‘Was she going to an appointment, maybe even a romantic one?’: ASA’s best phone picture

ASA, an anonymous photographer, captured a candid iPhone X image in Bastia, Corsica, during the summer of 2018. The photograph shows a woman walking through strong sunlight, reduced to a silhouette against burned facades. ASA waited patiently for the right passerby, later imagining the woman might be heading to a romantic appointment, though they emphasize the work is about shape, movement, and contrast rather than identity.

Frieze New Writers Pick Vienna’s Must-See Exhibitions

Andrew Durbin reviews national pavilions at a major art event, contrasting a vacuous US presentation with incisive and moving installations from Britain and Germany. The piece is part of Frieze's 'Critic's Guides' series, offering a pointed critique of the US pavilion's lack of meaning against the strength of its European counterparts.

Afton's Third Friday Night Art Exhibits Run From May To November

Afton's Third Friday Night Art Exhibits return for the 2025 season, running from May 15 through November at 146 Main Street in Afton, New York. The monthly events, held in the HUG/HALos building (formerly the Great American Food Store), feature rotating selections of artwork from local artists, with the first exhibit showcasing youth art from Afton students. Gallery curator and artist Michael Bolde, who launched the series three years ago, organizes the shows in a community room provided free of charge by Joyce Humphrey, founder of the HALos grief counseling program. Artists who sell work contribute a 20% commission to HALos, far below the typical 50% gallery split, supporting both creators and local programming.

New works by oil painters Betz Green and Jim Green at Stover Mill Gallery

Oil painters Betz Green and Jim Green will showcase their work at the Stover Mill Gallery in Erwinna, Pennsylvania, on weekends from May 9 through May 31, with an opening reception on May 9. Betz Green creates representational, portrait-oriented still lifes with whimsical narratives, while Jim Green works in an impressionistic and expressionistic style with vibrant colors and exaggerated forms. Both artists have won top awards at local venues such as Phillips Mill and Stover Mill.

Delhi exhibition spotlights oneness through an exploration of opposites

A new exhibition titled 'Dvaita: Dualities' has opened at The Lexicon Art in New Delhi, featuring works by ten artists exploring the concept of oneness through opposites. The show includes paintings, murals, and installations that examine contrasts like black and white, geometry and abstraction, and the relationship between humanity and nature.

Phoebe Boswell’s ‘Art on the Underground’ dives into why the majority of Black British adults don’t swim

Artist Phoebe Boswell has unveiled a major public art commission for Art on the Underground, installed across the escalators of Bethnal Green and Notting Hill Gate stations in London. The immersive photographic series features Black subjects moving underwater, captured in a stop-motion style that responds to the physical movement of commuters. The project was inspired by the statistic that 95 per cent of Black British adults do not swim, a reality Boswell links to generational trauma and structural inequality.

New Books Provide Divergent Views of the Art Market

Three new books offer contrasting perspectives on the art market, just in time for New York Art Week. The titles include a sweeping work of nonfiction, a cheeky memoir, and a dual biography, each examining the business of buying and selling art from different angles.

Dynamic Artistic Duos are on Display in New York This Spring

Three exhibitions in New York this spring are showcasing the works of artistic duos, pairing artists to highlight how their creations either complement or contrast with each other. The shows aim to explore the dynamics of collaboration and dialogue between artists, offering viewers a unique perspective on creative relationships.

This ‘Sustainable’ Island Is Venice’s Newest Art Oasis

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 Vienna Climate Biennale Contrasts Chaos with Hope

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.

CHILE AT THE 2026 VENICE BIENNALE NORTON MAZA PRESENTS INTER REALITY

Chile will participate in the 61st Venice Art Biennale with the exhibition "Inter-Reality" by artist Norton Maza, curated by Marisa Cachiolo and Dermis León, and managed by Claudia Pertuzé. The monumental installation, on view from May 9 to November 22, 2026 at the Sala dell'Isolotto in the Arsenale complex, contrasts an exterior referencing geopolitics, landscape, and ecology with an interior of precarious dioramas blending classical European painting and contemporary issues like fake news, migration, and environmental devastation. The work includes a soundscape of helicopters, airplanes, ancestral chants, and nature sounds recorded in Chile.

Interview with the artist of the Danish Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale who staged the porn stars

Intervista all’artista del Padiglione Danese della Biennale di Venezia 2026 che ha messo in scena i porno divi

The Danish Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale presents "Things to Come," a project by artist Maja Malou Lyse (b. 1993, Denmark), curated by Chus Martínez. The installation combines a three-channel video developed with DIS, materials from Cryos (the world's largest sperm bank), and performers from the porn industry, embedding them within the pavilion's architecture to explore the convergence of pornography, biotechnology, desire, and visual culture as a single system of imaginary production.

IDF Soldiers Hide From Our Gaze

An opinion article on Hyperallergic analyzes official portraits of Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers released in May 2025, in which the soldiers are depicted with their backs to the camera. The author argues that this pose is a deliberate tactic to avoid identification and potential prosecution for war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories, weaponizing surveillance technologies against the very people they surveil. The piece frames these images as "counter-portraits" that transform individual soldiers into a faceless, intimidating mass, contrasting them with traditional portraiture that invites intimate moral scrutiny.

Solana’s first physical art gallery is using a Frank Ape solo show to prove the onchain art model works in the real world

Brandon Sines, the artist behind FrankApeWorld, opens his first solo exhibition in eight years, titled “Let’s Be Frank,” on May 1 at Cycol Gallery in New York. The show features a cohesive, journey-like curation culminating in a site-specific immersive installation, with every piece minted on Exchange.Art. Cycol Gallery, located at 91 Allen Street, describes itself as Solana’s first brick-and-mortar gallery, built on Solana infrastructure and powered in part by the BONK memecoin, which acquired Exchange.Art in March 2025. Physical display uses Blackdove Art’s digital frames, allowing works to exist as tangible objects and verifiable onchain assets simultaneously.

Tatiana Malinovscaia | 130x100cm-Blue Distance in Quiet Light (2026) | For Sale

Tatiana Malinovscaia's painting "Blue Distance in Quiet Light" (2026) is being offered for sale by Artseeker Gallery. The 100x130 cm acrylic on canvas work features a restrained abstract composition with muted blues, ivories, beiges, and charcoals, built through layered textures and tonal contrasts. Malinovscaia, a self-taught Moldovan artist, explores the interplay between architectural clarity and atmospheric abstraction, with light acting as a central structural element that reveals nuanced variations across the textured surface throughout the day.

MACRO / micro Members Exhibition Opens Friday At The AVA Main Gallery

AVA's annual members-only exhibition, MACRO / micro, opens this Friday, May 1st, at the AVA Main Gallery in Chattanooga. The thematic show explores scale in all its forms, featuring works that range from large-scale statements to intimate pieces, examining contrasts between the monumental and the microscopic. Concurrently, the gallery presents Cross-Pollination, a collaborative installation by four artists—Claire Vassort, Lisa Houser, Dixon Stetler, and Cody Havens—who work across silk, mosaics, 3D mixed media, and photography to create an immersive, cross-disciplinary dialogue.

Schreyer Honors College installs art gallery featuring student art

Schreyer Honors College at Penn State has opened a new art gallery called “Illuminate” on the ground floor of Atherton Hall, featuring artwork from four Schreyer Scholars. The inaugural exhibition includes pieces by Olivia Knoechel, Jessica Matinchek, Paige Rishel, and Lisa Wang, selected by a panel of staff, students, and alumni artist Kaleigh Quinnan. The gallery opened on April 10 with a celebration attended by family, friends, and college staff.

Prairie photography and Fantastical Art featured at EAGM

Two exhibitions are currently on view at the Estevan Art Gallery and Museum (EAGM) in Saskatchewan, Canada. One features prairie landscape and wildlife photography by Nicola Dare, while the other presents colorful, fantastical sculptures and drawings by Kristin Teetaert in a show titled "A Selection of Specimens." Both exhibitions run through the end of May, offering visitors contrasting artistic experiences from realistic nature imagery to imaginative, biomorphic forms.

An Anthology on Time

Une anthologie sur le temps

The publishing house Citadelles & Mazenod has released a new anthology titled "Écrire le temps. De l’Antiquité à nos jours" (Writing Time: From Antiquity to the Present Day). Edited by Pascal Dethurens, the 480-page volume compiles a vast array of literary sources on the concept of time, from ancient thinkers to contemporary writers, and pairs these texts with a wide variety of artistic representations.

In Valcamonica il Parco archeologico di Luine ha chiuso e non si sa se e quando riaprirà: la storia

The Luine Archaeological Park in Valcamonica, Italy, closed on April 1, 2026, after the municipality of Darfo Boario Terme, led by Mayor Dario Colossi, failed to renew the management contract held by Zamenhof Art and ArchExperience. The park, which houses rock engravings dating back to the end of the Paleolithic period (about 13,000 years ago), is a UNESCO World Heritage site and a unique part of the Camunian park system. Weeks after the closure, the park remains in limbo with no clear reopening date, while multimedia installations and digital content created by the former managers are being removed. The story has received little media attention beyond local outlets.

Local blind artist shares her process for creating art for new exhibition

Visually impaired artist Charlynne 'Char' Boddie is showcasing her unique creative process ahead of a new exhibition. Despite being legally blind, Boddie utilizes specialized techniques, including tactile markers and high-contrast lighting, to produce vibrant paintings that challenge traditional perceptions of accessibility in the arts.

New Austin museum exhibit tells stories of 27 festivals across Texas

The Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin has opened a new exhibition called "Texas Festivals," running through September 27. The show features artifacts from 27 festivals across the state, including a gown from Fiesta San Antonio, a sand sculpture from Sandfest in Port Aransas, an art car honoring Stevie Ray Vaughan from Houston's Art Car Parade, and mascots from the Texas Onion Fest, Hogeye Festival, and Texas State Forest Festival. The exhibition is divided into three sections exploring how festivals create community, and includes a short documentary, interactive activities, and a talk with historian Dr. Michaele Thurgood Haynes on May 3.

"Free Little Art Gallery" to open in Joshua Tree with new mural

A new "Free Little Art Gallery" will open in downtown Joshua Tree on Saturday, April 25, inviting artists and art lovers to trade their work. Artist Dominique Bass-Terpstra will debut a new mural at the opening event, which also features the local non-profit cat rescue "Mojave Felines" with adoptable cats. The gallery is part of a worldwide network of Free Little Art Galleries, and the event takes place at the Joshua Tree Village from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.