The Biennale Must Remain Open – Also for Russia

Die Biennale muss offen bleiben – auch für Russland

The article argues against calls to exclude Russia from the Venice Biennale, focusing on the controversy surrounding the Russian pavilion's planned exhibition titled "Der Baum ist im Himmel verwurzelt" (The Tree Is Rooted in Heaven). The pavilion is set to feature musicians from Russia, Argentina, Mali, and Mexico, and its theme revolves around the idea that politics is time-bound. The author contends that while the demand to exclude Russia is understandable given the geopolitical context, it is dangerous because once a biennial begins disinviting states, it undermines the very concept of the international exhibition.

Pavlina Vagioni Oikeiōsis: A Greek Artist Asks Venice to Remember How to Belong

Pavlina Vagioni's exhibition *Oikeiōsis*, presented by the Hellenic Diaspora Foundation at the Venice Biennale, takes its name from a Stoic concept about recognizing belonging and expanding care outward. The show is structured in two rooms: the first, named Neikos (strife), features a fragmented plexiglass cube that reflects visitors in multiplied form, evoking separation. The second, Philotes (harmony), contains warm rock-salt seats and a layered vocal soundscape that activates the Tartini effect—a psychoacoustic phenomenon where two frequencies produce a phantom third tone, symbolizing collective kinship. The salt seats will physically change over the Biennale's six-month run, accumulating the memory of each visitor.

Kode Bergen Art Museum : Vibeke Tandberg : They Live

Kode Bergen Art Museum in Norway will present "They Live," the most comprehensive exhibition of artist Vibeke Tandberg to date, running from May 22 to September 12, 2026. The show spans over three decades of Tandberg's practice, featuring well-known works alongside new pieces, and includes photography, film, video, sculpture, text works, and ephemera displayed throughout the museum's Stenersen building. A sculptural installation, *Hestebarrikaden* (2023), will be placed at the main entrance.

If You're Wondering Where to Go With Kids... Experiential Events at Museums and Art Galleries Nationwide

The Korean Museum Association, in partnership with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the ICOM Korea Committee, is hosting "2026 Museum and Art Gallery Week" throughout May to commemorate International Museum Day on May 18. The event features 16 special exhibitions and experiential programs from 18 institutions nationwide, organized under three main themes: "Museum×Enjoy," "Museum×Stroll," and "Museum×Meet." Participating venues include Kyo-dong Art Museum, Gyeonggi Provincial Children's Museum, Savina Museum of Contemporary Art, and others, offering hands-on activities, educational content, and community-based programs for children and families.

A circle of Cuban art at Westchester Regional Library

The Westchester Regional Library in Miami is hosting "Circular Reflections," an exhibition featuring over 80 contemporary Cuban artists, each working within a 21-inch circular format. Organized in collaboration with the Miami-Dade Public Library System, the show opened on April 3 and runs through June 25. Curated by Miami-based artist and independent curator Miguel Rodez, the project began nearly a decade ago and has evolved into a traveling, ongoing documentation of Cuban visual culture. Artists like Ismael Gómez Peralta discuss how the circular constraint challenged traditional rectangular composition, pushing them to rethink spatial organization while maintaining their individual visual languages.

Inside the UAE Pavilion at Venice Biennale, a whisper becomes a portrait of a nation

The UAE Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale presents 'Washwasha,' an exhibition curated by Bana Kattan with assistant curator Tala Nassar. The show features six artists—Mays Albaik, Jawad Al Malhi, Farah Al Qasimi, Alaa Edris, Lamya Gargash, and Taus Makhacheva—whose works explore the concept of whispering in Arabic, encompassing oral history, language, rumor, and daily noise. Installations include glass sculptures, sound-based pieces from barbershops and farms, and a reconstructed hammam installation by Al Malhi that plays recordings of wedding rituals. The exhibition runs until November 22.

Conceptual art offers glimpse inside architects’ minds

WHAT Museum in Tokyo is hosting a group exhibition titled “Corrugated/Coral — Eight Practices to Project Architecture Afar,” on view until September 13, 2026. The show features installations by eight teams of architects, including Altemy, Office Yuasa, Garage, Group, Domino Architects, Toshiki Hirano, Rui Architects, and Tetsuo Hatakeyama + Taiki Yoshino + Archipelago Architects Studio. One highlighted work is “Darkness, Afterglow,” where visitors follow written instructions to sit in a darkened room and interact with light and a book, offering a conceptual experience of architectural thinking.

L.A.'s $1 Billion Lucas Museum Has Revealed Inaugural Exhibitions For This Year's Opening — Curated By George Lucas Himself

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles has announced its 18 inaugural exhibitions ahead of its September 22, 2026 opening. The $1 billion, 100,000-square-foot museum in Exposition Park will feature 32 galleries curated personally by George Lucas, including a dedicated Cinema space showcasing the Lucas Archives with original concept art, costumes, and props from Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Unlike traditional museums, the exhibitions are organized by emotion and storytelling themes such as Adventure, Childhood, Fantasy, and Romance, rather than by time period or artist.

What Brakes Through: “Teresa Tyszkiewicz. Stories That Tell Themselves” at Profile Foundation.

Teresa Tyszkiewicz's exhibition "Stories That Tell Themselves" at Profile Foundation in Warsaw showcases the Polish artist's process-driven practice spanning video, performance, and relief-like paintings made with pins, nails, metal plates, ropes, and fabrics. Curated by Bożena Czubak, the show highlights Tyszkiewicz's use of the body as a medium—often naked and immersed in organic materials—to explore emotions, intuition, and unconscious desires, as seen in works like the 1980 film "Grain." The artist, who began her career in the late 1970s alongside Polish neo-avantgarde filmmakers but rejected their conceptual tendencies, developed a tactile, laborious approach that invites sensory engagement.

In Minor Keys and legacies held in common

The article reflects on the 61st Venice Biennale, curated by Koyo Kouoh, who passed away on 10 May 2025 at age 57 after a cancer diagnosis. Her curatorial concept, "In Minor Keys," will be realized posthumously by her team. The Biennale preview opens on 6 May 2026, with the public opening on 9 May. Additionally, artist Henrike Naumann, selected for the German Pavilion, died on 14 February 2025 at age 41, also from cancer; her work will be shown in her name.

Two New Exhibitions Will Open At Brno House of Arts Next Week

Two new exhibitions will open at the Brno House of Arts on Tuesday, 28 April, with a public vernissage at 6pm. The first, 'Distorted Image: Chapters from the Beginnings of Video Art', is an international show examining how artists in Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Hungary from the 1960s to the 1990s manipulated analogue and digital images to question truth in media, featuring experimental films, early animations, and independent video magazines. The second, 'Words of Dalibor Chatrný', is a retrospective marking the centenary of the Czech artist's birth, focusing on his 'word works' that explore language and the interplay between reading and seeing, while retaining painterly qualities.

Oman announces artist, concept for Venice Biennale

Haitham Al-Busafi will represent Oman at the 61st Venice Biennale, serving as both artist and curator. His installation, titled "Zinah," transforms the tradition of Omani silver horse adornment (Al-zaanah) into an immersive environment of sand, suspended metal, and collectively generated sound. Located in the Arsenale Artiglierie and commissioned by Oman's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth, the work was developed through a community workshop in Muscat where participants inscribed marks into silver forms. The exhibition runs from May 9 to November 22, 2025.

The World According to Aldwyth

The New York Times Art section published an article titled "The World According to Aldwyth," profiling the artist Aldwyth, who works in paint, bricolage, and collage. The piece explores how her art delves into the history of art, ideas, and the human species, presenting her unique creative vision and thematic concerns.

DE AZAMBUJA S FOUNDATION INTERVENTION AND REFLECTION AT LA CASA ENCENDIDA

La Casa Encendida in Madrid has opened "Fundación," a site-specific sculptural installation by Brazilian artist Marlon de Azambuja. The work transforms one of the building's central towers into a walk-through sculpture, curated by Bruno Leitão. Using materials and gestures that modify existing architecture, the installation explores the concept of "founding" as a search for foundational knowledge, questioning divisions between reason and sensation while positioning the exhibition space as an experiential environment. The piece is on view until September 27, 2026.

The boundary between inner world and reality in Gak Yamada's photography on show in Friuli

Il confine tra mondo interiore e realtà nella fotografia di Gak Yamada in mostra in Friuli

Japanese artist Gak Yamada's exhibition 'Cosmic Prayer' is on view until June 14 at Die Gelbe Wand, a new exhibition space in Pordenone, Italy, which will be the Italian Capital of Culture in 2027. The show traces Yamada's shift from photography as representation to an experiential medium, featuring series such as 'HIGAN' (where urban landscapes dissolve), 'Red' (where chemical decomposition reveals dominant red tones), and the latest 'Flower of the Universe,' inspired by cosmic connectivity. Yamada, who once abandoned photography entirely to paint, immerses prints in water to alter their chemical stability, with Fujifilm papers dissolving quickly and Kodak papers slowly, producing varied chromatic and material effects.

In an exhibition in Naples it is possible to get lost without urgency in an unstable balance. The review

In una mostra a Napoli è possibile perdersi senza urgenza in un equilibrio instabile. La recensione

The exhibition "A Gentle Collapse," curated by Marta Ferrara at Andrea Nuovo Home Gallery in Naples, explores the contemporary psychic state through a spatial and perceptual construction. Featuring works in photography, painting, engraving, and installation, the show creates a sense of instability, with meaning emerging gradually through shifts between familiar and altered forms. Artists include Dorottya Vékony, Matteo Silverii, Flora Villaumié, and Zoë Pelikan, whose works engage with themes of genetic engineering, serial accumulation, and subtle disorientation across two gallery levels.

Transforming (and Transforming) to Survive. Interview with sculptor and designer Tadeáš Podracký

Trasformarsi (e trasformare) per sopravvivere. Intervista allo scultore e designer Tadeáš Podracký

Czech sculptor and designer Tadeáš Podracký (b. 1989) presents new works during Milan Design Week 2026, including three carved wooden lamps and sculptures exploring hybridity. The pieces are inspired by the rare Sorbus sudetica tree, a hybrid species that has survived for nearly 20,000 years through asexual reproduction. The exhibition, titled "Before the Shape Appears," is produced by 5 Vie and hosted at Cavallerizze in Via Olona. Podracký's practice bridges fine art and collectible design, using techniques such as carving, waxing, patination, and pigment infusion to create objects that appear to have grown organically.

KU students, teachers to show off form-defying ceramics at Off-Site Art Gallery exhibition

University of Kansas students and teachers are showcasing ceramics that defy gravity and traditional form at Off-Site Art Space in Lawrence. The exhibition, titled “Almost a Body: Not Quite a Thing,” features works by artists-in-residence Seuil Chung and SunYoung Park alongside their students, including pieces like Natalie Slutsky’s “Vital Exchange,” an anatomical heart with arteries forming a Möbius strip. The show highlights innovative techniques such as using sand-filled brick boxes for firing, French cleat mounting systems, and beeswax finishes inspired by natural forms from the McGregor Herbarium.

Alton's Elysian Gallery to close, reopen as art cafe and cultural hub

Elysian Gallery in Alton, Illinois, is closing its original location at Mineral Springs Mall on May 10, 2026, to relocate and expand into a new concept called Elysian Gallery and Cafe at 419 E. Broadway. Owner Jeff Bohnert, a photographer, is transforming the 500-square-foot gallery into a larger, pet-friendly cultural hub featuring a cafe serving Goshen Coffee, a book nook, workspaces, and art exhibitions. The new space will open with a soft launch on May 30 during Alton Main Street's Pup Crawl, followed by a grand reopening on June 6. Bohnert and his girlfriend Janel Freeman originally opened the gallery in August 2025.

Art House Gallery Will Present PLAYING FAVORITES, a Solo Exhibition by Bryant Small

Art House Gallery in Jersey City will present "Playing Favorites," a solo exhibition by artist Bryant Small, curated by Andrea McKenna, from May 2 to May 31, 2026. The show features a selection of Small's most cherished works, many never publicly exhibited before, highlighting his use of alcohol ink on Yupo paper to create luminous, fluid abstract compositions. An opening reception is set for May 2, and an artist talk on April 17.

‘Layers of Us’ show examines culture through art

Mothership Studios is hosting the opening reception and a brunch for the "Layers of Us" exhibition, featuring nine artists from Texas State University. The show explores the concept of culture through individual representation and community, using diverse media like video, painting, photography, and sculpture.

culture jenna weiss berman amy poehler

Cultured magazine's 'Quick Questions' column features a brief interview with Jenna Weiss Berman, who discusses the artwork 'The Testament of Ann Lee' as a bright spot during a dark winter, reflects on misconceptions about her gender, and shares her creative process and hypothetical alternative career supporting immigrants in New York City.

The Exhibition Before The Exhibition: Art In The Making

Puke Ariki museum in New Plymouth, New Zealand, is hosting TUKU: Open Studio | Emerging Māori Artists, a collaborative project where senior artist Wharehoka Smith mentors early-career artists Jodie Tipa and Dwayne Duthie in creating eight manaia (spiritual guardian figures) in a public studio setting. Running from today through 12 July, the open studio prepares the museum's Temporary Gallery for the upcoming Kiingi Tuheitia Portraiture Award exhibition, which opens on 25 July and features 40 tūpuna portraits. Visitors can watch the artists at work, engage with their creative process, and participate in free public events including workshops and talks.

Announcement

Air de Paris, a highly influential Parisian gallery known for representing many of the most significant contemporary artists, has become one of the earliest supporters of Contemporary Art Daily's parent organization, Contemporary Art Library. The announcement, made by Contemporary Art Daily, highlights Air de Paris's pioneering role in elevating the gallerist's activities into a form of artistic expression, and positions the gallery as a model for the entire field.

​Big visions for the Plains Art Museum: renovation, expansion and opportunities abound

The Plains Art Museum in Fargo, North Dakota, is preparing to break ground on a major renovation and expansion of its permanent collection facility, working with architecture firms Olson Kundig and JLG. The project will create an open storage concept design, adding a fourth gallery and allowing public access to the museum's basement collection storage, where over 6,000 artworks are housed. This follows the museum's history of adaptive reuse, having transformed a 1904 International Harvester warehouse into its main building in 1997 and adding the Katherine Kilbourne Burgum Center for Creativity in 2012.

Art Review: "The Rip in Her Sleeve" and "Iliana Arocho: Drawings" at Maiden Lane Gallery in Kingston

Maiden Lane Gallery in Kingston is hosting two concurrent exhibitions curated by Matt Moment: "The Rip in Her Sleeve," featuring pigment print photographs by Alicia Schirrmeister and Ruth Lauer Manenti, and "Iliana Arocho: Drawings," a solo show of ethereal drawings and metalpoint works by Iliana Arocho. The shows occupy two floors of a brick building that serves as an outpost for Headstone Gallery, run by Lauren Aitken and Chase Folsom, marking Moment's first collaboration with the gallery as a guest curator.

Open call to visual artists to help create festive sanctuary at Dorset venue

Lighthouse Poole in Dorset has issued an open call for visual artists with a local connection to submit work for its seasonal exhibition themed "BURROW," running from November 12, 2025 to February 27, 2026. The exhibition aims to create a peaceful, reflective space during the winter months, following last year's installation "The Wintering" by self-taught artist Carmel De’Lisser. Submissions are free, must use sustainable materials, and can explore concepts such as hibernation, searching, and comfort. The selection panel includes De’Lisser, curator Mille Lake, creative director Paul Newman, and co-founder Tom Pouncy.

Artist Sandra Hansen spotlights plastic pollution with ‘Our Exquisite Pollution Series: Under the Sea’

International environmental artist Sandra Hansen's exhibition 'Our Exquisite Pollution Series: Under the Sea' is on view at the Evanston Art Center from March 28 to April 26. The show features large-scale marine scenes made from handmade paper and repurposed plastics, including a 12-foot paper whale and kelp columns braided from hundreds of plastic bags, all highlighting the impact of plastic pollution on oceans. Hansen began the series in 2014 after learning about agricultural runoff in Lake Erie and has since collected beach trash to incorporate into her conceptual art.

Lehman College Art Gallery Presents the 2026 Thesis Exhibition

The Lehman College Art Gallery is presenting the 2026 BFA, MA, and MFA Thesis Exhibition from May 20 to May 28, 2026. The show features the culminating work of over thirty graduating undergraduate and graduate artists from the Lehman College Art Department, spanning digital media, painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, and interdisciplinary forms. Themes include identity, memory, technology, migration, and social space. An opening reception on May 20 will include an awards announcement and a year-end celebration.

SMFA at Tufts Presents Passages, the 2026 MFA Thesis Exhibition

The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University (SMFA at Tufts) presents "Passages," the 2026 MFA Thesis Exhibition, on view from May 5 to 17 at Tufts University Art Galleries in Medford, Massachusetts. The show features thesis work by nineteen MFA candidates, exploring themes of journey, transition, and exploration across media including painting, sculpture, assemblage, and artists' books. Works incorporate found visa documents, portraiture, clay cities, and symbolic animals such as goldfish, black birds, and a dog-headed cynocephalus.