fashion loewe craft prize 2026 announcement

The Loewe Foundation has announced the shortlist for the 2026 Loewe Craft Prize, selecting 30 finalists from over 5,100 submissions across 133 countries and regions. The winner will be revealed on May 12 at a ceremony in Singapore, receiving €50,000, with two special mentions earning €5,000 each. An exhibition of the finalists' work will be held at the National Gallery Singapore. New Loewe creative directors Jack McCullough and Lazaro Hernandez will join the jury for the first time. The nominated works span ceramics, woodwork, textiles, metal, glass, and more, with finalists hailing from 19 countries including Nigeria, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, and the United States.

Venice exhibition of site-specific films aims to capture the hyper stimulating times we are living in

The Fondazione In Between Art Film presents "Canicula," the third and final exhibition in its Trilogy of Uncertainties, opening on 6 May at the Complesso dell’Ospedaletto in Venice. Curated by Leonardo Bigazzi, the show features eight newly commissioned site-specific films that explore themes of excess, sensory overload, and geopolitical tension. Works include Roman Khimei and Yarema Malashchuk's "Affirmations" (2026), depicting fictional deathbed testimonies of Russian soldiers, Lawrence Abu Hamdan's "450XL: The Story of a Fugitive Sound" (2026) about a sonic attack in Belgrade, and Maya Watanabe's "Jarkov" (2025-26) reflecting on Arctic ice melt and Pleistocene remains.

Fort Lauderdale Still Fighting Removal of Rainbow Crosswalks: ‘We Are the Last Man Standing’

Fort Lauderdale is the final Florida city continuing a legal challenge against a state directive to remove painted street art, specifically its rainbow crosswalks. A hearing is scheduled for May. The directive, part of Governor Ron DeSantis's Safe Streets program, prohibits pavement art with "social, political or ideological messages" and threatens cities with the loss of transportation funding if they do not comply.

artists no kings protests against trump

On Saturday, demonstrators across the United States took part in No Kings rallies protesting President Donald Trump, with artists playing a key role in creating protest visuals. In New York City, activists including Susan Sarandon and Mark Ruffalo carried a yellow banner by graphic designer Ange Tran reading “People Over Billionaires,” while Brooklyn artist Julie Peppito led an art build with Indivisible Brooklyn, producing around 100 signs featuring slogans like “people power” and a red sun design. The protests, organized by the 50501 movement alongside Indivisible and MoveOn, drew an estimated 5 to 13 million participants nationwide, making it the largest action since Trump took office in January.

The Ten Best Books to Complement Your Viewing of This Year’s Oscar-Nominated Movies

Smithsonian magazine has curated a list of ten books to enhance the viewing experience of this year's Oscar-nominated films, published ahead of the 2026 Academy Awards. The selections include direct source material for nominated adaptations, such as Thomas Pynchon's *Vineland* for Paul Thomas Anderson's *One Battle After Another*, as well as thematic companions like *Frankenstein* and *The Vegetarian* for other recognized movies.

Ten artists serving life have a story to tell. It’s on the walls of this Center City art gallery.

Ten artists serving life sentences at SCI-Phoenix, a Pennsylvania state prison, have their work on display at Morton Contemporary Art Gallery in Philadelphia in an exhibition titled "The Weight of Time." The show is co-curated by artist Keith Andrews, who has been incarcerated for nearly 30 years, and gallerist Debbie Morton. Andrews' painting "Defiant Mercy" explores themes of time, isolation, and confinement, reflecting his own experience. The exhibition includes nearly 50 works by ten artists, each accompanied by biographies detailing their lives inside and outside the carceral system.

February 2026 Opportunities: Open Calls, Residencies, and Grants for Artists

A curated list of open calls, grants, and residencies for artists and designers for February 2026 has been published. Key opportunities include applications for The Other Art Fair Brooklyn, the Quilt Visions 2026 exhibition at Visions Museum of Textile Art, Jackson’s Art Prize, a public art commission for Boise Airport, the McNeese National Works on Paper Exhibition, the Melancholy 2026 online exhibition, the Sónar+D digital creativity festival, the World of WearableArt Competition, and the Hasselblad Masters 2026 photography contest.

Zimbabwean artist Option Nyahunzvi explores cultural values in a bold new exhibition

Zimbabwean artist Option Dzikamai Nyahunzvi has launched a major solo exhibition titled 'Zvatiri' (Who We Are) at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. The show features a multidisciplinary approach, combining installations, live-art performances, and paintings created with a unique technique of layering and etching Fabriano paper onto canvas. The works heavily reference Shona identity, specifically the 'hunhu' (or ubuntu) belief system and the artist's own Mbizi (zebra) totem, aiming to reconnect contemporary audiences with ancestral wisdom.

New Palm Springs Art Exhibition Explores the Runway as Architecture

The Palm Springs Art Museum Architecture and Design Center has opened a new exhibition titled "Fashioning Architecture," on view through August 9. Curated by executive director Christine Vendredi, the show examines the spatial and hierarchical dynamics of fashion shows—such as the front row, runway, and backstage—treating them as architectural constructs. It features photography, video, and objects including audience T-shirts from Virgil Abloh's Spring/Summer 2019 Louis Vuitton show and a LaQuan Smith dress from New York Fashion Week, alongside historical Palm Springs fashion moments like a 1939 Racquet Club show and Nicolas Ghesquière's 2015 Louis Vuitton cruise show at the Bob Hope House.

‘We are all part of this intergalactic universe’: Saya Woolfalk’s solo show immerses viewers in her “Empathic Universe”

Saya Woolfalk's solo exhibition "Empathic Universe" at the Museum of Arts and Design (Mad) in New York presents two decades of her visionary world-building practice. The show unfolds in five chapters, featuring sculptures made from textiles, videos, performances, and immersive digital installations that trace the evolution of fictional plant-and-human hybrid races. Woolfalk discusses the origins of her project, which began after her return from Brazil with works like "Winter Garden: Hybrid Love Objects" (2005) at MoMA PS1, and how the Empathic Universe came into focus during her time in the Whitney Independent Study Program around 2006, drawing on mythology, anthropology, technology, and feminist theory.

The Kenyan artist who was a revelation at the last Biennale is on show at Masaccio's house in Tuscany

L’artista del Kenya rivelazione all’ultima Biennale è in mostra alla casa di Masaccio in Toscana

Kenyan artist Agnes Waruguru, a breakout star of the most recent Venice Biennale, is presenting her first solo museum exhibition in Italy. Titled 'From What We Are,' the show is curated by Alessandro Romanini and is on view at the Centro per le arti contemporanee Casa Masaccio in San Giovanni Valdarno, Tuscany.

Wandering Star – a photo essay

Photographer Vanessa Vettorello explores the physical and psychological impact of strabismus, or eye misalignment, through her visual project "Wandering Star." Drawing from her personal childhood experience with diplopia (double vision), Vettorello combines intimate portraits of others living with the condition, medical reportage, and reconstructed memories to illustrate the struggle of navigating a world where depth and distance are distorted.

‘We are trying to preserve the memory of our people’: archaeologists create map tracking damage to Iran heritage sites

Iranian archaeologists Sepideh Maziar and Mehrnoush Soroush have launched an interactive online map to document and geolocate cultural heritage sites in Iran damaged by military strikes. The map, hosted by the University of Chicago's CAMEL Lab, currently lists 69 verified sites, including the historic Sa'dabad Palace complex in Tehran, and is updated as new information becomes available.

Central Chidlom's 'Art Department' auction promises a new experience

The Art Auction Center is hosting a major auction titled "Art Department" at the Central Chidlom department store in Bangkok, featuring over 130 artworks. The event aims to democratize the auction experience by integrating masterpieces and contemporary works into a retail lifestyle setting, moving away from traditional, formal auction environments.

Oliver Jeffers: Artist's first Belfast exhibition in more than 20 years

Artist and author Oliver Jeffers is holding his first exhibition in his hometown of Belfast in over 20 years. The show, titled "Disasters and Interventions," is on view at the Naughton Gallery at Queen's University and features a series of works where Jeffers inserts calamitous scenes—such as an oil tanker spill or an airship crash—into tranquil vintage landscapes, transforming calm into catastrophe. The project began when he found a discarded print in New York's Chinatown and began painting into it, eventually building a collection over 14 years that balances tragedy with a wry, thoughtful humor.

Comrades in art: meet the artists who fought against fascism

Andy Friend's book "Comrades in Art" chronicles the founding and first decade of the Artists International Association (AIA), a radical union of artists established in London in the 1930s. The AIA, born from a belief in art's power to revolutionize society, grew from a small group of mostly underemployed communist-affiliated commercial artists into a popular front against fascism and war, eventually including over 1,000 members such as Henry Moore and Paul Nash. The book focuses on lesser-known figures like Felicia Browne, the first British female combatant killed in the Spanish Civil War.

Longboat exhibition to showcase multimedia artists

The Longboat Key chapter of the National League of American Pen Women, Inc. has opened a two-month art exhibition at Plymouth Harbor featuring over 30 artists working in oil painting, pastels, photography, glasswork, sculpture, and creative writing. Notable participants include Miriam Cassell, who layers collages and paint to advocate for inclusion; Jo Jo Fusco, who contributed a large-scale oil painting inspired by Edward Hopper; and Medge Jaspan, who debuted a black-and-white piece titled 'Dec. 21' tied to personal milestones. The exhibition debuted on September 9, with Plymouth Harbor resident Joslyn Kirkegaard purchasing a painting by Barbara Jendrysik depicting the Sarasota skyline.

Exhibition in Abu Dhabi marks collaboration between Korean and Emirati institutions

A partnership exhibition titled "Layered Medium: We Are in Open Circuits" has opened at Manarat Al Saadiyat in Abu Dhabi, featuring 29 Korean contemporary artists from the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) collection. Organized with the Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation (ADMAF), the show includes works by Nam June Paik, Haegue Yang, Lee Bul, and others, and runs until 30 June. A reciprocal exhibition of Emirati artists, "Intense Proximities," will open at SeMA in December 2025. The curators, Maya El Khalil and Kyung-hwan Yeo, chose to present each country's art scene separately to allow full appreciation on its own terms.

New Sandton art space celebrates African creativity

Standard Bank has launched The Standard Bank Art Lab, a new visual arts space at Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton City, South Africa, on June 5. The inaugural exhibition, titled "Follow the Blue Thread: It’s Woven Into Who We Are," features works by artists including Penny Siopis, Judith Mason, Sam Nhlengethwa, William Kentridge, and Miriam Ndebele, focusing on tapestry and African creativity.

Let him entertain you: Robbie Williams gets honest in latest Moco exhibition

Pop star Robbie Williams opened his new exhibition "Radical Honesty" at the Moco Museum in London on May 2, 2025, featuring his latest sculptures and paintings. The show was attended by celebrities including documentary maker Louis Theroux, artists Chris Levine and Daniel Lismore, and comedian Leigh Francis. Williams's works incorporate his trademark sarcastic and self-deprecating humor, with one painting bearing the text: "To be completely honest I’m not sure if we are friends or we’ve just been in the same room a lot in the last 15 years." This is not Williams's first art venture; in 2022 he presented 14 large-scale works at Sotheby's London co-created with Ed Godrich under the name Williams Godrich, and he is also an art collector with pieces by Banksy, Peter Blake, Christopher Page, and Morris Wade.

‘We Are Here’: Queer Presence and Memory in African Art

The Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art has opened 'Here: Pride and Belonging in African Art,' an exhibition curated by Kevin D. Dumouchelle and Serubiri Moses. Developed through years of direct dialogue with LGBTQ+ artists across Africa and its diaspora, the show foregrounds self-representation and community, ensuring artists defined the terms of their inclusion. It features contemporary works alongside historical precedents, creating a continuum of queer presence in African art history.

The Forward Frame: East End Arts Holds Last Hurrah Before Gallery Relocation

East End Arts hosted a final exhibition titled "The Forward Frame" at its historic East Main Street gallery in Riverhead before the building undergoes a massive structural renovation. As part of the Riverhead Town Square redevelopment project, the 1840s-era building will be raised seven feet to escape the Peconic River floodplain and reconfigured alongside a new five-story Hilton hotel. During the farewell event, community members were invited to create ephemeral art directly on the gallery walls, marking a transition period where the organization will operate out of temporary spaces at 11 and 48 West Main Street.

Go figure – when Barnaby Barford took over the Wallpaper* fashion pages

Barnaby Barford is marking 20 years of collaboration with David Gill gallery through the exhibition 'We Are Where We Are', featuring 35 ceramic sculptures and large-scale drawings. The show includes a new work titled 'Ascension'. To celebrate, Wallpaper* magazine revisits its November 2007 issue, in which Barford took over the fashion pages, dressing his found porcelain figurines in designer labels such as Missoni, Versace, Gucci, Christian Dior, and Prada, photographed by Theo Cook with fashion styling by Sophie Dean and Sébastien Clivaz.

Maine Gallery Adds New Artists For 2026 Season

Maine Art Collective's (MAC) Gallery in Portland, Maine, has added five new artists to its roster for the 2026 season: Ann Tracy, Bill Elinoff, Sheri Oliva, donnersmith, and Tracy Hehmeyer. The gallery, which transitioned from a pop-up to a full-time space about a year ago, now features 17 artists total. Founder Susan Vittner, an artist herself, emphasizes the gallery's mission to support emerging artists through a cooperative model where artists retain most of their profits.

‘Grit’ exhibition highlights artists’ perseverance at Echo Contemporary

A new group exhibition titled 'Grit' opened at Echo Contemporary Art in Atlanta's Echo Street West, featuring works by local artists in painting, illustration, sculpture, installation, tech-driven pieces, and a quilt by Evereman. Co-curated by Alfonso Alday Vergara of Alday Hunken Gallery, Melanie Shaw of ArtShare, and Kyle McNeill (BignPasty), the show explores the theme of perseverance in art-making. The opening night reception drew a crowd, and the week-long exhibition includes artist talks, live music, and a panel discussion with Hayley Smith of SCOPE Art Show and Plushette Ellis of Artistic Logistics.

Liverpool Biennial 2025 digs deep into its city’s foundations with ‘Bedrock’ theme

The 13th edition of the Liverpool Biennial, titled 'Bedrock,' will run from June 7 to September 14, 2025, across 18 venues in the UK's largest city-wide contemporary art festival. Curated by Marie-Anne McQuay, the exhibition brings together 30 international artists and collectives with 22 new commissions, placing works in galleries, libraries, cathedrals, shopfronts, and public squares. The theme explores Liverpool's literal sandstone foundations as a metaphor for its layered histories—colonial empire, industry, civic resilience, and community life. Notable works include Amber Akaunu's film 'Dear Othermother' at Bluecoat, Linda Lamignan's triptych at FACT Liverpool, and Dawit L. Petros's installation at Liverpool Central Library.

ECOFEMINIST PERSPECTIVES AT THE PANAMANIAN CULTURAL CENTER OF SPAIN

The Cultural Center of Spain in Panama is hosting an exhibition titled 'The Dimension of the Invisible: Ecofeminist Traces of Panamanian Art' until April 1, 2026. The show features traditional and digital works by ten Panamanian and international artists who explore the intersections of nature, culture, and the body from an ecofeminist viewpoint, challenging established boundaries between the human and non-human.

New dates, new venue, and a new theme: Here is what the Moncalieri emerging photography festival will look like

Nuove date, nuova sede e nuovo tema. Ecco come sarà il festival di fotografia emergente di Moncalieri

Liquida Photofestival has announced the details for its fifth edition, scheduled to take place from April 17 to 19, 2026. The independent festival dedicated to emerging contemporary photography is moving to a new venue at the Real Collegio Carlo Alberto in Moncalieri, near Turin. Under the artistic direction of Laura Tota, the upcoming edition will center on the theme "Learning and Unlearning – (re)writing the rules," featuring a program of exhibitions, talks, and publishing events built primarily through open calls.

Atlanta gallery turns political tension into art with ‘Politically inCorrect’ exhibition

EuGene V Byrd III has curated the 'Politically inCorrect' group fine art exhibition, now open at Railroad ATL inside the Future Gallery in Atlanta. Featuring over 50 artists and 110 to 120 works across painting, photography, sculpture, and collage, the show addresses what Byrd calls an overdue conversation about art and social responsibility. Inspired by W.E.B. Du Bois, the open-call exhibition asks artists to speak their truth on political and social issues, with pieces like Faif Quin's photograph referencing the killing of Charlie Kirk and Naylon D. Mitchell's portrait 'Mama Rosa' among the highlights. The exhibition runs through May 30.

hispanic society museum pride

A new exhibition titled “Out of the Closets! Into the Streets!” at New York’s Hispanic Society Museum & Library showcases photographs by Honduran-born artist Francisco Alvarado-Juárez. The images, shot on Kodachrome in 1975 and 1976, document the early Christopher Street Liberation Day Marches that followed the 1969 Stonewall uprising. The show features activists, lovers, and loners, including Sylvia Rivera, capturing a blend of protest and pageantry with sequins, feather boas, and political slogans.