The artist and Civil Rights activist dies at 84, The Met and Neue Galerie merge, and NADA is back with “abstracted horniness.”
Abstract mixed-media painter Mary Lovelace O’Neal, who passed away this past Sunday, grew up in Jackson, Mississippi. At that time, cultural institutions like art museums were segregated: Black people were permitted to visit only on certain days of the month. How much has changed since those days — not least thanks to Lovelace O’Neal herself, who was active in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s under the mentorship of the likes of Stokely Carmichael and Jacob Lawrence. “I can mark,” she often said. So she did, in every sense of the word.
—Lisa Yin Zhang, associate editor
Manhattan’s Neue Galerie to Merge With Met Museum
Cosmetics billionaire Ronald Lauder’s private museum has a vast collection of Austrian and German art. | Isa Farfan
With hands-on, interdisciplinary coursework; high-level networking opportunities; and an engaging internship, the three-semester MA in Art Market Studies at FIT prepares students to shepherd artists in their careers, buy and sell artworks, and succeed at the business of art.
Art Up Close
Between Tropes and Treats at NADA New York
In a sea of zany little sculptures and assemblages, shiny stuff™, abstracted horniness, and kitschy vibrancy, there were works I did enjoy. | Rhea Nayyar
Todd Gray Reframes Black Diasporic History
His installations of layered photos drawn from an expansive Black heritage entice viewers to keep looking, find connections, and ask questions. | David S. Rubin
Lehman College Art Gallery Presents the 2026 Thesis Exhibition
On view May 20 to 28, the show brings together over thirty undergraduate and graduate artists, reflecting a broad spectrum of conceptual inquiry and material experimentation.
Mary Lovelace O’Neal, Painter and Civil Rights Luminary, Dies at 84
The beloved artist was best known for monumental canvases and inventive, gestural “lampblack” works.
Art Movements: Michelle Millar Fisher Heads to Cooper Hewitt
The New York museum hires a new chief curator, Getty grants $1.8M for Black visual art archives, and an artist’s cheeky plea on the High Line.
Required Reading
This week: artists’ antidote to AI slop, Kimberlé Crenshaw’s new memoir, New Orleans and climate change, an Art Deco train, and what do sex workers think about “Euphoria”?
ICYMI
Beer With a Painter: Mary Lovelace O’Neal
“At this marvelous hard-won age, the days of jumping and dancing with the paintings are over. But I don’t feel limited,” says the artist, educator, and Civil Rights luminary. | Jennifer Samet
