Explore art’s future at Hong Kong’s Affordable Art Fair this May

Hong Kong's Affordable Art Fair (AAF) returns in May with the theme “See Art. Love Art. Own Art.”, featuring 106 local and international exhibitors—up from 98 last year—and artworks priced from HK$1,000 (US$128). The fair, held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, aims to make art accessible to new and seasoned collectors alike, with a focus on transactions under US$50,000. Founder Will Ramsay highlights growing confidence in this market tier, citing a report by Affordable Art Fair × ArtTactic that shows 69% of galleries expect sales growth and that art fairs generate 44% of gallery revenues.

TWAC presents ‘ENTWINED’ Exhibition by Artist-Educators Bob Mosier and Karen Fearon

The Woodlands Arts Council (TWAC) presents 'ENTWINED,' its first exhibition featuring a married couple, artist-educators Bob Mosier and Karen Fearon. The show, on view from May 12 to August 6, 2026, highlights their individual practices—Mosier's intricate thread paintings that evolve into three-dimensional fabric sculptures, and Fearon's expressive drawings, paintings, and assemblages rooted in intuitive mark-making. Both artists incorporate found and reclaimed materials, and their work explores light, form, and the yin-yang of creative process. An opening reception is scheduled for June 18, 2026.

Studio 34 Announces Open Studio Weekend + Opening of Collective Pulse Art Exhibition in LIC

Studio 34 Gallery in Long Island City, New York, announces its annual Open Studio Weekend on May 16–17, 2026, from 12:00–6:00 PM, alongside the opening reception of a group exhibition titled 'Collective Pulse' on May 16 from 6:30–9:30 PM. The free event invites the public to explore working artist studios, meet the creators, and experience the artistic process, with live music by Sunshine Music. The exhibition, curated by Alice Lipping and Tina Glavan, features 14 Studio 34 artists and 11 guest artists, and runs through June 7, 2026.

‘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.

Artist Zareh in the Spotlight

Litavie Art Gallery in Glendale presented a solo exhibition titled 'Where Motion Becomes Memory' by artist Zareh from April 2 to 11. The opening night featured remarks from artist Seta Injeyan, who analyzed Zareh's work, and the event was documented with photos of Zareh alongside Injeyan and art critic Peter Frank.

Movie-inspired art exhibition lets public explore one of Canada’s luxury hotels

Hotel Confidential is a new contemporary art exhibition hosted at the Royal Hotel in Picton, Ontario, featuring original projects by 16 artists. The show utilizes the hotel's Annex Building to display site-specific installations, such as a collection of vintage suitcases containing miniature dioramas and various architectural interventions. Co-curated by Stacey Sproule and Christina Zeidler, the event aims to bridge the gap between the region's luxury tourism industry and its dense local artist community.

Archway Gallery Marks 50 Years of Artist-Led Vision

Archway Gallery, the longest-running artist-owned cooperative in Texas, is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a series of commemorative exhibitions. The festivities began with 'Homecoming' at the Jung Center—the site of the gallery's first show in 1976—and continue with 'Fifty Forward' at their main Houston space, featuring works and self-portraits by all 34 current members alongside contributions from founding artists.

New London exhibition uses architecture to explore the experiences of Iran’s American diaspora

Arash Nassiri's first institutional solo exhibition, 'A Bug's Life,' has opened at London's Chisenhale Gallery. The show features a moving-image commission set within a sculptural installation, following an insect puppet protagonist through a cavernous mansion in Los Angeles. The mansion is a 'Persian Palace'—a hybrid of Iranian and French Empire architectural styles that emerged in 1960s-70s Iran and was recreated by wealthy Iranian exiles in Los Angeles after the 1979 revolution. Nassiri, who is Tehran-born and Berlin-based, uses the film to explore themes of disorientation, displacement, and the ambiguous dual belonging of Iran's American diaspora.

New Currents: Zhang Mingxuan’s Politics of Skin

Chinese artist Zhang Mingxuan, 27, debuted her first mature body of work in a 2023 solo exhibition at Hive Center for Contemporary Art in Shanghai, featuring paintings and prints of distorted human forms wrapped in torn nylon hosiery. Her process involves stretching, tearing, and pressing nylon-clad boards onto canvas to create uncanny impressions of compressed, fetal-like bodies. The works, created after she completed her MA in printmaking at the Royal College of Art in London, explore themes of violence, embodiment, and the limits of the body through a labor-intensive method blending painting and printmaking.

Young Artists Explore Memory in ArtWorks Exhibition “Splendor in the Grass”

Artist-in-residence Julia Lipovsky leads a group of six emerging artists aged 16 to 24 in ArtWorks' Gallery Fellowship Program, creating an exhibition titled "Splendor in the Grass" at the Your Name Here Gallery. Inspired by Jackie DeShannon's 1968 song, the artists used its lyrics as prompts to produce works in various media, including India ink drawings and painted paper collages, with a focus on journaling and personal reflection.

Guernsey lockdown artist hosting first exhibition

Guernsey artist Tiffany Anna, who began painting during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, is hosting her first solo exhibition at the JARO Gallery in St Helier, Jersey, running until 25 May 2025. Anna, who previously worked as a photographer, started with a simple bee painting and now has over 200,000 Instagram followers, using her vibrant, positivity-themed works to inspire others to take up art.

'Strange Mirror.' Needham native, former engineer, preps for first solo art exhibition

Latika Sridhar, a Needham native and former design engineer, is preparing for her first solo art exhibition titled "Strange Mirror," opening May 9 at Established Gallery in Brooklyn. The show features work she has created over the past two years since leaving her engineering career to focus on painting, following a fine arts summer intensive at the Pratt Institute. Her art explores themes of internal complexity, human emotion, and her own mental health journey, with the exhibition running for a month.

Meet Kimie Joe | Artist and Gallery Owner

Kimie Joe, an artist and former engineer who worked on the International Space Station program and with Northrop Grumman, is the owner of the Gallery of Hermosa in downtown Hermosa Beach, California. In this interview, she discusses how her gallery serves as a cultural hub for emerging and established artists, offering rotating exhibits, workshops, and artist talks. Joe also shares her artistic practice, which blends materials like handmade ceramic tiles, epoxy resin, oil paints, and woven papers, drawing on her engineering background to create layered, tactile works that explore memory, place, and the natural world.

The Rothschilds and Sèvres Porcelain: A Collector's Passion at the Heart of an Exhibition in Paris

Les Rothschild et la porcelaine de Sèvres : une passion de collectionneurs au cœur d’une exposition à Paris

An exhibition at the Galerie des Gobelins du Mobilier national in Paris explores the Rothschild family's centuries-long passion for Sèvres porcelain. Titled "Sèvres, une passion Rothschild. De la Villa Ephrussi à Paris," it traces how the banking dynasty collected, traded, and bequeathed these delicate objects from the Ancien Régime, with a centerpiece table setting featuring pieces lent by family members from Vienna, England, and beyond. The show also highlights Béatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild, who amassed thousands of pieces and left them to the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, and includes a section on the Nazi looting of Rothschild collections in 1940, during which 22 Sèvres pieces were acquired by the Musée de Sèvres.

Provincetown art exhibit celebrates 50 years of coastal studies

A new art exhibition titled "Persistent Curiosity: Charting the Rippled Fabric of the Sea" has opened at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM) to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Center for Coastal Studies. The show runs from May 15 through July 19, with an opening reception on May 22.

Pahari art show opens in Washington​

A major exhibition of Indian art titled “Of the Hills: Pahari Paintings from India’s Himalayan Kingdoms” has opened at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of the National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, D.C. Running from April 18 to July 26, 2026, the show features 48 rare paintings created for Hindu kings in the Pahari region of north India between the 1620s and 1830s. Curators highlight the diversity of styles—from lyrical and naturalistic to boldly colored and abstracted—and emphasize the collaborative nature of the artist communities that produced these works. The exhibition includes pieces acquired from art historian Catherine Glynn Benkaim and Ralph Benkaim, some never publicly exhibited before, alongside loans from the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Tongue River Theory. davi de jesus do nascimento by Mateus Nunes

Brazilian artist davi de jesus do nascimento explores the intersection of poetry, memory, and the geography of the São Francisco River. Born in Pirapora, Minas Gerais, the artist’s work is deeply informed by his family's history of displacement due to the Sobradinho dam and the tragic loss of his mother to the river. His practice spans painting, installation, and performance, all rooted in a linguistic and philosophical framework he calls "Tongue River Theory."

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.

“Everything looks dark now” at Bel Ami, Los Angeles

Bel Ami gallery in Los Angeles has opened a new exhibition titled "Everything looks dark now," which takes its name and conceptual framework from Anton Chekhov's play *The Seagull*. The show features a diverse group of artists whose works collectively explore themes of melancholy, reflection, and existential uncertainty, mirroring the atmospheric and introspective mood of Chekhov's text.

Kanitha Tith’s “Cycle of Life” at SNA Arts Management

Cambodian artist Kanitha Tith presents "Cycle of Life" at SNA Arts Management in Phnom Penh, a solo exhibition reflecting on nearly two decades of abstract practice. The show features her signature woven steel-wire sculptures, ink paintings created using metal strings as tools, and an oneiric video work titled "Boding" that explores the memory of the now-demolished White Building.

Hugo the Decorator

Hugo décorateur

An exhibition and accompanying book explore Victor Hugo's lesser-known role as an interior decorator, focusing on the elaborate interiors he created for his homes in Paris and during his exile on the island of Guernsey. Curator Gérard Audinet conducted extensive research to reconstruct these lost environments, which were filled with eclectic objects, artworks by friends, and prestigious gifts.

‘What My Mother Gave Me’: Monuments of Flesh

Nona Faustine’s first retrospective, ‘What My Mother Gave Me,’ is on view at the Center for Photography at Woodstock until 10 May 2026. The exhibition gathers nearly three decades of the artist’s work, spanning series such as *Young Mothers*, *Mitochondria*, and *White Shoes*, to explore themes of matrilineal memory, the Black female body, and the afterlives of slavery in urban spaces. Faustine’s photographs range from intimate depictions of young motherhood to defiant nude self-portraits that transform sites of erasure into counter-monuments of presence.

ART AFRICA to host 2nd NEW FUTURES ARTS COLLABORATIVE 2026, in Cape Town, South Africa.

ART AFRICA has announced an open call for the second edition of its NEW FUTURES ARTS COLLABORATIVE, scheduled for 2026 in Cape Town, South Africa. The residency, titled "De-composition, Extraction and Regeneration," invites artists to collectively explore themes of extractivism, ecological crisis, and social justice, using artistic practice as a tool for transformation and regeneration.

Sunkissed and the Poetics of Repetition.

Jeddah-based artist Ahaad Alamoudi presents 'Sunkissed' at the Sharjah Art Foundation, a solo exhibition curated by Amal Al Ali that explores the rapidly shifting cultural landscape of the Gulf. Through a series of newly commissioned and recent works, including looping videos and mechanical installations, Alamoudi utilizes repetition and pop-culture symbols like falcons and fly traps to examine how collective identity is negotiated amidst accelerated urban development and technological change.

In Dim Light, New Histories Emerge

Museo Afro Casa Silvana in Humacao, Puerto Rico, is hosting 'Dim Light: Afro-Puerto Rican Photography,' the first collective exhibition dedicated exclusively to Afro-Puerto Rican photographers. Featuring ten artists from the island and its diaspora, the show explores themes of spirituality, family, and resistance through a lens of self-representation. The works were previously debuted at the 3rd Black Brazil Art Biennial before returning to Puerto Rico for this landmark presentation.

MAFOLOFOLO: Sonic Cartographies of Return

The South African artist collective MADEYOULOOK has unveiled 'Mafolofolo' at Hangar – Centro de Investigação Artística in Lisbon. Curated by Margarida Mendes, the installation utilizes sound, oral histories, and liberation songs to map the complex relationships between land, memory, and dispossession in northern South Africa. The work, which originally debuted at documenta fifteen, has been reconfigured for this specific research-driven setting to explore themes of extraction and survival.

fashion courreges nicolas di felice anniversary

Nicolas Di Felice, creative director of Courrèges, discusses his fifth anniversary at the fashion house in a conversation with actress Juliette Binoche. Di Felice, who does not consider himself an artist, shares his process of creating cohesive runway shows that begin with a single flash of inspiration, while Binoche reflects on her own artistic journey, including her directorial debut documentary "In-I In Motion." The dialogue explores themes of trust, collaboration, and the balance between creative vision and business reality.

art panteha abareshi young artist

Panteha Abareshi, a 26-year-old Canadian-born artist based in Tucson, creates performances, videos, sculptures, and installations that explore their experience as a disabled and chronically ill person. Their work often tackles taboo subjects, such as a recent solo exhibition at Human Resources in Los Angeles that screened pornography and sparked discussion about the representation of disabled bodies in fetish materials. A key piece, "CAREGIVING," features a silicone hand with a finger pulled back by a string nailed into its own wrist, symbolizing the violent balance in medical care and caregiving.

art sam penn max battle photography book

Sam Penn and Max Battle have released a new photography and writing volume titled "Max," published alongside an exhibition at New York Life Gallery. The book features intimate and explicit photographs by Penn of her collaborator and partner Max Battle, interwoven with his written reflections, documenting their attempt to balance a private sex life with artistic practice. The exhibition includes 19 of Penn's works from the book printed at large scale, with the first image confronting viewers directly.

NEYRA PÉREZ: RETURN TO ROEBIRI

NEYRA PÉREZ: RETORNO A ROEBIRI

Neyra Pérez, an Iskonawa artist, presents her exhibition "El retorno del Roebiri" at the Centro Cultural Ricardo Palma in Lima, Peru, running until May 9, 2026. The show features her distinctive kené designs, which she creates using natural materials like yakuchapana resin and virgin clay on raw canvas, fixed through sunlight and river washing. The works reference Roebiri, a mountain in the Amazonian Sierra del Divisor that was the ancestral territory of the Iskonawa people, from whom they were displaced in the late 1950s by missionaries and the military. Since 2018, Pérez has been part of a cultural revitalization effort led by anthropologist Carolina Rodríguez to recover these traditional designs and practices.