1,000-year-old archaeological site bulldozed during construction of Mexico-US border wall

On 24 April, a Department of Homeland Security contractor bulldozed a 1,000-year-old intaglio—a 280ft by 50ft etching in the desert sand—during construction of the US-Mexico border wall in Arizona's Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge. The site, sacred to local Indigenous communities including the Hia-Ced O’odham, was part of a UNESCO biosphere and contained over 3,000 petroglyphs. Despite warnings from tribal members and refuge staff, the contractor destroyed a 70ft stretch of the fish-shaped intaglio, which elders and archaeologists describe as an irreplaceable cultural and archaeological treasure.

A Grandmother’s Keepsake Turns Out to Be an Imperial Chinese Robe Worth Thousands

A collection of Chinese antiques, including an Imperial robe from the 19th century, was discovered in a chest in London after being kept as family mementos for decades. The items were acquired by Nan Brake, a British translator living in Beijing during the 1950s, who purchased them on excursions around the city. The collection, which features Ming dynasty paintings, Qing dynasty embroidered robes, and jade ornaments, will be auctioned by Roseberys on May 12 with an estimated total value of £40,000 ($54,100). The standout piece is a turquoise silk Imperial robe embroidered with nine five-clawed dragons, likely made for a male member of the emperor's family.

Shoot the Shit With Jack Kerouac

An exhibition at the Grolier Club in New York City, titled "Running Through Heaven: Visions of Jack Kerouac," presents over 60 pieces of ephemera and unpublished correspondence from the Beat Generation icon's life. Curated by antiquarian collector Jacob Loewentheil, the show includes first editions, a Buddhist mala, a tobacco pouch, and a signed 1964 portrait of Kerouac, organized thematically around religion, jazz, and family. The exhibition runs through May 16 and offers an intimate look at the man behind the myth.

Hundreds Protest Israel’s “Genocide Pavilion” at Venice Biennale

On May 6, 2026, the first day of previews at the Venice Biennale, hundreds of pro-Palestine activists led by the Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA) blocked the entrance to the Israeli pavilion, demanding its immediate closure. Protesters waved Palestine flags and banners reading "No Artwashing Genocide" and "No Genocide Pavilion at Biennale," chanting accusations of genocide against Israel. The demonstration temporarily shut down access to Belu-Simion Fainaru's exhibition "Rose of Nothingness" for about half an hour. The protest followed a letter signed by over 200 artists urging the Biennale to exclude Israel, which instead moved the pavilion to an alternative location in the Arsenale due to renovations. Separately, Pussy Riot and FEMEN rallied outside the Russian pavilion, which will only open during preview days due to sanctions. Venice cultural workers plan a 24-hour strike on May 8 in solidarity with Palestinians, potentially disrupting the Biennale's schedule.

From Eurovision to the Venice Biennale, culture contests are being overshadowed by politics

The Venice Biennale and Eurovision Song Contest are being overshadowed by political controversies rather than artistic merit. At the Venice Biennale, the Russian pavilion opened for press previews for the first time since the Ukraine invasion, a decision that may cost the festival €2m in EU funds. The Israeli pavilion will open despite protests from 200 artists and curators, while the South African pavilion will remain empty after its government blocked an artist's tribute to a Palestinian poet. The Iranian pavilion is also shut, and the awarding jury has resigned en masse, meaning no Golden or Silver Lion awards will be given for the first time in 40 years. Similarly, Eurovision's 70th anniversary is dominated by five countries boycotting over Israel's participation, with little focus on the music.

The Backlash Is Here

"Der Backlash ist da"

Kathleen Reinhardt, the curator of the German Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, has announced her concept featuring artists Sung Tieu and Henrike Naumann under the title "Ruin." The exhibition will use East Germany as a prism to explore themes of power, history, and the present. Reinhardt was invited to submit a concrete concept and specific artists for this edition of the pavilion.

History Made Material

Material gewordene Geschichte

The German Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale has been transformed by artist Sung Tieu, who clad its Nazi-era facade with millions of small marble tiles to replicate the look of a prefabricated East German apartment block—specifically the Gehrenseestraße housing complex in Berlin where she spent part of her childhood. Inside, the exhibition features glass casts of her mother's limbs, aluminum beams evoking cramped living quarters, and works by the late Henrike Naumann, all curated by Kathleen Reinhardt to explore bureaucracy, migration, and systemic violence.

I Try to Allow Chaos

"Ich versuche, Chaos zuzulassen"

Florentina Holzinger presents her exhibition "Seaworld Venice" at the Austrian Pavilion of the Venice Biennale, a spectacular underwater-themed installation that combines a theme park, sacred building, and sewage treatment plant. The work explores transformation from dirt to cleanliness, featuring water, dolphins in the lagoon, and boundary-pushing performance elements.

Marinella Senatore's exhibition in Milan is a party in name and in fact

La mostra dell’artista Marinella Senatore a Milano è una festa di nome e di fatto

Marinella Senatore's solo exhibition "FESTA!" opens at Mazzoleni's Milan space, marking both the artist's first show at the gallery and the gallery's 40th anniversary. The exhibition presents new works including sketches, drawings, and embroidered tapestries that reinterpret Baroque public celebrations as participatory, community-driven art. The tapestries, produced in collaboration with the Chanakya school in Mumbai, feature motifs from 17th- and 18th-century festivities—ephemeral architecture, light displays, and fireworks—transformed into contemporary banners that activate the gallery space.

Alchemist of Colors

Annina Roescheisen, a German-born artist now based in New York, presents her work in Venice during the opening days of the Venice Biennale. Her paintings are created through an alchemical ritual where she mixes pigments, charcoal, ash, ink, herbs, and salts, producing pulsating fields of color that blur the line between the visible and invisible. A self-taught artist who never attended art school, Roescheisen draws on art history and philosophy, with a particular passion for medieval art. Her series "Flying Dragons" references the ancient Physiologus, and she has also produced watercolors based on drawings made with her eyes closed to explore how visual perception changes from childhood to adulthood.

Today’s war, tomorrow’s loot: attempts at stemming the illicit trade in art

The article examines the ongoing challenge of preventing the illicit trade in cultural property looted from conflict zones. It discusses the Hague Convention of 1954 and its protocol, which require signatory countries to prevent theft and pillage during armed conflict and to seize and repatriate unlawful exports. However, the protocol only applies to situations of 'occupation,' leaving a gap for looting that occurs in the chaos of war beyond formal occupation. The article also notes UN Security Council Resolutions that restrict unlawfully removed cultural property from Iraq and Syria, but no similar consensus exists for countries like Afghanistan, Libya, Ukraine, Lebanon, Yemen, Sudan, and Iran. EU Regulation 2019/880 is highlighted as a measure that prohibits introducing goods removed unlawfully from their place of origin into the EU, though its scope has expanded beyond its original anti-terrorist financing purpose.

Anti-Russia Protests Spread Beyond the Biennale and Into Venice

Protests against the reopening of the Russian pavilion erupted at the Venice Biennale and spread across the city on the second day of the 61st edition. Visual artist Shalva Nikvashvili, who grew up in post-Soviet Georgia, began a silent performance wearing a muzzle-style mask and carrying a chair, holding a sign reading “La Biennale di Venezia” and “violence.” Shortly after, a group of about 20 protesters led by Pussy Riot co-founder Nadya Tolokonnikova gathered outside the Russian pavilion, chanting against Vladimir Putin, waving Ukrainian flags, and releasing a pink smoke flare. The protests followed the Biennale's decision to allow Russia to participate for the first time since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, despite calls from artists and politicians to exclude the country.

OCU exhibit turns old discs into immersive art

Artist Leticia R. Bajuyo presents "Signal Convergence," a large-scale installation at Oklahoma City University's Nona Jean Hulsey Art Gallery that transforms discarded CDs and DVDs into immersive sculptural works. The exhibition runs from May 15 through Sept. 18, featuring horn-like structures built from thousands of discs, and includes a special collaborative performance on Sept. 10 with OCU music theory professor Kate Sekula using a theremin to direct sound through the installation.

Around town: Art Garden reopens in new downtown gallery

Art Garden, a combination art gallery and plant shop in Asheville, North Carolina, reopens on May 7, 2025, at a new downtown location at 98 N. Lexington Ave. The business was displaced after its former home in Riverview Station was flooded by over 25 feet of water during Tropical Storm Helene in September 2024. The reopening includes a preview party for the ReRoot art exhibit, a fundraising gala, a theatre performance, and a Mother's Day plant sale, celebrating community support that helped rebuild the space.

Inside the UAE Pavilion at Venice Biennale, a whisper becomes a portrait of a nation

The UAE Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale presents 'Washwasha,' an exhibition curated by Bana Kattan with assistant curator Tala Nassar. The show features six artists—Mays Albaik, Jawad Al Malhi, Farah Al Qasimi, Alaa Edris, Lamya Gargash, and Taus Makhacheva—whose works explore the concept of whispering in Arabic, encompassing oral history, language, rumor, and daily noise. Installations include glass sculptures, sound-based pieces from barbershops and farms, and a reconstructed hammam installation by Al Malhi that plays recordings of wedding rituals. The exhibition runs until November 22.

Labour, connection on display at Sarnia gallery exhibitions

Two exhibitions have opened at the Judith and Norman Alix Art Gallery in Sarnia, Ontario. Mark Stebbins's solo show 'The Lingering Instant' features 27 meticulously hand-crafted paintings, each requiring at least 100 hours of labor using syringe-extruded paint, dip pens, and tiny brushes on burlap and wood panels. The companion exhibition 'Together Apart | Under One Roof' presents works by Winnipeg studio neighbours Aganetha Dyck, Diana Thorneycroft, and Reva Stone, exploring feminist art practice, collaboration, and human-nature connections. Both exhibitions opened April 17 and run until August 30, with Stebbins also hosting a free artist talk on June 6 and a paid workshop on June 7.

Meet The Canadian Artist Behind The Mirrored Mannequins That Transformed The 2026 Met Gala

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's 2026 Costume Institute exhibition, titled "Costume Art," will feature special mannequins with mirrored steel heads created by Toronto-born, Dubai-based artist Samar Hejazi. The mannequins, designed in collaboration with Curator in Charge Andrew Bolton, represent differently sized and abled bodies and replace traditional faces with reflective surfaces to disrupt the conventional presentation of fashion. Hejazi attended the Met Gala wearing a gown by Palestinian designer Zaid Farouki and described the project as a meaningful collaboration aimed at fostering empathy and self-reflection.

Healing From the Burns: How The Getty Recovered From the LA Fires

On January 7, 2025, a wildfire driven by extreme winds reached the Getty Villa in Los Angeles. Thanks to years of preparation, staff efforts, and firefighter support, the museum buildings and art collection survived undamaged, though the landscape suffered severe damage. The Villa closed for about six months, during which staff removed 1,400 burned trees, cleaned soot and ash, restored water service, and installed a new exhibition. It reopened in late June 2025, welcoming visitors back to the galleries and gardens.

First Fridays celebrates art spaces

Every first Friday of the month, around 20 galleries and art spaces in Ithaca, New York, open their doors for free evening exhibitions from 5 to 8 p.m. as part of the First Fridays tradition, also known as Ithaca Gallery Nights. The event, now facilitated by artist and curator Michael Sampson since 2023, features both traditional venues like State of the Art Gallery and non-traditional spaces such as Greenstar Co-op and St. Luke Lutheran Church, aiming to expand participation and include newer artists. Featured shows include "Black and White and …" by Ileen Kaplan and David Watkins at SOAG, and "Geometric Abstraction" by Mauro Marinelli, Michael George, and Laura Dale George at The Gallery at South Hill.

George Herms Dies at 90; Turned Castoff Objects Into Art

George Herms, the California artist who transformed discarded objects into evocative assemblages, has died at age 90. Known for his poetic, often whimsical sculptures made from rusted tools, old photographs, and other found materials, Herms was a central figure in the West Coast assemblage movement that emerged in the 1960s. His work bridged Beat-era spontaneity with a deeply personal, tactile approach to art-making, earning him a devoted following and exhibitions at major institutions.

Exhibits celebrate 30 years of Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History

The Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History (MAH) is celebrating its 30th anniversary with two concurrent exhibitions: “This is Thirty: Celebrating the MAH and Our Creative Community,” which mixes permanent collection works with new acquisitions, and “The Things We Did and Didn’t Do,” an archival installation by local artist Joshua Moreno. The museum originated from a merger of the Santa Cruz Historical Society and the Art Museum of Santa Cruz County, delayed by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, and opened in 1996. The exhibits feature earthquake-related artworks, pieces by founding director Charles Hilger, and contributions from the family of Executive Director Ginger Shulick Porcella, including wearable art by her late mother-in-law Yvonne Porcella.

Hall Art Foundation Opens Season With Three Major Exhibitions

The Hall Art Foundation is reopening its Vermont campus for the 2026 season with three major exhibitions running through November 29. The centerpiece, "A Farewell to the Western World," is a group show of roughly 70 works exploring global power shifts and political instability, featuring artists such as Ai Weiwei, Aleksandra Mir, and Philip Guston. Also on view are Christian Marclay's video installation "Made To Be Destroyed," which compiles film scenes of artworks being damaged or destroyed, and Piotr Uklański's photographic installation "The Nazis," examining how film and popular culture have shaped representations of the Third Reich. The campus, set on a former dairy farm in Reading, includes converted gallery buildings and outdoor sculptures by Olafur Eliasson, Antony Gormley, Richard Long, and Marc Quinn.

Coastal Bodies: Camille Guichard's exhibition at the Rachel Hardouin Gallery

Camille Guichard presents 'Corps littoral' (Coastal Bodies), her first solo exhibition in Paris, at the Rachel Hardouin Gallery from May 21 to June 21, 2026. The show blends contemporary photography, poetic texts, and the artist's own nude body against coastal landscapes, exploring themes of vulnerability, erosion, and the relationship between the body and the living world. Guichard, who also works as a filmmaker and writer, includes series such as 'Ces rivages perdus' documenting the Aquitaine coast and 'Pulsions, corps et figures' focusing on bodily fragments.

From galleries to guest rooms: The best art-inspired stays in Europe

A number of European hotels are integrating art collections and museum-quality experiences into their accommodations, offering travelers the chance to stay within or adjacent to art spaces. Notable examples include MACAM in Lisbon, Portugal, which combines a contemporary art museum with a hotel featuring the private collection of founder Armando Martins, including works by Marina Abramović and Paula Rego; the Byblos Art Hotel Villa Amistà in Verona, Italy, blending Renaissance architecture with avant-garde art; and the Elizabeth Arthotel in Ischgl, Austria, which has showcased art and sculpture since 1976 and recently added a rooftop commission by the artist duo NONOS.

‘Broadening access to contemporary art’: The best art-inspired stays in Europe

A Euronews Travel article highlights several European hotels that integrate contemporary art into the guest experience, positioning themselves as destinations for cultured travelers. Featured properties include the MACAM Hotel in Lisbon, which opened in March 2025 and shares a building with the Museu de Arte Contemporânea Armando Martins, offering guests access to a private collection spanning Portuguese and international art from the 19th century to the present. Other hotels mentioned are the Byblos Art Hotel Villa Amistà in Verona, blending Renaissance architecture with avant-garde works by artists like Andy Warhol, and the Elizabeth Arthotel in Ischgl, Austria, which has showcased art and sculpture since 1976 and recently added a rooftop commission by the artist duo NONOS.

“Working the West” Art Exhibition Opens At The Legacy, Celebrating The Real Story Of Western Life

An art exhibition titled “Working the West” has opened at The Legacy, showcasing works that depict the authentic experiences of Western life. The show aims to counter romanticized or stereotypical portrayals of the American West by featuring artists who capture the real, working aspects of ranch life, cowboy culture, and the Western landscape.

Stitches in time: the artist chronicling the DRC’s blood-soaked history in tapestry

Lucie Kamusekera, an 82-year-old artist in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, creates embroidered tapestries on tobacco sacks that chronicle the country's violent history. Born in 1944 and taught sewing by Italian nuns, she began documenting contemporary conflicts after witnessing a military truck filled with corpses. Her more than 70 works depict events from the colonial Belgian Congo era to the 1961 assassination of Patrice Lumumba and the second Congo war, as well as personal tragedies including her husband's murder by rebels. Despite ongoing danger from rebel offensives, she continues to stitch from her home studio, training her children and great-granddaughter to carry on her work.

Jon Pestoni at Zodiac Pictures

Jon Pestoni's exhibition "More Bermuda Than Pizza" is on view at Zodiac Pictures in Los Angeles from April 11 to May 9, 2026. The show presents a series of new paintings by the artist, documented through 32 images on the exhibition page, with a press release and works list available for reference.

INTERTWINED NARRATIVES CASSANDRA MAYELA ALLEN EXHIBITS IN NEW YORK

The Instituto Cervantes in New York presents *Aquel Amplex*, the first institutional exhibition of Venezuelan artist Cassandra Mayela Allen, on view until June 28, 2026. Curated by Fabiola R. Delgado and Carlos Núñez, the show features braided textile sculptures, paintings, and drawings that examine Allen's process-driven practice within the legacies of Venezuelan and Latin American modernism and informalism. The title, meaning "that embrace," references a 1969 letter from Hélio Oiticica to Lygia Clark, evoking longing and forced migration. Allen, a self-taught artist who migrated from Venezuela in 2014, uses communal braiding gatherings to transform found fabrics and garments into architectural works that deconstruct national and artistic heritage.

❤️ Atlanta, with love

This article from Rough Draft's Sketchbook newsletter highlights two Atlanta-focused art stories. Painter Carlos Solis, who left Venezuela for Kennesaw nearly two decades ago, curates "In the Beginning," a group exhibition opening May 9 at the Hudgens Center's Fowler Gallery in Duluth, featuring 15 artists from around the world who now call Georgia home. Separately, designer and illustrator George F. Baker III, originally from Nebraska and shaped by Detroit, was commissioned by the Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs to create the key art for the 49th annual Atlanta Jazz Festival, and he discusses how the musical souls of both Detroit and Atlanta influenced his design.