Richard Lewer’s portrait of Iluwanti Ken won the $100,000 Archibald prize.
Artist Richard Lewer has won the 2026 Archibald Prize and its A$100,000 award for his portrait of Pitjantjatjara elder, traditional healer, and senior artist Iluwanti Ken, selected unanimously by the Art Gallery of New South Wales trustees from 59 finalists and 1,034 entries. The life-size painting captures Ken’s quiet authority through vivid clothing, traces of paint, and a luminous ochre background, marking the New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based Lewer’s first Archibald win after six previous finalist appearances.
The Met announced a $23 million donation to be applied to internship programs.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has received a more than $23 million gift from the Rubio Butterfield Foundation, led by newly elected Met trustee Jennifer Rubio and Slack co-founder Stewart Butterfield, to endow the museum’s undergraduate and graduate internship program. The donation ensures the continuation of the Met’s 100% paid internships, which support more than 100 students annually across over 40 museum departments, including conservation, curation, digital imaging, and other areas of museum practice.
Aspen Art Fair named 35 exhibitors for this year’s edition.
The Aspen Art Fair will return to Hotel Jerome from July 29–August 1, for its third edition, featuring more than 35 international exhibitors under co-founder Bob Chase and recently appointed director Kelly Cornell. The fair will include galleries such as Perrotin, Sean Kelly, Marianne Boesky Gallery, Southern Guild, Galerie Gmurzynska, Miles McEnery Gallery, and Vielmetter Los Angeles, alongside talks, performances, screenings, collection tours, and site-specific projects presented through a mix of custom booths and hotel-room exhibitions. This year will also feature an outdoor sculpture garden.
Canali appointed Alessio Lillocci as creative director.
Italian menswear brand Canali has appointed Alessio Lillocci as creative director, bringing in a designer best known for his more than two decades shaping Brunello Cucinelli’s menswear aesthetic. The move signals a strategic effort to reinforce Canali’s position in luxury tailoring while evolving its image through a more contemporary, lifestyle-oriented approach rooted in Italian craftsmanship and relaxed elegance.
SCAD’s new boutique platforms student designers.
SCAD has launched BAZAAR by shopSCAD, a new luxury boutique concept in downtown Savannah designed to showcase limited-run and one-of-a-kind works by students and alumni from the school. Located at 318 E. Liberty Street, in a former university gallery space, the approximately 1,000-square-foot boutique offers atelier-created ready-to-wear, accessories, jewelry, ceramics, and objets d’art from designers including Christopher John Rogers, Kate Barton, Ellie Warnke, Jinseo Park, Harris Barnes, and Timothy Underwood of Despise Gossip. Framed as both a retail destination and educational platform, the store gives students hands-on exposure to the luxury fashion ecosystem.
Today’s attractive distractions:
Tod’s is launching a collection named after and inspired by the boat once owned by John F. Kennedy.
It was a significant year for the Central Park Hat Luncheon.
Fornasetti opened its newly renovated Milan flagship.
A handy walking guide traces the Gilded Age mansions of New York City.
