14 Must-See Museum Shows in New York This Spring

New York museums are launching a significant slate of spring exhibitions, featuring major retrospectives and thematic surveys. Highlights include "Noguchi's New York" at the Noguchi Museum, exploring the sculptor's unrealized urban projects; "Raphael: Sublime Poetry" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a comprehensive look at the Renaissance master; and "Gothic by Design: The Dawn of Architectural Draftsmanship," also at the Met, focusing on medieval architectural drawings.

An Alexander Calder Retrospective in Paris Underscores His Inventiveness

A major retrospective of Alexander Calder's work is currently on view at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, marking the 100th anniversary of the artist's arrival in the city. The exhibition, running through August 16, 2026, presents a comprehensive overview of his career, featuring sculptures, drawings, archival material, and jewelry that highlight his innovative fusion of engineering and abstraction.

Thom Yorke and Stanley Donwood Plot a Mysterious Art Show in Venice

Musician Thom Yorke and artist Stanley Donwood will present a new exhibition titled “No Go Elevator (not without no keycard)” in a small gallery in Venice next month, coinciding with the Venice Biennale. The show marks their first showcase outside the U.K. and features a mix of drawings and a large painting created in London this year, with cryptic textual components and no unifying theme, according to the artists.

16 Of The Best Free Art Exhibitions In London - Spring 2026

Harriet Cooper's guide highlights 16 free art exhibitions in London for spring 2026, including David Hockney's inaugural show at Serpentine North Gallery, a solo display by designer Simone Brewster at the Design Museum, and Somerset House's 'Holy Pop!' exploring modern idolatry. Other featured shows range from Paula Rego drawings to Gilbert & George works, all accessible without admission charges.

Bruegel to Rembrandt at Compton Verney: From Brussels to the English Countryside

Compton Verney in Warwickshire is hosting the exhibition 'Bruegel to Rembrandt: Drawing Life, Sketching Wonder,' featuring 50 old master drawings from the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. This marks the first time these works, including pieces by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Rembrandt, and Rubens, have been shown in the UK, offering a rare glimpse into 16th and 17th-century artistic practice through intimate sketches of everyday life.

'HEAD STRETCH' at Andrew Kreps Gallery, 394 Broadway, New York, United States on 24 Apr–20 Jun 2026

Andrew Kreps Gallery in New York presents 'Head Stretch,' a group exhibition featuring Felipe Barsuglia, Allan Gandhi, Luciana Maas, Flora Rebollo, Gokula Stoffel, and Erika Verzutti. The show is rooted in a shared studio building in São Paulo called 'Predinho,' where friendships and creative exchanges among the artists led to the exhibition. The title reflects diverse interpretations: from craning to see another's work to the stretched proportions of figures in paintings, and the expansion of perspective through community. Works by the six artists, including paintings, sculptures, and drawings, are installed in ways that create new associations, with Verzutti inserting her own pieces to open them to fresh readings.

Tale of a Riderless Horse

The National Gallery in London is hosting an exhibition titled "Stubbs: Portrait of a Horse," focusing on the 18th-century artist George Stubbs and his masterful equine paintings. The show features studies, drawings, and key works like "Whistlejacket" (c. 1762) and "Scrub" (c. 1762), highlighting Stubbs's unique anatomical knowledge gained from dissecting horses.

In Naples, an International Exhibition to Map Instability and Deactivate Borders

A Napoli una mostra internazionale per mappare l’instabilità e disattivare i confini

The exhibition "Atlante" at Thomas Dane Gallery in Naples, curated by James Lingwood, brings together works by eight international artists—Igshaan Adams, Teju Cole, Luigi Ghirri, Emma McNally, Claudio Parmiggiani, Anri Sala, Tatiana Trouvé, and Akram Zaatari—to challenge traditional cartographic representations. Through maps, drawings, textiles, and photographs, the show interrogates the ideological and political assumptions embedded in mapping, reframing the Mediterranean not as a border but as a connective space, and exposing the instability and power asymmetries underlying historical worldviews.

Three Filipino artists make the Sovereign Asian Art Prize 2026 shortlist

The Sovereign Asian Art Prize, now in its 22nd year, has announced its 2026 shortlist of 30 artists from 12 Asia-Pacific countries and territories. Among the finalists are three Filipino artists: Joey Cobcobo, Josephine Turalba, and Alvin Zafra. Cobcobo's nominated work, "Ika-8 Utos: Wag Kang Kukurap (Thou Shall Not Steal)," addresses corruption in the Philippines using a recycled canvas walked on by the public. Turalba, a transdisciplinary artist, has exhibited at Art Basel Hong Kong 2025 and serves as director of the Artistic Research Center at Philippine Women's University. The prize is run by the Sovereign Art Foundation, with proceeds from shortlisted works supporting its Make It Better charity program for children in Hong Kong.

Color and Spirit: The Blue Rider at Lenbachhaus

The Lenbachhaus museum in Munich has opened a major exhibition titled "Beyond the World. The Blue Rider," running from March 10, 2026, to September 5, 2027. The show explores the cultural exchanges and historical context of the Blue Rider movement, featuring newly acquired works by Wilhelm Morgner, Emmy Klinker, and Albert Bloch, alongside iconic pieces by Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, and Gabriele Münter. The exhibition is organized chronologically, beginning with the cross-cultural inspirations behind the 1912 Blue Rider Almanac and concluding with a reflection on the Nazi suppression of German Expressionism, including inventory lists of confiscated "degenerate" art.

Local artist work on exhibit in Tulsa

Living Arts of Tulsa is presenting “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Decides?”, an exhibition by Kenneth and Isabelle Watson Reams, with support from JustArts Gallery. Kenneth Reams, a former Arkansas death row inmate now serving a life sentence, created over 50 works including paintings, drawings, sculptures, and poetry alongside his wife Isabelle. The show opened April 3 and runs through April and May, exploring themes of incarceration, capital punishment, and social justice through the lens of Reams’ 31 years on death row.

Exhibition | Betye Saar, 'Let's Get It On: The Wearable Art of Betye Saar' at Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, United States

Roberts Projects in Los Angeles will present "Let's Get It On: The Wearable Art of Betye Saar" from May 30 to August 22, 2026, showcasing over 150 objects from the artist's career, including costume designs, garments, jewelry, drawings, and archival materials. The exhibition highlights the influence of Saar's early work in costume and jewelry design (1960s–70s) on her later assemblage and installation practice, leading up to her 100th birthday in July 2026.

‘We’re attached to this land like a tree is rooted in soil’: unexpectedly timely exhibition speaks up for the people of south Lebanon

An exhibition titled 'Forget Me Not: South Lebanon in Memory and Motion' was held at London's Palestine House earlier this month. It featured archival news footage from 2000, photographs, audiovisual materials, and children's drawings to document the history, culture, and resilience of southern Lebanon, a region experiencing renewed conflict.

Seattle May art shows include speakeasy-style gallery attached to house

A series of diverse art exhibitions are opening across Seattle in May. Highlights include a show exploring the influence of Japanese woodblock prints on Northwest artists at the Cascadia Art Museum, a site-specific installation in a private garage gallery called Double Garage, and a large-scale display of drawings on sticky notes by Clare Johnson at Gallery 4Culture. Other featured shows include Emma Bergman's surreal multimedia installation at Specialist Gallery and a landmark retrospective of light artist Tom Lloyd at the Frye Art Museum.

Andrea Pazienza is alive! A major exhibition opening at MAXXI shouts it

Andrea Pazienza è vivo! Lo urla una importante mostra in apertura al MAXXI

The MAXXI museum in Rome is opening a major exhibition titled "Non sempre si muore" dedicated to Andrea Pazienza, the legendary Italian underground comic artist. Curated by Giulia Ferracci and Oscar Glioti, the show opens on April 24, 2026, and runs until September 27, 2026. It features over 500 original drawings, including a monumental mural Pazienza created live at the 1987 Fiera del Fumetto in Naples, recently restored by the museum. The exhibition is the second chapter of a larger research project by MAXXI, following the earlier show "La matematica del segno" at MAXXI L'Aquila, which focused on Pazienza's formative years. The title quotes a phrase Pazienza said in 1988 to British host Clive Griffiths shortly before his death, underscoring the enduring vitality of his work.

The legendary film "Novecento" by Bertolucci in his Parma becomes a major exhibition

Il mitico film “Novecento” di Bertolucci nella sua Parma diventa una grande mostra

A major exhibition titled "Bernardo Bertolucci. Il Novecento" has opened at the Palazzo del Governatore in Parma, Italy, marking the 50th anniversary of Bertolucci's epic film "Novecento" (1976). The show is structured as a visual experience across 25 rooms and four sections, exploring the film's dialectic between collective history and intimate gaze. It features video, drawings, photographs, production materials, and artworks by artists such as Franco Angeli, Renato Guttuso, Taner Ceylan, and Mario Schifano, all drawn from private collections. The exhibition's first room sets the tone with a video juxtaposing the film's opening credits over Pellizza da Volpedo's painting "Il Quarto Stato" and a close-up of the young Olmo holding a frog, encapsulating the tension between political epic and sensory detail.

2 art exhibits in Woolwich, Portland illuminate in more ways than one - Portland Press Herald

Two solo exhibitions by artists Josefina Auslender and Billy Gerard Frank are on view in Woolwich and Portland, Maine, through mid-May. Auslender's "La Chimera de Oro (The Golden Chimera)" at Sarah Bouchard gallery features new ink-on-paper drawings exploring themes of artistic truth and the seductive danger of commercial success, while Frank's show at the Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art & Design (ICA at MECA&D) addresses the legacy of slavery through multimedia installations.

Exhibition of engravings and lithographs based on Raphael's work held in Vitebsk

A unique exhibition of engravings and lithographs based on the works of Renaissance master Raphael Santi has opened at the Vitebsk Art Museum, a branch of the Vitebsk Regional Museum of Local Lore in Belarus. The show features 92 works, including 30 engravings from the 1774 copper-plate series illustrating Apuleius's novel "Cupid and Psyche" (originally created 1530-1560), 52 toned lithographs of Raphael's Vatican Loggias frescoes executed in 1866 by Ludwig Gruner and Niccola Consoni, and a series of engravings from drawings of the Chigi Chapel dome. This marks the first time the complete set of 52 lithographs has been displayed together.

Stamford Museum celebrating 90 years with portrait exhibition

The Stamford Museum & Nature Center is marking its 90th anniversary with the exhibition 'Likeness & Legacy: Portraits from the Permanent Collection.' The show features paintings, prints, drawings, and sculptures, including a John Singer Sargent portrait once stolen by the Nazis and sculptural studies by Mount Rushmore sculptor Gutzon Borglum. It runs through May 25th.

An Argentine artist inaugurates a brand-new space dedicated to photography in Turin

Un artista argentino inaugura a Torino le attività di un nuovissimo spazio dedicato alla fotografia

A new photography space called K! has opened in Turin's San Salvario district, inaugurated by Argentine artist Emilio Nasser with his exhibition "La Cornuda de Tlacotalpan." The space is the latest curatorial project of the Kublaiklan collective (Rica Cerbarano, Francesco Colombelli, Elsa Moro, Aleksander Masseroli Mazurkiewicz) and focuses on research, production, and education centered on the relational power of photography. Nasser's exhibition reinterprets a fading Mexican legend from Tlacotalpan by involving the local community in a collective reconstruction through drawings, transcriptions, and mud masks, resulting in a choral portrait of the mythical Cornuda creature.

Lin May Saeed at Kunsthalle Bern

German Iraqi artist Lin May Saeed (1973–2023) is the subject of a posthumous exhibition at Kunsthalle Bern. The show presents her drawings and sculptures, which critically examine the relationship between humans and animals, positioning non-human creatures as active protagonists rather than symbols or decorative elements.

Photography exhibit at Estevan art gallery showcases SE landscape

The Estevan Art Gallery and Museum (EAGM) in Saskatchewan is hosting two new exhibits until May 29: 'Below the Tree Line' by Nicole Adair and 'Selection of Specimens' by Kristin Teetaert. Adair's photography explores the landscapes of southeast Saskatchewan, highlighting the region's prairie environment, native plants, and wildlife. Teetaert's exhibit features drawings, felt sculptures, and painted tiles inspired by botany and nature, emphasizing interconnection and playfulness.

In Milan, the furnishings of the White House go on display. Design and architecture to talk about propaganda

A Milano vanno in mostra gli arredi della Casa Bianca. Design e architettura per parlare di propaganda

An exhibition titled 'The White House. Domestic Propaganda' has opened at Dropcity, an experimental center in the tunnels beneath Milan's Central Station, as part of the city's Design Week. Curated by students from the Politecnico di Milano's Interior Design Laboratory, the show critically examines the White House as a domestic space for political propaganda, using installations, models, and drawings to explore how its architecture and furnishings project cultural and social meanings.

First UK Ken Price solo exhibition in nearly 10 years to open at Lisson.

Lisson Gallery, in collaboration with Matthew Marks Gallery, will present the first solo exhibition of Ken Price's work in the UK in nearly a decade. The show brings together sculptures and drawings, several shown in London for the first time, spanning the late American artist's five-decade career. Best known for expanding the possibilities of ceramics, Price created intimate yet monumental works that blend abstraction and figuration, with richly layered surfaces achieved through painstaking pigment and sanding processes. The exhibition includes iconic pieces such as 'Prone' (1997), 'Itself' (2003), 'Yin' (2009), and 'Amazon' (2003), alongside rarely seen works on paper that reveal his imaginative, dreamlike landscapes.

Gaby Hurtado-Ramos: Last Night and Tomorrow

Gaby Hurtado-Ramos presents "Last Night and Tomorrow" at BOX 13 ArtSpace in Houston from May 22 to June 27, 2026. The exhibition explores queer social spaces—dance parties, gay bars, karaoke—through layered drawings, photographs, and prints, imagining futures of acceptance and connection. Hurtado-Ramos is an artist and educator whose practice includes risograph publishing under Rear-View Press, and they have exhibited and taught widely across the U.S.

Kim Gordon Was Never Just the “Girl in the Band”

Kim Gordon, best known as co-founder of the influential indie rock band Sonic Youth, is the subject of a new exhibition titled "Count Your Chickens" at Amant in New York. Curated by Patricia Margarita Hernández, the show surveys Gordon’s visual art from 2007 to the present, including paintings, drawings, ceramics, and video works such as "Jeanetta and Alex" (2026). The exhibition explores themes of celebrity, gender, electricity, and the tension between public image and private reality, featuring pieces like "Paris, Paris" (2025) and the "Airbnb Series" (2019).

Newsmakers: Nalini Malani Lets the Walls Speak with a New Installation in Venice

Nalini Malani's latest installation, *Of Woman Born*, opens at the Magazzini del Sale in Venice during the Venice Biennale. Commissioned by the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, the work projects hand-drawn animations onto the crumbling brick walls of a 15th-century salt warehouse, creating a cave-like environment where images flicker like ancient cave paintings. The installation draws on tens of thousands of drawings and incorporates mythology, literature, and sound, with a central focus on the myth of Orestes to explore themes of violence, displacement, and gender politics. Malani has also extended her recurring 'Skipping Girl' figure across Venice via posters and public signage to guide viewers to the exhibition.

David Hockney décroche la lune dans une lumineuse exposition gratuite à Paris

David Hockney presents "The Moon Room," a series of fifteen iPad drawings of full moons created during the 2020 lockdown, at Galerie Lelong in Paris until May 7, 2026. The exhibition, free and open to the public, features nocturnal landscapes Hockney painted from his farm in Normandy, inspired by Maupassant's "Clair de lune" and his own nightly observations. The works were first shown at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen in 2024 and later at the Fondation Louis Vuitton.

“Conspiracies” Aby Warburg Institute / London by Frank Wasser

The exhibition “Conspiracies” at the Warburg Institute in London, curated by Larne Abse Gogarty, brings together works by Hannah Black, Caspar Heinemann, Sam Keogh, and Shenece Oretha alongside panels from Aby Warburg’s Bilderatlas Mnemosyne. Through sculpture, drawing, collage, installation, and sound, the show resists the idea that conspiracy can be solved by exposure or critique, instead constructing unstable relations between historical images, speculative narratives, and material processes. Key works include Heinemann’s drawings reimagining Ted Kaczynski as “Theodora” and Keogh’s large-scale collage referencing medieval tapestries and surveillance systems.