BE PART OF A COLLECTIVE ART WORK BY CHIHARU SHIOTA FOR THE CURITIBA INTERNATIONAL BIENNIAL

Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota has announced a new site-specific installation titled *The Space Between Us* for the 16th Curitiba International Biennial – THRESHOLDS, opening June 14 through November 15, 2026 at the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON) in Curitiba, Brazil. Curated by Tereza de Arruda, the work invites the public to submit letters—in text, collage, or other manual forms—which Shiota considers self-portraits of each participant’s inner universe. Submissions must be sent by May 20, 2026, and will be woven into a large-scale collective installation that makes visible the hidden experiences of individuals.

WHEN FASHION MEETS ART QUOTES BODIES AND POWER AT THE MET GALA

The 2026 Met Gala took place on the first Monday of May, opening the Costume Institute's spring exhibition 'Costume Art' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The dress code 'Fashion is Art' prompted celebrities to treat the body as a canvas, with attendees like Hunter Schafer, Madonna, Rachel Zegler, Angela Bassett, Kendall Jenner, Troye Sivan, and Emma Chamberlain referencing specific artworks—from Gustav Klimt's *Mada Primavesi* to the *Winged Victory of Samothrace*—and historical fashion pieces.

THE MONUMENTALITY OF THREAD OLGA DE AMARAL AT MALBA

The Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (Malba) has opened a major retrospective of Colombian artist Olga de Amaral, titled 'Olga de Amaral: Textile Body,' to celebrate the museum's 25th anniversary. The exhibition, running until May 11, features over fifty works from six decades, including key series like Entrelazados and Brumas, drawn from collections across the Americas.

LEONORA CARRINGTON THE VITRUVIAN WOMAN IN LUXEMBOURG

The Musée du Luxembourg in Paris has opened the first major exhibition in France dedicated solely to the work of surrealist artist Leonora Carrington. Titled 'The Vitruvian Woman,' the show presents 126 works and frames Carrington as a model of innovation and harmony, a deliberate counterpoint to Leonardo da Vinci's 'Vitruvian Man.' It explores her artistic journey from her Celtic origins and discovery of Italian Renaissance art to her pivotal involvement with Surrealism in France and her final years in Mexico.

La sede ad Albisola della Galleria Raffaella Cortese è più “un pensatoio che spazio espositivo”: la storia e le collaborazioni con gallerie d’arte emergente

Raffaella Cortese opened a small 12-square-meter space in Albisola Superiore, Italy, in June 2022, described as "more a think tank than an exhibition space." The venue, located near the Ligurian sea, honors the town's legacy as a center for contemporary ceramics from the 1950s to the 1970s, hosting artists like Lucio Fontana and Asger Jorn. The space alternates works from Cortese's Milan gallery with collaborations from emerging galleries, such as Fanta-MLN of Milan (presenting Noah Barker's installation "lux principum" in 2023) and Gian Marco Casini Gallery of Livorno (featuring Clarissa Baldassarri's "Exposure value" in 2024). A future collaboration with Triangolo gallery of Cremona is scheduled for May–September 2026, showcasing Nicole Colombo's sculpture "Rosario (to the moon and back)."

In Veneto, a New Art Center is About to Open in Two 16th-Century Villas on the Brenta Riviera (Opening on the Same Day as the Biennale)

In Veneto sta per inaugurare un nuovo centro d’arte con sede in due ville cinquecentesche della Riviera del Brenta (apertura lo stesso giorno della Biennale)

A new cultural center named Ca' Riviera will open on May 9, 2026, in Mira, Veneto, housed within two 16th-century villas on the Brenta Riviera. The project, founded by Riccardo Corò and Leonardo Tiezzi, aims to be a permanent hub for contemporary art, design, and architecture, featuring exhibitions, installations, and artist residencies. Its inaugural exhibition, 'The Shape of the Self / La forma del Sé,' is organized in collaboration with the Milan gallery Cassina Projects.

miami bakehouse art complex celebrates 40 years 2715414

The Bakehouse Art Complex in Miami’s Wynwood district is celebrating its 40th anniversary and the 100th anniversary of its Art Deco building, which originally opened as a bakery in 1926. Founded in 1985 by a group of artists who purchased the abandoned industrial bakery for $10, the nonprofit has provided studio space to over 1,500 local artists. The celebration kicked off with an exhibition titled “Bakehouse at Forty: Past, Present, Future,” attended by more than 1,000 guests, and included a gala fundraiser with affordable ticket prices. The organization is now planning to build 60 units of affordable artist housing as part of a revitalized campus.

more artists claim owed money london arusha gallery 1234743900

Ten artists issued a joint statement accusing London's Arusha Gallery of failing to pay nearly $700,000 in long overdue payments. The artists—Pippa Young, Anna Rocke, Plum Cloutman, Ilona Szalay, Megan Rea, Kate Walters, Gail Harvey, Morwenna Morrison, Helen Flockhart, and Charlotte Keates—claimed they faced extreme difficulty obtaining payment for sold work, often waiting months or years. Charlotte Keates, represented by lawyer Jon Sharples, said she is owed £430,000 ($580,000) from sales dating back to 2023, though the gallery's owner, Bella Arusha Collins King, disputed the amount. Additional artists, including Beth Carter, Andrei Pokrovskii, Fiona Finnegan, and the trust of Norman Gilbert, also came forward with claims of non-payment. The gallery acknowledged that some payments are missing and expressed regret.

Romanesco in a Max Mara Coat

Romanesco im Max-Mara-Mantel

Evelyn Taocheng Wang's first institutional solo exhibition in Italy, "Sweet Landscape," opens at the Museion in Bolzano. The Chinese-born, Rotterdam-based artist presents silk paintings, pastel canvases, and painted garments that probe the region's complex history beneath its idyllic Alpine scenery. Works such as "Frog Princess Checks Her Smartphone in front of Window of August Macke’s Hat Shop" (2026) and "Ancient Roman bust for Sale" (2026) blend local food motifs, cultural translation, and hybrid identity, questioning who gets to write history and how landscapes are perceived through secondhand experiences.

A Painting by Gerard van Honthorst in Utrecht

Un tableau de Gerard van Honthorst à Utrecht

The Centraal Museum in Utrecht has acquired a painting by Gerard van Honthorst, titled *Extase de Marie-Madeleine* (c. 1618-1620), purchased from Cantore Galleria. The work was previewed at TEFAF Maastricht, where the museum also announced a major retrospective dedicated to the artist, titled "Gerard van Honthorst - En tout point différent de Rembrandt," which opened on April 25.

Major Corporate Sponsor Withdraws from Sydney Biennale, Citing Alleged Hate Speech

A major corporate sponsor, PwC, has withdrawn from the 25th Sydney Biennale following a police complaint alleging antisemitic hate speech by a participating DJ. The NSW Jewish Board of Deputies filed the complaint against US electronic music producer Zubeyda Muzeyyen (DJ Haram) over comments made during the opening night party, which the Board claims incited hatred against Jewish Australians.

Stano Filko “Painting” at Layr, Vienna

Stano Filko's exhibition "Painting" at Layr in Vienna challenges the persistent binary opposition between painting and conceptualism. The show presents Filko's work from around 1980, a period when debates over the merits of painting versus conceptual art were at their peak, offering a nuanced perspective that complicates this historical divide.

Tobias Pils “Shh” mumok / Vienna by Frank Wasser

Tobias Pils has opened a major exhibition titled "Shh" at mumok in Vienna, presenting a decade-spanning survey of his work. The show, which follows his 2013 presentation at Secession, occupies three spaces and charts his evolution from abstraction to figuration and a more expansive color palette, while focusing on recurring motifs and the structure of pictorial language.

Feeling Nature According to Nicolas Poussin

Ressentir la nature d’après Nicolas Poussin

An exhibition titled "Le sentiment de la nature. L’art contemporain au miroir de Poussin" has opened at the NMNM – Villa Paloma in Monaco. Curated by Guillaume de Sardes, it places Nicolas Poussin's 1651 painting *L'Orage* in dialogue with works by over twenty contemporary artists, including Sarah Moon, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Thomas Demand, Pierre Thoretton, Ange Leccia, Marine Wallon, and Claudio Parmiggiani.

Language Games in a Haunted Present.

Ndéyé Kouagou has opened her first solo exhibition in Italy at Collezione Maramotti, presented in conjunction with the Fotografia Europea 2026 festival. The exhibition, titled 'Ghosts of the Moment', features recent works and new commissions that showcase her language-driven practice, blending text, performance, and image to explore unstable meaning and contemporary subjectivity.

One of LACMA's first commissions finds new life at David Geffen Galleries

Alexander Calder's monumental fountain sculpture "Three Quintains (Hello Girls)" has been reinstalled at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's new David Geffen Galleries, more than 60 years after it was first commissioned for the museum's original 1965 campus. The colorful, whimsical piece features four water jets that propel mobile-like paddles, and its water jets were turned back on in March 2025. The sculpture now anchors the northeast corner of the new building, placed alongside the main cafe and near the W.M. Keck Education Center, with a technically advanced filtration system to address previous environmental challenges.

DISPOSITIONS IN THE AMERICAS CONTEMPORARY ART AND THE COLONIAL LEGACY

A major exhibition titled 'Dispossessions in the Americas: The Extraction of Bodies, Land, and Heritage from La Conquista to the Present' opens at Wrightwood 659 in Chicago. It features over 40 works by 36 contemporary artists from Latin America, curated by Jonathan D. Katz and Eduardo Carrera, examining the ongoing legacies of colonialism through themes of territory, body, and cultural heritage.

Maddy Inez talks to Phillip Edward Spradley

Maddy Inez, a Los Angeles-based ceramic artist, discusses her practice in an interview with Phillip Edward Spradley. Her work draws on California's natural environment and histories of displacement, using ceramics to explore maternal lineage, oral history, and plant-based knowledge. A key inspiration is a midwifery certificate belonging to her great-great-great grandmother from the era of enslavement. Inez's upcoming solo exhibition at Megan Mulrooney opens May 16, 2026.

Annual photo show at MacNider Museum showcases local talent

The Charles H. MacNider Art Museum in Mason City, Iowa, has opened its 46th Annual Cerro Gordo Photo Show in the Center Space Gallery, sponsored by the Safford and Lena Lock Photo Endowment Fund. Sixty-two entries were submitted by residents of Cerro Gordo County and students at North Iowa Area Community College, with 36 photographs by 20 artists selected for exhibition. An opening reception and awards ceremony will be held on May 7, 2026, with cash prizes including $125 for Best in Show. The exhibition runs through July 11, 2026, and admission is free.

46th annual Cerro Gordo Photo Show open at Charles H. MacNider Art Museum

The 46th Annual Cerro Gordo Photo Show has opened at the Charles H. MacNider Art Museum's Center Space Gallery in Mason City, Iowa. The exhibition features 36 photographs by 20 artists from Cerro Gordo County and North Iowa Area Community College, selected by a panel of judges from 62 entries. Artists include Alec Heggen, Brad Janson, Wendy Janson, Dennis Nettifee, Margo Underwood, Lisa Wolf, and many others from Clear Lake, Mason City, and Plymouth. The show is sponsored by the Safford and Lena Lock Photo Endowment Fund, with an opening reception and awards ceremony scheduled for May 7, offering cash prizes including $125 for Best in Show.

This art exhibit has traveled from coast to coast. Now it’s opening in Utah

An art exhibition titled "Instrumentos de silencio" ("Instruments of Silence") created by Argentine Latter-day Saint artists Susana Silva and Gonzalo Silva is opening at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art in Salt Lake City on January 16. The exhibition, which explores how memory and music were used to capture and codify the changes of colonization in Argentina, was awarded the 2023 Ariel Bybee Endowment prize by the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts. It has previously traveled from Sargent’s Daughters art gallery in New York City to the Graduate Theological Union Library in Berkeley, California, before arriving in Utah.

Great Plains Art Museum opens three exhibitions to kick off anniversaries

The Great Plains Art Museum at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln will open three exhibitions on January 20, 2026, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Center for Great Plains Studies and the museum's 45th anniversary. The main and south galleries feature "Collection Connections: Art in Conversation," pairing artworks from the museum's history to highlight formal and thematic ties. The west gallery presents "'All the Beauty You Can See': Dwight Kirsch in Nature," focusing on the Nebraska-born artist's lifelong fascination with nature, while the mezzanine gallery hosts "Indigenous Ceramics from the Collection," showcasing ceramic works by Indigenous artists of the Great Plains and Southwest. The exhibitions run through July 25, with a First Friday reception on February 6.

Late UK artist Sarah Cunningham honoured with Nottingham Contemporary show

Nottingham Contemporary has announced plans for the first institutional solo exhibition of British artist Sarah Cunningham, who died in November 2024 at age 31. The show, the largest presentation of her work to date, is scheduled to open next autumn, marking a homecoming for the artist who was born and raised in Nottingham and previously worked as a gallery assistant at the same institution. Cunningham, who graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2022, had her first solo exhibition at Lisson Gallery in 2023 and developed a distinctive abstract style characterized by exaggerated brushwork and extended brushes made from scrap wood.

‘Entertainment is often violence shrouded in a fun disguise’: Marianna Simnett on being tickled for hours and having Botox injected into her throat

Marianna Simnett, a Croatian British multi-disciplinary artist, discusses her new exhibition 'Circus' at the Secession in Vienna, which features a light, sound, and sculpture installation in a pitch-black basement. The show includes works like 'Catherine Wheel' (2026), a blue spinning reflective skirt accompanied by the sound of the artist being tickled for four hours, and 'Fountain' (2026), a neon of a woman urinating referencing Balkan folklore. Simnett explores themes of violence, desire, pain, and power, often using her own body as a site of transformation, as in her earlier work 'The Needle and the Larynx' (2016) where she had Botox injected into her throat.

bonhams first saudi arabia exhibition 1234754500

Bonhams, the New York-based auction house, will hold its first exhibition in Saudi Arabia next month. Titled "Judhoor / Roots: The Origins of Saudi Modernism," the three-day show opens October 8 at the LIFT Gallery in Riyadh's JAX District, followed by a London auction on November 25. The exhibition surveys Saudi modern art from early pioneers like Abdulrahman Al Soliman, Safeya Binzagr, and Mohammed Al Saleem to later generations, highlighting works such as Al Saleem's horizon paintings and Al Soliman's 1981 depiction of Al-Ahsa oasis made with local soil. It also features archival material from Dar Al-Funoon, Saudi Arabia's first modern art space, and foregrounds female voices, including Binzagr, the first woman to stage a solo exhibition in the kingdom. A panel discussion will accompany the show, cohosted by collectors Taha Al Kuwaiz and Muneera Al Touq.

Mimmo Jodice in mostra al nuovo Museo del Tesoro di San Gennaro a Napoli. Rare foto ‘barocche’ a colori

Mimmo Jodice, the renowned Italian photographer who died in October 2025 at age 91, is being honored with a new exhibition at the Museo del Tesoro di San Gennaro in Naples. The show, curated by former Capodimonte director Sylvain Bellenger, presents Jodice's rare color photographs from the 1980s—his only color project—which focus on 17th-century Neapolitan Baroque paintings by artists such as Caravaggio, Jusepe de Ribera, and Artemisia Gentileschi. The exhibition runs until January 10, 2027, and also marks the inauguration of newly renovated welcome spaces at the museum, designed by Vanni del Gaudio.

The Joy of Discovery at 1-54 Art Fair

The 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, now open at the Starrett-Lehigh Building in Manhattan, presents a smaller edition than previous years but continues to offer unexpected, tactile works. Highlights include Rommulo Vieira Conceição's Pop-art-inspired wall installation at Aura gallery, Kendra Frorup's mixed-media piece at the Current: Baha Mar Gallery, and Eymric Moderne's gold-leaf and glass bird painting at TM Arthouse. The fair also features posthumous works by Marcel Gotène at Loeve and Co and Sophia Bounou's enigmatic paintings at Blond Contemporary.

The soap opera continues. Minister Giuli will boycott the inauguration of the Venice Biennale

La telenovela continua. Il Ministro Giuli diserterà l’inaugurazione della Biennale di Venezia

Alessandro Giuli, Italy's Minister of Culture, has announced he will boycott the pre-opening and inauguration ceremony of the 61st Venice Biennale on May 9, 2026, escalating a political and cultural crisis. The dispute began when Biennale president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco allowed the Russian pavilion to reopen, absent since 2022 due to the Ukraine invasion, citing artistic freedom. Giuli demanded the removal of ministry representative Tamara Gregoretti from the Biennale board for failing to oppose the decision. Tensions flared during the Italy Pavilion press conference, where journalists were confined to a separate streaming room and questions were restricted. The European Commission condemned the Russian pavilion's reopening, cutting €2 million in funding and issuing a 30-day ultimatum, while 22 European countries signed a letter pressuring the institution. The Biennale's international jury, led by Solange Oliveira Farkas, then excluded Russia and Israel from award consideration, citing ethical guidelines against countries whose leaders face International Criminal Court charges for crimes against humanity.

The great antique fair of Assisi has half a century of history. The interview

La grande fiera dell’antiquariato di Assisi ha mezzo secolo di storia. L’intervista

AMAB – Assisi Mostra Arte Antiquariato Bastia Umbra, the antique fair founded in Assisi in 1973 and moved to the Umbria Fiere exhibition center in 1989, celebrated its 50th edition in 2025 and will reopen from April 24 to May 3, 2026. The 10-day event features 90 exhibitors and includes special exhibitions marking the 800th anniversary of the death of Saint Francis of Assisi (at Palazzo Collicola in Spoleto and the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria in Perugia) and the centenary of the birth of artist Giorgio Ascani, known as Nuvolo, curated by Bruno Corà, as well as a project on costume designer Tita Tegano with costumes from the Renato Bruson collection. Director Emo Antinori Petrini, son of founder Mario, discusses the fair's evolution, its commitment to quality, and its new focus on contemporary art installations and performances.

Working in Art: Opportunities from Movin’Up, Fondazione Accademia Carrara, nctm, and Sugar Music

Lavorare nell’arte: opportunità da Movin’Up, Fondazione Accademia Carrara, nctm e Sugar Music

Several Italian cultural institutions and organizations have launched new open calls and job opportunities for artists and creative professionals. Key initiatives include the Movin’Up international mobility grant for creatives under 35, a residency scholarship from nctm e l’arte, and a talent scouting program by the record label Sugar Music. Additionally, the Fondazione Accademia Carrara is seeking a new Head of Educational Services, while the Associazione Amici dell’Arte has opened a competition for young visual artists to exhibit in Piacenza.