Ralph Lauren and Diotima’s Rachel Scott win top prizes at the 2026 CFDA Awards.
The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) handed out its annual awards in New York, honoring the year’s standout designers alongside figures shaping the wider industry. Rachel Scott of Diotima won American womenswear designer of the year, her second win in the category, after taking the emerging designer prize in 2023. Ralph Lauren won menswear designer of the year, and Colleen Allen was named American emerging designer of the year. Jewelry designer Ana Khouri, a four-time nominee, won accessory designer of the year for the first time. Saint Laurent’s Anthony Vaccarello received the international designer of the year award, presented by Hailey Bieber, Zoë Kravitz, and Rosé. Honorary awards went to Tory Burch, who received the Positive Change Award for her foundation work, and to Bergdorf Goodman’s Linda Fargo, who received the Founder’s Award. Instagram’s Eva Chen took the Media Award, and photographers Inez and Vinoodh received a lifetime achievement award.
The Hirshhorn has reopened its sculpture garden after a four-year renovation.
The Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., reopened its 1.3-acre sculpture garden on October 31. The four-year project, led by Japanese artist and architect Hiroshi Sugimoto, is the largest renovation of the Hirshhorn campus since the museum opened in 1974. Working with Gordon Bunshaft’s original design in mind, Sugimoto restored a long-closed underground passage linking the museum and garden, expanded the entrances from two to five, and enlarged the central reflecting pool, adding a stage inspired by Japanese Noh theater. The landscape, developed with Eiko Tomura Landscape Architects and associate designer Rhodeside & Harwell, adds 57 trees and roughly 30,000 mostly native plants. The number of artworks on view has grown from 35 to nearly 60. New additions include Elmgreen & Dragset’s 28-foot-tall Eight, along with works by Raven Halfmoon, Lauren Halsey, Izumi Kato, Jeff Koons, Liz Larner, and Chatchai Puipia.
Marcel Dzama collaborates with Hotel Esencia for Fiesta de Todos los Santos.
For the Fiesta de Todos los Santos, Riviera Maya’s Hotel Esencia invited New York-based artist Marcel Dzama to collaborate on an ephemeral butterfly-shaped ofrenda (or altar), composed of marigolds, copal incense, sugar skulls, candles, and papel picado. Hotel guests were invited to add imagery of loved ones to the moving, mechanical work. A regular guest, Dzama’s work accents the property in several other places, from drawings translated into the Esencia Mansion’s pool tiles to a framed guest-book illustration on display in the Main House (a work which will remain on site). For the ofrenda, Dzama collaborated with Juan Carlos Gutiérrez, Hotel Esencia’s artistic director.
U.S. Pavilion commissioner seeks $1.1 million to ship Venice Biennale sculptures home.
Alma Allen’s sculptures for this year’s U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale could remain stuck in Italy after the exhibition closes due to a funding shortfall. Pavilion commissioner Jenni Parido has issued an “urgent” appeal to donors. Her nonprofit, the American Arts Conservancy (AAC), has raised only $1.4 million of the $2.5 million needed, including the cost of dismantling and shipping the roughly 30 works in Allen’s exhibition “Call Me the Breeze.” The Biennale closes November 22. The pavilion has no storage space, and the Guggenheim Foundation, which owns the building, can’t accommodate the works. A State Department spokesperson said the department, which covered part of the pavilion’s costs, isn’t responsible for fundraising.
Arcature Fine Art / Ross + Co has opened two new spaces on Palm Beach’s Worth Avenue.
Arcature Fine Art / Ross + Co Gallery has opened two adjoining spaces at 256 Worth Avenue in Palm Beach, Florida. It’s the gallery’s first major expansion in more than 25 years on the street. The second-floor Suite 214 is an intimate setting for private viewings of secondary-market works by artists including Jean-Michel Basquiat, George Condo, Keith Haring, Yayoi Kusama, Roy Lichtenstein, Pablo Picasso, and Andy Warhol. On the ground floor, Suite T will serve as a dedicated exhibition venue, hosting a rotating program of solo shows, group presentations, and special projects spanning historical, postwar, and contemporary art. The two spaces are designed to work in tandem, reflecting the gallery’s long-standing dual focus on the primary market for contemporary work and the secondary market for mid-century blue-chip material. Beyond the Suite 214 artists, its roster includes Banksy, John Chamberlain, Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, and Tom Wesselmann.
Attractive Distractions:
Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s new show reimagines a Vietnam War battleground as an enchanted forest.
Katrijn Westland’s Soft Companions are textile creatures that breathe.
Dior taps Sylvain Chomet to direct its animated holiday campaign.
Melissa Colgan brings bold patterns to a historic farmhouse near Shenandoah.
