A group of artists has announced a strike to protest Israel's participation in the upcoming Venice Biennale. The action is intended to draw attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to pressure the Biennale organizers to exclude Israel from the event, reflecting growing tensions around cultural boycotts in the art world.
CONDUCTOR, a new art fair curated by Adriana Farietta in collaboration with Powerhouse Arts, launches this week in Brooklyn, New York. The fair features individual artists and galleries from Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Oceania, and Indigenous Nations, with a focus on the Global Majority. A key innovation is its onsite fabrication model, allowing some works to be produced locally at Powerhouse Arts' facilities, reducing shipping and customs issues. The fair also offers an exclusive preview of artists presenting at the Venice Biennale, including Annalee Davis, Tammy Nguyen, RojoNegro, Beya Gille Gacha, and Bugarin + Castle.
Artist and former art critic Matthew Collings has sparked intense controversy with his exhibition 'Drawings Against Genocide' at Joseph Wales Studios in Margate. The show features provocative imagery, including a Star of David juxtaposed with Nazi symbols and depictions of IDF soldiers, which critics argue cross the line into antisemitism. The backlash intensified after Sunday Telegraph columnist Zoe Strimpel reported a hostile confrontation with the artist, leading to public condemnation from figures such as Dover MP Mike Tapp and Israel’s charge d’affaires, Daniela Grudsky.
Paintings by the late US president Jimmy Carter, along with personal effects from his family, will be auctioned at Christie's in New York this month as part of a sale titled "We the People: America at 250," marking the country's semiquincentennial. The works were selected by his daughter Amy Carter and include scenes of a Georgia church, a still-life with a pomegranate, a waterfall, and a historical painting titled "The Hornet's Nest" (2003), with estimates ranging from $2,000 to $12,000. Also offered are a portrait of Carter by Don Powers, scarves with a peanut print, ties, a Stetson hat, a coffee table made by Carter, and a copy of Chairman Mao's quotations.
Thousands of artists, cultural workers, and protesters marched through Venice on May 8, 2026, one day before the opening of the 61st Venice Biennale, to protest the Israeli genocide in Gaza and Lebanon. The strike, organized by the Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA), led to the closure of approximately 27 of the Biennale's 100 national pavilions, with signs reading "We Stand with Palestine." The Israeli pavilion remained closed and guarded by armed police, who clashed with protesters. Meanwhile, the European Commission threatened to suspend €2 million in EU grants to the Biennale Foundation over its decision to allow Russia to participate, citing incompatibility with EU sanctions and the invasion of Ukraine.
The British Museum (BM) in London hosted a private event on 16 May marking the anniversary of the founding of Israel, organized by the Israeli embassy. Speakers included Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely and UK minister Maria Eagle, with attendees such as comedian Jimmy Carr and politicians Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage. The event has sparked anger among museum staff and external critics, who argue it is insensitive given the ongoing conflict in Gaza, which has led to widespread famine and civilian deaths. Staff have organized a petition demanding the museum cease relations with Israeli cultural institutions, gathering 250 signatures.
Graduate students in the University of North Texas's MFA Studio Art program are withdrawing their upcoming thesis exhibitions in protest. Their action is a direct response to the unexplained cancellation of artist Victor "Marka27" Quiñonez's solo show, "Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá," which addressed Mexican-American identity and violence by ICE. The school papered over the gallery windows and removed the exhibition page without providing a public rationale to the artist or the community.
The 25hours Hotel Jakarta The Oddbird has launched the inaugural Room Art Fair 2026 to coincide with World Art Day. In collaboration with the Indonesian Art Galleries Association (AGSI), the event transforms the hotel’s 10th-floor guest rooms into immersive gallery spaces featuring 13 different galleries. By removing the formal barriers of traditional white-cube settings, the fair allows visitors to engage with contemporary Indonesian art in a domestic, intimate environment.
The University of Wisconsin's Art Lofts Main Gallery opened the MFA qualifier exhibition "Ghost Writer: Someone Who Writes Something for Someone Else" by artist Daniella Thach on February 4, 2026. The exhibition explores Thach's Cambodian American identity and the merging of timelines across familial memory, aiming to shed light on the 50th anniversary of the Cambodian genocide.
Artists participating in a 'Visual History of the Unions' exhibition at the University of Michigan's Michigan Union have accused the University Unions administration of unprofessional conduct and censorship. The show, a collaboration between the Inclusive History Project, the Arts Initiative, and University Unions, was originally planned to run from October 2025 to January 2026 in high-traffic areas, but was reduced to a six-week run in a small alcove. One artist, Toby Millman, created a quilt depicting a 2024 pro-Palestine protest, and after submitting it, she and others received vague emails about delays and stakeholder concerns, leading them to believe the work was being suppressed.
A traveling exhibition titled "The Lost Paintings, A Prelude to Return" is on view at the Brookline Arts Center and Unbound Visual Arts in Brighton through December 17. The show reimagines 53 oil paintings by Palestinian-Lebanese artist Maroun Tomb, which were lost in the chaos of the Nakba and the 1948 Arab-Israeli war after his 1947 exhibition opened in Haifa on the same day the UN adopted the Partition Plan. Curators Rula Khoury, Haidi Motola, and Joëlle Tomb—Maroun's granddaughter—commissioned 53 contemporary artists from Palestine and the diaspora to create new works inspired by the original titles, using mediums including textiles, prints, paintings, sculptures, and video.
A new independent art center called Tend Space has opened in Chauncey, Ohio, in the historic former Chauncey Library building. Run by Len Loomis, who also co-runs galleries and teaches at Ohio University's School of Art and Design, the space held its inaugural exhibition on September 5, 2025, featuring local artists from Athens County. The show included works in paper, sculpture, animation, and other media by artists such as Aneek Mustafa Anwar, Gene Deubler, Lilah Mae Gagne, Erin McKenna, Caroline Murphy, and Moss Nash. Murphy displayed a digitally hand-drawn animation and postcards supporting Palestinian relief. Loomis plans monthly events, including a community salon on October 3, and has opened calls for exhibitions through May 2026.
An exhibition titled 'Dlúthpháirtíocht' (the Irish word for solidarity) is on display at Metamorphika Studio in Hackney, London, featuring over 50 works that connect Palestinian and Irish histories. The show includes pieces by Palestinian artist Nabil Abughanima, who fled Gaza two months ago, and Irish photographer Seamus Murphy, alongside works by Amal Al Nakhala, Spicebag, and Council Baby. Co-curated by Seán Óg Ó Murchú, the itinerant exhibition will travel to Dublin, Cork, and Belfast after its London run ends on 19 July.
Two exhibitions raising funds and awareness for Palestinians open in London this week. The main show, titled 'GAZAGAZAGAZA', features over 400 donated works by more than 200 artists from 35 countries, organized by Studio 1.1 and the artist-led activist community Artists Supporting Palestine (ASP). Proceeds from sales, including postcard-sized works priced at £20, will benefit Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP). Additional fundraising initiatives include prints by Gaza-based artists and a badges project supporting children in Gaza.
The Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg announced plans for an exhibition titled 'Palestine Uprooted: Nakba, Past and Present,' scheduled to open in June 2026. The show will document the lived experience of the Nakba—the mass displacement of Palestinians beginning with the 1948 Arab-Israeli war—through video testimonials, objects, art, text, and photography, focusing on personal stories of Palestinian Canadians. The announcement has drawn both strong support and criticism, with museum CEO Isha Khan emphasizing the exhibition is not a historical retrospective or commentary on current Israel-Palestine relations.