Phallus, Vagina, Universum
Marina Abramović is presenting a major retrospective at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, shifting focus from her well-known explorations of physical pain to the erotic energy of the human body. The exhibition draws heavily on Slavic folklore and pagan traditions from her Balkan heritage, exploring how ancient rituals used sexuality and the body as tools for spiritual and cosmic connection.
Artist Marina Xenofontos will represent Cyprus at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026. Her exhibition, centered on an animatronic sparrow titled 'Passer' and incorporating folk songs recorded by her grandmother and great-aunts, explores themes of memory, endurance, and the quiet persistence of culture.
Brazilian artist Sacha Ingber presents 'Two,' a solo exhibition at Uffner & Liu in New York, featuring works in pigmented resin, ceramics, and functional objects that explore themes of pairing, connection, and codependence. The show includes paired notebooks, ceramic figures sharing handles, and a backgammon board designed for two players, all emphasizing the relational space between objects and bodies.
The Tarble Arts Center hosted the opening reception for the 2026 Master of Arts in Studio Art Exhibition, featuring thesis projects from 11 graduate students. The exhibition showcased a diverse range of mediums, including an immersive installation by Vitória Kazanovski that recreated her grandmother’s Brazilian kitchen using audio and textured cookbooks, and a ceramic series by Wendy Peters that highlighted the technical mistakes and evolution of her craft.
The Kentucky Center for African American Heritage in Louisville has launched "Celebrating the Black Experience," a traveling exhibition showcasing diverse artistic mediums from across the African diaspora. Featuring works ranging from hand-built porcelain to traditional hand-quilted textiles, the show highlights personal narratives, cultural identity, and the preservation of generational legacies. Notable contributions include Debra Harley’s completed quilts started by her great-great-grandmother and J. Everett Young’s return to physical painting and drawing from digital art.
The article profiles an unnamed Australian artist who, in the 1950s, pursued a career in art while raising a family, challenging the era's restrictive social expectations for women. Her story, shared by her granddaughter Lily, highlights the personal and societal barriers faced by women artists of that generation.
Nereida Apaza Mamani presents a solo exhibition at ICPNA Cultural in Miraflores, Lima, featuring 150 works across watercolor, painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture, embroidery, and installation. The show traces stories of migration and displacement through cartographies, maps, and family trees, drawing on embroidery techniques inherited from her mother and grandmother. Curated by Miguel López, the exhibition explores belonging in a country marked by discrimination and centralism, incorporating the artist's notebooks begun in 2009 and works that address political violence and memory.
Artist Adrianna Wallis (born 1981) discovers that her paternal grandmother, painter Diane Esmond (1910–1981), was a victim of Nazi looting during World War II. After being contacted by historians Patricia Helletzgruber and Sophie Juliard, Wallis learns that much of Esmond's work was systematically destroyed by the ERR, the Nazi organization responsible for art theft in occupied countries. This revelation sparks a personal investigation that becomes a podcast for Arte Radio titled "Il restera la gravité," blending documentary, autobiographical inquiry, and sound installation. Wallis delves into archives, examining microfilms and lists that detail 46 of Esmond's paintings—each methodically described and declared destroyed, such as "Woman in blue evening dress: annihilated."