Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in On Balance, the ARTnews newsletter about the art market and beyond. Sign up here to receive it every Wednesday.
Industry Moves
Lindsay Jarvis and Max Werner Form New Partnership: The new Jarvis & Werner will open on September 2 with a solo exhibition for Martina Cox at 96 Bowery in New York. Werner is the son of Mary Boone and Michael Werner and has previously worked at both of his parents’ galleries. Jarvis is an adviser who previously directed Arsenal Contemporary and held sales roles at Sadie Coles HQ and Greengrassi in London. The two previously collaborated on the group exhibition “Eruption” at the former Jarvis Art earlier this year. Lorian Gwynn and Max Ruf will have their New York solo debuts at the newly formed gallery later this year. “The art market has undergone a period of adjustment and this shift has created space for a more focused and deliberate kind of gallery,” they said in a statement.
Met Museum Names Curator in Charge of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts Department: Wolf Burchard has worked at the museum since 2019, starting as an associate curator before being promoted to curator in 2023. He is currently working on a reinstallation of the Met’s British collection galleries, as well as “A King’s Carpet: Louis XIV and the Savonnerie,” which will open in the fall.
Lunder Foundation Endows Curatorship at Portland Museum of Art: Elizabeth S. Humphrey joined the Maine institution this month as the inaugural Lunder Curator of American Art. A specialist in 18th- and 19th-century American art, 20th-century African American art, and art of the Black diaspora in North America, Humphrey is an independent curator who is currently working on an exhibition marking the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in New York State for the Museum of the City of New York, which will open next year.
Storefront for Art and Architecture Names Associate Curator: May Makki will work with the New York institution on its next programming cycle, which includes curating a solo show for Alia Farid, opening in May 2027. Makki was most recently co-curator of the 2026 Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale and previously held curatorial roles at the Museum of Modern Art, MoMA PS1, and the Wallach Art Gallery.
Adam Szymczyk to Lead Curatorial Lab Lagos: The former artistic director of Documenta 14, Szymczyk will lead a three-day intensive that responds to the theme of this year’s Lagos Biennial, “The Museum of Things Unseen.” The program will be for 12 early-career curators (aged 20–35) based anywhere in the world.
Marina Abramović Wins Liberatum’s 2026 Pioneer Awards: The award will be given during the 2026 Venice Film Festival as part of the organization’s Art & Cinema program, which is being launched to mark its 25th anniversary. Filmmaker Lee Daniels and director Nadine Labaki will also be honored. The Pioneer Awards recognize “individuals whose practice has expanded the language of their discipline and altered how audiences understand and see it,” with this year’s honorees being “selected for the singularity of their contributions to social change, art, cinema and culture,” according to a release.
Columbus Museum of Art Names 2026 Aminah Robinson Artist in Residence: Maryam Adib, whose practice spans painting, muralism, and fashion design, will spend three months, beginning September 1, living in the former studio of the residency’s namesake. As part of the program, she will receive an unrestricted grant of $15,000 and an exhibition at the museum opening next April.
Detroit Justice Center Names 2026–27 Artist in Residence: During her yearlong stay, Mariah Barrera will work on her photography project, “On Earth As It Is in Prison,” which “reexamines one of the most familiar (and least documented) images in system-impacted family archives: the prison visitation photo,” according to a release.
The Big Number: $41 M. (£30 M.)
That’s the high estimate for Piet Mondrian’s Composition III (1920), which Christie’s will offer as part of its 20th/21st Century Evening Sale in London on October 14. With a low estimate of £20 million ($27 million), the work will be the top lot of the house’s offerings during Frieze Week. Coming to auction for the first time from a private collector, it was previously owned by Celeste and Armand P. Bartos.
Read This.
In Los Angeles this fall, it’s the season of Paul Revere Williams, the groundbreaking 20th-century architect who was also the first licensed Black architect in California. He will be the subject of a trio of exhibitions at the USC Fisher Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Getty Research Institution. Among his best-known contributions to his hometown were home to stars like Frank Sinatra and Barbara Stanwyck and CBS cofounder Jay Paley, as well as a major renovation and expansion of the Beverly Hills Hotel that included the addition of its famed Polo Lounge and the creation of its iconic logo, done in his handwriting. Beyond these glitzy designs, Williams also created several affordable housing projects, the 28th Street YMCA in South LA, and the First AME Church in West Adams. “There are so many aspects of life that his work touched,” LACMA curator Staci Steinberger told the New York Times. “You could be born in a Paul Williams hospital, educated at a Paul Williams school, married at a Paul Williams church and be buried at a Paul Williams funeral home.”
