There is no shortage of blockbuster art shows coming to New York City in 2026, including the MoMA’s Marcel Duchamp retrospective, the Met’s gathering of 200-plus Raphael works and, of course, the 82nd Whitney Biennial.
But galleries and smaller museums are also announcing their 2026 slates with exhibitions spotlighting groundbreaking design, overdue retrospectives, and the opportunity to see a piece from an Italian master in person.
Here are eight art shows to look forward to in the year ahead.
William Eggleston’s final dye transfers
William Eggleston, “Untitled”
Courtesy of the Eggleston Artistic Trust and David Zwirner
The saturated reds and acid greens of William Eggleston’s prints helped establish color as a serious medium in art photography. With “The Last Dyes,” David Zwirner presents a historic farewell to the dye-transfer process that defined the Southern Americana photographer’s early work, which stood out then, as now, for its hyper-realistic tones.
These are the final prints ever produced from his archive using this richly hued and now discontinued analog method. “The Last Dyes” is a landmark show and a time capsule of a vanishing technique that shaped American photography.
“William Eggleston: The Last Dyes” opens at David Zwirner’s 19th Street gallery on Jan. 15.
A famed Caravaggio Portrait at the Morgan
If you’ve been to Rome’s Galleria Borghese, then you’ve seen the tour groups stopping to breathlessly discuss this landmark painting in every language on Earth. On a rare loan to the Morgan Library, Caravaggio’s provocative portrait of a teenage model holding a basket of overripe fruit will be shown in conversation with works by other Italian painters.
In a reminder of the power collectors have long held over artistic legacy, the show concludes with Gianlorenzo Bernini’s portrait drawing of the painting’s first owner, Cardinal Scipione Borghese.
“Boy with a Basket of Fruit” is on view at the Morgan Library on Jan. 16.
The Bronx Museum’s AIM Biennial
Since 1980, the Bronx Museum’s AIM (Artist in Marketplace) fellowship has given stipends, training, and an intensive yearlong seminar to working NYC artists who aren’t represented by commercial galleries.
In late January, the museum will open its seventh biennial showcasing the work of 28 artists in the last two cohorts of AIM fellows, from Bronx-raised painters to Dominican-American artists who work with found furniture as their medium.
“Forms of Connection,” the seventh Bronx Museum AIM Biennial, opens Jan. 23.
Joe Macken’s monumental scale model of NYC
Cindy Schultz/The New York Times/Redux
Joe Macken spent 21 YEARS handcrafting a roughly 50-by-30-foot architectural model of New York City from cardboard, glue and personal memory. Now, the Museum of the City of New York is putting his creation on public view.
Every inch of his model, from the city skyscrapers to the rooftops of the outer boroughs, reflects a balance of faithful precision and imaginative detail. It will be installed near the museum’s permanent exhibitions on the evolution of the city.
“He Built This City” opens at the Museum of the City of New York on Feb. 12.
“Art of Noise” reimagines the design of sound
From 1960s radios to today’s immersive listening rooms, this exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt surveys a century of objects and images that help us experience music. The wide-ranging show was organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art but is being reimagined with East Coast elements, featuring more than 300 record sleeves, posters and audio gear, as well as interactive sound environments created by the cult electronics brand Teenage Engineering and artist Devon Turnbull. The result is a sensory journey through how we’ve packaged and played music across generations.
“The Art of Noise” opens at Cooper Hewitt on Feb. 13.
Ceija Stojka’s art of witness
Ceija Stojka, “Untitled”
2026 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / Bildrecht, Vienna
Ceija Stojka was a Roma refugee who survived three concentration camps before emerging, in her late 50s, as a prolific visual artist making arresting folk art paintings. Stojka died in 2013; this major U.S. retrospective at the Drawing Center is her first. It showcases dozens of vivid, expressionistic paintings that document both the horror of the Holocaust and the richness of Roma cultural life.
“Ceija Stojka: Making Visible” opens at the Drawing Center on Feb. 20.
Carol Bove’s monumental sculptures transform the Guggenheim
Carol Bove, Vase Face I / The Ascent to Heaven on a Dentist’s Chair
Carol Bove Studio LLC. Photo: Maris Hutchinson
Carol Bove, who’s known for her twisted steel “collage sculptures” and exacting spatial choreography, will receive her largest museum survey to date this spring. The exhibit charts her evolution from delicate early drawings to commanding new works in industrial metal, many made specifically for the Guggenheim’s iconic rotunda.
“Carol Bove” opens at the Guggenheim on March 5.
Éliane Radigue’s sonic minimalism resonates at Dia Chelsea
“States of Listening” closes 2026 with a deep listening experience featuring the radical sonic experiments of Éliane Radigue, a pioneering French composer of drones, tape loops, and synthesizer music. With her focus on imperceptibly shifting frequencies and Eastern metaphysics, Radigue’s influence can be felt across ambient and experimental music today. This immersive exhibit will restage her 1970s sound installations alongside newly programmed live performances and acoustic works.
“States of Listening” opens at Dia Chelsea on Dec. 4.