BITS & BYTES May 22, 2026: What’s happening in the Berkshires and beyond!

The article announces four upcoming art exhibitions in the Berkshires region of Massachusetts. At The Mount in Lenox, the 2026 Sculpture at The Mount exhibition titled "Flourish" runs from May 24 to October 24, featuring outdoor sculptures exploring growth, resilience, and connection. In Great Barrington, Childs + Clark Gallery opens "Glass Half Full: Hope, Happiness & Resilience" on May 23, inviting artists to respond to contemporary overwhelm. Also in Great Barrington, Lauren Clark Fine Art presents "In Celebration of the Fine Art Print" from May 23 to July 12, showcasing 18 artists working in print media. At Gallerie 271 in Monterey, "Two to Tango" features works by Jaye Alison and Bill Carlson from May 22 to July 4.

In Vancouver, artists imagine life after climate change

The Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) has opened 'Future Geographies: Art in the Century of Climate Change,' an exhibition curated by Eva Respini that brings together artists from British Columbia, Canada, and beyond to imagine futures shaped by the climate crisis. The show features dozens of works created within the last 25 years, including large sculptures from repurposed waste like Liz Larner's 'Meerschaum Drift' and Brian Jungen's whale skeleton 'Cetology' made from plastic patio chairs, as well as John Akomfrah's three-channel film 'Vertigo Sea.' The exhibition runs at the VAG until January 10 before traveling to the Art Gallery of Ontario in March.

10 Artist-Run Galleries Around the World You Should Know

Artsy Editorial profiles ten artist-run galleries worldwide that are thriving despite the challenge of balancing gallery operations with active art practices. These spaces, founded and operated by working artists, leverage their founders' firsthand experience navigating the art world to curate distinctive programming and build meaningful client relationships. Examples include galleries in underserved neighborhoods in Thailand and other global locations, highlighting the diversity of this grassroots movement.

A Kind of Paradise: Reclaiming Colonial-Era Photography Through Contemporary Art

Museum Rietberg in Zurich has opened "A Kind of Paradise," an exhibition featuring twenty international artists who rework and reclaim colonial-era photographs. The show is organized into four thematic sections—Shapeshifters, Confrontation, Care, and In the Photo Fantastic—each exploring different strategies for challenging the historical narratives embedded in colonial archives. Artists such as Wendy Red Star, Cédric Kouamé, Omar Victor Diop, and Sasha Huber use techniques like cutting, stitching, collage, and critical fabulation to transform photographs that once defined and distorted non-European cultures into new works about memory, identity, and resistance.

In Venice, the Punta della Dogana tells the striking trajectory of activist artist Paulo Nazareth

À Venise, la Punta della Dogana raconte la trajectoire saisissante de l’artiste activiste Paulo Nazareth

Brazilian artist Paulo Nazareth (b. 1977) has mounted a major exhibition at the Punta della Dogana in Venice, working remotely to honor his pledge not to set foot in Europe until he has walked through all 54 African countries. The show includes a striking new installation: a line of salt tracing the shape of a slave ship (tumbeiro) on the first floor, evoking the hundreds of enslaved people who died in such vessels. Other works range from embroidered dishcloths and spontaneous photographic self-portraits to cardboard signs and resin-encased packaging critiquing racist marketing, alongside fragile handmade boat models that echo refugee crossings. The exhibition, titled "Algebra," was curated by Fernanda Brenner and runs through 2026.

Lee Miller at the Musée d'Art moderne de Paris: A Photographer Between War, Beauty and Chaos

Lee Miller au musée d’Art moderne de Paris : une photographe entre guerre, beauté et chaos

Lee Miller, the American photographer who transitioned from fashion modeling and surrealist experimentation to war photography, is the subject of a major retrospective at the Musée d'Art moderne de Paris. The exhibition covers her career from 1929 to 1955, highlighting her early work as a model for designers like Patou, Chanel, and Schiaparelli, her collaboration and romantic relationship with Man Ray, and her harrowing experiences documenting World War II. After the war, Miller abandoned photography and lived in obscurity until her death in 1977, when her archive was rediscovered and her significance to both history and art history was fully recognized.

On Île Seguin, the new art center Large unveils its spectacular building and a first exhibition focused on Renault's history

Sur l’île Seguin, le nouveau centre d’art Large dévoile son bâtiment spectaculaire et une première expo tournée vers l’histoire de Renault

On Île Seguin, the new contemporary art center Large unveiled its spectacular building designed by Catalan firm RCR Arquitectes during a press preview on May 21. The center, backed by real estate developer Emerige and its president Laurent Dumas, will open to the public on October 17. Its inaugural exhibition, curated by Cecilia Alemani, explores the history of the automobile and the island's industrial past as the site of Renault factories from 1929 to 1992, featuring works by 55 contemporary artists including Julio Le Parc, Nina Beier, Thomas Bayrle, Mohamed El Khatib, and Giulia Andreani.

Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera at MoMA in New York in a Passionate Theatrical Dialogue

Frida Kahlo et Diego Rivera au MoMA de New York dans un dialogue théâtral plein d’ardeur

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York has opened a theatrical exhibition titled "Frida and Diego: The Last Dream," curated by Beverly Adams, the museum's curator of Latin American art. The show features around twenty paintings and drawings by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera from MoMA's collection, alongside photographic portraits. The exhibition's dramatic staging, designed by British set designer Jon Bausor—who also worked on the Metropolitan Opera's concurrent production of "El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego"—creates a tense dialogue between the artists' contrasting styles: Rivera's political murals and Kahlo's intimate, colorful self-portraits. Highlights include Kahlo's "Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair" (1940) and Rivera's "Zapata, Agricultural Leader" (1931).

Ornament & Information at Chicago Cultural Center

The Chicago Cultural Center is presenting 'Ornament & Information,' an exhibition featuring 62 images and no videos, as documented by Contemporary Art Daily. The show explores the interplay between decorative ornamentation and informational content in contemporary art, though specific artists, dates, and curatorial details are not provided in the available text.

Art Basel Qatar Announces Artistic Director and Theme for 2027 Edition

Art Basel Qatar has appointed Iraqi curator Wassan Al-Khudhairi as artistic director for its second edition, scheduled for January 28–30, 2027, in Doha. The fair will be themed “between / بين,” exploring states of betweenness and fluid cultural encounters, and will feature a scaled-up Special Projects sector with large-scale, site-specific works, alongside solo gallery presentations. Al-Khudhairi, a specialist in modern and contemporary Arab art, previously served as founding director of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha and held curatorial roles at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis.

Venice show brings together two leading figures from the Polish avant-garde

A collateral exhibition at the 2024 Venice Biennale, titled "Tadeusz Kantor (1915-1990) Emballage Cricotage and Madame Jarema," brings together two towering figures of the Polish avant-garde: Tadeusz Kantor and Maria Jarema. Organized by the Starak Family Foundation at the Procuratie Vecchie, the show features over 60 works spanning paintings, monotypes, sculptures, theatre props, and costumes, culminating in a room dedicated to Kantor's seminal theatre piece "The Dead Class" (1975). Jarema's work was shown at the 1958 Venice Biennale, and Kantor exhibited in the Polish pavilion in 1960; the exhibition highlights their intertwined, interdisciplinary practice and their foundational role in post-war Polish avant-garde art.

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.

An Art-Lover’s Guide to Tunis’ Ground-Up Contemporary Scene

The article profiles Selma Feriani, a Tunisian gallerist who opened a new purpose-built gallery in the industrial El Kram district of Tunis in January 2024. Designed with architect Chacha Atallah, the three-story space features a concrete exterior referencing traditional Tunisian hand-application techniques and a garden of olive, palm, and orange trees. Feriani, who previously ran a gallery in London's Mayfair, returned to Tunisia after the Revolution to contribute to the country's cultural renaissance. The gallery currently hosts simultaneous exhibitions: Nadia Ayari's paintings of menacing plants and Nidhal Chamekh's "Frictions," part of his broader historical project "Et si Carthage…" exploring Mediterranean power dynamics.

Get a taste of the beautiful game through art at exhibits across LA

The article highlights several art exhibitions and installations across Los Angeles that celebrate soccer and sports culture in anticipation of the World Cup. Featured works include Lyndon J. Barrois Sr.'s "Fútbol is Life" at LACMA, featuring miniature sculptures made from chewing gum wrappers depicting historic soccer moments; Pelle Cass's "Play!" at Union Station's Metro Art Passageway Gallery, showing densely layered timelapse photographs of athletes; and Mark Dean Veca's mural "Miracle of La Brea" at the new Wilshire/La Brea Metro Station, which traces the history of the Miracle Mile. The piece also notes the recent opening of the David Geffen Galleries at LACMA and upcoming museums like Refik Anadol's Dataland and the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.

Marcel Duchamp and the MoMA Exhibition That Didn’t Ask Questions

Marcel Duchamp's 1917 readymade *Fountain* and its radical questioning of art's definition are the focus of a new retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, curated by Matthew Affron, Michelle Kuo, and Ann Temkin. The exhibition, the first major Duchamp show in the U.S. since 1973, assembles three hundred objects and presents them chronologically, tracing Duchamp's evolution from early paintings to his conceptual breakthroughs. The article highlights how *Fountain* was originally submitted to a no-jury exhibition by the Society of Independent Artists, sparking a debate that ultimately led to its rejection and Duchamp's resignation, a pivotal moment in art history.

Fashion and art of Africa conquer Paris: 3 exhibitions in a single museum

Moda e arte dell’Africa conquistano Parigi: 3 mostre in un unico museo

The Musée Quai Branly in Paris is hosting "Africa Fashion," an exhibition originally produced by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 2023. Adapted for the Parisian venue, the show draws on the museum's rich historical and photographic collections to explore African fashion from decolonization to the present, featuring clothing, textiles, music videos, and archival photography from across the continent.

Recensione, interviste e migliori stand della fiera d’arte contemporanea di Varsavia. Che cresce

Art Warsaw returns for its third edition, this time held in the historic Villa Róż, a former British embassy in Warsaw. The fair features 56 galleries, over 30 of which are international, and is co-founded by Joanna Witek-Lipka and Michał Kaczyński. The unconventional venue, with its blend of aristocratic luxury and Cold War-era bureaucratic spaces, is central to the fair's identity, offering an experience far removed from the typical white cube format. Galleries collaborated closely with organizers to adapt their presentations to the building's unique rooms, creating an atmosphere that balances a commercial fair with an exhibition project.

Chi sono i vincitori del XXIX Compasso d’Oro premiati all’ADI Design Museum di Milano

The XXIX edition of the Compasso d'Oro award, founded in 1954 by Gio Ponti and Rinascente, concluded at the ADI Design Museum in Milan. The jury awarded 3 Compassi d'Oro Young, 10 student project recognitions, 38 honorable mentions, and 20 Compasso d'Oro ADI prizes. Winning projects include Array sofa by Snøhetta for MDF Italia, Bilboquet lamp by Philippe Malouin for Flos, D'Antan armchair by Raffaella Mangiarotti for De Padova, and the Salone del Mobile.Milano Annual Report 2024. Career awards were given to nine figures including Giovanni Arvedi, Paola Lenti, and Alberto Meda, while three iconic products—Sedia '64 by AG Fronzoni, Tavolo Eros by Angelo Mangiarotti, and Tavolo con ruote by Gae Aulenti—received career Compassi d'Oro. The exhibition of all nominated projects runs until June 4, 2026.

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.

Interview with Wallace Chan, the artist who created a bridge between Venice and Shanghai through water

Intervista a Wallace Chan, l’artista che attraverso l’acqua ha creato un ponte tra Venezia e Shanghai

Wallace Chan, the Hong Kong-born artist turning 70, has launched a dual-exhibition project titled "Vessels of Other Worlds" between Venice and Shanghai, curated by James Putnam. In Venice, the show runs concurrently with the Biennale at the Cappella di Santa Maria della Pietà (Vivaldi's church), featuring three titanium sculptures inspired by Catholic holy oils, surrounded by smaller works evoking water droplets. In Shanghai, the same sculptures appear at the Long Museum (West Bund) starting July 18, 2026, on a monumental scale—seven, eight, and ten meters tall—with a kaleidoscopic interior accessible through a door in the central piece. The exhibitions also include sound compositions by Brian Eno and reference Chan's earlier Venice shows (Titans, Totem, Transcendence).

Stanley Donwood on his show with Thom Yorke in Venice: ‘These drawings… they’re not planned’

Stanley Donwood, the artist and longtime collaborator of Radiohead's Thom Yorke, discusses his recent and upcoming projects in an interview. These include the conclusion of 'This Is What You Get', a retrospective at Oxford's Ashmolean Museum; the 'Motion Picture House' installation based on Radiohead's albums Kid A and Amnesiac; and his first exhibition outside the UK with Yorke, titled 'No Go Elevator (not without no keycard)', staged in Venice during the 2026 Biennale. The Venice show, presented with Tin Man Art, features 15 ink-on-paper works combining drawings and text from Yorke's notebooks.

New Exhibition Explores Immersive Art Created by Women Artists in the 1960s and 1970s

Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul has opened "Inside Other Spaces: Environments by Women Artists 1956–1976," an exhibition that reconstructs immersive environments created by women artists from Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Originally organized with Munich’s Haus der Kunst, the Seoul presentation expands the project with additional works by Korean and Asian artists, including Jung Kangja’s "Muche-Jeon (Incorporeal Exhibition)." The show features reconstructed works by pioneers such as Lygia Clark, Marta Minujín, Nanda Vigo, and Tsuruko Yamazaki, whose 1956 piece "Red" is the earliest environment included. Visitors are invited to physically enter installations made of mirrors, translucent materials, sound, and light, experiencing art that dissolves boundaries between artwork, architecture, and viewer participation.

'The future of art': A first look at the video installation that'll light up LACMA's Wilshire bridge

Artist Diana Thater is creating a new permanent large-scale video installation titled "Oo Fifi, Five Days In Claude Monet’s Garden, Part 3" for the bridge over Wilshire Boulevard at LACMA's David Geffen Galleries. The piece, expected to debut in September, will run nightly from sundown to sunrise and features 6K footage Thater shot in 2025 of Claude Monet's garden in Giverny, France, projected onto a 59-foot-wide wall and part of the bridge ceiling. It will be the largest work of Thater's career and the first permanent outdoor video installation by an artist in a public space.

Ukrainian art resists war

An exhibition titled "Still Joy" opened in Venice during the preview days of the Biennale, organized by the Pinchuk Art Center in Kiev, showcasing Ukrainian art that responds to the ongoing war with Russia. The show features works by artists including Kateryna Aliinyk, Piotr Armianovski, Roman Khimei and Yarema Malashchuk, Zhanna Kadyrova, Alevtina Kakhidze, and Nikita Kadan, addressing themes of resilience, memory, and resistance. The Ukrainian Pavilion at the Biennale also centers on the conflict, with Kadyrova's work referencing the Budapest Memorandum. Many of these artists have chosen to remain in Ukraine despite the dangers, keeping the cultural scene alive.

The Invincible Spirit of Edmonia Lewis

The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, has opened "Edmonia Lewis: Said in Stone," the first major retrospective of the 19th-century sculptor Edmonia Lewis, who was of Black and Indigenous (Mississauga-Tuscarora) descent. The exhibition displays 30 of her Neoclassical white marble sculptures alongside archival materials and works by other artists, organized into four thematic rooms that explore antislavery, Indigenous artistic worlds, her studios in Rome, and religion and mythology. Co-organized with the Georgia Museum of Art, the show emphasizes Lewis's dual heritage without conflating the two identities, featuring extensive text and quotes from the artist herself.

London exhibition explores untold history of how homelessness was criminalised

A new exhibition titled "Criminal: The Untold History of Homelessness" opens at the Museum of Homelessness in London, exploring the origins of homelessness in the UK and how it has been criminalized. The exhibition challenges the typical focus on the 19th-century Vagrancy Act, instead tracing the "Homelessness Big Bang" to the early 1600s, when land enclosures, economic shifts, and colonial expansion began penalizing unhoused people. Staged in a meadow at Finsbury Park, the show features artists and activists including the anonymous graffiti artist 10 Foot, designer Matt Bonner, and poet Gemma Lees, with works such as 10 Foot's first sculpture "Fairie Newbuild"—a skip-shaped object made from palisade fencing containing a hawthorn tree.

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.

Alma Allen on Representing the US at the 61st Venice Biennale

ArtReview published a questionnaire sent to artists and curators participating in the 61st Venice Biennale (2026), featuring responses from Alma Allen, who is representing the United States at the Giardini pavilion. Allen gave cryptic, philosophical answers, declined to answer several questions, and criticized the art world establishment, calling outsider artists the most important and refusing to provide a framework for interpreting her work. The article includes details about her bronze sculpture "Not Yet Titled" (2023) and her reflections on US identity, violence, and bureaucracy.

Matías Duville on Representing Argentina at the 61st Venice Biennale

Matías Duville will represent Argentina at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026 with a site-specific installation titled *Monitor Yin Yang*, transforming the Argentina Pavilion into a walkable landscape made of salt and charcoal. The work expands drawing into a spatial, sonic, and time-based experience, inspired by the natural environments of Mar del Plata and Patagonia. Duville discusses his approach in an interview with ArtReview, noting how early encounters with vast territories and geological time continue to shape his practice, and how the project relates to the Biennale's theme, *In Minor Keys*, by focusing on subtle intensities and open-ended evolution.

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."