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FROM THE EDITORS

By James Haldane, Executive Editor

Monia Ben Hamouda, “Fragments of Fire Worship,” (2026). Photo: Matteo Gebbia. Courtesy of Bulgari.

Last Friday, on the eve of the Venice Biennale’s public opening, we spoke with collector Kiran Nadar about her efforts to secure India’s place within the global exhibition. Now, with Venice fully in motion, the view widens.

I spent the preview week among canals and cicchetti surveying the 2026 edition, tracing its shifting balance between pavilions and patronage—most clear in Bulgari’s commitment as exclusive partner of the International Art Exhibition through 2030. Among this and other curatorial gestures, from the Giardini to Piazza San Marco, a fresh question surfaced: not simply what is new, but what is built to endure?

Meanwhile, we turn to a timely Reading List pick: the first comprehensive monograph on WHY Architecture, founded by Thai‑born, Los Angeles–based architect Kulapat Yantrasast, a studio known for its bold approach to museum projects.

VENICE BIENNALE

By James Haldane

Henrike Naumann, “The Home Front,” (2026). Photo: Jens Ziehe.

At Venice this year, the Biennale feels less like an exhibition than a tuning fork. Strike it anywhere in the city and the vibration travels—through national pavilions, libraries, palazzi and newly claimed interstitial spaces. The 2026 edition is loud, politically charged and sometimes deliberately provocative. But beneath the surface noise, a quieter recalibration is under way, one concerned less with urgency than with duration.

READING LIST

By Julie Coe

Photo: © Steve Hall/Hedrich Blessing.

A new book traces the career of architect Kulapat Yantrasast and his firm, WHY, known for its innovative museum projects across the globe.

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THE GLOBAL AGENDA

André Derain, “Henri Matisse,” 1905, on view in “Matisse’s Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal” at SFMOMA. © 2026 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; photo: Tate.

May 16. “Iris Van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses” opens at the Brooklyn Museum.
May 16. “Matisse’s Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal” opens at SFMOMA.
May 16. “Tough Stuff: Women in the American Glass Studio” opens at the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York.
May 17. “Sanford Biggers: Drift” opens at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, New York.
May 20. “Lucy Raven: Rounds” opens at the ICA Boston.
May 21. “James McNeill Whistler” opens at Tate Britain in London.
May 21. Beijing Dangdai Art Fair opens.
May 22. “Hujar: Contact” opens at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City.
May 22. “Cassirer and the Breakthrough of Impressionism” opens at the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin.

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