Still in 'war mode': Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art reopens with exhibitions about conflict

The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art (TMoCA) has reopened with a weekly rotating post-ceasefire program called 'Art and War,' following weeks of bombardment that forced its closure and prompted emergency efforts to protect its collection. The program began with works by American Pop artists James Rosenquist, Roy Lichtenstein, and Robert Indiana, and this week features three works from Pablo Picasso's Weeping Woman series, focusing on Spain. Museum director Reza Dabirinezhad described the challenges of safeguarding the collection during US-Israeli strikes, including removing 80% of the oil from Noriyuki Haraguchi's installation 'Matter and Mind' (1977) to prevent fire risk, and protecting outdoor sculptures by Henry Moore, René Magritte, and Max Bill.

12 exciting fashion and jewelry exhibitions that will make you travel this summer

12 expos de mode et de bijoux passionnantes qui vous feront voyager cet été

Beaux Arts Magazine presents a curated selection of twelve fashion and jewelry exhibitions across France, Paris, and Vienna, running through summer 2026. Highlights include a retrospective of Mossi Traoré at the Mucem in Marseille, a showcase of Thai haute couture at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, and "Africa Fashion" at the Musée du quai Branly, celebrating African design from the independence era. Other featured exhibitions cover Christian Dior, Gianni Versace, Daniel Brush, Provençal costumes, and anniversaries of glittering fashion houses.

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.

Don’t miss Ashraf Talaat’s “The Circus” photo exhibition at the Russian Cultural Centre

The article is a roundup of current and upcoming art exhibitions in Cairo, Egypt, spanning May 2025 through June 2026. Highlights include Mostafa El-Razzaz's "Fractals of Art and Soul" at Bibliothek Arkan Plaza, Mahmoud Hamdi's "Journey to the Core" at Difaf, a retrospective for Said El-Sadr and his students at Gezira Arts Centre, and the Egyptian debut of "Beyond Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience" at District 5 by Marakez in New Cairo. Also featured are a Swiss-Egyptian photography exhibition on glaciers and the Nile at the Goethe Institute, a Colombian embassy exhibition, a Korean embassy show, and a permanent ceramics display at Al-Fustat Centre.

Insider’s Look at Curating a Show Inspired by the Declaration of Independence’s 250th Anniversary [Interview]

The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FVM) in Philadelphia has opened "Some American Dreams," an exhibition marking the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Curated by Hilde Nelson, FVM curatorial fellow, the show features 27 works by 20 artists created during the museum's Artist-in-Residence Program over four decades. The exhibition includes pieces in furniture, sculpture, textiles, clothing, video, and photography, and is on view until June 14, 2026. In an interview with My Modern Met, Nelson discusses her curatorial approach, which poses the question, "What if 'America' is not one project, but many?" and explores how these multiple Americas are affirmed, resisted, or remade through the artworks.

Palette of flowers: Nada Al Barazi hosts ‘Gardens’ solo exhibition at Intent Gallery

Internationally acclaimed artist Nada Al Barazi presented her solo exhibition 'Gardens' at Intent Gallery in Dubai from May 9 to 13. The show featured a contemplative body of work exploring nature as an emotional and introspective experience, with layered textures, expressive color, and organic forms that invite viewers to reflect on memory, transformation, and renewal. Al Barazi, a holder of the UAE Golden Visa from Dubai Culture & Arts Authority, is recognized for her contributions to contemporary art in the Emirates and globally.

Facing Modernity: Degas to Picasso to open at Shepparton Art Museum

Shepparton Art Museum (SAM) in Victoria, Australia, will host the exhibition "Facing Modernity: Degas to Picasso" from 23 May to 20 September 2026. The show features 37 paintings and sculptures from Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, including works by masters such as Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Salvador Dalí. Many of these works are part of a major philanthropic gift from New York-based collectors Julian and Josie Robertson, donated to the Auckland gallery in 2023, and have never before been shown in Australia.

Inside Youssef Nabil’s Landmark Musée d’Orsay Exhibition

Egyptian artist Youssef Nabil makes history as the first Arab artist invited to show at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, with his landmark exhibition 'To Dream Again.' The show features his hand-painted silver gelatin prints that blend cinema, memory, and identity, and marks the first time the museum has invited an artist working primarily with photography to engage with its collection. The exhibition is deeply personal, tracing Nabil's journey from a 19-year-old rejected by art academies in Cairo to a globally recognized artist, and includes a dialogue with Pierre Puvis de Chavannes's painting 'Le Rêve,' which inspired a self-portrait Nabil created in 2021.

From the artist who painted with his feet to the splashes of Pollock: abstraction takes over the Centre Pompidou Malaga

The Centre Pompidou Malaga has opened the exhibition 'Gesture and Matter. International Abstractions (1945–1965)', running until September, featuring around 30 works by 26 artists. The show highlights abstract art as a post-World War II response, with key pieces including Jackson Pollock's 'Number 26A. Black and White' and Kazuo Shiraga's 'Planet Nature', painted with his feet while suspended from ropes. Co-curated by Anne Foucault and Christian Briend, the exhibition traces abstraction's development from Paris and New York to Asia and Europe, emphasizing painting as a full-body, performative act of freedom.

The Best Booths at NADA New York, From Quietly Ominous Ceramics to Ecstatic Jazz Paintings

The New Art Dealers Alliance opened the 12th edition of NADA New York on May 14, 2026, at Chelsea’s Starrett-Lehigh building, coinciding with Frieze and 1-54 fairs nearby. The fair featured 110 exhibitors, including 51 first-time galleries from New York to Shanghai, with standout presentations by Andrae Green and Cyle Warner at Forgotten Lands, Ruth Owens at Voltz Clarke, and Keiko Narahashi at Tappeto Volante Gallery. This year’s edition emphasized ceramics and fiber art, marking a shift from recent years’ focus on figurative painting.

‘It’s like a Ouija board – I listen to the painting’: the supernatural art of Sanya Kantarovsky

Russian-born, New York-based artist Sanya Kantarovsky presents his new exhibition "Basic Failure" at Venice's Institute of Sciences, Letters and Arts, timed to coincide with the Venice Biennale. The show features his signature dishevelled, otherworldly figures—including a pallid boy with a cigarette, a child spinning in innocence, and a glass bust of a young boy with a dead spider under its eye—that explore tension, alienation, and the supernatural. Kantarovsky describes his process as listening to the painting like a Ouija board, and the exhibition includes works that confound narrative expectations, such as a scruffy toy panda and a recreation of Antonello Gagini's 16th-century sculpture.

A Major Exhibition on Elsa Schiaparelli opens at the V&A

A major exhibition dedicated to the pioneering fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli has opened at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London. The show explores Schiaparelli's innovative designs, her collaborations with surrealist artists like Salvador Dalí, and her lasting influence on fashion and visual culture.

Helen Frankenthaler at Kunstmuseum Basel

Kunstmuseum Basel has opened a major exhibition of Helen Frankenthaler's work, running from April 18 to August 23, 2026, featuring over 50 large-format pieces spanning six decades. The Helen Frankenthaler Foundation loaned 37 works for the show. The article also notes recent auction results, including Christie's offering of 'The Last Minute in April' (1974) for an estimated $2–3 million, and Sotheby's sales of 'St. John' (1971) for $2.1085 million and 'Perseus' (1983) for $2.804 million. Previous European exhibitions of Frankenthaler's work are listed, including shows at Museo di Palazzo Grimani, Museum Folkwang, Palazzo Strozzi, and Museum Reinhard Ernst.

Grand Rapids Art Museum presents: ‘Decadent Spirit: French Art at the Turn of the Century’

The Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM) has announced its summer exhibition 'Decadent Spirit: French Art at the Turn of the Century,' on view from May 29 to September 6. Featuring over 130 works spanning 1880 to 1910, the show highlights artists such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Pierre Bonnard, Jules Chéret, Hector Guimard, and Théophile Alexandre Steinlen, alongside early film pioneers Auguste and Louis Lumière, Georges Méliès, and Alice Guy-Blaché. The exhibition includes works on paper, painting, sculpture, metalwork, interior and urban design, and early film, exploring the cafés, streets, theaters, and domestic scenes of fin-de-siècle Paris. It closes with an 1899 French motorcar, symbolizing the era's new mobility.

À Marseille, l’installation textile monumentale d’Adrien Vescovi déploie ses couleurs

Artist Adrien Vescovi has installed a monumental textile work titled "Dormir comme le soleil" at the Vieille Charité in Marseille. The installation features over 600 dyed sheets suspended across 108 arches of the former hospice, using natural pigments from plants, spices, and ochres. The fabrics, dyed in a labor-intensive process involving large wooden spoons and cauldrons, are designed to fade and evolve over the eight-month exhibition, responding to wind, humidity, and Mediterranean light.

Lehman College Art Gallery Presents the 2026 Thesis Exhibition

The Lehman College Art Gallery is presenting the 2026 BFA, MA, and MFA Thesis Exhibition from May 20 to May 28, 2026. The show features the culminating work of over thirty graduating undergraduate and graduate artists from the Lehman College Art Department, spanning digital media, painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, and interdisciplinary forms. Themes include identity, memory, technology, migration, and social space. An opening reception on May 20 will include an awards announcement and a year-end celebration.