Leonora Carrington’s Enigmatic Sculptures Get a Rare Outing in New York

L’Space Gallery in New York is presenting “Shape of Dreams: Sculptures by Leonora Carrington,” a rare exhibition focused on the British Mexican Surrealist’s bronze sculptures and jewelry, on view through June 27, 2026. Produced with Consigna Gallery of Mexico City and the Leonora Carrington Council, the show includes works such as *The Palmist* and *La Inventora del Atole*, alongside a selection by her son Pablo Weisz Carrington. An interactive Tarot Reading Booth, featuring a deck designed by Carrington and an A.I. reconstruction of her voice, anchors the exhibition.

The Art Trade Is Taking Calculated Risks With A.I.

The article examines how the art trade is cautiously experimenting with artificial intelligence, noting that while AI tools are being developed to attract newer collectors, the industry remains heavily reliant on trust and personal relationships that technology cannot replicate. It also reports on Fair Warning's new 'No Warning' sealed-bidding auction format, reflecting a rise in private auctions, and highlights a Sotheby's New York sale of the Jean and Terry de Gunzburg collection that set a U.S. record for design auctions at $96 million, led by a set of 15 mirrors by Claude Lalanne for Yves Saint Laurent that sold for $33.5 million.

Masterpieces by Klimt, Matisse and Freud set for London’s most valuable auction

Sotheby's will auction a major collection of masterpieces by artists including Gustav Klimt, Henri Matisse, Lucian Freud, and Francis Bacon, consigned by Joe Lewis and his daughter Vivienne, whose family owns Tottenham Hotspur. The collection, expected to fetch over £150 million, is projected to become the most valuable ever offered in London, with highlights such as Klimt's 'Bildnis Gertrud Loew' (estimated £20-30m) and Egon Schiele's 'Danaë' (estimated £12-18m, potentially setting a new artist record). The works will be exhibited in New York and London before the June sales.

Salon review – like getting to know fascinating guests at a fabulous party

The article reviews a salon-style exhibition curated by Matthew Higgs, director of New York's White Columns gallery, at an unnamed gallery space. The show features 43 paintings by a diverse group of artists including Denzil Forrester, Andrew Cranston, Kaye Donachie, Merlin James, Margot Bergman, Gillian Carnegie, Bill Lynch, and Adam Keay, arranged around mismatched chairs facing white windows painted on the walls. The reviewer describes moving through the space, engaging with individual works, and highlights the eclectic, unthemed curation that prioritizes personal taste and conversation over academic or political messaging.

Expanded Vocabulary: Revisiting Deborah Kass’ Studio

The article recounts the author's visit to Deborah Kass's Brooklyn studio, which she shares with her wife, artist Patricia Cronin. The visit was prompted by logistical issues related to the author's exhibition "Social Minimalism" (2025). During the visit, the author and Kass revisited themes central to Kass's work over three decades: the exclusion of women from art history, Jewish identity, queer voice, lesbian subjectivity, and postwar American art. The conversation also touched on Kass's series including the Warhol Project, Feel Good Paintings, No Kidding, and the large painting/sculpture installation "Everybody" (2019), which was recently featured in a conversation between Kass and Titus Kaphar in Interview magazine.

Exhibition | Nengi Omuku, 'We Were Like Those Who Dreamed' at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Pippy Houldsworth Gallery in London presents 'We Were Like Those Who Dreamed,' the second solo exhibition by Nigerian artist Nengi Omuku. The show features new paintings that explore the politics of green spaces in urban centers, particularly Lagos, where rapid urbanization has created a 'concrete jungle.' Omuku transposes figures from contemporary and archival images of Lagos into lush, Impressionistic landscapes painted with pointillist brushstrokes and a Fauvist palette, using the garden as a radical symbol of equality and resistance. She paints on sanyan, a hand-spun Yoruba cloth, working with local artisans in Ilorin to revive the tradition. Works like 'Dream Logic' and 'One Particular Man' address socio-economic tensions, while 'A quiet nation' captures the dichotomy between urban Brutalist architecture and natural foliage.

14 artists having major museum moments in 2026

The article previews 14 artists who will have major museum exhibitions in 2026, highlighting key shows such as a long-awaited US retrospective of Marcel Duchamp, a Calder exhibition in Paris, and a Rothko show in Florence. It also details concurrent auction highlights at Christie's New York, including works from the S.I. Newhouse collection by Brancusi, Lichtenstein, Matisse, and Pollock. Specific exhibitions covered include "Krasner and Pollock: Past Continuous" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a Roy Lichtenstein retrospective at the Whitney Museum, and multiple European shows for Constantin Brancusi's 150th anniversary.

The Best Art Exhibitions to See in Miami in May

The article lists the best art exhibitions opening in Miami in May, including group shows at Voloshyn Gallery featuring musicians Brian Eno and Malibu, solo debuts at ICA Miami for Manoucher Yektai and Manuel Chavajay, a survey of Afro-Cuban art at Lowe Art Museum, a photography show at Dale Zine by Juanita Richards, and a landscape exhibition at NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale. Other highlights include a World Cup-themed video installation at The Bass and Japanese woodblock prints at the Morikami.

Alfonso Gonzalez Jr. Gives New Context to Street Art and Commercial Signage in New LACMA Show

Alfonso Gonzalez Jr., a second-generation Los Angeles artist with roots in graffiti, sign painting, and muralism, has opened his first museum exhibition at LACMA. Titled “In Between Stops,” the show features 12 benches installed along the museum’s Kendall Concourse, each serving as a functional sculpture that honors the street art and vernacular signage of LA. Gonzalez Jr., who learned the sign-painting trade at Los Angeles Trade Tech College and worked for outdoor advertisement companies like Wall Dogs and Colossal Media, draws on his background to create fictitious ads that critique advertising tactics while preserving rapidly disappearing elements of LA culture, such as mom-and-pop shops and barber shops.

Gagosian Relocates to Ground Floor at Historic 980 Madison Avenue

Gagosian gallery has relocated to a new street-level space at 980 Madison Avenue in New York, opening on April 25, 2026. Designed by architect Jonathan Caplan of Caplan Colaku Architects, the 12,000-square-foot ground-floor gallery replaces the previous upstairs headquarters, offering direct public access from the street and featuring a restaurant, Kappo Masa, on the lower level. The inaugural exhibitions focus on Marcel Duchamp, including works from his 1960s readymades produced with Arturo Schwarz, and a selection of early Robert Rauschenberg pieces from the Cy Twombly Foundation.

Robot dogs with Elon Musk's head 'poo' AI art in bizarre exhibition

Artist Beeple (Mike Winkelmann) has installed "Regular Animals" at Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie, featuring robot dogs with hyper-realistic silicone heads of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Andy Warhol, Pablo Picasso, and Beeple himself. The dogs roam the gallery and periodically "poo" printed images of their surroundings that have been transformed by artificial intelligence, with each dog's output reflecting the style of its figurehead—for example, the Picasso dog produces Cubist-style images. The work premiered at Art Basel Miami Beach 2025, where Beeple distributed the prints with certificates reading "100% organic GMO-free dog s**t" and QR codes for free NFTs.

It’s not all movies: LA’s art, museums and exhibitions are world class

Los Angeles is expanding its cultural offerings with several new and renovated art institutions. The Museum of AI Arts, called Dataland, is set to open this spring at the Grand L.A. complex, created by artist Refik Anadol. It claims to be the world's first museum dedicated to AI art, featuring immersive installations like an Infinity Room with AI-generated scents. Meanwhile, the Natural History Museum completed a $75 million renovation in 2024, adding a 60,000-square-foot wing and displaying a unique green-boned dinosaur named Gnatalie, along with Barbara Carrasco's previously censored mural. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is opening the David Geffen Galleries on May 4, a 110,000-square-foot space for its permanent collection.

Natasha Tontey to Unveil Major New Immersive Installation Exploring Indigenous Resistance During Venice Biennale

Artist Natasha Tontey will unveil a major immersive installation titled "The Phantom Combatants and the Metabolism of Disobedient Organs" during the Venice Biennale at the Ateneo Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti. Jointly commissioned by Berlin’s LAS Art Foundation and Helsinki’s Amos Rex, the work combines video, sound, light, and sculpture to reimagine the story of Len Karamoy, a combatant in the CIA-supported Permesta movement that fought the Indonesian government from 1957 to 1961 in North Sulawesi. Tontey, a Minahasan Indigenous artist, uses LiDAR, quantum ghost imaging, and other technologies to explore Indigenous identity, ecology, and the blurring of history and myth.

Schloss Bellevue wird temporär Ausstellungshaus

Schloss Bellevue, the official residence of German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin, will be transformed into a temporary pop-up gallery for two weeks from June 13 to 28, before undergoing a major renovation expected to last around eight years. The exhibition, organized in cooperation with the Akademie der Künste, will feature works by artists including Katharina Grosse, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Monica Bonvicini, taking advantage of the emptied rooms ahead of the president's move-out before the summer break. Free timed-entry tickets will be available from May 18 via the Akademie's website.

Giant Buddha Lands in New York

Artist Xandra Ibarra staged a nude performance titled "Nude Laughing" at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, walking through the contemporary galleries to challenge viewer etiquette and spark conversations about consent, art history, and the human body. Separately, a 27-foot-tall Buddha sculpture has been installed on the High Line in New York, serving as a resurrection of the destroyed Bamiyan Buddhas and a critical piece of cultural heritage.

Lee Miller in Wide Angle

Lee Miller en grand angle

The Musée d'Art moderne de Paris (MAM) has opened a major retrospective of photographer Lee Miller (1907-1977), featuring nearly 250 prints—many vintage and previously unseen. The exhibition originated at Tate Britain, where it drew over 250,000 visitors, and was co-organized with MAM and the Art Institute of Chicago. Curated by Michal Goldschmidt (former Tate Britain curator) and Fanny Schulmann of MAM, with new research led by Hilary Floe, the show emphasizes Miller's ties to Paris, her technical mastery, and her wartime reporting, including contact sheets from Dachau and Buchenwald never before shown in France.

Lee ShinJa's Handwoven Portals

Hyperallergic profiles the work of South Korean textile artist Lee ShinJa, whose handwoven artworks are described as 'portals' that bridge traditional craft and contemporary abstraction. The article highlights her use of traditional Korean weaving techniques to create layered, ethereal pieces that evoke both physical and metaphysical spaces.

What’s on for spring? Spiritualism and symbolic systems

This article surveys several spring exhibitions in Chicago that explore themes of spiritualism, symbolic systems, and interconnected consciousness. Featured shows include Mindy Rose Schwartz's "Countersealed" at M. LeBlanc, which uses deconstructed fur coats, wands, and twisted fiber sculptures to evoke rituals addressing ecological disaster and historical subjugation. Daniel G. Baird's "Margin" at Patron examines thresholds between material and spiritual realms through a gilded canoe, wax arm cast, and birchwood oar. Leah Ke Yi Zheng's "Change, I Ching (64 Paintings)" at the Renaissance Society presents 64 hexagram paintings on silk, connecting abstract minimalism with Eastern silk painting traditions.

3 Matisse Exhibitions at the Baltimore Museum of Art Highlight Different Sides of the Artist

The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) is presenting three simultaneous exhibitions focused on Henri Matisse, drawing from its world-leading collection of the artist's works. The shows include "Fratino and Matisse: To See This Light Again," pairing Matisse with contemporary artist Louis Fratino; "Matisse and Martinique: Portraits and Poetry," exploring a little-known book illustration series inspired by the artist's 1930 visit to Martinique; and "Matisse in Vence: The Stations of the Cross," featuring 85 rarely or never-before-seen works on paper from Matisse's only architectural project—a chapel in Vence, France. The exhibitions run through 2026, with the Vence show curated by scholar Yve-Alain Bois.

What’s on now at San Francisco museums, May 2026

San Francisco museums are navigating a mix of upcoming exhibitions and financial challenges in May 2026. SFMOMA is closing "KAWS: Family" on May 3 and opening "Matisse’s Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal" from May 16 to September 13. The Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts has suspended operations due to funding issues, and SOMArts is also facing a budget gap. Meanwhile, the Museum of Craft and Design presents "Video Craft" through August 16, and the Letterform Archive hosts "Black Memory Scholar: The Language of Storytellers" and "Piet Zwart: Brand Architect." SFMOMA has announced three SECA award winners—CrossLypka, Em Kettner, and Chanell Stone—who will exhibit from December 2026 to May 2027, and the museum continues to showcase "Reimagined: The Fisher Collection at 10" and new installations by Alexander Calder, Claes Oldenburg + Coosje van Bruggen, and Rose B Simpson.

Sebastiaan Bremer: Super Modern Things

Edwynn Houk Gallery presents "Super Modern Things," an exhibition of new works by Sebastiaan Bremer. The artworks blend photography and painting, starting from historical source images such as 17th-century Dutch botanical catalogues and Golden Age still life paintings. Bremer photographs these reproductions and adds ink and acrylic marks—dots, lines, stains, and washes—creating rhythms that evoke language, music, emotion, and constellations. The exhibition continues his long-standing exploration of flowers and the layered histories of still life, addressing themes of beauty, mortality, value, ecology, and global exchange. An accompanying monograph of his flower series is scheduled for Fall 2026.

Zurbarán at the National Gallery - an unmissable show of baroque genius

The National Gallery in London presents a landmark exhibition of Francisco de Zurbarán (1598-1664), the first major retrospective of the Spanish Baroque master in Britain. In collaboration with the Louvre and the Art Institute of Chicago, the gallery has assembled over 40 works from institutions worldwide, including Seville and San Diego. The show features Zurbarán's electrifying religious paintings and radiant still lifes, displayed in darkened galleries that echo the chiaroscuro of his compositions. Highlights include the shattering *The Crucifixion* (1627) and *Saint Peter Nolasco's Vision of Saint Peter the Apostle* (1629), which demonstrate his hyper-real, sculptural approach to sacred subjects.

Exhibition | Mark di Suvero, 'Avanti!' at Paula Cooper Gallery, 534 West 21st Street, New York, United States

Paula Cooper Gallery in New York will present an exhibition of large-scale sculptures and drawings by Mark di Suvero from May 2 through July 17. The show features the debut of the kinetic sculpture 'Avanti!' (c. late 1990s), a human-intervention piece with a suspended beam that viewers can rock with their body weight, alongside the 1986 work 'Nelly' and the stainless steel 'Tables Turn’d' (2004), as well as a selection of works on paper including interactive "sliding drawings."

Frist Art Museum Will Present 100 Years of Contemporary Indigenous Art

The Frist Art Museum in Nashville will present "An Indigenous Present," an exhibition spanning 100 years of modern and contemporary Indigenous art, from June 26 to September 27, 2026. Co-curated by artist Jeffrey Gibson and independent curator Jenelle Porter, the show features 15 artists who use abstraction as a tool for liberated expression, including Teresa Baker, Raven Chacon, Kimowan Metchewais, Caroline Monnet, George Morrison, Mary Sully, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, and Kay WalkingStick. Organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, the exhibition draws from Gibson and Porter's landmark 2023 publication of the same title and is structured into five thematic sections that place emerging artists in dialogue with established makers.

Telfair Museums presents Impressionism and Modernity: French and American Painting opening May 15

Telfair Museums will present "Impressionism and Modernity: French and American Painting" at the Jepson Center for the Arts from May 15 through August 16, 2026. Organized for the museum's 140th anniversary, the exhibition brings together Telfair's collection of American Impressionist works with key French Impressionist paintings from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., featuring artists such as Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley, and Vincent van Gogh. The show explores Impressionism's origins in France, its transatlantic influence, and its impact on American art and identity, with works addressing themes of modern life, leisure, the city, and nostalgia for nature.

NEXT in the Gallery: Preview Pittsburgh summer with a 'Pity Party,' dog sculptures and so much more art

NEXTpittsburgh's May 2026 gallery preview highlights a packed month of art events leading into the Three Rivers Arts Festival. Key offerings include the 59th Carnegie International at Carnegie Museum of Art, opening May 2 with works by 61 artists from 24 countries and four new commissions at local institutions. Other featured shows include 'Down to Earth: Revealing the Natural World' at James Gallery, Jody Shell's 'Shoebox Memories,' Dominique Swift's 'Uli Awakened,' and a three-artist exhibition at Irma Freeman Center featuring Laura Jean McLaughlin, James Simon, and Robert Qualters.

Forgotten 'environment' of 11 women artists brought back to life at Leeum

The Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul has opened "Inside other spaces: Environments by women artists 1956-1976," an exhibition restoring immersive artworks by 11 women artists from Asia, Europe, and South America, including Jung Kang-ja, Judy Chicago, Tsuruko Yamazaki, and Aleksandra Kasuba. The show revives pieces that were often dismantled after their original displays, such as Jung Kang-ja's "Incorporeal Exhibition," which was destroyed in 1970 after being deemed political propaganda under South Korea's authoritarian regime. Curators Andrea Lissoni and Marina Pugliese, who first organized the project at Haus Der Kunst in Munich, worked with researchers to reconstruct the works using archival materials, correspondence, and blueprints.

Amplifying Indigenous Voices with Phil Cash Cash and the Portland Art Museum

The Portland Art Museum is launching a program to bring on a team of Native American co-curators to revitalize its Native American art collection, led by curator Kathleen Ash-Milby. The museum has partnered with multi-disciplinary artist and scholar Phil Cash Cash, a member of the Nez Perce and Cayuse tribes, who will contribute Indigenous perspectives to the collection's evolution. Cash Cash, who holds a PhD in Anthropology and Linguistics and co-founded the Crow's Shadow Institute of the Arts, gave a talk to the museum's Native American Art Council in early 2026, marking a new collaborative phase.

Alexander Calder Thought 'It Would Be Fun' to Set Abstract Art in Motion. His Mesmerizing Mobiles Transformed the Definition of Sculpture

A major exhibition titled "Calder: Dreaming in Equilibrium" has opened at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, showcasing 300 works by Alexander Calder, including his pioneering mobiles, stabiles, paintings, drawings, and wire portraits. The show marks 100 years since the artist's arrival in France in 1926 and 50 years since his death in 1976. It features iconic pieces such as the 19-foot-long mobile *Triumphant Red* (1963) and his earliest known kinetic sculpture—a brass duck from 1909—alongside works by contemporaries like Barbara Hepworth, Pablo Picasso, and Paul Klee, as well as photographs by Man Ray, Agnès Varda, and Gordon Parks.

Inside the new David Geffen Galleries at LA County Museum of Art

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has opened its new David Geffen Galleries, a $724 million building designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Swiss architect Peter Zumthor. The structure features a floating floor, floor-to-ceiling windows, and minimalist concrete interiors that create a calm, light-filled space. The inaugural exhibition presents 26 interconnected galleries with no set path, displaying artworks from ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs to contemporary installations like Do Ho Suh's "Jagyeong Hall, Gyeongbok Palace" (2026), aiming to eliminate hierarchies of time, place, or genre.