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.

The village where Van Gogh spent his final days celebrates its most distinguished visitor

An exhibition titled "Van Gogh, Influencer: Legacies in Motion" has opened at the Château of Auvers-sur-Oise, the village near Paris where Vincent van Gogh spent his final 70 days and died by suicide in July 1890. The show, running until 3 January 2027, features nearly a hundred works by artists influenced by Van Gogh, including Léonide Bourges, Charles-François Daubigny, and Léo Gausson, though no original Van Gogh paintings are included. Curated by Wouter van der Veen, the exhibition explores visual parallels and stylistic contrasts between Van Gogh’s iconic works—such as *Church at Auvers* and *Wheatfield with Crows*—and those of his contemporaries and followers.

New US exhibition explores power of monuments – with help from Rocky

The Philadelphia Museum of Art has opened a new exhibition titled "Rising Up: Rocky and the Making of Monuments," which uses the iconic Rocky Balboa statue as a focal point to explore the power and meaning of monuments across two millennia of boxing and celebrity culture. Curated by Paul Farber, co-founder of Monument Lab, the show features ancient sculptures, 19th-century works, images from boxing's golden age, and contemporary pieces by artists including Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Glenn Ligon. The Rocky statue, placed on the museum's steps in 1982, attracts an estimated 4 million visitors annually, rivaling the Statue of Liberty.

For Italy’s Art Pioneer, a New Bronze Age

Giuseppe Penone, a leading figure of the Arte Povera movement, is preparing a major exhibition at Gagosian gallery in New York. The show will feature new bronze sculptures that continue his lifelong exploration of nature, form, and the human body, created in collaboration with curator Adam Weinberg, the former director of the Whitney Museum of American Art.

How an Artist and Museum Conspired to Give a Delivery Worker What the Apps Won’t: PTO

Artist Fields Harrington, after witnessing a delivery worker get hit by a car in Brooklyn, began photographing the customized bikes of New York City's delivery workers, capturing their gloves, reflective tape, and cultural markers. His series is now featured in MoMA PS1's "Greater New York" exhibition. In a direct act of reciprocity, Harrington convinced the museum to rent a delivery worker's bike and pay its owner, Gustavo Ajche, his usual wage of $21.44 per hour during museum hours. For one week each month, the bike is displayed, and every 21 minutes and 44 seconds, a notification ding sounds, referencing the wage Ajche and his group Los Deliveristas Unidos fought for.

Eyecatchers and Discoveries

Eyecatcher und Entdeckungen

The 42nd edition of Art Brussels has scaled down to 138 exhibitors from 165 in 2025, responding to a sluggish contemporary art market and economic uncertainty. The fair introduces a new section called 'Horizonte,' curated by Devrim Bayar of Kanal Centre Pompidou, featuring six large-scale installations including Pao Hui Kao's delicate paper-and-lacquer refuge and Oswald Oberhuber's €380,000 panoramic painting 'Paradiesgarten.' Galleries are now consolidated into one hall, with fewer blue-chip participants but a continued focus on living artists (95% of the 500 shown). Notable presentations include Xavier Hufkens' solo show of Cassi Namoda, Krinziger's works by Marina Abramović and Monica Bonvicini, and Richard Saltoun's historical mix of Fernand Khnopff, Everlyn Nicodemus, and Suzanne Van Damme.

Joan Semmel & Rama Duwaji

MoMA PS1 has opened its major quinquennial exhibition "Greater New York," a sprawling survey featuring early-career artists based in the city. The show, which fills three floors of the former public school, is noted for its gritty, immersive portrayal of contemporary New York life, capturing everyday textures from delivery drivers to urban wildlife.

Ces 5 créatrices « inoubliables » à découvrir absolument à Gand

The Museum of Fine Arts (MSK) in Ghent is hosting the exhibition "Inoubliables" (Unforgettables), on view until May 31, which highlights the work of women artists from the 17th and 18th centuries in the former Netherlands region. The show features about 40 female creators active between 1600 and 1750, including painters like Michaelina Wautier, Judith Leyster, and Rachel Ruysch, working in genres from portraiture and still life to engraving, lacemaking, and paper cutting. The exhibition aims to restore these women to their rightful place in art history.

Lies, Virtual Reality, and Conceptual Art—Spring/Summer 2026 Exhibitions at PHI

PHI in Montreal presents two spring/summer 2026 exhibitions: "Come See, Lies Lies" by Paola Pivi and "Other Worlds" by Jakob Kudsk Steensen. Pivi's show features surreal installations including wall-mounted shoes, suspended velvet mattresses, and a metal house with TV screens broadcasting false statements, blending fairy tale and satire. Steensen's exhibition comprises six major works from the past decade, using virtual reality, video games, and sound installations to explore ecological themes and digitized environments like Bora Bora and volcanic seabeds. Both exhibitions open April 23, 2026, and run through September 13, 2026.

'Claude Viallat' at Templon, Brussels, Belgium on 22 Apr–6 Jun 2026

Galerie Templon in Brussels is presenting a solo exhibition of Claude Viallat, celebrating the 60th anniversary of his signature bone-shaped motif. The show features around thirty recent experimental canvases and objects from 2024 to 2026, exploring his practice of repetition and variation on diverse fabrics and found materials.

'The museum is not a space for the elite': Portuguese building firm’s new museum puts workers first

A new museum called Muzeu—Thought and Contemporary Art DST has opened in Braga, northern Portugal, housed in a former courthouse and built by the DST Group, a Portuguese industrial conglomerate. The inaugural exhibition, titled "Let Us Be Realistic, Let Us Demand the Impossible," features over 100 works by 96 artists including Alex Katz, Francesco Clemente, Franz West, and Nan Goldin. The museum prioritizes workers, opening first exclusively for company employees on 24 April, then to the public on Freedom Day (25 April), with free admission for the first week and closure on International Workers' Day (1 May).

Where to go this weekend?

Wohin am Wochenende?

This week's art tips from Monopol magazine highlight exhibitions and events across Germany and Europe. In Berlin, the Helmut Newton Museum reopens with a new immersive film space and a fresh presentation of its collection, while the Neue Nationalgalerie showcases Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's iconic painting "Potsdamer Platz" in the exhibition "Ruin und Rausch. Berlin 1910-1930." In Bozen, Chinese artist Evelyn Taocheng Wang presents new works at Museion, blending painting, textiles, and installation. The Art Brussels fair returns with a reduced lineup of 138 galleries, focusing on Belgian and neighboring markets. In Duisburg, Anish Kapoor receives the Wilhelm-Lehmbruck Prize, accompanied by a solo exhibition at the Lehmbruck Museum.

Ghosts, nudes and lesbian pageant queens: highlights from NYC’s Photography Show – in pictures

Aipad: The Photography Show is taking place at the Park Avenue Armory in New York from April 22-26, 2026, featuring works from over 70 galleries. The exhibition highlights include Bill Brandt's 1952 nude, Rania Matar's portrait of a young woman in Lebanon, and Zanele Muholi's 2009 portrait of a lesbian pageant queen, alongside works by Tania Franco Klein, Ruth Thorne-Thomsen, and others that explore themes of identity, anxiety, and alternative realities.

RC Foundation Project Space Exhibition Series 2025–27

The Hayward Gallery in London, in partnership with the RC Foundation in Taiwan, has announced a new exhibition series for its HENI Project Space running from October 2025 to March 2027. The series features five solo exhibitions by artists Val Lee, Samuel Laurence Cunnane, Kulpreet Singh, Musquiqui Chihying, and Andrius Arutiunian, each exploring themes ranging from political violence and surveillance to climate change, ritual, and alternative cosmologies. The exhibitions are curated by a team including Yung Ma, Rachel Thomas, and others.

Art and authoritarianism in Auckland

Auckland Art Gallery is presenting 'Forever Tomorrow: Chinese Art Now,' a major survey of Chinese contemporary art featuring 67 works by 42 artists, running from May 2 to August 23, 2026. The exhibition includes Xiao Lu's iconic 1989 work 'Dialogue,' which she famously shot with a gun hours after its opening, an act later linked to the Tiananmen Square protests. Xiao Lu comments on the political resonance of the show in New Zealand amid global shifts in democracy and US-centric world order.

UAE art guide: 13 museum and gallery exhibitions to see, from Picasso to Chilean artist Jorge Tacla

The article presents a curated guide to 13 current museum and gallery exhibitions across the UAE, including shows at Louvre Abu Dhabi, Foundry in Dubai, Sharjah Art Foundation, and Alserkal Avenue. Featured artists range from Pablo Picasso to regional talents like Shamsa Al Omaira, Abdulla Elmaz, and Ahaad Alamoudi, with exhibitions spanning sculpture, photography, and installation art. The guide is published during Alserkal Art Month and ahead of Art Dubai.

Exhibition | EILEEN AGAR, 'Leaves of the World' at Andrew Kreps Gallery, 22 Cortlandt Alley, New York, United States

Andrew Kreps Gallery in New York is presenting 'Leaves of the World,' an exhibition of works by Eileen Agar (1899–1991) spanning seven decades of her career, from 1927 to 1980. The show highlights Agar's enduring engagement with collage and her unique blend of surrealism, cubism, and abstraction, featuring pieces such as 'Leaves of the World' (c. 1940) and 'Personnage' (1949). A parallel exhibition of Agar's work will open at Alison Jacques in London this June.

Master of Dansaekhwa Ha Chong-Hyun to Showcase Korean Art in the U.S.

Ha Chong-Hyun, a leading figure of the Korean Dansaekhwa (monochrome painting) movement, will receive his first North American museum retrospective at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. The exhibition, titled 'Ha Chong-Hyun: Retrospective,' opens on September 25 and will feature approximately 50 paintings spanning over 60 years of his career, including new works and pieces showcasing his signature 'Back Pressure Technique.'

Monochrome Painting Master Ha Chong-Hyun to Hold Major Retrospective in the U.S.

Monochrome painting master Ha Chong-Hyun will have his first North American museum retrospective at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (AAM) from September 25, 2026, to January 25, 2027. The exhibition, titled "Ha Chong-Hyun: Retrospective," will feature about 50 works spanning over 60 years, including his early Art Informel experiments, his politically charged works, and his iconic "Conjunction" series created with his signature Back Pressure Technique.

Salon des Refusés 2.0

Salon des Refusés 2.0

A group exhibition titled "we refuse_d" has opened at the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst (M HKA) in Antwerp, bringing together 15 artists, many of whom faced cancellations or disinvitations from exhibitions following the October 7, 2023 attacks. The show, referencing the historic 1863 Salon des Refusés, aims to reclaim reputation and amplify marginalized voices, specifically focusing on Palestinian history and artists affected by the cultural fallout.

“Marina Abramović: Balkan Erotic Epic. The Exhibition” at Gropius Bau, Berlin

Marina Abramović presents her first major exhibition in Berlin since the 1990s at Gropius Bau, titled "Balkan Erotic Epic. The Exhibition." The show juxtaposes historic works from the 1970s with new video installations, exploring how the artist uses the body as a vital force to confront political systems, histories, and mythologies of the Balkan countries.

Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani, a New Sort of Street Artist, Rises from Art History’s Margins

Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani, a late Japanese American collagist who lived and worked as a street artist in New York City, is the subject of a new solo exhibition at the Spencer Museum of Art in Kansas City, on view through June. Co-curators Maki Kaneko and Kris Imants Ercums organized the show thematically rather than chronologically, reflecting Mirikitani's fragmented life—from surviving the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and incarceration at Tule Lake to arriving in New York in the 1950s. The exhibition draws on years of research, including visits to the parks where he lived and to Hiroshima, and builds on Linda Hattendorf's 2006 documentary *The Cats of Mirikitani*.

Negative Impressions and Positive Traces of ’20th Century Debris’.

Marc Brandenburg's solo exhibition '20th Century Debris' is on view at the Berlinische Galerie in Berlin until September 14, 2026. The show features approximately 150 works, including early drawings from the 1990s, recent pieces, video, photography, and tattoo editions, all exploring spectral cityscapes and the debris of contemporary life through a process of tonal reversal and inversion.

Parallax(e): Perspectives on the Canada–US Border

The exhibition "Parallax(e): Perspectives on the Canada–US Border" at The Reach Gallery Museum in Abbotsford, British Columbia, brings together archival materials from the Northwest Boundary Survey (1857–62) with new works by five Indigenous artists. The show features photographs, maps, and watercolors from British and American surveyors alongside commissions by Dr. Shawn Brigman, Dr. Michelle Jack, Deb Silver, Xémóntalot Carrielynn Victor, and Dr. T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss, who respond to the legacy of the border's creation through canoe culture, transboundary identity, and place-based knowledge.

CISCO MEREL: LA CHANTIN

CISCO MEREL: LA CHANTIN

Kunsthalle Lissabon in Lisbon, Portugal, is presenting 'La Chantin,' the first solo exhibition in the country by Panamanian artist Cisco Merel. The exhibition features a site-specific installation exploring the house as an open, collective, and evolving system, inspired by the mobile, wooden 'shanty' structures built by the Afro-Caribbean diaspora during the construction of the Panama Canal.

How This Artist Pivoted Into Surreal Sculpture After Decades of Photography [Interview]

Artist Nic Nicosia, known for decades as a photographer and member of the Pictures Generation, has pivoted into surreal sculpture after losing interest in fabricated images. His work was featured in the 1983 Whitney Biennial alongside Cindy Sherman and others, and in major exhibitions like Documenta IX. Now, after years of exploring sculpture in private, he is preparing for his largest museum exhibition since 2000: "Everyday Surrealism" at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, opening May 16, tracing his career through over 70 works.

MOCAD Reopens with New Exhibitions from Detroit Artists

Detroit's Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCAD) has reopened after an eight-month closure for construction, unveiling four new exhibitions as part of its 2026 Spring Exhibition and 20th anniversary. The renovations include a new HVAC system, educational space, and windows that allow passersby to see inside. The building has been renamed the Julia Reyes Taubman Building in honor of the late co-founder, whose family contributed $1.8 million toward the $3 million first phase. Mayor Mary Sheffield toured the exhibitions at an April 23 media preview, praising the museum's role in community healing and access. Featured exhibitions include "Olayami Dabls: Detroit Cosmologies," the first retrospective of the artist's nearly 50-year career, showcasing his evolution from figurative acrylics to abstract collage.

Ten Out Of London Exhibitions Spring 2026 – Artlyst Guide

Artlyst has published a guide to ten major exhibitions opening across UK museums and galleries outside London in Spring 2026. Highlights include a year-long programme for the 250th anniversary of John Constable in Suffolk, the Gwen John exhibition 'Strange Beauties' at National Museum Cardiff celebrating her 150th birthday, a Frank Bowling survey at The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, a Joan Eardley show in Edinburgh, and Paula Rego at Newlands House & Gallery. Other featured exhibitions include Andy Hollingworth's photography of comedians at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and a Vivienne Westwood retrospective at the Bowes Museum.

Plan your visit to “American 250: Common Threads,” now on view at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art has opened a new special exhibition titled "American 250: Common Threads." The exhibition features a wide range of artworks, including historic documents, quilts, prints, and contemporary pieces, all reflecting on the American experience and national identity. A notable interactive work by artist Basil Kincaid involves local quilters assembling fabric squares decorated by Arkansas students.

American Art Lovers: A Nation of Artists Opens

The Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts have launched a major collaborative exhibition titled 'A Nation of Artists.' Spanning both institutions, the show features over 1,000 works from 1700 to the present, drawing heavily from the private Middleton Family Collection. It coincides with the reopening of the PMA's newly renovated American art galleries and PAFA's restored Frank Furness-designed Historic Landmark Building.