10 Must-See Art Exhibitions to Fill Your Fall Itinerary

The changing seasons call for more than just swapping your sandals for something more substantial. As autumn approaches, consider trading lazy beach days and sunset aperitivo sips for critically acclaimed art. At the Tate in London, Edward Enninful’s much-anticipated show explores the art, photography, and fashion of the 1990s, while the Guggenheim in New York City will transform its iconic Frank Lloyd Wright-designed rotunda with Taryn Simon’s immersive new installation. And in Sydney, a brand-new institution is opening its doors.

Mariko Mori

Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan

October 31, 2026, through March 28, 2027

Multidisciplinary artist Mariko Mori’s retrospective highlights her unique combination of art, science, and metaphysics. The Mori Art Museum will feature work spanning three decades, including Mori’s famed Wave UFO—which invites viewers to examine an undulating, holographic vision of the future— as well as signature works that incorporate her hybridized human-cyborg persona, blending technology with traditional Japanese art forms. The exhibit collects 80 works pulled from around the world and includes never-before-seen archival material that will be displayed publicly for the very first time.

Photos © Richard Learoyd

Sophie Calle

Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, Berlin, Germany

November 13, 2026, through May 2, 2027

Sophie Calle will present her first solo exhibition in Berlin in over two decades, featuring six bodies of work. Known for using photography, text, installation, and video, Calle’s work explores memory, loss, and history, often moving between morbid and playful. Her work invites audiences to sit with the ephemeral nature of memories and feelings. To celebrate the museum’s 30th anniversary, Calle will debut a new work that will become part of the Hamburger Bahnhof’s permanent collection.

Left: Claire Dorn © Sophie Calle, Perrotin, VG Bild-Kunst Bonn, 2026 / Claire Dorn; Right: © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, photo: Thomas Bruns / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2026

Mary Cassatt: After Impressionism

The Art Institute Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States

September 6, 2026, through January 3, 2027

Marking the centennial of her death, Mary Cassatt: After Impressionism showcases the artist’s paintings, pastels, and prints. Exploring the prime years of her career, which span the late 1880s through the early 1900s, the exhibit shines a spotlight on Cassatt’s more experimental work, which explored the relationship between mothers and their children and the role of caretakers as America barreled into a new century. Cassatt was famously commissioned to create a mural for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, and while it has since gone missing—experts presume it was destroyed in storage—its feminist themes are seen in the artist’s other works. This year’s special exhibit marks the first time Cassatt has had a show dedicated to her art in Chicago in more than 25 years. 

Left: Mary Cassatt. Feeding the Ducks, about 1895. The Art Institute of Chicago, gift of Laura May Ripley.; Right: Mary Cassatt. Mother's Goodnight Kiss, 1888. The Art Institute of Chicago, gift of Honoré and Potter Palmer.

Aurèlia Muñoz. Beings

MACBA Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona Barcelona, Spain

November 5, 2026, through March 29, 2027

A collaboration between MACBA and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, Aurèlia Muñoz. Beings celebrates the centenary of Muñoz’s birth and collects her textile work, kite sculptures, and handmade paper. Huge, gothic-inspired installations will be on display alongside previously unseen macramé structures gathered from collections in Spain, Europe, and the United States. Reflecting on 50 years of the artist’s work, visitors will have the opportunity to be immersed in Muñoz’s commentary on the terrestrial, aquatic, and aerial ecosystems affected by modernization and industry.

Left: MACBA. Fotogasull; Right: Roberto Ruiz

The 90s: Art and Fashion

The Tate, London, England

October 8, 2026, through February 14, 2027

Edward Enninful OBE has curated one of the most anticipated exhibits of the year at the Tate: The 90s: Art and Fashion. With so much of culture re-examining the impact of Y2K and the optimism, trepidation, and over-the-top excess of the final decade of the millennium, the Tate’s exhibit focuses on how British culture reflected the time. Photography, fashion, art, and design all feature in the exhibition, including images by photographers including Juergen Teller, David Sims, and Corinne Day. Luminaries like Steve McQueen, Damien Hirst, and Sarah Lucas also feature in the show, alongside iconic fashion pieces from Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, and John Galliano. Enninful's passion for fashion and culture is evident throughout, as the exhibition captures the creative energy of a decade that gave rise to figures like Kate Moss and blurred the boundaries between music, art, and style.

Left: Juergen Teller, Young Pink Kate London 1998 (c) Juergen Teller, All Rights Reserved; Right: Vogue, © Condé Nast

Hiroshi Sugimoto: Form Is Emptiness

Singapore Art Museum, Tanjong Pagar Distripark, Singapore

May 29, 2026, through October 4, 2026

Hiroshi Sugimoto: Form Is Emptiness is the artist’s first major survey in Southeast Asia. Sixty-three works from 11 series are displayed alongside 14 fossils from the artist’s personal collection—creating a unique exhibition that spans 50 years of work. Taking inspiration from the Heart Sutra, a foundational Buddhist text, the exhibit invites visitors to explore the phrase “form is emptiness” and consider how everything in our world is connected. While Sugimoto is best known for his photography, the new exhibit will showcase sculpture, installation, writing, and even architectural design, all in the form of a mandala that encourages audiences to explore the space in a non-linear path.

Left: Exhibition view of Hiroshi Sugimoto, 'In Praise of Shadows 980806', (1998). Image courtesy of Singapore Art Museum Image courtesy of Singapore Art Museum;Right: Exhibition view of Hiroshi Sugimoto, 'Accelerated Buddha' (1997–2017). Image courtesy of Singapore Art Museum.

Taryn Simon

The Guggenheim, New York City, New York, United States

September 18, 2026, through March 14, 2027

The Guggenheim’s Taryn Simon exhibit brings together never-before-seen photographs, text, videos, and sculptures into a massive singular, interactive installation that fills the museum’s iconic Frank Lloyd Wright-designed rotunda. Coinciding with the 250th anniversary of the United States, Simon’s new project invites guests to explore what the museum describes as a “whirlwind” of images and installations and experience the artist’s focus on the “whispers and unseen forces shaping the worlds we inhabit.”

Credits: Courtesy the Guggenheim

Task Eternal

Powerhouse Parramatta, Sydney, Australia

Opening late 2026

One of Australia’s most anticipated openings is Powerhouse Parramatta, billed as the “largest investment in cultural infrastructure” in New South Wales since the Sydney Opera House. The museum’s inaugural exhibit will showcase mankind’s desire to take to the sky, defy gravity, and journey into space. Developed over four years, Task Eternal traces a narrative from First Nations Sky Knowledge to the early era of aviation through to today’s rush to explore outer space. Visitors will be able to view more than 600 objects, including items from the Powerhouse Collection and major loans from international science and cultural institutions like the British Museum, the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, and institutions in Japan, Korea, Switzerland, France, and India.

Credits: Courtesy Powerhouse Parramatta

Nengi Omuku: The Gathering

de Young Museum, San Francisco, California, United States

June 27, 2026, through May 14, 2028

San Francisco is playing host to Nigerian artist Nengi Omuku’s first solo U.S. exhibition. The de Young will highlight Omuku's lush paintings, which include “celestial skies, flowering fields, and botanical bounty.” Known for creating immersive works that draw on African materials like Sanyan and handcraft, the exhibition is a conversation between Omuku’s creations—including the centerpiece work, The Gatherings—and various sculptures and textile works from the de Young’s permanent collection.

Left: Anny Robert; Right: Todd-White Art Photography

Eileen Cowin: Between Panic and Paradise

LACMA, Los Angeles, California, United States

August 23, 2026, through January 3, 2027

The newly reopened Los Angeles County Museum of Art will showcase Eileen Cowin: Between Panic and Paradise in its light-drenched second-story galleries. The setting is fitting for the Los Angeles–based artist, whose work explores the tension between everyday experiences, like romance and rivalry, and the broader personal and political forces that shape them. Spanning more than 50 years, Cowin’s work invites viewers to question what she’s drawn from her own life and what she’s imagined, drawing on inspiration from film, poetry, and painting. The photography exhibition highlights Cowin’s more experimental photographic processes, incorporating Polaroids, inkjet prints, and video.

Courtesy: Eileen Cowin, Untitled, from the One Night Stand series, 1977–78, printed 1999, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, gift of Norman Starr, © Eileen Cowin, digital image courtesy Museum Associates/LACMA