59th Carnegie International tests the limits of connection and inclusion

The 59th Carnegie International, titled "If the word we," opens at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, curated by Ryan Inouye, Danielle A. Jackson, and Liz Park. The exhibition emphasizes community and collaboration, featuring immersive installations by artists such as Shala Miller, Jasleen Kaur, and Georges Adéagbo, whose work incorporates local thrift-store finds like Pittsburgh Steelers merchandise. Offsite programming extends to venues including the Mattress Factory and Children's Museum of Pittsburgh.

Mark Manders at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York

Mark Manders presents his sixth solo exhibition at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in New York, featuring new works that include monumental bronze busts, abstract sculptural landscapes, and discrete paintings and works on paper. The pieces are described as dreamlike and fragmented, populating the gallery like a series of thoughts given form and frozen in time.

Insider’s Look at Curating a Show Inspired by the Declaration of Independence’s 250th Anniversary [Interview]

The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FVM) in Philadelphia has opened "Some American Dreams," an exhibition marking the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Curated by Hilde Nelson, FVM curatorial fellow, the show features 27 works by 20 artists created during the museum's Artist-in-Residence Program over four decades. The exhibition includes pieces in furniture, sculpture, textiles, clothing, video, and photography, and is on view until June 14, 2026. In an interview with My Modern Met, Nelson discusses her curatorial approach, which poses the question, "What if 'America' is not one project, but many?" and explores how these multiple Americas are affirmed, resisted, or remade through the artworks.

There Is No Separation. In Conversation with Alice Maher   by Frank Wasser

Alice Maher, one of several Irish artists at the 61st Venice Biennale, presents three works in the Arsenale as part of the group exhibition “In Minor Keys,” curated by the late Koyo Kouoh. Her presentation includes a reconstructed 1996 installation *Les Filles d’Ouranos*, a new series of drawings and sculptures titled “The Sibyls” (2025), and a collaborative textile piece *The Map* (2021) made with Rachel Fallon. In a conversation with Frank Wasser, Maher discusses the political conditions surrounding this year’s Biennale, including institutional resignations, debates over national representation, and the inclusion of the Israeli and Russian pavilions.

‘A once-in-a-generation opportunity’: Europe’s biggest exhibition of James McNeill Whistler in 30 years will open in London this week

Tate Britain in London is opening a major retrospective of James McNeill Whistler, the largest exhibition of his work in Europe in 30 years. Featuring 150 works spanning painting, drawing, printmaking, and design, the show includes iconic pieces like *Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1* (commonly known as *Whistler's Mother*) and *Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge*. For the first time, the exhibition examines Whistler's teenage years and also displays his personal notebooks, easel, paint palette, and collections of East Asian ceramics and Japanese prints. The exhibition runs from May 21 to September 27, 2026.

A Como sta per arrivare una grande mostra su William Turner e il Romanticismo inglese

A major exhibition on William Turner and English Romanticism is set to open on May 29 at Palazzo del Broletto and the Pinacoteca Civica in Como, Italy. Titled "Turner. L’incanto del lago di Como e del paesaggio italiano," the show features seven precious watercolors inspired by Turner's travels to the Lake Como region, alongside an immersive film produced by Tate Digital. The exhibition traces Turner's stylistic evolution from his 1819 sketches to later chromatic studies from 1842-1843, and is organized by the City of Como in collaboration with the Tate in London.

In the Principality of Monaco, an exhibition where the great painter Poussin dialogues with contemporary art

Nel Principato di Monaco una mostra dove il grande pittore Poussin dialoga con l’arte contemporanea

The Nouveau Musée National de Monaco presents an exhibition titled "Le Sentiment de la Nature," which juxtaposes works by 17th-century French painter Nicolas Poussin and his followers with pieces by about thirty contemporary and 20th-century artists. The show is organized into six thematic sections—storms and nights, forests and gardens, seas and waterfalls, deserts and volcanoes, mountains, and flowers and butterflies—each exploring the ancient concept of "miracula naturae" (wonders of nature). Featured contemporary artists include Nan Goldin, Andreas Gursky, Thomas Demand, Sarah Moon, Mimmo Jodice, Giulio Paolini, Giorgio Andreotta Calò, and Fausto Melotti, with works spanning photography, painting, video, and sculpture. The exhibition runs until May 25, 2026, and is accompanied by a catalog published by Italian publisher Humboldt Books in collaboration with the museum.

To Paint is to Love Again at Crèvecoeur, rive droite

Crèvecoeur gallery in Paris presents "To Paint is to Love Again," a group exhibition curated by artist Louise Sartor running from April 9 to May 27, 2026. The show brings together works by eleven artists: Geneviève Asse, Sadie Benning, Whitney Claflin, Anne-Lise Coste (Uruk), Jean Dubuffet, Jean Hugo, Ulalai Imai, Françoise Lapeyre, Louise Sartor, Li Shan, and Naoki Sutter-Shudo. The exhibition is documented with 49 images on Contemporary Art Daily.

ICA Watershed reopens for the season with industrial-inspired installations

The Institute of Contemporary Art's Watershed in East Boston has reopened for its 2026 season with the exhibition "Lucy Raven: Rounds," featuring two large-scale installations by New York-based artist Lucy Raven. The show includes "Hardpan," a kinetic light sculpture co-commissioned by the ICA and Barbican Centre, and "Murderers Bar," a 44-minute film documenting the demolition of a concrete dam on the Klamath River in Northern California. Both works explore themes of industrial history, extraction, and environmental transformation, with the Watershed's former factory setting amplifying the industrial resonance.

Lowry Hill Gallery Exhibition: Kirsten Tradowsky, “Annemarie’s Vision”

Lowry Hill Gallery is hosting an exhibition titled “Annemarie’s Vision” featuring the work of artist Kirsten Tradowsky. The show is presented in partnership with Minnesota Women's Press, highlighting Tradowsky's artistic exploration of vision and narrative.

NEW ZEALAND PHOTOGRAPHER FIONA PARDINGTON REPRESENTS AOTEAROA AT THE VENICE BIENNALE

New Zealand photographer Fiona Pardington (born 1961, Auckland) is representing Aotearoa at the 61st Venice Biennale with her exhibition *Taharaki Skyside*, on view from May 9 to November 22, 2026, at the Aotearoa New Zealand Pavilion. The show features large-scale portraits of taxidermied birds from museum collections across New Zealand and Australia, focusing on endemic species including the extinct huia and whēkau. Curated by Felicity Milburn and Chloe Cull, the exhibition is presented by the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa (Creative New Zealand) and Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū.

Tough Stuff: Women in The American Glass Studio

The Corning Museum of Glass (CMoG) opened "Tough Stuff: Women in the American Glass Studio" on May 16, 2026, as part of its 75th anniversary celebration. This is the first survey exhibition dedicated to women artists who shaped the American Studio Glass Movement from the 1960s onward, featuring over 200 works by artists including Claire Falkenstein, Audrey Handler, Margie Jervis, Susie Krasnican, Kathleen Mulcahy, Ginny Ruffner, Ruth Tamura, and Toots Zynsky. The exhibition draws from CMoG’s permanent collection, the Rakow Research Library, and loans from the artists, and is complemented by an oral history initiative preserving first-person accounts.

Tilda Swinton to Perform at Guggenheim Bilbao in June

Actress and performance artist Tilda Swinton will stage a performance titled 'House of Gestures' at the Guggenheim Bilbao on June 5 and 6. The work, a collaboration with fashion historian and curator Olivier Saillard, is commissioned by Dom Pérignon as part of its 'Creation is an eternal journey' series. The piece explores gesture, presence, and transformation, set in the museum's atrium, and is free and open to the public with advance registration.

From the artist who painted with his feet to the splashes of Pollock: abstraction takes over the Centre Pompidou Malaga

The Centre Pompidou Malaga has opened the exhibition 'Gesture and Matter. International Abstractions (1945–1965)', running until September, featuring around 30 works by 26 artists. The show highlights abstract art as a post-World War II response, with key pieces including Jackson Pollock's 'Number 26A. Black and White' and Kazuo Shiraga's 'Planet Nature', painted with his feet while suspended from ropes. Co-curated by Anne Foucault and Christian Briend, the exhibition traces abstraction's development from Paris and New York to Asia and Europe, emphasizing painting as a full-body, performative act of freedom.

Marat Guelman and the group + - Komma: First of all, it’s beautiful

Marat Guelman's exhibition at Ethan Cohen Gallery in New York (April 23–May 30, 2026) features AI-generated monoprints created in collaboration with the Montenegrin digital art group + - Komma. None of the works were painted by Guelman himself; instead, he programmed AI outputs based on historical models by artists like Picasso, Gauguin, Monet, Warhol, Lichtenstein, Turner, Matisse, and Richter. Every piece in the show incorporates an image of an atomic mushroom cloud, a motif Guelman uses to respond to Vladimir Putin's nuclear threats during the Ukraine war.

The Delicate Bouquet of Roses and Peonies by Redouté and Thilo Westermann at Malmaison

Le délicat bouquet de roses et de pivoines de Redouté et de Thilo Westermann à Malmaison

An exhibition titled "Roses & Pivoines" has opened at the Château de Bois-Préau in Malmaison, France, pairing the 19th-century botanical watercolors of Pierre-Joseph Redouté with contemporary glass-painting works by German artist Thilo Westermann. Redouté, famous for his meticulous rose and peony illustrations commissioned by Empress Joséphine Bonaparte, is shown alongside Westermann's pointillist technique on glass, which he developed from 2014 onward. The show also includes works by Jan-Frans van Dael and Cornelis van Spaendonck, plus scent stations for visitors to smell rose essences.

Ain Bailey “The Jamaica Project” at Camden Art Centre, London

Camden Art Centre in London announces a major new exhibition by London-based composer, artist, and DJ Ain Bailey, featuring a new commission in Gallery 3. The commission is the latest installment of a film trilogy begun in 2021, rooted in Bailey's biography and centered on her personal history.

Interview with Ramuntcho Matta: Brion Gysin: The Last Museum Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris

The article is an interview with Ramuntcho Matta about the exhibition "Brion Gysin: The Last Museum" at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris. It explores the life and work of Brion Gysin, a multifaceted artist associated with Surrealism, the Beat Generation, and the invention of the Dreamachine. The exhibition traces Gysin's career through his calligraphy, painting, and multimedia works, including collaborations with William S. Burroughs and Ian Sommerville. A complementary show, "Underwood 2246449-5 (Les diables de Brion)," organized by Matta at New Galerie, features Burroughs's typewriter and related instruments.

Lenz Geerk’s Theatre of the Mind: painting as regulation of appearance

Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin presents "Theatre of the Mind," the first Italian institutional solo exhibition by German-born painter Lenz Geerk. The show features recent works from 2022 to 2024, exploring painting as a perceptual device where figures, objects, and domestic interiors exist in unstable, unresolved configurations. Installation views by Giorgio Perrottino accompany the exhibition, which runs at the foundation's space.

For the Obama Center, Mark Bradford Paints a Fierce and Luminous Chicago

Mark Bradford has completed "City of the Big Shoulders," a monumental painting for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. The work, which took five years to create, maps migration patterns and structural racism, reflecting the city's strength and complexity through Bradford's signature abstract, layered style.

A Napoli torna il Gallery Weekend tra Chiaia e centro storico: tante mostre e una nuova associazione di galleristi

The third edition of the Napoli Gallery Weekend is scheduled for May 22–24, 2026, spanning the Chiaia district and the historic center of Naples. This year’s key development is the formation of an association of organizing galleries—Acappella, Alfonso Artiaco, Andrea Ingenito Contemporary Art, Galleria Fonti, Gallerie Riunite, Galleria Tiziana Di Caro, Studio Trisorio, and Umberto Di Marino—aiming to coordinate openings, exhibitions, and special visits while strengthening the city’s contemporary art scene. Highlights include shows by Valentina Artone, Adam Pendleton and Antoni Tàpies, David Bowes, Edoardo Aruta, Martin Kippenberger at Galerie Gisela Capitain’s Naples space, Salvatore Emblema and Luisa Lambri, and a geopolitical group exhibition titled "Global Folklore."

A West Coast First: A Retrospective of SFMOMA’s KAWS Exhibit

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) concluded its six-month exhibition "KAWS: FAMILY," the artist's first major museum retrospective on the West Coast. The show featured 30 years of Brian Donnelly's (KAWS) work, from early advertising recreations to monumental sculptures, with a central theme of kinship. It attracted a record influx of young adults and families, helping SFMOMA recover from a 30% drop in annual foot traffic between 2019 and 2024.

Crystal Bridges to Host Events Celebrating Its Expansion

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, will host a series of events celebrating the completion of its multiyear expansion, which began in early 2022. The celebration kicks off on May 29 with a conversation featuring founder Alice Walton, chairperson Olivia Walton, and architect Moshe Safdie, moderated by Vanity Fair correspondent Nate Freeman. The 114,000-square-foot expansion brings the museum's total size to 314,000 square feet, adding a café, educational spaces, galleries, studios, and an outdoor plaza. The official public opening on June 6–7 will include dance performances, live music, hands-on art activities, and the debut of two temporary exhibitions: "Keith Haring in 3D" and "Do Ho Suh and Children: Artland."

Sir John Akomfrah’s Venice Biennale Exhibition Comes To Liverpool’s Walker Art Gallery

Sir John Akomfrah's exhibition, originally presented at the Venice Biennale, is now on view at Liverpool's Walker Art Gallery. The show brings together a selection of the artist's acclaimed film and video works that explore themes of memory, migration, and the African diaspora, offering UK audiences a rare chance to see the Biennale presentation in a new context.

Vancouver Art Gallery's "Future Geographies" Exhibit Explores How Art Responds to Climate Change

The Vancouver Art Gallery has opened "Future Geographies: Art in the Century of Climate Change," an exhibition curated by Eva Respini, the gallery's interim co-CEO and curator at large. Featuring over 30 artists and 35 works—including sculptures, paintings, video installations, and photographs—the show explores climate change through themes of living knowledge, consumed earth, speculative worlds, and material memory. Highlights include Brian Jungen's whale-skeleton sculpture made from plastic chairs and Clarissa Tossin's multimedia weaving of Amazon boxes. The exhibition also incorporates sustainability in its organization, using recycled cardboard for labels, overland shipping for loans, and commissioning local artists.

Sophie Von Hellerman “After a Dream” at Greene Naftali, New York

Greene Naftali presents Sophie von Hellermann's eighth solo exhibition, "After a Dream," featuring pairs of figures drawn from literature, art history, the artist's personal acquaintances, and imaginative constructs. The show explores creative relationships through the charged dynamic of the couple, presenting narrative chimeras that examine different forms of alignment and connection.

Gedi Sibony “The Invisible Point” at Greene Naftali, New York

Gedi Sibony presents "The Invisible Point" at Greene Naftali in New York, an exhibition featuring sculptures made from remnants and castoffs that aggregate toward the center of the gallery. The artist describes the process as adaptive, driven by intuitive momentum and organized through allegorical structure, with background landscapes depicting interacting beings that emerge from and create their own conditions.

Moyra Davey at greengrassi

Moyra Davey presents an exhibition at greengrassi gallery in London, featuring a series of new works that continue her exploration of photography, text, and everyday objects. The show includes 14 documented images, blending personal narrative with conceptual art practices.

Joe Brainard at Chris Sharp Gallery

Joe Brainard's work is currently on view at Chris Sharp Gallery in an exhibition documented with 68 images and no videos. The show presents the artist's pieces, though no text descriptions accompany the images on the page.

Jack Leigh and Parker Stewart exhibit opens in Savannah

An exhibition titled "Jack Leigh & Parker Stewart: In Place" has opened at Laney Contemporary in Savannah, featuring black-and-white photographs by Jack Leigh (1948–2004) and Parker Stewart (b. 1992). Both artists document the landscape and communities of the coastal South, with Leigh known for his work on oystermen, shrimp boat crews, and Gullah Geechee communities, and Stewart focusing on tidal landscapes of coastal Georgia and the Savannah River Basin. The show includes serendipitous parallels, such as nearly identical photographs of a water tower taken by each artist decades apart. Co-curated by Stewart and gallerist Susan Laney, it marks the first time Leigh's work has been exhibited alongside a living photographer in nearly a decade.