Artsy Editorial offers a guide on buying Minimalist art, explaining the movement's core principles of geometric shapes, limited color palettes, and material reduction. The article highlights key artists such as Carl Andre and Polly Apfelbaum, and emphasizes that Minimalism focuses on the idea behind the work rather than the artist's technical skill.
This week's art roundup from The Guardian features a major exhibition on Spanish painter Francisco de Zurbarán at the National Gallery in London, described as a mind-bending and revelatory show with loans from the Prado and other top museums, positioning him alongside Goya and Picasso. Other highlights include Gilbert & George's tribute to their late homeless friend at their London centre, outdoor sculptures by Lynn Chadwick at Houghton Hall, thickly built-up paintings by Angel Otero at Hauser & Wirth Somerset, and abstract works by Latvian sculptor Daiga Grantina at Warwick Arts Centre. The article also covers a new Banksy statue in central London depicting a man marching with a flag, and a Masterpiece of the Week feature on Guido Reni's 'Saint Mary Magdalene'.
Tate Britain will mount the first major exhibition exploring the transformative impact of fashion, art, and photography on 1990s Britain. Curated by former British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful, the show titled “The 90s: Art and Fashion” will bring together over 100 works—including photographs, paintings, films, sculptures, objects, and garments—from nearly 70 artists. It runs from August 8, 2026 through February 14, 2027.
The 30th edition of miart opened its doors at the Allianz MiCo convention center in Milan, marking a significant milestone for Italy’s premier international modern and contemporary art fair. As the city continues its ascent as a global art capital, the 2026 fair attracted a diverse continental crowd of collectors and professionals ahead of the upcoming Venice Biennale.
Julie Mehretu has established herself as a preeminent voice in contemporary abstraction by creating dense, multilayered canvases that synthesize architectural drawings, maps, and media imagery. Her work is characterized by a meticulous accumulation of marks that transform sociopolitical data and historical events into ethereal, gestural compositions. By layering information until it reaches a point of abstraction, she explores how individual and collective identities are shaped by the built environment and global shifts.
Photographer Christopher Anderson has revealed the details behind his 2015 encounter with Jeffrey Epstein, whom he photographed for a cancelled New York magazine profile. Anderson describes a series of unsettling interactions, including Epstein's attempts to buy the image rights for $20,000 and the eventual dispatch of a "mafia-esque" intimidator to Anderson's studio to seize a hard drive. The photographer's email exchanges with Epstein’s staff were recently made public as part of the Department of Justice's release of the Epstein files.
Contemporary gallery-going has become synonymous with digital documentation, as visitors increasingly use smartphones to capture paintings, sculptures, and installations. This shift from passive observation to active photography serves as a method of personal archiving, allowing viewers to preserve the fleeting experience of a physical exhibition and share it within their social circles.
Sculptor Thaddeus Mosley dies at 99.
Sculptor Thaddeus Mosley, a self-taught artist renowned for his monumental abstract wood sculptures, has died at the age of 99. Working for decades in his Pittsburgh basement, Mosley used locally sourced felled trees and traditional hand tools to create dynamic, asymmetrical forms that channeled both modernist principles and African artistic traditions. His prolific career, which began in his 30s, gained significant institutional recognition only in his later decades, culminating in a major 2022 solo exhibition at the Baltimore Museum of Art.
Cosima von Bonin’s sculptures star in Loewe’s fall/winter 2026 runway show.
German artist Cosima von Bonin’s large-scale, fabric-based sculptures were integrated directly into Loewe’s fall/winter 2026 runway show during Paris Fashion Week. Creative director Jonathan Anderson placed her oversized, characteristically enigmatic soft sculptures—including a giant lobster and a crumpled cigarette—amidst the models, transforming the presentation into a moving exhibition. This collaboration continues Anderson’s practice of merging high art with high fashion on the runway.
The Museum MMK für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt is presenting an exhibition of work by American artist Trisha Donnelly. The show features a range of her untitled pieces from 2005 to 2025, including sculptures, photographs, and other media, drawn from her own studio and various international collections and galleries.
Debbie Lawson presents a solo exhibition, "In a Cowslip's Bell I Lie," at Sargent's Daughters in New York, featuring her signature large-scale sculptures of life-size animals cloaked in ornamental Persian carpets. Using wire mesh, masking tape, and Jesmonite resin, she meticulously wraps each limb in carpet, creating the illusion that the animals have emerged from the textiles themselves. The show includes works such as "Wild Dog Sundown" (2025), "Red Eagle" (2026), and "Black Cougar" (2025), and draws its title from Shakespeare's *The Tempest*.
Artist Liza Lou is presenting a new body of work that merges the legacy of Abstract Expressionist brushstrokes with intricate beadwork. Her solo exhibition, 'FAQ,' at Thaddaeus Ropac in London features mixed-media paintings where thousands of glass beads are meticulously placed atop fields of oil paint, creating textured, chromatic topographies that transform gestural marks into sculptural forms.
The National Portrait Gallery in London is hosting "Catherine Opie: To Be Seen," the first major UK museum exhibition dedicated to the American photographer. The show brings together over 80 photographs spanning 30 years of Opie's career, exploring themes of social, political, and individual identity through studio portraiture, environmental studies, and documentary images.
Lévy Gorvy Dayan in New York is presenting “The Adventure of Domenico Gnoli,” a survey of the Italian artist’s work including paintings, drawings, etchings, notebooks, and letters. The exhibition is organized in collaboration with Gnoli’s widow, Yannick Vu, the artist’s estate, Mimì Gnoli, and the Livia Polidoro-Gnoli Archive, and follows his major 2021–22 retrospective at the Fondazione Prada in Milan.
“Nature Morte, 1982–1988” at Ehrlich Steinberg, Los Angeles
A new exhibition at Ehrlich Steinberg gallery in Los Angeles presents "Nature Morte, 1982–1988," a focused survey of still-life paintings from a pivotal period in recent art history. The show brings together works from the 1980s by a generation of artists who reinvigorated the traditional genre during a decade defined by explosive art market growth and the rise of Neo-Expressionism.
Alserkal Art Month (April 18–May 18, 2026) in Dubai features a district-wide initiative of exhibitions and events, anchored by the group show "Déjà Vu" at Concrete, Alserkal Avenue (April 25–May 8). Curated by Kevin Jones, Nada Raza, and Zaina Zaarour, the exhibition brings together over 50 artists from 20 UAE-based galleries, centering on themes of memory, displacement, and cultural inheritance. The article profiles 12 standout artists, including Shahpour Pouyan and Juma Al Haj, whose works translate these tensions into materially inventive and conceptually rigorous practices.
Chinese artist Ding Yi, who first appeared at the Venice Biennale in 1993 as part of the inaugural Chinese contemporary art exhibition, has returned to Venice with his first solo show in the city, titled “Cosmotechnics: Ding Yi as a Planetary Code” at Fondazione Querini Stampalia. The exhibition, referencing philosopher Yuk Hui's concept of cosmotechnics, traces Ding Yi's abstract visual language from the 1980s to the present, featuring new and historic works that engage with the modernist architecture of Carlo Scarpa. In an interview with ArtAsiaPacific during the 61st Venice Biennale preview week, Ding Yi reflects on the evolution of his practice, his travels, and the deep perceptual frameworks of ancient civilizations.
Rachel Ashenden surveys the precarious state of Glasgow's visual arts scene in March 2026, following the liquidation and closure of the Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA) after years of mismanagement, a winter shutdown in 2024, and a protest by Arts Workers for Palestine Scotland that led to arrests. She visits artists and organizers across the city, including Rae-Yen Song's exhibition at Tramway, which evolved from a research show at the now-closed CCA, and speaks with Transmission co-founder Alastair Strachan about the city's artist-led legacy.
Katherine El-Salahi, an anti-apartheid activist, anthropologist, and publisher, has died at age 81. Born Katherine Levine, she studied at Cambridge and SOAS before joining the clandestine group London Recruits in 1970, carrying out leaflet bomb propaganda and running guns into South Africa. She later became instrumental in the career of her husband, Sudanese painter Ibrahim El-Salahi, organizing his landmark 2013 retrospective at Tate Modern, building his archive, and securing gallery representation with Vigo Gallery.
Ed Ruscha's 1968 exhibition catalogue 'Billy', designed for a show of works by his friend Billy Al Bengston, is being offered for sale. The catalogue features a flocked sandpaper cover, satin ribbon bookmark, and machine screw and hex nut binding, and was published by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for an exhibition that traveled to the Corcoran Gallery of Art and the Vancouver Art Gallery. The work is listed on an art marketplace platform with a price of €62,600, and the listing includes details about its condition, provenance, and the artist's broader career.
Tate Britain will stage "The 90s: Art and Fashion" in autumn 2026, guest curated by Edward Enninful, featuring nearly 70 artists, designers, and photographers including Steve McQueen, Damien Hirst, Alexander McQueen, and Vivienne Westwood. The exhibition explores how the decade reshaped British cultural identity through art, fashion, and social commentary, highlighting DIY anti-fashion aesthetics and themes of identity, race, class, and representation. Separately, Gagosian opened a new ground-floor flagship at 980 Madison Avenue in New York, replacing its longtime sixth-floor space after 37 years. A rare 17th-century Mughal astrolabe is heading to Sotheby's London with a £1.5–2.5 million estimate. Fondazione Sozzani launched an award for emerging creative talent. A Manhattan federal jury ordered art publisher Michael McKenzie to pay $102.2 million in damages to the Morgan Art Foundation for producing unauthorized works by Robert Indiana.
Eileen Harris Norton, a foundational figure in the Los Angeles art scene, is being celebrated with a major exhibition of her collection at Hauser & Wirth. The show, "Destiny Is a Rose: The Eileen Harris Norton Collection," features over 80 works, many from her home, highlighting her five-decade commitment to collecting artists who were often her friends and neighbors, particularly women, artists of color, and Southern California-based artists.
Nine jewels stolen from the Louvre are valued at $102 million, according to Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau, contradicting earlier French claims that they were of “incalculable” value. The stolen items include a diadem worn by Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense, an emerald necklace of Empress Marie-Louise, and a diadem once held by Empress Eugénie, the latter containing nearly 2,000 diamonds. One crown belonging to Empress Eugénie was recovered after being dropped by the thieves, but the rest remain missing. The robbers entered through windows using small chainsaws and exited in under eight minutes. The Louvre has been closed since the heist, and cultural minister Rachida Dati defended the museum’s security systems before the National Assembly, calling the theft “a wound for all of us.”
Frieze New York 2025 features a surge of 14 Latin American galleries from Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil, reversing a trend of withdrawal seen during the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s second presidency. Non-profit support from organizations like Latitude, which helped all eight Brazilian exhibitors, and a concerted effort by Frieze’s Americas team have enabled this increased presence, despite ongoing challenges such as high shipping costs, tariffs, and visa denials—exemplified by Mexican artist Dr Lakra being unable to attend his own show at Kurimanzutto.
The Esther art fair, a satellite of Frieze New York, opened its third and final iteration at Estonian House on East 34th Street. Founded by Estonian gallerists Olga Temnikova and Margot Samel, the fair eschews conventional stands, instead arranging 22 participating galleries and three bespoke projects throughout the historic Beaux-Arts building’s basement, salons, and upper floors. Highlights include sold-out presentations at Adams and Ollman and Management, works by Katja Novitskova, Jill Goldstein, and Elīna Vītola, and a special project by Darja Popolitova and Madlen Hirtentreu turning beauty-industry equipment into installations. Gallerists praised the cooperative atmosphere, contrasting it with larger, more institutionalized fairs.
The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (Mocad) reopened on 25 April after over a year of renovations, unveiling upgrades to its 22,000-square-foot Midtown space—including a new learning space, air conditioning, and a large street-facing window—just in time for its 20th anniversary. The main building has been renamed after co-founder Julia Reyes Taubman. Co-directors Marie Madison-Patton and Jova Lynne have repositioned the institution as a civic space, emphasizing community engagement and local artists, with exhibitions such as Olayami Dabls: Detroit Cosmologies, Martha Mysko's Retail Therapy, and Carole Harris's This Side of the River.
Polish artist Aneta Grzeszykowska is presenting two photo series in New York: "Mama" (2018), featuring a life-like doll of herself played with by her young daughter, and "Daughter" (2025), for which she wears a mask of her 14-year-old self and poses with family members. "Mama" is included in the "New Humans" exhibition at the New Museum and previously appeared in the 2022 Venice Biennale's "Milk of Dreams." "Daughter" is on view at Lyles & King gallery on the Lower East Side through May 9, and also in the group show "Adolescence" at the Zachęta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw. The series extend Grzeszykowska's long-standing practice of manipulating family photographs, which began with her 2005 series "Album," where she removed herself from old family pictures.
Guadalupe Rosales, a Los Angeles–based artist known for her Instagram archive @veteranas_and_rucas documenting 1990s Chicana life, has been selected to participate in the main exhibition of the 2026 Venice Biennale, curated by the late Koyo Kouoh. In an interview with ARTnews, Rosales discusses how her invitation came about after Kouoh's passing, her evolving practice that includes photography, murals, and installations, and the emotional depth of her archival work—balancing joy and grief, as exemplified by her cousin's death certificate. She will also publish a memoir titled *East of the River* in September.
Gallery Weekend Berlin (GWB) expands from 50 to 57 participating galleries in 2025, introducing a new section called Perspectives that features smaller, younger galleries previously excluded from the event. The 20-year-old event, which began with 21 dealers aiming to attract international collectors to Berlin, has grown into a major sales week for galleries. Perspectives includes galleries like Anton Janizewski and Persons Projects, with a reduced participation fee of €4,500 (half the usual €9,000), subsidized by the Berlin Senate. The selection committee invites galleries rather than accepting applications, a process that has faced accusations of elitism.