How Edward Burtynsky Captures Humanity’s Uneasy Relationship With Nature

Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky is the subject of a solo exhibition titled “Burtynsky: Human/Nature” at Paul Kyle Gallery in Vancouver, running from May 30 to August 1, 2026. The show brings together works from the early 1990s to the present, capturing landscapes that highlight the tension between natural environments and industrial development. Images include a stepwell in India, a granite quarry in Vermont, railcars in British Columbia, and a glowing stream of magma in Ontario. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with an essay by the gallery’s assistant director, Diamond Zhou, who describes the title as naming a strained relationship rather than a reconciliation.

10 Must-See Shows During Paris Gallery Weekend 2026

Paris Gallery Weekend 2026 returns for its 14th edition from May 29th to 31st, organized by the Comité Professionnel des Galeries d’Art. The event features 73 galleries across the Marais and other districts, offering three days of programming with must-see exhibitions during the city's vibrant late spring season.

The New York Fairs Are Done. What Remains?

The article reflects on the conclusion of New York's spring art fair season, highlighting TEFAF New York at the Park Avenue Armory and the Independent Art Fair, which relocated to Pier 36. It notes the ongoing Focus fair for emerging Asian art and spotlights specific artists, including Taiwanese painter Tseng Chien-Ying at Kiang Malingue's booth and Frank Gaard at Post Times, describing their works and the fair's atmosphere of discovery.

Rediscovered Rubens Notebook Page Goes on View for the First Time

A double-sided notebook page by Peter Paul Rubens, dated to September 1607, has gone on public display for the first time at the Rubens Experience in Antwerp. The sheet features a quill-testing squiggle, a sketch of three robed men thought to be apostles, and a draft letter on the reverse to the painter Cristoforo Roncalli. The letter, written on behalf of their patron Eleonora de' Medici, inquires about the progress of a painting for her private chapel. The page was acquired at TEFAF Maastricht by the King Baudouin Foundation for €110,000 ($121,100) and is on long-term loan to the Rubenshuis, where it will remain until renovations are completed around 2030.

Vima 2026: Highlights From Cyprus’ Emerging International Art Fair

The second edition of Vima, Cyprus' emerging international art fair, took place in Limassol from May 15-17, 2026, drawing 5,200 visitors and featuring 26 invited galleries from over 20 countries. Artworks sold ranged from €550 to €90,000, reflecting increased sales from the inaugural 2025 edition. Highlights included a special exhibition curated by Kostas Stasinopoulos titled "The Crashing Waves," performances by Scottish choreographer Magnus Westwell, and notable presentations by galleries such as Cut Art Gallery (Riga) and Eins Gallery (Limassol). The fair also hosted 25 events including talks, live music, and off-site shows across Limassol and Nicosia.

Exhibition | Kenjiro Okazaki, 'Never could be any other way — anagnorisis' at Pace Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Pace Gallery in London is presenting an exhibition by Japanese artist Kenjiro Okazaki titled 'Never could be any other way — anagnorisis'. The show features Okazaki's latest works, which explore themes of recognition and revelation through his distinctive blend of painting, drawing, and conceptual practice.

Lubaina Himid and Magda Stawarska: Zanzibar

Lisson Gallery in London presents "Lubaina Himid and Magda Stawarska: Zanzibar," an immersive installation running from June 4 to August 22, 2026. The exhibition features nine diptychs painted by Himid in 1999, paired with a 38-minute multi-layered sound composition by Stawarska created in 2023. The works explore themes of memory, displacement, and belonging, drawing on Himid's birthplace in Zanzibar and her family's migration to London. The installation includes Taraab music, opera, archival BBC clips, and Himid's own voice, creating a multi-dimensional experience that reflects both artists' sense of loss and connection to their native countries.

One Fine Show: “Paula Rego, Dance Among Thorns” at MUNCH in Oslo

MUNCH in Oslo presents "Paula Rego: Dance Among Thorns," the first comprehensive museum survey of the Portuguese-British artist in the Nordic region and her largest since the 2021 Tate Britain retrospective. The exhibition brings together over 140 works spanning seven decades, from early abstract political collages to the grotesque papier-mâché tableaux of her final years. A central section traces previously undocumented links between Rego and Edvard Munch, including the discovery of a never-before-exhibited work by Rego's son, Nick Willing. Highlights include Rego's monumental "Oratorio" (2008-09) and "The Dance" (1988), which curator Kari J. Brandtzæg connects to Munch's "Dance of Life" (1898-1899).

Exhibition | Judith Murray, 'Pure Pleasure' at Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York, New York, United States

Judith Murray's solo exhibition 'Pure Pleasure' is on view at Sundaram Tagore Gallery in New York. The show presents a selection of the artist's vibrant, abstract paintings that explore color, form, and sensory experience.

Nancy Graves - En galerie

Nancy Graves (1939-1995), a major figure in American art who first gained recognition in 1969 at the Whitney Museum in New York, is the subject of a gallery exhibition presenting works from 1977 to 1990. Her multidisciplinary practice encompasses sculpture, painting, drawing, and film, drawing on scientific and cultural references. The featured works showcase an experimental approach based on layering, assemblage, and dynamic colors reminiscent of Abstract Expressionism, inspired by art history, archaeology, and her travels. Graves refused a fixed style, instead exploring the memory of forms and their reinterpretation in a free, layered visual language that is now being rediscovered.

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.

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.

‘Like a Malfunctioning Theme Park Ride’: Banality and Body Horror at New York Art Week

New York Art Week featured a range of exhibitions that blended banality with body horror, drawing comparisons to a malfunctioning theme park ride. The article highlights several shows that juxtapose mundane, everyday objects with grotesque, unsettling imagery, creating a disorienting experience for viewers. Artists presented works that explore the fragility and absurdity of the human body, often using visceral materials and jarring installations to provoke discomfort and reflection.

Hong Kong Artists Bring Quiet Reflection to Venice

The 61st Venice Biennale, themed “In Minor Keys” by late curator Koyo Kouoh, emphasizes quiet reflection over spectacle. A collateral exhibition titled “Fermata: Hong Kong in Venice,” curated by the Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMoA), runs through November 22, 2026, and features two Hong Kong-born artists: Kingsley Ng and Angel Hui. Ng’s installation *Laundry Nocturne* (2026) uses projections and sound to connect the shared laundry-drying traditions of Venice and Hong Kong, while Hui’s *I Would Like to Open a Window for You* (2026) incorporates wrought-iron window frames crafted with local metalsmiths. Both artists explore everyday experiences, memory, and quiet emotions, aligning with the Biennale’s call for a slower, more reflective engagement with art.

When Shells Become Weapons

Wenn Muscheln zu Waffen werden

Swedish artist Lotta Antonsson, born in 1963, presents her exhibition "I am Everything" at Fotografiska in Stockholm, featuring around 50 works that repurpose found black-and-white photographs from 1960s and 1970s fashion and lifestyle magazines. She overlays these images of women in objectifying poses with shells, stones, and crystals, creating assemblages that obscure faces or add threatening details like crystal vampire teeth on actresses Ali MacGraw and Jane Fonda. The show opened during the Stockholm Art Fair and draws on Antonsson's extensive archive, including East German erotic magazines sourced from Berlin flea markets.

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."

Cardiff museum exhibit puts Valleys fashion project in spotlight

A 10th anniversary retrospective exhibition titled 'It's Called Ffashiwn!' has opened at National Museum Cardiff, celebrating a decade-long fashion photography project in the South Wales Valleys. The project was founded by French documentary photographer Clémentine Schneidermann and Welsh fashion editor Charlotte James, who began working with local youth groups in Blaina and Merthyr Tydfil in 2015. What started as a three-month residency evolved into an ongoing initiative that has involved young people in designing clothes, sewing, and participating in fashion photoshoots, including a notable collaboration with Alexander McQueen. The exhibition highlights the achievements of the participants, such as Nia Day, who discovered the fashion industry's realities during a cold mountain shoot with the legendary brand.

Exhibition | Steven Shearer, 'My Moody Muse' at David Zwirner, London, United Kingdom

Steven Shearer's exhibition 'My Moody Muse' is on view at David Zwirner in London, United Kingdom. The show presents a selection of the artist's works, continuing his exploration of subcultural imagery and portraiture.

Isamu Noguchi was never a designer, affirms High Museum of Art, Atlanta

The High Museum of Art in Atlanta presents "Isamu Noguchi: 'I am not a designer'," the first design retrospective of the Japanese-American sculptor in 25 years. Co-curated by Monica Obniski and Marin R. Sullivan, the exhibition features nearly 200 objects, including sculptural models, furniture for Herman Miller and Knoll, Akari light fixtures, and large-scale installations like Martha Graham's stage set for "Seraphic Dialogue" (1955). The show challenges Noguchi's own resistance to categorization by framing his multidisciplinary practice—spanning sculpture, design, architecture, and public art—through a design lens.

‘I will always fight against fascism’: Zineb Sedira on her Tate Britain commission

Zineb Sedira has been selected for the Tate Britain commission, creating her largest UK installation to date, titled *When Words Fall Silent, Cinema Speaks…*, on view until January 2027. The site-specific work in the museum's Duveen Galleries pays tribute to radical African cinema of the 1960s and 1970s, highlighting Algeria's role as a revolutionary hub. Sedira recreates the Parisian cafes of her childhood, featuring Scopitone machines that play short music films, and draws on the legacy of the Cinémathèque Algérienne and the 1969 Pan-African Festival.

Don’t Miss: Giles Duley’s “Distortion / Memory / Resilience” at Sutton Tower

Photographer and storyteller Giles Duley has opened a two-week exhibition titled “Distortion / Memory / Resilience” at Sutton Tower on the Upper East Side of New York. The show features his powerful images documenting life during war, alongside artistic touches such as wooden school desks filled with artwork by Ukrainian children. Duley, who lost two legs and one arm after an I.E.D. injury in Afghanistan in 2011, continues to work actively in war zones including Sudan, Afghanistan, and Ukraine. Proceeds from the exhibition support his NGO, the Legacy of War Foundation, which has raised over $4 million since 2017 to help communities rebuild after conflict.

Part root vegetable, part deity: Inside Everything Is Terrible’s new Meow Wolf L.A. installation

Meow Wolf's upcoming Los Angeles location, set to open later this year in a former Cinemark movie theater in West L.A., will feature a 20-foot-tall, 1,000-pound amoeba-like creature named WoWoW, created by the L.A.-based multimedia collective Everything Is Terrible. WoWoW serves as the centerpiece of "the N.E.S.T.," an EIT-designed section of the 26,000-square-foot immersive exhibition space that tells the story of the Noothies, a fictional community of former film workers who discover a god and a hidden truth about reality. The installation pays tribute to maximalist roadside attractions like Wisconsin's House on the Rock and New Mexico's Tinkertown Museum, and is one of 45 installations by local collaborating artists including Gabriela Ruiz and David Altmejd.

I Am Not an Anacronista Painter: The Misunderstood Research of Artist Carlo Maria Mariani

“Io non sono Un Pittore Anacronista”. La ricerca fraintesa dell’artista Carlo Maria Mariani

The Fondazione Carlo Maria Mariani issues a corrective statement defending the late artist Carlo Maria Mariani (1931–2021) against persistent misclassification as an "Anacronista" or "Postmodern" painter. The foundation argues that critics and institutions have superficially lumped Mariani into the anachronistic movement of 1970s–80s Italy, ignoring the conceptual and cerebral foundations of his work. Currently, a solo exhibition titled *I Segni dei Tempi* is on view at the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte in Naples until July 14, curated by Andrea Viliani and Antonio Martino. This follows a 2024 show at the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence and precedes a major retrospective at Palazzo Citterio in Milan in 2026, curated by Eike Schmidt.

Anila Quayyum Agha exhibitions in Nashville and Huntsville

The Frist Art Museum in Nashville will present "Anila Quayyum Agha: Interwoven," a survey exhibition spanning two decades of the Pakistani American artist's work, from May 22 to August 30, 2026. Organized by The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, the show features 26 works including installations, drawings, and sculptures that explore themes of identity, immigration, and environmental devastation, drawing on influences from Indo-Islamic architecture, Urdu poetry, and traditional crafts. The exhibition, which is the final stop on a four-venue tour, includes Agha's iconic lightbox installations such as "Intersections" (which won the 2014 ArtPrize) and "All the Flowers Are for Me (Red)."

Marieta Chirulescu at Galeria Plan B

Marieta Chirulescu is the subject of a solo exhibition at Galeria Plan B, as documented by Contemporary Art Daily. The exhibition is presented through 15 images on the platform, with no accompanying videos or text descriptions, focusing purely on visual documentation of the artworks on display.

Nolan Lucidi “Bildersaal” at Kunsthaus Glarus

Kunsthaus Glarus presents "Bildersaal," the first institutional solo exhibition by Swiss artist Nolan Lucidi (b. 2000, based in Basel). The installation combines videos and objects to explore male homosexual desire drawn from literature, art history, and personal experience, while also interrogating formal language and claims to authority.

Would you sit on this? Australian designers take on the humble chair – in pictures

For the 10th edition of Melbourne Design Week, over 100 chairs by Australian designers are on display in an exhibition titled '100 Chairs', curated by Friends & Associates. Selected from an open call, each chair had to be made in Australia and functional for sitting. The designs range from traditional timber dining chairs to experimental pieces, including a chair that transforms into a table, a horse-shaped chair, and one with a satanic theme. The exhibition is held at South Magdalen Laundry, Abbotsford Convent in Melbourne until 24 May 2026.

Origami dragons and a story arcade! The joy of museums aimed at children

The article profiles the Story Museum in Oxford, a family-oriented museum designed to spark curiosity in arts and culture among children. It describes the museum's interactive galleries, including Small Worlds for under-fives, the Whispering Wood filled with fables, a temporary dragon-themed exhibition co-curated with author Cressida Cowell, and the Enchanted Library that takes visitors through the history of children's literature. The author recounts her toddler's joyful engagement with the hands-on exhibits, from playing digital Pooh sticks to exploring a Narnia-inspired wardrobe.

British Museum reveals ticket prices for Bayeux Tapestry exhibition

The British Museum has announced ticket prices for its upcoming Bayeux Tapestry exhibition, running from 10 September 2026 to 11 July 2027. Top-price adult tickets will cost £33, with off-peak tickets at £27 and student/disabled tickets at £25. Super-off-peak tickets priced at £25 will be available for the last weekday slot during school terms. Members can book free timed tickets from 16 June, with public booking opening on 1 July. The tapestry, depicting the Norman invasion of 1066, will be displayed in the Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery while its home museum in Normandy undergoes renovations. Additionally, a garden installation titled 'Tapestry of Trees' by designer Andy Sturgeon has been unveiled on the museum forecourt, featuring 37 silver birch trees inspired by the tapestry.

Cyborg Butterfly: Threshold | YOSHIAKI NAKAMURA

Japanese artist Yoshiaki Nakamura presents 'Cyborg Butterfly: Threshold', an exhibition featured on Ocula. The show explores the intersection of technology and nature through hybrid butterfly forms, blending organic and mechanical elements in a visual meditation on transformation and boundaries.