National Gallery Singapore's 'Passion Is Volcanic' exhibition: 5 works to see

National Gallery Singapore has opened its first R18 exhibition, 'Passion Is Volcanic: Desire In South-east Asian Art', featuring around 60% of works from the national collection, many shown for the first time, alongside regional loans. The show includes a 14th-15th century tantric Buddhist sculpture of kissing buddhas, a pastel painting by pioneering gay Singaporean artist Tan Peng, Liu Kang's 1953 painting 'Scene In Bali', and long-exposure photography by Lavender Chang originally commissioned for a Viagra campaign. Co-curators Adele Tan and Kathleen Ditzig contextualize the exhibition with pre-modern works to demonstrate that artists' interest in the body, desire, and sex is enduring in Asia.

A semester of SLAM

The St. Louis Art Museum (SLAM) hosted two special exhibitions during the past semester: the annual "Art in Bloom" floral exhibition from February 27 to March 1, 2026, and the solo show "Currents 125: Blas Isasi" opening February 6, 2026. "Art in Bloom" pairs 30 permanent collection pieces with ephemeral floral arrangements created by local designers, featuring a centerpiece by New York-based floral designer Rachel Cho. The exhibition has grown from an invitational event with 7,000 attendees to an open call drawing over 30,000 visitors. Isasi's exhibition, titled "The weight of a gaze (is to listen to the sound of a kilogram)," is part of SLAM's "Currents" series and the WashU Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Teaching Fellowship, incorporating a Chincha Inka balance from the museum's collection alongside sandstone sculptures and aluminum foil pieces.

Art from Northwest Himalayas at Cleveland Museum of Art

The Cleveland Museum of Art has unveiled "Epic of the Northwest Himalayas: Pahari Paintings from the ‘Shangri’ Ramayana," an exhibition reuniting a widely dispersed 18th-century pictorial series. The show features 40 physical paintings alongside digital animations that reconstruct the original episodic sequences of the Hindu epic. This presentation is part of a larger collaborative initiative involving the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art to study and display works from the Catherine Glynn Benkaim and Ralph Benkaim Collection.

The Art of the Chosen Family

Die Kunst der Wahlfamilie

Mike D, co-founder of the Beastie Boys, has co-curated an exhibition titled "Mishpocha. The Art of Collaboration" at the Jewish Museum Frankfurt. The show explores the concept of family beyond biological ties, featuring works such as Ira Eduardovna's video installation "The Library Room," which depicts a family packing for emigration, and immersive audiovisual spaces evoking techno, hip-hop, punk, and Riot Grrrl subcultures. The exhibition includes contributions from artist Jan Ove Hennig, photographer Jan Zappner, design studio Atelier Markgraph, and hospitality group Ima Clique, with Mike D serving as artistic director and ambassador.

Industrial Dreams of the GDR

Industrieträume der DDR

The exhibition "Robotron – Arbeiterklasse und Intelligenz" has opened at the Hartware Medienkunstverein (HMKV) in Dortmund, following its initial run in Leipzig. Centered on the history of the GDR’s largest computer manufacturer, the show features 20 artistic positions including photography, film, and sculpture, alongside a significant five-meter oil sketch by Socialist Realist painter Werner Tübke. The presentation bridges East and West German industrial histories by juxtaposing state-commissioned propaganda with progressive, unofficial works by artists like Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt and A.R. Penck.

Recommissioned Rebels

The exhibition "Monuments," co-organized by The Brick and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA), features ten former Confederate monuments removed from public spaces across the American South. Highlights include Kara Walker's reconfigured "Unmanned Drone" (formerly Charlottesville's Stonewall Jackson monument), Richmond's toppled Jefferson Davis statue, and a graffitied Matthew Fontaine Maury statue. Co-curator Hamza Walker explains the show began after the 2015 Charleston church shooting and gained urgency following George Floyd's murder in 2020, involving complex negotiations with city governments and stewards to secure the politically charged pieces.

From gunshots to gilded plates: Who are the real hooligans of the art world?

Alex Burchmore reviews 'The Hooligans,' an exhibition that explores the Maoist concept of hooliganism in the context of contemporary Chinese art. The show features works by artists like Xiao Lu, who famously fired a gun at her installation during the 1989 'China/Avant-Garde' exhibition, as well as Zhu Yu and He Yunchang, known for incorporating human body parts and surgical procedures into their art. The exhibition contrasts these transgressive acts with more market-friendly works, such as Zhu Yu's gilded plate paintings and Hu Yinping's commercial-style figurines, highlighting the tension between artistic rebellion and commercial success.

Pandolfini presents Julie Hamisky's "Alchemical Garden" at Design Week 2026

Pandolfini Auction House is hosting a solo exhibition titled "Giardino Alchemico" (Alchemical Garden) by French artist Julie Hamisky at its Milan office during Design Week 2026, from April 22 to 26. The exhibition, created in collaboration with Mitterrand gallery, features sculptures and botanical jewelry made through electroplating—a process that preserves organic matter like flowers and leaves in metal. Key works include "La Géante" (2024), an enlarged poppy sculpture, and "Aqua" (2024), a chandelier of galvanized plant elements, alongside wearable jewelry pieces.

Interview: Lukas Amacher Is Building a Chatbot for the Art World

Curator, collector, and entrepreneur Lukas Amacher, in partnership with developer David Simon, has launched CONTXT, an A.I.-powered chatbot platform designed for art exhibitions. The software allows visitors to ask questions about artworks via a chat interface, with answers sourced directly from an institution's curated materials like catalog essays and curator notes, rather than generic internet searches. The platform is currently being tested in a public preview with bitforms gallery.

Exhibition | Yue Minjun, 'Crab' at Tang Contemporary Art, Hong Kong

Tang Contemporary Art in Hong Kong is hosting 'Crab', a comprehensive solo exhibition by the renowned Chinese contemporary artist Yue Minjun. The show traces three decades of his career, featuring his iconic 'Laughing Face' series alongside newer works like the 'Flower Series' and 'Stack Series' that utilize diverse mediums including oil, sculpture, and printmaking.

Amorepacific Museum of Art Presents APMA, CHAPTER FIVE - FROM THE APMA COLLECTION

The Amorepacific Museum of Art in Seoul has launched "APMA, CHAPTER FIVE – FROM THE APMA COLLECTION," a major exhibition featuring approximately 80 works from its permanent holdings. Running from April 1 to August 2, 2026, the showcase includes a diverse array of paintings, sculptures, and installations by over 40 influential Korean and international artists. High-profile participants include Kiki Smith, Rose Wylie, Carol Bove, and Gala Porras-Kim, alongside Korean masters such as Nam June Paik, Lee Bul, and Haegue Yang.

Centuries-Old Love Letter Deciphered With Help From A.I.

MyHeritage's new Scribe A.I. tool has successfully transcribed and translated the earliest surviving Valentine's letter written in English, a 1477 note from Margery Brews to her fiancé John Paston. The tool provides a full transcript, historical context, and research suggestions, making the dense Middle English script accessible.

Global Retrospective Exhibitions

A major retrospective titled "NIGO: From Japan with Love" opens at the Design Museum in London on May 1, 2026, marking the designer's first major exhibition outside Japan. The show features over 700 objects spanning three decades, including around 600 items from NIGO's personal archive, a reconstruction of his teenage bedroom, vintage clothing, early designs, collaborations, hand-thrown ceramics, and a life-size glass tea house created for the exhibition. The display traces his career from Harajuku street culture through founding A Bathing Ape to his current role as artistic director of Kenzo.

Ha Chong-hyun’s radical practice comes into full view in San Francisco

The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco will present a major retrospective of Korean artist Ha Chong-hyun in September 2024. The exhibition, the artist's first full US retrospective, will span his decades-long career, showcasing his evolution from art informel works to his renowned 'Conjunction' series and his role as a leading figure in the dansaekhwa (Korean monochrome painting) movement.

Exhibition brings together Art Nouveau and Art Deco through a century of chairs

The Horta Museum in Saint-Gilles is set to launch a new exhibition titled 'Art Nouveau versus Art Deco? 1850-1950: A Century in 32 Chairs,' running from June 25 to January 11, 2027. The showcase utilizes 32 chairs designed by prominent architects and designers alongside archival documents to trace the stylistic and ideological evolution of Western design. A unique collaborative element features students from La Cambre, who will present chair designs in Victor Horta’s workshop for a public vote.

Inside de Young Museum’s New Indigenous American Art Galleries

The de Young Museum in San Francisco has unveiled its completely reimagined Arts of Indigenous America galleries, featuring nearly 2,000 objects from across North, Central, and South America. Developed in close collaboration with Indigenous scholars and community advisors, the new installation moves away from traditional chronological or ethnographic displays. Instead, it integrates historical artifacts with contemporary works to emphasize the continuity and living nature of Indigenous artistic traditions across four regional sections.

Recalling When Lower Manhattan Was New Amsterdam

The New-York Historical Society has launched a major exhibition exploring the 17th-century origins of New York City during its era as the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam. The show utilizes a diverse array of artifacts, maps, and historical documents to trace the colony's development from a fur-trading outpost to a diverse maritime hub, highlighting the complex interactions between Dutch settlers, Indigenous populations, and enslaved Africans.

OSCAR SANTILLAN TO REPRESENT ECUADOR AT THE 61ST VENICE BIENNALE

Ecuador has selected artist Oscar Santillán to represent the nation at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026. Curated by Manuela Moscoso and organized by the Museum of Anthropological and Contemporary Art (MAAC), the pavilion will feature a collaboration between Santillán and the collective Tawna. The exhibition, titled after the collective, will explore Andean-Amazonian contexts through a dialogue on territory, indigenous knowledge systems, and coexistence.

Il Padiglione della Gran Bretagna alla Biennale d’Arte di Venezia 2026 spiega cos’è l’appartenenza

The British Council has selected artist Lubaina Himid to represent Great Britain at the 2026 Venice Biennale. Her exhibition, titled "Predicting History: Testing Translation," will transform the British Pavilion into a large-scale installation exploring belonging, displacement, and the recreation of home in new contexts. Created in collaboration with artist Magda Stawarska, the show features multi-panel paintings and a surreal soundscape that engages with the neoclassical architecture of the pavilion. Himid, a Turner Prize winner and pioneer of the Black British Art Movement, focuses on cultural memory and identity, challenging Eurocentric narratives and highlighting overlooked Black figures in Western history.

The legendary film "Novecento" by Bertolucci in his Parma becomes a major exhibition

Il mitico film “Novecento” di Bertolucci nella sua Parma diventa una grande mostra

A major exhibition titled "Bernardo Bertolucci. Il Novecento" has opened at the Palazzo del Governatore in Parma, Italy, marking the 50th anniversary of Bertolucci's epic film "Novecento" (1976). The show is structured as a visual experience across 25 rooms and four sections, exploring the film's dialectic between collective history and intimate gaze. It features video, drawings, photographs, production materials, and artworks by artists such as Franco Angeli, Renato Guttuso, Taner Ceylan, and Mario Schifano, all drawn from private collections. The exhibition's first room sets the tone with a video juxtaposing the film's opening credits over Pellizza da Volpedo's painting "Il Quarto Stato" and a close-up of the young Olmo holding a frog, encapsulating the tension between political epic and sensory detail.

An important exhibition in Milan tells the story of the lesser-known Man Ray: interview with the curator

Una importante mostra a Milano racconta il Man Ray meno conosciuto: intervista al curatore

The Gió Marconi gallery and Fondazione Marconi in Milan have launched a major retrospective titled "Man Ray: M for Dictionary," marking fifty years since the artist's passing. Curated by Yuval Etgar and Deborah D’Ippolito, the exhibition moves beyond Man Ray’s famous photography to highlight his role as a pioneer of conceptual and multimedia art. The show is organized into five thematic sections that explore his use of visual puns, experimental "Rayographs," and the transformative power of language across painting, drawing, and sculpture.

Anders Dickson at KAYOKOYUKI

Anders Dickson is presenting a solo exhibition titled "rot in the small season" at KAYOKOYUKI gallery in Tokyo, running from March 19 to May 2, 2026. The exhibition is documented with 51 images on Contemporary Art Daily, with press releases available in both English and Japanese.

Ladji Diaby “Who’s Gonna Save the World?” at Lafayette Anticipations, Paris

Ladji Diaby’s solo exhibition at Lafayette Anticipations, titled “Who’s Gonna Save the World?”, features furniture repurposed as vitrines for discarded objects. By collecting and displaying artifacts that have lost their original utility, Diaby creates a symbolic dialogue between himself and the anonymous former owners of these items, elevating mundane debris into the realm of high art.

Pilvi Takala at Kunsthall Trondheim

Finnish artist Pilvi Takala has opened a solo exhibition titled 'Breaking Ranks' at Kunsthall Trondheim in Norway. The show, which runs from February 19 to May 10, 2026, is documented with 28 images and is accompanied by guides in both English and Norwegian.

Exhibition | Erwin Olaf, 'Against Time' at Baró Galeria, Palma, Spain

Baró Galeria presents 'Against Time', an exhibition of Dutch photographer Erwin Olaf's still life photographs at its Next Door space in Palma, Mallorca, Spain. Opening on May 25, 2026, the show is part of the inaugural Mallorca PhotoFest, an international photography festival. The exhibition focuses on Olaf's small-format flower photographs made between 2006 and 2021, exploring themes of time, finitude, and photography as a trace of disappearance. An essay by Esmeralda Gómez Galera accompanies the show.

Through Reverie: Love and Memory | A Duo-solo Exhibition by Clasutta and C.K.Koh

Whitestone Gallery Singapore will present a duo-solo exhibition titled "Through Reverie: Love and Memory" opening on 9 May 2026. The show features Indonesian artist Clasutta and Malaysian artist C.K. Koh, each presenting a solo component: Clasutta's "Roommates?" explores the emotional stages of a relationship through fragmented, intimate gestures, while Koh's "Folded Glimpses" draws from his personal photographic archive to evoke memory as impression rather than documentary record.

Mojave Shadows: Reception and Curator's Talk

The Nevada Humanities Program Gallery is hosting a reception and curator's talk for the exhibition "Mojave Shadows." The event, scheduled for Tuesday, April 14, offers the public an opportunity to engage directly with the curatorial vision behind the show, which explores regional themes through a specific lens of light and landscape.

An exhibition centered on Bartholdi's Champollion, deposited in Nogent-sur-Seine

Une exposition autour du Champollion de Bartholdi, déposé à Nogent-sur-Seine

The Musée Camille Claudel in Nogent-sur-Seine is hosting a new exhibition centered around Auguste Bartholdi’s monument to Jean-François Champollion. The statue, recently transferred from the courtyard of the Collège de France by the Fonds national d’art contemporain, serves as the focal point for a display that explores the history and significance of the work. The exhibition provides a scholarly counter-narrative to recent ideological criticisms surrounding the monument's iconography.

Rome’s Colosseum Gets a New Pedestrian Plaza

Rome has unveiled a newly restored pedestrian plaza at the southern façade of the Colosseum following a four-year construction project. Led by Stefano Boeri Interiors, the renovation features a travertine-paved square that recreates the original floor level and footprint of the ancient amphitheater. The design uses stone plinths to mark the locations of long-lost columns, allowing visitors to visualize the massive scale of the structure as it appeared nearly 2,000 years ago.

Petroglyphs and cave paintings, some more than 4,000 years old, discovered in Mexico

Archaeologists from Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) have identified 16 petroglyphs and cave paintings near the Tula River in Hidalgo. The artworks span over 4,000 years, ranging from prehistoric times through the Mesoamerican Postclassic period and into the early colonial era. The discovery, which includes depictions of the rain god Tláloc and various anthropomorphic figures, was made during archaeological salvage work for a new passenger rail line connecting Mexico City and Querétaro.