MEGA Art Fair held its third edition in Milan, transforming a former perfume factory into a social and exhibition hub during Milan Art Week and Design Week. The fair, which ran from midday to midnight over an extended period, positioned itself as an alternative to traditional art fairs by prioritizing relaxed social connection, community engagement, and public programming over a purely commercial atmosphere.
Rangsook Yoon, the senior curator at the Sarasota Art Museum (SAM), is departing her role to join the Frye Art Museum in Seattle as the senior director of curatorial affairs. Yoon will conclude her tenure at SAM on May 1, following the opening of the major loan exhibition "Something Borrowed, Something New," which features works by blue-chip artists like Louise Bourgeois and Ai Weiwei. Her move to Seattle follows a successful two-year period in Sarasota where she curated high-profile shows and participated in regional collaborations like Skyway 2024.
Agnes Gund, the influential American arts philanthropist and collector, has died at age 87. Gund was a transformative figure at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, serving on its board from 1976, as president from 1991 to 2002, and later as president emerita. She helped raise funds for MoMA's $858m expansion, donated around 100 works to the museum, and pushed for acquisitions of women and artists of color. Beyond MoMA, she founded Studio in a School in 1977 to bring art education to New York City public schools and co-chaired a Sotheby's auction to support Miss Porter's School. Her death was first reported by The New York Times; she is survived by four children.
Time Out has published a list of the 44 best art museums in the U.S., ranking institutions like the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) at the top. The article highlights each museum's collection highlights, architectural features, and visitor tips, with prices and recommendations for immersive experiences.
The Cleveland Museum of Art has opened a sprawling retrospective exhibition of Takashi Murakami, one of Japan's leading contemporary artists, showcasing his signature "Superflat" style that blends fine art with pop culture. The show features vast wallpaper designs, sculptures with plastic-like smoothness, and immense mural-sized paintings that combine cartoon characters, acid-hued colors, and traditional Japanese ink-and-brush techniques. The exhibition runs through September 7 and costs $30 for adult non-member tickets.
CBS News Sunday Morning anchor Jane Pauley previews major museum exhibitions opening in summer 2025. The article highlights Amy Sherald's mid-career survey "American Sublime" at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, featuring her iconic portrait of Michelle Obama and exploring her signature grisaille technique and confident Black subjects. Other featured shows include "Van Gogh: The Roulin Family Portraits" at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; "Monet's Floating Worlds at Giverny" at the Portland Art Museum; "KAWS: FAMILY" at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville; and "Jeffrey Gibson: the space in which to place me" at The Broad in Los Angeles.
Takashi Murakami's solo exhibition "Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow" has opened at the Cleveland Museum of Art, expanding on a survey that began at The Broad in Los Angeles in 2022. The centerpiece is a 32-foot-tall reinterpretation of the Yumedono (Dream Hall) from Hōryūji Temple in Nara, Japan, built with set builders from the FX series *Shōgun*. The show features around 100 paintings and sculptures dating back to 1993, including a yellow DOB t-shirt, and new works such as *Kansei Hokkyō Kōrin Flowers* (2025).
Takashi Murakami is back in the spotlight with a new exhibition, “Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow,” opening May 25 at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The show features a full-scale replica of a portion of an ancient temple at Nara, Japan, and highlights the artist’s signature Flowers series. Murakami, known for his manga- and anime-inspired characters, has also become a fashion icon, with followers including Usher, Pharrell Williams, and entrepreneur Sarah Andelman. The article captures a press event where Murakami sketched portraits of artist Shahzia Sikander, dressed in a whimsical outfit designed to captivate his audience.
The Cleveland Museum of Art is presenting an expanded version of Takashi Murakami's exhibition 'Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow,' originally shown at The Broad in Los Angeles in 2022. The show fills the Kelvin and Eleanor Smith Foundation Exhibition Hall and Gallery with Murakami's vibrant paintings and sculptures, including early drawings, self-portraits, and new works unseen by American audiences. A highlight is the Yumedono project, a re-creation of the Dream Hall at Hōryū Temple in Nara, Japan, created in collaboration with the team from the FX series *Shogun*. Curator Ed Schad emphasizes the exhibition's exploration of how art can address crisis, healing, and escapist fantasy after shared historical trauma, with loans that dialogue with classical Japanese artists like Ogata Kōrin, Kitaōji Rosanjin, and Itō Jakuchū.
The Cleveland Museum of Art has opened "Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow," a major exhibition of works by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami. The show, which originated at the Broad Museum in Los Angeles, features vibrant paintings, sculptures, and an immersive recreation of the Yumedono (Dream Temple) from Nara, Japan, built in collaboration with designers from the TV series "Shōgun." The exhibition traces Murakami's career from early characters like Mr. DOB to large-scale works addressing grief and trauma, including the 82-foot-long painting inspired by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.
The Cleveland Museum of Art is opening a new exhibition titled 'Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow,' featuring the work of Japanese contemporary artist Takashi Murakami. The show runs from May 25 through September 7, with member previews from May 16 to 24. The exhibition explores Murakami's signature style blending anime, manga, and otaku culture with traditional Japanese art, and addresses themes such as trauma, healing, and the cultural impact of historical events including World War II and the COVID-19 pandemic.
A new auction record has been set, with a significant artwork selling for a high price at a major auction house. The sale took place recently, drawing attention from collectors and the art market.
An exhibition titled "Paris in Black: Internationalism and the Black Renaissance" at the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center in Chicago celebrates the Black American artists, writers, and performers who moved to Paris after World War II to escape American racism. Curated by Danny Dunson, the show features over 100 artworks from the museum's permanent collection, including paintings by Archibald J. Motley Jr., sculptures by Richmond Barthé, Augusta Savage, and William Artis, and ephemera related to Josephine Baker. It traces the global influence of the Harlem Renaissance and the cross-pollination between Paris and U.S. cities like Chicago.
The article reviews the exhibition "Manet & Morisot" at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, which pairs works by Édouard Manet and Berthe Morisot to explore their artistic dialogue. It highlights how, contrary to the common assumption that Morisot was influenced by Manet, the show argues that Manet increasingly adopted Morisot's lighter palette, looser brushwork, and intimate subject matter in his later years, especially as his health declined. Key pairings include Manet's "Before the Mirror" (1877) and Morisot's "Woman at her Toilette" (around 1875-80), as well as their respective series of seasonal allegories, shown together for the first time.
Lowry Hill Gallery is hosting an exhibition titled “Annemarie’s Vision” featuring the work of artist Kirsten Tradowsky. The show is presented in partnership with Minnesota Women's Press, highlighting Tradowsky's artistic exploration of vision and narrative.
Gala Porras-Kim presents her first exhibition at kurimanzutto in Mexico City, titled "Future spaces replicate earlier spaces," running from April 11 to June 13, 2026. The show brings together works that examine how museums and conservation institutions reclassify objects removed from their original contexts, using reconstruction and resituating to explore their spatial, material, and temporal conditions. Central to the exhibition is the installation "The motion of an alluvial record" (2024), which recreates the humid marshland atmosphere of the Yucatán Peninsula inside the gallery, contrasting with the controlled climates of museums. Other works include drawings replicating wall decorations from the Techinantitla complex in Teotihuacan, which were fragmented and sold on the black market, and graphite drawings of objects by artist Brígido Lara, whose "original interpretations" of Totonac ritual clay objects were mistakenly catalogued as Pre-Hispanic artifacts in major museums.
CULTURED magazine assembled a roundtable of three Black women leaders at prominent Black art museums in the U.S.—Key Jo Lee of the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco, Cheryl Finley of the Atlanta University Center Art History and Curatorial Studies Collective (AUC), and Amy Andrieux of the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA) in New York. The discussion explores how each arrived at her role, the challenges these institutions face—including financial pressures and heightened scrutiny under the current U.S. administration—and their strategies for preserving and building legacies. Lee, who joined MoAD three years ago after a tenure at the Cleveland Museum of Art, is curating the exhibition “UNBOUND: Art, Blackness & the Universe,” named one of Hyperallergic’s top 25 of 2025. Finley, a curator, art historian, critic, and author, directs the AUC collective at Spelman College. Andrieux, who came from music and media roles at Red Bull Media House and MTV World, was recruited in 2018 to save MoCADA from closure and later became its executive director and chief curator, overseeing a capital expansion in 2023.
Raúl de Nieves, a queer Mexico-born artist based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is preparing for his latest institutional exhibition, “In Light of Innocence,” opening September 12 at Pioneer Works in Red Hook. The show features 40 new stained glass assemblages made from tape, acetate, and inexpensive materials, installed above a single floor-bound work—a departure from his typically maximalist style. De Nieves, who has exhibited at the ICA Boston, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Cleveland Museum of Art, and gained prominence after the 2017 Whitney Biennial, describes the exhibition as a valediction, stating it will be the last time he creates this kind of work.
Cambodian artist Sopheap Pich is presenting an exhibition at Meta House in Phnom Penh that reveals his creative process, showing how he conceives sculptures from initial drawings and woodblock prints to works in bamboo and metal. Born in Battambang, Pich survived the Khmer Rouge regime as a child and later immigrated to the U.S., earning an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago before returning to Cambodia in 2002. The exhibition includes early rattan pieces and recent metal sculptures, reflecting his intuitive, memory-infused approach to making art with a team of ten assistants in his Phnom Penh studio.
The Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College is hosting a major retrospective of the late American artist June Leaf, featuring over 100 works spanning 75 years. The exhibition, which originated at the Addison Gallery of American Art, showcases Leaf’s unique figurative style and her roots in Chicago’s "Monster Roster" group. The show aims to provide art historical justice to an artist who often worked in the shadow of her husband, the legendary photographer Robert Frank.
The Cleveland Museum of Art has opened a fashion exhibition titled "Renaissance to Runway" that uses AI-generated video to animate historical garments too delicate to wear. The 2-minute, 45-second video, "Renaissance Remixed" by Francesco Carrozzini and Henry Hargreaves, shows lifelike figures in archival clothing moving through dreamlike settings, solving the problem of displaying fragile pieces without risking damage. The exhibition pairs Renaissance and Baroque artworks with modern designs from Versace, Valentino, Armani, Ferragamo, and Gucci, and is the largest of its kind at the museum.
Six major museum exhibitions opening across the U.S. this winter are profiled, including 'Austrian Expressionism and Otto Kallir' at LACMA, which features a newly acquired Gustav Klimt painting and works by Egon Schiele; 'Divine Color: Hindu Prints from Modern Bengal' at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the first U.S. exhibition to explore how lithography transformed Hindu devotional art; 'Frida: The Making of an Icon' at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, examining Kahlo's rise from local painter to global brand; 'Conversation Pieces: Stories from the Fashion Archives' at the Denver Art Museum, showcasing garments from its permanent collection; and 'Grandma Moses: A Good Day’s Work' at the Smithsonian.
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.
The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) has opened a free companion exhibition titled "France in the Time of Manet and Morisot," running through August 23 in the Mark Schwartz and Bettina Katz Photography Galleries. The show features 50 photographs from the museum's holdings of mid-1800s France, including works by Charles Marville and Édouard Baldus, who were commissioned by Emperor Napoleon III and the Louvre to document historic monuments and new architectural projects. Curated by Barbara Tannenbaum, CMA chair of prints, drawings, and photographs, the exhibition complements the museum's ticketed show "Manet & Morisot," which explores the artistic exchange between Édouard Manet and Berthe Morisot. Highlights include André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri's 1861 portrait "Monsieur Merlen," which is noted as an early precursor to the selfie, and a photograph of the Arc de Triomphe under construction.
The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) has opened a new photography exhibition, "France in the Time of Manet and Morisot," running through August 23 in the Mark Schwartz and Bettina Katz Photography Galleries. The free show features 50 photographs from CMA's holdings of mid-1800s France, complementing the museum's ticketed Impressionist display "Manet & Morisot." Curator Barbara Tannenbaum selected works by photographers such as Charles Marville, Édouard Baldus, and André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri, including Disdéri's 1861 portrait "Monsieur Merlen," which is noted as an early precursor to the modern selfie. The photographs document historic monuments, new architecture, and figures like Sarah Bernhardt, offering a visual context for the era of painters Édouard Manet and Berthe Morisot.
The Cleveland Museum of Art's spring exhibition examines the artistic relationship between 19th-century French Impressionist painters Édouard Manet and Berthe Morisot, showcasing 36 paintings and seven works on paper. Organized by curator Emily Beeny of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the show is the first to closely analyze how the two artists influenced each other, correcting the historical record that long positioned Manet as the dominant figure while undervaluing Morisot's contributions. Through side-by-side juxtapositions, the exhibition reveals that Manet may have taken more from Morisot than she from him, highlighting their collaborative and competitive dialogue over 15 years.
The article reviews the exhibition 'Zurbarán' at the National Gallery in London, arguing that the show fails to capture the spiritual intensity and emotional power of the Spanish Baroque painter's work. It criticizes the curatorial choices, suggesting the display feels flat and lacks the ecstatic religious fervor that defines Zurbarán's best paintings, leaving viewers with a sense of agony rather than transcendence.
The article recounts an incident in 1870 when Berthe Morisot, a young painter, sought advice from Édouard Manet on a double portrait of her mother and sister for the Paris Salon. Manet, a friend and fellow artist, visited her studio and, after deeming the work "very good" except for the dress, took up brushes and extensively retouched the figure of Morisot's mother from hem to head, leaving Morisot mortified. This moment, described as "mansplainting," is framed as a pivotal point in their artistic relationship, which the exhibition "Manet and Morisot" explores through paintings that dialogue with each other, including Manet's *The Balcony* and Morisot's *The Artist's Sister at a Window*.
This guide highlights the premier immersive art destinations across the United States, featuring major venues such as Superblue Miami, Meow Wolf, and the WNDR Museum. These spaces utilize large-scale installations, LED technology, and interactive environments to move beyond traditional gallery formats, offering visitors sensory-driven experiences ranging from mirrored labyrinths to digital multiverses.
The Cleveland Museum of Art has launched "Martin Puryear: Nexus," the most comprehensive survey of the 84-year-old American sculptor’s work in nearly two decades. Co-organized with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the exhibition features approximately 50 pieces, including large-scale sculptures, drawings, and maquettes spanning 50 years of Puryear’s career. A unique feature of the show is the inclusion of diverse interpretations from various artists and architects, though many works are left intentionally open-ended to encourage personal viewer connection.