Recent psychological research confirms that engaging with visual art provides significant physical and mental health benefits, including the alleviation of depression, anxiety, and stress. Studies indicate that viewing art can also enhance cognitive functioning and social skills, prompting new initiatives to explore the specific mechanisms behind these wellness improvements.
Cultured magazine invited seven MFA students from CalArts, Columbia, RISD, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Yale to share recent works and discuss their artistic concerns. The students—Sascha Huth, Martha Estrella, Wenqing Zhai, Yehwan Song, Ricky Vasan, Virginia Hanusik, and Khidr Joseph—work in painting, photography, and sculpture, addressing themes such as commodity culture, Mexican American identity, China's one-child policy, digital inequality, personal yearning, ecological collapse, and grief.
The Ethiopia Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale presents "Shapes of Silence," an exhibition by artist Tegene Kunbi, curated by Abebaw Ayalew, running from May 9 to November 22, 2026, at Palazzo Bollani. The show marks the culmination of Kunbi's thirty-year practice, exploring silence as a social and political condition through abstraction, textiles, and assemblage, drawing on Ethiopian folkloric traditions and material histories.