Romane de Watteville's exhibition "I'll miss you when I scroll away" opens at Istituto Svizzero in Milan, featuring an environmental installation designed specifically for the venue. Her figurative paintings explore the tension between aesthetic saturation and the disorienting experience of digital consumption, drawing from online imagery and personal archives.
On Tuesday, April 28, at IED Firenze (former Teatro dell'Oriuolo), the collective performance "In corpo presente" took place as the final act of a research project exploring contemporary meanings of freedom, presence, belonging, and collective action. Since December 2025, 50 students from various disciplines at IED Firenze have been involved in the project, guided by artist Jacopo Benassi.
Jackie Andres, online editor of Colossal, writes an open letter to readers reflecting on Virginia Woolf's assertion that "thinking is my fighting." Andres connects this to contemporary concerns about declining literacy rates, the rise of AI tools like ChatGPT, doomscrolling, and "brain rot" that undermine critical thinking. She positions Colossal as a free, accessible resource for art education, noting that the publication has remained entirely free for 15 years, and highlights how educators and students use the site for lesson plans and learning.
Jake Messing, a Northern California-based artist, creates hyperrealistic acrylic paintings that depict dense, maximalist clusters of flora and fauna, often combining creatures and plants in surreal arrangements. His works, such as "Coccinellidaes Hideaway 2" and "Bubbles and Blooms," draw on the tradition of Dutch Golden Age still-life painting while incorporating contemporary elements like color gradients and shiny fabrics.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's 2026 Costume Institute exhibition, titled "Costume Art," will feature special mannequins with mirrored steel heads created by Toronto-born, Dubai-based artist Samar Hejazi. The mannequins, designed in collaboration with Curator in Charge Andrew Bolton, represent differently sized and abled bodies and replace traditional faces with reflective surfaces to disrupt the conventional presentation of fashion. Hejazi attended the Met Gala wearing a gown by Palestinian designer Zaid Farouki and described the project as a meaningful collaboration aimed at fostering empathy and self-reflection.
The Yale Art Gallery's fourth floor is hosting five concurrent exhibitions running through June, including solo shows by John Coplans, August Sander, Jes Fan, and Hans Hofmann, alongside a group exhibition of American Impressionism featuring artists like Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent, and Childe Hassam. The displays range from Coplans' intimate black-and-white self-portraits to Sander's sprawling photographic catalog of 20th-century German society, and from Fan's modern sculptures to Hofmann's bold abstract paintings.
Gió Marconi Gallery in Milan will host 'Phantom Banter', the first Italian solo exhibition of American sculptor Ron Nagle, from May 29 to July 24, 2026. The show features eleven ceramic sculptures created between 2024 and 2026, along with a selection of recent drawings, highlighting Nagle's process-oriented practice focused on material, surface, and language. Nagle, born in San Francisco in 1939, is a key figure in the California Clay Movement, having apprenticed with Peter Voulkos in the 1960s and influenced by Ken Price. His small-scale works, rarely exceeding 15 centimeters, explore reduction of scale and surface construction through cast and fired ceramics combined with resins and synthetic materials.
The article reviews "Dispossessions in the Americas," a group exhibition at Wrightwood 659 in Chicago curated by Jonathan D. Katz and Eduardo Carrera. Featuring works from 1960 to 2025, the show examines colonial legacies in the Americas, focusing on the forced dispossession of land, culture, and language from indigenous, Afro-descendant, queer, and trans communities. The review critically questions how a polished, architecturally prestigious venue can coherently display art about socially voiceless communities without falling into voyeurism or fetishization of pain.
The Venice Biennale, one of the world's most prestigious contemporary art exhibitions, opens its most contested edition in memory without a jury after the jury resigned in protest over the participation of Israel and Russia, both under investigation by the International Criminal Court for human rights abuses. Protests have erupted outside the Israeli and Russian pavilions, with demonstrators clashing with police, while feminist groups from Ukraine and Russia converged on the Russian Pavilion and Palestinians remembered artists killed in Gaza. The Biennale has replaced the jury with a public vote via email, with winners announced at the close on November 22.
Lucie Kamusekera, an 82-year-old artist in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, creates embroidered tapestries on tobacco sacks that chronicle the country's violent history. Born in 1944 and taught sewing by Italian nuns, she began documenting contemporary conflicts after witnessing a military truck filled with corpses. Her more than 70 works depict events from the colonial Belgian Congo era to the 1961 assassination of Patrice Lumumba and the second Congo war, as well as personal tragedies including her husband's murder by rebels. Despite ongoing danger from rebel offensives, she continues to stitch from her home studio, training her children and great-granddaughter to carry on her work.
Zack Thurmond will present a solo exhibition titled "Seasons and Soliloquies" at Idaho Art Gallery (IAG) in downtown Boise, opening Thursday, May 7, 2026, from 5 to 9 pm. Thurmond, a largely self-taught artist with a BFA from Boise University, creates paintings rooted in direct observation of place, often starting as plein air studies and expanding into larger studio works. His pieces are held in collections across North America and Europe, and he currently serves as Chief Preparator at the Boise Art Museum.
William Baczek Fine Arts in Northampton, Massachusetts, is celebrating its 30th anniversary with an exhibition running through June 6, featuring 25 artists who have collaborated with the gallery over the years. Owner William Baczek, who started his career as a bartender after studying clay sculpture and photography, opened the gallery in 1996 and moved to its current location at 36 Main Street in 2003. The show highlights longtime collaborators and newcomers, reflecting Baczek's deep personal connections with clients and artists.
Warum fürchtet sich die Gegenwartskunst vor der Gegenwart?
The article critiques the 2024 Whitney Biennial, which emphasizes themes of compassion, vulnerability, and community. It argues that the exhibition feels like a capitulation to reality, failing to confront the rise of contemporary fascism and the political urgency of the present moment.
The Academy of Visual Arts at the University of the Arts Sharjah is presenting a faculty exhibition titled 'Show White,' curated by Tor Seidel and assisted by Maryam AlQassimi. The show, first hosted at Rawaq Gallery (April 8–23) and currently at XVA Gallery in Al Fahidi (April 25–May 21), explores the multifaceted concept of 'white' through diverse mediums and techniques. Participating faculty artists include Georgina Abood, Dr. Mohammed Yousif Alhammadi, Muatasim Alkubaisy, Alina Erimia, Muhammad Asad Iqbal, Thaier Helal, Dr. Iman Ibrahim, and Andreea Lonhardt-Muresan, each presenting works that engage with white as a symbol of minimalism, purity, emptiness, or cultural memory.
Was die Sanierung des Pergamonmuseums kostet
The Pergamon Museum in Berlin is undergoing a major renovation with a total budget of €1.5 billion for both construction phases, including cost risks. The Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning (BBR) has announced that current projections indicate the overall costs will not be exceeded. Phase A, which includes the hall housing the famous Pergamon Altar, is expected to open on June 4, 2027, with a potential cost increase of up to 5% over the originally approved €489 million. Phase B, covering the Ishtar Gate and Babylonian Processional Way, has seen its cost forecast reduced by €27 million to €722.4 million, with an additional €295.6 million set aside for risks and price increases. The museum will fully reopen only in 2037.
Double Six Gallery, operated by the Cibola Arts Council in Grants, New Mexico, is showcasing southwestern art on Route 66 ahead of the Mother Road's centennial celebration. Gallery director Debbie Doggett notes that visitors are often surprised to find such high-quality local artists in Grants. The gallery rotates artists every few months and currently features Gary Yazzie, John Boomer, Jonnie Head, and Joan Sheski.
The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, will host "Treasures of the Pharaohs," an exhibition of 130 ancient Egyptian artifacts including granite statues, gold jewelry, funerary masks, and sarcophagi, opening in March 2027. The show features Queen Ahhotep’s golden sarcophagus and recently unearthed objects from a worker’s community in the Valley of the Kings, on loan from the Luxor Museum and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It is currently on view in Rome and will travel to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco before arriving in Fort Worth as its second and final North American stop.
Acme Art Studios, a longtime visual arts institution in downtown Wilmington, North Carolina, has been listed for sale at $4.4 million. The one-acre complex at 711 N. Fifth Ave. includes a 12,000-square-foot warehouse with studio and gallery space, plus four vacant lots. Founded in 1991 by a collective of artists in a former carpet warehouse, Acme has become a vital hub for the local arts scene, renting to dozens of artists and hosting countless shows over more than three decades. The property is owned by five artists, including co-founder Pam Toll, who said the decision to sell was unanimous and that the timing is right for a number of reasons.
Bildmuseet in Umeå, Sweden, will host the Master's exhibition "Of Love and Care" from the Umeå Academy of Fine Arts at Umeå University, opening on 22 May 2026 with an Art Friday event featuring talks, performances, tours, live music, and a DJ. The exhibition showcases works by ten graduating artists—Christian Abrahamsson, Amanda Angeli Blombäck, Time Bohlin, Renan De Menezes Anan, Elna Dani Liljedahl, Joanne Löfling, Måns Palmberg, Sofia Tien, Fanny Åberg, and Tin Åling—whose pieces explore themes of love, care, mysticism, and the wonder of existence, moving beyond overtly political and consumerist messages. A media preview will be held on 20 May, and the exhibition runs through 23 August 2026.
DePaul University senior Christa Baclia-an has created a micro-art gallery inside a rented commuter locker (No. 121) in the Schmitt Academic Center, called “Locker Room.” The project rotates exhibitions every two weeks and is open to students and passersby. It was launched in response to the planned closure of the DePaul Art Museum (DPAM) due to budget cuts, and features work from both DePaul students and international artists, such as London-based Lee Tzur. The initiative is part of a growing DIY art scene on campus, with students curating shows and fostering community engagement in unconventional spaces.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has introduced nine new mannequin bodies for its costume displays, replacing older models to better showcase fashion exhibitions. The new mannequins feature more diverse and realistic body shapes, including different skin tones and poses, aiming to modernize the museum's presentation of historical and contemporary garments.
The Anchorage Museum is hosting "Everyday Anchorage: Duke Russell & Ward Wells," an exhibition pairing two artists from different generations who capture ordinary life in Anchorage, Alaska. Ward Wells, a commercial photographer, documented the city after World War II, while Duke Russell uses paint to record post-pipeline scenes. The show runs through August 2027.
The international jury of the 61st Venice Biennale art exhibition resigned just over a week before the May 9 prize ceremony, after announcing they would not consider artists from countries whose leaders face International Criminal Court charges—an apparent reference to Russia and Israel. The jury included president Solange Farkas, Zoe Butt, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Marta Kuzma, and Giovanna Zapperi. In response, the Biennale established two Visitors’ Lions to be awarded by ticket-holder vote, postponed the awards to November 22, and reaffirmed that all national participations remain eligible, effectively reinstating Russian and Israeli artists.
The St. Louis Art Museum (SLAM) hosted two special exhibitions during the past semester: the annual "Art in Bloom" floral exhibition from February 27 to March 1, 2026, and the solo show "Currents 125: Blas Isasi" opening February 6, 2026. "Art in Bloom" pairs 30 permanent collection pieces with ephemeral floral arrangements created by local designers, featuring a centerpiece by New York-based floral designer Rachel Cho. The exhibition has grown from an invitational event with 7,000 attendees to an open call drawing over 30,000 visitors. Isasi's exhibition, titled "The weight of a gaze (is to listen to the sound of a kilogram)," is part of SLAM's "Currents" series and the WashU Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Teaching Fellowship, incorporating a Chincha Inka balance from the museum's collection alongside sandstone sculptures and aluminum foil pieces.
À Rome, l’extension de la Galerie Borghèse provoque une fronde
The Galleria Borghese in Rome has sparked controversy by initiating a feasibility study for a new building attached to its 17th-century villa. Museum director Francesca Cappelletti, in office since 2020, cites the need to increase visitor capacity, improve security, and create spaces for mediation, conferences, and temporary exhibitions. The museum, which saw nearly 630,000 visitors in 2025, operates with strict two-hour time slots capped at 180 people, often sold out in high season. Engineering firm Proger has offered to fund the study for €875,750 in exchange for institutional visibility, and Rome's mayor Roberto Gualtieri has declared the project of public interest.
Yves Goldstein, the general director of the Brussels branch of the Centre Pompidou, has announced his departure just before the scheduled opening of Kanal-Centre Pompidou on November 28. Goldstein stated that his mission is nearly complete and that the museum's daily management phase requires a different leader. A call for applications will be launched by the board of directors, with the selection made by the board of the Fondation Kanal based on profiles proposed by a jury led by president Michèle Sioen. The new director will face immediate challenges, including negotiating a new management contract with the Brussels Region for 2029-2033 and securing an increased annual subsidy, currently set at €10 million, which is deemed insufficient.
A Louvre agent appeared before a judge. The article, published in Le Journal des Arts on May 2, 2026, covers multiple art world stories including the Whitney Biennial's perceived neutrality, the increasing complexity of art taxation in 2025, a resized project for Bourges 2028 by Yann Galut, a new contemporary gallery at Angers Cathedral, the abandonment of the Frigos artist site in Paris, and auctioneer Hubert L'Huillier's emergency sales.
Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, 75, will become the director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) in Washington, D.C., on September 8, ending a 17-month vacancy. Hartigan, currently the director of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, began her career at SAAM as chief curator, where she developed collections of modern, contemporary, African American, and self-taught art.
Intervista a Pietro Vallone nuovo presidente dell’Associazione delle gallerie d’arte moderna e contemporanea in Italia
Pietro Vallone, partner and financial director of Massimo De Carlo, has been elected the new president of ANGAMC (Associazione Nazionale Gallerie d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea) for the 2026-2030 term. The election took place during the association's ordinary assembly at Triennale di Milano on May 25, 2026, where a new board of directors, including vice presidents Giovanni Bonelli and Claudia Ciaccio, was also appointed. In an interview following his election, Vallone addressed the challenges facing Italian galleries, including a structural slowdown in the global art market due to geopolitical instability, economic shifts, and changing patterns of cultural consumption and collecting.
Artis—Naples is hosting its free Art After Hours program at The Baker Museum throughout the summer, offering free admission on the last Wednesday of each month through August from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. The program features live music by local musicians and allows visitors to explore current exhibitions in a relaxed evening setting. Museum Director and Chief Curator Courtney A. McNeil and Director of Education & Community Partnerships Dave Aulenbach highlight the program's role in making art accessible to the community.