent Charleston exhibition, alongside works by his wife, Arts & Crafts artist Helen Coombe, whose career and life have been largely overlooked. Through artwork, archival photos, and a film, the exhibition explores Fry's complex personal life, including Coombe's institutionalization for mental illness, and his role within the Bloomsbury Group.
Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo presents 'Minga for the Sea,' a major new commission by Chilean artist, poet, and activist Cecilia Vicuña, running from May 29 to August 9, 2026. This is Vicuña's first major presentation in Scandinavia, featuring two large horizontal quipus made from locally sourced raw wool, one dedicated to the Southern Hemisphere/Chile and the other to the Northern Hemisphere/Sápmi. The quipus incorporate contributions from Indigenous and environmental defenders, including poems, drawings, and videos, forming a polyphonic archive of cultural resistance against destructive resource extraction and pollution of marine environments.
San Francisco museums are navigating a mix of upcoming exhibitions and financial challenges in May 2026. SFMOMA is closing "KAWS: Family" on May 3 and opening "Matisse’s Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal" from May 16 to September 13. The Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts has suspended operations due to funding issues, and SOMArts is also facing a budget gap. Meanwhile, the Museum of Craft and Design presents "Video Craft" through August 16, and the Letterform Archive hosts "Black Memory Scholar: The Language of Storytellers" and "Piet Zwart: Brand Architect." SFMOMA has announced three SECA award winners—CrossLypka, Em Kettner, and Chanell Stone—who will exhibit from December 2026 to May 2027, and the museum continues to showcase "Reimagined: The Fisher Collection at 10" and new installations by Alexander Calder, Claes Oldenburg + Coosje van Bruggen, and Rose B Simpson.
The remains of Charlottesville's melted Confederate statue of General Robert E. Lee are now on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles as part of the 'Monuments' exhibition. The statue, originally standing in Market Street Park, was acquired by the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center (JSAAHC) in 2021, melted down at a secret location, and shipped to Los Angeles. The exhibition, presented in partnership with The Brick, also features artist Kara Walker's reconstruction of the Thomas Jackson statue. The bronze ingots and slag from the melting process are displayed alongside other works that reimagine Confederate monuments.
Telfair Museums in Savannah, Georgia, has opened a new exhibition titled "Off the Coast of Paradise: Artists and Ossabaw Island, 1961–Now," exploring the profound impact of the undeveloped barrier island on artists. The show focuses on the Ossabaw Island Project and Genesis, two multidisciplinary residency programs that operated from 1961 to 1982, and features work by 32 artists who were inspired or transformed by their time on the island. The exhibition runs through September 6, 2026, at The Jepson Center for the Arts.
The Akron Art Museum will present "Kent Monkman: History Is Painted by the Victors," a major exhibition of monumental paintings by Cree artist Kent Monkman. Running from April 11 to August 16, 2026, the show reimagines history painting through a subversive, Indigenous lens, confronting colonial narratives and offering new perspectives on the past and present.
The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) is debuting "Giants," a major exhibition featuring over 130 works from the private collection of Kasseem "Swizz Beatz" Dean and Alicia Keys. The West Coast premiere showcases monumental paintings, sculptures, and installations by nearly 40 Black artists, including Kehinde Wiley, Mickalene Thomas, and Nick Cave. The show is organized around themes of scale and cultural impact, beginning with personal artifacts from the Deans' early careers before transitioning into significant contemporary masterpieces.
The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) is hosting the West Coast debut of "Giants," a major exhibition featuring the personal art collection of musical icons Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz (Kasseem Dean). The show features works by nearly 40 Black American and diasporic artists, including monumental pieces by towering figures in the contemporary art world. To localize the presentation, the museum has collaborated with the Deans to launch a companion exhibition titled "Hometown Heroes," which spotlights San Diego-based artists.
The Women’s Art Registry of Minnesota (WARM), one of the oldest feminist art collectives in the United States, is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Founded in 1973 in Minneapolis, the collective emerged as a grassroots response to the systemic exclusion of women from mainstream galleries and museums, eventually establishing its own gallery space and a robust mentorship program that continues to support female-identifying artists today.
The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York is hosting a major retrospective titled "Robert Rauschenberg: Spreading Viaducts," which places a significant focus on the artist's formative years in his hometown of Port Arthur, Texas. The exhibition explores how the industrial landscape and unique coastal environment of the Gulf Coast influenced Rauschenberg’s revolutionary approach to materials and his development of the "Combine" paintings.
The Portland Art Museum (PAM), the oldest art museum in the Pacific Northwest, has recently completed a significant 100,000-square-foot expansion to enhance its public and gallery spaces. The museum's diverse collection of over 50,000 objects is particularly noted for its holdings in Native American art, English silver, and graphic arts. Current highlights include the Joe and Shelley Voboril Gallery’s focus on Plains regional works and the 'Conductions: Black Imaginings II' series of in-gallery activations.
The New Bedford Art Museum has unveiled its 2026 exhibition schedule, featuring a diverse range of programming that spans from historical masterpieces to contemporary social issues. The season began with "The Homecoming," a rare display of works by Mary Cassatt and Käthe Kollwitz from private SouthCoast collections, and will continue with a major survey of contemporary Mexican art titled "Resistance." Other highlights include an exploration of ecological anxieties in "Vanishing Ecologies" and a partnership with the American Visionary Art Museum to showcase self-taught artists.
Southwest Florida’s museum landscape is featuring a robust schedule this March, with 36 exhibitions on display across institutions from Sarasota to Naples. Key highlights include the Sarasota Art Museum’s centennial celebration of Art Deco through 100 rare posters from the Crouse Collection, alongside contemporary showcases such as Selina Román’s photographic explorations of the human form and Molly Hatch’s massive site-specific ceramic installation, "Amalgam."