Russian artist reveals portrait Putin commissioned him to make as gift for Trump

Russian artist Nikas Safronov revealed a portrait of Donald Trump commissioned by Vladimir Putin as a gift for the U.S. president. The painting depicts Trump after the July 2024 assassination attempt, with blood on his face and fist raised, against a U.S. flag and Statue of Liberty backdrop. Safronov confirmed Putin personally conveyed the importance of the order, and the portrait was delivered via Trump envoy Steven Witkoff. The Kremlin pool journalists posted the image, and Putin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed the gift.

Emeritus Gallery Student Art Exhibition returns with a bustling on-campus reception.

Santa Monica College's Emeritus Gallery hosted the opening reception for its Emeritus Student Art Exhibition on Thursday night, marking the first on-campus reception since 2019. The exhibition features works by older adult students from the Emeritus College program, which has been operating since 1975. Highlights include Deborah Kaufman's mixed-media sculpture "Maximillion's Dream," inspired by a dream about her dog, and a tribute wall dedicated to the late student Roshy Farry, filled with her watercolor paintings. Curator Jesse Benson organized the event, which drew a crowded, enthusiastic audience of artists and visitors.

Nobu Hotel London Portman Square To Host Asako Iwamizu Solo Exhibition

Japanese artist Asako Iwamizu will present a month-long solo exhibition at Nobu Hotel London Portman Square's White Box gallery starting May 1, 2025. The show features her signature "Kimekomi Art," which combines traditional Japanese kimekomi techniques with fabric scraps and remnants, using both Japanese and British textiles. The exhibition includes interactive workshops on May 17 and 18, and coincides with London Craft Week (May 12–18, 2025), a major annual festival celebrating craftsmanship. Iwamizu will also collaborate with tailors from Savile Row to create new works from local fabric waste.

Photographer Dr. Elliot McGucken Seizes a Rare Superbloom in Death Valley

Photographer Dr. Elliot McGucken captured images of a rare superbloom event in Death Valley National Park. The event, triggered by record rainfall, produced a vibrant display of wildflowers like Phacelia, Desert Gold, and Mojave Stars across the park's dunes and mountains, which McGucken documented after traveling from Yellowstone to ensure he didn't miss the spectacle.

View 60 Captivating Finalists From the 23rd Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest. Then, Vote for Your Favorite!

The 23rd Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest has announced its 60 finalists, selected from over 17,000 submissions. The images span six categories: American Experience, Artistic, Drone/Aerial, People, Travel, and Wildlife. The magazine is now inviting the public to vote for a Readers' Choice award winner, with polls open through March 30.

Is Museum Wall Text the Next Political Battleground?

The Smithsonian Institution has altered or removed interpretive wall text that accompanies artworks on display, according to a New York Times report. Critics argue these changes amount to self-censorship, suggesting the institution is bowing to political pressure by softening or eliminating contextual language that could be seen as controversial.

Best Booths at Frieze, the Workhorse of Contemporary Art

The article highlights standout booths at Frieze New York, held at the Shed, featuring 65 galleries. It notes a dominant presence of paintings alongside a surprising array of small sculptures, offering a curated look at the fair's most compelling presentations.

8 Pavilions That Have the Venice Biennale Buzzing

The article highlights eight standout national pavilions at the Venice Biennale, the world's premier contemporary art event. These include a doll-focused exhibition, a contemplative garden, and a sizzling hothouse, each generating significant buzz among attendees and critics.

U.S. Museums Reach Deep into America’s Past

Museums across the United States are launching a series of ambitious exhibitions and programming designed to re-examine American history through a more inclusive and contemporary lens. These initiatives move beyond traditional patriotic narratives, utilizing diverse collections to explore the complexities of the nation's heritage, from indigenous perspectives to the legacies of industrialization and migration.

How Two Men with Hard Heads Broke Through Murano’s Glass Ceiling

Edoardo Pandolfo and Francesco Palù, the founders of the glass brand 6:AM, are revitalizing the traditional glassmaking industry of Murano with a contemporary, "punk" sensibility. By collaborating with master artisans and pushing the technical boundaries of the medium, the duo creates avant-garde pieces that challenge the island's historical aesthetic while maintaining its rigorous craftsmanship standards.

Pearl Fryar, a Picasso of Plants, Dies at 86

Pearl Fryar, the visionary self-taught topiary artist who transformed his yard in Bishopville, South Carolina, into a world-renowned botanical masterpiece, has died at age 86. Starting in the 1980s with no formal training, Fryar used a gas-powered hedge trimmer to sculpt salvaged plants into gravity-defying, abstract geometric forms that drew thousands of international visitors to his three-acre property.

The Age-Old Obsession With Living Forever

A new exhibition in London explores the human desire for immortality, using contemporary biohacking figures like Bryan Johnson as a starting point to examine the cultural and philosophical implications of extreme life extension.

A Painter Reveals Hong Kong’s Natural Wonders — and Where to See Them

Hong Kong-based painter Stephen Wong Chun Hei, who spent much of his childhood indoors, has become an avid hiker and now creates vibrant, colorful paintings of the city's natural landscapes. His work focuses on capturing the dramatic geology, lush vegetation, and hidden trails of Hong Kong's country parks and coastal areas.

Exploring Hong Kong’s Textile Trail

A new cultural initiative in Hong Kong, the 'Textile Trail,' guides visitors through several neighborhoods to explore the city's industrial past as a major Asian textile exporter. The trail features preserved factories, warehouses, and other architectural remnants that tell the story of this foundational industry.

At the 34th Outsider Art Fair, Still Genuine Surprises

The 34th Outsider Art Fair in New York showcased a diverse range of compelling works, including cosmic explosion paintings, proto-Surrealist pieces, and standout artists like D.J. Raul Hardie and Anne Brown. A critic's survey highlighted these discoveries as genuine surprises, emphasizing the fair's continued role in presenting fresh, unmediated artistic voices.

On a Majorcan Estate, a Collage Made Over Hundreds of Summer Holidays

A descendant of one of Majorca's oldest families has preserved and now showcases a unique, sprawling collage within her 18th-century family estate. The artwork was created over hundreds of summer holidays by her mother and aunt, who meticulously assembled it using materials like magazine clippings, postcards, and fabric.

Filipa Ramos takes on 2027 Lofoten Festival

Filipa Ramos has been appointed curator of the 19th edition of the Lofoten International Art Festival, set to take place across the Norwegian arctic archipelago in June 2027. Ramos, a curator and writer who teaches at the Institute Art Gender Nature of the Academy of Art and Design FHNW in Basel, is known for ecologically-focused research that reimagines human-animal-environment relationships. She authored *The Artist as Ecologist* (2025) and is currently organizing the LOOP Festival in Barcelona and the symposia series *The Shape of a Circle in the Mind of a Fish*, created with Lucia Pietroiusti.

Iran’s Participation in the Venice Biennale Still Uncertain

Iran’s participation in the 61st Venice Biennale remains uncertain after a public contradiction emerged between the Biennale Foundation and Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance (MCIG). The Biennale Foundation had announced that Iran would not participate in the 2026 edition, curated by Koyo Kouoh, but Aydin Mahdizadeh Tehrani, director general of visual arts at the MCIG and commissioner of the Iranian Pavilion, stated in an interview with the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) that Iran never submitted a withdrawal letter. Instead, Iran requested more time and sent a letter on May 10 asking for the pavilion to open even if ineligible for prizes. Mahdizadeh Tehrani cited the US-Israel war with Iran as causing currency fluctuations that nearly tripled projected costs, complicating prior agreements, and noted that Iran had proposed a shorter exhibition period, which the Biennale rejected.

Bulldozer Plows Across Thousand-Year-Old Indigenous Land Art During Border Wall Construction

Construction workers building the Trump administration's border wall between the US and Mexico accidentally damaged a two-hundred-foot-long Indigenous land art figure known as the Las Playas Intaglio, a colossal fish etched into the earth near Ajo, Arizona, that is thought to be over a thousand years old. Satellite imagery showed bulldozer tracks cutting a sixty-to-seventy-foot-wide path across the intaglio, and a Customs and Border Protection spokesperson confirmed the disturbance, stating the remaining portion had been secured and would be protected in place.

Endangered Species? Venice Biennale Ditches Golden, Silver Lions for 2026 Edition

The Venice Biennale has announced it will eliminate the Golden and Silver Lions for the 2026 edition, replacing them with Visitor Lions chosen by popular vote. The prizes, traditionally awarded on opening day (May 9), will now be presented at the closing ceremony (November 22). Russia and Israel, previously barred from consideration by the prize jury due to ICC charges against their leaders, will be eligible for the new Visitor Lions. The decision follows the mass resignation of the original prize jury after they excluded those nations and faced pressure to also ban the US.

Accused of Harassing Staff, Martha Ortiz Steps Down as Director of Bogotá’s MAMBO

Martha Ortiz has stepped down as director of Bogotá’s Museo de Arte Moderno (MAMBO) amid allegations of harassing staff and fostering a toxic work environment. The museum announced her retirement and will begin a search for a successor, with board president Ángela Royo and financial manager Francy Hernández assuming interim leadership. Ortiz, who had no prior museum management experience, took the role in March 2024. Her departure follows the ousting of artistic director Eugenio Viola less than three months earlier, after he raised concerns about deteriorating working conditions.

US Supreme Court Declines Appeal Hearing For Case On Copyrighting AI Artwork

The US Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from computer scientist Stephen Thaler, who sought to copyright an artwork generated by his AI system, the Creativity Machine. This decision upholds a lower court ruling that affirmed the US Copyright Office's rejection, which was based on the requirement that a human being must be the author of a creative work for it to be eligible for copyright protection.

Nike exhibition coming to Phoenix Art Museum in 2027

The Phoenix Art Museum has announced a major upcoming exhibition titled "Nike: Form Follows Motion," scheduled to run from April 14 to September 26, 2027. Jeremy Mikolajczak, the museum’s director and CEO, unveiled the project during a presentation to the Phoenix Economic Development and Arts Subcommittee, describing it as one of the most significant milestones in the institution's upcoming schedule.

Dana Awartani Mends Ancestral Wounds

Saudi artist Dana Awartani has created a new installation, 'Listen to my Words,' for the 2024 Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale. The work features a large-scale geometric floor pattern made from hand-dyed silk, which visitors are invited to walk upon, deliberately fraying and damaging the intricate design over the course of the exhibition.

REINTERPRETATIONS BY DEMIAN FLORES OF VIOLENCE MYTH AND REPRESENTATION

Mexican artist Demián Flores presents "America. New Visions from the Old World," a graphic arts exhibition at the Instituto Cultural de México in Madrid. The show features forty works that reinterpret 16th-century engravings by Theodor de Bry, whose images of Indigenous peoples—ranging from idealized noble savages to violent cannibals—shaped European perceptions of the Americas. Flores draws on his earlier series "Collateral Disasters" (2012), inspired by Goya's "The Disasters of War," to critique how colonial visual narratives constructed otherness and justified violence.

Topkapı Palace opens new Tile Art Gallery in Mabeyn section

Topkapı Palace in Istanbul has opened a new Tile Art Gallery in its Mabeyn section, featuring a restored historic passage that connects the Mabeyn area with the Harem-i Hümayun. The gallery, called the Mabeyn Yolu (Route) Tile Art Gallery, showcases the stylistic and technical evolution of Ottoman tile art from Iznik to Kütahya, displaying tiles that were previously kept in storage. National Palaces President Professor Yasin Yıldız announced that the project took nearly three years and includes tiles bearing the names of Ottoman sultans from Osman Gazi to Sultan Selim II, as well as couplets from the 11th-century poem "Qasida al-Munfarija."

Hannan Center art festival celebrates 100 years of ‘life, even when you mature’

The Hannan Center in Detroit has opened its 2025 Emerge! Art Festival, a juried exhibition featuring 98 artists aged 55 and older and 175 artworks in various media, including sculptures, pottery, and fiber art. The festival runs through January 14 at the Ellen Kayrod Gallery and coincides with the center's 100th anniversary, celebrated under the theme “100 Years Unbound: The Power of Aging.” The center also opened a historical exhibit at the Detroit Historical Museum and will host its 70 Over Seventy Awards honoring community contributors aged 70 and older.

Street artist Ozmo acquitted in court: 'His work is not vandalism and has cultural value' (but in the meantime it has been erased)

Lo street artist Ozmo assolto in tribunale: “La sua opera non è imbrattamento e ha valore culturale” (ma nel frattempo è stata cancellata)

In summer 2022, street artist Ozmo (Gionata Gesi) created an unauthorized site-specific work on the Fonte di San Cerbone in Baratti, Italy, depicting two Etruscan coins with Medusa's face. The work sparked debate: the Piombino municipality and museum director Carolina Megale welcomed it, but the Soprintendenza (cultural heritage authority) reported it to prosecutors as illegal defacement. The artwork was vandalized and later removed in April 2023. On April 29, the Livorno court acquitted Ozmo, ruling that his intervention was not a crime but an artwork with cultural value, setting a legal precedent.

A Roma si celebra il fotografo riminese Marco Pesaresi a 25 anni dalla morte: docu-film e mostra

Rome is celebrating the work of Rimini-born photographer Marco Pesaresi (1964–2001), 25 years after his death, through two events organized by the photography training center Daylight School, led by Marco Sconocchia. A documentary film titled "Il granchio nudo – La storia di Marco Pesaresi," produced by Riccardo Caccia and Michela Fragomeni and directed by Marta E. Antonioli and Elena Padovan, will be screened on May 21 at Nuovo Cinema Aquila. The film features unpublished materials, including Pesaresi's diaries and poems, and includes interviews with those who knew him. A group exhibition, "UNDERGROUND. Il mondo sotto. Omaggio a Marco Pesaresi," opens May 29 at Daylight School, reinterpreting the themes of his photobook "Underground" through the eyes of 15 photographers.

At the Venice Biennale there is a pavilion of shit! Luxembourg participates with a project that talks about poop

Alla Biennale di Venezia c’è un padiglione di merda! Il Lussemburgo partecipa con un progetto che fa parlare la cacca

The Luxembourg Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale features an installation titled "La Merde" by artist Aline Bouvy, centered on a cinematic manifesto that uses excrement as a metaphor to explore shame, social classification, and bodily discipline. The immersive environment includes a film, spatialized sound composition, and a steel-and-mirror architecture, with an anthropomorphic talking, walking, and farting excrement puppet interacting with visitors. The work also includes a sculptural alter ego titled "E.T. The Excremential," blending Bouvy's body with Spielberg's extraterrestrial figure.