Notes related to New York

By María Sancho-Arroyo, art market specialist

Frida Kahlo has entered a new chapter of global recognition. The sale of El sueño (La cama) for $54.66 million at Sotheby’s marks the highest price ever achieved by a woman artist at auction and the strongest result for any modern Latin American artist.

By Maria Paula Suarez

Interview with Valerie Cabrera Brugal, founder of Catalysta

Tatiana Arocha's artistic approach examines the connections between nature, history, and cultural resilience, presented alongside a collaborative publication blending critical thought and visual research.

By Violeta Lozada

The Armory Show 2025 returns to the Javits Center in New York, reaffirming its status as one of the most influential events in modern and contemporary art since nineteen ninety-four. Every year, the fair brings together leading international galleries to showcase innovative works, with a strong focus on curatorial excellence, engaging public programming, and bold artistic activations.

Artist Grace Rosario Perkins’s solo exhibition reveals a dynamic process of layering, erasure, and renewal, where personal and collective histories converge.specifically for this exhibition.

The American Folk Art Museum presents an innovative exhibition examining the natural history of quilts and their connections to agricultural production, industrial manufacturing, and international trade, revealing the environmental and social impact of this quintessentially American art form.

The interdisciplinary art center located in New York presents work shaped by the experience of relating to the foreign in order to build a unique identity.

Americas Society presents Amazonia Açu, an exhibition that explores the cultural, historical, and spiritual diversity of the Pan-Amazon region through contemporary and Indigenous perspectives.

By Julia P. Herzberg, Ph.D.

Ben Shahn, On Nonconformity is the artist’s first retrospective in the United States in almost fifty years. Impeccably curated and designed, the exhibition aims to bring renewed critical attention to one of America’s most consequential modernists. 

Americas Society presents the first institutional retrospective in New York of Colombian artist. The exhibition will highlight the six decades of her career, which has positioned her as a key figure for several generations of Latin American women.

This spring, New York’s art fairs drew large crowds and vibrant energy—from the blue-chip Frieze and TEFAF to more experimental events like Independent and NADA. A total of twelve fairs took place, reinforcing the sense of an especially intense week for the market. The aisles were filled with collectors, curators, and celebrities, yet sales reflected a more measured pace than in previous years. The market is active, but increasingly thoughtful.

The Cervantes Institute in New York presents the exhibition Fabelo. Critical States, a selection of 13 works by renowned Cuban artist Roberto Fabelo, curated by Mario José Hernández. The collection invites viewers to immerse themselves in a disturbing universe where the real and the fantastic coexist in an unstable balance.

The Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) presents Magali Lara: Stitched to the Body, an exhibition that examines a key moment in the career of pioneering Mexican artist.

For those of us who have followed the creative paths of Ana Tiscornia, we are very familiar with the many inventive forms and materials the artist has employed to refer to the architecture of place. The architecture of place may have been a building or a section of it; it may have been a street. Esquina / Corner of 2010, for example, is a complex paper collage of cut-out floor plans, densely layered to represent collapsed structures. This collage features a small red dot signaling the end of a street, a specific place no longer recognizable.

SculptureCenter presents Luana Vitra: Amulets, the first institutional exhibition in the United States of the Brazilian artist, which invites visitors to look beyond materiality and imagine another dimension to which the works belong.

James Cohan presents the first New York solo exhibition of Claudia Alarcón & Silät, a collective of artists from the Wichí communities of northern Salta, Argentina; the show features new textile works exploring celestial themes.

A new group exhibition brings together 17 Argentine artists in New York. Curated by The Bureau of The Unknown Curator, the show features Cecilia Biagini, Ivana Brenner, Rafael Bueno, Bibi Calderaro, Beto De Volder, Dolores Furtado, Julio Grinblatt, Nicolás Guagnini, Claudia Kaatziza Cortínez, Syd Krochmalny, Fabián Marcaccio, Sabrina Merayo Núñez, Luciana Pinchiero, Liliana Porter, Sofía Quirno, Analia Segal, and Pedro Wainer.

The Venezuelan's work has been added to the permanent collection of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, marking a significant milestone in the artist’s career. Additive Spectrum was first shown in Beltrán’s UNDER THE SUN, OVER THE EARTH exhibition at CENTRAL FINE, showcasing a vibrant exploration of color and emotional resonance.

The Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA) spring 2025 exhibition, continents like seeds, brings together the work of La Chola Poblete (b. 1989, Argentina), Niño de Elche (b. 1985, Spain), and Pedro G. Romero (b. 1964, Spain); through sound, sculpture, performance, drawing, and painting, the show unravels and exposes the contradictions and ambiguities of colonial legacies.

apexart welcomes proposals for group exhibitions as part of its 2025-26 International Open Call, which will be open from February 1 to March 1, 2025. The five winning initiatives will each receive a $10,000 USD exhibition budget and become official “apexart exhibitions” in their respective locations around the world. Curators, artists, writers, and creative individuals—regardless of experience level or location—are invited to submit a proposal online.

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is showcasing two exhibitions that explore the evolving relationship between architecture and its social, environmental, and technological contexts. These shows, Down to Earth and The City May Now Scatter, highlight innovative approaches to design and planning.

As 2024 draws to a close, it’s time to assess the state-of-the-art market over the past year. After the post-pandemic boom of 2021 and 2022, the art market suffered a marked slowdown in 2023, which has continued through 2024. According to auction data, the market has accumulated a total decline of 51% since 2022.

On view February 28, 2025, through February 22, 2026, the sweeping exhibition, presented in three parts, marks the Museum’s anniversary year by exploring the collection’s rich history and evolution.

Art at Americas Society will present Beatriz Cortez x rafa esparza: Earth and Cosmos on January 29, 2025, an exhibition showcasing the collaboration of two artists exploring ancient cultures of the Americas; this approach highlights the dialogues and exchanges between artists and their peers, which deeply shape and enrich their creative processes.

The Met’s bold new vision for the Oscar L. Tang and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing –to be opened at 2030, presenting Modern and Contemporary art– is designed by Mexican architect Frida Escobedo, the first woman to design a new wing in the Museum’s 154-year history.

The Cisneros Institute is launching its first publication Momentum: Art & Ecology in Contemporary Latin America, a book that investigates how Latin American artists engage with their environments, addressing themes such as innovative relationships with the nonhuman, land disputes, colonial legacies, and visions for the future.

The November auctions of Modern and Contemporary Art in New York, long considered barometers of the art market’s health, showcased striking contrasts last week, revealing both the enduring power of exceptional art and the market’s appetite for spectacle.

Shifting Landscapes is a group exhibition at the Whitney Museum that explores how constantly evolving political, ecological, and social landscapes inspire artists and their interpretations of the world around them.

The Brooklyn Museum announced the selection of more than two hundred artists for The Brooklyn Artists Exhibition, which will open on the occasion of the Museum’s 200th anniversary. This extensive group show highlights the remarkable creativity and diversity of Brooklyn’s artistic communities. Reflecting on a rich history of fostering creativity and championing artists of all backgrounds, the Museum’s bicentennial is an opportunity to honor the borough’s artistic heritage while looking towards the future.

The first half of the year concluded on a low note, and as the art market gets ready to gear up for the last semester, a clearer picture of the challenges faced is emerging.