The art world is grappling with significant changes as artificial intelligence reshapes the industry landscape, while major institutions prepare for leadership transitions and groundbreaking educational experiments challenge traditional concepts of creativity and authorship.
Glenn Lowry is preparing to step down next month after nearly 30 years as director of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), concluding one of the most transformative tenures in the institution's history. When Lowry was appointed in 1995, his selection raised eyebrows throughout the art world. At the time, he had been leading the Art Gallery of Ontario and was primarily known for his expertise in Islamic art—an unconventional background for someone taking the helm of a museum founded in 1929 to champion the radical, ever-evolving spirit of modern art.
However, skepticism about Lowry's appointment has long since faded. Under his leadership, MoMA has undergone two major expansions, grown its collection to over 200,000 works, and opened the PS1 satellite space in Queens. The museum now draws nearly 2.7 million visitors annually, cementing its position as one of the world's premier cultural institutions. More importantly, Lowry has successfully steered the museum through some of the most turbulent moments in recent history, including the aftermath of 9/11, the 2008 financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2021 protests that prompted the resignation of board chair Leon Black due to his ties with Jeffrey Epstein.
Looking back on his remarkable tenure, it's difficult to imagine anyone else who could have guided MoMA through such diverse challenges with the same resilience, vision, and staying power. Lowry recently reflected on his three decades of leadership in an interview with El País before his departure, offering insights into the evolution of one of America's most influential cultural institutions.
Meanwhile, the art industry is beginning to confront the practical implications of artificial intelligence technology. Michael Reid, an art dealer who owns five galleries in Sydney and Berlin, among other locations, has written extensively in Arts Hub about how AI will impact the gallery business. According to Reid, while AI will eventually enhance productivity across the industry, the first phase will bring only modest gains. He predicts that the next generation of AI sales systems may take up to two years to fully develop, integrate, and refine.
Reid argues that the most immediate savings from AI implementation won't come from higher sales, but rather from workforce reductions. "The quickest way for companies to showcase AI's impact will be through workforce reductions," he warns. "Art gallery bookkeepers and financial administrators, be aware—very aware. The back-end processes of running any business, creative or otherwise, will be automated. That is taken as a given." However, Reid emphasizes that what creative businesses will increasingly demand is not just process automation, but wisdom and strategic insight. He expects more from his human financial resources than mere data output, requiring accountants and bookkeepers to become consultant partners in growing the business rather than just suppliers of financial tools.
In other art world news, British TV presenters Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly, known professionally as Ant and Dec and famous for hosting shows like "I'm A Celebrity," are pursuing legal action against a prominent modern art dealer at the High Court over a Banksy artwork. While court papers have been officially filed, the exact nature of the lawsuit has not yet been revealed. Additionally, Washingtonians are embracing bread puns, sandwich flags, and submarine-themed street art as a form of protest in what observers describe as an already surreal political moment.
The art world has also mourned the loss of Doris Lockhart, the revered collector of British art and ex-wife of Charles Saatchi, whose obituary has been published in The Times. Meanwhile, international attention has focused on Gao Jia, the American-born son of a well-known Chinese dissident artist, who missed first grade because his parents were prevented from leaving China.
Perhaps most intriguingly, the University of Applied Arts Vienna has accepted Flynn—a generative AI model trained as an art student—into its Fine Arts program, signaling more than just a technological milestone. The decision has challenged long-standing ideas about authorship, creative autonomy, and what it fundamentally means to be an artist in the digital era. Created by artists and technologists Chiara Kristler and Marcin Ratajczyk, Flynn is not simply a tool but functions as a relational agent formed through data, human feedback, critique, and performance.
Flynn operates more as a collaborator than a machine, effectively blurring the boundaries between human and artificial creativity. Working under the collective name Malpractice, Flynn's creators developed the project at the intersection of curiosity, critique, and necessity. Their aim wasn't to provoke or satirize the academic system, but to genuinely embed a learning machine within the social and structural dynamics of an art school. By placing Flynn in this educational environment, they sought to explore what it means for an AI to be both shaped by and capable of shaping a human institution.
According to The Observer, what emerged from this experimental collaboration was "a co-authored subjectivity that complicates long-held assumptions about learning, creativity and personhood." This groundbreaking project represents a significant step forward in understanding how artificial intelligence might integrate with traditional educational and creative frameworks, potentially reshaping how we think about artistic education and the nature of creativity itself in the 21st century.
