5 Under-Recognized Artists Getting Their Due in New York This Season

The article highlights five under-recognized artists whose exhibitions are on view in New York this season, focusing on Domenico Gnoli at Lévy Gorvy Dayan and Raquel Rabinovich at Hutchinson Modern and Contemporary. Gnoli, an Italian painter who died in 1970, is known for his pallid, claustrophobic depictions of everyday subjects, while Rabinovich, who died at 102 in January 2026, created somber minimalist paintings exploring silence and withholding. The piece notes that New York galleries often use the pre-fair period to showcase less prominent artists of great promise.

Paul McCarthy: ‘The world is now an extreme absurdity. The work is a reaction to that’

Paul McCarthy, the 80-year-old American artist known for his transgressive critiques of consumer culture, has opened a new exhibition titled "SS EE Saint Santa Eva Elf" at Hauser & Wirth in Paris. The show features large-scale drawings and a six-channel video installation created during filmed performances with his long-term collaborator, German actress Lilith Stangenberg, who plays the Elf. McCarthy revisits his iconic Santa Claus motif, portraying him as a dark, psychotic figure—the "god of capitalism and consumption." The exhibition also includes earlier drawings made with Stangenberg at Bowman Hal gallery in Madrid. The interview reveals that McCarthy's home and studios in Los Angeles were destroyed by wildfires, resulting in the loss of art, drawings, notebooks, and books, and the cancellation of a planned London show.

‘Of course I accepted!’ Angel Otero on Bad Bunny – and bringing some Puerto Rican flair to Somerset

Angel Otero, a Puerto Rican artist based in Somerset, discusses his emotional collaboration with musician Bad Bunny on the stage set "La Casita" for his 31-show residency in Puerto Rico. Otero's new solo exhibition at Hauser & Wirth Somerset features large-scale, semi-abstract paintings that draw from his childhood memories in Santurce, San Juan, including motifs like a pink vanity cabinet, birdcages, and a turbulent sea. His signature technique involves applying paint skins—dried sheets of oil paint on Perspex—to canvas, creating layered, sculptural surfaces. The show includes a diptych based on a photograph of Otero and his grandmother, marking his most figurative work to date.

Biennale di Venezia 2026. Le grandi mostre da non perdere in città

The article previews major exhibitions in Venice during the 2026 Biennale, highlighting a rich lineup of shows across the city's museums and foundations. Key highlights include a retrospective for Marina Abramović at the Gallerie dell'Accademia, a Peggy Guggenheim exhibition at her former home, and dual shows at Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana featuring artists like Michael Armitage, Amar Kanwar, Lorna Simpson, and Paulo Nazareth. Other notable venues include Fondazione Prada, Ca' Pesaro, and the Museo Correr, with artists ranging from Joseph Kosuth to Jenny Saville.

Lubaina Himid on capturing the 'uneasiness' of Britain for her Venice Biennale pavilion

Lubaina Himid, the Turner Prize-winning artist born in Zanzibar and raised in England, is representing Great Britain at the Venice Biennale with a pavilion that captures the 'uneasiness' of living in Britain. The exhibition features her signature paintings, prints, and cutout figures, alongside a soundscape by Magda Stawarska, designed to evoke ambiguous encounters and the gap between a question and an answer. Himid describes the pavilion as a reflection of Britain's everyday pleasantness undercut by a persistent sense of otherness, drawing on her own experience as an East African brought up by English women.

10 Art Shows to See in Los Angeles This May

Hyperallergic's May guide for Los Angeles highlights ten art shows, including a posthumous exhibition of Celeste Dupuy-Spencer's paintings at Jeffrey Deitch, Yoko Ono's first solo museum show in Southern California at The Broad, and a survey of Richard Mayhew's abstract landscapes at Karma. Other notable shows include Joe Brainard's matchbook miniatures at Chris Sharp Gallery, Gordon Parks's musical output at the California African American Museum, and a two-venue presentation of Magdalena Suarez Frimkess's ceramics and drawings.

Niklaus Stoecklin at Hauser & Wirth, Basel

Hauser & Wirth Basel is presenting a focused exhibition of works by Swiss artist Niklaus Stoecklin (1896–1982), featuring paintings and drawings spanning from the 1920s to the 1970s. The show includes several rarely seen pieces, highlighting Stoecklin's distinctive approach to depicting life—people, animals, trees, stones, and space—as he described it.

Kiss and Tell! In Venice, Nude Tino Sehgal Work Is Talk of the Town

Laurent Asscher's AMA Venezia foundation in Venice is showcasing Tino Sehgal's live performance piece "Kiss (Clean Version)" during the 61st Venice Biennale. The work features a nude couple reenacting famous kisses from art history, performed by rotating dancers over hours. Asscher acquired the piece after meeting Sehgal, having previously bought a different Sehgal work at a charity auction. The performance has become a standout attraction amid the Biennale's crowded opening week.

10 exhibitions you can still see after Berlin's Gallery Weekend

10 Ausstellungen, die Sie auch nach dem Gallery Weekend in Berlin sehen können

The Monopol editorial team highlights ten standout exhibitions from Berlin's Gallery Weekend, including Jiyoon Chung's installation "Dead End" at Anton Janizewski, which uses subtle triggers to explore perception and anxiety; Giorgio Griffa's retrospective at Walter Storms Galerie, featuring his poetic abstract paintings on raw linen; Walid Raad's narrative-driven show at Galerie Thomas Schulte, referencing the Lebanese civil war with a crashed VW Beetle and bomb graffiti; and Thomas Demand's new works at Sprüth Magers, printed on copper plates to create a shimmering aura. The article provides a curated tour of these shows, many of which remain open after the weekend.

10 Ausstellungen, die Sie zum Gallery Weekend nicht verpassen sollten

The article highlights ten must-see exhibitions during Berlin's Gallery Weekend, curated by the editorial team of Monopol magazine. Featured shows include Jiyoon Chung's installation "Dead End" at Anton Janizewski, which explores perception and anxiety through subtle triggers; Giorgio Griffa's retrospective at Walter Storms Galerie, showcasing his poetic abstract paintings on un-stretched linen; Walid Raad's "Like a Rubber Rung on a Ladder" at Galerie Thomas Schulte, referencing the Lebanese Civil War with a crashed VW Beetle and graffiti; and Thomas Demand's exhibition at Sprüth Magers, where his photographs printed on copper plates reflect on current events like the Gaza war and climate change.

Our pick of the best pavilions at the 61st Venice Biennale

The article highlights standout national pavilions at the 61st Venice Biennale. The Belarus Pavilion features a powerful installation by the Belarus Free Theatre, including a wheat field built by former political prisoners, straw spiders made from prison bars, and a confession booth that runs facial recognition. The Brazil Pavilion presents a joint exhibition by Rosana Paulino and Adriana Varejão, focusing on colonial wounds and trauma through works like Paulino's 'Aracnes' and Varejão's 'Still Life amid Ruin'. The Bosnian Pavilion by Mladen Bundalo invites tactile engagement with themes of diaspora and migration, while the Austrian Pavilion by Florentina Holzinger draws attention with nude performers in water-filled pools.

Jarvis Cocker Is Bringing His Eclectic Eye to the Hepworth Wakefield

Musician Jarvis Cocker and his wife, creative consultant Kim Sion, will curate an exhibition titled “The Hodge Podge” at the Hepworth Wakefield in the U.K., opening in May 2027. The show will feature artworks selected by the couple that challenge conventional definitions of art, spanning diverse media and time periods, with artists including Peter Doig, Barbara Hepworth, Jeremy Deller, and Emma Kunz. The exhibition will be bookended by an immersive Dreamachine, a 1959 light-art device by Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerville. Cocker and Sion have outlined their curatorial philosophy in a Hodge Podge Manifesto, celebrating beauty in chaos and disorder.

How Latin American Artists Have Harnessed the Allure of Alchemy

A new exhibition titled “Constellations and Drifts: Art from Latin America in the FEMSA Collection” has opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Monterrey (Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey) in Mexico, running through August 9, 2026. The show features 170 works by 115 Latin American artists from the FEMSA Collection, one of the most prestigious corporate collections of Latin American art, and is organized around five curatorial themes or “constellations,” including a section centered on alchemy. Highlights include works by Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, Francis Alÿs, and a new commission by Argentine artist Ad Minoliti, alongside Surrealist pieces by Remedios Varo, Leonor Fini, Leonora Carrington, and Kati Horna.

A Londra si allestisce un’installazione di Christo e Jeanne-Claude che non si era mai vista prima

An unprecedented installation by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, titled "Air Package on a Ceiling," is being exhibited for the first time at Gagosian's Grosvenor Hill space in London, opening May 21, 2026. The work was originally conceived in 1968 for the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia but never realized due to technical constraints. It was rediscovered in 2018 when Lorenza Giovanelli, Christo's former studio manager, found a detailed scale model hidden inside a pedestal. The exhibition also includes early works such as "Wrapped Automobile—Volvo, Model PV-544" (1981), not seen in thirty years, alongside preparatory drawings and collages.

The invisible worlds of Hilma af Klint, pioneer of abstraction, finally revealed at the Grand Palais

Les mondes invisibles d’Hilma af Klint, pionnière de l’abstraction, enfin révélés au Grand Palais

The article reveals the long-overlooked story of Hilma af Klint (1862–1944), the Swedish artist who created abstract paintings years before Kandinsky, Mondrian, and Malevich, yet kept her work secret until 20 years after her death. Her monumental output—1,600 abstract paintings and 124 notebooks—was first publicly shown in 1986 at the Los Angeles exhibition 'The Spiritual in Art, Abstract Painting, 1890–1985'. A 2019 retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York drew 600,000 visitors, a museum record. Now, the Grand Palais in Paris presents the first-ever French exhibition of her work, focusing on her 'Paintings for the Temple' cycle (1906–1915), a series of 193 works that synthesize her spiritual quest.

The Bahamas returns to the Venice Biennale with a joy-filled posthumous collaboration

The Bahamas will return to the Venice Biennale in 2026 after a 13-year absence with a posthumous exhibition for artist John Beadle, who died in 2024 at age 60. Beadle was originally selected to represent the country in 2015 but the government withdrew funding. The exhibition, titled "In Another Man’s Yard," will feature Beadle’s work alongside that of his mentee, Lavar Munroe, using materials from Beadle’s studio including sails from Haitian migrant sloops. The pavilion is organized by commissioner Amanda Coulson and curator Krista Thompson, who raised private funds after the government declined to support the project.

At the Venice Biennale, Koyo Kouoh’s ‘In Minor Keys’ Looks Deeply at Lush Gardens and a Scarred Earth

Koyo Kouoh's exhibition 'In Minor Keys' at the 2026 Venice Biennale centers on the practices of two deceased artists, Issa Samb and Beverly Buchanan, whose ways of thinking animate the show through dedicated 'Shrines' in the Central Pavilion. The exhibition also draws on Marcel Duchamp's legacy, featuring works by over a dozen contemporary artists including Akinbode Akinbiyi, Guadalupe Rosales, Natalia Lassalle-Morillo, Guadalupe Maravilla, Sofía Gallisá Muriente, and Avi Mograbi, whose installation 'Between a River and a Sea' contrasts pre-1948 business directories with a 2023 Gaza Yellow Pages. A section called 'The Schools' highlights artist-run spaces such as Denniston Hill, Guest Artists Space (G.A.S.) Foundation, blaxTARLINES, and the Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute.

Cosmic, concrete, earthy: Nancy Holt’s Land Art on show in UK

Nancy Holt (1938-2014), a pioneering land artist who studied biology at Tufts University, is the subject of her first major UK exhibition at the Goodwood Art Foundation in West Sussex. The show includes the first posthumous installation of *Hydra's Head*, an earthwork of six pools aligned with the Hydra constellation, originally sited on the Niagara River in 1974, and *Ventilation System* (1985-92), which extends from the gallery into the landscape. Curated by Ann Gallagher, the exhibition draws on Holt's archives and the Holt/Smithson Foundation, which preserves her legacy and that of her husband Robert Smithson.

5 Standout Shows to See at Small Galleries in May 2026

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.

Venice Showcases an Array of Global Art Stars During the Biennale

During the 2024 Venice Biennale, museums and foundations across the city are presenting solo and group exhibitions featuring major international art figures, including Marina Abramović, Lorna Simpson, Arthur Jafa, Richard Prince, and a tribute to Peggy Guggenheim. These shows run concurrently with the main Biennale exhibition, drawing visitors to venues such as the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and other historic palazzos.

Shirin Neshat's Venice exhibition explores identity, exile and a social media tragedy

Shirin Neshat presents a new film trilogy, *Do U Dare!*, at the 16th-century Palazzo Marin in Venice alongside the Biennale. The work explores exile, fractured identity, and power through a female protagonist whose public isolation transforms into empowered expression in private. The trilogy is directly inspired by the story of Nasim Aghdam, an Iranian American known as the 'YouTube Shooter,' who in 2018 attacked YouTube's headquarters before taking her own life. Neshat interprets Aghdam's double life as a recluse and a social media star, focusing on the unstable boundary between self and performance in digital culture.

Muscle memory: Natasha Tontey’s wild Venice installation explodes perceptions of Indonesian history

Natasha Tontey's new installation "The Phantom Combatants" at the Ateneo Veneto in Venice reimagines the story of Len Karamoy, a woman who was part of the CIA-funded Permesta resistance movement in North Sulawesi, Indonesia (1957-1961). The 22-minute film, commissioned by the LAS foundation and Amos Rex, features absurdly muscular mutant warriors and draws on Indigenous belief systems, video games, Indonesian soap operas, and B-movie aesthetics to explore themes of autonomy, resistance, and historical perspective.

“The Adventure of Domenico Gnoli” at Lévy Gorvy Dayan, New York

Lévy Gorvy Dayan in New York is presenting “The Adventure of Domenico Gnoli,” a survey of the Italian artist’s work including paintings, drawings, etchings, notebooks, and letters. The exhibition is organized in collaboration with Gnoli’s widow, Yannick Vu, the artist’s estate, Mimì Gnoli, and the Livia Polidoro-Gnoli Archive, and follows his major 2021–22 retrospective at the Fondazione Prada in Milan.

The Best Art Exhibitions To Visit In Hong Kong This May

This article highlights three art exhibitions in Hong Kong for May 2026. 'Seeds of Wishes' at JPS Gallery features black-and-white and colorful drawings by thirteen-year-old artist Yat Long, created after his diagnosis with a life-threatening disease, with a related CASETiFY phone case collection. 'Dial-A-Poem Hong Kong' at M+ presents an interactive installation based on John Giorno's 1969 project, offering newly recorded poems in Cantonese, English, and Mandarin by thirty local poets. 'Fallen Angels' at Hauser & Wirth showcases Nicole Eisenman's paintings and sculptures exploring middle-class life, departing from her usual crowded scenes.

The 90 Years of Legendary Italian Artist Giorgio Griffa. All the Exhibitions Celebrating the Master's Birthday

I 90 anni del mitico artista italiano Giorgio Griffa. Tutte le mostre per celebrare il compleanno del maestro

Giorgio Griffa, the Italian painter known for his radical and minimalist approach, turned 90 on March 29, 2026. A comprehensive program of celebrations includes the exhibition "Summer 69" at the Fondazione Giorgio Griffa in Turin (through July 2, 2026), which revisits his breakthrough summer of 1969 with photographs by Paolo Mussat Sartor alongside his early and recent works. The Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea has opened a monographic room with works from its permanent collection, and the Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Torino will dedicate a similar space in May. The MAXXI – Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI secolo has acquired six monumental works spanning over thirty years of Griffa's career, from the 1970s to the early 2000s.

New Zealand's Venice Biennale pavilion explores the secret life of birds

New Zealand returns to the Venice Biennale in 2025 with Fiona Pardington’s solo exhibition *Taharaki Skyside* at the Istituto Provinciale per l’Infanzia Santa Maria della Pietà. The show features 17 large-scale photographic portraits of taxidermied birds from the South Canterbury Museum Timaru’s collection, including the extinct whēkau (laughing owl) and the critically endangered kākāpō. Pardington, an artist of Māori and Scottish descent, draws on Māori cosmology in which birds serve as spiritual messengers, and her work continues a long-standing photographic investigation of objects that hold “mana” (power) for Māori people.

Woody De Othello Celebrates First Major Solo Public Exhibition in New York with Public Art Fund

Woody De Othello's first major solo public exhibition in New York, titled "Guardian Spirit," has opened at Brooklyn Bridge Park, presented by Public Art Fund. The exhibition features monumental redwood totems standing 20 to 22 feet tall, carved with chainsaws and grinders, alongside bronze sculptures created between 2021 and 2025. The works explore themes of ritual, spirituality, and the elemental forces of wind and water, drawing inspiration from nkisi, ritual objects from Western and Central Africa. The exhibition runs from May 5, 2026, to March 8, 2027, with sculptures installed at Pier 1 and the Manhattan Bridge View.

What you want from your body? Antony Gormley, iron and crawling

British sculptor Antony Gormley discusses his solo exhibition "What Holds Us" at Galleria Continua in San Gimignano, on view from 9 May to 13 September 2026. The show transforms the gallery's former cinema-theatre into an interactive environment where visitors are invited to crawl through massive cardboard bodies, exploring interior spaces and shifting from passive spectatorship to bodily engagement. Gormley explains that the title connects "hold" and "whole," suggesting that being held—by the ground, the womb, or the body—is essential for growth and wholeness.

After the Afterparty: Berlin Art Tests Its Pulse during Gallery Weekend

Gallery Weekend Berlin took place from late April into early May, drawing large crowds despite ongoing concerns about the city's declining art-market relevance. The weekend kicked off with early previews on Wednesday, including Alex Heide's solo exhibition "the darkroom beams horizons" at the new space Klix, and continued with events at Sprüth Magers, the Between Bridges Foundation, and the hidden venue CHB Fine Arts, which featured works by Nairy Baghramian, Jack O'Brien, Sofia Duchovny, Ilya Lipkin, and Mania Godarzani-Bakhtiari. Friday, coinciding with May Day, saw gallery visits at Molitor and KOW, where Ketuta Alexi-Meskhishvili and Candice Breitz presented solo shows.

Chinese art exhibition reflects transformative modern times

Hundreds of visitors attended the opening of 'Forever Tomorrow: Chinese Art Now' at Auckland Art Gallery, the first major survey of Chinese contemporary art on this scale in Auckland. The exhibition features over 60 works by 42 artists, including Ai Weiwei, Xu Zhen, Xiao Lu, and Cao Fei, spanning photography, sculpture, installations, and new media. Key works include Ai Weiwei's 'Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn' and Xu Zhen's monumental sculpture combining Buddhist and Greek motifs. The show runs through an unspecified period and has drawn diverse audiences, including Chinese New Zealanders and previous visitors to China.