Dahiye, il quartiere di Beirut che non esiste quasi più. Nelle foto di un artista italiano

Italian photographer Armando Perna (born 1981 in Reggio Calabria) has documented Dahiye, a southern suburb of Beirut known as Hezbollah's stronghold, using a digital camera hidden inside a car and controlled remotely via Bluetooth. His project, initiated in 2013 and exhibited in 2017 at the Fondazione Pino Pascali in Polignano a Mare (Bari), creates a street-view-style mapping of a neighborhood that has been heavily bombed by Israeli forces, most recently in the past weeks. The work was promoted by Planar gallery, founded by Antonio Ottomanelli, with Perna and Anna Vasta as part of the #showcase project.

Auction house Phillips presents highlights of the next art and design auction in Milan

La casa d’aste Phillips presenta a Milano gli highlights della prossima asta tra arte e design

Phillips auction house is presenting a selection of highlights from upcoming auctions and private sales in Milan during the city's Art Week and Salone del Mobile. The exhibition, staged in a space with architecture and furnishings by Dimoregallery and Dimoremilano, features significant Italian post-war art and design pieces, including a notable 1983 'Mappa' by Alighiero Boetti made in Kabul, works by Carla Accardi and Piero Dorazio, and a Carmen Herrera painting slated for auction in New York.

Palate Cleansers at Frieze NY

Hyperallergic's coverage of Frieze New York and concurrent art fairs in the city frames the experience as overwhelming yet punctuated by standout works. Senior Editor Valentina Di Liscia compares the fair to an assembly-line salad, finding reprieve in art that evokes lush canopies, diaphanous portraiture, and ancestral gardens. The issue also includes dispatches from Future Fair, 1-54, TEFAF, NADA, and Independent Art Fair, alongside a tribute to Austrian performance artist Valie Export, who died at age 85, remembered for her radical feminist guerrilla performances that challenged the male gaze.

Finding art in the uncanny aesthetics of MAGA

Spielzeug gallery, founded in 2025 in Bushwick by Evan Karas and Eleanor Hicks, opened a pop-up show titled MAR-A-LAGO FACE on May 13 at a former restaurant on Allen Street in New York. The exhibition critiques the plastic-surgery aesthetics associated with Republican figures like Matt Gaetz, Laura Loomer, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and Kristi Noem, featuring works by queer, trans, and Latin American artists. The opening blurred the line between exhibition and party, with a DJ, themed drinks, and a bouncer checking bags.

Blue Shields Placed at 34 Archaeological Sites Across Lebanon, Signaling Enhanced Protections

The Lebanese Culture Ministry has placed distinctive blue shields at 34 archaeological sites across the country. This action formally designates the sites as protected cultural property under the 1954 Hague Convention, aiming to shield them from destruction during the ongoing armed conflict involving Israel and Hezbollah.

uae to open massive museum in december that reflects historical trajectory of the country

The Zayed National Museum, a new mega museum designed by Foster + Partners, will open on Abu Dhabi's Saadiyat Island in December. Named after the UAE's first president, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the museum will feature six permanent galleries spanning 300,000 years of history, displaying artifacts including a 1,000-year-old Qur'an, the world's oldest natural pearl (the 8,000-year-old Abu Dhabi Pearl), and objects from the Palaeolithic to Iron Age. It will also host loans from international institutions like the British Museum.

art basel abbas ruanne abou rahme brown bell gallery

An exhibition titled "Prisoners of Love: Until the Sun of Freedom" by artists Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme is on view at the Bell Gallery at Brown University until May 31. The show centers on a historical misattribution: the poem "Enemy of the Sun," found in the cell of Black Panther George Jackson after his 1971 murder, was long thought to be his work but was actually written by Palestinian poet Samih al-Qasim. Through a video installation featuring interviews with former political prisoners in Palestine, the artists explore what they call "radical kinship" between Black radical thinkers in the U.S. and Palestinian activists. Curators Kate Kraczon and Thea Quiray Tagle, who were terminated from Brown last December, collaborated on the project, which also draws on archival research into mass incarceration.

A Painting by the Master of the Blue Jeans Joins a Museum in Ticino

Un tableau du Maître de la toile de jean rejoint un musée dans le Tessin

The Pinacoteca cantonale Giovanni Züst in Rancate, Switzerland, has acquired 'Woman Begging with Two Children,' a significant work by the anonymous 17th-century artist known as the Master of the Blue Jeans. The painting was notably featured in a landmark 2010 exhibition at Galerie Canesso that helped define the identity of this Lombard artist, famous for depicting lower-class subjects wearing indigo-dyed denim-like fabric.

Taos Art Museum The pull of the landscape

The Taos Art Museum has opened a new exhibition titled “Land, Legacy, and Perspective: Landscapes of Northern New Mexico” on May 12, 2026, in the Janis and Roy Coffee Gallery. Featuring 30 works from the museum’s permanent collection and select loans from private collections, the show includes paintings and works on paper by artists such as Ernest L. Blumenschein, Leon Gaspard, Gene Kloss, Barbara Latham, Joseph Henry Sharp, Victor Higgins, and E. Martin Hennings. Spanning the early to mid-20th century, the exhibition captures scenes of Taos Pueblo, adobe villages, Black Mesa, snowy mountain passes, and aspen groves in various media.

2 Cincinnati museums to feature Charley and Edie Harper's works this fall

Two Cincinnati museums will present simultaneous exhibitions dedicated to artists Charley and Edie Harper this fall. The Taft Museum of Art will host the first solo museum exhibition of Edie Harper's work, featuring over 100 pieces spanning her entire career. Meanwhile, the Cincinnati Art Museum will mount the first full-scale retrospective of Charley Harper's paintings, with about 150 works on display, covering his career from early pieces to near his death. Both exhibitions open in October 2026, with the Taft's running through January and the Cincinnati Art Museum's through March.

take a first look at 'costume art' as fashion meets art history at the MET

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has opened a new exhibition titled 'Costume Art,' which explores the intersection of fashion and art history. The installation view, captured by designboom, showcases how garments and accessories are presented as artistic objects within the museum's galleries, blurring the boundaries between costume design and fine art.

Painting LACMA's David Geffen Galleries with Light, Shadow, and Color

LACMA's new David Geffen Galleries, designed by architect Peter Zumthor, feature custom-tinted concrete walls that break from traditional museum aesthetics. The walls are coated with a transparent, nano-scale mineral glaze developed by Zumthor and Swiss craftsman Marius Fontana, manufactured by German company Keim. The palette—dusky red, vibrant blue, and nuanced black—was inspired by ancient Indigenous American pigments prepared by artist Porfirio Gutiérrez for the museum's exhibition "We Live in Painting: The Nature of Color in Mesoamerican Art." Diana Magaloni, LACMA's Senior Deputy Director for Conservation, Curatorial and Exhibitions, led the conceptualization and application of the glazes, which are designed to enhance the building's interplay of light and shadow without obscuring its raw concrete surfaces.

Exhibition | Olivia Sterling, 'Jelly' at Dirimart Pera, Istanbul, Turkiye

Dirimart presents Olivia Sterling's first solo exhibition in Istanbul, titled 'Jelly,' at its Pera location from May 7 to June 14, 2026. The show explores themes of race, power, and desire through scenes involving food, the body, and stains, using fruit and dark colors as metaphors for consumption and objectification. Sterling's paintings incorporate letters that expose how race is constructed through language, while the title 'Jelly' evokes flexibility, fluidity, and a grotesque bodily quality that mirrors the instability of identity and social conventions.

Design Museum Stages First-Ever Retrospective For Streetwear Pioneer Nigo

London's Design Museum is opening "NIGO: From Japan with Love," the first UK retrospective dedicated to Japanese designer Nigo, founder of streetwear brand A Bathing Ape (BAPE) and current artistic director of Kenzo. The exhibition, featuring over 700 objects including rare archival garments, a recreation of Nigo's teenage bedroom, and ceramics inside a life-size glass tea house, traces his career from 1980s Tokyo street culture to global fashion influence.

“Rising Up Rocky” Exhibition In Philadelphia Museum Of Art

The Philadelphia Museum of Art has opened the exhibition “Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments,” featuring the iconic bronze statue of Rocky Balboa, the fictional boxer portrayed by Sylvester Stallone. The statue, which has long stood on the museum steps, was moved inside for the show, which also includes photographs of the historic Blue Horizon Gym and a tribute to boxer Joe Frazier. The exhibition runs until August, after which the statue will return to its outdoor perch.

First-of-its-kind MCA exhibition plays the beat of Caribbean activism

Carla Acevedo-Yates has curated "Dancing the Revolution: From Dancehall to Reggaetón," a major exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, which will be her final show before departing for a role on the Documenta 16 team in Germany. The exhibition, which occupies the museum's entire fourth floor through September 20, features over 40 artists and explores the social and political histories of Caribbean music genres.

New mural celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Taubman Museums’ permanent collection

The Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, Virginia, has unveiled a new large-scale mural titled "Intersecting Terrain" by artist Mokha Laget. Commissioned to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the museum’s permanent collection, the geometric work draws inspiration from the local Blue Ridge Mountains and the architectural vision of the museum's designer, Randall Stout. The mural is situated in a public-facing space and is scheduled to remain on view for the next two years.

Daniel Roseberry plays tour guide at V&A Museum’s Schiaparelli exhibit

Creative director Daniel Roseberry led an intimate tour of the Victoria and Albert Museum’s landmark exhibition, "Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art," which opened in London on March 28, 2026. The retrospective features over 400 objects, ranging from Elsa Schiaparelli’s 1927 trompe l’oeil sweaters and the 1938 Skeleton Dress to Roseberry’s contemporary surrealist designs. During the walkthrough with British Vogue, Roseberry highlighted the historical continuity between the house’s archival disruption and his modern innovations like the hand-painted puzzle dress.

At Kohei Nawa’s studio, the world is seen through glass bubbles

Japanese sculptor Kohei Nawa has launched his first solo exhibition in Los Angeles at Pace Gallery, titled "Photon Camp." The show features 20 new works from his renowned "PixCell" and "Prism" series, which utilize glass beads and light refraction to transform everyday objects—ranging from taxidermied animals to consumer electronics—into pixelated, magnified sculptures. The artist operates out of Sandwich, a sprawling Kyoto-based creative hub housed in a former sandwich factory that employs a team of 50 across art, design, and architecture.

Review: “The Things We Carry” at Un Grito Gallery

The exhibition "The Things We Carry" at Un Grito Gallery serves as the centerpiece for the 2026 Contemporary Art Month (CAM) Perennial in San Antonio. Curated by Casie Lomeli and Leslie Moody Castro, the show features eight artists including Matt Rebholz, whose vibrant, alien-like landscapes subvert traditional Western imagery, and Tina Linville, who presents tactile sculptures composed of salvaged materials and concrete. The exhibition is part of a larger city-wide initiative spread across five artist-run spaces.

Meaningful projects

Detroit-based artist Elonte Davis and Hungarian curator Kriszti Sarusi are among several creatives reflecting on the personal and social impact of their recent projects. Davis highlighted his 2026 community-centered initiatives, including his solo exhibition 'Homeroom: Detroit Taught Me First' and workshops at the Detroit Institute of Arts, while Sarusi discussed 'Floating Reality,' an exhibition series designed to provide space for underrepresented artists through a collaborative collective.

“Constellations”: Jewelry as Art

The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) has launched "Constellations: Contemporary Jewelry," its first exhibition dedicated exclusively to its contemporary jewelry collection. The show features hundreds of pieces organized into four thematic sections—Zones of the Body, Archetypes, Signals, and Play—alongside a historical retrospective titled "Connecting the Dots." The exhibition highlights experimental and often impractical works that blur the lines between wearable objects and sculpture, featuring artists such as Brian Fleetwood, Joyce J. Scott, and Peter Chang.

Review | Women are trailblazers in abstract art. These 6 works show their vision.

The National Museum of Women in the Arts is hosting "Making Their Mark: Works From the Shah Garg Collection," a comprehensive exhibition featuring eight decades of abstract art created by women. The show includes approximately 80 pieces by nearly 70 artists, spanning a diverse range of media including painting, sculpture, ceramics, and textiles. By showcasing works that often blur the lines between figuration and abstraction, the exhibition highlights how female artists have consistently acted as trailblazers in a genre historically associated with men.

One Day in SA: Is Every Month Contemporary Art Month?

San Antonio’s art scene is characterized by a rapid-fire schedule of artist-run exhibitions and pop-up events that often center around the Blue Star Arts Complex. A recent survey of the city's offerings highlighted diverse installations, including Scott Martin’s immersive automotive video work at Slab Cinema Arthouse and Lauren Raye Snow’s mystical portraiture at FL!GHT gallery. The local landscape is defined by a DIY spirit where openings are frequent, fleeting, and deeply communal.

Back to Assam: British Museum agrees to loan fragile tapestry showing Krishna’s life

The British Museum has reached an agreement with the state government of Assam to loan the Vrindavani Vastra, a 350-year-old sacred tapestry depicting the life of Krishna, for a six-month period starting in 2027. The loan is contingent upon the construction of a specialized new extension at the Assam State Museum in Guwahati to accommodate the textile's extreme fragility. This marks the first time the artifact, which features the earliest known Assamese inscriptions, will return to its place of origin since it was acquired by the British Museum following the 1904 Younghusband expedition to Tibet.

Blaffer Art Museum exhibitions explore identity, history

The Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston has launched two new exhibitions, 'The Uncanny In-Between' and 'Mud + Corn + Stone + Blue,' both running through March 14. The first features ceramic works by five Korean artists exploring bicultural identity, while the second presents works by artists from the U.S. Corn Belt and Central America, weaving together themes of agriculture, history, and political intervention.

‘Painted Worlds: Color and Culture in Mesoamerican Art’: A colorful journey through time, culture and belief

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art has opened 'Painted Worlds: Color and Culture in Mesoamerican Art', a major exhibition featuring over 250 works spanning nearly 3,000 years, from pre-Hispanic times to the present day. Curated by Kimberly Masteller, the show is the first presentation of Mesoamerican art at the museum in nearly 40 years and includes textiles, ceramics, paintings, murals, and codices organized by color categories—white, blue/green/yellow, and red/black—to explore the cultural and spiritual significance of color in Mesoamerican traditions.

Dilys Blum, longtime curator of clothes at the Philadelphia Art Museum, dies at 77

Dilys Blum, the longtime curator of fashion and textiles at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, has died at age 77. She retired last summer after 38 years at the museum, where she served as head of the costumes and textiles department, overseeing the care and interpretation of historic clothing and fabric-based art. Blum began her career at the Museum of London, later working at the Brooklyn Museum and the Chicago Conservation Center before joining the Philadelphia Museum in 1987. She curated notable exhibitions including "Off the Wall" (2019) and "BOOM: Art and Design of the 1940s" (2025), and authored several books on fashion history, including works on Elsa Schiaparelli, Roberto Capucci, and Patrick Kelly.

In Oregon, a One-Night Art Exhibition Within a Midcentury Home

A one-night, invitation-only exhibition titled "The Open House" took place within a private midcentury home in Oregon, designed by modernism pioneer Robert Rummer. Curated by Lena Vasilenko and Emma Strgar of the experiential agency Ethereal Reflections, and presented by Marisa Swenson of Modern Homes Collective, the group show featured works by contemporary artists including Stephanie Ketty, Christopher Belluschi, Ben Latham, Aremy Stewart, and Carvers Collective. The installation was designed to integrate the artworks with the architecture, encouraging reflection on how art enhances domestic space.

'The Last Supper:' Boise Art Museum exhibits artist’s lifework on death row final meals

The Boise Art Museum is exhibiting Julie Green's "The Last Supper," a collection of nearly 1,000 hand-painted blue-and-white ceramic plates depicting the final meal requests of death row inmates. The project, which Green began in 2000 after reading a newspaper clipping about an execution, spans more than two decades and is on display for the first time in its entirety in the U.S. The plates show comfort foods like fried chicken, tater tots, and honey buns, painted in cobalt blue reminiscent of 18th-century Danish porcelain.