The article critiques the growing influence of wealthy tech entrepreneurs on public art commissions, arguing that their personal tastes and desire for monumental, often self-aggrandizing works are reshaping civic spaces. It highlights how this trend sidelines professional curatorial expertise and community input, replacing public dialogue with private patronage that prioritizes technological spectacle over artistic depth or social relevance.
CARLOS RUNCIE TANAKA S CERAMICS IN PINTA LIMA S SPECIAL PROJECT
The art fair Pinta Lima is presenting a Special Project dedicated to the late Peruvian ceramic artist Carlos Runcie Tanaka. Organized by Fundación Pinta, Henrique Faría Gallery, and the artist's estate, the exhibition brings together a selection of works from 2001 to 2007, focusing on his mastery of the clay sphere and his unique visual language.
L’arte urbana e la musica uniscono Amsterdam e Milano per tre giorni
MUROMi, an independent Milan-based company, is launching a special Milan edition of Here&Now, a cultural event originally created in Amsterdam by Tony Ant and Chinny Bond. Taking place May 21–23, 2026, at Spazio Diaz in Milan, the event combines live painting, music, and contemporary urban art, aiming to bring together creatives, brands, and key figures from the Milanese scene. The project is born from a collaboration between MUROMi and the Here&Now community, which is rooted in international street culture and music.
Come cambiano le aste d’arte se online tutto sembra un video game?
The article examines how digital infrastructure has transformed art auctions from exclusive in-person rituals into real-time competitive interfaces. Online sales, which peaked during the pandemic, now account for about 16% of the global art market in 2025 (down from 18% in 2024), according to the Art Market Report by Art Basel and UBS. Digital tools enable instant bidding, global streaming, and discreet participation, allowing collectors to compete without physical presence. The piece highlights the gamification of auctions, noting that ArtTactic has launched Art Forecaster, a platform where users predict auction prices in tournament-style competitions, blending market engagement with ludic elements.
Fare varietà nella Roma contemporanea: la storia della Conventicola degli Ultramoderni su Sky Arte
On Sunday, May 3, Sky Arte will premiere the documentary "Ultramoderni," which chronicles the rise of the Conventicola degli Ultramoderni, a unique artistic collective in Rome. Founded by Sior Mirkaccio and Madame de Freitas, who met in 2011, the group operates from a small hidden venue in the San Lorenzo district, blending music, cabaret, burlesque, and contemporary variety shows with a retro-futuristic aesthetic. The documentary, filmed in their Roman space, features interviews with the duo and excerpts from their performances, tracing how they built a diverse community of enthusiasts around their reinvention of past traditions.
Gli animali che siamo. La nuova metamorfosi dell’appartamento-showroom Casaornella a Milano
Interior designer Maria Vittoria Paggini has unveiled the 2026 edition of Casaornella, her apartment-showroom in Milan's Via Conca del Naviglio 10, during Design Week. Titled "L'animale sociale" (The Social Animal) with the subtitle "Nessuno mi può giudicare" (Nobody Can Judge Me), the space is completely restructured each year. For this edition, Paggini removed all doors to create a fluid, open-plan layout, using curtains for privacy. The project explores themes of authenticity and human relationships in the digital age, inspired by Italian pop songs from Mina to Luigi Tenco, which form the exhibition's soundtrack.
La letteratura oggi: la crisi del romanzo come sintomo di un cambiamento sociale
The article examines the perceived crisis of the novel as a literary form, tracing its historical rise alongside the bourgeoisie in the 17th and 18th centuries. It argues the novel functioned as a mirror for a coherent social class with shared values, serving as a device for collective representation. The form's foundational premise of a recognizable community began to fracture in the 20th century, particularly after World War II, as societies atomized and grand ideological narratives collapsed.
Redland City has announced the inaugural Redlands Coast Gallery and Museum Hop, a two-day cultural event scheduled for May 23 and 24, 2026. Part of the broader Redlands Coast AdventureFest, the initiative features 10 galleries and two museums across the mainland and islands, offering self-drive tours, specialized workshops, and exhibitions of local creative talent and cultural heritage.
The implementation of new EU regulations on the import of cultural goods over 250 years old is causing significant disruption at TEFAF Maastricht. Dealers and collectors are facing administrative hurdles, including difficulties obtaining mandatory EORI numbers and inconsistent enforcement by customs officials. These rules, which require extensive documentation for items originating outside the EU, have led to seized shipments and a general crisis of confidence among international exhibitors.
Brazilian artist davi de jesus do nascimento explores the intersection of poetry, memory, and the geography of the São Francisco River. Born in Pirapora, Minas Gerais, the artist’s work is deeply informed by his family's history of displacement due to the Sobradinho dam and the tragic loss of his mother to the river. His practice spans painting, installation, and performance, all rooted in a linguistic and philosophical framework he calls "Tongue River Theory."
Two French heritage associations, Sites & Monuments and SOS Paris, have filed legal challenges against the project to replace the stained-glass windows of Notre-Dame de Paris. The groups have submitted requests to an emergency judge and to the administrative court, seeking to suspend the works, which have already begun and threaten to remove the original windows by Viollet-le-Duc within days. The judge will rule on whether there is a serious doubt about the legality of the decision.
Sam Penn and Max Battle have released a new photography and writing volume titled "Max," published alongside an exhibition at New York Life Gallery. The book features intimate and explicit photographs by Penn of her collaborator and partner Max Battle, interwoven with his written reflections, documenting their attempt to balance a private sex life with artistic practice. The exhibition includes 19 of Penn's works from the book printed at large scale, with the first image confronting viewers directly.
Fourteen Kurdish artists staged a provocative "Non-Art Exhibition" at Media Gallery in Erbil to commemorate World Art Day. In a radical departure from traditional gallery formats, the participants displayed only the reverse sides of their canvases, completely concealing the painted surfaces from the audience. Organized by artist Ahmed Nabaz, the one-day event kept its conceptual twist a secret from the participating artists until the moment of the opening.
The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, D.C., has opened "Of the Hills: Pahari Paintings from India’s Himalayan Kingdoms," an exhibition featuring 48 paintings and colored drawings that trace the evolution of Pahari painting across three key periods between 1620 and 1830. The show highlights the genre’s ties to the region’s landscapes, courtly life, and devotional practices, with works created using opaque watercolors, beetle wings, and gold, many of which have not been publicly displayed before. The exhibition runs until July 26.
Aldine Independent School District (ISD) student artists from Hall Success Academy and Eisenhower High School will have their work featured in an exhibition titled "The Sequence Is Yours," hosted by the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. The opening reception is scheduled for May 8, 2025, at ARTECHOUSE Houston, and the promotional image features a photograph by an Eisenhower High School artist. The students were guided by art educators Ketsia Hamilton of Hall Success Academy and Óscar Medina of Eisenhower High School, with Hamilton also serving on the museum's Teacher Advisory Group.
Amsterdam is tackling overtourism by embedding art, culture, and history directly into its public spaces, streets, and transit systems, transforming the city into an open-air museum. Led by amsterdam&partners, the initiative uses digital screens, art installations, and interactive urban furniture to guide visitors toward hidden cultural gems, encouraging spontaneous engagement with local heritage. Major institutions like the Rijksmuseum, Stedelijk Museum, and Eye Filmmuseum, along with smaller venues such as Foam Museum and STRAAT Museum, are part of a network designed to distribute cultural attention more evenly across the city.
Brea Gallery in Brea, California, opened its 41st annual "Made in California" juried art exhibition on Saturday, featuring over 90 artists from across the state. The show includes a range of mediums such as oil paintings, sculptures, and mixed media, with jurors selecting works from roughly 5,000 submissions. This year's exhibition explores themes of identity and social justice, with pieces like Angel Lesnikowski's "Othered Existence" addressing Arab identity and conflict, and Adam Singer's "Big Feelings" reflecting on aging and mortality in Los Angeles. A solo installation by Lorena Molina, "This must be the place," draws on her Salvadoran heritage and the immigrant experience.
The Dayton Art Institute has opened a new exhibition titled "Time: A Journey Through Its Many Scales," which features over 50 works from its permanent collection alongside select loans. The show explores the concept of time through diverse artistic mediums, from ancient artifacts to contemporary digital art, inviting visitors to consider time's passage from milliseconds to millennia.
Florida Atlantic University's Division of Research is opening its seventh annual Art of Science gallery with a reception and awards presentation on March 31 at the Ritter Art Gallery on the Boca Raton campus. The event celebrates the winning entries from a photography and video competition that highlights the intersection of scientific research and artistic expression, featuring over 200 submissions from faculty, students, staff, and postdoctoral fellows.
Five 18th-century gold snuffboxes recovered after a violent daylight robbery in Paris are set to go on public display at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The objects were stolen in November 2024 from the Musée Cognacq-Jay during a high-profile heist that targeted pieces from the Rosalinde & Arthur Gilbert Collection, the Louvre, and the UK Royal Collection. Following an extensive police investigation and delicate restoration work by Parisian goldsmiths to repair damage sustained during the theft, the items will headline the opening of the V&A’s newly revamped Gilbert Galleries.
Recent US-Israeli strikes in the Iranian city of Isfahan have caused significant damage to several UNESCO World Heritage sites and historic landmarks. Reports indicate that the 17th-century Chehel Sotoun Palace suffered shattered windows, broken doors, and a large crack in a major fresco depicting Shah Tahmasp and the Mughal Emperor Humayun. Nearby, in the historic Naqsh-e-Jahan Square, the Ali Qapu Palace and the Jame Abbasi Mosque also sustained damage, including the destruction of iconic turquoise tiles and intricate fretwork.
Craighead Green Gallery in Dallas is opening a new three-person exhibition featuring artists Faith Scott Jessup, Linda McCall, and Damián Suárez. The show explores themes of belonging, heritage, and personal history through diverse styles ranging from realism and impressionism to abstraction. Suárez presents his 'Kinetic Landscape' series using threaded thread on wood panels, Jessup offers surrealist 'Duets' paintings of empty dresses, and McCall displays impressionist 'Rituals' scenes capturing private moments. Gallery director William Bardin notes the intentional pairing of artists with distinct practices but a shared narrative.
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is participating in an 18-month scientific study, funded by a $200,000 research prize from the Michael J. Fox Foundation, to investigate whether viewing art can reduce symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. The study will compare three groups: people with Parkinson’s who experience the Rijksmuseum’s collection via digital tours and low-sensory evenings, those who actively make art, and a control group with no art engagement. The research builds on a pilot study showing that creative arts therapy reduced anxiety, stress, and tremors, and even decreased hospital visits.
The Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC) censored an exhibition titled 'Constellation of Complicity: Visualising the Global Machinery of Authoritarian Solidarity' after pressure from the Chinese embassy. The exhibition, which opened on July 24, featured works by exiled artists from Myanmar, Iran, Russia, and Syria exploring authoritarian alliances. Following a visit by Chinese embassy staff, several works were removed, including a multimedia installation by a Tibetan artist, and texts mentioning 'Hong Kong', 'Tibet', and 'Uyghur' were redacted. The curator, Sai, a Myanmar artist in exile, said the interference was not unexpected.
Vandals broke into The Market Gallery, a new art space set to open in a former Wilko store in South Shields, UK, days before its launch. Artists Laura Robertson and Theodore Godfrey-Cass discovered the gallery had been graffitied, studio booths damaged, and artwork urinated on, smashed, or stolen. The culprits posted videos of the attack online, which have been shared with Northumbria Police, who are investigating the burglary that occurred between 20:00 BST on Friday and 11:30 on Tuesday.
Alex Kachkine, a mechanical engineer and PhD student at MIT, has developed AI-generated digital masks to restore damaged paintings. The system uses a removable, precision-printed polymer film with clear and painted areas, applied over the artwork like a custom graphic wrap. Kachkine tested the technique on a late-15th-century oil-on-panel painting attributed to the Master of the Prado Adoration of the Magi, using generative AI to reconstruct 5,612 areas of loss, including an obliterated infant Jesus. The masks are produced in hours and are physically separated from the paint surface by a conservation-grade varnish.
The British Museum (BM) in London hosted a private event on 16 May marking the anniversary of the founding of Israel, organized by the Israeli embassy. Speakers included Israeli ambassador Tzipi Hotovely and UK minister Maria Eagle, with attendees such as comedian Jimmy Carr and politicians Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage. The event has sparked anger among museum staff and external critics, who argue it is insensitive given the ongoing conflict in Gaza, which has led to widespread famine and civilian deaths. Staff have organized a petition demanding the museum cease relations with Israeli cultural institutions, gathering 250 signatures.
The Denver Art Museum (DAM) and the Chicano Humanities and Arts Council (CHAC Gallery & Cultural Center) are hosting an opening reception on May 13, 2025, for the Community Spotlight exhibition titled "Chicano Humanities and Arts Council: The Legacy and Power of Chicano/a/x Artists in Denver." The presentation features artwork by CHAC Gallery member artists, exploring themes of self-identity, family, cultural heritage, and spirituality, and will be on view in the Creative Hub of the Martin Building.
Artist Gina Blickenstaff is set to present her second annual solo exhibition, "The Method and the Madness," at the Center for Creativity in Fort Collins. Spanning all three of the venue's galleries, the five-day event coincides with Fort Collins Art Week and features an artist talk alongside a showcase of her vibrant, color-focused paintings. Blickenstaff, a recipient of the Dame JaCkie Erickson Creative Catalyst Award, is transitioning from a primarily digital presence to deeper local engagement through this immersive physical installation.
River Arts in Damariscotta, Maine, presents "Colors of Nature," a solo exhibition by artist Mark Christopher. The show features his luminous oil paintings of Maine landscapes and detailed wood and stone bird carvings, running from May 14 to June 2. Christopher, a wildlife biologist and award-winning wildfowl carver, brings a scientific precision to his artistic depictions of nature.