Bose Krishnamachari Steps Down as President of Kochi Biennale Foundation

Mumbai-based artist Bose Krishnamachari has resigned from his role as president of the Kochi Biennale Foundation (KBF), which oversees the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, citing “pressing family reasons” for his departure. Alongside Indian artist-curator Riyas Komu, Krishnamachari founded KBF in 2010, which later organized the inaugural edition of the biennale in 2012. In a press statement released on February 14, KBF announced that they have “initiated the process of identifying an eminent person with high credentials in the art world” to serve as its next president. Recent controversy placed the biennale in the spotlight after the event was forced to temporarily shutter one of its venues due to backlash from Christian groups, who decried an allegedly blasphemous painting by Tom Vattakuzhy, titled Supper at a Nunnery. Though Krishnamachari initially defended the piece, it was eventually removed to respect public opinion. The biennale’s sixth edition, “For The Time Being,” runs through March 31 across various venues in Kochi, Kerala.

SFMOMA Announces Sarah Sze Commission

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) has announced Sarah Sze’s Forever is Composed of Nows, the New York-based artist’s second commission for SFMOMA, following Things Fall Apart (2001) in the museum’s collection. Launching on November 21, the project comprises three monumental paintings, a complex choreography of video projections, and immersive auditory environments. Taking its title from a nineteenth-century poem by Emily Dickinson, the work meditates on “forever” as an accumulation of present moments. SFMOMA’s admission-free Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Atrium will be transformed into a passage of sound and image, where light, movement, and audio evoke the fleeting nature of images, the vulnerability of the environment, and the flow of time.

New York’s New Museum to Reopen on March 21

After a two-year of closure, New York’s New Museum is slated to reopen on March 21 following an extensive expansion. Designed by OMA / Shohei Shigematsu and Rem Koolhaas, the new 5,575-square-meter building will double the institution’s floorplan to nearly 11,150 square meters, comprising additional galleries, extra space for special events, education, and artist studios, along with improved facilities. The New Museum will open with an inaugural exhibition titled “New Humans: Memories of the Future,” featuring more than 200 artists whose works “explore how dramatic technological and societal changes have spurred new conceptions of what it means to be ‘human.’” Works by seminal figures such as Ibrahim El-Salahi, Francis Bacon, Salvador Dalí, and Kiki Kogelnik will be shown alongside projects by contemporary artists Pierre Huyghe, Wangechi Mutu, Anicka Yi, and Hito Steyerl, among others. Moreover, several new commissions will be installed in the expanded spaces for long-term viewing, including Sarah Lucas’s VENUS VICTORIA (2026) in the public plaza by the entrance; Tschabalala Self’s facade work, Art Lovers (2026); and a large-scale sculpture by Klára Hosnedlová in the building’s new atrium stair. The museum will offer free admission during its opening weekend from March 21–22.

Yeşim Gürer Oymak appointed as General Director of Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts

Yeşim Gürer Oymak has been appointed as general director of the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), effective July 1. She will succeed Görgün Taner, who has held this position since 2002. Oymak has served as the deputy director general of İKSV since 2017, previously working as director of the Istanbul Music Festival from 2006 to 2018. Over the course of her career, she has received various accolades, including the Bene Merito medal from Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2014 for her contributions to Polish-Turkish cultural relations; and the Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French Ministry of Culture in 2019, for her role in facilitating cross-cultural exchange in music and the arts between France and Turkey. In a press release, Oymak described the appointment as “a great honor,” adding that she “look[s] forward to shaping the next chapter of the foundation’s long-standing contribution to culture and the arts.”

Kim YoungEun Wins Korea Artist Prize 2025

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA) has selected Kim YoungEun as the 2025 winner of the annual Korea Artist Prize. Kim’s practice centers on sound and the political, historical, and social constructs embedded within the way we listen. Her work offers alternative sonic perspectives—specifically, modes of listening that transcend the individual and favor a communal experience as a means of expressing diasporic and migratory experiences. Gridthiya Gaweewong, a member of the judging committee, commented that “[t]he way the artist connects social themes such as migration to personal experience is particularly striking.” Each year, the award’s recipient receives a grant of KRW 10 million (USD 6,800) in addition to the KRW 50 million (USD 34,000) grant for each of the finalists. The Korea Artist Prize 2025 exhibition, showcasing works by Kim as well as the other three shortlisters, is on view at MMCA Seoul through February 1.