A new gallery called Solvang Fine Art has opened at 482 First Street in Solvang, California, specializing in historic fine prints by American and European artists like Rembrandt and Salvador Dalí. It will also feature contemporary landscape paintings by prominent California artists, particularly those from the Central Coast.
Artist Ruben Ochoa has returned to the UC Irvine campus with "Class C," a mobile art gallery housed inside a converted 1985 Chevy delivery van. The pop-up exhibition features works by UCI-affiliated artists Sean Duffy, Beatrice von Rague Schleyer, and André Woodward, showcasing contemporary art within a space that mimics a traditional white-cube gallery. The project is presented in coordination with the exhibition "Breakdown/Breakthrough: Art and Infrastructure" at the Langson IMCA.
Los Angeles Modern Auctions (LAMA) held a Post-War & Contemporary Art sale featuring the private collection of Roberta and Fletcher Benton. The auction, hosted in partnership with Artsy, showcased 121 lots including significant works by California-centric artists such as John Mason, Claire Falkenstein, Peter Alexander, and Mel Ramos. Notable items included Bernar Venet’s steel sculptures, Judy Kensley McKie’s design pieces, and a series of artist-made jewelry by figures like Sonia Delaunay and Billy Al Bengston.
Blunk Space gallery in Point Reyes Station, California, is presenting '100 Candleholders', an exhibition running from 17 January to 28 March 2026. The show features 100 artists and designers from around the world—including Max Lamb, Bethan Laura Wood, Ido Yoshimoto, and Jonathan Cross—each invited to create a candleholder inspired by the late sculptor JB Blunk, his work, or his self-built home and studio, Blunk House. This is the second installment in the '100' series, following '100 Hooks' in 2023-24, and takes its cue from Blunk's own 1981 exhibition '100 Plates Plus', which explored the artistic potential of everyday objects.
The 34th Coors Western Art Exhibit & Sale held its Red Carpet Reception on Thursday night, drawing over 1,000 guests to its new venue on the second floor of The Legacy, the recently completed $100 million headquarters of the National Western Stock Show. The 2026 show features 93 participating artists and 354 works, including wildlife, landscape, sculpture, and plastics, with a sales goal exceeding $1 million to benefit the National Western Scholarship Trust. Featured artist Logan Maxwell Hagege of Ojai, California, presents works such as "Springtime in the Rockies" ($85,000) and "Indigo Stripes" ($18,500), while his piece "Hopeless Dreamer" was purchased for the Stock Show's Permanent Collection.
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.
John Moran Auctioneers in California is hosting a major Art + Design sale on September 30, 2025, featuring over 350 lots of fine and decorative art, furniture, couture, and Asian antiques. Highlights include works by Richard Diebenkorn (Ochre, 1983), Davood Roostaei (Perennial Struggles, 2021), Alice Baber (The Swing and the Bridge, 1970), Wang Guangyi (Grace Family, 2004), and Wolf Kahn (Foliage in a Lemon-Yellow Surround, 2004), spanning Abstract Expressionism, Political Pop, and Color Field painting.
The Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis has opened its largest-ever exhibition, "Making Their Mark: Works from the Shah Garg Collection." The show features over 80 works by nearly 70 artists, with a focus on women artists and artists of color. A centerpiece is a monumental diptych by Joan Mitchell, her last completed work before her death in 1992. The exhibition, which previously traveled from New York City to Berkeley, California, will be on view through January 5.
A new immersive art exhibition titled 'Black Gold: Stories Untold' opens at Fort Point in San Francisco, featuring 25 commissioned works by 17 artists that uncover the overlooked histories of Black Californians from the Gold Rush through Reconstruction. Curated by FOR-SITE, a nonprofit focused on art and place, the exhibition transforms the Civil War-era military fort into a multi-sensory space with beaded portraits, video installations, sculptures, and a tent installation by artist Umar Rashid. Works include Cheryl Derricotte's tribute to Mary Ellen Pleasant, a formerly enslaved woman who became a wealthy abolitionist.
As the art market continues to experience softer demand for a third summer, galleries in the US and the Americas are rethinking the traditional August break. Dealers like Wendi Norris (San Francisco), Omayra Alvarado-Jensen (Instituto de Visión, Bogotá and Manhattan), Pali Kashi (Europa, New York), and Davida Nemeroff (Night Gallery, Los Angeles) describe varied approaches: some remain open to meet traveling collectors, others close for weeks to regroup, and many launch offsite pop-ups to maintain momentum. There is no industry consensus, with decisions shaped by geography, cultural heritage, and collector migration patterns.
Artist Lizzie Zelter has installed a new large-scale mural titled "Southeast Exchange" in La Jolla, California, as part of the Murals of La Jolla public art initiative. The composition is based on the artist's observations of a discount store in Brownsville, Texas, featuring a dense array of consumer goods and reflective surfaces that explore themes of domestic arrangement and cultural artifacts. The work is designed to be read from right to left, mimicking the flow of pedestrian traffic and challenging traditional visual perspectives.
The Pence Gallery has been named the "Best Art Gallery" in the Readers’ Choice 2026 awards, celebrating its 50-year legacy as a regional arts leader in Davis, California. The gallery hosts between 15 and 20 contemporary exhibitions annually across various media, attracting over 20,000 visitors with its commitment to free admission and community-focused programming.
The City of Irvine is opening two new exhibitions at the Irvine Fine Arts Center on November 15, 2025: "Swing Shift" and "Alisa Ochoa: Splinters." Swing Shift is an interdisciplinary group show featuring nine artists exploring labor in its various forms—formal, informal, domestic, and industrial—through video, sculpture, drawings, and poetic interventions. Alisa Ochoa: Splinters presents new video and ceramic works by the Orange County-based artist, reflecting on memory, love, loss, and renewal. A free public reception will be held on opening day.
The Center for Creative Works (CCW) and Haverford College's Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery have partnered to present LOOK HERE, a multisensory exhibition highlighting the work of neurodivergent artists. The show features six CCW artists—Kelly Brown, Cindy Gosselin, Clyde Henry, Tim Quinn, Brandon Spicer-Crawley, and Allen Yu—and is curated by Jennifer Gilbert alongside CCW artists Mary T. Bevlock and Paige Donovan. The exhibition includes accessible design elements such as braille, ASL videos, touch panels, sensory backpacks, and tours led by neurodivergent artists. Two satellite exhibitions, LOOK THERE at Haverford's VCAM gallery and LOOK EVERYWHERE at Philadelphia's Atelier Gallery, run concurrently, along with the sixth annual Creating Community Symposium, which brings together progressive art studios from across the US.
Loyola Marymount University’s Laband Art Gallery is presenting “Seeing Chicanx: The Durón Family Collection,” a fall 2025 exhibition on view from September 25 to December 6. Curated by scholar Karen Mary Davalos, the show features nearly 50 works by Chicanx artists from Southern California, drawn from the private collection of alumni Armando Durón and Mary Salinas Durón. The exhibition spans the 1970s to the present, including paintings, drawings, photography, and sculptures by artists such as Roberto Gutierrez, Judy Baca, Chaz Bójorquez, Gilbert “Maju” Luján, and Shizu Saldamando. Originally shown at the Monterey Museum of Art in 2024, the traveling exhibition aims to challenge stereotypes and provide a visual history of the Chicanx art scene in Los Angeles.
The Oceanside Museum of Art (OMA) and the California Surf Museum (CSM) are partnering for the first time to host a dual-venue exhibition titled “Surf Art: Exploring California’s Coastal Culture.” OMA’s exhibit opens August 23 and CSM’s on September 13, featuring works including Kevin Short’s 2004 oil painting “Crosstown Traffic.” The collaboration aims to merge OMA’s art expertise with CSM’s deep surf history, with OMA investing about $25,000 and CSM about $10,000. The project has been in development for a year and includes a themed popup in OMA’s gift store.
Studio Shop Gallery is presenting "Roland Petersen at 100: A Life in Painting," a major retrospective honoring the centennial of Bay Area Figurative artist Roland Petersen. The exhibition opens May 8, 2026, with a black-tie reception and runs through May 30, 2026, featuring works spanning eight decades from early 1950s abstractions to a painting completed in 2026.
The California Museum in Sacramento plans to remove labor leader Cesar Chavez from its California Hall of Fame. This unprecedented action follows a New York Times investigation detailing allegations that Chavez sexually abused multiple girls and engaged in misconduct with women in the United Farm Workers movement during the 1970s.
Brea Gallery in Brea, California, opened its 41st annual "Made in California" juried art exhibition on Saturday, featuring over 90 artists from across the state. The show includes a range of mediums such as oil paintings, sculptures, and mixed media, with jurors selecting works from roughly 5,000 submissions. This year's exhibition explores themes of identity and social justice, with pieces like Angel Lesnikowski's "Othered Existence" addressing Arab identity and conflict, and Adam Singer's "Big Feelings" reflecting on aging and mortality in Los Angeles. A solo installation by Lorena Molina, "This must be the place," draws on her Salvadoran heritage and the immigrant experience.
The inaugural Ripple Effect Arts Festival will take place April 16–26 across Santa Cruz County, featuring 11 days of performances, exhibitions, workshops, and interactive events spanning visual art, music, dance, theater, film, fashion, and spoken word. The festival includes two concurrent exhibitions at M.K. Contemporary Art in downtown Santa Cruz: 'The Anatomy of Wonder: Photo Sculptures' by Michael Garlington and 'Rochambeau' featuring eight local and Bay Area artists. Major hubs include Santa Cruz and Watsonville, with a grand finale near the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk featuring musician Helado Negro.
Art of the Vineyard Tasting Gallery has opened in downtown Paso Robles, California, at 840 13th Street. The 1,500-square-foot venue combines estate wine tasting from Carmody McKnight Wines with curated fine art exhibitions, live music, open mic nights, and hands-on creative activities like sip-and-paint sessions and artist-led workshops. The gallery features works by local, national, and international artists, including original pieces by Gary Conway, and offers a Collectors Club with wine shipments and limited-edition prints.
The Malibu Arts Commission is launching "Heading Home," a solo exhibition of original paintings by local artist Gay Summer Rick at the Malibu City Gallery. The show, which opens with a public reception on March 22, features Rick’s signature atmospheric landscapes that blend impressionism with expressive abstraction. Her work focuses on capturing the luminous light and coastal beauty of the California shoreline using palette knife techniques.
Local artist Susan Ballenger has won a Juror Award in the Contemporary category of the PBS KVIE Art Auction for her acrylic painting "Underwater Rocks." Her work will be among over 270 original pieces featured in the 44th annual Art Auction, broadcast live on KVIE Channel 6 and streamed online from October 3–5, 2025. The event allows viewers to bid on artwork, with proceeds supporting PBS KVIE’s local productions and outreach programs. Ballenger previously won an award in the same auction in 2021 for her piece "Reach for the Heights."
Tehran-based O Gallery is participating in The Armory Show in New York for the first time, but US sanctions imposed in 2019 have forced the fair to remove the gallery's Tehran location from its website and refrain from promoting its presence. The gallery's name was briefly removed from the exhibitor list before being reinstated, and its location is only noted on signage at the Javits Center. Founder Orkideh Daroodi, a US citizen living in California, describes the participation as a milestone after years of work, despite challenges including currency devaluation, shipping costs, and bureaucratic hurdles. Two other Iranian galleries—Sarai and Dastan Gallery—are also exhibiting, listed online as having multiple locations.
The Center for Creativity in Redwood City, California, is launching a new fall series called Art+Sound on Broadway, held on three Sunday afternoons in September and October 2025. The series combines live concerts by local musicians, a juried visual arts exhibition titled "Art of the Community: Redwood City 2025," and hands-on art-making activities led by local artists. Performers include Alex and Maya Valdivia, Melissa Modifer, Andy Z, The Corner Laughers, Ol' Blue Genes, and Redwood Souls, while artists such as Elizabeth Gomez, Gadget, and Corinne Feldman lead community workshops. The series is funded by a grant from the Redwood City Arts Commission and takes place on a pedestrian-only block of Broadway outside the historic Hotel Sequoia, where the Center for Creativity is temporarily housed until 2027.
The LAX Art Program, operated by Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), has issued a call for muralists to create large-scale artworks for display in the terminals of Los Angeles International Airport. Up to ten finalists will be selected and awarded commissions ranging from $14,000 to $38,000, with murals to be installed for a minimum of two years. The initiative, part of the broader Meet Me at the Mural project, is open to professional artists, artist teams, and curators residing in Southern California, with proposals due by July 30, 2025.
The Cali Life Gallery in Cardiff, California, is holding its grand opening on July 26, featuring a joint exhibition by local artists Rosemary KimBal and Raymond Elstad for the first time. Rosemary, a Zen painting master, and Raymond, a former dance photographer turned linocut artist, met in 1987 at one of her brush painting classes and later married. The gallery, owned by artists Greg and Rachel Cali, aims to showcase local talent and California-inspired art.
California College of the Arts (CCA) announced it will close in 2027, shocking students and the art world. Governor Gavin Newsom reportedly had "no clue" and received "no heads up" about the closure, according to text messages reported by the San Francisco Standard. CCA president David Howse disputed this, stating Newsom was notified the Monday before the announcement. A meeting between CCA leadership and the governor's office is scheduled. The school, founded in 1907, is the last nonprofit standalone art school in San Francisco and plans to sell its campus to Vanderbilt University.
California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco will close by the end of the 2026-2027 academic year. Founded in 1907, the financially struggling nonprofit art school has entered an agreement to sell its campus to Vanderbilt University, which plans to establish undergraduate and graduate programs there, including art and design, and operate a CCA Institute that will house the Wattis Institute of Contemporary Arts and maintain CCA archives. The closure follows years of financial crisis, including a $20 million budget deficit in 2024 and declining enrollment, despite a $22.5 million gift from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's foundation in March 2025.
More than 1,000 artifacts were stolen from the Oakland Museum of California's off-site storage facility on October 15, 2023. The thieves broke in around 3:30 a.m., stealing jewelry, precious metals, pearls, Native American baskets and tools, antique daguerreotypes, political pins, laptops, and cameras. No security staff were on duty, and the entry was not through a door. The Oakland Police Department and the FBI's Art Crime Team are investigating, and no arrests have been made. The museum delayed announcing the theft to protect the investigation.