The Studio Museum in Harlem will reopen in November 2025 after a major renovation and expansion designed by Adjaye Associates. The new building, located on West 125th Street, will feature increased gallery space, a sculpture garden, and improved public amenities. The reopening marks the culmination of a multi-year capital project that began during the museum's temporary closure.
Saatchi Yates gallery in London has opened an exhibition titled 'London Rules The World,' running until August 17, which celebrates the city's influence on the global art scene. The show features prominent artists such as Jenny Saville, Grayson Perry, Cecily Brown, Peter Doig, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, alongside ancillary events like afternoon tea at the Royal Academy of Arts, a Paula Rego studio tour, and a tea-towel collaboration with interior designer Nicky Haslam. The gallery is also launching a Friends scheme for £80 per month, which includes entry to gallery parties and a case of wine from their Tuscan vineyard.
The British Museum's exhibition "Hiroshige: Artist of the Open Road" (through September 7) showcases over 100 prints by the Japanese master Utagawa Hiroshige, including rare loans that highlight his influence on European avant-garde artists. A key display is Vincent van Gogh's own copy of Hiroshige's "The Plum Garden at Kameido" (1857), on loan from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, along with Van Gogh's squared-up tracing used for his painting. New research by British Museum senior scientist Capucine Korenberg reveals a short pencil line on the print that confirms Van Gogh used this exact copy as a guide for his tracing and subsequent painting.
The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York has opened "Amy Sherald: American Sublime," the largest exhibition of the artist's work and her first solo museum show in the city. Featuring over 40 paintings created between 2007 and 2024, the exhibition includes iconic portraits of Michelle Obama and Breonna Taylor, as well as works inspired by Alfred Eisenstaedt's famous photograph and filmmaker Wes Anderson. The show is organized chronologically, beginning with the rarely seen "Hangman" (2007), and includes "If You Surrendered to the Air, You Could Ride It" (2020), shown for the first time since its acquisition by the Whitney five years ago.
Amy Sherald has withdrawn her exhibition 'American Sublime' from the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, citing a 'culture of censorship' after the museum raised concerns about including her painting 'Trans Forming Liberty' (2024), a portrait of a trans woman posed like the Statue of Liberty. The show, slated to open in September, would have been the first solo exhibition of a Black female artist at the museum since it opened in 1968. Sherald stated that institutional fear shaped by political hostility toward trans lives influenced the museum's request to remove the work, and she decided to cancel the show to preserve the integrity of her vision.
Martin Bailey, a leading Van Gogh specialist, reveals that the distinctive rock formation known as Le Rocher des Deux Trous (The Rock of the Two Holes), which appears in two of Vincent van Gogh's paintings—The Olive Trees (June 1889) and Mountains at Saint-Rémy (July 1889)—is a real geological feature near the asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, not a figment of the artist's imagination. The two paintings, held by the Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, were recently displayed together at London's National Gallery exhibition Van Gogh: Poets & Lovers (14 September 2024–19 January 2025), offering a rare chance to compare them. Bailey traces the history of the formation, noting that an anonymous 17th-century artist also depicted it, and describes a walking route from the former asylum to the site.
Raúl de Nieves's first solo institutional show in New York City, titled "In Light of Innocence," has opened at Pioneer Works. The exhibition transforms the Main Hall into an immersive, cathedral-like environment featuring 50 faux stained glass panels, a monumental lightbox mural, and works that blend Catholic, Mexican folkloric, and tarot symbolism. The artist uses humble materials like paper, wood, glue, tape, and colored acetate to create kaleidoscopic, light-responsive installations that shift throughout the day.
The article provides a roundup of current and upcoming exhibitions at San Francisco museums and galleries in July 2025. Highlights include 'People Make This Place: SFAI Stories' opening July 26 at SFMOMA, 'Jess Young: Return' at 500 Capp Street, and 'Ferlinghetti for San Francisco' at the Legion of Honor. Shows closing soon include 'Yuan Goang-Ming: Everyday War' at the Asian Art Museum and 'Wayne Thiebaud: Art Comes from Art' at the Legion of Honor. The gallery scene is covered with mentions of Voss Gallery, Incline Gallery, and Hosfelt Gallery, along with ongoing exhibitions like 'Kunié Sugiura: Photopainting' and 'Ruth Asawa: Retrospective' at SFMOMA.
-Jenny-Saville,-Courtesy-Gagosian.jpg)
The National Portrait Gallery in London is hosting a major exhibition of Jenny Saville's work, titled "Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting," running from 20 June to 7 September 2025. The show brings together some of Saville's most monumental paintings, including works like "Hyphen" (1999) and "Reverse" (2002-03), drawn from private collections and courtesy of Gagosian. The article traces Saville's career from her early days as a committed child artist, through her studies at Glasgow School of Art and the University of Cincinnati, to her breakthrough when collector Charles Saatchi purchased her entire degree show in 1992, enabling her to create large-scale works for a solo exhibition.
Art Basel has announced details for its inaugural edition in Qatar, set to take place from February 5 to 7, 2026, at the M7 creative hub in Doha's Design District. Departing from the traditional booth model, the fair will introduce an open-format exhibition centered on the theme 'Becoming,' with solo presentations by galleries responding to a central curatorial framework. Egyptian-born artist Wael Shawky has been appointed Artistic Director for the first edition, working alongside Art Basel's Chief Artistic Officer Vincenzo de Bellis to shape the curatorial vision and guide gallery selection. The fair will span two key venues—M7 and the Doha Design District—as well as public sites in Msheireb, and plans include transforming Qatar Museum's Fire Station into a platform for educational programs.
The Yorkshire Sculpture Park has opened "William Kentridge: The Power of Gravity," the first major survey of the South African artist's sculptural work outside his home country. The exhibition spans multiple decades and includes large-scale film installations, about three dozen sculptures, and four of his largest bronzes to date. It features pieces like the "Singer Trio" (2019) and works from his film series "Self-Portrait as a Coffee-Pot" (2023), with exhibition design by his long-term collaborator Sabine Theunissen.
Art on Location 2025 is an initiative that brings contemporary art installations to public spaces across multiple cities, transforming everyday environments into immersive artistic experiences. The program features site-specific works by emerging and established artists, aiming to make art accessible outside traditional gallery settings.
William Kentridge, the South African artist known for his multidisciplinary practice, has created a new film series titled "Self-Portrait as a Coffee-Pot" (2020–2024), comprising nine half-hour segments. The work, which features his signature blend of drawing, animation, performance, and music, is currently on view at Hauser & Wirth's 22nd Street gallery in New York under the exhibition "A Natural History of the Studio." The article explores Kentridge's improvisational process, where he starts without a plan and lets gestures and materials guide him, often interviewing himself in the film to dramatize the artist's dual nature and the act of creation.
The Baltimore Museum of Art has opened "Black Earth Rising," an exhibition organized by British curator and writer Ekow Eshun. The show brings together thirteen African diasporic, Latin American, and Indigenous artists—including Frank Bowling, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Yinka Shonibare, Wangechi Mutu, Alejandro Piñeiro Bello, Firelei Baez, and Tyler Mitchell—to explore the connections between race, colonialism, and the climate crisis. Eshun also authored an accompanying book that pivots environmental debates away from a Eurocentric viewpoint, emphasizing that the Global South bears the brunt of climate change despite being least responsible for it. The exhibition critiques the term "Anthropocene" and instead promotes the concept of the "Plantationocene," which traces environmental destruction back to 15th-century European colonization and the plantation system.
This episode of 'A brush with...' features artist Hew Locke, who discusses his career and artistic practice. Born in Edinburgh in 1959 to artists Donald and Leila Locke, he moved to Guyana as a child and returned to the UK to study art in 1980. Over three decades, Locke has created sculptures, installations, photographs, drawings, and textiles exploring nationhood, culture, and power, often using found objects and cardboard. He reflects on influences including his parents, a tutorial with Paula Rego, and Hans Haacke's 1993 Venice Biennale pavilion, and discusses his upcoming exhibitions: 'Gilt' at Compton Verney (2025-2027), 'Passages' at the Yale Center for British Art (2025-2026), 'Armada' at Newlyn Art Gallery, and 'Cargoes' at King Edward Memorial Park.
The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) has acquired 210 photographs by Ukrainian American photographer Peter Hujar (1934-87) from the Hujar Archive. The acquisition coincides with the gallery’s photography department preparing for its 25th anniversary exhibition, Collective Visions: Celebrating 25 Years of Photography, opening November 7, which will feature around 80 works chosen by the local community. The exhibition uses a unique chain-selection process where local artists, collectors, donors, community leaders, and scholars pick works in sequence, each inspired by the previous choice.
This article from Mission Local provides a roundup of current and upcoming exhibitions at San Francisco museums and galleries in June 2025. Highlights include the reopening of 500 Capp Street with "Mildred Howard Collaborating with the Muses Part 2" and a forthcoming show celebrating the 50th anniversary of Ant Farm's "Media Burn." At the de Young Museum, Henri Matisse's "Jazz Unbound" closes July 6, Isaac Julien's first U.S. retrospective runs until July 13, and Paul McCartney's photography exhibition has been extended to October. SFMOMA's "Around Group f.64" closes July 13, and the Asian Art Museum features "Yuan Goang-Ming: Everyday War" through August 4. The piece also notes Ashley Voss's local gallery guide and a Q&A with Isaac Julien.
In early 1945, during the Dutch 'Hunger Winter' at the end of World War II, Vincent van Gogh's nephew, Vincent Willem van Gogh, exchanged two of the artist's drawings for 35 packets of butter and some bacon. The swap was arranged with the help of artist Charley Toorop and involved the cheese business Visser Kaas in Heiloo. One of the drawings, *Head of a Peasant Woman, left profile* (December 1884–May 1885), is now being offered at Sotheby's on 25 June with an estimate of £400,000–£600,000, suggesting the pair would be worth around £1 million today. The nephew's family was suffering from starvation and tragedy, including the execution of his eldest son by German forces.
The article highlights nine must-see museum exhibitions across the United States for summer 2025, offering escapes from heat and virtual travel through art. Featured shows include "Lisa Yuskavage: Drawings" at the Morgan Library and Museum (June 27, 2025–January 4, 2026), the first comprehensive museum presentation of her drawings; "Gustave Caillebotte: Painting His World" at the Art Institute of Chicago (June 29–October 5, 2025), featuring over 120 works including the recent Musée d'Orsay acquisition *Boating Party*; and "Anicka Yi" at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (June 29–September 7, 2025), showcasing the bio-tech artist's imaginative works on karmic debt.
Post-Minimalist sculptor Joel Shapiro died on 14 June in Manhattan at age 83 from acute myeloid leukemia. Best known for vibrant, humanoid sculptures built from wooden beams that balance abstraction and figuration, Shapiro completed over 30 public commissions, including *Loss and Regeneration* (1993) at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. His career began with fingerprint drawings that caught gallerist Paula Cooper's attention, leading to a 1982 mid-career retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art. He later showed at Pace Gallery and other major venues, with his most recent solo exhibition at Pace in New York in September 2024.
Art Basel's 2025 edition in Basel features a packed program across the city, including a new Shop with exclusive drops like a limited-edition porcelain Labubu by Kasing Lung, an FC Basel jersey designed by an artist, and rare prints by Daniel Arsham and Amoako Boafo. Highlights include Jordan Wolfson at Fondation Beyeler, Dala Nasser at Kunsthalle Basel, a ghost train by Rebecca Moss and Augustin Rebetez at Museum Tinguely, and the group show Maison Clearing organized by C L E A R I N G. Joyce Joumaa presents a light-based installation at Art Basel Statements, Thomas Bayrle's 1960s installation Coats appears in Parcours, and Alia Farid shows at Unlimited.
Artist Arlene Shechet discusses her dual role as creator and collector in an interview with The Art Newspaper ahead of Art Basel. She is installing her welded aluminum sculpture *Midnight* (2024) in the fair's Unlimited section, a work originally commissioned for her show at Storm King Art Center. Shechet reveals that she uses a portion of her sales to buy works by other artists, citing pieces by Fred Sandback, Barry Le Va, Joan Jonas, Kinke Kooi, and Marlon Mullen in her collection. She also mentions a regret over not purchasing a Louise Bourgeois drawing for $5,000 and names a medieval Book of Hours as her dream museum acquisition.
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York has opened "Jack Whitten: The Messenger," the first full-scale retrospective of the pioneering abstract artist Jack Whitten (1939-2018). The exhibition features over 175 works spanning six decades, including paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, alongside archival materials. Whitten, known for his inventive techniques such as using squeegees, rakes, and Afro combs to manipulate paint, explored themes of race, identity, history, and technology. Key works include "Birmingham 1964," inspired by the 1963 church bombing, and "9.11.01," responding to the September 11 attacks. The show runs from March 23 to August 2, 2025, exclusively at MoMA.
Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger has opened a two-room exhibition dedicated to Basel native Irène Zurkinden (1909-87), her first major hometown show since the 1980s. The exhibition spans portraits, self-portraits, still-lifes, landscapes, drawings, and several sketchbooks on public view for the first time. Zurkinden studied fashion illustration in Basel before finishing her training at Paris’s Académie de la Grande Chaumière, inspired by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. She lived between Paris and Basel and was close friends with Meret Oppenheim, whose portrait by Zurkinden, Meret à l’orange (1932-35), is in Kunstmuseum Basel’s permanent collection and included in the show.
Photographer Cindy Sherman has launched the Cindy Sherman Legacy Project (CSLP), a formal initiative to preserve her photographic works by offering to destroy and replace damaged prints with new, artist-approved reprints. The project, announced on June 16, includes condition assessments, a controlled replacement process, and an online catalogue raisonné. Collectors can submit works for evaluation at a New York facility; eligible prints are destroyed and replaced with mint-condition reprints signed by Sherman, with a $10,000 administrative fee plus production costs. The fee is waived for non-profit institutions.
Sotheby's has released renderings of its upcoming renovation of Marcel Breuer's former Whitney Museum building at 945 Madison Avenue, which it purchased for $100 million in June 2023. The auction house plans to open in the autumn, in time for its November sales. Renovations, led by Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron, include a new service elevator, upgraded lighting and climate systems, and restored gallery floorplans, while preserving the building's landmark-protected exterior and many interior spaces. Charles Simonds's site-specific installation Dwellings (1981) will remain on long-term loan from the Whitney.
Conservator Margje Leeuwestein has examined Vincent van Gogh's "Bridge at Arles (Pont de Langlois)" (March 1888) at the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo to confirm it is fit for travel. The painting will be the centerpiece of an exhibition touring three Japanese cities in 2027. The article details the painting's history, including Van Gogh's intended gift to Hermanus Tersteeg of the Goupil gallery, a later-scraped dedication, and a rare 1929 photograph of the bridge by Johannes Reiher that mirrors the composition.
A new nonprofit venue for durational art, Canyon, will open on Manhattan's Lower East Side in 2026. Founded by philanthropist Robert Rosenkranz through the Rosenkranz Foundation, the 40,000-square-foot adaptive reuse space is overseen by Joe Thompson, founding director of Mass MoCA. Designed by architecture firm New Affiliates, Canyon will feature 18,000 square feet of galleries for video and audio, a 60-foot-tall central plaza, a 300-seat performance hall, bars, a cafe, and a restaurant. Cass Fino-Radin joins as director of art and technology, with Sam Ozer as curator-at-large. Planned programming includes a retrospective of Ryoji Ikeda and a group exhibition curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist titled "Worldbuilding."
The article examines the enduring dominance of painting in the art world, despite repeated predictions of its demise. It cites record-breaking sales—Leonardo's *Salvator Mundi* ($450m), Jasper Johns's *Flag* ($110m), and Marlene Dumas's *Miss January* ($13.6m)—and highlights the upcoming Jenny Saville survey at the National Portrait Gallery in London. The Turner Prize shortlist includes painter Mohammed Sami, whose work *Poor Folk II* sold for $571,500 at Sotheby's, far exceeding estimates. Exhibitions like *Painting after Painting* at SMAK in Ghent and *R U Still Painting???* in New York explore how artists continue to use the medium, with curators and market figures affirming painting's resilience.
The UAE's art market is experiencing a resurgence nearly two decades after the 2008 financial crash, driven by a booming economy and strategic investments. Key developments include an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund, ADQ, acquiring a $1 billion stake in Sotheby's, and Art Basel announcing a new fair in Doha, Qatar, set to launch in February 2026. Meanwhile, Christie's is expanding its Dubai office, and Saudi Arabia hosted its inaugural Art Week Riyadh in April, featuring 32 commercial galleries. Despite these regional moves, Dubai remains the Gulf's commercial art hub, with Sotheby's chairman Edward Gibbs noting a 70% increase in regional bidders over five years and Christie's president Anthea Peers reporting that sales of modern Middle Eastern art trebled between 2020 and 2024.