Welcome to Art Spell, a daily, comprehensive roundup of art news and reviews for the visual arts community. Today’s Editor’s Pick is Sydney’s new $641m Powerhouse arts and science museum to open amid crisis by Elizabeth Fortescue for The Art Newspaper. Sydney’s Powerhouse museum opens on 7 November with exhibitions spanning art, design, science and technology, despite ongoing questions about its funding and collection displays.
The Art Newspaper
EDITOR’S PICK - Elizabeth Fortescue, Sydney’s new $641m Powerhouse arts and science museum to open amid crisis: Due to open on 7 November, the space is mired in controversy as senior executives stand aside during an ongoing misconduct and procurement investigation
Maev Kennedy, Deathbed portrait of Vanessa Bell by Duncan Grant discovered
Rebecca Anne Proctor, In uneasy times, Bangladesh launches its first art fair
Melanie Gerlis, Vienna Recession? Four galleries in Austrian capital shut shop amid a tougher market
Julie Belcove, New York Studio School revamp unearths long-forgotten murals
Matthew Terrell, Former High Museum of Art executive sentenced to 12 months in prison for embezzlement
Gareth Harris, Mummy in Glasgow may be repatriated to Egypt following removal from display
Annabel Keenan, Why Mary Cassatt was more than just a painter of the ‘modern Madonna’
Gareth Harris, The story behind Grant Wood’s American Gothic and what made it go viral
Tara Anne Dalbow, A new book looks at how Marcel Duchamp’s ‘impossible’ love for the sculptor Maria Martins changed his work
Beth Williamson, A collection of intimate interviews with the late Jo Spence provides further texture to her life and legacy
Artforum
From the Editors, Italy Proposes Restitution Panel for Nazi-Looted Art
From the Editors, Pace Gallery Chief Says New London Outpost Coming Despite Dire Financial Report
From the Editors, Kennedy Center Will Honor Andy Garcia and Others, Amidst Claims of Mismanagement
From the Editors, India Art Fair Announces Exhibitors for 2027 Edition
From the Editors, Former High Museum Of Art COO Sentenced To One Year Of Prison
Artnet
Richard Whiddington, This Bada Shanren Work Just Tripled Its Estimate. Is His Market Heating Up?
Min Chen, Is Sale of $3M Bouchardon Bust a Bust?
Sam Gaskin, At Thrilling Bangkok Biennale, the Devils Are in the Details
Annikka Olsen, Tapestry Pioneer Batima Zaurbekova Is Overdue for an International Audience
Min Chen, TeamLab’s Immersive Art Empire Expands to the U.S.
Vittoria Benzine, Anton Van Dalen’s East Village ‘Peace House’ Is For Sale
ARTnews
Leigh Anne Miller, Simon Denny Commissioned by New York Magazine to Create Portraits of ‘New AI Elite’ for Power Issue
Daniel Cassady, Fair Warning to Auction Major Yoshitomo Nara Painting for Up to $15 M.
Devorah Lauter, French Museum’s ‘Wanted’ Poster Campaign for Stolen Art Leads to Return of Missing 17th-Century Dutch Painting
Maximilíano Durón, Former High Museum COO Sentenced to One Year in Prison for Siphoning $600,000 to Buy Guitars
Andy Battaglia, Dia Art Foundation Teams Up with MCA Australia on Two-Part Exhibition for Indigenous Artist d harding
Maximilíano Durón, Miquel Navarro, Sculptor of Large-Scale, Pared-Down Cities and Valencia’s Beloved ‘Pink Panther,’ Dies at 81
Hikmat Mohammed, Italy Looks to Join Its European Counterparts With Restitution Legislation
Harrison Jacobs, Chinese Artist Sun Xun’s ‘Magic Atlas’ Is First Animated Feature in Tokyo International Film Fest Competition
Tessa Solomon, France Opens War Crimes Investigation into Israeli Bombing of Beirut that Killed Artist Ali Cherri’s Parents
Hikmat Mohammed, Installation Featuring Names of Children Killed in Gaza Refused Display by Local Australian Council
Hikmat Mohammed, Russian Teenager Detained After Posting Neo-Nazi Threats on TikTok, Targeting Moscow Museum
ArtReview
Martin Herbert, How to Be Certain in Uncertain Times
From the Editors, The 10 Exhibitions to See in November 2026
Yuwen Jiang, Hurtling Towards Our Own Destruction with Yuyan Wang
BOMB
Addis Goldman, Louis Eisner by Addis Goldman
The Brooklyn Rail
Phong H. Bui, Dear Friends and Readers,
Jean Dykstra, TARYN SIMON
Amber Jamilla Musser, SABLE ELYSE SMITH
Ginevra de Blasio, BOSCO SODI
Dian Parker, SUSAN JANE WALP
Jennifer Stockman and Joachim Pissarro, NANCY OLNICK & GIORGIO SPANU
Cultured
Annabel Keenan, Dealer Matthew Shamnoski Is Telling a New Story of Postwar Art
Isabella Bernstein, Dia Art Foundation and Chanel Toast Roni Horn and Steve McQueen at the Fall Night Gala
Isabella Bernstein, How an 8-Year-Old Girl Became the Star of Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s New Gallery Show
Sarah Harrelson, Artist Jack Pierson Collects So Voraciously, He Had to Start His Own Gallery
Family Style
Rachel Summer Small, Once and for All
Financial Times
Jo Ellison, The Ronald Lauder legacy
Frieze
Ethan Price, Charles Atlas’s Camera Is Never Still
Leonie Pfennig, The Best Shows to See During Art Cologne 2026
Hokhang Cheung, Lee Kang So’s Survey Captures Change Itself
Marilena Borriello, 7 Shows to See During Art Week Tokyo
Galerie
Paul Laster, 8 Must-See Solo Gallery Shows in November
Lucy Rees, Top Designers Share Their Standout Picks from Salon Art+Design
From the Editors, The Artful Life: 7 Things Galerie Editors Love This Week
The Guardian
Daniel Boffey Chief reporter, ‘The point was to dehumanise’: London Holocaust archive examines world’s first ‘viral’ antisemitism scandal
Remofiloe Nomandla Mayisela, Women behind the lens: ‘I learned early what I was meant to become: a wife, a cook, a keeper of the home’
Laura Snapes, ‘May every data centre crumble to dust!’ How can we stop the tech bros, tyrants and tycoons? With quilts!
Peter Walker Senior political correspondent, Houses of Parliament at risk of ‘Notre Dame-style fire’ as renovation costs rise
Jonathan Jones, Constantinople to Istanbul review – you won’t want to leave this lavish celebration of double imperial splendour
Hyperallergic
From the Editors, The Art of Showing Up
Anna Lee, Fernando Calvillo, Beloved Fixture of Oklahoma’s Art Community, Dies in Train Crash in Spain
Carolina A. Miranda, Guadalupe Rosales’s Portable Archive of East LA
Avedis Hadjian, The Indian Pavilion in Venice Asks: What Is Home?
Anna Gallagher-Ross, As Politicians Break Promises, This Public Artwork Keeps Them
Rhea Nayyar, Leila Reichert Appointed as Senior Curator at Weisman Art Museum
Lakshmi Rivera Amin, Layli Long Soldier’s Quilted Poetry
Eileen G’Sell, Jeremy Shaw Dances With the Divine
Anna Lee, Americans Place “I Voted” Stickers on Memorials to ICE Victims
Rhea Nayyar, Haunted Ride on the 3 Train
The Los Angeles Times
Siran Babayan, Richard Avedon’s Hollywood comes alive in more than 120 photos at Gagosian
The New York Times
Nancy Hass and Marisa Chafetz, The Rocky Rise of Max Levai, Art World Nepo Baby
Zachary Small, Tom of Finland’s Foundation and Muse Fight Over His Kinky Art’s Legacy
The New Yorker
Hilton Als, Roy Lichtenstein’s Witty Critiques of Masculinity
Observer
Jasmine Lobe, At American Ballet Theatre’s Fall Gala, Cynthia Erivo Argued for the Arts
Elisa Carollo, With UESHIMA MUSEUM, Kankuro Ueshima Makes a Case for Collecting the Present Moment
Sarah Moroz, At Artissima, Collectors and Institutions Came Primed for Discovery
Puck
Marion Maneker, Portrait of Avedon as a Young Man
Urgent Matter
Adam Schrader, Former High Museum of Art executive gets a year in federal prison
Adam Schrader, Court Documents: Former High Museum of Art executive sentenced
Adam Schrader, Trotsky’s house museum in Mexico City declares itself an ‘apartheid-free space’
Adam Schrader, Si Hene opens membership-based cultural center and archive in Accra
Adam Schrader, Philadelphia Museum of Art withholds ex-CFO’s severance
Adam Schrader, Court Documents: McDuffie v. Philadelphia Museum of Art
Art Spell is a free daily roundup of art news and reviews to help you stay current with what’s being reported on in the visual arts community. Help us grow the Art Spell community by subscribing and sharing the newsletter with friends and colleagues who want to stay connected to the art world.