Frieze New York 2026 opened its VIP day at The Shed on May 13, following the Venice Biennale's opening week. Now in its 15th edition, the fair anchors New York Art Week, a series of concurrent fairs, gallery openings, auctions, and parties that take over the city each May. The article highlights the five best booths at the fair, curated by Artsy Editorial.
Beijing Oomph 2026 is a curated guide to the best contemporary art exhibitions across galleries and institutions in Beijing, timed to coincide with the Beijing Dangdai art fair and Gallery Weekend at the end of May. The article highlights Zhi Wei's exhibition "Folly" at Beijing Commune as a key show, reflecting the city's vibrant art scene during this concentrated period of gallery openings and events.
WWD asked top international gallerists, collectors, and artists to name the cities they find most exciting for contemporary art. Karen and Christian Boros recommend Naples and the Amalfi Coast, highlighting galleries like Galleria Giangiacomo Rossetti, Thomas Dane Gallery, and Lia Rumma, as well as Fondazione Morra Greco and Le Sirenuse hotel. Daniel Arsham points to Sugar Beach in St. Lucia for its large contemporary sculpture collection. Jean-Michel Othoniel champions South Korea, citing Seoul's Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, Kukje Gallery, and the Kiaf Seoul fair, plus the city of Busan. Emma Lavigne of the Pinault Collection names Venice, especially during the Biennale Arte di Venezia, as an essential destination.
Frieze New York 2026 closed its 15th edition at The Shed on May 17, drawing 25,000 visitors from 75 countries and featuring 68 galleries from 26 countries. The fair reported strong sales across market levels, including seven-figure transactions such as El Anatsui's *LuwVor I* sold by White Cube for $2.2 million and Georg Baselitz's *Stunde der Nachtigall* sold by Thaddaeus Ropac for €1.4 million. The inaugural Sherman Family Foundation Acquisition Fund enabled acquisitions by the Brooklyn Museum and the Baltimore Museum of Art, with works by Bettina, Reika Takebayashi, Seba Calfuqueo, and Joanne Burke. Several galleries, including Johyun Gallery and James Cohan, reported sold-out or near-sell-out booths.
New York Art Week 2026 featured major art fairs including Frieze New York at The Shed, which drew 25,000 visitors from 75 countries and launched the Sherman Family Foundation Acquisition Fund, placing works by four artists into the Brooklyn Museum and Baltimore Museum of Art. TEFAF New York at the Park Avenue Armory presented over 90 international galleries across historic period rooms, while satellite fairs Independent, NADA New York, and 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair offered focused alternatives. Auction houses Sotheby's, Christie's, and Phillips opened free spring sale previews featuring highlights such as Roy Lichtenstein's 'Anxious Girl' and the Lewis Collection.
Phillips achieved a 100% sell-through rate at its Modern and Contemporary Art Evening Sale in Hong Kong on 27 September, totaling nearly HK$160 million (US$20.5 million). All 20 lots sold, with six works exceeding HK$10 million. The top lot was Yoshitomo Nara's *Pinky* (2000), which sold for HK$56.64 million (US$7.2 million) after its estimate was lowered from HK$60–80 million to HK$35–55 million. The sale was the first major test of Phillips' new Priority Bidding (PB) system, which offers a reduced buyer's premium to collectors who place written bids at or above the low estimate at least 48 hours before the auction. Seven lots were withdrawn and several estimates revised downward ahead of the sale, contributing to the white-glove result.
CULTURED revisits four collector questionnaires from Pride Month, featuring Rob and Eric Thomas-Suwall (the Icy Gays), Chad Leat, and Ilan Cohen. Each collector shares their personal journey, motivations, and the LGBTQ+ artists they champion, including Salman Toor, Dominique Fung, Anna Weyant, Roni Horn, John Giorno, Wolfgang Tillmans, Doron Langberg, Louis Fratino, and TM Davy. The article offers intimate glimpses into their homes and collections, highlighting how they discovered art, built relationships with dealers, and navigated collecting from remote or non-traditional locations.
The Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain will reopen its new space at 2 Place du Palais-Royal in Paris on October 25, 2025, during Paris Art Week. Designed by architect Jean Nouvel, the building—originally constructed for the 1855 Exposition Universelle and later a hotel, department store, and antiques center—has been transformed with a modular system of five movable platforms, a glass canopy, and transparent ground-floor windows to create an open, flexible exhibition environment. The inaugural show, titled “Exposition Générale,” features nearly 600 works by over 100 artists from the foundation’s history.
Art Exhibition Installations
Louis Vuitton has inaugurated 'Dazzling Trilogy,' a solo exhibition by French artist Jean-Michel Othoniel at the Espace Louis Vuitton Beijing. Running from April 15 through September 6, 2026, the show celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Espaces Louis Vuitton program and features four significant works from the Fondation Louis Vuitton collection. Highlights include an early 2002 water-filled glass installation and 'Rivière Rose,' a new site-specific floor piece composed of pink glass bricks.
French artist Jean-Michel Othoniel has mounted his largest-ever exhibition across the city of Avignon, installing 270 artworks—140 of them new—in 10 locations including the Palais des Papes, city museums, public courtyards, building facades, and the medieval St Bénezet bridge. The show, commissioned to mark Avignon’s 25th anniversary as European Capital of Culture and 30th year as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2025, took nearly six weeks to install and involved a team of hundreds, including glassblowers, metalworkers, gilders, and dancers. Othoniel took the 14th-century Italian poet Petrarch as his thematic starting point, exploring different facets of love across the venues.
French artist Jean-Michel Othoniel is preparing for his most ambitious project yet, a citywide exhibition titled "Othoniel Cosmos or the Ghosts of Love" in Avignon, France, opening June 28, 2025. The exhibition will feature some 250 works—including sculptures made of glass bricks and beads, plus paintings—displayed across ten museums and historical sites, including the Palais des Papes, Pont d’Avignon, Couvent Sainte-Claire, and the Lambert Collection. The project celebrates the 25th anniversary of Avignon being named a European Capital of Culture. Othoniel's Paris studio, a 40,000-square-foot former metal workshop in Montreuil that he shares with partner and artist Johan Creten, serves as the production hub for the works, with a team of 20 people on-site daily.
Le mostre più particolari e ricercate da vedere a Bruxelles nella primavera 2026
Brussels is hosting a series of niche and research-focused contemporary art exhibitions in spring 2026, coinciding with the 42nd edition of Art Brussels. Highlights include Jean-Michel Othoniel's "Diary of Happiness" at the Boghossian Foundation, Caroline Achaintre's "Extrazimmer" at La Verrière, a six-decade survey of the Art & Language collective at Fondation CAB, and a dialogue between Nassos Daphnis and Rita McBride titled "Abstract Constructions."
Gallery Weekend Beijing (GWBJ) will celebrate its 10th anniversary with the 2026 edition running from May 22 to May 31, opening with three VIP days before going public on May 26. Founded in 2017, the event features curated exhibitions from 30 galleries and 10 non-profit institutions across Beijing, anchored in the 798 Art District and extending to Caochangdi and the CBD Art District. A new Academic Committee—comprising Guo Xi, Leng Lin, Tian Yuan, Xi Tao, and Yang Beichen—selected the participating galleries, with 25 returning from previous editions and five newly nominated. Highlights include institutional presentations at UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Red Brick Art Museum, and SONG Art Museum, as well as a special exhibition titled "Nirvana" by Ouyang Chun.
Perrotin Los Angeles is presenting 'Plants and Animals,' a special focus exhibition running from May 1–30, 2026, in conjunction with Kyungmi Shin's solo show 'My Fantasy's Burdens.' The exhibition is anchored by Shin's installation 'ready to fly,' which includes 15 handmade ceramics and planters, and also features works by Theodora Allen, Chiho Aoshima, Amy Cutler, Jean-Michel Othoniel, and Austyn Weiner, all centered on plant, flower, fruit, and animal subjects.
Matisse, Soulages, Chagall… Les plus belles églises et chapelles décorées par des artistes dans toute la France
Renowned modern and contemporary artists have transformed various religious sites across France into immersive 'total works of art.' From Pierre Soulages’ translucent stained-glass windows in the Abbey of Sainte-Foy in Conques to Pablo Picasso’s monumental 'War and Peace' murals in Vallauris, these projects demonstrate how secular artists have engaged with sacred architecture. The article highlights ten specific locations where artists like Matisse, Chagall, and Cocteau integrated painting, glasswork, and furniture into historic ecclesiastical settings.