Edmonia Lewis Was the Earliest Known Black Artist to Depict Emancipation. This Is Her First Retrospective.

The Peabody Essex Museum is hosting "Said in Stone," the first-ever comprehensive retrospective dedicated to Edmonia Lewis, a pioneering 19th-century sculptor of Black and Ojibwe heritage. The exhibition assembles a significant body of her marble works, including the landmark sculpture "Forever Free" (1867), which is recognized as the first formal visual representation of emancipation by a Black American artist. The show traces her journey from her upbringing with her Ojibwe family and her traumatic years at Oberlin College to her eventual success as an expatriate artist in Rome.

Louvre Museum Jewel Heist Inspires Latest ‘Law & Order’ Episode

The long-running television series Law & Order has adapted the recent high-profile Louvre Museum jewel heist into a new episode titled "Beyond Measure." Filmed at the Brooklyn Museum—serving as the fictional Atlas Museum of Art—the plot follows detectives investigating the theft of the bejeweled Crown of Popoyan, a fictionalized version of the real-world $102 million heist involving a cherry picker escape. The episode weaves in a complex subplot regarding the repatriation of Indigenous Colombian artifacts held by the Vatican.

Are We Entering a Post-Individual Era of Art?

The New Museum has opened a new building with a major exhibition titled "New Humans: Memories of the Future," which explores how artists are redefining humanity through technology. A key figure in the show is artist Christopher Kulendran Thomas, who is simultaneously exhibiting at the Museum of Modern Art and recently showed at Gagosian Gallery, while also running project spaces in New York and Los Angeles.

Bridgeport Gallery Hosts Emerging Artists, Brings in ‘Big Deal’ Curator for October Show

Artist Linda Colletta has transformed her studio practice within Bridgeport’s historic American Fabric Arts building, a former lace factory, by blending painting with labor-intensive weaving. Drawing inspiration from the site’s industrial history and the teachings of Bauhaus artist Anni Albers, Colletta repurposes drop cloths and tears apart her own canvases to weave them back together. Her recent work explores the materiality of paint and the concept of "Thought Forms," a visual language for emotions influenced by early 20th-century Theosophy.

'I’m interested in breaking binaries, barriers and boundaries': Sarah Rosalena on her new LACMA commission

Artist Sarah Rosalena has completed a monumental 27-foot tapestry titled "Threading the Boundless: Omnidirectional Terrain" (2025), commissioned for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s (LACMA) new David Geffen Galleries. The work utilizes an industrial-scale jacquard-rapier loom to weave complex patterns that distort NASA satellite imagery of Earth and Mars. By blending her Wixárika maternal weaving traditions with computational craft, Rosalena transforms scientific data into a tactile, atmospheric landscape that challenges traditional methods of planetary mapping.

Textiles weave tales of Palestine’s rich but troubled history

The article examines the exhibition 'Narrative Threads' and related artistic projects that explore the profound significance of Palestinian textile traditions, particularly the cross-stitch embroidery known as tatreez. It highlights how 24 contemporary Palestinian artists, including Joanna Barakat and Sliman Mansour, are using this heritage to create new artistic meanings and address themes of displacement, identity, and cultural preservation.

Colours of Time review – Monet meets Mamma Mia in charming French artist comedy

Director Cédric Klapisch’s new film, *Colours of Time* (originally *La Venue de L’Avenir*), is a sentimental French comedy that weaves a fictional romantic history around Impressionist master Claude Monet and pioneering photographer Félix Nadar. The plot follows a group of modern-day descendants who discover a trove of historical secrets in a derelict cottage, leading to a whimsical, time-bending exploration of their ancestors' lives in Belle Époque Paris.

Shaniqwa Jarvis: Only Love Can Break Your Heart

Artist Shaniqwa Jarvis is set to debut her first UK solo exhibition, "Only Love Can Break Your Heart," at London’s Public Gallery on April 30, 2026. The show features twelve new works that blend photography with silk, mirrored surfaces, aluminum, and collage to explore themes of grief, memory, and renewal. Central to the exhibition are immersive silk installations that create live double exposures and a new film work that weaves together personal archival footage with intimate conversations on motherhood, labor, and identity.

The Asian Art Museum's jaw-dropping new exhibition weaves together the contradictions of the human condition.

The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco has opened "Chiharu Shiota: Two Home Countries," a major exhibition featuring the Japanese-German artist’s signature large-scale yarn installations. The show centers on immersive works like "Diary," which utilizes 20 miles of red thread to suspend historical documents and personal ephemera, and the title installation which explores the artist's dual identity between Japan and Germany. Through sculptures and performance videos, the exhibition navigates themes of memory, trauma, and the biological realities of the human body, including Shiota’s personal battles with cancer.

Cover | DIA Welcomes Jewish Museum Treasures in ‘Guests of Honor' Exhibit

The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) has launched a long-term exhibition titled 'Guests of Honor,' featuring significant loans of Jewish ceremonial objects from the Jewish Museum in New York. Running through January 2027, the display includes intricate items such as Torah crowns, pointers, menorahs, and spice boxes sourced from Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. The objects are integrated into various galleries, including the Arts of the Islamic World section, to highlight shared aesthetic motifs and historical connections between different cultures.

Amina Agueznay on Representing Morocco at the 61st Venice Biennale

Artist Amina Agueznay will represent Morocco at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026 with a monumental installation titled 'Asǝṭṭa' in the Arsenale. The work focuses on collaborative practices and ancestral narratives, drawing from her fieldwork with weavers and metalsmiths, and incorporates traditional silver sequins to create a dialogue between the Middle Atlas Mountains and Venice's canals.

Jeremy Frey: The Generational Impact of a New Artistic Path

Indigenous weaver Jeremy Frey, a 2025 MacArthur Fellowship recipient, will participate in an upcoming public conversation with Hyperallergic Editor-at-Large Hrag Vartanian. The discussion will explore Frey’s unique practice of Passamaquoddy basketry, which involves harvesting natural materials like black ash and sweetgrass to create intricate vessels and innovative relief prints that bridge the gap between traditional craft and contemporary sculpture.

Through Bamboo, the Artist Lap-See Lam Explores Her Family’s History

Swedish artist Lap-See Lam has opened her first solo exhibition in Asia at the Tai Kwun Contemporary in Hong Kong. The show, titled "The Dream of the Lion's Way," features her signature multimedia installations, including video, sculpture, and sound, which weave together Cantonese opera, family narratives, and 3D-scanned environments of Chinese restaurants in Sweden.

Art seniors explore identity, faith and change in capstone exhibition

Four graduating seniors at Shippensburg University—Drew Weaver, Greg Schultz, Ally Richwine, and Katelyn Bard—unveiled their capstone art exhibition at the Huber Arts Center. The showcase features a diverse array of media, including surrealist paintings of liminal spaces, printmaking focused on mental health and friendship, experimental ceramics, and biblical-themed paintings exploring personal identity.

A Bold Attention

Gallery Chang is hosting a solo exhibition titled "A Bold Attention" by South Korean artist Suh Yongsun at its New York location from April 9 to May 2, 2026. The exhibition features fifteen works, including self-portraits, historical scenes such as those involving King Danjong, and contemporary urban observations of New York locations like Rockefeller Center and Brooklyn.

MASP Contested Narratives Between Replica and Weaving

MASP CONTESTED NARRATIVES BETWEEN REPLICA AND WEAVING

The Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP) has opened two simultaneous exhibitions that critically examine how narratives in Latin American art are formed. 'Réplica (Replica)' is a retrospective of Peruvian artist Sandra Gamarra Heshiki, featuring over 70 works that appropriate and alter historical pieces to expose the exclusionary mechanisms of museums. 'Vivir, tejer (Living, Weaving)' presents the collaborative textile work of Claudia Alarcón and the Silät collective, a group of over one hundred Wichí women weavers, foregrounding ancestral knowledge and collective creation.

Saodat Ismailova “When the Water Turns to Wind” at Portikus, Frankfurt

Saodat Ismailova “When the Water Turns to Wind” at Portikus, Frankfurt

Uzbek artist Saodat Ismailova has opened a major solo exhibition, "When the Water Turns to Wind," at Portikus in Frankfurt. The presentation features a new, immersive film installation that weaves together ancestral myths, sonic landscapes, and the ecological history of Central Asia, focusing on the region's disappearing rivers and steppes. The work continues her long-term exploration of memory and cultural preservation.

Calls for Artists: April 2026

Multiple open calls for artists and grants have been announced for April 2026 deadlines. The 2027 Creative Capital Open Call offers unrestricted project grants up to $50,000 for artists across all 50 states, while also selecting recipients for the new State of the Art Prize, which grants $10,000 to one artist from each state and territory. Delfina Foundation, in partnership with the Jorge M. Pérez Collection, is offering four fully funded residencies for Latin American and Caribbean artists, with two spots available in this round. The Ogden Museum of Southern Art is accepting submissions for its Louisiana Contemporary 2026 statewide juried exhibition, and the Handweaver’s Guild of America has issued calls for entries for its Convergence 2026 fiber art exhibitions.

WAYS OF REMEMBERING YAHUARCANI AND MUNOZ AT MASP

The Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP) is currently presenting two distinct exhibitions that explore memory, identity, and historical violence in Latin America. 'Santiago Yahuarcani: The Beginning of Knowledge' features 35 works by the Peruvian artist that weave together Uitoto cosmology with the traumatic history of the Amazon rubber boom, while 'Video Room: Oscar Muñoz' showcases three video works by the Colombian artist that use ephemeral materials to reflect on political disappearance and the instability of the image.

The Negative Aura of Catherine Christer Hennix

Catherine Christer Hennix's exhibition at Malmö Konsthall presents an austere yet expansive body of work that weaves together mathematics, mysticism, and sound. The artist's practice is characterized by a focus on absence, silence, and negative space, creating an immersive environment that challenges conventional sensory engagement.

Nikyle Begay Resurrects Century-Old Diné Weavings

Nikyle Begay, a Diné shepherd and weaver based in the Navajo Nation, is revitalizing ancestral weaving techniques that were historically marginalized by the colonial trading-post economy. By breeding Navajo Churro sheep and mastering complex twill patterns once used for functional saddle blankets, Begay bridges the gap between traditional agricultural practice and contemporary fine art. Their work involves the entire lifecycle of the medium, from shearing and processing wool to reconstructing intricate designs that fell out of favor when commercial markets prioritized specific regional styles for non-Native buyers.

‘Under the Red Tent’ weaves memory, labor, and community at The CAMP Gallery

The CAMP Gallery in Miami is presenting the group exhibition 'Under the Red Tent,' which explores themes of memory, labor, and community through the works of multiple artists. The show uses the titular red tent as a symbolic space for gathering, storytelling, and examining shared histories and collective work.

Maitland exhibit: Textures of Middle East come to life in paintings woven with cultural memory

Mär Martinez's first solo museum exhibition, “A loom, a fence, a wire, a thread,” opens at The Art & History Museums of Maitland, featuring paintings inspired by traditional Turkish and Middle Eastern textile practices. The works, developed during her 2024-2025 Fulbright research in Istanbul, weave together her Cuban and Syrian heritage, exploring themes of cultural memory, displacement, and resilience through imagery of carpets, barbed wire, and urban barriers.

Artists reimagine Kanjeevaram saris in ‘Journey and Exile’ showcase at Asian Art Museum, USA

Artist and curator Vara Ramakrishnan presented a one-day exhibition titled 'Journey and Exile' at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, featuring 34 Kanjeevaram saris reimagined with artwork by artists and master weavers. The saris, including a piece by Shirin Nijhawan titled 'Ganesha' enhanced by embroidery artist Prabha Narasimhan, were displayed as unstitched garments that transcend size and social status, each carrying its own narrative.

Remembering Napoleon Jones-Henderson, an AfriCOBRA Founding Member Who Imbued Art and Life with Exuberant Energy

Napoleon Jones-Henderson, a founding member of the influential African American artist collective AfriCOBRA, has died. Born in Chicago in 1943, he studied at the Sorbonne and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he was mentored by Bauhaus textile artist Else Regensteiner. In 1969, he co-founded AfriCOBRA, becoming known as "the weaver" of the group for his vibrant textile works that incorporated metallic threads and found objects. He later moved to Boston, taught at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and maintained a prolific studio practice in Roxbury for over 50 years, creating works focused on empowerment, Pan-Africanism, and racial justice.

An artist told the incredible story of a Calabrian village that no longer exists. The interview

Un artista ha raccontato l’incredibile storia di un borgo della Calabria che non c’è più. L’intervista

Italian artist Martin Errichiello has created [campanamuta], a six-part audio work broadcast on RAI Radio 3's Zazà program in late 2025 and now available on RaiPlay Sound. The piece tells the story of Eranova, a farming community founded in 1896 near Reggio Calabria that was destroyed by 1980 after the Christian Democratic party planned—but never built—a steel center on its land, now the site of the Port of Gioia Tauro. Errichiello weaves together interviews with former residents and his own original texts, using non-linear narration to explore the village's utopian origins and forced disappearance.

Within and beyond the gallery: Moody Center for the Arts brings artists into classroom and classroom into exhibition

The Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University organized the exhibition 'Imaging after Photography,' which explored how artificial intelligence is reshaping the medium. The show featured seven international artists, including Sofia Crespo and Gregory Chatonsky, and was curated by Alison Weaver and Noor Alé.

How One Cooperative Champions the Quechua Weavers of Peru’s Sacred Valley

The nonprofit organization Awamaki was founded in 2009 to support Quechua communities in Peru's Sacred Valley, particularly women weavers, as they navigate economic shifts and climate change. It now assists nine cooperatives comprising 174 artisans, providing structural support for selling traditional textiles and coordinating tourism to generate income while preserving cultural practices.

Exhibition by textile artist Kadi Pajupuu to be opened at the Riigikogu

Textile artist Kadi Pajupuu has opened a solo exhibition titled "Sinane" (This Very) at the Art Gallery of Toompea Castle, the seat of the Estonian Parliament. Inaugurated by Riigikogu President Lauri Hussar, the showcase features experimental works that blend archaic Estonian linguistic themes with modern material technologies. The exhibition highlights Pajupuu’s innovative weaving techniques, including her patented RailReed and MultiWeave systems, which allow for adjustable warp density and three-dimensional textile structures.

‘Under the Red Tent’ weaves memory, labor, and community at The CAMP Gallery

The CAMP Gallery in North Miami is hosting "Under the Red Tent," an immersive fiber art exhibition presented in collaboration with Red Thread Art Studio Miami. Featuring over 20 women artists, the show transforms the gallery into a monochromatic red environment where threads are suspended, woven, and draped to create a tactile sanctuary. The exhibition launched on International Women’s Day and functions as an evolving space that integrates a living oral history archive alongside physical textile works.