In a new home, Photo London gets down to business

Photo London opened its 2025 edition at a new venue, Olympia’s Grand Hall in West Kensington, on 13 May, moving from its previous decade-long home at Somerset House. Despite a hailstorm, the preview day saw lively sales: Paris-B Gallery sold three works for £100,000, including pieces by Yang Yongliang; In Camera sold both a vintage and modern print of Jane Everlyn Atwood's *Auto Portrait (Serpent)*; and Radius Publishing moved 40% of its stock by Thursday lunchtime. The fair runs until 17 May, with prices ranging from £100 to £400,000.

‘Common ground for me is everywhere I step’: Mohammad Omer Khalil on his five-institution show

Mohammad Omer Khalil, a 90-year-old Sudanese artist and master printmaker, is the subject of a five-institution exhibition titled "Common Ground" spanning New York, Philadelphia, and Michigan. The show brings together six decades of his prints and paintings, along with ephemera from his travels, oral histories, and cultural influences. Khalil, who has lived in the US since 1967, learned printmaking at the EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop and has taught at Pratt Institute, the New School, Columbia University, and New York University. He also produces editions with notable artists and has maintained a long connection to the Asilah Cultural Moussem in Morocco.

5 Trends Shaping the 2026 Venice Biennale

The 2026 Venice Biennale has opened to the public, featuring the main exhibition 'In Minor Keys' conceived by the late Cameroonian Swiss curator Koyo Kouoh, who died unexpectedly in May 2025. Kouoh, the first African woman appointed to lead the Biennale, had her curatorial team—including Rasha Salti, Marie Hélène Pereira, and Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo—carry forward her vision of art as a 'shared and sustaining force.' The opening was weighted with politics and emotion.

At a Powerful Carnegie International, Solidarity Is a Means of Survival

The 2026 Carnegie International, titled “If the word we,” opened at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, featuring 61 artists from around the world. Curated by Ryan Inouye, Liz Park, and Danielle A. Jackson, the exhibition emphasizes collective survival and interdependence, with works including Khalil Rabah’s video about Palestinian resilience, Shala Miller’s abstraction inspired by Toni Morrison, and a performance by Brooke O’Harra and collaborators celebrating teamwork through a historic basketball dunk by Julius Erving. The show extends to three other venues, including the Mattress Factory, where married artists Claudia Martinez Garay and Artur Kameya present a sprawling installation.

5 very different art fairs throughout two days in New York City

The article reports on five distinct art fairs—Frieze, NADA, Independent, 1-54, and Esther III—visited during New York Art Fair Week. It highlights key artists and works, including Kelly Tapia-Chuning's deconstructed serapes at NADA, Esaí Alfredo's queer nighttime paintings, Alex Burke's textile dolls at 1-54, and Laetitia KY's photographic self-sculpture. The fairs collectively emphasized themes of environmentalism, globalism, decolonization, and a growing textiles sector, with curation varying widely from commercial to conceptually driven.

Fair Week in NYC!

New York City is hosting a packed week of art fairs in May 2025, including Frieze at The Shed, Independent Art Fair at Pier 36, TEFAF New York at the Park Avenue Armory, and NADA New York at the Starrett-Lehigh Building. The fairs feature hundreds of international galleries, with Frieze emphasizing Central and South American exhibitors, Independent exploring a dystopian theme, TEFAF offering antiquities and fine art, and NADA celebrating its 12th edition with 121 galleries. The article also notes recent major exhibitions at the New Museum, Whitney Biennial, MoMA PS1, The Met, and MoMA, and includes a guide to Upstate New York art destinations.

Art Dubai Marks 20 Years with Special Edition Focused on Collaboration and Cultural Exchange – Friday, 15-17 May 2026.

Art Dubai returns to Madinat Jumeirah from 15–17 May 2026 for a special 20th-edition programme that reflects on the fair's evolution and reaffirms Dubai's role as a global cultural hub. Presented in partnership with A.R.M. Holding and Dubai Culture, the fair features approximately 75 presentations from commercial galleries, institutional partners, and cultural initiatives, with around 60% of participating galleries drawn from the region. Highlights include the Made Forward presentation from Dubai Collection, the 20th edition of the Global Art Forum titled 'Before and After Everything', and an exhibition of modern Arab art from the Barjeel Art Foundation. The fair also introduces an innovative risk-sharing model where booth costs are payable based on sales performance, and entry is free for all visitors.

At Frieze New York With the Art-World Elite

Frieze New York 2026 opened at the Shed with 68 galleries from 26 countries, marking the fair's 15th year. The event drew art-world elite including curators, gallery owners, and advisers, with notable attendees such as Paulina Kolczynska, Jim Kelly, Larry Ossei-Mensah, and Ludlow Bailey. Latin American and African galleries had a strong presence, and conversations highlighted increased diversity and representation from the Global South. The fair is part of a broader art sprint that includes the Whitney and Venice Biennials, TEFAF, and the Independent Art Fair.

Amy Sherald comes home

Amy Sherald, the celebrated painter known for her official portrait of former first lady Michelle Obama, brings her traveling exhibition 'American Sublime' to Atlanta's High Museum of Art, where it will be on view from May 15 to September 27. The show, the largest presentation of her work to date, marks a homecoming for Sherald, who was born in Columbus, Georgia, and graduated from Clark Atlanta University. The exhibition includes paintings that explore themes of identity, the American South, and the Black experience, and features works such as 'A God Blessed Land (Empire of Dirt)' (2022) and 'They Call Me Redbone, but I'd Rather Be Strawberry Shortcake' (2009).

Firelei Báez paintings at Hauser & Wirth New York

Firelei Báez presents her first New York exhibition with Hauser & Wirth, featuring a constellation of new paintings, works on paper, and large-scale bronze sculptures across two floors of the gallery's 22nd Street location. The show includes 'View of Nature' (2026), an eight-panel painting based on John Emslie's 1852 engraving, alongside bronze ciguapa figures from Dominican folklore and a series of monumental works on paper that explore atmospheric and cosmic themes.

Discover 5 Standout Talents at New York’s Satellite Art Fairs

Galerie magazine highlights five standout satellite art fairs running concurrently with Frieze New York and TEFAF New York: Independent, NADA New York, Esther III, 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, and Future Fair. The article profiles emerging and rediscovered artists such as Julia Maiuri (presented by 12.26 at Independent), Shangfeng Zhang (LATITUDE Gallery at NADA New York), and others, noting that more than a third of Independent's booths feature artists making their New York solo debuts.

Photo London Returns with a Global Perspective at Olympia

Photo London has opened its latest edition at Olympia London, marking a significant move from its previous home at Somerset House. The fair brings together international galleries from cities including New Delhi, Cologne, New York, Glasgow, Buenos Aires, Johannesburg, Zurich, Paris, Tokyo, Taipei, Munich, and London, creating a global conversation around photography. Highlights include Alfredo Jaar's installation 'Searching for Africa in LIFE,' which interrogates the absence of African voices in Western media, and presentations by Autograph, Leica Gallery London, and others that explore themes of migration, memory, identity, and representation.

Switzerland’s flagship fair brings the art world to town

The article recounts a journalist's trip to Switzerland for Art Basel 2025 and the surrounding satellite events, including Zurich Art Weekend and visits to galleries and museums in Zurich and Bern. It highlights the participation of Canadian galleries like Catriona Jeffries and Eli Kerr, as well as encounters with artists such as Jeffrey Gibson, Monster Chetwynd, and Pipilotti Rist. The tour covers institutional highlights like the Kunsthalle Zürich, Kunsthaus Zürich, Zentrum Paul Klee, and the Kunstmuseum Bern, with exhibitions featuring Carol Rama, Kurt Schwitters, and Tai Shani.

Fold in these exhibitions during festival season

Spoleto Festival USA and Piccolo Spoleto begin on May 22, and the article highlights a curated selection of visual art exhibitions in Charleston to enjoy alongside the festival's performances. Featured venues include Robert Lange Studios, Corrigan Gallery, Stevenson and Co., Atrium Gallery, Meyer Vogl, Duckworth Gallery, and the Gibbes Museum of Art, which opens "Mary Whyte: Salt of the Earth" and continues "Rodin: All the Truth in Nature." The College of Charleston's Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, under new director Michael Dickins, presents "Make Room" by In Kyoung Chun and another exhibition through July 25.

The Parrish Art Museum Presents ‘Sanford Biggers: Drift,’ The Artist’s First Major East End Solo Show

The Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, New York, will present 'Sanford Biggers: Drift,' the artist's first major solo exhibition on the East End of Long Island, opening in summer 2026. The show features new works, site-responsive installations, and signature sculptures and textiles, including the monumental cloud installation 'Unsui (Cloud Forest)' (2025). The exhibition is part of the museum's 'PARRISH USA250: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness' series, which marks America's semi-quincentennial by exploring the ideals of the Declaration of Independence through the lens of Long Island's artistic heritage.

The 10 Best Museum and Gallery Shows to See in the Bay Area This Summer

The article highlights ten notable museum and gallery exhibitions opening in the Bay Area during summer 2026, including Ranu Mukherjee's solo show 'The Long Middle' at Gallery Wendi Norris, a group survey 'Slice of the Pie' at Fraenkel Gallery featuring 14 Bay Area galleries, and 'Giant Steps' at Personal Space in Vallejo focusing on innovative ceramic works. Other featured shows include Will Yackulic's 'A Certain Slant of Light' at pt.2 in Oakland and several other exhibitions across San Francisco and Oakland.

Across Venice, Artists Defy Censorship to Mourn and Memorialize Gaza

The 2026 Venice Biennale, titled “In Minor Keys,” features numerous artworks that mourn and memorialize the destruction of Gaza, despite censorship pressures. The main exhibition opens with a poem by slain Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, and includes works by artists such as Theo Eshetu, Mohammed Joha, Manuel Mathieu, and Avi Mograbi that directly or indirectly address the conflict. Outside the official Biennale, South African artist Gabrielle Goliath’s performance series “Elegy” was censored by her country’s culture minister after she proposed a version honoring murdered Palestinian poet Hiba Abu Nada, leading her to present the work independently at a church in Venice.

The Best Booths at 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, From Surrealist Fantasias to Afro-Brazilian Imaginings

The 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair has returned to the Starrett-Lehigh Building in Chelsea, New York, featuring over 20 galleries from Africa and the diaspora, with a special focus on Brazil and Afro-Brazilian perspectives. The fair, running through Sunday, includes first-time participants from Lagos, São Paulo, Nassau, and New York, and highlights five standout booths: Sulette van der Merwe's surrealist paintings at Blond Contemporary, Modou Dieng Yacine's Senegalese wrestler-inspired works at 193 Gallery, Ekene Ijeoma's Black Forest Library community project, Rommulo Vieira Conceição's aluminum works at Aura, and the curated section "Brazil Beyond Brazil" featuring 10 artists selected by Igor Simões.

Lost bunny paintings by JFK's photographer found in ABQ storage

A trove of paintings by Eddie Johnson, an obscure artist who photographed President John F. Kennedy in 1962 as assistant to Elaine de Kooning, has been discovered in a storage unit in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The archive, saved from disposal by the artist's estate, includes a major series of bunny-themed works created between 1972 and 1995, all based on a worn plush toy. Artist Matthan Cowart organized the exhibition "Hares on the Mountain" at his gallery Desert Mystery Center, pairing Johnson's bunny paintings with works by 11 living artists including David Altmejd and Ed Haddaway.

Former Hornets player returns to Charlotte with new art exhi...

Former Charlotte Hornets player Elliot Perry and his wife Kimberly Perry have opened an exhibition of their abstract art collection at the Harvey B. Gantt Center in Charlotte. Titled "Beyond Boundaries: Black Abstraction in the Elliot and Kimberly Perry Art Collection," the show features 40 works by Black artists from the early 1920s to the present, including recent college graduates. The exhibition spans all three of the Gantt Center's galleries and runs through August 30. Elliot Perry, who played for the Hornets in the 1991-92 season, was introduced to art in 1996 by former NBA player Darrell Walker.

Tribeca Gallery Night brings together more than 80 spaces

On Friday, May 15, more than 80 galleries in New York's Tribeca neighborhood will stay open late for Tribeca Gallery Night, from 6pm to 8pm. Three new galleries are joining the event: Tappeto Volante Gallery (opening at 4 Cortlandt Alley with a show of painter Angelo Vasta), Gratin (opening at 15 White Street with a solo show for Spanish artist Mónica Mays), and Southern Guild (relocated from Los Angeles to 75 Leonard Street, featuring solo shows for Usha Seejarim and Mmangaliso Nzuza).

Human Touch Wins Big With the 2026 Loewe Craft Prize

Jongjin Park won the 2026 Loewe Foundation Craft Prize and €50,000 for his work "Strata of Illusion, 2025," which combines glassblowing and bookbinding techniques using porcelain-coated paper layers. The ceremony took place at the National Gallery Singapore, with a jury led by Loewe's new creative directors Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, alongside architects Minsuk Cho, Frida Escobedo, Wang Shu, and Patricia Urquiola. Special mentions went to Graziano Visintin for his necklace "Collier" and a collaborative piece by Baba Tree Master Weavers and Álvaro Catalán de Ocón. The exhibition of 30 finalists, selected from over 5,100 applicants across 133 countries, runs at the National Gallery Singapore through June 14.

Close encounters: the new wave of women photographers – in pictures

The Saltzman-Leibovitz photography prize, founded in 2025 by Lisa Saltzman and Annie Leibovitz, announces its winners and runners-up for 2026. Bolivian photographer Marisol Mendez wins for her series 'MADRE,' which challenges patriarchal representations of women in Bolivia through portraits of matriarchs and references to the Inca moon goddess. Runner-up Miranda Barnes documents African American debutante cotillions in Detroit, while other featured photographers include Bettina Pittaluga and Cole Ndelu, whose works explore body diversity and the fusion of Zulu cosmology with Catholicism. The exhibition runs at Photo London, Olympia, 13–17 May 2026.

New York's Art Week 2026 is underway. A guide to all the fairs to see in the city: Frieze and the others

È in corso l’Art Week di New York del 2026. La guida di tutte le fiere da vedere in città: Frieze e le altre

New York's spring Art Week is underway in mid-May 2026, anchored by two major fairs: Frieze New York (May 13–17) at The Shed, featuring about 70 galleries from over 25 countries, and TEFAF New York (May 15–19) at the Park Avenue Armory, celebrating its tenth edition with 88 galleries. Additional fairs include Independent Art Fair at Pier 36 (May 14–17) with 76 galleries and site-specific installations, and NADA New York at the Starrett-Lehigh Building (May 13–17), promoting emerging artists. The week also involves museums, cultural institutions, and galleries citywide.

Threshold Art Gallery and the Hermitage Museum Present Landmark Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art

Threshold Art Gallery and the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, are presenting a landmark exhibition of contemporary Indian art titled "Sediments of Becoming: Fossilised Present, Summoned Pasts." Opening on 4 June 2026 and running until 4 October 2026, it is the first dedicated presentation of contemporary Indian art in the Hermitage's 260-year history. The exhibition features works by eleven Indian artists—including Afrah Shafiq, Anindita Bhattacharya, Debashish Mukherjee, Gargi Raina, Lakshmi Madhavan, Manjunath Kamath, Maya Krishna Rao, Pushpamala N., Ravinder Reddy, Sumakshi Singh, and V. Ramesh—several of whom created new commissions after a 2025 residency at the Hermitage. Curated by Marina Schulz and Tunty Chauhan, the show places contemporary works alongside historical objects from the museum's vast collections, fostering a dialogue across time and geography.

200 Years of Afro-Cuban Art at the Lowe Art Museum | Lowe Art Museum | Things to do in Miami

The Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami is presenting two simultaneous exhibitions that together form the most comprehensive survey of Afro-Cuban art ever assembled. "El Pasado Mio/My Own Past," organized by Harvard's Afro-Latin American Research Institute, features over 81 works by 44 Cuban artists of African descent spanning two centuries, including nine paintings by Wifredo Lam and works by eleven female artists shown together for the first time. The companion exhibition, "Afrocubanismo: Highlights from the Ramón and Nercys Cernuda Collection," examines the cultural movement of the 1930s when artists began centering Cuba's African roots despite widespread societal suppression. The shows run through September 12 with free general admission.

Koyo Kouoh’s Venice Biennale Looks to Ancient Wisdom to Mend a Fractured Present

Koyo Kouoh's Venice Biennale, titled after ancient wisdom, opens with a focus on healing and historical reimagination. The exhibition features works by artists such as Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka, Khaled Sabsabi, Daniel Lind-Ramos, Guadalupe Maravilla, Kennedy Yanko, and Ayrson Heráclito, alongside a strong emphasis on artist-led schools and institutions like Denniston Hill, blaxTARLINES KUMASI, and RAW Material Company. During the opening, the Koyo Kouoh Foundation was announced, set to launch in Basel to support Pan-African cultural infrastructure. The show includes Refaat Alareer's poem "If I Must Die" and addresses political realities, blending spiritual, ecological, and technological themes to explore collective care and restoration.

Sandra Gamarra: “Réplica” Is Not a Copy

Sandra Gamarra Heshiki's exhibition "Réplica" at MASP in São Paulo opens with an unplanned replica of Francisco Laso's "Habitante de las cordilleras del Perú" (1855), which could not travel from Lima due to bureaucracy. Gamarra produced an inverted, altered version, establishing a critical distinction between copying and responding. The exhibition is organized into sections that parody the classical chronology of encyclopedic museums—"Pre-colonial," "Colonial," "Post-independence," "Modern," and "Contemporary"—transforming the museum into an object of analysis. Gamarra's paintings engage with colonial iconographies, such as the pinturas de castas, by inscribing racial classifications directly onto the figures, making the colonial verdict inseparable from the bodies depicted.

The Joy of Discovery at 1-54 Art Fair

The 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, now open at the Starrett-Lehigh Building in Manhattan, presents a smaller edition than previous years but continues to offer unexpected, tactile works. Highlights include Rommulo Vieira Conceição's Pop-art-inspired wall installation at Aura gallery, Kendra Frorup's mixed-media piece at the Current: Baha Mar Gallery, and Eymric Moderne's gold-leaf and glass bird painting at TM Arthouse. The fair also features posthumous works by Marcel Gotène at Loeve and Co and Sophia Bounou's enigmatic paintings at Blond Contemporary.

Contemporary Indian Art at the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg is hosting "Sediments of Becoming: Fossilised Present, Summoned Pasts," an exhibition curated by Marina Schulz and Tunty Chauhan that features works by eleven contemporary Indian artists, including Afrah Shafiq, Anindita Bhattacharya, Debashish Mukherjee, and others. The show positions contemporary Indian artistic practice within a broader international and civilisational discourse, set against the Hermitage's historic backdrop of over three million objects spanning centuries.