The National Gallery of Art has received a $116 million endowment from the Mitchell P. Rales Family Foundation to permanently fund its nationwide loan program, 'Across the Nation.' This gift, the largest to endow programming in the institution's history, was made to mark the 250th anniversary of the United States.
Museums across the United States are launching a series of major exhibitions to mark the nation's 250th anniversary. These shows use art and material culture to explore the construction of American identity, featuring themes like migration, modernity, and reinterpretations of national icons.
British-Indian sculptor Anish Kapoor, best known for Chicago's 'Cloud Gate' sculpture (commonly called 'The Bean'), publicly criticized American politics in a recent interview, denouncing what he described as a 'politics of hate' and 'warmongering.' Kapoor, whose monumental public artworks have become global icons, did not specify particular events but spoke broadly about the current political climate in the United States.
The Museum of Art + Light (MoA+L) in Manhattan, Kansas, will host the U.S. debut of "Picasso: Art in Motion," a landmark immersive exhibition exploring Pablo Picasso's life and work, opening May 3, 2026. Produced in agreement with the Picasso Administration, the exhibition uses large-scale projections, film, and digital environments in the museum's 21,500-square-foot Mezmereyz gallery, featuring 108 projectors and over 188 million pixels. It will be accompanied by "Picasso on Paper," a quieter exhibition of etchings, lithographs, and linocuts, and will anchor a broader season including "Interference: The Interactive Art of Daniel Rozin" and "EMULATION: Selections from the Art Blocks 500."
The Museum of Sex in New York is hosting "The Life Force: Portraits from the Amparo & Manuel Foundation," a new exhibition opening April 23 that brings 45 works from a Mexico City-based collection to the U.S. for the first time. Featuring artists such as Amoako Boafo, Tracey Emin, and Bert Stern, the show explores themes of vulnerability, desire, and the tension between Eros and Thanatos—the life instinct and death drive—through painting, sculpture, drawing, and photography.
Living Arts of Tulsa is presenting “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Decides?”, an exhibition by Kenneth and Isabelle Watson Reams, with support from JustArts Gallery. Kenneth Reams, a former Arkansas death row inmate now serving a life sentence, created over 50 works including paintings, drawings, sculptures, and poetry alongside his wife Isabelle. The show opened April 3 and runs through April and May, exploring themes of incarceration, capital punishment, and social justice through the lens of Reams’ 31 years on death row.
The Denver Botanic Gardens has launched "A New Humanism," the first U.S. retrospective of internationally acclaimed Spanish artist Jaume Plensa. Commemorating the institution's 75th anniversary, the exhibition features approximately 30 works, including Plensa’s signature large-scale public sculptures, indoor resin figures, and mixed-media works on paper. The show spans three indoor galleries and the garden's outdoor landscapes, highlighting the artist's career-long exploration of the human form, language, and the concept of "invisibility" in art.
Contemporary artist Tumi Magnússon has opened a solo exhibition titled "Herefrom Thereto Therefrom Hereto" (Héðan þangað þaðan hingað) at the Reykjanes Art Museum in Keflavík, Iceland. Curated by Gavin Morrison, the show marks a significant return for both the Copenhagen-based artist and the U.S.-based curator to the Icelandic art scene. The exhibition features a dialogue between Magnússon’s early post-conceptual paintings from the late 1990s and his more recent explorations in video, sound, and digital imagery.
The National Art Gallery of Malaysia has implemented high-level security measures, including enhanced alarms and restricted access zones, to receive four artworks recovered from the 1MDB financial scandal. The collection includes pieces by Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Maurice Utrillo, and Balthus, which were previously owned by former 1MDB lawyer Jasmine Loo. The repatriation was a coordinated effort between the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), the FBI, and the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Julia Stoschek Foundation has launched its first major U.S. exhibition at the historic Variety Arts Theater in downtown Los Angeles. Curated by Udo Kittelmann, the show features over 40 time-based works ranging from early cinematic pioneers like Georges Méliès and Alice Guy-Blaché to contemporary icons such as Arthur Jafa and Doug Aitken. The exhibition utilizes the labyrinthine spaces of the 1924 Italianate theater to create a dialogue between the history of Hollywood and the evolution of media art.
The University of North Texas abruptly closed the exhibition 'Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá' by artist Victor "Marka27" Quiñonez, which was on view at its College of Visual Arts and Design Galleries. The university terminated its loan agreement with Boston University Art Galleries, removed all online mentions of the show, and covered the gallery windows with paper, offering no public explanation. The artist learned of the closure through students and received only a brief email notification.
The WaterFire Arts Center in Providence, Rhode Island, is presenting "TIERRA FUTURA: Boricua Land Futures," a dual exhibition featuring a solo show by Shey Rivera Ríos and a group exhibition of 22 Boricua (Puerto Rican) artists from both Puerto Rico and its U.S. diasporas. The exhibition, curated by Rivera Ríos with co-curators Ruchika Nambiar and Anabel Vázquez Rodríguez, runs from March 5 to March 29, 2026, and explores themes of land-based memory, eco-feminism, queer joy, and cultural sovereignty through diverse media.
The historic Variety Arts Theater in downtown Los Angeles is reopening after decades for a six-week exhibition titled "What a Wonderful World: An Audiovisual Poem." The show, running through March 20, presents a non-linear, late-night experience featuring over 120 years of moving images, from early cinema to contemporary video art, allowing visitors to wander freely from 5 p.m. to midnight.
Artist and professor Kevin Haran is presenting 'Engines of Dominion,' a military-themed exhibition of drawings and cardboard sculptures at Gulf Coast State College's Amelia Center Gallery in Panama City, Florida. The show runs from January 20 to February 20, 2026, with a closing reception and gallery talk on February 20. Haran, a faculty member at the University of Central Florida's School of Visual Arts and Design, draws creative influence from family military service and artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Ron Cobb.
The St. Petersburg Museum of Art in Florida is hosting "In Caravaggio's Light: Baroque Masterpieces from the Fondazione Roberto Longhi," the first U.S. exhibition of 40 Baroque paintings from the private collection of art historian Roberto Longhi. The centerpiece is Caravaggio's "Boy Bitten by a Lizard," one of two Caravaggio works in the show, which runs until March 22. Curator Dr. Stanton Thomas notes the exhibition is designed to evoke a cinematic, dramatic experience of light and emotion.
The Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau (GMCVB) has announced a full slate of programming for its Art of Black Miami (AOBM) initiative during 2025 Miami Art Week, marking the program's 11th year. The lineup includes exhibitions, performances, film screenings, culinary experiences, and artist talks, with highlights such as Asser Saint-Val's "Yellow Elder" sculpture in Coconut Grove and events at venues across neighborhoods including Historic Overtown, Little Haiti, and Little Havana. Featured events include the Peter London Global Dance Company, Woody De Othello's exhibition, the Point Comfort Art Fair, and the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami's Art of Transformation program.
The Mills College Art Museum in Oakland, California, has opened "100 Years of Creative Visions," a centennial exhibition running through April 26 that showcases major works from its permanent collection. The show highlights the museum's long history of supporting diverse artistic communities, featuring pieces such as Hung Liu's "White Rice Bowl" and works by Diego Rivera, Alfredo Ramos Martinez, and members of the f/64 photography group including Imogen Cunningham, Ansel Adams, and Tina Modotti. The exhibition emphasizes creative friendships and the museum's role as a laboratory for risk-taking, with artists like Young Suh and Weston Teruya discussing how the institution encouraged experimental approaches.
The Philadelphia Art Museum (PhAM) opens "Dreamworld: Surrealism at 100," a traveling exhibition celebrating the centennial of surrealism. The show features works by Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Max Ernst, René Magritte, Leonora Carrington, and Man Ray, including Dalí's lobster telephone and pieces inspired by Greek mythology. It is the final and only American stop on the tour, previously shown in Brussels, Paris, Hamburg, and Madrid, and runs through February 16, 2026.
Pippin Frisbie-Calder, LSU School of Veterinary Medicine's 2025 artist-in-residence, will present a public exhibition and talk on November 10, 2025, at the LSU Vet Med Library. During her August residency, she engaged with clinicians, researchers, and the hospital environment to create original artworks inspired by veterinary science, using printmaking, woodcutting, and large-scale installations that explore climate change, species extinction, and environmental stewardship.
The third edition of "Soy de Tejas: A Statewide Survey of Latinx Art" opened at The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture in Riverside, California. Curated by Rigoberto Luna, the exhibition brings together Texas Latinx artists, including Tina Medina, Karla Garcia, Cande Aguilar, and Joe Peña, showcasing their work on a national stage after previous iterations in San Antonio and Fort Worth. The opening weekend highlighted the significance of presenting Texas artists outside their home state, with Cheech Marin himself engaging with the artists and their families.
A pro-Palestine mural at the University of North Carolina (UNC) in Chapel Hill was boarded over overnight on August 17 by university administration without warning to the art department. The mural, created by students and community members in a course taught by artist Hồng-An Trương, had been displayed in the Hanes Art Center lobby for over a year. It features collaged prints in the colors of the Palestinian flag and the text “I told you I loved you and I wanted genocide to stop.” University officials cited the need to remove the artwork after its one-year display period and to repair the wall, but faculty and students have condemned the action as censorship.
The Alden B. Dow Home and Studio in Midland, Michigan, will host a new exhibition titled “A New Vision: The Graphic Art of Tim Lewis” from September 4 to December 31, 2025. The show celebrates the life and career of Tim Lewis, a Midland native and acclaimed graphic designer and illustrator who worked from the 1960s through the 1990s, creating commercial illustrations for major U.S. magazines, album covers for artists like Peter, Paul and Mary, Gordon Lightfoot, and Chuck Berry, and posters for Barbra Streisand’s TV specials. The exhibition includes original artwork and prints, many available for purchase, and opens with a public reception on September 4.
CLEARING, a New York-based gallery known for representing artists such as Marguerite Humeau, Korakrit Arunanondchai, and Harold Ancart, is closing its Manhattan and Los Angeles locations after 14 years. Founder Olivier Babin announced the closure on Instagram, citing no viable path forward due to rising overhead costs for rent, shipping, and art fairs, alongside declining revenues. The gallery opened in Brooklyn in 2011, later expanded to Brussels, and moved to a larger Bowery space in 2023 before the financial pressures became unsustainable. Its final exhibitions were solo shows by Coco Young in New York and Henry Curchod in Los Angeles.
The Beverly Arts Center in Chicago is hosting "RE-BOP! (Obstructions & Disruptions)," a group exhibition dedicated to the art of collage. Curated by Paloma Trecka and Todd Bartel, the show features nearly 60 artists from Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, and across the U.S., including prominent local artist Tony Fitzpatrick, who originally conceived the exhibition. The works range from traditional cut-paper pieces to digital collages, with many exploring themes of improvisation, rhythm, and disruption. The exhibition was organized with help from the Beverly Arts Alliance and the participatory magazine Cut Me Up, which issued an open call that drew 150 submissions.
Hotels are increasingly transforming their spaces into dynamic platforms for contemporary art, moving beyond generic decor to embed curation into their operational core. The article highlights 21c Museum Hotels, which operates nearly 80,000 square feet of free exhibition space across seven U.S. locations, featuring works by artists such as Xenobia Bailey, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Natia Lemay, and Xavier Daniels. Chief Curator Alice Gray Stites emphasizes radical accessibility, removing barriers like ticket prices and elitism, and fostering partnerships with institutions like Artadia to support local artists.
The Cleve Carney Museum of Art at the College of DuPage has opened "Hokusai & Ukiyo-e: The Floating World," an immersive exhibition exploring Japanese ukiyo-e art from the Edo period. The show features woodblock prints and scrolls, including Hokusai's iconic "The Great Wave Off Kanagawa," drawn from the collection of 19th-century Italian engraver Edoardo Chiossone. Many prints are on view in the U.S. for the first time. The exhibition extends beyond traditional display with an outdoor garden, manga and anime rooms, and a recreated Edo village built by the college's theater department.
Nadya Tolokonnikova, co-founder of Pussy Riot, began a durational performance titled "Police State" at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles on June 5, 2025. Inside a mock prison cell at the Geffen Contemporary, she screams, plays a pink toy piano, synthesizer, and laptop, and layers live music with sampled prison noises to create an 80-hour experimental soundscape. The performance, running until June 15, references her own 2012 imprisonment in Russia for an anti-Putin protest. On the fourth day, MOCA closed due to clashes between ICE agents, the California National Guard, and protesters over immigrant raids, prompting Tolokonnikova to post: "Police State exhibit closed today due to police state."
SAGE Studio & Gallery in East Austin supports artists with developmental and intellectual disabilities, providing studio space, community, and gallery representation. Founded in 2017 by Lucy Gross and Katie Stahl, the organization has paid over $200,000 in commissions to its artists, with some earning upwards of $30,000 annually. Artists like Molly Hale create works in fiber, paint, pastels, and other media, and SAGE has collaborated with brands such as Vans, Whataburger, and Austin FC. The studio is preparing for an upcoming art fair.
The Instituto Cervantes in New York presents *Aquel Amplex*, the first institutional exhibition of Venezuelan artist Cassandra Mayela Allen, on view until June 28, 2026. Curated by Fabiola R. Delgado and Carlos Núñez, the show features braided textile sculptures, paintings, and drawings that examine Allen's process-driven practice within the legacies of Venezuelan and Latin American modernism and informalism. The title, meaning "that embrace," references a 1969 letter from Hélio Oiticica to Lygia Clark, evoking longing and forced migration. Allen, a self-taught artist who migrated from Venezuela in 2014, uses communal braiding gatherings to transform found fabrics and garments into architectural works that deconstruct national and artistic heritage.
Temi Wynston Edun, a Columbia-based artist originally from Ibadan, Nigeria, will open his first solo U.S. exhibition, “Within Reach of Silence,” at Gallery Blue Door in Baltimore on January 17, 2026. The show features 18 oil-stick-on-canvas works that explore themes of stillness, restraint, and layered meaning through figurative painting, with the exhibition running through April 18, 2026.