The sixth edition of Upstate Art Weekend (UAW) launched with a party at Assembly in Kingston, New York, founded by Helen Toomer in 2020. The festival has grown from 23 participants to 158 across 6,000 square miles, reflecting the pandemic-era exodus of artists and collectors from New York City to the Hudson Valley region. The event featured a fundraiser for abortion-rights nonprofit Noise for Now and drew a diverse crowd of attendees.
Brooklyn-based artist Duke Riley has launched a public search for the remains of a goat named Skellig Mór, a former mascot of the USS Vermont battleship in the early 1900s. His campaign involves missing posters, a newspaper ad in the Boston Globe, and a dedicated hotline, forming the centerpiece of his new solo exhibition, "The Repatriation of King Skellig Mór," at Praise Shadows Art Gallery in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Artsy Editorial highlights five standout exhibitions at small and rising galleries for May 2026. Among them is British-born, Amsterdam-based painter K. T. Kobel's first major Swiss show, "Hand, Body, Object, Sin," at Kutlesa in Goldau, Switzerland, running through May 29. Kobel, who has exhibited from Los Angeles to Milan since 2022, presents cinematic, storyboard-like paintings that embrace fragmentation and loose ends.
CXW 2025, Chicago's bold art celebration, is set to return this fall. The event showcases contemporary visual art across the city, featuring exhibitions, installations, and programming that highlight both local and international artists. The article announces the upcoming edition and its significance for Chicago's cultural calendar.
The Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA) is presenting five exhibitions, including an outdoor public art installation, with the highlight being "Something from Everything" (on view through Jan. 3, 2026). This exhibition features works from 19 artists that use mundane, discarded, and overlooked materials, exploring the evolving medium of sculpture. Key pieces include Lee Bontecou's 1959 "Untitled" relief (on loan from the Art Bridges Foundation) and Charlotte Posenenske's modular "Vierkantrohre (Square Tubes)" from 1967, alongside contemporary works by Nolan Flynn, Patrick Durka, Ricardo Rendón, and Leonardo Drew.
The Surrey Art Gallery in British Columbia is presenting a new exhibition titled "In the Shadow of the Pavilions: Expo 86 and Contemporary Art," running from April 18 to June 7, 2026. The show features over 50 artists, including a project by Michael de Courcy who took 1,700 photos of Expo 86 visitors, and works by Henri Robideau, a self-described 'Gianthropologist' who photographed giant roadside attractions across Canada in the 1980s.