A non-speaking autistic artist's paintings are being featured in a gallery show in Washington, D.C. The article, published by Washingtonian, highlights the artist's unique creative expression and the upcoming exhibition that brings their work to a broader audience.
Malak Mattar, a 25-year-old self-taught Gazan artist, has become the first Palestinian to receive a solo exhibition at London's Central Saint Martins (CSM). After winning a scholarship for a Master's in Fine Art at CSM, she was trapped in Gaza until October 6, 2023, the day before the Hamas attack and subsequent Israeli invasion. Her show, opening May 15 at Window Galleries, features powerful works like 'No Words' (2024), a monochrome canvas likened to Picasso's Guernica, and 'Gaza's Phoenix' (2025), a colorful collage symbolizing resilience. Mattar has also faced institutional challenges, including a lack of public solidarity from the University of the Arts London (UAL) regarding Gaza and financial disparities compared to Ukrainian students.
The African Art in Venice Forum is continuing its mission of addressing the continent’s artistic needs, even as it mourns the loss of Koyo Kouoh, a key supporter. The forum, which draws inspiration from a former champion, aims to amplify African voices in the global art scene, particularly during the Venice Biennale.
Poet Ella Frears has composed a new literary work in response to Charlie Prodger’s 2024 drawing, 'Volcano Snake Sun, September'. The poem explores themes of observation, physical detachment, and the tension between tranquility and underlying violence, mirroring the shift in Prodger’s practice from conceptual film to representational pencil-and-pastel works on paper.
The Sherman Fund has acquired works by emerging artists for donation to US museums, supporting new talent and expanding institutional collections. The initiative focuses on acquiring pieces from lesser-known contemporary artists and placing them in public institutions to increase accessibility and representation.
The article profiles artist Davide Hjort Di Fabio, whose work explores the experience of chronic illness and the sick body through sculpture and installation. He uses materials like silicone, resin, and medical paraphernalia to create visceral forms that challenge conventional representations of health and the human form.
Catherine Christer Hennix's exhibition at Malmö Konsthall presents an austere yet expansive body of work that weaves together mathematics, mysticism, and sound. The artist's practice is characterized by a focus on absence, silence, and negative space, creating an immersive environment that challenges conventional sensory engagement.
A growing number of contemporary photographers are shifting their focus from traditional documentary subjects to their own personal and familial archives. This movement, termed the 'familial turn,' sees artists using intimate, domestic materials as primary sources for artistic exploration and narrative construction.
Mexican artist Demián Flores presents "America. New Visions from the Old World," a graphic arts exhibition at the Instituto Cultural de México in Madrid. The show features forty works that reinterpret 16th-century engravings by Theodor de Bry, whose images of Indigenous peoples—ranging from idealized noble savages to violent cannibals—shaped European perceptions of the Americas. Flores draws on his earlier series "Collateral Disasters" (2012), inspired by Goya's "The Disasters of War," to critique how colonial visual narratives constructed otherness and justified violence.
The Kunsthaus Wiesbaden is hosting a comprehensive survey of Argentine artist Marcelo Brodsky titled "Memory in Action," running through June 2026. The exhibition showcases Brodsky’s unique practice of intervening in archival photographs to address global human rights abuses, political violence, and the persistence of historical trauma. Key series on display include his seminal work on the Argentine military dictatorship, "Buena Memoria," alongside explorations of 1968 global protests and African liberation movements.
Ecuadorian artist Sofía Salazar Rosales has debuted a site-specific solo exhibition titled "Travesías de una lágrima" at the Centro de Creación Contemporánea de Andalucía (C3A) in Córdoba, Spain. The installation-heavy showcase utilizes sculpture and architecture to explore themes of migration, memory, and colonial legacies. Through materials like wax, charcoal, and iron grilles, Salazar Rosales transforms the gallery into a performative space where visitors navigate physical representations of borders, displacement, and the historical weight of territory.
This article from Artribune presents seven new art book releases in Italy, all united by a common theme of bringing marginalized subjects back into focus. Featured titles include Johnny L. Bertolio's "L'ha scritto lei, ma…" which examines why female authors are excluded from Italian school curricula, and Carla Rossi's "Oltre i margini," a rigorous study of European female miniaturists from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Other works address queer representation in museums, children's voices on Gaza, photographic portraiture by Lorenzo Cicconi Massi, a collective volume on the Bertolucci family, and a theatrical project by Kepler-452 set in the central Mediterranean.
Una recensione della Biennale di Venezia 2026 senza nominare neppure un artista
This review of the 2026 Venice Biennale describes an exhibition that overcame dire circumstances—the death of curator Koyo Kouoh early in preparations, losses of key artists, and international political controversies—to deliver a surprisingly joyful and engaging show. Titled "In Minor Keys," the Biennale features a well-conceived, flowing presentation across the Giardini and Arsenale that prioritizes beauty, craftsmanship, and hope over a punitive or documentary tone.
“Il nostro regime non rappresenta la nostra cultura”. Intervista sul progetto bielorusso durante la Biennale di Venezia
The article is an interview with Daniella Kaliada, curator of the Belarusian project "Official. Unofficial." presented at the Venice Biennale in the church of San Giovanni Evangelista. Organized by the Belarus Free Theatre, an independent underground group, the exhibition features site-specific paintings by Sergey Grinevich, a sound installation by Olga Podgayskaya, and large-scale sculptures by Vladimir Tsesler. The project includes a sphere of banned books crushed by a bulldozer, testimonies of recently released political prisoners, and sculptures made from prison bars, all addressing censorship and political trauma without direct representation of suffering.
A 13th-century Gothic church in Venice's Cannaregio district, the former Chiesa dell'Abbazia della Misericordia, will reopen on May 5, 2026, as Etnia House of Arts. The project is promoted by Spanish eyewear brand Etnia Eyewear Culture and includes artist residencies, public events, and site-specific interventions. The restoration was led by architects Piero Vespignani and Alessia Semenzato of Studio Anfibio. The first two resident artists are Conxi Sane and Greta Pllana, who will explore themes of perception and vision, with the residency program using eyewear as a symbolic field to investigate identity and representation.
La letteratura oggi: la crisi del romanzo come sintomo di un cambiamento sociale
The article examines the perceived crisis of the novel as a literary form, tracing its historical rise alongside the bourgeoisie in the 17th and 18th centuries. It argues the novel functioned as a mirror for a coherent social class with shared values, serving as a device for collective representation. The form's foundational premise of a recognizable community began to fracture in the 20th century, particularly after World War II, as societies atomized and grand ideological narratives collapsed.
The Doosan Yonkang Foundation, the philanthropic arm of South Korean conglomerate Doosan, is sponsoring the Korean Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale for the first time. The pavilion, titled "Liberated Space: Fortress and Nest," runs from May 9 to November 22 at the Giardini park in Venice, and explores political events and historical transitions in Korean society from 1945 to the present. Participating artist Noh Hye-ri is an alumna of the foundation's Doosan Art LAB program, and artistic director Choi Binna serves as a supervisor of the Doosan Curator Workshop, highlighting the foundation's direct investment in nurturing artistic talent.
Shaniqwa Jarvis's solo exhibition 'Only Love Can Break Your Heart' opens at Public Gallery in London on 30 April 2026, featuring twelve works across silk, mirrored surfaces, aluminum, and collage. The show includes suspended silk panels in front of mirrors, floral imagery, portraiture, abstract compositions, a moving image work combining archival footage and recorded audio, and a second book titled 'GUTS' published by Super Labo with an introduction by curator Essence Harden.
Mothership Studios is hosting the opening reception and a brunch for the "Layers of Us" exhibition, featuring nine artists from Texas State University. The show explores the concept of culture through individual representation and community, using diverse media like video, painting, photography, and sculpture.
Chinese artist Zhang Mingxuan, 27, debuted her first mature body of work in a 2023 solo exhibition at Hive Center for Contemporary Art in Shanghai, featuring paintings and prints of distorted human forms wrapped in torn nylon hosiery. Her process involves stretching, tearing, and pressing nylon-clad boards onto canvas to create uncanny impressions of compressed, fetal-like bodies. The works, created after she completed her MA in printmaking at the Royal College of Art in London, explore themes of violence, embodiment, and the limits of the body through a labor-intensive method blending painting and printmaking.
Lidija Khachatourian, founder of AKKA Project, discusses her gallery's evolution from Dubai to Venice, where it remains the only gallery dedicated to African and diasporic artists. In an interview with ART AFRICA, she explains her shift from a market-driven model toward a research-led, custodial approach that prioritizes long-term relationships and slowness over high-volume programming. The gallery, established in Venice in 2019, operates with a deliberate resistance to market pressures, focusing on care, continuity, and direct material support for its artists.
The major retrospective ‘Out of Place’ at ART AFRICA showcases over 200 images by South African photographer Jo Ractliff, spanning four decades of her career. The exhibition traces Ractliff’s evolution from her early 1980s street photography to her mature, atmospheric landscapes that examine the scars of colonialism, apartheid, and regional conflicts in Southern Africa. By focusing on the 'afterlife' of violence rather than the events themselves, the collection highlights her unique ability to capture how history sediments within the physical terrain.
Museo Afro Casa Silvana in Humacao, Puerto Rico, is hosting 'Dim Light: Afro-Puerto Rican Photography,' the first collective exhibition dedicated exclusively to Afro-Puerto Rican photographers. Featuring ten artists from the island and its diaspora, the show explores themes of spirituality, family, and resistance through a lens of self-representation. The works were previously debuted at the 3rd Black Brazil Art Biennial before returning to Puerto Rico for this landmark presentation.
Nicolás Gómez Echeverri, director of the Unidad de Artes y Otras Colecciones at the Banco de la República de Colombia, reflects on the challenges facing museums in Iberoamérica in an interview published for International Museum Day. He oversees institutions including the Museo de Arte Miguel Urrutia (MAMU), the Museo Botero, and the Casa de Moneda. Gómez Echeverri describes the museum as a "radar" that captures decentralized artistic practices and integrates them into collective narratives, while emphasizing the need for mediation, public debate, and long-term cultural projects amid economic constraints and the pressures of digital immediacy.
Panteha Abareshi, a 26-year-old Canadian-born artist based in Tucson, creates performances, videos, sculptures, and installations that explore their experience as a disabled and chronically ill person. Their work often tackles taboo subjects, such as a recent solo exhibition at Human Resources in Los Angeles that screened pornography and sparked discussion about the representation of disabled bodies in fetish materials. A key piece, "CAREGIVING," features a silicone hand with a finger pulled back by a string nailed into its own wrist, symbolizing the violent balance in medical care and caregiving.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has published an article titled "The Body Is Art." The content appears to focus on the human body as a subject within art, likely exploring representations and interpretations of the body in the museum's collection.
The 81st May Show has opened at the Mansfield Art Center in Ohio, featuring over 100 works selected from nearly 600 submissions by guest juror Wendy Earle, curator of the Akron Art Museum. The exhibition, which runs through the end of May, showcases a diverse range of mediums from Ohio artists aged 16 to their late 80s. Awards include the Fred "Fritz" Culler Award for Best of Show to Bradley Wallace for "Venus 1K Views," the Mechanics Bank Award of Excellence to Barbara Morejon and Luanne Bole-Becker, and the Jeff McBride & Maura Teynor Emerging Artist Award to high school senior Katerina Prykodko.
During the Milwaukee Art Museum’s annual Art in Bloom event, the Journal Sentinel gathered feedback from hundreds of attendees and digital survey respondents about what they want from arts coverage. The new arts and culture reporter, who wrote the article, outlines the key requests: more advance event coverage (especially free, family-friendly, and hands-on activities), support for smaller and underground art scenes, profiles of local artists including youth, coverage of overlooked art forms like graffiti and fabric arts, and diverse representation of Latino, women, LGBTQ+, and immigrant artists.
Local Strathmore artist Emmeline Keeling will participate in the one-day Obsidian Art Show at the Calgary Chinese Cultural Center. She is among over 50 artists selected for the event, which is organized by the Public Display Agency to connect artists with gallery owners from Webster Galleries, The New Gallery, and Gallery Underground.
The article appears to be inaccessible due to a security verification wall and technical errors on the CityNews website. The headline indicates a significant disruption occurred during an opening event at the National Gallery of Australia, involving an artist's 'fiery outburst' that likely targeted institutional policies or specific exhibition themes.