Frist Art Museum opens “In Her Place” a group exhibition featuring 28 women artists; Vanderbilt Art faculty among the exhibitors

The Frist Art Museum in Nashville opened a major group exhibition titled "In Her Place" to mark its 25th anniversary. The show features nearly one hundred works by 28 women artists with strong ties to the Nashville community, including painting, sculpture, textile, and installation. The artists, such as María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Alicia Henry, and Marilyn Murphy, represent an intergenerational group whose practices have significantly impacted the local art scene.

New York Galleries: Openings and Closings (02/09-02/15)

A comprehensive list of gallery exhibitions opening and closing in New York City for the week of February 9-15, 2026, has been published. The schedule includes openings at major galleries like Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, and Matthew Marks, featuring artists such as Michael Heizer, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, and Anish Kapoor, alongside shows at smaller spaces. The list also notes the final weekend to see exhibitions at venues including Tanya Bonakdar Gallery and Alexander Gray Associates.

France’s ex-culture minister Jack Lang resigns from L’Institut du Monde Arabe amid Epstein revelations

Jack Lang, France's former culture minister, resigned as president of the Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA) on February 7 following revelations in the Epstein files that his name appeared 673 times. Lang, 86, denies any wrongdoing, acknowledging a long "cordial relationship" with Jeffrey Epstein but claiming ignorance of his sex crimes. The Paris prosecutor's office opened a preliminary investigation into Lang and his daughter Caroline for "laundering of aggravated tax fraud," and Lang stepped down after being summoned by the French foreign ministry at the request of President Macron and Prime Minister Lecornu.

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.

Museum wall texts are an art in their own right—but will they survive the digital age?

The article explores the debate over museum wall texts, examining whether they enhance or hinder the visitor experience. It highlights contrasting approaches: Calder Gardens in Philadelphia has eliminated wall text entirely, branding itself as "open to interpretation," while institutions like the Frick Pittsburgh and the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) continue to use carefully crafted labels, often with strict word limits and multiple languages. The Frick Pittsburgh invites guest "labelists" from the local community to write labels, and the ROM focuses on making text shorter and more scannable to hold visitors' limited attention.

Saint Louis Art Museum will house Anselm Kiefer display in Sculpture Hall through Spring 2027

The Saint Louis Art Museum announced that a portion of the landmark exhibition "Anselm Kiefer: Becoming the Sea" will remain on display in its Sculpture Hall through Spring 2027. The installation features five monumental, three-story paintings—including "Missouri, Mississippi," "Lumpeguin, Cigwe, Animiki," and "Am Rhein"—that were among the most popular pieces of the exhibition, which drew around 150,000 visitors during its 14-week run. The extension was prompted by strong public turnout and the artist's personal connection to the space.

Abundance of botanical forms and monumental paintings reflects optimism at San Francisco’s Fog Design+Art fair

The 12th edition of Fog Design+Art in San Francisco opened with a record-breaking preview gala on January 21, drawing over 2,700 guests. The fair features 65 presentations from local and international dealers, with standout booths including Jessica Silverman's blue-hued works and Hauser & Wirth's $1m sale of Jack Whitten's 'Solar Space' (1971). Large-scale paintings dominate, alongside a notable abundance of botanical imagery, while geometric abstractions outnumber representational works. The fair's director, Sydney Blumenkranz, noted a particularly buoyant mood and strong attendance from tech industry leaders.

Artist Jan Tichy plans to plunge MSU's Broad Art Museum into darkness

Artist Jan Tichy has created a major exhibition titled "Darkness" at the Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, opening January 30, 2026, and running through late July. The exhibition transforms the museum's main floor galleries by blacking out Zaha Hadid's iconic angular windows and entrances, using projections and modulated lights to simulate a 24-hour day-night cycle. Tichy, who previously worked with the museum on a Flint water crisis project in 2017, collaborated with MSU researchers—including the Department of Entomology—to create works inspired by academic studies, such as photographic prints made from insects collected on the museum grounds over a year.

Self-portraits, Surrealism and sanitary pads: what to expect from Tate Modern's Frida Kahlo show

Tate Modern has announced details for its upcoming blockbuster exhibition "Frida: the Making of an Icon" (25 June–3 January 2027), featuring more than 30 works by Frida Kahlo alongside photographs and personal artefacts. Co-curator Tobias Ostrander revealed that the show highlights Kahlo's impact on women artists across Mexico, the Americas, and Europe from 1970 to today, including highly personal works reflecting her suffering after a miscarriage and her complex relationship with the United States. The exhibition includes paintings such as "My Dress Hangs There" (1933-38), "Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird" (1940), and "The Frame" (1938), and examines Kahlo's links to Surrealism following her 1939 Paris exhibition. The show also features portraits of contemporary artists who have imitated Kahlo, such as Tracey Emin and Yasumasa Morimura, and a final section on "Fridamania" exploring how her image dominates popular culture on toys, dolls, and even branded sanitary pads by Saba.

Philip Tinari appointed as deputy director and head of art at Hong Kong’s Tai Kwun cultural complex

Philip Tinari, the longtime director and CEO of Beijing's UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, has announced he will leave to become deputy director and head of art at Hong Kong's Tai Kwun cultural complex. He will oversee programming at Tai Kwun Contemporary and shape strategy for the entire complex, which includes performing arts, galleries, and restaurants. Tinari replaces Pi Li, who previously worked at M+ and co-founded Boers-Li gallery. The appointment is backed by The Hong Kong Jockey Club, whose director Chin Chin Teoh and Tai Kwun Arts director Timothy Calnin cited a 2018 collaboration with Tinari on a Cao Fei exhibition as influential. Tinari's departure follows reports of financial difficulties at UCCA, which the institution denied. UCCA has appointed Lingyi Kong as new CEO and Xi Guo as deputy director, effective February 2026.

National Museum of African Art Announces “Here: Pride and Belonging in African Art”

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art has announced “Here: Pride and Belonging in African Art,” an exhibition opening January 23 through August 23, 2026. Featuring nearly 60 works by LGBTQ+ artists from Africa and its diaspora—including Zanele Muholi, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Leilah Babirye, Jim Chuchu, and Ṣọlá Olúlòde—the show spans painting, photography, sculpture, installation, video, and digital art. Co-curated by Serubiri Moses and Kevin D. Dumouchelle, the exhibition is built on years of dialogue with artists and communities, centering their voices and lived experiences.

The Big Review | Jacques-Louis David at the Musée du Louvre, Paris ★★★★★

The Musée du Louvre in Paris has opened a major retrospective of Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825), the greatest Neoclassical artist, marking his biggest survey in nearly four decades. The exhibition, mounted for the 200th anniversary of his death, comprises just over 100 works, including strategic loans from France and eight other countries, and complements the Louvre's own holdings. The show aims to redefine David beyond the Neoclassical label, presenting him instead as both a "realist" and an "idealist," and is compared to blockbusters like the Rijksmuseum's Vermeer show.

In a ‘K-shaped’ economy, the art market's recovery could rely on the super-rich

Sotheby's and Christie's held a series of high-profile auctions in New York in late 2025, generating a combined $2.2 billion from major collections including the Leonard A. Lauder collection, the Cindy and Jay Pritzker collection, and the Robert F. and Patricia G. Ross Weis collection. Star lots included Gustav Klimt's portrait of Elisabeth Lederer ($236.4m), a Vincent van Gogh still life ($62.7m), a Frida Kahlo self-portrait ($54.7m), and a Mark Rothko abstract ($62.2m). Despite these strong results, the total was still 30% below the equivalent sales in 2022, and the article notes a growing number of contemporary gallery closures in 2025.

Remembering Erik Bulatov, the Soviet artist who reframed propaganda

Erik Bulatov, the Soviet-born artist known for overlaying Communist Party slogans onto luminous landscapes, died in Paris on 9 November. A key figure in the underground art movement of the 1970s and 80s, he was part of the Sretensky Group alongside Ilya Kabakov and others, navigating state censorship by illustrating children's books. His most famous work, *Glory to the CPSU* (1975), sold for $2.1m in 2008, and in 2025 he was ranked the most expensive living Russian artist by The Art Newspaper Russia.

How Gertrude Abercrombie and her Magic Realist cohorts shifted the dial on American Regionalism

A new exhibition at the Milwaukee Art Museum, 'Gertrude and Friends: The Wisconsin Magic Realists,' highlights a group of artists active in the Midwest from the early 1940s who challenged the dominant American Regionalism aesthetic. The show features 17 works by artists including John Wilde, Karl Priebe, Sylvia Fein, Marshall Glasier, and Dudley Huppler, who were friends and correspondents of the eccentric painter Gertrude Abercrombie (1909-77). The exhibition is designed as a companion to a major Abercrombie retrospective that is currently touring the United States, having originated at Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Art and now on view at the Colby College Museum of Art.

Surrealism at 100 Sprawls and Seduces in Philadelphia

The Philadelphia Museum of Art has opened a major exhibition titled "Surrealism at 100," marking the centennial of the Surrealist movement. The show brings together a vast array of works from the movement's key figures, including Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, and Max Ernst, alongside lesser-known artists, aiming to capture the full breadth and subversive spirit of Surrealism across painting, sculpture, photography, and film.

This Gallery Has Championed Photography as Art for 50 Years

Blue Sky Gallery in Portland, Oregon, is celebrating its 50th anniversary as a nonprofit champion of photography as fine art. Founded in 1975 as the Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts by a collective of five co-founders—Ann Hughes, Bob DiFranco, Craig Hickman, Terry Toedtemeier, and Chris Rauschenberg—the gallery opened in a small storefront on Lovejoy Street when photography was not yet widely recognized in institutional spaces. It has never charged admission or application fees, relying on volunteer labor and a philosophy of free access. Over five decades, the gallery moved through three locations before settling in Portland's historic DeSoto Building, which it now owns.

New York Galleries: Openings and Closings of the Week (12/15—12/21)

Cosmos: The Art of Observing Space Art and Science Symposium

A symposium titled "Cosmos: The Art of Observing Space Art and Science Symposium" will take place at the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) headquarters in Burlington House, London, celebrating the major exhibition "Cosmos: The Art of Observing Space" at the Royal West of England Academy (RWA) in Bristol (24 January–19 April 2026). Curated by visual artist Ione Parkin RWA, the exhibition features over 30 contemporary artists alongside loan items from public collections, all inspired by astronomy, cosmology, astrophysics, and space exploration. The symposium includes talks by astronomers, archivists, and exhibiting artists, with a catalogue published by Sansom & Company featuring contributions from Professor Chris Lintott, Professor Amaury Triaud, Dr Sian Prosser, and Ione Parkin RWA.

Did Qatar’s Courbet acquisition short-circuit French export licence process?

Qatar Museums has acquired Gustave Courbet's early self-portrait *Le Désespéré* (1843-45) from a French collector for €50 million, bypassing the standard French export licence process. The Musée d'Orsay revealed the purchase at a private event in October, announcing the painting will be lent to the museum for five years before moving to Qatar's future Art Mill Museum (opening by 2030). The sale was conducted without an export certificate, with the justification that the work will remain in France for most of the time, using temporary export licences for exhibitions in Doha. Critics, including heritage campaigner Julien Lacaze, argue this exemption is being misused, as it was intended for one-off exhibitions, not recurring rotations.

In pictures: meet the ghosts of the US’s East Coast

Photographer Anastasia Samoylova presents her latest exhibition and photobook, "Atlantic Coast," at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach. The project documents a road trip along the old US Route 1 on the East Coast, inspired by Berenice Abbott's 1954 journey. Through her lens, Samoylova captures a country in transition, juxtaposing decaying Americana with modern structures and political commentary, including images of a statue of John C. Calhoun being removed after the George Floyd protests and the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge. She draws parallels between her work and Paul Thomas Anderson's film "One Battle After Another," both centering on road trips and shared anxieties.

Art Basel Miami Beach aims to ‘end the year on a high note’

Art Basel Miami Beach (ABMB) opens amid a still-sluggish global art market, with sales at live events yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels. Director Bridget Finn expresses optimism following strong sales at Art Basel Paris in October, noting that gallerists and collectors were energized. The fair introduces structural changes, including relocating the Nova and Positions sections to the east entrance to spotlight emerging galleries, and launching Zero 10, a platform for digital art. Seven local Miami galleries are participating, with Nina Johnson making her ABMB debut. Despite a few longtime exhibitors withdrawing, Finn attributes this to galleries being more selective across Art Basel's five global fairs, including a new Qatar edition in 2026.

The Rembrandt robber: five takeaways from an insider’s book on a notorious art thief

Myles Connor, an experienced career criminal, stole Rembrandt's "Portrait of Elsbeth van Rijn" from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston on April 14, 1975, using the painting as leverage in another crime. In his new book "The Rembrandt Heist," Anthony Amore—director of security at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum—analyzes Connor's motivations and methods, presenting five key takeaways from the heist.

Despite Putin’s repressive regime, a new private museum opens in Moscow

A new private museum called Zilart is set to open in Moscow on December 2, founded by billionaire couple Andrey and Yelizaveta Molchanov. The museum will showcase their collection of roughly 10,000 works, spanning Russian avant-garde, Soviet nonconformist art, international contemporary art, photography, and African art. Originally conceived in 2015 as a modern art branch of the State Hermitage Museum, the project underwent significant changes: architect Hani Rashid was replaced by Sergei Tchoban in 2021, and the Hermitage withdrew in 2023. The museum is entirely funded by the Molchanovs' LSR Group and receives no state support.

These 16 Miami Art Week 2025 Exhibitions Are Already Creating Buzz Among Collectors

Miami Art Week 2025 is set to take place December 3–7, headlined by Art Basel Miami Beach (public days December 5–7) and concurrent fairs including Design Miami (20th anniversary) and NADA Miami. The article highlights 16 must-see exhibitions across venues such as the Miami Beach Convention Center, Wynwood, and the Miami Design District. Featured galleries include Pace Gallery (presenting Alexander Calder, Elmgreen & Dragset, James Turrell), Locks Gallery (Louise Bourgeois, Isamu Noguchi), Southern Guild (debuting at Art Basel with Zizipho Poswa and others), and Leon Tovar Gallery (focusing on Latin American women modernists).

Frenemies or rivals? Tate Britain show explores Turner and Constable's turbulent relationship

Tate Britain will present "Turner and Constable," a major exhibition spanning 2025–2026 that explores the intertwined careers and rivalry of J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851) and John Constable (1776–1837). For the first time, a show is devoted to both artists, featuring historical reconstructions such as the famous 1831 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition pairing of Turner's *Caligula’s Palace and Bridge* (1831) and Constable's *Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows* (1829–31). Curated by Amy Concannon, the exhibition includes loans from private collections and rarely seen works, including Turner's *The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, 16 October 1834* (1835) from the Cleveland Museum of Art, on show in the UK for the first time since 1883.

Right to Rest

The Denver Art Museum (DAM) created a visitor experience for the exhibition "Composing Color: Paintings by Alma Thomas from the Smithsonian American Art Museum" that centered on rest and well-being, inspired by Thomas's belief that art should offer beauty and restoration. The exhibition team, including an interpretive specialist, layered inclusive design practices such as specific interventions for rest, aiming to make Black audiences, disabled audiences, and older audiences feel comfortable and welcome. The DAM's Lifelong Learning and Accessibility division applied universal design principles and well-being outcomes to support the exhibition's goal of honoring Thomas's vision of art as a restorative space.

Collector of Beeple’s $69.3 million NFT work launches space in Singapore

Collector Vignesh Sundaresan, known as Metakovan and famous for purchasing Beeple's NFT artwork "Everydays: The First 5000 Days" for $69.3 million in 2021, has launched a new project space called Padimai Art & Tech Studio in Singapore's Tanjong Pagar Distripark. The venue opens with an Olafur Eliasson exhibition titled "Your view matter," an adaptation of a 2022 virtual reality work that records visitors' experiences on a blockchain system. Sundaresan describes Padimai as a heritage, contemporary art and research institution focused on technology as cultural infrastructure, exploring digital creation, preservation, circulation, and collective memory.

Portland Art Museum to unveil $116m transformation with Mark Rothko at its heart

The Portland Art Museum (PAM) will unveil a $116 million expansion and renovation on November 20, the largest single-organization arts investment in Oregon history. The centerpiece is the new Mark Rothko Pavilion, a multi-story glass structure designed by Hennebery Eddy Architects and Vinci Hamp Architects, which bridges the museum's 1932 building with a former Masonic Temple. The project adds 100,000 square feet of renovated space, including new plazas with sculptures by Ugo Rondinone, Roy Lichtenstein, Anthony Caro, and Clement Meadmore. The Rothko family is lending major paintings from their private collection for display over two decades, with a promised gift at the end of that period, and made a six-figure donation to the museum's $146 million capital campaign.

Children curate exhibition of Clyfford Still works inspired by their reservation

The Clyfford Still Museum in Denver has handed curatorial authority to 100 children from the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation for the exhibition "Tell Clyfford I Said ‘Hi’" (on view until May 10, 2026). The show features works by Clyfford Still, who in 1936 traveled to the Colville Reservation with colleague Worth Griffin to document tribal members and landscapes. The museum collaborated with tribal youth from three schools—Nespelem School, Nespelem Head Start, and Hearts Gathered Montessori—who selected artworks from facsimiles of Still’s paintings and photographs, drawing connections between his abstract works and their own cultural experiences, such as a student noting that a painting resembled a pow wow blanket.