Yoko Ono's first solo museum exhibition in Southern California, titled "Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind," opens at The Broad in Los Angeles from May 23 to October 11, 2026. The show traces the evolution of her practice from early Fluxus experiments in the 1950s to her participatory installations of the 2000s, highlighting how her instruction-based works transformed spectators into collaborators.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art has opened a new exhibition titled “Rising Up: Rocky & the Making of Monuments” to mark the 50th anniversary of the original Rocky film (1976) and the 250th anniversary of the United States. The show examines the Rocky statue as a monument tied to the museum and Philadelphia, featuring works by artists such as Keith Haring, Rashid Johnson, Delilah Montoya, Tavares Strachan, Hank Willis Thomas, Kara Walker, Andy Warhol, and Carrie Mae Weems. It also highlights Philadelphia's boxing history, including Joe Frazier and the Blue Horizon venue.
The Denver Art Museum (DAM) has opened a new photography exhibition titled "What We’ve Been Up to: People," featuring 60 never-before-exhibited photographs from its collection. The show includes works by renowned artists such as Andy Warhol, Richard Avedon, Graciela Iturbide, Dorothea Lange, Tina Modotti, and Andrea Modica, with images spanning from 1929 to 1999. The exhibition aims to highlight the behind-the-scenes work of curators—acquisitions, research, conservation—while offering the public a chance to see fresh acquisitions and overlooked treasures.
Telfair Museums in Savannah, Georgia, has opened a new exhibition titled "Off the Coast of Paradise: Artists and Ossabaw Island, 1961–Now," exploring the profound impact of the undeveloped barrier island on artists. The show focuses on the Ossabaw Island Project and Genesis, two multidisciplinary residency programs that operated from 1961 to 1982, and features work by 32 artists who were inspired or transformed by their time on the island. The exhibition runs through September 6, 2026, at The Jepson Center for the Arts.
Swedish artist Mamma Andersson is preparing for a new exhibition, 'Œuvres sur papier', at David Zwirner Paris, showcasing her works on paper including aquatint, etching, lithograph, and woodcut. The article visits her studio in Stockholm, where she discusses her creative process, recurring motifs like chairs, masks, and deer, and her collaborations with writer Karl Ove Knausgaard. The show also features vitrines with reference materials and books alongside original artworks.
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.
The New Yorker's Hilton Als reviews "Marcel Duchamp," a major retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, running through August 22, 2026. Curated by Matthew Affron, Michelle Kuo, and Ann Temkin, it is the first North American retrospective of Duchamp's work since 1973, organized in collaboration with the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The exhibition spans MoMA's entire sixth floor, showcasing Duchamp's shape-shifting practice—from iconic works like "Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2)" (1912) and "Bicycle Wheel" (1951) to his readymades and conceptual pieces—emphasizing his rejection of commodification and embrace of intellectual freedom, play, and queer sensibilities.
A roundup of summer art exhibitions across Maine highlights dozens of artists showing at galleries and pop-up spaces from Rockport to Portland. Notable shows include Alexandre Gallery's pop-up featuring charcoal works by the late Cooper Union-trained artist Emily Nelligan, who spent decades depicting Cranberry Island; Karma's annual summer pop-up at artist Ann Craven's deconsecrated church in Thomaston; and solo exhibitions at Caldbeck Gallery, Courthouse Gallery, and Cove Street Arts. Other venues such as Carver Hill Gallery, Corey Daniels Gallery, Dowling Walsh, and Moss Galleries present group and solo shows spanning landscape painting, mythical imagery, and works addressing social resistance.
Citi Wealth's report, "State of the Art Market 2026: Don’t Call It A Comeback," finds that the global art market entered 2026 with renewed optimism, but confidence is highly selective and concentrated at the high and accessible ends. The November 2025 Modern and Contemporary Art auctions in New York surged 77% year-on-year to $2.2 billion, driven by the record-breaking $236.4 million sale of Gustav Klimt's *Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer* from the Leonard Lauder collection. However, numerous galleries closed in 2025, including BLUM gallery and Venus Over Manhattan, and traditional hubs like London and New York face slow growth while emerging regions gain influence.
Administrators' filings for Stephen Friedman Gallery reveal a total debt of £7.8 million following its closure in February. Three prominent artists—Alexandre Diop, Deborah Roberts, and Kehinde Wiley—are among the unsecured creditors owed a combined £795,000, expected to recover only eight to nine pence per pound. The largest secured creditor is Coutts & Company, owed £3.1 million, followed by Pentland Group with £1.4 million outstanding. The gallery also owes £505,113 to the Pollen Estate for its Cork Street lease, £550,000 to HMRC, and significant sums to shipping and storage firms, including Crozier (£256,470) and Gander & White (£86,772). Art fairs Frieze and Art Basel Qatar are owed £71,227 and £18,763 respectively.
Gallery Weekend Berlin returns for its 22nd edition from May 1 to 3, 2026, featuring 50 galleries across 66 locations throughout the city. The event showcases both established and emerging artists from over 30 countries, with highlights including Martine Syms's pop-up boutique at Sprüth Magers, Göksu Kunak's performance-based exhibition at Ebensperger, and a new sector called Perspectives featuring James Turrell. Other notable presentations include Wynnie Mynerva's exploration of love and colonialism at Société, Monty Richthofen's city-wide performance at Dittrich & Schlechtriem, and Hanna Stiegeler's intimate screenprinted canvases at Sweetwater.
The Venice Biennale's 2024 edition is embroiled in political controversy surrounding its national pavilions, particularly those of Russia, South Africa, and Israel. The Russian pavilion's readmission amid the war in Ukraine drew sharp criticism from the artistic community and led the European Union to withdraw approximately two million euros in funding. The Israeli pavilion, which remained empty in 2024 to protest hostage situations, now features a proposal by sculptor Belu-Simion Fainaru, prompting protests from the Art Not Genocide Alliance and over 200 artists demanding its exclusion. The curatorial team, appointed by the late curator Koyo Kouoh, resigned collectively nine days before the opening, and the Biennale's directorship canceled the opening ceremony, postponing awards to November. Demonstrations led by Art Not Genocide Alliance, Pussy Riot, and FEMEN surrounded the Russian pavilion during the press opening, and a strike by cultural workers is planned for May 8th.
Cosa non perdere della nuova edizione di The Phair, la fiera della fotografia di Torino
The seventh edition of The Phair, a photography fair in Turin, Italy, opened on Thursday, May 21, at the Sala Fucine of the Officine Grandi Riparazioni. Founded by Roberto Casiraghi and Paola Rampini, the fair features 42 national and international galleries. Highlights include a surprising automotive partnership at the entrance, and standout presentations from Red Lab Gallery (Ezio D’Agostino and Carlotta Valente), Alberto Damian Gallery (Paolo Gioli), Roccavintage (Costanza Gastaldi), Tucci Russo (Giulio Paolini), Raw Messina (Kri Babusci), and Galleria Umberto Benappi (Ugo Mulas). Other notable artists include Arnulf Rainer, Anton Corbijn, Luigi Ontani, and Simon Starling.
Raffaella Cortese opened a small 12-square-meter space in Albisola Superiore, Italy, in June 2022, described as "more a think tank than an exhibition space." The venue, located near the Ligurian sea, honors the town's legacy as a center for contemporary ceramics from the 1950s to the 1970s, hosting artists like Lucio Fontana and Asger Jorn. The space alternates works from Cortese's Milan gallery with collaborations from emerging galleries, such as Fanta-MLN of Milan (presenting Noah Barker's installation "lux principum" in 2023) and Gian Marco Casini Gallery of Livorno (featuring Clarissa Baldassarri's "Exposure value" in 2024). A future collaboration with Triangolo gallery of Cremona is scheduled for May–September 2026, showcasing Nicole Colombo's sculpture "Rosario (to the moon and back)."
D’un artiste à son marchand
A new book titled "Miró-Loeb. Correspondance. 1926-1936" has been published by Éditions Norma, presenting the previously unpublished correspondence between Spanish painter Joan Miró and his Parisian dealer Pierre Loeb from 1926 to 1936. The volume includes photographs, reproductions of artworks, an illustrated record of Miró's exhibitions at Galerie Pierre, a prologue by art historian Joan Punyet Miró (the artist's grandson), and contributions from Albert Loeb (Pierre's son) and Sonia Loeb (his granddaughter), contextualizing a decade of exchanges amid cultural ferment and rising tensions. The book also features sparser letters from 1945 until Loeb's death in 1963, tracing the evolution of their relationship.
Un Guillon-Lethière pour Worcester
The Worcester Art Museum has acquired Guillaume Guillon-Lethière's painting "Lucien Bonaparte contemplant Alexandrine de Bleschamp Jouberthon" (1802), which depicts the second brother of Napoleon with his second wife. The work had been on loan to the museum from London dealers Lowell Libson and Johnny Yarker, who had purchased it at a Christie's New York auction in October 2019 after it resurfaced in a Portland sale in 2005. The painting was featured prominently in the 2024-2025 Louvre exhibition "Guillon-Lethière. Né à la Guadeloupe," where it was reunited with a portrait of its patron Lucien Bonaparte.
Un tableau de Gerard van Honthorst à Utrecht
The Centraal Museum in Utrecht has acquired a painting by Gerard van Honthorst, titled *Extase de Marie-Madeleine* (c. 1618-1620), purchased from Cantore Galleria. The work was previewed at TEFAF Maastricht, where the museum also announced a major retrospective dedicated to the artist, titled "Gerard van Honthorst - En tout point différent de Rembrandt," which opened on April 25.
À la BnF, des merveilles de cartes pour imaginer des mondes nouveaux
The Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) is presenting an exhibition of extraordinary maps that blend imagination with cartography, tracing the evolution of maps from ancient tools of navigation to fantastical creations that fueled exploration and myth. The show features rare works including Renaissance sea monsters, cosmological paintings, and literary maps from Tolkien's Middle-earth and George R.R. Martin's Westeros, alongside contemporary artists like Alighiero Boetti, Sergio Aquindo, and Michael Druks who use maps to express personal and political visions.
Almost half of the artists in the 61st Venice Biennale's international exhibition, along with 16 national pavilion teams, have withdrawn from awards consideration in solidarity with the jury's resignation. The jury resigned on April 30 after stating it would not consider countries whose leaders are charged with crimes against humanity by the ICC, effectively disqualifying Israel and Russia. The Biennale Foundation then replaced the traditional Golden Lions with new "Visitor Lions" decided by public vote, reinstating all pavilions including Israel and Russia. The withdrawal follows protests at the Russian and Israeli pavilions and a historic labor strike that shuttered multiple pavilions.
Stano Filko's exhibition "Painting" at Layr in Vienna challenges the persistent binary opposition between painting and conceptualism. The show presents Filko's work from around 1980, a period when debates over the merits of painting versus conceptual art were at their peak, offering a nuanced perspective that complicates this historical divide.
Iran has withdrawn from the 2026 Venice Biennale, the world's most important art event, organizers announced on May 4. No official reason was given, but the withdrawal comes amid an uncertain ceasefire in Iran's war with the United States and Israel. The Biennale confirmed the decision in a statement, noting that 100 countries will still participate, including newcomers Tanzania and Seychelles. This follows South Africa's withdrawal over a legal dispute concerning a Gaza-focused artwork, and the closure of the Russian Pavilion to the public after the EU withdrew €2 million in funding over Russia's involvement.
Air de Paris presents "Oh What A Time," a group exhibition running from April 16 to May 2, 2026, featuring works by Trisha Donnelly, Joseph Grigely, Pati Hill, Pierre Joseph, Allen Ruppersberg, Lily van der Stokker, Mona Varichon, and Amy Vogel. The show brings together eight artists in a concise two-week presentation at the Parisian gallery.
Turquoise gallery in New York is presenting a group exhibition titled "Who’s Afraid of____?" from March 27 to May 10, 2026. The show features works by Anna-Sophie Berger, K.P. Brehmer, David Diao, Gaylen Gerber, Joseph Grigely, John Heartfield, Nandi Loaf, and Alicia Riccio, with images courtesy of the artists, The Heartfield Community of Heirs / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, and the gallery.
Meow Wolf's upcoming Los Angeles location, set to open later this year in a former Cinemark movie theater in West L.A., will feature a 20-foot-tall, 1,000-pound amoeba-like creature named WoWoW, created by the L.A.-based multimedia collective Everything Is Terrible. WoWoW serves as the centerpiece of "the N.E.S.T.," an EIT-designed section of the 26,000-square-foot immersive exhibition space that tells the story of the Noothies, a fictional community of former film workers who discover a god and a hidden truth about reality. The installation pays tribute to maximalist roadside attractions like Wisconsin's House on the Rock and New Mexico's Tinkertown Museum, and is one of 45 installations by local collaborating artists including Gabriela Ruiz and David Altmejd.
Artist David Adey is the subject of a mid-career survey, “David Adey: Sacrificial Bodies,” opening April 25 at the Oceanside Museum of Art. The 70-piece exhibition, curated by gallery owner Mark Quint in collaboration with Adey, spans 25 years of his career and includes a 2026 re-creation of his 2001 piece “The Lamb,” which features a reconstructed lamb carcass. Adey, now 53, originally created the work as a graduate student at Cranbrook Academy of Art. The show also features pieces like “Gravitational Radius” and “2,127 Rounds,” a sculpture made by firing an AR-15, Glock 34, and shotgun into cedar.
The Charles H. MacNider Art Museum in Mason City, Iowa, has opened its 46th Annual Cerro Gordo Photo Show in the Center Space Gallery, sponsored by the Safford and Lena Lock Photo Endowment Fund. Sixty-two entries were submitted by residents of Cerro Gordo County and students at North Iowa Area Community College, with 36 photographs by 20 artists selected for exhibition. An opening reception and awards ceremony will be held on May 7, 2026, with cash prizes including $125 for Best in Show. The exhibition runs through July 11, 2026, and admission is free.
The 46th Annual Cerro Gordo Photo Show has opened at the Charles H. MacNider Art Museum's Center Space Gallery in Mason City, Iowa. The exhibition features 36 photographs by 20 artists from Cerro Gordo County and North Iowa Area Community College, selected by a panel of judges from 62 entries. Artists include Alec Heggen, Brad Janson, Wendy Janson, Dennis Nettifee, Margo Underwood, Lisa Wolf, and many others from Clear Lake, Mason City, and Plymouth. The show is sponsored by the Safford and Lena Lock Photo Endowment Fund, with an opening reception and awards ceremony scheduled for May 7, offering cash prizes including $125 for Best in Show.
Danish artist Kasper Eistrup (b. 1973) presents his first solo exhibition in Germany, titled "Bridges Over Magma," at Galerie Schimming in Hamburg. The show features a new body of work created during a recent artist-in-residence program in Hamburg, where Eistrup drew inspiration from the city's famous bridges and his ongoing exploration of painting and drawing. The compositions blend meticulously rendered figures with architecture, flora, fauna, handwritten text, and abstract textures, exploring themes of human connection and resilience.
“Io non sono Un Pittore Anacronista”. La ricerca fraintesa dell’artista Carlo Maria Mariani
The Fondazione Carlo Maria Mariani issues a corrective statement defending the late artist Carlo Maria Mariani (1931–2021) against persistent misclassification as an "Anacronista" or "Postmodern" painter. The foundation argues that critics and institutions have superficially lumped Mariani into the anachronistic movement of 1970s–80s Italy, ignoring the conceptual and cerebral foundations of his work. Currently, a solo exhibition titled *I Segni dei Tempi* is on view at the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte in Naples until July 14, curated by Andrea Viliani and Antonio Martino. This follows a 2024 show at the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence and precedes a major retrospective at Palazzo Citterio in Milan in 2026, curated by Eike Schmidt.
Fondazione Elpis in Milan has appointed Marcella Ferrari as its new director, effective April 2026, marking a new phase for the foundation founded by Marina Nissim in 2020. Ferrari plans to expand the foundation's spaces in Porta Romana with the addition of Villa and Atelier Elpis alongside the existing Lavanderia, creating a constellation of venues for residencies, production, education, and public programs. She emphasizes listening to staff, artists, curators, and the local community, while strengthening international relations and developing projects that connect artistic production with public space and contemporary research.