The jury of the Venice Biennale has resigned after their demand to exclude Israel and Russia from the event was rejected. The jurors had called for the removal of both countries' national pavilions due to ongoing geopolitical conflicts, but the Biennale organizers declined to comply, leading to the mass resignation.
Koshy Brahmatmaj's debut solo exhibition, titled 'how do i make you believe,' is currently on view in Mumbai. The show presents artworks that draw from personal pain and limitation, with the artist choosing to work within constraints rather than against them. Images of the exhibition have been released by the gallery, showing pieces that reflect Brahmatmaj's engagement with themes of ecology, identity, archives, and community-based practice.
A young Malaysian artist, recognized as the country's youngest solo art exhibitor, has debuted their exhibition at Sunway Square Mall. The showcase features a collection of original works, marking a significant milestone for the emerging talent in Malaysia's local art scene.
A one-day community art exhibition called Art 4 Feile will open in Castletownbere, Ireland, on April 30th to raise funds for teenager Féile O'Sullivan, who is rehabilitating after a farming accident. Organized by artist Ida Mitrani and Beara CETB Community Participation Through Art and Design students, the show features over 100 donated artworks from local artists, sold incognito to encourage unbiased appreciation.
Thapar Gallery is presenting an exhibition titled "Master Artist A. A. Raiba: A Unilateral Eclectic," showcasing the work of Indian modernist Abdul Aziz Raiba from the 1950s and 1960s. The show highlights Raiba's versatility across mediums including murals, paintings on jute, reverse glass paintings, serigraphs, calligraphy, and sketches, and features landscape drawings from his Kashmir sojourn between 1957 and 1959. The exhibition runs until June 21.
Ojai-based artist Pam Grau is presenting her first solo exhibition at the Santa Paula Art Museum. The show marks a milestone in her career, bringing together a body of work that reflects her artistic practice and connection to the local landscape.
Cairo-based artist Mariem Akmal opened her second solo exhibition, 'Visual Diaries', at Samak Laban Creative Studio in Downtown Cairo. The show features 16 works in oil, acrylics, pastels, spray paint, and glass, capturing emotional snapshots from the past four years of her life, including her graduation from the Faculty of Fine Arts in Zamalek. The exhibition runs until May 25th, 2026.
Art Center East in La Grande, Oregon, opens a solo exhibition titled “The Warmth Within My Shadow” featuring self-reflective paintings by Pendleton-based mixed-media artist Jason Hogge. The show runs from May 1 through June 27 in ACE’s Main Gallery, with a free opening reception on May 1 from 6-8 p.m., including an artist talk at 6:30 p.m. Raffle tickets for Hogge’s original acrylic painting “Emerging” (valued at $700) will be sold to support the center’s gallery programs, and a virtual tour is available online.
Local artist Shauna McChesney will host a solo exhibition titled “Colors of Nature” from June 5th to June 30th at the Cranberry Township Municipal Center in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania. The opening reception runs from 6 to 8 p.m. on June 5th, and McChesney is the Cranberry Artists Network’s featured artist for June. Her work draws inspiration from the colors and textures of the natural world and incorporates a variety of media.
Mär Martinez's first solo museum exhibition, “A loom, a fence, a wire, a thread,” opens at The Art & History Museums of Maitland, featuring paintings inspired by traditional Turkish and Middle Eastern textile practices. The works, developed during her 2024-2025 Fulbright research in Istanbul, weave together her Cuban and Syrian heritage, exploring themes of cultural memory, displacement, and resilience through imagery of carpets, barbed wire, and urban barriers.
The Vietnam Military History Museum in Hanoi is hosting a lacquer painting exhibition titled “Homeland and the Soldier,” featuring 55 artworks by multiple generations of artists, lecturers, and students. The exhibition, running until the end of May, marks the 51st anniversary of the Liberation of the South and National Reunification, as well as the 136th birth anniversary of President Ho Chi Minh. It is jointly organized by the Vietnam Military History Museum, the Vietnam University of Fine Arts, and the University of Arts and Design, and is structured into three thematic sections: “Homeland Imprints,” “The Soldier,” and “Colours of Peace,” highlighting landscapes, wartime experiences, and post-war development.
Guildford-based contemporary impressionist artist Ros Mansfield debuted her first solo exhibition, 'Edges of the Day,' on April 22, 2026, with a private viewing at Open Grounds café inside Guildford Baptist Church. The series features paintings inspired by her creative pilgrimages to the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, capturing dawn and dusk scenes she describes as 'the edges of the day.' Mansfield, who considers the island one of the 'holiest places on Earth,' highlighted her favorite piece, 'Quiet Arrival, Pilgrim’s Post,' as the final painting that completed her journey. The exhibition is open to the public until May 24.
Contemporary painter Mär Martinez, a Fulbright scholar and UCF alum, presents her first solo museum exhibition, “A loom, a fence, a wire, a thread,” at the Art & History Museums of Maitland (A&H) in Maitland, Florida. The show features works developed during her 2024–25 Fulbright research in Istanbul and builds on ideas from her 2021–2023 Studio Artist Residency at A&H. Inspired by traditional Turkish and Middle Eastern textile practices, Martinez explores themes of urban life, surveillance, and cultural memory, using imagery from nighttime walks through Istanbul—fences, checkpoints, and barbed wire—combined with historic textile patterns. Her Cuban and Arab heritage and family’s experience of displacement inform her work, with weaving serving as a metaphor for endurance and resistance. The opening night is free to the public, with live music, food, and a cash bar.
The Finlandia Art Gallery in Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula is opening a solo exhibition titled "Liminal Sanctuaries" by local artist Bonnie Loukus. The show features her latest collection of oil paintings depicting solitary animals in ethereal, human-free environments.
Artist Joanna Tam's solo exhibition "when blue meets blue" opened at the 25/8 Art Gallery on April 13, 2026. The show, presented in partnership with the Harvard Square Business Association and Intercontinental Management, features photographic works and installations exploring the ocean and sky as motifs tied to migration, memory, and the complex duality of nature. Tam, who grew up in Hong Kong and moved to the US, draws from personal experience to create a space for meditation on comfort, freedom, trauma, and tension.
Sculptor Paul Kroner has opened a solo exhibition titled "What Have I Done?" at his own Studio Kroner in Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. The show, which launched on April 16 and runs through May 23, marks the studio's fifth anniversary and is Kroner's first solo exhibition in the space since he founded it in 2021.
Artist Mär Martinez is presenting her first solo exhibition in Orlando, titled 'a loom, a fence, a wire, a thread,' at the Art & History Museums of Maitland. The exhibition features paintings and a loom, inspired by her experiences during a Fulbright Scholar grant in Istanbul and her family's history with Syrian textiles.
A solo exhibition titled "Beyond Imagination" by Canadian artist Jack Lockhart is on view at the Alex Dufresne Art Gallery in Callander. The show features roughly 35 paintings spanning 60 years of Lockhart's career, highlighting his evolution from traditional watercolour, acrylic, and oil painting to innovative 3D works created using ChromaDepth glasses.
A local artist known as MTB Artwork is launching a solo exhibition of new acrylic paintings on cardboard on June 27, 2026, at a renovated flat and shop space on Kingsley Park Terrace in Northampton. The artist began painting in 2020 as a therapeutic activity and has since sold over 400 pieces internationally.
The Finlandia Art Gallery in Hancock, Michigan, will open a new exhibition titled 'Liminal Sanctuaries,' featuring the work of artist Bonnie Loukus. The show consists of oil paintings depicting wildlife and natural settings, including a notable piece of a sandhill crane, each intended to convey a story about solitude and connection with nature.
Interdisciplinary artist Jinsun Kim presents a solo exhibition titled 'C.O.C.O.O.N.: HEALING' at K Space Contemporary in Corpus Christi, Texas. The exhibition features mixed-media sculptures that create immersive, cocoon-like environments exploring themes of healing, survival, and transformation. The works are informed by Kim's childhood memories of her mother's illness and recovery, translating personal experience into universal spatial narratives.
Visual artist Mustapha Boucenna opened a solo exhibition and sale titled 'The Memory of Dreams' in Algiers. The show features approximately fifty contemporary paintings that blend abstraction, cubist ornamentation, and symbolic motifs drawn from history, mythology, and global literature.
Artist Mike Clann is presenting a solo exhibition titled 'Faces & Places' at the ARTS Ross Gallery in Fayetteville. The show features a retrospective of his paintings from the last twenty years, and all proceeds from sales will be donated to support children's arts education programs run by the organization ARTS.
Der Auktionsmarkt atmet auf – aber nicht überall
The article reports that the auction market is showing signs of fragile recovery in 2025, with Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips all posting mid-double-digit percentage increases at their London sales in March compared to the previous year. However, the article notes that the prior year was exceptionally weak, and underlying issues such as high debt levels, aggressive commission models, and unresolved succession questions continue to threaten the stability of the major auction houses.
Biennale-Jury will Länder mit IStGH-Vorwürfen nicht berücksichtigen
The jury of the Venice Art Biennale has announced that it will not consider countries whose heads of state or government face allegations of crimes against humanity from the International Criminal Court (ICC) when awarding prizes this year. The jury, led by Brazilian art historian Solange Farkas, cited its commitment to defending human rights. While no specific countries were named, the ICC currently has arrest warrants against Russian President Vladimir Putin for alleged war crimes in Ukraine and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes in Gaza. The Biennale leadership stated the jury acted in full autonomy and independence.
Designklau im Plattformkapitalismus
The article details a growing trend of design plagiarism within the platform economy, where large interior trade platforms and fast-design companies systematically copy the original work of small, independent design studios. These copies are then mass-produced and sold globally at lower prices, often marketed directly through social media channels. The original designers find it nearly impossible to defend their intellectual property due to the high cost and complexity of legal action, especially against international entities.
Millon has taken full control of Pierre Bergé & Associés, becoming its sole shareholder. The auction house, founded in 2002 and restructured two years ago by Alexandre Landre after judicial recovery, will now operate under Millon's financial, logistical, and commercial backing while retaining its Avenue Kléber address and operational team.
Pablo Diaz, director of Sciences Po Rennes, announces that the Institut national supérieur de l'éducation artistique et culturelle (INSEAC) in Guingamp has been transferred from the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers (Cnam) to Sciences Po Rennes as of January 1, 2026. The institute, which opened in 2021 and focuses on training, research, and resources for arts and cultural education, will now operate under public-sector governance with oversight from the French ministries of Culture, Education, and Higher Education. Diaz outlines plans to appoint a dedicated site director in Guingamp and establish a strategic orientation committee chaired by interministerial delegate Emmanuel Ethis, aiming to resolve past management and governance issues.
Gérard Lhéritier, founder of the art investment firm Aristophil, has pleaded guilty in a French court under a procedure known as comparution sur reconnaissance préalable de culpabilité (CRPC), effectively a plea bargain. On April 14, he admitted responsibility for fraud and deceptive commercial practices after more than a decade of denial. This late admission, made just before his expected incarceration, reduces his sentence from the five years of imprisonment handed down in December 2025 to two years under electronic monitoring. The case stems from Aristophil’s collapse, which involved selling shares in manuscripts and historical documents as attractive investments, leaving thousands of investors heavily impacted.
Florence is undertaking a major restoration of Giotto's Campanile, the first comprehensive conservation of the 14th-century bell tower since its construction. The project, budgeted at over €7 million, addresses decades of damage from pollution, acid rain, and natural aging, including detached stone slabs, darkened facades, and microfractures. The four-year scaffolding will be designed to minimize visual impact and gradually reveal restored sections. Separately, the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore is executing a €60 million program to restore the Collegio Eugeniano (which will become its new headquarters) and expand the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo to 11,000 square meters by 2030. The Ponte Vecchio will also undergo summer cleaning and consolidation of its piles, funded equally by the municipality and the Antinori family.