Exhibitions

Little is yet known about next year’s 61st Venice Biennale, which will run from April until November 2026, but that does nothing to dampen our excitement. Curator Koyo Kouoh, director of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town, has been named the first African woman to helm the biennial, and her chosen theme will likely only be announced this spring or summer. Will it be as divisive as Adriano Pedrosa’s “Foreigners Everywhere” was in 2024?
While we wait to find out, we have a drip feed of building anticipation thanks to the regular announcements rolling in about which artists will be representing their country at the art world Olympics. Denmark is the latest country to name its artist for the event: Maja Malou Lyse, whose practice uses popular contemporary formats like television and social media as well as IRL performances to explore the power dynamics that pervade daily life.
As always a new edition of the Biennale brings exciting changes as well as new controversies. So far, ahead of 2026, Qatar announced that it has secured a spot in the Giardini to build the first new pavilion there since South Korea’s in 1995. Australia, meanwhile, named artist Khaled Sabsabi as its Venice representative before dropping the artist just a week later, after his selection had became a political hot potato.
Here’s our regularly updated, up-to-the-minute list of all the national pavilions that have been announced so far.
Last updated on March 11
Denmark
Maja Malou Lyse, Antibodies (still). Image courtesy of the artist.
Artist: Maja Malou Lyse
Curator: To be announced
Venue: Giardini
What to know: Born in 1993, Maja Malou Lyse merges modern mediums like video, text, and performance with popular contemporary formats like television, billboards, and social media to explore the dynamics of desire and power that pervade our daily life. Though her practice deals predominantly with the digital realm, she has done in-person performances at the National Gallery of Denmark, Tate Modern in London, and Moderna Museet in Stockholm.
Austria
Florentina Holzinger. Photo: Elsa Okazaki, @elsaokazaki.
Artist: Florentina Holzinger
Curator: Nora-Swantje Almes
Venue: Giardini
What to know: Born in Vienna in 1986, Florentina Holzinger is known for performances that test the limits of what her audience can handle, in a practice that blends feminist body art with the tradition of Viennese Actionism. Last fall, it was reported that 18 audience members required medical treatment for nausea and shock after seeing her production Sancta, a remake of the blasphemous 1921 opera Sancta Susanna, at the Stuttgart Opera in Germany. The performance featured explicit and violent sex scenes, real injuries and blood, nail-biting stunts, and abundant nudity. Eek!
Canada
Abbas Akhavan. Photo: Alex de Brabant.
Artist: Abbas Akhavan
Curator: To be announced
Venue: Giardini
What to know: Born in Tehran in 1977, Abbas Akhavan emigrated to Canada with his family during conflict in the 1980s and now lives and works between Montreal and Berlin. Akhavan is interested in interrogating the history of place, and as such is known for site-specific installations that incorporate a wide variety of media like video, sculpture, drawing, and performance. No specific theme has yet been announced, but Akhavan is expected to respond directly to the Canada pavilion in Venice’s Giardini.

Estonia

Artist: Merike Estna
Curator: To be announced
Venue: To be announced
What to know: Born in 1980 and now based between Tallinn and Mexico City, Merike Estna’s practice expands traditional notions of painting by introducing once-marginalized craft elements. Not only is this a formal inquiry, but Estna impressed the selection jury for how her work, despite its vividly fantastical, mostly abstract appearance, invokes political and socially urgent themes. With an inherent theatricality that is never limited by the canvas, her works have also been used as stage sets for performance art pieces, featuring everyday items like food and drink with a surprising, arty twist.
Finland
Jenna Sutela and Stefanie Hessler. Photo: Matteo de Mayda.
Artist: Jenna Sutela
Curator: Stefanie Hessler
Venue: Giardini
What to know: Born in Turku in 1983 but now based in Berlin, Jenna Sutela’s varied practice incorporates scientific disciplines of all kinds, from biology to computation and astronomy to create unique sculptural installations. One of her best known works, Pond Brain (2023), is on display at Castello de Rivoli in Italy. At first glance the bronze bowl appears to be a fountain but visitors are invited to touch the work, turning into an instrument that harmonizes the deep reverberations of the water with an A.I. trained on polyphonic sounds from nature. The work debuted at the Helsinki Biennial in 2023.

France
Artist Yto Barrada in her installation, “Yto Barrada: Agadir” at The Curve Barbican Centre. Photo: by Tristan Fewings/Getty Images.
Artist: Yto Barrada
Curator: To be announced
Venue: Giardini
What to know: French-Moroccan artist Yto Barrada was born in Paris in 1971 but mostly grew up in Tangier, Morocco, a locale that has been the subject of her major photography series like “A Life Full of Holes” (1998), which studied the transitory existence of migrants attempting to flee to Europe, and Iris Tingitana Project (2007). She has worked in many mediums, but is best known for her abstract textiles and for her photography and film works, all of which become a means to address wider geopolitical issues like the climate crisis, immigration, and post-colonialism.
Great Britain
Lubaina Himid will represent Great Britain at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026. Photo: Adama Jalloh, courtesy of the British Council.
Artist: Lubaina Himid
Curator: To be announced
Venue: Giardini
What to know: Born in Zanzibar in 1954, Preston-based Himid moved to Britain with her mother as a baby and became a founding member of the Black British Art Movement in the 1980s. She is also a curator, best known for boosting the visibility of Black women artists with landmark shows like “Five Black Women” at the Africa Center in London in 1983 and “The Thin Black Line” at the ICA in London in 1985. Despite this pioneering work, high profile recognition of Himid has been belated, as was the case for many members of the Black British Art Movement. In 2017, she won the Turner Prize, becoming the oldest artist to do so at the age of 63, and, in 2018, she was honored with a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for her contributions to the arts. International institutional acclaim has followed.
Hungary
Endre Koronczi. Photo courtesy of Luca Cserhalmi.
Artist: Endre Koronczi
Curator: Luca Cserhalmi
Venue: Giardini
What to know: Born in Budapest in 1968, concept artist Endre Kornoczi has worked predominantly with the natural medium of wind for the past decade and, while not much is yet revealed about his exhibition “Pneuma Cosmic” for Venice, it will continue with this theme. Among his previous installations, video works, and open air projects is Extreme Sleep (2006-2020), for which the artist blended the banal and absurd by attempting to sleep by sheer force of will in various spots of open wilderness, such as slumped against a bumpy rock in the sun.
Iceland
Munnhola, obol ombla obla by Ásta Fanney Sigurðardóttir. Performance film 29 min.Premiered at Sequences Festival, 2021. Courtesy of the artist and Iceland Pavilion
Artist: Ásta Fanney Sigurðardóttir
Curator: To be announced
Venue: Arsenale
What to know: Reykjavík-based Ásta Fanney Sigurðardóttir was born in 1987 and is recognized for her multidisciplinary practice that fuses visual art mediums ranging from drawings to sculptures with sound, text, and moving image, to pull us out of our present moment and welcome us into a beguiling spiritual dimension. She is also an award-winning poet who has published five books and does regular live performances of her work, blurring distinctions between literature, theatre, and visual art.
Ireland

Artist Isabel Nolan, curator Georgina Jackson, and producer Cian O’Brien at The Douglas Hyde Gallery of Contemporary Art, Dublin. Photo: Ste Murray.

Artist: Isabel Nolan
Curator: Georgina Jackson
Venue: Arsenale
What to know: Born in Dublin in 1974, Isabel Nolan has turned to the expanse of human history and the universe at large for inspiration in her art practice, counting among her references antiquities, literary figures, religious relics, and cosmological phenomena. She is no more limited by scale or medium either, with her output ranging from intimate, handmade objects or drawings to vast monumental structures. It is a busy time for the artist, who will also participate in the 13th Liverpool Biennial this summer.
Lithuania
Eglė Budvytytė, De sang chaud et de terre (Warm Blooded and Earthbound) (2024) © Eglė Budvytytė.
Artist: Eglé Budvytyté
Curator: Louise O’Kelly
Venue: To be announced
What to know: Born in Kaunas in 1982 and based between Vilnius and Amsterdam, Eglé Budvytyté uses various audio-visual media like video or radio to explore the blurry boundary between fiction and reality, creating scenarios that are partially staged and partially improvised. Much of her work is collaborative, and one recent film Warm Blooded and Earthbound, spotlights the sprawling landscapes of her native Lithuania.
Luxembourg

Artist: Aline Bouvy
Curator: Stilbé Schroeder
Venue: Arsenale
What to know: Born in Brussels in 1974, Aline Bouvy works between Luxembourg and Belgium and is known for her work in a mix of media. One particular focus of her practice is the embrace of the body as a medium through which we have sensory experiences, whether pleasurable or otherwise. What is the political status of the body in 2025? Are we more or less restricted than in the past? Bouvy’s presentation is likely to provoke these questions.
New Zealand
Fiona Pardington stands between two portraits from a series of life casts at the Royal Academy, London. Photo by Jonathan Brady/PA Images via Getty Images.
Artist: Fiona Pardington
Curator: To be announced
Venue: Arsenale
What to know: The New Zealand pavilion is back in 2026 after taking a hiatus in 2024, citing “inadequate” resources. Its comeback will be fronted by the artist Fiona Pardington, of Kāi Tahu, Kāti Mamoe, Ngāti Kahungunu, and Clan Cameron of Erracht, who was born in Devonport, Auckland in 1961. She works predominantly in photography, particularly still-life compositions, and has gained recent recognition for her sensitive studies of objects in museum collections.

Switzerland
Artists: Gianmaria Andreetta, Luca Beeler, Nina Wakeford, Miriam Laura Leonardi, Lithic Alliance and Yul Tomatala
Curator: N/A
Venue: Giardini
What to know: A group of six creative practitioners have teamed up to represent Switzerland at Venice in 2026, beating out 140 rivals in the country’s first open competition for the privilege. Fittingly for such a large group, their project The Unfinished Business of Living Together will explore the state of coexistence, and our human capacities and limitations when it comes to social cohesion and tolerance. The diverse group represent different generations and different language speaking regions of Switzerland.
Taiwan
Li Yi-fan. Photo courtesy the artist and Taipei Fine Arts Museum.
Artist: Li Yi-fan
Curator: To be announced
Venue: Palazzo delle Prigioni
What to know: The Taiwan 2025 exhibition has been an official collateral event of the Venice Biennale since 2003 after it lost its national pavilion status following protests from China. Born in 1989, Taipei-based Li Yan-fan works with digital media, often creating surreal and humorous narratives with the use of game engines that he develops. In 2023, he debuted the video What Is Your Favorite Primitive at the Taipei Biennial, a parody of a Big Tech keynote speech that skewered the ethical ambiguities of the industry.

This is a developing story and will be updated. More

A massive bronze sculpture by Thomas J Price will soon stand tall in New York’s Times Square, accompanied at night by his stop-motion animations on the plaza’s famed billboards, in conjunction with his first major solo show at Hauser and Wirth in New York.
The sculptural work, Grounded in the Stars (2023), depicts a Black woman wearing everyday clothing and standing 12 feet above the ground, in a slightly contrapposto pose with both hands on her hips. The work emerges from Price’s ongoing deconstruction of preconceived notions about identity, demonstrating how Black individuals can claim space on their own terms.
Thomas J Price’s Grounded in the Stars (2023) is seen with a person for scale. Photo courtesy of Kunstgiesserei St.Gallen
The sculpture, Price told me over email, was designed to integrate into such a setting as Times Square, which brings together various histories and cultures. It aims to represent the diversity of visitors at the Crossroads of the World and address the traditional representation of marginalized communities in public spaces.
“I hope Grounded in the Stars will instigate meaningful connections and bind intimate emotional states that allow for deeper reflection around the human condition and greater cultural diversity,” he said.
The figure in the sculpture isn’t based on a real person—rather it is a composite of images and observations referred to by the artist in sculpting the work. Price said its identity is intentionally open-ended so people can see it without assumptions or stereotypes.
Thomas J Price. Grounded in the Stars. (2023). Photo courtesy of Kunstgiesserei St.Gallen
“The work is a composite fictional character, unfixed and boundless, allowing us to imagine what it would be like to inhabit space neutrally without preconceived ideas and misrepresentation,” he said.
And in a world full of shallow communication, soundbites, and mixed messages, this sculpture is meant to bring back a sense of human connection, he said. It explores the gap between what people see in the world around them and what they feel inside.
As for the animations, they will run on more than 90 billboards throughout the famed area from 11:57 p.m. to midnight nightly. They come from his ongoing “Man Series” of “plasticine heads” presented against stark black backgrounds. The heads come to life with subtle facial movements.
Portrait of Thomas J Price. Photo by Ollie Adegboye
“I was drawn to Thomas J Price’s work for Times Square because of the novel ways in which he imparts a sense of reverence for people’s everyday humanity,” Jean Cooney, the director of Times Square Arts, said in an email, adding that the works “summon power.”
At Hauser and Wirth, Price’s show, “Resilience of Scale,” will present five such towering figures with a large-scale photographic work comprising 18 separate framed images. As in Times Square, the exhibition invites viewers to navigate the space and make circuits around the works—”positioning themselves within the artist’s narrative,” reads the press announcement, “rather than merely observing from a distance.”
Thomas J Price’s Grounded in the Stars will be on view in Times Square at Broadway and 46th Street, April 29–June 17. The animated works will be shown nightly May 1–31.
“Thomas J Price: Resilience of Scale” will be on view at Hauser and Wirth, 134 Wooster Street, New York, April 24–June 14. More

“Singular meanings are not always the best,” Helmut Lang told me. It’s a statement befitting a sculptor whose works defy simple explanation.
A group of Lang’s oblique sculptures has just landed at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House in Los Angeles for the exhibition “What remains behind.” They appear as alien forms in the concrete-lined minimalist space. A low figure appears crouched and contorted with creases and folds; another, a monolithic slab, stands in a corner, its face alive with mysterious indentations. More significant than what they represent, though, is what they hold.
“The object and its integrity,” Lang said, “are the most important.”
Helmut Lang, fist I and fist IV (2015–17). Courtesy of the artist.
Lang’s works have been constructed out of such materials as foam and latex, steel and resin—what he called “not the usual suspects” when it comes to sculpture. Their former uses and purposes, he said, are given new heft by the artist’s hand.
“I just simply find it more inspiring as it is also more challenging,” he added of his choice of materials. “The emotional weight comes in by what I do with them, and I prefer the outcome not to have predetermined meaning. Materials are just materials despite their past.”
Helmut Lang, consenting position (2015–17). Courtesy of the artist and MAK Center for Art and Architecture.
The Austrian artist, of course, has had a long history with unconventional materials. His eponymous fashion label, founded in 1986, was characterized by minimalist tailoring and severe silhouettes, as much as its use of fabrics from rubber and metallics to thermochromic textiles. Lang’s deconstructive approach to design—combining dinner jackets with tracksuits, juxtaposing horsehair against silk—also helped dismantle the boundary that long separated luxury and street fashion.
Since retiring from the fashion industry in 2005, Lang’s art practice has blossomed. Not long after, he began showing his Delphic sculptures—towering columns created out of fabric scraps, stacked objects built out of rubber tires, reliefs made with memory foam—all bearing out his experimental approach.
“What happens during the work process, intellectually and form-wise, is that I approach a piece with an imaginary idea which I have not experienced and therefore remains innocent, waiting to be explored,” he explained. “This emotion results in a flow of works or procedures that can be interrupted at any point. These are condensed, layered, broken up, and again collected and suddenly taken over by another.”
Installation view of “Helmut Lang: What remains behind” at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Schindler House, Los Angeles, 2025. Photo courtesy of MAK Center.
The material responds too: “At any given moment, loss of control takes effect. If the sculpture is strong enough to fight back, that is often a good moment to stop.”
The form of sculpture has captured him, Lang said, because it afforded “the most possibilities of expression.” For years, too, he maintained a fond friendship with sculptor Louis Bourgeois—she appeared on his label’s 1997 campaign and he included a choker she designed in 1948 in his 2003 runway show. Elsewhere, he has reflected on how she affirmed his approach to material. Memory, Bourgeois once said, is a “form of architecture.” Lang’s works compact impressions past, present, and those yet to come.
Helmut Lang, fist II (detail) (2015–17). Courtesy of the artist and MAK Center for Art and Architecture.
At the Schindler House, the exhibition is towered over by a pair of fist-like sculptures, their bodies sharply folded, bound, and gnarled. Even as they challenge singular meaning, they invite exploration. A viewer is enticed to move around the works, to inspect their every cut and dent. The point, said Lang, is to trigger “more questions, not answers.”
“Once the work is handed over to the public, it becomes many lives,” he added. “Everyone is experiencing what one sees depending on their current potential and that is where the personal dialogue comes in. It is beneficial to leave the safety of former experiences behind, which leads to endless layers of opportunities.”
Helmut Lang, kleine Portrait Arbeit I (2015–17). Courtesy of the artist and MAK Center for Art and Architecture.
The meaning of his sculptures could also very well change with the environment they’re displayed in, he said—but in ways that remain, as always, open.
“I am willing to let a space violate the sculptures and avoid the trap of beautifying the object. I want to think that a sculpture will eventually be placed in different contexts and will respond for better or worse each time,” he said.
“Also, one cannot always choose where it will end up and I don’t want to be consumed by that fact. There is something interesting about not always being in control beyond the creation of the object.”
“Helmut Lang: What remains behind” is on view at Schindler House, 835 N. Kings Road, West Hollywood, California, through May 4. More

Thirty years ago, Yoshitomo Nara was a young Japanese artist living in Germany emerging on the international art stage. Today, Nara is one of the world’s most famous artists and a market star with a massive following. This transformation did not happen overnight; it was rather a gradual process developed over time. This journey is reflected in his latest solo show at Blum, coinciding with Frieze Los Angeles this week.
Titled “My Imperfect Self,” the exhibition is more than just a presentation of Nara’s experiments with clay; it is also a meditation on his evolving artistic practice after gaining fame outside of his native Japan with his pivotal 1991 painting The Girl with the Knife in Her Hand. The show marks the 30th anniversary of “Pacific Babies,” Nara’s first presentation in the United States held in 1995 at the L.A. gallery, then known as Blum and Poe.
Installation view of Yoshitomo Nara’s exhibition “My Imperfect Self” at BLUM Los Angeles, 2025. © Yoshitomo Nara / Courtesy of the Yoshitomo Nara Foundation and BLUM Los Angeles, Tokyo, New York. Photo: Josh Schaedel.
Though the exhibition went on view in mid-January, the formal opening reception was postponed to the end of the month due to the devastating L.A. wildfires. Nara contributed art to the relief efforts earlier.
“My Imperfect Self” features a new series of bronze sculptures, including 11 newly exhibition pieces, in addition to some paintings. These sculptures are “mid-size heads exuding a quirky strangeness and dark charm that defines the artist’s work,” noted art historian Yeewan Koon, the exhibition’s curator. The large pieces cast in bronze were originally made in clay as palm-sized pieces.
“This collection of heads is full of contradictions that lean toward the peculiar and anomalous,” Koon noted in her curatorial statement. “The awkwardness of these heads embraces the possibilities of mischance and imperfections. They form their own gang of misfits. For Nara, this reflects a renewed engagement with the praxis of making—the dynamic interplay between hand and body, craft, and object—which directs his curiosity toward possibilities of incompleteness.”
Installation view of Yoshitomo Nara’s exhibition “My Imperfect Self” at BLUM Los Angeles, 2025. © Yoshitomo Nara / Courtesy of the Yoshitomo Nara Foundation and BLUM Los Angeles, Tokyo, New York. Photo: Josh Schaedel.
Reflecting on Nara’s sculpture practice, Koon, who has been working with the artist since 2014 and authored Nara’s monograph in 2020, noted that the artist’s approach to clay has gone from “wrestling” to “nurturing.” She recalled her conversation with Nara about working with clay, which began after the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami happened on March 11, 2011, the worst earthquake recorded in Japan’s history. The tragedy claimed nearly 20,000 lives with more than 2,550 people missing. It also hit the Fukushima nuclear plant, causing a nuclear meltdown.
Nara was deeply traumatized by the disaster that hit his home region. For a while, he struggled with painting. He then began to experiment with clay and threw his whole body at a giant piece of clay and began to “wrestle” with it.
Installation view of Yoshitomo Nara’s exhibition “My Imperfect Self” at BLUM Los Angeles, 2025. © Yoshitomo Nara / Courtesy of the Yoshitomo Nara Foundation and BLUM Los Angeles, Tokyo, New York. Photo: Josh Schaedel.
“What he really wanted to do was to leave his physical presence onto the clay itself, a way to make permanence feel more solid,” said Koon, noting this was a response to traumatic events. The artist also surrounded himself with a community and did his clay work at his former school rather than his studio.
The transformation of his approach to clay occurred in 2016. Rather than ‘fighting with the clay,’ Nara adopted a ‘gentle motion,’ according to Koon. The result was “more raw, but still intimate and more nurturing,” she noted. First making palm-sized heads, the artist then picked the oddest-looking ones to scale up. The dramatic change in size made them look awkward and imperfect. “He liked that,” Koon said, noting that to achieve perfection, one has to seize control. Imperfection, on the other hand, creates a breathing space that allows the relinquishing of control. “Ultimately, it is about a sense of freedom,” Koon added.
These sculptures, created out of raw materials from his home region, are embedded with a sense of place and roots. “If we look at Nara’s journey, from a sense of displacement to such connectedness, what comes through is that being imperfect is also about acceptance,” Koon noted.
Installation view of Yoshitomo Nara’s exhibition “My Imperfect Self” at BLUM Los Angeles, 2025. © Yoshitomo Nara / Courtesy of the Yoshitomo Nara Foundation and BLUM Los Angeles, Tokyo, New York. Photo: Josh Schaedel.
“My Imperfect Self” runs through March 8, 2025, at Blum Los Angeles.
This article was updated on February 24, 2025, 5.34 a.m. More

One of the most-buzzed-about gallery shows in Los Angeles this Frieze Week is also one of the most elusive.
David Hammons’s ambitious installation, Concerto in Black and Blue, was first shown in New York more than 20 years ago, shortly after the 9/11 attacks. Now, it has been reintroduced at Hauser and Wirth’s sprawling headquarters in the Downtown Arts District.
Hammons is known for his steadfast commitment to his vision, often eschewing art world norms. It’s interesting to consider how much has changed for him—and the art world—over the past two decades ago, and how that has potentially changed the reception of the work.
The entrance to David Hammons’s Concerto in Black and Blue at Hauser and Wirth Los Angeles. Photo Eileen Kinsella
The intriguing, ambiguous artwork invites visitors to step into a dark, cavernous space armed only with a tiny blue flashlight. (These are offered on a tray situated near the entrance.) The pitch-black gallery is enormous—the whole north side of the gallery’s complex—but you move through it quickly since there is nothing really to see. The work is not for sale, and there is no press release (Hammons doesn’t do them), only a one-sentence explanation on the gallery’s website.
David Hammons, Concerto in Black and Blue. Photo: Hauser & Wirth
As when the work was presented at Ace Gallery in Manhattan in 2022, the flashlights ensure that viewers can navigate the space without bumping into anything (or anyone). Part of the experience is seeing other blue lights swiveling about the walls and floors as other members of the audience meander. The “concerto” in the title could refer to the shifting shapes and shadows created by the lights cutting through the darkness. You are in good, and quiet, company.
That sense of silence is pronounced. Although nothing in the gallery signage prohibits talking, there was very little conversation or sound inside the galleries, which contributes to a peaceful, almost meditative feeling.
You might take the piece as a comment on looking at art but not actually being able to truly see it—to make sense of it.
Before entering the gallery, you are asked to put your phones into pockets. Photo by Eileen Kinsella
Visitors approaching the entrance of the current Hammons show are asked to slip their phones into neoprene containers that are then locked and handed back to you. A magnetic mechanism at the exit of the show is used to unlock the slip and return the sleeve. There are containers to return both the sleeve and the mini-flashlights as you exit the galleries.
Photo by Eileen Kinsella
It’s a mandatory but democratic way of guaranteeing that viewers honor Hammons’ intentions of the interior of the artwork not being documented or photographed. That would not have been as pressing a concern all those years ago, five years before the first iPhone debuted.
Photo by Eileen Kinsella
A film by Linda Goode Bryant from the 2002 debut of Concerto in Black and Blue is running in the Hauser and Wirth screening room, and it is a wonderful, brief snapshot of the project.
Photo by Eileen Kinsella
The mega-gallery’s entire Downtown space, in a former flour mill, serves as a calming oasis from the minute you step inside. There are also major installations and works on view by artists like Martin Creed and Mary Heilmann, an impressively packed bookstore, the Ursula cafe (which shares its name with the gallery’s periodical), the wildly popular Manuela restaurant, and a plant-filled courtyard.
The courtyard of Hauser and Wirth’s Downtown Los Angeles gallery space with a view of Manuela restaurant. Photo by Eileen Kinsella
I also happened upon the gallery’s very own chicken coop en route to the Hammons show. A nearby sign advises: “Please do not feed the chickens or place anything in the chicken coop.” More

The theme of the 16th Sharjah Biennial, the longest-running contemporary art biennial in the Gulf region, was an open-ended proposition: to carry. To its all-female curatorial team, it has manifold interpretations: to carry a home, to carry a history, to carry rupture, to carry resistance.
During the opening speeches earlier this month, a spontaneous Māori chant offered the perfect introduction to this vast exhibition, which was curated by Alia Swastika, Amal Khalaf, Megan Tamati-Quennell, Natasha Ginwala, and Zeynep Öz, and features 200 artists participating with a total of 650 works, including over 200 new commissions.
The show, ambitious in scale, is displayed at 17 venues alongside a program of performances, music, and films. Spread in the emirate of Sharjah, including sites in Sharjah City, Al Hamriyah, Al Dhaid, and Kalba, the selection of sites moves beyond white-cube spaces and museums, occupying historic buildings, schools, former markets, and even the desert.
Under the direction of Hoor Al Qasimi, daughter of Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi, and ruler of Sharjah since 2003, the biennial’s ambition lies not only in its scale but also in its active reclamation of discussions around the Global South—discussions that have historically been led by Western institutions.
This edition of the Sharjah Biennial included a diverse artist list, with many emerging talents from regions across Asia, Africa, and Oceania, as well as a strong representation of First Nations and Indigenous art. While familiar artists like Arthur Jafa are also present, there are also many community-driven projects, such as the Thai group Womanifesto.
Here are five artists whose works you need to know.
Michael Parekōwhai
Michael Parekōwhai, He Kōrero Pūrākau mo te Awanui o Te Motu: Story of a New Zealand river, 2011. Photo: Cathy Fan
It’s hard not to be struck by Michael Parekōwhai’s work, which occupies an entire gallery space in Al Mureijah Square of Sharjah City. A major figure in New Zealand’s art scene for over 30 years, he remains relatively low-key and avoids the media spotlight. Often described as a “Duchampian” artist, he plays with art history, cultural identity, and personal narratives. 
Sun shines through the skylight, casting a stream on a Steinway piano painted in a bold red. Stepping closer, you notice finely carved details—it’s both a sculpture and a playable instrument. A male dancer joins in as people gather, followed by a tenor singer filling the room with his voice. Outside, there’s a desert city; inside, European music and traditional performance unfold. The piano’s surface features whakairo, a form of Māori carving, which connect to the artist’s family history and to the history of the piano itself. Ivory, ebony, shell, and pearl shimmer in the carvings of other elements on view. A Pipiwharauroa (shining cuckoo) clock, jewelry worn by the performers, and signal to these materials.
This work was first shown at the 2011 Venice Biennale, a project that took Parekōwhai ten years to complete. It draws from multiple inspirations, but its title, He Korero Purakau mo te Awanui o Te Motu: Story of a New Zealand River, comes from a 1920s New Zealand novel, which in turn inspired Jane Campion’s 1993 film The Piano.
John Clang
John Clang, Reading by an Artist, 2023 – ongoing. Image courtesy of the artist. Photo: Lavender Chang
Reading by an Artist might be the most enchanting experience I’ve had at a major art event. The presentation by Singaporean artist John Clang was understated—I was led by a fellow journalist to a secluded courtyard where the 52-year-old artist sat hidden behind a large hanging cloth, facing a single participant.
Clang, who lives between New York and Singapore, is known primarily as a photographer and started this project in 2023. This marks his first biennial appearance, where instead of taking portraits through lenses, he “reads” people using zi wei dou shu, an ancient Chinese fortune-telling method based on feng shui principles. The artist views human destiny as an epic codex not just to be perused, but to be interpreted and translated into tangible action to empower one’s life. 
Each session lasts an hour, during which he calculates a ming pan (destiny chart), treating it as a unique metaphysical portrait. The large hanging cloth did not display an individual ming pan, but rather that of the Sharjah Biennial itself. A waiting list quickly grew, with many arranging private readings afterward. Becoming a skilled zi wei dou shu reader takes years of study (and sometimes a decade) due to its intricate system of knowledge and practice. In another room, Clang shared reflections from past sitters. 

Cécile B. Evans 
Cécile B. Evans, RECEPTION!, 2024. Image courtesy of the artist
Cécile B. Evans explores the idea that language, memory, and emotion are not abstract, but are intricately connected to the physical world and particularly to ecological crises and technological storage. She presents a strikingly dystopian narrative in her latest work.
Upon entering the darkened exhibition space, visitors encounter a six-piece sculptural installation, immediately recognizable as a miniature model of the United Nations General Assembly Hall. However, beneath this sleek, orderly structure lies a compressed world of ruins—a storage space for the remnants of New York City. On closer inspection, fragments of the Statue of Liberty, bank signs, traces of Wall Street’s bull, and pieces of infrastructure like railways, all hint at the collapse of authoritative institutions. This space is renamed GAMMA (Global Archive of Memory Management and Archaeology). Another piece in the installation is a quilt made from shredded documents, including global trend forecasts from the CIA dating back to 1997.
Two video works, RECEPTION! and MEMORY!, further expand the narrative. The former debuted as a live installation at Paris Fashion Week for Miu Miu, while the latter was commissioned by the Sharjah Art Foundation. The story revolves around an ecological crisis that causes the mass disappearance of personal data. The protagonist, played by French actress Guslagie Malanda, is Reception—the last surviving translator at a data center responsible for transcribing and recovering memories. During a flood that engulfs the center, she transcribes others’ memories into English. However, when Reception translates a woman’s intimate memory, part of her own memory slips away. MEMORY follows the unraveling of this lost memory.

Kaloki Nyamai
Kaloki Nyamai’s assemblage paintings at Sharjah Biennial. Photo: Cathy Fan
Kenya-based artist Kaloki Nyamai’s assemblage paintings offer a powerful exploration of Akamba’s cultural heritage. These large canvases—each over 2.5 meters wide—hang and spill onto the floor, creating a striking visual and tactile experience throughout the exhibition. With a complex mix of visual and physical depth, the works make a powerful visual impact.
Nyamai was also one of the four artists representing Kenya at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022. In Sharjah, the artist takes painting to new heights, layering newspapers, incorporating found documents, and stitching in thick, heavy seams. Abstract figures slowly emerge from the layers of acrylic paint, sisal ropes, photo transfers, and charred rubber threads, almost like memories coming in and out of focus. Many of the figures and moments are inspired by news imagery. A Nairobi native, Nyamai views his work as a continuation of the storytelling traditions passed down through generations. Nyamai challenges the oversimplified narratives around Kenya’s history and identity, offering a richer alternative. He compares the act of stitching to symbolically bringing together a community that has been torn apart by violence. The paintings on display are also named after Nyamai’s ancestral language, Kikamba.

Suzanne Lacy
Suzanne Lacy, The Circle and the Square, 2015-2017. Image courtesy of the artist
If I had to pick just one piece at this year’s Sharjah Biennial that represents the world we live in today, it would be this one. American artist Suzanne Lacy, also a social activist, is known for coining the term “new genre public art.” Most of her work focuses on social and urban issues, using community conversations to express important ideas.
At the Biennale, Lacy presented a deeply moving piece. Her two-screen film The Circle and the Square is based on a project that came together during a three-day event in September 2016. Shape Note singers from England performed alongside a local Sufi group in an old mill. Hundreds of voices filled the space, blending Shape Note singing with Dhikr, an Islamic chanting practice. The event was shaped by months of community discussions and concluded with a dinner for 500 local residents.
The three-year project addressed racism, labor, and global trade. It focused on the decline of the textile industry in Pendle, Northwest England, and its impact on both South Asian and white mill workers. The project is also presented with interviews, a timeline, photographs, and other documents.
The Sharjah Biennial is on view until June 15, 2025 More

Between 1963 and ’64, as the Beatles toured the globe, Paul McCartney snapped hundreds of photos of his daily life. In between candid shots of his bandmates and images of foreign locales, they offer a rare peek into Beatlemania, as seen from the inside. “There’s a sort of innocence about them,” the bassist reflected in 2023.
A trove of these photos has made its way across museums from the U.K. to the U.S. for the past two years. But there’s more where that came from. A show in Beverly Hills will soon surface yet more previously unseen images from McCartney’s archives, which will be offered for sale.
In April, Gagosian will present 36 works by McCartney, some of them newly rediscovered, created between December 1963 and February 1964. They were shot in Liverpool and London in the U.K., Paris, France, as well as New York, Miami, and Washington, D.C.
At this time, the Beatles had embarked on their first tour of the U.K., hot on the heels of their number one album, With the Beatles, released in November 1963. The following year saw them descend on Paris, then New York, where they made their now-legendary debut appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in February. By the end of the month, they had made the cover of Newsweek, in a front-page story that trumpeted “Bugs About Beatles.”
Paul McCartney, Poolside at the Pollaks’, Miami, 15 February 1964. Photo: © Paul McCartney, Courtesy the artist and Gagosian.
“Everything was new to us at this point,” McCartney recalled of that era, adding of his photographs: “They now bring back so many stories, a flood of special memories, which is one of the many reasons I love them all, and know that they will always fire my imagination.”
The Gagosian exhibition features a mix of black-and-white and color photographs, among them self-portraits and intimate views of John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. They also capture the pandemonium that greeted the band, with some images showing what it looked like through the windows of moving vehicles.
Paul McCartney, Being chased by fans on West 58th Street, New York City, 12 February 1964. Photo: © Paul McCartney, Courtesy the artist and Gagosian.
Besides serving as an indelible document of Beatlemania, the pictures showcase McCartney’s deft photographer’s eye and his skill with his 35mm Pentax camera.
“Taking photographs, I’d be just looking for a shot. I’d aim the camera and just sort of see where I liked it, you know, ‘oh, that’s it.’ And invariably, you pretty much take one picture,” he told CBS last year. “We were moving fast. So, you just learned to take pictures quickly.”
In collaboration with Gagosian, the musician has also created signed prints of his photographs in small editions, which are available for sale and priced from $12,000 upwards. A portion of the proceeds will benefit relief and recovery efforts following the destructive L.A. wildfires.
A visitor looks at photographs taken by Paul McCartney in Miami. Photo: © National Portrait Gallery, London.
The Beverly Hills outing coincides with the ongoing touring exhibition, “Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm.” After opening at London’s National Portrait Gallery in 2023, it has made stops at the ⁠Chrysler Museum of Art and Brooklyn Museum, as well as in Japan at Tokyo City View. It will travel to the de Young Museum in San Francisco on March 1 and Frist Art Museum in Nashville on November 7.
An accompanying monograph, 1964: Eyes of the Storm, brings together 275 of McCartney’s photographs along with his captions and reflections on living through Beatlemania.
“To look at the love and the wonder of what we went through that’s captured in a lot of these photographs is the whole thing,” he said of his trove. “It’s what makes life great.”
“Paul McCartney” is on view at Gagosian, 456 N Camden Dr, Beverly Hills, California, April 25–June 21. More

Spain’s Prado Museum is mounting an exhibit that brings together the works the Greek painter Doménikos Theotokópoulos, better known as El Greco, completed for the Monastery of Santo Domingo el Antiguo in his first major commission.
The exhibit reunites works that El Greco, a master of the Spanish Renaissance, made for the church, and marks the first time they have been brought together since their dispersion, thanks to to the loan of the main altarpiece, The Assumption, by the Art Institute of Chicago which has owned it since 1906.
El Greco, The Assumption of the Virgin (1577–79). The Art Institute of Chicago. Gift of Nancy Atwook Sprague in memory of Albert Arnold Sprague.
In The Assumption, the Virgin Mary ascends to heaven on a crescent moon over Jesus’s open tomb while aided by a group of angels. It has a companion, made for the attic of the altarpiece, titled The Trinity, that visually connects above it. For it, El Greco used works by Michelangelo and Albrecht Durer as references. It is housed at the Prado Museum.
In the main altarpiece, The Assumption is flanked by four other canvases which depict John the Baptist and St. Bernard on the left side and John the Evangelist and St. Benedict on the right side, which were meant to act as intermediaries between the earthly realm and the divine. Those works are housed at the monastery and in private collections.
El Greco, The Adoration of the Shepherds. Photo: Colección Fundación Botín
Other works El Greco made for the altarpieces include a depiction of the Adoration of the Shepherds, a scene from the nativity; the Resurrection; and The Holy Face, an iconographic depiction of an apocryphal story in which a woman obtained the “true image” of Jesus from a cloth he had wiped his face on.
An article in the Spanish newspaper El Pais seems to indicate that the only work of the nine not included in the exhibit is the portrait of St. Bernard, which has been housed at the Hermitage Museum in Moscow and unable to travel.
El Greco, Saint Benedict. Photo: © Museo Nacional del Prado
And for the works that are housed at the monastery, a team from the Prado Museum had to convince the nuns to let them borrow the paintings.
“It was difficult,” Leticia Ruiz, the head of the Prado’s Spanish Renaissance painting collection, told the newspaper. She added that the monastery also lives off of its visitors and from the sale of “delicious marzipans” that they make. So, the museum agreed to restore one of its pieces by the painter Eugenio Cajés in exchange for the loan.
Funnily, the Prado Museum’s exhibit comes several years after France’s Louvre Museum tried, and failed, to borrow three works by El Greco from them. One of those works was The Holy Trinity, which the French museum hoped would round out its massive retrospective with dozens of the artist’s work.
Image of the exhibition galleries El Greco. Santo Domingo el Antiguo. Photo: © Museo Nacional del Prado
El Greco was first documented in Spain in June 1577 and quickly received the commission for the new monastery, which was designed and jointly paid for by a powerful dean of the cathedral named Diego de Castilla and a Portuguese woman named Doña María de Silva. According to the museum, the two benefactors were buried at the monastery. The Greek artist was appointed to make the altarpieces at the suggestion of Diego’s son Luis de Castilla, who had met him in Rome a few years earlier. He completed it in 1579.
“The result could not have been more dazzling. He revealed himself as a perfectly developed artist, with a creative maturity that linked him to some of the best painters of the Italian Renaissance,” the Prado Museum said on its website. “These canvases also captured the fundamental aspects of El Greco’s characteristic pictorial construction.”
“El Greco. Santo Domingo el Antiguo” is on view at Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, through June 15, 2025. More