FACT Celebrates Creative Exploration and Development One Year On From Opening Artist Studios

FACT, the Liverpool-based cultural center, marks one year since opening Studio/Lab, a creative hub on its top floor designed to support emerging artists in Liverpool and the North West. Over 500 creatives have engaged with the space through workshops, masterclasses, residencies, and social events. The autumn program features new immersive installations by artists Helen Anna Flanagan and Gavin Gayagoy, developed during their residencies at Studio/Lab. Flanagan's film 'Burnt Toast' (2025) uses machine learning and archival materials to explore class and alienation, while Gayagoy's 'Doomscroll_1' (2025) examines digital isolation and compulsive smartphone use.

San Francisco’s Trash Company Marks 35 Years of Stunning Art Made of Recycled Garbage With Free Gallery Opening

San Francisco's waste management company Recology is celebrating 35 years of its Artist-in-Residence program with a free retrospective exhibition featuring artworks made from recycled garbage. The show, held at the Minnesota Street Project in collaboration with Recology, includes pieces by 63 artists who have scavenged materials from the company's 47-acre recycling center since 1990. Notable works include Nemo Gould's 'Impala' sculpture, made from scavenged antlers, power tools, and household items. The exhibition runs through August 30, 2025, and a traveling version called 'Reclaimed: The Art of Recology' is touring the country.

Space as Practice. A Decade of WL4 Art Space.

WL4 Art Space in Gdańsk, Poland, celebrates its tenth anniversary. Founded in 2015 when a group of artists took over a former bakery at Wiosny Ludów 4, the space has evolved from a practical need for studios into a self-organized, grassroots collective. Operating in a raw industrial building that once housed a giant steam bread oven, WL4 resists traditional display protocols, treating the site as a collaborator rather than a neutral container. Co-founder Adriana Majdzińska recalls the early euphoria as artists quickly filled the studios, building and adapting spaces while maintaining a simple rule: you had to be actively creating.

Local art exhibition confronts apartheid silence

A live exhibition titled "Uncovering / Recovering the Past" was held on 21 May at the Stellenbosch University Museum in South Africa, featuring sound, sculpture, and archival material. Created by artist Haroon Gunn-Salie, the exhibition explores the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's failure to prosecute apartheid-era crimes, focusing on the reopened inquest into the 1969 death of anti-apartheid cleric Imam Abdullah Haron while in police detention. The event was presented by the Centre for the Study of the Afterlife of Violence and The Reparative Quest (AVReQ) and included speakers such as human rights lawyer Odette Geldenhuys and senior research coordinator Westley Ceasar.

Levitation: CERN’s new temporary exhibition explores space and time through glass art

From 13 June to 24 August 2025, the Globe of Science and Innovation at CERN presents *Levitation*, a temporary exhibition featuring glass sculptures by Slovak artist Ján Zoričák. The works incorporate metal, bronze, natural materials, and even materials from CERN experiments, exploring themes of space and time. A short AI-generated film by Nina Tahy and curator Ivan Jančár accompanies the artworks, offering additional technological perspectives.

Arts of Oceania

The article explores the rich artistic traditions of Oceania, emphasizing how the vast network of islands and ocean passageways fostered a dynamic exchange of cultures, materials, and ideas over millennia. It describes Oceanic art as vessels for metaphysical journeys, with objects like fishhooks, stick charts, and carved figures serving as tangible expressions of ancestral power and cultural knowledge. The text highlights the role of artists as chiefs and orators who manipulate local materials to manifest spirits, and traces the region's entanglements with European colonial powers from the sixteenth century onward.

Orange Art Center to present first Emerging Artist Residency exhibition this summer

The Orange Art Center in Pepper Pike, Ohio, will present its first Emerging Artist Residency exhibition this summer, featuring multi-media artist Lauren Sylvia. Her show, “The Many Hues Between Brown and Blue,” explores themes of love, loss, and remembrance inspired by her late cat Twila, using watercolor, acrylic, and experimental materials. The exhibition opens during the Orange Community Art Fest on August 16 and runs through September 30.

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.

Exhibition showcases sculptural installations promoting local landmarks

One Central Macau is hosting an exhibition titled “One Central Loves Macao,” featuring seven sculptural art installations by local artist Tramy Lui. The centerpiece, “Love Macao,” is an interactive piece inspired by stained-glass windows from Macau’s landmarks like the Ruins of St. Paul’s and the Church of Our Lady of Sorrows, using rainbow colors and transparent materials to play with light and shadow. Other works include “Beacon of Sound,” an interactive piano installation based on the Guia Hill Pedestrian Tunnel, and “Time Capsule Mailbox,” a colorful postbox evoking nostalgia. The free exhibition runs until May 11.

Spring Senior Art Exhibition Showcases Student Achievements

West Liberty University (WLU) is hosting its Spring Senior Art Exhibition in the Nutting Gallery, starting April 30 with an opening reception from 5:30-7 p.m. The exhibit, running through May 8, features capstone projects by senior art majors in graphic design, art education, and studio art, including students Olivia Bernola, Allison Diantonio, Lilianna Hardt, Ireland McCafferty, Briston Ramby, Kaylee Savage, Nico Walker, and Nathan Wharton. The work was guided by Professor Brian Fencl, director of the Nutting Gallery, and Professor of Graphic Design Moonjung Kang.

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.

Exit Homo?

Hua Wang and Emanuel Heim are presenting their dual exhibition "Natural Inversions" in Berlin, curated by John Silvis. The show features abstract queer painting, sculptural installations, and explores themes of perception, materiality, and transformation. An artist talk moderated by Monopol editor Sebastian Frenzel accompanies the exhibition, where the artists discuss transhumanism, artificial intelligence, spirituality, and how technology is reshaping our understanding of being human.

NRW will Verbot für Handel mit Holocaust-Dokumenten

The German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) is introducing a legislative bill to ban the commercial trade of personal Holocaust documents and artifacts, such as letters from concentration camps, Gestapo cards, and yellow stars. The initiative follows international outrage over a planned auction in Neuss in November 2025, which was halted at the last moment; around 460 objects from that auction were transferred to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation. The bill, to be presented at the Bundesrat session on May 8, aims to prohibit the sale of items directly linked to Nazi victims, while exempting museums, archives, and research institutions.

A 1st-Century Roman Cargo Uncovered in Lake Neuchâtel

Une cargaison romaine du Ier siècle mise au jour dans le lac de Neuchâtel

Archaeologists have completed two major underwater excavation campaigns in Lake Neuchâtel, Switzerland, recovering over 1,000 artifacts from a Roman cargo shipment dating between 20 and 50 AD. The discovery, initially spotted via aerial photography in 2024, includes exceptionally well-preserved items such as Spanish olive oil amphorae, tableware, military weaponry, and rare organic materials like a wicker basket and chariot wheels. The site was kept secret for two years to prevent looting while divers meticulously retrieved the historical treasures.

Luca Vanello at Z33

The contemporary art center Z33 in Hasselt is hosting a solo exhibition by artist Luca Vanello titled "Withering into breath, wetness undoes itself." Running from February 12 through April 12, 2026, the presentation features a series of sculptural installations documented through extensive photography by Silvia Cappellari. The exhibition explores themes of materiality and transformation, characteristic of Vanello's practice of manipulating organic and inorganic substances.

Lin May Saeed at Kunsthalle Bern

Kunsthalle Bern is hosting a significant solo exhibition of the late artist Lin May Saeed, running from March 6 through May 10, 2026. The presentation features a comprehensive selection of Saeed’s signature styrofoam reliefs and sculptures, documented through extensive installation photography by David Aebi in collaboration with the artist's estate and Jacky Strenz gallery.

Lawrence Leaman at Roland Ross

Lawrence Leaman at Roland Ross

Lawrence Leaman has opened a solo exhibition of new photoprints at the Roland Ross gallery in Kent. The show, which runs from February 21 through March 29, 2026, is comprehensively documented with fourteen installation photographs, providing a detailed visual record of the presentation.

Anna-Sophie Berger at art hall

Anna-Sophie Berger at art hall

Artist Anna-Sophie Berger has opened a solo exhibition titled "Two Fixed Ideas Will Unite" at art hall in Baltimore. The show, featuring new work, will be on view from January 31 through March 21, 2026.

Baumgartner Restoration Painstakingly Brings a Neglected Portrait Back to Life

Art conservator Julian Baumgartner, who runs Baumgartner Fine Art Restoration in Chicago, received an anonymous portrait that arrived severely damaged—folded inside a mangled parcel with substantial creases, tears, and worn-away paint. Using reversible, archival materials and meticulous attention to detail, Baumgartner painstakingly restored the neglected painting, giving it a second chance at life.

Mirei Monticelli’s Hand-Woven Banana Leaf Lamps Swell Between Material and Movement

Milan-based Filipina designer Mirei Monticelli creates biomorphic lighting fixtures from hand-woven Banaca fabric, made from Abacá fiber sourced from the Philippines. Her studio collaborates with a community of weavers in the Bicol province, developing the material through a long-term relationship. The lamps, which blend sculpture and utility, were recently featured in an installation titled 'Pleasure Garden' at Milan Design Week. Monticelli’s process incorporates techniques from garment construction, learned from her mother, a fashion designer.

Dozens of Suspended ‘Halos’ Glimmer in a Florentine Factory

Earlier this month, artist SpY installed "Halos," a large-scale installation of dozens of metallic discs suspended from the ceiling of a former railway factory in Florence. The work was part of the city's Bright Festival, transforming the brutalist industrial interior into a space of ethereal movement and reflection, with the discs interacting with natural breezes and glimmering light.

Rachel Mentzer Transforms Discarded Cartons into Dusky Collagraphs

Ohio-based artist Rachel Mentzer creates collagraph prints using discarded cartons as printing plates, carving them with images of birds, trees, and energy infrastructure. Her process involves carving the cardboard, sealing it with polyurethane, inking it, and transferring the image via an etching press, often incorporating chine collé for color. Her work was recently shown at the Manhattan Graphics Center, and she will participate in the Suzanne Wilson Artist-in-Residence Program at Glen Arbor Arts Center this summer.

A Lush Textile Installation Springs to Life in Shanghai

Artist Hu Yuehua presented a large-scale textile installation titled "Weaving Nature" at the 13th edition of Design Shanghai. The work is a dense, wall-like garden composed of stitched and dyed cotton and linen elements in indigo and ochre, forming leaves, blooms, and growths that highlight the artist's hand through loose threads, raw edges, and pleats.

Restrained Emotions Simmer in Shinsuke Inoue’s Tender Wood Sculptures

Japanese artist Shinsuke Inoue creates small, emotionally resonant wood sculptures of human figures. His practice began about ten years ago when he carved a likeness of his child, sparking a dedicated focus on figurative woodcarving that captures universal human essence rather than specific portraits.

Pejac Transforms Basic Graph Paper into Detailed, Trompe-L’œil Tableaux

Artist Pejac has created a new series of detailed, trompe-l'œil tableaux on basic graph paper. He transforms the two-dimensional grid into scenes of depth and movement, such as children throwing snowballs that are actually cubes from the grid itself, and a construction worker carving the iconic Sistine Chapel hand motif from the paper's lines.

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.

Bat-Ami Rivlin “Untitled (radiators, zip ties)” at Management, New York

Artist Bat-Ami Rivlin has opened a new site-specific installation titled 'Untitled (radiators, zip ties)' at Management gallery in New York. The work features an assembly of locally sourced radiators bound by zip ties, presented in a sparse arrangement that transforms the gallery space.

Julien Bismouth “Exonumia” at Layr, Vienna

Artist Julien Bismouth presents his solo exhibition "Exonumia" at Layr gallery in Vienna. The show features new works that explore the transformation of meaning and the imposition of successive interpretations on the fabric of life, as suggested by the accompanying quote from philosopher Simone Weil.

Vietnam to Debut at 2026 Venice Biennale

Vietnam will make its historic debut at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026 with its first-ever national pavilion titled “Viet Nam: Art in the Global Flow.” Located at the Ca’ Giustinian Faccanon palace and curated by Đỗ Tường Linh, the exhibition will feature works by ten contemporary artists, including a major immersive installation by Lê Hữu Hiếu. Hiếu’s contribution, titled "Tằm" (Silkworm), utilizes traditional materials like lacquer and jackfruit wood alongside live silkworms to explore themes of metamorphosis and memory.

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.