‘I will always fight against fascism’: Zineb Sedira on her Tate Britain commission

Zineb Sedira has been selected for the Tate Britain commission, creating her largest UK installation to date, titled *When Words Fall Silent, Cinema Speaks…*, on view until January 2027. The site-specific work in the museum's Duveen Galleries pays tribute to radical African cinema of the 1960s and 1970s, highlighting Algeria's role as a revolutionary hub. Sedira recreates the Parisian cafes of her childhood, featuring Scopitone machines that play short music films, and draws on the legacy of the Cinémathèque Algérienne and the 1969 Pan-African Festival.

At this art show, kids make the rules

The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto is hosting 'Colourful Parachutes: Imagining Alternative Futures Through the Power of Play,' a group exhibition that centers children as active participants rather than passive observers. Curated by Frances Loeffler, the show features interactive works by artists including Temitayo Ogunbiyi, Leisure (Meredith Carruthers and Susannah Wesley), Claire Greenshaw, Rivane Neuenschwander, Harold Offeh, Sassa Linklater, Tobias Linklater, and Robin Rhode, with installations that invite climbing, drawing, playing, and touching. The exhibition draws inspiration from a 1968 show at Moderna Museet in Stockholm that transformed the museum into an adventure playground.

Paris exhibition celebrates the visionary world of Hilma af Klint, an artist ahead of her time

A major exhibition at Paris's Grand Palais presents Hilma af Klint's visionary abstract series "Paintings for the Temple" (1906–1915) for the first time in France. The show features works like "The Ten Largest" (1907), which predate the abstract art of Kandinsky, Mondrian, and Malevich by several years. Curated by Pascal Rousseau, the exhibition highlights Af Klint's pioneering use of spirals, geometric forms, and spiritual themes, created in seclusion and long hidden from public view.

Francis Alÿs at MAMU: A Global Portrait of Childhood Through Play

The Banco de la República has opened a new exhibition at the Museo de Arte Miguel Urrutia (MAMU) in Bogotá titled "Francis Alÿs, juegxs de niñxs 1999–2025." Featuring 27 video works from the Belgian-born, Mexico-based artist's long-running series documenting children's games worldwide, the show opened on April 23 at El Parqueadero and the second floor of MAMU. Curated by Cuauhtémoc Medina and Virginia Roy, the exhibition includes footage from Afghanistan, India, Mexico, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Colombia, where a new work filmed in the Amazon with the Arara community is featured.

New Currents: Liu Shuai

Liu Shuai, a multimedia artist from Shandong province, China, presented an interactive installation titled "The Kiss" (2025) at VILLA tbh in Shanghai during the 15th Shanghai Biennale (2025–26). The work, co-created with carpenter bees, features bamboo stalks punctured by the insects and transformed into hanging instruments. It was part of the biennale's "City Projects" and housed in Liu's temporary studio within the Shanghai Botanical Garden, offering a poetic exploration of interspecies collaboration.

Robert Lugo’s Colossal Ode to Puerto Rico Rises in Madison Square Park

Artist Roberto Lugo unveiled a two-part public monument to Puerto Rican culture in Manhattan's Madison Square Park on May 20. The installation includes a colossal ceramic urn titled "Capicú de Cariño (I Heard It Both Ways)" featuring hand-painted portraits of his parents, reggaeton star Bad Bunny, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and Lin-Manuel Miranda, alongside a 15-foot-tall orange fire hydrant sculpture "Para Los Días Caliente (This Is For The Hot Ones)" that evokes his childhood summers in Philadelphia. Both works were commissioned by the Madison Square Park Conservancy and will remain on view through December 6.

Sung Tieu on Representing Germany at the 61st Venice Biennale

Sung Tieu, who is co-representing Germany at the 61st Venice Biennale alongside Henrike Naumann, responds to a questionnaire from ArtReview about her plans for the German Pavilion. She describes her inspiration as her mother and childhood home, a site built for foreign contract workers in the GDR that later became a refuge for the diaspora. Tieu states that her work relates to the Biennale theme "In Minor Keys" through the lens of Gehrenseestrasse, a concrete record of collective memory. She also expresses skepticism about the Biennale's importance, noting that the German Pavilion's fascist architecture compels artists to work against it, and that national pavilions reveal how much work remains in undoing nationalism.

Rafał Zajko Is Hatching a Plan

Rafał Zajko's exhibition 'The Egg Egg' at Arsenal Gallery in Białystok, Poland, brings together 50 works from the past decade across two floors of a former power station, organized into nine 'acts'. The show features modular installations like 'Funny Games' (2025), a set of pastel-colored platforms on wheels with ceramic reliefs, and monumental sculptures such as 'Sisyphus' (2025), a suspended ceramic bobbin evoking textile factory tools. Performances by Agnieszka Szczotka, including 'Song to the Siren' (2026), activate works like 'Amber Chamber III Echo' (2025), blending archaism, futurism, and themes of labor and technology.

In the Gallery: See work by Rogue Valley artists

The article provides a comprehensive listing of art galleries and events in Oregon's Rogue Valley for the month of May. It highlights recurring monthly art walks in Jacksonville and Phoenix, and details exhibitions at ten local galleries including American Trails, Art & Soul Ashland, Art du Jour Gallery, Art on First, Art Presence Art Center, Ashland Art Works, and Collier Gallery. Featured artists include David Mensing, Kelly Anderson, Corbin Brashear, Nancy Darte, Elizabeth Ellingson, John Weston, and Dave Leibowitz, with a variety of media from painting and sculpture to photography and jewelry.

Without Childhood Photos, A Haitian American Artist Spends A Decade Imagining Her Family Archive

Artist Widline Cadet, who was separated from her mother for six years as a child during her family's emigration from Haiti to New York, has spent nearly a decade creating a multi-generational "living archive" of photographs, video, sound, and sculpture. The archive fills the gaps left by scarce family photographs and fading memories, exploring the diasporic experience and the elusiveness of memory. The largest presentation of this work is currently on view at the Milwaukee Art Museum in the exhibition "Currents 40: Widline Cadet."

What lies behind the choice of a dress? We asked one of the most famous stylists in the world

Cosa c’è dietro alla scelta di un vestito? Lo abbiamo chiesto a uno degli stylist più famosi del mondo

Tom Eerebout, a renowned stylist and fashion consultant known for his work with Lady Gaga, Kylie Minogue, and Austin Butler, has curated an exhibition titled "Exposure – Il potere di essere visti" at ITS Arcademy in Trieste. The show, which runs alongside the ITS Contest where Eerebout serves as a judge for the third consecutive year, explores styling as a tool for constructing identity and shaping contemporary visual culture. In an interview, Eerebout discusses his creative process, his early childhood experiments with costumes, and his belief that styling is not about appearance but about how we exist.

Old toys, new life: Bloomingdale’s Step Mother Nature art gallery opens 'Child's Play'

Michael Greathouse's exhibition "Child's Play" opened at the Step Mother Nature gallery in Bloomingdale, featuring a dozen portraits of discarded stuffed animals. The show marks the gallery's third season reopening and is paired with a toy drive for the Saranac Lake Holiday Helpers, a local volunteer group that collects toys for children at Christmas. Greathouse's paintings depict battle-worn toys with scars, ripped fabric, and chipped paint, aiming to capture the history and soul of each object.

How a Remote California Artists’ Retreat Inspired Vhernier’s Latest Ring Collection

Italian jewelry maison Vhernier has collaborated with artist Pae White to create a 10-design limited-edition ring collection inspired by White's childhood memories of Sea Ranch, a remote artists' retreat in Sonoma County, California. The collection translates the architecture of crustaceans and abalone into precious materials, using sapphires, diamonds, and rock crystal set in white or rose gold, with only two versions of each design produced.

History Made Material

Material gewordene Geschichte

The German Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale has been transformed by artist Sung Tieu, who clad its Nazi-era facade with millions of small marble tiles to replicate the look of a prefabricated East German apartment block—specifically the Gehrenseestraße housing complex in Berlin where she spent part of her childhood. Inside, the exhibition features glass casts of her mother's limbs, aluminum beams evoking cramped living quarters, and works by the late Henrike Naumann, all curated by Kathleen Reinhardt to explore bureaucracy, migration, and systemic violence.

Hilma af Klint en 2 minutes

Hilma af Klint (1862–1944) is profiled as a pioneering Swedish abstract artist who created a vast body of visionary, large-scale abstract paintings decades before Kandinsky, yet kept them secret during her lifetime. The article traces her life from a childhood steeped in science and nature, through her studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm, to her dual artistic practice: conventional landscapes and portraits for income, and radically abstract works guided by spiritualist séances and theosophical beliefs. She founded the group "The Five" with fellow female artists, and from 1906 onward produced the monumental series "Paintings for the Temple" (193 works), convinced she was channeling a higher force. She stipulated in her will that her abstract works not be revealed until 20 years after her death, and they were only rediscovered in the late 1960s.

Great Neck Library to host Rosemary Wilson Sloggatt art exhibit in June

The Great Neck Library in New York will host an exhibition of paintings by artist Rosemary Wilson Sloggatt titled "Among Children 2026: Paintings and Portraits by Rosemary Wilson Sloggatt" from June 1 to June 30. The show includes a Kids' Reception on June 3 and an Artist Reception on June 20. Sloggatt, who studied at Parsons School of Design and Otis Art Institute, has taught art in the Great Neck Public Schools for over 25 years.

Five Scottish museum collections awarded national significance status

Five museum collections in Scotland have been awarded national significance status on International Museum Day, bringing the total number of recognized collections in Scotland to 56. The newly designated collections are the Linoleum Collection (managed by OnFife), the Photographic Collection (University of St Andrews), the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design Collection (University of Dundee Museums), the Oakbank Collection (Scottish Crannog Centre), and the Art Collection (University of Stirling). The Recognition Scheme, managed by Museums Galleries Scotland, highlights collections beyond those held in national museums and galleries, spanning from Shetland to Dumfries and Galloway.

A fairy-tale exhibition in Milan: the paintings look like Disney film sets

A Milano una mostra da fiaba: i quadri sembrano scenografie da film Disney

The Galleria Gaburro in Milan is presenting a solo exhibition of British artist Iain Andrews, titled "Whispers from the Red Room." The show features over 30 paintings and a handcrafted diorama, the "Diorama del Leviatano," which Andrews uses as a source of inspiration. His work blends fairy-tale and nightmare imagery, drawing on his background as a psychotherapist specializing in childhood trauma. The paintings evoke the visual language of Disney films and Rococo art, with oil and acrylic works that range from large immersive canvases to small, intricate panels.

At Galerie Martel, Ugo Bienvenu unveils his dreamlike drawings in a free exhibition

À la galerie Martel, Ugo Bienvenu dévoile ses dessins oniriques dans une expo gratuite

French artist Ugo Bienvenu presents his new exhibition "Futur antérieur" at Galerie Martel in Paris, featuring around twenty ink-on-paper drawings created during the marathon promotion of his debut animated feature film "Arco." The show offers an intimate glimpse into Bienvenu's creative process, where drawing serves as a necessary respite from the demands of filmmaking, blending childhood memories, mythology, and science fiction into dreamlike compositions.

Mafalda meets Pimpa. In Rome, the dialogue between two authentic comic icons: interview with the curators

Mafalda incontra Pimpa. A Roma il dialogo tra due autentiche icone del fumetto: intervista ai curatori

A new exhibition in Rome titled "Mafalda & La Pimpa" brings together two iconic comic strip characters for the first time. Created by Quino (1964) and Altan (1975) respectively, Mafalda and Pimpa represent different approaches to childhood: Mafalda critically questions adult society, while Pimpa explores a gentle, wonder-filled world. The show runs from May 14 to July 11 at the Instituto Cervantes, featuring over 120 original strips and plates, and is organized in collaboration with ARF! Festival and other partners. Curators Stefano Piccoli and Daniele Bonomo designed the exhibition to highlight both the contrasts and surprising analogies between the two beloved figures.

What Did Mozart’s Life Look Like?

An exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum, titled "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Treasures from the Mozarteum Foundation of Salzburg," presents a curated journey through the composer's life and career. The show features well-preserved ephemera, including Mozart's childhood violin, original sketches for the opera "The Magic Flute," and personal letters that reveal his scatological humor, alongside portraits of his patrons.

Boca Raton Public Library Presents “Fine Art Photography & Quote” from Artist Art Jacoby

The Boca Raton Public Library is presenting a new exhibit titled “Fine Art Photography” by artist Art Jacoby, running from June 1 to July 6, 2026, at the Downtown Library. Jacoby, who has been passionate about photography since childhood, focuses on Infrared Photography and Intentional Camera Movement (ICM), and his work has been published in Black and White Magazine and the International Color Awards. The free exhibit features dynamic, emotionally charged images using vivid color and strategic blur.

Alchemist of Colors

Annina Roescheisen, a German-born artist now based in New York, presents her work in Venice during the opening days of the Venice Biennale. Her paintings are created through an alchemical ritual where she mixes pigments, charcoal, ash, ink, herbs, and salts, producing pulsating fields of color that blur the line between the visible and invisible. A self-taught artist who never attended art school, Roescheisen draws on art history and philosophy, with a particular passion for medieval art. Her series "Flying Dragons" references the ancient Physiologus, and she has also produced watercolors based on drawings made with her eyes closed to explore how visual perception changes from childhood to adulthood.

Due giovani artisti in una mostra a Matera si confrontano sulle tracce della memoria

The article reports on "Remain(s)," a dual exhibition at Momart Gallery in Matera, Italy, featuring young artists Luca Granato and Michela Rondinone. Curated by Antonella Marino, the show explores the aesthetics of fragments and memory through installations, sculptures, and video works. Granato's pieces address loss, migration, and climate change, while Rondinone's works focus on childhood, play, and relational practices. The exhibition runs until May 26, 2026.

MINISO Gallery Launches in Shanghai

MINISO, the global lifestyle retailer, has launched its first-ever MINISO Gallery at Shanghai’s Bund City Hall Plaza, a historic landmark. The gallery opens with a solo exhibition titled *Life from the Corner of My Room* featuring RYOL, a contemporary Indonesian artist who is MINISO’s first global exclusive artist. The exhibition runs from 17 May to 31 August and includes recent paintings, sculptures, and installations that trace RYOL’s artistic evolution from intimate, room-based works to explorations of childhood innocence and real-world experience.

Ashish Kushwaha paints the landscape as memory, ecology, and resistance for his Delhi solo

Artist Ashish Kushwaha presents a solo exhibition titled "Where the Sky Remembers" at Palette Art Gallery in New Delhi, running through May 29, 2026. The show features landscape paintings in watercolor and acrylic that draw on Kushwaha's childhood in Chhattisgarh and his connection to nature. His works depict fields, mountains, water bodies, and skies, with humans absent but implied through huts, settlements, or boats, while animals feature prominently to emphasize coexistence with the natural world.

Full circle creativity: Courtney Saunders finds artistic community

Courtney Saunders, a graphic designer and digital artist, has returned to Tallahassee after accepting a position with Grova Creative in early 2025. Her digital painting "Watch Us" earned Third Place in COCA's 2026 Creative Tallahassee exhibition, currently on view at City Hall Gallery through June 8. Saunders, who attended the School of Arts and Sciences in Tallahassee during middle school, credits the city's creative community and her supportive teachers for nurturing her artistic voice. She holds a BFA in graphic design from Andrews University and works across multiple mediums including acrylic, watercolor, collage, and digital illustration.

Artist Jessica Smith Says Do What You Love, Even if it Takes You 35 Years

Artist Jessica Smith, originally from Texas, is opening her first solo exhibition in Salt Lake City titled "35 Years of Not Painting" at the Salt Lake City Public Library's Lower Urban Room Gallery from May 11 to June 21. After a high school art teacher censored her work, Smith abandoned painting for decades, turning to theater and later creating personalized picture books for her son with autism. She returned to art during the COVID-19 pandemic, painting portraits of admired figures like Mr. Rogers, Tupac Shakur, and Stevie Nicks. Smith is an enrolled member of the Cherokee Nation and has become TERO Certified, allowing her to be listed as a potential artist for tribal commissions. She credits the Urban Indian Center of Salt Lake as a key support system.

Royse Contemporary to present solo exhibition by Gennaro Garcia

Royse Contemporary in Scottsdale, Arizona, will present "UNTITLED," a solo exhibition by Mexican American artist Gennaro Garcia. The show features recent works across multiple media, including paintings, monosilk prints, giclée works, and sculpture, drawing on Garcia's childhood in Mexico and blending traditional and contemporary techniques. The exhibition runs through May 24, 2026, at the gallery in the Scottsdale Arts District.

L.A.'s $1 Billion Lucas Museum Has Revealed Inaugural Exhibitions For This Year's Opening — Curated By George Lucas Himself

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles has announced its 18 inaugural exhibitions ahead of its September 22, 2026 opening. The $1 billion, 100,000-square-foot museum in Exposition Park will feature 32 galleries curated personally by George Lucas, including a dedicated Cinema space showcasing the Lucas Archives with original concept art, costumes, and props from Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Unlike traditional museums, the exhibitions are organized by emotion and storytelling themes such as Adventure, Childhood, Fantasy, and Romance, rather than by time period or artist.