The esteemed German artist Anne Imhof will present her largest performance work to date at New York’s Park Avenue Armory this March. Titled “DOOM: HOUSE OF HOPE” and curated by Klaus Biesenbach, the performances are scheduled to run from March 3rd to 12th in the Armory’s Wade Thompson Drill Hall.

“DOOM: HOUSE OF HOPE” is expected to leverage “the scale of the Drill Hall to create an immersive, alternate universe,” according to Pierre Audi, the Park Avenue Armory’s Anita K. Hersh artistic director. Each three-hour performance will feature an ensemble of nearly 60 New York–based dancers, artists, musicians, and performers. Among the performers are members of the Flexn and Line Dance communities.

The performance promises to be a reflective mirror of our current societal conditions. Performers will engage with audience members in a shared space while exploring themes of community, hope, anxiety, and activism.

“‘DOOM’ is my love letter to New York, a city that is very close to my heart and has inspired me for many years,” said Imhof. “For this show, I feel honored to work with a diverse subset of the city’s artistic community. Another major inspiration for the performance is the immensity of the Drill Hall, which has both shaped the work and enabled me to make a piece that is bigger and more complex than anything I’ve done before. The work is not complete until the audience is present, and I look forward to experiencing the energy that New York will bring to it.”

Following her solo exhibition at Sprüth Magers Los Angeles in 2023, “DOOM” marks Imhof’s most significant project in the United States to date. Imhof is most known for her exhibition and performance “Faust” at the German Pavilion during the Venice Biennale in 2017, where she received the Golden Lion for the pavilion. Over the last decade, the Berlin- and Los Angeles–based artist has presented major institutional solo exhibitions at Kunsthaus Bregenz in 2024, the Palais de Tokyo in 2021, Tate Modern in 2019, and MoMA PS1 in 2015, among others.

“Anne Imhof has shown herself as one of the most seismographically astute and inventive artists of our time,” said Biesenbach. “She possesses a perceptive and, at the same time, transformative quality to move bodies, images, and sounds through the exhibition space that creates strong resonances in the audiences and performers alike—and she plans to share this exploratory approach in New York through a special journey this March at the Armory.”

Photographs by American photographer Sally Mann were removed from a group exhibition at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in Texas, according to the Dallas Express. On January 6th, the Texan newspaper reported that the works in question have been “secured as potential evidence” for a pending investigation. The newspaper had previously reported on complaints by public officials regarding the content of the photographs, which the publication described as “child pornography.”

The controversy involves works by Mann featured in the museum’s group exhibition “Diaries of Home.” Mann is known for her photographs of the American South and intimate portraits of her family life. Beginning in 1984, Mann often photographed her young children outdoors in rural Virginia, where she herself was raised; in some of these images, the children are nude. The images are devoid of any sexual content.

In response to the reporting, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth released the following statement: “An inquiry has been made concerning four artworks in the temporary exhibition ‘Diaries of Home.’ These have been widely published and exhibited for more than 30 years in leading cultural institutions across the country and around the world.”

While the museum’s statement only mentions four artworks, Glasstire reported that five of Mann’s photographs—Popsicle Drips (1985), The Perfect Tomato (1990), The Wet Bed (1987), Another Cracker, and Cereus—have been removed from the exhibition.

“Diaries of Home” showcases the work of 13 women and nonbinary artists, including Nan Goldin and Carrie Mae Weems, who explore “multilayered concepts of family, community, and home,” according to a description on the museum’s website. The description notes that the exhibition “features mature themes that may be sensitive for some viewers.”

The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) has condemned the police’s reported seizure of Mann’s photographs. In a statement released on January 9th, the organization criticized the notion that such images constitute child sexual abuse material, arguing that this perspective “degrades the seriousness of real incidents of child abuse” and furthers “the perverse and troubling perception that all images of naked children are inherently sexual, thereby reinforcing the very sexualization of children that critics purport to oppose.” The NCAC has urged Texas authorities to halt the ongoing investigation and return the artworks to the museum.

Mann previously faced controversy when photos of her nude children were exhibited at New York’s Houk Friedman Gallery and published in the monograph Immediate Family in 1992. A cover story in The New York Times Magazine later that year drew attention to the work and questioned its ethics. In 1997, in response to a critical essay by the writer Mary Gordon in Salmagundi magazine, Mann defended her work, writing, “It is a banal point that no artist can predict how each image will be received by each viewer, and that what is devoid of erotic meaning to one person is the stuff of another’s wildest fantasies.”

Mann further reflected on the episode in a 2015 essay for The New York Times Magazine, adapted from her memoir, Hold Still: A Memoir With Photographs. There, she wrote: “I was blindsided by the controversy. It occasionally felt as though my soul had been exposed to critics who took pleasure in poking it with a stick.”

Complementing these monumental pieces, the “Graphts” series introduces mixed-media assemblages that blend needlepoint portraits of the artist with vintage serving trays adorned with intricate floral designs. Cave uses needlepoint to signal upper-class leisure, contrasting sharply with the domestic labor referenced in the collaged vintage serving trays.

After the exhibition closes, the first edition of Amalgam (Origin) will join the collection of the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “I’ve been trying to get to this sort of large-scale bronze for many, many years,” Cave said, adding that he’s interested in “how the work can find its way out of institutions and galleries and into public spaces.”

On November 21st, Cave will unveil a new collection of work featuring a performance at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, a “Soundsuit” work will be incorporated into a large-scale mosaic of glass, wood, and metal as part of his Princeton University Art Museum commission later this year.

Austrian artist Florentina Holzinger has been selected to represent Austria at the 2026 Venice Biennale, the 61st edition of the art event. The artist is best known for her explicit performance works, in which cast members push their bodies to the limits. Blood, needles, and nudity are common elements of her performances, which take a subversive feminist lens to the traditions of ballet, theater, and opera.

The 2026 Austrian pavilion, curated by Nora Swantje Almes, is tentatively titled “Seaworld Venice.” For this piece, Holzinger will create a water-inspired installation and performances, taking inspiration from the city’s connection to the sea. She will continue to investigate the aquatic themes from her work Ophelia’s Got Talent, which debuted at the Berlin Volksbühne in 2022. In that piece—an exploration of mythical female figures—the set features a life-size helicopter, swimming pool, and a harpoon gun.

“This opportunity presents an exciting and entirely new challenge for my team and me,” said Holzinger, in a press statement. “Whether on stage, in galleries, or in public spaces, the essence of my work lies in the uncompromising use of the body as a medium…In Venice—a city caught in a profound and precarious relationship with water—my ongoing fascination with this element will take on new dimensions. Here, the body will play a central role in exploring the interdependence and interplay between nature and technology.”

Holzinger studied choreography at the School for New Dance Development (SNDO) in Amsterdam. She has mostly worked in the theater and dance context until now, although she cites the Viennese Actionists, along with body art and bodybuilding, as inspirations for her work.

“Études,” Holzinger’s ongoing series of experimental performances in public spaces, has included stunts such as nude performers being suspended from piercings and others hanging upside down in a two-tonne church bell. Her first opera performance, Sancta, a remake of a scandalous 1921 opera, opened in Stuttgart, Germany, earlier this year.

British painter and performance artist Alastair Mackinven has died at 53, eight years after he was diagnosed with cancer. His London-based gallery, Maureen Paley, confirmed the artist’s death on Wednesday via Instagram. Throughout his career, Mackinven was known for his continuously evolving practice, which embraced a range of techniques and media, from provocative performances to dreamlike paintings.

Born in Clatterbridge, England in 1971, Mackinven received his BFA from the Alberta College of Art in Calgary, Canada in 1994 and an MFA in fine art from Goldsmiths College in London in 1996. During the ’90s, he performed as a guitarist with the Scottish punk band Country Teasers.

Mackinven first gained a following in England with his provocative performances and films in the late ’90s and throughout the aughts. He created his first film work, All The Things You Could Be By Now If Robert Smithson’s Wife Was Your Mother, in 2007. It involved Mackinven amassing 30,000 pounds of dirt and navigating through a large pipe naked, a performance of rebirth that played off a work by land artist Nancy Holt, who was married to Smithson.

In his later years, Mackinven shifted his focus to painting, predominantly creating ethereal, enigmatic figurative works. These paintings evoked the aesthetics of late 19th-century decadence, often depicting listless figures inhabiting bright environments. He employed oxidized iron powder on his canvases, giving them a luminescent appearance that would gradually degrade.

Mackinven’s final solo exhibition, “Numble Bound To A Stripped Standing Tree,” featured a series of untitled figurative paintings, at Maureen Paley in 2022. His work was also exhibited by Reena Spaulings Fine Art and TRAMPS in New York, among other galleries.

Alongside his painting practice, Mackinven dedicated time to teaching as a part-time lecturer at the Slade School of Fine Art in London and as a visiting lecturer at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. His work is in the Pérez Art Museum Miami’s collection.

Over the years, Thaddaeus Ropac has established a strong presence in Milan by collaborating with local institutions to support exhibitions featuring its artists. In 2024, the gallery supported exhibitions for Alex Katz at Fondazione Giorgio Cini and Martha Jungwirth at Galleria di Palazzo Cini. In spring 2025, the Museo del Novecento in Milan will mount a Robert Rauschenberg exhibition, coinciding with the artist’s 100th birthday.

“Always a place of great collectors and collections and now a burgeoning art scene, Thaddaeus Ropac Milan will make a significant contribution to the city's emergence as a leading international arts destination,” added gallery director Bonanno di Linguaglossa.

This news coincides with a growing international interest in Milan—named one of Artsy’s emerging art capitals to watch in 2025.

Los Angeles galleries and museums are announcing precautionary closures as wildfires spread across Southern California. Since Tuesday afternoon, four wildfires have ignited around L.A. County amid low rainfall, low humidity, and strong winds, leading to the evacuation of over 30,000 people. By Wednesday afternoon, the four fires—Palisades, Eaton, Woodley, and Hurst—had spread over 1,200 acres, claiming more than 1,000 homes and businesses and at least two lives.

Several galleries across Los Angeles have closed out of precaution, prioritizing the safety of their teams and heeding severe weather warnings. Gagosian announced it will postpone its upcoming opening of Alex Israel’s “Noir” at its Beverly Hills location. Other galleries that announced closures via Instagram include Sean Kelly Gallery, Various Small Fires, Night Gallery, and Chris Sharp Gallery, among others. Several L.A. museums have also announced temporary closures, including the Hammer Museum, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA), The Broad, and the Getty Center and Villa.

These announcements come as the fire has spread to the vegetation around the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades. However, the museum building and its staff were not harmed, according to a statement issued on Wednesday by the Getty. The Getty collection has been safeguarded due to measures like on-site water storage, immediate deployment of irrigation, and state-of-the-art air handling systems to seal off galleries and library archives from smoke. The Getty Villa will remain closed until January 13th.

“Fortunately, Getty had made extensive efforts to clear brush from the surrounding area as part of its fire mitigation efforts throughout the year,” Katherine E. Fleming, president and chief executive of the J. Paul Getty Trust, said in a statement. “Some trees and vegetation on site have burned, but staff and the collection remain safe.”

Modeled after the ancient Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum, Italy, the Getty Villa is renowned for its extensive collection of antiquities from ancient Greece and Rome. It features important sculptures, vases, jewelry, frescoes, and mosaics that span from 6,500 B.C.E. to 400 C.E.

The Getty Villa is located along the Pacific Coast Highway, roughly 10 miles from the Getty Museum. Its proximity to the ocean makes it particularly vulnerable to the seasonal Santa Ana winds, which have fueled the ongoing wildfires.

Several other Palisades-based arts and culture institutions are at risk of damage amid the raging wildfires. Some venues include Villa Aurora, the Thomas Mann House, and the Eames House, designed by Charles and Ray Eames.

“We are grateful for the tireless work of the Los Angeles Fire Department, Los Angeles County Fire Department, and other agencies to keep the Villa and its staff safe, as well as for the on-site presence of fire trucks throughout the day,” Fleming said.

Concerns about the Getty Museum’s protection plans were similarly stirred during the California wildfires in October 2019. This fire came within a half-mile of the Getty Museum. At the time, officials for the center assured the public of the measures taken to protect the collection against fire and smoke damage.

Update: This article was revised on January 14th to include Harlesden High Street and Gordon Robichaux among the listed participating galleries.

Garner’s work often explores themes of personal identity inspired by her background in automobiles and transportation. One standout example is Kar-Mann (Half-Human, Half-Car) (1969), a Volkswagen Karmann Ghia designed with the back half resembling the lower portion of a squatting person. Meanwhile, Backwards Car (1974), a 1959 Chevy engineered to appear as if it was driving backward, addressed excessive consumerism and mass production in the U.S.

Throughout her career, Garner has frequently employed her own body as a medium to challenge norms of gender expression. In the 1980s, the artist began her gender transition, referring to it as an “art project to create disorientation in my position in society, and sort of balk any possibility of ever falling into a stereotype again.”

A relatively unknown artist until the 2010s, Garner only presented one solo exhibition between 1986 and 2014, in 1997 at the Oakland Museum. In recent years, several prestigious institutions have presented solo shows of the artist’s work, including two retrospectives in 2023: “Act Like You Know Me” at White Columns and “$ELL YOUR $ELF” at Art Omi. Her work was also featured in the 2024 Whitney Biennial.

Japanese artist Takashi Murakami and fashion brand Louis Vuitton are set to release a new collection of fashion goods in January 2025, more than 20 years after their first collaboration. The new collection will be released in two installments. The first selection will debut globally on January 1, 2025, featuring new versions of the original collaboration enhanced by modern digital technology. This will be followed by a second product launch in March 2025.

The extensive collection includes leather goods, footwear, and other accessories, each adorned with Murakami’s world-renowned floral motifs and vivid colors. A standout feature of the collection is the Monogram Multicolore pattern, which reinterprets the classic LV logo in a palette of 33 colors, with either a white or black background adorning the accessories. This new pattern, though similar to designs from the previous collab, was created using advanced printing techniques that offer sharper detail and richer colors than the original collection.

Murakami’s famed “Superflat Panda” character will also be featured on several new bags, wallets, and necklaces. These products will be accompanied by a selection of perfumes decorated with Murakami’s “Superflat Garden” and other designs. The second collection in the collaboration will launch March 2025, featuring Murakami’s “Cherry Blossom” pattern.

Louis Vuitton and Murakami first collaborated in 2003, when the fashion company’s then artistic director, Marc Jacobs, facilitated the partnership for that year’s spring/summer collection. At the time, it was one of the most high-profile collaborations between a fashion brand and visual artist. Much like the upcoming collection, it featured the Louis Vuitton logo in a colorful rainbow palette, as well as accessories adorned with Murakami’s anime-inspired characters.

It’s not Murakami’s only recent involvement in the fashion world. In November, the artist also launched a shoe collection called Ohana Hatake, an independent footwear brand led by the artist in collaboration with footwear company VIOLET ST.

Cuban artist Zilia Sánchez, known for her multidimensional paintings that challenge Minimalism with abstract, erotic forms, has died at the age 98. Her death was confirmed by the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico and Galerie Lelong & Co., which has represented the artist since 2013.

Sánchez’s work, characterized by canvases that bulge outward, was distinct within the Minimalist style of her era, asserting a bodily presence in her work. Her work Lunar (1980) was featured prominently in this year’s Venice Biennale exhibition, the second time she participated in the preeminent biennial. She was one of many queer, older artists included. Sánchez’s latest solo exhibition, “Topologías / Topologies,” was displayed at the ICA Miami from April 20th to October 13th. It is scheduled to travel to the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico in San Juan in spring 2025.

Born in Havana in 1926, Sánchez was introduced to art by her father, along with her childhood neighbor, Cuban artist Victor Manuel. She studied the arts at Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes San Alejandro, which she graduated from in 1947. Throughout the 1950s, Sánchez gained significant recognition for her early abstract paintings. She presented her first solo exhibition at the Havana Lyceum in 1953. The artist then represented Cuba in the Bienal de México in 1958 and the São Paulo Bienal in 1959.

Shortly after the Cuban Revolution, Sánchez decided to live abroad, moving to New York in 1962. There, she worked as an illustrator, supporting her studies in printmaking at Pratt Institute. She spent about 10 years in the city, where her work adopted characteristics of the Minimalist movement, such as smoother canvases and a greyscale palette. Her dimensional works were created by stretching the canvases over hand-crafted wooden sculptures. These works, unlike those of her contemporaries, explored the female form in works that became known as “Erotic Topologies.”

Sánchez relocated to Puerto Rico in 1971. During her time there, the artist scaled up her abstract works, designing the facades of apartment buildings. Meanwhile, she also contributed to designs for the short-lived publication Zona Carga y Descarga. For the next few decades, her recognition declined outside of the Puerto Rican art community.

In recent years, Sánchez’s work achieved notable recognition in the U.S. and internationally. In 2019, the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. showcased her retrospective “Zilia Sánchez: Soy Isla (I Am an Island),” which later toured to New York’s El Museo del Barrio and the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico.

“My work seeks to disrupt colonial frameworks while celebrating Indigenous presence, knowledge, and creativity,” said Galanin. “This recognition fuels my ongoing efforts to create art that sparks dialogue, reclaims narratives, and envisions a future where culture, land, and identity are protected and celebrated.”

Galanin’s current exhibition, “Exist in the Width of a Knife’s Edge,” is on view at the Baltimore Museum of Art until February 16, 2025. He recently presented a site-specific installation on Faena Beach during Art Basel Miami Beach. This work, titled Seletega (run, see if people are coming/corre a ver si viene gente) (2024), represented a buried Spanish galleon where only the masts and sails were visible, symbolizing the failed empire. His works have also been featured globally, including at the Biennial of Sydney, the Whitney Biennial, and Site Santa Fe. He has been represented by Peter Blum Gallery since 2019.

Correction: This article has been amended to include Night Gallery among Claire Tabouret’s representing galleries.

Melissa Joseph, a Brooklyn-based artist who uses felting techniques to make intimate portraits, has been awarded the UOVO Prize by the Brooklyn Museum. The award includes a solo exhibition at the museum, a large-scale public mural commission, and a $25,000 unrestricted cash grant. This recognition comes on the heels of Joseph’s inclusion in The Artsy Vanguard 2025.

The UOVO Prize, supported by UOVO—a company specializing in the storage of valuable collectibles—aims to promote the work of Brooklyn-based artists. Previous recipients include filmmaker Suneil Sanzgiri in 2023 and Artsy Vanguard 2022 alum Oscar yi Hou in 2022.

As part of the prize, Joseph will create a 50-by-50-foot mural on the facade of UOVO’s facility in Bushwick, Brooklyn and an installation at the Brooklyn Museum’s Iris Cantor Plaza. Both pieces will reference the intricate designs of Italy’s Siena Cathedral and are scheduled to be unveiled in June 2025.

“For this project, I chose to reference the incredible floors of the Siena Cathedral and to think about the way public art has functioned throughout history,” said Joseph in a press statement. “While the process and purpose of creating public art have both expanded and accelerated, the potential for profound human connection remains, and that is what most excites and inspires me about this project.”

Joseph was selected by a team of Brooklyn Museum curators from the artists featured in “The Brooklyn Artists Exhibition,” a major group show of local artists organized in celebration of the museum’s 200th anniversary. Joseph’s contribution to the exhibition, which is on view until January 26, 2025, is Olive’s Hair Salon (2023), a felt portrait of her brother and young niece. Last year, the museum acquired her piece Getting Reuben’s tuition book (2023).

Over the last year, Joseph’s work has been featured in a number of notable exhibitions and fair presentations. In November 2023, she had a solo show at New York’s Margot Samel. This June, the gallery presented Joseph’s work in a solo booth at Liste Art Fair Basel. At Art Basel Miami Beach earlier this month, New York gallery Charles Moffett mounted a dual presentation featuring Joseph and Kim Dacres, which was selected as one of Artsy’s top 10 booths from the fair.

Naomi Beckwith, the chief curator at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, has been appointed as the artistic director for Documenta 16. She will be the first Black woman to hold the post. The announcement was made by Andreas Hoffmann, managing director of Documenta and Museum Fridericianum, at a press conference on December 18th. The upcoming Documenta is scheduled for June 12 to September 19, 2027.

“Documenta is an institution that belongs to the entire world, as much as it belongs to Kassel, as well as an institution that is in perpetual dialogue with history as much as it is a barometer of art and culture in the immediate present,” said Beckwith. “I am humbled by the breadth of this responsibility and equally excited to share my research and ideas with this storied and generous institution: one that affords space and time for focus, deep study, exploration, experimentation, and awakenings for artists, curators, and audiences alike.”

Educated at the Courtauld Institute of Art, Beckwith joined the Guggenheim in 2021, where she became its first Black deputy director and chief curator. She has previously held positions at the MCA Chicago and the Studio Museum in Harlem. Additionally, Beckwith has served as a visiting professor at Northwestern University and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She also received fellowships at the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program in New York and ICA Philadelphia.

In 2022, during Documenta 15, a controversy emerged over anti-Semitic caricatures in some exhibited works and other allegations of anti-Semitism. This led to the removal of work by the Indonesian collective Taring Padi and criticism against the directorial team, the artist collective ruangrupa.

Addressing Documenta’s subsequent realignment, Timon Gremmels, minister of state arts and culture in the region, said in a statement: “Openness, a sense of community, and the unifying power of art already characterized the work of the Finding Committee and likewise form the basis of Naomi Beckwith’s practice. With the implemented reform of Documenta, the city and state have laid a good foundation for the future of the world art show. We have struck a good balance between freedom of art and discourse and protection against anti-Semitism and discrimination.”

It’s not the only high-profile curatorial announcement to come this year. Earlier this month, Cameroonian-born curator Koyo Kouoh was appointed as the chief curator of the Venice Biennale 2025. The esteemed curator, currently the chief curator and executive director of the Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town, will become the first African woman to curate the prestigious exhibition.