After a vigorous art-world week buzzing with protests and resistance, from the Venice Biennale to the Met Gala to New York's American Folks Artwork Museum, we've made it to Saturday. Tomorrow, we have a good time the moms in our lives, and to mark the event, Workers Author Isa Farfan requested 15 artists to share one of the best recommendation they received from their mothers or maternal figures. “My mom sagely suggested that I’d be appreciated in faculty, and he or she was proper,” stated Pat Oleszko, who “misplaced the category vice presidency to some dumb fairly chick” in highschool. (Now, Oleszko's work is on view within the Whitney Biennial, so, yeah.)
On the bottom from Venice this week, our editor-in-chief Hakim Bishara weighed in on a colorless US Pavilion and reported on a historic strike for Palestine and employees' rights, whereas Editor-at-Giant Hrag Vartanian led us by stirring works on view on the Giardini and Arsenale for In Minor Keys, the Biennale's wondrous central exhibition. Additionally: Damien Davis on artists and consignment agreements, Matt Stromberg on the LA Artwork E-book Truthful, and our month-to-month roundup of alternatives within the arts.
And with that, I'll go away you with my mami's most memorable steerage: Get off your cellphone, cease to odor the flowers, and steal one or two out of your neighbor whilst you're at it.
—Valentina Di Liscia, senior editor
15 Artists Share the Best Advice They Got From Their Mother
“She taught me the way to play, the way to snicker till my face burns, and the way to dance within the kitchen to ‘Imagine’ by Cher.”
Venice Biennale
Historic Strike Disrupts Biennale as Thousands March in Venice
Dozens of nationwide pavilions have been partially or absolutely shut down in a strike for Palestine and for employees’ rights. | Hakim Bishara
“In Minor Keys” Hits All the Right Notes
The Venice Biennale’s worldwide artwork exhibition is an sudden symphony that asks us to ponder what could in any other case be ignored. | Hrag Vartanian
A Whole Lot of Nothing at the US Pavilion
After the final two Biennales searched the soul and historical past of this nation, how did we find yourself with this artwork from the land of the tasteless? | Hakim Bishara
Artists Pay Tribute to Koyo Kouoh in Poetry Caravan at Venice Biennale
The late curator’s 1999 voyage with 9 African poets impressed a transferring procession led by María Magdalena Campos-Pons, writers, and musicians. | Greta Rainbow
Additionally in Venice
- The artwork collective Pussy Riot and feminist group FEMEN rallied against the Russian pavilion on the Venice Biennale.
- Israeli pavilion artist Belu-Simion Fainaru made legal threats in opposition to the Venice Biennale for alleged antisemitism and discrimination earlier than the present's awards jury resigned.
- Hundreds protested Israel's “genocide pavilion” on the Venice Biennale, demanding or not it’s shut down instantly.
- Organizers stated Iran would not be participating with a nationwide pavilion on the Venice Biennale.
Information
- A small but rollicking protest in opposition to Jeff Bezos, who co-chaired this 12 months’s Met Gala, unfolded blocks from the museum whereas celebrities filed into the occasion. On Sunday, a sequence of projections condemning Amazon lit up the billionaire’s Madison Sq. Park luxurious residence.
- MoMA PS1 will current the primary United States survey of Mexican artist Teresa Margolles, bringing collectively a number of works on the intersection of grief and violence.
- Employees on the American Folks Artwork Museum in New York Metropolis and native union organizers picketed the museum’s annual gala, demanding larger wages and higher advantages.
Critiques
Keith Haring Before the End of the World
The artist’s free-handed fashion, on view in works on the Brant Basis, feels prescient in gentle of the upcoming AI cataclysm. | Arthur Nersesian
Is This What “Made in America” Looks Like?
Christopher Payne’s pictures at Cooper Hewitt sidestep questions of financial uncertainty and geopolitical strife to highlight the craftsmanship of manufacturing facility employees. | Julie Schneider
I’ve Got the Post-Duchamp Blues
MoMA’s Marcel Duchamp present made me lengthy for these less complicated occasions when “eliminating the artist’s hand” supplied a pathway again to the true self. | Hakim Bishara
The Carnegie International Looks Back at Itself
The 59th iteration captures a number of the pleasure of earlier exhibitions, offering very important commentary on problems with authoritarianism and militarism. | Ed Simon
Artists Up Shut
What Artists Sign Away
Lengthy consignment intervals, ethical rights waivers, and opaque “commonplace” contracts serve the establishment greater than the artist. | Damien Davis
Getting Messy in the Archive at LA’s Art Book Fair
This 12 months’s version of the annual Printed Matter present finds and remixes historic media, collapsing time and giving the previous new relevance. | Matt Stromberg
At 90, Printmaker Mohammad Omer Khalil Gets His Due
The New York-based Sudanese artist seems to be again on a lifetime of experimentation in a multi-city retrospective. | Jasmine Weber
Rosy Simas on Creating a Space for Peace in Minneapolis
Hyperallergic sat down with the Minnesota-based Seneca artist to debate her exhibition on the Walker Artwork Middle. | Sheila Regan
Shoot the Shit With Jack Kerouac
In NYC, an exhibition of cherished letters, pictures, and talismans brings us into the every day lifetime of the reluctant Beat Technology icon. | Greta Rainbow
Guides
10 Art Shows to See in Los Angeles This May
Remembering Celeste Dupuy-Spencer, Yoko Ono’s first museum present in LA, Richard Mayhew’s “mindscapes,” Gordon Parks’s musical output, and extra. | Matt Stromberg
15 Art Shows to See in NYC This May
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye captures quietude, Seydou Keïta paperwork a revolution, Renée Inexperienced compiles an autoethnography, and far more. | Hrag Vartanian, Valentina Di Liscia, Lisa Yin Zhang, John Yau, Jasmine Weber, Isa Farfan
10 Exhibitions to See in Upstate New York This May
Irina Lotarevich’s edgy minimalism, Koyoltzintli’s investigations right into a sacred object, Daniele Frazier’s explorations in camera-less pictures, and extra. | Taliesin Thomas
Group
A View From the Easel
This week, Brenda Zlamany returns to her ancestral village close to the Pollino Nationwide Park in Italy, the place she paints in an outdated sausage manufacturing facility and grows her personal olives. “Rome has Michelangelo. We now have the mountain.”
Required Reading
This week: Mamdani honors garment employees, a faux trade with Sophie Calle, the primary Black American tattoo artist, RIP Spirit Airways, and extra.
Art Movements: New Museum Names Its First Artist Studio Residents
Plus, Forge Challenge’s 2026 fellows, the Robert Therrien Property leaves Gagosian for Zwirner, and this 12 months’s Frieze uniform.
Steven Durland, Champion of Performance Art, Dies at 75
A longtime editor of Excessive Efficiency journal in Los Angeles, Durland maintained his personal observe whereas advocating for the artwork kind.
Remembering Georg Baselitz, Nicole Hollander, and Doris Fisher
This week, we honor a German Neo-Expressionist, the creator of the “Sylvia” sketch, and an arts patron behind SFMOMA.
Alternatives This Month
Residencies, fellowships, grants, and open calls from the Bennett Prize, Oak Spring Backyard Basis, and extra in our May 2026 list of opportunities for artists, writers, and artwork employees.
