May 18, 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 Finnish museum creates a new and radical support model for artists by Charlotte Burns for The Art Newspaper. A Finnish museum is introducing a radical new support model for artists centered on long-term financial and institutional backing.
Art in America
Kelly Presutti, One Erased Vermeer, Two Books, and No Consensus
The Art Newspaper
Gareth Harris, The art world remembers Valie Export, Austrian pioneer of feminist performance art
EDITOR’S PICK - Charlotte Burns, Finnish museum creates a new and radical support model for artists: Espoo Museum of Modern Art has committed to supporting four artists over the next several years with financial, practical and institutional backing.
Louisa Buck, At Birmingham’s Ikon Gallery, Angela de la Cruz’s audacious, visceral art takes no prisoners
Carlie Porterfield, Tribeca Gallery Night brings together more than 80 spaces
Artforum
Linda Yablonsky, Venice Biennale 2026: Parties, Performances, and Prada
Rachel Wetzler, Venice Biennale 2026: Disneyland on the Lagoon
From the Editors, Mary Lovelace O’Neal, Author of Uncategorizable Abstractions, Dies at 84
From the Editors, Rene Matić Awarded 2026 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize
From the Editors, VALIE EXPORT, Icon of Feminist Art, Dead at 85
From the Editors, Artists Spar Over Credit For A Dress Displayed In The Met’s ‘Costume Art’ Exhibition
Artnet
Richard Whiddington, Es Devlin Is Creating a Living Portrait of the Entire U.K.
Katie White, For Carly Glovinski, Art and Gardening Grow Side by Side
Richard Whiddington, Borghese Gallery Faces Pushback Over New Building Plan
Min Chen, Inside the Unlikely Bond Between Lucian Freud and Kate Moss
Vittoria Benzine, Is This a JMW Turner Self-Portrait? One Scholar Has Doubts
Gabi Vidal-Irizarry, Wet Paint Does Fair Week: The Dinosaur Dealer Downtown, David Zwirner Tribeca, and More Juicy Art-World Gossip
Rebecca Anne Proctor, A Delayed Art Dubai Opens With Fewer Galleries—but Buyers Abound
Margaret Carrigan, Sotheby’s Posts $433 Million Haul, as Trophy Lots Continue to Carry the Market
Sonia Manalili and Ben Davis, Does L.A’s Bold New LACMA Museum Work?
ARTnews
Daniel Cassady, TEFAF New York Opened to Crowded Aisles, Bullish Collectors, and Strong Booths
Leigh Anne Miller, A Rare Blue-Green Diamond Ring Sold for Over $17 M. At Christie’s Geneva
Andy Battaglia, Catalonia Sues Aragón for €791,000 for Repayment Over Restitution of 56 Artworks
Tessa Solomon, More Than 100 Seattle Art Museum Workers Plan to Unionize
Maximilíano Durón, London’s Wellcome Collection to Transfer 2,000 Manuscripts to Jain Community, But They Will Stay in UK
Anne Doran, Egypt Unearths a Hidden Cache of 3,500-Year-Old Coffins at Luxor’s Abu el-Naga
Brian Boucher, Megadealer Larry Gagosian Is the Subject of Unauthorized Documentary In the Works from Director Barry Avrich
Daniel Cassady, Trump’s Planned Miami Presidential Library Faces New Lawsuit Over Land Transfer
Angelica Villa and Alex Greenberger, The Most Expensive Jean-Michel Basquiat Works Ever Sold at Auction
From the Editors, Photographer and Activist Claudia Andujar, Known for Documenting Yanomami People of Brazil, Is the Subject of a New Biopic
ArtReview
From the Editors, Venice Biennale 2026 Highlights: Off-Site Exhibitions
From the Editors, Adam Budak dismissed as director of MOCAK amid controversy
Frieze
From the Editors, Seven Shows to Catch Across the US This May
Sohrab Hura, The Books That Influence Sohrab Hura
From the Editors, VALIE EXPORT, Feminist Provocateur of the Avant-Garde, Dies Aged 85
The Guardian
Nadia Anwar-Watts, Let’s dress like a Mark Rothko! How gen Z fell for the king of colour field paintings
Chris McCormack, ‘It’s like a Ouija board – I listen to the painting’: the supernatural art of Sanya Kantarovsky
Stevie Chick, ‘Depraved in all the right ways’: why forgotten no wave visionary Gordon Stevenson is about to take off
Chloë Ashby, After dinosaurs, it’s spot the dog! But can a child really learn anything in a gallery?
Steven Morris, Printmaking skills of Manet, Van Gogh and more celebrated in Bath show
Hyperallergic
Lisa Yin Zhang, Independent Art Fair Trades Downtown for the World
Aaron Short, Inside TEFAF New York’s Annual Wealth Pageant
Isa Farfan, Future Fair Is a Big Artist Party
Steven Weinberg, My NADA Sketchbook
Seph Rodney, The Joy of Discovery at 1-54 Art Fair
Olivia McEwan, Artist Valie Export, Who Saw Right Through the Male Gaze, Dies at 85
Valentina Di Liscia, Frieze New York Is an Assembly-Line Salad
Lakshmi Rivera Amin, A View From the Easel
The Los Angeles Times
Siran Babayan, L.A. vs. N.Y. vs. UK punks and so much more at a sprawling new Skirball exhibit
Lisa Boone, In her Silver Lake ADU, this L.A. artist turns glass and clay into something magical
Observer
Xinyi Ye, Painter Renée Levin’s Unhurried Eye
Dan Duray, Five Works That Stole the Show at Frieze New York
Henry Roberts, Photo London, Like Its Host City, Is Outward-Facing and Ever-Changing
Deborah Grace Winer, Rex Reed and the Death of Expert Opinion We Thought We Didn’t Need
Elisa Carollo, Independent Opens With Solo Presentations, Early Sales and (Most Importantly) Breathing Room
Elisa Carollo, Sotheby’s $433 Million Contemporary Evening and Mnuchin Sales Kicked Off New York’s May Marquee Auctions
Elisa Carollo, The Eight-Figure Auction Lots to Watch in New York Next Week
Urgent Matter
Adam Schrader, Gaza artist creates under bombardment as her work travels without her
Adam Schrader, Bahar Behbahani brings Persian garden to Governors Island in bid to bridge cultures
Adam Schrader, Seattle Art Museum workers seek union recognition
Adam Schrader, Bike-riding bandits swipe perfume-bottle vases from Subi Blooms floral art installation
Adam Schrader, Dealer’s proactive alert leads to the return of Timurid cenotaph to Uzbekistan
Adam Schrader, Brazilian art is gaining a deeper New York foothold, Almeida & Dale says
Adam Schrader, Met plans merger with Neue Galerie in major Lauder gift
The Wall Street Journal
Heidi Mitchell, How World’s Fairs Gave Americans a Glimpse of the Future
William Meyers, ‘August Sander’s People of the 20th Century’ Review: A Census of Individuality at the Yale Art Gallery
Art Spell is a subscription-based daily roundup of art news and reviews to help you stay current with what’s being reported on in the visual arts community. The profits from Art Spell are donated to organizations supporting art journalists and writers.