Art News. Vasari Codex

museum exhibitions schedule Apr 28, 2026 visibility 23 link 6 artists

From monumental glass sculptures to a lagoon in the sky: what to see beyond the Venice Biennale pavilions

The article highlights several must-see exhibitions and installations beyond the main Venice Biennale pavilions. Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo's redevelopment of the island of San Giacomo opens on 7 May, transforming abandoned Napoleonic-era powder magazines into exhibition spaces with a solo show by British artist Matt Copson and a group show from her collection. American artist Melissa McGill presents 'Marea', a street-spanning installation of 100 paintings created with local residents and students, addressing climate change and rising sea levels. Dale Chihuly returns to Venice with 'Chihuly: Venice 2026', featuring monumental glass installations along the Grand Canal, including 'Gold Tower' (2025). Wallace Chan unveils titanium sculptures at the Chapel of Santa Maria della Pietà, with a parallel exhibition at the Long Museum in Shanghai.

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article culture schedule Apr 28, 2026 visibility 27 link 6 artists, 1 gallery

Harnessing the winds of societal change: how art dealers have been able to shape taste for centuries

Valentina Castellani, a former Gagosian director, has authored a new book titled *Trading Beauty: Art Market Histories from the Altar to the Gallery* (out 1 May). The book traces how art dealers have historically leveraged societal changes—political, economic, and social—to reshape taste and market structures. Castellani begins in the Middle Ages, when art was made only on commission for patrons like the Catholic church and monarchies, and moves through key shifts such as the Dutch Republic's first open art market in the 17th century, which gave rise to the professional art dealer. She highlights dealers like Paul Durand-Ruel, Joseph Duveen, and Leo Castelli who capitalized on anti-establishment energy, new wealth, and post-war consumer culture to bring avant-garde art to the forefront.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 27, 2026 visibility 27 link 7 artists, 1 gallery

‘I was super horny when I made my early work’: Loie Hollowell’s abstract paintings of breasts and vaginas

Loie Hollowell discusses her latest painting series 'Overview Effect,' currently on view at Pace Gallery in London. The series features large-scale canvases with twin concave and convex sculpted circles, inspired by the out-of-body experience she had during the home birth of her daughter. The works continue her abstract exploration of pregnancy, birth, and the female body, following earlier series like 'Split Orb' and 'Dilation Stage' that responded to the difficult birth of her son. Hollowell cites influences including Georgia O'Keeffe, Louise Bourgeois, and Luchita Hurtado, as well as Instagram home-birth photographs and the Ina May Gaskin childbirth book.

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trending_up market schedule Apr 27, 2026 visibility 34 link 13 artists

Artists Sell More Than $1 M. in Art at Sotheby’s in Support of a Debt-Free Yale MFA Program

A group of artists including Mickalene Thomas, Tammy Nguyen, and Richard Prince are donating works to a Sotheby’s contemporary art day sale next month, with proceeds expected to exceed $1 million. All funds will go toward making Yale University’s MFA art program tuition-free. The sale features works by Yale alumni both historical—Walker Evans, Josef Albers—and contemporary, such as Dominic Chambers and Do Ho Suh, whose $200,000–$300,000 piece is among the lots. The highest-estimated work is a Richard Prince photograph from his “Spiritual America” series, valued at $500,000–$700,000.

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person people schedule Apr 25, 2026 visibility 52 link 20 artists

Tate at a turning point: new director must confront unwieldy ‘beast’ of an art institution

Roland Rudd, chair of Tate, insists the institution is thriving despite recent leadership changes, citing record visitor numbers of 6.2 million, strong exhibition attendance (Turner and Constable at Tate Britain, Lee Miller, and Tracey Emin at Tate Modern), and 155,000 members. However, Maria Balshaw has stepped down as director after nine years, leaving her successor to confront a financially strained organization hit by pandemic losses, multiple redundancies, and low staff morale amid culture war battles.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 24, 2026 visibility 42 link 14 artists

The Multibillion-Dollar Maneuvers Behind the Met’s Raphael Show

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has opened “Raphael: Sublime Poetry,” the largest survey dedicated to the Renaissance master in the U.S., featuring 33 paintings and 142 works on paper. The exhibition includes loans from 60 public institutions across 11 countries, as well as private loans from billionaire Leon Black, and the estimated aggregate value of the art on view is in the billions of dollars. Curated by Carmen Bambach, the show took eight years to organize and follows her previous triumphs on Leonardo and Michelangelo.

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person people schedule Apr 24, 2026 visibility 30 link 12 artists

Judd Foundation Taps Copper Hewitt Curator as New Director of Design

The Judd Foundation has appointed Alexandra Cunningham Cameron as its first director of design, a new role overseeing Donald Judd Furniture LLC. Cameron, currently a curator of contemporary design at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York, will start on April 27, guiding product development, operations, and strategic growth for the foundation's furniture line, which produces over 70 designs based on Donald Judd's original specifications.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 23, 2026 visibility 22 link 3 artists

What Is the Venice Biennale? Everything You Need to Know

The Venice Biennale returns for its 61st edition, running from May 9 to November 22, 2026. The event, often called the Olympics of the art world, comprises a central exhibition curated by an artistic director, national pavilions from dozens of countries, and officially approved Collateral Events. This year's edition was to be curated by Koyo Kouoh, a celebrated Cameroonian-born curator, but she died at 57 in May 2025 before announcing the title and theme, “In Minor Keys.” The Biennale organization has moved forward with a team of five curatorial advisers executing her vision. The event is overseen by president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco and is expected to draw over 800,000 visitors.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 23, 2026 visibility 40 link 2 artists

Edvard Munch Paintings for a Chocolate Factory Go on View in Norway

The Munch Museum in Oslo will open an exhibition titled “Edvard Munch and the Chocolate Factory” in May, featuring a series of large-scale paintings by Edvard Munch created in 1923 for the canteen of the Freia chocolate factory. Known as the Freia Frieze, these works depict summer life in a Norwegian coastal town and have never before been shown to the public outside the factory. The exhibition runs from May 21 to November 10 and includes related sketches from the museum’s collection.

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trending_up market schedule Apr 23, 2026 visibility 32 link 10 artists, 3 galleries

Gladstone Gallery to Relocate in Seoul, Doubling Exhibition Space

Gladstone Gallery is relocating its Seoul location to the Hannam-dong neighborhood later this year, doubling its exhibition space. Designed by architect Minsuk Cho of Mass Studies, the new outpost will occupy two floors of the 739-28 Hannam Building, across from Pace Gallery and near the Leeum Museum of Art. The space is set to open in late summer ahead of Frieze Seoul in September, with a solo exhibition by Ed Atkins—his first in the city—inaugurating the gallery. Gladstone first opened in Seoul's Gangnam district in 2022, joining a wave of Western galleries entering the Korean market.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 23, 2026 visibility 18 link 5 artists

Has the world grown weary of art biennials? In search of an antidote, a Portuguese festival turns to anarchism

Anozero, a biennial art festival held in Coimbra's Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Nova, has opened a ghostly edition that uses installations—including Taryn Simon's sound piece of laments in multiple languages—to protest plans by the Portuguese government to redevelop the 17th-century convent into a hotel under its Revive programme. Festival co-founder Carlos Antunes threatens to cancel the biennial if the development proceeds, framing the event as a warning to the developer about the spirits that haunt the building.

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trending_up market schedule Apr 22, 2026 visibility 19 link 2 artists

An Auction Without Bidding: Loïc Gouzer’s Latest Bet on How to Sell Art

Loïc Gouzer's auction app Fair Warning is launching a new sales format called "No Warning." The system eliminates bidding wars; a work is listed with a price, and buyers can either purchase it immediately or submit a single, binding offer. The highest offer is presented to the seller, who decides to accept or reject it, with no public record of the sale unless disclosed by the parties. The first test of the format is a 1999 Elizabeth Peyton watercolor priced at $400,000.

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person people schedule Apr 22, 2026 visibility 37 link 4 artists

Venice Biennale’s 2026 Golden Lion Jury to Be Led by Videobrasil Founder

The Venice Biennale has announced the five-member jury for its 2026 edition, which will award the prestigious Golden Lion prizes. The jury president is Solange Oliveira Farkas, founder of the Videobrasil Biennial, and she will be joined by curators and academics Zoe Butt, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Marta Kuzma, and Giovanna Zapperi.

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article policy schedule Apr 22, 2026 visibility 29 link 5 artists

Top 200 Collector Mitchell Rales Gifts $116 M. to National Gallery if Art for Lending Program

Top 200 art collector and National Gallery of Art trustee Mitchell Rales has donated $116 million to permanently endow the museum's 'Across the Nation' lending program. The initiative loans artworks from the National Gallery's collection to regional museums across the United States, covering all associated costs.

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trending_up market schedule Apr 22, 2026 visibility 20 link 6 artists

Claude Lalanne Mirror Ensemble Sells for $33.5 M., Breaking Design Auction Records

A custom ensemble of 15 mirrors by Claude Lalanne sold for $33.5 million at Sotheby's New York, shattering the artist's previous auction record and setting a new global benchmark for the most expensive design work ever sold at auction. The piece, commissioned in 1974 for Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé's Paris home, far exceeded its $10-15 million estimate.

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article local schedule Apr 22, 2026 visibility 32 link 20 artists

From the World Cup and the Olympics to two new museums: upcoming cultural attractions in Los Angeles

Los Angeles is preparing for a major influx of cultural and sporting events, including hosting matches for the 2026 FIFA World Cup at SoFi Stadium and the 2028 Summer Olympics. The city is also enhancing its cultural infrastructure with new Metro stations featuring site-specific art commissions and the imminent openings of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art and the David Geffen Galleries at LACMA.

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article news schedule Apr 21, 2026 visibility 37 link 5 artists

US National Gallery of Art gifted more than 1,200 Mitch Epstein photographs

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., has received a gift of 1,261 photographs from artist Mitch Epstein and his wife, Susan Bell. The donation, the largest institutional collection of Epstein's work, spans his five-decade career and includes major series such as 'American Power,' 'Property Rights,' and 'New York Arbor.'

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trending_up market schedule Apr 21, 2026 visibility 28 link 1 artist, 2 galleries

The Iran War Is Already Tanking Luxury Sales in the Gulf—Could Art Be Next?

Escalating military conflict between the US, Israel, and Iran, which has included strikes on Gulf states, is disrupting the region's burgeoning art market. Major events like Art Dubai have been postponed and scaled back significantly due to exhibitor withdrawals, and planned fairs like Frieze Abu Dhabi face uncertainty. The instability has also caused a sharp spike in shipping and insurance costs for artworks moving through the region.

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trending_up market schedule Apr 21, 2026 visibility 21 link 4 artists, 1 gallery

Which Auction House Led the Pack in 2025?

Christie's led the global fine-art auction market in 2025 with $3.5 billion in sales, a 10.1% increase from 2024. Its top lot was Mark Rothko's 'No. 31 (Yellow Stripe), 1958,' which sold for $62.1 million. Sotheby's followed closely with $3.3 billion in sales, a 31% annual increase, highlighted by the record-breaking $54.7 million sale of Frida Kahlo's 'El sueño (La cama).' Phillips placed a distant third with $390.9 million in sales, a 14.2% decline.

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person people schedule Apr 21, 2026 visibility 26 link 10 artists

What is a botanical curator? Rahel Kesselring takes on inaugural role at Fondation Beyeler

Fondation Beyeler in Switzerland has appointed Rahel Kesselring as its inaugural botanical curator, a newly created position supported by the Chanel Culture Fund. Kesselring, a former research associate at Humboldt University, will develop a hybrid curatorial programme focused on the museum's park and surrounding ecosystems, aiming to integrate botanical knowledge with artistic practice on a practical, material level.

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article policy schedule Apr 21, 2026 visibility 25 link 5 artists

Picasso’s Guernica is the ultimate emblem of the horrors of war. It has no place in Spain's partisan squabbles | María Ramírez

A political dispute has erupted in Spain over the potential temporary relocation of Pablo Picasso's iconic anti-war painting *Guernica*. The president of the Basque Country, Imanol Pradales, has formally requested the work be moved from Madrid's Reina Sofía museum to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao for several months in 2027, framing it as a form of "reparation" for the Basque people. The Spanish government has rejected the request on conservation grounds, while conservative politicians have used the proposal to attack Basque nationalism.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 20, 2026 visibility 19 link 2 artists

Agnes Gryczkowska Discusses Curating Marina Abramović’s New Berlin Mega Show

Marina Abramović has opened a major solo exhibition, "Balkan Erotic Epic. The Exhibition," at Berlin's Gropius Bau, marking her first solo show in the city since the 1990s. The expansive presentation features historical and recent works across film, installation, sculpture, and live performance, focusing on themes of ritual, eroticism, death, and the body as a site of political and spiritual intensity. The opening included a live performance by Svetlana Spajić and a video work, Tito’s Funeral (2025).

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trending_up market schedule Apr 20, 2026 visibility 27 link 8 artists

Diane Keaton’s Iconic Wardrobe and Art Collection Head to Auction

Bonhams auction house, in collaboration with the Fine Art Group, is organizing a four-part, 550-lot sale of Diane Keaton's personal belongings. The sales, taking place online and in New York from late May to mid-June, will include her iconic wardrobe, Hollywood memorabilia, home furnishings, and a significant portion of her art collection, featuring works by artists like Robert Rauschenberg and Ed Ruscha, as well as her own mixed-media collages.

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trending_up market schedule Apr 20, 2026 visibility 23 link 4 artists

Christie’s to Offer $35 M. Renoir Painting Owned by Whitney Family For Nearly a Century

Christie's will auction Pierre-Auguste Renoir's 1876-77 painting 'La femme aux lilas (Portrait de Nini Lopez)' in its 20th Century Evening Sale on May 18, with an estimate of $25 million to $35 million. The work has been owned by the Whitney Payson family since 1929 and is being sold from the collection of the late Lorinda Payson de Roulet, daughter of the original buyers, Joan Whitney Payson and Charles Payson.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 20, 2026 visibility 33 link 18 artists

Thomas J. Price’s Monumental Sculpture Anchors V&A East’s Opening in London

The V&A East Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum's second site in East London, opened to the public on April 18. The inaugural presentation features new site-specific commissions by artists Rene Matić, Carrie Mae Weems, and Tania Bruguera, with Thomas J. Price's monumental sculpture serving as a key anchor piece for the new institution.

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article culture schedule Apr 18, 2026 visibility 33 link 8 artists

Museums have a duty to inspire the creatives of the future. At V&A East, I’ve made that my mission | Gus Casely-Hayford

Gus Casely-Hayford, the director of V&A East, outlines his vision for the new museum as a collaborative space designed specifically to re-engage young audiences. Highlighting a new commission by Cuban artist Tania Bruguera created with local youth, Casely-Hayford argues that museums must move beyond Victorian-era paternalism toward a model of co-creation. The institution has consulted over 30,000 young people to ensure its galleries, such as the "Why We Make" space, reflect contemporary concerns and community needs.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 18, 2026 visibility 21 link 10 artists

Story of Black British music writ large in first exhibition at V&A East

The V&A East has officially opened in Stratford with its inaugural exhibition, 'The Music is Black,' a comprehensive survey of Black British music. Curated by Jacqueline Springer, the landmark show features over 200 items ranging from traditional African drums and a Ben Enwonwu sculpture to contemporary pieces by Rene Matić and iconic stage outfits from artists like Pauline Black and Stormzy. The exhibition marks the first major show for the new £135m O’Donnell & Tuomey-designed building, which joins the V&A’s expanding portfolio of sites.

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trending_up market schedule Apr 18, 2026 visibility 18 link 3 artists

sothebys debt delays

Sotheby’s is navigating a complex financial landscape marked by a major debt refinancing effort and the introduction of a controversial delayed-payment program. The auction house is seeking to raise $825 million through five-year bonds to address existing debt due in 2027, while simultaneously facing a $10.2 million lawsuit over real estate commissions. To manage liquidity, the firm has codified a scheme offering sellers a 7 percent interest rate if they agree to wait six months for their payout, a significant departure from the industry standard of 35 to 45 days.

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trending_up market schedule Apr 17, 2026 visibility 17 link 6 artists

Rare Winnie-the-Pooh Drawings Surface for the First Time

Two previously unseen preliminary drawings of Winnie-the-Pooh by illustrator E.H. Shepard have surfaced for the first time on the centenary of the children's classic. Brought forward by Shepard’s family, the pencil sketches depict scenes from A.A. Milne’s original 1926 book that were never fully realized or published. These rare works, along with several other preliminary sketches that did make it into print, are currently on display and for sale at Peter Harrington Rare Books in London before traveling to the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair.

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trending_up market schedule Apr 17, 2026 visibility 20 link 14 artists

Lost Bob Dylan Lyric Sheet Resurfaces After 60 Years—and Other Rare Finds Heating Up the Market

A rare, typewritten lyric sheet for Bob Dylan’s song “I’m Not There” has resurfaced after being hidden for nearly 60 years inside a first-edition book of poetry by Allen Ginsberg. The document, which was discovered by a book dealer handling the estate of Sally Grossman, is set to be auctioned by Omega Auctions with an estimate of £20,000–£40,000. Other high-profile collectibles hitting the block include Stephen Curry’s game-worn sneakers at Sotheby’s and a signed Albert Einstein etching.

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