Precious Okoyomon’s New MoMA PS1 Commission, Assembly Art Fair Launch, and More: Industry Moves for July 2, 2026

Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in On Balance, the ARTnews newsletter about the art market and beyond. Sign up here to receive it every Wednesday.

Happy Thursday! Here’s a round-up of who’s moving and shaking in the art trade this week.

• MoMA PS1 Inaugurates New Courtyard Commission Program with Precious Okoyomon: The Long Island City institution has launched an annual Courtyard Commission program, with its first edition going to Nigerian-American artist and poet Precious Okoyomon. The forest installation opens July 24.
• Standard (Oslo) Announces Representation of Munan Øvrelid: The Oslo-based gallery has added the Norwegian painter to its roster. He holds an MFA from the Trondheim Academy of Fine Art and has shown at the National Museum Oslo, Kunstnernes Hus, and Galeria Luisa Strina.
• Sara O’Keeffe Named Director and Curator of Public Engagement and Research at ICA Philadelphia: The accomplished curator joins the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania from Art Omi, where she served as Senior Curator.
• Frye Art Museum and Assembly Art Fair Launch Acquisition Initiative: The Seattle institution will acquire a work from Assembly Art Fair’s inaugural edition for its permanent collection. The acquisition, to be selected by Director and Curator of Collections Faith Brower, will enter the museum’s 75th anniversary “Recent Acquisitions” show in 2027.

The Big Number: $126,285

That’s the combined total at Christie’s for its most recent online sale of artworks from the collection of Anita and Chaim “Poju” Zabludowicz. The total was well below the estimate range of £292,000 to £435,400 ($385,100–$574,200), and over half of the 44 artworks on offer failed to sell. It’s an abysmal result for Christie’s—which marketed the sale as “a thoughtful edit by collectors preparing to hand the baton to their four children”—and for the Zabludowiczes, who were rumored to be selling due to years of strain between them and members of the art world over their ties to Israel.

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With Sotheby’s London double-header sale last week an unqualified success—generating £393.4 million ($520.7 million), or the “highest total ever achieved in a single night at auction in Europe,” according to the house—its European chairman Oliver Barker is taking a victory lap in the press. On Monday, the Telegraph published a lengthy profile and interview with the star auctioneer, detailing his (somewhat) humble beginnings in Battersea, London; his decades-long career at Sotheby’s; and, of course, his thoughts on a number of topics pressing to the art world. It’s a rare window into one of the most prominent people working behind the rostrum today.