As part of our effort to continue to help artists and art galleries thrive, we’re proud to bring you this week’s “Virtual Gallery Walk.” Browse the artwork below and click the image itself to learn more about it, including how to contact the gallery.
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Want to see your gallery featured in an upcoming Virtual Gallery Walk? Contact us at [email protected] to advertise today. Don’t delay, as spaces are first come, first served, and availability is limited.
From the Fine Art Connoisseur January/February 2026 Editor’s Note:
What an autumn! The art world has heaved a sigh of relief as success after success unfolded late in 2025.
In November, Sotheby’s opened its Manhattan flagship in the former home of the Whitney Museum of American Art. Crowds poured in to admire the auctioneer’s renovation of that landmark, and to ogle 55 artworks offered from the estate of the collector-philanthropist Leonard A. Lauder. On November 18, his marvelous “Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer” painted by Gustav Klimt broke the auction record for a modern artwork, selling for $236.4 million plus fees. In total, the fall auction season pulled in $2.2 billion in sales. Soon after, the Miami fairs got underway, led by the 23rd edition of Art Basel Miami Beach. Gallery sales there were impressive: a Gerhard Richter painting for $5.5 million here, an Alice Neel portrait for $3.3 million there.
This is all nice, but it has little bearing on the art world most of us see. As ever, the super-expensive artworks in New York and Miami are headline grabbers, trophies of elite status, and/or investment assets not unlike gold, jewelry, and real estate. There is nothing wrong or illegal about those scenarios, yet it would be a mistake to transfer their euphoria down the line to the majority of galleries, auctioneers, collectors, and — crucially — artists. 
America’s middle class — including its upper ranks of white-collar professionals and investors — feels economically anxious, and their anxiety shows in the lukewarm sales we observe at high-quality art shows across the country. If the stock market is any measure, we are not in a recession, yet many buyers hesitate to pull the trigger even for acquisitions moderate in cost.
Part of this relates to the altered nature of retail sales in the Internet era: fewer people stroll in and out of storefronts, where they once discovered treasures unexpectedly and chatted with the sales staff one on one. Importantly, this is a problem for luxury fashion, too: Chanel and Louis Vuitton have posted disappointing results for 2025 and their forecasts for ’26 are gloomy.
Am I being a downer? No, just a realist, one who underscores that we still have much to celebrate in our beloved sector of contemporary realist art: astonishingly talented artists, oversubscribed atelier classrooms, well-run galleries, ever more podcasts, etc. I am offering a note of caution: don’t let the animal spirits of blue-chip art marketers lull us into taking our foot off the gas. Like Wall Street, Sotheby’s and Miami are product-focused; by contrast, we are experience-focused, committed to artists and collectors for the long haul. When you visit a gallery highlighted in Fine Art Connoisseur, for example, you will engage with experts who know the artists, know how the art was created, and want to share their enthusiasm with you. That experience of close looking — of buying with your eyes and not your ears — is increasingly rare, always to be treasured.
I wish everyone in the art world well — whether they sell pieces for millions or thousands. Let’s keep spreading the word — to our friends, neighbors, and family members — that excellent contemporary art is available near home, for a fair price, and with a fascinating backstory we all can enjoy and convey to others.
What are your thoughts? Share your letter to the Editor below in the comments.
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Preview the January/February 2026 issue of Fine Art Connoisseur magazine, including the cover artist, feature articles, and other highlights.
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Sign up here for the weekly Fine Art Today newsletter, which brings you high-level content while providing you with current and upcoming art exhibitions and events, late-breaking stories, and more from the art collecting world.
As part of our effort to continue to help artists and art galleries thrive, we’re proud to bring you this week’s “Virtual Gallery Walk.” Browse the artwork below and click the image itself to learn more about it, including how to contact the gallery.
***
Want to see your gallery featured in an upcoming Virtual Gallery Walk? Contact us at [email protected] to advertise today. Don’t delay, as spaces are first come, first served, and availability is limited.
As part of our effort to continue to help artists and art galleries thrive, we’re proud to bring you this week’s “Virtual Gallery Walk.” Browse the artwork below and click the image itself to learn more about it, including how to contact the gallery.
***
***
Want to see your gallery featured in an upcoming Virtual Gallery Walk? Contact us at [email protected] to advertise today. Don’t delay, as spaces are first come, first served, and availability is limited.
As part of our effort to continue to help artists and art galleries thrive, we’re proud to bring you this week’s “Virtual Gallery Walk.” Browse the artwork below and click the image itself to learn more about it, including how to contact the gallery.
***
Want to see your gallery featured in an upcoming Virtual Gallery Walk? Contact us at [email protected] to advertise today. Don’t delay, as spaces are first come, first served, and availability is limited.
There is a lot of superb contemporary sculpture and realism being made these days; this article by Brandon Rosas shines light on a gifted individual.
For sculptor Jana Buettner (b. 1997), creativity has been encouraged since childhood. “I remember my mother taking me on trips to source our own pigments from mountains in France, and sculpting with clay we harvested from riverbeds ourselves,” recalls the Austrian-born artist.
A summer job at the Galerie Schloss Wiespach in Hallein brought a teenage Buettner into contact with renowned sculptors Grzegorz Gwiazda, Debasish Bera, and Eudald de Juana Gorriz. Encouraged by de Juana, in 2017 Buettner enrolled in the Florence Academy of Art, where she learned to model the figure in clay with stunning accuracy. Three years later, she graduated with a Sculpture of the Year award and a staff position as a drawing instructor at the academy.
Now fully independent, Buettner divides her time between Florence and Salzburg. Her graceful bronzes capture the human figure with deep empathy and are inspired by stories of people she meets, as well as by the poetry of Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Rainer Marie Rilke, and Hermann Hesse. “I find that poetry is the fastest way to trigger emotions,” Buettner says. “It can paint a clear picture before my very soul.”
Buettner’s sculptural technique is a form of poetry itself: she enjoys simplifying and blending forms to create an aesthetically pleasing representation of reality that is easily understood by the eye. “It’s like reading a book — it’s enough to read the first and last letter of a word, and your brain will know what it means,” says Buettner, adding that she aims to create works that speak to the various ways in which viewers engage with art.
One of Buettner’s recent sculptural poems is “Trapped,” in which a woman has folded herself into a timid yet weightless crouch, one arm wrapped around her ribcage as the other presses against an invisible barrier. “This piece symbolizes the internal walls that we as humans sometimes put up,” Buettner explains. “It is not about being physically trapped, but about what we experience nowadays — a feeling of drowning, or of pushing up against something we want to escape.”
Although Buettner’s work does not shy away from exploring life’s difficulties, it is also hopeful. Even as the upraised hand in “Trapped” indicates a wall, it reaches beyond it, as if in search of another soul — an affirmation of a deeply human belief in our power to understand one another and make each other’s burdens lighter.
Robert C. Jackson (b. 1964) began his career as an electrical engineer with Motorola before deciding on a full-time career as a still life painter. He has enjoyed huge success, with many of his works now owned by museums coast to coast.
When Robert Jackson was approached by a publisher about a book surveying his art and life, “I decided not only to write the whole thing myself,” he says, “but to absolutely inundate readers with images. I wanted a book that is inspirational, revealing, and out-and-out enjoyable. Moreover, I recently hit the big 6-0, so I found myself pondering what I have done, what I am doing, and what I plan to do.”
Robert C. Jackson: It’s a Colorful Life is the handsome result of these cogitations, a “giant labor of love” clocking in at 320 pages. Buyers should visit the artist’s own website to obtain the fastest service, and if they also want to ask him to sign it, they are invited to check that website for his upcoming studio days.
It was a big autumn for Jackson generally: New York City’s Gallery Henoch exhibited his latest works in November, while Boston’s Arden Gallery showed his pieces throughout the month as well.
This is not Jackson’s first book, either. In 2014 he published Behind the Easel, which explores the unique voices of 20 contemporary representational painters.
For more information, please visit robertcjackson.com.
View more artist and collector profiles here at FineArtConnoisseur.com.
Beverly Ford Evans Solo Show
Customs House Museum
Clarksville, Tennessee
customshousemuseum.org
Through January 25, 2026
The Customs House Museum is presenting an exhibition of recent wildlife paintings by Tennessee artist Beverly Ford Evans, which she has subtitled “His Mercy Is Over All That He Has Made.”
After a successful career in interior design, Evans was inspired by Tennessee’s beauty to become a fine artist. As a member of the Volunteer State’s Chestnut Group of painters, she has relished capturing its countryside and has broadened her repertoire to encompass animals of various kinds.
She explains, “During my travels, I paint on location and strive to replicate the colors of a scene. I am constantly seeking out the critters, both great and small. Landscapes are beautiful in their own right, but for me, the animals and birds are part of what makes up the whole.”
Evans continues, “We live in a world that was created for us. I am in awe of the beauty, the wonder, the mysteries, and the diversity, not only in the landscape, but the creatures that live among us.”
This show is a key part of a busy season at the museum that also features the Tennessee artists Caney Hummon, Rachael McCampbell, and members of the Portrait Society of America who live in the state.
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While moving house, we worry if our possessions will be transported safely. Our anxiety only grows when it comes to unique items such as fine artworks, heirloom antiques, and family memorabilia — things that cannot be replaced if they get damaged or destroyed.
Fortunately, the past decade has witnessed the blossoming of “fine art logistics,” an industry of professionals who get artworks safely from Point A to Point B. This field’s growth has been stimulated by the global proliferation of auctioneers, galleries, online platforms, fairs, and museum exhibition tours, but individual collectors have also played a role and now stand to benefit from the overall raising of standards.
Only 25 years ago, it was difficult to find a firm that understood the special challenges of moving an artwork across town or across the world; hardly any trucks featured the “air-ride” shock absorbers that prevent paint from chipping off a century-old canvas, or the climate-controlled cargo holds that ensure a wooden sculpture will not dry out and split apart. Now, with a bit of online research and some pointed questions on the phone, collectors residing anywhere in the U.S. can find a suitable firm.
Not surprisingly, today’s best practices in fine art logistics were pioneered in partnership with leading museums. Museum staffers see every object in their collections as precious, and so they literally wear the “white gloves” we all associate with superior service to move artworks around their own facilities. When it comes time to send an artwork offsite (on temporary loan, for example), museums turn to specialist fine art shipping firms. What appears below is the gold standard — the safest (and most expensive) way they do it. Not every privately owned artwork merits all of these steps, of course, and not every collector can afford them. But it’s helpful to learn first what constitutes best practice.
First, the best firms send in some freelance “handlers” to help museum staffers remove the artwork from a wall, pedestal, or storeroom rack. On a flat surface, it is measured and then swaddled in acid-free “archival” packing materials (such as Tyvek, the synthetic sheeting also used in housing construction). Items set to travel by truck within the region are simply “soft-packed” and then braced inside sturdy cardboard boxes. But those going on an airplane, ship, or a truck journey lasting more than two hours require a professional carpenter (back at the firm’s workshop) to construct a wooden crate. This is customized inside with acid-free foam molds, braces, and buffers that will hold the swaddled object firmly in place during the bumpiest of rides.
Once sealed and tagged with a unique bar code for digital tracking purposes, the soft-pack or crate is loaded onto an air-ride, climate-controlled truck headed to its final destination, to an airline’s cargo-processing facility, or to a storage warehouse. The most expensive trucks are “exclusive use,” which means that only your item is on board; less expensive is “shared use,” in which other owners’ items are dropped off before or after yours. (The latter scenario means more, albeit rare, chances for your item to get damaged or even stolen.) At the final destination, the crates must be carried by experienced handlers, and the warehouse (if one is needed) must have suitable temperature, humidity, and security controls.
Of course, it is up to each collector to decide how many of these steps are necessary or affordable, but rest assured the smartest firms stand ready to discuss and customize your plans. Among the leaders in the U.S. are Gander & White, Crozier, Uovo, Lockson, Fine Art Shippers, Arrow Express, Renwick, ARTA, and Aiston. Uline is America’s leading distributor of packaging and shipping materials for those who want to prepare the item themselves before the truck arrives to take it away. If your artwork is traveling abroad, your U.S. firm may split the journey with a partner over there; in Britain, for example, one of the leading shippers is Momart, and in France, LP Art.
In all matters logistical, better safe than sorry.
Information: aiston.com, arrowexpress.com, crozierfinearts.com, fineartshippers.com, ganderandwhite.com, locksoninc.com, renwickfas.com, shiparta.com, uline.com, uovo.art
