Biennales in Flux, Institutions Under Pressure

Gagosian is preparing a new chapter at 980 Madison Avenue with a Duchamp-heavy opening. On April 25, the gallery will unveil a newly overhauled ground-floor space with an exhibition of Marcel Duchamp readymades, timed to coincide with the Museum of Modern Art’s widely praised Duchamp retrospective. The opening lands the day after Gagosian’s Jasper Johns show ends in the above-ground galleries it has long leased. Larry Gagosian said he couldn’t imagine a better first show for the new gallery, noting Duchamp exhibited in the building over 60 years ago, at the Cordier and Ekstrom Gallery in 1965. The show will include works made in 1964 with Italian dealer Arturo Schwarz’s help, including Bicycle Wheel, a version of Fountain, and a Boîte-en-valise.

Artnet’s data analysis of the 2026 Venice Biennale points to a notable turn back toward living artists. Koyo Kouoh’s main exhibition, “In Minor Keys,” was realized posthumously after her death in 2025 by a team of curators and brings together 111 participants from around the world. The key finding: more than 90 percent of the artists in the main exhibition are still living, a shift from recent editions that leaned into rewriting art history through overlooked historical figures. The lineup breaks down into 99 individuals, five artist duos, one collective, and six artist-led organizations—unusually, four of those are based in Africa. Excluding the organizations, the cohort includes 64 women, 48 men, and two artists who use they/them pronouns. The analysis also notes Kouoh’s list shares more demographic similarity with Ralph Rugoff’s 2019 edition than with 2022 or 2024.

Also in Venice, the European Commission has given the Venice Biennale 30 days to “clear its name” over the inclusion of the Russian Pavilion in the 2026 edition, according to a letter cited by La Repubblica. The commission warned it could “suspend or terminate” a €2 million, or two dollars million, grant meant for the 2028 edition. The EU Commission’s Education and Culture Executive Agency sent the letter to Biennale president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco on Friday, April 10, demanding a response by May 11—two days after the Biennale’s public opening on May 9. The commission argues that accepting Russian artists as a “governmental delegation,” funded and promoted by the Russian government, could imply indirect support from the Russian government. Italy’s foreign ministry is coordinating with the culture ministry on its response.

Back in the US, the Institute of Museum and Library Services has survived a major legal threat, but budget danger still hangs over it. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union and the American Library Association reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, after their lawsuit filed last April, that leaves IMLS intact and allows it to continue supporting libraries and museums. This follows an executive order President Donald Trump issued on March 14 to eliminate IMLS, after which DOGE arrived and staff were put on administrative leave. Courts issued a preliminary injunction and a temporary restraining order, and in November a court found the dismantling unlawful and unconstitutional; IMLS reinstated terminated grants. Still, Trump’s proposed 2027 budget again seeks to eliminate IMLS, and also targets the NEA and NEH.

A long-lost Georges Méliès film has surfaced in an unlikely place: a garage in Grand Rapids, Michigan. For two decades, Bill McFarland cared for a century-old trunk that once belonged to his great-grandfather, an itinerant showman in rural western Pennsylvania. After difficulty placing 10 combustible nitrate films with museums and antique stores, he drove roughly 700 miles to donate them to the U.S. Library of Congress in Virginia. Specialists spotted Méliès’s Star Film mark—a black star in the center of the image—and painstakingly examined the damaged reel frame by frame. The result was a 45-second film, Gugusse and the Automaton, a c. 1897 one-shot, one-reel piece described as the first known moving image of a robot. The Library of Congress digitized the clip and made it available to view.

Sharjah’s Barjeel Art Foundation is moving from celebrated collection to bricks-and-mortar museum. The organization behind the modern and Arab art trove assembled by Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi has broken ground on its first dedicated museum in Sharjah, due to open in January 2028. Al Qassemi announced the news on Instagram, sharing a photo from a visit to the thirty eight thousand seven hundred fifty-square-foot site on Sheik Mohammed Bin Zayed Road and naming Abdelmoneam Essa of Architecture Corner Consultants as the architect. Al Qassemi said the design draws on his own sketches and photographs of architecture in the Al Rigga neighborhood. Barjeel has expanded its collaborations in recent years, lending beyond the Emirates and engaging regional institutions, while making holdings available online and continuing to curate, lend, and publish. Curator Rémi Homs has described its focus as academic relevance and building lasting heritage for the region.

Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula is gearing up for a new international fixture: the Bienal de Yucatán. The first edition will take place in Mérida from 26 November 2026 through 28 February 2027, backed by French-born, London- and Mérida-based patron and curator Catherine Petitgas, who supports local art through Proyecto Y. Mexican artist Abraham Cruzvillegas will serve as artistic director, with a first-edition theme of language—its translations, misunderstandings, and contradictions—through newly commissioned works, loans, and archival presentations. Mérida’s scene includes more than 40 galleries, with spaces like Lux Perpetua, Galería Secreta, and hybrid venues like Silvestre, alongside UNAY graduates launching platforms. The biennial will be staged across public, private, and independent venues in the historic centre, with Casa de la Cultura del Mayab as a central node.

Hyperallergic reports that California-based Chicana painter Criselda Vasquez says ICE detained her father, who she has said has lived in the United States for over 40 years. In an April 3 Instagram post, Vasquez wrote that her father and one of his workers were detained by ICE while on their way to work, leaving her family heartbroken and her mother devastated. The family has not publicly named him. In an April 13 email, Vasquez said her father was “racially profiled on his way home from work” on Tuesday, March 31, pulled over and arrested outside a neighbor’s home. The family says it has made contact and knows the detention facility. A GoFundMe linked on her social media raised nearly sixty eight thousand dollars toward an eighty thousand dollars goal in 10 days for lost wages and legal fees. Vasquez’s 2017 painting “The New American Gothic,” featuring her Mexican immigrant parents, was acquired by the Lucas Museum for Narrative Art in Los Angeles in 2021.

Ai Weiwei has a new book out, and it’s focused on the mechanics and damage of censorship. In “On Censorship” (2026), Ai writes that censorship “strips innocence from the young and kindness from the elderly,” discouraging justice and fostering selfishness. The book reflects a life shaped by state persecution: as a child, he saw his father, poet and activist Ai Qing, cleaning communal toilets in a labor camp; later, Ai faced axed exhibitions, surveillance, a raided studio, and detention for 81 days without charge in 2011. The piece also notes a more recent instance of Western pressure: in November 2023, Lisson Gallery canceled his show in London after he posted his thoughts about Israel’s genocide in Gaza on social media. Ai argues censorship depends heavily on self-censorship—and that participation is what makes the system work.

The art world is mourning painter Celeste Dupuy-Spencer, who died on Friday, April 10, at 46, at her home in Los Angeles. Her death came days before the opening of a new solo exhibition at Jeffrey Deitch’s West Hollywood gallery; the cause was not publicly reported, and the gallery was expected to announce next steps for the show and a memorial. Deitch said Dupuy-Spencer was beloved in her creative community and described her as deeply dedicated, often working round the clock. Her painting “Father, Don’t You See That I Am Burning” (2021), depicting the January 6 insurrection, was acquired by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in 2022. The article also describes her advocacy for human rights, including speaking against the atrocities Israel committed against Palestinians in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank, amid online harassment. Her upcoming Deitch show, Burning in the Eyes of the Maker, framed painting as “communication as recognition, not explanation.”

That’s the download for today—links to every story are waiting for you in the show notes. Come back tomorrow for more art world news you can actually use, and until then, Chinga la migra.

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