Exhibition digest

Spring-Summer 2026 marks the season when major retrospectives collide with institutional debuts, when legendary museums unveil new locations, and when the art calendar justifies every transatlantic flight. From the Royal Academy's 257th Summer Exhibition to MoMA's Duchamp blockbuster, from V&A East's inaugural show to the Guggenheim's Bove takeover — the cultural offering spans centuries, continents and every conceivable medium. What follows is a curated dispatch from four capitals where art becomes the primary reason to endure the crowds.

London

Visiting London in summer requires caution, as one may fall in love with it. Walking through the busy city, where Victorian architecture stands alongside glass skyscrapers reflecting the bright sun against a deep blue sky, is enough to make anyone’s heart beat faster.

When in London this summer, be sure to visit the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. An annual event since 1769, the exhibition offers a rare opportunity to witness the remarkable continuity of London’s art scene. The Summer Exhibition is the largest open-submission art show in the world, featuring a wide range of media. From the classical disciplines of painting, drawing and sculpture to installation, photography and architecture, the show offers something for every visitor and may even spark a new passion for the visual arts. The exhibition runs from 16 June to 23 August 2026. Entry tickets range from £23.50 to £24.50.

For those keen to explore British culture in greater depth and see London beyond the usual tourist path, V&A East presents an exhibition exploring 125 years of Black music-making. A very young venue, V&A East is opening its doors to visitors for the first time, almost as you read this, having welcomed its first guests on 18 April 2026. “The Music Is Black: A British Story” is the debut exhibition at the legendary museum’s new location in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, East London. Ticket prices vary, ranging from £22.50 to £24.50.

Returning to the centre of the city, the National Portrait Gallery will host an exhibition dedicated to the “Marilyn Monroe: A Protrait”. Opening on 4 June and running until 6 September 2026, the exhibition celebrates the Hollywood legend’s 100th birthday. Works by artists and photographers, including Andy Warhol and Cecil Beaton, are brought together, alongside many others who helped shape Monroe’s public image. The portraits are complemented by displays of the star’s personal belongings creating an immersive exhibition, including books, scripts and clothing, creating one of the most immersive exhibitions dedicated to the life of the most photographed person of the 1960s. Ticket prices range from £25 to £27.

Paris

Paris dazzles under the sun with the brightness of Haussmannian buildings during the day and the glittering lights of the Eiffel Tower at night. Tempted to spend hours at a café terrace, slowly replacing a cup of coffee with a glass of wine as the day unfolds, one might almost forget what art is on view across the city.

Nevertheless, should you decide to turn your attention back to the galleries, the Petit Palais presents artworks by the Hungarian painter Károly Ferenczy. A major retrospective dedicated to one of the most prominent figures of modern Hungarian art, the exhibition promises a visually uplifting experience. Blending elements of symbolism and naturalism, Ferenczy’s works stand out for their luminous colours and wide range of subjects, from portraits to sweeping landscapes. The exhibition opened on 14 April and closes on 6 September, with an admission fee of €17.

At the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, an exhibition dedicated to photographer Lee Miller runs from 10 April to 2 August 2026. Beginning her career as a fashion model in 1920s New York before stepping behind the camera, Miller went on to establish a remarkable artistic and commercial photography career. She also worked as an accredited correspondent for the United States Army during the Second World War in 1944. This major retrospective, the largest in two decades, presents approximately 250 vintage and modern prints, allowing visitors to follow Miller throughout the many stages of her career and leaving them in awe of this legendary avant-garde figure. Admission to the exhibition is €17.

If you prefer revisiting familiar cultural landmarks, the Musée du Louvre offers a special highlight. The museum presents an exhibition dedicated to Martin Schongauer, a German master of the late Middle Ages. The exhibition “The Beautiful Immortal” brings together works from every discipline in which Schongauer worked, including engraving, painting and drawing. Admission to the exhibition is included with the standard Louvre ticket, offering an additional reason to visit or revisit the world’s most celebrated museum.

Berlin

Berlin mesmerises visitors with its eclectic character and unmistakable spirit of freedom. Visiting during the warmer months often leads to unforgettable memories, whether watching the sunrise after open-air parties or dancing through one of the city’s famous music festivals. While much of Berlin’s magic unfolds after dark, there is still plenty to discover in the light of day.

The wave of Marina Abramović’s exhibitions has now reached Berlin’s Gropius Bau with the presentation of “Balkan Erotic Epic”. The iconic work, rooted in Balkan folklore, explores themes of spirituality, politics and ecology. The exhibition brings together cinematic and sculptural installations alongside live performances, capturing the essence of Abramović’s multidisciplinary practice. Currently touring internationally, the project offers a rare opportunity to experience one of the artist’s most distinctive bodies of work. The exhibition runs from 15 April through to 23 August, and a standard admission ticket is priced at €15.

The Chanel Culture Fund offers a compelling reason to visit the historic building of Hamburger Bahnhof. A choreographed performance by Lina Lapelytė, We Make Years Out of Hours, invites visitors to become active participants in the work. The artist’s name may already be familiar to some readers from the 2019 Venice Biennale, where Lapelytė represented Lithuania with the performance Sun & Sea (Marina), which won the Golden Lion award. Coinciding with an anniversary of the venue, the exhibition marks a notable moment in the institution’s programme. The performance will run from 1 May to 10 January, and admission is free of charge.

Missing the exceptional programme of the Centre Pompidou? Instead of travelling to Paris only to encounter its temporarily closed doors, consider visiting the Neue Nationlgalerie in Berlin. An exhibition dedicated to Constantin Brâncuși, a pioneering figure in abstract sculpture, will take place at the museum in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou. The first exhibition of the artist in Germany in the past fifty years promises to be expansive. More than 150 sculptures, photographs, drawings, films and rarely seen archival materials from the Centre Pompidou, as well as other public and private international collections, will be on view. One of the highlights will be a partial reconstruction of the artist’s studio, presented outside Paris for the first time since 1957. The exhibition is on since 20 March and closes on 9 August, with an entrance fee of €16.00.

New York

Be prepared for the references to Frank Sinatra and Alicia Keys, as few words can describe the experience of New York better than their songs. Manhattan resembles an editorial photoshoot regardless of the avenue, angle or season. For a fuller cultural experience, however, it is worth taking the train to Brooklyn and exploring the wider tri-state area. For those who prefer to remain in the City, several must-see exhibitions define the spring and summer season.

Photo: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Courtesy ArchDaily.

For a distinctly American cultural experience, the eighty-second edition of the Whitney Biennial awaits at the Whitney Museum of American Art from 8 March to 23 August. The biennial presents fifty-six artists from across the United States as well as from places shaped by the broad reach of US power, including Afghanistan and Vietnam. While the curators have refrained from establishing a single overarching theme, the works are united by a shared interest in exploring familial relationships, geopolitical entanglements, technological affinities, infrastructural networks, precarious ecologies and shared mythologies, suggesting forms of togetherness through difference. Admission to the biennial costs $30 for adults.

Photo: Marcel Duchamp. To Be Looked at (from the Other Side of the Glass) with One Eye, Close to, for Almost an Hour, Buenos Aires 1918. Oil, silver leaf, lead wire, and magnifying lens on glass (cracked), mounted between panes of glass in a standing metal frame, 20 1/8 x 16 1/4 x 1 1/2″ (51 x 41.2 x 3.7 cm), on painted wood base, 1 7/8 x 17 7/8 x 4 1/2″ (4.8 x 45.3 x 11.4 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York

MoMA once again delivers a major highlight with a blockbuster retrospective dedicated to the genius and forefather of conceptual art, Marcel Duchamp. The exhibition traces the artist’s extensive career, presenting works from 1900 to 1968. Among the nearly 300 works on view, visitors will encounter such legendary pieces as Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2) (1912), The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass) (1915–23), and many others. The exhibition runs from 12 April to 22 August, and admission is included in the museum ticket.

The iconic rotunda of the Guggenheim is occupied this season by the vibrant sculptures of Carol Bove. Known for her large-scale metal works, Bove has created monumental constructions that transform the space while responding to the circular architecture and the 360-degree perspective of the rotunda. The exhibition encourages slow viewing and quiet reflection, featuring seating areas and a tactile library with materials from the artist’s studio. Reflecting Bove’s interest in how artistic languages are transmitted and transformed across generations, works by other artists occasionally appear alongside her own. Notably, the exhibition partially reveals, for the first time in decades, a mural by Joan Miró and Josep Llorens Artigas that was integrated into the Guggenheim’s ramps in the 1960s. The exhibition runs from 5 March to 2 August and is included with museum admission.

Text by MAYA KIL