Walker Art Center hosts the work of Jessi Reaves in her first major museum show

The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis has opened "Jessi Reaves: process invented the mirror," the New York-based artist's first major solo museum exhibition. Curated by Walker director Mary Ceruti, the show features a single body of new work that blends readymade furniture, found objects, and recycled materials, exploring the tension between functionality and absurdity. Ceruti, who previously worked with Reaves at the SculptureCenter in 2016, describes the work as playful yet rigorous, pushing viewers to reconsider how objects function in daily life.

‘You’re so close you can see how their toes grip the floor’: Wayne McGregor on his radical new immersive dance experience

Wayne McGregor, artistic director of the Biennale Danza in Venice, has created a new immersive dance installation titled 'On the Other Earth' in collaboration with artist Jeffrey Shaw and digital museologist Sarah Kenderdine. The work features a 360-degree 'nVis' environment with a massive 12K LED screen, allowing dancers from McGregor's company and the Hong Kong Ballet to perform in extreme close-up. The installation will travel to the Venice Film Festival, Stone's Nest in London as part of McGregor's exhibition 'Infinite Bodies' at Somerset House, and later to the Tai Kwun Centre for Heritage and Arts in Hong Kong.

Visualizing a “god of queer liberation:” An interview with queer artist Daniel de Jesús about their new Philadelphia exhibition

Philadelphia-based queer artist Daniel de Jesús, also a cellist and composer, is featured in a group exhibition at the William Way LGBT Community Center that opened July 10, 2025. In an interview with Emma Cieslik, de Jesús discusses their paintings blending Catholic iconography, mysticism, and queer identity, drawing on symbols like Saint Sebastian and the unicorn. They describe how a Philadelphia Museum of Art exhibition on colonial Latin American art inspired their exploration of religious syncretism and the reclamation of Catholic imagery by queer and trans people.

‘It was absolutely terrifying’: Thom Yorke on his long journey back to becoming a visual artist

Thom Yorke, the Radiohead frontman, reflects on his journey back to visual art in an exclusive interview with The Art Newspaper. Having left art school in the late 1980s, Yorke felt resistant to calling himself a visual artist, a discomfort compounded by his music career. He and his bandmate Stanley Donwood, whom he met at Exeter University, are now opening their first institutional exhibition, "This is What You Get," at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. The show spans 30 years of record covers, sketchbooks, and recent paintings, marking a significant return to Yorke's artistic roots.

The new era of fashion’s art exhibitions

LACMA's upcoming David Geffen Galleries, opening in 2026, will feature over 130 costumes and textiles in its inaugural installations—more than any other time since the museum opened in 1965. The museum also plans exhibitions such as 'Fashioning Chinese Women: Empire to Modernity' (with mannequins by Jason Wu) and 'Fashioning Fashion' (1900–2025). Other major fashion exhibitions include 'Virgil Abloh: The Codes' at Paris's Grand Palais, 'Westwood Kawakubo' at the National Gallery of Victoria, and 'Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art' at London's V&A. The article notes that fashion exhibitions are increasingly popular and profitable for museums, citing the Met's Costume Institute and its record-breaking Met Gala fundraising.

Arts of Life Celebrates 25 Years

Arts of Life, a Chicago-based nonprofit supporting artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities, is celebrating its 25th anniversary with its first museum exhibition, "Community on the Make | Arts of Life 2000 – 2025," at the Design Museum of Chicago from August 11 to September 30, 2025. The retrospective features works by over 50 artists, staff, and volunteers, including founding member Veronica "Ronnie" Cuculich, and highlights collaborative pieces such as David Krueger and Ben Marcus's Love Man series. Related programs include a public reception on August 21 and artist residency hours throughout September.

‘Fearless exploration’: visionary Australian artist Janet Dawson gets her first retrospective aged 90

The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) has opened 'Janet Dawson: Far Away, So Close,' the first-ever retrospective for Australian artist Janet Dawson, now aged 90. The exhibition spans over six decades of her career, from her teenage years at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School—where she was the only child student accepted by realist painter H. Septimus Power—through her abstract period in Europe, her defiant practice in conservative 1960s Melbourne, and her later retreat to rural NSW. The show includes major works, photos, and ephemera, arranged chronologically across four rooms, highlighting Dawson's evolution from tonal realism to abstraction and her 1973 Archibald Prize win for a portrait of her husband, theatre director Michael Boddy.

8 Must-See Solo Gallery Shows in July

Galerie magazine has curated a list of eight must-see solo gallery shows across the United States for July, highlighting exhibitions from New York to California. Featured artists include Nancy Dwyer, whose word-based paintings and sculptures are on view at Ortuzar in New York; Marcel Dzama, showing storytelling drawings and a surreal film at David Zwirner in Los Angeles; Francis Picabia, with a focus on his Art Informal period at Hauser & Wirth in New York; and Igshaan Adams, presenting tapestries and textile works at Casey Kaplan in New York, among others.

Profile of a ruler: how Sheikh Sultan shaped Sharjah’s art scene

Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi, the ruler of Sharjah since 1972, has transformed the emirate into a major cultural hub in the Gulf through sustained investment in art, education, and heritage. Under his leadership, Sharjah now boasts 23 archaeological sites, 20 museums, 10 universities, three biennials, and institutions like the Sharjah Biennial and Sharjah Art Foundation, run by his daughter Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi. His vision prioritized arts and culture over commercial development, fostering a community-focused environment distinct from neighboring Dubai.

Home of murdered Pakistani artist Ismail Gulgee becomes a museum

The home and studio of murdered Pakistani Modernist artist Ismail Gulgee has been transformed into a museum by his son, installation artist Amin Gulgee. Opened in February 2025 in central Karachi, the museum preserves the late artist's work, including his Expressionist calligraphic paintings and later abstract canvases, which had been locked away since Gulgee, his wife, and a maid were killed in 2007 by their driver and an accomplice. The building, designed by architect Nayyar Ali Dada, now houses a carefully curated collection that traces Gulgee's evolution from formal calligraphy to vibrant abstraction.

Stanford University acquires Filipina American artist Pacita Abad’s archive

Stanford University has acquired the archives of Filipina American artist Pacita Abad, a gift from the Pacita Abad Art Estate that also includes funding to catalog 120 linear feet of archival materials—photographs, correspondence, exhibition records, and personal artifacts. The archive will be stewarded by Stanford University Libraries' Bowes Art and Architecture Library in collaboration with the Cantor Arts Center, and is expected to be available to students and scholars within a year. The acquisition follows Abad's posthumous traveling retrospective that opened at the Walker Art Center in 2023, which brought her prolific 32-year practice to the attention of U.S. institutions.

‘Art is an important way of depicting these atrocities’: London show shines a light on sexual violence in conflict

The Imperial War Museum (IWM) in London has opened "Unsilenced: Sexual Violence in Conflict," the first major UK museum exhibition to address the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war. Featuring video testimony from journalist Christina Lamb, the show draws on the IWM's collections and new testimonies from survivors, including propaganda posters, photographs by Lee Miller, and a newly acquired miniature Sonyeosang statue. Curators Maeve Underwood and Helen Upcraft re-examined the museum's holdings to uncover hidden narratives of sexual slavery and humiliation from World War II to the Russia-Ukraine war.

European art weeks join forces for new ‘spider network’

European art weeks across cities including Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Lisbon, and Antwerp are joining forces to form a new collaborative network called the 'Spider network.' The initiative, spearheaded by directors such as Martina Halsema of Amsterdam Art Week and Mona Stehle of Berlin Art Week, aims to share ideas, expertise, sponsorship strategies, and press coverage. Amsterdam Art Week runs until 25 May 2025 with 220 events across 70 venues, featuring artists like Melanie Bonajo, Kimsooja, and Pamela Rosenkranz. Berlin Art Week, scheduled for 10–14 September 2025, attracted 130,000 visitors last year and has grown from 11 partners in 2012 to over 100 this year.

Peabody Essex Museum opening new gallery of Korean art and culture May 17, 2025

The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Massachusetts, will open the Yu Kil-Chun Gallery of Korean Art and Culture on May 17, 2025. This landmark installation showcases PEM’s historic Korean collection, featuring works from the late Joseon dynasty through the early 20th century and into the present day, including rare objects, textiles, and recent acquisitions by artists like Nam June Paik. The gallery is supported by the Korea Foundation and the National Museum of Korea, and is curated by Dr. Jiyeon Kim.

This Berkeley MFA exhibition probes how museums and institutions exclude disabled bodies

Priyanka D’Souza's Master of Fine Arts thesis installation, "b. Call in sick," opens today at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) as part of the annual MFA exhibition at UC Berkeley. D’Souza, one of six graduating MFA students, created works that critique how museums and institutions exclude disabled bodies, using angled shelves, rolling stools, and seating to privilege seated viewers over standing ones. Her practice draws on campus protest photos from Berkeley archives, transformed into semi-abstract renderings, and builds on her earlier Instagram project "Resting Museum," developed after a residency at the Delfina Foundation in London.

Comment | Muted grey, bloody red, or dark blue—here’s why the colour of museum walls matters more than you might think

The article explores the often-overlooked significance of color in museum spaces, prompted by a conversation with architect Annabelle Selldorf about her $220 million renovation of New York's Frick Collection. Selldorf describes the new auditorium's muted grey as creating a calm, meditative environment, contrasting sharply with Tate Modern's Starr Cinema, which architect Jacques Herzog painted shocking red to symbolize the space as the museum's "brain." The piece traces historical approaches to gallery wall colors, from Charles Eastlake's advocacy at the National Gallery in London—informed by Goethe's color theory—to the enduring orthodoxy of reds and greens, and a notable departure with deep Prussian blue for a Gainsborough exhibition at Tate Britain. It also recounts Henri Matisse's 1946 project in Paris, where he covered his room's grimy beige walls with cut-paper forms, creating the screens "Océanie, Le Ciel" and "Océanie, La Mer."

Technology, art and sculptures of fog: LUMA Arles kicks off the 2025/26 season

LUMA Arles has launched its 2025/26 season with three exhibitions, including 'Sensing the Future: Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.)', which explores the 1960s collaboration between artists and engineers from Bell Labs, featuring works by Andy Warhol, Jean Dupuy, and Forrest Myers. The season also includes 'Maria Lassnig: Living with art stops one wilting!', examining the Austrian artist's 'Body Awareness' concept and her connection to curator Hans Ulrich Obrist. The exhibitions are bookended by fog and cloud-themed works, including a fog sculpture by Fujiko Nakaya.

Man Ray: When Objects Dream

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will present "Man Ray: When Objects Dream," an exhibition exploring the artist's pioneering rayographs—camera-less photographs created by placing objects on light-sensitive paper. Featuring approximately 60 rayographs and 100 additional works from the Met's collection and over 50 international lenders, the show is the first to situate this technique within Man Ray's broader practice of the 1910s and 1920s, including paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings, films, and photographs.

New Ringling Museum exhibit asks if you believe in magic

The Ringling Museum in Sarasota has opened a new exhibition titled "Conjuring the Spirit World: Art, Magic, and Mediums," which explores the art and artifacts of the Spiritualist movement. The show is structured in two acts, first providing historical context and then displaying images, posters, and objects that spiritualists used to promote their work and communicate with the spirit world.

With a cut and a caress: Italian exhibition explores Rebecca Horn’s legacy

Castello di Rivoli near Turin is hosting "Rebecca Horn: Cutting Through the Past," the first major Italian exhibition dedicated to the German artist since her death in September 2024 at age 80. The show, co-organized with Munich's Haus der Kunst, centers on Horn's kinetic installation of the same name and explores her six-decade career through kinetic sculptures, early performance videos, and drawings. Chief curator Marcella Beccaria emphasizes a focus on Horn's spiritual concerns and the motif of circularity, with works displayed in the museum's narrow Manica Lunga corridor.

Mari Katayama: tree of life @ Yutaka Kikutake Gallery (Roppongi)

片山真理：tree of life @ Yutaka Kikutake Gallery（六本木）

Mari Katayama presents her latest solo exhibition, "tree of life," at Yutaka Kikutake Gallery in Roppongi, Tokyo. The exhibition, running from March 19 to May 16, 2026, features a new series of photographic works created in 2025 that continue her exploration of the body, prosthesis, and self-representation through meticulously staged compositions.

WHEN FASHION MEETS ART QUOTES BODIES AND POWER AT THE MET GALA

The 2026 Met Gala took place on the first Monday of May, opening the Costume Institute's spring exhibition 'Costume Art' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The dress code 'Fashion is Art' prompted celebrities to treat the body as a canvas, with attendees like Hunter Schafer, Madonna, Rachel Zegler, Angela Bassett, Kendall Jenner, Troye Sivan, and Emma Chamberlain referencing specific artworks—from Gustav Klimt's *Mada Primavesi* to the *Winged Victory of Samothrace*—and historical fashion pieces.

THE MONUMENTALITY OF THREAD OLGA DE AMARAL AT MALBA

The Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (Malba) has opened a major retrospective of Colombian artist Olga de Amaral, titled 'Olga de Amaral: Textile Body,' to celebrate the museum's 25th anniversary. The exhibition, running until May 11, features over fifty works from six decades, including key series like Entrelazados and Brumas, drawn from collections across the Americas.

Corals as Living Geology. In Conversation with Julian Charrière by Timothée Chaillou

Julian Charrière has created two new bodies of work, *Chorals* (2025) and *Veils* (2025), in collaboration with Maison Ruinart. The projects are inspired by the Lutetian Sea, which submerged the Champagne region 45 million years ago, and explore themes of deep time, climate change, and the interconnectedness of organic and mineral life. *Chorals* is a permanent sound installation in Ruinart's cellars in Reims, featuring amplified recordings of ocean reefs, while *Veils* comprises wall works and sculptures centered on corals and fading coral imagery. The works travel to art fairs as preludes to the permanent installation.

DISPOSITIONS IN THE AMERICAS CONTEMPORARY ART AND THE COLONIAL LEGACY

A major exhibition titled 'Dispossessions in the Americas: The Extraction of Bodies, Land, and Heritage from La Conquista to the Present' opens at Wrightwood 659 in Chicago. It features over 40 works by 36 contemporary artists from Latin America, curated by Jonathan D. Katz and Eduardo Carrera, examining the ongoing legacies of colonialism through themes of territory, body, and cultural heritage.

25 years later, artist David Adey continues to push the envelope

Artist David Adey is the subject of a mid-career survey, “David Adey: Sacrificial Bodies,” opening April 25 at the Oceanside Museum of Art. The 70-piece exhibition, curated by gallery owner Mark Quint in collaboration with Adey, spans 25 years of his career and includes a 2026 re-creation of his 2001 piece “The Lamb,” which features a reconstructed lamb carcass. Adey, now 53, originally created the work as a graduate student at Cranbrook Academy of Art. The show also features pieces like “Gravitational Radius” and “2,127 Rounds,” a sculpture made by firing an AR-15, Glock 34, and shotgun into cedar.

Late UK artist Sarah Cunningham honoured with Nottingham Contemporary show

Nottingham Contemporary has announced plans for the first institutional solo exhibition of British artist Sarah Cunningham, who died in November 2024 at age 31. The show, the largest presentation of her work to date, is scheduled to open next autumn, marking a homecoming for the artist who was born and raised in Nottingham and previously worked as a gallery assistant at the same institution. Cunningham, who graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2022, had her first solo exhibition at Lisson Gallery in 2023 and developed a distinctive abstract style characterized by exaggerated brushwork and extended brushes made from scrap wood.

Artist Kasper Eistrup Maps the Human Condition on Canvas

Danish artist Kasper Eistrup (b. 1973) presents his first solo exhibition in Germany, titled "Bridges Over Magma," at Galerie Schimming in Hamburg. The show features a new body of work created during a recent artist-in-residence program in Hamburg, where Eistrup drew inspiration from the city's famous bridges and his ongoing exploration of painting and drawing. The compositions blend meticulously rendered figures with architecture, flora, fauna, handwritten text, and abstract textures, exploring themes of human connection and resilience.

Karla Knight’s Cosmic Conspiracies

Karla Knight's exhibition "Orbit" at Andrew Edlin Gallery presents her game-like paintings and tapestries filled with cryptic symbols, cosmic diagrams, and celestial imagery. Works such as "Orbiter 2" (2024–25) and "Feelers" (2025–26) feature irregular black devices, floating spheres, and rows of arcane script, inviting viewers to decode what appear to be blueprints for extraterrestrial systems or maps of hidden dimensions. Knight employs meticulous grids, bold primary colors, and textile techniques to render the paranormal as strangely normal.

As Democracy Falters, a New York Museum Champions Activism

The Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) in East Harlem will open the Puffin Foundation Center for Social Activism this fall, replacing its existing Puffin Foundation Gallery. The expanded center, funded by an $8 million donation from the Puffin Foundation, will feature a new version of the permanent exhibition "Activist New York," along with temporary shows, public programs, and an annual fellowship. The inaugural temporary exhibition, "Halumii Ktapihna: Lenape Legacies and Future," marks the 400th anniversary of Manhattan's purchase from Indigenous peoples.