A new, monochromatic perspective on Alexander Calder at SAM

The Seattle Art Museum (SAM) has opened "Monochrome: Calder and Tara Donovan," a new exhibition in its Calder at SAM series that pairs two matte-black Alexander Calder sculptures with works by Brooklyn-based artist Tara Donovan. Curated by Donovan alongside SAM curator Catharina Manchanda, the show uses black as its sole color to highlight materials, texture, and form. Highlights include Calder's 1949 mobile "Jacaranda" and 1976 maquette "Mountains (1:5 intermediate maquette)," juxtaposed with Donovan's sculptures made from industrial materials like plastic stir sticks, slinkys, tar paper, and mylar. The exhibition runs through January 17, 2027.

Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst on AI Optimism and Bringing Two-Headed Worms to Venice

Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst, known for their work in digital art and experimental music, have curated a group exhibition titled "Strange Rules" at Palazzo Diedo in Venice alongside Hans-Ulrich Obrist. Their contribution includes a collaboration with Tufts University biologist Michael Levin, featuring live planarian worms modified to grow two heads through bioelectric manipulation. The interview discusses their concept of "protocol art," which seeks to expose and reclaim the underlying systems—from algorithms to biological protocols—that shape artistic production.

Marc Chagall | Île Saint-Louis (1959) (1959) | For Sale

Marc Chagall's lithograph *Île Saint-Louis (1959)*, a limited-edition print in colors on Arches paper signed and numbered by the artist, is being offered for sale through an online auction hosted by LLB Auction on Artsy. The work, estimated at €10,000–€15,000, is part of a Contemporary Art Spring 2026 sale and carries a starting bid of €9,000. The listing includes provenance details, a condition report option, and a buyer's premium.

Multi-Museum Exhibition Spotlights Legacy of Betsy James Wyeth

A major multi-museum exhibition titled *By Design: The Worlds of Betsy James Wyeth* will open across three U.S. institutions in 2026, re-examining the life and legacy of Betsy James Wyeth. The collaborative project—organized by the Farnsworth Art Museum, Colby College Museum of Art, and Brandywine Museum of Art—is the first to fully explore her role as an innovative designer of immersive spaces and key creative collaborator to her husband, Andrew Wyeth. Each venue highlights a different aspect of her work: the Farnsworth focuses on her built environments in Maine; Colby examines Allen and Benner Islands with new commissions by contemporary artists; and Brandywine centers on Brinton’s Mill and the Wyeths’ creative partnership, drawing from the Wyeth Foundation for American Art.

'Echoes of Movement' Sets Crain Art Gallery in Motion

Alejandra Phelts presents her new exhibition 'Echoes of Movement' at the Crain Art Gallery in Crowell Public Library, opening with a free public reception on May 9, 2026. The show features paintings that explore the body as a space of transformation, drawing on Phelts' background in music, philosophy, and sewing. Phelts, a Mexican border artist, shifted from studying philosophy in France to fine arts after realizing art was a necessity, and her work has been shown internationally, including at the Venice Biennale and the Louvre.

Why the New Orleans Museum of Art Is One of the City’s Must-visit Cultural Gems

The New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA), housed in a Beaux-Arts building within City Park, is profiled as a cultural cornerstone of the city. Founded in 1911 as the Isaac Delgado Museum of Art, it now holds over 50,000 works spanning global artifacts, Japanese ceramics, Egyptian relics, and modern pieces by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Edgar Degas, and Wangechi Mutu. The museum also features the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, a 12-acre free-admission outdoor space with works by Rodin, Moore, and Oldenburg. Upcoming 2026 programming includes Japan Fest, an Edo-period Rinpa exhibition, and a long-term show of French porcelain from the Thomas B. Lemann collection.

Ruminations on Rashid Johnson’s “A Poem for Deep Thinkers”

The article is a reflective review of Rashid Johnson's exhibition "A Poem for Deep Thinkers" at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. The author describes standing before Johnson's work "Falling Man" (2016), a piece incorporating broken mirrors, burned wood, and personal objects like a copy of Harry Haywood's "Black Bolshevik" and shea butter, which prompts meditations on visibility, identity, and Frantz Fanon's "Black Skin, White Masks." The review also examines Johnson's large-scale installation "Antoine's Organ" (2016/2026), which fills a gallery typically reserved for Ellsworth Kelly's minimalist canvases, transforming the space with scaffolding, plants, books, and video monitors.

Exhibition | Haegue Yang, 'Leap Year' at Hayward Gallery, London, United Kingdom

The Hayward Gallery in London is presenting 'Leap Year', the first major UK survey of internationally celebrated artist Haegue Yang. The exhibition spans Yang's career from the early 2000s to the present, featuring key works from her Light Sculptures and Sonic Sculptures series alongside three new commissions. Yang's practice incorporates a vast range of media—from paper collage and performative sculpture to immersive sensory installations—using household and industrial objects such as drying racks, light bulbs, metal-plated bells, and hanji (Korean paper) to explore themes of labour, migration, and displacement.

Wohin am Checkpoint Charlie?

The article covers the Berlin Gallery Weekend, highlighting a cluster of exhibitions around Checkpoint Charlie. It features light art, political sculpture, textile experiments, and spatial interventions. Among the participants is Galerie Max Goelitz, which presents James Turrell's light installation series "Small Elliptical Glass 'First Cause'" (2024) at its Berlin space in Rudi-Dutschke-Straße, as part of the "Perspectives" section.

Francois Boisrond prend de la hauteur

French artist François Boisrond, a key figure of the 1980s Figuration libre movement, presents his new series "Ouvrages d'art" at Galerie Maïa Muller in Paris. The series reinterprets monumental architecture—including the Millau Viaduct, the Pont de Normandie, Mont Saint-Michel, Notre-Dame, and the Eiffel Tower—using drone-sourced images. Boisrond employs a new liquid acrylic technique that creates a matte, flat finish, producing works that appear hyperrealistic from a distance but dissolve into impressionistic or pixelated abstraction up close. The exhibition, extended through May 16, 2026, features large-format paintings priced between €25,000 and €50,000.

See exhibition by Erin Jane Nelson, ‘Living and Working,’ at UAB’s AEIVA through Sept. 26

The Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts (AEIVA) at the University of Alabama at Birmingham presents “Living and Working,” a survey exhibition of artist Erin Jane Nelson, running through September 26. This is Nelson’s largest solo exhibition to date and her first survey, spanning a decade of her practice across photography, textiles, and ceramics. The exhibition will travel to the Knoxville Museum of Art in August 2027, and AEIVA is co-publishing an exhibition catalog with Institute 193. The opening reception is May 21, and free community programming includes summer drop-in tours, a pinhole camera workshop, Science Nights in partnership with the Birmingham Zoo, and a chamber music event.

Museum diplomacy in action at ICOM UK 2026: museums in a changing world

ICOM UK hosted its 2026 annual conference in Oxford, bringing together delegates from over 20 countries to explore the theme of 'Museum Diplomacy.' Keynote speaker Dr. Sascha Priewe of the Aga Khan Museum and ICOM Canada framed the current geopolitical moment as a 'GZERO World,' where no country is willing or able to lead globally, and discussed how sanctions, export controls, and shifting alliances are straining international museum collaborations. Sessions featured case studies from the Science Museum Group and International Arts & Artists, emphasizing that trust and networks, not grand gestures, are essential for enduring partnerships.

Bridges of Belonging: Cinco de Mayo Art Reception

A free reception for the exhibition “Bridges of Belonging: Cinco de Mayo, Bi-National Identity, and the Spirit of Chignahuapan” will be held on May 1 at the Clark County Government Center Rotunda Gallery in Las Vegas. The event, themed “Puentes de Pertenencia,” features live music, cultural performances, visual arts, and food, with the exhibit on display through May 28.

Three Filipino artists make the Sovereign Asian Art Prize 2026 shortlist

The Sovereign Asian Art Prize, now in its 22nd year, has announced its 2026 shortlist of 30 artists from 12 Asia-Pacific countries and territories. Among the finalists are three Filipino artists: Joey Cobcobo, Josephine Turalba, and Alvin Zafra. Cobcobo's nominated work, "Ika-8 Utos: Wag Kang Kukurap (Thou Shall Not Steal)," addresses corruption in the Philippines using a recycled canvas walked on by the public. Turalba, a transdisciplinary artist, has exhibited at Art Basel Hong Kong 2025 and serves as director of the Artistic Research Center at Philippine Women's University. The prize is run by the Sovereign Art Foundation, with proceeds from shortlisted works supporting its Make It Better charity program for children in Hong Kong.

War-time exhibition: Yaacov Dorchin’s iron angels and sculptural language

Renowned Israeli sculptor Yaacov Dorchin, recipient of the 2004 Emet Prize and the 2011 Israel Prize for Visual Arts, opened his latest exhibition "Decapitated Fish and Additional Sculptures" at the Gordon Gallery in Tel Aviv on March 12, 2026—his 80th birthday and two weeks into the war with Iran. The exhibition, held without a large opening night due to the conflict, features about 15 sculptures spanning from 1993 to the present, including works in iron, steel, basalt, and other industrial materials. In an interview interrupted by an air raid siren, Dorchin discussed his approach to sculpting, the lyrical names of his heavy works, and how he reorganized the exhibition to create dialogues between older and newer pieces.

Quatre Moreau le Jeune pour Versailles

The French state has preempted four drawings by Jean-Michel Moreau le Jeune at a Christie's Paris auction, securing them for the Palace of Versailles. The works, sold in two lots, depict the festivities in Paris following the birth of the Dauphin Louis Joseph in autumn 1781, including the arrival of the Queen at the Hôtel de Ville and a fireworks display. The drawings were commissioned by the City of Paris and were intended to be engraved, marking a high point of public commissions under the ancien régime. The preemption was made possible through the support of the Friends of the Louvre, echoing a similar acquisition of Hubert Robert works from the same Veil-Picard sale.

Hong Kong Artists Bring Quiet Reflection to Venice

The 61st Venice Biennale, themed “In Minor Keys” by late curator Koyo Kouoh, emphasizes quiet reflection over spectacle. A collateral exhibition titled “Fermata: Hong Kong in Venice,” curated by the Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMoA), runs through November 22, 2026, and features two Hong Kong-born artists: Kingsley Ng and Angel Hui. Ng’s installation *Laundry Nocturne* (2026) uses projections and sound to connect the shared laundry-drying traditions of Venice and Hong Kong, while Hui’s *I Would Like to Open a Window for You* (2026) incorporates wrought-iron window frames crafted with local metalsmiths. Both artists explore everyday experiences, memory, and quiet emotions, aligning with the Biennale’s call for a slower, more reflective engagement with art.

A New Show Explores the Cutting-Edge Designs of Fashion’s Mad Scientist, Iris van Herpen

Iris van Herpen's mid-career retrospective "Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses" has opened at the Brooklyn Museum, marking the designer's first major museum presentation in the United States. Originally mounted at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 2023, the exhibition features over 140 haute couture looks alongside artworks, design objects, fossils, videos, and natural specimens. The show begins with a water-themed section and includes garments made from materials such as glass bubbles, bioluminescent algae, and 3D-printed polyamide, exploring themes of skeletal structures, primordial fear, and cosmic movements. A centerpiece room, the Atelier, displays swatches, prototypes, and experimental materials, highlighting van Herpen's scientific approach to fashion design.

Taiwan Presents “Screen Melancholy: Li Yi-Fan” at the Venice Biennale

The Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM) presents the collateral event "Screen Melancholy: Li Yi-Fan" at the 61st Venice Biennale, held at the Palazzo delle Prigioni from May 9 to November 22, 2026. The exhibition features a new video installation and mixed-media work by Taiwanese artist Li Yi-Fan, curated by Raphael Fonseca, curator of visual arts at Culturgest in Lisbon and Porto. The installation integrates large-scale sculptural fragments with video and sound, exploring how screens mediate perception and emotional experience, in dialogue with the Biennale's theme "In Minor Keys."

architecture tadao ando naoshima new museum of art

The article profiles the renowned Japanese architect Tadao Ando, now 84, who has built 10 museums on the island of Naoshima over 33 years. It features an interview where Ando discusses his upbringing in a traditional wooden row house in Osaka, his early training as a boxer, and how these experiences shaped his architectural philosophy of "light within darkness." The piece includes personal reflections from the author on encountering Ando's work and highlights key projects such as the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis and the Church of Light in Osaka.

GEORGE FEBRES: TRANSLATION, IRONY, AND LIBERATION. AN ECUADORIAN ARTIST IN THE DIASPORA

The article examines the life and work of George Febres (1943–1996), an Ecuadorian artist who spent most of his career in the United States, primarily in New Orleans. Febres’s practice blends Pop Art, Neo-Surrealism, and Southern US culture with his experiences as a migrant and queer subject, using bilingualism and ironic tropical imagery to create a hybrid, irreverent body of work. Despite his significance, no works by Febres exist in Ecuadorian public collections, and no major retrospective has been held in his home country, reflecting a broader erasure of queer narratives from national art history.

GEORGE FEBRES: TRADUCCIÓN, IRONÍA Y LIBERACIÓN. UN ARTISTA ECUATORIANO EN LA DIÁSPORA

George Febres (Guayaquil, 1943 – New Orleans, 1996) was an Ecuadorian artist whose work blended pop art, neo-surrealism, and Southern U.S. culture, shaped by his experience as a migrant and queer individual. The article traces his life from a privileged but unstable childhood in Ecuador to his migration to the United States, where he was drafted during the Vietnam War and eventually settled in New Orleans. Febres used bilingualism and ironic appropriation of tropical imagery to create a hybrid, irreverent body of work that challenges the official historiography of Ecuadorian art.

LA LECHUZA DE MINERVA

The Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, founded in 1926 by a small group of artists, has launched a centenary exhibition titled "La lechuza de Minerva" (The Owl of Minerva). Curated by Isabella Lenzi, the project revisits the institution's most disruptive exhibition, "El sueño imperativo" (1991), curated by Mar Villaespesa, which invited twelve artists to intervene in both exhibition spaces and transit areas, challenging traditional display logic. The new exhibition features works by artists including Dagoberto Rodríguez, Elo Vega, Rogelio López Cuenca, Isidoro Valcárcel Medina, Itziar Okariz, Los Carpinteros, María Salgado, Pedro G. Romero, Regina Silveira, Silbatriz Pons, and Tino Sehgal, who activate hidden and unexpected corners of the building through visual and sound actions. The project also restores Nancy Spero's 1991 intervention "Minerva, Sky Goddess," which had largely disappeared, through archaeological research led by restorer Rocío Casasus.

When Shells Become Weapons

Wenn Muscheln zu Waffen werden

Swedish artist Lotta Antonsson, born in 1963, presents her exhibition "I am Everything" at Fotografiska in Stockholm, featuring around 50 works that repurpose found black-and-white photographs from 1960s and 1970s fashion and lifestyle magazines. She overlays these images of women in objectifying poses with shells, stones, and crystals, creating assemblages that obscure faces or add threatening details like crystal vampire teeth on actresses Ali MacGraw and Jane Fonda. The show opened during the Stockholm Art Fair and draws on Antonsson's extensive archive, including East German erotic magazines sourced from Berlin flea markets.

Art Lovers Movie Club: Elisabeth Brun, ‘Big Tech Blues’, 2025

ArtReview's Art Lovers Movie Club presents Elisabeth Brun's film 'Big Tech Blues' (2025), an auto-documentary that follows a small village in northern Norway as it resists the installation of a SpaceX Starlink 'Gateway' transmission site. The film blends personal essay, documentary footage, and interviews with residents who protest the hub over concerns about noise pollution, radiation, and environmental impact on the rural coastline. Brun contrasts slick Starlink promotional material with slow, intimate scenes of the landscape and community organizing on Facebook, highlighting the irony of using digital tools to fight digital infrastructure.

Israeli Pavilion artist issued legal warnings before Biennale jury resignation

Belu-Simion Fainaru, the artist representing Israel at the 2026 Venice Biennale, issued legal warnings to the Biennale, the Italian Ministry of Culture, and the Italian Prime Minister’s office after the Golden Lion jury announced it would not consider pavilions from countries whose leaders are charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court, including Israel and Russia. Fainaru’s legal threats cited alleged antisemitism and nationality-based discrimination. Shortly after, the Biennale jury resigned, prompting organizers to postpone the awards ceremony to the closing day and replace the Golden and Silver Lions with two 'Visitors’ Lions' voted on by attendees, with all national participations eligible.

À Nîmes, la peinture sans entrave de Tursic & Mille envahit le Carré d’art

The article covers the retrospective exhibition of French artist duo Ida Tursic and Wilfried Mille at the Carré d'art in Nîmes. Titled "Dissonances à géométries variables," the show traces their career from student works at the École nationale supérieure d'art de Dijon to recent paintings, featuring a critical, humorous, and materially rich approach to figurative painting. The duo draws from press images, internet sources, art history, and archives, disrupting reproductions with paint splatters and odd details, and the exhibition is organized thematically from "happiness" to "melancholy."

Ça bouchonne à Venise

The latest issue of Le Journal des Arts (No. 677, May 15, 2026) leads with the opening of the Venice Biennale amid a tense climate. Other top stories include the final adoption of a French law on the restitution of cultural property looted during colonization, the V&A East museum's strategy to attract younger audiences, tensions in Giverny over the uneven economic benefits of Monet's legacy, and a market analysis showing the structuring of the Nabis art market.

Décès de Jacques Gairard

Jacques Gairard, a figure in the French art world, has died. The announcement appears in Le Journal des Arts, which also covers the opening of the Venice Biennale amid controversy, the final adoption of a law on the restitution of cultural property looted during colonization, the V&A East's focus on young audiences, the uneven economic impact of Monet's legacy in Giverny, and the structuring of the Nabis art market.

Federal Bill Creating Smithsonian Women’s Museum Scuttled Over Demand That It Honor Only “Biological” Females

Legislation to advance the construction of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum in Washington, DC, failed in the House on May 21 after Democrats rejected amendments added by Republicans. The bill, introduced by Republican Representative Nicole Malliotakis, was defeated 216-204, with six Republicans joining Democrats in opposition. Key changes included language specifying the museum would honor only “biological women” and explicitly barring the depiction of any “biological male as a female,” which critics said would exclude transgender women. Other provisions would have given President Donald Trump unilateral authority to choose an alternative site for the museum, originally planned for the National Mall, and granted approval power over design and construction to commissions controlled by Trump appointees.