Milan Design Week 2026: A Guide to What to See in the Brera District

Milano Design Week 2026: guida alle cose da vedere nel distretto di Brera

The Brera Design District has unveiled its extensive programming for Milan Design Week 2026, featuring over 300 events and 217 showrooms under the theme "Essere Progetto." Key highlights include Yinka Ilori’s immersive installation for Veuve Clicquot, a major showcase of Uzbek craftsmanship at Palazzo Citterio curated by Kulapat Yantrasast, and Sara Ricciardi’s large-scale inflatable installation at the Pinacoteca di Brera. To manage the high volume of visitors, organizers have introduced the "Fuorisalone Passport," a digital platform designed to streamline entry and registration across various locations.

Guide to Cultural Festivals in Italy in April 2026: PARMA 360, Turin Jazz, Rome Science, Genoa of the Arts

Guida ai festival culturali in Italia di aprile 2026: PARMA 360, Torino Jazz, Scienze di Roma, Genova delle arti

The Italian cultural landscape in April 2026 features a diverse array of festivals, headlined by the 10th anniversary of PARMA 360. This contemporary creativity festival, themed 'LUX. Visions on Light,' transforms the city of Parma into a widespread laboratory with exhibitions across 22 locations. Other notable events include the Symeoni Festival in Ferrara, which celebrates the art of movie posters and the legacy of painter Sandro Simeoni, alongside various music and educational programs.

Everything to know about David Geffen Galleries as a new LACMA emerges

The Los Angeles Times reports on the upcoming David Geffen Galleries, a new building that will become the centerpiece of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) as it undergoes a major transformation. Designed by architect Peter Zumthor, the structure is part of a long-delayed, multi-billion-dollar renovation project that aims to modernize the museum's campus and consolidate its collection under one roof. The article details the timeline, design features, and the controversies surrounding the project's cost and scope.

L.A. County Fair 2026: Playful art exhibit was curated in a mad rush

Two local artists, Keith Ballard and Rebecca Ustrell of the collective Claremont Temporary, were invited by L.A. County Fair officials in late January to curate an art exhibit at the Millard Sheets Art Center. With only two months to organize, they assembled "Play Pavilion," a community-driven show featuring 63 artists from the Inland Empire and San Gabriel Valley, including notable names like Chicano graffiti pioneer Chaz Bojórquez and album cover designer John Van Hamersveld. The exhibit runs through May 31 at the fair, which has the theme "Play Your Way."

Inside Youssef Nabil’s Landmark Musée d’Orsay Exhibition

Egyptian artist Youssef Nabil makes history as the first Arab artist invited to show at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, with his landmark exhibition 'To Dream Again.' The show features his hand-painted silver gelatin prints that blend cinema, memory, and identity, and marks the first time the museum has invited an artist working primarily with photography to engage with its collection. The exhibition is deeply personal, tracing Nabil's journey from a 19-year-old rejected by art academies in Cairo to a globally recognized artist, and includes a dialogue with Pierre Puvis de Chavannes's painting 'Le Rêve,' which inspired a self-portrait Nabil created in 2021.

LACMA Director Michael Govan ’85 talks museum architecture, public art, mounds of dirt

Michael Govan, director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and a 1985 graduate of Williams College, discussed his career and philosophy in an interview with the Williams Record. Govan reflected on his early work at the Williams College Museum of Art (WCMA), where he helped install pieces in Lawrence Hall after an expansion by architect Charles Moore, and his subsequent collaborations with Frank Gehry on the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and Zaha Hadid at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. He also highlighted his recent oversight of LACMA's new David Geffen Galleries, a $720 million project that has drawn significant attention.

Australian Sculptor Ron Mueck Returns to Tokyo

A major retrospective of Australian sculptor Ron Mueck has opened at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, featuring eleven of his meticulously crafted figurative works, including the Japan premiere of 'Mass' (100 giant human skulls). The exhibition, co-organized by the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, travels to Tokyo after stops in Paris, Milan, and Seoul, and includes iconic pieces such as 'Woman with Sticks' and 'Angel', the latter installed on the museum's 53rd floor overlooking the city.

Hunterdon Art Museum presents three new exhibitions: Claybash, Emily Strong, and Bascha Mon

The Hunterdon Art Museum in Clinton, New Jersey, will open three new exhibitions on May 17, 2026: 'Claybash,' a triennial juried ceramics exhibition; a solo show of figurative paintings by Emily Strong; and 'Mindscapes,' a solo exhibition of works by 93-year-old artist Bascha Mon. Emily Strong's show features large-scale realist oil paintings that explore themes of cultural identity, gender, and human relationships, with QR codes linking to interviews with her models. 'Claybash' includes 40 artists selected by curator Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy, with cash prizes awarded. Bascha Mon's exhibition highlights her six-decade career of imaginative, color-driven work.

HKMoA Showcases Local Artists at Venice Biennale with 'Fermata: Hong Kong in Venice' Exhibition

The Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMoA) has organized 'Fermata: Hong Kong in Venice' as a Collateral Event of the 61st Venice Biennale, running from May 9 to November 22. The exhibition features artworks by Hong Kong artists Kingsley Ng and Angel Hui, curated under the musical symbol 'Fermata' in dialogue with the Biennale's theme 'In Minor Keys'. This marks the first time HKMoA has curated Hong Kong's exhibition at the Venice Biennale, with support from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC) and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government.

미시시피미술관 '사진과 흑인미술운동, 1955-1985'(7/25-11/8) - Lounge

The Mississippi Museum of Art (MMA) presents "Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955–1985," a landmark exhibition exploring the role of photography in fostering Black visual culture and identity during the civil rights and Black Arts Movement eras. The show features approximately 150 works by over 100 artists, including Dawoud Bey, Gordon Parks, and Carrie Mae Weems, drawn primarily from the National Gallery of Art's collection, and runs from July 25 to November 8, 2026, as the final stop on a national tour.

Ed Ruscha | Ed Ruscha Records 1971 (1st edition) (1971) | Art & Prints

This article presents Ed Ruscha's artist book "Records" (1971), a photographic survey of thirty vinyl records from his personal collection, offered by Lot 180 Gallery New York. It describes the work as a first edition offset printed book in good vintage condition, measuring 7 x 5.5 inches, from an edition of approximately 2,000 unsigned copies published by Heavy Industries Publications in Los Angeles.

Art and politics clash at Venice Biennale, as world conflicts upstage exhibition's opening

The 61st Venice Biennale, the world's most prestigious art exhibition, opens under unprecedented turmoil. For the first time, its vision was shaped by the late Cameroonian curator Koyo Kouoh, who centered artists from Africa and its diaspora. However, political conflicts over Russia and Israel have overshadowed the art. All five jurors resigned after the Italian culture minister investigated their decision to withhold prizes from Russia and Israel over alleged crimes against humanity. Protests erupted at the Russian pavilion, with Pussy Riot activists denouncing Russia's participation, while the Israeli pavilion artist threatened legal action over the jury's snub. The Biennale will proceed without a jury, with visitors voting for two awards, and the fate of the Golden Lion remains uncertain.

Recommissioned Rebels

The exhibition "Monuments," co-organized by The Brick and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA), features ten former Confederate monuments removed from public spaces across the American South. Highlights include Kara Walker's reconfigured "Unmanned Drone" (formerly Charlottesville's Stonewall Jackson monument), Richmond's toppled Jefferson Davis statue, and a graffitied Matthew Fontaine Maury statue. Co-curator Hamza Walker explains the show began after the 2015 Charleston church shooting and gained urgency following George Floyd's murder in 2020, involving complex negotiations with city governments and stewards to secure the politically charged pieces.

AIPAD : The Photography Show 2026 : Robert Koch Gallery – Booth B6

Robert Koch Gallery, a founding member of AIPAD, will present a group exhibition at The Photography Show 2026, held at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City from April 22–26. The gallery's booth B6 will feature the premiere of key early Edward Burtynsky images in a larger 48 × 60–72 inch format, previously unavailable at that scale, along with recent mine tailing images shown for the first time. Also on view will be photographs from Matt Black's American Geography and New World Atlas series, works by Mimi Plumb, whose retrospective is currently at the High Museum of Art, and pieces by historic photographers including Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank, Helen Levitt, and Man Ray.

Maspeth gallery showcases SoCal artist’s works through May 2

Los Angeles-based artist Molly Bounds makes her New York solo debut at Mrs. gallery in Maspeth, Queens, with the exhibition "The Light That Loses, The Night That Wins." The show features a series of psychological portraits and cinematic scenes rendered in oil and acrylic, capturing figures in moments of solitude, internal conflict, and escapism. Following her presentation with the gallery at The Armory Show in 2025, this exhibition highlights Bounds' transition from printmaking to complex, mood-driven painting.

KAWS | The Nature of Need (2012) | Available for Sale

The Brooklyn-based artist KAWS has listed an offset lithograph titled 'The Nature of Need' (2012) for sale through Kumi Contemporary. The work, priced at £350, features the artist's signature synthesis of pop culture animation and street art aesthetics, presented as an unsigned edition on smooth paper.

The 9 Exhibitions to See in April 2026

The global art calendar for April 2026 features a diverse array of exhibitions ranging from indigenous-led material studies in Los Angeles to a historical deep-dive in Prague. Key highlights include 'Several Eternities in a Day' at the Hammer Museum, which explores 'living materials' through Brown and Indigenous perspectives, and a major 40-year retrospective of Veronica Ryan’s tactile sculptures at London’s Whitechapel Gallery. Additionally, Prague’s National Gallery revisits the controversial 1969 São Paulo Biennial through the work of Jiří Kolář, examining the intersection of art and political censorship.

‘The sky’s the limit’: Newcastle Art Gallery unveils its ‘divisive’ $48m expansion with a blockbuster opening show

The Newcastle Art Gallery (NAG) has officially reopened following a $48 million expansion, more than doubling its exhibition space to become the largest public gallery in New South Wales outside of Sydney. The project, which was over 16 years in the making, features 13 gallery spaces and a new street-fronting cafe, marking a significant infrastructure milestone for the regional Australian art scene. The reopening is celebrated with the blockbuster exhibition 'Iconic Loved Unexpected,' showcasing 500 works from the institution's $145 million permanent collection.

New Chrysler exhibition at NSU puts Black identity front and center

The James Wise Gallery at Norfolk State University has unveiled "Define Yourself!", a traveling exhibition organized in partnership with the Chrysler Museum of Art. Inspired by James Baldwin’s "The Fire Next Time," the show features 15 works by artists including Kara Walker, Emma Amos, and Carl Van Vechten that explore themes of Black identity, media representation, and double consciousness. The initiative is part of the Atlantic Coast Cohort, a program funded by the Art Bridges Foundation to share museum collections with historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

Work by Edgar Degas among £59.7m haul of art donated to UK public collections in exchange for tax benefits

Works by Edgar Degas and Ben Nicholson are among the artworks donated to UK public collections through the government's Acceptance in Lieu (AIL) and Cultural Gifts Schemes (CGS) between April 2024 and March 2025. The total value of objects gifted reached £59.7 million, settling £39.3 million in tax. Degas's pastel *Ballet Dancers* (1888) was allocated to the National Gallery in London, settling £7.9 million in tax, while three paintings by Ben Nicholson went to Kettle's Yard in Cambridge and a fourth to Pallant House Gallery. Other donations include 73 photographs by Bill Brandt to Tate, a Vanessa Bell still life to the Charleston Trust, and works from the Radev Collection.

Sculptor Sahar Khoury, Collection Exhibition at the Manetti Shrem Museum Offer New Views of California Art

Two exhibitions opening in January at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at UC Davis explore themes of cultural origins, legacy, and preservation in California art. "Sahar Khoury: Weights & Measures" (Jan. 7–June 20) is the Bay Area sculptor's largest solo show to date, featuring works in ceramics, metal, papier-mâché, and found objects that interrogate value systems, personal and political symbols, and site sensitivity. The emotional centerpiece, "The Elephant in the Room," evokes ruins and marketplaces of North Africa and Southwest Asia. Concurrently, "Backstory: Digitizing the Museum Collection" (Jan. 21–May 2) turns the museum into a working digitization lab, displaying signature works from UC Davis’ Fine Art Collection while revealing the process of preserving art for posterity.

Frist Art Museum Celebrates 25th-Anniversary Year with Major Group Exhibition Spotlighting the Work of Nashville-Based Women Artists

The Frist Art Museum in Nashville is launching its 25th-anniversary year with a major group exhibition titled "In Her Place: Nashville Artists in the Twenty-First Century," on view from January 29 to April 26, 2026. The show features nearly 100 works by 28 Nashville-based women artists, including María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Alicia Henry, and Karen Seapker, and is cocurated by Sai Clayton, Katie Delmez, and Shaun Giles. It is part of the 2026 Tennessee Triennial for Contemporary Art and is accompanied by a catalogue published by Vanderbilt University Press.

Frieze London diary: a Mick Jagger meeting, a movie night and punk fair style

Frieze London 2025 is underway with a series of off-site events and colorful encounters. Highlights include a Prada Mode installation by Elmgreen & Dragset at Camden Town Hall, where the duo transforms a former council chamber into an auditorium filled with mannequins and a looping abstract film. At Nahmad Projects, artist Michelangelo Pistoletto met Mick Jagger at an exhibition pairing his new Mirror Paintings with Cubist works by Picasso. Belgian collector Alain Servais turned heads in a blazer emblazoned with British rock band names and the slogan "Anarchy in the UK." Russian performance artist Petr Davydtchenko displayed his Pfizer-forehead tattoo as part of his archive piece "Skin in the Game" (2025), acquired by the A/POLITICAL collection. Meanwhile, Victoria and Albert Museum director Tristram Hunt published a Financial Times op-ed defending London and the UK as a cultural destination.

London’s Hayward Gallery director Ralph Rugoff to step down after 20 years in role

Ralph Rugoff, director of London's Hayward Gallery for nearly 20 years, will step down in spring 2026. The gallery declined to provide a reason for his departure, but Rugoff, 68, plans to continue working as an independent curator and writer. During his tenure, he curated 23 major exhibitions, commissioned public works by artists including Tracey Emin, Yinka Shonibare, and Phyllida Barlow, and oversaw the Hayward Gallery Touring program, which produced exhibitions like the British Art Show across the UK. He also served as artistic director of the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019 and received an OBE for services to the arts.

The Getty hires Justine Ludwig of Creative Time to run PST Art

The Getty has hired Justine Ludwig, currently the executive director of Creative Time in New York, as the creative director of PST Art, a newly created position. Ludwig will relocate to California and start on October 27, leading a team that includes Zachary Kaplan and Tina Lee, with plans to expand the department. The Getty has spent around $50 million on PST Art over two decades but previously lacked a dedicated team for the event. Ludwig's appointment comes as the Getty prepares for the 2030 edition and aims to refine the program, including working closely with smaller partner museums and non-profits.

How Sacramento artists are turning away from traditional markets to sell their work

Veteran Sacramento artist Tony Natsoulas, whose ceramic sculptures are held in 18 museum collections including SFMOMA, has shifted away from traditional commercial galleries to sell directly through his mailing list, newsletter, and biannual open studios. The article examines Sacramento's shrinking commercial gallery scene, where only a handful of spaces like Barry Sakata's b. sakata garo remain after 27 years, while venues such as Kennedy Gallery, Jay Jay, and Brickhouse Gallery have closed. Sakata reports declining sales due to political uncertainty, though a city grant of $10,000 has helped sustain his gallery.

Michael Asher at Artists Space review

Artists Space in New York is hosting a posthumous survey of Michael Asher, the influential conceptual artist who died in 2012. Curated by Jay Sanders and Stella Cilman, the exhibition focuses not on Asher's well-known site-specific interventions—which by their nature cannot be recreated—but on the material residues they left behind: magazines, advertisements, radio works, postcards, T-shirts, and other ephemera. A key artifact is a copy of Tom Marioni's 1975 magazine *Vision*, in which Asher glued two facing pages together, effectively making himself disappear between contributions by Doug Wheeler and Bruce Nauman. The show spans forty-five years of projects, presenting these objects as physical remainders of Asher's practice.

The Sistine Chapel Is Coming to a Mall in Suburban New Jersey

A traveling exhibition featuring high-definition, full-scale replicas of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel frescoes is opening for an indefinite run at the Westfield Garden State Plaza mall in Paramus, New Jersey. The show, "Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition," presents all 34 ceiling and altar masterpieces using advanced printing techniques, allowing visitors to view the works up close without the crowds and time constraints of the Vatican.

state of the art market an analysis of global auction sales in the first five months of 2022

Artnet News, in collaboration with Morgan Stanley and the Artnet Price Database, analyzed global auction sales from January through May 20 for the years 2018 to 2022. The total auction sales for the first five months of 2022 reached $5.7 billion, just barely exceeding the previous high set in 2018. The sell-through rate was 73.4%, the second highest in the period examined. The average price of a work sold surged 180% from 2020 and 26% from 2021, driven by pent-up supply of high-value works. Sales of works priced at $10 million and above grew nearly 50% year-over-year, fueled by major consignments from the estates of Thomas and Doris Ammann, Anne Bass, and Harry and Linda Macklowe. Meanwhile, sales of works under $10,000 increased 43% since 2018, partly due to the rise of online auctions during the pandemic.

Paul Klee’s ‘Angelus Novus’ Joins Show at Jewish Museum in New York

Paul Klee's iconic watercolor 'Angelus Novus' (1920) has been added to the exhibition "Paul Klee: The Visible and the Invisible" at the Jewish Museum in New York, after being delayed due to wartime complications. The work, which was famously owned by philosopher Walter Benjamin and inspired his concept of the angel of history, joins over 70 other works in the survey of Klee's career.