Paint Drippings is excerpted from The Back Room, our lively recap funneling only the week’s must-know art industry intel into a nimble read you’ll actually enjoy. Artnet News Pro members get exclusive access—subscribe now to receive this in your inbox every Friday.

Art Fairs

–Kyla McMillan, a veteran of Gavin Brown’s Enterprise and David Zwirner, has been tapped as the new director of the Armory Show. (Artnet News)

–The exhibitor list for the 2024 edition of Art Basel Miami Beach has been released and includes 283 exhibitors, up from 277 last year; 32 are participating in the fair for the first time. (Artnet News)

–The second edition of Tokyo Gendai returned to the Pacifico convention center with a noticeable increase in international visitors this year, including heavyweight projects from Western blue-chip galleries like Pace and Perrotin. (Artnet News)

–A new art fair called Arrival is launching in June 2025 in the northern Berkshires. (Artnet News)

–The Italian art fair Artissima will return to Turin this November with 189 galleries exhibiting, including 39 galleries taking part for the first time. (Press release)

Auction Houses

–Sotheby’s has announced a number of shifts in its Global Fine Art leadership team. Helena Newman will become Chairman of Impressionist and Modern Art Worldwide, while also continuing in her roles as European Chairman and auctioneer. Alex Branczik is now the Chairman and Head of Modern and Contemporary Art Europe, based in London, after three years leading Sotheby’s Modern and Contemporary business in Asia where he was based in Hong Kong. After a decade with Christie’s, Elaine Holt has been appointed to lead Sotheby’s Modern and Contemporary Art team in Asia. (Press release)

–Auction house sales plummeted by 27 percent to $4.25 billion in the first half of 2024 compared with the same period last year, due to “sluggish economic growth and geopolitical uncertainty” according to a recent ArtTactic report. (Financial Times)

–Bonhams has appointed Émilie Jolly as its head of the new African and Oceanic Art department in Brussels. (Press release)

Galleries

–New York galleries are on the move: The Lower East Side stalwart 47 Canal has relocated to Soho, moving into what was previously Alexander and Bonin gallery at 59 Wooster St., and Marian Goodman Gallery’s new flagship location in Tribeca will open its doors on October 26. Meanwhile, Upsilon will open a new space in London’s Mayfair neighborhood later this summer; it is the gallery’s first international location. (Artnet News, The Art Newspaper, Press release)

–San Francisco–based Rebecca Camacho Presents has just announced that it will be relocating to the Jackson Square neighborhood in a move that will more than double the gallery’s exhibition space. (Press release)

–After more than five years in Hong Kong, Lévy Gorvy Dayan will not renew the lease on its Central gallery space at the end of the year. (Artnews)

–London’s Addis Fine Art and Vitrine are the latest galleries to announce closures, both citing rising overhead costs. Addis will continue to operate its flagship space in Addis Ababa, while Vitrine will shutter its U.K. and Basel locations. (Financial Times, The Art Newspaper)

–Capitain Petzel has taken on representation of Thomas Eggerer, Hiroka Yamashita is now on Blum’s roster, Kate Meissner has joined Lyles and King, and Galerie Eva Presenhuber now represents Liesl Raff. (Press releases)

The newly refurbished Young V&A in Bethnal Green, London. Courtesy Art Fund.

Institutions & Museums

–London’s Young V&A, a youth-focused offshoot of the V&A, has been named Art Fund’s U.K. Museum of the Year. The £120,000 ($150,000) award is the largest museum prize in the world. (Press release)

–Former British Museum director Hartwig Fischer has been tapped as the founding director of a world culture museum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia set to open in 2026. (Artnet News)

–Documenta’s supervisory board has appointed a finding committee for Documenta 16 in Kassel, Germany following the antisemitism controversy that led to mass resignations last year. The next event will be staged in 2027. (Artnet News)

–Los Angeles’s Marciano Art Foundation has named independent curator Hanneke Skerath as its new director, nearly five years after abruptly shutting its doors. The move came following layoffs of at least 60 staffers. (Artnet News)

–At least four works by artists from South Korea shown at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art may be fakes, according to leading experts. The paintings were included in an exhibition that closed last month titled “Korean Treasures from the Chester and Cameron Chang Collection,” which showcased artworks donated by the father-son duo in 2021. (Artnet News)

–Carolina Alvarez-Mathies resigned from her position as executive director of Dallas Contemporary, and former deputy director Lucia Simekhas stepped into the position for the interim. (Press release)

RIP

–Bill Viola has died at 73 years old. The American artist was a pioneer in new media and installation and was known as the “Rembrandt of video art.” (The Guardian)

–Painter Alex Janvier, a champion of contemporary Indigenous art in Canada, has died at 89. (Artnews)

–Feminist painter and sculptor Audrey Flack, one of the founders of Photorealism, has died at the age 93. (Artnet News)

–French painter André-Pierre Arnal has died at 84 years old. He was one of the founding members of the Supports/Surfaces movement in the 1960s. (Press release)

–Painter and sculptor June Leaf, who explored femininity through her expressive, imagined forms, has died at age 94. (New York Times)