This issue of Le Journal des Arts (No. 676, May 2, 2026) covers a range of visual art news: the Whitney Biennial's perceived neutrality, the increasing complexity of art taxation in 2025, an interview with Bourges mayor Yann Galut about scaling back the Bourges 2028 project, the opening of a contemporary gallery at Angers Cathedral, the abandonment of the Frigos artist site in Paris, and a profile of auctioneer Hubert L'Huillier.
The article covers several art news items from the May 2, 2026 issue of Le Journal des Arts, including the Whitney Biennial's perceived neutrality, the increasing complexity of art taxation in 2025, an interview with Bourges mayor Yann Galut about the resized Bourges 2028 project, the unveiling of a contemporary gallery at Angers Cathedral, the abandonment of the Frigos artist site in Paris, and a profile of auctioneer Hubert L'Huillier.
Christie’s New York concluded its Post-War & Contemporary Art Day Sale on November 10, 2023, generating a total of $66.3 million. The auction saw strong performance across the board, selling 85% by lot and achieving 102% of the hammer price against low estimates. High-profile works by Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Hans Hofmann led the results, contributing to a massive Marquee Week running total of over $814 million.
The CONTACT Photography Festival has announced its inaugural fundraising gala and auction, titled PICTURE THIS, to be held on February 24, 2026, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto (MOCA). The event celebrates the festival's 30th anniversary and features a high-profile auction of works by renowned artists including Edward Burtynsky, Carrie Mae Weems, and Suzy Lake. Led by auctioneer Stephen Ranger, the evening aims to secure the financial future of North America’s largest photography festival.
The Kimball Art Center in Park City, Utah, has opened two new exhibitions, “Returning To Wonder” and “All Sketches Wish To Be Real,” featuring international and local artists. Among the featured artists is Alexandra Fuller, a multidisciplinary artist whose work includes cyanotypes of wildlife and who has ties to the Sundance Film Festival—her short film “Sister Wife” was accepted at the 2009 festival. The exhibitions also include works by Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist, American artist Lia Halloran, and Utah-based artist Antra Sinha. The center will host a series of public programs, including artist talks, workshops, and a book discussion, to engage the local community.
The Alexey von Schlippe Gallery of Art at UConn Avery Point presents "Sight and Sound: Artists Consider Long Island Sound," a group exhibition curated by Richard Klein featuring 14 artists including Brechin Morgan, James Prosek, Martha Willette Lewis, and Marion Belanger. The show explores the ecology, cultural history, and geology of Long Island Sound through diverse media, with works inspired by personal experiences and scientific insights about the body of water.
Artnet Auctions is offering three prints from Andy Warhol's 1986 'Vanishing Animals' series in its Post-War and Contemporary Art sale, alongside a graphite study from his earlier 1983 'Endangered Species' portfolio. The 'Vanishing Animals' series features ten silkscreen prints of endangered species such as the California Condor and Sömmering Gazelle, executed in Warhol's signature style. The sale is open for bidding through November 20, 2025, with estimates ranging from $25,000 to $50,000 per work.
The article presents an extensive list of artworks by the avant-garde artist Man Ray, spanning from 1914 to the mid-1940s. It includes paintings, sculptures, photographs, and readymades such as "Cadeau (Gift)" (1921), "The Rope Dancer Accompanies Herself with Her Shadows" (1916), and "L’énigme d’Isidore Ducasse" (1920). Many entries are marked "Returned to lender," indicating these works were part of a loan exhibition that has now concluded, with pieces being sent back to their respective owners.
Curator Eden Deering has organized a group exhibition titled “Hope is a dangerous thing” at P·P·O·W Gallery in New York, inspired by the final track of Lana Del Rey’s 2019 album *Norman F-cking Rockwell!*. The show features artists Kyle Dunn, Raque Ford, Paul Kopkau, Diane Severin Nguyen, Kayode Ojo, Marianna Simnett, and Robin F. Williams, who were encouraged to channel their most exaggerated, ambitious, and passionate selves. On view until July 11, the exhibition blends camp humor with emotive paintings, installations, and videos, exploring themes of vulnerability, performance, and the tension between genuine emotion and theatrical self-invention.
Stephen J. Campbell, a professor of art history at Johns Hopkins University, has published a new book titled *Leonardo da Vinci: An Untraceable Life*, which he frames as an "anti-biography." The book aims to dismantle the mythology surrounding Leonardo da Vinci, arguing that the fragmentary archival record has led to speculative and often outlandish theories that portray him as a solitary genius ahead of his time. Campbell repositions Leonardo within the artistic and intellectual context of late 15th- and early 16th-century Europe, critiquing how media, the art market, and popular culture have commercialized his legacy.
Zhenya Gershman, a Moscow-born, bi-coastal painter based in New York and Los Angeles, is opening a new exhibition titled "ICU2" on May 10, the second part of her "I See You" project addressing homelessness. Gershman, who began her career at age 14 in St. Petersburg and now runs Zhenya's Art Academy, draws inspiration from subway encounters, approaching strangers to photograph them and transforming candid, imperfect shots into oil-on-canvas portraits. The exhibition follows her previous activist projects, including a portrait of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and a painting of a Ukrainian war victim that sold for $100,000 to benefit the Ukraine Red Cross.
Jeff Bezos and his wife Lauren Sánchez Bezos served as honorary co-chairs and sponsors of this year's Met Gala, sparking widespread protests and calls for boycotts. Guerrilla activist group Everyone Hates Elon plastered New York with anti-Bezos signage, and activists placed 300 bottles filled with fake urine inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art to highlight Amazon workers' bathroom break complaints. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani declined his invitation, and the absence of celebrities like Meryl Streep and Zendaya fueled speculation about a boycott, though representatives denied any coordinated protest. Despite the controversy, the gala proceeded with many attendees and is expected to raise more than last year's $31 million for the Costume Institute.
Ci sono 21 artisti a sostegno del nuovo viaggio della Global Sumud Flotilla salpata dalla Sicilia con vele dipinte
A new humanitarian mission by the Global Sumud Flotilla set sail on April 26 from Augusta, Sicily, with 59 Italian and Spanish boats heading toward Gaza. The flotilla, which follows a first attempt in September 2025 that ended with activists arrested by the Israeli military, aims to deliver humanitarian aid by early May. Twenty-one artists have joined the initiative, called Vele d'Arte, painting the sails of the boats with symbolic artworks. Among the participating artists are Gio Pistone, Antonio Curcio, Escif, Lydia Giordano, Glenda Costa, Millo, Elia Novecento, MP5, Matteo Todeschini, Alleg, Sam3, Okuda, Antonella Santonocito, Fabrizio Foti, Igor Scalisi Palmiteri, Andrea Sposari, and Salvo Ligama. The project was conceived by Carlo Alberto Giardina, who hopes the energy painted on the sails will transform into positive forces.
Saad Khan, a New York-based archivist, has developed Khajistan, an expansive digital and physical archive dedicated to preserving censored and overlooked mass media from South Asia to the Maghreb. The collection features a diverse array of ephemera, including homoerotic imagery, working-class street posters, and banned magazines that are often erased from official cultural records. By documenting everything from WhatsApp forwards to vintage film posters, Khan creates a space where the lived experiences of queer, trans, and working-class individuals in these regions are validated and archived.
The 2026 ZEKE award winners have been announced, with Ginevra Bonina winning the award for systemic change for her project 'Out for Blood,' which documents period poverty in India and the women fighting to reclaim their bodies. Ebrahim Alipoor won the award for documentary photography for his long-term project 'Bullets Have No Borders,' capturing the lives of border porters carrying goods across the Iran-Iraq mountains.
A new exhibition titled "Sacred Spaces: Visions of the West from the Prosaic to the Sublime" has opened at The Art Museum of Eastern Idaho in Idaho Falls, featuring works by six contemporary artists—David Dibble, Bryan Mark Taylor, Josh Clare, Allie Zeyer, Louisa Lorenz, and Carson Thompson. The show, curated by museum Executive Director Alexa Stanger, focuses on the agricultural landscapes of the American West, portraying farms, ranches, and working spaces not as scenic backdrops but as living environments shaped by labor, memory, and generational stewardship. It runs through July 3.
The Art Museum of Eastern Idaho in Rexburg will open a new exhibition titled "Sacred Spaces: Visions of the West from the Prosaic to the Sublime" this Friday. The show features works by six contemporary artists from Idaho and Utah—David Dibble, Bryan Mark Taylor, Josh Clare, Allie Zeyer, Louisa Lorenz, and Carson Thompson—primarily in oil paintings, alongside historic farm photographs from the Museum of Idaho and private collection photos from executive director Alexa Stanger. Free public events include an Art Walk on Thursday, an opening reception on Friday with an audio tour featuring artists' voices, and art demos with a Q&A on Saturday.
Die Biennale muss offen bleiben – auch für Russland
The article argues against calls to exclude Russia from the Venice Biennale, focusing on the controversy surrounding the Russian pavilion's planned exhibition titled "Der Baum ist im Himmel verwurzelt" (The Tree Is Rooted in Heaven). The pavilion is set to feature musicians from Russia, Argentina, Mali, and Mexico, and its theme revolves around the idea that politics is time-bound. The author contends that while the demand to exclude Russia is understandable given the geopolitical context, it is dangerous because once a biennial begins disinviting states, it undermines the very concept of the international exhibition.
Moroccan artist M’barek Bouhchichi presents 'Les mains des poètes' at Foundation H in Antananarivo, Madagascar, running until 17 October 2026. The exhibition stems from a residency in Madagascar where Bouhchichi collaborated with local artisans—blacksmiths, weavers, ceramists, and musicians—to create works that resist singular authorship. Central to the show is the revival of sorabe, the Arabico-Malagasy script, treated as an embodied, gestural practice rather than fixed writing.
The Euclid Art Association will hold its next meeting on May 4 at the East Shore United Methodist Church in Euclid, Ohio, featuring a demonstration by artist Kerry Cumpstone. Cumpstone, who created the "Spiral Series" of 130 animal drawings, will showcase her technique; many of her subjects are endangered species. The article also announces the Lake Metroparks' 39th annual amateur photo contest, with entries accepted through May 31 at Penitentiary Glen Reservation.
Latika Sridhar, a Needham native and former design engineer, is preparing for her first solo art exhibition titled "Strange Mirror," opening May 9 at Established Gallery in Brooklyn. The show features work she has created over the past two years since leaving her engineering career to focus on painting, following a fine arts summer intensive at the Pratt Institute. Her art explores themes of internal complexity, human emotion, and her own mental health journey, with the exhibition running for a month.
This article is a local arts calendar listing current and upcoming exhibitions in the Fort Wayne, Indiana area. It highlights new shows such as "Grounded in Light" featuring Julie Wall at the Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory, "Summer Selections" of student work at Purdue University Fort Wayne's Visual Arts Gallery, and "Archetypes" by printmaker Chuck Sperry at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art. Also listed are ongoing exhibitions including the "46th National Print Exhibition" at Artlink, a tribute to late ceramic artist Tom Sherbondy at Ruth Koomler Art Gallery, and several other shows at venues like the Orchard Gallery, Allen County Public Library, Garrett Museum of Art, and Honeywell Center.
Des précisions sur les œuvres des musées français à Abu Dhabi
French museums and cultural institutions, including the Louvre, Versailles, the Centre Pompidou (Beaubourg), and the Musée d'Orsay, are refusing to disclose which specific artworks from their collections are currently on loan and on display at the Louvre Abu Dhabi. This lack of transparency occurs despite heightened regional security risks, including the threat of Iranian strikes. The French Ministry of Culture claims it is in close contact with UAE authorities to ensure the protection of the loaned works.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) has reportedly removed educational content and canceled programming to avoid potential conflict with the Trump administration. Former employees allege that the museum preemptively scrubbed web pages linking Jim Crow laws to Nazi-era policies and rebranded or canceled workshops on the "fragility of democracy" to avoid being labeled as "woke." While the museum claims these decisions were based on funding challenges, internal records show a significant increase in net assets during the same period.
Climate change is accelerating the degradation of archaeological sites worldwide, forcing archaeologists to make urgent, difficult choices about what to save. From thawing permafrost in the Canadian Arctic threatening Inuit heritage to landslides endangering ancient Buddhist temples in Nepal, researchers are now deploying innovative technologies like ground-penetrating radar, 3D scanning, and even cosmic-ray muon detectors to digitally document and monitor at-risk sites before they are lost.
Artnet News revisits a podcast episode featuring editor-in-chief Naomi Rea, who examines the breakdown of traditional art pricing logic amid a cooling market. The episode explores how the rules that once governed art valuation have eroded, leaving dealers, advisors, and collectors struggling to navigate a market described as being in a "danger zone." Rea discusses how mega-galleries, emerging dealers, and advisors are quietly recalibrating their strategies as speculation dries up and confidence wanes.
Feria Material, a satellite art fair to Mexico City's Zona Maco, is moving its venue just six weeks before its February 5–8 edition. The fair will relocate from Expo Reforma to Maravilla Studios, a renovated historic factory in Colonia Atlampa, because Expo Reforma is hosting "Stranger Things: The Experience," a Netflix immersive activation, through the end of February. Material cofounder Brett W. Schultz told ARTnews that the fair exhausted all options to stay at Expo Reforma but faced limited venue options and skyrocketing rental prices in Mexico City. Maravilla Studios offered a similar price and features a single-level layout with high ceilings, polished concrete floors, and outdoor spaces, which the fair's production team sees as an improvement over the previous two-floor, carpeted venue.
A restoration of the Madonna and Child statue atop Notre-Dame de la Garde in Marseille has revealed seven bullet holes from Nazi gunfire during World War II. The 37-foot-tall copper and iron statue, known as the Bonne Mère, was shot after the city's liberation in 1944, when German artillery units fired on the church, piercing the bell tower, breaking stained-glass windows, and destroying the ceiling mosaic. The bullet holes were discovered near the end of a five-year restoration that included re-gilding and the installation of a new crown via helicopter.
Heritage experts, international officials, and Syrian residents gathered in Switzerland for the first comprehensive conference on restoring the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra since the end of Bashar Al Assad's regime. Organized by UNESCO and the Aliph Foundation, the group recommended establishing an international expert task force to remove Palmyra from UNESCO's List of World Heritage in Danger. Rehabilitation efforts will focus on the Palmyra museum, restoration of artifacts at the Damascus Museum, and repair of the footbridge, with work expected to begin in January 2026.
Protesters stormed the campus of the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) in Benin City, Nigeria, on Sunday, just hours before its first preview events were set to begin. Demonstrators entered through a gate after being denied access, hurling insults at foreign guests and journalists. All preview events have been canceled and the public opening postponed. The museum attributed the unrest to disputes between previous and current state administrations, while local residents claimed anger over the perceived hijacking of a local initiative, with the Oba of Benin reportedly unhappy about the project.