Spencer Finch and Lindsay Adams to create large-scale commissions for Obama Presidential Center

The Obama Presidential Center has commissioned new site-specific works by artists Spencer Finch and Lindsay Adams for its 19-acre campus in Chicago's Woodlawn neighborhood. Finch will create a wall tile installation inspired by the color palettes of Honolulu, Nairobi, Jakarta, and Chicago—cities formative to Barack Obama's life—while Adams will translate her 2024 painting "Weary Blues" into silkscreened fabric panels for the public cafe. The center, opening in the first half of 2026, will feature over 20 commissioned artworks, including previously announced pieces by Maya Lin, Richard Hunt, and Julie Mehretu.

Historical Museum Returns Painting

Historisches Museum gibt Bild zurück

The German Historical Museum (DHM) in Berlin has restituted a 19th-century portrait of historian Leopold von Ranke to the von der Schulenburg family. The painting by Adolf Jebens, dated 1876, was seized in 1945 during a land reform in the Soviet Occupation Zone from the family's Schloss Lodersleben estate. The museum's director, Raphael Gross, confirmed the return after provenance research identified the work's history.

Sébastien Allard à la tête du département des Peintures du Louvre

Sébastien Allard has been appointed interim head of the Paintings Department at the Musée du Louvre, effective April 14. The 47-year-old specialist in 19th-century art previously served as deputy to Vincent Pomarède, who moved to a new role overseeing museum mediation. Allard's permanent appointment awaits confirmation by Culture Minister Aurélie Filippetti, on the recommendation of Louvre director Jean-Luc Martinez. Meanwhile, the search for a director of the Research and Collections Support division continues, with recruitment expected to be external.

According to an AI, El Greco would actually be the sole author of the 'Baptism of Christ' in Toledo, long considered a workshop work

Selon une IA, Greco serait en réalité l’unique auteur du « Baptême du Christ » de Tolède, longtemps considéré comme une œuvre d’atelier

A new study published in Science Advances uses an AI tool called Patch to analyze the monumental painting "Le Baptême du Christ" (1608–1614) by El Greco, long believed to be a workshop piece completed by his son Jorge Manuel Theotocópuli. By mapping the 3D microtopography of the brushstrokes and comparing them with El Greco's authenticated "Christ on the Cross" at the Cleveland Museum of Art, the AI found consistent painterly gestures across the entire work, suggesting the master himself painted it despite tremors from neurological disorders in his old age.

Middletown Arts Center presents Garden State Watercolor Society's Annual Juried Exhibition 2026

The Middletown Arts Center is currently hosting the Garden State Watercolor Society’s 56th Annual Open Juried Exhibition alongside the 8th Annual Art Installation Exhibition. Juried by Joseph Gyurcsak, the main showcase features 64 selected watercolor paintings, while a special installation titled "Revolution as Reinvention" presents 55 miniature works exploring the history of artistic rebellion. The exhibition is open to the public through May 30, 2026, with a digital version available online.

Nastaran Mir Sadegh | Untitled (2025) | For Sale

Nastaran Mir Sadegh's painting "Untitled" (2025) is listed for sale at US$2,500 through Sahar K. Boluki Gallery in Toronto. The work, an acrylic on canvas measuring 76 × 59 cm, is hand-signed by the artist and includes a certificate of authenticity. Mir Sadegh, an Iranian artist born in 1985 and based in Tehran, holds a bachelor's degree in Fine Art from Art University of Tehran. Her exhibition history includes shows in Toronto, Tehran, Dubai, and at institutions such as the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art and Saba Cultural Institute. The listing appears on Artsy, with shipping available within Canada and internationally.

The Major Exhibitions at LUMA Arles in France: Zaha Hadid, Gerhard Richter and Patti Smith

Le grandi mostre al LUMA di Arles in Francia: Zaha Hadid, Gerhard Richter e Patti Smith

LUMA Arles in France will launch a new exhibition cycle on May 1, 2026, followed by a second series starting July 4. The program, presented by CEO Mustapha Bouhayati and artistic director Vassilis Oikonomopoulos, includes a major show of Gerhard Richter's "Overpainted Photographs" in the Frank Gehry-designed tower, a Zaha Hadid retrospective titled "I Think There Should Be No End to Experimentation" marking the tenth anniversary of her death, and a centennial celebration of the influential art magazine Cahiers d'Art. The exhibitions aim to bridge visual arts with music, performance, and live events, bringing together voices from diverse geographies and disciplines.

The Mysterious Life of Fluxus Dame Alison Knowles

A new book, "Performing Chance: The Art of Alison Knowles In/Out of Fluxus" by art historian Nicole L. Woods, is the first major study of the late Fluxus artist Alison Knowles, who died last fall at age 92. The book focuses on the first two decades of her career (1958–1975), analyzing key works such as her 1962 performance "Proposition #2: Make a Salad" at London's Institute of Contemporary Arts, and her shift from painting to experimental, ephemeral art after being exiled to a basement by Josef Albers at Syracuse University.

Kim Gordon Was Never Just the “Girl in the Band”

Kim Gordon, best known as co-founder of the influential indie rock band Sonic Youth, is the subject of a new exhibition titled "Count Your Chickens" at Amant in New York. Curated by Patricia Margarita Hernández, the show surveys Gordon’s visual art from 2007 to the present, including paintings, drawings, ceramics, and video works such as "Jeanetta and Alex" (2026). The exhibition explores themes of celebrity, gender, electricity, and the tension between public image and private reality, featuring pieces like "Paris, Paris" (2025) and the "Airbnb Series" (2019).

Nude Performance at MFA Boston Confronts One of Art’s Oldest Tropes

Artist Xandra Ibarra staged her performance "Nude Laughing" (2014–) at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston on April 16, appearing nude except for a breastplate and yellow heels while dragging a nylon stocking stuffed with blonde wigs and fake breasts. She moved through the galleries, laughing hysterically, and ultimately collapsed in front of Paul Gauguin's painting "Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?" (1897–98). The performance was part of the exhibition "Subvert, Repair, Reclaim: Contemporary Artists Take Back the Nude," which features 12 artists critiquing racial, gender, and power hierarchies in Western art history. The event sparked heated debate on the museum's Instagram, with hundreds of commenters arguing about its legitimacy and obscenity.

The Unnameable Artists of the Canton Trade System

Art historian Winnie Wong’s new book, *The Many Names of Anonymity: Portraitists of the Canton Trade*, investigates the lives and legacies of 18th and 19th-century Chinese artists who produced works for Western traders under the Canton system. These artists, often dismissed by history as mere copyists or left anonymous in museum "tombstone" labels, created complex works that blended European techniques with Chinese traditions. Wong challenges the reductive category of "Asian export art," proposing instead the term "Canton trade painting" to better reflect the unique atmosphere of cultural exchange in Guangzhou.

Chicana Painter Criselda Vasquez Says ICE Detained Her Father

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has detained the father of Chicana painter Criselda Vasquez, who served as the primary subject for her acclaimed 2017 painting "The New American Gothic." The artist reported that her father, a resident of the United States for over 40 years, was racially profiled and arrested while returning from work in California. In response, the family launched a successful crowdfunding campaign that raised nearly $68,000 in ten days to cover legal fees and lost wages.

Anki King’s Nordic Noir

Anki King's solo exhibition at the Lace Mill in Kingston, New York, presents 40 works from 2015-2026 that explore themes of isolation and miscommunication through a moody, Nordic-inspired palette. The Norwegian-born, New York-based artist employs a distinctive visual language of featureless, long-limbed figures and recurring motifs like threaded ceramic heads and figures with leafless branches.

DHS Appropriates Japanese Artist’s Work in Racist X Post

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) used a painting by Japanese artist Hiroshi Nagai in a social media post without his permission. The agency cropped his 2017 untitled beach scene and overlaid it with the text "America After 100 Million Deportations," accompanied by a caption about national peace. Nagai, 78, expressed being "at a loss" and disappointed that a government agency would use his work to promote a political message he does not endorse.

Seurat and the Sea Is Postcard Perfect

Seurat and the Sea Is Postcard Perfect

The Courtauld Gallery in London is hosting 'Seurat and the Sea,' the UK's first exhibition dedicated to Georges Seurat's seascapes. The show features over half of the artist's lifetime output of canvases, painted during summer trips to the Channel coast between 1885 and 1890, which he intended as visual cleansers from studio work. The exhibition highlights his pointillist technique, using contrasting dots of color to capture seaside light.

Brett Goodroad at Crèvecoeur, Left Bank

Brett Goodroad at Crèvecoeur, rive gauche

San Francisco-based artist Brett Goodroad presents a solo exhibition titled "Bells" at Crèvecoeur’s Rive Gauche location in Paris. The exhibition features a series of new paintings that showcase Goodroad’s signature style of fluid, gestural abstraction and figurative ambiguity, documented through an extensive digital archive of installation views and individual work shots.

Alexandra Noel at Derosia

Alexandra Noel presents a solo exhibition of new works at Derosia in New York, running from March 14 through April 25, 2026. The exhibition showcases the artist’s signature small-scale paintings, which often utilize intimate dimensions to explore complex psychological landscapes and domestic tensions.

Raoul de Keyser at Trautwein Herleth

Trautwein Herleth in Berlin is hosting a solo exhibition of works by the late Belgian painter Raoul de Keyser. The presentation features a selection of the artist’s signature abstract compositions, characterized by their tactile surfaces, muted palettes, and the subtle tension between formalist geometry and organic forms.

Raymond Saunders at David Zwirner

The David Zwirner gallery in Los Angeles is presenting "Raymond Saunders: Notes from LA," a solo exhibition of the late artist's work. The show, curated by Ebony L. Haynes, runs from February 24 to April 25, 2026, and features works courtesy of the artist's estate.

In ‘Piercing the Veil,’ Marina Kappos Gets to Know the Spectre of Grief

Artist Marina Kappos opens her solo exhibition 'Piercing the Veil' at SHRINE gallery in New York City, running from May 15 to June 27. The show features her signature acrylic-on-wood-panel paintings that use thin layers of pigment to create gauzy, prismatic effects. Inspired by the sculptural figures of grieving women she encountered at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, Kappos explores themes of loss, memory, presence and absence, and the threshold between life and death. Works like 'Veil Study (Eclipse)' (2026) and 'Quantum Study (Green Entanglement)' (2025) depict hazy landscapes and keyhole-shaped portals that invite viewers to contemplate the unknown and the spiritual.

Brook Hsu ”The Barcelona Pavilion (including work by Georg Kolbe)” at Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin

Brook Hsu's exhibition "The Barcelona Pavilion (including work by Georg Kolbe)" at Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler in Berlin presents a series of works that interweave references to architecture, film, literature, and animal carcasses. The show's title alludes to Mies van der Rohe's iconic Barcelona Pavilion and the sculptor Georg Kolbe, whose work was originally installed there, while the list of pieces—ranging from paintings like "Daybreak:Orange Tree" to works dedicated to figures such as Anne Wiazemsky and Pasolini—creates a dense, associative network of cultural and personal memory.

Anna Clegg “Hustlenomics” at Schiefe Zähne, Berlin

Artist Anna Clegg has opened a new solo exhibition titled "Hustlenomics" at the Schiefe Zähne gallery in Berlin. The show presents a new body of her paintings that engage with the life cycle of images in contemporary culture.

Wen Wu: The Body Thinks in Colour

Wen Wu's exhibition "The Body Thinks in Colour" opens at Paul Smith's Westbourne House in Notting Hill, London, running from 14 May to 28 September 2026. Curated by Virginia Damtsa and Katie Heller, the show presents Wu's paintings that explore the body as a site of consciousness, memory, and emotional intelligence, using gesture and color to create psychological space within a fashion retail environment.

Waterbury’s Mattatuck Museum Balances Art and Local

The Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, Connecticut, balances art and local history, serving as a community hub. Director Bob Burns has integrated school programs reaching 7,000 local students annually, community art shows, contemporary works by artists like Yayoi Kusama and Simone Leigh, and a major exhibition "About Face: 250 Years of American Portraits" curated by Rebecca McNamara. The museum also features hyper-realistic paintings by Wende Caporale-Greene and a gallery of Waterbury's industrial past, with a focus on inclusivity after removing a physical barrier to Main Street in 2019.

“So Fun! An Exploration of Maximalism” opens at Vision Gallery

“So Fun! An Exploration of Maximalism” opens at Vision Gallery in Chandler, Arizona, from August 23 to November 2, 2025. The group exhibition features five artists—including Lex Gjurasic, Sarah Hurwitz, and Sofie Ramos—who use plush emoji bean bags, flowers, Perler beads, and other media to create sculptures, drawings, paintings, and site-specific installations that celebrate the aesthetic of excess. Curated by Hanley Ange, the show counters Minimalist traditions and embraces color, pattern, and repetition to foster storytelling, self-expression, and empowerment.

A Water Lily is a Water Lily is a Water Lily

Eine Seerose ist eine Seerose ist eine Seerose

Anonymous internet artist SHL0MS posted an image of a Monet water lily painting on X, falsely claiming it was AI-generated. Thousands of users criticized the image's aesthetics, after which SHL0MS revealed it was actually a real Monet. He then minted the image as an NFT, sold it for around $40,000, and framed the entire episode as a conceptual artwork titled "Inferior Image," claiming it critiques online disinformation and debate culture.

Are Tattoos Art?

Sind Tattoos Kunst?

A group exhibition at the Opelvillen in Rüsselsheim, Germany, titled "Unter die Haut. Tattoos im Blick," explores tattooing as an art form, centering on the work of tattoo artist and photographer Herbert Hoffmann. The show traces the evolution of tattoos from post-war working-class culture to contemporary pop culture, featuring Hoffmann's photographs alongside works by contemporary artists David Schiesser, Michele Servadio, and Sarah Dubná, who bridge tattooing with drawing, painting, and printmaking. The exhibition is a partner project with "Mishpocha" at the Jewish Museum Frankfurt and includes shared photographic positions by Sandra Mann and Jan Zappner.

Anyone who never feels uncomfortable as a tourist is not a good tourist

"Wer sich als Tourist nie unbehaglich fühlt, ist kein guter Tourist"

American painter Hernan Bas has created a new series of paintings inspired by Venice and its tourists, drawing from his long-standing relationship with the city. His first encounter with Venice came through an invitation to exhibit at Bruna Aickelin's renowned gallery Il Capricorno, and he has since shown there multiple times, considering Aickelin his Italian connection.

Ballets of Repetition

Ballette der Wiederholung

Vivien Zhang, a painter whose work blends botany, mathematics, and migration, is now exhibiting in Berlin. Her paintings feature tongue-like petals, crystalline butterflies, dewdrops, seed capsules, chromosomes, and frozen brushstrokes, all arranged in grid-like patterns that create a ballet of repetition. The forms are technoid-organic and three-dimensional, presenting enigmatic visual puzzles that explore how shapes, identities, and systems emerge anew.

Einatmen – Ausatmen

Lee Ufan, the renowned Korean artist known for his meditative single brushstroke paintings, is the subject of a feature article in Monopol. The piece visits his home in Kamakura, Japan, where he lives and works in a simple wooden cube house, reflecting the minimalist philosophy that defines his art. The article explores how Lee finds the entire universe in a single brushstroke, and how the art world is increasingly captivated by his serene, contemplative works.