How Janette Beckman Captured Music History in Real Time

A new exhibition at Seattle's Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) titled 'Rebels + Icons: The Photography of Janette Beckman' showcases over 500 images by British photographer Janette Beckman, spanning four decades. The show features her early, pre-fame portraits of music and cultural icons including Public Enemy, Joe Strummer, Keith Haring, Salt-N-Pepa, and John Lydon, captured at the dawn of punk and hip-hop movements. Beckman, who began her career photographing unknown punk bands for Melody Maker, also documented the first hip-hop show in London in 1982, capturing figures like Fab 5 Freddy and Afrika Bambaataa before they became legends. The retrospective includes her fashion work and street photography, highlighting her ability to gain trust quickly with subjects.

From The Sheep Detectives to Rivals: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead

This week's entertainment guide from The Guardian includes a major outdoor sculpture exhibition of Henry Moore's monumental works at Kew Gardens, running from May 9, 2026 to January 31, 2027. The show features 30 of Moore's sculptures in the largest-ever presentation of outdoor works by the English modernist. Additionally, Parham Ghalamdar presents a solo exhibition of post-apocalyptic ceramic and glass works at Blenheim Walk Gallery in Leeds, and Photo London, the UK's leading photography fair, returns for its 11th year, moving to Kensington Olympia after a decade at Somerset House.

From Agnès Varda to Giuseppe Penone, the strange passion of artists for potatoes deciphered in Aubenas

D’Agnès Varda à Giuseppe Penone, l’étrange passion des artistes pour les patates décryptée à Aubenas

The article explores the exhibition "Des patates" at Le Château – Centre d'Art Contemporain et du Patrimoine in Aubenas, France, which celebrates the humble potato as an artistic subject. It highlights how filmmaker and visual artist Agnès Varda turned potatoes into art with her 2003 Venice Biennale project "Patatutopia," dressing as a potato and scattering 700 kilos of tubers, inspired by her documentary *Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse*. The show also features works by Giuseppe Penone, Michel Blazy, Valérie Geissbühler Pacheco, and Lucas Chanoine, all using potatoes to explore themes of consumption, waste, colonialism, and the cycle of life.

Catherine Opie “To Be Seen” at National Portrait Gallery, London

The National Portrait Gallery in London is hosting "Catherine Opie: To Be Seen," the first major UK museum exhibition dedicated to the American photographer. The show brings together over 80 photographs spanning 30 years of Opie's career, exploring themes of social, political, and individual identity through studio portraiture, environmental studies, and documentary images.

‘You look at it and you just feel better’: this year’s Photoville festival highlights

The 15th annual Photoville festival in New York features over 90 photographic exhibits, ranging from whimsical subjects like cosmic-looking apples in "Old Apples" to hard-hitting reportage on wildfires, water access inequalities, and ICE's impact on communities. Notable exhibits include "Special Girls," showcasing 1990s photos of trans women from the Remsen Wolff archive, and "Point of View," pairing self-portraits by Dutch college students with Rijksmuseum artworks. Other highlights include Lexi Parra's "The Avillas," documenting a family after a matriarch's self-deportation, and "Puppies Behind Bars," a photo series on incarcerated men raising service dogs at Green Haven prison.

Photo London Returns with a Global Perspective at Olympia

Photo London has opened its latest edition at Olympia London, marking a significant move from its previous home at Somerset House. The fair brings together international galleries from cities including New Delhi, Cologne, New York, Glasgow, Buenos Aires, Johannesburg, Zurich, Paris, Tokyo, Taipei, Munich, and London, creating a global conversation around photography. Highlights include Alfredo Jaar's installation 'Searching for Africa in LIFE,' which interrogates the absence of African voices in Western media, and presentations by Autograph, Leica Gallery London, and others that explore themes of migration, memory, identity, and representation.

With Her First Solo Museum Show in the US, Widline Cadet Conjures Scenes She Can’t Quite Remember

Photographer Widline Cadet has opened her first solo museum exhibition in the United States, titled "Currents 40: Widline Cadet," at the Milwaukee Art Museum. The show, on view through August 9, 2026, features 52 photos and videos that explore her family's migration story from Haiti to the United States. Cadet's installation includes a recreated Haitian living room with plastic flowers, ceramic angels, and a wall-size portrait of her father, blending reality and fantasy to evoke fragmented memories of home.

Lee Miller in Wide Angle

Lee Miller en grand angle

The Musée d'Art moderne de Paris (MAM) has opened a major retrospective of photographer Lee Miller (1907-1977), featuring nearly 250 prints—many vintage and previously unseen. The exhibition originated at Tate Britain, where it drew over 250,000 visitors, and was co-organized with MAM and the Art Institute of Chicago. Curated by Michal Goldschmidt (former Tate Britain curator) and Fanny Schulmann of MAM, with new research led by Hilary Floe, the show emphasizes Miller's ties to Paris, her technical mastery, and her wartime reporting, including contact sheets from Dachau and Buchenwald never before shown in France.

Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani, a New Sort of Street Artist, Rises from Art History’s Margins

Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani, a late Japanese American collagist who lived and worked as a street artist in New York City, is the subject of a new solo exhibition at the Spencer Museum of Art in Kansas City, on view through June. Co-curators Maki Kaneko and Kris Imants Ercums organized the show thematically rather than chronologically, reflecting Mirikitani's fragmented life—from surviving the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and incarceration at Tule Lake to arriving in New York in the 1950s. The exhibition draws on years of research, including visits to the parks where he lived and to Hiroshima, and builds on Linda Hattendorf's 2006 documentary *The Cats of Mirikitani*.

Hito Steyerl “Mechanical Kurds” at Villa Arson, Nice

From February 20 to May 31, 2026, Villa Arson art center in Nice presents "Mechanical Kurds," a video installation by German artist Hito Steyerl. The work blends fiction, documentary, and critical speculation to examine invisible micro-labor chains, the geopolitics of images, and the delegation mechanisms behind so-called autonomous technologies.

15 Must-See Events Enriching the Venice Biennale 2026 Experience.

The article presents a curated guide to 15 must-see events accompanying the 61st Venice Biennale, titled "In Minor Keys" and curated by the late Koyo Kouoh, running from May to November 2026. It highlights key exhibitions beyond the main pavilions, including "Screen Melancholy: Li Yi-Fan" at Palazzo delle Prigioni, "Darkness Visible: The Long Shadow of Dictatorship" at Spazio Punch, "Elegy" by Gabrielle Goliath at Chiesa di Sant'Antonin, and "As Above, So Below" at Ex Church Santi Cosma e Damiano, among others. These events span museums, foundations, and historic palazzi, featuring performances, talks, and curatorial interventions that extend the Biennale's reach across Venice.

And We Shall Go Through Their Hills Without Much Delay

This article documents three journeys into and out of Yunnan, China, spanning from 1874 to 2023. It begins with British interpreter Augustus Raymond Margary's failed colonial expedition to establish a trade route, which ended in his violent death and contributed to unequal treaties opening Southwest China. It then follows a Naxi student named Xueshan in 1937, whose railway journey introduced modern timekeeping to the region, and finally describes the construction of the Burma Road, a critical WWII supply route. The narrative concludes with the artist Cheng Xinhao retracing these routes on foot from Kunming toward Burma over a year and a half, reflecting on history, bodily experience, and the layers of infrastructure that have reshaped the landscape.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Iconic California Installation Returns in a Museum Show

The Museum of Sonoma County is commemorating the 50th anniversary of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's iconic 1976 installation "Running Fence" with an exhibition featuring blueprints, original construction materials, and documentary photographs. The temporary work, which stretched nearly 25 miles across Sonoma and Marin counties in California, required four years of negotiations with ranchers, 18 public hearings, and the first-ever Environmental Impact Report for a public artwork, ultimately costing $2.25 million funded by the artists through preparatory drawing sales.

On Arte and France Culture, all the secrets of the unicorn

Sur Arte et France Culture, tous les secrets de la licorne

The article discusses the enduring cultural presence of the unicorn, from churches to toy stores and LGBTQIA+ parades, coinciding with the exhibition "Licornes!" at the Musée de Cluny (through July 12, 2026), which centers on the museum's famed tapestry *La Dame à la licorne*. It highlights two complementary media programs: an episode of the radio show *Le Cours de l'histoire* on France Culture and a documentary on Arte, both exploring the mythical animal's many transformations across history.

Don’t Miss: Giles Duley’s “Distortion / Memory / Resilience” at Sutton Tower

Photographer and storyteller Giles Duley has opened a two-week exhibition titled “Distortion / Memory / Resilience” at Sutton Tower on the Upper East Side of New York. The show features his powerful images documenting life during war, alongside artistic touches such as wooden school desks filled with artwork by Ukrainian children. Duley, who lost two legs and one arm after an I.E.D. injury in Afghanistan in 2011, continues to work actively in war zones including Sudan, Afghanistan, and Ukraine. Proceeds from the exhibition support his NGO, the Legacy of War Foundation, which has raised over $4 million since 2017 to help communities rebuild after conflict.

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts receives major gift of photography

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) announced a major gift of 1,986 photographs from Joy of Giving Something, Inc. (JGS), a nonprofit founded by financier Howard Stein. The donation includes works by over 450 artists, spanning the 19th century to the present, with highlights such as rare daguerreotypes by Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey, prints by Gustave Le Gray and Eugène Atget, and significant holdings in American documentary photography from figures like Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans. The gift follows an earlier 2023 donation of portfolios and series, and positions VMFA to open five new photography galleries in 2027 as part of its expansion.

The pioneer of organic textile sculptures, Magdalena Abakanowicz, is taking over Helsinki Art Museum

Helsinki Art Museum (HAM) presents "Magdalena Abakanowicz: Crossing Boundaries," the first Finnish exhibition of the Polish artist's monumental fiber works, running from May 6 to August 30, 2026, at the Tennis Palace. The show features 58 works spanning six decades, including her iconic Abakans—suspended woven forms—and headless burlap figures, along with documentary screenings and a new Finnish-language publication.

Ali Banisadr: Temple of the Mind | Solo exhibition at Buffalo AKG Art Museum

The Buffalo AKG Art Museum will present "Ali Banisadr: Temple of the Mind," a solo exhibition running from June 26 to November 8, 2026. The show occupies the Hemicycle Gallery and, for the first time, the Wilmers Galleries, where Banisadr's works will be installed alongside Surrealist and Abstract Expressionist pieces from the museum's permanent collection. The exhibition includes an installation exploring the artist's influences, featuring works by Andō Hiroshige and Francisco de Goya, as well as studio materials, a new etching created with Mirabo Press, and an audio journey narrated by Banisadr.

Eat Frida food off a Frida plate: Kahlo kitsch raises eye...

A major Tate Modern exhibition dedicated to Frida Kahlo and her circle opens next month in London, accompanied by a wave of commercial spin-offs including a Kahlo-inspired menu, dinner plates, a Netflix documentary, a clothing line, and an opera premiering in New York. The show, titled "Frida: The Making of an Icon," will also display over 200 souvenir objects and knick-knacks, examining Kahlo's transformation into a global brand. A new whodunnit novel by Oscar de Muriel reimagines Kahlo as a detective, and a culinary collaboration with Mexican chef Santiago Lastra will run at the Tate Modern restaurant.

"Bertille Bak: Voices from the Earth" exhibition at the Vincenzo Vela Museum

From 26 April 2026 to 10 January 2027, the Vincenzo Vela Museum in Ligornetto, Switzerland, presents "Bertille Bak: Voices from the Earth," the first major solo exhibition in Switzerland of French artist Bertille Bak. The show brings together works from the past fifteen years that combine cinema, visual arts, and field research, focusing on marginalized communities and themes of labor, identity, and resistance. Bak, born in Arras in 1983, creates video installations and narrative devices through long immersions in communities, with her work held in collections such as the Centre Pompidou and the Collection François Pinault.

Are Tattoos Art?

Sind Tattoos Kunst?

A group exhibition at the Opelvillen in Rüsselsheim, Germany, titled "Unter die Haut. Tattoos im Blick," explores tattooing as an art form, centering on the work of tattoo artist and photographer Herbert Hoffmann. The show traces the evolution of tattoos from post-war working-class culture to contemporary pop culture, featuring Hoffmann's photographs alongside works by contemporary artists David Schiesser, Michele Servadio, and Sarah Dubná, who bridge tattooing with drawing, painting, and printmaking. The exhibition is a partner project with "Mishpocha" at the Jewish Museum Frankfurt and includes shared photographic positions by Sandra Mann and Jan Zappner.

Monopol verlost 5 × 2 Tickets für Graciela Iturbide bei C/O Berlin

German art magazine Monopol is giving away 5 × 2 tickets for the retrospective exhibition "Graciela Iturbide: Eyes to Fly With" at C/O Berlin. The article describes Iturbide's career, including her iconic photograph "Mujer ángel" (Angel Woman) taken in the Sonora Desert while living with the Seri people, and her long-term documentary projects on Mexican cultural practices, such as the Zapotec community in Oaxaca and images like "Nuestra Señora de las Iguanas." Iturbide, born in Mexico City in 1942, began her photography career in the late 1960s as an assistant to Manuel Álvarez Bravo.

Disobedience Archive (Canopy for Broken Time) In Dialogue with Raqs Media Collective at Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich

The Disobedience Archive, a mobile video archive initiated by Marco Scotini in 2005, is presented in dialogue with Raqs Media Collective at the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Zürich. The archive contains over one hundred documentary and art films at the intersection of art and activism, documenting forms of resistance, social struggle, and collective self-organization.

Next Episode of Art21’s Art in the Twenty-First Century to Premiere in June

Art21 has announced the premiere of "Human Nature," the next episode of its documentary series *Art in the Twenty-First Century*, set to air on PBS on June 10, 2026. The episode features artists Lenka Clayton, Josh Kline, Delcy Morelos, and Sin Wai Kin, and explores themes of humanity's impact on the environment, social and economic systems, and interpersonal relationships. Directed by Ian Forster and produced by Andrea Chung, the episode will also be available on Art21.org, YouTube, and PBS Digital Platforms, with an advance screening on May 28 at the SAG-AFTRA Foundation Robin Williams Center in Manhattan.

All 3.5 Million Pages of the Epstein Files Are Now on View at This Pop-Up Exhibition

The Institute for Primary Facts has transformed New York's Mriya Gallery into the Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Reading Room, a pop-up exhibition displaying all 3.5 million pages of the released Epstein files in 3,437 bound volumes. Open from May 8 to May 21 in Tribeca, the installation is the group's first live project, requiring visitors aged 16 and over to book appointments via a platform called Trumpsonian. Only accredited press, Congress, law enforcement, and victims' advocates may open the volumes, due to the Department of Justice's failure to properly redact victims' names.

Archives : MAMM : Lauren Greenfield : Generation Wealth

The Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow (MAMM) presents 'Generation Wealth' by American documentary photographer and director Lauren Greenfield as part of the XII Moscow International Biennale 'Fashion and Style in Photography 2021'. The exhibition, opening May 21, 2021, includes over 200 photographs, documentary films, and interviews drawn from Greenfield's 25-year investigation into global consumer culture, wealth aspiration, and the transformation of happiness. It marks Greenfield's third exhibition at MAMM, following previous shows in 2000 and 2004.

The archive of the great architect Piero Portaluppi opens to the public: it happens at Villa Necchi in Milan

L’archivio del grande architetto Piero Portaluppi apre al pubblico: succede a Villa Necchi a Milano

The Fondo Ambiente Italiano (FAI) has opened a new permanent archive space dedicated to the architect and intellectual Piero Portaluppi (1888-1967) inside Villa Necchi Campiglio in Milan, the architect's own masterpiece. The archive, acquired by FAI in December 2025 from the closing Fondazione Portaluppi, is housed in three attic rooms and includes thousands of original documents, drawings, photographic prints, sketchbooks, caricatures, postcards, and 16 mm film reels totaling eight hours of footage shot between the 1930s and 1960s. The collection also features Portaluppi's personal library of three thousand volumes and architecture journals, which will be made available for study in collaboration with the Soprintendenza Archivistica e Bibliografica della Lombardia and the Politecnico di Milano.

Through Reverie: Love and Memory | A Duo-solo Exhibition by Clasutta and C.K.Koh

Whitestone Gallery Singapore will present a duo-solo exhibition titled "Through Reverie: Love and Memory" opening on 9 May 2026. The show features Indonesian artist Clasutta and Malaysian artist C.K. Koh, each presenting a solo component: Clasutta's "Roommates?" explores the emotional stages of a relationship through fragmented, intimate gestures, while Koh's "Folded Glimpses" draws from his personal photographic archive to evoke memory as impression rather than documentary record.

Art Museum of Southeast Texas opens two new exhibitions tonight exploring Texas waterways and history

The Art Museum of Southeast Texas (AMSET) opens two new exhibitions today: "Julius Stockfleth: Dawn of a Century" and "Bill Pangburn: Printed Traces - A Neches River Journal." The Stockfleth exhibition features early Texas artist Julius Stockfleth's paintings of the 1900 Galveston hurricane and Texas coastal history, marking a homecoming as his work was first shown at AMSET in 1987. The Pangburn exhibition presents a new series of large-scale abstract woodcut prints inspired by the Neches River. Both run through July 5, with a free public reception tonight and a musical performance by composer Nathan Felix on May 30.

Gallery Conversation: Ideal Landscapes in Painting and Photography

The Art Institute of Chicago is hosting a gallery conversation on June 1 titled "Ideal Landscapes in Painting and Photography." The program, led by curators Yechen Zhao and Felice Graciela Robles, will examine idealized representations of nature in East Asian art, comparing painted landscapes from the Korean National Treasures exhibition with a 1938 photograph by Chinese artist Lang Jingshan. The discussion will explore the blurred boundaries between ideal and real, as well as between painting and photography.