The super architect Kengo Kuma on display at the Bonsai Museum, a magical place on the outskirts of Milan

Il super architetto Kengo Kuma in mostra al Museo del Bonsai, luogo magico alle porte di Milano

The Crespi Bonsai Museum in Parabiago, near Milan, is hosting an exhibition during Fuorisalone featuring the new carpet collection "Faces" by Indian brand Jaipur Rugs, created in collaboration with renowned Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. The museum, founded 35 years ago by Luigi Crespi, houses the world's most important collection of author bonsai outside Japan, including a thousand-year-old Ficus retusa. The 16 carpets in the collection reinterpret the facades of iconic buildings by Kengo Kuma & Associates, translating their rhythm, depth, and sensory memory into wool and regenerated viscose, displayed among the bonsai and in the museum's zen garden.

Philadelphia Museum of Art previews "Rocky" exhibit

The Philadelphia Museum of Art previewed a new exhibition titled "Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments," timed to coincide with the nation's 250th anniversary and the 50th anniversary of the "Rocky" film. The exhibition focuses on the iconic Rocky statue at the base of the museum's steps, and a talk featured guest curator Paul Farber and Jacqui Frazier-Lyde, daughter of boxing legend Joe Frazier. A statue of Joe Frazier will be moved to the base of the Art Museum steps, where the Rocky statue once stood. The exhibit opens to the public on April 25, 2026.

Lubaina Himid has been busy ‘Predicting History: Testing Translation’

Lubaina Himid has been selected to represent the United Kingdom at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia in 2026 with a major solo installation titled 'Predicting History: Testing Translation' at the British Pavilion. The exhibition, running from May 9 to November 2026, features a new series of large, multipaneled paintings in dazzling colors, surreal settings, and a soundscape created in collaboration with artist Magda Stawarska. Himid, a Turner Prize-winning pioneer of the Black British Art Movement and Emeritus Professor at the University of Central Lancashire, explores themes of belonging, migration, and making a home in a new place.

Exhibition openings to enjoy in May

Bundaberg Regional Galleries in Queensland, Australia, will launch five new exhibitions in May 2025, with opening events spread across the month. The shows include 'Lost in Palm Springs', a national touring exhibition curated by Dr Greer Honeywill featuring 14 artists and thinkers from America and Australia exploring Palm Springs' landscape and mid-century modern architecture; 'Shifting Perspectives: the Self Reconciliation Project' by local artist Avi Amesbury, which uses ceramics and storytelling to examine settler-colonial family history; 'Post Truth' by Gureng Gureng/Gangalu artist Darren Blackburn, addressing the Australian Government's Close the Gap campaign through led-neon signs; 'The Nature of Silk: The Glad Not Sad Book', a family-friendly exhibition of silk art by children's book author Kim Michelle Toft; and 'Metal in Motion' by Kevin Dekker, a collection of sculptures that transform steel, wood, stone and ceramics into dynamic, fluid forms. Opening events will be held at Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery and Childers Arts Space, with free admission and no RSVP required.

Prince Mario-Max Schaumburg-Lippe: ONE Art Space Hosts Celebrity Packed Chuck Connelly Art Show!

ONE Art Space in Tribeca is hosting "Tribeca’s Midnight Parade — When Art Runs Wild," a solo exhibition of paintings by Chuck Connelly. Co-curated by Adrienne Connelly and MaryAnn Giella McCulloh, the show features the 1994 painting "Animals in the Street," which depicts Tribeca figures as animal archetypes, including a lion judge and the artist as a horse. The private opening drew a celebrity guest list including Princess Tina Radziwill, orchestrated by PR powerhouse Norah Lawlor.

Explore HKMoA's large-scale exhibition "Blooming: The Art of Gardens in East and West" Starting April 24

The Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMoA) opens its large-scale exhibition "Blooming: The Art of Gardens in East and West" on April 24, featuring over 100 sets of paintings and artefacts from the Palace Museum in Beijing, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Palace of Versailles, and HKMoA's own collection. Works include paintings, prints, lacquerware, sculpture, ceramics, and glassware, with highlights such as Claude Monet's "Water Lilies" and "Water Lily Pond," Zhang Daqian's "Entrance of Bade Garden," and a Ming dynasty bowl with garden scenes. The exhibition also includes a scenographic recreation of the Orchid Pavilion Gathering enhanced with technology for an immersive experience.

Mirror Silk Art Exhibitions

Shaniqwa Jarvis's solo exhibition 'Only Love Can Break Your Heart' opens at Public Gallery in London on 30 April 2026, featuring twelve works across silk, mirrored surfaces, aluminum, and collage. The show includes suspended silk panels in front of mirrors, floral imagery, portraiture, abstract compositions, a moving image work combining archival footage and recorded audio, and a second book titled 'GUTS' published by Super Labo with an introduction by curator Essence Harden.

After Going Through the Darkness Part 1: Kōta Takeuchi Exhibition "Nononononomatsuri" @ Ichihara Lakeside Museum

暗闇をくぐってみたら Part1 竹内公太展「のののののまつり」@ 市原湖畔美術館

The Ichihara Lakeside Museum, currently under renovation since late 2025, will partially reopen on May 1, 2026, with a theater-style series of solo exhibitions titled "Kōta Takeuchi: Nononononomatsuri" as its first installment. Artist Kōta Takeuchi, born in 1982 in Hyogo Prefecture and based in Fukushima, presents new video installations created during a four-month residency in Ichihara, where he visited over 70 stone monuments across the city—including horse-headed Kannon statues, Koyasu statues, and war memorials—to explore themes of parallel bodies and possession. The exhibition features works such as "Disassembly of the Sansha-za" (2013–2023), "Cement Thief" (2024), and "Sigh of the Ground" (2022), with a map showing the locations of the documented stone monuments.

Muzeu Braga, Portugal’s newest art museum bridging art and critical thought

Portuguese construction and engineering group DST has opened Muzeu, a contemporary art museum in Braga's historic center, housed in a former courthouse redesigned by architect José Carvalho Araújo. The inaugural exhibition, 'Sejamos realistas, exijamos o impossível' (Let us be realistic, let us demand the impossible), features works by international artists Alex Katz, Nan Goldin, Annie Leibovitz, and Anselm Kiefer alongside leading Portuguese artists such as Ângela Ferreira, Pedro Calapez, and Ana Vidigal. DST CEO José Teixeira, who has built one of Portugal's most significant private art collections, aims to position the museum as a cultural anchor for the city.

Important Early Works from the Cy Twombly Foundation

Gagosian Gallery will present an exhibition of six early works by Robert Rauschenberg from the Cy Twombly Foundation, opening April 25 at 980 Madison Avenue. The show coincides with the centennial of Rauschenberg’s birth and runs alongside a Marcel Duchamp exhibition in the gallery’s new ground-floor space. The featured works, including a rare 1950 sculpture and the photogram *Untitled (1950)*, were preserved by Cy Twombly, reflecting the close friendship and artistic exchange between the two artists who met in 1951 at the Art Students League of New York and later traveled together through Europe and North Africa.

Sneak peek: New Rocky exhibit debuts at Philly art museum

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is opening a new exhibition titled "Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments" on Saturday, exploring the legacy of the Rocky statue. The exhibit features over 150 works across eight galleries, including pieces by Keith Haring and Andy Warhol, with the bronze Rocky statue from the 1982 film "Rocky III" as its centerpiece. For the first time, visitors must pay to see the original statue, which was previously located at the bottom of the museum's steps. The exhibition also includes works highlighting boxing greats Joe Frazier, Muhammad Ali, and Joe Louis, and was inspired by a 2023 WHYY podcast.

Andrea Pazienza is alive! A major exhibition opening at MAXXI shouts it

Andrea Pazienza è vivo! Lo urla una importante mostra in apertura al MAXXI

The MAXXI museum in Rome is opening a major exhibition titled "Non sempre si muore" dedicated to Andrea Pazienza, the legendary Italian underground comic artist. Curated by Giulia Ferracci and Oscar Glioti, the show opens on April 24, 2026, and runs until September 27, 2026. It features over 500 original drawings, including a monumental mural Pazienza created live at the 1987 Fiera del Fumetto in Naples, recently restored by the museum. The exhibition is the second chapter of a larger research project by MAXXI, following the earlier show "La matematica del segno" at MAXXI L'Aquila, which focused on Pazienza's formative years. The title quotes a phrase Pazienza said in 1988 to British host Clive Griffiths shortly before his death, underscoring the enduring vitality of his work.

L’inquinamento acustico diventa un percorso sonoro. L’installazione di Continental a Milano

Continental, the premium tire manufacturer, has commissioned WOA Studio, a creative studio founded by Davide Carioni and Giuliana Pajola, to create an immersive sound installation titled "The Sound of Premium" for the Fuorisalone design festival in Milan. Presented at BASE Milano, the installation transforms urban noise pollution into a three-part sonic journey—chaos, harmony, and quiet—using seventeen audio-luminous elements that abstract the city soundscape. The experience is designed to show how noise can be mitigated rather than eliminated, with sound data derived from real urban recordings, particularly tire rolling noise.

NEYRA PÉREZ: RETURN TO ROEBIRI

NEYRA PÉREZ: RETORNO A ROEBIRI

Neyra Pérez, an Iskonawa artist, presents her exhibition "El retorno del Roebiri" at the Centro Cultural Ricardo Palma in Lima, Peru, running until May 9, 2026. The show features her distinctive kené designs, which she creates using natural materials like yakuchapana resin and virgin clay on raw canvas, fixed through sunlight and river washing. The works reference Roebiri, a mountain in the Amazonian Sierra del Divisor that was the ancestral territory of the Iskonawa people, from whom they were displaced in the late 1950s by missionaries and the military. Since 2018, Pérez has been part of a cultural revitalization effort led by anthropologist Carolina Rodríguez to recover these traditional designs and practices.

At Chaumont-sur-Loire, incredible gardens recreate cult films

À Chaumont-sur-Loire, d’incroyables jardins recréent des films culte

The Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire in France has launched the 2026 edition of its Festival International des Jardins, themed around cinema. Participants including gardeners, landscape designers, and artists—among them actresses Sabine Azéma, Golshifteh Farahani, and Mélanie Laurent, and director Momoko Seto—have transformed small plots into living landscapes inspired by iconic films and cinematic genres, such as a vegetal Cannes Film Festival and a garden based on James Cameron's *Avatar* trilogy. The festival runs from April 22 to November 1, 2026, alongside the estate's ongoing 'Saison d'art' exhibition featuring works by Marc Desgrandchamps, Antonio Crespo Foix, and others.

Parallax(e): Perspectives on the Canada–US Border

The exhibition "Parallax(e): Perspectives on the Canada–US Border" at The Reach Gallery Museum in Abbotsford, British Columbia, brings together archival materials from the Northwest Boundary Survey (1857–62) with new works by five Indigenous artists. The show features photographs, maps, and watercolors from British and American surveyors alongside commissions by Dr. Shawn Brigman, Dr. Michelle Jack, Deb Silver, Xémóntalot Carrielynn Victor, and Dr. T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss, who respond to the legacy of the border's creation through canoe culture, transboundary identity, and place-based knowledge.

The Sprawling New David Geffen Galleries At LACMA Open To The Public On Sunday, May 3

The David Geffen Galleries at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) will open to the public on Sunday, May 3, after 20 years of development. Designed by architect Peter Zumthor, the 900-foot-long horizontal glass and concrete structure overlooks the La Brea Tar Pits and stretches over Wilshire Boulevard. The main floor, elevated 30 feet above street level, offers 110,000 square feet of gallery space for LACMA’s permanent collection. The inaugural exhibition is inspired by four major bodies of water—the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic oceans, and the Mediterranean Sea—and features works by artists including Todd Gray, Do Ho Suh, Lauren Halsey, Tavares Strachan, Jeff Koons, and Diego Rivera. The building also includes open plazas, an outdoor public space, and an Erewhon Cafe, with a larger restaurant and wine bar planned for fall 2026.

Art museum - The art of stillness: Dib Bangkok

Dib Bangkok, a major new contemporary art museum, has opened in Thailand's capital. Conceived by the late Thai businessman and art collector Petch Osathanugrah and realized by his son Purat 'Chang' Osathanugrah, the museum is housed in a converted 1980s warehouse redesigned by LA-based Thai architect Kulupat Yansantrast of WHY Architecture. It features 7,000 square meters of gallery space across 11 galleries, a central courtyard, an outdoor sculpture garden, and a penthouse. The inaugural exhibition, titled '(In)visible Presence,' presents 81 works by 40 artists exploring memory and the unseen, curated by director Miwako Tezuka.

Faces of America Art Exhibit

Artist and arts administrator Kathleen Kirk Stoves is debuting an art exhibit at Mobile Arts Council in downtown Mobile, Alabama, in partnership with Lynn Oldshue, founder and writer of the storytelling project Our Southern Souls. The exhibit runs through May and coincides with the ArtWalk event on May 8th. Stoves created paintings inspired by Oldshue's interviews with over 2,000 people from the Mobile area, originally sparked by stories about bus riders.

Color and Spirit: The Blue Rider at Lenbachhaus

The Lenbachhaus museum in Munich has opened a major exhibition titled "Beyond the World. The Blue Rider," running from March 10, 2026, to September 5, 2027. The show explores the cultural exchanges and historical context of the Blue Rider movement, featuring newly acquired works by Wilhelm Morgner, Emmy Klinker, and Albert Bloch, alongside iconic pieces by Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, and Gabriele Münter. The exhibition is organized chronologically, beginning with the cross-cultural inspirations behind the 1912 Blue Rider Almanac and concluding with a reflection on the Nazi suppression of German Expressionism, including inventory lists of confiscated "degenerate" art.

Paphos exhibition brings 22 artists together

A new group exhibition titled 'Beyond the Surface' opens at Ibrahim’s Khan Art Gallery in Paphos, Cyprus, from April 24 to 26, featuring 22 artists of 14 nationalities. Curated by Elham Razani, the three-day show includes paintings, sculpture, mosaic, and ceramic art, and is sponsored by Ezousa Winery. The exhibition aims to foster cultural exchange and community engagement through diverse artistic voices.

Brush to canvas: News from the art community

The Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, will open two exhibitions in May 2025: "Architecture of the Dalí" on May 2, tracing the museum's history from its 1980s origins to its current bayfront structure, and "Dalí in America" on May 9, featuring over 70 works exploring Salvador Dalí's vision of the United States. Other notable openings include "Wolves: Photography by Ronan Donovan" at the James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art (May 9), multidisciplinary artist Babs Reingold's solo show "After Venus" at the Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg (May 15), and "Cigars! Photography, Industry, and Identity" at the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, commemorating Ybor City's cigar-rolling history. Additional events include Florida NOW at Florida CraftArt, Charles Morrison's "Head in the Sky, Feet on the Ground" at the Morean Center for Clay, and a photography contest sponsored by FloridaRAMA and St. Petersburg Month of Photography.

Here's how Maurizio Cattelan's telephone confessions ended up

Ecco come sono finite le confessioni al telefono di Maurizio Cattelan

Maurizio Cattelan has launched a new performance project called "Hotline," a telephone confessional service running from April 2 to 22, where anyone could call a toll-free number or send a WhatsApp voice message to confess their sins directly to the artist. On April 23, Cattelan responded in a live-streamed event, symbolically absolving selected participants. The project coincides with the release of limited-edition reproductions of his iconic 1999 work "La Nona Ora" (depicting Pope John Paul II struck by a meteorite), sold through Avant Arte in an edition of 666 miniature resin sculptures priced at €2,310 each, with some given as gifts to participants.

This Figurative Painter Captures the Intricacies of Detroit Through a Local Tattoo Artist

Chinese figurative painter Liu Xiaodong has opened a solo exhibition titled "Host" at Lisson Gallery in Los Angeles, focusing exclusively on a single subject: John Mcintyre, a Detroit-based tattoo artist and member of a medieval reenactment club called Knyaz USA. The show features large-scale oil paintings that follow Mcintyre through his daily life—participating in armored historical battles in snowy forests, working in his tattoo studio, and relaxing at home—offering an intimate portrait of Detroit's subcultural communities.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Iconic California Installation Returns in a Museum Show

The Museum of Sonoma County is commemorating the 50th anniversary of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's iconic 1976 installation "Running Fence" with an exhibition featuring blueprints, original construction materials, and documentary photographs. The temporary work, which stretched nearly 25 miles across Sonoma and Marin counties in California, required four years of negotiations with ranchers, 18 public hearings, and the first-ever Environmental Impact Report for a public artwork, ultimately costing $2.25 million funded by the artists through preparatory drawing sales.

The Dragon's Coils, the Flower and the Cloud. The Museo del Tappeto Antico of Brescia Looks to China

Le spire del drago, il fiore e la nuvola. Il Museo del Tappeto Antico di Brescia guarda alla Cina

The Museo Internazionale del Tappeto Antico (MITA) in Brescia, Italy, has opened a new exhibition titled "Le trame del dragone. Tappeti cinesi delle dinastie imperiali" (The Dragon's Wefts: Chinese Carpets of the Imperial Dynasties). The show presents around forty antique Chinese carpets from the MITA collection, the world's most important private collection of antique rugs, assembled by Romain Zaleski and housed in a glass cube designed by OBR. Curated by Giovanni Valagussa, the exhibition traces the history of Chinese carpet-making from the 15th to the 19th century, highlighting two main typologies: red-ground rugs from the Xinjiang region with geometric and floral motifs, and gold-and-blue rugs from the Ming and Qing capitals featuring dragon and auspicious symbols. The exhibition is free and runs until June.

Lee Mingwei at Perrotin Gallery in Paris: an exhibition exploring connection, gesture, and ritual

Perrotin Gallery in Paris is presenting "When Beauty Appears," a solo exhibition by Taiwanese artist Lee Mingwei, running from April 25 to May 30, 2026. The show features seven interactive works created between 1995 and 2025, including pieces like "The Moving Garden," where visitors take a flower to give to a stranger, and "The Mending Project," which invites participants to repair garments with colored threads. The exhibition emphasizes ritual, exchange, and lived experience over passive observation.

Philadelphia’s New Art Fair Is Betting Big on Community

Philadelphia is set to launch a new contemporary art fair called Elsewhere on June 4, organized by Megan Galardi, founder of Blah Blah Gallery. The fair will take over the Yowie Hotel, a pair of 1900s rowhouses, featuring 26 galleries from cities including Los Angeles, Toronto, and London. Booth prices are kept low—around $3,000 for the largest rooms—and some exhibitors can sleep in their spaces to reduce costs. Participating galleries include Harlesden High Street, DARLA, and Blah Blah Gallery, with artists such as Patricia Renee’ Thomas, Emmanuel Massillon, and Qualeasha Wood. The fair also includes panels, DJ sets, reciprocal museum tours, and VIP studio visits.

Harmony Korine Makes Sense of His Shape-Shifting Art: ‘It’s Really One Whole Work’

Harmony Korine's first-ever U.S. retrospective, titled "Perfect Nonsense," has opened at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami. The exhibition gathers over 50 pieces spanning his career, including adolescent writings, zines, collages from the 1990s, figurative paintings, and recent works using game engines. Korine, known for transgressive films like *Gummo* (1997) and *Spring Breakers* (2012), also founded EDGLRD, a studio producing experimental content with cutting-edge tech, such as his 2023 project *AGGRO DR1FT*, which premiered at the Venice International Film Festival.

UCF Alum and Fulbright scholar Mär Martinez exhibition in Maitland, FL

Contemporary painter Mär Martinez, a Fulbright scholar and UCF alum, presents her first solo museum exhibition, “A loom, a fence, a wire, a thread,” at the Art & History Museums of Maitland (A&H) in Maitland, Florida. The show features works developed during her 2024–25 Fulbright research in Istanbul and builds on ideas from her 2021–2023 Studio Artist Residency at A&H. Inspired by traditional Turkish and Middle Eastern textile practices, Martinez explores themes of urban life, surveillance, and cultural memory, using imagery from nighttime walks through Istanbul—fences, checkpoints, and barbed wire—combined with historic textile patterns. Her Cuban and Arab heritage and family’s experience of displacement inform her work, with weaving serving as a metaphor for endurance and resistance. The opening night is free to the public, with live music, food, and a cash bar.