Art, antiques, exhibitions, and collecting news from across Europe.
This autumn, (AV17) Gallery, Vilnius, brings the work of internationally acclaimed Lithuanian artist Žilvinas Kempinas to Artissima 2026, one of Italy’s leading contemporary art fairs. The presentation will explore Kempinas’ distinctive approach to movement, perception, light and space, transforming familiar materials and physical forces into dynamic, often unexpectedly immersive visual experiences.
With André de Jong and His Theater, The Merchant House (TMH) is pleased to present new works by the distinguished Dutch artist André de Jong (b. 1947). His fifth major exhibition at TMH, it reflects one of the most prolific periods of his career—which has encompassed drawing as well as photography, sculpture, and land art—and poses the question: What is it about drawing, above all, that has continued to fascinate André de Jong for over five decades?
Today, as an internationally represented artist with Toolip Gallery in Vienna, Austria, Martinelli stands at the forefront of a remarkable creative journey that has carried her work across Europe and the United States. With more than 45 juried exhibitions spanning Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, and the United States, a major solo exhibition in Manhattan, and works exhibited alongside some of the most celebrated names in contemporary art, her moment has unmistakably arrived.
What happens when a painting refuses to stay within its frame? This summer, The Merchant House transforms its historic Amsterdam canal house into a conversation between art, architecture, and domestic space. In Fragments, works by Pino Pinelli, Elsa Tomkowiak, Zhu Hong, Sylvie Bonnot, and André Stempfel spill across walls, challenge traditional materials, and blur the boundaries between gallery and home. From oversized painted zip bags to photographic spiders enlarged to unsettling beauty, the exhibition invites visitors to piece together their own connections across a series of striking visual encounters.
At first glance, the castle looks the same—unchanging, simple, gray. But the longer you linger, the more unsettling it becomes. Around it, entire worlds shift: seasons decay, skies warp, landscapes dissolve into something unrecognizable. And yet the structure stands, untouched, as if refusing to acknowledge the chaos closing in. For Nicola Vacca, this is not just a visual motif—it’s a line drawn against a world he no longer trusts. His paintings aren’t merely meant to be seen; they are a blueprint for escape, a quiet but defiant declaration that somewhere beyond the noise of modern life, a different way of existing might still be built.
There is something quietly unresolved at the center of Elizabeth’s work—an assurance that draws you in, paired with a sameness that holds you at arm’s length. She understands how to make an audience feel, how to shape vulnerability into something legible and affecting, yet the question lingers: is she revealing a character, or reproducing a method? Across two demanding roles, the promise is unmistakable, but so is the sense of an actress still circling her own potential, hovering just short of transformation.
A provocative curatorial project unfolding in Athens is challenging one of the contemporary art world’s most celebrated career rituals: the international residency. Titled “ΒΕΡΟλΙΝΟ”—a deliberate reference to Berlin—the project is a conceptual and performative curatorial experiment created by art historian and curator Elli Leventaki. Its aim is to confront what she describes as a largely unspoken barrier in the global art ecosystem: class privilege embedded in the structure of artist residencies.
Banksy’s Mickey Snake, a rare sculpture from the artist’s infamous Dismaland exhibition, stunned the art world this week by more than doubling its estimate at Bonhams. With its unsettling blend of pop culture and dark satire, the piece drew intense interest—and an even higher final bid. Here’s how this unexpected result is reshaping conversations around contemporary British art.
After more than four years of meticulous restoration, a long-overlooked Renaissance altarpiece has reemerged in stunning detail—now believed by experts to be the work of none other than Sandro Botticelli. Hidden beneath centuries of retouching and misattribution, the Madonna Enthroned with Child among Saints from San Leo is captivating art historians with its unmistakable style and mysterious past. One scholar even suggests the flanking saints may once have been portraits of Pico della Mirandola and Poliziano. The full story uncovers how this masterpiece journeyed through time, hands, and ideologies—only to be seen anew today.
In December 2023, fetchish_net reimagined the heart of London’s Pushkin House into a site of fantastical disruption, queer celebration, and dreamlike transformation. Titled “Winter Special: Ordinary Miracle”, the art performance fused the sensibilities of underground rave culture with the ornate spirit of masquerade—resulting in an unforgettable experience that blurred the boundaries between performance, visual art, and participatory costume.
