Tracing the Arc of British Sculpture From Modernism to Today
The Bowman Sculpture gallery in London is hosting “Modern British: Modern & Contemporary British Sculpture,” on view through May 29, 2026. The show pairs iconic modernists such as Henry Moore, Eduardo Paolozzi and Lynn Chadwick with emerging voices like Rufus Martin and Joanna Allen, creating a cross‑generational dialogue. Founded in 1993, Bowman Sculpture has evolved from a focus on masters to a platform for cutting‑edge contemporary British sculpture. The exhibition offers visitors a comprehensive look at the evolution of British sculptural practice from modernism to today.
Ciao, Venice.
The 61st Venice Biennale opened amid a wave of turmoil, including the untimely death of director Koyo Kouoh, the resignation of the international jury, and the cancellation of the South African pavilion. Despite these setbacks, the event features roughly 100 national...
The Egyptian Modernist Inji Efflatoun Gains International Exposure with New Biographical Collection
Inji Efflatoun, a leading Egyptian modernist painter and activist, is the subject of a new bilingual biography, *The Life and Work of Inji Efflatoun*, released in August 2025. The volume combines her translated diaries—covering childhood to imprisonment—with scholarly essays that situate...
Billionaire Collector Ken Griffin Buys Second Rare Constitution Printing
Billionaire hedge‑fund founder Ken Griffin has added a second first‑printing of the U.S. Constitution to his collection, making him the only private owner of two of the 14 surviving copies. The Van Sinderen copy was secured in a private deal after...
May Book Bag: From a Guide on Entering the Art World to a Publication About Artists Influenced by Ovid’s Metamorphoses
May’s Book Bag highlights four new titles that bridge scholarship and practice in the visual arts. Francesca Cappelletti and Frits Scholten edit *Metamorphoses: Ovid and the Arts* ($50), pairing Ovid’s mythic narratives with works by Cellini, Rodin, Bourgeois and others....
Nahmad Seeks to Reopen Modigliani Restitution Case With New Witnesses
David Nahmad’s lawyers have filed a motion in New York seeking to reopen the restitution case over Amedeo Modigliani’s *Seated Man with a Cane*, arguing that the painting may have been misidentified. The motion relies on two new witnesses who...
‘A Remarkably Tenacious Motif’: The Many Faces of Marilyn Monroe Revealed in New Book and Show
The National Portrait Gallery in London will launch "Marilyn Monroe: a Portrait" on June 4, 2026, curated by Rosie Broadley and accompanied by a new 256‑page book. The show assembles works by Andy Warhol, Willem de Kooning, Pauline Boty, Rosalyn...
Got Artwork that Deserves Wall Space? Share It with Us!
Dazed Club has partnered with London‑based art‑print platform DROOL to scout emerging talent. Up to ten Dazed Club members will have their artwork turned into official prints sold on DROOL’s site, earning a commission on each sale. Selected pieces will...
Eva Franco Mattes Are Bonafide Experts in Ragebait and Cat Memes
Eva and Franco Mattes are being hailed as leading practitioners of "ragebait," a term that topped the 2025 Word of the Year list for content designed to provoke anger. Their newest Venice exhibition, backed by the Autotelic Foundation, showcases AI‑generated...
Walter Pfeiffer’s World of Beauty and Desire
Walter Pfeiffer, the 90‑year‑old Austrian photographer, opened his latest solo show, “Walter Pfeiffer. In Good Company,” at Turin’s Pinacoteca Agnelli. The exhibition, known for its erotic and surreal portraiture, only introduces formal fashion photography in a striking triptych featuring supermodel Eva Herzigová in sequinned outfits and a...
ASIAN DOPE BOYS, Ziúr and More to Play at Kuboraum’s Venice Biennale Takeover
Kuboraum is staging a four‑day "We Travel to Know Our Own Geography" program at the Venice Art Biennale from May 6‑9, hosted at the historic Pier Fortunato Calvi State Secondary School. The lineup blends performance art, music, and multidisciplinary collaborations, featuring...
Dozens of Venice Biennale Artists Stage ‘Drone’ Perfomance in Protest of Israel’s Participation
The Venice Biennale’s professional pre‑opening featured about 60 artists staging a “Solidarity Drone Chorus” to protest Israel’s participation. The performers hummed a Gaza‑originated “Drone Song,” aiming to sonically occupy the space and echo the daily drone strikes that Palestinians endure....
The Stone Sculptures of Joan Bennàssar in Can Picafort, Spain
Mallorca artist Joan Bennàssar installed a series of stone and cement figures along Can Picafort’s waterfront in 2016. The sculptures, grouped under the themes "El Deseo," "El Ritual," "El Tesoro" and "La Herida," range from solitary female forms to a...
Nicholas Pope, Sculptor Whose Career Came in Two Acts, 1949–2026
Nicholas Pope, a British sculptor known for his organic wooden columns, died in May 2026. He first gained prominence in the 1970s alongside peers like Tony Cragg and Antony Gormley, culminating in a 1980 showing at the British Pavilion in...
Venice Biennale’s Fierce Pussy Group Says City Censored Posters About Queer and Trans People
Lesbian artist collective fierce pussy announced that its Venice Biennale posters celebrating queer and trans people were censored by the city of Venice before the exhibition opened. The works, featuring slogans like “Welcome queers and trans people” alongside a cat‑rendered...
How the Adoption of Canvas in Venice Changed the Way Artists Painted
In the 16th century Venice, artists shifted from wall frescoes and wooden panels to canvas, a medium better suited to the city’s humid climate and easier to ship. Historian Cleo Nisse’s new book reveals how painters such as Titian, Veronese...
Walter Pfeiffer, the Cult Photographer of Beauty, Sex and Outsiders
Walter Pfeiffer, the Austrian photographer whose raw, candid images of beauty, sexuality and marginal figures have long circulated in underground circles, is now receiving mainstream museum attention. Recent retrospectives in Europe and North America showcase his 1970s‑80s work, emphasizing his unvarnished...
The World's Biggest Museum for Illustrations Is Coming to London – and the Official Opening Date Has Been Revealed
The Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration, a £12.5 million museum dedicated to illustration, will open in Clerkenwell on 25 June 2026. Housed in a refurbished 18th‑century waterworks, the venue offers three galleries, a shop, café, free library and a studio for emerging...
Derrick Adams Installs Large-Scale Tribute to Late Curator Koyo Kouoh in Venice, and Other News.
Artist Derrick Adams unveiled a monumental portrait honoring late curator Koyo Kouoh on a Venice Biennale façade, while Iran withdrew from the same event amid rising geopolitical tensions. The 2026 Met Gala swapped its iconic red carpet for a moss‑covered...
When Francis Bacon Shocked the Art World: Viewers Were Horrified by His Paintings, But Couldn’t Look Away
Francis Bacon’s 1953 masterpiece, *Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X*, shocked audiences with its visceral intensity, turning a classic papal portrait into a nightmarish vision. The painting was created from a faded copy of Velázquez’s work, allowing Bacon...
Audible Edge Review: A ‘Sublimely Curated’ Festival of Exploratory Music
Audible Edge, Perth’s sole artist‑led experimental music festival, celebrated its 10th anniversary from May 1‑3, 2026 at the historic Victoria Hall in Fremantle. Curated by composer Josten Myburgh and sound artist Annika Moses, the three‑day event featured a mix of local and...
Amy Sherald Dresses As Her Own Award-Winning Painting for Met Gala
At the 2026 Met Gala, portraitist Amy Sherald stepped onto the red carpet dressed as the young girl from her award‑winning 2014 painting “Miss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance)." With designer Thom Browne, she transformed the canvas into a custom blue dress with...
Amid Escalation in the Middle East, Venice Light Art Rallies Against War
Chris Levine illuminated Venice’s Grand Canal with a 432 Hz military‑grade laser, creating the monumental light installation “Higher Power” at the 61st Biennale. The artwork, described as a beacon of hope, arrives as the Biennale grapples with heightened Middle East tensions,...
Hedwig Fijen to Depart as Founding Director of Manifesta
Founding director Hedwig Fijen will leave Manifesta on October 5 after guiding the nomadic biennial for more than three decades. She transformed the event from a pure art exhibition into an interdisciplinary platform that produced over 1,000 site‑specific works across cities such...
Timeless Meets Timely at TEFAF New York 2026
TEFAF New York will return to the Park Avenue Armory from May 15‑19, 2026, featuring 88 international exhibitors across art, antiquities, design and high jewelry. The fair showcases works from 14 countries spanning over a millennium, including new contemporary pieces by Minjung...
In Venice, an Ocean-Inspired Exhibition Takes Visitors Under the Sea
The Venice Biennale’s "As Above, So Below" exhibit transforms a 15th‑century Giudecca convent into an underwater realm. Seven artists and collectives fuse cutting‑edge science, sound design, and visual tech to immerse visitors in whale songs, dolphin sonar, and bioluminescent plankton....
Champagne Breakfast & Artist Talk: Mario Klingemann in Conversation with Anika Meier
During Berlin’s Gallery Weekend, SLEEK Art Space hosted a Champagne Breakfast and artist talk featuring AI pioneer Mario Klingemann and curator Anika Meier. The conversation, titled “Inert Images vs. Attention Maxxing in the Age of AI Slop,” explored how Klingemann...
Raymond Pettibon, the Artist Behind Some of the Most Iconic Album Covers
Raymond Pettibon, the former punk‑zine illustrator turned fine‑art star, is best known for designing Black Flag’s four‑bar logo and iconic covers for Sonic Youth, The Stooges and R.E.M. His stark, ink‑heavy style has become synonymous with underground music branding. A...
Jesuit Artist’s Exhibition ‘Twilight of the Idols’ Finds New Home at the Church of St. Francis Xavier After Sudden Sheen...
The Church of St. Francis Xavier and Xavier High School rescued Nicholas Leeper, SJ’s exhibition “Twilight of the Idols” after the Sheen Center canceled it over reception concerns. The show runs May 9‑29 in the parish’s Mary Chapel, featuring 14 paintings...
Deborah Turbeville and Ikram Abulkadir Explore Fashion and the Body
Moderna Museet in Stockholm, in partnership with Photo Elysée, has opened a dual exhibition featuring the late American fashion photographer Deborah Turbeville and contemporary Sudanese‑born photographer Ikram Abulkadir. The show juxtaposes Turbeville’s atmospheric 1970s‑80s fashion images with Abulkadir’s recent work...
Monumental Portrait of Koyo Kouoh by Derrick Adams Appears Amid Venice Biennale
Derrick Adams has installed a monumental banner portrait of the late curator Koyo Kouoh on the façade of the Palazzetto dello sport Giobatta Gianquinto in Venice. Titled "Heavy is the head that wears the crown," the work hangs over the...
Morocco Debuts at the Biennale with an Exploration of Its Age-Old Craft Traditions
Morocco presented its inaugural national pavilion at the Venice Biennale, titled “Asetta,” a 300‑square‑metre installation by artist‑architect Amina Agueznay. The work was created with over 130 Moroccan artisans, predominantly women, after field research across Casablanca, Marrakech, Souss‑Massa and the Atlas...
The Performance Art Mall Walkers Of (You Guessed It) Portland, Oregon
In Portland’s Lloyd Center mall, an intergenerational group called Food Court 5000 turns weekly mall walking into a neon‑clad performance art ritual. About 50 participants stride roughly 3.5 miles across three levels, mixing retro workout gear, music, and communal cheering. The...
Sellers at the May Marquee Auctions Revealed, Bogotá’s MAMBO Museum Loses Its Director, and More: Morning Links for May 4, 2026
Art market buzz includes Sotheby's upcoming auction of Basquiat's "Museum Security" estimated at $45 million, with the work consigned by Joahn Sayegh‑Belchatowski. Ronald Lauder is behind Christie’s “A Matter of Seeing” collection sale, while Lévy Gorvy Dayan unveils an auction‑gallery hybrid...
Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn — the Artist Who Built an Archive to Decode Dreams
Dutch artist and mystic Olga Fröbe‑Kapteyn (1881‑1962) assembled a 6,000‑image Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism at Carl Jung’s request, traveling across Europe and the US throughout the 1930s‑40s. She founded the Eranos symposium in Ascona, where Jung gave the...
Faye Raquel Gleisser Receives 2025 Charles C. Eldredge Prize
The Smithsonian American Art Museum has awarded the 2025 Charles C. Eldredge Prize to historian Faye Raquel Gleisser for her book *Risk Work: Making Art and Guerrilla Tactics in Punitive America*. The prize, established in 1986, honors a recent publication that deepens...
On the High Line, Buddha Is the New Giant Pigeon
In 2024 Colombian artist Iván Argote installed a hyperrealistic giant pigeon sculpture called “Dinosaur” on the High Line’s Spur, drawing more than 5,000 visitors and sparking a National Pigeon Appreciation Day. A petition of 7,000 people tried to stop its...
Emerging Artist Charlie Gosling Is Being Compared to Frank Auerbach. Discover His Haunting Portraits in London
Emerging London painter Charlie Gosling, a 2023 Camberwell graduate, is presenting his second solo exhibition, “Good Luck with Me Here,” at the Incubator gallery. Critics compare his thick, expressive portraiture to Frank Auerbach and de Kooning, while noting his evolving technique...
Kati Gegenheimer
Painter Kati Gegenheimer, a Yale‑trained artist who pivoted from journalism to visual art, is presenting her first solo museum exhibition, *We’ve Only Just Begun*, at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. The show, running April 12‑December 31, 2026, features...
Meloni Fails to Hit High Note in Italy’s Culture Wars
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s recent cultural‑policy initiative, aimed at reinforcing traditional values and tightening media oversight, fell short of public and industry expectations. The proposal, which sought to expand state funding for heritage projects while imposing stricter content guidelines, sparked...
Mrs Mangel Portrait Pulls $19,500 for Dementia Australia
The iconic Mrs Mangel portrait from the Australian soap "Neighbours" sold for AU$19,500 (approximately US$12,900) after a week‑long online auction that attracted 104 bids. A buyer from the United Kingdom secured the piece, with participants spanning the US, Singapore, Italy,...
Three Exhibitions at the Crossroads of Fashion and Contemporary Creative Practice
Three major fashion‑focused exhibitions open in France this spring‑summer 2026. The Musée Christian Dior in Granville presents “In Search of the Colours of Childhood,” running April 4‑Nov 1 and showcasing about 250 dresses, perfumes, photographs and archives that trace Dior’s early influences....
A $35 M. Warhol, a $45 M. Basquiat, and More: Who’s Selling The Top Works in the May Sales?
May’s marquee auction season sees Christie's and Sotheby's unveiling a slate of blue‑chip works that could reshape the high‑end market. Highlights include a Brâncuși sculpture and a Pollock painting each pegged at $100 million, a Rothko "Brown and Blacks in Reds"...
Koyo Kouoh’s Death and the Politics of the Silent Black Subject
Koyo Kouoh, the first Black woman appointed to curate the 2026 Venice Biennale, died suddenly in May 2025, leaving the exhibition "In Minor Keys" without its lead visionary. The unprecedented loss forces her appointed team to interpret and execute her...
Monumental Portrait of Late Biennale Curator Koyo Kouoh Unveiled in Venice
A monumental portrait of the late Venice Biennale curator Koyo Kouoh was unveiled in Venice on May 4, 2026. Created by American artist Derrick Adams, the work titled *Heavy is the head that wears the crown* will hang near the Arsenale until September 24....
You Are Here Review: Danny Boyle’s Postwar Pop-Culture Tribute Lets It All Hang Out
Danny Boyle’s “You Are Here” transforms the Southbank Centre into an immersive pop‑culture spectacle that spans British music and youth movements from 1951 to the present. The production combines theatre, dance, and live DJ sets with a cast of hundreds,...
BBC “Buried” Footage of Banksy at New York City Mural Site, Former Reporter Claims
A former BBC New York correspondent, Nick Bryant, alleges the broadcaster suppressed video he captured of Banksy unveiling a mural at Manhattan’s Houston Bowery Wall in March 2018. The footage reportedly shows the artist, with fresh paint on his fingers, and his...
A Family Affair: Hammer Museum Gala Pays Tribute to Betye Saar and Darren Star
Los Angeles’ Hammer Museum held its 2026 Gala in the Garden, honoring 99‑year‑old artist Betye Saar and television writer‑producer Darren Star. The event showcased the museum’s influence on the city’s creative community, with appearances by Owen Wilson, Rufus Wainwright, and museum leaders Michael Govan...
The 2026 Met Gala Dress Code Is ‘Fashion Is Art’. But Is It?
The 2026 Met Gala adopts the theme “Costume Art” with a dress code that declares “Fashion is Art.” Organizers invite celebrities and designers to treat clothing as an expressive medium, echoing past exhibitions that framed haute couture as museum‑worthy. The...
Changi Airport Group and NAC Partner to Bring Singapore Art to International Travellers
Changi Airport Group and Singapore’s National Arts Council have signed a three‑year partnership to embed visual, performing, and literary arts throughout Changi’s terminals. The collaboration will feature rotating installations, live poetry, music performances, and festival‑linked activations aimed at enriching the...