Artist Nicole Havekost has opened a solo exhibition titled "Totemic" at the Alice R. Rogers and Target Gallery at Saint John's University. The show features large-scale wool felt sculptures, ranging from six to ten feet tall, that explore the human body's dichotomy between controlled and uncontrollable elements. The figurative works, which lack heads, hands, and feet, evoke themes of mothering, caretaking, and exhaustion.
The Brooklyn Museum is presenting "Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses," a major exhibition dedicated to the Dutch fashion designer known for her avant-garde, sculptural garments that blend art, science, and technology. The show features over 80 of van Herpen's most iconic creations, alongside works by contemporary artists and scientific artifacts that inspired her designs.
The Syracuse University Art Museum has announced three new exhibitions for spring 2026: “Possible Worlds: 20 Years of the Wynn Newhouse Awards,” “Afterimages: Legacies of the Thirteenth Amendment,” and “Undressed: The Nude in Dutch Art, circa 1550-1800.” These shows will join the permanent collection exhibition “Human/Environment: 4,000 Years of Art” and an Art Wall Project by artist Bhen Alan. The exhibitions explore themes of disability, race, and the human body, with curator talks and programming scheduled throughout the semester.
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has awarded $75.1 million to 84 projects across the United States, marking the first grants since the Trump administration dismissed most members of the National Council on the Humanities. Major recipients include the University of Texas at Austin and the Foundation for Excellence in Higher Education, each receiving $10 million for programs focused on civics, strategy, and "Great Books." Other notable grants include $2.2 million for Philadelphia's Museum of the American Revolution and $2 million for Grand Central Atelier, a small art school in Queens that teaches classical realist techniques.
The Cleveland History Center has opened a new exhibition honoring local Tuskegee Airmen, featuring hand-drawn portraits by students from the Cleveland School of the Arts. The exhibition, part of the Cleveland Heroes Project, is displayed at the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum and runs through April 30. It highlights airmen with Northeast Ohio roots, including 2nd Lt. Gilbert Cargill, Capt. Erwin Bernard Lawrence Jr., and Cpl. Howard Arthur Tibbs.
London-based artist Slawn has transformed Saatchi Yates gallery into a live working studio for his latest exhibition, titled *Slawn’s Studio*, running from 22 January to 22 February. The gallery functions as his day-to-day workspace, where paintings are produced and reworked, music is composed and recorded, and collaborators drift in and out, creating an atmosphere of spontaneity and shared energy. Most works were made during a residency in the space, and the exhibition evolves over the month. The project has attracted leading collectors and figures from music, sport, and public life.
Yasmin Smith, an Australian artist described as an 'archaeological ceramicist,' presents her solo exhibition *Elemental Life* at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) in Sydney, running until June 8. The show features sculptural installations that use ceramics and glaze technologies to decode environmental and human histories. Key works include *Seine River Basin (2019)*, commissioned by the Centre Pompidou, which uses ash-glazed stoneware replicas of tree branches to reflect the chemical history of the River Seine, and *Chicxulub (2025)*, which draws on samples from the asteroid impact crater in Mexico to explore mass extinction. Smith’s practice involves extensive field research and collaboration with ecologists, archaeologists, and local communities, creating site-specific glazes that act as chemical records of place and time.
Barbican Immersive, the touring exhibition arm of London's Barbican Centre, has announced its 2026 exhibition "In Other Worlds," the first UK solo show by artist, director and BAFTA-nominated producer Liam Young. The exhibition will debut at the Barbican Centre from 21 May to 6 September 2026 as part of the Barbican's Summer season, before touring internationally. It features films, costumes, props, miniature models, comics, tapestries, and soundscapes that imagine hopeful futures amid environmental and technological challenges. Highlights include the world premiere of Young's film "World Machine" (2026), which envisions an AI-powered planetary supercomputer, alongside earlier works such as "Planet City" (2021), "The Great Endeavour" (2023), and "After the End" (2024).
One month after Hurricane Melissa devastated the Caribbean, causing an estimated $48bn-$52bn in damage and over 100 deaths, artists and art organizations are leading fundraising efforts. The National Gallery of Jamaica launched a donation drive through its western branch, while New York-based nonprofit Forgotten Lands, artist Ania Freer, the Lemon Seed Project, and the Prints for Jamaica initiative have raised thousands of dollars for relief, medical aid, and heritage preservation.
Meredith Connelly, a 2011 alumna of UNC Wilmington, has returned to the city to install her first solo exhibition at the Cameron Art Museum. Titled "Nested: Where Light Gathers and Nature Holds," the outdoor installation features glowing, cup-shaped nests built from reusable plastics and other unconventional materials, creating a warmly lit nature stroll for nighttime visitors. Connelly, now a multidisciplinary artist based in Charlotte, worked with UNCW students on the installation and reflects on how natural intelligence and human observation shape our built environment.
The Philadelphia Art Museum has appointed Daniel H. Weiss as its George D. Widener Director and CEO, effective December 1, 2025. Weiss, former President and CEO of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2015–2023), brings decades of leadership experience from major cultural and educational institutions, including presidencies at Haverford College and Lafayette College, and a recent role as Homewood Professor of the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University. The Board of Trustees, led by Chair Ellen Caplan, selected Weiss to guide the museum through at least 2028, providing stability during a transitional period.
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., will open “Water’s Edge: The Art of Truman Lowe” on November 25, 2025, running through January 2027. This is the first major retrospective of Hoocąk (Ho-Chunk) artist Truman Lowe (1944–2019), featuring nearly 50 sculptures, drawings, and paintings from public and private collections, including 28 from the museum’s own holdings. The exhibition is organized around four themes—Moving Water, The Land Holds Memory, Woodland Structures, and Memory and Shared Knowledge—highlighting Lowe’s use of natural materials like willow branches and feathers to evoke the waterways and woodlands of his Wisconsin upbringing.
Legendary visual artist Jamel Shabazz, a retired New York City correction officer, has opened his first solo exhibition on Long Island at the Emily Lowe Gallery inside Hofstra University's Museum of Art in Hempstead. Titled "Love is the Message," the show features photographs spanning over five decades, capturing love and humanity in overlooked urban communities. Shabazz's work is also held in major institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, and the Smithsonian.
Sasha Fishman '24, an alum and adjunct assistant professor at Columbia, presents her solo exhibition 'Shad Mode' at ILY2 Gallery in Portland, Oregon. The show, which culminates her summer residency at ILY2, features sculptures made from materials like egg yolk-tanned sturgeon skin, ceramics, and lamprey teeth, exploring the relationships between fish, their ecosystems, and human intervention. Works such as 'Immortal by Wifi' and 'Each Time You Bathe Me' blend natural and synthetic elements, while a fish cannon encircles the gallery to highlight modern technologies used to transport fish over dams.
The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge is opening an exhibition titled "Made in Ancient Egypt" that shifts focus from pharaohs and iconic treasures to the anonymous craftspeople who built and decorated the civilization's artifacts. Featuring loans from the British Museum, Berlin State Museums, and the Musée du Louvre, the show includes jewelry, ceramics, stonework, and personal items like ostraca—pottery shards used as notepads—that reveal the lives, skills, and even the days off of ancient makers. Curator Helen Strudwick highlights recent discoveries, including a handprint on a "soul house" and an unreadable signature on a shrine, emphasizing the human connection these objects provide.
Nine participants in the Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB), which opened on September 19, have withdrawn in protest over exhibition sponsor Crown Family Philanthropies' investment in General Dynamics, a military contractor supplying weapons to the Israeli military. A letter signed by 22 individuals, collectives, and firms—nearly half of whom also withdrew—argues that the sponsorship contradicts the biennial's mission of addressing architecture's role in shaping a collective future. The biennial's sixth edition, titled SHIFT: Architecture in Times of Radical Change, is led by artistic director Florencia Rodriguez. Participants had raised concerns last month, and organizers clarified that Crown Family funds support education programming, not the exhibition itself, which the letter calls "even more painful" given the destruction of schools in Gaza.
Artist Paribartana Mohanty's solo exhibition "I Rescued Speed Altogether" at Delhi's Shrine Empire gallery presents 12 paintings and three moving-image works created over eight years of documenting the demolition of the Kathputli art colony, a historic slum cluster in west Delhi known for its street performers. The works, mounted on found objects like glue cans and plastic, focus on the objects and landscapes left behind after demolitions, with human figures absent from the canvases. Mohanty's title comes from his three-year-old son's triumphant statement after learning to pedal a bicycle, which the artist sees as an absurd phrase fitting for what he calls the "absurd acts" of demolition.
Turkey has opened a new exhibition titled "The Golden Age of Archaeology" at a national library in Ankara, showcasing 570 ancient artifacts—most unearthed in the past two years and displayed for the first time. Highlights include 11,500-year-old Neolithic vessels, a Bronze Age tablet revealing a previously unknown language (Kalasma), and a repatriated bronze statue of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, which was smuggled out of Turkey in the 1960s and recently returned from the Cleveland Museum of Art after a legal battle. The exhibition is part of the government's Heritage for the Future project, which spends around $150 million annually on excavations, visitor centers, and museums, with active digs rising to about 800.
More than 150 US arts organizations and over 320 artists and cultural workers have signed a public statement affirming their commitment to resisting political pressure. Organized by the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) and the Vera List Center for Art and Politics (VLC) at the New School, the statement does not explicitly name President Donald Trump or his administration's actions, but was precipitated by Trump's pressure campaigns against the Smithsonian Institution and the Kennedy Center, as well as deep cuts to the NEA, NEH, and IMLS. Signatories include institutions from both Democratic- and Republican-controlled states, such as the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts in New York and Diverseworks in Houston, Texas.
Polish artist Paweł Matyszewski presents a new solo exhibition titled "Momentary Organisms" at Kogo Gallery in Tartu, Estonia, opening on August 15. The show explores the fragility and transformation inherent in all living organisms through exuberant, patchwork-like abstractions that merge plant and human body parts. The exhibition is part of a regional exchange program involving galleries in Turku, Riga, and Warsaw, curated by Šelda Puķīte, and will run until September 27.
The Bangkok Art and Culture Center (BACC) censored an exhibition titled 'Constellation of Complicity: Visualising the Global Machinery of Authoritarian Solidarity' after pressure from the Chinese Embassy in Thailand. Works by artists from Hong Kong, Tibet, and the Uyghur diaspora were blacked out or removed to avoid 'diplomatic tensions between Thailand and China.' The curators fled the country after Chinese officials and Thai police visited the museum. Affected artists include Doc Tenzin, Mukaddas Mijit, Clara Cheung, and Gun Cheng Yee Man, whose names were blacked out, along with Tibetan and Uyghur flags and a graphic comparing China to Israel.
Researchers at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, UK, have discovered a 4,000-year-old handprint on the base of an ancient Egyptian "soul house"—a clay model of a building used in burial rituals. The handprint was found during preparations for the museum's upcoming exhibition "Made in Ancient Egypt" (3 October–12 April 2026), when senior conservator Julie Dawson examined the object under different lighting. The soul house, excavated at Deir Rifa north of Luxor, dates to Egypt's First Intermediate Period or Middle Kingdom and was likely left by the artisan who moved it to dry before firing.
Emily Legleitner, a Detroit-based interdisciplinary artist working in print media and installation, presents her solo exhibition "My Life Is the Size of My Room" at the University Art Department Gallery from August 18 to September 26. The show includes a reception and welcome back party on September 4. Legleitner's work explores autobiographical experiences and emotions tied to anxiety, mortality, longing, and the human condition.
The Yale University Art Gallery has withdrawn two federal grant requests totaling $200,000 for a forthcoming exhibition on Southeast African art, citing concerns that the show does not meet the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) criteria under President Trump's executive order banning Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs. The museum will instead use its endowment to fund the exhibition, which focuses on the migration of the Nguni peoples in southern Africa and is set to open next fall. Additionally, the NEA cancelled a $30,000 grant for another exhibition, Nusantara: Six Centuries of Indonesian Textiles, prompting the museum to draw on its Robert Lehman Endowment Fund.
Shellburne Thurber's retrospective exhibition "Full Circle" runs from October 24, 2025 to March 21, 2026 at the Bates Museum of Art. The show surveys Thurber's decades-long photographic investigation of interior spaces—from her grandmother's home in southern Indiana in the 1970s to psychoanalytic offices published as a book in 2023 by Kehrer Verlag. Curated by Bates curator Samantha Sigmon, the exhibition traces how Thurber has consistently explored the relationship between constructed space and human energy, focusing on private, domestic, and psychological interiors that blur the line between public and private.
The article reports that the Art x Climate Gallery has achieved a notable success at the Smithsonian Institution, though the specific details of the triumph are obscured by a security verification page that blocks access to the full content. The gallery, which likely focuses on the intersection of art and climate change, appears to have been recognized or celebrated within the Smithsonian's prestigious museum network.
Hattie Grimm, artist-in-residence at the Charles Allis Art Museum in Milwaukee, has created a new exhibition titled "BIRD BODY" featuring 20 original wooden paintings and sculptures. Inspired by her personal relationship with birds formed during a difficult time, the works explore birds as symbols of freedom, intuition, and bodily wisdom. The exhibit includes interactive elements such as drawing activities and storytelling stations, encouraging visitors to reflect on their own connections to birds and their bodies.
The Whitney Museum of American Art has been accused of censorship by artists Fadl Fakhouri, Noel Maghathe, and Fargo Tbakhi after canceling their performance titled *No Aesthetics Outside my Freedom: Mourning, Militancy and Performance*, scheduled for May 14 as part of the exhibition *A Grammar of Attention*. The museum cited the work's "exclusionary and inflammatory" content, referencing a prior iteration where Tbakhi called for those who believe in Israel or America to leave the audience and valorized specific acts of violence. The artists argue the cancellation is an act of anti-Palestinian censorship, while the museum claims the decision was necessary to uphold its policies. In response, Sara Nadal-Melsió, associate director of the Whitney Independent Study Program (ISP), canceled a related critical studies symposium, and the ISP cohort alleged the museum surveilled and intervened in their work.
The article examines the impact of the first 100 days of Donald Trump's second term on the U.S. cultural sector, detailing executive actions that force museums, libraries, and arts institutions into ideological conformity. Orders targeting diversity, equity, inclusion, and gender threaten funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, while the Smithsonian Institution and Kennedy Center face direct political oversight. The administration also redirects funds toward patriotic projects like a sculpture garden of 'American Heroes,' and private institutions such as the Rhode Island School of Design and Creative Capital face pressure over pro-Palestinian expression and diversity-focused programs.
A selection of 15 pieces from the Waterloo Center for the Arts' Haitian art collection—the largest publicly held collection of its kind in the United States—is now on display at the Des Moines Art Center through summer 2025. The exhibition, titled "Light with Ourselves: Haitian Art in Iowa," includes paintings, metalwork, ritual objects, and beaded sequined banners called drapo, co-curated by Elizabeth Gollnick of the Des Moines Art Center and Chawne Paige of the Waterloo Center for the Arts. The collection began with a donation from F. Harold Reulin and his wife and has grown to over 2,000 pieces since 1977.