Today's Art Pulse
Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince’s ‘Helter Skelter’ debuts at Fondazione Prada in Venice
The joint exhibition “Helter Skelter” opens at Fondazione Prada’s Ca’ Corner della Regina in Venice, running through November 23, 2026. Curated by former Guggenheim chief Nancy Spector, the show pairs Jafa and Prince, artists noted for aggressive appropriation of cinema, music and American iconography. Critics describe the work as lawless image scavenging that confronts viewers.
Sofia Taipa
Portuguese visual artist Sofia Taipa, based in London, creates computational sculptures and installations that blend algorithmic systems with physical media. Her 2023 work Evanescence captures visitors’ facial profiles and carves them into a rotating clay cylinder, while the 2024 installation Being Within animates a silicone membrane to reshape the viewer’s relationship to space. In Sui generis, she fine‑tunes a language model to generate a “personalized” dictionary, exposing bias and the illusion of neutral AI. Taipa’s practice interrogates identity, embodiment, and the mutable boundaries between human and machine.
Guggenheim Foundation Announces 2026 Class of 223 Fellows Across Arts and Sciences
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation unveiled its 2026 cohort of 223 fellows, selected from a pool of nearly 5,000 applicants. The 101st class spans 55 disciplines, with 30 fine‑art fellows and notable winners such as Sonya Clark and American...
Genti Korini on Representing Albania at the 61st Venice Biennale
Albanian artist Genti Korini will present a three‑channel video installation titled “A Place in the Sun” at the 61st Venice Biennale, housed in the Arsenale pavilion. The work fuses Zaum—a transrational language invented by Russian Futurists—with performance, puppetry, animation and...
Theme and Artists Announced for British Art Show 10
The 10th British Art Show, curated by Ekow Eshun, will open under the title “A Chorus of Strangers.” It features more than 30 artists organized into three thematic sections—Moments of Being, Ways of Living, and States of Nature—drawn from the ideas...
Joe Bradley’s Paradoxical Canvases Blend Familiar and Unsettling
Painter Joe Bradley makes some of the most guilefully guileless marks and surfaces and compositions. The first time I saw his then-geometric assemblage “Robot” paintings I did not like them. Since then, I always have to ask myself...
Who Gets Guggenheim Fellowships? A Century’s Worth of Data Shows the Rise of Creative Artists, and the Decline of Humanists...
A new analysis of 30,000 Guggenheim and peer fellowships reveals that elite U.S. universities dominate awardees, with roughly 75% of recipients holding university positions at a handful of prestigious institutions. Over the past century the Guggenheim has shifted funding toward...
History in Technicolour
MK Gallery in Milton Keynes is mounting “Life in Colour”, a major retrospective of French photographer Jacques‑Henri Lartigue. The show features more than 150 photographs and drawings, highlighting a trove of colour images that represent roughly a third of his...
The Nazis Stole and Hid the ‘Eighth Wonder of the World.’ 80 Years Later, Treasure Hunters Still Can’t Find It
The Amber Room, a 600‑square‑foot amber and gold masterpiece valued at about $504 million, was looted by Nazi forces in 1941 and moved to Königsberg Castle. Evidence now points to its destruction during the Soviet assault on the city in 1945,...
Rare 1815 Derby Campagna Vases Featuring Pegg Flower Painting
A superb Pair of Early 19th Century English Regency Derby Campagna Vases, c. 1815 Flower painting attributed to William Pegg. Private Collection. #english #art #antiques #derby #porcelain
Walter Hood
The April 15, 2026 piece spotlights three cultural figures—landscape architect Walter Hood, country star Luke Combs, and K‑pop icon Jennie—detailing their recent work and personal ethos. Hood’s African Ancestors Memorial Garden at the International African American Museum uses water and sculptural forms to...
A Brush With... Hurvin Anderson—Podcast
Hurvin Anderson joins Ben Luke for a deep‑dive podcast, unpacking the writers, musicians, and artists that shape his practice. He explains how he transforms personal and found photographs into layered canvases that echo memory and diaspora. Anderson also discusses his...
IFPDA Print Fair 2026 Sets Attendance Record and Posts Strong Sales
The International Fine Prints and Drawings Association (IFPDA) reported that its 2026 Print Fair attracted more than 21,000 visitors and generated a 20% jump in ticket sales, while galleries logged six‑figure deals across prints and drawings. The fair’s expansion to...
Chantana Tiprachart Wins Han Nefkens Foundation’s Southeast Asian Video Art Grant
The Barcelona‑based Han Nefkens Foundation awarded its 2026 Southeast Asian Video Art Production Grant to Thai artist‑filmmaker Chantana Tiprachart. The $15,000 award funds a nine‑month project that will be shown in 2027‑28 at six partner institutions across Europe, Asia and...
Art Dubai Announces Updated Gallery List for Postponed 2026 Edition
Art Dubai has shifted its 2026 edition to May 15‑17, postponing the event by a month due to the US‑Israel war in Iran. The fair will feature 50 regional and international galleries and introduces a revised fee model that waives...
'It Was My Job to Create the View': US Artist Liza Lou on Making Colourful Works in Her Windowless Warehouse
Liza Lou, the California‑based artist who first gained fame for her five‑year bead‑covered installation *Kitchen*, is back to working alone in a windowless warehouse, fusing oil paint with glass beads to create colour‑driven canvases. The stark, dark studio forces her...
This Monkey Selfie Will Protect You From AI Slop
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to the Copyright Office’s refusal to register works created solely by artificial intelligence, cementing the view that such output has no copyright protection. The ruling echoes a decade‑old dispute over a...
Color Code Performance Series
The artist’s new "Color‑Code Performance Series" extends the ongoing "Lost Grids" project by embedding semantic text directly into an image’s digital code, producing deliberate visual glitches. These glitches are amplified into prints, artist books, and now video installations that pair...
Art Collectors Lose ~2.5% Annually to Hidden Costs
A painting bought for £100,000 sells ten years later for £150,000. That's a 50% gain. The collector still lost money. Buyer's premium, VAT, storage, insurance, seller's commission: the real bill was bigger than the profit. New research from @CambridgeJBS puts a...
Vietnam to Debut at 2026 Venice Biennale
Vietnam will make its debut at the 61st Venice Biennale with a dedicated national pavilion titled “Viet Nam: Art in the Global Flow.” Curated by Đỗ Tường Linh, the pavilion showcases ten contemporary Vietnamese artists, including Lê Hữu Hiếu, whose...
A Charity Raffle’s €100 Pablo Picasso Painting, and Other News.
A Paris charity is raffling Pablo Picasso’s 1941 work *Tête de femme* for €100 (about $109) per ticket, potentially raising €12 million ($13 million) for Alzheimer’s research. Meanwhile, the inaugural Medina Triennial will debut in New York with 39 artists exploring ecology and...
Continental Reframes Silence as the Sound of Engineering at Milan Design Week
Continental teamed with WOA Studio to present “The Sound of Premium” at Milan Design Week 2026, an immersive installation that turns urban noise into a curated acoustic journey. The experience guides visitors through chaos, harmony and silence, illustrating how the...
First Painting Links Spain’s Exploration to Divine Mission
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐕𝐢𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬 The image shows the only painting in the Sala del Almirante (the Admiral Hall) of the Casa de Contratación (House of Trade)—the “Virgin of the Navigators” created by Alejo Fernández (c. 1531-1536). It is the first...
Leonardo Da Vinci: 15th‑century Genius Ahead of His Time
Born on April 15, 1452, Leonardo da Vinci was a genius way ahead of his time https://t.co/cq2ypCzNFM
AI Crowns the Most Beautiful Artworks of All Time for World Art Day
DAIVID, a creative data firm, repurposed its AI platform to rank the world’s most beautiful paintings for World Art Day. The algorithm, trained on tens of millions of human emotional responses, placed Botticelli’s *The Birth of Venus* at the top,...
Self‑portraits Always Keep Glasses on, Unlike Others
Self-portrait by Joshua Reynolds, 1780s. Other sitters can take their glasses off, but sitters in self-portraits can't. https://t.co/RAmCnr2OVz
Adriana Ramić at Kunstverein Für Mecklenburg Und Vorpommern in Schwerin
Adriana Ramić presents her first German institutional solo exhibition, "Confusion model into a butterfly," at the Kunstverein für Mecklenburg und Vorpommern in Schwerin. The multimedia show blends five‑channel video, sculpture, and language to explore hybrid identities, transcultural knowledge, and the limits of anthropocentric thought....
Why the ‘Fairification’ of the Art Market Is Unsustainable
Art fairs now dominate the contemporary market, accounting for 36% of sales among mid‑sized dealers, according to the 2026 Art Basel‑UBS report. The expansion into regions like Qatar illustrates how fairs serve as soft‑power instruments for host governments. However, participation...
A Python Being Surprising
The post curates a Lawfare roundup, highlighting Andrea Campbell’s new book on American tax attitudes, a critique of the United States’ increasingly restrictive data‑export stance, and a CIA‑withdrawn intelligence report on women in white‑supremacist violence. It also references a Lawfare...
Fundación Santander Launches 'ReversoDoble' Show on Landscape and Identity
Fundación Santander opened its annual exhibition "ReversoDoble" featuring painter Valeria Maggi and video artist Luis Garay. The show uses a glass façade and immersive works to explore the relationship between landscape and personal identity, while targeting visitors beyond the traditional...
Stormzy's Stab Vest Goes on Display in Landmark Exhibition of Black British Music
The Victoria & Albert Museum’s new V&A East in London has opened "Music Is Black: A British Story," a landmark exhibition tracing 125 years of black British music. Central to the show is Stormzy’s bullet‑proof vest, designed by Banksy, which...
Who’s Afraid of the Trocks?
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, a drag ballet troupe that has sold out U.S. venues for five decades, is now being shunned by some American theaters due to dwindling government arts funding. Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto has also paused...
Man Wins €1m Picasso Painting in €100 Charity Raffle
Ari Hodara, a 58‑year‑old engineer, won an original 1941 Pablo Picasso gouache titled *Tête de Femme* valued at over $1.2 million after buying a €100 ($118) raffle ticket. The "1 Picasso for 100 euros" charity raffle sold more than 120,000 tickets,...
Olafur Eliasson Stages Public Wake for the Great Salt Lake in Utah
Olafur Eliasson installed "A symphony of disappearing sounds for the Great Salt Lake" in Memory Grove Park, Utah, from March 26 to April 4, offering a free, ten‑day multimedia experience. The work projected shifting light onto a three‑storey illuminated sphere...
LACMA Sets May 4 Opening Date for $724 Million “Curvaceous Concrete Sandwich” As Reviews Pour In
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art will open its new David Geffen Galleries on May 4, 2026, after a twelve‑year, $724 million construction project led by Peter Zumthor. The serpentine, single‑story structure sits 30 feet above Wilshire Avenue and will debut an...
The High Priest of High Concept
MoMA opened a major retrospective on Marcel Duchamp, the early‑20th‑century artist whose readymades reshaped the definition of art. The exhibition showcases over 80 works, including the iconic "Fountain" and lesser‑known pieces that trace his evolution from Dada provocateur to conceptual pioneer....
Jim Jarmusch, Patti Smith & Brian Eno Feature In Venice Biennale’s The Holy See Pavilion
The Holy See Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Ben Vickers, opens on May 9, 2026 with the title “The Ear is the Eye of the Soul.” It spans two sites—a hidden Carmelite garden...
Practice Showing Art to Refine Audience Connection
If you want to show your art in public, practice showing it. How? Exhibit it every chance you get to those you know and especially those you don't, online as well as in person. Try different selections, ways to group...
LG Guggenheim Award Winner Trevor Paglen Screens AI‑Inspired Works in Seoul, New York and London
LG is projecting a video of Trevor Paglen’s AI‑centric artwork on Times Square, Piccadilly Circus and Gwanghwamun Square, reaching up to 30 million people. The eight‑week New York run and five‑week displays in London and Seoul highlight the growing fusion of technology and contemporary...
The Story Behind The New Yorker's Striking Tech Nightmare Cover
The New Yorker’s April 13 2026 “Future Issue” cover, illustrated by Christoph Niemann, depicts AI bots looming over a naïve human, symbolizing artists’ anxiety about artificial‑intelligence disruption. Niemann, who previously created the magazine’s first AR cover, warns that AI could economically upend traditional...
Why Does the “Rocky” Statue Draw Crowds? This Show Investigates.
The bronze Rocky statue outside Philadelphia’s Museum of Art, originally a prop for Rocky III, has become a cultural landmark drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. The iconic “Rocky steps” are now a top tourist attraction, comparable to the...
Joyce Awards to Relaunch After Yearlong Pause with $100,000 Unrestricted Grants for Great Lakes Artists
The Joyce Foundation is reviving its Joyce Awards with a new model that awards four Great Lakes artists a $100,000 unrestricted grant each. An additional $40,000 will be directed to a regional nonprofit selected by the winning artist to expand...
DIY Arduino Spray Paint Delivers 4,096 Colors for $150
With an Arduino Nano and custom rotary pinch valves, this DIY spray paint system brings a new palette of 4,096 colors to artists' fingertips. It only costs $150 U.S. to make. https://spectrum.ieee.org/spray-paint-color-creator
Art Problems: Do I Need to Go to Art Fairs?
The article argues that attending art fairs is optional and should be driven by an artist’s specific goals, whether that’s networking, sales, or gathering market intelligence. It stresses the need to strategically select fairs that match an artist’s career stage,...
2025 Photo Awards Winner: Chanyoung Chung
Chanyoung Chung, a Montreal‑based photographer and former nurse, was named the 2025 Colour category winner of the Booooooom Photo Awards, supported by Format. His award‑winning still‑life image reflects themes of societal teamwork and harmony, drawn from personal experiences of loss,...
In the Swiss Alps, Gerhard Richter Reflects On the Passage of Time
German artist Gerhard Richter’s Strip Tower (962), a cruciform sculpture clad in glazed ceramic tiles, was installed on Lake Silvaplana in the Swiss Alps in January 2026. Commissioned by the Luma Foundation under its Elevation 1049 program, the work will remain...
Artists Criticize Somalia’s First-Ever Venice Biennale Pavilion: ‘This Pavilion Does Not Speak for Us’
Somalia’s inaugural pavilion at the Venice Biennale, titled “SADDEXLEEY,” has sparked controversy as local art collectives accuse organizers of sidelining Somali‑based artists. The pavilion, curated by Mohamed Mire and Fabio Scrivanti, features three diaspora creators—Ayan Farah, Asmaa Jama, and Warsan...
2026 Guggenheim Fellowships Go to Sonya Clark, John Miller, and American Artist
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation announced its 2026 fellowship class, awarding 223 scholars and artists across 55 disciplines. The cohort, the foundation’s 101st, was chosen from nearly 5,000 applicants and includes notable fine‑arts winners such as Sonya Clark, John...
Wábi Gallery Opens on Court Street, Giving Emerging Yale Artists a New Home
Artist‑owner Kim Weston opened Wábi Gallery at 126 Court Street in New Haven, a space five years in the making that features work by Yale MFA graduates. Backed by family inheritance, foundation grants and community donors, the venue aims to...
Sakura: A Season of Becoming A Transnational Group Exhibition Exploring the Artistic Metaphors of Cherry Blossoming by WM
The Romanian Cultural Institute’s Brâncuși Gallery in New York will host “Sakura: A Season of Becoming,” a transnational group exhibition running April 17‑May 15, 2026. Curated by Kyoko Sato and Luisa Tuntuc, the show features 11 artists from the United States, Japan,...
A Bodybuilder’s 3,300-Year-Old Egyptian Stele Heads to TEFAF
Ben Weider’s 3,300‑year‑old Egyptian stele of Pharaoh Thutmose IV, once sold for 56,000 CAD (≈$38,000), will appear at TEFAF New York with an asking price of £450,000 (≈$608,000). It will be shown alongside a 2,500‑year‑old greywacke bust of a goddess, recently authenticated after...