Author: Greta Holloway

On Thursday night, Christie’s concluded its marquee May sales week with a blockbuster night of back-to-back auctions. A sale dedicated to Impressionist and modern works from the collection of the late New York philanthropist and socialite Anne Bass was followed by another devoted to 20th-century art. Together, the two sales brought in a staggering $831 million with buyer’s fees. Christie’s global head of Impressionist and modern art, Adrien Meyer, took to the auction podium to welcome another full room of spectators. First up were the works previously owned by Bass, who amassed her wealth during her marriage and subsequent divorce from the…

When the Belarus Free Theatre opened “Official. Unofficial. Belarus.” at La Chiesa di San Giovanni Evangelista di Venezia earlier this month, it marked the first time Belarus had a presence at the Venice Biennale in six years and the first time it appeared there not as a state, but, as curator Daniella Kaliada put it, as “a self-governing, self-authored cultural body.” The distinction matters enormously. Belarus has only appeared at the Biennale a handful of times, and not since President Alexander Lukashenko’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in 2020. In exile since those protests, the Belarus Free Theatre has been…

Several thousand artists and arts professionals recently signed a letter to the UK department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), strongly recommending that the incoming government support “a roadmap to sustain the visual arts for the long term.” Among the more than 4,000 artists and arts professionals are Sonia Boyce, Britain’s Golden Lion winning representative for the 2022 Venice Biennale, and John Akomfrah, the country’s representative for the 2024 Venice Biennale. Mona Hatoum, Jade Montserrat, George Shaw, and Haroon Mirza also signed the letter. In June, about a week prior to the UK General Election, more than 20 visual arts organizations in…

Some artists find global acclaim fresh out of art school. Others toil a lifetime in obscurity, only to be discovered if they’re lucky long after their death. So there’s something particularly stirring about artists who finally receive the recognition they deserve after pursuing their work for decades upon decades, to the exclusion of all else. Such is the case with 70 year old painter James Little, a participant in this year’s Whitney Biennial, who will also be honored in a solo exhibition at Chicago’s Kavi Gupta gallery this fall. Though always well regarded within his immediate circle, Little has flown under the art…

Marilyn Minter, known for her feminist practice that blends painting and photography, has won this year’s International Artist Award from the Anderson Ranch Arts Center. Minter will be honored at the annual Ranch Gala, part of the Ranch’s annual Ranch Week series in July. Ranch President and CEO Peter Waanders told ARTnews in an interview that the choice of Minter came down to her meticulous technique, her studio practice, and her longtime dedication to teaching (Minter is a faculty member of the School of Visual Arts in New York). “She’s really a maker, and focused on that. We were also excited that she…

Data from a new survey shows the majority of artists in New York State earn less than $25,000 per year, almost two-thirds do not have emergency savings, and nearly half rely on contract or gig work. Those are the top findings from the data collected from more than 13,300 respondents in a comprehensive survey conducted by the organization Creatives Rebuild New York (CRNY) between February and May 2022. In addition to advocating for policies that recognize artists as workers, the organization also facilitates guaranteed income and employment opportunity programs for artists in New York State. CRNY executive director Sarah Calderón told “Portrait of New York State…

I can think of just one artist who has bragged about making her viewers throw up, and that artist is Steina, a giant of video art history whose survey at Cambridge’s MIT List Visual Arts Center is now in its final days. A friend of the artist viewed her 1993 installation Borealis and had to dart away as a result, feeling the sudden urge to vomit, Steina once recalled. The reasons why are obvious: Borealis, like many other works by Steina, utilizes video technology’s perception-altering possibilities to induce vertigo, confusion, and disorientation and a new way of seeing the world altogether. Borealis, one of the 21…

Focusing on a seldom-seen side of one of the most indelible American artists of any kind, “Bob Dylan: Retrospectrum” will be the biggest and widest-eyed survey of Dylan’s visual artwork ever presented in the U.S. when it opens in Miami this week. After an earlier run two years ago at the Modern Art Museum (MAM) Shanghai, the exhibition at the Frost Art Museum at Florida International University will feature close to 200 paintings, drawings, and iron sculptures by a familiar figure better-known for the way he wields words. The show spans some 60 years of Dylan’s career and includes what an exhibition…

In its nine years, Art X Lagos in Nigeria has grown to become the largest art fair in West Africa. Held from October 31 to November 3, at the capital city’s Federal Palace Hotel, this year’s edition brought in the fair’s biggest attendance yet. The draw of multiple artists and galleries from all over the continent (and the diaspora) is undeniable; however, this year’s edition showcased one of the fair’s constituent elements that has played a unique role in its growth: program diversity. The fair kicked off with a collectors’ preview last Thursday where VIPs could see this iteration’s offerings, including a number of…

The School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York will be owned by an alumni affiliated nonprofit following a period of financial difficulties and a recent unionization effort by its faculty. On September 1, the Rhodes family, which has owned it nearly 80 years, transferred ownership to the SVA Alumni Society, a nonprofit that has funded student scholarships since 1972. The school’s longtime president, David Rhodes, has promised that “day-to-day life for students, administration, faculty, and staff would not change,” per a release. “For almost eight decades, my family has proudly shepherded SVA through countless changes in the landscape of higher education…