July 2, 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 These 18 Artists Are Having the Biggest Moment at U.S. Museums Right Now by Ben Davis for Artnet. According to Davis’ quarterly report, U.S. museums are highlighting Native and Black artists, with added attention from major national and artist anniversaries.
The Art Newspaper
Vincent Noce, President and general manager of leading Marseille art institution Mucem suspended amid workplace allegations
Constanza Ontiveros Valdés, Undisturbed ancient Maya city discovered in Mexican jungle
Rachel Kubrick, Historic Tallinn Art Hall to reopen this November following €13m renovation
A. Cerisse Cohen, The small Ohio town getting an Aboriginal art museum and a James Turrell ‘Skyspace’ installation
Mercedes Ezquiaga, León Ferrari exhibition cancelled in Chile amid cuts to culture budget
Scott Reyburn, 19th century bronze Laocoön leads London Old Master auctions, selling for £13.6m at Sotheby’s
Artforum
Thomas Patier and Tohé Commaret, Tohé Commaret on parallel realities, psychic ties, and Andean mythology
From the Editors, Dozens of Ancient Artifacts Seized from the Metropolitan Museum of Art
From the Editors, Restoration of Early Rembrandt Painting Reveals Hidden Turbaned Figure
From the Editors, Sharjah Architecture Triennial Announces Participants for Third Edition
From the Editors, Renowned Zabludowicz Collection Disappoints in Online Auction
Artnet
EDITOR’S PICK - Ben Davis, These 18 Artists Are Having the Biggest Moment at U.S. Museums Right Now: They include Betye Saar, Jeffrey Gibson, and—just in time for the America 250—Jasper Johns.
Min Chen, Towering Bronze Laocoön Sells for $18.1 Million at Sotheby’s, Demolishing Estimate
Jo Lawson-Tancred, A Forgotten 18th-Century Painter Just Broke Records
Jo Lawson-Tancred, Ibiza Fair Bets Big on Small-Scale Charm
Jo Lawson-Tancred, Hew Locke, Oscar Murillo Tapped for Skulptur Projekte Münster 2027
Katya Kazakina, Which Art Types Will Attend the Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce Wedding?
Richard Whiddington, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Only Tennessee Home Hits the Market
ARTnews
Maximilíano Durón, Seattle Art Museum Names New Chief Curator
Alex Greenberger, Angela Nikolau, the Woman Who Climbed the Empire State Building, Is an Artist
Daniel Cassady, London Old Masters Sales Reveal a Market Split Between Trophy Works and Everything Else
Alex Greenberger, Norval Morrisseau Case Deepens as Art Expert Says the Artist’s Children Were in on Forgery Scheme
Alex Greenberger, Mexican Government Faces Legal Action over Its Handling of Art Collection Rich in Kahlos
Tessa Solomon, Facing Protests and Political Pressure, Canadian Humans Rights Opens Palestine Exhibition
Anne Doran, Collector and Patron Flavia Nespatti to Open Commercial Art Space in London
Harrison Jacobs, Sotheby’s Star Auctioneer Oliver Barker on the Coming AI Windfall that Could Change the Art Market
Brian Boucher, On Truth Social, Trump Plasters an AI-Generated Golden Bald Eagle on the White House
ArtReview
Paula Bohince, ‘An Entry’: A Poem by Paula Bohince
Gabriel Levine Brislin, The Scars of Extraction
Adeline Chia, Raving with Priyageetha Dia
The Brooklyn Rail
Elise Armani and Katy Siegel, An Unfinished Revolution
Jessa Rae Growing Thunder, Indigenous Knowledges as Living Histories: What the 250th Narrative Misses
Vyta Pivo, The White House in Pieces
Glenn Adamson, Let Freedom Ring
M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska, The Devil in the White City
Cultured
Mina Stone, At the New Museum, Two Food Veterans Are Building the Art World’s Next Favorite Restaurant
Johanna Fateman, Escape from Artist Housing Hell? Side-Hustles and Solidarity in Mamdani’s New York
From the Editors, Take an Exclusive Look Inside the Property That Houses Jorge M. Pérez’s Sweeping Art Collection in Aspen
Frieze
Kevin Champoux, Contemporary Art, But Make It Vaudeville
Simon Wu, Arch Connelly Mines Art History for Camp Glamour
Sabo Kpade, Mandy El-Sayegh’s Catalogue of Catastrophe
The Guardian
Steven Morris, ‘Riot of colour’: Gillian Ayres show in Devon just the tonic for gloomy times
Jonathan Jones, Terence Gower: Enemies and Rascals review – so was US freedom born bad?
Thomas Graham, ‘Like good Mexicans, we laugh’: the cartoonist drawing humour from Sinaloa’s brutal drug cartels
Heather Gosling, ‘It opened my eyes to the city’: the artist drawing every single pub in London
Hyperallergic
Valentina Di Liscia, After Earthquakes, Venezuela’s Artists Turn to Each Other
Rhea Nayyar, Value of Looted Objects at Met Museum Tops $95M After New Seizures
Lakshmi Rivera Amin, Remembering Rune Mields, Onai Quiñonez, and Song Burnsoo
Matt Stromberg, 10 Art Shows to See in Los Angeles This July
Isa Farfan, NYC Mayor Mamdani Approves Record $323M Funding for Culture
From the Editors, Opportunities in July 2026
The New York Times
Walker Mimms, Gertrude Abercrombie: Good Witch of the American Absurd
Max Lakin, Is There Life Out Here?
Nina Siegal, Fewer Visitors, More Threats: A New Reality for Europe’s Jewish Museums
Blake Gopnik, Potent Art Lets ‘We, the People’ Reflect on America’s Past and Present
Observer
John Scott Lewinski, The American Collector Cars That Hold Their Own Against Ferrari and Mercedes
Elisa Carollo, Sotheby’s Marks America’s Semiquincentennial With an Exhibition of 250 Years of Art, Culture and Mythmaking
Nathan Smith, Great American Memoirs Worth Returning To
Elisa Carollo, In Her Hauser & Wirth Debut, Firelei Báez Creates Portals to an Imaginative Future Beyond Collapse
Puck
Marion Maneker, The June Auction Report: London Warms Up!
The Wall Street Journal
Lance Esplund, ‘Isamu Noguchi: “I Am Not a Designer”’ Review: An Innovator’s Enduring Forms
Isaac Sligh, America 250: Our Nation Through the Camera Lens
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