Basel's new satellite fair rides the wave of interest in contemporary African art

A new satellite art fair called Africa Basel has launched in Basel, Switzerland, founded by artist Benjamin Füglister and Photo Basel director Sven Eisenhut-Hug. The fair brings together 18 galleries, half from Africa, in a 14th-century building that once housed Dieter Roth's studio. Participants include non-commercial organizations like Ghana's Nubuke Foundation and Zambia's Modzi Arts, with prices ranging from SFr3,000 to SFr150,000. The fair aims to provide a platform for galleries specializing in contemporary African art and its diaspora to enter the global scene.

Artist Eric Smith won 3 Archibalds, then vanished. A new show reveals his unseen works

A new exhibition at Macquarie University Art Gallery reveals unseen works by Eric Smith (1919-2017), a celebrated Australian artist who won three Archibald Prizes and six Blake Prizes before unexpectedly vanishing from public life. Despite his early fame—including a role in launching Australian abstract expressionism with the group show Direction 1—Smith's career stalled after the death of his gallerist Rudy Komon in 1982, leaving him without a connection to the art world. He continued painting prolifically for four more decades, working daily in his studio, but destroyed more than half his output and had no major gallery shows after 1989.

Art Basel gets go-going at Hauser & Wirth’s stand

At Art Basel's Unlimited section, Hauser & Wirth is presenting Felix Gonzalez-Torres's 1991 performance work "Untitled" (Go-Go Dancing Platform), in which a local go-go dancer performs a silent disco atop a small lit stage for five minutes at unspecified times. The piece, created shortly after the deaths of the artist's partner and father, explores themes of renewal, rebirth, and masculinity, according to Hauser & Wirth partner Cristopher Canizares.

HIGH MUSEUM OF ART TO PRESENT FAITH RINGGOLD CHILDREN’S BOOK ART EXHIBITION

The High Museum of Art in Atlanta will present "Faith Ringgold: Seeing Children" from June 27 to October 12, 2025, the most comprehensive exhibition to date of the late artist's original paintings and drawings for her children's books. Featuring more than 100 works from a dozen titles including "Tar Beach" and "We Came to America," the show includes several never-before-exhibited artworks and is the eighth in the museum's series celebrating children's book art, presented in conjunction with a production by the Alliance Theatre.

I have seen the light and it’s Tracey Emin’s Jesus – RA Summer Exhibition review | Royal Academy of Arts

The Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition in London features over 1,600 works, with Tracey Emin's painting "The Crucifixion" as the standout piece. The critic describes Emin's work as a sincere, shocking depiction of the crucifixion that reinvigorates religious art, alongside works by Georg Baselitz, Cornelia Parker, Tamara Kostianovsky, George Shaw, Frank Bowling, and Cindy Sherman.

The Brooklyn Museum to Present Monet and Venice, the First Major Exhibition in over a Century Dedicated to Claude Monet’s Venetian Cityscapes

The Brooklyn Museum will present "Monet and Venice" from October 11, 2025, to February 1, 2026, the first major exhibition in over a century dedicated to Claude Monet's Venetian cityscapes. The show reunites nineteen of Monet's Venetian paintings alongside more than one hundred artworks, books, and ephemera, placing them in context with works by Canaletto, John Singer Sargent, J. M. W. Turner, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. It is cocurated by Lisa Small of the Brooklyn Museum and Melissa Buron of the Victoria & Albert Museum, and sponsored by Bank of America.

MAM’s New Erin Shirreff Exhibition Reshapes Sculpture and Photography

The Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM) will present “Permanent Drafts,” a major exhibition of over 40 recent works by Canadian artist Erin Shirreff, opening May 30. The show spans collage, photography, sculpture, and video, including site-specific installations and a new museum acquisition, “Paper sculpture” (2024). Shirreff, who began as a sculptor, uses photography to explore the gap between 2D representation and 3D objects, creating works that challenge how viewers perceive images and forms. Key pieces include the cyanotype collage “Inside times” (2020) and the sheet-metal installation “Drop” (2025).

Intuit Art Museum has its big reopening: ‘I don’t want this to be a traditional art museum’

The Intuit Art Museum in Chicago has reopened after a landmark $10 million renovation, marking a significant rebranding from its former name, "Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art," to simply "Intuit Art Museum" (IAM). The museum, which collects work by self-taught artists, replaced a traditional ribbon-cutting with a collaborative ribbon-tying ceremony, creating an interconnected artwork that will remain in its collection. The renovation tripled its gallery space and introduced new exhibitions, including a refurbished Henry Darger installation with LED screens and an immersive recreation of the artist's apartment, as well as a rotating permanent collection display featuring artists like Mr. Imagination, Lee Godie, and Wesley Willis. The second floor is dedicated to the special exhibition "Catalyst: Im/migration and Self-taught Art in Chicago," featuring works by artists such as Drossos Skyllas, Thomas Kong, Pooja Pittie, and Carlos Barberena.

Denver Art Museum presents photography exhibition What We’ve Been Up to: Landscape

The Denver Art Museum has opened a new photography exhibition titled *What We’ve Been Up to: Landscape*, featuring works by over a dozen artists including Meghann Riepenhoff, Masao Yamamoto, Linda Conner, Terri Weifenbach, Tanya Marcuse, Christina Fernandez, Patrick Nagatani, Zora J. Murff, Marion Post Wolcott, William Henry Jackson, Mary Peck, Abelardo Morell, Steve Fitch, John Ganis, Frank Gohlke, and Henry Wessel, Jr. The photographs are loosely grouped by theme—ranging from intimate nature studies and scenic beauty to technology’s imprint and difficult histories of slavery, Indigenous conflict, and natural disasters. A related lecture by Terri Weifenbach is scheduled for September 30, 2025.

In The Mastermind, an art heist’s aftermath unfolds against the backdrop of Vietnam War-era America

Kelly Reichardt's new film *The Mastermind* premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, following J.B. Mooney (Josh O'Connor), a carpenter who orchestrates an art heist targeting four Arthur Dove paintings from a fictional Massachusetts museum. The heist is inspired by a real 1972 robbery at the Worcester Art Museum, and the film explores the tension between artistic value and monetary worth against the backdrop of Vietnam War-era America.

‘It is not good or bad’: in a frantic age, Beeple seeks a more nuanced take on technology

Digital artist Mike Winkelmann, known as Beeple, is expanding his practice beyond the record-breaking NFT sale of *Everydays: The First 5,000 Days* (2021) into interactive video sculptures and public art. His latest works, *The Tree of Knowledge* (2024) and *Diffuse Control* (2025), debut this month at SXSW London and The Shed in New York, respectively. These generative pieces allow ongoing collaboration between artist, owner, and public, building on his earlier kinetic sculpture *Human One* (2021), which has toured globally. Beeple continues his daily social media posts (Everydays) as a form of satire and commentary on technology and media noise.

Artist couple open north London not-for-profit in former Zabludowicz gallery

Artist couple Philip and Charlotte Colbert have opened a new not-for-profit art space called Camden Arts Projects (CAP) in north London, taking over the former Zabludowicz Collection gallery at 176 Prince of Wales Road. The venue, a former Methodist church, was bought by the Colberts last year and now operates under an umbrella company called Contemporary Culture Collective. The opening exhibition features works by Turner Prize-winning artist Martin Creed, including an immersive balloon installation and a neon piece, and is free to the public. Curator Hala Matar, formerly of The Little House in Los Angeles, is running the exhibition programme.

Aboriginal art returns to Sotheby’s New York two years after pioneering dealer Tim Klingender's death

Two years after the death of pioneering Aboriginal art dealer Tim Klingender in a boating accident, his widow Skye McCardle-Klingender is organizing a multi-owner auction at Sotheby’s New York on 20 May. The sale includes 65 lots from Klingender's personal collection and other owners, featuring works by leading Aboriginal artists such as Emily Kam Kngwarray, Ginger Riley Munduwalawala, Rover Thomas, Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri, and Richard Bell. McCardle-Klingender is working with former National Gallery of Australia curator Wally Caruana to assemble the auction, which aims to continue Klingender's legacy of elevating Indigenous Australian art on the global stage.

Metropolitan Museum receives 6,500 works from photography collector Artur Walther

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has received a promised gift of more than 6,500 works from German American photography collector Artur Walther and his Walther Family Foundation. The trove spans post-war and contemporary photography from Africa, Japan, Germany, and China, alongside vernacular photos from Europe and the Americas. A special showcase of African photographers' works will debut in the Met's Michael C. Rockefeller Wing when it reopens after renovation later this month. The collection, which has operated exhibition spaces in Neu-Ulm, Germany, and New York's Chelsea district since 2010, includes major names such as Malick Sibidé, Zanele Muholi, Ai Weiwei, Bernd and Hilla Becher, and Thomas Struth.

Rose Art Museum Holds First Benefit Gala in Over 20 Years

The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University held its first benefit gala in over twenty years in New York City on May 12, 2025. The event honored Lizbeth Krupp, longtime Chair of the museum's Board of Advisors, and acclaimed artist Hugh Hayden, whose major survey "Hugh Hayden: Home Work" is currently on view at the museum. Co-chaired by Sara Friedlander and Abigail Ross Goodman, the gala raised over $900,000 toward a new $2 million Exhibition Endowment Fund, seeded by a lead gift from Krupp, to support future contemporary art exhibitions.

Iconic photos are part of Gordon Parks exhibition at Wichita Art Museum

The Wichita Art Museum opens "Homeward to the Prairie I Come," an exhibition of 71 photographs by Gordon Parks, running from May 11 to July 27, 2025. The works come from a collection Parks curated and donated to Kansas State University in 1973, now held by the Beach Museum of Art, which co-curated the touring show with Aileen Wang and Sarah Price. The exhibition is organized thematically around five large iconic images, including portraits of Muhammad Ali, Alexander Calder, Malcolm X, and Flavio da Silva, the subject of Parks' first film.

The Look Book Goes to Rashid Johnson’s Opening Night

Nearly a thousand people attended the opening night of Rashid Johnson's solo exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. The event, covered by the Look Book, featured a diverse crowd including artists, curators, writers, and collectors, with attendees sharing their impressions of the show and personal connections to the work. Notable figures present included artist Rashid Johnson, deputy director Naomi Beckwith, and writer Kevin Young, among many others.

Tate Modern, the ‘cathedral to contemporary art’, celebrates 25 years

Tate Modern in London celebrates its 25th anniversary this month, marking the transformation of a derelict Bankside power station into a landmark contemporary art museum. Designed by Herzog & de Meuron, the museum opened on 11 May 2000 and quickly reshaped London's art landscape, catalyzing the launch of the Frieze London art fair in 2003 and attracting international commercial galleries. Artist Michael Craig-Martin, a former trustee, recalls how the project was driven by then-director Nicholas Serota's ambitious vision to elevate modern art from its status as 'art's poor cousin.' The museum pioneered free-admission thematic collection displays and a global curatorial approach, though its inaugural exhibition 'Century City' was widely criticized as overambitious.

Women’s Work: The art of Dana Boussard (museum exhibition)

In 1973, three pioneering women artists—Lela Autio, Dana Boussard, and Nancy Erickson—proposed an exhibition of their soft sculpture at the University of Montana in Missoula, but were denied because their work was dismissed as "women's work." Undeterred, they staged the show in the empty Carnegie Library building in 1974, and a year later the Missoula Art Museum (MAM) was founded. Now, MAM's special exhibition "Women's Work" celebrates the museum's 50th anniversary by featuring works from these three artists, including three pieces by Dana Boussard: "The Rialto" (1971), "Sister" (1970), and "Another Time, Another Place" (1970). The exhibition honors the radical spirit of the original 1974 show and the fiber-art movement, which gained momentum alongside the women's movement and feminist art.

Artist’s Choice: Arthur Jafa—Less Is Morbid

Arthur Jafa has curated a new exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) as part of the museum's ongoing Artist's Choice series. Titled "Less Is Morbid," the show runs through July 5 and features over 80 objects selected from MoMA's collection. Jafa, an artist and filmmaker known for his emotionally charged collages and installations, brings together works by figures such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Cy Twombly, Lygia Clark, Roy DeCarava, Piet Mondrian, and Lutisha Pettway. The exhibition challenges binary oppositions like minimalist/maximalist and sparse/dense, and critiques the historical hierarchies that have governed art institutions.

With a cut and a caress: Italian exhibition explores Rebecca Horn’s legacy

Castello di Rivoli near Turin is hosting "Rebecca Horn: Cutting Through the Past," the first major Italian exhibition dedicated to the German artist since her death in September 2024 at age 80. The show, co-organized with Munich's Haus der Kunst, centers on Horn's kinetic installation of the same name and explores her six-decade career through kinetic sculptures, early performance videos, and drawings. Chief curator Marcella Beccaria emphasizes a focus on Horn's spiritual concerns and the motif of circularity, with works displayed in the museum's narrow Manica Lunga corridor.

Left at the altar: Luc Tuymans's paintings to replace Tintoretto works at Venetian church

Belgian artist Luc Tuymans has created two new paintings, "Heat" and "Musicians" (2025), for the altar of the Abbey of San Giorgio Maggiore, a 16th-century church on a Venetian island. The works temporarily replace two canvases by Jacopo Tintoretto—"The Last Supper" and "The People of Israel in the Desert"—which are undergoing restoration funded by the Save Venice conservation charity. The commission was organized by Benedicti Claustra Onlus and the Draiflessen Collection, and the paintings will be on view from May 9 to November 23.

Antoni Gaudí’s Casa Batlló is reaping the rewards from its continual reinvention

Antoni Gaudí’s Casa Batlló in Barcelona, completed in 1906 and designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2005, has undergone a series of ambitious multi-million-euro restorations and a hi-tech revamp over the past decade. Acquired by the Bernat family in 1993 and opened to the public in 2002, the monument now draws over 1.5 million visitors annually, generating a record €56 million in income in 2023—a 54% increase from the previous year. Recent projects include a €30 million investment (2018-2024) that uncovered original gold-leaf patterns and expanded immersive exhibitions such as Refik Anadol’s "Gaudí Dreams." The family plans to open the third floor for private events by late 2025.

Escher’s Impossible Worlds Are Coming to the Arlington Museum of Art

The Arlington Museum of Art will host "M.C. Escher: Infinite Variations" from April 26 to August 3, 2025, featuring over 150 works from the largest private collection of M.C. Escher's art. The exhibition includes iconic pieces like "Snakes" (1969), his final print, alongside early bookplates, tessellations, and impossible constructions, with interactive and digital elements designed to immerse visitors in Escher's perceptual puzzles.

The Brooklyn Museum Announces Summer Exhibitions featuring Red Grooms, Mimi Gross, and The Ruckus Construction Co. Christian Marclay ; and Melissa Joseph

The Brooklyn Museum has announced its summer 2025 exhibition lineup, featuring a diverse range of installations. Highlights include "Red Grooms, Mimi Gross, and The Ruckus Construction Co.: Excerpts from 'Ruckus Manhattan'," which brings back the immersive 1970s tribute to New York City with works like "Dame of the Narrows" (1975) and a new addition, "42nd Street Porno Bookstore" (1976). Christian Marclay's film "Doors" (2022) will debut in New York, while fiber artist and UOVO Prize winner Melissa Joseph presents a site-specific outdoor installation titled "Tender" on the museum's plaza. Additionally, the Rubin Museum Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room will be relocated to the Brooklyn Museum's Arts of Asia galleries.

60% of Sudan’s National Museum Looted, Report Says

60% of Sudan’s National Museum Looted, Report Says

Over 60% of the holdings of the Sudan National Museum in Khartoum have been looted during the country's ongoing civil war. The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which controlled the capital for two years, deliberately targeted high-value portable objects like gold and jewelry, stripping storage areas while leaving less portable artifacts behind. Although the museum building remains standing, tens of thousands of antiquities from its collection of 150,000 objects were plundered, with some appearing for sale online.

Mari Katayama: tree of life @ Yutaka Kikutake Gallery (Roppongi)

片山真理：tree of life @ Yutaka Kikutake Gallery（六本木）

Mari Katayama presents her latest solo exhibition, "tree of life," at Yutaka Kikutake Gallery in Roppongi, Tokyo. The exhibition, running from March 19 to May 16, 2026, features a new series of photographic works created in 2025 that continue her exploration of the body, prosthesis, and self-representation through meticulously staged compositions.

Where to see artworks in Marin

A comprehensive listing of art exhibitions and gallery shows across Marin County, California, for spring 2025. The article highlights dozens of venues including Robert Green Fine Arts in Mill Valley, which will display John Grillo's works from the 1940s beginning in May, alongside shows at Anthony Meier, Art Works Downtown, Bolinas Museum, and many local libraries and cultural centers. Exhibits range from abstract works and pop art to photography, ceramics, and sculptures by artists such as Saif Azzuz, Drew Frazier, Lenore Golub, and Sonny Smith.

At the Galleries for April 9, 2026

The Hamptons art scene is entering the spring season with a diverse array of gallery openings across Montauk, East Hampton, Sag Harbor, and Bridgehampton. Key highlights include Timothy Tibus’s abstract retrospective at The Lucore Art, a Matisse-centered group show at The Drawing Room featuring rare etchings, and Kristy Gordon’s myth-inspired "Primavera" at Grenning Gallery. Other notable exhibitions include a showcase of artists from the Cold Castle collective at Keyes Art and a curated group show titled "Connections" at Dan Welden Studio/Gallery.

miami bakehouse art complex celebrates 40 years

The Bakehouse Art Complex in Miami’s Wynwood district is celebrating its 40th anniversary and the 100th anniversary of its Art Deco building, which originally opened as a bakery in 1926. Founded in 1985 by a group of artists who purchased the abandoned industrial bakery for $10, the nonprofit has provided studio space to over 1,500 local artists. The celebration kicked off with an exhibition titled “Bakehouse at Forty: Past, Present, Future,” attended by more than 1,000 guests, and included a gala fundraiser with affordable ticket prices. The organization is now planning to build 60 units of affordable artist housing as part of a revitalized campus.