The article examines the recurring theme of unhappy brides in 19th-century painting, focusing on works like Vasily Pukirev's *The Unequal Marriage* (1862) and Auguste Toulmouche's *The Reluctant Bride* (1866). It notes how these depictions of devastated brides and depressing nuptials have gone viral on social media, with 21st-century audiences—especially women—relating to the emotional tenor of the images despite the historical distance.
Hito Steyerl's solo exhibition "The Island" at Osservatorio Fondazione Prada in Milan explores the concept of submersion as both a geological condition and a media regime. The show takes its title from a Neolithic artificial island discovered off the coast of Korčula, Croatia, which remained submerged for approximately seven thousand years. Through video interviews, installations, and critical assemblages, Steyerl connects this submerged structure to contemporary issues of digital image circulation, algorithmic power, and the dispossession of agency, drawing on science fiction, quantum physics, biochemistry, and deep time.
Conceptual artist Ann Hamilton has debuted a new series of large-scale scanner photography installations at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Moving from her signature immersive environments to high-resolution digital captures, Hamilton utilizes a flatbed scanner to document the tactile qualities of various objects and figures, enlarging them to billboard proportions to emphasize the intimacy of touch.
L’artista italiano che parte dall’Isola d’Elba in barca a vela per raggiungere Sant’Elena: si parla di potere e si gira un film
Italian artist Luca Vitone (born Genoa, 1964) has launched a project titled "Pro Tempore," which involves a two-month sailing journey from the Island of Elba—Napoleon Bonaparte's first place of exile—to the remote island of Saint Helena, where Napoleon died in exile. The voyage, aboard the boat Adriatica, includes four intermediate stops (Balearic Islands, Algeciras, Canary Islands, Cape Verde) and is funded by the 14th edition of the Italian Council grant, in partnership with the Fondazione Oelle. The project explores the concept of temporary power and uses Napoleon's biography and the sea as metaphors for control and instability.
A conceptual artwork titled "Comedian" by Maurizio Cattelan, consisting of a banana duct-taped to a wall, sold at auction for over $6 million to billionaire Justin Sun. This sale occurred amid widespread speculation that the contemporary-art market has peaked, with global art sales dropping 12% in 2024. However, a painting by Marlene Dumas defied the trend, fetching $13.6 million and setting a record for a living female artist. The article explores the bewildering economics of the art market, featuring insights from economist Canice Prendergast and journalist Bianca Bosker, who describe a market where prices seem divorced from traditional logic.
Art21 hosted an advance screening of Sophie Calle's segment from the upcoming Season 12 of "Art in the Twenty-First Century" at the SAG-AFTRA Robin Williams Center in New York. Following the first public showing of the documentary, which follows Calle preparing exhibitions in Paris, Arles, and Minneapolis, the artist participated in a conversation with filmmaker Bette Gordon. They discussed the influence of 1980s New York and themes of identity and vulnerability in her work.
Sotheby's held its first sale at its new US headquarters in New York, where Gustav Klimt's "Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer" sold for $236.4 million, becoming the most valuable work of modern art ever sold at auction and the most expensive artwork ever sold by Sotheby's globally. The record-breaking 20-minute bidding war also saw strong results for works by Edvard Munch ($35.1 million) and a Klimt landscape ($86 million), while the evening's total reached $706 million. However, two top lots by Kerry James Marshall and Barkley L. Hendricks failed to sell, and Maurizio Cattelan's gold toilet "America" drew only a single bid from Ripley's Believe It or Not! for $12.1 million.
David Novros’s latest exhibition at Paula Cooper Gallery showcases his "portable murals," intricate multi-paneled paintings that challenge the traditional concept of art as a mere object on a wall. Utilizing oil and murano on canvas, Novros assembles monochromatic, L-shaped, and horizontal panels with precise intervals that incorporate the gallery wall into the composition. These works are designed to be experienced kinesthetically, responding to shifting natural light and the viewer's physical movement through the space.
Anastasia Samoylova, an artist who works in photography and painting, is presenting her rarely shown "Breakfasts With" series at Casa Tua Aspen this summer. The series, begun in 2015 after she received her green card, combines breakfast food with photo books by notable creatives, creating still-life "conversations" that serve as daily creative prompts. The exhibition follows her dual show with Walker Evans at the Met, which showcased two differing visions of Florida. In an interview, Samoylova discusses how the series developed from a meditative morning ritual into a practice that helped her ground herself after leaving a tenured teaching position, and how intuitive pairings—like a cut mango with Barbara Kasten's work—emerged from spontaneity rather than conceptual planning.
Franco Vaccari, an Italian conceptual artist known for his participatory photography works, has died at 89. His death was announced by his gallery, P420 in Bologna, just four months before a retrospective of his work was set to open at Museion in Bolzano, Italy, in March. Vaccari's most famous piece, Esposizione in tempo reale n. 4, featured a photobooth at the 1972 Venice Biennale where viewers were invited to take and leave their portraits. He continued to explore themes of public and private space, information, and technology throughout his career, including later works with QR codes.
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts has announced its 2025 Arts Writers Grant recipients, awarding a total of $1.04 million to 31 writers. The grants, ranging from $15,000 to $50,000, are distributed across four categories: Articles, Books, Short-Form Writing, and a newly introduced Translation category with a $30,000 purse for translating books on contemporary visual art into English. Recipients include past and current contributors to ARTnews and Art in America, such as Glenn Adamson, Jeremy Lybarger, Zoé Samudzi, and Catherine G. Wagley.
Paul Reubens, the actor and comedian best known for his character Pee-wee Herman, died at age 70 on June 30, leaving behind a legacy that extends far beyond children's television. The article explores how the design of "Pee-wee's Playhouse" (1986–1990) was a groundbreaking aesthetic achievement, created by a team of downtown New York artists—production designers Gary Panter, Ric Heitzman, and Wayne White—who approached the set as an evolving art installation. Their work blended postmodernism, Memphis Group influences, psychedelia, and thrift-store aesthetics into a joyful, childlike environment that became a cultural touchstone.
A new documentary titled "Maintenance Artist," directed by Toby Perl Freilich, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. The film chronicles the career of Mierle Laderman Ukeles, who coined the term "Maintenance Art" in a 1969 manifesto to elevate everyday domestic and civic labor into art. It follows her decades-long collaborations with New York City agencies, including her seminal "Touch Sanitation Performance" (1979–80) with the NYC Department of Sanitation, and her ongoing struggle to realize the installation "Landing: Cantilevered Overlook" (2008) at Freshkills Park. The documentary weaves together archival footage, interviews, and analysis of second-wave feminism, conceptual art, and urban bureaucracy.
British sculptor Joanna Allen is the subject of her debut solo exhibition, “Subconscious Playground,” at London’s Bowman Sculpture, on view through May 30, 2025. The show features works in bronze, marble, clay, and plaster that explore the terrain between conscious and unconscious mind, moving between morphed figuration and pure abstraction. Allen discusses the influence of Surrealism, particularly the 100th anniversary of André Breton’s Surrealist Manifesto, and cites mid-century artists like Picasso, Bacon, and Giacometti as inspirations for her raw, psychologically rooted practice.
Chess.com has launched a digital chess bot inspired by Yoko Ono’s seminal 1966 conceptual artwork, Play It By Trust. The game features an all-white board and pieces, mirroring the original installation where players eventually lose track of their own pieces, forcing them to collaborate or abandon the competitive nature of the game. The release coincides with Ono’s 93rd birthday and the digital debut of the Oscar-winning short film War Is Over!, which draws from her and John Lennon’s peace activism.
Galerie Buchholz in Cologne is presenting a group exhibition featuring works by Elie Nadelman, Peter Fischli, and David Weiss, running from April 10 to May 23, 2026. The show brings together the early 20th-century modernist sculpture of Nadelman with the conceptual, often humorous installations of the Swiss duo Fischli/Weiss, creating a dialogue across generations and artistic movements.
Galerie Buchholz in New York is presenting "Projects for Outside — ISA USA," a solo exhibition by the influential German artist Isa Genzken. Running from March 11 through April 25, 2026, the show focuses on Genzken's outdoor proposals and large-scale sculptural projects, documenting her career-long engagement with public space and urban architecture through a comprehensive selection of works.
Maxwell Graham gallery in New York is presenting a joint exhibition featuring works by artists Hans Haacke and Louise Lawler. The show runs from March 5 to April 18, 2026, and is documented with 18 images on the source website.
German artist Georg Herold has opened a new solo exhibition at the Capitain Petzel gallery in Berlin. The show, which runs from February 27 to April 11, 2026, features a significant body of new work, documented extensively through 33 images.
A major group exhibition titled *Pharmakon* has opened at Galerie Chantal Crousel in Paris, featuring works by over twenty international artists. The show includes both historical and contemporary figures, from Marcel Broodthaers and Felix Gonzalez-Torres to emerging artists, exploring the dual nature of substances that can be both remedy and poison. It presents a diverse range of media, including painting, sculpture, and installation, curated around this central, ambiguous theme.
Mousse Magazine reports on the two-person exhibition "Adam Pendleton + Antoni Tàpies" at Alfonso Artiaco in Naples, which pairs the contemporary American artist Adam Pendleton with the late Spanish master Antoni Tàpies. The show explores how both artists use painting as a site where language, materiality, and history converge, highlighting Tàpies's textured, sign-laden surfaces and Pendleton's conceptual engagement with abstraction and text.
Merlin Carpenter presents "Warning Signs" at Karma International in Zurich, featuring his latest paintings that evolve from his earlier "anti-painting" style. The artist reflects on how his early 2000s work, characterized by a semi-finished, indifferent aesthetic, had become decorative by the time of his 2013 POLICE show, prompting him to update his approach.
Claudio Parmiggiani’s seminal 1970 portfolio, "Atlante," is the focal point of a new exhibition at Thomas Dane Gallery in Naples. The show highlights a pivotal moment in 1968 when Parmiggiani began experimenting with cartographic imagery, including painting continents onto cows and encasing globes in glass, all documented through the lens of fellow artist Luigi Ghirri.
May 2026 brings a packed calendar of exhibitions across Italy, ranging from independent galleries to major museums. Highlights include Igor Grubić's early works at Laveronica Gallery in Modica, a photographic exhibition by Lisetta Carmi at Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria in Perugia, thematic investigations into Ettore Sottsass in Pistoia, Larry Nederlof's solo show at Extra Factory in Livorno, and an archaeological exhibition titled "Parthenope. The Siren and the City" at the National Archaeological Museum. The article also provides practical tips for visitors, such as checking opening times, booking tickets online, and planning transport.
Several galleries and a museum in Columbus's Short North arts district are opening new exhibitions for May 2026. Highlights include a women's group show at Sean Christopher Gallery Ohio, environmental abstract paintings by Annette Poitau at Marcia Evans Gallery, a spring-themed solo exhibition by Amy Adams at Sharon Weiss Gallery, and a salon exhibition at 24 Lincoln St. Gallery & Art Studios. The Columbus Museum of Art at the Pizzuti is presenting the first U.S. museum survey of Bahamian conceptual artist Tavares Strachan, featuring his 'Encyclopedia of Invisibility'.
The article announces "The Subtle Charm of Obsessions," a multidisciplinary exhibition opening April 25, 2025, at the City Museum of Wrocław – Royal Palace. Curated by Jerzy Zajączkowski, the show explores Sigmund Freud's concept of the compulsion to repeat through works by artists based in Wrocław and across Poland, including Tamara Berdowska, the collective Monomoka (Katarzyna and Monika Gwiazdowskie), and Michał Misiak. The exhibition features painting, glass, fabric, and crocheted works, emphasizing rhythm, memory, and the cyclical return to familiar motifs placed in new contexts.
Lubaina Himid will represent Great Britain at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026. She plans to exhibit a new installation of large, multi-panel paintings and works on found objects, accompanied by a sound piece by Magda Stawarska, all inspired by her lifelong exploration of belonging. The work aims to navigate melancholy and deep remembering, inviting visitors to bring their own experiences into the pavilion.
Air de Paris, the Paris gallery known for its punk ethos and commitment to cutting-edge Conceptual art, will close this week after 36 years and more than 400 exhibitions, amid bankruptcy proceedings. Founded in Nice in 1990 by Florence Bonnefous and Edouard Merino, the gallery was named after Marcel Duchamp’s 50cc of Paris Air and became legendary for its inaugural show, “Les Ateliers du Paradise,” which featured artists living in the gallery and later influenced critic Nicolas Bourriaud’s theory of relational aesthetics. The gallery moved to Paris in 1994 and later to Romainville in 2019, showing artists such as Paul McCarthy, Raymond Pettibon, Liam Gillick, Pierre Huyghe, and Dorothy Iannone.
The Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD) has announced the 45th edition of The Photography Show, scheduled to take place at New York’s Park Avenue Armory from April 22–26, 2026. The fair will feature 77 galleries, ranging from long-standing participants like Edwynn Houk Gallery to first-time exhibitors such as Galerie Sophie Scheidecker and Central Server Works. A significant addition to this year's programming is the debut of "Focal Point," a new sector dedicated exclusively to solo presentations that explore the experimental and evolving nature of lens-based media.
Ceal Floyer, a conceptual artist known for her spare, witty sculptures that transformed everyday objects into thought-provoking art, died on Thursday at age 57 after a long illness. Her Berlin-based gallery Esther Schipper, along with Lisson Gallery and 303 Gallery, confirmed her death. Floyer gained international recognition for works like *Light Switch* (1992–99), which projected an image of a light switch onto a wall, and *Bucket* (1999), a plastic bucket with a recorded dripping sound but no water. She participated in major exhibitions including the Venice Biennale (2009) and Documenta (2012), and won the Preis der Nationalgalerie in 2007.