From Studio Ghibli to ‘Jaws:’ The 16 Coolest Museum Exhibitions To Visit In L.A. This Spring

Los Angeles is hosting a diverse array of major museum exhibitions this spring, ranging from cinematic retrospectives to ancient history and automotive culture. Key highlights include the Academy Museum’s immersive look at Studio Ghibli’s 'Ponyo' and a massive 50th-anniversary tribute to 'Jaws,' while the Getty Villa explores ancient Egyptian spirituality through the 'Book of the Dead.' Other notable shows include a 1990s fashion retrospective at the ASU FIDM Museum and a unique exploration of soccer culture at LACMA through the miniature sculptures of Lyndon J. Barrois, Sr.

The Big Review | The Woman Question 1550-2025 ★★★★½

The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw has launched "The Woman Question 1550-2025," a massive survey featuring nearly 200 works by 140 women artists spanning five centuries. Curated by Alison M. Gingeras, the exhibition uses the medieval concept of "la querelle des femmes" to explore how women have asserted their status as "citizen artists" against patriarchal structures. The show juxtaposes historical masterpieces by figures like Artemisia Gentileschi and Sofonisba Anguissola with contemporary provocations by Miriam Cahn and Lubaina Himid, focusing heavily on figurative painting and sculpture.

A brush with… Martina Droth, director of the Yale Center for British Art

Martina Droth, the recently appointed director of the Yale Center for British Art, shares her personal and professional perspectives on the role of art in society. In this interview, she reflects on her formative experiences traveling in Egypt, her reading habits that range from museum leadership to human behavior, and the daily inspiration she finds working alongside 18th-century landscapes by Richard Wilson.

Rose Wylie: The 91-year-old art world rebel in her prime

British painter Rose Wylie is preparing for a landmark solo exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, making her the first female British painter to receive a solo show in the institution's main galleries. At 91 years old, Wylie continues to work late into the night in her Kent studio, producing large-scale, vibrant canvases that draw inspiration from everyday objects, newspapers, and sports icons. Her work is celebrated for its 'punk' energy and a youthful spontaneity that belies her age.

U.S. Museums And Major Expansions Opening Across The Country In 2026

A roundup of major U.S. museum openings and expansions scheduled for 2026 highlights several high-profile projects across the country. These include the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, the Hip Hop Museum in New York City, and the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles. Additionally, the Edward W. Kane & Martha J. Wallace Center for Black History opens in Newport, Rhode Island, in June; the San Mateo County History Museum in Redwood City, California, completes a $23.5 million expansion in the fall; and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland finishes a $175 million expansion adding 50,000 square feet.

3 Art Exhibitions to Enjoy this Winter at the Petit Palais

The Petit Palais in Paris is hosting three winter exhibitions: a retrospective of 18th-century portraitist Jean-Baptiste Greuze (until January 25), a tribute to Finnish landscape painter Pekka Halonen (until February 22), and a solo show of contemporary artist Bilal Hamdad (until February 8). The Greuze exhibition is the first full retrospective dedicated to the artist, featuring around 100 works on loan from major collections. The Halonen show, the first major tribute to the Finnish painter in France, highlights his modernist snowy landscapes. Hamdad’s exhibition presents 20 large-scale paintings exploring urban solitude, drawing inspiration from Old Masters like Rubens and Manet.

Order and chaos in contemporary Israeli art

Basia Monka profiles three contemporary Israeli artists—Ariel Hacohen, Jessica Moritz, and others—who, despite diverse backgrounds and mediums, share a common drive to explore order and chaos through repetition in their work. Hacohen, a 2024 Rappaport Prize laureate, uses photography, video, and sculpture to blend archaeology, history, and memory, with current exhibitions at the Haifa Museum of Art and Tel Aviv Museum of Art. The article presents each artist's answers to three questions about inspiration, the definition of art, and what makes their work unique.

Review: Art museum’s big fall fashion show is captivating, sexy and fun, albeit with glitches

The Cleveland Museum of Art has opened a major fall exhibition titled "Renaissance to Runway: The Enduring Italian Houses," featuring roughly 80 garments and accessories from top Italian fashion houses such as Gucci, Pucci, Armani, Versace, Valentino, Ferragamo, Max Mara, and Missoni. The show juxtaposes these modern and contemporary designs with over 40 Renaissance, Mannerist, and Baroque artworks from the museum's collection, exploring how Italian couture has drawn inspiration from art history. A digital video installation by filmmaker Francesco Carrozzini and photographer Henry Hargreaves, using AI technology, humorously depicts models "invading" the museum, underscoring fashion's disruptive cultural power. Despite some pacing and spatial choreography issues, the exhibition makes a compelling case for fashion as high art.

4 Art Exhibits in Orange County Sure to Spark Inspiration This Winter

This article lists four art exhibitions in Orange County, California, that are recommended for winter viewing. The featured shows include a survey of contemporary painting at a local museum, a solo presentation by a rising West Coast artist, a group show exploring ecological themes, and a historical photography exhibition at a university gallery. Each exhibit is described briefly with location and key highlights to encourage public attendance.

With the help of exhibitions, Jeanne Lanvin's eponymous fashion house is keeping her legacy alive

Jeanne Lanvin, a trailblazer in 20th-century French fashion and interiors, is being honored through exhibitions that explore her legacy. The article features a conversation between Peter Copping, Lanvin's current artistic director, and Olivier Gabet, director of the Department of Objets d'Art at the Musée du Louvre. Gabet curated the exhibition "Louvre Couture" featuring 99 looks from 45 fashion houses, while Copping has drawn inspiration from the Lanvin archive and the preserved rooms of Jeanne Lanvin's apartment now on permanent display at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs.

Step into the fire. A new exhibition ignites the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

Dallas-based artist David-Jeremiah presents his solo exhibition "The Fire This Time" at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, featuring 27 shaped paintings created between 2020 and 2024. The paintings are shaped like Lamborghini hoods and arranged in clusters that invite visitors to stand at the center, becoming the focal point of an "inverted performance installation." Curated by Christopher Blay, the show spans four rooms and explores themes of beauty, violence, identity, and transformation, drawing inspiration from James Baldwin's "The Fire Next Time." The exhibition also includes works from the museum's permanent collection by John Chamberlain, Anselm Kiefer, and Mark Rothko that resonate with the show's themes.

Person of the Day | Chase Quinn Adopts Multi-Discipline Approach to Art-Museum Exhibits, Programs

Chase Quinn has been appointed as the inaugural creative director and curator of special projects at the Mississippi Museum of Art (MMA) in Jackson, starting in January 2025. In this newly created role, he oversees both curatorial and education departments, focusing on inclusive, cohesive content development and storytelling. Quinn, previously co-director of education and programs and curator of special projects at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina, was inspired by Carrie Mae Weems’ series “From Here I Saw What Happened and I Cried” at Tate Modern in the mid-1990s, which shaped his approach to complicating narratives around race in museum exhibitions.

A brush with… Jane and Louise Wilson—podcast

Jane and Louise Wilson, identical twin artists born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1967, are featured in a podcast interview where they discuss their collaborative practice since the late 1980s. Working primarily in video installation, photography, and sound, they explore duality and selfhood through loaded sites like abandoned military bases and borderlands. The podcast covers their early inspirations, including John Martin and Cindy Sherman, and the influence of filmmakers such as Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Jean Cocteau, and Stanley Kubrick. Their current exhibitions include 'Performance of Entrapment' at London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE (until 10 January 2026) and 'Dendrophiles' at Leadenhall Building as part of Sculpture in the City, London (until spring 2026).

Skeletons, Tears and Lobsters: Schiaparelli Exhibition to Open in 2026

The Victoria & Albert Museum in London will host "Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes Art" at the Sainsbury Gallery from March 21 to November 1, 2026. The exhibition traces the legacy of founder Elsa Schiaparelli from the 1920s to the present, under current owner Diego Della Valle and creative director Daniel Roseberry. It will feature over 200 objects spanning Paris, London, and New York, including garments, accessories, jewelry, paintings, photographs, and archive material. Highlights include the Skeleton dress (1938) and the Tears dress (1938), created in collaboration with Salvador Dalí. The show also explores Schiaparelli's relationships with clients like Wallis Simpson and artists such as Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau, and Man Ray.

Arthur Jafa and Mark Leckey, Cecilia Alemani on SITE Santa Fe, Trisha Brown and Robert Rauschenberg—podcast

An exhibition opening at Conditions in Croydon, London, pairs two landmark video works: Mark Leckey's "Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore" (1999) and Arthur Jafa's "Love is the Message, the Message is Death" (2016). Ben Luke interviews both artists about the show. Separately, the 12th SITE Santa Fe International, titled "Once Within a Time," opens under artistic director Cecilia Alemani. The episode also features the Trisha Brown Dance Company's 1979 piece "Glacial Decoy," a collaboration with Robert Rauschenberg, now the subject of a Walker Art Center exhibition curated by Brandon Eng.

The Musée des Arts Décoratifs celebrates France’s ‘king of fashion’, who married haute couture to art

The Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris is presenting a new exhibition, *Paul Poiret: Fashion is a Feast*, dedicated to the early 20th-century French couturier who styled himself the “King of Fashion.” The show draws on the museum’s extensive Poiret collection, spanning from the Belle Époque through the 1920s, and features his garments alongside photographs, drawings, posters, and illustrations. It traces Poiret’s career from his start at the House of Worth to his independent house, his collaborations with artists such as Raoul Dufy and Maurice de Vlaminck, and his exotic inspirations from travels in Europe and North Africa.

‘I derive a lot of inspiration from paintings and fibre art’: clothing designer Ulla Johnson on the art she collects and why

Fashion designer Ulla Johnson, founder of her eponymous clothing line, discusses her art collection in an interview with The Art Newspaper. She shares details about her first major purchase—Kathleen Ryan's sculpture *Diana* (2017)—and her most recent acquisition, a Gilbert Poillerat mirror. Johnson reveals her long-term search for a work by Olga de Amaral and expresses regret over not buying a set of Afra and Tobia Scarpa chairs. She also names upcoming New York exhibitions she plans to see, including the textile show at MoMA and Caspar David Friedrich at the Met.

Art Institute’s Frida Kahlo-Themed Exhibit Highlights Artist’s Paris Years

The Art Institute of Chicago has opened "Frida Kahlo’s Month in Paris: A Friendship With Mary Reynolds," its first dedicated exhibition to the Mexican artist. The show explores Kahlo’s 1939 stay in Paris, where she lived with American bookbinder Mary Reynolds and artist Marcel Duchamp after being hospitalized with a kidney infection. Featuring 100 objects—including seven self-portraits, letters, photographs, and book bindings—the exhibition draws on the Art Institute’s own Mary Reynolds Collection and loans from public and private collections across the U.S., Mexico, and Europe. Curated by Caitlin Haskell, Tamar Kharatishvili, and Alivé Piliado, the display reveals new details about Kahlo’s recovery and creative re-inspiration in the avant-garde hub of Reynolds and Duchamp’s home.

Artists Across America Are Creating Stunning Floral Arrangements Inspired by Paintings, Sculptures and Artifacts

Museums across the United States are hosting "Art in Bloom" exhibitions, where floral artists create custom arrangements inspired by artworks in museum collections. The Cincinnati Art Museum recently held its show with 65 arrangements alongside pieces ranging from sculptures to oil portraits, including a sugar flower installation by Amsterdam-based artist Natasja Sadi. Other institutions like the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston—which started the tradition in 1976—and the Minneapolis Institute of Art also participate, with artists like Amy Kubas drawing inspiration from works such as a Japanese block print.

Art initiative brings 10 new contemporary works by local artists to Johns Hopkins

Johns Hopkins University has acquired 10 new contemporary artworks by local Baltimore artists as part of an initiative launched in 2023 to collect and display art by regional talents. The second round of acquisitions includes works by Brandon Donahue-Shipp, Bria Sterling-Wilson, and Jerrell Gibbs, among others. The pieces will be displayed at the Irene and Richard Frary Gallery in Washington, D.C., as part of the exhibition "Strong, Bright, Useful, and True: Recent Acquisitions and Contemporary Art from Baltimore" before being installed across Johns Hopkins campuses.

Ambiguity Reigns in Olaf Hajek’s Mysterious Illustrations

Berlin-based illustrator Olaf Hajek creates dense, uncanny compositions that blend nature, culture, and magic, drawing inspiration from Surrealist icons like Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo. His work emphasizes ambiguity, using superimposed florals and figures, dramatic scale shifts, and a tension between decay and renewal to develop a universal visual language from diverse cultural influences.

Anarchic Cats Are Ensnared in Chaos in Léo Forest’s Dynamic Drawings

Paris-based artist Léo Forest creates high-energy pencil drawings that capture the chaotic and dramatic nature of domestic cats. Drawing inspiration from the feline's predatory instincts and internet meme culture, Forest utilizes blurred motion and flailing limbs to depict cats in various states of action, from grooming to brawling.

Maddy Inez talks to Phillip Edward Spradley

Maddy Inez, a Los Angeles-based ceramic artist, discusses her practice in an interview with Phillip Edward Spradley. Her work draws on California's natural environment and histories of displacement, using ceramics to explore maternal lineage, oral history, and plant-based knowledge. A key inspiration is a midwifery certificate belonging to her great-great-great grandmother from the era of enslavement. Inez's upcoming solo exhibition at Megan Mulrooney opens May 16, 2026.

Artist Kasper Eistrup Maps the Human Condition on Canvas

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.

Exhibition | Daniel Crews-Chubb, 'The Belt of Venus' at Patricia Low Contemporary, Venezia, Venice, Italy

Daniel Crews-Chubb presents 'The Belt of Venus,' an exhibition of six new monumental paintings at Patricia Low Contemporary in Venice. The works draw inspiration from the atmospheric phenomenon of the same name, using its ethereal pinkish glow as a color palette. Crews-Chubb explores pareidolia—the brain's tendency to see faces in abstract forms—pushing his long-standing interrogation of the human figure into increasingly abstract territory. The paintings reference classical mythology, including the Roman goddess Venus, and incorporate fragmented forms reminiscent of ancient statuary, serving as memento mori.

Exhibition | Megan Jenkinson, 'Secateur / Sequitur' at Two Rooms, Auckland, New Zealand

Artist Megan Jenkinson presents her latest body of work, 'Secateur / Sequitur', at Two Rooms in Auckland. The exhibition features intricate photocollages that blend botanical elements with man-made materials like wire, drawing inspiration from classical philosophy and the Japanese art of ikebana. Jenkinson’s meticulously structured compositions explore the tension between the natural world and human systems of order.

A Husain horse painting, a portrait of Max Ernst’s soulful dog, and a Fini cat mask: our pick of the September auctions and fairs

The article highlights several notable artworks heading to auction and art fairs in September 2024. These include M.F. Husain's "Untitled (Horses)" (1971) at Christie's New York, estimated at $100,000–$150,000, following a record-breaking sale of another Husain work earlier this year. Also featured are Leonor Fini's embroidered cat mask (around 1960) at Weinstein Gallery during Independent 20th Century in New York, Dorothea Tanning's "Katchina and Her Soul" (1951) at Sotheby's London, and Alberto Giacometti's "Small Head of Elsa Schiaparelli" (around 1935) at FAB Paris.

Three artists, three questions: Contemporary art

Three Israeli artists—Ronit Porat, an evacuated photographer working with archival materials; an emerging artist using shrapnel from rocket shells as art material while serving as an IDF reservist; and a young artist opening a new exhibition after a break—are profiled in this column by Basia Monkaj. Each answers three questions about inspiration, the definition of art, and what makes their work unique, set against the backdrop of the ongoing war in Israel and the centenary of Surrealism.

What Does It Feel Like to Be Called an Emerging Artist at 72? Ask Takako Yamaguchi

Takako Yamaguchi, a 72-year-old Japanese-born artist based in Los Angeles, is experiencing a career resurgence with a new series of seascapes featured in a 2023 show at Ortuzar and the 2024 Whitney Biennial. She is set to receive her first solo museum exhibition in Los Angeles at MOCA's Grand Avenue space starting June 29, where she will present 10 new works. In an interview with CULTURED, Yamaguchi discusses her ambivalent relationship with the sea, her process of drawing inspiration from other artists' seascapes rather than nature itself, and her identity as an outsider who has lived most of her life in the U.S. while retaining Japanese citizenship.

Building Worlds

Welten bauen

Lina Lapelytė has transformed the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin into a mutable landscape of wooden blocks for her second Chanel Commission. The installation, titled "Welten bauen" (Building Worlds), invites visitors to actively shape the space, incorporating elements of poetry, song, and community. The work draws inspiration from Paul Hindemith's 1930s children's singspiel "Wir bauen eine Stadt," which was banned by the Nazis and led to Hindemith's emigration.