How ‘archaeological ceramicist’ Yasmin Smith has forever changed the way I look at flint

Yasmin Smith, an Australian artist described as an 'archaeological ceramicist,' presents her solo exhibition *Elemental Life* at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) in Sydney, running until June 8. The show features sculptural installations that use ceramics and glaze technologies to decode environmental and human histories. Key works include *Seine River Basin (2019)*, commissioned by the Centre Pompidou, which uses ash-glazed stoneware replicas of tree branches to reflect the chemical history of the River Seine, and *Chicxulub (2025)*, which draws on samples from the asteroid impact crater in Mexico to explore mass extinction. Smith’s practice involves extensive field research and collaboration with ecologists, archaeologists, and local communities, creating site-specific glazes that act as chemical records of place and time.

Contemporary Art Studio Castle Gallery Is Opening in Middleburg

Castle Gallery, a new contemporary and local art space, will open this weekend in Middleburg, Virginia, timed with the town's Christmas parade. Founded by art advisor Catherine Dolaher, the gallery is her first permanent location after a successful Georgetown pop-up. The opening features works by local artists Caroline Jean Gray, Lydia Marie Elizabeth, Megan Elizabeth, and Tara Andris, with prices ranging from under $200 to $10,000. Dolaher, who previously worked at the Hirshhorn Museum and other institutions, aims to blend contemporary art with a welcoming, home-like atmosphere, partnering with The Paradise Antiques for furnishings.

A Holistic and People-Centered Approach to Accessible Exhibition Design: Walker Art Center Case Study

The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis developed a holistic, people-centered set of guidelines for accessible exhibition design, moving beyond legal ADA compliance. The project involved collaboration across curatorial departments, artists, d/Deaf and disabled staff and community members, and the Institute for Human Centered Design (IHCD). The guidelines were created in three stages: identifying the need, drafting and revising, and implementing, with strategies including cross-departmental working groups, targeted interventions for bottlenecks, shared terminology, and embodied learning for staff.

Climate report from Getty’s PST Art programme urges cultural organisations to confront exhibitions’ impacts

The Getty has released a comprehensive climate impact assessment of its PST Art initiative, titled Art & Science Collide (2024-25), based on its inaugural Climate Impact Program (CIP). Developed with climate adviser Laura Lupton and artist Debra Scacco, the program offered webinars, guidance, and networking to participating institutions, with over two-thirds completing a climate impact report. Key findings include that air travel and air freight of art are the most carbon-intensive activities, and shifting to sea freight could reduce total emissions by 18%. Many institutions adopted simple waste-reduction strategies, with some committing to permanent sustainability changes.

Climate report from Getty’s PST Art programme urges cultural organisations to confront exhibitions’ impacts

The Getty has released a comprehensive climate impact assessment of its PST Art initiative, titled Art & Science Collide (2024-25), based on its inaugural Climate Impact Program (CIP). Developed with climate adviser Laura Lupton and artist Debra Scacco, the program provided webinars, guidance, and networking to participating institutions, with over two-thirds completing a climate impact report. Key findings show that air travel and air freight of art are the most carbon-intensive activities, and shifting to sea freight could reduce total emissions by 18%. Many institutions reduced waste through simple, low-cost changes, with some committing to permanent sustainability practices.

An open-air art gallery: Hogan Park at Highlands Creek

Hogan Park at Highlands Creek in Aurora, Colorado, is a 100-acre public park that doubles as an open-air art gallery, featuring around two dozen sculptures and painted installations along a two-mile trail. Curated by Carla Ferreira, CEO of the development, and her father, the park includes works by artists such as Michael Benisty, Hunter Brown, Daniel Popper, and Olivia Steele, with pieces designed to withstand Colorado's extreme weather. Notable installations include the 25-foot steel sculpture "Broken but Together," the viral fiberglass-reinforced concrete figure "Umi" by Daniel Popper, and a bronze bench honoring Dr. Justina Ford, part of the Statues for Equality initiative.

Arts Ahead: First Friday, a gallery opening, a film screening and a craft fair

Concord, New Hampshire's downtown galleries and art-related stores will stay open late on Friday for InTown Concord's final First Friday of 2025, themed as an Art Walk with 23 destinations including the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen, Go Native Gallery, Pompanoosuc Mills, and Glimpse Gallery. The event runs from 4-8 p.m. with live music, food trucks, and a free trolley. Concurrently, Concord artist Saad Hindal holds a gallery opening at 57 North Main Street from 12-8 p.m., with his work on display until Christmas Eve. The weekend also features a Christmas craft fair at the United Church of Penacook on Saturday and a film screening of "Pressure Drop" at the Bank of New Hampshire Stage on Sunday.

In historic move, MFA Boston returns works by 19th-century enslaved artist David Drake to his heirs

The Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) Boston has agreed to return two 1857 ceramic jars by David Drake, an enslaved Black potter, to his living descendants. One vessel will remain on loan to the museum for at least two years, while the other—the "Poem Jar"—has been purchased back by the MFA from the heirs for an undisclosed sum, now carrying a "certificate of ethical ownership." The museum acknowledges that Drake created the works involuntarily and without compensation, marking the first time the MFA has resolved a claim for art wrongfully taken under U.S. slavery.

Grace Rosario Perkins: Circles, Spokes, Zigzags, Rivers

The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York is presenting "Grace Rosario Perkins: Circles, Spokes, Zigzags, Rivers," an exhibition of nine recent paintings and a large-scale sculpture by the Akimel O’odham/Diné artist (b. 1986, Santa Fe). The show runs from October 18, 2025, to February 8, 2026, and is organized by senior curator Adrienne Edwards and curatorial assistant Rose Pallone. Perkins’s densely layered works incorporate acrylic, spray paint, found materials, and textual fragments, drawing on petroglyphs, ancestral storytelling, and personal experience to explore themes of grief, love, and hope while resisting reductive representations of Indigenous identity.

These artists want your help distracting fossil fuel executives

The Brooklyn non-profit space Pioneer Works is hosting an exhibition titled "How to Get to Zero" by artists Tega Brain and Sam Lavigne, featuring climate-themed interactive works. The centerpiece, "Cold Call" (2023), invites visitors to call fossil fuel executives using a script designed to keep them on the line and waste their time. Other works include "Offset" (2023-25), a satirical carbon offset marketplace where visitors can purchase credits for dissident acts like deflating SUV tires, and "Perfect Sleep" (2021), which encourages rest as a form of anti-productivity climate activism. The exhibition blends humor with serious critique of net-zero pledges and carbon markets.

An underground art park by Mike Hewson opens beneath the Art Gallery of NSW

New Zealand-born engineer-turned-artist Mike Hewson has opened 'The Key’s Under The Mat,' an interactive social sculpture inside the subterranean Nelson Packer Tank at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney. The free exhibition, running from October 4, 2025 through 2026, transforms a former WWII oil reservoir into an art park featuring dozens of usable sculptures—including a functioning sauna, steam room, laundromat, playground, and barbecue—all made from thousands of salvaged objects. Visitors are encouraged to dwell, play, create, and even do laundry, with the artist describing the work as a 'handmade utopia.'

rome charges fee for trevi fountain 2733686

Rome has introduced a €2.35 entry fee for the Trevi Fountain, one of the world's most famous monuments, effective February 1 during daylight hours (9am to 9pm). The measure, announced by Mayor Roberto Gualtieri, aims to curb overtourism by limiting viewership to 400 people at a time. The fountain currently welcomes up to 70,000 visitors per day, and the fee could raise an estimated $7.6 million annually for maintenance. Similar fees will apply to four other city sites, while Roman citizens retain free access.

Researchers Confirm Location of Lost City of Alexandria on the Tigris

An international research team has confirmed the rediscovery of the lost city of Alexandria on the Tigris in Iraq. Founded by Alexander the Great, the city was a major trading hub until the 3rd century CE. Its location was identified through a combination of historical research, aerial photography, and recent non-invasive surveys using drones and magnetometry, which revealed the city's planned layout under difficult security conditions.

Lawsuit Alleges DOGE Cancelled $349,000 HVAC Grant to Museum after ChatGPT Flagged It As DEI

Lawsuit Alleges DOGE Cancelled $349,000 HVAC Grant to Museum after ChatGPT Flagged It As DEI

The High Point Museum in North Carolina had a $349,000 federal grant to replace its HVAC system canceled after staff at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) used ChatGPT to evaluate the proposal. According to a federal lawsuit, the AI chatbot flagged the climate-control project as related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, leading to its termination, despite the grant's stated purpose of preserving the museum's collection.

43rd Ellarsie Open Announces Juror Adam Welch: Accepting Submissions Until May 6th

The Trenton City Museum has launched the call for entries for the 43rd Ellarslie Open, appointing Adam Welch as the juror for the 2026 edition. Welch, the Executive Director of the Arts Council of Princeton and a former lecturer at Princeton University, will oversee the selection process for the prestigious regional showcase. Artists from the New Jersey and Pennsylvania areas are invited to submit digital entries through May 6, with the final exhibition scheduled to open on June 6 at the historic Ellarslie Mansion.

Amina Agueznay on Representing Morocco at the 61st Venice Biennale

Artist Amina Agueznay will represent Morocco at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026 with a monumental installation titled 'Asǝṭṭa' in the Arsenale. The work focuses on collaborative practices and ancestral narratives, drawing from her fieldwork with weavers and metalsmiths, and incorporates traditional silver sequins to create a dialogue between the Middle Atlas Mountains and Venice's canals.

Untitled (Second Night), 2021 by Louise Lawler, Dye sublimation print on museum box, 121.9 x 182.2 cm (2)

This article is a promotional description for an art platform that partners with leading galleries to showcase artists, artworks, and exhibitions. It highlights a membership model vetted by industry peers, offering visibility and access to influential galleries, collectors, and auction houses. The piece also mentions a specific artwork by Louise Lawler, "Untitled (Second Night), 2021," a dye sublimation print on a museum box.

The Update | Emerging Artist Program Exhibits Selectee’s Works

The New Castle Public Library in Pennsylvania is hosting an exhibition of works by Madeline Zimmer, an 18-year-old emerging artist, through June 17. The show, titled "Arbitrary Existence," features digital characters and pastel drawings inspired by comics and graffiti art, and is part of the Hoyt's Emerging Artist Program, which provides selected artists with hands-on support including exhibition development, installation, and promotion.

A flaming locomotive and the future stars: RSA200 celebrates a bicentenary for Scottish Art

The Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) has launched RSA200, a nationwide initiative involving over 100 partners to celebrate its 200th anniversary. The program highlights Scotland's art history and contemporary practice, kicking off with the New Scottish Contemporaries exhibition featuring recent graduates like Daye Allan, Malachy McCrimmon, and Poppy Gannon.

Poly Auction Hong Kong concludes spring sales - Vietnam Investment Review

Poly Auction Hong Kong concluded its Spring 2026 auction series with total sales exceeding HKD 255 million, representing a 23% increase over the previous autumn season. The sales were led by Liu Wei’s 1995 masterpiece "You Like Pork?", which fetched HKD 27.6 million, and a Ming Dynasty Blue and White 'Grapes' Dish that realized HKD 24.6 million. The auction saw participation from collectors across 17 countries, with significant growth in the Modern and Contemporary Art segment, which rose over 63% compared to the prior season.

Chiharu Shiota’s New Exhibition Invites Visitors Into a Cocoon of Red Thread

Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota has debuted her first Bay Area solo exhibition, "Two Home Countries," at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. The show features Shiota’s signature immersive installations of red thread, most notably the 88-foot-long work "Diary," which suspends handwritten journal pages from World War II soldiers and postwar civilians within a dense crimson web. The exhibition also includes sculptures, video, and performance-based works that explore themes of memory, displacement, and the psychological state of living between cultures.

AstaGuru Auction house brings Raza, Husain, Souza and other masters to Nehru Centre, Mumbai

AstaGuru Auction House is launching the third edition of its 'ShowKeen' exhibition at the Nehru Centre in Mumbai. The two-day showcase features a curated selection of modern and contemporary Indian art, highlighting works by over 40 influential masters including S.H. Raza, M.F. Husain, F.N. Souza, and Akbar Padamsee, alongside contemporary figures like Meetali Singh and Tom Vattakuzhy.

Counterpublic plans sprawling, socially conscious show of public art for St. Louis in September

The St. Louis-based triennial Counterpublic has announced its artist lineup and thematic framework for its 2026 edition, set to open on September 12. Featuring more than 50 artists across five primary locations, the free public art festival will showcase newly commissioned works by major figures such as Glenn Ligon, Rebecca Belmore, and Rirkrit Tiravanija. The exhibition, titled "Coyote Time," explores themes of rapid societal change, community resilience, and the "near future," with specific installations addressing the aftermath of a 2025 tornado and the history of local landmarks like Sumner High School.

Hopkins Bloomberg Center exhibition to explore American art as cultural diplomacy

The Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center is set to launch a new exhibition titled 'Artistic Generosity and the American Artist Abroad,' showcasing four decades of American art commissioned for U.S. embassies. Opening April 7 at the Irene and Richard Frary Gallery, the show features works from the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies (FAPE) by renowned artists including Sam Gilliam, Ellsworth Kelly, Julie Mehretu, and Martin Puryear. Highlights include never-before-seen maquettes by Don Gummer and the late Frank Stella, alongside a replica of the Declaration of Independence donated by David M. Rubenstein.

‘La Musée’: The history and challenges behind a landmark acquisition of works by women artists

The Museums of Poitiers in France have officially acquired 'La Musée,' a landmark collection of 523 works by women artists spanning the 17th to the 21st centuries. Assembled by artist and historian Eugénie Dubreuil since 1999, the collection includes paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts intended as a 'counterproposal' to the male-dominated art historical canon. The acquisition was finalized in March 2024 following a rigorous two-year review process and was accompanied by a €150,000 grant from the Les Beaux Yeux endowment fund to support a five-year project dedicated to women artists.

Museum exhibition highlights the network behind Frederic Church

The Washington County Museum of Fine Arts is launching "Kindred Spirits: Artists in the Tenth Street Studio Building" on March 7, an exhibition exploring the collaborative network of 19th-century American landscape painter Frederic Edwin Church. Centered on Church’s "Scene on the Catskill Creek," the show highlights the significance of New York’s Tenth Street Studio Building—the first purpose-built space for artists—where figures like Albert Bierstadt and Martin Johnson Heade fostered the Hudson River School movement.

Monumental commissions and pioneering women artists take centre stage at Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale 2026

The third edition of the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale has opened in Riyadh’s JAX District under the title 'In Interludes and Transitions.' Curated by Nora Razian and Sabih Ahmed, the exhibition features over 65 artists from 35 countries, focusing on themes of migration, oral storytelling, and the movement of ideas across borders. The show is housed in repurposed 1970s industrial warehouses with a scenography designed by Formafantasma that emphasizes intimacy despite the monumental scale of the venues.

Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art’s ‘Yes &…’ favors the process over the pretty

The Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (BMoCA) has opened a new exhibition titled 'Yes &…', inspired by the improvisational comedy rule of accepting and building on ideas. Guest curators Donald Fodness and Tobias Fike selected 18 artists whose work emphasizes process over polish, featuring visible seams, fingerprints, and evidence of human decision-making across painting, sculpture, video, installation, and performance. The exhibition includes interactive elements, such as a sculpture with hand-carved 'ice cubes' intended for viewers to take, and runs through May 3.

Pictorial Foundation Opens New Gallery in Newburgh with “Foundations of Practice”

Pictorial Foundation, an organization born from the international photography magazine The Pictorial List, has opened a new gallery space at 105 Ann Street in Newburgh, New York. The 1,500-square-foot gallery, located within the ADS Warehouse complex, debuts on February 7 with the group exhibition “Foundations of Practice,” featuring 19 artists whose work emphasizes process over finished results. Founder Karen Ghostlaw Pomarico, a Pratt Institute-trained artist, collaborated with her husband, architect Michael Pomarico of Pomarico Design Studio, to create a flexible system of suspended partitions that can be reconfigured for each show. The gallery grows out of a desire to move beyond the limitations of online art visibility and create a physical space for slow, thoughtful engagement with art.

National Art Exhibition in Punta Gorda headlines 25 shows at SWFL art centers

Southwest Florida's art scene is bustling with 25 visual art exhibitions across more than a dozen art centers in February. The headline event is the 15th Biennial National Art Exhibition at the Visual Arts Center in Punta Gorda, a prestigious juried competition for two-dimensional art. Other notable shows include Art Center Sarasota's centennial-celebrating Annual Juried Members Show, the 'Colors in Motion' exhibition at Venice Art Center, and a dual exhibition featuring artists Susan Fraley and Rosalie Mack.