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Artist Nadya Tolokonnikova, a founding member of Pussy Riot, began a durational performance titled *Police State* at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles on Thursday, inhabiting a cell and sewing clothing. The following day, protests erupted in the city after ICE raids in the garment district, leading to clashes with police and the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops by President Donald Trump. MOCA closed its Geffen branch early on Sunday for safety, while Tolokonnikova continued her performance, live-streaming audio from the protests into her installation.

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At Art Basel Miami Beach, Shanghai- and Hong Kong-based artist Baishui debuted seven large-scale mirrored stainless-steel sculptures titled "Raindrop 1-7" (2024), which invert the scale of raindrops to become enormous, solid forms that slow viewers down and invite reflection. The works were presented as part of the Land Art Forward platform alongside Alan Sonfist's "Burning Forest" (2024), forming a collaborative project called "Rebirth in the Inferno" that explores the fusion of water and fire in response to climate change.

Art for art’s sake, but for people’s health too | Letter

Art Fund director Jenny Waldman responds to a philosophical article about art's intrinsic value, arguing that while art should be enjoyed for its own sake, promoting its measurable health benefits can serve as a crucial entry point for new audiences. She cites the organization's National Art Pass adverts and recent research with King's College London, which demonstrated immediate physiological responses to viewing original art, as tools to invite people who might otherwise feel excluded from cultural institutions.

Love & Fury: how poster artists responded to the Aids crisis – in pictures

A new exhibition titled 'Love & Fury: New York’s Fight Against AIDS' showcases posters created by grassroots groups and artists in response to the AIDS crisis from the late 1970s to the 2000s. The show features works from collectives like the Silence=Death Project and Gay Men’s Health Crisis, as well as artists including Keith Haring and Howard Cruse, highlighting how graphic design was used to promote safe sex, demand government action, and build community resilience.

The Antwerp Six and the Problem of Now

A new exhibition at MoMu in Antwerp, guest-curated by Geert Bruloot, explores the enduring legacy of the 'Antwerp Six'—a group of visionary designers who graduated from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in the 1980s. The show features dedicated rooms for members including Walter Van Beirendonck and Dirk Van Saene, showcasing their distinct aesthetics ranging from maximalist rave-wear to surrealist runway recreations. It traces their journey from a self-funded trip to a London trade fair in 1986 to becoming global icons who challenged the dominance of Parisian couture.

Conspiracies: Who Can You Trust?

A new exhibition titled 'Conspiracies' has opened at the Warburg Institute in London, featuring works by contemporary artists Hannah Black, Caspar Heinemann, Sam Keogh, and Shenece Oretha, alongside an installation by ceramicist Edmund de Waal and panels from Aby Warburg's Bilderatlas Mnemosyne. The show explores the concept of conspiracy, tracing its history as both a response to power and a contaminating force in contemporary society, through multimedia installations, drawings, and speculative biographies.

Online-Only Art Auctions Overwhelmingly Succeed in 2025

A new report from Artnet reveals that online-only auctions at Sotheby’s, Christie’s, Phillips, Bonhams, and Artnet Auctions generated $423.9 million in 2025, an 8% increase from 2024. The average price of artworks sold online also rose 8.6% to $14,309, with some platforms like Fair Warning finding success through hyper-specific sales, such as one centered on Andy Warhol’s 1974 portrait of Brigitte Bardot. Christie’s reported that 63% of new buyers made their first purchase online in 2025, where the average price point was $22,700.

After a turbulent period of reorganisation, the 18th Istanbul Biennial favours futurity over futility

The 18th Istanbul Biennial, titled "The Three-Legged Cat," has opened after a turbulent period of reorganization. Curated by Christine Tohmé, the biennial unfolds over three years instead of the usual two, featuring 47 artists—only six from Turkey, with many from the Middle East. The exhibition spans eight venues, including a former cone factory and a French orphanage, and includes works such as Naomi Rincón-Gallardo's video installation on opossum resilience and Khalil Rabah's site-specific intervention with oil barrels and saplings. The biennial's budget was raised from €2m to €6.5m, mostly funded by Koç Holdings, following controversy over the initial appointment of curator Defne Ayas, which was rejected by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV), leading to Tohmé's eventual selection.

Comment | Monet might have seen Venice, but his paintings suggest he didn’t feel it

The article compares J.M.W. Turner's and Claude Monet's depictions of Venice, arguing that Turner's watercolors capture the city's innate melancholy and atmosphere, while Monet's paintings feel unfulfilling and lack emotional depth. The author reflects on Turner's sublime Venice watercolours, particularly 'San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, at Sunset' (1840), and contrasts them with Monet's works, which are the subject of a major upcoming show at the Brooklyn Museum. The piece also touches on Francesco Guardi's visceral views versus Canaletto's more pleasing but superficial ones, and Howard Hodgkin's later, elegiac response to the city.

This Liminal Moment

The article reviews the exhibition "MONUMENTS" at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA and the Brick in Los Angeles, which addresses the legacy of Confederate monuments through contemporary art. It highlights Cauleen Smith's installation "The Warden" (2025), which features a live-feed of the decommissioned Confederate sculpture "Vindicatrix" (also known as "Miss Confederacy") by Edward V. Valentine, originally atop the Jefferson Davis Memorial in Richmond, Virginia. The exhibition is curated by Hamza Walker, Kara Walker, and Bennett Simpson.

‘Get in the Game’ at PAMM puts sports and art on a level playing field

The Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) presents 'Get in the Game: Sports, Art, Culture,' an exhibition running through August 23 that bridges the worlds of sports and visual art. Featuring over 100 works by international artists alongside sports memorabilia—including vintage sneakers, racing equipment, and FIFA World Cup soccer balls from 1930 to 2023—the show is organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and adapted for Miami with local additions. Curated by PAMM director Franklin Sirmans and co-curator Fabiana A. Sotillo, the exhibition is divided into six thematic sections such as Fandom, Winning and Losing, and Mind and Body, aiming to make both sports and art accessible to all visitors.

In Pictures: The Highlights of the 2026 Venice Biennale

En images : les grands moments de la Biennale de Venise 2026

The 2026 Venice Biennale, titled "In Minor Keys" and curated by Koyo Kouoh, opened on May 9, 2026, at the Arsenale and Giardini venues. Kouoh, who died suddenly in May 2025 at age 57, conceived the event as a counterpoint to global noise and fury, inviting visitors to slow down and tune into minor tonalities. The exhibition features works addressing colonial memory, slavery, and Gaza, with a team of four curators executing her vision. Highlights include Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons's tribute to Kouoh and Toni Morrison, Hala Schoukair's installation, and Gabrielle Goliath's "Elegy," alongside collateral shows like the Dries van Noten Foundation at Palazzo Pisani Moretta and the Victor Pinchuk Foundation's "Still Joy – from Ukraine into the World."

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Gabrielle Bejani, a Lebanese Palestinian artist based in South London, created a new series of works in response to the November 2024 ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon that was quickly broken. The series, exhibited as "Deliberate Dreams" at Beirut's Saleh Barakat Gallery in July 2025, uses painting, drawing, and collage to process grief, anger, and guilt over the violence. Bejani incorporates everyday cultural items like bougainvillea and 20th-century Lebanese postage stamps to explore themes of land, identity, and resistance, reclaiming darkness as a source of empowerment rather than a metaphor for evil.

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Nearly a month after the theft of the French crown jewels, the Louvre Museum has announced emergency security measures following a meeting of its Board of Directors, requested by French Minister of Culture Rachida Dati and chaired by museum director Laurence des Cars. The measures span four categories: security governance, site protection, police coordination, and technical/human resources. Plans include hiring a security coordinator, installing additional cameras and anti-ram devices, conducting security audits, deploying remote monitoring equipment, increasing surveillance patrols, and boosting the training budget by 20 percent. A security master plan, estimated to cost €80 million ($92 million), will be announced next month, though the eight stolen jewels remain unrecovered and four suspects are in custody.

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Paris prosecutors have revealed that the theft of French crown jewels from the Louvre Museum was carried out by petty criminals, not organized crime professionals. Four individuals—three men and one woman—have been charged, with two of the men having multiple prior theft convictions. The heist occurred on October 19, when robbers used a cherry picker and angle grinder to steal nine pieces of jewelry worth an estimated $102 million from the Apollo Gallery. One crown belonging to Empress Eugénie was later recovered outside the museum, but eight artifacts remain missing.

Jes Chen Makes a Knock at the Door Feel Like an Accusation

London-based artist Jes Chen presents "Occupied" (2026), an interactive installation that strips AI technology down to a knock sensor, a screen, and a live AI system. Viewers knock on a door-like interface and receive varied responses—defensive, evasive, or silence—generated in real time. The work draws from Chen's childhood memory of having her bedroom door lock removed, transforming privacy and vulnerability into a behavioral system. Recent presentations at the London Design Festival, Edinburgh Fringe, and Generative Art Conference 2025 have showcased Chen's restrained, psychologically charged approach to AI art.

At Frieze London, a new section explores the flow of cultural influence between Africa and Brazil

Frieze London 2025 introduces a new curated section titled "Echoes in the Present," organized by Nigerian art historian Jareh Das. The section features eight galleries and ten artists, exploring the bidirectional cultural influences between Africa and Brazil, rooted in the history of the transatlantic slave trade. Artists such as Bunmi Agusto present works that delve into personal and collective histories, including Agusto's paintings about her great-great-grandfather, a Nigerian man sold into slavery who later returned home. The section builds on recent exhibitions like "Afro-Atlantic Histories" and "Brazil and Africa: a shared history," which have similarly examined the African diaspora's impact on Brazilian culture.

Up Close: Liang Yuanwei

Liang Yuanwei's latest painting cycle, "Pluviophile," culminated in the work "im Kugelhagel Wh·YeGrUm·Br-" (2025), exhibited at Beijing Commune in 2026. The large oil-on-linen piece, tucked at the far end of the gallery, features a burnt reddish-brown field scarred with gouged arcs and scraped-away paint that reveals a gold underlayer, creating an effect of violent impact and luminous aftermath.

Venice Biennale’s jury resigns

The entire jury of the 61st Venice Biennale, presided by Brazilian curator Solange Farkas and comprising four other curators, resigned just nine days before the exhibition's scheduled opening on 9 May 2026. The jury had announced it would not award prizes to countries whose leaders are charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court, a move widely understood to target Israel and Russia. In response, the Biennale's organisers cancelled the prize-giving ceremony and will instead award Golden Lions via a popular vote among ticketholders. The row escalated further when the Israeli representative, sculptor Belu-Simion Fainaru, accused the jury of discrimination and threatened legal action, prompting intervention from Italy's culture ministry.

Art as survival: US artists' anti-war artefacts exhibited in Tehran

An anti-war exhibition titled "Art and War" has opened at a top museum in Tehran, featuring works by American pop artists Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Indiana, and James Rosenquist. The pieces, including Rosenquist's "F-111" and Lichtenstein's "Brattata," were selected for their anti-war themes and come from the museum's major collection of American and European modern art, acquired in the 1970s by former Empress Farah Pahlavi and largely kept from public view since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The exhibition opened amid ongoing tensions and a recent ceasefire in the Middle East, with the museum director stating it was a deliberate response to current events.

What I learned from Tracey Emin about regeneration

The article reviews Tracey Emin's exhibition "A Second Life" at Tate Modern, describing the author's initial lack of aesthetic connection to the artworks—finding the paintings derivative and neon signs tacky—but ultimately being moved by the exhibition's emotional force and the artist's refusal to disguise pain, humiliation, and grief. The author notes the crowded galleries, the predominantly female audience responding with visceral emotion, and highlights the film "How It Feels" as the most impactful piece, in which Emin discusses her traumatic abortion and its effect on her self-perception.

Art Fund launches UK-wide touring programme

Art Fund has launched a UK-wide touring programme called Going Places, backed by £5.36 million from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Julia Rausing Trust. The first exhibition, *Making Her Mark: A Celebration of Women in Art*, opened at Penlee House Gallery & Museum in Penzance, featuring over 60 works from three museum collections alongside community responses. It will travel to Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum and Kirkcaldy Gallery through 2027. The programme plans 12 major touring shows over five years, with six already scheduled, including exhibitions on green spaces, journeys, radical living, art and nature, and community making.

Why this Minneapolis feminist art collective still matters 50 years later

The Women’s Art Registry of Minnesota (WARM), one of the oldest feminist art collectives in the United States, is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Founded in 1973 in Minneapolis, the collective emerged as a grassroots response to the systemic exclusion of women from mainstream galleries and museums, eventually establishing its own gallery space and a robust mentorship program that continues to support female-identifying artists today.

Her great-uncle was Jackson Pollock. Now, her fledgling gallery, Argo Fine Arts, is the talk of Paris

Samantha McCoy, the grand-niece of Jackson Pollock, has launched Argo Fine Arts, a new gallery model operating between Paris and New York. Making its high-profile debut at the 28th edition of Art Paris in the Grand Palais, the gallery is garnering attention for its impressive inventory, which includes works by Jackson Pollock, Cy Twombly, and Charles Pollock. McCoy has opted for an "ephemeral" gallery model that prioritizes artists and clients over permanent real estate, reflecting a strategic response to the current economic pressures facing traditional brick-and-mortar galleries.

Philadelphia museums are pooling resources — and telling bigger stories together

Philadelphia’s major art institutions are entering an unprecedented era of collaboration, launching a series of joint exhibitions that pool resources and collections. The centerpiece of this movement is “Bodies and Souls,” a dual-site exhibition hosted by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) and the Woodmere Art Museum featuring the contemporary art collection of Robert and Frances Coulborn Kohler. Other notable partnerships include a three-museum retrospective of sculptor Syd Carpenter and an upcoming 18-gallery initiative titled “Radical Americana” led by the Clay Studio.

First Constable 250 exhibition to open this month at Christchurch Mansion

Ipswich Borough Council has announced a major year-long celebration marking the 250th anniversary of John Constable's birth, centered at Christchurch Mansion. The program launches on March 28 with 'Constable: A Cast of Characters,' an exhibition featuring over 100 artworks and personal artifacts—including the artist's paint box and his wife's wedding ring—that explore the social circle and patrons who influenced his career. The celebration will culminate in the historic return of 'The Hay Wain' to Suffolk in July 2026, marking the first time the masterpiece will be exhibited in the county it depicts.

Comment | What is the role of art museums in times of civic stress?

The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis is navigating the civic distress caused by 'Operation Metro Surge,' a federal immigration enforcement initiative that has disrupted the lives of local artists, staff, and residents. In response to the atmosphere of fear and the shift to virtual schooling, the museum has positioned itself as a sanctuary, offering art-making kits, indigenous-led workshops, and public screenings to foster community resilience.

Five must-see works from Newcastle Art Gallery's $145 million collection

Newcastle Art Gallery has officially reopened following a four-year, $48 million expansion that more than doubles its exhibition space. The upgraded facility now features 13 galleries, allowing the institution to maintain a permanent display of its $145 million collection for the first time in its history. The reopening was marked by a massive community response, with 28,000 visitors attending the inaugural weekend festivities and the debut exhibition, "Iconic Loved Unexpected."

At London’s Freud Museum, the artist Cathie Pilkington has made a ghostly intervention

British artist Cathie Pilkington has created a new exhibition, 'Housekeeper,' at London's Freud Museum. The installation features sculptural interventions placed among Sigmund Freud's preserved study and home, channeling the spirit of the family's long-serving housekeeper, Paula Fichtl, as a 'poltergeist' subtly disrupting the order of Freud's antiquities and inserting subversive, uncanny figures.

UNT cancels prominent street artist's exhibit on campus featuring ICE-related work

The University of North Texas (UNT) abruptly canceled and removed the exhibition 'Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá' by street artist Victor 'Marka27' Quiñonez from its College of Visual Arts and Design gallery. The university terminated its loan agreement with Boston University Art Galleries, which organized the show, and covered the gallery windows with brown paper without providing a public reason for the cancellation.