Kevin Troyano Cuturi, raised on museum visits across Europe and trained in physics and finance, founded Cuturi Gallery in Singapore after co-founding Mazel Gallery in 2017. The gallery now operates a Paris outpost in the former Didier Ludot boutique and runs a discoveries platform for emerging artists, a residency program hosting over 20 artists, and has nurtured Singaporean talents like Aisha Rosli and Faris Heizer.
The 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, titled "In Minor Keys," opens May 9 as a tribute to its late curator Koyo Kouoh. Alongside the Biennale, Venice hosts numerous concurrent exhibitions: Marina Abramović's "Transforming Energy" at Gallerie dell'Accademia (the only living female artist with a major show there); the Matthew Wong Foundation's inaugural exhibition "Interiors" featuring unseen works by the late Chinese Canadian artist; retrospectives of Michael Armitage at Palazzo Grassi and Lorna Simpson at Punta della Dogana; Hernan Bas's new paintings at Ca' Pesaro; Lu Yang's "DOKU The Illusion" at Espaces Louis Vuitton Venezia; and "Minimal Legends" at the Vincenzo de Cotiis Foundation, staging a dialogue among Minimalist masters.
The Tuscan hill town of Monte San Savino launched a contemporary art exhibition titled "Art Gender Gap" on International Women's Day, featuring 40 female artists and 53 works across multiple historic venues including the GAS, Chiesa di Santa Chiara, Palazzo Ciocchi di Monte, and the Renaissance Cisternone. Curated by Giuseppe Simone Modeo, Nicoletta Castellaneta, and Domenico de Chirico, the show includes loans from the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington (via its Italian committee president Claudia Pensotti Mosca), the Christian Levett collection, and the FAMM Museum in Mougin, France—a museum dedicated exclusively to women artists. Participating artists range from historical figures like Louise Bourgeois, Carol Rama, and Sonia Delaunay to contemporary names such as Kiki Smith, Pipilotti Rist, Marlene Dumas, Tracey Emin, and Mona Hatoum.
Bruno Bischofberger, the influential Swiss gallerist and collector, has died at age 86. A pivotal figure in the contemporary art market, he opened his first gallery in Zurich in 1963 and was instrumental in introducing American Pop Art to Europe, exhibiting Warhol, Lichtenstein, and Rauschenberg. He later championed Minimalism, Land Art, and Neo-Expressionism, representing artists like Sol LeWitt, Donald Judd, and Francesco Clemente. Most famously, Bischofberger discovered Jean-Michel Basquiat in 1981 and orchestrated the legendary collaboration between Warhol, Basquiat, and Clemente. His close relationship with Warhol included a first-refusal agreement on future works and the suggestion of standardized portrait commissions that became Warhol's primary income source.
The article previews an upcoming episode of the Italian television program "Artbox" airing on Sky Arte on Tuesday, May 12. The episode visits Castello di Miradolo in Piedmont, where the exhibition "C'è oggi una fiaba" (There Is a Fairy Tale Today) runs until June 21, blending art, literature, and music around childhood themes. Curator Roberto Galimberti and Fondazione Cosso director Paola Eynard discuss the show. The episode also features art historian Maria Vittoria Baravelli's segment "Invito al viaggio," reinterpreting fairy tales as dynamic spaces for growth, referencing artists Luigi Serafini and Luigi Ontani. Additionally, curator Gražina Subelytė discusses the exhibition "Peggy Guggenheim a Londra. Nascita di una collezionista" in Venice, and curators Stefania Bossi, Michele Tavola, and Valentina Cane present the show "Regina. Sperimentatrice geniale" about a prolific sculptor. The program includes a book segment on Orsina Simona Pierini's "I colori delle case. Milan Interiors 1923-1978."
Rene Matić has won the 2026 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize, becoming the first British winner in over a decade. The announcement was made at The Photographers’ Gallery in London on May 14, 2025, where Matić received £30,000 for their exhibition *AS OPPOSED TO THE TRUTH*, which uses photography, installation, and sound to explore identity and belonging. Matić was nominated for the show at the Center for Contemporary Arts Berlin (CCA Berlin) and is also a recent Turner Prize nominee. The prize exhibition runs at The Photographers’ Gallery until June 7, alongside works by fellow shortlisted artists Jane Evelyn Atwood, Weronika Gęsicka, and Amak Mahmoodian.
The article highlights five standout pavilions and installations at the 2026 Venice Biennale. Florentina Holzinger's Austrian pavilion features extreme, nude performances including a woman submerged in a urine-purified tank, drawing police attention. Sanya Kantarovsky presents eerie paintings and a Murano glass sculpture in a historic palazzo. Gabrielle Goliath's 'Elegy'—a hypnotic mourning performance for women killed in violence—was banned by South Africa but staged with London's Ibraaz. Carrie Schneider's 1.5km photographic curl in the Arsenale references Chris Marker's 'La Jetée'. Lydia Ourahmane's delicate sculptural show uses materials sourced from Venice, including a bead curtain made by inmates.
El Museo del Barrio in New York has opened "Sophie Rivera: Double Exposures," the first career survey of the Puerto Rican American photographer (1938-2021). The exhibition reassesses Rivera's practice, highlighting her experimental work beyond her well-known 1978 series "Nuyorican Portraits," which depicted Puerto Rican sitters in Manhattan's Morningside Heights. Curated by Susanna V. Temkin, the show features works across portraiture, photojournalism, and experimental image-making, including the color photograph "Alternators" (1975, printed 1986), which Rivera donated to the museum in the late 1980s.
The Getty Foundation has awarded an additional $1.8 million to its Black Visual Arts Archives initiative, bringing total funding to $4.5 million across 20 awards. The program supports institutions in processing, digitizing, preserving, and activating archival collections related to Black artists and arts organizations in the US. Grantees include Afro Charities, the Auburn Avenue Research Library, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Charles H. Wright Museum, Morgan State University, the South Side Community Art Center, the University of Chicago’s South Side Home Movie Project, and the David C. Driskell Center. Notable discoveries include footage of the original Wall of Respect mural from the South Side Home Movie Project.
Jongjin Park won the 2026 Loewe Foundation Craft Prize and €50,000 for his work "Strata of Illusion, 2025," which combines glassblowing and bookbinding techniques using porcelain-coated paper layers. The ceremony took place at the National Gallery Singapore, with a jury led by Loewe's new creative directors Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, alongside architects Minsuk Cho, Frida Escobedo, Wang Shu, and Patricia Urquiola. Special mentions went to Graziano Visintin for his necklace "Collier" and a collaborative piece by Baba Tree Master Weavers and Álvaro Catalán de Ocón. The exhibition of 30 finalists, selected from over 5,100 applicants across 133 countries, runs at the National Gallery Singapore through June 14.
Cultured magazine asked 12 European collectors how they discover new talent, timed to the 61st Venice Biennale. Collectors like Nicole Saikalis Bay, Amélie du Chalard, Belma Gaudio, and Laurent Asscher share their personal approaches—ranging from emotional resonance and dialogue with existing works to long-term obsession with an artist before acquiring a piece. The responses reveal a diversity of methods, from instinct-driven buying to conceptual and technical evaluation.
Der Künstler, der Pixel malte, bevor wir in Pixel sahen
Reinhard Voigt, a German artist little known to the public, painted grid-based pictures as early as 1968—years before pixels became ubiquitous in daily life. Despite early discouragement from Gerhard Richter and fellow artist Alan Jones, Voigt persisted, creating meticulous works on paper and canvas using transparent paper, rulers, pencil, and oil paint. His first major exhibition, "Pure Pleasure," took place in 2023/2024 in Nuremberg, and his current duo show "High on Low" with Anna-Sophie Berger is on view at Berlin's Kunstraum Grotto, featuring his Word Paintings series. Voigt lives and works in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg with his wife, artist Susan Elias.
The Musée d'Orsay in Paris has opened a permanent gallery dedicated to artworks believed to have been looted by the Nazis from Jewish owners during World War II, but whose rightful owners have not been identified. The exhibition, titled "Who owns these works?", features a rotating selection of 225 such pieces held by the museum, with twelve paintings and one sculpture currently on display. Works by Renoir, Degas, Rodin, and Alfred Stevens are included, alongside provenance research detailing their murky histories—such as a Degas ballroom scene acquired by a Jewish collector later murdered at Auschwitz.
London-based artist Jes Chen presents "Occupied" (2026), an interactive installation that strips AI technology down to a knock sensor, a screen, and a live AI system. Viewers knock on a door-like interface and receive varied responses—defensive, evasive, or silence—generated in real time. The work draws from Chen's childhood memory of having her bedroom door lock removed, transforming privacy and vulnerability into a behavioral system. Recent presentations at the London Design Festival, Edinburgh Fringe, and Generative Art Conference 2025 have showcased Chen's restrained, psychologically charged approach to AI art.
The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, announced it will host the major international touring exhibition 'Treasures of the Pharaohs' from March 14 to September 19, 2027. Featuring 130 artifacts from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the Luxor Museum, the exhibition spans 3,000 years of ancient Egyptian history, including royal treasures, newly discovered objects from the 'Golden City' in the Valley of the Kings, and works from Dynasty I to the Ptolemaic period. The exhibition is currently on view at the Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome and will travel to the de Young museum in San Francisco before arriving at the Kimbell.
The National Gallery of Australia presents 'Of This Earth: Transforming Culture and Country Through First Nations Ceramics,' an exhibition featuring over thirty works by twenty-eight Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, including Thancoupie, Billy Bain, Nicole Foreshew, and Janet Fieldhouse. The show highlights diverse ceramic techniques and narratives drawn from the National Collection, emphasizing cultural continuity and contemporary expression.
This article from a Parisian events guide rounds up ten exhibitions to see over the Whitsun weekend (May 23–25, 2026) in Paris and Île-de-France. Highlights include a show of works by artist-patients at the Art and History Museum of Sainte-Anne Hospital, maritime paintings at the Navy Museum, a Papua New Guinea-themed exhibition at the Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac Museum, an interactive socially engaged show called "Ne Pas Toucher" in the Marais, a Louvre exhibition on water in ancient Mesopotamia, and a major Hilma af Klint retrospective at the Grand Palais in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou.
Cathy de Monchaux, a prominent British artist from the 1990s known for her erotic and dystopic sculptures, has opened a major survey exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris titled 'Studio, Wounds and Battles, Desire is the Reiteration of Hope'. The show comes 26 years after her last major solo exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC, and includes a facsimile of her Hoxton studio, featuring intimate sketchbooks, maquettes, and early works. De Monchaux, who graduated from Goldsmiths in 1987 and was nominated for the Turner Prize, largely stepped away from the public exhibition circuit to raise her son, focusing instead on private commissions.
The Getty Foundation has awarded $1.8 million in grants to eight institutions through its Black Visual Arts Archives initiative, a multi-year program aimed at increasing access to archival collections related to Black artists and arts organizations. The grants will support processing, digitization, and public programming at venues including Afro Charities, Auburn Avenue Research Library, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Charles H. Wright Museum, Morgan State University, South Side Community Art Center, the University of Chicago's South Side Home Movie Project, and the David C. Driskell Center. This brings Getty's total funding for the initiative to $4.5 million since 2022, supporting 20 grants nationwide.
An art consultant with experience directing galleries in New York and Seattle, working with Nick Knight at SHOWstudio, and presenting The Art Show on Sky Arts shares insights on navigating the art world. The consultant discusses how to discover emerging artists through galleries, Instagram, graduate shows, and word of mouth, and emphasizes the importance of building relationships with galleries versus working with a consultant. Key galleries mentioned include Lisson Gallery, Josh Lilley, Seventeen Gallery, Esther Shipper, Hauser & Wirth, Cooke Latham, and Robertson Ares Gallery.
The Walker Art Center, in collaboration with the Whitney Museum of American Art, presents "All Day All Night," a survey of the past 15 years of work by Berlin-based deaf artist Christine Sun Kim. The exhibition, on view until August 30, spans three galleries and includes drawings, videos, participatory pieces, and site-specific installations such as charcoal music notes on floors and stairwells. Kim's early works from the 2010s explore sound waves and Deaf culture, while later pieces incorporate her experiences as a mother and partner, using infographics and ASL-inspired imagery to challenge assumptions about spoken versus signed language.
LACMA's new David Geffen Galleries, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor, are now open to the public. The building features a single-floor, sculptural form made of architectural concrete and glass, with natural light and transparency that encourages visitors to explore 6,000 years of art and culture. In collaboration with the American Institute of Architects Los Angeles, LACMA is hosting a series of free workshops on May 15-17, including guided walks, drawing sessions, and landscape tours, to help visitors engage with the building's architecture and design.
The Carnegie International, the longest-running international art show in North America, returns in 2026 for its 59th edition at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. Founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1896, the exhibition takes place roughly every four years and features contemporary works from artists around the world, including Zhao Yao (China), Hans Ragnar Mathisen (Sapmi/Norway), Cinthia Marcelle (Brazil), and Walter Scott (Canada). The 2026-2027 edition is themed "If The Word We," exploring the first-person plural as an open and evolving concept. The show is integrated throughout the museum alongside permanent collection pieces, and extends to venues such as the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, Mattress Factory, and the Thelma Lovette YMCA.
Un Guillon-Lethière pour Worcester
The Worcester Art Museum has acquired Guillaume Guillon-Lethière's painting "Lucien Bonaparte contemplant Alexandrine de Bleschamp Jouberthon" (1802), which depicts the second brother of Napoleon with his second wife. The work had been on loan to the museum from London dealers Lowell Libson and Johnny Yarker, who had purchased it at a Christie's New York auction in October 2019 after it resurfaced in a Portland sale in 2005. The painting was featured prominently in the 2024-2025 Louvre exhibition "Guillon-Lethière. Né à la Guadeloupe," where it was reunited with a portrait of its patron Lucien Bonaparte.
Almost half of the artists in the 61st Venice Biennale's international exhibition, along with 16 national pavilion teams, have withdrawn from awards consideration in solidarity with the jury's resignation. The jury resigned on April 30 after stating it would not consider countries whose leaders are charged with crimes against humanity by the ICC, effectively disqualifying Israel and Russia. The Biennale Foundation then replaced the traditional Golden Lions with new "Visitor Lions" decided by public vote, reinstating all pavilions including Israel and Russia. The withdrawal follows protests at the Russian and Israeli pavilions and a historic labor strike that shuttered multiple pavilions.
A Nazi-looted painting, *Portrait of a Young Girl* by Dutch artist Toon Kelder, has been discovered in the home of descendants of Hendrik Seyffardt, a Dutch SS collaborator who aided the Nazis during World War II. The work, stolen from the renowned Goudstikker collection, was allegedly displayed for decades by Seyffardt's family. An anonymous descendant contacted art detective Arthur Brand after learning of his family's past and seeing the painting in the hallway of Seyffardt's granddaughter. The family member told Dutch newspaper *De Telegraaf* that he feels "deep shame" and insists the painting must be returned to the Jewish rightful heirs.
The 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in New York (May 13–17, 2026) will debut a curated section titled '1-54 Presents: Brazil Beyond Brazil,' focusing exclusively on Afro-Brazilian art and artists. Organized by Brazilian curator Igor Simões, the section features works by ten Black Brazilian artists—including Ana Claudia Almeida, Rebeca Carapiá, and Rommulo Vieira Conceição—presented by leading Brazilian galleries such as Almeida & Dale, Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, Nara Roesler, and Aura. The initiative draws on archival research, reinterprets modernist legacies, and challenges narrow narratives around Afro-Brazilian art, highlighting the cultural links between Africa and Latin America.
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.
"Ich bin Punk-Künstlerin, ich geb einen Scheiß drauf"
During the opening week of the Venice Biennale, the Russian activist and Pussy Riot member Nadya Tolokonnikova staged a protest against the Russian pavilion, wearing pink balaclavas and chanting slogans like "Blood is Russia's Art." Meanwhile, Florentina Holzinger's Austrian pavilion, subtitled "I Live in Your Piss," drew massive crowds with its scatological installations and extreme performances, causing wait times of up to two and a half hours. German media critics have widely covered the Biennale's heightened political tone, with debates over boycotts of Russia and Israel, and the tension between art and activism.
"Wer sich als Tourist nie unbehaglich fühlt, ist kein guter Tourist"
American painter Hernan Bas has created a new series of paintings inspired by Venice and its tourists, drawing from his long-standing relationship with the city. His first encounter with Venice came through an invitation to exhibit at Bruna Aickelin's renowned gallery Il Capricorno, and he has since shown there multiple times, considering Aickelin his Italian connection.