Art21 successfully concluded its Fall 2025 festival season, with its films being screened at multiple international festivals including Artecinema in Italy, Bushwick Film Festival in New York, and others in Massachusetts, New Mexico, and North Carolina. The organization also participated as a sponsor and panelist at DOC NYC, and several of its recent films featuring artists like Sophie Calle, Dyani White Hawk, and Guadalupe Maravilla received recognition.
The article lists a work by Leonardo Nierman, titled "Man With A Ball" (1959), as being available for sale on Artsy. No further details about the price, provenance, or context are provided.
New Mexico State University's University Art Museum will host its annual BFA and MFA thesis exhibitions, opening May 1. The MFA exhibition, 'Where We Ended Up,' features interdisciplinary artists Arch Jones and Ezekiel Martey, while the BFA show, 'Raw Perception,' showcases works by nine graduating students across diverse media including painting, sculpture, photography, and ceramics.
Diné artist Eric-Paul Riege has launched his largest exhibition to date, titled “ojo|-|ólǫ́,” at the Henry Art Gallery. The show features large-scale soft sculptures, wearable art, and multimedia installations that reinterpret traditional Navajo symbols like the weaving comb and the hogan. Central to the exhibition is Riege’s rejection of traditional museum barriers; he encourages visitors to touch the tactile, plush works to honor the many hands involved in the production of his materials.
An exhibition by Israeli artist Amir Fattal at König gallery in Mexico City was forced to close a week early after a campaign of antisemitic harassment escalated from online abuse to physical protests and vandalism. Vandals spray-painted swastikas, Stars of David, and the phrase "here there are terrorists" on the gallery's facade, and protesters gathered outside calling the artist a murderer and Mossad agent.
Coumba Samba, a 25-year-old artist based in New York, is featured in Cultured's 2025 Young Artists list. Her recent installation at Kunsthalle Basel uses 176 steel poles spaced four inches apart to evoke the U.S.-Mexico border wall, referencing policies from the George W. Bush and Trump administrations. Born in New York and partly raised in Senegal, Samba creates work about the permeability and absurdity of international borders. Her show “Red Gas” at Arcadia Missa incorporates found home radiators painted with colors from a photo of former Senegalese President Macky Sall shaking hands with Vladimir Putin at the 2023 Russia-Africa Summit, blending abstraction with global politics.
Contemporary Art Month (CAM) in San Antonio has announced the open call for its 40th anniversary CAM Perennial exhibition, inviting Texas artists to apply. The 2026 edition will be curated by Casie Lomeli and Leslie Moody Castro, both CAM Board Members, and will take place citywide at multiple artist-run spaces during March. The exhibition is not limited to local artists; past Perennial curators will also nominate artists from cities including El Paso, Dallas, Las Cruces, and Mexico City. Studio visits are planned for fall 2025, and the application deadline is September 26.
Mexico's Ministry of Culture has identified 195 pre-Hispanic archaeological objects listed for sale on eBay by a US-based seller and has formally demanded the platform halt the sales and return the items. The ministry, through Secretary Claudia Curiel de Icaza, argues the sale is illegal as the export of such cultural heritage has been prohibited since 1827, and their presence abroad results from illicit extraction. Legal action has been initiated with Mexican and international authorities, including Interpol and US Homeland Security Investigations, to secure repatriation.
Art Dubai has announced a significantly scaled-back "special edition" of its 20th-anniversary fair, set for May 14–17 at the Madinat Jumeirah venue. The fair was postponed and reformatted due to the US-Israel war in Iran, which caused major logistical disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz and spiked oil prices, hampering air travel in the UAE. It will now feature only 50 exhibitors, a reduction of nearly 60% from the originally planned 120.
Artist Gabriel de la Mora, now 57, reflects on how his childhood dyslexia and autism shaped his artistic practice in an interview tied to his latest exhibition "Repeated Original" at Perrotin in New York, on view through April 11. The show features meticulous geometric works made from fragmented eggshells and curved reflective glass, with each piece titled after the exact number of fragments used. De la Mora sources eggshells from Mexico City restaurants and churches that serve free meals, and he recently closed a major career survey at Museo Jumex, where he led 79 guided tours over six months, including for deaf children.
Pinta Lima, the 13th edition of the art fair, opened with a vibrant VIP preview and strong attendance of 16,000 visitors. The fair features around 50 booths and special presentations, with a curation-driven approach that includes sections like NEXT (curated by Juan Canela) and RADAR (curated by Ilaria Conti), as well as FORO panel discussions. The fair emphasizes Latin American art, particularly Peruvian contemporary art, and is part of the broader Pinta network that stages fairs and Art Weeks across Latin America and the U.S. Textile, fiber, and ceramic works are notably prominent, recontextualizing indigenous craft traditions.
Nine emerging galleries from around the world are showing in the Positions sector of Art Basel Miami Beach 2025, a dedicated platform for up-and-coming exhibitors. The article profiles several of these gallerists, including Allann Seabra and Ian Duarte of Verve in São Paulo, and Mauricio Aguirre of N.A.S.A.L. in Mexico City and Guayaquil. They discuss their gallery's growth, key milestones such as artists participating in the 36th Bienal de São Paulo, and their hopes for gaining international exposure and deepening understanding of their local art scenes.
Dubai has transformed into an open-air gallery through initiatives by Brand Dubai, Dubai Culture, and government entities, fulfilling a 2018 vision by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. The city now features murals, sculptures, and street art in neighborhoods like Karama and Satwa, alongside dedicated art zones such as Alserkal Avenue and Dubai Design District. Art festivals including Art Dubai, Sikka Art & Design Festival, Quoz Arts Fest, Dubai Design Week, and the newly launched Bluewaters Art Festival further enrich the public art landscape, making visual art accessible without tickets.
A Maya stone lintel, dating from AD600-AD900 and depicting a ritual scene associated with the ruler Cheleew Chan K'inich, was repatriated to Mexico on April 16 after being turned over to the Mexican consulate in New York by an unnamed US businessman. However, hours after the ceremony, experts determined the lintel actually originated from Guatemala's Petén Basin. Guatemala's cultural ministry, led by minister Luis Méndez Salinas, has formally requested the object's return through diplomatic channels, citing technical analysis and consultations with archaeologists.
YouTube megastar MrBeast (James Donaldson) released a video titled "I Survived 100 Hours in an Ancient Temple" on May 10, amassing over 55 million views in four days. Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) confirmed that the production had full permission from federal and state authorities to film at Mayan archaeological sites including Chichén Itzá, Calakmul, and Balamcanché, and that all shoots occurred in public areas without disrupting other visitors. However, INAH also pointed out several inaccuracies in the final cut: no drones were flown inside El Castillo, no helicopter descents occurred, no one spent the night at a site, and a funerary mask shown in the video was a contemporary reproduction, not an authentic artifact.
The article reflects on the overwhelming experience of massive group exhibitions, using examples like Lawndale's "The Big Show" (77 artists in 2025), "Hecho en Dallas" (66 artists), and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's 1999 MFA thesis show (around 150 artists). The author, a gallerist, recounts visiting two recent San Antonio shows—"A Postmodernist Says ¿Que?" at Centro de Artes and "Fan of a Fan 3" at C7 Space—which feature dozens of works hung salon-style, forcing viewers to make choices about where to focus attention.
Museo Jumex in Mexico City is staging two soccer-inspired exhibitions. "Football & Art: A Shared Emotion" runs through July 26, featuring works across painting, sculpture, installation, photography, and video that explore football's cultural impact in Mexico and beyond. Highlights include Sofía Echeverri's textile commission about Mexico's 1971 Women's World Cup qualifiers and Tercerunquinto's sculptural installation using salvaged seats from Azteca Stadium. "Objects of Glory" opens June 10 in partnership with Qatar Museums and the 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum, showcasing historic memorabilia such as Diego Maradona's match-worn jersey from the 1986 World Cup quarter-final and Pelé's boots from the 1970 World Cup.
The Taos Art Museum has opened a new exhibition titled “Land, Legacy, and Perspective: Landscapes of Northern New Mexico” on May 12, 2026, in the Janis and Roy Coffee Gallery. Featuring 30 works from the museum’s permanent collection and select loans from private collections, the show includes paintings and works on paper by artists such as Ernest L. Blumenschein, Leon Gaspard, Gene Kloss, Barbara Latham, Joseph Henry Sharp, Victor Higgins, and E. Martin Hennings. Spanning the early to mid-20th century, the exhibition captures scenes of Taos Pueblo, adobe villages, Black Mesa, snowy mountain passes, and aspen groves in various media.
Sidle House Gallery in Freeport, Maine, opens its 2026 season with a solo exhibition titled “Anne Hebebrand: A World That Is,” on view from May 1 through June 13. The show features cold-wax and oil paintings created over the past seven years, described by the artist as intuitive maps of memory. Related events include an opening reception, an artist talk, a cold wax and oil workshop, and a violin performance by Katherine Liccardo.
The New Mexico Museum of Art has launched "Rooted Strong: Visions of America from New Mexico," an exhibition timed to coincide with the United States semiquincentennial in 2026. Co-curated by Alexandra Terry and Katie Doyle, the show features 86 objects primarily drawn from the museum’s permanent collection, supplemented by key loans. The exhibition is organized into four thematic sections—Community, Land, Domestic Life, and Celebration—and exclusively features artists who have lived in the state for at least a decade, including figures like Nikesha Breeze, Sabra Moore, and Luis Tapia.
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art has opened 'Painted Worlds: Color and Culture in Mesoamerican Art', a major exhibition featuring over 250 works spanning nearly 3,000 years, from pre-Hispanic times to the present day. Curated by Kimberly Masteller, the show is the first presentation of Mesoamerican art at the museum in nearly 40 years and includes textiles, ceramics, paintings, murals, and codices organized by color categories—white, blue/green/yellow, and red/black—to explore the cultural and spiritual significance of color in Mesoamerican traditions.
The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma will open "Nicolai Fechin: An Artistic Journey" on October 3, 2025. The exhibition features over fifty drawings and paintings spanning the Russian artist's career, drawn from the museum's permanent collection, the Eugene B. Adkins Collection, and a private Oklahoma collection, with many works on public view for the first time. The show explores Fechin's travels from Russia to New York, New Mexico, and Southern California, highlighting how family, training, and cultural encounters shaped his vibrant portraits.
Diné (Navajo) artist Eric-Paul Riege has opened a new exhibition, “ojo|-|ólǫ́,” at Brown University’s David Winton Bell Gallery, on view through December 7. The show features large soft sculptures and weavings that engage with Diné mythology, Euro-American trading posts, and the concept of authenticity in Indigenous art. Riege also selected five objects from Brown’s Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology, including a loom with an unfinished textile, which he recontextualized by separating the loom from the textile and adding handwritten notes. The exhibition is co-curated by Thea Quiray Tagle and Nina Bozicnik, and will travel to the Henry Art Gallery in 2026.
The Art Museum of Southeast Texas (AMSET) has opened a new exhibition titled “It’s All in the Details,” featuring approximately 50 works from its permanent collection, many of which have never been exhibited before. The show spans contemporary fine art and Mexican folk art, highlighting intricate techniques and the need for close viewing. Key works include Shawne Major’s mixed-media piece “Syzygy” (2022), Marcelino Eduardo Sánchez Rodriguez’s feather-based “Viva Mexico” (2009), and Mary McCleary’s densely layered collage “The Clouds Grew So Dense, She Couldn’t See” (2015), which had been hanging in the museum’s intern office for years.
Two art galleries, Galería Raíces and The Dreamers Gallery, have opened in the small border town of Presidio, Texas, and are collaborating rather than competing. Galería Raíces, owned by Yosdy Valdivia, opened in October 2024 in a building that once housed a clothing store run by the late Olivia Rohana de Spencer, a self-taught painter whose work was featured in the inaugural show. The Dreamers Gallery, owned by Adèle Jancovici, opened nearby. The galleries participate in a community event called Nocturnal Animals, which encourages residents to visit both spaces, located just two blocks apart.
The Denver Art Museum has published a feature titled "What We’ve Been Up To: Landscape," showcasing a selection of recent photographic acquisitions focused on the American landscape. The featured works span from the late 19th century to the present, including images by Steve Fitch, Henry Wessel, Jr., Yamamoto Masao, Marion Post Wolcott, William Henry Jackson, John Ganis, Terri Weifenbach, Christina Fernandez, Linda Connor, and Patrick Nagatani. The photographs document diverse terrains—from New Mexico and Colorado to New Jersey and Hawai'i—and employ a range of processes, from albumen and gelatin silver prints to inkjet and pigment prints.
The article reports on the opening of the Museum of Cacao & Chocolate in Mexico City, which combines a colonial-era house with a contemporary architectural addition. The museum is built on a site that was once an Aztec monument, adding layers of historical significance to the institution dedicated to the history and culture of cacao.
Francis Alÿs’s 1997 performance piece, *Paradox of Praxis I*, serves as a starting point for an exploration of Mexico City’s violent hydrological transformation. By pushing a block of ice through the streets until it evaporates, Alÿs retraces the vanished canals of Tenochtitlán, the Aztec capital that was systematically drained by Spanish colonizers to establish a terrestrial, European-style urban grid.
The Utah Museum of Fine Arts (UMFA) is hosting "Storywork: The Prints of Marie Watt from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation," an exhibition running through June 21. It features over 60 works by Marie Watt, an enrolled member of the Seneca Nation's Turtle Clan, including prints, monumental blanket stacks, hanging textiles, and small-scale sculptures. The show is drawn from the collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer, a top 200 collector recognized by ARTNews, whose foundation has supported more than 180 exhibitions and loaned works to over 130 museums at no cost.
The Jumex Museum in Mexico City has launched a major exhibition titled "Football & Art: A Shared Emotion," timed to coincide with the city's role as a host for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Curated by Guillermo Santamarina, the show features a diverse array of media including sculpture, photography, and commissioned installations from renowned artists such as Jeff Koons, Graciela Iturbide, and Marta Minujín. Notable works include a sculptural installation by the collective Tercerunquinto using salvaged seats from the Azteca Stadium and an embroidered piece by Sofía Echeverri honoring the 1971 Mexico Women’s National Team.