Annual art exhibit by incarcerated community raises $18K for scholarship

An annual art exhibition featuring works by incarcerated individuals in Arizona sold 200 pieces on May 16, raising over $18,000 for a scholarship at Arizona State University. The show, titled "{Ink}arcerated: Creativity within Confinement," displayed more than 400 artworks and drew approximately 600 visitors to a vacant retail space at the Arizona Center in downtown Phoenix. Organized by ASU criminology professor Kevin Wright, the event has raised a cumulative total of more than $70,000 since its launch in 2017, with this year's proceeds marking the largest single-show amount to date. A second public sale is scheduled for June 6 during Phoenix's First Fridays art walk.

Boston Public Art Triennial launches with more than a dozen projects across the city

The inaugural Boston Public Art Triennial launches on 22 May, bringing over a dozen site-specific installations, performances, and community-led activities to public spaces and cultural institutions across Boston through October. With a projected cost of $8 million, the free event features newly commissioned works by artists including Stephen Hamilton, Swoon, Nicholas Galanin, Beatriz Cortez, and Ekene Ijeoma, exploring themes such as Indigenous experience, trauma and healing, social justice, and humanity's relationship with nature.

Marko Tadić “Funga Robo” at Trotoar, Zagreb

Marko Tadić presents his solo exhibition "Funga Robo" at Trotoar in Zagreb, showcasing recent works that explore speculative futures of cities through the lens of artistic ecologies. The exhibition title merges references to fungal mycelia and robotics, establishing a dialogue between biological systems and technological development.

Force History To Sweat An In Depth Interview On Su Hui Yus Performance Movie In Bogota

Taiwanese artist Su Hui-Yu premiered his performance film "A Total Story" at the Museum of Modern Art in Bogotá (MAMBO) in January. The film, shot inside the museum, intertwines the histories of Colombia and Taiwan through a narrative enacted by queer and trans performers. The exhibition "La Saga Total," his first in Latin America, also featured several of his video and installation series. The project is now set to travel to Taipei for a premiere at MOCA Taipei in April.

Forest Tales: Lélia Demoisy's exhibition at Domaine de Chamarande

Lélia Demoisy presents 'Forest Stories' (Récits de forêts), a solo contemporary art exhibition at the Domaine départemental de Chamarande in Essonne, France, from May 10 to August 30, 2026. The exhibition features sculptures and installations across the orangery, park, and domain spaces, using materials such as wood, fibers, organic fragments, hides, charcoal, and animal tracks to explore the forest as a living network of relations, traces, and transformations. Key works include 'Laissés sur la rive', 'Le Foyer', 'Les chairs froides', 'Cedrus deodara – Forêts futures', and 'Créature'.

Art or jungle gym? The Power Plant’s new interactive exhibition is all about play

The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto has opened a new interactive exhibition titled "Colourful Parachutes: Imagining Alternative Futures Through the Power of Play," running until September 7. The show features 10 international and local artists and breaks the traditional gallery rule of "do not touch" by inviting visitors to play, climb, and alter the artworks. Curated with children in mind, the exhibition includes works like Harold Offeh's immersive installation "The Mothership Collective 2.0," which uses music, video, and interactive elements to encourage imaginative thinking about the future.

YBCA exhibitions spotlight identity, history and community in San Francisco

The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) in San Francisco recently celebrated the opening of two major exhibitions, "Diedrick Brackens: gather tender night" and "Conjuring Power: Roots & Futures of Queer & Trans Movements." The event drew over 1,000 attendees and featured leadership from the institution alongside the featured artists and curators.

Check out a multi-sensory experience at Hong Kong’s first large-scale art dome

Hong Kong's first large-scale art dome, FutureScope, has opened at Kai Tak Sports Park, running from December 19, 2025 to January 4, 2026. The dome features 'Perpetual Records', an immersive exhibition co-created by local media art studio XCEPT and Japanese artist Daito Manabe. Visitors can interact with 360-degree projections using facial recognition technology that translates their expressions into geometric patterns and alters an adaptive soundscape. Ticketed performances from January 2 to 4 offer deeper engagement with the artwork through live audio-visual sessions guided by XCEPT's artistic director Chris Cheung (h0nh1m).

‘Heart of WeHo’ Art Exhibition Celebrates the City of West Hollywood at 40

The City of West Hollywood’s Arts Division will host an artist reception on October 24 for 'Heart of WeHo,' a new group exhibition celebrating the city’s 40th anniversary. Featuring 27 local artists, the show presents paintings, photography, sculpture, and mixed media that depict West Hollywood’s landmarks, history, and everyday spaces—from iconic nightlife and architecture to quieter corners and imagined futures. The exhibition is on view at the West Hollywood Library through May 2026.

Palmer Museum announces call for juried exhibition to celebrate America’s 250th

The Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State has announced a call for entries for a juried exhibition titled "Dreaming American Futures: Invitational 250," running from summer through fall of 2026. The exhibition marks the United States' 250th anniversary and is open to Penn State students, faculty, staff, alumni residing in Pennsylvania, and local artists within 50 miles of State College. Submissions must address themes of activating change, bridging the divide, the pursuit of happiness, and a more perfect union, which were developed from community input gathered during a summer 2025 installation. Digital submissions of up to three works are due by February 15, 2026, with no entry fee, and a jury including artist Folayemi Wilson, curator Janine Yorimoto Boldt, and artist Roberto Lugo will adjudicate the entries.

NMSU Art Museum to introduce three exhibitions September 19

New Mexico State University's Art Museum (UAM) will open three exhibitions on September 19, 2025: “Necessary Futures,” featuring New Mexico-based artists sheri crider, Haley Greenfeather English, and Szu-Han Ho; “Greetings from Tijuana,” a solo show by Mexican artist Georgina Treviño; and “Jennifer Ling Datchuk: RIPENING,” which examines women's labor and Asian American histories. A free public reception will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. on opening night, and all exhibitions run through March 7, 2026.

A Brooklyn Afrofuturist Art Exhibit Explores a New World With Reparations

A new Afrofuturist art exhibition titled 'Futures of Repair' has opened at 195 Morgan Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, featuring six Black artists who imagine a world where Black and Indigenous people receive reparations. The show, a collaboration between creative studio Intelligent Mischief and curator Mia Imani Harrison, includes works by Alisha B. Wormsley, Terence Nance, Ari Melenciano, and American Artist, among others. Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the exhibition runs through March 2026 and presents video, installation, sound, and tech-driven pieces that explore reparations from personal and communal perspectives.

After Gulf Futurism, What Next?

Paradise at Stove Works in Chattanooga

Paradise, an exhibition at Stove Works in Chattanooga, Tennessee, curated by Graham Feyl and J. Sova, presents works by thirteen artists centered on queer futurity and abundance. The show features installations, sculptures, paintings, and textiles, including Lisa Waud's artificial flower installation 'tread/tender' (2026), Nicholas Elbakidze's erotic Meissenettes (2026), Brian Smith's beaded nets, Aaron McIntosh's quilted 'Invasive Queer Kudzu' (2015-ongoing), and works by Yu Yan, E. Saffronia Szanton Downing, Angie Jennings, Michael Childress, and Hannah Banciella. The exhibition transforms the former foundry into a space of playful, erotic, and joyful refusal, drawing on Audre Lorde's definition of the erotic as a source of power.

The Dutch Pavilion at the Venice Biennale is a political protest (also against the Biennale itself)

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.

OPEN CALL – Diriyah Art Futures: Emerging New Media Artists 2026-2027 Edition.

Diriyah Art Futures (DAF) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, has opened applications for its third Emerging New Media Artists Programme, a one-year fully supported residency running from October 2026 to October 2027. Developed in collaboration with Le Fresnoy – Studio National des Arts Contemporains in France, the programme offers emerging artists aged 35 or under access to professional equipment, a production budget, mentorship by international digital artists, and multidisciplinary training in art, science, and technology. The deadline for applications is May 31, 2026, with a focus on applicants from the Middle East and North Africa.

KABARIN-JAVAKANTO: Speaking in Many Tongues

Fondation H in Antananarivo, Madagascar, presents 'Kabarin-javakanto: A Reading of the Fondation H Collection,' an exhibition curated by Abdellah Karroum that reinterprets the foundation’s international holdings through the Malagasy oratorical tradition of kabary. Rather than a conventional display, the show activates works from Africa and its diasporas across three galleries, emphasizing dialogue, community, and relational viewing.

UC Davis Graduate Exhibition Showcases Next Generation of Artists, Thinkers

The University of California, Davis, will host the Arts & Humanities 2025 Graduate Exhibition from June 5–22 at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art. The multidisciplinary showcase features 31 graduate students from art studio, art history, design, comparative literature, English, environmental science and policy, music, and performance studies. Works include photography, painting, sculpture, video, performance, and textiles, with live performances and awards on opening night. Participants explore themes such as human-technology relationships, environmental resilience, African diaspora, and emotional healing.

The Mykolaiv Regional Art Museum has shown how it operates during the war

The Mykolaiv Regional Art Museum in Ukraine has adapted to wartime conditions by evacuating part of its collection and packing remaining exhibits with available materials. A research tour offered a behind-the-scenes look at these efforts, as reported by NikVesti. The MyART platform is creating a digital collection of Mykolaiv's cultural heritage, involving the art museum, local history museum, naval museum, central library, observatory, and shipyard museum. The museum, founded in 1914 by Prince Mykola Hedroits, now operates from a building on Velyka Morska Street built in 1904, and staff continue to research its founder's history.

See these LGBTQ+ artists and more at The Other Art Fair this weekend

The Other Art Fair has returned to Dallas for its largest and most ambitious edition to date, featuring 135 independent artists—the most ever presented in the Dallas market. The fair, presented by Saatchi Art, transforms Dallas Market Hall into a marketplace where artists sell directly to collectors and art lovers, with highlights including immersive installations, live neurofeedback art, and a special focus on LGBTQ+ artists. A short list of queer artists featured includes Ty Hays, Patricia Juppet, Jake Trujillo, and others, with Christopher Sonny Martinez receiving The New Futures award for first-time exhibitors.

Clark County’s Office of Public Arts Presents Juneteenth: Freedom Moves Call for Art

Clark County's Office of Public Arts has issued a call for artists to submit work for "Juneteenth: Freedom Moves," a juried group exhibition at the Pearson Community Center Gallery. Open to artists aged eight and up residing in Clark County, the exhibition accepts all original media including digital art, photography, and printmaking. Submissions are due by May 10, and awards include gift certificates from Desert Art Supplies for Best in Show and Honorable Mentions. The exhibition will run from June 2 to July 23.

At ELAC’s Vincent Price Art Museum, an exhibition pays tribute to 30 years of Latina lesbian activism

East Los Angeles College’s Vincent Price Art Museum is hosting an exhibition through August that spans three decades of Latina lesbian activism in Los Angeles, from the 1980s to the late 2000s. The show features photos, posters, letters, and ephemera highlighting the fight against anti-gay hate crimes, alongside struggles for LGBTQ+ healthcare, affordable housing, fair wages for janitors, and immigrants’ rights. Co-curated by Jocelyne Sanchez and Vanessa Esperanza Quintero, the exhibition is a collaboration with UCLA’s Latina Futures 2050 Lab and pays tribute to activists including the late archivist Yolanda Retter Vargas.

New exhibition at Palmer Museum through July 27 calls for community response

The Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State has opened a new exhibition titled “Shaping American Histories, Dreaming American Futures,” on view through July 27. The show features works that explore diverse American histories, including Billy Morrow Jackson's lithograph “The Tattooed Man,” which references the 1963 Birmingham church bombing. Visitors are invited to contribute reflections on a community response wall, answering questions about the nation's past, present, and future via sticky notes.

A New Art Exhibition Ponders the Perpetual Cycle of Urban Transition

The article reviews "Contemporary Ruin future visions," an exhibition at Drexel University's Leonard Pearlstein Gallery curated by artist Nancy Agati. The show explores the perpetual cycle of urban construction, demolition, and renewal, focusing on Philadelphia's evolving neighborhoods. Featured artists include Sophie White, who documents rapid gentrification in Fishtown/Kensington through plein-air gouache paintings, and Jennifer Johnson, whose sculptural maps trace the transformation of the Black Bottom area from 1725 to 2025. Joseph E. B. Elliott contributes photographs of decaying buildings, such as Saint Bonaventure Church and Richmond Generating Station, capturing ruins both past and present.

Cultural Cities at the Heart of New Municipal Conquests

Villes culturelles, au cœur des nouvelles conquêtes municipales

Municipal elections across France have resulted in a wave of new and re-elected mayors, many of whom campaigned on strong cultural platforms. Key victories include Emmanuel Grégoire in Paris, Catherine Trautmann in Strasbourg, Grégory Doucet in Lyon, Yann Galut in Bourges, and Arnaud Deslandes in Lille, each outlining specific cultural visions ranging from continuity and private-public partnerships to fostering urban and street culture.

Korea and Japan to Collaborate on Pavilions at Venice Biennale

Arts Council Korea has revealed the program for its national pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale. Curated by Binna Choi and titled "Liberation Space: Fortress/Nest," the exhibition will feature artists Goen Choi and Hyeree Ro, exploring the historical period between the end of Japanese colonial rule and the establishment of separate Korean governments. A key feature is artist Goen Choi's work *Meridian*, which will physically extend copper pipes from the Korean Pavilion into the adjacent Japanese Pavilion, marking the first formal collaboration between the two nations' presentations at the Biennale.

“River Valley Radical Futures” open at the Taber Art Gallery

A new exhibition titled “River Valley Radical Futures” has opened at the Taber Art Gallery at Holyoke Community College in Holyoke, Massachusetts. The show invites visitors to imagine the Pioneer Valley 100 years in the future after the fall of capitalism, using workshops, worker cooperatives, and community groups to create a conceptual map of that possible future. Eight local artists display multi-medium works in the gallery until March 12th.

Annual {Ink}arcerated art exhibition returns to Arizona Center May 15

The {Ink}arcerated: Creativity Within Confinement art exhibition returns to the Arizona Center on May 15, featuring 365 new paintings, drawings, and sculptures created by incarcerated individuals. Managed by doctoral students Alexis Klemm and Madeline Boersma from ASU's School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, the program involves distributing art supplies to 17 correctional facilities across Arizona, including a youth facility for the first time, and curating the completed works into a polished exhibition with museum lighting and display walls.

ART AFRICA to host 2nd NEW FUTURES ARTS COLLABORATIVE 2026, in Cape Town, South Africa.

ART AFRICA has announced an open call for the second edition of its NEW FUTURES ARTS COLLABORATIVE, scheduled for 2026 in Cape Town, South Africa. The residency, titled "De-composition, Extraction and Regeneration," invites artists to collectively explore themes of extractivism, ecological crisis, and social justice, using artistic practice as a tool for transformation and regeneration.

Fellowship Open Call – Shaping Africa’s Curatorial Futures

Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) and the University of the Western Cape (UWC) have launched an open call for their fully funded 2027 Museum Fellowship Programme. The year-long initiative offers emerging African art professionals a combination of practical museum training and postgraduate academic study, aiming to develop the next generation of curators, researchers, and arts professionals on the continent.