pee wee herman

Paul Reubens, the actor and comedian best known for his character Pee-wee Herman, died at age 70 on June 30, leaving behind a legacy that extends far beyond children's television. The article explores how the design of "Pee-wee's Playhouse" (1986–1990) was a groundbreaking aesthetic achievement, created by a team of downtown New York artists—production designers Gary Panter, Ric Heitzman, and Wayne White—who approached the set as an evolving art installation. Their work blended postmodernism, Memphis Group influences, psychedelia, and thrift-store aesthetics into a joyful, childlike environment that became a cultural touchstone.

How This Artist Pivoted Into Surreal Sculpture After Decades of Photography [Interview]

Artist Nic Nicosia, known for decades as a photographer and member of the Pictures Generation, has pivoted into surreal sculpture after losing interest in fabricated images. His work was featured in the 1983 Whitney Biennial alongside Cindy Sherman and others, and in major exhibitions like Documenta IX. Now, after years of exploring sculpture in private, he is preparing for his largest museum exhibition since 2000: "Everyday Surrealism" at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, opening May 16, tracing his career through over 70 works.

Nightlife scenes and local lore abound at Nada Miami's busy opening

At the VIP preview of Nada Miami, dealers reported brisk sales of paintings, with galleries like Hawkins Headquarters, Shrine, Burnaway, the Locker Room, and Baker—Hall showing works by artists including Jackson Markovic, Angela China, Alex Hutton, Clare Torina, Eric Diehl, and Thomas Bils. Nightlife themes were prominent, with Markovic's fluorescent nightclub photographs and Raffi Kalenderian's painting of Mac's Club Deuce dive bar. The Pérez Art Museum Miami acquired works by Bils, Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe, and Pallavi Sen through its Nada Acquisition Gift programme.

Texas-born Artist to be Featured in Solo Exhibition at Frieze London

Portrait painter Amy Sherald has selected Kingsville-born artist René Treviño to present a solo exhibition at Frieze London this October. Treviño's presentation, titled "Moscas en la Pared (Flies on the Wall)," will debut in the fair's Artist-to-Artist section, a curated program launched in 2023 that invites renowned artists to nominate emerging talents. Treviño, who is represented by Erin Cluley Gallery in Dallas, adapts Mayan and Mexíca symbology in his multimedia work, which often incorporates vibrant colors, queer sensibilities, and restorative storytelling. His exhibition record includes shows at the Wadsworth Athenaeum, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and a 2024 career survey at The Wellin Museum of Art.

Review: "Home, Love & Loss" at the Art Museum of South Texas

The Art Museum of South Texas is presenting "Home, Love & Loss," the third exhibition from a partnership between the Amon Carter Museum of American Art and the Art Bridges Foundation Cohort Program. The show brings together artworks from five institutional collections, organized into four themes: Home, Family, Honor, and Loss. Featured works include Raymond Bonilla's "Escuchas" (2009), a diptych about Puerto Rican family traditions; Terry Evans's aerial photograph of Fourth of July gatherings; Earlie Hudnall, Jr.'s intimate portrait of Black children; Ave Bonar's stark image of Border Patrol detainees; and Francisco Delgado's serigraph referencing immigration politics. After closing in Corpus Christi, the exhibition will travel to the Amarillo Museum of Art and the Ellen Noël Art Museum in Odessa.

AMoA hosts exhibit of student artwork, to hold special reception

The Amarillo Museum of Art (AMoA) is hosting the Texas Panhandle Student Art Show, an annual exhibition showcasing student artwork from across the Texas Panhandle. A special reception will be held on May 15, 2026, to honor participating students and award winners. The show features a wide range of media including paintings, drawings, printmaking, computer art, collage, jewelry, ceramics, sculpture, and mixed media. Awards include Best of Show honors, scholarships from West Texas A&M University and Amarillo College, and Georgia O’Keeffe Excellence in Art & Creativity awards sponsored by Education Credit Union.

paul slocum digital art gallery sustainable interview

Paul Slocum, artist and gallerist, celebrated the 20th anniversary of his Dallas-based And/Or gallery, a pioneering space dedicated to new media and digital art. The gallery, founded in 2006, has championed early internet and computer-based artists like Cory Arcangel and Petra Cortright, operating from a DIY ethos largely independent of the traditional art market.

The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth announces the exhibition - David-Jeremiah: The Fire This Time

The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth will present "David-Jeremiah: The Fire This Time," a solo exhibition organized by guest curator Christopher Blay, running from August 17 to November 2, 2025. The show features new works by multidisciplinary conceptual artist David-Jeremiah, including the final polychromatic EE (Emma Esse) series of seven paintings, and continues his exploration of Black identity, humanity, and ritual through inverted-performance installations centered on the Lamborghini as a symbol of beauty and violence.

Review: Alex Da Corte’s colorful, pop-inspired art show in Fort Worth

Alex Da Corte's exhibition "The Whale" at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth is the first museum show to focus on his relationship to painting, though it defies traditional definitions. The show features a variety of works including "puffy paintings," "slatwall paintings," and "reverse glass paintings," alongside a video where Da Corte portrays Marcel Duchamp. Curated by Alison Hearst, the exhibition also integrates some of Da Corte's works into the museum's permanent collection galleries, a first for the institution.

María Jesús Valenzuela: Winter Flowers

MARÍA JESÚS VALENZUELA: FLORES DE INVIERNO

María Jesús Valenzuela presents her solo exhibition "Flores de Invierno" (Winter Flowers) at Galería NAC in Santiago, Chile. The exhibition showcases a multidisciplinary approach to the natural world, featuring hand-embroidered cotton paper, color pencil drawings, and fine art photography. Valenzuela’s work acts as a contemporary field notebook, documenting landscapes ranging from the mangroves of Caddo Lake to the forests of Curaumilla, utilizing both ancient techniques like embroidery and modern digital printing.

Required Reading

This week's Required Reading from Hyperallergic features a photo by Saber Nuraldin, a finalist for the World Press Photo of the Year, depicting Palestinians climbing an aid truck in Gaza during famine caused by Israel's blockade. The article also includes Elena Megalos's essay on the American Museum of Natural History as a site of motherhood, and reports on Meenu Batra, a legal interpreter arrested by ICE, and the New York Times blocking the Internet Archive from crawling its site.

Jill Bedgood: Vestiges of Existence

Andrew Durham Gallery in Houston announces "Vestiges of Existence," a solo exhibition of multi-media works by artist Jill Bedgood, running from June 6 to August 1, 2026. The show explores how physical remnants—such as worn jewelry, handwritten letters, and natural anomalies—carry memory and document human presence, functioning as contemporary memento mori. An opening reception on June 6 and an artist talk on July 11 accompany the exhibition.

A World-Class Art Museum Arrives in the Texas Hill Country

A new museum called Arthouse is opening in Marble Falls, Texas, on April 25, 2026, during the town's Paint the Town Festival. Its inaugural exhibition, "Words Matter," features text-based artworks by artists including Faith Ringgold, Ed Ruscha, Terry Allen, and Jenny Holzer, drawn from the collection of oil and gas entrepreneur Mickey Klein and his wife Jeanne, who are longtime art collectors named to ARTnews' Top 200 Collectors list. The building, designed by Lake Flato, is a limestone and metal structure on Main Street that will serve as both a public gallery and an office.

Space One Eleven presents art exhibitions by El Paso artist José Villalobos and local artist Jason Tanner Young

Space One Eleven in Birmingham, Alabama, is presenting two new exhibitions: “Navegando la Masculinidad de la Frontera / Navigating the Border’s Masculinity” by El Paso artist José Villalobos and “see saw sawn” by local artist Jason Tanner Young. The opening reception with the artists takes place on February 19, 2026, and the shows run through April 17, 2026. Villalobos, a multidisciplinary artist, explores queer identity, machismo, and border culture through sculpture, performance, and installation, while Young, an associate professor at the University of Montevallo, works primarily in sculpture.

Free-speech groups celebrate return of Sally Mann photos seized from Fort Worth museum

Free-speech groups announced that four photographs by Sally Mann, seized by Fort Worth Police from the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in January 2025, have been returned. The police removed the images following allegations that they constituted child pornography, but a Tarrant County Grand Jury found no grounds for further action. The photos were part of the exhibition *Diaries of Home*, which featured work by women and nonbinary artists. The seizure drew widespread criticism from organizations including the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression and the National Coalition Against Censorship, who called it an abuse of government power and a violation of the First Amendment.

Art from the Bass House by Paul Rudolph

Christie's will offer exceptional works from the Bass House in Fort Worth, Texas, designed by architect Paul Rudolph for Anne and Sid Bass in 1970. The single-owner sale, titled "Art from the Bass House," will be held on 12 May 2025, headlined by a rare Mark Rothko painting from 1950-1951, along with works by Ellsworth Kelly, Alexander Calder, and Frank Stella. The collection will be presented within the 20th Century Evening Sale and the Post-War & Contemporary Art Day Sale, continuing the Bass collection's presence at Christie's after the record-breaking 2022 sale of The Collection of Anne H. Bass.

Exhibitions Coming to Houston Institutions in Summer 2026

Art museums and institutions across the Greater Houston area are opening a series of new exhibitions for summer 2026. Highlights include the Czech Center Museum Houston's solo show of travel photography by Clarice Marik Snokhous; Art League Houston presenting Marisol Valencia's installation "No Longer, Not Yet" and Juvana Soliven's "Subject to Surviving"; Houston Center for Photography featuring Simon Silva's "Madre Patria"; the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston launching the first survey of Mary Ellen Carroll's work; and the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University hosting Masako Miki's first Texas exhibition.

Gala Porras-Kim: Future spaces replicate earlier spaces

Gala Porras-Kim presents her first exhibition at kurimanzutto in Mexico City, titled "Future spaces replicate earlier spaces," running from April 11 to June 13, 2026. The show brings together works that examine how museums and conservation institutions reclassify objects removed from their original contexts, using reconstruction and resituating to explore their spatial, material, and temporal conditions. Central to the exhibition is the installation "The motion of an alluvial record" (2024), which recreates the humid marshland atmosphere of the Yucatán Peninsula inside the gallery, contrasting with the controlled climates of museums. Other works include drawings replicating wall decorations from the Techinantitla complex in Teotihuacan, which were fragmented and sold on the black market, and graphite drawings of objects by artist Brígido Lara, whose "original interpretations" of Totonac ritual clay objects were mistakenly catalogued as Pre-Hispanic artifacts in major museums.

Can You Climb a Ladder? A Conversation with Yvonne Garcia

Yvonne Garcia, owner and director of Houston's oldest operating gallery, Hooks-Epstein Galleries, discusses her journey from aspiring actor to gallery leader in a new interview. She details her initial career in acting and talent representation, her return to the art world through roles at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and Sicardi Gallery, and her fateful hiring by pioneering gallerist Geri Hooks in 2006.

Conduit Gallery Announces Move to New Dallas Design District Location

Conduit Gallery, a contemporary art gallery in Dallas, announced it will move to a new location at 1845 East Levee Street in the Dallas Design District in January 2026, after 25 years at its current space on Hi Line Drive. The gallery will share a building with Cris Worley Fine Art, in the former home of Holly Johnson Gallery, which closed earlier this year. The move comes as the gallery celebrates its 40th anniversary, having been founded in 1984 with a focus on emerging and nationally recognized artists, particularly those working in Texas.

ETAMU’s University Gallery Hosting International Artist Exhibition

East Texas A&M University's University Gallery is hosting an exhibition titled “Dan Jian: Library of Partial Things,” featuring collage-based drawings by artist Dan Jian. The show runs from August 25 to October 24, with an opening reception on September 2. Jian, an associate professor at Texas Christian University, explores fragmentation, multiplicity, and paradoxes through monochromatic compositions on paper and wall drawings.

5 Standout Shows to See at Small Galleries This August

Maxwell Rabb's article highlights five standout exhibitions at small galleries for August 2025. Featured shows include "Timeless Remnants" at Grège Gallery in Belgium, featuring artists Conrad Willems, Laura Pasquino, and Chidy Wayne exploring memory through materials; "Tropico Pasado" at Galleria Doris Ghetta in Italy, a solo show by London-based artist Lucía Pizzani inspired by the Dolomites and Venezuelan landscapes; and "rwa bhineda" at SUN.CONTEMPORARY in Bali, Indonesia. Other exhibitions are noted but not detailed in the provided text.

Untitled Art reveals exhibitors for inaugural Houston fair

Untitled Art has announced the 84 exhibitors for its inaugural fair in Houston, set to take place September 18–21 at the George R. Brown Convention Center. Originally planned for around 50 participants, the fair expanded due to overwhelming interest from galleries worldwide. The event will feature a curated, boutique format and will donate a portion of ticket sales to the Rothko Chapel.

One Last Chance to See Dürer's Monumental Print in NYC

Albrecht Dürer’s monumental "Triumphal Arch," a 13-foot-tall woodcut commissioned by Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I in 1512, is entering long-term storage at the New York Public Library this fall. The work has been a centerpiece of the library’s Polonsky Treasures exhibition since 2021, but its extreme fragility and age necessitate its removal from public view on October 18.

university of north texas victor quinonez exhibition censorship

The University of North Texas (UNT) abruptly canceled and removed artist Victor "Marka27" Quiñonez's traveling solo exhibition "Ni de Aquí, Ni de Alla" from its CVAD Gallery, locking the gallery doors and drawing blinds over the windows. The university terminated the loan agreement with Boston University Art Galleries, which originated the show, and scrubbed all mentions of the exhibition from its website and social media without providing a reason to the artist.

art collector questionnaire dallas art fair 2026

Cultured magazine interviewed five Dallas collectors ahead of the 18th edition of the Dallas Art Fair, which runs April 17–19 at the Fashion Industry Gallery. The article features collectors Rachel and Adam Green, who discuss the city's collaborative art scene, their 20-year collection journey, and how local collectors grow alongside artists. Adam Green, who founded the Green Family Art Foundation and Adam Green Art Advisory, and Rachel Green, founder of L'Epoque Parfums, highlight works by Dana Schutz, Nicole Eisenman, Ilana Savdie, and Lynda Benglis, among others.

collector questionnaire allison sarofim beauty marfa

Allison Sarofim, a Houston-born patron and founder of the clean skincare line Loulu Hawai‘i, is profiled in a CULTURED questionnaire. She recounts her art-collecting journey, which began with a Mark Rothko given by her father to her mother upon her birth, later gifted to her on her 30th birthday. Her first purchase was an Andy Warhol gold-leaf portrait of Stuart Preston. Sarofim serves as a founding board member of Ballroom Marfa, which recently acquired the 75-year-old Auction Sale Barn (the Bull Room) to transform into a performing arts space. She also discusses the inspiration behind her beauty line, rooted in Hawaii's botanicals and the spirit of aloha, and plans for new products in 2026.

Nicéphore Niépce in 2 Minutes

Nicéphore Niépce en 2 minutes

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, a Burgundian engineer and inventor, is credited with creating the world's first permanent photograph, "Point de vue du Gras," in 1827. Using a process he termed heliography, Niépce utilized bitumen of Judea on pewter plates to fix images captured in a camera obscura. Despite his groundbreaking achievement, he died in relative obscurity in 1833, shortly after entering a partnership with Louis Daguerre, who would later receive the primary credit for the invention of photography.

Texas Man Who Orchestrated $20 M. Crypto Scam Based on Fictitious Van Gogh and Picasso Masterpieces Sentenced to 23 Years in Prison

A Houston man, Robert Dunlap, was sentenced to 23 years in federal prison for orchestrating a $20 million cryptocurrency scam. Between 2018 and 2023, Dunlap defrauded nearly 1,000 investors by promoting a digital asset called “Meta-1 Coin,” falsely claiming it was backed by a $1 billion art collection featuring works by Salvador Dalí, Vincent van Gogh, and Pablo Picasso, as well as $44 billion in gold. He used forged legal and insurance documents to conceal that he owned neither the art nor the gold. A federal jury in the Northern District of Illinois convicted him on mail fraud charges in 2025, and US District Judge LaShonda A. Hunt imposed the sentence, also ordering restitution.

michaels lawsuit pose jordan nickel

Chicago street artist Jordan Nickel, known as Pose, is embroiled in a legal dispute with the arts and crafts retail giant Michaels. The artist, through his attorney Jeff Gluck, alleges that Michaels used his artwork in advertisements for Ironlak spray paint without his permission. Michaels has responded by filing a preemptive lawsuit in Texas, seeking a court declaration that it did not infringe on any rights and asking for attorneys' fees, while also arguing that it believed it had permission through its supplier, AVT Paints.