‘It takes an entire museum to do it justice’: the Smithsonian celebrates America in 250 objects

The Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington DC is marking the 250th anniversary of US independence with a major exhibition titled "In Pursuit of Life, Liberty & Happiness," opening on 14 May. The show displays 250 objects spanning all three floors of the museum, ranging from a Revolutionary War-era gunboat (the Philadelphia) to a Donald Trump "Make America great again" hat. Seventy-six rarely seen objects are concentrated in entry hall cases, while the rest are embedded throughout existing galleries, connected by a "ribbon" design. Director Anthea Hartig frames the exhibition as a commemoration of moments where individuals and communities fought for recognition and identity, pairing each object with an action verb to emphasize democracy as participatory.

Fire erupts at San Francisco's Vaillancourt Fountain during its dismantling

A fire broke out at San Francisco's Vaillancourt Fountain on May 4, 2025, as construction crews used torches to dismantle the 1971 Brutalist structure, igniting debris inside its steel tubes. The San Francisco Arts Commission confirmed the fire was quickly extinguished with no major damage, but the incident has raised concerns about safety protocols, as workers were reportedly not wearing protective gear against potential lead or asbestos exposure, and no public warnings were posted. The dismantling proceeded after a California appeals court denied a request from the local coalition Friends of the Plaza to halt the removal, which the city justified citing asbestos and structural risks.

Not Just the Biennale: What to See in Venice in Spring 2026 Among Galleries, Independent Spaces, and Special Projects

Non solo Biennale: cosa vedere a Venezia nella primavera 2026 tra gallerie, spazi indipendenti e progetti speciali

The article highlights a curated selection of exhibitions to see in Venice during spring 2026, beyond the main shows of the 61st Venice Biennale. It features projects in galleries, independent spaces, and historic venues, including a group show titled "Waves" at Casa Sanlorenzo with works by Alexander Calder and Lucio Fontana, a video installation by Ieva Lygnugarytė at Oratorio dei Crociferi, a Judy Chicago survey at Galleria Alberta Pane, a solo show by Hanna Rochereau at Mare Karina, and a Barry X Ball retrospective at the Abbey of San Giorgio Maggiore.

Salisbury Cathedral restores stained-glass treasure by Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris

Salisbury Cathedral has completed a two-year restoration of a stained-glass window designed by Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris. The 6.5-metre "Angels" window, depicting ministering and praising angels, was carefully removed in February 2024, cleaned, and fitted with protective glazing and oak frames. Head glazier Sam Kelly, who began as an apprentice at the cathedral 40 years ago, led the project alongside colleagues Vicky Pearce, Kate Kersey, and Alfie Durrant. Lost details were restored on backing glass rather than the original surface, and the window will be rededicated at an evensong service on 7 May.

Trippy Film by British-Ethiopian Artist Theo Eshetu Hits the Venice Biennale

British-Ethiopian artist Theo Eshetu is presenting a new installation, *The Garden of the Broken-Hearted* (2026), at the Venice Biennale. The work features a live olive tree mounted on a rotating dais, with a video of the tree projected onto itself, marking a shift from his decades-long practice of multi-screen video installations. Eshetu discusses the project's origins in conversations with the late Biennale curator Koyo Kouoh, framing the tree as a space for mourning, human consciousness, and elemental storytelling.

Read a book, flip off a Nazi: when reading meant resistance – in pictures

A new exhibition at Poster House in New York, titled "Reading Under Fire: Arming Minds & Hearts During Wartime," showcases vintage posters from World War I and World War II that promoted reading and book donations to support troops. The posters, drawn from the collections of the American Library Association, the YMCA, and other organizations, encouraged the public to supply soldiers with reading material as a form of morale-boosting and education. The exhibition runs until 1 November and is curated by Molly Guptill Manning.

‘We’re attached to this land like a tree is rooted in soil’: unexpectedly timely exhibition speaks up for the people of south Lebanon

An exhibition titled 'Forget Me Not: South Lebanon in Memory and Motion' was held at London's Palestine House earlier this month. It featured archival news footage from 2000, photographs, audiovisual materials, and children's drawings to document the history, culture, and resilience of southern Lebanon, a region experiencing renewed conflict.

What can 160-million-year-old clay tell us about AI and ethics? Inside Es Devlin’s tech and pottery summit

Artist and stage designer Es Devlin convened a diverse group of AI researchers, tech experts, and academics at the Oxford Kilns for a unique summit blending pottery with ethical debate. Participants engaged in the tactile process of shaping 160-million-year-old Jurassic clay while discussing the moral implications of artificial intelligence, ranging from the Turing test to Isaac Asimov’s laws. This collaborative workshop serves as a precursor to Devlin’s upcoming installation, "360 Vessels," created in partnership with composer Nico Muhly.

In Munich, Two Artists Imagine Futures Both Playful and Epic

The Munich gallery Filser and Gräf is presenting a two-person exhibition titled "Medèn ágan – Nothing in Excess," featuring artists Paris Giachoustidis and Toshihiko Mitsuya. The show uses the ancient Greek maxim as a curatorial framework, with Mitsuya's delicate, reflective aluminum sculptures and Giachoustidis's paintings of futuristic, cosmic landscapes exploring themes of balance, scale, and humanity's place in the universe.

All and Nothing review – inspiring tale of the Chinese artist who cultivated a grassroots scene in Cumbria

A new documentary film, 'All and Nothing,' profiles the life and legacy of Chinese artist Li Yuan-chia, who founded the influential LYC Museum and Art Gallery in rural Cumbria, England, in 1972. The film, directed by Liao I-ling and Chu Po-ying, uses his abstract art and archival materials to trace his journey from China and Taiwan to Italy and London, before he settled in Brampton.

bernini sculpture elephant rome damaged vandalism

A fragment of the tusk from Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s 17th-century elephant sculpture in Rome’s Piazza della Minerva was discovered broken off and lying on the ground. Local authorities and police are currently reviewing security footage to determine if the damage to the marble work was caused by intentional vandalism or recent heavy rainfall.

tuwaiq sculpture returns to riyadh with monumental new works

The seventh edition of the Tuwaiq Sculpture symposium has opened in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Titled "Traces of What Will Be," the month-long event features 25 international artists creating large-scale, site-specific sculptures in a public, live-sculpting phase. The open-air exhibition showcases works made from local stone and reclaimed materials, responding to themes of memory, sustainability, and the relationship between humans and their environment.

ukrainian pavilion venice biennale 2026 security guarantees

The Ukrainian Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale will present a project titled "Security Guarantees," focusing on the failure of international promises to protect Ukraine, specifically referencing the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. Artist Zhanna Kadyrova will exhibit her concrete sculpture, Origami Deer, which was evacuated from eastern Ukraine as the Russian frontline advanced. The work will be suspended from a crane on a truck along the lagoon, and the pavilion will include archival material and a video installation tracing the sculpture's journey.

fabrizio plessi galleria barovier toso

Italian video art pioneer Fabrizio Plessi has opened a new exhibition, "Fabrizio Plessi: Drowning in a Glass of Water," at the recently rebranded Galleria Barovier and Toso in Venice. The show features a monumental installation of rings placed in dialogue with the gallery's historic chandeliers, alongside a series of glass sculptures that mimic traditional water vessels but are largely solid, creating a trompe l'oeil effect. The works incorporate moving images and sounds of water.

hispanic society spanish fashion

The article examines 'Spanish Style: Fashion Illuminated,' an exhibition at the Hispanic Society Museum in New York curated by Amanda Wunder. It explores how Spanish fashion from the Habsburg dynasty (1516–1700) used luxurious materials like logwood black, gold, silver, silk, and lace to project imperial power and religious austerity. The show features portraits of royalty and nobility, including works by Diego Velázquez and Juan de Pareja, highlighting how clothing served as a uniform of status and belonging rather than individual expression.

mindy seu lecture a sexual history of the internet

Designer and digital researcher Mindy Seu presented her performance lecture "A Sexual History of the Internet" at New York's Performance Space, using an Instagram Stories format to explore how sex has shaped digital tools and infrastructure. The audience followed synchronized prompts on their phones, reading scripted text and viewing archival materials, with the lecture credited to Julio Correa's influence from Seu's class at the Yale School of Art. The sold-out event is part of a tour that will next visit the Kunstverein in Hamburg and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo.

australian government rejects proposal text data mining ai companies

On Monday, Australian Attorney General Michelle Rowland confirmed the federal government's rejection of a proposal that would have allowed tech companies to use text and data mining to train artificial intelligence models. The proposal, initially presented to the Productivity Commission in August, had been advocated by tech firms including Atlassian cofounder Scott Farquhar, who argued for copyright changes similar to those in the US and Europe. The decision follows backlash from Australian creatives, including rapper Adam Briggs, author Anna Funder, the Australian Council of Trade Unions, and the Australian Recording Industry Association.

puzzle roman fresco london

Archaeologists from the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) have uncovered one of the largest collections of painted Roman wall plaster ever found in London at a development site in Southwark. The fragments, which shattered into thousands of pieces, were discovered in a pit and took three months to reassemble by senior building material specialist Han Li, who described it as assembling "the world's most difficult jigsaw puzzle." The plaster includes rare evidence of a painter's signature, unusual Greek alphabet graffiti, and a crying face graffito, along with vibrant yellow panel designs featuring birds, fruit, flowers, and lyres.

sothebys napoleons auction bicorne hat

Sotheby's will auction approximately 100 lots from the private collection of French antiques collector Pierre-Jean Chalençon on June 25 in Paris, including Napoleon Bonaparte's iconic bicorne hat (estimated at €800,000), a herald sword and stick from his 1804 coronation, his personal gold and ebony seal, worn stockings, and a portable camp bed. The sale, described as one of the most significant offerings of Napoleonic material ever to come to market, spans imperial furniture, Old Master paintings, and personal relics. Chalençon, who has amassed the collection over four decades, is reportedly selling the items to repay a €10 million loan from Swiss Life Banque Privée, though he has denied being deeply in debt.

auction abraham lincoln memorabilia

A collection of Abraham Lincoln memorabilia, including personal possessions, autograph letters, and campaign artifacts, was auctioned by Freeman’s | Hindman in Chicago on May 22. The sale, held on behalf of the Lincoln Presidential Foundation, featured around 140 lots and exceeded expectations, totaling nearly $7.9 million. The top lot was a pair of blood-stained white kid gloves Lincoln wore the night of his assassination, which sold for $1.5 million. Other highlights included a cuff button bearing the initial 'L' that fetched $445,000 and a handwritten math exercise from Lincoln’s youth that sold for $521,200.

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.

Must-See Museum Exhibits Opening in Colorado in 2026

Several Colorado museums are launching new exhibitions in 2026. The Museum of Boulder presents "Blazing Trail for 150 Years at CU Boulder" (Jan 16–Mar 1), celebrating the university's sesquicentennial. The Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (BMoCA) opens "Yes &…" (Jan 29–May 3), featuring 18 artists exploring human-made art in the age of AI. History Colorado Center mounts "Mountains Majesty: On the Summit With John Fielder" (Jan 24, 2026–Jan 10, 2027), showcasing landscape photographs by the late John Fielder. MCA Denver hosts Ana María Hernando's solo exhibition "Seguir Cantando (Keep Singing)" (Mar 5–Jul 5), featuring tulle sculptures.

An L.A. Artist Devoted to the Process of Paint

Los Angeles-based artist Sandy Rodriguez is profiled for her multifaceted practice that extends far beyond traditional painting. Her work involves deep research into art history, botany, and indigenous materials, positioning her as a scientist, historian, and alchemist as much as a painter.

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.

Long Live the King?

Sam Jacob's essay in ArtReview uses the upcoming Baz Luhrmann film 'EPIC: Elvis Presley in Concert' (2026) as a springboard to explore the cultural and technical implications of digital restoration. The film, a spinoff from Luhrmann's 2022 Elvis biopic, draws on 59 hours of previously unseen footage from Elvis Presley's 1970 and 1972 Las Vegas performances, recovered from Warner's Kansas salt-mine archive. Using Peter Jackson's Park Road Post technology—including Machine Assisted Learning (MAL) for demixing audio and video—the damaged, fragmented material has been digitally scanned, reconstructed, and enhanced to 4k resolution with 12-channel sound, presented in IMAX cinemas.

Shigeo Toya, artist who looked to nature with his wood sculptures, 1947–2026

Shigeo Toya, the Japanese artist renowned for his chainsaw-hewn wood sculptures, has died at age 79. Born in 1947 in a small village in Nagano Prefecture, Toya began his signature Woods series in 1984, carving rough textures into tall lumber and arranging the pieces like a forest. His series Twenty Eight Deaths featured stacked wooden blocks with cavities and burn marks. Toya represented Japan at the Venice Biennale in 1988 and later exhibited at the Asia Pacific Triennial (1993) and Gwangju Biennale (2000). A major survey of his work was held at the Nagano Prefectural Art Museum and The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, in 2022–23.

Five Artists on Representing India at the 61st Venice Biennale

India has announced its artist lineup for the 61st Venice Biennale, featuring Alwar Balasubramaniam, Sumakshi Singh, Ranjani Shettar, Asim Waqif, and Skarma Sonam Tashi. The national pavilion, located in the Arsenale, will showcase a diverse range of installations that explore themes of architectural memory, environmental sustainability, and the physical processes of nature. From Tashi’s recreations of Ladakhi homes using recycled materials to Singh’s spectral thread-based architectural fragments, the works collectively examine the fragility of heritage and the shifting relationship between humans and their environments.

Julie Hamisky's garden, the artist who fixes the ephemeral in time, is on show in a Milan auction house

Il giardino di Julie Hamisky, l’artista che fissa l’effimero nel tempo è in mostra in una casa d’aste di Milano

French artist and designer Julie Hamisky presents 'Giardino Alchemico' (Alchemical Garden) at Pandolfini Auction House in Milan during Fuorisalone 2025. The exhibition, organized in collaboration with Galerie Mitterrand of Paris, features around twenty works including monumental sculptures like 'La Géante' (a giant poppy), jewelry, and a chandelier titled 'Aqua'. Hamisky uses electroplating—a 19th-century technique she learned from her father-in-law—to preserve fresh flowers and botanical forms by coating them in metal, freezing them at the peak of their beauty before decay begins.

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.

Sung Tieu and the Art of Difficulty

Sung Tieu, a Vietnamese-born German artist, is the subject of a critical feature in Frieze that examines her work's engagement with difficulty—both in terms of the complex political and historical themes she tackles and the challenging formal qualities of her installations. The article highlights her recent projects, including works shown at the Venice Biennale, which address issues of surveillance, migration, and Cold War legacies through meticulous research and unconventional materials.