June 2026 Global Museum Exhibition Guide
31 exhibition entries across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific — including Frida Kahlo at Tate Modern, Van Gogh's two Sunflowers side by side in Philadelphia, Cartier jewels at NGV Melbourne, and Giacometti at the Met — each with key works, dates, and a "worth flying for?" verdict.
Summer is here — and the global museum calendar agrees. June 2026 is a genuine blockbuster month: 54 confirmed new openings across the UK, Continental Europe, North America, and Asia-Pacific, with an unusually strong concentration of major retrospectives. London alone opens 13 shows in a single month — more than any other city. Paris reopens its summer season at the Grand Palais with a splash, Melbourne secures a winter exclusive that's worth a transatlantic flight, and Tokyo opens its first large Hiroshi Sugimoto photography show in over two decades. If you're planning a cultural trip anywhere in the second half of the year, the exhibitions that open this month give you at least six months of runway.
Here is the June 2026 edition.
Unmissable: the top exhibitions of the month
These are the openings with the strongest case for booking a flight.
Frida: The Making of an Icon — Tate Modern, London
Opens June 25 · Closes January 3, 2027 · £25 / Tate members free / £5 for ages 16–25 1
No living artist (and very few dead ones) generates the kind of commercial and cultural saturation that Frida Kahlo does in 2026. What this exhibition attempts — and, judging by the scope of the loans — largely achieves, is to push past the icon and into the actual artist. Organized jointly with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, it brings together 130+ works including over 30 of Kahlo's own paintings, alongside 80+ contemporary artists whose practices were shaped by her. There are also garments, jewelry, photographs, and a dedicated section on "Fridamania" — 200+ commercial objects showing exactly how a 20th-century Mexican artist became a global brand. 1
The "multiple selves" framing — Kahlo as faithful wife, intellectual, modernist, political activist — is deliberately structured to resist the flattening of the icon. Lead global support from Bank of America. A Michelin-starred Mexican tasting menu by KOL chef Santiago Lastra runs at the Tate restaurant June 25–August 31 for those who want to make a full evening of it.
Worth flying for? Yes. Large Kahlo surveys are infrequent outside Mexico; this one runs seven months, meaning a tight January window exists for those who miss the summer crush.
CARTIER: Melbourne Winter Masterpieces® 2026 — NGV International, Melbourne
Opens June 12 · Closes October 4, 2026 · Adult AUD $43 / NGV members AUD $38 2
This is the most logistically compelling exhibition of the month: Melbourne is the only venue globally, and it runs as a winter exclusive through October. The exhibition — created by the V&A London in partnership with NGV and Cartier — presents nearly 400 jewels, gems, and jewellery objects spanning Cartier's early 20th-century beginnings through contemporary creations. Works were commissioned, owned, and worn by royalty and Hollywood stars. Loans from significant international collections sit alongside highlights from the Cartier Collection itself. 2
Exhibition design by Studio Sabine Marcelis and CLOUD — the Rotterdam-based design practices known for their light-saturated spaces — ensures this will be visually immersive even by gemstone exhibition standards. An audio guide narrated by Helen Molesworth, the V&A's Senior Curator of Jewellery and the show's originating curator, adds depth. Friday Nights (6–10pm, every Friday from June 12 to October 2) include live music, performances, and dining. 2
Worth flying for? Yes — and the Melbourne-only exclusivity is the decisive factor. There is no other venue. If you are in Australia or Asia-Pacific this winter, the combination of the NGV's architecture and this volume of Cartier material is not replicable elsewhere.
Van Gogh's Sunflowers: A Symphony in Blue and Yellow — Philadelphia Museum of Art
Opens June 6 · Closing date not announced · Free with museum admission (adult $30) 3
The premise here is genuinely unusual: two versions of Van Gogh's Sunflowers side by side for the first time. The 1888 version, from London's National Gallery (purchased by the Courtauld Fund in 1924), is on loan to Philadelphia alongside the museum's own 1889 version (from the Carroll S. Tyson, Jr. Collection). Van Gogh painted the 1888 version to decorate Gauguin's room at the Yellow House in Arles; the 1889 version was made a few months later as an intentional repetition. 3
Curator Jennifer Thompson — the Gisela and Dennis Alter Curator of European Painting — built the exhibition around what you learn when you have both on the same wall: how Van Gogh modulated color, varied brushwork, and made subtle changes across the repetition. The two works are included in the museum's standard admission, with no surcharged ticket.
Worth flying for? Yes — this juxtaposition has never been staged before. The closing date has not been announced; book soon rather than counting on an extended run.
Anish Kapoor — Hayward Gallery, London
Opens June 16 · Closes October 18, 2026 · £22 / free for Hayward members 4
Ralph Rugoff — who has directed the Hayward Gallery for 20 years — curated this retrospective as his final show at the institution. For his swansong, he has assembled Kapoor's most demanding work: the signature mirror-polished stainless steel sculptures that bend space and reflection, the Vantablack pieces (using the world's most light-absorptive material, making forms appear to dissolve into pure void), and the bottomless "void" installations from the early 1990s. New works include a large red inflatable that pushes out of its room. 4
The show is the centerpiece of the Southbank Centre's 75th anniversary summer season. Rugoff's directorial legacy at the Hayward includes the 2019 Venice Biennale — the career context makes this particular closing act worth paying attention to.
Worth flying for? Yes, if you haven't seen major Kapoor. The Hayward's brutalist concrete galleries are one of the few spaces where his void-works land with full effect. Open Tuesday–Sunday; closed Mondays; Saturday hours extend to 8pm.
Giacometti in the Temple of Dendur — The Met, New York
Opens June 12 · Closes September 8, 2026 · Free with museum admission (adult $30) 5
This is a rare instance of a site-specific installation that actually earns the description. 14 Giacometti bronze and plaster sculptures are installed inside and around the Temple of Dendur — the 1st-century BCE Egyptian temple gifted to the United States and permanently housed in its own glass-walled gallery at the Met. Giacometti spent his entire career absorbed by ancient Egyptian art; the influence is legible in his elongated figures. This is the first concentrated display of his work in that space, organized jointly with the Fondation Giacometti in Paris. 5
The Temple of Dendur gallery is already one of the more striking spaces in American museumology — the glass enclosure overlooks a reflecting pool, and the temple is lit differently at different hours. Adding Giacometti's figures to that environment is the kind of curatorial decision that justifies the existence of art museums.
Worth flying for? Yes, if you're in the Northeast. This combination won't be staged again.
Grand Palais, Paris: Leandro Erlich + Laure Prouvost
Leandro Erlich: Opens June 2 · Closes September 6 · Tickets via Grand Palais website 6
Laure Prouvost — We Felt A Star Dying: Opens June 10 · Closes July 26 · Under the glass Nef 7
The Grand Palais' summer season delivers two reasons to go to Paris in June — each operating at a different scale but both working with illusion and perception.
Leandro Erlich (b. 1973, Argentina) has captivated crowds in Tokyo, Miami, and Milan; this is his first major retrospective in France. His 14 monumental installations include a Haussmann-style building tipped onto its side for visitors to climb, levitating boats, and architectures transformed into infinite labyrinths. The organizing question is deceptively simple: "Do you believe what you see?" 6 Curator Fabrice Bousteau chose to show Erlich at his most formally rigorous — these are not novelty tricks but thought-through spatial arguments.
In the Nef (the Grand Palais's monumental glass-roofed central hall), Laure Prouvost — who won the Turner Prize in 2013 and represented France at Venice in 2019 — has installed We Felt A Star Dying: a multi-element work combining video, sculpture, sound, scent, and light, the result of two years of collaborative research into quantum physics with philosopher Tobias Rees and scientist Hartmut Neven. The centerpiece is "The Beginning," a kinetic sculpture with six limbs at the center of which plays the video work. Meteorite-like "Cute Bits" (a pun on qubits) are suspended from the roof, some emitting voices and a metallic scent. 7
Worth flying for? Yes, on the Erlich retrospective alone; the Prouvost is a bonus that closes in late July.
Metamorphoses. Ovid and the Arts — Galleria Borghese, Rome
Opens June 23 · Closes September 20, 2026 · Advance booking required (standard Borghese timed entry) 8
The Galleria Borghese — which set an all-time visitor record of 630,759 in 2025 — opens its summer blockbuster on June 23. 8 Curated by Francesca Cappelletti (Director of the Galleria Borghese) and Frits Scholten, the show pairs Bernini's Apollo and Daphne and Pluto and Proserpina — already permanent in the collection and among the most kinetically explosive sculptures in existence — with loans of Correggio, Michelangelo, Titian, Rubens, Poussin, Rodin, and Brancusi. The exhibition previously ran at the Rijksmuseum (February–May 2026) but was reconfigured specifically for the Borghese's collection, spaces, and history — the Roman version is its own thing.
The subject is metamorphosis as a universal principle through Ovid's Metamorphoses, the foundational text through which Western artists have processed transformation, loss, and desire for two thousand years. At the Borghese, the conceit is particularly vivid: Bernini's sculptures of bodies mid-transformation — Daphne's fingers becoming branches, Persephone's flesh dimpling under Pluto's grip — are the literal subject matter of Ovid's text.
Worth flying for? Yes. The Borghese requires advance booking under any circumstances; timed-entry means the galleries never feel crowded. A morning at the Borghese followed by the Ovid show is one of the best art days available in Europe this summer.
London: 13 openings, the summer's densest city
London is the most productive city for exhibitions in June 2026, with 13 openings concentrated in a two-week window. Several can be stacked efficiently on a single trip.
Julio Le Parc: Light. Colour. Action. — Tate Modern
Opens June 11 · Closes May 3, 2027 · £15 / free for Tate members 9
The Argentine artist Julio Le Parc (b. 1928) has been based in Paris since 1958 and is one of the foundational figures of kinetic and participatory art. This seven-decade retrospective at Tate Modern — occupying the George Economou Gallery — spans from his 1950s geometric paintings through the light-refracting, mirror-based kinetic sculptures that became his signature: works that use motion and reflected light to draw the viewer into the piece physically. Le Parc was at the center of the 1960s Parisian avant-garde and maintained consistent connections to Latin American political movements throughout. The retrospective covers both the formal innovations and that political context. Sponsored by Anthropic.
Marilyn Monroe: A Portrait — National Portrait Gallery
Opens June 4 · Closes September 6, 2026 · £25–27.50 (weekdays) / £27–30 (weekends, including donation); under-25 CLUB NPG members £5 10
June 1, 2026 would have been Marilyn Monroe's 100th birthday. The National Portrait Gallery's response is a substantial survey built around the photographic portrait — more than 20 photographers including Cecil Beaton, Philippe Halsman, Eve Arnold, Inge Morath, Richard Avedon, Sam Shaw, and André de Dienes — alongside paintings and works by Andy Warhol, Pauline Boty, Marlene Dumas, James Gill, and Audrey Flack. Personal items including scripts and garments are also included. The NPG partnered with The Estate of Marilyn Monroe LLC. Monday 10:30am–2pm is Pay What You Can. 10
Hepworth in Colour — Courtauld Gallery
Opens June 12 · Closes September 6, 2026 · £18 / free for Courtauld members / half price with Art Fund card 11
Barbara Hepworth (1903–1975) told her son-in-law Alan Bowness: "In a way my colour has been accepted, but never understood." 11 This is the first exhibition to specifically address what she meant: approximately 20 sculptures and 30 drawings from the 1940s–60s, assembled from international collections as far as Australia and Hong Kong, that show how Hepworth used interior paint and coloured strings in pierced sculptures to create an active relationship between inside and outside. Works include Eidos (1947, from NGV Melbourne), Sculpture with Colour (Oval Form) Pale Blue and Red (1943, The Hepworth Wakefield), Pelagos (1946, Tate), and Wave (1943–44, National Galleries of Scotland). The companion free exhibition Studio Prints: An Artists' Workshop (Courtauld, through September 13) shows the London print studio of Dorothea Wight and Marc Balakjian alongside prints by Lucian Freud, Frank Auerbach, and Paula Rego.
Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica — Barbican Art Gallery
Opens June 11 · Closes September 6, 2026 · £19 12
The first exhibition to systematically address how Pan-Africanism shaped visual art and culture — from the 1920s to the present, across Africa, Brazil, the Caribbean, North America, and Western Europe. Over 300 works including paintings, installations, posters, journals, and films from 40+ artists: El Anatsui, Kader Attia, Farid Belkahia, Christopher Cozier, Marlene Dumas, Ibrahim El-Salahi, Dumile Feni, Samuel Fosso, David Hammons, Lubaina Himid, William Kentridge, Wifredo Lam, Simone Leigh, Chris Ofili, The Otolith Group, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, among others. 12 A full-season program of film screenings (from July 8), concerts (June 5–July 25), and talks (June 12–August 16) runs alongside.
M.C. Escher. The Exhibition — Somerset House
Opens June 5 · Closes September 6, 2026 · £16.50 13
London's first large-scale Escher retrospective — 150+ original works from early landscapes through the mature optical illusion prints for which he is best known: Day and Night, Relativity, Hand with Reflecting Sphere. Interactive zones allow visitors to work through the mathematics behind his spatial paradoxes. Tickets through Fever.
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2026
Opens June 16 · Closes August 23, 2026 · £23.50–25.50 14
The 258th consecutive Summer Exhibition — the longest-running open-submission show in the world, held annually since 1769. Approximately 1,200 works spanning painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, architecture, and film submitted by members of the public, emerging artists, and Royal Academicians. Most works are available for purchase. New this year: Saturday late opening until 9pm (previously only Friday), and a Gin Bar operating Thursday–Sunday. Friends of the RA get preview access on June 13–15. 14
Quick hits: more London June openings
| Exhibition | Venue | Dates | Ticket | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Sun and The Moon | Saatchi Gallery | June 5–Sept 8 | £13.50 | teamLab, Luke Jerram, historical artifacts; 9 galleries across 2 floors |
| John Constable in Hampstead | Burgh House | June 11–Sept 20 | Free | Constable's 250th birth year; rare oils, mezzotints, letters from his Hampstead years |
| Henry Moore: Monumental Nature | Kew Gardens | Ongoing to Jan 31, 2027 | With garden entry ~£20 | 30 outdoor sculptures + 90 indoor; Wine Walks and After Hours events in June |
| The Music is Black: A British Story | V&A East Museum, Stratford | Ongoing to Jan 3, 2027 | £22.50–24.50 | 125 years of British Black music history; V&A East's new museum in the Olympic Park |
Continental Europe
Prado, Madrid: two concurrent exhibitions worth a dedicated trip
The Prado's June 2026 programming offers two reasons to go — different in subject but both at the top of their respective categories.
In the Italian Manner. Spain and the Mediterranean Gothic, 1320–1420 (opens May 26, through September 20, Fundación BBVA sole sponsor) presents over 100 works in diverse techniques — painting, sculpture, goldsmithing, illuminated manuscripts, embroidery, silk — from 31 Spanish and 25 international institutions. 15 Curator Joan Molina Figueras argues that the Italian Gothic style became a "lingua franca" that Hispanic masters translated and adapted rather than simply received — the exhibition challenges the standard story of medieval art as radiating outward from Italian centers to passive peripheries. Thirteen works were restored specifically for this show. 15
Prado. 21st Century (opens June 9, through September 27) traces the museum's transformation over the first quarter of the 2000s, presenting it as — in the curatorial text — "undoubtedly its period of maximum development," with acquisitions from the last 25 years arranged chronologically and thematically. 16 Curated by Javier Arnaldo (Director of the Study Centre) and Javier Barón (Head of 19th-century Painting). Both exhibitions are in the Jerónimos Building.
Worth the trip? If you haven't been to the Prado recently, June 2026 is an unusually good time: two substantial new shows, the permanent collection, and the Felix Gonzalez-Torres retrospective running concurrently at Reina Sofía (May 27–October 12). Madrid's museums are tightly clustered on the Paseo del Prado.
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam: Vincent's Path to Fame
Opens June 12 · Closes September 6, 2026 · Van Gogh Museum admission 17
"This summer, discover the story behind the myth." 17 The Van Gogh Museum turns to its own origin story: how Vincent van Gogh — who sold one painting in his lifetime — became the most recognizable artist in the world. The answer lies with his brother Theo, Theo's wife Jo van Gogh-Bonger, and their son Engineer Vincent, who together transformed a private collection into a museum. The exhibition focuses on the decisions made in the decades after Van Gogh's death in 1890 that created the current state of his reputation.
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam: two June openings
Carel Visser in the Rijksmuseum Gardens (June 5–October 25) is the first edition of what the Rijksmuseum plans as an annual garden sculpture series devoted to Dutch artists. Carel Visser (1928–2015) was the foremost Dutch sculptor of the second half of the 20th century — influenced initially by Brancusi and Giacometti, then developing a distinctly personal abstract style. Over 15 outdoor works are drawn from Dutch museums, private collections, and public spaces. 18
Ed van der Elsken (June 19–September 13) is a career survey of the foremost Dutch photographer of the 20th century — street photographs, contact sheets, letters, book designs, and film clips from the complete archive acquired by the Rijksmuseum and Nederlands Fotomuseum in 2019. Van der Elsken "worked intuitively and experimentally, and frequently engaged directly with the people in front of his lens," according to the Rijksmuseum. 18
Vienna: ALBERTINA's 250th anniversary season
The ALBERTINA Museum marks its 250th anniversary (founded 1776 by Albert of Saxe-Teschen) with two substantial June openings.
Collecting for the Future (June 19–October 11) is the first exhibition to place women at the center of the ALBERTINA's founding narrative, focusing on Marie Christine — favorite daughter of Empress Maria Theresia — and her role in systematically building the collection alongside her husband Albert. It includes some of the collection's most famous holdings, notably Albrecht Dürer's Young Hare (1502). 19
VASARELY – ADRIAN: Moving Images (June 26–November 11, at ALBERTINA MODERN) brings together Victor Vasarely (1906–1997) and Marc Adrian (1930–2008) — the two central figures of Austrian and European op art. The ALBERTINA's curatorial text describes Vasarely's motifs as having "presaged the aesthetics of video games." 20 Marc Adrian was called the "father of media art" by theorist Peter Weibel.
Paris: further June openings
The Grand Palais is the summit, but Paris has several more openings worth noting.
Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection (Rotunda, June 4–September 20): Japanese artist Fujiko Nakaya — who has been making fog sculptures since 1970 — fills the Rotunda of Tadao Ando's circular building with her Cloud #07156 fog installation, filling the interior with water vapor and creating an environment that shifts as you move through it. Free Nuit Blanche event on June 6 (5pm–midnight, reservation required). 21
Musée Maillol (June 5–September 6): The first major retrospective dedicated to Gianni Versace — the Milanese fashion designer who was shot in 1997 and whose aesthetic of baroque glamour and sensuality remains one of the most recognizable in fashion history. The Musée Maillol describes Versace as "a flamboyant and visionary figure...who marked his era with a bold aesthetic where glamour, sensuality and baroque opulence meet." 22
MEP — Maison Européenne de la Photographie (June 10–September 13): The first retrospective devoted to Camille Vivier (b. 1977), a French photographer whose practice bridges fine art and fashion photography. Around 100 works — silver gelatin prints, digital prints, Polaroids — explore female representation and the body through recurring models, in dialogue with references as distinct as H.R. Giger's biomechanical designs for Alien. Ticket €13 / €8 reduced. Concurrent at MEP: a William Klein retrospective (June 10–September 13). 23
St. Petersburg: the Hermitage opens to contemporary India
Sediments of Becoming (June 4–October 4) is described by observers as "a significant act of cultural arrival" — the State Hermitage Museum's first-ever exhibition of contemporary Indian art in its 260-year history. Curated jointly by Marina Schulz (Head of Contemporary Art, Hermitage) and Tuntila "Tunty" Chauhan (Threshold Art Gallery, New Delhi), the show presents 11 Indian artists — including Manjunath Kamath, Afrah Shafiq, Gargi Raina, Lakshmi Madhavan, Pushpamala N., and Sumakshi Singh — whose new works were in some cases shaped by a 2025 residency engagement with the Hermitage collections. 24 Contemporary works are placed in dialogue with Hermitage icons, frescoes, and decorative arts.
A second Hermitage opening, Opening the Palace Chambers: Art at the Court of the Emir of Bukhara (June 5–October 4), presents 67 exhibits from Uzbek museum collections and the Hermitage — decorative arts, jewellery, and palace household items from the Emirate of Bukhara. 25
Basel and Rome
Fondation Beyeler, Basel (June 13–August 31): Various Signs — a collection presentation running alongside the major Pierre Huyghe exhibition (which opened May 24) — brings together works from the Beyeler's permanent collection that engage with signs and meaning, with a dedicated room for Georg Baselitz. 26
North America
New York: two Met openings worth combining
The Metropolitan Museum of Art opens two exhibitions in the first two weeks of June, both included in standard admission ($30 adults).
Musical Bodies (June 7–September 27) is described by the Met as the first large-scale exhibition to explore the relationship between musical instruments and the human body, assembling approximately 130 objects spanning 4,000 years: Egyptian clappers, Titian and Degas paintings with musical subjects, and Prince's iconic guitar. The exhibition is organized around Gallery 199. Member previews begin June 4. 27
Giacometti in the Temple of Dendur (June 12–September 8) is covered in the Unmissable section above. Between these two and the ongoing Raphael retrospective (which closes June 28 — its final weeks), June is an unusually strong month for the Met. 5
Guggenheim Pop: 1960 to Now — Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Opens June 5 · Closes January 10, 2027 · Museum admission 28
A two-phase presentation drawing on the Guggenheim's permanent collection: Pop Art from the 1960s and its reverberations through six subsequent decades, from Andy Warhol to Maurizio Cattelan. The Guggenheim's spiral rotunda — Frank Lloyd Wright's only completed museum building — gives Pop art's flat, high-contrast imagery an unusual vertical display environment.
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas
Keith Haring in 3D opens June 6 · Closes January 25, 2027 · $18 / free for members, veterans, SNAP participants, and under-18 29
The first exhibition focused exclusively on Keith Haring's three-dimensional work opens alongside the museum's major campus expansion (public opening June 6–7). Haring is typically understood as a graphic artist working on two-dimensional surfaces; this show argues for a parallel practice of sculptures, totems, masks, skateboards, garments, speakers, and — perhaps the exhibition's most memorable object — a 1963 Buick Special sedan painted with his signature imagery. A major Phaidon/Monacelli catalogue accompanies. The expansion makes June 6–7 at Crystal Bridges a genuinely distinctive opening event. 29
Worth flying for? For anyone who hasn't made the pilgrimage to Crystal Bridges — which opened in 2011 in Alice Walton's hometown and has become a significant institution by any measure — the combination of the new galleries, the Haring show, and the museum's permanent collection makes June 6 an especially compelling date. Bentonville is reachable from Dallas or Kansas City.
West Coast: four museums opening in late June
de Young Museum, San Francisco (June 27–May 14, 2028): Nengi Omuku: The Gathering — the first US solo museum exhibition by Nigerian painter Nengi Omuku, whose dream-like scenes imagine better futures for young Nigerians, painted on handwoven sanyan (a Yoruba textile used historically in significant ceremonies). The de Young places Omuku's paintings in conversation with sculptures and textiles from its Africa collection. Opening Day artist talk: June 27 at 1pm. 30
MFA Houston (June 21–September 13): Hew Locke: Passages — a solo exhibition of the British-Guyanese artist whose densely layered mixed-media work addresses colonialism, power, and identity. Key work: Veni, Vidi, Vici (The Queen's Coat of Arms) (2004), in textile, plastic, oil stick, artificial hair, and plywood. 31
Portland Art Museum (June 20–January 31, 2027): Nine Women Artists — inspired by Katherine Ace's 9 Portraits as a foundational starting point, the exhibition features works by the nine artists depicted in Ace's portrait painting. 32
OCMA, Costa Mesa (June 27, public opening): Raymond Saunders: Flowers from a Black Garden and Staging California in Early Hollywood open simultaneously in a free all-day event with tours, live music, and hands-on artmaking. Orange County Museum of Art is UC Irvine's Langson museum. 33
Washington D.C.: two Smithsonian openings
National Gallery of Art (June 6–December 6, East Building): American Icon: The US Flag in Art — approximately 30 works from the late 19th century to the present, tracing how artists have reimagined, challenged, and reclaimed the American flag as subject matter. Part of NGA's America 250 programming. Curated by Kanitra Fletcher. The NGA is always free. 34
National Museum of Asian Art / Freer Gallery (opens June 27): A Museum in the Making — Charles Lang Freer, the Detroit industrialist who founded America's first national art museum, used his own home as a "living laboratory" for testing how art should be displayed. This Smithsonian 250th anniversary exhibition explores those experiments, curated by Diana Greenwold. 35
Last chance: Raphael at the Met closes June 28
Raphael: Sublime Poetry — the first comprehensive Raphael retrospective in the United States, with more than 170 works — closes at the Met on June 28. 27 If you've been deferring this visit, that deadline is firm.
Asia-Pacific
HIROSHI SUGIMOTO: EXTINCTION — MOMAT, Tokyo
Opens June 16 · Closes September 13, 2026 · Adults ¥2,300 / advance ¥2,100 36
The first large-scale solo exhibition of Hiroshi Sugimoto's photographs in Japan since 2005 — approximately 60 gelatin silver prints arranged in three chapters: "Time, Light and Memory," "Conceptual Forms," and "Extinction." All 13 of Sugimoto's photographic series are represented, with new works from his Dioramas, Seascapes, and Stylized Sculpture series on display for the first time in Japan. The Dioramas series — in which Sugimoto photographed taxidermied animals in natural history museum dioramas, resulting in images that look indistinguishable from wildlife photography — was conceived in 1975 and took Sugimoto over 50 years to complete. 36
The "Extinction" of the title carries a double meaning: the extinction of species documented in the dioramas, and the extinction of gelatin silver photography itself as digital processes replace it. A satellite display in MOMAT's Collection Gallery shows all Sugimoto works in the permanent collection alongside The Sugimoto Notebooks, which reveal his darkroom processes. Special sponsor: Dior. Friday and Saturday hours extend to 8pm. 36
Worth flying for? For anyone with a serious interest in photography, yes. Sugimoto's work is widely collected and reproduced; seeing this volume in the institution where much of it was developed, with the Notebooks, is a different experience from the scattered presentation usually available.
Picasso, through the Eyes of Paul Smith — NACT Tokyo
Opens June 10 · Closes September 21, 2026 · Adults ¥2,400 / advance ¥2,200 37
The National Art Center, Tokyo presents works from the Musée National Picasso-Paris collection with an unusual curatorial conceit: British fashion designer Paul Smith conceived the entire art direction. Works are arranged in loose chronological order, but the exhibition space is filled with the vivid colors and playful energy characteristic of Smith's clothing and design work — presenting Picasso through a contemporary fashion designer's aesthetic sensibility. Co-organized by NACT, the Musée national Picasso-Paris, Nikkei Inc., TBS Television, and TV Tokyo. 37
Avatar: Forms of Vishnu — Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney
Opens June 20 · Closes October 5, 2026 · Adults AUD $35 / weekends $37 38
A centuries-spanning survey of art and storytelling from South and Southeast Asia organized around Vishnu — the Hindu deity who preserves order in the universe — and his many avatars (the Sanskrit word means "descent"). Works drawn from collections in Australia, India, Cambodia, Switzerland, and the UK range from Indian miniature paintings and bronze sculpture to photographs and contemporary art by Gitanjali Das, Nalini Malani, Pushpamala N., Sumakshi Singh, and others. The exhibition traces Vishnu's avatars: Matsya (fish), Kurma (tortoise), Krishna, Rāma, and Kalki (the future avatar yet to come). Wednesday nights offer 2-for-1 tickets from 5–10pm. 38
Also running in Asia-Pacific in June
- Mori Art Museum, Tokyo — Ron Mueck (through September 23): the Australian hyperrealist sculptor's first exhibition in Japan in 18 years, including the floor installation Mass (2016–17, loan from NGV Melbourne) — dozens of human skulls at a scale that makes the gallery feel genuinely unsettling. Presented with Fondation Cartier. 39
- MMCA Seoul — Damien Hirst (through June 28): Asia's first large-scale Damien Hirst retrospective, closing at the end of June. Tickets ₩8,000. 40
- Forbidden City, Beijing — Divine Steeds: Horses in Painting and Calligraphy (through June 21, Hall of Literary Brilliance): 55 works including 20 National Level-1 cultural relics, among them Li Gonglin's handscroll depicting 1,247 horses. Free with Palace Museum entry (¥60). 41
- National Museum of China, Beijing — Sanxingdui-Jinsha: 200+ artifacts through August 18, with the Sun and Immortal Birds gold ornament on display from June 13. 42
The short list: worth flying for?
| Museum | Exhibition | Dates | Ticket | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tate Modern, London | Frida: The Making of an Icon | June 25–Jan 3, 2027 | £25 | Yes — major retrospective; 130+ works including 30+ Kahlo paintings |
| NGV, Melbourne | CARTIER | June 12–Oct 4 | AUD $43 | Yes — only venue globally; 400 objects |
| Philadelphia Museum | Van Gogh's Sunflowers | Opens June 6 | With admission $30 | Yes — first time two versions shown together |
| Hayward Gallery, London | Anish Kapoor | June 16–Oct 18 | £22 | Yes — director's farewell; best void-works in ideal space |
| The Met, New York | Giacometti in the Temple of Dendur | June 12–Sept 8 | With admission $30 | Yes — unique site-specific; won't recur |
| Grand Palais, Paris | Leandro Erlich | June 2–Sept 6 | See Grand Palais | Yes — first France retrospective; 14 monumental works |
| Galleria Borghese, Rome | Metamorphoses. Ovid and the Arts | June 23–Sept 20 | Timed entry required | Yes — Bernini plus international loans; advance booking essential |
| MOMAT, Tokyo | Hiroshi Sugimoto: Extinction | June 16–Sept 13 | ¥2,300 | Yes — first large Sugimoto Japan show since 2005 |
| Crystal Bridges, Bentonville | Keith Haring in 3D | June 6–Jan 25, 2027 | $18 | If nearby — first Haring 3D survey; museum expansion opening |
| NACT, Tokyo | Picasso, through Paul Smith | June 10–Sept 21 | ¥2,400 | If in Tokyo — distinctive curatorial angle; strong Picasso-Paris loans |
| Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam | Vincent's Path to Fame | June 12–Sept 6 | Museum admission | If in Amsterdam — origin story well told; pairs with Rijksmuseum Ed van der Elsken |
| Courtauld Gallery, London | Hepworth in Colour | June 12–Sept 6 | £18 | If in London — overdue reassessment; strong international loans |
Cover image: Keith Haring, Robot, 1983 — enamel and fluorescent paint on incised wood, 10ft×5ft×5ft, shown at Crystal Bridges for Keith Haring in 3D. Image from Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
References
- 1Tate Modern: Frida: The Making of an Icon
tate.org.uk
- 2NGV: CARTIER
ngv.vic.gov.au
- 3Philadelphia Museum of Art: Van Gogh's Sunflowers
philamuseum.org
- 4Southbank Centre: Anish Kapoor
southbankcentre.co.uk
- 5
- 6Grand Palais: Leandro Erlich
grandpalais.fr
- 7Grand Palais: Laure Prouvost
grandpalais.fr
- 8Galleria Borghese: The 2026 Programme
galleriaborghese.cultura.gov.it
- 9Tate Modern: Julio Le Parc
tate.org.uk
- 10
- 11Courtauld Gallery: Hepworth in Colour
courtauld.ac.uk
- 12Barbican: Project a Black Planet
barbican.org.uk
- 13Somerset House: M.C. Escher. The Exhibition
somersethouse.org.uk
- 14Royal Academy: Summer Exhibition 2026
royalacademy.org.uk
- 15Museo del Prado: In the Italian Manner
museodelprado.es
- 16Museo del Prado: Prado. 21st Century
museodelprado.es
- 17Van Gogh Museum: Vincent's Path to Fame
vangoghmuseum.nl
- 18Rijksmuseum: Exhibition Programme 2026
rijksmuseum.nl
- 19ALBERTINA Museum: Collecting for the Future
albertina.at
- 20ALBERTINA Museum: VASARELY – ADRIAN
albertina.at
- 21Pinault Collection: Bourse de Commerce
pinaultcollection.com
- 22Musée Maillol: Gianni Versace Retrospective
museemaillol.com
- 23MEP: Camille Vivier
mep-fr.org
- 24Asia Art Council: The Hermitage Opens Its Doors to Contemporary India
asiaartcouncil.com
- 25
- 26Fondation Beyeler: Exhibitions
fondationbeyeler.ch
- 27The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Musical Bodies
metmuseum.org
- 28Guggenheim: Guggenheim Pop: 1960 to Now
guggenheim.org
- 29Crystal Bridges: Keith Haring in 3D
crystalbridges.org
- 30FAMSF: Nengi Omuku: The Gathering
famsf.org
- 31MFA Houston: Now on View
mfah.org
- 32Portland Art Museum: Exhibitions on view
portlandartmuseum.org
- 33OCMA: Public Opening Summer 2026
ocma.art
- 34
- 35
- 36MOMAT: HIROSHI SUGIMOTO: EXTINCTION
momat.go.jp
- 37
- 38Art Gallery of NSW: Avatar: Forms of Vishnu
artgallery.nsw.gov.au
- 39Mori Art Museum: Current Exhibitions
mori.art.museum
- 40MMCA: Damien Hirst
mmca.go.kr
- 41
- 42WeChat: National Museum of China Li Jingxun exhibition
mp.weixin.qq.com
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