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This week's art industry roundup covers a postponement, financial losses, legal disputes, and leadership changes. New Jersey's Art Fair 14C has been postponed to May 2027, with organizers citing capacity issues unrelated to market conditions. Bonhams reported a 90% pre-tax loss jump to £213 million in 2024 due to impairment charges. A rediscovered Watteau drawing will be auctioned at Christie's Paris, and personal items of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter are featured in Christie's 'American Collector' sales. In galleries, Amy Sillman left Gladstone for David Zwirner, Trevor Paglen joined Jessica Silverman, and Maya Hewitt joined Theta. The Louvre partially closed after a staff strike demanding director Laurence des Cars' resignation and reassessment of a renovation plan. Belgium's plan to dismantle Antwerp's M HKA museum has sparked resignations and backlash. New appointments include Will Cary as COO of the Barnes Foundation and Patton Hindle as director of arts at the Knight Foundation. MATHAF museum in Doha announced a campus expansion by architect Lina Ghotmeh. Legal disputes emerged between Gian Enzo Sperone and Angela Westwater over the shuttered Sperone Westwater gallery.

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.

Isaac Julien Leads Us Into the Looking Glass

The article previews a major new video installation by artist and filmmaker Isaac Julien, titled "Once Again... (Statues Never Die)," which will be presented at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. The work engages in a complex dialogue with the museum's founder, Albert C. Barnes, and his historic collection of African sculptures, exploring themes of colonialism, modernism, and representation.

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Artnet News editors compiled a list of the worst artworks they encountered in 2022, including a chaotic performance by Poncili Creación at NADA Miami, an overproduced Danish Pavilion installation by Uffe Isolotto at the Venice Biennale, and a Paul Cézanne painting at the Barnes Foundation that disappointed a critic. The article offers subjective, critical takes on these works, describing the NADA performance as bizarre and jolting, the Danish pavilion as graphic and lacking a powerful message, and the Cézanne as a disappointment within an otherwise memorable museum visit.

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The Barnes Foundation has promoted Will Cary to Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, where he will oversee new revenue initiatives, the Calder Gardens partnership, and a newly formed Brand department. Bukia Vakhania Gallery (formerly Gallery Artbeat) is opening a Berlin location on January 15 with a solo show by Nina Kintsurashvili. Heritage Auctions reported $2.2 billion in sales for 2025, its highest-ever annual total, driven by coins, comics, sports memorabilia, and illustration art. Antenna Space will open a Hong Kong outpost in March 2026, directed by Jeff Li. A Deloitte Private and ArtTactic report reveals that 50% of non-bank art lenders experienced loan defaults in 2024, up from 17% in 2023.

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Calder Gardens, a new museum in Philadelphia dedicated to Alexander Calder, has announced it will open on September 21, 2025. The institution, located on Benjamin Franklin Parkway, features a building designed by Herzog & de Meuron and a sculpture garden by Piet Oudolf, with rotating works curated by the Calder Foundation. It will be administered in partnership with the Barnes Foundation, and memberships offering unlimited admission to both institutions start at $98 annually.

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Singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus discusses her new album "Forever Is A Feeling" and its deep connections to visual art, including a cover portrait by artist Will St. John and a song titled "Modigliani" inspired by visits to the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. In an interview with ARTnews at the Barnes, Dacus explains how museums serve as creative spaces for her songwriting and how the Barnes's unique salon-style arrangement without title cards allows her to make personal connections with artworks.

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The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia has opened a major exhibition, 'Henri Rousseau: A Painter's Secrets,' featuring around sixty works, including the institution's own iconic Rousseau paintings. The survey, co-curated by Nancy Ireson and Christopher Green, aims to present a cohesive look at the self-taught artist's career.

Out and About: What's Happening in Philly

This article is a roundup of events happening in Philadelphia, including a Mother's Day Weekend visit to the Barnes Foundation, a live stage show of "Dancing with the Stars," the Night Market at East Market, and Broadway productions of "Chicago" and "The Wiz." It highlights the Barnes Foundation's collection of impressionist and modern art, along with its new exhibition "Freedom Dreams" on view through August 9.

American Rousseaus Return to Paris

Les Rousseau américains de retour à Paris

The Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris is hosting a landmark exhibition titled "Henri Rousseau, l’ambition de la peinture," featuring 50 works by the self-taught master. The show is distinguished by a historic loan from the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, which has sent nine paintings to France for the first time since they were acquired a century ago by Albert Barnes. A highlight of the exhibition is the rare gathering of three "manifesto paintings"—The Sleeping Gypsy, Unpleasant Surprise, and The Snake Charmer—displayed together in a dedicated gallery.

9 artists having major museum moments this year and next

Nine artists are featured in major museum exhibitions this year and next, including John Singer Sargent at the Musée d'Orsay, Alexander Calder at Calder Gardens and the Whitney Museum, Beauford Delaney at the Studio Museum in Harlem, Man Ray at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Cecily Brown at the Barnes Foundation. The article highlights key shows such as Sargent: Dazzling Paris, High Wire: Calder's Circus at 100, and When Objects Dream, each presenting significant works and historical context.

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Calder Gardens, a new $90 million cultural institution in Philadelphia, will open on September 21. Designed by Herzog & de Meuron with gardens by Piet Oudolf, the 18,000-square-foot space will feature rotating displays of Alexander Calder's sculptures without wall labels, thematic exhibitions, or a permanent collection. Developed with philanthropist Joseph Neubauer and supported by the Barnes Foundation, the project is led by Alexander S.C. Rower, the artist's grandson and president of the Calder Foundation, and senior director of programs Juana Berrío. The institution aims to prioritize contemplation and personal experience over traditional museum education.

Renoir: A festival of loans for a double exhibition

Renoir : un festival de prêts pour une double exposition

The Musée d'Orsay in Paris has launched a major two-part exhibition dedicated to Auguste Renoir, titled "Renoir dessinateur" (Renoir as a Draughtsman) and "Renoir et l'amour" (Renoir and Love). The initiative began with a study for Renoir's controversial painting *Les Grandes Baigneuses* and has grown into an international loan effort, featuring over 150 rarely seen drawings, watercolors, pastels, and paintings from major museums and private collections worldwide, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the MET, and the Barnes Foundation.

Nine Must-See Art Exhibitions to Catch in Philadelphia This Spring

Philadelphia's spring exhibition season features nine must-see shows across the city, including Kelly Kozma's solo exhibition 'Watch Me Backflip' at Paradigm Gallery + Studio, which presents a massive 22-foot installation of 35,000 hand-stitched circles made from repurposed materials. Other highlights include 'Soft/Cover' at The Fabric Workshop and Museum, exploring fabric and screenprinting in relation to the human body; 'Preserving Assyria' at the Penn Museum, focusing on Iraqi archaeologists reclaiming cultural heritage after ISIS destruction; and 'The Battle of the Bathers' at the Barnes Foundation, examining a media kerfuffle involving two Paul Cézanne paintings.

"Freedom Dreams" on view through August 9 at the Barnes Foundation

The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia presents "Freedom Dreams," an exhibition exploring Black freedom through moving images, curated by Maori Karmael Holmes and James Claiborne. The show features five works by intergenerational artists including David Hartt, Ja'Tovia Gary, Garrett Bradley, Tourmaline, and Arthur Jafa, with pieces that draw on historical films, literature, and activism to examine Black identity, joy, and radical imagination. The exhibition runs through August 9, 2026.

Pioneering US collector Albert Barnes turned down both of Van Gogh’s 'Starry Nights'

Albert Barnes, the pioneering US collector who built the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, twice declined the opportunity to acquire Vincent van Gogh's iconic 'Starry Night' paintings. Unpublished correspondence in the Barnes Foundation archives reveals that in 1923, agent Frank Washburn Freund offered Barnes *Starry Night over the Rhône* (1888), but Barnes did not pursue it; the painting later went to the Musée d'Orsay. In 1936, the Van Wisselingh gallery offered Barnes *Starry Night* (1889), but he again passed; it was eventually acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Despite these missed chances, Barnes was the first American to buy a Van Gogh, ultimately owning seven works by the artist, including *The Postman* and *Still Life*.

Show at the Barnes Foundation charts Henri Rousseau's rise from mockery to acclaim

The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia is opening "Henri Rousseau: A Painter's Secrets" (October 19–February 22), reuniting for the first time in over a century the two largest collections of Rousseau's work—18 paintings from the Barnes Foundation and 11 from the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris. The exhibition, co-curated by Nancy Ireson and Christopher Green, uses new conservation research to challenge the long-held myth of Rousseau as a naive, unworldly amateur, revealing instead a strategic artist who revised compositions, reused canvases, and actively sought an audience through Paris's open salons.

A secular church for the art of Alexander Calder opens in Philly on Sunday

A new $100 million art center dedicated to Alexander Calder, called Calder Gardens, opens on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia on Sunday, September 21. Designed by architect Jacques Herzog of Herzog & de Meuron with landscape by Piet Oudolf, the building features underground galleries, sunken gardens, and no wall text, encouraging visitors to have a personal, sacred experience with Calder's sculptures, paintings, and works on paper. The Calder Foundation built the space, and the Barnes Foundation administers it in partnership.

Alexander Calder finally gets hometown space in Philadelphia

Calder Gardens, a $70 million space dedicated to Alexander Calder, will open on September 21 in Philadelphia, the artist's hometown. Designed by Herzog & de Meuron, the complex features subterranean galleries and open-air pavilions surrounded by gardens, with no wall labels and rotating works from the Calder Foundation, MoMA, and the Whitney Museum. The project, led by Calder's grandson Alexander S. C. Rower and philanthropist Joseph Neubauer, revives a plan that stalled in the mid-2000s.

Phillips’ Mill’s “96th Juried Art Show” Opens Sept. 20

Phillips’ Mill Community Association will host its 96th Juried Art Show from September 20 to October 26 at the historic grist mill in New Hope, Pennsylvania. The exhibition features a record-breaking 700+ artworks submitted by artists from Bucks County and the River Towns region, with an opening night preview on September 19 for patrons and accepted artists. The event includes 25 awards totaling $14,500, and for the first time, the opening requires tickets. Honored Artist Shawn Campbell and Signature Image artist Jay McPhillips will greet guests, and a jury of art professionals selected the works.

Sky Hopinka Reframes the American Landscape at the Barnes Foundation

Artist Sky Hopinka has unveiled a new site-specific installation titled 'Red Metal Dust' at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia. The work consists of 11 panels that layer Hopinka's landscape photography with copper sheets, filtering American histories and landscapes through an Indigenous perspective.