Montreal artist Abbas Akhavan's installation "Entre chien et loup" transforms the Canadian pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale into a living climate system, featuring a humid, Amazon-like environment with a pond of Victoria water lilies. The seeds were sourced from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and germinated at the Orto Botanico di Padova, with the lilies growing and blooming over the course of the biennale.
Palestinian artist Samia Halaby is presenting a solo stand at Frieze Masters in London, hosted by Sfeir-Semler Gallery. This follows the abrupt cancellation of her retrospective at Indiana University Bloomington's Eskenazi Museum of Art last year, after staff raised concerns about her social media posts expressing support for Palestinian causes during the Israel-Gaza war. A petition launched by her grandniece garnered over 15,000 signatures, and the gallery reports sustained interest in her work from both private collectors and museums.
Ray Burgoyne, a self-taught painter, carpenter, and musician, has died at the age of 80. After a career as a carpenter and set builder, he began exhibiting his paintings in the late 1980s and spent the next three decades organizing numerous exhibitions along the Essex and Suffolk coastline. His work, characterized by thick oil paint, abstract forms, and deep colors, drew on carnivalesque characters and forgotten landscapes. He also played drums in the 1960s mod band the Flowerpots, which opened for the Animals and the Who.
Michael Greathouse's exhibition "Child's Play" opened at the Step Mother Nature gallery in Bloomingdale, featuring a dozen portraits of discarded stuffed animals. The show marks the gallery's third season reopening and is paired with a toy drive for the Saranac Lake Holiday Helpers, a local volunteer group that collects toys for children at Christmas. Greathouse's paintings depict battle-worn toys with scars, ripped fabric, and chipped paint, aiming to capture the history and soul of each object.
how nada next generation of collectors salons
The New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA) has launched a new initiative called NADA Collects, a series of salons and educational events designed to demystify the art-buying process. Through gallery walks, dinners, and informal Q&A sessions, the program addresses the intimidation factor that often prevents potential buyers from entering the contemporary art market. By fostering a space where "no question is too dumb," NADA aims to bridge the gap between galleries and a new generation of collectors who may feel alienated by the perceived elitism of the art world.
This article, titled 'Art Notes, May 20,' is a roundup of local art events and exhibitions on Long Beach Island, New Jersey. It highlights Alexander Taylor's solo exhibit 'Washed Upon the Shore' at the Ocean County Library in Surf City, featuring his marine-life paintings created with purified ocean water. Other events include summer art classes by Jamie Jarka at multiple venues, the 'Art in Bloom' floral design event at the Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts and Sciences, and ongoing shows at the Pine Shores Art Association's galleries. The article also announces a deadline for the LBIF 'Coast' exhibition.
Artist and teacher Jamie Jarka, creator of the popular Milo the Seagull mascot for Long Beach Island, has expanded her merchandise to Ron Jon Surf Shop in Ship Bottom, selling prints, stickers, magnets, and nightlights. Jarka will also teach weekly summer art classes at three Island venues: Bayview Park in Brant Beach, Firefly Gallery in Surf City, and Sea Shell Resort and Beach Club in Beach Haven, with schedules and pricing detailed for each location. Additionally, the article covers the 51st annual Art in Bloom movement, with events at Pine Shores Art Association's Stafford gallery and the Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts and Sciences (LBIF), where garden club members create floral arrangements inspired by artworks. Other news includes the PSAA Tuckerton Art Center's "Blooming Spring" show, a "Glimpses of America" exhibition at Beach Haven Borough Gallery, and a call for South Jersey photographers to submit work for an LBIF photography exhibition and fundraiser celebrating LBI lifeguards.
The Hessel Museum at Bard College has launched its annual spring exhibition season, featuring twelve distinct curatorial projects titled "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today." Organized by graduating students from the Center for Curatorial Studies (CCS), the showcase serves as a professional debut for an emerging cohort of curators. The projects range from solo retrospectives of under-recognized artists like Brazilian painter Maria Auxiliadora Silva to explorations of feminist art history through the work of A.I.R. Gallery co-founder Anne Healy.
Japanese contemporary artist Mari Ito has opened her first solo exhibition in India, titled 'Origin of Desire,' at Bikaner House in New Delhi. The show features recent paintings and a large-scale installation created between 2024 and the present, exploring themes of identity, resistance, and the human body. Ito's practice is rooted in Nihonga, a classical Japanese painting technique using mineral pigments and sumi ink on washi paper or silk, which she blends with contemporary subject matter. A highlight is the installation 'Flowers Blooming in Defiance of the Bombs,' previously shown in Spain and reimagined for the Indian context. The exhibition is supported by Galerie Geek Art, which aims to connect Asian contemporary artists with Indian audiences.
ARTE Museum New York has opened at Chelsea Piers, a 52,000-square-foot immersive digital art experience created by the Korean art-tech studio d’strict. The exhibition, themed 'Eternal Nature,' features multisensory rooms with lifelike digital waterfalls, blooming flowers, ocean waves, jungle animals, and a tornado, using cutting-edge projection mapping and interactive technology that responds to movement, sound, and scent. Visitors can also enjoy an interactive animal sketching station and unwind at the ARTE Tea Bar. The museum has locations in Miami, Las Vegas, and Dubai as well.
Abu Dhabi's 421 Arts Campus, an independent arts platform supporting emerging artists from the UAE and the SWANA region, celebrates its 10-year anniversary on November 15, 2025. Over the past decade, it has supported over 1,500 creative practitioners, presented more than 50 exhibitions, commissioned hundreds of new works, and delivered around 2,000 programs including residencies, grants, and public events. It has also mentored over 60 interns and worked with more than 250 regional designers through its Dukkan421 design store.
Local artist Joseph Gargasz will hold an art exhibition titled "A Familiar Place" at the Eulalia Building in Monroe on Saturday, May 3, 2025, from 6 to 9 p.m. The show features over 30 original oil paintings and drawings, all available for purchase. Gargasz, a Lorain, Ohio native with a BFA from the Columbus College of Art and Design, has studied in Japan and participated in international stone carving symposia. His work has been exhibited in China, Germany, and Japan, and is held in collections including the City of Hillsborough, North Carolina, and the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University, where he currently serves as Director of Exhibition Design.
A pro-Palestine mural at the University of North Carolina (UNC) in Chapel Hill was boarded over overnight on August 17 by university administration without warning to the art department. The mural, created by students and community members in a course taught by artist Hồng-An Trương, had been displayed in the Hanes Art Center lobby for over a year. It features collaged prints in the colors of the Palestinian flag and the text “I told you I loved you and I wanted genocide to stop.” University officials cited the need to remove the artwork after its one-year display period and to repair the wall, but faculty and students have condemned the action as censorship.
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill to extend the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery (HEAR) Act, which was set to expire at the end of the year. The Senate had already approved the extension, and the legislation now awaits the President's signature to become law.
Central Illinois is hosting a diverse array of art and cultural exhibitions across several key institutions and galleries this spring. Highlights include the "Art on the Offense" group show at the Contemporary Art Center of Peoria, the "Lights, Camera, Fashion!" exhibition featuring the Lois Jett Historical Fashion Collection, and multiple annual student showcases at University Galleries and Merwin & Wakeley Galleries. Local spaces like the McLean County Arts Center and Eaton Studio Gallery are also actively engaging the community through regional artist spotlights and educational outreach for local students.
In una mostra a Napoli è possibile perdersi senza urgenza in un equilibrio instabile. La recensione
The exhibition "A Gentle Collapse," curated by Marta Ferrara at Andrea Nuovo Home Gallery in Naples, explores the contemporary psychic state through a spatial and perceptual construction. Featuring works in photography, painting, engraving, and installation, the show creates a sense of instability, with meaning emerging gradually through shifts between familiar and altered forms. Artists include Dorottya Vékony, Matteo Silverii, Flora Villaumié, and Zoë Pelikan, whose works engage with themes of genetic engineering, serial accumulation, and subtle disorientation across two gallery levels.
The winners of the Leicester Open exhibition have been announced, with Simon Farrow winning the prestigious Attenborough Award for his drawing "Clock Tower: Heaven or Hell," which depicts Leicester's Clock Tower with a street preacher and passers-by. Farrow, an amateur artist from Leicester, was selected from over 1,000 entries across paintings, sculptures, prints, and photographs. Other winners include Peter J Lester, Lisa Davies, Alexis Hutson, and several young artists in categories for ages 5-18. All winning works are on display at Leicester Museum & Art Gallery until January 30, 2026, with adult artworks available for purchase starting at £50.
Indiana University Bloomington has appointed Mindy N. Besaw as the next Wilma E. Kelley Director of the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, effective August 15. Besaw, who brings over two decades of curatorial and museum leadership experience, currently serves as director of fellowships, research and university partnerships and curator of American art at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. She succeeds interim director Mariah Keller and will oversee all facets of the museum's strategy, operations, and engagement, including exhibitions, collections, teaching partnerships, and public programming.
The Pharmacy Gallery and Art Space in Springfield, Illinois, is set to participate in the international Slow Art Day on April 11. This grassroots event encourages visitors to move away from the typical museum-going experience of rushing through exhibits, instead focusing deeply on a small selection of works. The Springfield location will feature concurrent exhibitions by Bob Waldmire and photographer David Schwartz, whose work will be featured on upcoming Route 66 Centennial stamps.
The 'Fall of Freedom: Fighting Fascism Through Art' exhibition opens this weekend in Bloomington, featuring over 40 works by eight local artists. The event runs Friday evening and Saturday at 714 W. Kirkwood Ave, with sculptures, paintings, ceramics, live music by Travers Marks, protest poster-making, and a 'Wall of Dissent.' Admission is free, with donations and art sales benefiting the Community Kitchen of Monroe County. Artists include main coordinator Paul Pruitt, Bert Gilbert, and Lance Pruitt, whose works respond to political themes including Donald Trump, fear as a political tool, and the struggles of farmers and immigrants.
Hangar Art Co. in downtown Bloomington has opened "Women Taking Up Space," a group exhibition organized by local artist Lori Laughlin featuring works by nine women artists including Jenni Bateman, Deana Moore Schoolcraft, Cindy Lawson Flynn, Jane Reed Wilson, Cathie Haab, Kristine Stayton, Basha Ontiveros, and Laughlin herself. The show, inspired by Mexican artist Cesar Cruz's quote about comforting the disturbed and disturbing the comfortable, emerged from conversations among the Plein Air of McLean County painting group following the presidential election. Works include Jane Reed Wilson's "Flowers are Lovely But I'd Prefer a Revolution" and Laughlin's portrait of Gisèle Pelicot, with a QR code linking to a Time article about Pelicot's public trial for sexual assault.
Indiana University Bloomington's art galleries are presenting two exhibitions focused on South African and Indigenous visual culture. "Illusions of Identity: The Colonial Gaze," curated by student Joshua Sinnett at the Community Gallery in the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, contrasts early 20th-century photographs of Native Americans by Joseph K. Dixon with images of Indigenous South Africans by Alfred Duggan-Cronin, examining colonial perspectives. Concurrently, "Coloured Pots (Izinkamba kwamaKhaladi)" at University Collections at McCalla features contemporary ceramics by artist Fileve Tlaloc, who uses amaZulu pottery forms to explore her mixed-race ancestry and challenge colonial racial categories, displayed alongside historical amaZulu vessels.
Nita Draut, a 99-year-old artist who began drawing at age 70, is being honored with a new exhibition at Fusion Art Gallery in Parkville. Staff at Ascend Healthcare noticed her graphite drawings and helped organize the show as she approaches her 100th birthday while receiving hospice care. Draut sketches people she encounters in everyday life, often asking strangers for permission to draw them.
Bloomington, Indiana, is preparing for its First Friday gallery openings in April 2026. The event invites residents and visitors to explore local art spaces, attend weekend festivals, and participate in free family-friendly attractions throughout the city.
Mexican-born artist Cecilia Beaven presents "Inflorescence" at Zolla/Lieberman Gallery, an exhibition featuring large-scale paintings, lithographs, and ceramics. The show transforms the gallery into a lush environment populated by hybrid creatures and vibrant flora, drawing heavily from Aztec mythology and Meso-American creation stories. Key works like "Inflorescence I" and "Inflorescence II" depict human figures as the literal source of blooming botanical life, blending traditional folklore with contemporary aesthetics.