At the Venice Biennale, the Thrill of Victory, the Agony of Defeat

The article reports on the opening of the 61st Venice Biennale, highlighting the central exhibition "In Minor Keys" conceived by the late Koyo Kouoh, along with national pavilions and collateral events. It notes standout contributions from artists such as Alvaro Barrington, Kaloki Nyamai, Florentina Holzinger, Ei Arakawa-Nash, Li Yi-Fan, and Dries Verhoeven, while describing the American pavilion as lackluster and the overall commercial offerings as uneven. The text also covers performances and exhibitions featuring nudity and body horror, including Tino Sehgal's "The Kiss" and Maja Malou Lyse's video with the collective DIS.

8 Must-See Shows during Gallery Weekend Berlin 2026

Gallery Weekend Berlin 2026 features over 50 galleries across the city, with a strong emphasis on painting. The event, founded in 2005 by a cooperative of local gallerists as an alternative to traditional art fairs, this year confirms the lasting power of painting despite its original anti-painting ethos.

Frieze New York Is an Assembly-Line Salad

At Frieze New York, curator Lucien Zayan searches for artworks exploring the relationship between food and art, finding a piece by Aki Goto at Europa gallery that reflects on sugar, colonization, and cavities. The fair features works like David Lamelas's "To Pour Milk into a Glass" (1972) from Dia Art Foundation and Mungo Thomson's "Snowman" (2023) at Karma, while a performance by Kite (Oglála Lakȟóta) at the Counterpublic triennial booth offers a reprieve from the monotonous fair experience.

Matisse: The Pursuit of Harmony

Acquavella Galleries in New York presents "Matisse: The Pursuit of Harmony," an exhibition running from April 9 to May 22, 2026, featuring fifty works by Henri Matisse including paintings, sculptures, and works on paper. The show is organized across two floors, with early pieces on the ground floor north gallery, sculptures and early works on the second floor north, later works on the second floor south, and a concluding display of the four bronze castings of Matisse's "Back" series on the ground floor south. Key highlights include the painting *Male Model* (ca. 1900) paired with the bronze *The Serf* (1900–04), and the portrait *Mademoiselle Yvonne Landsberg* (1914), which demonstrate Matisse's transformative approach to traditional genres.

Bruno Birmanis and Mareunrol’s on Representing Latvia at the 61st Venice Biennale

Bruno Birmanis and the artist duo Mareunrol’s (Mārite Mastiņa-Pēterkopa and Rolands Pēterkops) will represent Latvia at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026, with their pavilion located in the Arsenale. Their project draws on memories of Latvia in the 1990s, particularly the avant-garde fashion event The Untamed Fashion Assembly (UFA), conceived by Birmanis, which took place two months after Latvia regained independence from the Soviet Union. The installation is not a nostalgic archive but a space of dialogue and reflection, using the visual codes of a fashion show backstage to explore themes of memory, freedom, and utopian intentions.

Pussy Riot Shows Art by Russia’s Prisoners in New Protest Exhibition

Pussy Riot founder Nadya Tolokonnikova co-curated "Resistance Imprisoned," a protest exhibition at Ritsch-Fisch Galerie in Strasbourg, France, featuring artwork created by people currently or formerly imprisoned in Russia, including Ukrainian civilians. The show opened April 19 and runs through May 31, timed to coincide with the first month of the Venice Biennale, which opens May 9. Works include a pen sketch by Lyudmila Razumova, a photojournalist arrested for anti-war graffiti in 2022 and serving a seven-year sentence, alongside pieces by other political prisoners and Ukrainian POWs. The exhibition aims to highlight the human cost of Russia's war and its participation in international cultural events.

All New for 2026: The Greatest Exhibitions in Greater Philadelphia

Greater Philadelphia is launching a year-long Semiquincentennial celebration in 2026, featuring a series of major exhibitions across the region. Highlights include "A Nation of Artists" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the "What Now" festival by ArtPhilly, and "Bells Across PA," a statewide display of painted Liberty Bell replicas. Other notable shows include the Museum of the American Revolution's "The Declaration's Journey," The Franklin Institute's immersive theme park exhibit, The Academy of Natural Sciences' Indigenous re-examination of its Lewis and Clark collection, and the Independence Seaport Museum's look at early American commerce. The Clay Studio presents "Radical Americana" across 20 sites, the National Liberty Museum opens three exhibitions on the First Amendment, and a new show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art explores monuments, curated by Paul Farber.

LR Vandy tells stories of labor, movement, and collective resistance through rope sculptures

British artist LR Vandy presents 'Rise' at Yorkshire Sculpture Park's Weston Gallery, featuring rope sculptures that appear caught mid-motion. The exhibition includes works like 'A Call to Dance,' a monumental maypole form, and explores themes of tension, labor, and movement through maritime fibers sourced from her studio at Chatham Dockyard. The sculptures climb walls, loop through pulleys, and collapse onto the floor, evoking both architectural strength and delicate fragility.

Matt Browning “All Woodcarvings Remain Slow Motion Mobiles” at Kunstverein München

Matt Browning's exhibition "All Woodcarvings Remain Slow Motion Mobiles" at Kunstverein München presents a decade of his carved Douglas fir sculptures. Each piece is a chain-link form cut from a single block of wood, revealing interior voids and grids without any assembly, showcasing his meticulous technique since 2013.

Where Parts Meet: Yu Ji’s “Origin of the Tiger”

Shanghai-based artist Yu Ji presents her first solo exhibition in New York, "Origin of the Tiger," at P.P.O.W gallery from March 6 to April 11, 2026. The show features multimedia sculptures and installations made during a self-organized residency in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where she collaborated with Khmer artisans and local children through the project PKA (PLAY KNOW ATTENTION). Works incorporate reed mats, concrete knees, snail shells, and modular furniture, emphasizing joints, fragmentation, and reassembly.

Palate Cleansers at Frieze NY

Hyperallergic's coverage of Frieze New York and concurrent art fairs in the city frames the experience as overwhelming yet punctuated by standout works. Senior Editor Valentina Di Liscia compares the fair to an assembly-line salad, finding reprieve in art that evokes lush canopies, diaphanous portraiture, and ancestral gardens. The issue also includes dispatches from Future Fair, 1-54, TEFAF, NADA, and Independent Art Fair, alongside a tribute to Austrian performance artist Valie Export, who died at age 85, remembered for her radical feminist guerrilla performances that challenged the male gaze.

design salone del mobile 2026 milan raritas

Salone del Mobile 2026 in Milan debuted a new curated section called Salone Raritas, tucked into Pavilion 9 of the fairgrounds. Conceived by fair editorial and cultural director Annalisa Rosso with exhibition design by Formafantasma, the selective showcase brought together 28 exhibitors from 32 countries, featuring rare collectibles, antiques, limited editions, and high-end craft. Highlights included Saudi design house Zaza Maison, Marseille gallery 13desserts, Italian gallery Serafini with works by Indian designer Karan Desai, and live ceramic assembly by Officine Saffi Lab. Formafantasma’s sustainable design used reusable wooden dividers and drilling-free hanging systems.

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.

Exhibition | Huang Hankang, 'The Sky Remains as the Bird Departs' at Arario Gallery, Shanghai, China

Arario Gallery Shanghai presents Huang Hankang's solo exhibition 'The Sky Remains as the Bird Departs,' running from May 15 to July 4. The show uses Shanghai as a dynamic 'processing system' where images, histories, and cultures are constantly received, translated, and reorganized. Through installations and paintings, the exhibition compresses multiple visual and historical threads, featuring works such as 'Gate of Flesh and Soul,' which juxtaposes Giuseppe Castiglione's hybrid visual language with the Cathay Theatre and fragments of George Washington's dentures, and 'Overlaid Life,' which contrasts a Song Dynasty crystal rabbit with cultivated orchids. Other pieces like 'Void Resonance' and 'Nameless Mark' explore perception, the body, and cultural mediation.

Opening Reception of Anastasia Travieso-Diaz Solo Art Exhibition

Studio Russo Gallery, in collaboration with Artvocate, is hosting the opening reception of "Disintegration Regeneration," a solo exhibition by artist Anastasia Travieso-Diaz. The show features works that explore themes of rupture and renewal, using layered compositions and material experimentation to examine cycles of loss, resilience, and transformation.