Autumn is traditionally the most exciting season in the international art calendar, as museums and galleries unveil their most ambitious exhibitions alongside the return of collectors, curators and artists from the summer break. The 2026 autumn art season is no exception. Galleries and museums in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, New York and Mexico are presenting a great selection including landmark retrospectives of pioneering artists and major institutional debuts, while an entirely new cultural destination will be revealed in Santander.
Whether you’re planning an art-focused city break or following the international exhibition circuit, her are some of the most exciting exhibitions to visit this autumn.
London: Amar Kanwar at Serpentine, Nan Goldin at Hayward Gallery, Khalif Tahir Thompson at Victoria Miro and Cindy Sherman at Hauser & Wirth
London’s autumn programme reflects the city’s enduring strength in both contemporary art and photography. The Hayward Gallery presents the long-awaited return of Nan Goldin with her first UK institutional exhibition in more than twenty years. Opening in November as part of the Southbank Centre’s 75th anniversary celebrations, the exhibition combines photographs, moving image works and a major new film, reaffirming Goldin’s unparalleled ability to transform deeply personal stories of love, grief, addiction and queer identity into universally resonant works of art.
At the Serpentine, Indian artist and filmmaker Amar Kanwar transforms Serpentine North into an immersive visual and sonic environment centred on the premiere of The Charcoal Man, a new seven-screen installation. Kanwar’s poetic explorations of memory, justice and ecology continue his distinctive practice of blending documentary, cinema and installation.
Meanwhile, Victoria Miro presents new paintings by Khalif Tahir Thompson, whose richly textured domestic scenes explore Black identity, intimacy and everyday life with extraordinary colour and psychological depth.
Photography takes another intriguing turn at Hauser & Wirth London, where Cindy Sherman debuts works from her new Fabric Matrons series. Continuing her lifelong investigation into constructed identity, Sherman examines ageing, visibility and femininity through elaborately staged portraits that blur the boundaries between fashion photography, portraiture and performance.
Cindy Sherman at Hauser & Wirth London
13 October – 23 December 2026
Nan Goldin at Hayward Gallery
24 November 2026 – 7 March 2027
Amar Kanwar at Serpentine North
23 September 2026 – 31 January 2027
Chromogenic color print
106.7 x 159.7 cm / 42 x 62 7/8 in
© 2026 Cindy Sherman / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth
New York: Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock at The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s autumn programme places performance and visual art into dialogue through its ambitious Met Live Arts season, but one exhibition stands out above all: Krasner and Pollock: Past Continuous.
Rather than retelling the familiar mythology surrounding Jackson Pollock, the exhibition re-examines one of modern art’s most influential creative partnerships by placing Lee Krasner firmly at its centre. Running from October through January, the exhibition traces how both artists continually influenced one another while developing radically individual artistic languages, offering a more nuanced understanding of Abstract Expressionism.
Krasner and Pollock: Past Continuous at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
October 4, 2026 to January 31, 2027
Paris: Alexander Calder at Hauser & Wirth Paris and ‘Remember Me’, Masterpieces of Photography from the Pinault Collection
Paris delivers two of the season’s highlights. At Hauser & Wirth Paris, Calder: François Premier revisits a pivotal period in Alexander Calder’s career following his return to France during the early 1950s. Monumental mobiles, delicate gouaches and rarely exhibited sculptures reveal the remarkable inventiveness of an artist whose work continues to redefine the relationship between sculpture, movement and space.
Meanwhile, the Pinault Collection presents a major new photography exhibition at the Bourse de Commerce. ‘Remember Me’ features masterpieces of photography from the Pinault Collection from a stellar cast of photographers including Man Ray, Barbara Kruger, Annie Leibovitz and Claude Cahun. The exhibition opens during the bicentenary year of photography, and reinforces the institution’s growing reputation for ambitious presentations exploring the evolving role of photography in contemporary artistic practice.
Curated by Matthieu Humery, Advisor for Photography of the Pinault Collection, with the collaboration of Lola Regard, Projects Officer, “Remember Me” takes its name from an original work by Barbara Kruger that will be shown in the Rotunda of the museum. The exhibition will feature 700 works by more than 70 artists.
Alexander Calder at Hauser & Wirth Paris
19 October – 19 December 2026
‘Remember Me’, Masterpieces of Photography from the Pinault Collection is at the Bourse de Commerce, Paris from 7 October to 31 December 2026.
Gouache and ink on paper29 3/4″ x 41 1/2”
© 2026 Calder Foundation, New York / ADAGP, Paris
Courtesy of Calder Foundation, New York / Art Resource, New York
Amsterdam: Robert Zandvliet at GRIMM Gallery
The opening of GRIMM’s new Amsterdam gallery is marked by a solo exhibition from Dutch painter Robert Zandvliet.
His Paradaidha series transforms the idea of the garden into expansive, almost abstract landscapes composed of layered greens and shifting fields of colour. Drawing inspiration from Claude Monet’s Nymphéas, Zandvliet moves effortlessly between observation and abstraction, creating meditative paintings that reward prolonged looking while questioning how nature is represented through paint.
Robert Zandvliet at GRIMM Amsterdam
September 5 – October 3, 2026
Hong Kong: Lucio Fontana at Hauser & Wirth
Hauser & Wirth Hong Kong presents one of the year’s most significant surveys of Lucio Fontana, focusing on the revolutionary Buchi (Holes) and Tagli (Cuts) works that transformed post-war art.
Curated by Luca Massimo Barbero in collaboration with the Fondazione Lucio Fontana, Spatialism: Pioneering the Contemporary explores how Fontana rejected the traditional picture plane in favour of works that physically opened the canvas to light, movement and infinite space. More than half a century after their creation, these iconic slashed canvases remain astonishingly contemporary.
Lucio Fontana Spatialism. Pioneering the Contemporary at Hauser & Wirth Hong Kong
17 September – 19 December 2026
Mexico City: Richard Prince, Álvaro Urbano and Raúl Silva at Museo Jumex
Museo Jumex presents the first major survey of Richard Prince in Latin America, offering audiences an opportunity to reconsider one of contemporary art’s most provocative figures.
Alongside Prince’s retrospective, the museum continues its commitment to supporting new artistic practices through an immersive installation by Álvaro Urbano created specifically for the museum, while Raúl Silva receives his first solo exhibition in Mexico, highlighting the institution’s balance between internationally established artists and emerging voices.
MUSEO JUMEX autumn/ winter exhibitions
RICHARD PRINCE: TELL ME EVERYTHING
26 September 2026 to 7 February 2027
ÁLVARO URBANO: HELEN
16 October 2026 to 7 February, 2027
RAÚL SILVA: GATEWAY
16 October 2026 to 7 February, 2027
Santander: Reveal of Spain’s New Cultural Landmark
Perhaps the season’s most significant cultural opening is Faro Santander, a major new arts centre housed within the transformed former Banco Santander headquarters in northern Spain.
Its inaugural exhibitions are remarkably ambitious. Masterpieces from the Banco Santander Collection spans five centuries, bringing together works by Titian, Rubens, Velázquez, Goya, Picasso, Miró and Antoni Tàpies, while Modern Mexico in the Gelman Santander Collection features masterpieces by Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo and Leonora Carrington.
The opening programme is completed by The Symptomatic Surreal, an exhibition exploring Leonora Carrington’s formative period in Santander during the Second World War. Together, these exhibitions establish Faro Santander not simply as another museum but as one of Europe’s most important new cultural destinations, combining historical collections with an ambitious vision for the future of contemporary art.
Faro Santander dates:
Masterpieces from the Banco Santander Collection
8 September 2026 – February 2027
Modern Mexico in the Gelman Santander Collection
8 September 2026 – 10 January 2027
The Symptomatic Surreal: Leonora Carrington
8 September 2026 – 10 January 2027
Across continents, the strongest exhibitions of autumn 2026 share a common thread: they place historical masters into conversation with contemporary voices while challenging established narratives. From Nan Goldin’s intimate chronicles of lived experience and Amar Kanwar’s poetic political installations to Lee Krasner’s long-overdue reassessment and Lucio Fontana’s revolutionary spatial experiments, this season demonstrates that the most compelling exhibitions are those that encourage audiences to look again—at art history, at society and at themselves.
For anyone planning an international gallery itinerary or in search of a dose of culture during their travels, autumn 2026 has a wide range of cultural highlights for lovers or art and photography.
