Arts news

• How Advances in Digital Printing Are Blurring Boundaries Between Photography and Art

  15-12-2025 11:00 via artnews.com
  In the late 1980s, I noticed photography’s transition from analog to digital in small ways in printed media. I saw it in typography in the East Village Eye that was elongated on a computer, and in the artificially sharpened images that occasionally cropped up in the New York Times. But only after the turn of the millennium did the powerful, digital prepress tools we know today—ultra-high-resolution scanners, imagesetters, and inkjet printers—become widely available to photograp
  
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• Pussy Riot Labeled ‘Extremist Organization’ by Russia’s Justice Ministry

  17-12-2025 00:35 via artnews.com
  Pussy Riot, the feminist punk rock band and art collective, has been officially branded an “extremist organization” by Russia’s justice ministry. The move comes after a December 15 hearing at Moscow’s Tverskoy Court, when prosecutor general Alexander Gutsan filed a lawsuit against the group, which was co-founded by Nadya Tolokonnikova.The judgement means that Pussy Riot’s activities are now banned in Russia. Any individual or organization found to be supporting the
  
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• Theaster Gates Tapped for Obama Presidential Center Installation Celebrating Ebony and Jet Image Archives

  16-12-2025 23:07 via artnews.com
  The Obama Foundation has tapped a local talent with its latest commission for its highly anticipated Obama Presidential Center (OPC), set to open on Chicago’s South Side in 2026. Artist Theaster Gates will create an expansive frieze drawing drawing from the Johnson Publishing Company image archive and the Howard Simmon and photographic collections. The new installation will occupy the Pendleton Atrium at the forthcoming OPC and celebrate the visual archives of the Chicago legacy magaz
  
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• Top Ukrainian Art Historian Believes Italian Museum Holds 14 Fake Russian and Ukrainian Modernist Works

  16-12-2025 21:51 via artnews.com
  Konstantin Akinsha, a top curator and art historian of Russian and Ukrainian art, said he believes 14 artworks attributed to Russian and Ukrainian modernists in the collection of the Palazzo de Nordis, a museum in the northern Italian town of Cividale del Friuli, are not authentic.In a Substack post published in late September, Akinsha analyzed the De Martiis Collection, a cache of 64 modern and contemporary works donated to the palazzo in 2015 by the late local collector Giancarlo De Martiis. T
  
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• Art Institute of Chicago’s 2025 Acquisitions Include a Painting by Kay WalkingStick and a 17th-Century South Asian Textile

  16-12-2025 18:56 via artnews.com
  The Art Institute of Chicago announced the top lots among its more than 1,000 acquisitions in 2025, with special notice going to key paintings and other holdings now in the collections of departments including prints and drawings, photography and media, textiles, and architecture and design.The paintings include Kay WalkingStick’s The Silence of Glacier (2013), a two-panel work that overlays a Northern Chayenne beadwork pattern over top a landscape scene from Glacier National Park in Monta
  
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• “Little Foot” Hominin Fossil May Be a Formerly Unknown Species of Human Ancestor

  16-12-2025 17:59 via artnews.com
  As reported by the Guardian on December 14, one of the world’s most famous hominin fossils may be a previously unidentified species of human ancestor. Nicknamed “Little Foot,” the skeleton was discovered between 1994 and 1998 in the Sterkfontein cave system in South Africa. It is the most complete specimen ever found of the genus Australopithecus, from which humans are descended.Little Foot was a bipedal like humans, but likely foraged and slept in trees like primates, while th
  
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• For the First Time, Hong Kong Selects Not One But Two Artists to Go to the Venice Biennale

  16-12-2025 17:57 via artnews.com
  Hong Kong has typically sent a single artist to represent the special administrative region at the Venice Biennale, but in 2026, artists Angel Hui and Kingsley Ng, both Hong Kong natives who live in the city, will jointly take up the mantle. The Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMoA) and the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC) are collaborating for the first time on the presentation in La Serenissima. The artists will explore “the poetic rhythms of daily life,” per an announcement, i
  
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• Malba Founder Eduardo Costantini Acquires Daros Latinamerica Collection in Major Expansion Ahead of Museum’s 25th Anniversary

  16-12-2025 17:52 via artnews.com
  The Museum of Latin American Art of Buenos Aires is set to nearly double the size of its holdings following founder Eduardo F. Costantini’s acquisition of the Daros Latinamerica Collection, a trove of 1,233 works by 117 artists created primarily between the 1950s and 2010s. The deal brings the combined collection to roughly 3,000 works, positioning the institution as among the world’s most significant repositories of modern and contemporary Latin American art.According to the museum,
  
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• Tuan Andrew Nguyen Selected for Next High Line Plinth Commission

  16-12-2025 16:44 via artnews.com
  The High Line in New York has selected artist Tuan Andrew Nguyen to produce its next plinth commission, scheduled to open next spring.Titled The Light That Shines Through the Universe, the commission will see Nguyen present a re-created version of one of the two Bamiyan Buddhas that once stood on a cliff in central Afghanistan. Dating to the 6th century CE, the Bamiyan Buddhas are typically seen as symbols of the syncretism of cultures along the Silk Road.  The Buddha’s hands were los
  
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• ‘To be really successful, you have to be sexy in a straight way’: Ben Whishaw on libidinous New York and playing Peter Hujar

  16-12-2025 16:33
  Peter Hujar captured a queer Manhattan demi-monde that is now lost to Aids. Whishaw reveals what he learned playing the photographer in a minimalist film being hailed by some as a masterpieceOn 19 December 1974, the writer Linda Rosenkrantz went round to her friend Peter Hujar’s apartment in New York, and asked the photographer to describe exactly what he had done the day before. He talked in great detail about taking Allen Ginsberg’s portrait for the New York Times (it didn’t
  
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• Time for a Right-Size Art Market, National Museum of Libya Reopens, Somerset’s Cultural Awakening: Morning Links for December 16, 2025

  16-12-2025 16:12 via artnews.com
  The HeadlinesIF THE RIGHT SIZE FITS. One could be forgiven for thinking, at various points over the past year, that the global art industry was approaching an existential breaking point, Tim Schneider writes in the Art Newspaper. A steady drumbeat of gallery closures and a handful of underwhelming auction results has created an atmosphere of persistent unease. It’s natural to worry that the downturn might be permanent. After two decades in the business, however, Schneider is conf
  
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• A viral hit and loved by Tracey Emin: the woman who took up art at 88 – and became an Instagram sensation

  16-12-2025 15:47
  Christine Hazell has progressive memory loss yet now has four shows in the works, thanks to these raw, untutored drawings of her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren – and Kizzy the dogIn his four decades as a curator, publisher and gallerist, Matthew Higgs has supported many artists’ careers, including those of his contemporaries Jeremy Deller, Martin Creed and Peter Doig when they emerged in the early 1990s.Higgs also champions artists from alternative backgrounds – t
  
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• Sotheby’s Is Selling a Watch Gifted to Admiral Nelson Before His Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar

  16-12-2025 15:26 via artnews.com
  The clock is ticking on Sotheby’s final watch sale of the year, scheduled for Wednesday. A total of 51 timepieces are being sold in the online auction, titled “Fine Watches,” with the historical “Victory Watch” being one of the sale’s top lots. Legendary British naval officer Admiral Horatio Nelson was presented with the gilt metal, gold, and enamel watch by officers on the HMS Victory in 1805. Weeks later, Nelson etched his name into the history books by defe
  
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• Somerset’s Unlikely Contemporary Art Scene is a Welcome Departure from the UK’s London-Centric Thinking

  16-12-2025 12:10 via artnews.com
  Knocking back fine wine, fermented potato brioche, and smoked eel in a Michelin-starred restaurant is not a traditional West Country endeavor. Nor is wandering around a mega-gallery. But I was recently at Hauser & Wirth Somerset in Bruton with a bellyful of Osip’s tasting menu, looking at Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely’s joint exhibition, “Myths & Machines.” Tinguely’s scrapyard sculptures were juxtaposed with de Saint Phalle’s bold, colorful v
  
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• Somerset’s Unlikely Contemporary Art Scene is a Welcome Departure from the UK’s London-Centric Thinking

  16-12-2025 12:10 via artnews.com
  Knocking back fine wine, fermented potato brioche, and smoked eel in a Michelin-starred restaurant is not a traditional West Country endeavor. Nor is wandering around a mega-gallery. But I was recently at Hauser & Wirth Somerset in Bruton with a bellyful of Osip’s tasting menu, looking at Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely’s joint exhibition, “Myths & Machines.” Tinguely’s scrapyard sculptures were juxtaposed with de Saint Phalle’s bold, colorful v
  
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• The Most Expensive Works Sold at Auction in 2025

  16-12-2025 11:00 via artnews.com
  Take a look at the top ten auction results of 2025 and you’d be forgiven for thinking the art market had been magically transported back to the halcyon post-pandemic years. Cumulatively, those lots totaled a robust $757 million—the highest figure since 2022’s $1.1 billion, and well above 2024’s $512.6 million and 2023’s $660 million.Much of the credit belongs to the specialists at Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips. After a first half of 2025 that looke
  
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• A Landmark Show Brings Masterpieces of Korean Art to America’s Capital

  16-12-2025 11:00 via artnews.com
  The National Museum of Asian Art planned to open “Korean Treasures: Collected, Cherished, Shared” on November 8—right as the longest federal government shutdown in US history brought the Smithsonian to a standstill. Visitor services halted, publicity froze, and the museum lurched into crisis management. Yet behind locked doors, curators and art handlers—who were still allowed to work—continued quietly installing celadons, Buddhist paintings, palace screens, and mode
  
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• Born in the DSA*: Little Donny Dingdong Be Damned**, Let Everybody Vote

  16-12-2025 01:01 via artsjournal.com
  Let’s stop cocking around and just let people vote in peace.
  * DSA stands for the Divided States of America (aka “One Nation, Divisible”). Periodically, I’ll be writing more specific takes on issues that are clearly wrong for this country, using the arts as context. If there are issues you’d like to take up (or that you’d like me to take up), let me know. As always, sorry, Boss.
  ** Hoping for posthumous damnation is a fool’s errand. Better to do it now.T
  
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• Mattress Factory Names Anthony Elms, Onetime Whitney Biennial Curator, as Artistic Director

  15-12-2025 22:11 via artnews.com
  The Mattress Factory, a contemporary art museum and residency program in Pittsburgh, has named Anthony Elms as its artistic director, beginning next February.At the Mattress Factory, Elms will oversee the institution’s entire artistic programming, from its exhibitions and commissions to its residency program to public engagement and interpretative strategies. His appointment, after a national search, comes as the museum prepares for its 50th anniversary in 2027.“Anthony is the p
  
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• Trump Says Building ‘Triumphal Arch’ in D.C. Is Top Domestic Policy Priority

  15-12-2025 21:33 via artnews.com
  Amid a steep rise in health-insurance premiums and persistent concerns over affordability, President Donald Trump has clarified the top priority of his domestic policy chief: the construction of a triumphal arch in Washington, D.C.While speaking at a White House holiday party, Trump praised Vince Haley—his former speechwriter and a longtime Newt Gingrich aide who now runs the Domestic Policy Council—for his “unbelievable” policy chops, according to a report in the Guardia
  
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• Bianca Censori Dips Her Toes Into Furniture Design and Performance Art

  15-12-2025 20:55 via artnews.com
  However legitimate her background in architecture and jewelry design may be, Bianca Censori is first and foremost known for her distinctive, revealing fashion choices and for being Ye’s—né Kanye West’s—wife and muse. On Dec. 12 and 13, Censori debuted BIO POP (The Origin), the first in what will be a series of seven performance art pieces spread out over the next several years.BIO POP took place at an unnamed venue in Seoul, South Korea; Censori’s website has
  
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• Christie’s Power Broker Alex Rotter Opens Up About Market Confidence, Private Auctions, and his Beloved Jets

  15-12-2025 20:39 via artnews.com
  Editor’s Note: This story is part of Newsmakers, an ARTnews series where we interview the movers and shakers who are making change in the art world.For Christie’s Global President Alex Rotter, November was a vindication. After an up-and-down year, the auction house kicked off New York’s fall marquee sales week with a double-header that brought in $690 million with fees on 79 lots—up more than 40 percent on the equivalent sale in May—with sell-thr
  
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• Angelinos Are Flocking To LA Bars… To Listen To Academic Lectures

  15-12-2025 20:31 via latimes.com
  Attendees hear thought-provoking talks from experts on wide-ranging topics such as Taylor Swift’s use of storytelling in her music, how AI technology is being used to detect cardiovascular diseases — all in a fun, low-stakes environment. And rest assured: No grades are given. It’s a formula that’s been working. – Los Angeles Times
  
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• Cut, Paste, Print: a Graphic History of Political Montage

  15-12-2025 20:27 via artsjournal.com
  <a href="https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2025/12/cut-paste-print-a-graphic-history-of-political-montage.html" title="Cut, Paste, Print: a Graphic History of Political Montage” rel=”nofollow”>
  Cut, paste print: a graphic history of political photomontage (1917-1991) opened recently at La Contemporaine, a public institution associated with Paris Nanterre University. As the title declares,“the exhibition presents an international panorama of the history of photomont
  
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• Banksy’s Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem Reopens For the First Time Since October 7 Attacks

  15-12-2025 20:17 via artnews.com
  Banksy’s Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem, which closed following the October 7 attacks on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza, has reopened as a “cultural platform that carries the narrative of Palestine.”The British street artist opened the guesthouse across from the West Bank barrier in 2017; nearly every window looks out onto the 30-foot-high concrete wall capped with barbed wire, advertised on its website as “the worst view in the world.” The nine-room hote
  
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• Building Boom: A New Generation Of Opera Houses

  15-12-2025 20:02 via ynetnews.com
  The world is now witnessing a renewed investment in large-scale cultural venues that aim to restore music’s physical and communal dimensions. These projects attempt to reframe the basic act of listening, not through screens, but in a space shared by hundreds or thousands of people. – YNet News
  
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• How Teachers Are Trying To Get Around AI Chatbots

  15-12-2025 19:40 via washingtonpost.com
  Across the country, a small but growing number of educators are experimenting with oral exams to circumvent the temptations presented by powerful artificial intelligence platforms such as ChatGPT. – Washington Post
  
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• Louvre Closed as Workers Begin Strike, in Latest Blow to French Museum

  15-12-2025 19:30 via artnews.com
  The Louvre Museum in Paris was forced to close on Monday after hundreds of employees went on strike to protest “increasingly deteriorated working conditions.” Around 400 of the museum’s 2,100 staffers participated in the strike, blocking the museum’s iconic pyramid entrance, according to the New York Times. The three major unions representing Louvre workers—the CGT, CFDT, and Sud—announced the strike last week in a notice to France’s Ministry of Culture.
  
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• A New Jersey Auction House Is Selling Jeffrey Epstein’s Art Collection—But Don’t Expect Any Masterpieces

  15-12-2025 19:28 via artnews.com
  New Jersey’s Millea Bros. auction house has sold artworks and furnishings owned by the late convicted sex offender and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, to the tune of some $100,000 in sales so far, according to reporting in the New York Post, which adds that more items are still on their way to the auction block. The Post reports that more than two dozen decorative items from the sales appear in photos of the financier’s Upper East Side mansion published by federal authorities. T
  
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• London’s Barbican Centre Will Close for One Year for $321 M. Renovation

  15-12-2025 19:22 via artnews.com
  The Barbican Centre, which plays home to three gallery spaces in London, will close for a year starting in June 2028 for an extensive renovation marked by what a press release describes as “a major investment that will secure the future of the internationally renowned creative powerhouse for the next 50 years.” The restoration of existing and new infrastructure will further enable “creative programming, learning, and community engagement—reaffirming the Barbican’s r
  
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