Art News Of The Week
Stories Every Artist And Art Lover Should Know
The art world has a way of reminding us that there is always more to discover, whether it is an artist whose work deserves a closer look, a forgotten chapter of art history, or an exhibition that brings different creative voices together. This week, women artists are giving us plenty of reasons to pay attention.
From the stories woven into generations of quilts to a new exhibition celebrating women Impressionists, the latest developments are exploring how art can preserve memory, question familiar narratives, and make room for perspectives that have not always received the recognition they deserve. Across museums, galleries, and international art spaces, these stories celebrate women not only as subjects of art, but as artists, storytellers, and makers shaping its future.
Whether you are looking for a little creative inspiration or simply want to stay connected with what is happening in the art world, here are five art news and stories worth knowing this week.
1. African American Quilts Take Centre Stage At The National Museum Of Women In The Arts
Exhibition: Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts In California
What if a quilt could tell the story of an entire family, a community, or a journey across generations?
That is one of the beautiful ideas at the heart of Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts In California, an exhibition featured in The Washington Post on October 12. Presented at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the exhibition brings together nearly 80 quilts by more than 70 artists, tracing approximately 120 years of African American quiltmaking.
The works move beyond the familiar idea of quilts as practical household objects. Here, fabric becomes a way to preserve memories, express cultural identity, and pass stories from one generation to the next. Some works incorporate denim and repurposed materials, while others explore personal histories, migration, and the connections that hold families together.
Among the artists featured is Oakland-based quiltmaker Ora Clay, whose practice reflects the evolving role of quiltmaking across generations. What once served as a necessity for keeping families warm can also become a powerful form of artistic expression and storytelling.
The exhibition also highlights the women and families who have kept these traditions alive, reminding us that important artistic histories do not always begin in formal studios or galleries. Sometimes, they take shape at home, through the materials people have at hand and the stories they choose to preserve.
For anyone interested in textiles, craft, and the relationship between art and cultural memory, Routed West offers a meaningful reminder that creativity can live in everyday materials while carrying stories that deserve to be seen and remembered.
2. Prune Nourry Brings Forgotten Women Sculptors Back Into View
Upcoming Exhibition: Visionaries | Petit Palais, Paris
How many remarkable women artists have disappeared from the stories we tell about art history?
French artist Prune Nourry began asking this question after visiting the Petit Palais in Paris and discovering a striking imbalance: only around four per cent of the museum’s artworks were created by women. Her response has become Visionaries, an upcoming exhibition that seeks to bring the lives and legacies of overlooked women sculptors into public view.
Reported by The Financial Times on October 12, the project grew from extensive research into the lives of women sculptors working in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Nourry and researchers from AWARE, an organisation dedicated to documenting women artists, investigated the biographies of approximately 60 artists, drawing on archival photographs, letters, journals, and autobiographical writings.
The result is an ambitious sculptural tribute featuring 18 busts inspired by women whose contributions have received far less recognition than those of their male contemporaries. The exhibition also includes Mothership, a monumental sculpture measuring 17 metres, alongside works that reflect on the women whose names and faces have been lost to history.
Among the figures being revisited are artists such as Hélène Bertaux, who advocated for women’s access to art education, and Nancy Elizabeth Prophet, an important sculptor whose legacy deserves wider recognition.
What makes this project especially compelling is that it does more than revisit the past. It asks us to consider how museums, institutions, and historical narratives determine which artists remain visible and which are forgotten.
Visionaries is scheduled to open at the Petit Palais on October 20, offering a timely opportunity to reconsider the women who helped shape sculpture and the importance of making their stories part of our shared art history.
3. Fifteen Women Artists Explore The Many Selves We Carry
Exhibition: Dramatis Personae: 1001 Lives | Gajah Gallery, Singapore
We are never quite the same person in every room we enter. The version of ourselves we bring to work may differ from the one our families know, while our private thoughts can reveal entirely different sides of who we are.
This familiar experience is at the heart of Dramatis Personae: 1001 Lives, an upcoming group exhibition at Gajah Gallery in Singapore. Announced on October 15, the exhibition brings together 15 women artists from Southeast Asia and beyond to explore identity, self-presentation, and the different roles people inhabit throughout their lives.
The title draws on the idea of the many characters we carry within ourselves. Rather than treating identity as something fixed, the exhibition invites audiences to consider how it shifts depending on our relationships, surroundings, and experiences.
For women artists, these questions can open up particularly rich creative possibilities. Ideas about who women are expected to be, how they present themselves, and how they understand their place in the world can all become starting points for artistic exploration.
Bringing together 15 distinct practices also creates room for different perspectives to sit alongside one another. Each artist approaches the subject through her own creative language, allowing the exhibition to become a conversation rather than a single statement about identity.
The exhibition opens on October 29 and runs through November 29, 2026. For artists and art lovers interested in contemporary perspectives on identity and selfhood, it is one to keep on the calendar.
4. Only Two Weeks Left To Submit To Women In Arts Magazine’s Inaugural Issue
Open Call: Women In Arts Magazine, Issue 01 | Deadline: October 31, 2026
Have you been waiting for the right opportunity to share your work with a wider audience? This might be your moment. Women In Arts Network is entering the final two weeks of submissions for the inaugural issue of Women In Arts Magazine, a new print publication created to celebrate the work, stories, and creative journeys of women artists around the world.
The magazine will bring together 50 women artists, selected by Charuka Arora, founder of Arts to Hearts Project. With an open theme and no restrictions on artistic medium, the call welcomes artists working across painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, textiles, collage, digital art, and more. Whether you are just beginning to find your voice or have spent years developing your practice, this is an opportunity to share the work that feels most representative of you as an artist.
Each selected artist will receive a feature in the printed magazine, including their artwork, biography, and artist statement. Artists will also be promoted through Women In Arts Network’s social media and newsletter, giving their work additional opportunities to reach new audiences. One selected artist will receive the Women In Arts Magazine Award, which includes a $500 cash prize and a four-page spread in the issue.
With submissions closing on October 31, 2026, artists have just two weeks left to prepare their applications. The open call is available worldwide to eligible women artists aged 18 and above, including women-identifying and non-binary artists. Applicants can submit up to three artworks for a $35 submission fee.
For artists who have been looking for a chance to see their work in print, this inaugural issue offers the opportunity to become part of something from its very beginning. Fifty artists will help shape the magazine’s first chapter, bringing together different perspectives, mediums, and creative experiences in one shared space.
If you have been thinking about submitting, now is the time to gather your strongest work and take that next step.
5. Women Impressionists And Their Landscapes Finally Get A Dedicated Spotlight
Exhibition: Women Impressionists And The Land | Saint Louis Art Museum, USA
When we think of Impressionism, certain names and familiar scenes often come to mind. But the story of the movement becomes much richer when we look beyond the subjects traditionally associated with its women artists.
Opening on October 17 at the Saint Louis Art Museum, Women Impressionists And The Land is the first exhibition dedicated specifically to landscape and nature imagery in the work of women Impressionists.
Featuring 70 works, the exhibition explores how artists including Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, Marie Bracquemond, and Blanche Hoschedé-Monet approached the natural world. Paintings, works on paper, and ceramics come together to highlight an aspect of their practices that has often received less attention than their portraits and domestic scenes.
The exhibition also considers the historical circumstances in which these artists worked. During the nineteenth century, women’s opportunities to study, travel, and work independently were often restricted. Painting outdoors and exploring the landscape could therefore become an important part of developing their artistic identities and asserting their independence.
Visitors will also encounter newly acquired works by Marie Bracquemond and Edma Morisot-Pontillon, including paintings being presented publicly for the first time. These additions offer another opportunity to appreciate the range and ambition of women working within and alongside the Impressionist movement.
What makes this exhibition especially significant is its invitation to reconsider a familiar chapter of art history. The women Impressionists were not simply painting the private spaces traditionally associated with them. They were observing the changing world around them, travelling, experimenting, and developing their own approaches to landscape.
Running through January 10, 2027, the exhibition offers art lovers an opportunity to discover these artists from a fresh perspective and to recognise how much more there is to learn about the history of Impressionism.
A Week Of Stories Worth Remembering
From quilts carrying family histories to sculptures restoring forgotten artists to public memory, this week’s stories remind us that the art world is shaped by far more than the names we already know. Women artists continue to expand how we think about identity, nature, culture, and the histories we choose to preserve.
Each exhibition offers a different way of looking at the world, but they share a common thread: the importance of making space for stories that deserve to be seen, heard, and passed on. And perhaps that is one of the most exciting things about following the art world. There is always another artist to discover, another perspective to consider, and another story waiting to find its audience.
