Lee Ufan: ‘I try to bring together those things which are made and unmade’

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.

Rare early photographs reveal lost sites featured in Van Gogh’s paintings

Two rare photographic albums taken by art critic Gustave Coquiot in 1922 have been acquired by the newly established Van Gogh Academy in Auvers-sur-Oise, France, and are now on display. The images capture many of the sites in Arles that Vincent van Gogh painted in the late 1880s, including the Yellow House, the Langlois Bridge, and the Rhône riverbank. Several of these locations were later destroyed during World War II or by modernization, making Coquiot's photographs valuable historical records of Van Gogh's original subjects.

Nicholas Pope, sculptor whose career came in two acts, 1949–2026

Nicholas Pope, a British sculptor known for his organic, post-minimalist works, has died at age 76. His career unfolded in two distinct acts: an early phase in the 1970s producing roughly-hewn wooden columns like *Oak Tree Column* (1973) and *Drooping Column* (1975), which earned him a spot in the British Pavilion at the 1980 Venice Biennale, followed by a decades-long hiatus after contracting viral encephalitis in Tanzania. He later returned to sculpture with brighter, brasher works in ceramic, glass, and felt, including *The Apostles Speaking in Tongues Lit By Their Own Lamps* (1993–96) and collaborations like *The Conundrum of the Chalices of the Seven Deadly Sins and Seven Virtues* (2015) with James Maskrey.

The 11 Exhibitions to See in May 2026

ArtReview's editors have curated a list of 11 must-see exhibitions worldwide for May 2026, excluding Venice. Highlights include Audie Murray's solo show at april april in Pittsburgh, featuring works made with her own hair and breast milk; Delcy Morelos's monumental earthwork 'origo' at the Barbican Sculpture Court in London; and Bold Tendencies' 20th anniversary season in Peckham, titled 'Euphoria', with new commissions across multiple disciplines.

Who is Yto Barrada, France's representative at the Venice Biennale with a world-spanning work?

Qui est Yto Barrada, représentante de la France à la Biennale de Venise avec une œuvre-monde ?

Yto Barrada, the artist representing France at the 2026 Venice Biennale, has created a multidisciplinary installation titled "Saturne" for the French Pavilion. The work centers on textiles and natural dyeing, weaving together themes of postcolonial history, migration, craft transmission, and the symbolism of Saturn—from its astronomical mystery to its mythological role as the devourer of children. The installation features wool curtains, Aubusson tapestry, goat skins, wasp-nest sculptures, masks, muzzles, a color chart, and video, all housed in a renovated pavilion designed with the help of numerous artisans. Barrada, born in Paris in 1971 and raised in Tangier, founded the Cinémathèque de Tanger and later The Mothership, a research center focused on textiles and natural dyes. The exhibition is curated by Myriam Ben Salah.

Next stop – infinity! My transcendental experience on Japan’s ‘art island’ guided by its master Lee Ufan

The article profiles Korean-born artist Lee Ufan, who turns 90 next month, and his transcendental art on Japan's Naoshima island. It describes his upcoming major shows: a retrospective in Venice coinciding with the Biennale, and an exhibition at Dia Beacon in New York. Lee, a key figure in the Mono-ha movement, creates works like the steel arch "Porte Vers l'Infini" on Naoshima that engage with nature and perception. The piece traces his career from early violent, resistant sculptures involving cracked glass and boulders to later meditative paintings and installations.

First US Survey of Mexican Artist Teresa Margolles Coming This Fall

MoMA PS1 in New York City will host the first United States survey of Mexican artist Teresa Margolles this fall. Trained as a forensic pathologist, Margolles creates works using organic and bodily materials from homicide victims, morgues, and crime scenes. The exhibition will feature pieces confronting murder and violence along the US-Mexico border, including a 2026 evolution of her ongoing series "Air" (2003–), where a gallery will be humidified with water carrying degradable material from homicide sites. The Museum of Modern Art will also present a new experiential installation, "Aproximación al lugar de los hechos (Approaching the Scene)" (2026), starting September 17, which drips water carrying evidence of violent death onto heated steel plates.

10 Ausstellungen, die Sie zum Gallery Weekend nicht verpassen sollten

The article highlights ten must-see exhibitions during Berlin's Gallery Weekend, curated by the editorial team of Monopol magazine. Featured shows include Jiyoon Chung's installation "Dead End" at Anton Janizewski, which explores perception and anxiety through subtle triggers; Giorgio Griffa's retrospective at Walter Storms Galerie, showcasing his poetic abstract paintings on un-stretched linen; Walid Raad's "Like a Rubber Rung on a Ladder" at Galerie Thomas Schulte, referencing the Lebanese Civil War with a crashed VW Beetle and graffiti; and Thomas Demand's exhibition at Sprüth Magers, where his photographs printed on copper plates reflect on current events like the Gaza war and climate change.

Tracing the Arc of British Sculpture From Modernism to Today

A new exhibition titled “Modern British: Modern & Contemporary British Sculpture” has opened at Bowman Sculpture in London, tracing the evolution of British sculpture from Modernism to the present day. The show features iconic figures such as Henry Moore, Eduardo Paolozzi, and Lynn Chadwick alongside emerging talents like Rufus Martin and Joanna Allen, creating cross-generational dialogues. Highlights include Moore’s *Small Seated Figure* (ca. 1936) and Paolozzi’s *Richard Rogers as Newton* (1990). The exhibition runs through May 29, 2026, and reflects the gallery’s shift from focusing on Modern masters to embracing contemporary voices.

How to Buy Minimalist Art

Artsy Editorial offers a guide on buying Minimalist art, explaining the movement's core principles of geometric shapes, limited color palettes, and material reduction. The article highlights key artists such as Carl Andre and Polly Apfelbaum, and emphasizes that Minimalism focuses on the idea behind the work rather than the artist's technical skill.

La nature morte : une exposition novatrice

Le Journal des Arts reports on a new exhibition titled "La nature morte" (Still Life), presented by a gallery as a continuation of its previous monographic shows on Boetti and Burri and the thematic exhibition "On Fire." The exhibition focuses on the classical genre of still life, positioning it as a field of experimentation that accompanies the renewal of painting in the 20th century. It brings together three artists—Picasso, Morandi, and Parmiggiani—who, though not from the same school or direct lineage, each explore the subject through distinct artistic languages: Picasso asserts the presence of the object, Morandi delves into its meditative and silent dimension, and Parmiggiani pushes the reflection toward a form of disappearance. The show is curated by Cécile Debray, president of the Musée national Picasso-Paris, and involves collaborations with institutions such as the Museo Morandi.

The Bahamas returns to the Venice Biennale with a joy-filled posthumous collaboration

The Bahamas will return to the Venice Biennale in 2026 after a 13-year absence with a posthumous exhibition for artist John Beadle, who died in 2024 at age 60. Beadle was originally selected to represent the country in 2015 but the government withdrew funding. The exhibition, titled "In Another Man’s Yard," will feature Beadle’s work alongside that of his mentee, Lavar Munroe, using materials from Beadle’s studio including sails from Haitian migrant sloops. The pavilion is organized by commissioner Amanda Coulson and curator Krista Thompson, who raised private funds after the government declined to support the project.

At MAXXI L'Aquila, exhibition dedicated to Ai Weiwei recounts catastrophes and memory

From April 29 to September 6, 2026, MAXXI L'Aquila presents "AI WEIWEI: Aftershock," an exhibition curated by Tim Marlow featuring approximately seventy works by Chinese artist, architect, and activist Ai Weiwei. The show spans his entire career, focusing on themes of earthquakes, wars, political repression, and memory. The centerpiece is the installation "Straight" (2009–2012), made from 150 tons of steel rods recovered from schools that collapsed in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, displayed across three rooms. The exhibition is held at Palazzo Ardinghelli, a Baroque building that houses MAXXI L'Aquila and was itself restored after the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake, creating a dialogue between the works and the building's history of recovery.

Simply divine: the extraordinary supernatural visions of Francisco de Zurbarán

Francisco de Zurbarán, one of the three great Spanish 17th-century painters alongside Velázquez and Murillo, is finally receiving his first solo exhibition in the UK at the National Gallery in London. The show highlights his distinctive style of religious painting, characterized by stark chiaroscuro, sculptural realism, and a meditative stillness that makes the immaterial seem tangible. Works such as his crucified Christ and The Apparition of Saint Peter to Saint Peter Nolasco exemplify his ability to depict visions and inner spirituality, often commissioned by powerful religious foundations in Seville during the Counter-Reformation.

The Essential Works of Yin Xiuzhen

ArtAsiaPacific published a profile of Chinese artist Yin Xiuzhen, born in 1963 in Beijing, highlighting her career as a pivotal figure in Chinese contemporary art since the 1990s. The article revisits milestone works following the closing of her solo exhibition "Yin Xiuzhen: Heart to Heart" at London's Hayward Gallery, including early pieces like *Dress Box* (1995) and *Washing River* (1995). Yin emerged alongside the second wave of Chinese contemporary artists, including Yu Hong, Song Yonghong, Wang Jinsong, and her husband Song Dong, and was an early practitioner of what art historian Gao Minglu termed "Apartment Art." Her practice uses discarded clothing, household ephemera, and industrial materials to address urbanization, globalization, environmental crisis, and collective memory.

Alma Allen’s US Pavilion Is One of the Emptiest Shows at the Venice Biennale

Alma Allen represents the United States at the 2026 Venice Biennale with a subdued, apolitical exhibition inside the US Pavilion. The show features roughly 25 sculptures—mostly in bronze, wood, and stone—many titled "Not Yet Titled," and deliberately avoids overt political messaging. This marks a stark departure from the previous two US pavilions, curated by Simone Leigh (2022) and Jeffrey Gibson (2024), which directly confronted colonialism and empire. The Trump administration’s call for proposals explicitly asked for work that "reflects and promotes American values," and Allen’s presentation has been criticized as safe, unremarkable, and lacking the incisive edge of contemporary American art.

Artist Mel Kendrick Is Mining New Possibilities From Wood and Color

American artist Mel Kendrick, who began his career in the early 1970s integrating Minimalism and architecture, presents his ninth solo exhibition at David Nolan Gallery in New York. Titled “Mel Kendrick: Tilt,” the show runs through June 6, 2026, and features new and recent wood sculptures alongside older works, including pieces like *Walnut Shelf* (2026), *Gemstone* (2026), and *Yellow Drum* (2025). Kendrick works without pre-planning, allowing the material to guide his process, and treats color as a material with its own weight, inspired by Gothic and medieval architecture.

José Dávila Makes Space the Subject in His New York Show

José Dávila's solo exhibition "The Simple Act of Positioning" opens at Sean Kelly gallery in New York, featuring sculptures that explore the relational placement of objects in space. The show includes totemic pillars of steel, concrete, volcanic rock, and automotive paint, framed by large black structures, inviting viewers to move through the gallery to fully experience the visual conversations between works. Dávila, originally from Guadalajara and trained in architecture, draws on Modernist precedents from artists like Marcel Duchamp and architects like Luis Barragán.

“The Adventure of Domenico Gnoli” at Lévy Gorvy Dayan, New York

Lévy Gorvy Dayan in New York is presenting “The Adventure of Domenico Gnoli,” a survey of the Italian artist’s work including paintings, drawings, etchings, notebooks, and letters. The exhibition is organized in collaboration with Gnoli’s widow, Yannick Vu, the artist’s estate, Mimì Gnoli, and the Livia Polidoro-Gnoli Archive, and follows his major 2021–22 retrospective at the Fondazione Prada in Milan.

Black Designers as Fine Artists: Fashion Meets Sculpture

The article from Ebony.com explores the intersection of fashion and fine art, highlighting how Black designers are increasingly being recognized as fine artists whose work bridges clothing design and sculpture. It profiles several contemporary Black designers who create garments that function as sculptural objects, exhibited in galleries and museums rather than solely on runways. The piece examines how these creators challenge traditional boundaries between fashion and art, using materials and techniques that elevate their work into the realm of fine art.

Au musée Marmottan Monet, la peinture de Giovanni Segantini hisse la modernité au sommet des Alpes

The Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris is hosting the first retrospective in France of Giovanni Segantini (1858–1899), a major but little-known figure of Symbolism. The exhibition traces his career through the lens of his geographical ascent into the Alps, from his early success with "Ave Maria à la traversée" (1886–1888) to his final triptych "La Vie, La Nature, La Mort," which he was working on when he died at age 41. Segantini's divisionist technique, which Vassily Kandinsky considered a precursor to abstraction, is highlighted as a means of expressing a dematerialized vision of the world.

What you want from your body? Antony Gormley, iron and crawling

British sculptor Antony Gormley discusses his solo exhibition "What Holds Us" at Galleria Continua in San Gimignano, on view from 9 May to 13 September 2026. The show transforms the gallery's former cinema-theatre into an interactive environment where visitors are invited to crawl through massive cardboard bodies, exploring interior spaces and shifting from passive spectatorship to bodily engagement. Gormley explains that the title connects "hold" and "whole," suggesting that being held—by the ground, the womb, or the body—is essential for growth and wholeness.

William Turnbull Origins Exhibition Spotlights Elemental Forms in New York

William Turnbull Origins, an exhibition dedicated to the Scottish-born artist William Turnbull, is now on view in New York, highlighting his early and mid-career works that emphasize elemental, abstract forms. The show focuses on his sculptures and paintings from the 1940s through the 1960s, drawing attention to his exploration of primitive and organic shapes.

The Top 10 Exhibitions to See Around the World This May

Ocula's global team of editors has curated a list of the top 10 exhibitions to see worldwide in May, highlighting diverse shows from Rio de Janeiro to New York. Featured exhibitions include Jungjin Lee's photographic works blending Icelandic landscapes and intimate objects on traditional Korean paper, a millennial-themed group show titled "Genuine Premium Fake Economy" examining precarity through artists like Jasmine Gregory and Buck Ellis, Joan Semmel's solo exhibition "Continuities" at Xavier Hufkens and Alexander Gray Associates showcasing her erotic self-portraiture at age 93, and Wynnie Mynerva's Berlin Gallery Weekend show addressing colonial violence and Andean mythology.

What’s on for spring? Spiritualism and symbolic systems

This article surveys several spring exhibitions in Chicago that explore themes of spiritualism, symbolic systems, and interconnected consciousness. Featured shows include Mindy Rose Schwartz's "Countersealed" at M. LeBlanc, which uses deconstructed fur coats, wands, and twisted fiber sculptures to evoke rituals addressing ecological disaster and historical subjugation. Daniel G. Baird's "Margin" at Patron examines thresholds between material and spiritual realms through a gilded canoe, wax arm cast, and birchwood oar. Leah Ke Yi Zheng's "Change, I Ching (64 Paintings)" at the Renaissance Society presents 64 hexagram paintings on silk, connecting abstract minimalism with Eastern silk painting traditions.

Exhibition | Mark di Suvero, 'Avanti!' at Paula Cooper Gallery, 534 West 21st Street, New York, United States

Paula Cooper Gallery in New York will present an exhibition of large-scale sculptures and drawings by Mark di Suvero from May 2 through July 17. The show features the debut of the kinetic sculpture 'Avanti!' (c. late 1990s), a human-intervention piece with a suspended beam that viewers can rock with their body weight, alongside the 1986 work 'Nelly' and the stainless steel 'Tables Turn’d' (2004), as well as a selection of works on paper including interactive "sliding drawings."

LATIN AMERICA AT THE VENICE BIENNALE: A VISUAL TOUR OF THE CENTRAL EXHIBITION

LATINOAMÉRICA EN LA BIENAL DE VENECIA: UN RECORRIDO VISUAL POR LA MUESTRA CENTRAL

The 61st Venice Biennale, titled "In Minor Keys," opened its preview days on May 8, 2025, curated by the late Koyo Kouoh (1967–2025). The central exhibition, realized by a team she selected before her death, features 110 participants from around the world, with a strong Latin American presence of 15 artists, collectives, and organizations. The show explores themes of colonial history, plantation economies, geological memory, and environmental crisis through works that emphasize shared materials, politics, and poetics across geographies from Dakar to San Juan.

Artists, Read the Fine Print

Artist Damien Davis writes a critical piece on how so-called 'standard' contracts in the art world systematically undermine artists' power, citing long consignment periods, moral rights waivers, and opaque terms that favor institutions. Separately, the Venice Biennale has scrapped its traditional Golden Lion awards after the awards jury resigned; instead, ticket holders will vote on 'Visitor Lions,' with results announced in November, and notably Israel and Russia remain eligible despite the jury's earlier ban. Other news includes damage to a 1,000-year-old Native American archaeological site by construction crews building President Trump's border wall.

Henrike Naumann Stared Down a Divided Germany’s Past While Eyeing Our Troubled Present

Henrike Naumann, a German artist known for using secondhand furniture and design to explore political extremism and consumer capitalism, is profiled in ARTnews. The article recounts her first US exhibition, “Re-Education” at SculptureCenter in New York in 2022, where she created installations referencing the January 6 Capitol attack, juxtaposing Federal-style office furniture with a Flintstonian mancave and chairs arranged by ideological subtext. The show gained unexpected attention when German media covered it, linking her small hometown of Zwickau with New York, and she later visited Thomas Hart Benton’s murals at the Met to understand American power and aesthetics.

The Clark presents exhibition of Giorgio Griffa

The Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, presents "Giorgio Griffa: Paths in the Forest," the first solo museum exhibition in the United States dedicated to the Italian artist Giorgio Griffa (born 1936). On view from June 13 to October 12 at the Lunder Center at Stone Hill, the exhibition features works spanning nearly six decades, including highlights such as "Sessanta frammenti" (1980), "Rosa" (1968), and "Narciso" (1986). Griffa is known for his use of diluted acrylics on unstretched, unprimed canvases, and his practice emphasizes the intelligence of materials and an ecological ethic. The exhibition is curated by Robert Wiesenberger, John and Barbara Vogelstein Senior Curator of Contemporary Art at the Brooklyn Museum and former curator of contemporary projects at the Clark.