Archaeologists have translated 2,000-year-old graffiti in Old Tamil, Sanskrit, and Kharosti script found on the walls of six tombs in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. The inscriptions, dating from the 1st to 3rd centuries CE, include one individual, Cikai Korran, who wrote his name eight times across five tombs, effectively 'tagging' the ancient site.
The Art Institute of Chicago is hosting a gallery conversation on June 1 titled "Ideal Landscapes in Painting and Photography." The program, led by curators Yechen Zhao and Felice Graciela Robles, will examine idealized representations of nature in East Asian art, comparing painted landscapes from the Korean National Treasures exhibition with a 1938 photograph by Chinese artist Lang Jingshan. The discussion will explore the blurred boundaries between ideal and real, as well as between painting and photography.
Bruce Katsiff, the founding director of the Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, has returned to the institution with his first-ever exhibition at the museum, titled 'Pieces of a Life.' The retrospective showcases six decades of Katsiff's photography, including series such as 'Face Maps,' 'River Town Portraits,' and 'Nature Morte,' as well as collaborative works never before exhibited. Katsiff, who led the museum from 1989 to 2012, transformed it from an arts center into a full-fledged museum, building a collection focused on regional artists from Bucks County and overseeing the installation of iconic spaces like the Nakashima Room.
The exhibition 'Beading Métis Resurgence' at the University of Winnipeg's Gallery 1C03 showcases the work of renowned Métis artist Jennine Krauchi alongside four emerging Red River Métis beadworkers she has mentored. Curated by gallery director Jennifer Gibson and history professor Cathy Mattes, the show features Krauchi's centerpiece work 'The Lady'—a beaded coat, muff, hat, and boots—and explores beadwork as contemporary art, cultural knowledge, and intergenerational practice. The exhibition runs until July 10 and includes a table and chairs evoking the kitchen-table lessons where Krauchi passed down her skills.
A trio of Midwest photographers—Qingjun Huang, Natalie Jackson, and Matthew Terry—will showcase their latest works at the Quad City Arts Center in Rock Island, Illinois, from May 8 through June 19. The exhibition, titled "Huang, Jackson, & Terry," features Huang, a Peoria-based freelancer born in China with international exhibition credits including Christie’s London and the Benaki Museum; Jackson, a portrait and fine arts photographer from Peoria who serves on the board of the Contemporary Art Center of Peoria; and Terry, a Davenport-based contemporary photographer and Academy of Art University graduate whose work has been shown in galleries across the U.S. and Europe.
An exhibition at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead is showcasing "Blazing Trails," a project by local artist Sofia Barton originally commissioned for Tyne and Wear Metro trains. The artwork celebrates the hidden heritage of north-east England by depicting lesser-known community leaders, including suffragette Kathleen Brown and Chinatown founders Koon Kiu Cheng and Peter Cheng. The display runs until 27 September in the Baltic's pop-up shop.
The Sovereign Art Foundation and Gibraltar Cultural Services announced the winners of the 2026 Sovereign Young Artist Competition at an awards ceremony on April 16. The exhibition showcases finalists in two age categories, with winners including Aimee Linares (SAF Judges’ Prize), Amelie Romero (SAF Public Vote Prize), Sebastian Andlaw (Alwani Foundation Award), Shelli Abudarham (Ministry of Culture Award), and Tyrone Vera (AquaGib Second Prize). The top student winner received £800, with £2,000 awarded to their school's art department.
The Tarble Arts Center hosted the opening reception for the 2026 Master of Arts in Studio Art Exhibition, featuring thesis projects from 11 graduate students. The exhibition showcased a diverse range of mediums, including an immersive installation by Vitória Kazanovski that recreated her grandmother’s Brazilian kitchen using audio and textured cookbooks, and a ceramic series by Wendy Peters that highlighted the technical mistakes and evolution of her craft.
The Silverman Gallery of Bucks County Impressionist Art is hosting a solo exhibition titled “Jean Childs Buzgo: Dreamscapes & Discoveries,” running from April 11 through May 3. The showcase features a diverse collection of the artist's newest paintings, including large-scale florals, local Bucks County landscapes, and works inspired by her travels to Scotland and Ireland. Many of the pieces originated during the pandemic in 2020 and have been recently revisited and resolved using a mix of oil, acrylic, wax crayon, and collage.
Artists Emily and George Thompson are set to debut a joint exhibition titled “Double Feature: A Two-Person Show” at the historic Stover Mill Gallery in Erwinna, Pennsylvania. The exhibition juxtaposes Emily’s contemporary urban landscapes and architectural forms with George’s traditional landscape paintings, showcasing the creative dialogue between the couple who share a studio.
The Brown Arts Institute has launched the 46th Annual Student Exhibition at the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, featuring a diverse array of multimedia works, sculptures, and installations. Juried by artists Tarik Bartel and Jinghong Chen, the exhibition showcases student talent across various disciplines, with Alex Schupak taking first place for his multimedia sculpture "Impression/Expression." The show highlights themes ranging from the reliability of photographic truth to explorations of gender dysmorphia and childhood.
Amelchenko Gallery has officially opened its doors in Red Bank, New Jersey, relocating from Sea Bright to the Galleria complex on Bridge Avenue. The gallery celebrated its arrival with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and a reception for its inaugural exhibition, "Reel Icons," featuring the work of New York-based artist Ginette Laboz. Laboz utilizes a unique pointillist technique, applying paint with pastry tools to create large-scale reinterpretations of iconic cinematic moments from films like "Pulp Fiction" and "When Harry Met Sally."
The Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery in Lindsborg, Kansas, has rescheduled the reception for its 128th annual Midwest Art Exhibition to Saturday, February 7, 2026, from 2 to 4 p.m., with exhibition talks at 2:30 p.m. The show features works by Tim Stone and Marco Hernandez of Wichita, woodcarvings by Glenn Knak of Salina, mixed media pieces by Genevieve Waller of Denver, and selections by Gretchen Elliott’s art students at Smoky Valley High School.
The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London will revamp its Gilbert Galleries, dedicated to the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Collection, expanding from four to seven galleries. Set to open in March, the redesigned space by Citizens Design Bureau will include a new room focused on Nazi and Soviet looting and provenance research. Highlights include 200 gold boxes, micro-mosaics, and two silver-gilt gates looted from Kyiv’s Pechersk Lavra monastery after the Russian Revolution, acquired by William Randolph Hearst in 1935. The expansion is part of the V&A’s Future Plan development programme, funded by the Gilbert Trust for the Arts and The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
The Bangkok Art and Culture Center (BACC) censored an exhibition titled 'Constellation of Complicity: Visualising the Global Machinery of Authoritarian Solidarity' after pressure from the Chinese Embassy in Thailand. Works by artists from Hong Kong, Tibet, and the Uyghur diaspora were blacked out or removed to avoid 'diplomatic tensions between Thailand and China.' The curators fled the country after Chinese officials and Thai police visited the museum. Affected artists include Doc Tenzin, Mukaddas Mijit, Clara Cheung, and Gun Cheng Yee Man, whose names were blacked out, along with Tibetan and Uyghur flags and a graphic comparing China to Israel.
Norwich Castle has reopened after a five-year, £27.5m renovation that reinstates long-lost royal rooms within its medieval keep. The Royal Palace Reborn project added a bedroom, chapel, kitchen, banqueting hall, and medieval toilets, recreating the spaces as they would have appeared when King Henry I stayed in 1121. Visitors can explore the rooms with period-appropriate furniture, textiles, and painted decorations, plus new animations projected onto the keep's walls. A new Gallery of Medieval Life, developed with the British Museum, displays over 900 medieval objects, including 50 on long-term loan from the British Museum.
An unfinished mountain in Berlin's Grunewald forest, built from the rubble of 400,000 buildings and once used as a Cold War listening station by the US NSA, has been transformed into Europe's largest open-air street art gallery. Since opening to the public in 2011, Teufelsberg now hosts over 400 works across 2,400 square meters, featuring artists such as El Bocho, Nina Valkhoff, Hera, and Dan Kitchener. The site operates as a curated exhibition space with admission fees, guided tours, and regular new commissions, and has been a listed building since November 2018.
Shellburne Thurber's retrospective exhibition "Full Circle" runs from October 24, 2025 to March 21, 2026 at the Bates Museum of Art. The show surveys Thurber's decades-long photographic investigation of interior spaces—from her grandmother's home in southern Indiana in the 1970s to psychoanalytic offices published as a book in 2023 by Kehrer Verlag. Curated by Bates curator Samantha Sigmon, the exhibition traces how Thurber has consistently explored the relationship between constructed space and human energy, focusing on private, domestic, and psychological interiors that blur the line between public and private.
Hamburger Galeristin Jenny Falckenberg unerwartet gestorben
The Hamburg art world is mourning the sudden passing of gallery owner and art agent Jenny Falckenberg, who died in her sleep at the age of 45. The daughter of the late legendary collector Harald Falckenberg, she had established herself as a significant force in the German contemporary art scene, known for her ability to bridge the gap between established figures and emerging talent.
Whitney-Biennale zwischen Niedlichkeit und Panik
The Whitney Museum of American Art has unveiled its latest Biennial, a sprawling survey of contemporary art that navigates the tension between playful aesthetics and existential dread. Curators have embraced an expanded definition of American art, incorporating global perspectives and diverse media to reflect a nation grappling with political instability and social change. The exhibition oscillates between moments of "cuteness" and "panic," utilizing strong visual narratives to address the complexities of the current era.
Pioneer Works in New York presents "The Endless Garment: Atlantic Basin," a transnational exhibition curated by Jeppe Ugelvig. The show features work by artists and collectives including Serena Chang, Chang Yuchen, CFGNY, Huang Po-Chih, and Shanzhai Lyric, examining representations of Asian fashion production. It builds upon a prior 2021 exhibition at Beijing's X Museum and a related publication.
From May 21 to November 1, 2026, the GAM—Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Turin—launches its new exhibition season titled "Fourth Resonance," a program dedicated to the languages of drawing, sign, and stroke. The season includes multiple exhibitions, notably "Un altro Novecento. Works on Paper from the GAM Collections," curated by Fabio Cafagna and Elena Volpato, which brings together over 600 works on paper spanning the 20th century, from Symbolism to the 1990s. Featured artists include Lucio Fontana, Giorgio Morandi, Filippo de Pisis, Max Beckmann, and many others, with monographic rooms and contemporary interventions woven into the museum's collections.
An exhibition titled "Cagecircle: Composition for an Exhibition—curated by chance!" will open on June 27, 2026, at Bard College’s Stevenson Library in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, as part of Upstate Art Weekend. The show features archival items from twenty-two collections, selected using John Cage's chance procedures, including works by Marcel Duchamp, Hannah Arendt’s kitchen cabinet door, a death mask, and an architecture model of a garage. The opening includes free performances of Cage’s "Lecture on Nothing" and "Extended Lullaby."
Chuck Connelly's monumental 1994 painting "Coliseum" has been unveiled at One Art Space in Tribeca, New York, after spending 21 years in storage. The 90-by-108-inch oil on canvas, a signature work of the late American artist known for his fiercely expressive style, is now on public view for the first time since 2005. The May 2, 2026 unveiling was attended by family members including Adrienne Connelly, as well as notable figures such as MaryAnn Giella McCulloh, Mei Fung, and others.
Polish painter Zuzanna Szary discusses her artistic journey and the intersection of queer identity, domesticity, and painting in an interview with Wojciech Szymański. Szary recounts discovering her lesbian identity in junior high and turning to painting after a period of clinical depression, eventually studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. Her work, which has evolved from portraits of partners to still lifes centered on food and home, explores themes of softness, sensuality, and the politics of the body, drawing inspiration from figures like Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas.
Stephen Stokes, a 66-year-old retired kitchen business owner from Penarth, Wales, has staged his first-ever art exhibition after a lifetime of painting. The show, held at Llanover Hall Arts Centre in Cardiff, features works spanning decades, including portraits, still lifes, and scenes painted from life. Stokes, who studied at art college in Liverpool in the 1980s, was inspired by post-Impressionist masters like Matisse, Van Gogh, and Monet. Around 80 people attended the opening, and several visitors expressed interest in purchasing his work, though he had not initially priced the pieces.
The article traces the history and significance of corporate art collections, beginning with Deutsche Bank's acquisition of 57 early drawings by Joseph Beuys in the late 1970s, which led to the formal launch of its collection in 1980. Today, the Deutsche Bank Collection comprises over 57,000 objects displayed in 500 locations across 40 countries, and the bank sponsors events like the Frieze Art Fair. The piece also highlights the role of American banker David Rockefeller, who inaugurated Chase Manhattan Bank's Art at Work program in 1959, and notes that corporate collecting has deep roots in Renaissance banking, with institutions like Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena commissioning art for their offices.
The Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) will present an exhibition titled "Desert Perspectives" focusing on the Southwest landscape. The show will explore artistic interpretations of the desert environment through works by various contemporary artists.
The Italian Cultural Institute in Beijing hosted a lecture on May 12, 2026, featuring Zhou Zhiwei, a Chinese painter based in Italy, who shared his four-decade artistic journey. Zhou, born in Shanghai in 1954, studied under renowned oil painters Yu Yunjie and Liu Kemin before entering the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice in 1980, where he learned from masters like Bruno Saetti and Emilio Vedova. He also trained with Pietro Annigoni and Riccardo Tommasi Ferroni, mastering fresco and tempera grassa techniques. The event was chaired by Federico Antonelli, cultural counselor of the Italian Embassy in China, who recalled Zhou's first exhibition at the institute in 1984. Zhou discussed his solo exhibition 'Notes along the Way,' which explores the Mediterranean through an Eastern lens, blending classical Italian painting with Chinese tradition.
The Haggerty Museum of Art at Marquette University in Milwaukee announces a summer 2026 season featuring three exhibitions: the Mary L. Nohl Fund Fellowships for Individual Artists 2025, showcasing five local artists; After the Empire: American Prints from the Haggerty Collection, examining American identity through satire and social commentary; and Defying Empire: Revolutionary Prints from Britain and America, challenging traditional narratives of the American Revolution. The exhibitions run from June 4 to August 1, 2026, with the Nohl Fellowship co-presented with the Lynden Sculpture Garden.