Frist Art Museum Will Present 100 Years of Contemporary Indigenous Art

The Frist Art Museum in Nashville will present "An Indigenous Present," an exhibition spanning 100 years of modern and contemporary Indigenous art, from June 26 to September 27, 2026. Co-curated by artist Jeffrey Gibson and independent curator Jenelle Porter, the show features 15 artists who use abstraction as a tool for liberated expression, including Teresa Baker, Raven Chacon, Kimowan Metchewais, Caroline Monnet, George Morrison, Mary Sully, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, and Kay WalkingStick. Organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, the exhibition draws from Gibson and Porter's landmark 2023 publication of the same title and is structured into five thematic sections that place emerging artists in dialogue with established makers.

Primitivism to Reinvent Art

Le primitivisme pour réinventer l’art

Philippe Dagen has published the third and final volume of his series on primitivism, covering the period from World War II to the late 1970s. The book traces how Western artists, from Barnett Newman and Jackson Pollock to members of the CoBrA movement and figures like Jean Dubuffet, Lucio Fontana, and Yayoi Kusama, engaged with so-called "primitive" art from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, often as a means of rejecting or redefining modern civilization. Dagen also examines the intellectual debates surrounding primitivism, including the critiques of colonized peoples who refused the label "primitive," and the shifting attitudes of thinkers like Claude Lévi-Strauss, Michel Leiris, and Aimé Césaire.

Francisco de Zurbarán: Paintings So Real, You Can Hardly Resist Believing

An exhibition of works by Spanish Baroque painter Francisco de Zurbarán has opened at London’s National Gallery, showcasing his strikingly realistic still lifes and religious scenes. The show highlights Zurbarán’s masterful use of light, texture, and dramatic composition to create paintings that feel almost tangible, drawing viewers into their intimate, contemplative worlds.

Robert Filliou, artistes océaniens… Que nous réserve la prochaine édition de la Biennale de Lyon ?

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."

GaHee Park: The Exhaustion of Distance

GaHee Park's solo exhibition "Half-Looking, Half-Seen" is on view at Perrotin New York from April 24 to May 30, 2026. The show presents paintings that destabilize perception, using light and shadow to fragment figures and objects, with works like "Seafood Heaven," "Wetland at Dusk," and "Creeping Shadow" exploring themes of visibility, identity, and temporal collapse. The exhibition marks a trajectory toward Park's institutional debut at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Exhibition | Trishla Jain, 'In Equilibrium' at Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York, New York, United States

California-based artist Trishla Jain presents her first solo exhibition at Sundaram Tagore Gallery in New York, featuring abstract canvases from her 'Yantra' and 'Tantra' series. The works are deeply rooted in the artist’s lifelong meditation practice and spiritual study, utilizing intricate patterns of dots, dashes, and grids to represent the intangible process of breath awareness. While the 'Yantra' series focuses on mathematical precision and geometric focus, the 'Tantra' series explores fluid, organic arrangements that evoke celestial or topographical forms.

At MoMA, Duchamp Vanishes Into the Shadow of His Own Legend

EXPO Chicago 2026 serves as the backdrop for a series of compelling exhibitions across the city, ranging from Josh Brainin’s frantic two-channel video installation at Tala to a group show at the Chicago Cultural Center exploring the city's physical and social infrastructure. These curated highlights showcase a mix of local talent and conceptual rigor, emphasizing Chicago's diverse contemporary art landscape during the major international fair.

At the Venice Biennale, the Armenian Pavilion Transforms into an Artist's Workshop: Works Are Born in Front of the Public

Alla Biennale di Venezia il Padiglione dell’Armenia si trasforma in bottega d’artista: le opere nascono di fronte al pubblico

The Armenian Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale will transform into a functioning artist's studio, where sculptor Zadik Zadikian will create works in real time before the public. Titled "The Studio," the project is curated by gallerist Tony Shafrazi and curator Tina Chakarian, and will operate daily from May 6 to November 22 at the Tesa 41 of the Arsenale. Zadikian, born in Yerevan in 1948 and now based in the US, will work with traditional Armenian plaster techniques alongside his son Aram and studio assistants, emphasizing the process of making over the finished object.

The legendary film "Novecento" by Bertolucci in his Parma becomes a major exhibition

Il mitico film “Novecento” di Bertolucci nella sua Parma diventa una grande mostra

A major exhibition titled "Bernardo Bertolucci. Il Novecento" has opened at the Palazzo del Governatore in Parma, Italy, marking the 50th anniversary of Bertolucci's epic film "Novecento" (1976). The show is structured as a visual experience across 25 rooms and four sections, exploring the film's dialectic between collective history and intimate gaze. It features video, drawings, photographs, production materials, and artworks by artists such as Franco Angeli, Renato Guttuso, Taner Ceylan, and Mario Schifano, all drawn from private collections. The exhibition's first room sets the tone with a video juxtaposing the film's opening credits over Pellizza da Volpedo's painting "Il Quarto Stato" and a close-up of the young Olmo holding a frog, encapsulating the tension between political epic and sensory detail.

Exhibition | Jens FÄNGE, 'Antechamber' at Perrotin, New York, United States

Perrotin New York presents 'Antechamber,' an exhibition of over twenty new paintings by Swedish artist Jens Fänge. The works feature distorted, labyrinthine interiors populated by people, animals, and mannequins, using layered materials like oil, vinyl, linen, and burlap to create compositions that blur the line between figuration and abstraction. Recurring motifs such as doors, windows, halos, and locusts shift meaning across the show, which draws inspiration from Hans Christian Andersen's fairytales and Nathanael West's surrealist novels.

In Minor Keys: The 61st Biennale di Arte Venezia Opens Under Koyo Kouoh (1967–2025).

The 61st Biennale di Arte Venezia opens under the posthumous curatorial vision of Koyo Kouoh (1967–2025), the late Cameroonian-born curator who reshaped contemporary African and diasporic art discourse. The central exhibition, spanning the Giardini and Arsenale, features 111 participants including artists, collectives, and artist-led organizations from across the Global South, with works in textiles, film, sculpture, and performance that interrogate colonialism, migration, and ecological repair. The Biennale is also marked by a pronounced presence of African and diasporic narratives across national pavilions, including several first-time pavilions from the African continent.

‘A constant quiet terror’: Getting lost in Irish folklore – in pictures

Maria Lax's photobook *Stray Sod* draws on Irish folklore and archival accounts from the Irish National Archives to explore the phenomenon of the 'stray sod'—enchanted patches of earth said to disorient and lead travelers astray, especially at night. Her images reimagine rural Irish landscapes as sites of sudden confusion, where familiar landmarks vanish and fog or mist descends, evoking a sense of 'constant quiet terror'.

morocco debuts national pavilion at the venice biennale with monumental asǝṭṭa installation

Morocco will debut its first-ever national pavilion at the 2026 Venice Art Biennale, presenting a monumental installation titled "Asǝṭṭa" by multidisciplinary artist Amina Agueznay. Curated by Meriem Berrada, the project is housed in the Arsenale's Artiglierie and explores themes of traditional craftsmanship, shared memory, and the symbolic threshold (âatba). The installation, which involves 166 Moroccan artisans and two Venetian collaborators, is conceived as a porous, liminal space that engages with the Biennale's theme "In Minor Keys," curated by Koyo Kouoh.

“Conspiracies” Aby Warburg Institute / London by Frank Wasser

The exhibition “Conspiracies” at the Warburg Institute in London, curated by Larne Abse Gogarty, brings together works by Hannah Black, Caspar Heinemann, Sam Keogh, and Shenece Oretha alongside panels from Aby Warburg’s Bilderatlas Mnemosyne. Through sculpture, drawing, collage, installation, and sound, the show resists the idea that conspiracy can be solved by exposure or critique, instead constructing unstable relations between historical images, speculative narratives, and material processes. Key works include Heinemann’s drawings reimagining Ted Kaczynski as “Theodora” and Keogh’s large-scale collage referencing medieval tapestries and surveillance systems.

A Napoli c’è una mostra ispirata a Emily Dickinson dove è la luce a creare le opere

Diego Perrone's exhibition "There's a certain Slant of light" opens at Galleria Umberto Di Marino in Naples, taking its title from an Emily Dickinson poem. The show features new photographic and painted works born from the artist's observation of light passing through domestic glass objects in Naples, where architecture and daily life are shaped by an interplay of light and shadow. Photographs are enclosed in hand-molded glass frames, while large surfaces created with airbrush, charcoal, and chalk present shadow fields on white backgrounds, forming a visual sequence that unfolds like a film in black and white.

Hyeree Ro: What Bears

Hyeree Ro is preparing for the 2026 Venice Biennale, where she will present the work "Bearing (2026)" as part of the Korean Pavilion, titled "Liberation Space: Fortress/Nest." The article follows Ro in her temporary Brooklyn studio, where she works with salvaged objects and materials that migrate across multiple works over years—such as a sheet of organza purchased in 2023 that later appeared in "Niro (2024)" and "Carry (2025)" before being repurposed as the pavilion's fabric walls. Her practice is defined by a nomadic, accumulative material logic: objects enter without a fixed destination and gain meaning through repeated reuse.

The Order of Symbolism, Signs and Sensibility

The Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro (MAM Rio) is hosting a major retrospective titled 'Rubem Valentim: a ordem do sensível,' featuring approximately 180 works spanning four decades. Curated by Raquel Barreto and Phelipe Rezende, the exhibition showcases Valentim’s unique fusion of modernist abstraction with the spiritual symbols of Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous cosmologies. The presentation includes paintings, reliefs, and sculptures, culminating in monumental works like 'Templo de Oxalá.'

Suman Dey’s new solo in Kolkata gives form to the abstract notions around us

Artist Suman Dey presents his second solo exhibition, titled *Chance, Remains of Another Time*, at Emami Art in Kolkata. The show features large-scale works on wood and other materials that explore abstract notions of memory, time, and nature through fragmented forms, textures, and narrative. Key pieces include a series of frames capturing everyday surface textures and a work titled *Journey* that uses boat shapes to depict transformation. The exhibition runs until May 9.

What Brakes Through: “Teresa Tyszkiewicz. Stories That Tell Themselves” at Profile Foundation.

Teresa Tyszkiewicz's exhibition "Stories That Tell Themselves" at Profile Foundation in Warsaw showcases the Polish artist's process-driven practice spanning video, performance, and relief-like paintings made with pins, nails, metal plates, ropes, and fabrics. Curated by Bożena Czubak, the show highlights Tyszkiewicz's use of the body as a medium—often naked and immersed in organic materials—to explore emotions, intuition, and unconscious desires, as seen in works like the 1980 film "Grain." The artist, who began her career in the late 1970s alongside Polish neo-avantgarde filmmakers but rejected their conceptual tendencies, developed a tactile, laborious approach that invites sensory engagement.

For the 2026 Venice Biennale, the RojoNegro duo brings a collective ritual to the Mexico Pavilion

Per la Biennale Arte 2026 il duo RojoNegro porta nel Padiglione del Messico un rituale collettivo

The article announces that the RojoNegro collective, formed by María Sosa and Noé Martínez, will represent Mexico at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026 with a project titled "Actos invisibles para sostener el universo." Curated by Jessica Berlanga Taylor, the installation combines organic materials, sound, video, and performance to create a ritualistic space that invokes invisible presences, memories, and energies. The work draws on decolonial perspectives, centering Indigenous and Afro-descendant cosmogonies as living knowledge systems, and aims to activate a dialogue between situated ritual practices and the global context of the Biennale.

M’barek Bouhchichi: Hands That Remember

Moroccan artist M’barek Bouhchichi presents 'Les mains des poètes' at Foundation H in Antananarivo, Madagascar, running until 17 October 2026. The exhibition stems from a residency in Madagascar where Bouhchichi collaborated with local artisans—blacksmiths, weavers, ceramists, and musicians—to create works that resist singular authorship. Central to the show is the revival of sorabe, the Arabico-Malagasy script, treated as an embodied, gestural practice rather than fixed writing.

KABARIN-JAVAKANTO: Speaking in Many Tongues

Fondation H in Antananarivo, Madagascar, presents 'Kabarin-javakanto: A Reading of the Fondation H Collection,' an exhibition curated by Abdellah Karroum that reinterprets the foundation’s international holdings through the Malagasy oratorical tradition of kabary. Rather than a conventional display, the show activates works from Africa and its diasporas across three galleries, emphasizing dialogue, community, and relational viewing.

Northside artists sow seeds of ancestral wisdom in Arboretum exhibit

An art exhibit titled "Where the Seed Remembers: A Celebration of Earth, Lineage and Memory" opened on March 29 at the University of Minnesota’s Landscape Arboretum’s Reedy Gallery in Chaska, featuring 10 artists of color. Co-curated by Northside artist Joshua Gillespie (Brotha Aśe), the show includes works by Ron Brown, Ayolanda Evans, Imani Mansfield, and Allena Sweats, among others, and opened with a libation ceremony by Vusumuzi Zulu and Mariama Imani. The exhibition runs through May 17.

Studio Art MFA Thesis Exhibition Pushes Art's Boundaries

American University's Studio Art MFA candidates will present their thesis exhibition, titled "If That Makes Sense," at the AU Museum from April 18 to May 17, 2026. The show features nine artists—Rob Balsewich, Michael Dodson, Julia Fouser, Ryan Kennedy, Kelvin He Hao Low, Lexi Moser, Austin Remetta, Brenay Spencer, and Sarah Bell Wilson—whose works span painting, sculpture, textiles, sound, and installation, exploring themes of memory, identity, materiality, and collective experience.

Between Here and Elsewhere: A New Generation Steps Forward

The Javett Art Centre at the University of Pretoria will host 'Between Here and Elsewhere,' an exhibition featuring the Top 10 artists from the 2025/26 Tlhagella Incubation Programme. Curated by Puleng Plessie, the show opens on 1 May 2026 and presents works that explore themes of presence, memory, and belonging through a polyphonic, multi-perspectival approach.

Mass for Care of Creation; exhibition of art inspired by Laudato Si'

The London Jesuit Centre is hosting "Paintings of Prayer and Protest," an exhibition featuring the works of artists Helen Elwes and Martin Jarvis. The show coincides with a special Mass for the Care of Creation at Farm St Church in Mayfair, marking the anniversary of Pope Francis' death. Both artists, members of Christian Climate Action and the Laudato Si' Movement, present works that blend ecological activism with spiritual devotion, including painted banners used in climate marches and contemporary icons addressing rainforest devastation.

IN REVIEW: To be felt, not read — ‘Paper Trails: Unfolding Indigenous Narratives’ at IAIA MoCNA

A new exhibition titled 'Paper Trails: Unfolding Indigenous Narratives' has opened at the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA), part of the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA). The show features works by contemporary Indigenous artists who utilize paper as a primary medium to explore themes of history, memory, and cultural identity, moving beyond text-based narratives to create visceral, sensory experiences.