border patrol anish kapoor bean photo

British artist Anish Kapoor's iconic sculpture *Cloud Gate* (2006), known as "the Bean," in Chicago's Millennium Park became the site of a controversial photo op on Monday, when dozens of U.S. Border Patrol agents, led by chief Gregory Bovino, gathered in front of the 110-ton piece just after dawn. The agents, armed and in fatigues, reportedly shouted "Little Village"—a predominantly Mexican American neighborhood where Border Patrol had deployed tear gas in a raid over the weekend—instead of "cheese" for the photo. Local officials, including Chicago governor J.B. Pritzker and alderman Mike Rodriguez, condemned the action, and Kapoor himself expressed horror, likening the agents to "SS Nazi troops" and calling the incident a "fascist battle cry of intimidation." Chicago artist Michael Rakowitz also denounced the shoot as a "horrible invasion and occupation."

Venice Biennale opening marked by protests

The 2026 Venice Biennale opened for professionals on Tuesday amid a series of protests, with more planned throughout the week. Around 60 artists from the exhibition "In Minor Keys" gathered at the Giardini for a collective action called "Solidarity Drone Chorus," inspired by Gazan composer Ahmed Muin's "Drone Song," to draw attention to genocide and war in Palestine. The Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA) organized a 24-hour strike for Friday 8 May, protesting Israel's participation. Pussy Riot staged a protest outside the Russian pavilion, and the Latvian pavilion launched a campaign against Russia's involvement. The protests follow a highly politicized lead-up, including calls for boycotts of the Russian, Israeli, and US pavilions, EU funding cuts over Russia's participation, and the resignation of the Biennale jury.

An art gallery

Students from Becket Washington School and their families gathered at the Becket Arts Center for the opening of a dedicated exhibition featuring student artwork. The show, hosted in the center's upstairs gallery, highlights the creative output of local youth and remains open to the public through April 26.

parties vicky krieps winter issue los angeles

CULTURED magazine hosted a party at the Beverly Hills outpost of Michael Werner Gallery to celebrate its September issue featuring actor Vicky Krieps on the cover. Guests including artists, designers, directors, and collectors gathered to view late artist Per Kirkeby's abstract paintings while enjoying Ruinart champagne and LALO Tequila cocktails. Attendees departed with copies of the issue, which features Krieps wearing Issey Miyake and Comme des Garçons.

NGA Nights & Alexandria Art Scene: Celebrating Spring and an Artist’s Legacy

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. hosted its popular 'NGA Nights' series, featuring a 'Garden Party' theme that blended paper flower crafting with after-hours gallery access. The upcoming April event, 'United We Create,' shifts focus to the West Building to highlight five centuries of American creativity as part of the 'Celebrating American Art' exhibition and the broader America250 celebrations.

LACMA Opening Gala for the David Geffen Galleries: Paris Hilton, Heidi Klum, Eva Longoria and more

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) hosted a star-studded gala on April 16 to celebrate the opening of the David Geffen Galleries. The event drew a massive crowd of A-list celebrities, including Paris Hilton, Tom Hanks, Alicia Keys, and George Lucas, alongside city officials and museum leadership. Attendees gathered to preview the museum’s massive new exhibition space, designed by architect Peter Zumthor.

Creativity takes root

Students at Southern Methodist University (SMU) gathered at the Meadows Museum in Dallas for the inaugural 'ArtMix Thursday,' a monthly event designed to foster creativity and community through hands-on art-making. The debut session featured a mosaic-making workshop held in collaboration with the SMU Craft Club, allowing students to engage with the museum in a relaxed, non-academic setting. This initiative is part of a broader effort by the institution to integrate more deeply with student life through new programming and expanded membership benefits.

Children curate exhibition of Clyfford Still works inspired by their reservation

The Clyfford Still Museum in Denver has handed curatorial authority to 100 children from the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation for the exhibition "Tell Clyfford I Said ‘Hi’" (on view until May 10, 2026). The show features works by Clyfford Still, who in 1936 traveled to the Colville Reservation with colleague Worth Griffin to document tribal members and landscapes. The museum collaborated with tribal youth from three schools—Nespelem School, Nespelem Head Start, and Hearts Gathered Montessori—who selected artworks from facsimiles of Still’s paintings and photographs, drawing connections between his abstract works and their own cultural experiences, such as a student noting that a painting resembled a pow wow blanket.

Fra Angelico masterworks reunited for two-venue Florence exhibition

Florence is opening a comprehensive double-venue exhibition of over 140 works by Fra Angelico, the early Renaissance master. The show, titled simply "Fra Angelico," runs at the Museo di San Marco and the Palazzo Strozzi, reuniting dispersed altarpieces and panels for the first time in over two centuries. It traces his evolution from late Gothic to early Renaissance, featuring reconstructed altarpieces with panels gathered from major European and American museums, alongside works by his influences like Masaccio, Lorenzo Ghiberti, and Lorenzo Monaco.

Exhibition at The Met Highlights Role of Photography in Cross-Dressing Community in 1960s New York

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's exhibition "Casa Susanna," on view from July 21, 2025 to January 25, 2026, brings together approximately 160 photographs and publications created by and for a community of cross-dressers who gathered in New York City and the Catskills Mountains during the 1960s. The works, discovered at a Manhattan flea market in 2004, document safe spaces provided by Susanna Valenti and Marie Tornell at two modest resorts, where guests used cameras—especially Polaroids—to affirm their femme identities and connect a nationwide community. The exhibition is organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario and Les Rencontres d’Arles in collaboration with The Met, and includes collections from the Art Gallery of Ontario, artist Cindy Sherman, and donor Betsy Wollheim.

Artists come together to celebrate Black art at the Harn

Gainesville art enthusiasts gathered at the Harn Museum of Art for its free 'Silver Linings' Community Day, featuring line dancing, screen printing, notebook making, and a community mural activity titled 'Pieces of Us.' The event centered on the exhibition 'Silver Linings: Celebrating the Spelman Art Collection,' on loan from Spelman College, which includes 39 works by nearly 30 artists of African descent, such as Benny Andrews, Sam Gilliam, and Faith Ringgold. Artist-in-residence Jessica Clermont led the community mural project, inviting visitors to decorate abstract puzzle pieces reflecting personal 'silver linings.'

UD Scholars Explore Depths of Wyeth’s Art

In September 2024, nearly two dozen students and faculty from the University of Delaware's Department of Art History gathered at the Brandywine Museum of Art for a study day at the Andrew & Betsy Wyeth Study Center. William L. Coleman, the center's new director and a Wyeth Foundation Curator, led the group through the facility, showing drawings, paintings, and Wyeth's personal library, and curated the exhibition “Every Leaf & Twig: Andrew Wyeth’s Botanical Imagination,” featuring previously unseen watercolors and drawings.

Two Shows, One Desert: “Desert Rinpa” & “Wander” at EPMA

Two concurrent exhibitions at the El Paso Museum of Art explore the Southwestern desert through distinct artistic lenses. "Desert Rinpa" presents Mitsumasa Overstreet's large-scale panels that blend Chihuahuan Desert flora with the classical Japanese Rinpa tradition, using techniques like tarashikomi and metallic leaf to evoke desert light. Upstairs, "Suzi Davidoff: Wander" features nearly 100 works from 1991 to the present, including drawings, prints, and installations made with natural materials like dirt, clay, and charcoal gathered from wildfire sites, emphasizing the physical presence of the desert itself.

« No art washing ! » : à la Biennale de Venise, près de 3 000 manifestants réunis pour dénoncer la présence du pavillon israélien

On May 8, 2026, nearly 3,000 protesters gathered in Venice to demonstrate against the presence of the Israeli pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Led by the collective Art Not Genocide Alliance (Anga), the crowd included artists, curators, and cultural workers who chanted slogans such as "Stop al Padiglione genocidio" and called for a strike on the closing day of the professional previews. Dozens of national pavilions, including those of France, Belgium, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom, Lebanon, and Ukraine, closed in solidarity. The protest followed a letter sent by Anga in March demanding Israel's exclusion, which went unanswered, and the self-dissolution of the awards jury on April 30 over the presence of both Israel and Russia.

parties marilyn minter artist documentary

On Saturday, the art world gathered in East Hampton for a special screening of the documentary *Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty*, which chronicles the artist's life from addiction to icon. The invite-only event included appearances by Jeff Koons, Jane Fonda, Monica Lewinsky, Cindy Sherman, and other notable figures, followed by a dinner at the home of co-producer and collector Debi Wisch. The film explores Minter's unflinching feminist commentary and her decades-long challenge to conventional beauty and desire in contemporary art.

Israeli Artist’s Show in Mexico City Closes After Antisemitic Harassment

An exhibition by Israeli artist Amir Fattal at König gallery in Mexico City was forced to close a week early after a campaign of antisemitic harassment escalated from online abuse to physical protests and vandalism. Vandals spray-painted swastikas, Stars of David, and the phrase "here there are terrorists" on the gallery's facade, and protesters gathered outside calling the artist a murderer and Mossad agent.

parties artists and mothers gala wsa

Over 250 supporters gathered at downtown creative hub WSA on Sunday for the first annual gala of the nonprofit Artists & Mothers, a sold-out fundraiser for the organization’s hallmark $25,000 childcare grants supporting artists with children under three. The event featured interactive installations by Ei Arakawa-Nash, Lisa Alvarado, and Maia Ruth Lee, performances by DJ Cardamami, Sophie Becker, Zeena Parkins, and others, and was attended by co-founders Julia Trotta and Maria De Victoria, incoming First Lady of New York Rama Duwaji, numerous artists, curators, patrons, and gallerists.

mediterranean alliance for wetlands campaign against guggenheim museum expansion spain

The Mediterranean Alliance for Wetlands has launched a campaign against the Guggenheim Museum's proposed expansion into the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve in Spain. The campaign warns that building a new museum spanning Guernica and the protected reserve would harm biodiversity, water quality, and conservation frameworks, and has gathered over 2,400 signatures on a petition urging UNESCO, the Ramsar Secretariat, and the Spanish government to intervene.

Reviving Metcalf Château: Celebrating Hawaiʻi artists who redefined modern art

A new exhibition at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Walter Dods, Jr. RISE Center honors the Metcalf Château, a pioneering collective of Asian-American artists who gathered in a house on Metcalf Street in the 1950s to redefine modern art in Hawaiʻi. Curated by Allison Wong and initiated by longtime university supporter Walter Dods, the show features works by founding members Bumpei Akaji, Satoru Abe, Tadashi Sato, Edmund Chung, Tetsuo “Bob” Ochikubo, Jerry T. Okimoto, and James K.K. Park, with a ceremonial blessing by Kahu Kordell Kekoa.

design the winter show antiques preview

New York's art, design, and philanthropic leaders gathered at the Park Avenue Armory for the Winter Show's Opening Night Preview, marking the fair's 72nd edition and honoring Caroline Kennedy. The event featured 75 international exhibitors, with co-hosts including Executive Director Helen Allen, East Side House Settlement Executive Director Daniel Diaz, Honorary Co-Chair Wendy Goodman, and designers Noz Nozawa, Ben Pentreath, Jane Keltner de Valle, Giancarlo Valle, Michael Bargo, and CULTURED Editor-in-Chief Sarah Harrelson. Attendees included fashion designer Cynthia Rowley, interior designers Reed and Delphine Krakoff, and architect Peter Marino, among others.

literature book cover design

CULTURED magazine gathered three leading book cover designers—Sandra Chiu, Chip Kidd, and Rodrigo Corral—for a roundtable discussion on the challenges and thrills of their profession. The conversation covers the shift to online retail, budget cuts, and a growing homogeneity in cover design, exemplified by the so-called "book blob" trend. Chiu, known for bestselling romance covers, Kidd, a legendary figure at Knopf Doubleday, and Corral, now VP of Creative at Farrar, Straus and Giroux, share insights on their creative processes and the evolution of the industry since Kidd's early days.

pride flag removal stonewall elected officials reinstate

The Trump administration removed the Pride flag from the flagpole at the Stonewall National Monument in New York City, a site commemorating the birth of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. The action, reportedly carried out by the National Park Service, followed a memo restricting "non-agency" flags at federal sites.

Art Exhibits: What's on display in the Fort Wayne area

The Fort Wayne area is currently hosting a diverse array of art exhibitions across local galleries, libraries, and museums. Highlights include the "Next Generation" high school competition at the Honeywell Center, the 46th National Print Exhibition at Artlink, and the 2026 Scholastic Art & Writing Award winners at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art. The listings also feature solo showcases by artists such as Sue Davis, Benjamin High, and the late ceramicist Tom Sherbondy.

Venice Biennale opens under shadow of protests over Russia and Israel

The 61st Venice Biennale opened under heavy protest as Russia returns to the event for the first time since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian feminist collective Femen and Russian punk band Pussy Riot demonstrated outside the Russian pavilion, with activists accusing Russia of using art as a weapon in a hybrid war. Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside Israel's pavilion, holding banners reading 'No artwashing genocide' and demanding Israel's exclusion over the war in Gaza. The Biennale's international jury resigned last month, refusing to award prizes to countries led by figures subject to ICC arrest warrants, namely Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called Russia's participation 'morally wrong' and threatened to cut €2 million in funding, while culture ministers from 22 European countries urged organizers to reconsider.

Urban Art Biennale: Rust, dust and decay revamps Germany's Völklingen ironworks

Dozens of urban artists from 17 countries have gathered at Germany's Völklinger Hütte (Völklingen Ironworks), a UNESCO World Heritage site, for the Urban Art Biennale 2026 opening this Saturday. The exhibition features 50 artists including Tomas Lacque, Boris Tellegen (Delta), Vortex-X, Ampparito, Remi Rough, and Anders Reventlov, who have created site-specific installations that engage with the industrial landmark's sprawling spaces, rust, dust, and sense of decay. Works range from a van covered in ash-like paint to a massive wooden sculpture and a rooftop text piece visible from 45 meters high.

Urban Art Biennale returns to UNESCO industrial site in Germany | Daily Sabah

Dozens of urban artists from 17 countries have gathered at the Völklinger Hütte (Völklingen Ironworks) in Germany, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and former ironworks, for the Urban Art Biennale 2026. The exhibition features 50 artists, including Tomas Lacque, Boris Tellegen, Ampparito, Remi Rough, Anders Reventlov, and the collective Vortex-X, who have created site-specific installations, murals, and sculptures that engage with the industrial ruins and history of the 15-acre complex, which ceased production in 1986.

Why these Confederate monuments from Richmond are headed to California

Several Confederate monuments removed from Richmond, Virginia, including the Vindicatrix sculpture from the Jefferson Davis Monument and the Matthew Fontaine Maury sculpture and globe, are being loaned to a national temporary art exhibition in Los Angeles. The Valentine and the Black History Museum & Cultural Center of Virginia are sending these artifacts, along with granite slabs from various monument bases, to be part of a show running from October to May that reimagines their place in history. More than 15 monuments from across the U.S. will be featured, and the museums have gathered over 6,000 survey responses from the community to guide future decisions.

Louvre forced to close after staff walk out protesting overcrowding

Staff at the Musée du Louvre, the world's most visited museum, walked off the job on Monday morning, forcing an unscheduled closure. Thousands of visitors with pre-booked tickets were left waiting outside I. M. Pei’s glass pyramid in 27°C heat as gallery attendants, ticket agents, and security personnel gathered in the auditorium to protest overcrowded galleries and worsening visiting conditions. The walkout lasted a few hours; management representatives met with staff, and the museum reopened around 2:30pm. It was the second walkout this year.

The British Museum bets on 'total immersion' to display the Bayeux Tapestry, which will be presented flat

Le British Museum mise sur « l’immersion totale » pour exposer la tapisserie de Bayeux qui sera présentée à plat

The British Museum has announced plans for an exceptional exhibition of the Bayeux Tapestry, which will be displayed flat for the first time in its history, rather than hung vertically as it has been for decades in Bayeux. The 70-meter-long 11th-century embroidery depicting the Norman conquest of England will be shown in London from September 10, 2026, to July 11, 2027, with tickets priced between £25 and £33. The museum promises an 'immersive' experience featuring raking light, digital devices, and loaned objects to contextualize the 58 scenes and 626 characters.

Anti-Russia Protests Spread Beyond the Biennale and Into Venice

Protests against the reopening of the Russian pavilion erupted at the Venice Biennale and spread across the city on the second day of the 61st edition. Visual artist Shalva Nikvashvili, who grew up in post-Soviet Georgia, began a silent performance wearing a muzzle-style mask and carrying a chair, holding a sign reading “La Biennale di Venezia” and “violence.” Shortly after, a group of about 20 protesters led by Pussy Riot co-founder Nadya Tolokonnikova gathered outside the Russian pavilion, chanting against Vladimir Putin, waving Ukrainian flags, and releasing a pink smoke flare. The protests followed the Biennale's decision to allow Russia to participate for the first time since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, despite calls from artists and politicians to exclude the country.