May 2025 Art News

Internationally renowned Ugandan multidisciplinary artist Acaye Kerunen combines storytelling, writing, acting, and activism in her performances and installations. Kerunen collaborated with Collin Sekajugo on the Uganda Pavilion’s inaugural installation at the 2022 Venice Biennale, for which they received the Special Mention award for Best National Participation. 

Pharaoh Hatshepsut (Hat-shep-soot) (c. 1505–1458 BC), who ruled Egypt over 3,500 years ago, commissioned art and architecture as a part of her leadership strategy. She was the wife of Pharaoh Thutmose II who ironically had fallen to the wayside of history due to the greater visibility of his more illustrious father, Thutmose I, and Hatshepsut. History rarely favors the wives of famous men.

Christie’s 20th and 21st Century Art Sales are taking place this week at Rockefeller Center in New York City. Tonight, May 14th, the auction house’s 21st Century Evening Sale is expected to witness a revolutionary record-break by South African artist and painter Marlene Dumas.

Findlay Galleries is delighted to announce an eagerly awaited exhibition featuring the extraordinary works of the acclaimed artist Janet Mait. This captivating exhibition, from May 14th to June 6th at Findlay Galleries, New York, presents a vibrant collection of Mait’s recent abstract expressionist paintings, crafted with fervor and creativity.

This past Friday, the Trump administration issued a proposal to eradicate numerous arts-centered agencies from the federal budget. These “small agency eliminations” include the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Surrealism became the focus of many art institutions in 2024 in response to the 100th anniversary of the 1924 publication of Andre Breton’s (1896-1966) Surrealist Manifesto. Now, in a moment when female visionary artists like Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) and Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) are being rediscovered, Ithell Colquhoun (1906-1988) stands out. 

The first Haitian female artist to exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art–with her remarkable paper dress sculpture, Justice of Ezili–conceptual artist Fabiola Jean-Louis (b. 1978) captures viewers’ attention with her Afro Surrealist creations.

Renowned for his large, site-specific Plexus installations, which use sewing thread to emulate refracted light, Mexico City-born artist Gabriel Dawe (1973) works with various media–including textiles, videowatercolor, and collage.