Body Vessel Clay: Black Women, Ceramics & Contemporary Art

The Ford Foundation Gallery in New York presents "Body Vessel Clay: Black Women, Ceramics & Contemporary Art," opening September 10, 2025. The exhibition features over fifty works across ceramics, film, photography, and archives, bringing together three generations of Black women artists. It highlights the legacy of Nigerian potter Ladi Dosei Kwali (1925-1984) and traces how Black women artists have transformed ceramics over seventy years. Curated by Dr. Jareh Das, the U.S. debut includes new works by Adebunmi Gbadebo, Simone Leigh, and Anina Major, following critical acclaim at Two Temple Place in London and York Art Gallery in 2022.

The 10 Best Paris Art Shows of 2025

The article highlights the 10 best Paris art shows of 2025, including major exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou, Fondation Cartier, and Fondation Louis Vuitton. Featured shows include Olga de Amaral's sculptural tapestries, Otobong Nkanga's multi-media works, Meriem Bennani's footwear-as-soundscape, Wim Delvoye's 'Énormément Bizarre' at Centre Pompidou, 'Paris Noir: Artistic Circulations and Anti-Colonial Resistance, 1950-2000' at Centre Pompidou, and 'David Hockney 25' at Fondation Louis Vuitton. The year also saw the closure of Centre Pompidou's Beaubourg building for renovation and the relocation of Fondation Cartier to a new site near the Louvre.

victoria albert museum first youtube video ever

The Victoria & Albert Museum has acquired the first-ever YouTube video, "Me at the zoo," along with the platform's original 2006 front-end code and early advertisements. The 19-second clip, featuring co-founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo, has been integrated into a reconstructed version of the site’s early "watch page" through a collaboration between museum curators and YouTube’s design team. The installation is now on view at V&A South Kensington and the V&A East Storehouse.

paul slocum digital art gallery sustainable interview

Paul Slocum, artist and gallerist, celebrated the 20th anniversary of his Dallas-based And/Or gallery, a pioneering space dedicated to new media and digital art. The gallery, founded in 2006, has championed early internet and computer-based artists like Cory Arcangel and Petra Cortright, operating from a DIY ethos largely independent of the traditional art market.

Christie's to offer the Collection of visionary Danish collector Ole Faarup as a key highlight of its October 20/21 Marquee Week - Christie's

Christie's will auction the collection of Danish collector Ole Faarup during its October 2025 Marquee Week, featuring around 140 lots with an overall estimate of £16–22 million. Highlights include major works by Peter Doig, Chris Ofili, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, alongside Danish and international artists. Proceeds from the sale will benefit The Ole Faarup Art Foundation, which supports emerging artists and cultural institutions.

What Role Do Galleries Play in the Art World?

Maxwell Rabb's article explains the fundamental role of commercial art galleries in the art world, tracing their evolution from 19th-century Parisian storefronts like Goupil & Cie to contemporary spaces. It highlights how galleries function as private businesses that showcase and sell artworks, support artists, organize exhibitions, and connect with collectors, curators, and institutions. The piece also addresses the perception of galleries as exclusive spaces while noting they are often free and open to the public, serving as a bridge between the art world and curious visitors.

Wonderstruck: an art exhibition that will make even weary adults feel like kids again

Queensland's Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) in Meanjin/Brisbane has opened 'Wonderstruck', a major free exhibition featuring over 100 works from its collection. The show includes large-scale installations by artists such as Patricia Piccinini, Ron Mueck, Michael Parekōwhai, Yayoi Kusama, and Tobias Putrih, with interactive elements encouraging visitors to touch the art. Highlights include Kusama's 'The Obliteration Room', a participatory installation where visitors cover a white space with colorful stickers, and works created by local high school students in a workshop with artist Gemma Smith.

With a new exhibition, Fondation Beyeler celebrates the 60-year career of Vija Celmins

Fondation Beyeler in Switzerland is hosting a comprehensive solo exhibition celebrating the 60-year career of Latvian-born American artist Vija Celmins. The show spans her evolution from early paintings of everyday objects and war imagery to her signature meticulous pencil and charcoal drawings of spiderwebs, night skies, ocean waves, and cosmic expanses. Celmins, who fled World War II as a child and later settled in the US, describes her preference for pencil as "dense yet precise," and the exhibition includes a selection of her sculptures as well.

Christie's 20/21 sales achieve $693 million

Christie's 20th and 21st Century Art sales in New York from 12-15 May 2025 achieved a total of $693 million across six sales, reaching 123% of the low estimate. The top lot was Piet Mondrian's 1922 painting *Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black and Blue*, which sold for $47.56 million. Other highlights included Claude Monet's *Peupliers au bord de l'Epte, crépuscule* (1891) at $42.96 million, and Marlene Dumas's *Miss January* (1997), which set a record for a living female artist. The Leonard & Louise Riggio collection alone brought $272 million, while the 20th Century Evening Sale achieved $217 million with a 100% sell-through rate. New artist records were set for Dorothea Tanning, Remedios Varo, Louis Fratino, Simone Leigh, and Emma McIntyre.

‘The First Homosexuals’ showcases 300 queer artworks amid ‘rise of homophobic politics’

A major new exhibition, “The First Homosexuals: The Birth of a New Identity, 1869–1939,” has opened at Chicago’s Wrightwood 659, featuring over 300 queer artworks from 125 artists across 40 countries. Curated by Jonathan D. Katz and Johnny Willis, the show includes early photographs of drag, a painting of a late-1700s trans pioneer, and what is believed to be the first same-sex wedding depicted in art, alongside works by iconic figures like Gertrude Stein and James Baldwin. The exhibition, eight years in the making, draws loans from institutions such as the Tate and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as private collections, and runs through July 26.

MUUS Collection Acquires Todd Webb Archive, Expanding Its Story of 20th-Century American Photography

MUUS Collection has acquired the archive of American photographer Todd Webb (1905–2000), adding approximately 15,000 prints, 50,000 negatives, ephemera, and his extensive journal to its holdings. Webb is known for his evocative postwar images of New York and Paris, as well as his travels across the American West, Great Britain, New Guinea, and Africa. The archive documents his relationships with key figures such as Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O'Keeffe, Walker Evans, and Berenice Abbott, and will join works by Rosalind Fox Solomon, Larry Fink, and Deborah Turbeville in the collection.

Under the Bridge, Beyond the Gloss: DUMBO’s Art Scene Defies Its Gentrified Image

The article reports on the First Thursday Gallery Walk in DUMBO, Brooklyn, a monthly event where galleries, artist studios, and creative spaces stay open late for exhibitions, artist talks, and performances. The author attended the latest iteration, starting with a rooftop cocktail party at the Jay 20 building, which houses nearly 200 artists and programs like the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program. The walk highlighted over 20 galleries and 170 artist studios, including Smack Mellon and A.I.R. Gallery, as well as public art initiatives like the Dumbo Projection Project.

Editor’s Letter: Still, Listening

The 61st Venice Biennale, titled "In Minor Keys" and curated by the late Koyo Kouoh, opens in May 2026, shifting focus from Eurocentric narratives to quieter, relational, and improvisational voices from the Global South. ArtAsiaPacific's May/June issue honors Kouoh's vision with features on artists including Gala Porras-Kim (a 2025 MacArthur Fellow), Khaled Sabsabi (representing Australia), and others like Liang Yuanwei, Yuko Mohri, Mona Hatoum, Tadanori Yokoo, Gayane Umerova, Li Yi-Fan, Hyeree Ro, and Ei Arakawa-Nash, with contributions from a curatorial team that carried Kouoh's work forward after her death in 2025.

university of north texas victor quinonez exhibition censorship

The University of North Texas (UNT) abruptly canceled and removed artist Victor "Marka27" Quiñonez's traveling solo exhibition "Ni de Aquí, Ni de Alla" from its CVAD Gallery, locking the gallery doors and drawing blinds over the windows. The university terminated the loan agreement with Boston University Art Galleries, which originated the show, and scrubbed all mentions of the exhibition from its website and social media without providing a reason to the artist.

philadelphia art museum rebranding

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is reversing its controversial rebranding decision, abandoning the name "Philadelphia Art Museum" and the acronym "PhAM" after widespread backlash. The museum will retain its new griffin logo but restore the original name, Philadelphia Museum of Art, across all platforms. The rebrand, developed with Brooklyn design studio Gretel at a cost of $1 million, was rolled out less than four months ago but met with public mockery and internal turmoil. The reversal follows the firing of CEO Sasha Suda, who filed a lawsuit over her ouster, and the appointment of Daniel Weiss, former CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as her successor. Chief marketing officer Paul Dien also resigned amid the fallout. The board voted unanimously to undo the name change after a survey commissioned by an interdisciplinary task force.

security threats force londons va to remove prophet muhammad artwork

The Victoria & Albert Museum in London removed an image of an artwork depicting the Prophet Muhammad from its website due to security concerns following the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack. The artwork, a poster made by an Iranian artist around 1990, remains in the museum's collection and is available to scholars by appointment. The decision has drawn criticism from experts who view it as self-censorship that could undermine the study of Islamic art.

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Pantone has named "Cloud Dancer," a shade of white, as its 2026 Color of the Year, describing it as a symbol of serenity and calm in a frenetic society. The announcement has sparked criticism for being tone-deaf amid ongoing political debates about whiteness, white supremacy, and conservative turns in the US and Europe, with wars and censorship fears also looming. Critics, including fashion correspondent Vanessa Friedman, have noted the choice's less salubrious associations, while Pantone executives insist skin tones did not factor into the decision.

cia kryptos sculpture code auction

An anonymous bidder has won the solution to the final unsolved puzzle of Kryptos, a famous encrypted sculpture at CIA headquarters in Virginia, for $962,500 in an online auction by R.R. Auction. The artist, Jim Sanborn, offered the handwritten code for the fourth message (K4) along with other unpublished items and a prototype, far exceeding the presale estimate of $300,000–$500,000. The sale came after the solution was accidentally leaked to journalists Jarett Kobek and Richard Byrne, who discovered the plaintext in Sanborn's papers at the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art, though they have agreed not to release it.

kim sajet milwaukee art museum director

Kim Sajet has been appointed as the new director of the Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM), starting September 22. The announcement comes shortly after Sajet was ousted as director of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery for supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. During her 12-year tenure there, she doubled attendance, raised over $85 million, and oversaw major capital improvements. Sajet previously held leadership roles at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

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The Infinite Node Foundation, a new nonprofit focused on digital art conservation founded by venture capitalist Meyer 'Micky' Malka and Becky Kleiner, has acquired the full intellectual property rights to CryptoPunks from Yuga Labs. The purchase price is reported to be around $20 million. CryptoPunks, created in 2017 by Matt Hall and John Watkinson, is one of the earliest and most famous NFT collections, credited with sparking the 2021 NFT craze. Yuga Labs, the parent company of Bored Ape Yacht Club, had bought the rights in 2022 for an undisclosed sum. The foundation's advisory board includes Web3 figures such as Yuga Labs co-founder Wylie Aronow and Art Blocks founder Erick Calderon.

art michele oka doner public installation

Michele Oka Doner, an 80-year-old artist known for her public installations, is preparing to unveil "Talisman," a new work composed of 300 illuminated heads that will create a sacred grove on the Park Avenue Mall at 66th Street in New York this spring. In an interview with CULTURED, she discusses the engineering challenges of the project, including weight limits imposed by the MTA due to the tunnel beneath the mall, and reflects on her earlier public works such as the mile-long floor installation at Miami International Airport and "Radiant Site" at the Herald Square subway station, which she won a national competition for in 1987.

art lauren halsey sculpture park los angeles

Los Angeles-based artist Lauren Halsey has realized a long-held dream with the opening of "sister dreamer," a public sculpture park at the corner of Western Avenue and 76th Street in South Central LA. The park features eight 22-foot-tall pillars modeled after local heroes, sphinxes, benches, fountains, native plants, and gardens, and will remain for 18 months before finding a permanent home. It also serves as a hub for Halsey's nonprofit Summaeverythang Community Center, offering free programming in art, education, and wellness, including partnerships with the Broad, tutoring, yoga, and community dinners.

art cindy sherman holiday card transanta

Cindy Sherman is reviving her annual holiday party after a five-year hiatus, introducing a new line of kitschy Christmas cards featuring five works created with face-tuning A.I. algorithms that distort her face in a Picasso-esque style. The cards are part of the newly founded Cindy Sherman Legacy Project, curated by Lumi Tan, and all proceeds will benefit Transanta, a trans-led mutual aid project supporting unhoused or unsupported trans youth, founded by Chase Strangio, Indya Moore, and Kyle Lasky. The cards are available through Sherman's website, Hauser & Wirth's New York bookstore, and a launch party on Dec. 9 at Jean's in New York.

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Cultured magazine hosted a launch party at opera singer Anthony Roth Costanzo's New York apartment to celebrate the debut issue of its interiors magazine, 'CULTURED at Home.' Guests including artists Cassie Griffin and Francesca DiMattio, curator Jarrett Earnest, fashion designers Jackson Wiederhoeft and Tanner Richie, and other creative figures gathered in Costanzo's historic Chelsea home, a former residence of architect David Webster, for cocktails, snacks, and a striking ice sculpture featuring the magazine.

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Psychoanalyst Jamieson Webster launches a new column for CULTURED titled "Neurotica," exploring the intersection of psychoanalysis, technology, and sexuality. In the debut installment, she interviews artist and theorist Mindy Seu about her work "A SEXUAL HISTORY OF THE INTERNET," which traces how sex workers were integral to developing digital platforms like chat rooms, e-commerce, and webcams, only to have their innovations co-opted by Big Tech. Webster reflects on how AI, chatbots, and online intimacy are reshaping human desire, pleasure, and relationships, drawing on Freud's pleasure-principle and contemporary anxieties about AI psychosis and digital dependency.

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CULTURED magazine partnered with Samsung to launch the "CULTURED Collection," a series of contemporary artworks available on the Samsung Art Store for owners of Samsung's The Frame and QLED TVs. A pop-up gallery in Chelsea, New York, and a dinner event celebrated the launch, featuring works by artists including Adam Pendleton, Dominique Fung, Oscar yi Hou, Theresa Chromati, Andrea Marie Breiling, Chris Martin, and Emma Webster. The event drew a cross-section of art and tech insiders, including Art Basel CEO Noah Horowitz, Samsung executives, and collectors.

Arts of the Earth

ARTES DE LA TIERRA

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao has inaugurated "Artes de la Tierra" (Arts of the Earth), a multidisciplinary exhibition curated by Manuel Cirauqui that examines the relationship between contemporary art and the soil. Spanning from the mid-20th century to the present, the show integrates visual arts, architecture, and ancestral Basque knowledge to explore themes of composting, terraforming, and ecological repair. Featured artists include pioneers of Land Art and Arte Povera such as Ana Mendieta, Fina Miralles, and Meg Webster, whose works are presented alongside archival materials and architectural models.

Chelsea Exhibition Reviews: Rosebud Contemporary, Paula Cooper, Fredericks & Freiser, Berry Campbell and more

This article reviews several Chelsea gallery exhibitions, focusing on Mary Ann Unger's monumental sculpture show 'Across the Bering Strait' at Berry Campbell, which features her hydrocal-over-steel works exploring themes of feminism, anthropology, and the natural world. It also covers 'En Route' at Rosebud Contemporary, a group exhibition of abstract painters Rifka Milder, Meg Hitchcock, and Ketta Ioannidou, each reflecting on artistic journeys through their work.

Statue with Banksy signature of man blinded by flag appears in London

A new statue bearing Banksy's signature has appeared in Waterloo Place, central London, depicting a man marching forward with a large flag obscuring his face. The elusive artist has not yet confirmed the work, though he typically posts confirmation on his website after public discovery. The statue stands near monuments to Edward VII and Florence Nightingale, and follows Banksy's previous sculptural works like *The Drinker* (2004) and recent murals addressing homelessness and protest.

Unlike Josh Kline, I Choose New York

Artist Josh Kline’s recent essay on the devastating impact of New York City’s real estate market on the arts has sparked a heated debate regarding the city's future as a creative hub. While Kline argues that the 'polycrisis' of high rents and student debt is stifling artists born after 1975, this response critiques his generational focus, suggesting that the struggle for affordability is a structural issue affecting artists of all ages, particularly those from marginalized backgrounds who have faced these barriers for decades.