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The Art Business Conference in Paris recently highlighted the growing trend and inherent risks of collaborations between artists and commercial brands. Keynote speaker Vadim Grigoryan and other industry experts discussed how these partnerships have evolved from historical precedents like Dalí and Schiaparelli into a modern necessity for brands seeking cultural relevance. While these deals offer artists financial stability and massive public exposure, the conference warned of the dangers of "commodity" marketing and the exploitation of artistic vision.

Frida Kahlo: Making of an Icon

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The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, has launched a major exhibition titled "Frida Kahlo: Making of an Icon," which explores the artist's transformation from a relatively unknown figure during her lifetime into a global cultural phenomenon. Curated by Mari Carmen Ramírez, the show features over 200 objects related to "Frida mania" alongside works by 80 contemporary artists who have been influenced by her legacy. The exhibition traces her life from her childhood in Mexico City and her tumultuous relationship with Diego Rivera to her emergence as a symbol for various social movements.

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Google commissioned Judy Chicago to create a major public artwork for the renovation of Chicago's historic Thompson Center, involving a terrazzo floor and a 17-story glass elevator shaft. The artist and her husband, Donald Woodman, began design work in anticipation of a 2027 completion date.

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Artist Judy Chicago recounts her frustrating experiences with public art commissions, focusing on a recent failed collaboration with Google for its Chicago headquarters at the Thompson Center. After being encouraged by her dealer to apply, Chicago was awarded a commission in fall 2025 to create a large terrazzo floor and a 17-story glass elevator shaft using her "Through the Flower" imagery. However, the project fell through after months of effort, mirroring earlier disappointments with the Beverly Hills Sculpture Park, where a city councilor questioned the value of her work, which Chicago attributes to institutionalized sexism.

This influential L.A. collector bought the artists no one else would. The art world is finally catching up

Eileen Harris Norton, a foundational figure in the Los Angeles art scene, is being celebrated with a major exhibition of her collection at Hauser & Wirth. The show, "Destiny Is a Rose: The Eileen Harris Norton Collection," features over 80 works, many from her home, highlighting her five-decade commitment to collecting artists who were often her friends and neighbors, particularly women, artists of color, and Southern California-based artists.

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Judy Chicago’s first major New York museum survey, "Herstory," has opened at the New Museum, marking a triumphant return for the 84-year-old feminist icon. The exhibition features a comprehensive look at her 60-year career, including her large-scale tapestries and "Rejection" drawings, alongside a curated "show-within-a-show" titled "City of Ladies." This section integrates Chicago’s work with pieces by over 90 historic women and non-binary artists, ranging from Hilma af Klint to Hildegard of Bingen, creating a visual dialogue across centuries of female creativity.

Comment | As Cop30 opens in Brazil, it is time for the art world to embrace ethics with aesthetics

COP30, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, opens in Belém, Brazil, with culture officially on its agenda for the first time, thanks to advocacy from the Amazonian activist group Labverde and Art of Change 21. The conference features interventions and performances by eight Brazilian and indigenous artists, including photographer Christian Braga and activist Beto Oliveira, alongside a flurry of artist-led activities in UK galleries and institutions. The article also marks the tenth anniversary of Gustav Metzger's environmental art project "Remember Nature," which mobilized over 140 artists including Judy Chicago, Olafur Eliasson, and Marina Abramović, and was revisited on November 4, 2025, with sixteen English arts institutions hosting public projects.

An Artemisia Gentileschi self-portrait and Judy Chicago’s Scottish queen: our pick of the February auctions

A series of significant artworks are heading to auction in February, led by an early Artemisia Gentileschi self-portrait making its auction debut at Christie's New York with an estimate of $2.5m-$3.5m. Other highlights include Rembrandt's last privately-held animal drawing, 'Young Lion Resting', at Sotheby's New York ($15m-$20m estimate), a Judy Chicago print of Mary, Queen of Scots at Phillips, and an Odilon Redon work on paper at Artcurial Paris.