Eight-year-old Kevin Kovacs has opened his first solo exhibition at the Tacchi-Morris Arts Center in Taunton, England, featuring his watercolor paintings of boats and coastal scenery. His mother recognized his talent at age two, and by five he was sketching seriously; gallery staff discovered his work through social media. The exhibition runs through April 28, 2025, and several pieces have already sold.
Venedig-Biennale-Chef unter Druck
Just before the opening of the Venice Art Biennale, its president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco is facing mounting criticism after the entire jury resigned. Italian Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli accused Buttafuoco of pursuing a form of "parallel foreign policy" by readmitting Russia to the six-month exhibition, calling him a "victim of a pacifist fantasy." The opening ceremony and the traditional Golden Lion awards have been canceled; prizes will now be decided by visitor vote at the end of the Biennale in November.
Sous pression, le jury de la Biennale de Venise démissionne et est remplacé par un vote du public
On April 30, just days before the Venice Biennale's public opening on May 9, the entire international jury responsible for awarding the Golden and Silver Lions resigned. The jury—comprising Solange Farkas, Zoe Butt, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Marta Kuzma, and Giovanna Zapperi—had been caught in a escalating controversy after Biennale president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco reinstated Russia, which had been excluded since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The European Union threatened to suspend or cancel its €2 million subsidy if Russia remained included. The jury attempted to exclude countries whose leaders face International Criminal Court arrest warrants, effectively targeting Russia and Israel, but ultimately resigned under pressure from both external diplomatic turmoil and internal institutional opposition to any discrimination between pavilions.
Emmy Award-winning director and photographer Daniel Sackheim is set to release a new photography book titled 'The City Unseen,' which explores the noir aesthetic of Los Angeles. Moving away from the city's sunny stereotypes, Sackheim utilizes high-contrast black-and-white photography to capture a gritty, cinematic underbelly inspired by hardboiled detective novels and historic urban architecture. The project features dramatic silhouettes and deep shadows that create a sense of timeless mystery across iconic L.A. locales.
Encore d'autres dessins pour Versailles
The Palace of Versailles has acquired several drawings during the Paris Drawing Week sales in March 2026, including a rare study by Charles de La Fosse for the royal chapel's dome decoration. The drawing, depicting a reclining nude man for "The Resurrection of Christ," was purchased at the Rossini auction of Paul and Florence Vercier's collection for €3,800. This acquisition adds to Versailles' growing collection of La Fosse works, following earlier purchases of an angel study in 2016 and a ceiling project in 2023.
Hamza Walker, the renowned curator and director of the Los Angeles nonprofit art space the Brick, is featured as a 2026 CULT100 honoree. He was a key driver behind the ambitious exhibition “Monuments,” which places decommissioned Confederate monuments alongside contemporary art at a time when American cultural history is increasingly politicized. The article includes a brief Q&A with Walker, touching on his personal tastes, work philosophy, and reflections on his career.
Tropa Tequila launched its limited-edition Añejo Artist Series bottle, designed by artist Nikolai Haas of the Haas Brothers and produced by Max Block and Cam Saffle of CARVINGBLOCK. The launch event was held at the Haas Brothers’ new studio in North Hollywood, featuring an intimate dinner for Los Angeles artists, designers, and collaborators. Only 300 individually numbered bottles were released, with caps hand-beaded by artisans in South Africa.
Dana Garman Jacobsen and Jim Jacobsen purchased a 1970s West End house in Aspen, Colorado, after Dana felt an irresistible pull toward the property during a ski trip. The home, previously owned by Chicago philanthropist Joan Harris, features a post-and-beam structure reminiscent of their Richard Neutra house in Los Angeles, with a swimming pool integrated into the living space and architectural details that frame mountain views. The couple furnished the interiors with pieces from Dana's collection, including Børge Mogensen sofas and a Biedermeier chaise lounge, and crafted bed frames from a 150-year-old walnut tree.
Ronan Day-Lewis, son of legendary actor Daniel Day-Lewis, has directed his debut feature film *Anemone*, which premiered at the New York Film Festival. The film stars Daniel Day-Lewis as a traumatized veteran living in self-exile in Northern England after the Irish Troubles, whose estranged brother arrives to trigger a reckoning filled with magic realism. Ronan, who also works as a painter, describes the film as being about brotherhood and the silence within it, developed over five years of collaboration between father and son. A concurrent exhibition of his paintings is on view at Megan Mulrooney gallery in Los Angeles.
Christie’s Los Angeles gallery has been transformed into an excavation-like installation for "Lightness & Tension," a two-person design exhibition organized by collector and curator Ulysses de Santi. The show pairs the late Joaquim Tenreiro, considered the father of Modern Brazilian furniture, with the debut design collection of contemporary Brazilian artist Lucas Simões, featuring works in concrete and stainless steel alongside Tenreiro's native wood pieces.
Ben Weyerhaeuser, founder of the social media brand Friday Heaters, is profiled in an interview about his art collection and his role as a board member for the non-profit Los Angeles Nomadic Division. The former musician creates artist interviews and exhibition tours for the TikTok generation, and he discusses his collecting philosophy, highlighting works by Mario Ayala, Olga Balema, Max Hooper Schneider, and Rosha Yaghmai. The article includes a photo of Weyerhaeuser at home in Los Angeles with Ayala's painting and Balema's sculpture.
Tappan Collective in Los Angeles unveiled its latest group exhibition, “ELSEWHERE,” on Tuesday with a festive evening event. The show explores and expands the landscape genre, featuring works by artists including Gia Coppola, Michael Harnish, Sasha Court, Marleigh Culver, Michael DeSutter, Lisa Hardy, and Marina Ross. Founder Chelsea Nassib hosted a conversation with painter Satsuki Shibuya and CULTURED contributor Janelle Zara, drawing a crowd of cultural insiders and LA tastemakers such as entrepreneur Holly Liss Jammet, gallerist Rosa Park, and art advisor Kipton Cronkite.
DE LAS MINOR KEYS AL ESTRUENDO: LA CRISIS DE LA BIENAL DE VENECIA
The 61st Venice Biennale is engulfed in a structural crisis, marked by geopolitical tensions over the inclusion of Russia (amid its invasion of Ukraine) and Israel (amid the Gaza genocide). The Biennale Foundation, led by Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, defended their participation on legalistic grounds, sparking outrage from over 200 artists, curators, and cultural workers who demanded Israel's exclusion, aligning with Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA). The international jury, chaired by Solange Farkas and including Zoe Butt, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Marta Kuzma, and Giovanna Zapperi, resigned collectively on April 30 after deciding not to award prizes to countries whose leaders face International Criminal Court arrest warrants. This led to the cancellation of the traditional Golden and Silver Lions, replaced by audience-voted "Visitor Lions," with awards deferred until November. The European Commission suspended a €2 million subsidy over Russia's participation, and Italian Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli notably skipped the May 9 opening.
Photographer Ken Karagozian, who began documenting L.A. Metro construction workers in 1995, has collaborated with historian India Mandelkern on a photo book titled "Wilshire Subway: The Making of the D Line Subway Extension." The book chronicles the history, conflicts, and the workers behind the D Line extension along Wilshire Boulevard, ahead of its May 8 opening. A related exhibition, "Wilshire Subway: Photographed by Ken Karagozian," is on view at the 1301PE art gallery through May 14.
Zody Burke and Klara Zetterholm have opened a joint exhibition titled "Ersatz Strata" at Temnikova & Kasela Gallery in Tallinn, Estonia. The show examines how history is staged and reimagined, using reliefs, sculptures, printed works, kinetic elements, and industrial residue to create a fictional archaeological site. A live performance by Los Angeles-based artist 011668 accompanied the opening. The exhibition runs through August 15.
Les Yeux du Monde presents 'GROUNDING,' the final show of 2025 featuring new oil paintings by Annie Harris Massie that explore light, memory, and place through landscapes and botanical studies of her Lynchburg, Virginia surroundings. Other December exhibitions include Randall Stoltzfus's 'To Hold The Light' at Angelo Jewelry, Judith Ely's paintings at Botanical Fare, and 'All That Glitters' by Natalie Darling at C’ville Arts Cooperative Gallery. The Fralin Museum of Art at UVA hosts three shows: 'Haiti’s Time' from the Sullivan collection, 'In Feeling: Empathy and Tension Through Disability,' and 'The World Between: Egypt and Nubia in Africa.' The Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection features works from the Spinifex Arts Project and Robert Fielding, while the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center presents 'Finally Remembered: The Black Patriots of Central Virginia.'
Four Seasons Hotel Westlake Village is launching its first art gallery exhibition in November 2025, featuring the legendary graffiti artist RISK. The show will display works spanning his 38-year career, highlighting his signature blend of letterform, deconstruction, and layered color theory. RISK is known for pioneering graffiti on unconventional surfaces like freight trains and freeway overpasses, and his work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles and Beyond the Streets China.
Opera singer Davóne Tines and filmmaker Julie Dash collaborated on the short film "HOMEGOING," commemorating the 10-year anniversary of the 2015 mass shooting at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The film was created as part of the exhibition "MONUMENTS" at The Brick and MOCA in Los Angeles, curated by Hamza Walker, which interrogates American identity through historical relics. Tines and Dash discuss their shared Southern roots, the role of ritual in healing, and the emotional process of filming inside the historic church.
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.
A new photo exhibition and speaker series titled "Love, Anything: 28 Expressions for 28 Luminous Years" has opened at the Fulginiti Pavilion for Bioethics and Humanities on the University of Colorado Anschutz campus. The show features 28 photographs and journal entries by the late photographer Ryyan Chacra, who died by suicide in May 2024 at age 28 while struggling with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The opening reception on April 10 drew over 120 attendees, including family, friends, and university faculty.
The Laband Art Gallery at Loyola Marymount University is hosting a retrospective titled "Noni Olabisi: When Lightning Strikes," showcasing over 40 works by the late Los Angeles muralist and painter. The exhibition, curated by Karen Rapp, spans Olabisi’s career from 1984 to 2022, featuring her powerful political murals and personal canvases that document Black culture and the struggle against systemic racism. This marks the first major posthumous survey of her work since her unexpected passing in 2022.
The RSM Art Gallery is presenting a solo exhibition titled "Ideas to Postpone the End of the World" by artist Julia Csekö, running from March 19 to May 5, 2026. The show features her text-based works, including wearable welcome dresses, storied flags, and paintings from her 'Speaking Truth to Power' series. An opening reception and artist talk are scheduled for March 19.
The Darwin R. Barker Library in Fredonia has launched "Visions of the National Parks and Beyond 2," a regional art exhibition featuring over twenty works by six local artists. An encore of a previous show at the Crary Art Gallery, the collection includes photography, oil paintings, gouache, and cut paper pieces depicting iconic American landscapes from Yellowstone to Gettysburg.
Artist and designer Kii Arens has opened a new gallery called Fab L.A. in the historic Fine Arts Building in Downtown Los Angeles. The space, located on West 7th Street, features Arens' vibrant concert posters and artifacts from collaborations with musicians like Elton John and Van Halen, as well as works for Disney, Coachella, and the Hollywood Bowl. The opening doubled as a fundraiser for Oxfam, with donated items from Grammy winners including Billie Eilish and Lorde sold to benefit the anti-poverty charity. Comedian Jeff Ross attended and took over DJ duties at the event.
Three exhibitions in the Texas Panhandle and Concho Valley showcased the work of artists Cody Arnall, Daryl Meador, and Ezra Tucker. At the Charles Adams Studio Project (CASP) Satellite Gallery in Lubbock, Arnall's show "Boredom and Failure (v.II)" featured sculptures and videos exploring imperfection, including an awning projecting a mirrored sky. In the same city, Daryl Meador's "Big Empty Blues" at Co-Opt Research + Projects presented textile art and quilts addressing labor, incorporating text from musicians and materials like waffle knit. The San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts hosted "The Art of Ezra Tucker," a survey of the artist's transition from illustration to fine art, focusing on wildlife paintings with masterful light and color.
Perché la ricchezza culturale italiana non entra mai davvero nei conti e nei bilanci pubblici?
Italy has exceeded the European Commission's structural adjustment path by 0.1 percentage points of GDP, reopening fiscal scrutiny. Amid this debate, the article highlights a deeper issue: Italy's immense cultural heritage is drastically undervalued in public accounts. For example, the Pompeii Archaeological Park is recorded at just €48.9 million, the Colosseum at under €15 million, and the Uffizi at about €2 billion—figures based on outdated 2002 ministerial criteria that bear no relation to actual economic or cultural worth. The State General Accounting Office, with the University of Roma Tre and EU technical assistance, has proposed a new methodology to value cultural assets by discounting their future net financial flows, including direct revenues and indirect tourism-related returns.
Stella's Art Gallery in Willoughby, Ohio, held its awards reception for the annual 'Size Matters' exhibition on May 8, with this year's theme requiring all works to be exactly 10 inches. Best of Show went to Breda Fallon for 'One Woman Show,' a 3D diorama. Winners in 3D included John Carreon (first and second place) and Daniel Fishwick (third); in 2D, Tatiana Strelnikova, Tracy Parsons, and Sheri Lawrence took top honors. The article also covers upcoming calls for art at the gallery, including 'The Landscape Show: Real or Fantasy' in June and 'The H2O Show' in July.
A new art exhibit titled DOUBLEPLAY has opened at Eastern Projects Gallery in Los Angeles' Chinatown, featuring Dodgers-themed works by artists Billy Kheel and Pat Riot. The show includes Riot's bubble-gum portraits and Kheel's hand-sewn felt tapestries, celebrating Dodgers culture and sports history. The exhibition runs through November 22, 2025, timed to coincide with the World Series.
Ndidi Dike, a British-Nigerian sculptor and multi-disciplinary artist, presents her first major solo exhibition at an Austrian institution, titled "Rare Earth Rare Justice," at Secession in Vienna. The show features works across mixed media, painting, sculpture, collage, photography, video, and installation, addressing social, political, and economic conditions of the modern world.