Weisman Art Museum shows rugs as the messengers of our stories

The Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis is hosting "RugLife," a touring exhibition that transforms rugs into platforms for storytelling, history, and social commentary. Curated by Ginger Gregg Duggan and Judith Hoos Fox, the show features works by artists including Sonya Clark, Andrea Zittel, Nevin Aladağ, Ai Weiwei, and Ali Cha'aban, who use rug-making to address themes such as Black barber culture, climate change, political tensions, and the war in Ukraine. The exhibition originated at San Francisco's Museum of Craft and Design in 2023.

From Dior's golden coat to landscape jewellery at Christie's: where the worlds of art and luxury collide this autumn

The article highlights two luxury-art crossovers this autumn: Jonathan Anderson's debut Dior menswear collection for spring/summer 2026, presented in Paris, and Natasha Wightman's new jewellery collection displayed at Christie's London. Anderson's show reimagined Dior's iconic women's silhouettes for men, featuring a standout €200,000 coat embroidered with ancient Indian mukesh work that took 12 artisans 34 days to create. Wightman's jewellery incorporates bog oak, a semi-fossilised wood from British fens, carved into pendants celebrating the country's remaining temperate rainforests.

Exhibition Opening: Body Vessel Clay: Black Women, Ceramics & Contemporary Art

The Ford Foundation Gallery in New York will host 'Body Vessel Clay: Black Women, Ceramics & Contemporary Art,' curated by Dr. Jareh Das, from September 10 to December 6, 2025. The exhibition brings together over fifty works by three generations of Black women artists, including Simone Leigh, Magdalene Odundo, and Ladi Kwali, spanning ceramics, film, photography, and archives, and traces the influence of Nigerian potter Ladi Dosei Kwali on contemporary practice.

On Loss and Absence: Textiles of Mourning and Survival

The Art Institute of Chicago presents 'On Loss and Absence: Textiles of Mourning and Survival,' an exhibition running from September 6, 2025, to March 15, 2026. Featuring over 100 objects from antiquity to the present, the show draws primarily from the museum's own collection and is organized into four thematic sections: Death and Mourning, Transition of Realms, Care and Repair, and Resistance and Survival. Works include funeral hangings, burial cloths, mourning samplers, Indonesian ship cloths, a Taoist priest's robe, and contemporary pieces by artists such as Nick Cave, Carina Yepez, the Noqanchis collective, and Diné weaver Barbara Teller Ornelas. The exhibition is curated by four artist-educators from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's Fiber and Material Studies department: Isaac Facio, Nneka Kai, L Vinebaum, and Anne Wilson, with senior museum advisor Melinda Watt.

See Ai Weiwei’s Largest-Ever U.S. Exhibition in Seattle Before It’s Gone

The Seattle Art Museum (SAM) has opened 'Ai, Rebel: The Art and Activism of Ai Weiwei,' the largest-ever U.S. exhibition of the Chinese-born artist-activist, featuring 130 works from the 1980s to the 2020s. Organized in three thematic sections—'Introducing the Rebel,' 'Material Disruptions,' and 'Watching Ai Watching Power'—the retrospective includes performance, photography, sculpture, and installations. Additionally, Ai Weiwei's 'Water Lilies' (2022), a Lego-based work referencing Monet, is on view at the Seattle Asian Art Museum. The exhibition runs through September 7, 2025.

McNay Art Museum to unveil exhibit that 'blurs the line between fiction and reality'

The McNay Art Museum in San Antonio will open "Sandy Skoglund: Enchanting Nature" on September 11, 2025, running through February 2026. The exhibition features an unconventional mix of sculptures, photographs, and installations by artist Sandy Skoglund, including never-before-exhibited works and large-scale photographic enlargements. Known for her meticulous tableaux using handmade objects, found materials, and live models, Skoglund explores the tension between human-made environments and the natural world.

Preston Park Museum's new exhibition space to open with host of exciting exhibitions celebrating the railway

Preston Park Museum is opening a new multi-million pound exhibition space in 2025 with a series of railway-themed exhibitions called 'Tracks of Change', part of the S&DR200 festival celebrating the bicentenary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway. Highlights include 'Corridors', a suspended floral installation by internationally acclaimed artist Rebecca Louise Law; 'All Aboard', an interactive playscape for children; 'Gateway to the World', a collection of nationally significant paintings; and 'Perfume', a light-and-sound installation by visual artist Yann Nguema. All exhibitions will be free with museum admission.

In ‘A Natural History of the Studio,’ Many William Kentridges Add Up to One

William Kentridge's latest exhibition, 'A Natural History of the Studio,' at Hauser & Wirth in New York presents over 70 drawings from his nine-part film series 'Self-Portrait as a Coffee-Pot,' alongside new sculptures. The works, created during the pandemic, explore self-portraiture through charcoal, pastel, and collage, often featuring doppelgängers that argue and disagree, reflecting the artist's engagement with theater and the materiality of his forms.

William Kentridge Wants to Starve the Algorithm

William Kentridge, the South African artist known for his multidisciplinary practice, has created a new film series titled "Self-Portrait as a Coffee-Pot" (2020–2024), comprising nine half-hour segments. The work, which features his signature blend of drawing, animation, performance, and music, is currently on view at Hauser & Wirth's 22nd Street gallery in New York under the exhibition "A Natural History of the Studio." The article explores Kentridge's improvisational process, where he starts without a plan and lets gestures and materials guide him, often interviewing himself in the film to dramatize the artist's dual nature and the act of creation.

The Met to Present Focused Exhibition of George Morrison Works from the Artist’s Early Years in New York

The Metropolitan Museum of Art will present "The Magical City: George Morrison’s New York," a focused exhibition of works by George Morrison (1919–2000), a Native American artist from the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. Running from July 17, 2025, to May 31, 2026, at The Met Fifth Avenue, the show highlights Morrison’s early years in New York City, where he became a key figure in the American Abstract Expressionist movement. It features paintings, drawings, and archival materials from his time at the Art Students League and his interactions with peers like Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline, tracing his evolution from figurative work to abstract automatism infused with Ojibwe aesthetics.

A natural history of the studio

William Kentridge presents his first exhibition with Hauser & Wirth in New York, titled "A natural history of the studio." The show features his acclaimed episodic film series "Self-portrait as a coffee-pot" (completed in 2024) alongside over seventy works on paper and sculptures. Spanning two floors at 542 West 22nd Street and extending to the gallery's 18th Street location, the exhibition includes charcoal drawings used in the film's animation, Paper procession sculptures, and the animated video "Fugitive words" (2024). The installation, designed by longtime collaborator Sabine Theunissen, evokes Kentridge's Johannesburg studio environment.

Souto’s work featured in Joslyn’s ‘Made in the Plains’ exhibition

Francisco Souto, a professor of art and director of the School of Art, Art History and Design at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, is one of 20 artists featured in the exhibition "Made in the Plains" at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, running from June 7 to September 21, 2025. The show highlights new and recent work by artists living in Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota, showcasing diverse materials and approaches. Souto is debuting a new polyptych, "8 Million Broken Dreams," consisting of eight circular panels with stone arrangements that reference the over eight million people who have left Venezuela, incorporating visual elements inspired by Carlos Cruz-Diez's mosaic floors at Simón Bolívar International Airport.

Steamy scenes in urban underworlds were Edward Burra’s great subject—now they're coming to Tate Britain

Tate Britain is staging a major retrospective of Edward Burra (1905-76), the English painter known for his vivid depictions of urban underworlds, jazz clubs, and later brooding landscapes. The exhibition, curated by Thomas Kennedy, features over 80 paintings and newly discovered archival material spanning Burra's career from the 1920s to the 1970s, including rarities like 'Cornish Clay Mines' (1970) from a private collection. It also draws on Burra's extensive correspondence—described by his biographer Jane Stevenson as 'grubby letters'—which offers unprecedented insight into his personal world and chronic pain from rheumatoid arthritis and anemia.

In The Mastermind, an art heist’s aftermath unfolds against the backdrop of Vietnam War-era America

Kelly Reichardt's new film *The Mastermind* premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, following J.B. Mooney (Josh O'Connor), a carpenter who orchestrates an art heist targeting four Arthur Dove paintings from a fictional Massachusetts museum. The heist is inspired by a real 1972 robbery at the Worcester Art Museum, and the film explores the tension between artistic value and monetary worth against the backdrop of Vietnam War-era America.

Veronica Ryan: Unruly Objects

The Pulitzer Arts Foundation and the Wexner Center for the Arts have co-organized an exhibition titled "Veronica Ryan: Unruly Objects," curated by Tamara H. Schenkenberg with curatorial assistant Molly Moog. At the Wexner Center, the presentation is further organized by Schenkenberg and Julieta González, head of Visual Arts. The exhibition is supported by a range of funders including ENGIE, the American Electric Power Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation, among others.

The world is rediscovering the talent of Dutch designer Hella Jongerius

Il mondo sta riscoprendo il talento della designer olandese Hella Jongerius

Dutch designer Hella Jongerius is the subject of a major retrospective titled "Whispering Things" at the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein. The exhibition features approximately 300 works spanning her career, from her early graduation projects at the Design Academy Eindhoven and her involvement with the Droog Design collective to her long-standing corporate collaborations. The show coincides with Jongerius officially entrusting her extensive professional archive to Vitra, marking a significant milestone in her thirty-year career.

ENERGY AND PATTERNS IN THE COSMOS GISELA COLON IN CONNECTICUT

The Bruce Museum in Connecticut is presenting the exhibition 'Gisela Colón: Radiant Earth,' featuring the abstract, luminescent sculptures of the Puerto Rican-American artist. The show, curated by Dr. Danielle O’Steen and Dr. Margarita Karasoulas, includes eight works such as her Pods and Monoliths, which utilize innovative materials and a self-invented 'structural color' technique to create shifting, light-activated hues. It will be on view through June 28, 2026.

Polygon Gallery exhibition features 'one of the most important artists working in Canada'

The Polygon Gallery in North Vancouver has launched "Photolithics," a major exhibition by Secwépemc and Scottish-settler artist Tania Willard. The show features a decade of Willard’s work, including monumental recreations of historical postcards on sandpaper and photographs viewed through ulexite crystals. The exhibition utilizes innovative installation techniques, such as a traditional kekuli structure, to recontextualize archival imagery and explore the intersection of geological time and Indigenous history.

THE MONUMENTALITY OF THREAD OLGA DE AMARAL AT MALBA

The Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (Malba) has opened a major retrospective of Colombian artist Olga de Amaral, titled 'Olga de Amaral: Textile Body,' to celebrate the museum's 25th anniversary. The exhibition, running until May 11, features over fifty works from six decades, including key series like Entrelazados and Brumas, drawn from collections across the Americas.

CRUZ DIEZ AT ISLAA COLOR AS AN EXPERIENCE IN CONSTANT TRANSFORMATION

The Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) in New York is presenting "Carlos Cruz-Diez: Color at Stake," an exhibition of twenty-three works by the late Venezuelan artist. Spanning from 1955 to 1988, the show highlights his pioneering investigations into color as a dynamic, participatory experience, featuring key series like Physichromie and Chromointerférence alongside archival materials.

tom price radical material experimentation 2716989

Artist Tom Price discusses his material-driven practice in an interview with Artnet News. Based in Mallorca, Spain, and a Royal College of Art graduate, Price explores how materials like coal, resin, and tar carry symbolic weight and drive conceptual narratives in his sculptures. His "Meltdown" series and works such as "The Presence of Absence" (2014) demonstrate his focus on material transformation, figuration, and abstraction.

Read a book, flip off a Nazi: when reading meant resistance – in pictures

A new exhibition at Poster House in New York, titled "Reading Under Fire: Arming Minds & Hearts During Wartime," showcases vintage posters from World War I and World War II that promoted reading and book donations to support troops. The posters, drawn from the collections of the American Library Association, the YMCA, and other organizations, encouraged the public to supply soldiers with reading material as a form of morale-boosting and education. The exhibition runs until 1 November and is curated by Molly Guptill Manning.

The West as Witness: Langston Hughes Reimagined

The California African American Museum (CAAM) has launched 'A New Song: Langston Hughes in the West,' an exhibition that reframes the legendary Harlem Renaissance poet through his travels and political work in California and Nevada during the 1930s. By blending archival materials with contemporary artistic responses, the show moves beyond the traditional East Coast narrative to highlight Hughes as a diasporic thinker shaped by movement, labor, and the diverse landscapes of the American West.

Free and Queer: Black Californian Roots of Gay Liberation

The California African American Museum has launched 'Free and Queer: Black Californian Roots of Gay Liberation,' an exhibition dedicated to the often-overlooked history of Black LGBTQ resistance and culture in California. Curated by Susan D. Anderson in collaboration with ONE Archives at the USC Libraries, the show utilizes a vast array of archival materials, photographs, and film to trace a lineage of activism and artistic expression that predates the Stonewall riots. It specifically highlights how Black queer Californians navigated McCarthy-era repression, the civil rights movement, and the AIDS crisis.

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.

oscar wilde memorabilia collection auction bonhams 1234769860

Bonhams auction house in London will hold a sale on February 18 of books, photographs, and ephemera related to Irish writer Oscar Wilde, drawn from the 60-year collection of former antiques dealer Jeremy Mason. Highlights include a signed 1891 copy of *The Picture of Dorian Gray* (estimated $16,000–$24,000), a signed 1898 copy of *The Ballad of Reading Gaol* ($13,000–$20,000), and a letter to a child in which Wilde describes himself as a wallflower ($5,400–$8,100). The sale spans Wilde’s life from childhood to his literary success, imprisonment, and exile.

sothebys institute of art under federal hcm2 finances 1234749624

Sotheby's Institute of Art (SIA), a for-profit graduate school in London and New York, has been under the U.S. Department of Education's 'Heightened Cash Monitoring 2' (HCM2) designation since December 2023, a status reserved for institutions with serious financial or compliance concerns. The designation bars the school from receiving federal financial aid in advance, requiring it to front its own funds and seek reimbursement. Public records and financial filings reveal that SIA has fallen below federal 'financial responsibility' baselines, and its UK auditors noted 'material uncertainty' about the school's ability to continue as a going concern, though management asserts it has adequate resources.

independent new york relocation pier 36 1234745084

Independent, the New York art fair, will relocate to Pier 36 on Manhattan’s Lower East Side for its May 2026 edition. The 70,000-square-foot venue more than doubles the size of its previous home at Spring Studios, accommodating increased gallery participation post-pandemic. The fair hosted 83 exhibitors in 2025, and founder Elizabeth Dee noted that even the coat check was repurposed for a special project. The architectural redesign will be led by Solid Objectives Idenburg Liu (SO–IL), with exhibition design by Berlin’s D_P_S.

A Milano c’è una mostra di un importante artista australiano in cui si ragiona sul rumore

Marco Fusinato, the Australian artist who represented his country at the 59th Venice Biennale, returns to Italy with a solo exhibition at the Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea (PAC) in Milan. Titled "The only true anarchy is that of Power," the show brings together installations, performances, and sound recordings from recent years, all centered on the concept of noise. Curated by Diego Sileo, the exhibition features three ongoing projects, including the monumental performance-installation DESASTRES, first presented at the Venice Biennale in 2022 and later staged at festivals such as Berlin Atonal and Unsound Krakow. The work combines randomized sound and images, using electric guitars, mass amplification, and intense feedback to create an immersive, hallucinatory experience where chaos and control coexist.

Protection and Constraint are Two Sides of the Same Coin: An Exhibition in Rome Proves It

Protezione e costrizione sono due facce della stessa medaglia. Una mostra a Roma lo dimostra

The gallery Monti8 in Rome is hosting a group exhibition titled "The Bell Jar," co-curated by Massimiliano Maglione. Inspired by Sylvia Plath’s 1963 novel, the show features seven international artists—Camilla Alberti, Ruby Chen, Mounir Eddib, Stephen Buscemi, Naomi Hawksley, Steffen Kern, and Amber Wynne-Jones. The exhibition explores the dual nature of the glass bell jar as both a protective shield for precious objects and a suffocating barrier that isolates the subject from the world.