To receive Morning Links in your inbox every weekday, sign up for our Breakfast with ARTnews newsletter.The HeadlinesSTRAIGHT TO THE TOP. South Africa’s planned presence at this year’s Venice Biennale has descended into high drama after the government abruptly pulled the plug on its own pavilion. The selected artist, Gabrielle Goliath, and curator Ingrid Masondo are now appealing directly to President Cyril Ramaphosa and the foreign ministry, hoping to resurrect a project silenced days before the deadline, the Art Newspaper reported Wednesday. The work, Elegy, is a spare yet searing video installation: seven trained women singers sustain a single B note for an hour, passing it from breath to breath in a ritual of mourning. Long dedicated to victims of femicide in South Africa, the Biennale version expanded its lament to Namibia and Gaza, with an experimental ghazal to be written by South African poet Maneo Mohale. That final movement proved fatal. Sports, Art, and Culture minister Gayton McKenzie deemed the Gaza section “divisive” and cancelled the pavilion outright. Goliath calls the decision cruel and unjust, arguing that art must be free to confront violence wherever it occurs. The presidency, meanwhile, has yet to intervene, leaving South Africa’s cultural voice conspicuously absent from Venice.PAPER TRAIL. The Smithsonian has handed over a digital paper trail to the Trump Administration, submitting photographs of wall labels, placards, and exhibition texts in response to an ultimatum framed as a “content review.” The demand, delivered in December, warned that federal funding could be withheld unless the museums complied with an effort to purge what the administration calls “improper ideology.” In an email to staff obtained by theWashington Post, Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III confirmed the materials were submitted by the deadline, while emphasizing that curatorial authority remains with the institution. The White House, however, has made clear it expects museums to project a “positive view of American history,” citing a 2025 executive order titled Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History. Though long insulated by its status as a public-private trust, the Smithsonian now finds itself under unusually close political scrutiny. As Trump’s second administration flexes its influence over cultural institutions, the question is no longer just about funding, but about who gets to write the labels on American history itself.The DigestRoland Augustine, cofounder of Luhring Augustine, is stepping down to focus on philanthropy, marking the end of an era for the New York gallery. Lawrence Luhring will continue to lead the 40-year-old gallery alongside directors Lauren Wittels and Donald Johnson Montenegro. [ARTnews]Four of Jimmy Carter‘s paintings are included in Christie’s auctions this month, highlighting the late president’s creative side. [New York Times]The Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art in Porto will host the first full-scale exhibition of the Duerckheim Collection, featuring monumental installations and rare works by artists like Anselm Kiefer and Theaster Gates that tackle urgent contemporary issues. [Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art]A recent study details the devastating impact of Trump-era arts funding cuts on museums across the US, fueling widespread concern about what lies ahead for the sector. [The Guardian]The KickerGOSSIP GIRLS. According to Artnet News, on a bitter cold December evening, 11 women artists, including artist Langdon Graves, huddled in the lobby of a downtown Manhattan office building, trading warmth, ideas, and close looking. They had gathered at 125 Maiden Lane to see “Mental Model,” Graves’ exhibition produced by Art in Buildings, on view through January 23, 2026. The meeting was less an opening than a ritual: a collective pause to look, talk, and think together. All belong to Gossip, a long-running crit group of roughly 20 artists who convene in studios, galleries, and borrowed corners of the city to exchange feedback, sharpen ideas, and indulge a shared obsession with art. Its roster has shifted over time, but currently includes artists like Jenna Gribbon, Erin M. Riley, and Julie Curtiss.