Art Movements, published every Thursday afternoon, is a roundup of must-know news, appointments, awards, and other happenings in today’s chaotic art world.
A New Leader for the Sam Gilliam Foundation
The foundation, established in 2023 to care for Sam Gilliam’s legacy by elevating emerging artists and mobilizing civic activism, has named its inaugural executive director. Dr. Steven Nelson, who comes to the role from the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, will begin his tenure immediately.
Nelson was a graduate student in the 1990s when he first encountered one of the artist’s iconic drape paintings. The “folds and drips and layers of paint,” he said, “were a revelation.”
“As an artist-turned-art historian, I could imagine in the work new ways of making and thinking about art,” Nelson told Hyperallergic. “Gilliam’s work is an integral part of the history of modern and contemporary art. It is an honor to steward his legacy, and to understand it as a catalyst for supporting emerging artists and thinkers.”
Opening Date Set for Aperture’s New Home
The photography nonprofit and publisher will officially inaugurate its permanent headquarters on New York’s Upper West Side on September 18. Located across from the American Museum of Natural on Columbus Avenue and 78th Street, the new 10,000-square-foot space will open its doors with a housewarming exhibition titled Aperture Loves New York, gathering images by Dawoud Bey, Robert Frank, Deana Lawson, Carrie Mae Weems, and others.
What Else Happened?
- Diana Al-Hadid, Jordan Ann Craig, Lavar Munroe, Ronald Rael, and Kiyan Williams were awarded the VIA Art Fund’s spring 2026 Artistic Production Grants, totaling $390,000. Williams, pictured above, received an exhibition grant to support Entanglements, a series of architectural and sculptural inquiries across Boston — including an earthwork installation on the former New Guinea settlement, one of the first Black communities in the city’s North End.
- Bangladeshi-British artist Rana Begum is now represented by Lehmann Maupin gallery.
- The Phoenix Art Museum has received a historic gift of 185 artworks by Native American artists from the collection of William Healey, including pieces by Jaune-Quick-to-See Smith (Confederated Salish and Kootenai) and Tony Abeyta (Diné). Read more at Hyperallergic.
- Francesca Casadio was named director of the Getty Conservation Institute.
- Steven High, executive director of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, at Florida State University, will retire after 15 years.
- Mary Sabbatino, vice president and partner at Galerie Lelong, was awarded France’s Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Wildcard: New Museum Partners With … Penske Media?
In the art world’s latest head-scratcher of a team-up, the New Museum is joining forces with Penske Media Corporation, proud recipient of a couple hundred million Saudi dollars, to launch an event puzzlingly titled “Art Week NYC” this fall. The website promises “four days of unparalleled access” to New York’s art scene, which is PR language for “gallery openings you were already invited to.” (As a reminder, Penske has gradually been vacuuming up art publications, including Artnews, Art in America, and Artforum, as it continues to face a boycott over alleged repression of pro-Palestinian speech.) At the rate these partnerships are going, I fear we’re just a fiscal quarter away from some of our best April Fools’ jokes coming true …
