How Janette Beckman Captured Music History in Real Time

A new exhibition at Seattle's Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) titled 'Rebels + Icons: The Photography of Janette Beckman' showcases over 500 images by British photographer Janette Beckman, spanning four decades. The show features her early, pre-fame portraits of music and cultural icons including Public Enemy, Joe Strummer, Keith Haring, Salt-N-Pepa, and John Lydon, captured at the dawn of punk and hip-hop movements. Beckman, who began her career photographing unknown punk bands for Melody Maker, also documented the first hip-hop show in London in 1982, capturing figures like Fab 5 Freddy and Afrika Bambaataa before they became legends. The retrospective includes her fashion work and street photography, highlighting her ability to gain trust quickly with subjects.

Art in America’s Summer Issue Features 20 “New Talent” Artists, Juicy Art Heist Stories, and More

Art in America's Summer issue features 20 emerging artists in its annual "New Talent" portfolio, selected by the magazine's editors. The issue also includes a feature on art heist stories by Jackson Arn, an essay on systems art by Emily Watlington, and a piece on tragicomic times by Eugenie Brinkema. Additional content includes a tribute to Henrike Naumann, a spotlight on Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn, a book review of Trevor Paglen's latest work, and departments covering museum and gallery worker perspectives, a Frick Collection vs. Morgan Library comparison, and a summer reading list of art-themed novels.

How the British Museum is preparing for the arrival of the Bayeux Tapestry

Comment le British Museum prépare l’arrivée de la tapisserie de Bayeux

The British Museum will display the Bayeux Tapestry from September 10, 2025, to July 11, 2027, in its Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery, coinciding with the closure of the Musée de la Tapisserie de Bayeux for renovation. The 68.38-meter embroidery will be shown flat for the first time in over two centuries, in a custom-designed case with low lighting and continuous visitor flow. Tickets go on sale July 1, 2026, priced between £25 and £33, with free entry for under-16s. The exhibition includes loans such as the Junius II manuscript from the Bodleian Library and coins from the Chew Valley hoard, plus an outdoor installation by Andy Sturgeon. The UK government has provided an £800 million indemnity guarantee.

In Turin, fashion photography is the protagonist of The Phair 2026. All the news of the seventh edition of the fair

A Torino la fotografia di moda è protagonista di The Phair 2026. Tutte le novità della settima edizione della fiera

The Phair, a photography fair in Turin, returns for its seventh edition from May 22 to 24, 2026, at the OGR – Officine Grandi Riparazioni. This year's edition focuses on fashion photography as an autonomous art form, featuring works by photographers such as Nanda Lanfranco, Giovanni Gastel, Françoise Huguier, Marco Glaviano, and Michelangelo Di Battista. Participating galleries include Photo & Contemporary, Ira Leonis, Deodato Arte, Jaeger Art, and many others. The fair also expands its curatorial committee with figures like Umberto Benappi, Emilio Bordoli, and Brandei Estes.

Review. VARIOUS OTHERS 2026

The 2026 edition of VARIOUS OTHERS in Munich featured a tightly curated program of exhibitions across participating galleries, institutions, and artist-run spaces. For the first time, the event awarded the "VARIOUS OTHERS Prize" (VO Award) to both a gallery and an off-space: Gallery Sperling and space n.n. won for their respective exhibitions. Notable presentations included solo shows by Paola Siri Renard at nouveaux deuxdeux, Milena Muzquiz at Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle, and a dual exhibition at Knust Kunz Gallery Editions featuring Robert Motherwell and Merce Cunningham. Museum Brandhorst also opened the "Carrying" project with works by international artists.

In Her First Solo Museum Show, Jordan Casteel’s Humanizing Portraits Get Even Closer An interview with the artist

Jordan Casteel is preparing for her first solo museum exhibition, "Jordan Casteel: Returning the Gaze," a 29-painting survey opening at the Denver Art Museum. The article traces her journey from a Yale School of Art graduate, where she painted nude black men with a focus on individuality and humanity, to a rising star in contemporary portraiture. Her career was launched by a 2014 solo show at Sargent's Daughters gallery, leading to a residency at the Studio Museum in Harlem and representation by gallerist Casey Kaplan.

There Is No Separation. In Conversation with Alice Maher   by Frank Wasser

Alice Maher, one of several Irish artists at the 61st Venice Biennale, presents three works in the Arsenale as part of the group exhibition “In Minor Keys,” curated by the late Koyo Kouoh. Her presentation includes a reconstructed 1996 installation *Les Filles d’Ouranos*, a new series of drawings and sculptures titled “The Sibyls” (2025), and a collaborative textile piece *The Map* (2021) made with Rachel Fallon. In a conversation with Frank Wasser, Maher discusses the political conditions surrounding this year’s Biennale, including institutional resignations, debates over national representation, and the inclusion of the Israeli and Russian pavilions.

Block Museum exhibition features contemporary art by five MFA candidates

Northwestern University's Block Museum of Art is hosting the exhibition "We can make any two stories touch," featuring contemporary works by five second-year MFA candidates in the art theory and practice department: Lamia Abukhadra, Pegah Bahador, naakita f.k., Przemek Pyszczek, and Gabby Banks. The show, running through June 14, includes portraits, films, and mixed-media pieces. Gabby Banks presents three portraits of living Black figurative painters Kerry James Marshall, Jordan Casteel, and Amy Sherald, painted in their respective styles. Przemek Pyszczek explores legacy with works like "My Father Winning Gold at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics (No Boycott Version)" and a wooden Olivier salad sculpture. naakita f.k. addresses resource extraction in "Porous Bodies," using dust from deep-sea mining and copper mine samples from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind | Free Thursday

The Broad museum in Los Angeles announced that its exhibition "Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind" will be free every Thursday evening from 5 to 8 pm, starting May 28, 2026. Tickets include free admission to the exhibition and the museum's third-floor galleries, which feature rotating works from the Broad collection. Separate reservations are required for Yayoi Kusama's "Infinity Mirrored Room—The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away" (2013).

Inside Frieze New York 2026: The Best Booths and Standout Moments of the Art Fair

Frieze New York 2026 opened at the Shed in Hudson Yards, drawing a record crowd of collectors, artists, and celebrities on preview day. The fair featured over 65 international galleries, with a strong presence of Latin American artists and a notable shift toward textile-based works, sculpture, and paper pieces. Highlights included the Ruinart Art Lounge with preparatory studies by Tadashi Kawamata, and the Focus section spotlighting emerging galleries. Notable attendees included Leonardo DiCaprio, gallerist Almine Rech, and Sotheby's senior vice president Ralph DeLuca.

Le Louvre choisit son entrée côté colonnade

Le Louvre has selected a joint proposal by Studios Architecture Paris and Selldorf Architects for its new entrance via the Perrault colonnade, part of the 'Louvre Nouvelle Renaissance' plan. The project, announced by Emmanuel Macron on January 28, 2025, aims to create a new eastern access to relieve overcrowding at the Pyramid, with two underground entrances, vegetated moats, new services, and a dedicated space for the Mona Lisa. The selection was announced by Culture Minister Catherine Pégard on May 18, despite controversies over funding, heritage constraints, a theft in the Galerie d'Apollon on October 19, 2025, and the departure of museum president Laurence des Cars.

A Political Anthology of the United States: The Great Exhibition of Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince in Venice

Un’antologia politica degli Stati Uniti. La grande mostra di Arthur Jafa e Richard Prince a Venezia

Fondazione Prada presents "Helter Skelter: Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince" at Cà Corner della Regina in Venice, the 15th exhibition produced by the foundation in the city. Curated by Nancy Spector of the Brooklyn Museum, the two-person show brings together over fifty works—photographs, videos, installations, sculptures, and paintings—that explore the fractured identity of the United States through the lens of race, masculinity, popular culture, and appropriation. Both artists, though separated by more than a decade in age, share a practice of scavenging and recontextualizing images from film, comics, advertising, and social media to critique American society.

Landmark exhibition of Alex Katz drawings at Colby College

Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine, will present “Alex Katz | Out of Sight,” a landmark exhibition of drawings by Alex Katz, on view from May 21 to October 11, 2026. The show brings together more than 80 works, including never-before-exhibited drawings from Katz’s personal collection, pieces from the museum’s holdings, and loans from private and institutional collections. It spans Katz’s career from high school sketches to recent portrait drawings, featuring preparatory studies, collages, cartoons, and related paintings, and is organized by Kiko Aebi, Katz Curator at the Colby Museum.

Adelaide’s Tarnanthi is going on tour

Tarnanthi, the Art Gallery of South Australia's annual exhibition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, is launching a national tour titled 'Tarnanthi on Tour: Too Deadly' starting July. The touring exhibition features over 30 works from the past decade of the festival, many conceived for Tarnanthi and never seen outside Adelaide. It will visit six regional galleries across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and Western Australia over the next two years, including Rockhampton Museum of Art, Maitland Regional Art Gallery, Ngununggula, Caboolture Art Gallery, Geelong Gallery, and Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery.

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.

See exhibition by Erin Jane Nelson, ‘Living and Working,’ at UAB’s AEIVA through Sept. 26

The Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts (AEIVA) at the University of Alabama at Birmingham presents “Living and Working,” a survey exhibition of artist Erin Jane Nelson, running through September 26. This is Nelson’s largest solo exhibition to date and her first survey, spanning a decade of her practice across photography, textiles, and ceramics. The exhibition will travel to the Knoxville Museum of Art in August 2027, and AEIVA is co-publishing an exhibition catalog with Institute 193. The opening reception is May 21, and free community programming includes summer drop-in tours, a pinhole camera workshop, Science Nights in partnership with the Birmingham Zoo, and a chamber music event.

Mimmo Jodice in mostra al nuovo Museo del Tesoro di San Gennaro a Napoli. Rare foto ‘barocche’ a colori

Mimmo Jodice, the renowned Italian photographer who died in October 2025 at age 91, is being honored with a new exhibition at the Museo del Tesoro di San Gennaro in Naples. The show, curated by former Capodimonte director Sylvain Bellenger, presents Jodice's rare color photographs from the 1980s—his only color project—which focus on 17th-century Neapolitan Baroque paintings by artists such as Caravaggio, Jusepe de Ribera, and Artemisia Gentileschi. The exhibition runs until January 10, 2027, and also marks the inauguration of newly renovated welcome spaces at the museum, designed by Vanni del Gaudio.

Farah Al Qasimi: Psychic Repair

Emirati photographer and musician Farah Al Qasimi presents her solo exhibition "Psychic Repair" at the SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah, Georgia, running from January to June 7, 2026. Curated by SCAD Museum Associate Curator Brittany Richmond, the show explores self-presentation and consumerism through staged domestic interiors, vinyl works, framed photographs, and music videos. Key pieces include "Beauty Salon" (2024), "Aquarium" (2024), "Clothing Store" (2023), and "Painting and Astroturf" (2023), which appropriate signifiers of the attention economy. The exhibition is strategically positioned to respond to Savannah's history as a port city built on trade in cotton, indigo, rice, and enslaved people, with the museum itself occupying a former railway depot made of Savannah Gray brick produced by enslaved laborers.

Alex Israel on finding inspiration in Erewhon, AI as a tool and new show 'Where Is My Mind'

Multimedia artist Alex Israel has launched his first collaboration with Pace Prints, releasing a new suite of 10 archival pigment prints titled 'Where Is My Mind?' The series, part of his ongoing Self Portrait project, features intimate-scale works that incorporate representational imagery within his signature silhouette—ranging from the Hollywood Bowl stage to aerial views of Los Angeles and a California desert scene with an iPhone outline. Each print began as a photograph, translated into paint by the Scenic Art department at Warner Brothers Studio, then scanned and mounted in custom frames. The show coincides with Pace Prints' upcoming expansion into Los Angeles in fall 2026.

US SCULPTURES AMID CONTROVERSY AT THE VENICE BIENNALE

The United States Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale features sculptor Alma Allen's exhibition "Call Me the Breeze," which opened with no clear funding just ten days prior. Unlike previous pavilions supported by major foundations like Ford and Mellon, Allen's show relies on a $375,000 US government contribution and public donations via the American Arts Conservancy. The selection process was unconventional: the State Department, which took over after Trump's NEA budget cuts, imposed restrictions on DEI policies and required proposals promoting "American exceptionalism." Curator Jeffrey Uslip directly approached Allen without a formal proposal, leading the artist's two galleries—Olney Gleason and Mendes Wood DM—to drop him when he accepted the commission.

Wiggy stardust! The mind-blowing hair artist who astonished Rihanna and Cate Blanchett

Taiba Akhuetie, a London-based artist who uses human and synthetic hair as her primary medium, is preparing for her first solo exhibition at the Sarabande Foundation. Her unsettling, taxidermy-like sculptures transform everyday objects—handbags, mirrors, rocking chairs, and umbrellas—into eerie, hair-covered artworks. Akhuetie began her career as a braider, founding the salon Keash Braids in Peckham, and pivoted to sculptural work during the pandemic. Her creations have attracted high-profile clients including Rihanna, Cate Blanchett, and Nigerian singer Tems, and have been featured by Vogue.

Senior Art Exhibition 2026 Showcases the ‘Incredible Crossroads’ of Studio Art Majors

The Senior Art Exhibition 2026 at Colby College Museum of Art's Joan Dignam Schmaltz Gallery of Art in Waterville showcases capstone projects from 17 graduating studio art majors. The works span painting, photography, printmaking, digital media, and sculpture, created after a yearlong capstone course coordinated by Associate Professor Bradley Borthwick. The exhibition runs through May 23 and includes a catalog with artist statements and critical essays.

Exhibition | Byoung Cho, 'WHEN SPACE BECOMES PAINTING' at BB&M, Seoul, South Korea

BB&M gallery in Seoul presents "When Space Becomes Painting," a solo exhibition of leading Korean architect Byoung Cho, organized in partnership with Jiyoon Lee of SUUM Project. The show traces Cho's 30-year engagement with space across painting, installation, maquettes, and drawing, exploring how his architectural thinking translates onto canvas. Central to the exhibition is Cho's concept of "mahk," inspired by Korean traditional ceramic maksabal, embracing spontaneity and imperfection as a guiding philosophy. The exhibition shifts from viewing artworks to experiencing them, with paintings that function as performative inquiries into existence rather than static images.

2026 Sondheim Art Prize semifinalists to exhibit work at Reginald F. Lewis Museum

The Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture will host an exhibition of works by 16 semifinalists for the 2026 Janet & Walter Sondheim Art Prize, on view from May 21 through June 21. The show features a range of mediums including oil paintings, archival prints, video narratives, 3D sculptures, and multimedia installations. An opening reception on May 21 is free and open to the public. The five finalists—Thea Canlas, Leigh Davis, Brandon Donahue-Shipp, Curran Hatleberg, and Danni O’Brien—will exhibit separately at the Walters Art Museum from June 25 to September 13, with the $30,000 prize winner announced in August.

Without Childhood Photos, A Haitian American Artist Spends A Decade Imagining Her Family Archive

Artist Widline Cadet, who was separated from her mother for six years as a child during her family's emigration from Haiti to New York, has spent nearly a decade creating a multi-generational "living archive" of photographs, video, sound, and sculpture. The archive fills the gaps left by scarce family photographs and fading memories, exploring the diasporic experience and the elusiveness of memory. The largest presentation of this work is currently on view at the Milwaukee Art Museum in the exhibition "Currents 40: Widline Cadet."

Obey racconta la sua mostra a Napoli ad Artbox su Sky Arte

The article covers the latest episode of Artbox on Sky Arte, focusing on the exhibition "OBEY: Power to the peaceful" at Gallerie d'Italia in Naples, running until September 6. Curator Giuseppe Pizzuto, artist Shepard Fairey (OBEY), and Michele Coppola of Intesa Sanpaolo discuss the show, which features over 130 works addressing global imbalances and peace as a political act. The episode also includes a segment on overtourism by Maria Vittoria Baravelli, a book review of "Misia e Basta" by Francesca Frigerio, and a feature on the interdisciplinary exhibition "La Maddalena di Piero di Cosimo" at Palazzo Venezia in Rome, curated by Edith Gabrielli.

Between Ritual and Institution: Andrea Canepa's Interventions in Spain

ENTRE EL RITO Y LA INSTITUCIÓN: LAS INTERVENCIONES DE ANDREA CANEPA EN ESPAÑA

Andrea Canepa, a Peruvian artist born in 1980, has installed "Fardo" at the Palacio de Cristal in Madrid's Parque del Retiro, running from January 13, 2026 to January 1, 2027. The work wraps the building's perimeter in a printed fabric bearing patterns from Paracas funerary textiles, a pre-Columbian culture from southern Peru. Created during the palace's ongoing restoration (which began in 2023), the installation challenges the building's colonial history—it was built for the 1887 Exhibition of the Philippine Islands—by introducing indigenous visual and ritual references. Canepa also presented "Entre lo profundo y lo distante" at the IVAM in Valencia until April 12, 2026, which uses Andean huacas (sacred spaces) to propose a non-linear relationship between time, body, and space. Both works transform passive contemplation into active, bodily participation, using ritual as a means to reorganize the exhibition experience.

From Two Tons of Celadon, Jean Shin Sculpts a Metaphor for the Korean Diaspora

Artist Jean Shin has created "Celadon Landscape," a monumental installation at the Green-House at Green-Wood in New York, using nearly two tons of discarded celadon porcelain fragments donated by studios in Icheon, South Korea. The work features two large bulbous vessels covered in broken shards of cups, saucers, and pots, appearing to emerge from the earth as if unearthed in an archaeological dig. The installation is on view through January 17.

‘A nuclear explosion of happiness’: Graphic artist Jim Phillips opens first solo gallery in Santa Cruz

Graphic artist Jim Phillips, the 81-year-old creator of the iconic "Screaming Hand" logo for Santa Cruz Skateboards, has opened his first solo gallery in his hometown of Santa Cruz, California. The exhibition, titled "Jim Phillips: New Fine Art Prints and Classic ’70s and ’80s Pen and Ink Drawings," runs at the R. Blitzer Gallery and features 15 new large-scale art prints and 30 hand-drawn pen-and-ink works from 1971 to 2026. The show includes his famous "Screaming Hand" and "Hand Wave" pieces, alongside surf, skate, and rock poster art from his career, which includes work for The Doors, James Brown, and Neil Young.

"Seasons and Soliloquies" by Zack Thurmond

Zack Thurmond will present a solo exhibition titled "Seasons and Soliloquies" at Idaho Art Gallery (IAG) in downtown Boise, opening Thursday, May 7, 2026, from 5 to 9 pm. Thurmond, a largely self-taught artist with a BFA from Boise University, creates paintings rooted in direct observation of place, often starting as plein air studies and expanding into larger studio works. His pieces are held in collections across North America and Europe, and he currently serves as Chief Preparator at the Boise Art Museum.