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.

The Venice Biennale Is High Stakes. James Cohan Gallery Is All In

James Cohan Gallery, a mid-sized New York gallery, is representing four artists in the 61st Venice Biennale's central exhibition, "In Minor Keys," curated by the late Koyo Kouoh. The artists are Ranti Bam, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Kennedy Yanko, and Yinka Shonibare (whose Guest Artists Space Foundation is also participating). This marks a breakthrough for the gallery, which has more artists in the central exhibition than any of the four mega-galleries—Gagosian, Pace, David Zwirner, and Hauser & Wirth—none of which have as many. The gallery is investing heavily in production, logistics, travel, and events, including a luncheon at the St. Regis Hotel co-hosted with Salon 94 and Esther Schipper, and a dinner thrown by collector Pamela Joyner for Yanko.

15 Art Shows to See in NYC This May

Hyperallergic's May 2025 guide to New York City art shows highlights 15 exhibitions, including a survey of Hawaiian Japanese-American artists from the Metcalf Chateau group at Ryan Lee Gallery, a retrospective of Malian photographer Seydou Keïta at the Brooklyn Museum, and Renée Green's multimedia project 'Secret' at Bortolami Gallery. The article also features Lynette Yiadom-Boakye's quietude-focused works, a meditation on grief and death, and a document of a city devastated by the AIDS crisis through portraits of inanimate objects, among other shows.

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.

Gallery Weekend Berlin opens ranks as city faces identity crisis

Gallery Weekend Berlin (GWB) expands from 50 to 57 participating galleries in 2025, introducing a new section called Perspectives that features smaller, younger galleries previously excluded from the event. The 20-year-old event, which began with 21 dealers aiming to attract international collectors to Berlin, has grown into a major sales week for galleries. Perspectives includes galleries like Anton Janizewski and Persons Projects, with a reduced participation fee of €4,500 (half the usual €9,000), subsidized by the Berlin Senate. The selection committee invites galleries rather than accepting applications, a process that has faced accusations of elitism.

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.

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.

Simply divine: the extraordinary supernatural visions of Francisco de Zurbarán

Francisco de Zurbarán, one of the three great Spanish 17th-century painters alongside Velázquez and Murillo, is finally receiving his first solo exhibition in the UK at the National Gallery in London. The show highlights his distinctive style of religious painting, characterized by stark chiaroscuro, sculptural realism, and a meditative stillness that makes the immaterial seem tangible. Works such as his crucified Christ and The Apparition of Saint Peter to Saint Peter Nolasco exemplify his ability to depict visions and inner spirituality, often commissioned by powerful religious foundations in Seville during the Counter-Reformation.

An expert's guide to Tracey Emin: five must-read books on the British artist

The Art Newspaper published a reading list curated by Jess Baxter, assistant curator of Tracey Emin's exhibition 'Second Life' at Tate Modern. The list features five key books about the British artist, including her autobiography 'Strangeland' (2006), a monograph co-authored by gallerist Carl Freedman, a recent painting survey, a personal photo album, and a forthcoming study by Martin Gayford. The exhibition, inspired by Emin's recovery from bladder cancer, runs until 31 August.

Alma Allen Offers a Quiet Vision in Venice—Even as Questions Swirl the U.S. Pavilion

Alma Allen's exhibition "Call Me the Breeze" has opened at the U.S. Pavilion for the 61st Venice Biennale. The Utah-born sculptor presents a pared-down, whimsical show that contrasts with the bombastic work of his predecessors, grouping new and old pieces to explore themes of conflict, mourning, and transcendence inspired by Hieronymus Bosch's *Visions of the Afterlife*. The exhibition was produced hurriedly over a few months, and Allen, who typically leaves his works untitled, felt compelled to explain his art for the first time in 30 years amid controversy surrounding his commission.

Exhibition | Nengi Omuku, 'We Were Like Those Who Dreamed' at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Pippy Houldsworth Gallery in London presents 'We Were Like Those Who Dreamed,' the second solo exhibition by Nigerian artist Nengi Omuku. The show features new paintings that explore the politics of green spaces in urban centers, particularly Lagos, where rapid urbanization has created a 'concrete jungle.' Omuku transposes figures from contemporary and archival images of Lagos into lush, Impressionistic landscapes painted with pointillist brushstrokes and a Fauvist palette, using the garden as a radical symbol of equality and resistance. She paints on sanyan, a hand-spun Yoruba cloth, working with local artisans in Ilorin to revive the tradition. Works like 'Dream Logic' and 'One Particular Man' address socio-economic tensions, while 'A quiet nation' captures the dichotomy between urban Brutalist architecture and natural foliage.

Alfonso Gonzalez Jr. Gives New Context to Street Art and Commercial Signage in New LACMA Show

Alfonso Gonzalez Jr., a second-generation Los Angeles artist with roots in graffiti, sign painting, and muralism, has opened his first museum exhibition at LACMA. Titled “In Between Stops,” the show features 12 benches installed along the museum’s Kendall Concourse, each serving as a functional sculpture that honors the street art and vernacular signage of LA. Gonzalez Jr., who learned the sign-painting trade at Los Angeles Trade Tech College and worked for outdoor advertisement companies like Wall Dogs and Colossal Media, draws on his background to create fictitious ads that critique advertising tactics while preserving rapidly disappearing elements of LA culture, such as mom-and-pop shops and barber shops.

New Met Gala fashion exhibit seeks to ‘reclaim’ body types that art history has ignored

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute will launch a new fashion exhibition titled "Costume Art" at the 2026 Met Gala, curated by Andrew Bolton. The show features 400 items across sections exploring body types historically marginalized in art, including the corpulent, disabled, pregnant, and aging body. It debuts in the newly renovated Conde M. Nast galleries on the museum's main floor, with custom mannequins modeled on real individuals such as Sinéad Burke, Aariana Rose Philip, and Goddess Bunny. The exhibition pairs fashion garments with art objects to argue that fashion is art, and will be open to the public from May 10 for eight months.

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.

The Met Costume Institute Unveils Its New Condé M. Nast Galleries

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute has unveiled its new 12,000-square-foot Condé M. Nast Galleries, named for the founder of Architectural Digest's parent company. Designed by the architecture firm Peterson Rich Office (PRO), the five-room exhibition space was carved from a former interior courtyard and gift shop, revealing historic brick and masonry facades that highlight the museum's architectural evolution. The galleries debuted alongside the exhibition "Costume Art," which explores the significance of dressed human form in fashion and fine art, curated by Andrew Bolton and celebrated at the Met Gala on May 4, 2026.

Museum Moves 24 – 30 April 2026

This article is a weekly roundup of museum news from 24–30 April 2026, covering openings, closures, and exhibitions across the UK. Highlights include the permanent closure of Blackpool's Tramtown museum due to structural unsafety, the reopening of Sibsey Trader Windmill after a five-year restoration, and several new exhibitions: 'Vennels: Perth’s Little Streets' at Perth Museum, 'The 90s: Art and Fashion' at Tate Britain, 'Regeneration' at Hull's Streetlife Museum, 'Inspiration' at Stockport Station, 'Our Story with David Attenborough' at Outernet London, and 'Lynn Chadwick at Houghton Hall' in Norfolk.

Frist Art Museum Will Present 100 Years of Contemporary Indigenous Art

The Frist Art Museum in Nashville will present "An Indigenous Present," an exhibition spanning 100 years of modern and contemporary Indigenous art, from June 26 to September 27, 2026. Co-curated by artist Jeffrey Gibson and independent curator Jenelle Porter, the show features 15 artists who use abstraction as a tool for liberated expression, including Teresa Baker, Raven Chacon, Kimowan Metchewais, Caroline Monnet, George Morrison, Mary Sully, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, and Kay WalkingStick. Organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, the exhibition draws from Gibson and Porter's landmark 2023 publication of the same title and is structured into five thematic sections that place emerging artists in dialogue with established makers.

« À qui appartiennent ces œuvres ? » : le destin des biens culturels spoliés par les nazis au cœur d’un nouvel espace au musée d’Orsay

On May 5, the Musée d'Orsay in Paris inaugurated a new dedicated space in the Pavillon Amont for artworks looted during World War II that remain unclaimed by their owners or heirs. The room, titled "À qui appartiennent ces œuvres ?" ("Who owns these works?"), features thirteen pieces including sculptures by Auguste Rodin and paintings by Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, and Eugène Boudin. These represent a fraction of the museum's 225 MNR (Musées nationaux récupération) holdings, part of a national legacy of approximately 2,000 looted works still held in French museums.

Video: The secrets of the unicorn, a legendary creature at the heart of an exhibition at the Musée de Cluny

Vidéo : Les secrets de la licorne, créature légendaire au cœur d’une exposition au musée de Cluny

The Musée de Cluny in Paris is presenting an exhibition titled "Licornes!" from March 13 to July 12, 2026, exploring the history and symbolism of the unicorn from antiquity to the present day. Curated by Béatrice de Chancel-Bardelot, the show traces the creature's evolving depiction in literature, illuminated manuscripts, frescoes, tapestries, and contemporary art, highlighting its shifting meanings from a wild, aggressive beast to a symbol of purity, virtue, and, more recently, LGBTQIA+ pride and feminine power.

Il mitico artista-ceramista italiano Nanni Valentini torna negli Stati Uniti con una mostra sulla sua storia. Le immagini

The Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York, is hosting "Interspaces," a retrospective exhibition dedicated to Italian artist Nanni Valentini (1932–1985), a pivotal figure in ceramic art. Curated by Garth Johnson of the Everson Museum and Luca Bochicchio of the Museo della Ceramica di Savona, with oversight by art historian Flaminio Gualdoni, the show runs until September 6, 2026. It traces Valentini's evolution from functional pottery to conceptual wall works, featuring pieces like "I segni della terra" (1981) and "Impronta-totem" (1979), on loan from ABC-ARTE gallery. The exhibition marks Valentini's return to the U.S., where he first gained international recognition at the museum's 1958 Ceramic International, introduced by Lucio Fontana.

Paris exhibition celebrates the visionary world of Hilma af Klint, an artist ahead of her time

A major exhibition at Paris's Grand Palais presents Hilma af Klint's visionary abstract series "Paintings for the Temple" (1906–1915) for the first time in France. The show features works like "The Ten Largest" (1907), which predate the abstract art of Kandinsky, Mondrian, and Malevich by several years. Curated by Pascal Rousseau, the exhibition highlights Af Klint's pioneering use of spirals, geometric forms, and spiritual themes, created in seclusion and long hidden from public view.

Meet the Mona Lisa! A free new immersive exhibition opens at Hong Kong Heritage Museum

A free immersive digital exhibition titled 'Meet Mona Lisa & Portraying the Renaissance' opens on May 1 at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, running through July 27. Created in collaboration with the Musée du Louvre and the Grand Palais Immersif, the show is split into two sections: a multimedia journey guided by a narrated Mona Lisa across six chapters, including an interactive photo booth, and a second section featuring over 100 Renaissance treasures from European institutions. Highlights include four original manuscripts of the human body and faces by Leonardo da Vinci, shown for the first time in Hong Kong, alongside loans from the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, the Musée national de la Renaissance, works by mainland artist Xu Lei, and items from the museum's own collection.

Summer Previews: The Season’s Most Anticipated Shows

Artforum's editors preview twenty-five anticipated institutional exhibitions opening worldwide between May and August. Highlights include "Fade" at the Studio Museum in Harlem, the latest in its career-making "F show" series featuring seventeen emerging artists of African descent; "Modernity and Opulence: Women of the Wiener Werkstätte" at the Jewish Museum in New York, showcasing over 180 women designers from Austria's famed atelier; "Replica of a Chip: The Weaving Technology of Marilou Schultz" at the Hessel Museum of Art, exploring the intersection of Navajo weaving and microchip history; the 59th Carnegie International at the Carnegie Museum of Art, with 61 artists spread across Pittsburgh venues; and "Mary Ellen Carroll: How to Talk Dirty and Influence People" at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston.

This Y/Project Suit Defines The Met’s “Costume Art” Exhibition

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced its 2026 exhibition "Costume Art," which will inaugurate the new Condé M. Nast Galleries. Curator Andrew Bolton explains the show will focus on the dressed body's connection to art history, emphasizing materiality and corporeality over visuality. A key preview piece is a Y/Project suit from FW22, designed by Glenn Martens and Jean Paul Gaultier, featuring a trompe-l'oeil nude male figure that will be displayed alongside a 1st–2nd century CE marble statue of Diadoumenos. Other sections include "The Naked Body," "The Aging Body," and "The Anatomical Body."

'Art is just about making trouble': Inside Auckland Art Gallery's bold new show

Auckland Art Gallery is preparing to open "Forever Tomorrow: Chinese Art Now," a major exhibition of contemporary Chinese art curated by Hutch Wilco. The show features works from the White Rabbit Collection in Sydney, including a massive 7-meter-high stone sculpture by Xu Zhen, paintings by Shang Liang, and photography by Pixy Liao, who recently won a 2026 Guggenheim Fellowship. Wilco spent three years organizing the exhibition, which includes playful sculptures, paintings, and multimedia works, with significant logistical challenges in transporting large pieces from China.

Francis Alÿs at MAMU: A Global Portrait of Childhood Through Play

The Banco de la República has opened a new exhibition at the Museo de Arte Miguel Urrutia (MAMU) in Bogotá titled "Francis Alÿs, juegxs de niñxs 1999–2025." Featuring 27 video works from the Belgian-born, Mexico-based artist's long-running series documenting children's games worldwide, the show opened on April 23 at El Parqueadero and the second floor of MAMU. Curated by Cuauhtémoc Medina and Virginia Roy, the exhibition includes footage from Afghanistan, India, Mexico, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Colombia, where a new work filmed in the Amazon with the Arara community is featured.

Giovanni Segantini at the Marmottan Monet Museum: our photos from the exhibition on the painter of the Alps

The Marmottan Monet Museum in Paris has opened a major retrospective of Giovanni Segantini, an Italian painter known for his Symbolist and Divisionist Alpine landscapes. Titled "I Want to See My Mountains," the exhibition runs from April 29 to August 16, 2026, and features over 60 works including oil paintings, pastels, and drawings, plus around 30 works on paper from European collections. Curated by Gabriella Belli and Diana Segantini, the show traces Segantini's artistic journey from his early days in Italy to his time in the Engadine Valley in Switzerland, where he found inspiration in mountain landscapes. The exhibition is divided into ten sections and also includes a contemporary tribute to Anselm Kiefer, whose works create a dialogue with Segantini's vision.

In Perugia, Giotto and the Giotteschi to celebrate the 800th anniversary of the death of Saint Francis

A Perugia Giotto e i Giotteschi per celebrare gli 800 anni dalla morte di San Francesco

The Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria in Perugia has opened the exhibition "Giotto e san Francesco. Una rivoluzione nell'Umbria del Trecento" to mark the 800th anniversary of the death of Saint Francis of Assisi. Curated by Veruska Picchiarelli and Emanuele Zappasodi, the show brings together major international loans to reunite works by Giotto and his Umbrian and Sienese followers, exploring the artistic revolution sparked by Francis's life and Giotto's break from Byzantine tradition toward naturalism.

According to Brian Eno, everything is political. And in Parma, his first exhibition in Italy opens, also speaking about Palestine

Secondo Brian Eno tutto è politica. E a Parma apre la sua prima mostra in Italia che parla anche della Palestina

Brian Eno, the internationally renowned British artist and musician, opens his first retrospective exhibition in Italy at the Complesso Monumentale di San Paolo in Parma, running from May 1 to August 2, 2026. The show features two complementary projects: SEED, a site-specific sound installation created with Turkish writer Ece Temelkuran in the garden, and My Light Years, a light-based work in the newly restored Ospedale Vecchio. Curated by Alessandro Albertini, the exhibition marks Eno's return to Italy after his Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the 2023 Venice Biennale, and follows earlier interventions at Castello del Buonconsiglio, Palazzo Te, and Ara Pacis.

The Major Exhibitions at LUMA Arles in France: Zaha Hadid, Gerhard Richter and Patti Smith

Le grandi mostre al LUMA di Arles in Francia: Zaha Hadid, Gerhard Richter e Patti Smith

LUMA Arles in France will launch a new exhibition cycle on May 1, 2026, followed by a second series starting July 4. The program, presented by CEO Mustapha Bouhayati and artistic director Vassilis Oikonomopoulos, includes a major show of Gerhard Richter's "Overpainted Photographs" in the Frank Gehry-designed tower, a Zaha Hadid retrospective titled "I Think There Should Be No End to Experimentation" marking the tenth anniversary of her death, and a centennial celebration of the influential art magazine Cahiers d'Art. The exhibitions aim to bridge visual arts with music, performance, and live events, bringing together voices from diverse geographies and disciplines.