May 4, 2026
Your morning brew of art world media
Welcome to Art Spell, a daily, comprehensive roundup of art news and reviews for the visual arts community. Today’s Editor’s Pick is The Defining Themes of Today’s Biennial Art by Ben Davis for Artnet. According to Davis’ research, today’s biennial art centers on post-colonial themes with an emphasis on myth and memory.
Airmail
Osman Can Yerebakan, All About Peter
Apollo Magazine
Hettie Judah, The earthly delights of Abbas Akhavan
Yosola Olorunshola, Henry Taylor carries on his uneasy conversation with America
Rakewell, The chaos merchants of Venice
Lucy Waterson, Morocco weaves its way into the Venice Biennale
Sheila Barker, What Raphael owed to women
Art Asia Pacific
Emanuelle Richter, Raghu Rai, 1942–2026
Michele Chan, 61st Venice Biennale Jury Resigns
From the Editors, Must-See National Pavilions at the 61st Venice Biennale
Payam Sharifi, As Told By: Slavs and Tatars at Rossi & Rossi
Art in America
Emmanuel Iduma, Trippy Film by British-Ethiopian Artist Theo Eshetu Hits the Venice Biennale
Artforum
Alexander Koch, Henrike Naumann (1984–2026) Made Fascism Feel Eerily Familiar
From the Editors, Summer Previews: The Season’s Most Anticipated Shows
Artnet
Katya Kazakina, The Venice Biennale Is High Stakes. James Cohan Gallery Is All In
EDITOR’S PICK - Ben Davis, The Defining Themes of Today’s Biennial Art: In part two of our critic’s biennial research project, an analysis the big ideas shaping today’s global biennial circuit.
Min Chen, Jarvis Cocker Is Bringing His Eclectic Eye to the Hepworth Wakefield
Katie White, How Latin American Artists Have Harnessed the Allure of Alchemy
Richard Whiddington, Derrick Adams Offers Monumental Tribute to Koyo Kouoh in Venice
Margaret Carrigan, A $15M De Kooning Leads Lévy Gorvy Dayan’s New Auction-Style Sales Experiment
Adam Lindemann, The Marcel Duchamps That Got Away: On Collecting His Work and the Sprawling MoMA Show
Richard Whiddington, Metal Detectorists Unearth Norway’s Largest-Known Viking Coin Hoard
Richard Whiddington, Oleg Prokofiev’s Lost Trove of Paintings Comes to Light After Decades in Hiding
Margaret Carrigan, The Venice Biennale’s Polite Fiction of Being ‘Above the Market’ Is Wearing Thin
Sonia Manalili, Tracking the Biggest Market Players at the Venice Biennale
Jo Lawson-Tancred, Isabel Nolan’s Work Challenges Everything We Think We Know About Creativity
ARTnews
Maximilíano Durón, 10 Shows Around Venice Not to Miss During the Biennale
Daniel Cassady, What Does It Take to Build a Show During the Venice Biennale?
Maximilíano Durón, Derrick Adams to Install Monumental Portrait of Koyo Kouoh in Venice During the Biennale
From the Editors, A $35 M. Warhol, a $45 M. Basquiat, and More: Who’s Selling The Top Works in the May Sales?
Daniel Cassady, Lévy Gorvy Dayan Bets on Urgency With New LGD Hammer Sales Platform
Daniel Cassady, Conductor Launches in Brooklyn With Venice Biennale-Bound Artists and Immersive Projects
Maximilíano Durón, In Venice to Install Work for the Biennale, Artist Guadalupe Maravilla Alleges Racial Profiling by Police
Andy Battaglia, Botticelli Painting Banned from Export Will Stay in the UK
Angelica Villa, Artist Foundations’ Net Worth Has Nearly Tripled to $9 B., Led by Cy Twombly Foundation’s $1.5 B. in Art and Assets
Brian Boucher, London Dealer Stephen Friedman Owes $10.6 M. to Dozens of Creditors, Including Artists Deborah Roberts and Kehinde Wiley
Leigh Anne Miller, Metropolitan Museum of Art Announces $23M. Gift from Top 200 Collectors Jennifer Rubio and Stewart Butterfield
Maximilíano Durón, Alex Greenberger and Tessa Solomon, A Complete Guide to the 2026 Venice Biennale National Pavilions
Maximilíano Durón and Alex Greenberger, The 20 Most Expensive Artworks Hitting the Auction Block This Season
Alex Greenberger, 5 Under-Recognized Artists Getting Their Due in New York This Season
ArtReview
Jenny Wu, Basel Abbas & Ruanne Abou-Rahme: Archivists and Activists
Naomi Riddle, 25th Biennale of Sydney Review: From the Margins
BOMB
Camille Bacon, Sandra Mujinga by Camille Bacon
The Brooklyn Rail
Phong H. Bui, Dear Friends and Readers
Tom McGlynn, JOANNE AKALAITIS with Tom McGlynn
Harry Cooper, HAYES GREENFIELD with Harry Cooper
Chenoa Baker, SKY HOPINKA with Chenoa Baker
Ginevra de Blasio, SEDRICK CHISOM with Ginevra de Blasio
Matthew Spellberg, How Else Could You Get Out: William Kent and the Zipper
Financial Times
Jennifer Higgie, Olga Fröbe-Kapteyn — the artist who built an archive to decode dreams
Christian House, Erwin Wurm: ‘I once made a Fat Ferrari for a collector in Aspen’
Maria Shollenbarger, Where to see great art in May – and where to stay
The Guardian
Charlotte Jansen, ‘Of course I accepted!’: Angel Otero on working with Bad Bunny … and bringing Puerto Rican flair to Somerset
Lanre Bakare, Anish Kapoor says US’s ‘politics of hate’ should exclude it from Venice Biennale
Eddy Frankel, Rose Finn-Kelcey review – flying puns, smart pranks and prayers for 20p
Tamlin Magee, Sketches of Spain at arms: Sim, the anarchist illustrator who drew the civil war from the frontline
Chloë Ashby, Mummy, is this a video game? The dangers of showing kids art on a screen
Alex Needham, Next stop – infinity! My transcendental experience on Japan’s ‘art island’ guided by its master Lee Ufan
Hyperallergic
From the Editors, 15 Art Shows to See in NYC This May
Rhea Nayyar, Venice Biennale Scraps “Golden Lion” Awards as Turmoil Continues
Isa Farfan, Trump Border Wall Crews Damage 1,000-Year-Old Native Etching in Arizona
Damien Davis, What Artists Sign Away
Natasha Boas, Diedrick Brackens’s Tapestries Beckon the Light of Freedom
Lakshmi Rivera Amin, A View From the Easel
The Los Angeles Times
Solvej Schou, Holocaust Museum LA will reopen as part of the new $70-million Goldrich Cultural Center
The New York Times
Alex Williams, Stephanie Chernikowski, 84, Dies; Photographed the ‘Rough Magic’ of Punk
Observer
Elisa Carollo, “Greater New York” Shows a Generation’s Resilience at the Edge of Collapse
Christa Terry, From Standing Ovations to Surprise DJ Sets: Inside the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s 2026 BAM Ball
Elisa Carollo, 10 Must-See Off-Site Venice Biennale Exhibitions
Megan Fox Kelly, The Complete Collector: What Isabella Stewart Gardner Built
Dan Duray, One Fine Show: “Wes Anderson, The Archives” at the Design Museum in London
Urgent Matter
Adam Schrader, ‘Like a Paw Patrol book’: DOJ official pens weird filing in White House East Wing suit
Adam Schrader, Detroit artist sues city, alleging destruction of 33 murals
Adam Schrader, Court Documents: Dabls v. City of Detroit
Adam Schrader, Historic trophy stolen from Glasgow museum days after Louvre heist, police reveal
Adam Schrader, Art stolen from beloved Las Vegas studio that offers classes, camps for kids
Adam Schrader, Reliquary urn stolen from Italian church recovered by FBI Boston
Adam Schrader, Vivienne Westwood lawsuit dismissed in copyright fight with graffiti artists
Adam Schrader, Court Documents: Smith et al. v. Vivienne Westwood
Adam Schrader, Key witness in alleged Brent Sikkema murder plot says accused killer sent her $5K
Adam Schrader, Court Documents: U.S. v. Daniel Sikkema — Dailyn Hidalgo Hernandez Deposition
Adam Schrader, Eylon Levy, former spokesman for Israel, posts manipulated image of Banksy artwork
Adam Schrader, Weekly Recap: On the streets with the kids, podcast launch, cases slow
Adam Schrader, Books staged like art at the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair
Adam Schrader, Documents show scramble to recover art after Stephen Friedman Gallery collapse
Vanity Fair
Nate Freeman, Si Newhouse Built One of the World’s Greatest Art Collections. Tobias Meyer Wants to Sell It to You.
Vogue
Emma Specter, The Artists Who Put Their Bodies Into the Work
Amy Verner, The Curator, the Artist, and the Artisans Bringing Morroco to Venice
The Wall Street Journal
From the Editors, Arts Calendar: Happenings for the Week of May 3
Dominic Green, The V&A East Museum’s London Jumble
Brian P. Kelly, At the Studio Museum in Harlem, Small Things and Big Ideas
Willard Spiegelman, ‘The Rainbow Landscape’: Humanity Beneath a Heavenly Sky
Art Spell is a subscription-based daily roundup of art news and reviews to help you stay current with what’s being reported on in the visual arts community. The profits from Art Spell are donated to organizations supporting art journalists and writers.