The Art World This Week, 18 July 2025
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Christie’s projects $2.1 billion in sales for the first half of 2025, the Turner Prize heads to Middlesbrough, London to boast new project space for voices from the global majority, and more. Here’s Ocula’s briefing on the art world news you might have missed.
Institutions
Tate Announces 2026 Turner Prize Venue
The Turner Prize will be headed north to Middlesbrough next year, building on the award’s commitment to spark public debate about contemporary art across the U.K. The choice follows a cultural investment strategy from the town which has invested £80 million to date. Read more.
Taichung Green Museumbrary to Open in Taiwan This Winter
After over a decade in the works, the SANAA-designed Taichung Green Museumbrary will open in December 2025. The 58,000 square-metre complex, which will merge Taichung Art Museum with the city’s public library, is intended as a ‘multifaceted learning space’.
Ibraaz Announces London Project Space for Global Majority
Ibraaz, the digital platform backed by Kamel Lazaar Foundation, will open a physical location in central London on 3 October. Founder Lina Lazaar said the project space will offer ‘a brave space’ to address contemporary issues through culture. Read more.
Kochi-Muziris Biennale Announces 6th Edition
India’s Kochi-Muziris Biennale will return on 12 December, with a 110-day exhibition titled For the Time Being, probing how an exhibition can feel alive through performances, conversations, and workshops. The artist list will be announced in October 2025.
Art Fairs and Market
Christie’s Projects $2.1B in Sales for First Half of 2025
Christie’s anticipates $2.1 billion in sales for the first half of 2025 with fees—in line with last year, but down 22 percent from the year before. Global president Alexander Rotter said certain areas of the art market have ‘done well’, including Impressionist and Modern art.
Art Taipei Will Host 128 Galleries This Autumn
128 galleries including Perrotin, DE SARTHE, and SCAI The Bathhouse will show work at the Taipei World Trade Center from 24 to 27 October 2025 as a part of Art Taipei. The fair will overlap with Taipei Art Week, which has partnered with over 70 galleries, museums, and artist studios this year.
ARTBO Announces Exhibitors for 21st Edition
Latin America’s leading fair ARTBO has confirmed around 44 exhibitors for its 21st edition returning to Ágora Bogotá – Convention Center from 25 to 28 September 2025, with new sections for first-time exhibiting emerging galleries and curated contemporary projects.
Awards
Marina Abramović, Peter Doig Take Praemium Imperiale Award
Serbian performance artist Marina Abramović and Scottish painter Peter Doig have been recognised by Japan Art Foundation for their international impact as one of the five recipients of the royal family-backed Praemium Imperiale Award worth £77,000. Read more.
Christine Sun Kim Wins 68K Radical Transformation Award
Sound artist and performer Christine Sun Kim has won Chiba Tech’s Radical Transformation award for challenging authority or disrupting tradition for positive change. Kim’s survey at the Whitney Museum of American Art is on view until 21 September 2025.
Galleries
Meyer Riegger and Jocelyn Wolff Gain Foothold in Seoul
Berlin’s Meyer Riegger and Parisian Galerie Jocelyn Wolff have announced a joint gallery in Hannam‑dong set to open this October with the aim of bringing European perspectives to the Korean art scene. The launch will coincide with Frieze Seoul. Read more.
GRIMM Grows Across London with New St James’s Gallery
GRIMM will open in a new space in St James’s this autumn, timed to coincide with October’s Frieze Week. Founder Jorg Grimm called it a ‘logical progression’ that will allow it to continue supporting their artists in the U.K. Read more.
Waddington Custot to Open Paris Location This October
London gallery Waddington Custot will open its first French outpost at 36 rue de Seine in the sixth arrondissement ahead of Art Basel Paris this autumn. The 130-square-metre venue will be their third location and comes on the heels of a 2015 expansion to Dubai.
Jane Lombard Gallery Looks Back on 30 Years
New York’s Jane Lombard Gallery—the first commercial gallery to show artists like Mark Bradford and Huguette Calandwill under its entity name, Lombard Freid Gallery—will open an exhibition celebrating its 30 years from 5 September to 25 October 2025, featuring 30 gallery artists and past collaborators.
Gallery Representations
Nicole Wittenberg Joins Acquavella Galleries
American painter Nicole Wittenberg, who is known for landscapes and flora inspired by emotive scenery like California wildfires sunsets, is now represented by Acquavella Galleries. The New York gallery will open an exhibition of her work on 16 October 2025.
Thiago Barbalho Joins Elizabeth Xi Bauer
Brazilian artist and writer Thiago Barbalho is now represented by Elizabeth Xi Bauer and Nara Roesler. The London gallery is showing the artist’s drawings until 19 July, noting their work ‘[prompts] reflection on the tension between meaning and its visual representation’.
Enzo Shalom Joins Bortolami
New York painter Enzo Shalom has joined Bortolami after the gallery held an exhibition of the artist’s oil paintings in New York in the spring, which critics dubbed ‘tantalisingly singular’ and ‘surprisingly varied’, evoking ‘Cubist still life, a drapery study, and Japanese landscape painting’. —[O]
Main image: Rendering of Taichung Art Museum atrium. Courtesy Cultural Affairs Bureau, Taichung City Government.
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