Contemporary photographers are increasingly rejecting traditional cameras in favor of alternative, camera-less techniques such as photograms, cyanotypes, and chemigrams. These artists draw inspiration from early scientific experiments with light-sensitive materials, like those of Johann Heinrich Schulze and Thomas Wedgwood, who created temporary images using silver nitrate and sunlight before photography was formally invented.
Artist Liza Lou is presenting a new body of work that merges the legacy of Abstract Expressionist brushstrokes with intricate beadwork. Her solo exhibition, 'FAQ,' at Thaddaeus Ropac in London features mixed-media paintings where thousands of glass beads are meticulously placed atop fields of oil paint, creating textured, chromatic topographies that transform gestural marks into sculptural forms.
The Swiss architect Peter Zumthor's new $724 million building for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Lacma), now called the David Geffen Galleries, has opened after nearly two decades of anticipation. The swooping concrete-and-glass structure is praised for its harnessing of natural light and horizontality, creating a stunning showcase for antiquities and inviting the city inside with floor-to-ceiling windows offering views of the La Brea Tar Pits and Wilshire Boulevard. The building performs best with sculpture and decorative objects, with standout works including Liz Glynn's "The Futility of Conquest" (2023) and Manjunath Kamath's "Vikatonarva" (2024).
Steven Soderbergh discusses his new film *The Christophers* (2025), which follows a cantankerous artist and his young assistant tasked with forging his unfinished works, exploring themes of authorship, originality, and the ethics of art-making. In an interview with ArtReview, Soderbergh also addresses his recent use of AI in a documentary about John Lennon, defending the technology as a creative tool akin to his own filmmaking process, and reflects on his career spanning genres from indie dramas to studio blockbusters.
Nine jewels stolen from the Louvre are valued at $102 million, according to Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau, contradicting earlier French claims that they were of “incalculable” value. The stolen items include a diadem worn by Queen Marie-Amélie and Queen Hortense, an emerald necklace of Empress Marie-Louise, and a diadem once held by Empress Eugénie, the latter containing nearly 2,000 diamonds. One crown belonging to Empress Eugénie was recovered after being dropped by the thieves, but the rest remain missing. The robbers entered through windows using small chainsaws and exited in under eight minutes. The Louvre has been closed since the heist, and cultural minister Rachida Dati defended the museum’s security systems before the National Assembly, calling the theft “a wound for all of us.”
The Esther art fair, a satellite of Frieze New York, opened its third and final iteration at Estonian House on East 34th Street. Founded by Estonian gallerists Olga Temnikova and Margot Samel, the fair eschews conventional stands, instead arranging 22 participating galleries and three bespoke projects throughout the historic Beaux-Arts building’s basement, salons, and upper floors. Highlights include sold-out presentations at Adams and Ollman and Management, works by Katja Novitskova, Jill Goldstein, and Elīna Vītola, and a special project by Darja Popolitova and Madlen Hirtentreu turning beauty-industry equipment into installations. Gallerists praised the cooperative atmosphere, contrasting it with larger, more institutionalized fairs.
The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (Mocad) reopened on 25 April after over a year of renovations, unveiling upgrades to its 22,000-square-foot Midtown space—including a new learning space, air conditioning, and a large street-facing window—just in time for its 20th anniversary. The main building has been renamed after co-founder Julia Reyes Taubman. Co-directors Marie Madison-Patton and Jova Lynne have repositioned the institution as a civic space, emphasizing community engagement and local artists, with exhibitions such as Olayami Dabls: Detroit Cosmologies, Martha Mysko's Retail Therapy, and Carole Harris's This Side of the River.
Brooklyn-based artist Duke Riley has launched a public search for the remains of a goat named Skellig Mór, a former mascot of the USS Vermont battleship in the early 1900s. His campaign involves missing posters, a newspaper ad in the Boston Globe, and a dedicated hotline, forming the centerpiece of his new solo exhibition, "The Repatriation of King Skellig Mór," at Praise Shadows Art Gallery in Brookline, Massachusetts.
The second edition of the Atlanta Art Fair took place at Pullman Yards, a historic 27-acre former rail works in the Kirkwood district. The fair, directed by Kelly Freeman, featured around 80 dealers and attracted a diverse crowd, including many high school and college students, with a casual atmosphere far removed from typical art fair elitism. Freeman emphasized teaching the city how to use an art fair, prioritizing accessibility and long-term engagement over immediate sales.
Artnet News compiled a roundup of 2025 interviews with celebrities whose creative work intersects with the visual art world. Sharon Stone turned to portrait painting after her mother's death, creating a series of works channeling historical and personal figures. Adrien Brody exhibited new works at Eden Gallery in New York, discussing how his acting career supported his art practice. Director Yorgos Lanthimos held his first photography exhibition at Webber Gallery in Los Angeles, while Alejandro Iñárritu created a multisensory installation at Mexico's LagoAlgo to mark the 25th anniversary of his film *Amores Perros*. Actor Lili Taylor performed in an artist lecture by Suzanne Bocanegra centered on a Renaissance tapestry from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Berlin's culture senator, Joe Chialo, has resigned due to a dispute over deep budget cuts to the city's arts sector. He stated that the planned cuts would force the closure of nationally renowned cultural institutions, and he stepped down to allow for new perspectives. Meanwhile, Australia's center-right Liberal-National Coalition has proposed cutting over 10 percent of funding to Creative Australia, the body that organizes the country's Venice Biennale pavilion, redirecting the money to support Jewish arts and broadcasting in Melbourne. This follows controversy over Creative Australia's decision to drop artist Khaled Sabsabi as Australia's Venice Biennale representative.
A new exhibition titled “Couples” at Eric Firestone Gallery in New York features the work of 26 artist-partners, exploring how they navigate material, color, and form in complementary ways. The show runs through May 2. CULTURED magazine brought together five duos from the exhibition to answer questions about mixing professional and personal lives, with each artist responding without seeing their partner’s answers. Featured couples include Caitlin Lonegan and Spencer Lewis, who discuss topics such as sharing studios, jealousy, and role models like Charline von Heyl and Christopher Wool.
The Louvre was forced to close on Sunday after a daylight heist of jewelry that Napoleon III had given to his wife, Eugenie, an operation that took under 10 minutes. The incident has highlighted ongoing issues at the world's most-visited museum, including understaffing and a shortage of surveillance cameras, with commentators linking the problems to French political turmoil. Meanwhile, the fourth edition of Art Basel Paris is set to open at the Grand Palais, featuring 206 galleries (63 with locations in France), serving as the centerpiece of a packed Paris Art Week with exhibitions, public programs, and gallery events.
The ongoing conflict in the Middle East, involving the US, Israel, and Iran, has disrupted the Gulf region's art market. Key events like Art Dubai have been postponed, and the inaugural Frieze Abu Dhabi faces uncertainty, as the area's stability—crucial for attracting international dealers and auction houses—is now in question.
Michael Werner and Gordon VeneKlasen, partners at Michael Werner Gallery for 35 years, are dissolving their partnership at the start of next year. Werner will continue operating Galerie Michael Werner in Berlin, while VeneKlasen will launch a new international gallery called VeneKlasen, taking over the current New York, London, and Los Angeles locations. The changes take effect in February, with VeneKlasen announcing his program early next year.
The US Department of State confirmed that Mexico-based artist Alma Allen will represent the United States at the 2026 Venice Biennale, opening next May. Jeffrey Uslip will serve as curator, and the commissioning institution is the American Arts Conservancy (AAC), with its executive director Jenni Parido as official commissioner. Allen, who has had only two museum solo shows in three decades, was approached directly by Uslip in October after the State Department had already approved him. The selection process broke from tradition: the National Endowment for the Arts was not involved due to time constraints and staffing transitions, and a prior proposal by artist Robert Lazzarini and curator John Ravenal fell through after negotiations with the University of South Florida’s Contemporary Art Museum collapsed. Allen’s pavilion, titled "Call Me the Breeze," will feature about 30 works exploring elevation and transformation, framed by the State Department as furthering the Trump Administration’s focus on American excellence.
The article examines the meteoric rise and current cooling of the market for Labubu, the Nordic fanged monster character created by artist Kasing Lung. After a decade of slow development, Labubu exploded in popularity through Chinese toy blind-box manufacturer Pop Mart, leading to record auction sales in 2025. Yongle Auction in Beijing organized the world's first themed Labubu sale, where a mint-green sculpture sold for RMB 1.242 million and a painting, 'Pure' (2021), fetched RMB 1.61 million, setting successive records. The frenzy attracted a diverse range of buyers, from streetwear collectors to traditional ceramics enthusiasts, many of whom share their purchases on social media platforms like Douyin.
Theater director Łukasz Twarkowski's new multimedia production, "ROHTKO," is set to open at London's Barbican Centre on October 2. The four-hour performance, which premiered in Riga in 2022, uses onstage action, video screens, and a techno soundtrack to explore the nature of authenticity in art, taking the Knoedler & Co. forgery scandal—which involved fake Rothko, Pollock, and Motherwell paintings—as a central narrative thread.
An open letter demanding curatorial independence at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) has gathered over 500 signatures after trustee Judy Schulich reportedly blocked the acquisition of Nan Goldin's moving-image work *Stendhal Syndrome* (2024), calling the Jewish American photographer “antisemitic.” The AGO had planned to acquire the work jointly with the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Walker Art Center, but the vote was 11–9 against acquisition. In response, curator John Zeppetelli resigned, two volunteer committee members stepped down, and Goldin herself criticized the decision as censorship driven by donor influence. The AGO has since announced a restructuring of its modern and contemporary curatorial committee, splitting it into two groups for 20th- and 21st-century art, effective in 2026.
A trustee at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), Judy Schulich, advised the museum's acquisitions committee not to acquire a Nan Goldin video installation, *Stendhal Syndrome* (2024), due to Goldin's pro-Palestine statements and criticism of Israel's war in Gaza. The AGO had planned to purchase the work jointly with the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Walker Art Center, but the AGO withdrew after internal concerns were raised. The controversy led to the resignation of two committee members and one curator, and the museum promised a review of its acquisition process.
The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) chose not to acquire Nan Goldin's 2024 video "Stendhal Syndrome" due to the artist's comments on Israel's war in Gaza, according to a report by the Globe and Mail. The work, which shows blurred images of semi-nude figures and sculptures, was instead purchased by the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. An AGO acquisitions committee voted against the acquisition, with internal memos citing Goldin's past statements—including her description of the war as a "genocide" and her criticism of weaponized antisemitism—as the reason. The decision led to the resignation of curator John Zeppetelli and two unnamed committee members, and prompted director Stephan Jost to call for a review of the committee's processes.
New York's Metropolitan Opera is considering selling two monumental Marc Chagall murals, 'The Sources of Music' and 'The Triumphs of Music' (1966), valued at $55 million by Sotheby's, to address a severe financial crisis. The Met has already drawn $120 million from its endowment, reduced performances, and struck a controversial $100 million deal to perform in Saudi Arabia, which has drawn scrutiny over human rights abuses. The murals, which hang in the Grand Tier, would remain in place even if sold, and the Met is also exploring naming rights and theater leasing.
Artist Ming Wong has created a new video installation titled "Dance of the Sun on the Water / Saltatio Solis in Aqua," currently on view at the National Gallery in London. The work reimagines the figure of Saint Sebastian, drawing inspiration from the museum's collection of classical paintings, including a 1475 altarpiece by Antonio and Piero del Pollaiuolo, as well as Derek Jarman's 1976 queer film "Sebastiane." Wong, the fifth artist selected for the National Gallery's Modern and Contemporary program, completed the piece during a one-year residency, exploring how the martyr's image has evolved across centuries and what it means in contemporary times.
Nnena Kalu, a 59-year-old Scottish artist with a learning disability, has won the 2025 Turner Prize, one of the world's most prestigious art awards. Her winning works include vast, swirling abstract drawings and sculptures made from wound VHS tape and found fabric, described as direct, honest, and compelling. The article argues that Kalu won not because of or despite her disability, but on the merit of her art, which stands out for its aesthetic simplicity and emotional power.
Claes Oldenburg's 1969 sculpture *Lipstick (Ascending) on Caterpillar Tracks* was vandalized in October when the letters "ATB" were etched into its metal base. Yale University is relocating the 24-foot-tall work from the Morse College courtyard to the Yale University Art Gallery for conservation and care, following the discovery of the defacement. The sculpture, a beloved campus landmark originally installed in Beinecke Plaza, has a history of being removed and restored due to weather damage and graffiti.
New York's major art museums, including MoMA, the Guggenheim, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Whitney, are experiencing attendance figures that have not surpassed their peaks from several years ago. MoMA projects reaching 3.24 million visitors for the 2012–13 fiscal year, just shy of its 2009–10 record of 3.22 million, driven by blockbuster exhibitions like "Magritte: The Mystery of the Ordinary" and a Sigmar Polke retrospective. Meanwhile, the Guggenheim's attendance peaked in 2009, the Met saw its busiest season in 2011–12 with 6.28 million visitors and is now on track for a second consecutive decline, and the Whitney's high was 372,000 in 2009–10. Factors cited include a harsh winter, ongoing construction at the Met, and a shift toward more scholarly exhibitions, though tourism growth in New York continues, especially among international visitors.
Vanity Fair's Nate Freeman reports on New York's spring art season, where auction houses are poised to sell at least $2.6 billion in art alongside major museum exhibitions (Raphael at the Met, Duchamp at MoMA, Matisse at Acquavella) and the opening of Frieze New York at The Shed. The article follows the social and commercial frenzy, highlighting a David Shrigley gong installation at Anton Kern Gallery's booth and the enduring dominance of New York, where nearly 90% of U.S. art sales occur.
The article discusses the newly opened David Geffen Galleries at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), describing the viewing experience as seductive. The galleries are a major component of LACMA's ongoing transformation, designed by architect Peter Zumthor.
Conceptual artist Danh Vo discusses his multifaceted practice in a new podcast interview, exploring how his work weaves together personal autobiography, queer identity, and his experience as a Vietnamese immigrant. The conversation delves into his collaborative methods, his use of found objects ranging from religious sculptures to household items, and his upcoming exhibitions at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and White Cube in New York.
Montreal-based Galerie de Bellefeuille, a commercial gallery founded in 1980 that represents over 100 artists including Damien Hirst, Robert Indiana, Jeff Koons, and Alexander Calder, has announced it will open a 4,000-square-foot location at 136 NW 25th St. in Miami's Wynwood neighborhood this summer. The expansion comes shortly after the gallery's planned U.S. flagship in Midtown New York, and marks the latest in a wave of international galleries establishing a presence in Miami.