The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., has received a gift of 1,261 photographs from artist Mitch Epstein and his wife, Susan Bell. The donation, the largest institutional collection of Epstein's work, spans his five-decade career and includes major series such as 'American Power,' 'Property Rights,' and 'New York Arbor.'
Lee Sharrock selects five must-see highlights at the 61st Venice Biennale, titled "In Minor Keys" and conceived by the late curator Koyo Kouoh, who passed away in 2025. The Biennale runs from May 9 to November 22, 2026, at the Giardini, Arsenale, and various Venetian venues. Featured highlights include Marina Abramović's historic exhibition "Transforming Energy" at the Gallerie dell'Accademia—the first major show for a living woman artist there—the Holy See Pavilion's "The Ear is the Eye of the Soul" with artists like Patti Smith and Brian Eno, and Lubaina Himid's British Pavilion presentation "Predicting History: Testing Translation."
At the 2024 Venice Biennale, the Russian pavilion returned with festive performances and prosecco deliveries, drawing sharp criticism from observers who saw it as a propaganda effort to distract from Russia's war in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Ukraine's Kramatorsk was bombed, and protests erupted, including a Pussy Riot intervention. Biennale president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco defended Russia's and Israel's participation, rejecting preemptive bans despite open letters and appeals. European Commission investigated potential sanctions breaches, and culture ministers from Ukraine, Poland, Estonia, and Baltic states boycotted or condemned the biennale's stance, accusing it of yielding to the aggressor.
A major retrospective exhibition dedicated to John Giorno, titled "The Performative Word," has opened at MAMbo, the Museum of Modern Art of Bologna. The show, curated by Andrea Bellini and Vincente Todolí, explores Giorno's multidisciplinary practice as a poet, artist, and activist, highlighting his collaborations and his innovative approach to making poetry a performative and visual experience.
I Musei di Verona hanno un nuovo direttore. “Questa città può diventare un laboratorio culturale”, dice Lorenzo Balbi
Lorenzo Balbi, currently director of MAMbo in Bologna, has been appointed as the new director of the Musei di Verona, a civic museum network that includes the Arena di Verona, Casa di Giulietta, Museo Archeologico al Teatro Romano, Museo Civico di Storia naturale, Museo degli Affreschi di G. B. Cavalcaselle, Museo di Castelvecchio, Museo Lapidario Maffeiano, and Galleria d’Arte Moderna Achille Forti. He will take office in September 2026, selected for his strategic vision to revitalize the system as a hub for cultural production, civic participation, and international dialogue.
Matt Connors presents his exhibition 'Cooperative Village' at Herald St gallery in Bologna. The show runs from February 6 to May 16, 2026, and is documented with 17 images by photographers Carlo Favero and Charles Benton.
Dove viveva il grande artista Joseph Beuys? Il racconto a fumetti di Gianluca Costantini
In the summer of 2022, the author visited Düsseldorf and discovered that Joseph Beuys's former home at Drakeplatz 4 in Oberkassel was for sale, but the city's cultural department declined to purchase it. Beuys lived and worked there from 1961 until his death in 1986, using the space as both a residence and studio. The article recounts the intimate details of family life there, including how Beuys painted the main room white for his wife Eva's photography, and how the family navigated the blend of private life and artistic practice. Two years later, the Brunhilde Moll Foundation acquired the house and opened it to the public, though it was closed for renovations when the author returned. The house now displays about sixty works from Beuys's creative period and will host artist residencies and events.
A 28-year-old tourist in Florence climbed the Neptune Fountain in Piazza della Signoria and caused €5,000 ($5,800) in damage while attempting to touch the statue's genitals as part of a pre-wedding challenge. Police intervened, and specialists from the Fabbrica di Palazzo Vecchio later found damage to a horse's legs and a frieze. The woman has been reported to judicial authorities but is presumed innocent until a verdict.
Casa Sanlorenzo, the artistic division of the luxury yacht brand, has opened a new exhibition titled "Waves" in Venice, coinciding with the Venice Biennale. Curated by Sergio Risaliti and Cristiano Seganfreddo, the show spans 1,000 square meters across two floors plus a 600-square-meter garden, featuring works by seven artists: Alexander Calder, Lucio Fontana, Fausto Melotti, Tony Cragg, Marcello Maloberti, Christine Safa, and Friedrich Andreoni. The exhibition explores the concept of the wave as a metaphor for artistic expression, with a focus on sculpture and sound, including Melotti's poetic sculptures, Andreoni's immersive sound installation, and Calder's mobiles.
Un artista italiano fa una mostra a Tunisi ispirandosi alle architetture di Le Corbusier
Italian artist Cristian Chironi has opened the seventh chapter of his ongoing project "My house is a Le Corbusier" with an exhibition in Tunis titled "My house is a Le Corbusier (Villa Baizeau)". The project centers on Villa Baizeau, a Le Corbusier-designed house built between 1928 and 1930 for industrialist Lucien Baizeau, which is now inaccessible inside the Tunisian presidential park. Chironi, inspired by a failed attempt by artist Costantino Nivola to bring Le Corbusier's architecture to his hometown Orani, instead travels the world temporarily inhabiting Le Corbusier's buildings. For this iteration, he set up a residency at La Boîte – Centre d'Art & d'Architecture in the Medina of Tunis from January 22 to April 5, 2026, culminating in an exhibition that opened April 3, 2026, using the villa as a lens to read the city rather than a physical space to occupy.
Italian artist Davide Rivalta has installed thirteen monumental bronze sculptures of lions, buffalo, and rhinoceroses across Stockholm, Sweden, in a project titled "Blowing Figures into Space." Organized by the Italian Cultural Institute of Stockholm, the works are placed in strategic locations including Mynttorget, Gamla Stan, Ladugårdsgärdet, and Hagaparken, with installations rolling out from April 2025 through summer 2027. The first sculpture was unveiled near the Swedish Parliament during Stockholm Art Week, and additional animals will appear in public parks on August 29.
A family of entrepreneurs acquired an ancient bar in Rome's Pigneto neighborhood in 2020, inheriting a Roman-era hypogeum dating back to the 1st century BC. Originally a pozzolana quarry, later a wine cellar and WWII air-raid shelter, the space beneath the historic bar Necci dal 1924 reopened to the public on March 12 as an exhibition venue. It now hosts "Sottoforma," a cycle of three exhibitions curated by Donatella Giordano and Agatha Jaubourg that explore the theme of the invisible through contemporary art. The first exhibition features works by Eva Marisaldi, Enrico Serotti, and Luca Vitone, running until March 31, followed by shows with Iginio De Luca and Liliana Moro in April, and José Angelino and Elena Bellantoni in May 2026.
Questo fumetto inedito prova raccontarci come sarà la Biennale del futuro
Hurricane (Ivan Manuppelli), a leading figure in Italian underground comics, creates an original comic titled "Biennale 2126" for Artribune, imagining what the Venice Biennale might look like in the future. In an accompanying interview, he discusses his satirical approach, the enduring relevance of underground comics, and the importance of critiquing power through art.
Lamberto Pignotti, the 100-year-old Florentine artist and poet and a leading figure in visual poetry, is celebrated with two concurrent exhibitions: "Pignotti 100. Pop-esie visive" at the Mart in Rovereto (in collaboration with the Collegio Cairoli of Pavia) and the dual solo show "Identikit di Pignotti e Hogre" curated by Marco Giovenale at Galleria Bianco Contemporaneo in Rome. The latter exhibition, born from a dialogue between Pignotti and the anonymous artist Hogre, centers on a collection of envelopes Pignotti has saved for over fifty years—each addressed to him with varying titles (architect, artist, poet, professor) or altered names (Alberto, Lorenzo, Mario, Giuseppe)—revealing his fragmented identity. Pignotti co-founded the Gruppo '70 in Florence in 1963 with Eugenio Miccini, a movement that brought together multidisciplinary artists including Lucia Marcucci, Ketty La Rocca, and musicians Giuseppe Chiari and Sylvano Bussotti.
Una mostra a Milano fa dialogare visionari paesaggi contemporanei con un acquerello del grande Turner. Recensione e intervista
The exhibition "Continuum" at Robilant+Voena in Milan marks the first solo show in the city for American artist Maria Kreyn. It presents a selection of her contemporary landscapes—charged with pathos, abstract geometries, and references to art history—alongside a rare watercolor by J.M.W. Turner, *The Splügen Pass* (1842–43). Kreyn’s seascapes, influenced by her background in mathematics and philosophy, feature turbulent waves, ovoid and parabolic forms, and a sense of latent tension, creating a visual dialogue with Turner’s Romantic vision of nature.
The Museum of Art Pudong (MAP) in Shanghai has announced "Giorgio Morandi. Solo," the largest and most comprehensive exhibition of Giorgio Morandi in the 21st century, opening June 17 and running through October 2026. Presented with the Museo Morandi in Bologna, the show brings together over 200 works from 39 institutions and private collections worldwide, including more than 140 original artworks by the Italian painter, with over 120 shown in China for the first time. Highlights include Morandi's only known seascape, one of seven self-portraits, a never-before-exhibited portrait of his sister, and his personal star-wheel etching press on loan from descendants of his friend Francesco Bagnaresi.
Mafalda incontra Pimpa. A Roma il dialogo tra due autentiche icone del fumetto: intervista ai curatori
A new exhibition in Rome titled "Mafalda & La Pimpa" brings together two iconic comic strip characters for the first time. Created by Quino (1964) and Altan (1975) respectively, Mafalda and Pimpa represent different approaches to childhood: Mafalda critically questions adult society, while Pimpa explores a gentle, wonder-filled world. The show runs from May 14 to July 11 at the Instituto Cervantes, featuring over 120 original strips and plates, and is organized in collaboration with ARF! Festival and other partners. Curators Stefano Piccoli and Daniele Bonomo designed the exhibition to highlight both the contrasts and surprising analogies between the two beloved figures.
The third edition of the De Linea Art Festival took place on May 2-3 at the Certosa di Pontignano near Siena, Italy. Curated by Matteo Marsan and Riccardo Guasco, the event transformed the historic monastery into a living laboratory of drawing, illustration, and performance. Nine illustrators—including Marina Marcolin, Francesco Poroli, Elisa Macellari, Gianluca Folì, Ale Giorgini, Gloria Pizzilli, Matteo Berton, Giovanna Giuliano, and Daniele Caluri—participated in a week-long residency, producing works inspired by the site and the festival's theme "Crepe e spiragli" (Cracks and Glimmers), a contemporary interpretation of a Leonard Cohen quote. Over 500 visitors attended workshops, talks, and shared creative sessions, including a workshop by Fondazione Il Bisonte and performances by actress Daniela Morozzi and graphic poet Alessandro Valenti (Alvalenti).
Le opere di Alfredo Pirri per la primissima mostra del Polytropon Arts Center in Toscana
The Polytropon Arts Center, founded by Greek-born architect Maria Papadaki Badanjak, opens its inaugural exhibition "Quello che avanza" featuring works by Italian artist Alfredo Pirri. The venue, a converted former spinning mill located between Pelago and Pontassieve near Florence, hosts the show through June 21, 2025. The exhibition includes 144 cyanotypes created between 2014 and 2017, along with Pirri's "Arie" series in plexiglass, crystal, feathers, and colors. The show is accompanied by a musical program curated by artistic director Andrea Cavallari, with concerts scheduled for May 17 and June 21. Pirri and Cavallari previously collaborated in 2019 at the Museo Novecento in Florence as part of the "Firenze Suona Contemporanea" festival.
Provincia Cosmica. Tra bar e studio, ovvero la vita punk di Jacopo Benassi
Italian artist Jacopo Benassi, born in 1970 and shaped by the punk scene, discusses his return to his hometown of La Spezia after years in Milan, where he worked as a photographer for Rolling Stone. He describes his life revolving around his studio and local bars, and reflects on founding the underground club B-Tomic in 2011, which became a hub for his artistic and photographic work blending music and performance. He also mentions an upcoming book of drawings and texts by Renzo Daveti (alias Benzo), a formative figure from the Italian punk scene.
Amato dal pubblico, ma non dai critici d’arte. Jack Vettriano in mostra a Roma (intervista alla curatrice)
A major retrospective exhibition of Scottish painter Jack Vettriano has opened at Palazzo Velli in Rome. The show, which originated in Bologna at Palazzo Pallavicini, was transformed into a posthumous retrospective following the artist's death in March 2025. It features both original oil paintings and high-quality, limited-edition reproductions on museum paper, a curatorial choice made by Vettriano himself to make his work more accessible.
The Franco Fossati Foundation's Museo del Fumetto (Comics Museum), which was evicted from Milan due to a €180,000 debt to the city, has found a new permanent home in Monza. The Monza city council approved the foundation's proposal on April 30, paving the way for the renovation of a former library in the Cederna district, which has been abandoned for years. The archive of 500,000 pieces will be temporarily stored in Desio while the Monza building is refurbished with €850,000 from the municipality and additional funds from the foundation.
No, il Museo del Fumetto chiuso a Milano non ha trovato la nuova sede in Brianza
The Museum of Comics (Museo del Fumetto) in Milan, which suspended operations in June 2025 due to a €180,000 debt to the city, has not found a permanent new home despite online rumors. Instead, the Fondazione Franco Fossati, which runs the museum, has secured temporary storage for its archive in Desio (Monza-Brianza) for up to two years, using spaces granted free of charge by the local municipality. The archive—containing over 500,000 items including publications, original boards, and memorabilia—will be cataloged and preserved there, but the museum itself remains closed to the public.
A Bologna una mostra mette assieme tradizioni pittoriche e profumi contemporanei
The exhibition "Sogni di natura" (Dreams of Nature) has opened at the Collezioni Comunali d’Arte in Bologna’s Palazzo d’Accursio, coinciding with the 57th edition of Cosmoprof Worldwide. The show transforms the historic Sala Boschereccia into a multisensory "imagined garden" where 18th-century landscape paintings by Vincenzo Martinelli and Giuseppe Valiani are paired with contemporary fragrances. Students from the Italian Perfumery Institute developed these scents by analyzing the historical and symbolic identity of the room’s original decorations.