Exhibition at the Sarasota Art Museum uses shadows to explore the way identity changes based on experiences

Sarasota Art Museum presents 'Penumbra,' a solo exhibition by textile artist Maria A. Guzman Capron. The show features 10 works, including traditional wall hangings and a suspended 15-foot textile sculpture titled 'Sombra,' all exploring how identity shifts based on context and experience. Curator Lacie Barbour explains that the title refers to the penumbra—a liminal space between light and dark—serving as a metaphor for the multiplicity of identities. Capron, who was born in Milan to Peruvian and Colombian parents and later moved to Texas, draws on her own cross-cultural experiences, using hand-dyed, painted, and screen-printed fabrics to create layered portraits of multi-faceted figures.

(BPRW) Getty Awards $1.8M to Increase Access to Black Visual Arts Archives

The Getty Foundation has awarded $1.8 million in grants to eight institutions through its Black Visual Arts Archives initiative, a multi-year program aimed at increasing access to archival collections related to Black artists and arts organizations. The grants will support processing, digitization, and public programming at venues including Afro Charities, Auburn Avenue Research Library, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Charles H. Wright Museum, Morgan State University, South Side Community Art Center, the University of Chicago's South Side Home Movie Project, and the David C. Driskell Center. This brings Getty's total funding for the initiative to $4.5 million since 2022, supporting 20 grants nationwide.

The Carnegie International is a Once Every Four Year Treat

The Carnegie International, the longest-running international art show in North America, returns in 2026 for its 59th edition at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. Founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1896, the exhibition takes place roughly every four years and features contemporary works from artists around the world, including Zhao Yao (China), Hans Ragnar Mathisen (Sapmi/Norway), Cinthia Marcelle (Brazil), and Walter Scott (Canada). The 2026-2027 edition is themed "If The Word We," exploring the first-person plural as an open and evolving concept. The show is integrated throughout the museum alongside permanent collection pieces, and extends to venues such as the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, Mattress Factory, and the Thelma Lovette YMCA.

The All-Women Exhibition Putting Penzance On The Art Map This Summer

An all-women exhibition titled 'Making Her Mark: A Celebration of Women in Art' has opened at Penlee House Gallery & Museum in Penzance, Cornwall, as the first stop on a three-part UK tour. The show features over 60 works by female artists from the 19th century to the present day, including Tracey Emin, Barbara Hepworth, Elizabeth Forbes, and Laura Knight. It is a collaboration between Penlee House, Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum, and Kirkcaldy Galleries, curated jointly by the three venues with local leadership from Penlee House deputy director Katie Herbert. The exhibition is part of Art Fund's £5.36 million Going Places programme and will travel to Worcester and Kirkcaldy in 2026 and 2027.

A History of the Human Body at “Costume Art,” the New Costume Institute Exhibit

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute has announced its latest exhibition, "Costume Art," opening May 10. Curated by Andrew Bolton, the show brings together garments and objects from across the museum's curatorial departments to explore the relationship between fashion and the human body. The exhibition is organized into thematic sections including the Naked & Nude Body, Classical Body, Abstract Body, Reclaimed Body, Pregnant Body, Corpulent Body, and Disabled Body, featuring works by designers such as Walter Van Beirendonck, LÛCHEN, Georgina Godley, Ann-Sofie Back, Di Petsa, Alessandro Michele for Gucci, and Vivienne Westwood, alongside historical art objects from Greek ceramics to Mesopotamian sculptures.

Art Fund launches UK-wide touring programme

Art Fund has launched a UK-wide touring programme called Going Places, backed by £5.36 million from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Julia Rausing Trust. The first exhibition, *Making Her Mark: A Celebration of Women in Art*, opened at Penlee House Gallery & Museum in Penzance, featuring over 60 works from three museum collections alongside community responses. It will travel to Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum and Kirkcaldy Gallery through 2027. The programme plans 12 major touring shows over five years, with six already scheduled, including exhibitions on green spaces, journeys, radical living, art and nature, and community making.

Expansive Exhibition Highlights U.S. History Through ‘A Nation of Artists’

The United States is marking its 250th anniversary in 2026 with a major collaborative exhibition titled *A Nation of Artists*, presented simultaneously at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) and the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA). The show features over 1,000 works—paintings, photographs, sculptures, and decorative arts—spanning from the late 18th century to the present, including more than 120 rarely seen pieces from the Middleton Family Collection, one of the country's most significant private holdings of American art. PAFA organizes the works thematically around westward expansion, industrialization, and globalization, while PMA, celebrating its 150th anniversary, presents a chronological survey from 1700 to 1960, highlighting international exchange, technological innovation, and shifting cultural economics.

Inside the new David Geffen Galleries at LA County Museum of Art

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has opened its new David Geffen Galleries, a $724 million building designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Swiss architect Peter Zumthor. The structure features a floating floor, floor-to-ceiling windows, and minimalist concrete interiors that create a calm, light-filled space. The inaugural exhibition presents 26 interconnected galleries with no set path, displaying artworks from ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs to contemporary installations like Do Ho Suh's "Jagyeong Hall, Gyeongbok Palace" (2026), aiming to eliminate hierarchies of time, place, or genre.

From Rocky to Rizzo: Monument Expert Paul Farber Talks Statues and Public Spaces

Paul Farber, founder of Monument Lab, discusses his new exhibition "Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments" at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The show moves the iconic Rocky statue inside the museum and examines how a fictional boxer's statue became Philadelphia's most famous work of art, exploring broader questions about collective memory and public commemoration. Farber also reflects on the dismantling of the Frank Rizzo statue and how unintentional monuments like the Berlin Wall shape cultural discourse.

Marina Abramović: Historic dell'Accademia Exhibition Announced During Venice Biennale 2026

Marina Abramović will be honored with a major exhibition at the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice during the 61st Venice Biennale Arte in 2026, making her the first living woman artist to receive such a show at this historic institution. The exhibition coincides with her eightieth birthday and features works including the 1983 photograph *Pietà (with Ulay)*, placed in dialogue with Titian’s *Pietà*, alongside participatory elements like her Transitory Objects. Curated by Shai Baitel, the show unfolds within the museum’s Renaissance galleries rather than a separate wing.

10 Exhibitions to See in Venice Which Aren’t Part of the Biennale

Ocula's editors have curated a list of 10 must-see collateral exhibitions in Venice that are not part of the main Biennale. Highlights include Shirin Neshat's film trilogy "Do U Dare!" about YouTuber Nasim Aghdam, Hernan Bas's ironic paintings of tourists at Ca' Pesaro, and the group show "Outta Love" featuring Francesca Woodman, Jenny Saville, and Wolfgang Tillmans. Another notable exhibition is "Turāndokht" from Parasol unit, which brings together 11 female artists from Central Asia to challenge Orientalist stereotypes.

Corals as Living Geology. In Conversation with Julian Charrière by Timothée Chaillou

Julian Charrière has created two new bodies of work, *Chorals* (2025) and *Veils* (2025), in collaboration with Maison Ruinart. The projects are inspired by the Lutetian Sea, which submerged the Champagne region 45 million years ago, and explore themes of deep time, climate change, and the interconnectedness of organic and mineral life. *Chorals* is a permanent sound installation in Ruinart's cellars in Reims, featuring amplified recordings of ocean reefs, while *Veils* comprises wall works and sculptures centered on corals and fading coral imagery. The works travel to art fairs as preludes to the permanent installation.

The Joy of Discovery at 1-54 Art Fair

The 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, now open at the Starrett-Lehigh Building in Manhattan, presents a smaller edition than previous years but continues to offer unexpected, tactile works. Highlights include Rommulo Vieira Conceição's Pop-art-inspired wall installation at Aura gallery, Kendra Frorup's mixed-media piece at the Current: Baha Mar Gallery, and Eymric Moderne's gold-leaf and glass bird painting at TM Arthouse. The fair also features posthumous works by Marcel Gotène at Loeve and Co and Sophia Bounou's enigmatic paintings at Blond Contemporary.

Gulag Museum rebrand marks latest phase in Kremlin’s assault on free speech

The Kremlin is systematically erasing the memory of Soviet repression under Joseph Stalin from Russian museums. The Gulag Museum in Moscow, which documented Stalin-era crimes, has been rebranded as a "Museum of Memory" focused on Nazi war crimes, with its entire website replaced and exhibitions packed up. Simultaneously, Russia's supreme court banned Memorial, a human rights organization founded to document Stalin-era atrocities, labeling it an "anti-Russian" extremist group. The Yeltsin Presidential Center in Yekaterinburg has also removed references to Memorial from its walls, and the Sakharov Center in Moscow was disbanded and evicted from its facilities.

Did Zurbarán Believe What He Painted?

An exhibition of Francisco de Zurbarán's 17th-century religious paintings at London's National Gallery prompts a critic to question whether the artist's personal faith influenced his artistic skill. The show features monumental works from Spanish churches and monasteries, displayed dramatically against black walls, including crucifixion scenes, monks, and saints. The critic notes that no personal records of Zurbarán survive—only contracts—leaving his beliefs unknown, and compares him to Agnolo Bronzino, who painted pious scenes but wrote obscene verses. A small painting of a crucified Christ with a painter, possibly a self-portrait of Bronzino, is presented as ambiguous evidence of faith.

Steel And Shadows Converge in “Larry Kagan: Men”

Louis K. Meisel Gallery in New York City will present “Larry Kagan: Men,” an exhibition of steel and shadow sculptures by artist Larry Kagan, opening May 9 and running through June 20. Kagan, a former engineer turned sculptor, creates intricate steel assemblages that, when lit from a calculated angle, project remarkably detailed shadow images onto the wall, blending material and illusion. The show includes works like “Michelangelo's Adam” (2025) and highlights his career shift from acrylics to metal in the 1980s under the mentorship of Richard Stankiewicz.

Alex Israel on finding inspiration in Erewhon, AI as a tool and new show 'Where Is My Mind'

Multimedia artist Alex Israel has launched his first collaboration with Pace Prints, releasing a new suite of 10 archival pigment prints titled 'Where Is My Mind?' The series, part of his ongoing Self Portrait project, features intimate-scale works that incorporate representational imagery within his signature silhouette—ranging from the Hollywood Bowl stage to aerial views of Los Angeles and a California desert scene with an iPhone outline. Each print began as a photograph, translated into paint by the Scenic Art department at Warner Brothers Studio, then scanned and mounted in custom frames. The show coincides with Pace Prints' upcoming expansion into Los Angeles in fall 2026.

Annette Messager's 'A Swallow Does Not Make Spring' exhibition brings her menagerie to life at the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature

An exhibition titled 'A Swallow Does Not Make Spring' by French artist Annette Messager has opened at the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature in Paris. The show transforms the museum's spaces with a menagerie of taxidermy, drawings, and installations, blending the artist's signature surreal and feminist sensibilities with the museum's focus on hunting and nature.

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.

Brook Hsu ”The Barcelona Pavilion (including work by Georg Kolbe)” at Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin

Brook Hsu's exhibition "The Barcelona Pavilion (including work by Georg Kolbe)" at Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler in Berlin presents a series of works that interweave references to architecture, film, literature, and animal carcasses. The show's title alludes to Mies van der Rohe's iconic Barcelona Pavilion and the sculptor Georg Kolbe, whose work was originally installed there, while the list of pieces—ranging from paintings like "Daybreak:Orange Tree" to works dedicated to figures such as Anne Wiazemsky and Pasolini—creates a dense, associative network of cultural and personal memory.

Waterbury’s Mattatuck Museum Balances Art and Local

The Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, Connecticut, balances art and local history, serving as a community hub. Director Bob Burns has integrated school programs reaching 7,000 local students annually, community art shows, contemporary works by artists like Yayoi Kusama and Simone Leigh, and a major exhibition "About Face: 250 Years of American Portraits" curated by Rebecca McNamara. The museum also features hyper-realistic paintings by Wende Caporale-Greene and a gallery of Waterbury's industrial past, with a focus on inclusivity after removing a physical barrier to Main Street in 2019.

Stimmung: sakral

The Anozero Biennale in Coimbra, Portugal, opens at the former Santa Clara convent, blending religious imagery with anarchist ideas. Artists including Taryn Simon and Nan Goldin present works that explore utopian visions of community and reciprocity within the monastery's walls.

What We Throw Away Does Not Disappear

Was wir wegwerfen, verschwindet nicht

The Museum Ostwall at the Dortmunder U in Dortmund has opened a new exhibition titled "Müll – die globalen Wege des Abfalls" ("Waste – The Global Paths of Garbage"), curated by Christina Danick and Michael Griff. Featuring around 50 international artworks from the 20th and 21st centuries, including two newly commissioned pieces, the show uses art to explore waste as material, motif, and aesthetic strategy. Key works include Kader Attia's "Los de Arriba y Los de Abajo," which addresses power imbalances through the lens of garbage in Hebron, and historical pieces by César Baldaccini, Arman, and HA Schult. The exhibition also highlights contemporary issues such as e-waste, global waste trafficking, and the environmental impact of industrial nations on the Global South.

Elisabetta Sirani, de Bologne à Melbourne

The National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne has acquired a painting by the 17th-century Bolognese artist Elisabetta Sirani. The work, a private devotional piece, depicts the infant Jesus holding a swallow, a symbol of Resurrection in Christian iconography. The acquisition adds a significant example of Sirani's work to the museum's collection.

Au musée de l’Image d’Épinal, les talents multiples de Frans Masereel, entre autres inventeur du roman graphique

The Musée de l'Image d'Épinal is presenting a comprehensive exhibition on Belgian artist Frans Masereel (1889–1972), widely credited as the inventor of the graphic novel in 1918 with his wordless narratives composed of black-and-white woodcuts. The show, curated by Samuel Dégardin, brings together loans from major institutions and a private collection to reveal the full breadth of Masereel's practice, which spanned drawing, animation, painting, theater, ceramics, tapestry, and satirical press illustration. It highlights his pacifist activism during World War I, his collaborations with writers such as Stefan Zweig and Romain Rolland, and his humanist vision of a unified Europe.

Meet the Former Monk Taking Over Venice During This Year’s Biennale

Wallace Chan, a Hong Kong-born sculptor and jeweler who once lived as a Buddhist monk, is presenting his latest exhibition “Vessels of Other Worlds” at the Chapel of Santa Maria della Pietà in Venice on May 8, coinciding with his 70th birthday and the Venice Biennale, followed by a show at Shanghai’s Long Museum on July 18. The exhibition features three monumental titanium sculptures standing seven, eight, and 10 meters tall, evoking religious oil vessels, and explores themes of birth, growth, and rebirth through the demanding medium of titanium, which Chan describes as the material closest to eternity.

Contrast Reigns in Austn Fischer’s Conspicuous Black-and-White Photos

Austn Fischer, a Wisconsin-born, London-based photographer, creates black-and-white images that explore fashion as performance and identity. His work features striking contrasts, such as lace ruffs paired with athletic wear, and he has collaborated with clients like The New Statesman and Crack Magazine, photographing subjects including Ai Weiwei and David Byrne. Fischer describes his process as working backwards, arranging scenes intuitively and later reflecting on their personal significance, especially regarding his sexuality and masculinity.

Phyllida Barlow: Disruptor review – sexy latex and gobs of gum as a stately home gets trashed

Phyllida Barlow's posthumous exhibition "Disruptor" at Wolterton Hall in Norfolk transforms the 18th-century Palladian mansion with her signature chaotic sculptures made from cheap materials like latex, cardboard, foam, and plywood. Works such as "Untitled: Stacked Chairs" and "Loaf" are installed throughout the stately home, clashing with its opulent interiors and historic treasures. The show, curated by artistic director Simon Oldfield, also includes a concurrent solo exhibition by Daisy Parris titled "Fist Full of Dreams."

‘How can nudity be so provocative?’ Florentina Holzinger on rocking Venice with naked jetskiers, human bells and urine divers

Florentina Holzinger, an Austrian dancer and choreographer known for provocative, physically extreme performances, is representing Austria at the Venice Biennale with a new work titled *Seaworld Venice*. The piece features naked performers on a barge in the lagoon, including a woman suspended upside down inside a cast-iron bell hoisted by a crane, a guitarist rocking at a vertiginous height, and a vocalist screaming like Yoko Ono. Holzinger’s previous opera *Sancta* included a climbing wall, nuns on roller skates, and a pregnant pope on a robot arm, and has toured European opera houses for two years.

Artist Outraged After His Conservationist Mural in Dallas Is Painted Over to Allow for FIFA Promo

A giant mural by conservationist artist Robert Wyland, titled *Ocean Life* (1999), was painted over in Dallas to make way for a FIFA promotional mural. The piece was number 82 of Wyland's 100 "whaling wall" murals worldwide, covering two sides of the Texas Utilities Building. Crews began painting over the larger 164-by-82-foot section last week, while a smaller panel remains visible. Wyland and the Wyland Foundation have denied giving permission, calling the city's claim a lie. The building's owner, Slate Asset Management, allowed the North Texas FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee to cover the mural. FIFA plans to unveil a new work by a local artist ahead of the 2026 World Cup, for which Dallas will host nine matches.