London's Royal Society of Arts launches new annual summer exhibition

The Royal Society of Arts (RSA) and AOAP Projects (formerly Art on a Postcard) are launching a new annual summer exhibition in London titled "Illuminated." Running from 10-24 June at the RSA's headquarters on John Adam Street, the show features over 100 artists including Caroline Coon, Susie Hamilton, and Helen Beard, with all works limited to seven inches by seven inches. Artists receive 50% of sales proceeds, with the remainder funding the RSA's social impact programs. The exhibition marks AOAP Projects' strategic shift from its long-running postcard auction format toward curated exhibitions and broader fundraising initiatives.

Betye Saar’s Birthday Present

Betye Saar, the iconic assemblage artist, is donating her collection of Black dolls to the New York Historical on the occasion of her 100th birthday. The article also covers strong performance art at the Venice Biennale, including works by Florentina Holzinger and Miet Warlop at the Austrian and Belgian pavilions, amidst a fraught edition marked by the death of artistic director Koyo Kouoh, canceled pavilions, and protests. Additional features include a review of Ceija Stojka's exhibition at the Drawing Center and a profile of sculptor Edmonia Lewis.

Venice Biennale: The Must-Sees Off the Official Program

Biennale de Venise, les immanquables du off

The article highlights must-see exhibitions taking place in Venice alongside the official Biennale, curated by the magazine L'Œil. It features three major shows: "Le pli et le temps" at Fondazione dell’Albero d’Oro, exploring the fold as a material and temporal concept through the work of Patrick Saytour and Piero Manzoni; "Lorna Simpson. Third Person" at Punta della Dogana, a major European survey of Simpson's paintings, collages, and films organized by the Pinault Collection; and "Picasso, Morandi, Parmiggiani. Still Lifes" at Galleria di Piazza San Marco, a dialogue between three masters of still life, co-organized by Tornabuoni gallery and the Musée national Picasso-Paris.

From Cannes to Nice, via Grasse and Saint-Paul-de-Vence… 8 Refreshing Exhibitions on the Côte d’Azur

De Cannes à Nice, en passant par Grasse et Saint-Paul-de-Vence… 8 expos rafraîchissantes sur la Côte d’Azur

Beaux Arts Magazine highlights eight refreshing exhibitions across the French Riviera from spring to summer 2026. Featured shows include a Carole Benzaken survey at La Malmaison in Cannes, a hotel biennial at the Canopy by Hilton Cannes, a group exhibition on media theorist Nathalie Magnan at Villa Arson in Nice, and a dialogue between Henri Matisse and Yves Saint Laurent at the Musée Matisse in Nice. Other stops include Ellsworth Kelly at Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, and shows in Grasse featuring painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard, photography, and costumes.

Celebrated in the 1970s, American artist Nancy Graves returns to the spotlight at Ceysson & Bénétière

Célébrée dans les années 1970, l’artiste américaine Nancy Graves retrouve la lumière chez Ceysson & Bénétière

Beaux Arts Magazine reports on a resurgence of interest in American artist Nancy Graves (1939–1995), highlighted by a new exhibition at Ceysson & Bénétière. Graves, who worked across painting, sculpture, film, and stage design, was a rising star in the 1970s—exhibiting at MoMA and the National Gallery of Art, and becoming the youngest artist to have a solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art at age 29. The article traces her career from studying literature at Vassar and art at Yale, to her brief marriage to sculptor Richard Serra, and her pioneering use of NASA satellite imagery and natural history themes in works like her life-size camel sculptures.

Julius von Bismarck “This is not the storm” at Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne

Julius von Bismarck's first Australian solo exhibition, "This is not the storm," opens at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA) in Melbourne on Friday, 17 April. The Berlin-based artist blends art, science, and environmental themes to challenge conventional perceptions of nature as a social construct.

Jonathas de Andrade - En galerie

Jonathas de Andrade's solo exhibition, titled "Ivresse d’une vie de bain de mer," is on view at Galleria Continua in Paris. The show brings together recent and never-before-seen works inspired by Brazilian Neo-Concretism and geometric abstraction. Andrade transforms vernacular forms into chromatic compositions, drawing from a project initiated after a 2025 commission from the Victoria and Albert Museum. The works engage with the materials and practices of maritime communities in northeastern Brazil, particularly canoeiros and jangadeiros (fishermen and raft sailors). The exhibition includes the film "Jangadeiros e Canoeiros" (2025), along with silkscreens, recycled sails, and paintings on wood, blending photography, abstraction, and readymade elements.

‘Shocking? It’s only what you see in ancient temples’: painter T Venkanna on his joyous carnivals of copulation

T Venkanna, an Indian painter known for his sexually explicit and mythologically-infused works, is the subject of his first institutional solo show. The exhibition features an altarpiece shaped like a juvenile phallus, populated with scenes of graphic copulation, including figures from Hindu mythology and Adam and Eve. Venkanna draws inspiration from ancient Indian temple sculptures, which he says depict similar acts, and his work challenges the disparity between puritanical religious doctrine and licentious reality. The artist, who grew up as the son of a Hindu priest, has faced death threats and accusations of blasphemy in India for his provocative imagery.

Newcastle Art Gallery’s stunning new exhibitions open up a multiverse

Newcastle Art Gallery has opened three new exhibitions following its February reopening with the blockbuster show 'Iconic Loved Unexpected'. The new presentations include Tiyan Baker's solo show 'Mouth Mnemonica', 'The Mordant Family Gift' featuring 25 works donated by philanthropists Simon and Catriona Mordant, and Brian Robinson's 'Multiverse'. The exhibitions collectively showcase a diverse range of national and international artistry, with works by artists such as Gemma Smith, Tim Silver, Alasdair Macintyre, and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. Baker's solo exhibition focuses on preserving the Bidayǔh language through multimedia works including autostereograms and video installations.

Mississippi Museum of Art Showcases Over 100 Iconic Photographs Capturing Mid-Century Black Arts

The Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson is presenting an exhibition titled "Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955-1985," running from July 25 to November 8. The show features over 100 photographs from more than 100 photographers, including works by Ralph Arnold, Ernest Withers, Ming Smith, Kwame Brathwaite, Doris Derby, Horace Ové, and Barkley L. Hendricks. The exhibition spans editorial images, personal portraits, and collages that document the Black experience during the mid-20th century, from protest movements to cultural expression.

Lap-See Lam presented in major exhibition at Henie Onstad

Henie Onstad Kunstsenter in Oslo, Norway, is presenting a solo exhibition titled "Ombres" featuring Stockholm-based artist Lap-See Lam, the fourth recipient of The Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award. The exhibition showcases major works from Lam's career, including two shadow play installations brought together for the first time as a single immersive installation, alongside new glass-blown sculptures created during her residency at CIRVA in Marseille. Lam's work interprets traditional storytelling forms like Cantonese opera and shadow plays to explore the translation and mistranslation of cultural heritage, tracing histories from 18th-century Chinoiserie to Chinese restaurants in modern-day Sweden, reflecting her family's migration from Hong Kong.

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.

Come, let's play human

Komm, wir spielen Mensch

The Kunsthaus Zürich is presenting a retrospective of Venezuelan-American artist Marisol (1930–2016), whose playful yet formally sophisticated sculptures blend abstraction, figuration, and everyday objects. The exhibition traces her career from early shows at Leo Castelli's gallery through her participation in the 1961 and 1963 Museum of Modern Art group exhibitions, her 1968 'European year' representing Venezuela at the Venice Biennale and featuring on the 4th documenta, to her subsequent decades-long disappearance from the European art scene.

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.

In Venice, the Punta della Dogana tells the striking trajectory of activist artist Paulo Nazareth

À Venise, la Punta della Dogana raconte la trajectoire saisissante de l’artiste activiste Paulo Nazareth

Brazilian artist Paulo Nazareth (b. 1977) has mounted a major exhibition at the Punta della Dogana in Venice, working remotely to honor his pledge not to set foot in Europe until he has walked through all 54 African countries. The show includes a striking new installation: a line of salt tracing the shape of a slave ship (tumbeiro) on the first floor, evoking the hundreds of enslaved people who died in such vessels. Other works range from embroidered dishcloths and spontaneous photographic self-portraits to cardboard signs and resin-encased packaging critiquing racist marketing, alongside fragile handmade boat models that echo refugee crossings. The exhibition, titled "Algebra," was curated by Fernanda Brenner and runs through 2026.

Flash back: The artists creating new stories from archival photos

Nanina Guyer, curator of photography at Zurich's Museum Rietberg, has organized the exhibition "A Kind of Paradise: Colonial-Era Photography in Contemporary Art," which examines how contemporary artists repurpose archival colonial-era photographs. The show features 20 artists, including Sammy Baloji, Rosana Paulino, Sasha Huber, Dinh Q. Lê, Wendy Red Star, Omar Victor Diop, and Zenaéca Singh, who transform these historical images into sculptures, films, and recontextualized works. The exhibition is divided into four sections: artists as archivists, confronting stereotypes, healing, and a final section on repair.

Nick Doyle’s AI Oracle at Perrotin is Part Influencer, Part Therapist, Part Snake Oil Salesman

Nick Doyle's exhibition "Collective Hallucinations" at Perrotin New York features an AI oracle named Ava, an interactive chatbot that offers therapy-like advice in the style of a Gen Z influencer. The installation, centered around a structure called Mirror, Mirror that resembles a psychic storefront, uses ChatGPT, ElevenLabs voice software, and the HeyGen avatar platform. Doyle developed Ava's persona to sound like a blend of Cher from Clueless, a life coach, and a reality-TV confessional, complete with an accidentally acquired Australian accent. The show closes on May 30.

Stanley Donwood on his show with Thom Yorke in Venice: ‘These drawings… they’re not planned’

Stanley Donwood, the artist and longtime collaborator of Radiohead's Thom Yorke, discusses his recent and upcoming projects in an interview. These include the conclusion of 'This Is What You Get', a retrospective at Oxford's Ashmolean Museum; the 'Motion Picture House' installation based on Radiohead's albums Kid A and Amnesiac; and his first exhibition outside the UK with Yorke, titled 'No Go Elevator (not without no keycard)', staged in Venice during the 2026 Biennale. The Venice show, presented with Tin Man Art, features 15 ink-on-paper works combining drawings and text from Yorke's notebooks.

8 Mind-Bending Digital and Art Exhibitions To Visit

LUXUO highlights eight immersive exhibitions that integrate digital technologies, AI, and sensory engagement to redefine contemporary art experiences. Featured venues include DATALAND in Los Angeles, the world's first museum dedicated to AI-generated art, opening in June 2026 with its inaugural show "Machine Dreams: Rainforest"; the Museum of the Future in Dubai, which uses narrative simulations to explore speculative futures; and Moco Museum Amsterdam's "Digital & Immersive Art" by Studio Irma, focusing on interactive light-based installations. Other exhibitions blend projection mapping, 3D environments, and data-driven installations to transform how audiences perceive and interact with art.

Detroit’s MOCAD Reopens with a New Vision and a New Kind of Leadership

The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) has reopened after an eight-month renovation, marking its 20th anniversary with a new vision centered on artists and community. Co-directors Jova Lynne and Marie Madison-Patton have titled this new chapter "A Practice of Multiplicity," emphasizing the wholeness of artists' lives beyond their work. The renovation includes infrastructural upgrades like an HVAC system, a new Learning Studio, a transformed café for programming, and a facade that opens to the street. Two inaugural surveys highlight Detroit artists Olayami Dabls and Carole Harris, whose practices explore the city's history, culture, and social transformation.

Alma Allen on Representing the US at the 61st Venice Biennale

ArtReview published a questionnaire sent to artists and curators participating in the 61st Venice Biennale (2026), featuring responses from Alma Allen, who is representing the United States at the Giardini pavilion. Allen gave cryptic, philosophical answers, declined to answer several questions, and criticized the art world establishment, calling outsider artists the most important and refusing to provide a framework for interpreting her work. The article includes details about her bronze sculpture "Not Yet Titled" (2023) and her reflections on US identity, violence, and bureaucracy.

Matías Duville on Representing Argentina at the 61st Venice Biennale

Matías Duville will represent Argentina at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026 with a site-specific installation titled *Monitor Yin Yang*, transforming the Argentina Pavilion into a walkable landscape made of salt and charcoal. The work expands drawing into a spatial, sonic, and time-based experience, inspired by the natural environments of Mar del Plata and Patagonia. Duville discusses his approach in an interview with ArtReview, noting how early encounters with vast territories and geological time continue to shape his practice, and how the project relates to the Biennale's theme, *In Minor Keys*, by focusing on subtle intensities and open-ended evolution.

Rising Voices: Contemporary Art from Asia, Australia and the Pacific opens at the V&A

The Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A) in London has opened 'Rising Voices: Contemporary Art from Asia, Australia and the Pacific', a landmark exhibition drawn from the collection of the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA). Featuring over 70 works by more than 40 artists from 25 countries, the show is organized in three thematic sections—Re-Visioning History, Enduring Knowledge, and Evolving Faith—and includes sculpture, photography, painting, ceramics, weaving, and body adornment. Many works are on view outside their home region for the first time. The exhibition runs until 10 January 2027.

Zanzibar: Mapping Memory Through Sound and Colour

Lisson Gallery in London presents 'Zanzibar' (1999–2023), a collaborative installation by artists Lubaina Himid and Magda Stawarska. The exhibition reunites Himid's abstract diptychs from 1999 with Stawarska's eight-channel soundscape composed in 2023, creating an immersive meditation on loss, migration, and belonging. Himid's geometric canvases depart from her signature figurative style, evoking fragments of Zanzibar, the East African archipelago where she was born, and memories of her migration to London after her father's death. Stawarska's sonic composition weaves archival recordings, Taraab music, opera, and spoken text through the gallery space, guiding viewers through overlapping histories and imagined geographies.

François Bonnel Explores the Emotional Side of Geometry

François Bonnel, a former advertising executive of 25 years, pivoted to art in 2018 and now presents his latest solo exhibition, “François Bonnel: The Geometry of Joy,” at Maddox Gallery in Mayfair, London, from June 4 to July 2, 2026. The show features abstract paintings that blend geometric and hard-edge abstraction with playful, intuitive compositions, using color, line, and light to evoke emotions like joy and harmony. Works such as *Caught* (2026) and *I Really Like You* (2026) demonstrate his exploration of three-dimensional space and the suggestive power of abstraction.

Queer Figures Commune with Nature in J Carino’s Dynamic Paintings

J Carino creates dynamic paintings that blend earth and jewel tones to depict nude queer figures in intimate communion with nature. His compositions, characterized by blocks of color and gestural brushstrokes, incorporate source materials ranging from live model studies and self-recorded videos to plein air pastel drawings. Carino researches historical and cultural symbols tied to organic forms, weaving them into collage-like narratives that explore themes of desire, paradise, and resilience. He recently relocated to London and will begin a master's program at the Royal College of Art this fall; his work will be featured in a group exhibition at Albertz Benda in Los Angeles in early June.

First contemporary Indian art exhibition at State Hermitage Museum in Russia to begin June 4

The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, will host its first-ever exhibition dedicated to contemporary Indian art, titled "Sediments of Becoming: Fossilised Present, Summoned Pasts," opening June 4 and running through October 4. The show features 11 Indian artists—including Manjunath Kamath, Afrah Shafiq, Gargi Raina, Lakshmi Madhavan, V Ramesh, Anindita Bhattacharya, Debashish Mukherjee, Maya Krishna Rao, Pushpamala N, Ravinder Reddy, and Sumakshi Singh—and is presented in collaboration with Threshold Art Gallery, curated by Marina Schulz and Tunty Chauhan. The artists created new works during a 2025 residency at the Hermitage, supported by collectors Ekaterina and Andrey Terebenin, and the pieces are displayed in dialogue with historical objects from the museum's collections and other Russian institutions.

What do you hear in these paintings? 'Still In Sound' at the Clyfford Still Museum asks just that

The Clyfford Still Museum in Denver has opened 'Still In Sound,' a new exhibition that pairs five of Clyfford Still's paintings with original audio interpretations created by contemporary artists. Curated by Ben Coleman and Bailey Placzek, the show invites artists like Kalyn Heffernan and Michael Schumacher to respond sonically to Still's works, drawing on the museum's archives of the artist's voice recordings and personal record collection. Each audio piece plays on a loop from speakers positioned directly above the corresponding painting, with sounds ranging from rhythmic beats and hisses to New Orleans jazz and car engines.

Columbus Museum of Art unveils major Tavares Strachan exhibit

The Columbus Museum of Art at The Pizzuti has opened "The Day Tomorrow Began," the first major museum exhibition dedicated to Bahamian conceptual artist Tavares Strachan. The expansive show occupies two-thirds of the Short North museum and features sculpture, painting, neon texts, and music, including immersive environments like a functioning rum bar and café. A related piece, the towering sculpture "In Praise of Midnight (Christophe x Napoleon)," is installed at the museum's main campus on Broad Street. The exhibition runs through January 3, 2027, and was co-organized with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

2026 Busan Biennale 'Dissident Chorus' turns its attention to sound amid an overexposure to the visual

The 2026 Busan Biennale, titled "Dissident Chorus," will open on August 29 across three venues on two of Busan's islands, featuring 44 artists and teams from 23 countries. Conceived as a "polyphonic score" in three movements, the biennale will take place at the Busan Museum of Contemporary Art on Eulsukdo Island, a former ship-equipment warehouse on Yeongdo Island, and the former Busan Nam High School. Co-directed by Evelyn Simons and Amal Khalaf, the exhibition deliberately emphasizes sound, performance, choreography, and club culture over traditional visual art objects, with artists including Joshua Serafin, Natasha Tontey, Eric Baudelaire, and Korean participants Park Hyun-sung, Suki Seo-kyeong Kang, and Lim Min-ouk.