Julio Le Parc, the Argentine-French artist renowned for his kinetic sculptures and Op-Art paintings, has died at the age of 97. Over a 70-year career, he created socially engaged works that used shifting lights, motors, and everyday objects like Ping-Pong balls to actively involve viewers in the experience of art.
Alan Saret, the American sculptor known for his ethereal, cloud-like wire sculptures, has died at the age of 81. His best-known works were large, airy tangles of wire that evoked tumbleweeds, nests, or tulle, often designed to sway gently in the breeze if a window was open. Saret emerged in the 1960s as part of the post-minimalist movement, gaining recognition for his innovative use of industrial materials to create delicate, seemingly weightless forms.
Refik Anadol has opened Dataland, a new venue in Los Angeles dedicated entirely to A.I.-generated art. The space features immersive installations that respond to viewers' presence, creating a two-way sensory experience. Anadol, the founder, describes Dataland as a place for "human dreamers" to explore the creative potential of artificial intelligence.
Sanford Biggers presents his first major solo survey on Long Island, featuring textile works, prints, sculptures, and installations that explore his connection to the East End’s natural environment and culture. The exhibition, titled "Where Sky Meets Water, Sanford Biggers Sees Life’s ‘Drift’," showcases the artist's ongoing engagement with themes of water, sky, and the passage of time.
Fleurs de fumée, projection monumentale… Normandie Impressionniste 2026 réactive le rêve des jardins de Monet
The sixth edition of the Normandie Impressionniste festival has launched, running through 2026 with 75 projects across 43 communes in Normandy, including 31 exhibitions. Curated by Philippe Platel, the festival is themed "Un possible jardin" (A Possible Garden), paying homage to Claude Monet, who died 100 years ago. Highlights include a monumental daytime pyrotechnic spectacle by Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang in Vernon, an exhibition of his gunpowder paintings at Mont-Saint-Michel, and shows by artists Lionel Sabatté (using mud from Monet's pond), Ange Leccia (video projections at Saint-Georges-de-Boscherville Abbey), and Sarah Moon (photographic works at Rouen's Centre photographique and Jardin des Plantes).
Oriol Vilanova, the artist representing Spain at the 61st Venice Biennale (2026), will present an installation titled *Los restos* based on his long-running postcard collection. In an interview with ArtReview, he describes working with fragments from flea markets and everyday visual culture, which he believes will resonate in Venice. The Spanish pavilion is located in the Giardini, and Vilanova notes that his presentation does not engage with national identity, instead emphasizing how postcards easily cross borders. He also acknowledges the legacy of previous Spanish pavilion artists such as Antoni Muntadas, Esther Ferrer, and Santiago Sierra.
RojoNegro, the artist duo María Sosa and Noé Martínez, will represent Mexico at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026 with an installation titled *Invisible Acts to Sustain the Universe*. Their pavilion in the Arsenale features a video, paintings made with natural dyes, ceramics, a clay-and-salt sculpture built in situ, and a sound work commissioned from artist Alberto Rubí. The project draws on over a decade of collaborative research, engaging with Indigenous knowledge systems, resistance, and ecological stewardship, inspired by anthropologists, choreographers, and filmmakers.
ArtReview published a questionnaire response from artist Nabil Nahas, who is representing Lebanon at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026. Nahas describes his planned installation, a 45-meter-long frieze of 26 panels titled "Don't Get Me Wrong," which creates an immersive environment inspired by natural processes and his own evolving visual language. The pavilion is located in the Arsenale, and the Biennale runs from 9 May to 22 November 2026.
Over one hundred artists participating in the 2026 Venice Biennale are threatening legal action unless their names are removed from the ballot for the newly created Visitors’ Lions awards. The awards were established after the entire Golden and Silver Lions jury resigned en masse earlier this spring, citing a refusal to consider artists and pavilions from countries whose leaders have been accused of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court. Despite a formal request from 52 artists, collectives, and estates on May 9 to be excluded, Biennale organizers included their names in an email to ticketed visitors inviting them to vote, prompting a broader protest now involving 67 main exhibition participants and 39 national representatives.
The Figge Art Museum in Davenport opens a new exhibition, "A Golden Age for Whom?", on June 6 in the Mary Waterman Gildehaus Community Gallery. The show places contemporary artworks alongside historic masterpieces from the museum's concurrent exhibition "The Golden Age: Featuring Northern European Works from the National Gallery of Art," featuring pieces by Beth Lipman, Oliver Okolo, Yasumasa Morimura, and Fabiola Jean-Louis. The exhibition runs through September 20 and includes companion programs such as artist talks and a Music & Makers series.
This article from Artribune surveys a series of exhibitions and events featuring Italian artists abroad in late spring 2026. It highlights several shows: Rosa Barba's solo exhibition "Thick Harmonies" at Museum Haus Konstruktiv in Zurich, awarded the Zurich Art Prize 2026; Michelangelo Consani's "My Favorite Spring" at Gallery Side 2 in Tokyo; Luca Ceccherini's debut French solo show "Grammelot" at Galerie Dina Vierny in Paris; the major retrospective "No Place Like Home" of Italian photography since the 1980s at Schauwerk Sindelfingen in Germany; and the group show "Pittura italiana oggi. Una nuova scena" at the Polo Culturale ItaliaNoRio in Rio de Janeiro, organized by Artnoble Triennale Milano, the Consulate General of Italy, and the Italian Cultural Institute of Rio de Janeiro.
Mariel Capanna's new exhibition at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art's MATRIX gallery space features canvases filled with abstract shapes that evoke a thriving town or bustling metropolis. The works, specially created for the exhibit, are painted quickly in oils enhanced with wax and marble dust, and are inspired by pieces from the museum's permanent American Art collection, including works by Florine Stettheimer, Bob Thompson, and John Trumbull. Capanna also watched films that responded to those artworks while painting, and the canvases are sized to match the gallery's entranceway, which is framed by a fabricated panel titled "Sinopia for an Egress."
Canadian museums and public galleries are presenting a diverse summer 2026 lineup, featuring five notable exhibitions. These include '10th Province: Modernizing the 1950s and 1960s' at The Rooms in St. John’s, which explores Newfoundland’s post-Confederation transformation; 'The Torlonia Collection: Masterpieces of Roman Sculpture' at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, showcasing 57 ancient Roman marble statues; 'Qillaniq' at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, a multidisciplinary show by contemporary circumpolar artists; 'Dyani White Hawk: Love Language' at Remai Modern in Saskatoon, a major retrospective of the Minneapolis artist’s beadwork and sculptures; and 'Takao Tanabe: Inside Passage' at the Audain Art Museum in Whistler, marking the artist’s centenary with paintings of the Northwest Coast landscape.
FOROF, a cultural venue in Rome founded in 2022 by Giovanna Caruso Fendi, has opened within Palazzo del Gallo di Roccagiovine overlooking Trajan's Forum. The space is built around a specific archaeological site, preserving the largest surviving marble floor area of the Basilica Ulpia, and is legally constituted as a Società Benefit (benefit corporation) that reinvests revenues into its artistic program. The venue aims to foster contemporary art in dialogue with ancient history, with its underground rooms showcasing original colored marbles and column bases discovered during excavations funded by the Fondazione Alda Fendi Esperimenti.
The Brooklyn Museum will present the North American debut of "Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses" on May 16, 2026. The exhibition features over 140 haute couture creations by Dutch designer Iris van Herpen, alongside contemporary art, design objects, and scientific artifacts. It explores her fusion of traditional craftsmanship with cutting-edge technology, sustainability, and scientific concepts drawn from fields like marine biology, paleontology, and astronomy. The show debuted at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 2023 and has traveled to museums in Australia, Singapore, and the Netherlands. It is curated by Cloé Pitiot and Louise Curtis, with the Brooklyn presentation organized by Matthew Yokobosky and Imani Williford, and supported by the Simons Foundation.
The article examines the phenomenon of artistic fame and obscurity, tracing how once-celebrated artists like William Dyce, Carlo Maratti, Anton Rafael Mengs, and Pompeo Batoni fell into neglect after their deaths, only to be rediscovered centuries later through targeted exhibitions. It recounts specific examples, such as Dyce's painting bought cheaply for a Butlin's chapel and later sold for a high sum, and the recent major exhibition of Mengs at the Prado in Madrid, which revived interest in his work.
A roundup of art exhibitions opening in June 2026 highlights shows across the globe that explore themes of cultural preservation, identity, and resistance. Featured exhibitions include Tony Albert's "Not a Souvenir" at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, confronting the commodification of Aboriginal identity; Widline Cadet's first solo US museum show at the Milwaukee Art Museum, examining diasporic memory; Aasha John's woven family archives at Autograph in London; and the first major retrospective of feminist artist Mariuccia Secol in Switzerland. The article also covers the launch of Freya Reeves' zine "JOY" in London, celebrating trans community stories.
The article is an expert Q&A with Katarina Feder, vice president of the Artists Rights Society (ARS), addressing artists' legal rights in the age of artificial intelligence. It uses the case of artist David Salle, who trained an AI on his own earlier "Pastorals" series to create new works, as a central example. Feder explains that training AI on one's own copyrighted works is legal, and that the resulting AI-assisted output can be copyrighted if the human contributes sufficient creative expression, such as overpainting. The piece also warns against deception in presenting AI-generated work.
DATALAND, billed as the world's first museum of AI arts, will host a media preview ahead of its public opening on June 20 at The Grand LA in downtown Los Angeles. The inaugural exhibition, "Machine Dreams: Rainforest," created by Refik Anadol Studio, uses immersive installations that blend ecological data, machine learning, and audience interaction, inspired by travels to the Amazon rainforest and developed using the Large Nature Model trained on data from institutions including the Smithsonian and the Natural History Museum.
The National Gallery in London is extending its opening hours for the summer of 2026, launching a program called National Gallery Summertime. From July 3 to August 31, the free museum will remain open until 7pm daily, with late opening until 9pm on Fridays. The extended hours apply to the galleries, shops, bars, restaurants, and exhibitions, including the blockbuster Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait exhibition and the Zurbarán exhibition. Evening creative workshops, such as life drawing and still life classes, will be hosted in the Roden Centre for Creative Learning, and the Take One Picture exhibition will remain on view throughout the summer.
The Lowe Art Museum in Coral Gables is presenting two exhibitions—"El Pasado Mío: Afrodescent Contributions to Cuban Art" and "Afrocubanismo: Highlights from the Ramon and Nerycs Cernuda Collection"—that together form the world's largest exhibition of Afro-Cuban art, on view through Sept. 12, 2026. Curated by Dr. Alejandro de la Fuente of Harvard's Afro-Latin American Research Institute, the shows feature works by Afro-Cuban artists who have been historically overlooked, alongside pieces by artists racialized as white except for Wifredo Lam, aiming to restore omissions in Cuban art history.
L’ouverture de La Caverne du Pont-Neuf de JR, victime des intempéries, est reportée
The opening of JR's monumental installation 'La Caverne du Pont-Neuf' on Paris's oldest bridge, scheduled for June 6, has been postponed after severe weather damaged the inflatable structure on June 2. Strong winds tore sections of the printed polyester canvas covering the 120-meter-long, 20-meter-wide, and 18-meter-high grotto-like artwork, exposing the air bladders that give it volume. No injuries were reported. The project, a tribute to Christo and Jeanne-Claude's 1985 'The Pont Neuf Wrapped,' was to be free and accessible 24/7 until June 28. Technical experts are assessing the damage, and a new opening date will be announced after repairs.
Au Mac Val, l’artiste-chercheur SMITH invite à une expérience aux confins de la conscience
French artist SMITH, born in Paris in 1985, presents a twenty-year survey titled "Ici grand ouvert" at the Mac Val (Musée d'art contemporain du Val-de-Marne). The exhibition, described as a "rétro-prospective" rather than a traditional retrospective, features photographs, videos, installations, and performances that explore altered states of consciousness, fluidity, and metamorphosis. Works range from the photographic journal "Löyly" (2007–2012) to the ongoing series "Dami" (2022–), and the show includes a relocated studio where the artist will create new pieces during the nine-month run. The display eschews conventional labels and walls, inviting visitors to lie on beds for an immersive experience, and monthly "Mues collectives" events involve scientists such as cosmologist Jean-Philip.
Hanna Hur is the subject of a solo exhibition at Antenna Space, as documented by Contemporary Art Daily. The page features 28 images of the exhibition, with no videos or text descriptions accompanying the visual documentation.
Shawn Huckins, a New Hampshire-based painter, presents a new series titled "Slow Burn" that juxtaposes catastrophic scenes of war and wildfires with domestic curtains and floral drapery. The paintings, such as "War Cloud and Floral Blue Curtain" (2026) and "Wildfire Sunset Behind Sheer Curtain" (2026), use theatrical framing to depict destruction as both a distant spectacle and an encroaching reality. The exhibition runs from July 11 to August 22 at K Contemporary in Denver.
The article reviews "Gordon Parks: The South in Color," an exhibition at Jackson Fine Art in Atlanta curated by photographer Dawoud Bey. The show features over forty images from Parks' 1956 Segregation Story series, captured in Alabama during the Montgomery Bus Boycotts. Bey's selection emphasizes dignity and intimacy, presenting unpublished portraits and scenes of Black Southern life under Jim Crow, including images of children, families, and elders like Mr. and Mrs. Albert Thornton, Sr. The exhibition runs through July 11, 2026, and commemorates the 70th anniversary of the original LIFE story and the 20th anniversary of the Gordon Parks Foundation.
The State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, is hosting 'Sediments of Becoming: Fossilised Present, Summoned Pasts,' the first dedicated contemporary Indian art exhibition in its 260-year history. Co-curated by Marina Schulz and New Delhi-based gallerist Tunty Chauhan, and produced with Threshold Art Gallery, the show features eleven Indian artists—including Afrah Shafiq, Manjunath Kamath, Ravinder Reddy, and Sumakshi Singh—with works spanning painting, sculpture, installation, and performance, many created specifically for the exhibition.
Craighead Green Gallery in Dallas has announced the 50 artists selected for the 33rd edition of its annual New Texas Talent exhibition, which opens June 27, 2026. The show features emerging Texas artists including Ariel Davis, Fathima Farha, and Eric Shaw, chosen from a record nearly 600 submissions by juror Daisha Board, founding director of Daisha Board Gallery.
Glasstire, celebrating its 25th anniversary, revisits its archives to highlight a series of articles on artist-run spaces across Texas. The collection includes profiles of Hal Marcus, who ran a community-centered gallery in El Paso until his death in 2026; Sylvia Orozco, co-founder of the Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin; the Flower Shop Residency in Brownsville, founded by artist Jesus Treviño; and a multi-part series on Sala Diaz, a longstanding artist-run space in San Antonio. These pieces, drawn from essays, reviews, and news published over the past 25 years, form the theme "Built, Not Bought: Artist-Run Spaces."