In 2022, Ai-Da painted the late Queen Elizabeth II to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee, which marked the 70th anniversary of the monarch’s reign. That work, titled Algorithm Queen, was exhibited alongside the King Charles portrait in Geneva.

The new portrait is the latest royal portrait to gain public attention following a string of recent commissions. This May, King Charles III and Queen Camilla unveiled official coronation portraits by longtime royal collaborators Peter Kuhfeld and Paul Benney. These were released shortly after Jonathan Yeo’s fiery red 2024 painting of the king sparked debate for its bold color palette, with many critics linking the red to imagery of fire or blood.

In 2024, Ai-Da became the first humanoid robot to sell a work at auction when its painting of Alan Turing sold at Sotheby’s New York for $1.08 million. Titled AI God. Portrait of Alan Turing (2024), the work attracted 27 bidders and landed well above its presale estimate of $120,000–$180,000.

Ai-Da’s work has also appeared at institutions including the Design Museum, Tate Modern, and the Venice Biennale, and it has spoken at the House of Lords and the United Nations.

A 2007 portrait of New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani painted by celebrated Pakistani American artist Salman Toor surfaced following Mamdani’s victory in the city’s Democratic primary on June 24th. The portrait was posted on Instagram by novelist Amitav Ghosh—a longtime friend of Mamdani’s mother, the filmmaker Mira Nair.

Completed when Mamdani was a teenager, Toor’s portrait captures his subject with tousled hair and soft expression, rendered in warm, earthy tones. “I’ve known Zohran since he was a little boy, and it has been amazing to see this kind, considerate, and caring young man growing into a really effective politician,” Ghosh wrote in his post.

“It was 2007. The portrait was a study—a sketch of intention. It was meant to lead to something larger: a family portrait for my friend, the filmmaker Mira Nair, Zohran’s mother,” Toor told Artsy via a representative from his gallery, Luhring Augustine. “Looking at it now, years later, I see more than I intended—or perhaps less. The teenage Zohran gazes out with something in the eyes that hints at a beginning, an arc already forming. There’s a sense of inevitability, of destiny.

“That’s the trap and the magic of portraiture: It tells a story you never meant to write. And the story it tells now is one of auspicious promise—one we still hope to see in full bloom.”

Mamdani, a 33-year-old New York state assemblyman from Queens, won the Democratic primary in a surprise upset over former governor Andrew Cuomo. Centered on housing justice and economic equity, Mamdani’s campaign tapped into growing anxieties over New York City’s affordability crisis.

Toor, who is widely recognized for his expressive figurative paintings of queer people navigating city life in New York and South Asia, painted the portrait while completing his MFA at Pratt Institute, before his rise to prominence. A member of the Artsy Vanguard 2020, the artist has presented solo exhibitions at the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Toor is currently the subject of a solo exhibition, “Wish Maker,” spanning Luhring Augustine’s locations in Tribeca and Chelsea. On view through July 25th, the show features a new body of work exploring diasporic and queer identity.

A rare oil painting of Mahatma Gandhi by British artist Clare Leighton sold for £152,800 ($204,800) at Bonhams on July 15th, more than triple its low estimate. The work, entitled Portrait of Mahatma Gandhi (1931), carried an estimate of £50,000–£70,000 ($66,800–$93,600). It is thought to be the only oil portrait for which Gandhi sat, and was the top lot in the auction house’s online Travel and Exploration sale, which ran from July 7th to 15th.

The painting depicts Gandhi seated cross-legged, wrapped in a white robe, his head bare and one finger raised as if mid-sentence. Leighton painted Gandhi while he visited London to attend the second Round Table Conference. At the time, she was living with political journalist Henry Noel Brailsford, an advocate for Indian independence who had met Gandhi the previous year. Brailsford’s connections allowed Leighton to meet with Gandhi, who permitted her to sketch him over multiple sessions. This portrait was featured in an exhibition at the Albany Galleries in London in 1931.

Leighton finished this portrait in London, and it remained in her collection until she died in 1989, when it was passed to her family. “This work was a testament to Gandhi’s power to connect with people far and wide, and presented a lasting document of an important moment in history,” said Rhyanon Demery, Bonhams’s head of sale.

A month after Leighton completed the portrait, Gandhi’s secretary sent her a letter, a copy of which is attached to the back of the painting. It reads: “It was such a pleasure to have had you here for many mornings doing Mr. Gandhi’s portrait. I am sorry I didn’t see the final result, but many of my friends who saw it in the Albany Gallery said to me that it was a good likeness. I am quite sure Mr. Gandhi has no objection to its being reproduced.”

There is no official record of the work being displayed again until 1978 at a solo exhibition of Leighton’s work mounted by the Boston Public Library. According to the auction house, the artist’s family noted that the portrait was on display in 1974. During that time, the painting was attacked by a supporter of R.S.S., the Indian right-wing party.

Born in 1898, Leighton formally studied art at Brighton College of Art, the Slade School of Fine Art, and the Central School of Arts and Crafts. She is primarily known for her wood engravings, which she learned under the tutelage of Noel Rooke.

Correction: a previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Baseera Khan will participate in the show.

Æmen Ededéen will now be represented by Maruani Mercier Gallery, which will host the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery in January 2026. The upcoming solo show will feature work from the artist’s ongoing mixed-media painting series “The Glass Dream Game.” Some of these works were recently shown by the Belgian gallery at Art Brussels in April.

The artist, who began his career making political art, has since started making more symbolic, intuitive work. His process includes rituals that engage with patterns he senses in the world, resulting in bright, layered canvases, rich with allusion. “In the past, I made political work to confront the culture,” he said in an interview with ArtPlugged. “Now, I see it was also a way to avoid confronting myself.”

Born on an Air Force base in Mountain Home, Idaho, Ededéen—formerly known as Joshua Hagler—was raised in rural evangelical communities in Illinois, Arizona, and California. He is a first-generation college graduate who received a BFA from the University of Arizona.

Following a 2018 grant from the Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program, Ededéen relocated to New Mexico, where he now lives with his wife and daughter in the high desert village of Placitas.

In “The Glass Dream Game,” Ededéen begins each painting by using a random number generator to select six books from his library, then opens each to a single page to create what he calls a “Hexagram.” He studies the content of those pages—text, images, or even blanks—to identify patterns, symbols, or coincidences, which he reorganizes into a narrative structure he calls the “Trial,” followed by a written “Dream” and a final visual “Vision.” The resulting painting emerges through layered mixed-media techniques, including scraping and embedding glass beads.

Museum exhibitions include “The River Lethe” at the Brand Library and Art Center in Los Angeles and “Love Letters to the Poorly Regarded” at the Roswell Museum and Art Center, both in 2018. More recently, he presented solo exhibitions “Drawing in the Dark” at Cris Worley Fine Arts in Dallas and “The Living Circle Us” at London’s Unit in 2021. A new monograph, titled Nihil: Joshua Hagler in New Mexico, written by John Yau, will be published on 24th July.

She also co-founded LAND (Los Angeles Nomadic Division), a nonprofit dedicated to site-specific public art. At LAND, she worked with more than 300 artists across 100 projects, including installations presented throughout the U.S. and abroad.

Momin’s appointment coincides with the Bronx Museum’s planned unveiling of a new South Wing, designed by the architecture firm Marvel, in 2026. The renovation will include a new multi-story lobby at Grand Concourse and 165th Street, and is being funded with public money.

“I have been proud to support the Museum’s growth and expansion over the years, and I am excited to welcome Shamim M. Momin as its new director and chief curator,” said Bronx borough president Vanessa L. Gibson. “With her experience and expertise, I am confident she will usher in an exciting new chapter for The Bronx Museum and continue its legacy as a cornerstone of arts and culture in our borough.”

The museum’s North Wing has continued to operate with ongoing exhibitions and public programming. Currently on view through August 17th is “WORKING KNOWLEDGE: Shared Imaginings, New Futures,” an interactive group show focused on community-driven artmaking. This September, the museum will open “Ministry: Reverend Joyce McDonald,” the first institutional survey of sculptor Joyce McDonald, presented in collaboration with Visual AIDS.

The Bayeux Tapestry, a monumental medieval embroidery work chronicling William the Conqueror’s invasion of England, will return to the United Kingdom for the first time in approximately 950 years. The tapestry, which is currently housed in a museum in Bayeux, France, will be displayed at the British Museum from September 2026 to July 2027.

The agreement was announced during a state visit to the United Kingdom by French president Emmanuel Macron. In return, the British Museum has agreed to lend artifacts from the Sutton Hoo ship burial and a set of 12th-century Lewis chess pieces to museums in Normandy. This deal is the result of a decades-long effort to persuade a hesitant French government to part with the tapestry. The loan was formalized at a ceremony on July 9th.

“[For] decades, I have to confess, we did our best not to be put in this situation to make the loan of the Bayeux tapestry,” Macron said during the ceremony, as reported by The Art Newspaper. “We found the best experts [in] the world to explain in perfect detail why it was totally impossible to make such a loan. And believe me, we found them, and believe me, we could have found them again. But we just decided a few years ago [to approve the Tapestry loan], and I have to pay tribute to your King [Charles III] because it was a discussion together and I saw his attachment, his willingness, towards this project.”

The Bayeux Tapestry is thought to have been produced in England during the 11th century. The 230-foot-long artwork depicts the Norman invasion of England and the Battle of Hastings in 1066. It features 626 people, 762 animals, and a total of 58 inscriptions. The Battle of Hastings concluded with the dethronement of Harold Godwinson by William, who became the first Norman king of England.

The tapestry was likely commissioned by William’s half-brother, Bishop Odo of Bayeux. It was regularly presented in the Bayeux Cathedral throughout the 18th century, and once briefly exhibited by Napoleon in Paris in 1803. It has remained in France ever since.

“There is no other single item in British history that is so familiar, so studied in schools, so copied in art as the Bayeux Tapestry. Yet in almost a thousand years, it has never returned to these shores,” George Osborne, chair of the British Museum trustees, said in a statement. “Next year, it will, and many, many thousands of visitors, especially schoolchildren, will see it with their own eyes.”

Macron announced plans to loan the Bayeux Tapestry to the United Kingdom in 2018 as a sign of goodwill following the Brexit referendum. At the time, the tapestry was expected to be loaned in 2022. However, the exchange was postponed when a 2021 study declared the tapestry too fragile to leave the country. It placed the loan on hold until this week. Though delayed, the gesture is intended as another signal of cultural connection between the two countries.

“There is no trade war or tariff against this type of [culture-based] approach…there are no borders by definition,” Macron said.

Venus Over Manhattan, the New York gallery founded by collector Adam Lindemann in 2012, will close after its current exhibition concludes. The show, a solo presentation of works by painter Susumu Kamijo, is on view through July 18th.

In a personal article published on Artnet News, Lindemann announced the closure and reflected on the gallery’s trajectory. “I surrounded myself with a great young team who did a lot of the heavy lifting,” he wrote. “They have been a great part of the experience. I’ve seen it from both sides, and now it’s time to wave the white flag… veni, vidi, but not vici… I didn’t win. But Venus was never about winning.”

Lindemann, an avid art buyer whose collection included works such as Jeff Koons’s Hanging Heart (1994–2006) and Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled (Devil) (1982), made the decision to open a gallery in 2012 “Everyone told me not to, so of course I did,” he wrote.

Venus Over Manhattan first opened on the third floor of 980 Madison Avenue, just above Gagosian and near to Michael Werner Gallery and White Cube. Lindemann named the gallery after the Wheeler Williams sculpture that hangs on the building’s façade. The gallery opened a second location on Great Jones Street in 2022. The next year, it closed the Upper East Side location in favor of a second storefront on Great Jones Street.

Lindemann explained that his decision to close his gallery was influenced by a variety of factors. “Opening a gallery as a collector really does succeed in alienating both sides,” he wrote. “Dealers distrust you, and most collectors don’t get what you’re up to, so they turn up their noses in disapproval—or even worse, they resent you for switching sides.” In addition to the collector–dealer divide, Lindemann cited disillusionment with art fair politics as a contributing factor. “Do you want to know the truth about fair committees?” he wrote. “They gleefully ask you to get down on your hands and knees, wag your tail, and beg for forgiveness. Then, callously, they waitlist you in permanentia.”

In 2023, a selection of Lindemann’s collection went up for auction at Christie’s, including pieces by Alexander Calder and Andy Warhol. The sale fetched $31.46 million with fees.

Venus’s closure follows other recent announcements about shifts in gallery operations. Last week, Tim Blum announced the closure of the Los Angeles and Tokyo locations of his eponymous gallery after more than 30 years in business. Blum cited a need to move toward “a more flexible model” and described the current art business as unsustainable. In an interview with ArtNews, he called the gallery’s participation in Art Basel last month “a thunderclap.”

Unlike Blum, Lindemann concluded his stepping back from art dealing with finality: “There will be no pivot to consulting nor private dealing.” Instead, he wrote, “I’m going back to air kisses, handshakes, fist bumps, side hugs, head nods, winks, waves, big smiles, thumbs up, and good vibes.”

Egyptian-born artist Wael Shawky has been appointed the artistic director of Art Basel’s first edition in Qatar. The 2026 fair will take place from February 5th to 7th, with VIP days on February 3rd and 4th. Art Basel Qatar will unfold across two main venues—M7 and the Doha Design District—with additional activations in public sites throughout Msheireb Downtown Doha.

It is rare for an artist to take on the role of directing an art fair. Art Basel Qatar, however, is planning to break the art fair mold in several other ways. Rather than a mix of group and solo presentations, the fair’s 50 or so galleries will each present a solo booth. For the fair’s inaugural edition, these presentations will be curated by Shawky around the theme “Becoming.” According to Art Basel, works included will examine transformation and the systems that shape belief, identity, and meaning in the Gulf and beyond.

“With Art Basel Qatar, we are pushing the boundaries of the art fair model—placing artistic intention at its core while responding to today’s market,” said Vicenzo de Bellis, Art Basel’s global director of fairs. “This format allows us to support galleries in presenting artists’ work with greater depth and resonance. Doha is an ideal context for this evolution: It is a place where cultural ambition meets a rich and layered history, and where experimentation is both welcomed and supported.”

Based in Doha, Shawky is known for his drawings, paintings, installations, and films to chart and examine the history of the Middle East. The artist represented Egypt at the 2024 Venice Biennale, where he presented Drama 1882, a film focusing on the Urabi nationalist revolt in Egypt. The film was also on view at MOCA Los Angeles earlier this year. The artist is also presenting “I Am Hymns of the New Temples” at LUMA Arles in France, on view through May 3, 2026.

In October 2024, Shawky was named artistic director of the Doha Fire Station, where he has since launched the Arts Intensive Study Program for 20 emerging Qatari and international artists. He officially assumes the role this September. That venue will host educational programming that aligns with the fair’s ambitions to support the regional art scene.

“The opportunity to explore artistic practices from across the MENA region and beyond, within a framework that values research, narrative, and experimentation, is extremely meaningful to me,” Shawky said in a statement.

A selection committee of gallery representatives will assist in shaping the fair’s roster. Members include Lorenzo Fiaschi, director of Galleria Continua; Shireen Gandhy, director of Chemould Prescott Road; Daniela Gareh, global board director of White Cube; Mohammed Hafiz, founder of ATHRhr Gallery; Sunny Rahbar, co-founder of The Third Line; and Gordon VeneKlasen, a partner at Michael Werner Gallery.

The 10 featured players are each represented with two images: one close-up portrait depicting the player in uniform, and another depicting her with family members. Each portrait is accompanied by a first-person account from a loved one highlighting noteworthy moments from the player’s career. Among the players that Frazier photographed are forward Breanna Stewart, pictured with her wife, Marta Xargay Casademont; guard Sabrina Ionescu, pictured with her husband, Hroniss Grasu; and center Jonquel Jones, pictured with members of her family in the Bahamas, where she was born and raised.

The installation will remain on view for the duration of the 2025 season. Wu Tsai has planned additional art commissions for 2026 and beyond, selected by a jury of prominent art world figures including Studio Museum director Thelma Golden, LACMA director Michael Govan, and Serpentine Galleries artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist.

The fair’s name draws on the mythological figure Echo, a nymph whose voice is heard long after she spoke, a reference that reflects the fair’s mission to amplify overlooked voices. Echo Soho’s program includes workshops, curatorial walkthroughs, and performances.

A special presentation by the Association of Women in the Arts (AWITA) will be staged in the chapel space. “Resonant Space: Curating Echoes” will feature work selected from an open call, supporting the launch of AWITA’s inaugural research scholarship. Other confirmed exhibitors include London spaces Pipeline and Gillian Jason Gallery, and online dealers Wondering People.

The fair will award the Soho House Prize, selected by Kate Bryan, global director of art at Soho House, and Jack Lazenby, the members club’s art collection manager.

“This new exhibition will invite visitors to engage deeply with Moore’s artistic inspirations, revealing how his work was shaped by the scientific and natural discoveries unfolding during his lifetime,” said Paul Denton, director of Creative Programmes and Exhibitions at RBG Kew.

The exhibition at Kew follows a 2007 display of Moore’s work at the gardens, but the 2026 show will be more ambitious in both scale and scope. A parallel exhibition, “Henry Moore and more,” will run at Wakehurst botanical gardens, Kew’s sister site in Sussex, featuring four Moore sculptures alongside newly commissioned works by contemporary artists.

Kew Gardens has hosted several exhibitions by contemporary artists in the past, including commissions by Marshmallow Laser Feast, Marc Quinn, Felicity Aylieff, and Mat Collishaw.

Christie’s set a new auction record for the 18th-century Venetian artist Canaletto on July 1st, when the painting Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day (ca. 1732) sold for £31.93 million ($43.91 million). The painting, which sold at the auction house’s London Old Masters evening sale, had been estimated to fetch more than $20 million. All sales figures include fees.

Measuring 86 by 138 centimeters, the painting, an early 18th-century view of Venice, is larger than any other major Canaletto painting to reach the market in the past two decades. According to The Art Newspaper, the work attracted five bidders across Asia, Europe, and North America.

The sale marks a significant rise from the previous auction high for the artist: The Grand Canal, Looking North-East from Palazzo Balbi to the Rialto Bridge, which sold for £18.6 million ($32.74 million at the time) at Sotheby’s London in 2005. That price had stood as the record for Canaletto for nearly two decades.

Previously sold in 1993 at a Paris auction house for $10.24 million, Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day was later discovered to have belonged to Robert Walpole, Britain’s first prime minister. The work was discovered in a 1736 inventory along with the painting of the Grand Canal that had previously held Canaletto’s auction record.

Maja Markovic, head of Christie’s Old Masters evening sale, London, noted the significance of this result in today’s art market: “The result of the Canaletto, which surpassed a record that stood for over two decades by more than £13 million [$17.75 million], is a testament to the painting’s exceptional quality and enduring appeal. It is the second highest price achieved for an Old Master at Christie’s London, surpassed only by Rubens’s Lot and His Daughters in 2016. This sale reaffirms the market’s confidence in well-priced works of rarity, importance and excellence that continue to captivate and inspire.”

The Christie’s Old Masters sale overall realized £55.26 million ($75.45 million), with a 99% sell-through rate by value (the percentage of the total estimated value of artworks that were sold)—the highest ever for an Old Masters sale at Christie’s London.

The evening also featured notable results for Willem Key’s Portrait of Margret Halseber of Basel, known as “The Lady with the Two Beards,” which sold for £882,000 ($1.2 million), and Gerrit Dou’s scene of a woman removing lice from a child’s head, which fetched £2 million ($2.73 million).

Khaled Sabsabi has been reinstated as the artist at Australia’s pavilion for the 2026 Venice Biennale. The move reverses the decision by Creative Australia, the group that organizes the country’s pavilion, to drop Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino this February, citing a “divisive debate” about the selection. The months-long controversy triggered resignations, boycotts, and a broader national conversation about artistic freedom and censorship.

The decision was made after an independent external review and will allow Sabsabi and Dagostino to begin working on their project for the upcoming Biennale. In a joint statement, the duo announced that they “welcome the opportunity to represent our country on this prestigious international stage.”

Sabsabi and Dagostino were first appointed on February 7th, but this decision was rescinded just five days later following political backlash to some of the artists’ previous works. During an Australian Senate hearing, politicians raised allegations of antisemitism related to Sabsabi’s past works, particularly You (2007), a video installation featuring Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Creative Australia’s board withdrew the appointment to avoid what it described at the time as “prolonged and divisive debate,” sparking uproar and debate among the country’s arts community.

Philanthropist Simon Mordant, who has twice served as the Australian commissioner for the Biennale, resigned as a Venice Biennale ambassador and retracted his financial support for the Australian pavilion, and more than 2,000 international artists, academics, and cultural workers signed an open letter urging Sabsabi and Dagostino’s reinstatement. However, Creative Australia initially maintained its decision, suggesting the pavilion could even be kept empty for next year’s Biennale.

The governance advisory firm Blackhall & Pearl was subsequently engaged to conduct an external review of Creative Australia’s processes. Released on July 2nd alongside the reinstatement, the report found that there was “no single or predominant failure of process, governance or decision making that resulted, ultimately, in the decision to rescind the selection.”

The report noted that “the lack of appropriate preparedness for such a major decision as Australian representation at the Venice Biennale has led to a considerably worse outcome for all involved than if prudent, carefully considered risk assessment and crisis management had been put in place.”

In a statement, the acting board chair of Creative Australia, Wesley Enoch, said the board had reflected deeply on the report’s findings and reaffirmed its support for artistic freedom. “A complex series of events created a unique set of circumstances that the board had to address. The board has considered and reflected deeply on all relevant issues to find a path forward. The Board is now of the view that proceeding with the artistic team, Khaled Sabsabi and Michael Dagostino, represents the preferred outcome.”

Mordant has also been appointed global ambassador and advocate for the 2026 Venice Biennale project.

Peter Phillips, a prominent figure in British Pop art, has died at 86. His family confirmed his death in an online statement, saying that the artist passed away on June 23rd. The family also indicated that a celebration of the artist’s life will be held in August at his gallery in Noosa, Australia.

Born in Birmingham, England, in 1939, Phillips studied at the Royal College of Art in London, where his contemporaries included David Hockney, Allen Jones, and R.B. Kitaj. Like their counterparts in the United States, these British pop artists challenged conventions of postwar art by embracing mass culture and commercial aesthetics.

Phillips’s work borrowed imagery from advertising and industrial design to create bright, saturated compositions, characterized by their frenetic forms and collage-like aesthetic. In Spectrocoupling (1972), he approximated the energy of electrical currents through haphazard geometric forms, while works like Glamour Girls (1974) layered bright pin-up imagery into grid-like formations. Other works grappling with Americana and pop culture featured portraits of Marilyn Monroe and Bridgette Bardot, as seen most prominently in For Men Only—Starring MM and BB (1961).

Phillips rose to prominence in the 1960s, and was featured in a BBC documentary titled Pop Goes the Easel alongside Peter Blake and Pauline Boty in 1962. His fame was bolstered by his inclusion in international exhibitions, including the Paris Biennale in 1963 and “Nieuwe Realisten” at the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague the following year. In 1964, Phillips moved to New York, where he exhibited alongside Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and James Rosenquist.

A Phillips retrospective was held in 2002 at the Galleria Civica di Modena in Italy. The next year, the artist’s 1961 painting War/Game—a geometric composition featuring a hand holding a gun up to a mirror—was adapted for the cover of Room on Fire, the second album by American rock band the Strokes. In 2015, Phillips relocated to Australia, establishing a studio and gallery in Noosa.

In their statement, the family announced plans to launch the Peter Phillips Foundation, which will offer grants and residencies for emerging artists. A GoFundMe campaign has been established to support the initiative.

Correction: A previous headline read that Peter Phillips died at age 83. He was 86.