MAD's lucas museum of narrative art in los angeles prepares for september 2026 opening

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles's Exposition Park has announced its public opening for September 22, 2026. Designed by MAD (Ma Yansong), the futuristic building features a sculptural canopy with over 1,500 fiberglass-reinforced polymer panels, a 56-meter central archway, and a four-story elliptical oculus. Co-founded by filmmaker George Lucas and Mellody Hobson, the museum will house 9,290 square meters of galleries drawing from a collection of more than 40,000 works spanning classic illustration, muralism, comic art, science fiction imagery, and cinematic artifacts. Landscape architect Mia Lehrer is transforming surrounding parking lots into a shaded public oasis with over 200 trees. Sandra Jackson-Dumont, the former CEO, left her post in April 2025 as the museum restructured, splitting the roles of director and CEO, with Lucas steering artistic content.

George and Amal Clooney Are Teaming Up With Christie's For a Special Auction

Christie's will auction four contemporary artworks during its Fall Marquee Week on November 20, 2025, benefiting the Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ), founded by George and Amal Clooney. Three works were donated by female artists—Caroline Walker, Flora Yukhnovich, and Ulala Imai—with estimates ranging from $20,000 to $50,000; a fourth piece by Roni Horn will be offered through Christie's private sales division. The auction takes place during the Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale, with a public viewing at Christie's Rockefeller Center starting November 7.

Celebrating British rave culture and the African-American experience in new Croydon video exhibition

A major new art exhibition titled HARDCORE/LOVE opens at the Whitgift Centre in Croydon, showcasing seminal video works by acclaimed artists Arthur Jafa and Mark Leckey. The exhibition combines Jafa's 'Love is the Message, The Message is Death' (2016) and Leckey's 'Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore' (1999), and is led by artist-run studio programme Conditions in partnership with gallerist Gavin Brown. It will run until August 10, 2025.

Folk is having a revival—in the art world too

The article reports on the growing revival of folk culture in the visual arts, centered on the Neo Ancients festival in Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK. The second edition of the festival, held over May Day weekend, featured an eclectic mix of music, Morris dancing, talks, film screenings, and exhibitions celebrating British folklore. Art dealer James Elwes organized a show at the local gallery Rattle and Brash, featuring artists like Sue Webster, Jeremy Deller, and Stanley Donwood, who presented works outside their usual practices. Exhibitions included Donwood's 'Floralia' and Webster's new self-portraits exploring pregnancy and reinvention.

Diego Gualandris “Floralia” at ADA, Rome

Diego Gualandris presents "Floralia" at ADA gallery in Rome, an exhibition that explores themes of growth, nature, and human intervention through a poetic lens. The show features works that evoke the cycle of life and decay, using floral motifs to reflect on the fragility of existence and the tension between natural processes and external forces.

Daniel Sackheim Traverses Los Angeles’ Noir Side in ‘The City Unseen’

Emmy Award-winning director and photographer Daniel Sackheim is set to release a new photography book titled 'The City Unseen,' which explores the noir aesthetic of Los Angeles. Moving away from the city's sunny stereotypes, Sackheim utilizes high-contrast black-and-white photography to capture a gritty, cinematic underbelly inspired by hardboiled detective novels and historic urban architecture. The project features dramatic silhouettes and deep shadows that create a sense of timeless mystery across iconic L.A. locales.

Inside ‘The Space Between’: A dialogue between craft and contemporary art

The exhibition ‘The Space Between’ at Ojas Art gallery features a collaborative dialogue between designers Siddhartha Das and Chiara Nath, bridging the gap between traditional Indian craft and contemporary design. Das presents architectural interpretations of historic sites like the Jagannath Temple alongside a vast botanical series that evolves from historical Company School naturalism into modern sculptural forms in brass, marble, and plaster. Nath contributes intimate embroidered works that translate personal memories of her family and upbringing into tactile, design-led narratives.

Pond Gallery in Fayetteville, Arkansas

Pond Gallery, a new artist-run exhibition space, has opened in the basement of a former flower shop on the downtown square in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Founded in May 2024 by artist-friends Taylor Loftin, Ty Barnes, and Christian Schultz, the gallery operates on a DIY model, with the founders handling construction, curation, and rent. Its programming, including recent shows by Akeylah Imani Wellington and Natalie Conway, focuses on creating a communal hub for local artists.

In the Curator’s Words: At Studio Door, honoring ‘The Natural World’

Laura Green and Pierre Bounaud have co-curated a new exhibition titled "The Natural World" at The Studio Door in Hillcrest, San Diego, running from May 8 through June 12. The show features paintings by Green and ceramic and glass works selected by Bounaud, all exploring humanity's complex relationship with nature. Green's impressionistic paintings focus on animals and plants from the San Diego landscape, while Bounaud emphasizes clay and glass as materials drawn from the earth. The exhibition includes works by artists such as Oscar Romo and Kathleen Kane Murrell, who address environmental themes and conservation.

Debra Wick’s raindrop art on display in Redlands

Artist Debra Wick is presenting a new series of hyper-realistic watercolor paintings focused on the intricate physics of raindrops at the Redlands Art Association. The exhibition, running from April 18 to May 15, showcases Wick’s unique self-taught technique involving masking fluid and layered washes to capture atmospheric reflections, alongside her earlier works and functional art pieces like painted umbrellas and pillows.

Gallery collection on display

The Naracoorte Art Gallery has launched 'ORIGIN', a retrospective exhibition showcasing the foundational pieces of its permanent public collection. The show features acquisitions made between the gallery's founding in 1968 and the early 1980s, including the institution's very first acquisition, a pencil drawing by Robert Walter Felling, alongside significant works by Australian modernists like Mervyn Smith and Judith Heidenreich.

The Shortlist: Must-see Milwaukee exhibits opening or closing in April

Milwaukee’s art scene is preparing for a busy April season anchored by the city’s quarterly Gallery Night on April 17 and 18. Key highlights include the Milwaukee Art Museum’s 18th annual Art in Bloom, which pairs floral arrangements with works from the permanent collection, and the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design’s (MIAD) senior capstone exhibition. Other notable shows include Var Gallery’s 12th annual "30x30x30" challenge and Gabrielle Marie Stone’s "Snack Shop" at Kim Storage Gallery.

Yvette Mayorga & MASS Gallery Announce Open Call for Austin Artists

Chicago-based multidisciplinary artist Yvette Mayorga, in collaboration with Austin’s nonprofit MASS Gallery, has announced an open call for artists living in the Greater Austin area to submit existing works for an exhibition titled *Lost and Found*, scheduled for January 17 through February 14, 2026, at MASS Gallery. The open call is part of the community engagement phase of Mayorga’s major public art project for the new concourse at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (ABIA), set to open in 2030. Her project draws on her ancestral ties to the Bracero Program, exploring the emotional resonance of personal objects carried across borders and generations. The exhibition aims to give visibility to local artists while building community around themes of migration, ecology, and the flora and fauna of Texas and Mexico.

Artists transform 12 Miami Beach hotels for ‘No Vacancy’

Miami Beach's city government runs 'No Vacancy,' an annual art exhibition that transforms around a dozen hotels and resorts across the city. Now in its fourth year, the program selects local and Miami-rooted artists—including Amanda Linares, Lee Pivnik, Pepe Mar, and Edison Peñafel—through a competitive open call to create site-specific works in public areas of participating properties such as Casa Faena, Miami Beach EDITION, and The Betsy Hotel. The exhibition has been extended from two weeks to four weeks this year, and visitors can explore the works via a self-guided tour, with over 200 artists submitting for the current edition.

'Blind Sight': Local artist to present show at Equinox Village

The Gallery at Equinox Village in Manchester, Vermont, will host an exhibition titled "Blind Sight" by local resident and artist Jane Johnson. The opening reception on November 20 will feature live music by Mark LaChac, appetizers, and refreshments, and the show runs through January 6. Johnson, who became legally blind in October 2024, presents a whimsical collection including "Vermont Impressions" paintings, pierced portraits, and floral arrangements, inspired by her journey before and after losing her sight.

Two San Francisco Legends Will Open a Huge Cafe and Gallery at Pier 29

Mokhtar Alkhanshali, a pioneer of specialty Yemeni coffee in San Francisco, and author Dave Eggers are partnering to open a cafe and gallery at Pier 29's Art + Water, a new 70,000-square-foot arts nonprofit set to launch in late summer or fall 2026. Alkhanshali will operate a large cafe space featuring a new luxury coffee brand, while Art + Water will offer free studio space for artists and 10,000 square feet of gallery space, hosting rotating artists and workshops in collaboration with the Community Arts Stabilization Trust.

Artists, Fashion Designers Tap State-of-the-Art AI for NVIDIA GTC Paris Gallery

NVIDIA GTC Paris, held June 10-12 at VivaTech, will feature a curated AI art gallery showcasing seven artists and fashion designers who use machine learning to create artwork. Exhibitors include aurèce vettier (Paul Mouginot), whose series 'le travail des rêves' and 'the light that is not seen' train AI on personal childhood photos to generate dreamlike oil paintings, and Senegalese artist Linda Dounia Rebeiz, whose project 'Once Upon a Garden' documents extinct flora from West Africa's Sahel region using AI-generated imagery. The gallery aims to demonstrate how AI can serve as a creative partner rather than just a tool.

‘A homage to heritage’: first-of-its kind collaboration between museum and football team celebrated with documentary

A new documentary titled 'Made in Walthamstow,' directed by Xaymaca Awoyungbo, chronicles the creation of the first-ever football kit designed in collaboration with a museum. The shirts were produced by north east London team Walthamstow FC together with the William Morris Gallery, arts organization Wood Street Walls, and brand Admiral Sportswear. Worn by the team since 2023, the kits feature floral designs by 19th-century designer William Morris, who lived in the building that now houses the gallery.

‘Preserving Beauty’: Art exhibition spotlights artistic talent among Bay Area mothers

The Creative Mamas Collective organized the 'Preserving Beauty' art exhibition at the Google Huddle building in the Bay Area, featuring visual art and musical performances by 12 local mothers. The show, curated by floral artist Mandi Lin, included works such as Reshma Bhoopal's fused glass 'Ebb & Flow,' Annapurna Devagiri's watercolor 'Sun Kissed Petals,' Shruti Gopinathan's mixed-media 'Once Upon a Redwood Grove,' and Isabelle Ip's textile piece 'Solace,' all inspired by nature and environmental preservation.

Dialogues with the Legacy of Burle Marx at MAC CCB

DIALOGUES WITH THE LEGACY OF BURLE MARX AT MAC CCB

The Museum of Contemporary Art and Architecture Center (MAC/CCB) in Lisbon is presenting a major exhibition titled 'Lugar de estar: o legado Burle Marx' (A Place to Be: The Legacy of Burle Marx). The show features an extensive selection of landscape projects for public spaces by the influential Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx and his collaborators, tracing nearly seventy years of work through studies, sketches, photographs, and press materials. It highlights his role in shaping modern Brazilian cities like Brasília and Rio de Janeiro.

A Roma un evento per indagare le relazioni tra scienza e moda. Intervista alla curatrice Dobrila Denegri

From May 13 to 15, 2026, the MACRO – Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma will host "Science Fashion," an event curated by Dobrila Denegri that explores the intersections of fashion, science, and new technologies. The program brings together international researchers and practitioners in experimental fashion to discuss urgent issues such as climate emergency, energy, and interspecies coexistence. It is part of the broader multi-year initiative "Experiments in Fashion and Art," launched in 2024 with "Critical Fashion," and involves collaborations with NABA, Sapienza University of Rome, and UnitelmaSapienza.

In an exhibition in Naples it is possible to get lost without urgency in an unstable balance. The review

In una mostra a Napoli è possibile perdersi senza urgenza in un equilibrio instabile. La recensione

The exhibition "A Gentle Collapse," curated by Marta Ferrara at Andrea Nuovo Home Gallery in Naples, explores the contemporary psychic state through a spatial and perceptual construction. Featuring works in photography, painting, engraving, and installation, the show creates a sense of instability, with meaning emerging gradually through shifts between familiar and altered forms. Artists include Dorottya Vékony, Matteo Silverii, Flora Villaumié, and Zoë Pelikan, whose works engage with themes of genetic engineering, serial accumulation, and subtle disorientation across two gallery levels.

Mirror Silk Art Exhibitions

Shaniqwa Jarvis's solo exhibition 'Only Love Can Break Your Heart' opens at Public Gallery in London on 30 April 2026, featuring twelve works across silk, mirrored surfaces, aluminum, and collage. The show includes suspended silk panels in front of mirrors, floral imagery, portraiture, abstract compositions, a moving image work combining archival footage and recorded audio, and a second book titled 'GUTS' published by Super Labo with an introduction by curator Essence Harden.

Annual Art in Bloom returns to Fitchburg Art Museum

The Fitchburg Art Museum and the Laurelwood Garden Club have announced the 28th annual Art in Bloom celebration, running from April 23 to April 26. This year’s event coincides with the museum’s centennial anniversary and features 40 floral arrangements designed to interpret specific artworks from the permanent collection, including pieces from the exhibitions "Kaleidoscope" and "Festival: A Celebration of African Art."

Tugboat Printshop Marks 20 Years of Making Meticulously Crafted Woodblock Prints

Tugboat Printshop, founded by Valerie Lueth, is celebrating its 20th anniversary. The studio specializes in meticulously hand-carved woodblock prints, often using up to five distinct blocks layered with colorful ink to create detailed images of flora and fauna. Editions are typically limited to around 100 prints. To mark the milestone, the shop is offering a limited-time discount on original woodcut prints, and Lueth continues to share behind-the-scenes images on Flickr and Instagram.

art vestali altars fairfax dorn projects

Rose Theodora, an astronomer-artist from Vestali Studio, has collaborated with creative director and arts patron Fairfax Dorn of Fairfax Dorn Projects to launch a limited-edition series of contemporary furnishings called Vestali Altars. The first piece, the Alchemy of Metals Altar, is made from black volcanic stone and embedded with seven sculptural materials, each forged during its corresponding planetary hour and finished with a sigil tied to celestial bodies like Venus, the sun, or the moon. Only 10 Founders Edition pieces are available, designed to be used with candles, incense, florals, or contemplation.

A season of colour: Coimbatore gallery showcases works by Kongu Oviya Kalai Kuzhu

An exhibition at the Kasthuri Sreenivasan Art Gallery in Coimbatore showcases around 70 works by five artists of the Kongu Oviya Kalai Kuzhu: V. Rajendhran, Kumanan, Murugesan, Ramamoorthy, and Govindarajulu. The show features a wide range of styles—from realistic animal portraits and textured floral canvases to charcoal sketches of crows and Rajasthani-themed paintings—employing techniques such as knife work, spray painting, and texture painting with clay. Rajendhran’s works focus on textile design, Kumanan presents acrylics and seed-covered sculptures, and Ramamoorthy offers a series of crow sketches. The exhibition is part of the AURORA Series 2026 and runs through May 17.

Art in Bloom returns to Mia, transforming galleries with floral interpretations

Art in Bloom, the Minneapolis Institute of Art's annual floral showcase, returned from April 23 to 26, 2026, featuring over 160 flower arrangements inspired by artworks from the museum's permanent collection. The free, four-day event, presented by the Friends of the Institute, drew thousands of visitors and included guided tours, family activities, and expanded programming. Floral designers, florists, and garden clubs placed their interpretations alongside original pieces, with this year's centerpiece inspired by a Japanese Presentation vase from the early 20th century, once owned by railroad magnate James J. Hill.

Melville to become an open-air art gallery for a weekend

Melville Open Studios returns for its ninth year, transforming the Western Australian suburb into an open-air gallery for one weekend. Seventy-seven local artists will open their home studios and dedicated hubs—including Atwell House, Goolugatup Heathcote, Applecross Art Gallery, Feld & Co., and Myaree Ceramics—to the public. Visitors can explore ceramics, painting, printmaking, floristry, mixed media, and textiles, purchase artworks commission-free, and take guided bus tours across six routes. Coordinator Jennifer Gaye, who took over the event from the City of Melville in 2022, reports that last year's edition attracted 5,000 visitors and generated over $100,000 in direct sales for artists.

San Francisco's Fine Arts Museums Will Be Transformed With Over 100 Floral Designs — And It's Only Happening For One Week

The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco are launching the 42nd edition of "Bouquets to Art," a week-long exhibition featuring over 100 floral arrangements across the de Young and the Legion of Honor. These living sculptures, created by more than 120 floral designers, are specifically designed to interpret and complement the permanent collection's artworks and the museums' architecture. The event includes an impressionist-inspired garden and a series of lectures on the intersection of culture, photography, and floral design.