The 14th edition of the San Francisco Art Fair (SFAF) has launched with 88 exhibitors and a robust program of public projects and talks. A central highlight is the exhibition “The Sun Beneath,” curated by Mara Gladstone and featuring artist Jon Cuyson, which serves as a preview for their upcoming collaboration at the Philippine Pavilion for the 2026 Venice Biennale.
Art Basel Paris is undergoing a major transformation for its third edition, officially rebranding from 'Paris+ par Art Basel' and moving into the newly renovated Grand Palais. The historic venue, fresh from a $500 million restoration, allows the fair to expand its footprint by 26 percent, hosting 194 galleries compared to last year's 154. The move includes the opening of the ornate balconies for emerging galleries and a new sector called Premise, signaling the fair's transition from a successful 'preamble' to a permanent fixture in the French capital.
The Museum Ludwig in Cologne has launched a major retrospective of Yayoi Kusama's work to mark its 50th anniversary. The exhibition features over 300 pieces, including sculptures, paintings, and installations, and spans her entire career from a childhood drawing to a newly commissioned Infinity Room. It also debuts several works in a museum setting and spreads beyond the gallery walls to the museum's roof.
German artist Gerhard Richter has opened a major monographic exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, titled simply “Gerhard Richter.” The show features approximately 270 artworks, making it nearly three times larger than his 2020 retrospective at the Met Breuer in New York. Curated by former Tate director Nicholas Serota and Dieter Schwarz, former director of Zurich’s Kunstmuseum Winterthur, the exhibition is arranged chronologically to trace the evolution of Richter’s diverse oeuvre—from photo paintings and abstractions to Strip artworks and recent drawings. Highlights include early works like *Tisch (Table)* (1962), his first photo painting, and *Verkündigung nach Tizian (Annunciation after Titian)* (1973), created after his Venice Biennale debut.
Adrien Brody, fresh off his second Best Actor Oscar for *The Brutalist*, opened his first art exhibition in nearly a decade at Eden Gallery in New York. Titled "Made in America," the show features large-scale mixed-media paintings, a sound installation, and an interactive gum wall. The event drew a Hollywood-style crowd, with Brody mingling with guests and discussing his lifelong art practice, which he says preceded his acting career.
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.
mother exhibition palazzo reale milan
Milan’s Palazzo Reale has launched "The Great Mother," a massive exhibition exploring the evolution of motherhood and female power throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Curated by Massimiliano Gioni and produced by the Nicola Trussardi Foundation, the show features over 400 works by 127 international artists, including Louise Bourgeois, Cindy Sherman, and Rineke Dijkstra. The exhibition spans 29 halls, juxtaposing avant-garde historical works with contemporary installations to examine how gender roles and the maternal image have been constructed, challenged, and reclaimed.
Artnet News highlights seven must-see museum exhibitions across Asia in 2026, with a focus on women artists and diverse themes. Key shows include a retrospective of Korean sculptor Kim Yun Shin at the Hoam Museum of Art in Yongin, a posthumous exhibition of Japanese painter Rey Camoy at the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art, a manga and fantasy art survey at M+ in Hong Kong, and a solo show by Belgian artist Carsten Höller at the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing.
Three large-scale aluminum foil sculptures by John Chamberlain have been installed at Rockefeller Center in New York City, marking their first U.S. appearance. The works—BALMYWISECRACK (2011), FIDDLERSFORTUNE (2010), and RITZFROLIC (2008)—were scaled up from Chamberlain's original palm-sized foil sculptures with the help of fabricator Ernest Mourmans, whose workshop solved the structural challenges of recreating foil's texture in monumental form. The installation is presented by Mnuchin Gallery and coincides with a mini Chamberlain festival at Rockefeller Center this spring, with Christie's also exhibiting related works.
New York art dealers Karin Bravin and John Lee of BravinLee Programs have mounted "The Golden Thread II" at 207 Front Street in South Street Seaport, a historic 1797 building. The exhibition brings together 60 artists, including 10 new site-specific installations, with works spanning textile techniques such as needlework, embroidery, felting, quilting, and weaving. Highlights include Tura Oliveira's "Wheel of Fortune" (2025), a bloodred humanoid figure tangled in a historic grain hoist. Prices range from a few hundred dollars to $70,000. The show runs for a month, coinciding with the Frieze fair, and is curated with input from Elissa Auther, deputy director of curatorial affairs and chief curator at the Museum of Arts and Design.
Major museums worldwide are launching a series of high-profile exhibitions this spring that challenge traditional art historical narratives. Highlights include a Marcel Duchamp retrospective at MoMA, a deep dive into Pop art's legacy at the Guggenheim, and significant surveys of icons like Frida Kahlo and Agnes Martin. Meanwhile, UCCA Beijing is presenting a major exhibition of Duan Jianyu, highlighting the evolution of Chinese painting in relation to Western influence.
French artist JR has transformed Paris's Pont Neuf, the city's oldest bridge, into a massive inflatable grotto titled *La Caverne du Pont Neuf* (2026). The installation measures 120 meters long, 20 meters wide, and up to 18 meters tall, and will be open to the public from June 6 to June 28. It incorporates sound design by Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk, augmented reality via Snap Inc., and a Bloomberg Connect guide. Over 800 people helped realize the project, which was fabricated from 18,900 square meters of fabric and 20,000 cubic meters of pressurized air by French firm Air Toiles Concept. The work concludes a five-year series of large-scale trompe l'oeil pieces by JR and pays homage to Christo and Jeanne-Claude's *The Pont Neuf Wrapped, Paris* (1975–85), with the blessing of their foundation.
ARTnews has published a summer guide highlighting 20 art world events and exhibitions not to miss in the coming months. Featured highlights include the opera 'El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego' at the Metropolitan Opera, the 'Costume Art' exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a Björk show titled 'echolalia' at the National Gallery of Iceland, a book on the Venice Biennale by Massimiliano Gioni, Raven Halfmoon's 'Flags of Our Mothers' at Ballroom Marfa, a Pierre Huyghe exhibition at Fondation Beyeler Basel, a James McNeill Whistler retrospective at Tate Britain, and the inaugural Medina Triennial in New York.
Tate Britain will open a major exhibition titled *James McNeill Whistler* on 21 May, running through 27 September, before traveling to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam (16 October–10 January 2027) under the subtitle *Dandy and Disrupter*. The show’s centerpiece is Whistler’s iconic *Arrangement in Grey and Black no. 1* (commonly known as *Portrait of the Painter's Mother*), on loan from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and displayed in its original frame designed by the artist. The article explores Vincent van Gogh’s admiration for the painting—he wrote to his sister Wil in 1889 that it reminded him of their own mother—and traces the work’s connections to the Goupil gallery (later Boussod & Valadon), where both Vincent and his brother Theo worked.
This week's art roundup from The Guardian features a major exhibition at Towner Eastbourne titled 'Comrades in Art: Artists Against Fascism,' which examines how artists, poets, and intellectuals used their work to resist the rise of extremism in 1930s Europe, drawing on the history of the Artists International Association (AIA). Other highlights include 'Hidden: Photography and Displacement Under the Khmer Rouge' at The Wiener Holocaust Library in London, a show of early Netherlandish drawings at the British Museum, Katharina Grosse's colorful installations at White Cube, and a flower-themed survey at Kettle's Yard. The image of the week is Sylvia Sleigh's 1963 portrait 'The Bridge (Johanna Lawrenson),' part of a new exhibition of the Welsh artist's work. The article also covers news items such as Lydia Ourahmane's Venice Biennale installation, a Holbein portrait mystery, a restored stained-glass window by Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris, and Anish Kapoor's call to exclude the US from the Venice Biennale due to 'politics of hate.'
Lee Ufan, the South Korean artist and founding member of the Mono-ha movement, is being honored with a major solo exhibition at SMAC San Marco Art Centre as an official Collateral Event of the Venice Biennale, marking his 90th year. Simultaneously, a new display of his painting and sculpture opens at Dia Beacon in New York State, and his first show in Portugal opens at Casa e Parque de Serralves in July. In an interview with The Art Newspaper, Ufan discusses his artistic journey, his rejection of the artist's hand, and the influence of seeing a Barnett Newman exhibition at MoMA in 1971, which led him to develop his signature From Point and From Line paintings that use repeated marks to express the passage of time.
ARTnews has published a guide to 10 exhibitions in Venice worth seeing during the 2026 Biennale, beyond the central show "In Minor Keys" curated by the late Koyo Kouoh and the national pavilions. Highlights include a major survey of Lee Ufan at the San Marco Art Centre (SMAC Venice), organized by the Dia Art Foundation and curated by Jessica Morgan; "Helter Skelter: Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince" at Fondazione Prada, curated by Nancy Spector; and "Strange Rules" at Palazzo Diedo, conceived by Hans Ulrich Obrist with Mat Dryhurst and Holly Herndon, introducing the concept of "Protocol Art." Other venues include the Gallerie dell'Accademia, Pinault Collection, Berggruen Arts & Culture, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, and a three-night-only performance at Teatro Goldoni.
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.
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 artist Michael Armitage opens a monographic exhibition titled 'The Promise of Change' at Venice's Palazzo Grassi, featuring 46 large paintings and nearly 100 sketches that survey his past decade of work. At 42, Armitage is the youngest artist to receive a solo show at the palazzo, which is owned by François Pinault and has previously hosted Albert Oehlen, Luc Tuymans, and Marlene Dumas. The exhibition highlights Armitage's fusion of East African and Western European artistic influences, drawing on his upbringing in Kenya and his training at London's Byam Shaw School of Art, the Slade, and the Royal Academy.
Harmony Korine's first-ever U.S. retrospective, titled "Perfect Nonsense," has opened at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami. The exhibition gathers over 50 pieces spanning his career, including adolescent writings, zines, collages from the 1990s, figurative paintings, and recent works using game engines. Korine, known for transgressive films like *Gummo* (1997) and *Spring Breakers* (2012), also founded EDGLRD, a studio producing experimental content with cutting-edge tech, such as his 2023 project *AGGRO DR1FT*, which premiered at the Venice International Film Festival.
The 61st Venice Biennale is taking shape as national pavilions announce their participants and curatorial themes for the 2026 edition. Russia has confirmed its return to the Giardini with a multidisciplinary exhibition titled “The Tree is Rooted in the Sky,” following its 2022 withdrawal and the 2024 loan of its pavilion to Bolivia. The upcoming edition, themed “In Minor Keys,” will proceed under the vision of the late curator Koyo Kouoh, who passed away in 2025 after becoming the first African woman appointed to helm the prestigious event.
Frieze Los Angeles returns to a city landscape significantly altered by both commercial development and recent environmental tragedy. While blue-chip galleries like David Zwirner, Marian Goodman, and Lisson have established new strongholds in districts like Melrose Hill and Hollywood, the local community is simultaneously reeling from devastating January wildfires that displaced numerous artists and collectors. This guide provides a strategic roadmap for navigating the sprawling city's geography, highlighting key exhibitions such as Bruce Nauman at Marian Goodman and a 90-artist benefit show for fire victims.
In 1975, artists Red Grooms and Mimi Gross created "Ruckus Manhattan," a monumental multimedia recreation of New York City landmarks from Lower Manhattan to Times Square, built in a vacant lobby at 88 Pine Street with a team of 20 to 30 artists called the Ruckus Construction Co. Half a century later, the Brooklyn Museum is exhibiting excerpts from the project, and for the first time properly credits Gross as co-creator, correcting decades of obscuring her role when the work was shown at Marlborough Gallery, which represented only Grooms.
Artist Christian Marclay is interviewed at Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie ahead of his exhibition "The Clock," a 24-hour single-channel video installation that runs through January 25, 2026. The artwork is a meticulously edited collage of film clips, each showing a timepiece or time-related action, synchronized in real-time so that the film's time matches the viewer's actual time. Marclay discusses his long-standing interest in time, the project's origins in the early 2000s, and his process of deconstructing and linking found footage, emphasizing the crucial role of sound in smoothing transitions.
Artnet News highlights the top photography moments of 2025, including Sara Cwynar's exhibition of search-engine images at ICA Boston, Inuuteq Storch's debut at MoMA PS1 showcasing his Greenlandic hometown, and Dietemar Busse's Polaroid portraits celebrated at Amant, New York. The year also saw Wolfgang Tillmans' blockbuster farewell exhibition at the Centre Pompidou before its five-year renovation, and Marian Goodman Gallery's inaugural show of Ana Mendieta's work, "Back to the Source," featuring her iconic photographs and performances. Mendieta's work was also spotlighted at Art Basel Miami Beach, with her piece "Sandwoman" (1983) drawing emotional responses from visitors.
Jenny Saville, the British painter known for her monumental depictions of flesh, is the subject of her first major U.S. museum exhibition, "Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting," now on view at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas. The show, which previously opened at London's National Portrait Gallery in June, brings together 45 works from across her career, including charcoal drawings and large-scale oil paintings. In a rare interview, Saville discusses seeing older works like *Plan* again and how the Fort Worth museum's architecture suits her largest canvases. The exhibition runs through January 2026, ahead of a major 2026 showcase in Venice.
WangShui, an artist known for AI-assisted abstract paintings, challenges the stereotype of tech-focused artists as isolated nerds. In a studio visit, they described their practice as a spiritual project, using machine learning to create works like 'Scr∴ pe II (Isle of Vitr∴ ous)' at the 2022 Whitney Biennial and pieces at the 2024 Venice Biennale. Their latest collaboration with Maryam Hoseini, 'The Demon and the Muse (DM),' is on view at SITE Santa Fe International, covering the facade with red oil and black ink. WangShui emphasizes that AI is a tool for exploring consciousness and healing, not a replacement for human creativity.
The International Gallery of Modern Art at Ca’ Pesaro in Venice will host a major solo exhibition of works by British painter Jenny Saville in 2026, coinciding with the Venice Biennale. The show, curated by Elisabetta Barisoni, will run from March 28 to November 22 and feature around 30 paintings spanning Saville's career from the 1990s to the present, including a new series inspired by Venice. Mega-gallery Gagosian, which represents Saville, is supporting the exhibition.
The article reports on the inaugural Bukhara Biennial in Uzbekistan, titled "Recipes for Broken Hearts," which opened in the historic 16th-century Khoja Gavkushon complex. Curated by Diana Campbell, the biennial features over 70 projects spanning 500 meters of public space, including works by artists Subodh Gupta, Laila Gohar, and Carsten Höller. The exhibition embraces the local environment—sun, wind, and dust—as collaborators, rejecting the sterile white cube model. Food is a central theme, with communal plov parties, performative cooking sessions, and installations like Gohar's edible rock sugar pavilion. The biennial runs through November 20.