Indigenous Artists Infiltrate the Met With a Guerrilla A.R. Project

On Indigenous Peoples' Day, nonprofit media lab Amplifier launched an unsanctioned augmented reality exhibition titled “Encoded” at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. The project features 17 Native artists who have digitally altered 25 iconic American artworks from the Met's collection—such as Thomas Cole's *View on the Catskills – Early Autumn* and Emanuel Leutze's *Washington Crossing the Delaware*—overlaying Indigenous perspectives onto the museum's American Wing. Visitors can view the AR works on smartphones or iPads, and Amplifier representatives are on-site to distribute guides and offer tours through the end of the year.

art amanda precourt cookie factory denver

Amanda Precourt, a 52-year-old philanthropist and real estate developer, has transformed a former fortune cookie factory in Denver's Baker neighborhood into a combined private residence and public art space called Cookie Factory. Over the past nine years, she has amassed a contemporary art collection at a rapid pace, designing her 8,000-square-foot home around specific works—such as Anselm Kiefer's monumental painting *Engel der Geschichte* (2017) and Jeffrey Gibson's beaded punching bag *Know Your Magic, Baby* (2016). The lower 5,700 square feet of the building serves as a free, self-funded public gallery, where Precourt, her partner Andrew Jensdotter, and artistic director Jérôme Sans invite artists to create site-specific works inspired by Colorado. The space opened last May with an exhibition by Sam Falls, and a second show featuring Gary Simmons runs through May 9.

Art Toronto gets sales boost from baseball World Series

Art Toronto, Canada's largest art fair, took place from October 23-26 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, coinciding with the first two games of the MLB World Series between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Los Angeles Dodgers at the adjacent Rogers Centre. Despite concerns that the baseball championship might divert attention and sales, the fair saw increased attendance and a boost in purchases in the C$50,000 to C$100,000 range, according to director Mia Nielsen. Gallerists reported a positive mood, with the National Gallery of Canada even acquiring a work from Central Art Garage. The synergy between the events energized the city, though it worsened Toronto's notorious traffic.

What’s on now at San Francisco museums, May 2026

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.

Frist Art Museum Will Present 100 Years of Contemporary Indigenous Art

The Frist Art Museum in Nashville will present "An Indigenous Present," an exhibition spanning 100 years of modern and contemporary Indigenous art, from June 26 to September 27, 2026. Co-curated by artist Jeffrey Gibson and independent curator Jenelle Porter, the show features 15 artists who use abstraction as a tool for liberated expression, including Teresa Baker, Raven Chacon, Kimowan Metchewais, Caroline Monnet, George Morrison, Mary Sully, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, and Kay WalkingStick. Organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, the exhibition draws from Gibson and Porter's landmark 2023 publication of the same title and is structured into five thematic sections that place emerging artists in dialogue with established makers.

Amplifying Indigenous Voices with Phil Cash Cash and the Portland Art Museum

The Portland Art Museum is launching a program to bring on a team of Native American co-curators to revitalize its Native American art collection, led by curator Kathleen Ash-Milby. The museum has partnered with multi-disciplinary artist and scholar Phil Cash Cash, a member of the Nez Perce and Cayuse tribes, who will contribute Indigenous perspectives to the collection's evolution. Cash Cash, who holds a PhD in Anthropology and Linguistics and co-founded the Crow's Shadow Institute of the Arts, gave a talk to the museum's Native American Art Council in early 2026, marking a new collaborative phase.

Celebrating Indigenous Vitality: MORE COLORS THAN THE EYE CAN SEE

The Portland Art Museum and SITE Santa Fe have launched "MORE COLORS THAN THE EYE CAN SEE," a national educational initiative based on Jeffrey Gibson’s historic solo exhibition for the U.S. Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale. Developed in collaboration with the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian and a cohort of ten educators, the project introduces 14 interdisciplinary K-12 lesson plans. These resources integrate Indigenous contemporary art into subjects ranging from mathematics to social studies, utilizing Gibson’s vibrant aesthetic to explore themes of identity, representation, and creative sovereignty.

Old Master Grandeur and Modern Patronage Converge at the 2026 Norton Museum of Art Gala

The Norton Museum of Art's 2026 annual gala drew nearly 700 guests and raised nearly $5 million for the museum's programs. The event featured a live auction hosted by Sotheby's Oliver Barker, selling works by contemporary artists like Julie Curtiss, Jeffrey Gibson, Jessie Henson, and Marilyn Minter, and honored trustee Ronnie Heyman and artist Loie Hollowell. The evening's design was inspired by the concurrent exhibition "Art and Life in Rembrandt's Time: Masterpieces from the Leiden Collection."

Chicago’s Intuit Art Museum gifted 61 works by self-taught artists

The Intuit Art Museum in Chicago has received two major gifts totaling 61 works, significantly expanding its collection of art by self-taught artists. The first gift is a bequest of 47 works from the late collector and early museum supporter Jan Petry, featuring pieces by artists like Emery Blagdon, James Castle, and Martín Ramírez. The second gift comprises 14 works from the collection of scholar Gordon W. Bailey, focusing on African American artists such as Sam Doyle and Mose Tolliver.

Portland Art Museum to unveil $116m transformation with Mark Rothko at its heart

The Portland Art Museum (PAM) will unveil a $116 million expansion and renovation on November 20, the largest single-organization arts investment in Oregon history. The centerpiece is the new Mark Rothko Pavilion, a multi-story glass structure designed by Hennebery Eddy Architects and Vinci Hamp Architects, which bridges the museum's 1932 building with a former Masonic Temple. The project adds 100,000 square feet of renovated space, including new plazas with sculptures by Ugo Rondinone, Roy Lichtenstein, Anthony Caro, and Clement Meadmore. The Rothko family is lending major paintings from their private collection for display over two decades, with a promised gift at the end of that period, and made a six-figure donation to the museum's $146 million capital campaign.

Portland Art Museum celebrates opening of major expansion with four days of free admission

The Portland Art Museum will celebrate the opening of its major expansion and renovation with four days of free admission and activities from November 20 to 23, 2025. The centerpiece is the new Mark Rothko Pavilion, a nearly 22,000-square-foot transparent entrance that connects the museum's two campus buildings, adding nearly 100,000 square feet of new or upgraded public and gallery space. The transformed museum features a complete reinstallation of its collection with nearly 300 major new acquisitions by artists including Marie Watt, Simone Leigh, and Carrie Mae Weems, alongside thematic displays that emphasize place, community, and identity. Free tickets are available for reservation starting November 1, and the museum will also expand its regular hours beginning November 25.

Marianne and Edward Gibson Art Museum opens at SFU Burnaby campus

The Marianne and Edward Gibson Art Museum, a new 12,100-square-foot facility on the Simon Fraser University Burnaby campus in British Columbia, has officially opened to the public. Designed by Siamak Hariri of Hariri Pontarini Architects, the museum features B.C.-sourced mass timber beams, floor-to-ceiling windows, and a layout that integrates with the surrounding forest. Its inaugural exhibition, "Edge Effects," includes works by artists such as Debra Sparrow, Cindy Mochizuki, Patrick Cruz, Lorna Brown, and Jin-me Yoon, and the museum also houses approximately 5,900 works from the Simon Fraser University Art Collection.

Teiger Foundation gives grants totalling $7m to 85 curators

The Teiger Foundation, a US-based nonprofit supporting art curators, has announced its 2025 grantees, awarding a total of $7 million to 85 curators at institutions across the country. This nearly doubles last year’s grants as the foundation transitions to a biennial model, with individual grants ranging from $50,000 to $150,000 for exhibitions, research, touring shows, and three years of programming. Notable projects include a major survey of the late artist L.V. Hull organized by curators Ryan N. Dennis, Annalise Flynn, and Yaphet Smith, and a Theresa Hak Kyung Cha retrospective curated by Victoria Sung and Tausif Noor.

Dallas Museum of Art picks director wrapping up another institutional expansion to guide it through campus overhaul

The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) has appointed Brian Ferriso, the longtime director of the Portland Art Museum (PAM), as its next director. Ferriso will oversee the inauguration of PAM's $111 million expansion on November 20 before starting his new role in Dallas on December 1. He succeeds Agustín Arteaga, who left the DMA last spring to lead the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. Ferriso brings nearly two decades of experience at PAM, where he increased the endowment by $40 million, doubled curatorial staff, eliminated $7 million in debt, and led a $140 million fundraising campaign for the museum's expansion and endowment.

How to Plan an Art-Filled Day Trip to the Berkshires

This article is a travel guide for planning an art-focused day trip to the Berkshires in western Massachusetts, highlighting key cultural destinations for summer 2025. It details MASS MoCA in North Adams, a vast contemporary art museum housing works by Sol LeWitt, Anselm Kiefer, Louise Bourgeois, and James Turrell, with current exhibitions including a Vincent Valdez retrospective and Alison Pebworth's "Cultural Apothecary." The guide also covers the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, featuring its "Ground/work 2025" outdoor sculpture exhibition curated by Glenn Adamson, alongside shows by Mariel Capanna, mid-century modern graphic design, and Isamu Noguchi. Additional attractions include the LOUD Weekend and FreshGrass music festivals, plus dining options like the museum campus's cafe and the Tourists hotel restaurant.

“Dyke is our armor:” A conversation with dyke artist Sarah-Joy Ford’s about her new exhibition Dykeland (2025)

Dr. Sarah-Joy Ford, an artist and independent scholar based in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, has opened her exhibition "Dykeland: Volume 1" at The Whitaker Museum & Art Gallery in Rossendale on June 7, 2025. The show explores the history of dyke and lesbian landscapes in the UK, focusing on queer relationality to placemaking and preservation. It interweaves historical material, personal memory, and fantasy in response to Jane Cambell's upcoming poetry collection "Dykeland and other secret islands," and is displayed alongside Cambell's art. Ford uses quiltmaking as a medium to share lesbian and queer archival material, continuing a tradition of queer fabric art that includes recent installations like the ACLU's 258-square-quilt display on the National Mall and the Euphoria Quilt by Eliot Anderberg.

The Broad invites art lovers to Jeffrey Gibson exhibition

The Broad museum in Los Angeles has announced free Thursday evening tickets for "Jeffrey Gibson: the space in which to place me," an exhibition on view through September 28. The show features over 30 works including paintings, sculptures, flags, murals, and a video installation, adapted from Gibson's 2024 U.S. Pavilion presentation at the 60th Venice Biennale, where he became the first Indigenous artist to represent the United States with a solo exhibition. This is Gibson's first single-artist museum exhibition in Southern California.

Zuccaire Gallery Exhibit Explores Power of Indigenous Language in Contemporary Art

The Paul W. Zuccaire Gallery at Stony Brook University presents "Weaving Words, Weaving Worlds: The Power of Indigenous Language in Contemporary Art," a group exhibition featuring 24 artists including Jeffrey Gibson, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, and Kay WalkingStick. The show, on view from July 17 through November 22, explores how traditional and new media art can serve as a vessel for cultural continuity, storytelling, and the reclamation of Indigenous languages, with a focus on Algonquian languages spoken across Long Island and the Northeast. Archival materials from Stony Brook University’s Special Collections, including the Native Long Island map with over 400 Algonquian words, provide historical context.

A Whole Lot of Nothing at the US Pavilion

The US Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale features sculptor Alma Allen's exhibition "Call Me the Breeze," curated by Jeffrey Uslip. The show presents untitled, amorphous sculptures in bronze, wood, and stone, including Colorado Yule marble. The selection process was controversial: after the Trump administration excluded the National Endowment for the Arts, the State Department initially picked artist Robert Lazzarini and curator John Ravenal, but that plan collapsed. The American Arts Conservancy, a new nonprofit led by Jenni Parido (a former pet food store operator with Mar-a-Lago ties), then took over, hiring Uslip, who approached Barbara Chase-Riboud and William Eggleston before settling on Allen. Donors include businessman John Phelan and fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger.

A sturdy soldier in a sequin dress

"Eine kräftige Soldatin im Paillettenkleid"

Media reviews of the Venice Biennale's opening week offer contrasting takes on the German and US pavilions. Critics describe the German pavilion, curated by Sung Tieu and Henrike Naumann, as a dense, ironic East-West narrative that layers Nazi architecture with DDR prefab construction, creating what Jörg Häntzschel calls a "shockingly seamless symbiosis." The US pavilion, featuring sculptures by Alma Allen, is panned by Maximilíano Durón in ArtNews as politically timid and empty, lacking the clear colonial critiques of previous editions by Simone Leigh and Jeffrey Gibson.

Obama Presidential Center announces new work by Jeffrey Gibson, Rashid Johnson, Lorna Simpson.

The Obama Foundation has unveiled the final group of artists commissioned to create site-specific works for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. This prestigious roster includes Jeffrey Gibson, Rashid Johnson, Lorna Simpson, and Njideka Akunyili Crosby, whose works will be integrated into the 19.3-acre campus. The announcement completes the artistic vision for the center, which aims to blend public space with high-caliber contemporary art when it opens on June 19th.

empress sisi of austria portrait

Empress Elisabeth of Austria (1837–1898), known as Princess Sisi, has re-entered the cultural spotlight after eagle-eyed historians noticed a striking similarity between Franz Xaver Winterhalter's informal portrait of the Empress with her hair down and a bridal scene in Guillermo del Toro's new film *Frankenstein*, where actress Mia Goth appears with flowing auburn locks. The comparison, shared widely on social media by historian Rachael Gibson and others, gave Winterhalter's 19th-century portrait a new viral moment, sparking renewed interest in Sisi's life and the role of hair in Victorian Europe.

ART AGAINST COLLAPSE 193 ARTISTS IMAGINE ALTERNATIVE FUTURES

The Nevada Museum of Art has launched 'Into the Time Horizon,' a massive, multi-year exhibition occupying its entire 120,000-square-foot building. Featuring 193 artists from across the globe, the show is organized into seven thematic sections that survey environmental art and confront the climate crisis, while proposing hopeful pathways forward grounded in care and collective responsibility. It will be on view in full until September 2026, with parts remaining until 2027.

THE ASHLEY GIBSON BARNETT MUSEUM OF ART ANNOUNCES LAURA PUTNAM AS CURATOR OF EXHIBITIONS

The Ashley Gibson Barnett Museum of Art at Florida Southern College has appointed Laura V. Putnam as its new Curator of Exhibitions. Putnam, who has worked at the museum since 2013 and most recently served as Manager of Exhibitions and Adult Programs, steps into the role following the departure of former Executive Director and Chief Curator Dr. Alex Rich. She will lead the conceptualization, development, and execution of all exhibitions, including original research, artwork selection, and collaboration with artists and partner institutions.

AGB Museum promotes Putnam to Curator of Exhbitions role

Laura V. Putnam has been promoted to Curator of Exhibitions at the Ashley Gibson Barnett Museum of Art (AGB) at Florida Southern College in Lakeland. Putnam, who has worked at the museum since 2013 and previously served as manager of exhibitions and adult programs, stepped into an expanded role following the departure of former Executive Director and Chief Curator Alex Rich. She has curated recent exhibitions including "Darkroom Alchemy: Photographs by Jerry Uelsmann," "Surreal Scenarios: The Art of Susanne Schuenke," and "The Medici Dynasty: Renaissance in Florence."

Yoshida Chizuko

The Portland Art Museum is hosting the first major museum retrospective of Yoshida Chizuko (1924–2017), a pioneering Japanese modernist painter and printmaker. The exhibition features over 100 works, including early oil paintings, monotypes, woodblock prints, lithographs, and mixed media pieces, many never before exhibited. It traces her career from avant-garde abstraction in the 1940s and 1950s through op art and photoetchings in the 1960s and 1970s to nature-inspired late works, and includes a planned major acquisition from the Yoshida family estate.

Two new ceramic exhibitions open at the Yellowstone Art Museum in Billings

The Yellowstone Art Museum in Billings, Montana, has launched two new ceramic-focused exhibitions: "Folktales and Fanfare" and "Embedded in the Overlap." A central highlight of the new programming is the work of Ukrainian ceramicist Janina Myronova, whose exhibition features whimsical stoneware figures and drawings that explore themes of home, hope, and human connection. Myronova’s work, including her 2023 piece "Two Heads Are Better Than One," blends traditional ceramic techniques with dreamlike narratives.

Philadelphia Art Museum’s 49th Contemporary Craft Show is this weekend

The Philadelphia Museum of Art's 49th Contemporary Craft Show is taking place this weekend at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Center City. The event features 195 artists, including 41 newcomers, showcasing one-of-a-kind works across mediums such as fashion, jewelry, furniture, weaving, glass, and woodworking. Artists retain 100% of all sales, and attendees can connect directly with creators like collage weaver Galen Gibson-Cornell and others from across the country.

Simon Fraser University to open The Marianne and Edward Gibson Art Museum

Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, will open The Marianne and Edward Gibson Art Museum (The Gibson) on September 20, 2025. The 12,100-square-foot facility, designed by Siamak Hariri of Hariri Pontarini Architects with Iredale Architecture, is the university's first purpose-built gallery. It will consolidate SFU Galleries and house the SFU Art Collection of over 5,800 works. The inaugural exhibition, "Edge Effects," features 12 new or rarely seen works by Canadian artists, including 10 commissions, with artists such as Liz Magor, Lorna Brown, and Jin-me Yoon, alongside Cindy Mochizuki's "Arboreal Time."

New Canadian art museum seeks to connect disparate disciplines and a university campus

Simon Fraser University (SFU) near Vancouver will open the Marianne and Edward Gibson Art Museum on September 20, its first purpose-built art museum. The inaugural exhibition, "Edge Effects," features 15 artists including Sameer Farooq, Liz Magor, Cindy Mochizuki, and Debra Sparrow, and reflects the interdisciplinary ethos of the original SFU campus designed by Arthur Erickson and Geoffrey Massey. The 12,000-square-foot building by Hariri Pontarini Architects and Iredale Architecture includes a research laboratory, art studio, courtyard, and salon, and will be admission-free.