Jarvis Cocker and Kim Sion to curate art exhibition at Hepworth Wakefield

Jarvis Cocker and his wife Kim Sion will curate a new exhibition titled "Hodge Podge" at the Hepworth Wakefield, opening in May 2027. The show brings together a personal selection of works by artists including Jeremy Deller, Peter Doig, Barbara Hepworth, and others, alongside unknown outsider and visionary artists never before exhibited in UK public museums. The exhibition aims to challenge conventional ideas of art and includes an immersive Dreamachine, a flickering light device co-invented by Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerville in 1959.

Star-Studded Doc on Auction Icon Simon de Pury Heads to Cannes

A new feature-length documentary titled "The Hammer" will premiere at this spring's Cannes Film Market, chronicling the five-decade career of Swiss auctioneer and art advisor Simon de Pury. Produced by Simon Wallon, who previously made a documentary on casting director Bonnie Timmermann, the film features cameos from artists Marina Abramović, Jeff Koons, Ai Weiwei, and Chloe Wise, and includes executive producer Catherine Quantschnigg. Filming took place in New York, Tokyo, London, Cannes, Miami, and Monaco between July 2023 and February 2025.

The Italian artist who sails from the Island of Elba to Saint Helena: talking about power and making a film

L’artista italiano che parte dall’Isola d’Elba in barca a vela per raggiungere Sant’Elena: si parla di potere e si gira un film

Italian artist Luca Vitone (born Genoa, 1964) has launched a project titled "Pro Tempore," which involves a two-month sailing journey from the Island of Elba—Napoleon Bonaparte's first place of exile—to the remote island of Saint Helena, where Napoleon died in exile. The voyage, aboard the boat Adriatica, includes four intermediate stops (Balearic Islands, Algeciras, Canary Islands, Cape Verde) and is funded by the 14th edition of the Italian Council grant, in partnership with the Fondazione Oelle. The project explores the concept of temporary power and uses Napoleon's biography and the sea as metaphors for control and instability.

Ulysses Jenkins (1946–2026), A Black Radical Imagination

The article is a personal tribute by curator Erin Christovale to the late artist Ulysses Jenkins (1946–2026), chronicling their decade-long friendship and collaboration. Christovale recounts how she first encountered Jenkins's video work at the William Grant Still Arts Center in Los Angeles, and how a conversation with Otolith Group's Kodwo Eshun led to her curating Jenkins's work. She describes key moments including Jenkins's video "Planet X" (2006) about Hurricane Katrina, his 1979 work "Two-Zone Transfer" featuring Kerry James Marshall in blackface masks, and the 2021 retrospective "Ulysses Jenkins: Without Your Interpretation" co-curated with Meg Onli at the Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia, which later traveled to the Hammer Museum and Julia Stoschek Foundation.

Artist Valie Export, Who Saw Right Through the Male Gaze, Dies at 85

Austrian artist Valie Export, a pioneering feminist performance and media artist, died on May 14, three days before her 86th birthday. Her death was confirmed by Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery. Export, born Waltraud Lehner in 1940, rejected traditional domestic roles and adopted her iconic all-uppercase name from a cigarette brand. She created guerrilla-style performances and films that directly confronted the male gaze and patriarchal society, often using her own body as a medium. Key works include “Genital Panic” (1968), in which she walked through a Munich cinema in crotchless pants, and “Tapp und Tastkino (Tap and Touch Cinema)” (1968), where she invited strangers to touch her bare breasts through a stage strapped to her chest.

It is the great Mark Rothko leading Sotheby's first auctions in New York

È il grande Mark Rothko a guidare le prime aste di Sotheby’s a New York

Sotheby's kicked off New York's art and auction week with two major sales on May 14, 2026, led by the highly anticipated Robert Mnuchin: Collector at Heart Evening Auction. The top lot was Mark Rothko's "Brown and Blacks in Reds" (1957), which sold for $85.8 million, the second-highest price ever for the artist at auction. The Mnuchin auction achieved a "white glove" sale, selling all 11 lots for a total of $166.3 million, followed by The Now & Contemporary Evening Auction which brought in $266.8 million. Combined, Sotheby's generated $433.1 million, a 133% increase over its May 2025 session. The sales reflect a strong return of high-value trophy lots to the secondary market, driven by the dispersal of prominent collectors' estates.

Art Busan Is Building a More Sustainable Art Market

Art Busan, celebrating its 15th anniversary, will be held from May 21 to 24, 2026, at BEXCO in Busan, South Korea, bringing together over 110 galleries from 18 countries. The fair introduces two new integrated segments: DEFINE, which expands the fair to include collectible design, furniture, and craft, and LIGHTHAUS, which transforms gallery booths into curated spatial experiences to encourage deeper engagement. These initiatives aim to move beyond purely transactional sales and speculative momentum.

Maracas in hand, my toddler wanders freely through a gallery of priceless ceramics

A parent describes bringing their toddler to a "family-friendly drop-in" session at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, where children are allowed to roam freely among priceless ceramics and other artworks. The session is child-led and loosely structured, with activities like coloring, building blocks, and musical instruments placed directly in the galleries rather than in a separate cordoned-off area.

Mary Frank Creates Her Own Pantheon

Mary Frank, an artist in her early 90s known for mythologically rooted sculpture and works on paper, is the subject of a focused exhibition at Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects in New York. Curated by Steven Harvey, the show presents 11 sculptures in wood, bronze, and ceramic from 1958 to 1985, alongside five works on paper, including a monotype and an oil-on-paper piece. Frank’s work, influenced by her study with Martha Graham, centers on self-sustaining female figures that embody agency, tenderness, and survival, often rendered in ceramic slabs or carved wood.

The Guardian view on the legacy of the Festival of Britain: look to the future | Editorial

The Guardian editorial reflects on the 75th anniversary of the Festival of Britain, launched by King George VI on 3 May 1951 as a "tonic" for a war-weary nation. It highlights the festival's most enduring legacy: the construction of the South Bank, including the Royal Festival Hall, which later became the Southbank Centre—the UK's largest arts complex. This summer, commemorations include poems from London schoolchildren projected onto its walls and a mobile poetry library visiting coastal towns, recreating the journey of the repurposed naval ship Campania. The festival, a triumph for the Labour government, faced critics like Evelyn Waugh and Noël Coward, and much of its physical infrastructure was demolished by the incoming Conservative government, save for the Royal Festival Hall.

Can Raising Children Make You a Better Artist? Four Artist Mothers Weigh In.

Four artist mothers—Hope Atherton, Jessi Reaves, Sam Moyer, and Sarah Morris—share candid reflections on how raising children has shaped their art practices. They discuss fractured time, heightened decisiveness, evolving rituals like bedtime reading, and the guilt and power that accompany balancing motherhood with studio work. Atherton describes a new sense of urgency and efficiency, while Reaves and others offer personal anecdotes about the interplay between caregiving and creativity.

Georg Baselitz ist tot

German artist Georg Baselitz has died at the age of 88. According to Galerie Thaddeus Ropac, he passed away peacefully on Thursday. Born Hans-Georg Bruno Kern in 1938 in Deutschbaselitz, Saxony, Baselitz fled East Germany in 1957 after political repression and academic conflicts. His first solo exhibition in West Berlin in 1963 was shut down due to scandal, and works were confiscated. He became internationally known in the late 1960s for his radical upside-down painting, a signature inversion that destabilized pictorial logic. He also created an extensive sculptural body of work. Key career milestones include representing Germany at the Venice Biennale in 1980 alongside Anselm Kiefer, multiple Documenta appearances, the Praemium Imperiale in 2004, and election to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 2019. Major late-career exhibitions included "Nackte Meister" at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna in 2023.

This week's openings in Parisian galleries

Les vernissages cette semaine dans les galeries parisiennes

This week's openings in Parisian galleries feature a wide range of exhibitions across the Marais, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, and other districts. Highlights include Galerie Alain Margaron's group show "Du modèle à l'autoportrait" exploring the body in works by André Derain, Jean Hélion, Fred Deux, and Zoran Mušič; Kim Myoung Nam's first solo show at Galerie UNIVER / Colette Colla, presenting perforated paper pieces; and Galerie Wagner's collective exhibition dedicated to Latin American artists Milton Becerra, Olga Luna, and Claudia Lavegas. Other notable shows include Louis Pion's ink-on-envelope series at Galerie Incognito Artclub, Léonore Chastagner's raw ceramics at Galerie Anne-Sarah Bénichou, and solo presentations by Quentin Gouevic and Jérôme Zonder at Galerie Nathalie Obadia.

Robert Filliou, artistes océaniens… Que nous réserve la prochaine édition de la Biennale de Lyon ?

The 18th edition of the Lyon Biennale, titled "Passer d’un rêve à l’autre" (Moving from One Dream to Another), will run from September 19 to December 13, 2026. Curated by Catherine Nichols, an Australian-born art historian and editor based in Berlin, the biennial will take place across ten venues in Lyon, including the Grandes Locos, macLyon, and for the first time the Musée des Tissus et des Arts décoratifs. More than half of the works will be new productions, and over half of the artists are women, with a substantial focus on Oceanian artists such as Timo Hogan, Jazz Money, and Kaylene Whiskey. The exhibition draws inspiration from Lyon's traboules (hidden passageways) and the writings of artist Robert Filliou, exploring themes of dreams, critical analysis, and a "poetic economy."

Fairfield University Art Museum invites readers to private tour

Fairfield University Art Museum is offering an exclusive private tour to readers, as reported by the Westport Journal. The event provides a behind-the-scenes look at the museum's collections and exhibitions, allowing attendees to engage directly with curators and artworks in an intimate setting.

SFMOMA reimagines our connection to 250 works of art across four floors.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) has unveiled "Reimagined: The Fisher Collection at 10," a major reinstallation of approximately 250 works from 35 artists across four floors. The project was led by project assistant curator Ted Mann and chief education and public engagement officer Gamynne Guillotte, who collaborated to transform how the collection is presented. Changes include rotating galleries, such as the Agnes Martin room, to improve sightlines, and incorporating artists' voices, archival video, and interpretive tools to make abstract works more accessible. The reinstallation marks the tenth anniversary of the Fisher Collection's long-term loan to SFMOMA, originally arranged in 2009 and later extended to 100 years.

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.

Andy Warhol | Cow II.11A (1971) | For Sale

Andy Warhol's screenprint "Cow II.11A" (1971) is being offered for sale by Composition.Gallery, priced at $15,200. The work is a color screenprint on wallpaper, printed by Bill Miller's Wallpaper Studio, Inc., New York, and published by Factory Additions, New York, for a Warhol exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art from May 1 to June 13, 1971. It is part of a limited edition of 100, stamped by the artist's estate, and includes a certificate of authenticity.

Rene Matić wins 2026 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize

Rene Matić has won the 2026 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize, becoming the first British winner in over a decade. The announcement was made at The Photographers’ Gallery in London on May 14, 2025, where Matić received £30,000 for their exhibition *AS OPPOSED TO THE TRUTH*, which uses photography, installation, and sound to explore identity and belonging. Matić was nominated for the show at the Center for Contemporary Arts Berlin (CCA Berlin) and is also a recent Turner Prize nominee. The prize exhibition runs at The Photographers’ Gallery until June 7, alongside works by fellow shortlisted artists Jane Evelyn Atwood, Weronika Gęsicka, and Amak Mahmoodian.

Our 7 Favorite Artworks Under $10,000 from the 2026 New York Art Week Fairs

New York Art Week 2026 features over 350 art fair booths across Manhattan, with six major fairs forming the core of the event. The article highlights seven favorite artworks priced under $10,000, offering accessible entry points for collectors during the city's busiest art season.

Mounting Rene Matić’s snapshots in Perspex isn’t really enough to make them interesting | Charlotte Jansen

Rene Matić, at 29, became the youngest winner of the £30,000 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation prize, nominated for their solo exhibition "As Opposed to the Truth" at CCA Berlin. A smaller version of that show is now at the Photographers’ Gallery in London. Matić was also the youngest Turner Prize nominee last year. The article critiques Matić's work, praising their 2022 piece "Upon This Rock" for exploring masculinity, fatherhood, and British identity, but dismissing much of their other output—like the snapshot installation "Feelings Wheel"—as immature, mediocre, and reliant on display gimmicks rather than photographic substance.

Across Venice, Artists Defy Censorship to Mourn and Memorialize Gaza

The 2026 Venice Biennale, titled “In Minor Keys,” features numerous artworks that mourn and memorialize the destruction of Gaza, despite censorship pressures. The main exhibition opens with a poem by slain Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, and includes works by artists such as Theo Eshetu, Mohammed Joha, Manuel Mathieu, and Avi Mograbi that directly or indirectly address the conflict. Outside the official Biennale, South African artist Gabrielle Goliath’s performance series “Elegy” was censored by her country’s culture minister after she proposed a version honoring murdered Palestinian poet Hiba Abu Nada, leading her to present the work independently at a church in Venice.

At the Venice Biennale I saw anger at Russia and Israel – and its leadership pretending everything was fine | Charlotte Higgins

At the 2024 Venice Biennale, the Russian pavilion returned with festive performances and prosecco deliveries, drawing sharp criticism from observers who saw it as a propaganda effort to distract from Russia's war in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Ukraine's Kramatorsk was bombed, and protests erupted, including a Pussy Riot intervention. Biennale president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco defended Russia's and Israel's participation, rejecting preemptive bans despite open letters and appeals. European Commission investigated potential sanctions breaches, and culture ministers from Ukraine, Poland, Estonia, and Baltic states boycotted or condemned the biennale's stance, accusing it of yielding to the aggressor.

Numerous Venice Biennale Pavilions and Artists Go on Strike in Protest over Israel’s Participation

Thousands of protesters marched through Venice on the eve of the Venice Biennale's public opening, organized by Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA), to demand Israel's exclusion from the event. At least 18 national pavilions—including Austria, Belgium, France, Great Britain, and Ukraine—participated in a 24-hour strike, shutting down completely or partially. Protesters chanted slogans, waved Palestinian flags, and carried banners reading "no genocide pavilions," while ANGA released a statement with 236 signatories calling for Israel's removal, citing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Radiohead Spectacle in Brooklyn Teems with World-Building Paintings, Sculpture, and Film

Radiohead has launched a multimedia installation, exhibition, and screening experience titled "Motion Picture House KID A MNESIA" at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, running through June 28. The immersive event features artwork related to the band's albums Kid A and Amnesiac, including screenprints, a video array with vintage TVs, and a 25-foot-tall sculpture of the band's recurring "Stickman" figure. The centerpiece is a hour-plus film set in a black-and-white woods, accompanied by the band's music, with no dialogue or wall text, allowing visitors to freely explore the darkened space. Tickets are $72, and the experience will travel to Chicago, Mexico City, and San Francisco.

What Every Collector Should Know About Buying Performance Art

Artsy Editorial explores the complexities of collecting performance art, explaining that ownership typically involves acquiring documentation, scores, or rights to reactivate a performance rather than the live event itself. The article outlines how artists, dealers, and collectors navigate transactions for this ephemeral medium, addressing the challenges of preservation, display, and market value.

A Poetic and Material Institutional Critique: Gala Porras-Kim at kurimanzutto and the Venice Biennale

UNA CRÍTICA INSTITUCIONAL POÉTICA Y MATERIAL: GALA PORRAS-KIM EN KURIMANZUTTO Y LA BIENAL DE VENECIA

Colombian artist Gala Porras-Kim presents her first solo exhibition at kurimanzutto gallery in Mexico City, titled "Espacios del futuro replican los del pasado" (2026), alongside her participation in the 2026 Venice Biennale. The show critically examines how museum conservation protocols transform objects by detaching them from their original material, ritual, and spiritual contexts. Central to the exhibition is "The Motion of an Alluvial Record" (2024), a greenhouse that recreates the humidity and temperature of Yucatecan mangroves, allowing clay and sediment to shift continuously, resisting the linear, stratified time of Western archives and evoking cyclical Maya cosmologies. Another series, "Uprooted" (2026), reproduces fragments of looted Teotihuacan murals from Techinantitla, now held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Ethnological Museum of Berlin, reinstalling them near the floor to restore their original architectural scale and orientation.

Nasher Museum’s ‘Everything Now All At Once’ Celebrates Diversity, Resilience, and Joy

The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University is presenting 'Everything Now All At Once,' an exhibition drawn entirely from its permanent collection that features works by over a dozen contemporary artists including Nick Cave, Ai Weiwei, Nina Chanel Abney, Wangechi Mutu, Jeffrey Gibson, Amy Sherald, and Barbara Chase-Riboud. The show focuses on painting and sculpture—deliberately analog mediums in an era of rapid technological change—and highlights pieces acquired over the past twenty years that center artists from historically marginalized backgrounds. Running since August 2025, the exhibition will rotate new works next month and continue through November 1 in Durham, North Carolina.

Evelyn Taocheng Wang ”Sweet Landscape” at MUSEION, Bolzano

Museion in Bolzano, Italy, presents the first institutional solo exhibition in Italy by Evelyn Taocheng Wang, a Rotterdam-based artist born in 1981 in Chengdu. The exhibition, titled "Sweet Landscape," showcases her work across painting, writing, installation, performance, and fashion, featuring a visual language that blends poetry, subtle humor, and critical depth while intertwining art historical traditions and fragments.

“Adam Pendleton + Antoni Tàpies” at Alfonso Artiaco, Naples

Mousse Magazine reports on the two-person exhibition "Adam Pendleton + Antoni Tàpies" at Alfonso Artiaco in Naples, which pairs the contemporary American artist Adam Pendleton with the late Spanish master Antoni Tàpies. The show explores how both artists use painting as a site where language, materiality, and history converge, highlighting Tàpies's textured, sign-laden surfaces and Pendleton's conceptual engagement with abstraction and text.