Daniel Johnston: I Think, I Draw, I Am

Daniel Johnston: I Think, I Draw, I Am is the largest New York solo exhibition of work by musician and artist Daniel Johnston (1961-2019). Curated by Lee Foster, co-owner of Electric Lady Studios and Curatorial Advisor for the Daniel Johnston Trust, the show features over 300 drawings that reveal the psychological depth and formal inventiveness of Johnston's comic-inspired art. Johnston first gained fame as a lo-fi musician in Austin, Texas, in the 1980s, and his graphic art reached a national audience when Kurt Cobain wore his Hi, How Are You? T-shirt at the 1992 MTV Music Awards.

Spanish Artist Juan Saliquet Explores Urban Soul in Art Exhibition

Spanish artist Juan Saliquet opened a solo exhibition titled "Archaeology of a City: Almaty" at Esentai Gallery in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on September 5, running until October 15. The show, organized by the Embassy of Spain in Kazakhstan and ART FUTURE, culminates Saliquet's international residency with the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID). Through photography, Saliquet captures Almaty's urban details—architecture, graffiti, reflections, and street fragments—treating the city as a living archive layered with memory and identity.

Directors Chosen by Internal Call Rather Than Competition: The Great Restoration of State Museums

Direttori scelti per interpello e non per concorso. La grande restaurazione dei musei statali

The Italian state museum system is undergoing a significant reversal of the landmark 2015 Franceschini reforms, which originally opened director positions to international competition and private-sector expertise. Recent appointments at major institutions like the Reggia di Caserta and the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice indicate a shift away from global searches toward internal ministerial assignments, effectively turning museum leadership back into a closed bureaucratic career path.

Step into the Sublime Sculptures of Bobby Anspach at the Newport Art Museum

The Newport Art Museum is hosting "Everything is Change," the first solo museum exhibition of the late sculptor Bobby Anspach. Curated by Taylor Baldwin, Anspach's former MFA professor at RISD, the show features immersive installations from his *Place for Continuous Eye Contact* series, alongside a documentary by Julia Barrett Mitchell and a restorative space called "The Nature of Choice" designed by architect Lauren Rottet. The exhibition spans five rooms across two floors, with trained guides facilitating visitors' experiences of Anspach's kaleidoscopic, perception-altering works.

Why Does Italy No Longer Qualify for the World Cup or the Biennials?

Perché l’Italia non si qualifica più né ai Mondiali né alle Biennali?

Artist Oscar Giaconia draws a provocative parallel between the decline of Italian football and the diminishing presence of Italian contemporary artists in major international forums like the Venice Biennale and Manifesta. He argues that both sectors suffer from a systemic failure to nurture young talent, characterized by a lack of strategic scouting, a preference for foreign trends, and a bureaucratic deafness that stifles growth.

Philippe Halsman's Portraits Feature the Entire 20th-Century Cultural Elite: The Exhibition in Veneto

Nei ritratti di Philippe Halsman c’è tutta l’élite culturale del Novecento. La mostra in Veneto

The Palazzo Pinato Valeri in Piove di Sacco, Italy, is hosting a comprehensive exhibition dedicated to the legendary photographer Philippe Halsman. The show traces his career from his early 1930s Parisian portraits to his iconic American period, featuring his surrealist collaborations with Salvador Dalí and his famous "Jumpology" series. The collection includes intimate and experimental portraits of 20th-century icons such as Marilyn Monroe, Albert Einstein, Alfred Hitchcock, and Sophia Loren.

Endless’s Street Art Calls Attention to London’s Homeless Crisis

British street artist Endless has installed a new public artwork on the corner wall of Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church in London. The piece depicts a rough sleeper in a sleeping bag with the text "210,000 Homeless today," creating a stark visual juxtaposition against the affluent backdrop of the nearby Oxford Street shopping district.

Exhibition | Claudia Keep, 'Waggle Dance' at Marguo, Paris, France

American artist Claudia Keep presents a new solo exhibition, 'Waggle Dance,' at the Marguo gallery in Paris. The exhibition features a poignant body of paintings that depict bees, flowers, and insects at a larger-than-life scale, conceived as records of an ever-changing world and imbued with an awareness of fragile ecological timelines.

Spain’s galleries are protesting against high taxes—can Arco Madrid help voice their concerns?

The 45th edition of Arco Madrid, Spain’s premier contemporary art fair, is set to host 206 galleries from 36 countries at the Ifema convention centre. While the fair remains a vital commercial hub, it is currently overshadowed by a nationwide protest from Spanish galleries against the country's 21% VAT on art purchases. This tax rate is among the highest in Europe, significantly outpacing neighbors like Portugal and France, leading to concerns about international competitiveness and the classification of contemporary art as a luxury elite product.

Photographer "Drift" Arrested at His Exhibition Opening

Photographer Isaac “Drift” Wright was arrested at his own solo exhibition opening at Robert Mann Gallery in Chelsea, New York, on Thursday night. NYPD officers charged him with third-degree trespassing, with an undercover officer reportedly present at the event. Wright, a former Army paratrooper known for climbing skyscrapers and restricted sites to capture high-altitude photographs, had previously served jail time in 2020 for evading police. His first solo show, titled "Coming Home," was intended to mark a fresh start, but the arrest occurred just two hours into the opening.

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A portrait of Anne Boleyn at Hever Castle in England has been revealed through infrared reflectography to have been altered to show her hands, countering rumors that she was a witch with six fingers. Tree-ring analysis dates the painting to around 1583, during the reign of her daughter Elizabeth I, making it the earliest known likeness of Boleyn. The underdrawing lacked hands, suggesting the unknown artist deliberately added them to rebut claims by Catholic activist Nicholas Sanders that Boleyn had six fingers.

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David Oyelowo and Ava DuVernay are reuniting for a new thriller film titled "Heist of Benin," more than a decade after their Oscar-winning collaboration on "Selma." The film is set in modern-day London and described as a thriller that intertwines art, love, and restitution. DuVernay will direct from a screenplay by Jesse Quiñones, based on an original idea. Oyelowo will star and produce under his Yoruba Saxon banner, with Studiocanal financing and distributing. The project was announced during Canal+’s ORIGINAL+ presentation in Paris.

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Zoe Dubno's novel *Happiness & Love* is a satire of the art world, heavily borrowing from Thomas Bernhard's 1984 novel *Woodcutters*. The book follows an unnamed narrator who relentlessly criticizes the vapid, social-climbing denizens of the downtown New York scene, using the word "stupid" over twenty times. The narrator laments the art world's obsession with wealth and clout over meaning and beauty, but her own hypocrisy and lack of self-awareness are evident. The novel has received superficial coverage from outlets like *New York Magazine*, focusing on the author's lifestyle rather than the book's content.

LA Artists Honor Dolores Huerta’s Defiant Spirit

The Chicano cultural center Plaza de la Raza in Los Angeles has launched "DOLORES," a major group exhibition celebrating the 96th birthday and enduring legacy of labor leader Dolores Huerta. Featuring works by over 30 artists, including Barbara Carrasco and Vincent Valdez, the show utilizes portraiture, mixed media, and depictions of migrant labor to honor Huerta’s contributions to the United Farm Workers (UFW) and Chicano civil rights.

Volunteer Restorer Accused of Painting PM Giorgia Meloni's Face into Angel on Church Fresco

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A volunteer restorer in Rome, Bruno Valentinetti, has been accused of altering a church fresco to make an angel bear the likeness of Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. The fresco, in the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Lucina, was restored after water damage, and the angel holding a map of Italy now appears to resemble the political leader. Valentinetti denies the likeness, claiming he faithfully followed the original design.

Sasaoka Yuriko’s Violent Puppeteering

The Shiga Museum of Art is hosting "Paradise Dungeon," a comprehensive exhibition of Sasaoka Yuriko’s video and sculptural works. The show traces the artist's career from her 2011 response to the Tōhoku earthquake to her latest large-scale installations, characterized by a "grotesque" aesthetic involving marionettes with digitally superimposed human faces. Her work utilizes mediated artifice—including fairground-style soundtracks, repurposed toys, and violent puppetry—to explore themes of consumption, sacrifice, and the dehumanizing nature of digital observation.

US Returns 337 Looted Objects to Italy in Repatriation Effort

The United States officially returned 337 looted antiquities to Italy at a ceremony held at La Marmora barracks in Rome. Of these, 221 objects were repatriated through the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, while the remaining 116 were recovered on April 10, 2026, via joint efforts by the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, the District Attorney’s Office, and Christie’s New York auction house. The objects span from the Villanovan era (900–700 BCE) to the Hellenistic period (323–31 BCE) and include a 1st-century CE marble head of Alexander the Great, a bronze sculpture from Herculaneum, and two Egyptian basalt sculptures.

In La Défense, a Plunge Between Art and Science into Abyssal Wonder

À La Défense, une plongée entre art et science d’un émerveillement abyssal

The exhibition "Sous l’horizon" (Under the Horizon) has opened in the Salle des colonnes, a massive underground space beneath the La Défense business district in Paris. Guided by a poetic narrative from writer Mariette Navarro and the voice of singer Emily Loizeau, visitors navigate a darkened 1,000-square-meter environment equipped with headlamps and audio headsets. The immersive journey features works by artists including Antoine Bertin, Ugo Schiavi, Jérémie Brugidou, and Shivay La Multiple, exploring the mysteries of the deep sea through bioluminescence, oceanic soundscapes, and futuristic sculptures.

art diane severin nguyen protest music

Artist-filmmaker Diane Severin Nguyen is preparing for her live-performance directorial debut, "WAR SONGS," premiering at the Performa Biennial in November 2025 at BRIC in Brooklyn. The piece features a cast of musicians performing a wide-ranging program of protest music, from Woody Guthrie to Black Sabbath, led by musical director Laszlo Horvath. Nguyen, known for her films exploring performance and identity, is working with a group that practices being a band rather than an actual band, creating a raw, protean work that blends music, theater, and filmic sensibilities.

Six environmental artists win this year’s Rewilding Art Prize

Six Canadian artists have been awarded the 2026 Rewilding Arts Prize, established in 2023 by the David Suzuki Foundation and Rewilding Magazine. The winners include Nicole McDonald-Fournier, whose project EmballeToi! repurposes old winter coats as plant-growing pots, and the Montreal/Toronto duo Masumi Rodriguez and Elena Kirby, who run community papermaking workshops using invasive plant species. The prize awards $2,000 to each artist and plans to feature their work in a future exhibition, following the inaugural winners' show at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa.

Through the Artist’s Eye: Art exhibition at Bikaner House | Latest News Delhi

Artist Stuart Robertson presents "Through the Artist's Eye" at Bikaner House's Centre for Contemporary Arts in New Delhi, an exhibition born from a 15-month residency at Dr Shroff's Charity Eye Hospital. The show features cyanotypes, digital photos, bronze and iron sculptures, and multimedia collages that recreate how patients with cataracts, glaucoma, and other visual impairments perceive the world. Robertson worked with children experiencing sight for the first time, and all proceeds from sales benefit the hospital.

Morpeth Contemporary presents “An Echo Familiar” paintings and sculpture

Morpeth Contemporary in Hopewell, New Jersey, is presenting “An Echo Familiar,” a solo exhibition of new paintings and sculptures by artist Mare McClellan, running from May 2 through May 24. The show features works inspired by McClellan's recent observations of caterpillars and moths, including mixed-media paintings with layered color and texture, as well as cocoon-like sculptures wrapped in wire and natural fibers. An opening reception will be held on May 2, followed by a Meet the Artist event on May 17.

Birmingham museum opens exhibition on death and grief

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery has launched a community-led exhibition exploring the universal experiences of death, dying, and grief. Curated in partnership with the local collective BrumYODO, the showcase features traditional mourning rituals alongside contemporary inquiries into how artificial intelligence might manage bereavement. The exhibition serves as the centerpiece for the annual "A Matter of Life and Death" festival, incorporating interactive workshops, clay-making sessions, and even a themed comedy night to engage the public with a typically taboo subject.

Creativity takes the stage at fifth annual ‘Art and Autism’ exposition

Florida Atlantic University’s Center for Autism and Related Disabilities (CARD) partnered with the City of Boynton Beach to host the fifth annual 'Art and Autism' exposition. Held at the Boynton Beach Arts & Cultural Center in honor of Autism Awareness Month, the event featured approximately 50 artists—a significant increase from the three or four participants at its inception in 2021. The showcase included a diverse array of media, from graphic illustrations and children's books by artists like Kiora Slate to live musical performances by Patrick Fahely, providing a public platform for neurodivergent creators to sell their work and share their personal stories.

Community Exhibition Explores Death, Grief and Rituals at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery has launched a community-led exhibition exploring the universal themes of death, grief, and mourning rituals. Part of the annual "A Matter of Life and Death Festival 2026," the showcase combines historical artworks from the museum’s permanent collection with contemporary perspectives, including the role of artificial intelligence in grief management. The program features interactive workshops led by artists Bianca Beneduzi and Jemma Mellor, as well as a comedy night designed to spark open dialogue about mortality.

Sarasota Art Museum exhibition highlights 40-year career of Janet Echelman

Sarasota Art Museum presents "Radical Softness," a retrospective exhibition spanning visual artist Janet Echelman's 40-year career. The show features her signature large-scale mesh sculptures suspended in cities worldwide, including the temporarily closed "Bending Arc" in St. Petersburg, alongside full-scale pieces and scale models. Echelman's work originated from a 1997 Fulbright lectureship in India, where lost paints led her to create art with fishing nets. The exhibition also includes her computer-programmed sculptures, which calculate angles, weight, and wind forces.

An open-air art gallery: Hogan Park at Highlands Creek

Hogan Park at Highlands Creek in Aurora, Colorado, is a 100-acre public park that doubles as an open-air art gallery, featuring around two dozen sculptures and painted installations along a two-mile trail. Curated by Carla Ferreira, CEO of the development, and her father, the park includes works by artists such as Michael Benisty, Hunter Brown, Daniel Popper, and Olivia Steele, with pieces designed to withstand Colorado's extreme weather. Notable installations include the 25-foot steel sculpture "Broken but Together," the viral fiberglass-reinforced concrete figure "Umi" by Daniel Popper, and a bronze bench honoring Dr. Justina Ford, part of the Statues for Equality initiative.

‘Shifting Grounds’ Opens at EOU’s Nightingale Gallery; Artist Talk Nov. 5

Eastern Oregon University’s Nightingale Gallery presents “Shifting Grounds,” a solo exhibition by Spokane-based artist and architect Andrew Parker. The show explores how place shapes identity through abstract mixed-media works that blend collage, India ink, colored pencil, and repurposed materials like personal photographs, grocery bags, and maps. An opening reception takes place November 7, and the artist will give a public talk on November 5. The exhibition runs through December 4.

Chirp Chat: Exploring what birds can teach us about ourselves through art

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.

Behind the Uniform Art Exhibition

The DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities gallery in Washington, D.C., is hosting "Behind the Uniform," an exhibition featuring artwork by 125 artists, including several Capitol Hill veterans. Curated by Kasse Andrews-Weller, an Army and Air Force veteran, and co-curated by Moira McGuire, the show presents works that express wartime experiences and personal stories, with many artists using art as a means of healing from trauma. Highlights include a large quilt by the Treasured Piece Makers, led by Anne Crouch, made from uniform fabric and mission logos, and a painting by Jeremiah Foxwell honoring his bomb-disposal partner Kevin Powell.