Ai Weiwei’s first India solo exhibition to open in New Delhi

Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei will open his first solo exhibition in India this week at Nature Morte gallery in New Delhi, running from 15 January to 22 February. The untitled show spans four decades of his career, featuring large-scale Lego works based on famous artworks (including versions of Hokusai's 'Surfing' and Monet's 'Water Lilies'), new Lego pieces inspired by Indian Pichwai paintings and homages to modernist painters V.S. Gaitonde and S.H. Raza, plus installations such as 'Whitewashed Remnants of History of the State of Emerging Future Works' and 'F.U.C.K.' (2024). All works are for sale, with several pre-sold; the exhibition is a collaboration between Nature Morte and Galleria Continua.

5 Art Openings in London this week.

Five art openings in London are scheduled for the first week of 2026, split across two nights. On Thursday, January 8, two group exhibitions debut: 'PELT' at OHSH Projects (above Peckham Rye Station) features 19 artists exploring skin as a site of memory and mortality, and 'Connecting Threads' at Great Pulteney Street Gallery presents 11 artists expanding textile art. On Friday, January 9, three solo shows open: Max Boyla's 'Spooky Action At a Distance' at Palmer Gallery, Willa Cosinuke's 'Split Studies' at Chilli, and Sverre Malling's 'At The Mistress’ Request' at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery.

In pictures: a season for newcomers at Art Basel Miami Beach’s Meridians

Yasmil Raymond returns for her second year as curator of Art Basel Miami Beach’s Meridians sector, focusing on showcasing a more diverse group of artists and providing opportunities for newcomers. She highlights several works, including Huang Yong Ping’s political sculpture referencing a US spy plane incident, Stephanie Syjuco’s critique of Western culture through a photography-studio installation, Ward Shelley’s post-truth library, Jesús Rafael Soto’s immersive Pénétrable, Luisa Rabbia’s feminist reimagining of a labor strike painting, and Anne Samat’s woven family portrait made from thrift-store objects.

Community-Driven Exhibition Transforms Cars Into Unconventional Vehicles for Site-Specific Art

Over a crisp weekend in October, a Harlem parking lot hosted Stay Frosty, a community-driven exhibition organized by BravinLee Programs. The show transformed cars into unconventional vehicles for site-specific art, with works installed in trunks, truck beds, and on rearview mirrors. Highlights included Baloney's "Piggies Undo the World," featuring pigs attacking a red pickup; Ellie Murphy's tapestries draped over the fence; and Amy Rose Khoshbin's interactive "Altars to Agency." Artists, independent curators, galleries, and non-profits participated, turning the lot into an enclosed, vibrant environment for visual art.

Looking Beyond the Conflict: What's driving contemporary artists from Sri Lanka?

Contemporary artists from Sri Lanka are gaining visibility across South Asia through gallery exhibitions, institutional shows, and art fairs. At Experimenter in Colaba, Pushpakanthan Pakkiyarajah's solo show 'No Race, No Colour' features installations like 'Charred Hyphal Mat' that explore organic communication and wounded ecologies rooted in the country's three-decade civil war. At the Art Mumbai fair, Hema Shironi uses fabric and green mesh to address post-war reconciliation, while earlier in Delhi, the twin exhibitions 'Homes Wrapped in Cloth, Borders Raised in Flags' and 'After Aphantasias' by Shrine Empire showcased similar themes. Artists such as Anoli Perera, Kingsley Gunatillake, Pala Pothupitye, and others are collectively presenting nuanced perspectives on memory, ecology, and joy beyond the conflict.

David Shrigley is quite literally asking for money for old rope (£1 million, to be precise)

David Shrigley has unveiled a new exhibition titled 'Exhibition of Old Rope' at London's Stephen Friedman Gallery, featuring ten tonnes of discarded rope sourced from seaports, climbing schools, tree surgeons, offshore wind farms, and shorelines across the UK. The rope, roughly 20 miles in length, has been intensively cleaned and piled high in the Mayfair gallery, with a deliberately provocative price tag of £1 million. The show runs until 20 December 2025.

The British artist David Shrigley wants £1m for piles of old rope

British artist David Shrigley has opened an exhibition at Stephen Friedman gallery in London featuring approximately ten tonnes of discarded rope, collected from seaports, climbing schools, tree surgeons, and other sources over eight months. The rope is piled in four rooms of the gallery, with a neon sign reading “exhibition of old rope”. Shrigley has priced the installation at £1 million plus VAT, describing the figure as a “provocation” that highlights the gap between art-world valuation and public perception. He acknowledges the work may not sell but insists every artwork needs a price.

Heavy in more ways than one: Confederate statues hit the road for Los Angeles exhibition

The exhibition "Monuments" opens this week at the Museum of Contemporary Art (Moca) and the Brick in Los Angeles, featuring decommissioned Confederate statues alongside contemporary artworks. The show includes a double monument of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson on loan from Baltimore, which required road closures and careful logistics to install, as well as works by Kara Walker, Hank Willis Thomas, and Karon Davis that recontextualize these symbols of white supremacy. Curators Hamza Walker, Bennett Simpson, and Kara Walker collaborated on the exhibition, which runs from October 23 through May 3, 2026.

15 Solo Shows at Frieze London and Frieze Masters

Frieze London and Frieze Masters have announced 15 solo shows featured across both fairs, highlighting emerging and established contemporary artists. The presentations span painting, sculpture, and installation, with participating galleries including major international dealers.

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.

Amid government intervention, Slovak artists and curators call for EU law to protect freedoms

On 25 August, the Slovak National Gallery (SNG) removed a large permanent installation by artist Denisa Lehocká, allegedly without her permission and in violation of contract terms. The removal, which Lehocká calls a "gross violation," occurred amid a broader crisis at the institution, which has seen multiple directors fired and mass employee resignations under the country's populist government. The incident is part of a pattern of government intervention in the arts, including the firing of museum directors by Culture Minister Martina Šimkovičová, who has targeted "progressive art." In response, Slovak artists and organizations like Otvorená Kultúra! have issued the Bratislava Declaration for Artistic Freedom, calling on the EU to adopt a European Artistic Freedom Act to protect creative expression.

Local artists transform waste into striking art at the Melrose Gallery

The Melrose Gallery in Johannesburg is hosting "Junkyard Dogs," an exhibition featuring South African artists Dr. Willie Bester and Prof Pitika Ntuli, running until October 31. The show transforms discarded materials into sculptures, paintings, and installations that address social and political issues, including apartheid and post-colonial identity. Curated by Ashraf Jamal and Tumelo 'Tumi' Moloi, the exhibition includes a soundscape, children's workshops, poetry sessions, and guided walkabouts, all free to the public.

CSUN Art Exhibits to Focus on Los Angeles, Place and People

California State University, Northridge's Art Galleries presents two new exhibitions exploring Los Angeles, place, and people. The Main Gallery hosts "The Journey is the Destination: Recording Los Angeles," featuring photography, mixed-media, site-specific installations, and sculptures by artists including Marisela Norte, Debra Scacco, Fía Benitez, Aaron Douglas Estrada, Vincent Enrique Hernandez, Erick Medel, and Pamela Smith Hudson. Curated by Holly Jerger, the show challenges colonial mapping conventions and highlights gentrification, environmental depletion, and stereotypes affecting historically neglected parts of the city. In the West Gallery, "The Warmth of the Sun: A Recent Survey of Tierra Del Sol Artists" runs through October 15, the first of a three-part series spotlighting local San Fernando Valley art organizations, with subsequent exhibitions featuring Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural and 11:11 Projects.

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.

Family Business: An Exhibition by the 2024-2025 WaterFire Accelerate Cohort

Five emerging artists—Elizabeth Alice-Isam Jweinat (Lizzy Sour), Dorian Epps, Caterina Maina, Sissy Rosso, and Ariel Tavares—present 'Family Business,' a group exhibition at the WaterFire Arts Center in Providence, Rhode Island, running through October 19, 2025. The show transforms the gallery into a reimagined household, with each artist creating an immersive room exploring themes of memory, lineage, domesticity, and inherited experience through installation, photography, collage, sculpture, and multimedia. The exhibition is the culmination of the 2024-2025 WaterFire Accelerate program, a year-long professional development initiative for artists under 30.

Find UW alumni at art exhibits across Seattle (and beyond) this fall

This fall, the University of Washington (UW) is promoting a series of visual arts exhibitions featuring its alumni and faculty across Seattle and beyond. Notable shows include Carly Sheehan's "Call Me Superstitious" at Specialist Gallery (July 3–Aug. 17), Caryn Friedlander's "When Water Becomes Light" at ArtX Contemporary (Aug. 7–Sept. 20), Mary Ann Peters' "myself inside your story" at Whatcom Museum (Aug. 16–Jan. 25, 2026), and Whiting Tennis' "Refuge" at Greg Kucera Gallery (Sept. 4–Nov. 1). Each artist draws on personal history, cultural heritage, and experimental techniques such as shibori dyeing and mixed-media sculpture.

What to See in N.Y.C. Galleries in June

This article is a roundup of New York City gallery exhibitions in June 2025, featuring reviews by critics Yinka Elujoba, Jillian Steinhauer, Will Heinrich, and Martha Schwendener. It highlights Kati Heck's show "Dear Cobalt Monsters" at Bortolami Gallery in Tribeca, which includes surrealist paintings and installations such as the centerpiece "Classic V" (2025). The article also mentions works by Kyoko Idetsu and John Brock Lear, though only Heck's exhibition is detailed.

'Tony Cragg: Skulptura' at the Museum of Modern Art Dubrovnik, Croatia

The Museum of Modern Art Dubrovnik in Croatia will host 'Tony Cragg: Skulptura' from 22 July to 5 October 2025, marking the first-ever presentation of British sculptor Tony Cragg's work to a Croatian audience. Curated by Jelena Tamindžija Donnart and supported by German curator Detmar Westhoff, the exhibition features around 30 sculptures, drawings, and preparatory sketches spanning Cragg's decades-long career, including iconic early works from 1985 and highlights from his 'Early Forms' series. The show occupies the Banac Palace's first two floors, terraces, and garden, offering an indoor-outdoor experience.

Zuccaire Gallery Exhibit Explores Power of Indigenous Language in Contemporary Art

The Paul W. Zuccaire Gallery at Stony Brook University presents "Weaving Words, Weaving Worlds: The Power of Indigenous Language in Contemporary Art," a group exhibition featuring 24 artists including Jeffrey Gibson, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, and Kay WalkingStick. The show, on view from July 17 through November 22, explores how traditional and new media art can serve as a vessel for cultural continuity, storytelling, and the reclamation of Indigenous languages, with a focus on Algonquian languages spoken across Long Island and the Northeast. Archival materials from Stony Brook University’s Special Collections, including the Native Long Island map with over 400 Algonquian words, provide historical context.

Inside the Former ‘Underworld’ Where Ai Weiwei Makes Art (Published 2025)

The New York Times profiles Ai Weiwei’s current studio, located in a former underground nightclub or 'underworld' space. The article offers a rare look at the artist’s working environment, his creative process, and the large-scale installations and political works he continues to produce there in 2025.

Sculptural works by emerging artists win Baloise Art Prize

The Baloise Art Prize has been awarded to London-based artist Rhea Dillon and Lebanese Canadian artist Joyce Joumaa for their presentations in the Statements section of Art Basel. Dillon, represented by Soft Opening gallery, exhibited *Leaning Figures*, a series of wall-mounted sculptures made from resin mixed with molasses and Jamaican soil, replicating cut-crystal plates. Joumaa, shown with Montreal’s Galerie Eli Kerr, presented *Periodic Sights*, an installation of repurposed fuse boxes illuminated with photographs of everyday scenes from Beirut and Tripoli, addressing Lebanon’s energy crisis. As part of the prize, Dillon’s work was acquired by the Museum für Moderne Kunst (MMK) in Frankfurt, and Joumaa’s by Mudam Luxembourg.

Gallery lures collectors to Spain’s abandoned region with large-scale sculpture trail

The Albarrán Bourdais gallery, founded by Eva Albarrán and Christian Bourdais, is launching a large-scale sculpture trail on June 15 in the remote Matarraña region of eastern Spain. The trail winds through 5km of vineyards and hills, featuring 20 installations by artists including Mona Hatoum, José Dávila, and Christian Boltanski. This is part of their broader Solo Houses project, which began in 2010 with avant-garde architect homes and now includes a retreat for collectors, a winery, and plans for a hotel designed by Smiljan Radic set to open by 2028.

Sun Woo: ‘I’m interested in how the body navigates unfamiliar territory’

Sun Woo, a Korean-born artist who moved to Canada as a child, is featured in the Korean Artists Today project, which selects emerging Korean artists with global potential. Her work explores displacement, cultural hybridity, and the body's navigation of unfamiliar territories, blending digital and analogue techniques. Her paintings, sculptures, and installations often merge bodily elements with mechanical devices, referencing female exploitation and labor, as seen in her 2024 painting *Weaver's Room*.

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.

Tsedaye Makonnen’s ‘Sanctuary’ at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art, United States

The Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art opened 'Tsedaye Makonnen — Sanctuary' on December 13, 2024, featuring towering light sculptures by Ethiopian American artist Tsedaye Makonnen. The central installation, 'Senait & Nahom: The Peacemaker & The Comforter', comprises 50 illuminated boxes named for individuals lost to violence, transforming grief into remembrance and hope. The exhibition also includes works from the museum's permanent collection by artists such as Alexander 'Skunder' Boghossian and Aïda Muluneh, and aligns with the museum's mission of cross-cultural understanding.

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.

Spencer Finch and Lindsay Adams to create large-scale commissions for Obama Presidential Center

The Obama Presidential Center has commissioned new site-specific works by artists Spencer Finch and Lindsay Adams for its 19-acre campus in Chicago's Woodlawn neighborhood. Finch will create a wall tile installation inspired by the color palettes of Honolulu, Nairobi, Jakarta, and Chicago—cities formative to Barack Obama's life—while Adams will translate her 2024 painting "Weary Blues" into silkscreened fabric panels for the public cafe. The center, opening in the first half of 2026, will feature over 20 commissioned artworks, including previously announced pieces by Maya Lin, Richard Hunt, and Julie Mehretu.

Building Worlds

Welten bauen

Lina Lapelytė has transformed the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin into a mutable landscape of wooden blocks for her second Chanel Commission. The installation, titled "Welten bauen" (Building Worlds), invites visitors to actively shape the space, incorporating elements of poetry, song, and community. The work draws inspiration from Paul Hindemith's 1930s children's singspiel "Wir bauen eine Stadt," which was banned by the Nazis and led to Hindemith's emigration.

The Humboldt Forum is Already Under Fire

"Das Humboldt Forum wird schon beschossen"

The architectural firm J. Mayer H. and partners Jürgen Mayer H. and Hans Schneider have won the eighth 'Kunst-am-Bau' competition for Berlin’s Humboldt Forum. Their winning installation, titled "Südpfeil" (South Arrow), features a 3.6-meter-long abstract arrow embedded high in the building's facade. The work references the 19th-century discovery of 'Pfeilstörche'—migratory storks that returned to Europe with African arrows in their bodies—which provided the first scientific proof of global migration routes.

Top Seattle art shows to see in May 2026

Seattle's art scene in May 2026 features six diverse exhibitions. Highlights include 'Influences: Japanese Prints and Northwest Art' at the Cascadia Art Museum, exploring the impact of Japanese woodblock printing on regional artists; a site-specific installation by Carly Sheehan at the appointment-only Double Garage Gallery; Clare Johnson's exhibition of over 6,000 artworks on sticky notes at Gallery 4Culture; Emma Bergman's surreal multimedia installation 'The World to Come' at Specialist Gallery; and a landmark retrospective of light-art pioneer Tom Lloyd at the Frye Art Museum.