Portrait artist gets posthumous exhibition - in the pub

Simon Gee, a much-loved painter and lecturer who taught at Coventry Technical College for over 30 years, died in March 2025. A posthumous exhibition of his portraits, which he insisted on showing in pubs rather than galleries, is being held at Twisted Barrel Brewery in Coventry for one month. The show raises money for Myton Hospices and aims to reunite some of his subjects with their portraits. Gee was known for painting strangers he met in pubs and workmen in hi-vis jackets, and for his gregarious, kind personality.

Warsaw’s Neon Museum sparks revival of interest in cold war signs and aesthetic

Warsaw is experiencing a significant revival of interest in its Cold War-era neon signs, a movement spearheaded by the city’s Neon Museum. Founded in 2012 by photographer Ilona Karwińska and designer David Hill, the museum has rescued hundreds of historic illuminations that were once discarded as worthless relics of the communist past. Originally commissioned by Soviet-era authorities as a form of "socialist modernization," these signs were designed by leading artists of the Polish Poster School and have now transitioned from propaganda tools to beloved cultural icons.

Gallery speaks out about AI row which 'overshadowed' art exhibition fundraiser

A Brighton art gallery, Indelible Fine Art Gallery, has spoken out after its charity exhibition featuring actor and artist Jake Wood—known for his role on EastEnders—was overshadowed by controversy over the use of AI-generated imagery. The exhibition, titled Icons, was designed to raise awareness and funds for Dementia UK, but criticism erupted on social media after Wood shared a portrait of David Attenborough that appeared to include AI-generated elements. Wood later clarified that two pieces in the show (portraits of Attenborough and Trump) incorporated AI-generated source material, though he did not create the AI imagery himself. He has since apologized and pledged to donate 100% of the exhibition's proceeds to Dementia UK.

South Fork Bakery Holds Spring Benefit At The Parrish Art Museum

South Fork Bakery held its spring benefit at the Parrish Art Museum on Saturday, May 9. Guests enjoyed music, bites, and signature cocktails while funds were raised to support the bakery's mission of providing meaningful employment for adults with disabilities. The event featured attendees including local officials, board members, and supporters, with photography by Lisa Tamburini.

HK artists shine at Venice Biennale with ‘Fermata’ exhibition

Hong Kong artists Kingsley Ng and Angel Hui are showcasing their works at the 61st Venice Biennale in a collateral exhibition titled 'Fermata: Hong Kong in Venice', curated by the Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMoA) in collaboration with the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC). The exhibition, which opened on May 8, 2026, features five installations across a courtyard and four gallery rooms, including Ng's multimedia pieces inspired by hanging laundry and Hui's works blending traditional Chinese embroidery and handcrafted iron window grilles. This marks HKMoA's first curation at the Biennale.

Union Theatre exhibit at arts museum raises more than $1,000 toward revival of the Attleboro landmark

The Attleboro Arts Museum held an exhibition titled “Staging a Comeback” that raised over $1,000 to support the revival of the historic Union Theatre in Attleboro, Massachusetts. The theater, which opened in 1928 as a vaudeville house and later became a movie theater, has been closed since 2002 and is owned by the Friedman family. The exhibit featured items on loan from the theater, including vintage Gold Metal brand popcorn boxes, and a popcorn-themed artwork by local artist Billie Klegraefe.

Met Gala theme is Costume Art, celebrating fashion as fine art

The 2026 Met Gala, held on May 4, 2026, is co-chaired by Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams, and Anna Wintour, with honorary chairs Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez. The theme, "Costume Art," celebrates fashion as an embodied art form, with guests interpreting the dress code "Fashion is Art" through sculptural, architectural silhouettes. The accompanying exhibition, also titled "Costume Art," opens at The Met Fifth Avenue on May 10, 2026, and runs through January 10, 2027, pairing garments with artworks from the museum's collection to highlight the connection between fashion and fine art.

Here's when the 2026 Met Gala red carpet arrivals start and end

The 2026 Met Gala will take place on Monday, May 4, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, with red carpet arrivals officially beginning at 5:30 p.m. and continuing for several hours as celebrities trickle in. The event raises funds for the museum's Costume Institute and celebrates the new spring exhibition "Costume Art," with a dress code of "Fashion is Art." Co-chairs include Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams, and Anna Wintour, with a host committee chaired by Anthony Vaccarello and Zoë Kravitz, and the event is made possible by Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos.

Met Gala 2026: Stars Bring Art-Inspired Looks to the Met Stairs

The 2026 Met Gala took place on May 4 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, celebrating the opening of the "Costume Art" exhibition. A host of celebrities including Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Blue Ivy Carter, Serena Williams, Janelle Monáe, Venus Williams, Ciara, Anderson .Paak, Naomi Osaka, Yseult, Anok Yai, Jon Batiste, and Suleika Jaouad arrived at the museum's iconic stairs wearing art-inspired looks. The event was covered by photographers Evan Agostini and Charles Sykes for the Associated Press.

Miller Art Museum Announces Student Award-Winners

The Miller Art Museum in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, announced the award winners of the 52nd-annual Salon of Door County High School Art at a free public reception on April 6. The exhibition features original artwork by 105 students from five local high schools—Gibraltar, Sevastopol, Southern Door, Sturgeon Bay, and Washington Island. Awards of Excellence were given to Abigail DeMeuse, Lilian Saltou, Audrie Schley, Rowan Ploor, and Thomas Pratt, while honorable mentions went to Molly Virlee, Lola Georgenson, Angelina LeCloux Herrera, Ryan Felhofer, and Teagan McGrane. Gianna Roman of Sevastopol won the fourth-annual Jim Rericha Legacy Award, named after a longtime art teacher, which included a $100 cash prize. The museum also announced a Potter’s Panel on May 9 featuring master potters discussing the legacy of Abraham Cohn, and the return of its Art and Treasures fundraiser starting May 30.

Iberdrola Celebrates 125th Anniversary With Major Art Exhibition At The Reopened Bilbao Fine Arts Museum

Iberdrola has opened the exhibition "Parallels and Meridians" at the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum to celebrate its 125th anniversary. The show features over one hundred works from the company's corporate art collection and coincides with the museum's reopening after a major expansion and refurbishment. The opening ceremony was led by Iberdrola Executive Chairman Ignacio Galán and Lehendakari Imanol Pradales, with attendance from regional officials including Ibone Bengoetxea, Amaia Arregi, Elixabete Etxanobe, Ana Otadui, and museum director Miguel Zugaza. The exhibition runs until 30 August.

'Under Pressure': San Francisco artist's exhibit in Chicago is an SOS to save the planet

San Francisco-based artist Ana Teresa Fernández has opened a solo exhibition titled 'Under Pressure' at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago. The exhibition, a four-year project, features works including oil paintings and a sculptural piece made from a transformed hose, all centered on themes of water and environmental fragility. A key installation involves a white balloon pressed by a stiletto heel, symbolizing human activity pushing the planet to a breaking point.

Beyoncé, Bezos, baubles and bustiers: What to know about the 2026 Met Gala

The 2026 Met Gala, scheduled for May 4, will serve as the fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, with a theme inspired by the new exhibition "Costume Art." The event is co-chaired by Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams, and Anna Wintour, with lead sponsorship from Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos, and will inaugurate the museum's new Conde M. Nast Galleries.

San Francisco artist Ana Teresa Fernandez's Chicago exhibit, 'Under Pressure,' is a call to climate action

San Francisco-based artist Ana Teresa Fernández has opened a solo exhibition titled 'Under Pressure' at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago. The four-year project features a range of works, including detailed oil paintings and a sculptural piece, all centered on the theme of water and climate change. A key performance element involved Fernández leading hundreds of participants on Chicago's lakefront to form a giant S.O.S. signal using mirrors, a 'social monument' she previously staged in California.

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.

Nature photography exhibit now open at Mason City art museum

The Charles H. MacNider Art Museum in Mason City has opened a solo exhibition titled "Ray Colby: Nature Photographer" in its Kinney-Lindstrom Gallery. The show features digital photographs printed on canvas, focusing on three specific themes: backyard insects and arachnids of the Midwest, urban birds from Minneapolis, and migrating Sandhill Cranes in Wisconsin. The works on display will be sold via auction to benefit the museum's programming.

Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art Announces Date For ARTMIX 2026

The Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (BMoCA) has announced the official date for its 2026 ARTMIX event. This signature annual fundraiser typically features a curated auction, live performances, and community engagement initiatives designed to support the museum's exhibition and education programs.

A Bold Attention

Gallery Chang is hosting a solo exhibition titled "A Bold Attention" by South Korean artist Suh Yongsun at its New York location from April 9 to May 2, 2026. The exhibition features fifteen works, including self-portraits, historical scenes such as those involving King Danjong, and contemporary urban observations of New York locations like Rockefeller Center and Brooklyn.

Art Museum Announces Spring 2026 Exhibitions

The Syracuse University Art Museum has announced three new exhibitions for spring 2026: “Possible Worlds: 20 Years of the Wynn Newhouse Awards,” “Afterimages: Legacies of the Thirteenth Amendment,” and “Undressed: The Nude in Dutch Art, circa 1550-1800.” These shows will join the permanent collection exhibition “Human/Environment: 4,000 Years of Art” and an Art Wall Project by artist Bhen Alan. The exhibitions explore themes of disability, race, and the human body, with curator talks and programming scheduled throughout the semester.

Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California

The exhibition 'Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California' will run from September 18, 2026, to January 17, 2027, at BAMPFA. It traces the flow and flourishing of quilts during the Second Great Migration (1940–1970), when approximately five million African Americans moved from the rural South to the North and West, with hundreds of thousands arriving in California carrying quilts as containers of ancestral memory and cultural survival. The show features more than 80 artworks organized across several themes, highlighting repurposed work clothes, improvisational piecing, and pattern-based quilting by migrants from Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas. Works by contemporary artists show how these traditions remain alive today.

Louvre staff vote to strike, citing failures of management and building maintenance

Staff at the Louvre Museum in Paris voted unanimously to strike, with rolling walkouts set to begin on December 15. The unions, representing around 200 employees, filed a strike notice with the French culture ministry, citing insufficient staff, technical failures, and the building's aging condition. They also criticized the museum's director, Laurence des Cars, for a top-down management system that ignores staff alerts. The strike follows a series of incidents, including the theft of the French crown jewels in October, a forced closure of the Campana Gallery due to structural issues, and a water leak that damaged hundreds of books in the Egyptian antiquities library.

McMichael Canadian Art Collection picks architect for museum expansion

The McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ontario, has selected Toronto-based Hariri Pontarini Architects (HPA) to lead a transformative redevelopment of its campus, the first major investment in the museum in over 40 years. The announcement was made during the opening night of the Art Toronto fair, where the museum hosted a fundraiser. The project, which includes expanded exhibition, education, and public programming spaces, is backed by up to C$50 million from the Ontario government (contingent on matching funds) and a previous C$25 million federal investment, though additional funding is still being sought.

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.'

421 is 10: Abu Dhabi’s 421 Arts Campus celebrates decade of proud achievement

Abu Dhabi's 421 Arts Campus, an independent arts platform supporting emerging artists from the UAE and the SWANA region, celebrates its 10-year anniversary on November 15, 2025. Over the past decade, it has supported over 1,500 creative practitioners, presented more than 50 exhibitions, commissioned hundreds of new works, and delivered around 2,000 programs including residencies, grants, and public events. It has also mentored over 60 interns and worked with more than 250 regional designers through its Dukkan421 design store.

Participants withdraw from Chicago Architecture Biennial over sponsor’s investment in weapons manufacturer

Nine participants in the Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB), which opened on September 19, have withdrawn in protest over exhibition sponsor Crown Family Philanthropies' investment in General Dynamics, a military contractor supplying weapons to the Israeli military. A letter signed by 22 individuals, collectives, and firms—nearly half of whom also withdrew—argues that the sponsorship contradicts the biennial's mission of addressing architecture's role in shaping a collective future. The biennial's sixth edition, titled SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change, is led by artistic director Florencia Rodriguez. Participants had raised concerns last month, and organizers clarified that Crown Family funds support education programming, not the exhibition itself, which the letter calls "even more painful" given the destruction of schools in Gaza.

Frustrated by Chicago's Jewish institutions, anti-Zionist artists are forming their own Jewish cultural center

Anti-Zionist Jewish artists in Chicago, led by Gabriel Chalfin-Piney-González, founded the Jewish Museum of Chicago in 2023 as a decentralized cultural center without a permanent physical space. The initiative emerged from frustration with the lack of a Jewish museum in the city and a desire to create a welcoming community for anti-Zionist Jews, especially galvanized by the war in Gaza. The museum has since hosted over a dozen exhibitions and events, including a Liberation Seder and an artists collective, and is planning a brick-and-mortar space.

Bad Bunny’s residency gives local artists the chance to tell Puerto Rico’s real history

Bad Bunny's months-long concert residency in Puerto Rico, titled "No me quiero ir de aquí," has inspired a free art exhibition called "De Aquí Nadie Nos Saca" in the Santurce barrio of San Juan. Organized by the Latinx advocacy group Mijente and the art collective AgitArte, the exhibition features local Puerto Rican artists and organizations and serves as a spiritual companion to Bad Bunny's album "Debí Tirar Más Fotos." It highlights the island's everyday societal struggles, resistance movements, and cultural preservation amid colonialism and gentrification, with contributions from the theater collective Papel Machete, which created a giant puppet featured in Bad Bunny's music video for "La Mudanza."

Yann Le Touher Takes the Reins of the Bernardins' Patronage

Yann Le Touher prend les rênes du mécénat des Bernardins

Yann Le Touher has been appointed as the new General Director of the Fondation des Bernardins. The 44-year-old philanthropy specialist, with a career spanning the Musée d'Orsay, Centre Pompidou, the Réunion des musées nationaux – Grand Palais, and the Louvre, succeeds Emmanuel Cortey in leading the foundation.

Pajaro Valley student art exhibit showcases artistic skills of all grade levels

The Pajaro Valley Unified School District held an opening ceremony for its Annual Art Exhibition at the Watsonville Civic Plaza, showcasing hundreds of works by students from transitional kindergarten through high school seniors. The exhibition, which will remain on display for up to a year, features a variety of media including watercolors, charcoal drawings, photographs, collages, and mixed media, with subjects ranging from local landmarks to portraits of Frida Kahlo and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Art teachers like Itzel Vega of Landmark Elementary School collaborated to curate projects that represent each school, highlighting student creativity and problem-solving, such as first grader Aleyda Carrillo's collage of a crowned brontosaurus.

The Art of Performing Maintenance

This article explores the work of artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles, who in 1969 wrote her "Manifesto for Maintenance Art" after experiencing a crisis of meaning following the birth of her first child. She proposed that routine maintenance tasks—like cleaning, cooking, and laundry—could be redefined as art when performed in public, particularly in museums. The article traces her early exhibitions at the Wadsworth Athenaeum, where she swept and mopped as performance, and her later projects interviewing passersby on New York City sidewalks and embedding herself in a Manhattan office building, where she invited workers to declare their maintenance tasks art.