William Blake: The Age of Romantic Fantasy at the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin

The National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin is hosting the first-ever exhibition of William Blake's work in Ireland, titled "William Blake: The Age of Romantic Fantasy." The show features major works such as "The Night of Enitharmon’s Joy" (c. 1795) from Tate, and includes a life mask of Blake painted by Francis Bacon, connecting the Romantic visionary to the 20th-century Irish-born artist. The article explores Blake's radical politics, his arrest for sedition in 1803, and his enduring influence on figures like Bacon and the critic David Sylvester.

Dataland, the world’s first museum of AI arts, sets opening date and first exhibition

Dataland, the world's first museum dedicated to AI arts, will open on June 20 in downtown Los Angeles. Co-founded by new media artists Refik Anadol and Efsun Erkılıç, the 35,000-square-foot museum anchors the $1-billion Frank Gehry-designed Grand LA complex. Its inaugural exhibition, "Machine Dreams: Rainforest," created by Refik Anadol Studio, uses vast data sets from partners including the Smithsonian and London's Natural History Museum to immerse visitors in a machine-generated sensory experience of the Amazon rainforest. The museum features five immersive galleries, a 30-foot ceiling, and is powered by an open-access AI model called the Large Nature Model, which runs on Google Cloud servers using 87% carbon-free energy.

Art for Our Age of Chaos

The article reviews two major New York exhibitions opening in 2026: the Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art, featuring over fifty artists, and "New Humans: Memories of the Future" at the newly expanded New Museum, with over a hundred artists. Both shows are described as enormous and defiant, responding to a distracted public and financial pressures. The reviewer notes that both exhibitions juxtapose large-scale immersive works with tiny, intimate pieces, and finds the Whitney Biennial lacking urgency, while preferring the New Museum's historical narrative about technology and modernity.

Protest Art Exhibitions

The CART Department has organized an exhibition titled 'Ai Weiwei LEGO Story' at Free Parking in New York, running from April 24 to May 3, 2026. The show presents a focused selection of the artist's brick-based works, including pieces from his Zodiac and After series and his BMW art car, highlighting accumulation and repetition as core methods.

KAWS | Untitled (KAWS X Mocad) (2019)

Bidding has concluded for KAWS's 2019 screenprint, *Untitled (KAWS X Mocad)*, a limited-edition work produced for the artist's solo exhibition "Alone Again" at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. The work was offered through Palm Beach Modern Auctions, with detailed condition reports and terms available to prospective bidders.

MIT List Visual Arts Center celebrates 40 years

MIT's List Visual Arts Center celebrated its 40th anniversary on April 10, 2026, with performances, receptions, and the opening of a new exhibition titled "Performing Conditions," which explores work, debt, and labor. Housed in the Wiesner Building designed by I. M. Pei, the museum manages public art across MIT's campus, including works by Olafur Eliasson and Sanford Biggers, and runs a Student Lending Art Program that loans about 700 works annually. An anonymous donor has launched a $1 million matching challenge grant for conservation of the public art collection.

painting unfolds across earth, canvas, and space in katharina grosse’s london exhibition

Katharina Grosse's exhibition 'I Set Out, I Walked Fast' at White Cube London presents a continuous environment where painting extends beyond the canvas into space. The show features new works, archival material, and a large in-situ installation that combines mounds of earth, a partially submerged canvas, and a bronze-cast sculpture into a single painted field. Grosse uses an industrial spray gun to apply acrylic pigments, creating works that blur boundaries between surface, site, and viewer. The exhibition avoids chronological order, instead connecting pieces from different periods to form a spatial network where individual works function as nodes.

Historic Istanbul exhibition reveals century of growth and creative vision

Yapı Kredi Culture Arts and Publishing has opened a landmark exhibition in Istanbul titled "Imprints on the Century: The Koç Group and the Arts," running until November 29, 2026, at the Yapı Kredi Culture Center in Galatasaray. Curated by YKYM Gallery Director Didem Yazıcı over two years, the show commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Koç Group, tracing its evolution from a small business registered by Vehbi Koç in 1926 to a global industrial conglomerate. The exhibition draws on archives from the Sadberk Hanım Museum, Arter, and the Rahmi M. Koç Museums, highlighting the group's contributions to archaeology, museology, contemporary art, publishing, and theater, including milestones like the first color film in Turkey and the Bauhaus-inspired Küçük Sahne theater.

AIPAD’s 45th Edition Puts New Light on Favorites at Park Avenue Armory

The Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD) held its 45th annual Photography Show at New York City's Park Avenue Armory, featuring 77 exhibitors from North America, South America, Asia, Europe, and Australia. The preview night drew a crowd of photography enthusiasts, with highlights including strong representation of Latin American photographers such as Graciela Iturbide, Frida Kahlo, and Tina Modotti, as well as classic New York imagery from William Klein, Joel Meyerowitz, and Richard Avedon. Notable sales included a Lucienne Bloch portrait of Kahlo, which sold within hours of the preview opening.

Exhibition | Nick DOYLE, 'Collective Hallucinations' at Perrotin, New York, United States

Perrotin gallery in New York presents 'Collective Hallcinations', an exhibition of new works by Brooklyn-based artist Nick Doyle. The show features wall-mounted denim collages and an immersive installation of a psychic parlor, including Doyle's first use of artificial intelligence. The works explore the fraught relationship between land and technology, progress and destruction, using denim as a material that evokes Americana, capitalism, and masculinity. The centerpiece, 'Mirror, Mirror', is a denim-clad structure housing an AI avatar named Ava, who offers sardonic commentary on the American dream and the digital frontier.

'Soulages-Hartung : Affinités électives' at Perrotin, Paris Marais, France on 25 Apr–30 May 2026

Perrotin in Paris Marais is presenting 'Soulages-Hartung: Affinités électives,' an exhibition exploring the friendship and artistic dialogue between Pierre Soulages (1919–2022) and Hans Hartung (1904–1989). The show features a never-before-screened filmed interview from the Fondation Hartung-Bergman, along with archival documents and rarely seen studio tools. It highlights their shared concerns as postwar abstract painters, their mutual support and gift exchanges—such as Soulages's walnut stain piece given to Hartung in 1948—and their contrasting approaches, with Hartung's explosive gestures versus Soulages's measured structures. The exhibition also reveals their lesser-known use of blue in the 1980s.

‘Studio Iron’ to Launch at Saatchi Yates, Blurring the Boundaries Between Art and Design

Saatchi Yates is partnering with creative director and makeup artist Isamaya Ffrench to launch Studio Iron, a new design gallery whose inaugural exhibition opens April 30 and runs through June 7, 2026. The show presents a dense, post-industrial landscape dominated by steel and iron, featuring works by artists including Jannis Kounellis, Paul McCarthy, Jordan Wolfson, Anne Imhof, Marina Abramovic, Nico Vascellari, and others. Furniture, sculpture, installation, and painting collide in a space that resists categorization, hovering between function and non-function, utility and image.

How the South Side Community Art Center Grew from an Icon of the Black Renaissance to a Vital and Expanding Force

The South Side Community Art Center (SSCAC) in Chicago, the first Black art institution in the United States, is undergoing a major rehabilitation and expansion campaign. Founded in 1940 during the Chicago Black Renaissance, the center was established by community members including Dr. Margaret Taylor-Burroughs, Eldzier Cortor, Charles White, and Archibald Motley Jr., who raised funds through initiatives like the 'Mile of Dimes' campaign and the Annual Artists' and Models' Ball. Housed in a historic Bronzeville brownstone, the center has served as a vital hub for Black artists, hosting landmark exhibitions and creative programs.

Exhibition | Betye Saar, 'Let's Get It On: The Wearable Art of Betye Saar' at Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, United States

Roberts Projects in Los Angeles will present "Let's Get It On: The Wearable Art of Betye Saar" from May 30 to August 22, 2026, showcasing over 150 objects from the artist's career, including costume designs, garments, jewelry, drawings, and archival materials. The exhibition highlights the influence of Saar's early work in costume and jewelry design (1960s–70s) on her later assemblage and installation practice, leading up to her 100th birthday in July 2026.

Exhibition | 'The Shape of Summer: From Boudin to Wesselmann' at Bailly Gallery, Bailly Gallery Paris, France

Bailly Gallery in Paris is presenting an exhibition titled 'The Shape of Summer: From Boudin to Wesselmann,' featuring works that explore the theme of summer from the 19th century to the present. The show spans artists from Eugène Boudin to Tom Wesselmann, highlighting the evolution of summer imagery in art.

Selling exhibition to support art: Déjà Vu at Alserkal heralds joint initiative

A multi-gallery selling exhibition titled 'Déjà Vu' opens at Concrete in Alserkal Avenue on April 25, running for 14 days. The exhibition features over 50 artists from 20 leading UAE contemporary art galleries and is curated by Kevin Jones, Nada Raza, and Zaina Zaarour. It is designed as a commercial initiative to support galleries impacted by recent events.

A Guide To May 2026 Photography Festivals & Exhibitions

A diverse array of international photography festivals and exhibitions are scheduled for May 2026. Key events include Bieler Fototage in Switzerland, focusing on vulnerability as a social condition; Photo London, which is relocating to the Olympia and introducing new curated sections; Hard Copy New York at the ICP, exploring photocopied imagery; Fotofestival Lenzburg, an open-air exhibition in Switzerland; and several other events across Europe and the US.

A Milano c’è una mostra di un importante artista australiano in cui si ragiona sul rumore

Marco Fusinato, the Australian artist who represented his country at the 59th Venice Biennale, returns to Italy with a solo exhibition at the Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea (PAC) in Milan. Titled "The only true anarchy is that of Power," the show brings together installations, performances, and sound recordings from recent years, all centered on the concept of noise. Curated by Diego Sileo, the exhibition features three ongoing projects, including the monumental performance-installation DESASTRES, first presented at the Venice Biennale in 2022 and later staged at festivals such as Berlin Atonal and Unsound Krakow. The work combines randomized sound and images, using electric guitars, mass amplification, and intense feedback to create an immersive, hallucinatory experience where chaos and control coexist.

The soap opera continues. Minister Giuli will boycott the inauguration of the Venice Biennale

La telenovela continua. Il Ministro Giuli diserterà l’inaugurazione della Biennale di Venezia

Alessandro Giuli, Italy's Minister of Culture, has announced he will boycott the pre-opening and inauguration ceremony of the 61st Venice Biennale on May 9, 2026, escalating a political and cultural crisis. The dispute began when Biennale president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco allowed the Russian pavilion to reopen, absent since 2022 due to the Ukraine invasion, citing artistic freedom. Giuli demanded the removal of ministry representative Tamara Gregoretti from the Biennale board for failing to oppose the decision. Tensions flared during the Italy Pavilion press conference, where journalists were confined to a separate streaming room and questions were restricted. The European Commission condemned the Russian pavilion's reopening, cutting €2 million in funding and issuing a 30-day ultimatum, while 22 European countries signed a letter pressuring the institution. The Biennale's international jury, led by Solange Oliveira Farkas, then excluded Russia and Israel from award consideration, citing ethical guidelines against countries whose leaders face International Criminal Court charges for crimes against humanity.

The super architect Kengo Kuma on display at the Bonsai Museum, a magical place on the outskirts of Milan

Il super architetto Kengo Kuma in mostra al Museo del Bonsai, luogo magico alle porte di Milano

The Crespi Bonsai Museum in Parabiago, near Milan, is hosting an exhibition during Fuorisalone featuring the new carpet collection "Faces" by Indian brand Jaipur Rugs, created in collaboration with renowned Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. The museum, founded 35 years ago by Luigi Crespi, houses the world's most important collection of author bonsai outside Japan, including a thousand-year-old Ficus retusa. The 16 carpets in the collection reinterpret the facades of iconic buildings by Kengo Kuma & Associates, translating their rhythm, depth, and sensory memory into wool and regenerated viscose, displayed among the bonsai and in the museum's zen garden.

Now we open a Palestinian Pavilion at the Biennale. Interview with Tomaso Montanari

“Ora apriamo un Padiglione Palestina in Biennale”. Intervista a Tomaso Montanari

Tomaso Montanari, a member of the scientific committee for the exhibition "Gaza, il futuro ha un cuore antico. Materie e memorie del Mediterraneo" at Fondazione Merz in Turin, discusses the show's aim to highlight Gaza's 5,000-year history beyond the current war imagery. The exhibition, organized in collaboration with the Museo Egizio and the MAH – Musée d’art et d’histoire de Genève, juxtaposes ancient artifacts with contemporary artworks to assert the cultural and historical significance of Palestine. Montanari also addresses the upcoming Venice Biennale, criticizing the lack of a Palestinian pavilion and suggesting that the Turin exhibition itself serves as a de facto Palestinian pavilion, while calling for accountability for Israel's actions.

Shigeo Toya, artist who looked to nature with his wood sculptures, 1947–2026

Shigeo Toya, the Japanese artist renowned for his chainsaw-hewn wood sculptures, has died at age 79. Born in 1947 in a small village in Nagano Prefecture, Toya began his signature Woods series in 1984, carving rough textures into tall lumber and arranging the pieces like a forest. His series Twenty Eight Deaths featured stacked wooden blocks with cavities and burn marks. Toya represented Japan at the Venice Biennale in 1988 and later exhibited at the Asia Pacific Triennial (1993) and Gwangju Biennale (2000). A major survey of his work was held at the Nagano Prefectural Art Museum and The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, in 2022–23.

Michel Bassompierre (1948-2026)

French sculptor Michel Bassompierre has died at age 78. Known for his monumental bronze and marble animal sculptures—polar bears, gorillas, elephants, pandas, and horses—he depicted them in moments of rest and balance, simplifying forms in the tradition of François Pompon. Bassompierre studied at the École des beaux arts de Rouen under René Leleu, taught applied arts, and later worked with foundries including Venturi Arte in Italy. His major exhibitions include "Fragiles colosses" at the Jardin des plantes in Paris (2019) and a show at the Musée Despiau Wlérick (2021). In February 2025, the municipality of Vertou announced plans for a Michel Bassompierre museum, slated to open in 2028. He was named a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2010, received the Légion d'honneur in January 2025, and was promoted to Officier des Arts et des Lettres on April 1, 2025.

Here's how Maurizio Cattelan's telephone confessions ended up

Ecco come sono finite le confessioni al telefono di Maurizio Cattelan

Maurizio Cattelan has launched a new performance project called "Hotline," a telephone confessional service running from April 2 to 22, where anyone could call a toll-free number or send a WhatsApp voice message to confess their sins directly to the artist. On April 23, Cattelan responded in a live-streamed event, symbolically absolving selected participants. The project coincides with the release of limited-edition reproductions of his iconic 1999 work "La Nona Ora" (depicting Pope John Paul II struck by a meteorite), sold through Avant Arte in an edition of 666 miniature resin sculptures priced at €2,310 each, with some given as gifts to participants.

Saving the Street Art of the Bombs: A True Story from Ukraine

Salvare la street art delle bombe: una storia vera dall’Ucraina

A documentary titled "Arte vs Guerra – Banksy e C215 a Borodyanka, Ucraina" will air on Sky Arte on April 26, recounting how street artists Banksy and C215 created murals in Borodyanka, Ukraine, shortly after the Russian invasion began in February 2022. The works include Banksy's "La Ginnasta" and "Davide e Golia," as well as C215's portraits of war victims like Dmytro Kotsiubaylo. The film also follows three Italian restorers—Paola Ciaccia, Alessandro Cini, and Maria Colonna—who risked their safety to preserve these murals from war damage and landmines.

Selome Muleta at b-side

Selome Muleta presents a solo exhibition at b-side gallery in Jakarta, running from April 1 to May 3, 2026. Curated by 47 Canal, the show features works by the artist, with images provided courtesy of Muleta and Roh Projects, Jakarta. The exhibition is documented on Contemporary Art Daily with five images and no videos.

According to an AI, El Greco would actually be the sole author of the 'Baptism of Christ' in Toledo, long considered a workshop work

Selon une IA, Greco serait en réalité l’unique auteur du « Baptême du Christ » de Tolède, longtemps considéré comme une œuvre d’atelier

A new study published in Science Advances uses an AI tool called Patch to analyze the monumental painting "Le Baptême du Christ" (1608–1614) by El Greco, long believed to be a workshop piece completed by his son Jorge Manuel Theotocópuli. By mapping the 3D microtopography of the brushstrokes and comparing them with El Greco's authenticated "Christ on the Cross" at the Cleveland Museum of Art, the AI found consistent painterly gestures across the entire work, suggesting the master himself painted it despite tremors from neurological disorders in his old age.

A Dismembered Album by Gerard van Honthorst (1592-1656): Unpublished Drawings and Reconstruction of a Corpus

Un album démembré de Gerard van Honthorst (1592-1656) : dessins inédits et reconstitution d'un corpus

An article in La Tribune de l'Art presents a significant expansion of the known corpus of drawings by Dutch Golden Age painter Gerard van Honthorst (1592-1656). Following the 2014 exhibition of twenty-seven drawings identified by the author, this study adds thirty-two more sheets—twenty-two of which are previously unpublished—as a preliminary step toward reconstructing a dismembered album. The research, conducted with direct observation and advanced imaging techniques (digital microscopy, ultraviolet, raking light), aims to restore the album's original order and shed light on the role of drawing in Honthorst's workshop and creative process.

Un album démembré de Gerard van Honthorst (1592-1656) : dessins inédits et reconstitution d'un corpus

An article in La Tribune de l'Art presents a significant expansion of the known corpus of drawings by Dutch Golden Age painter Gerard van Honthorst (1592-1656). The author, who previously identified and exhibited twenty-seven drawings in 2014, now adds thirty-two more sheets—twenty-two of which are previously unpublished. This collection represents a first attempt to reconstruct a dismembered album of Honthorst's drawings. The research is based on direct observation, digital microscopy, and various lighting techniques, and is intended as a preliminary step toward a forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's drawings to be published by R.S.V.P. Editions in Brussels.

Einatmen – Ausatmen

Lee Ufan, the renowned Korean artist known for his meditative single brushstroke paintings, is the subject of a feature article in Monopol. The piece visits his home in Kamakura, Japan, where he lives and works in a simple wooden cube house, reflecting the minimalist philosophy that defines his art. The article explores how Lee finds the entire universe in a single brushstroke, and how the art world is increasingly captivated by his serene, contemplative works.