The Art World This Week, 22 August 2025

The Alexandria Biennale makes a momentous return after 12 years, Turner Prize-winning Anish Kapoor causes a stir with a provocative collaboration with Greenpeace, and more. Here’s Ocula’s briefing on the art world news you might have missed.

Art Fairs and Market

Art Toronto Highlights Indigenous Art and Latin American Art

The fair returns to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre from 23 to 26 October for its 26th edition ‘celebrating the legacies and fresh visions shaping contemporary art in Canada’. Headlining is Arte Sur, a landmark showcase of Latin American art curated by Karen Huber, and Generations, an intergenerational portrait of Canadian art.

Art-o-rama 2025 Foregrounds French Roots 

Boutique summer fair Art-o-rama returns to Marseille with an increased French presence in its list of participants. With 65 participants from 14 countries, the fair will also feature numerous design studios from Marseille and Paris to appeal to the city’s resident creators, artists, and designers.

Biennales and Institutions

Alexandria Biennale Will Return Next September After 12-Year Pause 

Suspended since 2014 due to the political and social upheavals of the Egyptian Revolution, the biennale will return to the coastal city in September 2026. The 27th edition, titled This Too Shall Pass, will be curated by artist Moataz Nasr, who describes the event as an effort to ‘throw a big stone into the lake’ of Egypt’s subdued art scene and ‘make waves’.

Brian Ferriso Will Be the Next Director of Dallas Museum of Art

Long-time Portland Art Museum director Brian Ferriso will lead the Dallas Museum of Art from 1 December, succeeding Agustín Arteaga, who will now head Sacramento’s Crocker Art Museum. In his new role, Ferriso will be involved in the Dallas Museum of Art’s expansion, which could cost upwards of $150 million (USD). 

Documenta 16 Will Have an All-Woman Curatorial Team

Assembled by Naomi Beckwith, the 2027 edition of the exhibition will be led by an all-woman curatorial team including the likes of Carla Acevedo-Yates, Romi Crawford, Mayra A. Rodríguez Castro, and Xiaoyu Weng, who will contribute to Beckwith’s ‘porous vision’ for Documenta 16.

Anish Kapoor and Greenpeace Unleash Collaborative Protest Artwork

At a Shell-owned gas platform 45 nautical miles from the Norfolk coast, Greenpeace made a bold statement using a work by the Turner-prize winning artist. Activists scaled the rig and poured a 1,000 litres of blood-red liquid into the water. Blurring the line between criminal and creative, the work criticised fossil fuel extraction, which the artist deemed ‘criminal’ and ‘morally corrupt’. 

Özge Ersoy Announced as Executive Director of Asia Art Archive

The Istanbul-born curator will succeed Christopher K. Ho, who led the organisation for the past four years. Ersoy joined the Archive in 2017 to develop public programmes before becoming senior curator. Her leadership will focus on ‘amplifying underrepresented voices, making archives accessible, and nurturing connections with artistic sensibility’.

Gallery Representations

Ho Tzu Nyen Joins neugerriemschneider 

Singaporean artist Ho Tzu Nyen will open his first solo exhibition with neugerriemschneider, 2 stories: voids & times, marking his newfound representation with the Berlin-based gallery which has hosted the first solo shows by heavyweights such as Olafur Eliasson, Elizabeth Peyton, and Rirkrit Tiravanija since its 1994 opening.

Dharug Artist Billy Bain Joins Ames Yavuz

Ames Yavuz has welcomed Billy Bain to its lineup of artists. Known for his distinctive practice that centres his lived experiences as an Aboriginal man in urban Australia, Bain will have his first solo with the gallery in 2026, with new works to be featured at Sydney Contemporary later this year. 

Obituaries

Belgian Painter Walter Swennen Dies at 79

Belgian painter Walter Swennen, renowned for his experiential and radical approach to painting, has passed away at age 79. Belgian art dealer Xavier Hufkens announced the painter’s death on Saturday, saying Swennen ‘created a singular body of work that continually pushed the boundaries of painting’. —[O]