Gareth Harris

6 days ago | theartnewspaper.com | Gareth Harris

US-based galleries are making their presences felt at the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, this year located at the Halo, an event space in New York’s Financial District (until 11 May). “This is our 11th edition here; the galleries are excited about showing at this venue,” says Touria El Glaoui, the fair’s founder. “There has been a shift in the market [for African art].

6 days ago | theartnewspaper.com | Gareth Harris

As Tate Modern in London celebrates its 25th anniversary this month, the artist Michael Craig-Martin recalls how the UK’s “cathedral to contemporary art” was born. “Who could have imagined we would find an immense derelict site on the Thames, directly across from St Paul’s, which was seen as blighted and comparatively inexpensive?” he says, referencing Giles Gilbert Scott’s Bankside power station, which closed in 1981.

6 days ago | theartnewspaper.com | Gareth Harris

The UK government has announced a final shortlist of five proposed designs for a national memorial to Queen Elizabeth II, who died in September 2022. The proposed memorial will be located in St James’s Park in London, the UK’s oldest Royal Park, close to Buckingham Palace. The winning entry will be decided this summer but no date has been set for the unveiling. Members of the public can give feedback online regarding the five designs.

1 week ago | theartnewspaper.com | Gareth Harris

The UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)—the government department responsible for funding and formulating policy for the UK arts sector—could be dismantled and absorbed into other UK government departments, according to The Sunday Times . The Sunday Times reports that as part of a government overhaul, the team behind the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, wants to abolish the DCMS, splitting it between the business department, the education department and the Treasury.

1 week ago | theartnewspaper.com | Gareth Harris

Defne Ayas has been appointed director of the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven in The Netherlands, replacing Charles Esche who has been in post for two decades. Ayas takes the reins ahead of the museum’s 90th anniversary in 2026. “It really is a match; it feels like the mothership is landing. It’s a dream vessel for me,” Ayas tells The Art Newspaper.