‘Drift’ Invites Reverie at the Parrish

Sanford Biggers's first major solo exhibition on the East End, "Drift," opens at the Parrish Art Museum on Sunday and runs through September 13. The show features new works and site-responsive installations, including the monumental "Unsui (Cloud Forest)" (2025), a series of illuminated cloud sculptures suspended from the museum's arched ceiling. Co-curated by Corinne Erni and Scout Hutchinson, the exhibition spans Biggers's multidisciplinary practice—painting, sculpture, video, performance, and textile works—drawing on influences from Buddhism to graffiti culture and Gee's Bend quilts. Highlights include examples from his "Codex" series, made from repurposed antique quilts with spray-painted cloud forms, and a new sand installation inspired by prayer rugs and Japanese Buddhist mandalas.

Glasgow-based artist's explosive work earns place in major UK exhibition

Frank To, an award-winning Glasgow-based artist known for using gunpowder to create explosive artworks, has been selected to exhibit at the Royal Cambrian Academy’s 2026 Annual Exhibition in Conwy, Wales. He is one of only four Scottish artists chosen from 148 applicants. To's recent London exhibitions at the Stafford Gallery, Wimbledon, and the Mall Galleries sold out, and his collectors include actor Sir Patrick Stewart and art patron Michel Witmer, who displays To's work alongside pieces by Picasso and Warhol.

Patricia Li: An Art And Design Guide To Venice

Patricia Li, writing for Vogue Circle, shares a curated guide to art and design destinations in Venice beyond the main venues of the Venice Biennale. Her recommendations include the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Gallerie dell’Accademia, Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana (part of the Pinault Collection), the newly opened Fondazione Dries Van Noten, and Fondazione Prada, each hosting special exhibitions timed to the Biennale.

in venice, erwin wurm probes bodily perception with soft, mutable forms

Austrian artist Erwin Wurm has opened a new exhibition titled "Dreamers" at Museo Fortuny in Venice, featuring soft, mutable sculptures that probe bodily perception. The installation transforms the historic space with pliable forms that challenge traditional notions of sculpture and the human figure, inviting viewers to reconsider their relationship with physical objects and space.

United States Pavilion to Open at the 61st International

The United States Pavilion at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia will open on May 6, 2026, featuring a solo presentation titled "Call Me the Breeze" by American artist Alma Allen. Curated by Jeffrey Uslip and commissioned by the American Arts Conservancy with support from the U.S. Department of State and the Guggenheim Foundation, the exhibition transforms the historic Giardini pavilion with sculptures in bronze, walnut burl, and various stones, including Colorado Yule marble used in the Lincoln Memorial.

One of Vancouver's hottest art parties returns with immersive lineup next month

The Vancouver Art Gallery will host its annual Art Party on Saturday, June 6, 2026, from 7:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. The late-night immersive celebration features drinks, performances, and interactive experiences under the theme "Ancient Futures." Guests are encouraged to wear outfits made from upcycled materials and can explore exhibitions including "That Green Ideal: Emily Carr and the Idea of Nature," "Future Geographies: Art in the Century of Climate Change," and "Highlights from the Collection." Performances include "Landings for Six" by Action at a Distance Dance Society, a rhythmic ensemble by Shion Skye Carter, and a wearable-art activity led by FakeKnot. Tickets are on sale now, with proceeds supporting the gallery's exhibitions, education, and public programs.

Charlottesville's Confederate statues are centerstage in West Coast art exhibition rooted in tragedy and trauma

The remains of Charlottesville's melted Confederate statue of General Robert E. Lee are now on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles as part of the 'Monuments' exhibition. The statue, originally standing in Market Street Park, was acquired by the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center (JSAAHC) in 2021, melted down at a secret location, and shipped to Los Angeles. The exhibition, presented in partnership with The Brick, also features artist Kara Walker's reconstruction of the Thomas Jackson statue. The bronze ingots and slag from the melting process are displayed alongside other works that reimagine Confederate monuments.

Museum of Arts and Design Presents First Solo Museum Exhibition for Artist Jessica Lichtenstein

The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in New York will present "Jessica Lichtenstein: Rewilding," the artist's first solo museum exhibition, from May 30, 2026, through April 18, 2027. The immersive installation transforms the third-floor gallery into a lush, overgrown terrain featuring thousands of digitally rendered female nudes that coalesce into forests, ruins, and flowering canopies, exploring themes of femininity, ecological imagination, and bodily autonomy.

Nocturne Calder #1: Exhibition, music, workshop and bar at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in May 2026

The Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris will host its first late-night event dedicated to Alexander Calder on Friday, May 8, 2026. Titled "Nocturne Calder #1," the evening features guided micro-tours of the retrospective "Calder. Dreaming in Equilibrium" (April 15–August 16, 2026), a creative workshop inspired by the artist, music, and a food-and-drinks offering. The program also includes a spotlight on the concurrent Armineh Negahdari exhibition. The event runs from 7:00 PM to 10:30 PM, with timed tours and open gallery spaces.

Suspended Labyrinth of Woven Pathways Invites Visitors To Wander in Midair

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) has reinstalled Ernesto Neto’s monumental site-specific commission, "SunForceOceanLife," in its Cullinan Hall. The immersive installation consists of a massive, hand-woven crochet labyrinth suspended 12 feet in the air, featuring a vibrant color palette that symbolizes the cyclical relationship between the sun, sea, and earth. Visitors are invited to walk through the spiral pathways, which are filled with soft plastic balls designed to challenge their balance and induce a meditative state.

Maria Britton: Second Sleep

Artist Maria Britton presents "Second Sleep," a solo exhibition at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art featuring her "Draperies" series. Britton transforms discarded, patterned bedsheets into three-dimensional abstract works that blur the line between painting and sculpture through expert layering and pleating.

Annette Messager's 'A Swallow Does Not Make Spring' exhibition brings her menagerie to life at the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature

An exhibition titled 'A Swallow Does Not Make Spring' by French artist Annette Messager has opened at the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature in Paris. The show transforms the museum's spaces with a menagerie of taxidermy, drawings, and installations, blending the artist's signature surreal and feminist sensibilities with the museum's focus on hunting and nature.

Marianne Vitale exhibition and performance in Pittsburgh

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust presents "Marianne Vitale: On Liberty: A Summoning," an exhibition and performance project at SPACE gallery in downtown Pittsburgh, running from May 1 to October 11, 2026. Guest curated by Benjamin Tischer of New Discretions, the project explores the layered social and cultural history of the 818 Liberty Avenue building, a former hub of nightlife, performance, and queer gathering. Vitale's work incorporates sculpture, painting, film, and live activations, using decommissioned locomotive parts and industrial debris to engage with post-industrial America. The exhibition transforms into a functioning club during select Final Fridays, drawing on the site's history as home to venues like Pegasus Lounge, a key LGBTQ+ space during the AIDS crisis.

Only 11 days left until Berlin’s most important contemporary art event: Over 50 galleries are opening new exhibitions—free admission!

Gallery Weekend Berlin, one of Europe's most significant contemporary art events, is set to take place from May 1-3, 2026. Over 50 selected galleries across the city will simultaneously open new exhibitions, featuring works by established and emerging international artists, with free admission to most venues. The event transforms Berlin into a decentralized, walkable open-air gallery.

Here's how Maurizio Cattelan's telephone confessions ended up

Ecco come sono finite le confessioni al telefono di Maurizio Cattelan

Maurizio Cattelan has launched a new performance project called "Hotline," a telephone confessional service running from April 2 to 22, where anyone could call a toll-free number or send a WhatsApp voice message to confess their sins directly to the artist. On April 23, Cattelan responded in a live-streamed event, symbolically absolving selected participants. The project coincides with the release of limited-edition reproductions of his iconic 1999 work "La Nona Ora" (depicting Pope John Paul II struck by a meteorite), sold through Avant Arte in an edition of 666 miniature resin sculptures priced at €2,310 each, with some given as gifts to participants.

In ‘Piercing the Veil,’ Marina Kappos Gets to Know the Spectre of Grief

Artist Marina Kappos opens her solo exhibition 'Piercing the Veil' at SHRINE gallery in New York City, running from May 15 to June 27. The show features her signature acrylic-on-wood-panel paintings that use thin layers of pigment to create gauzy, prismatic effects. Inspired by the sculptural figures of grieving women she encountered at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, Kappos explores themes of loss, memory, presence and absence, and the threshold between life and death. Works like 'Veil Study (Eclipse)' (2026) and 'Quantum Study (Green Entanglement)' (2025) depict hazy landscapes and keyhole-shaped portals that invite viewers to contemplate the unknown and the spiritual.

WURUS – Light catches before form does.

Artist Caroline Gueye presents 'WURUS', a new installation for the Senegal Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale. Curated by Massamba Mbaye, the work is a shifting field of brass and polymer bronze elements, using mirrors and light to create an environment where perception is contingent on the viewer's movement and position. The title invokes gold, opening onto histories of extraction, but the work deliberately resists singular meaning.

À Bordeaux, la métamorphose du MADD

The Musée des arts décoratifs et du design (MADD) in Bordeaux has reopened its design-focused wing after three years of renovation, featuring a new entrance pavilion designed by Antoine Dufour Architectes that connects the historic Hôtel de Lalande and the former municipal prison. The overhaul includes a monumental shelving display of eighty vases by designers such as Andrea Branzi and Gaetano Pesce, a new "gallery of know-how" dedicated to rotating thematic presentations (starting with ceramics), a graphic arts cabinet showcasing the Jacques Sargos collection of over 130 drawings, and improved climate control for conservation.

For the 61st Venice Biennale, a quest for beauty despite a troubled world

Pour la 61e Biennale de Venise, une quête de beauté malgré un monde troublé

Koyo Kouoh, the Swiss-Cameroonian curator who was set to become the first African woman to direct the Venice Biennale, died suddenly on May 10, 2025, at age 57, just weeks before the opening of the 61st edition she had conceived. Titled "In Minor Keys," the exhibition at the Giardini and Arsenale will proceed posthumously based on her detailed directives, featuring 111 artists including Laurie Anderson, Wangechi Mutu, and Kader Attia, with a focus on beauty, resilience, and radical emotional connection amid global turmoil.

Abbas Akhavan Transforms the Canada Pavilion Into a Greenhouse, Daring Viewers to Leave Behind Their Preconceptions

Artist Abbas Akhavan has transformed the Canada Pavilion at the Venice Biennale into a functioning greenhouse for his exhibition "Entre chien et loup." The pavilion now houses a 6,000-gallon pool containing giant Victoria water lilies, with modifications including grow lights, water misters, a new ventilation system, and structural reinforcements to support the 25-ton water tank. The installation evokes Victorian-era Wardian cases and London's Crystal Palace, but Akhavan emphasizes that his interest in the lilies began intuitively, not as a commentary on colonialism or empire. The project, developed with curator Kim Nguyen, involved collaboration with Kew Gardens and the Orto Botanico di Padova to cultivate the plants, and the outcome remains uncertain as the lilies may thrive or wither over the exhibition's six-month run.

The Most Provocative Performance in Venice

Florentina Holzinger, a performance artist known for extreme feminist works involving nudity, bodily fluids, and physical endurance, is representing Austria at the 2026 Venice Biennale with a pavilion titled “Seaworld Venice.” Opening May 9, the installation transforms the Austrian Pavilion in the Giardini into an underwater theme park and a functioning sewage treatment plant, where audience urine collected from portable toilets is cleaned and recycled into the tanks. The work explores themes of the human body, ecology, and Venice’s own struggles with sinking infrastructure and mass tourism.

A Dutch Art Studio Lights Up Venice’s Grand Canal

Dutch artists Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta of Studio Drift have installed their kinetic light sculptures along Venice’s Grand Canal, bringing their work outdoors for the first time during the Venice Biennale. The installation transforms the iconic waterway with moving, illuminated forms that interact with the surrounding architecture and water.

Dries Verhoeven on Representing the Netherlands at the 61st Venice Biennale

Dries Verhoeven will represent the Netherlands at the 61st Venice Biennale (2026) with a new work titled *The Fortress*, installed in the Dutch Rietveld Pavilion in the Giardini. The 25-minute performance piece transforms the sunlit pavilion into a darkened bunker, featuring a raw vocal composition using only false vocal cords. Verhoeven describes the work as a meditation on transition and self-preservation, reflecting a Western society caught between its enlightened self-image and a dark vision of the future. The piece responds to geopolitical unrest outside the Biennale grounds and is designed to be melancholic and confrontational, contrasting with the main exhibition's theme, *In Minor Keys*.

Merike Estna on Representing Estonia at the 61st Venice Biennale

Artist Merike Estna will represent Estonia at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026 with a project that transforms the national pavilion into an active, open studio. Eschewing the display of finished products, Estna plans to start with empty canvases and complete a series of 22 paintings over the course of the exhibition, allowing visitors to witness the "living" process of creation.

EAT/ART Space to inhabit ETSU's Tipton-Ashe Galleries

EAT/ART Space, a collaborative project merging food and visual art, will take over ETSU's Tipton-Ashe Galleries. The initiative transforms the gallery into an interactive environment where visitors can engage with art through culinary experiences, blurring the lines between gallery viewing and dining.

Where to go on Potsdamer Straße?

Wohin auf der Potsdamer Straße?

The article previews the Gallery Weekend Berlin, focusing on the Potsdamer Straße art scene. It highlights several exhibitions, including Adam Gordon's "Months Turn to Years" at Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, which transforms the space into a secluded enclave with quiet paintings. Other featured shows include luminous color experiments, soap foam as an art form, and works exploring identity.

Art Gallery of Burlington opens vibrant spring exhibition you have to experience

The Art Gallery of Burlington (AGB) opens its spring exhibition "A material called Earth, Volume 1: The life of corners" on May 16th, featuring the immersive textile art of Argentinian artist Celina Eceiza. The installation transforms the main gallery with hand-dyed, stitched, and embroidered works, including sculptures ranging from palm-sized to near-monumental, and incorporates ceramics from the AGB's collection. A public opening on May 16th includes a talk and tour with curator Sylvie Fortin and the artist, plus free programming by artist Camila Salcedo and refreshments from local vendors.

Exhibition | Dai Chenlian, 'Waxing and Waning of the Augustness III' at ShanghART, M50, Shanghai, China

ShanghART Gallery presents Dai Chenlian's solo exhibition 'Waxing and Waning of the Augustness III' at its M50 space in Shanghai from April 10 to May 29, 2026. The show is the final chapter of the artist's 'Mother Trilogy,' centering on his mother's life from 1954 to 2025. Through a reconstructed old house made from loom parts, along with painting, installation, performance, sound narration, and shadow puppetry, the exhibition explores themes of memory, migration, and female resilience, drawing on a line by Tang dynasty poet Li Shangyin.

NYC Transit Museum Turns MetroCards Into Art

The New York Transit Museum's Grand Central Gallery is presenting "Inspired by MetroCard," a free exhibition running through October 2026 that transforms the city's iconic fare card into works of art. The show features paintings, collages, mosaics, and wearable pieces created from thousands of MetroCards by artists including VH McKenzie, Nina Boesch, Juan Carlos Pinto, Barbara Kruger, Nina Vishneva, and Thomas McKean. Curator Jodi Shapiro organized the exhibition, which is located in the museum's gallery and store within Grand Central Terminal's Shuttle Passage.

Akron Art Museum transforms church’s stained glass windows into exhibit

The Akron Art Museum is presenting "Transfiguration: Rachel Libeskind and the Tiffany Window," an exhibition centered on a 137-square-foot stained glass window crafted by Frederick Wilson of Tiffany Studios in 1917. The window, originally installed at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, was rescued after a 2018 fire destroyed the church. Developer Tony Troppe purchased the property in 2022, and Whitney Stained Glass Studio restored the panels. New York-based artist Rachel Libeskind created accompanying works that reframe the window as art rather than a devotional object, with the show running through July 5.