10 Exhibitions to See in Upstate New York This May

Hyperallergic's guide highlights 10 exhibitions opening in Upstate New York this May, including the Hessel Museum of Art's annual showcase of thesis exhibitions by graduates of the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, featuring works by Alice Aycock, Arthur Jafa, Mike Kelley, and Ana Mendieta. Other notable shows include Daniele Frazier's camera-less photography at September Gallery, Onnis Luque's investigation into resource exploitation at Art Omi, and Japanese woodblock prints at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. The guide also covers Lukaza Branfman-Verissimo's mixed-media works and Maria Auxiliadora da Silva's paintings.

rasquachismo exhibition mcnay art museum 1234742520

The McNay Art Museum in San Antonio mounted the exhibition "Rasquachismo: 35 Years of a Chicano Sensibility" to mark the 35th anniversary of scholar Tomás Ybarra-Frausto's foundational 1989 essay theorizing rasquachismo. The show, curated by Mia Lopez and on view from December through March, featured works by major Chicanx artists including Yolanda M. López, Carmen Lomas Garza, Santa Barraza, Celia Álvarez Muñoz, Carlos Almaraz, Frank Romero, Patssi Valdez, Luis Jiménez, and younger artists like Ruth Buentello, Juan de Dios Mora, and Jimmy James Canales. Ybarra-Frausto credited Mi Tierra Cafe y Panaderia in San Antonio's Historic Market Square as a key influence on his critical eye, describing the restaurant as a "hotbed of rasquachismo."

‘It has become a symbol of hope’: the epic journey of Ukraine’s origami deer to the Venice biennale

Ukrainian artist Zhanna Kadyrova's concrete origami deer sculpture, originally installed in Pokrovsk in 2018, has been evacuated from the war-torn Donetsk region and transported across Europe to become the centerpiece of Ukraine's national pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale. The sculpture, which replaced a Soviet fighter-bomber monument in a local park, was rescued in August 2024 by co-curator Leonid Marushchak amid intensifying Russian attacks, with the help of city authorities and museum staff.

Sarasota Art Museum stages an Art Deco extravaganza

The Sarasota Art Museum (SAM) on the Ringling College of Art and Design campus has opened "Art Deco: The Golden Age of Illustration," an exhibition of 100 large posters from the Crouse family collection. Curated by Rangsook Yoon, the show celebrates the 100th anniversary of Art Deco, tracing its origins from the Belle Epoque through the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris, and features works by artists such as Alphonse Mucha, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen. The Crouses, who previously lent works to The Guggenheim and the Victoria and Albert Museum, displayed part of their collection at New York's Poster House in 2023-2024.

Seattle mural festival, shows that make you think and more visual arts

Seattle's visual arts scene remains vibrant after the Seattle Art Fair, with a packed schedule of exhibitions and events. Highlights include the politically charged "Latin American Land/Escapes" at SOIL Gallery, featuring 14 Mexican artists whose names were withheld due to immigration concerns; "Hugh Hayden: American Vernacular" at the Frye Art Museum, the artist's first solo museum show on the West Coast; a new mural by Charlene Liu at the Henry Art Gallery; and the ongoing "Ai, Rebel: The Art and Activism of Ai Weiwei" at the Seattle Art Museum. The Belltown Mural Festival also returns for a second year, with live painting performances starting Aug. 4.

The Musée des Arts Décoratifs celebrates France’s ‘king of fashion’, who married haute couture to art

The Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris is presenting a new exhibition, *Paul Poiret: Fashion is a Feast*, dedicated to the early 20th-century French couturier who styled himself the “King of Fashion.” The show draws on the museum’s extensive Poiret collection, spanning from the Belle Époque through the 1920s, and features his garments alongside photographs, drawings, posters, and illustrations. It traces Poiret’s career from his start at the House of Worth to his independent house, his collaborations with artists such as Raoul Dufy and Maurice de Vlaminck, and his exotic inspirations from travels in Europe and North Africa.

Protection and Constraint are Two Sides of the Same Coin: An Exhibition in Rome Proves It

Protezione e costrizione sono due facce della stessa medaglia. Una mostra a Roma lo dimostra

The gallery Monti8 in Rome is hosting a group exhibition titled "The Bell Jar," co-curated by Massimiliano Maglione. Inspired by Sylvia Plath’s 1963 novel, the show features seven international artists—Camilla Alberti, Ruby Chen, Mounir Eddib, Stephen Buscemi, Naomi Hawksley, Steffen Kern, and Amber Wynne-Jones. The exhibition explores the dual nature of the glass bell jar as both a protective shield for precious objects and a suffocating barrier that isolates the subject from the world.

Pioneering Pop Surrealist Gallery in Seattle Celebrates Reopening With Three Exhibitions in New Space

Roq La Rue, a pioneering gallery in Seattle's art scene known for championing Pop Surrealism and New Contemporary movements, has reopened in a new space in the Belltown neighborhood—its eighth location in 27 years. The reopening was celebrated with three simultaneous exhibitions: a solo show by Frank Gonzales titled "Frequencies," a group show of small works called "Spectacle du Petit," and a four-person exhibition "Unveiled" featuring large-scale works by Beth Cavener, Josie Morway, Carles Gomila, and Jason Puccinelli. Founder Kirsten Anderson described the renovated space as an "elevated, elegant" oasis with a book nook and coffee to encourage visitors to linger.

Basel Abbas & Ruanne Abou-Rahme: Archivists and Activists

New York- and Ramallah-based Palestinian artists Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme present *Prisoners of Love: Until the Sun of Freedom* (2025), an hour-long four-channel film installation at The Bell/Brown Arts Institute in Providence. The work layers psychedelic imagery of figures in nature with spoken and written testimonies from Palestinians formerly detained by Israeli authorities, exploring themes of incarceration, surveillance, and resistance through fragmented montage and poetic text. The exhibition also includes drawings by Abou-Rahme’s father and printed screenshots of reflections on the genocide in Gaza.

Whales and the stories they carry about climate change are the subject of new art and science exhibition at the IAS - UC Santa Cruz

The Institute of the Arts and Sciences (IAS) at UC Santa Cruz will present "Weather and the Whale," a major art and science exhibition running from May 29, 2025, to March 8, 2026. The show features immersive displays of original scientific research from the Friedlaender Lab, alongside newly commissioned contemporary artworks by ten artists and collectives, including Carolina Caycedo. The exhibition explores how climate change affects whales and marine mammals, using video, painting, photography, sculpture, and installations to communicate ecological threats such as environmental toxins and sea ice retreat.

‘Life! Life! Life!’: Reviving a Globe-Trotting Sculptor of the Gilded Age

An exhibition at the Museo del Novecento in Milan is dedicated to reviving the legacy of sculptor Paolo Troubetzkoy. The show, titled "Paolo Troubetzkoy: The Sculptor of the Belle Époque," features over 100 works, including portraits of famous figures like Leo Tolstoy and George Bernard Shaw, aiming to reintroduce this once-celebrated artist to a contemporary audience.

art basel abbas ruanne abou rahme brown bell gallery

An exhibition titled "Prisoners of Love: Until the Sun of Freedom" by artists Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme is on view at the Bell Gallery at Brown University until May 31. The show centers on a historical misattribution: the poem "Enemy of the Sun," found in the cell of Black Panther George Jackson after his 1971 murder, was long thought to be his work but was actually written by Palestinian poet Samih al-Qasim. Through a video installation featuring interviews with former political prisoners in Palestine, the artists explore what they call "radical kinship" between Black radical thinkers in the U.S. and Palestinian activists. Curators Kate Kraczon and Thea Quiray Tagle, who were terminated from Brown last December, collaborated on the project, which also draws on archival research into mass incarceration.

Spring/summer 2026 program

The Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington has unveiled its spring/summer 2026 exhibition schedule, featuring a diverse lineup of solo and group presentations. Highlights include a major exhibition by Diné artist Eric-Paul Riege exploring Indigenous cosmology and institutional knowledge, a showcase of Helen Frankenthaler’s experimental printmaking alongside works by Analia Saban, and the annual University of Washington MFA and MDes thesis exhibition. The season also features "Day-to-Day: Rhythm, Routine, Resistance," a collection-based show examining the intersection of personal life and structural social forces.

John Bellany exhibition in Haddington shines spotlight on his unknown work

A major exhibition of rarely seen works by Scottish painter John Bellany has opened at the John Gray Centre in Haddington, East Lothian. Curated by his widow Helen Bellany and Alexander Moffat RSA, the show features early and lesser-known pieces, many never publicly displayed before. It runs until September 19 as part of the Royal Scottish Academy's RSA200: Celebrating Together project, marking the RSA's 200th anniversary. Loans come from the Bellany estate, Alexander Moffat's private collection, East Lothian Council Museums Service, and the Royal Scottish Academy.

Go See Diné Artist Eric-Paul Riege’s Largest Show to Date at the Henry Art Gallery

Diné artist Eric-Paul Riege has opened his largest exhibition to date, titled "ojo|-|ólǫ́," at the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle. The show features textile sculptures, looms, beading, video, and performance, and uniquely invites visitors to physically touch the artworks, allowing them to become part of the objects' material history through their interactions.

Adam Art Gallery Autumn Exhibition Focuses On The Voice - Scoop

Te Pātaka Toi Adam Art Gallery has announced its autumn exhibition, "Peal the Bells," featuring five projects that explore the human voice as a medium for collective action, lament, and political critique. The group show includes paintings, sonic installations, and moving image works by artists Noor Abed, Anoushka Akel, Qianye and Qianhe Lin, Maree Sheehan, and Mo H. Zareei. The exhibition investigates how speech and listening function in an era of digital chatter and bureaucratic evasion, highlighting the voice as a vital index of contemporary social dynamics.