Philadelphia Museum of Art to experiment with pay-what-you-wish tickets on Friday nights

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is reinstating a pay-what-you-wish admission policy for Friday nights from April 2026 through Labor Day. This initiative, funded by the William Penn Foundation and board chair Ellen Caplan, coincides with the museum's 150th anniversary and the launch of "Nation of Artists," a massive collaborative exhibition with the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts featuring over 1,000 works.

Pepperdine Closes Exhibit Featuring “Overtly Political” Art

Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, closed the exhibition “Hold My Hand In Yours” at the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art on October 6, after artists discovered their works had been removed or altered for being “overtly political.” The show, curated by museum director Andrea Gyorody, explored the imagery of hands in relation to labor and care. One artist found her video turned off at the university’s request, and a sculpture was modified to hide text reading “Save the Children” and “Abolish ICE.” The affected artists requested their pieces be removed, and others withdrew in solidarity. University officials cited a policy to avoid overtly political content consistent with its nonprofit status, and offered apologies while honoring compensation agreements.

Ozzy Osbourne exhibition opens at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

An exhibition about Ozzy Osbourne has opened at the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery. The show is presented in partnership with Aston Villa Football Club, as Osbourne is a famous fan of the team. The article, published on Aston Villa's official website, promotes the exhibition alongside club news and membership information.

Prague, opening of the exhibition “De Chirico – Painting is the Magical Art”

Prague, opening of the exhibition “De Chirico – Painting is the Magical Art”

The Italian Cultural Institute in Prague has inaugurated a major retrospective titled “De Chirico – Painting is the Magical Art,” dedicated to the master of Metaphysical art. Curated by Lorenzo Canova, the exhibition features over 70 works sourced from prominent private collections across Europe, spanning the artist's career from the 1930s through his final creative years. The display includes his iconic Italian Piazzas, Baroque-inspired horses, and "silent life" still lifes, alongside a significant selection of graphic works and lithographs.

Amy Sherald Cancels Her Smithsonian Show, Citing Censorship

Amy Sherald, the acclaimed portraitist known for her official portrait of Michelle Obama, has canceled her upcoming solo exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, citing censorship concerns. Sherald stated that the institution imposed restrictions on the content and presentation of her work, which she found unacceptable, leading her to withdraw from the show entirely.

Minor Keys, Major Shifts: Sierra Leone’s Resonant Debut in Venice.

Sierra Leone has made its inaugural appearance at the 61st Venice Biennale with a pavilion titled 'Worlds of Today' located at the Liceo Guggenheim. Curated with a focus on "minor keys" rather than grand spectacles, the exhibition features Sierra Leonean artists Hawa-Jane Bangura, Ayesha Feisal, Hickmatu Bintu Leigh, and Abu Bakarr Mansaray alongside practitioners from other ECOWAS nations. The pavilion functions as a sensorial, porous space that prioritizes communal resilience and spiritual epistemologies over the commodification of identity.

46th Annual Student Exhibition highlights diverse range of student artwork

The Brown Arts Institute has launched the 46th Annual Student Exhibition at the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts, featuring a diverse array of multimedia works, sculptures, and installations. Juried by artists Tarik Bartel and Jinghong Chen, the exhibition showcases student talent across various disciplines, with Alex Schupak taking first place for his multimedia sculpture "Impression/Expression." The show highlights themes ranging from the reliability of photographic truth to explorations of gender dysmorphia and childhood.

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Alserkal, a Dubai-based cultural enterprise, and Design Miami have announced a multi-year partnership to launch a new regional platform for collectible design in Dubai. The initiative, centered on a flagship fair and year-round programming, will debut in early 2027, marking Design Miami's first expansion into the Middle East. The collaboration leverages Alserkal's 15-year history in developing Dubai's contemporary art scene and Design Miami's two decades of experience in Miami and Paris, aiming to create a network that connects these hubs and elevates Middle Eastern design globally.

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The article, presented as an advice column by consultants Chen & Lampert in ARTnews, addresses two anonymous letters from art-world professionals. The first letter is from a curator at a major museum who feels underpaid, invisible, and constrained by an ethics policy that prevents freelance work, while colleagues at smaller institutions enjoy more freedom. The second letter is from a veteran graphic designer and illustrator, active since the 1960s, who laments losing commercial clients to younger, cheaper talent using AI and smartphones. The consultants respond with sharp, critical advice: they tell the curator to consider collective action with colleagues to push for institutional reform, and advise the designer to leverage their legacy and experience rather than accept obsolescence.

Un itinerario fotografico tra installazioni e progetti d’autore della Design Week 2026. La collaborazione tra Artribune e i computer di MSI

This article outlines a one-day itinerary through Milan's 2026 Fuorisalone design week, highlighting key installations and exhibitions. It begins at Torre Velasca, featuring Polish Modernism and Brazilian modernist Jorge Zalszupin, then moves to the University of Milan's cloisters for the Interni magazine exhibition themed 'Materiae,' with oversized sculptures and a yacht installation by Piero Lissoni for Sanlorenzo. Other stops include Palazzo Litta, where architect Lina Ghotmeh presents 'Metamorphosis in Motion,' and Galleria Rossana Orlandi, focusing on the theme of doors. The itinerary concludes at Alcova in the former Baggio Military Hospital, an abandoned space reactivated by curators Valentina Ciuffi and Joseph Grima.

Galerie Sept Sets Its Sights on a New, Expanded Vision on the Belgian Seaside

Galerie Sept, founded by Florian Araïb in Brussels in 2018, has expanded by opening a second gallery location in the Belgian seaside town of Knokke. The new, larger space features high ceilings and natural light, designed to support more ambitious presentations of its artists' work, and is launching with an exhibition by Juliette Clovis.

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Two rare original watercolor illustrations for Rudyard Kipling’s 1903 edition of The Jungle Book were rediscovered in a London family home and sold at Roseberys auction house for a combined £130,480 ($174,940). Created by twin brothers Edward Julius and Charles Maurice Detmold, the works—titled Mowgli and Bagheera and The Cold Lairs—had been hanging unassumingly for decades. The sale price significantly exceeded expectations, with the Mowgli illustration alone fetching more than four times its high estimate.

Sarah Alruwayti on Riyadh's Shift from Vision to Execution

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Sarah Alruwayti, director of the Tuwaiq Sculpture Symposium, discusses the evolution of Riyadh Art’s public art initiatives under Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030. The symposium has grown from a local project into a global open-call forum, commissioning over 120 international sculptors to create permanent works using local materials like Saudi granite and reclaimed metal. The latest edition, themed "Traces of What Will Be," focuses on urban transformation and the historical context of Riyadh’s changing landscape.

3d tech reveals new gladiator graffiti in pompeii 2738381

Researchers using Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) and 3D photogrammetry have uncovered 79 previously invisible graffiti fragments on a 90-foot walled corridor in Pompeii's theater district. Among the discoveries are a dynamic sketch of two gladiators in combat and a love declaration beginning "Erato amat…" (Erato loves…). The work, detailed in Pompeii's e-journal, was conducted by teams from Sorbonne University and the University of Québec at Montréal, who developed a custom 3D-image platform to visualize and digitally annotate the ancient carvings.

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Fashion brand Frame has released a clothing collaboration with Sotheby’s, featuring loungewear, jeans, jackets, and accessories that prominently display the auction house’s logo. The capsule collection, described as a first-of-its-kind partnership, includes items like a $228 beach towel, $278 shorts, and a $1,298 cashmere sweater, modeled by Sotheby’s staff including SVP Ashkan Baghestani and AVP Kelly Pyrtle.

Naho Kawabe "Flos Filicis: Flower of the Fern" @ WAITINGROOM

川辺ナホ「Flos Filicis：羊歯の花」@ WAITINGROOM

The Tokyo gallery WAITINGROOM is hosting "Flos Filicis: Flower of the Fern," a solo exhibition by Naho Kawabe featuring new installations, photo collages, and drawings. The exhibition centers on the paradoxical concept of the "fern flower" to explore the relationship between fossil fuels, industrial infrastructure, and the myth of progress. Kawabe utilizes materials like charcoal and electrical components alongside research-based lithographs to examine the history of Japanese migrant coal miners in Germany and the broader ecological impact of energy consumption.

Summer Exhibitions Coming to Venues in East & South Texas

Summer exhibitions are opening across East and South Texas at venues including the Art Museum of Southeast Texas, the Beeville Art Museum, the Longview Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of East Texas in Lufkin, and the Rockport Center for the Arts. Highlights include Janavi Mahimtura Folmsbee's 'Magic Water' at the Rockport Center for the Arts, a 2026 FotoFest Biennial Participating Space; Jennifer Arnold's 'A Layered Space: Coming Up For Air (v.6)'; Elena Rodz's 'Byways' as part of the Past Master Artists | Rockport Legends exhibition; Bill Pangburn's 'Printed Traces – A Neches River Journal' at the Art Museum of Southeast Texas; and Woody Gwyn's 'Skylight On Water, Trees, Rock and Road' at the Art Museum of South Texas.

'I want the colour to talk' Artist Sarah Spackman celebrates 20 years at Sarah Wiseman Gallery in Summertown with new exhibition Continuum

Artist Sarah Spackman is preparing for a new exhibition titled "Continuum" at the Sarah Wiseman Gallery in Summertown, celebrating 20 years of collaboration with the gallery. The show features 30 new still lifes, reflecting Spackman's evolving style toward greater simplicity and focus on single objects, color, and quiet intensity. Spackman, an Oxford-based artist and elected member of the Royal Society of British Artists and Royal Institute of Oil Painters, describes her process as organic, often sketching first thing in the morning and working primarily with color to let it "talk" on the canvas.

Raphael: Sublime Poetry

This article announces the first comprehensive U.S. exhibition on Raphael, titled "Raphael: Sublime Poetry," which offers an immersive look at the artist's meteoric career through drawings, paintings, prints, and tapestries. It traces Raphael's journey from his birth in Urbino in 1483, through his training under his poet-painter father Giovanni Santi and later Pietro Perugino, to his rise as a peer to Leonardo and Michelangelo in Florence and his final decade as the favorite artist of the popes in Rome, where he was celebrated as the "prince of painters."

May Events at Lynden Sculpture Garden

The Lynden Sculpture Garden in Milwaukee announces its May 2026 events, including exhibitions, workshops, and outdoor installations. Featured exhibitions include Faythe Levine's "Time is Running Out," which explores the legacy of Charlotte Partridge and Miriam Frink, co-founders of the Layton School of Art, and "Slow Growing in the Time of Trees" by the mycology-focused collective mycollective. A bonsai exhibit opens on World Bonsai Day in collaboration with the Milwaukee Bonsai Society and Milwaukee Bonsai Foundation, alongside free community events like Knit @ Lynden with Sara Caron.

Artists in Action: Supporting Salem-area artists for a quarter-century

Artists in Action (AiA), a nonprofit organization supporting Salem-area artists, is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a public reception on May 3, 2026, at Elsinore Framing & Fine Art Gallery in Salem, Oregon. Founded by Diane Trevett and about five other artists, the group began as a small support network for struggling artists and has grown into an established arts organization with around 65 active members. AiA hosts monthly openings, critique sessions, open-call shows, and special events like Paint and Write the Town, providing opportunities for artists to exhibit and sell their work across various mediums.

Curator Adriana Farietta On Why CONDUCTOR Is the Fair the Art World Needs Right Now

CONDUCTOR, a new art fair curated by Adriana Farietta in collaboration with Powerhouse Arts, launches this week in Brooklyn, New York. The fair features individual artists and galleries from Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Oceania, and Indigenous Nations, with a focus on the Global Majority. A key innovation is its onsite fabrication model, allowing some works to be produced locally at Powerhouse Arts' facilities, reducing shipping and customs issues. The fair also offers an exclusive preview of artists presenting at the Venice Biennale, including Annalee Davis, Tammy Nguyen, RojoNegro, Beya Gille Gacha, and Bugarin + Castle.

Jonk & Friends: the exhibition that blends street art and photography at the Nature Forte Gallery

Photographer Jonk has invited 13 fellow artists to reinterpret his urbex photographs for a group exhibition titled "Jonk & Friends" at his Galerie Nature Forte in Paris. The show runs from May 7 to June 6, 2026, featuring works in a uniform 60 x 80 cm format, with participating artists including Horss, Mouarf, S4m, Siel, Bault, and Jace. Admission is free.

Tashkeel offers a shoulder to Moza Al Falasi in her debut solo exhibition

Tashkeel, a Dubai-based art organization founded in 2008 by Sheikha Lateefa bint Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, is presenting "Unfolding," the debut solo exhibition by Emirati artist Moza Al Falasi. Opening May 12 at Tashkeel's Nad Al Sheba 1 Gallery, the show marks the culmination of Al Falasi's participation in the Tashkeel Critical Practice Programme (CPP), where she was mentored by Luisa Menano and Hanaa Bou Hamdan. The exhibition explores memory, loss, and the passing of time through photography, sound, painting, plaster, and fabric, reflecting on inherited grief and personal loss, including the deaths of her parents and husband.

morocco debuts national pavilion at the venice biennale with monumental asǝṭṭa installation

Morocco will debut its first-ever national pavilion at the 2026 Venice Art Biennale, presenting a monumental installation titled "Asǝṭṭa" by multidisciplinary artist Amina Agueznay. Curated by Meriem Berrada, the project is housed in the Arsenale's Artiglierie and explores themes of traditional craftsmanship, shared memory, and the symbolic threshold (âatba). The installation, which involves 166 Moroccan artisans and two Venetian collaborators, is conceived as a porous, liminal space that engages with the Biennale's theme "In Minor Keys," curated by Koyo Kouoh.

Cinematic Painting Series

Cary Kwok's exhibition at Sessions Arts Club in London presents four new paintings created with support from Herald St, Cabin Studio, Jonny Gent, and David Southard. The works, rendered in acrylic and ink on paper, explore still lifes, silhouettes, and staged interiors inspired by 1980s visual culture, including interior design, cinematography, fashion editorials, and advertising. Featured pieces include *Eclipse* (2026) and *Anticipation* (2026), with the artist's signature subtly embedded in objects like jewelry and glassware. The show opens May 18 and is viewable by appointment or during dining hours, alongside a related wine label collaboration for the Sessions Arts Club Lost Wines Project.

When Art Meets Nature: Children’s Art Exhibition At National Gallery Singapore

National Gallery Singapore presents 'When Art Meets Nature', a children's art exhibition running from 30 April to 1 November 2026. The show features two installations: 'Peace Forest' by Singaporean artist Soh Ee Shaun, located in the Keppel Centre for Art Education, and 'Where the River Runs' by Yenting Hsu, displayed in the City Hall Alcove. The exhibition is co-curated by the Taoyuan Museum of Fine Arts and National Gallery Singapore, offering interactive experiences such as a scavenger hunt and a woodblock art station, alongside a video and audio installation exploring the Dahan River in Taiwan.

Soft Power: When Textiles Become Compelling Storytellers

The article reviews 'Threading Inwards,' an exhibition at the Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile (CHAT) in Hong Kong, curated by Wang Weiwei, Eugene Hannah Park, Kurosawa Seiha, and Wang Huan. It features 14 artists from across Asia who use textile as a medium to explore themes of spirituality, memory, and cultural heritage. Works include Han Sang A's 'Threshold' series, Hu Yinping's 'Soul Bottle' series, and pieces by Aziza Kadyri, Mooni Perry, Citra Sasmita, IV Chan, and Chen Zhe, among others.

Bertil Vallien celebrates 60 years of glass art with Brooklyn solo exhibition

Swedish glass artist Bertil Vallien, now 88, has opened a major solo exhibition titled "Starman: Sixty Years of Exploring Glass Art" at the Robert Lehman Gallery in Brooklyn. The show features 35 works spanning his 64-year career, highlighting his mastery of sand-casting and his long collaboration with the heritage brand Kosta Boda. Notable pieces include the *Resting Head* series, *Idun’s Magical Apples*, and the *Ships* series, which draw on Norse mythology and themes of life cycles.

Experience Western’s 2026 art biennial

Western Washington University’s art department has opened its 2026 faculty and staff biennial, featuring 20 artists with works spanning painting, photography, sculpture, video, and installation. The exhibition is held in the Fine Arts Building, room 124, and runs Monday through Saturday until May 2, with free admission. New gallery director Kelly Lindner curated the show, which includes interactive pieces and collaborative works. Featured artist Jennifer Anable contributed three works inspired by Skagit Valley and dark humor, emphasizing the importance of students seeing their teachers’ professional practice.