Brussels Airlines launches traveling art exhibition between Africa and Europe

Brussels Airlines has announced a major traveling exhibition called AfriConnections, dedicated to contemporary African art, set to launch in 2026. The exhibition will tour museums and cultural venues in Kinshasa, Abidjan, Yaoundé, and Dakar before arriving in Brussels, featuring fifteen artists from across Africa whose works are drawn from the Ifitry artist residency collection. Admission will be free to maximize public access.

John Bellany exhibition in Haddington shines spotlight on his unknown work

A major exhibition of rarely seen works by Scottish painter John Bellany has opened at the John Gray Centre in Haddington, East Lothian. Curated by his widow Helen Bellany and Alexander Moffat RSA, the show features early and lesser-known pieces, many never publicly displayed before. It runs until September 19 as part of the Royal Scottish Academy's RSA200: Celebrating Together project, marking the RSA's 200th anniversary. Loans come from the Bellany estate, Alexander Moffat's private collection, East Lothian Council Museums Service, and the Royal Scottish Academy.

Soft Power: When Textiles Become Compelling Storytellers

The article reviews 'Threading Inwards,' an exhibition at the Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile (CHAT) in Hong Kong, curated by Wang Weiwei, Eugene Hannah Park, Kurosawa Seiha, and Wang Huan. It features 14 artists from across Asia who use textile as a medium to explore themes of spirituality, memory, and cultural heritage. Works include Han Sang A's 'Threshold' series, Hu Yinping's 'Soul Bottle' series, and pieces by Aziza Kadyri, Mooni Perry, Citra Sasmita, IV Chan, and Chen Zhe, among others.

Pictures: Emma Lamb opens Dartmoor-inspired 3D art exhibition near Ivybridge

Emma Lamb, a South Devon-based 3D mixed-media artist, has opened a new exhibition titled *Long Live the Wilderness Yet* at Lukesland Gardens near Ivybridge. The show features two of her major series, *Reviving Mires* and *Fragmented Forest*, both inspired by Dartmoor’s fragile ecosystems. Lamb uses handmade paper, natural fibers, pigments, and experimental techniques such as inks made from air pollution to create works that explore peatlands and temperate rainforests. The exhibition runs until early June, and Lamb will also host a workshop in June teaching participants to create collages using natural materials.

Local artist’s new exhibit captures Florida’s quiet contradictions

Painter Bill Gallagher opens his solo exhibition “The State of Florida” on May 2 at Jane’s Art Center in New Smyrna Beach, featuring a new body of realistic oil paintings that capture everyday Florida scenes—cafés, coastlines, parking lots, sidewalks, and public spaces. The works explore subtle tensions between presence and distraction, connection and isolation, using a classical realist approach to transform the state into a psychological stage. Gallagher, who began exhibiting in his 20s in New York, Orlando, Los Angeles, and Milan, left the gallery world for a successful advertising career before returning to painting two years ago, earning multiple awards including first place at the Artists’ Workshop NSB Members Show for his painting “Release.”

A Bird Flying Through a Tunnel, 2019 by Matt Connors, Acrylic on canvas, 304.8 x 244.5 x 3.2 cm (3)

The article is a promotional piece for an art advisory platform that partners with leading galleries to showcase artists, artworks, and exhibitions. It highlights a curated membership model vetted by industry peers, offering access to influential galleries, collectors, and auction houses. The featured image is Matt Connors' painting "A Bird Flying Through a Tunnel" (2019), an acrylic on canvas work measuring 304.8 x 244.5 x 3.2 cm.

'Evidence of Us' by E. Tyler Burton at the County Museum

The San Bernardino County Museum presents 'Evidence of Us,' a new exhibition by artist E. Tyler Burton, running from May 9 through September 6. The show features sculptures, projections, textile installations, cyanotypes, and participatory elements that explore the material record of contemporary life, using everyday items like plastic bottles, clothing, and packaging as artifacts. An opening reception will be held on May 9 from 3–6 p.m.

Desert art and youthful joy fill Cobre Valley Center for the Arts

The Cobre Valley Center for the Arts in Arizona is hosting a month-long Desert Art Show through April, featuring hand-painted items, paintings, and photography from local and international artists including Debbie Yerkovich, Amanda Moore, Jessica Goodwin, Ivan Macarambon, and Wanda Mitchell-Tucker. During the same period, the Center celebrated the 'Week of the Young Child' with a special elementary student display titled 'A Joyful World,' showcasing artwork by local schoolchildren that explores themes of joy, family, and community. The children's exhibit also serves as a tribute to Carolyn Haro, a former key figure at the Center who had long envisioned such a display.

Rare documents from National Archives’ Freedom Plane tour draw history buffs and more to USC Fisher Museum

The USC Fisher Museum of Art is hosting the "Freedom Plane National Tour: Documents That Forged a Nation," a traveling exhibition of rare founding-era documents from the U.S. National Archives. The show, which runs through May 3, includes items such as a rare engraved copy of the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Paris (1783), and a Senate markup of the Bill of Rights (1789). USC is the only university stop on the eight-city national tour, and the documents arrived in Los Angeles on a special Boeing 737. The exhibition has drawn history students, faculty, and the public, with USC Distinguished Professor Peter C. Mancall bringing his class to study the documents up close.

LMDC’s ‘Chance 4 Change’ program partners with Portland Museum to display inmates’ art

Louisville Metro Department of Corrections (LMDC) has partnered with the Portland Museum to display artwork created by inmates in the 'Chance 4 Change' program, a voluntary 90-day substance abuse treatment initiative. The exhibition, titled 'Human, Too,' features paper-based works by at least ten inmates and will run through the end of August, with a public reception scheduled for Friday evening.

MiC initiates cultural bridge between Italy and Mozambique on contemporary art

On April 20, 2026, the Italy-Mozambique project "A Bridge Made in Art" launched in Maputo, Mozambique, running until June 2027. Sponsored by Italy's Ministry of Culture and the National Museums of Perugia, the initiative includes workshops, exhibitions, and training in contemporary art, involving Mozambican institutions such as Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Fundação Leite Couto, and Núcleo de Arte. The program is part of the Mattei Plan for Africa, aiming to redefine Italy-Africa relations through cultural cooperation.

A GLIMPSE INTO FERNANDO MAZA S SURREAL WORLD AT THE MAR MUSEUM

The exhibition "The Construction of Painting," organized by the National Museum of Fine Arts, opened at the MAR Provincial Museum of Contemporary Art in Mar del Plata, Argentina. It traces the career of Argentine visual artist Fernando Maza (1936–2017) through more than 50 paintings and watercolors, curated by Pablo De Monte. Maza, who studied under Raúl Podestá and was part of the Informalist Movement alongside Alberto Greco and Kenneth Kemble, lived in New York, London, and Paris. The show features works that blend metaphysical painting with surreal atmospheres, using objects like staircases, arches, and linguistic signs to create enigmatic landscapes.

CHILE AT THE 2026 VENICE BIENNALE NORTON MAZA PRESENTS INTER REALITY

Chile will participate in the 61st Venice Art Biennale with the exhibition "Inter-Reality" by artist Norton Maza, curated by Marisa Cachiolo and Dermis León, and managed by Claudia Pertuzé. The monumental installation, on view from May 9 to November 22, 2026 at the Sala dell'Isolotto in the Arsenale complex, contrasts an exterior referencing geopolitics, landscape, and ecology with an interior of precarious dioramas blending classical European painting and contemporary issues like fake news, migration, and environmental devastation. The work includes a soundscape of helicopters, airplanes, ancestral chants, and nature sounds recorded in Chile.

Urban art and music unite Amsterdam and Milan for three days

L’arte urbana e la musica uniscono Amsterdam e Milano per tre giorni

MUROMi, an independent Milan-based company, is launching a special Milan edition of Here&Now, a cultural event originally created in Amsterdam by Tony Ant and Chinny Bond. Taking place May 21–23, 2026, at Spazio Diaz in Milan, the event combines live painting, music, and contemporary urban art, aiming to bring together creatives, brands, and key figures from the Milanese scene. The project is born from a collaboration between MUROMi and the Here&Now community, which is rooted in international street culture and music.

The boundary between inner world and reality in Gak Yamada's photography on show in Friuli

Il confine tra mondo interiore e realtà nella fotografia di Gak Yamada in mostra in Friuli

Japanese artist Gak Yamada's exhibition 'Cosmic Prayer' is on view until June 14 at Die Gelbe Wand, a new exhibition space in Pordenone, Italy, which will be the Italian Capital of Culture in 2027. The show traces Yamada's shift from photography as representation to an experiential medium, featuring series such as 'HIGAN' (where urban landscapes dissolve), 'Red' (where chemical decomposition reveals dominant red tones), and the latest 'Flower of the Universe,' inspired by cosmic connectivity. Yamada, who once abandoned photography entirely to paint, immerses prints in water to alter their chemical stability, with Fujifilm papers dissolving quickly and Kodak papers slowly, producing varied chromatic and material effects.

Tutte le ‘Sicilie’ di Armando Rotoletti all’Antiquarium di Centuripe in un viaggio tra memoria e visione

The article reports on the exhibition "Sicilia. Un’isola, tante Sicilie. Fotografia, memoria e patrimonio culturale nell’opera di Armando Rotoletti" at the Antiquarium Comunale di Centuripe in Sicily, running until September 27, 2026. The show features over thirty years of black-and-white photographic research by Armando Rotoletti (born 1958 in Messina), a photojournalist who left Sicily for London and Milan but maintained a deep connection to his homeland. His work captures the island's plural, complex identity through rituals, daily gestures, and cultural resistance to standardization, with images that blur past and present.

IDF Soldiers Hide From Our Gaze

An opinion article on Hyperallergic analyzes official portraits of Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers released in May 2025, in which the soldiers are depicted with their backs to the camera. The author argues that this pose is a deliberate tactic to avoid identification and potential prosecution for war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories, weaponizing surveillance technologies against the very people they surveil. The piece frames these images as "counter-portraits" that transform individual soldiers into a faceless, intimidating mass, contrasting them with traditional portraiture that invites intimate moral scrutiny.

Interview with the curators who brought Italy to London Craft Week

Intervista alle curatrici che hanno portato l’Italia alla Craft Week di Londra

Amalia di Lanno and Valeria Zerbo, founders of the London-based curatorial platform Avant Craft, are bringing Italian ceramics to the London Craft Week for the first time. Their exhibition, "Contemporary Perspectives on Italian Ceramics," showcases a selection of independent Italian artists and designers who explore ceramics as a material investigation, sculptural experimentation, and cultural continuity. The show opens on May 14 with a "Meet a Master" event featuring artist Riccardo Monachesi, marking the official kickoff of Avant Craft.

In che modo la rigenerazione sta provando a cambiare l’Italia? Risponde la newsletter Render

Artribune's newsletter "Render" is set to release its 57th issue on May 11, featuring stories on urban regeneration projects across Italy. Highlights include a new library under construction in Latisana near the train station, a square-shaped island in the Venice lagoon transformed into an exhibition space after decades of abandonment, participatory tactical urbanism initiatives in Torre Annunziata funded by a Ministry of Social Policies and Labor grant, and a post-war complex in Rome poised to become a cultural hub. The issue will also profile the Peruvian architecture duo Barclay & Crousse ahead of their exhibition at the Politecnico di Milano and include a reflection on contemporary green spaces inspired by a visit to a private English park.

1990s pop icon Jewel is the protagonist in Venice with an exhibition that rewrites the geographies of the feminine

L’icona pop Anni ‘90 Jewel è protagonista a Venezia con una mostra che riscrive le geografie del femminile

Singer-songwriter Jewel, a 1990s pop icon with four Grammy nominations, is presenting her largest exhibition to date in Venice. Titled "Matriclysm: An Archaeology of Connections Lost," the immersive show runs from May 6 to November 22, 2026, at the Salone Verde, coinciding with the 2026 Venice Biennale. Curated by Joe Thompson, the exhibition blends painting, textiles, sculpture, sound, and installation to explore themes of femininity, motherhood, care, and intergenerational knowledge, drawing on forgotten rituals and marginalized mythologies.

Provincia Cosmica. A Foggia per scoprire la fotografia sociologica di Maria Palmieri

Maria Palmieri (Foggia, 1986) is a photographer who uses her camera as a tool for observation, understanding, and social improvement. After studying law, she turned to visual arts, blending reportage with vernacular photography to uncover truth amid the 'noisy horror' of contemporary life. In an interview with Artribune, she discusses her sociological approach to photography, her return to her hometown of Foggia, and her ongoing documentation of the region's fragilities, including the largest migrant ghetto in Europe.

The first of May starts a new issue of Pax. Previews of the newsletter on cultural tourism (subscribe)

Il primo maggio parte una nuova uscita di Pax. Le anticipazioni della newsletter sul turismo culturale (abbonatevi)

The article previews the upcoming May 1st issue of Pax, a newsletter by Artribune focused on cultural tourism. It highlights a feature on Italy's colorful villages, explaining how bright colors historically aided sailors and fishermen, and how white facades served hygienic purposes. The issue also covers off-the-beaten-path destinations like Bolsena, which recently opened a contemporary art space in Palazzo Cozza Caposavi, and explores slow tourism practices such as barefooting, discussed with its founder Andrea Bianchi. Additional content includes a roundup of cultural initiatives from Berlin to Naples, Budapest's Citadella reopening, and the Sussex forest's Winnie-the-Pooh centenary.

In Romagna for over a century there is a "serious" spring carnival. The story of the plaster and thought floats

In Romagna da oltre un secolo c’è un Carnevale “serio” di primavera. La storia dei carri di gesso e di pensiero

A small town in Romagna, Casola Valsenio, has been hosting a unique spring festival for 125 years, featuring massive allegorical floats made of plaster and wood. Unlike traditional carnivals, this event—called the "serious carnival"—takes place in late April/early May and focuses on social and political themes. The floats, up to seven meters long and nine meters high, are built by local youth and paraded twice (day and night) with performers frozen in tableau vivant poses. A jury, this year chaired by Roberto Cantagalli, director of the MAR museum in Ravenna, awards a winner.

The Animals We Are. The New Metamorphosis of the Apartment-Showroom Casaornella in Milan

Gli animali che siamo. La nuova metamorfosi dell’appartamento-showroom Casaornella a Milano

Interior designer Maria Vittoria Paggini has unveiled the 2026 edition of Casaornella, her apartment-showroom in Milan's Via Conca del Naviglio 10, during Design Week. Titled "L'animale sociale" (The Social Animal) with the subtitle "Nessuno mi può giudicare" (Nobody Can Judge Me), the space is completely restructured each year. For this edition, Paggini removed all doors to create a fluid, open-plan layout, using curtains for privacy. The project explores themes of authenticity and human relationships in the digital age, inspired by Italian pop songs from Mina to Luigi Tenco, which form the exhibition's soundtrack.

In Milan, the furnishings of the White House go on display. Design and architecture to talk about propaganda

A Milano vanno in mostra gli arredi della Casa Bianca. Design e architettura per parlare di propaganda

An exhibition titled 'The White House. Domestic Propaganda' has opened at Dropcity, an experimental center in the tunnels beneath Milan's Central Station, as part of the city's Design Week. Curated by students from the Politecnico di Milano's Interior Design Laboratory, the show critically examines the White House as a domestic space for political propaganda, using installations, models, and drawings to explore how its architecture and furnishings project cultural and social meanings.

Here’s what’s happening at Art in the Loft

Art in the Loft in Alpena is preparing for its SummerView 2026 exhibit, featuring roughly 30 local and regional artists in its 7,000-square-foot space. The exhibit has a soft opening on May 26 and an opening reception on June 2, showcasing original works in multiple mediums and techniques, all available for purchase. The gallery is also celebrating its 25th anniversary with a gala on November 7.

Four generations of creativity on display at ‘Belong’ Art Exhibition

The Webster family, spanning four generations from great-grandmother Beverly Neylon to five-year-old Jasper Webster, is exhibiting their artwork together at the 'Belong: 2026 Art Exhibition' hosted by the City of Whittlesea in South Morang, Australia. The show features paintings, mosaics, and porcelain works, including Beverly Neylon's award-winning piece 'Beauty of the Wind,' which earned the Award of Excellence – Use of Materials. The exhibition runs from 2 May to 27 May 2026 at the Plenty Ranges Art and Convention Centre.

Writer-artist Nia Zera's work draws parallels between Africa countries and Dravidian communities

Writer-artist Nia Zera recently opened her exhibition "Cobalt Blue" in Chennai, featuring 31 paintings on shaped wooden panels that draw parallels between Dravidian communities in south India and African cultures. The works explore shared histories of resource wealth and colonial exploitation, inspired by Karen Blixen's 'Out of Africa' and Zera's own upbringing near the Muthuvan Kudi community in Munnar, Kerala. The exhibition took one year and one month to complete, using a predominantly blue palette referencing cobalt and blue-green algae from Africa.

Medium Art Center Celebrates Five Year Anniversary

Medium Art Center in Ukiah, California, celebrates its five-year anniversary. Founded during the pandemic by a small team of local artists and community members including Chris Pugh and Lillian Rubie, the center began as an online exhibition series called "Dear America" before securing a vacant storefront at the Pear Tree Center in 2021. Run entirely by volunteers for its first three years, the center has hosted in-person exhibits, traditional Chinese brush painting workshops with artist William Shi, and outreach programs to support local artists. Recently, it received a grant from the RISE program administered through Redwood Coast Regional Center to support people with disabilities or neurodivergence.

Where Art Meets Innovation: Inside the Salt Lake Art Show and the X5 Vision

On May 14, 2026, the Salt Lake Art Museum (SLAM) hosted a launch event for X5, a new convergence platform, inside the historic B'nai Israel Temple in Salt Lake City. The event featured an interactive moment where attendees drew on the museum's bare walls before they are painted over. The following day, the Salt Lake Art Show opened at the Mountain America Expo Center in Sandy, serving as X5's first public activation. X5 Vice Chair Joe Ross outlined the platform's three clusters—industry/STEM, culture, and capital/workforce—positioning it as a successor to Sundance's economic impact in Utah.