Art Plugged

CLOSE Gallery in Somerset presents Tailings, a solo exhibition by the British artist Onya McCausland. In this video, McCausland speaks about her practice, tracing how her paintings emerge from pigments made with the by-products of industrial mining. Working with a muted range of ochres, rusts and smoky tones, she reflects on the environmental histories embedded in her materials. What may appear elemental or pastoral is, in fact, bound to sites of extraction, carrying the residue of landscapes shaped by industry. @onyamccausland Onya McCausland: Tailings 25th April, 2026 to 30th May, 2026 CLOSE Gallery Hatch Beauchamp Taunton TA3 6AE @closeltd #artplugged #onyamccausland #closegallery #somerset #abstractpainting

You’ve probably seen this artwork by now (and if you haven’t, you’re in for a treat!), however the most interesting part of this pavilion isn’t the bell tower, but the fact human fluids make up the water elements - which are often splashed in the face and mouths of guests (video evidence shown!). At the Austrian Pavilion of the 2026 Venice Biennale, Florentina Holzinger transforms Venice into a flooded, speculative ecosystem where water becomes both life source and threat. SEAWORLD VENICE unfolds as an immersive environment suspended between underwater theme park, sacred architecture, and industrial infrastructure. Blending choreography, live installation, and endurance-based performance, the work explores the fragile relationship between bodies, technology, and ecological collapse. Holzinger’s performers inhabit a continuously shifting landscape shaped by rising waters, waste systems, and collective vulnerability. Expanding beyond the pavilion into the city and lagoon, SEAWORLD VENICE imagines Venice as a site of transformation: amphibious, unstable, and hauntingly close to apocalypse. Through visceral imagery and radical physicality, the project confronts humanity’s complicity in a world already submerged in the consequences of its own excess. 📍Austrian Pavilion, Venice Biennale @thaddaeusropac ————— #artplugged #austrianpavilion #biennale #seaworldvenice #austria

NEW BANKSY ALERT! Pall Mall, Central London. 📍 The anonymous prolific street artist has done it again - but this time through public sculpture in one of London’s most prestigious areas. A new statue has appeared on a plinth in St James’, and it bears the legendary artist’s signature. The sculpture shows a suited person marching forward off of a plinth, their face smothered by a billowing flag. It sits on Waterloo Place, near statues of Edward VII and Florence Nightingale and the Crimean War Memorial. **Slight Error Correction** By first sculpture - I mean an intended sculpture for public longevity. Placing a plinth in one of the most prestigious areas is not the seeking of a short term project that may get covered, removed or damaged. It was described to me by an ‘unofficial’ source as ‘the first of its kind for him’ however I worded this pretty poorly in the video! A suited person, a politician, let’s assume – blinded by a gigantic flag, patriotism, ideology? Stepping off a plinth and into danger? Sounds like classic Banksy. This follows the artist’s recent intervention outside a magistrates’ court - an artwork that was swiftly removed almost as soon as it appeared. In that context, the question now shifts: what will happen to this new sculpture? Will it be preserved, protected, or similarly erased? Go check it out before its fate is decided! ————- #banksy #centrallondon #london #banksyart #breaking

This week, Photo London opened its latest edition at Olympia London, marking a significant new chapter for the fair as it settles into its new home after previous editions at Somerset House. The move to Olympia gives the fair a renewed sense of scale and accessibility, creating a fresh atmosphere for one of the UK’s leading photography events. Walking through the fair, one of the strongest impressions is its distinctly international outlook. Galleries from New Delhi, Cologne, New York, Glasgow, Buenos Aires, Johannesburg, Zurich, Paris, Tokyo, Taipei, Munich and London come together to create a global conversation around photography and image-making today. 1. Eileen Perrier, from the series Afro Hair and Beauty Show, 1998-2003. Collection of Autograph, London 2. Zanele Muholi, Bayephi III, Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, 2017. Commissioned by Autograph, London. 3. Silvia Rosi, from the series Neither Could Exist Alone, 2020. Commissioned by Autograph, London. 4. Joy Gregory, from the series Autoportrait, 1989-90. Commissioned by Autograph, London 5. Hélène Amouzou, from the series Autoportrait, Molenbeek, 2007-201. Collection of Autograph, London 6. Poulomi Basu, from the series Fireflies, 2019 – ongoing. Collection of Autograph, London 7. C. Rose Smith, Untitled no. 90, Belmont Mansion, Nashville, Tennessee, 2023. From the series Talking Back to Power. Commissioned by Autograph, London and FotoFest, Houston 8) Sasha Huber, Khadija Saye - You Are Missed, 2021-22. Supported by Art Fund. Commissioned by Autograph, London @virginia_damtsa @photolondonfair #artplugged #photolondon #Olympialondon #photographyart #contemporaryarts

Conceived by the late curator Koyo Kouoh, whose visionary influence continues to shape this year’s exhibition following her passing in 2025, the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia 2026 opens from 9 May to 22 November 2026 across the Giardini, Arsenale and multiple locations throughout Venice. Titled In Minor Keys, Kouoh’s exhibition explores quieter, nuanced artistic voices and practices that challenge dominant narratives through intimacy, memory, ritual and transformation. With the full support of her family, La Biennale di Venezia has honoured Kouoh’s original curatorial vision, preserving the project exactly as she conceived it. Magical Nordic folklore, a participatory Japanese installation featuring 200 baby dolls, an audacious Austrian Pavilion featuring a human bell and woman swimming in a tank of urine, and deeply moving reflections on migration and identity at the Bahamas Pavilion are among Art Plugged’s Top 5 National Pavilions not to miss at Venice Biennale 2026. 1. Nordic Countries – How Many Angels Can Dance on the Head of a Pin? 2. Japan – Ei Arakawa-Nash, Grass Babies, Moon Babies 3. Austria – Florentina Holzinger, Seaworld 4. Bahamas – In Another Man’s Yard 5. Great Britain – Lubaina Himid, Predicting History: Testing Translation @leesharrock #artplugged #venicebiennale #venicebiennale2026 #contemporaryarts

I had the pleasure of speaking with @kazvaremadeit ahead of her debut solo show, There’s Rice at Home, at the @lemonseedproject - a beautitul exploration of Black British life, expressions and the violence we face navigating a (post) colonial world. We talked ancestral homes, the diasporic experience, and creating new culture narratives and communities despite it all. Thank you Kazvare for your candor and @artplugged for the trust in this 🤎 Link in my bio and on my website (!!) which I’ve had for ages but forgot to tell anyone about x

Inside The Open: Odyssey at Hastings Contemporary Judges’ Selections Judges for Hastings Contemporary and Sussex Contemporary have shared their picks for The Open: Odyssey, a major new biennial open exhibition celebrating contemporary art in Sussex. A total of 152 artists have been selected for the exhibition, which will be presented across the gallery. The show brings together painting, printmaking, sculpture, installation, textiles and film, placing established names alongside emerging artists from across the region. Selected artists include Jennifer Binnie, Rachel Howard, Gary Hume, Martin Maloney, Alessandro Raho, Anne Ryan and Andrew Sabin, alongside a wider field of artists working across traditional, experimental and site-responsive practices. @hastings.contemporary @sussexcontemporary @isabelrockartist @chrisgpackham2 @zoelyonscomedy @alessandro.raho @chrisharrison_photo @aleximjmars @fionabannerakathevanitypress #artplugged #hastingscontemporary #openodyssey #opencallexhibition

Lynn Chadwick (1914–2003) was one of the most distinctive British sculptors of the postwar period, known for his jagged, angular figures that hover somewhere between human, animal, and machine. He began as an architectural draughtsman, working as a designer in the 1930s and 40s, and that background never left him. His sculptures aren’t modelled so much as constructed, assembled from frameworks like small, engineered structures. Chadwick came to prominence after exhibiting at the Venice Biennale, where in 1956 he won the International Prize for Sculpture, beating Alberto Giacometti. It marked a turning point: British sculpture was no longer peripheral, but central to the international stage. And yet, despite this, he is often overshadowed today by Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. This exhibition at Houghton Hall aims to re-evaluate that, and looks set to be one of the major British sculpture exhibitions of the year, the largest exhibition of his work in the UK for more than twenty years. I think his sculptures work better in this setting than either Moore’s or Hepworth’s would have, because although all three artists conceived sculpture as something that lives in space rather than sits on a plinth, of the three, I always found Chadwick more edgy, quite literally. Author: @greatartexplained Photos: James Payne #artplugged #lynnchadwick #houghtonhall #sculptureartist #greatartexplained

The British Pavilion at Venice Biennale just made a very clear statement on Russia. Military, dogs and police have had an extremely noticeable presence in the Giardini this year - and the participation has caused controversy, with the international jury resigning. The UK has doubled down on its stance following the absence of the arts and culture minister. Lubaina Himid has just opened her pavilion now. ———— #artplugged #lubainahimid #russia #ukraine #biennale

Manuel Mathieu does not present history as a lesson. He lets it gather as pressure, through paint, clay, fabric, scent and film, somewhere between memory and matter. Haiti’s history carries the force of a radical beginning and a troubled afterlife. As the first independent Black republic and the first nation in Latin America and the Caribbean to overthrow colonial rule, Haiti holds a defining place in global history. Yet its post-independence story has also been marked by political upheaval, foreign intervention, dictatorship, economic pressure and entrenched inequality. For Mathieu, this history is not a distant subject, but an inheritance felt through memory, family, displacement and the lingering traces of violence. Born in Port-au-Prince and now based in Montréal, the artist draws on Haiti’s political and social past without turning it into documentary evidence. Mathieu’s inclusion in Minor Keys, the late, great Koyo Kouoh’s presentation for the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, carries a particular gravity. Kouoh, the first African woman chosen to curate the Biennale, was one of the most influential curatorial voices in contemporary African and diasporic art, known for reshaping how African artistic practice is seen, discussed and institutionally supported. Her work placed Pan-African, Black and female artists at the centre of global art conversations, making her Biennale vision especially significant. Invited to present across the Giardini and Arsenale venues, Mathieu marks a major milestone in his international career with the full breadth of his practice: paintings, ceramics, mosaics and the immersive installation Pendulum, an award-winning short film shown with fabric sculptures and olfactory art. It is a fitting range for an artist whose work has never sat neatly inside one medium, one history or one reading. 1. GENOCIDE, 2026. By Manuel Mathieu © Guy L'Heureux 2. Pendulum by Manuel Mathieu (short film, 2023) 3. Physicality, 2023. Manuel Mathieu Courtesy of HdM Gallery 4. Unity in Darkness at PHI, Montreal 2025 #artplugged #venicebiennale #manuelmathieu #Koyokouoh #minorkeys #labiennaledivenezia

Georg Baselitz’s (1938-2026) Eroi d’Oro at Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, brings together a new and deeply reflective body of work by one of the most important painters of the postwar era. After more than 60 years of painting, Baselitz describes the exhibition as a kind of conclusion: a summation of a lifetime’s work. Tragically, this became a sooner reality when the artist unfortunately passed just last week. The new large-scale paintings place fragile, line-drawn bodies against luminous gold grounds. Self-portraits and images of Elke, the artist’s wife and lifelong muse, appear suspended on flat, reflective surfaces that recall medieval icons, Byzantine gold, Japanese calligraphy and the history of painting itself. Gold, for Baselitz, becomes both material and metaphor. It absorbs space, shadow and depth, leaving the figures exposed, solitary and almost weightless. These bodies are monumental yet vulnerable, confronting time, physical frailty and the fallibility of human existence with remarkable directness. As his final message, Eroi d’Oro returns to Baselitz’s early “Hero” paintings, but transforms heroism into something quieter and more human. These are not triumphant figures, but luminous presences: fragile, dignified and enduring. A last body of work about memory, mortality, love and the act of painting to the very end. ———- #georgbaselitz #venice #biennale #art #artplugged

George Baselitz’ final words at his newly opened Venice Biennale exhibition: “I am sorry that I cannot be present in Venice, but perhaps it will be helpful for the exhibition at the Fondazione Cini, which shows my last paintings, if I make a few remarks about them. Two years ago, I had set out to paint pictures - as I usually do - that would serve as a summary and that were also meant to be something definitive within the many experiments I have conducted in the last 60 years. For this, certain formal, aesthetic and art-historical means were necessary. There are many gold paintings in art history. I’ve had encounters with gold paintings for 40 years. Now, I have decided to apply a gold ground - a true gold ground - onto which to make a drawing, as fine as possible, as sensitive as possible and as complete as possible, of my wife and of myself, as individual nudes or as a couple. And I must say, this has proven successful right from the start. The result was exactly what I wanted: a certain solitude, something formalistic, but also something very subjective, rich in content and historical. The formats are correspondingly large because I have always believed that it takes large formats to convey something that is important to say. This is certainly a blunder, because much speaks against large formats. But I simply love formats that are not so commonly hung behind a sofa. A large part of art history also suffers from this problem. When I was nearly at the end of this routine, in a delineation of loneliness, de Kooning came to mind, as he so often does. And on some of the paintings, entirely independent of the figuration drawn beneath, I made wilful, colourful flourishes, as a borrowing, as a devotion, as a goodbye, as a farewell. These paintings are, of course, no longer two-layered, but three, which is not necessarily a bad thing. But they are perhaps more accessible than the solitary other paths. Thank you very much for listening, and I hope that my remarks have shed some light. Thank you.” - George Baselitz (1938-2026). Rest in peace George ❤️ #georgebaselitz #venice #biennale #art #painting