The Christophers review – Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel are the double act of the year

Steven Soderbergh's new film "The Christophers" is a London-set movie about contemporary art, starring Ian McKellen as Julian Sklar, a once-dominant but now outmoded English painter, and Michaela Coel as Lori Butler, a former art student hired as his assistant. The plot revolves around a series of hidden paintings called "The Christophers" that Julian's grasping adult children want to find and potentially forge for profit. The film is described as fast, literate, and funny, with McKellen and Coel delivering a compelling double act.

World Press Photo 2026 winners – in pictures

The World Press Photo 2026 winners have been announced, with Carol Guzy awarded the top honor for her image of distraught girls clinging to their father as ICE agents detain him after an immigration hearing in New York City. Finalists include Saber Nuraldin’s photograph of Palestinians scrambling for aid in Gaza, Victor J Blue’s image of Achi women outside a Guatemala City court, and other powerful works documenting climate displacement in Mexico, a wedding during a typhoon in the Philippines, police detaining a priest at a pensioners’ protest in Argentina, and a social robot in Europe.

Puerto Rico’s rainforest center reborn: in pictures

Puerto Rico’s El Yunque National Forest has unveiled the reconstructed El Portal visitor’s center, a $18 million project designed by Marvel Architects to withstand future climate disasters. Following the devastation of Hurricanes Maria and Irma, the new facility features elevated structures, advanced stormwater management, and solar capabilities, serving as both a sustainable tourism hub and an emergency command post.

In Bloom review – this riproaring history of botanical adventurers disturbs and delights

A major exhibition titled "In Bloom" explores the intertwined history of botanical science, colonialism, and human obsession with flowers. It features works and stories from figures like Mary Somerset, Carl Linnaeus, and Joseph Hooker, tracing how global plant collecting transformed European gardens and culture.

fashion louis vuitton artycapucines takashi murakami

Louis Vuitton has launched the Artycapucines VII collection, a collaboration with artist Takashi Murakami for its seventh edition of art-inspired handbags since 2019. Murakami was given full creative control over 11 new pieces, incorporating his signature motifs—such as rainbow grins, Monogram Multicolor in crocodile, skull camouflage, and tentacle-covered fuchsia calfskin—alongside a crystal-encrusted panda bag. The collection builds on over 30 previous artist collaborations with figures like Urs Fischer, Alex Israel, Park Seo-Bo, and Tschabalala Self.

Art Gallery Shows in Bangkok to Check Out in April

Bangkok's art scene is hosting several high-profile exhibitions this April, highlighted by the opening of Harper’s Bangkok, the first Southeast Asian outpost of the New York-based Harper’s gallery. The new space debuts with 'Lost and Found,' a solo exhibition by American artist Joel Mesler featuring his signature typographic and symbolic paintings. Other major shows include a large-scale group exhibition at MOCA Bangkok titled 'ICONOSTASIS: No Masters, No Icons,' which pits handmade mastery against AI-generated art, and a solo presentation by Filipino painter Jason Montinola at La Lanta Fine Art.

FSU's Museum of Fine Arts presents exhibit examining humanity through things we collect, keep and carry

Florida State University's Museum of Fine Arts (MoFA) will present the exhibition "Like everything alive that we try to hold forever" from January 29 to June 27, 2025. Curated by Elizabeth Diggon, Naomi Potter, and Shauna Thompson of Esker Foundation and produced by Independent Curators International (ICI), the show features seven international artists—including Larry Achiampong & David Blandy, Diane Borsato, Stephanie Dinkins, Bridget Moser, Sondra Perry, and Miya Turnbull—whose work in photography, sculpture, and video examines the complex relationship between humans and non-human objects, touching on themes of identity, colonialism, artificial intelligence, and digital technologies.

Untitled: Artist Takeover Oct 2025

The Denver Art Museum hosted "Untitled: Artist Takeover Oct 2025," a Halloween-themed evening event featuring performances, art installations, and interactive activities across its Hamilton Building, Martin Building, and Sturm Grand Pavilion. Highlights included a memorial installation series "Death of Baddy" by artist Moe Gram, classic horror film screenings, tarot readings, shadow puppet theater, mask-making, and a dance party with DJ 2AND2. Participating artists and performers included Justy Robinson, Miguel Garcia, Kendall Bennett, Patty McCrystal, Zora Beglarian, Lisa Frank 666, Karma Leigh, Joe Oliver, Medicine Mama Kia, Shaunie Berry, Elle Hong, and Rafael & Kristina Maldonado Bad Hand.

July-August Exhibit at Sertoma Arts Center

Sertoma Arts Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, presents a group exhibition running from June 29 to August 27, 2025, featuring three distinct shows across its galleries. The Hall Gallery hosts "STRUCTURE & LIGHT: Architectural Paintings by Kenneth Eugene Peters," the Raleigh Room displays "Transcendent Expressions" by Cheryl McCardle, and the Lobby showcases works by Alexandra Zuckerman along with students of Steve Karloski and Tim Cherry. A public reception is scheduled for August 23, 2025.

The Nerve Center of This Art Fair Isn’t Painting. It’s Couture.

The Independent art fair in New York is featuring a significant presentation of designs by Rei Kawakubo and her label Comme des Garçons. The works, which include garments and sculptural objects, are being presented as a curated exhibition within the fair, challenging traditional art fair categories.

The Haas Brothers’ Creative Creations Are on Tour

The Haas Brothers, twin artists Simon Haas and Nikolai Haas, are the subject of a midcareer survey exhibition that is currently touring the United States. The show highlights their whimsical, colorful, and often functional sculptures and furniture pieces that blend craft, design, and fine art.

Tracking Down a Vase From ‘Bonjour Tristesse’

The New York Times has traced the whereabouts of a distinctive blue-and-white vase featured in the 1958 film 'Bonjour Tristesse,' directed by Otto Preminger. The vase, which played a prominent role in the film's set design, was discovered to be a piece by French ceramicist Georges Jouve and had been quietly residing in a private Los Angeles collection for decades.

‘My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein’ by Deborah Levy, Reviewed

Deborah Levy’s latest novel, *My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein*, follows a first-person narrator who travels to Paris to research the American writer and collector Gertrude Stein. The narrative slips between the early twentieth century and the autumn of Donald Trump’s 2024 reelection, using stream-of-consciousness prose and liquid metaphors to blur past and present. The narrator’s research into Stein’s role in shaping modernity becomes a vehicle for exploring her own sense of helplessness and lack of agency in a hyperconnected, war-weary present.

Long Live the King?

Sam Jacob's essay in ArtReview uses the upcoming Baz Luhrmann film 'EPIC: Elvis Presley in Concert' (2026) as a springboard to explore the cultural and technical implications of digital restoration. The film, a spinoff from Luhrmann's 2022 Elvis biopic, draws on 59 hours of previously unseen footage from Elvis Presley's 1970 and 1972 Las Vegas performances, recovered from Warner's Kansas salt-mine archive. Using Peter Jackson's Park Road Post technology—including Machine Assisted Learning (MAL) for demixing audio and video—the damaged, fragmented material has been digitally scanned, reconstructed, and enhanced to 4k resolution with 12-channel sound, presented in IMAX cinemas.

All the Poetry of the Sky on Show in a Rome Grand Hotel, Reminding Us of Our Own Complexity

Tutta la poesia del cielo in mostra nel grand hotel di Roma per ricordarci la nostra stessa complessità

Artist Giovanni Ozzola has opened a solo exhibition titled 'Il Cielo Dentro' (The Sky Within) at the Galleria Continua's space within The St. Regis hotel in Rome. The show features works centered on the sky as a metaphor for the vastness both outside and within the human experience, exploring the tension between internal and external horizons through light and abandoned architectural spaces like bunkers.

'Epic in scale': APY Lands exhibition opens at NGA after three-year delay

The National Gallery of Australia has officially opened 'Ngura Puḻka — Epic Country,' a landmark exhibition featuring 30 large-scale paintings by 49 First Nations artists from the APY Lands. The show, which features works predominantly measuring three-by-three meters, highlights the Tjukurpa (lore and ceremony) of the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara regions. The opening follows a significant three-year delay caused by an independent investigation into allegations of improper interference by non-Indigenous staff.

Daniel Blumberg at Galerie Balice Hertling

Galerie Balice Hertling in Paris is presenting an exhibition of silverpoint drawings by artist Daniel Blumberg, running from March 26 to May 16, 2026. The show features 57 images documented by photographer Aurélien Mole, with no accompanying videos or text descriptions in the visual record.

Senior Art Exhibition 2026 Showcases the ‘Incredible Crossroads’ of Studio Art Majors

The Senior Art Exhibition 2026 at Colby College Museum of Art's Joan Dignam Schmaltz Gallery of Art in Waterville showcases capstone projects from 17 graduating studio art majors. The works span painting, photography, printmaking, digital media, and sculpture, created after a yearlong capstone course coordinated by Associate Professor Bradley Borthwick. The exhibition runs through May 23 and includes a catalog with artist statements and critical essays.

Open Door Arts opens its doors to the Cheyenne community

Open Door Arts, a new art gallery and studio, opened its doors in Cheyenne, Wyoming, on Saturday. The gallery is a revamped and relocated version of the former Blue Door Arts, owned by artists Georgia and Dave Rowswell. The new space, located at 1609 Central Ave., is larger and now owned by the Rowswells, and also features a permanent space for artist Denise Hawkins, a photographer and painter. The opening reception drew friends, family, and community members to view the art and celebrate the new venue.

Contemporary Art Month in San Antonio Announces Open Call for Texas Artists

Contemporary Art Month (CAM) in San Antonio has announced the open call for its 40th anniversary CAM Perennial exhibition, inviting Texas artists to apply. The 2026 edition will be curated by Casie Lomeli and Leslie Moody Castro, both CAM Board Members, and will take place citywide at multiple artist-run spaces during March. The exhibition is not limited to local artists; past Perennial curators will also nominate artists from cities including El Paso, Dallas, Las Cruces, and Mexico City. Studio visits are planned for fall 2025, and the application deadline is September 26.

Yoshida Chizuko

The Portland Art Museum is hosting the first major museum retrospective of Yoshida Chizuko (1924–2017), a pioneering Japanese modernist painter and printmaker. The exhibition features over 100 works, including early oil paintings, monotypes, woodblock prints, lithographs, and mixed media pieces, many never before exhibited. It traces her career from avant-garde abstraction in the 1940s and 1950s through op art and photoetchings in the 1960s and 1970s to nature-inspired late works, and includes a planned major acquisition from the Yoshida family estate.

art jordan nassar palestine james cohan show

Palestinian-American artist Jordan Nassar is preparing for a September exhibition at James Cohan gallery, creating a mosaic based on Roman-Byzantine floor decorations displayed at Tel Aviv's international airport. His new works incorporate darker tones—black, gray, deep red, green, and blue—reflecting the escalating crisis in Gaza and the West Bank. The embroidery pieces are made collaboratively with women in the West Bank, though shipping delays and tariff uncertainties have complicated production.

Pamela Bryan and Julia Campbell Carter Bring New Orleans Rhythm to London

Pamela Bryan of Octavia Art Gallery in New Orleans and London-based curator Julia Campbell Carter have organized "Rhythm in the Blues," a contemporary group exhibition at 14 Percy Street, London, running from May 11 to 20. The show features five international artists—Alia Ali, Aigana Gali, Azadeh Ghotbi, Naomie Kremer, and Lucille Lewin—whose works in painting, sculpture, and mixed media explore themes of memory, migration, resilience, and identity, with music serving as an atmospheric and structural influence rather than a literal subject.

Gallery 14 Fine Art Photography features two members and a guest artist

Gallery 14 Fine Art Photography in Hopewell, New Jersey, will host a group exhibition from May 16 through June 14, featuring two member artists and one guest artist. The show includes John Stritzinger's series 'Trees Find A Way,' which captures trees in urban and rural settings; Dutch Bagley's 'What In The World,' a self-taught photographic exploration of environment and diversity; and guest artist Elvira Peretsman's 'The Fractured Perspective,' which uses experimental in-camera techniques to reveal abstract geometric forms. A meet-the-artists reception is scheduled for Sunday, May 17 from 1 to 3 p.m.

UAE unveils ‘Washwasha’ at Venice Biennale

The article reports on the UAE Pavilion's presentation at the Biennale Arte 2026 in Venice, titled 'Washwasha'. It also covers several art exhibitions in Dubai, including 'In Abstracto, In Concreto' at Efie Gallery featuring artists like Tunji Adeniyi-Jones and Ludovic Nkoth, the 'White' faculty exhibition at XVA Gallery, and the inaugural exhibition at Tatintisian Gallery's new Dubai space with works by Ron Arad, Peter Saul, and Tony Matelli. Additionally, it mentions a book of the week and a photo of the UAE Pavilion.

Wrapped for Travel: On "The American Connection" by Peter Halley and "Black Painter, White Figuration" by Maxwell Alexandre

Two simultaneous exhibitions at Almeida & Dale in São Paulo present contrasting visions: American artist Peter Halley's "The American Connection," curated by Antonio Gonçalves Filho, features his signature geometric abstractions using Roll-A-Tex and Day-Glo colors to critique digital confinement and post-industrial surfaces. Brazilian artist Maxwell Alexandre shows works from his "Clube" series, depicting Black bodies navigating exclusionary leisure spaces. The pairing is deliberate, not for aesthetic dialogue but to juxtapose an established international artist with a rising Brazilian talent, timed to coincide with SP-ARTE.

‘Studio Iron’ to Launch at Saatchi Yates, Blurring the Boundaries Between Art and Design

Saatchi Yates is partnering with creative director and makeup artist Isamaya Ffrench to launch Studio Iron, a new design gallery whose inaugural exhibition opens April 30 and runs through June 7, 2026. The show presents a dense, post-industrial landscape dominated by steel and iron, featuring works by artists including Jannis Kounellis, Paul McCarthy, Jordan Wolfson, Anne Imhof, Marina Abramovic, Nico Vascellari, and others. Furniture, sculpture, installation, and painting collide in a space that resists categorization, hovering between function and non-function, utility and image.

Savannah artists finding big ways in small places to stage exhibitions

Savannah artists are creating new exhibition spaces in small, unconventional venues to counter the city's lack of affordable studio and gallery space. Following the closure of several local galleries, nonprofit Arts Southeast has been fostering resilience, with new spaces like Cute Tomatoes Gallery, Pocket Space (hosted by Norwood Gallery), and Camaleon opening in 2025. These artist-run initiatives feature rotating shows, including a group exhibition of 19 female artists at Norwood Gallery and a multidisciplinary venue at Camaleon directed by SCAD graduate Alex Mendi.

In pictures: flora and fauna at Design Miami

Design Miami celebrates its 20th anniversary with the theme "Make. Believe.," curated by Glenn Adamson, emphasizing the evolving possibilities of collectible design. The fair features the 10th anniversary of the Curatorial Lab Annual Design Commission, including a mirrored carousel by ceramicist Katie Stout, alongside works by artists such as Bea Pernia, Pia-Maria Raeder, Joyce Billet, Teemu Salonen, Jennifer Trask, Roham Shamekh, and Clotilde Ancarani. Pieces range from a chrome-and-stone chair inspired by marine life to benches that double as planters, reflecting a pervasive focus on flora and fauna.

Looking Beyond the Conflict: What's driving contemporary artists from Sri Lanka?

Contemporary artists from Sri Lanka are gaining visibility across South Asia through gallery exhibitions, institutional shows, and art fairs. At Experimenter in Colaba, Pushpakanthan Pakkiyarajah's solo show 'No Race, No Colour' features installations like 'Charred Hyphal Mat' that explore organic communication and wounded ecologies rooted in the country's three-decade civil war. At the Art Mumbai fair, Hema Shironi uses fabric and green mesh to address post-war reconciliation, while earlier in Delhi, the twin exhibitions 'Homes Wrapped in Cloth, Borders Raised in Flags' and 'After Aphantasias' by Shrine Empire showcased similar themes. Artists such as Anoli Perera, Kingsley Gunatillake, Pala Pothupitye, and others are collectively presenting nuanced perspectives on memory, ecology, and joy beyond the conflict.