The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia has opened a major exhibition, 'Henri Rousseau: A Painter's Secrets,' featuring around sixty works, including the institution's own iconic Rousseau paintings. The survey, co-curated by Nancy Ireson and Christopher Green, aims to present a cohesive look at the self-taught artist's career.
The House of Electronic Arts (HEK) in Basel and the Tezos Foundation have announced a year-long partnership to integrate blockchain technology into museum experiences. The collaboration includes virtual and physical exhibitions, workshops, and preservation initiatives, featuring six international digital artists. Exhibitions will be hosted on HEK's online platform virtual.hek and outdoors during Art Basel, with artworks released via the Tezos-based marketplace Objkt. The partnership also involves on-site kiosks and educational workshops on NFTs and digital ownership, as well as HEK's participation in the EU COST Action EMBARK training school on NFT preservation at ZKM in Karlsruhe.
Martin Puryear's 1978 sculpture *Self* opens a survey of his work at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, titled “Martin Puryear: Nexus,” which runs through Sunday before traveling to the Cleveland Museum of Art in April. Curated by Emily Liebert, Reto Thüring, and Ian Alteveer, the exhibition argues that Puryear's abstract, craft-intensive sculptures—like *A Column for Sally Hemings* (2021)—are not merely formalist exercises but carry political and historical meanings that are deliberately withheld, challenging viewers to read beyond elegant surfaces.
Performance artist Pat Oleszko, known for her satirical costumes and public interventions, is receiving significant institutional recognition in New York. At 78, she is featured in the 2026 Whitney Biennial and is the subject of a solo exhibition, "Fool Disclosure," at SculptureCenter, her first institutional solo show in the city in over 35 years.
Museo Jumex in Mexico City will host "Fútbol y Arte. Esa misma emoción" (Football & Art. A Shared Emotion), an exhibition timed to the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Opening March 28 and running through July 26, the show features around 100 works by 60 international artists, including Marta Minujín, Graciela Iturbide, Melanie Smith, and Rafael Ortega. Curated by Guillermo Santamarina with exhibition design by Mauricio Rocha, the museum will be transformed into elements symbolic of soccer, with sections exploring gender, community, identity, and the political dimensions of the game. New commissions by Diego Berruecos, Iñaki Bonillas, and Sofía Echeverri are included, along with a sculptural installation by Tercerunquinto made from recycled Estadio Azteca seats.
Norman Rockwell's iconic painting "Freedom From Want" (1943), known as the quintessential Thanksgiving image, is examined through three lesser-known facts. The painting was part of a series responding to FDR's "Four Freedoms" speech, initially rejected by the military's Office of War Information before being embraced for a war bond campaign that raised over $132 million. Rockwell used friends and family as models, including his wife and the family cook, who actually prepared the turkey depicted. The work has recently returned to the spotlight: a four-panel Rockwell suite sold for $7.2 million at Heritage Auctions to the White House Historical Association, while Rockwell's family criticized the Department of Homeland Security for using his art in divisive social media posts.
The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam has opened "Erwin Olaf—Freedom," a major retrospective of the late Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf, who died in 2023 at age 64. The exhibition spans over a dozen rooms, showcasing his diverse output from subcultural documentation and commercial work to staged tableaux, self-portraits, and club ephemera, alongside video and sculpture. It juxtaposes formally refined portraits, such as Queen Máxima, with provocative early works like "Joy" (1985), refusing to impose a single narrative on his career.
Rosa Barba's exhibition "The Ocean of One's Pause" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York surveys 15 years of her work, featuring over a dozen cinematic sculptures arranged as a single installation. Central to the show is her latest 25-minute film *Charge* (2025), co-commissioned by MoMA and the Vega Foundation, shot at CERN in Geneva. The film will also screen at Moynihan Train Hall and in Times Square as part of the "Midnight Moment" program throughout July. Barba transforms a black box gallery into a cello-like space, with long wires and film projectors creating a celluloid symphony through mechanical clicks and analog apparatuses.
Bill Horrigan, a pioneering curator who transformed Ohio's Wexner Center for the Arts into a leading destination for film and video art, died on May 15 after a long battle with amyloidosis. Over 34 years at the Columbus museum, he built a celebrated film and video program that attracted world-renowned artists like Chris Marker and Julia Scher, and organized landmark exhibitions for Mark Dion, Gretchen Bender, and Shirin Neshat. He also served as a curatorial adviser for the 2008 Whitney Biennial, helped program the Video Data Bank, and led the 1989 edition of Video Against AIDS.
Artsy Editorial highlights five standout exhibitions at small and rising galleries for May 2026. Among them is British-born, Amsterdam-based painter K. T. Kobel's first major Swiss show, "Hand, Body, Object, Sin," at Kutlesa in Goldau, Switzerland, running through May 29. Kobel, who has exhibited from Los Angeles to Milan since 2022, presents cinematic, storyboard-like paintings that embrace fragmentation and loose ends.
Dale Chihuly returns to Venice with "Chihuly: Venice 2026," a public exhibition marking the 30th anniversary of his landmark 1996 project "Chihuly Over Venice." The new show features three large-scale glass sculptures installed along the Grand Canal, viewable from the Accademia Bridge, at Palazzo Franchetti, Palazzo Querini alla Carità, and Palazzo Balbi-Valier Sammartini. The article also recounts Chihuly's 1968 Fulbright-funded study at Venini, where he learned Murano glassblowing and embraced glass as his primary medium, and reveals that his son Jackson Chihuly was conceived in Venice after a party hosted by the late Paul Allen.
Brazilian artist Jonathas de Andrade discusses his collaborative, research-driven practice in a studio visit feature for CULTURED magazine. He describes working with actors, cart drivers, carrier pigeon racers, and zoo employees to create installations, photographs, and films that examine the architecture, labor, and history of northeast Brazil. This month, a Vatican-commissioned video installation about Brazilian activist nuns opens at MACRO in Rome, while a series of flags developed with canoeists on the São Francisco River is on view at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. De Andrade shares his daily rituals, inspirations, and the expansive definition of his studio—a sanctuary in Recife filled with collected magazines, images, and objects.
Bharti Kher presents "The Sun Splitting Stones" at Perrotin in Paris, on view through December 20, marking a significant return to painting after focusing on sculpture. The exhibition features works created during the Covid pandemic, including her "Weather Paintings" series on circular teak panels, which explore themes of intuition, cosmology, and the balance of masculine and feminine forces through spirals, triangles, and egg-like forms.
Brian Droitcour curates a guide to navigating the current media landscape through the work of tech-savvy artists and writers, focusing on exhibitions in Brooklyn and Queens. The guide highlights Porpentine's show "Xrafstar World" at Haul Gallery in Gowanus, which features poster-prints of drawings depicting characters from their stories and games, made with different digital brushes. Droitcour contrasts this DIY, performance-driven work with major institutions' engagement with AI, such as Sasha Stiles' "A Living Poem" at MoMA, which he criticizes for echoing technology's promises of polish rather than probing its complications.
Lucia Di Luciano, an Italian painter associated with the 1960s Arte Programmata movement, has died at age 93. Her death was announced by her Milan gallery, 10 A.M. Art, without specifying a cause. Di Luciano was known for her hand-painted, gridded black-and-white abstractions that mimicked computer-generated patterns, made with house paint and acrylic. Despite painting for nearly eight decades, she only gained wider international recognition in 2022 when her work was included in the main exhibition of the Venice Biennale, curated by Cecilia Alemani. Her career saw a late surge, with appearances at Tate Modern's "Electric Dreams" exhibition, art fairs like Frieze Masters and Independent 20th Century, and a solo show at Herald St. in London. The Maxxi museum in Rome is organizing a retrospective set to open in 2027.
Design Miami 2025 preview drew a bustling crowd with over 70 exhibitors under the theme "Make Believe." Highlights included Katie Stout's whimsical carousel featuring marine animals, Roham Shamekh's biomorphic "Roots" sofa with integrated headphones, and ATRA's futuristic "Intelligence of Evolution" seating system upholstered in Hermès fabric. The Spanish silver brand Garrido showcased collaborations with Peter Marino, while the fair's 20th anniversary edition embraced a carnivalesque atmosphere with popcorn and mirrored walls.
Artnet News re-airs an episode on "red chip art," a phenomenon characterized by Cybertrucks, crypto wallets, and artists like KAWS, MSCHF, and Daniel Arsham. The episode is prompted by actor Adrien Brody's solo exhibition "Made in America" at Eden Gallery in New York, featuring mixed-media paintings of Marilyn Monroe, Basquiat-inspired motifs, and interactive elements like audience chewing gum on the wall. Brody's show exemplifies the red chip art world's blend of celebrity, commerce, and spectacle.
Mumbai-based artist Shilpa Gupta (b. 1976) presents a solo exhibition at Galleria Continua in San Gimignano, on view through September 7, 2025. The show features a range of works from her career, including the large-scale embroidered piece *Untitled (Rectangles on flags of the world)* (2021–25), the monumental sculpture *Truth* (2025), and *100 Hand-drawn Maps of Italy* (2007–2023). Through video, installation, performance, and sculpture, Gupta explores themes of censorship, migration, borders, control, and resilience, engaging viewers with multisensory works that question societal norms.
The Victoria & Albert Museum has launched the V&A Storehouse in East London, a massive open-storage facility housing over 250,000 objects, 1,000 archives, and a vast library. Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Austin-Smith:Lord, the space eschews traditional curated narratives in favor of a dense, immersive environment where visitors navigate four stories of artifacts arranged by cataloging logic rather than art-historical themes.
Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin's pioneering contemporary art museum, is celebrating its 30th anniversary. Co-directors Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath, who arrived in 2022, are using the milestone to reflect on the institution's legacy and future direction, emphasizing its role as a site of artistic production and experimentation. They are also organizing an international fundraising gala on March 14 to help shape its next chapter.
COP30, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, opens in Belém, Brazil, with culture officially on its agenda for the first time, thanks to advocacy from the Amazonian activist group Labverde and Art of Change 21. The conference features interventions and performances by eight Brazilian and indigenous artists, including photographer Christian Braga and activist Beto Oliveira, alongside a flurry of artist-led activities in UK galleries and institutions. The article also marks the tenth anniversary of Gustav Metzger's environmental art project "Remember Nature," which mobilized over 140 artists including Judy Chicago, Olafur Eliasson, and Marina Abramović, and was revisited on November 4, 2025, with sixteen English arts institutions hosting public projects.
Photography takes center stage at Frieze London and across the city, with major exhibitions of Lee Miller at Tate Britain, Wolfgang Tillmans at Maureen Paley, Arthur Jafa at Sadie Coles, and Marina Abramović stills at Saatchi Yates. At Frieze Masters, Pace Gallery dedicated its booth to Peter Hujar, selling six prints on opening day at prices from $25,000 to $45,000. Commercial galleries like Gagosian and David Zwirner are investing heavily in photography, with Zwirner bringing Diane Arbus to London for the first time in a UK commercial context.
Artnet News has published the latest installment of its '25 of 2025' series, spotlighting five sculptors to watch. The article profiles Lotus L. Kang, a Canadian artist who had a solo show at 52 Walker in New York, was recently picked up by Esther Schipper, and has appeared in group exhibitions at MoMA, Jeffrey Deitch, and the Hessel Museum. It also features Raven Halfmoon, a Caddo Nation artist whose totemic ceramic works draw on Indigenous traditions and folklore, and who had her major institutional debut at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in 2023. The series aims to highlight emerging talents shaping contemporary art.
The 2025 Met Gala, held on May 5 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, raised a record $31 million while celebrating the opening of the Costume Institute's new exhibition, "Superfine: Tailoring Black Style" (May 10-October 26). The event's dress code, "Tailored for You," inspired attendees to embrace Black-dandy fashion, with guests including Rihanna, Cynthia Erivo, Stevie Wonder, and Kamala Harris. The exhibition, curated by Andrew Bolton and Monica L. Miller, explores the evolution of Black style in the Atlantic diaspora from the 18th century to today, drawing on Miller's 2009 book "Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity." It is the Costume Institute's first show to directly address race's impact on style and the Met's first menswear exhibition in over 20 years.
Michael H. Smith, an artist, dealer, and curator who played a pivotal role in developing Southern California's art scene in the 1970s and '80s, died on October 31 in Santa Barbara at age 80. Smith opened his eponymous gallery in Los Angeles in 1971, later became a partner at the Jack Glenn Gallery, and served as director of the Baxter Art Gallery at Caltech from 1977 to 1982, where he staged exhibitions for artists including Hans Haacke, Richard Tuttle, and Berenice Abbott. He also founded a consultancy for artists, taught at UC Irvine, and worked as a conceptual photographer whose works were exhibited by dealer Craig Krull.
The article surveys the visual art landscape of 2025, arguing that the year's defining throughline is the increasing centrality of artificial intelligence—a technological revolution most people didn't ask for but cannot escape. It highlights several exhibitions and works that engage with AI in different ways: Seth Price's show at Isabella Bortolozzi in Berlin, which uses generative images from the pandemic era overlaid with gestural paint strokes; Charmaine Poh's video "GOOD MORNING YOUNG BODY" (2023) at Palais Populaire, where she deploys deepfake technology to have her twelve-year-old self speak back to internet trolls; and Philippe Parreno's show at Haus der Kunst, which poeticizes how generative technologies interact with humans and nature. The article also notes the rise of AI-generated "slop" online and its incursion into the physical art world, as well as market shifts where larger galleries are increasingly acquiring Instagram-friendly emerging artists directly.
Paris Photo 2025, the 28th edition of the international photography fair, returns to the Grand Palais from 13-16 November, hosting 179 galleries from 33 countries. Artistic director Anna Planas emphasizes a program spanning photography's full history, from 19th-century works to contemporary digital and blockchain-based pieces. Highlights include a solo installation by Hasselblad Award winner Sophie Ristelhueber, a darkroom demonstration by photographer Renato D'Agostin, and the 'Emergence' sector featuring Prix Maison Ruinart winner Marine Lanier. The fair also offers conversations, performances, and book signings with artists like Todd Hido and Wolfgang Tillmans, plus an exhibition of Latin American photography from the Estrellita B Brodsky collection.
Frieze Seoul 2025 is spotlighting queer and female artists through two major exhibitions: “off-site 2: Eleven Episodes” at Kukje Gallery K2, organized in partnership with Art Sonje Center, and “UnHouse” at the new Frieze House space. The former features works by 11 emerging Korean female and genderqueer artists exploring non-normative bodies and identities, including photography by Hong Ji-young, video by duo Yagwang, and an experimental piece by Kwak So-jin. The latter reimagines domestic space through a queer lens with 14 artists such as Anne Imhof, Catherine Opie, and Xiyadie.
Berlin's Gallery Weekend 2025 has brought a surge of art events across the city, and this article highlights five exhibitions still open to visitors. At Schinkel Pavillon, French artist Pol Taburet presents his first German solo show, “The Burden of Papa Tonnerre,” featuring paintings, sculptures, and lithographs that explore occult themes and personal history. Galerie Buchholz showcases Anne Imhof's new solo exhibition, including large canvases derived from stills of her performance “Doom: House of Hope,” alongside a sound installation. Contemporary Fine Arts hosts a solo show by Swiss painter Tobias Spichtig, focusing on his latest oil-on-canvas works.
Tschabalala Self's sculptural relief "Art Lovers" (2025) will be installed on the façade of the New Museum in New York when it reopens this autumn with a new 60,000 sq. ft expansion designed by OMA. The 13ft-tall artwork depicts a Black couple kissing in a swirling embrace, inspired by Self's 2022 painting "Madly" and the architectural "kiss point" where the new building meets the original Sanaa-designed structure. The commission continues the museum's façade sculpture programme, which previously featured works by Chris Burden, Isa Genzken, and Glenn Ligon.