Remembering Napoleon Jones-Henderson, an AfriCOBRA Founding Member Who Imbued Art and Life with Exuberant Energy

Napoleon Jones-Henderson, a founding member of the influential African American artist collective AfriCOBRA, has died. Born in Chicago in 1943, he studied at the Sorbonne and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he was mentored by Bauhaus textile artist Else Regensteiner. In 1969, he co-founded AfriCOBRA, becoming known as "the weaver" of the group for his vibrant textile works that incorporated metallic threads and found objects. He later moved to Boston, taught at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and maintained a prolific studio practice in Roxbury for over 50 years, creating works focused on empowerment, Pan-Africanism, and racial justice.

‘I’m not trying to make him handsome’: Polly Samson on photographing husband David Gilmour – in pictures

Polly Samson, acclaimed author and wife of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, presents her first solo photography exhibition at Leica Gallery London, featuring intimate images taken over two decades of Gilmour on tour and in the studio. The show, titled 'Polly Samson – Between This Breath and Then,' runs until 7 May 2026 and coincides with the release of her book 'David Gilmour: Luck and Strange – Studio/Live,' published by Thames & Hudson. Samson's photographs capture candid moments of Gilmour, their family, and the creative process behind albums including 'Luck and Strange.'

Puerto Rico’s rainforest center reborn: in pictures

Puerto Rico’s El Yunque National Forest has unveiled the reconstructed El Portal visitor’s center, a $18 million project designed by Marvel Architects to withstand future climate disasters. Following the devastation of Hurricanes Maria and Irma, the new facility features elevated structures, advanced stormwater management, and solar capabilities, serving as both a sustainable tourism hub and an emergency command post.

Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture Opening

tselinny center of contemporary culture opening

The Tselinny Center of Contemporary Culture has opened in Almaty, Kazakhstan, launching its program with a powerful performance titled 'Barsakelmes.' The event, created by a collective of Kazakh artists, musicians, and poets, used traditional and contemporary elements to summon the ecological and cultural trauma of the Aral Sea's destruction under Soviet rule, framing decolonization as a process of remembrance, rethinking, and advancement.

lewis carroll rare alice in wonderland oxford

Lewis Carroll's personal copy of 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' from the original 1865 run has been acquired by Oxford's Christ Church college and the Bodleian Libraries. The rare volume, donated by American philanthropist and bibliophile Ellen Michelson, contains the author's handwritten notes, sketched plans for a future nursery edition, and 10 original pencil sketches by John Tenniel used for the wood engravings. The book had never before been exhibited in the United Kingdom.

art basel artist arrest chalk performance

Performance artist Thomas Iser was arrested during Art Basel Miami Beach after spray-painting the words “Sorry to disturb, art in progress” on a window of the Miami Beach Convention Center using washable spray chalk. He invited his three-year-old daughter to add marks, and police charged him with criminal mischief. Iser, who has staged similar interventions globally, was handcuffed in front of his child and spent a night in jail before posting $600 bail. Miami-based artist Jillian Mayer witnessed the scene and documented it, noting the artist was in full body paint. Iser has since reframed the arrest as an unintended extension of the performance.

lucy sparrow brings a felted sugar high to art miami

British artist Lucy Sparrow has brought a new felted candy shop installation titled "Sugar Rush" to Art Miami, featuring hand-sewn and hand-painted confectionery treats like Snickers, Peppermint Patties, and Twix, priced at $50 each. The interactive project, presented by London's TW Projects, includes affordable items such as $5 jellybeans and a $10,000 case of Haribo gummies, continuing Sparrow's decade-long tradition of delighting Miami Art Week audiences with her playful felt sculptures. Sparrow's career breakthrough came in 2016 when her installation "Sparrow's Deli" was purchased by 21C Museum Hotels, and she has since created notable projects including a felt bodega in New York and a felt McDonald's in Miami.

brueghel mayken verhulst

Recent evidence suggests that Mayken Verhulst (ca. 1518–1599), the mother-in-law of Pieter Brueghel the Elder, authored works long attributed to the anonymous Brunswick Monogrammist. A key painting, *Ecce Homo* from the National Museum in Gdańsk, bears a unique double signature combining the initials of her husband, Pieter Coecke van Aelst, with her family name “Bessemer,” indicating her authorial role within the workshop. This discovery, detailed in an essay from the exhibition *The Woman Question 1550–2025* at the Museum of Modern Art Warsaw, challenges centuries of art-historical attribution.

reindeer hunting facility found in melted ice norway

Melting ice in Norway has revealed a 1,500-year-old reindeer hunting facility, preserved beneath centuries of snow and ice. Archaeologists from the University Museum of Bergen and Vestland County uncovered wooden mass-capture fences, marked antlers, iron spearheads, arrow shafts, wooden spears, a crafted antler brooch, and a mysterious decorated pine oar at the site on the mountain plateau of Aurlandsfjellet. The trap, composed of hundreds of tree branches stacked into two fences, was likely used around the middle of the 6th century at the start of a cold period, when year-round snow and ice made it unusable yet ideal for preservation.

trump fires commission of fine arts members

All six members of the Commission of Fine Arts, a federal agency that reviews major construction projects in Washington, D.C., including President Donald Trump’s planned triumphal arch and a new White House ballroom, have been fired. The commissioners, appointed under former President Joe Biden to four-year terms, received termination emails on October 28, with several expected to serve through 2028. The move follows a pattern of political turnover at the agency, as Biden had previously fired Trump appointees in 2021. Architect Bruce Becker, one of the fired commissioners, noted the commission’s role in shaping the nation’s capital and reviewing plans for the new structure replacing the historic East Wing.

bernini the ecstasy of saint teresa

Gian Lorenzo Bernini's iconic Baroque sculpture *The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa* (1647–1652) is examined in detail, depicting the Spanish Carmelite nun Saint Teresa of Ávila in a moment of divine rapture as an angel pierces her heart with a golden arrow. The artwork, housed in the Cornaro Chapel at Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome, was commissioned by Cardinal Federico Cornaro and remains one of Bernini's most celebrated and controversial masterpieces, blending theatricality, religious fervor, and virtuosic marble carving.

lincoln center editions lilian martinez

Lincoln Center's Summer for the City Festival, now in its 2025 season, commissioned artist Lilian Martinez to create a limited-edition benefit print titled *Calla Lily Dancer* (2025). The archival pigment print, produced in an edition of 36, features Martinez's signature vibrant palette and flat planes of color, depicting a woman dancing with a trumpet and coconut drink amid symbolic objects like calla lilies, candles, and potted plants. The print is available through Lincoln Center Editions, and all festival offerings remain free or choose-what-you-pay.

department of homeland security thomas kinkade

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) posted a painting by the late artist Thomas Kinkade titled *Morning Pledge* on social media platforms Facebook, Instagram, and X, with the caption “Protect the Homeland.” The painting depicts an idealized American small town with midcentury cars, a schoolhouse, and an American flag. Kinkade, known for mass-producing sentimental, conservative scenes and dubbed the “painter of light,” was widely dismissed by the mainstream art world as kitschy. The DHS post coincided with the opening of a new ICE detention center in the Florida Everglades, nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz,” built to imprison immigrant detainees, and with the passage of a controversial bill expanding ICE funding while cutting healthcare and food benefits.

photographer documents her changing body with stunning self portraits

British photographer Polly Penrose documented her changing body over seven years in a nude self-portrait series titled "A Body of Work." The project involved physically demanding poses taken on self-timer, leaving her bruised and aching, as she hammered her body into various spaces. Penrose described the process as a punishing, repetitious fight to fit into each setting, with the resulting images capturing both visible physical transformations and concealed emotional changes.

stephan appleby barr mesocosmos robilant and voena

London-based painter Stephen Appleby-Barr is presenting his fourth solo exhibition with Robilant and Voena, titled “Mesocosmos,” running from May 23 to July 4, 2025. The show features a new body of work created over two years, blending Old Master techniques with contemporary life and fantasy. Appleby-Barr describes the exhibition as a self-contained universe where drawings, sculptures, and paintings interact, with the aim of allowing each medium to influence the others in unexpected ways. The artist emphasizes ambiguity and the unknown over clear resolutions, inviting viewers to form their own interpretations.

sculptor biohack agnes questionmark tentacular trans

Agnes Questionmark, a multimedia performance artist based in Brooklyn, creates work exploring the trans body—encompassing transgender, transhuman, and trans-species identity—often with an aquatic, tentacular aesthetic. During a studio visit at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, she showed recent fabric works overpainted with acrylic and silicone, depicting organs in vivid reds and oranges. Her performances include TRANSGENESIS (2021), a 23-day endurance piece at Harlesden Highstreet in London, and CHM13hTERT (2023), a 16-day installation in a Milan subway station where she was suspended in a mermaid-like tail. She also produced an artist's edition, QuestionGen (2024), containing a capsule of her own DNA, made with biohacker Josie Zayner and publisher Nero.

koyo kouoh curating venice biennale died

Curator Koyo Kouoh, the first African woman appointed to curate the Venice Biennale, has died suddenly. Her death was confirmed by the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) in Cape Town, where she served as executive director and chief curator. The Venice Biennale issued a statement mourning her loss, noting she had been working on the conception and development of the Biennale Arte 2026. Kouoh, born in Cameroon in 1967, was a prominent figure in contemporary African art, having curated for documenta 12 and 13, co-founded the Raw Material Company art center in Dakar, and organized the landmark exhibition "When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting" at Zeitz MOCAA.

Art Gallery Shows in Bangkok to Check Out in April

Bangkok's art scene is hosting several high-profile exhibitions this April, highlighted by the opening of Harper’s Bangkok, the first Southeast Asian outpost of the New York-based Harper’s gallery. The new space debuts with 'Lost and Found,' a solo exhibition by American artist Joel Mesler featuring his signature typographic and symbolic paintings. Other major shows include a large-scale group exhibition at MOCA Bangkok titled 'ICONOSTASIS: No Masters, No Icons,' which pits handmade mastery against AI-generated art, and a solo presentation by Filipino painter Jason Montinola at La Lanta Fine Art.

Introduction to the Dark Forest Theory of the Internet

The article explores the conceptual origins of the internet, tracing its development to figures like Douglas Engelbart and Jacques Vallée, whose work blended computing with cosmic and paranormal inquiry. It argues that early internet pioneers were deeply influenced by ideas of remote viewing, extrasensory perception, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, framing the network as a project of cognitive augmentation and alien encounter.

Paul Waldman, Creator and Curator of Art Museum for Birds, Dies at 89

Paul Waldman, a multifaceted artist known for his transgressive paintings and unique architectural birdhouses, has died at the age of 89. After overcoming childhood dyslexia and a stint as a competitive bodybuilder, Waldman established a significant career in the New York art scene, characterized by his meticulous technique and a fascination with the human form and avian structures.

Rafał Zajko Is Hatching a Plan

Rafał Zajko's exhibition 'The Egg Egg' at Arsenal Gallery in Białystok, Poland, brings together 50 works from the past decade across two floors of a former power station, organized into nine 'acts'. The show features modular installations like 'Funny Games' (2025), a set of pastel-colored platforms on wheels with ceramic reliefs, and monumental sculptures such as 'Sisyphus' (2025), a suspended ceramic bobbin evoking textile factory tools. Performances by Agnieszka Szczotka, including 'Song to the Siren' (2026), activate works like 'Amber Chamber III Echo' (2025), blending archaism, futurism, and themes of labor and technology.

Sasaoka Yuriko’s Violent Puppeteering

The Shiga Museum of Art is hosting "Paradise Dungeon," a comprehensive exhibition of Sasaoka Yuriko’s video and sculptural works. The show traces the artist's career from her 2011 response to the Tōhoku earthquake to her latest large-scale installations, characterized by a "grotesque" aesthetic involving marionettes with digitally superimposed human faces. Her work utilizes mediated artifice—including fairground-style soundtracks, repurposed toys, and violent puppetry—to explore themes of consumption, sacrifice, and the dehumanizing nature of digital observation.

Arts Listings: Week of April 9, 2026

The Ventura County arts community is launching a series of local exhibitions and theater productions for the week of April 9, 2026. Highlights include the opening of the political comedy "The Outsider" at the Santa Paula Theater Center and the "Rediscovering" exhibition at Fox Fine Jewelry featuring Lisa Sachs and Thomas Hoerber. Additionally, the Camarillo Art Center is hosting a themed exhibition titled "I dream my paintings, then I paint my dream," alongside various technical workshops in watercolor and gourd art.

Smithsonian American Art Museum Names a New Director

Lynda Roscoe Hartigan has been appointed as the new director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. She is a former chief curator of the museum and most recently served as executive director of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.

Artist Pietro Roccasalva Without Respite: Genealogy of a Resilient Motif in the Milan Exhibition

L’artista Pietro Roccasalva senza tregua: genealogia di un motivo resiliente nella mostra a Milano

Italian artist Pietro Roccasalva presents a new body of work at MASSIMODECARLO’s Casa Corbellini-Wassermann in Milan, titled "Io ti saluto luce, ma con nervi offesi." The exhibition features a series of paintings characterized by dense stratification, featuring recurring motifs like a disheveled child, a bride with a tennis racket, and metamorphic animals. These works function as visual deposits where cultural references and personal iconography overlap, creating a theatrical dialogue with the gallery’s historic architecture.

In a Rome Exhibition, Nature Participates in the Creation of Artworks

In una mostra a Roma la natura partecipa alla creazione delle opere

Artist Pietro Pasolini presents his latest body of work, "Ossigrafie," in the solo exhibition "Il tempo inciso" at Galleria Valentina Bonomo in Rome. Moving away from his origins as a travel photojournalist, Pasolini has developed a sustainable, experimental technique that utilizes metal plates—specifically brass and copper—interacted with by natural elements like palm leaves, vines, water, and fire. These works require months to complete, as the artist allows the natural world to act as a co-creator, moving away from the environmentally harmful chemicals associated with traditional darkroom photography.

Seba Calfuqueo and the Colonized Body

Andrew Durbin reviews national pavilions at the 2026 Venice Biennale, critiquing the US presentation as vacuous while praising incisive and moving installations from Britain and Germany. The review highlights Seba Calfuqueo's work in the context of colonized bodies, though the article's main focus is on the comparative quality of the pavilions.

The 10th Max Mara Art Prize for Women

第10回マックスマーラ・アート・プライズ・フォー・ウィメン

The 10th Max Mara Art Prize for Women has been awarded to Indonesian artist Dian Suci, marking the first time the prize has been held in Asia. Suci was selected from five finalists for her project "Crafting Spirit: Cultural Dialogues in Heritage and Practice," which examines the intersection of religious craftsmanship traditions and capitalist systems. The prize is organized in partnership with the Museum MACAN in Jakarta. Suci will undertake a six-month residency in Italy, followed by solo exhibitions in 2027 at both Museum MACAN and Collezione Maramotti in Reggio Emilia.

Who Are the Custom Mannequins in “Costume Art” Based On? We’re So Glad You Asked

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's 2025 Costume Institute exhibition, "Costume Art," features 25 mannequins modeled after nine real people with diverse body types and mobilities. Curator Andrew Bolton collaborated with artist Samar Hejazi, who created mirrored faceless heads for the mannequins, and artist Tanda Francis, who modeled features after historical figures like André Grenard Matswa. The mannequins are distributed across two thematic sections: "Disabled Body," featuring individuals such as writer Sinéad Burke, athlete Aimee Mullins, and models Aariana Rose Philip, Antwan Tolliver, and Sonia Vera, along with imagery of the late drag performer Goddess Bunny; and "Corpulent Body," featuring models Jade O'Belle, Charlie Reynolds, artist Michaela Stark, and singer Yseult. The living subjects underwent 3D photogrammetry scanning to recreate their likenesses.

Exhibition | Nyakallo Maleke, 'A Soft Language of Distance' at Bode, Berlin, Germany

Johannesburg-based artist Nyakallo Maleke presents her solo exhibition, 'A Soft Language of Distance,' at Bode in Berlin. The show features an expanded practice of drawing that incorporates textiles, wax paper, and intricate stitching to explore themes of movement, memory, and spatial experience. Maleke, who was recently named the recipient of the 2025 Standard Bank Young Artist Award, utilizes these unconventional materials to create a tactile vocabulary that bridges the gap between intimate gesture and architectural form.