The art market is gearing up for a high-stakes spring season with major estate collections from S.I. Newhouse and Robert Mnuchin slated for auction at Christie’s and Sotheby’s, collectively valued at over half a billion dollars. Meanwhile, London’s spring marquee sales showed strong momentum, with Christie’s and Sotheby’s reporting significant year-over-year increases in their evening sale totals, despite a more modest performance from Phillips.
The art world saw significant roster changes and leadership appointments this week, including Roberts Projects announcing representation of Esmaa Mohamoud and Cristin Tierney adding Debbi Kenote. Notable institutional moves include Charles Chemin being named Artistic Director of the Watermill Center and Julia Siemon stepping into a newly created Deputy Director role at the Bard Graduate Center. Additionally, the mid-season auction market showed unexpected strength, highlighted by Jeff Koons’s 'Winter Bears' selling for $7.6 million at Christie’s.
Author and Frieze Magazine editor-in-chief Andrew Durbin has released a dual biography titled 'The Wonderful World That Almost Was,' chronicling the lives and creative partnership of Peter Hujar and Paul Thek. The book focuses on their relationship from the mid-1950s through the 1970s, detailing their collaborative influence and the development of their respective practices in photography and sculpture before both died of AIDS-related complications in the late 1980s.
Artnet News's Wet Paint column announces Brian Belott's upcoming exhibition "Upside Down Zebra" at the Watermill Center in Water Mill, Hamptons, opening next week. The show features over 400 artworks made by children under age 6, including offspring of Willem de Kooning and Henry Miller, alongside 40 response pieces by contemporary artists like Robert Nava, Chris Martin, Darren Bader, Katherine Bernhardt, Carroll Dunham, and Christopher Wool. Belott draws from the archive of educator and psychologist Rhoda Kellogg, who collected over two million children's drawings, organizing works by her 20 types of scribbles.
Cultured magazine's article rounds up seven new art exhibitions opening in the Hamptons this summer, each running for a limited time. Highlights include "Unbreakable" at Onna House featuring mother-daughter artist duos, Shirin Neshat's first New York-area museum show in two decades at the Parrish Art Museum, Almond Zigmund's immersive "Wading Room" at Guild Hall, a Rosalyn Drexler retrospective at the Pollock-Krasner House, and "The Ark" at The Church curated by Eric Fischl with animal sculptures by over 40 international artists. Other shows include "Veronica Veronica" at Hesse Flatow's former potato barn and a ceramic-focused exhibition at Onna House.
A 450-year-old watermill in Wrexham, Wales, that was the subject of a J.M.W. Turner watercolor has been listed for sale at £1.5 million ($2.05 million). The Rossett Mill, built in 1588, has been converted into a four-bedroom home with modern amenities while retaining its historic features, including a restored corn mill. The property is listed with Currans Unique and was previously owned by Celia and Branden Wilson, who restored it after it was rescued from demolition in 1973.
Robert Wilson, the influential playwright and artist known for his spare, slow-moving productions that blurred the line between performance art and theater, died Thursday at age 83 in Water Mill, New York. His death was announced by the Watermill Center, the arts center he founded, which stated he died of a brief but acute illness. Wilson's career spanned stage works like the landmark 1976 opera *Einstein on the Beach* (with Philip Glass and Lucinda Childs), video portraits of figures such as Lady Gaga and Brad Pitt, and sculptures, all characterized by stillness and a radical use of time.
Tim Blum, founder of Blum Gallery, announced the closure of his gallery in early July, citing systemic problems and burnout. However, former employees and artists have since spoken out, claiming they were blindsided by the decision and criticizing the lack of notice, severance, and transparency. Some sources allege that poor business decisions, including a buyout of partner Jeff Poe and costly renovations in a shaky economy, contributed to the closure, while others dispute Blum's claims of strong sales at Art Basel. Separately, a bipartisan Senate bill seeks to extend a 2016 law aiding Holocaust victims in reclaiming Nazi-looted art, but major museums are pushing back, arguing the law unfairly hinders their ability to defend claims.
Raúl de Nieves's first solo institutional show in New York City, titled "In Light of Innocence," has opened at Pioneer Works. The exhibition transforms the Main Hall into an immersive, cathedral-like environment featuring 50 faux stained glass panels, a monumental lightbox mural, and works that blend Catholic, Mexican folkloric, and tarot symbolism. The artist uses humble materials like paper, wood, glue, tape, and colored acetate to create kaleidoscopic, light-responsive installations that shift throughout the day.
A recent Christie's online auction, 'Modern Collector: Design and Tiffany,' featured a range of iconic 20th-century chair designs that achieved significant sale prices. Highlights included Gaetano Pesce's 'Nobody's Perfect' series chair selling for $6,350, Hans J. Wegner's 'Valet' Chair for $8,255, and a set of four Ludwig Mies van der Rohe MR10 chairs for $5,334.
In 2015, photographer Peter Hujar experienced a mainstream resurgence when his work appeared on the cover of Hanya Yanagihara's novel *A Little Life*, in a campaign for menswear designer Patrik Ervell, and at Christie's, where his 1973 photograph *Candy Darling on Her Deathbed* sold for $50,000. Now, two new publications—*Stay Away From Nothing* and *The Wonderful World That Almost Was*—focus on Hujar's complex relationship with sculptor Paul Thek, who died nine months after Hujar from AIDS complications. Author Andrew Durbin, who wrote *The Wonderful World That Almost Was* and curated the group show "How Beautiful This Living Thing Is" at New York's Ortuzar gallery, discusses their elusive bond, rivalry, and the queer social dynamics that shaped their lives and art.
The Watermill Center has appointed Charles Chemin as its new artistic director, succeeding the organization's late founder, Robert Wilson. Chemin, a long-time collaborator who first worked with Wilson in 1992, was hand-selected for the role by Wilson prior to his death in August 2025. He will lead the interdisciplinary laboratory's artistic vision alongside managing director Elise Herget and curator Noah Khoshbin.
A memorial for the late theater visionary Robert Wilson was held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) Harvey Theater, featuring a 30-minute period of silence as requested by Wilson before his death at age 83. The gathering drew luminaries including Philip Glass, Rufus Wainwright, Laurie Anderson, ANOHNI, Christopher Knowles, Joan Jonas, and Paula Cooper, none of whom spoke during the main program. The silence was punctuated by shifting lighting and a recorded ringing telephone, followed by remarks from William Campbell, chairman of Wilson's Watermill Center, and Joseph Melillo, former BAM executive producer.
A multidisciplinary solo exhibition titled "Sanford Biggers: Drift" has opened at the Parrish Art Museum in Watermill. The exhibition was organized by Chief Curator Corinne Erni and Curator Scout Hutchinson, and was marked by a public conversation between artist Sanford Biggers and Erni. The discussion focused on Biggers' use of textiles, symbolism, and layered cultural references.
Maria Schnyder, who has served as deputy director of the De Pont Museum of Contemporary Art in Tilburg, Netherlands, since 2021, has been appointed as its new director, succeeding Martijn van Nieuwenhuyzen. In an interview, Schnyder discusses the advantages of rising from within, emphasizing continuity and deep knowledge of the institution's artist-first ethos. The museum, housed in a former woolen mill with 7,000 square meters of exhibition space, operates with only 18 full-time employees and is financially independent, allowing it to prioritize artistic vision over audience-driven agendas.
Robert Wilson, the visionary experimental playwright, director, and visual artist known for his highly stylized theatrical productions, has died at age 83. He passed away at his home in Water Mill, New York, on July 31 following a brief acute illness, according to a statement from the Watermill Center, the arts organization he founded. Wilson's most famous works include the silent opera *Deafman Glance* (1970) and the epic collaboration with composer Philip Glass, *Einstein on the Beach* (1976). He was also a prolific visual artist, creating drawings, sculptures, and video portraits, including a series featuring Lady Gaga, Pope.L, and Isabella Rossellini, and his work was exhibited at institutions such as SFMoMA, the Centre Pompidou, and the Louvre.
A curated list of open calls, grants, and residencies for artists and designers for February 2026 has been published. Key opportunities include applications for The Other Art Fair Brooklyn, the Quilt Visions 2026 exhibition at Visions Museum of Textile Art, Jackson’s Art Prize, a public art commission for Boise Airport, the McNeese National Works on Paper Exhibition, the Melancholy 2026 online exhibition, the Sónar+D digital creativity festival, the World of WearableArt Competition, and the Hasselblad Masters 2026 photography contest.
Sara Stern, a 2017 alumna of the Visual and Environmental Studies program at Harvard, has opened her fifth solo exhibition, 'STALL,' at Turley Gallery in Hudson, New York. The installation transforms the gallery's interstitial space, The Light Well, into a horse stall featuring a toy theater that plays a video of horseshoe crabs spawning. The exhibition runs from July 19 to September 7, 2025, and includes elements such as straw, a velvet curtain, and an adorned horseshoe crab shell, creating a mise en abyme effect.
Salon 21 by Alex Bass hosted an intimate garden dinner at the Maidstone Hotel in East Hampton, celebrating its summer exhibition “La Dolce Vita” and previewing the gallery’s fall reopening in a new WSA space. The event brought together art world insiders, design leaders, and creative peers, including curator Sharon Coplan Hurowitz, Watermill Center Managing Director Elise Herget, and lifestyle expert Katie Sands Bochner, for an Italian coast-inspired evening of seafood, rosé, and conversation.