The Venice Biennale’s Polite Fiction of Being ‘Above the Market’ Is Wearing Thin

The 61st Venice Biennale is underway, with art world figures flocking to Venice for the opening. While the Biennale is officially a non-selling curatorial platform, commercial interests are increasingly visible: galleries are funding artists' projects to recoup investments, auction houses like Christie's are hosting private selling exhibitions (including a 'Ghost Pavilion' at the Ca' Dario Palazzo), and fashion houses such as Bottega Veneta and Chanel are sponsoring events. Sotheby's has pulled support for the U.S. Pavilion, which is now crowdfunding, while Frieze is bankrolling the British Pavilion for a second time.

Paul McCarthy: ‘The world is now an extreme absurdity. The work is a reaction to that’

Paul McCarthy, the 80-year-old American artist known for his transgressive critiques of consumer culture, has opened a new exhibition titled "SS EE Saint Santa Eva Elf" at Hauser & Wirth in Paris. The show features large-scale drawings and a six-channel video installation created during filmed performances with his long-term collaborator, German actress Lilith Stangenberg, who plays the Elf. McCarthy revisits his iconic Santa Claus motif, portraying him as a dark, psychotic figure—the "god of capitalism and consumption." The exhibition also includes earlier drawings made with Stangenberg at Bowman Hal gallery in Madrid. The interview reveals that McCarthy's home and studios in Los Angeles were destroyed by wildfires, resulting in the loss of art, drawings, notebooks, and books, and the cancellation of a planned London show.

Rare early photographs reveal lost sites featured in Van Gogh’s paintings

Two rare photographic albums taken by art critic Gustave Coquiot in 1922 have been acquired by the newly established Van Gogh Academy in Auvers-sur-Oise, France, and are now on display. The images capture many of the sites in Arles that Vincent van Gogh painted in the late 1880s, including the Yellow House, the Langlois Bridge, and the Rhône riverbank. Several of these locations were later destroyed during World War II or by modernization, making Coquiot's photographs valuable historical records of Van Gogh's original subjects.

The Artists Who Ruled the Biennial Circuit Over the Last Four Years

Artnet News critic Ben Davis analyzed 130 recurring global art events—including biennials and triennials—that opened between the 2022 and 2026 Venice Biennales, tallying over 15,000 participating artists. He identified the most frequently featured artists, with Nolan Oswald Dennis topping the list at 14 biennial appearances. Dennis, a South Africa-based artist born in Lusaka, is known for works like "Black Liberation Zodiac" (2017-ongoing) and was included in the 2026 Venice Biennale curated by the late Koyo Kouoh.

“Primary Structures,” Turns 60

On April 28, 1966, The New York Times published a review by conservative critic Hilton Kramer of the Jewish Museum's exhibition “Primary Structures,” organized by curator Kynaston McShine. Kramer, disdainful of contemporary art, described the 42 American and British artists as rejecting personal expression and subjective inflection, yet he acknowledged the show as the first comprehensive glimpse of a style that would define the 1960s. The exhibition featured then-little-known artists including Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Walter De Maria, Robert Morris, Anne Truitt, John McCracken, Larry Bell, Robert Smithson, Judy Chicago, Philip King, Michael Bolus, and David Annesley, and is now recognized as the ur-survey of Minimalism—a term McShine deliberately avoided.

The village where Van Gogh spent his final days celebrates its most distinguished visitor

An exhibition titled "Van Gogh, Influencer: Legacies in Motion" has opened at the Château of Auvers-sur-Oise, the village near Paris where Vincent van Gogh spent his final 70 days and died by suicide in July 1890. The show, running until 3 January 2027, features nearly a hundred works by artists influenced by Van Gogh, including Léonide Bourges, Charles-François Daubigny, and Léo Gausson, though no original Van Gogh paintings are included. Curated by Wouter van der Veen, the exhibition explores visual parallels and stylistic contrasts between Van Gogh’s iconic works—such as *Church at Auvers* and *Wheatfield with Crows*—and those of his contemporaries and followers.

Slags, bings and pipelines: Edinburgh landscape offers fitting backdrop for exhibition on fossil fuel extraction

Jupiter Artland, a sculpture park and gallery near Edinburgh, Scotland, is hosting the exhibition "Extraction" (through July 26), which examines the impact of fossil fuel extraction on landscapes and culture. Set against a backdrop of historic shale oil bings, North Sea oil pipelines, and modern wind farms, the show features five artists who explore energy histories through nuanced, non-polemical lenses. Glasgow-born painter Siobhan McLaughlin uses earth pigments gathered from the nearby Five Sisters Bing to create works like "Date of Exhaustion" (2025) and "Pioneer Species" (2025), turning mining waste into art that reflects on memory, ecology, and regeneration.

A Work Gifted to David Drake’s Descendants Is the Star of Theaster Gates’s Powerful Gagosian Show

Artist Theaster Gates has gifted a 19th-century vessel by enslaved potter David Drake to Drake's descendants and made this act of restitution the centerpiece of his solo exhibition at Gagosian in New York. The show, titled "Dave: All My Relations," features Gates's own artworks responding to Drake's legacy and the recently transferred pot, highlighting Gates's decades-long engagement with Drake as a foundational figure for his own practice.

Duchamp in New York

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has launched a major solo exhibition dedicated to Marcel Duchamp, marking the artist's first comprehensive survey in New York City in over 50 years. The exhibition explores Duchamp’s revolutionary impact on modern art, featuring iconic works and archival materials that trace his history from the 1913 Armory Show to his later years in New York. The opening is complemented by a broader "Duchamp spring" in the city, including a forthcoming exhibition of his readymades at Gagosian.

Defiant women and daring paintings: Emin, Webster and Wylie create a buzz in the UK's exhibition calendar

The UK art scene is currently dominated by major survey exhibitions from three prominent female artists: Rose Wylie, Tracey Emin, and Sue Webster. Rose Wylie, at 92, makes history as the first woman painter to occupy the Royal Academy’s main galleries, while Tracey Emin presents a raw, thematic survey at Tate Modern reflecting on her life before and after cancer. Simultaneously, Sue Webster marks her institutional solo debut at Firstsite, showcasing a transition from her famous collaborative practice to deeply personal oil painting.

The Women Defining Printmaking at the 2026 IFPDA Print Fair

The 2026 IFPDA Print Fair opened at New York’s Park Avenue Armory, placing a significant spotlight on the contributions of women artists to the medium. High-profile offerings include a new release by Laura Owens from Crown Point Press, Louise Bourgeois’s "Spirals" woodcut series presented by Carolina Nitsch, and large-scale sculptural works by Joan Hall and Orit Hofshi. The fair demonstrates the technical breadth of modern printmaking, ranging from traditional woodcuts to unique, hand-embellished compositions and experimental collaborations between artists and master printers.

Process Is the Point at IFPDA Print Fair

The International Fine Prints and Drawings Association (IFPDA) Print Fair returned to New York’s Park Avenue Armory, featuring 80 global galleries, publishers, and print studios. The event showcased a diverse range of works, from 19th-century Japanese ukiyo-e masterworks by Hokusai to contemporary pieces by artists such as Kiki Smith, Julie Mehretu, and David Hockney. Notable highlights included Kiki Smith’s massive 12-foot watercolor "Wooden Moon" and Paula Rego’s influential abortion etchings, which were recently acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

A Dutch museum has just put its fake Van Gogh on show

The Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo has broken traditional museum protocol by placing a known forgery, "Seascape at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer," on public display. Acquired in 1928 by museum founder Helene Kröller-Müller from the notorious Berlin dealer Otto Wacker, the painting was eventually exposed as a fake created by Wacker’s brother, Leonhard. The exhibition, which runs until June 21, coincides with a new podcast detailing the history of the acquisition and the subsequent fraud trial that rocked the art world in the 1930s.

Chicago’s Obama Presidential Center has art at its core

The Obama Presidential Center is set to open on Chicago’s South Side on June 19, 2026. The $850m institution, designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, features more than 25 site-specific contemporary art commissions integrated into its architecture and 19.3-acre campus. Ahead of the opening, the museum has partnered with Expo Chicago to preview these works, which include monumental contributions from artists such as Julie Mehretu, Mark Bradford, and Nick Cave.

Jasper Johns Marks Time

The art world is currently reflecting on the enduring legacy of Jasper Johns, highlighted by a new Gagosian exhibition focusing on his 1970s output. Critic John Yau explores Johns's career-long fascination with materiality and the inevitable decay of art, noting how the artist uses newsprint and wax to acknowledge that nothing remains static in time.

Jasper Johns Keeps Looking

Jasper Johns’s latest exhibition at Gagosian, 'Between the Clock and the Bed,' serves as a profound meditation on the artist's career-long investigation into the 'things the mind already knows.' By revisiting his signature motifs—including flags, targets, and crosshatch patterns—the show highlights Johns’s rejection of Abstract Expressionist spontaneity in favor of a deliberate, analytical process using encaustic and collage. The works document a transformation where familiar symbols are rendered into a complex visual language that bridges the gap between memory and physical presence.

The IFPDA Print Fair Returns to the Park Avenue Armory, Illuminating the Relationship Between Prints and Drawings

The IFPDA Print Fair is returning to the Park Avenue Armory from April 9–12, featuring 80 international exhibitors presenting 500 years of prints and drawings. The fair highlights the historical and conceptual relationship between the two mediums, with notable works including an Edward Hopper charcoal study and unique or hybrid pieces by artists like Françoise Gilot and Edgar Degas.

Revealed: the amazing frame once created for Van Gogh’s Sunflowers

A long-lost, custom-designed Art Deco frame for Vincent van Gogh's painting "Three Sunflowers" has been identified through archival research. The frame, which featured a dark lacquer finish, randomly placed gold circles, and angled outer edges, was commissioned by the Parisian couturier and collector Jacques Doucet shortly after he acquired the painting in 1912. Its existence was pieced together from a 1930s interior photograph, a 1967 family snapshot, and a frame sold at Sotheby's in 1989, allowing for a digital reconstruction of the complete artwork.

Van Gogh goes to China, with a more affordable early painting

Christie's is auctioning Vincent van Gogh's early painting 'A Girl in a Wood' in Hong Kong on March 27, with an estimate of $1.3m-$2.6m. The work, recently redated to August 1883, is being offered directly in Asia, bypassing major Western previews, to target Chinese collectors.

Emmanuel Di Donna Mounts Major Salvador Dalí Show as Final Exhibition in Madison Avenue Space

Emmanuel Di Donna is presenting a major Salvador Dalí exhibition, "Dalí: The Great Years, 1929–1939," at his Madison Avenue gallery from April 16 to June 13. The show features over two dozen paintings, sculptures, and works on paper from the artist's most formative decade, assembled with loans from major institutions like the Art Institute of Chicago and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It will be the final exhibition in Di Donna's current space before he launches a new joint venture with Pace and David Schrader.

photography auction industry 2655783

Artnet and Morgan Stanley have released a comprehensive analysis of the photography auction market spanning 2005 to 2024. The report reveals that while the volume of photography lots sold has more than doubled over two decades, the total annual sales value has remained largely stagnant, rising from $113.4 million in 2005 to $116.9 million in 2024. When adjusted for inflation, this represents a significant 36.7 percent decline in market value, with average prices for photographs dropping by over 50 percent during the same period.

The story behind Iran’s only Van Gogh: ‘At Eternity’s Gate'

A rare, inscribed lithograph by Vincent van Gogh, 'At Eternity's Gate,' resides in the collection of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. The work, one of only seven surviving examples, was acquired in 1975 by Farah Pahlavi, the wife of the Shah of Iran, for the museum. It passed through notable hands, including those of US Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, before arriving in Tehran just before the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

josh smith rap interview artist poll wet paint 2753248

Guest columnist John Chiaverina reports from the opening of the 2026 Whitney Biennial, capturing the shifting moods of the New York art scene. Through interviews with participating artists like Maddie Biven of the collective kekahi wahi and veteran performer Pat Oleszko, the piece explores a tension between the desire for exuberant, risk-taking aesthetics and a perceived lack of political urgency among younger generations.

art basel qatar opening report 2742728

Art Basel Qatar has launched its inaugural edition in Doha, marking a significant expansion of the Swiss fair brand into the Middle East. The event features 87 exhibitors in a unique, booth-less format spread across the M7 and Doha Design District, departing from traditional trade fair aesthetics in favor of a curated, biennial-style presentation. While the opening VIP day saw strong attendance from regional collectors and major international galleries like Hauser & Wirth, the atmosphere was tempered by light initial sales and significant regional geopolitical tensions.

anicka yi pace future ai interview 1234775593

Conceptual artist Anicka Yi has joined Pace Gallery, where she will be represented in partnership with Gladstone Gallery, 47 Canal, and Esther Schipper. Known for her research-heavy practice that utilizes scents, bacteria, and robotics, Yi cited Pace CEO Marc Glimcher’s background in biology and the gallery's history with light and space pioneers as primary reasons for the move. Her work will be featured in the New Museum’s upcoming expansion inaugural exhibition, "New Humans: Memories of the Future."

olivia barrett chateau shatto 2749305

Olivia Barrett, co-founder of the Los Angeles gallery Château Shatto, is pivoting her business strategy to navigate a cooling art market and a post-boom landscape in Southern California. After moving to the Melrose Hill art corridor, Barrett is shifting away from the high-velocity art fair model to focus on a more curated, historical program. This includes integrating 20th-century estates and secondary-market works from artists like Alice Rahon and Emily Kam Kngwarray alongside contemporary voices like Aria Dean.

dealers abuzz frieze los angeles vip day frenzy 1234774824

The VIP opening of Frieze Los Angeles at Santa Monica Airport saw a surge of high-value transactions and heavy foot traffic from both local and international collectors. Major galleries reported multi-million dollar sales within the first few hours, including a $2.8 million work by Njideka Akunyili Crosby at David Zwirner and a sold-out booth of Conny Maier paintings at Hauser & Wirth. Dealers described the atmosphere as a "frenzy," noting that sales figures in some cases already tripled their performance at previous major fairs like Art Basel Miami Beach.

amy sherald time 2026 women of the year 2748921

Artist Amy Sherald has been named one of TIME magazine’s 2026 Women of the Year, a distinction honoring her leadership and commitment to equity. The recognition follows Sherald's high-profile decision to withdraw her solo exhibition, "American Sublime," from the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., after the institution attempted to censor or alter the presentation of her painting 'Trans Forming Liberty' (2024) due to political pressure. The Baltimore Museum of Art subsequently stepped in to host the show, where it has since shattered all-time attendance records for the institution.

Nan Goldin: Why The Ballad of Sexual Dependency is So Important

nan goldin the ballad of sexual dependency why so important 1234773582

Gagosian London is hosting an exhibition of all 126 photographs from Nan Goldin’s seminal work, "The Ballad of Sexual Dependency," to mark the 40th anniversary of the photobook's publication. The exhibition traces the evolution of the project from its origins as a DIY slideshow performance in New York nightclubs to its status as a cornerstone of contemporary photography, featuring intimate portraits of Goldin’s inner circle across New York, Berlin, and beyond.

Éliane Radigue, Electronic Music Pioneer, Dies at 94

eliane radigue dead electronic music 1234774581

Éliane Radigue, a pioneering French composer and electronic music visionary, has died at the age of 94 in Paris. A student of musique concrète founders Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry, Radigue became renowned for her meditative, long-form compositions created primarily on the ARP 2500 modular synthesizer. Her work, deeply influenced by Tibetan Buddhism, focused on the subtle, sculptural qualities of sound and "barely perceptible" sonic shifts.