Monday, May 18, 2026

Artemis Fine Arts and Arte Primitivo team up for two-day auction May 20 and 21

Fossilized Entelodont Hell Pig Skull. North America, South Dakota, Oligocene period, ca. 35–28 million years ago. Archaeotherium mortoni. Size: 16" L x 8" W x 8.5" H. Estimate: $9,000–$13,000
BOULDER, COLO.— Artemis Fine Arts is a Colorado auction house known internationally as a premier authority in the field of ancient and ethnographic art, while Arte Primitivo is a New York City auction gallery that specializes in Pre-Columbian, African, ethnographic and ancient art. This collaboration unites decades of combined expertise from the highest echelon of the antiquities field. Two days of online-only auctions are scheduled for May 20 and 21, 2026, beginning at 9:00 AM MDT each day. Artemis Fine Arts is a Colorado auction house known internationally as a premier authority in the field of ancient and ethnographic art, while Arte Primitivo is a New York City auction gallery that specializes in Pre-Columbian, African, ethnographic and ancient art. Together, the two houses bring to market a carefully assembled 490-lot sale drawn from private collections across the country. Day 1, on May 20, presents 249 lots of Pre-Columbian and Native American Art. Day 2, on May 21, offers 241 lots of African, Tribal, Ethnographic Art, Fossils and Antiquities. Both sales are open for bidding now through Arte Primitivo’s established online bidding system, Artemis Fine Arts’ dedicated online platform, as well as LiveAuctioneers and Invaluable. Day 1 — Tuesday, May 20: Pre-Columbian & Native American Art The Maya material sets the tone for Day 1. Lot 129, a Classic period fluted cylinder vessel (ca. 610–900 CE, ex-Lands Beyond collection), is distinguished by bold diagonal spiral fluting across a deep, red-slipped surface — a technique that required both precision and control of the clay before firing. Estimate: $2,500–$3,750. Lot 131, a fine-line painted polychrome cylinder (ca. 500–800 CE), depicts an enthroned king receiving an offering bundle, with a pr...
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The golden age of bad girls: Gun-toting femme fatales caught in the action!

NEW YORK, NY.— At the height of the Jazz Age, when Prohibition was turning ordinary citizens into criminals and ordinary criminals into celebrities, America’s true crime detective magazines were born. True Detective came first in 1924, and by 1934, when the Great Depression had produced colorful outlaws like Machine Gun Kelly, Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson, and John Dillinger, the magazines were so popular cops and robbers alike vied to see themselves on the pages. Even FBI boss J. Edgar Hoover wrote regularly for what came to be called the “Dickbooks,” referring to a popular slang term for a detective. As the decades rolled on, the magazines went through a curious metamorphosis, however. When liquor was once more legal, the Depression over and all the flashy criminals dead or imprisoned, the “detectives” turned to sin to make sales. Sexy bad girls in tight sweaters, slit skirts, and stiletto heels adorned every cover. True Crime Detective Magazines follows
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Hirshhorn announces over 300 acquisitions expanding collection in its 50th-anniversary year

WASHINGTON, DC.— The Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden has announced 312 acquisitions of modern and contemporary art to the collection in 2025. Spanning mixed-media, photography, painting and sculpture, these additions reflect the Hirshhorn’s attention to the American artists who are shaping the nation’s visual history, such as Adam Pendleton, Danny Lyon, Theaster Gates, Marilyn Minter and Lorna Simpson, as well as the perspectives of leading global artists, including Joseph Beuys, Pepai Jangala Carroll, Ryan Gander, Graciela Iturbide and Zhang Dali. Each addition will be conserved, photographed, studied and stored until public presentation. “Acquisitions made throughout our 50th-anniversary year, including 50th-anniversary gifts, bolster long-standing areas
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Pace Gallery brings legendary 'artist's artist' Paul Thek back to New York after 16 years

NEW YORK, NY.— Pace presents Dream of Vanishing, an exhibition of more than fifty works of painting, sculpture, and drawing by Paul Thek, one of the most mysterious, provocative, and quietly influential figures in the history of post-1960s art. On view at 540 West 25th Street from May 15 through August 14, the exhibition centers on a suite of never-before-seen works by Thek, presented to the public for the first time in dialogue with some of the artist’s most celebrated and best-known works. Curated by Pace Founder and Chairman Arne Glimcher and Noah Khoshbin, director of the Paul Thek Foundation and curator of The Watermill Center, with Oliver Shultz, Chief Curator at Pace, the exhibition runs in parallel with a solo presentation of Thek’s work at Galerie Buchholz in New York. Organized in close collaboration with the Paul Thek Foundation and The Watermill Center, Dream of Vanishing precedes The Watermill Center’s upcoming
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V&A opens landmark exhibition celebrating contemporary art from the Asia Pacific region

LONDON.— The V&A presents Rising Voices: Contemporary Art from Asia, Australia and the Pacific, a landmark exhibition bringing together the work of more than 40 artists from 25 countries across the Asia Pacific region. A partnership with the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) in Brisbane, the exhibition draws on more than 30 years of QAGOMA's Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, offering an unparalleled view of the region’s dynamic creative landscape. More than 70 works spanning sculpture, photography, painting, ceramics, weaving and body adornment – many of which have never been exhibited outside of the region – foreground First Nations perspectives and reflect the interconnected, ever-changing cultures of the Asia Pacific today. Home to 60 per cent of the global population, Australia, Asia and the Pacific comprise one of the most culturally and linguistically
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Kunsthistorisches Museum unveils 'My Story': New exhibition cracks the code of Roman women's hairstyles

VIENNA.— My Story opens with two previously unseen portraits of women, offering direct and surprising insights into current research on Roman portraits. The Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the Kunsthistorisches Museum houses around 250 Roman marble portraits. Their particular impact lies, to this day, in the immediacy with which they bring people from a distant past to life. In this special exhibition, the ancient sculptures themselves take the floor, telling us about their appearance and the central role played by an often-underestimated detail: their hairstyle. This allows us to explore key questions in portrait research – from dating to identity. The special exhibition is part of a comprehensive research project dedicated to the ‘biographies’ of ancient sculptures. At its heart lies the question: how can a work be assessed when it no longer reflects its state upon discovery, but bears the traces of a long post-ancient history? For many portraits were altered on mu
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Ai Weiwei takes over MAXXI L'Aquila with major solo exhibition 'Aftershock'

L’AQUILA.— MAXXI L’Aquila is hosting Ai Weiwei: Aftershock curated by Tim Marlow, director and CEO of the London Design Museum, and backed by the City of L’Aquila. This solo show features the work of Chinese artist, architect and activist Ai Weiwei, a global pioneer in contemporary art. It also pays tribute to L’Aquila as the capital of Abruzzo and its recent history, marking the year of its being chosen as the Italian Capital of Culture. Ai Weiwei: Aftershock is arranged as a dialogue between the artist and Palazzo Ardinghelli, the baroque palace housing the museum and one of the most successful examples of building restoration and repurposing after the 2009 earthquake in L’Aquila. The show features a series of powerful works created after the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan and dedicated to the memory of its losses. One of these works is Straight, a seminal piece for Ai
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Julian Schnabel's famous plate paintings return to Pace Gallery with an Italian twist

NEW YORK, NY.— Pace presents Julian Schnabel: Italy Through Its Trees, a presentation of a new body of paintings by the artist, at its 540 West 25th Street gallery in New York from May 15 to August 14. Comprised of paintings on maps and plate paintings featuring the native Italian umbrella pine, the exhibition signals a new chapter in Schnabel’s decades-long relationship with the country through two of his longest running bodies of work. Since Schnabel’s first visit to Italy in his twenties, when he made a pilgrimage to see Giotto’s Scrovegni Chapel and the paintings of Caravaggio and Piero della Francesca, the country’s landscapes, architecture, and antiquities have been a powerful source of inspiration. Schnabel began thinking more deeply about these particular Italian trees as a subject last year, while living near the Villa Borghese in Rome during the filming of his forthcoming feature film, In the Hand of Dante. The gardens surrounding the Villa are famously populated by Pinu
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MASP unveils Damián Ortega's first major South American survey exhibition

SAO PAULO.— Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand presents, from May 15 to September 13, Damián Ortega: Matter and Energy, the artist’s first major survey exhibition in South America. Featuring 35 works, the exhibition invites visitors into a universe where gravity seems suspended, and objects are dismantled and reinterpreted. One of the leading figures of his generation in contemporary art, Damián Ortega (Mexico City, 1967) encourages audiences to reexamine everyday life and the objects that surround them, reflecting on issues such as labor, consumption, time, and language. Curated by Adriano Pedrosa, Artistic Director, MASP; Rodrigo Moura, independent curator; and Yudi Rafael, Assistant Curator, MASP, the exhibition brings together over three decades of the artist’s work, including photography, video, sculpture, and installation. The exhibition will also be presented at the Centro Cultural La Moneda in Santiago, Chile, from November 12, 2026, to March 28, 2027. The artist conc
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Masks and Crowns: Dresden Rüstkammer unveils 450 power symbols hidden since WWII

DRESDEN.— Now that work on the Propositionssaal (Proposition Hall) and the Großer Ballsaal (Grand Ballroom) has been fully accomplished, the reconstruction of the bel étage in Dresden’s Residenzschloss (Royal Palace) is complete. Since 22 April 2026, visitors have once again been able to view all the state rooms in their historical sequence. This leads from the Englische Treppe (English Staircase) into a series of magnificent halls: from the Riesensaal (Hall of the Giants) with its tournament scenes into the restored Audienzzimmer der Königin (Queen’s Audience Chamber), followed by the Kleiner and Großer Ballsaal (Small and Grand Ballrooms) with their impressive remnants of original décor, thence into the light-filled Porzellankabinett (Porcelain Cabinet) and the Proposition Hall, and finally leading into the Baroque Paraderäume (State Apartments) of August the Strong. The tour concludes in the Türckische Cammer (Turkish Chamber), with its evocative display of Ottoman art. The Rüstkamm
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Berlin's Kunstgewerbemuseum presents the first major Madame Grès retrospective in the German-speaking world

BERLIN.— Outstanding fashion by one of the most important pioneers of 20th-century haute couture, alongside student designs inspired by her work – the Kunstgewerbemuseum (KGM, Museum of Applied Arts) presents, for the first time in the German-speaking world, the fascinating work of French fashion designer Madame Grès (1903–1993). At the heart of the exhibition is the KGM's collection of 25 Grès models, one of the largest outside of Paris which was Grès’ creative base. In collaboration with the School of Culture and Design of the University of Applied Sciences Berlin (HTW), the exhibition explores the extraordinary couturière's from various perspectives. Germaine Émilie Krebs began her career in the early 1930s under the name Mademoiselle Alix, co-founding the fashion house "Alix Barton" with Julie Barton. One of the most significant objects in the Kunstgewerbe-museum’s collection from this period is a shimmering
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David Zwirner partners with Galerie Kugel to bridge contemporary art and ancient hardstones

NEW YORK, NY.— David Zwirner is presenting Set in Stone, an expansive group exhibition organized in collaboration with Galerie Kugel, the renowned Parisian gallery of pre-twentieth-century art. Curated by Emma Kronman, this presentation at David Zwirner’s East 69th Street location in New York places a considered group of paintings and sculpture by modern and contemporary artists from the gallery’s program in conversation with Galerie Kugel’s holdings of antique hardstone objects dating from classical antiquity through the nineteenth century. Inspired by some of the qualities that have influenced artists over history to work with stone, the exhibition centers on four themes that speak to process and appearance—luminosity, translucency, assemblage, and colorlessness—and illustrates these complementary concerns through unexpected juxtapositions of medium and technique. While the works on view range widely in how each artist makes use of light, color, texture, and scale, the pres
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Dresden's Residenzschloss unveils three ultra-rare imperial Chinese treasures

DRESDEN.— The exhibition ‘In Focus: Three Rare Treasures of Imperial China’ (1 April–29 June 2026) in the Sponsel Room of Dresden’s Residenzschloss (Royal Palace) presents objects from different imperial dynasties from among the holdings of the Grünes Gewölbe (Green Vault) and the Porzellansammlung (Porcelain Collection). The Ru Bowl, the so-called Dragon Vase, and a tiny snuff bottle, barely five centimetres tall, exemplify the aesthetics and exceptional craftsmanship of their respective era. The items from the Porzellansammlung have attracted a lot of media attention in recent weeks. The public will now be given the opportunity to discover what makes them so special. The Porzellansammlung of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (Dresden State Art Collections, SKD) holds the largest collection of early modern porcelain from China and Japan outside of Asia. It preserves a cross-section of that which was collected in
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Bernini's design for the Louvre I would have given my skin for.
Sir Cristopher Wren

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Fondation Pernod Ricard marks a milestone with 40 international art essays published in new anthology

The Fondation Pernod Ricard announces two new essay commissions published on its editorial platform and the publication of a book compiling the first forty commissions from the TextWork programme. Since its inception in 2017, TextWork has created a distinctive space for dialogue between writing and contemporary art practices by fostering exchanges between artists working in France and writers from elsewhere, resulting in the production of in-depth critical essays. Today, the first 40 texts of the programme, published in English and French, form the foundation of an expanding archive—a mirror of a scene in constant reinvention. By bringing them together in this publication, the Fondation Pernod Ricard and the French Ministry of Culture reaffirm their shared commitment to artistic creation and to the discourse that sustains it. Produced by Mousse

Vik Muniz's largest retrospective arrives at CCBB Rio in expanded form

The largest retrospective ever devoted to Vik Muniz has arrived at the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil Rio de Janeiro, bringing together more than three decades of work by one of Brazil’s most internationally recognized contemporary artists. Titled “Vik Muniz – With the Naked Eye,” the exhibition opens at CCBB Rio after previous presentations in Recife and Salvador, where it attracted more than 150,000 visitors. Curated by Daniel Rangel, the show will be on view from May 20 to September 7, 2026, occupying the ground floor and first floor of the cultural center. The Rio edition is the most expansive version of the project to date. It includes more than 220 works from 43 different series, ranging from photographs and sculptures to objects and large-scale installations. Around 20 works have been added for this presentation, including five pieces created

London antiquities dealers David Aaron sells royal stele of Pharaoh Thutmose IV

London antiquities gallery David Aaron has sold a 3,300-year-old Egyptian stele, once owned by the co-founder of modern professional bodybuilding, to a private collector on the opening day of TEFAF New York. The stele is presented alongside exceptional pieces spanning Classical Greek and Roman, Bronze Age British, and ancient Egyptian history. Dating to the reign of Pharaoh Thutmose IV (c. 1401–1391 BC), the finely carved limestone stele depicts the pharaoh with arms extended bearing offerings of plants and sporting the uraeus serpent, symbol of sovereignty, on his brow. Receiving the offerings is the god Atum, wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, or pschent, while holding an ankh and the was sceptre - symbols of life and divine authority. Atum's name is inscribed in hieroglyphs above him. Hieroglyphs record the king’s

Sharjah Art Foundation presents details of Sharjah Biennial 17

Sharjah Art Foundation announced the title, curatorial framework and participant list for the 17th edition of Sharjah Biennial. Bringing together 109 participants, the Biennial will take place from January 21 to June 13, 2027 across multiple sites in the Emirate of Sharjah. Our present is troubled by what remains of unlived pasts, of the defeated yet undead projects of a modernity premised on universal emancipation. Rather than passive and dormant, these remainders continue to animate the present with their restive rhythms, shaping the politics of time and space. Histories resurface and endure, not as pure recurrence but as residues and morphed processes actively informing the now. Grounded in this common theme, Sharjah Biennial 17: What remains, sits restive brings together two different approaches, each articulated by one of the two curators: Angela

Columbus Museum of Art hosts first major midwestern survey of conceptual pioneer Tavares Strachan

The Columbus Museum of Art at The Pizzuti presents Tavares Strachan: The Day Tomorrow Began, the first major museum exhibition of the pathbreaking conceptual artist Tavares Strachan (b. 1979, Nassau, Bahamas). On view until January 3, 2027, the exhibition brings together nearly a decade of work across Strachan’s multidisciplinary practice, encompassing sculpture, painting, neon texts, and music. The survey includes Strachan’s Bar Room (2022/2025), a participatory installation that functions as a fully operational rum bar and café, which will remain permanently installed at The Pizzuti following the exhibition’s closing. Co-organized by CMA and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), The Day Tomorrow Began offers an immersive exploration of Strachan’s oeuvre, marked by a rigorous and poetic inquiry into knowledge

Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art presents artists, participants, and projects for its ninth edition

Titled “everything must change. Radical Intelligence. Saloniki 9”, curated by independent curator Nadja Argyropoulou and organized by MOMUS-Metropolitan Organisation of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki, the 9th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art announces artists, participants, and projects. A more detailed list will appear and be updated on the Biennale’s website. Since its prelude last October, Biennale 9 has been shifting and changing by necessity or choice. It will continue to do so until its end, when a publication will capture this lived experience on what may constitute aesthetic sociality, solidarity, insurgency today. Through all its shared utterances, visual frequencies and abundance of f(r)ictions and glitches; through its peripheral place in the artworld; through its precarious position in the structural container and its economies, Biennale 9

Pinacoteca de Sao Paulo unveils unique, complete collection of Beatriz Milhazes prints

Beatriz Milhazes: A major name in Brazilian art, she is known for her work that combines geometric rigor with a consistently festive atmosphere, a result of her exuberant palette. Textile art, chita fabric, embroidery, typically Brazilian weaving, and indigenous graphic designs are references from which she draws inspiration, transforming it all into her own unique language. “Prints from the Pinacoteca de São Paulo Collection” brings together for the first time a set of 27 prints produced between 1996 and 2019, the result of Beatriz's collaboration with Jean-Paul Russell, founder of the Pinacoteca de São Paulo. Durham Press — a printmaking studio specializing in artist books and unique artworks, based in Pennsylvania, United States. The Pinacoteca is the only museum in the world that possesses this collection of works. Visitors will be able to appreciate wo

The Indonesian Pavilion constructs a 15th-century fictional voyage for the Venice Biennale

A fictional manuscript anchors the Indonesian Pavilion: Printing the Unprinted—The Grand Voyage. Attributed to Datu Na Tolu Hamonangan—an imagined archivist, artist, astronomer, and legal theorist of the Harajaon Pusuk Buhit—this narrative centers on a 15th-century Sumatran kingdom celebrated for its maritime technology, astronomy, trade, governance, and artistry. The manuscript narrates a 14-year voyage from 1472 to 1486, beginning at Lake Toba, tracing the West Sumatran coast, passing through Malacca, crossing the Bay of Bengal, and continuing past Gujarat, Hormuz, the Red Sea, and Alexandria before culminating in Venice and Central Europe. Three ships undertake this journey: Siboru Deak Parujar, named for the Batak Goddess of Creation, serves as the mothership; Naga Padoha, the Cosmic Serpent, acts as escort; Sahala ni Ombak,

Tilda Swinton: Ongoing debuts at Athens' new industrial art venue Onassis Ready

Tilda Swinton, an iconic, daring performer and subversive visual artist, takes center stage in a deeply personal exhibition that brings together new and past works by eight of her close artistic collaborators and friends: Pedro Almodóvar, Luca Guadagnino, Joanna Hogg, Derek Jarman, Jim Jarmusch, Olivier Saillard, Tim Walker, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. At Onassis Ready, the Onassis Foundation’s new venue in the industrial district of Athens, Swinton comes together with longtime collaborators and friends. Director Luca Guadagnino has created an intimate new portrait of her in the form of a short film and a sculptural work. With re-edited footage, a new soundtrack, and manipulated imagery, Jim Jarmusch transformed scenes from his surreal zombie film, “The Dead Don’t Die” (2019), into an entirely new installation. Together with acclaimed fashion

Major exhibition of paintings and sculptures by Lee Ufan opens at Dia Beacon

Dia Art Foundation opened a major exhibition of work by Lee Ufan at Dia Beacon, New York. It presents an extraordinary selection of paintings the artist realized between the 1970s and early ’90s, alongside three of his Mono-ha sculptures that extend the conceptual propositions of his works on canvas. The specificity of Lee’s work emerges beside that of his international peers, on view in nearby galleries, such as On Kawara, Agnes Martin, Robert Ryman, Richard Serra, and Kishio Suga, all equally invested in questions of material, time, and metaphysics. Taking place concurrently with a major exhibition of Lee’s work at SMAC San Marco Art Centre in Venice, organized by Dia and curated by the institution’s Nathalie de Gunzburg Director Jessica Morgan, these two presentations celebrate the artist’s 90th birthday and his extraordinary contribution
Flashback: On a day like today, Flemish painter and illustrator Jacob Jordaens was born
Jacob (Jacques) Jordaens (19 May 1593 - 18 October 1678) was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and tapestry designer known for his history paintings, genre scenes and portraits. After Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck, he was the leading Flemish Baroque painter of his day. In this image: Jacob Jordaens, The Tribute Money - Peter finding the silver coin in the mouth of the fish, 1630-1645, Collection Rijksmuseum.

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