The New York Times Art section published an article titled "The World According to Aldwyth," profiling the artist Aldwyth, who works in paint, bricolage, and collage. The piece explores how her art delves into the history of art, ideas, and the human species, presenting her unique creative vision and thematic concerns.
Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo has transformed a former gunpowder store on the Venetian island of Giudecca into a new exhibition space for her contemporary art collection. The venue, which emphasizes sustainability and adaptive reuse, will showcase works from her extensive collection in a setting that contrasts with the historic grandeur of Venice’s more famous art institutions.
The Museum of the Moving Image in Queens has doubled its attendance by repositioning itself as a community hub, using strategies such as offering free tickets, popcorn, and puppet shows to attract a broader audience beyond traditional cinephiles.
A Dutch advisory panel has recommended the creation of a new independent Jewish foundation to manage a vast collection of artworks looted by the Nazis that remain unclaimed. The collection, known as the NK collection, consists of over 3,000 objects currently held by the Dutch state, but whose original owners or heirs have not been identified.
The Vienna Climate Biennale, an art festival addressing ecological, social, and political crises, has opened with a focus on sparking dialogue and encouraging audiences to envision a better future. The event contrasts themes of chaos with hope, using contemporary art to engage visitors in critical conversations about climate change and societal transformation.
An outdoor installation titled "Climate Clock" has opened along a forest trail outside Oulu, Finland, featuring lichen, mechanical artwork, and a barrel of snowflakes. The project uses natural and artificial elements to visualize the passage of time and environmental change.
Artists and architects are increasingly designing and creating elaborate, artistic birdhouses, elevating a common backyard object into a subject of creative expression and public art. This movement reflects a broader trend of engaging with nature and public space, blurring the lines between functional design, sculpture, and environmental commentary.
Iran’s participation in the 61st Venice Biennale remains uncertain after a public contradiction emerged between the Biennale Foundation and Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance (MCIG). The Biennale Foundation had announced that Iran would not participate in the 2026 edition, curated by Koyo Kouoh, but Aydin Mahdizadeh Tehrani, director general of visual arts at the MCIG and commissioner of the Iranian Pavilion, stated in an interview with the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) that Iran never submitted a withdrawal letter. Instead, Iran requested more time and sent a letter on May 10 asking for the pavilion to open even if ineligible for prizes. Mahdizadeh Tehrani cited the US-Israel war with Iran as causing currency fluctuations that nearly tripled projected costs, complicating prior agreements, and noted that Iran had proposed a shorter exhibition period, which the Biennale rejected.
The Argentine Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale will feature a site-specific installation titled "Monitor Yin Yang" by artist Matías Duville. Curated by Josefina Barcia, the work uses salt and charcoal to create an unstable, walkable landscape that explores the coexistence of opposing forces such as light and shadow, waste and energy. The installation includes a sound composition developed with Centolla Society and Alvise Vidolin, integrating real-time environmental data from Venice. Duville's project was selected from 69 proposals in an open competition organized by Argentina's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Secretariat of Culture, and the Argentine Investment and Trade Agency.
The Cincinnati Art Museum has announced its first full-scale scholarly exhibition of works by Cincinnati-based artist Charley Harper, titled "The Art of Charley Harper: Creatures Wild and Tame." The exhibition will run from October 16, 2026, through March 7, 2027, featuring around 150 works, including ten large paintings commissioned by the U.S. National Park Service that were only briefly displayed in Washington, D.C., in the 1990s. The show is presented in partnership with the Charley Harper Art Studio and marks the artist's first museum retrospective.
Architetture, progetti e visioni. La storia del Santa Maria della Scala va in mostra a Siena
The Fondazione Antico Ospedale Santa Maria della Scala in Siena has launched a new regeneration project for the historic complex, 40 years after it ceased functioning as a hospital. The foundation, led by president Cristiano Leone and director Chiara Valdambrini, commissioned Luca Molinari Studio to analyze the original design by Guido Canali and coordinate a collaborative masterplan involving three international architecture firms: LAN Architecture, Odile Decq with Pangalos Feldmann Architectes, and Hannes Peer Architecture. An exhibition titled "Santa Maria della Scala. Architetture, progetti e visioni" will open on May 30, 2026, curated by Luca Molinari, showcasing the architectural plans and visions for the site.
Intervista alle curatrici che hanno portato l’Italia alla Craft Week di Londra
Amalia di Lanno and Valeria Zerbo, founders of the London-based curatorial platform Avant Craft, are bringing Italian ceramics to the London Craft Week for the first time. Their exhibition, "Contemporary Perspectives on Italian Ceramics," showcases a selection of independent Italian artists and designers who explore ceramics as a material investigation, sculptural experimentation, and cultural continuity. The show opens on May 14 with a "Meet a Master" event featuring artist Riccardo Monachesi, marking the official kickoff of Avant Craft.
Come cambiano le aste d’arte se online tutto sembra un video game?
The article examines how digital infrastructure has transformed art auctions from exclusive in-person rituals into real-time competitive interfaces. Online sales, which peaked during the pandemic, now account for about 16% of the global art market in 2025 (down from 18% in 2024), according to the Art Market Report by Art Basel and UBS. Digital tools enable instant bidding, global streaming, and discreet participation, allowing collectors to compete without physical presence. The piece highlights the gamification of auctions, noting that ArtTactic has launched Art Forecaster, a platform where users predict auction prices in tournament-style competitions, blending market engagement with ludic elements.
Il Marocco è per la prima volta con un Padiglione alla Biennale d’Arte di Venezia. L’omaggio alla tessitura di Amina Agueznay
Morocco is participating for the first time with an official national pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale, presenting a monumental installation by artist Amina Agueznay. Titled "Asǝṭṭa" (2026), the site-specific work at the Arsenale's Artiglierie space explores ritual weaving and the transmission of traditional craftsmanship, using sewn panels to create a second skin over the 300-square-meter pavilion. Curated by Meriem Berrada, the project draws on Agueznay's two-decade-long research in dialogue with Moroccan artisan communities, including spinners, embroiderers, basket makers, and goldsmiths.
In una mostra a Napoli è possibile perdersi senza urgenza in un equilibrio instabile. La recensione
The exhibition "A Gentle Collapse," curated by Marta Ferrara at Andrea Nuovo Home Gallery in Naples, explores the contemporary psychic state through a spatial and perceptual construction. Featuring works in photography, painting, engraving, and installation, the show creates a sense of instability, with meaning emerging gradually through shifts between familiar and altered forms. Artists include Dorottya Vékony, Matteo Silverii, Flora Villaumié, and Zoë Pelikan, whose works engage with themes of genetic engineering, serial accumulation, and subtle disorientation across two gallery levels.
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.
Il padiglione dei Paesi Bassi alla Biennale di Venezia è una contestazione politica (anche della Biennale stessa)
The Dutch Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale, titled "The Fortress" by artist Dries Verhoeven and curator Rieke Vos, transforms the modernist Rietveld Pavilion into a fortress-like enclosure. Inside, a rotating group of thirteen international performers will stage a series of performances throughout the Biennale, focusing on themes of geopolitical uncertainty, social disorder, and the search for stability in an unbalanced world. This marks the first time the Netherlands has used the Rietveld Pavilion for a performance-based project.
The international artist duo Dorota Gawęda and Eglė Kulbokaitė present their debut exhibition in Rome, titled "Spit and Image," at the Basement gallery. The show, on view until July 10, 2026, features sculptures, installations, and videos that explore identity construction in the digital age, using mirrors, fragmented bodies, and olfactory elements. Works like "Yield (twinning)" (2025) and "Spit and Image 1 and 2" (2025) evoke surveillance, metamorphosis, and duplication, while the Slavic vampire figure of the upiór serves as a metaphor for fluid, non-binary identities.
Five artists on the Isle of Portland will open their studios to the public as part of Dorset Art Weeks, running from May 23 to June 7 at St George’s Art Studios. The event features encaustic wax artist Lyn Kirkland, printmaker Caro Lester, jeweller Kate Arbon, mixed-media artist Georgie Moore, and multimedia artist Yollande Posthumus. Visitors can view finished works, explore workspaces, and participate in taster workshops on May 30.
Father-and-son artists William and Hugh Jennings have closed the Hitching Post Gallery in Buffalo, Wyoming, after 30 years of operation. The gallery, which opened in November 1993 on Main Street, was a longstanding fixture in the community, showcasing works from many area artists alongside gifts, books, and tobacco products. William stepped away about seven years ago, and Hugh recently decided to retire, locking the doors for the last time at the beginning of May. Hugh expressed no regrets, saying he wanted to focus more on his own art.
The Polish Institute in Paris is participating in the 25th edition of Nuit Blanche on June 6-7, 2026, with a program featuring photographer and war correspondent Agata Grzybowska, who will give an artist talk titled "Everyone deserves their own story," followed by a guided tour of an exhibition by Anglo-Polish photojournalist Chris Niedenthal. The event runs from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., offering free access to the public as part of the citywide contemporary art festival.
The Doosan Yonkang Foundation has joined as a sponsor of the Korean Pavilion at the 61st Venice International Art Exhibition, held at Giardini Park in Italy until November 22. The pavilion, themed "Haebang Space," explores political and social changes in Korean society since liberation in 1945. Artistic Director Choi Bitna oversees the exhibition, featuring artists Noh Hyeri and Choi Goeun, along with fellows Han Kang, Kim Hoojoo, Lee Rang, Hwang Yeji, and Christian Nyampeta. This marks the foundation's first sponsorship of the Korean Pavilion as part of its visual arts support program.
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.
The Woodlands Arts Council (TWAC) presents 'ENTWINED,' its first exhibition featuring a married couple, artist-educators Bob Mosier and Karen Fearon. The show, on view from May 12 to August 6, 2026, highlights their individual practices—Mosier's intricate thread paintings that evolve into three-dimensional fabric sculptures, and Fearon's expressive drawings, paintings, and assemblages rooted in intuitive mark-making. Both artists incorporate found and reclaimed materials, and their work explores light, form, and the yin-yang of creative process. An opening reception is scheduled for June 18, 2026.
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.
KAG in Tokyo is presenting a group exhibition titled "月を射る" (Shooting the Moon), running from May 19 to August 16, 2026. The show takes its starting point from a prose poem of the same name by Korean poet Yun Dong-ju (1917–1945), who wrote it in 1939 under Japanese colonial rule and later died in a Fukuoka prison. The exhibition spans pre-war and wartime educational films, propaganda, performance, and contemporary fieldwork, featuring works by artists such as Inoue Kan (Lee Byung-woo), Choe Seung-hui, Kamei Fumio, Yoshimi Yasushi, Atsugi Taka, Fujii Hikaru, Yamamoto Seiko, T.T. Takemoto, Morita Reine, Gataro, and Shirakawa Masao. It examines the management models formed by the former empire and the spiritual structure of colonialism that underlies contemporary issues, centering on works that carry the "memory of censorship"—banned, deleted, or denied existence by national, administrative, or social norms.
Amid escalating tensions between Iran and the United States, the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art opened an exhibition of anti-war artworks by American artists. The show features pieces by prominent American artists that critique war and violence, drawing local visitors who are engaging with the works despite the political climate of anti-American sentiment in the streets.
Tugboat Printshop, founded by Valerie Lueth, is celebrating its 20th anniversary. The studio specializes in meticulously hand-carved woodblock prints, often using up to five distinct blocks layered with colorful ink to create detailed images of flora and fauna. Editions are typically limited to around 100 prints. To mark the milestone, the shop is offering a limited-time discount on original woodcut prints, and Lueth continues to share behind-the-scenes images on Flickr and Instagram.
Un souvenir de guerre pour Düsseldorf
The Kunstpalast museum in Düsseldorf has acquired a war-related painting by Bordeaux-born artist William Laparra, who was mobilized in 1917 into the French camouflage section during World War I. Laparra served as a brigadier-chief in the 1st group of the 10th Army at the Chantilly workshop, a unit created in 1915 by figures including Eugène Corbin, Louis Guingot, and painter Guirand de Scévola, who developed earth-toned uniforms and painted canvas to conceal artillery from German aircraft.
Yoann Cormier curates 'In Mali, When Animals Dance' at the Musée des Confluences, an exhibition dedicated to sogo bò, a Malian performance tradition blending theater, dance, music, and community. Rejecting static displays, Cormier uses immersive scenography—light, sound, film footage from the early 2000s by Sonia and Albert Loeb, and reconstructed masks made with the Lyon Opera costume workshop—to evoke the festive atmosphere of sogo bò, moving visitors through a simulated Malian day from afternoon to night.