$3.7 million Cecily Brown painting to lead upcoming Christie’s London sale. https://ift.tt/kw75eyC

Cecily Brown’s painting The Haunter (2010) will headline Christie's upcoming Post-War to Present sale in London on June 25th, carrying an estimate of £2.2 million–£2.8 million ($2.95 million–$3.76 million).

The Haunter was acquired in 2011 and has since remained in the same private collection. The Christie’s sale coincides with a major exhibition of Brown’s work at London’s Serpentine Galleries. In November 2025, a new record was set for Brown’s work when her painting High Society (1997–98) sold for $9.81 million at Sotheby’s New York, soaring past its estimate of $4-6 million.

Over her three-decade career, Brown has defined a style of painting that moves fluidly between figuration and abstraction, synthesizing references from art history, literature, and memory.

The Haunter evokes what the auction house describes as a convergence of “the human, the natural and the supernatural.” In the work, Brown cites diverse influences from Francis Bacon’s portraits of Vincent van Gogh and Georg Baselitz’s fractured “heroes” to the gothic fiction of American author Shirley Jackson.

Born in London in 1969, Brown studied at the Slade School of Fine Art amid the rise of the Young British Artists in the early 1990s. By 1994, she relocated to New York City, and her major breakout moment came in 1997 with “*Spectacle*” her debut solo exhibition at Deitch Projects. The show was famously purchased, in its entirety, by Charles Saatchi.

Today, Brown is regarded as one of the most influential painters of her generation. Her work is held in major museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate, and the Centre Pompidou. In 2023, she was the subject of a major institutional show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Other highlights from the Christie’s sale include Howardena Pindell’s Webb (2023) one of the artist’s celebrated ‘spray dot’ paintings (estimate: £180,000–£250,000 ($241,000–$335,000)); Andy Warhol’s Jackie from 1964 (estimate: £400,000–$600,000 ($537,000–$805,000); and Christo’s collage L’Arc de Triomphe Wrapped (Project for Paris) Place de l’Etoile – Charles de Gaulle (2020) (estimate: £400,000–$600,000 ($537,000–$805,000) one of the final works completed by the artist during his lifetime.

from Artsy News https://ift.tt/TsZMroa

5 Standout Shows to See at Small Galleries This June https://ift.tt/SuqpREf

Endless, 2023
Max Rohr
Colombo’s gallery

In this monthly roundup, we spotlight five stellar exhibitions at small and rising galleries.

Timewaveultra

“HEAVY DEEDS FROM THE BOOK OF SKULLS”

Tracey Morgan Gallery, Asheville, North Carolina

Through June 27

Foxy Woxi, 2025
TIMEWAVEULTRA (Cole Caswell and Bryan Graf)
Tracey Morgan Gallery

Pure Sound Welcome Home, 2025
TIMEWAVEULTRA (Cole Caswell and Bryan Graf)
Tracey Morgan Gallery

In their latest show, Timewaveultra, the artist duo Bryan Graf and Cole Caswell, presents new, unique photography-based work rooted in the American landscape. Graf and Caswell work together in a collaborative, intuitive process, each making interventions into the other’s photographs through layering, improvising, and collaging. Many of the works in the exhibition are multimedia, incorporating aspects of assemblage, sculpture, text, books, posters, and other objects. The imagery, however, remains rooted in forest life, in scenes like Foxy Woxi (2025), a semi-psychedelic photograph of a fox, or Pure Sound Welcome Home (2025), a photograph of towering evergreen trees above a glittering lake, overlaid with prismatic light.

“It’s all about the rhythm, the waves, amplifying other dimensions,” said the artists in a statement, describing the multimedia works as “a run-on sentence that just flows right.”

Atelier Cléophée

“Revealing Light: Pastel Works by Atelier Cléophée”

Galerie Villa Gabrielle, Paris

Through June 30

Filigrane XII, 2026
Atelier Cléophée
Galerie Villa Gabrielle

Filigrane X, 2026
Atelier Cléophée
Galerie Villa Gabrielle

Paris-based artist Atelier Cléophée dedicates her practice to one medium: pastel. Cléophée works specifically in soft pastels—dry, pure pigments with a powdery finish. Her new exhibition, “Revealing Light,” brings together dozens of drawings made over the past three years, ranging in scale from handheld to window-sized.

A student of art history, Cléophée takes inspiration from centuries of decorative arts, from stained glass and mosaics to wallpaper and textile designs, as well as her extensive travels, which have taken her from the Villa Medici in Rome to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Her drawings are characterized by accumulations of repeating marks, which, though abstract, tap into elemental aspects of nature. In the drawing Filigrane X (all works 2026), for instance, long rippling lines of blue and green pastel bring to mind the rippling tides of the ocean seen from above, or, in Filigrane XII, the shadow patterns cast on dunes. This series takes inspiration from the art of filigree, a delicate, ornamental metalwork that dates back millennia and is used to make jewelry and stained glass windows.

D. Jack Solomon

“ALL IN GOOD TIME”

Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, New York

Through June 27

JAYWALKING, 2018
Jack Solomon
Kathryn Markel Fine Arts

REDUX #22, 2024
Jack Solomon
Kathryn Markel Fine Arts

American artist D. Jack Solomon’s paintings are an unlikely but delightful synthesis of whimsy and geometry. In “All in Good Time,” the 92-year-old artist presents energetic paintings that nod to the formalist concerns of the Bauhaus and Kandinsky, playfully juxtaposed with Pop and even comic book motifs. Certain formal strategies unite these compositions, including repeating circular forms, Constructivist-inspired intersecting planes, and bold colors.

The artist, who lives in Hudson, New York, has experimented with contrasting these varied formal languages since the mid-1990s (in the 1960s and ’70s, his works were tightly focused on Minimalist color grids). He likens his compositions to a kind of collage.

“A resulting composite is either a mash-up of cultural symbols or may suggest a stream of consciousness narrative,” said the artist in a statement for the show. “Lately, more geometric or color-based spaces have come to predominate.”

Lucas Marcos Barquilla

“Rack’t carcasses make ill anatomies”

Brispa Gallery, Madrid

Through June 20

Tab. XIII, Myographia Nova, John Browne 1648, 2025
Lucas Marcos Barquilla
Brispa Gallery

Spanish artist Lucas Marcos Barquilla dives deep into the world of historical anatomical imagery in his new Madrid exhibition, debuting ceramic reliefs inspired by the scientific illustrations from the 15th- to 17th-centuries. The exhibition’s title, “Rack’t carcasses make ill anatomies,” references a gruesome line from John Donne’s 17th-century poem “Love’s Exchange” and hints at the corporeal imagery explored in the show.

Barquilla’s high-fired ceramics are flat, with images glazed on their surfaces, and presented here in wooden frames, sometimes in diptych or triptych formats. Classical-looking figures appear with their bodies splayed open: active participants who pull back their flesh. In Tab. XIII, Myographia Nova, John Browne1648 (2025), a figure pulls up the skin on their back daintily as though taking off a shirt. Many of the ceramics have carved out openings, empty spaces where the interior anatomies should be.

The works are at once humorous and unsettling. In this way, Barquilla upsets the original intention of the illustrations he draws from. While anatomical illustrations were used to study, classify, and control biological life, the artist turns this study into something more human and uninhibited.

Max Rohr

“Somewhere/Sometime”

Colombo’s Gallery, Milan

Through July 17

Bring me back home, 2025
Max Rohr
Colombo’s gallery

After stepping away from the art world for a few years, Italian artist Max Rohr makes his return to exhibiting with “Somewhere/Sometime.” The show brings together nearly two dozen works on canvas as well as watercolors on paper made over the past few years. These recent works are paired with a selection of paintings from earlier in Rohr’s career, some of which are being exhibited for the first time.

Born in Bolzano, Italy, Rohr studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and emerged as a painter in the late 1980s. He is known for his dreamlike figurative paintings that probe metaphysical questions. The exhibition title “Somewhere/Sometime” hints at these uncanny themes of deconstruction and memory. In these paintings, limbs multiply, floating freely from bodies, which themselves merge with architectural forms. In Bring me back home (2025), a colossal head of a man flies through a forest, carried by a disembodied pair of hands, towards a shadowy figure on the left-hand side of the canvas, perhaps to be reunited. At the bottom of the painting, painted as though on a small shelf, a set of hands and three pairs of feet appear, compounding the oddness of the scene. Rohr’s influences are varied, but the cool and muted palette that unifies his work draws from Nordic film and literature. In addition to his career as a painter, Rohr is also an established designer of knitwear for men.

from Artsy News https://ift.tt/gbVFA7T

Works by Marina Abramović and Shirin Neshat featured in traveling Monaco superyacht exhibition. https://ift.tt/YtgAxXB

The Floating Art Hotel, a private superyacht described in a release as “the world’s first traveling art hotel,” will make its debut during this year’s Monaco Grand Prix, presenting works by artists including Marina Abramović, Shirin Neshat, and Tomás Saraceno.

The superyacht will be anchored in Monaco Bay from June 4th to June 8th, coinciding with the annual Formula 1 motor racing event. Organizers plan to take the concept to other international destinations, including Miami, Hong Kong, and Abu Dhabi, with the aim of connecting contemporary art with major international events through site-specific exhibitions and cultural programming.

The Floating Art Hotel’s inaugural exhibition “States of Motion” explores movement “not as image but as condition.” Featuring more than 30 artists, the show spans sculpture, installation, photography, digital art, and performance. The yacht’s 350-square-meter sundeck, meanwhile, will be transformed into a sculpture garden featuring works that interact with the environment. Its 14 guest suites will host a mix of collectors, entrepreneurs, and cultural figures.

“I spent years producing campaigns for some of the world’s biggest brands, and I kept thinking: what if we applied this level of craft to something that actually brings people together?” founder Gaelle Jaunay Calendini said in a statement. “Art, sport, the sea—and the right people in the same room. The magic happens from there.”

Beyond art programming, guests of the Floating Art Hotel will be offered a range of Monaco Grand Prix experiences, including entry to a private viewing terrace overlooking the Sainte-Dévote corner of the circuit. Guests of the yacht’s Owner’s Residence will also receive access to the Formula 1 Paddock Club and Pit Lane during race weekend.

from Artsy News https://ift.tt/czqEvJ6

9 Defining Portraits of Marilyn Monroe https://ift.tt/NRAxiSj

Marilyn Monroe was one of the most photographed people of the 20th century and highly skilled at constructing her own image in the public media. While fine artists were also drawn to portraying her during her lifetime, it was her tragically early death that truly turned her into a cultural icon. In celebration of the centennial of her birth, many of the most celebrated portrayals of Monroe are on display in London’s National Portrait Gallery in “Marilyn: A Portrait,” on view through September 6th.

“One of the points I’d like to bring out in the exhibition is that if Marilyn is an agent in the making of photographs…that somehow pervades the paintings,” said the show’s curator Rosie Broadley. Marilyn never sat for a portrait, and none of the artists who painted her during her lifetime met her prior to doing so, meaning that every painting of her that exists is based on a photograph and is therefore “a reflection of her public persona,” she added.

At the same time, Monroe herself wrote in her memoir that “People had a habit of looking at me as if I were some kind of mirror, instead of a person.” “It’s almost like people will see what they want to see with Marilyn and paint what they want to paint,” Broadley said. At the height of her fame and the immediate aftermath of her death, male artists often saw a beautiful, sexually attractive woman or a troubled star. Few female artists chose to portray her at this time, although those that did, notably, Rosalyn Drexler and Pauline Boty, went deeper in their responses. It wasn’t until feminist writer Gloria Steinem edited a copy of Ms. Magazine dedicated to Marilyn 10 years after her death that female artists began to reclaim Marilyn for themselves. “It was almost like that kickstarted this kind of reappraisal of Marilyn,” said Broadley.

Here are some of the most iconic images of Marilyn from contemporary artists.

Willem de Kooning

Marilyn Monroe, 1954

Marilyn Monroe, 1954
Willem de Kooning
American Federation of Arts

According to the exhibition’s catalogue, Willem de Kooning’s striking abstract portrait of Monroe was the first portrait to be made of the star. It’s part of his “Women” series depicting women figures in paintings, yet Monroe is the only subject identified by name. Perhaps, for de Kooning, it’s an indication of her role as the “ultimate woman.” In 1957, the photographer Sam Shaw took Monroe and her then-husband, the playwright Arthur Miller, to see the painting at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. According to Shaw, Miller was outraged at the depiction, but Monroe herself accepted it. “She thought that artists had the right to depict her as they wished,” said Broadley.

Ray Johnson

Hand Marilyn Monroe, 1958

The Pop artist Ray Johnson’s portrait of Monroe, created at the height of her critical and commercial success, can be read as a prescient appreciation of the damaging effects of fame. Johnson juxtaposes an image of Monroe based on a popular pin-up picture by Bruno Bernard, known as Bernard of Hollywood, with an oversized hand that seems destined to stifle or crush her. The harsh pink color and lines that slice into and around her image, partially obliterating it, add to the sense of danger.

Rosalyn Drexler

The Misfits, 1961

The production of The Misfits (1961), Monroe’s final completed film, was notoriously troubled. With her marriage to Arthur Miller (who had written the script) breaking down, Monroe was frequently late on set and drinking excessively after work. Drexler nails the on-set atmosphere in this queasily colored nightmarish painting based on a black-and-white film still of Monroe and her co-star Clark Gable. Drexler “seemed to see the truth in a way that other people didn’t let themselves think about,” said Broadley. “It feels, when you understand what happens later, that she got a sense of Marilyn’s life slightly spiraling.”

Andy Warhol

Green Marilyn Monroe, 1962

Andy Warhol’s silkscreen prints are undoubtedly the most famous portraits of Monroe and played a key role in cementing her iconic status. Looking at them today, we see a glossy celebration of celebrity and sexuality, but Broadley believes the very earliest versions, such as Green Marilyn Monroe (1962), were intended as tributes to the film star. Produced just weeks after her death, Broadley said, “they genuinely came from a place of shock and grief. They’re not just portrayals of her; they’re almost for her.” When they were first exhibited a few months after her death, “people were really moved; they called them heartbreaking.”

James Francis Gill

Marilyn Triptych, 1962

James Francis Gill used two different photographic sources of Monroe as the basis for his viscerally painful comment on the destructive nature of fame: images taken by Allan Grant and published in Life magazine just a day before she died and a cast photo from The Misfits. In the first two panels, Monroe seems to force herself to perform the role of star for the viewer, but by the third she has given up and sits, slumped and naked, her face scowling. Behind her, the facial expressions in a series of black-and-white images evoke the struggles of maintaining her public persona, alternating between happy smiles and frustrated grimaces.

Pauline Boty

The Only Blonde in the World, 1963

As an attractive blonde whose beauty often overshadowed her talent, Pauline Boty identified closely with Monroe. For her Pop art portraits of the star, Boty chose an image from Monroe’s best-loved film, Some Like It Hot (1959), as the basis for The Only Blonde in the World (1963), in which the character, Sugar Kane, is given an ethereal, almost luminous quality as if she’s sashaying into the afterlife. The vibrantly colored panels that appear about to close over her heighten the sense of a talent eclipsed all too soon.

Audrey Flack

Marilyn (Vanitas), 1977

Audrey Flack’s Marilyn (Vanitas) (1977) brings a contemporary, distinctly feminine take on the age-old genre of vanitas paintings. The work features an early, pre-fame image of Monroe along with the traditional timekeeping motifs of candle, egg timer, and watch, as well as a powder compact and lipstick. With its focus on the fleeting nature of time and beauty, it can be read as a poignant commentary on what Norma Jean sacrificed by becoming Marilyn. The inclusion of one of Flack’s family photographs adds a personal touch, connecting it to “her own experience of being a young child growing up in the ’50s or early ’60s and being in the shadow of this idea of Marilyn being the perfect woman,” said Broadley.

Margaret Harrison

Marilyn, 1998

Margaret Harrison first began painting Monroe in the 1970s, seeing her as one of the many women throughout history who had been “crumpled or destroyed by a society at odds with their talent or intentions,” according to the exhibition catalogue. Here, a close-cropped image of Monroe at the height of her fame is reworked in baby-pink watercolor to produce a picture of heartbreaking innocence. Meanwhile, on the other half of the diptych is a version of the leaked autopsy photograph of Monroe, which was widely reproduced in the press at the time. Again, it conveys the sense of tragic loss.

Marlene Dumas

Dead Marilyn, 2008

Based on the same illicit photograph used by Harrison, but reproduced in a sickly palette of blues and greens, Dumas’s painting is without doubt the most challenging representation of Monroe in the National Portrait Gallery exhibition. “Not everyone is going to feel that it’s an image we should look at,” acknowledged Broadley. “In the exhibition, we portray her as having agency in the creation of her images, and in this instance, she absolutely doesn’t.” However, she believes that Dumas, who was grieving her own mother at the time, acknowledges this media betrayal of such a private image being made public in her work. “It’s almost like she was restoring dignity back to the image,” said Broadley.

from Artsy News https://ift.tt/LnuqjPU

The Frick Collection extends free admission program after announcing Louis Vuitton partnership. https://ift.tt/5vOQEsc

The Frick Collection will extend its popular First Fridays initiative through May 2027 as part of a three-year cultural partnership with Louis Vuitton.

Starting this month, the French fashion house will underwrite the monthly series, which extends free admission to visitors over the age of 10 on the first Friday of every month—excluding January and September—from 5:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

During First Fridays, visitors can explore both the museum’s permanent collection and temporary exhibitions, as well as special programming including talks, music, dance performances, and live figure drawing. The series, which first debuted in October 2016, returned last spring, soon after the museum reopened to the public following a five-year, $330 million renovation and expansion project.

The initiative comes as part of Frick’s broader effort to increase public access to its world-class collection, housed in a historic Fifth Avenue home.

“The success of our recent First Fridays events reflects an ongoing strong public interest in the museum, now a year after our reopening,” said Axel Rüger, the Frick’s Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Director, in a statement. “We have been pleased to once again offer these unique, after-hours experiences in our galleries each month, which expand access to our historic buildings and offer new ways for visitors to explore our collections.”

In recent years, major institutions, including the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, have expanded free-admission programs through major funding commitments designed to expand audiences and reduce barriers to entry.

The Frick Collection’s partnership with Louis Vuitton was announced in May of this year. Soon after, the fashion house unveiled its Cruise 2027 collection in a runway show at the museum. For Louis Vuitton, the collaboration expands the brand’s longstanding involvement in the arts through cultural sponsorships and support for major exhibitions. The three-year partnership will also support future exhibitions at the Frick beyond the First Fridays series.

Art lovers interested in Louis Vuitton First Fridays are encouraged to register in advance, though walk-in visitors will also be admitted as capacity allows. The next event in the series will take place on June 5th.

from Artsy News https://ift.tt/fQDtM9r

9 LGBTQ+ Artists to Watch, Handpicked by Julie Mehretu, Catherine Opie, and Zanele Muholi https://ift.tt/6ZFqrnt

The landscape for queer contemporary art is incredibly rich right now, largely thanks to pioneering figures who have boldly centered both their personal journeys and the broader histories of their communities. The queer community has always led the way in intergenerational building, establishing support networks rooted in economies of mutual care and respect. This structure is highly visible within the art world. New generations look to those who paved the way, paying tribute to the practices that secured many of the freedoms we hold today.

Crucially, many artists who have achieved major institutional success remain deeply committed to championing queer artists—whether they are younger generations, their own students, or peers who haven’t yet received the same level of recognition. But who inspires these leading figures?

In the face of rollbacks of LGBTQ+ rights, particularly those of trans people, affecting communities around the world right now, the role of queer art and culture feels ever more essential. It offers a crucial space for identification and community building, giving people a place to share their perspectives and make sense of their own identity in all its complexity. As Pride Month 2026 begins, Artsy spoke to three pioneers—Catherine Opie, Zanele Muholi, and Julie Mehretu—about the queer artists making vital new work that inspires them today.

Picked by: Julie Mehretu

B. 1970, Addis Ababa. Lives and works in New York.

Inside Totality (what the mouth cannot hold), 2025-2026
Julie Mehretu
Marian Goodman Gallery

Julie Mehretu is a globally celebrated artist whose monumental paintings map the socio-political realities of our time, exploring complex themes of identity, geography, and migration. Beyond her studio practice, she is a co-founder of Denniston Hill, a residency program and cultural platform in the Catskill Mountains established alongside visual artist Paul Pfeiffer and architectural historian Lawrence Chua.

For this feature, Mehretu has selected three New York–based artists working across sound, performance, sculpture, and painting. For these artists, queerness manifests in abstract, conceptual, and coded ways—it’s a unique perspective that informs their relationship to space and material.

Jesús Hilario-Reyes

Downward Tracery, 2025
Jesús Hilario-Reyes
Jack Barrett

“Jesús is a cross-disciplinary queer artist making sculptural and performance works that blur the boundaries of sculpture, sound, and expanded cinema. Their recent metallic structures channel the ecstatic and fractured energies of rave culture. They ask how Black embodiment can move through systems of representation while still holding onto eroticism and joy.”

Sojourner Truth Parsons

Kissing a writer, 2026
Sojourner Truth Parsons
Esther Schipper

A broken heart I, 2026
Sojourner Truth Parsons
Esther Schipper

“Sojourner Truth Parsons is an abstract painter with a sublime and deftly evolved rigorous logic of their own. Their paintings move with a restless, sensuous intelligence…as queer and charged as painting can be.”

Covey Gong

“Covey Gong is a queer conceptual artist whose sculptural practice asks us to rethink the cultural and symbolic lives of materials. One of the standout voices from the recent “Greater New York” at MoMA PS1, their work feels sharply analytical and strangely intimate.”

Picked by: Catherine Opie

B. 1961, Sandusky, Ohio. Lives and works in Los Angeles.

Skeeter, 1993
Catherine Opie
Lehmann Maupin

Catherine Opie’s photography, which bridges art historically inspired portraiture and landscape, has fundamentally shifted the representation of queer lives within visual art, inspiring generations of younger makers. Alongside her studio practice, Opie has dedicated the last two decades to teaching. She was a tenured professor at UCLA and has contributed to numerous other learning environments, including a Summer Salon at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, which she co-taught with writer and curator Helen Molesworth in 2024. For this feature, Opie selected three artists she encountered at the Summer Salon whose practices left a lasting mark on her.

Paul Burnham Schwartz

“Paul’s images and his publication moved me with his nod to generational politics, and his understanding of the AIDS crisis was inspiring to see and talk about.”

Michelle Schapiro

“I met Michelle at a recent workshop in P-town and was taken with the honesty and humanity in her work. She recently was accepted into an MFA program and is someone to watch.”

Leah DeVun

“The last is Leah DeVun for her body of work “Resemblance,” which features her queer family and the relationship of trans love in raising a family together.”

Picked by: Zanele Muholi

B. 1972, Umlazi, South Africa. Lives and works in Johannesburg.

Jamiel, Laumont Trinting, Queens, NY, 2019
Zanele Muholi
Hamburg Kennedy Contemporary

Zanele Muholi gained global recognition with their “Faces and Phases” series, documenting queer and trans people initially in South Africa, and subsequently around the world as they took the project on tour to photograph local communities. Identifying as a visual activist, Muholi has dedicated their life to enacting change through art.

For this piece, the 53-year-old artist chose to highlight practitioners from their own generation who rarely receive mainstream features but deserve recognition nonetheless. Muholi is passionate about the fact that older artists often risk not being celebrated until after their deaths, while younger artists still have time to play and be seen. Their three selected artists are all key figures in the LGBTQ+ community: mothers, sisters, and relatives to queer and trans people whom Muholi describes as “visual social workers,” using photography to document, validate, and memorialize queer lives.

Laura Charmain Carrol

“Charmain is a queer mother with a 30-year-old queer daughter, and they have a beautiful story to share. She is one of the most important artists creating awareness and visibility through her visual activism.”

Lizzie Muholi

“My own sister has done so much for queer people: as a mother, a grandmother, and a soccer coach. She is the first Black woman to document the Catholic Church in our township. She does incredible work for our community, through her photography and far beyond.”

Lindeka Qampi

Nomadlakadlak (Old clothes), 2017
Lindeka Gloria Qampi
Erdmann Contemporary

“In my opinion, Lindeka has done the most for our community in South Africa. She has documented the lives of queer people through it all—from weddings and protests to crime scenes and funerals. Her archive is bigger than my own, but she isn’t as noisy as I am, so I want to make noise on her behalf and help her get the recognition she deserves.”

Browse more available works by queer artists this Pride Month in Artsy’s Pride in Community collection.

from Artsy News https://ift.tt/nYtG1op

What to See in 48 Hours at the Venice Biennale 2026 https://ift.tt/KmI01oG

I stand by what I wrote in 2024: The best way to enjoy the Venice Biennale is not to try to see it all. Despite this, I did try to see as much of the 2026 edition as possible over a week in early May. I did not see everything—it’s not possible, I’ve decided, between 99 national pavilions and an untold number of exhibitions across museums, palazzi, obscure churches, and even a monastic garden. But I saw enough, and spoke to enough fellow art professionals, to know where to steer anyone visiting Venice this year.

The 2026 Venice Biennale, titled “In Minor Keys,” opened May 9 and runs through November 22. Curated by the late Koyo Kouoh and realized by the team she had assembled, the central exhibition unfolds across the Biennale’s two main venues—the Giardini and the Arsenale—alongside dozens of national pavilions. But the Biennale is never confined to these two sites. It spills into collateral exhibitions all over town, sometimes in obscure places you might otherwise walk right past.

This guide isn’t comprehensive. It’s a 48-hour itinerary for anyone short on time or looking for highlights. Depending on your stamina for walking and your appetite for the vaporetto, follow it closely over two days—or treat it as a menu and pick from what sounds best. Andiamo!

Venice tips for first-time visitors

• Double-check opening days and hours and book ahead anything that requires it (like The Holy See Pavilion and the Fondazione Dries Van Noten—see below). Shows are open through the run of the Biennale, unless specified otherwise.
• Plot your route in advance. Google Maps and the labyrinthine streets can turn a 23-minute walk into an hourlong logic puzzle. Save this Google Maps list to your phone.

• If you’re taking the vaporetto more than a couple of times, buy an unlimited card.
• Most importantly, leave room to take in Venice itself—ideally with a spritz and a few cicchetti. I’ve also folded in drinks and dining picks from Venice locals below.

Day 1: Giardini, Arsenale, Castello, and Cannaregio

Morning: Giardini

Start at the Giardini and (to return to my opening point) resist the urge to see everything. “In Minor Keys,” as the title suggests, rewards a slower pace: it’s somber, emotional, poetic over spectacular. For a deeper look at what’s inside, my colleague Josie Thaddeus-Johns wrote a guide to six defining works.

Among the national pavilions, I’d prioritize a handful.

• Japan, Ei Arakawa-Nash, “Grass Babies, Moon Babies”: You temporarily adopt one of 208 baby dolls—each weighted like a four-month-old, wearing tiny sunglasses—change its diaper, then scan a QR code for a poem matched to its birthday. It may sound absurd, but the longer you carry one through the space, the more tender and delightful it becomes.

• Germany, Sung Tieu and Henrike Naumann, “Ruin”: Tieu wraps the pavilion’s Nazi-era façade in a trompe l’oeil mosaic of more than three million tiles, reconstructing the East Berlin housing complex where she grew up. Inside, Naumann’s The Home Front (2026) transforms the central hall into an ideologically loaded East German interior. Naumann died in February at 41, after finalizing the work, which makes the artwork even more moving.
• Austria, Florentina Holzinger, “SEAWORLD VENICE”: Holzinger has turned the Austrian pavilion into a closed-loop system said to be powered by the audience’s bodily waste. Inside, nude performers endure extreme scenarios: submerged in an aquarium tank, riding a jet ski in a flooded room, ringing a giant bell with the force of their bodies. This is not for the faint of heart.

Lunch in Castello

After the Giardini, head to Via Garibaldi (Castello’s main street of bacari, local taverns) for cicchetti, or stop at Paradiso just inside the park. Then walk about 10 minutes to the Arsenale, ideally through the charming neighborhood of Corte Nova.

Afternoon: Arsenale and the Estonian Pavilion

The Arsenale holds the second half of “In Minor Keys,” plus a full slate of national pavilions on the other side of the main exhibition. Among them, I’d prioritize these:

• India, “Geographies of Distance: remembering home”: India’s first pavilion in seven years gathers five artists and extraordinary installations. These include Sumakshi Singh’s life-sized reconstruction of her demolished New Delhi home in embroidered thread hung from the ceiling, Asim Waqif’s bamboo scaffolding, and Ranjani Shettar’s massive floating garland of floral sculptures.

• Argentina, Matías Duville, “Monitor Yin Yang”: Duville’s pavilion centers on a field of bright salt streaked with black charcoal. Visitors stay on white paths while a sound piece from Venetian environmental data deepens the disorientation. This may be the Biennale’s most physically impressive act of drawing.
• Saudi Arabia, Dana Awartani, “May your tears never dry, you who weep over stones”: Visually stunning and devastatingly emotional, the pavilion is filled with more than 29,000 handmade clay bricks forming a raised mosaic floor visitors move alongside, referencing destroyed hammams and mosque floors across Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine.

From the Arsenale’s rear exit, it’s a five-minute walk to Estonia’s off-site pavilion—worth seeking out.

• Estonia, Merike Estna, “The House of Leaking Sky”: Set in a school gymnasium, the off-site pavilion offers both a durational performance and a studio visit. Estna paints throughout the Biennale, working on giant canvases she hangs, then takes down to the floor to pour, swirl, and brush with color. The result vibrates with the energy of an artist who has temporarily uprooted her life for Venice.

Evening: Cannaregio

Hop a vaporetto from Arsenale or Tana to Ferrovia, just in front of Santa Lucia station—about 30 minutes, but worth it.

• The Holy See, “The Ear is the Eye of the Soul.” Book in advance. Just beside the train station, the Holy See pavilion sits in the Mystical Garden of the Discalced Carmelites. Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Ben Vickers, it asks you to put on headphones and stroll through the idyllic garden while an audio experience engulfs you. Commissions by Brian Eno, FKA twigs, Meredith Monk, Patti Smith, and Holly Herndon and Mat Dryhurst, among others, respond to the legacy of 12th-century abbess Saint Hildegard of Bingen. It’s arguably the city’s most transportive contemporary art experience.

From the train station, take a vaporetto to Rialto and walk to Palazzo Soranzo Van Axel (or skip the boat—it’s a 28-minute walk). Your next two stops are close to each other.

• Su Xiaobai, “Alchemical Universe,” at Palazzo Soranzo Van Axel. Set in a 15th-century Gothic palazzo (also the home of Bottega Veneta’s secret, private showroom), the show traces the esteemed Chinese artist’s lush lacquer paintings from 2003 to the present. Curated by LACMA’s Stephen Little and designed by Kulapat Yantrasast of WHY Architecture, it’s both eye-catching and moving.
• “Ethnography of the Body and Material,” at Palazzo Pisani Santa Marina. Presented by the Japanese craft-focused project Go For Kogei, this group show gathers works by 10 Japanese artists with materially rich practices—ceramics, glass, braided rope shoes, and more.

Aperitivi or dinner nearby

From there, it’s a few minutes’ walk to wine bar Ozio in Campo Santa Maria Formosa—a perfect stop before or after dinner. Recommended restaurants 5–6 minutes away include Osteria Giorgione da Masa, Bepi Antico 54, and Promessi Sposi.

Day 2: Dorsoduro, Santa Croce, and San Polo

Morning: Dorsoduro

Begin the day in the neighborhood of Dorsoduro, the site of world-class museums including Gallerie dell’Accademia, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, and the Pinault Collection’s Punta della Dogana. I highly recommend visits to these three shows, which sit within a short walk of each other.

• Su Yu-Xin, “Afterstone” at Albion Jeune, Lo Studio (Dorsoduro 928): The exciting rising painter Su Yu-Xin presents over a dozen paintings made with pigments she sources from the landscape around the Pacific Rim, and grinds by hand. The L.A.–based Taiwanese artist reflects on the geopolitical meaning that her colors contain, creating works that are visually striking and embedded with issues of extraction, trade, and imperialism. On view through July 18.

• “Still Joy—From Ukraine into the World” at Palazzo Contarini Polignac: The Ukrainian art organizations PinchukArtCentre and the Victor Pinchuk Foundation are known to present ambitious group shows each biennale and this year is no different. The show presents joy as a vital and radical force in times of war and uncertainty, featuring an international cohort of artists including Tacita Dean, Julian Charrière, Simone Post, Gabrielle Goliath, and more. On view through August 1.
• The Bahamas Pavilion, Lavar Munroe and John Beadle, “In Another Man’s Yard,” San Trovaso Art Space: This posthumous tribute pairs the late John Beadle—who died in 2024 and was originally slated to represent the Bahamas in 2015—with fellow Bahamian artist Lavar Munroe. The artists are both connected through Junkanoo, the country’s centuries-old processional festival. Munroe’s impressive “rush out” installation, built on-site in a single month with materials from Beadle’s studio, anchors the show.

Lunch in Dorsoduro

For a quick, unfussy lunch, head to Cantine del Vino già Schiavi. Find a place to perch outside, but mind the seagulls. Sit-down options include Antica Locanda Montin or the polished Palazzo Experimental. For gelato, head to Gelateria Nico on the Zattere.

Afternoon: Santa Croce and San Polo

To reach Ca’ Pesaro, hop on Line 1 from Ca’ Rezzonico or Accademia and ride to San Stae—you’ll be at the door.

• Jenny Saville at Ca’ Pesaro: This major show gathers more than 30 paintings and drawings from the 1990s to today by the acclaimed American artist. The final room features new works that were made specifically for the Venetian context, as well as paintings by the Renaissance and Baroque painters that have long inspired Saville.
• Matthew Wong, “Interiors,” at Palazzo Tiepolo Passi: This thoughtful show of the beloved late painter spotlights Wong’s poetic paintings of interior rooms and domestic settings, presented in this striking palazzo. The poignant show features over 30 paintings and works on paper made between 2015 and 2019, some of which have never been exhibited before.

• Fondazione Dries Van Noten, “The Only True Protest is Beauty” at Palazzo Pisani Moretta: Make a booking in advance. The fashion designer’s highly anticipated new Venice nonprofit presents its debut show—a lively showcase of avant-garde fashion, dazzling jewelry, fresh contemporary art, and striking design objects. The sprawling show of more than 200 works takes over 20 rooms of the impressive 15th-century palazzo.

Dinner in San Polo or San Marco

Our locals recommend a few options: There’s Antiche Carampane in San Polo, though you will need a reservation, or over in Santa Croce, you’ll find La Zucca. One of the most sought-after restaurants is also not far, Do Farai—a lauded Venetian-yet-contemporary establishment. If you’d rather head towards San Marco, hop on a vaporetto or a small traghetto boat to cross the Grand Canal and head to Vini da Arturo for classic Venetian fare.

from Artsy News https://ift.tt/tjKuZUv