Art News. Vasari Codex

article news schedule May 18, 2026 visibility 43 link 27 artists, 17 galleries

Rare ‘Ocean Dream’ Diamond Sells for Record $17.3 Million at Christie’s

A rare 5.5-carat blue-green diamond known as the 'Ocean Dream' sold for $17.3 million at Christie’s Geneva jewelry sale, setting a record for a fancy vivid blue-green diamond at auction. The sale far exceeded its presale estimate of $9 million to $13 million after a 20-minute bidding battle. In other auction news, Sotheby’s New York sold over $433 million worth of art in its contemporary art sales, including 11 pieces from the Robert Mnuchin collection. Meanwhile, London’s Wellcome Collection agreed to return around 2,000 sacred Jain manuscripts to the Jain religious community under a new restitution framework, acknowledging they were acquired unethically. Several art fairs were announced, including Zero 10 curated by Trevor Paglen at Art Basel in Switzerland, CAN Art Fair Ibiza’s fifth edition, and Art-o-rama’s 20th edition in Marseille. Notable gallery news includes the bankruptcy and closure of French gallery Air de Paris after 36 years, and Carine Karam becoming director of Opera Gallery’s New York outpost. Hong Kong’s M+ and Paris’s Centre Pompidou announced a multi-year strategic alliance, and New York’s Frick Collection entered a three-year partnership with Louis Vuitton.

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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 23, 2025 visibility 25 link 9 artists, 2 galleries

jeff koons porcelain series gagosian

Jeff Koons has returned to Gagosian in New York with his "Porcelain Series," on view through February 28, 2026, marking his first exhibition with the gallery after four years with Pace. The show features hyper-polished porcelain sculptures and paintings that reference historical European porcelain workshops such as Sèvres, Meissen, and KPM Berlin, as well as 16th-century prints. Koons discusses the high-low dialogue of porcelain, its ties to readymade objects and Duchamp, and his use of advanced scanning and fabrication techniques to transform humble figurines into luxury art.

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trending_up market schedule Dec 16, 2025 visibility 30 link 37 artists, 8 galleries

top artists december list

Artnet News published its quarterly list of the most exhibited living artists in U.S. museums for December 2025, compiled by tracking temporary exhibitions across hundreds of institutions. The list ranks artists based on the number and type of shows they appear in, prioritizing career retrospectives, dedicated exhibitions, and biennial appearances. Among the top artists featured are Marie Watt, whose touring print exhibition "Storywork" and numerous group show appearances earned her a high ranking, and Jeffrey Gibson, known for his installation at MASS MoCA. The article notes that Watt also won the $250,000 Heinz Award in September 2025.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 6, 2025 visibility 27 link 28 artists, 1 gallery

met gala 2025 looks artworks

The 2025 Met Gala, officially the Costume Institute Benefit, was held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, launching the exhibition “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.” The event drew a star-studded guest list, with celebrities channeling the theme of Black dandyism through tailored silhouettes, bold patterns, and luxurious fabrics. Several attendees, including Cardi B, Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz, Colman Domingo, and Janelle Monáe, wore outfits that directly referenced specific artworks, such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s *Veronica Veronese*, Frank Stella’s *Rectangular Orange Painting with Diagonal Pattern*, and Hyacinthe Rigaud’s portrait of Louis XIV.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 22, 2025 visibility 20 link 13 artists, 2 galleries

john chamberlain foil sculptures rockefeller center

Three large-scale aluminum foil sculptures by John Chamberlain have been installed at Rockefeller Center in New York City, marking their first U.S. appearance. The works—BALMYWISECRACK (2011), FIDDLERSFORTUNE (2010), and RITZFROLIC (2008)—were scaled up from Chamberlain's original palm-sized foil sculptures with the help of fabricator Ernest Mourmans, whose workshop solved the structural challenges of recreating foil's texture in monumental form. The installation is presented by Mnuchin Gallery and coincides with a mini Chamberlain festival at Rockefeller Center this spring, with Christie's also exhibiting related works.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 22, 2026 visibility 28 link 8 artists, 7 galleries

How JR Transformed Paris’s Oldest Bridge Into a Massive Grotto

French artist JR has transformed Paris's Pont Neuf, the city's oldest bridge, into a massive inflatable grotto titled *La Caverne du Pont Neuf* (2026). The installation measures 120 meters long, 20 meters wide, and up to 18 meters tall, and will be open to the public from June 6 to June 28. It incorporates sound design by Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk, augmented reality via Snap Inc., and a Bloomberg Connect guide. Over 800 people helped realize the project, which was fabricated from 18,900 square meters of fabric and 20,000 cubic meters of pressurized air by French firm Air Toiles Concept. The work concludes a five-year series of large-scale trompe l'oeil pieces by JR and pays homage to Christo and Jeanne-Claude's *The Pont Neuf Wrapped, Paris* (1975–85), with the blessing of their foundation.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 21, 2026 visibility 35 link 46 artists, 8 galleries

Your Summer Guide: 20 Art World Highlights Not to Miss

ARTnews has published a summer guide highlighting 20 art world events and exhibitions not to miss in the coming months. Featured highlights include the opera 'El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego' at the Metropolitan Opera, the 'Costume Art' exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a Björk show titled 'echolalia' at the National Gallery of Iceland, a book on the Venice Biennale by Massimiliano Gioni, Raven Halfmoon's 'Flags of Our Mothers' at Ballroom Marfa, a Pierre Huyghe exhibition at Fondation Beyeler Basel, a James McNeill Whistler retrospective at Tate Britain, and the inaugural Medina Triennial in New York.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 11, 2025 visibility 19 link 4 artists, 2 galleries

ibrahim mahamas stunning textile installation blankets the barbican in london

Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama has transformed the lakeside terrace of London's Barbican Centre with a monumental textile installation titled "Purple Hibiscus" (2023-24). The work, measuring 6,560 square feet, is made from handcrafted pink and purple fabric adorned with approximately 130 traditional ceremonial robes called batakaris, sourced from communities in Tamale, Ghana. Mahama collaborated with a network of local women weavers and employed around 1,000 workers to produce the piece over seven months, using Tamale's Alui Mahama sports stadium as a workspace. The installation is part of the Barbican's exhibition "Unravel: The Power and Politics of Textiles in Art."

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 10, 2025 visibility 20 link 6 artists, 1 gallery

christo pompidou arc de triomphe

Christo, the Bulgarian-born artist known for his monumental fabric-wrapped installations, reflects on his career ahead of a planned exhibition at the Centre Pompidou titled "Christo & Jeanne-Claude, Paris!" The show, dedicated to Christo and his late wife and collaborator Jeanne-Claude, has been indefinitely postponed due to the global health crisis. Christo discusses his early years in Paris, his nomadic artistic approach, and his upcoming project to wrap the Arc de Triomphe, scheduled for September 19 to October 4. The article captures his disdain for retrospection, his escape from communist Bulgaria, and his lifelong commitment to taking art beyond traditional gallery spaces.

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person people schedule Dec 12, 2025 source 2 sources visibility 28 link 13 artists, 2 galleries

nnena kalu turner prize winner 2025

Nnena Kalu, a Glasgow-born, London-based artist known for her charged abstract works driven by rhythmic repetition, has won the 2025 Turner Prize, the U.K.'s top award for contemporary art. The announcement was made at a ceremony at Bradford Grammar School, with Kalu receiving £25,000 ($33,000) for her presentation at Bradford's Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, featuring a colorful installation of suspended bundles made from found materials like VHS tape, fabric, rope, and paper. Kalu, born in 1966, is the first learning disabled artist to be nominated for and win the Turner Prize, marking a historic milestone.

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museum exhibitions schedule Mar 30, 2026 source 5 sources visibility 21 link 6 artists, 2 galleries

First permanent Ruth Asawa gallery to open in honor of artist’s centennial.

A permanent gallery dedicated to the work of artist Ruth Asawa will open in San Francisco this spring. Located within the Minnesota Street Project in the Dogpatch neighborhood, the gallery's inaugural exhibition, "Ruth Asawa: Untitled," is scheduled to open on May 9th, managed by her family foundation, Ruth Asawa Lanier Inc.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 13, 2026 visibility 30 link 19 artists, 3 galleries

Bringing back the salon: UK organisation aims to revive Brighton's contemporary art scene

The Adelaide Salon, a new arts organization founded in 2024 by Pascal Dowers and Paulina Anzorge, is staging a ticketed contemporary art event at Brighton's Royal Pavilion on 30 May, featuring live art and performance. This follows the organization's earlier exhibitions at their home in Adelaide Crescent and a current takeover of the Founders Room at Brighton Dome with the exhibition Act O (until 25 May), part of the Brighton Festival. The salon aims to revive Brighton's art scene after notable losses, including the 2023 closure of Brighton University's Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA) and the withdrawal of Arts Council funding at Fabrica gallery.

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article news schedule Apr 27, 2026 visibility 43 link 28 artists, 11 galleries

Art Basel Curbs Pre-Fair Sales—and More Art Industry News

Art Basel has launched a "Basel Exclusive" initiative to curb pre-fair PDF sales, encouraging galleries to withhold works from previews to drive in-person discovery at its flagship Swiss event (June 16–21). Around 170 of 232 exhibitors have opted in. Meanwhile, Volta returns to Basel with a new "5,000 Edit" section for works under CHF 5,000 to attract younger collectors, and the alternative fair Esther will hold its third edition in New York during Frieze Week. In other news, Sotheby's set a U.S. record for design auctions with the Jean and Terry de Gunzburg collection totaling $96 million, and billionaire collector Mitchell P. Rales pledged $116 million to the National Gallery of Art to fund loans to smaller museums. The Smithsonian American Art Museum named Lynda Roscoe Hartigan as its new director, and Gladstone Gallery plans a new Seoul space for 2026.

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trending_up market schedule Mar 4, 2026 visibility 15 link 6 artists, 1 gallery

bottega veneta max lamb chairs

Bottega Veneta unveiled its Winter 2025 collection at Milan Fashion Week, staged within the brand’s new headquarters at the historic Palazzo San Fedele. Creative director Louise Trotter collaborated with British designer Max Lamb to create a massive site-specific installation consisting of 421 sculptural white chairs for the audience. The set design drew inspiration from Lamb’s "60 Chairs" project, where he rapidly fabricated furniture from polystyrene slabs.

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article news schedule Dec 31, 2025 visibility 32 link 17 artists, 2 galleries

alma allen american pavilion 2026 venice biennale

Alma Allen, a Utah-born, Mexico-based sculptor, has been selected to represent the United States at the 2026 Venice Biennale, according to ARTnews sources. The pavilion's commissioning curator is Jeffrey Uslip, who previously curated the Malta Pavilion in 2022. The official announcement is pending the end of the government shutdown. Allen, known for large-scale stone, wood, and bronze sculptures, is in talks with Perrotin gallery for representation after his previous gallery, Kasmin, closed and rebranded as Olney Gleason.

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museum exhibitions schedule Dec 22, 2025 visibility 20 link 4 artists, 1 gallery

high line plinth tuan andrew nguyen buddha

Vietnamese American artist Tuan Andrew Nguyen has been selected for the next High Line Plinth commission in New York City. His 27-foot-tall sculpture, titled *The Light That Shines Through the Universe* (2026), will be installed for 18 months starting next spring. The work reimagines one of the Bamiyan Buddhas destroyed by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001, incorporating melted brass artillery shells and scrap metal from Afghanistan for the hands, which perform mudra poses of fearlessness and compassion. The sculpture will be fabricated in Vietnam from four sandstone parts and installed at night on the High Line.

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article news schedule Jun 23, 2025 visibility 22 link 9 artists, 9 galleries

el greco paint drippings art industry news jun 20

This week's art industry roundup covers a range of developments: a new wave of younger, deliberate collectors is reshaping the art market, as reported from Art Basel; the Independent art fair will relocate to Pier 36 in New York in 2026; Riga Contemporary, a new fair, launches in Latvia; and the inaugural Arrival art fair took place in North Adams, Massachusetts. In auctions, seven never-before-seen Picasso ceramic plates sold in Geneva for nearly double their estimate, while a Giacometti sculpture made the top 10 sales list. Galleries news includes Nara Roesler now representing Asuka Anastasia Ogawa, a new gallery called Open Studio opening in New York, and Andrew Edlin Gallery relocating. In museums, a government watchdog found the Trump Administration broke the law by withholding funding for the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and UC Irvine and the Orange County Museum of Art plan to merge. A legal battle over an El Greco painting withdrawn from Christie's auction is advancing, with the owner revealed as Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 18, 2025 visibility 16 link 4 artists, 1 gallery

audemars piguet contemporary aspen art museum adrian villar rojas

Audemars Piguet Contemporary (APC) and the Aspen Art Museum have co-commissioned a new sculpture by Argentinian artist Adrián Villar Rojas, titled (Untitled) The Language of the Enemy. The work will debut in November in the Jura Mountains, near APC's hometown in the Vallée de Joux, before traveling to the Aspen Art Museum for a multi-floor exhibition in 2026. The sculpture draws a parallel between paleontology and speculative memory, imagining that an encounter with fossilized dinosaur remains might have sparked the earliest act of art-making. APC curator Audrey Teichmann emphasized the organization's role in supporting the artist through inception, research, fabrication, and project management, as well as providing continuous support for a second exhibition and storage of the work between shows.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 6, 2025 visibility 17 link 6 artists, 3 galleries

do ho suh tate

Artist Do Ho Suh presents his first solo exhibition at London's Tate Modern in two decades, titled "The Genesis Exhibition: Do Ho Suh: Walk the House." The show features his signature translucent fabric architectural sculptures, including the newly created installation "Nest/s" (2024), a collection of 1:1 scale replicas of spaces where Suh has lived and worked across Seoul, New York, London, and Berlin. The exhibition explores themes of home, memory, and migration, drawing from Suh's own experiences moving from Seoul to New York and later London.

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article news schedule Apr 25, 2025 visibility 19 link 7 artists, 1 gallery

obama presidential center chicago artist commissions

US artists Spencer Finch and Lindsay Adams have been commissioned to create new installations for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, which is set to open in early 2026. Finch will produce a 70-foot-long tiled mural for the Forum building's lobby, inspired by Barack Obama's memoir *Dreams from My Father*, while Adams will adapt a 2024 painting into fabric panels for the center's public café. The commissions are led by museum director Louise Bernard and curator Virginia Shore, who are building a collection of approximately 20 public artworks for the campus, including pieces by Julie Mehretu, Richard Hunt, and Maya Lin.

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article museums & heritage schedule Mar 12, 2026 source 2 sources visibility 17 link 3 artists, 2 galleries

Victor Vasarely’s crumbling Aix legacy to be restored

The family of Op Art pioneer Victor Vasarely is leading a major restoration effort for his foundation's iconic building and artworks in Aix-en-Provence. The striking 50-year-old structure, a historic monument, had suffered from years of neglect, leaking roofs, and failed climate systems, with many of its 42 monumental site-specific works in urgent need of conservation. A €12 million renovation, 85% publicly funded, has addressed the building's fabric, but restoring the complex artworks remains a slow, costly process.

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article culture schedule Jan 3, 2026 visibility 16 link 5 artists, 1 gallery

maurizio cattelan gioni beware of yourself

Massimiliano Gioni reveals that for nearly a decade, from 1997 to 2006, he acted as Maurizio Cattelan's ghostwriter and public impersonator, writing all of Cattelan's texts, press releases, and interviews, and even giving lectures and television appearances in his place. Gioni describes how he fabricated lies and half-truths, speaking as Cattelan at universities like Yale and NYU, on Vatican Radio, and during the media storm over Cattelan's sculpture of hanged children in Milan, all for a monthly fee of $500.

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article culture schedule Apr 5, 2026 visibility 46 link 38 artists, 1 gallery

How the New Deal Treated Art as Essential to Democracy

The United States government transformed the role of the artist during the Great Depression by treating art as a vital public resource rather than a private luxury. Between 1933 and 1943, New Deal programs like the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) commissioned hundreds of thousands of works for schools, libraries, and hospitals, providing 'plumbers' wages' to struggling creators. This federal patronage supported a generation of then-unknown figures, including Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Alice Neel, while focusing on the 'American scene' to make culture accessible to the general public.

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candle obituary schedule Apr 1, 2026 visibility 38 link 9 artists, 2 galleries

Remembering Glen Baxter, Pat Steir, Melvin Edwards

The art world mourns the recent deaths of several significant figures. British absurdist cartoonist Glen Baxter, known for his work in The New Yorker and exhibitions at Flowers Gallery, has died. American sculptor Melvin Edwards, renowned for his welded steel Lynch Fragments addressing racist violence, and pioneering feminist painter Pat Steir, celebrated for her conceptual, process-based works, have also passed. The article additionally notes the deaths of Lebanese painter Ali Sbeity, killed in an airstrike; Mexican folk artist Josefina Aguilar; British heritage leader Neil Cossons; British painter Charles Debenham; and Cypriot painter Andreas Karayian.

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museum exhibitions schedule Feb 20, 2026 visibility 40 link 37 artists, 2 galleries

women in abstract expressionism

The Denver Art Museum is hosting "Women of Abstract Expressionism," the first major museum exhibition dedicated exclusively to female painters of the movement. Curated by Gwen Chanzit, the show features over 50 works by artists including Helen Frankenthaler, Jay DeFeo, Elaine de Kooning, and Mary Abbott. The exhibition highlights how these women were integral to the first internationally influential American art movement but were historically sidelined in favor of male peers like Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning.

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article culture schedule May 20, 2026 visibility 14 link 16 artists, 12 galleries

10 Artists to Follow if You Like Iris van Herpen

Artsy Editorial profiles 10 contemporary artists whose work aligns with the visionary, technology-driven approach of fashion designer Iris van Herpen. The article highlights van Herpen's career milestones, including her 2011 invitation to join the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, and her ongoing fusion of traditional craftsmanship with cutting-edge technology to create wearable art. It then presents a curated list of artists who similarly explore themes of organic form, digital fabrication, and the intersection of art and fashion.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 30, 2025 visibility 14 link 5 artists, 1 gallery

bobby anspach everything is change

The Newport Art Museum in Rhode Island has opened "Bobby Anspach: Everything is Change," the first institutional solo exhibition for the late American artist Bobby Anspach, who died in 2022 at age 34. Curated by Taylor Baldwin, the show traces Anspach's development of immersive sculptural environments, particularly his "Place for Continuous Eye Contact" series, which uses materials like pom-poms, lights, fabric, and found objects to create psychologically charged spaces. The exhibition includes early works, paintings, and large-scale installations that Anspach had previously shown at venues such as New York's Spring Break Art Show and outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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article news schedule Apr 7, 2026 visibility 26 link 9 artists

Museum acquisitions round-up: Andy Warhol in an apron, a solid-silver relief and Christo's luggage rack

Major international institutions have secured significant new acquisitions, ranging from intimate photographic archives to monumental silver reliefs. The Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art received over 400 stereoscopic slides by Ronnie Cutrone documenting Andy Warhol’s Factory, while the Germanisches Nationalmuseum acquired Luigi Valadier’s final silver masterpiece, 'Lamentation of Christ'. Additionally, the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation donated 14 works to the City of Paris, including the early sculpture 'Package on a Luggage Rack' for the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris.

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trending_up market schedule Feb 9, 2026 visibility 45 link 28 artists, 14 galleries

art basel qatar 2026 sales report art market

Art Basel Qatar concluded its first edition with strong attendance and sales, signaling Doha's emergence as a significant art market hub. The fair attracted over 17,000 visitors, with nearly half of the private collectors coming from the MENASA region, and saw institutional placements and steady sales across various price points. Notable sales included works by Lucy Bull, Issy Wood, Nari Ward, and Ahmed Mater.

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trending_up market schedule Nov 19, 2025 visibility 21 link 17 artists

records fall during 706 million night at sothebys turbocharged by blue chip lauder trove

Sotheby's achieved a record-breaking $706 million auction night at its new global headquarters in the Breuer Building, New York, the highest total in the auction house's 281-year history. The sale was propelled by the collection of late art patron Leonard A. Lauder, whose 24 pieces sold for $527.5 million, led by Gustav Klimt's *Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer* (1914–16) which fetched $236.4 million, becoming the second-priciest artwork ever sold at auction. A subsequent contemporary and ultra-contemporary art sale added $178.5 million.

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