The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) has opened its new David Geffen Galleries building, a major architectural project designed to be a glamorous cultural beacon. The building itself is a striking landmark, but the exhibition spaces within present significant challenges for the display of art, creating a complex, maze-like environment for visitors.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is launching a new exhibition centered on the cultural phenomenon of the "Rocky" statue, a bronze monument originally created as a movie prop that has become one of the city's most visited landmarks. By bringing the narrative of the fictional boxer inside the museum's walls, the show investigates the public's emotional connection to populist monuments and the tension between cinematic myth and traditional art history.
Conceptual artist Ann Hamilton has debuted a new series of large-scale scanner photography installations at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Moving from her signature immersive environments to high-resolution digital captures, Hamilton utilizes a flatbed scanner to document the tactile qualities of various objects and figures, enlarging them to billboard proportions to emphasize the intimacy of touch.
The 60th Venice Biennale, titled "Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere," has opened to a polarized reception. Curated by Adriano Pedrosa, it is the first Biennale led by a Latin American curator and heavily features artists from the Global South, Indigenous creators, and queer artists, marking a significant departure from the Eurocentric focus of past editions.
Yu Ji's solo exhibition at PPOW, New York, titled "Origin of the Tiger," presents sculptures and collages created after a residency she organized in Phnom Penh that offered art education to children. The show features works like reed mats with snail shells, a Sony Trinitron looping video, collaged drawings incorporating Cambodian children's art, and composite sculptures such as chairs with concrete knee casts and a figure inspired by a misattributed sixth-century Krishna statue. The exhibition draws on a Khmer folktale about transformation and includes audio of children reciting the story, though the children appear more as muses than collaborators.
The exhibition "Seeds of Exchange" at London's Garden Museum highlights a 1773 botanical collaboration between British amateur plant hunter John Bradby Blake and Cantonese painter Mak Sau. Centered on Blake’s unpublished "Flora Sinensis," the project attempted to systematically catalogue Chinese flora, including the Camellia japonica, through detailed watercolors that blended Western objective illustration with Chinese artistic expertise. These works served as the primary medium for introducing Chinese plant species to the West long before live specimens could survive the journey.
The opening of the Berlin Modern Museum, a planned extension of the Neue Nationalgalerie, has been delayed until 2030 due to significant moisture damage and microbial contamination in its foundation, floors, roof coverings, and exterior walls. Originally laid in February 2024 with a projected 2027 opening, the museum's construction costs have surged from 200 million to 507 million euros, according to Monopol. A spokesperson for the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation stated that repairs are underway but will push completion back by approximately eight months.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has appointed Oluremi C. Onabanjo as a curator in the Department of Photographs, poaching her from the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Onabanjo, formerly the Peter Schub Curator at MoMA, will be tasked with managing the landmark gift of over 6,500 photographs from the Walther Family Foundation and curating exhibitions with a focus on twentieth-century media.
Kengo Kuma and Associates has been selected to lead the design of a massive £750 million extension to London’s National Gallery, titled Project Domani. The Tokyo-based firm won the commission over sixty-four other competitors and will collaborate with UK firms BDP and MICA to develop the new wing on land currently occupied by a hotel and office complex. The design features a dual-level approach, utilizing vaults and arches on the main floor to harmonize with existing galleries while introducing a modern geometric aesthetic on the upper level.
The 10th edition of the British Art Show, titled 'A Chorus of Strangers,' has announced its theme and a roster of over 30 participating artists. Curated by Ekow Eshun and organized by Hayward Gallery Touring, the exhibition will explore the relationship between the individual and the 'other' through three thematic lenses: 'Moments of Being,' 'Ways of Living,' and 'States of Nature.' The show is scheduled to launch in Coventry on October 2, 2025, before touring to Swansea, Bristol, Sheffield, and Newcastle Gateshead.
A new photography book, *Trees of Great Britain and Ireland*, reproduces over 60 photographs originally taken between 1906 and 1913 for Henry John Elwes and Augustine Henry's ambitious seven-volume catalogue of tree species. The images, mostly by uncredited photographers, were printed using a collotype process by the Autotype Company and are now newly lithoprinted to preserve their tonal subtlety. The book includes an introduction by Michael Pritchard and notes by photographic historian Björn Andersson, highlighting the historical and aesthetic significance of these botanical photographs.
Fair Warning, the members-only online sales platform founded by former Christie's rainmaker Loïc Gouzer, is staging a rare live auction on May 20 at Tiffany & Co.'s flagship store in New York. The centerpiece is Banksy's *Girl and Balloon on Found Landscape* (2012), a work from the artist's 'Crude Oils' series that has never been publicly exhibited. Consigned by a private collector, the painting carries an ambitious estimate of $13 million–$18 million, one of the highest ever for a Banksy. Gouzer argues that Banksy is among the most consequential artists of our time, comparing his trajectory to Jean-Michel Basquiat, and sees this sale as a landmark moment for the artist's market.
L’artista italiano che parte dall’Isola d’Elba in barca a vela per raggiungere Sant’Elena: si parla di potere e si gira un film
Italian artist Luca Vitone (born Genoa, 1964) has launched a project titled "Pro Tempore," which involves a two-month sailing journey from the Island of Elba—Napoleon Bonaparte's first place of exile—to the remote island of Saint Helena, where Napoleon died in exile. The voyage, aboard the boat Adriatica, includes four intermediate stops (Balearic Islands, Algeciras, Canary Islands, Cape Verde) and is funded by the 14th edition of the Italian Council grant, in partnership with the Fondazione Oelle. The project explores the concept of temporary power and uses Napoleon's biography and the sea as metaphors for control and instability.
A Lugano ci sono 5 mostre dedicate all’Oriente da scoprire in giro per la città
Five exhibitions dedicated to East Asian art are currently on view across Lugano, Switzerland. Four are housed in the city's two major museums, MASI and MUSEC, while the fifth is presented by Primo Marella Gallery. The shows feature a range of works, from historical Japanese kakemono scrolls and screens to contemporary art by Chinese artists Zhang Hong Mei and He Wei, and a survey of video art from South Korea.
Sotheby’s Paris achieved a landmark result for its modern and contemporary art sale, totaling €35 million ($41 million) and surpassing its high estimate. The auction was headlined by two Claude Monet paintings that had been hidden from public view for roughly a century, including 'Vétheuil, effet du matin' (1901), which sold for €10.2 million ($12.1 million), setting a record for the artist at auction in France.
In 2025, art fairs and auction houses have deepened their integration with luxury brands, with Sotheby's and Christie's reporting that luxury items like handbags, jewels, and watches now account for a significant share of revenue—roughly a third at Sotheby's, with private luxury sales surging 350% year-on-year. Art fairs such as Frieze London and Art Basel's global editions have moved beyond traditional sponsorship, embedding luxury partners like Tiffany & Co., Ray-Ban, Stone Island, and De Beers into curated sections, mentorship programs, and immersive installations. Industry figures like Marc Spiegler and Emily Glazebrook emphasize that the most successful collaborations prioritize artists over brands, with initiatives like UBS's Unlimited sector and the Chanel Culture Fund serving as models.
New York's The New School is offering voluntary retirement and severance programs to a large group of faculty and staff as part of a radical restructuring to address a $48 million deficit. The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) reported that 40 percent of full-time faculty, about 169 staffers, received the offers, calling it the largest attempted firing of faculty currently taking place in the nation. The school is also eliminating over thirty programs, primarily in social sciences and humanities, and plans to combine several schools into a two-college structure, including Parsons School of Design. The school faces declining enrollment and has been warned by the Department of Education over campus protests related to the Israel-Hamas conflict.
A Banksy painting from his 2005 'Crude Oils' exhibition sold for £4.3 million ($5.5 million) at Sotheby’s Modern and Contemporary Evening Auction in London. The work, *Crude Oil (Vettriano)*, came from the collection of Mark Hoppus, co-founder of the pop-punk band Blink-182, who acquired it in 2011. The painting reimagines Jack Vettriano’s *The Singing Butler*, replacing the idyllic beach scene with environmental pollution, including hazmat-suited workers and a sinking container ship. The sale occurred shortly after Vettriano’s death at age 73.
A fleet of over 600 drones choreographed by Skymagic lit up the night sky over Bradford, England, on November 13, recreating iconic paintings by David Hockney including *A Bigger Splash* (1967), *Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy* (1970–71), and *A Year in Normandie* (2021). The event, held in Roberts Park, celebrated Bradford’s designation as the U.K. City of Culture for 2025 and honored Hockney, the region’s most famous living artist. It marked the first time drone swarm technology has been used for a light painting in the U.K. and the first time Hockney’s work has been rendered by drones.
Adrian Cheng, the mega-collector and regular on ARTnews' Top 200 Collectors list, has announced his new venture ALMAD Group after resigning as CEO of his family's Hong Kong property firm New World Development Co. (NWD) last year. The company will focus on digital assets, blockchain technologies, and immersive digital experiences across entertainment, sports, and media in mainland China, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. ALMAD has absorbed Cheng's art-meets-commerce platform K11 by AC, which includes the K11 Craft and Guild Foundation, the K11 Art Foundation, and the K11 Art Malls that pair luxury retail with exhibitions by artists like Damien Hirst and Takashi Murakami.
Cem A., an artist and anthropologist known for the art meme page @freeze_magazine, argues that the art world is suffering from an oversupply of graduates trained by art schools that cannot sustain them. He describes a paradox where art graduates face high unemployment and are dismissed as unqualified for non-art jobs, while those who remain in the field must align with market trends and the attention economy, risking burnout and compromised creativity. Cem A. shares his own experience of being rejected for being "too artsy" before finding success through his Instagram page, which opened doors that traditional career paths could not.
Vito Schnabel's curated exhibition 'First Show/Last Show' at 190 Bowery, a landmark building recently acquired by Aby Rosen, was abruptly closed to the public just before its scheduled opening on May 16. The show, which would have been the first public access to the graffiti-laden former bank since 1966, was initially announced with a three-hour public opening, but organizers cited 'unprecedented demand' and switched to an appointment-only format from May 18 to 29. The exhibition features works by seven male artists: Joe Bradley, Dan Colen, Jeff Elrod, Ron Gorchov, Mark Grotjahn, Harmony Korine, and Julian Schnabel.
Christie’s has promoted Alex Rotter to global president, a new role in which he will retain his existing title as global chairman of 20th- and 21st-century art. Rotter will collaborate with regional presidents and global chairmen to develop strategies for auction and private sales. He joined Christie’s in 2017 after 16 years at Sotheby’s and created the “20/21” department, which unified postwar, contemporary, and Impressionist and modern art sales. Rotter has overseen landmark sales including Jeff Koons’s *Rabbit* (1986) for $91 million, Andy Warhol’s *Shot Sage Blue Marilyn* (1964) for $195 million, and Leonardo da Vinci’s *Salvator Mundi* (ca. 1500) for $450 million.
The United States government shutdown, which began on October 1 after Congress failed to reach a funding agreement, has forced the closure of numerous federally operated museums, historic sites, and national parks. While some outdoor monuments and parks remain accessible, many are understaffed and operating with limited services. In Washington, D.C., sites like the Library of Congress, National Archives Museum, and Washington Monument are closed, while Smithsonian-run institutions remain open only through October 11 using prior funds. In New York, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island remain open, but the lack of uniformity across agencies has created confusion for visitors.
The April 2026 Art Diary highlights a global trend of exhibitions exploring the intersection of spirituality, art, and the environment. Key highlights include a new scholarly essay by Hassan Vawda reinterpreting the Kettle’s Yard collection through the religious beliefs of its founders, Jim and Helen Ede, and a major group exhibition at ICA LA titled 'Speaking in Tongues.' The latter features indigenous and diasporic artists from the Global South who utilize art as a conduit for the sacred, ritual, and ecstatic expression.
The Chicago art scene takes center stage with a curated guide to six essential exhibitions coinciding with the EXPO Chicago 2026 art fair. Highlights include Josh Brainin’s immersive two-channel video installation at Tala and a thematic exploration of Chicago’s urban infrastructure hosted at the Chicago Cultural Center, showcasing a diverse range of media from digital video to architectural critique.
Akinsanya Kambon’s work is featured as a highlight in a curated guide of six must-see exhibitions during the EXPO Chicago 2026 art fair. The selection spans a diverse range of media and venues, including Josh Brainin’s frantic two-channel video installations at Tala and a thematic exploration of urban infrastructure hosted at the Chicago Cultural Center.
The Martha Graham Dance Company, the oldest professional dance troupe in the United States, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with a worldwide centennial tour. The company is marking the milestone by performing Graham's classic works, like the 1946 ballet *Cave of the Heart*, alongside newer commissions that continue her innovative legacy.
Miles Davis, born in 1926 in Illinois, rose from a middle-class background to become a transformative figure in jazz. He left formal studies at Juilliard to play with Charlie Parker, but soon forged his own iconic sound characterized by intimate tone and phrasing, most famously on the seminal *Birth of the Cool* sessions. His career was defined by constant reinvention, pioneering multiple major movements from cool jazz and modal recording to jazz fusion, earning him the nickname "the Picasso of Jazz" from Duke Ellington.
Choreographer Michael Clark's 2003 work *Satie Studs* was revived as part of the live event programme for Peter Doig's exhibition *House of Music* at London's Serpentine Galleries. Dancer Jules Cunningham performed the minimalist solo, set to Erik Satie's piano preludes, showcasing controlled, precise movements that distilled ballet and yoga poses into a stark, deliberate sequence.