Travel

9 Must-See Art Exhibitions Worth Traveling for This Summer

Written by:Christopher LuuPublished on: April 30, 2026

Whether your summer travel plans are taking you to Tokyo or Paris, new exhibitions are giving art lovers, film fans, and culture enthusiasts plenty to see along the way.

From Damien Hirst’s very first solo exhibition in Asia to a major celebration of Marcel Duchamp’s work in New York City, these are the moments of art and awe add to your bucket list.

Monet: Questioning Nature

Artizon Museum, Tokyo

February 2 through May 24

Spanning more than 140 works by one of the world’s most celebrated Impressionist painters, this expansive exhibit explores the places that influenced Monet’s work, including Le Havre, Argenteuil, Vétheuil, and Giverny. In addition to 90 works on loan from Paris’s Musée d’Orsay, the Artizon will showcase Art Nouveau crafts, painting, photography, and even ukiyo-e prints that inspired his work. Some pieces, like Hôtel des Roches Noires, Trouville, will be on display in Japan for the very first time. 2026 marks the centenary of Monet’s death and Tokyo’s exhibition is just the first in a yearlong celebration that spans the globe, with major shows also set for Brooklyn and Normandy to commemorate his work.

Left: Photo © GrandPalaisRmn (musée d’Orsay) / Stéphane Maréchalle/ distributed by AMF; Right: Photo © GrandPalaisRmn (musée d’Orsay) / Gabriel de Carvalho / distributed by AMF

Marilyn Monroe

La Cinémathèque Française, Paris

April 8 through July 26

Diving deep into the lore and legend of Marilyn Monroe, Paris’s La Cinémathèque Française hosts an exhibit that lets fans see behind her celebrity persona. Bringing together archival footage, rare objects, and photography—she sat for portraits by Eve Arnold, Richard Avedon, and Andy Warhol, after all—it’s perfect for cinephiles visiting the City of Light this summer. The exhibit marks the actress and icon’s 100th birthday and explores her impact as a femme fatale, feminist icon, and tragic heroine. While she was often reduced to a Hollywood stereotype, fans and critics alike are invited to discover the real woman behind the gloss with film clips and commentary from names like Arthur Miller and Fritz Lang.

Left: © Bruno Bernard, courtesy of the Bernard of Hollywood Foundation / © 2026 Renaissance Road Inc./ © Marilyn MonroeTM: The Estate of Marilyn Monroe, LLC; Right: photo courtesy of Stéphane Dabrowski

Damien Hirst: Nothing Is True But Everything Is Possible

National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, Seoul

March 20 through June 28

Seoul hosts Asia's first major solo exhibition of Damien Hirst’s iconic work. The British contemporary artist is known for his large-scale installations, which include sharks suspended in formaldehyde and psychedelic collages created with butterfly wings. Visitors will be able to see more than 50 works, including medicine cabinets and his cherry blossom series. The retrospective spans Hirst’s favorite themes, including life and death, religion, and the tension between art and science. Fans will be able to see his famed diamond skull, For the Love of God, which includes more than 8,600 flawless diamonds.

Left: Private Collection. © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS/Artimage 2026. Photographed by Roger Wooldridge; Right: © Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved, DACS 2026. Photographed by Prudence Cuming Associates

Mona Hatoum: Over, Under and In Between

Fandazione Prada, Milan

January 29 through November 9

Artist Mona Hatoum takes over the Fondazione Prada with the three installations: the web, the map, and the grid. Housed in a former alcohol distillery, the works feel airy, delicate, and almost dangerous. But up close, each reveals Hatoum’s exploration of the tension between home and entrapment—whether in the bubbly glass-and-wire web, or in the kinetic grid that seems to continuously collapse and rebuild itself, a meditation on fragility and perseverance. The third piece, a distortion of cartography and the Mercator projection, invites viewers question the true meaning of borders and the power dynamics that come with map-making in the modern world.

Haegue Yang: Star-Crossed Rendezvous

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

February 24 through August 2

Korean artist Haegue Yang is known for using everyday objects in head-scratching, extraordinary ways. Los Angeles sets the stage for Star-Crossed Rendezvous, which brings together two huge installations using customized Venetian blinds. The slats become tools for creating lightscapes and exploring the relationship between color, light, sculpture, and space. Yang has been working with blinds since the mid-2000s, and the MOCA exhibition combines two larger-than-life works: Sol LeWitt Upside Down – K123456, Expanded 1078 Times, Doubled and Mirrored from 2015 and Star-Crossed Rendezvous after Yun (2024). By taking in the works side by side, viewers can see the progression of Yang’s approach to bending light and shape.

Installation view of Haegue Yang: Star-Crossed Rendezvous, February 24-August 2, 2026 at MOCA Grand Avenue. Courtesy of The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). Photo by Zak Kelley.

Marcel Duchamp

Museum of Modern Art, New York

April 12 through August 22

Most art fans know Marcel Duchamp for his take on a Dada urinal, but this year’s retrospective shows that he’s more than just the master of potty humor. The MoMA’s exhibition will show work across the six decades of Duchamp’s storied career, spanning painting, sculpture, film, photography, drawings, and print. Standouts—and the pieces that’ll show up on your algorithm—include Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2) and The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass). Including more than 300 works, the exhibit marks the first major US showcase of Duchamp’s oeuvre since 1973.

Left: Photo by Jonathan Dorado © The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Right: Marcel Duchamp. L.H.O.O.Q., 1919. Pencil on reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, 7 3⁄4 x 4 7⁄8” (19.7 x 12.4 cm). Private Collection

Samantha Yun Wall: What We Leave Behind

Seattle Museum of Art, Seattle

February 5 through October 4

Samantha Yun Wall’s latest work explores the experiences of Asian women and U.S. service members during military occupation in Asia. With her large-scale black-and-white works, Wall invites us to look beyond the silhouettes and look deeper into the spaces and shapes formed between the women on the canvases. Her past work has focused on Korean folklore as well as science fiction, and fans will still find traces of both here, though critics say her latest works invite more introspection and reflection.

Left: Diaspore No. 1, 2025, Samantha Yun Wall, Korean/American, b. 1977, ink and conté crayon on Claybord, 20 x 16 x in., © Samantha Yun Wall, photo: Mario Galluci; Right: Installation view of Samantha Yun Wall: What We Leave Behind, Seattle Art Museum, 2026, photo: Chloe Collyer.

Dear America: Artists Explore the American Experience

National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

April 11 through September 20

To commemorate the United States’ semiquincentennial—that is, its 250th birthday—the National Gallery of Art is bringing together more than 100 works that explore how artists have expressed freedom and shaped notions of American identity. The exhibit includes photographs by Carleton Watkins and Dorothea Lange, alongside drawings by John Wilson and Tonita Peña, as well as prints by Roy Lichtenstein. In addition to selections from the museum’s permanent collection, recent acquisitions, along with works never before exhibited, will also be on view, weaving together themes of land, community, and freedom. Standouts include portraits of Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and George Washington.

Photo courtesy of the National Gallery of Art

Anish Kapoor

Hayward Gallery, London

June 16 through October 18

Almost 30 years after his first exhibit at the Hayward Gallery, Kapoor is back with new, mind-bending works that shift perception, turning the world around us inside-out and upside-down. The big draw will be a pair of monumental installations in Kapoor’s signature red, but don’t miss out on the opportunity to see his work in Vantablack and 2018’s Tsunami, which is reminiscent of his iconic mirrored Cloud Gate, better known as The Bean, in Chicago’s Millennium Park. The exhibition’s layout includes pieces coming out of the walls and appearing to fall into the floor, inviting viewers to explore, wonder, and immerse themselves in Kapoor’s exploration of perception.