The 2026 Venice Biennale, the world’s oldest art exhibition, has opened with a theme centered on vitality and the celebration of life. The edition is described as both a passionate embrace of energy and a reminder of art’s lingering ghosts, offering a mixed but compelling experience for visitors.
Calla Henkel and Max Pitegoff, former artistic directors of Berlin's Grüner Salon, launched New Theater Hollywood in 2024 as a nonprofit venue on Santa Monica Boulevard. The 49-seat theater specializes in genre-defying, multidisciplinary collaborations, staging works like Sophie Becker's ventriloquist act *Ronnie's Big Idea* and Diamond Stingily's *The Driver*. Every performance sells out, attracting a cult following of literary, art world, and pop culture figures who often linger to discuss shows.
La Bretagne s’invite à la Biennale de Venise : un insolite pavillon dédié à la création bretonne s’est amarré dans la lagune
For the 61st Venice Biennale, a group of artists and art figures from Brittany have created an unofficial "Breton pavilion" in the form of a spectacular sailboat moored on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore. The boat, designed by artist Joachim Monvoisin, features contributions from Morgane Tschiember (who sewed a sail with a black cross, the 11th-century Breton flag) and master glassmaker Andrew Erdos (who made the navigation lights). Performances during the opening week included readings by Breton authors and traditional music concerts with binious and bombardes on the Via Garibaldi.
Faig Ahmed, the Baku-based artist known for transforming traditional Azerbaijani carpets into melting, glitching textile sculptures, has opened a solo presentation at the 61st Venice Biennale, where he represents Azerbaijan. Titled 'The Attention,' the sprawling, maze-like installation curated by Gwendolyn Collaço explores science, alchemy, spirituality, and self-perception, weaving together digital processes with handcrafted techniques. Works include monumental machine-woven carpets like 'I Can Contain Both Worlds But I Do Not Fit Into This One,' a handwoven piece called 'Ancestors' that glows under black light, and 'Entropy Altar,' which uses a quantum random number generator to respond to visitors. The exhibition bridges 15th-century Hurufi mysticism with modern information theory, reflecting Ahmed's interest in consciousness, quantum physics, and the dialectic between measurable science and subjective experience.
Gió Marconi Gallery in Milan will host 'Phantom Banter', the first Italian solo exhibition of American sculptor Ron Nagle, from May 29 to July 24, 2026. The show features eleven ceramic sculptures created between 2024 and 2026, along with a selection of recent drawings, highlighting Nagle's process-oriented practice focused on material, surface, and language. Nagle, born in San Francisco in 1939, is a key figure in the California Clay Movement, having apprenticed with Peter Voulkos in the 1960s and influenced by Ken Price. His small-scale works, rarely exceeding 15 centimeters, explore reduction of scale and surface construction through cast and fired ceramics combined with resins and synthetic materials.
NXT Gallery at Next Stage Arts in Putney, Vermont, presents “Forgotten Not Gone,” a new exhibition by Brattleboro-based artist Joey Morgan. The show features 12 mixed-media collage works salvaged from a previous project, “Have You Ever Loved Me?,” which was largely destroyed in a flood. An opening reception will be held on May 24, and the exhibition runs from May 8 to August 9.
Uzbek artist Saodat Ismailova is making her U.S. museum debut at the Smithsonian Institution. The exhibition introduces her multimedia works, which often explore Central Asian history, spirituality, and female identity, to an American audience for the first time.
Dozens of urban artists from 17 countries have gathered at Germany's Völklinger Hütte (Völklingen Ironworks), a UNESCO World Heritage site, for the Urban Art Biennale 2026 opening this Saturday. The exhibition features 50 artists including Tomas Lacque, Boris Tellegen (Delta), Vortex-X, Ampparito, Remi Rough, and Anders Reventlov, who have created site-specific installations that engage with the industrial landmark's sprawling spaces, rust, dust, and sense of decay. Works range from a van covered in ash-like paint to a massive wooden sculpture and a rooftop text piece visible from 45 meters high.
This is a sales listing for Aude Herledan's bronze sculpture "Black Venus" (2015), an editioned work from her series "Faithful To My African Roots." The piece is offered by 1831 Art Gallery in Paris, with a certificate of authenticity and price available on request. The listing also provides a biography of Herledan, a French-born artist raised in Kinshasa who studied at the École Estienne, Parsons School, École des Beaux-Arts, and École du Louvre, and who has shown at major fairs including TEFAA and Art Paris.
Chinese artist Huang Yulong's 2020 sculpture 'Top Dog' is being offered for sale through NextStreet Gallery in Paris. The limited-edition aluminum work, measuring 80 × 50 × 30 cm, is hand-signed by the artist and includes a certificate of authenticity. Huang, born in 1983 in Anhui Province and a graduate of the Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, is known for his sculptures of Buddhas in hoodies that blend Eastern tradition with Western contemporary style. The work is listed on Artsy with a price-on-request basis.
Warum fürchtet sich die Gegenwartskunst vor der Gegenwart?
The article critiques the 2024 Whitney Biennial, which emphasizes themes of compassion, vulnerability, and community. It argues that the exhibition feels like a capitulation to reality, failing to confront the rise of contemporary fascism and the political urgency of the present moment.
A Louvre agent appeared before a judge. The article, published in Le Journal des Arts on May 2, 2026, covers multiple art world stories including the Whitney Biennial's perceived neutrality, the increasing complexity of art taxation in 2025, a resized project for Bourges 2028 by Yann Galut, a new contemporary gallery at Angers Cathedral, the abandonment of the Frigos artist site in Paris, and auctioneer Hubert L'Huillier's emergency sales.
The sā Ladakh Biennale, billed as the world's highest art biennale, returns to Ladakh from August 1-10, 2026, after a previous edition. Held at 3,600 meters above sea level, the event transforms the corridor between Leh and Kargil into an open-air exhibition titled 'Signals from Another Star', curated by Vishal K Dar and Tsering Motup across eight locations including Basgo, Lamayuru, and Kargil. It features 24 artists, including international figures like Jitish Kallat, Anna Jermolaewa, Peter Kogler, and Agnieszka Kurant, alongside local artists such as Tundup Dorjay, Chemat Dorjey, and Stanzin Samphel. Works are created using natural materials like stone, clay, and wool, and are designed to eventually disintegrate, reflecting the fragile ecosystem.
This article is a promotional piece for the DW English program 'Arts Unveiled,' highlighting several upcoming segments. It announces the start of the 61st Venice Biennale, the world's largest art exhibition, and poses questions about its standout features and art's role in times of crisis. Other segments explore the American Dream as a nightmare on the 250th anniversary of US independence, and feature Indigenous artist Britta Marakatt-Labba, who creates embroidered polar landscapes reflecting Sámi culture.
Internationally acclaimed Miami-based artist Edouard Duval-Carrié has been selected to represent Haiti at the 2026 Venice Biennale, the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. Ahead of the May 9 opening, Duval-Carrié hosted a behind-the-scenes preview event at his Little Haiti studio in Miami on April 24, 2026, where he discussed his conceptual approach. His installation draws on themes of history, politics, and spirituality in Haiti and the Caribbean, reflecting evolving perspectives on the nation's past and present. Duval-Carrié collaborated with Vanessa Selk, founding artistic director of the Tout-Monde Art Foundation, to frame Haiti's presence as both a national showcase and a reflection of diasporic influence and Caribbean identity. The exhibition runs through November 22, 2026.
Japanese artist Yuko Mohri has created an exhibition where decomposing fruit powers electronic systems, and visitors move through the installations, becoming part of the circulation of energy within the show. The work explores the unseen energies connecting people and objects, blending organic decay with technological interactivity.
Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul is presenting "Inside Other Spaces: Environments by Women Artists, 1956–1976," an exhibition that reconstructs immersive environmental artworks by 11 pioneering women artists. Originally curated in 2023 at Haus der Kunst Munich and later shown at MAXXI in Rome and M+ in Hong Kong, the show features restored pieces including Judy Chicago's "Feather Room" (filled with 136 kg of white goose feathers), Jung Kangja's "Muchejeon" (restored after 56 years), Lygia Clark's "House Is Body: Penetration, Ovulation, Germination, Expulsion," and Marian Zazila, La Monte Young, and Jung Hee Choi's "Dream House: Environment of Sound and Light" (shown in Asia for the first time).
Pinakotheke Cultural, founded by Max Perlingeiro in Rio de Janeiro in 1979, will open a new, significantly larger gallery space in São Paulo on May 16. Located on Rua Minas Gerais in the Higienópolis neighborhood, the venue nearly doubles the size of the gallery's previous São Paulo outpost. The inaugural exhibition, "Surrealisms: Art Beyond Reason," curated by Max Perlingeiro and Tadeu Chiarelli, will feature approximately one hundred works by sixty artists from Europe, Latin America, North America, and the Caribbean, offering a comprehensive overview of the surrealist movement.
Medicine Hat artist Poul Nielsen, 78, is exhibiting his work in Venice, Italy, as part of the exhibition 'Anima Mundi (Rituals)' held in conjunction with the Venice Biennale. Nielsen, who has shown his art in around 100 solo and collaborative exhibitions across decades, began his international career with a show in Copenhagen in 2000 and has since exhibited in England, the United States, and China. His current series, 'Atmospheric Possibilities,' was started around 2015 after his retirement from teaching at Medicine Hat College, where he helped develop a pioneering program merging fine art and graphic design.
A major retrospective exhibition titled "Feedback. Gli ambienti di Franco Vaccari" has opened at Museion in Bolzano, Italy, dedicated to the late artist Franco Vaccari (1936–2025). The show features over twenty immersive environments, historical works, and recent video experiments drawn largely from the museum's permanent collection and the Franco Vaccari Archive of Visual Writing. Curated by Frida Carazzato and Luca Panaro in collaboration with Fosbury Architecture, the exhibition explores Vaccari's cross-disciplinary practice spanning photography, writing, and participatory installation art.
Il paradosso dell’arte contemporanea: il mondo è violento, ma le opere sono corrette e inoffensive
The article examines a paradox in contemporary art: as the world grows more violent and chaotic, art has become increasingly 'correct,' morally irreproachable, and inoffensive. The author argues that over the past fifteen years, artworks have been judged primarily by their moral and identity credentials, with curators acting as moral gatekeepers and censors. This shift coincides with a period when geopolitics, history, and public behavior have spiraled out of control, creating a strange compensatory dynamic where art is expected to be perfectly controlled and polite while reality grows brutal.
Song E Yoon's exhibition "Songs Across Time" at Spazio 996/A in Venice, presented as a Collateral Event of the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, pairs her Song E Code with Frédéric Bruly Bouabré's Bété alphabet. In an interview with Kun Sok, Yoon discusses how her work uses dots, intervals, and repetition to create a visual language that exists before conventional meaning, emphasizing bodily encounter, sensation, and the productive role of misreading.
The article, published by L'Officiel Art, provides a guide to fashion-brand-sponsored exhibitions at the 2026 Venice Biennale. It highlights projects by luxury houses including Bottega Veneta, Louis Vuitton, Zegna, and Bvlgari, framing them as unmissable cultural events within the broader Biennale program.
Serakai Studio presents 'dreamedcore', its second exhibition at GOLD in Hong Kong's Wong Chuk Hang district, running from June 6 to August 1. Curated by Shirley Lau and Tobias Berge, the show blends an art exhibition, concept store, and runway format to explore digital-age nostalgia through the lens of 'dreamcore' aesthetics—drawing on 1990s and early 2000s visual textures. Featuring 22 emerging multi-disciplinary artists and creative practitioners from across Asia, including Li Shuang, Wong Ping, and Peng Ke, the exhibition is divided into two chapters: 'The Lure' and 'The Twist', with a central runway stage, ambient lighting, and a mini cinema screening a video by Wong Ping.
The French Parliament has definitively adopted a permanent law on the restitution of cultural property looted during colonization, replacing the previous case-by-case legislative approach. The Senate unanimously approved the final text on May 7, 2026, following agreement in a joint committee on April 30, and the National Assembly had approved it the day before. The law creates a general derogation from the principle of inalienability of public collections, establishing a bilateral scientific committee to examine provenance, with final decisions made by decree of the Council of State. Key amendments from the National Assembly—including binding parliamentary votes on restitution and conditions on conservation and public access—were removed by the joint committee to avoid perceptions of neocolonial tutelage.
ShanghART Singapore presents 'Simplified', a solo exhibition by Chinese artist Tang Maohong opening on 16 May 2026. The show features paintings developed over the past two years since his relocation to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and marks his return to Singapore after a 2019 solo exhibition and twenty years since his participation in the first Singapore Biennale. Tang's new works explore a technique of mixing colors directly on the painting surface rather than using a palette, collapsing the image and the palette into a single pictorial space.
The Danish Arts Foundation has opened 'Things To Come', an exhibition by Danish artist Maja Malou Lyse at the Danish Pavilion in the Giardini, Venice, as part of the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Curated by Chus Martínez, the show runs until November 22, 2026, and features a film developed with the collective DIS, shot in a real sperm bank and special effects studio, alongside an installation titled 'Stars in My Pocket' that incorporates cryogenic fertility bank boxes and online 'sperm races' clips. The exhibition title references H.G. Wells' 'The Shape of Things to Come' and draws on scientific studies linking virtual sexual stimuli to increased sperm motility.
Agitare, educare, organizzare. Una conversazione con il collettivo indonesiano che è a Venezia con due progetti
Sale Docks, an activist art space born from a 2007 occupation in Venice, has invited the Indonesian collective Taring Padi to collaborate on two projects. The first is the exhibition "Taring Padi: People's Liberation," which reactivates banners as tools for propaganda, mobilization, and resistance. The second is a public intervention in Venice, where the collective and local community will repaint the walls of the historic social center Laboratorio Occupato Morion. The article includes an interview with Taring Padi, which was founded in 1998 in Yogyakarta by students and activists, and discusses their use of wayang shadow-puppet imagery and collaborative processes to agitate, educate, and organize communities.
The Doosan Yonkang Foundation has announced its sponsorship of the Korean Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale, which will take place from May 9 to November 22, 2026, at Giardini Park in Venice, Italy. The Korean Pavilion, titled "Liberation Space: Fortress and Nest," explores political events and historical transitions in Korean society from 1945 to the present, under the artistic direction of Choi Bitna. Participating artists include Noh Hyeri and Choi Goeun, along with fellows such as novelist Han Kang, farmer and activist Kim Huju, writer and singer Lee Lang, photographer Hwang Yeji, and artist Christian Nyampeta. Notably, Noh Hyeri and Choi Bitna are alumni of the foundation's support programs, Doosan Art Lab and Doosan Curator Workshop, respectively.
Iran has pushed back against reports that it withdrew from the 2024 Venice Biennale, with Aydin Mahdizadeh Tehrani, director-general of visual arts at Iran's ministry of culture, stating that the country never withdrew and is still in negotiations to participate. Tehrani told the Iran Students News Agency that Iran submitted a plan for a pavilion and is awaiting a final response, despite unresolved issues including sanctions, high rental costs, and the ongoing war with Israel and the US. Meanwhile, a separate unofficial pavilion called the Hyperstitional Pavilion of Iran, curated by Pouya Jafari and Nazli Jan Parvar, has been announced, featuring works by Iranian artists and organized by Finland-based nonprofit Perpetuum Mobile.