Statement of Withdrawal from Visitor Lion Awards

15 Must-See Events Enriching the Venice Biennale 2026 Experience.

The article presents a curated guide to 15 must-see events accompanying the 61st Venice Biennale, titled "In Minor Keys" and curated by the late Koyo Kouoh, running from May to November 2026. It highlights key exhibitions beyond the main pavilions, including "Screen Melancholy: Li Yi-Fan" at Palazzo delle Prigioni, "Darkness Visible: The Long Shadow of Dictatorship" at Spazio Punch, "Elegy" by Gabrielle Goliath at Chiesa di Sant'Antonin, and "As Above, So Below" at Ex Church Santi Cosma e Damiano, among others. These events span museums, foundations, and historic palazzi, featuring performances, talks, and curatorial interventions that extend the Biennale's reach across Venice.

Beatriz González, indefatigable force in Colombian art, has died, aged 93

Beatriz González, the influential Colombian artist, writer, curator, educator, and intellectual known as 'la maestra,' died in Bogotá on January 9 at age 93. Born in 1932 in Bucaramanga, she studied architecture and fine arts before forging a distinctive path in Colombian art, rejecting abstraction and the style of her contemporary Fernando Botero. Her work, including the series 'Suicidas del Sisga' (1965) and 'La Encajera,' reinterpreted Western artworks and local press photographs with flat forms and vibrant colors, often incorporating kitsch and subaltern aesthetics. She was a key figure in the Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá (Mambo), envisioned a school for museum guides, served as chief curator of the Museo Nacional de Colombia, and mentored generations of museum professionals.

Art Toronto reflects Canadian art scene’s emphasis on Indigenous representation

Art Toronto's 2025 edition, running until October 26 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, features Indigenous art prominently across more than half of its 121 exhibitors. The fair includes a new Latin American section, Arte Sur, curated by Karen Huber, showcasing artists like Natalia Montoya and Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe. Canadian galleries such as Feheley Fine Arts, Ceremonial Art, Fazakas Gallery, and Patel Brown highlight Indigenous artists, with works ranging from beadwork and performance to mixed-media pieces that challenge stereotypes. Notable presentations include Jordan Bennett's reworked motorcycle and Nadia Myre's ceramic beadwork landscapes.

Artworks That Give Back. Our Selection of 10 Artists at the Artis Arundo Spotlight.

The article highlights the Artis Arundo Spotlight, a chapter of the TOP CHARITY Art exhibition in Warsaw, featuring 10 contemporary artists including Helena Stiasny, Courage Hunke, Aleksandra Liput, and Zuzanna Szary. Their works are available in an online charity auction until June 8, 2025, with proceeds supporting artist grants, residencies, and project funding. The exhibition, held at the King John III Palace Museum in Wilanów, also includes a preview of the OmenaArt Foundation's African art collection, a Sculpture Garden with Opera Gallery, and a tribute to Amedeo Modigliani's Tête de Cariatide.

Ten must-see works in Art Basel Hong Kong's new section

Art Basel Hong Kong has launched a new curated section called 'Echoes,' dedicated to presenting works created within the past five years. The section features focused presentations from galleries worldwide, highlighting ten standout works by artists such as Hyun Nahm, Leelee Chan, and Tiffany Chung, who explore themes from digital consumption to colonial histories through diverse mediums.

Art Basel Hong Kong 2026: Where The World Comes To See

Art Basel Hong Kong 2026 returned to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from March 25–27, featuring 240 galleries from 42 countries and territories. The 13th edition introduced new sectors including Echoes, dedicated to works made within the past five years, and Zero 10, a digital art initiative making its Asia debut. The fair also transformed its Encounters sector with a collective curatorial framework based on the Five Elements, led by Mami Kataoka and three other Asia-based curators. Robb Report India covered the event through the perspectives of Indian artists Siddharth Kerkar and Jayesh Sachdev.

The Best Art Exhibits to See in New York City Right Now

New York City's autumn art scene features a diverse array of exhibitions across major museums. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, "Man Ray: When Objects Dream" showcases 60 rayographs alongside 100 paintings and prints, exploring the artist's camera-less photography technique. The Brooklyn Museum presents "Monet and Venice," placing 19 of Monet's Venetian paintings in dialogue with works by John Singer Sargent and others, while also hosting "Breaking the Mold: Brooklyn Museum at 200," a retrospective on the institution's two-century history. The New York Historical Society offers "The Gay Harlem Renaissance," highlighting queer Black artists and writers of the Harlem Renaissance, and "The New York Sari," examining South Asian women's fashion influence since the Gilded Age.

Kerry James Marshall, National Gallery expansion, Picasso’s Three Dancers—podcast

This podcast episode from The Art Newspaper covers three major art stories. Ben Luke tours Kerry James Marshall's retrospective 'The Histories' at the Royal Academy of Arts in London—the largest European survey of the US artist's work—with curator Mark Godfrey, and visits a related exhibition of Marshall's graphic novel 'Rythm Mastr' at The Tabernacle in Notting Hill. The National Gallery in London announces a £400m expansion called Project Domani, the largest transformation in its 200-year history, with £375m already raised, and a shift in its collecting boundary beyond 1900. Finally, Tate Modern's centenary exhibition 'Theatre Picasso' centers on Pablo Picasso's 'The Three Dancers' (1925), discussed with co-curator Natalia Sidlina and designer Enrique Fuenteblanca.

parties cult100 cultured magazine guggenheim

CULTURED magazine hosted its second annual CULT100 party at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, in exclusive partnership with Valentino and Valentino Beauty. The event celebrated the magazine's spring issue, a 400-page edition honoring 100 luminaries and rising talents across food, film, art, fashion, and more. Guests including Keke Palmer, Lena Dunham, Naomi Watts, Adam Scott, and Anne Imhof gathered in the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed rotunda for cocktails, a Valentino Beauty lounge, and a program that coincided with artist Carol Bove's ongoing museum survey exhibition at the Guggenheim.

5 Standout Shows to See at Small Galleries This March

Ukrainian art resists war

An exhibition titled "Still Joy" opened in Venice during the preview days of the Biennale, organized by the Pinchuk Art Center in Kiev, showcasing Ukrainian art that responds to the ongoing war with Russia. The show features works by artists including Kateryna Aliinyk, Piotr Armianovski, Roman Khimei and Yarema Malashchuk, Zhanna Kadyrova, Alevtina Kakhidze, and Nikita Kadan, addressing themes of resilience, memory, and resistance. The Ukrainian Pavilion at the Biennale also centers on the conflict, with Kadyrova's work referencing the Budapest Memorandum. Many of these artists have chosen to remain in Ukraine despite the dangers, keeping the cultural scene alive.

Humid Traces

Humid Traces, curated by Federico Pérez Villoro, is an exhibition at an unnamed New York venue that examines how bodies of water are weaponized as borders amid climate change and extreme weather. The show features international artists—including Dele Adeyemo, Natalia Lassalle-Morillo, Zishaan A Latif, Caio Reisewitz, Susan Schuppli, Marisa Srijunpleang, Studio Folder, and Leonel Vásquez—whose works in installation, sound, photography, video, and data visualization reveal the violent effects of migration-control technologies and water's material memory.

LATIN AMERICA AT THE VENICE BIENNALE: A VISUAL TOUR OF THE CENTRAL EXHIBITION

LATINOAMÉRICA EN LA BIENAL DE VENECIA: UN RECORRIDO VISUAL POR LA MUESTRA CENTRAL

The 61st Venice Biennale, titled "In Minor Keys," opened its preview days on May 8, 2025, curated by the late Koyo Kouoh (1967–2025). The central exhibition, realized by a team she selected before her death, features 110 participants from around the world, with a strong Latin American presence of 15 artists, collectives, and organizations. The show explores themes of colonial history, plantation economies, geological memory, and environmental crisis through works that emphasize shared materials, politics, and poetics across geographies from Dakar to San Juan.

‘The doorbell went at 5am. Six masked men were outside’: Belarus Free Theatre bring totalitarian terror to the Venice Biennale

Belarus Free Theatre (BFT), an exiled troupe based in London, is presenting its first major visual art project, titled 'Official. Unofficial. Belarus.', at the Venice Biennale. The installation, masterminded by the founders' daughter Daniella Kaliada, features contributions from former political prisoners, painters, sculptors, composers, and world-renowned chef Rasmus Munk, who created a dish evoking detention under an authoritarian regime. The work includes a giant ball of banned books, surveillance cameras attached to an iron crucifix, and a custom scent of a freshly dug grave, all reflecting the terror of life under Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko.

81 artists withdraw from Venice Biennale competition

The MAR Museum in Ravenna Opens a Permanent Gallery Dedicated to Fashion Photographer Paolo Roversi

Il museo MAR di Ravenna apre una galleria permanente dedicata al fotografo di moda Paolo Roversi

The MAR museum in Ravenna, Italy, is opening a permanent gallery dedicated to fashion photographer Paolo Roversi, set to launch on May 20. The space, curated by Chiara Bardelli Nonino, will showcase Roversi's poetic and visual universe, featuring his iconic portraits of models like Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, and Rihanna, along with his fashion work and still lifes. The gallery is designed by scenographer Ania Martchenko with lighting by Silvestrin & Associati, and includes areas such as the Studio, the Archive, and the Room of the Muses.

art luz carabano young artist

Luz Carabaño, a 30-year-old Venezuelan-born artist based in Los Angeles, is featured in Cultured's 2025 Young Artists list. Known for her small, candy-hued canvases with glossy, imperfect surfaces, Carabaño's work has attracted attention from galleries such as Nina Johnson, Lulu, Hoffman Donahue, and April April. In the profile, she discusses her creative process, including a formative painting called 'araña' made from a bandsaw offcut, her admiration for writer John Berger, and her reliance on a single palette knife. She also expresses a dislike for iPad art and names her dream dinner party guests: Natalia Goncharova, Luchita Hurtado, and Etel Adnan.

Art Toronto gives Latin American artists pride of place with new curated section

Art Toronto, Canada’s largest art fair, returns for its 26th edition (23–26 October) at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre with over 100 galleries. It debuts Arte Sur, a new curated section focused on Latin American art, organized by Mexico City-based curator and gallerist Karen Huber. The section features 11 galleries from across the Americas, including first-time participants from New York, Mexico City, Argentina, and Chile, showcasing more than 30 artists primarily from Mexico, Costa Rica, Argentina, Chile, and Peru.

Venice Biennale 2026 Roundup

The 61st Venice Biennale, titled "In Minor Keys" and curated by the late Koyo Kouoh, opened in May 2026 amid significant turmoil. The Austrian Pavilion features Florentina Holzinger's performance piece "Seaworld Venice," centered on a giant bell that chimes hourly. The biennale has been marked by the death of its curator, the resignation of the international jury over the inclusion of Russia and Israel, protests by Pussy Riot and the Art Not Genocide Alliance, and the cancellation of the South African Pavilion over Gabrielle Goliath's "Elegy," which honors murdered women including a Palestinian poet. The US Pavilion's state-sponsored offerings have also drawn criticism.

An open letter to La Biennale di Venezia calls out inaction in the face of global atrocities

A group of 74 artists and curators invited to the 61st Venice Biennale have issued an open letter to the institution's president, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco. The signatories are protesting the decision to relocate the Israeli Pavilion to the Arsenale, placing it in close proximity to the central exhibition 'In Minor Keys' curated by the late Koyo Kouoh. The letter demands the exclusion of official delegations from countries accused of war crimes—specifically Israel, Russia, and the United States—and accuses the Biennale of complicity through its silence on global atrocities.

Biennale Arte 2026: the invited artists

The Venice Biennale has officially announced the list of invited artists for its 61st edition in 2026. The selection features a diverse global cohort including established figures like Laurie Anderson, Nick Cave, and Carsten Höller, alongside influential collectives such as fierce pussy and blaxTARLINES KUMASI. The list also includes significant posthumous inclusions like Marcel Duchamp and Beverly Buchanan, signaling a curatorial approach that bridges contemporary practice with historical legacies.

Venice Biennale Names 111 Artists for International Exhibition

The Venice Biennale has officially announced the 111 artists, duos, and collectives selected for the 61st International Art Exhibition, titled "In Minor Keys." The exhibition follows the vision of the late Cameroonian curator Koyo Kouoh, who passed away in May 2024 after conceptualizing the show and selecting the majority of its participants. The roster features a diverse global lineup including Wangechi Mutu, Kader Attia, Khaled Sabsabi, and Laurie Anderson, with a curatorial focus on quiet resistance, poetic improvisation, and the "lower frequencies" of social and psychic life.

Remembering Erik Bulatov, the Soviet artist who reframed propaganda

Erik Bulatov, the Soviet-born artist known for overlaying Communist Party slogans onto luminous landscapes, died in Paris on 9 November. A key figure in the underground art movement of the 1970s and 80s, he was part of the Sretensky Group alongside Ilya Kabakov and others, navigating state censorship by illustrating children's books. His most famous work, *Glory to the CPSU* (1975), sold for $2.1m in 2008, and in 2025 he was ranked the most expensive living Russian artist by The Art Newspaper Russia.

Groundbreaking Art Takes Spotlight at O’Donnell Athenaeum Exhibit

A new exhibition titled “Groundbreakers: Post-War Japan and Korea from the Dallas Museum of Art and The Rachofsky Collection” has opened at the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr. Athenaeum at The University of Texas at Dallas, running through July 2026. Curated by Dr. Natalia Di Pietrantonio of the Crow Museum of Asian Art, the show features works from three major postwar movements—Mono-ha, Dansaekhwa, and Gutai—using unconventional materials like white glue, bells, wires, tin, and rocks. Highlights include Kazuo Shiraga’s foot-painted canvases, Takesada Matsutani’s vinyl glue sculptures, Atsuko Tanaka’s interactive wire installation, and Do Ho Suh’s translucent polyester corridor inspired by homesickness.

‘Truly inspiring’: New Princeton University Art Museum opens its doors to all

The new Princeton University Art Museum opened its doors to the public on Oct. 31, 2025, with a 24-hour open house that drew 21,763 visitors. The event featured dancing, stargazing, artmaking, live performances, film screenings, and a trivia contest, with highlights including Claude Monet's "Water Lilies and Japanese Bridge" and Nick Cave's mosaic. Director James Steward welcomed the crowd, and the museum also hosted previews for students, faculty, staff, and tradespeople, attracting thousands more.

‘I feel at home here’: Michael Rakowitz’s Acropolis Museum exhibition locates the lines between stories of lost heritage

The Acropolis Museum in Athens has opened "Allspice: Michael Rakowitz and Ancient Cultures," the first exhibition in a trilogy organized with the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and the nonprofit Neon. It is also the first time the museum has presented work by a living artist. The show pairs ancient objects from the University of Chicago’s Institute for the Study of Ancient Culture and the Thanos N. Zintilis Collection of Cypriot Antiquities with 14 works by Iraqi-American artist Michael Rakowitz, including pieces from his ongoing series "The invisible enemy should not exist," which recreates artifacts looted or destroyed from the National Museum of Iraq. Rakowitz’s lamassu reliefs, reimagined from the Palace of Nimrud, and a new commission featuring his mother’s recipes explore themes of lost heritage, memory, and diaspora.

LATIN AMERICAN ARTISTS AT THE BIENNALE DI VENEZIA 2026

The 61st Venice Biennale, titled 'In Minor Keys' and curated by the late Koyo Kouoh, will run from May to November 2026. The exhibition will feature 15 artists from Latin America, including Alvaro Barrington, Carolina Caycedo, Alfredo Jaar, and Guadalupe Maravilla, among others, who will present works across the Giardini, Arsenale, and other Venetian venues.

Dozens of Venice Biennale Artists Withdraw From Awards En Masse

Almost half of the artists in the 61st Venice Biennale's international exhibition, along with 16 national pavilion teams, have withdrawn from awards consideration in solidarity with the jury's resignation. The jury resigned on April 30 after stating it would not consider countries whose leaders are charged with crimes against humanity by the ICC, effectively disqualifying Israel and Russia. The Biennale Foundation then replaced the traditional Golden Lions with new "Visitor Lions" decided by public vote, reinstating all pavilions including Israel and Russia. The withdrawal follows protests at the Russian and Israeli pavilions and a historic labor strike that shuttered multiple pavilions.

Gulag Museum rebrand marks latest phase in Kremlin’s assault on free speech

The Kremlin is systematically erasing the memory of Soviet repression under Joseph Stalin from Russian museums. The Gulag Museum in Moscow, which documented Stalin-era crimes, has been rebranded as a "Museum of Memory" focused on Nazi war crimes, with its entire website replaced and exhibitions packed up. Simultaneously, Russia's supreme court banned Memorial, a human rights organization founded to document Stalin-era atrocities, labeling it an "anti-Russian" extremist group. The Yeltsin Presidential Center in Yekaterinburg has also removed references to Memorial from its walls, and the Sakharov Center in Moscow was disbanded and evicted from its facilities.