Inspiration

Tom McDonough will deliver a lecture on recent work by the South Korean artist Hague Yang at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles on June 27,

Since then, some ten works – each one exceptional in its own right – have been revealed, including paintings by Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Gustave excess of £45 million) which ranks among the most important examples of the artist’s work ever to come to market. Painted in 1917, Nu assis au collier belongs to a series of works now widely regarded as pivotal in the evolution of modern art, but considered so outrageous at the time the exhibition in which they featured was shut down by the police. Modigliani is one of a rare coterie of artists to have broken the $100 million passes to London, where this painting represents not only one of the highest value works of any kind ever offered in the city, but also the highest value work by Modigliani ever to be offered in Europe. In this ground-breaking painting, Modigliani reinvents the tradition of the nude – a tradition marked most notably by the work of Rubens, Velázquez, Titian and, not least, Manet’s Olympia – in a way so radical it shook the foundations of art

Städel Museum is presenting a major exhibition on the artistic discovery of this former fishing village and its influence on modern painting. On display in Frankfurt are around 170 outstanding paintings, drawings, photographs, and historical documents from leading French, German, and other international museums as well as private collections—including 24 works by Claude Monet alone.Étretat played a significant role in the emergence of a new style of painting that went down in art history as Impressionism. Artists were particularly drawn to the distinctive cliff landscape, which was literature to a place of longing, and the gentleman thief Arsène Lupin—Maurice Leblanc’s fictional character—stashed his art treasures there. The

Capitoline Museums, Palazzo CaffarelliJune 9 – December 13, 2026This exhibition is the largest showcase of Mexican art in Europe in recent decades Capitoline Museums—Villa Caffarelli—this intense retrospective is dedicated to the renowned Mexican painter and muralist. His work serves as a bridge between tradition and the future, creating a distinctive, autonomous visual language for modern Mexican art.Alongside works by Diego Rivera, the exhibition presents masterpieces by extraordinary artists such as Frida Kahlo, José María Velasco, José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, María Izquierdo, Tamayo, Lozano, Montenegro, Ruiz, Dr. Atl, Saturnino Herrán, and many others. The exhibition is further enriched by evocative videos a plurality of aesthetic languages. The exhibition traces the genealogy of Mexican modernity, positioning Rivera at the heart of a visual and an extraordinary selection of over 140 works—thirty of which are by Diego Rivera—the exhibition reveals the complexity of a process rooted in the

What can photography do for democracy? That is the provocation at the heart of “Big Tent,” the inaugural exhibition at the newly built FotoFocus Center in Cincinnati, and it arrives at a moment when the question feels anything but rhetorical. Housed in a purpose-built 14,700-square-foot structure designed for photographic exhibitions and year-round programming, “Big Tent” brings together over fifty artists, among them Robert Frank, Dawoud Bey, Tina Barney, Gordon Parks, Catherine Opie, and Alec Soth, spanning nearly a century of American image-making. The through-line of “Big Tent” is portraiture: its long, radical history of placing ordinary people at the center of the frame. Partly inspired by Amanda Gorman’s 2017 poem In This Place (An American Lyric), the exhibition moves through cities, landscapes, and communities across the United States, weaving together faces, perspectives, and photographic styles as different as the country itself. The result is diversity far from being a source of division, but the very texture of American life. “While ‘Big Tent’ is something of a defiant assertion in the current political climate,” says FotoFocus Artistic Director Kevin Moore, “it is als

Spanning seven decades of kinetic sculptures, immersive light installations, and large-scale geometric paintings, “Julio Le Parc: Light, Colour, Action” will open at Tate Modern on June 11. It is the first major U.K. retrospective dedicated to the recently deceased Argentine-born, Paris-based artist—and one of the most visually arresting shows of the year. Milanese jeweler Pomellato will open its first exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo. Plus, 70 artists transformed a vacant L.A. hospital and Chanel restored a historic independent... A landmark group exhibition frames American diversity not as division, but as the very texture of...

Next spring, MoMA will stage a focused look at the final, most energetic chapter of Piet Mondrian’s career, and the unlikely music that transformed it. Opening March 21, and running through July 31, “Mondrian Boogie Woogie” traces the Dutch artist’s four years in wartime New York, where a 66-year-old Mondrian arrived in 1940 having fled Europe and found himself captivated by the boogie-woogie pianists playing Café Society, the city’s first racially integrated nightclub. The improvisational rhythm of the music loosened his famously rigid grid structures, giving way to the vibrant, syncopated compositions that would define his legacy. The exhibition’s centerpiece is a reunion three decades in the making: Broadway Boogie Woogie (1942–43) and the unfinished Victory Boogie Woogie (1942–44), shown together for the first time since the early 1990s. Zurich Art Weekend, returning June 12–14 for its ninth edition, transforms the Swiss city into a convergence point for the international art world in the days before Art Basel opens its doors. This year’s program includes 70 venues, 75 exhibitions, and 150 events across a connected, walkable city. Free and open to the public, it brings together

In 1917, police shut down Italian painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani’s only solo exhibition on its opening night, on the grounds of indecency. Over a century later, one of the paintings that caused the scandal is heading to Sotheby’s with a £45 million estimate. Nu assis au collier (Seated Nude with Necklace) will headline Sotheby’s June 24 evening sale as part of the Lewis Collection, the single-owner collection of British billionaire Joe Lewis. Its combined estimate in excess of £200 million marks the highest ever placed on a single-owner collection at auction in Europe. Close to Les Deux Magots and Café de Flore, in the heart of the neighborhood that once nurtured the French New Wave, Le Saint-Germain-des-Prés has reopened, and Chanel is behind it. The historic 208-seat independent cinema, a onetime haunt of Jean-Luc Goddard and François Truffaut, has completed a year-long renovation sponsored by the French luxury house, returning one of Paris’ most storied cultural addresses to its rightful place on the Left Bank. St. Vincent Medical Center, a historic Los Angeles hospital vacant since 2020, has been transformed into the “Hospital of Emotions,” a pop-up exhibit turning 80 r

Christopher Bailey has turned his attention from fashion to craft. The former chief creative officer and CEO of Burberry has led the acquisition of Burleigh, one of Britain’s most storied ceramic brands, stepping in to secure the future of the 175-year-old Stoke-on-Trent brand following the collapse of its parent company, Denby Pottery, earlier this year. Founded in 1851 and based at the historic Middleport Pottery, Burleigh is the last heritage pottery in the world still using tissue transfer printing by hand, a centuries-old technique that gives its tableware its distinctive, handmade character. Frieze Seoul returns to the COEX in Gangnam for its fifth edition this September. Over 125 galleries from 30 countries will participate, more than 70 percent of which have spaces in the Asia-Pacific region, alongside international names including Hauser & Wirth, David Zwirner, White Cube, and Lisson Gallery. Two newly introduced curated sectors add significant depth to this year’s edition. Material Practice, curated by Hyeyoung Cho, explores the intersection of contemporary art and design, while Spotlight, curated by Wonseok Koh, shines a long-overdue light on 20th-century artists overloo

With an acute understanding of the inner workings of the art world, tenured arts professional Spencer Young has launched a first-of-its-kind firm: part agency in support of artists, part advisory practice for collectors. Ethically minded and tailored toward client needs, Spencer Young Inc is predicated upon its founder’s extensive gallery network both domestically and throughout Europe. Following years of orienting collectors in their pursuits—and liaising with and empowering artists—the business model solidified. Throughout art-market fluctuation, Young has navigated collaboration by prioritizing agility and adaptability. To learn more, we spoke with Young about the specificity of his path and what he seeks in partnerships. Throughout my many years of advising collectors, I have always felt it was important to establish direct relationships with artists, especially those that I advocated to support in depth, many of whom would seek advice about their own careers. It feels natural now for me to work with both more formally, like using both sides of my brain. I do keep them separate as I’m sensitive to conflicts of interest, but I find that there is a common sensibility with my appr

One monumental 1965 Ford Mustang, adorned with more than 500 hours’ worth of hand-painted (and tattooed) art, greets visitors to Free Parking, the garage-like experiential gallery space from collector and curator Larry Warsh’s Cart Department. The vehicle acts as both canvas and mission statement for the New York–based fine artist Kozo, who accented the surrounding walls with his large-scale paintings and drawings. Within, Kozo masterfully invokes art historical imagery, toys with perspective and scale, and upends surrealistic expectation. Altogether, the exhibition, titled “Permanent Impermanence,” edifies, inspires, and builds synapses between art forms. Here, amidst a celebratory opening night dinner presented by Hexclad, with culinary curation from chef Rōze Traore, Surface spoke to Kozo as guests—including Futura, Mickalene Thomas, Quil Lemons, and Gabriella Khalil—engaged with his works. Let’s begin with your development as an artist from the skin as canvas to large-scale painted works. Where did you begin? And when was the moment you began to expand your repertoire? When I was 20, 21, I really got into more of the hyper-realistic, micro-color realism that I’m known for today

It all began in Paris. Influential entrepreneur Billy Clark, founder of BILLYCLARK, met art curator Valerio Polimeno of _POLIMENO in a private penthouse residence on Avenue Matignon with a 360-degree vantage of the city. There, timed to Art Basel Paris 2025, Polimeno hosted a multi-artist exhibition, “Room with a View.” “We were introduced,” Clark tells Surface, “I am not a curator, but I work in design, architecture, real estate development, and hospitality. There’s so much overlap and I was so impressed.” Seeing alignment, Clark invited the curator to his office in New York City one month later—and then showed him his own sky-high space above it. “I said why don’t we do the next iteration of ‘Room with a View’ here,” Clark continues. “It’s been cooking ever since.” With this exhibition, “26TH AND 10TH,” Polimeno assembles an extraordinary slate of art and design talent—from Tom Wesselmann to Les Lalanne, Nan Goldin, and Robert Wilson. Plus, Philippe Vergne has been named artistic director and chief curator at The Bass and Pace... Plus, 70 artists transformed a vacant L.A. hospital and Chanel restored a historic independent...

In a sunlit corner of the gallery Donzella Ltd., on the 15th floor of the New York Design Center, artist and editor David Haskell’s debut solo sculpture exhibition, “Boom Beach,” presents roughly 40 abstract objets d’art (and one monumental work) all originating from the pottery wheel. Even his bronze, cast glass, and blown glass pieces trace their inception to the wheel. Through anticipation of form, a compulsion to test the limits of stability, and the use of glaze for tonal complexity, often composed through moments of physical exertion (smooshing and slamming), Haskell configures weathered formations, wilting cake stands, and beguiling figurative assemblages. Donzella Ltd. has worked with Haskell for eight years. The exhibition, which runs through June 30, sprang from further developments in Haskell’s exploration of shape. Studies of rock transformed into pierced pieces. Floating vases and pedestal sculptures emerged. Some of it began when Haskell started marrying two pieces together as top and base. “Everything slides between plant, tree, human, rock—organic, inorganic. There are a lot of ideas around the assemblages,” he says. In 2024, the artist began to investigate material

Madrid is home to especially established cultural institutions like museums the Prado and Reina Sofia; home to Velázquez’s famous Las Meninas painting and Picasso’s seminal Los Pájaros Muertos respectively. The vibe is staid, conservative even. And yet, beyond the Spanish capital’s grand Baroque palaces, imposing Art Deco bank towers, and stately tree-lined boulevards, are repurposed repair shops; multi-use slaughterhouse complexes; and kooky, lesser-known museums that play host to a thriving yet oft-overshadowed creative scene. Unlike other design weeks—Madrid’s own trade-oriented event in February and early March for example—this citywide happening opts for critical discourse over marketing and sales. Established by Miguel Leiro—an educator, curator, and award-winning designer in his own right, who seeks to push the field past its conventional commercial confines—the event focuses on central yet broadly interpreted themes; currents with actual relevance but treated speculatively. Formulated by Berlin-based art critic Mohammad Salemy and Portuguese curator Eduarda Neves, this year’s edition focuses on the topic of (Super)Models: the hard to shake frameworks; increasingly complex s

Edited by international art-world fixtures Valentine Uhovski and Olga Rei and published by Monacelli (a Phaidon company), Rainbow Dreams: Color and Light in Contemporary Art radiates with the inherent joy of prismatic art pieces. Featuring works by more than 100 contemporary artists, the curation covers painting, sculpture, installation, and more—with color, hope, and optimism as the connective tissue. Beneath this ode to the multicolored gradient is a study on the power of art to move casual observers, experts, and people of all ages. In addition to a moving introduction by Uhovski and Rei, the text incorporates a conversation between Judy Chicago and Sarah Thornton, and an interview with Mickalene Thomas. “We founded our creative collective, Rainbow Contemporary, in 2020, when the world needed hope,” Uhovski tells Surface. “That project was really focused on artist collaboration. And after looking through our travel and art archives over the last fifteen years, we realized that we’ve been unconsciously drawn to pieces that celebrate color and light. So, that’s where we’ve started to collage and put together pieces that resonated with us the most, and the DNA for Rainbow Dreams wa

With the curatorial theme “What Now: 2026,” Katherine Sachs proposes the open-ended question at the heart of ArtPhilly, the new city-wide festival she founded to cast conversations around the 250th anniversary of the U.S. through an experiential, artistic, and future-leaning lens. Spanning five weeks and several venues, incorporating the work of many local artists, the festival is both a celebration of Philadelphia culture and an invitation for its institutions to rise to the moment. Sachs—a curator, collector, and philanthropist—says that the inaugural edition is only the first of what will become the city’s arts biennial. And the theme “What Now” will remain. “It is what comes after the colon that reveals the connection,” she tells Surface. We chose to create a five-week, multidisciplinary, city-wide festival. Everything had to be original new work. We wanted to amplify all voices, highlight as many communities as we could and show the breadth, depth, and excellence of Philadelphia’s artistic talents, while also highlighting our city’s large and small institutions. We knew that what people would experience here would be unique. It was to be something they could not get anywhere e

With the launch of the Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA) in Tashkent, Uzbekistan now has its first permanent center for contemporary art, research, and community engagement. Developed by the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation, the CCA is housed in a 1912 industrial building in Old Tashkent, originally built as a diesel station and depot for the city’s first tram line, and reworked by Studio KO into a new home for exhibitions, public programming, and artistic research. As a former Soviet republic, Uzbekistan has spent the decades since independence shaping how it wants to present itself, both domestically and internationally, and culture has become an increasingly important part of that process. For all of its cultural depth, Uzbekistan has not always had much visibility in the international contemporary art world. The CCA hopes to change that. The inaugural exhibition, “Hikmah,” curated by Artistic Director and Chief Curator Dr. Sara Raza, brings together site-specific works developed in response to the CCA’s building and architecture. New commissions by Muhannad Shono, Nari Ward, Shokhrukh Rakhimov, and Tarik Kiswanson appear alongside works by Kimsooja and Ali Che

Three pools—each holding approximately 800 porcelain vessels and more than 10,000 gallons of water—glow aquamarine under one monumental light source. Through the water’s movement, powered by carefully tuned motors, a meditative symphony of contact-clinks fills the expanse of the Park Avenue Armory. This is clinamen (v.11), the latest multisensory installation from French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot, on view now through August 2. Boursier-Mougenot developed his first clinamen—a dispositif, or orchestrated environment that expands the concept of musical score—nearly 30 years ago. Prior to this version, arguably the most honed (thanks to its uniquely controlled environment), the artist introduced iterations within the rotunda of Bourse de Commerce, in Australia’s National Gallery Victoria, Tokyo’s Museum of Contemporary Art, and myriad other prestigious institutions. Ultimately, the greatest success comes from the contrast with the venue itself—its scale and the enveloping darkness. “I have erased all of the noise,” the artist concludes. “All that’s left is the illusion of black velvet.” Plus, Philippe Vergne has been named artistic director and chief curator at The Bass and Pace

Haunting large-scale painted works by Franco-Mexican artist Hugo Toro presently dress the walls of the third floor gallery space in Perrotin New York. Between them, a circular installation of ceramic pieces in rusty hues, enveloping two antique chairs, spirals outward. All of the works feel recently uncovered—the installation composed of shards of memory, the paintings excavated from frescoes in his mind. Toro, thus far best known for his architecture and interiors work—including the design of Rome’s Orient Express La Minerva and the vibrant renovation of the Villa Albertine studio in New York City—firmly displays the depths of his artistry here. All of the paintings in the exhibition, entitled “Ojo de Agua,” were composed within the last two years; Toro formed all of the ceramics himself, as well. “Ojo de Agua” marks his solo U.S. debut, and follows 2025’s “Aguas que murmuran” at the Institut Culturel du Mexique in Paris—his first art exhibition ever. Throngs of people attended the opening at the Institut Culturel du Mexique, including guests from Perrotin (which was across the street). Artistically and thematically, this exhibition is an extension of the first. The works—and the

The gallery is now the exclusive partner of the Consejo Leonora Carrington in France and rossogranada, giving its global network—with locations in Paris, London, Shanghai, New York, and Brussels—access to the fantastical paintings and sculptures that cemented her place in the Surrealist canon. Almine Rech will mark the collaboration with the debut of a bronze sculpture cast from a life model Carrington created in 2010 at Art Basel this June. The Basel presentation will be followed by a solo exhibition at the gallery’s Paris Turenne location in September. Organized in collaboration with the Consejo Leonora Carrington, founded by Carrington’s son, Pablo Weisz Carrington, and the art advisory firm Rossogranada, the exhibition serves as a strong introduction to Carrington’s shape-shifting practice, bringing together paintings, drawings, sculptures, tapestries, and writings. Based on the images shared by Almine Rech, it’s a safe wager that the Basel-bound sculptures will make the booth a must-see. Carrington, who died in 2011, devoted the final 17 years of her life to creating bronze figures and masks, conjuring her chimeric cast out of the canvas and into our own. La Hija del Minotauro