Vian Sora’s solo exhibition "Tepe Gawra" at Bortolami Gallery marks her debut with the gallery, featuring a series of large-scale paintings that bridge ancient Mesopotamian history with contemporary Iraqi experience. The works, such as 'Celestial capsule' and 'Scarlet', utilize a complex layering process of poured acrylics and precise oil applications to explore themes of mortality, survival, and the aftermath of conflict.
Southwest Florida's art scene is experiencing a significant surge this April, with over a dozen art centers from Sarasota to Marco Island hosting 29 distinct exhibitions. Highlighting this seasonal peak, Art Center Sarasota is featuring major solo and group shows, including Herion Park’s fiber sculpture installation "UnBroken," Kendra Frorup’s exploration of cultural memory in "At Home Anywhere," and a curated group exhibition titled "Rooted in Community" focusing on historically Black neighborhoods.
London-based arts non-profit The Arts Family (TAF) will present a curated showcase of award-winning contemporary artists from the TAF Emerging Artist Award – South Asia 2025 at the India Art Fair 2026, held from 5th to 8th February at the NSIC Exhibition Grounds in New Delhi. The presentation, located in the fair’s Institutional Section at Booth M-04, features winners including Deena Pindoria (1st winner), Ritika Sharma and Akshay Bhoan (2nd winners), Mohit Shelare (3rd winner), and Deshna Shah (Special Mention). Deshna Shah will also have a solo exhibition at Nature Morte in April 2026.
Gajah Gallery, founded in 1996 and already operating in Singapore, Jakarta, and Yogyakarta, opened a new space in Mandaluyong, Manila, in November. Its inaugural exhibition, "Confabulations, A Fantasy of the Real," curated by Joyce Toh, features Filipino artists such as BenCab, Leslie de Chavez, and Kiri Dalena alongside peers from Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia, including a bronze sculpture by Marina Cruz produced at the gallery's Yogya Art Lab. Separately, Ames Yavuz, with spaces in London, Singapore, and Sydney, presented a pop-up group show, "Hold Everything Dear," in Makati, displaying over 50 Filipino artists and collectives. Both openings signal a surge in international gallery interest in Manila ahead of the Manila Art Fair in February 2026.
Offline gallery, a new brick-and-mortar space at 243 Bowery in New York (formerly Salon 94's location), has opened with a mission to bridge digital art and physical experience. Supported by the NFT marketplace SuperRare, the gallery is directed by Mika Bar-On Nesher and co-founded by Josh Long. It launched in July 2024 and has already hosted a book launch for Botto, an autonomous AI artist, and currently features a solo exhibition by Japanese multimedia artist Emi Kusano titled "Ego In The Shell," which explores AI, nostalgia, and pop culture. The gallery aims to create a tangible space where audiences can engage with digital and AI-generated art, fostering dialogue between crypto-natives and traditional art audiences.
Artist Tammy Nguyen presents her new exhibition "A Comedy for Mortals: Paradiso" at Lehmann Maupin New York, running from June 5 to August 15. The show is the final installment of a three-part series inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy, following earlier presentations in Seoul (Inferno) and London (Purgatory). Nguyen, a 40-year-old painter, professor at Wesleyan, and founder of Passenger Pigeon Press, creates dense, polymathic canvases that weave together imagery from Dante's celestial journey with contemporary references, including Frankenstein, President Eisenhower's military-industrial complex warning, and drones. The exhibition explores paradise as a journey of endless knowledge, while also delving into darker historical events like the 1815 Mount Tambora eruption.
Photographer Isaac “Drift” Wright was arrested at his own solo exhibition opening at Robert Mann Gallery in Chelsea, New York, on Thursday night. NYPD officers charged him with third-degree trespassing, with an undercover officer reportedly present at the event. Wright, a former Army paratrooper known for climbing skyscrapers and restricted sites to capture high-altitude photographs, had previously served jail time in 2020 for evading police. His first solo show, titled "Coming Home," was intended to mark a fresh start, but the arrest occurred just two hours into the opening.
Matthew Connors' new photo book, *The Axe Will Survive the Master*, compiles 12 years of protest photography from Hong Kong, Cairo, New York, Kyiv, North Korea, and beyond. Published by MACK Books, the work weaves together images from the Occupy movement, the Egyptian revolution, Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests, the war in Ukraine, and other confrontations with authoritarian power, dissolving geographic boundaries into a single sequence drawn from an archive of 200,000 images.
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts has unveiled a new large-scale mural titled "The Future We Create" by Spanish artist Vanesa Álvarez and local artist Derval Fairweather. Installed on construction fencing along Amsterdam Avenue, the vibrant public artwork was produced in collaboration with the nonprofit ArtBridge. The design was informed by community workshops involving local residents and students, transforming a temporary urban barrier into a celebratory visual narrative.
Nikyle Begay, a Diné shepherd and weaver based in the Navajo Nation, is revitalizing ancestral weaving techniques that were historically marginalized by the colonial trading-post economy. By breeding Navajo Churro sheep and mastering complex twill patterns once used for functional saddle blankets, Begay bridges the gap between traditional agricultural practice and contemporary fine art. Their work involves the entire lifecycle of the medium, from shearing and processing wool to reconstructing intricate designs that fell out of favor when commercial markets prioritized specific regional styles for non-Native buyers.
Rome has unveiled a newly restored pedestrian plaza at the southern façade of the Colosseum following a four-year construction project. Led by Stefano Boeri Interiors, the renovation features a travertine-paved square that recreates the original floor level and footprint of the ancient amphitheater. The design uses stone plinths to mark the locations of long-lost columns, allowing visitors to visualize the massive scale of the structure as it appeared nearly 2,000 years ago.
A new exhibition titled 'Colour Me Modern: Claire Aho and the New Woman' is being presented at the Hundred Heroines Museum in Stroud, UK. The show celebrates the pioneering work of Finnish photographer Claire Aho, highlighting her vibrant, cinematic, and witty use of color in postwar fashion, advertising, and portrait photography.
Photographer and filmmaker Misan Harriman has opened a permanent installation titled 'The Purpose of Light' at London's Hope 93 gallery. The exhibition features over 100 black-and-white photographs taken over seven years at protests in the UK, US, and South Africa, including demonstrations related to Black Lives Matter, Gaza, and other social justice movements. The project debuted as a solo show last summer and, due to significant public response, has now been established as a long-term fixture with support from private collectors.
The Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile (Chat) in Hong Kong has opened the exhibition 'Threading Inwards,' which explores the deep connection between textiles and spirituality across Asia. The show features 14 artists from the region, working in media from painting to video, who use fabric and fiber to create portals, shrines, and installations that bridge the material and spiritual realms.
A major investigation has revealed that UK museums and universities hold more than 263,000 human remains, including at least 37,000 sourced from overseas and former British colonies. The findings indicate that many institutions lack proper documentation, with thousands of items stored anonymously in cardboard boxes or mixed together, often in violation of government guidelines regarding respectful handling and transparency.
The Bunny Museum in Altadena, California, which was destroyed during the 2025 Greater Los Angeles Wildfires, has received a major donation in the form of a 14-foot-tall stainless steel sculpture titled "Scanner." Created by Chinese artist Jesse Zhao and donated by local resident Wesley Zucco, the 1,100-pound work was unveiled on February 20 as part of the museum's rebuilding efforts. The institution, which previously held over 45,000 rabbit-related items ranging from Egyptian antiquities to pop culture memorabilia, lost its entire physical collection in the blaze, though its live animals were rescued.
“Bad Bridget,” an archival research project about Irish women who emigrated to New York, Boston, and Toronto between 1838 and 1918 and engaged in criminal and sexually deviant activities, is being adapted into a Hollywood film. The project, launched by historians Elaine Farrell and Leanne McCormick in 2015, has already produced a podcast, a book, and a museum exhibition at the Ulster American Folk Park. The film will be produced by Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap Entertainment, directed by Rich Peppiatt, and star Daisy Edgar-Jones and Emilia Jones as two Irish sisters navigating scandal in 19th-century New York.
Sotheby's Institute of Art (SIA), a for-profit graduate school in London and New York, has been under the U.S. Department of Education's 'Heightened Cash Monitoring 2' (HCM2) designation since December 2023, a status reserved for institutions with serious financial or compliance concerns. The designation bars the school from receiving federal financial aid in advance, requiring it to front its own funds and seek reimbursement. Public records and financial filings reveal that SIA has fallen below federal 'financial responsibility' baselines, and its UK auditors noted 'material uncertainty' about the school's ability to continue as a going concern, though management asserts it has adequate resources.
Nathan Myhrvold, the former Microsoft CTO, chef, author, and photographer, has released his first series of safari photographs taken in Africa. The collection, titled 'Resting Leopard' (2025) and 'The Young King' (2025), marks a shift from his meticulously staged food and beverage photography to wildlife portraiture. In an interview, Myhrvold discusses how the project reconnects with humanity's place in the natural world, contrasting the controlled environment of studio work with the unpredictability of photographing wild animals.
London-based Gallery Les Bois, founded in late 2024 by Claire-Julia Hill, is establishing itself as a pioneering force in sustainable contemporary art. The gallery features a diverse roster of artists who work with eco-conscious materials and techniques, such as transforming natural resources from impacted waterways into pigments and repurposing textile waste. In an interview, Hill discusses her background studying art history at Cambridge University, her inspiration to integrate sustainability into the art world, and the gallery's mission to champion artists who combine ecological responsibility with aesthetic excellence and conceptual rigor.
Teravarna Art Gallery has launched a digital group exhibition titled "Kaleidoscope," featuring works by seven artists: Caitlin Accurso, Stephanie Bing, Diane Burchette-Gomez, Carina Imbrogno, Daniel Juric, Valeri Larko, and Debra Shapiro. The show, on view through May 16, 2025, spans figurative and abstract painting, collage, and mixed media, with highlights including Valeri Larko's photorealist "Secor Avenue Train Bridge" (2022) and Debra Shapiro's mixed-media piece "Las Tres Gracias" (2024). The exhibition is hosted entirely online, allowing global access.
Artist and editor Tod Lippy, stunned by Donald Trump's 2024 presidential election win, embarked on an obsessive two-day search for voters who had publicly supported Trump. Finding 50 individuals through op-eds and news interviews, Lippy—who had never painted before—created a series of portraits titled *My Fellow Americans*. The works debut as a site-specific installation at Independent New York. Over several months, Lippy painted nearly one portrait a day using acrylic gouache, immersing himself in the process and studying each subject's face in detail.
Italian jewelry maison Vhernier has collaborated with artist Pae White to create a 10-design limited-edition ring collection inspired by White's childhood memories of Sea Ranch, a remote artists' retreat in Sonoma County, California. The collection translates the architecture of crustaceans and abalone into precious materials, using sapphires, diamonds, and rock crystal set in white or rose gold, with only two versions of each design produced.
Mary Katrantzou has been appointed as the first-ever creative director of leather goods and accessories at Bvlgari, a role created for her after multiple successful collaborations. She designed the new Icons Minaudière Collection, a series of 10 bags reimagining Bvlgari's iconic symbols such as Serpenti, Divas' Dream, and Monete, using jewelry-making techniques like hand-enameled scales and semiprecious stones.
SAGG Napoli, a multidisciplinary artist who incorporates Naples into her name, presents her latest exhibition at Champ Lacombe in London from March 26 to May 16, 2025. For the first time, her own body is absent from the work; instead, she shows a new sculpture and a film juxtaposing volcanic eruptions of Mount Vesuvius with New Year's Eve celebrations in Naples. The article includes a studio visit interview where Napoli discusses her creative process, her training as a competitive archer, and her concept of 'South Aesthetics.'
Gregory Crewdson, known for his meticulously staged photographs of small-town America, has partnered with the fashion brand Aritzia for its Artistic License Series. The collaboration features Crewdson's images on limited-edition shopping bags, in stores, and online, accompanied by an exhibition during Frieze Week in Los Angeles. The series has previously worked with photographers like Juergen Teller, Ryan McGinley, and Harley Weir. In an interview, Crewdson discusses his influences, including filmmakers David Lynch and Steven Spielberg, and the challenges of shooting a rain scene when a real storm interrupted the set.
Amélie du Chalard, a bi-continental art collector and gallery owner, discusses her lifelong journey with art in an interview with CULTURED. Starting her collection at age 16 through family tradition, she founded her eponymous gallery in Paris in 2015 and later expanded to New York. Her collection and gallery blend design objects with fine art, embracing what she calls 'haptic minimalism'—a tactile, gentle aesthetic. She shares her sourcing process, including using the Drouot auction app and Artsy, and recounts tracking down a piece first seen in a 14th-century palace.
The Film-Makers’ Cooperative celebrated its 65th anniversary with a gala at Judson Memorial Church in New York City on a recent Friday. The event featured performances by Isaiah Barr, a recreation of Yvonne Rainer's Trio A by Brittany Bailey, and a closing set by musician Kinlaw. Notable attendees included photographer Nan Goldin, video artist Joan Jonas, and filmmaker John Waters, who was honored in absentia. The evening included speeches, a shoppable collection of film ephemera, and a crowd of artists, actors, and filmmakers.
A celebratory apéro dînatoire was held at the New York home of patrons Warren and Abigail Klem Spector to launch the Spector Craft Prize, a new initiative by the Spector Family Foundation that supports fine craft and its makers through recognition and financial support. The evening was co-hosted by CULTURED Editor-in-Chief Sarah Harrelson and artist Katie Stout, whose ceramics were integrated into the tablescape, and featured a crowd of cultural heavyweights including prize jury chairman Glenn Adamson, jurors Zesty Meyers and Rosanne Somerson, and designers Misha Kahn and Adam Charlap Hyman.
Asher Liftin, a 27-year-old New York-based artist, is profiled as part of Cultured's 2025 Young Artists list. He gained early recognition at age 12 when Wes Anderson selected his artwork for the film *Moonrise Kingdom*. Liftin now creates trompe l'oeil paintings that resemble tapestries but are actually finely rendered pointillist compositions inspired by art-historical still lifes and history paintings. He holds degrees in cognitive science and visual art, and cites graffiti artist Christian Aldunate as a key early influence.