Marilyn Monroe, idole iconique
The Cinémathèque française in Paris is presenting an exhibition dedicated to Marilyn Monroe to mark the centenary of her birth. The show explores her evolution from actress to a globally reproduced image, featuring portraits by renowned photographers and examining her enduring cultural presence.
Gallery Weekend Beijing (GWBJ) will celebrate its 10th anniversary with the 2026 edition running from May 22 to May 31, opening with three VIP days before going public on May 26. Founded in 2017, the event features curated exhibitions from 30 galleries and 10 non-profit institutions across Beijing, anchored in the 798 Art District and extending to Caochangdi and the CBD Art District. A new Academic Committee—comprising Guo Xi, Leng Lin, Tian Yuan, Xi Tao, and Yang Beichen—selected the participating galleries, with 25 returning from previous editions and five newly nominated. Highlights include institutional presentations at UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Red Brick Art Museum, and SONG Art Museum, as well as a special exhibition titled "Nirvana" by Ouyang Chun.
Kistefos presents *Fish, Fish, Duck*, the first solo exhibition in the Nordic region by London-based painter Issy Wood, opened at Nybruket Gallery on 9 May 2026. The show features psychologically charged paintings on velvet and linen, self-portraits, animals, household objects, and a painted chaise longue, organized around the thematic frameworks "Ways of Seeing" and "The Artist as Archivist." Curated by Live Drønen and Kate Smith-Raabe, the exhibition draws on sources from the internet, advertising, and auction catalogues to explore desire, power, vulnerability, and objectification.
Beirut gallery Marfa' Projects celebrates its tenth anniversary, a milestone founder Joumana Asseily never expected to reach given the immense challenges faced since opening in 2015. The gallery, located in the city's port district, survived widespread civil protests, Lebanon's economic crisis, and the devastating 2020 Port of Beirut explosion that destroyed its premises. Asseily rebuilt within a year, supported by a global network of fellow dealers who inspired her with virtual shows and offered solidarity during Israel's 2024 bombardment. The anniversary group exhibition features works consigned by partner galleries including Sadie Coles HQ, Experimenter, and Emalin, alongside Marfa' Projects artists like Mohamad Abdouni and Stéphanie Saadé, both of whom won major art fair prizes last year.
Art Basel Paris returns to the Grand Palais in 2025 with 206 exhibitors from 41 countries, including 29 first-time participants. The article highlights nine new galleries in the main sector, such as Stevenson (Cape Town), Lodovico Corsini (Brussels), Crèvecœur (Paris), Jan Kaps (Cologne), The Approach (London), and 47 Canal (New York), each presenting distinctive artists and works that reflect global contemporary art trends.
Seattle's art scene in May 2026 features six diverse exhibitions. Highlights include 'Influences: Japanese Prints and Northwest Art' at the Cascadia Art Museum, exploring the impact of Japanese woodblock printing on regional artists; a site-specific installation by Carly Sheehan at the appointment-only Double Garage Gallery; Clare Johnson's exhibition of over 6,000 artworks on sticky notes at Gallery 4Culture; Emma Bergman's surreal multimedia installation 'The World to Come' at Specialist Gallery; and a landmark retrospective of light-art pioneer Tom Lloyd at the Frye Art Museum.
Newcastle Art Gallery will open its fourth new exhibition space on December 19, 2025, featuring over 130 works of Australian art valued at more than $30 million. Highlights include pieces by Joseph Lycett, William Dobell, Grace Cossington Smith, and Margaret Preston. The opening will be celebrated with the return of the Friday Night Sounds after-hours event, featuring live music by Nina Romeru and a wildlife drawing workshop. The gallery has already welcomed nearly 11,000 visitors since partially reopening in September 2025, with the full reopening scheduled for February 2026.
The article announces a series of May art exhibitions across multiple galleries in Key West, Florida. The Studios of Key West opens four solo shows: Tim Marshall Curtis's "Giants Among Us" featuring towering sculptures, Carole Faye's "Reverence/Irrelevance" with works made from scavenged materials, Andree B. Carter's "Roots of a City" textile paintings, and Wayne Garcia's "Once There Was a Railroad" hand-carved reliefs. Other venues include the Key West Collective featuring Steve Bikis and Brad Gruss, Harrison Gallery showcasing Santa Fe artist Melinda K. Hall, Gallery on Greene honoring Peter Vey, and Shade and Shutter Gallery highlighting Mark Klammer's pottery.
A series of diverse art exhibitions are opening across Seattle in May. Highlights include a show exploring the influence of Japanese woodblock prints on Northwest artists at the Cascadia Art Museum, a site-specific installation in a private garage gallery called Double Garage, and a large-scale display of drawings on sticky notes by Clare Johnson at Gallery 4Culture. Other featured shows include Emma Bergman's surreal multimedia installation at Specialist Gallery and a landmark retrospective of light artist Tom Lloyd at the Frye Art Museum.
Newcastle Art Gallery in Australia has reopened its doors to the public for the first time after a major expansion project, unveiling new gallery spaces, a central atrium, and a foyer. The milestone event, held on 26 September 2025, featured a First Nations First ethos with major commissions and acquisitions on display, and was celebrated as part of the New Annual festival. The expansion has more than doubled the gallery's size, adding 1,600 square meters of exhibition space, with several areas named after major donors including Valerie and John Ryan, Margaret Olley, and Robert and Lindy Henderson.
The Skylands Museum of Art in Lafayette, New Jersey, has opened a new exhibition titled "Spotlight on the Artist: Massimo Rao," featuring eight works by the late Italian artist from the museum's permanent collection. The display includes oil and tempera paintings, lithographs, and drawings, such as "Portrait" and "Shelter Made of Ashes & Recollections," and will run through October 2025 in the museum's Sanctuary Gallery. Rao, known for his classic yet mysterious style blending Renaissance influences with Nordic Mannerism and pre-Raphaelite approaches, often depicted surreal, moonlit figures and was called "the Painter of the Moon." Born in 1950 near Naples, he studied art history and architecture, exhibited internationally, and died in 1996 at age 46; his hometown opened a museum dedicated to him in 2012.
A landmark collection of Benjamin Franklin memorabilia assembled by sports and entertainment mogul Jay Snider is heading to Sotheby’s New York on June 24. The collection includes over 150 items—books, broadsides, letters, and manuscripts—tracing Franklin’s career from printer to scientist to diplomat. Highlights include a 1758 letter to Joseph Galloway (estimated $70,000–$100,000), a 1778 letter from George Washington introducing the Marquis de Lafayette (which sold for over $1 million in January), and a bound volume of Franklin’s electrical experiments ($75,000–$125,000). The full catalogue is valued at $3 million to $4.5 million, and 40 artifacts will be displayed at the Library Company of Philadelphia from May 5 to 7.
Art Basel Paris has announced a new ultra-VIP preview program called "Avant Première" for its upcoming edition at the Grand Palais. Scheduled for Tuesday, October 21, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., the initiative allows all 203 participating galleries to invite select clients for an exclusive early viewing, ahead of the fair's official VIP days on October 22–23. The fair declined to disclose how many invitations each gallery can extend. The program was first reported by the Baer Faxt, and Art Basel CEO Noah Horowitz described it as "for the market, by the market."
Newcastle Art Gallery in Australia has unveiled two groundbreaking accessibility commissions: a digital guide named Nancy and architectural-scale sculptures by artist Fayen d'Evie. The digital guide offers a 24-stop tour with audio, Auslan-interpreted video, and written descriptions, developed through a 'by community, for community' model involving d/Deaf consultants, Auslan interpreters, and First Nations consultants. The sculptural solution addresses the gallery's original floating staircases, providing safe navigation for visitors who are blind or have low vision. A panel talk and Auslan-interpreted tour on Saturday will highlight these initiatives.
Nina Surel, a Buenos Aires-born, Miami-based artist and founder of Collective 62, discusses the historic Villa Paula in Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood. Originally built in the late 19th century for Cuban consul Domingo Milord and his wife Paula, the Neo-Classical villa features imported Cuban materials, Tuscan columns, and hand-painted ceramic tiles. After years of disrepair, a civic-minded landlord transformed it into a cultural venue now hosting the design gallery the Future Perfect, with works by artists including Autumn Casey and Faye Toogood during Miami Art Week. Surel highlights the building's layered history, ghost stories, and its significance as a misplaced architectural gem.
The Philadelphia Art Museum has appointed Daniel H. Weiss as its George D. Widener Director and CEO, effective December 1, 2025. Weiss, former President and CEO of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2015–2023), brings decades of leadership experience from major cultural and educational institutions, including presidencies at Haverford College and Lafayette College, and a recent role as Homewood Professor of the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University. The Board of Trustees, led by Chair Ellen Caplan, selected Weiss to guide the museum through at least 2028, providing stability during a transitional period.
Teen artists in Washington, D.C., created two exhibitions—'The Teen Experience' at the American University Museum and a mural at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival—depicting honest portrayals of their lives, including school lockdowns, protests, self-doubt, and the pandemic. The Museum of Contemporary American Teenagers (MoCAT), founded by teacher David Lopilato, organized both shows, but some adults objected to the full range of topics addressed, such as the 'Free Palestine' protest sign in the mural.
The Hilliard Art Museum in Lafayette, Louisiana, has opened a new exhibition titled "Andy Warhol: Plus One," featuring works by Andy Warhol drawn from the museum's own permanent collection. The exhibit showcases Warhol's photographic and screenprint pieces, exploring themes of intimacy, observation, and voyeurism in the artist's life and practice.
The Gallery at Bowie House in Fort Worth is launching a new exhibition titled "Memory Lane," featuring abstract works by artists Carly Allen Martin and Erik Skoldberg. Since opening in December 2023 within the luxury Auberge Resorts Collection hotel, the gallery has integrated fine art into every guest room and public space, selling hundreds of works ranging from $30,000 to several hundred thousand dollars. The upcoming show marks a shift for the space, moving from its typical figurative Western aesthetic toward contemporary abstraction.
The Hilliard Art Museum at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette has announced its spring 2026 exhibition season, titled 'Spring Awake.' The season features a major focus on Pop Art and its legacy, with exhibitions including 'Andy Warhol: Plus One,' showcasing Polaroids gifted by The Andy Warhol Foundation, and a new exhibition by contemporary artist Rachel Libeskind. The program also includes 'Gulf Streams,' an exhibit blending field recordings from the Atchafalaya Basin with contemporary art, and continues the immersive installation 'Nervescape XI' by Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir (Shoplifter). The museum will host several public events, including an opening preview, a day-long fête, and an outdoor fundraising picnic.
The Ceramic Brussels art fair in January showcased a wide range of ceramic works, from monumental sculptures by Jun Kaneko to tiny food renditions by Nellie Jonsson. The fair highlighted emerging talent through its Jury Prize and laureate program, with 10 new artists selected for their innovative approaches. Among the eight standouts profiled are Danny Cremers, who creates colorful, reassembled porcelain vases; Marie Pic, a French artist making 2D decorative panels inspired by Art Nouveau; and Faye Papargyropoulou, an Athens-based former advertising creative director exploring fragility and strength. Other notable artists include Kira Fröse, Lorie Ballage, Angelika Stefaniak, Ninon Hivert, and Walter Yu, each bringing unique perspectives to clay as a medium.
A new exhibition titled "Harold Keller: Portals" opens at the Alexander Gallery in Fayetteville, Arkansas, showcasing the work of the mid-20th-century artist and educator Harold Keller. Curated by Matthew Bailey, the show features paintings, drawings, and ceramics that blend whimsy, spirituality, and magical realism, drawing from Keller's Jewish upbringing, influences like Paul Klee and Saul Steinberg, and his time teaching in Arkansas and New York. Many works come from the University of Arkansas–Fort Smith collection, and some have never been publicly displayed before.
Boston University's Faye G., Jo, and James Stone Gallery is presenting "Ni de Aquí, Ni de Alla" (Not from Here, Not from There), a solo exhibition by artist Victor Quiñonez, known as Marka27, running through December 10. The show features paintings, murals, sculptures, and large-scale installations that explore the intersection of opposing cultures, languages, and experiences, drawing on Quiñonez's neo-Indigenous aesthetic and his background as a graffiti artist. The exhibition was three years in the making and includes works that blend street art with references to Mexican masters like Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros.
Boston University Art Galleries presents "Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá (Not From Here, Not From There)," a solo exhibition by Victor “Marka27” Quiñonez, curated by Kate Fowle, running from September 5 to December 10, 2025, at the Faye G., Jo, and James Stone Gallery. The show features original paintings, immersive installations, 3D sculptural works, and a curated soundscape that blend street culture with Indigenous tradition, exploring themes of identity, immigration, incarceration, and resilience through the artist's signature "Neo Indigenous" style.
The Hilliard Art Museum at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette is showcasing its permanent collection for the first time in over a decade through the exhibition "Tides, Times and Terrain: Floyd Sonnier and the Evolving Cultural Landscape." The show features more than 41 artists from southwest Louisiana, including the prominently displayed 1844 painting "Woman In Tignon," which was once misidentified as Marie Laveau. Executive Director Molly Rowe and Curator-at-Large Aaron Levi Garvey are rotating pieces from the museum's 2,000-work collection throughout its 11,000 square feet of gallery space, emphasizing the importance of placing historical works in contemporary context.
Curator Summer Guthery, who left economics to found four non-profit experimental art spaces across the US, is launching a fifth venture called Times with fellow curator Francesca Sonara. Located in Manhattan’s Chinatown at 151 Lafayette Street, the 3,000-square-foot space will host up to three exhibitions simultaneously across two galleries and a screening room. The inaugural event on 12 February features Latvian performance artist Jana Jacuka, followed by a solo exhibition by Danish artist Nina Beier (21 February-9 May). Times rejects a permanent institutional model, planning a three-year obsolescence to remain nimble and responsive to artists’ needs.
Ladji Diaby’s solo exhibition at Lafayette Anticipations, titled “Who’s Gonna Save the World?”, features furniture repurposed as vitrines for discarded objects. By collecting and displaying artifacts that have lost their original utility, Diaby creates a symbolic dialogue between himself and the anonymous former owners of these items, elevating mundane debris into the realm of high art.
A historic warehouse in downtown Fayetteville, known as the Porter Produce Warehouse, has been restored and opened as the Alexander Gallery, operated by the Walton Arts Center. The gallery's inaugural exhibition, "Our Art, Our Region, Our Time," features 106 works from 75 local artists and debuted at a grand opening on Wednesday evening. The building, built in 1906 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2020, had been closed to the public for 35 years. Walton Arts Center spent $950,000 on interior renovations, while the city contributed about $1 million for exterior restoration.
Pond Gallery, a new artist-run exhibition space, has opened in the basement of a former flower shop on the downtown square in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Founded in May 2024 by artist-friends Taylor Loftin, Ty Barnes, and Christian Schultz, the gallery operates on a DIY model, with the founders handling construction, curation, and rent. Its programming, including recent shows by Akeylah Imani Wellington and Natalie Conway, focuses on creating a communal hub for local artists.
The Annette Howell Turner Center for the Arts in Valdosta hosted its 39th Annual Spring Into Art Gala on April 13, drawing hundreds of attendees. Over 150 regional artists submitted more than 300 original works for the region's most prominent art exhibition, which remains on display through June 10. Cash prizes totaling $6,000 were awarded across four categories, with Joe Morgan winning Best of Show for his painting "Lobster Lottery." The exhibition was curated by Madison Caldwell, and admission to the galleries is free.