Art News. Vasari Codex

article news schedule May 5, 2026 visibility 18 link 3 artists

Dozens of Venice Biennale Artists Stage ‘Drone’ Perfomance in Protest of Israel’s Participation

On the opening day of the Venice Biennale, around 60 artists and dozens of other participants staged a protest titled “Solidarity Drone Chorus” at the Giardini entrance, humming a viral song by Gazan composer Ahmed “Muin” Abu Amsha to sonically occupy the space. The action, organized by artists in the main exhibition over several months, protested Israel’s participation in the Biennale and expressed support for Palestine, with participants wearing T-shirts bearing the names and artworks of Gazan and Palestinian artists, many of whom have been killed. The protest follows an open letter from the Art Not Genocide Alliance demanding Israel’s exclusion.

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article culture schedule May 5, 2026 visibility 21 link 6 artists

Comment | Degenerate art all over again? Nazi attack on Modern art is not far away from trends in today’s world

The article draws a provocative parallel between the Nazi regime's attack on modern art—epitomized by the 1937 "Degenerate Art" (Entartete Kunst) exhibition—and contemporary political aesthetics, particularly around President Donald Trump. It traces the Nazi party's early use of visual spectacle, mass rallies, and monumental art to forge a national identity, contrasting this with Trump's proposed National Garden for American Heroes and stalled White House Ballroom, which the author dismisses as kitsch but lacking the cohesive fascist aesthetic of Albert Speer's masterplans.

newspaper The Art Newspaper open_in_new Read original

article news schedule Apr 30, 2026 visibility 15 link 3 artists

Family of Nonagenarian Sculptor Is Fighting to Halt Demolition of Iconic Brutalist Fountain in Downtown San Francisco

The family of 96-year-old Quebecois sculptor Armand Vaillancourt is fighting to halt the demolition of his 710-ton concrete fountain, known as Québec Libre! or the Vaillancourt Fountain, in San Francisco’s Embarcadero Plaza. The city began dismantling the 1971 public artwork this week, citing a planned plaza renovation, and the disassembly is expected to cost $4 million. Vaillancourt’s son Alexis and the group Friends of the Plaza have filed an appellate petition challenging the city’s use of an emergency exemption under the California Environmental Quality Act, arguing that the fountain’s disrepair does not constitute a sudden emergency requiring immediate action.

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article local schedule May 13, 2026 visibility 7 link 6 artists, 1 gallery

Memorial Art Gallery raises $9 million to make admission free in 2027

The Memorial Art Gallery (MAG) at the University of Rochester has raised over $9 million through its "Free for All, Forever" fundraising initiative, surpassing its original goal and timeline. The museum will now open its doors free of charge to all visitors sometime in 2027, much sooner than anticipated. Key donors include Alexander and Lucy Levitan, who contributed a $1 million capstone gift; Doug and Abby Bennett and the Sands Family Foundation, who gave a $3 million leadership gift; and Mary Ellen Burris, who donated $2 million. The announcement was celebrated at MAG's Flourish For All, Forever gala on May 9, 2026.

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candle obituary schedule Apr 29, 2026 visibility 12 link 1 artist

A Curator Died Suddenly. Could the Venice Biennale Be Saved?

Koyo Kouoh, the curator of the Venice Biennale’s centerpiece exhibition, died suddenly of cancer at age 57, just months into her tenure. She left behind a detailed plan for the exhibition, which her assistants are now working to realize in her absence.

newspaper New York Times Art open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule May 12, 2026 visibility 9 link 3 artists

Dries Verhoeven on Representing the Netherlands at the 61st Venice Biennale

Dries Verhoeven will represent the Netherlands at the 61st Venice Biennale (2026) with a new work titled *The Fortress*, installed in the Dutch Rietveld Pavilion in the Giardini. The 25-minute performance piece transforms the sunlit pavilion into a darkened bunker, featuring a raw vocal composition using only false vocal cords. Verhoeven describes the work as a meditation on transition and self-preservation, reflecting a Western society caught between its enlightened self-image and a dark vision of the future. The piece responds to geopolitical unrest outside the Biennale grounds and is designed to be melancholic and confrontational, contrasting with the main exhibition's theme, *In Minor Keys*.

newspaper ArtReview open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule May 6, 2026 visibility 21 link 4 artists

Sung Tieu on Representing Germany at the 61st Venice Biennale

Sung Tieu, who is co-representing Germany at the 61st Venice Biennale alongside Henrike Naumann, responds to a questionnaire from ArtReview about her plans for the German Pavilion. She describes her inspiration as her mother and childhood home, a site built for foreign contract workers in the GDR that later became a refuge for the diaspora. Tieu states that her work relates to the Biennale theme "In Minor Keys" through the lens of Gehrenseestrasse, a concrete record of collective memory. She also expresses skepticism about the Biennale's importance, noting that the German Pavilion's fascist architecture compels artists to work against it, and that national pavilions reveal how much work remains in undoing nationalism.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 6, 2026 visibility 16 link 4 artists

Miet Warlop on Representing Belgium at the 61st Venice Biennale

Miet Warlop, the artist representing Belgium at the 61st Venice Biennale (2026), discusses her plans for the Belgian Pavilion in the Giardini in an interview with ArtReview. Her installation, inspired by the Belgian motto 'L'union fait la force' ('unity makes strength'), aims to create a space between a workspace, exhibition, and performance that brings people together in introspection. She cites time spent with Venice's artistic communities, including students at the Accademia, as influential, and notes that her work engages with the Biennale's theme 'In Minor Keys' by incorporating minor-key music to evoke nuanced, introspective emotions.

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museum exhibitions schedule Apr 27, 2026 visibility 12 link 3 artists

Rafał Zajko Is Hatching a Plan

Rafał Zajko's exhibition 'The Egg Egg' at Arsenal Gallery in Białystok, Poland, brings together 50 works from the past decade across two floors of a former power station, organized into nine 'acts'. The show features modular installations like 'Funny Games' (2025), a set of pastel-colored platforms on wheels with ceramic reliefs, and monumental sculptures such as 'Sisyphus' (2025), a suspended ceramic bobbin evoking textile factory tools. Performances by Agnieszka Szczotka, including 'Song to the Siren' (2026), activate works like 'Amber Chamber III Echo' (2025), blending archaism, futurism, and themes of labor and technology.

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article local schedule May 7, 2026 visibility 15 link 1 artist

San Francisco’s Vaillancourt Fountain Catches Fire During Controversial Removal

San Francisco's Vaillancourt Fountain, a Brutalist concrete structure at Embarcadero Plaza since 1971, caught fire on Wednesday morning as workers used blow torches to disassemble it. The fire ignited rubber tubing and debris inside the sculpture's cantilevered arms, producing smoke that forced the temporary evacuation of nearby paddle board courts. The fountain is being removed to make way for a $32.5 million redevelopment of the plaza and playground into a five-acre park.

newspaper Artforum open_in_new Read original

article local schedule May 6, 2026 visibility 19 link 15 artists, 1 gallery

In the Gallery: See work by Rogue Valley artists

The article provides a comprehensive listing of art galleries and events in Oregon's Rogue Valley for the month of May. It highlights recurring monthly art walks in Jacksonville and Phoenix, and details exhibitions at ten local galleries including American Trails, Art & Soul Ashland, Art du Jour Gallery, Art on First, Art Presence Art Center, Ashland Art Works, and Collier Gallery. Featured artists include David Mensing, Kelly Anderson, Corbin Brashear, Nancy Darte, Elizabeth Ellingson, John Weston, and Dave Leibowitz, with a variety of media from painting and sculpture to photography and jewelry.

newspaper Rogue Valley Times open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Apr 22, 2026 visibility 17 link 2 artists, 1 gallery

Other Worlds of Light: Zarina’s “Beyond the Stars”

Luhring Augustine gallery in New York is presenting 'Beyond the Stars,' the first posthumous solo exhibition of the late Indian-born artist Zarina. The show features prints, collages, cast paper works, and sculptures spanning seven decades, focusing on themes of borders, displacement, and exile shaped by the Partition of India and her nomadic life.

newspaper ArtAsiaPacific open_in_new Read original

article events schedule Apr 20, 2026 visibility 13 link 1 artist, 5 galleries

Art Dubai Adapts to Conflict with “Special Edition”

Art Dubai has announced a significantly scaled-back "special edition" of its 20th-anniversary fair, set for May 14–17 at the Madinat Jumeirah venue. The fair was postponed and reformatted due to the US-Israel war in Iran, which caused major logistical disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz and spiked oil prices, hampering air travel in the UAE. It will now feature only 50 exhibitors, a reduction of nearly 60% from the originally planned 120.

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article local schedule May 15, 2026 visibility 9 link 12 artists, 3 galleries

May Art And Culture Calendar: Every Exhibit, Live Performance, And Concert Worth Your Visit

This article is a curated calendar of art and culture events in Delhi and Mumbai for May and June 2026. Highlights include a photography exhibition of Satyajit Ray by Nemai Ghosh at DAG, a documentary photography show by Jyoti Bhatt at Gallery Vayu in collaboration with LATITUDE 28, a candlelight concert tribute to A.R. Rahman at Le Méridien, a group exhibition titled 'Slow Rot' at Method Delhi exploring vulnerability and the grotesque, and a dance performance celebrating Rabindranath Tagore at NCPA.

newspaper Outlook Luxe open_in_new Read original

rate_review review schedule Apr 27, 2026 visibility 24 link 12 artists, 2 galleries

WORDS WORDS WORDS at Everard Read shows the power of words in contemporary art

The article reviews 'WORDS, WORDS, WORDS,' an exhibition at Everard Read Gallery's CIRCA space in South Africa, which explores the role of language in contemporary visual art. Curated with a focus on how words are bent, repeated, fragmented, and reassembled, the show features works by South African artists including Willem Boshoff and Luca Evans, who engage with conceptual art traditions from Dada to Barbara Kruger. Boshoff's braille-inset wooden piece 'Planet of Echinus' questions inclusion and exclusion in language, while Evans' work riffs on Joseph Kosuth's iconic text pieces using ancient wood-inlay techniques.

newspaper Daily Maverick open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Apr 29, 2026 visibility 19 link 4 artists, 1 gallery

Dahiye, il quartiere di Beirut che non esiste quasi più. Nelle foto di un artista italiano

Italian photographer Armando Perna (born 1981 in Reggio Calabria) has documented Dahiye, a southern suburb of Beirut known as Hezbollah's stronghold, using a digital camera hidden inside a car and controlled remotely via Bluetooth. His project, initiated in 2013 and exhibited in 2017 at the Fondazione Pino Pascali in Polignano a Mare (Bari), creates a street-view-style mapping of a neighborhood that has been heavily bombed by Israeli forces, most recently in the past weeks. The work was promoted by Planar gallery, founded by Antonio Ottomanelli, with Perna and Anna Vasta as part of the #showcase project.

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article news schedule May 18, 2026 visibility 1

Architects Behind Frick Renovation Tapped for Louvre’s ‘New Renaissance’

The French government has selected STUDIOS Architecture to lead a major renovation of the Louvre Museum in Paris, including new galleries and a second entrance. The project, called the 'New Louvre Renaissance,' was announced by President Emmanuel Macron in early 2025 but stalled after a jewel heist and staff strikes led to the resignation of former Louvre president Laurence des Cars, who was succeeded by Christophe Leribault. The $778 million plan aims to ease overcrowding at the museum, which hosts 9 million visitors annually, and includes a dedicated 33,000-square-foot gallery for the Mona Lisa.

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article news schedule May 15, 2026 visibility 8

More Than 100 Seattle Art Museum Workers Plan to Unionize

More than 100 Seattle Art Museum employees announced plans to unionize under the banner Seattle Art Museum Workers United (SAMWU), representing workers across over 20 front- and back-end departments including curatorial, education, and visitor experience. The union informed SAM director and CEO Scott Stulen of its formation in a letter citing unsustainable wages, subpar health benefits, and top-down decision-making. Organizers say they have a supermajority support among eligible workers. SAMWU has filed for an election with the National Labor Relations Board but is willing to withdraw if leadership voluntarily recognizes the union before May 27. The union has affiliated with the Washington Federation of State Employees/AFSCME Council 28. Security staff, who previously unionized as SAM VSO in 2022 and secured a contract after a 12-day strike in late 2024, will remain separate.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 14, 2026 visibility 9

An Installation at the British Museum Recreates the Bayeux Tapestry’s Landscape

The British Museum will present "Tapestry of Trees," an outdoor installation by garden designer Andy Sturgeon, ahead of its historic exhibition of the Bayeux Tapestry. The installation, on view from May 16 to June 2, 2026, recreates a medieval woodland using plants native to East Sussex, including silver birch, hazel, hawthorn, and field maples, evoking the landscape of the Battle of Hastings depicted in the tapestry. Dyed hessian wrapping on planters and root balls echoes the colors and textures of the embroidery.

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article news schedule May 12, 2026 visibility 13

Man Arrested for Allegedly Planning Terrorist Attack at Louvre

French authorities arrested a 27-year-old Tunisian man, identified as Dhafer M., on May 7 for allegedly planning a terrorist attack at the Louvre in Paris. The arrest, confirmed by the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) and first reported by Le Monde, followed an investigation that began in late April after a traffic stop. Investigators found jihadist propaganda videos, photos of weapons, and searches for bomb-making instructions on his phone, as well as messages discussing access points to the Louvre and plans to make poison. The man has denied the allegations and was brought before an anti-terrorism judge to be formally charged.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 12, 2026 visibility 11 link 1 artist

Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art announces $100m expansion

The Brandywine Conservancy & Museum of Art in Pennsylvania has announced a $100 million expansion project to transform its 15-acre campus. The plan includes a new 40,000-square-foot museum building designed by Kengo Kuma & Associates—the firm's first museum in the U.S.—along with renovations to the original mid-19th century grist mill building, and the creation of a 325-acre publicly accessible preserve and garden with 10 miles of trails. Construction is set to begin in spring 2027, with completion expected in autumn 2029.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 10, 2026 visibility 12 link 2 artists

Unsung modernist artist's work back in Christchurch after 45 years

A major exhibition of works by pioneering New Zealand modernist painter Edith Collier has opened at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, marking the first time in 45 years that Christchurch audiences can see a wide range of her work. The show, titled 'Edith Collier: Early New Zealand Modernist,' features over 60 pieces including studies, sketches, watercolours, prints, and archival material, drawn from the permanent collection of Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery in Whanganui. Collier, born in 1885, developed a bold post-impressionist style during a nine-year stay in London alongside artist Frances Hodgkins, but faced harsh criticism upon returning to conservative New Zealand, leading her father to destroy some of her paintings.

newspaper The Press: Christchurch open_in_new Read original

article local schedule May 10, 2026 visibility 13 link 2 artists

FYI Calendar: Arkansas Living Treasure Longhua Xu’s exhibit at Fort Smith RAM continues through June 21

The article is a calendar of arts and community events in the Fort Smith, Arkansas area, compiled by features writer Dustin Staggs. It lists dance and theater performances, plant swaps, life drawing classes, historical society events, and multiple art exhibitions. Among the visual art highlights are "Soul Taking Shape," an exhibition by Arkansas Living Treasure Longhua Xu at the Fort Smith Regional Art Museum (RAM) running through June 21, along with other shows at RAM and Arts On Main featuring works by local artists and student artists.

newspaper Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette open_in_new Read original

article local schedule May 7, 2026 visibility 16 link 6 artists

HistoryMiami rebrands as Museum of Miami, a ‘museum without walls’

HistoryMiami, the historical museum of South Florida, has rebranded as the Museum of Miami, adopting a 'museum without walls' concept. The change reflects a shift away from a traditional brick-and-mortar institution toward a more flexible, community-engaged model that will operate across various locations and digital platforms throughout Miami.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 7, 2026 visibility 15 link 2 artists

Sara Shamma brings Syria’s cultural renewal to Venice Biennale

Sara Shamma, the first female artist to lead Syria's national pavilion at the Venice Biennale, presents her immersive installation *The Tower Tomb of Palmyra* at Iuav University of Venice's Cotonificio campus. The full-scale, nine-sided chamber features paintings, light, sound, and scent inspired by Palmyra's ancient funerary towers, which Shamma first encountered as a student at the National Museum of Damascus. The project, originally planned for Cambridge before the pandemic, gained new significance after the fall of the Assad government in December 2024, as Shamma returned to Damascus and was approached by Syria's Ministry of Culture to represent the country's cultural renewal on the world stage.

newspaper The National open_in_new Read original

article news schedule May 6, 2026 visibility 15 link 4 artists

Six environmental artists win this year’s Rewilding Art Prize

Six Canadian artists have been awarded the 2026 Rewilding Arts Prize, established in 2023 by the David Suzuki Foundation and Rewilding Magazine. The winners include Nicole McDonald-Fournier, whose project EmballeToi! repurposes old winter coats as plant-growing pots, and the Montreal/Toronto duo Masumi Rodriguez and Elena Kirby, who run community papermaking workshops using invasive plant species. The prize awards $2,000 to each artist and plans to feature their work in a future exhibition, following the inaugural winners' show at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa.

newspaper The Globe and Mail open_in_new Read original

article local schedule May 1, 2026 visibility 20 link 1 artist

Ellen Noël Art Museum Looks Toward Future Following Renovation & Reopening

The Ellen Noël Art Museum of the Permian Basin in Odessa, Texas, reopened in December 2025 after a decade-long, $20 million renovation. The project added 8,000 square feet, a new silver oval exterior, a two-story lobby, renovated galleries, and a state-of-the-art lighting system. The museum is currently in transition, with interim director Steve Patton overseeing operations while a search for a permanent executive director is underway. Recent exhibitions include "Home, Love, and Loss" and "Shifting Subjects: The Heroes of the West."

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article local schedule Apr 30, 2026 visibility 17 link 7 artists

Here's what's happening for First Friday in May

Juneau's First Friday in May 2026 features a diverse array of events, including a storytelling project called "Tambayan at Kwentuhan" that shares oral histories from Filipino elders, an exhibition titled "Dizzy Hooligan" by Kiyana Fonua recalling Kava gatherings in Anchorage, and a retrospective of Indigenous fashion designer Dorothy Grant at the Alaska State Museum. Other offerings include a chamber music concert by Taku Winds, a "Critter Trek" exhibition at the Juneau-Douglas City Museum featuring local wildlife art, planetarium explorations, a book release by author Corinna Cook, and displays of woodworking by Phil Paramore and jewelry by Colleen Goldrich.

newspaper Juneau Independent open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Apr 30, 2026 visibility 18 link 1 artist

Sculptures at The Bruce Explore the Energy of the Natural World

The Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut, will present "Gisela Colón: Radiant Earth" from January 24 to June 28, 2026. The exhibition features nine luminescent sculptures by internationally acclaimed artist Gisela Colón, exploring the forces and energies of the natural world through her signature use of light and form.

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article event schedule Apr 22, 2026 visibility 21 link 2 artists

'First-of-its kind' Houston park reveals 6 murals by local artists

Untitled Art, the contemporary art fair, is returning to Houston for its second edition this October. To kick off plans, the fair has commissioned two artist projects that will be unveiled at the city's 39th annual Art Car Parade.

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