Russia's Venice Pavilion to Close to the Public in Compliance With Sanctions

Russia will return to the 61st Venice Biennale with its national pavilion, but the exhibition will only be physically open to the press and select guests during the vernissage dates of May 5–8. From May 9 onward, the pavilion will remain closed to the public, with multimedia documentation of performances displayed on screens at the windows. The arrangement follows leaked emails among Biennale Foundation President Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, General Director Andrea Del Mercato, and Russian Pavilion Commissioner Anastasia Karneeva, revealing efforts to comply with EU sanctions while still allowing Russia's participation after two consecutive absences since its invasion of Ukraine.

Can a Venice Biennale Pavilion Be Rock ‘n’ Roll? At the Belgium Pavilion, Miet Warlop Makes the Case.

Miet Warlop, a Belgian artist known for her avant-garde theater work, is representing Belgium at the 2026 Venice Biennale with a performance-installation titled "IT NEVER SSST." The project transforms the Belgian Pavilion into a chaotic, sensory-filled space where performers climb wooden structures, bang drums, and break plaster boards inscribed with multilingual text, reflecting the noise and misunderstandings of contemporary life. Curated by Caroline Dumalin, the pavilion blurs the line between theater and visual art, with live performances occurring only part of the time while sculptors continuously remake plaster reliefs throughout the Biennale's run.

The Last Quarter of My Life Should Be Like the Beginning

"Das letzte Quartal meines Lebens soll wie der Anfang sein"

Armin Mueller-Stahl, the 95-year-old German actor and painter, opens his solo exhibition "Nacht und Tag auf der Erde" (Night and Day on Earth) at Museum Schloss Moyland. The show features a graphic cycle inspired by Jim Jarmusch's film "Night on Earth," in which Mueller-Stahl played a New York taxi driver. In an interview, he reflects on his dual careers in film and painting, his life between Hollywood, East Germany, and the present, and themes of loss and memory.

Introducing the Etnia House of Arts Residency Program

Etnia Eyewear Culture, the cultural arm of Etnia Barcelona, has launched the Etnia House of Arts residency program in Venice. Housed in the restored Chiesa dell’Abbazia della Misericordia, the contemporary art space invites artists to create site-specific works during two-week residencies, using eyeglasses as a conceptual starting point to explore vision, identity, and representation. The first two residents, Conxi Sane and Greta Pllana, have already produced interventions—Membrane and The Shape I Kept—that expand the symbolic possibilities of the object.

“Porous Grounds, Sacred Codes” at Marres, Maastricht

Seven artists with roots in West Africa—Yacine Tilala Fall, Selly Raby Kane, Maguette Dieng, Ican Ramageli, Hamedine Kane, Eva Diallo, and Babacar Traoré Doli—have jointly created a multi-sensory total installation at Marres in Maastricht. Titled “Porous Grounds, Sacred Codes,” the exhibition incorporates sculpture, sound, textiles, and video, connecting Zikr chanting of mantras, daily life in the Medina, and the trees of the dry landscape.

Jake Messing’s Hyperrealistic Paintings Celebrate the Abundance of Nature

Jake Messing, a Northern California-based artist, creates hyperrealistic acrylic paintings that depict dense, maximalist clusters of flora and fauna, often combining creatures and plants in surreal arrangements. His works, such as "Coccinellidaes Hideaway 2" and "Bubbles and Blooms," draw on the tradition of Dutch Golden Age still-life painting while incorporating contemporary elements like color gradients and shiny fabrics.

Masure Gallery Brings a Focused Lens to Local Fine Art Photography in Fort Worth

Masure Gallery of Photography has opened in Fort Worth, Texas, as the city's only gallery dedicated exclusively to fine art photography. Founded through a partnership between gallery manager Simone Fischer and the co-owners of Fort Worth Camera, Jeff and CJ Masure, the space transforms a former event room into a white-walled exhibition venue with gallery-quality lighting. The gallery launched with "RED – A Bold Photography Exhibition," selected from nearly 200 open-call submissions requiring the color red, and now represents six local photographers: Walt Burns, Brooks Burris, Caroline Hanson, Chris Ireland, Felix Schilling, and K.P. Wilska. The first solo show, "Modern Exposure" by Walt Burns, opens June 4.

Art House Productions Unveils "In The Wind" Public Art Installation

Art House Productions has unveiled "In The Wind," a large-scale public art installation in Lincoln Park, Jersey City, featuring artist-designed flags with original works by Hudson County artists. Curated by Tina Maneca, the exhibition celebrates the organization's 25th anniversary and includes over 80 artists who live, work, or maintain studios in Hudson County. The flags are installed around Edgewood Lake, moving with the wind to create a dynamic, ever-changing exhibition. All flags are priced at $500 and available for purchase. The installation runs from June through November 2026, with an opening reception on June 5, 2026, during ACCESS JC Fridays.

Venice Family Clinic’s Art Exhibition + Auction

The 47th annual Venice Family Clinic Art Exhibition + Auction will take place May 8–17, 2026, at 910 Abbot Kinney in Venice, Los Angeles. Founded in 1979 as the Venice Art Walk, it is the city’s longest-running charity art exhibition, featuring Signature Artist Alison Saar and over 150 established and emerging Los Angeles artists. Proceeds support Venice Family Clinic’s health care services for more than 45,000 patients across the Westside, Inglewood, the South Bay, and beyond.

Carleton Gallery hosting Spring Group Exhibition on May 30

Carleton Gallery is hosting a Spring Group Exhibition on May 30, as reported by the Watauga Democrat. The event will feature a curated selection of works by multiple artists, though specific participants and pieces have not been detailed in the brief announcement.

Nic Nicosia: Everyday Surreal Now Open at the Nasher in Dallas

Nic Nicosia: Everyday Surreal, a survey of the last 25 years of the Dallas-born artist's work, has opened at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas and runs through August 16. The exhibition features over 70 works across media, focusing on Nicosia's shift to sculpture in the 2010s and his move from elaborate staged photography to a solitary studio practice. It includes sculptures, drawings, and photographs that explore themes of time, memory, and surreal everyday reality, with highlights such as cast metal works and drawings tracing personal experiences of distance and duration.

Ohio State’s Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum to reopen Saturday with new exhibitions

Ohio State University's Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, home to the world's largest cartoon and comic collection, will reopen on Saturday after being closed since November 10, 2025. The reopening features renovated galleries, a new permanent exhibition titled "Story of Comics" that traces 400 years of cartoon art, and the U.S. debut of cartoonist Chris Ware's major international exhibition "Life Is Complicated," on display until January 3, 2027. The museum houses 300,000 original cartoons and 2.5 million newspaper comic strip pages and clippings.

Between here and home

Carrie Haddad Gallery in Hudson, NY, presents "Between here and home," a group exhibition running from May 22 through July 12, with an opening reception on May 23. The show features works by Fred Cohen, Frank DePietro, Deb Lawrence, Olan Quattro, and ransome, exploring the concept of home as an evolving construct shaped by memory, material, and experience. The exhibition draws on the Welsh idea of hiraeth—a longing for a lost or imagined home—and includes paintings, collages, and mixed media works that reflect each artist's personal engagement with place, interior space, and inherited histories.

An art gallery on Route 66 in New Mexico is working to support local art and culture

Double Six Gallery, operated by the Cibola Arts Council in Grants, New Mexico, is showcasing southwestern art on Route 66 ahead of the Mother Road's centennial celebration. Gallery director Debbie Doggett notes that visitors are often surprised to find such high-quality local artists in Grants. The gallery rotates artists every few months and currently features Gary Yazzie, John Boomer, Jonnie Head, and Joan Sheski.

Q&A: Laura Pass Barry

Laura Pass Barry has been appointed the Carlisle H. Humelsine chief curator at Colonial Williamsburg, a role that expands her responsibilities to include leadership of Collections, Conservation and Museums as vice president. Barry began her career at Colonial Williamsburg over 30 years ago as a curatorial intern in folk art, later working as assistant curator to Margaret Pritchard and eventually overseeing the graphics, paintings, and folk art collections. She holds degrees from the College of Wooster and the College of William & Mary.

Longtime art and studio complex in downtown Wilmington is for sale

Acme Art Studios, a longtime visual arts institution in downtown Wilmington, North Carolina, has been listed for sale at $4.4 million. The one-acre complex at 711 N. Fifth Ave. includes a 12,000-square-foot warehouse with studio and gallery space, plus four vacant lots. Founded in 1991 by a collective of artists in a former carpet warehouse, Acme has become a vital hub for the local arts scene, renting to dozens of artists and hosting countless shows over more than three decades. The property is owned by five artists, including co-founder Pam Toll, who said the decision to sell was unanimous and that the timing is right for a number of reasons.

How This Palestinian-Canadian Artist is Bringing Her Voice to the Met Museum

Dubai-based Palestinian-Canadian artist Samar Hejazi has been commissioned to create mirrored sculptural mannequin heads for the Costume Institute's Spring 2026 exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, opening alongside the Met Gala. Hejazi's reflective works, designed for the exhibition "Costume Art," aim to collapse the distance between viewer and object, creating moments of surprise and questioning about identity, perception, and belonging.

‘Still Breathing’ showcases Koh Sang-woo's artistic journey through the lives of wounded, abused animals

Artist Koh Sang-woo's solo exhibition "Still Breathing" opened at the Savina Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul, featuring paintings of wounded, abused, and endangered animals. The show includes portraits of spotted seals from a project with WWF Korea, works from a partnership with Cheongju Zoo (including a vulture named Hana and a zebra named Sero), and a rabbit blinded in cosmetic testing. Koh uses a signature blue-inversion technique, and the exhibition is curated by museum director Lee Myung-ok.

Billy Ireland Cartoon Library Reopening Brings Rare Comics Exhibit To Columbus

The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum in Columbus, Ohio, is reopening after renovations, featuring a new exhibition of rare comics and original artwork from its extensive collection. The library, part of Ohio State University, holds one of the largest collections of cartoon and comic art in the world, including works by celebrated cartoonists.

Five-Minute Tours: Stuart Allen at PDNB Gallery, Denton

PDNB Gallery in Denton, Texas, presents *Stuart Allen: Seeing Color*, the artist's third solo exhibition at the gallery, running from March 28 to May 30, 2026. The show features works from Allen's early series *Pixels* and *Soap Bubbles* alongside newer series *Flights*, *Every Unique Pixel Color*, and *Watercolor Pixels*, all exploring themes of light, color, and perception through varied techniques.

THE ART OF SCALE: LARGE WORKS | An Online Exclusive Exhibition

JoAnne Artman Gallery presents 'The Art of Scale: Large Works,' an online exclusive exhibition running from April 27 to June 1, 2026. The show features 11 large-scale artworks by artists including America Martin, Mandy Racine, Martin Adalian, Mary Finlayson, Greg Miller, Anja Van Herle, CRASH (John "Crash" Matos), and Chris Watts, with prices ranging from $9,500 to $72,000.

'Hidden heritage' Metro art shown in exhibition

An exhibition at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead is showcasing "Blazing Trails," a project by local artist Sofia Barton originally commissioned for Tyne and Wear Metro trains. The artwork celebrates the hidden heritage of north-east England by depicting lesser-known community leaders, including suffragette Kathleen Brown and Chinatown founders Koon Kiu Cheng and Peter Cheng. The display runs until 27 September in the Baltic's pop-up shop.

What the renovation of the Pergamon Museum costs

Was die Sanierung des Pergamonmuseums kostet

The Pergamon Museum in Berlin is undergoing a major renovation with a total budget of €1.5 billion for both construction phases, including cost risks. The Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning (BBR) has announced that current projections indicate the overall costs will not be exceeded. Phase A, which includes the hall housing the famous Pergamon Altar, is expected to open on June 4, 2027, with a potential cost increase of up to 5% over the originally approved €489 million. Phase B, covering the Ishtar Gate and Babylonian Processional Way, has seen its cost forecast reduced by €27 million to €722.4 million, with an additional €295.6 million set aside for risks and price increases. The museum will fully reopen only in 2037.

New walking tour sees concrete walls turn into open-air galleries

A new walking tour in Auckland, New Zealand, celebrates 40 iconic street art murals created over the past 40 years in the city center. Supported by Auckland Council and the city centre targeted rate, the tour transforms concrete walls into open-air galleries, featuring works by artists including Sung Hwan ‘Bobby’ Park, Anzac Tasker, and Otis Frizzell. New murals were recently unveiled, including three light-based works in Cross Street and the Tiaki Promise 2026 mural near the New Zealand International Convention Centre, which explores Māori culture, Pacific migration, queer identity, and community values.

Kathleen Telesco: Nature Reconfigured at Metro Art in Bridgeport

Metro Arts Studios in Bridgeport will feature Kathleen Telesco as its Featured Artist from May 31 to July 18, 2026. Telesco, who previously focused on realistic still lifes and portraits, has shifted to expressionist and semi-abstract painting over the last five years, working with acrylics and charcoal. Her inspiration comes from nature, ancestry, and dream narratives, and she also volunteers as a wildlife rehabber and birder.

Amy Sherald: American Sublime Art Exhibition at The High Museum

The High Museum in Atlanta is presenting 'Amy Sherald: American Sublime', an exhibition dedicated to the celebrated American portrait painter. The show features Sherald's distinctive figurative works, known for their muted gray skin tones and vibrant backgrounds, which have gained widespread acclaim since her official portrait of Michelle Obama.

3 new exhibitions at Artists Archives tackle urgent social issues

The Artists Archives of the Western Reserve in Cleveland has opened three new exhibitions that confront pressing social issues. The shows feature works by regional artists addressing topics such as racial justice, environmental crisis, and community resilience, using a range of media from painting and sculpture to mixed-media installations.

UPSTATE ART WEEKEND: OPEN HOURS to Return to Kaatsbaan Cultural Park

Upstate Art Weekend is bringing back its OPEN HOURS program to Kaatsbaan Cultural Park in Tivoli, New York. The event, organized by BroadwayWorld, offers extended hours for visitors to explore the park's artistic and cultural offerings, including exhibitions and performances, during a dedicated weekend in the Hudson Valley region.

Art Born of Pain: Frida Kahlo

This article is a promotional piece for the DW English program 'Arts Unveiled,' highlighting several upcoming segments. It announces the start of the 61st Venice Biennale, the world's largest art exhibition, and poses questions about its standout features and art's role in times of crisis. Other segments explore the American Dream as a nightmare on the 250th anniversary of US independence, and feature Indigenous artist Britta Marakatt-Labba, who creates embroidered polar landscapes reflecting Sámi culture.

SMoCA Will Present DESERT PERSPECTIVES Exhibition on Southwest Landscape

The Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) will present an exhibition titled "Desert Perspectives" focusing on the Southwest landscape. The show will explore artistic interpretations of the desert environment through works by various contemporary artists.