guaridian art critic adrian searle steps down
Chief art critic Adrian Searle is leaving his full-time role at the Guardian after nearly 30 years, with his final article scheduled for April 1. He will continue to contribute occasional pieces to the publication.
Maddox Gallery, a London-based gallery with three locations, has highlighted five artworks from its collection that it considers smart investments in the current art market. The featured works include Andy Warhol's $ (1) (1982) from his 'Dollar Signs' series, Banksy's Gangsta Rat (2004), Roy Lichtenstein's Crying Girl (1963), and David Hockney's Split Ink (2019). The article notes the strong market performance of these artists, citing Warhol's market growth from $402 million in 2000 to over $10 billion in 2025, and the recent Sotheby's sale of Lichtenstein estate works for more than $35 million.
Art historian and curator Catherine Lampert is the subject of a career-spanning profile following the opening of her latest exhibition, 'Euan Uglow: An Arc from the Eye,' at MK Gallery. The article details her deep personal and professional relationships with giants of British figurative painting, including Lucian Freud, Frank Auerbach, and Euan Uglow. Lampert, who served as the director of the Whitechapel Gallery for over a decade, continues to be a prolific force in the art world, recently co-authoring Freud’s catalogue raisonné and curating major retrospectives.
ArtReview's editors have selected nine notable exhibitions opening globally in April 2026, highlighting shows that explore materiality, memory, and political history. Featured exhibitions include "Several Eternities in a Day: Form in the Age of Living Materials" at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, showcasing artists using organic materials rooted in Brown and Indigenous thinking; a major Veronica Ryan retrospective at London's Whitechapel Gallery; and a historical exhibition in Prague revisiting Jiří Kolář's contested participation in the 1969 São Paulo Bienal under Brazil's military dictatorship.
The family of Op Art pioneer Victor Vasarely is leading a major restoration effort for his foundation's iconic building and artworks in Aix-en-Provence. The striking 50-year-old structure, a historic monument, had suffered from years of neglect, leaking roofs, and failed climate systems, with many of its 42 monumental site-specific works in urgent need of conservation. A €12 million renovation, 85% publicly funded, has addressed the building's fabric, but restoring the complex artworks remains a slow, costly process.
An exhibition of Navajo (Diné) weavings from the collection of the late artist Frank Stella opens on 15 May at Peter Pap Rugs at Arader Galleries in New York City, running until 10 June. The show features 40 weavings from the 19th and early 20th centuries, acquired by Stella over four decades for their optical effects and resonance with his own work. Organized by dealer Peter Pap in collaboration with Stella’s widow Harriet McGurk, the exhibition also includes geometric drawings by Stella from the 1960s, on loan from the Frank Stella Estate.
Joel-Peter Witkin, the controversial photographer known for his macabre and surreal imagery, is the subject of a new exhibition titled “Joel-Peter Witkin: The World Is Not Enough” at A Gallery for Fine Photography in New Orleans. The show features a wide cross-section of his work, from early pieces like the cadaver-based still life *The Kiss* (1982) to recent works such as *The Soul Has No Gender* (2016), a portrait of a transsexual woman posed as Mary Magdalene. Witkin, a mainstay on artnet’s Top 300 list, personally prints each photograph and continues to explore themes of death, beauty, and the marginalized in society.
The Guggenheim Museum in New York will screen Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno's 2006 film "Zidane, a 21st century portrait" from June 11 to July 19, 2026, timed with the FIFA World Cup. The two-channel video piece follows French soccer legend Zinédine Zidane during a 90-minute match between Real Madrid and Villarreal, captured by 17 cameras to create an intimate, voyeuristic portrait of the player. This marks the film's first showing at the Guggenheim since the museum acquired one of 17 unique editions.
Le mostre da vedere a New York durante l’Art Week 2026
The article highlights a selection of must-see exhibitions in New York during the 2026 Art Week, spanning major museums and galleries. At MoMA, three shows explore memory, identity, and artistic experimentation: Elizabeth Murray's retrospective on fragmented painting, Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa's works addressing Guatemala's civil war, and Arthur Jafa's curated connections across the museum's collection. The Whitney Museum presents the 82nd Whitney Biennial, featuring 56 artists questioning what it means to be 'American,' alongside an Andy Warhol exhibition of rarely seen polaroids from 1972-73. Hauser & Wirth debuts its first Carol Rama show, highlighting six decades of her experimental, anticonformist art.
Hyperallergic reports on the 2026 Venice Biennale, with Editor-in-Chief Hakim Bishara criticizing the U.S. pavilion's exhibition of Alma Allen's work as a disappointing departure from the previous editions' profound explorations of Indigenous life and Black sovereignty. Editor-at-Large Hrag Vartanian offers a positive review of the main exhibition "In Minor Keys," while Greta Rainbow covers a poetry procession honoring the late artistic director Koyo Kouoh. Additional stories include a review of the film "The Christophers" about an artist and forger, and news of workers at the American Folk Art Museum picketing for higher wages.
The New Museum has named Yun Choi, Alison Kuo, and Korakrit Arunanondchai as the first artists-in-residence for its new Artist Studio, a 730-square-foot space created by the museum's OMA-designed expansion. The residencies will run from spring 2025 through winter 2027, with each artist developing new work, onsite exhibitions, and public programs. Separately, Forge Project announced its 2026 fellows—six Indigenous artists including Jay Bellis, Heidi Brandow, and Tiare Ribeaux—who will each receive $25,000 and a three-week residency. In other news, the Robert Therrien Estate has left Gagosian for David Zwirner Gallery, Laurel Nakadate won the Maud Morgan Prize, and Frieze New York revealed a staff uniform designed by artist Reika Takebayashi.
Christophe Leribault, the new director of the Louvre, has outlined his vision for the museum following a $100 million heist in October 2025. The Apollo Gallery, where the theft occurred, will reopen in July with a redesigned display that removes mineral cases to highlight its Romantic wall paintings, inspired by Versailles’s Hall of Mirrors. Empress Eugénie’s diamond-and-emerald crown, crushed by the thieves, is being restored and will become a new highlight. Security upgrades include window bars, 100 new cameras by 2026, a mobile police station, and a new security coordinator. The heist led to the resignation of former director Laurence des Cars in February.
The 22nd edition of SP-Arte has opened at the Oscar Niemeyer Pavilion in São Paulo, featuring 180 exhibitors. As Latin America’s largest art fair, the event continues to serve as a critical bridge for 'South-South' artistic relationships, drawing international curators like the Met’s Brinda Kumar. Despite a slightly smaller footprint than previous years, the fair showcases a robust selection of Brazilian talent alongside international galleries navigating the country's complex market.
The art world mourns the recent deaths of several significant figures. British absurdist cartoonist Glen Baxter, known for his work in The New Yorker and exhibitions at Flowers Gallery, has died. American sculptor Melvin Edwards, renowned for his welded steel Lynch Fragments addressing racist violence, and pioneering feminist painter Pat Steir, celebrated for her conceptual, process-based works, have also passed. The article additionally notes the deaths of Lebanese painter Ali Sbeity, killed in an airstrike; Mexican folk artist Josefina Aguilar; British heritage leader Neil Cossons; British painter Charles Debenham; and Cypriot painter Andreas Karayian.
A major new exhibition at Genoa's Palazzo Ducale, "Van Dyck: The European. The Journey of a Genius from Antwerp to Genoa and London," presents a comprehensive survey of Anthony van Dyck's formative years in Italy. Featuring around 60 works, including loans from the Louvre, Prado, and National Gallery, the show reveals how his six-year Italian sojourn was a period of intense experimentation and emancipation from his master Rubens, leading to his signature theatrical portrait style.
Art communities and heritage in Iran, moderate recovery in the art market, Sydney Biennale—podcast
The latest episode of The Week in Art podcast covers three main topics. First, it discusses the impact of the ongoing Middle East conflict on cultural communities and heritage sites in Iran and Lebanon, including damage to the Chehel Sotoun palace in Isfahan. Second, it analyzes the new Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report, which indicates a market recovery but reveals a complex picture. Third, it features a new installation by Indigenous American artist Cannupa Hanska Luger at the Sydney Biennale, consisting of ceramic dingo skulls, which has gained relevance following a recent tragedy in Australia.
A new installation by artist Cannupa Hanska Luger at the 2026 Biennale of Sydney features seven ceramic dingo skulls with whistles that create a howling sound. The work, titled "Volume III White Bay Power Station," was created before the artist learned of the death of a Canadian backpacker, Piper James, on K'gari (Fraser Island), a ruling for which found she drowned after a dingo attack.
Photographer Graciela Iturbide is the subject of a major exhibition, "Graciela Iturbide: Vintage," at Throckmorton Fine Art in New York. The show features rare vintage prints, including her iconic work *La Señora de las Iguanas* (1979), and was made possible by the rediscovery of 19 long-lost prints that Iturbide had sent to a dealer decades ago.
Laurence des Cars, president of the Louvre, is under pressure to resign after a tense Senate hearing on Wednesday, October 2025, following the theft of $102 million worth of imperial jewels. Lawmakers questioned her failure to act on security warnings from audits commissioned in 2017 and 2018 by her predecessor, Jean-Luc Martinez. Des Cars claimed she was unaware of those audits until after the theft. In response, she has accelerated a $92 million security plan, including 100 additional cameras, a new security coordination hire, and a 20% budget increase for staff training. She also announced a new internal audit on information sharing within the museum's bureaucracy, which she described as disorganized.
Ki Smith Gallery in New York is hosting "50 years of PUNK," an exhibition honoring the seminal punk magazine that launched in 1975. Running through January 11, the show features ephemera, new artworks, and issues 24 and 25 of the magazine, which famously covered bands like the Ramones and Lou Reed. The exhibition opened on November 28, marking 50 years since PUNK interviewed Reed and the Ramones at CBGB's. Co-curated by gallery founder Ki Smith and PUNK co-founder John Holmstrom, the show celebrates the magazine's DIY spirit and its role in shaping punk culture.
Consuelo Jimenez Underwood, a textile artist born in 1949 in Sacramento, has spent decades creating works that confront the US-Mexico border. In 2009, she was invited to participate in the group exhibition “Xicana: Spiritual Reflections/Reflexiones Espirituales” at the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, California. Faced with a blank museum wall, she decided to “blow up the border,” creating her first large-scale installation, *Undocumented Border Flowers* (2010), which features a red gash representing the border surrounded by paper flowers of the four border states. This work launched her ongoing “BORDERLINES” series, which she has produced some 15 times across the country, often collaborating with schoolchildren or recently incarcerated women. Her practice is deeply personal: her father was an undocumented immigrant from Mexico of Huichol ancestry, and she spent her childhood as a migrant farmworker, following harvests along Highway 99. Her first woven artwork, *C.C. Huelga* (1974), was inspired by the United Farm Workers flag and leader César Chávez.
The Frick Collection in New York has reopened after a multiyear renovation and expansion by Selldorf Architects with Beyer Blinder Belle. Under director Ian Wardropper, the museum hired ambitious young curators who introduced fresh perspectives, including online programming focused on social contexts, temporary relocation to the Whitney's old space (Frick Madison) where they presented female old masters like Rosalba Carriera and contemporary artists of color like Barkley Hendricks, and a rehang that organized works by time and place. The expansion adds new exhibition spaces, a gallery for old master drawings, and opens the Frick family's former bedrooms to the public, housing treasures like gold ground paintings and Impressionist works.
Hat die Neue Nationalgalerie Gefühle?
The Kunsthalle Bremen has opened "Remix. Photographie – Fiktion und Wahrheit," an exhibition drawn from its permanent collection that explores the tension between reality and artifice in photography. The show traces a lineage from Heinrich Zille’s unvarnished turn-of-the-century street scenes to the objective industrial typologies of Bernd and Hilla Becher, eventually moving into the postmodern manipulations of the Düsseldorf School, including works by Thomas Ruff and Thomas Struth.
Almine Rech is closing her London gallery in Mayfair after more than a decade, as reported by Melanie Gerlis in the Art Newspaper. The space, which opened in 2014 on Savile Row before moving to Grosvenor Hill, hosted exhibitions by artists including Javier Calleja, Chloe Wise, Jeff Koons, and Esther Mahlangu. Rech stated that London remains "important" to her and that she plans to open something in the city in the future, but offered no specifics. The London branch was put into liquidation, with Companies House filings indicating a £6.3 million deficit, though Rech said she owes no money to artists, workers, or suppliers and described the filing as a technical step to restructure a lease. Her gallery will continue operating its other eight locations across Paris, New York, Brussels, Shanghai, Monaco, and Gstaad.
ArtReview editors highlight off-site pavilions and exhibitions at the 61st Venice Biennale, running from 9 May through 22 November 2026. Featured works include Li Yi-Fan's film *Screen Melancholy* at Palazzo delle Prigioni, which uses motion capture and a free-trial videogame engine to explore digital alienation and the 'enshittosphere,' and Roberto Diago's installation *Free Men* at the Pavilion of Cuban Republic, comprising rusted iron heads, fragmented wooden figures, and text works critiquing political oppression in Cuba.
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.
The 61st Venice Biennale, titled "In Minor Keys" and curated by the late Swiss-Cameroonian curator Koyo Kouoh, opened in 2026. The main exhibition at the Arsenale and Giardini features works by artists such as Éric Baudelaire, Maria Magdalena Campos Pons, Mohammed Z. Rahman, Sohrab Hura, and Rose Salane, among others. The exhibition centers on themes of mourning, colonial history, slavery, and healing, with works like Baudelaire's video installation linking the flower trade to the transatlantic slave trade, and a tribute section honoring artists Beverly Buchanan and Issa Samb.
Beverly Buchanan's outdoor sculptures, such as 'Marsh Ruins' (1981) and 'Unity Stones' (1983), are quietly eroding in landscapes across Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina. These anti-monuments, made from tabby concrete and stone, blend into their surroundings while subtly referencing the region's layered histories, including Indigenous shell middens, plantation ruins, and the 1803 slave revolt on St. Simons Island. Buchanan, who died in 2015, is now receiving renewed attention: her work will be featured at the Venice Biennale this spring, and a touring retrospective is currently at Frac Lorraine in Metz, following a posthumous show at the Brooklyn Museum in 2016–17.
Qui est Yto Barrada, représentante de la France à la Biennale de Venise avec une œuvre-monde ?
Yto Barrada, the artist representing France at the 2026 Venice Biennale, has created a multidisciplinary installation titled "Saturne" for the French Pavilion. The work centers on textiles and natural dyeing, weaving together themes of postcolonial history, migration, craft transmission, and the symbolism of Saturn—from its astronomical mystery to its mythological role as the devourer of children. The installation features wool curtains, Aubusson tapestry, goat skins, wasp-nest sculptures, masks, muzzles, a color chart, and video, all housed in a renovated pavilion designed with the help of numerous artisans. Barrada, born in Paris in 1971 and raised in Tangier, founded the Cinémathèque de Tanger and later The Mothership, a research center focused on textiles and natural dyes. The exhibition is curated by Myriam Ben Salah.
The Musée Picasso in Paris is hosting a retrospective of African American artist Henry Taylor, running until September 6. The exhibition centers on Taylor's 2007 painting *From Congo to the Capital, and Black Again*, a bold reimagining of Picasso's *Les Demoiselles d'Avignon* that replaces the original figures with darker-skinned women and introduces Josephine Baker and a white man's arm. The show follows the museum's series on African American painting, after Faith Ringgold in 2023 and ahead of a Harlem Renaissance exhibition in 2027.