The National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa has received a donation of 24 contemporary artworks from Vancouver-based collector and real estate tycoon Bob Rennie and his family. The gift includes works by American artists Kerry James Marshall and Christopher Williams, and Canadian artists Brian Jungen and Jin-me Yoon, bringing the total number of works donated by the Rennie family to the NGC since 2012 to 284.
Poly Auction Hong Kong concluded its modern and contemporary art sale on April 6, achieving a total of HK$76.4 million (US$9.8 million) with a 67% sell-through rate. The auction was headlined by Liu Wei’s 1995 masterpiece "You Like Pork?", which sold for HK$27.6 million (US$3.5 million) to a phone bidder. Other top performers included Zao Wou-Ki’s "15.07.67" from his Hurricane period and Wu Dayu’s "Rhymes of Beijing Opera," both of which surpassed the HK$10 million threshold.
Poly Auction Hong Kong concluded its modern and contemporary art sale on April 6, generating a total of HK$76.4 million (US$9.8 million) with a 67% sell-through rate. The auction was headlined by Liu Wei’s 1995 masterpiece "You Like Pork?", which fetched HK$27.6 million (US$3.5 million). Other significant results included Zao Wou-Ki’s "15.07.67" from his Hurricane period and Wu Dayu’s "Rhymes of Beijing Opera," both of which surpassed the HK$10 million threshold.
Kyoto-based textile house HOSOO has announced a collaborative exhibition with American artist Theaster Gates titled “Glorious Robe,” scheduled to run from April 11 to August 30, 2026. The showcase centers on the “Dashikimono,” a hybrid garment merging the West African dashiki with the Japanese kimono, alongside ceramic vessels and traditional obi sashes. These works incorporate motifs from the American Civil Rights Movement, including tributes to Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, woven directly into the fabric using HOSOO’s centuries-old Nishijin techniques.
M+ museum in Hong Kong has announced a major exhibition titled "Robert Rauschenberg and Asia," scheduled to run from November 2022, 2025, through April 26, 2026. Curated by Russell Storer, the show explores the American master's deep engagement with the region, featuring his own works alongside pieces by Asian contemporary artists like Huang Yong Ping and Sui Jianguo.
Kong Lingyi has been appointed as the new CEO of the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, succeeding Philip Tinari who stepped down shortly before the Lunar New Year. A veteran of the institution since 2012, Kong previously served as vice president of brand and is now tasked with overseeing UCCA’s multiple branches in Beijing, Beidaihe, and Yixing. Her leadership marks a shift toward a new management structure focused on institutional sustainability and public accessibility.
Yang Fudong has opened his largest solo exhibition to date, 'Fragrant River,' at the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing. The show features over 30 works and eight hours of video, including major new installations like the five-channel 'Young Man, Young Man' and the furniture-and-video piece 'Breastfeeding,' which immerse viewers in scenes from the artist's hometown of Xianghe.
The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London has admitted to removing maps and images from two exhibition catalogs following censorship demands from a Chinese printing firm. Documents revealed that C&C Offset Printing flagged content in the catalogs for the exhibitions "Music Is Black" and "Fabergé: Romance to Revolution" as violating Chinese law. The censored items included a 1930s map of British trade routes and a photograph of Vladimir Lenin, which the printer claimed could not be produced under Beijing’s strict regulations.
London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) has come under fire following reports that it altered exhibition catalogues to comply with Chinese government censorship. To reduce production costs, the museum utilized printers in China, which are subject to Beijing’s General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) regulations. Consequently, the museum removed historical maps and an image of Vladimir Lenin from publications for the "Music is Black" and "Fabergé: Romance to Revolution" exhibitions after they were flagged by Chinese authorities.
Galerie Eva Presenhuber is hosting a group exhibition featuring the works of Aria Dean, Sandra Mujinga, and Tschabalala Self. The show explores the construction and erasure of the human body through diverse mediums, including Aria Dean’s 3D-animated film of an empty slaughterhouse and Sandra Mujinga’s spectral, fabric-based sculptures. By focusing on the architectures of violence and the labor of repair, the artists move away from traditional representation toward conceptual and structural critiques of subjecthood.
The Defence Colony neighborhood in Delhi has officially emerged as the city's first dedicated 'gallery district' following a collaborative effort by local art dealers. The initiative, spearheaded by Arjun Butani of Pristine Contemporary and Arjun Sawhney, saw eleven galleries coordinate their schedules to host 'Def Col Art Night' on March 17, 2026. The event featured major openings, including an S.H. Raza retrospective at Akar Prakar and a solo sculpture exhibition by Mayur Gupta at Latitude 28, drawing crowds through a synchronized gallery hop model.
Major museums worldwide are launching a series of high-profile exhibitions this spring that challenge traditional art historical narratives. Highlights include a Marcel Duchamp retrospective at MoMA, a deep dive into Pop art's legacy at the Guggenheim, and significant surveys of icons like Frida Kahlo and Agnes Martin. Meanwhile, UCCA Beijing is presenting a major exhibition of Duan Jianyu, highlighting the evolution of Chinese painting in relation to Western influence.
Geschichten in Kupfer und Vinyl
The UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing is hosting "Hundreds and Thousands," the first institutional retrospective of the late American conceptual artist Rutherford Chang. The exhibition showcases Chang’s career-long obsession with collecting and cataloging mass-produced objects, most notably featuring his collection of over 3,700 first-pressings of the Beatles’ "White Album." Other significant works include a 31-kilogram copper cube created from 10,000 pre-1982 pennies and a digital archive of over 2,000 of the artist's own Game Boy Tetris sessions.
Archaeologists at the Shenduntou site near the Yangtze River have unearthed a significant Bronze Age metal-working center dating back to the Zhou dynasty. The excavation, led by Nanjing Normal University, revealed approximately 1,000 artifacts including clay molds, arrowheads, and knives, alongside evidence of furnaces and protective earthen walls. These findings confirm the existence of a high-level workshop dedicated to large-scale bronze production within the ancient Wu kingdom.
Shenzhen, China's major technology hub, is making a concerted push to become a significant player in the art world. The city began 2025 with major announcements from tech giants JD.com and Tencent, which are establishing new art museums in the city, appointing prominent directors Robin Peckham and Pi Li to lead them. This follows years of building cultural infrastructure, including the OCAT museum, the Sea World Culture and Arts Center, and the growth of local art fairs like Art Shenzhen.
Tang Contemporary Art in Beijing is launching a massive retrospective titled '1985–2025: Chinese Modern Ink Art,' curated by Zou Jianping. Featuring over 120 works by 68 artists across two gallery spaces, the exhibition traces the forty-year evolution of ink painting from the '85 New Wave movement to the present day. The show highlights key figures such as Gu Wenda, Wang Tiande, and Liu Qinghe, showcasing how the medium transitioned from traditional brushwork to experimental forms including installation and digital media.
Beijing's Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) will open a new museum, UCCA OneM Center for Contemporary Art, in Guangzhou in 2027. This marks the institution's first expansion into South China, created through a partnership with Guangzhou's existing OneM Center for Contemporary Art.
Pioneer Works in New York presents "The Endless Garment: Atlantic Basin," a transnational exhibition curated by Jeppe Ugelvig. The show features work by artists and collectives including Serena Chang, Chang Yuchen, CFGNY, Huang Po-Chih, and Shanzhai Lyric, examining representations of Asian fashion production. It builds upon a prior 2021 exhibition at Beijing's X Museum and a related publication.
Beijing-based artist Hu Yinping is presenting three major works in Hong Kong this March, including the installation 'Potatoes Grow on Trees' in the Encounters sector of Art Basel Hong Kong. The works stem from her long-running project 'Hu Xiaofang,' a semi-fictional company that employs women in rural China to create crocheted artworks, redistributing income and visibility to this often-overlooked demographic.
Photographer Lee Jung-jin has launched a major solo exhibition titled "Unseen/Thing" at PKM Gallery in Seoul, marking her first solo show in six years. The exhibition is divided into two parts: her latest "Unseen" series, captured during a 2024 trip to Iceland, and her "Thing" series from the early 2000s, which features analog still lifes printed on traditional Korean hanji paper. The new works depart from Lee’s previous focus on the static silence of deserts, instead capturing the volatile, forceful energy of the Icelandic landscape.
Il soft power dell’Italia in Cina grazie a due grandi mostre su Pompei e Palladio
The National Museum of China in Beijing is currently hosting two major exhibitions celebrating Italian cultural heritage: "Pompeii: An Eternal Discovery" and "Geometry, Harmony and Life: The Architecture of Andrea Palladio from Antiquity to Classicism." These exhibitions, marking the 55th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Italy and China, were inaugurated by Italian Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli. The Pompeii showcase traces 250 years of archaeological history using artifacts and multimedia, while the Palladio exhibition explores the Renaissance master’s influence on Western architecture and creates a cross-cultural dialogue with traditional Chinese building techniques.
German architect Ole Scheeren is designing the Róng Museum of Art, a beehive-like cultural complex set to open in 2027 in Shenzhen's Houhai Hybrid Campus. The museum represents his latest major architectural project in China, following his iconic work on Beijing's CCTV headquarters and other landmark structures across Asia.
China's National Cultural Heritage Administration has mandated a comprehensive, item-by-item inventory of all state-run museum collections following a major scandal at the Nanjing Museum. The audit aims to verify that objects listed in official records physically exist in storage, a direct response to the discovery that donated national treasures, including a valuable Ming dynasty painting, were improperly transferred or sold into the private market over decades.
The article profiles acclaimed portraitist Nasir Shehzad, who has spent over four decades preserving and advancing the art of portraiture and cinematic painting in Abbottabad, Pakistan. His artistic journey began in childhood and gained early recognition through scouting competitions in the 1980s, leading him to professional cinematic painting by 1989. Shehzad has since become a central figure in the local art community through mentorship, founding his own creative platform, and participating in numerous exhibitions and residencies across the country, including recent shows at major institutions like the Lahore Museum and Pakistan National Council of the Arts.
The Guardian's picture editors curated a global selection of photographs from March 24, 2026. The images depict scenes of conflict, including a distraught woman in Beirut after an Israeli airstrike, rockets fired from Lebanon towards Israel, an Iranian missile embedded in the West Bank, and damage in Tel Aviv from a missile barrage. Other photos show people sheltering in Kyiv during an air raid and firefighters in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine.
Ceramic artist Soojin Choi creates intricate sculptures of entangled pairs, using stoneware slabs and nylon strands to achieve a precarious balance that minimizes contact with the ground. Her painterly background is evident in the gestural marks, visible brushstrokes, and drips on the white-slipped surfaces, with the artist describing her process as a "constant negotiation with gravity."
Artist Ai Jing has launched a major solo exhibition titled "Walking in the Sun" at the Shenzhen Museum of Contemporary Art and Urban Planning. Curated by He Guiyan, the multidisciplinary showcase features music, painting, installation, sculpture, and video, all centered around the conceptual theme of "walking" as a philosophical journey. A centerpiece of the show involves a literal connection to the artist's roots, featuring 150 bags of black soil transported from her hometown of Shenyang to create an immersive installation exploring memory and belonging.
The Shenzhen Museum of Contemporary Art and Urban Planning is currently hosting "Walking in the Sun — Ai Jing Art Exhibition 2026," a major solo retrospective of the multidisciplinary artist Ai Jing. Curated by He Guiyan, the exhibition features a diverse range of works including painting, sculpture, and a significant installation involving 150 bags of black soil transported from the artist's hometown of Shenyang. The show is structured into three thematic sections that explore the artist's personal history and her philosophical engagement with the concept of "walking" as a metaphor for life's journey.
北京美术家协会召开第七届理事会第三次会议、艺委会工作会议
The Beijing Artists Association convened its Seventh Council Third Session and Art Committee Work Conference at the Beijing Conference Center. The meeting was chaired by Fan Di'an, President of both the China Artists Association and the Beijing Artists Association, with Ma Xinming, Party Secretary and Executive Vice Chairman of the Beijing Federation of Literary and Art Circles, also delivering a speech. Key agenda items included reviewing the council's work report, discussing a draft five-year high-quality development action plan for the city's art sector, and announcing the membership list for a new working committee focused on new artistic groups. The afternoon featured group discussions where participants proposed recommendations on thematic creation, technology integration, talent cultivation, and rural revitalization.