When Will MoMA Dump Leon Black?

Daily Newsletter

New horrific allegations against the museum trustee, artists push against ICE, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art says goodbye to “PhAM.”

In March 2021, we published an open letter signed by over 150 artists and art workers calling on the Museum of Modern Art in New York to cut ties with its then-chairman, private equity billionaire Leon Black, for his close relationship with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. It worked, kind of. Black stepped down from his role, but still sits on the museum’s board of trustees to this day.

Meanwhile, some devastating sexual abuse allegations were leveled against Black, including particularly heartbreaking ones in the recently released files. Black denies the allegations. MoMA is not lifting a finger. Read the full story below.

But I won’t leave you on that grim note. Please read Alicia Eler’s report on how Minneapolis artists are employing the full power of their creativity and community to fight against the ICE invasion of their city. Their message is loud and clear: Get the hell out.

—Hakim Bishara, editor-in-chief


Mary LeGarde (Fort Williams First Nation, Grand Portage Band of Chippewa)’s “ICE OUT” bead earrings (image courtesy Mary LeGarde)

In Minneapolis, Artists Mobilize to Crush ICE

After ICE agents murdered Renee Good in broad daylight on January 7, Minnesotan printmaker Art Price was furious but determined to put his resources to work. “I said, ‘What do I have as a resource?’ I have presses and I have ink,” he recalls. He’s one of dozens of artists who are mobilizing against ICE’s occupation of Minneapolis, using beads, ink, and posters as tools of community-building and resistance.


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The Rubin’s Annual Grant Program Funds Himalayan Art and Research

The 2026 grant cycle opens February 16. Submit a letter of intent by March 6.

Learn more


News

Another lesson in “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” (edit Rhea Nayyar/Hyperallergic)

From Our Critics

Detail of Deborah Jack’s video installation “a sea desalts, creeping in the collapse… in the expanse…a rhizome looks for reason… whispers an elegy instead” (2024) (photo Stacy J. Platt/Hyperallergic)

Deborah Jack’s Immersive Elegy for Water

The artist critiques the legitimacy of cartography, empire, and ecological adaptation. | Stacy J. Platt


In Memoriam

Richard Gorman with his work (undated) (photo courtesy Kerlin Gallery)

Remembering Richard Gorman, Seyni Awa Camara, and Björn Roth

An Irish colorist, a Senegalese sculptor, the steward of a family art dynasty, a beloved Philadelphia art blogger, and two Florida Highwaymen are among the community members we honor this week.


Antonio C. Cuyler and Damien Davis’s “After the Strike, Will Art Galleries Be Allies?”

It’s a shame that the systems around academic publishing undermines the academy’s engagement with your brilliance, Damien. I’ve not read anything that you have written that has not been sharper than a tack in its analysis. Thank you, and Hyperallergic for having the good sense to engage you. Your article reminded me of Kaisha S. Johnson’s Medium article from back in 2020. See here. Alas, where does the lacuna of power exist to compel not change, but transformation? Change that sticks. After all, white allies serve a purpose, too, but what about the white folx who get it and aspire to level up to accomplice status? Where do we find them? How do we prepare them?

Onassis AiR Residency Program 2026-27
Participants in Onassis AiR’s artistic research and residency program in Athens, Greece, receive an artist’s fee, a research budget, housing, round-trip travel, mentoring, and other resources to support their work. Read more on Hyperallergic.

Deadline: March 3, 2026, at 12pm (UTC+2) | onassis.org

See more in this month’s list of opportunities for artists, writers, and art workers!


ICYMI

Hew Locke, “Ambassador 4,” detail (2022) (© Hew Locke, image courtesy John Hammond)

What Hew Locke Carries

With his haunting exhibition, Passages, the Guyanese-British artist reminds us that when we survive, so do our ghosts and our wounds. | Seph Rodney


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