Peterson Rich Office designs Condé M Nast Galleries at The Met in time for yearly gala exhibition

Brooklyn-based architecture studio Peterson Rich Office has completed the redesign of five gallery spaces at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, known as the Condé M Nast Galleries. The project transformed 12,000 square feet of a former courtyard into gallery and auxiliary rooms, revealing historic brickwork and facades from the 19th-century buildings by architects Richard Morris Hunt, Arthur Lyman Tuckerman, and Calvert Vaux. The spaces include the Orientation Gallery, High Gallery, Low Gallery, and Finale Gallery, each blending contemporary design with exposed historic materials. The first exhibition in the High Gallery is the Costume Art show, timed to coincide with the annual Met Gala.

THE MET GETS A NEW GREAT HALL BY PETERSON RICH OFFICE

Peterson Rich Office (PRO) has designed a new Great Hall Gallery for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, occupying 12,000 square feet across five sequential rooms in a former exterior courtyard adjacent to the landmark Great Hall. The renovation exposes and celebrates historic exterior façades from the 1880s and 1890s, creating a layered architectural experience. The space is intended to host rotating exhibitions, particularly the Costume Institute's annual spring show, and is currently under construction.

Taipei Fine Arts Museum unveils 'Surrealism: The World in Dialogue'

Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM), in collaboration with the Institute for Cultural Exchange in Tübingen, Germany, has launched its major spring exhibition "Surrealism: The World in Dialogue." Featuring over 120 works by nearly 60 international artists, the exhibition marks a century since André Breton's 1924 "Surrealist Manifesto." It juxtaposes historical avant-garde works with contemporary practices, organized into sections such as "Collective Dreams," "Body of Desire," and "Absurd Play." Highlights include Yves Tanguy's dreamscapes, Lauren Moffatt's augmented reality installation, Max Ernst's scraping-method works, Patricia Piccinini's hybrid sculptures, and works by Man Ray, Meret Oppenheim, Sarah Lucas, Luis Buñuel, and Salvador Dalí.

Bruges inaugurates BRUSK art hall with major exhibitions and festival weekend

Bruges, Belgium, will open a new art gallery called BRUSK on May 8, 2026, designed by Robbrecht en Daem architecten. The launch features two major exhibitions: 'Latent City', a digital art experience by Turkish-American artist Refik Anadol (his first solo show in Belgium), and 'Bigger Picture. Connected worlds of Bruges 900-1550', a cultural-historical exhibition examining Bruges as a medieval metropolis. A three-day city festival, BRUSK FEST, will accompany the opening weekend with free performances, workshops, and music.

Kent Monkman Reimagines History Painting At Akron Art Museum

The Akron Art Museum will present "Kent Monkman: History Is Painted by the Victors," a major exhibition of monumental paintings by Cree artist Kent Monkman. Running from April 11 to August 16, 2026, the show reimagines history painting through a subversive, Indigenous lens, confronting colonial narratives and offering new perspectives on the past and present.

Theaster Gates: Contending with the Past and Present

Theaster Gates has transformed the Smart Museum of Art into a personal sanctuary for his first major solo institutional exhibition in Chicago, titled "Unto Thee." The immersive installation features vast archives from Gates's personal collections, including African artifacts, funerary objects, and a significant vinyl record collection that provides a continuous sonic backdrop to the space. Key works on display include the monumental "Black Still Life #3" and the ongoing series "Walking Prayer," which consists of black books embossed with golden phrases that explore the complexities of Black identity and collective memory.

3 Art Exhibitions to Enjoy this Winter at the Petit Palais

The Petit Palais in Paris is hosting three winter exhibitions: a retrospective of 18th-century portraitist Jean-Baptiste Greuze (until January 25), a tribute to Finnish landscape painter Pekka Halonen (until February 22), and a solo show of contemporary artist Bilal Hamdad (until February 8). The Greuze exhibition is the first full retrospective dedicated to the artist, featuring around 100 works on loan from major collections. The Halonen show, the first major tribute to the Finnish painter in France, highlights his modernist snowy landscapes. Hamdad’s exhibition presents 20 large-scale paintings exploring urban solitude, drawing inspiration from Old Masters like Rubens and Manet.

Waddington Custot to open in Paris ahead of Art Basel Paris

Waddington Custot has announced it will open a new gallery at 36 rue de Seine in Paris, occupying the historic space formerly home to Lansberg Gallery in the 6th arrondissement. The gallery is set to open in October 2025, ahead of Art Basel Paris, and will be managed by Isaure de Roquefeuil and Antoine Clavé. The inaugural exhibition will focus on the Nabis painters, followed by a group show of modern and contemporary artists. The 200-square-meter space is located in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés district. (Note: The opening has since been rescheduled to early 2026.)

An Exhibition Celebrates the Self-Taught Immigrant Artists Shaping Chicago

The inaugural exhibition at the newly renovated Intuit Art Museum in Chicago, titled "Catalyst: Im/migration and Self-Taught Art in Chicago," brings together 75 works by 22 self-taught immigrant artists who have shaped the city's cultural landscape. Featured artists include Carlos Barberena, Drossos P. Skyllas, Charles Warner, Alfonso "Piloto" Nieves Ruiz, and others, with works spanning linocuts, hyperrealistic paintings, found-object sculpture, and mixed media. The show runs through January 11, 2026.

Technology, art and sculptures of fog: LUMA Arles kicks off the 2025/26 season

LUMA Arles has launched its 2025/26 season with three exhibitions, including 'Sensing the Future: Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.)', which explores the 1960s collaboration between artists and engineers from Bell Labs, featuring works by Andy Warhol, Jean Dupuy, and Forrest Myers. The season also includes 'Maria Lassnig: Living with art stops one wilting!', examining the Austrian artist's 'Body Awareness' concept and her connection to curator Hans Ulrich Obrist. The exhibitions are bookended by fog and cloud-themed works, including a fog sculpture by Fujiko Nakaya.

In Hayv Kahraman’s New Show, the Artist Heals From Devastation

Hayv Kahraman's latest solo show, "Ghost Fires," at Jack Shainman Gallery in New York City features paintings of women with smoke rising from their fingertips and pupil-less eyes, using scorched textures and marbled pigments. The body of work is her first since the January wildfires in Los Angeles displaced her and her family from their Altadena home, and it explores trauma, memory, and healing without directly depicting flames.

Victoria Miro gallery launches sophisticated digital platform to put past and present exhibitions online

Victoria Miro gallery has launched a new digital platform called Live / Archive, which uses 3D modeling, augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR) to present past and current exhibitions online. The platform, powered by the Vortic software developed by Oliver Miro, initially features 72 archived shows dating back to 2019, including Grayson Perry's "Super Rich Interior Decoration." The launch coincides with the gallery's 40th anniversary, and the platform allows artists like Chantal Joffe to revisit and plan exhibitions virtually.

‘My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein’ by Deborah Levy, Reviewed

Deborah Levy’s latest novel, *My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein*, follows a first-person narrator who travels to Paris to research the American writer and collector Gertrude Stein. The narrative slips between the early twentieth century and the autumn of Donald Trump’s 2024 reelection, using stream-of-consciousness prose and liquid metaphors to blur past and present. The narrator’s research into Stein’s role in shaping modernity becomes a vehicle for exploring her own sense of helplessness and lack of agency in a hyperconnected, war-weary present.

Paola Siri Renard “Double Star” at nouveaux deuxdeux, München

Paola Siri Renard presents "Double Star" at nouveaux deuxdeux in Munich, featuring sculptures assembled from fragments of architectural ornaments, equestrian monuments, industrial display systems, and skeletal forms. Her work extracts elements from historical structures—spanning Gothic, Greco-Roman, and Art Nouveau styles—and reconfigures them into unstable, evocative constellations.

GABRIEL CHAILE UNFOLDS HIS ARCHAEOLOGY OF MIGRATION IN LONDON

Argentine artist Gabriel Chaile has opened a new commission titled "Archaeology of Memory" at London's Whitechapel Gallery. The site-specific installation features monumental adobe sculptures that incorporate everyday and decorative objects sourced from the surrounding East End neighborhood. Chaile, who is based in Lisbon, draws on the material traditions of Indigenous communities from northwest Argentina, blending roles as artist, anthropologist, and storyteller to explore themes of migration, identity, and cultural memory.

Canadian Museum of Human Rights Threatened With Legal Action Over Palestinian Nakba Show

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg has been threatened with legal action by Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center over an upcoming exhibition titled "Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present," scheduled to open June 27. The exhibition focuses on the 1948 expulsion of approximately 750,000 Palestinians, known as the Nakba, and features video testimonies, photography, visual art, and text exploring human rights violations and forced displacement. Shurat HaDin's letter, sent to the museum's board and senior leadership, argues the exhibition omits Jewish historical ties to the region, politicizes history, and could fuel hostility against the Jewish community. The organization demands the museum halt work on the show, commission an independent review, and retract statements about Israeli human rights violations, threatening litigation if the museum does not respond within 14 days. The museum has confirmed the letter is under review but stated the exhibition is still expected to open as scheduled.

Exhibit Features Works by Ward Nichols

An exhibition titled “From Reality to Realism, A Lifetime Perspective,” featuring works by veteran artist Ward Nichols, opened at the Wilkes Art Gallery in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina on April 17. The opening event included a jazz performance by the Todd Wright Trio, hors d’oeuvres and drinks, and a street closure on C Street / Ward Nichols Way. Nichols, a full-time professional artist for over 60 years, has participated in 200 group shows, more than 170 solo exhibitions across 94 galleries and museums in 24 states, and has received 30 major awards including the Grumbacher Award of Merit from the El Paso Museum of Art. The exhibit runs through June 17.

‘Unfolding Events,’ an exhibition of artists’ books

Yale Library is presenting 'Unfolding Events: Exploring Past and Present in Artists’ Books,' an exhibition at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library through March 1. Curated by Jessica Pigza and Bill Landis, the show draws from the Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library and Beinecke collections, featuring works that explore marginalized communities and personal responses to contemporary life. Highlights include Clarissa Sligh's accordion-style book 'What’s Happening With Momma?' (1988) and Tia Blassingame's '’Pause' (2024), which addresses Black women's experiences with menopause.

Exhibition Tour—Arts of Oceania | Michael C. Rockefeller Wing

Maia Nuku, Evelyn A. J. Hall and John A. Friede Curator for Oceanic Art, along with Max Hollein, Marina Kellen French Director and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and special guests Michael Mel and Arapata Hakiwai, lead an exhibition tour celebrating the renovation and reopening of the Arts of Oceania galleries in the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing. The tour highlights exceptional works from Oceania, including carved bisj poles from the Asmat region, towering slit drums from Vanuatu, and contemporary pieces by Aboriginal artist Noŋgirrŋa Marawili, as well as insights from artists from Mariwai village, Papua New Guinea, on the reconfiguration of panels from the Kwoma ceremonial ceiling.

Troy, ancient site in western Turkey, hosts expansive contemporary art exhibition

The Troy Museum in western Turkey has opened a contemporary art exhibition titled "Emanet" (meaning "trust," "legacy," or "safekeeping") by Turkish artist Vuslat. The show, running from May 25 to July 25, features sculptures, drawings, installations, and sound works placed alongside ancient artifacts in the museum's main halls and gardens, marking the first time contemporary art has been integrated into the museum's primary exhibition spaces near the legendary site of Troy.

Alfred Ceramic Art Museum celebrates a 125-year legacy

The Alfred Ceramic Art Museum celebrated Alfred University's 125th anniversary with the exhibition "History: a Legacy in Motion, Alfred Ceramic Art 1900–2025." The show highlights ceramic works by faculty members past and present, centering on 25 pieces by Charles Fergus Binns, the founding director of the New York State School of Clay-Working and Ceramics. Curated by museum director Wayne Higby and assistant director Benjamin Evans, the exhibition features over two dozen artists including Marion Fosdick, Charles Harder, and Linda Sikora, many of whose works have not been displayed in recent years.

SLEEK ART SPACE PRESENTS: Michel Comte

SLEEK Art Space in Berlin is presenting 'Nostalgia of the Image,' a solo exhibition of photographer Michel Comte's work from the 1980s to the present. The show features iconic portraits of cultural figures like Miles Davis, Naomi Campbell, and Gary Oldman, alongside his more recent contemplative and environmentally-focused projects.

BETWEEN DOG AND WOLF CANADA BRINGS TWILIGHT TO THE VENICE BIENNALE

Abbas Akhavan, born in Tehran in 1977, represents Canada at the 61st Venice Biennale with an exhibition titled "Entre chien et loup" (Between Dog and Wolf). Commissioned by the National Gallery of Canada and curated by Kim Nguyen, the installation transforms the Canada Pavilion into a monumental Wardian case—a 19th-century plant transport device—converted into a greenhouse for Victoria water lilies. The lilies, native to South America and germinated at the Orto Botanico di Padova from seeds provided by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, reference their prominent display in the Crystal Palace during the 1851 Great Exhibition. The exhibition runs until November 22, 2026.

An exhibition in Milan brings visionary contemporary landscapes into dialogue with a great Turner watercolor. Review and interview

Una mostra a Milano fa dialogare visionari paesaggi contemporanei con un acquerello del grande Turner. Recensione e intervista

The exhibition "Continuum" at Robilant+Voena in Milan marks the first solo show in the city for American artist Maria Kreyn. It presents a selection of her contemporary landscapes—charged with pathos, abstract geometries, and references to art history—alongside a rare watercolor by J.M.W. Turner, *The Splügen Pass* (1842–43). Kreyn’s seascapes, influenced by her background in mathematics and philosophy, feature turbulent waves, ovoid and parabolic forms, and a sense of latent tension, creating a visual dialogue with Turner’s Romantic vision of nature.

Museum Night 2026: Events in Belarus and Beyond

On May 16, 2026, Museum Night celebrations will take place across Belarus and beyond, with cultural institutions offering extended hours and special programs. Highlights include the National Centre for Contemporary Arts in Minsk hosting lectures, artist talks, and exhibitions such as “Forms and Shadows: Feminine” and “Difficulties of Translation,” while the National Art Museum explores the color blue through its program “Blue of Blue.” Literary museums dedicated to Maksim Bahdanovich, Yakub Kolas, and Yanka Kupala will feature space-themed activities, reenactments, and fashion shows, and the “Sula” History Park will offer an interactive journey called “Hunting the Dragon.”

Sculpture as a Form of Architecture: Happening at the Foundation of Super Artist Anish Kapoor in Venice

La scultura come forma di architettura. Succede alla Fondazione del super artista Anish Kapoor a Venezia

Anish Kapoor has opened a major solo exhibition at Palazzo Manfrin in Venice, a 16th-century building he purchased in 2018, now home to his foundation. The show, running until August 8 during the 61st Venice Biennale, spans over fifty years of his practice, featuring models, studies, and installations that blur the line between sculpture and architecture. Works include the Monte Sant'Angelo metro station in Naples, the ArcelorMittal Orbit tower for the 2012 London Olympics, the inflatable concert hall Ark Nova, and the environmental installation Temenos. The palazzo itself remains under restoration, with exposed construction elements and workspaces visible, reinforcing the exhibition's theme of continuous transformation.

Israeli organisation threatens legal action against Canadian Museum for Human Rights over Palestine exhibition

The Israeli organization Shurat Hadin has threatened legal action against the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) in Winnipeg over its upcoming exhibition "Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present," scheduled to open on June 27. The group sent a legal letter to the museum's board and leadership, alleging the exhibition promotes a one-sided narrative that could fuel antisemitism and violate Canadian federal law, and calling for an independent review. The CMHR is reviewing the letter but declined further comment, while supporters like Independent Jewish Voices argue the museum is right to tell the story of the Nakba from the perspective of Palestinian victims.

History Made Material

Material gewordene Geschichte

The German Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale has been transformed by artist Sung Tieu, who clad its Nazi-era facade with millions of small marble tiles to replicate the look of a prefabricated East German apartment block—specifically the Gehrenseestraße housing complex in Berlin where she spent part of her childhood. Inside, the exhibition features glass casts of her mother's limbs, aluminum beams evoking cramped living quarters, and works by the late Henrike Naumann, all curated by Kathleen Reinhardt to explore bureaucracy, migration, and systemic violence.

Hastings Museum launches ‘Portraits in a Chinese Studio’ exhibition

Grace Lau's exhibition 'Portraits in a Chinese Studio' opens at Hastings Museum & Art Gallery on January 13, 2025. The show features photographs taken in Hastings and St Leonards between 2005 and 2025, depicting local people posed on mock traditional Chinese furniture with modern items like mobile phones and plastic bags, creating a contrast between past and present. The project was funded by Arts Council England and supported by John Hansard Gallery, and runs until March 29, 2026.

Art diary: Generations of Indian art converse at this showcase in Delhi | Hindustan Times

An ongoing group exhibition titled 'Echoes of Past and Future' at Divine Art Gallery in Delhi brings together 48 artworks by 48 artists, spanning generations of Indian modern and contemporary art. The show features works by masters such as Anjolie Ela Menon, Manu Parekh, and Himmat Shah alongside contemporary voices like Ashok Bhowmick and Bhaskar Rao, aiming to create a dialogue between past and present artistic expressions.