Curator Adriana Farietta On Why CONDUCTOR Is the Fair the Art World Needs Right Now

CONDUCTOR, a new art fair curated by Adriana Farietta in collaboration with Powerhouse Arts, launches this week in Brooklyn, New York. The fair features individual artists and galleries from Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Oceania, and Indigenous Nations, with a focus on the Global Majority. A key innovation is its onsite fabrication model, allowing some works to be produced locally at Powerhouse Arts' facilities, reducing shipping and customs issues. The fair also offers an exclusive preview of artists presenting at the Venice Biennale, including Annalee Davis, Tammy Nguyen, RojoNegro, Beya Gille Gacha, and Bugarin + Castle.

Local creatives weave together art and action with month-long Orozco Gallery exhibit

Curator Yen Ospina has organized "We Are La Voz II," a month-long pop-up exhibition at Orozco Gallery on The Commons in Ithaca, running from April 3 to May 2. The nomadic gallery highlights Latine fiber artists, featuring works that evolve over time and include textiles, embroidery, and fiber paintings. The exhibition serves as a tribute to Debra Castillo, a Cornell professor who co-founded the first Orozco Gallery exhibit in 2024 and passed away in October 2025. Artists like Sarah Lopez and Carolina Osorio Gil contribute pieces that explore themes of identity, memory, and resilience, with Ospina using the project to process her grief and counter rising anti-immigrant rhetoric.

Bertil Vallien celebrates 60 years of glass art with Brooklyn solo exhibition

Swedish glass artist Bertil Vallien, now 88, has opened a major solo exhibition titled "Starman: Sixty Years of Exploring Glass Art" at the Robert Lehman Gallery in Brooklyn. The show features 35 works spanning his 64-year career, highlighting his mastery of sand-casting and his long collaboration with the heritage brand Kosta Boda. Notable pieces include the *Resting Head* series, *Idun’s Magical Apples*, and the *Ships* series, which draw on Norse mythology and themes of life cycles.

MassMu to spotlight Akron artist's work

The Massillon Museum is currently hosting "Isabelle Crawford: Pure Potentiality," a solo exhibition in its Studio M space featuring paintings and drawings by the Akron-based artist. Crawford’s work explores the intersection of human connection and perception, reflecting her commitment to using art as a tool for community engagement and social change. The exhibition, which runs through April 26, will be supplemented by a featured interview with the artist on the museum’s "MassMusings" podcast.

Holbein biography interrogates the artist's life and work from a different angle

Elizabeth Goldring’s new biography of Hans Holbein the Younger takes a documentary-focused approach, prioritizing archival evidence over visual analysis. The book examines Holbein’s life (1497/8–1543) through chronological chapters, using inventories, correspondence, and other records to correct long-held assumptions and propose new theories about his work. Goldring’s detective work includes identifying the green curtain in Holbein’s portrait of Sir Thomas More as a reference to the sitter’s role as chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and suggesting that a lost painting of the More family was given to Erasmus as a gift.

Art Basel Miami Beach, Louvre crisis deepens, Helene Schjerfbeck—podcast

This episode of The Art Newspaper's 'The Week in Art' podcast covers three major stories. Ben Sutton and Kabir Jhala report from Art Basel Miami Beach, discussing top sales and the overall mood at the fair. Ben Luke speaks with Paris correspondent Vincent Noce about the deepening crisis at the Musée du Louvre following a staff strike and a recent robbery, as the museum plans to raise ticket prices for non-EU visitors by 45%. The episode also features a 'Work of the Week' segment on Helene Schjerfbeck's painting 'The Tapestry' (1914-16), with curator Dita Amory discussing the work ahead of a new exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Williamson Gallery exhibit illuminates political history of Mexican muralist Alfredo Ramos Martínez

The Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery at Scripps College has opened a new exhibition, “Pintor de Poemas: Unseen Works by Alfredo Ramos Martínez,” featuring over 25 drawings and paintings by the Mexican modernist. Guest curator Robin Dubin, director of Louise Stern Fine Arts, organized the show to highlight recently discovered works that reveal Ramos Martínez’s political engagements, challenging the long-held view of his art as merely decorative or folkloric. The exhibition is divided into four thematic sections—Indigenismo, Revolution, Labor, and War—and includes studies for his 1946 mural “The Flower Vendors,” which is housed nearby in the Margaret Fowler Garden.

34 Luxembourgish artists take over Larochette Castle

More than 30 Luxembourgish artists have taken over Larochette Castle for the L’Art-Rochette exhibition, running until 14 September. The show features wood, marble, scrap metal sculptures, pottery, photography, paintings, and jewellery, with most works available for purchase. Highlights include wooden sculptures by Jean-Paul Thielfels, scrap metal works by Karin Mayer, marble sculpture by Eck Lunkes, pottery by Mady Roef, and photography by Marc Barthelemy. Organisers Laurence Anciaux and Ren Spautz launched the event in 2020, and it has grown into a biannual art and photo show.

'Through the Veil' exhibition at Sarasota Art Museum an immersive labyrinth of mixed media hanging assemblages

Nassau-born, Atlanta-based artist Lillian Blades presents 'Through the Veil,' her first solo museum exhibition, at the Sarasota Art Museum. The show features suspended mixed-media assemblages called 'veils,' made from Plexiglas, wood, family photographs, and found objects, stitched together with a metallic knotting technique. Inspired by her mother, who was a quilter and died in childbirth, Blades creates immersive, tapestry-like works that envelop viewers and cast intricate shadows on the museum's walls and floors. The exhibition also includes earlier wall assemblages encrusted with three-dimensional materials like antique mirrors and empty picture frames.

Scotland and Wales to return to Venice Biennale after years-long break

Scotland and Wales will return to the Venice Biennale in 2026 after a years-long pause. Scotland will be represented by the Glasgow-based artist duo Bugarin + Castle, whose work is curated by Mount Stuart Trust and commissioned by Scotland + Venice. Wales will be represented by artist Manon Awst and critic Dylan Huw in collaboration, with support from the Arts Council of Wales. Both countries will participate as official collateral events rather than as national pavilions.

Union Public Library & Arts Center hosts a grand opening

The Union Public Library & Arts Center in Union, New Jersey, held a grand opening celebration for its newly renovated three-level facility. The event featured an art gallery unveiling with works by acclaimed artist Winston Young, a Black Box Theater plaque unveiling with live performances, a parade from the interim library location, a ribbon cutting, and activities including LEGO workshops led by Corey and Travis Samuels, origami, caricature drawing, face painting, and a book sale. Library director Kassundra Miller expressed excitement about offering new amenities such as a sensory room, creativity lab, study rooms, podcast room, and musical instrument lending.

Now Open: Prospect Refuge Gallery

A new art gallery concept, Prospect Refuge Gallery, opens in Northeast Minneapolis, led by Victoria Sass of Prospect Refuge Studio. The gallery's inaugural exhibition, "Homecoming: Objects of Origin," features works by New York-based ceramicist Jeremy Anderson, a Twin Cities native, showcasing ceramic vessels, lighting, and bronze-cast furniture that draw influence from Midwest rural architecture. The gallery aims to rotate regional talent through exhibitions focused on collectable design.

The Frick debuts dreamy greenhouse art show

The Frick Pittsburgh Museum and Gardens has opened a new exhibition in its 128-year-old greenhouse featuring abstract sculptures by local Pittsburgh artist Atticus Adams. Titled "Catching Sunbeams from the Porch Swing of Wisteria Castle," the show presents dozens of whimsical pieces made from metal mesh, wiring, and textile materials, hanging from the greenhouse roof. The free exhibit runs through October 26, Tuesday through Sunday from 9am to 5pm.

New videos of African cultural sites add contemporary context to Rockefeller Wing’s historical artefacts at the Met

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s newly reopened Michael C. Rockefeller Wing features a series of short documentaries by Ethiopian American filmmaker Sosena Solomon, commissioned to add contemporary context to the wing’s historical artifacts from Africa, Oceania, and the ancient Americas. Solomon spent two years traveling to 12 sites across sub-Saharan Africa, creating videos that highlight royal burial grounds in Uganda, ancient rock paintings in Botswana, bronze casters in Benin City, and the rock-hewn churches of Lalibela and Tigray in Ethiopia. Three of the videos are displayed on screens in the wing, while others are accessible via QR codes and online.

Where the bay meets the brush: Pier 29 reimagined as a hub for SF's artists

The Community Arts Stabilization Trust (CAST) has partnered with the San Francisco Port Commission to transform Pier 29, a long-vacant warehouse on the city's waterfront, into a major cultural hub. The 47,000-square-foot indoor space and 23,000-square-foot outdoor area will house exhibitions, residencies, performances, and a new residency program called Art + Water, led by author Dave Eggers and San Francisco Arts Commission member JD Beltran, providing affordable studio space for emerging and underserved local artists. CAST is investing $300,000 and the Port $500,000, with a two-year lease and an option to extend, aiming to open in January 2026.

Golnar Adili’s Family Archive

Artist Golnar Adili presents a solo exhibition at Smack Mellon in New York, centered on her family's archive of letters. The show features large-scale text-based sculptures and installations, such as 'Ye Harvest From the Eleven-Page Letter–Installation,' which transforms Persian script from her father's letters into architectural forms, alongside new plaster casts of her body. These works explore the aftermath of her parents' separation due to political exile following the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

'Is This Art?': Mulberry Art Studios' newest exhibition features cryptic art from telephone poles

Mulberry Art Studios in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, has launched a posthumous exhibition titled "Is This Art?: The Collected Works of Donald Shoffstall." The show features a collection of photocopied signs and posters that Shoffstall, a local figure who experienced homelessness, stapled to telephone poles throughout the city during the late 20th century. Curated by Steve Sylvester and Jerry Greiner, the exhibition presents these stream-of-consciousness writings and abstract graphic works as significant pieces of outsider art.

A unique chance to immerse yourself in the world of engravings at Nuneaton Museum & Art Gallery

Nuneaton Museum & Art Gallery is hosting "A Simple Line," a specialized exhibition dedicated to the history and craft of engraving. The show features a prestigious selection of works ranging from 17th-century Dutch masters like Gerard Douw to 18th-century Italian printmaker Giovanni Battista Piranesi and the celebrated English landscape painter J.M.W. Turner. Visitors can view rare pieces such as Turner’s mezzotint of Dunstanburgh Castle and architectural etchings of Pompeii, alongside a concurrent "Festival of Arts" showcasing local regional talent.

New Light Art Charity to Auction Prestigious Northern Collection in Newcastle

The Northern England-based charity New Light Art has announced the forced sale of its prestigious permanent collection due to a critical lack of funding. Comprising over 80 works by prominent Northern artists such as Norman Ackroyd and Anne Desmet, the collection will be auctioned at Anderson & Garland in Newcastle on April 2, 2025. The decision follows the departure of a long-term patron and rising logistical costs, with proceeds intended to keep the charity’s exhibition and education programs operational.

'Our Living Heritage' opens at Old Gaol Museum

Stanley Grootboom, a renowned local author and artist from Knysna, South Africa, recently unveiled his latest exhibition, 'Our Living Heritage,' at the Old Gaol Museum. The opening drew an enthusiastic crowd of art lovers, cultural ambassadors, and community members. The exhibition highlights Grootboom's commitment to preserving South Africa's indigenous history, particularly the cultural heritage of the Khoi and San peoples, and features his acclaimed interactive book installation 'South African Gelieblik Stories and Songs,' which has earned national and international recognition. It also includes his powerful artwork 'The Battle,' currently housed at the Koena Art Institute at the Castle of Good Hope, and works by fellow artists Anthony Roach, Marlene Liebenberg, Gatsby Mpoyi, Zoe Fick, and Donald Hartzenberg as part of his ongoing art outreach programme.

In pictures: p(art)y people at the Frieze London VIP preview

Celebrities and art world figures gathered at Regent’s Park in London for the VIP preview of Frieze London 2025. The event featured appearances by arts broadcaster Kate Bryan, artists Young In Hong, Kimsooja, David Shrigley, Thomas J Price, Elsa James, Larry Achiampong, Michael Landy, Gillian Wearing, and Ryan Gander, alongside curator Fatoş Üstek, curator Zoé Whitley, architect Kulapat Yantrasast, model Claudia Schiffer, and musician Neil Tennant. Photographs by David Owens captured the scene.

Smithsonian under fire from Trump, Frieze Seoul, Dara Birnbaum and Quantum—podcast

The Art Newspaper's podcast 'The Week in Art' returns with three major stories. Ben Luke hosts a discussion with Ben Sutton, the publication's editor-in-chief in the Americas, about the Trump administration's announced comprehensive internal review of eight Smithsonian museums and artist Amy Sherald's cancellation of a long-scheduled exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, citing censorship and institutional fear. The episode also covers Frieze Seoul 2024, the season's first major art fair, with correspondent Lisa Movius reporting from the South Korean capital amid political turmoil. The Work of the Week segment features Dara Birnbaum's landmark video artwork 'Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman (1978-79)', part of a new exhibition 'The Quantum Effect' at the San Marco Art Centre in Venice, curated by Daniel Birnbaum and Jacqui Davies with physicist Ulf Danielsson.

Longtime Grounds for Sculpture resident artist Clifford Ward has first exhibition on view there

Clifford Ward, a longtime artist-in-residence at Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton Township, New Jersey, has opened his first solo exhibition at the venue, titled 'I'll Make Me A World.' The show, on view in the Museum Building through January 11, 2026, features his 'Animism' series—24 large-scale figures standing six to nine feet tall, created over twelve years using plaster bandage. Ward, who began his art career around age 40 and has been at Grounds for Sculpture since 1997, draws inspiration from indigenous cultures, the African diaspora, Native American traditions, and the Māori people of New Zealand.

Towering ambition: the Swiss artist Not Vital's Alpine playground

Swiss artist Not Vital, known for his multidisciplinary practice and SCARCH hybrids, owns Schloss Tarasp, an 11th-century castle in the Engadin region of Switzerland, which he bought in 2016. The castle is part of a foundation he established that also includes Parkin Sent, a sculpture park he acquired in 1998, and the 17th-century Planta House Ardez. Vital's installations in the park, such as "Punt dals asens (Donkey Bridge)" (2001) and "JOSÜJO (Disappearing House)" (2007), invite visitors to explore nature, while at the castle he installed "House to Watch the Sunset" (2018), a tower-like sculpture that challenges architectural logic.

Rangeley gallery to host opening for artist Gabrielle Castle

The Rangeley Friends of the Arts will host an Artist Reception for painter Gabrielle Castle at the Lakeside Contemporary Art Gallery in Rangeley, Maine, on Friday, June 13, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. The reception celebrates Castle's portrait exhibition titled “At a Glance,” which will be on view through July 8. The gallery also currently features a collaborative show by Sonja Johnson and Timothy Straub called “AGOG, simply AGOG!” through June 10.

With a cut and a caress: Italian exhibition explores Rebecca Horn’s legacy

Castello di Rivoli near Turin is hosting "Rebecca Horn: Cutting Through the Past," the first major Italian exhibition dedicated to the German artist since her death in September 2024 at age 80. The show, co-organized with Munich's Haus der Kunst, centers on Horn's kinetic installation of the same name and explores her six-decade career through kinetic sculptures, early performance videos, and drawings. Chief curator Marcella Beccaria emphasizes a focus on Horn's spiritual concerns and the motif of circularity, with works displayed in the museum's narrow Manica Lunga corridor.

Mischief’s Genius Ads for NPR Provoke Urgent Questions About the Right to Information

In mid-2025, the Trump administration rescinded $9 billion in public media funding, including $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CBP), which subsequently voted to dissolve. While NPR stated its mission would continue unchanged, the cuts disproportionately impacted rural member stations that relied on CBP for about 13% of their revenue, threatening local access to public media.

A new Romaeuropa Festival approaches. Here is what the 2026 edition of the review will be like

Si avvicina un nuovo Romaeuropa Festival. Ecco come sarà l’edizione 2026 della rassegna

The 41st edition of the Romaeuropa Festival has announced its 2026 lineup, scheduled to run from September 8 to November 15 across various venues in Rome. Under the artistic direction of Fabrizio Grifasi, the multidisciplinary festival will feature a robust program of contemporary dance, theater, and music. Highlights include the Italian premiere of Sofia Nappi’s 'Chora', a world premiere of Romeo Castellucci’s 'Faust', and a special celebration of the Rome-Paris twinning anniversary featuring choreographer Benjamin Millepied.

CSUF student artists capture childhood wonder at biannual ASI art show

Cal State Fullerton recently hosted its biannual Associated Students Inc. (ASI) Art Show at the Titan Student Union Center Gallery, centered on the theme of "Memory and Nostalgia." The exhibition showcased 20 student works spanning traditional oil paintings, digital illustrations, and 3D-printed media. Awards were presented across multiple categories, highlighting pieces such as Michael Butorac’s acrylic painting "Unforgotten Friday’s" and Victor Castaneda’s digital photograph "Becoming."

Next Gen Art Exhibition open at regional gallery

The 2026 Coast Next Gen Art Exhibition has officially opened at the new Gosford Regional Library, showcasing works by 25 high school graduates from across Australia's Central Coast. Organized by the University of Newcastle, the fourth annual showcase features a diverse range of media from HSC students and awarded several top prizes during its opening night, including the Bouddi Foundation of the Arts Award and an acquisitive prize for the university’s permanent collection.