“Versailles… exists as an unparalleled and final statement that is likely never to be repeated,” declares the American Friends of Versailles on its website. Yet for all its singularity, like the Ship of Theseus, the Château must be restored, bit by bit, to fend off the ravages of time. Earlier this week, the organization’s annual gala, dubbed A Legacy of Light and held inside Versailles itself, raised money for a specific piece of history: the celebrated Salon de Diane—one of the palace’s most significant painted ceilings. The newly restored Charles Le Brun masterwork from the reign of Louis XIV, untouched since a 1955 conservation round, was unveiled at the gala in all its original brilliance.

Spotted in the well-heeled crowd were France’s Minister of Culture Catherine Pégard, U.S. ambassador to France Charles Kushner and Louvre Président-directeur Christophe Léribault, along with Prince Charles (Carlo, Duke of Castro) and Princess Camilla de Bourbon des Deux-Siciles. The art, fashion and design worlds likewise turned out in force, with gallerist Emmanuel Perrotin, artist Jean-Michel Othoniel, Paris Opera star Hugo Marchand, designers Harry Nuriev and Christian Louboutin, art historian Diana Widmaier Picasso and jeweler David Yurman in attendance, along with a long list of philanthropists and socialites, including Becca Cason Thrash, Peter Brant Jr. and Tracey Amon.

The black-tie evening, which also celebrated America’s 250th anniversary and the French allies that made independence possible, started with cocktails and conversation in the Hall of Mirrors before a dinner in the Galerie des Batailles, cleverly orchestrated by star planner Lucas Somoza. A spirited paddle round led by auctioneer Lydia Fenet raised more than €3.5 million in a mere 20 minutes, with a wildly extravagant roster of lots that included a private journey along the Nile River for eight guests, the 2023 Hunt Slonem painting Monsoon Aftermath, eight nights for six VIP guests at the Baraza Resort Spa in Tanzania and a French excursion with exclusive private tours of the Louvre, Notre Dame, Champagne and, naturellement, Versailles. The evening’s top lot, however, was a stunning one-of-a-kind David Yurman Liberty Cable bracelet featuring more than 25 carats of diamonds, which sold for $260,000, giving the room its loudest gasp of the night. “I rarely get offstage during an auction, but David Yurman asked me to wear the custom diamond bracelet they commissioned to celebrate the event,” Fenet told Observer. “When the bidding hit $250,000 for the bracelet—nearly $80,000 over the retail value—I walked offstage and, with a wink, placed the bracelet on the underbidder’s wrist.” The underbidder was thus inspired to place a final bid and, voila, the bauble was hers.

More than a gala, A Legacy of Light was the final stop on the American Friends of Versailles’ four-day itinerary of private tours, exclusive programming and parties, which concluded with a raucus afterparty in the Galerie Basse. But, as Fenet reminded us, this was a soiree with substance. “We were able to fully fund the restoration of a huge ceiling at Versailles, which was really the aim of the whole thing.”

Princess Camilla of Calabria, H.R.H. Prince Charles of Bourbon and Prince Charles-Henri of Lobkowicz

Alicia Bryan

Diana Widmaier Picasso and Emmanuel Perrotin

Marie de Noailles and Prince Charles-Henri de Lobkowicz

Christian Louboutin, Alicia Bryan, Becca Cason Thrash and Lucas Somoza

Carlos Gustavo Mascardi and Lily Sciorra

Peter Brant Jr. and Jean-Joseph Pani

Prince Charles-Henri de Lobkowicz

Megg Goodman and Ceron Goodman

Cameron Silver and Alexandra Longanecker

Harry Nuriev

Sybil Yurman and David Yurman

Bastien Blanc-Tailleur

Shannon Ralston and Philip Risalvato

Stephane Gerschel and Tracey Amon

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The Frick Collection’s Fellows, Young Fellows and their sundry plus-ones turned out across two consecutive evenings—Tuesday, June 9, and Wednesday, June 10—for the museum’s annual Spring Garden Party. Inside, the partygoers perused the “Ruffles & Ribbons: Fashion Plates from the Time of Marie Antoinette,” but the real fashion plates could arguably be found outside, taking their turns around the museum’s highly exclusive Fifth Avenue Garden. Said garden had some competition, as the see-and-be-seen set leaned hard into stunning seasonal pastels and flouncy floral motifs. Live jazz from musicians at The Juilliard School set the mood, and the cheery margaritas and flutes of champagne that accompanied seasonally inspired nibbles and desserts cemented it. Gallery talks ran throughout the evening, open to all those who ventured indoors to take a private peek at the permanent collection or “Ruffles & Ribbons.” One suspects, however, that most of the style commentary was happening out in the garden, where the crowd paraded and peacocked long after the sun went down. These were some of our favorite looks:

Nancy Moeller

Joshua Cockream

Vanessa Gordon

Tinu Naija

Nancy Moore and Ansley Williams

Sherece Bennett

Giovanni Fares

James Jelkin and Alexandra Bell

Mark Medearis and Teresa Mederais

Pina Giselle and Aimee Ng

Julia Beyensen

Christine A Eagleson

Kristian Ivanoff and William Radin

Alexandra Maximova and Alina Miroshnyk

Julie Wald, Mary Grace Castello and Josette Winograd

Rajiv Surendra

Alexandra Longanecker and Bach Mai

Martha Fortune and Jessica Cardenas

Pauline Argenson and James Demmert

Avishan Bodjnoud

Brianna Taylor, Genesis Rakatsu and Juan Tellez Sandoval

Tobili Hatcher

Harold Rafael, Reem Abadi, Av Mark and James Burn

Mercedes de Guardiola

Olivia Miller and Thersa Luk

Allie Provost and Kristi Hemric

Delia Folk

Wendy Kaplan and Martin Kaplan

Nadia Gakou

Alexa Griffith and Lindsey Zurovchak

Marissa Wu

Isabel Tung and Brandon Smith

Zarig Baghdadlian and Tara Tomimoto

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Sébastien Léon doesn’t think in categories, nor does he fit into them. He’s a multi-hyphenate creator whose practice takes mediums, materials and forms at their most familiar and finds in them something fundamentally other. “Each creation operates as an act of revelation: an object that reveals itself through transformation,” reads his bio, and in his hands, resin might become leather or stone and glass can metamorphasize into fog or folds of cloth or lava. So, too, has the French-born, New York-based artist transformed himself, from creative director to designer and artist. He is variously described as a sculptor, a musician, a furniture designer and an installation artist.

Léon first experimented with blown glass in 2019 when working on a collection of lighting shown at Design Miami, and he describes the medium as one of transmutation—sand mutated by fire, then shaped by air into something solid. That arc, from one state of matter to another, is a useful description of his general approach to his work, which encompasses not only physical objects but also soundworks. He has collaborated on projects with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, released three solo records, built a permanent sonic sculpture for the Orange County Museum of Art and created immersive sound environments around the world.

(Later this month, he’ll be debuting a new soundwork for NOMAD Hamptons—the first in a coming series of interconnected pieces. Titled The Echoes of Our Dreams, it blends sculpture, sound and technology to explore the boundaries between natural and artificial forms of communication.)

His work has been shown at the Palais de Tokyo, the New Museum, the Palazzo della Triennale and UCCA in Beijing, and his commercial collaborations have extended to Audi, Samsung, Audemars Piguet and Krug, among others. More recently, he completed an 18-month residency at the Ralph Pucci sculpture studio in Manhattan, resulting in a new body of work, “Inca City.”

The series of otherworldly lighting and furnishings takes its name from the Angustus Labyrinthus on Mars—a networked complex of geological ridges so geometrically precise that it looked like the ruins of a lost civilization in the images sent back to Earth by the Mariner 9 probe. Alas, the resemblance was an obvious coincidence, but for Léon, that potential misreading opened a doorway into what he calls speculative archaeology—the fabrication of relics from a civilization that never was.

The works in “Inca City” are the output of the material philosophy Léon has been refining throughout his career and the experimentation that has driven that career forward. During the residency, he built and refined the pieces in the show at the Ralph Pucci workshops, where he had access to master artisans and the tools to work with materials ranging from clay and resin to metal. Observer connected with Léon after the opening of the show to discuss what it means to excavate a civilization that never existed, why function can be its own kind of illusion and what sound has to do with sculpture.

Your work spans a wide range of materials and techniques. Is that multiplicity driven by a search for the right medium, or is the movement between materials itself the point?

More than anything, I think it’s because each idea demands its own medium. Glass, steel, resin, sound, etc., each carries very specific behaviors and symbolic weight. What interests me is how far I can push those behaviors until the material starts to contradict itself: resin that reads like leather, mirrors that dissolve into transparency, wool rugs that feel like hairy terrains. My exploration between materials is really a way of staying in that unstable perception-shifting territory.

Your sound works are incredibly immersive. How does your engagement with sound relate to your work with physical materials?

Sound is probably the most direct way I think about presence. It’s invisible, and yet it completely shapes how we experience space. It suggests a memory, an emotion, a place, even a form of materiality. Any sculpture, for me, is something that emits: light, reflection, tension, or even a kind of silent aura. I approach a light sculpture in the same way as I approach a sound sculpture. They all have a voice, something to say, a role to fulfill.

“Inca City” at Ralph Pucci International feels suspended between abstraction and something almost geological, like artifacts from a civilization that might have existed elsewhere. There’s a strong sci fi undertone. Was that intentional?

“Inca City” is a real geological formation on Mars, resembling the ruins of a lost city. It became the starting point for the exhibition, which I developed as a kind of speculative archaeology, creating artifacts from a civilization that never existed. The sci-fi aspect is definitely there, but not in a futuristic sense; it’s more about displacing time and location altogether. I’m interested in imagining a different physical world, almost a parallel set of conditions where matter follows a slightly altered logic. Glass might behave like stone, surfaces might shift between opacity and reflection and materials might be grown into their final forms instead of cut to fit.

When you create functional pieces, do you approach them differently from your more speculative works?

What interests me is when a piece fulfills a use, but at the same time destabilizes your perception of what it is. A table that appears to float, or a mirror that behaves in unexpected ways. I integrate function as a magic trick, as an illusion. So I see my work as a continuum where function becomes a kind of entry point into a more ambiguous experience. I often get asked whether my work belongs to the design or art worlds, but I don’t really think in those terms.

On your website, you pose the question “Design or Transmutation?” What are you trying to prompt with that idea?

‘Design’ broadly implies solving a problem through the creation of an object, but I’m more interested in transforming the nature of the material itself. Transmutation suggests a deeper shift, almost alchemical. What I hope it prompts is a moment where the viewer is no longer sure if they’re looking at something familiar or something that’s been fundamentally altered. In the word “transmutation”, there is a notion of magic, of transformation from lead into gold, and invention, and all these resonate with me.

There seems to be an element of world-building in your work. Is there a throughline connecting these pieces?

There is definitely a form of world-building, but it’s not narrative in a literal sense. It’s more like fragments of a larger system that keeps on growing in order to reveal itself. Each creation, each exhibition, becomes a way of introducing new elements, whether sculptural, sonic, or even olfactory. Over time, the idea is that this environment is slowly unveiled as a set of conditions for us to discover. “Inca City” is slowly revealing itself to me and to everyone.

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The Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art’s annual gala is arguably one of L.A.’s most genuinely exciting evenings, and the 2026 edition at The Geffen Contemporary did not disappoint. The $3 million night was hosted by ebullient dancer and multi-hyphenate creative Stephen Galloway and “was made all the more special through Piero Golia’s fantastic interventions and the brilliance of a wide cast of collaborators,” Ann Goldstein, LA MOCA’s Interim Maurice Marciano Director, told Observer.

First up on the itinerary? Guests queued up for cocktails at a reception featuring a beautiful performance by the MOCA Gala Symphony Orchestra alongside an installation conceived specifically for the occasion by Golia. From there, bringing back last year’s MOCA Legends format, the gala fêted three figures whose contributions to contemporary art are, in different ways, foundational. To start, artist and MOCA board member Tala Madani took the dais to introduce artist Paul McCarthy, followed by The Brick’s director Hamza Walker, who introduced his fellow “MONUMENTS” co-curator, the artist Kara Walker. Board Chair Carolyn Clark Powers rounded out the tributes by recognizing Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo president Eugenio López Alonso for two decades of support.

“When I returned to MOCA last summer as interim director, I came back to an institution firmly focused on its mission of presenting the most significant and challenging art of our time,” Goldstein said, pointing to the museum as an “ecosystem that empowers artists to challenge, provoke and transform our understanding of the world.”

Spotted in the assembled crowd were actors Supriya Ganesh and Keanu Reeves (on the arm of Los Angeles and Berlin‐based artist Alexandra Grant), who shared the room with filmmaker Ava DuVernay, bestselling author Minka Kelly, showrunner Trisha Cardoso, producer China Chow, singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright and Dan Reynolds of Imagine Dragons. Mingling among them were venture capital investor and art collector Jarl Mohn, entrepreneur and art collector Sonya Yu, power couple Balthazar and Rosetta Getty, philanthropists Jerry and Terri Kohl, Deborah Irmas and Terri Smooke, and collectors Heather Podesta, Kathi B. Cypres and Clifford J. Einstein.

The art world’s own showed up in force, too, of course. Hammer Museum director Zoë Ryan, curator Connie Butler, gallerists Jeffrey Deitch and Esthella Prova, The Box founder Mara McCarthy and a long list of artists rubbed elbows with designer Johnson Hartig, architect Kulapat Yantrasast and other notable creatives, giving the evening its own brand of electric energy.

Supriya Ganesh

Minka Kelly and Dan Reynolds

Paul McCarthy

Karyn Kohl and Alex Israel

Carolyn Clark Powers and Terri Smooke

Rufus Wainwright

Alicia Blanco and Poch Blanco

Joy Simmons

Keanu Reeves and Alexandra Grant

Ava DuVernay

Rebecca Morris

Piero Golia and Ann Goldstein

Frances Stark

Alfonso Gonzalez Jr.

Tala Madani

Diana Thater

Sonya Yu and Rodney McMillian

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova

Max Hooper Schneider

Connie Butler and Tala Madani

Christina Quarles and Alyssa Polk

Persia Dime and Charles Dime

Monique McWilliams, Glenn Kaino and Maurice Harris

Kulapat Yantrasast, Celesta Hodge and Max Hooper Schneider

Monique McWilliams and Kenturah Davis

Ari Marcopoulos and Kara Walker

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El Museo del Barrio’s annual benefit, held last week at the Mandarin Oriental New York, brought together artists, philanthropists, collectors and cultural and political leaders to celebrate Latin American and Latine art and culture while raising more than $1 million in support of El Museo’s exhibitions, educational initiatives, bilingual public programs and the stewardship of its permanent collection.

The evening’s honorees reflected the breadth of El Museo’s reach. Global music icon J Balvin was recognized for his visionary support of contemporary art and his commitment to advancing Latin American and Latine culture worldwide—”I’ve always believed in bringing our music, art, and voice to the world with pride and responsibility,” he told the assembled crowd. Art collectors Isabel and Agustín Coppel were honored alongside Balvin for the impact they’ve had on the contemporary art canon. And curator and collector Estrellita Brodsky, a formidable force in the Latin American art world whose decades of advocacy have shaped institutions around the world, received the inaugural Tony Bechara Legacy Award. The evening also saw the announcement of the 2026-2027 Maestro Dobel Latinx Art Prize recipient: artist Guadalupe Rosales, whose solo exhibition will open at the museum next year.

“I do what I do out of love. Whether it is my art practice or my archival work, both have always been rooted in self and community preservation, storytelling, and the belief that our histories deserve to be seen, held, and remembered,” Rosales said in her acceptance speech. “This work comes from years of doubt and challenges, from people not always seeing its importance, while at the same time, others like me felt seen, remembered and reflected in it. I have not always fit neatly into art institutions as an artist, or into archives and official histories as someone committed to preserving and telling these stories. It has not been an easy path, but I kept going. Recognition is a meaningful gesture, and I am grateful for it, but what feels most important is knowing that by not giving up, this work has helped make space for future artists, archivists, storytellers and generations to come.”

Given their turns at the dais, El Museo del Barrio’s executive director Patrick Charpenel and board chair Karla Harwich each spoke about the institution’s singular importance. Charpenel pointed out that the museum has long served as “a platform for voices that have shaped—and continue to shape—the cultural fabric of this country,” while Harwich noted that in a city where more than 40 percent of public-school students identify as Hispanic or Latino, the institution offers young people “a place where they can see themselves, their histories, and their communities reflected with beauty and pride.”

As the night unfolded, guests sipped tequila cocktails and Leo Gruber & Tren Latino provided a musical performance that kept energy levels high. Spotted in the crowd were art historian Victoria Espinosa, kurimanzutto cofounder José Kuri, model and entrepreneur Alida Boer and CIMA Capital co-founder Alfonso Aldrete, who mingled with curators Rocío Aranda-Alvarado, Deborah Cullen Morales, Susanna V. Temkin, Ines Katzenstein and Magnolia de la Garza. The lineup of artists in attendance included Pedro Reyes, Elia Alba, Elena Damiani, Yvette Mayorga and Jorge Méndez Blake.

Notably, the museum’s 2026 benefit auction, presented in collaboration with The Auction Collective, remains open through June 3, 2026, so even if you missed this year’s gala, you can still raise a paddle in support of El Museo del Barrio’s mission.

J Balvin

Arlene Davila, Candida Alvarez, Karen Vidangos and Elia Alba

Augustine Coppel and Isabel Gómez de Coppel

Sophia Zayas

Willy Chavarria and Claudia Edelman

Valentina Ferrer

Jesus Navarro

Thomas Vecchione and Elizabeth Belfer

Richard Blanco

Clifford Prince King and Carlos Martiel

Valentina Ferrer, Karla Harwich and Patrick Charpenel

Pedro Reyes

Ines Katzenstein and José Kuri

Larisa Martínez

Matt Bregman and Sulie Arias

Elsa Collins and Karla Martinez de Salas

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June’s arrival ought to offer a reprieve after a shockingly busy May art fair calendar packed to the rafters with events—and auctions—both in and outside of New York City. But if the June art fair calendar is only refreshingly light because of Art Basel’s global dominance, at least the next best thing to a month off is a few weeks on the Rhine. Beyond Art Basel, the sundry Swiss satellite fairs are the order of the day this month, and we’re not complaining. It’s a real treat for those looking for a break from the city and a city’s worth of art.

We do have some questions about this year’s June calendar: Will June Art Fair really return this year? As of today (May 29), the fair’s website simply states “June 2026. Coming Soon.” And what happened to all the Art3f summer fairs? (We’ll likely never know.) Meanwhile, Juxtapose is no longer a fair. The Digital Art Mile is no more. ReA! Art Fair in Milan is now an October fair. Uncertainty abounds, so along with the art fairs below, you could consider adding Zurich Art Weekend, London Gallery Weekend and Basel Art Summer Camp, a pop-up of works by emerging artists at HYVE Hostel, to your itinerary.

The June Art Fair Guide

Basel Social Club 2026

June 14-20

Basel Social Club was founded in the spring of 2022 by a collective of artists, gallerists and curators who wanted to create social spaces for art. What they built was more festival than art fair: an event that’s free and open to all, accessible by public transportation, full of affordable artworks and enhanced by live music, performances and food. Notably, the third edition took place outdoors—specifically, on 72 hectares of open farmland ten kilometers south of Art Basel. (Robbie Fitzpatrick, co-founder of the fair and owner of Fitzpatrick Gallery, told the Financial Times that Basel Social Club would happen rain or shine.) The 2026 edition, titled Office, will transform a multi-story office building in central Basel into a “temporary social stage for art.”

Liste Art Fair Basel 2026

June 15-21

One of the cornerstone satellite fairs orbiting Art Basel, Liste has been a launchpad for the new and the next since 1996, building a well-earned reputation for sharp, boundary-pushing presentations. Often organized around focused solo shows, Liste is where rising artists debut ideas that set art world trends, so it’s no surprise that this fair often spotlights socially and politically engaged work that goes on to resonate well beyond Basel. Last year, European collectors dominated the floor in the fair’s first days, while American and Asian buyers notably arrived later or skipped the fair altogether. It will be interesting to see how attendance changes in what feels like a more confident market moment.

Photo Basel 2026

June 16-21

Switzerland’s first and only art fair devoted exclusively to photography, Photo Basel has been making the most of Basel’s June crowds since its founding in 2015—reminding collectors, curators and critics alike that photography is very much a fine art. Held at the stylishly understated Volkshaus Basel, this fair that knows its niche and thrives in it, delivers tightly curated exhibitions that span vintage gems and contemporary breakthroughs. If you want to immerse yourself in what’s trending among collectors in this space, Photo Basel is the place to do it.

June Art Fair 2026

June 16-22

June Art Fair, with its evocative but somewhat hard-to-search name, has carved out a niche of its own since 2019 as the gallery-led satellite fair that remembers art should still be fun. Founded by Christian Andersen and Esperanza Rosales, it opens just before the main Basel frenzy begins, offering collectors and curious wanderers alike a moment to breathe and actually look at the art. No VIP stampedes. No champagne bottlenecks. And somewhat more interesting, the very first edition of June Art Fair had no booths—the founders called it an ‘exhibition platform’ rather than a fair. The setting is a conversation starter in and of itself: a repurposed bunker designed by the Pritzker Prize-winning architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron that’s just 200 meters away from Art Basel.

VOLTA Basel 2026

June 17-21

Volta is the Italian word for “turn,” and in literary terms, a volta marks a shift in tone or perspective—a fitting name for an art fair that’s been quietly evolving since its founding in 2005. What began as a casual gathering among friends and dealers has grown into a curated showcase with an emphasis on discovery, innovation and curatorial clarity. VOLTA Basel now functions as something of a crucible: rigorous but open, and serious but not stiff.

Art Basel 2026

June 18-21

This international mega-fair—known for drawing international mega-crowds—hardly needs an introduction, but here it is anyway. Paraphrasing Observer’s take from 2018: Art Basel is a pan-continental, seemingly never-ending art juggernaut, with marquee fairs landing every few months in Basel, Miami Beach and Hong Kong, plus a scatterplot of satellite exhibitions in between, but the original June edition in the Swiss city that gave the fair its name remains the gold standard of blue-chip legitimacy. It’s where the so-called “serious” collectors descend en masse to comb through presentations from hundreds of the world’s most prestigious galleries, all of them bringing out their best and boldest to hustle in the Messeplatz. That’s all still true, and it’s worth noting that Art Basel remains a major force in the global art market, setting both the pace and the tone for contemporary art sales and institutional taste. If you’re just arriving to the art world and looking to jump into the deep end, this is as deep as it gets.

Treasure House Fair 2026

June 24-30

London’s highly anticipated summer art fair returns this year with a host of exhibitors spanning fine art, furniture, antiquities, jewellery, watches and even classic cars—a sprawling showcase where connoisseurship meets spectacle. Styled as a “treasure house” of the rare and refined, the fair fuses British heritage with global perspective, presenting everything from ancient artifacts to avant-garde design. You can expect to see a delightful mix of the timeworn and the cutting-edge at Treasure House Fair, with every object on view vetted by independent experts, ensuring a certain rigor behind the glitz and inviting us to trace a millennia-spanning arc of craftsmanship, ingenuity and cultural ambition.

NOMAD The Hamptons 2026

June 25-28

NOMAD makes its U.S. debut this year at the Watermill Center, the Long Island arts institution founded by theater visionary Robert Wilson. Fifteen years in, the fair founded and directed by Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte has mounted editions in Capri, St. Moritz, Monaco, Venice, Cannes and Abu Dhabi, each time forgoing the classic booth model in favor of site-specific presentations that ask galleries to respond to their surroundings. (Though the real secret to the fair’s success, Georgio Pace told Observer in 2024, is the coalescence of wealthy collectors, discerning curators and an urbane art crowd in a perfect triumvirate.) The Watermill Center, long devoted to experimental and cross-disciplinary work, will no doubt give this edition of the fair a conceptual anchor that goes beyond mere backdrop. Galleries will mount curated exhibitions across the grounds, with a program of talks, events and special visits rounding out a long weekend at the intersection of art, design and landscape.

Even more art fairs in June

As always, what’s above doesn’t represent the totality of the June art fair calendar in 2026—there are always plenty of smaller, lesser-known and niche art fairs happening around the world. Here’s a quick roundup of several more art events you might want to check out this month.

MoBU 2026 (Bucharest)

June 3-7

MAZE Design Basel 2026

June 14-18

Africa Basel 2026

June 17-21

CAN Art Fair Ibiza 2026

June 25-28

The Gordon Parks Foundation has spent two decades making the case that creativity is among the most powerful tools in the fight for social justice, and the organization’s 20th anniversary gala at Cipriani 42nd Street was a testament to that. The electric evening raised a record-breaking $3 million—including $1.2 million from a lively auction of Parks’s photographs led by star auctioneer Kimberly Pirtle—to fund the fellowships, prizes and scholarships that will carry Parks’s ideals into the next generation.

Kicking off the night, Peter W. Kunhardt, Jr., whose grandfather Philip Kunhardt co-founded the Foundation alongside Parks, said that the photographer “left clear instructions: ‘Take what I started and carry it into the future’… Gordon knew that art is more potent than violence because it can open our eyes.” He then presented co-chairs Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz with a portrait of Parks by artist and 2018 Foundation Fellow Derrick Adams before acknowledging the foundation’s 2026 Fellows: jazz pianist and composer Jason Moran, artists Sanford Biggers and Amanda Williams, and professor Leigh Raiford.

From there, Pharrell Williams and Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times critic-at-large Salamishah Tillet presented the first award of the evening to EGOT-winner, multiplatinum artist and producer John Legend, who closed his remarks by raising his voice in song. Darren Walker, president and chief executive of Anonymous Content, presented to poet, scholar and Mellon Foundation president Elizabeth Alexander, who asserted that “art is a necessary and courageous act. You cannot quash its force.” Conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas presented an award to Chance The Rapper, while artist, educator and photographer Deana Lawson honored artist Henry Taylor. Last but not least, athlete and activist Colin Kaepernick presented the evening’s final award to Lonnie Ali, who accepted on behalf of the Muhammad Ali Family.

The gala’s program was anchored by music. The evening opened with Chance The Rapper joining the Anthony Morgan Inspirational Choir of Harlem for “I Was A Rock”—a gospel ballad interspersed with soundbites from a 1977 interview in which Ali discussed dedicating his post-retirement life to helping others. Dinner was accompanied by a musical interlude from Dave Guy, trumpet player for The Roots. Gordon Parks’s daughter Leslie Parks Bailey and musician, arranger and composer Mario Sprouse—musical director of three of Parks’s films—then introduced Moran, who offered a moving piano tribute to Muhammad Ali.

All in all, the gala offered, as per usual, a fitting tribute to a man who used his camera as “a weapon against poverty, against racism, against all sorts of social wrongs.” Chance The Rapper may have said it best when he leaned forward at the dais and declared, “The world is on fire, and the greatest defense we have in the world of art is as documentarians. Are we going to be bystanders, or are we going to create the future that we want? Let’s keep fucking shit up.”

Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys

Heba Abedin

Jim Alexander

Lonnie Ali and Leslie Parks Bailey

Jeff Hoone and Carrie Mae Weems

Louis Mendes

Kennedy Yanko

Salamishah Tillet and Scheherazade Tillet

Elizabeth Alexander and Darren Walker

Deborah Willis and Hank Thomas

Colin Kaepernick and Lonnie Ali

Crystal McCrary McGuire

Mickalene Thomas

Derrick Adams

Jack Shainman and Beverly Price

Peter W. Kunhardt Jr. and Leroy Henderson

Zadie Smith

Kimberly Pirtle

Mario Sprouse and Mary Miller

Whitney Gayle Benta and Jalen Hurts

Leigh Raiford

Abel Quintana and Jed Root

Vikki Tobak and Paige Loague

Leslie Parks Bailey and Mario Sprouse

Jason Flom and Khaliah Ali

Maya Samuelsson and Marcus Samuelsson

Denise Bradley

Tavares Strachan

Derrick Adams, Peter W. Kunhardt Jr., Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys

Angelina Darrisaw

Kevin Young and Christie Davis

Kamilah Forbes, Scheherazade Tillet, Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe and Salamishah Tillet

Jammie Holmes and Cheon-Hwa Sanviriya

Sanford Biggers

Satchel Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee

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There are high-quality diamonds, and then there are the diamonds that exist in a category so singular that the usual vocabulary of the trade barely applies. The fancy, vivid blue-green Ocean Dream, which sold yesterday (May 13) in Christie’s Magnificent Jewels auction in Geneva for $17.3 million, is one of the latter. This 5.51-carat triangular-cut stone has a color so improbable that, as the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) has noted in its materials, some might assume it has been artificially enhanced.

But the stone’s uniquely arresting color isn’t a quirk of man-made chemistry. Tom Moses, GIA executive vice president and chief laboratory and research officer, was involved with the original cutting of the Ocean Dream more than 20 years ago and has examined and graded it several times since then. “Blue-green diamonds are extraordinarily rare because their color depends on a very specific set of natural conditions,” he told Observer. In diamonds like the Ocean Dream, the blue-green hue is caused by exposure to natural radiation near the earth’s surface over millions of years—a geological happening so uncommon that no other natural diamond of comparable color and size has ever been recorded. In fact, the Ocean Dream is the largest diamond of its kind graded by the GIA since the organization’s founding in 1931.

Only a few hundred notable natural blue diamonds exist globally; perhaps only 300 green diamonds exceed one carat. Stones possessing both blue and green hues are exceedingly scarce. (The Ocean Paradise Diamond, owned by the Nahshonov Group, is another natural blue-green diamond, but it’s nowhere near as deeply hued and just a fraction of the carat weight.) These stones are difficult to work with, according to Moses, specifically because of the properties that give them their remarkable coloration: “The radiation most often does not penetrate entirely through the diamond, which makes the cutting process especially delicate, as the cutter must preserve the color while also balancing shape, weight and brilliance.”

In its rough form—11.7 carats, extracted in Central Africa in the 1990s—the Ocean Dream was acquired by the Cora Diamond Corporation in New York, which commissioned master cutter Mazhar Saylam to shape it into a modified triangular brilliant. The stone made its public debut in a Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History exhibition, “The Splendor of Diamonds” in 2003, where it was displayed alongside six of the most extraordinary diamonds on earth: the Moussaieff Red, the De Beers Millennium Star, the Pumpkin Diamond, the blue Heart of Eternity, the vivid yellow Allnatt diamond and the Steinmetz Pink Star. After the exhibition closed, the Ocean Dream disappeared from public view, surfacing only occasionally in collector conversations.

The striking result in Geneva is what happens when a stone with no comparables returns to a market that has spent more than a decade remembering it. The Christie’s result nearly doubles the $9.8 million it fetched in the auction house’s 2014 Magnificent Jewels sale, setting a new world record for a blue-green diamond. “The result at Christie’s reflects continued demand for exceptional natural colored diamonds,” Moses said. “Collectors at this level are looking for gems with characteristics and stories that are beautiful and unique.”

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After nearly three decades at the helm of the New Museum, outgoing director Lisa Phillips deserved a sendoff worthy of the institution, and in late April, at Cipriani South Street, she got one. At the New Museum’s Spring Gala, following a cocktail hour featuring sets by DJ Stretch Armstrong, former Whitney director Adam Weinberg and artist Maya Lin spoke to Phillips’ singular contributions to the art world, and then the legendary John Waters (yes, that John Waters) led the packed room in a toast. After remarks by artistic director Massimiliano Gioni, auctioneer Phyllis Kao led a lively paddle round—lots included work by Jack Pierson and Billy Sullivan and editions by Rashid Johnson and Cindy Sherman—that helped raise a substantial sum that will go toward supporting the museum’s mission.

The guest list read like the syllabus in a master class in contemporary art. Legends Barbara Kruger, Marilyn Minter, Judy Chicago and Joan Jonas shared the room with artists Dana Schutz, John Currin, Mickalene Thomas, Derrick Adams, Hank Willis Thomas, Anne Imhof and Derek Fordjour, among many others. Museum and gallery world heavyweights also—unsurprisingly—turned out in force, from Brooklyn Museum director Anne Pasternak and former Hammer Museum director Ann Philbin to Studio Museum in Harlem director Thelma Golden, curator Cecilia Alemani, gallerists Jeffrey Deitch and Nicola Vassell. Honorary Committee Chair Chloë Sevigny (in a flowered Chloé sheath that matched the blooming tablescapes) presided over a crowd that also included actors John Leguizamo and Matt Dillon, writer and critic Hilton Als, artist and Pioneer Works founder Dustin Yellin, filmmaker Catherine Gund and sundry arts patrons and cultural philanthropists. Gala chairs Charlotte Feng Ford, Shelley Fox Aarons, Mitzi Eisenberg, Patricia Blanchet, Stephanie Horton, Richard Mumby and Jamie Singer Soros kept the evening running with practiced ease.

The night closed with an energetic performance by OG punk rock goddess Deborah Harry, which felt particularly fitting because the New Museum under Lisa Phillips was never content with the merely good when the genuinely extraordinary was available.

Chloë Sevigny

Yvonne Force Villareal, Marilyn Minter and Joel Wachs

Massimiliano Gioni and Cecilia Alemani

Joan Jonas and Judy Chicago

Lisa Phillips and Barbara Kruger

Jamie Singer Soros and Robert Soros

Clifford Ross and Catherine Gund

Mickalene Thomas and Latham Thomas

John Leguizamo

Matt Dillon and Adam Weinberg

Miles Greenberg and Lisa Phillips

Derek Fordjour and Dustin Yellin

Devon Teuscher and Anne Imhof

Debbie Rechler

Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, Hank Willis Thomas, Abigail Ross Goodman and Adam Lewis

Carly Murphy, Noah Horowitz and Bridget Finn

Ingrid Gilbert

Michael Chuapoco and Derrick Adams

Noa Wynn and Dana Prussian Haney

Vivian Crockett

Shohei Shigematsu

Salome Asega

John Currin, Lisa Yuskavage, Derek Fordjour and Rashid Johnson

Thelma Golden and Lisa Phillips

Jane Smith, Cristina BanBan and Anna Bruder Sharpe

Randi Levine and Jeffery E. Levine

Cati Vlad and Morgan Aguiar-Lucander

Brooke Garber Neidich and J. K. Brown

David B. Heller, Talia Mota, Dustin Yellin and Doreen Small

Bonita Stewart, Adam Goujjane and Miyoung Lee

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British billionaire and art collector Joe Lewis made his fortune in currency trading and went on to own the Tottenham Hotspur football club and a string of other enterprises. He purportedly approaches collecting with the same selectivity and market focus as he approached business, while also finding inspiration in his early encounters with art. “Lewis grew up amid the creative ferment of post-war London, the city of Bacon, Freud and Kossoff, where the School of London first ignited his passion as a collector,” Sotheby’s chairman Oliver Barker said in a statement. That passion eventually matured into an interest in figuration, specifically, and he built “one of the world’s most important private collections of Modern art.”

Over roughly 25 years, Lewis and his daughter Vivienne assembled a museum-quality trove of modern figurative painting, acquiring works by Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Amedeo Modigliani, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Gustave Caillebotte, Chaïm Soutine and Pablo Picasso, among others. In June, major works from that collection are headed to Sotheby’s in London in the Masterpieces From the Lewis Collection auction, which could become the most valuable single-owner sale ever held in the U.K. Notably, while Lewis is letting go of quite a few works, he and his family are not hitting pause on collecting. “While this public sale represents a significant staging post, our journey as collectors is far from over—we remain committed to the avant-garde painters of today, much of whose work is informed by the artists showcased here,” a spokesperson for the Lewis Collection said in a statement.

The presale estimate of £150 million to £200 million puts it ahead of the Pauline Karpidas sale at Sotheby’s last September, which totaled £101 million with fees. And a March auction of just four works from the Lewis Collection—drawn from the School of London and including pieces by Bacon, Freud and Leon Kossoff—brought £35.8 million with fees, suggesting the market’s appetite for this material is very much intact. Many of the works going on the block in June have not appeared on the open market in decades; some never have. Here’s what to watch:

Gustav Klimt’s 1902 portrait of Bildnis Gertrud Loew (est. £20-30 million)

One of Vienna’s most celebrated physicians, Dr. Anton Loew, commissioned Klimt to paint his daughter, 19-year-old Gertrud Loew. The resulting portrait, which shows her wreathed in gossamer fabric, was described by Ludwig von Hevesi, the preeminent Viennese art critic of the era, as “the most sweet-scented poetry the palette is able to create.” Klimt’s full-length society portraits are among the rarest objects in the art market—in the last 25 years, only five significant examples have appeared at auction, each exceeding its high estimate, often by a wide margin. In November 2025, Bildnis Elisabeth Lederer sold for $236.4 million at Sotheby’s New York, achieving the second-highest price ever for a work of art at auction. Two years earlier, Dame mit Fächer sold at Sotheby’s London for £85.3 million, becoming the most valuable artwork of any kind ever sold in Europe. Bildnis Gertrud Loew will likely follow suit.

Amedeo Modigliani’s Homme à la pipe (Le notaire de Nice) (est. £12-18 million)

By 1918, the year this work was painted, Modigliani had perhaps two years to live. He and Jeanne Hébuterne had quit Paris for Nice, where his dealer Léopold Zborowski hoped the Mediterranean air might do for his tuberculosis what medicine could not. Away from Montparnasse, Modigliani found new subjects among the locals—workers, farmers, tradesmen, and the man he called the ‘Notary of Nice’ sits in a dark suit and black cap, pipe in hand, his elongated face and almond eyes unmistakably Modigliani’s. Homme à la pipe (Le notaire de Nice) has not been displayed publicly in nearly 50 years.

Egon Schiele’s Danaë (est. £12-18 million)

Schiele was 19 when he painted Danaë, and the work emerged from a moment when the artist was pulling away from the academic tradition toward something rawer and more psychologically exposed. The painting bears the clear influence of Klimt’s 1907 treatment of the same subject, but where Klimt’s feels ornamental, Schiele’s feels human. In May 2017, Danaë, carrying an estimate of $30-40 million, was withdrawn from a Sotheby’s New York sale and is returning to the block in London with an adjusted estimate, making it one of the most closely watched lots of the season.

Francis Bacon’s Two Studies for Self-Portrait (est. £8-12 million)

George Dyer, whom Bacon painted more than 40 times, died in a Paris hotel room in 1971, just two days before the opening of Bacon’s major retrospective at the Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais. His death would send Bacon into the most emotionally raw and ambitious period of his career. Two Studies for Self-Portrait, painted six years later at the height of his international fame, is emblematic of the artist’s grief: two life-scale apparitions, pink and bruised purple, dissolving into darkness, mouths mangled, eyes sealed shut in pain. Exhibited widely across Europe and Asia during Bacon’s lifetime, the duo of works was preceded by a related self-portrait from the Lewis Collection that sold in March for £16 million, double its low estimate.

Gustave Caillebotte’s Portrait de Paul Hugot (est. £3.5–4.5 million)

When Caillebotte submitted his monumental Portrait de Paul Hugot (1878) to the Fifth Impressionist Exhibition in 1880, the critic Armand Silvestre called the work “by far his best piece.” Hugot was Caillebotte’s close friend, neighbor and one of his most committed patrons; he amassed one of the largest private collections of the artist’s work ever assembled. The work appeared in the recent Musée d’Orsay retrospective devoted to Caillebotte, but has not been seen on the market in over 30 years. In fact, fewer than a half dozen major works of this kind by the artist have ever come to auction, and the painting’s estimate reflects that scarcity.

Lucian Freud’s Woman in a Grey Sweater (est. £3-4 million)

Freud painted this quietly commanding portrait of Susanna Chancellor (a friend and frequent muse) over several months in 1987 and 1988, and the artist’s familiarity with her shows—there is a sense of genuine presence and of connection that isn’t always present in his works. Woman in a Grey Sweater passed through the Saatchi Collection before Lewis acquired it in 1997, and in the years since, has been shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tate Britain, Whitechapel Gallery, LA MOCA and the Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid.

“Right from the outset, we have been drawn to art that reflects what it means to be human: to works that capture the people who inhabited these artists’ worlds—their friends, muses, lovers and contemporaries—but in very different ways that embody the ambitions and preoccupations of each artist,” the collection spokesperson added. A selection of Joe Lewis’s holdings is currently on view at Sotheby’s New York, giving American collectors an early look at material that, in several cases, has been out of circulation for a generation.

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The Brooklyn Academy of Music has never been conventional, and the same is true of its much-anticipated spring benefit gala, the annual BAM Ball. Earlier this week, a culturally clued-in crowd convened in the cavernous Adam E. Max Gathering Space for a monochromatically outfitted evening that moved from cocktails and the step-and-repeat through to a seated dinner and speechifying and finally, the New York premiere of Robert Wilson’s acclaimed Moby Dick—a production that transforms Herman Melville’s saga of obsession and vengeance via tart dialogue and soaring ballads by British singer-songwriter Anna Calvi.

The evening delivered more than its fair share of memorable highlights, among them the tribute to honoree Gabriel Pizzi, who was recognized for his leadership of BAM’s Endowment Trust and was met with a standing ovation. The evening’s most moving moment, however, came when choreographer Lucinda Childs accepted on behalf of late artistic visionary Robert Wilson, recalling in her remarks how Wilson would write thank-you notes to artists and collaborators after attending opening nights. The dinner hour ended with Watermill board chair William Cambell leading gala-goers in a collective chant: “We miss you, Bob. We love you, Bob!”

The guest list was a precise distillation of the BAM universe—intellectually serious, artistically omnivorous and incapable of a dull conversation. Political strategist Huma Abedin, St. Ann’s Warehouse founder Susan Feldman, architect Charles Renfro and producer and philanthropist Fabiola Beracasa Beckman shared the room with Grammy-nominated composer and songwriter Clyde Lawrence, poet and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib and interdisciplinary artist Helga Davis. From the theater world came opera director Julie Taymor, choreographers Lucinda Childs and Annie B Parson, director Annie Dorsen, actor and director Paul Lazar and Tony-nominated director, actor and musician Whitney White. The screen contingent was equally well-cast: Severance actor John Turturro, Game of Thrones alumnus Robert Aramayo and comedian and actor Jaboukie Young-White held their own in a space where the competition for most interesting person present was pleasantly stiff. Fashion entrepreneur Cynthia Rowley rounded out this well-heeled crowd.

By the time DJ Miss Hap kicked off the afterparty (where a surprise set from Talib Kweli sent the crowd into a frenzy), the evening had raised over $1.25 million in support of BAM’s mission. Not a bad night’s work.

Carla Shen

Clyde Lawrence

Karen Brooks Hopkins and John Turturro

George Sheldon and Yasuko Noguchi

Jaboukie Young-White

Will Davis, Amy Cassello, Lindsay Pizzi, Hilary Jager and Annie MacRae

Charmaine Warren

James Sheldon and Janel Callon

Elizabeth Holtzman and Tim Sebunya

Emilia Sherifova, Raj Keswani, Kabir Ahuja and Ameena Chaudhry

Ezra Max, Diane Max and Ros Shinkle

Jake Friedman and Kristen McElwain

Donna Augustin and Cynthia Rowley

Alex Ching, Roni De Toledo, Jim Wilentz, John Buttrick and Nora De Toledo

Serge Laurent and Virginie Bos

Daniel Gortler and Charles Renfro

Huma Abedin and Fabiola Beracasa Beckman

Alex Ching and John Buttrick

William Campbell, Edward Tyler Nahem and Tanya Minhas

Carla Shen and Lindsay Pizzi

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There is something fitting about a ballet organization kicking off its annual springtime gala with a world-class performance and ending it with a packed dancefloor. Ballet Hispánico has always approached its benefits much like it approaches the art form it champions: with an energy that’s creative, joyful and impossible to look away from. Last week, more than 330 dance enthusiasts, philanthropists, civic leaders and tastemakers gathered across two of New York’s most storied venues for the company’s 56th Anniversary Gala.

The perfectly choreographed evening was a study in beautiful transitions. At New York City Center, guests moved from the carpet and cocktail hour to a performance of MUJERES: Women in Motion, featuring work by three Latina choreographers—Cassi Abranches, Stephanie Martinez and gala honoree Annabelle Lopez Ochoa—each of whom approaches Latino identity and lived experience through a distinctly contemporary lens, producing work that feels both culturally rooted and of the moment.

From there, gala-goers made their way to the Plaza for awards, tributes and a Latin-inflected seated dinner. Lopez Ochoa, a Belgian-Colombian choreographer who has built one of the most distinctive bodies of work in ballet today, went on to receive the 2026 Artistic Inspiración Award. She was joined in the evening’s honors by Donald B. Verrilli, Jr., the 46th Solicitor General of the United States under President Barack Obama, who received the company’s 2026 Civic Inspiración Award.

The guest list was as richly layered as the program itself. Alongside the honorees, the crowd at the Plaza reflected the breadth of Ballet Hispánico’s reach across culture, philanthropy and civic life. Spotted in the crowd were cultural commissioner Diya Vij, State Senator Jose M. Serrano and Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal; New York City Center president Michael S. Rosenberg and Howard Gilman Foundation president and CEO Laura Aden; producer Kate Lear and storied arts patron Judith-Ann Corrente; Tony and Olivier Award-winning choreographer Sergio Trujillo and actor Ismael Cruz Córdova; fashion designers Carlos Campos and Megan Key; and performer Prima Love.

By the time all was said and done, the room—which also included numerous choreographers and dancers—had raised more than $1,465,000 in support of Ballet Hispánico’s artistic, educational and community outreach programs, including $265,000 dedicated specifically to scholarships for students of the transformative Ballet Hispánico School. After a short program of performances by the school’s talented young dancers, the Spanish Harlem Orchestra took to the stage, and guests took to the dance floor. The night’s conclusion was illustrative of how Ballet Hispánico has always operated: by moving people first, and simply letting the generosity follow.

Judith Corrente and Amir Baldwin

Eduardo Vilaro and Annabelle Lopez Ochoa

Matthew Ford and Sergio Trujillo

Auri Fenouil and Melissa Alvarez Downing

Thierry Blannchard and Cassi Abranches

Prima Love

Daniel LePook and Kate Lear

Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, Stephanie Martinez, Cassi Abranches and Marianela Boan

Donald Verrilli, Jr. and Brad Hoylman-Sigal

Ismael Cruz Córdova

Sara Lange, Patrick Muhlen and Brae Blackley

Eduardo Vilaro, Judith Ann Corrente, Page Ashley, Samuel Gelbert and Patrick Muhlan

Matthew Ford, Eduardo Vilaro and Dr. Lucky Church

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Art fair fatigue usually starts to set in just before May, which is ironic given that May is one of the busiest months in the spring art calendar. Or maybe they’re just all busy now. There were, as always, loads of April art fairs, but even February’s art fair calendar was packed. Like it or not, art is a global affair, and dealers in formerly less-active parts of the world are catching up, making traveling the art fair circuit an increasingly year-round occupation. What sets May apart, however, isn’t that there are so many art fairs—when are there not, at this point—but that so many are right here in New York, a quick subway ride from Observer’s headquarters.

They call it Frieze Week, but maybe that should be New York City art month, given that the Blue Chip art fair attracts a global audience of art lovers to the Big Apple who then stick around for the many, many art happenings still running—fairs and otherwise—long after that fair closes its doors. Here’s what you need to know to plan your month.

Our May 2026 Art Fair Guide

CONDUCTOR 2026

April 29 – May 3

Last year, Powerhouse Arts set the stage for a meaningful recalibration of the art fair circuit with the soft launch of CONDUCTOR: Art Fair of the Global Majority. This year, the fair makes its debut in Brooklyn under the direction of Adriana Farietta (former deputy director of the Armory Show) with 27 galleries from across Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Oceania and Indigenous Nations and 17 special projects, plus a robust conversation series. This year’s exhibitors include Galería Extra (Mexico), Carmo Johnson Projects (Brazil), Blouin Division (Canada), Where Art. Works (Saudi Arabia) and AWL Gallery (Spain), among others. Not to be missed, CONDUCTOR will offer an exclusive preview of a select group of artists presenting at the 2026 Venice Biennale: Annalee Davis (Main Exhibition); Tammy Nguyen (Main Exhibition); RojoNegro (Mexico Pavilion); Beya Gille Gacha (Cameroon Pavilion); and Bugarin + Castle (Scottish Pavilion).

Aotearoa Art Fair 2026

April 30 – May 3

Aotearoa Art Fair may have dropped the Auckland Art Fair name in 2021, but it has lost none of its ambition to serve as New Zealand’s main stage for contemporary art. Returning this year to the Viaduct Events Centre, you can expect the fair will draw more than 10,000 collectors, curators and art lovers who are willing to travel for a deeper look at the artistic traditions and contemporary voices shaping Aotearoa and its neighbors. Rather than play copycat to larger fairs, Aotearoa Art Fair leans into the region’s distinct cultural terrain, offering a lively program that blends performances, sculptures, workshops and talks.

Clio Art Fair 2026

May 7-10 / 14-17

Observer once suggested that visitors to Clio Art Fair could “expect more outsider work, maybe less expensive pieces and artists who are actually down to talk to their audiences.” True or not, Clio does tend to live up to its reputation as the “anti-fair”—in a good way. The work on view is by artists from around the world who don’t have exclusive gallery representation, so it can be more eclectic, riskier and overall more exciting. It’s also (sometimes) less expensive, with some price points in the hundreds versus the hundreds of thousands. Fun fact: Clio Art Fair was one of the first to accept cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum as payment.

PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai 2026

May 7-10

Since its founding in 2014, PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai has become the leading platform for contemporary photography in China, responding to a rising interest in the medium among collectors and embedding itself firmly in Shanghai’s cultural landscape. The fair, launched by Scott Gray of Creo Arts (who also founded the World Photography Organization and the Sony World Photography Awards) has steadily expanded its influence with a cross-disciplinary approach that highlights the evolving voices shaping visual culture. Drawing more than 30,000 visitors each year, PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai brings together national and international galleries and offers a layered program that includes exhibitions, awards and extensive talks. Initiatives like Insights, launched in 2016 to explore key themes in photography through curated exhibitions, and Spectrum, introduced in 2023 to spotlight the role of museums and institutions, have helped broaden the fair’s scope beyond the commercial.

ART INTERNATIONAL ZURICH 2026

May 8-10

Since 1999, ART INTERNATIONAL ZURICH has been a steady, if sometimes under-the-radar, platform for contemporary art, assembling an eclectic mix of artists, galleries and collectors from Switzerland, South Korea, Malaysia, Italy, Zimbabwe and beyond. With exhibitors from 25 countries participating in this year’s edition in the Puls 5 foundry hall, the fair promises a broad range of painting, sculpture, photography, digital art and installations, without leaning too hard on any one genre. ART INTERNATIONAL ZURICH has long pitched itself as a venue for dialogue as much as commerce, and this year’s program stays true to form, with projects tackling cultural identity, sustainability, feminism, urban life and intercultural exchange.

Fridge Art Fair 2026

May 13-17

Launched in 2013 by artist Eric Ginsburg as an antidote to the corporate gloss of New York’s larger fairs, Fridge Art Fair returns during Frieze Week with its signature mix of accessibility, whimsy and sheer unpredictability. True to form, Fridge offers booths starting at just $225 and free admission, preserving the scrappy, welcoming atmosphere that has made it a cult favorite among artists and collectors alike. With playful cocktails, bright colors and interactive experiences layered throughout, Fridge continues to prove that in a week dominated by million-dollar deals, there is still plenty of room for weirdness, heart and fun.

Esther Art Fair 2026

May 12-16

After making its debut in 2024, Esther Art Fair is already rewriting the rules for what an art fair can look like—and more importantly, what it doesn’t need to. Founded by gallerists Margot Samel and Olga Temnikova, Esther skips the booths, the branding and the business-as-usual, opting instead for a collaborative exhibition model that feels closer to a curated group show than a trade event. The third edition, dubbed Esther III, returns to the Estonian House with what has become its signature focus on intimacy, experimentation and flexibility.

Frieze New York 2026

May 13-17

Frieze New York returns to The Shed this spring, once again anchoring a citywide week of art world gravity that spills well beyond the confines of Hudson Yards and promising to deliver a tightly curated snapshot of contemporary art’s global circuitry. As always, the fair’s influence extends well beyond its walls, setting the tone for satellite fairs and exhibitions, performances and panels across the city. As Observer correspondent Max McCormack aptly noted, “Frieze New York—much like its Los Angeles, London, and Seoul counterparts—offers an opportunity to discover, to see old friends and to gain new insights around what’s culturally significant in art today.”

NADA New York 2026

May 13-17

Now in its 12th edition, NADA New York continues to carve out a crucial space for younger galleries, artist-run spaces and non-profits that might be priced out or passed over by larger commercial fairs. Its return to the Starrett-Lehigh Building in West Chelsea puts it squarely in Frieze territory and in the center of the gallery district. NADA has always prioritized accessibility in both programming and ethos, with ASL interpreters for talks and a steady commitment to showcasing work that’s thoughtful, fresh and often under the radar. NADA Presents will return with a full slate of talks, performances and events, alongside the TD Bank Curated Spotlight, this year organized by Anthony Elms, artistic director at the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh

Future Fair 2026

May 14-16

Future Fair, first conceived during the turbulence of 2020 and firmly rooted in New York by 2021, has spent the past five years carving out a space for galleries and collectors who prefer collaboration to spectacle. Designed as a capsule-sized event, the fair was built to grant sustainable visibility to young dealers while making the notoriously opaque art market feel a little less forbidding to a new generation of buyers. In a 2025 interview with Observer, co-founder Rebeca Laliberte described wanting to create a platform polished enough to satisfy seasoned collectors yet accessible enough to engage younger audiences looking for a foothold, with direct collaboration between exhibitors at the heart of its long-term strategy for building a stronger, more resilient art community.

Independent Art Fair 2026

May 14-17

Independent returns this year with a new home at Pier 36 on New York’s Lower East Side, which will play host to exhibitions by more than 100 artists presented by 76 participating galleries—nearly half of which are participating in the fair for the first time. Independent Debuts, the fair’s curatorial initiative spotlighting artists who have had no more than one previous solo show in New York and have never exhibited at a fair, is back. New this year are the sculptural activations in strategic locations across the fair by Francis Upritchard (Anton Kern Gallery), Yoshikazu Tanaka and Kuniko Kinoto (ATLA) and Gretchen Bender (Sprüth Magers). First-timers to the fair include New York City’s own Spencer Brownstone Gallery, Kiang Malingue, David Peter Francis, Superhouse, OSMOS and Post Times.

1-54 New York 2026

May 14-17

Since its founding in 2013 by Touria El Glaoui, 1-54 has grown from a London experiment into the definitive gathering place for contemporary African art, pulling together galleries, collectors and institutions from around the world. At fairs in London, Marrakech and (in the Starrett-Lehigh Building in Chelsea) New York City, artworks are tastefully curated to highlight the vibrancy of a scene in perpetual re-invention. “We are happy to be different in New York, to attract different types of galleries and a different type of diaspora,” founding director Touria El Glaoui told Observer in 2025. “In New York, we have a group of galleries that often present more African American artists—sometimes African-Caribbean artists… what is very exciting is that you’re tapping into a large pool of African-American collectors there that we are not engaged with in London or in Marrakech. This is very important to us.”

Affordable Art Fair Austin 2026

May 15-17

This year, Will Ramsay’s Affordable Art Fair returns to Austin’s Palmer Events Center with a selection of booths mounted by local, national, and international galleries showcasing contemporary art for the rest of us. The fair was initially launched in London in 1999 with a mission of democratizing the art market by making contemporary art accessible and affordable to a wider audience. Today, the Affordable Art Fair is a global phenomenon, with fairs in cities all over the world offering a diverse array of artworks to collectors and art lovers, including paintings, sculpture and photography, with prices capped at $12,000 to ensure the fair delivers on its stated goal of art market affordability. While the Affordable Art Fair lineup doesn’t typically feature “celebrity” artists, the fairs have become a significant platform for emerging artists and galleries to gain exposure and connect with new collectors. They’re also just a lot of fun, with a signature Friday night party and family activities on Saturday morning.

Art Dubai 2026

May 15-17

The big fair news last month was the war in Iran forcing Art Dubai to move its 20th edition to May. Launched in 2007, Art Dubai rapidly established itself as a luminary event on the international art circuit—a crossroads where the traditional and the avant-garde aspects of Middle East, North Africa and South Asia’s cultures converge in displays of artistic prowess. Under the direction of Benedetta Ghione, Pablo del Val, Alexie Glass-Kantor and Dunja Gottweis, the fair has blossomed into a global platform, showcasing displays mounted by an impressive assembly of galleries from dozens of countries, each bringing a slice of their unique cultural heritage to the fore.

TEFAF New York 2026

May 15-19

Since launching its New York edition in 2017, TEFAF has established itself as the fair where museum-quality works meet the city’s sharpest collectors, set against the imposing backdrop of the Park Avenue Armory. Originally founded in Europe in 1985 through the merger of Pictura and De Antiquairs International, and renamed TEFAF in 1988, the fair carries a level of art-historical rigor that sets it apart from flashier counterparts. Big names like Gagosian, David Zwirner, Gladstone and Kasmin are typically a given—as are works by Old Masters—but what distinguishes TEFAF is the atmosphere of serious connoisseurship, with curated exhibitions not just in the Wade Thompson Drill Hall but throughout the Armory’s period rooms.

Art Warsaw Villa Róż 2026

May 21-24

This year, Art Warsaw brings more than 50 international galleries to a historic 19th-century palace—formerly the British Embassy—in what is a pleasant but not unexpected twist, as the fair is known for installing contemporary art in unconventional architectural spaces across the city. The roster reflects the fair’s focus on artists and galleries with connections to Central and Eastern Europe (and Poland, more specifically); according to the fair’s organizers, Warsaw’s potential as a leading cultural center in the region is driven by the highest concentration of private contemporary art galleries in this part of Europe. This latest edition of the fair builds on the success of previous editions, including Art Warsaw Miodowa (2025) and NADA Villa Warsaw (2024-2025), both of which attracted plenty of international attention and saw strong attendance.

FOCUS Art Fair New York 2026

May 21-24

Three years after its New York debut, FOCUS Art Fair is back, staking out 548 West between Chelsea and Hudson River Park with its mix of traditional media and boundary-pushing digital work from Asia. Organized by Paris-based curatorial agency HongLee, the fair first built momentum with editions in Paris and London before importing its so-called “sustainable art fair experience” to New York, where it drew an impressive 50,000 visitors in 2024 by offering what FOCUS bills as “a museum-like experience in an art fair setting” and promising a curatorial approach that blends painting, sculpture and photography with NFTs, digital art and immersive, multi-sensory installations (this year’s theme is “Human–Technology Coexistence”). It is a distinctly fresh and idiosyncratic fair, intent on crossing the lines between virtual and physical worlds without sacrificing academic rigor.

Beijing Dangdai Art Fair 2026

May 21-24

Beijing Dangdai, or Beijing Contemporary, returns to the National Agricultural Exhibition Center for its eighth edition this May, once again serving as a central pillar of the city’s burgeoning “Beijing Art Season.” This fair offers a sweeping look at contemporary art across mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan in multiple sectors and thematic sections, exploring the structural ecology of the art world. Positioned alongside Beijing International Design Week, Gallery Week Beijing and ART021 BEIJING, the fair continues to build momentum for the capital as a major hub on the global art calendar.

RMB Latitudes Art Fair 2026

May 22-24

Billing itself as “an oasis of contemporary African art,” RMB Latitudes Art Fair will return this year to the three-acre Shepstone Gardens in Johannesburg for its fourth edition, reaffirming its position as a leading platform for contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora. Like other art fairs, it has a program of exhibitions, talks, film screenings and more, but unlike other fairs, its unique indoor-outdoor approach stages the artworks in unexpected environments. After strolling through the great hall with its marble columns, you can encounter works in harmony with the site’s beautiful gardens.

ARCOlisboa 2026

May 28-31

ARCOlisboa returns to the Cordoaria Nacional in 2026, bringing together 86 galleries from 19 countries selected by the fair’s Organizing Committee for a program that remains rooted in Portuguese artistic discourse while expanding outward through international connections. While much of the work on view is either by Portuguese artists or those tied to Lusophone contexts, the fair’s curated sections push the scope further. Alongside a lively general program featuring several solo projects, ARCOlisboa also offers a robust slate of other programming, including the new Archipelago of Art Histories project, which “brings together artists committed to using inherited forms to question how knowledge is transmitted.”

Art Vancouver 2026

May 28-31

Art Vancouver, Western Canada’s largest international contemporary art fair, opened its doors for the first time in 2015 and quickly established itself as a must-attend event in the international art calendar. Founded by Lisa Wolfin, this April art fair is on the smaller side, drawing a crowd of 10,000 visitors annually to the Vancouver Convention Centre, but it typically attracts more than 100 local and international galleries. Now in its 10th edition, Art Vancouver is lauded for its commitment to showcasing a diverse range of artistic expression, from cutting-edge contemporary art to more traditional works, and for its engaging supplemental programming that includes the much-anticipated Art Walks, live artmaking demonstrations, the fast-paced Art Masters competition and a speaker series that provides insight into both artists’ creative processes and art market dynamics.

Even more May art fairs in 2026

As always, what’s above doesn’t represent the totality of the May art fair calendar in 2026—there are always plenty of smaller, boutique and niche art fairs happening around the world. Here’s a quick roundup of several more art events you might want to check out this month.

The Superfair Washington DC 2026

April 30 – May 3

ARTMUC 2026 (Munich)

May 1-3

The Other Art Fair 2026 (Dallas)

May 7-10

Lausanne Art Fair 2026 (Switzerland)

May 7-10

Ceramic Art London 2026

May 8-10

Salon Zürcher 2026 (New York City)

May 11-17

Art Thessaloniki 2026 (Greece)

May 14-17

Photo London 2026

May 14-17

VIMA Art Fair 2026 (Cyprus)

May 15-17

Salt Lake Art Show 2026

May 15-17

Art Busan 2026

May 22-24

art3f Dortmund 2026 (Germany)

May 22-24

Art021 Beijing 2026

May 22-25

The Phair 2026 (Turin)

May 22-24

art3f Courtrai 2026 (Belgium)

May 29-31

The New York Academy of Art’s annual benefit is the rare gala evening that skips the ballroom formality and puts the art front and center. Last week, guests with cocktails in hand meandered through the Academy’s studios, engaging directly with its latest cohort of talented MFA candidates, who showed off paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints they’ve developed over the course of an intensive year. This is one of the more genuinely moving evenings on New York’s cultural calendar—part party and part preview of the works you’ll be seeing on gallery walls and in auction houses before too long.

The guest list reflected the Academy’s particular place in New York’s art ecosystem: serious enough to draw cultural heavy hitters but lively enough to pull a crowd beyond the patron class. Art world professionals Barbara Guggenheim, Rose Dergan and Gabriel Florenz mingled with philanthropists Nicole Salmasi, George Sard and Susan Wasserstein, while patrons and collectors Bill Jacob and Sharon Jacob, Stephanie French and Suzanne Cochran kept company with a host of artists: Will Cotton, Vincent Desiderio, Neil Jenney, Alyssa Monks, Carla Shen and Pioneer Works Dustin Yellin among them. Fashion designers Nicole Miller and Cynthia Rowley, photographer Sophie Elgort, television producer and writer Bob Cochran, media personality Kit Keenan and actor William Abadie rounded out a crowd that read, appropriately, like a cross-section of the city’s creative and philanthropic life.

At the conclusion of the cocktail hour, glamorously looming, color-coordinated stilt-walkers pointed the crowd toward a seated dinner at tables framed by hand-painted floral murals. Actor Chris Hanke led a spirited auction round, and the room raised over $900,000 in support of the Academy’s student scholarships and public programming—a huge win for the independent graduate school, which relies on exactly that kind of generosity to ensure access for talented artists from diverse backgrounds. (We’d wager that most attendees felt the pull of the paddle.)

Beyond the studio encounters, the evening’s most meaningful moments centered on this year’s honorees. Acclaimed actor and longtime Academy supporter Alan Cumming received the night’s tribute alongside philanthropists Eileen Guggenheim and Russell Wilkinson, a co-founder of the Academy and a longtime trustee. Their daughter, Isabel Wilkinson Schor, shared stories that spoke to the hands-on nature of her parents’ decades of dedication to the institution in a tribute that reminded the room why these evenings exist in the first place.

Neil Jenney, Dustin Yellin and Chloe Chiasson

Eileen Guggenheim and Alan Cumming

Christopher Hanke

Ann Billingsley, Julie Lanning and Bill Jacob

Alan Patricof and Barbara Guggenheim

Cynthia Rowley and Laurence Milstein

Daria Frazzini

Axel Stawski and Gaila Stawski

Marilyn Kirschner

Sharon Jacob, Cat O’Neal and Nicole Salmasi

Trevyn McGowan, Julian McGowan and Chloe Chiasson

Charlie Walk and Lauran Walk

Grimanesa Amoros

Nicole Miller

Richard Booth and Indira Cesarine

Stephanie French and Kylie Manning

Lauren Manix

Julien Pradels and Michael Young.

Emma Saville

Dustin Yellin

Holly Lowen and Eric Viner

Carla Shen

William Abadie and Sierra Merda

Laurence Milstein, Thomas Isen, Bridget Gless Keller and Dyllon Young

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Year after year, the Youth America Grand Prix gala fills the David H. Koch Theater with the kind of cross-sector guest list that only ballet can conjure. This year’s Stars of Today Meet the Stars of Tomorrow Gala drew more than 300 guests to the grand Promenade for a an evening of dinner and dancing overseen by creative chair Marcella Guarino Hymowitz (wife of billionaire Gregg S. Hymowitz) and co-chaired by entrepreneur Jordana Blitz, fitness influencer Isaac Boots, Natasha Caronna, Colleen Crivello, Courtney Davis, Dotty Giordano, Aly Gradone, author Sarah Hoover, Lindsay Kraus, Jennifer Lipschultz, Josephine Lee, Kamie Lightburn, Jeffrey O’Brecht, Samantha Pariente, Amanda Perrin, Grace Brea Pomeranc, Emily Reifel, Priya Shukla, Eliza Stein, Daniela W. Tisch, Barbara Tober, Virginia W. Tomenson, Lesley Thompson Vecsler, Rachel Wexler and board chair Lina Wallach.

Hosting the evening was Misty Copeland, the trailblazing former American Ballet Theatre principal who remains one of the most recognizable names in dance, with Tamar Greene, Broadway’s longest-running George Washington in Hamilton. Before the night was out, Greene would bring down the room singing a tiny excerpt from the show—”Remember from here on in, history has its eyes on you”—a line that landed with particular weight in a room full of young dancers who hope to someday follow in their idols’ footsteps.

The evening honored two women whose connections to ballet run deep. LoveShackFancy founder and creative director Rebecca Hessel Cohen received recognition for her work at the intersection of fashion and dance culture, while former ABT dancer Melanie Hamrick—who also contributed an original choreography to the evening’s program, Rainbow, set to a special arrangement of The Rolling Stones’ “Like a Rainbow” by her partner Mick Jagger—was feted for her own contributions to the art form.

For the third consecutive year, guests had the opportunity to bid on absolutely stunning custom-designed pointe shoes as part of the Pointe Project, with all proceeds supporting young dancers pursuing professional careers. This year’s contributing designers included A-Morir, Alice + Olivia, All III, Ally Boggard and Mara Hoffman, Amir Taghi, Carolina Herrera, Hervé Léger by Michelle Ochs, Hope Gangloff, JK5, Lapointe, Libby Klein Art, LoveShackFancy, Michael Kors, Monse and Renna Jewels.

The guest list was a testament to YAGP’s influence. The dance world showed up in force: former ABT principals Stella Abrera, Maxim Beloserkovsky and Irina Dvorovenko mingled with ballet stars Ashley Bouder, Nieve Corrigan, Harrison Ball, Skylar Brandt (who attended with her fiancé Vladimir Rumyantsev), Katya Tolstova and Christian Zimmerman. Chelsea Clinton—a reliable presence at some of New York’s most consequential cultural gatherings—was also there, joined by a contingent that spanned Hollywood, fashion and philanthropy, including Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham, actors Brooke Adams, Tony Shalhoub, Chris Noth, Holt McCallany and rising star Demi Singleton, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills fixture Sutton Stracke, fashion designer Mara Hoffman, businesswoman Dylan Lauren, philanthropist Maria Cristina Anzola, Million Dollar Listing’s Luiza and Steve Gold, philanthropists Barbara and Gary Brandt, influencer Shannon Zhao and entrepreneur Brynn Putnam.

The main event, of course, was the performance, presented by YAGP Founder and Artistic Director Larissa Saveliev to a packed house. Guests cheered as ballerinas appeared on the balconies surrounding the Promenade before the program began in earnest. Nicoletta Manni and Timofej Adrijashenko of La Scala Ballet made their New York debuts in a pas de deux from Mauro Bigonzetti’s Caravaggio (a New York premiere) and in the classical showstopper Grand Pas Classique. Polina Semionova of Berlin State Ballet made a much-anticipated return to the YAGP stage, performing a pas de deux from Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon with partner Martin ten Kortenaar, also of the Berlin State Ballet, as well as a work set to The Dying Swan alongside Braylon Browner of So You Think You Can Dance. Christine Shevchenko and Calvin Royal III of ABT, Reece Clarke of the Royal Ballet and Roman Mejia of New York City Ballet shared the stage for Le Corsaire, and Shevchenko and Royal closed with Hamrick’s Rainbow. As is tradition, 120 YAGP finalists from this year’s international competition took the stage for a Pièce d’Occasion to cap off the evening—a beautiful reminder of exactly what the organization exists to do.

Marina Kovlylv

Stasya Generalova, Rebecca Hessel Cohen, Sarah Johnson and Paloma Chesky

Larissa Saveliev and Melanie Hamrick

Sai De Silva and Alexander Hankin

Laura Klein

Natasha Caronna, Aly Gradone and Colleen Crivello

Lola Koch and Maria Barakova

Charlotte Bickley Meller

Michael Moray, Terry Zucker and Kathy Moray

Libby Klein and Marcella Hymowitz

Fredrick Blanchard, Nicole Salmasi and Beatrice de Duervain

Jeff Bigger and Poppy Bigger

F. Murray Abraham

Janna Bullock, R. Couri Hay and Kamie Lightburn

Summer Joy and Shannon Zhao

Caridad Martinez and Ronald K. Alexander

Mackenzie Chu Robin and Skylar Chu Robin

Steve Gold and Louisa Gold

Anna Rodriguez, Maria Cristina Anzola and Joshua Lenihan

Emmie Nielsen and Cho Seward

Maxim Bel and Melanie Hamrick

Genevieve Uzamere

Richard Booth and Indira Cesarine

Stephanie Rapp

Lina Wallach and Blake Wallach

Christine Shevchenko, Maxim Bel, Irina Dvorovenko and Larissa Saveliev

Kerin Rose Gold

Daniil Simkin

Clara Wilpom and Daniela Tisch

Nicole Whidden and Joel Whidden

Laura Lobdell, Dimitri Drone, Krystn Hammond and Jose Sebastian

Irene Shen and Robbie Kestnbaum

name

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When the Detroit Institute of Arts unveiled its newly reinstalled galleries dedicated to African American art last fall, the most important change wasn’t simply curatorial—it was topographic. For decades, works by Black artists had been scattered throughout the museum or relegated to the quieter corners of the modern wing. Now, after a major rehang, they sit at the heart of the institution, steps from Diego Rivera’s massive Detroit Industry Murals, the museum’s most visited landmark, prominently placed in the institution’s narrative of American culture.

The architect of the shift is lead curator of African American art Valerie Mercer, who joined the museum in 2001 after formative years at the Studio Museum in Harlem with a mandate to transform a thinly represented area of the collection into a defining strength. At the time, the museum held only a handful of works by African American artists, but Mercer approached the task with the pragmatism of a historian, methodically acquiring pieces that would allow the museum to tell a fuller, more accurate story of American art.

In “Reimagine African American Art,” the reinstallation traces a lineage that stretches from nineteenth-century painters such as Robert S. Duncanson—a major figure in his own time who later slipped from mainstream art history—to twentieth-century innovators like Sam Gilliam. The four galleries move through key cultural moments, including the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement, while foregrounding artists whose contributions have often been sidelined in canonical surveys.

The significance of the rehang lies not only in the elevation of deserving talent but also in the culmination of a decades-long institutional recalibration. By moving African American art from the margins of the museum to its literal center, DIA has turned Mercer’s curatorial project into a permanent structural commitment. Observer recently sat down with her to discuss her role in the evolution of the museum’s collection, what she hoped to accomplish with the reinstallation and the public’s response.

DIA started adding works by African American artists to its historic collection in the 1940s. What can you tell me about the trajectory of the museum’s African American art collection, which now has more than 700 works, and how it has evolved?

When I was hired, it was with the specific goal of creating a center for African American art. The previous director recognized that the museum wasn’t doing enough to engage Detroit’s large African American community. At the time, African Americans weren’t showing up, and the director thought that if the museum had someone who specialized in African American art, it would attract people. He was familiar with my work at the Studio Museum in Harlem, and I was brought in to help improve the collection. When I arrived, there were very few pieces of African American art in the museum’s collection, and my task was to assess the collection’s strengths and weaknesses and then begin acquiring works to fill those gaps. Over the years, I’ve focused on acquiring artwork that tells the story of African American art and its contributions to American art history, which I felt was a missing link.

How did you approach building out the collection?

It was clear to me that there were major gaps in the collection and that the history of African American artists had largely been overlooked. I’ve been acquiring works steadily over the years, with the goal of showcasing African American art within the broader context of American art history. I wanted to bring attention to these artists’ contributions, which had often been erased from mainstream art history. It’s been a rewarding process, and over the years, I’ve developed a collection that reflects the richness and depth of African American art. The reinstallation, specifically, is about elevating these artists to a prominent place in the museum, where they can finally receive the recognition they deserve.

Let’s talk about the rehang and its significance. The newly reimagined galleries opened with “Reimagine African American Art,” which features works from the early 1800s through the 1980s and highlights key art historical moments, including the Harlem Renaissance, Social Realism, the art of the Civil Rights era and the Black Arts Movement. What goals drove your choices?

We’re making African American art more visible and showcasing the rich history that these artists have contributed to American art. Many of the artists featured in the exhibition have been under-recognized, but their work is crucial to understanding the history of art in the U.S. This exhibition gives visitors a chance to learn about these artists and appreciate their role in shaping American art. The exhibition is also a response to the historical erasure of African American art and artists, and it provides a space for visitors to engage with their work in a meaningful way.

Are there specific artists front and center in the reinstallation who you felt were particularly under-recognized?

All the artists in the exhibition deserve more recognition, but Robert Duncanson, in particular, stands out. He was one of the first African American artists to gain national recognition during his time, but for many years, his work was overlooked and became, in a sense, unknown—disappeared or erased. I’ve been working to bring attention to his work and the legacy of artists like him.

There’s also the example of Edmonia Lewis, an African American and Native American sculptor who was an important figure in 19th-century sculpture and depicted Native American and African American people when, traditionally, marble sculpture was associated with white figures going back to antiquity. We have these beautiful busts she did of Minnehaha and Hiawatha. She has such an interesting story—she was among the first African Americans, and also among the first Native Americans, to work in marble. Her work is often overshadowed by that of her contemporaries, but she made significant contributions to American art. We have some of her work, and there’s a retrospective of her work on at the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts.

But most of the artists in this show are really underrecognized, even now. Many of them were not really famous—they got some recognition toward the end of their lives, unfortunately. We see this all the time. Recognition often comes very late. I knew some of the living artists when I was in New York working at the Studio Museum, because they all came to the museum. When I do tours and talk about these artists, people are genuinely amazed.

How has the reinstallation been received by visitors?

The response has been overwhelmingly positive. People have told me they’ve come back multiple times since the galleries opened, specifically for “Reimagine African American Art,” and the galleries have gotten really good press. People are learning a lot, which makes me feel really good, because that’s what I want. I want people to learn this history, because it’s so important. The African American community here in Detroit is a very strong presence with a strong history, and this is part of that. There’s a genuine interest in learning more about African American art. Sometimes, for example, before we had these galleries, people would ask, what were African American artists doing during slavery? And the answer is, of course, that people like Duncanson managed to carve out careers under extraordinary circumstances. Now we’re able to show that artists like him and Henry Ossawa Tanner were really quite exceptional.

Did anything about the initial visitor response surprise you?

Collectors of African American art are familiar with the names of many of the artists in this exhibition, because they are in books, they are in surveys of African American art and their work is sought after in those circles. We ran an early focus group of people who weren’t art historians but were very familiar with this art. There’s a piece of furniture in the galleries, a sofa, by Thomas Day, an African American furniture maker from North Carolina who ran his own company and had employees. He was fantastic. I showed the sofa to the focus group, and what surprised me was how they responded to it. They were talking about it in terms of its qualities as an object, and while they liked a lot of the artwork in the show, they really loved this piece of furniture. They started talking about it almost as if it were a person. I’ve never experienced something quite like that; they were just drawn in by it.

I have to ask, do you have a favorite artwork in the show?

I always get out of that question by joking that I’m a Gemini, so it changes all the time. But honestly, as a curator, I can’t really have a favorite. If you ask me at 10 a.m., I’ll give you one answer, and by 3 p.m., it’s changed, because I kind of fall in love with each piece. Art has always just made me very happy, and I love learning about the artists. Plus, as much as I love African American art, I see a lot of art as connected. People would say to me, you studied German art, so how is it you’re now doing African American art? But I don’t approach it as something different. A number of African American artists, like Vincent Smith, would talk to me about how their work drew on German Expressionism, and I could see that in his paintings. He was a Black Arts Movement artist who concentrated on working-class people, on the Civil Rights Movement and the struggle, and his work is very expressionistic and wonderful. And nowadays, a lot of artists incorporate many cultures in their work. It’s interconnected.

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The Patek Philippe Reference 1518 occupies a specific and significant place in horological history as the first perpetual calendar chronograph wristwatch ever produced in series. The atelier introduced it in 1941, in the thick of World War II and at a moment when most watchmakers were keeping things simple. The 1518 embraced complexity, and the references that followed in its wake—the 2499, the 3970, the 5970 and the 5270—are evidence of what it set in motion.

The top lot in Phillips’ June New York Watch Auction: XIV sale is a stunning 18k pink gold example from 1948, fresh to market and previously unknown, with a high estimate of $2.4 million. But given the record for this reference, this timepiece could hammer considerably higher. Phillips sold a comparable pink gold Reference 1518 for $4.3 million in 2021, while a 1946 example achieved $3.8 million at Sotheby’s in 2023.

Production of the Reference 1518 ran from 1941 to 1954 and yielded just 281 examples across all variants—the more common yellow gold, the relatively rare pink gold and the exceptionally rare steel, of which a mere four examples are known. The pink gold examples are among the most sought after, and Phillips describes the one coming to auction in June as being in museum-quality condition, with an untouched Vichet case, all raised enamel printing fully intact and a dial layout so influential that its fingerprints are visible on perpetual calendar chronographs made decades later. It may be, according to the auction house, the best-preserved pink gold reference 1518 to ever go on the block.

“Collectors today are increasingly focused on watches that define categories and establish benchmarks, and few references embody that ideal as powerfully as the Patek Philippe reference 1518—one of the most important and sought‑after vintage wristwatches ever produced,” Paul Boutros, deputy chairman and head of watches, Americas, and Isabella Proia, head of sale and senior international specialist, said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to present a pink gold example that is both fresh-to-market, in stunning condition and one that will be immediately recognized as perhaps the best-preserved example to ever surface.”

Watch enthusiasts keeping tabs on the sale can expect to see spirited bidding. A fresh-to-market Reference 1518 in this condition does not come along often, and Phillips announced the June sale on the heels of its third consecutive 100 percent-sold watch auction of the year. Among the other lots of note in the New York Watch Auction: XIV sale are an 18k Reference 6239 Champagne “Paul Newman” Daytona (estimate: $600,000-1,200,000), a Tourbillon Souverain Anniversaire “Hong Kong” No. 1, an early Reference 3940 “Doré Beyer” (estimate: $600,000-1,200,000) and a Tiffany-signed Patek Philippe that once belonged to Paul Starrett, the man behind the Empire State Building (estimate: $15,000-30,000).

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The next time you scan a QR code at an opening, you may find yourself conversing with a digital docent, compliments of the new art‑tech platform CONTXT. The idea behind the customizable software, which is essentially an exhibition-specific A.I. chatbot, was inspired by its founders’ shared belief that art appreciation should be a conversation. Every artwork has a story, but the challenge has always been that there may not be anyone immediately available to tell it. Wall text can’t answer specific questions, and by the time a gallery visitor or museum-goer gets home, they may have forgotten what it was they wanted to know. “People in exhibitions often have questions about what they’re seeing but don’t have access to curatorial insight or background knowledge in real time,” Lukas Amacher, the curator, art collector and entrepreneur who launched the project with developer David Simon, told Observer. “With CONTXT, visitors can ask questions about an artwork and get answers sourced directly from the institution’s knowledge base rather than generic internet results.”

I was surprised to find out that Amacher, the former managing director of the 1OF1 digital art collection, never learned to code. But “the distinction between computer user and developer is slowly evaporating,” he said in an interview with Seth Goldstein for the Let’s Vibe! Podcast. With Simon building the foundational structure of the platform, Amacher could experiment with its functionality, with the goal of building “the richest citation‑ready context layer for art and culture.”

And that’s CONTXT, an artificially intelligent system that’s trained, project by project, on every catalogue entry, essay, curator note and piece of explanatory text for an exhibition. On the visitor side, CONTXT provides, via a familiar chat interface, real-time answers to questions, compressing reams of material into meaningful conversations about artists and artworks that can happen while the user is still at the exhibition. For institutions, it provides a comprehensive digitized knowledge repository and analytics tracking direct visitor engagement, helping curators understand what pieces and ideas resonate most. “It helps bridge the gap between the insights a curator might provide in person and the self‑guided experience of visitors who might otherwise struggle to access deeper interpretive context,” Amacher explained.

While CONTXT is still in its early stages, it’s already attracted interest from museums (especially smaller ones with limited mediation resources), galleries, corporate collections and art fairs. Earlier this month, the company launched a public research preview of the platform in collaboration with Steve Sacks’ bitforms gallery that includes the current show, Maya Man’s “StarPower” and exhibitions going all the way back to 2002. We took it for a spin, QA tester style, initially posing questions about the artists and shows, then veering off into weirder territory: asking it to solve physics equations, inputting 900 words of Lorem Ipsum text, requesting recipes for soup and then for artist Alexander Reben. We sat down with Amacher—serious questions in hand this time—to find out what CONTXT might mean for the future of how institutions share art and how people experience it.

How did CONTXT come about?

Both my co-founder, David, and I have been in the art world for most of our lives. David’s a collector, an artist, and a developer, and I’ve always been a collector as well. My first major acquisition was a Fred Sandback drawing. We both realized that we view art as a grand conversation. Our project came about when we saw how limited access to knowledge could be in the art world, especially in museums and galleries. If you visit a show with a curator, you have access to their insights, which enriches the experience, but without that, it can be hard to understand the deeper context. With the emergence of LLMs, we saw an opportunity to use this technology to compress the time it takes to dive into an artwork’s context—from hours of research to seconds of conversation. So, we started experimenting with how we could enhance in-person art experiences using LLMs.

What does CONTXT implementation look like for galleries and museums? What do they need to do to opt in?

We’re building libraries of context. The first layer is the knowledge base, where you input everything—from curator interviews to artwork images and reference materials like exhibition guides, articles, and even multimedia like videos. This allows visitors to interact with a comprehensive corpus of information. The second layer involves tailoring this knowledge to different audience types, such as museum visitors or corporate collectors, allowing specific voices to communicate with different groups. The third layer focuses on analytics, where we track what works are asked about the most, what types of questions visitors are asking and what ideas are resonating the most. This provides curators with valuable data to understand what engages audiences.

And what’s the experience like for a visitor using the tool?

For the visitor, it’s a chat interface, like the ones we all use, whether on ChatGPT or other platforms. The visitor scans a QR code at the exhibition, which brings up the chat on their phone. They can ask questions about the exhibition or specific works, and the tool will provide answers sourced from the curated knowledge base, ensuring it’s citation-ready. This gives visitors the ability to have real-time, meaningful conversations about the artwork they’re engaging with without waiting hours to do research or running into misinformation. The tool even allows them to share insights directly to social media, which is a fun twist on the “Instagrammable art” trend. Additionally, visitors can save their interactions, creating a personal archive of their experience at the show.

Can galleries and museums use CONTXT for more than just exhibitions?

Yes, absolutely. We’re also developing a tool for galleries that allows them to create a mobile-friendly, interactive experience where visitors can engage directly with artwork descriptions and ideas. Instead of just scrolling through a PDF or reading a basic label, visitors can have this dynamic conversation, asking questions and diving deeper into the work. This feature is particularly useful for galleries that want to present their works in a more engaging and modern way, merging the tactile with the digital.

What kind of feedback have you received from artists? Are they concerned about losing control of their narratives?

I love that you asked this! It’s something we’re planning to address in the future. We want to give artists and curators the ability to take control of the narrative. Artists could create their own knowledge bases—essentially mood boards for their practice—where they can share their statements, inspirations and ideas. Curators could then connect their exhibition’s context with the artist’s own knowledge base, allowing them to better represent the artist’s vision. This tool isn’t just for visitors; it’s for the whole ecosystem to represent ideas authentically and allow artists to guide the conversation.

Are there any concerns on the data privacy side, especially as you’re collecting interaction data and people’s questions might veer into the personal?

The information we gather is more of a general overview. For example, galleries can see which works are asked about the most, what types of questions people are asking, and how artworks are being interacted with. We collect insights into question types—whether people are asking about biographical details, conceptual meanings or curatorial narratives. But the actual data is anonymized, so it’s more about helping curators understand what ideas are resonating with the audience rather than tracking individuals.

What’s the institutional interest been like so far? Are the challenges museums and galleries are looking to solve the ones you anticipated?

We’ve spoken to several museums, galleries, and corporate collections. Interestingly, many smaller and mid-sized museums have reached out because they have limited mediation budgets and need a cost-effective way to help visitors engage with their exhibitions. The ability to provide multilingual support and make the experience more accessible is a big draw. We’ve also seen interest from art fairs, which could benefit from offering deeper engagement for visitors who aren’t necessarily there to make a purchase but want to learn more.

What’s next for the project?

We’re rolling out pilots, and soon, we’ll be ready to launch. We’re excited to see how it’s received and how visitors engage with the artwork when they can interact with a corpus of ideas in real-time. The overall goal is to give both exhibitors and visitors the tools to facilitate deeper, more meaningful conversations about art.

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There are few more reliable signs that spring has arrived in New York than the annual return of the YoungArts Gala to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Temple of Dendur, where members of the cultural, creative and philanthropic elite gather to celebrate the next generation of American artists at a fête designed, once again, by Raúl Àvila—the maestro behind the Met Gala and sundry major awards shows. Gala chairs Sarah Arison and Thomas Wilhelm, Gillian Hearst, Michi and Charles Jigarjian, and Sandra and Tony Tamer welcomed nearly 300 attendees this year to what began, as per usual, with an elegant cocktail reception that morphed into a celebration of emerging talent in the worlds of dance, music and song, ultimately raising over $1 million in support of YoungArts’ mission.

This year’s honorary co-chairs, groundbreaking prima ballerina Misty Copeland and artist Glenn Ligon, lent the event a palpable creative wattage, while award-winning Broadway performer (and YoungArts alumnus) Blaine Alden Krauss kept the evening running with practiced grace. The performances were directed by choreographer Caleb Teicher, himself a 2011 YoungArts Winner in Dance. But the evening’s emotional center was the presentation of the Arison Award to Academy Award–winning actress Marisa Tomei, honored for her dynamic career spanning stage and screen and for her sustained mentorship of YoungArts talent.

The guest list, as always, read like a cross-section of everything that makes New York’s cultural ecosystem worth celebrating. From the dance world, there was the legend himself, Mikhail Baryshnikov, with dancer and writer Lisa Rinehart, American Ballet Theatre artistic director Susan Jaffe, dancer and producer Daniil Simkin, Desmond Richardson of Complexions Contemporary Ballet, MacArthur Fellow Ralph Lemon, Tony Award–winning choreographer Bill T. Jones and Princess Grace Award–winner choreographer Roderick George. Oscar-nominated actress Rosie Perez brought her own particular brand of Brooklyn glamour, while luminaries from the music sphere included Grammy Award–winning violinist Jennifer Koh, pianist and composer Conrad Tao, mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves and Tony nominees Daniel Watts and Michael McElroy.

The art world was equally well-represented, with Brooklyn Museum director Anne Pasternak, MoMA PS1 director Connie Butler, High Line Art director and Venice Biennale curator Cecilia Alemani, Keith Haring Foundation executive director Simon Castets, TRIBE artistic director Shamel Pitts and Aspen Art Museum’s Nicola Lees in attendance. Also spotted were art collectors Jamie and Robert Soros and celebrity patron Komal Shah, and of course, there were many, many artists in the room, including Jean Shin, Camille Henrot, Jonah Freeman, KAWS, Sheree Hovsepian, Zoë Buckman, Taryn Simon, Deborah Willis, Nikolai and Simon Haas, Eddie Martinez, Sam Moyer, Lee Quiñones, Zoë Buckman and Eric Haze.

Mikhail Baryshnikov and Lisa Rinehart

Michi Jigarjian and Zoe Buckman

Caleb Teicher, Sarah Arison, Misty Copeland and Glenn Ligon

Misty Copeland and Glenn Ligon

Jamie Singer Soros and Robert Soros

Jennifer Koh and Barbra Sainsurin, Clive Chang

Mark Tallman

Jean Shin and Simon Haas, Nikolai Haas, Dee Dee Sides

Cecilia Alemani, Komal Shah, Simon Castets and Stuart Comer

Connie Butler and Camille Henrot

Shamel Pitts, Sarah Arison and Roderick George

Sarah Harrelson and Sheree Hovsepian

Gillian Hearst

Sam Moyer and Eddie Martinez

Rosie Perez and Brian Donnelly, aka, KAWS

Max Hollein, Wes Gordon, Anne Pasternak and Paul Arnhold

Folake Ologunja, Eddie Martinez, Sam Moyer and Dave Guy

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In a busy and buttoned-up spring gala calendar, Public Art Fund’s annual benefit has always offered the art world a chance to cut loose. Earlier this month, the organization’s largest fundraiser of the year returned to the Metropolitan Pavilion with its trademark dynamism supplied this year by three artists whose work is deeply woven into Public Art Fund’s 2026 program. Genesis Belanger, drawing from her forthcoming City Hall Park exhibition, designed the evening’s vibe, extending her signature visual and conceptual language into every corner of the space. Photographer Juan Veloz, whose work anchored Public Art Fund’s first exhibition of the year, “On the Flip Side,” presented an immersive portrait experience that invited guests inside a nostalgic scene inspired by his grandmother’s living room, a warm yet radical symbol of comfort, protection and generational continuity. And Kambui Olujimi, one of 19 artists debuting permanent commissions at JFK Terminal 6 this year, brought the spirit of travel to the party with an activity that saw partygoers making custom luggage tags.

After a seated dinner by Canard, the silent auction kept patrons paddling and collectors competitive, with works by Camille Henrot, Eddie Martinez, Karyn Olivier, Gabriel Orozco, Amalia Pica, Hayal Pozanti, Paul Anthony Smith, Hank Willis Thomas and Carmen Winant on offer—with proceeds supporting the exhibitions and partnerships that animate New York’s public spaces. Then, as always, there was the afterparty: DJs Matthew Mazur and Dances on the decks, Diageo cocktails in hand and Emily Sigall‘s custom cookies making the rounds.

This year’s crowd included artists Charlie Ahearn, Candida Alvarez, Felipe Baeza, Leilah Babirye, Camila Falquez, Moko Fukuyama, Shara Hughes, Janelle Iglesias, Jane Dickson, Eddie Martinez, Karyn Olivier, Hayal Pozanti, Paul Anthony Smith and Hank Willis Thomas, alongside art and culture luminaries Suhaly Bautista Carolina of the American LGBTQ+ Museum, Performa board president Katherine Bishop, Creative Time executive director Jean Cooney and Natasha Logan of the Studio Museum of Harlem. Also spotted were Anna Blum of Karma, Corinna Durland of Kurimanzutto, Anna Fisher of David Kordansky, Sundia Nwadiozor of White Cube and Mary-Grace Reeder and Beth Stub of Hauser & Wirth.

Rounding out the evening’s roster were art collector Carla Shen, actor Deborra-Lee Furness (a philanthropic force in her own right), author Tom Dyja, photographer Sophie Elgort and philanthropists Nancy and Ziggy Alderman, Desiree Almodovar, Edward Berman, Hannah Rose McNeely, Julie Rudd and prominent arts patron Jennifer Soros. And of course, one simply cannot in this digital age forget the sundry social media tastemakers in attendance, who this year included Ariel Adkins, Tatyiana Gordon, Kira Lokhmatova, Nimay Ndolo and the delightful Rosie Peck.

Nicholas Baume, Susan Freedman, Alexandra Frankel, Allison Wiener, Elizabeth Fearon Pepperman, Rasika Reddy, Keely Paik and Hilary Walker

Moko Fukuyama

Wendy McNett, Naomi Melati Bishop, Sophie Elgort and Jessi Butterfield

Sarah Maslin Nir

Robin Cembalest, Charlie Ahearn and Jane Dickson

Candida Alvarez

Nimay Ndolo, Dicta Ndolo and Khaleelah Logan

Carla Shen

Karyn Olivier and Karla Olivier

Leilah Babirye

Julie Rudd and Elizabeth Fearon Pepperman

Hannah Rose McNeely

Felipe Baeza and Natasha Roberts

Emily Sigall

Jennifer New and Allison Wiener

Hank Willis Thomas

Juan Veloz and Susan Freedman

Ariel Adkins, Cesarin Mateo and Khadijat Oseni

Khaleelah Logan

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