‘Learning Exchange: Artists Matter’ Comes to Los Angeles

On Saturday, 2 May 2026, Hauser & Wirth Downtown Los Angeles hosted 'Learning Exchange: Artists Matter,' a gathering focused on how artists can build mentorship pathways, strengthen community partnerships, and expand arts access for young people. The event featured a conversation between Senior Director of Learning Debbie Hillyerd and artist Mark Bradford, who discussed his socially engaged practice, followed by testimonials from two young learners from the nonprofit Culture for One. The program marked the gallery's 10th anniversary of learning programs in Los Angeles and was held alongside the exhibition 'Destiny Is a Rose: The Eileen Harris Norton Collection.'

Guggenheim New York Announces Spring and Summer Public Programs

The Guggenheim New York has announced its spring and summer 2026 public programs, featuring a range of events including a performance lecture by LG Guggenheim Award recipient Trevor Paglen on May 18, a conversation between artist Carol Bove and curator Katherine Brinson on June 2, and the annual Museum Mile Festival on June 9. Other highlights include Late Shift evening events with live music, family-friendly activities like Stroller Hour and Art Cart, Teen Circle and Teen Tuesdays, and a screening of Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno's video work "Zidane, a 21st century portrait" in celebration of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Poet-in-Residence Patrick Rosal will also launch summer activations.

Dear Mary, For Chicago, Sincerely Nathaniel Mary Quinn

The National Public Housing Museum in Chicago opened its doors on April 4, 2025, becoming the only museum in the United States dedicated to the histories of public housing and its residents. Located on the site of the historic Jane Addams Homes, the museum was remodeled by architect Peter Landon and features permanent installations, artist residencies, and temporary exhibitions. Current initiatives include Open Mike Eagle's residency as 'Artist as Instigator,' building on his album 'Brick Body Kids Still Daydream' (2017) about life in Robert Taylor Homes, and the art-glass frieze 'Resilient Hues' by Amanda Williams and Olalekan Jeyifous. The museum is led by executive director Lisa Yun Lee and has earned third place on USA Today's list of 'Best New Museums.'

An old hat gets a new show: ‘Matisse’s Femme au chapeau’ opens at SFMOMA

SFMOMA has opened "Matisse's Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal," a new exhibition centered on Henri Matisse's iconic 1905 painting "Femme au chapeau" (Woman with a Hat). The show recreates the atmosphere of the 1905 Salon d'Automne in Paris, where the painting first caused a scandal for its bold, fauvist colors. It reunites the work with three other Matisse paintings from that debut, alongside pieces by contemporaries like André Derain, Albert Marquet, and Jelka Rosen, and later artists inspired by the painting, such as Mickalene Thomas. The exhibition also includes a gallery dedicated to the Haas bequest, which brought the painting to SFMOMA in 1991.

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.

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.

A Persian Garden Blooms on Governors Island

Artist Bahar Behbahani organized a four-hour event called "Damask Rose: A Gathering" on Governors Island, transforming three shallow fountains with handwoven carpets and crocheted canopies. The gathering featured West African musical improvisation, Kurdish poetry, a cyanotype workshop, and communal activities like hair braiding and tea ceremonies, involving over two dozen community groups including the Asia Contemporary Art Forum and Eat Offbeat. The event was part of Governors Island Arts's annual Interventions series, curated with associate curator Juan Pablo Siles.

The British Museum bets on 'total immersion' to display the Bayeux Tapestry, which will be presented flat

Le British Museum mise sur « l’immersion totale » pour exposer la tapisserie de Bayeux qui sera présentée à plat

The British Museum has announced plans for an exceptional exhibition of the Bayeux Tapestry, which will be displayed flat for the first time in its history, rather than hung vertically as it has been for decades in Bayeux. The 70-meter-long 11th-century embroidery depicting the Norman conquest of England will be shown in London from September 10, 2026, to July 11, 2027, with tickets priced between £25 and £33. The museum promises an 'immersive' experience featuring raking light, digital devices, and loaned objects to contextualize the 58 scenes and 626 characters.

A Gallery Turned Casino: How Below Grand's "Club Bar" Blurs the Lines of Contemporary Art, NYC

Below Grand, a gallery on Orchard Street in New York, has transformed its space into "Club Bar," an immersive exhibition curated by Marissa Graziano that blurs the line between art and entertainment. The show features a pool table, free beer and hot dogs, and a white roulette table dealt by artist Sam Guy, where guests gamble for raffle tickets to win artworks. The exhibition includes works by Alexis Akua, Thomas Bohm Jr., Alex Cassetti, Angela Dufresne, and others, with a suggested donation of $25 for five plays and raffle tickets.

Play ‘Liminal Bingo,’ Pat Perry’s Participatory Photo Treasure Hunt

Detroit-based artist Pat Perry has launched "Liminal Bingo," a participatory photo treasure hunt open to anyone with an internet connection. Participants are encouraged to go outside, gather friends, and photograph a series of illustrated prompts—such as capturing a handshake with a stranger while both wear sunglasses—using a camera or phone. When five prompts are completed in a row, players have a bingo and submit their images via Instagram or email. Photos submitted by August will be considered for a fall exhibition at Hashimoto Contemporary in New York and a potential book.

Fractured Horizons Returns to NYCxDesign 2026 with Imaging After Images, Marking Its Second International Spotlight at the Festival

Fractured Horizons: Imaging After Images, the second edition of VSDesign's international exhibition series, returned to the NYCxDesign Festival in 2026, running for a week in New York. Organized by VSDesign in partnership with RAC Studio and Asia Design Week, the exhibition featured 60 works by artists and designers from across Asia and North America, spanning architecture, urbanism, product design, visual communication, and interactive media. The show explored how images no longer simply depict space but actively produce, operate, and regulate it, treating the image as a spatial mechanism rather than a neutral surface.

Ashfika Rahman's art lands in New York Times Critics' Top 6

Bangladeshi visual artist Ashfika Rahman has been recognized by The New York Times as one of the six must-see shows at the Venice Biennale, with her work "Than Para — No Land Without Us" featured in the collateral exhibition "Still Joy — From Ukraine into the World." The installation, presented by the PinchukArtCentre and curated by Björn Geldhof and Oleksandra Pohrebnyak, incorporates thousands of small temple bells gathered from different spiritual traditions and draws on testimonies from Ukraine as well as the struggles of Indigenous communities in Bangladesh's Hill Tracts.

The paintings Jannis Psychopedis never let go

Seventy works kept for decades in the studio of painter Jannis Psychopedis form the core of a new retrospective at the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation Museum in Athens, tracing the artist’s journey from 1962 to the present. Titled 'Jannis Psychopedis: Landscapes of Memory. The Ones I Kept,' the exhibition gathers paintings and mixed-media works that rarely appeared in public and were never intended as an archive. Psychopedis said he always saved 'two or three works from every period,' preserving them as 'support for the next movement' and as a record of life, art and experience. Emerging during the liberal climate of the 1960s, the artist belonged to the pioneering New Greek Realists and painted the tensions of a society shaped by advertising, consumerism and political upheaval.

Stephanie Pierre opens Haitian art-inspired gallery in East Flatbush

Stephanie Pierre, a Haitian American community developer and placemaker, has opened Kafou, a Haitian art-inspired gallery in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. The gallery launched with an inaugural exhibition titled “Space as Place,” featuring seven artists—including Bianca Allen, Marie Medijne Antoine, Jordan Dubreuil, Wilfrid Ignace, Richard Louissant, Claire Saintil, and Zarita Zevallos—whose works explore themes of space, place, migration, and identity. The opening reception on April 16, 2026 drew strong public interest, prompting the gallery to extend the show through May 17. Kafou operates on a community-centered model, charging artists a reduced commission in exchange for their active involvement in managing and promoting their own work.

China Pavilion at the 61st International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia: Dream Stream

The China Pavilion at the 61st International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia has been announced under the title "Dream Stream." The pavilion will be part of the prestigious Venice Biennale, one of the world's most important contemporary art exhibitions, and is organized by the Chinese government or cultural authorities. The announcement was made via a press release distributed by PR Newswire, highlighting China's continued participation in this global art event.