christies names alex rotter global president

Christie’s has promoted Alex Rotter to global president, a new role in which he will retain his existing title as global chairman of 20th- and 21st-century art. Rotter will collaborate with regional presidents and global chairmen to develop strategies for auction and private sales. He joined Christie’s in 2017 after 16 years at Sotheby’s and created the “20/21” department, which unified postwar, contemporary, and Impressionist and modern art sales. Rotter has overseen landmark sales including Jeff Koons’s *Rabbit* (1986) for $91 million, Andy Warhol’s *Shot Sage Blue Marilyn* (1964) for $195 million, and Leonardo da Vinci’s *Salvator Mundi* (ca. 1500) for $450 million.

where to go what to expect amid us government shutdown 2025

The United States government shutdown, which began on October 1 after Congress failed to reach a funding agreement, has forced the closure of numerous federally operated museums, historic sites, and national parks. While some outdoor monuments and parks remain accessible, many are understaffed and operating with limited services. In Washington, D.C., sites like the Library of Congress, National Archives Museum, and Washington Monument are closed, while Smithsonian-run institutions remain open only through October 11 using prior funds. In New York, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island remain open, but the lack of uniformity across agencies has created confusion for visitors.

Fairfield University Art Museum invites readers to private tour

Fairfield University Art Museum is offering an exclusive private tour to readers, as reported by the Westport Journal. The event provides a behind-the-scenes look at the museum's collections and exhibitions, allowing attendees to engage directly with curators and artworks in an intimate setting.

Bridging East and West: The top Asia-Pacific art exhibitions in Europe in 2026

Europe is set to host a series of major exhibitions in 2026 that bridge the cultural divide between the East and West. Key highlights include a massive Yayoi Kusama retrospective at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, a showcase of Thai royal haute couture and Pierre Balmain’s designs at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, and an exploration of ancient Korean gold at the Musée Guimet. Additionally, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London will partner with Australia’s QAGOMA for a large-scale survey of contemporary art from Asia and the Pacific.

Fairfield University Art Museum Exhibition to Commemorate 250th Anniversary of the U.S., Opens Jan. 23

Fairfield University Art Museum will open a major loan exhibition titled "For Which It Stands…" on January 23, 2026, running through July 25, 2026, as part of the university's commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the United States. The exhibition features over 70 works by diverse artists from the early 20th century to the present day, all centered on depictions of the American flag, including pieces by Jasper Johns, Faith Ringgold, Robert Rauschenberg, Shepard Fairey, Julie Mehretu, Childe Hassam, and a new textile sculpture by Maria de Los Angeles commissioned for the show. Works are lent by private collectors, artists, galleries, and institutions such as the Delaware Art Museum, Yale University Art Gallery, and the Gordon Parks Foundation.

Venice Unveils Stunning New Art Spaces

During the Architecture Biennale preview in Venice, two major new art spaces opened: the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation's new home in a historic palazzo on the San Barnaba canal, and SMAC (San Marco Art Centre), a contemporary art center on Saint Mark's Square designed by David Chipperfield. Additionally, Belgian artist Luc Tuymans accepted a last-minute commission from the Abbot of San Giorgio Maggiore to replace two Tintoretto paintings with his own large-scale works. The Fiorucci Foundation's palazzo, acquired in December 2024, opened May 10 with an exhibition by Georgian artist Tolia Astakhishvili, featuring works made from found materials and drawings on walls, alongside pieces by Thea Djordjadze and Maka Sanadze. SMAC, restored by Chipperfield, currently hosts two exhibitions: one on Australian modernist architect Harry Seidler and another on Korean landscape architect Jung Youngsun.

Work in Progress: Akinsanya Kambon

Akinsanya Kambon’s work is featured as a highlight in a curated guide of six must-see exhibitions during the EXPO Chicago 2026 art fair. The selection spans a diverse range of media and venues, including Josh Brainin’s frantic two-channel video installations at Tala and a thematic exploration of urban infrastructure hosted at the Chicago Cultural Center.

Meet Me in New York: Alix Vernet

The Chicago art scene takes center stage with a curated guide to six essential exhibitions coinciding with the EXPO Chicago 2026 art fair. Highlights include Josh Brainin’s immersive two-channel video installation at Tala and a thematic exploration of Chicago’s urban infrastructure hosted at the Chicago Cultural Center, showcasing a diverse range of media from digital video to architectural critique.

Martha Graham Took Classic Ballet and Turned It Into Modern Dance. It’s Still Moving Us 100 Years Later

The Martha Graham Dance Company, the oldest professional dance troupe in the United States, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with a worldwide centennial tour. The company is marking the milestone by performing Graham's classic works, like the 1946 ballet *Cave of the Heart*, alongside newer commissions that continue her innovative legacy.

Miles Davis Emerged From Middle America to Become the ‘Picasso of Jazz’ and Taught Us All How to Be Cool

Miles Davis, born in 1926 in Illinois, rose from a middle-class background to become a transformative figure in jazz. He left formal studies at Juilliard to play with Charlie Parker, but soon forged his own iconic sound characterized by intimate tone and phrasing, most famously on the seminal *Birth of the Cool* sessions. His career was defined by constant reinvention, pioneering multiple major movements from cool jazz and modal recording to jazz fusion, earning him the nickname "the Picasso of Jazz" from Duke Ellington.

Negative Impressions and Positive Traces of ’20th Century Debris’.

Marc Brandenburg's solo exhibition '20th Century Debris' is on view at the Berlinische Galerie in Berlin until September 14, 2026. The show features approximately 150 works, including early drawings from the 1990s, recent pieces, video, photography, and tattoo editions, all exploring spectral cityscapes and the debris of contemporary life through a process of tonal reversal and inversion.

In major auction night, rare Klimt painting smashes records at $236.4 million

Sotheby's held its first sale at its new US headquarters in New York, where Gustav Klimt's "Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer" sold for $236.4 million, becoming the most valuable work of modern art ever sold at auction and the most expensive artwork ever sold by Sotheby's globally. The record-breaking 20-minute bidding war also saw strong results for works by Edvard Munch ($35.1 million) and a Klimt landscape ($86 million), while the evening's total reached $706 million. However, two top lots by Kerry James Marshall and Barkley L. Hendricks failed to sell, and Maurizio Cattelan's gold toilet "America" drew only a single bid from Ripley's Believe It or Not! for $12.1 million.

Steve DiBenedetto’s Cosmic Sense of the Absurd

Artist Steve DiBenedetto presents a new body of work in his solo exhibition, "Spiral Architect," at Derek Eller Gallery. The show features 17 paintings ranging from large-scale canvases to intimate works, all characterized by a restless movement between abstraction and figuration. DiBenedetto utilizes a process-heavy technique of adding, scraping, and reworking oil paint to create dense, visionary landscapes filled with octopi, cellular forms, and Rube Goldberg-esque machinery.

Who Do Chicago’s Art Fairs Serve?

Expo Chicago and its satellite fairs serve as a complex barometer for the Midwestern arts ecosystem, highlighting both the successes of local representation and the tensions of institutional growth. While galleries like Andrew Rafacz and Corbett vs. Dempsey demonstrate viable career paths for Chicago-based artists like Melissa Leandro and Gabrielle Garland, the fair's shifting structure reveals a narrowing field for smaller nonprofits.

David Novros’s Portable Murals

David Novros’s latest exhibition at Paula Cooper Gallery showcases his "portable murals," intricate multi-paneled paintings that challenge the traditional concept of art as a mere object on a wall. Utilizing oil and murano on canvas, Novros assembles monochromatic, L-shaped, and horizontal panels with precise intervals that incorporate the gallery wall into the composition. These works are designed to be experienced kinesthetically, responding to shifting natural light and the viewer's physical movement through the space.

art where artists hang out nyc

Cultured magazine surveyed 30 New York-based artists to find out where they hang out in 2026, as affordable and easy gathering places have become scarce. The responses range from iconic spots like the Rose Reading Room at the New York Public Library and the Metropolitan Museum of Art to more offbeat locales such as a karaoke bar on Bowery, a Cantonese noodle house in Chinatown, and a church hosting vogue sessions. Artists including Coco Klockner, Jamian Juliano-Villani, Tiffany Sia, Amanda Ba, Lucy Bull, and others share their personal favorites, highlighting a diverse mix of libraries, restaurants, bars, and community spaces.

art fashion camille henrot collina strada interview

Camille Henrot and Hillary Taymour, wearing Collina Strada, are featured in a Cultured magazine interview marking the reopening of the New Museum on March 21, 2026, after a 60,000-square-foot expansion by OMA. The conversation is part of a series pairing three artists from the inaugural exhibition "New Humans: Memories of the Future" with three downtown fashion designers. Henrot discusses her New York origin story, her film *In the Veins* premiering in the show, and her upcoming play *Commedia dell’Arte* at the Aspen Art Museum’s AIR Festival, while Taymour recounts moving from Los Angeles to New York in 2010 to pursue fashion design.

art fashion ivana basic claire sullivan interview

Cultured magazine pairs three artists with three independent fashion designers to mark the reopening of the New Museum on March 21, 2026, following a 60,000-square-foot expansion by OMA. In this installment, Serbian sculptor Ivana Bašić, whose work *Blossoming Being #2* appears in the inaugural exhibition “New Humans: Memories of the Future,” meets designer Claire Sullivan of Miss Claire Sullivan. Their conversation covers their New York origin stories, the city’s affordability crisis, and the challenges of making a creative life in the city.

art lauren halsey los angeles park

Lauren Halsey, an artist known for immersive architectural projects rooted in South Central Los Angeles, is expanding her civic engagement with a new sculpture park titled "sister dreamer," opening in March in collaboration with the nonprofit LAND. The article, presented as a studio visit, details her creative process, influences, and upcoming projects, including a limited-edition cycling jersey with Rapha and the Miami Design District to raise funds for cancer research. It also highlights her recent exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Venice Biennale, and the Serpentine Galleries.

design carlos soto theater costume design 2

Carlos Soto, a set and costume designer known for his emotionally charged and essentialist approach to theater, is profiled in a feature that traces his career from a childhood encounter with Robert Wilson to collaborations with Solange, Marina Abramović, and Philip Glass. Soto discusses his recent production of Robin Hood at Zurich's Schauspielhaus, where he fused Japanese Noh theater masks with animal memes to create costumes that blur the line between human and beast. The article highlights his uncompromising vision, his early apprenticeship under Frida Parmeggiani at the Met, and his decision to drop out of Pratt Institute to pursue hands-on learning.

art cool summer activities new york museum guide

Cultured's guide to summer art activities in New York highlights five museum exhibitions, each paired with the gallery's air-conditioned temperature setting. Featured shows include Temitayo Ogunbiyi's first institutional solo at the Noguchi Museum, MoMA's "Woven Histories" exploring textile art, Saya Woolfalk's "Empathetic Universe" at the Museum of Arts and Design, Ben Shahn's "On Nonconformity" at the Jewish Museum, and "Vermeer's Love Letters" at the newly renovated Frick Collection.

peruvian artist antonio paucar wins 11th artes mundi award

Peruvian artist Antonio Paucar has won the 11th Artes Mundi Award, receiving £40,000 to support his performance, sculpture, and video practice rooted in Andean culture and his Peruvian heritage. The award ceremony took place on January 15 at Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum in Cardiff, where a group exhibition of the six shortlisted artists runs through March 1. Paucar plans to use the prize money to convert his family's ancestral adobe home in the central highlands of Peru into a combined museum and art school, addressing the lack of such institutions in the region.

Inside the Studio of Abdelkader Benchamma, Cartographer of Invisible Worlds

Dans l’atelier d’Abdelkader Benchamma, cartographe des mondes invisibles

French-Moroccan artist Abdelkader Benchamma is preparing for his upcoming solo exhibition, "Signs and Wonders," at Galerie Templon in Paris. Working from his sun-drenched studio in Montpellier, Benchamma has transitioned from his signature black-and-white ink drawings to large-scale canvases that incorporate celestial blues and earthy mineral tones. The new body of work draws inspiration from 15th and 16th-century manuscripts, specifically the Kitab al-Bulhan and the Book of Miracles, creating a "giant book" of visual narratives that blur the lines between abstraction and figuration.

DC Getaway: Exploring Toronto’s art scene, from galleries to murals

Toronto's visual arts landscape is highlighted as a premier destination for travelers, featuring a mix of massive institutional collections and specialized local galleries. Key attractions include the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), known for its vast natural history and ancient civilization galleries, and the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), which houses over 120,000 works ranging from Renaissance masterpieces to contemporary installations like Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room.

Spring Arts Guide 2026: The Visual Art Exhibitions Making a Splash This Season

The Spring Arts Guide 2026 highlights several major exhibitions opening in the Washington D.C. area, ranging from local photography to expansive collection surveys. Alan Sislen’s 'AMBIGUITY' at Multiple Exposures Gallery explores architectural abstraction, while the National Museum of Women in the Arts hosts 'Making Their Mark,' a traveling exhibition of the Shah Garg Collection featuring luminaries like Howardena Pindell and Joan Semmel. Additionally, the National Museum of African Art presents 'Here: Pride and Belonging in African Art,' a landmark show centering queer voices within the African diaspora.

ART SG and Singapore Art Week

ART SG, Southeast Asia's leading contemporary art fair, returns to the Sands Expo and Convention Centre at Marina Bay Sands from 23–25 January 2026, with previews on 22 January. The fair features three core sectors—Galleries, Focus, and Futures—and for the first time co-presents S.E.A. Focus, curated by John Z.W. Tung with artistic consultation by Emi Eu, themed 'The Humane Agency'. Highlights include Melati Suryodarmo's performance 'I Love You' (2007) from the UBS Art Collection, presented in the UBS Art Studio, with a re-performance and artist talk. Singapore Art Week runs concurrently from 22–31 January 2026, offering exhibitions, installations, and performances across the city, including a collaboration between Rockbund Art Museum and ART SG at The Warehouse Hotel.

Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman and Venus Williams will co-chair 2026 Met Gala

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute has announced the co-chairs for the 2026 Met Gala, scheduled for May 4, 2026. Pop superstar Beyoncé, actor Nicole Kidman, tennis legend Venus Williams, and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour will serve as co-chairs of the annual benefit. The host committee includes fashion designer Anthony Vaccarello, actor Zoë Kravitz, and a roster of celebrities and artists such as Sabrina Carpenter, Doja Cat, and artist Anna Weyant. The gala will support the Costume Institute's exhibition "Costume Art" (May 10, 2026–January 10, 2027), which will inaugurate the new Condé M. Nast Galleries. The exhibition pairs 200 artworks from the Met's collection with 200 garments, exploring the relationship between the dressed body and Western art. Lauren Sánchez Bezos and Jeff Bezos are sponsoring the event.

Where to see art in Houston now: 10 exhibits and shows opening in October

Houston's October art scene is dominated by exhibitions exploring scientific and cosmic themes, including plasma installations, fractal worlds, and quantum landscapes. Notable shows include Anahita Bradberry's 'Spectral Field' at Diverseworks, Julius Horsthuis's 'Fractal Worlds' at Artechouse, and 'Growing Up Jewish' at Holocaust Museum Houston. The month also features CraftTexas 2025 at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, 'Lines of Resolution' at Menil Drawing Institute, and a farewell show at Anya Tish Gallery.

‘An incredible instinct for contemporary art’: Doris Lockhart, the overlooked figure behind the Saatchi collection, has died aged 88

Doris Lockhart, the US-born art collector who played a pivotal role in shaping the Saatchi collection and championing contemporary art in the UK, has died at age 88. Alongside her then-husband Charles Saatchi, she helped introduce postwar American artists like Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and Robert Rauschenberg to British audiences, and was instrumental in recognizing the Young British Artists (YBAs) of the 1990s, including Damien Hirst and Gary Hume. After their divorce in 1990, Lockhart continued collecting independently, backing emerging talents and expanding her interests to architectural models and drawings.

Here's what's at Southwest Florida museums during July

Southwest Florida museums, from Sarasota to Naples, present a robust July lineup: two exhibitions open, one closes, and 24 continue. Highlights include Chris Friday's first solo museum show "Where We Never Grow Old" at Sarasota Art Museum, featuring large-scale chalk drawings and a site-specific installation exploring safe havens. Other notable shows include "Personal to Political: Celebrating the African American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press," with works by Martin Puryear and Kerry James Marshall; Jillian Mayer's interactive sculpture series "Slumpies"; Lillian Blades' immersive mixed-media maze "Through the Veil"; and Molly Hatch's site-specific ceramic installation "Amalgam" (2023-24). The Ringling Museum also highlights a newly acquired painting by Juana Romani.