Best Art in Worst of Times
Our favorite art shows and films of 2025, figure models fight for their rights, Joan Semmel's body paintings, the rise of Crusadercore, and much more.
Goodbye, Kennedy Center, and hello, Trump-Kennedy Center. Yes, the autocracy is out in the open, but don't be fooled into thinking that it's all transparent. A lot of evil is still hidden from the public eye.
That's where independent journalism, like what you're reading here, comes into the picture. Our stories this week investigate the intersections of power and image-making, asking who benefits from this potent mix. The visual lexicon of the No Kings movement, figure models and museum employees fighting for better working conditions, artists mired in debt, NYC Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani pulling a Marina Abramović at a museum in Queens, and the emergence of "Crusadercore" — these are just a few of the offerings in this edition.
I can't tell you how much we've been enjoying working on our revamped community columns. Art Movements covers industry news from an art worker's perspective. Art Problems answers your common career questions. Required Reading recaps the best and smartest reads around the internet. In Memoriam gives thoughtful portraits of community members we've lost. And in A View From the Easel, a personal favorite, artists reflect on their workspaces and practices. The next featured studio could be yours, by the way. Read the column to learn how to apply.
And make sure you also check out our Best of 2025 lists. This week, we rounded up our favorite art films of the year, plus outstanding exhibitions we've seen around the world. Alongside our team, contributors include Aruna D'Souza, Carolina A. Miranda, John Yau, Seph Rodney, Alex Paik, and other prominent critics.
But we need your help to keep this publication thriving. Social media and AI companies are shamelessly ripping off our content and ad revenue is not enough to cover all of our costs.
We're just a few hundred people away from our goal of 8,000 members by the end of the year. You'll make a big difference to our work as an independent art publication if you join us now. Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!
—Hakim Bishara, editor-in-chief
Best of 2025
The Best Art Shows Around the World in 2025
Nan Goldin’s fearless photos, Noah Davis’s enchantments of ordinary life, Stan Douglas’s historical visions, and Yoko Ono’s musical mind were just some of our favorites.
The Best Art Films of 2025
A day in the life of Peter Hujar, a bungled museum heist, and Meredith Monk's six-decade career were the subjects of some of our top art films this year.
Previously in the "Best of 2025": Art Books and Exhibitions in New York, Paris, & London
Nevada Museum of Art Presents the 2026 Art + Environment Summit: Under Pressure
This three-day gathering features Kim Stanley Robinson, Jeffrey Gibson, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Rose B. Simpson, and many more. April 16–18, 2026.
News
- In 2025, Hyperallergic’s reporting chronicled President Trump's funding cuts and threats to artistic freedom in the United States. Read our month-by-month timeline of the administration's attacks on culture.
- A whopping 96% of staff at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art voted in favor of a union, calling for higher pay and “increased transparency.”
- A survey among more than 1,000 artists, commissioned by Netvvrk, found that 56% of participants are mired in debt. What's worse, this number climbs to 59% for those with gallery representation and museum shows under their belt.
- New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani met face-to-face with around 140 visitors at the Museum of the Moving Image this weekend in Queens in an event named after Marina Abramović's best-known performance.
- Cultural workers and artists, including Coco Fusco and Karen Finley, held a “First Amendment Day Rally” to protest attacks on creative freedom at Federal Hall in Manhattan, where the Bill of Rights was introduced.
- Who's in the next Whitney Biennial? Among the 56 participants for the 2026 edition, announced today, is Palestinian artist Samia Halaby, whose exhibition at Indiana University was infamously canceled last year in what many decried as an act of censorship.
A Deeper Look
Art Models Struggle for a Living Wage and Recognition
The workers who pose for artists at historic organizations like the Art Students League say they are overworked and underpaid in a field that rarely values them. | Isa Farfan
Why We Should All Be Worried About "Crusadercore"
This online trend equips young, White men with a historically bastardized visual lexicon — one that gives new credence and religious authority to far-right bigotry. | Emma Cieslik
Opinion
A Visual History of No Kings
From the destruction of King George III's statue to today's No Kings movement, resistance to tyranny has always demanded aesthetic subversion. | Ed Simon
The Trump Administration Looks Even Worse Up Close
Photographs by Chris Anderson for Vanity Fair reveal the cost of remaking yourself in Trump’s image. | Lisa Yin Zhang
The Sinister Plan to Demolish a Brutalist Icon in Dallas
Behind the spectacle of City Hall’s potential demolition is the transfer of funding away from the public and into a few extraordinarily wealthy hands. | Charissa Terranova
Indigenous glass art takes center stage at the National Museum of the American Indian: Clearly Indigenous: Native Visions Reimagined in Glass celebrates culture, craft, and storytelling. Now on view in New York City.
From Our Critics
Joan Semmel’s Paintings Are Beautifully Disturbing
The nonagenarian artist insists that women’s bodies are interesting for more than their eroticism. | Lisa Yin Zhang
The Timeliness of W. E. B. Du Bois’s Philosophies
His prevailing influence over social theory and racial philosophy proves as relevant as ever in a group exhibition that explores his ideas, research, and legacy. | Jasmine Weber
The 2025 California Biennial Is Trapped in the Past
The show's displays of juvenilia from established artists say little about adolescents today and make its message inscrutable. | Renée Reizman
Joseph Wright of Derby’s Candlelit World
Using an extreme form of chiaroscuro, Wright portrays the dramatic moment of intellectual or moral revelation in his paintings of scientific subjects. | Olivia McEwan
The Glitter and Doom of Lee Miller's Vision
From her collaborations with Man Ray to her work as a WWII photographer, the artist retained a mix of defiance, poignance, and brazen, oddball humor. | Michael Glover
MFA, MA, and PhD Programs to Apply for by Early 2026
Arts-related graduate programs to explore and apply to before deadlines close.
Community
Art Problems: Am I Too Old to Fit In?
If you think age is an obstacle to your art career, Paddy Johnson wants you to think again. | Paddy Johnson
Art Movements: New York City's 27-Foot Buddha
Tuan Andrew Nguyen tapped for High Line commission, PAIN's Megan Kapler heads to Housing Works, the Whitney Biennial, and more. | Valentina Di Liscia
Required Reading
Joan Mitchell and the written word, garments with passports, “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” Christmas book-gifting in Iceland, toppled Lady Liberty, and more. | Lakshmi Rivera Amin
A View From the Easel
“Every day I see more and more of my footprint in this small space.” | Lakshmi Rivera Amin
In Memoriam: Remembering Ceal Floyer, Michele Singer Reiner, and Christine Choy
This week, we honor a conceptualist who made the ordinary human, a wide-ranging photographer, and a filmmaker who made space for others. | Lisa Yin Zhang
