Zilia Sánchez, painter who worked with erotic abstraction, dies at 98.
Portrait of Zilia Sánchez in her studio, San Juan, 2014. Photo by Raquel Perez Puig. Courtesy of Galerie Lelong & Co.
Cuban artist Zilia Sánchez, known for her multidimensional paintings that challenge Minimalism with abstract, erotic forms, has died at the age 98. Her death was confirmed by the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico and Galerie Lelong & Co., which has represented the artist since 2013.
Sánchez’s work, characterized by canvases that bulge outward, was distinct within the Minimalist style of her era, asserting a bodily presence in her work. Her work Lunar (1980) was featured prominently in this year’s Venice Biennale exhibition, the second time she participated in the preeminent biennial, and one of many queer, older artists included. Sánchez’s latest solo exhibition, “Topologías / Topologies,” was displayed at the ICA Miami from April 20th to October 13th. It is scheduled to travel to the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico in San Juan in spring 2025.
Born in Havana in 1926, Sánchez was introduced to art by her father, along with her childhood neighbor, Cuban artist Victor Manuel. She studied the arts at Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro, which she graduated from in 1947. Throughout the 1950s, Sánchez gained significant recognition for her early abstract paintings. She presented her first solo exhibition at the Havana Lyceum in 1953. The artist then represented Cuba in the Bienal de México in 1958 and the Bienal de São Paulo in 1959.
Shortly after the Cuban Revolution, Sánchez decided to live abroad, moving to New York in 1962. There, she worked as an illustrator, supporting her studies in printmaking at Pratt Institute. She spent about 10 years in the city, where her work adopted characteristics of the Minimalist movement, such as smoother canvases, and a greyscale palette. Her dimensional works were created by stretching the canvases over hand-crafted wooden sculptures. These works, unlike those of her contemporaries, explored the female form in works that became known as “Erotic Topologies.”
Sánchez relocated to Puerto Rico in 1971. During her time there, the artist scaled up her abstract works, designing the facades of apartment buildings. Meanwhile, she also contributed to designs for the short-lived publication Zona Carga y Descarga. For the next few decades, her recognition declined outside of the Puerto Rican art community.
In recent years, Sánchez’s work achieved notable recognition in the U.S. and internationally. In 2019, the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. showcased her retrospective “Zilia Sánchez: Soy Isla (I Am an Island),” which later toured to New York’s El Museo del Barrio and the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico.
Nicholas Galanin wins $200,000 Crystal Bridges prize.
Portrait of Nicholas Galanin by Fernando Decillis for Smithsonian magazine. Courtesy of the artist and Peter Blum Gallery, New York.
Tlingit Unangax̂ artist Nicholas Galanin has been awarded the 2024 Don Tyson Prize for the Advancement of American Art by the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. The prize includes a $200,000 cash award.
The Don Tyson Prize, inaugurated in 2016, honors individuals or collectives in the United States working in any medium. The award was founded by the Tyson Family in honor of the late Don Tyson, former chairman and CEO of Tyson Foods. Past American artists who have received the award include Deborah Willis in 2022 and vanessa german in 2018.
“Nicholas Galanin’s work is a celebration of the rich cultural heritage, spiritual beliefs, and deep connection to the land of Indigenous peoples,” said Olivia Tyson, president of the Tyson Family Foundation. “We are inspired by his talent and are thrilled to award him with the fifth Don Tyson Prize. He’s a bold artist who creates thought-provoking work. Nicholas has impacted the field through innovation, creative thinking, and risk-taking.”
Portrait of Nicholas Galanin by Bethany Goodrich. Courtesy of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
Born in Sitka, Alaska, in 1979, Galanin learned to make art at a young age. At 14, he learned jewelry-making and carving from his father and grandfather. He pursued his formal education in art at London Guildhall University, where he earned his BFA in 2003. He continued his education at Massey University in New Zealand, graduating with his MFA in 2007.
Galanin’s practice spans various media, including sculpture, video, music, and performance, often blending traditional Tlingit crafts with contemporary themes. His work is known to critique colonialism and address urgent social and environmental issues. Many of these works reclaim historical narratives and celebrate Indigenous knowledge. This recognition from Crystal Bridges highlights Galanin’s impact on the art world and his contribution to expanding the narrative of American art.
Nicholas Galanin, The Imaginary Indian (Garden), 2024. Courtesy of the artist and Peter Blum Gallery, New York.
“My work seeks to disrupt colonial frameworks while celebrating Indigenous presence, knowledge, and creativity,” said Galanin. “This recognition fuels my ongoing efforts to create art that sparks dialogue, reclaims narratives, and envisions a future where culture, land, and identity are protected and celebrated.”
Galanin’s current exhibition, “Exist in the Width of a Knife’s Edge,” is on view at the Baltimore Museum of Art until February 16, 2025. He recently presented a site-specific installation on Faena Beach during Art Basel Miami Beach. This work, titled Seletega (run, see if people are coming/corre a ver si viene gente) (2024), represented a buried Spanish galleon where only the masts and sails were visible, symbolizing the failed empire. His works have also been featured globally, including at the Biennial of Sydney, the Whitney Biennial, and Site Santa Fe. He has been represented by Peter Blum Gallery since 2019.
Painter Claire Tabouret commissioned to create Notre Dame stained glass windows.
Portrait of Claire Tabouret. © Claire Tabouret. Photo by Amanda Charchian. Courtesy of the Artist and Almine Rech.
French painter Claire Tabouret has been selected to design new contemporary stained glass windows for the newly renovated Notre Dame Cathedral.
The decision comes as part of a competition hosted by the French Ministry of Culture, which screened 110 artists before narrowing the field to eight finalists. The artist was chosen by a committee comprising 20 members, including conservators, artists, as well as representatives from the Paris diocese and the French Ministry of Culture. Other finalists included French painter Daniel Buren and France-based Chinese portraiture specialist Yan Pei-Ming.
Tabouret’s designs will undergo a six-month detailed study period before their fabrication, which is expected to take one and a half years. The installation of the stained glass windows is projected to be completed by the end of 2026.
To bring her vision to fruition, Tabouret will collaborate with the Reims-based glassmaking studio Atelier Simon-Marq. The famed workshop was established in 1640, and has a history of working with several leading contemporary artists, including Marc Chagall and Joan Miró.
In a statement, Tabouret confirmed that the commission will be a “figurative work of art.”
“My work had been dedicated to figurative painting and personal subjects. I had reached a point in my life where I wanted to be of service to something bigger than me,” Tabouret said. “At first, I questioned if I was worthy. There’s a great deal of audacity in this commission, which will take place in a beloved and historic building. But you have to trust contemporary artists.”
She added: “In times like ours, marked by war, extreme division, and tension, this opportunity to use my art to promote unity through the theme of the Pentecost is a wonderful gesture of hope. This will be a figurative work of art, so that it can be understood, without explanation or label, by people from different cultures. The colors used will echo those of the architect. With the help of Atelier Simon-Marq, the goal will be to balance them so as not to distort the white light.”
Born in Pertuis, France, in 1981, Tabouret studied at Cooper Union in New York and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, completing her education in 2006. In 2015, she relocated to Los Angeles, where she currently lives and works. Since graduating, the artist has gained worldwide recognition for her evocative portraits of children—many of which are marked by a red facial scar-like mark.
Tabouret is co-represented by Almine Rech and Perrotin, both of which have mounted solo shows for the artist. Her evocative portraits were featured in The Holy See pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale. Her work has also been presented in shows at Night Gallery and SADE Gallery, as well as at several prestigious institutions, including ICA Miami in 2023 and Musée Picasso in 2021.
The Notre Dame Cathedral reopened on December 7th, after the 861-year-old building was partially destroyed by a fire on April 15, 2019. Another contemporary addition to the cathedral comes from minimal liturgical furnishings designed by French designer Guillaume Bardet, who is currently featured in a solo exhibition at Paris’s Galerie kreo.
Felt portrait artist Melissa Joseph awarded UOVO Prize.
Portrait of Melissa Joseph, 2024. Photo by Miguel McSongwe. Courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum.
Melissa Joseph, a Brooklyn-based artist who uses felting techniques to make intimate portraits, has been awarded the UOVO Prize by the Brooklyn Museum. The award includes a solo exhibition at the museum, a large-scale public mural commission, and a $25,000 unrestricted cash grant. This recognition comes on the heels of Joseph’s inclusion in The Artsy Vanguard 2025.
The UOVO Prize, supported by UOVO—a company specializing in the storage of valuable collectibles—aims to promote the work of Brooklyn-based artists. Previous recipients include filmmaker Suneil Sanzgiri in 2023 and Artsy Vanguard 2022 alum Oscar yi Hou in 2022.
As part of the prize, Joseph will create a 50-by-50-foot mural on the facade of UOVO’s facility in Bushwick, Brooklyn and an installation at the Brooklyn Museum’s Iris Cantor Plaza. Both pieces will reference the intricate designs of Italy’s Siena Cathedral and are scheduled to be unveiled in June 2025.
“For this project, I chose to reference the incredible floors of the Siena Cathedral and to think about the way public art has functioned throughout history,” said Joseph in a press statement. “While the process and purpose of creating public art have both expanded and accelerated, the potential for profound human connection remains, and that is what most excites and inspires me about this project.”
Joseph was selected by a team of Brooklyn Museum curators from the artists featured in “The Brooklyn Artists Exhibition,” a major group show of local artists organized in celebration of the museum’s 200th anniversary. Joseph’s contribution to the exhibition, which is on view until January 26, 2025, is Olive’s Hair Salon (2023), a felt portrait of her brother and young niece. Last year, the museum acquired her piece Getting Reuben’s tuition book (2023).
Over the last year, Joseph’s work has been featured in a number of notable exhibitions and fair presentations. In November 2023, she had a solo show at New York’s Margot Samel. This June, the gallery presented Joseph’s work in a solo booth at Liste Art Fair Basel. At Art Basel Miami Beach earlier this month, New York gallery Charles Moffett mounted a dual presentation featuring Joseph and Kim Dacres, which was selected as one of Artsy’s top 10 booths from the fair.
Naomi Beckwith announced as curator for Documenta 2027.
Portrait of Naomi Beckwith by Nicolas Wefers. Courtesy of Documenta and Museum Fridericianum gGmbH.
Naomi Beckwith, the chief curator at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, has been appointed as the artistic director for Documenta 16. She will be the first Black woman to hold the post. The announcement was made by Andreas Hoffmann, managing director of Documenta and Museum Fridericianum, at a press conference on December 18th. The upcoming Documenta is scheduled for June 12 to September 19, 2027.
“Documenta is an institution that belongs to the entire world, as much as it belongs to Kassel, as well as an institution that is in perpetual dialogue with history as much as it is a barometer of art and culture in the immediate present,” said Beckwith. “I am humbled by the breadth of this responsibility and equally excited to share my research and ideas with this storied and generous institution: one that affords space and time for focus, deep study, exploration, experimentation, and awakenings for artists, curators, and audiences alike.”
Educated at the Courtauld Institute of Art, Beckwith joined the Guggenheim in 2021, where she became its first Black deputy director and chief curator. She has previously held positions at the MCA Chicago and the Studio Museum in Harlem. Additionally, Beckwith has served as a visiting professor at Northwestern University and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She also received fellowships at the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program in New York and ICA Philadelphia.
In 2022, during Documenta 15, a controversy emerged over anti-Semitic caricatures in some exhibited works and other allegations of anti-Semitism. This led to the removal of work by the Indonesian collective Taring Padi and criticism against the directorial team, the artist collective ruangrupa.
Addressing Documenta’s subsequent realignment, Timon Gremmels, minister of state arts and culture in the region, said in a statement: “Openness, a sense of community, and the unifying power of art already characterized the work of the Finding Committee and likewise form the basis of Naomi Beckwith’s practice. With the implemented reform of Documenta, the city and state have laid a good foundation for the future of the world art show. We have struck a good balance between freedom of art and discourse and protection against anti-Semitism and discrimination.”
It’s not the only high-profile curatorial announcement to come this year. Earlier this month, Cameroonian-born curator Koyo Kouoh was appointed as the chief curator of the Venice Biennale 2025. The esteemed curator, currently the chief curator and executive director of the Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town, will become the first African woman to curate the prestigious exhibition.
Basquiat drawing featured on The Weeknd’s new album.
Cover of Hurry Up Tomorrow by The Weeknd, featuring Jean-Michel Basquiat, Upon Leaving the ‘Norm,’ 1977. © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Courtesy of Artestar.
A 1977 drawing by Jean-Michel Basquiat will adorn the special collector’s edition cover of The Weeknd’s upcoming album, Hurry Up Tomorrow.
The cover artwork, sourced from Basquiat’s teenage sketchbooks, portrays a group of figures standing in front of a simple cityscape. These characters are accompanied by the text “Working Class Heroes” and stand beneath another figure floating with a balloon and a bubble that reads “Ho-Hum.” The title of the piece, Upon Leaving the ‘Norm’ (1977), is written across the top right corner of the page.
The album cover subtly nods to The Weeknd’s debut mixtape, House of Balloons, which also used balloon imagery—a symbol representing his ascent into mainstream recognition. This tie-in highlights The Weeknd’s longstanding admiration for Basquiat, who has influenced his music and style, particularly the musician’s hairstyle.
The limited-edition release will include a line of vinyl and CD covers featuring Basquiat’s artwork. Hurry Up Tomorrow is set to be released in January 2025 and will be accompanied by a film starring Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan. In November, The Weeknd released two additional limited-edition versions of the upcoming album with cover art by comic book artist Frank Miller and Japanese illustrator Hajime Sorayama.
Basquiat created the cover art for several musicians. Perhaps most notable is the work he made for the 1983 single Beat Bop by Rammellzee and K-Rob. One copy of the total 500 sold for $126,000 at Sotheby’s in 2020. Basquiat also made the cover of San Francisco punk band The Offs’s only record in 1984. Most recently, The Strokes featured Basquiat’s Bird on Money (1981)—the original is currently on view at the Rubell Museum in Miami—for their 2020 album The New Abnormal.
Works by Basquiat, who died in 1988, are often featured across various creative sectors. For instance, in June, H&M launched a new clothing line in collaboration with the artist’s estate and luxury streetwear brand Who Decides War. The partnership drew inspiration from “King Pleasure,” the 2022 exhibition organized by the Basquiat estate in Los Angeles that displayed 200 seldom-seen works by the artist.
Conceptual artist Lorraine O’Grady dies at 90.
Portrait of Lorraine O’Grady, 2018. Photo by Ross Collab. © Ross Collab. Courtesy of the Lorraine O’Grady Trust.
Lorraine O’Grady, a conceptual artist who fiercely advocated for Black women’s perspectives in art, has passed away at 90. Her death was confirmed by a trust in her name and her representing gallery, Mariane Ibrahim, which shared the announcement on December 13th. The cause of death was not specified.
Reflecting on O’Grady’s legacy, gallerist Mariane Ibrahim wrote on Instagram: “Lorraine O’Grady was a force to be reckoned with. She refused to be labeled or limited, embracing the multiplicity of history that reflected her identity and life’s journey. Lorraine paved a path for artists and women artists of color, to forge critical and confident pathways between art and forms of writing.”
Lorraine O’Grady, Mlle Bourgeoise Noire Goes to the New Museum, 1981/2007. © Lorraine O’Grady. Courtesy of Lorraine O’Grady Trust.
O’Grady’s career was defined by a commitment to challenging closed-minded narratives around race, gender, and class through her art and writing. She worked in various mediums, including photography, collage, and performance. O’Grady’s art and cultural criticism were widely recognized for insightful analyses of feminism, Surrealism, and the representation of Black women in art, among other topics. Most notably, her 1992 essay “Olympia’s Maid: Reclaiming Black Female Subjectivity” critically examined Édouard Manet’s Olympia (1863), highlighting the art historical oversight of Laure, the Black maid depicted in the painting.
Born in Boston in 1934 to Jamaican immigrants, O’Grady spent her childhood around her mother’s clothing business. She attended Wellesley College, where she earned degrees in economics and Spanish literature in 1955. Her career path included jobs at government offices before she decided to enter the Iowa Writers Workshop in 1965. She left the program in 1967, after meeting her husband, Chappelle Freeman Jr., with whom she relocated to Chicago, where she lived for the next six years.
After landing in New York in 1973, O’Grady pursued several jobs: She was a music critic for Rolling Stone and a literature teacher at the School of Visual Arts. By the late ’70s, she decided to pursue a career as an artist. One of her most notable early series, “Cutting Out the New York Times,” started in 1977, and involved transforming newspaper clippings into poignant critiques of contemporary society.
Lorraine O’Grady, Cutting Out CONYT 04, 1977/2017. Courtesy of Lorraine O’Grady Trust.
At 45, O’Grady made her first public performance of Mlle Bourgeoise Noire (1980–83), a piece in which she played a character wearing a white gown made from 180 pairs of white gloves, a sash bearing the title “Mlle Bourgeoise Noire” (Miss Black Middle-Class), and wielded a cat-o’-nine-tails made of white chrysanthemums. Through this persona, she confronted the exclusion and marginalization of Black artists. Her work continued through the 1990s and into the 2000s with photographic collages and performances that critiqued systems of power.
In recent years, O’Grady’s artwork has gained broader acclaim. A compilation of her writings was published by Duke University Press in 2020. The writings were edited by Aruna D’Souza, who co-curated the artist’s retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum in 2021. Mariane Ibrahim announced its representation of O’Grady in 2023 and presented a major exhibition of the artist’s work in Chicago in April 2024, titled “The Knight, or Lancela Palm-and-Steel.”
“Our lives, though shaped by different histories, mirrored in ways that connected each other,” wrote Ibrahim. “Her legacy will live on, a force that continues to echo through everything she created, touching all who encounter her work with the same power and depth she embodied.”
Eurovision singer Zaachariaha Fielding to present first L.A. painting show.
Portrait of Zaachariaha Fielding by Andy Francis. Courtesy of the APYACC.
Zaachariaha Fielding is perhaps best known as the voice of Electric Fields—the pop-techno duo that became the first to represent Australia in the Eurovision Song Contest. The duo performed their song “One Mikali (One Blood),” featuring lyrics in English and Yankunytjatjara, an Aboriginal Australian language.
Now, Fielding is getting his first gallery show, too. Albertz Benda just opened the first-ever solo exhibition of the Aṉangu artist and singer in its new space located next door to Los Angeles’s Chateau Marmont. This solo show, on view until February 1, 2025, features eight landscape paintings. It closely follows the gallery’s presentation at Untitled Art, where it debuted Fielding’s paintings from December 4th to 8th.
Born in Port Augusta, Australia in 1991, Fielding was largely raised in the community of Mimli in Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands. This experience served as a major influence on the artist’s music and art careers. His first major musical breakthrough came when his X Factor appearance impressed the judges and audience in 2011. His music career took off, and he formed Electric Fields with keyboardist Michael Ross in 2015.
Though he only picked up painting during the COVID-19 pandemic, Brisbane’s Jan Murphy Gallery had already mounted a buzzy solo show for the artist in fall 2022. His energetic paintings are characterized by splashes of purples, pinks, and oranges, alongside frenetic mark-making. These works often incorporate symbols and iconography that honor his Aṉangu heritage. “Because of the two knowledges I possess; ancient and contemporary, culture is purely about connection. That’s my story at the moment. That’s where I sit,” the artist said. Some works, such as 564-24AS (2024), feature long lines of cursive-like text that curl across the canvases.
By 2023, Fielding received the $50,000 Wynne Prize, an annual award granted to an artist for the best painting of the Australian landscape or the best figure sculpture by an Australian artist. Other solo shows have been staged by Hugo Michell Gallery and APY Gallery in Adelaide, Australia.
London’s JD Malat Gallery to open Dubai location in 2025.
Rendering of JD Malat Gallery’s new Dubai location. Courtesy of JD Malat Gallery.
London-based JD Malat Gallery will open its first Middle East location in downtown Dubai in January 2025. The new 1,700-square-foot space will be situated in Dubai’s downtown Opera District, where it hopes to foster a dialogue with emerging talent from the region and local collectors.
The Dubai branch will be strategically located on a bustling boulevard near the Burj Khalifa—an area that is increasingly recognized as a fast-growing arts hub. The city, the largest in the United Arab Emirates, has been experiencing a post-pandemic inhabitant surge, adding over 180,000 new residents since 2022. Dubai’s art scene has also been expanding. Recent additions include NIKA Project Space, founded by collector Veronika Berezina in 2023, and Efiɛ Gallery, established by the Mintah family in 2021. Other international galleries set their sights on Dubai as long as a decade ago, including New York City stalwart Leila Heller Gallery, which has operated in the city since 2015.
“The vision for our gallery resonates deeply with the growing appetite for international contemporary art among collectors in the Middle East,” founder Jean-David Malat said. “It is a privilege to see the work of the artists we represent exhibited in such a culturally diverse context. JD Malat Gallery Dubai gives us an additional space to build on those careers, as well as nurture new ones.”
JD Malat Gallery plans to immediately engage with local and public art institutions and projects across the city. According to its press release, “Being centrally located in downtown Dubai supports the gallery’s ethos of engaging beyond the gallery space to promote artistic progression and cultural interaction.”
Malat trained at Sotheby’s, though, he told British GQ, “I don’t think the Sotheby’s course was worth it. I learned more from experience. For me, success came from connecting with people and going to auctions and exhibitions rather than through academia.” Relying on his hands-on experience, Malat opened his eponymous gallery in 2018 in the heart of Mayfair. Today, the gallerist represents more than 20 international artists, including Icelandic painter Katrin Fridriks, Swiss artist Conrad Jon Godly, and American artist Ed Moses. He is also known for dealing art to an impressive roster of A-list celebrities, including Madonna and Kate Moss.
Iconic Mark Rothko and Louise Bourgeois works to go on show for Tate Modern’s 25th birthday.
Louise Bourgeois, installation view of Maman, 1999, in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern, 2000. Photo by Tate Photography. Courtesy of Tate Modern.
Monumental works by Mark Rothko and Louise Bourgeois will be shown at the Tate Modern to commemorate the London museum’s 25th anniversary in May 2025. The public celebration, hosted from May 9th to 12th, is set to feature 25 key works installed around the Tate Modern and will be free to access.
Among the works is Bourgeois’s Maman (1999), a towering, 10-meter-tall spider sculpture that will return for the first time since it inaugurated the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall in 2000.
Maman will be the starting point for the trail of 25 works from Tate Modern’s collection, leading visitors on a journey through the museum’s history to recent acquisitions. This trail will include well-known pieces such as Mark Rothko’s “Seagram” murals and Dorothea Tanning’s Surrealist painting Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (1943). The works return to Tate Modern from recent displays at Tate St Ives and Paris’s Centre Pompidou, respectively.
Installation view of Mark Rothko’s “Seagram” murals at Tate Modern, 2009. Courtesy of Tate Modern.
Elsewhere, Tate Modern will also feature several contemporary works involving film, performance, and sound. Among these works are a multi-screen, immersive film installation by Indian artist Nalini Malani and live tarot readings—part of an installation by Beninese artist Meschac Gaba.
“We wanted to celebrate our 25th anniversary with a capsule collection of 25 key works, which will lead visitors around the whole building on a journey from old favorites to new discoveries,” said Catherine Wood, Tate Modern’s director of programming. “The selection showcases how art—and Tate Modern itself—has always pushed the boundaries and challenged norms, ultimately letting us all see the world through new eyes.”
Dorothea Tanning, Eine Kleine Nacht Musik, 1943. © DACS, 2024. Courtesy of Tate.
Two new exhibitions will also open at Tate Modern in conjunction with the anniversary celebrations. “A Year in Art: 2050” will explore how artists “imagine possible futures.” Works in the show will include Umberto Boccioni’s Futurist sculpture Forme uniche della continuità nello spazio (1913) and a computer-generated animation by Korean artist Ayoung Kim, depicting a futuristic Seoul. Also set to open is “Gathering Ground,” which will address themes of land, community, and the ecological crisis. Works by artists such as Outi Pieski, Carolina Caycedo, and Edgar Calel will be featured.
“Tate Modern has made an incredible impact in just 25 years,” said Karin Hindsbo, director of Tate Modern. “It has exploded the canon of art history, transformed the public’s relationship with contemporary art, and rewritten the rules for what an art museum can be.”
The Met unveils plans for new Frida Escobedo–designed modern and contemporary art wing.
Exterior rendering of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Tang Wing (view from the southwest corner). © Filippo Bolognese Images. Courtesy of Frida Escobedo Studio
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) has unveiled plans for its new modern and contemporary art galleries,e designed by Mexican architect Frida Escobedo, who is the first woman to design a wing at the museum. The $550 million initiative is named the Oscar L. Tang and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing in honor of the couple who contributed $125 million to the project. Construction is slated to begin in 2026 and finish by 2030.
The newly designed, five-story modern and contemporary art wing is planned to fit within The Met’s existing 123,000-square-foot architectural footprint and to preserve the building’s historical aesthetic. The expansion itself encompasses 126,000 square feet, effectively increasing the Museum’s capacity to showcase 20th- and 21st-century art by nearly 50%. This enhancement will provide approximately 70,000 square feet of additional exhibition space. The design includes 18,500 square feet of outdoor terraces on the fourth and fifth floors.
Interior rendering of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Tang Wing. © Filippo Bolognese Images. Courtesy of Frida Escobedo Studio.
“As stewards of one of the most outstanding collections of 20th- and 21st-century art, The Met has a responsibility to New York City and the world to present the art of our time in exceptionally compelling, scholarly, and innovative displays that illuminate the rich—and at times surprising—connections that can be drawn across our collection of 5,000 years of art history,” said Max Hollein, The Met’s Marina Kellen French director and chief executive officer. “Escobedo’s elegant, contemporary design reflects not only an understanding of architectural history, materiality, and artistic expression but also a deep appreciation for The Met’s mission, collection, and visitors.”
Inside, the wing will have flexible gallery spaces designed for a variety of art installations. These rooms will be equipped with advanced lighting systems and varying ceiling heights—ranging from 11 to 22 feet tall—to accommodate large and small works. The fifth floor will include galleries and a 1,000-square-foot café.
Rendering of The Metropolitan Museum of Art from aerial view featuring the Tang Wing at the southeast corner. © Filippo Bolognese Images. Courtesy of Frida Escobedo Studio.
The façade features limestone latticework that, according to the architect’s studio, evokes the “celosía”—a traditional Mexican breeze wall with roots in Spanish, Middle Eastern, and African architecture. Meanwhile, the carefully designed façade and strategic window arrangement in the new wing, together with an underground mechanical area, will minimize solar heat gain while optimizing natural light in the galleries, supporting The Met’s sustainability objectives.
The Met will also incorporate eco-friendly features such as controlled daylight use, a green roof, and on-site stormwater management to minimize environmental impact. Meanwhile, it plans to improve its adjacent green spaces, working closely with the Central Park Conservancy and New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
Alongside Escobedo, the project team includes executive architects Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Planners, landscape architects Nelson Byrd Woltz, and engineering firms Kohler Ronan and Thornton Tomasetti, all committed to sustainable and innovative design.
Yayoi Kusama to get major European retrospective in 2025–26.
Portrait of Yayoi Kusama with Yellow Tree / Living Room at the Aichi Triennale, 2010. © YAYOI KUSAMA. Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts, Victoria Miro, David Zwirner.
Yayoi Kusama will be the subject of a major retrospective at several European museums beginning in 2025. The exhibition “Yayoi Kusama” will first open at the Fondation Beyeler in Basel on October 12, 2025, before moving to Cologne’s Museum Ludwig on March 14th, 2026, and finally to Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum on September 11, 2026.
Visitors can expect to see works from across the full span of Kusama’s nearly eight-decade career—from the artist’s polka-dot paintings and giant pumpkin sculptures to her immersive “infinity mirror room” installations. The show will feature several iconic pieces known globally alongside historic works that have never been seen before in Europe.
The traveling exhibition will also include new pieces created specifically for this show, but the specific media and titles of these have yet to be announced.
“Yayoi Kusama is an artist who compels us to see the world through a different lens,” said Rein Wolfs, director of the Stedelijk Museum. “Even at her advanced age, she continues to captivate audiences, drawing in visitors of all generations with her mesmerizing creations. This exhibition promises to be a feast for the eyes where one can truly lose themselves in her extraordinary art.”
Born in 1929 in Matsumoto, Japan, Kusama started her career in the 1950s before moving to New York in 1958. There, she became a central figure in the city’s avant-garde movements of the 1960s, most notably the Pop Art movement. By 1968, she gained widespread notoriety for organizing a series of performances with naked people painted with polka dots—titled the “Anatomic Explosion” series. In 1993, Kusama represented Japan at the Venice Biennale, and she has gone on to become one of the most recognizable and popular artists working today. Her work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions at museums and galleries worldwide. In October, Kusama was the subject of a solo presentation at her representing gallery Victoria Miro in London, its 14th show of the artist. Kusama is also represented by David Zwirner.
Meanwhile, a new “infinity mirror room” installation is debuting at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne. Infinity Mirrored Room – My Heart is Filled to the Brim with Sparkling Light (2024) is part of the artist’s Australian retrospective, which opens on December 15th and runs until April 21st, 2025. The exhibition will include approximately 200 works spanning eight decades of Kusama’s career, including 10 immersive installation rooms.
Correction: a previous version of this article stated that Kusama was born in 1926. She was born in 1929.
Notre Dame Cathedral reopens following 2019 fire.
Exterior of the reopened Notre Dame Cathedral. Image via Associated Press.
This weekend, Notre Dame Cathedral welcomed visitors once again after a painstaking five-year restoration that revived the iconic Parisian landmark. The reopening marked a triumphant return for the 861-year-old Gothic masterpiece, which had been ravaged by a devastating fire on April 15, 2019.
French president Emmanuel Macron, who pledged in 2019 to complete the restoration within five years, attended the reopening ceremony with guests including Donald Trump, Jill Biden, and Prince William of the U.K.
Speaking to a large crowd gathered inside the cathedral, Macron praised the artisans who brought the cathedral back to life. “You are the alchemists of this project, and you transformed coal into artistry,” he said.“The furnace of Notre Dame was a national scar, and you were its healing balm.”
For this ambitious project, around 2,000 craftspeople—carpenters, roofers, masons, and restorers—collaborated under the direction of chief architect Philippe Villeneuve. Many of the artisans were members of Les Compagnons du Devoir, a guild of skilled workers with roots in the Middle Ages. The restoration employed traditional materials and techniques, honoring the methods used in the 13th century.
Key achievements included the reconstruction of the 330-square-foot spire, faithfully replicated using 500 tons of oak and 250 tons of lead. The cathedral’s roof, supported by a new wooden lattice structure, was rebuilt using more than 1,500 oak trees sourced from French forests. The cathedral’s gleaming limestone walls had been scrubbed clean, removing both centuries-old grime and the residue of the 2019 fire.
Art restorers also revived 21 historic paintings and intricate frescoes within the chapels. This includes 13 of the 17th-century “Mays” paintings, named after the month they were offered to the cathedral by Paris’s goldsmith guild, and evacuated during the 2019 fire. The grand organ, which contains over 8,000 pipes, was carefully disassembled, cleaned, and returned—a process that took six months. The famous stained glass windows have been newly restored, sparkling despite the gray December weather. Minimal liturgical furnishings, made by French designer Guillaume Bardet (also exhibiting in a solo show at Paris’s Galerie kreo), have added a contemporary touch to the cathedral.
The restoration, funded by €846 million ($900 million) in donations from 340,000 donors across 150 countries, showed the impact of global solidarity on cultural heritage. Despite the reopening, additional restoration efforts will continue until 2028, focusing on facades, flying buttresses, and decorative sculptures.
Notre Dame is expected to draw 15 million visitors annually, reaffirming its status as a major tourist destination.
Pantone announces “Mocha Mousse” as its color of the year for 2025.
Courtesy of Pantone.
Pantone has unveiled its 2025 color of the year, continuing its annual tradition of forecasting the hue set to influence design trends globally. The selection for the coming year is “Mocha Mousse,” also known as PANTONE 17-1230—a soft, creamy brown that reflects a return to nature, according to the brand. Typically, the company selects a shade that it believes will reflect the cultural zeitgeist in the year ahead. The 2024 color of the year was “Peach Fuzz,” a peachy orange tone.
“Mocha Mousse” is described by Pantone as “an evocative soft brown that transports our senses into the pleasure and deliciousness it inspires.” Furthermore, the company stated in its press release, the shade “nurtures with its suggestion of the delectable quality of cacao, chocolate, and coffee, appealing to our desire for comfort.”
Pantone’s color of the year program, now in its 26th year, began with 1999’s “Cerulean Blue,” a calming sky blue. Since then, the selection has become a bellwether for emerging trends in industries from fashion and interiors to technology and art. Other recent colors of the year have included “Viva Magenta” (2023), a vibrant red-purple, and “Very Peri” (2022), a dark periwinkle blue.
Pantone, whose color system is used extensively by designers across the world, is seen as an authority on defining and naming shades. The company will collaborate with brands such as Motorola and Joybird to create “Mocha Mousse” products such as cell phones and furniture. Tonight, Pantone announced, the London Eye will also light up the London skyline in a “Mocha Mousse” shade to celebrate the color’s unveiling.
In a press statement, Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute, noted the high-end but peaceful qualities of the color: “Sophisticated and lush, yet at the same time an unpretentious classic, PANTONE 17-1230 ‘Mocha Mousse’ extends our perceptions of the browns from being humble and grounded to embrace aspirational and luxe…A flavourful brown shade, [the color] envelopes us with its sensorial warmth.”
$4.75 million David Hammons painting leads Art Basel Miami Beach 2024 opening sales.
Exterior view of Art Basel Miami Beach 2024. Courtesy of Art Basel.
Hauser & Wirth’s $4.75 million sale of David Hammons’s Untitled (2014) led the slate of reported transactions from Art Basel Miami Beach’s VIP preview, which got underway yesterday, December 4th.
The 22nd edition of the largest art fair in the western hemisphere this year features 286 exhibitors and is the first under the directorship of veteran gallerist Bridget Finn. It takes place amid a packed Miami Art Week of more than 10 art fairs: Untitled Art, Miami Beach and NADA were among the notable events opening earlier in the week.
The $4.75 million Hammons sale is a far lower price than the leading sale reported at last year’s Art Basel Miami Beach VIP day, a $20 million Philip Guston painting (also sold by Hauser & Wirth). Dealers struck an optimistic tenor despite a more measured pace to dealmaking.
“After a dark and nervous season, it feels like the clouds have broken and the perfect blue-sky weather here in Miami is reflecting the art world’s mood––buoyant and fully engaged minus the overly frantic energy of the past,” said Hauser & Wirth president Marc Payot. Mega-dealer Larry Gagosian also noted that “collectors are taking their time,” but said that his gallery enjoyed “a great start to the fair and sales have been strong.”
“There is an appetite for great things and the market feels like it’s coming back,” he added.
Here, we round up a selection of notable early sales reported by galleries at Art Basel Miami Beach 2024. Check back on Monday for our full round-up of sales from the fair.
Leading seven-figure sales from Art Basel Miami Beach 2024:
Installation view of Hauser & Wirth’s booth at Art Basel Miami Beach, 2024. Photo by Dan Bradica. Courtesy of Hauser & Wirth.
- As well as the $4.75 million Hammons work, Hauser & Wirth’s notable sales included George Condo’s Female Portrait Abstraction (2024) for $2.5 million and Ed Clark’s Untitled (1986) for $1.4 million.
- David Zwirner’s sales were led by a Yayoi Kusama painting for $3.5 million and a painting by Noah Davis for $2 million.
- Thaddaeus Ropac’s sales were led by Georg Baselitz’s Dresdner Frauen - Die Elbe (1990/2023) for €2.5 million ($2.63 million) and Robert Rauschenberg’s Everglade (Borealis) (1990) for $2.3 million.
- White Cube’s reported sales were led by David Hammons’s Rock Head (2000) for $2.35 million and Christine Ay Tjoe’s Mischievous Player (2016) for $1.15 million.
- Pace Gallery’s sales were led by Sam Gilliam’s Whispering Wind (1972) for $1 million and a work by Robert Longo for $550,000.
- Mai 36 Galerie’s sales were led by H.R. Giger’s Necronom / Alien III (1990–2005) for $1 million.
- Mennour’s sales were led by Lee Ufan’s Response (2024) for $1 million and a work by Anish Kapoor for £675,000 ($826,946).
Other notable sales from Art Basel Miami Beach 2024:
Installation view of Xavier Hufkens’s booth at Art Basel Miami Beach, 2024. Photo by Sebastiano Pellion di Persano. Courtesy of Xavier Hufkens, Brussels.
- Xavier Hufkens’s sales were led by a Nicolas Party painting for “approximately” $600,000 and a painting by Qiu Xiaofei for $360,000.
- Lisson Gallery’s sales were led by Lee Ufan’s Response (2024) for $850,000 and Anish Kapoor’s Cobalt Blue to Mipa 5 (2024) for £700,000 ($890,557).
- David Kordansky Gallery’s sales were led by Fred Eversley’s Untitled (cylindrical lens) (2024) for $600,000 and Rashid Johnson’s God Painting “The Baths” (2024) for $550,000.
- Kasmin’s sales were led by Claude and Francois Xavier Lalanne’s Centaure (moyen) (1995/2008) for €695,000 ($731,860) and Francois Xavier Lalanne’s Requin (petit) (2003/2011) for €420,000 ($442,275).
