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.

Remembering Pearl Fryar, Siri Aurdal, and Frank Stack

The art world mourns the loss of several influential figures, including self-taught topiary artist Pearl Fryar, who transformed a South Carolina cornfield into a botanical landmark, and painter Celeste Dupuy-Spencer, known for her politically charged works featured in the Whitney Biennial. The week's memorials also include Norwegian sculptor Siri Aurdal, a pioneer of industrial materials in the 1960s Scandinavian scene, and Frank Stack, the educator and cartoonist credited with creating the first underground comic.

The Unbearable Strangeness of Being

South African artist Cinga Samson makes his New York debut at White Cube with "Ukuphuthelwa," an exhibition of haunting, large-scale oil paintings. The works feature figures with distinctive white pupils engaged in enigmatic rituals within dark, crepuscular landscapes. Drawing from the isiXhosa concept of spiritual alertness during sleeplessness, Samson’s compositions blend the palpable with the unearthly, often depicting scenes that feel choreographed yet remain stubbornly illegible to the Western gaze.

How Tech Billionaires Turn Couture into Content

Wie Tech-Milliardäre Couture zu Content machen

The Met Gala, long considered the premier event for fashion and cultural influence, has become increasingly dominated by tech billionaires. This year, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos purchased their role as co-hosts, sparking protests in New York and raising questions about whether money alone now buys entry into the highest echelons of fashion. Individual tickets cost $10,000 and a table $350,000, with sponsors including OpenAI, Snapchat, and Meta. The event, organized by Anna Wintour to raise funds for the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, raised $31 million last year but has transformed from a benefit into a spectacle optimized for viral moments and algorithmic appeal.

Postal Museum

Musée Postal

The Musée de la Poste in Paris is currently hosting a series of diverse exhibitions and cultural programs, ranging from a focused look at Henri Matisse's vibrant painterly style to an exploration of how design has integrated into national heritage. The institution is also featuring the chaotic architectural installations of Tadashi Kawamata and a deep dive into the historical and cultural construction of the 'witch' archetype.

Chaïm Kaliski’s Drawings Haunted by the Shoah Revealed in an Exhibition at mahJ

Les dessins hantés par la Shoah de Chaïm Kaliski se révèlent dans une expo au mahJ

The Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme (mahJ) in Paris is hosting the first monographic exhibition dedicated to Chaïm Kaliski, a Belgian artist who began drawing at the age of 60 to process the trauma of the Holocaust. After his death in 2015, thousands of drawings were discovered in his Brussels apartment, documenting his family's history and the fate of Polish Jews in Belgium. The exhibition features 120 works that blend childlike aesthetics with haunting historical narratives, including poignant depictions of his parents' final moments at Auschwitz.

A Truck Driver Spent 20 Years Building a Miniature Model of New York City. Then, It Went Viral

A truck driver named Joe Macken spent 21 years building a massive, 50-by-27-foot miniature model of New York City from humble materials like balsa wood and cardboard. His daughter's suggestion to post it on TikTok led to the project going viral, which subsequently caught the attention of the Museum of the City of New York. The museum has now mounted a dedicated exhibition, "He Built This City: Joe Macken's Model," featuring the sprawling 1:2400-scale creation.

NEXT in the Gallery: April art includes baseballs, ambiguous boundaries and scraposaurs

Pittsburgh’s art scene is preparing for a busy spring season with a diverse array of exhibitions opening across the city’s galleries and public spaces. Highlights include Hugh Watkins’ multi-disciplinary retrospective at Christine Fréchard Gallery, Dale Lewis’s massive "Scraposaurs" sculptures made from recycled metal at the Pittsburgh Botanic Garden, and a unique exhibition of hand-painted baseballs by the late umpire George Sosnak. These shows serve as a creative prelude to major upcoming regional events like the 59th Carnegie International and the Three Rivers Arts Festival.

Japanese painting tradition meets street materials in new exhibition at the Spencer Museum of Art

The Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas has launched "Street Nihonga: The Art of Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani," the most comprehensive exhibition to date of the late artist's work. Curated by Kris Ercums and Maki Kaneko, the show features 145 works that trace Mirikitani’s journey from his Nihonga training in Japan to his incarceration in a U.S. internment camp during WWII, and finally his years as a homeless street artist in Lower Manhattan. The exhibition is accompanied by a major scholarly catalog and documentary footage by filmmaker Linda Hattendorf.

Anselm Kiefer’s Rustbelt Romanticism | Exhibition review at St Louis Art Museum

German artist Anselm Kiefer's first major U.S. museum exhibition in 20 years, "Anselm Kiefer: Becoming the Sea," has opened at the Saint Louis Art Museum. The show features 40 works from the past half century, including five towering site-specific canvases in the museum's 1904 Sculpture Hall, with about half the works created in the last five years. Kiefer's Neo-Expressionist pieces blend nostalgia for the Rhine River with homages to the Mississippi, incorporating references to Indigenous Anishinaabe and Wabanaki spirits, Wagner's "Rhinemaidens," and poets Paul Celan and Gregory Corso.

Expanded and Expansive: How the Intuit Art Museum Used A Transformative Renovation to Reinvent Itself

The Intuit Art Museum (IAM) in Chicago reopens on May 23 after a $10 million renovation that began in September 2023, partially funded by a $5 million grant from the City of Chicago. The expansion triples the museum's exhibition and education space, adds ADA-compliant features, and includes new galleries, a Center for Learning and Engagement Opportunities (CLEO) named after co-founder Cleo Wilson, and a reinstalled room dedicated to outsider artist Henry Darger. The museum, originally founded in 1991 as the Society for Outsider, Intuitive and Visionary Art by figures including artist Roger Brown and gallerists Carl Hammer and Ann Nathan, has long championed self-taught and visionary artists.

Philadelphia’s “Cardboard Genius” Takes Center Stage in a New Exhibition

A new exhibition titled "Cardboard Genius: The Architectural Marvels of Kambel Smith" has opened at Historic Germantown in Philadelphia, running through June 29. The show features large-scale, intricate replicas of architecturally significant buildings—such as Philadelphia's Police Administration Building and the Georgia State House—all constructed from salvaged cardboard by self-taught artist Kambel Smith, who is autistic. Smith's father, Lonnie, coined the term "Autisarians" to describe his sons' super-human abilities and has been a key supporter of Kambel's creative journey, which has included solo shows in New York, London, and Atlanta since 2019.

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Elizabeth Denny has been appointed as the new director of the Outsider Art Fair, which was founded in 1993 and specializes in art brut, folk art, and self-taught art. Denny previously served as director at Eric Firestone Gallery and founded her own gallery in 2013 with locations in New York and Hong Kong. She holds degrees from the Courtauld Institute of Art and Columbia University, lectures at Columbia and Sotheby’s Institute, and is a founding board member of Less Than Half, an organization supporting underrecognized women artists. The fair's next edition is scheduled for March 2026 in New York.

How Artist Uman Channeled a Turbulent Year Into Calm Abstraction

Artist Uman opened her first solo museum exhibition in the United States, titled “After all the things…,” at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Connecticut. In an interview, she discusses her initial reluctance to enter the institutional world, preferring to focus on commercial success, but found the right partnership with chief curator Amy Smith-Stewart. The show features large paintings, a video, and works that blend landscape with abstraction, reflecting her life in upstate New York and a turbulent year transformed into calm, internal peace.

Joe Macken Spent 22 Years Building a Miniature New York by Hand

Joe Macken, a truck driver from upstate New York, spent 22 years building a 50-by-27-foot miniature scale model of New York City entirely from balsa wood, cardboard, and glue. The model, which includes all five boroughs and landmarks like the Twin Towers and One World Trade Center, went viral on TikTok after Macken’s daughter encouraged him to post a video. It is now on display at the Museum of the City of New York in an exhibition titled *He Built This City: Joe Macken’s Model*.

Anna Park's new show at Lehmann Maupin in London offers a voyeuristic mix of the abstract and the figurative

Artist Anna Park is preparing for her first major solo exhibition at Lehmann Maupin’s London space, titled 'Hot Honey'. The show features her signature large-scale charcoal and ink works that blend traditional figurative techniques with chaotic abstraction. Drawing from a diverse range of influences including vintage comics, pin-up culture, and her upbringing as an outsider in Utah, Park’s new pieces explore the 'male gaze' and female archetypes through a satirical, voyeuristic lens.

Reverend Joyce McDonald: ‘Art was like therapy for me’

Reverend Joyce McDonald, a 74-year-old artist and minister, is the subject of her first museum survey, 'Ministry: Reverend Joyce McDonald,' at the Bronx Museum. The exhibition showcases her ceramic sculptures, which she began creating after an HIV diagnosis in 1995 while struggling with heroin addiction and sex work. McDonald discovered ceramics through an art therapy program with the Jewish Board of Family Services and later connected with Visual Aids, a New York organization supporting HIV-positive artists. Her works, often depicting figures praying or embracing, are held in collections including the Hammer Museum, Brooklyn Museum, and CCS Hessel Museum of Art.

isaiah zagar artist philadelphia magic gardens died 86 1234774067

Isaiah Zagar, the visionary mosaic artist behind the landmark Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens, died on February 19 at age 86 due to complications from heart failure and Parkinson’s Disease. A Pratt Institute graduate and former Peace Corps volunteer, Zagar transformed Philadelphia’s South Street neighborhood over five decades, creating more than 200 public murals and a sprawling, immersive environment of tunnels and grottos made from glass, tile, and found objects.

Emmanuel Perrotin, the Parisian gallery owner who conquered the world

Emmanuel Perrotin, the founder of the global Perrotin gallery network, reflects on a career defined by disruption and the democratization of contemporary art. From his early days as an outsider without industry connections to managing 160 employees across four continents, Perrotin has utilized high-profile stunts—such as Maurizio Cattelan’s $120,000 taped banana—and celebrity collaborations with figures like Pharrell Williams to build a powerhouse brand. His current focus involves institutionalizing his internal operations through digital tools and employee tutorials to maintain the gallery's momentum.

And this one shows the police evicting me: the fabulous fabric visions of Elizabeth Allen

The British textile artist Elizabeth Allen, who lived in a dilapidated hut and gained brief international fame in the 1960s after being discovered by artist Patrick Heron, is the subject of a major rediscovery. A new exhibition at Compton Verney in Warwickshire features works that have been hidden in storage or private collections for nearly fifty years, including the first public display of 'Autobiraggraphy,' a textile work documenting her wrongful eviction in 1934.

Intuit Art Museum Showcases Self-Taught Artists, Work About Migration in ‘Catalyst: Im/migration’

The Intuit Art Museum in Chicago has extended its exhibition “Catalyst: Im/migration and Self-Taught Art in Chicago” through March 22, 2026. Featuring nearly two dozen artists, the show highlights the creative contributions of migrants and immigrants alongside the rise of self-taught art in 20th-century Chicago. Among the works is Pooja Pittie’s interactive piece “What We Build to Belong,” a hand-knotted net-like structure where visitors can add notes, drawings, or string. The museum is hosting a free community day on Feb. 7, 2026. The exhibition includes artists from diverse backgrounds, such as the late Tae Kwon “Thomas” Kong, who made collages from packing materials at his convenience store, and Charles Warner, a carpenter who created wood-carved cathedral models. Three artists came to Chicago from the South as part of the Great Migration.

Review: Shows on view at Akron Art Museum reveal creative soul of a 200-year-old city

The Akron Art Museum is hosting a series of exhibitions that explore the identity and creative spirit of Akron, Ohio, as the city celebrates its 2025 bicentennial. The centerpiece is a large-scale retrospective of Alfred McMoore (1950-2009), a self-trained outsider artist from Akron who was diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent much of his life in psychiatric institutions. McMoore created massive pencil and crayon drawings focused on funerals and death rituals, and his work attracted a circle of supporters including the late antiques dealer Chuck Auerbach and journalist Jim Carney, whose sons Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney later founded the Grammy-winning band The Black Keys, named after McMoore's cryptic phrase.

November Book Bag: from a tome of Japanese printmakers to the first Nina Chanel Abney monograph

The article reviews four new art books released in November. It covers 'Modern Japanese Printmakers: New Waves and Eruptions' by Malene Wagner (Prestel), a survey of 44 Japanese printmakers from the early 20th century to today; the debut monograph on Nina Chanel Abney (Monacelli) with contributions from Thelma Golden and Jazmine Hughes; 'Massimo Listri: Italian Palaces' (Taschen), a photographic tour of grand Italian palaces; and 'Strange Discoveries: The Art of Denton Welch' (John Swarbrooke Fine Art), a catalogue accompanying the first solo exhibition of Welch's work in over 40 years.

Charles Bronson Art Auction

charles bronson art auction 1234776112

A collection of 500 artworks by Charles Bronson, one of the United Kingdom’s most notorious prisoners, is scheduled for auction at David Duggleby Auctioneers on March 11. The works, created using crayon, ink, and pencil on prison documents, will be sold as a single lot. The collection explores themes of isolation and endurance, reflecting Bronson’s decades of incarceration and solitary confinement.

Troublemakers and Prophets: Elizabeth Allen and Other Visionary Artists

Compton Verney in Warwickshire is staging a major exhibition titled "Troublemakers and Prophets: Elizabeth Allen and Other Visionary Artists," running from 28 March to 31 August 2026. The show reintroduces Elizabeth "Queen" Allen (1883–1967), a self-taught British artist who created intricate patchwork artworks inspired by the Apocrypha and biblical visions, using scraps of fabric, buttons, and sequins. Despite achieving success in her lifetime, Allen fell into obscurity; the exhibition pairs her work with thematically related contemporary artists to contextualize her legacy.

This Figurative Painter Captures the Intricacies of Detroit Through a Local Tattoo Artist

Chinese figurative painter Liu Xiaodong has opened a solo exhibition titled "Host" at Lisson Gallery in Los Angeles, focusing exclusively on a single subject: John Mcintyre, a Detroit-based tattoo artist and member of a medieval reenactment club called Knyaz USA. The show features large-scale oil paintings that follow Mcintyre through his daily life—participating in armored historical battles in snowy forests, working in his tattoo studio, and relaxing at home—offering an intimate portrait of Detroit's subcultural communities.

Intuit Solo Show A Dream Come True For Self-Taught Morgan Park Artist Marvin Young

Self-taught artist Marvin Young, 64, who has an intellectual and developmental disability, will have his first solo exhibition, “Impressions of a City,” at the Intuit Art Museum in Chicago from April 9 to August 23, 2026. Curated by Christina Stavros, the show features Young’s vivid drawings of Chicago cityscapes, architecture, and portraits, created from memory using graphite, colored pencils, crayons, and markers. Young, who works at Envision Unlimited and Arts of Life—nonprofits supporting people with disabilities—has long dreamed of selling his art, and this exhibition marks a major milestone in that goal.

What Does It Feel Like to Be Called an Emerging Artist at 72? Ask Takako Yamaguchi

Takako Yamaguchi, a 72-year-old Japanese-born artist based in Los Angeles, is experiencing a career resurgence with a new series of seascapes featured in a 2023 show at Ortuzar and the 2024 Whitney Biennial. She is set to receive her first solo museum exhibition in Los Angeles at MOCA's Grand Avenue space starting June 29, where she will present 10 new works. In an interview with CULTURED, Yamaguchi discusses her ambivalent relationship with the sea, her process of drawing inspiration from other artists' seascapes rather than nature itself, and her identity as an outsider who has lived most of her life in the U.S. while retaining Japanese citizenship.

work of the week madge gill christies 2752334

British self-taught artist Madge Gill has achieved a new auction record at Christie’s New York, where a rare 1930s embroidered textile work sold for $120,650. The sale price significantly exceeded the initial estimate of $60,000 to $80,000, marking the first time one of Gill’s rare textile pieces has ever appeared at auction. Previously, the artist was primarily known for her visionary ink drawings on calico and postcards, often created under the guidance of a spiritual entity she called “Myrninerest.”

Arts Listings: Week of April 9, 2026

The Ventura County arts community is launching a series of local exhibitions and theater productions for the week of April 9, 2026. Highlights include the opening of the political comedy "The Outsider" at the Santa Paula Theater Center and the "Rediscovering" exhibition at Fox Fine Jewelry featuring Lisa Sachs and Thomas Hoerber. Additionally, the Camarillo Art Center is hosting a themed exhibition titled "I dream my paintings, then I paint my dream," alongside various technical workshops in watercolor and gourd art.