María Jesús Valenzuela: Winter Flowers

MARÍA JESÚS VALENZUELA: FLORES DE INVIERNO

María Jesús Valenzuela presents her solo exhibition "Flores de Invierno" (Winter Flowers) at Galería NAC in Santiago, Chile. The exhibition showcases a multidisciplinary approach to the natural world, featuring hand-embroidered cotton paper, color pencil drawings, and fine art photography. Valenzuela’s work acts as a contemporary field notebook, documenting landscapes ranging from the mangroves of Caddo Lake to the forests of Curaumilla, utilizing both ancient techniques like embroidery and modern digital printing.

Here’s what’s on the gallery walls in Boulder County

Boulder County’s art scene is currently hosting a wide array of exhibitions across its museums, galleries, and community centers. Highlights include the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art’s eclectic group show "Yes &…," a historical examination of segregation at the Lafayette Swimming Pool in the 1930s at the Collective Community Arts Center, and a showcase of Indigenous ecological knowledge at the Dairy Arts Center. The region is also emphasizing local talent through the Boulder Valley School District student showcase and various member exhibitions at the Louisville Art Association and Liminal Light Gallery.

New Hong Kong fairs offer fresh opportunities for a changing market

Hong Kong Art Week 2026 features several new art fairs offering alternative models to traditional events. ArtHouse Tai Hang, led by former Christie's executive Jacky Ho, displays works across ten locations in a residential neighborhood with a pay-only-if-sold financial model. Check-in, organized by Alex Chan, requires all artworks to be suitcase-sized and includes daily performances. Pavilion, founded by Ysabelle Cheung and Willem Molesworth, presents a boutique, curated alternative to high-pressure fairs.

french audit louvre robbery security flaws no cameras

A leaked French government audit reveals that the Louvre Museum's security system is "outdated and inadequate," with significant gaps in CCTV coverage. The report, conducted by France's Court of Auditors and set for public release next month, found that modernization of security systems had been repeatedly postponed, and cameras were mostly installed only when rooms were refurbished. In the Denon Wing, home to the Mona Lisa, one-third of rooms lack cameras; in the Richelieu Wing, 75 percent of rooms are without them. Only 138 additional cameras have been installed since 2019. The audit was initiated by Louvre president and director Laurence des Cars after she assumed the role in 2021. The findings follow a robbery of French crown jewels from the museum and come amid staff strikes over understaffing and overcrowding.

art criticism lynne tillman paying attention book

Lynne Tillman celebrated the publication of her new collection, *Paying Attention: Essays on Art and Culture*, from David Zwirner Books, at an event hosted by Coco’s at Colette. The article features a conversation between Tillman and the author, in which she discusses her origin story as a critic, her background in fiction writing, and her unconventional entry into art criticism through an invitation from Craig Owens at *Art in America*. She recounts writing a Madame Realism story about a Renoir exhibition after eavesdropping on museum tours, a piece that angered some art historians.

parties young artist prize 2025 mz wallace

CULTURED magazine and fashion brand MZ Wallace celebrated the 10-year anniversary of their Young Artists List with an event at (SUB)MERCER in SoHo, where they announced Iraqi-born, Los Angeles-based artist Ali Eyal as the winner of the 2025 Young Artist Prize. Eyal received an unrestricted $30,000 grant, selected by a jury of curators from the Met, the Hammer, and MoMA, for his multidisciplinary practice reflecting on violence endured during his upbringing in Baghdad.

‘A daring flash of pubic hair’: the extraordinary, monumental nudes of Sylvia Sleigh

A small London gallery, Malarkey, is exhibiting eight paintings by Welsh-born artist Sylvia Sleigh (1916–2010), including her monumental 1963 work *The Bridge*, which is now for sale. The show, curated by Daniel Malarkey, features Sleigh's earliest-known self-portrait and her first commission, alongside other nudes that challenge traditional objectification by portraying both sexes with dignity. Sleigh, who studied at Brighton School of Art and moved to New York with her second husband, critic Lawrence Alloway, reimagined classical poses like Giorgione's *Sleeping Venus* in modern settings, notably including a daring flash of pubic hair in *The Bridge*.

Dealer Scott Nichols on His Lasting Love for Iconic California Photographers

Veteran art dealer Scott Nichols reflects on his long-standing career and the evolution of his eponymous gallery, which specialized in 20th-century California photography for nearly three decades in San Francisco before relocating to Sonoma in 2019. The gallery is renowned for its deep expertise in Group f.64, maintaining one of the largest private collections of Brett Weston’s work alongside masterpieces by Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, and Imogen Cunningham.

$25 Million Modigliani Goes to Jewish Heir in Landmark Restitution Case

A New York Supreme Court judge has ruled that the estate of Jewish art dealer Oscar Stettiner is the rightful owner of Amedeo Modigliani’s 1918 painting "Seated Man With a Cane." The decision concludes an 11-year legal battle led by Stettiner’s grandson, Philippe Maestracci, against billionaire art dealer David Nahmad. The court found that the painting was unlawfully seized by the Nazis after Stettiner fled Paris in 1939 and that subsequent sales, including the 1996 purchase by Nahmad at Christie’s, did not extinguish the original owner's rights.

Fair Warning Expands With Saara Pritchard, Doubling Down on ‘Conviction’ in a Crowded Art Market

Loïc Gouzer’s boutique auction app, Fair Warning, is expanding its leadership by appointing Saara Pritchard, a veteran specialist from Christie’s and Sotheby’s, as a partner. Since its 2020 launch, the platform has carved out a niche by rejecting the high-volume model of traditional auction houses in favor of a highly curated, "one work at a time" approach. This strategy has proven lucrative, recently achieving a record $16.7 million for an Andy Warhol portrait and a $4.07 million record for Elizabeth Peyton.

the lume controversial immersive digital art gallery indianapolis museum of art closed

The Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields has officially closed The Lume, its controversial immersive digital art gallery, following the conclusion of its final exhibition on Indigenous Australian art. Since its 2021 launch, the high-tech space hosted popular digital spectacles featuring the works of Van Gogh, Monet, and Dalí, but it will now be repurposed for a new contemporary art initiative that the museum claims will expand how audiences experience art.

nieves gonzalez

Spanish artist Nieves González, born in 1996 and based in Granada, has gained widespread attention for her time-warping portraits of women that blend Old Master influences—such as José de Ribera, Francisco de Zurbarán, and Diego Velázquez—with contemporary details like colorful puffer coats. Her recent commission for the cover of Lily Allen's album *West End Girl* went viral on social media, and she has just opened her debut solo exhibition, “Sacred Hair,” at T293 Gallery in Rome, focusing on the figure of Mary Magdalene as a powerful, autonomous woman.

lynart store lior brahami

Lynart Store, an online platform and art gallery based in Paris, is profiled through an interview with its founder Lior Brahami. Founded in 2019, Lynart specializes in prints, editions, and sculptures by both established and emerging artists from around the world. Brahami explains that the gallery was created to make art more accessible and less intimidating than traditional galleries, focusing on emotional connection and narrative in the artworks selected. The article highlights Lynart's commitment to supporting emerging artists through curatorial strategy, international exposure, and career guidance.

nyc apartment galleries

Across New York City, a growing number of artists and curators are turning their apartments into informal exhibition spaces, including Iowa in Crown Heights, Interrobang in Sunset Park, Drama in Bushwick, and Club Rhubarb near the Bowery. These home galleries, born from necessity and a rejection of the traditional art market, host shows in living rooms, kitchens, and stairwells, prioritizing intimacy and creative freedom over commercial viability. Antonia Oliver, founder of Iowa, describes her space as an "apartment gallery" that allows her to program without market pressures, exemplified by a recent performance piece by Anna Thérèse Witenberg.

Tourmaline at Australian Centre for Contemporary Art

A major solo exhibition of work by the celebrated artist and activist Tourmaline has opened at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art in Melbourne. Titled "Transcendent," the show is curated by Sophie Prince and runs from December 12, 2025, through March 15, 2026. It features new and existing works, including film, photography, and archival installations that explore themes of Black trans history, joy, and liberation.

A pop-up hotel format is born that focuses on culture: starting in an architecture in Arles, France (with photos by Carla Sozzani)

Nasce un format di hotel pop up che punta sulla cultura: si inizia in un’architettura di Arles in Francia (con le foto di Carla Sozzani)

Luca Pronzato, founder of the pop-up restaurant platform We Are Ona, is launching a new itinerant hospitality concept called Casa Ideale. The first edition will take place from July 1–10, 2026, at Villa Bank, a 1970s villa near Arles, France, designed by Emile Sala and protected as a Remarkable Contemporary Architecture by the French Ministry of Culture. Guests will stay in the villa and dine at a restaurant run by chef Gil Nogueira, while the space also hosts a photography exhibition titled "Prologo" curated by Maddalena Scarzella for Fondazione Sozzani, featuring over 60 works from Carla Sozzani's archive by artists such as Urs Lüthi and Helmut Newton, alongside design pieces from the gallery Downtown+ by Luna Laffanour.

La Fondation Beyeler di Basilea inaugura una grande mostra dell’artista francese Pierre Huyghe. Da vedere durante Art Basel

The Fondation Beyeler in Basel is opening a major solo exhibition of French artist Pierre Huyghe, running from May 24 to September 13, 2026. The show transforms Renzo Piano's museum spaces into a sensitive ecosystem inhabited by images, organisms, sounds, dust, algorithms, and presences suspended between the biological and artificial. Key works include "Apnea" (2026), an artificial organ submerged in water that breathes at a human rhythm; "Alchimia" (2026), featuring a worm on a threshold that reacts to air; "Liminals" (2026), a film depicting a faceless anthropomorphic figure in a state of radical uncertainty; "Adversary" (2026), a closed gate co-created by human and machine; and "Camata" (2024), a film set in the Atacama Desert that is continuously re-edited in real time based on sensors and audience presence.

Mario Schifano al Palazzo Esposizioni di Roma. Una grande mostra che ci insegna a guardare

Palazzo Esposizioni in Rome has opened a major exhibition dedicated to Mario Schifano (1934–1998), running alongside a solo show by Marco Tirelli titled "Anni Luce." The exhibition, curated by Daniela Lancioni, explores Schifano's work through the lens of Kazimir Malevich's Suprematism, particularly his 1915 "Black Square." It features Schifano's early monochromes from 1960, his painting "Chiamato K. Malewič" (1965), and a rarely seen pre-1960 phase including landscapes and informal works from 1956–1959, which have often been marginalized in his official catalog.

Russian art today is blood. A tough interview with Pussy Riot

“L’arte russa oggi è il sangue”. Una dura intervista alle Pussy Riot

During the preview of the 2026 Venice Biennale, the Russian Pavilion became the site of a protest by Pussy Riot and FEMEN, who staged an action called "STORM OF VENICE." Wearing pink balaclavas and carrying radical slogans, they denounced Russia's presence at the Biennale, accusing the Kremlin and the European cultural system of complicity. The protest centered on the phrase "Blood is Russia's art." In an interview, Pussy Riot member Nadya Tolokonnikova argues that artists who represent the official Russian Pavilion become instruments of the aggressive imperial state, and that the Biennale confuses cultural dialogue with political normalization.

A Political Anthology of the United States: The Great Exhibition of Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince in Venice

Un’antologia politica degli Stati Uniti. La grande mostra di Arthur Jafa e Richard Prince a Venezia

Fondazione Prada presents "Helter Skelter: Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince" at Cà Corner della Regina in Venice, the 15th exhibition produced by the foundation in the city. Curated by Nancy Spector of the Brooklyn Museum, the two-person show brings together over fifty works—photographs, videos, installations, sculptures, and paintings—that explore the fractured identity of the United States through the lens of race, masculinity, popular culture, and appropriation. Both artists, though separated by more than a decade in age, share a practice of scavenging and recontextualizing images from film, comics, advertising, and social media to critique American society.

In Toscana il borgo di Monte San Savino si apre all’arte contemporanea con una mostra itinerante e di genere

The Tuscan hill town of Monte San Savino launched a contemporary art exhibition titled "Art Gender Gap" on International Women's Day, featuring 40 female artists and 53 works across multiple historic venues including the GAS, Chiesa di Santa Chiara, Palazzo Ciocchi di Monte, and the Renaissance Cisternone. Curated by Giuseppe Simone Modeo, Nicoletta Castellaneta, and Domenico de Chirico, the show includes loans from the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington (via its Italian committee president Claudia Pensotti Mosca), the Christian Levett collection, and the FAMM Museum in Mougin, France—a museum dedicated exclusively to women artists. Participating artists range from historical figures like Louise Bourgeois, Carol Rama, and Sonia Delaunay to contemporary names such as Kiki Smith, Pipilotti Rist, Marlene Dumas, Tracey Emin, and Mona Hatoum.

A Roma è tutto pronto per il weekend delle gallerie d’arte: mostre, progetti speciali, inaugurazioni. Il programma

The fourth edition of Roma Gallery Weekend will take place from May 15 to 17, 2026, featuring 31 galleries across Rome. The event kicks off with a new Gallery Night on May 14, where simultaneous openings and special projects serve as a concentrated prologue. Participating galleries include established names like Gagosian, Galleria Continua, and Lorcan O'Neill, as well as emerging spaces such as Amanita and Cantadora. Highlights include exhibitions of Francesca Woodman, Tracey Emin, Friedrich Kunath, and Carlos Garaicoa, alongside site-specific interventions and group shows.

All the complexity of Cézanne on display at the legendary Fondation Beyeler in Basel

Tutta la complessità di Cézanne in mostra alla mitica Fondation Beyeler di Basilea

The Fondation Beyeler in Basel has opened a major exhibition dedicated to Paul Cézanne, marking the 120th anniversary of his death. Curated by senior curator Ulf Küster, the show features 80 works—58 paintings and 21 watercolors—drawn from public and private collections across Switzerland, Germany, France, the UK, the Netherlands, Spain, Denmark, and the United States. Highlights include nine versions of Mont Sainte-Victoire, rare comparisons of two watercolor versions of "Boy in a Red Waistcoat," and two versions of "The Card Players" from the Courtauld Gallery and the Musée d'Orsay. The exhibition runs until May 25, 2026, and is accompanied by a catalog published by Hatje Cantz Verlag.

In Genoa, an exhibition dedicated to Giovanni Korompay, the Futurist who loved Pink Floyd

A Genova una mostra dedicata a Giovanni Korompay, il futurista che amava i Pink Floyd

A major retrospective exhibition dedicated to Giovanni Korompay, a Venetian painter, sculptor, and illustrator associated with the second wave of Futurism, has opened at the Wolfsoniana in Genoa Nervi. Titled "Korompay, un’antologica," the show runs until November 1st and features around sixty works, including paintings, sculptures, graphic works, photographs, and documents. It explores Korompay's evolution from traditional training under Ettore Tito to his embrace of Futurist aeropainting, exemplified by works such as "Alta velocità" (High Speed), which celebrates a 1934 world speed record set by a Macchi-Castoldi MC 72 seaplane. The exhibition is curated by Alex Casagrande, Matteo Fochessati, Franco Tagliapietra, and Anna Vyazemtseva, with loans from public museums (Mart, Mambo), private collections, and the Fondazione Korompay.

Is there really an energy transformation in Marina Abramović's exhibition in Venice?

Nella mostra di Marina Abramović a Venezia c’è davvero una trasformazione di energia?

At the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, Marina Abramović's exhibition "Transforming Energy" opens to the public from May 9 to September 30, 2026, as part of the 2026 Venice Biennale. The show is designed as an experiential device that moves beyond traditional exhibition formats, inviting viewers to determine their own presence through a sequence of rooms built around relationships between body, materials, and time. Crystals and locks of hair function not as decoration but as presences to be inhabited, demanding radical attention rather than spectacular participation. During the press conference, Abramović and curator Shai Baitel insisted that the materials, especially the crystals, possess real energy capable of directly affecting the viewer's body and perception, not merely as metaphor but as an active condition.

Arte contemporanea, fiabe e favole nel racconto di Artbox su Sky Arte

The article previews an upcoming episode of the Italian television program "Artbox" airing on Sky Arte on Tuesday, May 12. The episode visits Castello di Miradolo in Piedmont, where the exhibition "C'è oggi una fiaba" (There Is a Fairy Tale Today) runs until June 21, blending art, literature, and music around childhood themes. Curator Roberto Galimberti and Fondazione Cosso director Paola Eynard discuss the show. The episode also features art historian Maria Vittoria Baravelli's segment "Invito al viaggio," reinterpreting fairy tales as dynamic spaces for growth, referencing artists Luigi Serafini and Luigi Ontani. Additionally, curator Gražina Subelytė discusses the exhibition "Peggy Guggenheim a Londra. Nascita di una collezionista" in Venice, and curators Stefania Bossi, Michele Tavola, and Valentina Cane present the show "Regina. Sperimentatrice geniale" about a prolific sculptor. The program includes a book segment on Orsina Simona Pierini's "I colori delle case. Milan Interiors 1923-1978."

The best and worst we saw at the Venice Art Biennale 2026. Artribune's hits and flops

Il meglio e il peggio che abbiamo visto alla Biennale d’Arte di Venezia 2026. Top e flop di Artribune

The 61st Venice Biennale, titled "In Minor Keys" and directed by Koyo Kouoh, opened amid significant turmoil: the death of a newly appointed curator, diplomatic tensions over the presence of Russia and Israel, political protests, and the unprecedented collective resignation of the jury, which led to the Golden Lions being awarded by public vote for the first time. Despite this chaotic backdrop, the exhibition—featuring a record 100 national pavilions—has been widely praised for avoiding moralistic pedagogy and instead embracing visual seduction, formal quality, and sensory joy while addressing themes of identity, memory, colonialism, ecological crisis, and violence. The article highlights top and flop moments from the opening week, including strong showings by Biennale president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco and a standout exhibition at Fondazione Prada.

In Belgio inaugura BRUSK. A Bruges un nuovo museo ibrido dall’arte antica all’AI

A new hybrid cultural center called BRUSK has opened in Bruges, Belgium, designed by Robbrecht en Daem and Olivier Salens. Part of the Musea Brugge network, the venue blends ancient art with contemporary and AI-driven works, featuring two inaugural exhibitions: "Bigger Picture. Connected Worlds of Bruges 900–1550," a historical survey co-curated with historian Peter Frankopan, and "Latent City," the first Belgian solo show of digital artist Refik Anadol. The building offers free ground-floor public spaces, including a café and a permanent mural by Laure Prouvost, aiming to attract both tourists and locals.

There is a major Paulo Nazareth exhibition to see in Venice (but the artist himself hasn't seen it)

C’è una grande mostra di Paulo Nazareth da vedere a Venezia (ma l’artista stesso non l’ha vista)

A major exhibition of Brazilian artist Paulo Nazareth, titled "Algebra," has opened at Punta della Dogana in Venice, but the artist himself is absent. Nazareth has kept a promise not to set foot in Europe until he has crossed African territories on foot, as they existed before the arbitrary divisions imposed by the 1884 Berlin Conference. He did not participate in the installation or opening, instead staging a simultaneous event in Veneza, a working-class district of Ribeirão das Neves, Brazil—a gesture he also made when invited to the 2013 Venice Biennale. The exhibition centers on structural violence and uses attention and care as strategies for healing, with the word "algebra" referring to the act of recomposing what was broken.

The New Installation of the Querini Stampalia Foundation in Venice Is a Game of Combinatory Art. Interview with Director Cristiana Collu

Il nuovo allestimento della Fondazione Querini Stampalia a Venezia è un gioco di arte combinatoria. Intervista alla direttrice Cristiana Collu

The Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice has unveiled a new permanent installation titled "The Dreamer," curated by director Cristiana Collu and opening May 5, 2026. The exhibition repositions over 170 works from the foundation's collection—including Giovanni Bellini's *Presentation of Jesus at the Temple*, Luca Giordano's *San Sebastiano*, and Palma il Vecchio's *Madonna with Child*—in dialogue with works by six contemporary artists: Giusy Calia, Silvia Giambrone, Daniela De Lorenzo, Davide Rivalta, Emanuele Becheri, and Chiara Bettazzi. Inspired by the dreams and passions of founder Giovanni Querini Stampalia (born May 5, 1799) and his sister Caterina, the installation is conceived as a non-chronological, emotionally driven journey likened to a "reverse cinema" where visitors move through space like directors constructing their own narrative.