AlUla’s New Museum Reveals Name and Vision

Saudi Arabia’s Arts AlUla has announced the curatorial vision of the forthcoming AlUla Contemporary Art Museum, which is tentatively slated to open in 2030. Developed by the Royal Commission for AlUla in partnership with Paris’s Centre Pompidou and designed by Lebanese architect Lina Ghotmeh, the new institution will join other art programs in the historic oasis city, such as the Desert X AlUla biennial and Wadi AlFann, which will showcase large-scale, permanent outdoor artworks by Manal AlDowayan, Ahmed Mater, and James Turrell, among others. The announcement was made on February 1 at the opening of “Arduna,” a group exhibition featuring 80 works by regional and international artists, including Wassily Kandinsky, Dana Awartani, Etel Adnan, and Tarek Atoui. Co-curated by the teams of the AlUla Contemporary Art Museum and the Centre Pompidou, the presentation embodies the thematic and curatorial ethos of the future institution. Speaking with Art Newspaper, Candida Pestana, the museum’s inaugural director, explained that it will center on “three pillars”: heritage, landscape, and the environment. She added that the museum will employ a collecting strategy focused on acquiring comprehensive bodies of work by individual artists who are primarily from Southwest Asia and North Africa. “Arduna” runs through April 15 as part of the 2026 AlUla Arts Festival.

National Gallery Singapore’s UOB Southeast Asia Gallery to Close for Major Renovation

National Gallery Singapore (NGS) has announced it will close its UOB Southeast Asia Gallery for renovation on April 1, marking the first major upgrade of the latter’s permanent exhibition “Between Declarations and Dreams: Art of Southeast Asia since the 19th Century.” All galleries in the Former Supreme Court Wing, including Rotunda Library and the UOB Theatrette, will be closed to the public during the renewal project, which is scheduled for completion in November 2027. The UOB Southeast Asia Gallery aims to reorganize both its curatorial framework and exhibition layout, departing from thematic and chronological presentations to encourage a more multifaceted and “intuitive” viewing experience. Moreover, the refurbished galleries will feature modern and contemporary Southeast Asian art from the collection alongside new artist commissions. Patrick Flores, chief curator of NGS, noted in a press release: “This revamp draws on years of research and curatorial work that have deepened our understanding of art in the region and reflects how these perspectives have evolved over the past decade.” A smaller interim gallery will be open from October to showcase works from the collection. 

Serakai Studio Announces Further Details about New Salon

Hong Kong’s Serakai Studio has revealed more details about its launch of GOLD—a salon space for exhibitions, artistic experimentation, and creative dialogue—this March. The studio, a cultural think tank and R&D hub of investment firm Serakai, is dedicated to exploring the intersections of art, fashion, music, design, and technology, foregrounding collaborative, community-driven practices. Located at a street-level former bank and jewelry shop in Wong Chuk Hang, GOLD will debut with the group exhibition “CERTAINLY,” curated by Tobias Berger, Serakai Studio’s cofounder and curatorial director. The presentation is inspired by artist-composer La Monte Young’s influential text-based score Composition 1960 #10 (1960), gathering diverse artists—including Tozer Pak Sheung Chuen, Santiago Sierra, Shinro Ohtake, and Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, among others—whose works engage with the concept of unpredictability “as a generative force rather than a failure of control.” In a press release, Berger described GOLD as “a laboratory of ideas,” noting that the inaugural exhibition will serve as “a voyage into uncertainty itself: the many ways a straight line shifts and drifts.” The show will run from March 20 to May 3.

Knotting Space to Open in Hong Kong

Knotting Space (KNOT), a new curatorial platform, will launch on March 23 at H Queen’s in Central, Hong Kong. Directed by Hong Kong-based independent curator and artist Jims Lam, the space will function as a hybrid environment for exhibitions, dialogues, and public programs organized around thematic pairings, with the aim of fostering engagement among local and international collectors and institutions. KNOT will debut with an inaugural exhibition coinciding with Art Basel Hong Kong.