World-renowned artist Mateo Blanco has unveiled *Silver Falls Flag* (2026), a textile work reimagining the American flag as a flowing cascade of silver threads, evoking waterfalls and natural rhythms. The piece will be displayed from May 16 to August 23 at the Brick Store Museum in Kennebunk, Maine, as part of the exhibition *From Many, One: Visions of American Patriotism at 250*, marking the nation's 250th anniversary.
An exhibition titled 'A Swallow Does Not Make Spring' by French artist Annette Messager has opened at the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature in Paris. The show transforms the museum's spaces with a menagerie of taxidermy, drawings, and installations, blending the artist's signature surreal and feminist sensibilities with the museum's focus on hunting and nature.
Abbas Akhavan, representing Canada at the 2026 Venice Biennale, has transformed the Canada Pavilion into a greenhouse-like installation titled “Abbas Akhavan: Entre chien et loup.” The pavilion’s wooden door has been replaced with glass, revealing a pond of pinkish water illuminated by sunlight and LED grow-lamps. Visitors encounter mossy boulders, a vintage fur coat sprayed with mist, sharpened bronze sticks, and frosted mirrors that blur the architecture. Three giant Bolivian water lilies, grown from seeds sent from Kew Gardens to Padua, will gradually fill the pond over the summer. Akhavan describes his role as a “custodian” rather than a controller, emphasizing the unpredictability of nature.
The National Gallery of Canada has unveiled the exhibition "Abbas Akhavan: Entre chien et loup" for the Canada Pavilion at the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia in 2026. The site-specific installation reimagines the pavilion's architecture as a Wardian case, a precursor to the terrarium used to transport plants across the British Empire, featuring a custom pool with giant Victoria water lilies. The artist replaced the facade with glass panels, making the plants visible from outside, and the installation is framed by additional sculptural works. The exhibition is curated by Kim Nguyen and accompanied by a fully illustrated publication.
Daniel Crews-Chubb presents 'The Belt of Venus,' an exhibition of six new monumental paintings at Patricia Low Contemporary in Venice. The works draw inspiration from the atmospheric phenomenon of the same name, using its ethereal pinkish glow as a color palette. Crews-Chubb explores pareidolia—the brain's tendency to see faces in abstract forms—pushing his long-standing interrogation of the human figure into increasingly abstract territory. The paintings reference classical mythology, including the Roman goddess Venus, and incorporate fragmented forms reminiscent of ancient statuary, serving as memento mori.
Nathaniel Mary Quinn, a Chicago-born artist who grew up in the Robert Taylor Homes, will present his first solo museum exhibition in his hometown at the National Public Housing Museum. The show, titled "Nathaniel Mary Quinn: A Love Letter To My Mother," features ten works on canvas and paper, a recreated living room from his family's apartment circa 1984, and a reading room with historical materials about the housing project. Separately, Mariane Ibrahim gallery now represents Chicago-based artist Leasho Johnson, whose work draws on Jamaican mythology and appeared on the cover of Newcity's April 2026 issue. In other local news, a new social club called The Lake is set to open in River North this fall, designed by Robert A. M. Stern Architects, and construction has begun on the next phase of the Southbridge development on the site of the former Harold Ickes Homes.
The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust presents "Marianne Vitale: On Liberty: A Summoning," an exhibition and performance project at SPACE gallery in downtown Pittsburgh, running from May 1 to October 11, 2026. Guest curated by Benjamin Tischer of New Discretions, the project explores the layered social and cultural history of the 818 Liberty Avenue building, a former hub of nightlife, performance, and queer gathering. Vitale's work incorporates sculpture, painting, film, and live activations, using decommissioned locomotive parts and industrial debris to engage with post-industrial America. The exhibition transforms into a functioning club during select Final Fridays, drawing on the site's history as home to venues like Pegasus Lounge, a key LGBTQ+ space during the AIDS crisis.
Compton Verney in Warwickshire is staging a major exhibition titled "Troublemakers and Prophets: Elizabeth Allen and Other Visionary Artists," running from 28 March to 31 August 2026. The show reintroduces Elizabeth "Queen" Allen (1883–1967), a self-taught British artist who created intricate patchwork artworks inspired by the Apocrypha and biblical visions, using scraps of fabric, buttons, and sequins. Despite achieving success in her lifetime, Allen fell into obscurity; the exhibition pairs her work with thematically related contemporary artists to contextualize her legacy.
Perrotin gallery in New York presents 'Collective Hallcinations', an exhibition of new works by Brooklyn-based artist Nick Doyle. The show features wall-mounted denim collages and an immersive installation of a psychic parlor, including Doyle's first use of artificial intelligence. The works explore the fraught relationship between land and technology, progress and destruction, using denim as a material that evokes Americana, capitalism, and masculinity. The centerpiece, 'Mirror, Mirror', is a denim-clad structure housing an AI avatar named Ava, who offers sardonic commentary on the American dream and the digital frontier.
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.
Bailly Gallery in Paris is presenting an exhibition titled 'The Shape of Summer: From Boudin to Wesselmann,' featuring works that explore the theme of summer from the 19th century to the present. The show spans artists from Eugène Boudin to Tom Wesselmann, highlighting the evolution of summer imagery in art.
The Greek Ministry of Culture has selected artist Andreas Angelidakis to represent Greece at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026. Angelidakis will present an installation titled "Escape Room" at the Greek Pavilion, curated by George Bekirakis with MOMUS as National Commissioner. The project reimagines Plato's allegory of the cave as an immersive environment addressing post-truth, nationalism, and digital illusions, while also confronting the troubled history of the Pavilion itself, including its 1934 inauguration amid the rise of fascism.
Axel Vervoordt Gallery in Antwerp is presenting the first Belgian solo exhibition of Cambodian artist Sopheap Pich. The show features a new body of work, including large-scale sculptures made from bamboo, rattan, hand-forged copper, and recycled aluminum, as well as wall-based pieces. Visitors can physically enter some of the large sculptural forms.
A series of new gallery and community art exhibitions are opening across the Hamptons and Montauk. Highlights include Timothy Tibus's solo painting show "Live Forever" at The Lucore Art in Montauk, the group exhibition "Echoes of Matisse" at The Drawing Room in East Hampton, Ann Pibal's solo show at Halsey McKay Gallery, and a one-week solo exhibition for Marcie Honerkamp at the Springs Community Library.
Konferenz: Baselitz, Immendorff, Lüpertz, Penck Group exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Schloss Derneburg
The Kunstmuseum Schloss Derneburg in Holle, Germany, has opened a major group exhibition titled "Konferenz: Baselitz, Immendorff, Lüpertz, Penck." The show features over 50 significant works by the four celebrated post-war German artists, exploring their unique approaches to national identity during a period of political division. It includes pieces from Georg Baselitz's personal collection of his contemporaries' work, supplemented by archival photographs by Edward Quinn from the 1980s.
Historisches Museum gibt Bild zurück
The German Historical Museum (DHM) in Berlin has restituted a 19th-century portrait of historian Leopold von Ranke to the von der Schulenburg family. The painting by Adolf Jebens, dated 1876, was seized in 1945 during a land reform in the Soviet Occupation Zone from the family's Schloss Lodersleben estate. The museum's director, Raphael Gross, confirmed the return after provenance research identified the work's history.
The group exhibition 'Intellectual Structures: Trigger, Judgment, and Decision' at Each Modern in Taipei explores the cognitive processes behind artistic creation. Featuring works by DAZHI, Ding Hongdan, Jing Ao, Liang Yuanwei, Wenjue, and Xu Qu, the show examines how human thought remains distinct from artificial intelligence by focusing on the 'neural algorithms' of the brain. The curatorial framework breaks down the creative act into three stages: the initial sensory trigger, the critical judgment between experience and transcendence, and the final decision that collapses multiple possibilities into a singular work.
Artist Megan Jenkinson presents her latest body of work, 'Secateur / Sequitur', at Two Rooms in Auckland. The exhibition features intricate photocollages that blend botanical elements with man-made materials like wire, drawing inspiration from classical philosophy and the Japanese art of ikebana. Jenkinson’s meticulously structured compositions explore the tension between the natural world and human systems of order.
The Hyde Park Art Center (HPAC) stands as a vital pillar of Chicago’s grassroots creative identity, serving for eighty-six years as an unpretentious alternative to the city's major encyclopedic museums. From its early days under curator Don Baum, the center became a catalyst for the avant-garde, famously launching the careers of the Chicago Imagists and the Hairy Who. Today, it continues to function as a multifaceted ecosystem that blends community education, artist residencies, and experimental exhibitions within a residential neighborhood setting.
Expo Chicago 2026 marks a strategic shift under the new leadership of director Kate Sierzputowski and curator Essence Harden, moving away from purely commercial dealer interests toward a more artist-centric and curatorial approach. This year's iteration features a streamlined selection of galleries, allowing for greater depth and focus on individual practices. Notable highlights include Pablo Delano’s poignant installations at Embajada exploring Puerto Rican history, a diverse group showing at Marc Straus Gallery featuring artists like Marie Watt and Lucia Hierro, and a collaborative presentation by São Paulo galleries Bianca Boeckel and Verve.
Acclaimed Norwegian artist and writer Lars Elling is set to debut his first South African exhibition, "Dreams of Reason," at the Everard Read Gallery in Franschhoek on April 11, 2026. The collection features works created during his annual five-month residencies at the De Rust farm in Elgin, home of Paul Clüver Family Wines. The exhibition marks a significant shift in Elling’s palette, moving from the muted greys of Norway to the vibrant ochres and blues of the Western Cape, while exploring the liminal psychological space between sleep and wakefulness.
Veteran American artist Peter Saul has debuted a solo exhibition at Gladstone Gallery in New York, marking his first show since joining the gallery last year. Titled "Peter Saul’s Art History," the exhibition features 20 works—both new and historic—that reinterpret iconic masterpieces by 20th-century titans such as Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, and Willem de Kooning. A centerpiece of the show is the 1973 painting "Little Guernica ‘Liddul Guernica’," which is being publicly displayed for the first time in four decades.
American artist Hernan Bas is set to debut a major new series of over 30 paintings titled "The Visitors" at the Ca’ Pesaro International Gallery of Modern Art in Venice. The immersive installation, created in part during a residency in the city, satirizes the absurdity of global mass tourism, from iconic clichés like the Mona Lisa to "dark tourism" sites such as Chernobyl. The works depict a procession of North American and European youths performing for cameras and navigating tourist traps with a mix of naiveté and arrogance.
Korean-born, Los Angeles-based artist Ken Gun Min is set to debut his third solo exhibition, 'Strange Days of a Quiet Sun,' at Nazarian/Curcio in Los Angeles. The showcase features a new body of work including a monumental double-sided folding screen and paintings that utilize Min's signature technique of combining embroidery, beading, and hand-applied materials with traditional pigments. The exhibition explores themes of sadness and estrangement through the astronomical metaphor of a 'quiet sun,' blending Western art history with East Asian traditions.
Ai Weiwei has launched his first major solo exhibition in India at Nature Morte gallery in New Delhi, timed to coincide with the India Art Fair 2026. The show features a range of works spanning three decades, including his signature large-scale Lego compositions and porcelain sculptures. Notably, the artist debuted new pieces that engage specifically with Indian art history, reimagining works by modernists SH Raza and VS Gaitonde, as well as traditional Rajasthani Pichwai paintings, through his modular toy-brick medium.
London's art scene is bustling with a diverse range of openings this week, featuring both historical and contemporary work. Key events include a major exhibition of Conceptual artist Christine Kozlov at Raven Row, exploring her contributions and collaborations from the 1960s-70s, and a two-person show of small-scale paintings by Matthew Clifton and Faith Hughes at Soup gallery. Other events include a book launch, a talk, and experimental sound programs.
A major exhibition titled 'Monuments' is on view at two Los Angeles venues, The Geffen Contemporary at Moca and The Brick. The show places nine decommissioned Confederate monuments, some already defaced, into dialogue with works by 19 contemporary artists, most of whom are Black. The centerpiece is Kara Walker's 'Unmanned Drone' (2023), a radical reworking of a removed statue of Confederate general Stonewall Jackson, which occupies its own venue at The Brick.
Globally renowned conceptual artist Ai Weiwei has opened his first solo exhibition in India at the Nature Morte gallery in New Delhi. The show, presented in collaboration with Galleria Continua, features his iconic toy-brick canvases, including new commissions inspired by Indian modernist painters like Raza and Gaitonde, and a unique LEGO-brick interpretation of a traditional Pichwai painting. Other works address themes of migration, history, and censorship through mediums like Neolithic stone axes, porcelain urns, and repurposed furniture.
Willem de Kooning's 1966 work "Kneeling Woman" has ended its bidding process, with the listing appearing on a platform that aggregates auction results and available works. The piece, an oil on paper on board measuring 23.5 by 11.5 inches, is signed and has a known provenance including Harold Diamond, a private collection in Baltimore, Solomon & Co. Fine Art, Robert Peyser, and a Sotheby's sale in 2019. It was previously exhibited at the Nassau County Museum of Art in 1981 as part of "The Abstract Expressionists and Their Precursors" show.
The Philadelphia Art Museum (PAM) has opened "Noah Davis," the first solo retrospective of the late Los Angeles–based painter, who died at age 32 from a rare cancer. Davis's career spanned only six years, beginning with his first solo show at Tilton Gallery in New York in 2009. The exhibition, which originated at the Barbican in London, is the fourth and final stop of an international tour and the only North American venue. It features Davis's large-scale, abstract figurative paintings of Black life, including works like "You Are..." (2012) and "Untitled" (2015), and highlights his use of chemical solvents to degrade paint surfaces. The show also explores his role as founder of the Underground Museum in Arlington Heights, Los Angeles, a community-focused space where he once displayed fakes as "Imitations of Wealth."