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Adam Pendleton's exhibition "Love Queen" is on view at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., through January 3, 2027. The show features his distinctive abstract works that blend mark-making, pictographs, and all-caps texts, including pieces from his "Untitled (Days)" series and "Black Dada" series, as well as a single-channel video titled "Resurrection City Revisited (Who Owns Geometry Anyway?)" that documents the 1968 Poor People's Campaign.

v a c foundation ex director teresa mavica interview 1234742351

Teresa Iarocci Mavica, former director of the Moscow-based V-A-C Foundation, which she co-founded with Russian billionaire Leonid Mikhelson, has resurfaced after three years of silence. She resigned from V-A-C in November 2021, just before the opening of GES-2 House of Culture, Russia's largest contemporary art museum, and left Russia shortly after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Now based in Naples, she has curated "The Sun to Come" at Made in Cloister, launching her biennial program "REBIRTH." The exhibition includes three Russian artists, reflecting her continued commitment to cultural dialogue between Russia and Europe despite the war.

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A Nobilified, a start-up that lets customers insert themselves into classic paintings for about $140, has created a series of artworks depicting Super Bowl heroes from the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks in historical masterpieces. Patriots quarterback Tom Brady appears as Prometheus (1868) by Gustave Moreau, tight end Rob Gronkowski as Abduction of Ganymede by Jupiter (ca. 1644) by Eustache Le Sueur, while Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson is shown in Ideal portrait of a Spanish King (ca. 1643) by Alonso Cano, with other players featured in works by John Singleton Copley and Benjamin West.

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Barack and Michelle Obama have added several modern and contemporary artworks to the White House collection during their final year in residence. New acquisitions include works by Mark Rothko, Edward Hopper, Sam Francis, Josef Albers, Robert Rauschenberg, and Alma Thomas, replacing traditional portraits of former first ladies. The pieces were sourced partly through museum loans, such as two Hopper paintings from the Whitney Museum of American Art for the Oval Office.

MoMA acquires works featured in monumental Adam Pendleton installation

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has acquired the 35 individual paintings, drawings, and video works that comprised Adam Pendleton's monumental installation *Who Is Queen?* (2019-21), which was on view in the museum's atrium from 2021 to 2022. The installation explored Pendleton's conceptual framework of "Black Dada," a term he first outlined in his *Black Dada Manifesto* (2008), and included works such as *Notes on the Robert E. Lee Monument, Richmond VA (Figure)* (2021), a film reflecting on the 2020 racial justice protests. The acquisition marks a significant institutional commitment to Pendleton's practice, which continues to evolve in his current exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC.

Giant Buddha Lands in New York

Artist Xandra Ibarra staged a nude performance titled "Nude Laughing" at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, walking through the contemporary galleries to challenge viewer etiquette and spark conversations about consent, art history, and the human body. Separately, a 27-foot-tall Buddha sculpture has been installed on the High Line in New York, serving as a resurrection of the destroyed Bamiyan Buddhas and a critical piece of cultural heritage.

Artist Henry Ossawa Tanner

This article profiles Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859–1937), the pioneering African American artist who achieved international fame in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in Pittsburgh to a bishop father and a mother who escaped slavery, Tanner studied under Thomas Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts before moving to Paris to escape racial discrimination. He studied at the Académie Julian, became a mentor to Black artists including Aaron Douglas and Hale Woodruff, and gained renown for his biblical paintings such as "Daniel in the Lions' Den" (1896). Tanner traveled widely—to Egypt, Morocco, and Palestine—and was named a chevalier of the French Legion of Honor in 1927. The article lists numerous works by Tanner held in major collections, including the first painting by an African American artist acquired for the White House Collection.

Curators Announced for 16th Baltic Triennial

The Contemporary Art Center (CAC) Vilnius has appointed artist Nikita Kadan and curator Natalia Sielewicz as curators of the 16th Baltic Triennial, scheduled for 2027. Kadan is a Kyiv-based artist, while Sielewicz is chief curator at Warsaw's Museum of Modern Art. The duo has proposed "grief and resurrection" as the triennial's theme, framing despair and mourning as spaces for careful listening and potential renewal.

San Francisco’s Museum of the African Diaspora marks 20 years with a show about Blackness and the cosmos

San Francisco's Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) has reopened its renovated ground-floor lobby to mark its 20th anniversary, alongside two new exhibitions. The larger show, "Unbound: Art, Blackness & the Universe" (on view until 16 August 2026), explores Blackness and the cosmos through painting, photography, sculpture, and installation. Curated by MoAD's first full-time curator Key Jo Lee, the exhibition features 17 artists including Torkwase Dyson, Barkley L. Hendricks, Lorna Simpson, Oasa DuVerney, and Mikael Owunna, organized under three themes: "Geo-Cartographic," "Religio-Mythic," and "Techno-Cyborgian." The $500,000 renovation also upgraded lighting and HVAC systems.

Un grand dessin de Beckmann pour Stuttgart

The Staatsgalerie Stuttgart has acquired a monumental drawing by Max Beckmann titled *Resurrection*, measuring nearly five meters long and three and a half meters high. Executed between 1916 and 1918, it is the largest painting by the artist and a key work in his oeuvre, created after his traumatic experience as a volunteer medical orderly in World War I. Beckmann described the piece as expressing 'the terrifying cry of pain of deceived poor humanity,' marking a shift toward a new formal vocabulary influenced by the war.

Berlin Museum Oversees Digital Resurrection of Hundreds of Paintings Destroyed During World War II

Berlin's Gemäldegalerie is digitally reconstructing hundreds of Old Master paintings by artists like Rubens, Veronese, van Dyck, and Caravaggio that were destroyed in fires near the end of World War II. The project uses high-resolution scans of glass negatives, primarily photographed by Gustav Schwarz between 1925 and 1944, to create detailed online renderings that will be publicly accessible for viewing and download later this year.

Nick Cave’s “Mammoth” Collection of Objects Is a Public Deep Dive Into Personal History

Nick Cave's immersive solo exhibition "Mammoth" is on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum through January 3, 2027. The show features a vast, illuminated table covered with hundreds of everyday objects—faux fruits, bejeweled vegetables, wooden canes, glass fish, toy trucks, and leather slippers—arranged with deliberate purpose. Alongside these collected items, Cave has constructed mammoth hides and bones, and a video projection brings the ancient creatures to life. The exhibition draws deeply on Cave's personal history growing up in Missouri, with memories of his grandparents' farm and his family's traditions of making, quilting, and craftsmanship informing the assemblage.

The Big Review | The reopening and rehang of the Sainsbury Wing, National Gallery, London ★★★★★

The National Gallery in London has reopened its Sainsbury Wing after a renovation led by architect Annabelle Selldorf, designed to create a more welcoming entrance. The wing, originally designed by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown in 1991, now features a transformed ground floor with double-height spaces, improved lighting, and a new piazza linking to Trafalgar Square. The reopening coincides with the gallery's bicentenary and a major collection rehang titled "C C Land: the Wonder of Art," sponsored by a Hong Kong property developer. Old favorites like the chapel-like space for Piero della Francesca's works are restored, and new commissions, including Richard Long's "Mud Sun," greet visitors.

This Exhibition Proves That Blackness Is as Vast and Limitless as the Universe Itself

The Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco has launched "Unbound: Art, Blackness, and the Universe," a major exhibition marking the institution's 20th anniversary. Spanning all three floors, the show features an international group of African diasporic artists whose work intersects with astrophysics, spirituality, and mythology. Organized into three thematic sections—Geo-Cartographic, Religio-Mythic, and Techno-Cyborgian—the exhibition showcases diverse media ranging from Mikael Owunna’s ultraviolet photography and Harmonia Rosales’s Yoruba-inspired paintings to David Alabo’s virtual reality installations.

10 Art Shows to See in the Bay Area This Fall

The article presents a curated guide to 10 art exhibitions opening in the Bay Area this fall, highlighting shows by artists such as Mike Henderson, Julio César Morales, Auudi Dorsey, and Jim Melchert. It covers venues ranging from Haines Gallery and Gallery Wendi Norris to the Manetti Shrem Museum and di Rosa SF, with works addressing Black Oakland history, immigration, segregation-era Black leisure, and conceptual ceramic art.

May You Live in Interesting Times — The IFPDA Print Fair Asks, Do Bad Times Really Inspire Great Art?

The 2026 IFPDA Print Fair, featuring over 80 exhibitors at New York's Park Avenue Armory, explores the provocative theme of whether societal crises and 'bad times' inspire great art. The fair presents a historical survey of printmaking as a medium for dissent and therapy, showcasing works from Francisco Goya's anti-war etchings to Kara Walker's critiques of racial injustice, German Expressionist responses to post-WWI turmoil, and contemporary pieces addressing ongoing conflicts.

Minor Keys and Major Silences: Yoshiko Shimada and the Art of Outrage

Yoshiko Shimada, a Japanese feminist and antiwar artist, is featured in a conversation with ArtAsiaPacific ahead of her inclusion in the 2026 Venice Biennale, curated by Koyo Kouoh under the theme "In Minor Keys." The article explores Shimada's decades-long practice of excavating the gendered scars of Japanese imperialism, focusing on her collaborative work with BuBu de la Madeleine, which uses drag and irony to critique imperial frameworks and the erasure of wartime atrocities. It also highlights her revival of the Chū-pi-ren movement, a 1970s feminist group that fought for abortion rights and access to birth control, arguing that their legacy remains urgent in 2026 given Japan's slow progress on women's bodily autonomy.

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A petition with over 600 signatures is protesting the selection of Prague-based artist Predrag Đaković to represent Serbia at the 2026 Venice Biennale with a project titled “Across Golgotha to Resurrection.” The petition, created by the ZUK Informal Art and Culture Collective, alleges that the selection process was unprofessional and non-transparent, and that commission members are closely linked to President Aleksandar Vučić’s Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). The announcement was reportedly made via Đaković’s Instagram rather than through official channels, and neither the artist nor Serbia’s Ministry of Culture has responded to requests for comment.

The 2026 Venice Biennale is light and conscious

Quella del 2026 è una Biennale di Venezia leggera e consapevole

The 2026 Venice Biennale, titled "In Minor Keys" and curated by the late Koyo Kouoh, has opened with a focus on ecology and humanity's relationship with nature. The central pavilion at the Giardini presents a festive, craft-heavy exhibition that emphasizes connections with plants and animals, while the Arsenale offers a more spacious, symphonic experience featuring standout works such as Alfredo Jaar's "End of the World" (2023-2024) and Kader Attia's "Whisper of Traces" (2026). National pavilions, including those of Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, and Spain, explore themes of the body, memory, and ruin with notable installations.

The Museum Breathing Life Into New York's Downtown Performance Scene

The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in SoHo has emerged as a vital hub for New York’s downtown performance scene through its intergenerational exhibition, "Sacred and Profane." Featuring a collaborative residency between poet Pamela Sneed and performance artist Carlos Martiel, the programming centers on themes of Black maternal grief, queer identity, and the exhumation of suppressed histories. Recent performances included Martiel’s "No Resurrection," a ritualistic piece involving his mother and a mound of earth, and Sneed’s readings that address the collective trauma and "urgent care" status of the LGBTQ+ community.

Artist Paul Rucker’s Klan Robes Expose America’s Racist Underbelly

Artist Paul Rucker's exhibition "Rewind Resurrection" returns to New York a decade after its debut, featuring his iconic Klan robes reimagined in bold fabrics like pink, Kente cloth, and camouflage. The show, which was censored at York College of Pennsylvania in 2017 following the Charlottesville white supremacist rally, includes KKK memorabilia, data visualizations of prison proliferation, and wooden relief sculptures honoring victims of racial violence. It is Rucker's first New York show, self-funded in a rented Chelsea gallery, and he hopes an institution will acquire the entire installation.

Ruin and beauty loom 30 feet over museum visitors at new St. Louis Art Museum exhibition

The St. Louis Art Museum has opened "Anselm Kiefer: Becoming the Sea," the first American survey of the German-born artist's work in 20 years. The exhibition features five monumental 30-foot-tall paintings, including the 2024 work "Lumpeguin, Cigwe, Animiki," inspired by Kiefer's 1991 visit to St. Louis and his memories of the Mississippi River. Museum Director Min Jung Kim curated the show, which explores Kiefer's signature use of texture, sculpture techniques, and themes of ruin and resurrection.

New Exhibition Showcases Evolution of Virgin Islands Contemporary Art

The group exhibition "Virgin Islands Contemporary" is set to open at Salt of the Earth Tattoo in St. Thomas, featuring the work of ten local artists. Curated by Lucien Downes, the show highlights a diverse range of visual mediums that move beyond traditional Caribbean iconography like seascapes and historical narratives. The participating artists, including Brenda L. Cotto and Jon Euwema, explore themes of cultural evolution and identity through experimental materials and modern techniques.