La Seconda guerra mondiale con gli occhi dei grandi fotografi in una mostra a Gorizia

Palazzo Attems-Petzenstein in Gorizia hosts the exhibition "Back to Peace? La guerra vista dai grandi fotografi Magnum," which presents the Second World War and its aftermath through two hundred photographs, video installations, and soundscapes by legendary Magnum photographers. The show features iconic works by Robert Capa, Eve Arnold, Henri Cartier-Bresson, David Seymour, Eric Hartmann, René Burri, Thomas Hoepker, George Rodger, Wayne Miller, and Werner Bischof, covering the Normandy landings, the liberation of Bergen-Belsen, the atomic devastation of Hiroshima, and the return of French prisoners. Curated by Andrea Holzherr and Marco Minuz, the exhibition is divided into two sections: one focusing on wartime imagery and the other on the immediate consequences of the conflict, including the suffering of civilians and the fragile hope of reconstruction.

Qatar's Pavilion at the Venice Biennale Is Not Yet Built. But It Takes Shape Under a Tent in the Giardini with a Rich Cultural Program

Il Padiglione del Qatar alla Biennale di Venezia ancora non c’è. Ma prende forma sotto una tenda ai Giardini con un ricco programma culturale

Qatar's national pavilion at the Venice Biennale, designed by architect Lina Ghotmeh, is still under construction in the Giardini. For the 2026 Venice Art Biennale, Qatar Museums and Rubaiya Qatar have commissioned artist Rirkrit Tiravanija to present "Untitled 2026 (a gathering of remarkable people)" under a tent structure on the site. The project, curated by Tom Eccles and Ruba Katrib, will feature a film by Sophia Al-Maria, live performances by Tarek Atoui, a culinary program by chef Fadi Kattan, and a large-scale sculpture by Alia Farid, bringing together artists, musicians, and chefs from the Arab world.

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.

Carole Harris’ Origin Story in “This Side of the River” at MOCAD

The article reviews Carole Harris's solo exhibition "This Side of the River" at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD), curated by Abel Gonzalez Fernandez. The show features twenty fiber pieces and archival materials spanning from 1966 to the present, tracing Harris's creative evolution and her responses to Detroit's social and urban changes. It highlights early works like "Potpourri" (1976) and "Black Jack" (1976) from her 1977 debut at Gallery 7, a Black Power-era space founded by Charles McGee, and later pieces such as "Down the Road a Piece" (2003) that mark her shift toward improvisational, abstract compositions.

Multimedia arts project wins Sycamore Gap tree commission after public vote

A community arts charity, Helix Arts, and George King Architects have won a public vote to create 'The People's Tree', a multimedia artwork using preserved wood from the illegally felled Sycamore Gap tree in Northumberland. The National Trust commission, announced in September 2025, will transform the tree into a 'living archive' featuring participatory storytelling, a national sound archive, seed pods for digital recordings, a soundscape from growth rings, and a sound sculpture near the original site. The project is expected to begin public engagement in summer 2026 and be completed by autumn 2027.

A Persian Garden Blooms on Governors Island

Artist Bahar Behbahani organized a four-hour event called "Damask Rose: A Gathering" on Governors Island, transforming three shallow fountains with handwoven carpets and crocheted canopies. The gathering featured West African musical improvisation, Kurdish poetry, a cyanotype workshop, and communal activities like hair braiding and tea ceremonies, involving over two dozen community groups including the Asia Contemporary Art Forum and Eat Offbeat. The event was part of Governors Island Arts's annual Interventions series, curated with associate curator Juan Pablo Siles.

Art bartering: artists start viral social media trend to fight cost of living crisis

Artists worldwide are using social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok to barter their artwork for goods and services instead of money, in a viral trend responding to the cost of living crisis. Participants trade paintings for items such as handmade clothes, jewelry, tattoos, accommodation, meals, and professional services like video editing or framing, with some simply inviting offers. Artists like Lin Snow, Oli Fowler, and Andrea Mongenie cite economic pressures and anti-capitalist motivations, viewing bartering as a way to build community and bypass financial systems that leave creatives struggling.

Art and Cultural Engagement Can Slow the Pace of Aging: Report

A new study published in the journal *Innovation in Aging* finds that engaging with arts and cultural activities can slow biological aging at a molecular level. Led by Daisy Fancourt of University College London, the research measured participation in four types of activities—participatory arts, receptive arts, visiting heritage sites, and other cultural activities—and used epigenetic clocks to assess aging. Those who engaged at least once a week showed a four-percent slowdown in aging, while monthly engagement yielded a three-percent slowdown.

Reaching for the stars: enduring symbols of Soviet science – in pictures

Photographer Eric Lusito documents Soviet-era scientific institutes across former USSR states in his book "Soviet Scientific Institutes," published by FUEL. The photo essay captures decaying facilities and enduring equipment at locations including the Institute of Radio Astronomy in Kharkiv, Ukraine; the Byurakan astrophysical observatory in Armenia; the Andronikashvili Institute of Physics in Tbilisi, Georgia; and the Fesenkov Astrophysical Institute in Kazakhstan, among others.

A Buddha Is Reborn on the High Line

Tuan Andrew Nguyen's sandstone and brass sculpture "The Light That Shines Through the Universe" (2026) has been installed on the High Line in Manhattan as the park's fifth site-specific commission. The 27-foot-tall work, selected from nearly 60 proposals, resurrects the destroyed Bamiyan Buddhas of Afghanistan, which were demolished by the Taliban in 2001. Nguyen sourced artillery brass from Afghanistan to cast the sculpture's mudra hand gestures, symbolizing fearlessness and compassion, and had the sandstone carved in Vietnam. The piece is on view through Spring 2027.

The Great Shitshow

Die große Shitshow

Florentina Holzinger has transformed the Austrian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale into a radical performance installation titled "Seaworld Venice." The piece features naked performers suspended from meat hooks, a performer ringing a bell while dangling upside down from a crane, a woman on a jetski circling inside a flooded pavilion, and a system where visitors are invited to urinate into portable toilets, with the waste processed and recirculated into the water. The work combines extreme physical stunts, nudity, and bodily fluids to create a visceral, immersive experience that has drawn long queues and stunned reactions from the art world.

In Venice, the Passion of Life and the Ghost of Art

The 2026 Venice Biennale, the world’s oldest art exhibition, has opened with a theme centered on vitality and the celebration of life. The edition is described as both a passionate embrace of energy and a reminder of art’s lingering ghosts, offering a mixed but compelling experience for visitors.

From Two Tons of Celadon, Jean Shin Sculpts a Metaphor for the Korean Diaspora

Artist Jean Shin has created "Celadon Landscape," a monumental installation at the Green-House at Green-Wood in New York, using nearly two tons of discarded celadon porcelain fragments donated by studios in Icheon, South Korea. The work features two large bulbous vessels covered in broken shards of cups, saucers, and pots, appearing to emerge from the earth as if unearthed in an archaeological dig. The installation is on view through January 17.

Steve La Riccia’s journey through Eugene’s art scene

Steve La Riccia, gallery coordinator for the New Zone Art Gallery in Eugene, Oregon, is profiled for his decades-long journey through the local art scene. After traveling the West Coast and settling in Eugene in the 1970s, he worked at a food processing plant and sold illegal fireworks to buy a home. In 1991, after the Mayor's Art Show rejected many artists, La Riccia helped organize Eugene's first 'Salon De Refusés,' a show for rejected works, which shifted his focus from promoting his own art to supporting other artists. He later co-ran the New Zone gallery and became known for his SX-70 Polaroid manipulations until the company ceased film production in 2009.

New Exhibition Explores Albuquerque’s “Big I” as a Crossroads of Culture, Memory, and Movement

A new group exhibition titled 'At the East of My Past and the West of My Future' opens at the South Broadway Cultural Center Gallery in Albuquerque, running from May 28 to July 17. Curated by multidisciplinary artist Watermelon7, the show features 14 artists who reinterpret the city's iconic Big I interchange as a symbol of movement, identity, and transformation. Inspired by Jack Kerouac's 'On the Road' and Route 66, the works explore personal and collective journeys through paintings, mixed-media pieces, and installations.

Gaby Hurtado-Ramos: Last Night and Tomorrow

Gaby Hurtado-Ramos presents "Last Night and Tomorrow" at BOX 13 ArtSpace in Houston from May 22 to June 27, 2026. The exhibition explores queer social spaces—dance parties, gay bars, karaoke—through layered drawings, photographs, and prints, imagining futures of acceptance and connection. Hurtado-Ramos is an artist and educator whose practice includes risograph publishing under Rear-View Press, and they have exhibited and taught widely across the U.S.

Running from one image to another, from one time to another, from one hope to another: at Circolo, in Milan, an exhibition on the contemporary Lebanese scene

The article reviews "Shifting Crossroads. Beirut Contemporary," an exhibition at Circolo in Milan that surveys the contemporary Lebanese art scene. It features internationally recognized artists like Mona Hatoum and Simone Fattal alongside emerging talents, including works from the Saikalis Bay Foundation, founded in 2024 by Nicole Saikalis and Matteo Bay. The show spans historical-archival investigation, photography, installation, painting, and sculpture, with pieces such as Stéphanie Saadé's "Stage of Life" (2021), Catherine Cattaruzza's "I am Folding the Land" (2022), and Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige's "Waiting for the Barbarians" (2013) exploring themes of memory, fragility, and geopolitical instability.

Stitches in time: the artist chronicling the DRC’s blood-soaked history in tapestry

Lucie Kamusekera, an 82-year-old artist in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, creates embroidered tapestries on tobacco sacks that chronicle the country's violent history. Born in 1944 and taught sewing by Italian nuns, she began documenting contemporary conflicts after witnessing a military truck filled with corpses. Her more than 70 works depict events from the colonial Belgian Congo era to the 1961 assassination of Patrice Lumumba and the second Congo war, as well as personal tragedies including her husband's murder by rebels. Despite ongoing danger from rebel offensives, she continues to stitch from her home studio, training her children and great-granddaughter to carry on her work.

Births, deaths and a first kiss: life near the frontline in Ukraine – in pictures

British-Iranian artist Aria Shahrokhshahi's long-term photographic project "Wet Ground" captures daily life in Ukraine during Russia's full-scale invasion, focusing on moments of youth, subculture, and fragile continuity rather than traditional war imagery. The series, developed through repeated stays and volunteering since 2019, includes scenes from teenage discos, hospital wards, a birth during a missile attack, and a first kiss near the frontline, all shot in stark black and white.

Winnipeg exhibition traces the revival of Red River Métis beadwork

The exhibition 'Beading Métis Resurgence' at the University of Winnipeg's Gallery 1C03 showcases the work of renowned Métis artist Jennine Krauchi alongside four emerging Red River Métis beadworkers she has mentored. Curated by gallery director Jennifer Gibson and history professor Cathy Mattes, the show features Krauchi's centerpiece work 'The Lady'—a beaded coat, muff, hat, and boots—and explores beadwork as contemporary art, cultural knowledge, and intergenerational practice. The exhibition runs until July 10 and includes a table and chairs evoking the kitchen-table lessons where Krauchi passed down her skills.

DePaul student creates micro-art gallery inside locker

DePaul University senior Christa Baclia-an has created a micro-art gallery inside a rented commuter locker (No. 121) in the Schmitt Academic Center, called “Locker Room.” The project rotates exhibitions every two weeks and is open to students and passersby. It was launched in response to the planned closure of the DePaul Art Museum (DPAM) due to budget cuts, and features work from both DePaul students and international artists, such as London-based Lee Tzur. The initiative is part of a growing DIY art scene on campus, with students curating shows and fostering community engagement in unconventional spaces.

3 new exhibitions at Artists Archives tackle urgent social issues

The Artists Archives of the Western Reserve in Cleveland has opened three new exhibitions that confront pressing social issues. The shows feature works by regional artists addressing topics such as racial justice, environmental crisis, and community resilience, using a range of media from painting and sculpture to mixed-media installations.

Tehran exhibition gives voice to war’s silent burden through modern art

An exhibition titled "Art and War" opened on May 11, 2026, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tehran, featuring works by Pablo Picasso, Antoni Tapies, Robert Motherwell, and Juan Gris that explore the impact of conflict on modern art. The show includes Spanish anti-war artists from the post-WWII era, such as Juan Genoves, and aims to give voice to those suffering under war's burden. Visitors like student-artist Kiyana Niknam described the paintings as a universal language expressing personal pain and resilience, while project adviser Fuad Necmeddin noted that museums in Iran had reopened after wartime closures due to cultural demand.

‘In Minor Keys’: discover the themes that define the 61st Venice Biennale exhibition

The 61st Venice Biennale's main exhibition, 'In Minor Keys', curated by the late Koyo Kouoh, has opened after her sudden passing in 2025. Kouoh had fully planned the exhibition before her death, and a team of seven realized her vision. The show features 110 artists, including Wangechi Mutu, Nick Cave, Alfredo Jaar, and emerging talents like Ranti Bam. It opens with a poem by Refaat Alareer and an installation by Khaled Sabsabi, setting a contemplative tone amid themes of mourning, grief, and healing. The exhibition also highlights minority perspectives, including Caribbean and Central American artists, and confronts colonial histories through works like Florence Lazar's film on a hurricane-exposed necropolis.

The Fabric Workshop and Museum presents Jesse Krimes: Elegy Quilts by Bucks County artist

The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) in Philadelphia, in partnership with Mural Arts Philadelphia, presents "Jesse Krimes: Elegy Quilts," an exhibition featuring works from the artist's ongoing Elegy Quilt series (2020-present). The show debuts a newly commissioned quilt, "Riverside" (2026), created from used clothing collected from incarcerated people. Krimes, a Bucks County-based multidisciplinary artist who experienced incarceration himself, gathers donated clothing and textile fragments from currently and formerly incarcerated individuals and reconstitutes them into patterned quilts that meditate on memory, loss, and resilience. The exhibition also includes collages made during workshops with graduates of Mural Arts' Restorative Justice reentry program, which informed both the quilt and a forthcoming public mural in Philadelphia's Spring Arts District, to be unveiled June 3.

Raven Halfmoon’s Empowering Sculptures Go on View at Ballroom Marfa

Raven Halfmoon's traveling exhibition "Flags of Our Mothers" has opened at Ballroom Marfa in Texas, featuring her monumental ceramic sculptures that explore her dual identity as Caddo and American. The show includes the 12.5-foot-tall outdoor piece "Flagbearer" (2022), her largest work to date, along with two new works debuting at this venue. Halfmoon, who drove from her home in Norman, Oklahoma, to Marfa for the installation, uses a coil technique to build imposing forms that evoke both protective matriarchs and the violence faced by Indigenous women, with her signature graffiti-like scrawl asserting resilience.

A Museum Show Like No Other Aschaffenburg’s ‘Bavarian Nice’ Becomes the Stage for a Powerful Ukraine-Europe Art Collaboration Amid Global Conflict!

Aschaffenburg, Germany, is hosting a landmark exhibition titled 'A European Collection' at the Christian Schad Museum, opening April 30, 2026. The show features 73 European masterpieces from the 15th to 19th centuries, loaned from the Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Museum in Kyiv, Ukraine. Works by Peter Paul Rubens, Bernardo Bellotto, and Claude-Joseph Vernet are included, alongside a contemporary piece by Ukrainian artist Maria Kulikovska juxtaposed with Antonio Canova's sculpture 'La Pace'. This is the first comprehensive presentation of these Ukrainian-held works in Germany.

Sotheby's May Marquee Sales unveiled | Led by Rothko's $70 - 100M Canvas

Sotheby's has unveiled its May marquee sales, headlined by Mark Rothko's monumental painting "Brown and Blacks in Reds" (1957), estimated at $70–100 million. The sales open with a dedicated auction of works from dealer and collector Robert Mnuchin, followed by The Now & Contemporary Art Evening Auction on May 14, led by a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting valued at over $45 million. Additional highlights include works from the collections of Jean and Terry de Gunzburg, Jennifer Gilbert, and David and Shoshanna Wingate, alongside a Modern Evening Auction on May 19 featuring Pablo Picasso's "Arlequin (Buste)" (est. over $40 million) and Vincent van Gogh's "La Moisson en Provence" (est. $25–35 million).

ai weiwei confronts memory, catastrophe, and resilience at MAXXI l'aquila exhibition

Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei presents a new exhibition at MAXXI L'Aquila, titled 'Ai Weiwei: Confronting Memory, Catastrophe, and Resilience.' The show explores themes of collective trauma, historical catastrophe, and human resilience through a range of media including sculpture, installation, and documentary works. It draws on Ai's ongoing engagement with political dissent, migration, and the fragility of cultural memory.

MKFA Awards Grants: Supporting innovation and community engagement

The Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts (MKFA) has announced the recipients of its 2026 Infinite Expansion Grants (IEG), awarding funding to nine contemporary arts organizations across Los Angeles County. This year marks the tenth anniversary of the grant program, with six of the nine organizations receiving MKFA funding for the first time. The grantees include Art in the Park, Clockshop, and Color Compton, among others, each undertaking projects that explore themes of place, memory, diaspora, and community resilience through exhibitions, installations, and public programming. The grants were selected by a jury of five arts professionals including Tiffany Barber, Jibz Cameron, Justen Leroy, Jenny Lin, and Rodrigo Valenzuela.