Artist Nicole Havekost has opened a solo exhibition titled "Totemic" at the Alice R. Rogers and Target Gallery at Saint John's University. The show features large-scale wool felt sculptures, ranging from six to ten feet tall, that explore the human body's dichotomy between controlled and uncontrollable elements. The figurative works, which lack heads, hands, and feet, evoke themes of mothering, caretaking, and exhaustion.
The article examines the impact of the first 100 days of Donald Trump's second term on the U.S. cultural sector, detailing executive actions that force museums, libraries, and arts institutions into ideological conformity. Orders targeting diversity, equity, inclusion, and gender threaten funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, while the Smithsonian Institution and Kennedy Center face direct political oversight. The administration also redirects funds toward patriotic projects like a sculpture garden of 'American Heroes,' and private institutions such as the Rhode Island School of Design and Creative Capital face pressure over pro-Palestinian expression and diversity-focused programs.
An exhibition titled "Sown by the Traveler: Women and Migrants in Philippine Art" has opened at UPV MACH (UP Visayas Museum of Art and Cultural Heritage) in Iloilo City, featuring 16 paintings by six Filipino artists who lived abroad: Fernando Zobel, Alfonso Ossorio, Macario Vitalis, Juvenal Sanso, Anita Magsaysay-Ho, and Nena Saguil. Curated by Patrick D. Flores from the collection of the Lopez Museum and Library, the show runs until May 8, 2026, and explores themes of migration and longing for home, with its title drawn from Jose Rizal's poem "To the Flowers of Heidelberg."
The Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville (MOCA) will open "Whitney Oldenburg: left behind" on November 20, 2025, the first institutional survey of the artist's paintings and drawings. The exhibition features 23 sculptures and 19 drawings exploring the complex relationship between humans and objects in contemporary culture, and will remain on view through April 19, 2026. Oldenburg, a Jacksonville-born artist now based in New York, incorporates repurposed consumer items, personal belongings, and craft materials into her work, which challenges viewers to question their attachments to material possessions.
A pro-Palestine mural at the University of North Carolina (UNC) in Chapel Hill was boarded over overnight on August 17 by university administration without warning to the art department. The mural, created by students and community members in a course taught by artist Hồng-An Trương, had been displayed in the Hanes Art Center lobby for over a year. It features collaged prints in the colors of the Palestinian flag and the text “I told you I loved you and I wanted genocide to stop.” University officials cited the need to remove the artwork after its one-year display period and to repair the wall, but faculty and students have condemned the action as censorship.
The New York Times profiles an artist who repeatedly recreates his childhood home through various artistic mediums, exploring memory, loss, and the passage of time. The article details how the artist reconstructs the house from memory, using materials ranging from drawings and sculptures to immersive installations, each iteration reflecting a different emotional or psychological state.
Diana Young, a nearly 90-year-old artist who has been painting for over 80 years, presents her new exhibition "So Happy You Came" at Gold/Smith Gallery in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, from June 18 to July 21. The show features her latest works in acrylic and tempera, which emphasize motion, line, and dynamic interlocking shapes rather than realism, inspired by outdoor locations and her profound sense of place. A reception will be held on June 21.
Jungeun Park, an artist based between New York and Seoul, creates sculptures that blend glass, ceramics, and textiles to evoke raw biological forms and alien organic matter. Her 2025 graduate presentation at the Rhode Island School of Design featured works like *Skin Mite (demodex)* (2024), sewn from old pillowcases, and *Period Chalice* (2024), made from resin, metal chain, metal ring, water, and strawberry syrup, which transform the repulsive into something tender and strange.
Sanya Kantarovsky presents 'Basic Failure,' an exhibition of paintings, ceramics, and a glass sculpture at Palazzo Loredan in Venice, running concurrently with the Venice Art Biennale 2026. The show features haunting, figurative works that resist linear narrative, drawing on themes of religion, history, philosophy, and human emotion, with the artist describing his intuitive, fragmentary approach to composition.
The Jamestown Arts Center is set to host "In the Zeitgeist," a solo exhibition by Maine-based artist François Poisson running from April 10 through June 13. The showcase spans a decade of Poisson’s multidisciplinary work, featuring signature series such as his "Bunny Cars" sculptures and "Exhaust Sticks" that explore themes of national identity, political upheaval, and the American ethos. The exhibition will open alongside "NEXT," a group show dedicated to emerging local talent.
Medium Art Center in Ukiah, California, celebrates its five-year anniversary. Founded during the pandemic by a small team of local artists and community members including Chris Pugh and Lillian Rubie, the center began as an online exhibition series called "Dear America" before securing a vacant storefront at the Pear Tree Center in 2021. Run entirely by volunteers for its first three years, the center has hosted in-person exhibits, traditional Chinese brush painting workshops with artist William Shi, and outreach programs to support local artists. Recently, it received a grant from the RISE program administered through Redwood Coast Regional Center to support people with disabilities or neurodivergence.
Artist Jevon Brown, a Miamian of Bahamian, Jamaican, and Black Southern descent, discusses his multidisciplinary practice in an interview conducted in his Miami Beach apartment and studio. Brown works across textiles, silkscreen printing, fashion, and photography to explore cultural identity, belonging, queerness, and history. He describes how memories of Miami sunsets, family members like his uncle (a sneakerhead and hat collector), and ancestral references inform his creative process. Key works discussed include the "HAIREtage" series (2025), which uses materials like burlap and raffia to connect contemporary streetwear culture with African and Caribbean spirituality, and his inclusion in the exhibition "Material, Material World" at David Castillo Gallery.
The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) will hold its annual graduate thesis exhibition, RISD Grad Show 2026, from May 21 to 30 at the Rhode Island Convention Center. The show features work from students across 19 advanced degree programs, including Architecture, Ceramics, Graphic Design, Painting, and Sculpture. A digital version will be available online at risdgrad.show starting May 21, with a public opening reception on May 20.
Emerging 18-year-old Indian artist Prithveer Jain is presenting his second solo exhibition, “Circus: The Late Arrival,” at IF.BE in Mumbai from July 31 to August 3, 2025. The show features paintings that blend portraiture with emotional cartography, exploring themes of identity, selfhood, and psychological delay through stylized, surreal figures and symbolic imagery such as ropes, curtains, and hats.
The RISD Museum in Providence is spotlighting diversity through a series of exhibitions and programs in spring 2026. Highlights include the third Black Biennial, titled "Please Catch Me When I Fall," organized by students Karma Johnson, Khalil McKnight, and King Meulens, featuring over 50 works by Black artists from the school and local community. Other exhibitions range from "A Shared Journey: The Barkan Contemporary Ceramic Collection" to "Natchiq | Onkeehq | Isuwiq: Indigenous Artists Honor the Seal" and "The Artistry and Reunion of Two Surimono Albums," alongside ongoing displays like "Shimmering Beauty: Kingfishers in Art and Poetry."