Today's Art Pulse
Venice Biennale Jury Resigns, Prompting Massive Auction by Joe Lewis
The 2026 Venice Biennale’s international jury quit en masse, forcing organizers to postpone awards and shift to visitor‑selected prizes. Meanwhile, British billionaire Joe Lewis will auction a £150‑200 million private collection at Sotheby’s London, the UK’s most valuable single‑owner sale to date.
On View: Cy Twombly
The Morgan Library’s exhibition "Come Together: 3,000 Years of Stories and Storytelling" closes on May 3, opening with Cy Twombly’s 1967 etching "Untitled II" and showcasing artifacts from ancient myths to early modern literature. The show juxtaposes oral traditions with printed and visual media, featuring drafts of James Joyce’s Ulysses, Shakespeare’s first collected plays, and works by Lichtenstein and Chaplin. Simultaneously, five new art openings launch across Manhattan on April 30, highlighting artists from Helen Frankenthaler to David Hammons. The author links the exhibition’s narrative focus to contemporary concerns about AI’s potential to dominate storytelling.
Houston William P. Hobby Airport (HOU) – Revving up Excitement for Local Events
Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport has installed Jackie Harris’s iconic Fruitmobile—a painted Ford Country Squire—near its passenger checkpoint to spotlight the city’s famed Art Car Parade. The parade, born from a 1984 Orange Show Center fundraiser, now draws more than...
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Appoints Essence Harden as Senior Curator
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) in San Francisco has hired Essence Harden as senior curator, effective May 18. Harden, currently curator of the Expo Chicago art fair and organizer of Frieze Los Angeles’s Focus section, will retain those...
How San Antonio’s Public Art Program Has Changed The City
San Antonio’s public art program began in 1996 when a city ordinance earmarked 1% of the capital‑improvement budget for art. The initiative has placed more than 200 installations across streets, parks and civic spaces, reshaping the city’s visual identity. In...
Opera Mourns a Monumental German Artist
German painter‑sculptor Georg Baselitz died at 88, prompting tributes from the opera world. Baselitz, whose work was shaped by post‑modernists Jackson Pollock and Philip Guston, created striking stage designs for two landmark productions. In 1993 he designed the set for Harrison Birtwistle’s *Punch...
Lotta Antonsson’s Collages Examine How the Female Body Is Desired
Swedish artist Lotta Antonsson’s new exhibition, “I Am Everything,” uses collage to dissect the male gaze and the commodification of the female form. Drawing on magazines her nurse‑mother brought home in the 1960s, Antonsson layers erotic, news and handcraft imagery...
U.S. Returns Hundreds of Looted Antiquities to Italy
The United States returned 337 looted antiquities, archival items and artworks to Italy, spanning Etruscan, Greek, Italic and Egyptian periods. The recovery was a joint effort involving the FBI, Homeland Security, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and Christie’s, with 221...
Olivia Laing on the Life and Times of David Wojnarowicz
Olivia Laing’s feature in Another Man’s Summer/Autumn 2026 issue revisits the life of David Wojnarowicz, the New Jersey‑born artist who fled a violent childhood for the streets of 1970s New York. The piece details his descent into homelessness, exploitation in Times Square, and eventual emergence...
Dries Van Noten Launches Permanent Venice Arts Foundation in 15th‑Century Palazzo
Fashion icon Dries Van Noten and partner Patrick Vangheluwe opened Fondazione Dries Van Noten today in the 15th‑century Palazzo Pisani Moretta on Venice’s Grand Canal. The foundation’s debut exhibition, “The Only True Protest Is Beauty,” showcases over 200 objects across...
Michael Armitage Opens Monumental Solo Show at Venice’s Palazzo Grassi
Michael Armitage, the 42‑year‑old Kenyan‑born painter, has opened his monographic exhibition "The Promise of Change" at Venice’s historic Palazzo Grassi. The show presents 46 large paintings and nearly 100 sketches, spanning a decade of his work and positioning him alongside...
Presence Over Selfies: David Hammons' Timeless Lesson
David Hammons is the most important artist in the world. The boundaries he pushed in his art both explored the past but also foretold the future. The best artists all seem to achieve this. I had the chance to spend...
Dali's Surreal Vision Forecasts Cybernetic Lobster Telephone
Was Dali prophetic? This is titled "cybernetic lobster telephone" - Objects of the future. https://t.co/gPkII8Shlc
Ideas Podcast: Africa’s Buildings
The Princeton Ideas Podcast episode “Africa’s Buildings” uncovers how colonial officials, collectors and anthropologists dismantled African structures from the 19th century onward, shipping columns, doors and tiles to museums in Europe and the United States. Those fragments were cataloged as...
Lucas Museum Reveals First Set of Exhibitions Curated by Founder George Lucas
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, slated to open in September, unveiled its inaugural exhibitions curated entirely by founder George Lucas. About 12,000 objects from a 40,000‑item collection will fill 30 galleries within a 300,000‑sq‑ft, 11‑acre campus at Exposition Park. The displays...
Georg Baselitz, the German Painter Who Turned Postwar Art Upside Down, Dies at 88
Georg Baselitz, the German painter famed for inverting canvases, died at 88, Reuters reported. Born in 1938 in a Nazi‑era village, he was rejected by the Dresden Academy and expelled from an East Berlin school before finding success in West...
Banksy Confirms He's Behind Statue in Central London
Banksy has confirmed that a new large statue on Waterloo Place in central London is his work. The resin sculpture shows a suited man walking off a plinth while a flag obscures his face, echoing the area’s imperial history. The...
Remembering Ulysses Jenkins (1946–2026), Contemporary Griot
Ulysses Jenkins (1946‑2026) was a Los Angeles‑based artist who blended mural painting, performance, and video to make art part of everyday life. His 1976 DMV mural, the documentary Remnants of the Watts Festival, and the five‑minute Dream City video exemplify his...
Five Independent Souls: The Signers From New Jersey
The Morven Museum & Garden in Princeton is hosting “Five Independent Souls,” an exhibition that examines New Jersey’s five 1776 signers—Abraham Clark, John Hart, Francis Hopkinson, Richard Stockton, and John Witherspoon. The show juxtaposes their fight for liberty with their...
Under New Ownership, Art Monte Carlo Voices 'Global Ambitions'
Art Monte Carlo, now owned by Informa Prestige, staged its 10th edition in Monaco with 26 exhibitors ranging from Old Masters to contemporary icons like Picasso and Warhol. The fair featured a €1.3 m (~$1.4 m) Poussin work and modest sales, the...
Victoria Miro Now Represent Shahzia Sikander
Victoria Miro announced that it will represent acclaimed New York‑based artist Shahzia Sikander, in partnership with Sean Kelly Gallery. The first solo show will open in London from May 5 to July 31, featuring Sikander’s new animation “3 to 12 Nautical Miles,” which premiered earlier...
FAD News: Brooklyn Museum to Stage Art of Manga, the First Major Americas Survey of Manga as Fine Art
The Brooklyn Museum will open *Art of Manga* on October 3, 2026, marking the first large‑scale exhibition in the Americas devoted to manga as fine art. The show, organized by the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, assembles more than 600 original...
The Design Of Bold Joy With Alyssa Low
Chicago artist Alyssa Low began documenting pandemic feelings in a sketch diary, which evolved into a series of high‑visibility murals and brand collaborations. Her work now appears on Wayfair products, Chicago Bulls courts, Soho House interiors, and even on 10,000...
Advocates Try to Save Brutalist Fountain in San Francisco, José Aparicio Painting Returns to Prado Museum: Morning Links for April...
Advocates known as Friends of the Plaza have filed an appeal to block the planned dismantling of San Francisco’s iconic Vaillancourt Fountain, a Brutalist landmark that has sparked preservation debates. In Madrid, the Prado Museum has welcomed the return of...
São Paulo Bienal 37 Names Amanda Carneiro and Raphael Fonseca as Chief Curators
The Fundação Bienal de São Paulo announced on Tuesday, April 28, 2026 that Amanda Carneiro and Raphael Fonseca will serve as co‑chief curators of the 37th Bienal, slated for the second half of 2027. Their joint appointment marks the first time two Brazilian curators...
Tokyo in Technicolour
Another Man’s Summer/Autumn 2026 issue features a striking editorial titled “Tokyo in Technicolour,” starring Japanese model Momo Okabe and photographer Ellie Grace Cumming. The spread blends neon‑saturated street scenes with high‑fashion silhouettes, positioning Tokyo as a visual muse for Western luxury...
Project 2 | Dialogue: The 2Craigs
Project 2, titled “Dialogue: The 2Craigs,” continues its year‑long visual exchange between photographer Craig Cutler and illustrator Craig Frazier. Each new artwork is an instinctive response to the previous piece, with no conversation or brief guiding the creation. The fourth chapter introduces...
Devlin Claro’s Dreamlike Portrait of Queens
Photographer Devlin Claro opens his latest exhibition, "Crushing," at Donald Ryan Gallery in New York. The body of work consists of meticulously staged photographs taken across Queens and surrounding boroughs, featuring parking lots, street corners, municipal buildings, and civic bridges....
Interview: Christoph Jörg, Andreas Dalsgaard • Co-Creators of The Oligarch and the Art Dealer - “It Felt Like Entering a...
The Oligarch and the Art Dealer, a new series debuting at Canneseries, examines the tangled relationship between Swiss art dealer Yves Bouvier and Russian oligarch Dmitri Rybolovlev, including an alleged billion‑dollar fraud surrounding masterpieces such as the $450 million Salvator Mundi. Producers...
Robot Dogs with Musk and Zuckerberg Heads Roam Around Berlin Museum
American digital artist Beeple has installed “Regular Animals” at Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie, where robot dogs sport hyper‑realistic silicone heads modeled after figures such as Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso. The dogs capture their surroundings...
Art Shows to Leave the House for in May 2026
May 2026 brings a wave of process‑centric exhibitions across major art hubs, from London and New York to Venice and Marrakech. Shows like Christelle Oyiri’s *Run It Back* and Vinca Petersen’s *HULALA* interrogate identity, community and digital remix, while Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince’s *Helter...
New Banksy Sculpture Appears At Waterloo Place London
A new sculpture depicting a suited figure marching with a flag‑covered face appeared on Waterloo Place in London and was confirmed as an original Banksy via his Instagram post. The work sits among imperial monuments, using blindfolded nationalism to critique...
Impeccable Joe Lewis Collection Comes To Auction At Sotheby’s London
Joe Lewis, the 89‑year‑old billionaire who made his fortune in currency trading, is putting a 30‑year‑old collection of figurative masterpieces up for auction at Sotheby’s London. The sale, estimated between £150 million and £200 million (≈$192‑$256 million), is the most valuable single‑owner collection...
Turner Prize 2026 Shortlist Spotlights Sculpture, Four Artists Named
Tate Britain director Alex Farquharson unveiled the four nominees for the 2026 Turner Prize, emphasizing a pronounced tilt toward sculpture. Each shortlisted artist will receive £10,000 (about $12,500), with the winner to collect an additional £25,000 (~$31,250) on December 10.
Extracting Art From the Landscape: Siobhan McLaughlin at Jupiter Artland
Jupiter Artland’s "Extraction" exhibition spotlights climate‑focused art, featuring Siobhan McLaughlin’s paintings made from earth pigments harvested from the Five Sisters Bings, historic oil‑shale spoil tips near Edinburgh. McLaughlin gathers pigments and reclaimed textiles during walks, sewing them into canvases that embed...
FAD News: Serpentine X FLAG Art Foundation Prize Announces Star-Studded Selection Committee
The Serpentine and The FLAG Art Foundation have unveiled the five‑member international jury that will select the inaugural winner of the UK’s largest contemporary art prize. The panel features MoMA chief curator Michelle Kuo, MACAN director Venus Lau, curators Hans Ulrich Obrist...
Klimt, Modigliani, and Freud Lead $200M Lewis Collection at Sotheby’s London
Sotheby’s will auction a $200 million segment of billionaire Joe Lewis’s collection in London this June, featuring 50 works by Gustav Klimt, Amedeo Modigliani, Lucian Freud and other masters. The top lot, Klimt’s 1902 portrait of Gertha Felsőványi, is expected to fetch $27‑$40 million, while a...
Beverly Buchanan’s Anti-Monuments
Beverly Buchanan’s “anti‑monuments”—weathered concrete mounds, ruins and modest stone assemblages—have long interrogated Southern histories of slavery, neglect and public memory. Signature works such as Marsh Ruins (1981) and Unity Stones (1983) employ tabby concrete that erodes with tide, echoing ancient...
148 News: Awards & Obituaries
In February, Iraqi artist Ali Eyal captured the Hammer Museum’s $100,000 Mohn Award, supporting emerging Los Angeles talent. In March, Japanese creator Mari Katayama won the inaugural Mori Art Award in Tokyo, a JPY 10 million prize equivalent to $63,000. Korean media artist Jeamin Cha secured...
Inside Burger Collection: Tadanori Yokoo: A Visionary Renegade
Tadanori Yokoo, the 89‑year‑old Japanese visual pioneer, is preparing a new exhibition at Tokyo’s Setagaya Art Museum despite a recent bout of Covid‑19. His work is permanently displayed at the Yokoo Tadanori Museum of Contemporary Art in Kobe, which opened...
Dispatch: Beijing
Beijing’s contemporary art sector is in turmoil, with flagship institution UCCA reporting financial distress and its long‑time director Philip Tinari moving to Hong Kong’s Tai Kwun. Independent venues DRC NO. 12 and fRUITYSPACE have shuttered after lease failures, while tighter publishing rules...
Editor’s Letter: Still, Listening
The 61st Venice Biennale, titled “In Minor Keys,” opens under the late Koyo Kouoh’s curatorial vision, prioritizing quieter, under‑represented voices from the Global South and Indigenous cosmologies. The editor’s letter highlights flagship works by MacArthur Fellow Gala Porras‑Kim, whose interventions...
Khaled Sabsabi: Splintered Worlds
Lebanese‑Australian artist Khaled Sabsabi fuses Sufi mysticism, hip‑hop rhythms, and mixed‑media installations to explore spiritual perception beyond the material world. His 40‑year journey from war‑torn Tripoli to Western Sydney informs works like the 18‑minute video *Lefke Morning*, which juxtaposes war‑zone...
Whispering Gallery: The Cratable Hedge and the Colonial Hangover
During Art Basel Hong Kong, two major leadership changes were announced for Hong Kong’s art institutions. James Taylor‑Foster, a curator of architecture and design, was appointed director of Para Site, a role that has traditionally been filled by Asian curators. At...
Book Club - Sharon Louden Talks Longevity, Resiliency, and Being a Catalyst for Change
In this episode of Beyond the Studio, host Amanda Adams and Nicole Muller sit down with artist, educator, and author Sharon Louden to discuss her new book, *Last Artist Standing: Living and Sustaining a Creative Life Over 50*. Louden explains...
Georg Baselitz, Painter, Printmaker and Sculptor, Dies at 88
German painter, printmaker and sculptor Georg Baselitz died at 88, ending a six‑decade career that reshaped post‑war art. He rose to prominence in the 1960s for visceral, figurative works and famously began painting subjects upside‑down in 1969 to challenge visual...
From the Collection at Dvir Gallery, Paris
The Dvir Gallery in Paris opens "From the Collection" on April 3, running through May 23, 2026. The group show assembles 24 artists ranging from established figures such as William Kentridge and Menashe Kadishman to emerging voices like Aysha E Arar. Works span six decades and...
Rare Rothko Leads Multi-Million-Dollar Single-Owner Sales at Sotheby’s
Sotheby’s is set to auction a 1957 Mark Rothko, “Brown and Blacks in Reds,” with an estimate of $70‑100 million, a price that could eclipse the artist’s $89.6 million record. The work, long held by the late Robert Mnuchin, has risen more...
Frieze New York 2026 Sets Dates, Program at The Shed, May 13‑17
Frieze New York announced its 2026 edition will take place May 13‑17 at The Shed, unveiling a program of solo, dual and curated shows that emphasize diasporic narratives, ecological concerns and material experimentation. The fair will host 33 New York...
XOXO Festival Archived Online
The XOXO festival, a Portland‑based gathering for internet artists and creators that ran throughout the 2010s, has launched XOXO Explore, a comprehensive online archive of every edition. Hosted by Andy McMilland and Andy Baio, the archive offers videos, talks, performances,...
Van Cleef & Arpels Brings a Spring Garden to Rockefeller Center
Van Cleef & Arpels has returned to Rockefeller Center for a second year with its "Spring is Blooming" installation, a garden‑inspired tableau that transforms the plaza into a seasonal showcase. The display was created in partnership with French artist Charlotte Gastaut and features...