MoMA PS1 Goes Free, Nnena Kalu Wins Turner Prize, and More Art World News
Save to My OculaTimor-Leste announces its Venice artists, Hauser & Wirth eyes la dolce vita, and the Rijksmuseum plans to expand. Here’s Ocula’s briefing on the past seven days in the art world.
Biennials and Institutions
Timor-Leste Pavilion to Showcase Multi-Generational Artists
The Southeast Asian nation has announced its artists for its second Venice Biennale participation next year: weaver Veronica Pereira Maia, sound artist Etson Caminha, and installation artist Juventino Madeira. Curated by Loredana Pazzini-Paracciani, the exhibition will focus on the island’s traditional culture and identity through the prism of language.
Zineb Sedira Lands Next Tate Britain Commission
The French artist will stage the next commission at London’s museum of British modern and contemporary art. Based in London since the 1980s, Sedira will look to ‘the living pulse of the Pan-African experience’ for her largest U.K. commission yet.
MoMA PS1 Will Be the Largest Free Museum in New York City
The contemporary art museum, a Queens affiliate of the Museum of Modern Art, will be free for all visitors for three years from 1 January 2026 until the end of 2028. The initiative, which coincides with the museum’s 50th anniversary, is supported by a gift from creative strategist and collector Sonya Yu.
Pi Li Leaves Tai Kwun for New Shenzhen Museum
Chinese curator Pi Li is set to leave Hong Kong nonprofit art space Tai Kwun Contemporary in February. Previously at M+, Pi will lead the founding of a new art museum in Shenzhen on the mainland.
Yokohama Triennale Announces Artistic Directors
The ninth edition of the Japanese triennial, set to take place from April to September 2027, will be led by co-artistic directors Cosmin Costinaș and Inti Guerrero. The Hong Kong-based pair previously collaborated at the Sydney Biennale in 2024 and the Dakar Biennale in 2018.
Rijksmuseum to Open Branch in Eindhoven
The Netherlands’ national museum has announced its first outpost outside Amsterdam, in technology hub Eindhoven. Supported by Dutch microchip corporation ASML, the new museum, which is scheduled to open within the next eight years, will focus on ‘creativity and craftsmanship’ and aims to make the national collection more accessible to the south of the country.
Galleries
Hauser & Wirth to Debut in Sicily
The mega-gallery announced last week that it will open its first location in Italy at the neo-Gothic Palazzo Forcella De Seta in Palermo. Hauser & Wirth intends to complete restoration of its 20,000-square-foot portion of the space by 2030.
Stevenson Gallery Closes Joburg Location
The South African gallery will shut its Johannesburg site today after 17 years in the city, closing its final Tofo Bardi exhibition early. Stevenson maintains galleries in Cape Town and Amsterdam, and announced representation of British artist Jemila Isa this past week.
Awards and Residencies
Nnena Kalu Wins 2025 Turner Prize
The 59-year-old British Nigerian is the first artist with a learning disability to win the prize with her ‘bold and compelling work’, as noted by the jury. Tate Britain director and jury chair Alex Farquharson said that Kalu’s win ‘begins to erase [the] border between the neurotypical and neurodiverse artist’.
Obituaries
British Photographer Martin Parr Dies at 73
Parr, who reshaped documentary photography in the U.K. with his wry, anthropological look on everyday life, died at home in Bristol on Saturday. His images revealed the textures of class, consumption and globalisation, casting ordinary people conducting everyday acts as mirrors of modernity. He had been a member of Magnum Photos since 1994.
Visionary Architect Frank Gehry Dies at 96
The architect behind some of the world’s most prominent art galleries and museums died at home in Santa Monica last Friday. From the Guggenheim Bilbao to Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, Gehry’s inimitable sculptural designs expanded the possibilities of cultural space and redefined how the public engages with art and institutions.
American Weaver Napoleon Jones-Henderson Dies at 82
The Chicago-born, Boston-based artist and weaver died on Saturday. Jones-Henderson was an early member of the influential collective AfriCOBRA (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists), which was founded in the late 1960s. His work was the subject of a major retrospective at the Institute of Contemporary Art / Boston in 2022. —[O]
Main image: Zineb Sedira, Dreams Have No Titles (2022). Venice Biennale. Photo: Thierry Bal.
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