Expo Chicago returns to Navy Pier from April 9-12, featuring over 130 international galleries and anchoring a city-wide week of major art programming. Local institutions and commercial galleries are strategically timing their most significant exhibitions to coincide with the fair, including a major presentation of Chicago Imagist Roger Brown at Gray gallery and architectural collages by Marshall Brown at Western Exhibitions.
Pakistani-born, Brooklyn-based tailor and community leader Hafeez Raza was honored by Mayor Zohran Mamdani as one of six garment workers photographed by Kara McCurdy, highlighting the real faces behind the fashion industry. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times's Image Editor-in-Chief Elisa Wouk Almino recounts a peculiar correspondence with artist Sophie Calle, who orchestrated a fake but real exchange using pre-written texts. In other news, Ai Weiwei discusses his new exhibition in Italy, censorship in Europe, and the Venice Biennale in an interview with El País. Additionally, Jacci Gresham, the first professional Black tattoo artist in the United States, reflects on her career since 1976, including tattooing Klan members and innovating with brown paper for Black and Brown clients.
Christie’s 20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale during Frieze Week 2025 achieved £106.9 million, up 30% year-on-year, with a 90% sell-through rate by value. The top lot was Peter Doig’s *Ski Jacket* (1994), sold for £14.27 million after intense bidding, part of the Ole Faarup Collection, which raised £27.3 million total for the Ole Faarup Art Foundation. Other notable sales included works by Lucian Freud, Paula Rego, Gerhard Richter, Pablo Picasso, and Suzanne Valadon, with more than half of all lots selling above high estimate.
British artist Tracey Emin has debuted a new series of six intimate lithographs titled "I Need tomorrow" at the London Original Print Fair, held at Somerset House in London. The prints, which include the work "You Never made me sad" (2026), are on display until Sunday and are published in editions of 50 by Counter Editions. Emin describes the series as a "gift" to herself, created spontaneously while working on a print for her major Tate Modern exhibition. The fair appearance coincides with her landmark retrospective "A Second Life" at Tate Modern, running until August 31, which spans 40 years of her career and features iconic pieces like the 1998 installation "My Bed."
Koyo Kouoh, the first African woman to curate the Venice Biennale, was appointed curator of the 2026 edition and began shaping the main exhibition titled 'In Minor Keys' in October 2024. She died of cancer in May 2025 at age 57, but the Biennale organizers have committed to realizing her vision. The exhibition features 111 artists, collectives, and organizations from cities including Nairobi, New Orleans, Kingston, New Delhi, Beirut, and Bangkok, many of them her longtime collaborators. Kouoh was also the founder of Raw Material Company in Dakar and executive director and chief curator of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA) in Cape Town.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is preparing for the public debut of its $724-million David Geffen Galleries, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor. Ahead of the April 19 member opening, public discourse has intensified following a series of reports detailing the building's architecture, the reinstallation of Alexander Calder’s "Three Quintains (Hello Girls)," and the project's massive budget. Reader reactions remain deeply polarized, reflecting a two-decade-long debate over the structure's unconventional design and its impact on the urban landscape.
Art historian Amy Dempsey has published a new book, 'The Female Body in Art,' which examines the historical representation of women in Western art. The book moves from Renaissance archetypes to contemporary works, focusing on a celebratory selection of artists and images rather than critiquing the often problematic history of the female nude.
Five new art books are set for release this spring, including a biography of 17th-century painter Michaelina Wautier, a study of Louise Bourgeois using unpublished archival material, a dual biography exploring the rivalry between Michelangelo and Titian, a catalog accompanying the Frida Kahlo exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and Tate Modern, and a volume on Francis Bacon’s literary influences housed at the Hugh Lane Gallery.
Kunsthal KAdE in Amersfoort, Netherlands, is hosting 'Jacob Lawrence: African American Modernist,' the first European retrospective of the American artist Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000). The exhibition spans his six-decade career from the 1930s, featuring 70 paintings, 25 drawings, and 75 prints, along with photographs and archival materials. It includes works from his celebrated series on the Great Migration, Builders, World War II, and historical figures like Harriet Tubman and Toussaint L'Ouverture, as well as new works by contemporary artists Barbara Earl Thomas and Nina Chanel Abney inspired by Lawrence.
An exhibition titled "Don’t Look Now: A Defense of Free Expression" has opened at Nathalie Karg Gallery in New York City, organized by the nonprofit Art at a Time Like This and co-founded by curator Barbara Pollack. The show features artworks by artists who have experienced censorship, including Danielle SeeWalker’s painting "G is for Genocide" (2024), which led to the revocation of her artist residency in Vail, Colorado, and Andil Gosine’s altered photograph "Magna Carta" (2025), which was removed from a planned exhibition at the Art Museum of the Americas. The works address suppression linked to President Trump’s crackdown on DEI, anti-Palestine sentiment, and other forms of censorship, with some institutions self-censoring due to funding cuts from entities like the National Endowment for the Arts.
During Frieze London, multiple acquisition prizes and awards were announced, including the Tate Frieze Fund (supported by a private patron) which purchased works by Lubna Chowdhary and Barbara Walker for £150,000. The inaugural Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation Prize was awarded to Alex Margo Arden, while the Arts Council Frieze Acquisitions Fund grew to £90,000, acquiring works by Sarah Ball, Olu Ogunnnaike, Vanessa Raw, and Liorah Tchiprout. Other acquisitions included works by Michael Landy and Shaquelle Whyte for the Walker Art Gallery, and the Camden Art Centre Emerging Artist Prize went to Bogdan Ablozhnyy. Offsite, the Circa 2025 prize was won by Adham Faramawy for a film addressing the migration crisis.
Alexander Morrison, a prominent figure in the art world, has passed away. The article, published by The Art Newspaper, reports on his death and likely includes tributes to his contributions, though the provided text is limited to subscription prompts and footer information, lacking full details on his life and career.
Contemporary Istanbul (CI) opened its 20th anniversary edition at the Tersane Istanbul complex, a restored Ottoman shipyard, bringing together 51 galleries from 16 countries. The fair coincided with the Istanbul Biennial, drawing a larger crowd of collectors and museum groups than the previous year. Works by leading Turkish artists such as Nil Yalter, Güneş Terkol, and Azade Köker were on view, with prices ranging from €1,000 for emerging artists to over €2m for a James Rosenquist painting. Despite high spirits, the fair unfolded against a backdrop of political tension following the arrest of Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, ongoing protests, and increasing censorship. Galleries displayed politically and socially engaged works, including Rasim Aksan's homoerotic triptych and Fatoş İrwen's prison-made fabric piece, while collectors sought discounts amid Turkey's high inflation and economic volatility.
The Portland Press Herald highlights 11 art exhibitions across Maine for fall, including shows at Bates College Museum of Art, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, and Colby Museum of Art. Featured exhibitions include "Shelburne Thurber: Full Circle" and "Precision and Expression: American Studio Ceramics from the E. John Bullard Collection" at Bates; "Gordon Parks: Herklas Brown and Maine, 1944" and "Medieval Art from the Wyvern Collection" at Bowdoin; the CMCA 2025 Biennial with 29 selected artists; and "Gertrude Abercombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery" and "Is anything the matter? Drawings by Laylah Ali" at Colby.
Danielle McKinney's first solo museum exhibition in the United States, 'Danielle McKinney: Tell Me More,' has opened at the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. The show features 13 intimately scaled paintings created between 2021 and 2025, depicting Black women in dimly lit domestic interiors—lounging, reading, or smoking—often nude or in robes, with saturated colors and cinematic compositions. McKinney, born in Montgomery, Alabama, and based in Jersey City, began her career as a photographer and earned an MFA from Parsons School of Design before turning to painting in 2020 during the pandemic. The exhibition is curated by Gannit Ankori, the museum's director and chief curator, and runs from August 20, 2025, to January 4, 2026.
A Chicago-based art critic presents a curated guide to 10 exhibitions for fall 2025, ranging from a major traveling survey of activist artist Elizabeth Catlett at the Art Institute of Chicago to a textiles show exploring mourning and survival, a Helen Frankenthaler printmaking exhibit at the Block Museum, and the final programming at the Roman Susan Art Foundation in Rogers Park. Other highlights include a collaborative museum debut by artists Mayumi Lake and Bob Faust inspired by the Japanese design principle shakkei.
The article surveys several preserved or reconstructed artists' studios that are open to the public, including Francis Bacon's chaotic London workspace relocated to Dublin's Hugh Lane Gallery, Barbara Hepworth's serene Trewyn Studio in St Ives, Claude Monet's house and gardens at Giverny, and Frida Kahlo's Casa Azul. It also previews the National Gallery of Ireland's upcoming exhibition "Picasso: From the Studio" (October 2025–February 2026), which examines the key locations that shaped Picasso's life and art.
Sebastian Gladstone, a rising art dealer, is expanding his namesake gallery in Los Angeles with a new 3,200-square-foot space in Hollywood, opening on 13 September. The move comes despite a broader trend of gallery downsizing, and follows a successful showing at Frieze Los Angeles, where he placed a work with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Gladstone, who launched the gallery in 2020, now operates bicoastally with a Tribeca outpost and plans to focus on quality over quantity, including representing the estate of abstract painter Herman Cherry.
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The McManus: Dundee's Art Gallery & Museum presents 'Border Crossings: Ten Scottish Masters of Modern Art,' an exhibition running from 28 June 2025 to 14 June 2026. Curated by Janet McKenzie, the show highlights ten Scottish-born artists—including Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Eduardo Paolozzi, and William Turnbull—who left Scotland to train and build careers in London, Paris, and New York, contributing significantly to international modernism.
The article explores the trend of commercial art galleries expanding into rural locations, using Hauser & Wirth Somerset in Bruton, the New Art Centre at Roche Court, Messums West in Tisbury, and Thirsk Hall in North Yorkshire as key examples. These galleries have transformed former farms, historic barns, and country estates into exhibition spaces that combine contemporary art with pastoral settings, attracting significant visitor numbers and fostering local engagement.
Arrival, a new art fair, launched its inaugural edition on June 12 at the Tourists hotel in North Adams, Massachusetts, featuring 36 exhibitors from across the US. The biennial fair, running through June 15, includes panels, talks, and off-site programming at nearby museums. Galleries set up in hotel rooms, creating an intimate, domestic atmosphere. Founders Yng-Ru Chen, Sarah Galender Meyer, and Crystalle Lacouture—who together bring 60 years of art-world experience—aim to offer a respite from conventional convention-center fairs. Early sales included works by Hayal Pozanti, Chelsea Ryoko Wong, and Pae White, and the Williams College Museum of Art acquired three works from the fair.
New York's marquee spring auctions, beginning May 12, are facing significant headwinds from President Donald Trump's second-term policies, particularly the 'Liberation Day' tariffs and resulting stock-market volatility. Phillips deputy chairman Robert Manley confirms at least one eight-figure work was pulled from sale due to tariffs. The combined Modern and contemporary auctions at Christie's, Sotheby's, and Phillips carry an estimated $1.1bn to $1.5bn in art—the lowest total estimate for spring sales since 2010, roughly $250m lower than May 2024. No nine-figure-estimate lots have been consigned, and the number of catalogued lots is the lowest since 2007 (excluding pandemic and recession years). Single-owner collections dominate, with Christie's securing the $200m Leonard and Louise Riggio collection, including a Piet Mondrian estimated at $50m, and works from Anne and Sid Bass. Sotheby's offers collections from dealers Daniella Luxembourg and others.
Rhona Hoffman, the 90-year-old Chicago gallerist, is closing her eponymous gallery at the end of May 2025 after nearly five decades in operation. The final group show, “Not Just A Pretty Picture,” ends April 26. Hoffman, who opened her gallery in 1976, gave early platforms to artists like Sol LeWitt, Mickalene Thomas, and Carrie Mae Weems, and is especially known for championing women artists such as Cindy Sherman, Barbara Kruger, and Jenny Holzer. She was also made an honorary member of the Guerrilla Girls after documenting her exhibition history of women artists. Hoffman plans to remain in Chicago, curating shows and working with artists, but will not use the term "pop-up" for her future activities.
This article profiles ten young painters to watch this spring, highlighting their innovative approaches to the ancient medium of painting. Featured artists include British painter Francesca Mollett, whose abstractions have exceeded market expectations with works like 'Two Thistles' fetching over GBP 250,000 at auction; Samuel Hindolo, whose mysterious figurative and abstract paintings have caught the attention of critic Hilton Als; and Stanislava Kovalčíková, whose provocative mythological works were exhibited at Aspen Art Museum and who runs the independent space The White Ermine in Düsseldorf. Other artists mentioned include Evelyn Plaschg, who transforms mundane objects into unsettling meditations, with a solo museum exhibition opening at HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark.
Kunsthalle Wien presents "Radical Software: Women, Art & Computing 1960–1991," a landmark exhibition foregrounding the pioneering role of women in early digital art. Organized with Mudam Luxembourg, the show brings together over one hundred works by fifty artists from European and U.S. collections, spanning painting, sculpture, installation, film, performance, and computer-generated works. The title references the 1970 magazine "Radical Software" by Beryl Korot, Phyllis Segura, and Ira Schneider, which envisioned decentralized access to information. The exhibition traces digital art from mainframe experiments in the 1960s through the microcomputer revolution, highlighting artists like Charlotte Johannesson, who traded a tapestry for an Apple II in 1978.
Anastasia Samoylova, an artist who works in photography and painting, is presenting her rarely shown "Breakfasts With" series at Casa Tua Aspen this summer. The series, begun in 2015 after she received her green card, combines breakfast food with photo books by notable creatives, creating still-life "conversations" that serve as daily creative prompts. The exhibition follows her dual show with Walker Evans at the Met, which showcased two differing visions of Florida. In an interview, Samoylova discusses how the series developed from a meditative morning ritual into a practice that helped her ground herself after leaving a tenured teaching position, and how intuitive pairings—like a cut mango with Barbara Kasten's work—emerged from spontaneity rather than conceptual planning.
Hyperallergic asked 15 artists to share the best advice they received from their mother or a maternal figure, in honor of Mother's Day. The article features reflections from artists including Pat Oleszko, Maddy Inez, Nathaniel Mary Quinn, and Shahzia Sikander, who recount maternal wisdom ranging from encouragement to pursue art to life lessons about empathy and resilience. Each anecdote is accompanied by images of the artists' works or personal photos.
Hyperallergic's May 2026 Opportunities Listings compile residencies, fellowships, grants, and open calls for artists, writers, and art workers. Featured opportunities include the Center for Craft's Craft Archive Fellowship, the Oak Spring Garden Foundation's Fellowship for Distinction in Fine Crafts and Design, the Provincetown Art Association and Museum's Robert Motherwell & Renate Ponsold Fellowship, the Bennett Prize for women figurative realist painters, the Pine Meadow Ranch Center for Arts & Agriculture residency, the Wassaic Project's Haunted Barn Open Call, the Jonathan and Barbara Silver Foundation's Grant for Writing on Sculpture, the Academy of American Poets' James Laughlin Award, and VIA Art Fund's Artistic Production Grants.
Hyperallergic's newsletter previews the upcoming 61st Venice Biennale, noting the charged political climate that may overshadow the art. It highlights the main exhibition "In Minor Keys" conceived by the late Koyo Kouoh, and includes a guide to national pavilions, collateral events, and notable exhibitions in Venice. The edition also features a studio visit with 93-year-old artist Joan Semmel, an interview with Lebanese artist Tania El Khoury about her "revenge art," and news about Barbara Chase-Riboud declining to represent the US at the Biennale, a $116M gift to the National Gallery of Art, and the death of Argentine painter Ides Kihlen at 108.
The article is a digest of recent art news, with a primary focus on critical reviews of the 2026 "Greater New York" exhibition at MoMA PS1. Hyperallergic's editorial team provides mixed assessments of the works in the massive quinquennial survey of local artists. The piece also covers American-French sculptor Barbara Chase-Riboud's decision to decline an invitation to represent the United States at the 61st Venice Biennale, citing the problematic nature of the pavilion's commissioning entity.