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Amanda Moström, Douglas, 2025. Psycho’s tail hair, metal fan, 51 x 51 x 116 cm. Courtesy the artist and Rose Easton, London. Photography by Theo Christelis

All Blow, No Buy? London’s Big Frieze Week Test

Frieze Week has perfected the optics of a buoyant market. Yet recent evidence suggests underlying issues for London dealers. Do the parties, dinners and openings demonstrate confidence – or just perform it?

Tom Seymour13 October, 2026

News

King's Library Tower at the British Library by Sam Walton

British Library Announces New CEO

The recently departed head of the UK Space Agency has been announced as the British Library’s new chief executive, as the institution emerges from a turbulent period and announces a new partnership with Netflix

The Art Journal
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. Photo: Iwan Baan, courtesy of the Lucas Museum

A New Hope for George Lucas’s $1 Billion Museum

 Far more than a home for Star Wars, George Lucas and Mellody Hobson’s new Los Angeles museum brings fine art, comics, illustration, photography and cinema together under the banner of ‘narrative art’

The Art Journal

Market

Amanda Moström, Douglas, 2025. Psycho’s tail hair, metal fan, 51 x 51 x 116 cm. Courtesy the artist and Rose Easton, London. Photography by Theo Christelis

All Blow, No Buy? London’s Big Frieze Week Test

Frieze Week has perfected the optics of a buoyant market. Yet recent evidence suggests underlying issues for London dealers. Do the parties, dinners and openings demonstrate confidence – or just perform it?

Tom Seymour
Art Basel Miami Beach 2025. Photo: Courtesy of Art Basel

Nepo Babies Are Taking Over the Art Market

The Art Basel and UBS survey suggests a youthquake: Gen Z collectors spend the most on average. But, as collectors buy less at auction and more directly from artists, galleries are feeling the squeeze. For Messy Business, Jeni Fulton reports

Jeni Fulton
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Martha Diamond, Yellow Sky (1986). Photo: Jussi Koivunen, courtesy of the Martha Diamond Trust

Martha Diamond Finally Gets Her Own Show in Europe

Admired by fellow artists but little known to wider audiences, Martha Diamond made New York’s skyline her own. Her first European solo exhibition, at Finland's Sara Hildén Art Museum, asks us to look beyond the cityscape

George Nelson
Kira Freije. Photo © Robin Bernstein, courtesy MiMA/Turner Prize

After the Turner Prize, What Happens Next?

As this year’s Turner Prize arrives at Middlesbrough's MIMA, two of its four shortlisted artists are also on view at Thaddaeus Ropac in London. Their simultaneous exposure offers a test of what a nomination now does for an artist’s career and market

Zoë Goetzmann
Protesting booths turned off their lights at ARCO Madrid 2026. Courtesy of ARCO Madrid.

Why Are Spain’s Galleries Still Paying 21% in VAT?

As Madrid’s contemporary art fair ESTAMPA opens tomorrow, Spanish galleries say they are being left at a growing competitive disadvantage. After strikes, protests and years of lobbying, frustration is growing

Alexandra F. Coego

Opinion

Roy Lichtenstein, 1969. Photo: Bernard Gotfryd, Courtesy of The Library of Congress

What Did Roy Lichtenstein Ever Do for Us?

Lichtenstein made Pop art look simple. It was easy to take his appropriation at face value; the rigour behind it was harder to see. As the Whitney in New York prepares a major retrospective, we ask what his work means in an age drowning in images

Eddy Frankel
Omar Sy, François Cluzet and Audrey Fleurot in ‘The Intouchables’ (2011). Photo: Courtesy of Quad Productions

Help! I Hate... Fair Week

Artworld Agony Aunt Charlotte Jansen advises a disillusioned fair-goer on how to survive one of the busiest weeks in the art calendar

Charlotte Jansen
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Mr Bean's restoration of a painting in ‘Mr Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie’ (1997). Photo: Courtesy of Working Title and Tiger Aspect Films.

Help! I Hate My... Broken Artwork

Artworld Agony Aunt Charlotte Jansen advises a panicked gallery assistant through the crucial steps of damage control after an artwork mishap

Charlotte Jansen
Rashid Al Khalifa, Inhabited Crate- Multicolored, 2026, Galvanized Steel Mesh, 480 × 380 × 300 cm. Photograph, Kayhan Kaygusuz. Courtesy Contemporary Istanbul

At Contemporary Istanbul, Politics Is Everywhere – Except The Art

At Turkey’s annual art fair, talk of political uncertainty competes with lavish hospitality. Over a week of art and dinners, the politics of who is funding the fair is more conspicuous than anything in the booths. For Private Views, Gabriella Angeleti reports

Gabriella Angeleti
Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003). Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Help! I Hate My... Work Crush

Art world Agony Aunt Charlotte Jansen advises a gallery artist liaison struggling to balance her professional relationship and personal feelings for an artist she works with

Charlotte Jansen
⁠ Brigitte Bardot and Claudia Cardinale in The Legend of Frenchie King (1971). Courtesy Les Films EGE

Help! I Hate My... Nemesis

Artworld Agony Aunt Charlotte Jansen advises an industry regular on disarming an omnipresent rival through flawless civility

Charlotte Jansen
Yayoi Kusama, Walking Piece (1966). Photo: Yayoi Kusama, courtesy of Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

Yayoi Kusama: From Scandal and Shame to National Icon

Once dismissed as scandalous and disreputable at home, Yayoi Kusama returned to Japan an international star. Her transformation into a national icon reflects the power of foreign recognition, as well as Japan’s enduring conflicts with mental illness, sexuality and female autonomy

Wakana Kaitani
Edward Norton as the Narrator in Fight Club (1999), directed by David Fincher. Courtesy 20th Century Fox

Help! I Hate My...Ennui

Art world Agony Aunt Charlotte Jansen offers solace to an art worker who fears she has lost the love for everything that surrounds art – and maybe the work itself

Charlotte Jansen
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Features

The Armory Show 2025. Photo by Casey Kelbaugh. Courtesy of The Armory Show and CKA.

Is the Great Wealth Transfer Already Reshaping the Art Market?

As $18.3 trillion prepares to pass between generations, two New York art fairs suggest the inheritance at stake is one of taste as much as capital, with younger collectors steering demand towards forgotten artists and lower price points.

Maya Stoilova
The Armory Show 2026. Photo by Kunning Huang. Courtesy of The Armory Show 2026.

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly: The Armory Show

Once upon a time on Manhattan’s far West Side: Aimee Walleston visits the Armory Show, where the art has to compete with the sheer misery of the Javits Center.

Aimee Walleston
Simeon Barclay, The Ruin, Turner Prize 2026. Installation view at MIMA, Middlesbrough Institute of Art. Photo: David Levene

Turner Prize 2026: What to See and Who Might Win

As the Turner Prize opens in Middlesbrough, we look at what its four shortlisted artists are asking viewers to see – and set the early odds on who might take home the £25,000 prize

Lucrezia Motta
The Breuer Building, 945 Madison Avenue, New York, 2023. Photograph by Max Touhey

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly: Independent 20th Century

For a few dollars more, collectors at Independent 20th Century’s new home at the Breuer can take home art with plenty of life left in it – while younger artists might pick up a few lessons for free

Aimee Walleston
Jane and Louise Wilson, Gamma, 1999. Four-screen video installation. Tate. Courtesy 303 Gallery, New York.

The Artist Pension Trust Promised Security. What Went Wrong?

The Long Read: Around 200 London artists handed their work to a scheme that offered financial support later in life. Twenty years on, the trust has paid out nothing. Nearly 50 affected artists – including a Turner Prize winner and eight nominees – are fighting to recover their work

Stephanie Brady Cummings
Richard Drew’s The Falling Man, photographed in New York on 11 September 2001. © Richard Drew / AP, courtesy AP

The Art 9/11 Made

Before artists could respond to 9/11, images of the event had already circled the world. Twenty-five years later, art still struggles to represent a uniquely cinematic catastrophe, one experienced and understood largely through its visual record

Tom Seymour
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Places

ArtRio 2026 edition. Photo: Courtesy of ArtRio

In Rio, the Art Market Plays It Safe

Brazil’s premier art fair retains its spectacular setting, but as political uncertainty and a subdued market weigh on collectors, dealers are finding that the appetite for high-priced works has cooled

Silas Martí
Image courtesy Berlin Art Week. Photo: Joe Clark

Berlin Is Learning to Live With the Cuts

Berlin Art Week finds a city remaking its cultural economy, as institutions seek private money, galleries test new models and artists are squeezed out. For Messy Business, Jeni Fulton reports on the ground

Jeni Fulton
A panoramic view of sandstone buildings climbing a hillside beneath a rocky citadel topped with a large flag under a clear blue sky.

On an Ancient Hilltop, a Biennial Takes Root

Set among monasteries, archaeological sites and former prisons in Turkey’s southeastern borderlands, the Mardin Biennial is testing whether contemporary art can leave a legacy beyond an exhibition

Zara Khan
Joshua Oheneba-Takyi, Ghana

How Ghana’s Artists Built Their Own Ecosystem

From studios and galleries to residencies, artists have built the infrastructure sustaining Ghana’s flourishing contemporary art scene, stepping in where public support has failed

Gameli Hamelo

Profiles

Tom Sachs. Photo: Mario Sorrenti

The Artist: Tom Sachs

The American visual artist talks to The Art Journal about desire, intellectual property and the sometimes uneasy business of success.

George Nelson
Renée Levi with her artwork 'September'. Photo:  courtesy of the artist, The Southbank Centre's Hayward Gallery and Audemars Piguet.

The Painter: Renée Levi

For the opening of her commissioned installation at London’s Hayward Gallery, Swiss artist Renée Levi talks about making the work, her artistic influences and the importance of architecture in her practice

Lucrezia Motta
Almine Rech (2024). Photo: Oleg Covian, courtesy of Almine Rech

The Dealer: Almine Rech

Parisian gallerist Almine Rech speaks on backing young artists, navigating the fluctuations of the art market and why art still needs to be seen in person.

George Nelson
Portrait of Pooya Abbasian, Lee Ufan, Arles, 2026 © David GIANCATARINA

In conversation: Pooya Abbasian

Ahead of two group shows in and around Paris, the dissident French-Iranian artist Pooya Abbasian talks about his association with invasive plants, the deceptive truth of documentary and the visit to France that became fifteen years of exile

Tom Seymour and Zara Khan
Artist Sagarika Sundaram sits with her work Blue Mountain 2026 in her exhibition Reservoir at Henry Moore Institute. Courtesy the artist, Henry Moore Institute and Alison Jacques, London. Photo: Rob Harris

Sagarika Sundaram: Taking Wool Seriously

At her first solo museum exhibition in Leeds, Sundaram discusses the physical demands of her felt sculptures, the politics of cloth and why collaboration should not diminish her authorship

Zara Khan
Désiré Feuerle, courtesy The Feuerle Collection

The Collector: Désiré Feuerle Enters a New Era

Ten years after opening in a former Berlin bunker, the private collection is expanding into a multidisciplinary “house” in partnership with Sara Puig. Désiré Feuerle explains what comes next

Vivienne Chow
Lonnie G. Bunch III at the Civil Rights Summit, April 9, 2014. Photo: Lauren Gerson / LBJ Presidential Library. CC BY 2.0.

What Will Lonnie Bunch’s Legacy Be?

In his 38-years working for the Smithsonian museums, departing Secretary Lonnie Bunch, has led the Smithsonian through expansions and turbulent times, standing firm in the telling of America’s history

Lucrezia Motta