Whitney Biennial Artists Announced, Auckland Art Gallery Names New Director, and More Art World News
Save to My OculaA Bamiyan Buddha will stand in New York, Libya’s National Museum reopens and a Buenos Aires collection doubles in size. Here’s Ocula’s briefing on the past seven days in the art world.
Art Fairs and Market
Sotheby’s and Christie’s Project $13.2 B Global Sales for 2025
The world’s two biggest auction houses have published their projected global sales figures for 2025, with Sotheby’s at $7 billion and Christie’s at $6.2 billion. Sotheby’s reported auction sales increased by 26 percent from 2024, while Christie’s reported that private sales accounted for 24 percent of the total figure (the top three works sold privately).
1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair Returns to Marrakech
Morocco’s former imperial city will host 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in early February, with first-time international exhibitors including ELLEPHANT, Imvelo Studios, The Art Affair, and The Lobster Edition.
Biennials and Institutions
Whitney Biennial Unveils Artist List
New York’s biennial will feature 56 artists, duos and collectives at the Whitney Museum of American Art in March. Artists hail from across the United States and Puerto Rico, as well as Afghanistan, Chile, Iraq, Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam, and other locations ‘marked by the reach of U.S. power’, in the words of co-curator Drew Sawyer. Participants include Kelly Akashi, Kamrooz Aram, Nani Chacon, Andrea Fraser, Samia Halaby, Aziz Hazara and Precious Okoyomon.
Buenos Aires Museum Doubles Collection with Swiss Acquisition
The Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (Malba) has acquired the Daros Latinamerica Collection, currently located in Zurich. The collection totals 1,233 works by 117 artists and will form part of the museum’s expansion ahead of its 25th anniversary next year.
Hong Kong Selects Two Artists for Venice Biennale
Local artists Angel Hui and Kingsley Ng will represent Hong Kong at the 61st edition of the Venice Biennale. The exhibition, curated by the Hong Kong Museum of Art, will explore ‘the poetic rhythms’ of daily life in the city.
New Zealand’s Largest Art Gallery Appoints New Director
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki has announced Dr Zara Stanhope as its new director from March next year. Stanhope was previously director of Cultural Enterprises at New Plymouth District Council, and has held senior positions at museums across Australia and New Zealand.
National Museum of Libya Reopens
The National Museum of Libya, housed in Tripoli’s Red Castle, has reopened for the first time since Muammar Gaddafi’s downfall in 2011. Housing a prized collection of African antiquities, the museum will welcome students and schoolchildren until its public reopening in early 2026.
Galleries
Antenna Space to Expand to Hong Kong
The leading Shanghai contemporary gallery will open its first branch in Wong Chuk Hang, the fast-growing art hub in Hong Kong Island’s Southern District. Directed by Jeff Li, the new space will open with a group exhibition in March.
Condo London Returns Next Month with 50-Gallery Lineup
London’s large-scale collaborative exhibition programme has announced its 50 participating galleries, with 23 local spaces playing host to international guests between 17 January and 14 February. Participants include Guatemalan space Proyectos Ultravioleta, hosted by Public Gallery; Nicoletti hosting Magician Space from Beijing, and Parisian gallery sans titre at Sadie Coles HQ’s Soho location.
Gallery Representations
Rio Kobayashi Joins Kate MacGarry
The Austrian Japanese designer is now represented by Kate MacGarry, whose East London gallery is currently hosting a solo exhibition of Kobayashi’s furniture and sculpture. Kobayashi was awarded the Emerging Design Medal at the London Design Festival earlier this year.
Awards and Residencies
Tuan Andrew Nguyen to Erect a Bamiyan Buddha in New York
The Vietnamese American artist will present the next High Line commission next April in New York’s elevated park. Titled The Light That Shines Through the Universe, Nguyen’s new work is a carved sandstone replica of one of Afghanistan’s Bamiyan Buddhas, with hands cast from melted brass artillery shells. The original Bamiyan Buddhas were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.
The Guggenheim Launches New $50K Prize
The New York museum has announced the inaugural Jack Galef Visual Arts Award, a biennial prize recognising a contemporary artist for ‘outstanding achievement and originality’. The $50,000 prize has gone to Ontario-born Catherine Telford Keogh, whose interdisciplinary practice interrogates consumption and waste. —[O]
Main image: Ignacio Gatica, Sanhattan (2025) (still). Digital video with colour and sound. 18 min, 57 sec. Courtesy Ignacio Gatica.
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