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Editor’s Note:  This story originally appeared in  On Balance ,  the ARTnews  newsletter about the art market and beyond.  Sign up here   to receive it every Wednesday. Last Thursday, in a basement at No. 9 Cork Street in Mayfair, mega-dealer Thaddaeus Ropac was on hand to launch the 2026 edition of London Gallery Weekend (LGW). The occasion was a panel discussion with Pale Horse Gallery cofounder Emma Hodgson and Kate MacGarry, who runs an eponymous space in Shoreditch. The on-the-nose title: “How is London’s contemporary commercial gallery scene thriving in times of flux?” The flux is real. Over the weekend, news that Pace Gallery—which operates eight locations worldwide—had cut 50 staff members and dropped 50 artists was ringing in everyone’s ears. Today, the Financial Times reported that the mega-gallery is also planning to downsize its London operation. A decade on from the Brexit vote, and two years since the Labour Party retook power u...

The two teams met in dry, still conditions at St Pat’s Silverstream on Wednesday in their annual midweek traditional for the Ken Gray Cup. Wellington College led 15-14 at halftime and went on to win 26-17, sealing their win with two late penalties after dominating possession and territory throughout much of the second half despite...

The 16th Gwangju Biennial, opening this fall in South Korea (Sept 5-Nov. 15, 2026), has announced the names of the 40-some artists and groups who will be included in the exhibition. The list was first published by e-flux . The Biennial’s curator, “fast-rising” Singaporean artist and filmmaker Ho Tzu Nyen , was announced in April 2025. Ho represented Singapore at the 2011 Venice Biennale, and organized the Asian Art Biennial in 2019. The title of Ho’s show, “You Must Change Your Life,” is drawn from the last line of Rainer Maria Rilke sonnet “Archaic Torso of Apollo.” The show focus on the continuous practice of change and transformation. The inaugural edition of the Gwangju Biennial opened in 1995, and it has become one of the most well-known biennials in Asia. Previous curators have included big names on the international exhibition circuit, among them Okwui Enwezor (2008), Hou Hanru (2002), and Harald Szeemann (2012). For the 16th edition, Ho is worki...

10 June 2026: This coming Saturday Old Boys University will be wearing a one-off alternate jersey against Oriental-Rongotai – an all-green strip paired with white shorts – inspired by the great Jubilee Cup-winning Victoria University Rugby Club teams of the 1950s. It’s a throwback to one of the most successful eras in the club’s history. The...

Victor Wembanyama is much more than a transcendant basketball star. In the hours leading up to a decisive Game 3 victory in the 2026 NBA Finals—the first such game in New York City in 25 years—the 7-Foot-4 Frenchman spent the afternoon in Gramercy sketching. As seen in a viral video posted to Instagram on Tuesday, Wembanyama and his sister Eve , who also plays professional basketball, but in Europe, were spotted in Gramercy Park, one of just two private parks in New York City, sketching a statue of Edwin Booth, the 19th-century Shakespearean actor whose brother, John Wilkes, cemented his place in history by assassinating President Abraham Lincoln. Edwin’s statue, depicting him as Hamlet, was sculpted by artist Edmond Thomas Quinn, a Gilded age artist with pieces in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum. Edwin founded the Players Club on Gramercy Park South, which commissioned the statue as a tribute in 1918, around ...

Elfie Semotan, an Austrian fashion photographer known for her collaboration with designer Helmut Lang, died “unexpectedly” on Saturday at 84 years old in Jennersdorf, a town in southeast Austria, according to an obituary posted on Instagram and a report by Austria’s national public broadcasting network ORF. Semotan was based in Vienna, New York, and Jennersdorf, which is near the border with Slovenia and Hungary. She had spent time there since first buying a farmhouse in the area in the mid-1970s. Semotan was born in 1941 in Wels, and studied fashion in Vienna. Soon after finishing her studies, she moved to Paris and worked as a model while developing her interest in photography. After moving back to Vienna in 1971, Semotan’s photography career began in earnest. One of her first major assignments was in the mid-’70s with the Austrian lingerie brand Palmers. The advertising campaign paired Semotan’s provocative photos—many of which ...