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.

Nancy Holt review – cosmic thrills as the universe’s hidden power is unleashed

The Guardian reviews a major UK exhibition of land artist Nancy Holt (1938-2014) at Goodwood in West Sussex, the largest show of her work to date. The exhibition features two large outdoor installations—Ventilation System, a metallic tubular structure resembling building lungs, and Hydra’s Head, six concrete pools arranged like the Hydra constellation in a chalk quarry—alongside indoor photographs, diagrams, and light works. The review praises the cosmic scale and bodily connection of the outdoor pieces but finds the indoor works less effective at conveying Holt’s themes of universal vastness and interconnectedness.

From 1999: Charlotte Perriand, Designer, Is Dead at 96

Charlotte Perriand, the pioneering French designer and architect, has died at age 96. Her career spanned most of the 20th century, during which she collaborated with giants like Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, creating iconic modernist furniture and championing a vision of functional, democratic design.

Yoshida Chizuko

The Portland Art Museum is hosting the first major museum retrospective of Yoshida Chizuko (1924–2017), a pioneering Japanese modernist painter and printmaker. The exhibition features over 100 works, including early oil paintings, monotypes, woodblock prints, lithographs, and mixed media pieces, many never before exhibited. It traces her career from avant-garde abstraction in the 1940s and 1950s through op art and photoetchings in the 1960s and 1970s to nature-inspired late works, and includes a planned major acquisition from the Yoshida family estate.

Conductor Launches in Brooklyn With Venice Biennale-Bound Artists and Immersive Projects

Conductor, a new art fair hosted by Powerhouse Arts, opened in Brooklyn on Wednesday night, drawing over 800 visitors within hours. The fair features 28 galleries and 20 special projects, with installations spilling out of traditional booths into shared spaces. Highlights include House of Silence, a tent-like structure by Turkish artist Vuslat and architect Sana Frini; Retorno (2022) by Juan José Barboza-Gubo, presented by Praise Shadows Gallery; and works by Beya Gille Gacha, who is set to appear in the Cameroon Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Fair director Adrianna Farietta noted that some galleries had to withdraw due to the war in Iran, but the result remains an inclusive and immersive event.

Painting LACMA's David Geffen Galleries with Light, Shadow, and Color

LACMA's new David Geffen Galleries, designed by architect Peter Zumthor, feature custom-tinted concrete walls that break from traditional museum aesthetics. The walls are coated with a transparent, nano-scale mineral glaze developed by Zumthor and Swiss craftsman Marius Fontana, manufactured by German company Keim. The palette—dusky red, vibrant blue, and nuanced black—was inspired by ancient Indigenous American pigments prepared by artist Porfirio Gutiérrez for the museum's exhibition "We Live in Painting: The Nature of Color in Mesoamerican Art." Diana Magaloni, LACMA's Senior Deputy Director for Conservation, Curatorial and Exhibitions, led the conceptualization and application of the glazes, which are designed to enhance the building's interplay of light and shadow without obscuring its raw concrete surfaces.

Hastings College art professor has solo exhibition at Museum of Nebraska Art

Dr. Brian Corr, an associate professor at Hastings College and internationally recognized glass artist, is presenting his first solo museum exhibition at the Museum of Nebraska Art (MONA). Titled "Of Light and Shadow," the show serves as a 20-year retrospective of Corr’s career, featuring large-scale glass installations and sculptures that explore the interplay of light, shadow, and contemplative space. A highlight of the exhibition is the U.S. debut of "One," a significant architectural installation originally created in 2007.

Art professor Brian Corr debuts solo exhibition at the Museum of Nebraska Art

The Museum of Nebraska Art (MONA) is hosting "Of Light and Shadow," the first solo museum exhibition for internationally recognized glass artist and Hastings College professor Dr. Brian Corr. The survey spans two decades of Corr’s career, featuring large-scale sculptures and installations that utilize light and shadow as primary materials. A highlight of the show is the U.S. debut of "One," a significant architectural installation originally created for his master’s thesis in Australia.

Tirzah Garwood's archive of work worth £30,0000 to be sold at auction

Cheffins auction house in Cambridge, UK, will sell the first archive of work by artist Tirzah Garwood to come to the market, in its Art & Design Sale on 22 May. The archive, estimated to fetch around £30,000, includes wood engravings, pencil sketches, and a sketchbook, and has been consigned by the granddaughter of artist Frederick Austin, a friend of Garwood and her husband Eric Ravilious. The sale coincides with the first major retrospective of Garwood's work, "Tirzah Garwood: Beyond Ravilious" at Dulwich Picture Gallery, which has helped revive interest in her career.

Venice Biennale’s jury resigns

The entire jury of the 61st Venice Biennale, presided by Brazilian curator Solange Farkas and comprising four other curators, resigned just nine days before the exhibition's scheduled opening on 9 May 2026. The jury had announced it would not award prizes to countries whose leaders are charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court, a move widely understood to target Israel and Russia. In response, the Biennale's organisers cancelled the prize-giving ceremony and will instead award Golden Lions via a popular vote among ticketholders. The row escalated further when the Israeli representative, sculptor Belu-Simion Fainaru, accused the jury of discrimination and threatened legal action, prompting intervention from Italy's culture ministry.

Surrey Art Gallery probes Expo 86’s artistic legacy with In the Shadow of the Pavilions

The Surrey Art Gallery has launched "In the Shadow of the Pavilions," an exhibition exploring the complex artistic legacy of Vancouver’s Expo 86. Curated by Jordan Strom, the show features works and archival materials from over 50 artists, including those officially commissioned for the world’s fair and those who were excluded or responded critically to the event. Highlights include documentation of Michael Snow’s pioneering holography and Bill Reid’s Haida canoe, Loo Taas, alongside works by Stan Douglas and Rodney Graham.

An open letter to La Biennale di Venezia calls out inaction in the face of global atrocities

A group of 74 artists and curators invited to the 61st Venice Biennale have issued an open letter to the institution's president, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco. The signatories are protesting the decision to relocate the Israeli Pavilion to the Arsenale, placing it in close proximity to the central exhibition 'In Minor Keys' curated by the late Koyo Kouoh. The letter demands the exclusion of official delegations from countries accused of war crimes—specifically Israel, Russia, and the United States—and accuses the Biennale of complicity through its silence on global atrocities.

Surrey Art Gallery spotlights Expo 86 with In the Shadow of the Pavilions, April 18 to June 7

The Surrey Art Gallery is launching "In the Shadow of the Pavilions: Expo 86 and Contemporary Art," a multidisciplinary exhibition running from April 18 to June 7. Curated by Jordan Strom, the show features archival works and documentation from over 40 artists created between 1984 and 1988. It brings together official commissions from the world’s fair alongside unofficial, parallel art initiatives that emerged during Vancouver’s Centennial celebrations, covering media ranging from kinetic sculpture to performance art.

War in the Middle East, the Whitney Biennial, and a newly-discovered Rembrandt in Amsterdam—podcast

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has officially authenticated a previously dismissed painting, 'The Vision of Zacharias in the Temple' (1633), as a genuine work by Rembrandt van Rijn. Long considered a mere copy of a lost original, the piece has been upgraded following extensive research by the museum's scholarly team. Simultaneously, the 82nd Whitney Biennial has launched in New York, while the escalating conflict in the Middle East raises concerns regarding the stability of the burgeoning cultural tourism sector in the Persian Gulf.

Gwen John: The 'reclusive spinster' artist who shunned conformity

A major retrospective of Gwen John, one of Britain's greatest 20th-century artists, is opening at National Museum Cardiff on the 150th anniversary of her birth. The exhibition, titled 'Gwen John: Strange Beauties,' brings together works from across the UK and the USA for the first time, including a significant collection acquired from her nephew Edwin in 1976 that has never been extensively researched or exhibited. John, born in 1876 in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, was long overshadowed by her younger brother, the artist Augustus John, and was often dismissed as a 'reclusive spinster.' However, curators and biographers now challenge that myth, revealing her as a socially engaged, determined artist who pursued her own path despite Victorian-era constraints on women.

The road to ‘Fridamania’: how Frida Kahlo became a global phenomenon

A major exhibition titled "Frida: The Making of an Icon" opens at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, tracing how Frida Kahlo evolved from a little-known artist in Diego Rivera's shadow into a global phenomenon and brand. Curated by Mari Carmen Ramírez, the show examines Kahlo's posthumous rise to fame from the 1970s through influential biographies, Chicano and feminist reinterpretations, and her complex relationship with race, ethnicity, gender, and politics. It features 35 Kahlo works including "The Broken Column" (1944), alongside pieces by 80 artists influenced by her, and explores "Fridamania" through 200 objects. The exhibition will travel to Tate Modern in London this summer.

Review: Shows on view at Akron Art Museum reveal creative soul of a 200-year-old city

The Akron Art Museum is hosting a series of exhibitions that explore the identity and creative spirit of Akron, Ohio, as the city celebrates its 2025 bicentennial. The centerpiece is a large-scale retrospective of Alfred McMoore (1950-2009), a self-trained outsider artist from Akron who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent much of his life in psychiatric institutions. McMoore created massive pencil and crayon drawings focused on funerals and death rituals, and his work attracted a circle of supporters including the late antiques dealer Chuck Auerbach and journalist Jim Carney, whose sons Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney later founded the Grammy-winning band The Black Keys, named after McMoore's cryptic phrase.

Sasha Gordon Finds Beauty and Empathy in the Shadows of the Human Mind

Sasha Gordon, a rising young artist from New York's art scene, debuted her solo exhibition "Haze" at David Zwirner's 19th Street gallery in Chelsea. The show, which drew long lines and significant attention, features hyperrealistic paintings that explore identity, memory, and the subconscious through an Asian diasporic lens. Gordon, who rose to fame during the pandemic and is co-represented by David Zwirner and Matthew Brown (Zwirner's son-in-law), discusses her evolving technique and her shift away from explicitly autobiographical work toward more open-ended, timeless figures.

George Rouy Bends Flesh and Bone in 'Shadowing'

British artist George Rouy has opened a solo exhibition titled 'SHADOWING' at Almine Rech's venue in Château de Boisgeloup, Gisors, France, running through November 23. The show is staged inside Pablo Picasso's former sculpture studio and features new paintings that explore the tension and flux of the human body, with figures emerging and dissolving in bruise-colored palettes and expressive brushwork. The exhibition is supported by Hannah Barry Gallery and Hauser & Wirth.

Camille Pissarro, a Man Behind Impressionism, Gains Favor in Denver

The New York Times reports that Camille Pissarro, a pivotal but often overshadowed figure of Impressionism, is gaining renewed attention in Denver. The article highlights a growing appreciation for Pissarro's work, particularly through exhibitions and institutional focus in the city, positioning him as a key influence behind the Impressionist movement rather than merely a supporting player.

Tate Britain’s Lee Miller exhibition seeks to go beyond her mythology

Tate Britain is opening a major survey of American photographer Lee Miller (1907-77), running from 2 October 2025 to 15 February 2026. Curated by Hilary Floe, the exhibition aims to refocus attention on Miller’s artistic output rather than her storied personal life—her roles as a Surrealist, fashion photographer, war correspondent, and muse to figures like Man Ray, Pablo Picasso, and Jean Cocteau. The show presents the UK’s largest survey of her work, deliberately selecting images based on artistic merit rather than biographical illustration.

Don’t Miss These September Museum Exhibits in NOLA

New Orleans museums are launching several major exhibitions in September 2025. The Ogden Museum of Southern Art presents "Flags of Our Mothers" (September 13–March 8, 2026) featuring Raven Halfmoon's largest ceramic sculptures, and "The Unending Stream: Chapter II" (September 27–March 15, 2026) showcasing six local photographers. The New Orleans Museum of Art opens "Dawoud Bey: Elegy" (September 26–January 4, 2026), a photography and film installation exploring African American historical memory.

Works by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith and Reena Saini Kallat to go on sale as Frieze Sculpture returns to London

Frieze Sculpture returns to London's Regent's Park for its 13th edition, running from September 17 to November 2, 2025, alongside Frieze London and Frieze Masters. Curated by Fatoş Üstek under the theme "In the Shadows," the exhibition features works by 14 artists, including the late Jaune Quick-to-See Smith and Reena Saini Kallat. All sculptures are for sale, with highlights including Andy Holden's bronze bird-song pieces, Kallat's sound sculpture using calls of extinct birds, and Smith's tribute to Indigenous memory. Other participants include David Altmejd, Grace Schwindt, Henrique Oliveira, Timur Si-Qin, Burçak Bingöl, Assemble, and Abdollah Nafisi.

Top auction houses draw Southeast Asia’s elite art buyers

Auction houses Sotheby's, Christie's, and Bonhams are seeing a surge in participation from wealthy Southeast Asian collectors, particularly Millennials and Gen Z. Elaine Holt of Sotheby's Asia reports significant growth in collector activity from the region, with strong bidding at recent Hong Kong sales. Christie's Asia-Pacific president Francis Belin notes Southeast Asia is now the firm's third-largest buying market in Asia-Pacific, led by Singapore and Indonesia, with notable increases from Vietnam. Bonhams' managing director for Asia, Julia Hu, reports a 67% year-on-year rise in Southeast Asian auction spending. Younger buyers are driving demand, with Millennials and Gen Z accounting for 37% of Bonhams' Hong Kong buyers and 40% of Sotheby's Hong Kong marquee sales. A Renoir painting sold for $23.56 million to a collector in their 30s, highlighting youthful buying power.

Shirley Gorelick: Figuring It Out

The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) is presenting "Shirley Gorelick: Figuring It Out," an exhibition running from March 27 to June 28, 2026, that centers on three large-scale paintings by the American realist artist Shirley Gorelick (1924–2000). The show brings together these works from NMWA’s collection for the first time, including the first canvas in her "Three Graces" series, a triple portrait of activist Libby Ourlicht, and a depiction of longtime friends Gunny and Lee Benson. More than 30 additional paintings, drawings, and prints further illuminate Gorelick’s practice and her subjects. Gorelick, who was active in New York artist-run women’s cooperative galleries in the 1970s, developed a bold realist style that combined vigorous brushwork, heightened shadows, and vivid patterns, yet she was largely omitted from art historical narratives that focused on Pop art, Minimalism, and conceptual art.

Madrid: Hypnotic Laugh Track by Manga Ngcobo

Writer Manga Ngcobo reflects on the architectural and cultural landscape of Madrid in early 2025, juxtaposing the city's historic art institutions with its rapid technological and commercial evolution. Drawing on Ben Lerner’s novel 'Leaving the Atocha Station', the piece explores the growing disconnect between the profound emotional experiences promised by masters like Velázquez and Goya and the reality of a city increasingly designed for content creation, retail aesthetics, and digital consumption.

Masterworks Cofounders Face Legal Threats and Complaints

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Masterworks, a company that sells fractional shares of high-value artworks, is embroiled in a legal dispute with former executive Hai Min Tran. The company has filed a complaint in New York state court, alleging Tran resigned from his role as chief product officer before taking paternity leave and is now attempting to extract a financial settlement. Masterworks calls his subsequent claim of illegal termination "wholly meritless."

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Christie's online sale of decorative arts from the collection of Jonathan Burden, titled 'Crafted and Collected: The Jonathan Burden Sale,' achieved over $1.07 million with fees, more than doubling the low estimate of $487,500. The sale featured 151 lots, with only five unsold, a 97% sell-through rate. The top lot was a 10-foot-long French Incarnat Turquin marble dining table that sold for $101,600, far exceeding its $30,000 high estimate. The auction employed an innovative 'in-situ' viewing at Burden's studio in Long Island City, where potential bidders could meet the dealer, hear stories, and see pieces demonstrated. Many items sold for multiples of their estimates, including a Victorian metamorphic chair that brought $27,940 against a $3,000 high estimate.

In Venice, a new project aims to transform museums into living, participatory spaces

A Venezia un nuovo progetto punta a trasformare i musei in spazi vivi e partecipati

The Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia (MUVE) has launched "Performing MUVE," a new program set to begin in spring 2026 that reimagines museums as dynamic, participatory spaces. The initiative, developed by MUVE Academy and MUVE Education, will unfold across three venues: Museo Fortuny, Casa di Carlo Goldoni, and the new MUVEC – Casa delle Contemporaneità in Mestre. The program includes four distinct projects—led by Mattia Berto, choreographer Elena Ajani, actress Sara Urban, and dancer Giulia Gemma Manfrotto—that use dance, theater, and embodied practices to transform visitors from passive observers into active participants.

‘Reality Decay’ Is at the Root of All the Bad News

The article connects a 2009 artwork by Paul Chan, 'Sade for Sade’s Sake,' to the recent release of the Jeffrey Epstein emails. The artwork, a shadow puppet projection based on the Marquis de Sade's violent text, was referenced in a 2010 email from an art adviser to Epstein, suggesting artists who could realize his desires for his private island. This link places a contemporary artwork directly into the evidence of a high-profile criminal conspiracy.