London urban oasis hosts artist’s multimedia investigation into plants’ resilience in the face of climate crisis

London-based artist Vivienne Schadinsky presents "Into the Seeds of Time" at the newly expanded OmVed Gardens in Highgate, a private urban garden and the UK's first centre for food, ecology and creativity. The exhibition, running until 3 August, features ink paintings, films, sculptures and prints created during Schadinsky's year-long residency, focusing on the life cycles of three bean varieties—puy lentil, Essex pea bean and gaia soybean—as a metaphor for climate resilience.

Amid a cost of living crisis for London’s artists, a charity has secured dozens of affordable studio spaces

Bow Arts, a UK charity founded in 1994, has acquired two buildings in east London to create permanently affordable studio spaces for artists. The purchases include a site in the Hackney Yards development, developed in partnership with housing association Notting Hill Genesis and supported by Arts Council England and the London Legacy Development Corporation, which will provide 38 studios by 2026, and the Brutalist Lakeside Centre in Thamesmead, already housing over 40 artist studios. This follows Bow Arts’ first owned building, Three Waters, acquired in 2022 on a 999-year lease with 70 studios. The charity now owns three of the 28 buildings it manages across London, with an annual turnover of £5.1 million, most of which is reinvested into the creative community.

A quartet of key art market players join forces to form ‘super group’ consultancy

Four prominent art market figures—Ed Dolman, Brett Gorvy, Patti Wong, and Phillip Hoffman—have launched a new consultancy called New Perspectives Art Partners. The group, which also includes Dolman's son Alex, aims to provide a white-glove, case-by-case service for top-tier clients, covering buying and selling art, estate management, financing, and insurance. Each member brings specialized expertise and geographic reach across Europe, America, the Middle East, and Asia, and they will maintain their existing roles in their own businesses.

Artist whose work addresses art world access is not in Basel—because his visa was denied

Zimbabwean artist Richard Mudariki, creator of the Art World Passport project, was denied a visa by the Swiss embassy in Pretoria to attend the Africa Basel art fair in Switzerland. The project, which sells physical booklets at art events for attendees to document their experiences, symbolically addresses barriers faced by artists from the global South in accessing Western institutions. Mudariki had planned to debut the project in Europe at Africa Basel but was forced to appear via video link after the visa rejection, citing unreliable documentation for his stay.

New Art Gallery to Open at La Boutique Design in Reykjavík

Independent design store La Boutique Design will open a new gallery space in downtown Reykjavík on 26 June. Located at Mýrargata 18, the lower floor of the shop will launch with a large group exhibition featuring around 60 works by approximately 20 Icelandic artists, including Hallgrímur Helgason, Auður Ómarsdóttir, Snorri Ásmundsson, and Aðalheiður Valgeirsdóttir. The store has hosted solo exhibitions since spring 2024, showcasing artists such as Guðrún Einarsdóttir and Unnar Ari Baldvinsson, and will continue its solo series alongside the new group shows.

Leaders of former Maine syringe provider open Winterport art gallery

Abby D'Alessio and her husband Josh, former leaders of the Bangor-based Health Equity Alliance (HEAL)—which operated a syringe exchange and closed in April amid financial turmoil—have opened Selah Gallery on Main Street in Winterport, Maine. The gallery, named after a Biblical word meaning 'pause' and 'reflect,' offers a space for mindful contemplation and sells a mix of artwork, skin care products, jewelry, and accessories, with pieces priced from a few hundred dollars to $100,000. Abby D'Alessio, who stepped down as HEAL's harm reduction manager in December, curates the gallery, while Josh D'Alessio is a featured photographer. The space also includes the 'Canvas of Courage' project, which showcases artists who have faced homelessness, substance use, or mental health struggles, such as acrylic painter Ben Rasche.

New gallery in Garnethill to celebrate Glasgow's street art and graffiti scene

A new gallery called Grateful Gallery is opening at 50 Hill Street in Glasgow's Garnethill neighborhood, founded by artists Ciaran Globel and Panda McGlone. The public opening is set for Friday, June 6, 2025. The duo, who have been friends since 2006, aim to create a welcoming space dedicated to Glasgow's street art and graffiti scene. The gallery will sell affordable prints, merchandise, and artwork from local street artists, with a rotating monthly floor show; the inaugural exhibition, titled "Friends," runs from June 6 to July 3. The space has been renovated with community help, and a crowdfunder raised nearly £12,000 from over 300 supporters.

Gallery’s summer exhibition showcases five artists’ work

The Gallery at Penn College is hosting "Five Artists: Explorations and Conversations," a summer exhibition running June 4 through July 24, 2025. The show features works by five Pennsylvania-based artists—Meredith Eachus Armstrong, Elizabeth Z. Bennett, Jean E. Downing, Peggy Blei Hracho, and Cecilia J. Rusnak—who have met monthly for nearly a decade to critique and support each other's creative processes. Their shared commitment to using textiles as an essential element is evident across a range of techniques including hand and machine stitching, dyeing, printing, collage, and assemblage. A free public reception with a gallery talk is scheduled for June 8.

‘American Asian’ exhibit in Avondale spotlights 16 Georgia-based artists

The Avondale Arts Center in Avondale, Georgia, is hosting 'American Asian,' a group exhibition curated by Nicole Kang that features 16 Georgia-based artists of Asian descent. The multimedia show explores the 'third culture' experience of belonging, with works ranging from intimate portraits and experimental abstraction to visual narratives examining heritage and homeland. Featured artists include Sanithna, Helen Choi, Killamari, Crystal Jin Kimm, and Janice Rago, among others.

How can art fairs become greener?

Art fairs face significant sustainability challenges due to their temporary nature. Untitled Art in Miami Beach, held in a tent on the beach, works with environmental departments to ensure zero impact, reusing its tent annually. Fairs in permanent venues like Art Basel Miami Beach at the LEED Silver-rated convention center must manage temporary walls, energy use, and waste. Exhibitors struggle with high carbon emissions—art fair activities account for a third of a gallery's annual emissions—and waste from packing materials. Shipping constraints often force reliance on air freight over slower, greener options like ocean or rail, especially for last-minute, high-value consignments. The competitive, secretive atmosphere further hinders consolidated shipments and sustainable practices.

Feminist art show vandalised at French photography centre

A feminist art exhibition titled 'Cyprine Benzin' at the NegPos art and photography centre in Nîmes, France, was vandalized during the night of 25–26 April. One or more intruders destroyed over 30 of the 40 works on view, spray-painting phalluses and sexual imagery on the walls. The exhibition, by artist Kamille Lévêque Jégo, celebrated women’s pride and empowerment and had opened on 11 April. It was the second attack on the gallery, following a prior break-in that damaged one work. The centre’s director, Patrice Loubon, described the attack as part of a 'masculinist backlash,' and three professional photography networks condemned a 'growing climate of intolerance against female photographers.'

South Asian artists draw inspiration from heritage and identity at exhibition

The South Asian Artists Association of America held its "Vasant: A Spring Mosaic by Indian Artists" exhibition at Bridgewater Commons mall in Bridgewater Township, New Jersey, from April 25 to 27, 2025. The three-day event featured 21 artists showcasing diverse works including large paintings, hand-carved candles, small sculptures, and traditional Madhubani-style art, with live painting demonstrations, workshops, Indian dance performances, and face painting for kids. The exhibition was part of the second annual Garden State Art Weekend and attracted over 60 attendees on opening day, with artworks priced under $150.

Erbil hosts four-day art gallery by Iranian Kurdish artist

Iranian Kurdish artist Nasr Daneshvar opened a four-day visual arts exhibition titled “Color, Women, Society” in Erbil, Iraq, on Sunday. The show features 22 paintings created over two years, exploring themes of women's strength and societal oppression, with elements of Kurdish culture and traditional attire. Daneshvar, born in Oshnavieh in 1981 and a graduate of Tabriz University's College of Fine Arts, organized the event in coordination with Erbil’s general directorate of culture and arts.

In Venedig findet Lotus L. Kang Schönheit im Vergänglichen

Canadian artist Lotus L. Kang has opened an exhibition titled "The Face of Desire Is Loss" at the new Bvlgari Pavilion in Venice. The show features her fluid, changeable works that explore themes of desire, loss, absence, and impermanence, with the artist describing the experience as a charged, chaotic, yet focused pursuit of something elusive.

Biennale Jury Will Not Consider Countries with ICC Allegations

Biennale-Jury will Länder mit IStGH-Vorwürfen nicht berücksichtigen

The jury of the Venice Art Biennale has announced that it will not consider countries whose heads of state or government face allegations of crimes against humanity from the International Criminal Court (ICC) when awarding prizes this year. The jury, led by Brazilian art historian Solange Farkas, cited its commitment to defending human rights. While no specific countries were named, the ICC currently has arrest warrants against Russian President Vladimir Putin for alleged war crimes in Ukraine and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes in Gaza. The Biennale leadership stated the jury acted in full autonomy and independence.

How Expensive Art Auctions Really Are

Wie teuer Kunstauktionen wirklich sind

Art auction houses often promote transparency through public bidding, but the final hammer price is merely the starting point for a complex web of additional costs. Buyers frequently face buyer's premiums, value-added taxes, and resale right royalties (droit de suite) that can inflate the final invoice by up to 50 percent beyond the initial bid.

Private Art Schools Enter a Period of Turbulence

Les écoles d’art privées traversent une zone de turbulence

A wave of bankruptcies and judicial reorganizations is hitting the private art education sector in France. Following the closure of the École d’art de Montreuil, the Académie des arts appliqués (AAA) in Dijon and the École supérieure de design in Troyes have both entered receivership. These institutions are struggling with severe financial deficits, unpaid staff, and a sharp decline in student enrollment, with some schools seeing their student bodies shrink by two-thirds in just four years.

Legendary Auctioneer Jussi Pylkkänen on How to Decode Auction Numbers

Legendary auctioneer Jussi Pylkkänen offers insights into interpreting auction data, such as price estimates and results, to navigate the current transitional art market. He advises buyers to think critically about value and scrutinize auction house-provided figures.

How One Cooperative Champions the Quechua Weavers of Peru’s Sacred Valley

The nonprofit organization Awamaki was founded in 2009 to support Quechua communities in Peru's Sacred Valley, particularly women weavers, as they navigate economic shifts and climate change. It now assists nine cooperatives comprising 174 artisans, providing structural support for selling traditional textiles and coordinating tourism to generate income while preserving cultural practices.

Misato Sano’s Charming Wooden Dogs Are Carved With Personality

Miyagi-based artist Misato Sano creates distinctive wooden dog sculptures that serve as a form of self-portraiture. Her work, carved from camphor wood and finished with oil paint, uses exaggerated features and textured surfaces to express a range of emotions and personalities, from shy to silly, as a means of exploring and deepening self-love.

Painterly Figures Entwine in Soojin Choi’s Ceramic Sculptures

Ceramic artist Soojin Choi creates intricate sculptures of entangled pairs, using stoneware slabs and nylon strands to achieve a precarious balance that minimizes contact with the ground. Her painterly background is evident in the gestural marks, visible brushstrokes, and drips on the white-slipped surfaces, with the artist describing her process as a "constant negotiation with gravity."

Meditate to the Undulations of Baltic Sea Ice in Jan Erik Waider’s Hypnotic Videos

German photographer and visual artist Jan Erik Waider has released a new series of aerial drone videos capturing a rare natural phenomenon in the Baltic Sea. The footage shows a thin, fresh layer of ice forming intricate, polygon-like shapes on the rolling sea surface, creating a hypnotic, undulating pattern that moves rhythmically without breaking.

Ben Zank’s Portraits Teeter Between Surrealism and the Mundane

New York-based photographer Ben Zank's work, characterized by faceless subjects in ordinary settings evoking uncanny emotions, was featured in an outdoor installation at the Festival Cargo Les Photographiques in Saint-Nazaire, France. His large-scale reproductions were affixed to wooden pallets and brick walls, blending minimalist, earth-toned portraits with the festival's sparse grounds.

Folklore and Nature Converge in Cat Johnston’s Expressive, Eccentric Puppets

London-based artist Cat Johnston creates expressive puppets and sculptures that blend folklore, nature, and childhood memories into eccentric characters like a fashionable bat, a melancholy sun, and gods representing sunburn, hay fever, and insomnia. Her work, which draws on historical costumes and emotive, cartoonish faces, inhabits dreamlike realms where the familiar meets the strange.

Extreme Macro Photos of Insect Wings by Chris Perani Layer Thousands of Images

Photographer Chris Perani creates hyper-detailed images of insect wings using an extreme macro photography technique. His series, Wings, captures the intricate, often invisible details of bee, wasp, damselfly, beetle, and butterfly wings by taking up to 2,000 photos of a single specimen and digitally stacking them for unprecedented clarity.

Stanislava Kovalčíková “Rubigo” at Kunstverein Freiburg

Stanislava Kovalčíková has opened her first institutional solo exhibition in Germany, titled "Rubigo," at Kunstverein Freiburg. The exhibition features a large-scale installation constructed from red plasticine, which forms an immersive environment housing a series of paintings executed on discarded clock dials salvaged from Prussian church towers.

Beginnings: Mapping the Origins of Saudi Modern Art in Riyadh

Mapping Saudi Modern Art’s Origins: “Bedayat” in Riyadh

The exhibition 'Bedayat: Beginnings of the Saudi Art Movement' at Riyadh's National Museum showcased over 250 artworks from the 1960s to 1980s, a period of rapid modernization. It featured archival materials like exhibition catalogs and scholarship letters, alongside paintings grouped into themes such as 'Faces and Features' and 'Social Life,' though the curation largely avoided direct commentary on the era's intense socio-political debates.

"Bloom Beyond Sight" , 2026

Bonu Deji's painting "Bloom Beyond Sight" (2026) is being offered for sale through Art R us gallery in Naples, Florida. The acrylic and oil on canvas work, sized 25 × 31 inches, is priced at US$1,400 and comes with a certificate of authenticity. Deji, a Nigerian artist born in 2003 and based in Lagos, creates figurative works exploring poverty, labor, resilience, and human dignity. The piece was exhibited in 2026 at Art R us's breakout exhibition of the artist and previously in the 2025 group show "Faces of Us" at The Zebra Gallery.

“Crowned by Resilience” , 2026

Art R us gallery in Naples, Florida, is offering "Crowned by Resilience" (2026), a painting by Nigerian contemporary artist Bonu Deji. The acrylic and oil on canvas work explores themes of strength, endurance, and identity, and is priced at US$1,400. Deji, born in 2003 and based in Lagos, creates figurative works addressing poverty, labor, and human dignity, and has exhibited at Art R us and The Zebra Gallery.

"The Watchful Savior" , 2026

Bonu Deji's painting "The Watchful Savior" (2026) is being offered for sale through Art R us gallery in Naples, Florida. The acrylic and oil on canvas work, measuring 25 × 31 inches, is priced at US$1,400 and comes with a certificate of authenticity. Deji, a Nigerian contemporary visual artist born in 2003 and based in Lagos, creates figurative works exploring poverty, labor, resilience, and human dignity. The piece was previously exhibited in the gallery's 2026 solo presentation of the artist and in the 2025 group show "Faces of Us" at The Zebra Gallery.