Art will not wait
From the hushed, shadow-draped galleries of London to the avant-garde corridors of Brooklyn, this month’s most compelling exhibitions remind us why art and fashion remain the most enduring languages we have.
Scroll below for our curated guide to the exhibitions defining this month.
All the best art and fashion exhibitions to see in May 2026:
Zurbarán, National Gallery, London
X11832 Juan de Zurbarán (1620–1649) Flowers and Fruit in a Bowl, about 1645 Oil on canvas, 82.6 × 108.6 cm The Art Institute of Chicago, Wirt D. Walker Fund, 1947.511 (Photo: The Art Institute of Chicago)
2 May ‒ 23 August
In a quiet gesture of appreciation, the National Gallery in London is unveiling vivid, compelling works of Francisco de Zurbarán. Known for his dramatic realism and tangible spiritualism, this will be the first dedicated exhibition of the artist’s paintings at the museum since 1994. In the hushed and darkened galleries, strong light and deep shadows will reveal almost 50 paintings of faces, figures, fruits, fabrics and cutlery. With works spanning the entirety of his career, this is a rare chance to see Zurbarán’s work—a curator of humility and quiet stillness in his pieces—from the National Gallery, Musée du Louvre and the Art Institute of Chicago all under one roof.
A Path Carved By My Returning, Dia Space, Kuala Lumpur
2 May – 23 July 2026
Presented at Dia Space, A Path Carved By My Returning is an exercise in looking harder at what we have long stopped seeing. Working in oil pastels for the first time, artist Ilham Alshahab builds each piece from fully painted surfaces before carving into them—a subtractive process that mirrors the way a path is formed: through return, through memory, through the slow accumulation of presence. What emerges beneath the surface is not just line and detail, but something closer to revelation.
Iris van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses, Brooklyn Museum, New York
Iris van Herpen. Morphogenesis Dress, from the Sensory Seas collection, 2020. (Photo: David Ụzọchukwu)
16 May – 6 December
Bringing together more than 140 haute couture creations, the Iris van Herpen: Sculpting The Senses exhibition pays homage to one of today’s most revolutionary fashion designers. Evoking a nebulous sense of artistry, the showcase integrates the museum’s art and science collection with contemporary works using art, design and scientific artefacts to bridge the gap between the atelier and the laboratory—between nature and technology. A visionary who pushes relentlessly against the boundaries of what fashion can be, this exhibition shows us avant-garde designs that depict how Iris van Herpen defied the limits of fashion while giving a glimpse inside her artistic process, imagination and inspiration.
James McNeill Whistler, Tate Britain, London
James McNeill Whistler, Symphony in White, No. 2: The Little White Girl. 1864. (Photo: Tate)
21 May – 27 September
This summer, Tate Britain stages the most significant Whistler retrospective Europe has seen in thirty years—and it is nothing short of unmissable. 150 works spanning painting, drawing, printmaking and design converge in a once-in-a-generation exhibition of an artist who was, above all else, ahead of his time. From the iconic Portrait of the Artist’s Mother to a breathtaking assembly of nocturnes, previously unseen sketchbooks, and audacious full-length portraits, the exhibition traces the full arc of a restlessly experimental mind. A cosmopolitan provocateur who disrupted Victorian society in his pursuit of truth and beauty, Whistler forged a nomadic career across four continents, pioneering techniques that foretold the future of modern art.
