Citizen Recommends: LOOK HERE, Art for All

Haverford College's Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery is hosting 'LOOK HERE,' an exhibition curated by Jennifer Gilbert, Paige Donovan, and Mary Bevlock from the Center for Creative Works (CCW). The show features works by Philadelphia artists with physical, intellectual, and developmental disabilities, and is designed for multi-sensory access—including touch panels, audio descriptions, sniffable panels, and sensory backpacks—so that visitors of all abilities can experience the art. Artists include Kelly Brown, Cindy Gosselin, Clyde Henry, Tim Quinn, Brandon Spicer-Crawley, and Allen Yu.

SANATORIUM Istanbul contemporary art gallery building

SANATORIUM, a leading contemporary art gallery in Istanbul, is opening its third location this fall in the historic Bosphorus port district of Perşembe Pazarı. The new building was designed by prominent Turkish conceptual architect Nevzat Sayin, who drew inspiration from the area's industrial character and small manufacturing workshops. The gallery's inaugural exhibition features artist Farah Al Qasimi, a 2025 Guggenheim Fellowship recipient, with her first solo show in Istanbul titled 'Desert Hyacinth,' running from September 12 to October 26, concurrent with the Istanbul Biennial.

Ernest Edmonds – interview: ‘The technology didn’t make it easy at the time, but it was clearly right for the future’

Ernest Edmonds, a pioneering computer artist, discusses his six-decade career and his latest exhibition 'Networked' at Gazelli Art House in London. The interview covers his early works from 1968, including 'Nineteen' and 'Communications Game', and his ongoing exploration of human-machine interaction through interactive installations, videos, and algorithmic systems. His latest piece, 'Quantum Tango', continues his interest in networked interactivity. The article also highlights his collaborations with fellow pioneers like Stroud Cornock and his inclusion in the 2015 exhibition 'Primary Codes' in Rio de Janeiro.

Heirs to the Bic Empire Say They’ve Been Robbed of a Renaissance Masterwork

The heirs to the Bic pen fortune, Gonzalve, Charles, and Guillaume Bich, have filed a lawsuit alleging a 15th-century masterpiece by Fra Angelico was stolen from their family. They claim the painting, 'Saint Sixtus,' was taken by their father's chauffeur in 2006 and sold to art dealer Richard Feigen, who later sold it to Chilean collector Alvaro Saieh in 2018. The heirs are now suing Saieh to reclaim the artwork and seeking the return of sale proceeds from Feigen's estate.

May 2026 Opportunities: Open Calls, Residencies, and Grants for Artists

Colossal's May 2026 opportunities roundup lists multiple open calls, residencies, and grants for artists worldwide. Featured opportunities include the Scenerium 2026 Art Award (deadline May 7), the Hopper Prize offering $4,500 and $1,000 artist grants (deadline May 12), and the SaveArtSpace Billboard Art Open Call curated by Gigi Chen (deadline May 7). Other listings include the YICCA Art Prize, CIFRA Award, Cass Art Prize for the U.K. and Ireland, Sunshine Coast National Art Prize in Australia, an opportunity to get published in Artistonish magazine, and the Abbey Mural Prize.

Derrick Adams: Glimpses of Black Leisure

The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, is hosting 'Derrick Adams: View Master,' the first mid-career survey dedicated to the multidisciplinary artist. Featuring over 100 works spanning two decades, the exhibition includes painting, collage, sculpture, video, and performance that highlight Adams's unique visual language of pattern and color.

Two Sales at Christie's

Deux ventes chez Christie's

Christie's in Paris is hosting two significant sales featuring masterpieces from the legendary Veil-Picard collection, which had been largely inaccessible to the public and scholars for decades. Highlights include a perfect Watteau drawing unseen on the market since 1900 and two major Hubert Robert paintings commissioned by the famed salonnière Madame Geoffrin, offering a rare glimpse into 18th-century Parisian interiors.

Louvre Museum Jewel Heist Inspires Latest ‘Law & Order’ Episode

The long-running television series Law & Order has adapted the recent high-profile Louvre Museum jewel heist into a new episode titled "Beyond Measure." Filmed at the Brooklyn Museum—serving as the fictional Atlas Museum of Art—the plot follows detectives investigating the theft of the bejeweled Crown of Popoyan, a fictionalized version of the real-world $102 million heist involving a cherry picker escape. The episode weaves in a complex subplot regarding the repatriation of Indigenous Colombian artifacts held by the Vatican.

Portland Museum of Art Buys New Building For $14 M., Freeing Up Space For Exhibitions

The Portland Museum of Art (PMA) has finalized a $14 million acquisition of a downtown building and two adjacent parking lots from MaineHealth. Located on Free Street next to the museum's current campus, the facility will house administrative offices, allowing the museum to convert existing office space into new public galleries.

500-Plus And Just Like That… Items Head to Online Auction

Julien’s Auctions is hosting an online sale featuring over 500 items from the production of the HBO series "And Just Like That…," the sequel to "Sex and the City." The auction includes a wide array of fashion, accessories, and home decor associated with main characters Carrie Bradshaw, Miranda Hobbes, and Charlotte York-Goldenblatt, as well as new additions like Lisa Todd Wexley. Notable lots include Carrie’s hatbox suitcases, Miranda’s wine-red jumpsuit, and various furniture pieces from the characters' apartments, with a portion of proceeds benefiting the foster care charity You Gotta Believe.

In the Whitney Biennial, Artists Explore the Horrifying Boundary Between Human and Machine

The 2026 Whitney Biennial features artists using technology to explore themes of surveillance, data extraction, and the unsettling blur between human and machine. Works like Cooper Jacoby's AI-generated piece, which scrapes data from deceased individuals' social media, and Isabelle Frances McGuire's 3D-scanned witch figures, confront the ethical and existential implications of biometrics and digital quantification.

Rachida Dati Resigns as French Minister of Culture to Run for Mayor of Paris

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Rachida Dati has announced her resignation as France’s Minister of Culture to launch a bid for the Mayor of Paris in the upcoming March elections. Appointed in 2024 under President Emmanuel Macron, Dati’s tenure was marked by controversy and criticism from outlets like Le Monde, which characterized her term as a series of publicity stunts that failed to address critical reforms in public broadcasting and institutional issues at the Louvre.

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The Guggenheim Museum has announced a new biennial art prize, the Jack Galef Visual Arts Award, endowed by the estate of Jack Galef with a $50,000 honorarium. The first recipient is Catherine Telford Keogh, a sculptor whose work explores found materials, environmental contamination, and the global economy. Keogh plans to use the award to support projects examining microbial life in Brooklyn's Gowanus Canal and a solo exhibition in Portland tracing the history of instruments that regulate eating.

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Performance artist Thomas Iser was arrested during Art Basel Miami Beach after spray-painting the words “Sorry to disturb, art in progress” on a window of the Miami Beach Convention Center using washable spray chalk. He invited his three-year-old daughter to add marks, and police charged him with criminal mischief. Iser, who has staged similar interventions globally, was handcuffed in front of his child and spent a night in jail before posting $600 bail. Miami-based artist Jillian Mayer witnessed the scene and documented it, noting the artist was in full body paint. Iser has since reframed the arrest as an unintended extension of the performance.

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The Museum of Fine Arts (MSK) in Ghent has refused to return Gaspar de Craye's Nazi-looted *Portrait of Bishop Triest* to the heirs of its original owner, Samuel Hartveld. An independent commission found the painting was sold under duress after the German occupation of Belgium in 1940, but concluded that Hartveld and his family were later financially compensated by the city, leading MSK to retain the work. Jewish groups EJA and JID are contesting the decision, arguing that international principles mandate restitution regardless of compensation.

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Bonhams has been consigned to sell 30 original paintings by beloved American artist and TV host Bob Ross, with an estimated total value of $850,000 to $1.4 million. The works are being sold on behalf of American Public Television (APT), which will direct all net proceeds to support APT and PBS public television stations affected by federal funding cuts. Three paintings—Winter’s Peace (1993), Home in the Valley (1993), and Cliffside (1990)—will be offered on November 11 in Los Angeles, with the remaining 27 offered in auctions next year in New York, Boston, and Los Angeles.

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WhatsApp cofounder Jan Koum has filed a lawsuit against interior designer Remi Tessier, alleging a pattern of fraud including inflated prices and undisclosed commissions. One example involves a $7.8 million Picasso painting where Tessier allegedly received a $600,000 secret commission from the gallery. Separately, the National Museum of Korea faced backlash after posting a photo of its director with music executive Bang Si-hyuk, who is under criminal investigation for alleged stock fraud. The article also reports that Sotheby's has appointed Evelyn Lin as Asia chairman of modern and contemporary art, and that global auction sales of Old Masters rose 24% in the first half of 2025, with younger collectors increasingly buying old paintings.

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A Dutch newspaper, Algemeen Dagblad, discovered a Nazi-looted Baroque painting by Giuseppe Ghislandi (also known as Fra Galgario) listed in a real estate ad for a home in Mar del Plata, Argentina. The painting, which once belonged to Jewish dealer Jacques Goudstikker, was later removed from the listing and disappeared from the house, prompting a police investigation involving Interpol. The work had been in the possession of SS officer Friedrich Kadgien, who fled to Argentina after World War II.

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Inigo Philbrick, the disgraced art dealer who defrauded investors and dealers out of millions of dollars, appears on camera in a forthcoming BBC documentary titled "The Great Art Fraud." Philbrick was sentenced in 2022 to seven years in US prison for wire fraud and identity theft, ordered to forfeit $86 million and two paintings, and was released early in 2024. The two-part documentary, previewed by The Guardian, features Philbrick expressing remorse but also boasting about his past deals and ambition to return to the art trade. It explores his background—son of a former museum director and a Harvard-educated writer—his internship at White Cube, and his life with socialite Victoria Baker-Harber, with whom he hid in Vanuatu before FBI arrest.

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Nadya Tolokonnikova, cofounder of Pussy Riot, has created a performance installation titled "Police State" (2025) at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles (LA MOCA). The work recreates a Russian jail cell where Tolokonnikova performs daily activities—making music, creating art, and resting—observed by visitors via security camera footage and peepholes. The installation also features artworks by current and former political prisoners from Russia, Belarus, and the United States, curated through Tolokonnikova's Art Action Foundation and the Artistic Freedom Initiative. Originally scheduled for June 5–14, the show was extended due to the museum's closure amid anti-ICE protests and National Guard deployment.

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UOVO, a collector-founded art storage company, is seeking approval to build a second large-scale facility in Brooklyn's Bushwick neighborhood. The proposed seven-story, 240,000-square-foot building at 74 Bogart Street would expand the company's footprint near its existing 150,000-square-foot Bushwick facility opened in 2020. Founded in 2013 by real estate developer Steven Guttman, UOVO operates 30 locations across the U.S. and stores collections for museums, galleries, and high-net-worth individuals, including artworks, wine collections, and fashion archives. Architecture firm S9 will oversee the design if the plan is approved by the city.

Venice Biennale Jury Resigns in the Wake of Controversial Prize Ban

The jury for the 2026 Venice Biennale has resigned just days before the public opening on May 9, after announcing on April 22 that it would not consider artists from countries accused of crimes against humanity for the Golden and Silver Lion prizes. The jury, consisting of Solange Oliveira Farks (president), Zoe Butt, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Marta Kuzma, and Giovanna Zapperi, cited its earlier statement of intention in its resignation, which directly impacted the participation of Russia and Israel—both subject to International Criminal Court warrants. In response, the Biennale postponed the awards ceremony from May 9 to November 22 and replaced the traditional jury with a public vote for best participant and best national participation, framing the move as upholding openness and rejecting censorship.

Israel’s foreign ministry accuses Venice Biennale's jury of ‘politicising’ exhibition

Israel’s foreign ministry has accused the Venice Biennale's jury of politicizing the exhibition after jurors announced they would not consider for prizes countries whose leaders face International Criminal Court charges for crimes against humanity. The jury’s statement, which did not name specific nations, is broadly understood to apply to Israel and Russia, both returning to the Biennale for the first time since the Gaza war and the Ukraine invasion, respectively. The Israeli ministry posted on X that the jury had decided to 'boycott' Israeli sculptor Belu-Simion Fainaru, calling it 'a contamination of the art world.' The Biennale distanced itself from the jury’s announcement, stating the jury acts autonomously, while the Russian pavilion is reportedly set to open only for a limited pre-opening period due to budget constraints amid sanctions.

From intimate still lives to shadowed saints: the many sides of Spanish painter Francisco de Zurbarán go on show at London’s National Gallery

The National Gallery in London is opening a major survey exhibition of Spanish painter Francisco de Zurbarán (1598-1664), the first on this scale since 1987. The show expands beyond his famous austere saints to include intimate still-lifes, late private devotional works, and large-scale altarpiece reconstructions. Curator Daniel Sobrino Ralston highlights two newly discovered paintings, including *Alcarraza on a Plate*, and a rare reconstruction of the second tier of the Charterhouse of Jerez de la Frontera altarpiece, reuniting works from museums in Grenoble and Poznań.

Ruins of ‘unique’, circular water temple discovered in Egypt

Archaeologists in northern Sinai have unearthed the ruins of a unique circular water temple at the site of ancient Pelusium, dating back to the second century. Initially mistaken for a political senate building, the structure features a 35-meter wide basin and brick walls characteristic of Roman construction, suggesting it was used for religious rituals linked to the local fertility god Pelusius.

1,000-year-old Toltec altar with four human skulls found in Mexico

Archaeologists from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) have discovered a 1,000-year-old Toltec altar during salvage work for a new high-speed rail line between Mexico City and Querétaro. The stone structure, known as a momoztli, dates back to AD 900-1150 and was found with four human skulls and leg bones arranged at its base, suggesting ritual or sacrificial use. Located near the ancient site of Tula Chico, the find also included ceramic objects and obsidian artifacts within a compound likely belonging to the local elite.

And Just Like That… Carrie Bradshaw’s Closet Hits the Auction Block

Julien’s Auctions is hosting a massive sale of over 500 props, costumes, and furnishings from the HBO series "And Just Like That…". The auction features iconic items associated with characters Carrie Bradshaw, Charlotte York, and Miranda Hobbes, including a prop Rolex watch engraved for Mr. Big, high-fashion garments, and furniture from the characters' New York apartments. Bidding began online in early April and will culminate in a live two-day event in California at the end of the month.

Medieval Art: Christ's Side Wound as Vulva

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The Met Cloisters in New York is hosting "Spectrum of Desire: Love, Sex, and Gender in the Middle Ages," an exhibition exploring how medieval art depicted the body, sexuality, and gender. A central focus of the show is the intentional depiction of Christ’s side wound as a vulva-like shape, or mandorla, in illuminated manuscripts such as the 14th-century Prayer Book of Bonne of Luxembourg. These images were designed as intimate devotional tools, inviting viewers to meditate on Christ's suffering through a lens that transcended traditional gender binaries.

jet le parti on founding sibyl a new model of art intelligence and hub for collecting 2750663

Self-taught artist Jet Le Parti has launched Sibyl, a Los Angeles-based cultural platform and research-led advisory that operates outside the traditional gallery system. Drawing on his background in neuroscience and philosophy, Le Parti developed Sibyl as an extension of his independent practice and previous ventures like Base 36 and Relaispunkt. The platform functions as a private collection and advisory service, leveraging direct relationships with collectors to bypass traditional intermediaries and formalize a network built on artistic trust.

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Bottega Veneta unveiled its Winter 2025 collection at Milan Fashion Week, staged within the brand’s new headquarters at the historic Palazzo San Fedele. Creative director Louise Trotter collaborated with British designer Max Lamb to create a massive site-specific installation consisting of 421 sculptural white chairs for the audience. The set design drew inspiration from Lamb’s "60 Chairs" project, where he rapidly fabricated furniture from polystyrene slabs.