Venice Biennale 2026: How Do You Critique a Posthumous Exhibition?

The article, published by ArtReview, examines the upcoming 61st Venice Biennale (2026), titled *In Minor Keys*, which was conceived by artistic director Koyo Kouoh before her death from cancer in May 2025 at age 57. The exhibition, based on Kouoh's drafted concept and completed by a curatorial team including Rory Tsapayi, Siddhartha Mitter, Marie Hélène Pereira, Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, and Rasha Salti, adopts a musical metaphor of "minor-ness" and aims to avoid the pitfalls of previous Biennales by focusing on soul frequencies and dissonant harmony rather than direct commentary on world crises. The author, Martin Herbert, questions how critics will respond to a posthumous exhibition of this unprecedented scale, noting that previous artistic directors like Robert Storr, Cecilia Alemani, Christine Macel, and Adriano Pedrosa have faced varied critical receptions.

NADA New York 2026 Welcomes 121 International Galleries

The New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) has announced the 12th edition of NADA New York, taking place from May 13 to 17, 2026, at the Starrett-Lehigh Building in West Chelsea. The fair will feature over 121 galleries, art spaces, and non-profit organizations from 15 countries and 46 cities, including 45 NADA Members and 51 first-time exhibitors such as Brigitte Mulholland (Paris), The Address (Brescia), and Central Server Works (Los Angeles). Returning initiatives include the TD Curated Spotlight, organized by Anthony Elms of the Mattress Factory, and NADA Presents, a series of conversations and performances. Highlights include solo presentations by Malcolm McCormick, Jonathan Torres, Effie Wanyi Li, Xiaoyi Gao, and others.

The Art Trade Is Taking Calculated Risks With A.I.

The article examines how the art trade is cautiously experimenting with artificial intelligence, noting that while AI tools are being developed to attract newer collectors, the industry remains heavily reliant on trust and personal relationships that technology cannot replicate. It also reports on Fair Warning's new 'No Warning' sealed-bidding auction format, reflecting a rise in private auctions, and highlights a Sotheby's New York sale of the Jean and Terry de Gunzburg collection that set a U.S. record for design auctions at $96 million, led by a set of 15 mirrors by Claude Lalanne for Yves Saint Laurent that sold for $33.5 million.

Salon review – like getting to know fascinating guests at a fabulous party

The article reviews a salon-style exhibition curated by Matthew Higgs, director of New York's White Columns gallery, at an unnamed gallery space. The show features 43 paintings by a diverse group of artists including Denzil Forrester, Andrew Cranston, Kaye Donachie, Merlin James, Margot Bergman, Gillian Carnegie, Bill Lynch, and Adam Keay, arranged around mismatched chairs facing white windows painted on the walls. The reviewer describes moving through the space, engaging with individual works, and highlights the eclectic, unthemed curation that prioritizes personal taste and conversation over academic or political messaging.

Exhibition | Nengi Omuku, 'We Were Like Those Who Dreamed' at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Pippy Houldsworth Gallery in London presents 'We Were Like Those Who Dreamed,' the second solo exhibition by Nigerian artist Nengi Omuku. The show features new paintings that explore the politics of green spaces in urban centers, particularly Lagos, where rapid urbanization has created a 'concrete jungle.' Omuku transposes figures from contemporary and archival images of Lagos into lush, Impressionistic landscapes painted with pointillist brushstrokes and a Fauvist palette, using the garden as a radical symbol of equality and resistance. She paints on sanyan, a hand-spun Yoruba cloth, working with local artisans in Ilorin to revive the tradition. Works like 'Dream Logic' and 'One Particular Man' address socio-economic tensions, while 'A quiet nation' captures the dichotomy between urban Brutalist architecture and natural foliage.

Brazilian women bring Latin American art to the New York collector circuit.

Two Brazilian women, Fernanda Mazzuco and Luciana Solano, run Art in Brackets, a consultancy and art advisory firm based in New York. For the first time, they have opened a public exhibition space on Walker Street in Tribeca, featuring a collective show centered on the African diaspora and transatlantic connections. The exhibition includes works by artists such as Santídio Pereira and Madalena dos Santos Reinbolt, with prices ranging from $3,800 to $140,000. The company, founded in 2022, connects collectors with Brazilian and Latin American artists, operating as 'wall curators' in partnership with various galleries.

Ittai Gradel, Whistleblower in British Museum Gem Theft, Dies at 61

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.

Valerio Adami | Valerio Adami @Miart 2026 (2026) | Art & Prints

Valerio Adami, a prominent Italian painter born in 1935, is offering a new acrylic-on-canvas work titled "Valerio Adami @Miart 2026" (2026) through Dep Art Gallery. The painting, sized 198 × 147 cm, is a unique piece accompanied by a certificate of authenticity. Adami is known for his graphic, comic-inspired narrative figuration, with works held in major museums including MoMA, Centre Pompidou, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Exhibition | William Turnbull, 'Origins (1946–1959)' at Karma, Chelsea, New York, United States

Scottish artist William Turnbull (1922–2012) is the subject of a new exhibition titled 'Origins (1946–1959)' at Karma gallery in Chelsea, New York. The show surveys Turnbull's early career, focusing on the transformative period after World War II when he moved between Surrealist Paris and Abstract Expressionist New York. It features key works such as the sculpture 'Horse' (1946), inspired by a Parthenon marble at the British Museum, and 'Playground (Game)' (1949), reflecting his interest in phenomenology and movement. The exhibition traces his evolution from an illustrator and Slade School student to a sculptor and painter who engaged elemental forms like the horse, standing figure, and human head.

Artists at work: A peek behind the canvas

The Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach has opened a small exhibition titled "Artists at Work," curated by first-time curator Sarah Bass, a curatorial research associate at the museum. The show features paintings, photographs, and sculptures that focus on the creative process rather than finished works, including pieces by Charles Griffin Farr, Hiram Williams, Ben Benn, Bay Williams, Robert Bailey, and William Zorach. Highlights include a self-portrait by Farr, Williams's seemingly incomplete "Big Studio Table," and Zorach's terra-cotta sketch for "Youth" displayed alongside the final marble sculpture. Photographs of artists like Henri Matisse, Georges Braque, and Fernand Léger in their studios further emphasize the theme of the artist at work.

Is A Random Unknown Artist More Valuable Than Picasso? AI Thinks So.

An experiment using a custom AI model to evaluate artistic value independent of market context found that the model assigned a seven-figure price to an unknown street artist's work while valuing a Picasso at under $1,000. The project, run by an art journalist with a data scientist and an AI expert, trained a Fine Art Large Vision Model on millions of images and price data. Without metadata like artist name or gallery affiliation, the model's predictions were technically interesting but commercially useless; only when those market signals were added did predictions align with real auction outcomes.

Collector Julia Stoschek Closes Down Berlin Exhibition Venue After 10 Years In Favor of International Projects

Julia Stoschek, a leading art collector and ARTnews Top 200 figure, is closing her Berlin exhibition venue after a decade of operation. The 3,000-square-meter space in the former Czech Cultural Center, which opened in 2016, will shut at the end of October 2026, having hosted 22 exhibitions and attracted 450,000 visitors. The Stoschek Foundation will maintain its Düsseldorf venue, while Stoschek shifts focus to international projects, such as the recent Los Angeles exhibition “What a Wonderful World: An Audiovisual Poem,” curated by Udo Kittelmann.

Jarvis Cocker and Kim Sion to curate art exhibition at Hepworth Wakefield

Jarvis Cocker and his wife Kim Sion will curate a new exhibition titled "Hodge Podge" at the Hepworth Wakefield, opening in May 2027. The show brings together a personal selection of works by artists including Jeremy Deller, Peter Doig, Barbara Hepworth, and others, alongside unknown outsider and visionary artists never before exhibited in UK public museums. The exhibition aims to challenge conventional ideas of art and includes an immersive Dreamachine, a flickering light device co-invented by Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerville in 1959.

Klimt, Modigliani, and Freud Lead $200M Lewis Collection at Sotheby’s London

Sotheby’s London will auction a collection of 50 masterpieces from billionaire Joe Lewis and his daughter Vivienne in June 2025, expected to exceed $200 million. Highlights include Gustav Klimt’s 1902 portrait of Gertha Felsőványi (estimate £20–30 million), Lucian Freud’s never-auctioned *Woman in a Grey Sweater* (1988), and Amedeo Modigliani’s *Homme à la Pipe* (1918), making its auction debut after 45 years unseen. The sale follows a successful March auction of School of London works from the same collection, which brought $47.7 million.

​​​​Art Movements: Curators Named for El Museo's Latine Art Survey

El Museo del Barrio has announced the curatorial team for the 2027 edition of La Trienal, its landmark survey of Latine contemporary art. The show will be organized by Susanna V. Temkin, interim chief curator at the museum; Zuna Maza, assistant curator; and guest curator Kaitlin Garcia-Maestas, formerly of Socrates Sculpture Park. In other biennial news, Amanda Carneiro and Raphael Fonseca were named chief curators of the 37th Bienal de São Paulo, the jury of the 61st Venice Biennale resigned after omitting Russia and Israel from awards consideration, and Marcello Dantas was appointed senior curator of the Vancouver Biennale. Hedwig Fijen will step down as director of Manifesta, with Emilia van Lynden and Catherine Nichols taking over in a new co-leadership model. Janne Sirén will resign as director of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Kate Kraczon was named chief curator at the Montclair Art Museum, and Charlie White was appointed dean of WashU’s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. Marina Abramović has designed wine labels for the Ornellaia estate, with limited-edition bottles to be auctioned by Bonhams to benefit the Guggenheim Pop exhibition.

Sur Arte Radio et dans une expo, l’enquête d’Adrianna Wallis sur les traces de sa grand-mère peintre spoliée par les nazis

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."

‘Still lots to talk about’: UK galleries team up to shine light on female artists

A new exhibition titled 'Making Her Mark' opens at Penlee House in Penzance, Cornwall, featuring works by prominent British female artists such as Tracey Emin, Barbara Hepworth, Laura Knight, Elizabeth Forbes, and Gillian Ayres. The show is a collaboration between Penlee House, Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum, and Kirkcaldy Galleries in Fife, Scotland, with each contributing more than 20 works. It is the first exhibition launched under Art Fund's £5 million 'Going Places' programme, which unites 20 museums across the UK over five years to share and celebrate their collections.

Big Crisis, Small Gestures

Große Krise, kleine Gesten

The article reviews the second edition of the Klima Biennale Wien, which opened in early April in Vienna. It notes that while the biennale aims to address the urgent triple crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution, its execution falls short. The exhibition features symbolic works such as a beached whale, a broken boat, and a compostable SUV sculpture, but these motifs feel repetitive and lack the necessary impact. The author contrasts these with historical precedents like Menashe Kadishman's 1978 Venice Biennale installation and Joseph Beuys' "7000 Eichen" (1982), arguing that the themes of nature and sustainability are not new, only the urgency has intensified.

Il mitico artista-ceramista italiano Nanni Valentini torna negli Stati Uniti con una mostra sulla sua storia. Le immagini

The Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York, is hosting "Interspaces," a retrospective exhibition dedicated to Italian artist Nanni Valentini (1932–1985), a pivotal figure in ceramic art. Curated by Garth Johnson of the Everson Museum and Luca Bochicchio of the Museo della Ceramica di Savona, with oversight by art historian Flaminio Gualdoni, the show runs until September 6, 2026. It traces Valentini's evolution from functional pottery to conceptual wall works, featuring pieces like "I segni della terra" (1981) and "Impronta-totem" (1979), on loan from ABC-ARTE gallery. The exhibition marks Valentini's return to the U.S., where he first gained international recognition at the museum's 1958 Ceramic International, introduced by Lucio Fontana.

The art of politics: how global conflicts are playing out in this year's Venice Biennale

Israel is making a controversial return to the 2025 Venice Art Biennale after its pavilion was locked in 2024 with a note demanding a ceasefire in Gaza. The artist representing Israel, Belu-Simion Fainaru, will present his project "Rose of Nothingness" in the Arsenale, while Russia also returns to the Biennale after its Giardini pavilion was reassigned to Bolivia in 2024. The Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA) has renewed calls for a boycott and is organizing strike action to disrupt the event, accusing Israel of genocide.

The Italian artist who sails from the Island of Elba to Saint Helena: talking about power and making a film

L’artista italiano che parte dall’Isola d’Elba in barca a vela per raggiungere Sant’Elena: si parla di potere e si gira un film

Italian artist Luca Vitone (born Genoa, 1964) has launched a project titled "Pro Tempore," which involves a two-month sailing journey from the Island of Elba—Napoleon Bonaparte's first place of exile—to the remote island of Saint Helena, where Napoleon died in exile. The voyage, aboard the boat Adriatica, includes four intermediate stops (Balearic Islands, Algeciras, Canary Islands, Cape Verde) and is funded by the 14th edition of the Italian Council grant, in partnership with the Fondazione Oelle. The project explores the concept of temporary power and uses Napoleon's biography and the sea as metaphors for control and instability.

'Art is just about making trouble': Inside Auckland Art Gallery's bold new show

Auckland Art Gallery is preparing to open "Forever Tomorrow: Chinese Art Now," a major exhibition of contemporary Chinese art curated by Hutch Wilco. The show features works from the White Rabbit Collection in Sydney, including a massive 7-meter-high stone sculpture by Xu Zhen, paintings by Shang Liang, and photography by Pixy Liao, who recently won a 2026 Guggenheim Fellowship. Wilco spent three years organizing the exhibition, which includes playful sculptures, paintings, and multimedia works, with significant logistical challenges in transporting large pieces from China.

Your Australian art guide for May 2026 is here

May 2026 brings a packed calendar of art exhibitions across Australia, with highlights including Rone's 'Another TIME' at COMA Gallery in Sydney, the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes at the Art Gallery of NSW, and solo shows by Eleanor Louise Butt, Jordan Gogos, Natalya Hughes, Patricia Piccinini, and Michaela Gleave. Regional venues like Bundanon and Ngununggula also feature major exhibitions, including a posthumous show of Rosalie Gascoigne alongside new commissions by First Nations women artists.

Art Fund launches UK-wide touring programme

Art Fund has launched a UK-wide touring programme called Going Places, backed by £5.36 million from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Julia Rausing Trust. The first exhibition, *Making Her Mark: A Celebration of Women in Art*, opened at Penlee House Gallery & Museum in Penzance, featuring over 60 works from three museum collections alongside community responses. It will travel to Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum and Kirkcaldy Gallery through 2027. The programme plans 12 major touring shows over five years, with six already scheduled, including exhibitions on green spaces, journeys, radical living, art and nature, and community making.

The Female Artists To See at This Year's Venice Biennale

The 61st Venice Biennale returns amid controversy, including calls to exclude Israel, scrutiny over Russia's participation, and the reinstatement of Australian artist Khaled Sabsabi. Despite the political tensions, the exhibition will feature a strong lineup of female artists, from established names like Marina Abramović and Jenny Saville to emerging voices such as Maja Malou Lyse, who becomes the youngest artist to represent Denmark. The 2026 edition also introduces dedicated spaces for Black and Indigenous artists for the first time, with works exploring themes from male fertility to patriarchal violence and resilience.

How Detroit’s Art Scene Is Ushering in a New Chapter for the City

Detroit's art scene is experiencing a resurgence, marked by the reopening of the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) after an eight-month renovation. The museum, now renamed the Julia Reyes Taubman Building, unveiled four new exhibitions, including a career survey of local artist Olayami Dabls titled "Olayami Dabls: Detroit Cosmologies," his first solo museum show in over 40 years. The reopening follows a 2020 reckoning over toxic workplace allegations, leading to the appointment of co-directors Jova Lynne and Marie Madison-Patton, who have refocused the institution on accessibility, civic engagement, and local contemporary art.

Giovanni Segantini at the Marmottan Monet Museum: our photos from the exhibition on the painter of the Alps

The Marmottan Monet Museum in Paris has opened a major retrospective of Giovanni Segantini, an Italian painter known for his Symbolist and Divisionist Alpine landscapes. Titled "I Want to See My Mountains," the exhibition runs from April 29 to August 16, 2026, and features over 60 works including oil paintings, pastels, and drawings, plus around 30 works on paper from European collections. Curated by Gabriella Belli and Diana Segantini, the show traces Segantini's artistic journey from his early days in Italy to his time in the Engadine Valley in Switzerland, where he found inspiration in mountain landscapes. The exhibition is divided into ten sections and also includes a contemporary tribute to Anselm Kiefer, whose works create a dialogue with Segantini's vision.

Philadelphia Museum welcomes Rocky statue with new exhibition | Daily Sabah

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is opening a new exhibition titled "Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments," which explores the cultural and artistic significance of the Rocky Balboa statue that sits at the museum's steps. Guest curator Paul Farber organized the show, which spans over 2,000 years of boxing imagery and includes works by Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Andy Warhol. The exhibition marks a shift in the museum's long-standing ambivalent relationship with the statue, which was originally placed on the steps during filming of the "Rocky" movies and later relocated before returning in 2006. After the exhibition closes in August, the statue will be permanently installed at the top of the museum's steps for the first time.

MOCAD Reopens with New Exhibitions from Detroit Artists

Detroit's Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCAD) has reopened after an eight-month closure for construction, unveiling four new exhibitions as part of its 2026 Spring Exhibition and 20th anniversary. The renovations include a new HVAC system, educational space, and windows that allow passersby to see inside. The building has been renamed the Julia Reyes Taubman Building in honor of the late co-founder, whose family contributed $1.8 million toward the $3 million first phase. Mayor Mary Sheffield toured the exhibitions at an April 23 media preview, praising the museum's role in community healing and access. Featured exhibitions include "Olayami Dabls: Detroit Cosmologies," the first retrospective of the artist's nearly 50-year career, showcasing his evolution from figurative acrylics to abstract collage.

Editor’s Letter: Still, Listening

The 61st Venice Biennale, titled "In Minor Keys" and curated by the late Koyo Kouoh, opens in May 2026, shifting focus from Eurocentric narratives to quieter, relational, and improvisational voices from the Global South. ArtAsiaPacific's May/June issue honors Kouoh's vision with features on artists including Gala Porras-Kim (a 2025 MacArthur Fellow), Khaled Sabsabi (representing Australia), and others like Liang Yuanwei, Yuko Mohri, Mona Hatoum, Tadanori Yokoo, Gayane Umerova, Li Yi-Fan, Hyeree Ro, and Ei Arakawa-Nash, with contributions from a curatorial team that carried Kouoh's work forward after her death in 2025.