Must-See Museum Shows of 2026

In 2026, museums across Europe, North America and Asia are leaning into exhibitions built around reassessment and scale. The year’s programming is anchored by major retrospectives, first-time surveys and focused studies of influential artists from Marcel Duchamp’s long-overdue return to MoMA to career-spanning presentations by Tracey Emin, Daido Moriyama and Anish Kapoor. Elsewhere, institutions are committing space and time to artists whose work reshaped entire disciplines, including Dan Flavin’s architectural light works, Marina Abramović’s performance practice, Mariko Mori’s immersive, science-driven installations and a joint exhibition by Fondazione Prada featuring Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince.

Rather than thematic group shows, these exhibitions prioritize depth, historical context and sustained engagement with individual and collaborative practices. Below are 11 museum shows in 2026 that stand out for their scope, significance and institutional commitment.

Dan Flavin: Grids

David Zwirner

Jan. 15–Feb. 21, 2026
A focused exhibition devoted to Dan Flavin’s grid works from the mid-1970s, revisiting the moment when fluorescent light, repetition, and architectural precision became central to his practice. Installed to mirror their original 1976 presentation, the show foregrounds scale, placement and dedication, revealing both the formal rigor and personal networks embedded in Flavin’s work.

David Zwirner
519 W 19th St
New York, NY

Daido Moriyama: Retrospective

Daido Moriyama

Jan. 31–May 10, 2026
Spanning more than six decades, this expansive retrospective presents over 200 works tracing Daido Moriyama’s raw, high-contrast vision of postwar Japan. Photographs, films, and archival publications chart his engagement with urban life, mass media and reproduction, positioning Moriyama as a defining figure who blurred the boundaries between fine art, publishing, and street photography.

Foto Arsenal Wien
Arsenalplatz 1, 1030
Vienna, Austria

Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince: Helter Skelter

Fondazione Prada

May 9–Nov. 24, 2026

The Milan-based Fondazione Prada stages a two-person exhibition bringing together Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince at its Venice venue, opening the same day as the Venice Biennale. Curated by Nancy Spector, the exhibition is organized around a series of thematic juxtapositions that place the artists’ works in direct dialogue, examining overlapping subject matter and long-running obsessions across image-making, authorship, race, and American visual culture. The show also debuts a previously unseen, extended creative exchange between Jafa and Prince, positioning the exhibition as both a comparative study and a record of an ongoing conversation.


Fondazione Prada
Venezia, Ca’ Corner della Regina
Santa Croce 2215, 30135
Venice, Italy

Tracey Emin: A Second Life

Tate Modern

Feb. 27–Aug. 31, 2026
The largest exhibition of Tracey Emin’s career brings together more than 90 works across painting, sculpture, neon, textiles, video, and installation. Developed in close collaboration with the artist, the show traces decades of confessional practice shaped by love, trauma, illness and survival, framing this moment as both reflection and renewal.

Tate Modern
Bankside
London SE1 9TG
United Kingdom

Marcel Duchamp

Museum Of Modern Art

Apr. 12–Aug. 22, 2026
The first major North American retrospective of Marcel Duchamp in over 50 years reassesses the artist who permanently altered the course of modern art. Organized chronologically, the exhibition spans painting, sculpture, film, and printed matter, from early Cubist works to the Readymades and late conceptual projects that continue to shape contemporary debates around authorship and meaning.

Museum of Modern Art
11 W 53rd St
New York, NY

Derrick Adams: View Master

Ica Boston

Apr. 16–Sep. 7, 2026
This first full survey of Derrick Adams’s career brings together more than 100 works across painting, sculpture, collage, and installation. Drawing on pop culture, Black art history, and everyday leisure, Adams constructs vibrant scenes of rest, play, and imagination, transforming the galleries into immersive spaces shaped by joy, agency, and cultural memory.

Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
25 Harbor Shore Dr
Boston, MA

Marina Abramović: Transforming Energy

Gallerie Dell’accademia

May 6–Oct. 19, 2026
Opening during the Venice Biennale and coinciding with her 80th birthday, Abramović becomes the first living female artist to receive a major solo exhibition at the Gallerie dell’Accademia. The show reflects on decades of endurance, ritual, and presence, situating her performance practice within both contemporary art and Venetian history.

Gallerie dell’Accademia
Campo della Carità
1050, 30123 Venice
Italy

Björk: Echolalia

National Gallery Of Iceland

May 30–Sep. 19, 2026
An immersive exhibition of three installations expands Björk’s audiovisual language into a museum setting, offering a preview of her forthcoming album alongside works dedicated to her late mother. Presented theatrically, the show blurs music, ritual, and installation into a multisensory experience rooted in sound, memory, and environment.

National Gallery of Iceland
Fríkirkjuvegur 7
101 Reykjavík
Iceland

Anish Kapoor

Hayward Gallery

June 16–Oct. 18, 2026
Marking the Southbank Centre’s 75th anniversary, this landmark retrospective revisits Anish Kapoor’s long relationship with the Hayward Gallery. Monumental sculptures, void works and new large-scale installations occupy both the gallery and its terraces, exploring gravity, perception, and the body through feats of material and engineering.

Hayward Gallery
Southbank Centre, Belvedere Rd
London SE1 8XX
United Kingdom

Mariko Mori

Mori Art Museum

Oct. 31, 2026–Mar. 28, 2027
Mariko Mori’s first major exhibition in Japan in over two decades brings together installations, videos, sculptures, and archival material spanning her career. Blending quantum physics, Buddhism, neuroscience, and global mythologies, the exhibition unfolds as an immersive journey engaging with humanity, technology, and environmental responsibility.

Mori Art Museum
Roppongi Hills Mori Tower
6-10-1 Roppongi, Tokyo
Japan

Sophie Calle

Hamburger Bahnhof

Nov. 13, 2026–May 2, 2027
Opening on Hamburger Bahnhof’s 30th anniversary weekend, Sophie Calle’s solo exhibition presents new works shaped by Berlin and the building’s former life as a train station. Known for weaving autobiography, surveillance, and intimacy into her practice, Calle’s exhibition anchors the museum’s anniversary program, with several new works entering the permanent collection.

Hamburger Bahnhof
Invalidenstraße 50–51
10557 Berlin
Germany