Whitney Biennial Artists Revealed
Also: The rise of anti-monarchical art, a First Amendment rally in New York City, a Brutalist icon in Dallas, and more.
Good morning. Yes, 2025 may have been a year of aesthetic monstrosities, from Labubus to low-rise jeans, but it also ushered in the renaissance of a much more transgressive and inspiring visual current: anti-monarchical art. Writer Ed Simon sees its rise not only in the No Kings movement, with its distinctly post-crown lexicon, but in a burgeoning collective — and cross-partisan — aversion to the abuse of power. Point in case: Even Republicans were sickened by President Trump's cruel, horrific rant against Rob Reiner, posted just hours after the film director and his wife, Michele Reiner, were found fatally stabbed in their home. Are we seeing glimpses of a new political awareness?
Yesterday I stood in New York City's Federal Hall, where the Bill of Rights was first proposed 234 years ago, listening to a series of beautiful speeches and performances about the importance of artistic freedom. At first, the "First Amendment Day Rally" struck me as disconnected from reality. Then high schooler Madison Lindo broke into song, her vocals soaring into the air, and I remembered what we're fighting for. There's no room for cynicism in the resistance.
—Valentina Di Liscia, senior editor
News
- 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.
- The Guggenheim Museum's inaugural $50K Jack Galef Visual Arts Award goes to Catherine Telford Keogh.
- 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.
New York Academy of Art: Bringing Traditional Skills to Contemporary Discourse
Tracing its roots to Andy Warhol, the Academy merges rigorous figurative training with critical discourse in the heart of New York City.
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 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
The Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation Launches Platform Dalí, a New Art and Science Program
Inspired by Dalí’s vision and his engagement with scientific work, this program seeks to explore the limits of knowledge and imagination through dialogue between art and science.
Member Comment
Tom Finkelpearl on Damien Davis's "The Art School Debt Trap":
ICYMI
In Maureen McCabe's Art, the Medium Is the Message
The artist takes a mystical, magical journey through America's supernatural past in a retrospective at the Benton Museum of Art. | Aaron Short
U-M Stamps School of Art & Design – Roman J. Witt Residency Program
Open to established and emerging artists, this program awards one residency each academic year, offering a $20,000 honorarium, housing, studio space, and the University of Michigan’s renowned contemporary Institute for the Humanities gallery as an installation and project space. There is a $15 application fee. Read more on Hyperallergic.
Deadline: January 15, 2026 | stamps.umich.edu
From the Archive
This Hanukkah, Let’s Bring Back Judith Menorahs
The legendary heroine was once widely recognized with fried ricotta pancakes during holiday celebrations. What’s responsible for her erasure? | Isabella Segalovich
