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This article from Artnet News recaps a series of holiday parties and galas in the New York art world during December 2016. Highlights include the New York Botanical Garden's 18th Annual Winter Wonderland Ball, attended by Anne Hathaway, Tinsley Mortimer, and Andrew Warren; artnet's own holiday party featuring the Bumbys and a magician; ACRIA's 21st Annual Holiday Dinner honoring the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation and actress Judith Light; and Project for Empty Space's Winter Bacchanal Benefit, which presented the first Badass Art Woman Awards to curators Rujeko Hockley, Rocio Aranda-Alvarado, and Deana Haggag.

Hiba Schahbaz: The Garden

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Hiba Schahbaz is the subject of her first major museum retrospective, "The Garden," at the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami. Curated by Jasmine Wahi, the exhibition features 80 works spanning 15 years, tracing the artist's evolution from traditional Indo-Persian miniature painting in Lahore to her current large-scale practice in Brooklyn. The show highlights her recurring use of the female nude—often a stylized self-portrait—navigating mystical landscapes filled with Sufi poetry, mythical creatures, and art historical references.

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Sotheby's Asia faces another leadership shake-up as Elaine Holt departs her role as chairman of modern and contemporary art in Asia after just one year. Jasmine Prasetio, Sotheby's managing director for Southeast Asia, will relocate to Hong Kong to serve as interim chair. Meanwhile, European galleries Meyer Riegger and Galerie Jocelyn Wolff are partnering to open a new space in Seoul called Meyer Riegger Wolff, led by Gala Musi, with an inaugural show during Frieze Seoul. Design Miami will make its Asian debut in Seoul, and London-based artist Firenze Lai has joined White Cube's roster. In Taiwan, the Taichung Green Museumbrary, designed by SANAA, is set to open in December, and the Gwangju Biennale Foundation has appointed Youn Bummo as its new president.

15 Art Shows to See in NYC This May

Hyperallergic's May 2025 guide to New York City art shows highlights 15 exhibitions, including a survey of Hawaiian Japanese-American artists from the Metcalf Chateau group at Ryan Lee Gallery, a retrospective of Malian photographer Seydou Keïta at the Brooklyn Museum, and Renée Green's multimedia project 'Secret' at Bortolami Gallery. The article also features Lynette Yiadom-Boakye's quietude-focused works, a meditation on grief and death, and a document of a city devastated by the AIDS crisis through portraits of inanimate objects, among other shows.

Mom, I'm Gonna Be an Artist!

Hyperallergic's Saturday newsletter, edited by Valentina Di Liscia, rounds up a week of art-world activity marked by protests and resistance. Staff Writer Isa Farfan asked 15 artists to share advice from their mothers for Mother's Day, featuring responses from Pat Oleszko, whose work is in the Whitney Biennial. The newsletter also covers editor-in-chief Hakim Bishara's report on a historic strike for Palestine and workers' rights at the Venice Biennale, where dozens of national pavilions shut down, and Editor-at-Large Hrag Vartanian's review of the central exhibition "In Minor Keys." Additional stories include Damien Davis on artists and consignment agreements, Matt Stromberg on the LA Art Book Fair, a protest against Jeff Bezos at the Met Gala, MoMA PS1's upcoming Teresa Margolles survey, and a picket at the American Folk Art Museum.

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Chicago's annual art week unfolded with gallerist Daisy Sanchez documenting the scene for Artnet News's 'Wet Paint in the Wild' column. Sanchez, who recently co-opened Hans Goodrich gallery with Peter Anastos, attended the Renaissance Society's annual benefit, EXPO Chicago, and after-parties. The week featured artists including Joanne Greenbaum, Leah Ke Yi Zhang, B. Ingrid Olsen, and Isabelle Frances McGuire, with appearances by curators Myriam Ben Salah, Karsten Lund, and Giampaolo Bianconi, among others.

5 Ways the Art World Can Better Support Women Artists

12 Collectors on the Artists, Shows, and Trends to Watch in 2026

Artsy spoke with 12 leading collectors about the artists, exhibitions, and trends they are most excited to follow in 2026. Highlights include the re-centering of women artists, the rise of South Asian and LGBTQ+ artists, and the impact of AI on gallery operations. Collectors point to major institutional milestones such as LACMA's new campus, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, the Venice Biennale, and Art Basel's expansion into Qatar, as well as specific shows like Claire Tabouret's stained-glass commission for Notre-Dame and the Frida Kahlo exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Fair Week in NYC!

New York City is hosting a packed week of art fairs in May 2025, including Frieze at The Shed, Independent Art Fair at Pier 36, TEFAF New York at the Park Avenue Armory, and NADA New York at the Starrett-Lehigh Building. The fairs feature hundreds of international galleries, with Frieze emphasizing Central and South American exhibitors, Independent exploring a dystopian theme, TEFAF offering antiquities and fine art, and NADA celebrating its 12th edition with 121 galleries. The article also notes recent major exhibitions at the New Museum, Whitney Biennial, MoMA PS1, The Met, and MoMA, and includes a guide to Upstate New York art destinations.

Art Workers Plan Venice Biennale Strike

Cultural workers, labor unions, and grassroots groups are planning a strike at the Venice Biennale on Friday, May 8, organized by the Art Not Genocide Alliance and others. The action, described as the first organized strike within the Biennale, aims to protest Israel's inclusion in the event, with participants withholding their labor and calling to "shut down the genocide pavilion." The article also covers other art news, including exhibitions in Los Angeles, a profile of nonagenarian artist Mohammad Omer Khalil, and memes about the Met Gala.

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Project for Empty Space celebrated its 15th anniversary with the annual Badass Art Woman Awards at the Angel Orensanz Foundation in Manhattan. The event honored Dr. Deborah Willis, Ebony L. Haynes, and Helen Toomer, and featured performances by Mia X, Marcy De Pina, and Armana Khan, with a crowd of artists, curators, and scholars including Mickalene Thomas, Derrick Adams, and Legacy Russell.

Pioneering British photographer Julia Margaret Cameron honoured with a blue plaque in London

A blue plaque has been unveiled on the London home of pioneering British photographer Julia Margaret Cameron at 10 Chesham Place in Belgravia, celebrating her legacy. Cameron took up photography at age 48 and created iconic portraits of figures like Alfred Tennyson, Charles Darwin, and Thomas Carlyle, as well as images of her family and neighbors. The plaque was installed by English Heritage, with family members including musician Jules Cameron, singer Jasmine van den Bogaerde (Birdy), and artist Julian Bell attending the ceremony. Cameron's great-great-great-granddaughter Jules Cameron noted that the honor feels like a continuation of her work to fix presence in light and memory.

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Artist Lita Albuquerque staged a 25-minute performance titled "The Sea Is Within Me" in the Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern, a 1926 underground reservoir in Houston, during the inaugural edition of Untitled Art, Houston. The piece featured Albuquerque's daughter and dancer Jasmine Albuquerque, vocalist Carmina Escobar, and double bassist Laura Dykes, guiding small groups through a meditation and a dramatic call-and-response between the vocalist and dancer, exploring themes of joy, despair, and symbiosis.

The 10 Best Museum and Gallery Shows to See in the Bay Area This Summer

The article highlights ten notable museum and gallery exhibitions opening in the Bay Area during summer 2026, including Ranu Mukherjee's solo show 'The Long Middle' at Gallery Wendi Norris, a group survey 'Slice of the Pie' at Fraenkel Gallery featuring 14 Bay Area galleries, and 'Giant Steps' at Personal Space in Vallejo focusing on innovative ceramic works. Other featured shows include Will Yackulic's 'A Certain Slant of Light' at pt.2 in Oakland and several other exhibitions across San Francisco and Oakland.

The Top 10 Exhibitions to See Around the World This May

Ocula's global team of editors has curated a list of the top 10 exhibitions to see worldwide in May, highlighting diverse shows from Rio de Janeiro to New York. Featured exhibitions include Jungjin Lee's photographic works blending Icelandic landscapes and intimate objects on traditional Korean paper, a millennial-themed group show titled "Genuine Premium Fake Economy" examining precarity through artists like Jasmine Gregory and Buck Ellis, Joan Semmel's solo exhibition "Continuities" at Xavier Hufkens and Alexander Gray Associates showcasing her erotic self-portraiture at age 93, and Wynnie Mynerva's Berlin Gallery Weekend show addressing colonial violence and Andean mythology.

The Best New York City Exhibitions of 2025

Hyperallergic's staff and contributors present their picks for the best New York City exhibitions of 2025, highlighting a year marked by major museum reopenings, including the Studio Museum in Harlem after a seven-year hiatus and the Frick's expansion. Notable shows include Amy Sherald's 'American Sublime' at the Whitney Museum, Rashid Johnson at the Guggenheim, Wifredo Lam at MoMA, and surveys of Indigenous design at the Ford Foundation Gallery, Seydou Keïta at the Brooklyn Museum, and hometown heroes like Jack Whitten at MoMA and Coco Fusco at El Museo del Barrio. The list also features Saya Woolfalk at the Museum of Arts and Design, Nayland Blake at Matthew Marks Gallery, and Ben Shahn at the Jewish Museum.

The Top Exhibitions To See In London: May 2025

London's galleries and museums are opening a wave of major exhibitions in May 2025. Highlights include a 30-year survey of South Korean artist Do Ho Suh at Tate Modern, featuring fabric corridors replicating his former homes; two blockbuster shows at the British Museum—Hiroshige's prints of a transforming Japan and an exploration of ancient Indian religious art; a tech-and-nature residency by physicist-artist Jasmine Pradissitto at the London Museum of Water & Steam; and an immersive tree visualization by Marshmallow Laser Feast at Kew Gardens. The Francis Crick Institute also hosts the final weeks of its free multisensory exhibition "Hello Brain!"

At 90, Printmaker Mohammad Omer Khalil Gets His Due

Mohammad Omer Khalil, the 90-year-old Sudanese-born printmaker based in New York, is the subject of a multi-city retrospective titled "Common Ground." The anchor exhibition runs through May 31 at the Blackburn Study Center in Manhattan, with satellite events at venues including Twelve Gates Arts in Philadelphia, the Arab American National Museum in Michigan, the New York Public Library, and Anthology Film Archives. Curated by Amina Ahmed and Jenna Hamed, the show spans Khalil's entire career, from his first etching made in Florence in 1964 to large-scale works inspired by Bob Dylan songs, poetry by Adonis, and films such as "The Chalk Garden."

Artists, Read the Fine Print

Artist Damien Davis writes a critical piece on how so-called 'standard' contracts in the art world systematically undermine artists' power, citing long consignment periods, moral rights waivers, and opaque terms that favor institutions. Separately, the Venice Biennale has scrapped its traditional Golden Lion awards after the awards jury resigned; instead, ticket holders will vote on 'Visitor Lions,' with results announced in November, and notably Israel and Russia remain eligible despite the jury's earlier ban. Other news includes damage to a 1,000-year-old Native American archaeological site by construction crews building President Trump's border wall.

Josh Kline Misses the Mark

Critic Aruna D’Souza responds to a viral essay by artist Josh Kline regarding the extreme financial pressures of living and working in New York City. While Kline suggests that artists should abandon the city due to the affordability crisis, D’Souza argues that leaving is not a viable long-term solution and calls for a more proactive approach to systemic change within the urban art ecosystem.

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Video artist Andrew Norman Wilson, known for a viral 2024 essay in The Baffler about artist precarity, has directed a new music video for British actress and singer Naomi Scott's song "Losing You." Scott, famous for playing Princess Jasmine in Disney's 2019 live-action Aladdin, is releasing her debut full-length album F.I.G. in March. The music video, which Wilson directed, produced, wrote, and edited, is described as disjointed, claustrophobic, and strange, featuring close-ups, mirrors, and a roast chicken tattooed with a broken heart.

The Devil Wears Prada 2 to Lenny Henry: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead

The Guardian's weekly entertainment guide highlights two major art exhibitions opening in May 2025: 'Aleksandra Kasuba' at Tate St Ives (2 May to 4 October) and 'Zurbarán' at the National Gallery, London (2 May to 23 August). The Kasuba show is the first UK presentation of the Lithuanian American artist's proto-immersive 'spatial environments,' featuring early paintings, mosaics, and installations focused on utopian social harmony. The Zurbarán exhibition presents a blockbuster survey of the 17th-century Spanish Baroque master, known for his intense religious subjects and dramatic chiaroscuro.

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Sotheby’s held its annual modern and contemporary art sale in Singapore on Sunday, achieving $13.1 million across 62 lots with a 94% sell-through rate. The top lot was Adrien-Jean Le Mayeur de Merpres’s *Weavers* (1953) at $1.2 million, followed by Takashi Murakami’s *Blue Signals* (2017) at $1.06 million. New artist records were set for Pacita Abad, whose *Assaulting the eye with Ecstasy* (1984) sold for $389,400, and Singaporean artist Anthony Poon, whose *Colour Waves* (1986) fetched $129,800. Bidders came from Southeast Asia, the US, the UAE, Europe, South Korea, Japan, India, and China.

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The New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) has appointed Vancouver-based independent curator Kate Wong to organize the Curated Spotlight section of its upcoming Miami fair. Wong, formerly a curator at MOCA Toronto and founder of SITE Toronto, selected five galleries and nonprofit spaces—including EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, Spill 180, El Consulado, Romance, and Southside Contemporary Art Gallery—to highlight emerging artists. The fair runs December 2 at Ice Palace Studios, concurrent with Art Basel Miami Beach.

In Chelsea, Canal 47 and Max Levai Are Betting On Collaboration

New York gallery 47 Canal is relocating from SoHo to a 7,000-square-foot flagship at 529 West 20th Street in Chelsea, sharing the space with London dealer Max Levai. Founded by Oliver Newton and Margaret Lee in 2011, the gallery will maintain its own identity and exhibition program while coordinating schedules with Levai to create a more active environment. The renovated space, designed by IDSR Architecture, features two exhibition levels and will host longer exhibition runs, talks, performances, and events.

In Basel, alternative art fairs spring up in new places

In Basel, alternative art fairs are proliferating as dealers seek new ways to engage collectors outside the main Art Basel fair. Maison Clearing, a pop-up group exhibition by the New York and Los Angeles-based Clearing gallery, occupies a four-story villa in central Basel, featuring works by 46 artists including Kayode Ojo, Jasmine Gregory, and Jean-Marie Appriou. The rental cost of $2,000 per day is roughly one-third the price of a medium-sized stand at Art Basel. Meanwhile, the Basel Social Club (BSC) returns for its fourth edition in a former bank building near the Kunstmuseum, hosting over 100 spaces filled with art, performances, and hospitality offerings, including artist-led services like a hairdresser and a blood bank.

Jasmine Little, Los Angeles Painter and Ceramicist, Dies at 41

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Los Angeles-based artist Jasmine Little has passed away at the age of 41, as confirmed by her gallery, La Loma. Known for her versatile practice that spanned lush still-life paintings and intricate sgraffito ceramic vessels, Little's work often blended historical references with personal mythology. Her gallerist, Kirk Nelson, remembered her as a "force of nature" who produced monumental sculptures and detailed narratives through intense, dedicated periods of creation.

Visual Art: Sotheby’s To Stage Modern and Contemporary Art Auction During SAW 2026, featuring works by Walter Spies and Raden Saleh

Sotheby’s will hold a Modern and Contemporary Art auction on 25 January during Singapore Art Week (SAW) 2026 at The Edition Singapore. The sale features rare works by early Southeast Asian masters, including Walter Spies’ "Die Schlittschuhläufer (The Ice Skaters)" (1922) and Raden Saleh’s "The Eruption of Mount Merapi, by Day" (1865), alongside Vietnamese silk paintings by Le Pho and Mai Trung Thu, and a David Hockney piece. The auction highlights a 60% rise in new bidders from Southeast Asia since 2022.

Evelyn Lin to Lead Sotheby’s Asia Modern and Contemporary Art, After Pace Hong Kong Shutters

Evelyn Lin is returning to Sotheby’s as chairman of Modern and contemporary art, Asia, starting November 3, after a one-year stint at Pace gallery. She will help lead the inaugural marquee sale at Sotheby’s new global headquarters in New York’s Breuer Building. The appointment follows the departure of Elaine Holt and the closure of Pace’s Hong Kong space, which will not renew its lease at H Queen’s after its current exhibition closes on October 18.

Australian artist Khaled Sabsabi reveals details of presentations in the Australia Pavilion and in the International Exhibition In Minor Keys at Biennale Arte 2026 – News Hub

Australian artist Khaled Sabsabi will present two major installations at the 2026 Venice Biennale. At the Australia Pavilion, he unveils "conference of one’s self," an immersive multisensory work featuring eight monumental canvas paintings, video projections, and a soundscape inspired by a 12th-century Sufi allegory. Simultaneously, he becomes the first Australian artist to also exhibit in the International Exhibition, titled "In Minor Keys" curated by Koyo Kouoh, with a second installation called "khalil" at the Arsenale. Both works explore spirituality, migration, and shared humanity through a framework of Sufi thought.