Witness time and vessels of emotions and memories with avant-garde exhibitions featuring vast archives of artworks and landscapes.
In 2026, the art world invites us on a profound journey through memory, identity and perception. From Kuala Lumpur to Amsterdam, San Francisco to Seoul, this year’s most compelling exhibitions transform gallery spaces into portals where personal histories intersect with collective consciousness, and where colour itself becomes a language of emotional truth. These aren’t merely displays of masterworks—they’re immersive encounters with the ways artists capture the ephemeral.
Whether you’re drawn to contemporary explorations of heritage or the timeless techniques of impressionist masters, 2026 promises exhibitions that don’t just show you art—they reshape how you see the world.
The best art exhibitions to see in 2026 worldwide:
Crossing The Third Bridge, Wei-Ling Gallery and Wei-Ling Contemporary, Kuala Lumpur
MM Yu – Recollections (2001 – 2024) | Lenticular Photographic Prints
16 December 2025 – 24 January 2026.
Unfolding the fluid identities of the Chinese diaspora through art, this exhibition divulges the history of the past. Through installation, photography, moving image and performance, Malaysian and international artists of Chinese descent converged to occupy a space thick and fill it with memory’s dissonance: some excavate personal archives, sentiment-laden objects or extinct linguistic forms. Navigating complex heritage, experience and ancestral knowledge, this exhibition will reshape how you view migration and generational change.
Signs: Connecting Past and Future, Dongdaemun Design Plaza Museum, Seoul
Jean-Michel Basquiat art exhibition poster titled ″Signs: Connecting Past and Future″, Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) Museum
23 September 2025 – 31 January 2026
From street artist to fine artist, Jean-Michel Basquiat changed the trajectory of creativity and imagination with his narratives and prodigious, unique style. Set at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza Museum, curators will be presenting an unprecedented look at the creative evolution of the artist. With more than 70 paintings and drawings collection, alongside over 160 pages of the artist’s notebooks—all sourced from nine countries—visitors can encounter all of his art and thoughts.
Yellow. Beyond Van Gogh’s Colour, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers, 1889, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)
13 February – 17 May 2026
A master of the post-impressionist body of works, Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh radically changed the artistic landscape and culture with his emotional and vibrant brushstrokes. To honour the artist’s unique style and technique, the Van Gogh Museum will showcase an exhibition titled ‘Yellow’. Beyond Van Gogh’s Colour in the Spring. Filled to the brim with warm, exuberant and radiant pieces, the art exhibition will showcase yellow-hued artworks such as Vincent Van Gogh’s iconic piece, the Sunflowers. What makes it even more exceptional is that the exhibition will hold masterpieces from the 1900s curated by different artists, including a striking light installation by Danish artist Olafur Eliasson. Inspired by music, literature and fashion, the exhibition explores why yellow represented courage and renewal back in the 19th century, and what it means in the arts—it’s a spectacle that will shift your perspective on art and initiate conversations.
Tracy Emin
Tracey Emin My Bed 1998 © Tracey Emin. Photo credit: Courtesy The Saatchi Gallery, London / Photograph by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd
27 Feb – 21 August 2026
Charting four decades of Emin’s revolutionary masterworks—painting, video, textile, neon, text, sculpture, and installation—this exhibition persistently dismantles convention and wields the female body as a powerful tool to tell the narratives of passion, pain and healing. She seized the cultural landscape in the 1990s with provocative works, including her Turner Prize-nominated My Bed—a piece that ignited critical discourse and fundamentally questioned the very nature of art itself. In partnership with Gucci, this exhibition honours her unflinching, diary-like methodology as she poses essential questions about love, trauma and the autobiographical impulse. It also demonstrates her lifelong commitment to painting.
Monet and Venice, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, California
Claude Monet (French, 1840–1926), The Church of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice (detail), 1908. Oil on canvas. 26 1/8 x 36 7/8 in. (66.358 x 93.663). Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, The Lockton Collection, 70.76
21 March – 26 July, 2026
If you’re drawn to impressionism, the “Monet and Venice” exhibition features over 100 pieces of artwork that showcase his most luminous depictions of the floating city, Venice. Co-organised with the Brooklyn Museum, the exhibition will display works like Water Lilies, alongside Venetian interpretations by contemporaries like Manet and Renoir, plus the earlier master Canaletto. This spectacle provides an exceptional chance to witness Monet’s singular interpretation of Italy’s legendary lagoon city. Anyone captivated by the interplay between place and artistic vision would find this irresistible.
Frida: The Making of an Icon, Tate Modern, London
Frida Kahlo (Mexican, 1907–1954), Untitled [Self-portrait with thorn necklace and hummingbird], 1940. Oil on canvas mounted to board. Nickolas Muray Collection of Mexican Art, 66.6. Harry Ransom Center.
25 June 2026 – 3 Jan 2027
From well-loved paintings to documents, photographs and memorabilia, the “Frida: The Making of an Icon” exhibition lets you step into the life and legacy of the revolutionary artist. The spectacle shows you the many layers of the artist—the dedicated wife, the intellectual, the modern artist and the political activist. Organised by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, this exhibition sheds a fascinating light on the notion of freedom, the transformative role of women artists in the 20th century and diverse communities.
This story will be updated.
