Artist Sougwen Chung is presenting new work, including the 10-metre scroll 'Recursion 0,' at Art Basel Hong Kong's new Zero 10 sector. The piece, created with brainwave data, will be completed live at the fair, showcasing her ongoing exploration of human-machine collaboration.
A series of three exhibitions in Suffolk, England, celebrates the 250th anniversary of John Constable's birth. The program, hosted at Christchurch Mansion in Ipswich, includes "Constable: A Cast of Characters," focusing on his personal life and circle; "The Hay Wain: Walking Constable's Landscape," featuring his iconic paintings including *The Hay Wain* displayed in its depicted county for the first time; and "Constable to Contemporary," examining his ongoing influence on modern artists.
Shenzhen, China's major technology hub, is making a concerted push to become a significant player in the art world. The city began 2025 with major announcements from tech giants JD.com and Tencent, which are establishing new art museums in the city, appointing prominent directors Robin Peckham and Pi Li to lead them. This follows years of building cultural infrastructure, including the OCAT museum, the Sea World Culture and Arts Center, and the growth of local art fairs like Art Shenzhen.
Five of seven valuable 18th-century snuffboxes stolen from Paris’s Cognacq-Jay Museum in November 2024 have been recovered. Paris Musées announced the return, crediting a police investigation with assistance from the Paris Criminal Investigation Department. The boxes were taken by masked thieves during a daylight robbery from the exhibition “Pocket Luxury.” Two of the recovered boxes were on loan from the Louvre, two from the British royal family’s Royal Collection Trust, and one from the Victoria and Albert Museum. Two more boxes, one from the V&A and one from the Royal Collection, remain missing. The stolen items, decorated with gold, precious stones, mother-of-pearl, or enamel, are estimated to be worth at least €1 million ($1.16 million).
San Francisco's Legion of Honor museum will present "The Etruscans: From the Heart of Ancient Italy" in May 2026, the first major U.S. exhibition on Etruscan civilization since 2009. The show features 180 antiquities from 30 international museums, many never before seen in the United States, and culminates a decade of research led by curator Reneé Dreyfus. Highlights include objects from the Regolini-Galassi tomb, a recently unearthed bronze sculpture from San Casciano dei Bagni, and the longest known Etruscan inscription making its U.S. debut.
After a 43-day government shutdown, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., will reopen to the public on Friday, returning to normal business hours. The Smithsonian Institution will also begin reopening several of its museums and the zoo on a rolling basis, starting with the National Museum of American History, the National Air and Space Museum, and the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center on the same day. The shutdown, the longest in U.S. history, ended after President Donald Trump signed a spending package following a House vote.
The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., announced it will close starting October 5 due to the ongoing government shutdown, becoming the first major museum in the capital to do so. The Smithsonian Institution, which operates several other museums, is using its own funds to remain open at least through Monday. The closure threatens upcoming programming, including a major exhibition of Australian Indigenous art scheduled to open October 18, which is currently still listed as planned.
Jane Birkin's original Hermès Birkin handbag prototype has been consigned to Sotheby's Paris for sale in July. The all-black leather bag, commissioned in 1984 by then-Hermès CEO Jean-Louis Dumas in collaboration with Birkin, is a one-of-a-kind piece that has been in a private collection in France since 2000. Sotheby's has not set a public estimate, citing its unique status, and will communicate it privately to potential bidders. The bag was exhibited at Sotheby's Paris and Hong Kong, and previously at the Museum of Modern Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Jacques Schuhmacher has been appointed as the head of the provenance research team at the Art Institute of Chicago, a dedicated in-house team established in 2020. Previously the senior provenance research curator at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Schuhmacher now leads one of the largest provenance research teams in the United States, which includes four full-time researchers and is supported by a senior leadership task force and a dedicated research budget.
Cuturi Gallery, founded by Spanish gallerist Kevin Troyano Cuturi, has opened its first European space in Paris's Domaine National du Palais-Royal, following its original establishment in Singapore in 2019. The gallery occupies the former boutique of legendary couture dealer Didier Ludot and launched in March with a group show. Its forthcoming exhibition, "Arbres de la Forêt, Vous Connaissez Notre Âme" (May 28 to September 26, 2026), is a solo presentation for French artist-designer Hubert Le Gall, curated by Bruno Gaudichon. The project extends to Villa Noël in Provence, which will serve as a second exhibition space for large-scale outdoor sculptures.
The Racine Art Museum (RAM) and its Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts campus have announced a packed schedule of summer events for 2026, including new programs like the Twilight Garden Series, which combines cocktails, creativity, and themed activities. Highlights include Free First Friday, a Master Workshop with artist Liandra Skenandore on black ash plaiting, Kids Day inspired by the Handcrafted exhibition, and City Movie Night featuring a screening of Lilo & Stitch (2025). Wustum also offers one of Wisconsin's largest museum-based studio arts programs with over 60 class options in ceramics, drawing, glass, fiber, jewelry, painting, and paper arts.
A new exhibition titled *Metamorphosis: Beyond the Real. Searching for Victoria Lu – When Humans and AI Think Together, the Story Begins* has opened at Ca' Foscari Esposizioni in Venice, running parallel to the 2026 Venice Biennale. The show centers on Victoria Lu, a pioneering Chinese curator whose five-decade career helped shape contemporary Asian art. It features archival materials, AI-generated works, and collaborative experiments exploring the intersection of human creativity and artificial intelligence.
A major exhibition of works by pioneering New Zealand modernist painter Edith Collier has opened at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, marking the first time in 45 years that Christchurch audiences can see a wide range of her work. The show, titled 'Edith Collier: Early New Zealand Modernist,' features over 60 pieces including studies, sketches, watercolours, prints, and archival material, drawn from the permanent collection of Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery in Whanganui. Collier, born in 1885, developed a bold post-impressionist style during a nine-year stay in London alongside artist Frances Hodgkins, but faced harsh criticism upon returning to conservative New Zealand, leading her father to destroy some of her paintings.
The National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) has opened a new exhibition titled 'Mother,' curated almost entirely from its existing collection. The show traces the experience of motherhood from the 15th century to the present, beginning with a juxtaposition of Giovanni Toscani's Madonna and Child and a 1998 birth mat by Elizabeth Birritjama Ngalandjarri. Co-curators Sophie Gerhard and Katharina Prugger organized the exhibition around the 'life cycle' of a mother, covering themes from matrescence to loss. It features works by artists including Kate Just, Kyra Mancktelow, Destiny Deacon, and Hannah Brontë, with a strong emphasis on First Nations perspectives and fiber arts.
Media artist Kang Lee-Yeon delivered an immersive lecture at the TED 2026 main stage in Vancouver, using a 30-meter screen to visualize climate change and AI data. She then opened her solo exhibition 'Illumination' at Fondation Fiminco in Paris for the 140th anniversary of Korea-France relations, while also debuting works at Milan Design Week and the Loop Plus media art fair in Busan. Her projects include 'Passage of Water', created with Google and NASA, which translates satellite data into an immersive experience about Earth's freshwater crisis.
Southern Guild, a Cape Town-based gallery, opened a permanent location in New York's Tribeca district on Friday, marking a major expansion for the gallery and a milestone for contemporary African art's international visibility. The inaugural exhibitions feature South African painter Mmangaliso Nzuza's "Ballad of the Peacock" and conceptual artist Usha Seejarim's "Used," both on view until May 17. Co-founder Trevyn McGowan described the 371m² space in a historic cast-iron building as both instinctive and strategic, following the closure of the gallery's Los Angeles outpost, which served as a testing ground for American audiences.
The V&A East Museum has opened in London, marking a major expansion of the Victoria and Albert Museum into the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford. The new institution comprises two sites: a museum at Stratford Waterfront and a collections and research centre at Here East. The project, led by Director Gus Casely-Hayford and a dedicated team, aims to democratize access to the V&A's vast collections and engage new, diverse audiences in East London.
Creative director Daniel Roseberry led an intimate tour of the Victoria and Albert Museum’s landmark exhibition, "Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art," which opened in London on March 28, 2026. The retrospective features over 400 objects, ranging from Elsa Schiaparelli’s 1927 trompe l’oeil sweaters and the 1938 Skeleton Dress to Roseberry’s contemporary surrealist designs. During the walkthrough with British Vogue, Roseberry highlighted the historical continuity between the house’s archival disruption and his modern innovations like the hand-painted puzzle dress.
The Denver Art Museum is presenting "The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art," an exhibition organized by the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, in association with the Denver Art Museum, the Portland Art Museum, and the Peabody Essex Museum. The show features works from the National Gallery of Victoria's collection, including paintings by Indigenous Australian artists such as Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori, Thunduyingathi Bijarrb May Moodoonuthi, and others, with Bank of America serving as the North America Tour Sponsor.
The Weston Loan Programme with Art Fund has announced its tenth round of support, facilitating 15 exhibitions at regional museums across England, Scotland, and Wales through 2027. This initiative funds the logistical costs—including transport, insurance, and security—required to move masterpieces from major national institutions like the Tate, the National Gallery, and the V&A to smaller local galleries. Notable upcoming highlights include the return of Joseph Wright’s 'An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump' to Derby for the first time in eight decades and a landmark Leonard McComb exhibition in Birkenhead.
A curated selection of international photography awards, scholarships, and open calls has been announced for April 2026. Key opportunities include the PhMuseum Online Masterclasses scholarships, which offer fully-funded spots for artistic development and documentary photography, and the PhMuseum Days Photography Festival open call for exhibitions in Bologna, Italy. Additionally, the Hasselblad Foundation is offering significant grants to support the publication of new photobooks by professionals in the field.
Five 18th-century gold snuffboxes recovered after a violent daylight robbery in Paris are set to go on public display at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The objects were stolen in November 2024 from the Musée Cognacq-Jay during a high-profile heist that targeted pieces from the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, the Louvre, and the UK Royal Collection. Following an extensive police investigation and delicate restoration work by Parisian goldsmiths to repair damage sustained during the theft, the items will headline the opening of the V&A’s newly revamped Gilbert Galleries.
India is returning to the Venice Biennale after a seven-year hiatus with a national pavilion in the Arsenale. The presentation, titled 'Geographies of Distance: Remembering Home,' will feature five artists: Alwar Balasubramaniam (Bala), Sumakshi Singh, Ranjani Shettar, Asim Waqif, and Skarma Sonam Tashi. The exhibition is curated by Amin Jaffer and is backed by India's Ministry of Culture and two cultural institutions.
The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) is presenting *Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Multiple Offerings*, the first survey of the late conceptual artist’s work in over two decades. Running from January 24 to April 19, the exhibition draws on BAMPFA’s substantial holdings of Cha’s art and archives, showcasing her multidisciplinary practice—including concrete poetry, mail art, textiles, ceramics, performance, and film. Curator Victoria Sung, alongside curatorial associate Tausif Noor, aims to de-emphasize Cha’s best-known work, *Dictée*, and instead highlight the fluidity of her process, revisiting themes across different media from the early 1970s to the early 1980s. The show features a recreation of her 1980 film *Exilée*, documentation of performances such as *Réveillé dans la Brume* (1977), and early ceramics and textiles never before shown publicly.
The Heritage of London Trust has acquired David Bowie's childhood home at 4 Plaistow Grove in Bromley, southeast London, and plans to restore it to its early 1960s appearance. The railway workers' cottage, where Bowie lived from ages 8 to 20 and is believed to have written "Space Oddity," will open to the public in late 2027, offering an immersive experience centered on his bedroom. Geoffrey Marsh, co-curator of the V&A's "David Bowie Is" exhibition, will oversee the restoration, funded by a £500,000 grant from the Jones Day Foundation and a public fundraising campaign.
Tristram Hunt, director of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, has been knighted in the UK New Year Honours list for 2026, recognized for his services to museums. Other art-world figures honored include curator Ekow Eshun (OBE), art historian Marcia Pointon (OBE), cultural heritage expert Janet Blake (OBE), Jo Quinton-Tulloch of the National Science and Media Museum (OBE), Susan Bowers of the Pilgrim Trust (MBE), and Hilary McGrady of the National Trust (CBE).
The Denver Art Museum will host the international touring exhibition "DIVAs" from October 2026 to January 2027, making it the only U.S. venue for the show. Organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the exhibit features over 200 objects including costumes and accessories worn by icons such as Lady Gaga, Rihanna, RuPaul, Prince, Tina Turner, and Marilyn Monroe. Highlights include Rihanna's 2018 Met Gala gown by John Galliano for Maison Margiela and Tina Turner's Bob Mackie "Flame Dress" from 1978. The ticketed event will take place in the Hamilton Building.
The British Museum is expected to loan the 14th-century Asante Ewer to Ghana on a long-term basis, following discussions between the Manhyia Palace Museum in Kumasi and the London institution. The ewer, made in England and later looted from the Asante royal palace in 1896, has been in the British Museum's collection ever since. Ivor Agyeman-Duah, director of the Manhyia Palace Museum, plans to travel to London to make a formal loan request on behalf of Asantehene Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II. The British Museum has already lent other looted artefacts to the Ghanaian museum, and the loan would likely be for three years, with Ghanaian authorities acknowledging British Museum ownership.
Denver has been announced as the exclusive US venue for 'DIVA,' a major fashion and iconography exhibition organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The show will run from October 4, 2026, to January 31, 2027, at the Denver Art Museum’s Hamilton Building, featuring over 200 objects and more than 50 costumes worn by legendary performers including Maria Callas, Cher, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, RuPaul, Prince, Tina Turner, and Marilyn Monroe.
The Victoria and Albert Museum in London has opened 'Dimensions: Contemporary Chinese Studio Crafts,' a landmark exhibition in its China Gallery that pairs nearly 50 newly acquired contemporary works with historic artifacts from the Ming and Tang dynasties. Curated by Li Xiaoxin, the show features artists including Lin Fanglu, Zhao Jinya, and Eliza Au, who transform traditional crafts such as tie-dye, glassmaking, and ceramics into contemporary art forms. The exhibition, which opened on October 28, is the first major V&A show dedicated solely to contemporary Chinese studio crafts, the result of a five-year research journey by Li to address the museum's lack of modern Chinese representation.