The Fairwinds Fine Art Exhibition is returning to Cowes Yacht Haven on the Isle of Wight from May 1 to 4, featuring works by 13 local artists. Entry is free, and all proceeds will support the Andrew Cassell Foundation, the Ring Daisy Bus, and Mountbatten Isle of Wight. The exhibition was inspired by the late John Garlick, a sailor and art enthusiast, and is continued by his family and artist Peter Allen.
William & Mary students showcased their handmade artworks in the Hart Gallery's "Handmade" exhibit, held in conjunction with the Ampersand International Arts Festival. Curated by alumna Zara Fina Stasi '12, a Richmond-based artist and founder of Good for the Bees, the multimedia exhibition featured approximately a dozen student submissions including assemblage, collage, sculpture, sewn hangings, and traditional painting. Student curators Gibran Adnan '27 and Rebecca Graber '27 collaborated with Stasi to select and install the works, which explored themes of experimentation, self-expression, and the human process of creating by hand.
The San Bernardino County Museum presents 'Evidence of Us,' a new exhibition by artist E. Tyler Burton, running from May 9 through September 6. The show features sculptures, projections, textile installations, cyanotypes, and participatory elements that explore the material record of contemporary life, using everyday items like plastic bottles, clothing, and packaging as artifacts. An opening reception will be held on May 9 from 3–6 p.m.
Studio A, a leading Australian supported studio for artists with intellectual disability, is celebrating its tenth anniversary with a retrospective exhibition titled "SAD, MAD, THINKING birthday." The show features iconic Archibald Prize portraits by the studio's finalists, works that inspired major public artworks, and standout pieces from across the studio's artists. It culminates in a dining room installation created in collaboration with designers and brands including Mud Australia, Canberra Glassworks, Alémais, Erth, and Armadillo.
Senior contemporary artist Parvathi Nayar's solo exhibition explores the interconnectedness of human histories and natural forces, focusing on themes of salt, memory, and ocean currents. The show features works that examine how human narratives are shaped by and inseparable from environmental elements, as described in a review by Deepa Natarajan Lobo.
King Charles III and Queen Camilla made a surprise visit to Christie’s headquarters in New York on April 29, 2026, following a White House dinner and address to Congress. They attended a gala for the King’s Trust, a charity supporting young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, rather than bidding on auction lots like a $100 million Jackson Pollock or a $60 million Roy Lichtenstein. The event, co-chaired by Lionel Richie, drew guests including Martha Stewart and Anna Wintour, and featured a dinner in the James Christie Room. Christie’s CEO Bonnie Brennan curtsied to the king, and the royals viewed the new rostrum designed by Jony Ive, set to debut in New York during Christie’s May marquee week.
Nine artists, including Hiroshi Sugimoto, Irene Neuwirth, and Umberto Pasti, share personal reflections on unforgettable gardens from around the world. Each contributor describes a specific garden that left a lasting impression, ranging from historic estates to wild natural landscapes, highlighting the sensory and emotional impact of these spaces.
Ittai Gradel, the Israel-born Danish gem expert who alerted the British Museum to the theft of thousands of antiquities from its collection after discovering them for sale on eBay, died on April 28 of renal cancer at age 61. Days before his death, British Museum officials visited him in hospice and presented him with a rarely awarded medal for his service. Gradel first warned deputy director Jonathan Williams in 2021 that artifacts were being sold online, identified veteran curator Peter Higgs as the culprit, and provided detailed evidence. After the museum failed to act, Gradel contacted then-director Hartwig Fischer; two years later, Higgs was fired, and Fischer and Williams left the institution amid the scandal.
The first large-scale exhibition in America dedicated to manga as an art form, 'Art of Manga,' will debut on the East Coast at the Brooklyn Museum on October 3. Featuring over 600 original drawings from legendary creators such as Junji Itō, Eiichiro Oda (One Piece), Hirohiko Araki (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure), Rumiko Takahashi (InuYasha), and Tite Kubo (Bleach), the show traces manga's evolution from foundational artists like Chiba Tetsuya and Akatsuka Fujio to contemporary voices. The exhibition also highlights themes including coming of age, LGBTQ+ rights, and environmentalism, and originally opened at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
Artist Alma Allen has been selected as America's representative at the Venice Biennale, sparking controversy due to the unusual selection process under President Trump. The pavilion is commissioned by the newly formed American Arts Conservancy, led by Jenni Parido, who previously ran a pet food lifestyle shop and entered Trump's orbit through Mar-a-Lago pet charity events. Following the announcement, Allen's galleries Olney Gleason and Mendes Wood DM dropped him, but he was quickly picked up by high-profile gallery Perrotin. The article examines how the Biennale and its attendant drama might affect Allen's market, noting his longtime collectors include Beth Rudin DeWoody, Peter Morton, Jack Pierson, and others, while his auction prices have remained modest.
The Denver Art Museum (DAM) held its annual Luncheon by Design fundraiser, celebrating the 60-year career of costume designer Bob Mackie as a prelude to the upcoming DIVA exhibition opening in fall 2026. The event featured a conversation between Joe McFate, Mackie's long-time design director, and Jill D'Alessandro, DAM's director and curator of the Avenir Institute of Textile Arts, sharing stories behind Mackie's iconic costumes worn by Cher, Tina Turner, and P!NK. Funds raised support the DIVA exhibition, which will run from October 4, 2026, to January 31, 2027, at the museum.
The article announces the East Coast debut of the 'Art of Manga' exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. This marks the first time the show, which explores the history and cultural impact of Japanese manga, is presented on the East Coast of the United States.
ARTnews has published a list of seven art books to look forward to in May 2026, covering a wide range of topics from contemporary theory and AI imagery to historical biographies and the Venice Biennale. Featured titles include Dena Yago's collected writings 'That Figures,' Victoria Johnson's biography of Frederic Church 'Glorious Country,' Trevor Paglen's 'How to See Like a Machine,' Nicholas Fox Weber's 'Anni Albers: A Life,' Massimiliano Gioni's 'High Waters: An Oral History of the Venice Biennale,' Rennie McDougall's 'Nonstop Bodies: How Dance Shaped New York City,' and Paul Elie's 'Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex and Controversy in the 1980s.'
London's Whitechapel Gallery has appointed economist Mariana Mazzucato as its first economist-in-residence, a three-year role aimed at rethinking how museums generate revenue and demonstrate social value. The gallery faces a £880,458 deficit, a 325% increase from the previous year, due to declining exhibition income, reduced trust and foundation funding, and cuts in Arts Council England grants. Mazzucato, a professor at University College London and director of the Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose, will advocate for treating culture as a strategic public investment.
New York curator Lumi Tan has organized the 2026 Converge 45 triennial in Portland, Oregon, titled "Here, To You, Now." Running from August 27 across more than 15 venues, the triennial prioritizes performances and time-based artworks over traditional gallery exhibitions, featuring both local and visiting artists. Tan, whose background includes stints at the Kitchen, Luna Luna, and Frieze New York, selected five standout artists: Lex Brown (presenting an operatic video and installation), Trisha Baga (a 3D video installation about AI and parenting), Rose Salane (archival works involving Princess Diana’s shoes), and Linda K. Johnson (a choreographer mapping Portland’s dance network).
London's Design Museum is opening "NIGO: From Japan with Love," the first UK retrospective dedicated to Japanese designer Nigo, founder of streetwear brand A Bathing Ape (BAPE) and current artistic director of Kenzo. The exhibition, featuring over 700 objects including rare archival garments, a recreation of Nigo's teenage bedroom, and ceramics inside a life-size glass tea house, traces his career from 1980s Tokyo street culture to global fashion influence.
Telfair Museums will present "Impressionism and Modernity: French and American Painting" at the Jepson Center for the Arts from May 15 through August 16, 2026. Organized for the museum's 140th anniversary, the exhibition brings together Telfair's collection of American Impressionist works with key French Impressionist paintings from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., featuring artists such as Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley, and Vincent van Gogh. The show explores Impressionism's origins in France, its transatlantic influence, and its impact on American art and identity, with works addressing themes of modern life, leisure, the city, and nostalgia for nature.
The German Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale will present the work of two women artists, Henrike Naumann and Sung Tieu, following the death of Naumann at age 41 in February 2026. Curated by Kathleen Reinhardt, director of the Georg Kolbe Museum in Berlin, the pavilion's project, titled "Ruin," explores the dual meanings of the word in English and German—architectural decay versus economic, social, or moral collapse. The exhibition draws on research into East Germany (DDR) and the post-reunification period, using the pavilion's fascist architecture as a lens to examine historical ruptures and their impact on the present. For the first time in its history, the German Pavilion is represented solely by women, mirroring the Italian Pavilion.
Gérard Lhéritier, founder of the art investment firm Aristophil, has pleaded guilty in a French court under a procedure known as comparution sur reconnaissance préalable de culpabilité (CRPC), effectively a plea bargain. On April 14, he admitted responsibility for fraud and deceptive commercial practices after more than a decade of denial. This late admission, made just before his expected incarceration, reduces his sentence from the five years of imprisonment handed down in December 2025 to two years under electronic monitoring. The case stems from Aristophil’s collapse, which involved selling shares in manuscripts and historical documents as attractive investments, leaving thousands of investors heavily impacted.
The Lawrence Art Center's Hang12 program, a group of high school students who curate art shows and events, unveiled 32 new pieces of art in the New Hampshire Street parking garage in Lawrence, Kansas. The artworks, designed by Lawrence High School juniors Wren Jay and Rilo Scholz, celebrate native Kansas plants and animals and were collectively painted and assembled by Hang12 members. A ribbon-cutting ceremony featured remarks from multidisciplinary artist Mona Cliff, who completed a mural in the same garage in 2025, and a tour of the new works.
The Vancouver Biennale has appointed Brazilian artist and documentary filmmaker Marcello Dantas as senior curator for its 2027–29 edition. Dantas, currently art director at the immersive museum Ster Ik in Tulum, Mexico, recently cocurated the 2024 iteration of Saudi Arabia's Desert X AlUla with Maya El Khalil. He has previously organized exhibitions for artists including Ai Weiwei, Anish Kapoor, Shirin Neshat, and Bill Viola, and curated a project by Vik Muniz for the 2013–15 Vancouver Biennale. Dantas plans to shape the event by addressing the city's corporate real estate development alongside its First Nations and colonial history, exploring themes of displacement and belonging.
Shippensburg University senior art students presented their capstone exhibition at the Huber Art Center, featuring works in printmaking, digital art, ceramics, and charcoal drawings. Artists Luke Lindvall, Gerald Pratt, Kaylee Will, Alayna Mandich, and Lily Bramucci explored themes including censorship, artificial intelligence, horror, and personal transformation. Lindvall pushed printmaking onto unconventional surfaces like skateboards and furniture, Pratt addressed over-censorship in politics, Will warned against over-reliance on technology and AI in raising children, Mandich used horror imagery to examine beauty, and Bramucci connected pit-fired ceramics to life choices and hardship.
Artist Adrianna Wallis (born 1981) discovers that her paternal grandmother, painter Diane Esmond (1910–1981), was a victim of Nazi looting during World War II. After being contacted by historians Patricia Helletzgruber and Sophie Juliard, Wallis learns that much of Esmond's work was systematically destroyed by the ERR, the Nazi organization responsible for art theft in occupied countries. This revelation sparks a personal investigation that becomes a podcast for Arte Radio titled "Il restera la gravité," blending documentary, autobiographical inquiry, and sound installation. Wallis delves into archives, examining microfilms and lists that detail 46 of Esmond's paintings—each methodically described and declared destroyed, such as "Woman in blue evening dress: annihilated."
Was wir wegwerfen, verschwindet nicht
The Museum Ostwall at the Dortmunder U in Dortmund has opened a new exhibition titled "Müll – die globalen Wege des Abfalls" ("Waste – The Global Paths of Garbage"), curated by Christina Danick and Michael Griff. Featuring around 50 international artworks from the 20th and 21st centuries, including two newly commissioned pieces, the show uses art to explore waste as material, motif, and aesthetic strategy. Key works include Kader Attia's "Los de Arriba y Los de Abajo," which addresses power imbalances through the lens of garbage in Hebron, and historical pieces by César Baldaccini, Arman, and HA Schult. The exhibition also highlights contemporary issues such as e-waste, global waste trafficking, and the environmental impact of industrial nations on the Global South.
Artist Beeple (Mike Winkelmann) has installed "Regular Animals" at Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie, featuring robot dogs with hyper-realistic silicone heads of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, and Beeple himself. The dogs roam the gallery and periodically "poo" printed images of their surroundings that have been transformed by artificial intelligence, with each dog's output reflecting the style of its figurehead—for example, the Picasso dog produces Cubist-style images. The work premiered at Art Basel Miami Beach 2025, where Beeple distributed the prints with certificates reading "100% organic GMO-free dog s**t" and QR codes for free NFTs.
Maximilien Durand has been appointed to a new role in the art world, as reported by Le Journal des Arts. The article announces his position, though specific details of the appointment are not provided in the given text.
Tate Britain will mount the first major exhibition exploring the transformative impact of fashion, art, and photography on 1990s Britain. Curated by former British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful, the show titled “The 90s: Art and Fashion” will bring together over 100 works—including photographs, paintings, films, sculptures, objects, and garments—from nearly 70 artists. It runs from August 8, 2026 through February 14, 2027.
The Chester County Art Association in West Chester hosted the Chester County High School Art Exhibition and PA 6th District Congressional Art Competition reception on April 15. The event featured nearly 500 student works including sculptures, oil paintings, colored pencil pieces, and photography, with awards presented for both competitions. Josiah Fung of Wilmington Friends School won first place in the congressional competition for his piece "Friends for Life," which will be displayed in the U.S. Capitol for one year. The exhibition was coordinated by the Chester County Intermediate Unit and partially funded by CCRES Educational and Behavioral Health Services.
American artist Beeple (Mike Winkelmann) has installed an interactive piece titled "Regular Animals" at Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie, featuring robot dogs with hyper-realistic silicone heads modeled after Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, and Beeple himself. The dogs roam the gallery and "poo" printed AI-transformed images of their surroundings, with each dog's output reflecting the worldview of its human figure—for example, the Picasso dog produces Cubist-style images. The work, first shown at Art Basel Miami Beach 2025, includes QR codes on prints that grant access to free NFTs.
Neon, a major Greek contemporary art non-profit founded by businessman and patron Dimitris Daskalopoulos, is closing after 14 years, stating it has fulfilled its cultural and social mission. Between 2012 and 2026, the organization presented 44 exhibitions across museums, historical sites, and public spaces, commissioning 105 works by Greek and international artists. Notable projects include donating Antony Gormley's sculpture 'RULE II' (2019) to the island of Delos—the first contemporary work permanently installed at an ancient site—and funding the €1.4m renovation of the Lenorman Street Tobacco Factory in Athens into a cultural center. Neon will present its final exhibition, the third installment of 'Michael Rakowitz & Ancient Cultures,' later this year at the Old Acropolis Museum.