Heritage Auctions will offer George Morrison's painting *Palisade* (1958) as the highlight of its May 7, 2026 Modern & Contemporary Art Signature Auction. The 76-lot sale features a global survey of postwar and contemporary abstraction, including works by Takeo Yamaguchi, Fritz Winter, Andy Warhol, Tom Wesselmann, Wayne Thiebaud, Fernando Botero, David Bates, KAWS, and George Rickey.
The Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa, is hosting a Music & Maker's Night on May 14, featuring a guided tour of the exhibition "Get Surreal (A Surreal Lens)" led by Co-Senior Curator Joshua Johnson. The event includes an art-making activity and live music in the museum's Quad City Bank & Trust Grand Lobby. The exhibition explores how photographers from the earliest days of the medium have used techniques like montage, double exposure, and digital manipulation to distort reality and create dreamlike imagery, featuring works by artists such as Alan Cohen, György Kepes, Olivia Parker, and Emmet Gowin.
The article critiques the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston's (MFAH) exhibition "Frida: The Making of an Icon," arguing that it perpetuates a fetishized, commercialized view of Frida Kahlo by focusing on her biography—her marriage to Diego Rivera, her affairs, her accident—rather than her artistic skill. The author contrasts this with a visit to the Museo de Arte Moderno (MAM) in Mexico City, where the exhibition "Relatos modernos. Obras emblemáticas de la Colección Gelman Santander" presents Kahlo's work alongside other Mexican masters in a quiet, understated manner that allows viewers to appreciate her technical abilities without overwhelming narrative.
Between 1874 and 1886, a group of avant-garde artists in Paris—including Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, and Berthe Morisot—organized eight independent exhibitions as a rebellion against the government-sponsored Salon. Rejected by the Salon's conservative jury, which favored academic standards, these artists pooled resources to stage their own shows, initially held at photographer Nadar's atelier on the boulevard des Capucines. The exhibitions had fluctuating lineups and varied titles, and the term "Impressionist" was only applied retrospectively by art historians in the 20th century.
Marina Abramović will be honored with a major exhibition at the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice during the 61st Venice Biennale Arte in 2026, making her the first living woman artist to receive such a show at this historic institution. The exhibition coincides with her eightieth birthday and features works including the 1983 photograph *Pietà (with Ulay)*, placed in dialogue with Titian’s *Pietà*, alongside participatory elements like her Transitory Objects. Curated by Shai Baitel, the show unfolds within the museum’s Renaissance galleries rather than a separate wing.
Yoko Ono's first solo museum exhibition in Southern California, titled "Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind," opens at The Broad in Los Angeles from May 23 to October 11, 2026. The show traces the evolution of her practice from early Fluxus experiments in the 1950s to her participatory installations of the 2000s, highlighting how her instruction-based works transformed spectators into collaborators.
From May to August 2026, the Ueno Royal Museum in Tokyo will host a major exhibition of Vincent van Gogh's early works, drawn entirely from the collection of the Kröller-Müller Museum in the Netherlands. The show traces van Gogh's development from his early Dutch period through his time in Paris and culminates in his Arles period, featuring the celebrated painting *Night Café Terrace (Place du Forum)*. This is the first chapter of a two-part exhibition series, with the second scheduled for 2027–2028.
During weeks of war in Israel, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art closed its galleries and moved a rare exhibition, "The Day Is Gone: 100 Years of the New Objectivity," into reinforced protected spaces. Director Tania Coen-Uzzielli then created guided tours inside the shelter, complete with live piano music and interpretation, allowing visitors to experience the artworks in a space designed for safety rather than display. The tour, titled "The Event Has Not Ended," plays on the automated safety notification that signals the end of a siren threat, suggesting that the event of war never truly ends.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art has opened a new exhibition titled "Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments," centered on the iconic bronze statue of fictional boxer Rocky Balboa that sits at the bottom of the museum's steps. Guest-curated by Paul Farber, the show explores the statue's transformation from a movie prop into a real-world symbol of perseverance and public devotion, tracing over 2,000 years of boxing imagery through works by artists such as Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Andy Warhol. The museum, which once fought to have the statue removed, now embraces it as part of Philadelphia's identity.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has opened its major spring exhibition, "Raphael: Sublime Poetry," the first comprehensive survey of the artist in the United States. Curator Carmen Bambach, exhibition design manager Daniel Kershaw, and research associate Caroline Elenowitz-Hess guide a virtual tour of the show, which brings together over 170 masterpieces and rarely seen works spanning Raphael's career from Urbino to Florence and Rome.
Inuk artist Laakkuluk Williamson has opened her first solo exhibition, titled *Nuliaminik Neqilik*, at Mimosa House gallery in London. The show draws on a Greenlandic tale of a cannibal and his seventh wife, Masaannaaq, as a metaphor for Inuit resistance against colonial powers. It features beadwork, photography, film, vocal performances, and enlarged replicas of historic Inuit objects from the British Museum. The exhibition opened with an immersive performance at the British Museum and was curated by fellow Inuk artist Taqrilik Partridge. After its London run, the show will travel to the Nuuk Art Museum in Greenland and then to Ottawa.
Gallery Weekend Berlin returns for its 22nd edition from May 1 to 3, 2026, featuring 50 galleries across 66 locations throughout the city. The event showcases both established and emerging artists from over 30 countries, with highlights including Martine Syms's pop-up boutique at Sprüth Magers, Göksu Kunak's performance-based exhibition at Ebensperger, and a new sector called Perspectives featuring James Turrell. Other notable presentations include Wynnie Mynerva's exploration of love and colonialism at Société, Monty Richthofen's city-wide performance at Dittrich & Schlechtriem, and Hanna Stiegeler's intimate screenprinted canvases at Sweetwater.
Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota has announced a new site-specific installation titled *The Space Between Us* for the 16th Curitiba International Biennial – THRESHOLDS, opening June 14 through November 15, 2026 at the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON) in Curitiba, Brazil. Curated by Tereza de Arruda, the work invites the public to submit letters—in text, collage, or other manual forms—which Shiota considers self-portraits of each participant’s inner universe. Submissions must be sent by May 20, 2026, and will be woven into a large-scale collective installation that makes visible the hidden experiences of individuals.
Cosa non perdere della nuova edizione di The Phair, la fiera della fotografia di Torino
The seventh edition of The Phair, a photography fair in Turin, Italy, opened on Thursday, May 21, at the Sala Fucine of the Officine Grandi Riparazioni. Founded by Roberto Casiraghi and Paola Rampini, the fair features 42 national and international galleries. Highlights include a surprising automotive partnership at the entrance, and standout presentations from Red Lab Gallery (Ezio D’Agostino and Carlotta Valente), Alberto Damian Gallery (Paolo Gioli), Roccavintage (Costanza Gastaldi), Tucci Russo (Giulio Paolini), Raw Messina (Kri Babusci), and Galleria Umberto Benappi (Ugo Mulas). Other notable artists include Arnulf Rainer, Anton Corbijn, Luigi Ontani, and Simon Starling.
Artist David Adey is the subject of a mid-career survey, “David Adey: Sacrificial Bodies,” opening April 25 at the Oceanside Museum of Art. The 70-piece exhibition, curated by gallery owner Mark Quint in collaboration with Adey, spans 25 years of his career and includes a 2026 re-creation of his 2001 piece “The Lamb,” which features a reconstructed lamb carcass. Adey, now 53, originally created the work as a graduate student at Cranbrook Academy of Art. The show also features pieces like “Gravitational Radius” and “2,127 Rounds,” a sculpture made by firing an AR-15, Glock 34, and shotgun into cedar.
Karla Knight's exhibition "Orbit" at Andrew Edlin Gallery presents her game-like paintings and tapestries filled with cryptic symbols, cosmic diagrams, and celestial imagery. Works such as "Orbiter 2" (2024–25) and "Feelers" (2025–26) feature irregular black devices, floating spheres, and rows of arcane script, inviting viewers to decode what appear to be blueprints for extraterrestrial systems or maps of hidden dimensions. Knight employs meticulous grids, bold primary colors, and textile techniques to render the paranormal as strangely normal.
The European Night of Museums returns on Saturday, May 23, 2026, with participating museums across Europe opening their doors for special evening hours. In Italy, the Ministry of Culture organizes extraordinary openings from 8 PM to midnight at the symbolic price of 1 euro, alongside events in theater, music, dance, literature, and cinema. Highlights include Rome's Notte dei Musei (16th edition) with civic museums open until 2 AM, Villa Adriana and Villa d'Este in Tivoli offering evening access and contemporary performances, and the Royal Savoy Residences in Piedmont featuring guided tours, exhibitions, and family activities.
Ndayé Kouagou, an artist from Montreuil (1992) based in Paris, presents his first solo exhibition in Italy, "Heaven's truth," at Collezione Maramotti in Reggio Emilia, running until July 26, 2026. The show features his video installation "A coin is a coin" (2022) and is part of the 21st edition of Fotografia Europea 2026, themed "Fantasmi del quotidiano." During the opening, Kouagou performed with poet and actress Salber Lee Williams, composing and deconstructing phrases into the expression "Please Be Yourself." The exhibition will travel to Heidelberger Kunstverein from September 3, and new works co-produced with the institution will appear at the 18th Lyon Biennale (September 19 – December 13, 2026). In an interview, Kouagou discusses his background as a self-taught visual artist and performer, having worked as a motion designer in advertising and as a DJ, and emphasizes writing as his central expressive medium, comparing himself more to a writer than a visual artist.
Over 100 employees at the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) have announced their intention to unionize, forming Seattle Art Museum Workers United (SAMWU) and affiliating with the Washington Federation of State Employees/AFSCME Council 28. In a letter to Director and CEO Scott Stulen and the museum board, staff across departments including visitor experience, collections care, curatorial, and education cited unsustainable wages, subpar health benefits, and top-down decision-making as key grievances. They are urging voluntary recognition by May 27 to bypass a formal election, and also call for just-cause job protections. The effort follows a successful 2024 strike by SAM's unionized security guards.
The Japan Pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale 2026 features an immersive, interactive exhibition titled "Grass Babies, Moon Babies" by Japanese-American artist Ei Arakawa-Nash. Visitors are invited to care for one of 200 dolls, each with a QR code that provides a "diaper poem" linked to the doll's symbolic birth date—reflecting the artist's personal experience of becoming a father in 2024 and broader social dynamics in Japan. The pavilion, curated by Lisa Horikawa and Mizuki Takahashi, evolves over the seven months of the Biennale as a platform for shared care and participation.
Alla Biennale di Venezia c’è anche Taiwan. Con un evento collaterale sulla malinconia
Taiwan will present a collateral event at the 2026 Venice Biennale titled "Screen Melancholy," curated by Raphael Fonseca and featuring artist Li Yi-Fan. The exhibition, organized by the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, will be held at Palazzo delle Prigioni and run until November 22, 2026. It explores anxieties of the digital age through a site-specific installation combining a single-channel video and monumental human sculptures, reflecting on information overload, fragmented perception, and the limits of human knowledge.
The German Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale will present the work of two women artists, Henrike Naumann and Sung Tieu, following the death of Naumann at age 41 in February 2026. Curated by Kathleen Reinhardt, director of the Georg Kolbe Museum in Berlin, the pavilion's project, titled "Ruin," explores the dual meanings of the word in English and German—architectural decay versus economic, social, or moral collapse. The exhibition draws on research into East Germany (DDR) and the post-reunification period, using the pavilion's fascist architecture as a lens to examine historical ruptures and their impact on the present. For the first time in its history, the German Pavilion is represented solely by women, mirroring the Italian Pavilion.
Marco Fusinato, the Australian artist who represented his country at the 59th Venice Biennale, returns to Italy with a solo exhibition at the Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea (PAC) in Milan. Titled "The only true anarchy is that of Power," the show brings together installations, performances, and sound recordings from recent years, all centered on the concept of noise. Curated by Diego Sileo, the exhibition features three ongoing projects, including the monumental performance-installation DESASTRES, first presented at the Venice Biennale in 2022 and later staged at festivals such as Berlin Atonal and Unsound Krakow. The work combines randomized sound and images, using electric guitars, mass amplification, and intense feedback to create an immersive, hallucinatory experience where chaos and control coexist.
The article recounts a journalist's 72-hour visit to the Venice Biennale, beginning with a protest by Pussy Riot and Femen at the Russian Pavilion. The action features pink smoke, chants of "Blood is Russia's art," and a guerrilla performance of the song "Disobey," set against a backdrop of internal Biennale strife—including juror resignations over countries whose leaders face ICC arrest warrants (Netanyahu and Putin). The narrative also notes the presence of alt-right figures like Ryan Coyne and sculptor Alma Allen's troubled U.S. pavilion representation.
The article reports on the rise of gallery hopping in Delhi, particularly in neighborhoods like Lado Sarai, Defence Colony, and Okhla, where galleries cluster together. The Defence Colony Galleries Association, founded by Pristine Contemporary owners Arjun Butani and Arjun Sawhney, launched the monthly Def Col Art Night, keeping 10 galleries open until 9pm on the third Thursday with openings, music, and performances. Gallery directors and owners note that these events attract a broader audience beyond traditional collectors, making art more accessible and fostering community.
New York- and Ramallah-based Palestinian artists Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme present *Prisoners of Love: Until the Sun of Freedom* (2025), an hour-long four-channel film installation at The Bell/Brown Arts Institute in Providence. The work layers psychedelic imagery of figures in nature with spoken and written testimonies from Palestinians formerly detained by Israeli authorities, exploring themes of incarceration, surveillance, and resistance through fragmented montage and poetic text. The exhibition also includes drawings by Abou-Rahme’s father and printed screenshots of reflections on the genocide in Gaza.
Julie Mehretu's latest exhibition, "Our Days, Like a Shadow (a non-abiding hauntology)," is on view at Marian Goodman Gallery in New York from April 14 to June 6, 2026. The show presents paintings that push beyond traditional representation, creating immersive perceptual environments through dense layers of abstraction, cartographic traces, and architectural fragments. The works, including the TRANSpaintings series created with Nairy Baghramian, extend Mehretu's practice into spatial expansion, where painting behaves like infrastructure without becoming literal architecture.
French artist Pol Taburet has opened a solo exhibition titled *Paranoia as Method* at Villa Medici in Rome, on view through July 15. The show features sculptures, large-format paintings, and charcoal drawings created during his spring residency at the institution, transforming the villa’s gardens, loggias, and salons into tense psychic landscapes. Taburet’s figures drift between human and animal, evoking transformation, mortality, and spiritual tension, drawing on his Caribbean roots, voodoo traditions, contemporary culture, and classical painting.
Wonder Gallery, a collaboration between Parachute Literary Arts and the Coney Island History Project, opens May 23 at the History Project's Exhibit Center beside the Wonder Wheel in Coney Island. The seasonal gallery will debut with black-and-white photographs by Brooklyn documentary photographer Anders Goldfarb, capturing Coney Island residents and architecture from the 1970s and 1980s, alongside the launch of the Coney Island Zine Machine featuring miniature zines by Sheepshead Bay artist Kelly Luu. The free gallery will be open weekends and holidays from Memorial Day through Labor Day.
An exhibition featuring works by 50 leading contemporary artists will be staged across four venues in North Yorkshire, England, from April to September 2025, as part of the 20th anniversary of the Aesthetica Art Prize. The venues include Skipton Town Hall, the Mercer Art Gallery in Harrogate, Scarborough Art Gallery, and Woodend Gallery, with free entry at most sites. The exhibition is a joint venture between Aesthetica and Culture North Yorkshire, the council's culture and archive service, and is divided into four thematic parts: Future(s), Perception, Intervention, and Transformation.