Henrike Naumann, Sculptor Set to Represent Germany at Venice Biennale, Dies at 41

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The German art world is mourning the death of sculptor Henrike Naumann, who passed away in Berlin at age 41 following a brief battle with cancer. Naumann was a rising star known for her immersive installations that utilized furniture and domestic objects to explore the complex sociopolitical legacy of East Germany and the psychological tensions of reunification. Her death comes just months before she was scheduled to represent Germany at the 2024 Venice Biennale.

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One week after an exhibition tied to the Kochi-Muziris Biennale closed due to religious protests, the offending painting—"Supper at a Nunnery" by Tom Vattakuzhy—has been withdrawn. The work, shown in the side exhibition “EDAM” organized by the Kochi Biennale Foundation, depicts a naked Mata Hari as Jesus surrounded by nuns as disciples. Since December, Indian Christian organizations had accused the artist of insulting the faith, leading to the exhibition's closure and eventual removal of the painting after a meeting with local officials.

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Anonymous floral artist Mr. Flower Fantastic has created this year's Orchid Show at the New York Botanical Garden, titled "Mr. Flower Fantastic's Concrete Jungle." The exhibition transforms the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory with approximately 7,000 orchids arranged in installations that pay homage to New York City's urban landscape, including a subway station, a pizzeria, a newsstand, a dumpster, and a brownstone.

ORDINARY MIRACLES. A Conversation with Rene Matić by Bianca Stoppani

Artist Rene Matić discusses their multidisciplinary practice and the personal history that informs their exploration of British identity, race, and subculture. The conversation highlights Matić’s deep connection to skinhead culture—inherited from their father—and their use of an "ethnographic methodology of the Self" to document queer BIPOC communities and personal memories.

World Press Photo 2026 winners – in pictures

The World Press Photo 2026 winners have been announced, with Carol Guzy awarded the top honor for her image of distraught girls clinging to their father as ICE agents detain him after an immigration hearing in New York City. Finalists include Saber Nuraldin’s photograph of Palestinians scrambling for aid in Gaza, Victor J Blue’s image of Achi women outside a Guatemala City court, and other powerful works documenting climate displacement in Mexico, a wedding during a typhoon in the Philippines, police detaining a priest at a pensioners’ protest in Argentina, and a social robot in Europe.

Arts Listings: Week of April 9, 2026

The Ventura County arts community is launching a series of local exhibitions and theater productions for the week of April 9, 2026. Highlights include the opening of the political comedy "The Outsider" at the Santa Paula Theater Center and the "Rediscovering" exhibition at Fox Fine Jewelry featuring Lisa Sachs and Thomas Hoerber. Additionally, the Camarillo Art Center is hosting a themed exhibition titled "I dream my paintings, then I paint my dream," alongside various technical workshops in watercolor and gourd art.

Unbound Narratives: Embodied Language at Atlanta Contemporary, Atlanta

The Atlanta Contemporary is presenting the group exhibition 'Unbound Narratives: Embodied Language,' curated by Karen Comer Lowe. It features works by artists February James, Bethany Collins, Gabi Madrid, and a’driane nieves across film, painting, and mixed media, focusing on how each translates personal and embodied experience into visual and linguistic forms. Key pieces include nieves's monumental painting on grief and rage, Collins's text-based interrogation of racial identity, James's debut stop-motion film exploring stillness, and Madrid's inscribed headboards addressing healing and cultural memory.

Simultaneous or Poly-Cinema

The Bauhaus artist László Moholy-Nagy proposes a radical departure from traditional filmmaking in his 1925 text, "Simultaneous or Poly-Cinema." He envisions a cinematic experience that moves beyond the static, rectangular screen, suggesting instead curved, spherical, or multi-planar surfaces that can accommodate multiple simultaneous projections. By utilizing rotating prisms and intersecting film strips, Moholy-Nagy describes a system where different narrative threads—such as the lives of multiple characters—can physically overlap and merge, creating a dynamic architectural arrangement of light and movement.

Louvre Plans Its ‘Most Ambitious’ Painting Restoration Ever: A Refresh for Rubens’s Medici Cycle

The Louvre Museum has announced a four-year restoration project for Peter Paul Rubens's monumental 'Marie de' Medici Cycle,' comprising 24 large-scale paintings. The works will be removed from public view starting this fall as the museum transforms their dedicated gallery into an on-site restoration studio to address yellowed varnishes and discordant past retouching.

Through Bamboo, the Artist Lap-See Lam Explores Her Family’s History

Swedish artist Lap-See Lam has opened her first solo exhibition in Asia at the Tai Kwun Contemporary in Hong Kong. The show, titled "The Dream of the Lion's Way," features her signature multimedia installations, including video, sculpture, and sound, which weave together Cantonese opera, family narratives, and 3D-scanned environments of Chinese restaurants in Sweden.

Watch: Khaled Sabsabi and Michael Dagostino in Conversation

Artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino discuss their project 'conference of one’s self' for the Australia Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale. Sabsabi explains how the work draws on the twelfth-century Sufi poem 'The Conference of the Birds' by Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār, mapping its seven spiritual valleys and adding an eighth level of 'wholeness and completeness'. He also reflects on his childhood in Lebanon, migration to Australia, and how his return to Lebanon in 2002 reconnected him with his Sufi lineage, which informs his artistic practice focused on memory, displacement, and social justice.

Faig Ahmed on Representing Azerbaijan at the 61st Venice Biennale

Artist Faig Ahmed will represent Azerbaijan at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026 with a project exploring the intersections of mystical poetry and quantum physics. Located in the Campo de la Tana, the pavilion aims to create a contemplative space where technology and ancient oral traditions facilitate a personal dialogue for the viewer. Ahmed’s presentation responds to the Biennale’s overarching theme, 'In Minor Keys,' by focusing on subtle, often overlooked phenomena.

Director's Notes with Andrew Nadkarni | Trey Abdella's Miserable Dream

Director’s Notes with Andrew Nadkarni | Trey Abdella’s Miserable Dream

Director Andrew Nadkarni created a short film about artist Trey Abdella, titled "Trey Abdella's Miserable Dream." The film uses the metaphor of a Coney Island roller coaster to explore Abdella's artistic process, moving between his studio and the amusement park to show how he transforms personal memories and Americana into art.

ArtFields festival returns to Lake City April 10 to May 2, featuring Southeast artists

Lake City, South Carolina, is set to host the annual ArtFields festival from April 10 to May 2, 2026. The event transforms the town into a massive gallery, displaying hundreds of works by Southeastern artists across local boutiques, restaurants, and historic warehouses. This year's competition features over $100,000 in prize money, with winners determined by both a professional jury and a popular vote.

Sea change

The William Havu Gallery in Denver is hosting "Sea Change," the 11th solo exhibition by artist Amy Metier. The show features a new body of work consisting of paintings on panel and works on paper that utilize abstraction to reference landscapes, still lifes, and architectural forms. Metier, a seasoned artist with a significant international residency history, continues her long-standing relationship with the gallery through this latest collection.

An open-air art gallery: Hogan Park at Highlands Creek

Hogan Park at Highlands Creek in Aurora, Colorado, is a 100-acre public park that doubles as an open-air art gallery, featuring around two dozen sculptures and painted installations along a two-mile trail. Curated by Carla Ferreira, CEO of the development, and her father, the park includes works by artists such as Michael Benisty, Hunter Brown, Daniel Popper, and Olivia Steele, with pieces designed to withstand Colorado's extreme weather. Notable installations include the 25-foot steel sculpture "Broken but Together," the viral fiberglass-reinforced concrete figure "Umi" by Daniel Popper, and a bronze bench honoring Dr. Justina Ford, part of the Statues for Equality initiative.

An underground art park by Mike Hewson opens beneath the Art Gallery of NSW

New Zealand-born engineer-turned-artist Mike Hewson has opened 'The Key’s Under The Mat,' an interactive social sculpture and underground art park in the Nelson Packer Tank beneath the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney. The free exhibition, running from October 2025 through 2026, transforms a former WWII oil reservoir into a playful neighborhood featuring dozens of functional sculptures—including a playground, sauna, steam room, laundromat, and barbecue—all made from thousands of salvaged objects. Visitors are encouraged to use, explore, and inhabit the space as their own.

An underground art park by Mike Hewson opens beneath the Art Gallery of NSW

New Zealand-born engineer-turned-artist Mike Hewson has opened 'The Key’s Under The Mat,' an interactive social sculpture inside the subterranean Nelson Packer Tank at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney. The free exhibition, running from October 4, 2025 through 2026, transforms a former WWII oil reservoir into an art park featuring dozens of usable sculptures—including a functioning sauna, steam room, laundromat, playground, and barbecue—all made from thousands of salvaged objects. Visitors are encouraged to dwell, play, create, and even do laundry, with the artist describing the work as a 'handmade utopia.'

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Miami's Contemporary Art Modern Project (CAMP) Gallery has opened the seventh edition of its series program, titled “Women Pulling at The Threads of Social Discourse: Don’t be Absurd.” The group exhibition features dozens of artists who created circular, tondo-like fiber works inspired by absurdist philosophers and writers such as Albert Camus, Franz Kafka, Simone de Beauvoir, Samuel Beckett, and José Saramago. Works include RemiJin Camping's cyanotype in an embroidery hoop referencing Kafka's *The Metamorphosis* and Mychaelyn Michalec's hand-tufted wool piece *The Pietà and The Swan*. The show runs through December 20, 2025.

Other Worlds of Light: Zarina’s “Beyond the Stars”

Luhring Augustine gallery in New York is presenting 'Beyond the Stars,' the first posthumous solo exhibition of the late Indian-born artist Zarina. The show features prints, collages, cast paper works, and sculptures spanning seven decades, focusing on themes of borders, displacement, and exile shaped by the Partition of India and her nomadic life.

Untitled (Second Night), 2021 by Louise Lawler, Dye sublimation print on museum box, 121.9 x 182.2 cm (2)

This article is a promotional description for an art platform that partners with leading galleries to showcase artists, artworks, and exhibitions. It highlights a membership model vetted by industry peers, offering visibility and access to influential galleries, collectors, and auction houses. The piece also mentions a specific artwork by Louise Lawler, "Untitled (Second Night), 2021," a dye sublimation print on a museum box.

Metro Events Guide: From art exhibitions to house shows, we’ve got you covered this week in Metro Detroit

This week's Metro Detroit events guide highlights several art exhibitions and cultural happenings from April 23–30. The Elaine L. Jacob Gallery at Wayne State University presents 'Keith Haring: Subway Drawings' (April 17–August 15), featuring 25 drawings created by Haring between 1980 and 1985. Wayne State also hosts its 2026 Undergraduate Art Exhibition (April 24–May 8) showcasing student work in fine arts, art history, and design, with an opening reception on April 24. That same evening, the Wayne State University Graduate Artist Coalition holds an open studio and gallery event with live music and refreshments. Additional events include a 12-hour party at Marble Bar & Lincoln Factory, a house music event by Specter at an undisclosed location, an R&B night at Big Pink, and an Oakland University Film Showcase.

Pandolfini presents Julie Hamisky's "Alchemical Garden" at Design Week 2026

Pandolfini Auction House is hosting a solo exhibition titled "Giardino Alchemico" (Alchemical Garden) by French artist Julie Hamisky at its Milan office during Design Week 2026, from April 22 to 26. The exhibition, created in collaboration with Mitterrand gallery, features sculptures and botanical jewelry made through electroplating—a process that preserves organic matter like flowers and leaves in metal. Key works include "La Géante" (2024), an enlarged poppy sculpture, and "Aqua" (2024), a chandelier of galvanized plant elements, alongside wearable jewelry pieces.

Interview: Lukas Amacher Is Building a Chatbot for the Art World

Curator, collector, and entrepreneur Lukas Amacher, in partnership with developer David Simon, has launched CONTXT, an A.I.-powered chatbot platform designed for art exhibitions. The software allows visitors to ask questions about artworks via a chat interface, with answers sourced directly from an institution's curated materials like catalog essays and curator notes, rather than generic internet searches. The platform is currently being tested in a public preview with bitforms gallery.

In A State Of Flux: Tumi Magnússon’s Exhibition Is A Meditation On Movement And Change

Contemporary artist Tumi Magnússon has opened a solo exhibition titled "Herefrom Thereto Therefrom Hereto" (Héðan þangað þaðan hingað) at the Reykjanes Art Museum in Keflavík, Iceland. Curated by Gavin Morrison, the show marks a significant return for both the Copenhagen-based artist and the U.S.-based curator to the Icelandic art scene. The exhibition features a dialogue between Magnússon’s early post-conceptual paintings from the late 1990s and his more recent explorations in video, sound, and digital imagery.

Mexico City’s fairs give many artist-run spaces pride of place

Three major art fairs in Mexico City—Salón Acme, Clavo, and Material Fair—are prominently featuring works from artist-run spaces during the city's Art Week. These fairs are providing platforms for non-commercial, experimental projects from across Mexico, with a particular focus on supporting spaces from outside the capital.

National Art Exhibition in Punta Gorda headlines 25 shows at SWFL art centers

Southwest Florida's art scene is bustling with 25 visual art exhibitions across more than a dozen art centers in February. The headline event is the 15th Biennial National Art Exhibition at the Visual Arts Center in Punta Gorda, a prestigious juried competition for two-dimensional art. Other notable shows include Art Center Sarasota's centennial-celebrating Annual Juried Members Show, the 'Colors in Motion' exhibition at Venice Art Center, and a dual exhibition featuring artists Susan Fraley and Rosalie Mack.

AstaGuru: An Eminent Digital Auction for the Elite

AstaGuru, an Indian online auction house founded in 2008, has established itself as a leading digital platform for modern and contemporary art, antiques, sports memorabilia, fine silverware, and writing instruments. The company achieved a world record with a ₹17.75 crore bid for a Tyeb Mehta painting in 2017 and boasts a 93% lot sale ratio, auctioning works by notable artists such as Ramkinkar Baij, Krishen Khanna, and Nandalal Bose. Led by directors Tushar Sethi and Vickram Sethi, the platform offers secure bidding, physical previews in Mumbai, and services including consultation, restoration, and valuation.

India’s art market sees major resurgence in 2025; M F Hussain’s work breaks record

India's art market experienced a major resurgence in 2025, driven by record auction sales for modernists like M.F. Husain, Tyeb Mehta, and V.S. Gaitonde. Husain's 'Gram Yatra' became the first Indian painting to sell for over USD 10 million, setting a new benchmark. The boom is fueled by India's strong economy, rising private wealth, digital platforms, and increased global recognition. The India Art Fair in Delhi and the launch of India Art Fair Contemporary in Mumbai highlighted strong sales, with galleries selling 90% of their stands on preview day. A reduction in India's goods and services tax on art from 12% to 5% further boosted the market, while independent reports estimate Indian art auctions reached Rs 2,456.7 crore, up over 20% from the previous year.

Savannah artists finding big ways in small places to stage exhibitions

Savannah artists are creating new exhibition spaces in small, unconventional venues to counter the city's lack of affordable studio and gallery space. Following the closure of several local galleries, nonprofit Arts Southeast has been fostering resilience, with new spaces like Cute Tomatoes Gallery, Pocket Space (hosted by Norwood Gallery), and Camaleon opening in 2025. These artist-run initiatives feature rotating shows, including a group exhibition of 19 female artists at Norwood Gallery and a multidisciplinary venue at Camaleon directed by SCAD graduate Alex Mendi.