Studio Museum in Harlem announced Nov. 15 opening, Museums are marking 20 years since Hurricane Katrina, Ekow Eshun to curate British Art Show, Artist Ana Cláudia Almeida joined new galleries & More
NEWS | Aug. 5: The Studio Museum in Harlem announced its opening date will be Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. The museum has been closed since 2018 when construction of its new building on 125th street got underway. The news included information about the opening celebration and community day, (suggested) admission prices, and the museum’s hours. In a statement, Director and Chief Curator Thelma Golden said: “As our historic homecoming approaches, I am reflecting on the transformative vision of the artists, supporters, and community members who have helped us shape this pivotal moment in our legacy. Our breathtaking new building is an invaluable space and a tribute to the Museum’s mission and the vitality of artists of African descent. I am thrilled to welcome everyone back to a reimagined Studio Museum, rooted in Harlem and resonating far beyond.” | More
REPRESENTATION > | Aug. 6: Ana Cláudia Almeida, (right) is now co-represented by Stephen Friedman Gallery of London and New York and Brazil galleries Quadra and Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel. “For Ana Cláudia, process is both the medium and the message,” Stephen Friedman said in a statement. “She weaves together personal histories, social structures, and materiality to spark dialogue about how we see and understand ourselves—and each other—through art. In many ways, she’s an alchemist—transforming lived experience into powerful, abstract form.” On Sept. 5, “Ana Cláudia Almeida: Over Again” opens at Stephen Friedman. 5. The presentation is the Brooklyn-based, Brazilian artist’s first solo exhibition in New York. Photo: © Marina Lima | More
< APPOINTMENTS | Aug. 6: In London, Hayward Gallery Touring named Ekow Eshun (left) curator of British Art Show 10. Opening in September 2026, the touring exhibition will be presented in five cities for the first time: Coventry, Swansea, Bristol, Sheffield, and Newcastle Gateshead. Occurring every five years, the event is described as “the largest and most significant recurring exhibition of contemporary art in the UK.” A British curator and writer, Eshun is chairman of the Fourth Plinth public art program. He was also a judge for the 2024 Turner Prize. His most recent exhibition, “Black Earth Rising: Colonialism and Climate Change in Contemporary Art,” is currently on view at the Baltimore Museum of Art. In a statement Eshun said: “It is a great honour to be appointed curator of the British Art Show, an exhibition that has long played a pivotal role in shaping and reflecting the discourse of contemporary art in the UK. I am thrilled by the opportunity to engage with artists whose practices speak powerfully to our time, and to craft a show that invites reflection, provokes dialogue, and expands the ways we engage with art in Britain today.” Photo: Zeinab-Batchelor | More
MAGAZINES | Aug. 11: Vanity Fair previewed the new Studio Museum in Harlem building, which opens in November. Published in the September 2025 issue, the article by Arimeta Diop is titled “Harlem Homecoming.” The feature includes comments from Director and Chief Curator Thelma Golden and artists Karon Davis and Tshabalala Self alongside photographs by Dana Scruggs. The images include an overhead view of the museum’s new stoop, an architectural anchor of the building designed to welcome and reflect the community and provide a place to sit and gather and also experience public programs. Scrugg’s photo captures Golden and dozens of artists with close ties to the museum gathered on the stoop. The group includes some of the most acclaimed artists working today, Davis, Self, Stanley Whitney, Derrick Adams, Julie Mehretu, Firelei Báez, Garrett Bradley, Jordan Casteel, Rashid Johnson, Sanford Biggers, Cy Gavin, William T. Williams, Glenn Ligon, Turiya Adkins, Charles Gaines, Nari Ward, Mickalene Thomas, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Dawoud Bey, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Derek Fordjour, Lorna Simpson, Ebony G. Patterson, and Ming Smith, among others. | Vanity Fair
AMY SHERALD, “Trans Forming Liberty” (2024). | The New Yorker, Aug. 11, 2025
MAGAZINES | Aug. 11: In anticipation of “Amy Sherald: American Sublime” arriving at the Whitney Museum of American Art,” in New York, The New Yorker featured her portrait on its March 4 cover. Five months later, Amy Sherald canceled the fall presentation of the traveling exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., citing censorship of her painting “Trans Forming Liberty” (2024). In response, the magazine put the artist’s work on the cover, again, this time showcasing the portrait of a Black trans woman posed in the fashion of the Statue of Liberty that raised concern at the Smithsonian and the White House. | The New Yorker
AWARDS & HONORS | Aug. 13: The Joan Mitchell Foundation announced 15 recipients of the 2025 Joan Mitchell Fellowships, including Bob Dilworth (Providence, R.I.), Suchitra Mattai (Los Angeles, Calif.), Troy Montes Michie (Los Angeles, Calif.), Sara Rahbar (Great Neck, N.Y.), and Anthony White (Seattle, Wash.). The fellowships award each artist $60,000 over a five-year period, alongside professional development and networking opportunities. | More
APPOINTMENTS > | Aug. 15: South Africa’s Ministry of Sport, Arts, and Culture announced Cynthia Ntombifuthi Khumalo (right) is the new director-general of The Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC). She is the first woman to serve in the role. Over more than three decades, Khumalo has held leadership positions in education, tourism, cultural affairs, and governance. Most recently at DSAC, she was deputy director-general and, since March 2023, acting director-general. “Dr. Khumalo embodies excellence, calm under pressure, and an unwavering work ethic. Her leadership inspires trust, and her dedication sets the standard for all of us. Her appointment isn’t just about breaking the glass ceiling, it’s about showing what real leadership looks like. She brings integrity, fresh ideas, and the kind of inclusive leadership our sector needs right now. Her vision for sport, arts, and culture is bold and rooted in transformation, nation-building, and creating real opportunities for our young people and the creative industries,” Minister Gayton McKenzie said in a statement. Photo Courtesy DSAC | More
PUBLIC ART | Aug. 16: A new statue of Martin Luther King Jr., unveiled in Winter Park, Fla., a suburb of Orlando, has drawn criticism with complaints that it doesn’t look like the civil rights leader and it is a “caricature.” The bronze sculpture by Andrew Luy of Huntsville, Ala., stands 11-feet high and features a disproportionately large head, shoes, and bible. In response to the public concerns, Luy submitted a letter to the city. He wrote that the sculpture “was never intended to be a hyper-realistic replica of Dr. King,” that it was “conceived through an in-depth, iterative process guided by a committee of Winter Park residents, civic leaders, and cultural stakeholders,” and they “focused not only on physical likeness but on capturing the spirit, message, and enduring presence of a leader whose impact continues to ripple through time.” Winter Park commissioned the $500,000 work to anchor its 23-acre Martin Luther King Jr. Park. | New York Times
2025 US Open theme art by Melissa Koby. | Courtesy US Open
SPORTS | Aug. 18: Melissa Koby is the first Black artist to create “theme” art for the US Open. This year, the US Open is “Celebrating 75 Years of Breaking Barriers” and paying tribute to tennis great Althea Gibson, who broke the color barrier in 1950 becoming the first Black person to participate in U.S. National Championships, which is now the U.S. Open. She went on to win five Grand Slam singles titles. Jamaican-born Tampa-Fla.-based Koby used layers of paper to create a silhouetted portrait of Gibson that includes a blue tennis court and other features symbolically visualize her historic journey that paved the way for so many others. The US Open at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, Queens, New York, began with a fan week on Aug. 18 with official matches scheduled Aug. 24-Sept. 7. The 2025 US Open theme art is displayed throughout the tennis center on products such as t-shirts and posters, as well as banners and other installations across the grounds, including Arthur Ashe Stadium. | More
APPOINTMENTS | Aug. 19: The Baltimore Museum of Art announced the appointment of Olivia Dill as assistant curator in the Department of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs. Dill is joining the Baltimore Museum of Art from The Morgan Library & Museum in New York, where she is the Moore Curatorial Fellow. She starts her new position in October. | Culture Type
MAREN HASSINGER, Documentation of performance Tree Duet I, 5617 San Vicente Blvd, Los Angeles, circa 1974. | Courtesy of Susan Inglett Gallery, NYC. Photo: Adam Avila
EXHIBITIONS | Aug. 19: Next year, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive at the University of California, Berkeley, will present a major retrospective of Maren Hassinger. “Living Moving Growing” opens June 6, 2026. Los Angeles, Calif.-born, Harlem, N.Y.-based Hassinger works across large-scale sculpture, site-specific installations, video, and performance. The exhibition will include more than 20 works produced from the 1970s to present and be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog. “We are thrilled to finally bring her artworks and their stories from across her career together through our exhibition, and to showcase Hassinger’s profound contributions to contemporary art,” BAMPFA Chief Curator and Exhibition Co-Curator Margot Norton said in a statement. | More
““Maren Hassinger’s practice has been of great influence for generations of artists–from her early collaborative performances and experimental installations with Studio Z and JAM to her direct impact over decades as a teacher, and through her monumental sculptural installations in major museum collections across the United States.”
— BAMPFA Chief Curator Margot Norton
EXHIBITIONS | Aug. 19: New Orleans-area art exhibitions are reflecting on Hurricane Katrina, 20 years after the devastating and defining storm. Shows include “K20: When the Water Met the Door” at the Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans; “Looking Back: Hurricane Katrina at 20” at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art; and “Dapper Bruce Lafitte: A Time Before Katrina” at the New Orleans Museum of Art. Also consider “Silver Lining: 20 Years after Hurricane Katrina,” featuring more 50 than artists at Studio Waveland in Waveland, Miss. The anniversary and programming follows the announcement in July that Prospect New Orleans, the city’s triennial founded in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, faces an uncertain future and would not organize a 2027 exhibition. | Nola.com
Lot 11: Attributed to JOSHUA JOHNSON (c. 1763-c. 1824), Pair of Portraits of Major John Nelson Black and Agnes “Nancy” Meek Hasson Black of Charlestown, Maryland, circa 1815-1816, unsigned (oil on canvas, unframed, each 36 1/4 x 29 1/8 inches). | Estimate $300,000-$500,000. UNSOLD
AUCTIONS | Aug. 19: Bonhams Skinner promoted a pair of historic portraits featured in its August Americana sale in Marlborough, Mass. The auction house initially said the paintings were “by” Joshua Johnson (c. 1763-c. 1824), who is “the earliest documented professional African-American painter,” according to the Smithsonian. Prior to the sale, Skinner amended the lot description to read “attributed to” Johnson. Skinner identified the sitters as Major John Nelson Black (1787-1847) and his wife Agnes “Nancy” Meek (1778-1860) of Charlestown, Md., and noted the portraits remained in the family of the subjects for 200 years. Here is the salesroom notice: “Dr. J. Hall Pleasants (1873-1957), the first art historian to document Joshua Johnson as an authority on early Maryland painting, identified the portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Black as typical of Johnson’s later career and coinciding geographically with where the artist lived at the time they were made. Still, we acknowledge that there are dissenting opinions regarding the attribution of portraits to Johnson, who signed only one painting in his lifetime, and for whom there is no independent authenticating body. As such, we have chosen to label these works as “attributed to Joshua Johnson” to preserve continuity with the historical record Dr. Pleasants established for these particular and important examples of Federal Maryland portraiture, while also acknowledging that the scholarship has evolved since Dr. Pleasants completed his pioneering research.” The estimate for the pair was $300,000-$500,000. The lot went unsold. | More
NEWS | Aug. 24: One month after Amy Sherald canceled her “American Sublime” exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., the artist published an opinion piece on MSNBC’s website titled, “Censorship has taken hold at the Smithsonian. I refused to play along.” Sherald wrote in part: “When the Trump White House announced its plans to “review” the Smithsonian (which includes 21 museums, research centers, an arboretum and a zoo), that statement, to some, may have sounded bureaucratic or even harmless. It is neither. When governments police museums, they are not simply policing exhibitions. They are policing imagination itself.” | MSNBC
EXHIBITIONS > | Aug. 27: The American Federation of Arts (AFA) announced its new season of touring exhibitions, from fall 2025 through 2027. Ongoing and forthcoming exhibitions include “Making American Artists: Stories from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1776–1976”; “Willie Birch: Stories to Tell”; and “Making Their Mark: Works from the Shah Garg Collection.” “The AFA’s expansive panorama of exhibitions demonstrates the importance of listening to the input of visual arts leaders nationwide, focusing on what audiences want to see, and continuing to shine a light on new artists and trends,” AFA Director and CEO Pauline Forlenza (right) said in a statement. “Our longstanding commitment to touring art exhibitions, publishing exhibition catalogues with scholarly research, and developing educational programs is vital, now more than ever.” | ArtDaily
FILMS | Aug. 27: The Museum of Modern Art in New York is recognizing the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina with a film series titled, When the World Broke Open: Katrina and Its Afterlives, which runs Aug. 27-Sept. 21, 2025. The line up “explores the cultural, emotional, and historical contours of New Orleans before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina” and includes historic and contemporary films with talks following some screenings. The series is guest curated by Maya S. Cade and K. Austin Collins and organized at MoMA by Rajendra Roy and Francisco Valente. Selections include Spike Lee’s “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts” (2010); the pilot episode of Treme (2010) created by David Simon and Eric Overmeyer; Les Blank’s “Always for Pleasure” (1978); Garrett Bradley’s “Time” (2020); Kasi Lemmons’s “Eve’s Bayou” (1997); Raven Jackson’s “All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt” (2023); Margaret Brown’s “Descendant” (2022); Steve McQueen’s “12 Years a Slave” (2013); Werner Herzog’s “Bad Lieutenant Port of Call New Orleans” (2009); and Benh Zeitlin’s “Beasts of the Southern Wild” (2012). CT
IMAGE: Above right, Pauline Forlenza at the 2024 AFA Gala in New York. | Photo by Alycia Kravitz
