For the 61st Venice Biennale, a quest for beauty despite a troubled world

Pour la 61e Biennale de Venise, une quête de beauté malgré un monde troublé

Koyo Kouoh, the Swiss-Cameroonian curator who was set to become the first African woman to direct the Venice Biennale, died suddenly on May 10, 2025, at age 57, just weeks before the opening of the 61st edition she had conceived. Titled "In Minor Keys," the exhibition at the Giardini and Arsenale will proceed posthumously based on her detailed directives, featuring 111 artists including Laurie Anderson, Wangechi Mutu, and Kader Attia, with a focus on beauty, resilience, and radical emotional connection amid global turmoil.

FKA Twigs, Brian Eno and Dev Hynes to show in the Vatican Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale.

The Vatican has unveiled the roster for its Pavilion of the Holy See at the 2026 Venice Biennale, featuring a high-profile multidisciplinary lineup. Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Ben Vickers, the exhibition titled “The Ear is the Eye of the Soul” will showcase new works from 24 contributors, including FKA Twigs, Brian Eno, Devonté Hynes, Patti Smith, and Precious Okoyomon. The presentation aims to bridge the gap between contemporary art, music, and spirituality through a diverse array of creative mediums.

Venice Biennale’s Visitor Lions Face Artist Boycott

Sony world photography awards 2026 – in pictures

The 2026 Sony World Photography Awards have announced their top honors across professional, open, student, and youth categories. Notable winners include Citlali Fabián for her series on Indigenous activists in Mexico, Seungho Kim for a project exploring the intersection of parenting and pet ownership in South Korea, and Dafna Talmor for her abstracted, collaged landscapes. The winning works span a diverse range of subjects, from the documentation of a fire at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm to intimate portraits of faith at the Vatican.

The Ten Best Books to Complement Your Viewing of This Year’s Oscar-Nominated Movies

Smithsonian magazine has curated a list of ten books to enhance the viewing experience of this year's Oscar-nominated films, published ahead of the 2026 Academy Awards. The selections include direct source material for nominated adaptations, such as Thomas Pynchon's *Vineland* for Paul Thomas Anderson's *One Battle After Another*, as well as thematic companions like *Frankenstein* and *The Vegetarian* for other recognized movies.

Fondazione Bvlgari Bets on the Venice Biennale: Beyond the Pavilion in the Giardini, an Exhibition at the Biblioteca Marciana

Fondazione Bvlgari scommette sulla Biennale di Venezia: oltre al padiglione ai Giardini, una mostra alla Biblioteca Marciana

Fondazione Bvlgari is making its debut at the Venice Biennale with a collateral exhibition at the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, featuring site-specific works by Monia Ben Hamouda and Lara Favaretto. The show runs from May 9 to November 22, 2025, alongside the 61st International Art Exhibition. Ben Hamouda presents 'Fragments of Fire Worship,' neon sculptures in the Vestibule that explore language and cultural heritage, while Favaretto installs the final edition of 'Momentary Monument – The Library' in the Salone Sansovino, inviting public consultation of donated books. Additionally, Bvlgari has a pavilion in the Giardini featuring Canadian artist Lotus L. Kang, as part of a three-edition partnership with the Biennale through 2030.

Otobong Nkanga: ‘I Dreamt of You in Colours’

Artist Otobong Nkanga has unveiled a major new installation titled 'I Dreamt of You in Colours' at the Kunsthalle Basel. The immersive, site-specific work explores themes of memory, landscape, and the extraction of natural resources through a complex tapestry of textiles, drawings, and sculptural elements.

Sex, desire and intimacy explored in Singapore art exhibition for over-18s

National Gallery Singapore (NGS) is presenting "Passion is Volcanic: Desire in Southeast Asian Art," an exhibition for over-18s that explores eroticism and desire through more than 70 works spanning 800 years. The show is structured into three chapters—"Asian Mythos and Rituals," "Conventions of the Erotic," and "Public Arenas/Private Interiors"—and includes pieces such as a 14th-15th century Tantric Buddhist sculpture and Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook's video work "I’m Living" (2002). Senior curator Adele Tan, a co-curator, says she wanted to use the lens of eroticism to uncover overlooked narratives in the museum's collection.

Bvlgari enters the inner circle of the Venice Biennale

Bvlgari has become the first Exclusive Partner of La Biennale di Venezia, a landmark agreement that extends through 2030. The Roman jeweler will inaugurate its role at the 2026 Venice Biennale with two major initiatives: a newly created Bvlgari Pavilion at the Giardini featuring Canadian artist Lotus L. Kang, and an exhibition at the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana curated by Fondazione Bvlgari, presenting works by Italian artists Lara Favaretto and Monia Ben Hamouda.

Media Artist Transforms Climate, AI Data into Immersive Art

Media artist Kang Lee-Yeon delivered an immersive lecture at the TED 2026 main stage in Vancouver, using a 30-meter screen to visualize climate change and AI data. She then opened her solo exhibition 'Illumination' at Fondation Fiminco in Paris for the 140th anniversary of Korea-France relations, while also debuting works at Milan Design Week and the Loop Plus media art fair in Busan. Her projects include 'Passage of Water', created with Google and NASA, which translates satellite data into an immersive experience about Earth's freshwater crisis.

The Bronx Museum of the Arts hosts Seventh AIM Biennial open house

The Bronx Museum of the Arts hosted its Seventh AIM Biennial Open House on April 18, a free family day that combined hands-on art-making activities with the ongoing biennial exhibition. Visitors participated in button-making, print-making, screen printing, and memory box creation, led by AIM artists including Skip Brea, Hedwig Brouckaert, Ricki Dwyer, Leekyung Kang, Juyon Lee, lauren mcavoy, Piero Penizzotto, Motohiro Takeda, and V Yeh. The day also featured a critique session with artist V Yeh and a panel discussion titled “Tender Monuments,” moderated by co-curator Nell Klugman, exploring themes of personal, communal, and environmental grief.

National Gallery Singapore's 'Passion Is Volcanic' exhibition: 5 works to see

National Gallery Singapore has opened its first R18 exhibition, 'Passion Is Volcanic: Desire In South-east Asian Art', featuring around 60% of works from the national collection, many shown for the first time, alongside regional loans. The show includes a 14th-15th century tantric Buddhist sculpture of kissing buddhas, a pastel painting by pioneering gay Singaporean artist Tan Peng, Liu Kang's 1953 painting 'Scene In Bali', and long-exposure photography by Lavender Chang originally commissioned for a Viagra campaign. Co-curators Adele Tan and Kathleen Ditzig contextualize the exhibition with pre-modern works to demonstrate that artists' interest in the body, desire, and sex is enduring in Asia.

Blaffer Art Museum exhibitions explore identity, history

The Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston has launched two new exhibitions, 'The Uncanny In-Between' and 'Mud + Corn + Stone + Blue,' both running through March 14. The first features ceramic works by five Korean artists exploring bicultural identity, while the second presents works by artists from the U.S. Corn Belt and Central America, weaving together themes of agriculture, history, and political intervention.

"Lee Kun-hee Collection Showcases the Source of K-Culture’s Creativity"

The Lee Kun-hee Collection international tour exhibition, titled "Treasures from Korea: Collecting, Cherishing, Sharing," opened at the National Museum of Asian Art under the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., on March 15, 2025. Within one month, it attracted over 15,600 visitors—25% more than comparable past exhibitions—and all museum merchandise sold out within a week, generating approximately 100 million KRW in orders. The show features 330 works selected from over 23,000 pieces donated to South Korea in 2021 by the late Lee Kun-hee, former Samsung Group chairman, including seven National Treasures and fifteen Treasures. Highlights include the Beopgo-dae, which gained viral attention for resembling a character from the Netflix film 'KPop Demon Hunters.'

Estimated at 15 Billion Won: Will It Rewrite the Record for Korea’s Art Auctions?

Seoul Auction is set to host its March Contemporary Art Sale, featuring Yoshitomo Nara’s 2016 painting "Nothing about it" as the centerpiece. With a low estimate of 14.7 billion won ($11 million), the work is poised to potentially shatter the record for the highest price ever achieved at an art auction in South Korea. The sale also includes high-value works by Yayoi Kusama and Roy Lichtenstein, with a total pre-sale estimate reaching up to 75 billion won.

The Biennale releases the rules for voting on the Visitors' Lions while many artists and pavilions renounce competing for the prizes

La Biennale diffonde il regolamento per votare i Leoni dei Visitatori mentre molti artisti e padiglioni rinunciano a concorrere ai premi

The 61st Venice Biennale has opened to the public, introducing a controversial new voting system for the Golden Lions. After the entire jury resigned en masse on April 30, the Biennale decided to let the public decide the winners of the so-called "Leoni dei Visitatori" (Visitors' Lions). Voting is open from May 9 to November 22, 2026, and requires ticket holders to visit both main venues (Giardini and Arsenale) to receive a voting link. One vote per person is allowed for each of two categories: an artist in the main international exhibition "In Minor Keys" curated by Koyo Kouoh, and a national pavilion.

Milan now has an open-air contemporary art museum. The ArtLine project at CityLife is finally complete: the final work inaugurated for Art Week 2026

Milano ha un museo d’arte contemporanea a cielo aperto. Il progetto ArtLine a CityLife è finalmente completo: per l’Art Week 2026 inaugurata l’ultima opera

The City of Milan has officially completed ArtLine, a major public art project that has transformed the CityLife park into a permanent open-air contemporary art museum. Spanning 173,000 square meters, the park now hosts nineteen site-specific installations by internationally renowned artists and emerging talents. The project's conclusion was marked during Milan Art Week 2026 with the inauguration of 'Octospider', a large-scale interactive sculpture by British artist Jeremy Deller designed for children.

April 2026 at the Theater: A Guide to Must-See Events in Italy (Including Dance)

Aprile 2026 a teatro: guida agli appuntamenti da non perdere in Italia (anche sulla danza)

Italy’s April 2026 performing arts season features a diverse lineup of major theatrical premieres and experimental adaptations. Highlights include the Italian debut of Annie Baker’s Pulitzer-winning 'Circle Mirror Transformation' directed by Valerio Binasco, and a dark comedy by Ariel Dorfman titled 'The Other Side' exploring the absurdity of war. Other notable productions include Armando Punzo’s non-traditional 'Cenerentola' (Cinderella) moving from a high-security prison setting to the Teatro della Pergola, and a dedicated retrospective for Daria Deflorian at Milan’s Piccolo Teatro.

An Ancient Ballad at Emami Art Brings Generations of Artists Together in Kolkata

A new group exhibition titled 'An Ancient Ballad' opens at Emami Art in Kolkata on 22 May 2026, bringing together 12 artists across generations. The show examines recurring motifs of nature, the human body, and animal forms in modern and contemporary art through photography, painting, printmaking, textile, ceramics, and sculpture. Historical works by L. M. Sen and K. C. Pyne are displayed alongside contemporary artists including Arunima Choudhury, Ajit Kumar Das, Alakananda Sengupta, Raja Boro, and Rahul Sarkar, creating an intergenerational dialogue on memory, mythology, and lived experience.

In Minor Keys: The 61st Biennale di Arte Venezia Opens Under Koyo Kouoh (1967–2025).

The 61st Biennale di Arte Venezia opens under the posthumous curatorial vision of Koyo Kouoh (1967–2025), the late Cameroonian-born curator who reshaped contemporary African and diasporic art discourse. The central exhibition, spanning the Giardini and Arsenale, features 111 participants including artists, collectives, and artist-led organizations from across the Global South, with works in textiles, film, sculpture, and performance that interrogate colonialism, migration, and ecological repair. The Biennale is also marked by a pronounced presence of African and diasporic narratives across national pavilions, including several first-time pavilions from the African continent.

‘I want people to see nature as a wondrous work of art’: Jon McCormack’s best phone picture

Photographer Jon McCormack captured a striking image of the Remarkable Rocks on Kangaroo Island, Australia, framing the Southern Ocean through a naturally eroded granite hollow. The photograph, taken at sunset, emphasizes the graphic simplicity and sculptural quality of the ancient rock formations, which have been shaped by wind and salt over 10,000 years of isolation.

Dispatch: Beijing

The article reports on a series of significant shifts in Beijing's art world since 2024. UCCA Center for Contemporary Art faced financial troubles; its director and CEO Philip Tinari ended his 14-year tenure to lead Hong Kong's Tai Kwun. Taikang Art Museum also disclosed leadership changes. Smaller venues like DRC NO. 12 and fRUITYSPACE closed due to lease issues. Independent publishing faces sharp restrictions, and art book fairs are being replaced by cultural-lifestyle merchandise events. Official figures show Beijing lost over a million young residents since 2020 due to soaring living costs and tightening regulations.

Korea and Japan to Collaborate on Pavilions at Venice Biennale

Arts Council Korea has revealed the program for its national pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale. Curated by Binna Choi and titled "Liberation Space: Fortress/Nest," the exhibition will feature artists Goen Choi and Hyeree Ro, exploring the historical period between the end of Japanese colonial rule and the establishment of separate Korean governments. A key feature is artist Goen Choi's work *Meridian*, which will physically extend copper pipes from the Korean Pavilion into the adjacent Japanese Pavilion, marking the first formal collaboration between the two nations' presentations at the Biennale.

How Australian Chefs and Farmers Are Rediscovering the Ingredients That Have Been There All Along

Author Bruce Pascoe and a new generation of Australian chefs are leading a movement to rediscover and commercialize native Indigenous ingredients like kangaroo grass, Kakadu plums, and wattleseeds. By revisiting historical archives and journals from 19th-century explorers, Pascoe’s research in his book *Dark Emu* challenges the colonial narrative that Indigenous Australians were solely nomadic hunter-gatherers, revealing instead a sophisticated history of permanent settlements, irrigation, and organized agriculture.

‘Into Other Spaces' to reexamine trailblazing women artists across decades

The Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul is hosting 'Inside Other Spaces: Environments by Women Artists, 1956-1976,' an exhibition that reconstructs immersive room-scale works by 11 women artists from underrepresented regions. Co-curated by Andrea Lissoni and Marina Pugliese, the show traces two decades of experimental environments made from light, sound, plastic, and foam, which anticipated installation and media art. The Seoul edition features a new version of Jung Kang-ja's 1967 work 'Muche-jeon (Incorporal Exhibition),' a smoke-filled chamber that evokes the tension of 1970s authoritarian Korea.

Historic Attendance Elevates Korean Cultural Legacy as ‘Korean Treasures’ Exhibition Draws to a Close in Washington

The 'Korean Treasures: Collected, Cherished, Shared' exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art in Washington D.C. concluded on February 1st after drawing an estimated 65,000 visitors. The show featured over 200 works from the vast personal art collection of the late Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee and was celebrated with a gala event hosted by Samsung Electronics and the museum, attended by the Lee family, U.S. politicians, and business leaders.

Calling Back 11 Forgotten Women Artists: Leeum’s "Inside Other Spaces"

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).

Biennale, rules announced for Visitor's Lion. But dozens of artists withdraw

The Venice Biennale has announced the voting rules for the new Visitors' Lion awards, which replace the traditional Golden Lions after the original jury resigned before the opening. On the same day the popular voting opened, dozens of artists from the central exhibition 'In Minor Keys' and several National Pavilions announced their withdrawal from the competition in solidarity with the resigned jury, releasing a statement via e-flux on May 9, 2026. The voting system requires visitors to have attended both the Giardini and Arsenale venues, with anonymous voting open until November 22, 2026.

New exhibition at Buxton reveals insights into Chinese conceptual art

The University of Melbourne's Buxton Contemporary has opened a new exhibition titled "Poetry goes no further than language," which examines the emergence of conceptual art in China during the mid-1980s and early 1990s. Featuring works by the Beijing collective New Measurement Group and Shanghai artist Qian Weikang, the show also includes a new commission by Victorian College of the Arts graduate Darcey Bella Arnold. Curated by Dr. Carol Yinghua Lu, Director of Beijing's Inside-Out Art Museum, together with artist Liu Ding, the exhibition brings previously inaccessible or little-known works to Australia for the first time.

Buxton Unveils Chinese Conceptual Art Exhibition

The University of Melbourne's Buxton Contemporary has opened "Poetry goes no further than language: A historical moment of art becoming art again," an exhibition examining the emergence of conceptual art in China during the mid-1980s and early 1990s. It features works by the Beijing collective New Measurement Group and Shanghai artist Qian Weikang, alongside a new commission by Victorian College of the Arts graduate Darcey Bella Arnold. The exhibition is curated by Dr. Carol Yinghua Lu, Director of Beijing's Inside-Out Art Museum, and artist Liu Ding.