U.S. Figure Skating commissioned athlete and artist Sonja Hilmer to create custom, elegant line-drawing portraits of each member of the 2026 Winter Olympic team. The black and gold ink portraits, inspired by Italian fashion drawings, were hung above the skaters' beds in the Olympic Village as a personal touch from home.
Christie's auction "We the People: America at 250" on January 23, 2026, achieved $35.5 million in total sales, doubling its presale estimate. The top lot was a draft of the U.S. Constitution annotated by founding father Rufus King, which sold for $7.3 million. Other highlights included a signed Emancipation Proclamation ($6.7 million), a 1776 Declaration of Independence copy ($5.6 million), and the Apple Computer Company Partnership Agreement from 1976, signed by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, which fetched $2.5 million. A Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington (ca. 1804) realized $2.8 million, setting a new auction record for the Athenaeum type.
Dorothy Waugh, a pioneering Modernist designer who created the U.S. government's first in-house National Parks poster campaign during the Great Depression, is the subject of her first-ever solo exhibition at New York's Poster House. Titled "Blazing a Trail: Dorothy Waugh's National Parks Posters," the show reunites all 17 posters Waugh designed for the National Park Service between 1934 and 1936, bold experimental works that helped define a new visual language for federal design. Guest curator Mark Resnick spent three decades tracking down Waugh's story, locating documents across the National Archives, the Library of Congress, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Jones Library in Amherst, Massachusetts.
The San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI), a historic art school founded in 1871, permanently closed on July 15 after the University of San Francisco (USF) withdrew from a proposed acquisition deal. USF cited financial risks, low enrollment projections, and deferred maintenance as reasons for backing out. SFAI will continue as a small nonprofit to protect its archives and legacy, but the fate of its prized Diego Rivera fresco, valued at up to $50 million, remains uncertain.
Newly released Epstein files, shared on the House Oversight Committee website, reveal direct email exchanges between artist Andres Serrano and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. In an October 2016 email, Serrano discussed voting for Donald Trump as a sympathy vote due to disgust over the outrage at Trump's sexist comments. Epstein responded briefly, and Serrano mentioned his exhibition "Torture" in Ireland. The pair had a prior acquaintance in the 1990s, and in 2018 they agreed to a trade: Serrano would photograph Epstein in exchange for a statue.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has unveiled its extensive exhibition schedule through June 2026, headlined by the first comprehensive U.S. retrospective of the Renaissance master Raphael. This landmark show will feature over 200 works, including rare loans and masterpieces. Other major highlights include the spring Costume Institute exhibition, "Costume Art," which will inaugurate a new 12,000-square-foot gallery suite, and "Musical Bodies," an interdisciplinary look at the relationship between instruments and the human form.
The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down a series of sweeping tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, ruling in a 6-3 decision that the executive branch exceeded its authority. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, stated that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not grant the president the power to unilaterally impose tariffs of unlimited scope and duration. While tariffs on steel and aluminum remain, the ruling removes the 10 percent global blanket tariff and the 25 percent reciprocal tariffs previously levied against Canada, China, and Mexico.
The Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) has announced a new art fair, the ADAA Fair, set to take place at the Park Avenue Armory from November 12–16, 2026. This follows the cancellation of the 2025 edition of its long-running Art Show, prompted by the end of a partnership with the charity Henry Street Settlement, which had hosted the fair's VIP opening as a fundraiser. The ADAA plans to refocus on supporting visual arts and museums, with the ADAA Foundation continuing to provide grants to U.S. institutions.
Max Mara has chosen the Long Museum West Bund in Shanghai as the venue for its Resort 2027 runway show on June 16. The event will coincide with the opening of an exhibition titled “The Max!”, curated by Olivier Saillard, celebrating the brand’s 75th anniversary. The Long Museum is a private art museum founded by collectors Liu Yiqian and Wang Wei, with three locations across China. This marks Max Mara’s second show in Shanghai, following a 2016 presentation at the Shanghai Exhibition Center.
Crown Equipment has announced the construction of the Modern Aboriginal Art Museum in New Bremen, Ohio, a 23,700-square-foot facility scheduled to open in late 2026. The museum will house one of North America’s largest collections of contemporary Australian Aboriginal art, featuring over 100 paintings and sculptures. The project stems from the company’s 60-year business history in Australia and follows the philanthropic model of Crown’s previous local cultural investments.
Dr. Brian Corr, an associate professor at Hastings College and internationally recognized glass artist, is presenting his first solo museum exhibition at the Museum of Nebraska Art (MONA). Titled "Of Light and Shadow," the show serves as a 20-year retrospective of Corr’s career, featuring large-scale glass installations and sculptures that explore the interplay of light, shadow, and contemplative space. A highlight of the exhibition is the U.S. debut of "One," a significant architectural installation originally created in 2007.
The Museum of Nebraska Art (MONA) is hosting "Of Light and Shadow," the first solo museum exhibition for internationally recognized glass artist and Hastings College professor Dr. Brian Corr. The survey spans two decades of Corr’s career, featuring large-scale sculptures and installations that utilize light and shadow as primary materials. A highlight of the show is the U.S. debut of "One," a significant architectural installation originally created for his master’s thesis in Australia.
Workers at the Metropolitan Museum of Art voted overwhelmingly to unionize with the United Auto Workers (UAW), with 542 in favor and 172 against, following nearly four years of organizing efforts. The election, overseen by the National Labor Relations Board, will see 100 challenged votes resolved through arbitration. The new union, part of UAW Local 2110, represents over 50 departments including conservators, curators, librarians, and digital staff, driven by concerns over job security, pay, and policy transparency.
The article reports that U.S. artists like Lucia Hierro are increasingly forced to pay for their own museum exhibitions and public commissions as institutional budgets shrink. Hierro’s ambitious installation centered on a 7.5-foot monobloc chair required $35,000–$40,000 for fabrication alone, far exceeding what the commissioning institution could provide. The project moved forward only after support from her gallerist and a new fund from Miami-based nonprofit Fountainhead Arts, which received 96 applications requesting $1.8 million—14 times its available $125,000 in grants. The article highlights that even artists selected for the Venice Biennale face such funding gaps.
Three major U.S. museums—the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center, and the Denver Art Museum—are simultaneously exhibiting works loaned from the Tweed Museum of Art at the University of Minnesota Duluth. The loans include pieces by Ojibwe artist George Morrison (1919-2000) for "The Magical City: George Morrison's New York" at the Met; works by Sičáŋǧu Lakota artist Dyani White Hawk for "Dyani White Hawk: Love Language" at the Walker; and a work by Andrea Carlson for "Andrea Carlson: A Constant Sky" at the Denver Art Museum. Tweed director Julie Delliquanti and Duluth Art Institute executive director Christina Woods highlight the significance of sharing the Tweed's collection with national audiences.
Staff at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Lacma) announced their intent to unionize as part of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). The new union, Lacma United, will represent over 300 museum employees across curatorial, visitor services, education, and publications departments. Workers cite fairer compensation, expanded benefits, and increased transparency as key motivations, and have requested voluntary recognition by November 5. The effort joins AFSCME Cultural Workers United District Council 36, which has supported union campaigns at other Los Angeles institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
A major new exhibition, “Contemporary Anishinaabe Art: A Continuation,” has opened at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), marking the museum’s first major Native American exhibition in over three decades. The show features 90 works by more than 60 artists from the Great Lakes region of the U.S. and Canada, including a strong contingent of Minnesota-based painters, sculptors, designers, and filmmakers. Curated in collaboration with a panel of Anishinaabe artists—including Duluth-based painter and filmmaker Jonathan Thunder, Kelly Church, Jason Quigno, Monica Rickert-Bolter, and Jodi Webster—the exhibition spans painting, beadwork, fashion, film, and sculpture. Signage is translated into Anishinaabemowin, and QR codes offer language learning. The curators deliberately chose not to begin with historical works, asserting that Native American artists should not be required to provide a historical preamble.
The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) has opened "Contemporary Anishinaabe Art: A Continuation," its first Native American art exhibition in over 30 years. Featuring 92 works by more than 60 Anishinaabe artists from the Great Lakes region, the show spans from 1892 to 2025, including pieces by renowned artists such as Jim Denomie, Norval Morrisseau, Kent Estey, Jonathan Thunder, and Rabbett before Horses Strickland. The exhibition highlights diverse mediums and themes, from spiritual imagery and biting social commentary to reflections on Indigenous history and truth.
The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) has opened "Contemporary Anishinaabe Art: A Continuation," its first Native American art exhibition in over 30 years. Featuring 92 works by more than 60 Anishinaabe artists from the Great Lakes region, the show spans from 1892 to 2025 and includes pieces by renowned artists such as Jim Denomie, Norval Morrisseau, Kent Estey, Jonathan Thunder, and Rabbett before Horses Strickland. Highlights include Denomie's vibrant "Four Days and Four Nites, Ceremony" (2020) and Morrisseau's spiritual works like "Punk Rockers Nancy and Andy" (1989).
The work of late Wilmington artist Minnie Evans is featured in two separate national exhibitions. One show, "The Visionary Art of Minnie Evans," is currently at the Boston Museum of Fine Art after opening at The Gund museum at Kenyon College, while a larger exhibition, "The Lost World: The Art of Minnie Evans," will open at Atlanta's High Museum of Art in November 2025 before traveling to New York's Whitney Museum in summer 2026. Evans, a self-taught artist who worked at Wilmington's Airlie Gardens and died in 1987, gained initial recognition in the 1960s after being discovered by photographer and art historian Nina Howell Starr, but had not been the subject of a major national gallery show since the 1990s.
The LA Art Show will launch its 31st edition from January 7–11, 2026, at the Los Angeles Convention Center, directed by Kassandra Voyagis. Featuring over 90 exhibitors, the fair introduces a new Latin American Pavilion curated by Marisa Caichiolo, focusing on memory, migration, and identity. It also returns with its non-commercial platform DIVERSEartLA, titled “The Biennials and Art Institutions in the Contemporary Art Ecosystem,” which examines the roles of biennials and museums through five installations and a video presentation. Participating galleries include Rehs Galleries, Inc., Gallery Artwall, Teranarva, and Oliver Sears Gallery, the first Irish gallery to join the fair.
Living Arts of Tulsa is presenting “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Decides?”, an exhibition by Kenneth and Isabelle Watson Reams, with support from JustArts Gallery. Kenneth Reams, a former Arkansas death row inmate now serving a life sentence, created over 50 works including paintings, drawings, sculptures, and poetry alongside his wife Isabelle. The show opened April 3 and runs through April and May, exploring themes of incarceration, capital punishment, and social justice through the lens of Reams’ 31 years on death row.
This travel guide highlights 26 of the most significant museums across the United States, ranging from massive encyclopedic institutions to niche cultural centers. The list features major art landmarks like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Getty Center alongside specialized venues such as the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and the immersive art experience Meow Wolf.
Major U.S. museums are launching a series of high-profile exhibitions this spring, headlined by a massive Marcel Duchamp retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Other key highlights include the North American debut of Iris van Herpen’s technologically-driven fashion at the Brooklyn Museum and a focused look at Peter Hujar’s photography of the New York underground at the Morgan Library & Museum.
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York is hosting "Wifredo Lam: When I Don’t Sleep, I Dream," the first comprehensive U.S. retrospective of the Cuban modernist's career. Running from November 2025 to April 2026, the exhibition traces Lam’s artistic evolution from his formative years in Europe to his return to the Caribbean, where he integrated Afro-Caribbean histories and spirituality into the language of modern painting. The show features major loans, a documentary film, and a scholarly catalogue exploring his unique synthesis of Surrealism and decolonial thought.
The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) Miami is set to host 'Perfect Nonsense,' the first U.S. museum survey dedicated to the multidisciplinary work of director and artist Harmony Korine. Opening April 15, the exhibition features over 50 works spanning Korine’s career, from early collages and notes following his 1995 film 'Kids' to his recent infrared 'post-cinema' project 'Aggro Dr1ft.' The show includes a diverse array of media, including 'Twitchy' paintings, collaborative works with Rita Ackermann, and a dedicated 'Florida Room' exploring his current home in Miami.
Artists Space in New York is hosting the first comprehensive U.S. survey of photographer David Armstrong, featuring over 90 works spanning three decades. While often associated with Nan Goldin and the Boston School, the exhibition highlights Armstrong’s distinct evolution from raw black-and-white 1970s downtown portraits to his later blurred landscapes and Renaissance-inspired color photography.
British contemporary painter Jonathan Yeo is bringing his augmented reality exhibition, "Spectacular," to the United States for its debut at SXSW in March 2026. Utilizing Snap’s fifth-generation Spectacles, the installation transforms Yeo’s traditional portraiture into interactive, living digital experiences that respond to the viewer's movements in real time. The project, which premiered at the Centre Pompidou, represents a collaboration between the artist and Snap AR Studio’s Artist Residency Program.
The Hyperallergic Spring 2026 New York Art Guide outlines a massive seasonal program featuring nearly 70 exhibitions across the city's major institutions and alternative spaces. High-profile highlights include a Marcel Duchamp retrospective at MoMA, the first major U.S. exhibition of Raphael at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the return of the Whitney Biennial, and the reopening of the New Museum. The guide also previews diverse showcases ranging from Molly Crabapple’s activist posters at Poster House to a rare Caravaggio loan at the Morgan Library.
Street artist Shepard Fairey has released a new limited-edition screenprint titled "Projection Mirror: ICE Paid Agitator" as part of his "FUCK ICE" series. The artwork features inflammatory rhetoric previously used by the Trump administration, redirected toward U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to highlight what the artist describes as the agency's pervasive brutality and dehumanizing attacks on immigrants. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of these prints will benefit the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA).