Benjamin Sutton

Benjamin Sutton is the Editor, Americas of The Art Newspaper.

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The 2024 Whitney Biennial in five key themes

The Whitney Museum’s flagship contemporary art showcase turns on questions of identity, authenticity and mutability, which play out across more than a handful of interrelated topics

Neon work in Whitney Biennial features unexpected ‘free Palestine’ message

The biennial’s curators were unaware of the statement in a work by Demian DinéYazhi’ prior to the exhibition preview

Developer’s $325m gift will help create new museum in Seattle

Richard Hedreen is donating a collection valued at $300m and $25m cash to create an art museum at Seattle University

New York Times art critic Roberta Smith retiring after 32 years at the newspaper

The publication’s co-chief art critic, Smith has penned more than 4,500 essays and reviews for the Times

Two climate activists charged for pouring red powder on National Archives display of the US Constitution

The Valentine’s Day protest was carried out by members of the environmental group Declare Emergency

Net art pioneer Shu Lea Cheang wins $100,000 LG Guggenheim award

The Taiwan-born interdisciplinary artist’s work spans coding languages, hacking tactics, gaming engines and more

In pictures: meet Frieze Los Angeles's menagerie of animal sculptures

From irreverent fish to ceramic snakes, the animal kingdom is well represented at this year's fair

‘You have to come in knowing your taste and trusting your instinct’: Emilia Yin's survival guide for fairs

The owner of Hollywood’s Make Room gallery describes how her love of Surrealism informs her curatorial work, and offers Los Angeles newbies her top tips

'I held onto a box of Sylvie tiles that composed a psychotic, abstract cat': John Rubeli on his artful bathroom

The music executive and his wife, Stacy, are fixtures of Los Angeles’s art scene, collecting works by emerging artists and serving on boards of museums and non-profits

New satellite fair to launch at New York’s Estonian House during Frieze

The new fair, Esther, is being launched by New York’s Margot Samel and Tallinn-based Olga Temnikova

California love: Dr Dre helps to kick off Frieze Week Los Angeles in style with star-studded charity auction

The hip hop legend worked with the record executive Jimmy Iovine and Sotheby’s to put on the event, which also featured performances by the producer Timbaland and the singer Andra Day

‘The most unusual place I've installed a piece? Forty feet up in a tree’: John Quinn on his inside-out approach to art

The high-flying lawyer, who lists contemporary art as one of his passions, has opened a Los Angeles outpost of Croatia's Museum of Broken Relationships

Dozens of Los Angeles galleries will mount science-related shows for the Getty’s next PST Art programme

More than 40 galleries in the city will stage shows that resonate with PST Art’s focus on the intersections of art and science

13 shows to see in and around Los Angeles during Frieze

From important shows of Korean and Japanese contemporary art, to major surveys of Paul Pfeiffer and Joan Brown, and more

Two paintings that were stolen from Peruvian church are returned

Prior to their seizure, the paintings had been offered to the auction house Doyle for consignment

Portland Museum of Art lays off 13 workers amid $100m expansion project

The museum in Maine’s largest city cited financial hardships brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic and a persistent drop in attendance

‘MoMA, dump Kravis’: activists call on museum to break up with board chair in Valentine’s Day protest

A coalition of environmental-justice organisations renewed their calls for the removal of board chair Marie-Josée Kravis

Crime news

Brazilian authorities seeking arrest of Brent Sikkema’s husband for possible role in dealer’s murder

The alleged suspect in the murder has claimed Sikkema’s husband offered him $200,000 to carry out the killing, according to Brazilian media reports

30 archaeological artefacts returned to Mexican authorities in Los Angeles ceremony

Objects ranging from the 1st century to the 15th century were handed over at the Mexican consulate in Los Angeles earlier this month

MoMA store recalls popular Yoshitomo Nara snow globes over ‘laceration hazard’

To date almost 40 of the cutesy snow globes that were sold last November have either fractured or cracked

Art Basel reveals 287 galleries participating in its next Swiss fair, including 22 first-time exhibitors

June's event will be the first edition of the world’s most important art fair under the direction of Maike Cruse

Sportnews

Game on: Museums in Kansas City and San Francisco face off in Super Bowl duel

While California law prevents SFMoMA from wagering the loan of a work on the outcome of the NFL’s championship game, officials there and at the Nelson-Atkins Museum have found a creative solution

Frieze reveals 68 galleries for its next New York fair

The smallest Frieze fair returns to the Shed in early May

Expo Chicago reveals more than 170 exhibitors for first edition since acquisition by Frieze

The long-running Midwestern fair was acquired by the London-based fair company in summer 2023

71 participating artists and collectives revealed for 2024 Whitney Biennial

The exhibition, titled “Even Better Than the Real Thing” and co-curated by Chrissie Iles and Meg Onli, will feature works by 69 artists and two collectives

Sixth edition of Prospect New Orleans will feature 49 artists’ works throughout the city

Opening on 2 November, Prospect.6 will be the first edition of the triennial co-curated by an artist, with Ebony G. Patterson collaborating with Miranda Lash

Performer sues MoMA for alleged ‘sexual groping’ during Marina Abramović retrospective

John Bonafede, one of the artists who “reperformed” Abramović’s work for the show, claims he was sexually assaulted seven times during its run

Orlando Museum of Art faces financial troubles in Basquiat fiasco’s aftermath

Since it was raided in 2022 by the FBI, which seized 25 purported Basquiat works, the museum’s legal and communications costs have surged while public and private support slowed

Creator of TV drama Law & Order donates more than 200 works to the Metropolitan Museum

Dick Wolf gives works by Van Gogh, Bronzino and Artemisia Gentileschi to the New York museum