In pictures: Art Basel's Unlimited section offers visions of utopia

Art Basel's Unlimited section, curated by Giovanni Carmine, features monumental works and performances with themes of utopia, community, and being in sync. Highlights include Oscar Murillo's participatory drawing installation, David Owens' film on Lonnie Holley, Alia Farid's tapestries on Middle Eastern-Cuban migration, Taloi Havini's shell money piece, Atelier Van Lieshout's 160-sculpture march to utopia, Andrea Büttner's shame punishment prints, and Mario Merz's inhabitable igloo.

Review: Guadalupe Rosales crafts an analog Wayback Machine for a vibrant show at Palm Springs Art Museum

Guadalupe Rosales presents a solo exhibition titled "Tzahualli: Mi memoria en tu reflejo" at the Palm Springs Art Museum, centered on a checkerboard dance floor with a makeshift DJ booth, motorized blue spotlights, and mirrored disco fixtures. The show gathers ephemera from the 1990s—magazines, snapshots, lowrider bicycle parts, bandannas, street signs, and more—used in assemblage sculptures and display cases. Four thematic sections include a dance room, an entryway, a nighttime space, and a car culture gallery, with imagery referencing Chicana culture, Los Angeles' Eastside, and historic clubs like Arena and Circus.

Stanford University acquires Filipina American artist Pacita Abad’s archive

Stanford University has acquired the archives of Filipina American artist Pacita Abad, a gift from the Pacita Abad Art Estate that also includes funding to catalog 120 linear feet of archival materials—photographs, correspondence, exhibition records, and personal artifacts. The archive will be stewarded by Stanford University Libraries' Bowes Art and Architecture Library in collaboration with the Cantor Arts Center, and is expected to be available to students and scholars within a year. The acquisition follows Abad's posthumous traveling retrospective that opened at the Walker Art Center in 2023, which brought her prolific 32-year practice to the attention of U.S. institutions.

Lionel Messi names his favourite ever goal

Lionel Messi has revealed his favorite goal from his 860 career scores—a 2009 UEFA Champions League final goal for Barcelona against Manchester United—as part of a collaboration with media artist Refik Anadol. Anadol will transform the goal into an AI-powered data sculpture, which will be auctioned online at Christie's New York from June 11 to July 25, with proceeds supporting educational charities in Latin America and the Caribbean through the Inter Miami CF Foundation and Unicef.

‘Art is an important way of depicting these atrocities’: London show shines a light on sexual violence in conflict

The Imperial War Museum (IWM) in London has opened "Unsilenced: Sexual Violence in Conflict," the first major UK museum exhibition to address the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war. Featuring video testimony from journalist Christina Lamb, the show draws on the IWM's collections and new testimonies from survivors, including propaganda posters, photographs by Lee Miller, and a newly acquired miniature Sonyeosang statue. Curators Maeve Underwood and Helen Upcraft re-examined the museum's holdings to uncover hidden narratives of sexual slavery and humiliation from World War II to the Russia-Ukraine war.

Lee Ufan donates eight paintings to Dia Art Foundation

Korean artist Lee Ufan, a key figure in the Mono-ha movement, has donated eight paintings from the 1970s to the 1990s to the Dia Art Foundation in New York. The works, from his From Point, From Line, and With Winds series, will be featured in a spring 2026 exhibition at Dia Beacon alongside sculptural installations already in the foundation's collection. Lee is also collaborating with Avant Arte on a limited-edition print release to support Dia's programming.

European art weeks join forces for new ‘spider network’

European art weeks across cities including Amsterdam, Berlin, London, Lisbon, and Antwerp are joining forces to form a new collaborative network called the 'Spider network.' The initiative, spearheaded by directors such as Martina Halsema of Amsterdam Art Week and Mona Stehle of Berlin Art Week, aims to share ideas, expertise, sponsorship strategies, and press coverage. Amsterdam Art Week runs until 25 May 2025 with 220 events across 70 venues, featuring artists like Melanie Bonajo, Kimsooja, and Pamela Rosenkranz. Berlin Art Week, scheduled for 10–14 September 2025, attracted 130,000 visitors last year and has grown from 11 partners in 2012 to over 100 this year.

Artist couple open north London not-for-profit in former Zabludowicz gallery

Artist couple Philip and Charlotte Colbert have opened a new not-for-profit art space called Camden Arts Projects (CAP) in north London, taking over the former Zabludowicz Collection gallery at 176 Prince of Wales Road. The venue, a former Methodist church, was bought by the Colberts last year and now operates under an umbrella company called Contemporary Culture Collective. The opening exhibition features works by Turner Prize-winning artist Martin Creed, including an immersive balloon installation and a neon piece, and is free to the public. Curator Hala Matar, formerly of The Little House in Los Angeles, is running the exhibition programme.

The Big Review | The reopening and rehang of the Sainsbury Wing, National Gallery, London ★★★★★

The National Gallery in London has reopened its Sainsbury Wing after a renovation led by architect Annabelle Selldorf, designed to create a more welcoming entrance. The wing, originally designed by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown in 1991, now features a transformed ground floor with double-height spaces, improved lighting, and a new piazza linking to Trafalgar Square. The reopening coincides with the gallery's bicentenary and a major collection rehang titled "C C Land: the Wonder of Art," sponsored by a Hong Kong property developer. Old favorites like the chapel-like space for Piero della Francesca's works are restored, and new commissions, including Richard Long's "Mud Sun," greet visitors.

First look: inside the £85 million National Gallery revamp opening this weekend

The National Gallery in London has completed a £85 million refurbishment of its Sainsbury Wing, which opens to the public this weekend after two years of closure. Designed by architect Annabel Selldorf, the renovation transformed the previously dark, low-ceilinged foyer into a bright, open space with clear glass, removed columns, digital HD screens, and new amenities including Bar Giorgio and the Locatelli Italian restaurant. The reopening coincides with 'Wonder of Art', a major rehang of around 1,000 works from the gallery's European painting collection.

Whitney Museum of American Art invites visitors to take in the river view

The Whitney Museum of American Art is celebrating the tenth anniversary of its Meatpacking District building by inviting visitors to experience Mary Heilmann's installation "Long Line" on the fifth floor. The work features a large-scale mural of sea green and foamy white waves, accompanied by whimsically colored boxy chairs that visitors can rearrange. The installation, which runs until January 19, 2026, encourages rest and contemplation, with floor-to-ceiling windows offering views of the Hudson River. Curator Laura Phipps notes that Heilmann, who created the inaugural commission "Sunset" for the building in 2015, has long prioritized visitor comfort and seating in her work.

Untitled: Artist Takeover April 2025

The Denver Art Museum hosted 'Untitled: Artist Takeover' in April 2025, an evening event featuring performances, artmaking, and installations by Indigenous artists. Highlights included a fashion show by SunRose IronShell, drag tours of the Kent Monkman exhibition, poetry readings, dance performances, and a finale titled 'Planting Seeds' with Sarah Ortegon Highwalking. Drop-in experiences offered ledger art, yarn art, temporary tattoos, and frybread-making, alongside one-night-only installations by Sarah Ortegon Highwalking.

Pope Francis and art, J.M.W. Turner’s 250th birthday, John Singer Sargent’s ‘Madame X’—podcast

This episode of The Art Newspaper's podcast 'The Week in Art' covers three major art stories. Host Ben Luke is joined by managing editor Louis Jebb to discuss Pope Francis's deep engagement with art and the Vatican collections following his death on Easter Monday. The podcast also marks the 250th anniversary of J.M.W. Turner's birth, featuring an interview with Tate Britain senior curator Amy Concannon about Turner's enduring appeal. The episode's 'Work of the Week' is John Singer Sargent's 'Madame X' (1883-84), discussed with co-curator Stephanie L. Herdrich ahead of a major Sargent exhibition opening at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and traveling to the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

Review: Gorgeous, exuberant Kim Chong Hak at the High

The High Museum of Art in Atlanta is hosting "Kim Chong Hak: Painter of Seoraksan," the first American museum exhibition dedicated to the Korean artist, running through November 2. The show features over 60 works spanning Kim's career, from early abstract pieces influenced by Western artists like Rothko and Tàpies to vibrant, large-scale landscapes inspired by his decades-long retreat to Mount Seorak in eastern South Korea. The exhibition includes paintings, folk art, and a catalog with essays that contextualize Kim's life and work.

Corals as Living Geology. In Conversation with Julian Charrière by Timothée Chaillou

Julian Charrière has created two new bodies of work, *Chorals* (2025) and *Veils* (2025), in collaboration with Maison Ruinart. The projects are inspired by the Lutetian Sea, which submerged the Champagne region 45 million years ago, and explore themes of deep time, climate change, and the interconnectedness of organic and mineral life. *Chorals* is a permanent sound installation in Ruinart's cellars in Reims, featuring amplified recordings of ocean reefs, while *Veils* comprises wall works and sculptures centered on corals and fading coral imagery. The works travel to art fairs as preludes to the permanent installation.

a tbilisi exhibition reintroduces merab abramishvili to the wider art world

A major multi-venue exhibition in Tbilisi, titled “Merab Abramishvili – Transparent Memory,” reintroduces the Georgian painter Merab Abramishvili to the wider art world. Organized by ATINATI’s Cultural Center and complemented by Baia Gallery, the show features over fifty works spanning the artist’s career, including pieces like *Kiss of Judas* (1989) and *Sunflower* (1989). Abramishvili’s work blends medieval visual culture with Neo-expressionism, using the traditional levkas technique on plywood to create timeless, mythic compositions that explore religious motifs, landscapes, and figuration.

Nel Padiglione Germania alla Biennale di Venezia un gruppo di donne riflette sulle rovine del passato per capire il mondo

The German Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale will present the work of two women artists, Henrike Naumann and Sung Tieu, following the death of Naumann at age 41 in February 2026. Curated by Kathleen Reinhardt, director of the Georg Kolbe Museum in Berlin, the pavilion's project, titled "Ruin," explores the dual meanings of the word in English and German—architectural decay versus economic, social, or moral collapse. The exhibition draws on research into East Germany (DDR) and the post-reunification period, using the pavilion's fascist architecture as a lens to examine historical ruptures and their impact on the present. For the first time in its history, the German Pavilion is represented solely by women, mirroring the Italian Pavilion.

At the Casa di Goethe in Rome, two controversial episodes in the history of science in Mischa Kuball's light installations

Alla Casa di Goethe di Roma due episodi controversi della storia della scienza nelle installazioni di luce di Mischa Kuball

The Casa di Goethe in Rome is hosting a solo exhibition of German conceptual artist Mischa Kuball from April 30 to October 4, 2026. The show features two light installations: "Newton/Goethe luce nera," which contrasts Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's and Isaac Newton's opposing theories on color and light refraction, and "five suns / after Galileo," which visualizes Galileo Galilei's observations of sunspots and his conflict with the Catholic Church. The exhibition is curated by the museum's director, Gregor H. Lersch.

The super architect Kengo Kuma on display at the Bonsai Museum, a magical place on the outskirts of Milan

Il super architetto Kengo Kuma in mostra al Museo del Bonsai, luogo magico alle porte di Milano

The Crespi Bonsai Museum in Parabiago, near Milan, is hosting an exhibition during Fuorisalone featuring the new carpet collection "Faces" by Indian brand Jaipur Rugs, created in collaboration with renowned Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. The museum, founded 35 years ago by Luigi Crespi, houses the world's most important collection of author bonsai outside Japan, including a thousand-year-old Ficus retusa. The 16 carpets in the collection reinterpret the facades of iconic buildings by Kengo Kuma & Associates, translating their rhythm, depth, and sensory memory into wool and regenerated viscose, displayed among the bonsai and in the museum's zen garden.

queens museum debra wimpfheimer executive director

The Queens Museum has appointed Debra Wimpfheimer as its new executive director. A Queens native, Wimpfheimer has worked at the museum for over two decades, previously holding roles including director of strategic partnerships and deputy director, and has served twice as interim director.

72 Hours in Venice: Palazzos, Protests, and a Biennale on the Brink

The article recounts a journalist's 72-hour visit to the Venice Biennale, beginning with a protest by Pussy Riot and Femen at the Russian Pavilion. The action features pink smoke, chants of "Blood is Russia's art," and a guerrilla performance of the song "Disobey," set against a backdrop of internal Biennale strife—including juror resignations over countries whose leaders face ICC arrest warrants (Netanyahu and Putin). The narrative also notes the presence of alt-right figures like Ryan Coyne and sculptor Alma Allen's troubled U.S. pavilion representation.

Basel Abbas & Ruanne Abou-Rahme: Archivists and Activists

New York- and Ramallah-based Palestinian artists Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme present *Prisoners of Love: Until the Sun of Freedom* (2025), an hour-long four-channel film installation at The Bell/Brown Arts Institute in Providence. The work layers psychedelic imagery of figures in nature with spoken and written testimonies from Palestinians formerly detained by Israeli authorities, exploring themes of incarceration, surveillance, and resistance through fragmented montage and poetic text. The exhibition also includes drawings by Abou-Rahme’s father and printed screenshots of reflections on the genocide in Gaza.

Nancy Holt: MoonSunStarEarthSkyWater

The first UK presentation of Nancy Holt's work, titled "MoonSunStarEarthSkyWater," opens at the Goodwood Art Foundation in Sussex from 2 May to 1 November 2026. The exhibition includes both a gallery-based show and works in the landscape, featuring key pieces such as the monumental site-responsive installation "Ventilation System" (1985-92) and the earthwork "Hydra's Head" (1974). The show aims to highlight Holt's exploration of perception, language, and light, and includes works from her diverse practice spanning concrete poetry, film, photography, and public sculpture.

Keeping It Simple

On Valentine's Day, the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art in Manhattan, Kansas, opened the inaugural "Kansas Triennial 25/26" exhibition, featuring works by four Kansas-based visual artists: Mona Cliff, Mark Cowardin, Poppy DeltaDawn, and Ann Resnick. The museum engaged young visitors by handing out paper hearts and inviting them to place their heart in front of the artwork they loved best, creating a reflective and participatory experience.

The best exhibitions to discover in Paris this Whitsun weekend

This article from a Parisian events guide rounds up ten exhibitions to see over the Whitsun weekend (May 23–25, 2026) in Paris and Île-de-France. Highlights include a show of works by artist-patients at the Art and History Museum of Sainte-Anne Hospital, maritime paintings at the Navy Museum, a Papua New Guinea-themed exhibition at the Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac Museum, an interactive socially engaged show called "Ne Pas Toucher" in the Marais, a Louvre exhibition on water in ancient Mesopotamia, and a major Hilma af Klint retrospective at the Grand Palais in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou.

‘Art’s Selfish’: Canada Pavilion Artist Abbas Akhavan on What Comes After Venice

Abbas Akhavan, representing Canada at the 2026 Venice Biennale, has transformed the Canada Pavilion into a greenhouse-like installation titled “Abbas Akhavan: Entre chien et loup.” The pavilion’s wooden door has been replaced with glass, revealing a pond of pinkish water illuminated by sunlight and LED grow-lamps. Visitors encounter mossy boulders, a vintage fur coat sprayed with mist, sharpened bronze sticks, and frosted mirrors that blur the architecture. Three giant Bolivian water lilies, grown from seeds sent from Kew Gardens to Padua, will gradually fill the pond over the summer. Akhavan describes his role as a “custodian” rather than a controller, emphasizing the unpredictability of nature.

Royal artist returns to Devon with stunning new exhibition

Alan Cotton MBE, a Westcountry artist known for his palette knife technique and royal connections, is returning to Devon with a new exhibition of landscapes from the Otter Valley and North Devon. The show, held at Kennaway House in Sidmouth from April 28 to May 4, marks his first public gallery showing in the region since 2015. Cotton, who once served as tour artist for King Charles when he was Prince of Wales, has works in the King's collection and exhibited at Buckingham Palace in 2025. His early life included homemade paint brushes made from his mother's hair, and he later became a BBC presenter and honorary professor at the University of Bath.

Hear! Hear! Kimball Art Center’s (Re)sounding

The Kimball Art Center in Park City, Utah, is preparing to open its upcoming exhibition "(Re)sounding" on May 15, curated by Nancy Stoaks. The show explores the relationship between sound and visual art through immersive installations, interactive systems, and soundscape sculptures by artists including Jon Bernson, Christine Sun Kim, Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller, Yuri Suzuki, Mary Toscano, and Andrew Rease Shaw. The exhibition coincides with the center's 50th anniversary and its ongoing mission to make contemporary art accessible and personal.

Nathaniel Mary Quinn's Museum Show | Herbie Hancock Returns Home | The Lake Plans Opening

Nathaniel Mary Quinn, a Chicago-born artist who grew up in the Robert Taylor Homes, will present his first solo museum exhibition in his hometown at the National Public Housing Museum. The show, titled "Nathaniel Mary Quinn: A Love Letter To My Mother," features ten works on canvas and paper, a recreated living room from his family's apartment circa 1984, and a reading room with historical materials about the housing project. Separately, Mariane Ibrahim gallery now represents Chicago-based artist Leasho Johnson, whose work draws on Jamaican mythology and appeared on the cover of Newcity's April 2026 issue. In other local news, a new social club called The Lake is set to open in River North this fall, designed by Robert A. M. Stern Architects, and construction has begun on the next phase of the Southbridge development on the site of the former Harold Ickes Homes.

At the Galleries for April 23, 2026

A series of new gallery and community art exhibitions are opening across the Hamptons and Montauk. Highlights include Timothy Tibus's solo painting show "Live Forever" at The Lucore Art in Montauk, the group exhibition "Echoes of Matisse" at The Drawing Room in East Hampton, Ann Pibal's solo show at Halsey McKay Gallery, and a one-week solo exhibition for Marcie Honerkamp at the Springs Community Library.