Indonesian multimedia artist Dian Suci has won the 10th edition of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women, as announced by curator and jury chair Cecilia Alemani in Venice at the Serra dei Giardini. Suci was selected from a shortlist of five finalists that included Betty Adii, Dzikra Afifah, Ipeh Nur, and Mira Rizki. The jury was organized and chaired by Alemani and included Museum MACAN director Venus La.
ArtReview and Ursula magazine have partnered to host a monthly talk series in a Mayfair wine bar, featuring intimate conversations with creative visionaries. The upcoming event on June 9 will spotlight architect and artist Jayden Ali and artist Simone Brewster, who will discuss their inspirations and working methods. Jayden Ali is a founding director of JA Projects, a London Mayor's Design Advocate, and co-curator of the British Pavilion at the 2023 Venice Biennale. Simone Brewster is a London-based artist exploring identity and cultural memory through sculpture, painting, and installation, with her work held in major collections including the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Smithsonian Institution.
Para Site, a Hong Kong contemporary arts center, has launched a year-long 30th anniversary programme featuring exhibitions, performances, and residencies. The programme is structured around acts of response, pairing artists and fostering new collaborations, drawing inspiration from the organization's earliest experimental exhibitions.
Hyperallergic's summer guide highlights 15 art shows across Los Angeles, featuring exhibitions that challenge the status quo. Highlights include Jon Rubin's 'National Museum of the Aftermath' at Oxy Arts, focusing on America's racial reckoning; a survey of Ulises Carrión's bookworks at JOAN; Scott Carrillo Azevedo's paintings on the American home at Long Beach Museum of Art; and 'Semiotext(e): Desert Islands' at ICA LA, exploring the influential publisher's fusion of theory and vernacular culture. Other shows include punk ephemera at the Skirball, Odilon Redon's portraiture, Willie Birch's papier-mâché works, and Samella Lewis's woodcuts.
Jay Milder, a Figurative Expressionist painter and co-founder of City Gallery in New York, has died at age 92 from a stroke. Milder, who moved from Omaha to New York after high school, was a bold artist and cooperative gallerist who championed informal, improvisational works. He co-founded City Gallery with Red Grooms in 1958, hosting early New York shows for now-revered artists including Claes Oldenburg and Jim Dine. His series "Subway Runners" (1960–64) debuted at Martha Jackson Gallery in 1964 and was revisited in a 2022 solo exhibition at Eric Firestone Gallery, which represented him since 2022. His works are held in major institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum and the New Museum.
Artist Dayanita Singh mounted a major exhibition titled "ARCHIVIO" at the State Archives of Venice, which opened to the public as an exhibition venue for the first time in its history. Without institutional funding or a public relations budget, Singh relied on a "friendship economy" to install her signature "photo-pillars"—images of Indian archival documents bound in red cloth. The show attracted visitors despite the lack of traditional promotion, as documented in an interview with Hyperallergic Editor-at-Large Hrag Vartanian.
An intimate collection of early Jean-Michel Basquiat works and ephemera, titled "Our Friend, Jean," is returning to Brooklyn's The Bishop Gallery starting May 16, 2026. The exhibition draws primarily from the archive of Alexis Adler, Basquiat's former roommate and partner from 1979–80, and includes paintings on sweatshirts, postcards, writings, and photographs Adler took of the artist. Originally presented in 2019, the show traveled to six historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) between 2022 and 2024, attracting 10,000 visitors and involving students in the installation process.
On May 8, thousands marched through Venice and more than two dozen national pavilions were partially or fully shuttered during a 24-hour strike organized by the Art Not Genocide Alliance and local activist groups. The strike, which included Palestinian flags draped over artworks, marks the first cultural strike in the Venice Biennale's 131-year history. Italian police beat back protesters as Editor-in-Chief Hakim Bishara reported from the scene. Separately, a nesting seagull near the Polish pavilion became an unexpected star, and the LA Art Book Fair opened with a focus on archival materials.
Cultural workers, labor unions, and grassroots groups are planning a strike at the Venice Biennale on Friday, May 8, organized by the Art Not Genocide Alliance and others. The action, described as the first organized strike within the Biennale, aims to protest Israel's inclusion in the event, with participants withholding their labor and calling to "shut down the genocide pavilion." The article also covers other art news, including exhibitions in Los Angeles, a profile of nonagenarian artist Mohammad Omer Khalil, and memes about the Met Gala.
Hyperallergic's weekly 'In Memoriam' column honors eight recently deceased figures from the art world, including Indian photojournalist Raghu Rai (1942–2026), Argentine abstract painter Ides Kihlen (1917–2026), Israeli painter and activist Yair Garbuz (1945–2026), British photographer Mark Gerson (1921–2026), Japanese art collector Kurt Gitter (1937–2026), Danish antiquities dealer Ittai Gradel (1965–2026), indigo textile artist Leigh Magar (1968–2026), and Kenyan muralist Patrick Mukabi (1967–2026). Each entry summarizes their life, career highlights, and contributions to visual art and photography.
The American Arts Conservancy, a new nonprofit with MAGA-aligned leadership, is fundraising for Alma Allen's 2026 US Pavilion at the Venice Biennale through a "Donate" button on its website, having received no institutional financial support. Meanwhile, a sculpture by Pedro Reyes at the newly unveiled LACMA building has sparked controversy for recalling a 2021 commission rejected by Mexico City after Indigenous and feminist protests, and the experimental LA nonprofit The Box has closed after 19 years.
Arleene Correa Valencia, a DACA recipient and Bay Area artist, presents her debut solo exhibition "CÓDICE •• SOBREVIVIENDO A LA PERSECUCIÓN" at Fridman Gallery in Manhattan, on view through May 2. The show features large-scale acrylic and textile works on amate bark paper, including a 16-foot-long piece depicting border-crossing narratives. Valencia collaborates with her father, mother-in-law, and papermaker Jose Daniel Santos de la Puerta, and incorporates childhood letters that poignantly reflect family separation and undocumented life.
The Box LA, a pioneering experimental art space in Los Angeles known for its fearless support of unconventional and performance art, is closing after 19 years. Founded in 2007 by Mara McCarthy in Chinatown (later moving to the Arts District), the gallery operated as a commercial space but with a nonprofit ethos, championing underrecognized artists from her father Paul McCarthy's generation alongside emerging talents. Its final exhibition, a retrospective of Wally Hedrick presented with Parker Gallery, ended April 4, with a closing celebration planned for June 6 featuring a fashion show by Johanna Went. The closure is attributed to financial struggles, exacerbated by the Eaton Fire that destroyed McCarthy's home and her family's, and a shift in support from McCarthy Studios.
The National Gallery in London is hosting an exhibition titled "Stubbs: Portrait of a Horse," focusing on the 18th-century artist George Stubbs and his masterful equine paintings. The show features studies, drawings, and key works like "Whistlejacket" (c. 1762) and "Scrub" (c. 1762), highlighting Stubbs's unique anatomical knowledge gained from dissecting horses.
A focused exhibition at Art Metropole in Toronto presents a selection of mail art submissions by the late transgressive artist Genesis Breyer P-Orridge to the Canadian collective General Idea in the 1970s. Drawn from the National Gallery of Canada's collection, the show features letters, collages, photos, and ephemera that capture P-Orridge's early, boundary-pushing work with collectives like COUM Transmissions and Throbbing Gristle.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has appointed Oluremi C. Onabanjo as its new curator of photographs, bringing her expertise in African and Black diasporic histories from MoMA. This announcement leads a series of industry shifts, including Melissa Chiu’s move from the Hirshhorn to direct the Guggenheim, and the relocation of the influential gallery 47 Canal to Chelsea. Additionally, the New York Foundation for the Arts distributed nearly $500,000 in grants to 129 artists and organizations in Queens.
Artist Tom Burckhardt discusses his creative process and upbringing in a studio interview, highlighting his upcoming work and the influence of his New York School lineage. The son of artists Yvonne Jacquette and Rudy Burckhardt, he explores the concept of "mouthfeel" in painting—a textural quality that parallels culinary experiences—while utilizing humor and skepticism to challenge artistic pretension.
I colori di Mark Rothko conquistano Firenze: una grande mostra in tre sedi
The city of Florence is hosting a major three-venue retrospective dedicated to Mark Rothko, centered at Palazzo Strozzi with extensions into the Museo di San Marco and the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana. Curated by Christopher Rothko and Elena Geuna, the exhibition features 70 works spanning the artist's career, from his early Surrealist-influenced paintings of the 1930s and 40s to his iconic 'Multiform' and classic color-field abstractions. A unique highlight of the show is the installation of Rothko’s smaller works within the historic cells of the Museo di San Marco, directly alongside frescoes by Beato Angelico.
Beverly Buchanan’s Architecture of Care
A major retrospective and a focused exhibition of artist Beverly Buchanan's work are now on view in Athens, Georgia, where she lived for many years. "Shacks, Stories, and Spirit: Beverly Buchanan’s Art of Home" at the Georgia Museum of Art features her canonical "Medicine Woman" sculpture, while "Beverly’s Athens" at the University of Georgia’s Athenaeum presents a rich archive of her ephemera, sketches, and community-focused works, marking the city's first institutional solo exhibitions of her art posthumously.
"Es hat niemals eine unpolitische Venedig-Biennale gegeben"
The Venice Biennale is embroiled in political controversy, with the US Pavilion's selection process criticized for bypassing traditional curatorial expertise in favor of a politically connected outsider. Simultaneously, a collective of artists and academics is protesting Russia's return to the Biennale, arguing it uses art as a political instrument to normalize its actions amid the war in Ukraine. An analysis in ArtReview contends the Biennale has never been apolitical, serving as a stage for geopolitical power plays since its inception.
Julio Le Parc, the Argentine-born pioneer of optical and kinetic art, died in Paris on May 30, 2026, at age 97. A co-founder of the Groupe de recherche d'art visuel (GRAV) in 1960, he rejected the myth of the inspired artist in favor of collective work, industrial materials, and reproducible devices that engaged the viewer's physical movement. His career included winning the Grand Prix international de peinture at the Venice Biennale in 1966, political activism during May 1968 (leading to his temporary expulsion from France), and major exhibitions at institutions such as the Palais de Tokyo, Centre Pompidou-Metz, and Pérez Art Museum Miami.
The article is a table of contents for Issue 43 of Contemporary Art Review LA, highlighting a feature on artist Tristan Unrau's exhibition at David Kordansky Gallery. The issue includes a range of critical essays, interviews, and reviews covering topics from olfactory art and tarot to social urgency in curation and video art, with a specific focus on the Los Angeles art scene.
Les plus belles terrasses de musées parisiens pour profiter des beaux jours
Beaux Arts Magazine has published a guide to the best museum terraces in Paris for enjoying the sunny days of spring and summer. The article highlights five standout spots: Rose Bakery at the Musée de la Vie romantique, Joli at the Musée Carnavalet, the Grand Café at the Grand Palais, Corail at the Musée d'Art moderne, and Sama at the Institut du monde arabe. Each terrace is described for its unique atmosphere, from the bucolic garden of the Musée de la Vie romantique to the spectacular colonnade of the Grand Palais, with details on chefs, menus, and seasonal highlights.
New York City nonprofit Artists & Mothers has named the 2026 recipients of its $25,000 childcare grant for artists who identify as mothers. The four awardees—Sara Cwynar, Nickola Pottinger, Trisha Baga, and Mimi Ọnụọha—work across photography, sculpture, collage, video, and multimedia installation. The grant covers nine months of childcare for emerging and mid-career artists raising a child under three, and this is the program's third cycle.
Artists Rashid Johnson and Sheree Hovsepian are launching a new residency program called The Residency at Casa Gràcia on the island of Menorca, set to begin next spring. The self-directed residencies, open to three artists and two writers per cohort, require no public presentation or outcome. Applications are open until July 31, with an advisory board including Hank Willis Thomas, Colson Whitehead, and representatives from Hauser & Wirth. The historic Casa Gràcia, built in 1860 and recently renovated by Laplace and Maimó&Brosa, features a studio, study, and walled garden in Mahon.
The Louvre has announced an international team of architects—New York's Selldorf Architects and Studios Architecture Paris—to lead its "Nouvelle Renaissance" expansion, a project estimated to cost over €1 billion ($1.2 billion). The plan, first announced by French President Emmanuel Macron in early 2025, includes a new entrance to accommodate three million additional visitors annually and a dedicated 33,000-square-foot exhibition space for Leonardo da Vinci's *Mona Lisa*. The museum's new director, Christophe Leribault, is moving forward with the project despite significant budget uncertainty, with cost estimates ranging from €270 million to €1.1 billion.
Susan Fisher Sterling, director of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) in Washington, D.C., will retire at the end of 2024 after 18 years in the role and nearly four decades at the institution. Sterling joined NMWA as an associate curator in 1988, rose through the ranks to become director in 2008, and oversaw a $67.5 million renovation completed in 2023, expansion of the collection to over 6,000 works, and partnerships with the Louvre, the State Hermitage Museum, and Tate Modern. The board of trustees has begun a search for her successor with executive search firm Howe-Lewis International.
Pakistani-born, Brooklyn-based tailor and community leader Hafeez Raza was honored by Mayor Zohran Mamdani as one of six garment workers photographed by Kara McCurdy, highlighting the real faces behind the fashion industry. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times's Image Editor-in-Chief Elisa Wouk Almino recounts a peculiar correspondence with artist Sophie Calle, who orchestrated a fake but real exchange using pre-written texts. In other news, Ai Weiwei discusses his new exhibition in Italy, censorship in Europe, and the Venice Biennale in an interview with El País. Additionally, Jacci Gresham, the first professional Black tattoo artist in the United States, reflects on her career since 1976, including tattooing Klan members and innovating with brown paper for Black and Brown clients.
Amy Sherald attended the 2025 Met Gala dressed as the subject of her own award-winning painting, *Miss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance)* (2014). The work, which won the Outwin Boochever Prize at the National Portrait Gallery and appeared on a *New Yorker* cover, depicts a young girl holding an oversized teacup. Sherald collaborated with designer Thom Browne to recreate the painting's look, including a red fascinator, as part of the gala's theme “Fashion Is Art,” which also aligns with the Costume Institute's exhibition “Costume Art.” Sherald served on the gala's committee alongside artists Anna Weyant and Tschabalala Self.
Refik Anadol and Efsun Erkılıç will open DATALAND, a museum dedicated to AI art, in Los Angeles on June 20, 2026. Located in the Grand LA complex designed by Frank Gehry, the 25,000-square-foot venue will feature five gallery spaces plus 10,000 square feet for supporting technology. Its inaugural exhibition, "Machine Dreams: Rainforest," created by Refik Anadol Studio, uses AI trained on ecological datasets to generate sensory experiences, including a version of Anadol's Infinity Room with a 1987 recording of an extinct Hawaiian bird and AI-generated scents. Membership starts at $350 per year.