Spring brings two new exhibits to Banff's Whyte Museum

Two new exhibitions have opened at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff: "Thick as Thieves," a touring show from the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina, and "When our eyes touch," drawn from the museum's own collection. "Thick as Thieves" explores themes of power, secrecy, and trust through works spanning from Auguste Rodin sculptures to contemporary pieces by August Klintberg and Amanda Strong, curated by Crystal Mowry. "When our eyes touch" focuses on portraiture by museum founders Peter Whyte and Catharine Robb Whyte, featuring paintings from their time at art school in Boston and later portraits of Stoney Nakoda community members, curated by Dagny Dubois and Christina Cuthbertson. Both exhibitions run until November 8.

WA’s Maryhill Museum of Art has ties to royalty, celebrates milestone

The Maryhill Museum of Art in Goldendale, Washington, is celebrating the 100th anniversary of its dedication by Queen Marie of Romania. Founded by entrepreneur Samuel Hill in 1907, the museum houses an eclectic collection including over 80 works by Auguste Rodin, French haute couture fashions, and thousands of Indigenous art objects. To mark the centennial, the museum has opened three new exhibitions highlighting Queen Marie's contributions: Russian icons, Romanian embroidery, and folk pottery, alongside her personal items like coronation gowns and gilded furniture.

Maine art galleries showcase dozens of artists in summer shows

A roundup of summer art exhibitions across Maine highlights dozens of artists showing at galleries and pop-up spaces from Rockport to Portland. Notable shows include Alexandre Gallery's pop-up featuring charcoal works by the late Cooper Union-trained artist Emily Nelligan, who spent decades depicting Cranberry Island; Karma's annual summer pop-up at artist Ann Craven's deconsecrated church in Thomaston; and solo exhibitions at Caldbeck Gallery, Courthouse Gallery, and Cove Street Arts. Other venues such as Carver Hill Gallery, Corey Daniels Gallery, Dowling Walsh, and Moss Galleries present group and solo shows spanning landscape painting, mythical imagery, and works addressing social resistance.

Dozens of Venice Biennale Artists Withdraw From Awards En Masse

Almost half of the artists in the 61st Venice Biennale's international exhibition, along with 16 national pavilion teams, have withdrawn from awards consideration in solidarity with the jury's resignation. The jury resigned on April 30 after stating it would not consider countries whose leaders are charged with crimes against humanity by the ICC, effectively disqualifying Israel and Russia. The Biennale Foundation then replaced the traditional Golden Lions with new "Visitor Lions" decided by public vote, reinstating all pavilions including Israel and Russia. The withdrawal follows protests at the Russian and Israeli pavilions and a historic labor strike that shuttered multiple pavilions.

Maddy Inez talks to Phillip Edward Spradley

Maddy Inez, a Los Angeles-based ceramic artist, discusses her practice in an interview with Phillip Edward Spradley. Her work draws on California's natural environment and histories of displacement, using ceramics to explore maternal lineage, oral history, and plant-based knowledge. A key inspiration is a midwifery certificate belonging to her great-great-great grandmother from the era of enslavement. Inez's upcoming solo exhibition at Megan Mulrooney opens May 16, 2026.

At 1-54 New York 2026, Afro-Brazilian art takes centre stage for the first time

The 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in New York (May 13–17, 2026) will debut a curated section titled '1-54 Presents: Brazil Beyond Brazil,' focusing exclusively on Afro-Brazilian art and artists. Organized by Brazilian curator Igor Simões, the section features works by ten Black Brazilian artists—including Ana Claudia Almeida, Rebeca Carapiá, and Rommulo Vieira Conceição—presented by leading Brazilian galleries such as Almeida & Dale, Fortes D’Aloia & Gabriel, Nara Roesler, and Aura. The initiative draws on archival research, reinterprets modernist legacies, and challenges narrow narratives around Afro-Brazilian art, highlighting the cultural links between Africa and Latin America.

Keeping It Simple

On Valentine's Day, the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art in Manhattan, Kansas, opened the inaugural "Kansas Triennial 25/26" exhibition, featuring works by four Kansas-based visual artists: Mona Cliff, Mark Cowardin, Poppy DeltaDawn, and Ann Resnick. The museum engaged young visitors by handing out paper hearts and inviting them to place their heart in front of the artwork they loved best, creating a reflective and participatory experience.

Issy Wood’s first solo exhibition in the Nordics opened at Kistefos

Kistefos presents *Fish, Fish, Duck*, the first solo exhibition in the Nordic region by London-based painter Issy Wood, opened at Nybruket Gallery on 9 May 2026. The show features psychologically charged paintings on velvet and linen, self-portraits, animals, household objects, and a painted chaise longue, organized around the thematic frameworks "Ways of Seeing" and "The Artist as Archivist." Curated by Live Drønen and Kate Smith-Raabe, the exhibition draws on sources from the internet, advertising, and auction catalogues to explore desire, power, vulnerability, and objectification.

Es Devlin invites the UK to become part of a collective digital portrait at the National Portrait Gallery

Es Devlin has launched *A National Portrait*, a participatory digital artwork at the National Portrait Gallery in London, created in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture Lab. Opening on 14 May 2026 and running until 27 October 2026, the project invites anyone in the UK to upload a photograph of themselves via an online platform, where it is transformed into an animated digital portrait inspired by Devlin's charcoal and chalk drawing practice. These portraits are displayed collectively in the gallery's History Makers space, and participants receive a downloadable digital edition of their own portrait. The project is the result of three years of collaborative research between Devlin and Google Arts & Culture Lab.

Annette Messager's 'A Swallow Does Not Make Spring' exhibition brings her menagerie to life at the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature

An exhibition titled 'A Swallow Does Not Make Spring' by French artist Annette Messager has opened at the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature in Paris. The show transforms the museum's spaces with a menagerie of taxidermy, drawings, and installations, blending the artist's signature surreal and feminist sensibilities with the museum's focus on hunting and nature.

In ‘Piercing the Veil,’ Marina Kappos Gets to Know the Spectre of Grief

Artist Marina Kappos opens her solo exhibition 'Piercing the Veil' at SHRINE gallery in New York City, running from May 15 to June 27. The show features her signature acrylic-on-wood-panel paintings that use thin layers of pigment to create gauzy, prismatic effects. Inspired by the sculptural figures of grieving women she encountered at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, Kappos explores themes of loss, memory, presence and absence, and the threshold between life and death. Works like 'Veil Study (Eclipse)' (2026) and 'Quantum Study (Green Entanglement)' (2025) depict hazy landscapes and keyhole-shaped portals that invite viewers to contemplate the unknown and the spiritual.

Anyone who never feels uncomfortable as a tourist is not a good tourist

"Wer sich als Tourist nie unbehaglich fühlt, ist kein guter Tourist"

American painter Hernan Bas has created a new series of paintings inspired by Venice and its tourists, drawing from his long-standing relationship with the city. His first encounter with Venice came through an invitation to exhibit at Bruna Aickelin's renowned gallery Il Capricorno, and he has since shown there multiple times, considering Aickelin his Italian connection.

Au musée de l’Image d’Épinal, les talents multiples de Frans Masereel, entre autres inventeur du roman graphique

The Musée de l'Image d'Épinal is presenting a comprehensive exhibition on Belgian artist Frans Masereel (1889–1972), widely credited as the inventor of the graphic novel in 1918 with his wordless narratives composed of black-and-white woodcuts. The show, curated by Samuel Dégardin, brings together loans from major institutions and a private collection to reveal the full breadth of Masereel's practice, which spanned drawing, animation, painting, theater, ceramics, tapestry, and satirical press illustration. It highlights his pacifist activism during World War I, his collaborations with writers such as Stefan Zweig and Romain Rolland, and his humanist vision of a unified Europe.

Protests and Shutdowns Engulf 61st Venice Biennale Opening

The 61st Venice Biennale preview week, opening to press and professionals ahead of its May 9 public launch, has been engulfed by protests and institutional crises. On May 5, around 60 artists from Koyo Kouoh's exhibition “In Minor Keys” staged a Solidarity Drone Chorus outside the Giardini, drawing on Gazan composer Ahmed Muin's Drone Song (2025) to highlight victims of warfare. On May 6, the Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA) organized protests outside Israel's pavilion at the Arsenale, leading to a security-enforced closure, while Pussy Riot and FEMEN demonstrated outside the Russian pavilion. The jury resigned on April 30 after controversy over award eligibility tied to ICC arrest warrants, prompting the Biennale to scrap Golden Lions and transfer prize voting to the public. Iran withdrew its pavilion on May 4, and Russia's will close on May 9, with only exterior video projections remaining. ANGA and Italian unions have announced a 24-hour strike on May 8.

Last chance to see exhibition showcasing amazing local talent as it draws to a close

Bolton Museum's Open Art Exhibition, featuring over 240 artworks by local artists and photographers, is closing on Sunday, March 17. The show includes paintings, photography, and sculptures from creators who live, work, or study in Bolton. Grand prize winner Richard Wood received £1,000 from the Mayor for his landscape 'Ghost Chimneys', while University of Greater Manchester student Olivia Edge won the Young Artist Award for her acrylic painting 'Rewilding'.

Venice Biennale strike sees more than 15 pavilions temporarily or partially close

On 8 May, more than 15 national pavilions at the Venice Biennale temporarily or partially closed in a coordinated strike organized by the Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA). The protest opposes Israel’s participation in the event, which organizers say normalizes what they call genocide and exploits precarious labor. Participating countries include Austria, Lebanon, Slovenia, Egypt, Poland, and the Netherlands, whose artist Dries Verhoeven stood outside his shuttered pavilion with a Palestinian flag. Some pavilions, like Japan’s, remained open but suspended interactive elements. The strike follows earlier controversies, including the resignation of the prize jury and an open letter demanding the Israeli pavilion’s cancellation.

The Bahamian Pavilion Brings Junkanoo to Venice in a Biennale Standout

After a thirteen-year hiatus, the Bahamian Pavilion has returned to the Venice Biennale with an exhibition titled "In Another Man's Yard," featuring the late master John Beadle and his former student Lavar Munroe. The pavilion, housed in the San Trovaso Art Space in Dorsoduro, centers on Junkanoo—the vibrant, crepe-costumed procession that is a defining cultural tradition of the Bahamas. Munroe's large-scale sculptural works incorporate strips of discarded Junkanoo costumes, while paintings and installations commemorate Beadle, who died in 2024. The presentation was revived with support from Baha Mar, a resort company, after government funding was withdrawn in 2014.

Tate St Ives to host first UK museum exhibition of groundbreaking artist

Tate St Ives will present the first UK museum exhibition of Aleksandra Kasuba, a Lithuanian American artist (1923–2019), from May 2 to October 4, 2026. The show spans seven decades of her career, featuring early paintings, mosaics, sculptures, and public artworks, including the spatial environment *Spectrum: An Afterthought* and a recreation of her *Live-In Environment*. Works are drawn from the Lithuanian National Museum of Art's collection, where Kasuba donated her pieces.

‘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.

Art Gallery of Swan Hill Opens Three Powerful First Nations Exhibition

The Art Gallery of Swan Hill in Victoria, Australia, will open three significant First Nations exhibitions on 29 May 2026. The shows are: 'JXSH MVIR: Forever I Live', the first major solo retrospective of the late Yorta Yorta, Gunditjmara and Barkindji artist Josh Muir, co-curated by his partner and mother; 'Gulgawarnigu | Thinking of Someone. Something', a touring digital portrait and landscape exhibition by young Indigenous artists from Roebourne, Western Australia, developed through a partnership with NEO-Learning and Big hART; and 'Big Place', a new exhibition drawn from the gallery's permanent collection featuring works from Western Australia, the Northern Territory, the Tiwi Islands and South Australia.

Paul Stopforth | HERE COMES EVERYBODY 5 (2026) | For Sale

Paul Stopforth's artwork "HERE COMES EVERYBODY 5" (2026) is being offered for sale through The Schoolhouse Gallery in Provincetown, Massachusetts. The piece is a unique gouache on panel measuring 16 × 16 inches, priced at US$900, hand-signed by the artist, and includes a certificate of authenticity. Stopforth, born in 1945 and originally from South Africa, emigrated to the United States 27 years ago and has since lived and worked in Boston, Cambridge, and Provincetown. His career includes teaching at Harvard University, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts College of Art & Design, and the Fine Arts Work Center, with his works held in public collections including the Harvard Film Archive, the Constitutional Court of South Africa, and the National Gallery in Cape Town.

Exhibition | Dai Chenlian, 'Waxing and Waning of the Augustness III' at ShanghART, M50, Shanghai, China

ShanghART Gallery presents Dai Chenlian's solo exhibition 'Waxing and Waning of the Augustness III' at its M50 space in Shanghai from April 10 to May 29, 2026. The show is the final chapter of the artist's 'Mother Trilogy,' centering on his mother's life from 1954 to 2025. Through a reconstructed old house made from loom parts, along with painting, installation, performance, sound narration, and shadow puppetry, the exhibition explores themes of memory, migration, and female resilience, drawing on a line by Tang dynasty poet Li Shangyin.

75 Years of Making Art in Ardsley

The Ardsley Art Commission is presenting a unique exhibition featuring the works of mother-and-son artists Valda Hancock Wagner and Rich Wagner, spanning 75 years of artistic creation. The show includes oil and acrylic paintings, watercolors, drawings, etchings, and wood block prints, ranging from traditional realism to abstraction. Valda studied with notable artists such as Reginald Marsh, Robert Rauschenberg, and Robert Beverly Hale, and later taught art in inner-city New York. Rich studied at the Art Students League, the Royal Academy of Arts, and the Royal Drawing School, and has participated in over 80 exhibitions. The exhibition is on view at Ardsley Village Hall through October 1.

Exhibition | Daniel Crews-Chubb, 'Pareidolia' at MASSIMODECARLO Pièce Unique, Pièce Unique, Paris, France

MASSIMODECARLO Pièce Unique in Paris presents 'Pareidolia,' an exhibition of new paintings by London-based artist Daniel Crews-Chubb. The show explores the psychological phenomenon of pareidolia—the brain's tendency to see faces in random patterns—through heavily layered works created with hands, ink, oil, sand, and collage. Three paintings are featured: 'Immortal XXXVIII' and 'Immortal XXXIX' (2026), large-scale works drawing on cultural memory of ancient sculpture, and 'Mask XXIV' (2026), which tests the minimal cues needed for facial recognition. Crews-Chubb's process involves building up and tearing back surfaces over weeks, with charcoal lines added last to define emergent figures.

Two exhibitions; one shared dialogue: Weyburn Art Gallery

The Weyburn Art Gallery in Saskatchewan is presenting a dual exhibition running through the end of June, featuring two complementary shows. The first, 'Omentum: A look into the Indigenous Experience of the 21st Century- Exhibition Series, 2019' by Nehiyawak-Métis artist John Brady McDonald, comprises ten paintings that address themes such as Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, cultural appropriation, residential school legacies, and the murder of Colten Boushie. Each painting was personally named by an influential Indigenous figure, including Isaac Murdoch, Rosanna Deerchild, and Dr. Evan Adams. The second exhibition draws from the City of Weyburn’s Permanent Collection, showcasing works by Indigenous artists Michael Lonechild, Ken Lonechild, and Mike Keepness, which explore identity, place, and memory.

Adrian Ghenie: Roman Campagna | Exhibition review

Adrian Ghenie's exhibition "Roman Campagna" at a Paris gallery presents a series of paintings and charcoal drawings that subvert the romantic cliché of an artist's transformative encounter with Rome. Ghenie populates landscapes inspired by the Appian Way with grotesque, alien-headed figures hunched over smartphones, urinating on monuments, or weeping at sunsets, using brown and grey tones punctuated by bright colors. The works reference Francis Bacon and William S. Burroughs, and include direct allusions to Bacon's reinterpretation of van Gogh's self-portrait, as well as a copy of a Pompeii mosaic. The show also features large charcoal drawings on paper that reveal Ghenie's process of constructing his contemporary, alienated figures.

Los Angeles Metro’s Stunning D Line Art Turns Stations Into Galleries

Los Angeles Metro unveiled a major public art installation on May 8 with the opening of the 3.92-mile D Line extension, connecting downtown to Beverly Hills. Nine artists were selected from over 1,400 applicants to create works across three stations—Wilshire/La Brea, Wilshire/Fairfax, and Wilshire/La Cienega. Notable pieces include Karl Haendel's "Hands and Things" at the Wilshire/Fairfax station, featuring photorealist pencil drawings of hands holding objects sourced from nearby cultural institutions, and Susan Silton's "WE, OUR, US." The artworks are mounted using durable porcelain enameling that resists corrosion, scratching, fading, and graffiti.

SOPAC's Herb + Milly Iris Gallery presents "INSPIRED MINDS: Young Artist Exhibition"

The South Orange Performing Arts Center (SOPAC) presents "INSPIRED MINDS: Young Artist Exhibition" in its Herb + Milly Iris Gallery from May 14 through August 16, 2026. Over 300 students from 20 area high schools submitted more than 1,000 original works; 70 pieces were selected for the show, spanning photography, digital art, painting, drawing, sculpture, fiber arts, and ceramics. An opening reception will be held on May 14.

Biggs Museum spotlights the art and influence of Elizabeth Catlett

The Biggs Museum of American Art is presenting "The Art of Elizabeth Catlett from the Collection of Samella Lewis," on view through June 21, 2026. The exhibition features Catlett's prints and sculptures, drawn from the collection of her former student and lifelong friend Samella Lewis, and also includes works by Lewis and Catlett's husband, Francisco Mora. Catlett, who studied with Grant Wood and worked with the Taller de Gráfica Popular in Mexico City, focused her art on the lives of Black women, addressing themes of identity, equity, labor, family, and freedom.

Indrapramit Roy and Mark Cazalet art exhibition in New Delhi

An exhibition titled "Stray Birds: a journey together" in New Delhi brings together artists Indrapramit Roy and Mark Cazalet, curated by Jyotirmoy Bhattacharya. The show presents a dialogue between two distinct artistic voices, exploring narratives, techniques, and sensibilities shaped by their shared experiences studying under Professor Gulam Mohammed Sheikh at M.S. University in Baroda, including formative trips to the Ajanta and Ellora caves.