Art Exhibitions to Look Forward to in 2026
Despite the rise of authoritarianism on a federal level in the United States, there remains a sliver of hope, especially for those of us in New York City. The city’s first socialist Democrat mayor, Zohran Mamdani, began his tenure with a day-long endurance listening session at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, inviting New Yorkers to voice their concerns, hopes, fears and dreams for the city.
Setting the tone for the following years, this action demonstrates the role that museums can play as sites for public access and collective worldbuilding, in spite of the looming shadow of fascism. The list below reflects art exhibitions at museums and nonprofits that offer similar visions––dancing through the revolution, poetry of the elements, serpents shedding skin, and sanctuaries in the backyard.
This is by no means a comprehensive list of art exhibitions opening in 2026. Reach out to Intervenxions (Latinxproject@nyu.edu) with recommendations for potential future coverage.
Edra Soto, the place of dwelling (2025). Porcelain, sintra, wood, paint. © Edra Soto. Photo: Morgan Lehman Gallery.
Edra Soto: the place of dwelling
Curated by: Kevin Moore
When: January 29, 2026–March 6, 2027
Where: Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO
Edra Soto presents a newly commissioned sculptural installation for the atrium of Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. Responding to the museum’s original architecture, she will incorporate elements from her Catholic upbringing, playing on the tabernacle-like elements of the space. In this installation, Soto considers themes of colonial indoctrination and sacred practice, drawing parallels between museums and churches as sites of greater learning and spiritual discovery.
Visit Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art at 4420 Warwick Boulevard, Kansas City, MO, 64111.
Angelica Raquel, Howl Together, 2025. Wool, polyfiber, felt, thread, and vintage charms. Courtesy the artist and McNay Art Museum.
2. Angelica Raquel: Mystic Threads
Curated by: Liz Paris and Lauren Thompson
When: January 29–July 5, 2026
Where: McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX
Angelica Raquel makes fiber-based artworks and sculptures based on her familial heritage—including the dreams, urban legends, and traditions of her ancestors. Born and raised in Laredo, Texas, many of her motifs are specific to her experience of the region. In this solo exhibition, Raquel’s works on view feature animal-human hybrid creatures, succulent landscapes, and recycled materials.
Visit the McNay Art Museum at 6000 N. New Braunfels Ave, San Antonio, TX, 78209.
Ruben Ulises Rodríguez Montoya, A Being Mistakenly Called “La Nave de Kylo Ren,” 2021. Cannibalized goat leg, horn tips, white and black zip ties, two black T-shirts, rabbit pelt, motorcycle part of a man with an inflated ego driving too fast on a sharp turn on Mcnutt Rd., blue disposable shaving stick, black twine that Gabrielle braided, welding rod, white car part laying next to a palm tree while Karla and I were on route to get boba. That was the day I told her of the white gay from Tiktok that choked on boba and how much I loved the work of Teresa Margolles and Ivana Basic. Pigmented dragon skin silicone, sandrock with motor oil that I found next to a Family Dollar that leads to the border wall and then to Anapra in Juarez Mx. White shell of a boom box the day we went to Jalisco Bar and got so drunk we had to pee in between two cars because we wouldn’t make it home. Courtesy the ICA San Diego.
3. Ruben Ulises Rodríguez Montoya: In the Garden of Earthly Delights: I Bend to Paradise
Curated by: Jordan Karney Chaim
When: February 21–May 24, 2026
Where: ICA San Diego / Central, Balboa Park, CA
Ruben Ulises Rodríguez Montoya creates sculptures that repurpose materials scavenged from the landfill-adjacent deserts of his home in New Mexico, as well as from street markets in Mexico City, where he currently resides. His post-apocalyptic forms gesture toward the violence that many communities of color sustain, while nodding to Mesoamerican cosmologies and the shapeshifting states of decay and resurrection. For this exhibition, Rodríguez Montoya investigates the trope of the vampire as it relates to persecution, ancient sacrifice, and bloodletting.
Visit ICA San Diego / Central at 1439 El Prado, San Diego, CA, 92101.
José Gamarra, L’inaccessible… [The inaccessible...], 1986–1987. Oil on canvas. Édouard Glissant personal collection. Courtesy of Mémorial ACTe, fonds Région Guadeloupe.
4. The Earth, the Fire, the Water, and the Winds: For a Museum of Errantry with Édouard Glissant
Curated by: Manuela Moscoso with Marian Chudnovsky, in collaboration with Paulo Miyada and Ana Roman
When: February 28–May 10, 2026
Where: Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA), New York, NY
Artists: More than 20 artists including Victor Anicet, Manthia Diawara, Wifredo Lam, Gabriela Morawetz, Antonio Seguí, and Enrique Zañartu
Traveling from Instituto Tomie Ohtake in São Paulo, this exhibition is the first to feature objects and archival items from the late Martinican philosopher’s art collection amassed over six decades of his life. Centered on his theory of errantry, the exhibition puts forth Glissant’s idea of a museum in movement with an endless capacity for reinvention, resistant to the colonial frameworks of many museums today. The exhibition draws its title from La terre, le feu, l’eau et les vents (2010), a poetic anthology Édouard Glissant edited. Public programs will feature artists responding to those four elements: earth, fire, water, and wind.
Visit CARA at 225 West 13th Street, New York, NY, 10011.
Josh T Franco, Preparing La Virgen (December 3, 2023, Marfa, TX), 2023–24. Video and mixed media assemblage. Videography by Sarah M. Vasquez. Courtesy of the artist.
5. Where I Learned to Look: Art from the Yard
Curated by: Josh T Franco in collaboration with Katja Rivera
When: March 6–July 25, 2026
Where: Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College
Artists: Jose Esquivel, Josh T Franco, vanessa german, Allison Janae Hamilton, Hipolito Polé Hernandez, and Rubén Ortiz-Torres, among others
Originating at ICA Philly, this exhibition features over thirty artists whose works engage with the idea of the yard in the U.S. Expanding on existing research on Yard Art, this novel exhibition underscores the influence of yards as potent, transitional third spaces between “inside” and “outside.” The diverse artist list reflects many perspectives on the importance of this space for interpretation, art-making, experimentation, and engaging with found materials.
Visit The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at 30 West Dale Street, Colorado Springs, CO, 80903.
Eamon Ore-Giron, Talking Shit with Illapa (variation I), 2023. Mineral paint and Flashe on canvas. Collection Buffalo AKG Art Museum, George B. and Jenny R. Mathews Fund, 2024 (2024:6). Photo: Brenda Bieger, Buffalo AKG Art Museum.
6. Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way
Curated by: Andrea Alvarez
When: March 6–September 6, 2026
Where: Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, NY
Artists: Candida Alvarez, Eddie Rodolfo Aparicio, Felipe Baeza, Amy Bravo, Esteban Cabeza de Baca, Danielle De Jesus, Karla Diaz, Cielo Félix-Hernández, Lilian Garcia-Roig, Monica Kim Garza, Jay Lynn Gomez, Manuela Gonzalez, Melissa Misla, Esteban Ramón Pérez, Shizu Saldamando, Sarah Zapata, Eamon Ore-Giron, among others
Challenging the rigid borders of what encompasses “painting,” Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way unites Latinx artists working innovately with a variety of media, showcasing the diversity/breath of the medium. Featuring 58 artists, including some who might not typically consider themselves “painters,” the exhibition challenges disciplinary borders and thinks expansively. Its title borrows from a 2008 poem by Juan Felipe Herrera.
Visit Buffalo AKG Art Museum at 1285 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY, 14222.
Ignacio Gatica, Still from Sanhattan, 2025. Courtesy the artist.
7. Whitney Biennial 2026
Curated by: Marcela Guerrero and Drew Sawyer with Beatriz Cifuentes and Carina Martinez
When: March 8–June 2026
Where: Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Artists: Sula Bermudez-Silverman, Zach Blas, Leo Castañeda, Nani Chacon, Taína H. Cruz, Carmen de Monteflores, Ignacio Gatica, Jonathan González, Martine Gutierrez, Michelle Lopez, Agosto Machado, Emilio Martínez Poppe, among others
This year’s Whitney Biennial is the first time in the museum’s history with a Latina cocurator. It includes well-known veteran artists like Andrea Fraser (this will be her third time in the Biennial) and less-expected choices like Joshua Citarella and Julio Torres. Reflecting the state of the world, the biennial promises to encapsulate some of our most pressing concerns today: infrastructure, technology, geopolitics, and interspecies relationships.
Visit the Whitney Museum at 99 Gansevoort Street, New York, NY, 10014.
Bryan Fernandez, Cansado Por el Dia, 2024. Courtesy of the artist.
8. Bryan Fernandez: En tránsito
Curated by: Zuna Maza
When: March 17–August 7, 2026
Where: International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), Brooklyn, NY
Bryan Fernandez is an interdisciplinary artist from Washington Heights, New York, whose practice centers on his Dominican-American community. Fernandez creates large-scale assemblage paintings that capture moments from everyday life. He has observed the lack of authentic representation of Dominicans in national narratives and aims to counter colonial and afrophobic accounts through his work. Bryan Fernandez: En tránsito brings together a selection of the artist’s most recent and ongoing works.
Visit ISCP at 1040 Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn, NY, 11211.
9. Raven Sanchez: Así Sea/So Be It
Curated by: Emilia Shaffer-Del Valle with support from Amanda Sroka and Amelie Wu
When: April 4–August 23, 2026
Where: Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Raven Sanchez will create a large-scale installation made of over 200 wax rubbings of the exterior of her grandparents’ former home in East Los Angeles. Hand-stuccoed by her grandfather more than 50 years ago, the family was forced to sell the home due to the economic impacts of gentrification. For this installation of palimpsests, Sanchez records the traces of the architecture’s exterior with help from her mother and aunts.
Visit ICA LA at 1717 E. 7th St., Los Angeles, CA, 90021.
10. Glimmers: Currents of Illuminations
Curated by: Xavier Robles Armas
When: April 11–12, 2026
Where: Mana Contemporary Chicago and ACRE Projects, Chicago, IL
Artists: Ále Campos, Camila Arevalo, and Yelaine Rodriguez
Glimmers: Currents of Illuminations focuses on Latina/o/x/e performance artists in Chicago whose works waver in critical light. This three part program will focus on ephemeral performances, a panel discussion and a film screening of current contemporary video and performance art. This two day program will expand the definition of visual action, involving artists and curators on topics like choreographing with the elemental, ancestral embodiments, political imaginations as refusal, and joy as resistance. The event hopes to converge plural voices through an embracive and imaginative program.
Visit Mana Contemporary Chicago at 2233 S Throop Street, Chicago, IL, 60608 and ACRE Projects at 2921 N Clark St Chicago, IL, 60657. For the most up to date information visit the Chuquimarca website.
Josefina Santos, Dominican Soundsystems 1, 2021. Chromogenic print. Courtesy of the artist.
11. Dancing the Revolution
Curated by: Carla Acevedo-Yates with Cecilia González Godino, Iris Colburn, Nolan Jimbo, and nibia pastrana santiago
When: April 14–September 20, 2026
Where: Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL
Artists: Isaac Julien, Edra Soto, Alberta Whittle, Carolina Caycedo, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Bobby Cruz, Josefina Santos, supakid, among others
This exhibition traces the legacy of two important music genres––dancehall and reggaeton––delineating their influence across the Caribbean and its diasporas, as well as their role in fomenting a global revolutionary language and aesthetics. Artists featured in Dancing the Revolution include both musicians and visual artists, underscoring their relationships to the music, protest, political struggle, and liberation.
Visit MCA Chicago at 220 E Chicago Ave, Chicago, IL, 60611.
Francisco Moreno, The Allegory of Weed Gummy and Alcohol Induced Anxiety, 2021. Acrylic on canvas. Image courtesy of the artist. Photo: Kevin Todora.
12. Francisco Moreno: Historia Sintética
Curated by: Thomas Feulmer
When: April 17–October 11, 2026
Where: Dallas Contemporary, Dallas, TX
Inspired by Catholic imagery and the traditions of Old Master painting, Francisco Moreno creates hybrid works that coalesce those themes with his Mexican heritage. For this solo exhibition, Moreno will create a chapel-like installation inspired by the Spanish Byzantine era and will also show large-scale paintings that read like murals. Blending cultural references and iconographies, Moreno’s works challenge dominant historical narratives.
Visit Dallas Contemporary at 161Glass Street Dallas, TX, 75207.
Sophie Rivera, Untitled, c.1986–87. Color photograph. Estate of Martin Hurwitz.
13. SOPHIE RIVERA: DOUBLE EXPOSURES
Curated by: Susanna V. Temkin with support from Carlos Ortiz and Serda Yalkin
When: April 23 – August 3, 2026
Where: El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY
This is the first museum survey of the photographer and documentarian Sophie Rivera, who captured the vibrancy and eclecticism of Nuyorican life in 1970s New York City. Grounded in feminist thought, her work formed part of a generation of artists who fought against misrepresentation and the oppressions of everyday life. This long-overdue exhibition is also accompanied by the artist’s first monograph, copublished by Aperture and El Museo.
Visit El Museo at 1230 5th Avenue at 104th Street, New York, NY, 10029.
Installation view, Cecilia Vicuña: About to Happen, Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, March 16–June 18, 2017. Photo: Alex Marks.
14. Spatial Poems
Curated by: Marissa Del Toro, Jamillah Hinson, and Ninabah Winton
When: May 23, 2026–March 2027
Where: MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA
Artists: Cecilia Vicuña, Lola Ogbara, and Sam Frésquez
Spatial Poems is a trio of exhibitions developed by CEI Fellow Marissa Del Toro, who invited guest curators Ninabah Winton and Jamillah Hinson to collaborate on a communal composition. The three interrelated projects respond to Cecilia Vicuña's concept of “precarios” and artworks on view explore ephemerality, memory, and cyclical repetition through a range of materials. Together, the projects can be understood as a score or spatial poem, created by curators and artists working in a euphonious rhythm.
Visit MASS MoCA at 1040 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, MA, 01247.
Eric Manuel Santoscoy-Mckillip, Torres of Torres (salsa bar gods), 2025. Plastic molcajetes, acrylic, enamel and MDF. Courtesy of the artist.
15. Eric Santoscoy: Composite/Compuesto (my eyes tear in the sun)
Curated by: Michael Reyes
When: August 2026–February 2027
Where: El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX
For his first museum solo exhibition, El Paso–born and raised multidisciplinary artist Eric Manuel Santoscoy presents a contemplation on planes of existence through lineages of design found between Mexico and the United States. Celestial and natural phenomena are woven into works referencing the traditional and kitsch like stucco, the saddle blanket, the serape or lawn ornaments like mirrored gazing balls. In this show, the artist questions the threads that tie each of us to each other, to our family, to our ancestors, our surroundings, telescoping that idea to infinity.
Visit the EPMA at 1 Arts Festival Plaza, El Paso, TX 79901.
Lina Puerta, Serpiente, 2025, (Detail). Recycled potato sacks, Embera Chami necklaces (Colombian), discarded food nets, repurposed fabrics, leather, trims, chain, rhinestone chain from broken jewelry and glass beads, shells, Huayuro and other seed beads previously worn by the artist; twine, embroidery and silk thread. Courtesy of the artist.
16. Lina Puerta: La Sierpe
Curated by: Jasmine Wahi and Rebecca Pauline Jampol
When: September 2026–January 2027
Where: Project for Empty Space, Newark, NJ
La sierpe presents a new body of work by Lina Puerta centered on the serpent as an ancient, mythic intelligence associated with cyclical time, transformation, and collective renewal, guiding viewers through a threshold where inherited ways of seeing are loosened and new forms of collective awareness emerge. The exhibition includes recent works from her Portales series, which draw on Indigenous Colombian symbols amplified through materials tied to Western consumer culture, including hand-stitching, sewing machine work, reclaimed food packaging, repurposed fabrics, jewelry, and natural elements traditionally used for adornment and spiritual protection.
Visit Project for Empty Space at 800 Broad Street, Newark, NJ, 07102.