Basel Abbas & Ruanne Abou-Rahme: Archivists and Activists
Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou‑Rahme’s new installation, *Prisoners of Love: Until the Sun of Freedom* (2025), occupies The Bell’s gallery with a four‑channel, hour‑long film and layered projections that simulate a prison‑like environment. The work interweaves psychedelic visuals, looping electronic sound, and on‑screen testimonies of Palestinians detained by Israeli authorities, echoing Michel Foucault’s ideas about pervasive surveillance. By presenting archival testimonies alongside personal drawings and printed reflections, the duo positions themselves as both archivists and activists, deliberately fragmenting narratives to reflect the chaotic reality of occupation. The exhibition runs through May 31, inviting visitors to confront suppressed histories in an immersive setting.
ArtReview April & May 2026 Issue Out Now
ArtReview’s April‑May 2026 issue examines the limits of artistic expression against a backdrop of international conflict, centering on the 61st Venice Biennale. The cover features performance artist Ei Arakawa‑Nash with his family, reflecting his installation in the Japanese Pavilion and...
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...
Sara Shamma on Representing Syria at the 61st Venice Biennale
Syrian artist Sara Shamma will represent her country at the 61st Venice Biennale with a 15‑metre‑high immersive installation called “The Tower Tomb of Palmyra.” The work fuses painting, architecture, light, sound and scent to evoke the ancient funerary towers destroyed...
Aileen Murphy Sleeps on the Ceiling
Aileen Murphy’s third solo exhibition at Deborah Schamoni in Munich uses a deceptively simple table motif to anchor a series of five new paintings dominated by pink and rosé hues. The works blend meticulous animal figuration with abstract gestures, introducing...
Watch: Wallace Chan Returns to the Venice Biennale with ‘Vessels of Other Worlds’
Wallace Chan returns to the 61st Venice Biennale with “Vessels of Other Worlds,” a two‑city exhibition that opens in Venice on May 8, 2026 and moves to Shanghai’s Long Museum West Bund on July 18. The project showcases large‑scale titanium sculptures that explore birth,...
Amanda Carneiro and Raphael Fonseca to Curate 2027 Bienal De São Paulo
Brazilian curators Amanda Carneiro and Raphael Fonseca have been appointed to lead the 2027 Bienal de São Paulo. Carneiro, a MASP curator since 2018, brings a track record of championing under‑represented Brazilian artists. Fonseca, a visual arts programmer at Culturgest and curator‑at‑large at...
Rafał Zajko Is Hatching a Plan
Polish artist Rafał Zajko launches his ambitious installation series *The Egg Egg* at Arsenal Gallery in Białystok, running through 10 May. The exhibition assembles 50 works created over the past decade, organized into nine “acts” that weave brutalist architecture, camp sensibility,...
Liu Ding and Carol Yinghua Lu to Curate 2027 Istanbul Biennial
Liu Ding and Carol Yinghua Lu have been appointed curators of the 19th Istanbul Biennial, scheduled for 18 September to 14 November 2027. Both are veteran Chinese curators—Ding a Beijing‑based artist and professor, Lu a director of Beijing’s Inside‑Out Art...
Sharjah Biennial 2027 Announces Theme and Artists
The Sharjah Art Foundation has revealed the 2027 Sharjah Biennial, titled “What remains, sits restive.” Curated jointly by Angela Harutyunyan and Paula Nascimento, the edition will run from 21 January to 13 June 2027. Harutyunyan’s program features 55 artists exploring the afterlives of...
Jenna Sutela on Representing Finland at the 61st Venice Biennale
Finnish artist Jenna Sutela will represent Finland at the 61st Venice Biennale with her sound‑sculpture installation “Aeolian Suite,” a wind‑driven composition that mixes meteorological data, recorder ensembles and site‑specific elements. The work, staged in Alvar Aalto’s 1956 pavilion in the...
Shigeo Toya, Artist Who Looked to Nature with His Wood Sculptures, 1947–2026
Japanese sculptor Shigeo Toya, famed for his chainsaw‑hewn wood installations, died in 2026. He launched the "Woods" series in 1984, arranging tall timber pieces to evoke forest clusters, and later created the "Twenty Eight Deaths" series of paired blocks with...
Venice Golden Lion Jury Won’t Consider Russian and Israeli Pavilions
The Venice Biennale’s 61st International Art Exhibition will not consider any national pavilion whose leader faces International Criminal Court charges for crimes against humanity. The jury, led by Solange Oliveira Farkas and featuring curators from Yale, Abu Dhabi, Brazil and...
Chang-Ching and Rhett Tsai’s Tricks of the Light
Artists Chang‑Ching Su and Rhett Tsai present a tandem series at Chicago’s Watershed Art & Ecology that interrogates the ecological and geopolitical fallout of green‑light luring used in Chinese squid‑fishing fleets. Su’s *Greenlessness* (2023‑25) records the LEDs on colour film,...
Watch: Khaled Sabsabi and Michael Dagostino in Conversation
Artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino discuss their dual project, *conference of one’s self*, presented in both the Australia Pavilion and the International Art Exhibition at the 61st Venice Biennale. The work intertwines Sufi poetry, personal memory of the Lebanese civil...
‘A Guardian and a Thief’ by Megha Majumdar, Reviewed
Megha Majumdar’s second novel, A Guardian and a Thief, imagines a near‑future Kolkata ravaged by climate‑induced drought, food shortages and soaring prices. The story follows Ma, a middle‑class manager planning to escape to Michigan, and Boomba, an economic migrant desperate...
Is Art Good for Your Health?
Daisy Fancourt’s new book *Art Cure* argues that regular arts experiences can improve mental health, boost neuroplasticity, and even increase the likelihood of meeting dietary guidelines, citing a range of epidemiological studies. The author claims that creative engagement halves the...
There Has Never Been an Apolitical Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale, now in its 61st edition, continues to function as a global stage where national pavilions act as instruments of soft power rather than purely artistic showcases. Historically rooted in early‑20th‑century nation‑state competition, the event today hosts an...
In Conversation: Arch Hades and Fi Churchman
Arch Hades’s multidisciplinary exhibition Return | Ritorno opens at the deconsecrated Scoletta Battioro e Tiraoro di Venezia on 7 May 2026, coinciding with a breakfast conversation with ArtReview editor Fi Churchman on 8 May. The show spans three floors and features a 22‑panel, 13‑metre...
Marcos Kueh in Turbulent Seas
Marcos Kueh’s solo show "Smooth Sailing" at Manchester’s ESEA Contemporary examines Chinese labour migration through a mix of sculptures, tapestries and large‑scale installations. Drawing on 19th‑century British union banners, the exhibition juxtaposes traditional Chinese symbols with modern brand logos to...
Gardar Eide Einarsson Leaves You in the Dark
Gardar Eide Einarsson’s new exhibition *Music Playing Over Speech* at Maureen Paley presents a series of ten black gouache sheets titled *Closed Caption*, each bearing only a fragment of white text taken from film and TV scripts. The minimalist works force...
Merike Estna on Representing Estonia at the 61st Venice Biennale
Estonian artist Merike Estna will represent Estonia at the 61st Venice Biennale, turning the national pavilion into an open studio where she creates 22 paintings over the exhibition period. Her project foregrounds the act of painting itself, drawing inspiration from historic...
Taiwan’s New Typologies
Taiwan’s municipal cultural strategy is accelerating, with three flagship institutions opening between 2025 and 2028. The New Taipei City Art Museum debuted in April 2025, while the Taoyuan Museum of Fine Arts rolls out in phases through 2028, adding a...
Toronto Biennial of Art Announces 2026 Artists and Theme
The Toronto Biennial of Art’s 2026 edition, curated by Allison Glenn, will be titled “Things Fall Apart.” It will showcase more than 30 artists and collectives, featuring 17 newly commissioned works that interrogate Toronto’s water environment. The exhibition uses water as...
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...
Locating Luigi Ghirri
The Thomas Dane Gallery in London is hosting "Felicità," a new exhibition of Luigi Ghirri’s work curated by fashion photographer Alessio Bolzoni and filmmaker Luca Guadagnino. The show presents 45 previously unseen colour photographs, organized into two portfolios and introduced by...
‘As If’ by Isabel Waidner, Reviewed
Isabel Waidner’s latest novel, As If, follows two London‑based actors—Lewis, a grieving widower, and Korine, a struggling family man—who discover they look alike enough to exchange roles. The swap lets each inhabit the other’s professional and domestic pressures, exposing how...
Biennale Jogja 18 Review: Occasional Moments of Brilliance
The 18th Biennale Jogja, titled *KAWRUH: Land of Rooted Practice*, unfolds in two phases—a village‑based immersion in Boro Hamlet followed by a conventional city program across 11 venues. Curated around the Javanese concept of *kawruh*—deep, lived knowledge—the show aims to...
Thailand Biennale 2025 Review: Beyond the Tropical Paradise
The fourth Thailand Biennale, titled Eternal Kalpa, opened across 19 venues in Phuket, aiming to disrupt the island’s leisure‑driven image with slow‑time, environmentally‑focused art. Installations such as Ryuichi Sakamoto’s tsunami‑scarred piano and speculative bamboo shelters for the Urak Lawoi community...
Tanka Fonta Wins 2026 Wi Di Mimba Wi Prize
SAVVY Contemporary announced that Cameroonian‑born multidisciplinary artist Tanka Fonta has won the 2026 Wi Di Mimba Wi Prize. The award includes a €30,000 grant (about $33,000), additional funding for a new artwork and curatorial support. Fonta, whose practice spans visual art, composition, poetry...
Anne Hardy’s Hollow Humanoids
Anne Hardy’s latest exhibition Interloper at Visual, Carlow showcases a series of hollow, humanoid sculptures titled “Beings.” Constructed from cast metal, found objects, rusted wire and Jesmonite, the figures rest on soil‑filled plinths and wear the artist’s own clothing and bric‑a‑brac. The...
Sasaoka Yuriko’s Violent Puppeteering
Sasaoka Yuriko’s "Paradise Dungeon" at the Shiga Museum of Art runs Jan‑Mar 2026, showcasing a decade of video‑art and installations that fuse grotesque puppetry with digital overlays. Beginning with the 2011 looped video "Untitled," the show traces her response to...
‘Transcription’ by Ben Lerner Review: No Phones
Ben Lerner’s latest novel, *Transcription*, unfolds over three single‑conversation chapters set during the COVID‑19 pandemic, using a broken phone as a metaphor for fragmented memory. The narrative follows a narrator interviewing his aging mentor Thomas, then confronting a curator, and...
Event: Hammad Nasar and Billy Tang, Off the Record
ArtReview and Ursula magazine are hosting a live, ticketed conversation on 14 April in London’s Mayfair featuring curator Hammad Nasar and artistic director Billy Tang. The event, priced at £14 (approximately $18), includes a welcome drink and copies of both magazines. Nasar, an...
‘Paper Gardens’: The Flower and the Serpent Beneath
The Museum of Art and Photography in Bengaluru is hosting “Paper Gardens: Art, Botany and Empire” through July 5, showcasing colonial‑era botanical illustrations alongside Indian contributions. Curator Shrey Maurya highlights how 18th‑19th‑century plant hunting served commercial and imperial interests, often marginalizing local...
Artist List for Counterpublic 2026 Announced
The third edition of Counterpublic, the St. Louis‑based triennial, will open on 12 September and close on 12 December 2026 under the title “Coyote Time.” Curated by Stefanie Hessler, Jordan Carter, Raphael Fonseca, Nora N. Khan and Wanda Nanibush, the...
Thomas Zipp, Artist with a Sideways Sense of History, 1966–2026
German artist Thomas Zipp, known for his punk‑infused Dadaist approach, died at 60. His multidisciplinary practice spanned painting, installation, and sculpture, weaving politics, medicine, and nuclear imagery into complex works. Notably, his 2013 Venice Biennale piece transformed Palazzo Rossini into...
Art Lovers Movie Club: Gê Viana, ‘Radiola De Promessa’, 2025
Brazilian artist Gê Viana’s 2025 film "Radiola de Promessa" showcases the massive, custom‑built radiolas that dominate Maranhão’s public celebrations. The work frames these sound systems as altars, capturing pre‑festival rituals such as dough kneading, woodcutting, and communal singing before the...
Art Lovers Movie Club: The Archive
Art Review has launched an online archive for its Art Lovers Movie Club, cataloguing monthly artist video screenings from 2020 through 2026. The collection features works by a diverse roster of international creators, ranging from emerging talents like Gê Viana...
Colectivo Los Ingrávidos Wins Schering Stiftung Award
Colectivo Los Ingrávidos, a Tehuacán‑based film collective, has been named the 2026 winner of the Schering Stiftung Award for Artistic Research. The prize includes €15,000 (approximately $16,500) and a solo exhibition at Berlin’s KW Institute of Contemporary Art, featuring a...
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Language of the Dispossessed
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s posthumous retrospective, Multiple Offerings, opens at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, showcasing her pioneering 1970s feminist conceptual works that interrogate language, displacement, and nationalism. The show features seminal pieces such as the print...
Teresinha Soares, Artist Who Brought Sex and Feminism to Pop Art, 1927–2026
Teresinha Soares, the Brazilian Pop artist who fused sexual politics with avant‑garde imagery, died at 99. Educated during Brazil’s early military dictatorship, she produced provocative paintings and shaped wooden panels that tackled Vietnam, American imperialism, and gender oppression. After an...
Michael Fullerton: The Politics of Portraiture
Glasgow painter Michael Fullerton’s new exhibition at Edinburgh’s City Art Centre juxtaposes eighteenth‑century portraiture with contemporary political subjects, including eleven oil portraits of male asylum seekers from the Hilltop Hotel in Carlisle. The works blend warm, meticulous rendering with muted,...
Chobi Mela XI Review: Can We Start Over?
The 11th Chobi Mela photography festival opened in Dhaka on Jan. 16, 2026, under the theme “Re,” inviting artists to explore renewal after the COVID‑19 shutdown and the July 2024 uprising. Curated by Munem Wasif and Sarker Protick, the event features 58...
Sara Flores on Representing Peru at the 61st Venice Biennale
Sara Flores, a Shipibo‑Konibo artist, will represent Peru at the 61st Venice Biennale in the Arsenale pavilion, marking the first time an Indigenous Peruvian has been selected for the national showcase. Her exhibition, "From Other Worlds," combines large‑scale kené paintings,...
Manifesta 16 Ruhr Announces List of Artists
Manifesta 16, the 2026 edition of the nomadic European biennial, will open on 21 June across twelve decommissioned modernist churches in the Ruhr’s four cities. Curated by an eight‑person artistic team, the event showcases 106 artists from 30 countries, including 64 new...
Yang Fudong’s Memory Palace
Yang Fudong’s solo show "Fragrant River" at Beijing’s UCCA showcases 30 video works spanning more than eight hours, opening with the five‑channel installation *Young Man, Young Man* (2025). The exhibition weaves nostalgic vignettes of 1980s‑90s hutong life, furniture‑industry imagery from...
Golnar Adili’s Family Archive
Golnar Adili’s Smack Mellon exhibition, “To Measure the Emotions of Others,” transforms family letters from the post‑1979 Iranian diaspora into sculptural and textual installations. The centerpiece, *Ye Harvest From the Eleven‑Page Letter–Installation*, repeats the Persian “ye” character in archival cardboard,...
Louise Bourgeois’s Body Clock
Louise Bourgeois: Echoes of the Morning opens at PoMo in Trondheim, showcasing the artist’s late‑period gouaches alongside her iconic large‑scale sculptures and tapestries. The show centers on the 2006 installation *Peaux de lapins, chiffons ferrailles à vendre* and a series...