Chernobyl 40 years on, Paula Rego at Munch in Oslo, Gluck’s flower painting—podcast

This episode of The Art Newspaper's podcast 'The Week in Art' covers three distinct exhibitions. Host Ben Luke discusses the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster with organizer Olha Kovalevska, whose exhibition at Nikolaikirche in Potsdam runs until 27 April. He also explores a new show at Munch in Oslo, 'Paula Rego: Dance Among Thorns', with curator Kari J. Brandtzæg, focusing on Rego's engagement with Edvard Munch. Finally, the episode features 'Convolvulus' (1940) by Gluck as the Work of the Week, part of the group exhibition 'Handpicked: Painting Flowers from 1900 to Today' at Kettle's Yard in Cambridge, discussed with co-curator Naomi Polonsky.

From Mother Mary to Foo Fighters: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead

This article is a weekly entertainment guide from The Guardian, covering cinema, gigs, art, stage, streaming, games, albums, and brain food. In the art section, it highlights two exhibitions: "Handpicked: Painting Flowers from 1900 to Today" at Kettle's Yard in Cambridge, featuring artists like Henri Rousseau and Lubaina Himid; and a show of South African photographer George Hallett's work at the John Lennon School of Art and Design in Liverpool, documenting black resistance in 1970s Britain. It also mentions an open house for Lonnie Holley's new works at Edel Assanti gallery in London.

“Nature Morte, 1982–1988” at Ehrlich Steinberg, Los Angeles

“Nature Morte, 1982–1988” at Ehrlich Steinberg, Los Angeles

A new exhibition at Ehrlich Steinberg gallery in Los Angeles presents "Nature Morte, 1982–1988," a focused survey of still-life paintings from a pivotal period in recent art history. The show brings together works from the 1980s by a generation of artists who reinvigorated the traditional genre during a decade defined by explosive art market growth and the rise of Neo-Expressionism.

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Chinese artist Chen Fei discusses his first institutional solo exhibition in Europe, “Grand Lobby,” at the Consortium Museum in Dijon, France. The show features large-scale still-life paintings that blend Flemish floral traditions with contemporary Chinese symbols like VOSS water bottles and IKEA price tags, using gold leaf and red lacquer to critique class aspiration and visual culture. Chen’s studio, located outside Beijing, is where he creates detail-rich canvases inspired by film storyboarding, aiming for a cinematic, narrative-driven reading experience.

Van Gogh’s family used an erotic Gauguin ceramic as a flower vase

A researcher at the Van Gogh Museum, Joost van der Hoeven, has revealed that Paul Gauguin's erotic ceramic, the Cleopatra Pot (winter 1887-88), was used as a flower vase by Vincent van Gogh's family. Gauguin brought the pot to Arles when he stayed with Van Gogh in 1888, and after Van Gogh's ear incident, Gauguin gave the pot to Vincent's brother Theo as a gift. The pot later remained with Theo's widow, Jo Bonger, and a photograph from 1925-26 shows it on her piano holding flowers, surrounded by still-life paintings.

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The Toledo Museum of Art has opened the first major exhibition dedicated to Dutch Golden Age painter Rachel Ruysch, organized with the Alte Pinakothek in Munich and traveling next to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The show features Ruysch's vibrant still lifes of fruits and flowers, often animated by insects, and places her work alongside that of her sister Anna Ruysch and other female scientific illustrators like Maria Sibylla Merian. Curator Robert Schindler's rediscovery of Anna Ruysch's work helped inspire the exhibition, which also draws on botanical research to catalog the global plant species Ruysch depicted, reflecting colonial trade networks.

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The Museo del Prado in Madrid has opened its first-ever exhibition dedicated to a female artist, "The Art of Clara Peeters," 197 years after the museum's founding. The show features 15 major works by the Flemish still-life painter, active in early 17th-century Antwerp, and is curated by Alejandro Vergara, the museum's Chief Curator of Flemish and Northern School Painting. The exhibition runs from October 25, 2026, to February 19, 2017, and is co-organized with the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp.

Hilary Pecis Paints Saturated Snapshots of West Coast Life

Hilary Pecis presents a new series of acrylic paintings in her solo exhibition "Love Letters" at David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles, running from May 16 to June 20. The works capture everyday scenes—a backyard pool, a studio corner, a picnic with strawberry cake—using her signature saturated palette and meticulous attention to texture and pattern, working from photographs onto linen.

Jasmine Little, Los Angeles Painter and Ceramicist, Dies at 41

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Los Angeles-based artist Jasmine Little has passed away at the age of 41, as confirmed by her gallery, La Loma. Known for her versatile practice that spanned lush still-life paintings and intricate sgraffito ceramic vessels, Little's work often blended historical references with personal mythology. Her gallerist, Kirk Nelson, remembered her as a "force of nature" who produced monumental sculptures and detailed narratives through intense, dedicated periods of creation.

Dirk Staschke's exhibition

Duane Reed Gallery in St. Louis is hosting a new exhibition of trompe l’oeil stoneware sculptures and tiles by artist Dirk Staschke. Staschke, a sculptor and ceramicist, draws inspiration from Dutch Vanitas still-life painting, blending traditional techniques with contemporary textures and forced perspective. His works merge painting and sculpture, featuring adapted still lives on ceramic vessels and three-dimensional framed tableaus. Staschke holds an MFA from Alfred University and a BFA from the University of Montevallo, and his work has been exhibited at the Smithsonian Museum, Icheon Museum, Crocker Museum, and Portland Art Museum.

Wayne Thiebaud’s first UK show reveals the hidden depths of his deceptively simple paintings

Wayne Thiebaud's first museum exhibition in the UK has opened at the Courtauld Gallery, featuring 21 paintings on loan from US public and private collections, including the Wayne Thiebaud Foundation. The show, titled "Wayne Thiebaud: American Still Life," highlights the artist's deceptively simple depictions of cakes, pies, and deli counters, and includes a concurrent exhibition of works on paper called "Delights." Co-curator Barnaby Wright emphasizes that seeing the works in person reveals their extraordinary painterly quality, which reproductions flatten.

Nigerian Modernism, Tehran’s art scene after the war, Wayne Thiebaud’s ‘Cake’—podcast

This episode of The Art Newspaper's podcast covers three major stories. First, Tate Modern's new exhibition 'Nigerian Modernism' explores modern art beyond Western canons, featuring co-curator Osei Bonsu and artist Jimoh Buraimoh. Second, correspondent Sarvy Geranpayeh reports on Tehran's art scene following the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June 2025. Third, the 'Work of the Week' segment highlights Wayne Thiebaud's painting 'Cakes' (1963), now on view at the Courtauld Gallery in London for the artist's first UK museum exhibition.

Two 17th-Century Dutch Still Lifes Acquired by the Getty

Deux natures mortes hollandaises du XVIIe siècle acquises par le Getty

The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles has acquired two 17th-century Dutch still-life paintings by Pieter Claesz and Jan Davidsz. de Heem, masters of the genre. The works, including de Heem's "Vase en verre avec fleurs et fruits," were purchased on the New York art market and fill a gap in the museum's Dutch still-life collection, which previously lacked examples by these two artists.

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The auction of two 17th-century Dutch still-life oil paintings of flowers was halted at Apple Tree Auction Center in Newark, Ohio, after the Monuments Men and Women Foundation and the Jewish Digital Cultural Recovery Project identified them as Nazi-looted art. The paintings, originally part of Adolphe and Lucie Haas Schloss's collection, were seized in 1943 and later stored in Hitler's Führerbau before being looted again. Foundation founder Robert Edsel traveled to Ohio to alert the auction house, which cooperated by removing the works from sale and placing them in a vault. The consignor's identity remains undisclosed, and the foundation is working to return the paintings to the Schloss family.

Cinematic Painting Series

Cary Kwok's exhibition at Sessions Arts Club in London presents four new paintings created with support from Herald St, Cabin Studio, Jonny Gent, and David Southard. The works, rendered in acrylic and ink on paper, explore still lifes, silhouettes, and staged interiors inspired by 1980s visual culture, including interior design, cinematography, fashion editorials, and advertising. Featured pieces include *Eclipse* (2026) and *Anticipation* (2026), with the artist's signature subtly embedded in objects like jewelry and glassware. The show opens May 18 and is viewable by appointment or during dining hours, alongside a related wine label collaboration for the Sessions Arts Club Lost Wines Project.

Jake Messing’s Hyperrealistic Paintings Celebrate the Abundance of Nature

Jake Messing, a Northern California-based artist, creates hyperrealistic acrylic paintings that depict dense, maximalist clusters of flora and fauna, often combining creatures and plants in surreal arrangements. His works, such as "Coccinellidaes Hideaway 2" and "Bubbles and Blooms," draw on the tradition of Dutch Golden Age still-life painting while incorporating contemporary elements like color gradients and shiny fabrics.

New art exhibition near Penrith spotlights work of celebrated painter

Beckstones Art Gallery in Greystoke Ghyll, near Penrith, is hosting a solo exhibition of celebrated still-life painter Tim Gustard titled 'Looking for the Light' from May 16 to May 31. The show features 23 new paintings created over the past two years, including works depicting glass, porcelain, silver, flowers, and miniature self-portraits. Gustard, who moved to Cumbria in 1997, is known for his technical precision and often spends hundreds of hours on a single painting. The gallery has represented him for over 29 years and notes that his previous exhibitions have nearly sold out.