Major protests take place at Venice Biennale previews

Major protests erupted during the preview days of the Venice Biennale, with multiple demonstrations targeting the Israeli and Russian pavilions. On Wednesday, the Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA) held a large protest outside the temporary Israeli pavilion in the Arsenale, attended by over 200 people calling for its closure. Separately, the Solidarity Drone Chorus performed a sound composition by Gazan artist Ahmed Muin, with 60 artists wearing T-shirts bearing names of artists from Gaza. Meanwhile, Pussy Riot and FEMEN protested Russian participation, forcing the Russian pavilion to shut its doors. These actions follow the resignation of the entire Golden Lion jury days before the opening, after they stated they would not consider pavilions from countries whose leaders are charged with crimes against humanity by the ICC—widely seen as a reference to Russia and Israel.

In Protest of Israeli Pavilion, Activists and Unions Plan Strike on Venice Biennale’s Opening Day

The Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA) has announced a 24-hour strike and rally on May 8, the day before the 2026 Venice Biennale opens to the public, in protest of the Israeli Pavilion. ANGA, formed in opposition to Israel's inclusion in the 2024 Biennale, refers to the current Israeli presentation—featuring Haifa-based artist Belu-Simion Fainaru—as the "Genocide Pavilion." Over 200 artists, curators, and culture workers have signed an open letter demanding Israel's exclusion, and a separate action called Solidarity Drone Chorus involved 60 artists. ANGA is collaborating with local labor and culture organizations including Biennalocene, Vogliamo Tutt'altro, S.a.L.E. Docks, and Mi Riconosci.

‘She had a fresh, informed eye’: mural depicting late Venice Biennale curator Koyo Kouoh displayed in lagoon city

A mural honoring Koyo Kouoh, the late curator of the 2025 Venice Biennale, has been unveiled in Venice. Created by US artist Derrick Adams, the collage titled "Heavy is the head that wears the crown" adorns the facade of the Palazzetto dello sport Giobatta Gianquinto near the Arsenale. Kouoh died on 10 May 2025 at age 57 after a cancer diagnosis. The tribute was organized by curator Francesco Bonami, who had invited Kouoh to join the jury for the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003.

The forgotten Chinese conceptualists: Melbourne show brings together works by New Measurement Group

An exhibition at Buxton Contemporary in Melbourne, titled "Poetry Goes No Further Than Language: a Historical Moment of Art Becoming Art Again," brings together the complete artistic output of the New Measurement Group, a pioneering Chinese conceptual art collective from Beijing, alongside four conceptual experiments by Shanghai-based artist Qian Weikang. Curated by Carol Yinghua Lu and artist Liu Ding, the show aims to reassess early Chinese conceptual art, featuring works by the New Measurement Group (Chen Shaoping, Gu Dexin, Wang Luyan), pieces from the New Wave art movement, and new commissions by Melbourne artist Darcey Bella Arnold. The curators faced challenges locating the group's five publications, including one purchased on eBay from Europe, and used re-enactment and re-fabrication to recreate lost works like Qian's "Ladder Poem" (1990).

Final book in trilogy asks: What is the future of the art world?

Cultural strategist András Szántó has published the third and final volume of his trilogy on the future of museums, titled *What Is the Future of the Art World?*. The book features dialogues with a wide range of art-world figures—including gallerists José Kuri and Atsuko Ninagawa, collectors Alain Servais and Sylvain Levy, artists William Kentridge and Holly Herndon & Mathew Dryhurst, curator Fatoş Üstek, network scientist Albert-László Barabási, former Art Basel director Marc Spiegler, and Sheikha Al-Mayassa Al Thani—who discuss topics such as the definition of the art world, its rules, and its future trajectory. Szántó notes that there is no consensus on whether the art world is still expanding or entering a phase of slowdown, with different regions moving on divergent paths.

Venice Biennale’s Prize Ban on Israel and Russia Falls Short for Critics

The jury of the 2026 Venice Biennale has ruled that Israel and Russia will be ineligible for the Golden and Silver Lion prizes, citing International Criminal Court charges of crimes against humanity against their leaders. The decision follows years of activism and political pressure, with the European Union withdrawing €2 million in funding from the event in protest of Russia's participation. While groups like Art Not Genocide Alliance praised the move as an unprecedented step, critics argue it falls short of a full ban on participation. Israel's artist representative, Belu-Simion Fainaru, condemned the policy as discriminatory, and an open letter signed by 70 artists and curators called for excluding all regimes committing war crimes, including the United States.

Vancouver Biennale names senior curator for 2027-29 edition

The Vancouver Biennale has appointed Marcello Dantas as senior curator for its 2027-29 edition. Dantas, a Brazilian curator and art director, has worked on major projects including co-curating Desert X AlUla in Saudi Arabia, curating an Es Devlin exhibition in São Paulo, and serving as art director at Sfer Ik in Tulum. He previously contributed to the Vancouver Biennale's 2013-15 edition with a Vik Muniz project. Dantas emphasizes collaboration with local First Nations and community groups, and plans to explore themes of belonging, displacement, and public art that is ephemeral and participatory.

What You Need to Know About the Venice Biennale’s Russian Pavilion Controversy

The Russian pavilion is set to return to the Venice Biennale for the first time since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, presenting an exhibition titled 'The tree is rooted in the sky.' This has sparked significant controversy, with artists, curators, and politicians from Ukraine and several European nations calling for the pavilion's exclusion, citing the ongoing war and sanctions. The Biennale organizers have refused to remove Russia, stating they lack the authority to exclude a state recognized by Italy and emphasizing the event's role as a neutral space for cultural dialogue.

Art Basel reveals 33 medalists for second edition of its awards

Art Basel has announced the 33 medalists for the second edition of its annual awards program, honoring a diverse group of artists, curators, collectors, and institutions. The cohort is divided into categories including emerging, established, and icon artists, as well as cross-disciplinary figures and art-world allies. Notable honorees include Julie Mehretu, Barbara Kruger, and the Studio Museum in Harlem, representing a broad cross-section of the global art ecosystem.

Artists and Art Professionals Denounce Mexico’s Handling of Resurfaced Art Collection: ‘An Institutional Blunder’

Over 200 Mexican artists and art professionals signed an open letter accusing the government and the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature (INBAL) of an 'institutional blunder' for allowing the resurfaced Gelman collection—approximately 300 works including pieces by Frida Kahlo and other major Mexican artists—to be exported to Spain. The collection, now held by Banco Santander's foundation, is classified as Mexican artistic monuments, which typically restricts foreign export to one or two years.

Venice Biennale Russia Pavilion Return Controversy

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The Venice Biennale is facing intense backlash following the announcement that Russia will return with a national pavilion for the 2026 edition, marking its first official participation since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and various international activists have called for Russia's exclusion, arguing that the platform is being used to whitewash war crimes and exert political influence. In response, the Biennale leadership has maintained a policy of non-exclusion, stating that any country recognized by Italy has an autonomous right to participate.

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The Darwin D. Martin House in Buffalo, a landmark of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie School architecture, has launched a new exhibition titled “Collecting Ourselves.” The show highlights the museum's decades-long, painstaking effort to track down and repatriate the original furniture and decorative objects designed specifically for the site. While the structural restoration of the complex was completed in 2017, the task of reuniting Wright’s holistic interior vision—including his iconic Barrel chairs and intricate art glass—remains an ongoing archival and curatorial challenge.

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The Joan Mitchell Foundation has announced the 31 artists selected for its 2026 residency program at the Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans. The residencies, lasting six or 14 weeks across three seasons, will host no more than nine artists at a time, beginning February 2. The cohort includes 17 local New Orleans artists and participants from cities such as New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, and Atlanta, ranging in age from 27 to 75. Notable participants include Edra Soto, who also won a United States Artists Fellowship, and two leaders of New Orleans’s Black Masking Indian tradition, Kelly Pearson Boles and Efrem Z. Boles. The selection was made by a jury of artists, curators, and academics.

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India's Kochi-Muziris Biennale was forced to close briefly in late December 2024, just weeks after its mid-December opening, following protests by Christian groups over a painting of the Last Supper by artist Tom Vattakuzhy. The work was displayed not in the main biennial exhibition, “For the Time Being,” but in a side exhibition called “EDAM” at the Garden Convention Centre in Kochi. Christian organizations, including the Kerala Latin Catholic Association and the Syro-Malabar Church, condemned the painting as offensive and called for its removal, questioning the use of public funds. Vattakuzhy, who is from a Christian family, said he did not intend to offend and that the work was inspired by a play based on a poem about Mata Hari. The biennial's curators and president defended the work, refusing to remove it on grounds of censorship, and organizers announced the exhibition would reopen on January 2.

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Art Basel launched its inaugural Art Basel Awards ceremony at the New World Center in Miami Beach during Art Basel Miami Beach week. The awards, first introduced in New York in May, recognized 36 medalists across categories including Icon, Established, Emerging, Patron, Institution, Curator, and Media & Storytelling. Top winners included Cecilia Vicuña (Icon), Nairy Baghramian and Ibrahim Mahama (Established), Mohammad Alfaraj and Saodat Ismailova (Emerging), and Meriem Bennani (BOSS Award). The event was hosted by musician and collector Kasseem "Swizz Beatz" Dean, with performances by cellist Kelsey Lu and recorded narration by actor Emma D'Arcy. Each artist received $50,000, and established artists will debut commissions at Art Basel in Switzerland next year.

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Three artists—Faith Ringgold, Jean Toche, and Jon Hendricks—organized "The People's Flag Show" at Judson Memorial Church in New York's Greenwich Village in November 1970, protesting the Vietnam War and challenging US flag desecration laws. The exhibition featured around 150 artists via open call, including Yvonne Rainer, Kate Millett, and the Guerrilla Art Action Group. On November 13, 1970, Ringgold, Toche, and Hendricks were arrested and fined $100 for flag desecration; their case was later dismissed with help from the American Civil Liberties Union. Now, 55 years later, Judson Commons—the church's nonprofit arts arm—is mounting a new version of the exhibition, again via open call, featuring over 60 artists and a week of programming in the Judson Gym.

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The Museum of Sex in Miami’s Allapattah neighborhood has opened “Hard Art: Unruly Selections from the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection,” an exhibition of erotic artworks from the collection of ARTnews Top 200 collector Beth Rudin DeWoody. The show features sculptures, paintings, collages, photography, and installations from the 1930s to the present by artists including Judith Bernstein, Cecily Brown, Nancy Grossman, and Jimmy DeSana. It is co-curated by Maynard Monrow and Laura Dvorkin, DeWoody’s in-house curators, and runs through May 2026.

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The 36th São Paulo Bienal, curated by Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung and his team, explores the theme of humanity through six chapters, from the primordial to the transcendent. The exhibition features works by artists such as Precious Okoyomon, Frank Bowling, Aline Baiana, Gervane de Paula, Frankétienne, and Sharon Hayes, with a focus on textiles, sound, and jewel-toned aesthetics. The curators draw inspiration from avian migration and estuaries, structuring the show like tributaries connecting "the river to the sea," a phrase echoing Palestinian sovereignty without explicit mention. Highlights include Okoyomon's installation of dirt and plants, a career-spanning Frank Bowling survey, and Gervane de Paula's playful wood carvings that reveal subtle, provocative details upon close inspection.

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Curator, collector, and artistic director Andrea von Goetz founded Sommer Frische Kunst in 2011 as a humble artist-led retreat in Bad Gastein, Austria, housed in the historic Kraftwerk am Wasserfall building. Over 15 years, the initiative has grown from a small artist-in-residence program into an internationally recognized contemporary art festival at 1,000 meters above sea level, featuring major exhibitions, public art projects, and its own art fair, art:badgastein. The 2025 anniversary is marked by a reunion exhibition titled "Welcome back!" co-curated with Dr. Silvie Aigner.

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The United States has not yet announced its pavilion for the 2026 Venice Biennale, but a controversial proposal has emerged from far-right blogger Curtis Yarvin, who pitched a "dissident-right art hos" pavilion to Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Darren Beattie in April 2025. The proposal, reported by the New Yorker, comes amid a delayed application process and changes to the pavilion's guidelines, which now emphasize a "non-political character" and remove previous language about diversity. The application deadline is July 30, with a $375,000 grant awarded by September, leaving an unusually short timeline for production.

Nancy Holt review – cosmic thrills as the universe’s hidden power is unleashed

The Guardian reviews a major UK exhibition of land artist Nancy Holt (1938-2014) at Goodwood in West Sussex, the largest show of her work to date. The exhibition features two large outdoor installations—Ventilation System, a metallic tubular structure resembling building lungs, and Hydra’s Head, six concrete pools arranged like the Hydra constellation in a chalk quarry—alongside indoor photographs, diagrams, and light works. The review praises the cosmic scale and bodily connection of the outdoor pieces but finds the indoor works less effective at conveying Holt’s themes of universal vastness and interconnectedness.

Meet four artists behind the public art you'll see at L.A. Metro's new D Line stations

L.A. Metro opened the first phase of its D Line extension on Friday, May 1, 2026, adding three new underground stations connecting downtown Los Angeles to Beverly Hills: Wilshire/La Brea, Wilshire/Fairfax, and Wilshire/La Cienega. The stations feature nine site-specific public artworks by artists including Mariana Castillo Deball, Eamon Ore-Giron, Ken Gonzales-Day, Todd Gray, Karl Haendel, Soo Kim, Fran Siegel, Susan Silton, and Mark Dean Veca. The competitive selection process began a decade ago, drawing over 1,200 applicants, with finalists judged by a panel of art professionals including curators from Miracle Mile museums. Metro deputy executive officer Zipporah Yamamoto leads the agency's public art program, which is funded by a 0.5% construction budget set-aside.

Museum Storytellers: Three Art Scholars Curate Exhibitions at the North Shore’s World-Class Museum

The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem is highlighting the work of its curatorial team, specifically focusing on how Lydia Peabody, Lan Morgan, and Ruthie Dibble are revitalizing the institution's collections. A primary focus is the exhibition 'Edmonia Lewis: Said in Stone,' where Peabody integrated contemporary photography and video by artist Gisella Torres to create a dialogue with Lewis’s 19th-century neoclassical marble sculptures. Other initiatives include Lan Morgan’s 'Beyond the Broom' project, which uses short films to showcase a community-focused perspective of Salem beyond its 'witch city' reputation.

November Book Bag: from a tome of Japanese printmakers to the first Nina Chanel Abney monograph

The article reviews four new art books released in November. It covers 'Modern Japanese Printmakers: New Waves and Eruptions' by Malene Wagner (Prestel), a survey of 44 Japanese printmakers from the early 20th century to today; the debut monograph on Nina Chanel Abney (Monacelli) with contributions from Thelma Golden and Jazmine Hughes; 'Massimo Listri: Italian Palaces' (Taschen), a photographic tour of grand Italian palaces; and 'Strange Discoveries: The Art of Denton Welch' (John Swarbrooke Fine Art), a catalogue accompanying the first solo exhibition of Welch's work in over 40 years.

Queer Arts Festival opens Portals for emerging artists and contrasting journeys

The Queer Arts Festival (QAF) in Vancouver opens its 16th annual edition from June 6 to 28, featuring a signature visual exhibition titled "Portals" at Centre A: Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art from June 21 to August 23. Curated by Mark Takeshi McGregor and Diane Hau Yu Wong, the exhibition showcases six emerging and local artists—Arkah, Evan Matchett-Wong, Sena Cleave, Miles Saraswat, Christian Yves Jones, and Naomi Maya Leung—whose works explore themes of queerness, migration, diaspora, and belonging through photography, sculpture, embroidery, film, and mixed media. The festival also includes concerts, media screenings, and community events, serving as a sanctuary for 2SLGBTQIA+ communities amid rising anti-trans and anti-queer rhetoric.

Honoring Frederic Church: Beyond the Hudson River School

Art historians and curators are re-evaluating the legacy of Frederic Church, arguing that his contributions extend far beyond his traditional classification as a Hudson River School landscape painter. New research highlights his sophisticated engagement with 19th-century science, his architectural achievements at his estate, Olana, and his role as a global traveler who captured the spirit of the Andes and the Arctic.

Artist list for Counterpublic 2026 announced

The St. Louis-based triennial Counterpublic has unveiled its full artist list for the 2026 edition, titled 'Coyote Time.' Running from September 12 to December 12, the exhibition features 47 artists, duos, and collectives, including prominent names like Glenn Ligon, Nicholas Galanin, and Rirkrit Tirivanija. Curated by a diverse team including Stefanie Hessler and Wanda Nanibush, the triennial will utilize site-responsive practices and emergent technologies to explore themes of climate, immigration, and education.

Primitivism to Reinvent Art

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Philippe Dagen has published the third and final volume of his series on primitivism, covering the period from World War II to the late 1970s. The book traces how Western artists, from Barnett Newman and Jackson Pollock to members of the CoBrA movement and figures like Jean Dubuffet, Lucio Fontana, and Yayoi Kusama, engaged with so-called "primitive" art from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, often as a means of rejecting or redefining modern civilization. Dagen also examines the intellectual debates surrounding primitivism, including the critiques of colonized peoples who refused the label "primitive," and the shifting attitudes of thinkers like Claude Lévi-Strauss, Michel Leiris, and Aimé Césaire.

Anish Kapoor Condemns Inclusion of US in Venice Biennale

Anish Kapoor has publicly condemned the inclusion of the United States in the upcoming 61st Venice Biennale, calling for its exclusion due to what he describes as the country's 'abhorrent politics of hate and its incessant warmongering.' In an interview with The Guardian, Kapoor praised the five-person jury that resigned en masse after refusing to consider Israel and Russia for the event's top prize, both nations having been accused by the International Criminal Court of crimes against humanity. Kapoor's remarks come amid the ongoing US war with Iran under the Trump administration, and he previously threatened to sue the Trump administration over a photo taken at his Cloud Gate sculpture in Chicago.

Arthur Jafa and Julie Mehretu Among Art Basel Awards 2026 Medalists

Art Basel has announced the thirty-three winners of its 2026 Art Basel Awards, recognizing individuals and institutions across nine categories. The winners include prominent artists like Arthur Jafa, Julie Mehretu, and Barbara Kruger, as well as institutions such as The Brick in Los Angeles and the Diriyah Biennale Foundation. A new jury member, Prof. Dr. Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, was also added for this edition.