Ai Weiwei solo show in Singapore

Ai Weiwei has launched a solo exhibition at Tang Contemporary Art in Singapore, featuring his signature Lego brick recreations of Western masterpieces and intricate porcelain sculptures. The show includes pixelated interpretations of works by Van Gogh and Andrew Wyeth, alongside porcelain pieces like 'Watermelon' and a series of 16 helmets that satirize international military aid. The artist, currently based in Portugal, noted that the exhibition's themes are heavily influenced by contemporary global conflicts and the digital age's impact on authorship.

Phantasmagoria review: digital sorcery at the Henry Moore Institute

The Henry Moore Institute in Leeds presents 'Phantasmagoria: Folkloric Sculpture for the Digital Age,' a major group exhibition exploring how digital technologies are reshaping contemporary sculpture. The show features works by artists including Joey Holder, Jürgen Baumann, and Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, who fuse ancient folklore, occult practices, and modern digital tools such as AI, 3D printing, and video game mechanics. Highlights include Holder's immersive installation 'The Woosphere' with arcade-style consoles and Brathwaite-Shirley's interactive boat sculpture 'PIRATING BLACKNESS/BLACKTRANSSEA.COM.' The exhibition draws on the historical concept of phantasmagoria—18th-century theatrical spectacles using smoke and light—to critique the seductive illusions of digital capitalism.

WALTER OTERO A TROPICAL GALLERIST IN AMERICA S ECOSYSTEM

A new book titled "Walter Otero: un galerista tropical" is being published this March. It features an interview by curator Omar-Pascual Castillo with Puerto Rican gallerist Walter Otero, chronicling his journey from personal assistant to painter Arnaldo Roche Rabell to founding his influential San Juan gallery, Walter Otero Contemporary Art (WOCA). The book details the gallery's history, its roster of artists, and Otero's adaptation to the digital age and crises like Hurricane Maria.

The Artist Who Painted Pixels Before We Saw in Pixels

Der Künstler, der Pixel malte, bevor wir in Pixel sahen

Reinhard Voigt, a German artist little known to the public, painted grid-based pictures as early as 1968—years before pixels became ubiquitous in daily life. Despite early discouragement from Gerhard Richter and fellow artist Alan Jones, Voigt persisted, creating meticulous works on paper and canvas using transparent paper, rulers, pencil, and oil paint. His first major exhibition, "Pure Pleasure," took place in 2023/2024 in Nuremberg, and his current duo show "High on Low" with Anna-Sophie Berger is on view at Berlin's Kunstraum Grotto, featuring his Word Paintings series. Voigt lives and works in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg with his wife, artist Susan Elias.

‘Vandalised, disembowelled and dismembered’: Artist Jack Milroy gives books a brutal treatment with beautiful results

The artist Jack Milroy has launched a new solo exhibition titled 'Bibliophilia' at Shapero Modern in London, featuring his signature 3D cut-out artworks. The 87-year-old artist transforms books and everyday objects, such as sardine tins, into intricate sculptures where illustrated figures like birds and fish appear to escape their physical confines. The show marks Milroy's first collaboration with the gallery, which is uniquely situated beneath an antiquarian bookshop, providing a thematic contrast between preserved rare volumes and Milroy’s "vandalised" artistic interpretations.

Artist Qualeasha Wood Says Viral ‘BedRot’ Performance Copied Her Work

Artist Qualeasha Wood has publicly accused another artist, known as Aphex Redditor, of copying her performance art piece. Wood staged a performance called 'Attention Economy' in March 2025 at London's Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, where she lay in bed scrolling through her phone for an extended period, a concept the gallery's release described as 'bed rotting.' A similar performance by Aphex Redditor, titled 'BedRot,' went viral on social media after she scrolled through Instagram Reels for 24 hours at Montreal's Eastern Bloc art center.

Hotel Room Transforms into Media Art Exhibition Space

South Korea's only media art fair, Loop Plus, was held from April 23 to 26 at the Grand Josun Busan Hotel in Haeundae, Busan. The fair transformed 26 hotel rooms on the 13th floor into exhibition spaces, featuring media artworks from 19 international galleries including Tang Contemporary Art, Esther Schipper, Chiwen Gallery, and Baek Art. Highlights included a 38-minute video installation by Russian artist group AES+F titled *‘Inverso Mundus’*, presented by Tang Contemporary Art, which humorously subverts societal absurdities. The event also included artist booths for Kang Lee-yeon and Lucia Levolino, and institutional booths for the Justice Foundation and Gwangju Media Art Platform. A related festival, Loop Lab Busan 2026, runs until June 28 across multiple venues in Busan.

Art Basel's solution to PDF pre-sales? Ask galleries to reserve works until opening day

Art Basel has announced a new initiative called Basel Exclusive for its flagship Swiss fair in June 2025, asking participating galleries to withhold their most important or expensive works from all pre-fair previews, online viewing rooms, and publicity. Instead, these "marquee works" will be unveiled for the first time during the First Choice VIP preview on 16 June. The initiative aims to restore a sense of surprise and urgency, countering the trend of galleries pre-selling works to clients before the fair opens. Around 170 galleries have already signed up, including major names like Gagosian, David Zwirner, Hauser & Wirth, Pace Gallery, and Sadie Coles HQ.

at londons soho revue artists reframe sensuality in a new group show

Soho Revue in London presents "Behind the Curtains," a group exhibition running from January 14 to February 29, 2026, featuring eight female artists—Lorena Lohr, Lucrezia Abatzoglu, Nettle Grellier, Drea Cofield, Kim Booker, Joline Kwakkenbos, Harriet Gillet, and Abigail McGinley—who reframe feminine sensuality outside the male gaze. The gallery is draped in deep red velvet, creating an intimate, private chamber that echoes Renaissance curtain conventions and the scale of 16th-century portrait miniatures, with each artist working in small formats to slow visual consumption and challenge who controls the frame.

Painting Has Entered Its Performance Era

The rise of short-form video platforms like Instagram and TikTok has transformed painting from a static medium into a performative spectacle. To compete with algorithmic preferences for transformation and speed, artists are adopting specific visual grammars such as the "art reveal"—where a canvas is dramatically flipped toward the camera—and "speed painting," which turns the creation process into a high-stakes live event. These trends emphasize the labor and human presence behind the work, often utilizing emotional storytelling and direct engagement to build dedicated fanbases outside traditional gallery structures.

‘Even more beautiful than I imagined’: the nifty Japanese printing gadget uniting artists worldwide

Designer Gabriella Marcella has curated a new exhibition at Glasgow’s Glue Factory Galleries celebrating the global community of risograph printing. The show highlights work from her 'Riso Club' initiative, a non-profit program that distributes monthly sets of artist-designed postcards from cities ranging from Kyiv to Damascus. Originally developed in Japan in the 1980s as an affordable office tool, the risograph has been reclaimed by independent creatives for its unique soy-ink aesthetic and tactile, screenprint-like quality.

beast jesus artist cecilia gimenez obituary

Cecilia Giménez Zueco, the amateur painter behind the infamous "Beast Jesus" fresco restoration, has died at age 94. In 2012, at 81, Giménez attempted to restore Elías García Martínez's 1930 fresco *Ecce Homo* at the Santuario de Misericordia church in Borja, Spain. Her unskilled repainting transformed Christ's face into a distorted, ape-like image that went viral under nicknames like "Potato Jesus" and "Monkey Christ," spawning thousands of memes across Reddit, 4chan, and Twitter before mainstream media coverage. Initially devastated by the global ridicule, Giménez later found her work celebrated as a cultural phenomenon and tourist attraction.

reframing the frame

Artnet News revisits the trend of inventive, sculptural frames in contemporary painting, originally explored in Katie White's essay "Bordercore." The article features a podcast conversation between White and editor Ben Davis, examining how artists like Stephanie Temma Hier use frames as surreal, symbolic extensions of their work, moving beyond traditional containment to comment on and disrupt the artwork's boundaries.

Maurizio Cattelan opens a hotline to absolve us of our sins via WhatsApp

Maurizio Cattelan ouvre une hotline pour nous absoudre de nos péchés par WhatsApp

Italian provocateur Maurizio Cattelan has launched "The Confessional," an international hotline allowing participants to confess their sins via WhatsApp, SMS, or voice notes from April 2 to April 22, 2026. This participatory performance culminates in a livestream on April 23, where Cattelan will personally grant absolution to selected participants. The project coincides with the release of a limited edition of 666 miniature replicas of his infamous 1999 sculpture, "La Nona Ora," which depicts Pope John Paul II being struck by a meteorite.

‘New Humans’: A Hallucinatory Humanism Worth Moving Toward

Milan’s art scene is currently anchored by 'New Humans' at Pirelli HangarBicocca, a major solo exhibition by Cao Fei that explores the intersection of technology, labor, and human identity. The show features immersive installations and films that document global farming practices and the surreal evolution of social structures in the digital age, alongside other key city-wide exhibitions including Anselm Kiefer’s portraits of female alchemists.

Beyond Body-Con: In the the Met’s Spectacular New Exhibition, “Costume Art,” the Human Form Connects Fashion and Art

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has opened a new fashion exhibition titled "Costume Art" in its newly established Condé M. Nast Galleries. Curated by Andrew Bolton, the show features faceless mannequin heads by sculptor Samar Hejazi that reflect visitors' own images, encouraging self-reflection and empathy. The exhibition is structured around a typology of bodies, using mannequins of diverse body types modeled after named individuals to challenge traditional beauty standards. It explores the connection between fashion and the human form, positioning the dressed body as a unifying thread across the museum's collections.

5 New Art Pieces to See in NYC This Spring

New York City's spring art season is marked by a series of high-profile exhibitions across major institutions, focusing on themes of vulnerability, technological evolution, and personal identity. Notable highlights include the New Museum's exploration of the human body in the digital age and MoMA's deep dive into the tumultuous relationship and individual resilience of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera.

Artist Shana Moulton to speak at Humanities Decanted

Artist Shana Moulton is set to discuss her multidisciplinary practice at the "Humanities Decanted" event on April 21. The talk will focus on her long-running 'Whispering Pines' series and her recent site-specific installation at MoMA’s Kravis Studio, which features her iconic alter ego, Cynthia. Developed in collaboration with composer Nick Hallett, the project utilizes performance and video to explore a multi-chapter narrative centered on themes of wellness and consumerism.

Your country needs you(r content): National Gallery of Art in Washington DC launches social media open call

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. has launched an open call for 50 digital content creators to produce short videos reinterpreting 100 selected works from its collection. The campaign, celebrating the 250th anniversary of the United States, offers a $3,000 honorarium to each selected creator and will feature their work on the museum's social media channels and within the museum itself.

Museum wall texts are an art in their own right—but will they survive the digital age?

The article explores the debate over museum wall texts, examining whether they enhance or hinder the visitor experience. It highlights contrasting approaches: Calder Gardens in Philadelphia has eliminated wall text entirely, branding itself as "open to interpretation," while institutions like the Frick Pittsburgh and the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) continue to use carefully crafted labels, often with strict word limits and multiple languages. The Frick Pittsburgh invites guest "labelists" from the local community to write labels, and the ROM focuses on making text shorter and more scannable to hold visitors' limited attention.

Local Art Books to Gift This Holiday Season

Several artists with ties to Baltimore have released new art books just in time for the holiday season. The featured publications include a debut monograph on Derrick Adams from Phaidon's Monacelli imprint, a book by rising painter Jerrell Gibbs titled 'No Solace in the Shade' published by Rizzoli, the exhibition catalogue for Amy Sherald's retrospective 'American Sublime' at the Baltimore Museum of Art, and Jackie Milad's debut art book 'Shabtis Gather' produced in partnership with BmoreArt. The article also recommends gifting a subscription to BmoreArt magazine.

At Art Basel Miami Beach, a new space reimagines art in the digital age

Art Basel Miami Beach will debut a new curated space called Zero 10, dedicated to digital and new media art, at its upcoming fair in the Miami Beach Convention Center. The centerpiece is an interactive installation by American artist Beeple featuring robot dogs with human heads modeled after public figures like Andy Warhol, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk, which will photograph fairgoers and offer NFTs. The space, curated by Eli Scheinman, includes works by pioneers such as Manfred Mohr and Larva Labs, alongside galleries like Pace Gallery and platforms like Art Blocks, exploring themes of AI, robotics, and generative systems. The name references Kazimir Malevich's 1915 exhibition '0,10', signaling a push into new artistic terrain.

Behind the The Art of Banksy with Michel Boersma

The article recounts a personal visit to 'The Art of Banksy' exhibition at the Aotea Centre in Auckland, New Zealand, on July 7, 2024. The author, initially hesitant due to past awkward experiences at art shows, attends the opening and describes the immersive, gritty atmosphere of the 909 sqm space featuring 160 authenticated Banksy pieces. The exhibition includes iconic works like a girl with a heart-shaped balloon and anti-royalist pieces, and the author interviews curator Michel Boersma, who explains the show's growth from 65 pieces in 2018 to its current scale, touring 19 cities and attracting over 1.5 million visitors.

Newcastle gallery to open new exhibition exploring 'craft' in art

The Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle is opening a new exhibition titled 'With These Hands' from May 17 to September 27, exploring the representation of craft in paintings, drawings, and prints. The show features works produced in Britain and Europe from the 1750s onward, depicting hand-making and mending as domestic pastime, rural labor, semi-industrial work, and war effort. It includes paintings by artists such as Mary Cassatt, G.F. Watts, and Evelyn Dunbar, alongside objects like quilts, embroidery, metalwork, and ceramics from makers including Bernard Leach and Michael Cardew. Loans come from Tate, V&A, Royal Academy of Arts, Imperial War Museums, and regional collections.

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.

At the Venice Biennale there is also Taiwan. With a collateral event on melancholy

Alla Biennale di Venezia c’è anche Taiwan. Con un evento collaterale sulla malinconia

Taiwan will present a collateral event at the 2026 Venice Biennale titled "Screen Melancholy," curated by Raphael Fonseca and featuring artist Li Yi-Fan. The exhibition, organized by the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, will be held at Palazzo delle Prigioni and run until November 22, 2026. It explores anxieties of the digital age through a site-specific installation combining a single-channel video and monumental human sculptures, reflecting on information overload, fragmented perception, and the limits of human knowledge.

When satire met paper: ‘Ink & Outrage’ is now open at the Driehaus Museum

The Driehaus Museum in Chicago has opened 'Ink & Outrage: 18th-Century Satirical Prints in London & Dublin,' an exhibition of some 100 prints by Georgian-era caricaturists including James Gillray and Thomas Rowlandson. Curated by Silvia Beltrametti and William Laffan, the show explores the rise of visual satire in 18th-century England and features side-by-side comparisons of original English prints with unauthorized Irish copies, highlighting issues of plagiarism and intellectual property.

Johnson Lowe Gallery Opening Reception - Enco... | 09/26/2025 7:00 PM | CL

Johnson Lowe Gallery in Atlanta is opening two exhibitions on September 26, 2025: a solo show of works by the late American artist Todd Murphy (1962–2022) titled "Voyager," and a group exhibition called "Encounters" featuring artists including Ben Steele, Chip Moody, Daniel Byrd, Jamele Wright Sr., Judy Pfaff, and Sam Gilliam. "Voyager" explores Murphy’s engagement with nature as a sacred, animate force, while "Encounters" presents film, photography, sculpture, and painting that challenge passive viewing and demand active presence.

Sun Woo: ‘I’m interested in how the body navigates unfamiliar territory’

Sun Woo, a Korean-born artist who moved to Canada as a child, is featured in the Korean Artists Today project, which selects emerging Korean artists with global potential. Her work explores displacement, cultural hybridity, and the body's navigation of unfamiliar territories, blending digital and analogue techniques. Her paintings, sculptures, and installations often merge bodily elements with mechanical devices, referencing female exploitation and labor, as seen in her 2024 painting *Weaver's Room*.

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.