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Katonah, “Ali Banisadr: The Alchemist” (Until June 29)
“Painting still has the power,” Ali Banisadr said on one of the first episodes of The Grand Tourist, “to put you in a state of mind where you’re slowing down, watching for a while.” OG listeners of the podcast will remember the Iranian painter’s reinvigorating faith in painting. There is much to behold in Banisadr’s striking abstractions: Memories of his war-scarred childhood in Tehran, the flair of the graffiti art he painted as a teen, and even an unexpected semblance of Renaissance tableaux. Now, the painter receives a well-deserved major museum survey, his first in the States, presenting painting, drawing, and printmaking from the past 20 years. It also includes a new foray into sculpture. katonahmuseum.org
London, “Jacqueline Poncelet: This, That and the Other” (Until May 3)
It’s surprising that Jacqueline Poncelot isn’t more colloquially known given her imaginative practice and discerning taste. Perhaps it’s because the Belgian artist is difficult to pigeonhole. In the 1980s, she was known for simple, bone china ceramics. But since then, she hasn’t been boxed in by medium. She’s made patchworks from carpet remnants, presented intriguing limb-like sculptures at the 1986 Venice Biennale, and wallpapered a Tube station in London in colorful prints. On the heels of a major survey at the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art last year, this show selects some early ceramics, drawings, paintings, and new watercolors that illustrate the charm of her oeuvre. richardsaltoun.com
New York, “Françoise Gilot” (Until April 12)
Françoise Gilot’s reputation as an artist is eclipsed by her nearly decade-long relationship with Picasso, who was 40 years her senior. When she ended their relationship in 1953, she was the only woman ever to walk away from the artist. “You imagine people will be interested in you?” she’s quoted him saying to her. “They won’t ever, really, just for yourself. Even if you think people like you, it will only be a kind of curiosity they will have about a person whose life touched mine so intimately.” But Gilot went on to make a career in her own right, painting and exhibiting until her death in 2023 at 101. The paintings shown here span between 1958 and 2004, when Gilot was moving between abstraction and representation. andrewkreps.com
Paris, “Rococo & Co. From Nicolas Pineau to Cindy Sherman” (Until May 18)
By the 1730s, French aristocrats had grown tired of the seriousness and drama of the Baroque aesthetic. Louis XIV had died, and the court left Versailles and returned to Paris. The style they picked to decorate their homes in was lighter and more whimsical, almost satirical in its extravagance and quirky asymmetry. When the French sculptor Nicolas Pineau returned to Paris from Saint Petersburg—where he had been called to help Peter the Great design his new capital—he found that tastes had changed. But this new aesthetic suited Pineau, and he quickly proved himself an inventive architect, sculptor, and designer who influenced the movement. Showcasing drawings and sketches from Pineau’s workshops, this exhibition delves into the makings of this eccentric aesthetic as well as its enduring influence on designers, architects, fashion designers, and artists. madparis.fr
Rome, “Caravaggio 2025” (Until July 6)
In 1592, Caravaggio, born Michelangelo Merisi, arrived in Rome poor and in search of artistic work, with no idea of the impact he would go on to have. The painter’s dark and dramatically lit scenes are credited as the beginnings of Baroque painting. In the 400-plus years that have passed, many of Caravaggio’s masterpieces have changed hands or been lost. On this special occasion, 25 of Caravaggio’s paintings, from collections far and wide, have been assembled in Rome, from one of the Italian painter’s first successful paintings, The Cardsharps, to one of his last, The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula. barberinicorsini.org
Olivier Marty and Karl Fournier of the Paris-based architecture and design firm Studio KO are one of the most exciting outfits today. On this episode, Dan speaks with the duo about how they met, their high-profile projects like the Yves Saint Laurent Museum in Marrakech, and more.
The creative director of Paris's red-hot new design fair makes connections between past and present, between the boutique and the iconic.
Some designers push boundaries, but Italy’s leading design thinker is known for breaking them. Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the tree-covered Bosco Verticale in Milan, Boeri speaks with Dan about his once-radical ideas, his next major project in Nepal, and much more.
