The Artists Who Ruled the Biennial Circuit Over the Last Four Years

Artnet News critic Ben Davis analyzed 130 recurring global art events—including biennials and triennials—that opened between the 2022 and 2026 Venice Biennales, tallying over 15,000 participating artists. He identified the most frequently featured artists, with Nolan Oswald Dennis topping the list at 14 biennial appearances. Dennis, a South Africa-based artist born in Lusaka, is known for works like "Black Liberation Zodiac" (2017-ongoing) and was included in the 2026 Venice Biennale curated by the late Koyo Kouoh.

The Defining Themes of Today’s Biennial Art

The article analyzes the defining themes and styles of the past four years in the international biennial circuit, based on a survey of 130 biennials. It identifies a core group of artists who appeared most frequently, including Ali Eyal, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Carolina Caycedo, Kapwani Kiwanga, and Tuan Andrew Nguyen, among others. Many of these artists are also featured in the upcoming 61st Venice Biennale curated by the late Koyo Kouoh. The piece categorizes their work under two broad themes: "Post-Colonial Post-Conceptualism," which involves poetic engagement with colonial history and artifacts, and "Families and Networks," where artists explore personal and political family histories.

whitney biennial 2026 first takes

The 82nd Whitney Biennial has opened at the Whitney Museum of American Art, featuring 56 artists, duos, and collectives. Curated by Marcela Guerrero and Drew Sawyer, this edition eschews a formal theme in favor of a sprawling, material-diverse exhibition that emphasizes slow looking and political engagement. Early critical reception suggests a stronger, more cohesive showing than the previous 2024 edition, despite a notable absence of traditional painting.

amid ongoing layoffs brown university terminates both bell gallery curators rankling faculty

Brown University terminated both curators at the David Winton Bell Gallery—Kate Kraczon, director of exhibitions and chief curator, and Thea Quiray Tagle, associate curator—on December 4, as part of broader layoffs and austerity measures amid a financial crunch. The university eliminated 55 vacant positions and laid off 48 staff across campus, but has not publicly commented on the curators' terminations, which were confirmed via an internal message shared with ARTnews. Faculty members expressed surprise and frustration, saying they received no clear explanation beyond budget cuts, and it remains unclear who will handle future programming at the gallery.

The Palaces of Memory

The Palaces of Memory

The article reports that Israeli and US airstrikes on Isfahan, Iran, damaged several centuries-old palaces and cultural buildings. It draws a parallel to the destruction of cultural heritage in Gaza, suggesting this may be a targeted strategy to erase cultural identity and history, which are seen as threats to occupying forces.

Space, stadiums, poses and prizes: the best art and architecture of autumn 2025

This article is a seasonal preview of the best art and architecture exhibitions opening in autumn 2025, primarily in London and other UK venues. It highlights major shows including Mona Hatoum's dialogue with Giacometti at the Barbican, a Picasso exhibition at Tate Modern, Kerry James Marshall's first major European retrospective at the Royal Academy, and the Turner Prize 2025 at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery in Bradford. Other featured exhibitions cover Hilary Lloyd's work on Dennis Potter, Marie Antoinette's image through art and fashion at the V&A, Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme's new commission at Nottingham Contemporary, and a Lee Miller retrospective at Tate Britain.

Montclair Art Museum Hires Esteemed Curator Kate Kraczon After Layoffs at Brown University

The Montclair Art Museum in New Jersey has appointed Kate Kraczon as its new chief curator, effective June 15. Kraczon previously served as director of exhibitions and chief curator at the David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University, where she was laid off in late 2024 amid a wave of cuts. She succeeds Gail Stavitsky, who held the post since 1994. The museum also recently hired Todd Caissie, an enrolled member of the Osage Nation and former director of Canada’s New Brunswick Internment Camp Museum, as its director.

The Tensions Seething Beneath the Surface of the 2026 Whitney Biennial

The 2026 Whitney Biennial has quickly generated a consensus among critics, prompting a deeper analysis of its underlying themes. The exhibition features a notable tension between works exploring artificial intelligence, such as Zach Blas's maximalist installation and Cooper Jacoby's emotionally resonant sculptures, and a contrasting trend of delicate, nostalgic art focused on domesticity and ecology, exemplified by artists like Kelly Akashi and Jasmin Sian.

whitney biennial 2026 pictures

The 2026 Whitney Biennial has opened to an early critical consensus of being "above average," though critics suggest the exhibition requires significant time to process. Curated by Marcela Guerrero and Drew Sawyer, the show emphasizes a subtle atmospheric mood rather than overt spectacle, featuring a diverse array of installations, sculptures, and multimedia works that span multiple floors of the museum and its exterior.

2026 Whitney Biennial Lineup Announced

2026 whitney biennial line up

The Whitney Museum of American Art has announced the artist lineup for the 82nd edition of its prestigious biennial, scheduled to open on March 8, 2026. Curated by Marcela Guerrero and Drew Sawyer, the exhibition will feature 56 artists, duos, and collectives selected after more than 300 studio visits. The upcoming edition is currently untitled and focuses on the theme of "relationships," exploring everything from family ties and technology to geopolitical entanglements and interspecies connections.

2026 Art Trends: Whitney Biennial, Greater New York, and Carnegie International

2026 art trends

Three major American art surveys—the Whitney Biennial, MoMA PS1’s Greater New York, and the Carnegie International—are set to define the artistic landscape of 2026. Early analysis of the artist lists reveals a significant overlap in curatorial interest for figures like Taína Cruz, Akira Ikezoe, and Jonathan González. These exhibitions appear to be moving away from rigid thematic structures in favor of "mood and texture," reflecting a broader institutional retreat from definitive political or social statements.

whitney biennial 2026 artist list

The Whitney Biennial has announced the 56 artists selected for its 82nd edition, opening March 8, 2026. Curated by Marcela Guerrero and Drew Sawyer, the exhibition explores themes of relationality, kinship, infrastructure, and the US role in global affairs. The curators visited over 300 studios worldwide, and the list includes many emerging and lesser-known artists, with most participants under 45 and a significant number identifying as queer.

25th Biennale of Sydney Review: From the Margins

The 25th Biennale of Sydney, titled "Rememory" and curated by Hoor Al Qasimi, features 143 works by 83 artists and collectives from 37 countries across five venues. The exhibition explores marginalized, fragmented, and repressed histories, drawing on Toni Morrison's concept of 'rememory' as a space between remembering and forgetting. Key works include Tuan Andrew Nguyen's film on Vietnam War trauma, Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme's immersive installation on Palestinian displacement, Khalid Albaih's photographs of Sudan, and Massinissa Selmani's drawings on Algerian socialist building projects.

ArtReview April & May 2026 Issue Out Now

ArtReview's April & May 2026 issue explores boundaries and limitations in art, with a focus on the 61st Venice Biennale opening amid global conflicts. The cover features Japanese-American performance artist Ei Arakawa-Nash with his husband and twin babies, whose collaborative installation at the Japanese Pavilion incorporates the unpredictability of childcare. The issue includes coverage of controversial national pavilions (Russian, Israeli, American), profiles of artists representing Mongolia and Singapore, and features on Beverly Buchanan, Arthur Jafa, Richard Prince, and Zehra Doğan's report from Rojava. It also reviews the 82nd Whitney Biennial, the 25th Biennale of Sydney, and the 15th Shanghai Biennale.

whitney biennial 2026 systems infrastructure andrea fraser carmen de monteflores emilie gossiaux david johnson

The 2026 Whitney Biennial, curated by Marcela Guerrero and Drew Sawyer, moves beyond the traditional geographic borders of the United States to explore 'the greater United States.' Drawing inspiration from historian Daniel Immerwahr, the exhibition features artists from occupied territories, military outposts, and nations impacted by American intervention, including Okinawa, Chile, and Palestine. The show shifts the focus from identity politics to the material reality of infrastructure, examining how global systems of finance, energy, and empire operate and often fail.

Montclair Art Museum Hires New Chief Curator Kate Kraczon

The Montclair Art Museum in New Jersey has hired Kate Kraczon as its new chief curator, replacing Gail Stavitsky. Kraczon previously served as director of exhibitions and chief curator at the David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University, where she was terminated last December amid university layoffs. At the Bell, she organized the only US screening of "Prisoners of Love, 2025" by Palestinian artists Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme, and an exhibition of Julien Creuzet's work originally shown at the French Pavilion in the 2024 Venice Biennale. Before Brown, she worked as a curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in Philadelphia, where she organized the 2018 show "Ree Morton: The Plant That Heals May Also Poison."

Art for Our Age of Chaos

The article reviews two major New York exhibitions opening in 2026: the Whitney Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art, featuring over fifty artists, and "New Humans: Memories of the Future" at the newly expanded New Museum, with over a hundred artists. Both shows are described as enormous and defiant, responding to a distracted public and financial pressures. The reviewer notes that both exhibitions juxtapose large-scale immersive works with tiny, intimate pieces, and finds the Whitney Biennial lacking urgency, while preferring the New Museum's historical narrative about technology and modernity.

Montclair Art Museum Names Kate Kraczon Chief Curator

The Montclair Art Museum (MAM) has appointed Kate Kraczon as its new Chief Curator, effective June 15, 2026. Kraczon, a nationally respected curator with over two decades of experience, joins MAM from Brown University, where she served as Director of Exhibitions and Chief Curator of the David Winton Bell Gallery. At Brown, she oversaw a program of more than 7,000 works and developed partnerships with major institutions including the Andy Warhol Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art. Her previous roles include Laporte Associate Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, where she organized over 30 exhibitions.

george soros trump open society foundations investigation

The Trump administration has escalated its attacks on billionaire philanthropist George Soros, with the Justice Department calling for an investigation into his Open Society Foundations. The foundations, which provide substantial grants to artists and human rights organizations globally, are accused of potential racketeering, wire fraud, and material support for terrorism, based on allegations from the conservative Capital Research Center. Soros, a major Democratic donor, has previously been targeted by Trump and Vice President JD Vance, who claim the foundations fund leftist protests. The Open Society Foundations have awarded $100,000 fellowships to numerous prominent artists, including Firelei Báez, Yto Barrada, and Nicholas Galanin, and provided $1.2 billion in funding in 2024 alone.

56 participating artists, duos and collectives revealed for 2026 Whitney Biennial

The Whitney Museum of American Art has announced the 56 artists, duos, and collectives participating in the 2026 Whitney Biennial, the 82nd edition of the landmark U.S. contemporary art survey. Co-curators Marcela Guerrero and Drew Sawyer have chosen not to give the exhibition a thematic title, instead letting conversations with artists guide the selection. The roster includes well-known figures like Andrea Fraser, Kamrooz Aram, Precious Okoyomon, Pat Oleszko, and Julio Torres, alongside emerging talents and historical or overlooked figures such as Carmen de Monteflores, José Maceda, and Kimowan Metchewais. The exhibition opens March 8, 2026, occupying most of the Whitney's Manhattan building with performances, public events, and online programming.

Basel Abbas & Ruanne Abou-Rahme: Archivists and Activists

New York- and Ramallah-based Palestinian artists Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme present *Prisoners of Love: Until the Sun of Freedom* (2025), an hour-long four-channel film installation at The Bell/Brown Arts Institute in Providence. The work layers psychedelic imagery of figures in nature with spoken and written testimonies from Palestinians formerly detained by Israeli authorities, exploring themes of incarceration, surveillance, and resistance through fragmented montage and poetic text. The exhibition also includes drawings by Abou-Rahme’s father and printed screenshots of reflections on the genocide in Gaza.

Disobedience Archive (Canopy for Broken Time) In Dialogue with Raqs Media Collective at Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zürich

The Disobedience Archive, a mobile video archive initiated by Marco Scotini in 2005, is presented in dialogue with Raqs Media Collective at the Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst in Zürich. The archive contains over one hundred documentary and art films at the intersection of art and activism, documenting forms of resistance, social struggle, and collective self-organization.

art basel abbas ruanne abou rahme brown bell gallery

An exhibition titled "Prisoners of Love: Until the Sun of Freedom" by artists Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme is on view at the Bell Gallery at Brown University until May 31. The show centers on a historical misattribution: the poem "Enemy of the Sun," found in the cell of Black Panther George Jackson after his 1971 murder, was long thought to be his work but was actually written by Palestinian poet Samih al-Qasim. Through a video installation featuring interviews with former political prisoners in Palestine, the artists explore what they call "radical kinship" between Black radical thinkers in the U.S. and Palestinian activists. Curators Kate Kraczon and Thea Quiray Tagle, who were terminated from Brown last December, collaborated on the project, which also draws on archival research into mass incarceration.

Whitney Biennial 2026 | Art & Artists

The 2026 Whitney Biennial has opened at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, featuring a video and sound installation by artists Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme. Their work, titled 'Until we became fire and fire us,' explores collective feelings of love, longing, and haunting in the context of Palestinian erasure, weaving together traditional songs, contemporary footage of indigenous plants, and personal ephemera like drawings by Abou-Rahme's father.

Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme “Prisoners of Love: Until the Sun of Freedom” at The Bell Gallery, Providence

The Bell Gallery at Brown University is presenting "Prisoners of Love: Until the Sun of Freedom," a new exhibition by internationally renowned sound, video, and installation artists Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme. The show is co-curated by Kate Kraczon, Director of Exhibitions and Chief Curator of the Brown Arts Institute (BAI) / The Bell, and Thea Quiray.

Aichi Triennale confronts war, memory and environmental collapse

The sixth edition of the Aichi Triennale, titled "A Time Between Ashes and Roses," opened in Japan in September and runs until 30 November. Curated by Hoor Al Qasimi, the first non-Japanese artistic director of the triennial, the exhibition confronts themes of war, displacement, memory, and environmental collapse. Works include Kubo Hiroko's tapestry marking the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bombing and a video installation by Palestinian duo Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme. Al Qasimi explicitly linked the triennial to the situation in Gaza, stating, "Free Palestine," during a press conference. Controversy erupted over the Aichi-Israel Matching Program, a separate prefectural initiative pairing Israeli startups with local companies, leading to protests and the resignation of vice chairman Hideyuki Tomita from the organizing committee.

The sixth Aichi Triennale seeks to encompass destruction and renewal

The sixth edition of the Aichi Triennale, Japan's largest recurring contemporary art exhibition, opens under the title "A Time Between Ashes and Roses," featuring around 60 artists from 22 countries across venues in Nagoya. Artistic director Hoor Al Qasimi, president of the Sharjah Art Foundation, has curated a program that addresses themes of destruction and renewal, drawing on a poem by Syrian poet Adonis written after the 1967 Six-Day War. The exhibition references both the ongoing conflict in Gaza and the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with participating artists including John Akomfrah, Simone Leigh, Wangechi Mutu, Michael Rakowitz, and Hiroshi Sugimoto.