Louvre Reveals Architects for $1 Billion Expansion

The Louvre has announced an international team of architects—New York's Selldorf Architects and Studios Architecture Paris—to lead its "Nouvelle Renaissance" expansion, a project estimated to cost over €1 billion ($1.2 billion). The plan, first announced by French President Emmanuel Macron in early 2025, includes a new entrance to accommodate three million additional visitors annually and a dedicated 33,000-square-foot exhibition space for Leonardo da Vinci's *Mona Lisa*. The museum's new director, Christophe Leribault, is moving forward with the project despite significant budget uncertainty, with cost estimates ranging from €270 million to €1.1 billion.

Eyecatchers and Discoveries

Eyecatcher und Entdeckungen

The 42nd edition of Art Brussels has scaled down to 138 exhibitors from 165 in 2025, responding to a sluggish contemporary art market and economic uncertainty. The fair introduces a new section called 'Horizonte,' curated by Devrim Bayar of Kanal Centre Pompidou, featuring six large-scale installations including Pao Hui Kao's delicate paper-and-lacquer refuge and Oswald Oberhuber's €380,000 panoramic painting 'Paradiesgarten.' Galleries are now consolidated into one hall, with fewer blue-chip participants but a continued focus on living artists (95% of the 500 shown). Notable presentations include Xavier Hufkens' solo show of Cassi Namoda, Krinziger's works by Marina Abramović and Monica Bonvicini, and Richard Saltoun's historical mix of Fernand Khnopff, Everlyn Nicodemus, and Suzanne Van Damme.

Dubai Plans a Massive New Museum for Digital Art

Dubai has announced plans for a new Museum of Digital Art (MODA), a major institution dedicated to digital and tech-driven art. The museum is part of a $27 billion transformation of Dubai's financial district into a technology hub, and will feature immersive and interactive experiences. No budget or completion date has been set, but Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, chairperson of Dubai Culture, stated the museum advances the city's commitment to converging creativity and technology. The museum will be designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, the firm behind the Burj Khalifa.

What is a botanical curator? Rahel Kesselring takes on inaugural role at Fondation Beyeler

Fondation Beyeler in Switzerland has appointed Rahel Kesselring as its inaugural botanical curator, a newly created position supported by the Chanel Culture Fund. Kesselring, a former research associate at Humboldt University, will develop a hybrid curatorial programme focused on the museum's park and surrounding ecosystems, aiming to integrate botanical knowledge with artistic practice on a practical, material level.

7 unique hotel experiences around the world for inspired travelers

7 expériences hôtelières inédites à travers le monde pour voyageurs inspirés

Beaux Arts Magazine presents a curated selection of seven unique hotel experiences worldwide, designed for art-loving travelers. The featured properties include a converted convent in Nice (Hôtel du Couvent, opened summer 2024), a Louis XIII-era castle near Fontainebleau (Domaine de Fleury), a five-star hotel in Amboise (Relais d'Amboise) with artworks by Bernar Venet, and a mountain inn in Sils-Maria, Switzerland (Chesa Marchetta) operated by art dealers Iwan and Manuela Wirth. Each destination blends historic architecture, exceptional landscapes, and artistic elements to offer immersive stays.

In Turin, fashion photography is the protagonist of The Phair 2026. All the news of the seventh edition of the fair

A Torino la fotografia di moda è protagonista di The Phair 2026. Tutte le novità della settima edizione della fiera

The Phair, a photography fair in Turin, returns for its seventh edition from May 22 to 24, 2026, at the OGR – Officine Grandi Riparazioni. This year's edition focuses on fashion photography as an autonomous art form, featuring works by photographers such as Nanda Lanfranco, Giovanni Gastel, Françoise Huguier, Marco Glaviano, and Michelangelo Di Battista. Participating galleries include Photo & Contemporary, Ira Leonis, Deodato Arte, Jaeger Art, and many others. The fair also expands its curatorial committee with figures like Umberto Benappi, Emilio Bordoli, and Brandei Estes.

On Paranoid Time

Film Notes has published Qingyuan Deng's essay exploring the intersection of Lacan's concept of retroactive meaning and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's distinction between paranoid and reparative reading, as applied to recent artists' films and moving-image installations. The essay examines how works like Alison Nguyen's installation "Perforation, Ellipse" at New York's Storefront for Art and Architecture use cinematic techniques—such as perforations, splices, and missing scenes—to hold the temporal gap between an event and its belated political comprehension, focusing on the censorship of Vietnamese bolero songs after the American War.

If fashion is art, why doesn’t CNZ fund it?

Creative New Zealand (CNZ) explicitly states on its website that it does not fund fashion design, classifying it as primarily part of the commercial creative industries. The article highlights the contradiction that while major institutions like The Dowse Art Museum, Auckland Art Gallery, and World of WearableArt treat fashion as art, CNZ denies funding to fashion designers, with rare exceptions for non-commercial, cross-cultural, or collaborative projects. Fashion designer Doris de Pont, founder of The New Zealand Fashion Museum, notes that even when her trust received CNZ support, it was for the art connection, not the fashion itself.

Peterson Rich Office Designed The Met’s New Condé M. Nast Galleries and its Inaugural Costume Institute Exhibition

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has opened its new Condé M. Nast Galleries, a 12,000-square-foot exhibition space designed by Brooklyn-based architecture firm Peterson Rich Office (PRO). The galleries, which debuted with the Costume Institute's exhibition "Costume Art," transform a former interior courtyard and gift shop into five sequential rooms, including named spaces for Thom Browne, Michael Kors, and Lance LePere. PRO also designed the exhibition itself, which pairs 200 garments and accessories with 200 artworks from the Met's collection, creating a dialogue between fashion and fine art.

A mapping of all the intersections between the 2026 Venice Biennale and the fashion world

Una mappatura di tutti gli intrecci tra la Biennale di Venezia 2026 e il mondo della moda

The article maps the growing intersection between fashion brands and the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026, detailing specific collaborations. Zegna is the main sponsor of the Italian Pavilion, supporting Chiara Camoni's project "Con te con tutto" curated by Cecilia Canziani, using materials from Zegna's Oasi Zegna and Lanificio. Bottega Veneta renews its partnership with Pinault Collection to support Lorna Simpson's exhibition "Third Person" at Punta della Dogana, curated by Emma Lavigne, and also presents a public intervention at Campo Manin. Swatch celebrates 15 years of the Swatch Art Peace Hotel with the exhibition "Flora Fantastica" at the Giardini Reali, featuring artist Elisa Insu. The newly opened Fondazione Dries Van Noten at Palazzo Pisani Moretta debuts with "The Only True Protest Is Beauty," curated by Dries Van Noten and Geert Bruloot.

Form in the Age of Living Materials. Interview with Curator Pablo José Ramírez

LA FORMA EN LA ERA DE LOS MATERIALES VIVOS. ENTREVISTA AL CURADOR PABLO JOSÉ RAMÍREZ

The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles is presenting "Several Eternities in a Day: Form in the Age of Living Materials," an exhibition curated by Pablo José Ramírez running until August 23. Featuring 22 artists from the Americas, the show explores materials such as avocado, cacao, achiote, cochineal, stone, clay, and natural dyes that evolve, degrade, or transform over time. Organized into three acts, the exhibition challenges conventional notions of the art object by treating these materials as living agents with memory and agency, rooted in Indigenous knowledge and the concept of "brownness." In an interview, Ramírez discusses how these materials destabilize extractivist logics and institutional frameworks, forcing a rethinking of conservation protocols and the very conditions of exhibition-making.

Venice Bound? Here’s All the News You Need to Know About This Year’s Biennale

The 61st Venice Biennale is embroiled in geopolitical controversy over Russia's return to the event in 2026, which has sparked widespread backlash. Nearly 10,000 artists and cultural leaders signed an open letter opposing Russia's participation, and the European Union withdrew €2 million in funding for the 2028 edition. Leaked emails reveal Biennale officials worked with Russian pavilion commissioner Anastasia Karneeva to circumvent EU sanctions, while Italy's culture minister Alessandro Giuli plans to boycott the opening week. Meanwhile, activists continue to push for Israel's removal from the Biennale, though Israel will be accommodated in the Arsenale this year.

The tiniest event can tear a hole. Sara MacKillop by Margaret Kross

Sara MacKillop's exhibition "The Cutaway View" at Good Weather in Chicago presents sculptures made from humble analog materials like blank wall calendars, empty shopping bags, and gift wrapping. The London-based artist alters these objects with minimal interventions—such as surgically cut holes in shopping bags to accommodate vinyl records—drawing attention to the ephemera and texture of retail culture. Her series "Calendar Houses" (2021–ongoing) uses archive boxes and wall calendars to create miniature modernist dwellings that critique systems of order and self-optimization.

The MAR Museum in Ravenna Opens a Permanent Gallery Dedicated to Fashion Photographer Paolo Roversi

Il museo MAR di Ravenna apre una galleria permanente dedicata al fotografo di moda Paolo Roversi

The MAR museum in Ravenna, Italy, is opening a permanent gallery dedicated to fashion photographer Paolo Roversi, set to launch on May 20. The space, curated by Chiara Bardelli Nonino, will showcase Roversi's poetic and visual universe, featuring his iconic portraits of models like Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, and Rihanna, along with his fashion work and still lifes. The gallery is designed by scenographer Ania Martchenko with lighting by Silvestrin & Associati, and includes areas such as the Studio, the Archive, and the Room of the Muses.

Meet the Writer Who Sees Every Single Show at the Venice Biennale

Jaeyong Park, a Seoul-based writer, translator, and interpreter, has attended every edition of the Venice Biennale since 2022—including both art and architecture cycles—and seen every single show, from the central exhibition and national pavilions to collateral and unofficial events. He documents his journeys in regular dispatches and has compiled a free bilingual guide to the biennial. Park organizes his trips with a group of fellow art workers, splitting accommodation costs and sharing reviews over dinner to ensure full coverage.

This Professor Won the ‘Bauhaus Bathroom’ Design Competition for the Gropius House

The New York Times Art section announced the winner of a competition to design a public restroom at the historic Gropius House in Lincoln, Massachusetts. The winning design, dubbed the 'Bauhaus Bathroom,' was created by a professor whose identity has not been disclosed in the provided text. The competition aimed to add a functional, contemporary restroom that respects the iconic Bauhaus architecture of the house, which was designed by Walter Gropius in 1938.

Art bartering: artists start viral social media trend to fight cost of living crisis

Artists worldwide are using social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok to barter their artwork for goods and services instead of money, in a viral trend responding to the cost of living crisis. Participants trade paintings for items such as handmade clothes, jewelry, tattoos, accommodation, meals, and professional services like video editing or framing, with some simply inviting offers. Artists like Lin Snow, Oli Fowler, and Andrea Mongenie cite economic pressures and anti-capitalist motivations, viewing bartering as a way to build community and bypass financial systems that leave creatives struggling.

The Met's Costume Exhibit Finally Made This Obvious Change To Mannequins And Its Exhibit After Years

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute has made a historic shift toward disability and body inclusivity in its annual exhibition, titled "Costume Art." For the first time, the exhibit includes a section called "The Disabled Body," featuring mannequins modeled on disabled bodies, such as those of activist Aimee Mullins, model Aariana Rose Philip, and accessibility consultant Sinéad Burke. Burke and her team at Tilting the Lens consulted on the exhibit for 18 months, suggesting disabled designers like Sugandha Gupta and Helen Cookman, and donated pieces to the permanent collection. The Met Gala also became accessible for the first time since 1948, with wheelchair user Aariana Rose Philip attending as the first ever.

From galleries to guest rooms: The best art-inspired stays in Europe

A number of European hotels are integrating art collections and museum-quality experiences into their accommodations, offering travelers the chance to stay within or adjacent to art spaces. Notable examples include MACAM in Lisbon, Portugal, which combines a contemporary art museum with a hotel featuring the private collection of founder Armando Martins, including works by Marina Abramović and Paula Rego; the Byblos Art Hotel Villa Amistà in Verona, Italy, blending Renaissance architecture with avant-garde art; and the Elizabeth Arthotel in Ischgl, Austria, which has showcased art and sculpture since 1976 and recently added a rooftop commission by the artist duo NONOS.

❤️ Atlanta, with love

This article from Rough Draft's Sketchbook newsletter highlights two Atlanta-focused art stories. Painter Carlos Solis, who left Venezuela for Kennesaw nearly two decades ago, curates "In the Beginning," a group exhibition opening May 9 at the Hudgens Center's Fowler Gallery in Duluth, featuring 15 artists from around the world who now call Georgia home. Separately, designer and illustrator George F. Baker III, originally from Nebraska and shaped by Detroit, was commissioned by the Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs to create the key art for the 49th annual Atlanta Jazz Festival, and he discusses how the musical souls of both Detroit and Atlanta influenced his design.

Scandal in Florence's Skyline? After the Black Cube and the White Cylinder, the Prism That Impales Santa Croce Appears

Scandalo nello skyline di Firenze? Dopo il cubo nero e il cilindro bianco spunta il prisma che impalla Santa Croce

A cylindrical antenna installed by the telecom company Iliad in Florence has sparked controversy after it was reported that, from certain angles, it visually overlaps with iconic landmarks such as Brunelleschi's Dome and Giotto's Campanile. The article traces a pattern of periodic scandals in Florence, including a previous uproar over the so-called "Cubo Nero" (a new building replacing a decaying theater), and notes that the antenna has actually been in place since 2023 without earlier outcry. Local artist Giacomo Costa recently photographed another white prismatic antenna in Via Ghibellina, within the UNESCO zone, that obstructs the view of Santa Croce, fueling further debate.

For this 2026 too, the Fuorisalone is full of fashion. Here are the events halfway between fashion and design

Anche per questo 2026 il Fuorisalone è pieno di moda. Ecco gli eventi a metà strada tra fashion e design

The 2026 Fuorisalone in Milan continues to be a major platform for the convergence of fashion and design. Numerous fashion brands are presenting immersive installations, special collections, and cultural formats across the city, transforming urban spaces into narrative environments. Key presentations include YOOX's digital installation with Keta Bart, Gucci's archival project by Demna, Prada's symposium curated by Formafantasma, and new collections from Armani, Fendi, Dior Maison, and Louis Vuitton.

A Roma un evento per indagare le relazioni tra scienza e moda. Intervista alla curatrice Dobrila Denegri

From May 13 to 15, 2026, the MACRO – Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma will host "Science Fashion," an event curated by Dobrila Denegri that explores the intersections of fashion, science, and new technologies. The program brings together international researchers and practitioners in experimental fashion to discuss urgent issues such as climate emergency, energy, and interspecies coexistence. It is part of the broader multi-year initiative "Experiments in Fashion and Art," launched in 2024 with "Critical Fashion," and involves collaborations with NABA, Sapienza University of Rome, and UnitelmaSapienza.

NICOLÁS GÓMEZ ECHEVERRI: “LA TRASCENDENCIA DEL MUSEO ES VULNERABLE A LA IMPOSICIÓN DE MODAS POR PARTE DEL ALGORITMO”

Nicolás Gómez Echeverri, director of the Unidad de Artes y Otras Colecciones at the Banco de la República de Colombia, reflects on the challenges facing museums in Iberoamérica in an interview published for International Museum Day. He oversees institutions including the Museo de Arte Miguel Urrutia (MAMU), the Museo Botero, and the Casa de Moneda. Gómez Echeverri describes the museum as a "radar" that captures decentralized artistic practices and integrates them into collective narratives, while emphasizing the need for mediation, public debate, and long-term cultural projects amid economic constraints and the pressures of digital immediacy.

"Ganesha" Art Exhibition: 2 Artists, 2 PerspectivesExploring Beauty of Faith through Cracks and Passage of Time

Inspiration Space in Bangkok presents "Ganesha," a dual-artist exhibition running from 9 May to 5 July 2026, curated by Kullaya Kassakul. The show features paintings by Piya Charoenmuang, who created thousands of Ganesha works daily during the COVID-19 lockdown (2021–2024), exploring faith, success, and imperfection through mixed media and texture. It also includes a ceramic Ganesha sculpture by Yonkwan Thanyaset (Paint), fired at high temperatures and repaired with Kintsugi, highlighting cracks as beauty. The exhibition unfolds in two phases: Piya's paintings from 9 May, with the full ceramic installation joining from 6 June.

The arrival of the Orient Express hotel in Venice reopens the historic Palazzo Donà Giovannelli (filling it with contemporary art)

L’arrivo dell’hotel Orient Express a Venezia riapre lo storico Palazzo Donà Giovannelli (riempiendolo di arte contemporanea)

Palazzo Donà Giovannelli, a 15th-century Venetian palace, has reopened as the flagship Orient Express hotel after an eight-year restoration led by architect and interior designer Aline Asmar d’Amman. Located in the Cannaregio district, the 5-star luxury hotel features 47 rooms, suites, and residences, blending historical frescoes and neogothic details with contemporary sculptures, Murano glass chandeliers, and custom furnishings. The property, owned by Arsenale Group since 2019, includes a transformed courtyard lobby, a secret garden, and a rotating selection of contemporary artworks displayed in a passage called Calle Meraviglia.

A free campsite for students at Design Week. IED sets it up at the Ex Macello in Milan

Un campeggio gratuito per studenti alla Design Week. Lo allestisce IED all’Ex Macello di Milano

IED (Istituto Europeo di Design) and the Fondazione Francesco Morelli have set up a free urban campsite, The Glitch Camp, at the Ex Macello in Milan to host 300 international design students during Milan Design Week. The camp, created in partnership with IKEA, provides accommodation, communal spaces, workshops, and social events, aiming to make the prestigious event more accessible.

Call for Applications: Reiwa 8 (2026) Overseas Training Program for Emerging Artists – Japanese Culture Promotion and Dissemination Project

公募｜令和8年度新進芸術家海外研修制度における「日本文化発信・普及事業」

Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs (Bunka-cho) is now accepting applications for the "Japanese Culture Promotion and Dissemination Project" under the 2026 (Reiwa 8) Overseas Training Program for Emerging Artists. This separate track supports established cultural figures, artists, and researchers—not just emerging artists—to conduct activities that promote and disseminate Japanese culture abroad. The program covers travel, accommodation, and activity costs up to 1.5 million yen, with派遣 periods ranging from 20 to 80 days between October 1, 2026 and March 31, 2027. Applications must be received by June 5, 2025, and results will be announced by early September.

First Fridays at the Pulitzer

The Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis is hosting its monthly First Fridays event on May 1, 2026, from 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM. During this time, museums and galleries in the Grand Center Arts District offer free admission and extended hours, with the Pulitzer featuring its current exhibition "Dialogues & Conversations" and a cash bar on the Mezzanine. The event is free and open to the public, with accommodations available upon request.