Open Arms: May 2026
Selected happenings, who’s doing the thing, and where to find it.
This is our version of an “Editor’s Picks” list. Because Art Forearm is born from ongoing relationships with creative people and organizations, listings in Open Arms may possibly—and probably will—include projects by AF contributors, collaborators, and members of our extended community. We believe that supporting one another’s work is part of sustaining a healthy cultural ecosystem.
If you have an exhibition, project, publication, or opportunity you’d like us to know about and share with our readers, send submissions for future installments to artforearm@gmail.com with the subject OPEN ARMS.
Opportunities
Call for pitches for Art Forearm’s next issue!
Fall/Winter Issue: METAL
For this issue, we’re interested in metal as both substance and condition: structural, sonic, economic, symbolic. We welcome proposals that engage metal in processes such as fabrication, welding, casting, gilding, plating, engraving, printmaking, and silverpoint. We’re equally interested in writing that approaches metal through broader cultural or conceptual lenses—music and subculture, extraction and labor, infrastructure, corrosion and patina, prosthetics and implants, weaponry and defense, or currency and value.
We encourage pitches that move between disciplines, linking studio practice to industry, history, technology, or lived experience. We are drawn to specificity, material knowledge, and writing that emerges from direct engagement.
We welcome pitches from visual and performing artists, writers, cultural workers, researchers, organizers, fabricators, conservators, craftspeople, and others whose expertise is embedded in real-world practice.
Deadline for pitches: July 1
Draft deadline (if accepted): August
Publication window: September–January
Questions? Send to artforearm@gmail.com
Exhibitions
The Half-life of a Sign at at Nine 9 Monroe St, New York, New York—This solo exhibition by painter James Warren centers an investigation of figure and ground—the shifting threshold between human-made structures and the landscapes they inhabit. You’ll see finished works that feature the molding paste ground he demonstrated in this issue’s Toolbox feature. Through May 6, 2026.
Line at tête-à-tête-à-tê, 2539 N Kedzie, Suite 5E, Chicago, IL—This singular new exhibition space envisioned by artist, curator, and writer Shannon Stratton is structured around intimacy, closeness, quietude, and slow-looking. The inaugural exhibition is curated by Molly Zuckerman-Hartung and features work by Cameron Martin and Susanne Doremus in conversation with poet Jennifer Moxley, whose book The Line acts as the resonator for the exhibition. Guests are invited to spend time—two at a time—with each other and the art in a tête-à-tête chair by artist Julia Klein selected by curator-of-chair, Kelly Kaczynski. Open Saturdays 12-5 or by appointment.
Echolalia at National Gallery of Iceland—an expansive solo exhibition by visionary musician Björk opens at the end of May, but tickets are on sale now for the coinciding rave she is hosting in Iceland during the total eclipse of the sun on August 12. General Admission tickets are approximately 160 USD. Exhibition through September, tickets on sale now.
In Minor Keys at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia in Venice, Italy – opens on May 9. The Art Biennale is one of the world's largest and arguably the most important contemporary visual art exhibitions in the world. Over 75,000 square feet of the city is dedicated to artists in the collective exhibition spaces as well as in the national pavilions. The U.S. pavilion’s status remained in question after the call for proposals introduced new language that submissions should highlight “works of art that reflect and promote American values,” and the first proposal by artist Robert Lazzarini and curator John Ravenal fell through. Late in the fall of 2025, the US State Department announced that Alma Allen—an artist who lives in Mexico—will represent the United States curated by Jeffrey Uslip— who disappeared from public roles after his previous post at CAM St. Louis ended because he organized an exhibition that included racist images. Curious choices, indeed. Through November 2026.
Projects
Olamina Folk School for Land, Memory & Craft in Tuskegee, AL—a new educational project and arts center in the tradition of the Danish folk high schools, the Black Arts Movement community art schools, and the 1964 Freedom Summer Schools is raising funds for Phase 1 of their project. Your donations will help build a place where people across the global majority can come and work with their bodies, their minds, and their spirits to develop skills and community on the land. Donate here.
Sunrise May Day forest-planting parade in Champaign-Urbana, IL—Be a part of the newest iteration of artist Deke Weaver’s life-long project, The Unreliable Bestiary. Having previously explored the Monkey, Elephant, Wolf, Bear, Tiger, and Cetacean, Weaver’s focus for this chapter is the Forest. Meet at the Japan House parking lot at 5:30am on Friday, May 1 (rain date: Sat, May 2) for mask-making and parade together to a forest plot where 2800 plants and trees will be put in the ground.
Cactus Club in Milwaukee, WI - this artist-run, queer-owned, multi-disciplinary arts and performance space has created an arts education nonprofit organization with 501(c)3 status called Cactus+, opening access to grants and funding sources that have funded an artist-designed accessible entrance ramp and programming like intergenerational line dancing, a family-friendly block party, papermaking workshops, all-ages DJ classes, a book club, a seed library, queer karaoke, Narcan trainings, and more.
Subvert - a streaming music platform owned and controlled by its community. Invest now to become a founding member, be a co-owner, and get a zine. 100 USD for users, free for musicians and labels.
Do you have an exhibition, project, publication, or opportunity you’d like us to know about and share with our readers?
Send submissions for future installments to artforearm@gmail.com with the subject OPEN ARMS or comment below.