C/O Berlin is hosting "Eyes to Fly With," the first major retrospective of Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide in the German capital. The exhibition features approximately 250 works spanning over five decades, ranging from her iconic documentary series of the Seri and Juchitán people to her more introspective studies of Chicano culture in Los Angeles and the personal belongings of Frida Kahlo at Casa Azul.
Manet à la loupe
A new documentary film titled 'Le Monde dans un tableau : les lampes de Manet' offers a detailed investigation into Édouard Manet's final major painting, 'Un bar aux Folies Bergère'. The film features an eclectic mix of interviewees, from a Folies Bergère lighting technician to a Shintō monk and a Tokyo print editor, weaving together art history and broader historical context around the iconic work.
Artist Ai Jing has launched a major solo exhibition titled "Walking in the Sun" at the Shenzhen Museum of Contemporary Art and Urban Planning. Curated by He Guiyan, the multidisciplinary showcase features music, painting, installation, sculpture, and video, all centered around the conceptual theme of "walking" as a philosophical journey. A centerpiece of the show involves a literal connection to the artist's roots, featuring 150 bags of black soil transported from her hometown of Shenyang to create an immersive installation exploring memory and belonging.
The Shenzhen Museum of Contemporary Art and Urban Planning is currently hosting "Walking in the Sun — Ai Jing Art Exhibition 2026," a major solo retrospective of the multidisciplinary artist Ai Jing. Curated by He Guiyan, the exhibition features a diverse range of works including painting, sculpture, and a significant installation involving 150 bags of black soil transported from the artist's hometown of Shenyang. The show is structured into three thematic sections that explore the artist's personal history and her philosophical engagement with the concept of "walking" as a metaphor for life's journey.
Museums across the United States are launching a series of major exhibitions to mark the nation's 250th anniversary. These shows use art and material culture to explore the construction of American identity, featuring themes like migration, modernity, and reinterpretations of national icons.
Arash Nassiri's first institutional solo exhibition, 'A Bug's Life,' has opened at London's Chisenhale Gallery. The show features a moving-image commission set within a sculptural installation, following an insect puppet protagonist through a cavernous mansion in Los Angeles. The mansion is a 'Persian Palace'—a hybrid of Iranian and French Empire architectural styles that emerged in 1960s-70s Iran and was recreated by wealthy Iranian exiles in Los Angeles after the 1979 revolution. Nassiri, who is Tehran-born and Berlin-based, uses the film to explore themes of disorientation, displacement, and the ambiguous dual belonging of Iran's American diaspora.
Mapping Saudi Modern Art’s Origins: “Bedayat” in Riyadh
The exhibition 'Bedayat: Beginnings of the Saudi Art Movement' at Riyadh's National Museum showcased over 250 artworks from the 1960s to 1980s, a period of rapid modernization. It featured archival materials like exhibition catalogs and scholarship letters, alongside paintings grouped into themes such as 'Faces and Features' and 'Social Life,' though the curation largely avoided direct commentary on the era's intense socio-political debates.
The Navajo Nation is currently navigating a complex struggle to preserve its cultural heritage against the lingering effects of colonial-era boarding schools and the modern pressures of social media and urbanization. While elders like Virginia Brown recount the trauma of forced assimilation and language suppression, a new generation is grappling with a decline in Navajo fluency, which UNESCO now classifies as a vulnerable language. Despite these hurdles, community members are utilizing local schools and traditional practices to reclaim their identity.
The Petit Palais in Paris is hosting the first French retrospective dedicated to Károly Ferenczy, a seminal figure in Hungarian art history. Running from April 14 to September 6, 2026, the exhibition features nearly 140 paintings and drawings, many on loan from the Hungarian National Gallery and private collections in Budapest. The showcase traces Ferenczy’s stylistic evolution from naturalism to symbolism and impressionism, highlighting his role as a founder of the Nagybánya artists' colony and a pioneer of en plein air painting in Central Europe.
On April 12, the Reed Gallery opened 'Shuttered Light,' an exhibition of photographs by Deerfield Academy student Albert Yuk (class of 2026). The show juxtaposes staged war scenes from a Beijing film set with real wartime documentation from Israel and Iran, aiming to highlight media bias and the blurring of authenticity in news imagery. Yuk, who has traveled to conflict zones including Israel, Iran, Kazakhstan, and Afghanistan, began his photography career working for Pulitzer Prize-winning Chinese photojournalist Liu Heung Shing. The exhibition includes personal favorites like 'Intersection of Tradition and Modernity' and 'Warrior’s Respite,' reflecting themes of freedom, liberty, and gender roles.
The Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State is hosting the exhibition 'Insistent Presence: Contemporary African Art from the Chazen Collection,' featuring 40 works by 22 living artists from across Africa and its diaspora. The show, organized into three thematic sections exploring the presence and absence of the human body, opened on February 7 and includes sculpture, painting, ceramics, printmaking, and photography.
Sharjah Art Foundation has announced details for the 17th edition of the Sharjah Biennial, titled “What remains, sits restive,” running from January 21 to June 13, 2027. The large-scale contemporary art event will feature 109 participants across multiple sites in the emirate, including Sharjah City, Al Dhaid, Khor Fakkan, and Kalba. Confirmed artists include Anri Sala, Hassan Khan, Ibrahim Mahama, Oscar Murillo, Zina Saro-Wiwa, and Angela Ferreira. The biennial will be curated by Angela Harutyunyan and Paula Nascimento, each presenting separate sections under a shared theme examining how past political and cultural histories shape present-day realities through time, memory, and space.
The Sarasota Art Museum (SAM) on the Ringling College of Art and Design campus has opened "Art Deco: The Golden Age of Illustration," an exhibition of 100 large posters from the Crouse family collection. Curated by Rangsook Yoon, the show celebrates the 100th anniversary of Art Deco, tracing its origins from the Belle Epoque through the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris, and features works by artists such as Alphonse Mucha, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen. The Crouses, who previously lent works to The Guggenheim and the Victoria and Albert Museum, displayed part of their collection at New York's Poster House in 2023-2024.
The Saint Louis Art Museum is presenting "Roaring: Art, Fashion, and the Automobile in France, 1918–1939," a major exhibition on view from April 12 to July 27, 2025. Curated by Genevieve Cortinovis, the show brings together automobiles, haute couture, painting, sculpture, photography, film, and decorative arts to explore the intertwined evolution of fashion and car design in early 20th-century France. Highlights include a 1917 painting by Henri Matisse depicting the view from his Renault, juxtapositions of Alfa Romeo and Citroën logos with works by Piet Mondrian and Charles Loupot, and a c. 1927 dress by Suzanne Talbot inspired by Tutankhamun's funerary mask. The exhibition draws heavily from local and midwestern collections, including the Missouri Historical Society.
LACMA's upcoming David Geffen Galleries, opening in 2026, will feature over 130 costumes and textiles in its inaugural installations—more than any other time since the museum opened in 1965. The museum also plans exhibitions such as 'Fashioning Chinese Women: Empire to Modernity' (with mannequins by Jason Wu) and 'Fashioning Fashion' (1900–2025). Other major fashion exhibitions include 'Virgil Abloh: The Codes' at Paris's Grand Palais, 'Westwood Kawakubo' at the National Gallery of Victoria, and 'Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art' at London's V&A. The article notes that fashion exhibitions are increasingly popular and profitable for museums, citing the Met's Costume Institute and its record-breaking Met Gala fundraising.