François Ozon’s 'The Stranger': A Film Between Surface Aesthetics and Political Reinterpretation

“Lo straniero” di François Ozon. Un film tra estetica delle superfici e rilettura politica

Director François Ozon has adapted Albert Camus’s existentialist masterpiece 'The Stranger' into a new feature film, premiering at the 82nd Venice Film Festival. Shot in stark black and white by cinematographer Manuel Dacosse, the film departs from the 1967 Luchino Visconti adaptation by leaning into a cold, clinical aesthetic inspired by Michelangelo Antonioni. The narrative follows Meursault, an emotionally detached clerk in colonial Algiers, whose impassive reaction to his mother's death and the subsequent senseless murder of an Arab man leads to his legal and moral condemnation.

New Currents: Zhang Mingxuan’s Politics of Skin

Chinese artist Zhang Mingxuan, 27, debuted her first mature body of work in a 2023 solo exhibition at Hive Center for Contemporary Art in Shanghai, featuring paintings and prints of distorted human forms wrapped in torn nylon hosiery. Her process involves stretching, tearing, and pressing nylon-clad boards onto canvas to create uncanny impressions of compressed, fetal-like bodies. The works, created after she completed her MA in printmaking at the Royal College of Art in London, explore themes of violence, embodiment, and the limits of the body through a labor-intensive method blending painting and printmaking.

Ten Local Galleries Part Of The First Friday Chattanooga Art Crawl

On the First Friday of May 2026, ten local galleries and studios in Chattanooga, Tennessee, will participate in the monthly First Friday Art Crawl, with extended evening hours from 5-8 PM. Participating venues include River Gallery, HART Gallery, In-Town Gallery, ICA @ UTC, BFA Open Studios @ UTC, Wavelength Space, Society of Work Northshore at The Velvet Lounge, ClearStory Arts, Stove Works, and AVA – Association for Visual Arts. Several galleries are hosting opening receptions and artist meet-and-greets, featuring artists such as David Boyd, Jim Felder, Steve Loucks, Rick Sanders, Angie To, and Kathleen Thum.

“Year of the Snake is the year of us doing our work”: Leith arts collective open up ahead of exhibition this month

Hot Snakes Studio, a six-member arts collective based in Leith's Custom House in Edinburgh, is preparing for its second exhibition, titled "Year of the Snake," opening later this month. The group, composed of working creators including Phil Morrell (Surface Ritual), Robbie McKay (Whisky Kuts), Matt Sloe (Sinclair), Ross MacRae, Rhory Gardiner (Hungry Window), and Tom Hatch (Journeyman Signs), will showcase personal work that explores themes such as folklore, African traditions, and environmental issues. The show is entirely self-funded and grassroots, with support from local businesses like Pizza Geeks.

Artists In Erbil Turn Canvas Around in Bold Exhibition with No Visible Art

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.

Living In Color: Vibrant textile art exhibition coming to Grand Central District

The Werk Gallery in St. Petersburg, Florida, is hosting "Living In Color," a textile and fiber art exhibition organized by the Tampa Bay Surface Design Guild. Featuring over 100 local artists, the show opens with a free reception on May 8, 2026, and runs throughout the month at the gallery, which also houses The Object Lab gift shop.

Exploring Shekhawati: Rajasthan’s open-air art gallery of frescoed havelis

The article explores the Shekhawati region of northern Rajasthan, India, known as the world's largest open-air art gallery. It focuses on the 18th–20th century merchant havelis (mansions) hand-painted with intricate frescoes, many of which are now being restored as heritage hotels. The author recounts a personal stay at Malji Ka Kamra, a restored haveli in Mandawa, describing its blend of Italianate and Rajput architecture and the overwhelming frescoes covering every surface, depicting portraits, floral motifs, and scenes of daily life.

Senior artists explore censorship, AI and transformation in the capstone exhibition

Shippensburg University senior art students presented their capstone exhibition at the Huber Art Center, featuring works in printmaking, digital art, ceramics, and charcoal drawings. Artists Luke Lindvall, Gerald Pratt, Kaylee Will, Alayna Mandich, and Lily Bramucci explored themes including censorship, artificial intelligence, horror, and personal transformation. Lindvall pushed printmaking onto unconventional surfaces like skateboards and furniture, Pratt addressed over-censorship in politics, Will warned against over-reliance on technology and AI in raising children, Mandich used horror imagery to examine beauty, and Bramucci connected pit-fired ceramics to life choices and hardship.

You Can Help Create Art at This Free Providence Event

The Providence Chalk Art Festival will take place on Saturday, May 16, 2026, at the Providence Rink in Rhode Island. For one day, the rink's concrete surface becomes an open-air gallery where artists of all ages and skill levels create chalk artworks in designated squares. Visitors can watch professional chalk artists at work, walk among the colorful street art, and even participate by creating their own chalk designs in special areas set aside for kids and amateurs. The event also features live music, food vendors, and family-friendly activities, all free to attend.

Paphos exhibition brings 22 artists together

A new group exhibition titled 'Beyond the Surface' opens at Ibrahim’s Khan Art Gallery in Paphos, Cyprus, from April 24 to 26, featuring 22 artists of 14 nationalities. Curated by Elham Razani, the three-day show includes paintings, sculpture, mosaic, and ceramic art, and is sponsored by Ezousa Winery. The exhibition aims to foster cultural exchange and community engagement through diverse artistic voices.

From texture to 3D and optical illusion, Jack Lockhart invites the public to experience art differently

A solo exhibition titled "Beyond Imagination" by Canadian artist Jack Lockhart is on view at the Alex Dufresne Art Gallery in Callander. The show features roughly 35 paintings spanning 60 years of Lockhart's career, highlighting his evolution from traditional watercolour, acrylic, and oil painting to innovative 3D works created using ChromaDepth glasses.

New Williamson Art Gallery exhibition celebrates ‘The Garden as Muse’

The Williamson Art Gallery and Museum in Birkenhead has announced a major upcoming exhibition titled 'The Garden as Muse,' scheduled to open in May 2026. The show explores the garden as a profound source of artistic inspiration, featuring a mix of prominent loans and rarely seen works from the gallery’s permanent collection. A centerpiece of the exhibition is E. A. Hornel’s 'The Wounded Butterfly,' which exemplifies the artist's signature style of blending naturalism with decorative, textured surfaces.

Possible medieval artefacts, discovered at Canadian thrift store, will form basis of university archaeology class

A group of 11 rings and two medallions, believed to be medieval, was discovered at a Thrifty Boutique charity shop in Chilliwack, British Columbia. A volunteer found the items while sorting donations, and a customer with an archaeology background alerted staff that the objects might be ancient. The manager contacted Sabrina Higgins, an associate professor at Simon Fraser University (SFU), who arranged for the artefacts to be donated to the university's Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. Higgins and colleague Cara Tremain have designed a course for autumn 2026 in which students will analyze the objects' materials and designs to determine their provenance, culminating in an exhibition at the museum.

Misato Sano’s Charming Wooden Dogs Are Carved With Personality

Miyagi-based artist Misato Sano creates distinctive wooden dog sculptures that serve as a form of self-portraiture. Her work, carved from camphor wood and finished with oil paint, uses exaggerated features and textured surfaces to express a range of emotions and personalities, from shy to silly, as a means of exploring and deepening self-love.

Painterly Figures Entwine in Soojin Choi’s Ceramic Sculptures

Ceramic artist Soojin Choi creates intricate sculptures of entangled pairs, using stoneware slabs and nylon strands to achieve a precarious balance that minimizes contact with the ground. Her painterly background is evident in the gestural marks, visible brushstrokes, and drips on the white-slipped surfaces, with the artist describing her process as a "constant negotiation with gravity."

Meditate to the Undulations of Baltic Sea Ice in Jan Erik Waider’s Hypnotic Videos

German photographer and visual artist Jan Erik Waider has released a new series of aerial drone videos capturing a rare natural phenomenon in the Baltic Sea. The footage shows a thin, fresh layer of ice forming intricate, polygon-like shapes on the rolling sea surface, creating a hypnotic, undulating pattern that moves rhythmically without breaking.

Extreme Macro Photos of Insect Wings by Chris Perani Layer Thousands of Images

Photographer Chris Perani creates hyper-detailed images of insect wings using an extreme macro photography technique. His series, Wings, captures the intricate, often invisible details of bee, wasp, damselfly, beetle, and butterfly wings by taking up to 2,000 photos of a single specimen and digitally stacking them for unprecedented clarity.

Art Beyond the Canvas: 'Anyflatsurface' opens in Callander on Saturday

The Alex Dufresne Gallery in Callander, Ontario, is presenting 'Anyflatsurface', a solo exhibition by self-taught Northern Ontario visual artist Joyce Effinger, opening on May 9, 2026. The show features paintings on both traditional canvas and unconventional materials such as paddles, saws, rocks, cloth, and found objects, transforming everyday items into vibrant celebrations of color and place.

February 2026 Opportunities: Open Calls, Residencies, and Grants for Artists

A curated list of open calls, grants, and residencies for artists and designers for February 2026 has been published. Key opportunities include applications for The Other Art Fair Brooklyn, the Quilt Visions 2026 exhibition at Visions Museum of Textile Art, Jackson’s Art Prize, a public art commission for Boise Airport, the McNeese National Works on Paper Exhibition, the Melancholy 2026 online exhibition, the Sónar+D digital creativity festival, the World of WearableArt Competition, and the Hasselblad Masters 2026 photography contest.

Jiangxi Artists Association Holds 2025 AI Art (Design) Works Exhibition and Symposium

江西省美协2025 AI美术（设计）作品展暨研讨会举办

The Jiangxi Artists Association launched the '2025 AI Art (Design) Works Exhibition' at the Jiangxi Federation of Literary and Arts Circles Art Exhibition Center on December 24. The exhibition featured 60 'human-machine symbiosis' AI artworks created by 30 young artists from the province following a training program. The works, spanning traditional and digital mediums, utilized generative AI technology and were presented through various formats including projections, light boxes, and installations.

Senior artwork shines in "Beneath the Surface" exhibit at Spokane Art School

Gonzaga University's Art Department is presenting "Beneath the Surface," a senior art exhibit running through May 8 in partnership with the Spokane Art School. The show features capstone projects from graduating students, including oil paintings, a punk-style zine and CD project, and digital works exploring themes like motherhood and anxiety. Assistant art professor Jennifer Seo describes the exhibit as a culmination of skills learned over four years, with students gaining hands-on exhibition experience and building professional portfolios.

Artcube 2R2 to Hold Oh Ji-yoon Solo Show in Seoul After Back-to-Back Venice Biennale Invitations

Seoul-based gallery Artcube 2R2 is launching a solo exhibition titled "Dignity: Accumulated Time" featuring the work of artist Oh Ji-yoon. The show focuses on her "Dignity" series, which utilizes a labor-intensive process of layering charcoal, gold, hanji paper, and pearls to explore themes of human existence and reflection. The exhibition is designed to coincide with the artist's consecutive invitations to the Venice Biennale, bringing the same body of work shown on the international stage to a domestic audience.

REVIEW: Now is not forever, when art mimics reality

Theresa-Anne Mackintosh’s solo exhibition, "Now is not Forever," recently debuted at the Wits Art Museum (WAM), featuring a provocative blend of older paintings and new sculptures. The show centers on anthropomorphic figures and the erasure of senses, notably in the "hear no evil, see no evil, do no evil" series, where body parts are painted over to symbolize the avoidance of moral decay. These works, alongside vivid sculptures representing the artist's alter egos, challenge viewers to look past aesthetic surfaces to confront the inherent chaos and dysfunction of contemporary society.

A Unique Ebru Art Exhibition - Painting on Water Opens in Bishkek

The Kyrgyz National Museum of Fine Arts named after Gapar Aitiev is set to host a specialized exhibition of Ebru art, the traditional Turkish technique of painting on water. Organized by the Ebristan public foundation and supported by the Turkish Embassy, the event features live masterclasses where artists will demonstrate the creation of symbolic imagery, including the national flags of Turkey and Kyrgyzstan and the Batken region's Aigul flower, before transferring the floating pigments onto solid surfaces.

Art Exhibition Opening – Sunday March 8th

Artist Del Chapo is set to debut a new solo exhibition titled "Open Season" at Embers Dispensary in Washington, D.C. The showcase features paintings heavily influenced by early grindhouse and exploitation cinema, characterized by a raw aesthetic that includes visible drips, scratches, and overpainting. The opening reception is scheduled for the evening of March 8, 2026.