Chernobyl, Paula Rego, and a Gluck painting anchor this week’s episode of The Week in Art
As the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster approaches on Sunday, April 26, this week’s episode of The Week in Art turns to three exhibitions that connect art, memory, and interpretation across Europe. Published on April 24, 2026, the episode features conversations with organizers and curators in Potsdam and Oslo, alongside a close look at a flower painting by Gluck.
Ben Luke speaks with Olha Kovalevska about The Chernobyl disaster: 40 years ago and yet still relevant, an exhibition at Nikolaikirche in Potsdam, Germany, that remains on view until April 27. The show marks four decades since the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in Soviet Ukraine, a catastrophe whose effects continue to shape public life and cultural memory.
The episode also visits Munch in Oslo, where Paula Rego: Dance Among Thorns opened on April 24 and runs through August 2. Curator Kari J. Brandtzæg discusses new research into Rego’s interest in Edvard Munch, the Norwegian artist for whom the museum is named. That connection adds a useful layer to Rego’s practice, which often moved between narrative, psychological tension, and art-historical reference.
This week’s Work of the Week is Convolvulus (1940) by Gluck, the British painter who used a single name. The work is included in Handpicked: Painting Flowers from 1900 to Today, which opens at Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge on April 25 and continues until September 6. Naomi Polonsky joins Luke to discuss the painting and its place within a broader history of flower imagery.
Taken together, the episode traces how exhibitions can hold very different kinds of attention: historical reckoning, artistic influence, and the quiet precision of a still life. It is a reminder that the art world’s most resonant stories often unfold not in isolation, but in conversation with the past.
