Studio Art MFA Thesis Exhibition Pushes Art's Boundaries

American University's Studio Art MFA candidates will present their thesis exhibition, titled "If That Makes Sense," at the AU Museum from April 18 to May 17, 2026. The show features nine artists—Rob Balsewich, Michael Dodson, Julia Fouser, Ryan Kennedy, Kelvin He Hao Low, Lexi Moser, Austin Remetta, Brenay Spencer, and Sarah Bell Wilson—whose works span painting, sculpture, textiles, sound, and installation, exploring themes of memory, identity, materiality, and collective experience.

New Exhibition Showcases Evolution of Virgin Islands Contemporary Art

The group exhibition "Virgin Islands Contemporary" is set to open at Salt of the Earth Tattoo in St. Thomas, featuring the work of ten local artists. Curated by Lucien Downes, the show highlights a diverse range of visual mediums that move beyond traditional Caribbean iconography like seascapes and historical narratives. The participating artists, including Brenda L. Cotto and Jon Euwema, explore themes of cultural evolution and identity through experimental materials and modern techniques.

‘Like a Rising River’ explores Nepali women through art

The art exhibition ‘Like a Rising River: Stories of Women and Change’ recently opened in Nepal, showcasing the results of a collaborative project between Srijanalaya, UN Women Nepal, and the Government of Finland. The initiative sent 15 Nepali artists to four provinces—Sudurpaschim, Bagmati, Sarlahi, and Madhesh—to document the lived experiences, social struggles, and resilience of local women through various artistic mediums, including textiles, mixed-media animation, and storytelling.

ARTISTS ADAM RUSSELL & KELLY LEVER RETURN TO JAG GALLERY WITH ‘COASTLINE’

Artists Adam Russell and Kelly Lever, the duo behind Key West Pottery, are reuniting for a joint exhibition titled 'Coastline' at JAG Gallery in Key West. Opening April 8, the show features a collection of paintings that explore the intersection of land and sea, drawing inspiration from the couple's global travels. While the two maintain distinct individual styles, the works reflect a creative collision born from their shared studio practice and personal partnership.

Art exhibition in Delhi explores the many facets of space today

Gallery Art Motif in New Delhi is hosting "Space Making: Making Space," a group exhibition curated by Kunal Shah that brings together artists, architects, and designers. The show investigates how contemporary spaces have moved beyond strict, dedicated functions to become fluid environments shaped by physical, social, and spiritual dimensions. Featured works range from RMA Architect’s man-nature intersections to Indrajit Khambe’s photography of sari land markers and Chiaki Maki’s textile privacy barriers.

‘I Can’t Draw’ exhibition highlights community art

The ninth annual UPRISING art exhibition at St. Olaf College, titled 'I Can’t Draw,' confronts anxiety around art-making by creating a judgment-free, communal space for creating art together. The student-curated show features works like 'Self-Acceptance Is My Oasis of Serenity' and invites visitors to contribute live drawings to evolving pieces, dissolving the boundary between artist and audience. Founded in 2018 by Shaquille Brown, UPRISING celebrates Black history, culture, and identity through visual and performing arts.

NJCU Gallery to Unveil "HOME HERE," a Site-Specific Installation by 11 Women Artists on February 5

New Jersey City University (NJCU) Galleries will open "HOME HERE," a site-specific installation featuring 11 women artists from Jersey City, on February 5, 2026. Curated by NJCU alumna Lucy Rovetto, the exhibition runs through March 5 and explores themes of history and memory through overlapping, boundary-less works. Featured artists include Laia Cabrera, Nicole DeMaio, Isabelle Duverger, Jaz Graf, Katelyn Halpern, Jin Jung, Pat Lay, Tina Maneca, Cheryl R. Riley, and Jennifer Roberts, with a tribute to former NJCU art department chair Ward Mount.

‘Endless scrolling induces permanent craving’: panGenerator highlights our unhealthy relationship with technology

An exhibition titled 'Elusive Sense: On the Fluid Boundaries of Perception' at London’s art’otel featured five contemporary Polish artists, including the collective panGenerator. Their interactive installation 'Infinity' (2020) invites viewers to kneel and endlessly scroll through nonsensical digital shapes on a screen, mimicking social media's infinite scroll. The work aims to make users feel uncomfortable and reflect on their daily digital habits, drawing parallels between trust in technology and religious belief. Another panGenerator piece, 'Hash to ash' (2017), lets visitors take a selfie that melts into ash, critiquing selfie culture and the fragility of digital photos.

The Smell of Sanctity: An Olfactory Exploration of Faith, Chemistry, and Decay

Olfactory artist and perfumer Gabriel De Carvalho presents 'The Smell of Sanctity: From Devotion to Decomposition,' a multi-sensory exhibition at The Olfactory Art Studio in London from 26 to 30 November 2025. The installation explores the historical concept of the 'odour of sanctity'—the sweet fragrance said to emanate from saints—through the lens of biochemistry, using bespoke scent compositions, sculptural diffusers, and light to blur the boundaries between sacred spaces and scientific laboratories.

53 oil paintings in a Palestinian exhibit were lost in the 1940s. A new exhibit on display in Brookline reimagines what could have been.

A traveling exhibition titled "The Lost Paintings, A Prelude to Return" is on view at the Brookline Arts Center and Unbound Visual Arts in Brighton through December 17. The show reimagines 53 oil paintings by Palestinian-Lebanese artist Maroun Tomb, which were lost in the chaos of the Nakba and the 1948 Arab-Israeli war after his 1947 exhibition opened in Haifa on the same day the UN adopted the Partition Plan. Curators Rula Khoury, Haidi Motola, and Joëlle Tomb—Maroun's granddaughter—commissioned 53 contemporary artists from Palestine and the diaspora to create new works inspired by the original titles, using mediums including textiles, prints, paintings, sculptures, and video.

Artist John E. Dowell, Jr. explores life experiences in exhibition titled 'I Got Through It'

Philadelphia-based artist John E. Dowell, Jr., now 84, is preparing for a solo exhibition titled 'I Got Through It' at the James Oliver Gallery, opening October 18, 2025. The show features over 20 works spanning printmaking, painting, photography, and music-inspired pieces. Dowell, a professor emeritus at Temple University's Tyler School of Art and Architecture, discusses his lifelong creative journey, his use of jazz and blues as inspiration, and his experiments with translating visual art into sound.

Palmer Museum of Art hosts exhibit exploring intersection of art and engineering

The Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State is hosting a new exhibition titled “Structures, Systems and Society: Work at the Interface of Art and Engineering,” on view through December 21 in the Barbara and Lee Maimon Teaching Gallery. Developed in collaboration with the College of Engineering and the Leonhard Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Education, the show features works from the museum’s collection alongside pieces by Penn State faculty, including curators Sarah Zappe, Joseph Cusumano, and Benjamin Fehl. The exhibition is organized around three themes—Structures, Systems, and Society—and aims to highlight the creative and cultural intersections between art and engineering.

Snoop Dogg’s smoke inspired art shakes up the auction block

Snoop Dogg has launched "Ashes to Art," a collection of artwork incorporating remnants of his personal cannabis consumption, created in partnership with The Joint Venture and artist Erica Kovitz. Pieces like "Snoop Doggy Dogg Genesis Burn" are being auctioned online via 32auctions.com, with bids reaching $70,000 and starting at $9,000, blending hip-hop culture with contemporary art.

‘Seeds of Life’: The art of caregiving pulses through every brushstroke in Jen Hintz Eggers’ new exhibition

Artist Jen Hintz Eggers presents 'Seeds of Life,' a new exhibition at the Mezzanine Gallery in Wilmington, Delaware, that explores the emotional complexities of early motherhood. Through paintings featuring sacred geometry motifs like the seed of life and flower of life, Eggers translates her personal experiences with breastfeeding, caregiving, and her son's growing independence into layered oil works. Notable pieces include 'As Above So Below,' which depicts two mirrored yet distinct seed-of-life patterns symbolizing the bond between mother and child, and 'Memento Vivere,' a five-canvas series inspired by the Latin phrase 'remember to live' that incorporates memories of nature and family moments.

Science goes surreal with an art exhibition by a Grainger lecturer

Surrealistic Views of Life, an art exhibition featuring paintings by Dr. William Roy, a nuclear, plasma, and radiological engineering lecturer at the Grainger College of Engineering, will be on display at the Illini Union art gallery in Urbana from June 5th through June 28th. Roy, who works professionally in engineering, is also a local artist whose surrealist works draw from reality and imagination.

Byungjun Kwon: ‘I want to break away from the passive, one-sided way of experiencing performances’

Byungjun Kwon, a South Korean artist whose practice spans sound, technology, and performance, has been selected for the 2025 Korean Artists Today project. Kwon began his career as a singer-songwriter in the 1990s, later earning a degree in Art Science from the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague and working as a hardware engineer at the Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music in Amsterdam. His works include immersive sound installations, custom-built instruments, and robotic stage machinery, with pieces such as 'Self-sounding Town Resonant Village' (2019) exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Busan. He is currently preparing a new project, 'Speak Slowly, and It Will Become a Song', for the Aichi Triennale in Japan.

El Paso's International Museum Of Art Features A Tattoo Artists For The First Time Ever

El Paso tattoo artist Francella Baca will open a solo exhibition at the International Museum of Art on May 4, marking the first time the museum has featured a tattoo artist in a solo show. Baca, who has worked in tattooing for nearly two decades and owns the shop Dreadful Things, will display painted works alongside tattooed synthetic skins and a recreated tattoo shop environment, blending her background in tattoo culture with surrealist painting.

Under Water, We Who Are Deaf Are Freer

"Unter Wasser sind wir Gehörlosen freier"

Artists Bogna Burska and Daniel Kotowski have been selected to represent Poland at the upcoming Venice Biennale with their collaborative project, "Liquid Tongues." The exhibition features elaborate video works that draw parallels between the ancient, complex vocalizations of whales and the visual communication of sign language. By filming underwater, the duo explores an environment where the traditional sensory advantages of hearing people are neutralized, and the gestural fluency of the Deaf community becomes a primary mode of connection.

New experimental art gallery launches in Brighton

A new experimental art gallery, the Founders Room, is launching in Brighton in May 2026 as part of the Brighton Festival. The inaugural exhibition, titled Act 0, is organized by The Adelaide Salon in collaboration with Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival. It features works by two artist couples—Isobel Smith and The Baron Gilvan, and Lucy Newman and Bob Dixon—exploring process-led, relational, and interdisciplinary practices. The exhibition questions the boundary between artist and artwork, presenting painting, drawing, and performance-led works that blur authorship and lived experience.

10 Must-See Shows During Paris Gallery Weekend 2026

Paris Gallery Weekend 2026 returns for its 14th edition from May 29th to 31st, organized by the Comité Professionnel des Galeries d’Art. The event features 73 galleries across the Marais and other districts, offering three days of programming with must-see exhibitions during the city's vibrant late spring season.

Mirei Monticelli’s Hand-Woven Banana Leaf Lamps Swell Between Material and Movement

Milan-based Filipina designer Mirei Monticelli creates biomorphic lighting fixtures from hand-woven Banaca fabric, made from Abacá fiber sourced from the Philippines. Her studio collaborates with a community of weavers in the Bicol province, developing the material through a long-term relationship. The lamps, which blend sculpture and utility, were recently featured in an installation titled 'Pleasure Garden' at Milan Design Week. Monticelli’s process incorporates techniques from garment construction, learned from her mother, a fashion designer.

Rachel Mentzer Transforms Discarded Cartons into Dusky Collagraphs

Ohio-based artist Rachel Mentzer creates collagraph prints using discarded cartons as printing plates, carving them with images of birds, trees, and energy infrastructure. Her process involves carving the cardboard, sealing it with polyurethane, inking it, and transferring the image via an etching press, often incorporating chine collé for color. Her work was recently shown at the Manhattan Graphics Center, and she will participate in the Suzanne Wilson Artist-in-Residence Program at Glen Arbor Arts Center this summer.

Bat-Ami Rivlin “Untitled (radiators, zip ties)” at Management, New York

Artist Bat-Ami Rivlin has opened a new site-specific installation titled 'Untitled (radiators, zip ties)' at Management gallery in New York. The work features an assembly of locally sourced radiators bound by zip ties, presented in a sparse arrangement that transforms the gallery space.

SPAIN ORIOL VILANOVA AND THE ABOLITION OF THE MUSEUM AND THE ARCHIVE

The Spanish Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale presents "Los restos," a project by Catalan artist Oriol Vilanova, curated by Carles Guerra. The installation transforms the pavilion into an anti-museum or pseudo-museum, featuring Vilanova's collection of postcards sourced from flea markets over more than twenty years. The work critiques traditional archival systems through accumulation, repetition, and fragmentation, and includes a publication and a performative action titled "El fantasma de la libertad" (2026), inspired by Luis Buñuel, which will take place across the Giardini and Arsenale.

The Biennale and the Weight of Flags. What Is the Point of National Pavilions?

La Biennale e il peso delle bandiere. Che senso hanno i padiglioni nazionali?

The article examines the inherent contradiction within the Venice Biennale: its historical structure of national pavilions, a legacy of 19th-century world fairs and state-sponsored art, clashes with the transnational, post-identity vision of the international exhibition curated by Koyo Kouoh. The return of the Russia Pavilion amid geopolitical conflict and the international show titled "In Minor Keys," which rejects national belonging as an interpretive criterion, highlight this tension. The piece also addresses the controversy over the lack of Italian artists in the main exhibition, questioning whether a Biennale hosted in Italy should guarantee national representation.

Here's what the much-talked-about Russian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale looks like. Photos and video

Ecco com’è il chiacchieratissimo Padiglione Russia della Biennale di Venezia. Foto e video

The Russian Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale has opened amid intense controversy over its unauthorized participation. The pavilion, housed in a 1914 building recently restored by Italian architects 2050+, features a program of musical improvisations, ensemble performances, techno concerts, and interactive actions, including free used clothing. The space is designed as a fragrant flower shop with a chill-out room featuring a conifer grove and video installations. The exhibition, titled "L’Albero Radicato nel Cielo" (The Tree Rooted in the Sky), is organized by young poets, musicians, and philosophers who prefer to remain anonymous as a collective, coordinated by the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music. However, due to sanctions, the pavilion is only open from May 5 to 8, as organizers cannot obtain the necessary permit to operate beyond the private opening.

Withdrawing from Intense Labor: 'Quiet Quitting' Discussed in a Milan Exhibition

Sottrarsi al lavoro troppo intenso. Si parla di ‘quite quitting’ in una mostra a Milano

Artist Niccolò de Napoli explores the phenomenon of "quiet quitting" in his solo exhibition, "I’m here, but not entirely yours," hosted at Studio Lombard DCA in Milan. The exhibition, produced by PROGETTO LUDOVICO, utilizes the unconventional setting of a strategic consultancy firm to showcase works that critique modern labor expectations. Key pieces include a blue neon sign mimicking corporate aesthetics, a sound installation referencing the 1983 film "Vieni avanti cretino," and monochromatic cases made of switchable glass that obscures itself as viewers approach, symbolizing the withdrawal of the self from the workplace.

ICA Live Art Festival at UCT Announces Open Call

The Institute for Creative Arts (ICA) at the University of Cape Town has announced an open call for its 2026 Live Art Festival. Scheduled for October 14–17, 2026, in Cape Town, the festival seeks proposals for experimental and interdisciplinary live artworks from both South African and international practitioners. The selection process will prioritize conceptual strength and works that challenge conventional artistic forms within a non-commercial, research-driven environment.

African Artists shine at Boomer Gallery’s “Vogued First Edition” in London

Boomer Gallery in London's Tower Bridge district hosted the opening of "Vogued | First Edition" on August 8, 2025, a group exhibition celebrating contemporary artists who push creative boundaries. Among the featured talents were African artists Kikelomo Solomon-Ayeni, Olamide Bakare, Bukola Abiodun, Mercy Odukogbe, and Olalekan Adetunji, whose works explored themes of tradition, innovation, heritage, and urban life through oil paintings, portraits, and mixed media. Guest of Honour Tabish Khan, an art critic and curator, delivered an opening talk on the relevance of contemporary art in a rapidly changing world.

Exhibition reflects on the seven deadly sins

Artist CO-MA presents his second solo exhibition, 'Every Saint Has a Past and Every Sinner Has a Future,' at Spazju Kreattiv in Malta from May 9 to June 29. Curated by Lily Agius, the show interprets the seven deadly sins—pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath, and sloth—through large-scale oil paintings on canvas and wood, marking a shift from the charcoal medium used in his 2021 debut. The artist draws inspiration from Norse mythology, Renaissance and Baroque art, and Dante's Divine Comedy, exploring these vices as universal human failings rather than strictly Catholic concepts.