Spring 2026 Exhibitions Opening Celebration

The Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University has announced its Spring 2026 exhibitions lineup, featuring works by Vitória Cribb, Ximena Garrido-Lecca, Eric N. Mack, Hew Locke, and Naeem Mohaiemen. Highlights include Cribb's 'echoes of a wet finger,' commissioned by Sharjah Art Biennial 16 and Mercosul Biennial 14, and solo presentations by Garrido-Lecca, Mack, and Locke, as well as Mohaiemen's film and video works. The season is supported by a range of funders including the American Electric Power Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Delaware Art Museum Presents Imprinted: Illustrating Race

The Delaware Art Museum (DelArt) will present "Imprinted: Illustrating Race," an exhibition assembled by the Norman Rockwell Museum and co-curated by Robyn Phillips-Pendleton of the University of Delaware. Opening October 18, 2025, the show features over 200 works originally commissioned for newspapers, magazines, books, trade cards, posters, packaging, and advertising, tracing how illustration reflected and shaped perceptions of race in the United States from the 19th century onward. It places Norman Rockwell’s Civil Rights–era images alongside works by artists such as Faith Ringgold, Emory Douglas, Howard Pyle, and Loveis Wise, highlighting both harmful racial stereotypes and the efforts of artists and publishers who used illustration to challenge those narratives.

Catch These Glamourous Summer Exhibitions at SCAD Lacoste

SCAD Lacoste, the Savannah College of Art and Design's campus in Provence, France, is hosting three summer exhibitions: 'Christian Dior: Jardins Rêvés', the first Dior exhibition in southern France, featuring over 30 haute couture silhouettes and 60 accessories by Dior and his successors; 'DRIFT: Unfold', a permanent interactive installation by the Dutch artist duo DRIFT that transforms visitors' heartbeats into audiovisual displays; and 'Studio Bee: 100% Made by SCAD', showcasing work by recent SCAD fashion graduates. The Dior show runs until September 28, while the Studio Bee exhibition continues until November 2.

football city, art united transforms manchester's aviva studios into a pitch for creativity

Manchester International Festival 2025 presents "Football City, Art United" at Aviva Studios, a group exhibition co-curated by former footballer Juan Mata, curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, and Josh Willdigg. The show pairs eleven international footballers with artists across media—including Ryan Gander with Eric Cantona, Keiken with Ella Toone, and Suzanne Lacy with Vivianne Miedema and Ali Riley—to explore intersections of sport and contemporary art. Works range from a holographic tribute to Diego Maradona by Jill Mulleady to an interactive installation by Stefano Boeri Architetti with Sandro Mazzola. The exhibition runs through August 24, 2025.

Football meets art in new Aviva Studios exhibition

Manchester International Festival (MIF) has opened a new exhibition titled 'Football City, Art United' at Aviva Studios, exploring the intersection of football and contemporary art. Co-curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Juan Mata, and Josh Willdigg, the show features 11 works pairing artists like Paul Pfeiffer, Philippe Parreno, Ryan Gander, and Rose Wylie with football figures including Eric Cantona, Edgar Davids, Ella Toone, and Lotte Wubben-Moy. Highlights include a sound installation recreating the stadium tunnel experience, a spotlight piece on celebrity isolation, and a documentary on sexism in women's football.

From Origin to Future. Opening Exhibition for the Naoshima New Museum of Art by Tadao Ando

Architect Tadao Ando has designed the Naoshima New Museum of Art, the latest addition to the Benesse Art Site Naoshima project in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan. This marks Ando's tenth contribution to the site and the first museum to bear the island's name. The museum will open on May 31, 2025, with an inaugural exhibition featuring works by twelve artists and groups, including both longtime collaborators and newer voices. The building, which includes one above-ground floor and two basement levels, features a large roof integrated with the hills and a cafe overlooking the Seto Sea.

Veronica Ryan: Unruly Objects

The Pulitzer Arts Foundation and the Wexner Center for the Arts have co-organized an exhibition titled "Veronica Ryan: Unruly Objects," curated by Tamara H. Schenkenberg with curatorial assistant Molly Moog. At the Wexner Center, the presentation is further organized by Schenkenberg and Julieta González, head of Visual Arts. The exhibition is supported by a range of funders including ENGIE, the American Electric Power Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation, among others.

Review: “Toshiko Takaezu: Worlds Within” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

The article reviews "Toshiko Takaezu: Worlds Within" at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the artist's first nationally touring retrospective in 20 years. Organized by the Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, the exhibition features some 100 artworks from the 1950s until her death in 2011, including large-scale ceramics, weavings, and paintings. It traces Takaezu's journey from her childhood on a Maui watercress plantation to her transformative studies at Cranbrook Academy of Art and a pivotal trip to Japan, where she studied Zen Buddhism and worked under various ceramicists.

A Guillon-Lethière for Worcester

Un Guillon-Lethière pour Worcester

The Worcester Art Museum has acquired Guillaume Guillon-Lethière's painting "Lucien Bonaparte contemplant Alexandrine de Bleschamp Jouberthon" (1802), which depicts the second brother of Napoleon with his second wife. The work had been on loan to the museum from London dealers Lowell Libson and Johnny Yarker, who had purchased it at a Christie's New York auction in October 2019 after it resurfaced in a Portland sale in 2005. The painting was featured prominently in the 2024-2025 Louvre exhibition "Guillon-Lethière. Né à la Guadeloupe," where it was reunited with a portrait of its patron Lucien Bonaparte.

In Medias Res. Sofia Defino Leiby by Gabriela Acha

Berlin-based artist Sofia Defino Leiby is currently transitioning her practice between her Alt-Treptow studio and a residency at Defet House in Nürnberg. Her multidisciplinary approach integrates painting, collage, and performance, drawing heavily from a 'running narrative' of personal notes, found ephemera, and high-end materials like Schmincke paints. The work often features visceral, layered compositions that utilize everything from vintage packaging to Swiss Aura-Soma bottle imagery.

Artist in Focus: Louis Pohl Koseda. Constructing the City as Memory.

British artist Louis Pohl Koseda is gaining attention for his intricate works that blend drawing, painting, and architectural theory to explore the city as a psychological structure. His practice, which he terms 'metafictionism,' utilizes fine-line drawing to create layered compositions where figures navigate unstable, theatrical urban environments. Influenced by his upbringing in an East London Hare Krishna community, Koseda’s work focuses on how belief systems and social fabrics are mapped onto the physical and imagined spaces of the city.

Steel And Shadows Converge in “Larry Kagan: Men”

Louis K. Meisel Gallery in New York City will present “Larry Kagan: Men,” an exhibition of steel and shadow sculptures by artist Larry Kagan, opening May 9 and running through June 20. Kagan, a former engineer turned sculptor, creates intricate steel assemblages that, when lit from a calculated angle, project remarkably detailed shadow images onto the wall, blending material and illusion. The show includes works like “Michelangelo's Adam” (2025) and highlights his career shift from acrylics to metal in the 1980s under the mentorship of Richard Stankiewicz.

A Water Lily is a Water Lily is a Water Lily

Eine Seerose ist eine Seerose ist eine Seerose

Anonymous internet artist SHL0MS posted an image of a Monet water lily painting on X, falsely claiming it was AI-generated. Thousands of users criticized the image's aesthetics, after which SHL0MS revealed it was actually a real Monet. He then minted the image as an NFT, sold it for around $40,000, and framed the entire episode as a conceptual artwork titled "Inferior Image," claiming it critiques online disinformation and debate culture.

beauty kustaa saksi tapestry oribe

Artist Kustaa Saksi, known for tapestries inspired by the visual auras of his migraines, has created a new work titled "Golden Threads" in collaboration with luxury hair-care brand Oribe. The tapestry, woven at the TextielMuseum’s TextielLab in Tilburg, took six months and over 180 pounds of thread, and is an abstract homage to the Norse goddess Sif. It is part of Oribe’s annual artist program, now in its eighth year, which invites creatives to reinterpret the brand’s visual language for limited-edition holiday packaging. Past participants include photographer Thandiwe Muriu, digital painter Kohei Kyomori, and clay artist Rowan Harrison.

gary burden album cover artist gary auction

Bonhams Los Angeles is auctioning the archive of legendary album cover designer Gary Burden, who died in 2018, in a sale titled "Cover to Cover" running from June 20 to 30. The collection includes original artwork, sketchbooks, and ephemera from Burden's five-decade career, featuring iconic covers for the Doors' *Morrison Hotel* (1970), the Eagles' *Desperado* (1973) and *One of These Nights* (1975), Joni Mitchell's *Ladies of the Canyon* (1970), and Jackson Browne's 1972 debut, among others. Highlights include a lithograph for the Eagles' *One of These Nights* (estimate $10,000–$15,000) and Burden's preparatory pencil sketch for *Desperado* (estimate $30,000–$40,000).

art joel quayson dior photography award

Joel Quayson, a student at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, has won the 2025 Dior Photography and Visual Arts Award for Young Talents at the Rencontres d’Arles photo festival. His short film "How Do You Feel?" explores the tension between his expressive queer identity and the expectations of his family and culture, showing him dressing and undressing while a narrator repeatedly asks the title question. The jury, including Dior Makeup creative director Peter Philips, Luma Arles founder Maja Hoffmann, and photographer Yuriko Takagi, praised the work for its raw vulnerability and emotional depth.

Director of the Hermitage Museum Sanctioned by the European Union

Le directeur du Musée de l'Ermitage sanctionné par l'Union européenne

The European Union has imposed sanctions on Mikhail Piotrovsky, the 81-year-old director of the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, as part of its 20th sanctions package against Russia. Piotrovsky was blacklisted for supporting the war in Ukraine and overseeing illegal archaeological excavations in occupied Crimea. The EU cited his use of Kremlin war rhetoric—calling the museum's exhibition policy a "cultural special operation"—and the Hermitage's role in incorporating Ukrainian cultural objects from occupied territories into Russia's state museum fund. Additionally, under his leadership, unauthorized digs were conducted at the ancient Greek site of Myrmekion in Crimea, led by Hermitage archaeologist Alexander Butyagin, who was arrested in Warsaw and later released in a prisoner exchange.

Nocturnal Worlds: Keita Morimoto’s Uncanny Cities

Keita Morimoto's solo exhibition "what we told ourselves" at Kotaro Nukaga gallery in Tokyo presented a series of nocturnal paintings and new sculptural works exploring artificial light in urban environments. The show featured large-scale canvases depicting uncanny, dramatically lit cityscapes alongside life-sized, internally illuminated vending machine sculptures that extended his painterly themes into three dimensions.

Hermitage Museum Director and Putin Ally Mikhail Piotrovsky Sanctioned by European Union

The European Union has sanctioned Mikhail Piotrovsky, the longtime director of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, for his close association with Vladimir Putin and his active support of Russia's war against Ukraine. Announced on April 23, the sanctions are part of a broader package targeting over a hundred individuals and entities, including other cultural figures like Sergei Obryvalin, Igor Solonin, and Andrey Polyakov, for their roles in the seizure of Ukrainian cultural property and the spread of Russian propaganda in occupied regions.

wuthering heights airbnb

Airbnb, in collaboration with Warner Bros., is offering an exclusive overnight experience themed around Emerald Fennell's new film adaptation of *Wuthering Heights*. The stay, located in West Yorkshire, features a meticulously recreated bedroom and dining hall from the movie's Thrushcross Grange set, complete with period furnishings, Yorkshire delicacies, and activities like horseback riding and a visit to the Brontë Parsonage Museum. The experience is free and available to only three couples for a limited time in late February and early March.

national gallery of art smithsonian reopen shutdown

After a 43-day government shutdown, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., will reopen to the public on Friday, returning to normal business hours. The Smithsonian Institution will also begin reopening several of its museums and the zoo on a rolling basis, starting with the National Museum of American History, the National Air and Space Museum, and the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center on the same day. The shutdown, the longest in U.S. history, ended after President Donald Trump signed a spending package following a House vote.

supreme court ruling advances trumps plan for mass layoffs of federal workers

The U.S. Supreme Court lifted a lower court order that had temporarily blocked the Trump administration's plan to lay off thousands of federal workers. The initial lawsuit was filed by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), 11 nonprofits, and local governments from states including California, Texas, and Illinois, challenging Executive Order 14210. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the sole dissenter, while liberal justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor sided with the conservative majority. The ruling allows mass firings and reorganizations at 19 federal agencies, including the State Department and Social Security Administration, to proceed, though a separate injunction protecting sub-agencies of Health and Human Services remains in place.

Project 88 and Vadehra Art Gallery at No.9 Cork Street for London Gallery Weekend

Project 88 and Vadehra Art Gallery, two leading Indian galleries, will present exhibitions at Frieze’s No.9 Cork Street space in London from 5th–28th June 2026, coinciding with London Gallery Weekend. Project 88 debuts with 'Treeish', a group show curated by Prajna Desai featuring artists Claire Baker, Mahesh Baliga, Neha Choksi, Goutam Ghosh, Trupti Patel, and Tejal Shah, exploring the agency of trees through diverse media. Vadehra Art Gallery returns with 'A Singular Modernist', a solo exhibition dedicated to the late modernist painter A. Ramachandran (1935–2023), showcasing works from his Puppet Theatre series and later lotus pond imagery.

Currents of the 61st Biennale: Inside Venice’s Flow of Art and Power

The 61st Venice Biennale jury, composed of five curators—Solange Oliveira Farkas, Zoe Butt, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Marta Kuzma, and Giovanna Zapperi—resigned on April 30th amid internal tensions over decisions that conflicted with the late Koyo Kouoh's curatorial vision. The jury had previously stated it would refrain from considering countries whose leaders are charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court. Meanwhile, Filipino artist Jon Cuyson prepares to present his installation at the Philippine Pavilion, featuring works shipped 60 days before geopolitical conflict escalated, navigating unstable maritime routes. His project includes the film series "Sea of Love (Dagat ng Pag-ibig)" and a new fourth film, "Sea of Echoes," exploring themes of migration, queer experience, and ecological resilience through mussels as non-human protagonists.

UCR ARTS presents Transgresoras: Mail Art and Messages, 1960s–2020s

UCR ARTS' California Museum of Photography presents "Transgresoras: Mail Art and Messages, 1960s–2020s," an exhibition guest co-curated by Zanna Gilbert of the Getty Research Institute and Elena Shtromberg of the University of Utah. Running from September 13, 2025, to February 15, 2026, the show features over 50 Latinx and Latin American women artists who used mail art to subvert authoritarian censorship, turning the government's own postal system into a tool for creative expression across militarized borders. The exhibition includes video, sculpture, paintings, prints, and installations, organized into thematic sections addressing state control, gender, migration, colonialism, and ecology.

Toledo Museum of Art exhibition to explore landscape of digital and generative art

The Toledo Museum of Art will open "Infinite Images: The Art of the Algorithm," a special exhibition curated by Julia Kaganskiy that explores digital and generative art from the 1960s to the present. The show features works created using custom software, algorithms, and machine learning models developed by the artists themselves, emphasizing rule-based systems and automation as part of the creative process. Associate Curator Paige Rozanski notes that the exhibition contextualizes generative art within a longer tradition of analog algorithmic processes, distinguishing it from AI-generated images produced by large language models like ChatGPT.

Exciting evolution for SJIMA

Blake DeYoung is stepping down as Executive Director of the San Juan Islands Museum of Art (SJIMA) at the end of May to become Executive Director of the Skagit Valley College San Juan Center branch, replacing Randy Martin. Deputy Director Wendy Smith will serve as Acting Director during the transition. The museum board remains unchanged, and the institution views this as an opportunity to realign its structure and build on recent successes, including record attendance in 2025.

Plastic Visions. Tony Chrenka by Maxwell Smith-Holmes

Tony Chrenka's studio in the Gowanus neighborhood of New York City is the subject of this article, which explores his artistic practice centered on salvaged materials and industrial processes. Chrenka works with PET plastic (Mylar) and polyester fabrics, creating collages and sculptures that investigate the gap between use-value and exchange-value. His upcoming exhibition at Toby78 in Brooklyn will feature new works made from pleated polyester textiles, inspired by Issey Miyake's Pleats Please clothing line.

art world favorite water brand new collection art themed sparkling beverages

Saratoga, the bottled water brand known for its blue glass bottles and ubiquity at art world events, has launched a new collection of flavored sparkling waters with art-themed names. The three flavors are Abstraction of Lime, Anatomy of a Peach, and Untitled Berry No. 3, each packaged in cans with colorful geometric abstract designs. The brand's marketing leans into art world language, describing the flavors as a "curated blend" and using ornate picture frames in promotional imagery.

extreme mold damage denmark

A newly discovered mold species, aspergillus section restricti, is damaging artworks and cultural objects across Denmark. Detected in 12 museums including the National Museum of Denmark and Skagens Museum, the fungus thrives in dry environments—the very conditions used to preserve artifacts. Conservators describe it as an "epidemic" that also poses health risks to visitors. The National Museum is relocating affected works to a new warehouse near Copenhagen, but no solution has been found yet. Preliminary studies are underway at 150 additional cultural sites to assess the spread.