A.I. Anxiety and the Gallery Goodbye Tour

Welcome to The Daily Art Download—your daily update on all of the art world news you need to know… I'm your host Bartholomew Doodlewhack.
It is Sunday, April twenty-six, two thousand twenty-six. Let’s dive in.

Artnet News argues the art market knows it can’t ignore A.I., but concrete use cases are still limited and the tools are young. Jo Lawson-Tancred reports that firms feel pressure to experiment without overcommitting, especially after the NFT bust in 2022. Still, A.I. is moving into the mainstream: in March, Bonhams announced a partnership with ARTDAI, and Bonhams CEO Seth Johnson said it will help specialists explore A.I. for “market patterns, supporting valuation, and helping our teams access insight more efficiently.” Former Art Basel chief Marc Spiegler predicts a “big shift” as A.I. brings high-performance tech within reach of small businesses. Meanwhile, Alan Lau urged businesses to make content readable and citable by A.I. chatbots and to use tools for “discovery.”

An artist’s encounter on a Brooklyn bike lane becomes a story about what gig work doesn’t provide: rest. fields harrington described seeing a delivery worker in Williamsburg get clipped by a car and realizing there was “no boss to call,” because “you’re working for an algorithm.” Since 2024, harrington has been photographing delivery bikes across New York, capturing their customized gloves, tape, and flags as signs of community. As harrington shows the series at MoMA PS1 in “Greater New York,” on view through August 17, he sought reciprocity: he asked the museum to rent a delivery worker’s bike and, during museum hours, pay its owner their usual wage, twenty one dollars. For one week each month, Gustavo Ajche’s bike appears in the show, and a notification ding sounds every 21 minutes and 44 seconds.

The Box in Los Angeles announced it will close after 19 years in business. Its final exhibition was a two-venue collaboration with Parker Gallery for the late California artist Wally Hedrick, which ran through April 4. The gallery plans to mark the closure with a fashion show for Johanna Went, in collaboration with artist and playwright Asher Hartman, on June 6. Founder Mara McCarthy wrote that the decision had been “brewing for some time,” but landed with urgency amid circumstances that made continuing impossible. The Box opened in June 2007 at 805 Traction Avenue with a multichannel video installation by Spandau Parks, and McCarthy described it as an “artist-formed space,” shaped in part by her father Paul McCarthy’s late-arriving market success. She also cited changing economics around support for Paul’s work and her family’s loss of their homes in the Eaton fire in January 2025.

Hyperallergic’s “Venice, Here We Come” sets the tone for an already-charged 61st Venice Biennale, with questions hanging over whether protests will overshadow the national pavilions and how the main exhibition, In Minor Keys—conceived by the late Koyo Kouoh—will meet the moment. Hakim Bishara writes that he’ll be reporting from Venice with editor-at-large Hrag Vartanian and colleagues, and points readers to Vartanian’s roundup of major exhibitions and events in May and beyond. The edition also spotlights an online conversation with artist Jeremy Frey on April 29 from 3–4pm ET, free for Hyperallergic members. In the same lineup of highlights: a studio visit with Joan Semmel, described as “still kicking ass” at age 93, and more features and criticism tied to the Venice season.

That’s today’s download—links to every story are in the show notes. Come back tomorrow for another sharp hit of art-world reality, and until then: Chinga la migra