Michel Bassompierre, célèbre sculpteur animalier, est décédé à 78 ans
Michel Bassompierre, the celebrated French animal sculptor known for his gentle, rounded bronze and marble bears, gorillas, elephants, and pandas, has died at age 78. He suffered a fatal head injury from a fall following a fainting spell in Nantes on April 21.
Kunstverein Nürnberg – Albrecht Dürer Gesellschaft is presenting "Miracles in Reverse," the first institutional solo exhibition in Europe by American artist Julia Heyward (born 1949). Heyward was a central figure in New York's downtown art scene during the 1970s and 1980s, and her work anticipated major developments in art history. The exhibition showcases her distinctive practice developed over five decades.
The Whitney Biennial 2026, the 82nd edition of the longest-running survey of American art, opened with a stripped-down, self-referential title and no subtitle, reflecting a moment of national self-questioning. The exhibition features 56 artists, duos, and collectives, with highlights including Agosto Machado's shrine sculptures dedicated to friends lost to AIDS, Emilie Louise Gossiaux's tender works about her guide dog London, and Michelle Lopez's apocalyptic video projection *Pandemonium*. Machado, a longtime downtown New York artist and caregiver, died shortly after the biennial opened, and his ashes are to be mixed with those of Marsha P. Johnson and spread in the Hudson River.
Chanel has announced a new five-year partnership with the Centre Pompidou in Paris, expanding its support for the museum during its landmark €460 million ($535 million) renovation. The fashion house, which has backed the Pompidou since 2019, will help preserve access to modern and contemporary art while the museum is closed to the public until its scheduled reopening in 2030. This follows a separate three-year deal in 2025 to grow the museum's collection of contemporary Chinese art by 30 percent, with a focus on women artists, and a 2024 acquisition of 21 works by 15 Chinese artists tied to an exhibition co-organized with Shanghai's West Bund Museum.
British artist Anouska Samms has publicly criticized the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York over a copyright dispute involving a dress displayed in the Met Gala opening exhibition. Samms claims the museum included a garment called the Nervina Hair Dress, which she says is a copy of her collaborative work Hair Dress, created with fashion designer Yoav Hadari during their residency at the Sarabande Foundation. The Met had expressed interest in acquiring the original dress for its Costume Art exhibition but shelved those plans in December. Samms says she was not credited or paid, while Hadari acknowledges her IP rights over the textile but asserts the design and construction are his own. The Met has declined to comment, directing the artists to resolve the matter themselves.
London-based artist Anouska Samms has accused the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute and curator Andrew Bolton of displaying a garment in the spring 2026 exhibition "Costume Art" that she claims is a counterfeit of her collaborative work. Samms says the piece, titled Corpus Nervina 0.0, was inspired by a 2023 hair dress she co-created with fashion designer Yoav Hadari for his label Psycheangelic. Despite a contract giving Samms sole ownership of the hair-based textile's intellectual property, the museum's wall label credits only Hadari and states Samms's textile was not used. Samms's lawyer, Jon Sharples, says the museum initially expressed interest in acquiring the original dress but later shifted to a remake after Hadari reported water damage, then stalled entirely before the exhibition opened.
Richard Lewer has won the 2026 Archibald Prize, Australia's most prestigious portraiture award, for his portrait of Pitjantjatjara elder, traditional healer, and senior artist Iluwanti Ken. The $100,000 prize was announced at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, with the judging panel selecting the work unanimously from 59 finalists. Lewer, a six-time Archibald finalist, painted Ken life-size against a yellow ochre background, capturing her quiet authority and role as a working artist. The Wynne Prize for landscape painting was also awarded to Gaypalani Waṉambi for *The Waṉambi tree*.
The Museum of Image and Sound (MIS-RJ) on Rio de Janeiro's waterfront opens to the public on May 8 after 16 years of development. The 10,000-sq.-m building, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, features eight floors with panoramic views of Copacabana Beach and a façade honoring Roberto Burle Marx. The project faced multiple delays, funding suspensions, and controversy over urban redevelopment, including backlash when a nightclub on the site was demolished in 2010. Work resumed in 2021, and the $62.5 million museum was completed with public and private funds from donors like Itaú, Vale, and Rede Globo.
Poland's entry for the 2024 Venice Biennale, titled *Liquid Tongues*, is an audio-video installation by artists Bogna Burska and Daniel Kotowski. The work centers on a performance by the Chór w Ruchu (Choir in Motion), which includes both hearing and deaf performers, with much of the content filmed underwater in a Warsaw swimming pool. Presented across two screens in the Polish pavilion, the installation draws inspiration from whale song to explore alternative modes of communication, using spoken English and International Sign. The project builds on a previous performance at Warsaw's Zachęta National Gallery of Art and was developed in close collaboration with curators Ewa Chomicka and Jolanta Woszczenko.
Trinket exchange boxes, where people swap small items like pins, stickers, and ceramic animals, are rapidly spreading across the UK and US. The phenomenon, which began in Philadelphia in autumn 2024, has grown from 800 to nearly 1,500 installations in two months, according to Portland-based artist Rachael Harms Mahlandt, who tracks them on a world map. In Edinburgh, pet-sitter Sam Stevens runs a popular pink box outside Argonaut Books, inspired by a San Francisco exchange, and has seen her follower count jump overnight as locals trade trinkets for fun.
Chanel and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation have announced a new transatlantic curatorial fellowship, set to launch in 2027. The Chanel Culture Fund Fellowship is a one-year program for MA- and PhD-level scholars, who will begin at the Guggenheim Museum in New York before moving to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. The announcement coincides with the start of the Venice Biennale, and the open call for fellows will begin this fall. The fellowship includes a stipend and travel support, and is designed to complement the Peggy Guggenheim Collection's existing International Fellowship.
The Guardian's weekly entertainment guide highlights two major art exhibitions opening in May 2025: 'Aleksandra Kasuba' at Tate St Ives (2 May to 4 October) and 'Zurbarán' at the National Gallery, London (2 May to 23 August). The Kasuba show is the first UK presentation of the Lithuanian American artist's proto-immersive 'spatial environments,' featuring early paintings, mosaics, and installations focused on utopian social harmony. The Zurbarán exhibition presents a blockbuster survey of the 17th-century Spanish Baroque master, known for his intense religious subjects and dramatic chiaroscuro.
Israel is making a controversial return to the 2025 Venice Art Biennale after its pavilion was locked in 2024 with a note demanding a ceasefire in Gaza. The artist representing Israel, Belu-Simion Fainaru, will present his project "Rose of Nothingness" in the Arsenale, while Russia also returns to the Biennale after its Giardini pavilion was reassigned to Bolivia in 2024. The Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA) has renewed calls for a boycott and is organizing strike action to disrupt the event, accusing Israel of genocide.
Art Basel has announced a new initiative called "Basel Exclusive" for its upcoming Swiss fair, running June 18–21 with VIP previews June 16–17. Under the program, participating galleries will withhold at least one artwork—or even their entire booth—from the PDF previews sent to clients ahead of the fair, encouraging collectors to visit in person. So far, 170 of 232 exhibitors (nearly 75%) have signed on, including major galleries like Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, Pace Gallery, David Zwirner, Gladstone, Lehmann Maupin, Lisson, Matthew Marks, Paula Cooper, Thaddaeus Ropac, and White Cube, as well as secondary-market dealers such as Galerie 1900-2000, Helly Nahmad, Landau, Mayoral, Pace Di Donna Schrader, and Van de Weghe. Art Basel’s chief artistic officer Vincenzo de Bellis described it as a "gallery-led process" developed from conversations with exhibitors, formalized during Art Basel Hong Kong.
The international architectural competition for the Louvre Museum's $778 million 'New Renaissance' renovation project is set to relaunch in mid-May, according to a report in Le Figaro. The jury will convene on May 13 to assess proposals from five shortlisted firms, ending a period of uncertainty and delays caused by staff unrest, leadership upheaval following a major jewel theft, and the French municipal elections. The project, championed by President Emmanuel Macron, aims to modernize the museum and reduce overcrowding.
This travel guide explores the cultural landscape of Northwest Arkansas, focusing on the upcoming 114,000-square-foot expansion of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, set to open June 6, 2026. The author recounts a road trip from Little Rock to the Ozarks, visiting the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts (with its new Studio Gang-designed building), dining at Coursey's Smoked Meats, and encountering a white supremacist billboard in Harrison, while also highlighting Thorncrown Chapel by E. Fay Jones as a transcendent architectural stop.
The 59th Carnegie International, titled "If the word we," opens at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, curated by Ryan Inouye, Danielle A. Jackson, and Liz Park. The exhibition emphasizes community and collaboration, featuring immersive installations by artists such as Shala Miller, Jasleen Kaur, and Georges Adéagbo, whose work incorporates local thrift-store finds like Pittsburgh Steelers merchandise. Offsite programming extends to venues including the Mattress Factory and Children's Museum of Pittsburgh.
London-based artist Anouska Samms has accused the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute of exhibiting a dress that she claims is a counterfeit of her work in the ongoing "Costume Art" exhibition. The dress, titled Corpus Nervina 0.0, is credited solely to New York-based Israeli designer Yoav Hadari, but Samms alleges it closely resembles an earlier Nervina hair dress she co-developed with Hadari during their 2023 residency at the Lee Alexander McQueen Sarabande Foundation. Samms discovered the display via a social media post and has since spoken out, noting that a contract from their collaboration designated her as the sole owner of the intellectual property of the fabric. The Met has requested that the two parties resolve their dispute before the museum takes further action.
Jarvis Cocker and his wife Kim Sion will curate a new exhibition titled "Hodge Podge" at the Hepworth Wakefield, opening in May 2027. The show brings together a personal selection of works by artists including Jeremy Deller, Peter Doig, Barbara Hepworth, and others, alongside unknown outsider and visionary artists never before exhibited in UK public museums. The exhibition aims to challenge conventional ideas of art and includes an immersive Dreamachine, a flickering light device co-invented by Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerville in 1959.
L’artista italiano che parte dall’Isola d’Elba in barca a vela per raggiungere Sant’Elena: si parla di potere e si gira un film
Italian artist Luca Vitone (born Genoa, 1964) has launched a project titled "Pro Tempore," which involves a two-month sailing journey from the Island of Elba—Napoleon Bonaparte's first place of exile—to the remote island of Saint Helena, where Napoleon died in exile. The voyage, aboard the boat Adriatica, includes four intermediate stops (Balearic Islands, Algeciras, Canary Islands, Cape Verde) and is funded by the 14th edition of the Italian Council grant, in partnership with the Fondazione Oelle. The project explores the concept of temporary power and uses Napoleon's biography and the sea as metaphors for control and instability.
Abstract painter James Hayward, known for his monochromatic oil and wax impasto works, died last week at age 82. A legendary figure in the LA art scene, Hayward was equally celebrated for his magnetic personality, ribald humor, and storytelling. He rose to prominence in 1977 when included in the group show "Less is More" at Sidney Janis Gallery in New York, and was admired by art-world giants such as Dave Hickey, Chris Burden, Nancy Rubins, Ed Moses, and Mike Kelley. Hayward also taught at colleges across the country, including a guest seminar at the University of Southern California, and was a longtime supporter of the LA contemporary art magazine Artillery.
Performa, the New York City-based nonprofit dedicated to performance art, is hosting a one-night-only variety show fundraiser on June 10 at Midtown's Town Hall theater. The cabaret-style event will feature 12 acts blending comedy, dance, music, and acrobatics, with participants including visual artists Barbara Kruger, Laurie Simmons, and Marcel Dzama, performance artist Anne Imhof, dancer Yvonne Rainer, actor Julio Torres, and musicians Slauson Malone, Precious Renee Tucker, and Lonnie Holley. The fundraiser supports Performa's biennial, which takes place every other November.
Four artist mothers—Hope Atherton, Jessi Reaves, Sam Moyer, and Sarah Morris—share candid reflections on how raising children has shaped their art practices. They discuss fractured time, heightened decisiveness, evolving rituals like bedtime reading, and the guilt and power that accompany balancing motherhood with studio work. Atherton describes a new sense of urgency and efficiency, while Reaves and others offer personal anecdotes about the interplay between caregiving and creativity.
Les vernissages cette semaine dans les galeries parisiennes
This week's openings in Parisian galleries feature a wide range of exhibitions across the Marais, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, and other districts. Highlights include Galerie Alain Margaron's group show "Du modèle à l'autoportrait" exploring the body in works by André Derain, Jean Hélion, Fred Deux, and Zoran Mušič; Kim Myoung Nam's first solo show at Galerie UNIVER / Colette Colla, presenting perforated paper pieces; and Galerie Wagner's collective exhibition dedicated to Latin American artists Milton Becerra, Olga Luna, and Claudia Lavegas. Other notable shows include Louis Pion's ink-on-envelope series at Galerie Incognito Artclub, Léonore Chastagner's raw ceramics at Galerie Anne-Sarah Bénichou, and solo presentations by Quentin Gouevic and Jérôme Zonder at Galerie Nathalie Obadia.
The 18th edition of the Lyon Biennale, titled "Passer d’un rêve à l’autre" (Moving from One Dream to Another), will run from September 19 to December 13, 2026. Curated by Catherine Nichols, an Australian-born art historian and editor based in Berlin, the biennial will take place across ten venues in Lyon, including the Grandes Locos, macLyon, and for the first time the Musée des Tissus et des Arts décoratifs. More than half of the works will be new productions, and over half of the artists are women, with a substantial focus on Oceanian artists such as Timo Hogan, Jazz Money, and Kaylene Whiskey. The exhibition draws inspiration from Lyon's traboules (hidden passageways) and the writings of artist Robert Filliou, exploring themes of dreams, critical analysis, and a "poetic economy."
The 2026 Venice Biennale, titled “In Minor Keys,” features numerous artworks that mourn and memorialize the destruction of Gaza, despite censorship pressures. The main exhibition opens with a poem by slain Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, and includes works by artists such as Theo Eshetu, Mohammed Joha, Manuel Mathieu, and Avi Mograbi that directly or indirectly address the conflict. Outside the official Biennale, South African artist Gabrielle Goliath’s performance series “Elegy” was censored by her country’s culture minister after she proposed a version honoring murdered Palestinian poet Hiba Abu Nada, leading her to present the work independently at a church in Venice.
Artnet News writers highlight six standout exhibitions at the 2026 Venice Biennale, which opens to the public on May 9. Among the picks are Ei Arakawa-Nash's interactive installation "Grass Babies, Moon Babies" at the Japan Pavilion, featuring baby dolls and diaper-changing stations; Florentina Holzinger's provocative performance "Seaworld Venice" at the Austria Pavilion, involving nude performers, jet skis, and recycled wastewater; and Dayanita Singh's photographic exhibition "Archivio" at the State Archives of Venice, presenting intimate black-and-white images arranged as freestanding columns.
An eBay seller listed a giclée print of Kees van Dongen's painting "Femme Fatale" (ca. 1905), claiming it once hung above Jeffrey Epstein's desk in his Upper East Side townhouse. The listing, titled "Documented by Federal Prosecutors," sought $50,000 and reached $25,000 in bidding before eBay removed it for violating its policies. The print had previously sold at Millea Bros. Auctioneers for $275. The New York Post first reported the listing, which referenced federal documentation of Epstein's art collection.
Swiss painter Renée Levi will create a large-scale two-panel painting for the façade of London’s Hayward Gallery this fall, co-commissioned by the gallery and Audemars Piguet Contemporary. The installation, on view from September 23 to November 15, marks the watch brand’s art programme’s first painting commission and Levi’s first major public commission in the U.K.
Loyal, a gallery founded by Martin Lilja and Amy Giunta, has relocated from Stockholm to a 19th-century chapel in the university town of Lund, Sweden. The move represents a deliberate shift away from the fast-paced commercial art world towards a slower, more contemplative model of exhibition-making.