‘Money! Glamour! Yachts! But not for me!’ Adrian Searle relives 30 glorious years as our chief art critic

Adrian Searle, the outgoing chief art critic for The Guardian, reflects on his 30-year career by recounting a vivid, personal montage of the art he has witnessed. He describes unforgettable encounters with works ranging from Vermeer's intimate paintings to Fiona Banner's suspended jet fighter, Roger Hiorns's crystal-filled flat, and Emily Jacir's poignant project on Palestinian displacement, highlighting how these experiences blend memory, story, and direct observation into a critic's life.

Artists v fascists, Khmer Rouge horrors, fab flowers and an eye-popping nude – the week in art

This week's art roundup from The Guardian features a major exhibition at Towner Eastbourne titled 'Comrades in Art: Artists Against Fascism,' which examines how artists, poets, and intellectuals used their work to resist the rise of extremism in 1930s Europe, drawing on the history of the Artists International Association (AIA). Other highlights include 'Hidden: Photography and Displacement Under the Khmer Rouge' at The Wiener Holocaust Library in London, a show of early Netherlandish drawings at the British Museum, Katharina Grosse's colorful installations at White Cube, and a flower-themed survey at Kettle's Yard. The image of the week is Sylvia Sleigh's 1963 portrait 'The Bridge (Johanna Lawrenson),' part of a new exhibition of the Welsh artist's work. The article also covers news items such as Lydia Ourahmane's Venice Biennale installation, a Holbein portrait mystery, a restored stained-glass window by Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris, and Anish Kapoor's call to exclude the US from the Venice Biennale due to 'politics of hate.'

vija celmins retrospective beyeler basel foundation switzerland 1234747135

The Fondation Beyeler in Basel, Switzerland, is hosting a retrospective of Vija Celmins featuring roughly 90 works. The exhibition traces Celmins's career from her early still lifes of studio objects, through her grayscale depictions of war imagery like bombers and nuclear tests, to her later graphite drawings of clouds, ocean waves, and desert surfaces. The show also includes her bronze casts of stones painted to resemble the originals, presented in the installation *To Fix the Image in Memory*.

emerging artist aiza ahmed up next 2716359

Emerging artist Aiza Ahmed, a 28-year-old Pakistani-born painter and sculptor who recently completed her MFA at the Rhode Island School of Design, is having a breakout moment in New York. Her first solo show, "The Music Room," is on view at Sargent's Daughters, while she participates in two prestigious residencies: Silver Art Projects at 4 World Trade Center and the Fire Station residency in Doha, directed by Wael Shawky. Ahmed's work explores themes of migration, belonging, and identity, drawing on her family's experience of Partition and her own upbringing across Dubai, London, and the U.S. She will also be the youngest artist at the inaugural Art Basel Qatar in February 2025.

maja ruznic site santa fe 2661296

Artist Maja Ruznic has created a suite of large, luminous canvases responding to early 20th-century paintings glorifying Spanish colonization at the St. Francis Auditorium in the New Mexico Museum of Art, as part of the 12th Site Santa Fe International. The exhibition, curated by Cecelia Alemani and titled "Once Within a Time," opened last week. Ruznic, a Bosnian war refugee living in Placitas, New Mexico, confronts the problematic history depicted by artist Donald Beauregard, who died at 29 before completing the commission, which was later finished by uncredited artists Carlos Vierra and Kenneth Chapman.

do ho suh tate 2647202

Artist Do Ho Suh presents his first solo exhibition at London's Tate Modern in two decades, titled "The Genesis Exhibition: Do Ho Suh: Walk the House." The show features his signature translucent fabric architectural sculptures, including the newly created installation "Nest/s" (2024), a collection of 1:1 scale replicas of spaces where Suh has lived and worked across Seoul, New York, London, and Berlin. The exhibition explores themes of home, memory, and migration, drawing from Suh's own experiences moving from Seoul to New York and later London.

Collateral Events Not to Miss at 61st Venice Biennale

The article highlights several collateral events not to miss at the 61st Venice Biennale, including "The Spirits of Maritime Crossing 2026" at Palazzo Rocca Contarini Corfù, featuring 20 artists from Southeast Asia, Ireland, and Serbia, anchored by Marina Abramović's performance piece "Sea Punishing" (2006). Other notable exhibitions include a seven-decade survey of Korean artist Lee Ufan at San Marco Art Centre, "TURANDOT: To the Daughters of the East" at ACP Palazzo Franchetti featuring 11 female artists from Central Asia, Li Yi-Fan's "Screen Melancholy" at Palazzo delle Prigioni, and Nalini Malani's "Of Woman Born" at Magazzini del Sale.

Dóra Maurer, Hungarian Conceptual Artist, Dies at 88

dora maurer artist dead 1234773951

Dóra Maurer, a preeminent figure of Hungarian conceptual art, has died at the age of 88. Known for her multidisciplinary approach spanning film, photography, and painting, Maurer rose to prominence for her experimental work created under Soviet rule in Hungary. Her practice frequently explored themes of displacement, perception, and the mathematical shifting of forms, ranging from her 1970s performance-based photography to her later vibrant, geometric "Overlappings" paintings.

Memory, Migration, Materiality: 12 Artists to Watch During Alserkal Art Month

Alserkal Art Month (April 18–May 18, 2026) in Dubai features a district-wide initiative of exhibitions and events, anchored by the group show "Déjà Vu" at Concrete, Alserkal Avenue (April 25–May 8). Curated by Kevin Jones, Nada Raza, and Zaina Zaarour, the exhibition brings together over 50 artists from 20 UAE-based galleries, centering on themes of memory, displacement, and cultural inheritance. The article profiles 12 standout artists, including Shahpour Pouyan and Juma Al Haj, whose works translate these tensions into materially inventive and conceptually rigorous practices.

ali eyal mohn award 2025 made in la biennial hammer museum 1234772942

The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles has announced the prize winners for its 2025 Made in L.A. biennial. Ali Eyal received the $100,000 Mohn Award, Carl Cheng won the $25,000 Career Achievement Award, and Greg Breda was selected by public vote for the $25,000 Public Recognition Award. The winners were chosen by a jury of curators from prominent institutions.

Researchers at Art Gallery of Ontario identify painter and subject of 18th-century portrait of Black woman

Researchers at the Art Gallery of Ontario have identified the artist and sitter of an 18th-century portrait of a young Black woman. The painting, purchased in 2020, is now titled 'Portrait of Eleonora Susette' (1775), revealing the subject as a woman born around 1756 in the Dutch colony of Berbice (now Guyana). The artist is Berlin-born Jeremias Schultz, who painted the portrait in Amsterdam after Eleonora Susette was brought there by her enslaver, the artist's cousin.

Our pick of the best pavilions at the 61st Venice Biennale

The article highlights standout national pavilions at the 61st Venice Biennale. The Belarus Pavilion features a powerful installation by the Belarus Free Theatre, including a wheat field built by former political prisoners, straw spiders made from prison bars, and a confession booth that runs facial recognition. The Brazil Pavilion presents a joint exhibition by Rosana Paulino and Adriana Varejão, focusing on colonial wounds and trauma through works like Paulino's 'Aracnes' and Varejão's 'Still Life amid Ruin'. The Bosnian Pavilion by Mladen Bundalo invites tactile engagement with themes of diaspora and migration, while the Austrian Pavilion by Florentina Holzinger draws attention with nude performers in water-filled pools.

art institute of chicago stock exchange expansion plan 1234775823

The Art Institute of Chicago is considering a major expansion that could involve relocating or reshaping the historic Chicago Stock Exchange Trading Room. Located on the museum's east side, the 5,700-square-foot room is a preserved architectural landmark originally designed in the 1890s and saved from demolition in the 1970s. While no final decisions have been made, museum officials identified this area as having the highest potential for increasing gallery capacity to showcase more of the institution's permanent collection.

acropolis michael rakowitz athens allspice mesopotamia 1234755193

Michael Rakowitz's survey exhibition "Allspice" at the Acropolis Museum in Athens explores themes of cultural displacement, looting, and historical narrative through works like his series "The invisible enemy should not exist" (2007–), which reconstructs looted artifacts from Baghdad's National Museum of Iraq using Arabic food wrappers and newspapers. The show also features his 2004 video "Return," documenting his effort to import Iraqi dates labeled as "product of Iraq" to the US after decades of sanctions, and includes interventions with the museum's own collection, such as a Cypriot head he linked to Assyrian art.

lawrence abu hamdan munch museum exhibition golan heights 1234753861

Lawrence Abu Hamdan's exhibition "Zifzafa" has opened at the Munch Museum in Oslo, featuring a politically charged exploration of sound as both a celebration of life and a tool of displacement. The show centers on a forensic audio investigation into the impact of 31 wind turbines planned for the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights, or Jawlan. Key works include the video projection *Wind Ensemble* (2024) featuring saxophonist Amr Mdah, CGI animations *Tilting at windmills i, ii & iii* (2024), and the 45-minute film *Zifzafa: Livestream Audio Essay* (2025), which uses a video game walkthrough format to simulate the sonic pollution that will affect local homes—some as close as 115 feet from the turbines. The game incorporates field recordings by local composer Busher Kanj Abu Saleh and turbine noise from Germany, highlighting the sounds of daily life and resistance.

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.

jackie amezquita bricks new talent 1234743463

Jackie Amézquita, a Los Angeles-based artist originally from Guatemala, has developed a unique brick-making process using soil and masa de maíz (corn dough) mixed with organic materials like blue pea flower, cocoa, cochineal, and charcoal to create vibrant, colorful bricks. Her work, including the 2023 installation *El suelo que nos alimenta* commissioned by the Hammer Museum for the Made in L.A. biennial, uses soil from each of LA's neighborhoods to explore themes of migration, memory, and colonial legacies. Amézquita's practice is deeply personal, drawing on her family's migration history—her mother moved from Guatemala in 1987, and her grandmother fled Mexico during the Cristero War—and her own eight-day walk from Tijuana to LA, during which she collected soil samples as an archive of memory.

The Best Art Exhibitions to See in Miami in May

The article lists the best art exhibitions opening in Miami in May, including group shows at Voloshyn Gallery featuring musicians Brian Eno and Malibu, solo debuts at ICA Miami for Manoucher Yektai and Manuel Chavajay, a survey of Afro-Cuban art at Lowe Art Museum, a photography show at Dale Zine by Juanita Richards, and a landscape exhibition at NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale. Other highlights include a World Cup-themed video installation at The Bass and Japanese woodblock prints at the Morikami.

One Fine Show: “Michael Rakowitz, Proxies for Poets and Palaces” at the Stavanger Art Museum

Iraqi-American artist Michael Rakowitz has opened his first major survey exhibition in Norway, titled "Proxies for Poets and Palaces," at the Stavanger Art Museum. The show features eight new reliefs from his long-running series *The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist*, which recreates artifacts looted from Baghdad's Iraq Museum using cardboard, Arabic newspapers, and food packaging, alongside older works like the 2017 film *The Ballad of Special Ops Cody*.

Anna Maria Maiolino: ‘My body speaks to me and I’ve been listening to it since I was really young’

Anna Maria Maiolino, an 83-year-old Italian-born Brazilian artist, is the subject of a feature interview following her first solo exhibition in France, titled "Estou Aqui (I am here)", at the Musée Picasso in Paris. The exhibition spans her career of over 60 years and includes newly commissioned work. Maiolino, who won the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 2024 Venice Biennale, discusses her migration from Italy to Venezuela to Brazil, her time in New York, and her return to São Paulo. She reflects on her artistic practice, which evolved from gestural works on paper and film to clay installations, and her engagement with themes of exile, language, and memory, often using simple materials like paper, cement, and clay.

Inside Mirna Bamieh’s Edible Meditations on Borders and Belonging

The article profiles artist Mirna Bamieh and her unique artistic practice that uses food as a medium to explore themes of borders, displacement, and belonging. Bamieh creates edible installations and participatory performances that engage audiences in sensory experiences tied to Palestinian identity and the politics of land.

8 New Art Exhibitions You Cannot Miss This May

This May, galleries across India are presenting a diverse array of new art exhibitions, ranging from postcolonial installations and forgotten print histories to deeply personal paintings and sculptural storytelling. Highlights include Sri Lankan artist Shanaka Kulathunga's solo show 'Silent Stories' at Bikaner House, exploring memory and displacement; the group exhibition 'In the Telling' at Chemould Prescott Road in Mumbai, focusing on narrative-making and fragmented memory; and 'An Ancient Ballad' at Emami Art in Kolkata, drawing from mythology and folklore. Other notable shows include a retrospective of modernist A. A. Raiba at Thapar Gallery, the politically charged 'The Architecture Of The Void' at Gallery Dotwalk, and Navjot Altaf's 'Waste Archives as Landscape' at CSMVS museum in Mumbai.

Exhibition | Daniel Arsham, 'Eroded Horizon' at Baró Galeria, Palma, Spain

Baró Galeria presents 'Eroded Horizon', Daniel Arsham's fifth collaboration with the gallery and his second exhibition at its Mallorca location, as part of Art Palma Summer 2026. The show features recent and previously unseen works across sculpture, drawing, and painting, exploring themes of time, decay, and the intersection of body and landscape. Arsham employs materials like marble, sand, bronze, and charcoal to create forms that blend ancient and futuristic aesthetics, continuing his signature fictional archaeology.

Serpentine to stage major solo exhibition by Amar Kanwar

Serpentine has announced a major solo exhibition by Amar Kanwar, opening at Serpentine North on 23 September 2026 and running until 31 January 2027. The show will feature landmark works from Kanwar's career, including the feature-length film *Such a Morning* (2017), the seven-screen installation *The Peacock's Graveyard* (2023), and the world premiere of a new multi-screen work, *The Charcoal Man* (2026), commissioned by Serpentine. Kanwar, based in New Delhi, is known for poetic, politically charged moving-image works that explore decolonisation, the Partition of India and Pakistan, displacement, violence, justice, ecology, and memory.

Pao Houa Her Captivates Midway Contemporary Art with New Exhibition Through May 2026

Hmong-American artist Pao Houa Her is currently presenting a solo exhibition at Midway Contemporary Art in Chicago, running through May 2, 2026. The show explores themes of displacement, identity, and cultural memory through Her's photographs and installations, which blend personal narrative with broader social commentary on the Hmong diaspora experience post-Vietnam War. Born in Laos and raised in Minnesota, Her's work challenges viewers to confront the complexities of migration and belonging, using staged portraits and intimate compositions to subvert expectations of representation.

Ancient Gaza artefacts meet contemporary Palestinian stories in Turin exhibition

A new exhibition in Turin, Italy, titled "Gaza, The Future Has an Ancient Heart," brings together over 80 ancient artefacts from Palestine with contemporary works by Levantine artists. Organized by Fondazione Merz in collaboration with the Egizio archaeology museum and the MAH – Museum of Art and History Geneva, the show features objects dating from the Bronze Age to the Ottoman period, originally intended for a museum in Palestine but held in Geneva since 2007 due to conflict. Contemporary artists including Mirna Bamieh, Samaa Emad, Khalil Rabah, Vivien Sansour, Wael Shawky, Dima Srouji, and Akram Zaatari contribute works that explore archaeology, history, and memory, with Emad's "Genocide Kitchen" documenting recipes created amid war and shortages in Gaza.

Sundaram Tagore Gallery Expands to London with New St James’s Space

Sundaram Tagore Gallery is expanding its international footprint with the opening of a new 310-square-meter flagship space in London’s St James’s district this May. Located in a renovated Edwardian building on Pall Mall, the multi-level gallery will feature exhibition areas, a private viewing room, and dedicated spaces for live performances and screenings. The inaugural exhibition, titled "Hybridity and Belonging in Contemporary Art," will showcase a diverse roster of artists including Hiroshi Senju, Tayeba Lipi, and Sohan Qadri, focusing on themes of displacement and cross-cultural identity.

10 Art Shows to See in Los Angeles This March

Los Angeles enters the month of March with a diverse array of exhibitions following the intensity of its major art fair week. Highlights include Hayv Kahraman’s mystical paintings at Vielmetter, which process the trauma of displacement and environmental loss, and a survey of the late muralist Noni Olabisi at Loyola Marymount University’s Laband Art Gallery. Other notable shows feature Jesse Wiedel’s expressionistic Americana at Serious Topics and Lauren Quin’s formalist abstractions at Pace Los Angeles.

Rose Art Museum Presents Yinka Shonibare: Sanctuary Opening February 11, 2026

The Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University will present 'Yinka Shonibare: Sanctuary,' a major exhibition opening in February 2026. The show centers on the U.S. debut of Shonibare's monumental installation, *Sanctuary City* (2024), which features 18 illuminated, scaled-down replicas of historical and contemporary refuge buildings, each lined with the artist's signature Dutch wax textiles.

New exhibits at Rose Art Museum delve into photorealism, notions of refuge

Two new winter exhibitions open February 11, 2026 at the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University: “Photorealism in Focus” and “Yinka Shonibare: Sanctuary.” The first brings together pioneering Photorealists like Richard Estes, Charles S. Bell, Audrey Flack, and Ralph Goings alongside contemporary artists, exploring the blurred line between painting and photography. The second features the U.S. debut of Yinka Shonibare’s installation “Sanctuary City” (2024), comprising 18 illuminated miniature buildings that served as historical refuges, lined with the artist’s signature Dutch wax textiles. Both shows are curated by Gannit Akori, the museum’s director and chief curator.