In 2021, the contemporary art giant Hauser & Wirth opened a venue—designed by Argentine architect Luis Laplace—in the picturesque setting of Isla del Rey, a small island off the coast of Mahón Harbor in Menorca. Here, the crystal-clear waters of the Balearic Islands serve as the backdrop each spring and summer for must-see exhibitions: the project presented during the warmer months of 2026 is titled “Directionless,” and redefines the boundary between exhibition space and the natural environment. Curated by Rashid Johnson, with Charles Gaines, Firelei Báez, and Cristina Iglesias, the exhibition features twenty-eight artists from over ten countries. The project, conceived by the participants themselves, aims to address the role artists can play in a reality marked by a moment of profound disorientation, developing new languages and provisional orientations as established points of reference begin to fade. From Yto Barrada to Mona Hatoum, from Wangechi Mutu to Ali Cherri, the exhibition offers visitors a perspective of openness and exploration, with sculptures that integrate seamlessly with the architecture and the seascape.

“Heaven+Earth” is the title of the new multimedia project by video artists John Sanborn and Ionee Waterhouse, curated by Laura Barreca, which will bring the halls of the Castelbuono Civic Museum to life in the summer of 2026. The exhibition creates a dialogue between memory, video art, and generative animation, transforming technology into an open and participatory language. Through an installation that combines digital imagery, sculpture, and sound design, the exhibition explores immersive solutions and artificial intelligence to rediscover historical heritage. This installation brings together the experimental practice of Sanborn, a pioneer of electronic arts, and Waterhouse’s video-mapping work, affirming the institution’s commitment to site-specific productions and community-based practices. Supported by the Ministry of Culture’s PAC2025, the initiative includes meetings and public programs with the Universities of Palermo and Bologna, MEET in Milan, and the Ypsigrock Festival.

The home-studio of Danish artist Asger Jorn on the hills above Albissola Marina, one of the four municipalities of the “Baia della Ceramica,” is today a unique exhibition space, a natural and architectural environment born from the imagination of one of the most important artists of the 20th century. In the summer of 2026, this special place will host Luca Trevisani’s “Kotykeye” project, curated by the BLU Association – Breeding and Learning Unit and winner of the Italian Council, a radical reflection on sculpture and domestication understood as a cultural device. The body of works in stoneware stems from an investigation into prehistoric human and animal footprints imprinted in karst cavities, interpreted as sites of contact and alliances between different species. The porous, tactile sculptures evoke processes of sedimentation. Activated through performative banquets, the works invite us to rediscover touch as a primal language.

The CLAP Museum in Pescara, dedicated to the world of comics, features in its permanent collection a selection of 324 works by the renowned Italian comic artist Andrea Pazienza, including illustrations, paintings, and sketches. In the summer of 2026, thanks to the support of the Pescarabruzzo Foundation, the museum will host the temporary exhibition “Caccia e Fresca – Andrea Pazienza” to mark the 70th anniversary of the artist’s birth, revealing one of the lesser-known stories from his creative universe. The project traces the origins of a fake hunting magazine, created as a playful intellectual collaboration between high school students and their teacher, Professor Sandro Visca. Through original documents and drawings, many of which have never been seen before, the exhibition paints a portrait of a very young “Paz,” already endowed with the irreverent irony and extraordinary imaginative power that would later make him famous. The exhibition also explores the cultural context of a vibrant era and his subsequent collaboration with key companions such as Tanino Liberatore, Stefano Tamburini, Filippo Scozzari, and Massimo Mattioli.

Vincenzo Agnetti won the Pino Pascali Prize in 1972, and to mark the centenary of the artist’s birth, the Pascali Foundation is honoring him with an exhibition curated by Gaspare Luigi Marcone, as part of the Confluenze project, which aims to rediscover artists associated with the historic prize. The exhibition combines philological reconstruction with environmental reenactment, presenting works that were foundational to Agnetti’s career from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, as well as pieces featured in the historic 1973 exhibition in Bari or published in its catalog—Autotelefonata (1972), 14 Propositions (1972), Identikit (1973)—as well as the large-scale Progetto per un Amleto politico (1973), an emblem of his “static theater”: a performance without movement, characters, or text. The selection highlights Agnetti’s complex conceptual research, in which reflection on language and writing precedes and structures the production, eliminating traditional representation to give rise to a novel and revolutionary semantic system.

On the shores of the Atlantic, Porto’s Serralves Museum will host “Vexation of Spirit. The Duerckheim Collection x Serralves” in the summer of 2026, curated by Marta Moreira de Almeida in collaboration with Count Duerckheim. The exhibition features approximately ninety works by thirty-four artists, exploring the last seventy years of history through the themes of religion, society, and war. The title, taken from the Book of Ecclesiastes, a text found in both the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) and the Christian Bible, evokes an existential and moral anguish, reflecting a vision marked by ethical unease and a profound historical awareness. The exhibition stimulates debate on the pressing issues of the present through the works of major figures in contemporary art such as Gerhard Richter, Anselm Kiefer, Georg Baselitz, Damien Hirst, Antony Gormley, and Gilbert & George. The result of four decades of curatorial research, the exhibition offers a unique testimony to the transformations of belief systems and political conflicts in the contemporary world.

From June 25 to September 21, the Madre Museum in Naples will host an exhibition curated by Mónica Amor and Carlos Basualdo, titled “Maria Lai. To Be Is to Weave,” which traces over six decades of one of the most unique artistic careers of the postwar era. The exhibition highlights Lai’s constant experimentation with assemblage, textiles, sewing, and orality, situating her work within broader debates on abstraction, feminism, and the crisis of the art object. Through key series such as the “Looms,” the “Sewn Canvases,” and the “Sewn Books,” the project moves beyond reductive regional or biographical interpretations, highlighting a material intelligence capable of blurring the boundaries between art and life. The exhibition aims to open new avenues of historical research and is enriched by a special educational room integrated into the exhibition itinerary, designed to stimulate learning and a deeper understanding of Maria Lai’s art.

Just a stone’s throw from the Acropolis lies a must-see destination for contemporary art on any tour of the Greek capital. In the summer of 2026, the EMST, the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens, will host the retrospective “An Ode to Things,” curated by Tina Pandi and designed by Yannis Arvanitis, dedicated to the work of Niki Kanagini, one of the most distinctive voices of the late 20th-century Greek art scene. The exhibition spans four decades of her work, from large-scale tapestries to immersive and participatory installations. The title, taken from a poem by Pablo Neruda, reflects the artist’s obsessive exploration of everyday objects, understood as custodians of memory, time, and identity. The exhibition highlights the performative and multisensory nature of her work, addressing the relationship between applied arts and fine arts, writing as a visual medium, and the exploration of gender identity.

Just outside Arles, a must-see destination on any summer tour of Provence, lies LUMA Arles, housed in the instantly recognizable building designed by Frank Gehry. The new program, which runs from May 1, 2026, through early 2027, kicked off on May 1, 2026, and features the exhibition “Overpainted Photographs” by German painter Gerhard Richter, which explores the fusion of painting and photography. By intervening on small photographs from his archive with oil, paint, or enamel, the artist alters their legibility in a continuous balance between revelation and concealment. The exhibition includes the series “Grauwald,” featuring wooded landscapes enveloped in gray lacquer, and “Museum Visit,” which captures the movement of visitors within the exhibition space through vibrant chromatic glazes. The works offer a reflection on the non-neutrality of the gaze and the constant manipulation of images in contemporary society.

This summer, the sun of the Gargano illuminates the works of a master of 20th-century Italian art, Giorgio de Chirico. Curated by Lorenzo Canova and directed by Giuseppe Benvenuto, the exhibition “Giorgio de Chirico. Return to the Mediterranean” explores the master’s final period through some fifty works from the De Chirico Foundation. Dedicated to the memory of Jole de Sanna, the exhibition—divided into three sections—elevates the sea to a real and mental space between myth and memory. The Sea of Painting analyzes the dialogue with the great masters of the past through bathers and landscapes of light; The Sea of the Mind focuses on the neo-metaphysical period, featuring mannequins and the imagery of the Mysterious Baths. The exhibition concludes with a focus on the artist’s spiritual dimension, revealing the meditative process behind the painting “The Ascent to Calvary” and his deep connection to the Franciscan tradition.