Art News. Vasari Codex

museum exhibitions schedule May 12, 2026 visibility 13 link 9 artists, 1 gallery

Ayan Farah and Asmaa Jama on Representing Somalia at the 61st Venice Biennale

Ayan Farah and Asmaa Jama, two of the three artists representing Somalia at the 61st Venice Biennale (2026), discuss their plans for the national pavilion in an interview with ArtReview. Farah will present an installation of large-scale embroidered landscape paintings using clay pigment sourced from Somalia and shell-derived pigment from Scotland, alongside silk paintings exploring time and nature. Jama will focus on the Somali poetry form saddexleey, creating a sensorial experience through moving image, installation, and visual artworks that draw on magical realism and cinematic surrealism. The pavilion is located in the Palazzo Caboto, and the third representative is poet Warsan Shire.

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Artist Isaac Spellman on creating spaces for the misunderstood through art

Artist Isaac Spellman discusses his creative practice and upcoming presentation at the Affordable Art Fair 2026 in an interview. Spellman, whose style blends Art Deco graphic posters with elements of Chinese gongbi silk painting, has attracted commercial clients including Louis Vuitton, Cartier, and Bang & Olufsen. For the fair, he will debut two original series: "Red, White, Bright and Young," inspired by London's Bright Young Things of the 1920s and their queer-inclusive social scene, and "Pretty Monster," which portrays whimsical monsters embracing their differences.