What’s on for spring? Spiritualism and symbolic systems

This article surveys several spring exhibitions in Chicago that explore themes of spiritualism, symbolic systems, and interconnected consciousness. Featured shows include Mindy Rose Schwartz's "Countersealed" at M. LeBlanc, which uses deconstructed fur coats, wands, and twisted fiber sculptures to evoke rituals addressing ecological disaster and historical subjugation. Daniel G. Baird's "Margin" at Patron examines thresholds between material and spiritual realms through a gilded canoe, wax arm cast, and birchwood oar. Leah Ke Yi Zheng's "Change, I Ching (64 Paintings)" at the Renaissance Society presents 64 hexagram paintings on silk, connecting abstract minimalism with Eastern silk painting traditions.

What’s on now at San Francisco museums, May 2026

San Francisco museums are navigating a mix of upcoming exhibitions and financial challenges in May 2026. SFMOMA is closing "KAWS: Family" on May 3 and opening "Matisse’s Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal" from May 16 to September 13. The Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts has suspended operations due to funding issues, and SOMArts is also facing a budget gap. Meanwhile, the Museum of Craft and Design presents "Video Craft" through August 16, and the Letterform Archive hosts "Black Memory Scholar: The Language of Storytellers" and "Piet Zwart: Brand Architect." SFMOMA has announced three SECA award winners—CrossLypka, Em Kettner, and Chanell Stone—who will exhibit from December 2026 to May 2027, and the museum continues to showcase "Reimagined: The Fisher Collection at 10" and new installations by Alexander Calder, Claes Oldenburg + Coosje van Bruggen, and Rose B Simpson.

What It Takes to Build the Venice Biennale

Three weeks before the Venice Biennale opens on May 5, the city remains a construction site, with the Giardini closed and parts of the Arsenale requiring special access. Artist Faustin Linyekula rehearses his performance *The Galeazze Project* in a 16th-century roofless complex, working with the existing gravel, natural light, and lagoon acoustics rather than imposing a structure. Geopolitical conflicts, supply chain disruptions, and the sudden resignation of the Biennale’s international jury via Instagram add pressure to the already challenging logistics of mounting the global exhibition.

Trevor Paglen’s New Book Says AI Is Rewriting What Images Do

Artist Trevor Paglen has published a new book, *How to See Like a Machine: Images After AI*, which argues that generative AI and computer vision are fundamentally changing how images function in culture. Drawing on his decade-long practice, Paglen contends that images are no longer merely representations for human interpretation but have become operational tools—'activations' that trigger automated responses and shape reality. He cites examples such as surveillance cameras at grocery stores, the Samsara navigation system in trucks, and the ImageNet database to illustrate how machine vision systems normalize surveillance in service of capital, a phenomenon he terms 'machine realism.'

May Book Bag: from a guide on entering the art world to a publication about artists influenced by Ovid’s Metamorphoses

The May Book Bag article from The Art Newspaper reviews four new art-related publications. It covers "Metamorphoses: Ovid and the Arts," edited by Francesca Cappelletti and Frits Scholten, which examines Ovid's influence on Western art through works by artists like Titian, Caravaggio, and Louise Bourgeois. Other featured books include Hettie Judah's "How to Enter the Art World," a practical guide for emerging artists; "Derrick Adams: Prints," showcasing the artist's printmaking from 2019-2025; and "Whistler's Legacy" by Daniel Sutherland, which explores the legacy of James Abbott McNeill Whistler through his close associates.

The Venice Biennale has long been a sales platform—now no one is pretending otherwise

The Venice Biennale, traditionally a government-subsidized non-commercial institution where sales were downplayed, is experiencing an unprecedented open embrace of commerce. For the first time, Christie's is hosting an invitation-only selling exhibition in Venice, offering works ranging from Old Masters like Lucas Cranach to Modern and contemporary giants such as Andy Warhol, Louise Bourgeois, and Mark Bradford, with prices from $500,000 to over $35 million. Dealers, auction houses, and private foundations are openly pricing and selling works to collectors, spurred partly by Italy's reduced 5% VAT rate on art imports, now Europe's lowest.

Tracking the Biggest Market Players at the Venice Biennale

The 61st Venice Biennale is underway, and while it is officially a non-commercial exhibition, market forces are increasingly influential behind the scenes. Artnet News host Margaret Carrigan reports on auction houses actively participating in opening week, and highlights Sotheby’s upcoming single-owner sale in London featuring works from billionaire Joe Lewis’s collection, expected to exceed $200 million. Meanwhile, Whitechapel Gallery has created a new economist-in-residence position to address ongoing financial strain in museums.

Tania Bruguera on Why Today’s Art Must Be Political

Cuban artist and activist Tania Bruguera will stage her performance "Tatlin’s Whisper #6" in Times Square on May 1, International Workers' Day. Originally created for the 2009 Havana Biennial, the work invites participants to speak freely on a platform for one minute, highlighting the conditional nature of free expression under authoritarian rule. Bruguera discusses the performance's relevance amid rising authoritarianism in both Cuba and the United States, noting that when she attempted to restage the work in Havana, she and other participants were arrested.

Seen a ghost? The eeriest images from Fotografia Europea – in pictures

Fotografia Europea, the international photography festival in Reggio Emilia, Italy, has opened with 20 exhibitions and related events under the theme 'ghosts of the moment'. The festival features works by artists including Tania Franco Klein, Giulia Vanelli, Felipe Romero Beltrán, and Salvatore Vitale, exploring themes of memory, migration, identity, and the unseen forces shaping contemporary life. The festival runs until 14 June 2026.

‘It’s a world heritage site, but it’s my home’: the last resident of Casa Milà on life in Gaudí’s masterwork

Ana Viladomiu, a 70-year-old writer, is the last remaining tenant of Antoni Gaudí’s Casa Milà (La Pedrera) in Barcelona, a UNESCO World Heritage site that receives about a million visitors annually. She has lived in the luminous apartment since 1988, originally moving in with her then-husband Fernando Amat, owner of the iconic design store Vinçon. Viladomiu holds a rare renta antigua (fixed-rent contract) that allows her to stay until she or Amat dies, after which the not-for-profit foundation managing the building will take ownership. The rest of the building now houses offices and cultural event spaces.

Calls for Artists: May 2026

Burnaway's May 2026 Calls for Artists roundup lists multiple opportunities with deadlines in early May. These include the Joan Mitchell Center's call for figurative works, the Michael P. Smith Fund for Documentary Photography for Gulf Coast photographers, the Center for Craft Teaching Artist Cohort offering $10,000 grants to mid-career craft artists, the Hopper Prize grants totaling $13,000, residencies at The Studios of Key West and Trillium Arts, and the National Performance Network Creation & Development Fund. Each opportunity has specific eligibility, fees, and deadlines ranging from May 3 to May 18, 2026.

collector questionnaire yu chi lyra kuo technology art

Yu-Chi Lyra Kuo, an entrepreneur, investor, and Harvard-educated lawyer, is profiled for her pioneering work at the intersection of frontier technology and art. A former Princeton academic and one of the youngest board members of the Shed in New York, Kuo began collecting art as a child with a jade gourd from her grandfather's museum of Asian carvings. She was an early entrant into blockchain in 2011, co-founded OpenSea 2.0, and now advises frontier tech companies like Orchid Health. Kuo believes technologies such as AI and robotics can enhance human creativity, enabling individualized artworks, autonomous creations, and robot performances, rather than replacing human cultural meaning.

parties cult100 cultured magazine guggenheim

CULTURED magazine hosted its second annual CULT100 party at the Guggenheim Museum in New York, in exclusive partnership with Valentino and Valentino Beauty. The event celebrated the magazine's spring issue, a 400-page edition honoring 100 luminaries and rising talents across food, film, art, fashion, and more. Guests including Keke Palmer, Lena Dunham, Naomi Watts, Adam Scott, and Anne Imhof gathered in the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed rotunda for cocktails, a Valentino Beauty lounge, and a program that coincided with artist Carol Bove's ongoing museum survey exhibition at the Guggenheim.

How Tech Billionaires Turn Couture into Content

Wie Tech-Milliardäre Couture zu Content machen

The Met Gala, long considered the premier event for fashion and cultural influence, has become increasingly dominated by tech billionaires. This year, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos purchased their role as co-hosts, sparking protests in New York and raising questions about whether money alone now buys entry into the highest echelons of fashion. Individual tickets cost $10,000 and a table $350,000, with sponsors including OpenAI, Snapchat, and Meta. The event, organized by Anna Wintour to raise funds for the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, raised $31 million last year but has transformed from a benefit into a spectacle optimized for viral moments and algorithmic appeal.

La galerie contemporaine de la cathédrale d’Angers plaît

The article reports that the contemporary art gallery at the Cathedral of Angers has been well received. It highlights the cathedral's new exhibition space dedicated to contemporary works, marking a notable integration of modern art within a historic religious site.

From the beaches of Valencia to the gardens of Andalusia, the virtuoso Joaquín Sorolla celebrated by a luminous exhibition in Toulouse

Des plages de Valence aux jardins andalous, le virtuose Joaquín Sorolla célébré par une exposition lumineuse à Toulouse

The article announces a luminous exhibition in Toulouse celebrating the Spanish painter Joaquín Sorolla (1863–1923), known for his radiant beach scenes and masterful use of light. Co-curated by Ana Debenedetti of the Bemberg collection and Enrique Varela Agüí, director of the Museo Sorolla in Madrid, the show features iconic works such as *Contre-jour, Maria à Biarritz* (1906) and *Sur le sable, plage de Zarautz* (1910), alongside a reconstruction of Sorolla’s studio. The exhibition highlights his unique style blending realism, impressionism, and luminism, with energetic brushwork, bold compositions, and photographic framing.

Video: The secrets of the unicorn, a legendary creature at the heart of an exhibition at the Musée de Cluny

Vidéo : Les secrets de la licorne, créature légendaire au cœur d’une exposition au musée de Cluny

The Musée de Cluny in Paris is presenting an exhibition titled "Licornes!" from March 13 to July 12, 2026, exploring the history and symbolism of the unicorn from antiquity to the present day. Curated by Béatrice de Chancel-Bardelot, the show traces the creature's evolving depiction in literature, illuminated manuscripts, frescoes, tapestries, and contemporary art, highlighting its shifting meanings from a wild, aggressive beast to a symbol of purity, virtue, and, more recently, LGBTQIA+ pride and feminine power.

Museum Night, Photomobiles… 10 outing ideas for the month of May

Nuit des musées, Photomobiles… 10 idées de sorties à faire au mois de mai

Beaux Arts Magazine presents a curated list of ten cultural outings across France for May 2026, highlighting events such as the Nouveau Printemps festival in Toulouse directed by Rossy de Palma, the Interstice festival in Caen focusing on emerging art and technology, the L'art est dans le pré festival in Troyes featuring contemporary art in rural villages, an immersive installation at the Musée d'Orsay tied to the Renoir exhibition, and the Cœurs-Volants kite festival in Essonne where architecture students create flying artworks. Other suggestions include outdoor art trails, heritage site sports programs, and literary festivals in Épinal and Seine-Maritime.

Henrike Naumann Stared Down a Divided Germany’s Past While Eyeing Our Troubled Present

Henrike Naumann, a German artist known for using secondhand furniture and design to explore political extremism and consumer capitalism, is profiled in ARTnews. The article recounts her first US exhibition, “Re-Education” at SculptureCenter in New York in 2022, where she created installations referencing the January 6 Capitol attack, juxtaposing Federal-style office furniture with a Flintstonian mancave and chairs arranged by ideological subtext. The show gained unexpected attention when German media covered it, linking her small hometown of Zwickau with New York, and she later visited Thomas Hart Benton’s murals at the Met to understand American power and aesthetics.

Il mitico artista-ceramista italiano Nanni Valentini torna negli Stati Uniti con una mostra sulla sua storia. Le immagini

The Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York, is hosting "Interspaces," a retrospective exhibition dedicated to Italian artist Nanni Valentini (1932–1985), a pivotal figure in ceramic art. Curated by Garth Johnson of the Everson Museum and Luca Bochicchio of the Museo della Ceramica di Savona, with oversight by art historian Flaminio Gualdoni, the show runs until September 6, 2026. It traces Valentini's evolution from functional pottery to conceptual wall works, featuring pieces like "I segni della terra" (1981) and "Impronta-totem" (1979), on loan from ABC-ARTE gallery. The exhibition marks Valentini's return to the U.S., where he first gained international recognition at the museum's 1958 Ceramic International, introduced by Lucio Fontana.

Comment | We must avoid amputating art in the name of preservation

The article recounts the author's experience viewing Caravaggio's *Seven Acts of Mercy* (1607) in its original chapel in Naples, where the painting's crowded, dramatic composition directly mirrors the chaotic streets of the city, revealing its sacred meaning through context. In contrast, the author describes Caravaggio's *Flagellation of Christ* (1607), moved from the church of San Domenico Maggiore to the Museo di Capodimonte for security reasons, as a painting "marooned"—its spiritual purpose broken, reduced to a mere object for aesthetic appreciation.

Hito Steyerl “The Island” Osservatorio Fondazione Prada / Milan by Piermario De Angelis

Hito Steyerl's solo exhibition "The Island" at Osservatorio Fondazione Prada in Milan explores the concept of submersion as both a geological condition and a media regime. The show takes its title from a Neolithic artificial island discovered off the coast of Korčula, Croatia, which remained submerged for approximately seven thousand years. Through video interviews, installations, and critical assemblages, Steyerl connects this submerged structure to contemporary issues of digital image circulation, algorithmic power, and the dispossession of agency, drawing on science fiction, quantum physics, biochemistry, and deep time.

Chanel Will Launch New Culture Fund Fellowship With the Guggenheim

Chanel will launch an annual, one-year fellowship in fall 2026 in collaboration with the Guggenheim. The Chanel Culture Fund Fellowship will host a fellow in New York and at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, targeting MA and PhD-level scholars dedicated to collection studies and curatorial research. The program complements existing Guggenheim fellowship and internship programs, aiming to nurture emerging talent in modern and contemporary art curation.

Mind the baby! Visitors to the Japanese Venice Biennale pavilion will be asked to look after dolls

Ei Arakawa-Nash, a Japanese-born artist who no longer holds Japanese citizenship, will represent Japan at the Venice Biennale with an exhibition titled "Grass Babies, Moon Babies." The pavilion will feature over 100 baby dolls that visitors are invited to adopt and carry, engaging in caregiving tasks such as changing a nappy. Each doll corresponds to a historically significant date tied to minority communities, linking intimate acts of care to broader historical narratives. The project also includes a collaboration with the Korean Pavilion, marking the first such partnership between the two national pavilions in Biennale history.

Marietta Museum of Art & Whimsy closing for summer, but 37 other exhibitions on view at museums in May

The article provides a roundup of museum exhibitions on view in Southwest Florida during May, highlighting five new openings, eight closings, and 25 continuing shows across museums from Sarasota to Naples. Featured exhibitions include Molly Hatch's site-specific ceramic installation "Amalgam" at Sarasota Art Museum, Jillian Mayer's interactive "Slumpies" sculptures, a group show "Something Borrowed, Something New" with works by Louise Bourgeois, Chuck Close, David Hockney, Yoko Ono, Kara Walker, and Ai Weiwei, and Maria A. Guzman Capron's solo textile exhibition "Penumbra." The Marietta Museum of Art & Whimsy is noted as closing for the summer.

4 exhibitions to visit this summer in London, Kyoto and Venice

The article highlights four art exhibitions to visit this summer across London, Kyoto, and Venice. In London, the Design Museum presents "Nigo: From Japan with Love," showcasing over 700 objects from the Japanese designer's three-decade career, including collaborations with Nike and Louis Vuitton. In Kyoto, the Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art hosts "YBA & Beyond: British art in the 1990s from the Tate Collection," featuring works by Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, and other Young British Artists. At the Venice Biennale, Hong Kong artist Wallace Chan presents "Vessels of the Other World," a show of titanium sculptures inspired by sacred Catholic oils, curated by James Putman.

There is a major Paulo Nazareth exhibition to see in Venice (but the artist himself hasn't seen it)

C’è una grande mostra di Paulo Nazareth da vedere a Venezia (ma l’artista stesso non l’ha vista)

A major exhibition of Brazilian artist Paulo Nazareth, titled "Algebra," has opened at Punta della Dogana in Venice, but the artist himself is absent. Nazareth has kept a promise not to set foot in Europe until he has crossed African territories on foot, as they existed before the arbitrary divisions imposed by the 1884 Berlin Conference. He did not participate in the installation or opening, instead staging a simultaneous event in Veneza, a working-class district of Ribeirão das Neves, Brazil—a gesture he also made when invited to the 2013 Venice Biennale. The exhibition centers on structural violence and uses attention and care as strategies for healing, with the word "algebra" referring to the act of recomposing what was broken.

Want a taste of the 'old' New York? Pay a visit to Club Rhubarb

Club Rhubarb, a nomadic art project founded by artist-turned-curator Tony Cox, has opened its third location in a two-floor house across from the New Museum in New York. The current exhibition, 'I am so pretty,' features the mixed-media works of artist Brock Enright, including paintings built with wood, acrylic, foam, and found objects, as well as video works and an installation of altered electronic guitars. The show also includes a bathroom installation called 'BBC Brocks Bijou Cinema,' screening Enright's short films from the 2000s that document his former business of staging fake kidnappings for clients.

Maine art museums overflow with summer exhibits

Maine's art museums are presenting a packed summer season with numerous exhibitions, including the collaborative show "By Design: The Worlds of Betsy James Wyeth" organized by the Colby College Museum of Art, Farnsworth Art Museum, and Brandywine Museum, which explores the design influence of Andrew Wyeth's wife. Other highlights include the largest survey of Carl Spinchorn at the Ogunquit Museum of American Art and Bates College, "Shadow of the Eagle" at the Abbe Museum examining Native American perspectives on the Revolutionary War, and retrospectives of Phyllis Graber Jensen and Spindleworks Art Center at Bates College and Bowdoin College respectively. The Center for Maine Contemporary Art features new abstract sculptures by Bianca Beck, while Colby Museum also presents "Imagining an Archipelago" focusing on art from Cuba, Guam, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and their diasporas.

How the Arts Club of Chicago Stays Contemporary in its Second Century

The Arts Club of Chicago, founded in 1916, continues to balance its historic legacy with contemporary relevance under executive director and chief curator Janine Mileaf. The club, which gave Pablo Picasso his first solo institutional exhibition in the U.S. in 1923 and hosted figures like Gertrude Stein and John Cage, now operates as both a public space and a private membership club. Mileaf’s programming emphasizes Dada and surrealist roots while showcasing experimental, site-specific works, including a recent installation by Korean artist Haegue Yang. The club maintains a close relationship with Chicago’s arts community, aiming to expose audiences to challenging and surprising art.