Can a Venice Biennale Pavilion Be Rock ‘n’ Roll? At the Belgium Pavilion, Miet Warlop Makes the Case.

Miet Warlop, a Belgian artist known for her avant-garde theater work, is representing Belgium at the 2026 Venice Biennale with a performance-installation titled "IT NEVER SSST." The project transforms the Belgian Pavilion into a chaotic, sensory-filled space where performers climb wooden structures, bang drums, and break plaster boards inscribed with multilingual text, reflecting the noise and misunderstandings of contemporary life. Curated by Caroline Dumalin, the pavilion blurs the line between theater and visual art, with live performances occurring only part of the time while sculptors continuously remake plaster reliefs throughout the Biennale's run.

fashion chanel coco game chess jewelry

Chanel has unveiled the Coco Game chess set, a one-of-a-kind luxury object that doubles as a high-jewelry timepiece, presented at the brand's watch and jewelry boutique on Place Vendôme. The set features 32 pieces crafted from ceramic and gold, adorned with over 9,000 diamonds totaling approximately 110 carats, with each queen concealing a detachable watch. The collection also includes 13 watch designs and is part of Chanel's Haute Horlogerie line for 2026, designed by Arnaud Chastaingt, director of the Chanel Watch Creation Studio.

Nicht mal Engel sind frei von der Gewalt

Janiva Ellis presents a multifaceted exhibition at Kunsthalle Basel, exploring the history of violence in modernity through paintings that blend history painting, cartoon, and abstraction. Her works, including "Glint" and "Une nuit agitée," feature angels, hybrid creatures, and dystopian landscapes, questioning the origins and functions of violence in art history and society.

The 10 Best Venice Films

Die 10 besten Venedig-Filme

Monopol magazine has published a ranking of the ten best films set in Venice, timed to coincide with the opening of the Venice Art Biennale. The list includes titles such as Steven Spielberg's "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" (1989), Joseph L. Mankiewicz's "The Honey Pot" (1967), and Kenneth Branagh's "A Haunting in Venice" (2023), highlighting how the lagoon city serves as a central character in action films, comedies, and love dramas.

Shit has the power to destabilize systems of order

"Scheiße hat die Kraft, Ordnungssysteme zu destabilisieren"

Aline Bouvy, the artist representing Luxembourg at the Venice Biennale, has created a film essay titled "La Merde" that centers on excrement as its main character. Originally conceived as a performance, the work explores themes of bodily circulation, transformation, and the grotesque, using feces to challenge societal taboos and systems of order. Bouvy discusses the film's development with curator Stilbé Schroeder, noting that the Biennale provided the resources and time to realize the project, which will later travel to the Kunstverein in Salzburg.

History Made Material

Material gewordene Geschichte

The German Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale has been transformed by artist Sung Tieu, who clad its Nazi-era facade with millions of small marble tiles to replicate the look of a prefabricated East German apartment block—specifically the Gehrenseestraße housing complex in Berlin where she spent part of her childhood. Inside, the exhibition features glass casts of her mother's limbs, aluminum beams evoking cramped living quarters, and works by the late Henrike Naumann, all curated by Kathleen Reinhardt to explore bureaucracy, migration, and systemic violence.

A Struggle Between Artist and Machine

Ein Ringen zwischen Künstler und Maschine

Mario Klingemann, a pioneer of AI art, presents "Conflict of Interest," a pop-up exhibition at Sleek Art Space in Berlin during Gallery Weekend. Curated by Anika Meier and produced in collaboration with Art on Tezos, the show features works that challenge the flood of AI-generated imagery. Klingemann displays mundane landscape photographs from private slides, a series called "Weapons of Mass Distraction" where he disrupts an AI algorithm's image generation, and a haunting 2020 video in which AI-generated faces morph to music. The exhibition makes visible the struggle between human control and machine logic.

Brigitte Meese Dies at 96

Brigitte Meese stirbt mit 96 Jahren

Brigitte Meese, the mother, manager, and long-time artistic companion of German artist Jonathan Meese, has died at the age of 96. She was a formative figure in her son's artistic environment, providing organizational support for decades while also serving as his muse, model, and co-performer.

In Venice, the Passion of Life and the Ghost of Art

The 2026 Venice Biennale, the world’s oldest art exhibition, has opened with a theme centered on vitality and the celebration of life. The edition is described as both a passionate embrace of energy and a reminder of art’s lingering ghosts, offering a mixed but compelling experience for visitors.

A Photographer of Newark’s People Gets a Show Among the People

Manuel Acevedo, a photographer known for documenting the people of Newark, New Jersey, is having his works displayed across the city in highly visible outdoor locations. The exhibition places his portraits directly in the neighborhoods and public spaces where his subjects live and work, making the art accessible to the very community that inspired it.

Leigh Magar, High-End Milliner Turned Indigo Artist, Dies at 57

Leigh Magar, a celebrated milliner who crafted bespoke hats for celebrities including Beyoncé and members of the royal family, has died at age 57. After building a high-profile career in Charleston, South Carolina, she relocated to a remote island off the coast, where she shifted her artistic focus to cultivating indigo and creating natural dyes, becoming a dedicated practitioner of the ancient craft.

Review: Sophie Rivera’s Photos Come Out From the Shadows

Sophie Rivera's first museum survey, titled "Double Exposures," is now on view, showcasing her decades-long career photographing New Yorkers. The exhibition highlights both her traditional portraiture and her more experimental, double-exposure techniques that capture the city's diverse inhabitants in unexpected ways.

Nicole Hollander, Acerbic Feminist Cartoonist, Dies at 86

Nicole Hollander, the creator of the long-running comic strip "Sylvia," has died at the age of 86. For over three decades, she wrote and illustrated the strip, which centered on a tart-tongued, witty woman who freely expressed her many opinions, becoming a staple of feminist humor in American newspapers.

$450 Million Worth of Newhouse Trophies Come to Christie’s

Christie’s will hold a special evening sale in May featuring 16 artworks from the collection of the late Condé Nast chief S.I. Newhouse Jr., valued at a combined $450 million. The works are considered museum-quality trophies from one of the most significant private collections assembled in recent decades.

In Central Java, an Eco-Resort Aims to Build Sustainability Through Creativity

An Indonesian and Australian couple, Wiyoga Muhardanto and Hannah O’Flynn, have transformed a plot of land in Central Java into an eco-resort and creative hub called Yabbiekayu. The project includes a gallery, artist residencies, and workshops, aiming to foster a sustainable creative economy by connecting local artisans with international artists and designers.

Changes at Manifesta as Hedwig Fijen steps down

Hedwig Fijen, founding director of Manifesta, the European Nomadic Biennial, will step down on October 5. Emilia van Lynden and Catherine Nichols will succeed her as general director and artistic director respectively, as announced by the supervisory board of the International Foundation Manifesta. Fijen, who was commissioned by the Netherlands Office for Fine Arts in 1991 to develop a pan-European platform, has led Manifesta through editions in Palermo, Pristina, Barcelona, and the upcoming 2026 edition in the Ruhr region. Van Lynden has served as deputy director since 2019, while Nichols, a Berlin-based curator, contributed as creative mediator for the 2022 edition and artistic board member for 2026. The new leadership will begin with Manifesta 17 in Coimbra, Portugal, in 2028.

Andreas Angelidakis on Representing Greece at the 61st Venice Biennale

Artist Andreas Angelidakis will represent Greece at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026 with a project titled 'Escape Room'. He plans to split the Greek Pavilion in two, referencing the National Schism in Greek history, and will create an immersive experience that explores the building's dual identities as a national symbol and an exhibition space, set to the soundtrack of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's 'Relax'.

The Musée d’Ixelles at the Crossroads of Different Perspectives

Le Musée d’Ixelles à la croisée de différents regards

The Musée d’Ixelles in Brussels, closed for eight years for expansion and renovation, is nearing completion of its architectural transformation with a reopening scheduled for spring 2027 (March 19). Founded in 1892 in a former slaughterhouse, the museum has grown through successive donations and a continuous acquisition policy, now holding over 15,000 works spanning Belgian art from the 19th century to the contemporary period. Director and curator Claire Leblanc, who has led the institution since 2006, emphasizes a participatory approach that integrates diverse public perspectives, including a project called "Musée comme chez soi" during the closure where locals hosted artworks in their homes.

LACMA inaugurates its new building

Le Lacma inaugure son nouveau bâtiment

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has inaugurated its new David Geffen Galleries building, a massive horizontal structure spanning Wilshire Boulevard. Designed by architect Peter Zumthor, the $720 million project features 32,000 square meters of exhibition space across 90 non-hierarchical galleries, a free public park level, and a radical departure from traditional museum departmental organization.

For the 50th anniversary of his death, the controversial photographer Pierre Molinier at the heart of an important biography

Pour le cinquantenaire de sa mort, le sulfureux photographe Pierre Molinier au cœur d’une importante biographie

A new biography of the provocative French photographer and painter Pierre Molinier (1900–1976) has been published to mark the 50th anniversary of his death. Co-published by Mollat and L'Arbre vengeur, the book "Molinier. Une vie d'enfer" is an updated and expanded version of Pierre Petit's 1992 text, incorporating newly surfaced documents and reflecting Molinier's growing international recognition.

À Marseille, l’installation textile monumentale d’Adrien Vescovi déploie ses couleurs

Artist Adrien Vescovi has installed a monumental textile work titled "Dormir comme le soleil" at the Vieille Charité in Marseille. The installation features over 600 dyed sheets suspended across 108 arches of the former hospice, using natural pigments from plants, spices, and ochres. The fabrics, dyed in a labor-intensive process involving large wooden spoons and cauldrons, are designed to fade and evolve over the eight-month exhibition, responding to wind, humidity, and Mediterranean light.

Hilma af Klint en 2 minutes

Hilma af Klint (1862–1944) is profiled as a pioneering Swedish abstract artist who created a vast body of visionary, large-scale abstract paintings decades before Kandinsky, yet kept them secret during her lifetime. The article traces her life from a childhood steeped in science and nature, through her studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm, to her dual artistic practice: conventional landscapes and portraits for income, and radically abstract works guided by spiritualist séances and theosophical beliefs. She founded the group "The Five" with fellow female artists, and from 1906 onward produced the monumental series "Paintings for the Temple" (193 works), convinced she was channeling a higher force. She stipulated in her will that her abstract works not be revealed until 20 years after her death, and they were only rediscovered in the late 1960s.

La Rocabella : une résidence d’artistes paradisiaque qui croise les disciplines près de Toulon

La Rocabella, a Belle Époque villa near Toulon, France, has been transformed into an interdisciplinary artist residency by Jean-Baptiste Rudelle, co-founder of Criteo. Built in 1898 by architect Hans-Georg Tersling, the estate now hosts ceramic sculptors, comic artists, documentary filmmakers, and musicians in two-month sessions, with themes like 'Les Gardiennes de la mer' linking their work. The residency, funded entirely by Rudelle, aims to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration in a serene Mediterranean setting.

US Returns 337 Looted Objects to Italy in Repatriation Effort

The United States officially returned 337 looted antiquities to Italy at a ceremony held at La Marmora barracks in Rome. Of these, 221 objects were repatriated through the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, while the remaining 116 were recovered on April 10, 2026, via joint efforts by the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, the District Attorney’s Office, and Christie’s New York auction house. The objects span from the Villanovan era (900–700 BCE) to the Hellenistic period (323–31 BCE) and include a 1st-century CE marble head of Alexander the Great, a bronze sculpture from Herculaneum, and two Egyptian basalt sculptures.

Faig Ahmed Weaves Mysticism, Science, Technology, and Craft into ‘The Attention’

Faig Ahmed, the Baku-based artist known for transforming traditional Azerbaijani carpets into melting, glitching textile sculptures, has opened a solo presentation at the 61st Venice Biennale, where he represents Azerbaijan. Titled 'The Attention,' the sprawling, maze-like installation curated by Gwendolyn Collaço explores science, alchemy, spirituality, and self-perception, weaving together digital processes with handcrafted techniques. Works include monumental machine-woven carpets like 'I Can Contain Both Worlds But I Do Not Fit Into This One,' a handwoven piece called 'Ancestors' that glows under black light, and 'Entropy Altar,' which uses a quantum random number generator to respond to visitors. The exhibition bridges 15th-century Hurufi mysticism with modern information theory, reflecting Ahmed's interest in consciousness, quantum physics, and the dialectic between measurable science and subjective experience.

Jake Messing’s Hyperrealistic Paintings Celebrate the Abundance of Nature

Jake Messing, a Northern California-based artist, creates hyperrealistic acrylic paintings that depict dense, maximalist clusters of flora and fauna, often combining creatures and plants in surreal arrangements. His works, such as "Coccinellidaes Hideaway 2" and "Bubbles and Blooms," draw on the tradition of Dutch Golden Age still-life painting while incorporating contemporary elements like color gradients and shiny fabrics.

We Spent a Week Quarantined on an Uninhabited Island with 80 Artists

A journalist from Colossal spent a week on an uninhabited island in the Balearic Islands with nearly 80 artists for a residency program called Quarantine, conceived by artist Carles Gomila. Participants follow a rigorous, opaque schedule of talks, workshops, and mentorship sessions, with phones and internet banned, and must stay on the island from early morning until late evening. The April 2026 edition, themed "Tears in Rain" after a Blade Runner monologue, began with a theatrical tour by an actor playing Captain Horacio Hollynwood, who introduced the historic Lazaretto of Mahón, an 18th-century fortress and infirmary.

At LACHSA, L.A.'s most important public arts school, the 'misfits' become superstars

The Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA), founded in 1984 and located on the Cal State L.A. campus, has become a premier public arts school offering conservatory-level training alongside college-prep academics. The article highlights alumni such as actor Anthony Anderson, musician Josh Groban, and visual artists Kehinde Wiley and Tomashi Jackson, who credit the school with nurturing their talents and providing a supportive, diverse environment for artistic growth.

Gary Baseman fills iconic L.A. coffee shop with charming drawings on real restaurant menus

Artist Gary Baseman has opened his first hometown solo show in over a decade, titled “Off the Menu,” inside the long-shuttered Johnie’s Coffee Shop on Wilshire and Fairfax in Los Angeles. The exhibition features about 40 colored pencil drawings, mostly executed on real menus from iconic L.A. restaurants such as Musso & Frank, Canter’s Deli, and Genghis Cohen, as well as newer spots like Jon & Vinny’s. The whimsical show, which launched in conjunction with the opening of the Wilshire and Fairfax subway station, runs through June 14 and celebrates the dining culture and community of the Fairfax neighborhood.

Ron Nagle in Milan: at Gió Marconi the first Italian solo exhibition 'Phantom Banter'

Gió Marconi Gallery in Milan will host 'Phantom Banter', the first Italian solo exhibition of American sculptor Ron Nagle, from May 29 to July 24, 2026. The show features eleven ceramic sculptures created between 2024 and 2026, along with a selection of recent drawings, highlighting Nagle's process-oriented practice focused on material, surface, and language. Nagle, born in San Francisco in 1939, is a key figure in the California Clay Movement, having apprenticed with Peter Voulkos in the 1960s and influenced by Ken Price. His small-scale works, rarely exceeding 15 centimeters, explore reduction of scale and surface construction through cast and fired ceramics combined with resins and synthetic materials.