11 Art Shows to See in the Hudson Valley in May 2026

The article surveys 11 art exhibitions opening across the Hudson Valley in May 2026, highlighting a regional preoccupation with structure, materiality, and resistance to singular narratives. Featured shows include "Surface, Structure, String" at Hudson Hall, a textile survey curated by Richard Saja with artists like Portia Munson and Laleh Khoramian; "Jose Picayo: 35 Years in Photographs" at Robin Rice Gallery; "The Linda McCartney Retrospective: From the Light" at the Fenimore Art Museum; "Carol Seitz: Growth in Difficult Places" at Convey/er/or; and "Stephen Olivier: Hazmat" at ASK in Kingston, among others.

“Lighting” exhibition by Mohamed Abdalla Otaybi at Swailam gallery is not to be missed

This article is a roundup of art exhibitions and cultural events in Cairo, Egypt, spanning multiple venues and dates. It highlights a photographic project titled "New Cairo, Do You Love Me?" by Judi Yassin and Tia Khalil at the American University in Cairo, which documents the disconnect between the promised luxury of New Cairo and its dehumanizing reality using 35mm black-and-white film. Other featured events include painting exhibitions by Osama Nashed and Alaa Hegazi at Dai, Mahmoud Hamdi's "Journey to the Core" at Difaf, the immersive "Beyond Van Gogh" experience at District 5, the permanent collection at Al-Fustat Centre for Ceramic, and the Empower Her Art Forum at the Grand Egyptian Museum.

Dataland, World's First A.I. Arts Museum, Will Open in June, and Other News.

Dataland, billed as the world's first museum dedicated to AI-generated art, will open June 20 at The Grand LA in downtown Los Angeles, founded by Refik Anadol and Efsun Erkılıç. Its inaugural exhibition, 'Machine Dreams: Rainforest,' uses vast environmental datasets to create multi-sensory AI interpretations of nature. In other news, Tuan Andrew Nguyen's 27-foot-tall sandstone Buddha sculpture has been installed on New York's High Line Plinth; Chanel is launching its first-ever Coco Beach pop-up in Shanghai; Kengo Kuma collaborated with Jaipur Rugs on a carpet collection unveiled at Milan Design Week; and Pittsburgh's new $31 million Arts Landing civic space opened in the Cultural District.

Last chance: hurry to see these Parisian exhibitions before they close in May 2026.

A roundup article lists numerous exhibitions closing in May 2026 across Paris and the Île-de-France region, including shows at the Fondation Louis Vuitton (Nocturne Calder #1) and Perrotin Gallery (Soulages–Hartung: Elective Affinities, Lee Mingwei's When Beauty Appears, and Susumu Kamijo's When I Think of You in Spring). The piece also highlights free-entry days at castles and museums in Yvelines and Seine-et-Marne, and the Parcours d’art de la Boucle de Seine open-studio event.

MOCAD Reopens with New Exhibitions from Detroit Artists

Detroit's Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCAD) has reopened after an eight-month closure for construction, unveiling four new exhibitions as part of its 2026 Spring Exhibition and 20th anniversary. The renovations include a new HVAC system, educational space, and windows that allow passersby to see inside. The building has been renamed the Julia Reyes Taubman Building in honor of the late co-founder, whose family contributed $1.8 million toward the $3 million first phase. Mayor Mary Sheffield toured the exhibitions at an April 23 media preview, praising the museum's role in community healing and access. Featured exhibitions include "Olayami Dabls: Detroit Cosmologies," the first retrospective of the artist's nearly 50-year career, showcasing his evolution from figurative acrylics to abstract collage.

Editor’s Letter: Still, Listening

The 61st Venice Biennale, titled "In Minor Keys" and curated by the late Koyo Kouoh, opens in May 2026, shifting focus from Eurocentric narratives to quieter, relational, and improvisational voices from the Global South. ArtAsiaPacific's May/June issue honors Kouoh's vision with features on artists including Gala Porras-Kim (a 2025 MacArthur Fellow), Khaled Sabsabi (representing Australia), and others like Liang Yuanwei, Yuko Mohri, Mona Hatoum, Tadanori Yokoo, Gayane Umerova, Li Yi-Fan, Hyeree Ro, and Ei Arakawa-Nash, with contributions from a curatorial team that carried Kouoh's work forward after her death in 2025.

Primitivism to Reinvent Art

Le primitivisme pour réinventer l’art

Philippe Dagen has published the third and final volume of his series on primitivism, covering the period from World War II to the late 1970s. The book traces how Western artists, from Barnett Newman and Jackson Pollock to members of the CoBrA movement and figures like Jean Dubuffet, Lucio Fontana, and Yayoi Kusama, engaged with so-called "primitive" art from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, often as a means of rejecting or redefining modern civilization. Dagen also examines the intellectual debates surrounding primitivism, including the critiques of colonized peoples who refused the label "primitive," and the shifting attitudes of thinkers like Claude Lévi-Strauss, Michel Leiris, and Aimé Césaire.

The Prince of Italian Pop Art Smiles Again

Lévy Gorvy Dayan gallery is presenting a new exhibition that offers fresh insights into the work of Domenico Gnoli, the Italian painter known for his meticulous, oversized depictions of everyday objects and figures. The show highlights both his perfectionist technique and a playful, goofy side to his caricatures of reality, capturing the essence of la dolce vita.

4 exhibitions to visit this summer in London, Kyoto and Venice

The article highlights four art exhibitions to visit this summer across London, Kyoto, and Venice. In London, the Design Museum presents "Nigo: From Japan with Love," showcasing over 700 objects from the Japanese designer's three-decade career, including collaborations with Nike and Louis Vuitton. In Kyoto, the Kyoto City Kyocera Museum of Art hosts "YBA & Beyond: British art in the 1990s from the Tate Collection," featuring works by Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, and other Young British Artists. At the Venice Biennale, Hong Kong artist Wallace Chan presents "Vessels of the Other World," a show of titanium sculptures inspired by sacred Catholic oils, curated by James Putman.

Ulysses Jenkins (1946–2026), A Black Radical Imagination

The article is a personal tribute by curator Erin Christovale to the late artist Ulysses Jenkins (1946–2026), chronicling their decade-long friendship and collaboration. Christovale recounts how she first encountered Jenkins's video work at the William Grant Still Arts Center in Los Angeles, and how a conversation with Otolith Group's Kodwo Eshun led to her curating Jenkins's work. She describes key moments including Jenkins's video "Planet X" (2006) about Hurricane Katrina, his 1979 work "Two-Zone Transfer" featuring Kerry James Marshall in blackface masks, and the 2021 retrospective "Ulysses Jenkins: Without Your Interpretation" co-curated with Meg Onli at the Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia, which later traveled to the Hammer Museum and Julia Stoschek Foundation.

Boulder County art exhibits on display this week

This article lists dozens of current and upcoming art exhibitions across Boulder County, Colorado, featuring a wide range of venues from commercial galleries like 15th Street Gallery and Ana’s Art Gallery to nonprofit spaces such as Art Parts and the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (BMoCA). Highlights include lithographs by Santa Fe artist Rodney Carswell, Jorge Vinent's recycled-material works in "We Choose Earth," and student showcases at Canyon Theater and Gallery. The roundup also covers community-focused shows like "Racism & Discrimination at the Lafayette Swimming Pool 1934" and group exhibitions at Liminal Light Gallery and The New Local Gallery.

Joe Macken Spent 22 Years Building a Miniature New York by Hand

Joe Macken, a truck driver from upstate New York, spent 22 years building a 50-by-27-foot miniature scale model of New York City entirely from balsa wood, cardboard, and glue. The model, which includes all five boroughs and landmarks like the Twin Towers and One World Trade Center, went viral on TikTok after Macken’s daughter encouraged him to post a video. It is now on display at the Museum of the City of New York in an exhibition titled *He Built This City: Joe Macken’s Model*.

Georg Baselitz, German Neo-Expressionist Painter, Dies at 88

Georg Baselitz, the German Neo-Expressionist painter known for his provocative, upside-down figurative works, has died at age 88. Along with contemporaries like Anselm Kiefer, Baselitz led a frontal assault on the dominant Minimalist and Conceptualist art movements of the 1970s, reviving expressive, gestural painting in postwar Germany.

Director of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum to depart in October

Janne Sirén, director of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, will step down in October after 13 years leading the institution. The museum announced his departure on April 29, noting that the board will begin a search for a new director this summer. Sirén oversaw a transformative period including a $230 million campus expansion completed in 2023, designed by OMA and Shohei Shigematsu, which added a new building and reconnected the grounds. During his tenure, the museum's collection grew, staff expanded from 62 to nearly 200, the endowment rose from $31.3 million to $79.3 million, and annual visitors reached 340,000. He also launched a public art department, the Innovation Lab, and the AKG Nordic Art and Culture Initiative.

The New Exhibitions of the Pinacoteca Agnelli and the New Public Works on the Lingotto Park-Track: The Photos

Le nuove mostre della Pinacoteca Agnelli e le nuove opere pubbliche sulla pista-parco del Lingotto: le foto

The Pinacoteca Agnelli in Turin has launched a new exhibition program that includes the first major institutional retrospective in Italy dedicated to Swiss photographer Walter Pfeiffer, titled "In Good Company," running until September 13, 2026. Curated by Nicola Trezzi and Simon Castets, the show features over 100 photographs from the 1970s to today, blending iconic and unseen works that explore queer eroticism, everyday artifice, and collaborative image-making. Concurrently, the museum presents "Modigliani sottopelle. Quattro capolavori" as part of its "Beyond the Collection" series, placing four masterpieces by Amedeo Modigliani—including a loan from the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart and works from the Centre Pompidou—in dialogue with the permanent collection. Curated by Pietro Rigolo and Beatrice Zanelli, the exhibition takes an interdisciplinary approach combining art history, diagnostics, and scientific research, using an algorithm to analyze canvas weaves and propose a new dating for the iconic "Nu couché" acquired by Giovanni and Marella Agnelli in 1960.

Roma accoglie all’Ara Pacis 52 importanti opere dell’Impressionismo provenienti da Detroit

The Museo dell'Ara Pacis in Rome is hosting an exhibition titled 'Impressionismo e oltre' (Impressionism and Beyond), featuring 52 masterpieces on loan from the Detroit Institute of Arts. Curated by Ilaria Miarelli Mariani and Claudio Zambianchi, the show spans from the 1840s to the early 20th century, tracing the evolution of European painting through Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and the avant-garde. Works by Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Picasso, Matisse, Modigliani, and others are displayed across thematic sections that explore the shift from academic tradition to modern visual language.

In Barcelona, the Joan Miró Foundation celebrates 50 years. All the planned initiatives

A Barcellona la Fondazione Joan Mirò festeggia 50 anni. Tutte le iniziative in programma

The Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona is celebrating its 50th anniversary with an extensive program of exhibitions, concerts, performances, and public initiatives. The festivities begin on June 11 with the exhibition "Poetry Has Just Begun: 50 Years of the Miró," a retrospective tracing the foundation's history and its role in the international art system. Other highlights include "Miró and the United States" in autumn, exploring the artist's dialogue with post-war American avant-garde figures like Louise Bourgeois, Helen Frankenthaler, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko, organized in collaboration with the Phillips Collection in Washington. In March 2026, the foundation will unveil a new permanent collection layout based on Miró's creative processes and open the Garden of the Cypresses, a previously inaccessible historic area on Montjuïc.

Sotheby’s Auction Raises Funds for Yale MFA Scholarships

The Yale School of Art is partnering with Sotheby’s to host an auction benefiting scholarships for its Master of Fine Arts program. The 13 lots, including works by Howardena Pindell, Josef Albers, Richard Prince, Mickalene Thomas, Do Ho Suh, and Barkley L. Hendricks, will be sold as part of Sotheby’s Contemporary Day Auction in New York on May 15. Estimates range from $5,000 to $700,000. Dean Kymberly Pinder, who has raised $13 million toward debt-free graduation since 2021, stated the auction supports a larger initiative to ensure MFA students graduate without debt.

Kim Gordon Was Never Just the “Girl in the Band”

Kim Gordon, best known as co-founder of the influential indie rock band Sonic Youth, is the subject of a new exhibition titled "Count Your Chickens" at Amant in New York. Curated by Patricia Margarita Hernández, the show surveys Gordon’s visual art from 2007 to the present, including paintings, drawings, ceramics, and video works such as "Jeanetta and Alex" (2026). The exhibition explores themes of celebrity, gender, electricity, and the tension between public image and private reality, featuring pieces like "Paris, Paris" (2025) and the "Airbnb Series" (2019).

Printed Matter’s LA Art Book Fair Returns May 7–10

Printed Matter's LA Art Book Fair (LAABF) returns to ArtCenter South Campus in Pasadena, California, from May 7 to 10, 2026. The fair will feature 250 exhibitors, including international artists, publishers, and booksellers, alongside programs such as talks and panels in The Classroom, music and performances on The Stage, and special Project Spaces presentations by groups like Archivos Desviados, Bread & Puppet Press, and Getty. An Opening Night celebration on May 7, co-organized with Orange Radio & Homebody, will include live music by sonrisita and Mia Carucci, a limited edition ticket by Amia Yokoyama for the first 500 guests, and a new collaborative artist edition by Deanna Templeton and Ed Templeton.

Grand Van Gogh Exhibition | Ueno Royal Museum | Art in Tokyo

From May to August 2026, the Ueno Royal Museum in Tokyo will host a major exhibition of Vincent van Gogh's early works, drawn entirely from the collection of the Kröller-Müller Museum in the Netherlands. The show traces van Gogh's development from his early Dutch period through his time in Paris and culminates in his Arles period, featuring the celebrated painting *Night Café Terrace (Place du Forum)*. This is the first chapter of a two-part exhibition series, with the second scheduled for 2027–2028.

‘What Color is Your Sky Today?’: The Becoming of the Image

Armineh Negahdari, a Bordeaux-based artist, presents her first institutional solo exhibition in France at the Fondation Louis Vuitton's Open Space series. Titled 'What Color is Your Sky Today?': The Becoming of the Image, the show features a new body of drawings that use charcoal, pastel, and oil paint to explore unstable morphologies between human, vegetal, and animal forms. The works resist narrative closure, emphasizing drawing as an event rather than representation, with lines that accumulate, falter, and begin again. The exhibition is on view at Gallery 8 until 30 August 2026.

What else is happening

Was sonst noch geht

Ahead of the Gallery Weekend Berlin (May 1–3), the city is buzzing with parallel exhibitions that extend far beyond the official gallery circuit. The fourth edition of the Sellerie Weekend opens over 75 independent Off-Spaces from April 30 to May 3, featuring performances, curated tours, and a kickoff event with artist Sophia Süßmilch at the Spoiler project space. The Paper Positions art fair returns to Tempelhof Airport (April 30–May 3) with 70 international galleries specializing in works on paper, including artists like Annegret Soltau, Una Ursprung, and Stefanie Moshammer. Meanwhile, the art initiative House presents the group show "Gravity Ease Contract" in the Berghain heating plant hall (May 1–24), curated by David Douard, with works by Susan Philipsz, Julia Scher, and others. Finally, collectors Karen and Christian Boros unveil "Berlin Bunker #5" in their bunker-turned-museum, featuring recent acquisitions by Pol Taburet, Sung Tieu, and Jill Mulleady.

This illustrator is the best Nova Scotian folk artist you’ve never heard of

The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (AGNS) has opened "On the Matter of Memory: The Drawings of Harold Cromwell," the first solo exhibition dedicated to the late African Nova Scotian folk artist. Cromwell (1919–2008) created intricate ballpoint-pen drawings on everyday surfaces like cupboard doors and paper plates, chronicling working-class rural life. His works were sold for a few dollars at the Annapolis Farmer’s Market and were largely overlooked during his lifetime, despite his regional popularity. The exhibition runs until September 13, 2026, and aims to elevate his legacy alongside better-known Nova Scotian folk artists like Maud Lewis.

“Trading in the Unknown” : the exhibition marking the new edition of the Reiffers Initiatives Prize

The fifth edition of the Reiffers Initiatives Prize has opened in Paris with the exhibition "Trafiquer l'inconnu" ("Trading in the Unknown"), running until June 6, 2026, at the Reiffers Art Initiatives center. The group show features eight emerging artists based in France: Khaled Jarada, Louis Le Kim, Stanislava Kovalcikova, Arthur Marie, Eva Helene Pade, Ibrahim Meïté Sikely, Minh Lan Tran, and Manon Wertenbroek. Curated by Bernard Blistène, former director of the National Museum of Modern Art – Centre Pompidou, the exhibition presents works spanning painting, archival imagery, and explorations of the body. Stanislava Kovalcikova was named the winner of this edition, and Khaled Jarada received a new Special Mention from the jury.

Must-see Milwaukee exhibits on view in May 2026 | The Shortlist

The article highlights several art exhibitions on view in Milwaukee in May 2026, curated around themes of graduation and motherhood. Featured shows include Ahmari Benton's solo exhibition 'No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear' at Mitchell Street Arts, Cameron Clayborn's solo show 'That's When Love Swallows You Whole, Right. Now' at Experimental Sculpture Room, the group exhibition 'Mom & Art' at Milwaukee Makers Market, and a youth art exhibition at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Many of the shows honor resilience, identity, memory, and the complexities of motherhood, with some featuring works by artists who have passed away.

Hotel Room Transforms into Media Art Exhibition Space

South Korea's only media art fair, Loop Plus, was held from April 23 to 26 at the Grand Josun Busan Hotel in Haeundae, Busan. The fair transformed 26 hotel rooms on the 13th floor into exhibition spaces, featuring media artworks from 19 international galleries including Tang Contemporary Art, Esther Schipper, Chiwen Gallery, and Baek Art. Highlights included a 38-minute video installation by Russian artist group AES+F titled *‘Inverso Mundus’*, presented by Tang Contemporary Art, which humorously subverts societal absurdities. The event also included artist booths for Kang Lee-yeon and Lucia Levolino, and institutional booths for the Justice Foundation and Gwangju Media Art Platform. A related festival, Loop Lab Busan 2026, runs until June 28 across multiple venues in Busan.

Previews: 61st Venice Biennale: In Minor Keys

The 61st Venice Biennale, titled "In Minor Keys" and curated by the late Koyo Kouoh, opens amid global turmoil and internal controversy. Kouoh, who passed away in May 2025, conceived the exhibition around the metaphor of a "creole garden," emphasizing deep affinities between 111 artists from diverse locations such as Dakar, Beirut, and Salvador. The Biennale is overshadowed by recent geopolitical events, including US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran, and faces protests: over 70 participating artists signed an open letter opposing the participation of Israel, Russia, and the US, while the Australian pavilion saw the reinstatement of Khaled Sabsabi after being dropped, and South Africa withdrew its official pavilion over Gabrielle Goliath's femicide project, which she will still present independently.

Portland’s Converge 45 Reveals Theme and Artists, Including Trisha Baga, Rose Salane, and Srijon Chowdhury

Converge 45, a citywide triennial in Portland, Oregon, has announced the theme and 28 participating artists for its upcoming edition, launching August 27. Curated by New York–based Lumi Tan, the exhibition is titled “Here, To you, Now,” borrowing a phrase from Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1985 novel *Always Coming Home*. More than half of the artists are based in Portland, including Srijon Chowdhury, Aaron Cunningham, and keyon gaskin, while out-of-state participants include Trisha Baga, Rose Salane, and Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork. The triennial will take place across 16 venues, including the Portland Institute of Contemporary Art and Oregon Contemporary.

A Rosso for the Metropolitan

Un Rosso pour le Metropolitan

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has acquired a painting by Rosso Fiorentino, a master of Italian and French Mannerism, after restoration revealed an earlier overpaint that had obscured the composition. The work, a Virgin and Child, now shows Saint John the Evangelist in the foreground at right, confirming it as an original by the artist.