Arts news

• Virtual Insanity

  13-03-2017 22:00
  Humour is essential for engaging with, and enjoying, the work of Rabat-born, Brooklyn-based artist Meriem Bennani. While her work certainly contends with critical and serious issues (the identity and status of Muslim women in the contemporary mediasphere is a recurring theme) through playful and surrealist imaginings of the lives of others, humour acts as the axis around which her work is constructed. Her ongoing project Fardaous Funjab (2015), for example, is a mockumentary series about an ava
  
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• Good Morning. A New Weekly Feature

  17-01-2026 22:19 via artsjournal.com
  As you’ve noticed, we’ve been adding some features to AJ, including these introductions to our newsletters. Today we debut a weekly short essay in which I take a look at the week’s stories and tie them to longer term cultural trends and analysis. Check it out and subscribe to the weekly essay if you want to see more. It’s my attempt to make sense out of the thousands of stories we look at each week. And let me know what you think at [email protected] week&rsquo
  
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• Neil Barclay talks about the changing landscape for BIPOC organizations

  17-01-2026 16:46 via artsjournal.com
  Neil Barclay, President & CEO of the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, talks the evolving landscape for BIPOC organizations and avenues for sustainability.
  
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• ‘I always knew my dogs loved the wind on their faces’: Thiago Bernardes de Souza’s best phone picture

  17-01-2026 12:00
  When the Brazilian photographer heads out on his motorbike, his rescue pets come along for the ride …Brasília’s sky was bright and beautiful on the day Thiago Bernardes de Souza took this shot. Exploring Brazil’s capital city on his motorbike is a pleasure when the weather is like this, he says, and his canine cavalcade had effectively invited themselves along for the ride.“The first member of our pack, Filo, isn’t in the photo, but she was there that d
  
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• Six great reads: Mondrian’s hidden inspiration, the friendship secret and heat for Heated Rivalry

  17-01-2026 07:00
  Need something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of our favourite pieces from the last seven days Continue reading...
  
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• From 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple to A$AP Rocky: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead

  17-01-2026 07:00
  Another visit to the UK’s putrid zombie aftermath, and the polymath rapper returns after eight years with a collb-packed blockbuster28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
  Out now
  It would have been hard to imagine in 2002 that 28 Days Later would spawn something so different (and that’s probably a good thing; who wants identikit sequels?). The post-apocalyptic UK is now almost unrecognisable in this Nia DaCosta-directed, Alex Garland-scripted instalment, with violent tribes competing for sc
  
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• How Madrid’s Prado Museum is trying to avoid becoming like ‘the Metro at rush-hour’

  17-01-2026 06:00
  The famous gallery, home to masterpieces from Goya and Velázquez, is exploring how best to preserve, and improve, the visitor experienceFriday morning found Diego Velázquez striking the familiar pose he has held for the past 370 years, staring out, brush in one hand, palette in the other, from the huge canvas of Las Meninas.The 14 people who stood before the painting to meet the Spanish artist’s haughty gaze – not to mention the heavy eyes of the dozy mastiff in the pic
  
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• Artist and Skateboarder Alexis Sablone Is Inducted Into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame

  16-01-2026 23:46 via artnews.com
  Artist, designer, architect, and Olympian skateboarder Alexis Sablone has been inducted into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame. The SHoF announced its Class of 2026 inductees on its website and on social media on January 15. The group includes 18 figures who according to the SHoF “have shaped the culture, progression, and global impact of skateboarding.” The induction ceremony will be held at the Vans Headquarters in Costa Mesa, California, on May 15.  Sablone is perhaps best
  
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• Pennsylvania Man Who Stole Warhol and Pollock Paintings in Museum Theft Ring Sentenced to 4 Years in Prison

  16-01-2026 23:28 via artnews.com
  Joseph Atsus, a 51-year-old Pennsylvania man, was sentenced on Tuesday to 48 months in prison, a term of supervised release, and $1 million in restitution for several charges related to his participation in a notorious museum theft ring, the Department of Justice announced earlier this week.Atsus was part of a eight-person ring that stole millions in art and memorabilia between 1999 and 2019 from 20 museums, institutions, and stores across six states and Washington, D.C.Among the most valuable p
  
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• Peruvian Artist Antonio Paucar Wins 11th Artes Mundi Award

  16-01-2026 22:50 via artnews.com
  Artes Mundi, a UK-based art organization, has given the 11th Artes Mundi Award to Peruvian artist Antonio Paucar. He will receive £40,000 towards his performance, sculpture, and video practice, which draws on Andean culture and his Peruvian heritage.The ceremony was held at Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum in Cardiff on January 15. In an interview with the Art Newspaper, Paucar said he intends to use the funds to convert his family’s home in the central highlands of Peru into a c
  
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• Sale of Chinese Vase Canceled by French Court Over Question of Provenance

  16-01-2026 21:27 via artnews.com
  A French court ordered the high-profile Galerie Kraemer in Paris to return €2.8 million (around $3.25 million) to collector Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah Al Thani over questions about a Chinese vase. The decision follows eight years of legal wrangling over the date attributed to the piece.As reported by the Art Newspaper, the Paris court of appeal sided with the collector, a cousin of the Emir of Qatar, “because of ‘serious doubts’ about the 18th-century dating of the gil
  
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• Alaska Art Student Arrested for Eating Another Student’s AI-Generated Art in Protest

  16-01-2026 21:19 via artnews.com
  Artists and other creative people (not to mention, ahem, journalists) have been deeply concerned about the way that their work has been hoovered up by tech companies to fuel artificial intelligence–powered image and text generators. In 2023, several digital artists filed a class action lawsuit targeted at Stability AI, Midjourney, and the image-sharing platform DeviantArt, and others filed a suit against online retailer Shein for stealing their designs. Such suits scored a small win in cou
  
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• Harry Blitzstein, The “Consummate L.A. Painter,” Is Dead At 87

  16-01-2026 20:50 via latimes.com
  “(He) often noted that the difficulties of getting gallery shows, and the disappointments that often followed, led him to open (the Blitzstein Museum of Art), which he stocked with an ever-growing hodge-podge of his surreal, imaginative, sometimes dark, often playful, paintings.” – Los Angeles Times
  
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• UK Reveals Nearly $80 M. Worth of Art Donated by Collectors in Order to Reduce Tax Burdens

  16-01-2026 20:49 via artnews.com
  Arts Council England has announced the results of the 2024-25 edition of its Cultural Gifts Scheme (CGS) and Acceptance in Lieu (AIL) initiatives. Thirty-two artworks entered public collections this cycle, with a combined value of almost $80 million.Highlights include Edgar Degas’s pastel Danseuses roses (ca. 1897–1901), given to the National Gallery by the estate of Ann Marks; paintings by Max Liebermann and Max Pechstein, given to Oxford University’s Ashmolean Museum fro
  
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• Ali Cherri on How Art Can Keep Us Empathetic In a Dark and Violent World

  16-01-2026 20:46 via artnews.com
  In Ali Cherri’s recent films, war maps itself onto the spine of those afflicted. The watchman, the titular figure of a 2024 short, stands rigid for unbroken hours, lost in a lineage of men stationed along the border of the internationally unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Cherri’s follow-up film The Sentinel (2025)—the second in an ongoing trilogy—debuts today. It centers on a French soldier, gently bent at the waist, a rifle lodged in his mouth. The
  
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• Wikipedia Makes Licensing Deal With Big AI Companies

  16-01-2026 20:31 via shellypalmer.com
  Wikipedia’s human traffic dropped 8% year-over-year, according to data the Wikimedia Foundation published in October 2025. Research from Profound analyzing 680 million AI citations found that Wikipedia accounts for 47.9% of ChatGPT’s top-10 most-cited sources. – Shelly Palmer
  
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• A Post-Fiasco Reset At Dallas Black Dance Theatre

  16-01-2026 20:05 via dmagazine.com
  That fiasco, during 2024-25, featured the firing of the dancers, loss of municipal funding, and a government-ordered overhaul of governance and employment practices. Now, with a new board, restored funding, and the search for a new executive director, DBDT is trying to rebuild its artistic work and public trust. – D Magazine (Dallas)
  
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• GenZers Are Taking Up “Old People Hobbies” To Relax

  16-01-2026 19:44 via npr.org
  A growing number of young people are getting involved in what are traditionally considered “grandma hobbies,” like knitting, to relax. – NPR
  
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• Spotify Bans #1 Song In Sweden After Discovering It Was AI

  16-01-2026 19:31 via bbc.com
  Called I know, You’re Not Mine – Jag vet, du är inte min – it is currently top of the Spotify playlist of Sweden’s most popular songs. But the singer is a digital creation and the country’s music industry body has blocked the track from its official chart listings. – BBC
  
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• Ghosts In The Machine: How Some Artists Are Playing With AI

  16-01-2026 19:16 via fastcompany.com
  Artists have always excelled at coaxing mysteries out of their materials, whether pushing paint, film, or code until it reveals something unexpected. AI is no different. – Fast Company
  
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• Joan Mitchell Foundation Names 31 Artists for Residency in New Orleans

  16-01-2026 19:10 via artnews.com
  The New York–based Joan Mitchell Foundation has named the 31 artists who will participate in its 2026 residency program.Taking place at the Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans, the residents will participate in either six-week or 14-week residencies during three seasons (spring, summer, fall) this year, with no more than nine residents being on hand at one time. The first residents will arrive on February 2.The foundation’s residency program is unique in that it not only brings artis
  
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• How Boulder’s Only Studio For Young Competition Dancers Collapsed

  16-01-2026 19:02 via boulderreportinglab.org
  Last month, Kinesis Dance, rebranded earlier that year as Frequency Dance, abruptly shut down. Preceding that closure was a long series of financial irregularities, unpaid bills, and other troubles, including a 2023 break-in which involved serious destruction but no theft. – Boulder Reporting Lab
  
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• Met Workers Vote to Join Local 2110 UAW, Creating One of the Nation’s Largest Museum Unions

  16-01-2026 19:01 via artnews.com
  Nearly 1,000 salaried and hourly workers at the Metropolitan Museum of Art voted on Friday to join Local 2110 of the United Auto Workers (UAW), creating one of the nation’s largest museum unions.The new union, approved by a vote of 542-172, comprises staff from across 50 departments at the Met, including curators, conservators, librarians, visitor experience coordinators, and archivists. According to a statement from Local 2110, roughly 100 ballots remain sealed due to a management challen
  
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• Qatar Museums, Not a Foreign Nation, Reportedly Tried to Acquire South African Pavilion Work

  16-01-2026 18:58 via artnews.com
  Yet more details have emerged surrounding the abrupt cancelation of Gabrielle Goliath’s planned Venice Biennale pavilion for South Africa, with the Daily Maverick publishing a report about the allegations that a foreign nation tried to interfere in her exhibition.Gayton McKenzie, the South African culture minister, controversially said in a statement that he canceled Goliath’s pavilion not because it was to deal with Israel’s war in Gaza, but because another country had attempt
  
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• Düsseldorf Art School Stands by Palestinian Artist After Criticism from Jewish Groups

  16-01-2026 18:56 via artnews.com
  The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, a storied German art school, faced scrutiny this week from three Jewish groups over the invitation of Palestinian artist and filmmaker Basma Al-Sharif for an event.Ahead of Al-Sharif’s lecture on January 21, the Jewish groups issued an open letter claiming, without proof, that Al-Sharif’s past events had been “characterized by the trivialization of terrorism and Israel-related antisemitism.” The groups then called for the cancelation of
  
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• Art is good for mental health? Not when you’re a novelist in poverty | Letter

  16-01-2026 18:45
  Publishing pays abysmally, says an anonymous writer, who feels closer to their neighbours on benefits than to their former peers in teaching and academiaAccess to the arts might be good for mental health (The Guardian view on living more creatively: a daily dose of art, 9 January), but the conditions in which most artists have to produce their work does nothing to improve their own.I’m a novelist, and I was paid £1,000 and £500 respectively for my last two books. The latter was
  
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• Chinese Universities Make Big Gains On American Schools In International Rankings

  16-01-2026 18:44 via nytimes.com
  Harvard recently dropped to No. 3 on the ranking. The schools racing up the list are not Harvard’s American peers, but Chinese universities that have been steadily climbing in rankings that emphasize the volume and quality of research they produce. – The New York Times
  
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• First Look At The New Beijing Art Museum

  16-01-2026 18:31 via dezeen.com
  Designed by Snøhetta in collaboration with Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (BIAD), the project broke ground on 31 December above a metro line in Beijing‘s Tongzhou district. – Dezeen
  
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• Enrollment At Universities Is Growing Again

  16-01-2026 18:15 via npr.org
  Across undergraduate and graduate programs, total enrollment reached 19.4 million students, growing 1.0% compared with the fall of 2024, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, a nonprofit that studies higher education. – NPR
  
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• Scottish Government Accused Of “Eroding” Nation’s Culture Due To Standstill Funding

  16-01-2026 18:04 via heraldscotland.com
  “Arts industry leaders have accused the Scottish Government of ‘eroding’ the culture sector after leaving its national performing companies” — Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Opera, Scottish Ballet, National Theatre of Scotland, and Scottish Chamber Orchestra — “on standstill funding despite promises to roll out £100m in new support for culture.” – The Herald (Scotland)
  
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