The best looks from the 2026 Met Gala

The 2026 Met Gala, themed 'Costume Art,' took place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, honoring the Costume Institute's spring exhibition on the role of the dressed body in art history. Co-chaired by Nicole Kidman, Venus Williams, Anna Wintour, and Beyoncé, the event featured A-list celebrities, pop stars, and tech titans on the museum's grand staircase, with a dress code of 'Fashion Is Art' encouraging guests to treat the body as a canvas. Notable attendees included Sabrina Carpenter, Doechii, Rosé, Gigi Hadid, Katy Perry, and Charli XCX, with many wearing custom designs from houses like Marc Jacobs, Saint Laurent, Thom Browne, and Jean Paul Gaultier.

After Whistleblower Complaint, Palm Springs Art Museum Declines to Release Report on Allegations of Fraud and Theft, Claims They Are ‘Not Substantiated’

The Palm Springs Art Museum in California has released a three-page statement claiming that an investigation into a whistleblower complaint alleging mismanagement, fraud, and theft found no wrongdoing. The complaint included allegations of improper reclassification of endowment funds, a $3 million discrepancy in investment accounts, and the forced departure of a former director. The museum hired law firm Barnes & Thornburg and forensic accounting firm RSM US to conduct a six-month review, but declined to release the resulting report to ARTnews or the public. The museum acknowledged that proceeds from deaccessioned artworks were used for operating expenses, calling it a long-standing board-approved practice with an internal loan being repaid by 2030.

Your guide to Christie's 20/21 auction week in New York

Christie's is holding its 20/21 auction week in New York from May 9–22, 2026, featuring seven live auctions and two online sales at its Rockefeller Center galleries. Highlights include the dedicated sale "MASTERPIECES: The Private Collection of S.I. Newhouse" (led by Constantin Brancusi's *Danaïde* and Jackson Pollock's *Number 7A, 1948*), the Impressionist and Modern Art Day Sale, and "Defined Space: The Collection of Henry S. McNeil, Jr.," which focuses on Minimalist works by Donald Judd and Dan Flavin. Other consignors include prominent collectors Agnes Gund, Marian Goodman, and Joanna Carson. The public can view works for free from May 9–21.

At the Venice Biennale, Ukraine’s Pinchuk Art Centre finds fragile moments of joy amid loss

The Pinchuk Art Centre in Kyiv has transformed its Venice Biennale presentation from a glamorous celebration of young artists into a somber exhibition responding to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This year's show, titled "Still Joy — From Ukraine into the World" (9 May-1 August) at the Palazzo Contarini-Polignac, features works by international artists like Tacita Dean and Julian Charriere alongside Ukrainian artists, as well as testimonials from soldiers collected by former marine Hlib Stryzhko. The exhibition explores how joy can persist amid trauma, with installations including pink scrolls bearing survivors' quotes, light box photographs of bombed interiors with rescued pot plants, and a sculpture of bells with displaced women's fingerprints.

Seen a ghost? The eeriest images from Fotografia Europea – in pictures

Fotografia Europea, the international photography festival in Reggio Emilia, Italy, has opened with 20 exhibitions and related events under the theme 'ghosts of the moment'. The festival features works by artists including Tania Franco Klein, Giulia Vanelli, Felipe Romero Beltrán, and Salvatore Vitale, exploring themes of memory, migration, identity, and the unseen forces shaping contemporary life. The festival runs until 14 June 2026.

Wildenstein dispute over Monet work highlights art market opacity

A long-running dispute involving the Wildenstein art dynasty has resurfaced over a 2004 transaction for Claude Monet's *Adolphe Monet Reading in a Garden* (1867). The painting was acquired by Guy Wildenstein through a €4.5m deal that included works by Pierre Bonnard and Alfred Sisley, among them Monet's *Marine, Amsterdam* (1874). That work was later resold via Christie's, but a 2020 sale attempt revealed that the original canvas had been lost during a transfer process, significantly reducing its value. Court-appointed specialists concluded in 2024 that the alteration predated the transaction and that the gallery likely knew of the damage. The sellers have filed a claim alleging "vitiated consent" under French law, with a court date set for 7 May in Rouen. The disputed Monet now reportedly belongs to billionaire Larry Ellison.

Collector Julia Stoschek Closes Down Berlin Exhibition Venue After 10 Years In Favor of International Projects

Julia Stoschek, a leading art collector and ARTnews Top 200 figure, is closing her Berlin exhibition venue after a decade of operation. The 3,000-square-meter space in the former Czech Cultural Center, which opened in 2016, will shut at the end of October 2026, having hosted 22 exhibitions and attracted 450,000 visitors. The Stoschek Foundation will maintain its Düsseldorf venue, while Stoschek shifts focus to international projects, such as the recent Los Angeles exhibition “What a Wonderful World: An Audiovisual Poem,” curated by Udo Kittelmann.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Iconic California Installation Returns in a Museum Show

The Museum of Sonoma County is commemorating the 50th anniversary of Christo and Jeanne-Claude's iconic 1976 installation "Running Fence" with an exhibition featuring blueprints, original construction materials, and documentary photographs. The temporary work, which stretched nearly 25 miles across Sonoma and Marin counties in California, required four years of negotiations with ranchers, 18 public hearings, and the first-ever Environmental Impact Report for a public artwork, ultimately costing $2.25 million funded by the artists through preparatory drawing sales.

81 artists withdraw from Venice Biennale competition

A Napoli torna il Gallery Weekend tra Chiaia e centro storico: tante mostre e una nuova associazione di galleristi

The third edition of the Napoli Gallery Weekend is scheduled for May 22–24, 2026, spanning the Chiaia district and the historic center of Naples. This year’s key development is the formation of an association of organizing galleries—Acappella, Alfonso Artiaco, Andrea Ingenito Contemporary Art, Galleria Fonti, Gallerie Riunite, Galleria Tiziana Di Caro, Studio Trisorio, and Umberto Di Marino—aiming to coordinate openings, exhibitions, and special visits while strengthening the city’s contemporary art scene. Highlights include shows by Valentina Artone, Adam Pendleton and Antoni Tàpies, David Bowes, Edoardo Aruta, Martin Kippenberger at Galerie Gisela Capitain’s Naples space, Salvatore Emblema and Luisa Lambri, and a geopolitical group exhibition titled "Global Folklore."

Wiscasset Bay Gallery exhibition will take viewers on grand tour

Wiscasset Bay Gallery in Maine is presenting "The Grand Tour in Thirty Days," an exhibition running from May 23 through June 24 that showcases the evolution of painting from realism to impressionism to modernism. The show features works by European and American artists depicting popular and remote locales across Europe during the 19th and early 20th centuries, including pieces by Jean de Botton, Luigi Moretti, Robert Weir Allan, Polly Parker Nordell, and Mary Cassatt.

Maine: A Force Within American Art (1890-2026) At Farnsworth Art Museum

The Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine, has opened a year-long exhibition titled "Maine: A Force Within American Art (1890-2026)" in honor of America's 250th anniversary. The show presents 150 works across media, highlighting the state's artistic legacy from the late 19th century to the present. It features leading modernists such as Marsden Hartley, John Marin, Charles Demuth, and Georgia O'Keeffe, who found inspiration in Maine's landscapes, as well as contemporary artists like Theresa Secord. The exhibition is curated by Jaime DeSimone and Francesca Soriano, in collaboration with multiple institutions including the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.

The message behind the US pavilion at the Venice Biennale

The article previews the 61st Venice Biennale, opening May 9 and running through November 22, highlighting early controversies. The five-person Golden Lion jury, led by Brazilian curator Solange Farkas, resigned after declaring they would not consider pavilions from countries under International Criminal Court investigation, targeting the Israel pavilion and its artist Belu-Simion Fainaru. Separately, the US pavilion has drawn scrutiny from the New York Times over its selection process, with commissioner Jenni Parido (a former pet food store owner) tapping curator Jeffrey Uslip and sculptor Alma Allen, bypassing traditional funders like the Ford and Mellon foundations.

Bones and crystals greet visitors at Marina Abramovic show in Venice

Marina Abramović, the Serbian pioneer of performance art, inaugurated her latest exhibition "Transforming Energy" at the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice, days before the official opening of the Biennale International Art Exhibition. The show features a pile of plaster bones and crystal objects, with guides in white coats encouraging visitors to interact with the crystals to detox from modern technology. Abramović is the first living woman artist to present an exhibition at the Gallerie, which is known for its Renaissance masterpieces.

Discover the Mapplethorpe Snapshot of Peter Berlin Hiding in This São Paulo Gallerist’s Bedroom

Alexandre Gabriel, a partner at São Paulo gallery Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, opens his home in the Praça da República neighborhood to reveal his personal art collection, which includes works by friends and a Robert Mapplethorpe photograph of Peter Berlin (1976). Gabriel describes how his collection began with gifts from artist friends he met while interning at a film production company in 1996, including Ivens Machado, Luiz Zerbini, Barrão, and Ernesto Neto, and emphasizes that his collection is strictly personal, guided by love and memory rather than market trends.

Metropolitan Museum receives $23m to endow internship programme

On 30 April, the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced a $23m pledge from the Rubio Butterfield Foundation, led by newly elected trustee Jennifer Rubio and her husband Stewart Butterfield, to permanently endow the museum's internship program. The internships, offered for nearly 30 years with 100 participants annually, have only been paid since 2021. The article also explores broader trends in museum philanthropy, featuring insights from former directors Gary Vikan, Gary Tinterow, and Maxwell Anderson on how donors are often guided to fund endowments for curatorial positions, operations, or awards rather than art acquisitions.

Morto l’artista Tullio Brunone. Il ricordo

Italian artist Tullio Brunone died on April 21. Born in 1946 in Alexandria, Egypt, to an Italian family, he trained at the Accademia di Brera in Milan. A pioneer of video art and new media, Brunone was a key figure in the Laboratorio di Comunicazione Militante (1976-1978) and later co-founded the Scuola di Nuove Tecnologie at Brera in the 1990s. His work explored interaction, temporality, and the selfie phenomenon, anticipating contemporary digital culture. He was represented by Galleria Clivio in Milan, which dedicated part of its stand to him at the most recent miart fair.

Russian Museum to host an exhibition with eleven Indian artists

The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg will host its first contemporary Indian art exhibition, 'Sediments of Becoming: Fossilised Present, Summoned Pasts', opening June 4. Curated by Marina Schulz and Tunty Chauhan in collaboration with Delhi's Threshold Art Gallery, the four-month show features eleven Indian artists—including Afrah Shafiq, Ravinder Reddy, and Pushpamala N.—who have created new works responding to the museum's collections and architectural context.

Free Summer Exhibitions in 2026 Across Paris and Île-de-France: This Season’s Must-See Events

A curated guide lists free summer exhibitions across Paris and Île-de-France for 2026, including shows at Fluctuart, Perrotin Gallery, Petit Palais, Bourse de Commerce, Rachel Hardouin Gallery, and Domaine de Chamarande. Highlights include "Everybody's Searching for Their Cat" at Fluctuart (May 7–August 23), JR's "Les Esquisses de la Caverne" at Perrotin (June 5–July 25), the return of "We are (still) here" street-art exhibition at Petit Palais (June 20–September 20), and free late hours at Bourse de Commerce on the first Saturday of each month.

Threshold Art Gallery and the Hermitage Museum Present Landmark Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art

Threshold Art Gallery and the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, are presenting a landmark exhibition of contemporary Indian art titled "Sediments of Becoming: Fossilised Present, Summoned Pasts." Opening on 4 June 2026 and running until 4 October 2026, it is the first dedicated presentation of contemporary Indian art in the Hermitage's 260-year history. The exhibition features works by eleven Indian artists—including Afrah Shafiq, Anindita Bhattacharya, Debashish Mukherjee, Gargi Raina, Lakshmi Madhavan, Manjunath Kamath, Maya Krishna Rao, Pushpamala N., Ravinder Reddy, Sumakshi Singh, and V. Ramesh—several of whom created new commissions after a 2025 residency at the Hermitage. Curated by Marina Schulz and Tunty Chauhan, the show places contemporary works alongside historical objects from the museum's vast collections, fostering a dialogue across time and geography.

Isamu Noguchi was never a designer, affirms High Museum of Art, Atlanta

The High Museum of Art in Atlanta presents "Isamu Noguchi: 'I am not a designer'," the first design retrospective of the Japanese-American sculptor in 25 years. Co-curated by Monica Obniski and Marin R. Sullivan, the exhibition features nearly 200 objects, including sculptural models, furniture for Herman Miller and Knoll, Akari light fixtures, and large-scale installations like Martha Graham's stage set for "Seraphic Dialogue" (1955). The show challenges Noguchi's own resistance to categorization by framing his multidisciplinary practice—spanning sculpture, design, architecture, and public art—through a design lens.

Three Venice shows everyone is talking about

The Korea Herald recommends three must-visit museum shows in Venice during the Venice Biennale. At Palazzo Grassi, the Pinault Collection presents "Michael Armitage. The Promise of Change," featuring the Kenya-born British painter's vivid works addressing sociopolitical tensions and migration. At Gallerie dell'Accademia, "Transforming Energy" by Marina Abramovic marks her 80th birthday, creating a dialogue between her performance art and Renaissance masterpieces. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection hosts "Peggy Guggenheim in London: The Making of a Collector," revisiting her formative years and her short-lived London gallery Guggenheim Jeune.

Flesh and Bones: The Exhibition Turning the Art of Anatomy Into a Cultural Conversation

The exhibition "Flesh and Bones: The Art of Anatomy" at Singapore's ArtScience Museum explores the history of anatomical representation as a cultural construct rather than a universal scientific truth. It juxtaposes Western anatomical atlases from the Renaissance with Chinese meridian (jingluo) systems, featuring works by artist Chiharu Shiota and other historical pieces that reveal how different cultures have visualized the human body through both scientific and spiritual lenses.

Marina Abramović’s Transforming Energy Reframes Performance Art in Venice

Marina Abramović has unveiled "Transforming Energy," a landmark exhibition at the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice, on view through October 19, 2026. The show marks the museum’s first major solo presentation dedicated to a living woman artist, arriving during the Venice Biennale. It places Abramović’s most significant performance works, including "Pietà (with Ulay)" (1983), in direct dialogue with Renaissance masterpieces such as Titian’s "Pietà," exploring themes of spirituality, grief, endurance, and transcendence. The exhibition is curated by Shai Baitel and features iconic works like "Balkan Baroque" (1997), for which Abramović won the Golden Lion.

5 exhibitions across the globe celebrating women who shaped art and culture

Five museums across the globe are opening exhibitions this month that celebrate women who have shaped art and culture. The shows include Björk's multidisciplinary "Echolalia" at the National Gallery of Iceland in Reykjavík, Iris van Herpen's New York exhibition, Marina Abramović's historic showing at Venice's Gallerie dell'Accademia, the Tate Modern's first major Frida Kahlo retrospective, and centenary tributes to Marilyn Monroe. The article notes that despite women making up 51% of visual artists worldwide, their work remains underrepresented in public institutions, with 78% of London galleries showing more male than female artists.

Patricia Li: An Art And Design Guide To Venice

Patricia Li, writing for Vogue Circle, shares a curated guide to art and design destinations in Venice beyond the main venues of the Venice Biennale. Her recommendations include the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Gallerie dell’Accademia, Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana (part of the Pinault Collection), the newly opened Fondazione Dries Van Noten, and Fondazione Prada, each hosting special exhibitions timed to the Biennale.

The Greenport Group: Vintage art at Floyd Memorial Library’s new exhibition

The Floyd Memorial Library in Greenport, New York, has opened a new exhibition titled "Stow Wengenroth + The Flacks: The Greenport Group," featuring works by lithographer Stow Wengenroth, his wife Edith Flack Ackley, and her sister Marjorie Flack. The show includes Wengenroth's lithographs, watercolors, and drawings, alongside Ackley's handmade dolls and books, and Flack's children's books, many on loan from the private collection of Joanna Lane. The exhibition opened on April 24 and highlights the artistic legacy of these former Greenport residents.

Cecilia Vicuña: Minga for the Sea

Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo presents 'Minga for the Sea,' a major new commission by Chilean artist, poet, and activist Cecilia Vicuña, running from May 29 to August 9, 2026. This is Vicuña's first major presentation in Scandinavia, featuring two large horizontal quipus made from locally sourced raw wool, one dedicated to the Southern Hemisphere/Chile and the other to the Northern Hemisphere/Sápmi. The quipus incorporate contributions from Indigenous and environmental defenders, including poems, drawings, and videos, forming a polyphonic archive of cultural resistance against destructive resource extraction and pollution of marine environments.

All the Looks That Made It From the Runway Into the Met’s “Costume Art” Exhibition

Marina Abramović in Venice: “Don’t treat me like an icon”

Marina Abramović has opened a new exhibition titled "Transforming Energy" at the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice, running concurrently with the Venice Biennale. Curated by Shai Baitel, the show spans the museum’s permanent collection and temporary exhibition spaces, featuring a timeline of the artist’s biography, video works, and interactive installations with crystals and stone objects. Abramović is the first living woman artist to receive a major solo exhibition at the museum, and the exhibition includes a digital avatar and rituals designed to slow down the viewer’s experience.