Welcome to Art Spell, a daily, comprehensive roundup of art news and reviews for the visual arts community. Today’s Editor’s Pick is What Happens to Seoul’s Art Market After the Hype? by Payal Uttam for ARTnews. Seoul’s art market is moving beyond its boom years into a more mature phase, with collectors becoming more discerning as the city’s cultural spaces evolve.
Art in America
Tessa Solomon, Craig Jun Li’s Art of Show-and-Tell
The Art Newspaper
Melissa Gronlund, Frieze Abu Dhabi: which galleries are taking part in the inaugural fair?
Lisa Movius, Chinese artist Gao Zhen sentenced to three years in prison for satirical sculptures of Mao Zedong
Lee Cheshire, Founders of alternative art fair Basel Social Club to launch new event in Tokyo
Sophia Kishkovsky, Artist Piers Secunda creates paintings from ashes of Ukrainian buildings bombed by Russia
Graciela Ibáñez, Bolivia’s most visited museum kicks off five-year restoration project
Lauren Stroh, Monumental Noguchi sculpture donated to the New Orleans Museum of Art
Artforum
Guillermo Osorno, The Personal is Pictorial: Nahum B. Zenil’s Queer Auto-Iconography
Dan Beachy-Quick, Angles and Slants: Kazuko Miyamoto’s String Sculpture
From the Editors, Elizabeth Peyton Sued for Copyright Infringement Over Oasis Painting
From the Editors, Unnamed Siblings Convicted in German Court of Selling Looted Egyptian Artifacts
From the Editors, Former Pussy Riot Member Says She Was Recruited to Spy on Artists by the Russian Government
From the Editors, Taiwan Pavilion’s Name Reinstated at Gwangju Biennale
Artnet
Jo Lawson-Tancred, Yayoi Kusama, Era-Defining Artist of Dots, Mirrors, and Infinity, Dies at 97
Vittoria Benzine, Foujita Fever Heads to Hong Kong With Dedicated Sotheby’s Sale
Min Chen, Cj Hendry Takes Over Phillips With Oddball Trading Cards
Andrew Russeth, Frieze Names Abu Dhabi Exhibitors—and Other Art World Matters
Jo Lawson-Tancred, From Leonardo to Dutch Still Life: How Dalí Mined Art History
ARTnews
Maximilíano Durón, Frieze Abu Dhabi Lines Up 84 Galleries for Inaugural Edition in November
Atsushi Suzuki and Tessa Solomon, Yayoi Kusama, Avant-Garde Artist Who Pursued Infinity, Has Died at 97
Hikmat Mohammed, Dartmouth’s Hood Museum Taps Whitney Museum Chief Curator Kim Contay to Be Next Director
George Nelson, Hollywood Stars and Nobel Peace Prize Winner Join Ukraine Photo Exhibition as Guest Curators
Tessa Solomon, LACMA Hit With Class Action Lawsuit Over Data Breach of Employee, Visitor Information
Hikmat Mohammed, The Smithsonian Institution, Andy Warhol Museum Honor Dolly Parton by Sharing Image in Its Collection
Maximilíano Durón, Lindsay Jarvis and Max Werner Form New Partnership, Three LA Museums Examine the Work of Architect Paul Revere Williams, and More: Industry Moves for August 26, 2026
EDITOR’S PICK - Payal Uttam, What Happens to Seoul’s Art Market After the Hype?: South Korea posted growth of 6 percent in 2025, compared to the global art market’s 4 percent of growth.
Tessa Solomon, Samia Halaby Remembers Sliman Mansour: ‘A Giant in the History of Art’
Hikmat Mohammed, Falling Finances Follows Trump’s Takeover of the Kennedy Center: Report
Francesca Aton, Historic Sulfur Emissions Likely Damaged Murujuga Rock Art, New Study Finds
Hikmat Mohammed, A GoFundMe Campaign Has Been Launched to Preserve Marijke De Roover’s Work
Francesca Aton, Federal Judge Halts Sale of Titanic Artifacts
Tessa Solomon, Gwangju Biennale Restores ‘Taiwan Pavilion’ Amid Diplomatic Crisis and Censorship Claims
ArtReview
From the Editors, Yayoi Kusama: To Infinity and Beyond!
Sam Jacob, The Secret Lives of Objects
From the Editors, Yayoi Kusama, blockbuster artist, 1929–2026
The Atlantic
Sebastian Smee, The Painter Who Shaped Rothko
Financial Times
Yana Peel, ‘Cool Britannia’ is back — but it needs patrons
Jaeyong Park, Hyeyoung Cho, queen of Korean craft
Jackie Wullschläger, Yayoi Kusama, pioneering Japanese artist, 1929-2026
Frieze
From the Editors, Minjae Kim – ‘The Opposite of Interior Design’
The Guardian
Christopher Masters, Yayoi Kusama obituary
Philip Oltermann, Bronze age treasure stolen in four-minute Spanish museum heist
Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, ‘I fight pain and fear with art’: how Yayoi Kusama blazed a trail for neurodivergent artists
Jonathan Jones, Yayoi Kusama’s psychedelic art was at its best when taken in high doses
Gabrielle Schwarz, ‘The technique was revolutionary’: Ha Chong-Hyun, the 91-year-old South Korean artist who turned painting inside out
Hyperallergic
Valentina Di Liscia, Yayoi Kusama, Artist of Infinities, Dies at 97
Anna Lee, Artist Elizabeth Peyton Sued Over Painting of Oasis Brothers
Rhea Nayyar, Ex-Pussy Riot Member Says She Was Recruited by Russia to Spy on Artists
Phillip Pyle, Major Exhibition of Pompeii Treasures Will Make Its US Debut
Nageen Shaikh, Can We Stop Calling South Asian Painting “Miniature”?
Lisa Yin Zhang, Remembering Marijke De Roover, Sliman Mansour, and Fabrizio Plessi
Eliana Perozo, Artist’s Device Slows Down Citi Bikes in Less Affordable Neighborhoods
The Los Angeles Times
Associated Press, Yayoi Kusama, who splashed polka dots across the art world, dies at 97
The New York Times
Holland Cotter, Yayoi Kusama, Pop Artist Who Expanded and Endured, Dies at 97
Blake Gopnik, Yayoi Kusama Was the Avant-Garde Radical Who Became a Pop Icon
Alex Marshall, Yayoi Kusama: A Life in Pictures
Arthur Lubow, Lee Friedlander Is Funny. Seriously.
Michael Paulson, Nazi Photos Arrived at a Holocaust Museum. Now the Story Is a Broadway Play.
Observer
Elisa Carollo, Yayoi Kusama, the Avant-Garde Japanese Artist Who Became a Global Cultural Icon, Dies at 97
Maika Pollack, Yayoi Kusama, the World’s Most Photographed Recluse
Dan Duray, David Norr Says He Measures Artists’ Careers in Decades, Not Market Cycles
Elisa Carollo, Portland’s Homegrown Triennial Returns With Outside Curation and Hyper-Local Soul
Elisa Carollo, Reid Walker On the Infrastructure Gap Holding Back Native American Art
Christa Terry, Observer’s 2026 September Art Fair Calendar
Urgent Matter
Adam Schrader, Yayoi Kusama, artist known for her obsessive use of polka dots, dies at 97
The Wall Street Journal
Kelly Crow, Contemporary Artist Yayoi Kusama Dies at 97
Karen Wilkin, A Refreshed Calouste Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon
The Washington Post
Juno Carmel, Yayoi Kusama, whose art evoked hallucinatory wonder, dies at 97
EDITOR’S PICK - Philip Kennicott, Removal of a ‘woke’ painting signals a new line of attack on artists: A State Department attempt to sell an innocuous painting by Kehinde Wiley, painter of a famous Obama portrait and a difficult artist to defend, is the loudest of dog whistles.
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