Gallery Weekend Berlin 2026 features over 50 galleries across the city, with a strong emphasis on painting. The event, founded in 2005 by a cooperative of local gallerists as an alternative to traditional art fairs, this year confirms the lasting power of painting despite its original anti-painting ethos.
The Guardian presents a photo essay capturing the most eccentric and memorable moments from the 61st Venice Biennale, running until 22 November 2026. Photographer David Levene documents installations including a concrete 'Origami Deer' evacuated from war-torn Pokrovsk, Ukraine, by artist Zhanna Kadyrova; a seagull that became a minor celebrity after nesting outside the Polish pavilion; and the Holy See pavilion's immersive sound installation curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Ben Vickers. Other highlights include the Egyptian pavilion's touch-and-smell 'Silence Pavilion' and a Polish pavilion film featuring deaf and hearing singers.
Debbie Lawson presents a solo exhibition, "In a Cowslip's Bell I Lie," at Sargent's Daughters in New York, featuring her signature large-scale sculptures of life-size animals cloaked in ornamental Persian carpets. Using wire mesh, masking tape, and Jesmonite resin, she meticulously wraps each limb in carpet, creating the illusion that the animals have emerged from the textiles themselves. The show includes works such as "Wild Dog Sundown" (2025), "Red Eagle" (2026), and "Black Cougar" (2025), and draws its title from Shakespeare's *The Tempest*.
Dietro ogni grande artista… c’è una grande galleria. Un punto sulla Biennale Arte 2026
The 61st Venice Biennale, titled "In Minor Keys" (May 9 – November 22, 2026), features over 90% living artists, a significant shift from recent editions focused on historical rediscoveries. Curated by the late Koyo Kouoh (1967–2025), the first African woman to lead the Biennale, the exhibition includes 111 artists, with a majority of women (64 vs. 48 men) and the highest percentage of African-born artists ever (20%). Notable participants include Nick Cave, Carsten Höller, Alfredo Jaar, and Kader Attia, with a focus on mid-career and established figures rather than emerging or deceased artists.
The eighth edition of the Felix Art Fair returned to the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in February 2026, featuring 57 galleries with a significant emphasis on Los Angeles-based talent. The fair maintained its signature intimate atmosphere, utilizing hotel rooms, cabanas, and the iconic David Hockney-designed pool area to showcase a diverse range of contemporary works. This year's iteration saw a high influx of new participants, with over 20 galleries making their debut at the event.
The Venice Biennale returns for its 61st edition, running from May 9 to November 22, 2026. The event, often called the Olympics of the art world, comprises a central exhibition curated by an artistic director, national pavilions from dozens of countries, and officially approved Collateral Events. This year's edition was to be curated by Koyo Kouoh, a celebrated Cameroonian-born curator, but she died at 57 in May 2025 before announcing the title and theme, “In Minor Keys.” The Biennale organization has moved forward with a team of five curatorial advisers executing her vision. The event is overseen by president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco and is expected to draw over 800,000 visitors.
Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library is hosting a new exhibition titled "'Beauties of My Style,'" which explores 500 years of printed errors and errata sheets. Curated by Rachel Churner and Geoff Kaplan, the show features approximately 30 artifacts ranging from James Joyce’s error-riddled first edition of Ulysses to the infamous 1631 "Wicked Bible," which accidentally commanded readers to commit adultery. The exhibition highlights how these slips of paper serve as more than just corrections, acting as sites of humor, legal maneuvering, and poetic reinterpretation.
The Darwin D. Martin House in Buffalo, a landmark of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie School architecture, has launched a new exhibition titled “Collecting Ourselves.” The show highlights the museum's decades-long, painstaking effort to track down and repatriate the original furniture and decorative objects designed specifically for the site. While the structural restoration of the complex was completed in 2017, the task of reuniting Wright’s holistic interior vision—including his iconic Barrel chairs and intricate art glass—remains an ongoing archival and curatorial challenge.
Fondazione Dries Van Noten has opened at Palazzo Pisani Moretta in Venice with its inaugural exhibition, "The Only True Protest Is Beauty," running from April 25 to October 4, 2026. Curated by Dries Van Noten himself, the show features over 200 works across twenty rooms, blending fashion, art, design, ceramics, glass, and photography. Highlights include archival pieces by Christian Lacroix and Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garçons, alongside works by emerging and established artists such as Ayham Hassan, Peter Buggenhout, Ritsue Mishima, and Misha Kahn. The exhibition avoids a fixed curatorial logic, instead using instinctive juxtapositions to explore beauty as tension and disruption.
The US pavilion at the Venice Biennale has selected Alma Allen, a Utah-born, Mexico-based sculptor, as its representative artist—a controversial and surprising choice given his relative obscurity compared to past pavilion artists. The selection process was unusually fraught: the first artist chosen was dropped before official announcement, and the announcement was delayed by the US government shutdown. The pavilion's curator, Jeffrey Uslip, discusses the exhibition titled "Call Me the Breeze," which will feature Allen's sculptures in stone, bronze, and wood that appear to defy their own weight, emphasizing artistic autonomy despite the State Department's framing of the choice as showcasing "American excellence."
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.
Ariana Papademetropoulos has debuted a new solo exhibition titled "Glass Slipper" at Thaddaeus Ropac’s gallery in Paris. The show features a diverse range of works, including hyper-realistic paintings of dry-cleaned dresses, surrealist landscapes featuring floating chairs, and a central immersive installation. This centerpiece consists of a mattress and a fish tank filled with 150 kissing fish, accompanied by a commissioned ambient soundtrack by Nicolas Godin of the band Air, designed to evoke a meditative, ritualistic experience.
Ralph Lemon's exhibition at Paula Cooper Gallery presents 13 black-and-white photographs and three short videos focusing on sites in the Mississippi Delta connected to the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till. Rather than dramatizing the incident, Lemon records physical traces of the locations—such as Bryant's Grocery and Meat Market, the barn where Till was killed, the Tallahatchie River, and a funeral home—capturing dilapidated buildings and landscapes that suggest history slipping away. The show includes the titular video "From Out of Space" (2018–21), which offers closeups and drone footage of these sites, creating a meditative, detective-like examination of memory and erasure.
Galleries and museums across the United States are presenting a diverse range of exhibitions featuring Black artists during Black History Month. These shows highlight artists working in various mediums, from painting and drawing to installation and tapestry, and are on view in cities including Miami, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Chicago.
Boston Art Review (BAR) has published a curated list of fifteen standout exhibitions to visit this winter, highlighting a diverse range of contemporary art shows across Boston and beyond. The selection includes both local gallery presentations and major museum exhibitions, offering readers a guide to the season's most compelling visual art experiences.
The 61st Venice International Art Biennale has opened in Venice, running until November, amid unprecedented turmoil. The main exhibition, "In Minor Keys," was curated by Koyo Kouoh, who died of cancer shortly after presenting her vision featuring 111 artists including Carsten Höller, Alvaro Barrington, and Laurie Anderson. Her death has eliminated the Lifetime Achievement Award this year. Additionally, the Biennale faces a funding crisis as the EU threatens to withdraw its €2 million subsidy over Russia's participation with 38 artists following the invasion of Ukraine. Iran, Nigeria, and Israel are absent from their pavilions, while the US Pavilion, now organized by the American Arts Conservancy under inexperienced leadership, features self-taught artist Alma Allen.
The Branch Museum of Design in Richmond has opened 'Imagining Best Products,' an exhibition exploring the architectural and graphic design legacy of the former retailer Best Products. The show, curated by architect Don O’Keefe with Harvard Graduate School of Design students, features original drawings by James Wines, items from a 1979 MoMA exhibition, and building models. It coincides with the demolition of Best Products' old headquarters in Henrico, which is being razed for a new arena-anchored development, though the timing is coincidental.
A flurry of gallery activity is scheduled for the week of February 2-8, 2026, in New York City. Numerous exhibitions are opening, including "Interstice: Whirled Music" at Kiang Malingue, "Everything She Touches" by Alix Vernet at Eric Firestone Gallery, and "Anima" by Felipe Baeza at Print Center New York. Concurrently, many shows are in their final days, such as "A Retrospective by Ruth Asawa" at the Museum of Modern Art, "FDR Drive Musel, 1984" by Keith Haring at Martos Gallery, and "West Coast Women of Abstract Expressionism" at Berry Campbell.
The US State Department has officially confirmed that sculptor Alma Allen will represent the United States at the 2026 Venice Biennale, following earlier delays caused by a 43-day government shutdown. Allen's exhibition, titled "Alma Allen: Call the Breeze," will run from May 9 to November 22, 2026, at the US Pavilion, organized by commissioner Jenni Parido of the American Arts Conservancy and independent curator Jeffrey Uslip. The show will feature around 30 sculptures, including new site-specific works, and the state department announcement explicitly aligns the presentation with President Donald Trump's "America first" ideology, framing the artworks as symbols of collective optimism and American excellence.
This fall, Seattle's visual arts scene is exceptionally strong, with a curated guide highlighting 16 must-see exhibitions across the city. Notable shows include Matthew Deane Parker's 'Hard Body' at Gallery 4Culture, featuring foam boulders sculpted by an artist with multiple sclerosis; Rob Rhee's 'Crossings' at the Jacob Lawrence Gallery, using dried gourds; and Stefan Gonzales's 'Unclassified Materials' and 'Quarry,' which reimagine land art through a decolonial lens. Other highlights include Rodney McMillian's 'Neighbors' at the Henry Art Gallery, 'Woven in Wool' at the Burke Museum showcasing Coast Salish weaving, and a trio of Indigenous-focused shows at the Frye Art Museum featuring Camille Trautman, Priscilla Dobler Dzul, and a survey of the late Beau Dick.
The article announces the exhibition 'Making Their Mark: Works from the Shah Garg Collection' at Washington University in St. Louis (WashU). The show features works from the collection of Shah Garg, highlighting a selection of contemporary artworks.
The article highlights top art exhibitions in Seattle for July, including the return of the Seattle Art Fair (July 17-20) and several gallery shows. Featured exhibitions include Cable Griffith's 'Return to Sender' at J. Rinehart Gallery, Jite Agbro's 'Penumbras' at Patricia Rovzar Gallery, a duo show 'Color and Line' with Kevin Cosley and Soo Hong at Chatwin Arts, Althea Rao's 'Commit to Memory, Know it Will Perish' at Gallery 4Culture, and Humaira Abid's 'The Shape of Life' at Greg Kucera Gallery.
Slip House, a new gallery co-founded by Ingrid Lundgren and Marissa Dembkoski, will open to the public on May 9, 2025, during Frieze Week. Located in a 1,000-square-foot, three-story former carriage house at 246 East 5th Street in New York's East Village, the gallery's inaugural exhibition features a multigenerational roster of artists, including historic works by Jack Whitten and Claude Viallat alongside contemporary pieces by Anne Hayden Stevens, Lizzy Gabay, Max Guy, and others. Former Sprüth Magers Director Jessica Draper co-curates the debut presentation. The space includes a second-floor fireplace and kitchen, and a third-floor live/work area that will host a rotating artist residency, with co-founder Dembkoski living onsite during the first year.
Biennale de Venise : un Pavillon US silencieux
The US Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale, featuring artist Alma Allen, opened to sparse crowds despite a 10% overall attendance increase at the Biennale. The pavilion was embroiled in controversy before opening: Allen was selected by the American Arts Conservancy (AAC), a private entity created in 2025 at the initiative of Donald Trump after the dissolution of the federal committee that previously oversaw the pavilion. AAC head Jenni Parido, a former pet food executive, chose the self-taught, little-known artist who had never had a solo museum exhibition. Major funders the Ford and Mellon Foundations withdrew, forcing the AAC to launch a public donation appeal. The exhibition features 25 abstract bronze, stone, and burl-wood sculptures that the artist describes as biomorphic landscapes, but critics find them pleasant yet silent, lacking the promised political or visceral resonance.
The Contact Photography Festival, Canada's largest photography event, opens Friday in Toronto with over 160 exhibitions across eclectic venues including artist-run centers, commercial galleries, cafes, and a laundromat. Highlights include a towering portrait by Haitian-born artist Thandiwe Muriu on Spadina Ave., and a multi-site exhibition by Turner Prize-nominee Sin Wai Kin, featuring billboards and a two-channel video titled 'The Time of Our Lives.' The festival lost its long-time lead sponsor Scotiabank in 2024, resulting in a reduced budget and less public programming, but organizers remain committed to championing lens-based art.
This article is a curated guide to ten art exhibitions taking place across Upstate New York in February. It highlights a diverse range of shows, including Kim Tateo's abstract paintings at Context Collective, Barbara Todd's politically charged textile works at Opalka Gallery, Michael Salomon's photographic landscapes, and group shows celebrating creative courage and Hudson Valley artists. Other featured exhibitions include Sita Gómez's paintings of women at Hudson Hall and photography shows by Ocean Vuong and Nona Faustine at the Center for Photography at Woodstock.
U.S. artist Alma Allen, a self-taught sculptor from Utah who works in Mexico, has been selected to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale with his exhibition "Call Me the Breeze" at the U.S. Pavilion. The selection process was fraught and opaque, with institutions declining to bid for the commission due to concerns about administration politics after the open call removed diversity, equity and inclusion language in favor of promoting "American values." A prior proposal for artist Robert Lazzarini fell apart after its institutional sponsor backed out, and Allen's project was quickly assembled with the American Arts Conservancy as sponsor and Jeffrey Uslip as curator. Allen, who has lived outside the critical art world for three decades, created a bronze evil eye for the pavilion's exterior and a headless sheep sculpture as a self-portrait of an outsider.
The article previews the 61st Venice Biennale, opening May 9 and running through November 22, highlighting early controversies. The five-person Golden Lion jury, led by Brazilian curator Solange Farkas, resigned after declaring they would not consider pavilions from countries under International Criminal Court investigation, targeting the Israel pavilion and its artist Belu-Simion Fainaru. Separately, the US pavilion has drawn scrutiny from the New York Times over its selection process, with commissioner Jenni Parido (a former pet food store owner) tapping curator Jeffrey Uslip and sculptor Alma Allen, bypassing traditional funders like the Ford and Mellon foundations.
The United States Pavilion will open at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia with a landmark solo presentation by artist Alma Allen, titled "Call Me the Breeze." The exhibition marks the first time the U.S. Pavilion has dedicated its space to a single artist in this context, highlighting Allen's sculptural work that blends organic forms with industrial materials.
The United States Pavilion at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia will open on May 6, 2026, featuring a solo presentation titled "Call Me the Breeze" by American artist Alma Allen. Curated by Jeffrey Uslip and commissioned by the American Arts Conservancy with support from the U.S. Department of State and the Guggenheim Foundation, the exhibition transforms the historic Giardini pavilion with sculptures in bronze, walnut burl, and various stones, including Colorado Yule marble used in the Lincoln Memorial.