Was in den Museen läuft

Munich's art festival "Various Others" kicks off this week with major city museums participating. The Pinakothek der Moderne presents "Reflexion," a group show of 100 works across fine art, architecture, graphic design, and design by artists including Isa Genzken, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Piet Zwart, and Ettore Sottsass. The Alexander-Tutsek-Stiftung celebrates its 25th anniversary with a glass-focused exhibition featuring Monica Bonvicini, Tony Cragg, and Laure Prouvost. The Villa Stuck reopens after renovation with four shows: Philipp Messner's sculptures, Ilit Azoulay's macro-film installation, a returning Franz von Stuck painting, and Delschad Numan Khorschid and Jan-Hendrik Pelz's migration-themed "Zehn Leben." The Lenbachhaus presents "Ein Ferngespräch. Szenen aus der Weimarer Republik" with works by Jeanne Mammen, Gabriele Münter, and Christian Schad. Museum Brandhorst's "Carrying" addresses the history of the Maxvorstadt art district, once site of a military barracks built by Ottoman prisoners. The Eres Stiftung continues "Seeing the Unseen" on quantum physics. The Flux meeting space, designed by Morag Myerscough, moves indoors at the Pinakothek der Moderne.

Orsay inaugure une salle destinée aux œuvres « MNR »

The Musée d'Orsay in Paris has opened a new dedicated gallery, Room 10b, to display works from its MNR (Musées nationaux Récupération) collection—artworks looted or acquired under dubious circumstances during the Nazi era. The room features detailed labels and educational texts, with some works shown verso to reveal provenance labels. The initiative is funded by the American Friends of the Musée d'Orsay and the Musée de l'Orangerie with €1 million over four years, and includes a fake Monet, a Degas subject to a restitution claim, a Rodin sculpture, and a debated Cézanne. The museum's provenance research team, led by Inès Rotermund-Reynard, collaborates with the French Ministry of Culture's M2RS mission.

La Biennale de Venise s’ouvre dans un climat houleux

The 61st Venice Biennale opened amid intense controversy after its president, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, announced the return of the Russian pavilion, which had been absent since the start of the Ukraine war. The European Commission suspended its €2 million subsidy for the 2028 edition, and the entire Biennale jury resigned on April 30. Buttafuoco later declared the Russian pavilion would remain closed, but protests erupted during the pre-opening days (May 6–8), drawing 28,000 professionals. Pussy Riot members, Femen activists, and the Free Nations League staged demonstrations, while the Israeli pavilion remained open despite a letter signed by nearly 200 artists calling for its exclusion.

Michelangelo and Rodin as an 'Artistic Couple'

Michel-Ange et Rodin en « couple artistique »

The Louvre Museum in Paris presents a major exhibition pairing Michelangelo and Auguste Rodin as an "artistic couple," curated by Chloé Ariot of the Musée Rodin and Marc Bormand of the Louvre. The show features over 200 works, including three marble sculptures by Michelangelo—the Slaves and a Christ on the Cross—alongside drawings, plaster casts, and works by Rodin such as the monumental Balzac. It also includes pieces by contemporaries and later artists like Joseph Beuys, Jana Sterbak, Giuseppe Penone, and Bruce Nauman to trace the sculptors' shared legacy.

Décès de Bruno Bischofberger

Bruno Bischofberger, the influential Swiss gallerist and art dealer, has died. Known for his Zurich gallery that represented major contemporary artists, Bischofberger played a pivotal role in the careers of figures like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, and Francesco Clemente. His death marks the end of an era for the post-war and contemporary art market.

Sheila Hicks en 2 minutes

Sheila Hicks, the American textile artist born in 1934, is profiled in a concise overview of her career. The article traces her journey from studying under Josef Albers at Yale and learning weaving from Andean artisans in Chile, to establishing her studio in Mexico and later Paris. It highlights her monumental commissions for hotels, embassies, and public spaces, as well as her intimate "Minimes" works. Key milestones include her 2014 piece "Pillar of Inquiry/Supple Column" at the Whitney Biennial, her 2017 installation at the Venice Biennale, and a major retrospective at the Centre Pompidou in 2018.

6 musées incontournables à visiter à Venise

Beaux Arts Magazine highlights six must-visit museums in Venice, including the Palazzo Ducale, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, and the Pinault Collection venues Palazzo Grassi and Punta della Dogana. The article notes that during the Biennale, the city is filled with free pavilions, but the main museums have high entry fees, offset by passes like the Venice Museum Pass (€59) and Venice City Pass (€119). It also mentions a current Marina Abramović exhibition at the Gallerie dell'Accademia, marking her as the first living female artist honored there.

Sofiane Pamart: 'With my piano, I sculpt sound matter'

Sofiane Pamart : « Avec mon piano, je sculpte la matière sonore »

French pianist Sofiane Pamart discusses his creative process in an interview with Beaux Arts Magazine, explaining how his music is inspired by contemplative cinema, particularly the films of Takeshi Kitano and Wong Kar-wai. He describes his approach to composition as sculpting sound, drawing parallels to impressionist painting and the works of sculptors Auguste Rodin and Camille Claudel. Pamart also expresses a preference for art that interacts with nature, citing the open-air museum of sculptor Anachar Basbous in Lebanon as an example.

JR to cover Paris’s Pont Neuf in homage to Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

French artist JR has begun installing a monumental trompe-l’oeil work titled *La Caverne du Pont Neuf* (2026) on Paris’s Pont Neuf, transforming the city’s oldest bridge into an immersive cave. The project reimagines the bridge as a limestone quarry cave, referencing the stone from which the bridge and many Parisian buildings were constructed. The work pays homage to Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s iconic *The Pont Neuf Wrapped* (1985) and will be visible both day and night throughout the summer.

Jack Goldstein “Pictures, Sounds and Movies” at Kunst Museum Winterthur

Jack Goldstein (1945–2003), a Canadian-born artist and CalArts graduate, is the subject of the exhibition "Pictures, Sounds and Movies" at Kunst Museum Winterthur. The show highlights his role in the Pictures Generation, a group that in the 1970s rejected traditional art forms by appropriating images from advertising, television, and popular culture, while Goldstein also explored the autonomy of Minimal Art objects.

Julia Heyward “Miracles in Reverse” at Kunstverein Nürnberg

Kunstverein Nürnberg – Albrecht Dürer Gesellschaft is presenting "Miracles in Reverse," the first institutional solo exhibition in Europe by American artist Julia Heyward (born 1949). Heyward was a central figure in New York's downtown art scene during the 1970s and 1980s, and her work anticipated major developments in art history. The exhibition showcases her distinctive practice developed over five decades.

The Best Booths at 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, From Surrealist Fantasias to Afro-Brazilian Imaginings

The 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair has returned to the Starrett-Lehigh Building in Chelsea, New York, featuring over 20 galleries from Africa and the diaspora, with a special focus on Brazil and Afro-Brazilian perspectives. The fair, running through Sunday, includes first-time participants from Lagos, São Paulo, Nassau, and New York, and highlights five standout booths: Sulette van der Merwe's surrealist paintings at Blond Contemporary, Modou Dieng Yacine's Senegalese wrestler-inspired works at 193 Gallery, Ekene Ijeoma's Black Forest Library community project, Rommulo Vieira Conceição's aluminum works at Aura, and the curated section "Brazil Beyond Brazil" featuring 10 artists selected by Igor Simões.

‘We can all coexist’: artist Es Devlin uses selfies to unite UK in portrait of a nation

Artist Es Devlin has created a new installation at the National Portrait Gallery in London titled 'A National Portrait for the National Portrait Gallery,' made in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture Lab. The work invites people across the UK to upload selfies, which are transformed into charcoal-and-chalk-style portraits using an AI model trained on Devlin's own hand-drawn works. These portraits then appear on a constantly evolving projected carousel, blending and dissolving into one another. Devlin, known for designing visual worlds for Beyoncé, Adele, and the London Olympics closing ceremony, describes the piece as a non-verbal space for coexistence amid national division.

Interview with the great sculptor Charles Ray who shows in two different galleries in Los Angeles

Intervista al grande scultore Charles Ray che a Los Angeles si mostra in due diverse gallerie

Charles Ray, the renowned American sculptor, opened two simultaneous solo exhibitions in Los Angeles on April 18, one at Matthew Marks Gallery and the other at Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, located about a mile apart. The Matthew Marks show features three new works, including "Junk 2" (2026) and "The Animation of Pandora" (2026), while the Deitch exhibition presents three older iconic pieces such as "Firetruck" (1993), "Pepto-Bismol in a Marble Box" (1988), and "Table" (1990). Ray, who has lived in Los Angeles for four decades, is known for his meticulous, slow-working process and his exploration of the human body and everyday objects at altered scales.

WTF Is an “A-Corp”?

Hyperallergic's daily newsletter announces that Noah Fischer's comic "Prospect Heights Ghost Story" won a 2026 New York Press Club Award, thanks to collaboration with the Economic Hardship Project (EHRP). The edition also covers anti-Trump guerrilla protest art in Washington, D.C., including an arcade game titled "Operation Epic Furious: Strait to Hell" that satirizes the White House's foreign policy. Other stories include Ridgewood, Queens emerging as a new art hotspot, a feature on Francisco de Zurbarán's religious paintings, and Paddy Johnson's guide to what an "Artist Corporation" (A-Corp) is and whether artists should start one. The newsletter also reports that the Belgian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale closed on May 8 as part of cultural workers' strike for Palestine, and that nearly half of the artists in the international exhibition plus 22 national pavilions withdrew from awards consideration in solidarity with the jury's resignation.

It is the great Mark Rothko leading Sotheby's first auctions in New York

È il grande Mark Rothko a guidare le prime aste di Sotheby’s a New York

Sotheby's kicked off New York's art and auction week with two major sales on May 14, 2026, led by the highly anticipated Robert Mnuchin: Collector at Heart Evening Auction. The top lot was Mark Rothko's "Brown and Blacks in Reds" (1957), which sold for $85.8 million, the second-highest price ever for the artist at auction. The Mnuchin auction achieved a "white glove" sale, selling all 11 lots for a total of $166.3 million, followed by The Now & Contemporary Evening Auction which brought in $266.8 million. Combined, Sotheby's generated $433.1 million, a 133% increase over its May 2025 session. The sales reflect a strong return of high-value trophy lots to the secondary market, driven by the dispersal of prominent collectors' estates.

Sotheby’s Posts $433 Million Haul, as Trophy Lots Continue to Carry the Market

Sotheby's May 2025 evening auctions in New York generated $433.1 million, a 132.7% increase over the same sales last spring, despite offering fewer lots. The evening featured an 11-lot sale from the collection of the late banker-turned-dealer Robert Mnuchin, which alone brought in $166.3 million, led by Mark Rothko's "Brown and Blacks in Reds" (1957) selling for $85.8 million. The main contemporary art auction, including "The Now" sale, totaled $266.8 million, with over 80% of lots guaranteed. Four works went unsold and one was withdrawn, yielding a 91% sell-through rate.

Leading French Gallery Air de Paris Is Declaring Bankruptcy and Closing After 36 Years

Air de Paris, a leading French gallery, is declaring bankruptcy and closing after 36 years, as announced by cofounders Florence Bonnefous and Edouard Merino to Cultured. The gallery owes money only to its landlord and bank, not to its artists. The closure is attributed to fragile finances and health issues, including Bonnefous's Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. The gallery's farewell exhibition, “Oh What a Time,” featured artists such as Trisha Donnelly, Joseph Grigely, Pati Hill, Pierre Joseph, Allen Ruppersberg, Lily van der Stokker, Mona Varichon, and Amy Vogel. Bonnefous will continue to manage the estates of Guy de Cointet, Pati Hill, Dorothy Iannone, Bruno Pelassy, and Sarah Pucci, and work as a curator.

Nasher Museum’s ‘Everything Now All At Once’ Celebrates Diversity, Resilience, and Joy

The Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University is presenting 'Everything Now All At Once,' an exhibition drawn entirely from its permanent collection that features works by over a dozen contemporary artists including Nick Cave, Ai Weiwei, Nina Chanel Abney, Wangechi Mutu, Jeffrey Gibson, Amy Sherald, and Barbara Chase-Riboud. The show focuses on painting and sculpture—deliberately analog mediums in an era of rapid technological change—and highlights pieces acquired over the past twenty years that center artists from historically marginalized backgrounds. Running since August 2025, the exhibition will rotate new works next month and continue through November 1 in Durham, North Carolina.

“Adam Pendleton + Antoni Tàpies” at Alfonso Artiaco, Naples

Mousse Magazine reports on the two-person exhibition "Adam Pendleton + Antoni Tàpies" at Alfonso Artiaco in Naples, which pairs the contemporary American artist Adam Pendleton with the late Spanish master Antoni Tàpies. The show explores how both artists use painting as a site where language, materiality, and history converge, highlighting Tàpies's textured, sign-laden surfaces and Pendleton's conceptual engagement with abstraction and text.

Urban art at the Petit Palais: discover the free exhibition We are here

The Petit Palais in Paris is hosting the second edition of its free urban art exhibition, "We are (still) here," from June 20 to September 20, 2026. Organized in collaboration with the Itinerrance Gallery, the show features nearly 200 works by leading French and international street artists, including Seth and Inti, displayed in the Concorde Hall and throughout the museum's permanent collections, creating a dialogue between contemporary street art and classical masterpieces.

New Exhibition Explores Victor Vasarely’s Influence on Hungarian Neo-Avant-Garde Art

A major exhibition titled "Vasarely Don't Go Home!" opens at NEO Contemporary Art Space in Budapest, marking the 120th anniversary of Victor Vasarely's birth. Curated by Zsolt Petrányi, the show runs until 19 September and examines Vasarely's influence on Hungarian experimental and neo-avant-garde art of the 1960s and 1970s. Featuring over 60 works, the exhibition is organized around three themes—construction, grid structures, and illusion—and connects to parallel Vasarely shows at the Museum of Fine Arts and the Hungarian National Gallery. The title references a 1969 protest where artist János Major carried a sign reading 'Vasarely go home!' during Vasarely's exhibition at Műcsarnok.

Marc Chagall | Île Saint-Louis (1959) (1959) | For Sale

Marc Chagall's lithograph *Île Saint-Louis (1959)*, a limited-edition print in colors on Arches paper signed and numbered by the artist, is being offered for sale through an online auction hosted by LLB Auction on Artsy. The work, estimated at €10,000–€15,000, is part of a Contemporary Art Spring 2026 sale and carries a starting bid of €9,000. The listing includes provenance details, a condition report option, and a buyer's premium.

​Walid Nayif’s painting exhibition at Yassin gallery is not to be missed

Walid Nayif is holding a painting exhibition at Yassin gallery, which the article describes as not to be missed. The article also lists numerous other art events in Cairo, including photographic projects, immersive digital exhibitions, and ceramic showcases, featuring artists such as Judi Yassin, Tia Khalil, Mostafa El-Razzaz, Khaled Taher, Mahmoud Hamdi, and Pierre Jeanneret, as well as the 'Beyond Van Gogh' immersive experience directed by Mathieu Saint-Arnaud.

MMCA exhibition explores 80 years of artistic exchanges between Korea, Japan

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) in Korea, in collaboration with the Yokohama Museum of Art, has organized "Art between Korea and Japan since 1945," an exhibition opening at MMCA's Gwacheon branch. Featuring about 200 works by 43 artists and teams, including Paik Nam-june, Lee Ufan, Lee Bul, Jiro Takamatsu, Takashi Murakami, and Koki Tanaka, the show traces 80 years of artistic exchanges between the two countries. It is structured in five sections, beginning with a tribute to Zainichi Koreans, and highlights key works such as Paik's 1986 satellite project "Bye Bye Kipling." The exhibition runs through September 27.

Renowned Gallery Air de Paris Bankrupted, Closing This Week

Air de Paris, the Paris gallery known for its punk ethos and commitment to cutting-edge Conceptual art, will close this week after 36 years and more than 400 exhibitions, amid bankruptcy proceedings. Founded in Nice in 1990 by Florence Bonnefous and Edouard Merino, the gallery was named after Marcel Duchamp’s 50cc of Paris Air and became legendary for its inaugural show, “Les Ateliers du Paradise,” which featured artists living in the gallery and later influenced critic Nicolas Bourriaud’s theory of relational aesthetics. The gallery moved to Paris in 1994 and later to Romainville in 2019, showing artists such as Paul McCarthy, Raymond Pettibon, Liam Gillick, Pierre Huyghe, and Dorothy Iannone.

Rene Matić wins 2026 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize

Rene Matić has won the 2026 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize, becoming the first British winner in over a decade. The announcement was made at The Photographers’ Gallery in London on May 14, 2025, where Matić received £30,000 for their exhibition *AS OPPOSED TO THE TRUTH*, which uses photography, installation, and sound to explore identity and belonging. Matić was nominated for the show at the Center for Contemporary Arts Berlin (CCA Berlin) and is also a recent Turner Prize nominee. The prize exhibition runs at The Photographers’ Gallery until June 7, alongside works by fellow shortlisted artists Jane Evelyn Atwood, Weronika Gęsicka, and Amak Mahmoodian.

For Carly Glovinski, Art and Gardening Grow Side by Side

Maine artist Carly Glovinski has opened "Into the Garden," her third solo exhibition with New York's Morgan Lehman Gallery. The show explores gardening as a parallel practice to art-making, inspired by her residency at Surf Point in southern Maine, where she discovered the overgrown grounds of Wild Knoll, the former home of author May Sarton. Glovinski planted a community garden there, the Wild Knoll Foundation Garden, and the experience led her to return to painting after a two-decade hiatus, creating acrylic works that express the experience of gardening rather than traditional landscapes.

Tribeca Gallery Night brings together more than 80 spaces

On Friday, May 15, more than 80 galleries in New York's Tribeca neighborhood will stay open late for Tribeca Gallery Night, from 6pm to 8pm. Three new galleries are joining the event: Tappeto Volante Gallery (opening at 4 Cortlandt Alley with a show of painter Angelo Vasta), Gratin (opening at 15 White Street with a solo show for Spanish artist Mónica Mays), and Southern Guild (relocated from Los Angeles to 75 Leonard Street, featuring solo shows for Usha Seejarim and Mmangaliso Nzuza).

Artists turn to textiles as they excavate history at Nada New York

At the New Art Dealers Alliance (Nada) New York fair, running until 17 May, multiple artists are presenting works that heavily incorporate textiles to explore themes of culture, belonging, and history. Artists such as Keith Lafuente (with SoMad), Polina Osipova (with JO-HS), and Griselda Rosas (with Luis De Jesus Los Angeles) use fabric and sewing techniques to examine histories of inequality, migration, and labor. Rosas embroiders over painted paper using imagery from Mexican codices, Osipova prints family photos onto traditional Chuvash fabric, and Lafuente repurposes scraps from Oscar de la Renta to comment on global labor inequalities. Other participants like Ruth Owens (with Voltz Clarke Gallery) use textiles in lightbox works to tell personal stories of migration and abduction.