A non-speaking autistic artist's paintings are being featured in a gallery show in Washington, D.C. The article, published by Washingtonian, highlights the artist's unique creative expression and the upcoming exhibition that brings their work to a broader audience.
The article explores the ancient origins of astrology, tracing its foundational concepts to Babylonian, Egyptian, and classical civilizations. It details how these early cultures developed complex systems of celestial observation and interpretation that predate modern horoscope apps and the contemporary astrology industry.
Artist Gisela Colón has opened her first retrospective exhibition, 'La montaña, el monolito (The Mountain, the Monolith),' at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico. The show, curated by Abdiel Segarra Ríos and Alexandra Méndez, features sculptures, paintings, video, and installations spanning over three decades of her career, with a focus on the organic forms of monoliths and mountains.
The Torre Grimaldina, a medieval tower in Genoa's Palazzo Ducale, has reopened after extensive restoration and safety upgrades funded by Italy's PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan). Built in the late 13th century as a symbol of municipal power, the tower later served as a prison for political dissidents, including Risorgimento patriots and anti-fascist activists, as well as the violinist Niccolò Paganini. The restoration has preserved historic graffiti and inscriptions left by inmates, while reopening the tower's belvedere offering panoramic views of the city.
Super Mario Galaxy è il primo vero film videoludico
The article analyzes the 2023 animated film 'Super Mario Galaxy – Il film,' arguing it represents a significant evolution in video game adaptations. The film, a sequel to 'Super Mario Bros. – Il film,' abandons traditional narrative concerns and instead structures itself like a video game, constantly introducing new characters, power-ups, and scenarios directly from the Super Mario game series, as if the protagonists are moving through game levels.
Un tableau du Maître de la toile de jean rejoint un musée dans le Tessin
The Pinacoteca cantonale Giovanni Züst in Rancate, Switzerland, has acquired 'Woman Begging with Two Children,' a significant work by the anonymous 17th-century artist known as the Master of the Blue Jeans. The painting was notably featured in a landmark 2010 exhibition at Galerie Canesso that helped define the identity of this Lombard artist, famous for depicting lower-class subjects wearing indigo-dyed denim-like fabric.
The British Museum has opened a new exhibition, "Ancient India: Living Traditions," curated by Sushma Jansari, which presents devotional art from three of India's major religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. The show highlights shared roots and commonalities among these faiths, tracing their origins back to ancient nature spirits like the Yakshas, and features objects ranging from a second-century BC carving of Gaja-Lakṣmī to an 18th-century painting from Rajasthan. The exhibition also addresses colonial history and provenance, with detailed labels explaining how key objects were removed from their original sites, including the Amarāvati Stupa.
The Grackle Art Gallery in Fort Worth, Texas, will host "BLANK," the fourth curated installation by the Kickpigeon Kids, from May 2 to May 31, 2026. The exhibition explores the concept of blankness as a prerequisite for new beginnings and limitless potential, inviting selected artists to submit work interpreting the theme, often starting from the idea of a "blank canvas."
Two documentaries premiering at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival directly confront the discourse surrounding artificial intelligence. Valerie Veatch's 'Ghost in the Machine' traces the racist, eugenicist origins of AI research, linking it to a history of American techno-fascism, while Daniel Roher and Charlie Tyrell's 'The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist' offers a more measured, personal exploration of public anxieties about the technology.
The St. John Armenian Church in Metro Detroit is hosting a comprehensive retrospective of the artistic career of Fr. Garabed Kochakian. The exhibition, which spans his decades-long journey as both a priest and an artist, features his work in sacred art, iconography, and architectural design, including his contributions to the bronze doors of St. Vartan Cathedral in Manhattan. Originally scheduled for a shorter run, the show's popularity has led to an extension through April 24 to coincide with Martyrs’ Day commemorations.
Indigenous artist Scott Kwah is set to debut a deeply personal exhibition titled "A.R.E.N.A. babies" at the Salmon Arm Art Gallery, running from April 11 to June 16, 2026. The installation centers on 18 hand-cast concrete figures seated on vintage chairs that emit audio of fragmented, childlike voices questioning their origins and loss of language. The work directly confronts Kwah’s history as a survivor of the Sixties Scoop, specifically referencing the Adoption Resource Exchange of North America (ARENA) program that facilitated the cross-border displacement of Indigenous children.
The Springfield Museum of Art (SMoA) has launched its 78th Annual Juried Members’ Exhibition, marking a record-breaking year for the institution. The show features 153 selected works from a pool of 250 submissions, representing 150 artist members across nine states—a significant increase from the 110 participants recorded in 2023. Curated by Sienna Brown of the Cleveland Clinic Art Collection, the exhibition highlights a shift toward exuberant colors, abstract forms, and experimental mixed media.
The Weisman Art Museum is hosting "Never Spoken Again: Rogue Stories of Science and Collections," a traveling exhibition produced by Independent Curators International (ICI). Curated by David Ayala-Alfonso, the show features works by over a dozen artists that challenge traditional museum practices, such as the use of pre-Hispanic ceramics as speaker stands to give them a literal voice. The exhibition uses diverse media—from cinefoil sculptures to tapestries from Las Vegas casinos—to critique how institutions collect, classify, and display artifacts.
The Springville Museum of Art is currently hosting its 54th annual Utah All-State High School Art Show, featuring a record-breaking 1,000 submissions this year. A panel of twelve judges selected 352 works across categories including painting, drawing, 3D/mixed media, photography, and digital art. The exhibition occupies the museum's entire first floor, utilizing diverse display methods such as salon-style themed walls and ceiling-mounted installations to showcase the breadth of young talent across the state.
Charles Lunn, a 35-year-old nonverbal autistic artist from Bethesda, Maryland, will debut his exhibition "Nonsense & Hopeful Songs: My Inner Fight to be Heard" at Lost Origins Gallery in Mount Pleasant, Washington, D.C. The show features his paintings and poetry, which serve as his primary means of communication. Lunn's mother, Lorie Peters-Lauthier, explains that his art allows him to express emotions and social commentary that his body cannot verbalize due to a brain-body disconnect.
Ein anderes Deutschland
The German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, historically burdened by its Nazi-era origins, presents a new exhibition titled "Ruin." For the first time, the pavilion explicitly adopts an East German perspective, confronting its fraught past from a fresh angle. The show features massive pillars and a prominent "Germania" inscription above the entrance, directly engaging with the building's controversial history.
Mapping Saudi Modern Art’s Origins: “Bedayat” in Riyadh
The exhibition 'Bedayat: Beginnings of the Saudi Art Movement' at Riyadh's National Museum showcased over 250 artworks from the 1960s to 1980s, a period of rapid modernization. It featured archival materials like exhibition catalogs and scholarship letters, alongside paintings grouped into themes such as 'Faces and Features' and 'Social Life,' though the curation largely avoided direct commentary on the era's intense socio-political debates.
Marga Sánchez Romero, a professor of Prehistory at the University of Granada and a leading voice in feminist archaeology in Spain, argues in an interview that prehistory has been misrepresented as a sequence of violence and hierarchies. She emphasizes that new questions are reshaping our understanding of the past, highlighting that care, cooperation, and solidarity were as crucial as conflict in human evolution. The conversation covers biases in archaeological interpretation, the famous Viking tomb of Birka, the origins of inequality, and the role of museums in creating more inclusive narratives.
The South Dakota Art Museum has opened 'The Founding Gifts,' a summerlong exhibition running from March 29 to September 21, celebrating the people and collections that established the museum. The exhibit highlights three key contributors: artist Harvey Dunn, whose 1950 donation of homesteading-era paintings formed the museum's foundational collection; the South Dakota General Federation of Women’s Clubs, which advocated for a permanent art museum and donated its art collection in 1970; and Congressman Benjamin Reifel, the first Lakota person elected to U.S. Congress, who loaned his Plains art collection in 1977, founding the museum's Native American collection. A free public reception is planned for August 8.
The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (NMCA) has opened an exhibition titled 'Surrealism and Korean Modern Arts' at its Deoksugung Palace branch in Seoul, running from April 17 to July 6. The show features six overlooked Korean surrealist artists—Kim Chongnam (Hideo Manabe), Kim Ukkyu, Kim Chongha, Park Gwangho, Kim Younghwan, and Shin Youngheon—displaying some 230 works by 50 surrealist artists. These painters explored surrealism despite the movement's limited adoption in Korea due to colonialism, war, and national division, expressing inner landscapes through unique contemplative styles.