A fairy-tale exhibition in Milan: the paintings look like Disney film sets

A Milano una mostra da fiaba: i quadri sembrano scenografie da film Disney

The Galleria Gaburro in Milan is presenting a solo exhibition of British artist Iain Andrews, titled "Whispers from the Red Room." The show features over 30 paintings and a handcrafted diorama, the "Diorama del Leviatano," which Andrews uses as a source of inspiration. His work blends fairy-tale and nightmare imagery, drawing on his background as a psychotherapist specializing in childhood trauma. The paintings evoke the visual language of Disney films and Rococo art, with oil and acrylic works that range from large immersive canvases to small, intricate panels.

Crawford Supported Studios: Cork exhibition shows work of artists with disabilities

An exhibition at the Crawford Art Gallery in Cork, Ireland, is showcasing the work of artists from the Crawford Supported Studios program. The program provides studio space, materials, and professional support for artists with intellectual disabilities, fostering their creative development and professional practice.

Territories in Connection: Latin American Art in Ciudad de las Artes Panama

TERRITORIES IN CONNECTION LATIN AMERICAN ART IN CIUDAD DE LAS ARTES PANAMA

The exhibition "Territorios en conexión" (Territories in Connection) opened at Ciudad de las Artes in Panama City, featuring Latin American artists working with video, textiles, and performance. Curated by Irene Gelfman, the show includes works by artists like Sandra Monterroso, Ana Barboza, and Ana Elena Tejera, and is part of the Pinta Panamá Art Week.

Animated Bodies

Animierte Körper

Latefa Wiersch presents her exhibition "Atlas Studios" at the Istituto Svizzero in Rome, featuring unsettling, puppet-like sculptures that resemble film sets. The works explore themes of bodily helplessness, imperfection, and geopolitical displacement, drawing on her earlier project "Hannibal" at the Dortmunder Kunstverein, which addressed post-migrant German realities and the demolition of a housing complex. The new installation references the Atlas Studios in Ouarzazate, Morocco, and the history of cinema, with figures made from rags and nylon stockings that appear as actors or set workers.

Nobody Can Defeat Me: The Brazilian Pavilion in Venice Between Spirituality, History and Nature

NOBODY CAN DEFEAT ME THE BRAZILIAN PAVILION IN VENICE BETWEEN SPIRITUALITY HISTORY AND NATURE

The Fundação Bienal de São Paulo has revealed the curatorial project for the Brazilian Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026. Titled 'Comigo ninguém pode' (Nobody Can Defeat Me), the exhibition is curated by Diane Lima and features a major two-person presentation of artists Rosana Paulino and Adriana Varejão, who will occupy the entire pavilion with an installation-based project designed by Daniela Thomas.

Karmic Modernism. In Conversation with Elizabeth Englander by Nick Irvin

Elizabeth Englander, an artist working primarily in assemblage with materials like children's furniture, nutcrackers, and old clothing, discusses her recent exhibitions and spiritual approach to art in an interview with Nick Irvin for Flash Art. The conversation covers her show "The Elizabethan Lumber Room" (2026) at a. SQUIRE in London, the modular barrister's bookcase inherited from her mother, and her "Parinirvana" series (2025) that explores themes of death and sacred art through papier-mâché, paint, and mylar. Englander also references influences such as Constantin Brâncuși, her graduate advisor Tom Weaver, and Erwin Panofsky's writings on tomb sculpture.

New exhibits start at Public Works Art Center

The Public Works Art Center in Summerville, South Carolina, opens five new exhibitions on May 21 with a reception from 5:30-8:30 p.m. The shows include "GODBODY: THE FEMME," a group exhibition celebrating Black women artists; Amy Stewart's "Intersections" exploring interconnectedness; Nick Cerrato's "Our Society Needs To…" featuring abstract works created with his feet; Sarah Mitchell's "Wildlife in Wool" with needle-felted animals; and the Summerville Artist Guild's annual "All Members Show." During the reception, guild members will create collaborative paintings for sale to benefit the Summerville Rocks Scholarship Fund.

Opening Reception | 21st Annual SDSU Art Council Scholarship Exhibition | Athenaeum Art Center

The Athenaeum Art Center in San Diego is hosting the 21st Annual SDSU Art Council Scholarship Exhibition from May 16 to July 3, 2026, with an opening reception on May 16. The exhibition features new work by five graduate and undergraduate students from San Diego State University's School of Art and Design: Andrea Mendoza, Tina Mardan, Todd Bradley, Ana Saad, and Isa Ybarra. Their works explore themes of the body as a site of history, resistance, and reinvention, addressing chronic pain, immigrant memory, queerness, and colonial boundaries through diverse media including painting, metalsmithing, photography, installation, clay, fiber, and printmaking.

An art project 150 years in the making

Artist Janet Fry discovered a 150-year-old pocket diary belonging to her great-great-grandmother, Caroline Currey Kelso, which had been stored in a nightstand drawer for nearly two decades. In May 2024, Fry decided to create an exhibition titled "The 1875 Diary Project" at Storage Space Gallery, opening October 17. The show features recorded diary excerpts read by 12 women artists, enlarged reproductions of the diary pages, and Fry's own artistic responses. Fry transcribed the diary using a magnifying glass, revealing Kelso's experiences as a 19th-century Illinois housewife, including her loneliness, daily chores, and repeated pregnancies.

Paradise at Stove Works in Chattanooga

Paradise, an exhibition at Stove Works in Chattanooga, Tennessee, curated by Graham Feyl and J. Sova, presents works by thirteen artists centered on queer futurity and abundance. The show features installations, sculptures, paintings, and textiles, including Lisa Waud's artificial flower installation 'tread/tender' (2026), Nicholas Elbakidze's erotic Meissenettes (2026), Brian Smith's beaded nets, Aaron McIntosh's quilted 'Invasive Queer Kudzu' (2015-ongoing), and works by Yu Yan, E. Saffronia Szanton Downing, Angie Jennings, Michael Childress, and Hannah Banciella. The exhibition transforms the former foundry into a space of playful, erotic, and joyful refusal, drawing on Audre Lorde's definition of the erotic as a source of power.

Guide to cultural festivals in Italy at the end of May 2026: Spring Attitude, Aura, Buongiorno Ceramica!, URBAPHONIA, CYFEST

Guida ai festival culturali in Italia di fine maggio 2026: Spring Attitude, Aura, Buongiorno Ceramica!, URBAPHONIA, CYFEST

A guide to cultural festivals in Italy at the end of May 2026 highlights several events across the country, including Spring Attitude in Rome (May 29-30), Aura Festival in Palermo (June 1), Hypermaremma in Maremma (through September 30), Emulsioni in Ferrania (May 22-24), and Caorle Sea Festival in Caorle (May 23-June 7). These festivals cover diverse themes such as electronic music, club culture, analog photography, ceramics, media art, street art, and outdoor practices, often set in historically or culturally significant locations like La Nuvola in Rome, the Palazzina Cinese in Palermo, and an ex-film factory in Ferrania.

A giugno 2026 a Pietrasanta apre il Museo Igor Mitoraj. Opere dell’artista ma anche mostre

The article announces the opening of the Museo Igor Mitoraj in Pietrasanta, Italy, scheduled for June 6, 2026, after several years of delays. The museum is the first space entirely dedicated to the Polish sculptor Igor Mitoraj, who died in 2014 and was known for transforming Tuscan marble into works blending classical forms with fragmented, contemporary themes. Designed by OBR, Politecnica, and Studio Lumine, the museum results from collaboration between the Italian Ministry of Culture, the Municipality of Pietrasanta, and the artist's heirs, united in the Fondazione Museo Igor Mitoraj. Frank Boehm, director of the foundation, envisions the space as a research-oriented center that will engage with different artistic languages and contemporary issues, not limited to Mitoraj's work alone.

Social documentary network ZEKE award 2026 winners – in pictures

The 2026 ZEKE award winners have been announced, with Ginevra Bonina winning the award for systemic change for her project 'Out for Blood,' which documents period poverty in India and the women fighting to reclaim their bodies. Ebrahim Alipoor won the award for documentary photography for his long-term project 'Bullets Have No Borders,' capturing the lives of border porters carrying goods across the Iran-Iraq mountains.

Delicacy as Resistance. Interview with the Curator of the Turkey Pavilion at the Venice Biennale

La delicatezza come resistenza. Intervista alla curatrice del Padiglione Turchia alla Biennale di Venezia

For the 2026 Venice Biennale, the Turkey Pavilion, commissioned by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), will present "A Kiss on the Eyes" by artist Nilbar Güreş, curated by Başak Doğa Temür. The exhibition takes its title from a Turkish expression conveying affectionate closeness without intrusion, and features a mix of new productions and earlier works spanning sculpture, installation, painting, and works on paper and fabric. In an interview, curator Temür explains that the project avoids a retrospective or didactic approach, instead creating a spatial rhythm of approach, pause, and slight withdrawal, where intimacy, politics, irony, and fragility press against one another.

Here are the photos of the Austrian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (the one full of nude performers that it is forbidden to photograph)

Ecco le foto del Padiglione Austria alla Biennale di Venezia (quello pieno di performer nude che è vietato fotografare)

The Austrian Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale, titled "Seaworld Venice" and curated by Nora-Swantje Almes, features provocative performances by artist and choreographer Florentina Holzinger. The installation includes four distinct nude female performances: a performer acting as a bell clapper on the hour, a female Deposition of Christ scene with three women on a rotating vertical structure, a nude woman riding a jet ski in circles, and a reenactment of Giorgione's Sleeping Venus in a urine-filled tank. The pavilion has become the most talked-about and Instagrammed at the Biennale, drawing long queues despite a ban on photography.

The Austrian Pavilion at the Biennale brings performances and installations around the Venice Lagoon

Il Padiglione Austria in Biennale porta performance e installazioni in giro per la Laguna di Venezia

Austrian artist and choreographer Florentina Holzinger (Vienna, 1986) will represent Austria at the 61st International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale with a project titled "SeaWorld Venice." Curated by Nora-Swantje Almes, the interdisciplinary initiative combines a permanent installation at the Austrian Pavilion with a series of site-specific performances and actions spread across Venice and its lagoon. The project explores the body, water, and the tensions between nature and technology, drawing on mythological and classical imagery populated by aquatic creatures. It includes "Études," performative formats developed by Holzinger since 2020, which activate urban spaces through participatory and immersive experiences, engaging both spectators and citizens.

In Venice, an unprecedented space in the Arsenale opens to the public for the first time. It will host performances.

A Venezia apre al pubblico per la prima volta uno spazio inedito dell’Arsenale. Ospiterà performance

For the first time, the Galeazze—historically used for constructing the Serenissima fleet—will open to the public during the 2026 Venice Art Biennale on May 5 and 6. Artist and choreographer Faustin Linyekula has conceived a site-specific performance titled The Galeazze Project, activating the monumental, water-adjacent spaces of the Arsenale Nord. Collaborating with musician Heru Shabaka-Ra, Linyekula integrates the architecture into the performance, involving local performers and musicians. The project, conceived by Cosimo Ferrigolo and Dirk Bell and curated by Edoardo Lazzari, features scaffolding, platforms, and an irregular lighting system, inviting the audience to move freely and redefine the relationship between bodies and space.

Cosmic Province. Between bar and studio, or the punk life of Jacopo Benassi

Provincia Cosmica. Tra bar e studio, ovvero la vita punk di Jacopo Benassi

Italian artist Jacopo Benassi, born in 1970 and shaped by the punk scene, discusses his return to his hometown of La Spezia after years in Milan, where he worked as a photographer for Rolling Stone. He describes his life revolving around his studio and local bars, and reflects on founding the underground club B-Tomic in 2011, which became a hub for his artistic and photographic work blending music and performance. He also mentions an upcoming book of drawings and texts by Renzo Daveti (alias Benzo), a formative figure from the Italian punk scene.

Of Testaments and Transfigurations: An Interview with Poet Silvia Righi

Di testamenti e di trasfigurazioni. Intervista alla poeta Silvia Righi

Italian poet Silvia Righi discusses her latest collection, *Ex voto suscepto*, published by Pungitopo as part of the Remedia series. The book originated from a narrative concept involving the arrival of God's daughter on Earth and features a unique interdisciplinary collaboration with artist Mattia Barbieri, who provided China ink illustrations. The interview explores the collection's focus on the decaying body, the fluidity of the lyrical 'I', and the intersection of poetic language with visual art.

Monica Majoli at Hoffman Donahue

Monica Majoli has opened a solo exhibition at Hoffman Donahue in Los Angeles, featuring new work on view from February 24 through April 4, 2026. The presentation is documented through a series of 17 installation photographs, though specific details about the medium or themes of the artworks are not described in the provided text.

Photography exhibit awards announced at Coliseum opening

The Coliseum Museum opened its third annual Focus on Photography Art Exhibit on April 10 with an awards reception. The exhibition, running through May 16, features 59 works by 29 artists across various photographic mediums, and includes a public vote for a People's Choice award.

Awards presented at 3rd annual Focus on Photography art exhibit reception in Oregon

The Coliseum Museum in Oregon hosted the opening reception for its third annual Focus on Photography art exhibit, where Judge Danielle Koenig announced the competition winners. Glenn Bodish received the Best of Show award for his work “Pakistani Elder Making Lassi,” leading a group of winners that included Bob Cholke, Stephonie A. Schmitz, and Steve Toole. The exhibition features 59 works by 29 different artists, showcasing a range of techniques from traditional film to digital and mixed media.

British art museum exhibit offers glimpse into East India Company

The Yale Center for British Art has opened a new exhibition, “Painters, Ports, and Profits: Artists and the East India Company, 1750-1850,” on January 8. Curated by Laurel Peterson and Holly Shaffer, the show features over a hundred works—including watercolors, portraits, and a 37-foot-long scroll of Lucknow—drawn from the museum’s collection and beyond. It explores the artistic networks and innovations that emerged around the British East India Company’s colonial and economic activities in India and China.

Wereldmuseum Amsterdam ponders space to ‘respectfully’ house human remains

The Wereldmuseum Amsterdam has announced it will no longer publicly exhibit any human remains from its colonial-era collection, which includes around 4,000 body parts such as skulls and a preserved Surinamese newborn. At the opening of the exhibition "Unfinished past: return, keep, or…?", director of content Wayne Modest suggested the museum may create a dedicated space for "ritual practices" where descendants can respectfully engage with ancestral remains until a permanent repatriation solution is found. The exhibition features contemporary artworks, including Pansee Atta's "To Make One Particle," which reproduces each body part as a small wooden token, and draws on a four-year research program called Pressing Matter.

Evidence of Evolution at QUEUE Gallery, Miami

QUEUE Gallery in Miami is presenting 'Evidence of Evolution,' a two-person exhibition featuring Fharid LaTorre’s hand-carved wood and metal sculptures alongside Jamieson Pearl’s oil-on-linen paintings. LaTorre’s works, such as 'showing slivers & taking off skin for sake of dopamine layer of diophantine equations' (2026), use scavenged metal and burl wood to evoke surgical transformations and bodily stress, while Pearl’s paintings depict glitch-blocked internet microcelebrities and screenshots from LiveLeak pornos, rendered freehand in distorted blocks. The show runs at QUEUE’s new location above Tunnel Projects in Miami.

Kingston’s Art After Dark showcases emerging artists, veterans alike

Kingston’s Art After Dark event took place on Friday, May 22, 2026, transforming downtown Kingston into an open gallery for three hours. Organized by the Downtown Kingston Business Improvement Area, the self-guided crawl featured over 30 venues including boutiques, studios, and improvised gallery spaces, showcasing painting, photography, sculpture, live demonstrations, and interactive art. Emerging artists and veterans alike participated, with painter David Gilmore demonstrating watercolour and body painter Cornelia Rose creating face art on patrons.

Before Language: An Interview with Song E Yoon at Biennale Arte 2026

Song E Yoon's exhibition "Songs Across Time" at Spazio 996/A in Venice, presented as a Collateral Event of the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, pairs her Song E Code with Frédéric Bruly Bouabré's Bété alphabet. In an interview with Kun Sok, Yoon discusses how her work uses dots, intervals, and repetition to create a visual language that exists before conventional meaning, emphasizing bodily encounter, sensation, and the productive role of misreading.

Student Show at the GRCC Art Gallery

The Paul Collins Art Gallery at Grand Rapids Community College is currently hosting its annual Student Show, featuring artwork created by GRCC students throughout the year. The exhibition, which runs until April 22, is the gallery's final rotation before the fall semester and includes pieces selected by the art department faculty from various classes, though some disciplines like interior design are underrepresented due to display challenges.

Helena Samarasinghe at Camberwell Space

British-South Asian artist Helena Samarasinghe is presenting her debut solo exhibition, "Reaching, Touching, Shedding," at Camberwell Space in London. The show features a series of vibrant drawings and sculptural cut-out installations that explore the intersections of sport, power, and identity. Developed during her residency as the 2024 Vanguard Prize winner, the works utilize oil, soft pastels, and charcoal to depict brown women engaged in activities like football, wrestling, and athletics, drawing stylistic inspiration from 19th-century Bengali Kalighat painting.

MONSTRARE - Raminta S. R. Mint SOLO SHOW

Contour Art Gallery in Vilnius is presenting 'Monstrare', a solo exhibition by emerging artist Raminta S. R. Mint. The show explores the human body through three layers—exterior, interior, and invisible—using painting to critique social media's filtered self-image, anatomical abstraction, and digital medical imaging. Influenced by Gothic literature and H. R. Giger, the works combine red, black, and white palettes in a 'Frankensteinian' visual language.