June 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 After Years of Uncertainty, Dealers Ready for Art Basel With Cautious Optimism by Devorah Lauter for ARTnews. Art Basel 2026 opens with cautious optimism despite ongoing concerns about costs and pricing.
Apollo Magazine
From the Editors, Russian air-strikes set historic Kyiv monastery on fire
Irina Dumitrescu, The furious creativity of Matisse’s final years
Christopher Turner, A forgotten modernist masterpiece in Vienna reopens
Art Asia Pacific
Kalani Ko, Gwangju Biennale Seeks 2028 Artistic Director Through Open Call
Emmanuele Richter, Apichatpong Weerasethakul Awarded France’s Legion of Honor
The Art Newspaper
Sophia Kishkovsky, Russian drone attack on Ukraine damages several cultural sites
Gameli Hamelo, Nigerian artist Omolola Coker wins inaugural Myma Art Prize
Gareth Harris, Government-funded mobile museum to tour national collections across England
Jori Finkel, In museum first, MFA Boston pairs prized vessels by Paul Revere and enslaved artist David Drake
Anna Brady, Surprise! New Art Basel initiative, Basel Exclusive, brings back the art of anticipation to the fair
Anzhela Khachaturova, Before the fair rolls up: there is more to Basel’s cultural scene than one frenetic week in June
Georgina Adam, ‘Some works connect with me naturally and instantly’: Pinyuan Li on the art she collects and why
Lee Cheshire, In pictures: the best of Art Basel’s city-wide Parcours exhibition
Dale Berning Sawa, Ibrahim Mahama: ‘All these things are the stains; they are part of the story’
Vivienne Chow, Asian antiquities are gaining a younger following—will it last?
Jori Finkel, In museum first, MFA Boston pairs prized vessels by Paul Revere and enslaved artist David Drake
Artforum
From the Editors, Eleventh-Century Cathedral Burns in Kyiv Following Russian Drone Strike
From the Editors, Frank Bowling Foundation To Formally Launch In London On June 24
From the Editors, Thai Filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul Awarded France’s Legion of Honor
From the Editors, Ex-Director of MAM Rio Fined for Saying Museum Lacked Fire Insurance
Artnet
Andrew Russeth, Art Basel’s Unlimited Sector for Giant-Sized Projects: By the Numbers
Ben Davis, What’s Going on With the Met’s Odd New Giacometti Show?
Jo Lawson-Tancred, In Basel, Art From Supported Studios Is Finally Getting Its Due
Vittoria Benzine, Russian Strike Damages Ukrainian Monastery, Art Museum
Richard Whiddington, Archaeologists Uncover Rare Porcelain Cargo From Mysterious Shipwreck
Vittoria Benzine, Diane Keaton Estate Sale Nets $4.2M, Led by Original ‘Annie Hall’ Script
ARTnews
Daniel Cassady, Brice Marden Spent Sixty Years Chasing the Same Question. A New Gagosian Survey Shows the Results
EDITOR’S PICK - Devorah Lauter, After Years of Uncertainty, Dealers Ready for Art Basel With Cautious Optimism: For many galleries, a strong showing at Art Basel can be the difference between a good and a bad year. That makes Tuesday’s VIP preview a very big day.
Tessa Solomon, Kennedy Center Establishes New Endowment in President Trump’s Name
Andy Battaglia, Artist Puts Vandalized Self-Portrait on View at Houston Museum of African American Culture
Leigh Anne Miller, London’s Jewish Museum Reopens in Temporary Location After Three Years
Harrison Jacobs, Art Basel’s Vincenzo De Bellis on ‘Basel Exclusive,’ Price Freezes, and Why the Fair Is Getting Even More Global
Anne Doran, Tunnels From Henry VIII’s Palace of Beaulieu Found Beneath an English Boarding School
Brian Boucher, This Bottle of Rare Japanese Whisky Sold for a Record-Setting $1 M. in Hong Kong
Leigh Anne Miller, Expansive Show Focusing on Willem de Kooning’s Drawings Opens at the Art Institute of Chicago
ArtReview
Mark Rappolt, A Kantian Enquiry of Ju Young Kim
Alexander Leissle, Raising the Volume on Conceptual Video Art
From the Editors, Cartoonist Joe Sacco claims Penguin India “looking for excuses” to scrap politically sensitive book
BOMB
Joel Danilewitz, Sue Tompkins by Joel Danilewitz
Shraddha Ramani & William Villalongo, Printing Black America: Du Bois’s Data Portraits in the 21st Century
Nancy Grossman, An Oral History Project Excerpt with Debra Priestly by Nancy Grossman
Lara Mimosa Montes, Lotus L. Kang by Lara Mimosa Montes
Katherine Cheairs, An Oral History Project Excerpt with Reverend Joyce McDonald by Katherine Cheairs
Margaret Carrigan, Saint Spot Encounters the Macular Microfauna
The Brooklyn Rail
Austin Hayden Smidt, The Protestant War Ethic
Peter St. Clair, Anti-Capitalism, a Global Future
Cultured
Sophia Cohen, After a Whirlwind Few Years, Anna Weyant Is Content to Live in Her Dollhouse World
Isabella Bernstein, Headed to Art Basel? Make Time for These 10 Shows Outside the Fair
Financial Times
Melanie Gerlis, ‘Philanthropy isn’t an act of kindness, it is a power’ — collector Anastasia Bukhman
The Guardian
David Smith, ‘This will be timeless’: what art can we expect from Chicago’s $850m Obama Presidential Center?
Eddy Frankel, Hold to This Earth review – an explosion of anger as Indigenous America shakes up Yorkshire
Jarred McGinnis, From cool Marseille to a photo-feast in Arles – an art trail through Provence
Jonathan Jones, Anish Kapoor review – this gutsy, gore-splattered show is a divine bloodbath
Hyperallergic
From the Editors, 30 Must-See Art Shows in New York City This Summer
Isa Farfan, Celebrating the Knicks Win, One Stitch at a Time
Isa Farfan, The Obamas Unveil First-Ever Official Dual Portrait
Paddy Johnson, Art Problems: Are My Friends Using Me to Get Shows?
Rhea Nayyar, Historic Kyiv Cathedral Ablaze After Russian Strikes
Julie Mehretu, Processing the Unbearable, Imagining the Radical
The Los Angeles Times
Jane Horowitz, LACMA takes its celebration to the streets with a massive art parade down Wilshire Boulevard
Observer
Henry Roberts, For David Hockney, Looking Was Living
Elisa Carollo, Ho Jae Kim’s Civil Art Returns to Christie’s With a Million-Dollar Milestone in Sight
Elisa Carollo, Francesca Mollett’s Architecture of Abstraction
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