A tale of two Annas: Van Gogh’s favourite Whistler painting stars in Tate Britain show

Tate Britain will open a major exhibition titled *James McNeill Whistler* on 21 May, running through 27 September, before traveling to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam (16 October–10 January 2027) under the subtitle *Dandy and Disrupter*. The show’s centerpiece is Whistler’s iconic *Arrangement in Grey and Black no. 1* (commonly known as *Portrait of the Painter's Mother*), on loan from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and displayed in its original frame designed by the artist. The article explores Vincent van Gogh’s admiration for the painting—he wrote to his sister Wil in 1889 that it reminded him of their own mother—and traces the work’s connections to the Goupil gallery (later Boussod & Valadon), where both Vincent and his brother Theo worked.

‘I couldn’t believe we weren’t falling over ourselves for it’: Asia-Pacific art finally conquers Britain

The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London has opened "Rising Voices: Contemporary Art from Asia, Australia and the Pacific," a major exhibition produced in partnership with the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) in Brisbane. Featuring over 70 works never before exhibited in the UK, the show draws from QAGOMA's Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT), which began in 1993. Highlights include Michael Parekōwhai's sculpture of a Māori bouncer, Montien Boonma's terracotta bell installation, and Takahiro Iwasaki's intricate wooden model. The exhibition is the first APT survey to be held outside Australia and Chile, arriving after years of planning by V&A exhibitions director Daniel Slater.

Printmaking skills of Manet, Van Gogh and more celebrated in Bath show

An exhibition titled *Beyond Impressionism* at the Holburne Museum in Bath showcases over 50 prints by artists such as Édouard Manet, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, James McNeill Whistler, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Pablo Picasso. The show, running from 23 May to 13 September, highlights how impressionist, post-impressionist, and cubist painters revived printmaking in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, elevating it from commercial reproduction to a respected artistic medium. Works are drawn from public collections including the Courtauld Gallery and Ashmolean, as well as private collections.

The Can’t-Miss Moments at TEFAF New York 2026

TEFAF New York 2026 opened to packed crowds at the Park Avenue Armory, showcasing a mix of historic and contemporary works. Highlights include Gagosian’s solo booth of Kathleen Ryan’s bejeweled “Bad Fruit” sculptures, Thaddaeus Ropac’s presentation of monumental canvases by Danish painter Eva Helene Pade, and Axel Vervoordt Gallery’s spotlight on overlooked Italian painter Ida Barbarigo. The fair also features collectible design and perennial favorites like Alexander Calder mobiles and Alighiero Boetti tapestries.

Independent art fair makes the most of more spacious digs

The Independent art fair in New York has relocated from Spring Studios in Tribeca to Pier 36 on the East River, doubling its footprint while slightly reducing the number of exhibitors from 87 to 76. The move creates a more spacious, single-level layout with larger stands and improved circulation, allowing for more ambitious installations. Dealers report strong early collector turnout, with over a third of exhibitors presenting solo stands by artists showing in New York for the first time, including Omar Mismar and Julia Maiuri. Notable presentations include Charles Moffett’s revival of late textile artist Silvia Heyden, James Fuentes’s cross-generational downtown New York showcase, and a large-scale installation by Gretchen Bender.

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.'

Quando la mitica Peggy Guggenheim era una gallerista a Londra. Mostra da non perdere a Venezia

The article details the early career of Peggy Guggenheim before she established her famous Venetian museum, focusing on her London gallery Guggenheim Jeune (1938–1939). It describes how the gallery mounted pioneering exhibitions of avant-garde art, including the first UK solo show of Wassily Kandinsky, a group exhibition of contemporary sculpture featuring Jean Arp and Henry Moore, and shows of artists like Marie Vassilief and Gisèle Freund. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice now presents a retrospective of this formative period, titled "Peggy Guggenheim a Londra. Nascita di una collezionista."

Artists turn to textiles as they excavate history at Nada New York

At the New Art Dealers Alliance (Nada) New York fair, running until 17 May, multiple artists are presenting works that heavily incorporate textiles to explore themes of culture, belonging, and history. Artists such as Keith Lafuente (with SoMad), Polina Osipova (with JO-HS), and Griselda Rosas (with Luis De Jesus Los Angeles) use fabric and sewing techniques to examine histories of inequality, migration, and labor. Rosas embroiders over painted paper using imagery from Mexican codices, Osipova prints family photos onto traditional Chuvash fabric, and Lafuente repurposes scraps from Oscar de la Renta to comment on global labor inequalities. Other participants like Ruth Owens (with Voltz Clarke Gallery) use textiles in lightbox works to tell personal stories of migration and abduction.

L.A. vs. N.Y. vs. UK punks and so much more at a sprawling new Skirball exhibit

The Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles opens a new exhibition titled "Outsiders, Outcasts, Rebels + Weirdos: Punk Culture 1976-86," tracing the evolution of punk music and culture over a decade. Featuring nearly 400 original fliers, posters, photographs, clothing, and pins, the show highlights punk's spread from New York to the UK and then to the West Coast, with a special focus on Los Angeles' contributions and the often-overlooked role of Jewish musicians and icons. The exhibition opens as punk celebrates its 50th anniversary, with events like the Sex Pistols' upcoming tour.

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.

Exhibition explores woman who shaped Edinburgh’s fine art collection

The City Art Centre in Edinburgh is hosting a free exhibition titled "Jean F. Watson: An Artistic Legacy" from May 16 to October 4, 2026. It features over 40 historical and contemporary Scottish artworks acquired through the Jean F. Watson Bequest Fund, including pieces by artists such as JD Fergusson, Elizabeth Blackadder, and Alison Watt. The exhibition highlights the impact of Jean Fletcher Watson (1877-1974), an Edinburgh resident whose financial donations in the 1960s and 1970s helped build a nationally recognized collection of Scottish art, now comprising over 1,000 works.

Tough Stuff: Women in The American Glass Studio

The Corning Museum of Glass (CMoG) opened "Tough Stuff: Women in the American Glass Studio" on May 16, 2026, as part of its 75th anniversary celebration. This is the first survey exhibition dedicated to women artists who shaped the American Studio Glass Movement from the 1960s onward, featuring over 200 works by artists including Claire Falkenstein, Audrey Handler, Margie Jervis, Susie Krasnican, Kathleen Mulcahy, Ginny Ruffner, Ruth Tamura, and Toots Zynsky. The exhibition draws from CMoG’s permanent collection, the Rakow Research Library, and loans from the artists, and is complemented by an oral history initiative preserving first-person accounts.

Pioneering 19th century women artists inspire new city castle exhibition

A new exhibition titled "Chain of Flowers" opens at Norwich Castle on May 16, featuring works by Cambridge-based artist Miranda Boulton. The exhibition draws inspiration from pioneering 19th-century women artists Emily Stannard and Eloise Stannard, members of the Norwich School of Artists. Boulton retraced Emily Stannard's 1820s journey to the Netherlands to study Jan Van Huysum's paintings at the Rijksmuseum, creating a series of oil paintings that contrast the Dutch Golden Age's detailed style with thick impasto and spray paint.

Making Their Mark: Works from the Shah Garg Collection | Broad Strokes Blog

The article features an interview between NMWA Assistant Curator Hannah Shambroom and collector Komal Shah about the exhibition 'Making Their Mark: Works from the Shah Garg Collection.' The show, drawn from Shah and her husband Gaurav Garg's collection, presents approximately 80 works by women artists exploring abstraction, including pieces by Howardena Pindell, Sarah Sze, Kapwani Kiwanga, and Jacqueline Humphries. Shah discusses her transition from a technology career to art collecting, her focus on women working in abstraction, and how the exhibition emerged after publishing a book on the collection in 2023, with curation by Cecilia Alemani.

Edward Hopper Exhibition in Seoul Breaks Attendance Record

An exhibition of Edward Hopper's work at the Seoul Museum of Art has broken attendance records, drawing 330,000 visitors—the highest for any exhibition that year. The show marks the first solo exhibition of the American painter in South Korea, where Hopper was virtually unknown until the 1990s. The article traces Hopper's growing recognition in the country, from his first appearance in Korean media in 2002 to the 2011 co-hosted exhibition 'This Is American Art' at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, which introduced his work 'Railroad Sunset' (1929) to local audiences.

Between everyday and exceptional

Emami Art in Kolkata presents "Nothing Twice," an exhibition featuring nine young women artists that explores the fragility of ordinary life through domestic, tactile, and overlooked subjects. Curated by Ushmita Sahu, the show includes works in painting, textiles, photography, ceramics, drawing, and video, with artists like Moumita Basak, Shilpi Sharma, and Riti Sengupta focusing on material memory and feminist art histories. Concurrently, "Khadi: A Canvas" at TRI Art & Culture showcases 19 khadi sarees woven in the jamdani technique by tribal women from Srikakulam, connecting Raja Ravi Varma's visual culture with Gandhi's politics of self-reliance, curated by Lavina Baldota with textile artist Gaurang Shah. Additionally, "Digital Atma (Spirits) X The Wandering Souls" at A.M (Art Multi-disciplines) examines digital life and technology's impact on identity and intimacy through poetry, sound, image, and performance.

Birmingham celebrates 'forgotten pop-art pioneer' Peter Phillips

An outdoor exhibition titled 'Pop Goes Brum!' will be held in Birmingham's Snow Hill Square from 9 to 30 June 2025, celebrating the life and work of Peter Phillips, a pioneering British pop artist who died in June 2025. Curated by art historian Ruth Millington and developed in partnership with Birmingham School of Art, the free exhibition aims to showcase Phillips' 'pioneering achievements' and his deep connection to Birmingham, where he was born in 1939 and trained at Moseley School of Art and Birmingham School of Art. Phillips, who ranked alongside David Hockney, Pauline Boty, Peter Blake, Andy Warhol, and Roy Lichtenstein, was a key figure in the international pop art movement and helped launch British pop art with a 1961 exhibition.

韓国国立現代美術館 果川館で「Road movie: Art between Korea and Japan since 1945」が開幕

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) in Gwacheon, South Korea, opened "Road movie: Art between Korea and Japan since 1945" on May 14, 2026. This exhibition is a touring version of the collaborative show "Always by Your Side: 80 Years of Art between Japan and Korea," which was held at the Yokohama Museum of Art from December 6, 2025, to March 22, 2026. Marking the 60th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and South Korea in 1965, the exhibition traces eight decades of artistic exchange from 1945 to the present. It features around 200 works by 43 artists, including Cho Yang-gyu, Kwak In-sik, Nam Hwa-yeon, Nam June Paik, Lee Ufan, Lee Bul, Takashi Murakami, and others, organized into five sections. The show also incorporates six outdoor sculptures installed at the museum's opening in 1986 and 1987, highlighting how the institution itself fostered cross-border artistic dialogue.

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.

Endre Koronczi on Representing Hungary at the 61st Venice Biennale

Endre Koronczi, the artist representing Hungary at the 61st Venice Biennale (2026), discusses his upcoming exhibition in the Giardini pavilion. His project, titled "Pneuma Cosmic," explores the movement of air as both a physical and metaphysical phenomenon, drawing on decades of research into invisible forces like wind and breath. The exhibition also references his long-term experimental zone, Ploubuter Park, inspired by drifting plastic bags. Koronczi notes a strong resonance with the Biennale's curatorial theme, "In Minor Keys" by Koyo Kouoh, describing it as a "cosmic zeitgeist."

Gaia Sleeps Amid Sarah Eberle’s Award-Winning Garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show

At the 2025 RHS Chelsea Flower Show, designer Sarah Eberle's garden "On the Edge" won the prestigious Garden of the Year award. The installation features a sleeping figure of Gaia, the personification of Mother Nature, crafted from willow branches by artist Tom Hare and carved from a fallen tree by Tim Wood. The garden, a collaboration with the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), highlights "edgelands"—the overlooked transitional spaces between rural and urban areas—using native plants, a dry stone arch by Noble Stonework, and a deliberately wild aesthetic to evoke nature in recovery.

'Slime family portrait' shown at top exhibition

Kutub Uddin, a photographer from West Sussex, is one of only two UK photographers selected for the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition. His image, described as a "slime family portrait," captures the reproductive parts of a slime mold—tiny blue spheres on stalks—on a fallen tree in Slindon Wood, magnified many times using a specialist lens. The exhibition recently opened at Brighton Museum and Art Gallery and runs until September 6.

Indigenous Artist Honors Grandmothers at All My Relations Arts

Danielle SeeWalker, a Húŋkpapȟa Lakȟóta artist from the Standing Rock Sioux Nation, presents her solo exhibition *Uŋči Said So* at All My Relations Arts in Minneapolis, running through June 6. The show features vibrant expressionist portraits of grandmothers and matriarchs, neon signs with Lakȟóta words, and painted buffalo-hide drum heads, all inspired by memories, stories, and the artist's own heritage. SeeWalker incorporates distinctive motifs such as obscured faces with one realistic eye, braided hair symbolizing Native identity, and censored sections representing the repression of Native voices.

Chuck Connelly Masterpiece “Coliseum” Comes Out of Storage for First Time in 21 Years

Chuck Connelly's monumental 1994 painting "Coliseum" has been unveiled at One Art Space in Tribeca, New York, after spending 21 years in storage. The 90-by-108-inch oil on canvas, a signature work of the late American artist known for his fiercely expressive style, is now on public view for the first time since 2005. The May 2, 2026 unveiling was attended by family members including Adrienne Connelly, as well as notable figures such as MaryAnn Giella McCulloh, Mei Fung, and others.

Minnesota gallery celebrates American Indian Month with Native art exhibit

All My Relations Art gallery in Minneapolis has opened a new solo exhibition titled "Uŋči Said So" by artist Danielle SeeWalker, celebrating matriarchs in Native culture. The show, which runs until June 6, 2026, features works that highlight the role of grandmothers and the generational knowledge they pass down. The gallery will also host an Artist Talk and Parfleche Workshop on June 6 where attendees can learn to create earrings from deer hide.

Proof of life — Curator’s Choice celebrates Nelson Mandela Bay’s creative pulse

The Curator’s Choice exhibition at Art on Target in Nelson Mandela Bay showcases 10 selected artists, ranging from emerging talents to established practitioners, including an octogenarian and recent graduates. The show, now in its third year, is an offshoot of the annual Same Size-Same Price-No Signature exhibition and was curated by Art on Target director Bretten-Anne Moolman. Artists were chosen by a diverse panel of over 20 local professionals, educators, and art lovers, and were given eight months to prepare new works for the exhibition, which opened on 13 May.

Chandra Bhattacharjee magnifies lives pushed to the margins in his latest Kolkata showcase

Artist Chandra Bhattacharjee presents a new body of work titled "A Star Amongst Too Many" at the Sarala Birla gallery within the Birla Academy of Art and Culture in Kolkata. Curated by Uma Ray, the exhibition features large-scale charcoal drawings that depict marginalized figures such as ragpickers, trash collectors, beggars, and street vendors. The works use black-and-white charcoal with occasional bursts of yellow and rust—the latter symbolizing neglect—to highlight the overlooked lives of these individuals. The show runs until May 24, 2026.

Artist Amadour Explores Nevada’s Hidden Histories in New TMCC Exhibition

Artist Amadour presents his first solo institutional show in Nevada, titled *Nevada Proscenium*, at Truckee Meadows Community College’s Main Gallery from May 18 to June 18. The exhibition reexamines Nevada’s landscape through the lens of mining history, labor, and cultural memory, using layered geometric forms to challenge frontier myths and highlight overlooked Latinx histories. A public reception is scheduled for June 10.

The Women of Grigory Gluckmann on Display at the Archaeological Museum of Aosta

Le donne di Grigory Gluckmann in mostra al Museo Archeologico di Aosta

The Museo Archeologico Regionale di Aosta is hosting the first Italian exhibition dedicated to Grigory Gluckmann (1898–1973), a Belarusian-born American painter. Curated by Daria Jorioz and Valeria Gorbova, the show, titled "Grigory Gluckmann. Tra luce e grazia," runs until June 2, 2026, and features works centered on the female figure. Gluckmann's career spanned Russia, Berlin, Florence, Paris, and the United States, and his style blends Renaissance techniques with modern sensibility.

Guimet Museum Presents Europe's First Silla Exhibition

The Guimet Museum in Paris is presenting Europe's first-ever exhibition dedicated to the ancient Korean kingdom of Silla. The show features archaeological treasures, including gold crowns, jewelry, and Buddhist artifacts, highlighting the cultural and artistic achievements of Silla, which flourished from 57 BCE to 935 CE.