Comment | Catherine Opie shows us that in dark times, looking for joy can be radical

The artist Catherine Opie is currently the subject of a major three-decade portrait survey, 'To Be Seen', at the National Portrait Gallery in London. The exhibition highlights Opie’s career-long commitment to representing the LGBTQ+ community, specifically the leather dyke scene in Los Angeles, through a lens that balances defiance with playfulness. Even her most provocative works, such as the 1993 self-portrait featuring a domestic scene carved into her back, are revealed to contain elements of humor and historical allusion that counter the despair of the AIDS crisis and personal heartbreak.

The Big Review: Rothko in Florence ★★★★★

The Palazzo Strozzi in Florence has launched a major exhibition exploring the profound influence of the Italian Renaissance on Mark Rothko. Co-curated by the artist's son, Christopher Rothko, the show spans three historic locations: the Palazzo Strozzi, the Museo di San Marco, and the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana. By placing Rothko’s abstract canvases in direct dialogue with Fra Angelico’s frescoes and Michelangelo’s architecture, the exhibition highlights how the artist’s visits to Italy in the 1950s and 60s shaped his spatial thinking and spiritual intensity.

The Robots Were Never the Problem

The New Museum has reopened with 'New Humans: Memories of the Future,' a massive survey featuring over 150 contributors including Hito Steyerl, Precious Okoyomon, and H.R. Giger. Spanning 13 sections across the museum's new 5,500 square-meter extension, the exhibition traces the intersection of art, technology, and the human body from the early 20th century to the present. It juxtaposes interwar European works, such as Hannah Höch’s photomontages and Bauhaus ballets, with contemporary installations like Simon Denny’s sculpture of an Amazon worker's cage.

The Whitney Biennial Is for the Faint-Hearted

A critical review of the 2026 Whitney Biennial argues that the exhibition is timid and fails to directly confront the urgent political crises of the moment, including domestic authoritarianism, state violence, and immigration policies. The reviewer finds the show somber, fearful, and overly focused on mood and introspection, suggesting it represents a retreat from meaningful political engagement.

8 Books We’re Looking Forward to in April

ARTnews previews eight notable art and culture books scheduled for release in April 2026. The list includes Ben Lerner's novel "Transcription," a dual biography of artists Peter Hujar and Paul Thek by Andrew Durbin, Luke Goebel's art-world satire "Kill Dick," and an academic study of Alberto Giacometti's 1930s work by Joanna Fiduccia. Also featured are a memoir by curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, a book on Dorothea Tanning, and Julia Langbein's unconventional book about Monica Lewinsky.

Kamrooz Aram Breaks Down the Grid

Kamrooz Aram is the subject of multiple major exhibitions in early 2026, including a solo show at Alexander Gray Associates in New York, a presentation at Nature Morte in Mumbai for Mumbai Art Week, and a significant inclusion in the 2026 Whitney Biennial. The artist, known for his work with the grid, uses painting to explore the connections between Western modernist abstraction and non-Western decorative traditions, particularly from Western Asia.

Anne Hardy’s Hollow Humanoids

British artist Anne Hardy presents a suite of floor-based installations and assemblage sculptures titled "Interloper" at Visual. The exhibition features a series of "Beings"—twisted, life-size humanoid entities constructed from rusted wire, crushed cans, soil, and the artist’s own cast body parts and clothing. These figures, often posed in yoga-like positions or meditative stances, appear as hollow, faceless outlines that blend a sense of vitality with physical disintegration.

Michael Armitage in Venice, monumental and disturbing. What the exhibition at Palazzo Grassi looks like

Michael Armitage is the subject of a major solo retrospective at Palazzo Grassi in Venice, marking his largest exhibition in Europe to date. Organized by the Pinault Collection, the show features monumental paintings that blend African identity, local Kenyan chronicles, and mythological narratives. Armitage’s work is noted for its physical scale and its ability to transform the chaos of human affairs into a syncretic epic, utilizing traditional materials like Lubugo bark cloth to ground his contemporary subjects.

It’s Gabriele Münter’s World, We’re Just Living in It

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is hosting "Contours of a World," a retrospective dedicated to Gabriele Münter, a co-founder of the Blue Rider group. The exhibition moves beyond the shadow of her long-time partner Wassily Kandinsky, showcasing her distinct approach to German Expressionism through photography, intimate domestic scenes, and vibrant landscapes. Unlike her contemporaries who leaned toward total abstraction, Münter utilized bold outlines and layered compositions to create a dynamic, phenomenological experience of seeing.

Review: The new LACMA is divisive. It’s also ambitious, disorienting — and radically alive

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has unveiled its $724-million David Geffen Galleries, a massive concrete structure designed by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor that spans Wilshire Boulevard. Replacing several older pavilions, the new building rejects traditional museum conventions like white-cube galleries and encyclopedic organization in favor of a sinuous, organic form that emphasizes light, atmosphere, and a visceral connection to the surrounding landscape.

Wilhelm Sasnal review – his wild juxtapositions are almost obscene

Polish artist Wilhelm Sasnal's new exhibition at Sadie Coles HQ in London presents a disorienting array of paintings. The works juxtapose disparate and often disturbing images, including a grotesque depiction of the Oval Office, portraits of his family, album art for the industrial band Throbbing Gristle, and a forest scene linked to the Holocaust, creating a deliberate sense of fragmentation and broken connections.

MoMA Survey Shows How Marcel Duchamp Changed the Art Game

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has launched a comprehensive survey of Marcel Duchamp’s work, highlighting the artist's revolutionary impact on the definition of art. The exhibition traces Duchamp's transition from traditional painting to his radical 'readymades,' which prioritized intellectual concepts over aesthetic craftsmanship.

Post-Mortemism: An Autopsy of “Nigerian Modernism: Art and Independence” at Tate Modern.

A critical essay by Ayọ̀ Akínwándé performs a forensic 'autopsy' of the Tate Modern exhibition 'Nigerian Modernism: Art and Independence.' The review dissects the show's structure, arguing it fails in its curatorial framework by isolating Nigerian artists within a regional category, using ethnographic display methods, relying on incomplete research, and excluding key artists and historical context.

The Unnameable Artists of the Canton Trade System

Art historian Winnie Wong’s new book, *The Many Names of Anonymity: Portraitists of the Canton Trade*, investigates the lives and legacies of 18th and 19th-century Chinese artists who produced works for Western traders under the Canton system. These artists, often dismissed by history as mere copyists or left anonymous in museum "tombstone" labels, created complex works that blended European techniques with Chinese traditions. Wong challenges the reductive category of "Asian export art," proposing instead the term "Canton trade painting" to better reflect the unique atmosphere of cultural exchange in Guangzhou.

Gardar Eide Einarsson Leaves You in the Dark

Gardar Eide Einarsson’s latest exhibition at Maureen Paley’s East London space presents a haunting exploration of dissociation and coded information. The show features two distinct series: 'Closed Caption,' a collection of monochrome black gouache paintings featuring isolated subtitles from films, and 'Incendiary Test Area,' a set of hyperrealistic woodblock prints created in collaboration with master Shoichi Kitamura. These prints depict the interiors of mock 'Japanese' houses built by the US Army for fire-bombing tests during World War II.

REVIEW: The Open: Odyssey at Hastings Contemporary

Hastings Contemporary has launched its inaugural biennial, titled "The Open: Odyssey," featuring over 150 artists with connections to Sussex. Selected from a pool of 2,600 applicants by a panel led by Kathleen Soriano, the exhibition explores themes of marine ecology, migration, mythology, and coastal life. Notable works include Alan Patch’s large-scale hanging of plastic detritus, Kate Howe’s monumental waxed paper installation "The Moving Edge," and Kevin J J Warren’s sculptures made from salvaged fishing nets.

Review: “Canvas to Clay” at the San Antonio Museum of Art

The San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA) has launched "Canvas to Clay," an exhibition that pairs the modernist paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe with the black-on-black pottery of Maria Martinez. While these two icons of the American Southwest are frequently exhibited together, this show distinguishes itself by expanding the conversation southward. It integrates Mexican earthenware from Mata Ortiz and Tonalá, highlighting the work of Juan Quezada and Hector Gallegos to showcase a broader regional tradition of abstraction and indigenous revival.

Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Made Human Again

The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) is hosting "Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Multiple Offerings," a comprehensive exhibition that draws from the artist’s complete archives. The show highlights Cha’s multidisciplinary practice, spanning film experiments, performance documentation, and her signature linguistic explorations. By pairing finished artworks with archival materials and personal ephemera, the exhibition reveals a playful, puckish side of the artist that is often obscured by the tragic circumstances of her death and the heavy themes of exile and dislocation in her work.

Bicoastal Art World Satire ‘Kill Dick’ Imagines Sackler Revenge

Luke Goebel's new novel 'Kill Dick' is a satirical, chaotic takedown of the contemporary art world and its entanglement with the Sackler family, fictionalized here as the Sicklers. The book follows protagonist Susie, the daughter of the Sickler family lawyer, as she navigates addiction, familial disgust, and a numbed existence against the backdrop of 2016 America. Its prose is deliberately abrasive and shocking, mirroring the emotional state of its narrator.

Ai Weiwei and the Art of Keeping Your Mouth Shut

Dissident artist Ai Weiwei explores the corrosive nature of state control and self-restraint in his new book, "On Censorship" (2026). Drawing from a lifetime of persecution—including his father’s exile to a labor camp, his own 81-day detention in 2011, and recent digital erasure by Chinese AI—Ai argues that censorship fundamentally strips individuals of their humanity. He highlights how the mechanism of silencing has evolved from overt state violence in the East to a more insidious culture of self-censorship in the West, exemplified by the cancellation of his own 2023 exhibition at Lisson Gallery following comments on the conflict in Gaza.

The Unbearable Strangeness of Being

South African artist Cinga Samson makes his New York debut at White Cube with "Ukuphuthelwa," an exhibition of haunting, large-scale oil paintings. The works feature figures with distinctive white pupils engaged in enigmatic rituals within dark, crepuscular landscapes. Drawing from the isiXhosa concept of spiritual alertness during sleeplessness, Samson’s compositions blend the palpable with the unearthly, often depicting scenes that feel choreographed yet remain stubbornly illegible to the Western gaze.

Veronica Ryan review – the seeds are sensational but the detritus is distracting

A major retrospective of Turner Prize-winning artist Veronica Ryan has opened, showcasing her career-long exploration of organic forms and repurposed materials. The exhibition features new works made from plastic bottles, bandages, and avocado trays, alongside earlier sculptures in bronze and lead that reference seed pods and fruit.

These Ghosts. Clémentine Bruno  by Michela Ceruti

Clémentine Bruno’s artistic practice explores the tension between presence and absence, treating the canvas as a site of temporal layers rather than a flat surface for representation. Her work emphasizes the preparatory stages of painting—the laying of gesso and the construction of supports—allowing images to emerge reluctantly through processes of sanding, veiling, and partial erasure. Recent exhibitions, such as "Educational Complex" at Tonus and "Vision of Fading" at Mendes Wood DM, highlight her interest in how institutional structures and memory maps dictate what is retained and what is forgotten.

Vincent in Brixton review – a radiant portrait of the artist as a young romantic

A revival of Nicholas Wright's 2002 play "Vincent in Brixton" is receiving a tender production directed by Georgia Green at the Orange Tree Theatre. The play dramatizes a speculative romantic episode from the young Vincent van Gogh's life when he lived as a lodger in south London, focusing on his relationship with his widowed landlady, Ursula.

Beacons in a Grim World

Two concurrent solo exhibitions at Alexander Berggruen Gallery feature the work of artists Kevin McNamee-Tweed and Tajh Rust. McNamee-Tweed presents enigmatic, tenderly absurd ceramic scenes, while Rust debuts in New York with figurative paintings that explore perception and Black identity through portraits of leisure and experimental silvered glass works.

Anki King’s Nordic Noir

Anki King's solo exhibition at the Lace Mill in Kingston, New York, presents 40 works from 2015-2026 that explore themes of isolation and miscommunication through a moody, Nordic-inspired palette. The Norwegian-born, New York-based artist employs a distinctive visual language of featureless, long-limbed figures and recurring motifs like threaded ceramic heads and figures with leafless branches.

Jamie Robertson’s soft heat at Houston Center for Photography, Houston

Jamie Robertson’s solo exhibition, "soft heat," at the Houston Center for Photography presents a series of infrared photographs documenting Southern wetlands, including Caddo Lake and the Great Dismal Swamp. Using archival pigment prints and a zine titled "Alligatorwatergreen," Robertson utilizes thermosensational imagery to transform dense marshlands into ethereal, snow-like landscapes. The work incorporates archival figures, such as a liberated formerly enslaved man named Osman, to highlight the historical role of swamps as sites of maroonage and Black resistance.

Chobi Mela XI Review: Can We Start Over?

The 11th edition of the Chobi Mela photography festival has opened in Dhaka, Bangladesh, under the curatorial direction of artists Munem Wasif and Sarker Protick. With the theme 'Re,' the festival presents work from 58 artists across nine exhibitions, aiming to explore renewal and tenacity in lens-based storytelling following the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic and the July 2024 uprising.

Colours of Time review – Monet meets Mamma Mia in charming French artist comedy

Director Cédric Klapisch’s new film, *Colours of Time* (originally *La Venue de L’Avenir*), is a sentimental French comedy that weaves a fictional romantic history around Impressionist master Claude Monet and pioneering photographer Félix Nadar. The plot follows a group of modern-day descendants who discover a trove of historical secrets in a derelict cottage, leading to a whimsical, time-bending exploration of their ancestors' lives in Belle Époque Paris.

7 Shows to See in Milan Right Now

Gallery Applications Open for Frieze Abu Dhabi

Milan's art scene is currently anchored by several high-profile exhibitions coinciding with the Miart fair. Key highlights include Cao Fei’s exploration of global farming and technology at Pirelli HangarBicocca, alongside Anselm Kiefer’s monumental tributes to female alchemists. Other notable shows feature historical and contemporary dialogues, ranging from Italian post-war masters to experimental multimedia installations.