In Seine-Saint-Denis, the clever housing for migrants by architect Patrick Rubin

En Seine-Saint-Denis, les logements futés pour les migrants de l’architecte Patrick Rubin

Architect Patrick Rubin of the firm Canal has transformed the former National Road Information Center, known as Bison Futé, in Rosny-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis) into a housing complex for 169 migrants. The project, commissioned by social landlord Batigere Habitats Solidaires, preserves the original 1986 half-moon building by Ludwik Peretz and Gilbert Delecourt, adding a new floor and a rear half-crown structure. Rubin used 79 prefabricated modules (17–25 m² each), built in workshops near Lyon, each equipped with a bed, kitchenette, bathroom, and window. Inspired by ship cabin manufacturing in Dunkirk and traditions of tiny houses and capsule hotels by Charlotte Perriand, Herman Hertzberger, and Shigeru Ban, the modules were craned into place. The project faced delays due to differing tolerances between concrete and wood construction, pushing delivery from early 2026 to late 2026.

art fair conductor powerhouse arts new york

Conductor Art Fair made its debut at Powerhouse Arts in Gowanus, Brooklyn, with a VIP preview night on April 29, ahead of its public run from April 30 to May 3. Led by Powerhouse Arts President Eric Shiner and Fair Director Adriana Farietta, the event drew over 800 guests, featuring installations by Juan Jose Barboza-Gubo, House of Silence by Vuslat, and Sana Frini, along with 28 gallery exhibitors and 20 special projects. A performance by Grammy-nominated artist Lido Pimienta highlighted the evening, and the fair showcased works by numerous artists and gallerists.

Nick Cave at the 2026 Biennale. Seven works between loss, memory and protest

Nick Cave è alla Biennale 2026. Sette opere tra perdita, memoria e protesta

Nick Cave presents "Two Points in Time at Once" at the 2026 Venice Biennale, a project spanning seven locations across Venice. The installation features a series of bronze works, including the "Amalgam" series (Seated, Origin, Plot, Resuscitation, Meditation) along with "Grapht" and "Siren." This marks a significant material shift from Cave's iconic fabric Soundsuits to bronze, exploring themes of loss, memory, trauma, and protest through a more static yet politically charged presence.

Intervista all’artista italiano che ha riempito la città di Stoccolma di sculture-animali

Italian artist Davide Rivalta has installed thirteen monumental bronze sculptures of lions, buffalo, and rhinoceroses across Stockholm, Sweden, in a project titled "Blowing Figures into Space." Organized by the Italian Cultural Institute of Stockholm, the works are placed in strategic locations including Mynttorget, Gamla Stan, Ladugårdsgärdet, and Hagaparken, with installations rolling out from April 2025 through summer 2027. The first sculpture was unveiled near the Swedish Parliament during Stockholm Art Week, and additional animals will appear in public parks on August 29.

Gallery 14 Fine Art Photography features two members and a guest artist

Gallery 14 Fine Art Photography in Hopewell, New Jersey, will host a group exhibition from May 16 through June 14, featuring two member artists and one guest artist. The show includes John Stritzinger's series 'Trees Find A Way,' which captures trees in urban and rural settings; Dutch Bagley's 'What In The World,' a self-taught photographic exploration of environment and diversity; and guest artist Elvira Peretsman's 'The Fractured Perspective,' which uses experimental in-camera techniques to reveal abstract geometric forms. A meet-the-artists reception is scheduled for Sunday, May 17 from 1 to 3 p.m.

Old toys, new life: Bloomingdale’s Step Mother Nature art gallery opens 'Child's Play'

Michael Greathouse's exhibition "Child's Play" opened at the Step Mother Nature gallery in Bloomingdale, featuring a dozen portraits of discarded stuffed animals. The show marks the gallery's third season reopening and is paired with a toy drive for the Saranac Lake Holiday Helpers, a local volunteer group that collects toys for children at Christmas. Greathouse's paintings depict battle-worn toys with scars, ripped fabric, and chipped paint, aiming to capture the history and soul of each object.

The Sports Are Just the Tip of the Iceberg. Here’s What Else to Expect From the 2028 Olympics.

Los Angeles is preparing a comprehensive Cultural Olympiad for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games, led by LA28 senior vice president Dwayne Jones and executive director Nora Halpern. The program will feature free sports movie screenings, live music, food experiences, art installations, community events, and special exhibitions at local museums. Sixteen local artists have been commissioned to create posters honoring the games, with a dedicated gallery exhibition planned for July 2027. A new digital calendar and mapping tool will help residents and visitors navigate the cultural offerings, and institutions like LACMA, the LA Philharmonic, and the Museum of Latin American Art have already expressed support.

Between Ritual and Institution: Andrea Canepa's Interventions in Spain

ENTRE EL RITO Y LA INSTITUCIÓN: LAS INTERVENCIONES DE ANDREA CANEPA EN ESPAÑA

Andrea Canepa, a Peruvian artist born in 1980, has installed "Fardo" at the Palacio de Cristal in Madrid's Parque del Retiro, running from January 13, 2026 to January 1, 2027. The work wraps the building's perimeter in a printed fabric bearing patterns from Paracas funerary textiles, a pre-Columbian culture from southern Peru. Created during the palace's ongoing restoration (which began in 2023), the installation challenges the building's colonial history—it was built for the 1887 Exhibition of the Philippine Islands—by introducing indigenous visual and ritual references. Canepa also presented "Entre lo profundo y lo distante" at the IVAM in Valencia until April 12, 2026, which uses Andean huacas (sacred spaces) to propose a non-linear relationship between time, body, and space. Both works transform passive contemplation into active, bodily participation, using ritual as a means to reorganize the exhibition experience.

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.

JR transforms the Pont-Neuf into an immense immersive cave

JR métamorphose le Pont-Neuf en immense caverne immersive

French artist JR has transformed the Pont-Neuf in Paris into a massive immersive cave installation titled "La Caverne du Pont-Neuf," unveiled in May 2026. The work pays homage to Christo and Jeanne-Claude's 1985 wrapping of the same bridge, using an inflatable double-wall structure covered with printed fabric to simulate rock formations and a prehistoric cave. The 120-meter-long installation is free and open to the public day and night, featuring augmented reality experiences via mobile devices and VR glasses, with a soundscape by a former Daft Punk member. The project, budgeted at €10.9 million funded by private sources, marks the first time JR has invited the public inside one of his works.

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.

Sarah Rowe Will Light Up Native Neon Residency in Kingston, NY

A new residency program for Indigenous artists working with neon for the first time has been launched through a collaboration between the Walker Youngbird Foundation and Lite Brite Neon Studio in Kingston, New York. Sarah Rowe, a painter and installation artist from Omaha, Nebraska, was selected as the first recipient from over one hundred applicants. She plans to create a work inspired by the heyoka, a trickster figure from Lakota tradition, and will receive a $10,000 stipend plus fully funded fabrication, materials, studio time, and technical instruction valued at around $50,000. The resulting artwork will be publicly presented, and Rowe will retain full intellectual property rights and ownership.

Around North America, Community Members Are Stitching Nearly 11,000 Birds

Artist and educator Holly Greenberg launched the multi-year project "Bird Collisions in the Anthropocene" in 2024 after learning about a mass bird collision at Chicago's McCormick Place Lakeside Center in October 2023, where nearly 1,000 birds died in a single night. Using data from the Chicago Field Museum and ornithologist Dave Willard, Greenberg focuses on the 10,863 birds found dead after hitting Chicago buildings in 2023 alone. The project involves community members stitching nearly 11,000 fabric birds to raise awareness and educate the public about preventing window collisions, which kill an estimated one billion birds annually across North America.

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.

The Condé M. Nast Galleries Open at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Condé M. Nast Galleries have opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute, a 12,000-square-foot space designed by architecture firm Peterson Rich. The galleries feature white granite floors, classic pedestals, and recessed uplighting to protect fragile fabrics, creating a seamless integration with the museum's existing architecture.

The Intimate Correspondence Between Artist Maria Lai and Stylist Antonio Marras Is on Show in Milan

L’intima corrispondenza tra l’artista Maria Lai e lo stilista Antonio Marras è in mostra a Milano

The exhibition "Paso Doble" at Galleria M77 in Milan brings together over 200 works by artist Maria Lai (1919–2013) and fashion designer Antonio Marras, curated by Francesca Alfano Miglietti. The show explores the deep creative and personal dialogue between the two, rooted in a transformative encounter that Marras describes as a turning point in his artistic language. Works range from historical pieces by Lai—including textile books, thread installations, and stone-embedded works—to Marras's own mixed-media creations using humble materials like cardboard, fabric scraps, and pastry trays. The exhibition culminates in collaborative installations such as "Llencols de aigua" (Water Sheets) and "Janas," immersive environments where viewers become part of a silent choreography of memory and imagination.

Art House Productions Unveils "In The Wind" Public Art Installation

Art House Productions has unveiled "In The Wind," a large-scale public art installation in Lincoln Park, Jersey City, featuring artist-designed flags with original works by Hudson County artists. Curated by Tina Maneca, the exhibition celebrates the organization's 25th anniversary and includes over 80 artists who live, work, or maintain studios in Hudson County. The flags are installed around Edgewood Lake, moving with the wind to create a dynamic, ever-changing exhibition. All flags are priced at $500 and available for purchase. The installation runs from June through November 2026, with an opening reception on June 5, 2026, during ACCESS JC Fridays.

Anaheim's new $4 billion, 100-acre entertainment district will double as an open-air art gallery with 70+ free public artworks

Anaheim's $4 billion OCVIBE entertainment district, a 100-acre development around the Honda Center, has partnered with art and design studio FUTUREFORMS to create a public art program featuring over 70 original artworks. The program includes permanent and rotating installations such as sculptural landmarks, murals, and interactive pieces, with early works already taking shape in the food hall and concert hall. Notable artworks include 'Stretto' by Nataly Gattegno and Jason Kelly Johnson, 'Rhythm, Flavor, Motion' by Brian Peterson, 'Gratitude' by Carla Roque, and 'Sunrise – Sunset' by Marina Zumi. The first phase will be accessible to the public in early 2027.

Biennale, rules announced for Visitor's Lion. But dozens of artists withdraw

The Venice Biennale has announced the voting rules for the new Visitors' Lion awards, which replace the traditional Golden Lions after the original jury resigned before the opening. On the same day the popular voting opened, dozens of artists from the central exhibition 'In Minor Keys' and several National Pavilions announced their withdrawal from the competition in solidarity with the resigned jury, releasing a statement via e-flux on May 9, 2026. The voting system requires visitors to have attended both the Giardini and Arsenale venues, with anonymous voting open until November 22, 2026.

'a little theater of life': JR weaves monumental tapestry of community care in venice

French artist JR has unveiled a monumental tapestry titled 'Il Gesto' in Venice, a contemporary interpretation of Veronese's 'The Wedding at Cana'. The large-scale work is suspended above the Grand Canal as a kinetic installation, transforming the city's waterways into a choreography of silk, light, and movement. The piece is part of the broader programming surrounding the 61st Venice Art Biennale.

The Fabric Workshop and Museum presents Jesse Krimes: Elegy Quilts by Bucks County artist

The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) in Philadelphia, in partnership with Mural Arts Philadelphia, presents "Jesse Krimes: Elegy Quilts," an exhibition featuring works from the artist's ongoing Elegy Quilt series (2020-present). The show debuts a newly commissioned quilt, "Riverside" (2026), created from used clothing collected from incarcerated people. Krimes, a Bucks County-based multidisciplinary artist who experienced incarceration himself, gathers donated clothing and textile fragments from currently and formerly incarcerated individuals and reconstitutes them into patterned quilts that meditate on memory, loss, and resilience. The exhibition also includes collages made during workshops with graduates of Mural Arts' Restorative Justice reentry program, which informed both the quilt and a forthcoming public mural in Philadelphia's Spring Arts District, to be unveiled June 3.

SCULPTURE IN THE GARDEN: THE STORYTELLERS

The article titled 'SCULPTURE IN THE GARDEN: THE STORYTELLERS' appears to be about a sculpture exhibition or installation set in a garden context, focusing on narrative-driven works. The text is heavily corrupted and unreadable due to encoding issues, but the title and fragmentary content suggest it covers a group of sculptors or a specific show where artworks function as storytellers within a natural setting.

INTERTWINED NARRATIVES CASSANDRA MAYELA ALLEN EXHIBITS IN NEW YORK

The Instituto Cervantes in New York presents *Aquel Amplex*, the first institutional exhibition of Venezuelan artist Cassandra Mayela Allen, on view until June 28, 2026. Curated by Fabiola R. Delgado and Carlos Núñez, the show features braided textile sculptures, paintings, and drawings that examine Allen's process-driven practice within the legacies of Venezuelan and Latin American modernism and informalism. The title, meaning "that embrace," references a 1969 letter from Hélio Oiticica to Lygia Clark, evoking longing and forced migration. Allen, a self-taught artist who migrated from Venezuela in 2014, uses communal braiding gatherings to transform found fabrics and garments into architectural works that deconstruct national and artistic heritage.

Delicacy as Resistance. Interview with the Curator of the Turkey Pavilion at the Venice Biennale

La delicatezza come resistenza. Intervista alla curatrice del Padiglione Turchia alla Biennale di Venezia

For the 2026 Venice Biennale, the Turkey Pavilion, commissioned by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), will present "A Kiss on the Eyes" by artist Nilbar Güreş, curated by Başak Doğa Temür. The exhibition takes its title from a Turkish expression conveying affectionate closeness without intrusion, and features a mix of new productions and earlier works spanning sculpture, installation, painting, and works on paper and fabric. In an interview, curator Temür explains that the project avoids a retrospective or didactic approach, instead creating a spatial rhythm of approach, pause, and slight withdrawal, where intimacy, politics, irony, and fragility press against one another.

A Roma fotoromanzi e cliché sono i protagonisti di una mostra femminista a Villa Medici

A retrospective exhibition titled "Fotoromanzo" by French artist Nicole Gravier (born 1949) is on view at Villa Medici, the French Academy in Rome. The show explores Gravier's semiotic dissection of Italian photo-romance magazines from the 1970s, using irony and staged self-portraiture to deconstruct the fabrication of femininity and patriarchal narratives. The exhibition runs concurrently with a separate show dedicated to filmmaker Agnès Varda at the same venue, highlighting parallel feminist inquiries into women's representation.

Serakai Studio unveils dreamedcore, a multi-sensorial exhibition exploring digital nostalgia in Hong Kong

Serakai Studio presents 'dreamedcore', its second exhibition at GOLD in Hong Kong's Wong Chuk Hang district, running from June 6 to August 1. Curated by Shirley Lau and Tobias Berge, the show blends an art exhibition, concept store, and runway format to explore digital-age nostalgia through the lens of 'dreamcore' aesthetics—drawing on 1990s and early 2000s visual textures. Featuring 22 emerging multi-disciplinary artists and creative practitioners from across Asia, including Li Shuang, Wong Ping, and Peng Ke, the exhibition is divided into two chapters: 'The Lure' and 'The Twist', with a central runway stage, ambient lighting, and a mini cinema screening a video by Wong Ping.

The Raphaels, the Italian Gang and the Olive Oil Maker: The Spectacular Theft of 7 Paintings in Budapest During the Cold War

Les Raphaël, le gang italien et le fabricant d’huile d’olive : le spectaculaire vol de 7 tableaux à Budapest en pleine guerre froide

On November 5, 1983, thieves stole seven Renaissance masterpieces from the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, including two works by Raphael, two by Tiepolo, two by Tintoretto, and one by Giorgione, valued at $28 million. The heist was carried out by a small Italian gang from Reggio Emilia, who entered through a window using a scaffolding left by construction workers, leaving behind a screwdriver from the Italian brand USAG that the mastermind mistakenly thought would implicate American thieves. The operation was led by Ivano Scianti, with accomplices including Giordano Incerti, Graziano Iori, Giacomo Morini, and Carmine Palmese.

Hyeree Ro: What Bears

Hyeree Ro is preparing for the 2026 Venice Biennale, where she will present the work "Bearing (2026)" as part of the Korean Pavilion, titled "Liberation Space: Fortress/Nest." The article follows Ro in her temporary Brooklyn studio, where she works with salvaged objects and materials that migrate across multiple works over years—such as a sheet of organza purchased in 2023 that later appeared in "Niro (2024)" and "Carry (2025)" before being repurposed as the pavilion's fabric walls. Her practice is defined by a nomadic, accumulative material logic: objects enter without a fixed destination and gain meaning through repeated reuse.

Syrian artist Ismail Nasra explores silence and solitude in new Damascus exhibition

Syrian visual artist Ismail Nasra has opened a new exhibition at Zawaya Art Gallery in Damascus, featuring 28 medium- and large-scale works that mark a departure from his earlier dense, colorful style. The paintings, created over three years on aged and weathered fabrics, employ muted palettes, abstraction, and negative space to explore themes of silence, absence, and emotional solitude. Solitary female figures and recurring bird motifs—symbols of freedom and escape—dominate the compositions, with the natural textures and cracks of the fabric becoming integral to the artwork.

(Video) Kazakhstani artist bridges ancient and modern worlds with textile exhibition in Hong Kong

Hong Kong is hosting 'Dowry of the Soul,' a solo exhibition by Kazakhstani artist Gulnur Mukazhanova at the Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile (CHAT). The show blends ancient Central Asian textile traditions with contemporary abstraction, featuring large-scale felt works and a textile collage created during the artist's 2022 residency using fabrics sourced from local Hong Kong markets and Central Asia.