protestors visit the whitney after cancelation of pro palestine performance

On Friday, May 23, arts and culture workers protested at the Whitney Museum in New York following the museum's cancellation of a pro-Palestine performance titled "No Aesthetics Outside My Freedom: Mourning, Militancy, and Performance" by artists Fadl Fakhouri, Noel Maghathe, and Fargo Tbakhi. The protest, organized by Writers Against the War on Gaza, took place during the museum's Free Friday Night event, with demonstrators unfurling a Palestinian flag and a banner reading "Creativity Does Not Have to Rely on Death," distributing brochures demanding the removal of board members with ties to Israel, and calling out museum leadership for censorship. The performance, originally scheduled for May 14 as part of the Whitney's Independent Study Program, was canceled after museum leadership viewed a recording of its initial presentation at the Poetry Project, citing concerns that it "valorized specific acts of violence" and singled out community members based on belief systems.

trump big beautiful bill space shuttle discovery museum houston

President Donald Trump signed the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" on July 4, which includes a provision requiring the Smithsonian Institution to transfer a space vehicle—widely understood to be the space shuttle Discovery—to NASA. The shuttle has been displayed at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia, since 2012. The move must be completed by January 4, 2027, and $85 million has been allocated for planning, transportation, and a new exhibition facility in Houston. The provision originated from the "Bring the Space Shuttle Home Act" introduced by Texas senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, after their state lost the original competition to host Discovery.

nagakin capsule tower moma

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York has acquired and put on display a capsule from the demolished Nagakin Capsule Tower in Tokyo. The capsule, designated A1305, is the centerpiece of a year-long exhibition titled "The Many Lives of the Nakagin Capsule Tower," which also includes archival materials such as photographs, models, films, and recordings. The tower, designed by Kisho Kurokawa and completed in 1972, was a landmark of the Metabolism movement, featuring 140 prefabricated modules. After years of decline, it was demolished in 2022, but 23 capsules were salvaged, with 16 finding homes in institutions including MoMA.

clara peeters only self portrait comes to auction

Sotheby’s London will auction what is believed to be the only known self-portrait by Clara Peeters, a pioneering Flemish still life painter from the early 17th century. The painting, a vanitas still life featuring a presumed self-portrait and a still life of flowers in a glass vase, carries a presale estimate of £1.2 million to £1.8 million ($1.6 million–$2.4 million) and will be offered in the “Old Master and 19th Century Paintings Evening Auction” on July 2. The work was previously downgraded to the artist’s circle but is now accepted as an autograph Peeters, with a provenance dating back to 1767.

museum removes maori artist new zealand flag diane prince

The Suter Art Gallery in Nelson, New Zealand, removed an artwork by Māori artist Diane Prince after public outcry. The piece, a new version of her 1995 work *Flagging the Future*, featured the New Zealand flag printed with the words “PLEASE WALK ON ME” and was part of a solo show organized by Pātaka Art + Museum. Local resident Ruth Tipu protested by picking up the flag daily, citing distress over the flag being walked on, especially given her grandfather’s service in the Māori Battalion. The museum cited an escalation in hostile discourse as the reason for removal, while affirming support for freedom of expression.

japanese sculptor kunimasa aoki wins 2025 loewe craft prize

Japanese sculptor Kunimasa Aoki won the 2025 Loewe Craft Prize on Thursday evening in Madrid, receiving a €50,000 cash prize. His anamorphic terracotta sculpture “Realm of Living Things 19” was selected by a 12-member jury from 30 shortlisted works on display at the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum. The jury praised the work's honest expression of the ancestral coil process and the raw, unfinished form of the material. Two special mentions were awarded: Nigerian artist Nifemi Marcus-Bello for “TM Bench with Bowl” and Studio Sumakshi Singh from India for “Monument.”

art basel paris 2025 exhibitor list

Art Basel Paris has announced the 203 galleries participating in its 2025 edition, set to take place at the Grand Palais from October 24–26, with VIP previews on October 22–23. The fair is divided into three sections: the main Galeries section with 177 dealers, Emergence featuring 16 solo booths for emerging artists, and Premise with nine presentations from 10 galleries challenging the art historical canon. Notable blue-chip participants include Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, Pace Gallery, David Zwirner, and top Parisian galleries such as Balice Hertling, Galerie Chantal Crousel, and Mennour. The fair will also bring back its Oh La La! Initiative and public art exhibition in the Jardin des Tuileries.

op ed museums gender and pay

The article examines how gender pay disparities and the fear of a "pink-collar" profession persist in the art museum world, triggered by comments from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg about "masculine energy" in the workplace. It recounts a 2020 forum where National Gallery of Art director Kaywin Feldman expressed concern that art museums becoming predominantly female could lower salaries, a remark initially seen as sexist but later contextualized by the author's investigation into the origins of such fears. The author traces the concept to a 2016 New York Times article citing research on how female-dominated fields see pay drops, and explores how even progressive leaders like Feldman can inadvertently perpetuate gender bias.

bennett prize after deliberation first all women jury winner announced

Amy Werntz, a Dallas-based figurative painter, has won the fifth Bennett Prize, the largest art award for women working in figurative painting. The announcement was made at the Muskegon Museum of Art in Michigan, where an exhibition of finalists opened. Werntz, a previous finalist in 2021, received $50,000 and a solo show for her lifelike depictions of elderly people in everyday scenes. For the first time, the winner was chosen by an all-female jury, which included painter Margaret Bowland, artist Angela Fraleigh, and curator Gloria Groom. The runner-up, Nicole Santiago, won $10,000. The traveling exhibition will visit several museums across the United States through 2027.

hilmas ghost feminist witch collective

At the Armory Show in New York, psychic medium Sarah Potter is offering tarot card readings at the booth of Chicago's Carrie Secrist Gallery using a deck designed by the feminist art collective Hilma's Ghost. The collective, formed during lockdown by abstract artists Dannielle Tegeder and Sharmistha Ray, created "Abstract Futures Tarot," a series of 78 gouache, ink, and colored pencil paintings inspired by pioneering abstractionist Hilma af Klint and the Rider–Waite tarot deck by Pamela Colman Smith. The works, priced at $4,000 each, are the result of 500 hours of collaborative painting, and the deck is also sold in a limited edition of 300, with 215 already sold.

trump assassination monument statue oval office

A small statue depicting President Donald Trump raising his fist after a failed assassination attempt during a 2024 campaign rally has appeared on his Oval Office desk, drawing renewed attention. The sculpture, based on a photograph by Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci, was created by artist Stan Watts, who is fundraising for a nine-foot-tall version. Separately, documentary filmmaker Steven C. Barber installed a life-sized bronze monument of the same scene at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, created by George and Mark Lundeen of Lundeen Sculpture.

conclave hidden ritual

On May 8, 2025, white smoke rose from the Sistine Chapel signaling the election of Robert Prevost as Pope Leo XIV, the first American pontiff. Born in Chicago in 1955, Prevost has strong ties to Peru and was appointed Prefect for the Dicastery for Bishops by Pope Francis in 2023. The article explores the secretive process of the papal conclave, noting that 133 cardinals voted under Michelangelo's famed ceilings, and draws parallels to the 2024 film *Conclave* which some cardinals reportedly used for insight.

spring break art show surprises 2025

New York's Spring Break Art Show has returned to its namesake season, opening alongside Frieze New York after abruptly canceling its Los Angeles edition due to January's devastating fires. Founded by artist duo Andrew Gori and Ambre Kelly, the fair is now held in a former book printing office on Varick Street, featuring offbeat emerging art and boundary-pushing installations. Roughly a third of the presentations were already planned under the theme "Paradise Lost and Found," but the accelerated timeline led to last-minute additions, with some artists joining just the night before. Standout works include Louis Sarowsky's carved stone food sculptures, Kate Rusek's zero-waste porcelain pieces molded from trash, and Colin J. Radcliffe's ceramic sculptures reimagining queer figures in classical iconography.

takahashi mizuki textile art

In a recent edition of Artnet Pro's newsletter 'The Asia Pivot', the director of CHAT (Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile) in Hong Kong reflects on highlights from Art Basel Hong Kong, including textile-based works by Movana Chen, Huan Po-Chi, and Ade Darmawan. The article discusses the growing engagement of contemporary artists with traditional craft practices like weaving, embroidery, and dyeing, particularly during the pandemic, and notes the distinct lineage of fiber art in Asia compared to the West, where it emerged as a subgenre of Modernism in the 1960s.

national gallery mysterious altarpiece 20 million

London's National Gallery has acquired a mysterious altarpiece painted by an unknown artist around 1510, paying £16.4 million ($21.8 million) for the work titled *The Virgin and Child with Saints Louis and Margaret*. The painting, arranged via a private sale by Sotheby's and funded by the American Friends of the National Gallery London, features unusual details including a uniquely expressive dragon beneath baby Jesus's feet, playful angels, and subtle symbolic references. The acquisition marks the museum's bicentennial and will go on public display on May 10 in the rehung Sainsbury Wing.

just what happens to the sistine chapel during a papal conclave

The Sistine Chapel has closed to the public in preparation for the papal conclave beginning May 7, where cardinals will elect a successor to Pope Francis. The chapel, adorned with Michelangelo's frescoes including the ceiling (1508–1512) and *The Last Judgement* (1536–1541), has been the permanent seat of the conclave since 1878. Preparations include installing a chimney and stove for the smoke signals that announce voting results, as well as modern facilities like chemical toilets added after the 2013 conclave.

tefaf restores black book of hours

TEFAF has selected the Black Book of Hours, a rare 15th-century illuminated manuscript from the Hispanic Society Museum and Library in New York, as the recipient of its 2025 Museum Restoration Fund. The manuscript, one of only seven known black vellum books of hours, will be displayed at TEFAF New York at the Park Avenue Armory before undergoing conservation treatment by the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts in Philadelphia. The work involves disbinding the 149-folio volume, high-resolution imaging, and addressing centuries of wear.

literature salman rushdie laurie anderson the satanic verses

Salman Rushdie and Laurie Anderson, two legendary New York-based artists, engage in an intimate conversation published by Cultured magazine. Rushdie discusses his recent appearance at the Sundance Film Festival for the documentary "Knife," which adapts his memoir about surviving a 2022 stabbing attack, and his travels to literary festivals in New Orleans and Tucson. Anderson shares anecdotes about her own touring show "Republic of Love" with the band Sexmob, and the pair trade lighthearted observations about movie theaters, desert landscapes, and aliens.

art robert rauschenberg centennial

Robert Rauschenberg's centenary is being celebrated with a sprawling, interdisciplinary series of events that began this fall and will continue into 2026. At least eight major institutional exhibitions of his work are mounted worldwide, alongside a book of his writings published by Yale University Press and a national tour by the Trisha Brown Dance Company and the Merce Cunningham Trust featuring Rauschenberg's sets and costumes. Cultured magazine invited artists across disciplines to reflect on his legacy, with contributions from Jeff Koons and RJ Messineo, among others.

art nazy nazhand ist festival

Nazy Nazhand has been appointed Arts & Culture director of ISTANBUL’74 and is curating the 15th anniversary edition of IST.FESTIVAL in Istanbul, running from October 10-12. The festival, founded by Demet Müftüoğlu-Eşeli and Alphan Eşeli, adopts the theme “What Is Really Real?” and features public art installations, conversations, and performances. Participants include Jeff Koons, Flavin Judd, Stefan Sagmeister, Lou Doillon, Kid Cudi, and CULTURED editor-at-large Julia Halperin. The main exhibition will take place in the historic Arnavutköy neighborhood along the Bosphorus.

about last week an orbit through the highs and sighs of new yorks art fair multiverse

Writer and critic Domenick Ammirati chronicles a whirlwind week in New York during Frieze Week, visiting art fairs, exhibitions, and social events. Highlights include Jeff Koons' Hulk sculptures at Gagosian's Frieze booth, discovering painter Karol Palczak at Emalin gallery, and attending the group painting show "R U Still Painting???" curated by the collective FALCON in a raw Midtown office space. Ammirati notes a subdued, less intoxicated atmosphere compared to previous years, reflecting a broader unease in the art world.

Hito Steyerl “The Island” Osservatorio Fondazione Prada / Milan by Piermario De Angelis

Hito Steyerl's solo exhibition "The Island" at Osservatorio Fondazione Prada in Milan explores the concept of submersion as both a geological condition and a media regime. The show takes its title from a Neolithic artificial island discovered off the coast of Korčula, Croatia, which remained submerged for approximately seven thousand years. Through video interviews, installations, and critical assemblages, Steyerl connects this submerged structure to contemporary issues of digital image circulation, algorithmic power, and the dispossession of agency, drawing on science fiction, quantum physics, biochemistry, and deep time.

Statement of Withdrawal from Visitor Lion Awards

Open Letter on the Imminent Departure of the Gelman Collection from Mexico

An open letter signed by hundreds of Mexican artists and cultural figures warns that the core of the renowned Gelman Collection, including eleven Frida Kahlo paintings declared national monuments, is at risk of permanent export from Mexico. The letter alleges that Banco Santander's new Faro Santander museum, through an agreement with collector Marcelo Zambrano, is misinterpreting Mexico's strict heritage laws to justify a "dynamic" but effectively permanent display abroad, which would violate the legal prohibition on the permanent export of Kahlo's work.

The Interview: Amar Kanwar

ArtReview interviews Amar Kanwar, a New Delhi-based artist known for films and multimedia installations that blend poetry, activism, and documentary to explore power, conflict, and social justice. Kanwar discusses his career trajectory from documentary filmmaking to occupational health research in a coal mining region, and back to filmmaking on his own terms. His best-known work, *The Sovereign Forest* (2012), addresses government-corporate collusion in Odisha, while his latest, *The Peacock's Graveyard* (2023), is a seven-channel film installation currently paired with *The Torn First Pages* (2004–08) at Palazzo Grassi in Venice under the heading "Co-Travellers." Kanwar has participated in four consecutive editions of Documenta (2002–2017) and was a curator of the 2022 Istanbul Biennial.

Centre Pompidou to open Seoul outpost

The Centre Pompidou Hanwha is set to open in Seoul this June, housed in a renovated four-story former aquarium in the Yeouido district. Designed by French architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte, the new outpost is the result of a four-year partnership between the Hanwha Foundation of Culture and the Parisian institution. The museum will launch with the exhibition "The Cubists: Inventing Modern Vision," which explores the evolution of Cubism and its specific intersections with Korean art history.

A Muddy History of Plant-Hunting

The exhibition "Seeds of Exchange" at London's Garden Museum highlights a 1773 botanical collaboration between British amateur plant hunter John Bradby Blake and Cantonese painter Mak Sau. Centered on Blake’s unpublished "Flora Sinensis," the project attempted to systematically catalogue Chinese flora, including the Camellia japonica, through detailed watercolors that blended Western objective illustration with Chinese artistic expertise. These works served as the primary medium for introducing Chinese plant species to the West long before live specimens could survive the journey.

Local Collections Shine at Sarasota Art Museum's Latest Exhibition

Sarasota Art Museum (SAM) has opened a new exhibition titled "Something Borrowed, Something New," featuring works from private collectors across Southwest Florida. The show includes pieces by renowned artists such as Chuck Close, KAWS, Richard Serra, Yoko Ono, Ai Weiwei, and Louise Bourgeois, spanning paintings, prints, sculptures, and mixed media from the 20th and 21st centuries. The exhibition was inspired by a museum trip program, during which executive director Virginia Shearer noticed that local collectors owned significant works by artists featured in major institutions like the Renwick Gallery and Glenstone.

Roberto Bernardi | The Unknown Event (2025) | Available for Sale

Roberto Bernardi | L'evento sconosciuto (2025) | Available for Sale

Italian hyperrealist artist Roberto Bernardi has listed a new oil on canvas painting titled "L'evento sconosciuto" (2025) for sale through GALERIE VON&VON. The work, priced at €14,400, is being featured in conjunction with his upcoming exhibition "Unfolding," scheduled to run from April 16 to June 20, 2026. Bernardi, known for his meticulous attention to detail and photorealistic style, has a long-standing presence in the international art market and museum circuit.

Paris’s Centre Pompidou to Welcome Seoul Outpost in June

The Centre Pompidou is expanding its global footprint with the opening of a new satellite museum in Seoul this June. Housed in a former aquarium within the Hanwha Group's headquarters in the Yeouido financial district, the Centre Pompidou Hanwha is the result of a four-year partnership between the French institution and the Hanwha Foundation of Culture. The renovated 108,000-square-foot space, designed by architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte, will debut with an exhibition titled "The Cubists: Inventing Modern Vision," which explores the evolution of Cubism and its intersections with Korean art.