beloved rocky statue will move to top of philadelphia art museum steps 1234769939

The Philadelphia Art Commission has voted to relocate the popular bronze statue of Rocky Balboa from its current position at the bottom of the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art to the top of those steps. The move, budgeted between $150,000 and $250,000, includes the creation of a new 14-foot-tall pedestal. The statue, a fictional boxer played by Sylvester Stallone, has long been a tourist attraction and local icon, though a second casting already exists at the top. The project will be overseen by Creative Philadelphia.

bjork echolalia iceland gallery 2722856

Björk, the Icelandic pop icon and multidisciplinary artist, is opening an exhibition of immersive works titled "Echolalia" at the National Gallery of Iceland, coinciding with the 2026 Reykjavik Arts Festival. The show features installations tied to her forthcoming album and her 2022 album Fossora, including "Ancestress" and "Sorrowful Soil," the latter a tribute to her late mother. Simultaneously, the museum will host "Metamorphlings," the first museum retrospective for James Merry, the embroiderer behind many of Björk's masks, presenting over 80 works from the past decade.

madrid court spanish count pay sale goya portrait 1234764290

A Madrid court has ruled that Fernando Ramírez de Haro, 10th Marquess of Villanueva del Duero, must pay his brother Íñigo Ramirez de Haro, Marquis de Cazaza in Africa, €853,732 from the proceeds of the 2012 sale of Francisco de Goya's portrait *Portrait of Valentín Belvís de Moncada* (ca. 1795–1800). The painting, inherited from their father, was sold for €5.8 million to billionaire Juan Miguel Villar Mir via Sotheby's. Íñigo sued Fernando for failing to distribute shares of the sale to siblings as agreed in a 2014 family settlement, alleging fraud, document falsification, and that Fernando's wife, former Spanish minister Esperanza Aguirre, abused her office by not registering the work as national heritage.

bennett prize after deliberation first all women jury winner announced 1234741412

Amy Werntz, a Dallas-based figurative painter, has won the fifth Bennett Prize, the largest art award for women working in figurative painting. The announcement was made at the Muskegon Museum of Art in Michigan, where an exhibition of finalists opened. Werntz, a previous finalist in 2021, received $50,000 and a solo show for her lifelike depictions of elderly people in everyday scenes. For the first time, the winner was chosen by an all-female jury, which included painter Margaret Bowland, artist Angela Fraleigh, and curator Gloria Groom. The runner-up, Nicole Santiago, won $10,000. The traveling exhibition will visit several museums across the United States through 2027.

Siri Aurdal, Artist Who Elevated Industrial Materials Into Visions of Shared Humanity, Dies at 88

Norwegian artist Siri Aurdal, known for her pioneering use of industrial materials to create socially-driven sculptures, has died at the age of 88 in Oslo. Born into a prominent artistic family, Aurdal rose to prominence in the late 1960s by repurposing materials like reinforced fiberglass and plexiglass—often sourced from Norway’s oil industry—into modular, interactive installations. Her work frequently bridged the gap between fine art and public utility, manifesting in monumental playground structures and politically charged pieces that responded to global events like the Vietnam War.

Made in Fire Island: how artists were at the heart of the LGBTQ+ mecca

A new book titled 'Fire Island Art: 100 Years' chronicles the century-long, integral relationship between artists and the LGBTQ+ community on Fire Island. The book, edited by John Dempsey, traces the creative legacy from pre-war artists like Paul Cadmus to modern figures, highlighting how the island's unique environment fostered both sexual and artistic freedom.

Thinking Infrastructurally: On Diversity of Aesthetics, Part 2

The article, part of a series on e-flux, presents a theoretical analysis of the 1965 Watts rebellion through the lens of Guy Debord's Situationist thought. It examines how the rioters' destruction and theft of commodities, like refrigerators they couldn't power, acted as a rejection of capitalist integration and exposed the false promise of consumer affluence.

The Sprawling New David Geffen Galleries At LACMA Open To The Public On Sunday, May 3

The David Geffen Galleries at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) will open to the public on Sunday, May 3, after 20 years of development. Designed by architect Peter Zumthor, the 900-foot-long horizontal glass and concrete structure overlooks the La Brea Tar Pits and stretches over Wilshire Boulevard. The main floor, elevated 30 feet above street level, offers 110,000 square feet of gallery space for LACMA’s permanent collection. The inaugural exhibition is inspired by four major bodies of water—the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic oceans, and the Mediterranean Sea—and features works by artists including Todd Gray, Do Ho Suh, Lauren Halsey, Tavares Strachan, Jeff Koons, and Diego Rivera. The building also includes open plazas, an outdoor public space, and an Erewhon Cafe, with a larger restaurant and wine bar planned for fall 2026.

parties bvlgari chateau marmont

Bvlgari and CULTURED magazine co-hosted a launch party for Bvlgari's new Icons Minaudière collection at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles. The event, held in Penthouse 64, brought together a mix of Hollywood actors, visual artists, art dealers, and fashion insiders, with guests including Camila Mendes, Lauren Halsey, Emma Webster, and dealers Shaun Regen and Hannah Hoffman. Attendees enjoyed cocktails, dinner, and a rare pink moon sighting, and left with a co-developed mini-magazine.

mierle laderman ukeles maintenance artist documentary review 1234746471

A new documentary titled "Maintenance Artist," directed by Toby Perl Freilich, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. The film chronicles the career of Mierle Laderman Ukeles, who coined the term "Maintenance Art" in a 1969 manifesto to elevate everyday domestic and civic labor into art. It follows her decades-long collaborations with New York City agencies, including her seminal "Touch Sanitation Performance" (1979–80) with the NYC Department of Sanitation, and her ongoing struggle to realize the installation "Landing: Cantilevered Overlook" (2008) at Freshkills Park. The documentary weaves together archival footage, interviews, and analysis of second-wave feminism, conceptual art, and urban bureaucracy.

Hilary Pecis Paints Saturated Snapshots of West Coast Life

Hilary Pecis presents a new series of acrylic paintings in her solo exhibition "Love Letters" at David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles, running from May 16 to June 20. The works capture everyday scenes—a backyard pool, a studio corner, a picnic with strawberry cake—using her signature saturated palette and meticulous attention to texture and pattern, working from photographs onto linen.

Urban art at the Petit Palais: discover the free exhibition We are here

The Petit Palais in Paris is hosting the second edition of its free urban art exhibition, "We are (still) here," from June 20 to September 20, 2026. Organized in collaboration with the Itinerrance Gallery, the show features nearly 200 works by leading French and international street artists, including Seth and Inti, displayed in the Concorde Hall and throughout the museum's permanent collections, creating a dialogue between contemporary street art and classical masterpieces.

Dürer ‘copy’ at London’s National Gallery is the real thing, expert claims

A German scholar, Christof Metzger, has published a new catalogue raisonné claiming that a portrait of Albrecht Dürer's father held by London's National Gallery is an authentic work by the master, painted in 1497. This directly challenges the gallery's long-standing position that the painting is a later copy made after a lost original.

Remembering Gathie Falk, Canadian artist whose singular practice sparked comparisons to Surrealism and Pop art

Gathie Falk, the acclaimed Canadian artist known for her six-decade practice spanning Surrealist paintings, hand-fashioned ceramics, sculptural installations, and performance, died at her home in Vancouver on 22 December at age 97. Her work transformed everyday objects—glazed ceramic apples, cabbages, shoes, and watermelons—into jewel-like sculptures and installations, with notable series including "Picnics" (1976-77), "Cement With Poppies" (1982), and "55 Oranges" (1969-70). Born in rural Manitoba in 1928 to Mennonite refugees, Falk initially pursued music before turning to art at age 37, studying ceramics with Glenn Lewis and developing a practice rooted in what she called a "veneration of the ordinary."

Forever is Now has transformed Cairo's Giza Plateau into an open-air gallery

The fifth edition of 'Forever is Now' has transformed the Giza Plateau in Cairo into an open-air gallery, featuring 10 large-scale contemporary art installations by international artists. Running until December 6, the exhibition is organized by the cultural platform Art D’Egypte and invites artists to explore the theme of immortality, sparking a dialogue between ancient Egyptian heritage and contemporary art. Notable participants include 92-year-old Nobel Peace Prize nominee Michelangelo Pistoletto, Portuguese artist Vhils (Alexandre Farto), US-based Alex Proba, the Russian Recycle Group, Lebanese artist Nadim Karam, Franco-Beninese ceramicist King Houdekpinkou, and Turkish sculptor Mert Ege Köse, among others.

Actor Sharon Stone is up for the Women in Art Prize

Actor Sharon Stone, known for her role in *Basic Instinct*, has been nominated for the Women in Art Prize, now in its eighth year. The non-profit award exclusively honors women artists, and Stone began painting intensely during the Covid-19 lockdowns, holding her first solo gallery show at Allouche Gallery in Los Angeles in 2023. Other finalists among the 25 competing for 22 awards include painter Bianca Raffaella, who is registered blind, and Jenny Lewis, whose work addresses menopause. The prize also features the Paula Rego Painting Prize, created with the artist's estate to honor her influence on women in the arts. Winners will be announced at a ceremony at the British Library on 17 September, hosted by historian Amanda Foreman, with an exhibition at York Street Gallery in London from 16-24 September.

Garden State Art Weekend: Celebrate Jersey’s Vibrant Art Scene, April 24-27

Garden State Art Weekend returns from April 24-27, 2025, with over 95 venues across New Jersey opening their doors for a four-day celebration of the state's art scene. Co-directed by artists Christine Romanell and Alison Pirie, the festival offers a digital guide and map for attendees to explore exhibitions, open studios, live demonstrations, and workshops at venues ranging from world-class museums to intimate artist studios. Highlights include the Montclair Art Museum, Newark Museum of Art (free admission all four days), Grounds for Sculpture, Zimmerli Art Museum, and special events like an iron pour for International Sculpture Day at Gardenship Art in Montclair. The festival's headquarters at Manufacturers Village Artists in East Orange hosts a kickoff party and a spring open house featuring over 65 artist studios.

art elian almeida nara roesler alberto pitta

Curator Luis Pérez-Oramas has organized a two-person exhibition at Nara Roesler's New York gallery pairing Afro-Brazilian artists Alberto Pitta, 64, and Elian Almeida, 31. The show collapses generational and medium-based boundaries, featuring Pitta's layered canvas silkscreens with symbolic folk elements alongside Almeida's colorful explorations of Brazil's history in paint. A functioning coffee cart by Pitta, elevated to artwork status, greets visitors. The exhibition runs through early January.

‘Ugly’ but ‘beautiful’: LACMA finally unveils controversial new Geffen Galleries — was it worth the wait?

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has finally unveiled its new David Geffen Galleries, a $724 million concrete and glass structure designed by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor. Spanning Wilshire Boulevard, the 110,000-square-foot elevated gallery space will house 1,700 works from the museum’s permanent collection, including masterpieces by Francis Bacon, Henri Matisse, and Katsushika Hokusai. The building is scheduled to open to the public on April 19, marking the completion of a massive campus expansion that has been nearly two decades in the making.

Black Designers as Fine Artists: Fashion Meets Sculpture

The article from Ebony.com explores the intersection of fashion and fine art, highlighting how Black designers are increasingly being recognized as fine artists whose work bridges clothing design and sculpture. It profiles several contemporary Black designers who create garments that function as sculptural objects, exhibited in galleries and museums rather than solely on runways. The piece examines how these creators challenge traditional boundaries between fashion and art, using materials and techniques that elevate their work into the realm of fine art.

peter zumthor's david geffen galleries open at LACMA as a sweeping glass-and-concrete arc

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has officially opened the David Geffen Galleries, a massive glass-and-concrete structure designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor. Elevated nine meters above the ground and spanning Wilshire Boulevard, the 275-meter-long building replaces several older structures to house the museum’s permanent collection. The inaugural installation, developed by a team of 45 curators, abandons traditional chronological displays in favor of a geographic framework organized around four major bodies of water: the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans and the Mediterranean Sea.

LACMA New David Geffen Galleries Open 4/19... Installation of Do Ho Suh's 'Gyeongbokgung Jagyeongjeon'

LA카운티미술관(LACMA) 뉴 데이빗게펜 갤러리 4/19 오픈...서도호 작 '경복중 자경전' 설치

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has announced the official opening of the David Geffen Galleries on April 19, 2026. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor, the 900-foot-long horizontal structure spans Wilshire Boulevard and features a single elevated exhibition level for the museum’s permanent collection. The inaugural installation, curated by a collaborative team of 45 specialists, rejects traditional chronological or geographical hierarchies in favor of a thematic approach centered around global oceanic frameworks.

Really, Really Good Events And Things To Do In London In May 2025

London is set to debut the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration in May 2026, a major new cultural hub located in a restored 18th-century waterworks building in Clerkenwell. The center will feature three galleries, a library, and learning spaces, opening with a solo exhibition titled 'Ever Feel Like…' by the rising illustration star MURUGIAH.

How Expo Chicago’s One-of-a-Kind Curatorial Forum Came to Be

Expo Chicago has distinguished itself within the global art fair circuit through its unique Curatorial Forum, a partnership with Independent Curators International (ICI) that began in 2014. Originally conceived by Tony Karman and Renaud Proch, the program has evolved from a small gathering into a major national convening that provides curators with professional development, networking opportunities, and a platform for thought leadership. The initiative has been so successful that ICI established its only year-round satellite office in Chicago to support the local curatorial community.

The world’s biggest gallery for illustrations will open in London in May – and it’s just revealed its first exhibitions

The Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration is set to open this May in a restored eighteenth-century waterworks in Clerkenwell, London. As the world’s largest gallery dedicated to the art of illustration, the institution has announced a diverse inaugural program featuring three major exhibitions. These include a retrospective of Sir Quentin Blake’s theatre-inspired works, a comprehensive survey of LGBTQ+ comic-making titled 'Queer as Comics,' and a solo presentation by rising star Murugiah.

Great Dunmow artist has painting featured in Harlow Open exhibition

Great Dunmow artist Mandy Whittick is among the selected participants in this year's Harlow Open exhibition at the Gibberd Gallery. Her acrylic painting, "Stocks and Tulips," was chosen from nearly 500 submissions by a panel of prestigious judges, including representatives from the Royal College of Art and the Cambridge School of Art. The annual showcase, organized by the Harlow Art Trust, features 205 works from regional creators and is curated this year by Laura Noble.

Why Robert Therrien is a big deal

The Broad in Los Angeles is hosting the largest museum retrospective to date for the late conceptual artist Robert Therrien. Curated by Ed Schad, the exhibition features over 125 works, including his iconic oversized sculptures like the 10-foot-high "Under the Table" and a massive stack of plates. The show aims to elevate the profile of an artist who was a fixture of the Los Angeles art scene for five decades but often remains less of a household name than his contemporaries.

Portland Art Museum unveils major Hockney show

The Portland Art Museum has opened a major retrospective of David Hockney's work, featuring over 200 pieces spanning six decades. The exhibition, drawn from the collection of philanthropist Jordan Schnitzer, includes iconic works like the swimming pool series, iPad drawings, and photographic collages, and is designed with immersive, perspective-shifting gallery spaces.

peter zumthor's fluid concrete david geffen galleries to open at LACMA in april 2026

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) will open its new Peter Zumthor-designed David Geffen Galleries on April 19, 2026. The 274-meter-long concrete structure, elevated on piers over Wilshire Boulevard, will become the museum's primary home for its permanent collection, offering over 10,000 square meters of exhibition space. The project, which includes the Elaine Wynn Wing, culminates a two-decade campus transformation.

Auction Results: New Records for Noah Davis and Antonio Obá at Sotheby's, Major Paintings by Barkley L. Hendricks and Kerry James Marshall Went Unsold

Sotheby’s New York held its Now & Contemporary Evening Auction on November 18 at the newly opened Breuer building, featuring works by Black artists. Noah Davis’s “The Casting Call” (2008) sold for $2 million, setting a new auction record for the late artist, while Antonio Obá’s “Alvorada – Música Incidental Black Bird” (2020) achieved $1.016 million, nearly ten times its low estimate. However, major paintings by Barkley L. Hendricks and Kerry James Marshall went unsold, highlighting a mixed market for exceptional figurative works. The auction followed a blockbuster sale of Leonard A. Lauder’s collection, where Gustav Klimt’s portrait sold for $234 million.