Art Basel’s Soft Opening Belies Strong, Swift Sales Across Tiers

Art Basel's 2025 edition opened with a soft atmosphere that belied strong and swift sales across all price tiers. Major galleries reported significant transactions: David Zwirner sold 68 works including a $9.5 million Ruth Asawa sculpture and a $6.8 million Gerhard Richter painting; Gladstone placed a $3.5 million Keith Haring piece; and Thaddaeus Ropac sold a €1.8 million Georg Baselitz and a $1.8 million James Rosenquist painting to a European institution. White Cube, Hauser & Wirth, and Tina Kim Gallery also reported robust sales, with works by artists such as Dana Schutz, Marlene Dumas, Yayoi Kusama, and Ha Chong-Hyun moving quickly. However, mid-tier galleries like Marianne Boesky Gallery noted more cautious, eye-driven buying rather than the frenzied chasing of past years.

The Ultimate Guide to New York Art Week 2025

New York Art Week 2025 is underway as the international art world converges on the city for a series of major spring fairs. Galerie has surveyed six key fairs—Frieze New York, Independent, TEFAF New York, NADA New York, Future Fair, and Esther II—highlighting standout artworks and notable presentations. Highlights include Jeff Koons' Hulk sculptures at Gagosian, Claire Tabouret's new paintings at Perrotin, and Tuan Andrew Nguyen's kinetic sculptures at James Cohan. Independent returns to Spring Studios with its 16th edition, featuring a new curatorial initiative, Independent Debuts, showcasing 26 emerging artists including Shafei Xia, Laura Footes, and Lewis Brander.

14 best galleries in NYC to visit

This article lists 14 of the best art galleries to visit in New York City, highlighting major commercial spaces such as Hauser & Wirth, Gagosian Gallery, David Zwirner, Gladstone Gallery, Greene Naftali, Cavin-Morris Gallery, and Neue Galerie. It describes each gallery's location, specialty, and notable represented artists, from blue-chip contemporary stars to historical figures and self-taught visionaries.

National Portrait Gallery

The article is a placeholder or stub for the National Portrait Gallery, likely referencing a news item or update about the institution. It includes a subscription prompt for The Art Newspaper’s digital newsletter and standard footer information, but no substantive content about events, exhibitions, or developments at the gallery.

New York Academy of Art Donates $66,000 Linked to Jeffrey Epstein

The New York Academy of Art has donated $66,000 in funds originally received from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to Girls Educational and Mentoring Services (GEMS), a nonprofit supporting sexually exploited girls. The move redirects all donations the school accepted from Epstein after his 2008 conviction. The academy's board chair, Eileen Guggenheim, who solicited the funds, will retire from her role a month early on April 1, following renewed scrutiny of the institution's Epstein ties.

Collector Dimitris Daskalopoulos’s NEON to Conclude After ‘Having Fulfilled Its Mission’

NEON, the Athens-based contemporary art initiative founded by collector Dimitris Daskalopoulos, will conclude its activities later this year after 14 years. Its final project is a trilogy of exhibitions by artist Michael Rakowitz at the Acropolis Museum, with the last installment set for 2026. The organization also announced it has fulfilled its cultural and social mission.

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16th Gwangju Biennale announces theme

The 16th Gwangju Biennale has revealed its theme, 'You must change your life,' a line from Rainer Maria Rilke's poem 'Archaic Torso of Apollo.' Artistic director Ho Tzu Nyen and curators Che Kyongfa, Park Gahee, and Brian Kuan Wood will lead an edition focused on art's transformative power during a time of multiple crises. The exhibition, running from September 5 to November 15, will feature the smallest number of artists in the biennale's history, emphasizing intensity over accumulation and tracking the evolution of individual artistic practices.

At the Tate Modern, the Moving Renaissance of Tracey Emin

À la Tate Modern, la bouleversante renaissance de Tracey Emin

Tracey Emin has returned to the Tate Modern for a major retrospective titled "A Second Life," marking a poignant milestone in her career. The exhibition features over a hundred works, including the iconic and once-scandalous "My Bed," which first catapulted her to international fame during the 1999 Turner Prize. This survey explores her evolution from the "enfant terrible" of the Young British Artists to a Dame of the British Empire, showcasing her multidisciplinary practice across painting, sculpture, and installation.

New Zealand's Venice Biennale pavilion explores the secret life of birds

New Zealand returns to the Venice Biennale in 2025 with Fiona Pardington’s solo exhibition *Taharaki Skyside* at the Istituto Provinciale per l’Infanzia Santa Maria della Pietà. The show features 17 large-scale photographic portraits of taxidermied birds from the South Canterbury Museum Timaru’s collection, including the extinct whēkau (laughing owl) and the critically endangered kākāpō. Pardington, an artist of Māori and Scottish descent, draws on Māori cosmology in which birds serve as spiritual messengers, and her work continues a long-standing photographic investigation of objects that hold “mana” (power) for Māori people.

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Zona Maco, one of Latin America's premier art fairs, will return to Mexico City from February 4–8, 2026, at Centro Banamex. The fair will feature 241 exhibitors across nine sections, including a new section called Forma, which blends contemporary art and design, and a revised Diseño Emergente section for emerging designers. Notable participants include Pace Gallery, Galleria Continua, Kurimanzutto, and OMR, with curated sections led by Aimé Iglesias Lukin and Manuela Moscoso. Founder Zélika García highlighted the fair's growth and its commitment to showcasing blue-chip galleries alongside emerging and mid-career talent.

The Top Collections Leading the May Marquee Auctions

The article reports that the May 2025 marquee auctions at Christie's and Sotheby's are being driven by a resurgence of major single-owner collections, reversing a period of trophy scarcity in the secondary market. Key collections include the $130 million Robert E. Mnuchin collection at Sotheby's, the personal collection of gallerist Marian Goodman at Christie's, and the S.I. Newhouse collection expected to generate around $450 million, featuring Jackson Pollock's 'Number 7A (1948)' and Constantin Brancusi's 'Danaïde (1913)'. The article notes that the ultra-high tier above $10 million rose 30% year-on-year, and single-owner collections in New York auctions totaled $730.9 million, an 89.9% increase from Q1 2025.

At MAXXI L'Aquila, exhibition dedicated to Ai Weiwei recounts catastrophes and memory

From April 29 to September 6, 2026, MAXXI L'Aquila presents "AI WEIWEI: Aftershock," an exhibition curated by Tim Marlow featuring approximately seventy works by Chinese artist, architect, and activist Ai Weiwei. The show spans his entire career, focusing on themes of earthquakes, wars, political repression, and memory. The centerpiece is the installation "Straight" (2009–2012), made from 150 tons of steel rods recovered from schools that collapsed in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, displayed across three rooms. The exhibition is held at Palazzo Ardinghelli, a Baroque building that houses MAXXI L'Aquila and was itself restored after the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake, creating a dialogue between the works and the building's history of recovery.

The art world's most infamous toilet is heading to New York auction for US$10m – and the starting bid moves with gold

Maurizio Cattelan's solid-gold toilet sculpture, *America* (2016), will be auctioned at Sotheby's New York on 18 November 2025 as part of the Now & Contemporary Evening Auction. The work, weighing 223 pounds of 18-karat gold, has a raw material value of around US$10.2 million based on current gold prices. In a first for auction history, the starting bid will fluctuate with live gold prices until bidding begins. The sculpture was previously installed at the Guggenheim Museum, where over 100,000 visitors used it, and later made headlines when the Guggenheim offered it to the Trump White House as a loan alternative to a Van Gogh painting. One edition was stolen and never recovered, making this the only surviving example.

9 Contemporary Artists Conjuring Ghosts

Maxwell Rabb profiles nine contemporary artists who explore ghostly and spectral themes in their work, coinciding with two major museum exhibitions: Kunstmuseum Basel's "Ghosts: Visualizing the Supernatural" (through March 2026) and Tacoma Art Museum's "Haunted." The article traces the historical evolution of ghost imagery in art from Renaissance depictions to 19th-century psychological forms by Goya and Fuseli, through 20th-century surrealist and post-war treatments, and highlights living artists such as Xie Lei and Mariann Metsis who use haunting as a metaphor for memory, loss, and the unseen.

Fairfield University Art Museum Receives CT Humanities Grant for U.S. 250th Anniversary Exhibition

Fairfield University Art Museum has received a $15,000 grant from CT Humanities to support a 2026 exhibition titled *For Which It Stands…*, commemorating the 250th anniversary of the United States. The show will run from January 23 to July 25, 2026, featuring 75 works by diverse artists from the early 20th century to the present, all centered on depictions of the American flag. Highlights include Childe Hassam’s *Italian Day, May 1918* (lent by the Art Bridges Foundation), a new textile sculpture by Maria de Los Angeles, and works by Jasper Johns, Faith Ringgold, Robert Rauschenberg, Shepard Fairey, and Julie Mehretu. Loans come from private collections, artists, galleries, and institutions such as the Yale University Art Gallery, the Gordon Parks Foundation, and the Orlando Museum of Art.

Manetti Shrem Museum Fall 2025 Exhibitions Explore the Borderlands; Environmental Justice

The Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at UC Davis presents two fall 2025 exhibitions: “OJO” Julio César Morales, a midcareer survey exploring the U.S.-Mexico border as a lived human experience through over 50 works in various media, and “Breath(e): Toward Climate and Social Justice,” a group exhibition from the Hammer Museum at UCLA that connects environmental and social injustice. The exhibitions run through Nov. 29, with a free public opening celebration on Sept. 28 featuring artists, curators, art making, and music. Morales’ show marks his California homecoming after a decade in Arizona as a senior curator and museum director, and includes an outdoor neon commission, “tomorrow is for those who can hear it coming” (2025).

11 Must-See Museum Shows This Fall

Maxwell Rabb's article for Google News highlights 11 must-see museum exhibitions opening worldwide in fall 2025. Among the featured shows are Ayoung Kim's "Delivery Dancer" video trilogy at MoMA PS1 in New York, the largest UK survey of Kerry James Marshall's work titled "The Histories" at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, and "Strange Realities: The Symbolist Imagination" at the Art Institute of Chicago, which explores the Symbolist movement across Europe. The article also mentions other major retrospectives and thematic exhibitions spanning Symbolism to Nigerian modernism.

The Top 3 Japanese ultra-contemporary artists

The article profiles three Japanese ultra-contemporary artists—Miwa Komatsu, Justin Caguiat, and Yukimasa Ida—who are gaining significant traction on the international art market. It details Komatsu's rise from a 2015 Christie's Hong Kong sale to becoming the first Japanese ultra-contemporary artist ranked among the world's top 1,000 sellers, with $2 million in sales in 2022.

art michael govan lacma renovations

Michael Govan, director of LACMA, discusses the opening of the new $720 million David Geffen Galleries on April 19, designed by architect Peter Zumthor. The 110,000-square-foot space features concrete walls, natural light, and spans Wilshire Boulevard, replacing traditional white-cube galleries with a fluid, non-chronological layout organized around bodies of water. Govan, who has led the museum for two decades, describes the project as a once-in-a-century opportunity to rethink the encyclopedic museum model.

art paris gallery museum shows guide

Paris Fashion Week is drawing crowds to the city, but a parallel art scene offers respite through a diverse array of gallery and museum shows this March. Highlights include a solo exhibition of recent paintings by French post-war legend Martial Raysse at Templon, featuring his monumental canvases "La Peur" and "La Paix" from 2023, and Bettina Samson's ceramic sculptures at Sultana, inspired by philosophers and poets. Other notable shows include Dove Allouche's photo series exploring the elements of life at Peter Freeman, Inc., and Giangiacomo Rossetti's "Résurrectine" at Mendes Wood DM, which reanimates art historical figures.

art frieze los angeles 2026 gallery shows

Cultured magazine has published a guide to the best off-site gallery shows during Frieze Los Angeles 2026, organized by neighborhood. The article highlights six exhibitions: Rodney McMillian's "Some lives in the sunshine" at Vielmetter, Emma McIntyre's "Aragonite and conchiolin" at Château Shatto, Cayetano Ferrer's "Object Prosthetics" at Commonwealth and Council, Vicky Colombet's "Eutierria" at Fernberger, Kye Christensen-Knowles's "ALL & ALL" at Gaylord Fine Arts, and Christina Quarles's "The Ground Glows Back" at Hauser & Wirth. Each entry includes details on dates, key artworks, and curatorial context.

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Project EATS held its 2025 benefit gala at New York's IAC Building, honoring food writer and former Food & Wine editor-in-chief Dana Cowin and artist Lauren Halsey, a 2025 CULT100 recipient. The event brought together a crowd of artists, patrons, and cultural leaders including Cindy Sherman, Glenn Ligon, Iwan and Manuela Wirth, and Glenn Lowry, with a culinary experience led by chefs Aretah Ettarh and Camari Mick. The evening featured speeches celebrating Cowin and Halsey, and highlighted Project EATS's mission of transforming vacant lots into urban farms and community spaces that provide access to food and culture.

art los angeles gallery show guide

Cultured's gallery show guide highlights five exhibitions in Los Angeles. Lee Lozano's "Hard Handshake" at Hauser & Wirth (through January 18, 2026) features drawings from her first nine years, marking the first major LA show devoted to her work. Puppies Puppies (Jade Guanaro Kuriki-Olivo) presents "Forbidden Colors (Free)(Palestine)(Sudan)" and "Transgender Abstraction to Transgender Conceptualism" at Ceradon (through December 6), transforming the gallery into flags referencing Palestine, Sudan, and trans pride. Sabrina Gschwandtner's "Absinthe, Smoke, Sugar, Choice" at Shoshana Wayne Gallery (through January 10, 2026) uses quilt-making with illuminated film strips to explore female bodily autonomy. Kathleen Ryan's "Souvenir" at Karma (through December 20) debuts concrete peaches with Harley Davidson engines. Ben Sakoguchi's "Chin Music" at Marc Selwyn Fine Art (through December 23) uses historic advertisement motifs to animate history.

art basel paris gallery exhibition guide openings

Cultured magazine published a guide to gallery exhibitions opening during Art Basel Paris, highlighting six shows across Paris galleries. Featured artists include Shelby Jackson (founder of 15 Orient) with his first solo show at Lo Brutto Stahl, Rirkrit Tiravanija at Galerie Chantal Crousel exploring the concept of 'alien,' Tomasz Kowalski at Crèvecoeur, a group show curated by Reena Spaulings at Galerie Hussenot, Yann Stéphane Bisso at Exo Exo, and Walter De Maria at Gagosian Le Bourget. Each entry includes dates, a brief description, and why the show is worth seeing.

art meg webster land art minimalism

Artist Meg Webster, now 80, is receiving overdue recognition for her contributions to Land art and Minimalism. Nine of her sculptures—made from moss, beeswax, salt, and other natural materials—recently went on long-term view at Dia Beacon in Upstate New York. Webster, who worked as Michael Heizer's studio assistant in her late 30s, has spent decades creating intimate, urban-sited Land art in downtown Manhattan, challenging the movement's reputation as a macho, remote, monumental practice. She will also feature prominently in a Minimal art group exhibition at the Bourse de Commerce in Paris this October.

the critics table aspen artweek diary matthew barney

The article is a first-person diary of an art critic's trip to Aspen for ArtWeek, centered around Matthew Barney's performance "TACTICAL parallax" (2025) at the Aspen Art Museum. The author navigates travel delays, attends the dress rehearsal, and participates in a whirlwind of events including the Aspen Art Museum's AIR festival, a public conversation with artist Issy Wood, and dinners with art-world figures like MoMA board president Sarah Arison and artists Paul Chan and Aria Dean. The narrative weaves personal observations with the broader art scene in Aspen, touching on themes of the American West and contemporary art.

london gallery weekend guide museums restaurants

London Gallery Weekend returns for its fifth edition from June 6–8, 2025, featuring 126 participating galleries—11 of them newly established—across three regions: Central, South, and East. The program includes extended hours, curated tours, openings, talks, and evening social events. Highlights include Bruce McLean's conceptual sculpture show at Luxembourg + Co, Gregor Hildebrandt's mini-retrospective at Almine Rech, Jennifer Bartlett's first UK presentation since the 1980s at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, and Norbert Schwontkowski's London debut at Champ Lacombe. Major museum shows include Do Ho Suh's fabric sculpture exhibition at Tate Modern.

TEFAF New York Opened to Crowded Aisles, Bullish Collectors, and Strong Booths

TEFAF New York opened at the Park Avenue Armory with unexpectedly strong crowds and a buoyant mood, defying the typical afternoon lull. Dealers reported heavy foot traffic and sustained conversations, with gallerist Sean Kelly calling it the best edition in years. The fair, running through May 19, features a mix of antiquities, design, modern, and contemporary art, with standout booths including Alison Jacques’s pairing of Dorothea Tanning, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Gordon Parks, and Sean Kelly Gallery’s display of works by Shahzia Sikander and Sam Moyer. The newly launched Pace Di Donna Schrader Galleries made its TEFAF debut with works by Eugène Delacroix, Willem de Kooning, and Alexander Calder.

Contemporary Icons and Modern Masters Headline This Major May Sale

Rago/Wright is hosting two major spring sales on May 14, 2026: 'Pure Edge: American Geometric Abstraction, Selected Works from the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Buenos Aires' and a Post War and Contemporary Art sale. The first features 19 works from the museum's premier collection of American geometric abstraction, while the second spans 20th- and 21st-century art. Highlighted lots include Sam Gilliam's 'Sun Woman' (1970, est. $300,000–$500,000), Annie Morris's 'Stack 7 (Ultramarine Blue)' (2015, est. $150,000–$200,000), Miyoko Ito's 'Adam and Eve' (1957, est. $200,000–$300,000), and Maria Martins's 'Impossible' (1946, est. $150,000–$200,000).