Benjamin Sutton

The ceramicist Roberto Lugo has created a giant urn that serves as a monument to important Puerto Ricans in Madison Square Park: www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/05/22/r...

Some highlights and semi-cogent thoughts from an exceptionally weird week of fairs and other arty happenings in Paris bookended by city- and nation-wide protests: www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/10/23/a...

It was a such a treat to get to interview Taryn Simon about her fascinating show at the Guggenheim, which wrestles with the far-reaching and unpredictable ripple effects of American power: www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/09/25/c...

On Thursday at Freeman’s auction house in New York, a painting by Gertrude Abercrombie, which was bought at an estate sale in Michigan last summer for a mere $30, blew past its high estimate of $200,000 and ultimately sold for $1.3m. buff.ly/50nP0zM

Excellent abstraction abounds at Independent 20th Century, taking place for the first time at Sotheby's Breuer building, including Marie Wilson showing with Gallery Wendi Norris (left) and Mary Grigoriadis showing with Ortuzar (right). More highlights: www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/09/25/i...

The exhibition, 'If Emmett Till Lived: Freedom on American Ground', curated by Sarah Elizabeth Lewis, draws from the collection of Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Photography to visualise a possible narrative of Till’s life had he not been murdered at age 14. buff.ly/xTX5gKC

The superstar musician, entrepreneur and art collector Beyoncé turned 45 on 4 September and she marked the occasion not only by releasing a deluxe anniversary edition of her legendary 2006 album B’Day, but also by donating $2m to the Studio Museum in Harlem. buff.ly/9nHNdeS

Yayoi Kusama died on 14 August at a hospital in Tokyo from multiple organ failure, according to an announcement from the Yayoi Kusama Foundation on Thursday, 27 August. The foundation said Kusama “continued to paint until shortly before her passing, never setting aside her brush”. buff.ly/crQDxw4

The charismatic Dolly Parton, who died yesterday aged 80, was not just a country music legend, rhinestone queen and philanthropic trailblazer—she was also a muse for artists from Warhol to Annie Leibovitz over her nearly 60-year career. www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/08/26/w...

The US State Department has deinstalled and is considering selling a Kehinde Wiley painting, commissioned through its Art in Embassies initiative, that Trump officials have said is "aesthetically terrifying" and exemplary of "globalist and woke ideologies": www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/08/25/k...

The Indigenous Art Centre has been unable to locate 111 works from its collection of more than 5,000 pieces by First Nations, Métis and Inuit artists. www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/08/21/c...

Mary Heilmann, a tirelessly inventive New York painter and sculptor (and teacher) who was perhaps best known for her daring palette of bright tones (owing in part to her Californian roots), has died, aged 86: www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/08/17/m...

The president has ordered the National Park Service to put up signage near the entrances to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History warning would-be visitors of what the White House sees as the museum's "ideological capture": www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/07/28/t...

Jen Catron and Paul Outlaw's 65-foot-long hot dog sculpture is back in Times Square on the occasion of the US's 250th anniversary festivities, now with some patriotic fixins: www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/07/24/j...

After it closes in spring 2027, the California College of the Arts in San Francisco will be reborn as Vanderbilt University's Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang College of Art, Architecture and Design, named in honor of the world's seventh-richest person: www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/07/21/v...

Legal proceedings seek to halt a long-term loan agreement authorised by Mexican authorities concerning works by Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and other national treasures. buff.ly/bC86USh

A New York exhibition celebrating Venezuelan contemporary artists has been transformed into a fundraising effort after the powerful earthquakes that struck the country on 24 June, killing at least 1,700 people and leaving widespread destruction in their wake. buff.ly/FdGuSH3

I wonder how Tony Shafrazi feels about his gallery getting name-dropped in a Madonna song; tagging "Guernica" is one kind of infamy, but this is indisputably cooler: youtu.be/Abty86vTsV0?...

The Bellevue Men’s Shelter was closed earlier this year after falling into disrepair, but efforts to document and preserve at least six Works Progress Administration-era murals in the building have stalled buff.ly/BVg7hIS

Some thoughts and favorites from the 2026 Whitney Biennial, including Akira Ikezoe, Erin Jane Nelson, Mao Ishikawa, David L. Johnson, Raven Halfmoon, Carmen de Monteflores (pictured), and more: www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/06/01/2...

The photographer’s estate has accused the dealer James Danziger of leveraging an unauthorised AI-generated piece to push a commercial venture to colourise other artists' works. buff.ly/IwaQ7Rg

As celebrations of the US’s semiquincentennial kick into gear, many of the historical sites that recognise the country’s diverse, complex history are in peril. buff.ly/BHVsOe8

New auction records were set for works by Joseph Yaeger, P.S. Krøyer and Pat Passlof at Phillips last night, and for any two-dimensional work by Lee Bontecou, by this epic fractal wave composition in pastel on canvas, which nearly doubled its high estimate. 🌊 www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/05/20/p...

So long Neue Galerie, hello "the Met Ronald S. Lauder Neue Galerie"! Aside from the name, seems like a win-win merger for both parties: www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/05/14/n...

Echoing the words of Lori Fogarty: "We must do what we can in this moment, and do it with courage and conviction." www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/04/27/c...

Curate, you must, George: the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art's namesake co-founder is curating 18 exhibitions spanning 30+ galleries and 100,000 square feet for the institution's opening in September. www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/04/30/l...

For the fifth High Line Plinth commission, the Vietnamese American artist Tuan Andrew Nguyen has created a 27ft-tall version of the 6th-century Buddhas that were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. buff.ly/CHbl0ev

Some thoughts and favorites from two Expo Chicago satellite fairs—one of which, the delightful Barely Fair, continues through Sunday: www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/04/10/b...

Paul Pfeiffer, the conceptual artist known for interventions in mass-media imagery of athletes and entertainers, will be the inaugural artist-in-residence at the Barclays Center arena in Brooklyn: www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/04/02/p...

More than 300 Mexican cultural professionals are calling for clarity surrounding the Gelman Santander Collection, a trove of works by Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, María Izquierdo and others buff.ly/0XqmSWy

Curators at the gallery are now piecing together the transatlantic journeys of Eleonora Susette, an enslaved woman who travelled from present-day Guyana to Amsterdam and back. www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/03/24/a...

Nearly 200 artists, curators and art workers involved in this year’s Venice Biennale (9 May–22 November) have signed a letter calling for Israel’s exclusion from the event. buff.ly/aVE0CCc

The Museum of Conremporary Art in Los Angeles has acquired Kara Walker’s “Unmanned Drone,” which she made by dissecting and reconfiguring a statue of Stonewall Jackson. It is one of the centerpieces of “Monuments,” the landmark show at MoCA and The Brick: www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/02/24/l...

At Mexico City Art Week’s foremost satellite fairs, Material and Salón Acme, artists look to nature for ways to adapt to crises: www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/02/07/f...

Zona Maco, Mexico City's foremost art fair—and the largest in Latin America—continues to draw enormous crowds of collectors and curators, reflecting rising interest across the Western Hemisphere: www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/02/06/z...

The US National Gallery of Art has acquired "Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy", an important Artemisia Gentileschi painting that was rediscovered in 2011 and sold for a then-record price at auction in 2014: www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/02/04/u...

Following the Art Gallery of Ontario’s controversial decision not to acquire a work by Nan Goldin after a trustee accused her of antisemitism (and likened her to Leni Riefenstahl), an open letter calling for that trustee’s removal has garnered 500+ signatures: www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/02/03/a...

Dozens of art spaces across the US—from blue-chip galleries in New York and Los Angeles to non-profits in Arkansas and Missouri—are joining tomorrow's nationwide shutdown in protest of ICE: www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/01/29/n...

A rediscovered portrait by the 16th-century artist Sofonisba Anguissola is on offer in Robert Simon Fine Art's booth at the Winter Show fair in New York: www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/01/26/r...

The National Park Service (NPS) has removed an exhibit called “Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation” at the Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia. The decision comes after president Trump to remove “corrosive ideology” from cultural heritage venues. buff.ly/ni1GGsk

The di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, a museum and sculpture park in Northern California, has listed its Napa Valley property (minus the art) for sale, for $10.9m: www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/01/22/d...

Museums and art spaces in the Twin Cities—including the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Minnesota Museum of American Art, Dreamsong, and others—will be closed tomorrow in support of the general strike against ICE: www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/01/22/m...

The California College of the Arts, the last remaining nonprofit art and design school in Northern California, will not remain much longer: www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/01/13/c...

Trump pulled the US out of more than 60 international groups and alliances including the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property and the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/01/08/t...

Vetoed headline of the week: "The final cow-tdown: buyers of MSCHF’s controversial bovine project will decide animal’s fate" www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/01/07/m...

Kathleen Goncharov, an influential curator (and artist) who curated countless exhibitions (including at Just Above Midtown, Creative Time and the Boca Raton Museum of Art), was beloved by artists and commissioned the US Pavilion in Venice in 2003, has died: www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/01/07/k...