michael h smith dealer curator artist dead 1234762619

Michael H. Smith, an artist, dealer, and curator who played a pivotal role in developing Southern California's art scene in the 1970s and '80s, died on October 31 in Santa Barbara at age 80. Smith opened his eponymous gallery in Los Angeles in 1971, later became a partner at the Jack Glenn Gallery, and served as director of the Baxter Art Gallery at Caltech from 1977 to 1982, where he staged exhibitions for artists including Hans Haacke, Richard Tuttle, and Berenice Abbott. He also founded a consultancy for artists, taught at UC Irvine, and worked as a conceptual photographer whose works were exhibited by dealer Craig Krull.

Remembering John Sailer, the gallerist and champion of Austrian art, who has died, aged 87

John Sailer, the founder of Vienna's Galerie Ulysses and a key champion of Austrian avant-garde art, has died at age 87. Sailer opened the gallery in 1974 with Gabriele Wimmer in a garage space before moving to its permanent location at Opernring 21. Over five decades, the gallery showcased Austrian artists such as Hans Hollein, Maria Lassnig, Walter Pichler, Arnulf Rainer, and Fritz Wotruba, alongside American greats like Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, and Helen Frankenthaler. Sailer also worked to promote Austrian and German artists in US museums, notably organizing a Rainer exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum and the Menil Collection, and successfully introducing Lassnig to the New York market at age 70.

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CULTURED magazine celebrated the release of its second Hamptons issue of the summer with a garden party at the Montauk home of Robin Standefer and Stephen Alesch, founders of architecture and design studio Roman & Williams, who served as guest editors for the July/August issue. The event drew a star-studded crowd of East End regulars including Julianne Moore, Martha Stewart, Cynthia Rowley, Jenna Lyons, photographer Cass Bird, David and Monica Zwirner, Sotheby's CEO Charles Stewart, and many others, with drinks by Casa Dragones and a potluck spread by chef Chris Kronner.

Kate McNamara Named Director of Harvard’s Carpenter Center for Visual Arts

Harvard University's Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts has officially appointed Kate McNamara as its John R. and Barbara Robinson Family Director. McNamara, who had been serving in the role on an interim basis since last year, is the founder of the experimental art space ODD-KIN and has held leadership positions at Providence College Galleries, Otis College of Art and Design, and Boston University Art Galleries.

Summer Exhibitions Coming to West Texas & the Panhandle

Art galleries and institutions across West Texas and the Panhandle have announced their summer exhibition schedules. Highlights include the El Paso Museum of Art's "From the Collection: Portraiture, 1903-2021," featuring works by César Martínez, Edward Curtis, and Andy Warhol; Ballroom Marfa's solo show "Raven Halfmoon: Flags of Our Mothers" with colossal stoneware sculptures; and The Grace Museum in Abilene's "Memory Painters: The Art of Memories," showcasing Texas intuitive painters. Other venues include the Rubin Center for the Visual Arts, the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts in Lubbock, and the Museum of the Southwest in Midland, with exhibitions spanning portraiture, student art, memory painting, and immersive installations.

Exhibitions Coming to West Texas & the Panhandle in Spring 2026

Art museums and institutions across West Texas and the Panhandle have announced their spring 2026 exhibition seasons. Highlights include the LHUCA Review (formerly the LHUCA Members' Show) and Laura Veles Drey's installation "Passerby: Americana" at the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts in Lubbock; "A Texas Legacy: Gifts from the Bill and Mary Cheek Collection" and the San Angelo North American Ceramic Competition featuring Marc Leuthold at the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts; and three exhibitions at the Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts at UTEP in El Paso, including "The Edge is a Center" showcasing graphic design from the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, "Les Sembrantes" by artists from La Semilla Food Center's fellowship, and Cynthia Gutierrez-Krapp's solo show "Strangers In Our Own Land."

Summer Shows Coming to South & West Texas

Museums and art venues across South and West Texas have announced a series of summer exhibitions opening between May and September 2025. Highlights include "The Wyeths: Three Generations" at the Art Museum of South Texas in Corpus Christi (May 23–Aug 24), featuring works by N.C., Andrew, Henriette, and Jamie Wyeth; "PAINT: Rachelle Thiewes" at the El Paso Museum of Art (May 30–Sep 21), showcasing jewelry and sculpture inspired by lowrider culture and the Chihuahuan desert; "Midland Collects" at the Museum of the Southwest (Jun 3–Sep 21), displaying private and foundation collections; a solo show by Doylene H. Land at the Ellen Noël Art Museum in Odessa (Jun 6–Aug 24); "Visions of the West" at the International Museum of Art & Science in McAllen (Jun 21–Sep 28); and "Los Encuentros" at Ballroom Marfa (July), a group exhibition centered on Latinx culture and community collaboration.

Top Five: April 9, 2026

Glasstire has released its weekly 'Top Five' list of essential art exhibitions across Texas for April 2026. The selection highlights a diverse range of regional talent, including a group show at the Rubin Center in El Paso focused on Chihuahuan Desert ecology, a 50-year retrospective of digital pioneers MANUAL at Moody Gallery in Houston, and a lifetime survey of Vietnam veteran and educator Hector Homero Rubio in Corpus Christi. Other featured shows include Freddy Ortega’s MFA thesis at TCU and Juan Pablo Hernandez’s multimedia glasswork.

ELENA DAMIANI, XIMENA GARRIDO-LECCA AND ISHMAEL RANDALL-WEEKS: SIGNAL AND STRATA

ELENA DAMIANI, XIMENA GARRIDO-LECCA E ISHMAEL RANDALL-WEEKS: SIGNAL AND STRATA

An exhibition titled 'Signal and Strata' featuring Peruvian artists Elena Damiani, Ximena Garrido-Lecca, and Ishmael Randall-Weeks was presented at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts from February 5 to April 5, 2026. The show, examined in an accompanying essay by curator Madeline Murphy Turner, focuses on how the artists use materials like travertine, copper, and concrete to interrogate narratives of modernity, resource extraction, and the climate crisis.

The Bascom Opens Photography Resident Exhibition April 18 with Free Artist Talk

The Bascom: A Center for the Visual Arts is set to debut a new exhibition by photography resident Dean Kessmann titled "realism succumbing to abstraction or is it the other way around" on April 18, 2026. The show features medium-format digital photographs captured during Kessmann’s sabbatical residency, focusing on the overlooked textures of urban landscapes such as sidewalks, graffiti, and signage. The exhibition includes unique physical presentations, with some works mounted on oriented strand board to mirror the industrial surfaces depicted in the images.

Guest Artist Exhibition Opens at Center for the Visual Arts

The University of Toledo Department of Art will host a free public exhibition of photographs and installation works by guest artist Margaret LeJeune, opening August 25 at the Center for the Visual Arts. Titled "Drawn from Memory: Mapping Salt and Time," the exhibition examines ecological shifts in Dare County, North Carolina, including the transformation of coastal forests into ghost forests due to saltwater intrusion and rising sea levels, while also addressing histories of colonialism, enslaved Africans and their descendants, and Indigenous displacement. LeJeune will give an artist talk on September 24, and the show runs through October 10.

Exhibition of Black artists reinterpreting the US flag opens without key Dread Scott work

An exhibition titled 'America Will Be!' opened at the University of Maryland's David C. Driskell Center, exploring how Black artists have reinterpreted the US flag. However, the show opened without a key work by artist Dread Scott, 'What is the Proper Way to Display a US Flag? (1988)', after the loan request was rescinded by the curators citing logistical and safety concerns.

THREE PERUVIAN GALLERIES AT PINTA LIMA 2026 A DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE LOCAL AND THE GLOBAL

Three prominent Peruvian galleries—Galería Enlace, Forum, and Livia Benavides—are presenting curated selections of artists at the Pinta Lima 2026 art fair. Their proposals blend emerging and established artists from Peru and abroad, working across painting, sculpture, installation, and new media, to foster a dialogue between local traditions and global contemporary practices.

A Curatorial Vision on View: “Iterations of Interrupted Space” at the Rubin Center, El Paso

The Rubin Center for the Visual Arts at the University of Texas at El Paso is presenting "Iterations of Interrupted Space," an exhibition curated by the duo Un Dique (Octavio Castrejón and Alonso Robles). Selected through the center's Genius Loci open call, the show features works from eight of Un Dique's projects since 2023, including a video of DJ Conejx performing in a Juárez market, Nayeli Hernandez's installation exploring masculinity and grief, and Mariana Ajo's prints on shifting beauty standards. The exhibition transforms the gallery into a space where art becomes ephemera, documenting past events and happenings.