Nayland Blake Doesn’t Believe in Fixed Selves

Nayland Blake, a nonbinary and pansexual artist known for their cerebral, kinky, and humorous work, is featured in Hyperallergic’s 2026 Pride Month series. The interview covers their coming out, their artistic process of making work to understand identity, and their belief that identity is unfixed and continually remade. Blake discusses their early inspirations from theater and literature, and how they interrogate their own creations to explore who they are. They are a co-director of the Studio Art program at Bard College and have exhibited at major institutions including SFMOMA and the Whitney Museum.

Artist Danielle Mckinney Explains the Story Behind Her Painting on CULTURED’s Cover

Artist Danielle Mckinney discusses her painting *Recess* (2026), featured on the cover of CULTURED magazine's Indulgence issue. The work depicts a woman reclining on a couch under a glowing light, wearing a face mask, and is part of Mckinney's ongoing exploration of private, restorative moments. The article includes Mckinney's reflections on motherhood, emotional labor, and the act of painting as a space for unorganized feeling. It also notes that her exhibitions "Forest for the Trees" is on view at Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York through June 13, and "Shelter" is on view at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach through October 4.

7 Art Books You Should Read This Pride Month

Hyperallergic has published a Pride Month reading list featuring seven art books that highlight queer and trans artists, past and present. The selection includes a joint biography of Peter Hujar and Paul Thek, a catalog on Martin Wong's Chinatowns, Catherine Opie's portraiture, and a compendium of queer nightlife photography. Notable titles include 'Cancelled Confessions (Or Disavowals)' by Claude Cahun, 'Vaginal Davis: Magnificent Product' edited by Hendrik Folkerts, and 'The Wonderful World That Almost Was: A Life of Peter Hujar and Paul Thek' by Andrew Durbin. The article also mentions a retrospective of Vaginal Davis at MoMA PS1.

Art News, Indeed: NBA Star Victor Wembanyama Prepped For Finals Game By Sketching in Gramercy

NBA star Victor Wembanyama was spotted sketching a statue of Edwin Booth in Gramercy Park, a private park in New York City, hours before a crucial Game 3 of the 2026 NBA Finals. The San Antonio Spurs player, who is also a visual artist, shared a video of his drawing session on Instagram, and later led his team to a 115-111 victory over the New York Knicks with a standout performance.

What Is The Game of Exquisite Corpse, and Why Do Artists Still Play It?

The article explains the Surrealist game Exquisite Corpse (cadavre exquis), where participants collaboratively draw sections of a human body on folded paper without seeing each other's contributions, resulting in strange, hybrid figures. Originating in 1925 at Marcel Duhamel's Paris home, the game was developed by André Breton, Marcel Duchamp, Jacques Prévert, and Yves Tanguy, taking its name from a phrase generated in an earlier writing game. The Surrealists used it to access automatism and the unconscious, fostering wild experimentation through low-stakes materials.

The Artful Life: 9 Things Galerie Editors Love This Week

Galerie's weekly roundup highlights nine art and design stories, including the launch of the contemporary art project 'Komorebi' at The St. Regis Venice, timed with the 2026 Venice Biennale. The exhibition features works by six artists—Nina Carini, Gaia De Megni, Marco De Sanctis, Joan Jonas, Jure Kastelic, and Marinella Senatore—curated throughout the hotel's rooms alongside bespoke Murano glass pieces created with Berengo Studio. Other stories include Longines introducing new options for its iconic Dolce Vita watch, photographer Alessio Boni's alchemical works shown at Robert Stilin Gallery in Manhattan, and Champalimaud designing new River Cottages at the Hudson Valley retreat Troutbeck.

How the World’s Great Artist Foundations Stay Solvent

The article examines how major artist-endowed foundations, such as the Keith Haring Foundation and the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, maintain financial solvency decades after their founders' deaths. The Keith Haring Foundation earned $13.2 million in 2024 through licensing, artwork sales, and investment income, distributing $8 million in grants. The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation generates $2.5-3 million annually, primarily from sales of the artist's photographic prints, plus merchandising, licensing, and exhibition fees, funding both photography programs and HIV/AIDS medical research.

For Psychoanalyst Jamieson Webster, Humility Might Be a Worse Sin Than Pride

Psychoanalyst Jamieson Webster reflects on the sin of pride in a personal essay for Cultured magazine's "Indulgence" issue, part of a series where seven figures examine how one of the seven deadly sins threads through their life and work. Webster explores pride as a complex, gendered experience—distinguishing women's pride from male ambition and describing it as a refusal to yield rather than self-exaltation, while also distrusting humility as a covert demand for women to remain accommodating.

Artist Christine Sun Kim on How Her Deaf Rage Grew Into Deaf Wrath

Artist Christine Sun Kim reflects on the concept of wrath in the context of her identity as a deaf person, describing a lecture-performance in which she shows gruesome clips of deaf characters being killed in television and film. She recounts a personal moment when a hearing family member texted her about a new gene therapy for deafness, calling it “amazing,” which she interprets as part of a broader eugenicist narrative that seeks to eliminate deafness. Kim contrasts this with the progress she witnessed after the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed in 1990, including captions, interpreters, and access to education, which enabled her to become an artist. Now, she says, that progress is eroding, and her earlier “Degrees of Deaf Rage” has escalated into wrath.

Everything you need to know about Gaudí, the architect of the Sagrada Família who died a hundred years ago

Tout savoir sur Gaudí, l’architecte de la Sagrada Família disparu il y a cent ans

Beaux Arts Magazine marks the centenary of Antoni Gaudí's death in 2026 with a curated selection of articles about the Catalan modernist architect. The Sagrada Família, his most famous work and Spain's most visited monument, is finally nearing completion after 144 years of construction. The tower of Christ will be inaugurated on June 10, 2026, in the presence of Pope Leo XIV. The magazine also highlights Gaudí's other iconic creations, such as Casa Batlló, and his organic, dreamlike architectural style. A special evening on Arte will feature the documentary "Sagrada Família. Le rêve…" and the Musée d'Orsay is presenting an exhibition exploring the genesis of Gaudí's work within the context of early 1900s Catalonia.

There Is No Real Normal State

"Es gibt keinen wirklichen Normalzustand"

Neurologe Mario de la Piedra Walter hat ein Buch über das kreative Gehirn geschrieben, in dem er retrospektiv Künstler wie Vincent van Gogh, Wassily Kandinsky, Frida Kahlo und Virginia Woolf untersucht. Er analysiert, wie neurologische Erkrankungen und Wahrnehmungsstörungen – etwa Synästhesie oder Epilepsie – die Werke dieser Künstler beeinflusst haben könnten, und stützt sich dabei auf Symptombeschreibungen in deren Werken und Biografien.

James Francis Gill: ‘Everyone became obsessed with Marilyn’s image. But I was the first’

James Francis Gill, an American painter known for his iconic Pop Art portraits of Marilyn Monroe, reflects on his career and the enduring fascination with Monroe's image in a new interview with The Telegraph. Gill claims he was the first artist to become obsessed with capturing Monroe's likeness, predating the widespread cultural fixation on her image. The article explores his artistic journey, his early adoption of photographic source material, and his place within the Pop Art movement alongside figures like Andy Warhol.

In an Ozempic-Suffused Scene, Brontez Purnell Embraces Being a ‘Fake Skinny Bitch’

Brontez Purnell, in a personal essay for Cultured's "Indulgence" issue, reflects on gluttony and his experience with weight-loss drugs. After a diabetes diagnosis, he began taking Mounjaro in 2024, losing 64 pounds in a month, then switched to Ozempic after losing insurance. He grapples with body dysmorphia, shifting gay beauty standards, and the moral implications of using GLP-1s, ultimately questioning whether Ozempic is a form of "elevated anti-gluttony."

The Laziness Canon: Helen Molesworth on Artists Who Made Great Work by Doing Nothing

In this essay for Cultured's "Indulgence" issue, curator and critic Helen Molesworth reflects on the sin of sloth, exploring how laziness has inspired significant works of art. She cites artists like Lee Lozano (General Strike Piece, 1969), Robert Barry (Closed Gallery, 1969), Tom Marioni (The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends is the Highest Form of Art, 1970), and Marcel Duchamp (Étant Donnés, 1946–66), who embraced idleness or redefined labor as art. Molesworth also discusses Mierle Laderman Ukeles's "maintenance art" (1970–73), which elevated domestic work to art, and references Paul Lafargue's 1883 tract The Right to Be Lazy.

Artists create Fifa World Cup posters denouncing presence of US immigration agents

Artists from ten of the eleven US host cities for the 2026 FIFA World Cup have created posters for the 'No Ice in the Cup' initiative, launched on May 6 by the Horizons Project. The campaign aims to protest the potential presence of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents at World Cup matches, using art to mobilize public opposition and protect vulnerable immigrant communities. Each poster incorporates locally relevant themes, with designs by artists including Chris Stewart (Los Angeles), Hana Natsuhara (Seattle), Johann C. Muñoz-Tapasco (Miami), and Cristy Road Carrera (New York). The posters are free to download and remix from the campaign's website.

Why animation cinema is one of the most exciting arts right now

Pourquoi le cinéma d’animation est un des arts les plus passionnants du moment

Beaux Arts Magazine reports on the growing significance of animation cinema, highlighting the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and its upcoming 2026 edition, which will inaugurate the Cité internationale du cinéma d'animation, transforming the event into a permanent institution. The festival, which has grown from 7,000 to over 18,000 accredited attendees from 118 countries in a decade, has made Annecy a global hub for animation. The article also notes recent French successes like "Flow," "Arco," and "Amélie et la métaphysique des tubes," positioning France as Europe's leading animation power with nearly 120 active studios and prestigious schools such as Gobelins, École Méliès, and La Poudrière.

Max Beckmann’s granddaughter on living with his paintings — and the artist’s love of cartwheels

The article features an interview with Max Beckmann's granddaughter, who shares personal memories of growing up surrounded by his paintings and reveals the artist's playful side, including his love of doing cartwheels. She reflects on the intimate experience of living with his work and the stories behind his creative process.

MC Escher — the mathematical visionary who had trouble with numbers

The Financial Times Visual Arts section profiles Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher, exploring his fascination with repeating patterns, tessellations, and visual paradoxes. Despite struggling with mathematics in school, Escher created intricate works that play with perspective, infinity, and impossible geometries, such as his famous lithographs "Relativity" and "Drawing Hands." The article highlights how his art, initially dismissed by the fine art establishment, gained widespread popularity and continues to captivate audiences worldwide.

Rising Artist Holly Lowen’s Hyperrealistic Paintings Tap into Raw Competitive Instinct

Rising artist Holly Lowen creates hyperrealistic paintings that explore the raw competitive instincts of animals, specifically focusing on chickens and roosters. In her Tribeca studio, she has produced works depicting roosters in mid-flight and tumbling, drawing on the long history of cockfighting and human-animal relationships dating back to 1500 B.C.E.

Histoire de l'art, numéro 97

This issue of *Histoire de l'art*, number 97, is a scholarly journal dedicated to exploring hierarchies and reconfigurations of artistic value across time and cultures. It features an interview with Philippe Peltier on hierarchies in Oceanic and African arts, along with studies on Greco-Roman art, 19th-century French classification struggles, medieval artist collaborations, Iranian art from 1600 to 2000, Islamic art historiography, the chief sculptor at La Granja de San Ildefonso, administrative hierarchies in Louvre collections, French views on the Dutch Golden Age, a 1908 women's retrospective exhibition, colonial museum classifications in Vietnam, the strategies of the journal *Third Text*, and the recomposition of artistic hierarchies in 1990s China. The volume also includes chronicles on instrumented art history, a book on Jacqueline Lichtenstein, the restoration of Ghiberti's *Porte du Paradis* in Lyon, women at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, Catalan artists in Paris, and online varia on public clocks and Roseline Bacou.

‘MIZU’ Contemplates Fragility and Impermanence in a Poignant Dance with an Ice Puppet

The article introduces 'MIZU,' an ephemeral performance piece created by puppeteer and director Élise Vigneron’s Théâtre de L’entrouvert and Companie Furankaï, in collaboration with choreographer and circus artist Satchie Noro. The performance features a life-sized ice puppet in the form of a woman, with whom a dancer interacts as the figure gradually melts, exploring themes of memory, time, and impermanence. The piece is set in non-traditional architectural environments and is scheduled for summer performances across Europe.

Artist Interview: Macarena Rojas Osterling

Macarena Rojas Osterling, a Peruvian artist born in 1985, is interviewed about her return to Lima after years in the UK, where she earned an MFA from the Royal College of Art. Her work, which includes glass sculptures, collage paintings, and drawings, is currently featured in the group exhibition "Look How Brightly" at Britannia Row in London, curated by Jenn Ellis and Alex Mills. The interview explores how living near the Pacific Ocean in Lima has influenced her recent pieces, particularly the glass sculptures and collages that incorporate traces of sand, salt, and water damage.

Who the Art World Is Supporting at the FIFA World Cup 2026

Artsy asked a cross-section of artists, curators, and gallerists which teams they are supporting at the FIFA World Cup 2026, which will be co-hosted by the U.S., Canada, and Mexico starting June 11th. The article gathers responses from art-world figures about their chosen national teams, blending soccer fandom with personal and cultural ties.

Asidere/Duke: Artist’s dual identities unfold on canvas

The article profiles an artist whose dual identities—Asidere and Duke—are explored through their work on canvas. It delves into how the artist navigates these two personas, using painting as a medium to express contrasting yet complementary aspects of their cultural and personal background. The piece highlights specific works and techniques that embody this duality, offering insight into the artist's creative process and the narratives behind their art.

Kim Heungsoo: Harmonism Creator and 43-Year Age Gap Romance

Kim Heungsoo, a South Korean artist and creator of the art philosophy 'Harmonism,' has become the subject of public attention due to his romantic relationship with a partner 43 years his junior. The article, published by Chosun Ilbo, highlights both his artistic identity and the personal controversy surrounding the significant age gap in his relationship.

Jpegs transformed the art market — was it for the better?

This article examines how JPEGs and digital reproduction have transformed the art market, making artworks widely accessible online but potentially altering the way audiences engage with original pieces. It explores the tension between convenience and authenticity, questioning whether the proliferation of digital images has enhanced or diminished the value of in-person viewing.