designboom radar: exhibitions to see around the world this may

Designboom has published its monthly roundup of must-see art exhibitions around the world for May 2026. Featured shows include Nick Doyle's 'Collective Hallucinations' at Perrotin, Nicola Turner's 'Time’s Scythe' in collaboration with Annely Juda Fine Art at YSP, and Katharina Grosse's 'I Set Out, I Walked Fast' at White Cube. The article also includes a tribute to Georg Baselitz, the influential German painter who recently passed away at 88, and a guide to the 61st Venice Art Biennale 2026.

State of Art: Arizona Biennial opens at Tucson Museum

The Tucson Museum of Art will open the Arizona Biennial 2026 on May 22, featuring 31 contemporary artists from across the state. Juried by Julie Rodrigues Widholm, executive director of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, the exhibition runs through September 27 in the museum's James J. and Louise R. Glasser and Earl Kai Chann Galleries. The biennial showcases work across multiple media, with public programs planned throughout its run.

Why Yoko Ono's First LA Museum Show Matters

Yoko Ono's first solo museum exhibition in Southern California, titled "Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind," opens at The Broad in Los Angeles from May 23 to October 11, 2026. The show traces the evolution of her practice from early Fluxus experiments in the 1950s to her participatory installations of the 2000s, highlighting how her instruction-based works transformed spectators into collaborators.

New Chihuly exhibit to open Saturday at Frederik Meijer Gardens

A new exhibition of glass sculptures by Dale Chihuly opens Saturday at the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This is the third time the venue has hosted Chihuly's work, with pieces installed across 12 outdoor locations on the 158-acre campus, plus an indoor gallery show titled "CHIHULY: Radiant Forms" requiring a separate ticket. The outdoor exhibit is included with general admission and runs from May 2 to November 1, 2026.

Nocturne Calder #1: Exhibition, music, workshop and bar at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in May 2026

The Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris will host its first late-night event dedicated to Alexander Calder on Friday, May 8, 2026. Titled "Nocturne Calder #1," the evening features guided micro-tours of the retrospective "Calder. Dreaming in Equilibrium" (April 15–August 16, 2026), a creative workshop inspired by the artist, music, and a food-and-drinks offering. The program also includes a spotlight on the concurrent Armineh Negahdari exhibition. The event runs from 7:00 PM to 10:30 PM, with timed tours and open gallery spaces.

May 2026 Free Museum Days In San Francisco, From SFMOMA To The Legion Of Honor

A guide published in April 2026 lists free admission days at San Francisco museums and gardens for May 2026. Participating institutions include the Asian Art Museum, Legion of Honor, de Young Museum, SFMOMA, Conservatory of Flowers, San Francisco Zoo, GLBT Historical Society Museum, Museum of Craft and Design, Museum of the African Diaspora, SF Botanical Garden, and Japanese Tea Garden. Many venues also offer recurring free days for Bay Area residents, EBT cardholders, and library card holders through programs like Museums for All and Discover and Go.

BE PART OF A COLLECTIVE ART WORK BY CHIHARU SHIOTA FOR THE CURITIBA INTERNATIONAL BIENNIAL

Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota has announced a new site-specific installation titled *The Space Between Us* for the 16th Curitiba International Biennial – THRESHOLDS, opening June 14 through November 15, 2026 at the Oscar Niemeyer Museum (MON) in Curitiba, Brazil. Curated by Tereza de Arruda, the work invites the public to submit letters—in text, collage, or other manual forms—which Shiota considers self-portraits of each participant’s inner universe. Submissions must be sent by May 20, 2026, and will be woven into a large-scale collective installation that makes visible the hidden experiences of individuals.

What not to miss from the new edition of The Phair, the photography fair in Turin

Cosa non perdere della nuova edizione di The Phair, la fiera della fotografia di Torino

The seventh edition of The Phair, a photography fair in Turin, Italy, opened on Thursday, May 21, at the Sala Fucine of the Officine Grandi Riparazioni. Founded by Roberto Casiraghi and Paola Rampini, the fair features 42 national and international galleries. Highlights include a surprising automotive partnership at the entrance, and standout presentations from Red Lab Gallery (Ezio D’Agostino and Carlotta Valente), Alberto Damian Gallery (Paolo Gioli), Roccavintage (Costanza Gastaldi), Tucci Russo (Giulio Paolini), Raw Messina (Kri Babusci), and Galleria Umberto Benappi (Ugo Mulas). Other notable artists include Arnulf Rainer, Anton Corbijn, Luigi Ontani, and Simon Starling.

Oh What A Time at Air de Paris

Air de Paris presents "Oh What A Time," a group exhibition running from April 16 to May 2, 2026, featuring works by Trisha Donnelly, Joseph Grigely, Pati Hill, Pierre Joseph, Allen Ruppersberg, Lily van der Stokker, Mona Varichon, and Amy Vogel. The show brings together eight artists in a concise two-week presentation at the Parisian gallery.

Artist Kasper Eistrup Maps the Human Condition on Canvas

Danish artist Kasper Eistrup (b. 1973) presents his first solo exhibition in Germany, titled "Bridges Over Magma," at Galerie Schimming in Hamburg. The show features a new body of work created during a recent artist-in-residence program in Hamburg, where Eistrup drew inspiration from the city's famous bridges and his ongoing exploration of painting and drawing. The compositions blend meticulously rendered figures with architecture, flora, fauna, handwritten text, and abstract textures, exploring themes of human connection and resilience.

Human Connection Cuts Through Technology at Focus Art Fair

Focus Art Fair, New York's only art fair dedicated to contemporary Asian art, returned for its fourth edition at Chelsea Industrial, running through May 24, 2026. The fair's theme, 'human-technology coexistence,' was explored through works such as Hwia Kim's interactive installation 'What if two eyes don't work together?' presented by LG Electronics, and pieces by the Ukrainian-born F-Twins (Anna and Valeriia Lyshchenko), who founded the Primarealism art movement in response to AI's encroachment on critical thinking. Other highlights included Annu Yadav's political installation 'This Land is Wounded' (2025) and Taezoo Park's 'Hacked Snoopy' (2025), which memorializes neglected technologies. The fair featured more than 40 galleries and presenters, with a notable appearance by Japanese pop icon Kento Senga, who shared his FiNGA character as a means of connecting with his grandmother suffering from Alzheimer's.

Contemporary art returns to center stage in Ascoli Piceno for the fifth edition of the Premio Sparti

L’arte contemporanea torna protagonista ad Ascoli Piceno per la quinta edizione del Premio Sparti

The fifth edition of the Premio Sparti, titled "Dove finisce la città" (Where the City Ends), will open on May 23 at the Forte Malatesta in Ascoli Piceno, Italy, running through June 28. Curated by Alex Urso, the exhibition features over twenty international artists exploring artistic practice outside major urban centers, with works also installed at the Frida Museum. The show is divided into three sections—"Essere oltre," "Essere qui," and "Essere altro"—highlighting artists who have chosen peripheral, rural, or marginalized locations as bases for their research, including Francesco Arena, Davide Maria Coltro, Andrea Mastrovito, and emerging talents under 35.

Notte Europea dei Musei 2026: tornano le aperture serali con biglietto a 1 euro. Il programma

The European Night of Museums returns on Saturday, May 23, 2026, with participating museums across Europe opening their doors for special evening hours. In Italy, the Ministry of Culture organizes extraordinary openings from 8 PM to midnight at the symbolic price of 1 euro, alongside events in theater, music, dance, literature, and cinema. Highlights include Rome's Notte dei Musei (16th edition) with civic museums open until 2 AM, Villa Adriana and Villa d'Este in Tivoli offering evening access and contemporary performances, and the Royal Savoy Residences in Piedmont featuring guided tours, exhibitions, and family activities.

A Rediscovered Beato Angelico Takes Center Stage at Pandolfini's Old Masters Auctions in Florence

Un Beato Angelico riscoperto protagonista alle aste di arte antica di Pandolfini a Firenze

Pandolfini auction house in Florence will auction a rediscovered fragment of Beato Angelico's *Tebaide* on May 20, 2026, after it had been missing for fifty years. The attribution was confirmed by comparison with the version held at the Museo di San Marco and formerly at the Galleria degli Uffizi. The auction house's Old Masters department, led since 2025 by young director Nicolò Pitto, has achieved strong results, including over €5 million in total revenue for the year, with top lots such as Artemisia Gentileschi's *Cleopatra* (€595,600) and a French School *Saint Catherine of Alexandria* (€620,000).

Seattle Art Museum Workers Move to Unionize

Over 100 employees at the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) have announced their intention to unionize, forming Seattle Art Museum Workers United (SAMWU) and affiliating with the Washington Federation of State Employees/AFSCME Council 28. In a letter to Director and CEO Scott Stulen and the museum board, staff across departments including visitor experience, collections care, curatorial, and education cited unsustainable wages, subpar health benefits, and top-down decision-making as key grievances. They are urging voluntary recognition by May 27 to bypass a formal election, and also call for just-cause job protections. The effort follows a successful 2024 strike by SAM's unionized security guards.

Anila Quayyum Agha exhibitions in Nashville and Huntsville

The Frist Art Museum in Nashville will present "Anila Quayyum Agha: Interwoven," a survey exhibition spanning two decades of the Pakistani American artist's work, from May 22 to August 30, 2026. Organized by The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, the show features 26 works including installations, drawings, and sculptures that explore themes of identity, immigration, and environmental devastation, drawing on influences from Indo-Islamic architecture, Urdu poetry, and traditional crafts. The exhibition, which is the final stop on a four-venue tour, includes Agha's iconic lightbox installations such as "Intersections" (which won the 2014 ArtPrize) and "All the Flowers Are for Me (Red)."

A Decade of Contemporary Art: Gallery Weekend Beijing Turns 10

Gallery Weekend Beijing (GWBJ) will celebrate its 10th anniversary with the 2026 edition running from May 22 to May 31, opening with three VIP days before going public on May 26. Founded in 2017, the event features curated exhibitions from 30 galleries and 10 non-profit institutions across Beijing, anchored in the 798 Art District and extending to Caochangdi and the CBD Art District. A new Academic Committee—comprising Guo Xi, Leng Lin, Tian Yuan, Xi Tao, and Yang Beichen—selected the participating galleries, with 25 returning from previous editions and five newly nominated. Highlights include institutional presentations at UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Red Brick Art Museum, and SONG Art Museum, as well as a special exhibition titled "Nirvana" by Ouyang Chun.

At the Galleries for May 21, 2026

The article titled 'At the Galleries for May 21, 2026' published by 27east provides a roundup of current art exhibitions and gallery shows opening or ongoing as of that date. It highlights specific venues, artists, and works on view, serving as a local guide for art enthusiasts on the East End of Long Island.

Major Exhibition Surveys 60 Years of Chicano Art Across the United States

The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture in Riverside, California, has opened a major exhibition titled "We the People: Chicano Art in the U.S.A.," surveying 60 years of Chicano art across the United States. Organized by artist and curator Benito Huerta, the show features 126 works by 61 artists drawn from the collection of Cheech Marin, the museum's permanent holdings, recent acquisitions, and artist loans. The exhibition spans painting, sculpture, installation, printmaking, and mixed media, including works by historic collectives like Los Four and Con Safo alongside contemporary artists, exploring themes of migration, labor, cultural memory, identity, and everyday life.

'Plants and Animals' at Perrotin, Los Angeles, United States on 1–30 May 2026

Perrotin Los Angeles is presenting 'Plants and Animals,' a special focus exhibition running from May 1–30, 2026, in conjunction with Kyungmi Shin's solo show 'My Fantasy's Burdens.' The exhibition is anchored by Shin's installation 'ready to fly,' which includes 15 handmade ceramics and planters, and also features works by Theodora Allen, Chiho Aoshima, Amy Cutler, Jean-Michel Othoniel, and Austyn Weiner, all centered on plant, flower, fruit, and animal subjects.

Wonder Gallery Debuts in Coney Island With Vintage Photos and Mini Zines

Wonder Gallery, a collaboration between Parachute Literary Arts and the Coney Island History Project, opens May 23 at the History Project's Exhibit Center beside the Wonder Wheel in Coney Island. The seasonal gallery will debut with black-and-white photographs by Brooklyn documentary photographer Anders Goldfarb, capturing Coney Island residents and architecture from the 1970s and 1980s, alongside the launch of the Coney Island Zine Machine featuring miniature zines by Sheepshead Bay artist Kelly Luu. The free gallery will be open weekends and holidays from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

Discover the David Geffen Galleries, Jazz at LACMA, and More This Weekend

LACMA is hosting its monthly Third Weekends event from May 15-17, 2025, featuring free workshops, screenings, concerts, and performances across its newly transformed campus, including the David Geffen Galleries. Highlights include guided architectural walks, figure drawing workshops, a concert by the Julius Rodriguez Trio at Jazz at LACMA, a screening of Tenzin Phuntsog’s film *Next Life*, a roving dance performance by Lula Washington Dance Theatre, and artist talks with Todd Gray. The weekend also includes outdoor activities, chess sessions, and a screening of the 1986 World Cup match.

The best exhibitions to discover in Paris this Whitsun weekend

This article from a Parisian events guide rounds up ten exhibitions to see over the Whitsun weekend (May 23–25, 2026) in Paris and Île-de-France. Highlights include a show of works by artist-patients at the Art and History Museum of Sainte-Anne Hospital, maritime paintings at the Navy Museum, a Papua New Guinea-themed exhibition at the Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac Museum, an interactive socially engaged show called "Ne Pas Toucher" in the Marais, a Louvre exhibition on water in ancient Mesopotamia, and a major Hilma af Klint retrospective at the Grand Palais in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou.

Issy Wood’s first solo exhibition in the Nordics opened at Kistefos

Kistefos presents *Fish, Fish, Duck*, the first solo exhibition in the Nordic region by London-based painter Issy Wood, opened at Nybruket Gallery on 9 May 2026. The show features psychologically charged paintings on velvet and linen, self-portraits, animals, household objects, and a painted chaise longue, organized around the thematic frameworks "Ways of Seeing" and "The Artist as Archivist." Curated by Live Drønen and Kate Smith-Raabe, the exhibition draws on sources from the internet, advertising, and auction catalogues to explore desire, power, vulnerability, and objectification.

Es Devlin invites the UK to become part of a collective digital portrait at the National Portrait Gallery

Es Devlin has launched *A National Portrait*, a participatory digital artwork at the National Portrait Gallery in London, created in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture Lab. Opening on 14 May 2026 and running until 27 October 2026, the project invites anyone in the UK to upload a photograph of themselves via an online platform, where it is transformed into an animated digital portrait inspired by Devlin's charcoal and chalk drawing practice. These portraits are displayed collectively in the gallery's History Makers space, and participants receive a downloadable digital edition of their own portrait. The project is the result of three years of collaborative research between Devlin and Google Arts & Culture Lab.

New group exhibition at Art of Contemporary Africa SF

Art of Contemporary Africa (AOCA), the first Pan-African contemporary gallery in San Francisco, will open a major group exhibition titled *Memory in Motion: Identities, Materials and Resonances* on 2 May 2026. Curated by Gilles Yoro (Felin Light), the show brings together contemporary African artists including Gerald Chukwuma, Mederic Turay, Mwass Githinji, Ayanda Mabulu, Opa Bathily, Kebe Ibrahim Bemba, Ndabuko Ntuli, Kenof Franck Kemkeng Noah, Ange Arthur Koua, Alexis Daniel Onguene Tassi, and Dieudonne Djiela Kamgang. Their works in painting, sculpture, assemblage, and mixed media explore memory as an active, evolving force shaping identity across time, geography, and materiality.

'Soulages-Hartung : Affinités électives' at Perrotin, Paris Marais, France on 25 Apr–30 May 2026

Perrotin in Paris Marais is presenting 'Soulages-Hartung: Affinités électives,' an exhibition exploring the friendship and artistic dialogue between Pierre Soulages (1919–2022) and Hans Hartung (1904–1989). The show features a never-before-screened filmed interview from the Fondation Hartung-Bergman, along with archival documents and rarely seen studio tools. It highlights their shared concerns as postwar abstract painters, their mutual support and gift exchanges—such as Soulages's walnut stain piece given to Hartung in 1948—and their contrasting approaches, with Hartung's explosive gestures versus Soulages's measured structures. The exhibition also reveals their lesser-known use of blue in the 1980s.

My NADA Sketchbook

Lehman College Art Gallery is presenting the 2026 Thesis Exhibition, running from May 20 to 28. The show features over thirty undergraduate and graduate artists, showcasing a wide range of conceptual approaches and material experimentation.

"In Minor Keys" Hits All the Right Notes

The 61st Venice Biennale's international exhibition, titled "In Minor Keys," opened with a somber curatorial press conference, as artistic director Koyo Kouoh, who died in May 2024 at age 57, was not physically present. The exhibition features 110 invited participants across the Arsenale and Giardini, including works by Buhlebezwe Siwani, Johannes Phokela, Wangechi Mutu, Ebony G. Patterson, and Kambui Olujimi. Protests marked the opening, with gatherings at the temporary Israeli pavilion and Pussy Riot's presence at the Russian pavilion, while the exhibition itself asks viewers to look closer at overlooked forms of representation and consider innovative models of measuring the world.

Anna Schachinger at Jacky Strenz

Anna Schachinger presents "Freischling" at Jacky Strenz gallery in Frankfurt, running from March 13 to May 23, 2026. The exhibition features 20 images documenting the show, with text available in both German and English.