This week's In Memoriam column honors seven figures from the art world who recently passed away, including muralist and Chicano art champion F. John Sierra (1942–2026), Austrian feminist performance and film artist Valie Export (1940–2026), and painter and Civil Rights activist Mary Lovelace O'Neal (1942–2026). Also remembered are Maltese coin and monument designer Noel Galea Bason (1955–2026), Iranian-Irish gallerist and polymath Jamshid MirFenderesky (1947–2026), Philadelphia painter and educator Peter Paone (1936–2026), and Italian sculptor and installation artist Remo Salvadori (1947–2026). Each entry highlights their key contributions, from founding institutions and participating in major biennials to shaping cultural identity and challenging societal norms through art.
These obituaries matter because they collectively underscore the breadth and diversity of the visual art world, spanning movements from Chicano muralism and feminist performance to abstract painting and site-specific sculpture. The loss of these figures—many of whom were also educators, activists, and founders of cultural spaces—represents a significant thinning of artistic lineages and institutional memory. Their legacies, from Arte Américas in Fresno to the Valie Export Centre in Linz, continue to influence contemporary practice and remind us of art's power to address social justice, identity, and perception.