Photographic artist Clara Chiu is presenting her debut solo exhibition, 'Water's Awakening,' at Gallery Lane Cove. The show, curated by Miguel Olmo, features abstract photographic works focused on water, exploring its fleeting forms and movement to question perception and offer contemplative sanctuary. The exhibition runs from May 13 to June 6, 2026.
Johannesburg-based artist Nyakallo Maleke presents her solo exhibition, 'A Soft Language of Distance,' at Bode in Berlin. The show features an expanded practice of drawing that incorporates textiles, wax paper, and intricate stitching to explore themes of movement, memory, and spatial experience. Maleke, who was recently named the recipient of the 2025 Standard Bank Young Artist Award, utilizes these unconventional materials to create a tactile vocabulary that bridges the gap between intimate gesture and architectural form.
Yoonshin Park's solo exhibition "Prompt and Prompted" is on view at the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago, featuring artists' books, video, and paper-based works that explore reading, memory, and materiality. The show includes pieces from Park's "How (Not) to Read" series, such as the unfurled scroll "I can no longer see. Whose story remains?" (2022), alongside works like "Partial Reading," "Night," and "Neither Flat Nor Fixed," accompanied by a video of the artist manipulating materials that generates a white-noise soundtrack.
Zen Crafart has opened 'Sacred Gestures', a solo exhibition by contemporary Indian artist Viveek Sharma, at Mumbai's Jehangir Art Gallery. The show was inaugurated by novelist and columnist Shobhaa De and runs from December 2 to 8, 2025. The exhibition features works that blend Lavani-inspired movement, divine feminine symbolism, and pop culture motifs, exploring femininity through dramatic lighting and saturated hues. It follows Sharma's earlier Delhi exhibition 'Silence Please', which received strong acclaim from collectors and cultural figures.
Artist, writer, and activist Avram Finkelstein, a founding member of ACT UP, Silence=Death, and Gran Fury, presents his first solo exhibition in New York City, titled “Something Terrible Has Happened (Corpus Fluxus)” at Smack Mellon. The show features large-scale drawings and digital prints on walls, ceilings, and wheeled metal structures that also serve as mobility aids for Finkelstein, who has thyroid cancer. Works such as "Golem (BRAF V600E mutation)" and "Black Golem (after Bergman)" explore themes of disability, pain, and the body in flux, using the Jewish folklore figure of the golem as a central metaphor. The exhibition transforms the gallery into an "experiential dancehall," emphasizing accessibility through movement and sensory engagement.
The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) is presenting "Shirley Gorelick: Figuring It Out," an exhibition running from March 27 to June 28, 2026, that centers on three large-scale paintings by the American realist artist Shirley Gorelick (1924–2000). The show brings together these works from NMWA’s collection for the first time, including the first canvas in her "Three Graces" series, a triple portrait of activist Libby Ourlicht, and a depiction of longtime friends Gunny and Lee Benson. More than 30 additional paintings, drawings, and prints further illuminate Gorelick’s practice and her subjects. Gorelick, who was active in New York artist-run women’s cooperative galleries in the 1970s, developed a bold realist style that combined vigorous brushwork, heightened shadows, and vivid patterns, yet she was largely omitted from art historical narratives that focused on Pop art, Minimalism, and conceptual art.
A wave of independent, artist-run galleries is emerging across North Texas, operating out of unconventional spaces like houses, lofts, and apartments. Notable examples include PRP (Permanent Research Project) in a little white house in Trinity Groves, Nature of Things in a Deep Ellum loft, and 2 BED 1 BATH in an Oak Cliff apartment. These venues often face precarious funding and zoning issues, yet they persist, with some like 500X operating since 1978 and PRP for a decade. Recent exhibitions have addressed themes such as the treatment of bodies in visual culture and political commentary, including a protest show after the University of North Texas shut down an exhibition critical of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Milwaukee Art Museum is hosting "Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World is a Mystery," a nationally touring retrospective featuring 83 paintings by the surrealist artist. The exhibition, which runs through July 19, is the only stop in the Midwest for the tour and includes works such as "Witches Switches" and "Inheritance," alongside wearable art from the 1950s. The gallery is designed as a maze to reflect Abercrombie's complex mind, and the museum is offering related events like Kohl's Family Sunday and MAM After Dark.
The Fall River Museum of Contemporary Art (FR MoCA) has launched "Citadel," a group exhibition featuring nine international artists including Lydia Ourahmane and Kambel Smith. Curated by Cory John Scozzari, the show utilizes diverse media—from sculpture and video to performance—to explore themes of urban movement, geopolitical complexity, and the mechanisms of surveillance and control. The exhibition is set to run through July 19, 2026, with an opening reception and curator-led walkthroughs scheduled for April.
The Frist Art Museum in Nashville has announced the upcoming exhibition "Anila Quayyum Agha: Interwoven," scheduled to run from May 22 through August 30, 2026. This career-spanning survey features two decades of the Pakistani American artist's work, including her signature immersive light installations, drawings, and sculptures. The exhibition highlights major pieces such as "All the Flowers Are for Me (Red)" and the poignant installation "A Flood of Tears (Gathering Storms)," which reflects on the catastrophic 2010 Pakistan floods.
Musician Jack White is set to debut his first solo visual art exhibition, titled ‘These Thoughts May Disappear’, at Damien Hirst’s Newport Street Gallery in London. Running from May 29 to September 13, the show will feature a diverse array of mediums including sculpture, furniture design, and large-scale installations, many of which are constructed from reclaimed industrial materials and hardware remnants.
The first UK presentation of Nancy Holt's work, titled "MoonSunStarEarthSkyWater," opens at the Goodwood Art Foundation in Sussex from 2 May to 1 November 2026. The exhibition includes both a gallery-based show and works in the landscape, featuring key pieces such as the monumental site-responsive installation "Ventilation System" (1985-92) and the earthwork "Hydra's Head" (1974). The show aims to highlight Holt's exploration of perception, language, and light, and includes works from her diverse practice spanning concrete poetry, film, photography, and public sculpture.
Tang Contemporary Art in Beijing is launching a massive retrospective titled '1985–2025: Chinese Modern Ink Art,' curated by Zou Jianping. Featuring over 120 works by 68 artists across two gallery spaces, the exhibition traces the forty-year evolution of ink painting from the '85 New Wave movement to the present day. The show highlights key figures such as Gu Wenda, Wang Tiande, and Liu Qinghe, showcasing how the medium transitioned from traditional brushwork to experimental forms including installation and digital media.
Yares Art in New York is hosting "SIMILITUDES: Color, Form, Friendship," a landmark exhibition exploring the creative dialogue between American painter Helen Frankenthaler and British sculptor Anthony Caro. Spanning nearly five decades of friendship that began in 1959, the show juxtaposes Frankenthaler’s soak-stained canvases with Caro’s steel armatures. The presentation includes archival letters and photographs that highlight their mutual influence, including a 1972 proposal from Frankenthaler to collaborate on a sculpture.
At 87, New York-based artist Larry Poons remains highly productive, with two works featured in Artnet Auctions' GEMS: Collecting Post-War Abstraction, live through September 24, 2025. The paintings—To Have Missed the Walk (2014, est. $160,000–$180,000) and Jarrett (2019, est. $60,000–$70,000)—exemplify his color-driven, gestural abstraction. Poons, who studied at the New England Conservatory of Music before turning to painting at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, is also showing in Yares Art's group exhibition "Fields of Color V" and recently had a solo show there, "Provocation, Iliad: Powers + Spells." In a studio visit, he discussed his process, his early career, and his belief that painting has no rules.
Roksana Pirouzmand’s dual-site exhibition in Los Angeles, hosted at OXY ARTS and JOAN, features performance-based sculptures and installations that utilize literal erosion to explore themes of loss and displacement. The works include anatomical clay casts of the artist and her mother, which are subjected to water, vibration, and physical interaction, causing them to crack and deteriorate over the course of the show. At OXY ARTS, a kinetic metal floor involves the viewer directly, as their footsteps cause clay hands to collide and break, illustrating the physical impact of movement and presence.
Argentine artist Gabriel Chaile has opened a new commission titled "Archaeology of Memory" at London's Whitechapel Gallery. The site-specific installation features monumental adobe sculptures that incorporate everyday and decorative objects sourced from the surrounding East End neighborhood. Chaile, who is based in Lisbon, draws on the material traditions of Indigenous communities from northwest Argentina, blending roles as artist, anthropologist, and storyteller to explore themes of migration, identity, and cultural memory.
Lamberto Pignotti, the 100-year-old Florentine artist and poet and a leading figure in visual poetry, is celebrated with two concurrent exhibitions: "Pignotti 100. Pop-esie visive" at the Mart in Rovereto (in collaboration with the Collegio Cairoli of Pavia) and the dual solo show "Identikit di Pignotti e Hogre" curated by Marco Giovenale at Galleria Bianco Contemporaneo in Rome. The latter exhibition, born from a dialogue between Pignotti and the anonymous artist Hogre, centers on a collection of envelopes Pignotti has saved for over fifty years—each addressed to him with varying titles (architect, artist, poet, professor) or altered names (Alberto, Lorenzo, Mario, Giuseppe)—revealing his fragmented identity. Pignotti co-founded the Gruppo '70 in Florence in 1963 with Eugenio Miccini, a movement that brought together multidisciplinary artists including Lucia Marcucci, Ketty La Rocca, and musicians Giuseppe Chiari and Sylvano Bussotti.
In questa mostra a Milano lo spettatore può modificare gli spazi. Il grande artista-architetto Gianni Pettena ci spiega perché
Gianni Pettena, a pioneer of the Italian Radical Architecture movement, has unveiled his immersive installation "Paper/Northern Lights" at the BiM urban regeneration project in Milan's Bicocca district. Originally conceived in 1971 as a pedagogical exercise at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, the work consists of 49 kilometers of white paper strips hanging from the ceiling. Visitors are invited to physically interact with the installation by cutting through the paper, effectively reshaping the architectural environment and challenging traditional notions of fixed space and authorship.
A Milano una mostra racconta la mitica Elisabetta Catalano, grande fotografa amica degli artisti
The Viasaterna gallery in Milan is hosting a comprehensive exhibition titled "Elisabetta Catalano: Cinema, Moda e Performance," curated by Laura Cherubini. The show explores the prolific career of the Roman photographer, featuring her iconic portraits of film stars on the sets of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti, her high-fashion photography for Vogue, and her deep collaborations with avant-garde artists like Fabio Mauri and Michelangelo Pistoletto.
More than 100 Seattle Art Museum employees announced plans to unionize under the banner Seattle Art Museum Workers United (SAMWU), representing workers across over 20 front- and back-end departments including curatorial, education, and visitor experience. The union informed SAM director and CEO Scott Stulen of its formation in a letter citing unsustainable wages, subpar health benefits, and top-down decision-making. Organizers say they have a supermajority support among eligible workers. SAMWU has filed for an election with the National Labor Relations Board but is willing to withdraw if leadership voluntarily recognizes the union before May 27. The union has affiliated with the Washington Federation of State Employees/AFSCME Council 28. Security staff, who previously unionized as SAM VSO in 2022 and secured a contract after a 12-day strike in late 2024, will remain separate.
The Birmingham Museum of Art has launched a public appeal to locate missing artworks by Corietta Mitchell, the first Black artist to receive a solo exhibition at the institution during the Jim Crow era. Staged quietly in March 1963 just months before the repeal of local segregation ordinances, the exhibition is documented only by a checklist and a single grainy photograph. As the museum celebrates its 75th anniversary, officials are seeking to recover these works to address a significant gap in their institutional archives.
The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis will close on Friday, January 23, to participate in the Day of Truth and Freedom protest, a statewide general strike organized by local labor unions and community groups in response to increased ICE presence in Minnesota. The museum is the largest institution to join over 300 small businesses, cultural organizations, and nonprofits in shuttering for the day, citing its institutional values of community care and staff support. The closure follows ICE's Operation Metro Surge, which intensified enforcement in the Twin Cities, and the January 7 killing of U.S. citizen Renée Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross, which sparked nationwide protests and lawsuits against the Department of Homeland Security.
The Netherlands has signed an agreement to return 119 Benin Bronzes to Nigeria, one of the largest repatriations of looted artifacts to date. The transfer, formalized on February 19 by Dutch culture minister Eppo Bruins and Nigerian official Olugbile Holloway at the Wereldmuseum in Leiden, includes 113 bronzes from the Dutch National Collection held at the museum and six additional objects from the municipality of Rotterdam. The artifacts were plundered by British forces in 1897 and later acquired by Dutch institutions, with provenance research confirming the museums were aware of their looted origins.
The Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA) in Glasgow, Scotland, closed for the rest of the week after a pro-Palestine protest organized by Art Workers for Palestine Scotland escalated into a confrontation. The group staged a sit-in at the CCA courtyard, demanding the institution support the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. Police were called to clear the protest, leading to arrests and allegations of excessive force. The CCA board cited security concerns and a forced entry as reasons for the closure.
The Great Baddow Hoard, the largest recorded collection of ancient gold coins in the U.K., has been acquired by the Museum of Chelmsford five years after its discovery. Unearthed by metal detectorist Shane Wood on private land in Great Baddow, Essex, the hoard comprises 933 gold coins and fragments dating to 60–20 B.C.E. The museum secured the £300,050 ($400,590) trove with major funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and smaller contributions from other organizations. Wood was convicted in 2021 for failing to declare the treasure under the Treasure Act 1996, and the reward was paid to the landowner instead.
An exhibition titled "Prisoners of Love: Until the Sun of Freedom" by artists Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme is on view at the Bell Gallery at Brown University until May 31. The show centers on a historical misattribution: the poem "Enemy of the Sun," found in the cell of Black Panther George Jackson after his 1971 murder, was long thought to be his work but was actually written by Palestinian poet Samih al-Qasim. Through a video installation featuring interviews with former political prisoners in Palestine, the artists explore what they call "radical kinship" between Black radical thinkers in the U.S. and Palestinian activists. Curators Kate Kraczon and Thea Quiray Tagle, who were terminated from Brown last December, collaborated on the project, which also draws on archival research into mass incarceration.
Artist Anila Quayyum Agha will give a talk at the Frist Art Museum in Nashville on May 22, 2026, discussing her exhibition "Anila Quayyum Agha: Interwoven." The survey spans two decades of her practice, including immersive installations, works on paper, paintings, and sculptures that draw on themes of migration, identity, and inequality, as well as influences from Indo-Islamic architecture, poetry, and the California Light and Space movement.
The Frist Art Museum in Nashville will host "Opening Conversation: International Surrealism from Tate" on May 21, 2026, from 6:30 to 7:30 PM. The event features a discussion with Dr. Matthew Gale, exhibition curator; Michael J. Ewing, Frist Art Museum associate curator; and Caroline Yates, Susan H. Edwards Curatorial Fellow, focusing on the exhibition "International Surrealism from Tate: Fifty Years of Dreams." The exhibition, drawn from the Tate's collection in the United Kingdom, presents a broad selection of paintings, photographs, sculptures, publications, and archival material that traces the long trajectory and global reach of surrealism. A live musical performance in the Grand Lobby precedes the conversation from 5:15 to 6:15 PM, and the museum remains open until 9:00 PM for gallery visits.
The Corvallis Arts Walk on Thursday, May 21, features a wide range of exhibitions and events across multiple venues, including a window display by Living Studios Arts for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, miniature paintings by Jana Johnson at Art in the Valley, and a mixed-media installation by Vincent Frimpong at The Arts Center addressing textile waste and its global impact. Other highlights include abstract landscapes by Philip Stork, a Mental Health Awareness Month show by ACT/EASA participants, figurative clay sculptures from Niya Lee's class, and a bird-themed pastel collection by Alycia Helbling at Corvallis Foundry Gallery.