Diane Keaton, the acclaimed actress known for films like Annie Hall and The Godfather, died at age 79. Beyond her acting career, Keaton was a devoted visual artist who worked in photography and collage, publishing several art books including Saved: My Picture World (2022), Reservations (1980), and California Romantica (2019). She was also a passionate collector of photography books and frequently discussed her lifelong practice of collage-making.
The Kochi-Muziris Biennial, South Asia's largest contemporary art biennial, has announced the 66 artists from over 20 countries participating in its 2025 edition, titled “For The Time Being.” Running from December 12 to March 31 across venues including Aspinwall House and Pepper House in Kochi, India, the event features around 50 new commissions and a theme centered on the body, memory, and temporality. The announcement comes after the 2023 edition was marred by controversy, with more than half of its 90 artists signing a public letter alleging communication breakdowns, unpaid fees, and production issues, as well as the Kerala government reportedly pulling out of a deal to acquire the main venue.
A graffiti art installation titled "HEAR US" has been unveiled at Canterbury Cathedral in Kent, England, created by poet Alex Vellis and curator Jacqueline Creswell. The works, which appear directly on the cathedral's walls, pose spiritual and social questions such as "What is the architecture of heaven?" and "Why are you indifferent to suffering?" The project emerged from community workshops asking "What would you ask God?" and involves marginalized communities including the Punjabi, black and brown diaspora, neurodivergent individuals, and the LGBTQIA+ population. The installation is approved by the cathedral and runs through January 18, though it has already sparked widespread online backlash.
The Trump administration has escalated its attacks on billionaire philanthropist George Soros, with the Justice Department calling for an investigation into his Open Society Foundations. The foundations, which provide substantial grants to artists and human rights organizations globally, are accused of potential racketeering, wire fraud, and material support for terrorism, based on allegations from the conservative Capital Research Center. Soros, a major Democratic donor, has previously been targeted by Trump and Vice President JD Vance, who claim the foundations fund leftist protests. The Open Society Foundations have awarded $100,000 fellowships to numerous prominent artists, including Firelei Báez, Yto Barrada, and Nicholas Galanin, and provided $1.2 billion in funding in 2024 alone.
A new retrospective at Kunsthaus Zurich, soon traveling to Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, spotlights Suzanne Duchamp (1889–1963), a French artist often overshadowed by her brothers Marcel Duchamp, Raymond Duchamp-Villon, and Jacques Villon. The exhibition, titled “Suzanne Duchamp: Retrospective,” showcases her highly individual painterly practice rooted in Cubism and Dada, featuring works like *Radiation of Two Solitary Separates Apart* (1916–20) and *Marcel’s Unhappy Readymade* (1920), which reappropriates her brother’s readymade concept. The show includes a new catalog commission by painter Amy Sillman, who created digital drawings inspired by Duchamp’s formal dynamics.
Simone Leigh has announced a fall 2027 exhibition at the Royal Academy in London, featuring a series of new monumental sculptures. In an interview with the Guardian, she criticized the United States under the Trump administration, describing it as "full-on fascism" and reflecting on the kind of art produced under such conditions. She also condemned Columbia University's compliance with anti-woke policies, comparing it to the McCarthy era, and noted that artists of color have faced delayed or canceled commissions due to anti-DEI measures. The exhibition is curated by Tarini Malik, who organized the British Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale.
Ai Weiwei has traveled to Ukraine's eastern front, visiting Kharkiv under Russian bombardment and meeting soldiers, poets, and cultural figures resisting the invasion. He documented the trip on Instagram with stark images and was photographed in black fatigues marked "Khartiia," a volunteer unit now part of Ukraine's National Guard. His next project is a major installation in Kyiv titled "Three Perfectly Proportioned Spheres and Camouflage Uniforms Painted White," opening September 14 at Pavilion 13, a renovated Soviet-era hall, commissioned by Ribbon International.
Phillips auction house announced a new fee structure for fall 2025 called "priority bidding," which offers lower buyer's premium rates to bidders who place written bids at least 48 hours before a live sale. The move aims to encourage early engagement and generate more spirited bidding, while also providing certainty for sellers. The house is simultaneously raising its standard buyer's premium to as high as 29 percent on works up to $1 million, making it the highest among major auction houses. CEO Martin Wilson, who took over in January, hopes the program will mitigate risk and shore up sales of mid-priced works.
American artist Alan Sonfist, a pioneer of the Land Art movement known for his 1978 work "Time Landscape" in New York City, has opened a solo exhibition titled "Seeds of Time" at Parco Arte Vivente (PAV) in Turin, Italy. Curated by Marco Scotini, the show features a new installation, "Growth Between the Cracks" (2025), for which Sonfist collaborated with local residents to collect soil samples from overlooked urban spaces across Turin. The exhibition revisits Sonfist's early ecological works and includes a conversation between the artist and curator about the evolution of environmental art.
Kenny Schachter critiques the art market's doomsaying media narrative, coining the acronym Salsa (Scribes Always Love Sensational Apocalypse) to describe clickbait-driven hype. He contrasts current market anxieties with past downturns, notably the 1991-1996 recession when the market evaporated, citing a 1991 Roberta Smith article. Schachter observes that the Nahmads and Mugrabis, once feuding families, now invest together, and he recounts his experience at Phillips during his "Hoarder 6" exhibition, where young collectors showed genuine interest. He argues that the market, though wounded, remains healthy and calls for a less transactional, more patient approach to selling art.
Taipei Dangdai Art and Ideas, the annual art fair in Taiwan's capital, will not hold its 2026 edition as organizers pause to conduct a strategic evaluation of the fair's model, timing, scale, and format. The decision follows a prolonged contraction in the art market and comes days after the Art Dealers Association of America canceled its long-running Art Show in New York. The fair, which first launched in 2019 and held its sixth edition in May, had seen its exhibitor numbers decline from over 90 to around 50 this year. Co-director Robin Peckham left after the 2025 edition, and the fair's parent organization, the Art Assembly, has removed material about previous editions from its website, with its Instagram account apparently disabled.
Bob Dylan, at 84, is releasing a new book titled *Point Blank (Quick Studies)* in November 2025, published by Simon & Schuster. The volume collects about 100 drawings he created between 2021 and 2022, featuring portraits, still lifes, and landscapes in black-and-white. The works were originally the foundation for his current exhibition of the same name at Halcyon Gallery in London, on view through July 6. The book includes prose contributions from writers Lucy Sante and Eddie Gorodetsky.
Curator, collector, and artistic director Andrea von Goetz founded Sommer Frische Kunst in 2011 as a humble artist-led retreat in Bad Gastein, Austria, housed in the historic Kraftwerk am Wasserfall building. Over 15 years, the initiative has grown from a small artist-in-residence program into an internationally recognized contemporary art festival at 1,000 meters above sea level, featuring major exhibitions, public art projects, and its own art fair, art:badgastein. The 2025 anniversary is marked by a reunion exhibition titled "Welcome back!" co-curated with Dr. Silvie Aigner.
Art Basel 2026 confirmed that the global art market remains a buyer's market, with sales occurring across various price brackets. A new generation of collectors is emerging, driven by curiosity, community, and long-term engagement rather than speculation. Meanwhile, former Sotheby's executive Adam Chinn has quietly built the art lending firm International Art Finance, backed by the Nahmad family.
The University of California, Irvine has announced it is exploring a merger with the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) in Costa Mesa. A nonbinding letter of intent has been signed, and a definitive agreement is being developed pending approval by the University of California Board of Regents, which is expected to vote on the merger in the fall. The news comes less than two months after OCMA director and CEO Heidi Zuckerman announced her departure, and as the museum prepares to open its California Biennial.
A visitor at the Palazzo Maffei museum in Verona, Italy, was captured on CCTV breaking a crystal-encrusted chair artwork by Italian artist Nicola Bolla. The man sat on the piece, titled the "Van Gogh" chair, causing it to collapse under his weight. The couple fled before staff realized the damage. Police have been notified but the suspects remain unidentified. The artwork has since been restored and is back on display.
Jeffrey Deitch, former dealer and ex-director of MOCA LA, has partnered with property developer Thor Equities to create "Coney Art Walls," a summertime display of street art murals on concrete slabs in Coney Island, New York. Located on a vacant lot at 1320 Bowery Street owned by Thor Equities, the project features works by over a dozen artists including Lady Pink, Daze, Lee Quiñones, Swoon, and Mister Cartoon, and shares space with Smorgasburg, a food and drink pop-up village. The article criticizes the venture as a real estate marketing ploy rather than a genuine art exhibition.
The Bienal de São Paulo has announced the 120 artists for its 2025 edition, titled “Not All Travellers Walk Roads – Of Humanity as Practice,” opening September 6 at the Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion. Curated by Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, the selection was inspired by bird migration patterns and rivers, aiming to avoid nation-state classifications. Notable participants include Isa Genzken, Firelei Báez, Wolfgang Tillmans, Forensic Architecture, and 19 Brazil-based artists, alongside 20 deceased figures such as Bertina Lopes and Ernest Cole.
The Wellcome Collection in London has opened a new exhibition titled "The Institute of Sexology," celebrating the history of erotic art, film, and photography. The show features a wide range of objects including archival material, ethnographic and medical artifacts, erotica, and works by contemporary artists such as John Stezaker, Sharon Hayes, Zanele Muholi, and Timothy Archibald. It highlights pioneers of sexology like Sigmund Freud, Alfred Kinsey, and Marie Stopes, and marks the first exhibition after the institution's £17.5 million expansion, inaugurating a new gallery for large, year-long shows.
Artist duo Christo and Jeanne-Claude developed 'The Gates' for New York City's Central Park in 1979, but the project faced over two decades of bureaucratic hurdles before finally being installed in 2005 under Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The work consisted of 7,503 steel gates with orange nylon fabric along 23 miles of pathways, using 5,390 tons of steel. Now, on its 20th anniversary, a comprehensive survey titled 'Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Gates and Unrealized Projects for New York City' is being held at the Shed, accompanied by an augmented reality experience via the Bloomberg Connects app.
An augmented reality (AR) experience is reviving Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s iconic 2005 installation *The Gates* in New York’s Central Park. Starting in February 2025, visitors can use the Bloomberg Connects app to view virtual saffron-colored fabric panels suspended over 23 miles of park pathways, recreating the original work that featured 7,503 panels on metal arches. The project is a collaboration between the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation, the New York City Parks Department, the Central Park Conservancy, and Bloomberg Philanthropies, with support from former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The Shed is concurrently hosting an exhibition documenting the project’s history, including original arches and a scale-model diorama.
A rediscovered Gustav Klimt painting of a West African prince, shown at TEFAF Maastricht in March, has sparked a dispute over its export legality. The Hungarian publication HVG reported that the work was "smuggled" into Austria, while the Austrian outlet Der Standard countered that the Viennese gallery Wienerroither and Kohlbacher obtained the necessary export permit. The gallery denies any wrongdoing, calling HVG's claims an insinuation. The painting, made in 1897 and depicting Prince William Nii Nortey Dowuona, was priced at €15 million and appeared at TEFAF following a restitution settlement with the heirs of Jewish collector Ernestine Klein.
Brian Eno, the English musician and artist who composed the iconic startup sound for Windows 95, has publicly called out Microsoft for its business relationship with the Israeli Ministry of Defense amid the ongoing war in Gaza. In an open letter titled “Not in My Name” posted to Instagram, Eno expressed dismay that the company he once associated with a promising technological future is now providing cloud and AI services to the Israeli military, which he and human rights organizations accuse of committing genocide and war crimes. He urged Microsoft to suspend all services that contribute to violations of international law and announced he would donate his original fee for the Windows 95 chime to Gaza victims.
Artnet Auctions is offering five works by Venezuelan kinetic and Op art pioneer Jesús Rafael Soto (1923–2005) in its Contemporary Editions sale, open for bidding through May 29, 2025. The lots include *Multiple #4 (from Jai Alai)* (1969, est. $8,000–$12,000), *Permutación (from Serie Sintesis)* (1979, est. $6,000–$8,000), and *Tes Azules y Negras (from Serie Sintesis)* (1979, est. $7,000–$10,000), each exemplifying Soto's signature blend of optical illusion, physical layering, and kinetic elements.
Rago/Wright's Postwar and Contemporary Art sale in New York will take place on May 21, 2025, featuring over 200 lots of 20th- and 21st-century works including painting, drawing, photography, and sculpture. Highlights include Nick Cave's *Soundsuit* (2010), Deborah Butterfield's *Red* (1992), Cindy Sherman's *Untitled #416* (2004), Tom Wesselmann's *From Nude Painting Print* (1988/1989), and Bernard Buffet's *Bouquet jaune fond orange* (1966), with estimates ranging from $70,000 to $150,000. Previews will be held in New York and Lambertville, New Jersey from May 13 to May 21.
Bob Dylan's latest exhibition, "Point Blank," opens on May 9 at London's Halcyon Gallery, featuring nearly 100 original paintings on paper. The works, which began as sketches and were later worked over with color, depict intimate portraits, couples, nudes, and mid-century Americana scenes, reflecting Dylan's ongoing development as a visual artist. The gallery has represented Dylan for nearly 18 years and notes a shift in public perception toward his art.
Italian artist and Arte Povera pioneer Michelangelo Pistoletto, aged 91, has been announced as a headliner for the 2025 edition of "Forever Is Now," an annual outdoor exhibition at the Great Pyramids of Giza. Pistoletto will create a monumental installation described as merging ancient civilization with modern ideas, with full details yet to be revealed. The project involves his Cittadellarte foundation, which is offering a fully-funded three-year bachelor course at its Unidee Academy in Biella, Italy, to Egyptian artists, supported by the Italian Institute of Culture in Cairo.
Anna Marie Tendler is presenting her interactive "House of Self Portrait Booth" at the Other Art Fair in Brooklyn, where she photographs fairgoers in a darkly romantic style inspired by her acclaimed 2021 self-portrait series "Rooms in the First House." The booth, which has previously appeared at the fair's Los Angeles and Chicago editions, features props from Tendler's own home, including a horned skull, a gramophone, and Victorian-style lampshades. Tendler's original series emerged from a period of personal struggle following her highly publicized divorce from comedian John Mulaney and an extended stay in a psychiatric hospital.
Luka Dončić, the newest star player for the Los Angeles Lakers, quietly funded the restoration of a mural depicting Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna (Gigi) Bryant after it was vandalized in downtown Los Angeles. Dončić donated $5,000 to a GoFundMe campaign organized by artist Louie Palsino, who created the mural titled "Mambas Forever" at 14th and Main Streets. The donation covered the full cost of restoring the defaced artwork, which honors the Lakers legend and his daughter who died in a 2020 helicopter crash.
Ben Davis, an art critic, analyzes the failure of Kamala Harris's 2024 presidential campaign through the lens of its visual culture, particularly a MoveOn.org poster in Brooklyn that renders Harris's face entirely from emojis—smiley eyes, fist-bump skin, octopus lips, and coconut necklace. He argues this poster epitomizes the campaign's reliance on incoherent internet vibes and substance-free memes, contrasting it with Shepard Fairey's uninspired "FORWARD" poster and the self-parody of "Brat Summer" aesthetics. Davis blames Democratic Party consultants for wasting over $1 billion on a campaign that failed to connect with voters on economic anger, instead offering wonkish proposals and appeals to nonexistent Liz Cheney Republicans.