Hampshire College, Whose Alumni List Includes Many Well-Known Artists, to Close After 51 Years

Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, has announced it will officially close following the fall 2026 semester, ending 51 years of operation. The decision follows a period of significant financial instability, including a reported $20 million debt and a failure to meet enrollment targets. The college has established agreements with regional institutions, such as Smith College and Bennington College, to allow current students to complete their degrees elsewhere.

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Sotheby's three-part evening sale in New York on Thursday generated $186.1 million across 68 lots, landing near the high end of its $141 million to $204.9 million estimate. The sale included a focused 12-lot offering from the collection of late gallerist Barbara Gladstone, which sold all works without guarantees and totaled $18.5 million, and a 15-work guaranteed sale from dealer Daniella Luxembourg featuring postwar Italian artists, where Lucio Fontana's 'Concetto spaziale, La fine di Dio' (1963) achieved $14.5 million and Michelangelo Pistoletto's 'Maria Nuda' (1969) sold for $2.7 million after a five-minute bidding war.

Philadelphia Is Rich With Museums and Galleries. ‘Elsewhere’ Aims to Find Out If It Can Support an Art Fair

Philadelphia gallerist Megan Galardi is launching a new art fair called Elsewhere, set to debut June 4–6 at the Yowie Hotel on South Street. The fair will feature 27 exhibitors from cities including London, New York, and Philadelphia, with seven local dealers such as Fleisher/Ollman, Blah Blah Gallery, and Fjord. Galardi, who founded Blah Blah Gallery in 2023 and has participated in small New York fairs like Spring/Break and Future Fair, designed Elsewhere as a boutique, hotel-based event that offers a lower-cost, more intimate alternative to large-scale art fairs.

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Tom Sachs has opened a new exhibition titled “A Good Shelf” at Thaddaeus Ropac’s London gallery during Frieze Week, featuring NASA-emblazoned ceramics inspired by Japanese tea bowls and space travel. The show runs through December 20 and includes hand-formed ceramics displayed on shelves made from rough materials like cinderblock and plywood. This marks Sachs’s return to the spotlight after a 2023 scandal in which former studio staff accused him of creating a toxic workplace, leading Nike to pause its sneaker partnership with the artist; the partnership resumed in September 2024.

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Abu Dhabi Art Fair returns for its 17th edition from November 19–23 on Saadiyat Island, featuring 140 galleries from 35 countries—up from 104 last year and 40 in 2009. Under director Dyala Nusseibeh, the fair introduces new thematic sectors including 'The Collectors Salon' for historical objects, an expanded 'Emerge' section for works under $3,000, and a Global Focus highlighting modern masters from Nigeria and Türkiye. The growth reflects Abu Dhabi's broader cultural strategy of ambitious development, with museums long in the works finally opening and attracting global attention.

It’s the Most Controversial Venice Biennale in Years. Can the Art Stand Up to the Noise?

The 2026 Venice Biennale is embroiled in controversy, with the US Pavilion at the center of a political storm. The Trump administration's State Department overhauled the selection process, bypassing the usual NEA panel and commissioning a nonprofit, the American Arts Conservancy, to organize the pavilion. Artist Alma Allen, who accepted the invitation despite threats from galleries and curators, presents a show that critics find politically muted. The Biennale's jury resigned days before the opening, and annual prizes were canceled, adding to the turmoil.

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Independent curator Brice Arsène Yonkeu has organized "Ever So Present II: Between Home and Elsewhere," the second installment of a two-part exhibition at Gagosian's Park & 75 space in New York. The show features four emerging artists of African descent—including Emma Prempeh and Josèfa Ntjam—whose works in painting, photomontage, and assemblage explore themes of diaspora, memory, migration, and belonging. Yonkeu is the first curator invited to participate in dot.ateliers' new residency program, a foundation and exhibition space launched by Ghanaian painter Amoako Boafo in Accra in 2023. The exhibition expands on questions raised in the first iteration held in Accra, asking what remains "ever so present" in diasporic art across borders and cultures.

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, closed since 2021, reopens after a $70 million renovation. The redesign by architect Kulapat Yantrasast transforms the previously dark and cramped galleries into airy, energizing spaces, with a major rehang that reconfigures the Oceania galleries. Notable changes include the repositioning of a Kwoma ceremonial house ceiling in collaboration with descendants of the original painters, the relocation of Asmat funerary poles to a dedicated gallery, and the addition of newly acquired works by Ömie artist Ilma Savari. The renovation also features revised wall texts that better contextualize the objects.

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A tourist at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence damaged an 18th-century portrait of Ferdinando de’ Medici by Anton Domenico Gabbiani while taking a selfie on June 21. The man tripped backward onto the canvas, causing a small tear near the subject's right foot. Museum staff quickly removed the painting for assessment, and the work is expected to return to display soon in the exhibition “Florence and Europe: Arts of the Eighteenth Century.” The perpetrator was apprehended and reported to authorities; director Simone Verde vowed to prosecute and implement “anti-selfie measures.”

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The Smart Museum at the University of Chicago has announced plans for a major mid-career survey of artist Theaster Gates, titled “Unto Thee,” opening September 23 and running through February of next year. This marks Gates’s first solo museum exhibition in his hometown of Chicago, despite his international acclaim and numerous institutional shows elsewhere. The exhibition will feature objects Gates has collected and repurposed from the university, including glass lantern slides, vitrines, concrete, and wooden pews, alongside a large-scale installation of African masks accompanied by music from the late DJ Frankie Knuckles.

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The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF) will host the 2025 Museums of Tomorrow Roundtable (MTR) from May 11-17, bringing together 14 global museum leaders and technology firms including Adobe, Anthropic, Bloomberg, and Salesforce. Participants include directors such as Marion Ackermann (Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz), Stephanie Rosenthal (Guggenheim Abu Dhabi), Eike Schmidt (Museo di Capodimonte), Mami Kataoka (Mori Art Museum), and others, alongside Bay Area museum heads and AI artist Refik Anadol, who will speak in a free public program at the de Young Museum. The forum aims to bridge the museum and technology communities, exploring how advanced technologies can enrich operations and visitor experiences while supporting artists working with technology.

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The Winter Show at New York's Park Avenue Armory features a standout booth by the gallery French and Company, presenting a darkly themed collection. The eclectic offerings include Old Master still lifes by Willem Kalf and Willem Claesz Heda, a Victorian ceramic peacock, a 1979 painting by Susan Rothenberg, and a "horror wall" with works like Pasko Vucetic's *Hatred and Madness* and Wilhelm Trübner's *A Gorgon's Head*, all curated by the gallery's Henry Zimet.

Expo Chicago lines up 130 galleries for ‘a more focused’ fair

Expo Chicago, acquired by Frieze in 2023, will return to Navy Pier’s Festival Hall this April with around 130 galleries, a 23% reduction from the 170 exhibitors in recent editions. The fair frames this as a more focused, intentionally scaled format designed to deepen engagement, and it will be the first edition under new director Kate Sierzputowski, who succeeded longtime leader Tony Karman. The fair features a strong contingent of local Chicago dealers, international galleries from South Korea, Lagos, Milan, Dublin, and elsewhere, and partnerships with the Obama Presidential Center and the Galleries Association of Korea.

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The New York Gallery History Project has launched its first installment: an online archive of Jay Gorney Modern Art, which operated from 1985 to 1998. The archive documents over 90 exhibitions held at the gallery, featuring artists such as Catherine Opie, Jessica Stockholder, Gillian Wearing, Haim Steinbach, and Martha Rosler. The material includes installation views, artwork images, and original invitations, all digitized from analog transparencies and slides. The project is an initiative of the Independent art fair and the Contemporary Art Library, a Los Angeles nonprofit.

Salon des Refusés 2.0

Salon des Refusés 2.0

A group exhibition titled "we refuse_d" has opened at the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst (M HKA) in Antwerp, bringing together 15 artists, many of whom faced cancellations or disinvitations from exhibitions following the October 7, 2023 attacks. The show, referencing the historic 1863 Salon des Refusés, aims to reclaim reputation and amplify marginalized voices, specifically focusing on Palestinian history and artists affected by the cultural fallout.

Michael Clark’s Controlled Movements

Choreographer Michael Clark's 2003 work *Satie Studs* was revived as part of the live event programme for Peter Doig's exhibition *House of Music* at London's Serpentine Galleries. Dancer Jules Cunningham performed the minimalist solo, set to Erik Satie's piano preludes, showcasing controlled, precise movements that distilled ballet and yoga poses into a stark, deliberate sequence.

Julia Stoschek Foundation to Close in Berlin

The Julia Stoschek Foundation will close its Berlin outpost at the end of October 2025, after a decade of operation. The Düsseldorf-based nonprofit, which holds one of the world's largest collections of time-based art, opened the Berlin space in 2016 and welcomed over 450,000 visitors across 22 exhibitions, including solo shows by Meriem Bennani, Stan Douglas, Arthur Jafa, and Mark Leckey. The foundation cited a "strategic realignment" that will shift focus to projects elsewhere in Germany and abroad. Its Düsseldorf space is currently closed for renovations and expected to reopen next year.

UK’s Palestinian Ambassador Calls on Government to Have British Museum Reinstate the Word ‘Palestinian’

The Palestinian ambassador to the UK, Husam Zomlot, has called on the British government to intervene in a dispute with the British Museum over the removal of the word “Palestinian” from wall texts in its Middle East galleries. Zomlot raised the complaint with the Foreign & Commonwealth Office after reports that the museum had stripped the term from maps and didactics, following lobbying by UK Lawyers for Israel. The museum denies removing the word entirely, stating it still appears elsewhere, but photographic evidence suggests otherwise. Zomlot declined a tour with director Nicholas Cullinan, calling the issue “existential.”

Philadelphia’s New Art Fair Is Betting Big on Community

Philadelphia is set to launch a new contemporary art fair called Elsewhere on June 4, organized by Megan Galardi, founder of Blah Blah Gallery. The fair will take over the Yowie Hotel, a pair of 1900s rowhouses, featuring 26 galleries from cities including Los Angeles, Toronto, and London. Booth prices are kept low—around $3,000 for the largest rooms—and some exhibitors can sleep in their spaces to reduce costs. Participating galleries include Harlesden High Street, DARLA, and Blah Blah Gallery, with artists such as Patricia Renee’ Thomas, Emmanuel Massillon, and Qualeasha Wood. The fair also includes panels, DJ sets, reciprocal museum tours, and VIP studio visits.

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The Spanish Supreme Court has ordered the return of the Sijena Murals, 12th-century Romanesque frescoes known as the "Sistine Chapel of Romanesque Art," from the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC) in Barcelona to their original monastery in Huesca, Aragon, by June 25. However, the MNAC is resisting the move, arguing that transporting the fragile, fire-damaged murals poses a "real risk of irreparable damage." The museum has requested more information about the destination and conditions at the Sijena monastery, and has suggested a longer timeline for the return of particularly delicate sections, while the Sijena City Council has proposed installing the works elsewhere if necessary.

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The Joan Mitchell Foundation has announced the 31 artists selected for its 2026 residency program at the Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans. The residencies, lasting six or 14 weeks across three seasons, will host no more than nine artists at a time, beginning February 2. The cohort includes 17 local New Orleans artists and participants from cities such as New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, and Atlanta, ranging in age from 27 to 75. Notable participants include Edra Soto, who also won a United States Artists Fellowship, and two leaders of New Orleans’s Black Masking Indian tradition, Kelly Pearson Boles and Efrem Z. Boles. The selection was made by a jury of artists, curators, and academics.

Venice Biennale Swamped in Protests Ahead of Planned Strike

The Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA) has announced a 24-hour strike for Friday, May 8, coinciding with previews of the 2026 Venice Biennale, alongside a protest rally organized by local group Biennalocene and Italian trade unions. Earlier this week, sixty artists staged a sonic protest at the Giardini entrance to draw attention to the plight of those affected by genocide and war in Palestine and elsewhere. The Latvian pavilion has also encouraged attendees to wear a design by artist Krišs Salmanis reading “Death in Venice – Russia go home!” Meanwhile, dissident artists Pussy Riot stormed the Russian pavilion waving Ukrainian flags, and the entire 2026 Biennale jury resigned after the decision to exclude countries whose leaders are charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court from competing for top prizes.

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Italy has announced a reduction in its VAT on art sales from 22 percent to 5 percent, the lowest rate in the European Union. The move, approved in a cabinet meeting and set to take effect within days, follows sustained pressure from Italian galleries, artists, auction houses, and art market players. The new rate must be approved by parliament within 60 days to become permanent. The change aligns with an EU directive allowing member states to lower taxes on art sales to at least 5 percent, and comes after the government initially resisted calls for reform.

Party Is Elsewhere: When Art, Absence and Space Collide

Sudarshan Shetty’s seminal 2005 kinetic installation, "Party Is Elsewhere," has been restaged within the decaying remains of an abandoned nightclub in Delhi. The exhibition eschews the traditional "white cube" gallery space, instead utilizing a raw environment of peeling plaster and sagging ceilings to mirror the work's original debut in a fire-damaged Mumbai gallery. The installation features a mechanical system that rhythmically hammers a table of wine glasses beneath a neon sign, creating a sensory experience centered on fragility and deferred presence.

The Met Presents First Exhibition of Works by Finnish Painter Helene Schjerfbeck in a Major U.S. Museum

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will present "Seeing Silence: The Paintings of Helene Schjerfbeck," the first major U.S. museum exhibition dedicated to the Finnish painter (1862–1946). Featuring nearly 60 works on canvas, including loans from the Finnish National Gallery / Ateneum Art Museum and private collections, the exhibition runs from December 5, 2025, to April 5, 2026. It traces Schjerfbeck's artistic evolution from early naturalist works to her spare, experimental style, highlighting her resilience amid civil war, world wars, and Finland's independence.

In pictures: Art Basel's Unlimited section offers visions of utopia

Art Basel's Unlimited section, curated by Giovanni Carmine, features monumental works and performances with themes of utopia, community, and being in sync. Highlights include Oscar Murillo's participatory drawing installation, David Owens' film on Lonnie Holley, Alia Farid's tapestries on Middle Eastern-Cuban migration, Taloi Havini's shell money piece, Atelier Van Lieshout's 160-sculpture march to utopia, Andrea Büttner's shame punishment prints, and Mario Merz's inhabitable igloo.

Language Games in a Haunted Present.

Ndéyé Kouagou has opened her first solo exhibition in Italy at Collezione Maramotti, presented in conjunction with the Fotografia Europea 2026 festival. The exhibition, titled 'Ghosts of the Moment', features recent works and new commissions that showcase her language-driven practice, blending text, performance, and image to explore unstable meaning and contemporary subjectivity.

Sun, Sea, and Security

"Sonne, Meer und Sicherheit"

The Art Cologne Palma Mallorca art fair has emerged as a strategic hub for wealthy German collectors, positioning the Mediterranean island as a safe and accessible alternative to more volatile global markets. While sales have been strongest in the lower price segments, the fair's revival highlights a trend toward 'lifestyle' art events that prioritize security and leisure. Simultaneously, the German art market faces a broader crisis of regionalization, where galleries are increasingly focusing on local buyers despite declining overall sales and a lack of transformative economic growth.

Hannah Black “Harsh Muting” at zaza’, Naples

Hannah Black presents her first solo exhibition, "Harsh Muting," at the zaza' gallery in Naples. The show features five circular oil paintings that draw inspiration from the rotating word-play disks in Marcel Duchamp's surrealist film *Anemic Cinema*.

parties artists and mothers gala wsa

Over 250 supporters gathered at downtown creative hub WSA on Sunday for the first annual gala of the nonprofit Artists & Mothers, a sold-out fundraiser for the organization’s hallmark $25,000 childcare grants supporting artists with children under three. The event featured interactive installations by Ei Arakawa-Nash, Lisa Alvarado, and Maia Ruth Lee, performances by DJ Cardamami, Sophie Becker, Zeena Parkins, and others, and was attended by co-founders Julia Trotta and Maria De Victoria, incoming First Lady of New York Rama Duwaji, numerous artists, curators, patrons, and gallerists.