The Big Review | Venice Biennale 2026: In Minor Keys ★★★½

The Venice Biennale 2026, titled "In Minor Keys," was curated posthumously following the death of artistic director Koyo Kouoh in May 2025. A team of five curators and advisors—Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, Marie Hélène Pereira, Rasha Salti, Siddhartha Mitter, and Rory Tsapayi—executed her vision across the Giardini and Arsenale venues. The exhibition features 110 artists, with a strong emphasis on new commissions, and is structured around themes of procession, resistance, and joy. Key works include Big Chief Demond Melancon's "Amistad Takeover" (2026), Nick Cave's "Amalgam (Origin)" (2025), and Otobong Nkanga's rewilded columns at the Central Pavilion.

Big Crisis, Small Gestures

Große Krise, kleine Gesten

The article reviews the second edition of the Klima Biennale Wien, which opened in early April in Vienna. It notes that while the biennale aims to address the urgent triple crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, its execution falls short. The exhibition features symbolic works such as a beached whale, a broken boat, and a compostable SUV sculpture, but these motifs feel repetitive and lack the necessary impact. The author contrasts these with historical precedents like Menashe Kadishman's 1978 Venice Biennale installation and Joseph Beuys' "7000 Eichen" (1982), arguing that the themes of nature and sustainability are not new, only the urgency has intensified.

The 2026 Venice Biennale Is Quintessential Biennial Art

The 61st Venice Biennale, titled "In Minor Keys" and curated by the late Swiss-Cameroonian curator Koyo Kouoh, opened in 2026. The main exhibition at the Arsenale and Giardini features works by artists such as Éric Baudelaire, Maria Magdalena Campos Pons, Mohammed Z. Rahman, Sohrab Hura, and Rose Salane, among others. The exhibition centers on themes of mourning, colonial history, slavery, and healing, with works like Baudelaire's video installation linking the flower trade to the transatlantic slave trade, and a tribute section honoring artists Beverly Buchanan and Issa Samb.

alex da corte modern art museum of fort worth review 1234749431

Alex Da Corte's mid-career survey, "The Whale," is on view at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, featuring works that repurpose pop-cultural icons like Disney villains and Mariah Carey to explore themes of erasure and violence. The exhibition includes pieces such as *A Time to Kill* (2016), which obliquely references the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting through an inverted Elsa standee, and *The Great Pretender* (2021), which removes Lily Tomlin from a TIME magazine cover to comment on queer erasure.

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.

Comment | Perhaps artists do have only ‘ten good years’—but they can happen at any time in their career

The article reflects on the idea that artists may have only 'ten good years' of peak creativity, prompted by a visit to the exhibition "Anselm Kiefer: Early Works" at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. The author contrasts the young Kiefer's deft, emotionally intimate works from 1969–1982 with his later, more grandiose output, arguing that Kiefer's early period surpasses anything he has achieved since. The piece also revisits critic Douglas Cooper's harsh dismissal of late Picasso and former Tate director Alan Bowness's theory of artistic prime.

Édouard Glissant’s Museum-as-Archipelago

The article reviews the exhibition "The Earth, the Fire, the Water, and the Winds: For a Museum of Errantry with Édouard Glissant" at the Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA) in New York, the first U.S. showing of works from the personal collection of Martinician philosopher and writer Édouard Glissant. Curated from his archive, the exhibition features artists such as Roberto Matta, Wifredo Lam, Etel Adnan, Irving Petlin, Antonio Seguí, Öyvind Fahlström, Jack Whitten, and Mel Edwards, reflecting Glissant's friendships and intellectual exchanges across Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Highlights include Antonio Seguí's large pastel works from his Titanic series.

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.

Between Tropes and Treats at NADA New York

The 12th annual New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) fair opened at the Starrett-Lehigh Building in Manhattan, featuring a wide array of contemporary works. Critic Rhea Nayyar notes that while many booths felt interchangeable due to prevalent trends like zany sculptures, shiny materials, and kitschy vibrancy, several standout pieces offered genuine engagement. Highlights include Elena Roznovan's maternal ephemera embedded in concrete with bondage tape, Kelly Tapia-Chuning's deconstructed serapes addressing colonial violence, and Niniko Morbedadze's folkloric illustrations.

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.

Moss & Freud review: film exploring unlikely friendship ultimately fails to scratch the surface

The film *Moss & Freud*, directed by James Lucas, explores the unlikely friendship between supermodel Kate Moss (played by Ellie Bamber) and painter Lucian Freud (Derek Jacobi) in 2001 London. The story centers on Moss's desire to sit for the reclusive portraitist, culminating in Freud's unflattering *Naked Portrait 2002*. However, the film glosses over Freud's darker reputation—his punishingly long sittings, cruelty, and violent tendencies—portraying him instead as a benign, eccentric old man. It also fails to deeply investigate Moss's character or the exploitation within the fashion industry, relying on weak scripting and forced parallels between Moss and Freud's ex-wife Lady Caroline Blackwood.

Review: “Toshiko Takaezu: Worlds Within” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

The article reviews "Toshiko Takaezu: Worlds Within" at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the artist's first nationally touring retrospective in 20 years. Organized by the Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, the exhibition features some 100 artworks from the 1950s until her death in 2011, including large-scale ceramics, weavings, and paintings. It traces Takaezu's journey from her childhood on a Maui watercress plantation to her transformative studies at Cranbrook Academy of Art and a pivotal trip to Japan, where she studied Zen Buddhism and worked under various ceramicists.

Review | A sprawling survey highlights the women making art around D.C.

A survey exhibition titled "Women Artists of the DMV: A Survey Exhibition" at the American University Museum in Washington, D.C., showcases 63 works by women artists from the region. The show, reviewed by Mark Jenkins, features depictions of women as everyday people, archetypes, allegorical figures, and goddesses, alongside some abstract pieces, with a preference for representational art.

The Big Review | Caravaggio 2025 at Palazzo Barberini, Rome ★★★

The article reviews the "Caravaggio 2025" exhibition at Palazzo Barberini in Rome, which brings together 24 paintings by the Baroque master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Curated by Francesca Cappelletti, Maria Cristina Terzaghi, and Thomas Clement Salomon, the show is accompanied by a heavy marketing campaign tied to the Catholic Church's Jubilee year. The review notes that while any gathering of Caravaggio's works guarantees a beautiful experience, the exhibition's title and scope remain unclear, and the curatorial approach—divided into four thematic sections—feels disjointed. Highlights include the reunion of three paintings from Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte's collection and the public display of the recently identified portrait of Maffeo Barberini.

What is the international exhibition of the Venice Biennale like? Review of "In minor keys" by Koyo Kouoh

Com’è la mostra internazionale della Biennale di Venezia? Recensione di “In minor keys” di Koyo Kouoh

The 2026 Venice Biennale, titled "In minor keys" and curated by the late Koyo Kouoh, opens to the public on May 9 amid controversies including the absence of the president's name in the colophon at the Arsenale entrance. The exhibition, organized by Kouoh's team (Rory Tsapayi, Siddharta Mitter, Marie Helene Pereira, Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, and Rasha Salty), unfolds across the Giardini and the Arsenale's Corderie, featuring works that balance strength and beauty with a harmonious mix of voices and themes. The Giardini section is particularly compelling, with a non-linear, polycentric layout that feels like a living organism, while the Arsenale offers further depth.

The Politics of In-action: Review of In-action: Viennese Actionism and the Passivities of Performance Art

Caroline Lillian Schopp's new book *In-action: Viennese Actionism and the Passivities of Performance Art* (2025) offers a revisionist history of Viennese Actionism, a movement retroactively named in 1970 by Peter Weibel and Valie Export. Schopp introduces the term "in-action" to describe a politics of artistic action that emphasizes intimacy, hesitation, and vulnerability rather than the violent or liberatory extremes typically associated with the movement. She expands the canon to include women artists such as Anna Brus, Hanel Koeck, and Ingrid Wiener, and reexamines the work of Rudolf Schwarzkogler, whose death was mythologized as a suicide by self-castration but was actually a fall from a window. Through close readings of photographs, Schopp argues that Schwarzkogler's performances were characterized by passivity and "in-sincerity," challenging the dominant narrative of actionism as aggressive or heroic.

the gallerist sundance review natalie portman jenna ortega 1234771098

The Gallerist, a new satire directed by Cathy Yan, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. The film follows struggling gallerist Polina Polinski (Natalie Portman), who is betting everything on a one-artist debut at Art Basel Miami Beach. After an obnoxious art influencer, Dalton Hardberry (Zach Galifianakis), dies accidentally by impalement on a sculpture titled The Emasculator, Polina and her assistant Kiki (Jenna Ortega) conspire to pass off his corpse as part of the artwork, duping wealthy clients. The ensemble cast also includes Catherine Zeta-Jones as a legendary dealer reminiscent of Marian Goodman, Da'Vine Joy Randolph as the earnest artist Stella Burgess, and Sterling K. Brown as Polina's ex-husband.

Spectral Nomenclature. Anastasia Pavlou  by Arnisa Zeqo

Artist Anastasia Pavlou’s practice is explored through her engagement with literature, memory, and the materialization of language. Her large-scale paintings, which draw formal comparisons to Art Informel and Abstract Expressionism, function as conceptual lexicons where titles—often direct citations from writers like Dionne Brand and Virginia Woolf—carry as much weight as the paint itself. Works such as "The Reader Interrogates Narrative, but Poetry Interrogates the Reader" demonstrate her interest in the "spectral" side of nomenclature, where naming serves to summon ghosts of the past while acknowledging the failures of language to capture emotion.