Pittsburgh’s new $31m Arts Landing combines public art with civic engagement

Pittsburgh's new $31 million public space, Arts Landing, opened on 17 April, just before the NFL Draft and the 59th Carnegie International. Developed by the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, the project features public artworks by vanessa german, Darian Johnson, Lenka Clayton, Phillip Andrew Lewis, Sharmistha Ray, Mikael Owunna, Marques Redd, John Peña, Shikeith, and the late Thaddeus Mosley. Highlights include Shikeith's neon sculpture *Hold*, part of his *Project Blue Space*, and Mosley's *Touching the Earth* series, originally commissioned by New York's Public Art Fund. The space also includes a playground, bandshell, and artist-designed pickleball courts.

Why Contemporary Photographers Are Rejecting the Camera

Contemporary photographers are increasingly rejecting traditional cameras in favor of alternative, camera-less techniques such as photograms, cyanotypes, and chemigrams. These artists draw inspiration from early scientific experiments with light-sensitive materials, like those of Johann Heinrich Schulze and Thomas Wedgwood, who created temporary images using silver nitrate and sunlight before photography was formally invented.

Philadelphia Museum of Art Launches Rocky Exhibition: A New Look at Monuments, Culture, and Legacy

The Philadelphia Museum of Art has opened a new exhibition titled “Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments” in April 2026, which examines the cultural significance of public monuments through the lens of the fictional boxer Rocky Balboa. Curated by Paul Farber and drawing on the work of Monument Lab, the show brings the iconic Rocky Statue inside the museum, placing it alongside classical and contemporary artworks by artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol, as well as historical objects spanning 2,000 years.

Nude Performance at MFA Boston Confronts One of Art’s Oldest Tropes

Artist Xandra Ibarra staged her performance "Nude Laughing" (2014–) at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston on April 16, appearing nude except for a breastplate and yellow heels while dragging a nylon stocking stuffed with blonde wigs and fake breasts. She moved through the galleries, laughing hysterically, and ultimately collapsed in front of Paul Gauguin's painting "Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?" (1897–98). The performance was part of the exhibition "Subvert, Repair, Reclaim: Contemporary Artists Take Back the Nude," which features 12 artists critiquing racial, gender, and power hierarchies in Western art history. The event sparked heated debate on the museum's Instagram, with hundreds of commenters arguing about its legitimacy and obscenity.

Stockholm's Market Art Fair wants to prove the 'periphery is now essential'

The 20th edition of Stockholm's Market Art Fair for Modern and contemporary art opens in a new waterfront venue at Magasin 9 in the Frihamnen docks area, running until 26 April. This year, 54 dealers—mostly from the Nordics—are joined by international galleries from the US and UK, including Anthony Wilkinson gallery (London) and albertz benda (New York). The fair expanded its reach last year by opening applications to galleries without existing Nordic ties. Notable presentations include new works by Ólafur Elíasson (i8 gallery, Iceland), dystopian paintings by Munan Øvrelid (Galleri Haaken, Oslo), and textile works by Petra Lindholm (Magnus Karlsson gallery). Prices range from SEK 28,000 to €195,000, with strong early sales reported.

Ruth Pastine | Violet (Yellow), Color Space Series (2021) | For Sale

Ruth Pastine's painting "Violet (Yellow), Color Space Series" (2021) is being offered for sale through Louis Stern Fine Arts in West Hollywood, listed on Artsy. The work is an oil on canvas on beveled stretcher, measuring 30 × 60 inches, and is part of her Color Space Series. Pastine, an American artist born in 1964, holds a B.F.A. from The Cooper Union and an M.F.A. from Hunter College, and has exhibited widely, including a museum survey at MOAH Museum of Art and History and a show at CAM Carnegie Art Museum. Her work is held in major collections such as SFMOMA, MCASD, and the Achenbach Foundation.

The World According to Aldwyth

The New York Times Art section published an article titled "The World According to Aldwyth," profiling the artist Aldwyth, who works in paint, bricolage, and collage. The piece explores how her art delves into the history of art, ideas, and the human species, presenting her unique creative vision and thematic concerns.

The Bronx Museum of the Arts hosts Seventh AIM Biennial open house

The Bronx Museum of the Arts hosted its Seventh AIM Biennial Open House on April 18, a free family day that combined hands-on art-making activities with the ongoing biennial exhibition. Visitors participated in button-making, print-making, screen printing, and memory box creation, led by AIM artists including Skip Brea, Hedwig Brouckaert, Ricki Dwyer, Leekyung Kang, Juyon Lee, lauren mcavoy, Piero Penizzotto, Motohiro Takeda, and V Yeh. The day also featured a critique session with artist V Yeh and a panel discussion titled “Tender Monuments,” moderated by co-curator Nell Klugman, exploring themes of personal, communal, and environmental grief.

Collector Julia Stoschek Closes Down Berlin Exhibition Venue After 10 Years In Favor of International Projects

Julia Stoschek, a leading art collector and ARTnews Top 200 figure, is closing her Berlin exhibition venue after a decade of operation. The 3,000-square-meter space in the former Czech Cultural Center, which opened in 2016, will shut at the end of October 2026, having hosted 22 exhibitions and attracted 450,000 visitors. The Stoschek Foundation will maintain its Düsseldorf venue, while Stoschek shifts focus to international projects, such as the recent Los Angeles exhibition “What a Wonderful World: An Audiovisual Poem,” curated by Udo Kittelmann.

Valerie Mercer and the Long Work of Putting African American Art Where It Belongs

Valerie Mercer, the lead curator of African American art at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), has spent over two decades building a collection that now includes more than 700 works. Last fall, the museum unveiled a major reinstallation titled "Reimagine African American Art," moving African American art from scattered locations to the heart of the institution, near Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry Murals. The rehang traces a lineage from 19th-century painters like Robert S. Duncanson to modern innovators like Sam Gilliam, covering key cultural movements such as the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement.

Remembering James Hayward, LA’s Adored Cowboy Painter

Abstract painter James Hayward, known for his monochromatic oil and wax impasto works, died last week at age 82. A legendary figure in the LA art scene, Hayward was equally celebrated for his magnetic personality, ribald humor, and storytelling. He rose to prominence in 1977 when included in the group show "Less is More" at Sidney Janis Gallery in New York, and was admired by art-world giants such as Dave Hickey, Chris Burden, Nancy Rubins, Ed Moses, and Mike Kelley. Hayward also taught at colleges across the country, including a guest seminar at the University of Southern California, and was a longtime supporter of the LA contemporary art magazine Artillery.

Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani, a New Sort of Street Artist, Rises from Art History’s Margins

Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani, a late Japanese American collagist who lived and worked as a street artist in New York City, is the subject of a new solo exhibition at the Spencer Museum of Art in Kansas City, on view through June. Co-curators Maki Kaneko and Kris Imants Ercums organized the show thematically rather than chronologically, reflecting Mirikitani's fragmented life—from surviving the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and incarceration at Tule Lake to arriving in New York in the 1950s. The exhibition draws on years of research, including visits to the parks where he lived and to Hiroshima, and builds on Linda Hattendorf's 2006 documentary *The Cats of Mirikitani*.

Transforming (and Transforming) to Survive. Interview with sculptor and designer Tadeáš Podracký

Trasformarsi (e trasformare) per sopravvivere. Intervista allo scultore e designer Tadeáš Podracký

Czech sculptor and designer Tadeáš Podracký (b. 1989) presents new works during Milan Design Week 2026, including three carved wooden lamps and sculptures exploring hybridity. The pieces are inspired by the rare Sorbus sudetica tree, a hybrid species that has survived for nearly 20,000 years through asexual reproduction. The exhibition, titled "Before the Shape Appears," is produced by 5 Vie and hosted at Cavallerizze in Via Olona. Podracký's practice bridges fine art and collectible design, using techniques such as carving, waxing, patination, and pigment infusion to create objects that appear to have grown organically.

New US exhibition explores power of monuments – with help from Rocky

The Philadelphia Museum of Art has opened a new exhibition titled "Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments," which uses the iconic Rocky Balboa statue as a focal point to explore the power and meaning of monuments across two millennia of boxing and celebrity culture. Curated by Paul Farber, co-founder of Monument Lab, the show features ancient sculptures, 19th-century works, images from boxing's golden age, and contemporary pieces by artists including Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Glenn Ligon. The Rocky statue, placed on the museum's steps in 1982, attracts an estimated 4 million visitors annually, rivaling the Statue of Liberty.

Long-Hidden Keith Haring Artworks Come to Auction

A collection of rare Keith Haring artworks, gifted to his childhood friend Kermit Oswald over nearly three decades, is coming to auction at Sotheby’s Breuer Building in May 2025. The trove includes a self-portrait from 1985 (estimated at $3–5 million), a painted crib and dresser ($250,000–350,000), a carved wood sculpture from 1983 (up to $800,000), and other early works on wood, fabric, and paper. These pieces trace Haring’s artistic evolution before his subway drawings and international fame, and were kept by Oswald, who was Haring’s best friend since kindergarten and later installed his shows.

Discover the story behind the art at Depot Art Gallery’s new exhibit

Depot Art Gallery in Littleton, Colorado, has opened a new juried exhibition titled “Tell Me a Story,” running until May 16. The show features 57 works by members of the Littleton Fine Arts Guild, including paintings, photographs, and jewelry, each accompanied by a printed label explaining the personal story behind the piece. The exhibition was organized by artists Mary Clark and Anastasya Kossyrev, and judged by Jo Ann Nelson of Rox Arts Gallery. Awards were given at the April 24 opening reception, with top honors going to Teresa Maone, Peggy Dietz, and others.

In Dancehall and Reggaetón’s Evolution, MCA Chicago Charts a Global Awakening

The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago has opened "Dancing the Revolution: From Dancehall to Reggaetón," an ambitious exhibition exploring the historical evolution of dancehall and reggaetón as cultural movements and their influence on contemporary art. Curated by Carla Acevedo-Yates, the show features over 40 international artists including Isaac Julien, Edra Soto, Alberta Whittle, Carolina Caycedo, supakid, and Lee "Scratch" Perry, tracing the genres' roots from Afro-Caribbean traditions through their emergence in Jamaica, Panama, and Puerto Rico to global mainstream dominance by figures like Daddy Yankee and Bad Bunny.

Colleen Barry Wants You to Believe in Pictures Again

Artist Colleen Barry presents her exhibition “Iconophilia” at Half Gallery in the East Village, featuring 14 recent paintings that explore motherhood, tenderness, and the complexity of image-making. The works include mythological references like the Capitoline Wolf and juxtapositions of ancient and modern imagery, such as a portrait of Grace Jones combined with the Roman god Janus. Barry, who grew up working class in New York and learned painting from her father, aims to counter contemporary distrust of images—especially among her children—by offering a reverent, iconophilic approach to visual culture.

Exhibition | Carlos Garaicoa, 'Rituals and Liberty' at Goodman Gallery, New York, United States

Goodman Gallery presents Carlos Garaicoa's first solo exhibition at its New York viewing room, titled 'Rituals and Liberty.' The show features eight works, including five reliefs that blend painting and photography, and sculptural models incorporating 19th-century French engravings. The exhibition precedes Garaicoa's solo show at Museo La Tertulia in Cali, Colombia, in May. Garaicoa, a Cuban-born artist based in Madrid, explores urbanism and how architecture reflects and shapes society, continuing his long-standing interest in decoding urban infrastructures.

An Interactive Archive Celebrates the Wide Ranging Projects Inviting ‘Unruly Play’

Amsterdam-based studio Imagination of Things, co-founded by Vitor Freire and Monique Grimord, has launched "Unruly Play," an interactive digital archive featuring 169 artworks, designs, games, and participatory projects. The repository includes notable works such as Rael San Fratello's "Teeter-Totter Wall" and the Wind Phone project, alongside a 12-foot puppet that travels the world. The archive is searchable by theme or through a shuffle feature, aiming to showcase projects that invite surprise, camaraderie, and unexpected encounters with imagination and joy.

Amid Epstein Blowback, Bard President Leon Botstein Talks About Succession Plan But With No Timeline: Report

Leon Botstein, president of Bard College since 1975, has discussed retiring and transitioning to a faculty role as a historian and musician once a successor is found, following backlash over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. According to a Times Union report, no timeline has been set, and the 79-year-old appears to have no immediate plans to leave. Botstein has held multiple meetings with students and staff since February, when details of his relationship with Epstein—including over 2,800 mentions in Epstein-related files—were revealed. He has characterized his eventual departure as a consequence of age, not the controversy, and stated that a search for a successor will begin after a law firm review of his Epstein interactions concludes by the end of May.

The Long-Awaited Reopening of the Musée Bonnat

La réouverture attendue du Musée Bonnat

After fifteen years of closure, the Musée Bonnat (now renamed Bonnat-Helleu) in Bayonne, France, has finally reopened. The closure was initially due to structural problems, including collapsing skylights and leaks, and even before that, much of the collection had been inaccessible. The renovated museum now features a new extension built from a former school, housing the public reception area, an exhibition space, a courtyard with a café terrace, and storage. The galleries display the museum's full holdings, including Rubens sketches, terracottas from the Paul Cailleux collection, and works by Léon Bonnat himself.

Opening Reception of Anastasia Travieso-Diaz Solo Art Exhibition

Studio Russo Gallery, in collaboration with Artvocate, is hosting the opening reception of "Disintegration Regeneration," a solo exhibition by artist Anastasia Travieso-Diaz. The show features works that explore themes of rupture and renewal, using layered compositions and material experimentation to examine cycles of loss, resilience, and transformation.

Exhibition | Nick DOYLE, 'Collective Hallucinations' at Perrotin, New York, United States

Perrotin gallery in New York presents 'Collective Hallcinations', an exhibition of new works by Brooklyn-based artist Nick Doyle. The show features wall-mounted denim collages and an immersive installation of a psychic parlor, including Doyle's first use of artificial intelligence. The works explore the fraught relationship between land and technology, progress and destruction, using denim as a material that evokes Americana, capitalism, and masculinity. The centerpiece, 'Mirror, Mirror', is a denim-clad structure housing an AI avatar named Ava, who offers sardonic commentary on the American dream and the digital frontier.

« La Dame à la licorne » : le portrait idéal du divin Raphaël

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is hosting the first-ever exhibition dedicated to Raphael in the United States, running until June 28. The show brings together over 200 works by the celebrated Renaissance master, including the enigmatic portrait *La Dame à la licorne* (1505–1506), which exemplifies Raphael's signature qualities of grace, light, and harmony.

Stockholm's Market Art Fair is a new model art fair from which to learn something

La Market Art Fair di Stoccolma è un nuovo modello di fiera d’arte da cui imparare qualcosa

The Market Art Fair in Stockholm, founded in 2006 by galleries from Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland, held its 20th edition from April 23-26, 2026, at Magasin 9 during Stockholm Art Week. The fair features 54 exhibitors from 8 countries and 150 artists, with 80% of works tied to the Nordic context and 20% international. Highlights include a solo presentation by Olafur Eliasson at i8 Gallery (Reykjavík) featuring his sculpture *Rare metallic plant* (2026), and a preview of the Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale by artist Benjamin Orlow at Season 4 Episode 6 gallery. The fair has recently opened its selection to international galleries, a shift welcomed by collectors.

A View From the Easel

New Jersey-based artist Hadieh Afshani is featured in the 334th installment of Hyperallergic's 'A View From the Easel' series, which profiles artists in their workspaces. Afshani describes her studio practice at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City, where she balances her art with caring for her baby, working around his feeding and sleeping rhythms. She emphasizes the importance of natural light, a sink for fluid processes, and the supportive community of fellow artists and mothers.

Primal field. Interval

LewAllen Galleries in Santa Fe presents 'Primal field / Interval,' an exhibition of new paintings and monotypes by San Francisco-based artist Henry Jackson, running from May 15 to June 20, 2026. Jackson’s work blends Bay Area Figuration with Abstract Expressionism, using masonry trowels and scrapers to build and excavate layers of oil paint and cold wax, creating elemental fields where the human figure emerges from abstraction. The show also includes oil-based monotypes derived from spontaneous material happenings on the plate.

Gallery Jupiter presents "The Immersive Landscape" - works by Christie Scheele

Gallery Jupiter in Little Silver, New Jersey, presents "The Immersive Landscape," a solo exhibition of paintings by artist Christie Scheele, running from April 30 through June 11, 2026. The show features Scheele's open vista landscape paintings and her new Place Series assemblages, which incorporate foraged natural materials like stones, bark, and seaweed. An opening reception is scheduled for April 30. In conjunction with Earth Day, Scheele also collaborated with artist Kathleen Sweeney and designer Dominick Santise on EcoAction Cards, a set of activity cards aimed at inspiring environmental action.

Maitland exhibit: Textures of Middle East come to life in paintings woven with cultural memory

Mär Martinez's first solo museum exhibition, “A loom, a fence, a wire, a thread,” opens at The Art & History Museums of Maitland, featuring paintings inspired by traditional Turkish and Middle Eastern textile practices. The works, developed during her 2024-2025 Fulbright research in Istanbul, weave together her Cuban and Syrian heritage, exploring themes of cultural memory, displacement, and resilience through imagery of carpets, barbed wire, and urban barriers.