London Gallery Weekend 2026 Highlights And Recommendations

London Gallery Weekend 2026 will take place from June 5 to 7, featuring over 120 galleries across the city, including nine first-time participants and several with new or expanded spaces. The free, open-to-all event is organized by geographic focus days: Central London on Friday, South London on Saturday, and East London on Sunday, with participating galleries open from 11am to 6pm on Friday and Saturday, and 12pm to 5pm on Sunday. Highlights include Gagosian showing rare early works by Christo, Niru Ratnam presenting Keith Piper, Sadie Coles HQ screening new films by Helen Marten, and Victoria Miro debuting Shahzia Sikander's first exhibition since announcing representation.

Stanley Donwood on his show with Thom Yorke in Venice: ‘These drawings… they’re not planned’

Stanley Donwood, the artist and longtime collaborator of Radiohead's Thom Yorke, discusses his recent and upcoming projects in an interview. These include the conclusion of 'This Is What You Get', a retrospective at Oxford's Ashmolean Museum; the 'Motion Picture House' installation based on Radiohead's albums Kid A and Amnesiac; and his first exhibition outside the UK with Yorke, titled 'No Go Elevator (not without no keycard)', staged in Venice during the 2026 Biennale. The Venice show, presented with Tin Man Art, features 15 ink-on-paper works combining drawings and text from Yorke's notebooks.

Crystal Bridges to host panel on museum expansion May 29

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, will host a ticketed panel discussion on May 29, 2026, to celebrate its upcoming expansion. The conversation, titled "By Design: A Conversation on the Crystal Bridges Expansion," will feature museum founder Alice Walton, board chair Olivia Walton, and architect Moshe Safdie, moderated by Vanity Fair's Nate Freeman. The event takes place at the Heartland Whole Health Institute on the museum campus ahead of the formal expansion opening on June 6-7, which includes free programming and the debut of "Keith Haring in 3D," the first exhibition focused on the artist's three-dimensional work.

Exhibition | Kelly Akashi, 'Heirloom' at Lisson Gallery, 508 West 24th Street, New York, United States

Kelly Akashi presents her first exhibition with Lisson Gallery in New York, titled 'Heirloom,' featuring a new body of work that explores loss, grief, and absence through sculpture. The exhibition includes bronze, Corten steel, flame-worked glass, and carved stone pieces, many inspired by her garden and personal artifacts like an inherited stone ring and her grandmother's lace tablecloth. It coincides with her participation in the 2026 Whitney Biennial and a commission for John F. Kennedy International Airport's New Terminal One.

Gala Porras-Kim: Future spaces replicate earlier spaces

Gala Porras-Kim presents her first exhibition at kurimanzutto in Mexico City, titled "Future spaces replicate earlier spaces," running from April 11 to June 13, 2026. The show brings together works that examine how museums and conservation institutions reclassify objects removed from their original contexts, using reconstruction and resituating to explore their spatial, material, and temporal conditions. Central to the exhibition is the installation "The motion of an alluvial record" (2024), which recreates the humid marshland atmosphere of the Yucatán Peninsula inside the gallery, contrasting with the controlled climates of museums. Other works include drawings replicating wall decorations from the Techinantitla complex in Teotihuacan, which were fragmented and sold on the black market, and graphite drawings of objects by artist Brígido Lara, whose "original interpretations" of Totonac ritual clay objects were mistakenly catalogued as Pre-Hispanic artifacts in major museums.

‘Still lots to talk about’: UK galleries team up to shine light on female artists

A new exhibition titled 'Making Her Mark' opens at Penlee House in Penzance, Cornwall, featuring works by prominent British female artists such as Tracey Emin, Barbara Hepworth, Laura Knight, Elizabeth Forbes, and Gillian Ayres. The show is a collaboration between Penlee House, Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum, and Kirkcaldy Galleries in Fife, Scotland, with each contributing more than 20 works. It is the first exhibition launched under Art Fund's £5 million 'Going Places' programme, which unites 20 museums across the UK over five years to share and celebrate their collections.

Louisville’s Speed Art Museum shines a light on the women of Abstract Expressionism

The Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, will host "Abstract Expressionists: The Women" from May 16 to August 30, 2026. This is Kentucky's first exhibition devoted to Abstract Expressionism, featuring over 30 major female artists including Helen Frankenthaler, Joan Mitchell, Vivian Springford, Grace Hartigan, and Lee Krasner. The show includes works like Frankenthaler's *Circus Landscape* (1951) and Springford's *Scuba Series* (1972–1984/5), along with archival materials and a timeline of women's artistic achievements. Organized by the American Federation of Arts from the Christian Levett Collection and FAMM (Female Artists of the Mougins Museum), France, the exhibition is curated by Dr. Ellen G. Landau and presented locally by Tyler Blackwell.

Member Previews: Willem de Kooning Drawing (Thurs)

The Art Institute of Chicago is offering members exclusive preview access to "Willem de Kooning Drawing" from June 11–13, 2025, before it opens to the public. This is the first exhibition to comprehensively examine de Kooning's drawing practice, featuring works from across his career—from his earliest drawings to late calligraphic paintings—and marks the museum's first solo presentation of the artist since 1969.

ISA Art Gallery and Fitri DK’s ‘Nine Kartinis of Kendeng’

ISA Art Gallery in Jakarta recently held the first exhibition in its 'Biophilia' series, titled 'Exquisite Corpse', which ran from February 14 to April 16. The show features works centered on nature and sustainability, with a standout piece by artist Fitri DK: two batik works titled 'Selamatan Bumi 1 and 2'. These works depict the 'Nine Kartinis of Kendeng', a group of women from Central Java fighting to protect their karst mountains from a cement factory that threatens their clean water supply. The exhibition draws its title from Elza Adamowicz's book on Surrealist collage, emphasizing fragmented, collective creation.

Peterson Rich Office designs Condé M Nast Galleries at The Met in time for yearly gala exhibition

Brooklyn-based architecture studio Peterson Rich Office has completed the redesign of five gallery spaces at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, known as the Condé M Nast Galleries. The project transformed 12,000 square feet of a former courtyard into gallery and auxiliary rooms, revealing historic brickwork and facades from the 19th-century buildings by architects Richard Morris Hunt, Arthur Lyman Tuckerman, and Calvert Vaux. The spaces include the Orientation Gallery, High Gallery, Low Gallery, and Finale Gallery, each blending contemporary design with exposed historic materials. The first exhibition in the High Gallery is the Costume Art show, timed to coincide with the annual Met Gala.

Picasso, the figure: Inside Louvre Abu Dhabi’s transformative exhibition

Louvre Abu Dhabi has opened "Picasso, the Figure," its first exhibition dedicated entirely to Pablo Picasso, running until May 31. The show brings together around 60 works exploring Picasso's fascination with the human figure, spanning his cubist experiments, neoclassical portraits, surrealist compositions, and late works. It is presented in collaboration with Musée National Picasso-Paris and France Muséums, housed within Jean Nouvel's iconic floating dome on Saadiyat Island.

‘The Generative Universe’: Keith Tyson returns to LA with new exhibition at Hauser & Wirth

Keith Tyson, the Turner Prize-winning British artist, returns to Los Angeles with his first exhibition in the city since 2009, titled “The Generative Universe,” on view at Hauser & Wirth from May 28 to August 16. The show spans 30 years of his career, featuring paintings, sculptures, drawings, and mixed media works that explore generative systems—artworks created through rule-based structures shaped by mathematics, technology, nature, and the artist's own choices. Central to the exhibition is Tyson's early computer program “Artmachine,” which he developed in the 1990s to generate prompts for his own creative process, contrasting with today's AI image generators that respond to human prompts.

Landmark Gorky Exhibit Extended at Armenian Museum

The Armenian Museum of America has extended its landmark exhibition "Arshile Gorky: Redrawing Community and Connections" through September 27, 2026, due to overwhelming interest and positive reviews. This is the first exhibition of Arshile Gorky's work in an Armenian museum, featuring paintings and drawings on loan from the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Housatonic Museum of Art, Yale University Art Gallery, private collectors, and other lenders. Curated by Kim S. Theriault and sponsored by the JHM Charitable Foundation, the show opened to coincide with the 100 Years of Arshile Gorky programming in Watertown, Massachusetts.

Arshile Gorky exhibition at AMA extended through September 2026

The Armenian Museum of America (AMA) in Watertown, Massachusetts, has extended its exhibition "Arshile Gorky: Redrawing Community and Connections" through September 27, 2026, due to overwhelming interest and positive reviews from publications such as Boston Art Review and Artscope magazine. Curated by Kim S. Theriault and sponsored by the JHM Charitable Foundation, the show is the first exhibition of Gorky’s work in an Armenian museum, featuring loans from the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Housatonic Museum of Art, Yale University Art Gallery, private collectors, and the Armenian diaspora.

Exhibition | Carol Rama, 'I See You You See Me' at Hauser & Wirth, New York, 22nd Street

Hauser & Wirth’s New York gallery on 22nd Street has opened ‘I See You You See Me’, its first exhibition dedicated to the radical Italian artist Carol Rama (1918–2015). Organized by Carlo Knoell, the show presents key works spanning six decades—from 1947 to 1998—across paint, textile, sculpture, and bricolage, highlighting Rama’s wildly original and non-conformist experimentation.

American Miners Photo Exhibition 'Beneath the Surface' Tour: National Gallery (DC)-Milwaukee Art Museum-Amon Carter Museum (Fort Worth, TX)

미국의 광부들 사진전 'Beneath the Surface' 순회: 내셔널 갤러리(DC)-밀워키미술관-에이먼카터미술관(포트워스, TX)

The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., will present 'Beneath the Surface: Mining and American Photography' from May 23 to August 23, 2026, the first exhibition to focus exclusively on the relationship between resource extraction and American photography. Featuring 150 photographs by over 100 artists—including Richard Avedon, Walker Evans, Lewis Hine, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Dorothea Lange, and Gordon Parks—the show spans nearly 200 years, from early daguerreotypes of the California Gold Rush to contemporary large-scale works. After its Washington run, the exhibition will travel to the Milwaukee Art Museum (October 23, 2026–January 18, 2027) and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth, Texas (February 14–May 9, 2027).

'TARWUK' at White Cube, Mason's Yard, London, United Kingdom on 9 Jul–15 Aug 2026

White Cube Mason’s Yard in London will present a solo exhibition by the artist duo TARWUK (Bruno Pogačnik Tremow and Ivana Vukšić), running from 9 July to 15 August 2026. The show debuts a major new site-specific installation alongside paintings and works on paper, marking the duo’s first exhibition at the gallery.

German Expressionism at the National Gallery

The National Gallery in London will stage its first exhibition of modern German paintings, 'German Expressionism: Modern Painting 1900–1918', in spring 2027, before traveling to the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin in autumn 2027. This is the first UK and Ireland exhibition since the 1960s to cover both key Expressionist groups, Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter, featuring over fifty international loans from institutions such as Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie, Brücke Museum, and the Art Institute of Chicago, alongside works from private collections.

Art Fund launches UK-wide touring programme

Art Fund has launched a UK-wide touring programme called Going Places, backed by £5.36 million from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Julia Rausing Trust. The first exhibition, *Making Her Mark: A Celebration of Women in Art*, opened at Penlee House Gallery & Museum in Penzance, featuring over 60 works from three museum collections alongside community responses. It will travel to Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum and Kirkcaldy Gallery through 2027. The programme plans 12 major touring shows over five years, with six already scheduled, including exhibitions on green spaces, journeys, radical living, art and nature, and community making.

Un ciclo di mostre è allestito sotto terra in un ipogeo del quartiere Pigneto a Roma

A family of entrepreneurs acquired an ancient bar in Rome's Pigneto neighborhood in 2020, inheriting a Roman-era hypogeum dating back to the 1st century BC. Originally a pozzolana quarry, later a wine cellar and WWII air-raid shelter, the space beneath the historic bar Necci dal 1924 reopened to the public on March 12 as an exhibition venue. It now hosts "Sottoforma," a cycle of three exhibitions curated by Donatella Giordano and Agatha Jaubourg that explore the theme of the invisible through contemporary art. The first exhibition features works by Eva Marisaldi, Enrico Serotti, and Luca Vitone, running until March 31, followed by shows with Iginio De Luca and Liliana Moro in April, and José Angelino and Elena Bellantoni in May 2026.

Exhibition | Celeste Rapone, 'Hyperarousal' at Esther Schipper, Esther Schipper Berlin, Germany

Esther Schipper Berlin presents 'Hyperarousal', Celeste Rapone's first exhibition with the gallery, featuring three new paintings that explore the intersection of sensuous stimulation and nervous tension. The works depict female protagonists in narratively dense, ambiguous scenes that allegorize millennial angst, using techniques like alla prima painting and color-based formal constraints. Key pieces include 'While Waiting' (2025), showing a figure with pepper spray and a digital camera, and 'Den' (2026), where intertwined figures follow a self-defense tutorial on an iPad.

From simple blue to haute couture suit: workwear studied at the Musée Postal

Du simple bleu au tailleur haute couture, le vêtement de travail étudié au musée Postal

The Musée Postal in Paris has reopened with a new name and identity, launching its first exhibition titled "Sous toutes les coutures" ("Under All Seams"). Curated by Elodie Goëssant and Didier Filoche, the show brings together 420 pieces, artworks, and archival objects to explore the history of workwear in France, from uniforms and protective clothing to high-fashion collaborations. It traces the evolution of work attire from the 18th century to the present, highlighting how women lacked dedicated work clothing until the 1970s and how airlines like Air France pioneered partnerships with luxury houses such as Christian Dior to dress flight attendants as national ambassadors.

Yalda Afsah “Surge” at Kunsthal Thy, Hurup Thy

Yalda Afsah presents her first exhibition in Denmark, titled "Surge," at Kunsthal Thy. The show features two video works: "Curro" (2023), which explores human relationships with animals, and "Jarramplas" (2025), which initiates a new series centered on rituals and communal social dynamics.

Look Inside the Met Gala 2026’s Exhibit & See What Celebs Will Be Viewing Tonight!

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has revealed photos from inside the Costume Institute's latest exhibition, 'Costume Art,' ahead of the 2026 Met Gala. Curated by Andrew Bolton, the show explores the relationship between clothing and the body, organized around thematic body types such as the Naked Body, Pregnant Body, and Aging Body. It features garments and artworks from The Met's collection, both historical and contemporary, and will be the first exhibition held in the new Condé M. Nast Galleries, a 12,000-square-foot space adjacent to the Great Hall. The exhibition opens to the public on May 10, 2026, and runs through January 10, 2027.

In Kyoto, a photography festival unites artists on society's fringes

Kyotographie, an independent international photography festival in Kyoto, has announced 'The Edge' as its theme for the 2026 edition, following a focus on humanity in 2025. The festival will feature exhibitions exploring fringes, darkness, and extremes of life, including a posthumous show of Fatama Hassona's 'The Eye of Gaza', a focus on South Africa with works by Lebohang Kganye, Pieter Hugo, and a peripatetic library from A4 Arts Foundation, as well as Ernest Cole's 'House of Bondage' at the Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art—his first exhibition in Japan. Other highlights include Linder Sterling's survey 'Goddess of the Mind' at the Museum of Kyoto Annex and Anton Corbijn's 'Presence' at the Shimadai Gallery.

Italy-based Chinese artist shares cross-cultural art journey in Beijing

The Italian Cultural Institute in Beijing hosted a lecture on May 12, 2026, featuring Zhou Zhiwei, a Chinese painter based in Italy, who shared his four-decade artistic journey. Zhou, born in Shanghai in 1954, studied under renowned oil painters Yu Yunjie and Liu Kemin before entering the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice in 1980, where he learned from masters like Bruno Saetti and Emilio Vedova. He also trained with Pietro Annigoni and Riccardo Tommasi Ferroni, mastering fresco and tempera grassa techniques. The event was chaired by Federico Antonelli, cultural counselor of the Italian Embassy in China, who recalled Zhou's first exhibition at the institute in 1984. Zhou discussed his solo exhibition 'Notes along the Way,' which explores the Mediterranean through an Eastern lens, blending classical Italian painting with Chinese tradition.

Michigan’s largest‑ever Chihuly exhibition marks long-awaited return to Meijer Gardens

Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is hosting its largest-ever exhibition of glass artist Dale Chihuly, titled "CHIHULY: Radiant Forms." Opening May 2 and running through November 1, 2026, the show marks Chihuly's first exhibition at the venue since 2010 and spans the 158-acre campus, including a new concentration of works in the Japanese Garden. The indoor gallery presents a chronological survey of Chihuly's 50-year career, featuring early baskets and cylinders, Venetian-inspired goblets, and iconic sea forms in open-air aquariums.

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art Announces First Exhibitions Curated by George Lucas

The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, set to open on September 22, 2026, in Los Angeles's Exposition Park, has announced its inaugural exhibition schedule curated by George Lucas. The museum will showcase a wide range of narrative art, from Americana works by Thomas Hart Benton and Norman Rockwell to documentary photography by Gordon Parks, Dorothea Lange, and Robert Capa, as well as public murals by Diego Rivera and Judith F. Baca. The collection also includes production designs, props, and costumes from the Lucas Archives, alongside illustrations by Frank Frazetta, Maxfield Parrish, and N.C. Wyeth, children's literature art by Beatrix Potter and Jacob Lawrence, and comics and manga by Jack Kirby, Alison Bechdel, and Mœbius.

Morton Contemporary Gallery exhibition will combine art, music and light

Morton Contemporary Gallery in Philadelphia will open “Alchemy: The Sound of Color,” a new exhibition combining painting, music and light, on Saturday, June 6. The show is a collaboration between Los Angeles artist Donna Isham and Emmy and Grammy-winning composer Mark Isham, marking their first exhibition in Philadelphia. It will feature large-scale installations that blend Donna Isham’s paintings with original music, animation and light effects, alongside additional paintings. The opening reception runs from 6 to 8 p.m. on June 6, is free and open to the public, and includes wine and a chance to meet the artists.

TWAC presents ‘ENTWINED’ Exhibition by Artist-Educators Bob Mosier and Karen Fearon

The Woodlands Arts Council (TWAC) presents 'ENTWINED,' its first exhibition featuring a married couple, artist-educators Bob Mosier and Karen Fearon. The show, on view from May 12 to August 6, 2026, highlights their individual practices—Mosier's intricate thread paintings that evolve into three-dimensional fabric sculptures, and Fearon's expressive drawings, paintings, and assemblages rooted in intuitive mark-making. Both artists incorporate found and reclaimed materials, and their work explores light, form, and the yin-yang of creative process. An opening reception is scheduled for June 18, 2026.