Yang Fudong has opened his largest solo exhibition to date, 'Fragrant River,' at the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing. The show features over 30 works and eight hours of video, including major new installations like the five-channel 'Young Man, Young Man' and the furniture-and-video piece 'Breastfeeding,' which immerse viewers in scenes from the artist's hometown of Xianghe.
The contemporary art fair Art Collaboration Kyoto (ACK) has announced a major leadership change, transitioning from a single director to a seven-member leadership committee. The new committee, effective April 1, includes Doi Miho, Hattori Yoko, Mine Keiko, Ohishi Masako, Suzuki Hidenori, Takamura Miwa, and Tezen Wakako. Current director Yamashita Yukako will step down and assume the role of chair of ACK Ambassadors. The fair's sixth edition is scheduled for November 7–9 at the Kyoto International Conference Center.
Le primitivisme pour réinventer l’art
Philippe Dagen has published the third and final volume of his series on primitivism, covering the period from World War II to the late 1970s. The book traces how Western artists, from Barnett Newman and Jackson Pollock to members of the CoBrA movement and figures like Jean Dubuffet, Lucio Fontana, and Yayoi Kusama, engaged with so-called "primitive" art from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, often as a means of rejecting or redefining modern civilization. Dagen also examines the intellectual debates surrounding primitivism, including the critiques of colonized peoples who refused the label "primitive," and the shifting attitudes of thinkers like Claude Lévi-Strauss, Michel Leiris, and Aimé Césaire.
The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs has announced a shortlist of six finalists for a public monument honoring jazz singer Billie Holiday, to be installed outside the Jamaica Performing Arts Center in Queens. Among the top contenders are British sculptor Thomas J. Price and Bahamian conceptual artist Tavares Strachan, whose proposals include abstract bronze forms and a mirrored column, respectively. Other finalists are La Vaughn Belle, Nikesha Breeze, Nekisha Durrett, and Tanda Francis, all of whom consulted with Holiday scholars and family members to develop their designs.
Art Basel has announced the thirty-three winners of its 2026 Art Basel Awards, recognizing individuals and institutions across nine categories. The winners include prominent artists like Arthur Jafa, Julie Mehretu, and Barbara Kruger, as well as institutions such as The Brick in Los Angeles and the Diriyah Biennale Foundation. A new jury member, Prof. Dr. Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, was also added for this edition.
BTS member RM (Kim Namjoon) will present his personal collection of modern Korean art in an exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) from October 3 to February 7. The show, titled "RM x SFMOMA," will feature approximately 200 works from both his holdings and the museum's collection, including pieces by Korean artists like Yun Hyong-keun, Park Rehyun, and Kim Whan-ki, alongside works by Western artists such as Mark Rothko and Agnes Martin.
필라델피아미술관 '라이징업: 록키와 기념비 제작(Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments, 4/25-8/2)' - Lounge
The Philadelphia Museum of Art has announced a major exhibition titled "Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments," scheduled to open in April 2026. Curated by Paul Farber of Monument Lab, the show will feature over 150 works by more than 50 artists, including Keith Haring, Kara Walker, and Andy Warhol. The exhibition uses the iconic Rocky statue—a fictional character that has become one of the city's most visited landmarks—as a focal point to explore the history, mythology, and evolving role of public monuments from antiquity to the present day.
Una delle più importanti gallerie del Brasile in queste settimane è a Roma con una mostra. L’intervista
Brazilian gallery A Gentil Carioca has brought the first Italian solo exhibition of artist Miguel Afa to the Fondazione Capitolina in Rome, in collaboration with the Rhinoceros space. Titled "Il tempo che vive in me" (The Time That Lives in Me), the show features works created during Afa's residency in Rome, exploring themes of time, memory, and light through oil paintings that blend Brazilian and Roman imagery.
On May 6, 2026, the art collective Pussy Riot and the Ukrainian feminist group FEMEN staged a protest outside the Russian Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale. Approximately 50 activists released pink smoke and blue-and-yellow flares evoking the Ukrainian flag, while FEMEN members staged a topless protest with anti-war slogans like “RUSSIA KILLS, BIENNALE EXHIBITS.” Italian police and Biennale security blocked access to the pavilion, and some Pussy Riot activists were tackled after entering. The protest targeted Russia’s participation in the Biennale for the first time since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with activists condemning the event for lending legitimacy to Russian officials and artists aligned with the government.
The international jury for the 61st edition of La Biennale di Venezia, titled “In Minor Keys” and curated by Koyo Kouoh, has resigned as of April 30, 2026. The jury members—Solange Oliveira Farkas, Zoe Butt, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Marta Kuzma, and Giovanna Zapperi—cite their earlier Statement of Intention issued on April 22, 2026, as the basis for their collective resignation.
The Museum Rietberg in Zurich is transferring ownership of 11 Benin Bronzes to the Republic of Nigeria. The transfer includes a significant commemorative bronze head from around 1850 and an 18th-century ivory tusk, both looted during the British raid on Benin City in 1897, which will be physically returned to Nigeria this summer.
Rosa Loy, a German painter associated with the New Leipzig School, presents a new body of work at a solo exhibition that explores themes of togetherness, collaboration, and female solidarity through her signature figurative, dreamlike style. The show features large-scale paintings and works on paper that depict pairs or groups of women engaged in shared activities, rendered in muted earth tones with subtle surrealist undertones.
Milan's art scene is currently anchored by a series of high-profile exhibitions coinciding with the Miart fair, ranging from Cao Fei’s exploration of global agriculture to Anselm Kiefer’s monumental tributes to female alchemists. Marsha Pels stands out with a deeply personal presentation that utilizes industrial materials to navigate the complexities of grief and memory.
Milan’s art scene is currently anchored by 'New Humans' at Pirelli HangarBicocca, a major solo exhibition by Cao Fei that explores the intersection of technology, labor, and human identity. The show features immersive installations and films that document global farming practices and the surreal evolution of social structures in the digital age, alongside other key city-wide exhibitions including Anselm Kiefer’s portraits of female alchemists.
The article reviews the exhibition 'Danh Vo: Untitled' at the Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan, which presents a collection of objects curated and arranged by the artist. The show features a diverse array of items, including a 17th-century Flemish painting, a meteorite, a taxidermied peacock, and personal memorabilia, all displayed without explanatory labels in a large, warehouse-like space.
Mirosław Bałka has opened a major solo exhibition at the Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan, featuring a new, large-scale installation titled 'CROSSOVER/S' (2026). The work, a monumental steel structure filled with salt, continues the Polish artist's decades-long exploration of memory, trauma, and the body, using industrial materials to evoke profound personal and historical narratives.
Milan's art scene is currently anchored by a series of high-profile exhibitions coinciding with the Miart fair. Key highlights include Cao Fei’s exploration of global agricultural shifts at Pirelli HangarBicocca and Anselm Kiefer’s monumental tributes to female alchemists at Palazzo Reale. The city's galleries and institutions are showcasing a diverse range of media, from intricate textile works that challenge traditional hierarchies to immersive digital installations.
Art in the Berkshires, founded in 2024 as an online resource, has opened a physical gallery and studio space at 8 Castle Street in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. The venture is led by Shany Porras, an abstract painter and founder who serves as gallery director, aiming to make Berkshire creativity more accessible through artist directories, venue listings, and a weekly newsletter.
The Vancouver Art Gallery has opened "Future Geographies: Art in the Century of Climate Change," an exhibition curated by Eva Respini, the gallery's interim co-CEO and curator at large. Featuring over 30 artists and 35 works—including sculptures, paintings, video installations, and photographs—the show explores climate change through themes of living knowledge, consumed earth, speculative worlds, and material memory. Highlights include Brian Jungen's whale-skeleton sculpture made from plastic chairs and Clarissa Tossin's multimedia weaving of Amazon boxes. The exhibition also incorporates sustainability in its organization, using recycled cardboard for labels, overland shipping for loans, and commissioning local artists.
Anglo-Dutch painter Nick Goss has opened a new exhibition at Josh Lilley Gallery, featuring eleven paintings inspired by Eel Pie Island, a private marshy area on the Thames in Twickenham with a bohemian past—including 1960s rock concerts by The Rolling Stones, The Who, and Pink Floyd, a hippie commune, and a 1972 fire. In an interview with Paul Carey-Kent, Goss discusses how he blends fact and fiction, combining sources from hotel corridors, Pompeii, and the Sergeant Pepper album cover to create ambiguous, layered works that evoke half-remembered histories.
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.
Cowley Abbott Fine Art, a Toronto-based auction house, has opened its first permanent western Canada gallery in Calgary's East Village. The new space launches with a three-day public preview of museum-quality artworks heading to its Spring Live Auction on May 27 at the Globe and Mail Centre in Toronto. Highlights include rare works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent van Gogh, Emily Carr, and members of the Group of Seven such as Lawren Harris and A.Y. Jackson. Among the standout pieces is Emily Carr's 1936 canvas "Wind," estimated at $500,000 to $700,000, and a Lawren Harris painting valued similarly. The gallery aims to attract both collectors and casual visitors, with Peter Ohler, Western Canada Representative and Director of Private Sales, emphasizing that the space is open to anyone interested in art.
This travel guide highlights 26 of the most significant museums across the United States, ranging from massive encyclopedic institutions to niche cultural centers. The list features major art landmarks like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Getty Center alongside specialized venues such as the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and the immersive art experience Meow Wolf.
Students from Becket Washington School and their families gathered at the Becket Arts Center for the opening of a dedicated exhibition featuring student artwork. The show, hosted in the center's upstairs gallery, highlights the creative output of local youth and remains open to the public through April 26.
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York is hosting "Wifredo Lam: When I Don’t Sleep, I Dream," the first comprehensive U.S. retrospective of the Cuban modernist's career. Running from November 2025 to April 2026, the exhibition traces Lam’s artistic evolution from his formative years in Europe to his return to the Caribbean, where he integrated Afro-Caribbean histories and spirituality into the language of modern painting. The show features major loans, a documentary film, and a scholarly catalogue exploring his unique synthesis of Surrealism and decolonial thought.
Major Japanese institutions have announced their flagship exhibition schedules for April 2026, featuring a mix of international retrospectives and deep dives into domestic art history. Highlights include the National Museum of Western Art’s presentation of Lithuanian visionary M. K. Čiurlionis alongside Hokusai, and a significant ten-year memorial retrospective for Nakanishi Natsuyuki at the National Museum of Art, Osaka. Other notable shows include a sensory-focused photography exhibition at TOP Museum and a folklore-centric study of Lafcadio Hearn in Osaka.
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 Memorial Art Gallery (MAG) in Rochester has launched a series of new installations, headlined by the exhibition "Picasso and the Progressive Proof: Linocuts from a Private Collection." This show provides an intimate look at Pablo Picasso’s late-career printmaking innovations, specifically focusing on the evolution of three major linocuts through their various proofs. Additionally, the museum has debuted Rashid Johnson’s 2019 film "The Hikers" and several new contemporary acquisitions, including works by Donald Moffett and Hugo McCloud, while its major Impressionism survey enters its final days.
The Moore Art Gallery has opened a new exhibition titled "All Hands on Deck: Edward Steichen and the WWII Naval Photographic Unit." The show presents black-and-white photographs taken by the influential photographer Edward Steichen and his team during World War II, offering an intimate look at the lives of sailors and aviators through dramatic and compositionally striking images. The exhibition includes prints annotated by Steichen with editorial instructions, revealing his meticulous process.
A major controversy has erupted at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) following the revelation that trustee Judy Schulich led a successful effort to block the acquisition of a new work by photographer Nan Goldin. The museum's Modern and contemporary curatorial working committee voted 11-9 against jointly purchasing Goldin's video piece *Stendhal Syndrome* (2024) with two other institutions, after Goldin was reportedly labeled antisemitic and compared to Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl for her criticism of Israel's actions in Gaza. The decision prompted the resignation of the AGO's curator of modern and contemporary art and two volunteer committee members.