The New York Times reports on the upcoming fall art season, highlighting major museum exhibitions headlined by Robert Rauschenberg and other prominent artists. The article previews a slate of high-profile shows scheduled across leading institutions, signaling a robust return to large-scale programming after quieter periods.
The Art Studio, Inc. in Beaumont, Texas, is hosting the exhibition “The Art of Mental Health” through September 26, featuring artwork created by people whose art addresses mental health issues. The show, now in its third year, originated when board members from the foundation of Mental Health in Southeast Texas approached executive director Greg Busceme to use the studio space for art therapy. Submissions were open to all ages and skill levels, and the studio plans to continue the monthly group despite recent federal funding cuts.
The West Island Art Studio Circuit (WIASC) is presenting a free café-exhibition titled "Circuits" at Studio 77 in Pointe-Claire Village, Quebec, from September 1 through 30, 2025. The show features works by 11 local artists who participated in the WIASC's inaugural Open Studio Day on August 16, 2025, including pieces such as "Colors of the Autumn" by Preetha Mitran, "Pain Waves" by Sandra Woods, and "Flight Paths" by Donna McGee. A special public vernissage will be held on September 21.
The Folkestone Triennial 2025, titled "The Lie of the Land," features 18 artists across the seaside town in southeast England. Works include Sara Trillo's chalk cob sculptures inspired by Iron Age urns, Emilija Skarnulyte's film on nuclear decommissioning at Lithuania's Ignalina plant, Katie Paterson's amulet installation made from planetary crisis materials, and Cooking Sections' activist project on UK sewerage pollution. The triennial runs through the ancient port's historic role as a site of arrival and departure.
A fading Banksy mural, *Migrant Child* (2019), depicting a child holding a flare and wearing a life vest, was removed from the façade of the 17th-century Palazzo San Pantalon in Venice on Wednesday night. Restorers cut out the wall section using angle grinders and hand tools from a barge, in an operation funded by the banking group Banca Ifis, the building's owner. The work—one of only two Banksy pieces officially attributed in Italy—had deteriorated significantly due to six years of exposure to the elements, with about a third of the image lost. It will undergo analysis and restoration under Federico Borgogni, who previously oversaw the removal of Banksy's *Aachoo!* in Bristol.
Boston has launched its first-ever citywide public art exhibition, the Boston Public Art Triennial, titled "The Exchange." The exhibition features 21 large-scale installations by local and international artists placed across neighborhoods including Dorchester, Roxbury, Mattapan, Downtown Crossing, and the Charlestown Navy Yard. Works address themes such as indigeneity, sustainability, shared humanity, affordable housing, and Black motherhood. The triennial also includes an accelerator program that funds and supports local artists with professional development. The exhibition runs through October 31, 2025, with over 100 associated events citywide.
Alison Byrne, who began as an intern at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in 2000, has been named the museum's executive director as of late September 2024. Over 25 years, she rose through roles including curator of education and deputy director, and was named Museum Art Educator of the Year by the Virginia Art Education Association in 2020. Byrne will lead the museum's relocation in 2026 to a new 35,000-square-foot facility at Virginia Wesleyan University, featuring a 21% increase in gallery space. The inaugural exhibition will showcase works by contemporary artist Nina Chanel Abney.
Prospect, New Orleans' international art exhibition, has canceled its next planned show in 2027. The decision was announced by the organization's most recent director, Nick Stillman, who cited the current political climate and cuts to government arts funding as making the financial outlook for the multi-million-dollar event "ominous." Stillman has since left the organization. Instead of mounting another exhibition, Prospect will publish a book titled "20 Years of Prospect" and shift focus to exploring sustainable models for presenting global art discourse while archiving its past work.
Swiss artist Not Vital, known for his multidisciplinary practice and SCARCH hybrids, owns Schloss Tarasp, an 11th-century castle in the Engadin region of Switzerland, which he bought in 2016. The castle is part of a foundation he established that also includes Parkin Sent, a sculpture park he acquired in 1998, and the 17th-century Planta House Ardez. Vital's installations in the park, such as "Punt dals asens (Donkey Bridge)" (2001) and "JOSÜJO (Disappearing House)" (2007), invite visitors to explore nature, while at the castle he installed "House to Watch the Sunset" (2018), a tower-like sculpture that challenges architectural logic.
Antoni Gaudí’s Casa Batlló in Barcelona has undergone a €3.5 million restoration that returns the building’s rear façade and private courtyard to their original 1906 design. Led by architect Xavier Villanueva, the year-long project employed local artisans to rebuild Gaudí’s vaulted balcony support system, reinstate lost features such as planters and a pergola, and restore original colors using 85,000 Nolla mosaic pieces, ironwork, stucco, and trencadís. The work coincides with the 20th anniversary of the building’s UNESCO World Heritage designation.
J. Hoberman, the longtime Village Voice film critic, has published a new book titled *Everything Is Now: The 1960s New York Avant-Garde—Primal Happenings, Underground Movies, Radical Pop*. The book expands his focus from cinema to a broad array of artists, poets, theater makers, musicians, and other figures in New York City's 1960s arts scene, including Andy Warhol, Barbara Rubin, Edie Sedgwick, Yoko Ono, and Jonas Mekas. Hoberman emphasizes collective and marginal cultural innovation, tracing how these figures influenced each other and responded to events of the era, such as Robert Moses's urban redevelopment plans.
The Pola Museum of Art in Japan will host 'Ryan Gander: You Complete Me' from 31 May to 30 November 2025, showcasing the latest works of British artist Ryan Gander. The exhibition features pieces such as 'You Complete Me, or I see things you can’t see (A Frogs Tale)' (2025), an animatronic installation with audio and artificial plants, alongside other works exploring themes of absence, invisibility, death, and potential through intellectual playfulness and humor.
Beijing-based artist Hu Yinping is presenting three major works in Hong Kong this March, including the installation 'Potatoes Grow on Trees' in the Encounters sector of Art Basel Hong Kong. The works stem from her long-running project 'Hu Xiaofang,' a semi-fictional company that employs women in rural China to create crocheted artworks, redistributing income and visibility to this often-overlooked demographic.
UNESCO has granted World Heritage status to Murujuga, an ancient Aboriginal rock art site in Western Australia's Pilbara region, despite concerns about its vulnerability to emissions from nearby gas and fertilizer plants. The site contains over 1 million petroglyphs, including the oldest known depiction of a human face, dating back up to 50,000 years. Indigenous groups campaigned for two decades for protection, and the Australian government nominated the site in 2023. However, the Karratha Gas Plant, operated by Woodside Energy, sits on the nominated land, and ICOMOS had warned that emissions pose a risk to the rock art. The UNESCO designation was unanimous, but an amendment was added requiring Australia to continue monitoring industrial impact.
NOBODY CAN DEFEAT ME THE BRAZILIAN PAVILION IN VENICE BETWEEN SPIRITUALITY HISTORY AND NATURE
The Fundação Bienal de São Paulo has revealed the curatorial project for the Brazilian Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026. Titled 'Comigo ninguém pode' (Nobody Can Defeat Me), the exhibition is curated by Diane Lima and features a major two-person presentation of artists Rosana Paulino and Adriana Varejão, who will occupy the entire pavilion with an installation-based project designed by Daniela Thomas.
Artist Jenna Sutela has been selected to represent Finland at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026 with a multisensory installation titled Aeolian Suite. Curated by Stefanie Hessler and commissioned by Frame Contemporary Art Finland, the project transforms the Alvar Aalto-designed pavilion into a dynamic windscape using meteorological data, wind machines, and a children’s woodwinds orchestra. The work personifies five specific Venetian winds as protagonists in an elemental drama that blends scientific data with the theatrical traditions of Commedia dell’arte.
Taiwan’s National Culture and Arts Foundation has revoked the National Award for Arts from Indigenous Paiwan artist Sakuliu Pavavaljung, following his conviction for sexual assault. The Supreme Court upheld a four-and-a-half-year prison sentence for forcible sexual intercourse involving a female student in 2021. Pavavaljung, who received the award in 2018, must return the NTD 1 million prize. The case gained traction after artist Kuo Yu Ping disclosed it on social media in December 2021, leading to additional victims coming forward. His planned exhibition for Taiwan at the 59th Venice Biennale was canceled in 2022.
Jean-David Malat, founder of JD Malat Gallery, opened a new outpost in Downtown Dubai in early 2025, expanding from his established Mayfair space in London. The gallery launched with a group show, *Carte Blanche*, and has since hosted solo exhibitions, with plans for a *Made in UAE* initiative that received over 1,000 applications. Malat cites the slowing London market and growing momentum in the UAE as key factors in his decision to invest in Dubai, where he spent a month building relationships with collectors and the local community before opening.
Ryan Sobkovich, who began painting at age nine and sold his first work at 11, has opened Nōma Gallery in Collingwood, Ontario, with his wife and fellow artist Colleen. The gallery, which launched on September 20 on Huron Street, represents 11 Canadian artists and plans to expand while exclusively featuring Canadian talent. Sobkovich insists on framing every artwork displayed and offers client services like a trial program and digital wall superimposition to help buyers decide.
Portland art gallery ILY2 (“I Love You Too”) has opened a permanent outpost in New York City, marking the first time a Portland gallery has established a permanent space in the city. The new gallery, located between Chinatown and Tribeca, inaugurated its space with the second installment of the group show SOFT PINK HARD LINE, which originally started at ILY2’s Portland gallery in the Pearl District. The expansion was conceived by philanthropist Allie Furlotti, who founded ILY2 during the pandemic as a series of pop-up residencies to support local artists.
Bengaluru-based artist Mohit Mahato has opened his debut solo exhibition, "Bring Me Flowers," at an undisclosed venue in Bengaluru. The series features drawings and bookforms that explore the quiet journeys of plants and people amid a rapidly changing urban landscape, with delicate lines and technical accuracy that evoke an ethereal realm. In an interview, Mahato discusses the emotional power of flowers, the role of time and night-time creation, and his choice of drawing as a foundational medium.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts board has approved a plan to close the institution for a two-year, comprehensive renovation project. The decision follows public criticism from former President Donald Trump regarding the center's physical state and past financial management.
Architetture, progetti e visioni. La storia del Santa Maria della Scala va in mostra a Siena
The Fondazione Antico Ospedale Santa Maria della Scala in Siena has launched a new regeneration project for the historic complex, 40 years after it ceased functioning as a hospital. The foundation, led by president Cristiano Leone and director Chiara Valdambrini, commissioned Luca Molinari Studio to analyze the original design by Guido Canali and coordinate a collaborative masterplan involving three international architecture firms: LAN Architecture, Odile Decq with Pangalos Feldmann Architectes, and Hannes Peer Architecture. An exhibition titled "Santa Maria della Scala. Architetture, progetti e visioni" will open on May 30, 2026, curated by Luca Molinari, showcasing the architectural plans and visions for the site.
A Venezia torna il Padiglione della Siria dopo il crollo del regime. L’intervista
The Syrian Pavilion returns to the Venice Biennale after the fall of the regime, marking the country's first participation since 2024. The pavilion, curated by artist Sara Shamma, is housed in the former refrigerated warehouses of Santa Marta at the Iuav University of Venice and runs until November 22. It features an installation inspired by the ancient funerary towers of Palmyra, combining painting, architecture, light, sound, and scent to explore cultural heritage and the restitution of looted antiquities.
Annalee Davis alla Biennale Arte di Venezia 2026. Il paesaggio come lutto, archivio e resistenza nel Padiglione Barbados
Annalee Davis, an artist from Barbados, will represent her country at the 2026 Venice Biennale with an installation titled "Let this be my Cathedral" within the exhibition "In Minor Keys." The work addresses ecological grief, colonial memory, and the possibility of care without erasing conflict, using suspended plants and organic materials to create a threshold where loss, vulnerability, and wonder remain in tension. Davis discusses the influence of curator Koyo Kouoh, whose vision shaped the Biennale, and the importance of research as an integral part of her artistic process.
Le opere di Alfredo Pirri per la primissima mostra del Polytropon Arts Center in Toscana
The Polytropon Arts Center, founded by Greek-born architect Maria Papadaki Badanjak, opens its inaugural exhibition "Quello che avanza" featuring works by Italian artist Alfredo Pirri. The venue, a converted former spinning mill located between Pelago and Pontassieve near Florence, hosts the show through June 21, 2025. The exhibition includes 144 cyanotypes created between 2014 and 2017, along with Pirri's "Arie" series in plexiglass, crystal, feathers, and colors. The show is accompanied by a musical program curated by artistic director Andrea Cavallari, with concerts scheduled for May 17 and June 21. Pirri and Cavallari previously collaborated in 2019 at the Museo Novecento in Florence as part of the "Firenze Suona Contemporanea" festival.
Un artista argentino inaugura a Torino le attività di un nuovissimo spazio dedicato alla fotografia
A new photography space called K! has opened in Turin's San Salvario district, inaugurated by Argentine artist Emilio Nasser with his exhibition "La Cornuda de Tlacotalpan." The space is the latest curatorial project of the Kublaiklan collective (Rica Cerbarano, Francesco Colombelli, Elsa Moro, Aleksander Masseroli Mazurkiewicz) and focuses on research, production, and education centered on the relational power of photography. Nasser's exhibition reinterprets a fading Mexican legend from Tlacotalpan by involving the local community in a collective reconstruction through drawings, transcriptions, and mud masks, resulting in a choral portrait of the mythical Cornuda creature.
Archaeologists in Mexico discovered 16 pre-Hispanic paintings and petroglyphs along the planned route of a high-speed passenger train connecting Mexico City to Querétaro. The discovery, made in the state of Hidalgo, includes rock art dating from 4,000 years ago to the Postclassic period (900-1521 CE), with imagery linked to Aztec deities and the Toltec city of Tula. In response, President Claudia Sheinbaum announced the $8 billion train project will be rerouted to preserve the ancient site.
Gli alberi sono un modello da seguire. A Modena c’è un festival che lo conferma
The Alberi Festival in Modena transforms the Villaggio Artigiano Ovest into an open-air laboratory focused on the intersection of botany, architecture, and urban planning. Inspired by the seminal 1960s research of Cesare Leonardi and Franca Stagi, the event features exhibitions, installations, and discussion tables centered around the "Officina Botanica," an experimental green regeneration project housed in a former industrial warehouse.
The New School announced plans to lay off 15% of its full-time faculty and staff by mid-June, a move driven by a projected $48 million deficit and a 20% enrollment decline since 2021. The cuts are part of a broader workforce reduction strategy that has already included voluntary buyouts. The restructuring will disproportionately affect the New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts, which are undergoing major mergers and program discontinuations, while the Parsons School of Design faces fewer cuts.