Gareth Harris

Gareth Harris is the Chief Contributing Editor of The Art Newspaper

Damien Hirst selects $6.2m banana artwork for UK schools project

The British artist selected Maurizio Cattelan’s infamous conceptual piece to appear digitally in schools across the next two years

National Trust announces plans to address UK's mental health crisis

As part of its ten-year strategy, the heritage organisation will work with mental health charity Mind

All the new art to see on London's Underground in 2025

As part of the Art on the Underground 2025 programme, Ahmet Öğüt, Rudy Loewe and Rory Pilgrim will all unveil works around the city's transport hubs

AlUla festival features 'taster' James Turrell show and Manal AlDowayan

Both artists are working on new commissions in the Wadi AlFann area of AlUla

UK export bar placed on rare 17th-century Fairhaven Panels worth £1.6m

Museums must match the price of the pearl and shell piece which sold at Sotheby’s last year

London museum guards threaten further strike action

Workers employed by contractor Wilson James demand better wages and additional leave

Book Clubfeature

‘The painter in me did not die’: novelist Orhan Pamuk turns his hand to art

Notebooks filled with the Turkish author's drawings reflect events spanning the past decade

Awardsnews

UK New Year Honours for National Gallery director Gabriele Finaldi and artist Rebecca Salter

Charity chief Rose Aidin, designer Tom Dixon and artist Barbara Davis Rae also receive awards

Michelangelo Pistoletto unveils his own version of stolen Caravaggio masterpiece in Sicily

Theft from a Baroque oratory remains unsolved after 55 years, sparking countless conspiracy theories

In memoriam: remembering art world figures who died in 2024

Faith Ringgold, Frank Auerbach, Richard Serra, Barbara Gladstone and Lorraine O’Grady were among those who died this year

Prison inmates and artist Marinella Senatore create light installation for Vatican Jubilee Year

The Holy See will launch a series of contemporary art projects at prisons next year

MFA Boston acquires 38 photographs by Robert Frank capturing life in 1940s Paris

The experimental images feature in a new exhibition centred on a personal family scrapbook

The art of the algorithm—new magazine launches dedicated to Artificial Intelligence works

Biannual publication spotlights 'visual experiments and conceptually refined pieces'

Unesco beefs up protection for cultural heritage in Ukraine

UN heritage body grants 'provisional enhanced protection' to the Odessa Literary Museum and the National Historical and Memorial Reserve Babyn Yar

Ancient Torlonia treasures head for the US and Canada

Discussions continue about reopening the Torlonia Museum in Rome, says foundation director

Uffizi’s secret Vasari Corridor reopens over Florence’s Ponte Vecchio

The private passageway built by the Medici dynasty cost €11m to restore

Santa Fe, Bukhara and Liverpool: the most interesting biennials to visit in 2025

Plus, full listings of the biennials, triennials and festivals taking place throughout the year

London-based Studio Weave wins competition to revamp British Museum entrance

New welcome pavilions and a landscaped forecourt are scheduled for completion early 2026

Naomi Beckwith named artistic director of Documenta in 2027

The deputy director and chief curator of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum says she is "humbled by the breadth of this responsibility"

Arts Council England to face scrutiny as government announces new review

Former minister of state for culture, creative Industries and tourism Margaret Hodge will lead the process

Saudi Arabia launches digital art institute as part of $62.2bn Diriyah complex

A vast new digital art institute, Diriyah Art Futures in Riyadh, opened earlier this month with "cutting-edge labs and immersive exhibition spaces"

Louise Bourgeois’s mammoth spider will return to Tate Modern for the gallery's 25th anniversary

A new “capsule collection” trail will also feature works by Mark Rothko and Dorothea Tanning

On the record: UK artist Peter Doig to mix music and art in new London show

From October 2025, Serpentine Galleries will host "House of Music"— a “multi-sensory environment” pairing the artist's paintings with music and film

UK strikes culture partnership deal with Saudi Arabia

The new bilateral agreement is intended to help Saudi Arabia “fulfil its ambition to become a global visitor destination”

‘As long as we can work, we will’: Lebanon galleries re-open following Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire

Since the agreement came into force on 27 November, spaces have been trying to return to some semblance of normality

Saudi Arabia to give €50m towards Centre Pompidou refurbishment

France will also help develop a raft of new museums in the kingdom, including a photography institution

‘One of a kind’: Barbican and Fondation Giacometti to collaborate on 2025 exhibition series

Historic pieces by the acclaimed Swiss sculptor Giacometti will be brought together with works by three leading contemporary artists at the Brutalist London venue