Art Dubai 2026 first look: What to expect at the 20th fair

Art Dubai returns to Madinat Jumeirah for its 20th edition, running from Friday to Sunday with a free preview day on Thursday. The fair features a more concentrated layout than previous years, with gallery booths, institutional exhibitions, public art, poetry readings, DJ sets, performances, and multimedia installations gathered in the main conference area. Notable participants include co-founder John Martin, who returns as a gallerist nearly 20 years after helping launch the event, and Emirati artist Rami Farook, whose sand-built booth presents works reflecting on Dubai and the Gulf. Gallery One from Ramallah draws attention with Palestinian artist Amjad Ghannam's reinterpretations of Pablo Picasso, inspired by his experience as a former political prisoner.

‘Anchors of Light’ reframes 30 years of MOCA North Miami

The Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami (MOCA) celebrates its 30th anniversary with a new exhibition, “Anchors of Light,” which opened on April 15. Curated by Miami native Catherine Camargo, founder of Queue Gallery, the show features nearly 50 artists from the museum’s collection, including historical figures like Robert Rauschenberg and Claes Oldenburg, past retrospective subjects such as Maryan S. Maryan and Edouard Duval-Carrie, and local favorites Purvis Young and Pepe Mar. The exhibition includes a video corridor for multiple video works, addressing space constraints, and highlights Camargo’s preference for dark, muted colors and unconventional materials, exemplified by Will Boone’s painting “Widowmaker.”

Out and About: What's Happening in Philly

This article is a roundup of events happening in Philadelphia, including a Mother's Day Weekend visit to the Barnes Foundation, a live stage show of "Dancing with the Stars," the Night Market at East Market, and Broadway productions of "Chicago" and "The Wiz." It highlights the Barnes Foundation's collection of impressionist and modern art, along with its new exhibition "Freedom Dreams" on view through August 9.

15 Must-See Events Enriching the Venice Biennale 2026 Experience.

The article presents a curated guide to 15 must-see events accompanying the 61st Venice Biennale, titled "In Minor Keys" and curated by the late Koyo Kouoh, running from May to November 2026. It highlights key exhibitions beyond the main pavilions, including "Screen Melancholy: Li Yi-Fan" at Palazzo delle Prigioni, "Darkness Visible: The Long Shadow of Dictatorship" at Spazio Punch, "Elegy" by Gabrielle Goliath at Chiesa di Sant'Antonin, and "As Above, So Below" at Ex Church Santi Cosma e Damiano, among others. These events span museums, foundations, and historic palazzi, featuring performances, talks, and curatorial interventions that extend the Biennale's reach across Venice.

Exhibitions in May: our selection of Parisian outings

This article, published by La Rédac with photos by Audrey de Sortiraparis, presents a curated selection of exhibitions opening in Paris and the Île-de-France region in May 2026. Highlights include a Giovanni Segantini retrospective at the Marmottan Monet Museum, a porcelain exhibition titled "Sèvres, a Rothschild Passion" at the Mobilier National, a comparative show of Michelangelo and Rodin at the Louvre Museum, the return of the Colors Festival with a street-art exhibition called Colors Light, a historical tribute to Madame de Sévigné at the Carnavalet Museum, a major Lee Miller retrospective at the Musée d'Art Moderne, a family-friendly Lego brick exhibition by Dirk Denoyelle at Espace Champerret, and a video game music exhibition at the Philharmonie de Paris.

Inside the New Madison Avenue Flagship of the Powerhouse Gagosian Gallery

Larry Gagosian has opened a new flagship gallery at 974 Madison Avenue (preferring the address 980 Madison at 76th Street) after Bloomberg Philanthropies took over the building's upper floors, which had housed Gagosian's New York flagship since the late 1980s. The megadealer relocated to the street level, creating a 12,000-square-foot complex with exhibition spaces, offices, meeting rooms, and private viewing areas designed by Jonathan Caplan of Caplan Colaku Architects. The gallery launched with a double-header presentation of works by Marcel Duchamp and Robert Rauschenberg, and features ceilings just over 12 feet high, adaptable walls, and a vestibule display of art books.

14 artists having major museum moments in 2026

The article previews 14 artists who will have major museum exhibitions in 2026, highlighting key shows such as a long-awaited US retrospective of Marcel Duchamp, a Calder exhibition in Paris, and a Rothko show in Florence. It also details concurrent auction highlights at Christie's New York, including works from the S.I. Newhouse collection by Brancusi, Lichtenstein, Matisse, and Pollock. Specific exhibitions covered include "Krasner and Pollock: Past Continuous" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a Roy Lichtenstein retrospective at the Whitney Museum, and multiple European shows for Constantin Brancusi's 150th anniversary.

FAD News: Gozo Yoshimasu awarded inaugural Serpentine x FLAG Art Foundation Prize

Gozo Yoshimasu has been awarded the inaugural Serpentine x FLAG Art Foundation Prize, a new biennial award providing £200,000 per recipient over ten years, totaling £1 million in artist support. The jury included Michelle Kuo, Venus Lau, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Jonathan Rider, and Rirkrit Tiravanija. Yoshimasu, born in Tokyo in 1939, is known for his interdisciplinary practice spanning poetry, performance, photography, and experimental moving image. As part of the prize, he will stage a solo exhibition at Serpentine North in autumn 2027, traveling to The FLAG Art Foundation in New York in spring 2028—his first major solo institutional presentations in Europe and the United States.

For Carly Glovinski, Art and Gardening Grow Side by Side

Maine artist Carly Glovinski has opened "Into the Garden," her third solo exhibition with New York's Morgan Lehman Gallery. The show explores gardening as a parallel practice to art-making, inspired by her residency at Surf Point in southern Maine, where she discovered the overgrown grounds of Wild Knoll, the former home of author May Sarton. Glovinski planted a community garden there, the Wild Knoll Foundation Garden, and the experience led her to return to painting after a two-decade hiatus, creating acrylic works that express the experience of gardening rather than traditional landscapes.

Artist Debuts and Inspired Duos Define the Can’t-Miss Booths at Independent

The article highlights standout booths at the Independent Art Fair, newly relocated to Pier 36 in Manhattan's Lower East Side. With 76 exhibitors, 26 of whom are presenting an artist's New York debut, the fair features notable presentations including Sprüth Magers' restaging of Gretchen Bender's 'TV Text & Image (PEOPLE WITH AIDS)', Omar Mismar's debut with abstract paintings on salvaged PVC banners referencing Lebanese protests, Carrie Schneider's large-format photographs from the Venice Biennale, and works by Kim Stolz and Raphael Egil at YveYANG. The fair runs through Sunday and aims for greater attendance and institutional influence.

A Roma c’è la mostra di un’artista 40enne californiana che ci racconta il valore della lentezza

Erica Mahinay, a 40-year-old California-born artist based in Los Angeles, is the subject of a solo exhibition titled "Rhythms" at T293 gallery in Rome. The show presents 24 intimate-scale works that explore the artist's physical, process-driven approach to abstract painting, where she manipulates pigment through pouring, dripping, and erasing to create layered, luminous surfaces. Mahinay, who holds degrees from the Kansas City Art Institute and Cranbrook Academy of Art, has work in the Marciano Art Foundation and Pinault Collection, and was included in the Hammer Museum's 2023 biennial "Made in L.A.: Acts of Living."

Art Basel Hong Kong 2026: Where The World Comes To See

Art Basel Hong Kong 2026 returned to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from March 25–27, featuring 240 galleries from 42 countries and territories. The 13th edition introduced new sectors including Echoes, dedicated to works made within the past five years, and Zero 10, a digital art initiative making its Asia debut. The fair also transformed its Encounters sector with a collective curatorial framework based on the Five Elements, led by Mami Kataoka and three other Asia-based curators. Robb Report India covered the event through the perspectives of Indian artists Siddharth Kerkar and Jayesh Sachdev.

Frieze New York will Open With 68 Galleries from 26 Countries, and Other News.

Frieze New York will open on May 13, 2026, at The Shed with 68 galleries from 26 countries, marking its 15th edition. The fair emphasizes Central and South American galleries, supported by new committee members Fátima González and Omayra Alvarado, alongside blue-chip exhibitors like Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, and Pace. In other news, Phillips set a watch auction record with its $96.3 million Geneva sale, the Met Gala generated $1.56 billion in media value, and ICFF announced a November 2027 edition. Tiffany & Co. and the CFDA launched a new jewelry design scholarship.

And We Shall Go Through Their Hills Without Much Delay

This article documents three journeys into and out of Yunnan, China, spanning from 1874 to 2023. It begins with British interpreter Augustus Raymond Margary's failed colonial expedition to establish a trade route, which ended in his violent death and contributed to unequal treaties opening Southwest China. It then follows a Naxi student named Xueshan in 1937, whose railway journey introduced modern timekeeping to the region, and finally describes the construction of the Burma Road, a critical WWII supply route. The narrative concludes with the artist Cheng Xinhao retracing these routes on foot from Kunming toward Burma over a year and a half, reflecting on history, bodily experience, and the layers of infrastructure that have reshaped the landscape.

How MEGA Art Fair Became Milan Art Week’s Social Club

MEGA Art Fair held its third edition in Milan, transforming a former perfume factory into a social and exhibition hub during Milan Art Week and Design Week. The fair, which ran from midday to midnight over an extended period, positioned itself as an alternative to traditional art fairs by prioritizing relaxed social connection, community engagement, and public programming over a purely commercial atmosphere.

Marcel Duchamp Is Stripped Bare at MoMA

The Museum of Modern Art in New York has opened "Marcel Duchamp," the first retrospective of the artist on this continent in over 50 years. Curated by Ann Temkin, Michelle Kuo, and Matthew Affron, the exhibition is organized strictly chronologically and features Duchamp's most famous works—including his revolutionary readymades like *Fountain* (1917) and *Bicycle Wheel* (1913)—often shown only in photographic reproduction or as later refabricated copies, replicas, and miniatures from his *Box in a Valise* series. The show highlights how Duchamp's original objects have been lost or dematerialized, forcing viewers to confront the very definition of an artwork.

The Must-See Biennale Exhibitions in Venice

The 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, titled "In Minor Keys," opens May 9 as a tribute to its late curator Koyo Kouoh. Alongside the Biennale, Venice hosts numerous concurrent exhibitions: Marina Abramović's "Transforming Energy" at Gallerie dell'Accademia (the only living female artist with a major show there); the Matthew Wong Foundation's inaugural exhibition "Interiors" featuring unseen works by the late Chinese Canadian artist; retrospectives of Michael Armitage at Palazzo Grassi and Lorna Simpson at Punta della Dogana; Hernan Bas's new paintings at Ca' Pesaro; Lu Yang's "DOKU The Illusion" at Espaces Louis Vuitton Venezia; and "Minimal Legends" at the Vincenzo de Cotiis Foundation, staging a dialogue among Minimalist masters.

Mounting Rene Matić’s snapshots in Perspex isn’t really enough to make them interesting | Charlotte Jansen

Rene Matić, at 29, became the youngest winner of the £30,000 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation prize, nominated for their solo exhibition "As Opposed to the Truth" at CCA Berlin. A smaller version of that show is now at the Photographers’ Gallery in London. Matić was also the youngest Turner Prize nominee last year. The article critiques Matić's work, praising their 2022 piece "Upon This Rock" for exploring masculinity, fatherhood, and British identity, but dismissing much of their other output—like the snapshot installation "Feelings Wheel"—as immature, mediocre, and reliant on display gimmicks rather than photographic substance.

San Francisco announces its first-ever executive director of arts and culture.

Matthew Goudeau has been appointed as San Francisco's first-ever executive director of arts and culture, tasked with safeguarding the arts as a key part of the city's creative economy and identity. The appointment comes amid uncertain federal arts funding, but local arts funding in San Francisco is projected to increase this year under Mayor Daniel Lurie's leadership.

‘Like a Malfunctioning Theme Park Ride’: Banality and Body Horror at New York Art Week

New York Art Week featured a range of exhibitions that blended banality with body horror, drawing comparisons to a malfunctioning theme park ride. The article highlights several shows that juxtapose mundane, everyday objects with grotesque, unsettling imagery, creating a disorienting experience for viewers. Artists presented works that explore the fragility and absurdity of the human body, often using visceral materials and jarring installations to provoke discomfort and reflection.

‘A once-in-a-generation opportunity’: Europe’s biggest exhibition of James McNeill Whistler in 30 years will open in London this week

Tate Britain in London is opening a major retrospective of James McNeill Whistler, the largest exhibition of his work in Europe in 30 years. Featuring 150 works spanning painting, drawing, printmaking, and design, the show includes iconic pieces like *Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1* (commonly known as *Whistler's Mother*) and *Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge*. For the first time, the exhibition examines Whistler's teenage years and also displays his personal notebooks, easel, paint palette, and collections of East Asian ceramics and Japanese prints. The exhibition runs from May 21 to September 27, 2026.

SeMA opens new retrospective on Yoo Young-kuk, modern master of the 'mountain within'

The Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) has opened a major retrospective on Korean abstract artist Yoo Young-kuk titled "A Mountain Within Me" at its Seosomun main branch. The exhibition, marking the 110th anniversary of the artist's birth, is the largest ever mounted on Yoo, featuring 178 works including 115 oil paintings and 15 canvases from the artist's family's private holdings shown publicly for the first time. Curated by Yeo Kyung-hwan, the show defies chronology, beginning in 1964 and moving backward through Yoo's Tokyo years and the lost decade after Korea's liberation, then forward through his geometric abstractions of the 1960s and 1970s, culminating in his late "mind-image abstraction" phase after 1980.

Amid ceasefire, Tehran museum opens ‘Art & War’ exhibit spotlighting US Jewish artist

Tehran's Museum of Contemporary Art has opened an exhibition titled 'Art & War' featuring works by American Jewish artist Peter Saul, amid a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. The show includes Saul's provocative paintings that critique war and political violence, marking a rare cultural exchange in a country where official rhetoric often opposes Israel and the United States.

Why Is Beeple So Successful?

The article examines the meteoric rise of artist Mike Winkelmann, known as Beeple, who broke auction records in 2021 by selling an NFT for $69.3 million at Christie's, becoming the third most expensive living artist. His robot dogs, featuring heads of figures like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, debuted at Art Basel Miami Beach and are now on view at Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie during Gallery Weekend. The show, titled "Regular Animals," has sparked controversy, with critics like Markus Lüpertz denouncing the works as trivial entertainment unworthy of a museum, while curators Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev and Lisa Botti defend the exhibition.

What’s Left to Learn from Marcel Duchamp?

The article examines Marcel Duchamp's enduring influence on contemporary art, focusing on his readymades such as "Fountain" (1917) and "Bicycle Wheel" (1913/1951). It notes that a major survey co-organized by the Museum of Modern Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 70 years after Duchamp predicted his true public would emerge in 50 to 100 years, reaffirms his status as the most influential artist of the past century. The piece discusses how Duchamp's practice of selecting and presenting ordinary objects as art—from a urinal to a snow shovel—once shocked the art world but now seems quaint compared to later works like Maurizio Cattelan's taped banana.

CHIHULY AT MEIJER GARDENS TO TRANSFORM MEIJER GARDENS MAY 2 TO NOV. 1 WITH EXPANSIVE OUTDOOR AND INDOOR EXHIBITION, FEATURING ENHANCED EXPERIENCES INCLUDING RADIANT FORMS AND INSIDER TOURS

Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park will host a major exhibition of Dale Chihuly's work from May 2 to November 1. The expansive show, titled 'CHIHULY at Meijer Gardens,' will feature large-scale installations across 12 outdoor locations on the 158-acre campus, complemented by indoor gallery displays, making it the largest Chihuly exhibition in the institution's history.

Korean Cultural Center New York Presents the Major Exhibition "Lee Kang So: A Field of Becoming"

The Korean Cultural Center New York (KCCNY) presents the major exhibition "Lee Kang So: A Field of Becoming," on view from May 13 to June 20, 2026. The show features the work of pioneering Korean contemporary artist Lee Kang So (b. 1943), who since the 1970s has worked across photography, painting, sculpture, installation, and performance, resisting fixed forms to explore how art emerges through process, material, and context. The exhibition includes key works from his 1970s performances and installations, as well as later sculptures and paintings that foreground gravity, chance, and bodily gesture. Lee, who was active in New York in the 1980s and participated in MoMA PS1's Studio Artist Program, returns to the city with this exhibition at KCCNY's expanded venue.

Required Reading

This week's Required Reading from Hyperallergic features a photo by Saber Nuraldin, a finalist for the World Press Photo of the Year, depicting Palestinians climbing an aid truck in Gaza during famine caused by Israel's blockade. The article also includes Elena Megalos's essay on the American Museum of Natural History as a site of motherhood, and reports on Meenu Batra, a legal interpreter arrested by ICE, and the New York Times blocking the Internet Archive from crawling its site.

A Political Anthology of the United States: The Great Exhibition of Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince in Venice

Un’antologia politica degli Stati Uniti. La grande mostra di Arthur Jafa e Richard Prince a Venezia

Fondazione Prada presents "Helter Skelter: Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince" at Cà Corner della Regina in Venice, the 15th exhibition produced by the foundation in the city. Curated by Nancy Spector of the Brooklyn Museum, the two-person show brings together over fifty works—photographs, videos, installations, sculptures, and paintings—that explore the fractured identity of the United States through the lens of race, masculinity, popular culture, and appropriation. Both artists, though separated by more than a decade in age, share a practice of scavenging and recontextualizing images from film, comics, advertising, and social media to critique American society.

VALIE EXPORT, icon of feminist art who placed the body at the center of her research, has died

È morta VALIE EXPORT, icona dell’arte femminista che ha messo il corpo al centro della sua ricerca

VALIE EXPORT, the Austrian artist and feminist icon known for using her body as a political and artistic tool, has died in Vienna at age 85. Born in Linz in 1940, she changed her name in 1967 and became a pioneer of performance, film, and media art, creating provocative works such as "Tapp-und Tastkino" (1968), where she turned her body into a touchable cinema screen, and "Aktionshose: Genitalpanik" (1969). Her career spanned over six decades, and she taught at institutions including the University of Wisconsin and the Berlin University of the Arts. In 2023, the Albertina Museum in Vienna held a major retrospective of her work.