Peterson Rich Office Designed The Met’s New Condé M. Nast Galleries and its Inaugural Costume Institute Exhibition

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has opened its new Condé M. Nast Galleries, a 12,000-square-foot exhibition space designed by Brooklyn-based architecture firm Peterson Rich Office (PRO). The galleries, which debuted with the Costume Institute's exhibition "Costume Art," transform a former interior courtyard and gift shop into five sequential rooms, including named spaces for Thom Browne, Michael Kors, and Lance LePere. PRO also designed the exhibition itself, which pairs 200 garments and accessories with 200 artworks from the Met's collection, creating a dialogue between fashion and fine art.

Jim Dine | Dorian Gray With Rainbow Scarf (1968) | For Sale

Jim Dine's 1968 lithograph and collage 'Dorian Gray With Rainbow Scarf' is being offered for sale through Palm Beach Modern Auctions. The work, signed and numbered 119/200 from an A edition, was printed by Atelier Desjobert and Atelier LeBlanc in Paris and published by Petersburg Press in London. It is part of Dine's 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' suite and is listed with a starting bid available through Artsy's platform.

Art and authoritarianism in Auckland

Auckland Art Gallery is presenting 'Forever Tomorrow: Chinese Art Now,' a major survey of Chinese contemporary art featuring 67 works by 42 artists, running from May 2 to August 23, 2026. The exhibition includes Xiao Lu's iconic 1989 work 'Dialogue,' which she famously shot with a gun hours after its opening, an act later linked to the Tiananmen Square protests. Xiao Lu comments on the political resonance of the show in New Zealand amid global shifts in democracy and US-centric world order.

‘Her crotchless trousers are etched in my brain for ever’: Valie Export remembered by the artists she influenced

Valie Export, the pioneering Austrian feminist artist known for provocative performances like *Tapp-und-Tastkino* (1968) and *Genital Panic* (1969), is remembered by four artists she influenced: Peaches, Florentina Holzinger, Joan Jonas, and Candice Breitz. Each shares personal reflections on Export's radical use of the female body as a political weapon, her confrontational public interventions, and her legacy of civil disobedience against patriarchal structures.

Is This What “Made in America” Looks Like?

Christopher Payne's exhibition "Made in America: The Industrial Photography of Christopher Payne" at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum showcases 72 large-format photographs documenting active American factories and manufacturing processes. The trained architect turned photographer spent a decade visiting dozens of production sites across the United States, from the New York Times printing plant in Queens to the Bollman Hat Company in Pennsylvania, capturing workers' craftsmanship and the intricate steps involved in making everything from Peeps candies to jet engines. The exhibition is organized into three sections—traditional handcraft, large-scale production, and cutting-edge technologies—and coincides with the Smithsonian's celebration of the nation's 250th anniversary.

Faces of Russian Art

Gesichter der russischen Kunst

On the Venice Biennale, the Russian Pavilion presents itself as a space for dialogue, while simultaneously a major exhibition in St. Petersburg titled "Russischer Imperativ" (Russian Imperative) opened on May 8 at the Manezh exhibition hall, glorifying war as a historical imperative of Russian identity. Curated by Anton Belikov, a Moscow artist and former Russian soldier who fought in Ukraine, the show features works from state museums like the Tretyakov Gallery, blending historical battles with the current war in Ukraine, and includes a monumental, fascistoid design with a ten-meter-tall installation of a soldier's head. The exhibition has sparked outrage on social media and in Russian exile media for its militaristic propaganda.

Christie's and the Arts Council Collection to present Close Encounters celebrating 80 years of the Arts Council Collection - Christie's

Christie's London will host 'Close Encounters: Figuration, Painting and Landscape in the Arts Council Collection' from 3 to 23 June 2026, in partnership with the Arts Council Collection to mark its 80th anniversary. The exhibition brings together historical works by artists such as David Hockney, Sonia Boyce, Peter Doig, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Michael Armitage, and Claudette Johnson alongside new acquisitions by Christina Kimeze and Vanessa Raw, exploring themes of gender, sexuality, landscape, and Black British women's representation.

On High Heels into the Museum

Auf High Heels ins Museum

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) closed its newly opened David Geffen Galleries just days after their official debut to host a Dior fashion show. The show, designed by Dior creative director Jonathan Anderson, featured a Cruise collection inspired by Hollywood glamour, with models walking through the museum's outdoor spaces amid vintage cars and historical lamps. The event highlighted the ongoing tension between the museum's architectural ambitions—Peter Zumthor's amoeba-like concrete structure has drawn both criticism and praise—and its use as a venue for luxury brand marketing.

Gropius Bau öffnet abends länger

The Gropius Bau in Berlin has extended its evening opening hours by one hour, now open until 8 PM (closed Tuesdays), due to high demand for its exhibition of performance artist Marina Abramović. The show, titled "Balkan Erotic Epic," opened two weeks ago and drew long queues from the start. It features both new and older works, including performances where Abramović carved a star into her abdomen or lay in a burning installation until losing consciousness. The exhibition explores eroticism, politics, Balkan folklore, sexual energy, death, the political dimension of the body, and the Yugoslav wars.

Monopol gives away 5 × 2 tickets for Peter Hujar and Liz Deschenes at the Gropius Bau

Monopol verlost 5 × 2 Tickets für Peter Hujar und Liz Deschenes im Gropius Bau

Monopol magazine is giving away 5 × 2 tickets to the exhibition "Peter Hujar / Liz Deschenes: Persistence of Vision" at the Gropius Bau in Berlin. The show pairs Hujar's iconic black-and-white photographs of New York's downtown scene—featuring figures like Susan Sontag, Divine, and David Wojnarowicz—with Liz Deschenes' abstract, material-focused works on glass and photosensitive paper. To enter, readers must email their name with the subject line "Hujar" by May 30.

"Wir wollen Rücknahme von Kürzungen"

Berlin's cultural senator Sarah Wedl-Wilson resigned on Friday after the Berlin Court of Auditors ruled that millions in funding for antisemitism prevention projects were illegal. The resignation has sparked a political debate, with CDU general secretary Ottilie Klein defending governing mayor Kai Wegner against opposition criticism, while Franziska Stoff of the Berlin Culture Conference demands stability and a reversal of budget cuts. Thomas Fehrle, director of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, expressed personal regret over Wedl-Wilson's departure, praising her competence and engagement.

Bruno Bischofberger, gallerist to Warhol and Basquiat, 1940–2026

Bruno Bischofberger, the influential Swiss gallerist who founded his eponymous gallery in 1963, has died at age 86. He was best known for his decades-long relationship with Andy Warhol, securing right of first refusal on all of Warhol's new works after purchasing eleven early paintings in 1968. Bischofberger also represented Jean-Michel Basquiat internationally from 1982 and gave solo exhibitions to a generation of major artists including Julian Schnabel, David Salle, George Condo, and Francesco Clemente. In 2013, his gallery relocated to a former factory in Männedorf, Switzerland, redeveloped by his daughter and son-in-law.

Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera at MoMA in New York in a Passionate Theatrical Dialogue

Frida Kahlo et Diego Rivera au MoMA de New York dans un dialogue théâtral plein d’ardeur

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York has opened a theatrical exhibition titled "Frida and Diego: The Last Dream," curated by Beverly Adams, the museum's curator of Latin American art. The show features around twenty paintings and drawings by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera from MoMA's collection, alongside photographic portraits. The exhibition's dramatic staging, designed by British set designer Jon Bausor—who also worked on the Metropolitan Opera's concurrent production of "El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego"—creates a tense dialogue between the artists' contrasting styles: Rivera's political murals and Kahlo's intimate, colorful self-portraits. Highlights include Kahlo's "Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair" (1940) and Rivera's "Zapata, Agricultural Leader" (1931).

« La Boule » de Villeroy & Boch : l’art explosif et pop du pique-nique

Villeroy & Boch, the historic German porcelain manufacturer founded in 1748, launched "La Boule" ("Die Kugel") in 1971—a stackable 19-piece porcelain dinner service for four that compacts into a colorful decorative sphere. Designed by Helen von Boch, the eighth-generation family director, the set was part of a pop-design wave and came in original color variants that have since become collectors' items. The article also highlights related designs like the "La Bomba" picnic cutlery set (1968) and melamine set (1972), both held by MoMA, and notes Villeroy & Boch's collaborations with artists such as Keith Haring, Paloma Picasso, and Luigi Colani.

Georg Baselitz, grande figure de l’art allemand, est mort à l’âge de 88 ans : retour sur sa vie et son œuvre

Georg Baselitz, one of Germany's most significant post-war artists, has died at age 88. Born Hans-Georg Kern in 1938, he grew up in Nazi-era Saxony and later rejected his father's ideology, fleeing to West Berlin in 1957. Known for his provocative, expressionist works and signature upside-down paintings, Baselitz challenged artistic conventions with brutalist techniques—attacking wood with chainsaws and axes—and created scandalous pieces like "Die große Nacht im Eimer" (1962–1963), which was banned from exhibition. His career included major retrospectives at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2011) and Centre Pompidou (2021), and commissions for the Reichstag.

Immersive exhibitions and visits not to miss from spring to summer in France

Les expos et visites immersives à ne pas rater du printemps à l’été en France

The article from Beaux Arts Magazine highlights a selection of immersive art exhibitions and experiences across France for spring and summer 2026. Featured attractions include "Passion Japon" at Parc de la Villette in Paris, a journey through Japanese culture with Hokusai and Hiroshige projections; "L'Odyssée Céleste" at Église Saint-Eustache, a 3D light spectacle with live choral music; "Frissons" at the Musée d'Orsay, an interactive light installation by artist Adrien M responding to visitors' movements; and a Picasso immersive experience at Les Baux-de-Provence.

Au Louvre, l’ambitieuse restauration du cycle de Marie de Médicis

The Louvre Museum in Paris is undertaking an ambitious restoration of Peter Paul Rubens's monumental cycle of 24 paintings depicting the life of Marie de Médicis. The project, which will take four years and cost €4 million funded by the Société des Amis du Louvre, begins this autumn with the paintings being restored in situ in the Médicis Gallery. The gallery will close in May to prepare the space as a restoration workshop, where two teams of 10–15 restorers will work simultaneously on cleaning, relining, and filling gaps. The last major restoration of the cycle dates to the 1950s, and recent diagnostics revealed yellowed varnish, discordant repaints, and flaking paint layers that risk irreversible loss.

Whitney Biennial 2026: Care, Catastrophe, and Private Gestures

The Whitney Biennial 2026, the 82nd edition of the longest-running survey of American art, opened with a stripped-down, self-referential title and no subtitle, reflecting a moment of national self-questioning. The exhibition features 56 artists, duos, and collectives, with highlights including Agosto Machado's shrine sculptures dedicated to friends lost to AIDS, Emilie Louise Gossiaux's tender works about her guide dog London, and Michelle Lopez's apocalyptic video projection *Pandemonium*. Machado, a longtime downtown New York artist and caregiver, died shortly after the biennial opened, and his ashes are to be mixed with those of Marsha P. Johnson and spread in the Hudson River.

Rediscovered Old Master Painting Eclipses Estimate at Auction

A rediscovered portrait of Prince Rupert, long attributed to the studio of Anthony van Dyck and later to Jacob Huysmans, sold for CA$217,250 ($153,000) at Heffel Fine Art Auction House’s Spring Sale on May 21, more than double its low estimate. New research identified the work as by Peter Lely, court painter to King Charles II. The painting had belonged to the Hudson Bay Company for centuries and was part of a court-approved sale of the company’s collection following its 2024 bankruptcy. The 80-lot sale also saw a record for E.J. Hughes’s "Coastal Boats Near Sidney, BC" (1948), which sold for CA$5.7 million ($4.1 million), and strong results for Group of Seven artists Arthur Lismer, A.J. Casson, and Lawren Harris.

‘We can all coexist’: artist Es Devlin uses selfies to unite UK in portrait of a nation

Artist Es Devlin has created a new installation at the National Portrait Gallery in London titled 'A National Portrait for the National Portrait Gallery,' made in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture Lab. The work invites people across the UK to upload selfies, which are transformed into charcoal-and-chalk-style portraits using an AI model trained on Devlin's own hand-drawn works. These portraits then appear on a constantly evolving projected carousel, blending and dissolving into one another. Devlin, known for designing visual worlds for Beyoncé, Adele, and the London Olympics closing ceremony, describes the piece as a non-verbal space for coexistence amid national division.

Beware the technology rat trap: Cooper Jacoby’s standout contribution to New York’s Whitney Biennial

Cooper Jacoby's sculptures at the Whitney Biennial explore how AI corporations and other companies turn personal data into financial assets. His five works, displayed in a green-carpeted space he describes as "almost like a rat trap," include the 2026 piece *Estate (July 10, 2022)*—a folding screen with an intercom that uses AI trained on social media posts from deceased creatives to generate vocal outputs. Another series, *Mutual Life*, features eye-like sculptures with clock hands that spin based on the biological age of anonymous individuals in the artist's network. Jacoby's work highlights the lack of regulation around digital life and death, and the opaque nature of AI systems.

Simply divine: the extraordinary supernatural visions of Francisco de Zurbarán

Francisco de Zurbarán, one of the three great Spanish 17th-century painters alongside Velázquez and Murillo, is finally receiving his first solo exhibition in the UK at the National Gallery in London. The show highlights his distinctive style of religious painting, characterized by stark chiaroscuro, sculptural realism, and a meditative stillness that makes the immaterial seem tangible. Works such as his crucified Christ and The Apparition of Saint Peter to Saint Peter Nolasco exemplify his ability to depict visions and inner spirituality, often commissioned by powerful religious foundations in Seville during the Counter-Reformation.

Statement of Withdrawal from Visitor Lion Awards

Jarvis Cocker and Kim Sion to curate art exhibition at Hepworth Wakefield

Jarvis Cocker and his wife Kim Sion will curate a new exhibition titled "Hodge Podge" at the Hepworth Wakefield, opening in May 2027. The show brings together a personal selection of works by artists including Jeremy Deller, Peter Doig, Barbara Hepworth, and others, alongside unknown outsider and visionary artists never before exhibited in UK public museums. The exhibition aims to challenge conventional ideas of art and includes an immersive Dreamachine, a flickering light device co-invented by Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerville in 1959.

98,000 People Rush to Defense of Arts Trustee Misan Harriman in Wake of Antisemitism Accusations

More than 98,000 people have filed complaints with the UK Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) in defense of British-Nigerian arts trustee Misan Harriman, following accusations of antisemitism leveled against him by right-wing outlets including the Daily Mail and the Telegraph. The complaints mark the highest number ever submitted to IPSO over a single issue. Separately, an open letter signed by activist Greta Thunberg and artists Tracey Emin and Peter Doig condemns what they call a "dishonest smear campaign" targeting Harriman, who is an Oscar-nominated photographer, chair of the Southbank Centre, and a nominee for Amnesty UK’s People’s Human Rights Champion.

Artist Valie Export, Who Saw Right Through the Male Gaze, Dies at 85

Austrian artist Valie Export, a pioneering feminist performance and media artist, died on May 14, three days before her 86th birthday. Her death was confirmed by Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery. Export, born Waltraud Lehner in 1940, rejected traditional domestic roles and adopted her iconic all-uppercase name from a cigarette brand. She created guerrilla-style performances and films that directly confronted the male gaze and patriarchal society, often using her own body as a medium. Key works include “Genital Panic” (1968), in which she walked through a Munich cinema in crotchless pants, and “Tapp und Tastkino (Tap and Touch Cinema)” (1968), where she invited strangers to touch her bare breasts through a stage strapped to her chest.

Remembering James Hayward, LA’s Adored Cowboy Painter

Abstract painter James Hayward, known for his monochromatic oil and wax impasto works, died last week at age 82. A legendary figure in the LA art scene, Hayward was equally celebrated for his magnetic personality, ribald humor, and storytelling. He rose to prominence in 1977 when included in the group show "Less is More" at Sidney Janis Gallery in New York, and was admired by art-world giants such as Dave Hickey, Chris Burden, Nancy Rubins, Ed Moses, and Mike Kelley. Hayward also taught at colleges across the country, including a guest seminar at the University of Southern California, and was a longtime supporter of the LA contemporary art magazine Artillery.

This week's openings in Parisian galleries

Les vernissages cette semaine dans les galeries parisiennes

This week's openings in Parisian galleries feature a wide range of exhibitions across the Marais, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, and other districts. Highlights include Galerie Alain Margaron's group show "Du modèle à l'autoportrait" exploring the body in works by André Derain, Jean Hélion, Fred Deux, and Zoran Mušič; Kim Myoung Nam's first solo show at Galerie UNIVER / Colette Colla, presenting perforated paper pieces; and Galerie Wagner's collective exhibition dedicated to Latin American artists Milton Becerra, Olga Luna, and Claudia Lavegas. Other notable shows include Louis Pion's ink-on-envelope series at Galerie Incognito Artclub, Léonore Chastagner's raw ceramics at Galerie Anne-Sarah Bénichou, and solo presentations by Quentin Gouevic and Jérôme Zonder at Galerie Nathalie Obadia.

Robert Filliou, artistes océaniens… Que nous réserve la prochaine édition de la Biennale de Lyon ?

The 18th edition of the Lyon Biennale, titled "Passer d’un rêve à l’autre" (Moving from One Dream to Another), will run from September 19 to December 13, 2026. Curated by Catherine Nichols, an Australian-born art historian and editor based in Berlin, the biennial will take place across ten venues in Lyon, including the Grandes Locos, macLyon, and for the first time the Musée des Tissus et des Arts décoratifs. More than half of the works will be new productions, and over half of the artists are women, with a substantial focus on Oceanian artists such as Timo Hogan, Jazz Money, and Kaylene Whiskey. The exhibition draws inspiration from Lyon's traboules (hidden passageways) and the writings of artist Robert Filliou, exploring themes of dreams, critical analysis, and a "poetic economy."

Ansel Adams Trust Slams Gallery for AI-Generated Work at AIPAD Photography Show

The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust publicly condemned Danziger Gallery for exhibiting and offering for sale an AI-generated artwork at the 2026 AIPAD Photography Show in New York. The untitled piece, described as a color version of Adams' iconic photograph "Moonrise Over Hernandez," was printed by master printer Esteban Mauchi and displayed alongside works by Seydou Keïta, Hoda Afshar, and Matthew Porter. The trust stated it did not authorize or endorse the work, accused the gallery of exploiting Adams' name and reputation, and noted that Danziger did not remove the piece after being contacted. The gallery has not commented publicly.