brice arsene yonkeu amoako boafos dot ateliers gagosian 1234746417

Independent curator Brice Arsène Yonkeu has organized "Ever So Present II: Between Home and Elsewhere," the second installment of a two-part exhibition at Gagosian's Park & 75 space in New York. The show features four emerging artists of African descent—including Emma Prempeh and Josèfa Ntjam—whose works in painting, photomontage, and assemblage explore themes of diaspora, memory, migration, and belonging. Yonkeu is the first curator invited to participate in dot.ateliers' new residency program, a foundation and exhibition space launched by Ghanaian painter Amoako Boafo in Accra in 2023. The exhibition expands on questions raised in the first iteration held in Accra, asking what remains "ever so present" in diasporic art across borders and cultures.

Weekly News Roundup: May 5, 2026

The article reports three major developments in the global art world. Saudi Arabia's Diriyah Company has awarded a $490 million contract for a new flagship space of the Saudi Arabia Museum of Contemporary Art (SAMoCA) in Diriyah, designed by Godwin Austen Johnson. The Sharjah Art Foundation has announced details for Sharjah Biennial 17 (SB17), titled "What remains, sits restive," curated by Angela Harutyunyan and Paula Nascimento, featuring 109 artists and set to open in 2027. Additionally, DATALAND, a new AI art museum founded by Refik Anadol and Efsun Erkılıç, will open on June 20 in Los Angeles, showcasing digital and immersive artworks.

minnie evans legacy high museum whitney 1234765213

The article reflects on the responsibility of critical art writing in the Southeast, sparked by the announcement that Art Papers, an international art magazine based in Atlanta, will sunset in 2026 after 50 years. The author recounts a debate among local art workers about reviewing the forthcoming Minnie Evans retrospective organized by the High Museum of Art and traveling to the Whitney Museum, which he initially declined due to a conflict of interest with curator Katherine Jentleson. He ultimately agrees to write, emphasizing the need for Black scholars to engage with self-taught Black artists. The piece examines how Evans's narrative has been mediated through the lens of white photographer and art historian Nina Howell Starr, questioning the power dynamics and what remains unknown about Evans's own agency.

Arghavan Khosravi Breaks Through Gendered Restrictions in Her Architectural Portraits

Arghavan Khosravi's solo exhibition "What Remains" opens today at Uffner & Liu in New York, presenting a new body of sculptural paintings that fuse Persian architecture with Christian altarpieces. The works explore women's fight for equality under censorship and religious dogma in Iran, featuring figures restricted by domestic objects, hinged shutters, and suspended cords, with fragments of limbs or faces visible. Key pieces include "Suspended" (2026), "Bearing" (2026), and "The Whisper" (2026), running through July 2.

Enter the unsettled space of Asian American abstraction

The Milton Resnick and Pat Passlof Foundation in New York is hosting the exhibition "How Asian Is It?", featuring 12 pioneering East Asian American abstractionists born between 1928 and 1955. Curated by Lilly Wei, the show includes works by Barbara Takenaga, Emily Cheng, Charles Yuen, and David Diao, among others. These artists navigated an art world where downplaying their Asian identities often felt necessary for survival, especially after the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act reshaped US immigration policy. The exhibition explores how their abstraction—marked by attention to interval, pause, and what remains unsaid—reflects a disciplined negotiation with space rather than a shared style or manifesto.

Sharjah Biennial Lines Up 109 Artists for 2027 Edition, Titled ‘What Remains, Sits Restive’

Sharjah Art Foundation Announces 2027 Biennial Programming

60% of Sudan’s National Museum Looted, Report Says

60% of Sudan’s National Museum Looted, Report Says

Over 60% of the holdings of the Sudan National Museum in Khartoum have been looted during the country's ongoing civil war. The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which controlled the capital for two years, deliberately targeted high-value portable objects like gold and jewelry, stripping storage areas while leaving less portable artifacts behind. Although the museum building remains standing, tens of thousands of antiquities from its collection of 150,000 objects were plundered, with some appearing for sale online.

‘We’re attached to this land like a tree is rooted in soil’: unexpectedly timely exhibition speaks up for the people of south Lebanon

An exhibition titled 'Forget Me Not: South Lebanon in Memory and Motion' was held at London's Palestine House earlier this month. It featured archival news footage from 2000, photographs, audiovisual materials, and children's drawings to document the history, culture, and resilience of southern Lebanon, a region experiencing renewed conflict.

UA Little Rock Kicks Off Fall Semester with New Exhibits

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UA Little Rock) has launched its fall semester by opening new art exhibits on campus. The exhibitions feature works by various artists and are intended to engage students and the local community with contemporary visual art.

Sharjah Biennial 2027 dates, artists and theme revealed

Sharjah Art Foundation has announced details for the 17th edition of the Sharjah Biennial, titled “What remains, sits restive,” running from January 21 to June 13, 2027. The large-scale contemporary art event will feature 109 participants across multiple sites in the emirate, including Sharjah City, Al Dhaid, Khor Fakkan, and Kalba. Confirmed artists include Anri Sala, Hassan Khan, Ibrahim Mahama, Oscar Murillo, Zina Saro-Wiwa, and Angela Ferreira. The biennial will be curated by Angela Harutyunyan and Paula Nascimento, each presenting separate sections under a shared theme examining how past political and cultural histories shape present-day realities through time, memory, and space.

‘Apoi’ and Weaving What Remains

Ugandan artist Acaye Kerunen presents her first solo museum exhibition in Germany, titled 'Apoi,' at the Kunstmuseen Krefeld. The show, installed across the modernist spaces of Haus Lange and Haus Esters, features handwoven textiles, sculpture, sound, and film that draw on Indigenous knowledge systems and intergenerational exchange. It is part of the museum's ongoing 'HL HE Dialog: What Comes After Art' series.

Photo Gallery: The artists behind UTRGV’s senior art exhibition ‘sonder’

The article is a photo gallery showcasing the senior art exhibition 'sonder' at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV). It features the work of graduating art students, highlighting their individual projects and creative processes as part of their final academic showcase.

First and final

The COMO Museum of Art is hosting "Traces: Drawing Practices Now," a major group exhibition curated by Hassan Sheikh featuring 19 artists. The show explores the evolution of drawing from a preparatory medium into an independent, sophisticated art form. Notable participants include Ali Kazim, Muhammad Ali Talpur, and Ghulam Mohammad, whose works range from meticulous mark-making and subverted scripts to expressive, intuitive compositions that challenge traditional linguistic and visual codes.