Reviews

Manifesta 16, This is not a church, reviewed from three days in the Ruhr. The art succeeds where it proposes a use for the building and blurs where it behaves like an exhibition.

Art Basel 2026 reviewed from the fair floor. The Only One Basel campaign read against the fair itself: a 35-million-dollar Picasso, the Basel Exclusive experiment, Hockney's death, and a prize that quietly vanished.

The Giardini at the opening of the Venice Biennale 2026, reviewed. With no prizes to compete for, the pavilions dropped the act, and the ones that stayed with me made history the size of a room.

Koyo Kouoh's posthumous In Minor Keys, reviewed from the pre-opening. A strike at the gates, a resigned jury, and an exhibition that answers noise by refusing to make any.

Something is quietly changing at Salone del Mobile. The fair still looks like a showcase of objects, but increasingly it behaves like a platform for systems.

On Salone Raritas, the new collectible-design sector at the 64th Salone del Mobile, curated by Annalisa Rosso with booth architecture by Formafantasma. Twenty-five galleries, one long corridor, and a tonal shift.

Milan Design Week 2026 in progress. Serotonin in Brera, Gucci and Louis Vuitton installations, Miu Miu’s Literary Club, and a city that forces you to decide what counts.

Nomad St. Moritz 2026 at Villa Beaulieu, the renovated former Klinik Gut. A review of the fair's ninth Swiss edition, its softer register, and the galleries that made it work.

Design Miami 2025's 21st edition, curated by Glenn Adamson around the theme Make. Believe. A Nakashima bench, a Harry Nuriev scenography for Kohler, and a Seoul studio's debut.

Art Basel Miami Beach 2025, reviewed. A Warhol Muhammad Ali at $18m, a $5.5m Richter in the first hour, and the first fair in two years that genuinely moved.

Takashi Murakami's eight-metre octopus on the Champ-de-Mars, a Louis Vuitton commission for Art Basel Paris 2025's public programme, reviewed. On handbags, public sculpture, and a return to large-scale work.

Design Miami/ Paris 2025 at L'hôtel de Maisons. Goyal and Tolaas's scent garden, Yves Macaux's Best Gallery Presentation, Lalanne's tortoise, and a fair two editions into maturity.