Conveniently located in the heart of the Chelsea—next door to Hauser & Wirth’s magnificent Mark Bradford solo exhibition—NADA was bustling throughout the day. Though, at 88 exhibitors, it was slightly smaller than last year’s fair, which brought 120 galleries to Basketball City at Pier 36, the roster included numerous closely watched enterprises, including Charles Moffet and Shulamit Nazarian, as well as the fair’s ever-popular NADA Projects section. Among the more well-known galleries, were stunning presentations from galleries as far flung as Shanghai, Vancouver, and Paris.

Below, see the standouts at the 2023 edition of NADA New York, which runs until May 21 at the 548 West in Chelsea.

The removal of the name comes after years of protest at major institutions affiliated with the Sacklers, who have been blamed for initiating the opioid crisis in the United States, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people.

In a statement, Oxford University said it had “undertaken a review of its relationship with the Sackler family and their trusts, including the way their benefactions to the University are recognised. Following this review, the University has decided that the University buildings, spaces and staff positions using the Sackler name will no longer do so.”

Among the institutions and positions from whose name the Sackler family are to be removed: the Sackler Rome Gallery, the Sackler Gallery of Life after Death in Ancient Egypt, the Sackler Keeper of Antiquities, the Sackler Library, and the Sackler-Clarendon Associate Professorship of Sedimentary Geology.

The University noted that the Sackler name will remain on the Clarendon Arch and the museum’s donor board, to preserve historical record. Since 1993, Oxford received around $12 million to $19 million in donations from the Sacklers and affiliated organizations, the university said.

Oxford is the latest institution to pull the Sackler name from its spaces in recent years. Among the first major institutions to do so was the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, in 2021; others, such as the Guggenheim Museum, the British Museum, the Serpentine Galleries, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, have since followed suit.

As ARTnews reported last year on the occasion of the V&A’s decision:

Much of the push for these removals has been led by artist Nan Goldin and her activist group P.A.I.N., which has staged high-profile protests intended to draw connections between Sackler donations and the family’s role in the opioid crisis. These efforts are featured in a new documentary about Goldin by Laura Poitras that took the top prize at the Venice Film Festival this year.

Through their company, Purdue Pharma, the Sackler family sold OxyContin, a highly addictive painkiller. Purdue, and the Sackler family, have been accused of knowingly downplaying OxyContin’s addictive properties and thus contributing directly to the ongoing opioid crisis. In 2022 Purdue Pharma reached a $6 billion settlement with eight US states that brought an end to numerous lawsuits. Through the settlement, the company will be dissolved by 2024.

Members of the Sackler family had been key funders of some of the world’s biggest institutions across the globe, donating millions of dollars to fund luxe galleries and centers.

The strut, looted from the 13th-century Ratneshwar temple in Lalitpur, a city southeast of Kathmandu, will be returned in a ceremony attended by Australia’s assistant foreign minister, Tim Watts, at the Patan Museum in Kathmandu on Tuesday, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Friday.

“This is a significant gesture in line with Australia’s commitment to the highest standards of ethical practice and international obligations,” Watts told ABC News Australia. “The return of this tunala to Nepal will further strengthen our bilateral relationship.”

The strut is carved in the form of a tree god known as a shalabhanjika or yakshi and was one of six such struts stolen in 1975 from the shrine. It is thought to have been stolen after Mary Shepherd Slusser, a scholar of architectural studies and Nepalese cultural-history, identified the woodwork at the temple in Lalitpur, during which she photographed the pieces. Shortly after her visit, the ornate woodwork pieces went missing.

Thousands of important artifacts were stolen and illegally smuggled out of Nepal during the 1980s, and, in recent years, there have been extensive grassroots campaigns to see those artifacts, many of which now reside in major museums, returned to the country. The Ratneshwar temple strut became a target for those campaigns in 2021, when Nepali scholars identified it on social media.

AGNSW obtained the strut in 2000, when Australian-British art collector Alex Biancardi bequeathed 79 sculptures and textiles to the institution. Biancardi was an avid collector of South Asian art, and was known to be connected to disgraced antiquities dealer Douglas Latchford, who died in 2020 prior to facing trial for smuggling offenses in the United States.

Antiquities that passed through Latchford’s hands have repeatedly been found to have been looted, and, in recent years, repatriated. In February, 70 gold relics connected to Latchford were repatriated to Cambodia, just the latest such tranche of works to be returned to their home country this year.

AGNSW was informed in early 2001 that the strut was stolen, according to director Michael Brand, but it took many years to establish the provenance, confirm that it was “illegally removed,” and negotiate its return. During that time, AGNSW held the object, in accordance with Australian law, as a “repository of last resort,” arguing that it was not safe in its country of origin.

The temple had replicas of the struts installed in 1992 and, Brand told the Herald, it is possible the repatriated strut will be reattached upon return, but “that is a decision for professionals in Nepal.”

1960 was dubbed “the Year of Africa” by media and politicians at the time due to the fact that 17 African nations became independent that year. Throughout the decade, over a dozen more countries followed. Meanwhile, in South Africa, Black South Africans were resisting Apartheid and, beginning in 1964, Zimbabwe was mired in a bloody civil war as the Black population resisted white minority rule.

Photography was at the center of these upheavals as new nationalist governments, transnational movements, aging colonial and repressive governments, and Western onlookers jostled to capture their version of the new reality.

Photography historian and curator Leslie M. Wilson takes this intersection as the subject of a new exhibition, “not all realisms: photography, Africa, and the long 1960s,” at the University of Chicago’s Smart Museum of Art. Wilson, who began the project as a curatorial fellow at Smart from 2019 to 2021, focuses on photographers working in Ghana, Mali, and South Africa, with a particular focus on Ernest Cole (South Africa), Malick Sidibé (Mali), and James Barnor (Ghana).

The show juxtaposes over 200 objects, from photographs and prints to ephemera from publications, magazines, and other printed matter, to explore the competing visions of the era. For Wilson, the exhibition is an exercise in getting people to look beyond the frame of individual photographs to better understand the world at that time.

“I used to joke that I wanted to make a wall of ephemera,” Wilson told ARTnews. “But really what I wanted was for us to look at a bunch of stuff that we don’t often look at together so that we could see the wider context.”

ARTnews sat down with Wilson, now the associate director of academic engagement and research at the Art Institute of Chicago, to talk about the wider context of Africa’s postcolonial turn and resisting the intoxicating romanticism of the 1960s.

“We repeat, once again, our country’s firm position that it does not recognize the British Museum’s jurisdiction, possession and ownership of the Sculptures, as they are the product of theft,” the Greek Ministry of Culture said, Kathimerini, Greece’s newspaper of record, reported Thursday.

The culture ministry’s statement appeared to be in direct response to reports in Bloomberg and the Telegraph earlier this week that British Museum chairman George Osborne and the Acropolis Museum in Athens were in “advanced talks” on a loan agreement that could entail a “proportion of the marbles sent to Athens on rotation over several years.”

Greek sources told the Telegraph that an exchange of antiquities, with items from National Archaeological Museum in Athens heading to the U.K., could begin “sooner rather than later.”

The statement from the Greek Ministry of Culture in Kathimerini, however, appeared to quash the possibility of any agreement structured as a loan. It said that Greece’s official position — that the Parthenon Marbles unequivocally belong to Greece — had remained unchanged.

Here is the full announcement (as published by Kathimerini and translated roughly by Google Translate):

“The government, since the beginning of its term, has been acting with seriousness, responsibility, sensitivity and efficiency, in order to realize the national goal of returning the Parthenon Sculptures to Athens and reuniting them in the Acropolis Museum.

This is undoubtedly assumed by a series of events of the last two years: From UNESCO’s decision, in September 2021, and the definitive (sine die) reunification of the Fagan fragment, to the conversion and support of the Greek request by international public opinion.

We repeat, once again, our country’s firm position that it does not recognize the British Museum’s jurisdiction, possession and ownership of the Sculptures, as they are the product of theft.

Therefore, let the official opposition stop blabbing. We would expect in this national effort that small-party calculations would be left aside and that there would be an enlistment of all. Unfortunately we don’t see it. For some, the first goal is to wear down the government, even with lies, regardless of whether they harm the country. Pity.”

Last month, Greek newspaper Ta Nea reported that Greece and the British Museum had been secretly meeting for months about the marbles, which have been on view in the British Museum since 1832, after they were stripped from the Acropolis in Athens by the Scottish nobleman Lord Elgin.

Pressure on the British Museum has grown in recent years for the museum to acknowledge Greece’s claim to the marbles, as the debate around the ownership of artworks looted during periods of colonization has shifted worldwide. 

Throughout the controversy, the U.K. government has maintained that the decision rests with the British Museum, which has maintained that the sculptures were obtained legally by Elgin, who was granted permission for the operation by the Ottoman powers occupying Greece in the 19th century.

Fragments of the original Parthenon frieze are scattered in museums across Europe but have been slowly making their way back to Greece.

In May, Italy announced that a fragment belonging to the Parthenon’s eastern frieze on loan from a Sicilian museum would remain in Athens. The artifact, depicting the foot of the goddess Artemis peeking out from a tunic, was returned as part of a four-year loan agreement between Greece and the Antonio Salinas Archaeological Museum in Palermo.

More recently, the Vatican promised to relinquish three fragments of the Parthenon Marbles housed in the Vatican Museums. In the announcement, the Vatican described the move as a “donation” from the Pope to the Greek Orthodox Church, and said it was “a concrete sign of his sincere desire to follow in the ecumenical path of truth.”

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Pearlstein’s death was confirmed by his gallery, Betty Cuningham, in an Instagram post. He died in a hospital in New York, the New York Times reported, but no cause of death was given.

Considered one of the 20th century’s masters of figuration, Pearlstein began painting nude models in the 1960s, during an era when Abstract Expressionism was still considered the finest form of art-making.

Pearlstein’s rejection of the Abstract Expressionists’ emotionalism and formalism was coupled with an embrace of what he called “hard realism,” an art that was “sharp, clear, unambiguous,” as he told ARTnews in 1967. This translated to rigorously painted figures shown in harsh lighting, subdued colors, and naturalistic, sometimes unflattering poses, with bodies often cut off at the edges of the canvas.

Pearlstein was clear-eyed about his approach to the human figure from early on. In a 1962 piece for ARTnews, Pearlstein wrote that too many artists use the figure “as a storytelling device,” or that they “distort” it so that it can “function as a symbol for poetic evocations.” Pearlstein insisted that the figure — and thus the art object — existed solely as itself.

“The character of a work of art results from the technical devices used to form it, and the ultimate meaning and value of a work of art lie in the degree of technical accomplishment,” he wrote in the same piece. He continued, “As an artist, I can accept no other basis for value judgements.”

Pearlstein’s derision toward Abstract Expressionism, which he practiced early in his career, was also voiced by other reigning artists, including Pop art icon Andy Warhol, who like Pearlstein, hailed from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Born on May 24, 1924 to a first-generation Russian immigrant father and Lithuanian immigrant mother, Pearlstein attended Saturday classes at the Carnegie Museum of Art as a child.

He studied art at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, now the Carnegie Mellon University, until he was drafted into the military in 1943 and dispatched to Italy, where he served a graphic artist and spent time viewing Renaissance art. He returned to his studies three years later, where he met Andy Warhol (then Warhola). The two became friends and settled in New York together.

In 1950, Pearlstein married Dorothy Cantor, a Carnegie Tech classmate who was also a painter. She died in 2018. They are survived by their three children and their two grandchildren.

Pearlstein initially painted what he called “symbolist” paintings, based on major American symbols like Superman. In the mid-1950s, he painted Abstract Expressionist–inspired landscapes based on places in Maine. In 1963, however, he showed a series of realistically painted nude models at Allan Frumkin Gallery.

Nude models became his subject, along with more elaborate decorative props, for the next 50-odd years.

Pearlstein’s work is in the collections of many major institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Hirshhorn Museum, and the Art Institute of Chicago, among others.

“The School of the Art Institute of Chicago condemns and repudiates Kanye West’s (now know as Ye) anti-Black, antisemitic, racist, and dangerous statements, particularly those directed at Black and Jewish communities,” the institution said in a statement. “Ye’s actions do not align with SAIC’s mission and values, and we’ve rescinded his honorary degree.”

Taking back the degree is the latest consequence that West has faced since making a series of antisemitic statements both on social media and in interviews with Fox News, Infowars, and other outlets. Over the last several months, Balenciaga, Christie’s, and, most notably, Adidas, with whom West had a $1.5 billion deal, have all severed ties with him. After those incidents, Forbes dropped West from their world’s richest list, and his net worth is now estimated at $400 million.

SAIC’s decision comes after a group called Against Hate at SAIC posted a petition on December 1 calling on the school rescind the degree. “Kanye West’s hateful speech incites violence and does not represents [sic] the values of our community. The School can and should rescind his Honorary Degree immediately,” the petition reads.

Since it was first posted, the petition garnered more than 4,000 signatures. Its original goal was 500. When West’s honorary degree was first awarded, SAIC referred to him as “an advocate for education, and a thinker and maker who often uses his work … to deconstruct stereotypes and spur cultural discourse on important social issues.”

Though West has long had a reputation for bizarre and unpopular comments, including once mentioning that African Americans living through 400 years of slavery sounded “like a choice,” last week he upped the rhetorical ante during an appearance on Alex Jones’s InfoWars by saying “there’s a lot of things I love about Hitler.”

In case his intention wasn’t clear, West then made an appearance on right-wing platform Censored.TV with Gavin McInnes, founder of the white nationalist group the Proud Boys, according to Rolling Stone, during which West pleaded with the Jewish people to “forgive Hitler.”

“Regardless of his contributions prior to receipt of this award, it is harmful to allow Ye, as he is presently known, to continue to use the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to help legitimize hatred and violence,” the petition reads. “This harm impacts the artists, designers and scholars affiliated to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and their values of justice, compassion, and free expression without hatred.”

Studio DRIFT, as the artists have long been known, staged a performance of Franchise Freedom, their famed drone performance, in honor of Art Basel Miami Beach’s 20th anniversary. The work premiered at the fair in 2017 and has since been staged only a few times, most recently in 2020 above Rotterdam in honor of frontline workers during the early days of the pandemic.

After opening remarks by Nauta and Gordijn in a small park across from the Miami Beach Convention Center, a mass of fairgoers grew silent as 300 Intel Shooting Star drones rose from behind the building and flew back and forth in concert with an emotive, minimalist piano score by Dutch composer Joep Beving. At times, the swarm briefly formed a double helix before flowing into more amorphous shapes and even a swirling vortex.

As the piece concluded, the drones formed the words “20 Years Art Basel Miami Beach” and then “DRIFT Supports Steam+,” referring to a program that places artists-in-residence at all Miami Beach public schools.

Franchise Freedom is strangely meditative, and the real magic of the performance is that, as the drones twist, turn, disperse, and reform in unison, they no longer appear as machines, but rather as an organic mass. This is by design, Gordijn told ARTnews after the performance. 

“We are not so interested in drones,” she said. “We are interested in what we do with them. All of our work is about the natural world and the organization of nature. This is a self-organizing swarm.”

She continued, “We love to explore this because it gives us a feeling that we belong, or that we are part of something bigger. That is what we really want to communicate to people.”

Nauta and Gordijn began developing the performance in 2007 with their work Flyflight. Like Franchise Freedom, that work produced non-pre-programmed flight patterns through an algorithm. The newer work, however, comes after a decade’s worth of research by the artists into starling’s flight patterns. Franchise Freedom uses an algorithm developed by Nauta and Gordijn that mimics the birds’ murmurations so that the drones both fly in unison and react to the world around them.

The future of their drone work, according to Gordijn, would be to include more real-time interactions in relation to other stimuli, including people. But solving the technological hurdles is a small part of the process. The duo will then have to explore how to use it in a meaningful way, Gordijn said.

At the core of their work is the creation of environments that allow people to commune together and to reconnect with nature amid an overstimulated world.

“When you create an environment where the overall energy is very calm, you will pick that up immediately, because it is always the overruling energy that speaks to you,” Gordijn said. “We deliberately create those spaces where you get time given back to you, instead of your time being taken away.”

See a preview of the performance below:

The aisles at Ice Palace Films Studios, where the fair was held this year, were packed with dealers and collectors who came to the fair to see offerings from 146 galleries. Returning this year was the Curated Spotlight section, dedicated to eight solo presentations by up-and-coming galleries. This year’s edition was curated by dealer Joeonna Bellorado-Samuels, who spoke with ARTnews ahead of the fair.

“It’s important to have art fairs outside of the big main one,” Bellorado-Samuels said of NADA. “In terms of cost and access, it’s prohibitive for so many people. I also think collectors and curators are interested in looking beyond the circle that they’re familiar with. They are excited to go to NADA to find out not just who’s just coming up next, but more about what’s in the zeitgeist and what’s percolating.” 

ARTnews combed through this year’s fair, which full of younger galleries than Basel, for the sharpest presentations on view. Here are the seven best ones.

Graves, who died in 2021 at 79, is best known as an experimental jazz drummer, but he was better considered a polymath, as the New York Times’s Giovanni Russonello wrote in his obituary of the artist last year. He was a visual artist, a music professor at Bennington College in Vermont, a botanist, a computer programmer, and a martial artist. He even created his own martial art, Yara, named after the Yoruba word for agility and based on the movements of praying mantises.

The presentation at Fridman, which was co-curated by Graves’s granddaughter Tatiana Graves-Kochuthara, brings together these seemingly disparate elements of his life and practice, with large-scale sculptures like a wooden chair adorned with Egyptian figurines and painted album covers sharing space with ephemera, clothing, his painted drum set, and plants similar to those he kept in his home.

Perhaps most intriguing is a large printed paper hanging from a wooden beam. It displays what appears to be a complex flowchart, but is actually a visual representation of an algorithm designed by Graves to translate heartbeats into music. Graves, who was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to study what he called “heart music,” said that he used transducers to send the music into his body to stabilize arrhythmia, which he suffered from. He later died from congestive heart failure.

In addition to helping curate, Graves-Kochuthara, who is an actor, dancer, and visual artist, contributed a painted gong depicting Graves that hangs above the installation. 

“I’ve just been so grateful to have been able to do this. This is deeply personal,” Graves-Kochuthara told ARTnews, as she cradled an Audubon Society clock owned by her grandfather.

As she worked on the exhibition, she was still uncovering works, like an acrylic self-portrait on amate bark paper that she found in her grandmother’s attic. Most of the objects have a long-held association for Graves-Kochuthara.

“Everything [in the exhibition] is very familiar to me. Most of this I have seen or touched. I played those drums when I was younger,” she said. “It feels like memories on display.”

Iliya Fridman, the founder and director of Fridman Gallery, first met Graves after screening Milford Graves Full Mantis, a 2018 documentary on the artist, and the two began work on a solo exhibition of new paintings that used sound vibrations and a transducer to stimulate and mix paints. Graves died before a solo show at the gallery opened in 2021, however.

Since 2020, Graves’s work has been on view in a traveling retrospective that first opened at the ICA Philadelphia. Next year, the show will move to the ICA Los Angeles. The presentation at Fridman is Graves’s first at an art fair; many of the works will travel on to the retrospective after Art Basel’s conclusion.

“This is a lot of work for a commercial gallery, but I just really believe in this as a thing in itself,” Fridman told ARTnews.