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.

A View From the Easel

A View From the Easel

Artist Lusmerlin, who works between studios in Maryland and Philadelphia, describes a creative process that begins with physical and mental alignment through activities like stretching and singing before painting. Their flexible studio spaces, which open onto a garden, directly influence ambitious projects, including a 28-foot painting titled "The Big Rip" that investigates the theoretical collapse of the universe.

First Comprehensive Museum Retrospective For Detroit Artist And ‘Bead Man’ Olayami Dabls

The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD) will present "Olayami Dabls: Detroit Cosmologies," the first comprehensive museum retrospective for Detroit artist Olayami Dabls, running from April 25 to July 12, 2026. Dabls, who began his career as a curator at the Afro-American Museum in Detroit (now the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History), traces his artistic journey to a transformative moment in the 1970s when he opened a box of African masks that his colleagues feared to handle. This experience led him to investigate how Hollywood and popular culture had demonized African material culture, associating it with horror movies and voodoo, and inspired decades of work as an artist, storyteller, cultural historian, and civic champion.

Delhi gets its first ‘gallery district’ in Defence Colony

The Defence Colony neighborhood in Delhi has officially emerged as the city's first dedicated 'gallery district' following a collaborative effort by local art dealers. The initiative, spearheaded by Arjun Butani of Pristine Contemporary and Arjun Sawhney, saw eleven galleries coordinate their schedules to host 'Def Col Art Night' on March 17, 2026. The event featured major openings, including an S.H. Raza retrospective at Akar Prakar and a solo sculpture exhibition by Mayur Gupta at Latitude 28, drawing crowds through a synchronized gallery hop model.

Tiffany Shlain uses trees and technology to trace Jewish history in new exhibit

Tiffany Shlain, a multidisciplinary artist and founder of the Webby Awards, has opened a new exhibition titled "Ancient Wisdom for a Future Ecology: Trees, Time, and Technology" at the di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art in San Francisco. The show, which debuted in October 2024 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles as part of a Getty Museum initiative, uses massive tree trunk slices—some weighing 10,000 pounds—to explore Jewish history, feminism, and existential questions. Shlain, known for her work blending feminism, technology, and Judaism, also co-created a video on the teenage brain with Goldie Hawn and recently screened her 2005 documentary short "The Tribe."

culture aesop new york creatives holidays

Aesop, the skincare and fragrance company, has released a collection of festive holiday kits designed for creatives, focusing on hand and workspace care. The kits include themed sets like “Party in the Greenhouse” and “Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen,” featuring products such as geranium-infused balms and pumice hand wash. Cultured magazine partnered with Aesop to highlight the creative spaces of New York artists and chefs, including Fernando Mastrangelo, Flynn McGarry, and Eny Lee Parker, who opened their studios and kitchens to showcase their rituals.

Bugarin + Castle on Representing Scotland at the 61st Venice Biennale

ArtReview published a questionnaire response from Bugarin + Castle, the artist duo representing Scotland at the 61st Venice Biennale (2026). Their exhibition, titled "Shame Parade" and curated by Mount Stuart Trust, explores charivari—medieval public shaming rituals involving sound, costume, and cross-dressing. The work draws on the artists' research into how noise and music have been used as tools of control, with particular attention to the Filipino legal definition of charivari as a punishable public disturbance. The exhibition includes sculpture, print, moving image, and a musical score created with Manila-based band Kalye Teresa, and is housed at the Olivolo, Castello pavilion.

charli xcx sound sculpture amanda camenisch 1234768492

The article reports that Charli XCX plays a sculptural harp by artist Amanda Camenisch in the film *100 Nights Of Hero*, which premiered at the Venice International Film Festival. The instrument, titled *Elemental Harp: Fire* (or "Fire Harp"), was commissioned by the London Brent Biennial in 2022 and is part of a series of five sound sculptures representing elemental forces. Camenisch, a London-based photographer, filmmaker, and performer, creates hand-forged sonic sculptures designed for participatory rituals and vibrational healing.

culture holiday traditions artists rockefeller center

Cultured magazine's holiday feature spotlights how New York's creative community—including artist Julia Chiang, chef Jess Shadbolt, and designer Todd Snyder—celebrates the season with personal, non-traditional traditions. Chiang and her children craft ornaments from felt and Sculpey clay; Shadbolt serves cheese fondue on Christmas Eve and offers it at her restaurant King; Snyder favors tartan ties and cashmere over typical holiday attire. The article ties these rituals to Rockefeller Center as the city's holiday hub, with shopping recommendations from FAO Schwarz, Anthropologie, and Jupiter.

‘A very basic human desire to want some control’: US exhibition explores the power of magic

The Toledo Museum of Art has opened an exhibition titled 'Cursed!' that explores the widespread use of magic spells and objects in ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. The show features amulets, inscribed gemstones, and figurines used for purposes ranging from protecting newborns and winning lawsuits to casting coercive love spells.

Zimbabwean artist Option Nyahunzvi explores cultural values in a bold new exhibition

Zimbabwean artist Option Dzikamai Nyahunzvi has launched a major solo exhibition titled 'Zvatiri' (Who We Are) at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. The show features a multidisciplinary approach, combining installations, live-art performances, and paintings created with a unique technique of layering and etching Fabriano paper onto canvas. The works heavily reference Shona identity, specifically the 'hunhu' (or ubuntu) belief system and the artist's own Mbizi (zebra) totem, aiming to reconnect contemporary audiences with ancestral wisdom.

The Kenyan artist who was a revelation at the last Biennale is on show at Masaccio's house in Tuscany

L’artista del Kenya rivelazione all’ultima Biennale è in mostra alla casa di Masaccio in Toscana

Kenyan artist Agnes Waruguru, a breakout star of the most recent Venice Biennale, is presenting her first solo museum exhibition in Italy. Titled 'From What We Are,' the show is curated by Alessandro Romanini and is on view at the Centro per le arti contemporanee Casa Masaccio in San Giovanni Valdarno, Tuscany.

Exhibition | Lulama Wolf, 'The Architecture of Memory' at THK Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa

South African artist Lulama Wolf presents 'The Architecture of Memory,' an online-only exhibition hosted by THK Gallery. Wolf utilizes a distinct material language of pigmented sand and acrylic to create tactile surfaces that reference the weathered walls of domestic and sacred spaces. Her work moves beyond simple representation, using geometric abstraction and earth-based materials to explore the intersection of personal history and collective generational memory.

Ruins of a ‘Unique‘ Temple Complex Discovered in Northern Sinai

An Egyptian archaeological mission has unearthed a unique temple complex at Tell el-Farama, the site of the ancient city of Pelusium in northern Sinai. The discovery features a massive circular water basin, approximately 100 feet in diameter, surrounded by drainage channels and a central plinth likely intended for a statue. Initially mistaken for a civic building when first excavated in 2019, further study has revealed the site to be a sacred water installation used for religious rituals between the 2nd century BC and the 6th century AD.

ancient egyptian pleasure boat portus magnus 2725487

Underwater archaeologist Franck Goddio and his Institut Européen d’Archéologie Sous-Marine (IEASM) team have discovered the remains of a 35-meter-long ancient Egyptian pleasure boat, known as a thalamagos, in the submerged Portus Magnus off Alexandria’s harbor. The 28-meter preserved timbers, found seven meters underwater and buried under sediment, represent the first physical evidence of such vessels, previously known only from ancient texts like Strabo's Geography and the Nile mosaic at Palestrina. The ship, built in Alexandria and propelled by oars, features a central pavilion and Greek graffiti from the 1st century C.E., and may have sunk around 50 C.E. during the destruction of the temple of Isis on Antirhodos Island.

pompeii discoveries 2638433

Archaeologists have uncovered a series of remarkable discoveries at Pompeii, the ancient Roman city buried by Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E. Recent finds include life-sized statues of a priestess and a man from a tomb, frescoes depicting Dionysian rituals and mythological scenes, an extravagantly decorated 'tiny house' called the House of Phaedra, and evidence of aspirational interior design. These artifacts, unearthed in suburban villas and tombs, range from a bejeweled priestess statue to children's gladiator doodles and ancient fast-food counters, revealing new details about daily life in the Roman Republic.

parthenon dark lighting effects 2642792

Archaeologist Juan de Lara of Oxford University has published a paper challenging the long-held belief that the Parthenon in Athens was a brightly lit, open space. Using a 3D model that simulates natural and artificial light, Lara argues the temple was actually dark and dim, with sunlight barely reaching the statue of Athena's waist and a wooden ceiling blocking any translucency from marble roof tiles. He also suggests that hand-held torches, rather than numerous lamps, were used for artificial light, and that the reflective pool in front of Athena's statue did little to illuminate the space.

In La Défense, a Plunge Between Art and Science into Abyssal Wonder

À La Défense, une plongée entre art et science d’un émerveillement abyssal

The exhibition "Sous l’horizon" (Under the Horizon) has opened in the Salle des colonnes, a massive underground space beneath the La Défense business district in Paris. Guided by a poetic narrative from writer Mariette Navarro and the voice of singer Emily Loizeau, visitors navigate a darkened 1,000-square-meter environment equipped with headlamps and audio headsets. The immersive journey features works by artists including Antoine Bertin, Ugo Schiavi, Jérémie Brugidou, and Shivay La Multiple, exploring the mysteries of the deep sea through bioluminescence, oceanic soundscapes, and futuristic sculptures.

Edgar Calel at Kunsthalle Bern

Edgar Calel, a Guatemalan artist born in 1987, is the subject of an exhibition at Kunsthalle Bern. His work draws on the rituals and traditions of his native Guatemala, focusing on the working conditions and environmental impact of export-oriented agricultural industries, particularly palm oil and coffee plantations that dominate the country's economy.

Inside the UAE Pavilion at Venice Biennale, a whisper becomes a portrait of a nation

The UAE Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale presents 'Washwasha,' an exhibition curated by Bana Kattan with assistant curator Tala Nassar. The show features six artists—Mays Albaik, Jawad Al Malhi, Farah Al Qasimi, Alaa Edris, Lamya Gargash, and Taus Makhacheva—whose works explore the concept of whispering in Arabic, encompassing oral history, language, rumor, and daily noise. Installations include glass sculptures, sound-based pieces from barbershops and farms, and a reconstructed hammam installation by Al Malhi that plays recordings of wedding rituals. The exhibition runs until November 22.

ASU Art Museum exhibit features Chicana artist Carmen Lomas Garza

The Arizona State University Art Museum is set to open "Carmen Lomas Garza: Picturing the Familiar" this May, a retrospective dedicated to the 76-year-old Chicana artist and author. The exhibition highlights Garza’s career-long commitment to documenting South Texas and Mexican-American life through paintings, prints, and children's book illustrations. Her work focuses on intimate, everyday scenes—from domestic interiors to community celebrations—that were heavily influenced by her involvement in the Chicano movement.

'Echoes of Home' at Christopher Moller Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa on 28 May–2 Jul 2026

Christopher Moller Gallery in Cape Town is set to host "Echoes of Home," a group exhibition featuring the works of Mpho Feni, Lionel Mbayiwa, and Olamide Ogunade. The show explores the evolving concept of identity and heritage across the African continent, contrasting traditional ancestral knowledge with contemporary lived experiences. Each artist provides a unique lens: Mbayiwa focuses on Shona cosmology, Ogunade utilizes introspective symbolism to capture the fragility of memory, and Feni documents the communal rituals of everyday family life.

Birmingham museum opens exhibition on death and grief

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery has launched a community-led exhibition exploring the universal experiences of death, dying, and grief. Curated in partnership with the local collective BrumYODO, the showcase features traditional mourning rituals alongside contemporary inquiries into how artificial intelligence might manage bereavement. The exhibition serves as the centerpiece for the annual "A Matter of Life and Death" festival, incorporating interactive workshops, clay-making sessions, and even a themed comedy night to engage the public with a typically taboo subject.

Community Exhibition Explores Death, Grief and Rituals at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery has launched a community-led exhibition exploring the universal themes of death, grief, and mourning rituals. Part of the annual "A Matter of Life and Death Festival 2026," the showcase combines historical artworks from the museum’s permanent collection with contemporary perspectives, including the role of artificial intelligence in grief management. The program features interactive workshops led by artists Bianca Beneduzi and Jemma Mellor, as well as a comedy night designed to spark open dialogue about mortality.

4,000-year-old Ancient Egyptian handprint discovered by Cambridge museum

Researchers at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, UK, have discovered a 4,000-year-old handprint on the base of an ancient Egyptian "soul house"—a clay model of a building used in burial rituals. The handprint was found during preparations for the museum's upcoming exhibition "Made in Ancient Egypt" (3 October–12 April 2026), when senior conservator Julie Dawson examined the object under different lighting. The soul house, excavated at Deir Rifa north of Luxor, dates to Egypt's First Intermediate Period or Middle Kingdom and was likely left by the artisan who moved it to dry before firing.

Artist shows agriculture droning forward

Chinese artist Cao Fei is set to debut her latest multimedia project, "Dash" (known as "Super Farms" in China), at the Fondazione Prada in Milan on April 9. The exhibition is the result of three years of field research across China and Southeast Asia, where Cao documented the rise of smart farming and the integration of AI, drones, and autonomous vehicles into traditional agricultural landscapes. Her work captures a unique cultural synthesis where modern technology is sometimes integrated into ancient rituals, such as the worship of drones as deities.

zapotec tomb unearthed oaxaca mexico 600 ce 1234771635

Archaeologists in Oaxaca, Mexico, have discovered a remarkably well-preserved Zapotec tomb dating to around 600 CE. The tomb, found in San Pablo Huitzo, features intricate carvings, including a sculpture of an owl with a human head in its beak, and multicolored murals depicting a procession of figures.

egyptian blue pigment recreated 1234744161

A team led by Washington State University has successfully recreated Egyptian Blue, the oldest manufactured pigment in history, which was first synthesized in ancient Egypt and used in funerary rituals and Roman art. The production process was lost during the Renaissance. Working with the Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, the researchers developed 12 recipes using silicon dioxide, copper, calcium, and sodium carbonate, heating them at around 1,000 degrees Celsius for up to 11 hours to mimic ancient methods. They discovered that only half the expected amount of blue-producing compounds was needed to achieve the exact chemical match.

What If… Exhibition Opens at Swan Hill Studios, Shrewsbury

Installation artist Julia Rogers presents a new exhibition titled "What If…" at Swan Hill Studios in Shrewsbury, running from 22 January to 2 February 2026. The show draws inspiration from Rogers's lifelong habit of collecting lucky pennies, using this simple ritual as a lens to explore how meaning is formed and reinforced in everyday life. The exhibition opens with a private view on 22 January and is free to attend, with the artist present throughout the week.

1990s pop icon Jewel is the protagonist in Venice with an exhibition that rewrites the geographies of the feminine

L’icona pop Anni ‘90 Jewel è protagonista a Venezia con una mostra che riscrive le geografie del femminile

Singer-songwriter Jewel, a 1990s pop icon with four Grammy nominations, is presenting her largest exhibition to date in Venice. Titled "Matriclysm: An Archaeology of Connections Lost," the immersive show runs from May 6 to November 22, 2026, at the Salone Verde, coinciding with the 2026 Venice Biennale. Curated by Joe Thompson, the exhibition blends painting, textiles, sculpture, sound, and installation to explore themes of femininity, motherhood, care, and intergenerational knowledge, drawing on forgotten rituals and marginalized mythologies.