July 16, 2026
Your morning brew of art world media
Welcome to Art Spell, a daily, comprehensive roundup of art news and reviews for the visual arts community. Today’s Editor’s Pick is Museums Should Look to the Art Market for Talent by Adam Levine and Rachel Johnston for Artnet. Experts argue museums should recruit more talent from the commercial art world to strengthen leadership and drive innovation.
Art in America
Eliza Goodpasture, A Rousing Tate Modern Retrospective Refuses to Reduce Ana Mendieta to a Tragic Figure
The Art Newspaper
Carlie Porterfield, James Cohan Gallery becomes Norr Cohan as founders step back
Gabriella Angeleti, Jacolby Satterwhite awarded inaugural Artists Living with Cancer Grant
Gabriella Angeleti, Zimmerli Art Museum in New Jersey receives gift of 70 modern and contemporary works
Karen Chernick, New York exhibition explores how the Wiener Werkstätte preserved the human touch of handcraft
Artforum
From the Editors, James Cohan Rebrands As Norr Cohan, With Partner David Norr As Sole Owner
From the Editors, Sotheby’s Records All-Time High $4.4 Billion in Sales for First Half of 2026
From the Editors, A T. Rex Fossil Sells For $50 Million To A Mystery Bidder At Sotheby’s Auction
From the Editors, Cuban Artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara Missing After Jail Sentence
Artnet
Gabi Vidal-Irizarry, Cory Arcangel Hits Massive Techno Festival, Painter-Bassist Ana Cristina Sells Out New York Debut, and More Juicy Art-World Gossip
Min Chen, The Viking Ship in ‘The Odyssey’ Is More Than a Movie Prop
EDITOR’S PICK - Adam Levine and Rachel Johnston, Museums Should Look to the Art Market for Talent: Institutional insularity could be holding the field back, two experts argue.
ARTnews
Brian Boucher, Clark Art Institute Unveils its Massive Aso Tavitian Gift, To Be Housed in a Brand-New Wing: ‘Any Curator or Director’s Dream’
Devorah Lauter, Trump Skewered in Satirical ‘Iran War Participation Trophy’ Art Installation
Maximilíano Durón, Artist Residencies in London and the Hudson Valley: Industry Moves for July 15, 2026
Leigh Anne Miller, Vija Celmins and Denis Villeneuve Are the 2026 Honorees of LACMA’s Glitzy Art+Film Gala
Tessa Solomon, At Management Gallery, Grotesque Art Evolves for the Doomscroll Era
Andy Battaglia, Fresh Insights into China’s Famed Sanxingdui Illuminate Ancient Trade Networks
Harrison Jacobs, Jacolby Satterwhite Receives Inaugural Artists Living With Cancer Grant From Rema Hort Mann Fund and Robert Rauschenberg Foundation
Brian Boucher, Rutgers’s Zimmerli Art Museum Receives 70-Work Gift, Including Pieces by Mark Bradford, Nicole Eisenman, and Lee Friedlander
Tessa Solomon, Bacteria Linked to Legionnaires’ Disease Detected at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Daniel Cassady, Hauser & Wirth Expands to Silicon Valley with New Gallery in Palo Alto
Sarah Douglas, James Cohan Gallery to Become Norr Cohan as Partner David Norr Assumes Sole Ownership
ArtReview
Illaria Maria Sala, Hung Hsien’s Hazy Legacy
Gaby Cepeda, Patricio Morocho’s Demolition Acts
Financial Times
Joe Miller, The Manhattan prosecutor fighting the trade in stolen antiquities
Frieze
Sofia Hallström, The Anatomy of Lindsey Mendick’s Love
Sean Burns, Must-See: The Dog at Prem Sahib’s Door
Paul Han, The Unfinished Lessons of China’s Children’s Palaces
The Guardian
Jonathan Jones, Madelon Vriesendorp review – sex-crazed visions of skyscrapers copulating
Miranda Bryant, Edvard Munch and the Chocolate Factory: the bitter truth behind the Freia frieze
Eddy Frankel, Backyard Biennial: East review – this morose and meaningless exhibition gave me a migraine
Florence Hallett, Richard Dadd: the painter whose fantastical vision was unconfined by his 43 years in an asylum
Hyperallergic
Isa Farfan, Cape Town Gallery Accused of Withholding Pay and Artworks
Jennifer Samet, Beer With a Painter: Keltie Ferris
Lisa Yin Zhang, Remembering Bruno Lucchesi, Pat Oliphant, and Edward Lucie-Smith
Poppy DeltaDawn, How a Basket Empire Wove the Myth of America
Rhea Nayyar, Guerrilla London Bus Ads Mock Kylie Jenner’s Meta Glasses Campaign
Benjamin Moser, The Many Lives of Frederic Edwin Church
The New York Times
Deborah Solomon, Duchamp Gave Up Art for Chess. At MoMA, He Inspires a New Gambit.
Holland Cotter, Finding the Great America, 250 Years On. The Real One.
Michael Kimmelman, A Spectacular Theodore Roosevelt Library Deep in the Badlands
Rachel Sherman, 9 Art Shows to Catch Before They Close This Summer
Observer
Elisa Carollo, Trophy Collections and Luxury Spending Powered Christie’s and Sotheby’s Record Half-Year Results
Elisa Carollo, ArtMeta: When Digital Art Enters the Canon, Tech Millionaires Will Enter the Market
Xinyi Ye, Ron Arad’s Unconstrained Objects and the Mind Behind Them
Urgent Matter
Adam Schrader, Rosewood invites Dallas hotel-room fair to London’s former U.S. Embassy
Adam Schrader, San Jose’s Vietnamese monument ‘Thank You America’ stolen in brazen heist
Adam Schrader, Italian artist allegedly sells apartment to fund his Charlie Kirk monument
The Wall Street Journal
Dominic Green, ‘War Craft’ Review: Battlefield Art at the Fitzwilliam Museum
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