Photographer Alexander Meininger, inspired by his children and the war in Ukraine, has launched the charity Playrise. The organization designs and produces flatpack, modular playground equipment made from iroko hardwood for children living in refugee camps and disaster zones. Its first set will be sent to the Aysaita refugee camp in Ethiopia next month.
Max Giermann sucht mit seiner Malerei nicht nach Anerkennung
German comedian and actor Max Giermann has launched his first Berlin art exhibition, titled "Figuring Out," at the Janinebeangallery. The showcase features large-scale acrylic paintings on canvas depicting figures, heads, and body fragments, including a final tribute to Klaus Kinski, whom Giermann famously parodied throughout his comedy career. Although he grew up in a household of art educators and began drawing as a child, this exhibition marks a significant return to painting after a 20-year hiatus.
New York- and Ramallah-based Palestinian artists Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme present *Prisoners of Love: Until the Sun of Freedom* (2025), an hour-long four-channel film installation at The Bell/Brown Arts Institute in Providence. The work layers psychedelic imagery of figures in nature with spoken and written testimonies from Palestinians formerly detained by Israeli authorities, exploring themes of incarceration, surveillance, and resistance through fragmented montage and poetic text. The exhibition also includes drawings by Abou-Rahme’s father and printed screenshots of reflections on the genocide in Gaza.
The Shiga Museum of Art is hosting "Paradise Dungeon," a comprehensive exhibition of Sasaoka Yuriko’s video and sculptural works. The show traces the artist's career from her 2011 response to the Tōhoku earthquake to her latest large-scale installations, characterized by a "grotesque" aesthetic involving marionettes with digitally superimposed human faces. Her work utilizes mediated artifice—including fairground-style soundtracks, repurposed toys, and violent puppetry—to explore themes of consumption, sacrifice, and the dehumanizing nature of digital observation.
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.
The 2026 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival has unveiled its lineup of large-scale art installations, featuring major works by Dutch artist Sabine Marcelis, London-based architect Kyriakos Chatziparaskevas, and The Los Angeles Design Group (LADG). The program, curated by Raffi Lehrer of Public Art Company and Paul Clement, will transform the festival grounds with immersive experiences including a massive glowing maze and towering sculptural structures.
Texas-based Lake Flato Architects has completed the Marble Falls Arthouse, a 4,119-square-foot infill gallery in downtown Marble Falls, Texas, opened on April 25. The intimate venue, designed with a restrained palette of limestone and corrugated metal, houses the art collection of Mickey and Jeanne Klein and features a contemplative courtyard by Japanese gardener Sada Uchiyama. The ground floor hosts rotating exhibitions curated by Mickey Klein, beginning with 'Words Matter' featuring works by Mary C Sloane, Kenturah Davis, and Faith Ringgold.
San Francisco-based artist Anoushka Mirchandani presents a solo exhibition, 'My Body Was a River Once,' at ICA San José. The show features vibrant oil paintings that depict apsaras, ancient Southeast Asian mythological nature spirits associated with water and transformation, drawing from the artist's Indian heritage and childhood memories of sites like the Ajanta and Ellora caves.
Seven artists with roots in West Africa—Yacine Tilala Fall, Selly Raby Kane, Maguette Dieng, Ican Ramageli, Hamedine Kane, Eva Diallo, and Babacar Traoré Doli—have jointly created a multi-sensory total installation at Marres in Maastricht. Titled “Porous Grounds, Sacred Codes,” the exhibition incorporates sculpture, sound, textiles, and video, connecting Zikr chanting of mantras, daily life in the Medina, and the trees of the dry landscape.
Mary Katrantzou has been appointed as the first-ever creative director of leather goods and accessories at Bvlgari, a role created for her after multiple successful collaborations. She designed the new Icons Minaudière Collection, a series of 10 bags reimagining Bvlgari's iconic symbols such as Serpenti, Divas' Dream, and Monete, using jewelry-making techniques like hand-enameled scales and semiprecious stones.
Hailey Becker, a Master of Fine Arts candidate at Michigan State University, has debuted a large-scale ecological sound sculpture at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum. The installation features over 10,000 hand-cracked walnut shells suspended in a human-sized chime, which are struck by a mechanical arm to mimic the sound of water hitting a coastline. The project is the culmination of Becker’s interdisciplinary research, blending her background in engineering and material science with her current studies in forestry and fine arts.
Una mostra a Milano fa dialogare visionari paesaggi contemporanei con un acquerello del grande Turner. Recensione e intervista
The exhibition "Continuum" at Robilant+Voena in Milan marks the first solo show in the city for American artist Maria Kreyn. It presents a selection of her contemporary landscapes—charged with pathos, abstract geometries, and references to art history—alongside a rare watercolor by J.M.W. Turner, *The Splügen Pass* (1842–43). Kreyn’s seascapes, influenced by her background in mathematics and philosophy, feature turbulent waves, ovoid and parabolic forms, and a sense of latent tension, creating a visual dialogue with Turner’s Romantic vision of nature.
New York curator Lumi Tan has organized the 2026 Converge 45 triennial in Portland, Oregon, titled "Here, To You, Now." Running from August 27 across more than 15 venues, the triennial prioritizes performances and time-based artworks over traditional gallery exhibitions, featuring both local and visiting artists. Tan, whose background includes stints at the Kitchen, Luna Luna, and Frieze New York, selected five standout artists: Lex Brown (presenting an operatic video and installation), Trisha Baga (a 3D video installation about AI and parenting), Rose Salane (archival works involving Princess Diana’s shoes), and Linda K. Johnson (a choreographer mapping Portland’s dance network).
Film Notes has published a new essay by scholar Tiago de Luca, drawn from his research on environment and cinema. The essay focuses on the conceptual and aesthetic role of the background in film, tracing its technical history and examining its relation to power, marginalization, and environmental crisis.
This article is a local arts calendar listing current and upcoming exhibitions in the Fort Wayne, Indiana area. It highlights new shows such as "Grounded in Light" featuring Julie Wall at the Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory, "Summer Selections" of student work at Purdue University Fort Wayne's Visual Arts Gallery, and "Archetypes" by printmaker Chuck Sperry at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art. Also listed are ongoing exhibitions including the "46th National Print Exhibition" at Artlink, a tribute to late ceramic artist Tom Sherbondy at Ruth Koomler Art Gallery, and several other shows at venues like the Orchard Gallery, Allen County Public Library, Garrett Museum of Art, and Honeywell Center.
A new book titled 'Trespass' introduces the work of photographer Mark Cohen, known for his invasive, close-quarters street photography primarily in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Cohen's method involved using flash and fast color film to capture unsuspecting subjects, often leading to physical altercations, and his images are characterized by extreme blur and sudden points of sharp focus.
A federal judge has ordered an immediate halt to Donald Trump’s $400 million White House ballroom project, ruling that the administration cannot proceed without explicit congressional authorization. Despite the President's claims that the project is privately funded by "patriot donors," U.S. District Judge Richard Leon emphasized that the President is the "steward" rather than the owner of the White House, reinforcing long-standing statutes regarding construction on federal land.
A small protest of fewer than 50 demonstrators, organized by the Catalan National Assembly and joined by former Catalan president Laura Borràs and ANC president Lluís Llach, gathered outside the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC) on Monday morning as Aragonese technicians arrived to inspect a set of contested 13th-century Romanesque murals. The murals, originally from the Sijena Monastery, were ordered returned by Spain’s Supreme Court after more than a decade of litigation, concluding that the original religious order never lawfully transferred ownership after the works were removed in 1936 following a fire during the Spanish Civil War. The inspection team, led by restorer Natalia Martínez de Pisón, began with less fragile sections using photogrammetry to assess transport viability, while MNAC officials warn that moving the more delicate frescoes could cause irreversible damage and plan to formally contest the execution order on conservation grounds.
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.
Third Space Art Foundation will present “1922 Revisited,” a live arts program curated by Dr. Janine A. Sytsma, from May 5–9, 2026 in Venice, Italy, during the preview week of the 61st Venice Biennale. The program brings together ten international artists to engage with the 1922 Venice Biennale exhibition of African sculpture through performances, a film screening, and a panel discussion, staged at venues including Hotel Monaco and the European Cultural Centre’s Marinaressa Gardens.
Morocco will debut its first-ever national pavilion at the 2026 Venice Art Biennale, presenting a monumental installation titled "Asǝṭṭa" by multidisciplinary artist Amina Agueznay. Curated by Meriem Berrada, the project is housed in the Arsenale's Artiglierie and explores themes of traditional craftsmanship, shared memory, and the symbolic threshold (âatba). The installation, which involves 166 Moroccan artisans and two Venetian collaborators, is conceived as a porous, liminal space that engages with the Biennale's theme "In Minor Keys," curated by Koyo Kouoh.
During the Milwaukee Art Museum’s annual Art in Bloom event, the Journal Sentinel gathered feedback from hundreds of attendees and digital survey respondents about what they want from arts coverage. The new arts and culture reporter, who wrote the article, outlines the key requests: more advance event coverage (especially free, family-friendly, and hands-on activities), support for smaller and underground art scenes, profiles of local artists including youth, coverage of overlooked art forms like graffiti and fabric arts, and diverse representation of Latino, women, LGBTQ+, and immigrant artists.
An exhibition titled 'Houses I Almost Lived In' is currently on view at Latitude 28 gallery in Delhi's Defence Colony, running until May 25. The show brings together works by five artists—Shalina Vichitra, Pooja Iranna, Raj Jariwala, Samit Das, and Mahen Perera—who explore how architecture, memory, and belonging intertwine. Through layered cartographies, cement grids, stitched forms, and material fragments, the artists evoke nostalgia for the houses and spaces we once inhabited, examining how physical structures persist in personal and collective memory long after they vanish.
The Cincinnati Art Museum is opening a new exhibition titled "Elizabeth Hawes: Radical American Fashion," the first-ever showcase dedicated to the groundbreaking American designer Elizabeth Hawes. The exhibit features over 50 garments from the 1920s to the 1960s, along with sketches, illustrations, and the first publication focused on her career. Hawes, who designed for icons like Lauren Bacall, championed gender-neutral clothing and quality mass manufacturing, ideas ahead of her time. The collection was largely donated by Dorette Kruse Fleischmann, a frequent client, and was curated by Megan Nauer, the museum's acting curator of fashion arts and textiles.
The Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, will open two exhibitions in May 2025: "Architecture of the Dalí" on May 2, tracing the museum's history from its 1980s origins to its current bayfront structure, and "Dalí in America" on May 9, featuring over 70 works exploring Salvador Dalí's vision of the United States. Other notable openings include "Wolves: Photography by Ronan Donovan" at the James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art (May 9), multidisciplinary artist Babs Reingold's solo show "After Venus" at the Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg (May 15), and "Cigars! Photography, Industry, and Identity" at the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, commemorating Ybor City's cigar-rolling history. Additional events include Florida NOW at Florida CraftArt, Charles Morrison's "Head in the Sky, Feet on the Ground" at the Morean Center for Clay, and a photography contest sponsored by FloridaRAMA and St. Petersburg Month of Photography.
Perrotin Gallery in Paris is presenting "When Beauty Appears," a solo exhibition by Taiwanese artist Lee Mingwei, running from April 25 to May 30, 2026. The show features seven interactive works created between 1995 and 2025, including pieces like "The Moving Garden," where visitors take a flower to give to a stranger, and "The Mending Project," which invites participants to repair garments with colored threads. The exhibition emphasizes ritual, exchange, and lived experience over passive observation.
The Mona Bismarck American Center in Paris is hosting an exhibition titled 'Viandalism' from May 7-8, 2026, bringing together 40 artists from graffiti and contemporary art backgrounds. The show features installations and site-specific interventions within the 1,000 m² private mansion, aiming to create a dialogue between the artworks and the venue's unique architecture and atmosphere.
Five new exhibitions opened at the Yale Schwarzman Center on April 7, featuring work from 53 young artists including New Haven high school students, Yale undergraduates, and graduate students. The shows explore themes of identity, unity, memory, nature, and emotion through visual art, photography, installation, digital work, and multimedia. Highlights include "Call-to-Connect," an interactive payphone installation by Soleil Piverger; "The View From Here: Accessing Art Through Photography," a smartphone photography exhibition in collaboration with the Yale Center for British Art; and "Rooted in Heritage: Art Across Yale’s Cultural Centers," curated by Carlynne Robinson, featuring works reflecting multicultural communities at Yale.
Mumbai will host the first exhibition of artist Tom Vattakuzhy's work in the city, titled 'Where Words End,' at the Institute of Contemporary Indian Art (ICIA) from May 3–17, 2026. The exhibition presents a series of his "story paintings," which explore experiences that elude verbal expression, moving beyond his illustrative background to create ambiguous, emotionally resonant works.
Bobby Rogers, a graduate of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, has been appointed as the head of design and editorial at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA). In this role, he oversees the museum's visual identity, exhibition design, and marketing, aiming to make MIA a more engaging and innovative space for visitors. Rogers previously worked as head photographer at the Walker Art Center and as a senior art director at Target.