Artist Liss Fenwick has created a photobook titled 'The Colony' by feeding a collection of historical Australian novels, described as 'settler fan fiction,' to a colony of termites. The insects consumed the books over several years, leaving behind hollowed, sculptural remains that Fenwick photographed. The resulting work documents this process of organic transformation, where the physical texts are digested and reshaped.
Tenants at Glasgow's Trongate 103 cultural hub are protesting what they call "unsustainable" rent and service charge increases imposed by City Property, an arm's-length organization managing buildings for Glasgow City Council. Organizations like Transmission Gallery, Street Level Photography, and Glasgow Print Studio face potential displacement after receiving notices to quit or demands for significant cost hikes, with one group citing a £700,000 annual increase.
Photographer Peter van Agtmael reflects on a photograph he took 20 years ago while embedded with the U.S. military in Iraq. The image, captured during his first experience of war, depicts a dejected American soldier sitting in an ordinary Iraqi living room, a scene he describes as showing the vast military machine mobilized in the Middle East.
Photographer Steve Parke recounts the story behind his iconic 1999 photo shoot of Prince for Notorious magazine. The singer rejected the magazine's initial concept of painting "1999" on his stomach, instead insisting on the word "Free" to reflect his ongoing battle for artistic freedom from record labels. Parke, who was Prince's in-house art director, ended up painting the word on the singer's stomach himself with gold paint, causing Prince to laugh like a child from the cold sensation.
Fred Hohler, the founder of the Public Catalogue Foundation, is the pivotal figure behind the Art UK project, which has successfully digitized over one million UK public art entries. The letter corrects a previous article that highlighted the project's new chair but omitted Hohler's foundational role.
The article reports on Frieze Los Angeles, a three-day international art fair held at the Santa Monica Airport from February 26 to March 1. The event featured numerous international galleries and artists, with displays ranging from works costing thousands to millions of dollars and attracting over 32,000 visitors. A highlight was the "Frieze Projects: Body & Soul" interactive installation, which encouraged public reflection. The piece also spotlights Santa Monica College alumni Cosmas and Damian Brown, whose outdoor installation "Fountain: Sources of Light" was an interactive steel and ceramic work that allowed audience participation by manipulating the sound and flow of water.
The Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona is hosting a "Spring New Look Weekend" from Friday through Sunday to celebrate two new collections. The first, "Myths & Legends of Minnesota: An Exhibition of the Minnesota Plein Air Collective," features 43 paintings by 32 artists created outdoors across the state, focusing on folklore, oral traditions, and waterways. The second, "Gordon Coons: Gidibaajimomin / We Tell Stories," showcases 18 new works by Ojibwa artist Gordon Coons, along with earlier pieces and examples of Woodland Style art from Norval Morrisseau and Sam Ash. The weekend includes plein air painting demonstrations, a printmaking activity with Coons, meet-the-artist tours, and an evening social.
The article describes an upcoming exhibition titled 'Cheaper parcel post and paintings' at 1301SW gallery in Melbourne, Australia, running from 23 May to 27 Jun 2026. The exhibition is listed on Ocula.com, an art platform, though the full article text is blocked by a security verification page, preventing detailed reading of the show's content or artists involved.
Fabian Perez Gallery in Los Angeles is hosting the Neo-Emotionalism Group Exhibition, featuring 20 artists working in painting, photography, and sculpture. The show, running through May 23, centers on feeling and memory, with artists like Shaylen Nelson, Awadé Wade, James Smith, and Martinos Aristidou presenting works that explore personal and cultural narratives. Nelson, an Afrocentric Realism painter, uses Black figures and music to place culture within traditional painting, while Wade’s piece "Abstract Love" draws on a Prince song and uses a tree as a symbol of life and transition.
The Indah Gallery, located within the Roblar Winery complex near Santa Ynez, is hosting a solo exhibition titled "Many Roads" by Native American artist Mitchell Robles. The show features works such as the large triptych "Thunder Mountain," along with pieces like "Little Thunder Horse," "Leaping Brown Horse," and "Sitting Bull," which blend ancient indigenous iconography with contemporary neo-Expressionist techniques. Gallerist and founder Max Gleason, himself an artist, has transformed a former barn into a dedicated art space that provides a serene setting for Robles's culturally resonant work.
Andrew Durbin reviews national pavilions at a major art event, contrasting a vacuous US presentation with incisive and moving installations from Britain and Germany. The piece is part of Frieze's 'Critic's Guides' series, offering a pointed critique of the US pavilion's lack of meaning against the strength of its European counterparts.
The Navy Museum in Paris is hosting a major exhibition titled "The Navy and the Painters" from May 13 to August 2, 2026, featuring nearly 150 paintings spanning the 17th to 20th centuries. The show traces the evolution of maritime art and the French Navy's history, with works by artists such as Manet, Signac, and Le Lorrain, alongside a special section on the Navy's Official Painters (POM) with 84 contemporary works.
Sparrow Art Center, an art education company, has opened a new gallery and teaching facility in Loveland, Colorado, and is hosting its inaugural art show with a Mother's Day theme. The exhibition features work from over a dozen artists, including owner Cody Winiecki, who contributed a painting of a horse and foal. The show includes a free public reception on Saturday evening, as well as painting sessions for mothers and children. All proceeds from sales go directly to the artists, and the show will run until early June.
The article reviews "Dispossessions in the Americas," a group exhibition at Wrightwood 659 in Chicago curated by Jonathan D. Katz and Eduardo Carrera. Featuring works from 1960 to 2025, the show examines colonial legacies in the Americas, focusing on the forced dispossession of land, culture, and language from indigenous, Afro-descendant, queer, and trans communities. The review critically questions how a polished, architecturally prestigious venue can coherently display art about socially voiceless communities without falling into voyeurism or fetishization of pain.
Belinda Gray, founder of breast cancer charity Art For Cure, shares her story ahead of the charity's latest exhibition at Wyken Vineyards. After her own breast cancer diagnosis and treatment, Gray launched Art For Cure in 2014, initially hosting an exhibition in her home and garden that drew 2,000 visitors and raised £100,000. The charity has since sold over £3 million worth of art through exhibitions and online sales, with a percentage of each sale donated by artists to fund UK breast cancer research and support services. Gray, who had no prior art-world experience, now leads a voluntary team of 10 people staging annual public exhibitions at unique venues.
The National Geographic Society has announced an extended tour of its exhibition "The Greatest Wildlife Photographs," following its run at The Momentary in Arkansas, USA. The show features a curated selection of iconic wildlife images from National Geographic magazine, chosen by picture editor Kathy Moran, and includes works by renowned photographers such as Michael “Nick” Nichols, Steve Winter, Paul Nicklen, Beverly Joubert, and David Doubilet. The exhibition will be available for booking in the US and globally as a digital delivery, and is currently on view at The Momentary from November 22, 2025, to June 7, 2026.
The Westchester Regional Library in Miami is hosting "Circular Reflections," an exhibition featuring over 80 contemporary Cuban artists, each working within a 21-inch circular format. Organized in collaboration with the Miami-Dade Public Library System, the show opened on April 3 and runs through June 25. Curated by Miami-based artist and independent curator Miguel Rodez, the project began nearly a decade ago and has evolved into a traveling, ongoing documentation of Cuban visual culture. Artists like Ismael Gómez Peralta discuss how the circular constraint challenged traditional rectangular composition, pushing them to rethink spatial organization while maintaining their individual visual languages.
Salem's galleries and museums are hosting five notable exhibitions in May, including 'Jew&' at the Salem Art Association for Jewish American Heritage Month, featuring 25 local Jewish artists; 'Courage and Compassion' at the Willamette Heritage Center, exploring Japanese-American internment through local stories; the Annual Invitational Photography Show at Elsinore Framing & Fine Art Gallery; 'Confluence – Where forms converge' at the Stefani Art Gallery, pairing geometric abstraction with woodcarving; and the third annual Keizer Riverwalk Art Fair organized by the Keizer Art Association.
The Venice Biennale previews have descended into chaos, with the event overshadowed by controversies surrounding Israeli and Russian participation. Protests and disruptions have marked the lead-up to the prestigious international art exhibition, as demonstrators voice opposition to the inclusion of Israel amid the Gaza conflict and Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine. The situation has created a tense atmosphere, drawing significant media attention and complicating the Biennale's usual celebratory preview period.
Two exhibitions have opened at the Judith and Norman Alix Art Gallery in Sarnia, Ontario. Mark Stebbins's solo show 'The Lingering Instant' features 27 meticulously hand-crafted paintings, each requiring at least 100 hours of labor using syringe-extruded paint, dip pens, and tiny brushes on burlap and wood panels. The companion exhibition 'Together Apart | Under One Roof' presents works by Winnipeg studio neighbours Aganetha Dyck, Diana Thorneycroft, and Reva Stone, exploring feminist art practice, collaboration, and human-nature connections. Both exhibitions opened April 17 and run until August 30, with Stebbins also hosting a free artist talk on June 6 and a paid workshop on June 7.
WHAT Museum in Tokyo is hosting a group exhibition titled “Corrugated/Coral — Eight Practices to Project Architecture Afar,” on view until September 13, 2026. The show features installations by eight teams of architects, including Altemy, Office Yuasa, Garage, Group, Domino Architects, Toshiki Hirano, Rui Architects, and Tetsuo Hatakeyama + Taiki Yoshino + Archipelago Architects Studio. One highlighted work is “Darkness, Afterglow,” where visitors follow written instructions to sit in a darkened room and interact with light and a book, offering a conceptual experience of architectural thinking.
To mark the 130th anniversary of Louis Vuitton's Monogram canvas, the Parisian auction house Gros & Delettrez is hosting a free exhibition of rare travel trunks and accessories from May 18 to 20, 2026. The display features iconic pieces including two expedition bed trunks (one from 1911 with the initials 'B.B.'), a library trunk, a desk trunk, and other travel innovations designed between 1880 and 1930, all before they go up for auction on May 21.
Oil painters Betz Green and Jim Green will showcase their work at the Stover Mill Gallery in Erwinna, Pennsylvania, on weekends from May 9 through May 31, with an opening reception on May 9. Betz Green creates representational, portrait-oriented still lifes with whimsical narratives, while Jim Green works in an impressionistic and expressionistic style with vibrant colors and exaggerated forms. Both artists have won top awards at local venues such as Phillips Mill and Stover Mill.
The Hoffman Center Gallery in Manzanita, Oregon, is hosting a May exhibition featuring works by faculty members from the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland. Titled "The Goat Island project," the show includes pieces by Teresa Christiansen, Kristin Bradshaw, Emily Ginsburg, Yoshi Kitai, David Eckard, Matthew Letzelter, Michelle Ross, and Kate Copeland, opening April 30 and running through May 30, with a free public reception on May 2.
The Petaluma Historical Library and Museum is hosting 'Time and Tide,' a multimedia exhibition running through June 6 that explores the Petaluma River and its wetlands through 90 works including watercolors, photographs, poems, and sketches. The show, subtitled 'An Artful Exploration of Petaluma’s Wetlands,' opened April 9 and features contributions from local artists such as Leslie Ihrig, Zoe Caron, Dan Rogers, David Tomb, Marion Hatcher, and Sonoma County Poet Laureate Dave Seter, alongside taxidermy from the Petaluma Wildlife Museum and a video presentation.
Botanica, the Wichita botanical garden, is preparing to open a large-scale outdoor sculpture exhibition titled 'Origami in the Garden' on Saturday, running through September 26. Created by artists Kevin and Jennifer Box of Santa Fe, New Mexico, the show features 18 works inspired by the Japanese art of paper folding, including sculptures of a bison, horses, a pegasus, and rising cranes. The exhibition is included with general admission, and Mother's Day offers free entry for moms. Additionally, Botanica is hosting 'Symphony in the Gardens' on May 15 with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra, themed 'American Landscapes' in honor of the nation's 250th anniversary.
The Godfrey Dean Art Gallery in Yorkton is hosting a new photography exhibition titled 'Storied Telling: Performative & Narrative in Photography,' organized by the Organization of Saskatchewan Arts Councils (OSAC) through its Arts on the Move program. Running until May 15, the show features six Canadian artists—Catherine Blackburn, Lori Blondeau, Xiao Han, Marium Magsi, Meryl McMaster, and Laura St. Pierre—whose work uses the camera to create layered, story-driven images exploring themes of identity, cultural heritage, diaspora, and history.
Chosun University Museum of Art in Gwangju, South Korea, is hosting a special exhibition titled 'Strolling Through the Garden' from May 7 to May 27 to celebrate the university's 80th anniversary. The show features 34 works by 13 contemporary artists working in Western painting, Korean painting, installation, and media art, organized around three themes: 'Garden of Imagination,' 'Garden of Senses,' and 'Garden of Metaphor.' Admission is free, and the exhibition coincides with the university's Rose Week (May 14–17), encouraging visitors to experience nature and art together on campus.
Swedish glass artist Bertil Vallien, now 88, has opened a major solo exhibition titled "Starman: Sixty Years of Exploring Glass Art" at the Robert Lehman Gallery in Brooklyn. The show features 35 works spanning his 64-year career, highlighting his mastery of sand-casting and his long collaboration with the heritage brand Kosta Boda. Notable pieces include the *Resting Head* series, *Idun’s Magical Apples*, and the *Ships* series, which draw on Norse mythology and themes of life cycles.
88-year-old Swedish glass artist Bertil Vallien, known as the "father of a lost technique" for perfecting glass sand-casting, presents his first solo exhibition in Brooklyn at the Robert Lehman Gallery. Titled "Starman: Sixty Years of Exploring Glass Art," the show features 35 works spanning his 64-year career, including his signature glass heads, transparent boats, surreal sculptures, and colorful vases. Vallien has worked with the Swedish heritage brand Kosta Boda since 1963 and is credited with popularizing black glass and pushing the boundaries of the medium.