How Sacramento artists are turning away from traditional markets to sell their work

Veteran Sacramento artist Tony Natsoulas, whose ceramic sculptures are held in 18 museum collections including SFMOMA, has shifted away from traditional commercial galleries to sell directly through his mailing list, newsletter, and biannual open studios. The article examines Sacramento's shrinking commercial gallery scene, where only a handful of spaces like Barry Sakata's b. sakata garo remain after 27 years, while venues such as Kennedy Gallery, Jay Jay, and Brickhouse Gallery have closed. Sakata reports declining sales due to political uncertainty, though a city grant of $10,000 has helped sustain his gallery.

‘It’s a dream vessel for me’: Defne Ayas appointed new director of the Van Abbemuseum

Defne Ayas has been appointed director of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, Netherlands, replacing Charles Esche, who held the post for two decades. Ayas, previously director of Kunstinstituut Melly in Rotterdam and co-curator of major biennials including the 13th Gwangju Biennale, will take over ahead of the museum's 90th anniversary in 2026. She describes the role as a "dream vessel" and emphasizes the museum's commitment to decolonization, social engagement, and accessibility.

Art from the Bass House by Paul Rudolph

Christie's will offer exceptional works from the Bass House in Fort Worth, Texas, designed by architect Paul Rudolph for Anne and Sid Bass in 1970. The single-owner sale, titled "Art from the Bass House," will be held on 12 May 2025, headlined by a rare Mark Rothko painting from 1950-1951, along with works by Ellsworth Kelly, Alexander Calder, and Frank Stella. The collection will be presented within the 20th Century Evening Sale and the Post-War & Contemporary Art Day Sale, continuing the Bass collection's presence at Christie's after the record-breaking 2022 sale of The Collection of Anne H. Bass.

Kent Monkman: History is Painted by the Victors Member Preview

The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is hosting a member preview on April 19, 2025, for "Kent Monkman: History is Painted by the Victors," the U.S. debut exhibition of the artist. Featuring 41 monumental works, the show reimagines Western art history through an Indigenous lens, addressing colonial injustice, generational trauma, and Two-Spirit and queer visibility, with pieces from the DAM's collection and loans from other institutions.

Book Club

The Art Newspaper's Book Club section features multiple articles about new art books and related exhibitions. One article explores how different artists have depicted Marilyn Monroe, ahead of an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Another piece examines a little-known New York gallery that brought Modern art to America, exhibiting artists like Picasso and Mondrian. Additional stories cover Martin Parr's photobook 'The Last Resort' on its 40th anniversary, a history of how artists depict the female body by author Amy Dempsey, and a collaboration between author Olivia Laing and painter Chantal Joffe.

Diego Rivera’s grandson donates more than 150,000 objects to Mexico City’s Museo Anahuacalli

Juan Rafael Coronel Rivera, grandson of Diego Rivera, has donated his private collection of 157,300 objects to Mexico City's Museo Anahuacalli. The vast donation spans ceramics, textiles, prints, photographs, archives, and a research library, with works dating from the 16th century to the present. It will be transferred in stages and is expected to be fully integrated by the end of the year.

Pinakothek in Munich Returns Nazi-Looted Painting by Lesser Ury to Jewish Heirs

The Pinakothek museums in Munich have restituted a painting by German-Jewish Impressionist Lesser Ury to the heirs of its original owner, Berlin banker Curt Goldschmidt. The work, 'Interior with Children (The Siblings),' was sold at a forced auction in the 1930s after the Goldschmidt family bank collapsed under Nazi economic policies.

A $30 Million Trove of Minimalist Masterpieces Is Heading to Christie’s

The estate of the late collector Henry S. McNeil Jr. is bringing his significant collection of Minimalist art to auction at Christie's in New York this spring. The trove, assembled over decades and lived with in a Philadelphia townhouse, includes major works by Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, and Sol LeWitt, and is expected to fetch around $30 million.

state of the art market an analysis of global auction sales in the first five months of 2022 2136208

Artnet News, in collaboration with Morgan Stanley and the Artnet Price Database, analyzed global auction sales from January through May 20 for the years 2018 to 2022. The total auction sales for the first five months of 2022 reached $5.7 billion, just barely exceeding the previous high set in 2018. The sell-through rate was 73.4%, the second highest in the period examined. The average price of a work sold surged 180% from 2020 and 26% from 2021, driven by pent-up supply of high-value works. Sales of works priced at $10 million and above grew nearly 50% year-over-year, fueled by major consignments from the estates of Thomas and Doris Ammann, Anne Bass, and Harry and Linda Macklowe. Meanwhile, sales of works under $10,000 increased 43% since 2018, partly due to the rise of online auctions during the pandemic.

What else is happening

Was sonst noch geht

Ahead of the Gallery Weekend Berlin (May 1–3), the city is buzzing with parallel exhibitions that extend far beyond the official gallery circuit. The fourth edition of the Sellerie Weekend opens over 75 independent Off-Spaces from April 30 to May 3, featuring performances, curated tours, and a kickoff event with artist Sophia Süßmilch at the Spoiler project space. The Paper Positions art fair returns to Tempelhof Airport (April 30–May 3) with 70 international galleries specializing in works on paper, including artists like Annegret Soltau, Una Ursprung, and Stefanie Moshammer. Meanwhile, the art initiative House presents the group show "Gravity Ease Contract" in the Berghain heating plant hall (May 1–24), curated by David Douard, with works by Susan Philipsz, Julia Scher, and others. Finally, collectors Karen and Christian Boros unveil "Berlin Bunker #5" in their bunker-turned-museum, featuring recent acquisitions by Pol Taburet, Sung Tieu, and Jill Mulleady.

Julia Stoschek Foundation to Close in Berlin

The Julia Stoschek Foundation will close its Berlin outpost at the end of October 2025, after a decade of operation. The Düsseldorf-based nonprofit, which holds one of the world's largest collections of time-based art, opened the Berlin space in 2016 and welcomed over 450,000 visitors across 22 exhibitions, including solo shows by Meriem Bennani, Stan Douglas, Arthur Jafa, and Mark Leckey. The foundation cited a "strategic realignment" that will shift focus to projects elsewhere in Germany and abroad. Its Düsseldorf space is currently closed for renovations and expected to reopen next year.

LACMA Unveils Ambitious David Geffen Galleries Redesign

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has announced the official opening date of April 19, 2026, for its new David Geffen Galleries. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor, the 274-meter-long concrete structure will house between 2,500 and 3,000 objects from the museum's permanent collection. The inaugural display will feature a mix of historical masterpieces by artists such as Matisse and Van Gogh alongside new contemporary commissions by Todd Gray, Lauren Halsey, and Do Ho Suh.

Carole A. Feuerman | Miniature Serena (with Blue-Green Tube) (2021) | For Sale

Carole A. Feuerman's sculpture "Miniature Serena (with Blue-Green Tube)" (2021) is being offered for sale. The work is an oil on resin piece with 24K gold leaf cap, table-top scale, measuring 10 x 17 x 8 inches, from a variant of 10. Feuerman, born in 1945, is an American sculptor and author credited with co-founding the Hyperrealist movement in the late 1970s, known for figurative works of swimmers and dancers. Her public sculptures have been displayed globally, including at Central Park, the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, the Venice Biennale, and the State Hermitage Museum. She has received multiple awards, including the Medici Award, and her works are in the permanent collections of 31 museums and owned by notable figures such as Steven A. Cohen, former President Bill Clinton, and Dr. Henry Kissinger.

'Significant' at D Lan Galleries, Melbourne on 14 May–27 Jun 2026

D Lan Galleries is presenting 'Significant', a major exhibition of secondary-market Australian First Nations art, running from 14 May to 27 June 2026 across its spaces in Melbourne, Sydney, and New York. The show features the Carey Lyon and Jo Crosby Collection, including rare early Papunya paintings from 1971–1972, such as Shorty Lungkata Tjungurrayi's 'Man Dreaming 1972' and Kaapa Mbitjana Tjampitjinpa's 'Honey Ant Travelling Dreaming 1971', alongside later works by Emily Kam Kngwarray, Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori, and Nyapanyapa Yunupiŋu.

10 exhibitions to look out for in May

Warren Feeney's article highlights 10 exhibitions opening in May 2026, primarily in Christchurch, New Zealand. Featured shows include Stone Maka's 'MONO' at Jonathan Smart Gallery, exploring Tongan tapa cloth traditions; Jess Nicholson's 'Ka maumahara te uku (the clay remembers)' at CoCA Toi Moroki, focusing on Ngāi Tahu culture and land connections; and a group exhibition 'Indigo' at Art on the Quay, featuring seven Central Otago artists. Other notable shows include Jane Barry, Sandra Hussey, and Laurie Roodt's 'Three Exhibitions' at Chambers Art Gallery, and Stephanie Postles' 'What These Walls Remember' at City Art Depot's new Up Stairs space.

Birmingham Museum of Art to unveil new Black American art exhibition

The Birmingham Museum of Art (BMA) announced it will unveil a landmark exhibition titled "Roll Call: Two Hundred Years of Black American Art" in September 2026. The show features 99 works drawn entirely from the museum's permanent collection, tracing two centuries of Black artistic production. Organized in four thematic sections—The Ground We Stand On, Ujima: Collective Work and Responsibility, What Freedom Feels Like, and In the Heart of It All—the exhibition highlights the museum's history of collecting Black art, which began in 1971 and now includes over 1,000 works by 250 Black artists. The exhibition coincides with the museum's 75th anniversary and runs from September 26, 2026 to January 17, 2027.

Gala Porras-Kim: Future spaces replicate earlier spaces

Gala Porras-Kim presents her first exhibition at kurimanzutto in Mexico City, titled "Future spaces replicate earlier spaces," running from April 11 to June 13, 2026. The show brings together works that examine how museums and conservation institutions reclassify objects removed from their original contexts, using reconstruction and resituating to explore their spatial, material, and temporal conditions. Central to the exhibition is the installation "The motion of an alluvial record" (2024), which recreates the humid marshland atmosphere of the Yucatán Peninsula inside the gallery, contrasting with the controlled climates of museums. Other works include drawings replicating wall decorations from the Techinantitla complex in Teotihuacan, which were fragmented and sold on the black market, and graphite drawings of objects by artist Brígido Lara, whose "original interpretations" of Totonac ritual clay objects were mistakenly catalogued as Pre-Hispanic artifacts in major museums.

Art Top 5: May 2026

The article presents a curated list of five notable art exhibitions in the Chicago area for May 2026. Highlights include a solo show of monumental sculptures by Dr. Charles Smith at the Intuit Art Museum, exploring anti-monumentalism and African American historical representation; a 50th-anniversary group exhibition at Zolla/Lieberman Gallery featuring over 140 artists; and a two-part cosmic-themed group show at the Renaissance Society. Other featured shows include drawings by late Imagist Suellen Rocca at Corbett vs. Dempsey and a waterscape-themed group exhibition at Grove Gallery in Evanston.

First UK Ken Price solo exhibition in nearly 10 years to open at Lisson.

Lisson Gallery, in collaboration with Matthew Marks Gallery, will present the first solo exhibition of Ken Price's work in the UK in nearly a decade. The show brings together sculptures and drawings, several shown in London for the first time, spanning the late American artist's five-decade career. Best known for expanding the possibilities of ceramics, Price created intimate yet monumental works that blend abstraction and figuration, with richly layered surfaces achieved through painstaking pigment and sanding processes. The exhibition includes iconic pieces such as 'Prone' (1997), 'Itself' (2003), 'Yin' (2009), and 'Amazon' (2003), alongside rarely seen works on paper that reveal his imaginative, dreamlike landscapes.

Hotel Room Transforms into Media Art Exhibition Space

South Korea's only media art fair, Loop Plus, was held from April 23 to 26 at the Grand Josun Busan Hotel in Haeundae, Busan. The fair transformed 26 hotel rooms on the 13th floor into exhibition spaces, featuring media artworks from 19 international galleries including Tang Contemporary Art, Esther Schipper, Chiwen Gallery, and Baek Art. Highlights included a 38-minute video installation by Russian artist group AES+F titled *‘Inverso Mundus’*, presented by Tang Contemporary Art, which humorously subverts societal absurdities. The event also included artist booths for Kang Lee-yeon and Lucia Levolino, and institutional booths for the Justice Foundation and Gwangju Media Art Platform. A related festival, Loop Lab Busan 2026, runs until June 28 across multiple venues in Busan.

Ruth Pastine | Violet (Yellow), Color Space Series (2021) | For Sale

Ruth Pastine's painting "Violet (Yellow), Color Space Series" (2021) is being offered for sale through Louis Stern Fine Arts in West Hollywood, listed on Artsy. The work is an oil on canvas on beveled stretcher, measuring 30 × 60 inches, and is part of her Color Space Series. Pastine, an American artist born in 1964, holds a B.F.A. from The Cooper Union and an M.F.A. from Hunter College, and has exhibited widely, including a museum survey at MOAH Museum of Art and History and a show at CAM Carnegie Art Museum. Her work is held in major collections such as SFMOMA, MCASD, and the Achenbach Foundation.

M.F. Husain | Untitled (Head of a Horse) (Circa 1969) | Available for Sale

Grosvenor Gallery has announced the availability of a significant 1969 oil painting by M.F. Husain titled "Untitled (Head of a Horse)." The work, which features the artist's signature equine subject matter with bared teeth and exaggerated features, was recently showcased at Frieze Masters 2024 as part of the "South Asian Modernists in Paris" exhibition. The painting has a documented provenance involving the Vadehra Art Gallery and has been held in a private London collection since 2007.

‘I don’t take advice on collecting. If I don’t like, I don’t buy’: Tariq Al Jaidah on his approach to acquiring art

Qatari patron and dealer Tariq Al Jaidah is a pivotal figure in building a grassroots commercial art market in Qatar. He opened the country's first commercial gallery, Waqif Art Centre, in 2007, later established the non-profit Katara Art Centre, and most recently founded the commercial gallery Wusum in 2023 to showcase emerging Qatari artists and cultivate young local collectors. He advocates for more private museums, foundations, and corporate collecting to create a self-sustaining ecosystem beyond the state-run institutions.

London show of Lee Miller photographs is fundraising to save thousands of her negatives

The Lee Miller Archives, established after the American photographer's vast collection was discovered in the attic of her Sussex home following her death in 1977, is raising funds through an exhibition at Lyndsey Ingram gallery in London to conserve up to 60,000 negatives and prints, some nearly 100 years old and in perilous condition. The show, titled "Lee Miller: Performance of a Lifetime" (23 January-25 February), explores the role of theatre and performance in Miller's work from her 1929 arrival in Paris through her WWII photojournalism, with prices starting at £3,800. Proceeds will enable freezing and preservation of the archive stored at Farleys House, where Miller lived with her husband Roland Penrose.

‘Taking Flight’: Joe Overstreet’s Art Exhibits Encapsulate Geometry and Immersion

The Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson is presenting 'Joe Overstreet: Taking Flight,' a major exhibition featuring three collections of the late artist's work, including his 'Flight Patterns' series. The show, organized by The Menil Collection in Houston and running through Jan. 25, 2026, highlights Overstreet's abstract phase with works from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1990s that use ropes and metal grommets to create multi-dimensional pieces exploring themes of flight and movement. The exhibition includes loans from private collections, other museums, and the Eric Firestone Gallery, which represents Overstreet's estate.

'We can imagine alternatives to the present': Cannupa Hanska Luger on his exhibition at the Joslyn Art Museum

Cannupa Hanska Luger's exhibition 'Dripping Earth' at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska, runs until March 8, 2026. The show explores Indigenous futurity through material and conceptual responses to 19th-century watercolors by Swiss artist Karl Bodmer, who documented Luger's ancestral Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, and Lakota communities during an 1832-1834 expedition. Luger's works include speculative lithographs, a giant buffalo-shaped abacus, and hand-woven bison regalia, addressing colonization's violent legacy and the unreliability of colonial archives.

Ronny Quevedo Connects Sites of Cosmovisions at Krannert Art Museum

Ronny Quevedo's first institutional solo exhibition in the Midwest, "a l l s t a r s," has opened at the Krannert Art Museum in Champaign-Urbana. The show features works from the Ecuadorian-born, New York-based artist's recent past alongside a new site-driven installation, "a mother's hand" (2025), which incorporates objects from the museum's reinstalled Andean art collection. Using materials like wax, drywall, muslin, carbon paper, and gold-silver leaves, Quevedo creates abstract fields that evoke cartographies, constellations, dressmaking diagrams, and sports playbooks, weaving together autobiographical references to his seamstress mother and soccer-playing father with broader themes of cultural inheritance, duality, and cosmovisions.

Reverend Joyce McDonald: ‘Art was like therapy for me’

Reverend Joyce McDonald, a 74-year-old artist and minister, is the subject of her first museum survey, 'Ministry: Reverend Joyce McDonald,' at the Bronx Museum. The exhibition showcases her ceramic sculptures, which she began creating after an HIV diagnosis in 1995 while struggling with heroin addiction and sex work. McDonald discovered ceramics through an art therapy program with the Jewish Board of Family Services and later connected with Visual Aids, a New York organization supporting HIV-positive artists. Her works, often depicting figures praying or embracing, are held in collections including the Hammer Museum, Brooklyn Museum, and CCS Hessel Museum of Art.

Krannert Art Museum reopening highlights gallery reinstallations, artist Ronny Quevedo exhibition

Krannert Art Museum in Champaign, Illinois, is reopening on August 28 with a major reinstallation of its Andean gallery, featuring the exhibition "Fragmented Histories: Andean Art Before 1600." The gallery, co-curated by Kasia Szremski and Allyson Purpura, moves away from a linear display to explore the mobility of objects, their histories of looting, and their ongoing cultural significance. The reopening also includes a solo exhibition by contemporary artist Ronny Quevedo, titled "Ronny Quevedo: a l l s t a r s," and reinstallations of European and American art in the Bow and Trees galleries.

Untitled Art reveals exhibitors for inaugural Houston fair

Untitled Art has announced the 84 exhibitors for its inaugural fair in Houston, set to take place September 18–21 at the George R. Brown Convention Center. Originally planned for around 50 participants, the fair expanded due to overwhelming interest from galleries worldwide. The event will feature a curated, boutique format and will donate a portion of ticket sales to the Rothko Chapel.