Art Movements, published every Thursday afternoon, is a roundup of must-know news, appointments, awards, and other happenings in today’s chaotic art world.
Larry Gagosian Gets the Documentary Treatment
A new “unauthorized documentary” about the enigmatic dealer is in the works, as first reported by Page Six and confirmed by Hyperallergic directly with the film’s creator, the Canadian director and veteran producer Barry Avrich of Melbar Entertainment Group. Avrich said the film will complete his trilogy about the art industry, following Blurred Lines: Inside the Art World (2017) and Made You Look (2020). (He also wrote a book last year about the Knoedler Gallery fraud scandal.) Personally, I am both excited and filled with dread, as I fear any more attention paid to this man will inevitably result in a wave of spin-offs no one asked for. Larry Gagosian: The Musical, anyone?
Five Craft Artists Win Big
The Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation announced the 2026 recipients of its Awards in Craft, which recognize artists who are preserving and examining cultural histories through novel materials-based practices. This year’s winners are multidisciplinary artist Hong Hong, quilter Loretta Pettway Bennett, Navajo weaver Melissa Cody, ceramicist and printer Paul Andrew Wandless, and figurative sculptor Roberto Benavidez. They will each receive a $100,000 unrestricted award.
What Else Happened?
- Pace Gallery casually announced this week that it is now representing the Constantin Brancusi Estate. No big deal.
- The Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program has announced its 2026–2027 cohort. The 17 visual artists receive one year of rent-free studio space in Brooklyn’s Dumbo neighborhood. They are Alisa Sikelianos-Carter, Anne Gilman, Beverly Fishman, David Shrobe, Davis Arney, E.E. Ikeler, Emily Janowick, Isaiah Davis, Jonathan Sanchez Noa, Khalif Tahir Thompson, Lee Maxey, Louis Block, Madjeen Isaac, Mariel Rolwing Montes, Olivia Jia, Satpreet Kahlon, and Takuji Hamanaka.
- The artist-led organization A Blade of Grass has announced its 2026 In Fellowship cohort. The three cohort members are Emily Johnson of Catalyst, based in New York; The Projects/Space in Tucson; and the nationwide UNDOC+Collective.
- Sarah Rowe (Ponca Tribe of Nebraska) is the inaugural artist-in-residence at Native Neon, a $50,000 program from Walker Youngbird Foundation.
- Marc Manack was named director of the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois Chicago’s College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts.
- John McBride will serve as interim executive director and chief operating officer at Dallas Contemporary. Jeremy Strick will step into the role of strategic advisor.
Wildcard
The architects of a $1 billion renovation at the beleaguered Louvre Museum in Paris have been announced. Selldorf Architects and Studios Architecture Paris will lead the much-anticipated expansion, encompassing a new 33,000-square-foot (!) room for the Mona Lisa and integrating “cutting-edge technologies” that will, hopefully, help the institution avoid another face-palm moment. The project has been christened the “Louvre Nouvelle Renaissance,” perhaps because the museum is currently stuck in the Middle Ages.
