South Korean ceramic artist Jongjin Park has won the 2026 Loewe Foundation Craft Prize for his piece "Strata of Illusion" (2025), a partially-collapsed seat-like form made from paper and coated in porcelain slip. The award comes with a €50,000 ($58,700) prize, and Park's work will be exhibited alongside other shortlisted entries at the National Gallery Singapore, opening tomorrow and running through June 14.
Sara MacKillop's exhibition "The Cutaway View" at Good Weather in Chicago presents sculptures made from humble analog materials like blank wall calendars, empty shopping bags, and gift wrapping. The London-based artist alters these objects with minimal interventions—such as surgically cut holes in shopping bags to accommodate vinyl records—drawing attention to the ephemera and texture of retail culture. Her series "Calendar Houses" (2021–ongoing) uses archive boxes and wall calendars to create miniature modernist dwellings that critique systems of order and self-optimization.
Yoko Ono will install seven digital billboards across Los Angeles bearing peace messages like "THINK PEACE" and "IMAGINE PEACE," as part of her upcoming exhibition "Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind" at the Broad museum opening May 23. The billboards echo her 1969 "WAR IS OVER!" campaign with John Lennon. Ancillary programming includes re-creations of her performance works "Cut Piece" (1964) and "Sky Piece to Jesus Christ" (1965), plus a concert series "Yoko Only" guest-curated by Yuka Honda featuring Yo La Tengo, Nels Cline, Sleater-Kinney, and others.
Brooklyn-based artist Nick Doyle creates large-scale wall sculptures using layered and bleached denim, exploring American mythology and its contradictions. His solo exhibition "Collective Hallucinations" at Perrotin features works such as stylized cacti, landscapes, tarot cards, and a fortune teller's shop, all rendered in denim. Doyle's practice began after finding a discarded roll of denim in 2018, which he saw as a metaphor for the complexities of American history, including slavery, masculinity, and Manifest Destiny.
ONE Art Space in Tribeca is hosting "Tribeca’s Midnight Parade — When Art Runs Wild," a solo exhibition of paintings by Chuck Connelly. Co-curated by Adrienne Connelly and MaryAnn Giella McCulloh, the show features the 1994 painting "Animals in the Street," which depicts Tribeca figures as animal archetypes, including a lion judge and the artist as a horse. The private opening drew a celebrity guest list including Princess Tina Radziwill, orchestrated by PR powerhouse Norah Lawlor.
Cowley Abbott Fine Art, a Toronto-based auction house, has opened its first permanent western Canada gallery in Calgary's East Village. The new space launches with a three-day public preview of museum-quality artworks heading to its Spring Live Auction on May 27 at the Globe and Mail Centre in Toronto. Highlights include rare works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent van Gogh, Emily Carr, and members of the Group of Seven such as Lawren Harris and A.Y. Jackson. Among the standout pieces is Emily Carr's 1936 canvas "Wind," estimated at $500,000 to $700,000, and a Lawren Harris painting valued similarly. The gallery aims to attract both collectors and casual visitors, with Peter Ohler, Western Canada Representative and Director of Private Sales, emphasizing that the space is open to anyone interested in art.
"Ohne Bewusstsein keine Kreativität"
Matthias Hornschuh, a speaker at the German Creative Economy Summit in Hamburg, discusses artificial intelligence and its impact on art and creativity in an interview with Monopol. He argues that AI systems lack intentionality and true creativity, describing them as "probability-based imitation" rather than genuine creative tools. Hornschuh warns against the hype surrounding AI, noting that efficiency gains are often overstated and that users can become trapped in unproductive interactions with these systems.
This article from ArtAsiaPacific reports on three recent art awards. Iraqi artist Ali Eyal received the Hammer Museum's $100,000 Mohn Award for emerging artists in Los Angeles. Japanese artist Mari Katayama won the inaugural ¥10 million Mori Art Award from the Mori Contemporary Art Foundation in Tokyo. Korean media artist Jeamin Cha secured the Hermès Foundation's 21st Missulsang, receiving KRW 30 million and production support for a solo exhibition at Atelier Hermès in Seoul in 2027.
The article questions the appointment of James Taylor-Foster as the incoming director of Para Site in Hong Kong, noting his background as a curator of architecture and design rather than contemporary art, and his lack of prior engagement with Asia's curatorial scene. It also reports that Philip Tinari, former director of UCCA in Beijing, has been appointed to lead Tai Kwun, replacing Pi Li, who has become founding director of the Tencent-funded Róng Museum of Art in Shenzhen.
A drip painting by Jackson Pollock sold for $181.2 million with fees, and a bronze head by Constantin Brancusi from the S.I. Newhouse collection fetched $107.6 million at Christie’s, both joining the $100 million club at auction.
A family is seeking restitution of a painting they believe is a lost Rubens work, looted by Nazis during World War II. However, an expert has cast doubt on the claim, arguing the painting is a copy because it lacks a distinctive detail found in the original: a urinating cow. The dispute has shifted focus to this missing element, complicating the family's efforts to recover the artwork.
Artist Lauren Halsey has unveiled a new installation titled 'Sister Dreamer' Park in South Central Los Angeles. The work features stone monuments that elevate familiar faces from the neighborhood, celebrating local heroes and community members. The installation is part of Halsey's ongoing practice of centering Black and brown communities in her art, using architecture and sculpture to create spaces of empowerment and memory.
Jenna Sutela, representing Finland at the 61st Venice Biennale, will present an exhibition titled *Aeolian Suite* in the Giardini pavilion. The work features sound sculptures that engage with wind as both a physical and political force, using meteorological data, wind machines, recorders, a children's woodwind orchestra, and recordings of winds from Venice, Helsinki, and beyond. Sutela explores noise as a creative medium, drawing on the concept of deep listening inspired by artist Pauline Oliveros, and connects her project to the Biennale's theme, *In Minor Keys*, curated by Koyo Kouoh.
Le primitivisme pour réinventer l’art
Philippe Dagen has published the third and final volume of his series on primitivism, covering the period from World War II to the late 1970s. The book traces how Western artists, from Barnett Newman and Jackson Pollock to members of the CoBrA movement and figures like Jean Dubuffet, Lucio Fontana, and Yayoi Kusama, engaged with so-called "primitive" art from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, often as a means of rejecting or redefining modern civilization. Dagen also examines the intellectual debates surrounding primitivism, including the critiques of colonized peoples who refused the label "primitive," and the shifting attitudes of thinkers like Claude Lévi-Strauss, Michel Leiris, and Aimé Césaire.
Christie’s generated $1.1 billion in back-to-back evening sales on May 18, driven by record-breaking prices for major artworks. The top lot was Jackson Pollock’s 1948 drip painting *Number 7A*, which sold for $181.2 million with fees, tripling the artist’s previous auction record. Other highlights included Constantin Brancusi’s *Danaïde* (ca. 1913) at $107.6 million, Mark Rothko’s *No. 15 (Two Greens and Red Stripe)* (1964) at $98.4 million, and Alice Neel’s *Mother and Child (Nancy and Olivia)* (1967) at $5.7 million. The sales featured works from the collections of S. I. Newhouse and Agnes Gund.
Giorno Poetry Systems (GPS), the New York-based nonprofit founded in 1965 by artist John Giorno, has announced the twelve inaugural recipients of its new need-based grant, the Treat a Stranger grants. Each recipient receives an unrestricted grant of $4,545 to cover daily expenses like food, housing, health care, and emergencies. The grants are a relaunch of GPS's AIDS Treatment Project grants from 1984–1994, and are named after Giorno's mantra, “Treat a complete stranger with the same compassion you would treat a lover or a good friend.” Winners are selected by a rotating anonymous jury of LGBTQIA+ artists, poets, and musicians through a multi-meeting nomination and voting process.
Phillips held its Modern & Contemporary Art Evening Sale in New York on May 19, 2026, achieving a complete sell-out with a total of $115.2 million. All 41 lots were sold, doubling the result from May 2025 ($52 million). Top lots included Andy Warhol's *Sixteen Jackies* ($16.2 million), Claude Monet's *La Route de Vétheuil, effet de neige* ($9.9 million), and Jackson Pollock's *Untitled* (1948) ($9.2 million). New auction records were set for Lee Bontecou, Pat Passlof, P.S. Krøyer, and Joseph Yaeger, while works by Salman Toor and Cecily Brown also sold above estimates.
A Londra si può scoprire un Luigi Ghirri inedito in una mostra fatta di fotografie e parole. Recensione
A new exhibition titled "Felicità" at Thomas Dane Gallery in London presents previously unseen works by Italian photographer Luigi Ghirri (1943–1992). Curated by Alessio Bolzoni and filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, the show features unpublished photographs, fragments of atlases, postcards, posters, and mirrors, exploring Ghirri’s unique vision of everyday life as visual discovery. The exhibition spans two gallery spaces on Duke Street, juxtaposing interior and exterior scenes, and includes works by conceptual artists Félix González-Torres and Giorgio Morandi. A bilingual book, "Luigi Ghirri. Felicità" (MACK), accompanies the show, collecting the exhibited works and three essays by the artist.
Joe Macken, a truck driver from upstate New York, spent 22 years building a 50-by-27-foot miniature scale model of New York City entirely from balsa wood, cardboard, and glue. The model, which includes all five boroughs and landmarks like the Twin Towers and One World Trade Center, went viral on TikTok after Macken’s daughter encouraged him to post a video. It is now on display at the Museum of the City of New York in an exhibition titled *He Built This City: Joe Macken’s Model*.
On May 6, 2026, the art collective Pussy Riot and the Ukrainian feminist group FEMEN staged a protest outside the Russian Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale. Approximately 50 activists released pink smoke and blue-and-yellow flares evoking the Ukrainian flag, while FEMEN members staged a topless protest with anti-war slogans like “RUSSIA KILLS, BIENNALE EXHIBITS.” Italian police and Biennale security blocked access to the pavilion, and some Pussy Riot activists were tackled after entering. The protest targeted Russia’s participation in the Biennale for the first time since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with activists condemning the event for lending legitimacy to Russian officials and artists aligned with the government.
The article reviews national pavilions at a major international art exhibition, focusing on the US, British, and German presentations. Andrew Durbin critiques the US pavilion as vacuous and lacking meaning, while praising the British and German installations as incisive and moving. The review highlights a contrast between superficial spectacle and deeply engaging, historically resonant works.
Lubaina Himid, the Turner Prize-winning artist, discusses her latest exhibition that reflects on the evolving cultural and social landscape of contemporary Britain. The show features her signature vibrant paintings and installations that explore themes of diaspora, identity, and historical narratives, drawing on her own experiences as a Black British artist.
Art in the Berkshires, founded in 2024 as an online resource, has opened a physical gallery and studio space at 8 Castle Street in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. The venture is led by Shany Porras, an abstract painter and founder who serves as gallery director, aiming to make Berkshire creativity more accessible through artist directories, venue listings, and a weekly newsletter.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art's annual Costume Institute Benefit (The Met Gala) kicked off this past Monday with the theme "Fashion is Art," coinciding with the opening of the Met's new Condé M. Nast Galleries. The inaugural exhibition, titled "Costume Art," spans nearly 12,000 square feet and pairs pieces from the Costume Institute with objects from the museum's broader collection, juxtaposing items such as a Greek vessel from 460 BCE with a 1920s Fortuny gown, and Albrecht Dürer's "The Man of Sorrows" with Vivienne Westwood's "Martyr to Love" jacket.
This article is a weekly events roundup from Free Times, listing activities in the Columbia, South Carolina area from May 6-11. It includes an art exhibition by sculptor Ellen Emerson Yaghjian at Stormwater Studios, a poetry and performance night at the Columbia Museum of Art responding to Rodney McMillian's exhibition, a Beatles tribute concert, a rodeo, an oil paint-making workshop, a music concert, a historic walking tour, a teen craft workshop, and a rock concert.
The Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine, has opened a year-long exhibition titled "Maine: A Force Within American Art (1890-2026)" in honor of America's 250th anniversary. The show presents 150 works across media, highlighting the state's artistic legacy from the late 19th century to the present. It features leading modernists such as Marsden Hartley, John Marin, Charles Demuth, and Georgia O'Keeffe, who found inspiration in Maine's landscapes, as well as contemporary artists like Theresa Secord. The exhibition is curated by Jaime DeSimone and Francesca Soriano, in collaboration with multiple institutions including the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.
Dayanita Singh has organized a major exhibition titled "ARCHIVIO" at the State Archives of Venice, marking the first time the institution has opened its doors to the public for an art show. The exhibition, which runs until July 31, features collapsible wooden pillars covered with black-and-white photographs that explore Singh's 25-year relationship with Italy and her broader engagement with archival documents from both Italy and India. Singh achieved this without major institutional funding, instead relying on a "friendship economy" of bartering, negotiation, and individual patrons, and even arranged for local art students to serve as docents in exchange for professional mentorship.
Romanesco im Max-Mara-Mantel
Evelyn Taocheng Wang's first institutional solo exhibition in Italy, "Sweet Landscape," opens at the Museion in Bolzano. The Chinese-born, Rotterdam-based artist presents silk paintings, pastel canvases, and painted garments that probe the region's complex history beneath its idyllic Alpine scenery. Works such as "Frog Princess Checks Her Smartphone in front of Window of August Macke’s Hat Shop" (2026) and "Ancient Roman bust for Sale" (2026) blend local food motifs, cultural translation, and hybrid identity, questioning who gets to write history and how landscapes are perceived through secondhand experiences.
Carol Jacobi, curator of a new exhibition at Tate Britain in London, aims to reframe the legacy of James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), an artist often reduced in public memory to his 1877 libel lawsuit against critic John Ruskin. The show, the UK's first full Whistler survey since 1994, highlights his prolific output, evolving style, and belief that art should seek "a more fundamental beauty" beyond mere impression. It brings together many of his celebrated nocturnes and, for the first time, his sketchbooks, though the infamous Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket (1875) could not be loaned.