Art News. Vasari Codex

article culture schedule Feb 9, 2026 visibility 16 link 12 artists

pope francis art artists 333758

Artnet News has compiled a selection of artworks created in anticipation of Pope Francis's first visit to the United States. The works include Anthony VanArsdale's portrait for the North American College in Rome, a new addition to the 'Franks' mural at Philadelphia's Dirty Franks bar, a massive photo-realistic mural by Van Hecht-Nielsen overlooking Madison Square Garden in New York, a large-scale mural by Caesar Viveros for the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, and a controversial, officially licensed portrait by Perry Milou. Other featured pieces include an illustration by Omkar Shivaprasad and a vandalized mural in Bolivia by William Luna and Guillermo Rodriguez.

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museum exhibitions schedule Feb 5, 2026 visibility 13 link 5 artists

casa batllo contemporary gaudi barcelona 1234772398

Casa Batlló, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Barcelona designed by Antoni Gaudí, has opened a new exhibition space called Casa Batlló Contemporary dedicated to contemporary art. The program launched with a show by United Visual Artists (UVA), a London-based collective founded by Matt Clark, running from January 31 to May 17. The space, located on the second floor and restored by architecture studio Mesura, will host two annual exhibitions. This initiative expands on Casa Batlló’s existing "Mapping" series, which commissions artists to project audiovisual works onto Gaudí’s façade.

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article policy schedule Feb 2, 2026 visibility 8 link 2 artists

warhol foundation grant program expansion small nonprofits 1234771721

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts is launching a new grant program to support U.S.-based visual arts nonprofits with budgets under $200,000, offering awards between $20,000 and $30,000. The program will begin accepting applications for its Spring 2026 grant cycle, with a deadline of March 1. This marks a significant expansion of the foundation's previous focus, which had been on organizations with budgets of $300,000 or more.

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article news schedule Jan 30, 2026 visibility 12 link 4 artists

gene hackman santa fe home sale 2738652

The Santa Fe home of the late actor Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa has been listed for sale at $6.25 million. The 13,000-square-foot hilltop compound, designed by architect Ed Boniface, includes a main residence, guesthouse, and a studio where Hackman painted, all set within a gated community with expansive mountain views.

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article news schedule Jan 27, 2026 visibility 11 link 1 artist

ai weiwei returns china first time decade 1234771147

Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei returned to China last month for the first time in a decade, visiting Beijing for three weeks after years of exile in Europe. His passport had been confiscated in 2015, ending travel restrictions tied to his political dissent. Upon arrival, Ai was interrogated for nearly two hours at Beijing's airport before being granted entry. He documented the trip on Instagram, including a reunion between his 17-year-old son and 93-year-old mother, and described the experience as like reconnecting a long-disconnected phone call.

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article culture schedule Jan 27, 2026 visibility 11 link 3 artists

a rhythm 0 for the tiktok age 1234771095

Artist Briony Godivala is performing a year-long piece called *The Inked Link*, in which she has a QR code tattooed on her forearm that redirects to a new link each day based on public votes. Since January 2025, the voting site has been hacked to repeatedly play an anime episode, and participants have submitted links to pornographic, fascist, and racist content, as well as footage of death. Godivala, a graduate of the Glasgow School of Art, previously explored collective responsibility in physical performances where audience members carried her until they dropped her; she now uses social media to continue these experiments in a virtual space.

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article news schedule Jan 26, 2026 visibility 11 link 1 artist

ai weiwei returns to china 10 years 2740171

Artist Ai Weiwei returned to his native China after 10 years in exile, making a quiet three-week trip to Beijing last month. It was his first visit since authorities returned his confiscated passport in 2015, allowing him to leave China and live in Europe. During the trip, Ai was briefly interrogated at the airport but otherwise faced no interference. He shared photos and videos on Instagram, and told CNN the visit felt like a reconnection after a decade-long disconnection. The trip was partly motivated by a desire for his 17-year-old son and 93-year-old mother to meet.

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article news schedule Jan 23, 2026 visibility 21 link 6 artists

di rosa art center estate sale 1234770699

The di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art in Napa, California, has listed its 217-acre estate for $10.9 million amid ongoing financial struggles. The property, which houses a significant collection of postwar Northern California art including works by Mark di Suvero, Peter Saul, and Jay DeFeo, was founded by collector Rene di Rosa and his wife Veronica. The center has been seeking financial stability since 2019, when it briefly attempted to sell its holdings before reversing course after local backlash. Director Kate Eilertsen hopes a wealthy philanthropist will purchase the estate and lease it back to the center, or that Napa County may acquire the land for public use while preserving the sculptures.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jan 20, 2026 visibility 11 link 3 artists

serpentine pavilion commission lanza atelier 1234770283

LANZA atelier, a Mexico City-based architecture studio founded by Isabel Abascal and Alessandro Arienzo, has been commissioned to design the 2025 Serpentine Pavilion in London’s Kensington Gardens. The pavilion, which will be unveiled on June 6, marks the 25th anniversary of the Serpentine Pavilion program. Inspired by the English serpentine or crinkle-crankle wall, the design features a brick wall of alternating curves, a translucent roof resting on brick columns, and a second wall that harmonizes with the tree canopy. This year’s pavilion will be accompanied by a dedicated architecture program at Serpentine South, honoring the legacy of Zaha Hadid, who designed the inaugural pavilion in 2000.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jan 20, 2026 visibility 15 link 7 artists

claire tabouret notre dame windows grand palais 2732150

French artist Claire Tabouret is presenting her full-scale maquettes for Notre-Dame Cathedral's new stained glass windows at the Grand Palais in Paris, in an exhibition titled "In a Single Breath." The six windows, each over 20 feet tall, were selected by a committee from over 100 submissions last December, replacing 19th-century designs by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. The project has sparked controversy: conservation group Sites and Monuments launched a petition with over 328,000 signatures and a legal case arguing the replacement violates the 1964 Venice Charter and French historic monuments law. A Paris administrative court ruled in favor of the state in late November, but the group plans to appeal. Tabouret's designs are now being fabricated by the historic Atelier Simon-Marq glass workshop.

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person people schedule Jan 20, 2026 visibility 18 link 11 artists

chanel culture fund names winners of its 2026 chanel next prize with each artist bagging e100 k 1234770159

The Chanel Culture Fund has announced the 10 recipients of its 2026 Chanel Next Prize, each receiving €100,000 ($117,400). The winners, announced on January 19 in London, include visual artist Álvaro Urbano, jazz musician Ambrose Akinmusire, fashion designer Andrea Peña, artist and filmmaker Ayoung Kim, fashion designer and artist Bárbara Sánchez-Kane, sound artist Emeka Ogboh, choreographer Marco da Silva Ferreira, experimental musician Pan Daijing, filmmaker Payal Kapadia, and painter Pol Taburet. The biennial prize, now in its third edition, also includes a two-year mentorship program in collaboration with Chanel’s cultural partners, such as London’s Royal College of Art.

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article news schedule Jan 20, 2026 visibility 18 link 14 artists

california college of the arts closure 2737001

California College of the Arts (CCA), the Bay Area's last private art and design school, will close after the 2026–27 academic year, ending 116 years of operation. Vanderbilt University will acquire CCA's San Francisco campus and open a West Coast outpost in 2027, continuing some art and design programs. The closure follows years of financial struggles, including a $20 million deficit, declining enrollment from 1,800 to 1,295 students, and emergency fundraising that raised nearly $45 million—including a $22.5 million matching gift from the Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang Foundation and a $20 million state grant—but proved insufficient to ensure long-term independence.

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article news schedule Jan 18, 2026 visibility 7 link 3 artists

boston midtown hotel ai art warhol 2735290

Boston's Midtown Hotel has sparked outrage after decorating its newly renovated space with AI-generated artwork that mimics Andy Warhol's style to depict local celebrities like David Ortiz and Barbara Walters. Guest Alex Steed publicly criticized the hotel on social media, noting the art's uncanny valley quality and the placard proudly stating the works were entirely created by artificial intelligence. The complaint went viral, drawing thousands of views and comments condemning the hotel for choosing AI over hiring local artists in a city known for its art schools and museums.

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article news schedule Jan 16, 2026 visibility 15 link 8 artists

joan mitchell foundation 2026 artists in residence 1234770065

The Joan Mitchell Foundation has announced the 31 artists selected for its 2026 residency program at the Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans. The residencies, lasting six or 14 weeks across three seasons, will host no more than nine artists at a time, beginning February 2. The cohort includes 17 local New Orleans artists and participants from cities such as New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, and Atlanta, ranging in age from 27 to 75. Notable participants include Edra Soto, who also won a United States Artists Fellowship, and two leaders of New Orleans’s Black Masking Indian tradition, Kelly Pearson Boles and Efrem Z. Boles. The selection was made by a jury of artists, curators, and academics.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jan 16, 2026 visibility 18 link 13 artists

theaster gates tapped for obama presidential center installation celebrating ebony and jet image archives 1234766967

The Obama Foundation has commissioned artist Theaster Gates to create an expansive frieze for the Pendleton Atrium of the Obama Presidential Center (OPC), set to open on Chicago’s South Side in 2026. The installation will draw from the Johnson Publishing Company image archive and the Howard Simmons photographic collections, celebrating the visual archives of Ebony and Jet magazines. Gates, who founded the Rebuild Foundation in 2009, will join nine other artists—including Kiki Smith, Nick Cave, Marie Watt, Jenny Holzer, and Idris Khan—whose works were announced in September for the OPC campus.

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article culture schedule Jan 15, 2026 visibility 18 link 16 artists

gossip crit group 2736484

On a frigid December evening, eleven women artists gathered in the lobby of 125 Maiden Lane in downtown Manhattan to view and discuss Langdon Graves's exhibition "Mental Model," produced by Art in Buildings. The group, called Gossip, is a long-running artist crit collective founded in 2009 by Cranbrook Academy of Art graduates including Jessica Stoller and Kelli Miller, originally named "Get Out" before being renamed by member Virginia Wagner after Silvia Federici's writings on gossip. The group now has about 20 members, including Jenna Gribbon, Erin M. Riley, and Julie Curtiss, and meets regularly in studios and galleries for critical feedback and creative exchange.

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article culture schedule Jan 5, 2026 visibility 15 link 10 artists

5 new art hotels 2732180

Five new art hotels opened in 2025, including Hotel Saint Augustine in Houston, Texas, and Capella Taipei in Taipei, Taiwan. Hotel Saint Augustine, located near the Menil Drawing Institute, features minimalist interiors by Post Company with custom furnishings and Art Deco-style lighting, while Capella Taipei boasts an art program curated by The Artling, showcasing works by artists such as Chen-Lin Lee, Jasper Huang, Tara Vaughan, Joel Escalona, and Etan Pavavalung. Both properties emphasize craftsmanship and cultural connection through curated art and design.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jan 2, 2026 visibility 9 link 5 artists

edita schubert profusion museum susch 2732588

Croatian artist Edita Schubert (1947–2001), a contemporary of Marina Abramović, is the subject of a major retrospective at Muzeum Susch in Switzerland. Titled "Edita Schubert: Profusion," the exhibition is the first comprehensive survey of her work outside Croatia, spanning twelve galleries and covering her evolution from early anatomical realism to abstraction, collage, sculpture, and performance. Curated by historian David Crowley, the show draws its name from a description by critic Ješa Denegri, who called Schubert a pioneer of Yugoslav art and her practice a "profusion." The exhibition highlights Schubert's conceptual rigor and her engagement with the human body, influenced by her work as a draftswoman at the University of Zagreb's Institute of Anatomy.

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article news schedule Dec 31, 2025 visibility 11 link 1 artist

norman rockwell antifa department of homeland security 1234768466

Daisy Rockwell, granddaughter of Norman Rockwell, stated in an interview with the Bulwark that her grandfather was "antifa," pushing back against recent uses of his paintings by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Over the summer, DHS posted cropped and edited versions of Rockwell's works, including "Salute the Flag" (1971) and "Working on the Statue of Liberty" (1946), with captions urging readers to "protect your homeland" and "defend your culture." The Rockwell family had already publicly rebutted these posts in a USA Today op-ed, arguing that Rockwell would have been "devastated" to see his art used to promote persecution of immigrant communities and people of color.

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article culture schedule Dec 29, 2025 visibility 14 link 3 artists

reframing the frame 2711779

Artnet News revisits the trend of inventive, sculptural frames in contemporary painting, originally explored in Katie White's essay "Bordercore." The article features a podcast conversation between White and editor Ben Davis, examining how artists like Stephanie Temma Hier use frames as surreal, symbolic extensions of their work, moving beyond traditional containment to comment on and disrupt the artwork's boundaries.

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trending_up market schedule Dec 26, 2025 visibility 18 link 10 artists

sothebys saudi arabian auction 2026 2733794

Sotheby's will hold its second auction in Saudi Arabia on January 31, 2026, following a successful inaugural sale in Diriyah in February 2024 that netted $17.3 million. The upcoming sale, titled "Origins," features over 70 works by established Saudi Arabian and Middle Eastern artists alongside international names, with top lots including a Pablo Picasso painting estimated at $2–3 million and works by Jean Dubuffet, Roy Lichtenstein, and Andy Warhol. The auction aims to build on lessons from the first sale, which revealed strong demand across price points and generational diversity among buyers.

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article news schedule Dec 23, 2025 visibility 17 link 3 artists

christmas identical new banksy murals london housing crisis 1234767781

Banksy has unveiled two identical murals in London, one near Tottenham Court Road Tube station and another in Queen's Mews, Bayswater. The artwork depicts two children lying on their backs, one pointing skyward, and was confirmed via the artist's Instagram. The piece appears during the Christmas season, but its placement near the landmark Centre Point skyscraper—a symbol of London's housing crisis—suggests a critique of homelessness and unaffordable housing.

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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 23, 2025 visibility 12 link 4 artists

michaela yearwood dan longlati foundation 2732357

British artist Michaela Yearwood-Dan has opened her first solo exhibition in China, titled “RECESS,” at the Longlati Foundation in Shanghai. The show features paintings and ceramics that explore themes of play, fluidity, and cultural identity, drawing on influences from Chinese calligraphy and tai chi. In an interview, Yearwood-Dan discusses her childlike approach to making the work and her desire for viewers to feel a personal connection. A concurrent exhibition, “Georgia Gardner Gray: Metal Madonna,” is also on view at the foundation.

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article news schedule Dec 22, 2025 visibility 17 link 5 artists

banksy new mural queens mews centrepoint london 2733570

A new Banksy mural appeared on a wall in west London on Monday, December 22, 2025, depicting two children in winter clothing lying on their backs and gazing at the sky. The stenciled artwork, located on Queen’s Mews in Bayswater near Notting Hill, was officially claimed by Banksy via Instagram. An identical version was also spotted outside the Centre Point tower in central London, though not yet claimed. The piece has sparked widespread speculation about its meaning, with interpretations ranging from a commentary on childhood imagination and wonder to a satirical critique of consumerism and the replacement of sacred values by utility.

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article policy schedule Dec 22, 2025 visibility 11 link 1 artist

smithsonian content review white house threatens funding 1234767747

The Trump administration has threatened to withhold funding from the Smithsonian Institution, accusing it of failing to comply with a content review demanded by the White House. In an email obtained by the Washington Post, budget director Russell Vought and Domestic Policy Council director Vince Haley alleged that the Smithsonian had not turned over all requested documents and exhibition materials, citing a prior executive order in which President Trump claimed the institution promoted “corrosive ideology” by portraying the U.S. as inherently racist. Smithsonian secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III defended the network’s independence, stating it remains committed to sharing information but that a government shutdown had slowed efforts. The administration set a January 13 deadline for full compliance, specifically targeting programming for America’s 250th anniversary.

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trending_up market schedule Dec 19, 2025 visibility 19 link 16 artists

top auction moments of 2025 2712941

Artnet News rounds up the standout auction moments of 2025, highlighting both triumphs and disappointments. M.F. Husain's *Untitled (Gram Yatra)* (1954) smashed expectations at Christie's, selling for $13.8 million—more than double the artist's previous record and the first South Asian Modern work to exceed $10 million. In contrast, Piet Mondrian's *Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black and Blue* (1922) fell short of its $50 million estimate at Christie's, missing the artist's auction record, while Alberto Giacometti's *Grande tête mince* (1955) failed to sell at Sotheby's despite a $70 million asking price, underscoring market volatility.

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article news schedule Dec 19, 2025 visibility 18 link 10 artists

vienna museum exhibition religious controversy 2732661

Conservative religious groups in Austria have launched a campaign against the exhibition “You Shall Make For Yourself An Image” at Vienna’s Künstlerhaus contemporary art museum, which explores Christian iconography from critical, feminist, and queer perspectives. The backlash, including an online petition and a “prayer of atonement” protest outside the museum, has been linked to a prior attack on another religious-themed exhibition at a Jesuit Church in Vienna. The show features over 30 artists, including Martin Kippenberger, Andres Serrano, and Marina Abramović, and has drawn particular ire for works like Kippenberger’s crucified frog and Anouk Lamm Anouk’s depiction of the Virgin Mary as a transgender woman.

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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 19, 2025 visibility 25 link 20 artists

if emmett till lived exhibition mocp chicago sarah lewis 1234767619

The Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP) at Columbia College Chicago will host an exhibition titled “If Emmett Till Lived: Freedom on American Ground,” guest curated by Harvard professor Sarah Lewis. Opening September 3, the show draws from MoCP’s permanent collection and features 70 photographers—including Gordon Parks, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Dorothea Lange, and Carrie Mae Weems—to imagine the life Emmett Till might have lived had he not been lynched in 1955. The exhibition includes images of Chicago, the railways Till traveled, and milestones he missed, such as the Chicago Bulls phenomenon, Barack Obama’s election, and ongoing civil rights protests.

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article culture schedule Dec 16, 2025 visibility 19 link 9 artists

art bites singerie monkeys 2716648

This article explores the artistic tradition of Singerie, or 'monkey trick,' a genre that depicts primates dressed and acting like humans. It traces the history from its origins in the early 1600s through its peak in the Rococo period, citing examples such as Jan Brueghel the Elder's 'Monkeys Feasting' (c. 1620) and Edwin Landseer's 'The Monkey Who Had Seen the World' (1827). The piece connects this historical convention to contemporary culture, noting its influence on the 2024 Robbie Williams biopic 'Better Man,' where the singer is portrayed as a chimpanzee, and on modern satirical works like Banksy's 'Devolved Parliament' (2009).

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article news schedule Dec 16, 2025 visibility 12 link 3 artists

amenhotep iii colossi of memnon restoration 2729898

Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities unveiled the newly restored Colossi of Memnon, two monumental quartzite statues of Pharaoh Amenhotep III, at the entrance of his 86-acre Luxor tomb site. The restoration, led by German-Armenian archaeologist Hourig Sourouzian and involving Waseda University, the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, and the World Monuments Fund, began in 2006 after decades of damage from earthquakes, floods, and looting. The team cleaned, 3D-scanned, and reassembled the statues using original fragments and new additions, also uncovering nearly 300 other sculptures and fragments. The Colossi now stand 45 feet tall, with the pharaoh depicted in royal regalia alongside smaller figures of his wives.

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