Frieze Los Angeles Diary: Joe Cool, cold juice and hot desert art

Frieze Los Angeles kicked off its 2024 edition with a high-profile opening day, drawing a mix of Hollywood celebrities, professional athletes, and major international collectors. The fair's atmosphere was defined by a blend of blue-chip art commerce and Los Angeles lifestyle culture, featuring notable presentations such as Stephanie H. Shih’s ceramic homages to Erewhon juices at Berggruen gallery and Napoles Marty’s Frieze Impact Prize exhibition.

5 Art Openings* in London this week.

London's art scene is bustling with a diverse range of openings this week, featuring both historical and contemporary work. Key events include a major exhibition of Conceptual artist Christine Kozlov at Raven Row, exploring her contributions and collaborations from the 1960s-70s, and a two-person show of small-scale paintings by Matthew Clifton and Faith Hughes at Soup gallery. Other events include a book launch, a talk, and experimental sound programs.

Highlights from 1-54 Marrakech and four artists to watch

The seventh edition of the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair took place in Marrakech from February 5-8, 2026, at the La Mamounia hotel. The fair featured 22 galleries, primarily from Africa and its diaspora, showcasing around 70 artists across various media. A key parallel initiative was Gallery Night, which saw local galleries like La Galerie 38 open new exhibitions, such as Ghizlane Agzenaï's solo show 'Dimension 2112: The Station', to coincide with the fair's energy and visitor influx.

Ai Weiwei's first solo show in India features a Pichwai in his iconic toy-brick style

Globally renowned conceptual artist Ai Weiwei has opened his first solo exhibition in India at the Nature Morte gallery in New Delhi. The show, presented in collaboration with Galleria Continua, features his iconic toy-brick canvases, including new commissions inspired by Indian modernist painters like Raza and Gaitonde, and a unique LEGO-brick interpretation of a traditional Pichwai painting. Other works address themes of migration, history, and censorship through mediums like Neolithic stone axes, porcelain urns, and repurposed furniture.

Mumbai Gallery Weekend looks beyond the city's historic art district

The 14th edition of Mumbai Gallery Weekend (MGW) is underway, running until January 12, and for the first time appoints co-leads from galleries outside the city's historic art district of Colaba and Fort. Ayesha Parikh of Art and Charlie (Bandra) and Sanjana Shah of Tao Art Gallery (Worli) helm the event, reflecting the geographic expansion of Mumbai's art scene into western suburbs and financial districts. The weekend features ambitious exhibitions, including a solo show of terracotta works by Chippa Sudhakar at Tao and a group show curated by Zeenat Nagree at Art & Charlie. MGW, co-founded in 2012 by Shireen Gandhy and other South Mumbai galleries, has grown from nine to 33 participating galleries, and now includes the Midtown Arts Collective, which represents galleries from Worli, Lower Parel, and Bandra.

Sixth Kochi Biennale: what’s on show and who is funding it

The sixth edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) in Kerala, India, titled "For the Time Being," will open on December 12, 2025, and run until March 31, 2026. Curated by artist Nikhil Chopra and his collective HH Art Spaces, the biennial features 66 artists or groups, including Marina Abramović, Tino Sehgal, Otobong Nkanga, Ibrahim Mahama, and Adrián Villar Rojas. South Asian artists make up about two-thirds of the lineup, with works addressing political themes such as the Kashmir conflict and the Gaza genocide, despite a climate of censorship in India. The central venue, Aspinwall House, will be partially used after previous access issues with developer DLF.

Miami Art Week 2025: Your Essential Guide to the Fairs, Exhibits, and Chaos

Miami Art Week 2025 takes place December 2-7, transforming Miami Beach and Wynwood into a sprawling art hub anchored by Art Basel Miami Beach, which features 281 galleries from 43 countries. The week includes over a dozen major fairs such as SCOPE, NADA, UNTITLED, and Pinta, alongside off-program events like street art battles at the Museum of Graffiti, a collaborative mural by RETNA and El Mac at Wynwood Walls, and David LaChapelle's world premieres at VISU Contemporary. The event follows record-breaking New York auctions totaling over $1.5 billion, including a $236 million Gustav Klimt and a $55 million Frida Kahlo.

Frieze London diary: a boozy gallery bar, head-turning headlines and talking mice

During Frieze London week, Thaddaeus Ropac gallery hosts Tom Sachs’s "A Good Shelf" exhibition featuring a working coffee and mezcal bar alongside 30 ceramic works inspired by Japanese tea bowls. At the satellite fair Minor Attractions, performance artist Mark McGowan (aka Artist Taxi Driver) displays subverted Daily Mail headlines. Ryan Gander’s solo show at Camden Arts Projects introduces a fourth animatronic mouse that critiques the state of contemporary art. Meanwhile, the Gallery of Everything presents "Ectoplasmix," a show of works depicting ectoplasm, including pieces by František Jaroslav Pecka, Mathew Weir, and Susan Hiller.

Making Waves – Breaking Ground

The third annual Space to Breathe summer art exhibition, titled 'Making Waves – Breaking Ground,' is on view at Bowhouse in St Monans, Fife, Scotland, from 19 July to 4 August 2025 and 16-31 August 2025. Organized by Sophie Camu Lindsay and Alexander Lindsay in collaboration with Purdy Hicks Gallery, the show features 11 artists and over 100 works—paintings, drawings, and photographs—that explore the natural world, particularly land and sea. The installation uses a unique hanging system in the 900-square-meter barn space, allowing visitors to create their own journey through the works. Artists push boundaries in technique, with many using innovative photographic processes that blur the line between photography and painting, such as Anaïs Tondeur's rayograms of radioactive plants from Chernobyl.

Fort Works Art Unveils ‘The Works’ This Fall

Fort Works Art Gallery in Fort Worth, Texas, will present 'The Works,' a group exhibition running from September 6 to October 25, 2025, with an opening reception on September 6. The show features both local and international artists, including Greg Bahr, Rachel English, Jodi Gerbi, Joshua Goode, Alonsa Guevara, Kerri Menchaca, James Razko, Lawrence Schiller, and Jay Wilkinson, with many pieces debuting for the first time across various mediums. The exhibition coincides with the Fort Worth Art Dealers Association’s Fall Gallery Night.

Three artists, three questions: Contemporary art

Three Israeli artists—Ronit Porat, an evacuated photographer working with archival materials; an emerging artist using shrapnel from rocket shells as art material while serving as an IDF reservist; and a young artist opening a new exhibition after a break—are profiled in this column by Basia Monkaj. Each answers three questions about inspiration, the definition of art, and what makes their work unique, set against the backdrop of the ongoing war in Israel and the centenary of Surrealism.

All that is trending in the art, entertainment, and culinary world

This article highlights several cultural events in India, including Kallol Datta's solo exhibition "Volume IV: Truths, Half-Truths, Half-Lies, Lies" at Experimenter Colaba in Mumbai, which critiques historical regulations on women's attire using textile-based works. It also covers the 8th edition of Delhi Contemporary Art Week (DCAW) at Bikaner House, featuring six women-led galleries; Partha Pratim Deb's solo show "Play-Forms" at Emami Art in Kolkata; the group exhibition "Non-Residency" at Jaipur Centre for Art curated by Rajiv Menon; and the reopening of Bombay Club café in New Delhi. Additionally, it mentions Khyber restaurant's 65th anniversary menu and a forthcoming exhibition "What Am I Made Of?" at Latitude 28.

Highlights from New York’s Upstate Art Weekend 2025

Upstate Art Weekend (UAW) returns for its sixth edition, running until July 21, 2025, with over 155 participants across galleries, studios, museums, and art centers in New York's Hudson Valley and Catskill Mountains. Founded in 2020 by Helen Toomer as a pandemic-era initiative, the event now supported by Space Design + Production and Bloomberg Connects offers highlights such as 'Eclectic Cream' at Army of Frogs Studio, 'Muskeg and Collateral Magic' at Mother-in-Law's Gallery, 'The Rose' at the Center for Photography at Woodstock, tours at Hessel Museum of Art, and 'Peculiar Manufactures' at Jesse Bransford House.

A hundred years on, Cork Street is the beating heart of London’s art scene once more

Cork Street in London's Mayfair district, a historic hub for commercial art, is celebrating its centenary with a collaborative group show involving 15 galleries. The exhibition is inspired by a controversial 1938 Jean Cocteau work, "La peur donnant des ailes au courage," which was deemed obscene by British authorities and only shown in a back office at Peggy Guggenheim's gallery, Guggenheim Jeune, after her petitions. Participating galleries include Stephen Friedman Gallery, Alon Zakaim Fine Art, and Goodman Gallery, with works by artists like Caroline Coon, Shirin Neshat, and others, curated by Tarini Malik.

New flagship art gallery opening in historic city square

Clarendon Fine Art, a leading UK contemporary art gallery, will open a new flagship location in Glasgow's Royal Exchange Square in July. Housed in a restored late-1700s building across two floors, the gallery will feature works by artists including The Connor Brothers, Mr. Brainwash, Danielle O'Connor Akiyama, Philip Gray, and Fabian Perez, along with limited editions, sculptures, and original pieces. An official launch event is scheduled for August 21.

Treasure House Fair hopes to be the flagship summer event London desperately needs

Thomas Woodham-Smith and Harry Van der Hoorn are staging the third edition of the Treasure House Fair at London’s Royal Hospital Chelsea, running until 1 July. The fair, which launched hastily in 2023 after the collapse of Masterpiece London, features 72 exhibitors spanning ancient to contemporary art, design, jewellery, antiques, and even a meteorite. Woodham-Smith reports a mood of optimism despite global turmoil, with strong ticket sales and a 40% share of new exhibitors, including many from outside the UK.

New dealer-run fair aims to fill gap left by Design Miami

A group of 11 mostly French galleries, led by Charlotte Ketabi-Lebard of Parisian gallery Ketabi Bourdet, have launched Maze Design Basel, a new dealer-run design fair to fill the gap left by the cancellation of Design Miami Basel. The fair is held in the 19th-century Elisabethenkirche church next to Basel's Kunsthalle, with stands arranged throughout the nave, mezzanines, chancel, pulpit, and clerestory. The vernissage on June 16 was playful and relaxed, with sales reported by all exhibitors and about 1,000 guests attending the preview.

Los Angeles dealer Ariel Pittman launching new gallery in MacArthur Park

Ariel Pittman, a Los Angeles art historian and former director at Vielmetter and Various Small Fires, is opening a new gallery called Official Welcome in the MacArthur Park neighborhood on May 30. The gallery, located in the historic Granada Building, will launch with an inaugural exhibition titled "California Split" featuring works by June Edmonds, Jay Lynn Gomez, Henry Taylor, and others, with prices starting at $800. Pittman plans to diversify revenue by offering consulting services, project management, and space rentals, and aims to keep operations lean before eventually hiring staff and establishing equitable profit-sharing structures.

Engineering a bold new chapter for the historic Buffalo AKG Art Museum

The article details the transformation of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum through its AK360 expansion project, led by engineering firm Buro Happold in partnership with OMA and Cooper Robertson. The centerpiece is the new Jeffrey E. Gundlach Building, a 29,000-square-foot structure adding three levels of gallery space, along with flexible event spaces, educational classrooms, and public areas like the Town Square and sculpture gardens. Buro Happold provided MEPFP engineering, IT/AV systems, security, and sustainability consulting to integrate modern infrastructure while preserving the historic campus.

Nelson-Atkins Museum picks architect for $160m expansion

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City has selected the New York-based firm Weiss Manfredi Architecture Landscape Urbanism to lead a $160–170 million campus expansion. The decision followed an international competition that drew 182 firms from 30 countries, with six finalists—including Kengo Kuma & Associates, Renzo Piano Building Workshop, Selldorf Architects, Studio Gang, and Why Architecture—presenting concepts publicly. Weiss Manfredi's design places a new 61,000-square-foot wing to the southwest of the original 1933 Beaux-Arts building, mirroring the Steven Holl Architects addition from 2007, and features curved glass walls that open onto the sculpture park. The project aims to accommodate growing attendance, which has doubled since director Julián Zugazagoitia joined in 2010, reaching about 600,000 visitors annually.

Chicago's cultural affairs department hits crisis point

Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) is in crisis, with at least 18 staff members—about 25% of the department—leaving since Mayor Brandon Johnson appointed former legislative director Clineé Hedspeth as commissioner last year, replacing Erin Harkey (who became CEO of Americans for the Arts). Multiple formal complaints have been filed against Hedspeth alleging bullying, and staff report a lack of communication and strategic direction amid funding challenges. A new advocacy group, Artists for Chicago, delivered a letter with 270 signatures to the mayor on April 14, expressing concerns about dysfunction and unmet needs in the arts sector.

Why the inaugural Art Week Riyadh was a fair in everything but name

The inaugural Art Week Riyadh (AWR), organized by Saudi Arabia's Visual Arts Commission, took place from April 6-13 in the Jax district of Diriyah. Though officially billed as a non-commercial curated exhibition, the event functioned much like an art fair, with 32 galleries displaying available works, price lists visible on stands, and sales conducted throughout the week. The main exhibition, titled "At The Edge," was curated by Vittoria Matarrese with associate curators Basma Harasani and Victoria Gandit Lelandais, featuring galleries from Saudi Arabia and the wider region. Standout presentations included works by Ayesha Sultana, Mohamed Bourouissa, Mohammed Al Resayes, and Miramar Al Nayyar, alongside a moving image section and a satellite program of open studios and gallery shows.

Canadian art museum gets $36m funding boost for expansion from provincial government

The Ontario provincial government has announced a C$50 million ($36 million) investment to expand and modernize the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ontario. This is the first capital investment from the province in 43 years, and it will fund repairs, upgrades, and expansion of the 70-year-old building, increasing capacity for programs and events. The museum, founded in 1966, is Canada's largest publicly funded art museum focused exclusively on Canadian and Indigenous art, housing over 7,000 works including pieces by Tom Thomson, the Group of Seven, and First Nations, Métis, Inuit, and contemporary artists.

Stars feiern Mode und Kunst bei Met-Gala

The Met Gala, hosted by Anna Wintour at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, raised millions for the museum's Costume Institute. This year's event featured celebrities like Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, and Heidi Klum, with a dress code of "Fashion is Art." Beyoncé and Kidman brought their daughters for the first time, while Klum dressed as a stone statue. The gala opened the "Costume Art" exhibition and was co-sponsored by Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos, drawing protests over Bezos's involvement.

Wintour: Met Gala still makes me nervous

Wintour: Met-Gala macht mich immer noch nervös

Anna Wintour, longtime host of the Met Gala, admitted at a press conference that even after nearly 30 years, the star-studded fundraiser still makes her nervous, calling it both her favorite and most terrifying time of year. The annual Costume Institute Benefit, which raises millions for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, is expected to bring in more donations than ever this year, according to Wintour and museum director Max Hollein. This year's gala opens the exhibition "Costume Art" with the dress code "Fashion is Art," and new gallery spaces for the Costume Institute will debut. Co-chairs include Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos, while New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has publicly declined to attend.

Activist glues herself to museum display case

Aktivistin klebt sich an Museumsvitrine

A protester from the activist group Neue Generation glued herself to a display case in the Coin Cabinet of the Bode-Museum on Berlin's Museum Island. Dressed as Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Katherina Reiche, the activist targeted the museum to protest the minister's perceived lack of independence from corporate interests. Police were called to the scene to remove the woman, and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation confirmed that while the glass case was targeted, no historical artifacts were damaged.

72 Hours in Venice: Palazzos, Protests, and a Biennale on the Brink

The article recounts a journalist's 72-hour visit to the Venice Biennale, beginning with a protest by Pussy Riot and Femen at the Russian Pavilion. The action features pink smoke, chants of "Blood is Russia's art," and a guerrilla performance of the song "Disobey," set against a backdrop of internal Biennale strife—including juror resignations over countries whose leaders face ICC arrest warrants (Netanyahu and Putin). The narrative also notes the presence of alt-right figures like Ryan Coyne and sculptor Alma Allen's troubled U.S. pavilion representation.

art la art fair art palm beach january 2026

The LA Art Show and Art Palm Beach, both produced by Fine Art Shows under director Kassandra Voyagis, are set to open the 2026 art fair season. The LA Art Show, now in its 31st edition, runs January 7–11 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, featuring over 90 galleries including first-time participants from Ireland and San Francisco, alongside a solo exhibition of Sylvester Stallone's abstract paintings and works by Dr. Esther Mahlangu. Art Palm Beach follows January 28–February 1 at the Palm Beach County Convention Center, debuting a large-scale installation by Eugenia Vargas-Pereira as part of the DIVERSEartPB program curated by Marisa Caichiolo, and highlighting Latin American artists through Building Bridges Art Exchange.

parties ifpda christies annual benefit

The IFPDA Foundation held its annual benefit at Christie's, celebrating printmaking with an evening of conversation and the second annual Studio Visit initiative. The event featured a discussion between artist Ana Benaroya and Leslie-Lohman Museum Associate Director Judy Giera on printmaking and queer contributions to the medium, with attendees including artists, curators, and collectors. The Studio Visit sale, offering access to artists' studios, runs through October 24.

libertine cultured aspen artweek dinner salon

Libertine founder Johnson Hartig and Cultured editor-in-chief Sarah Harrelson hosted an intimate salon dinner at the Hotel Jerome in Aspen during Aspen ArtWeek. The event brought together artists Issy Wood and Rogan Gregory, collectors Michelle and Jason Rubell, entrepreneurs Jen Rubio and Sabrina De Baets, jeweler Briony Raymond, and other cultural figures for seasonal dining and conversation, celebrating Libertine's polychrome pop-up.