Milan is at its liveliest in autumn. With Fashion Weeks, design events, the Monza Grand Prix and the city’s cultural calendar all in full swing, Milan becomes busier than ever for a few months. Amid this packed programme, we’ve brought together exhibitions to look out for in the city’s museums and art institutions over the coming months, for those who want to follow the trail of art through Milan.
From Dalí and Matisse to Shilpa Gupta, and from Anselm Kiefer and Mona Hatoum to Patti Smith and Soundwalk Collective, the programme brings together distinctly different artistic worlds across the city. This selection focuses on Milan’s institutional art scene, spanning autumn 2026 through the first months of 2027.
For other art spaces, galleries and new discoveries on our Milan radar, keep following Art50.net on Instagram.
Pirelli HangarBicocca
Via Chiese 2, Milano
Aki Sasamoto
17 September 2026 – 17 January 2027 (Shed)
Sasamoto integrates performance, sculpture, and installation to offer sensory and conceptual explorations of the relationship between space and the body. Viewers engage temporally and physically with objects and performative arrangements.
Fondazione Prada
Largo Isarco 2, Milano
Mona Hatoum – “Over, Under and in Between”
29 January – 9 November 2026
Produced specifically for Fondazione Prada’s Cisterna space, Hatoum’s three large-scale installations examine themes of instability, fragility, and danger in the contemporary world. Works such as a monumental glass “spider web,” a world map formed from red glass spheres, and a kinetic metal grid invite visitors into a heightened sensory relationship with the architecture.
Cao Fei – “Dash”
9 April – 18 September 2026
Cao Fei’s multimedia project explores human–soil–machine relationships through the rise of smart agriculture and technological transformation. Combining photography, video installation, virtual reality, and documentary elements, the exhibition foregrounds ecological and technological interdependencies.
Hito Steyerl – “The Island”
4 December 2025 – 30 October 2026
(Osservatorio Fondazione Prada, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II)
This long-term project by Hito Steyerl addresses urgent sociopolitical themes such as the climate crisis, technological authoritarianism, artificial intelligence, and systems of surveillance through video and media installations.
MUDEC – Museo delle Culture
Via Tortona 56, Milano
Matisse – “The World in a Room”
8 October 2026 – 21 February 2027
Curated by Ellen McBreen and Chiara Gatti, this comprehensive and scholarly exhibition project explores Henri Matisse’s relationship with the cultures he encountered during his education and travels beyond Europe. Divided into eight sections, the exhibition brings together around 100 paintings, works on paper and sculptures from international institutions including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation Collection in New York, MoMA, Musée de l’Orangerie, Musée Picasso, Musée d’Orsay, Musée du Quai Branly, the Bargello in Florence and MUDEC.
Charmaine Poh – “Make a travel deep of your inside, and don’t forget me to take”
18 September – 1 November 2026
The first solo exhibition in Italy by Charmaine Poh, winner of Deutsche Bank’s 2025 “Artist of the Year” award, brings together works exploring identity, belonging, power and resistance through the body, image and sound. Curated by Britta Färber, the exhibition focuses on the social and political contexts of Southeast Asia through video, installation and performance.
Palazzo Reale
Piazza del Duomo 12, Milano
Anselm Kiefer – “L’Alchimiste”
7 February – 27 September 2026
Kiefer’s exhibition examines myth, memory, and transformation through historical figures and symbolic imagery. Monumental paintings and installations invite viewers into a powerful visual dialogue between past and present.
Salvador Dalí – “Dalí and Fashion”
24 September 2026 – 31 January 2027
Curated by Montse Aguer, Laura Bartolomé Roviras and Judith Clark, the exhibition explores Salvador Dalí’s relationship with fashion through surrealism, identity and imagery. Bringing together more than 200 works and archival materials, it traces his collaborations with fashion designers, photographers and fashion houses through paintings, drawings, photographs, garments, films, jewellery and objects, revealing how he transformed the boundaries between art and fashion.
The Brueghels – “The Origins of Painting Genres in Europe”
29 September 2026 – 31 January 2027
The first major exhibition in Italy dedicated to one of the most influential artistic dynasties of the European Renaissance brings together more than 80 paintings, drawings and prints. Tracing the Brueghel family’s decisive contribution to the emergence of painting genres across the Netherlands, Italy and Europe, the exhibition explores landscapes, still lifes, scenes of everyday life and battles that helped shape modern European painting.
Gallerie d’Italia – Milano
Piazza della Scala 6, Milano
Arnaldo Pomodoro – “Una Vita”
29 May 2026 – 18 October 2026
Curated by Luca Massimo Barbero and Federico Giani, the exhibition traces more than six decades of Arnaldo Pomodoro’s career, from his early works in the 1950s to his later production. Held to mark the centenary of the artist’s birth and the first anniversary of his death in 2025, the exhibition brings together around 45 works from the Intesa Sanpaolo and Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro collections, alongside lesser-known works and archival materials.
Galleria d’Arte Moderna (GAM)
Via Palestro 16, Milano
Shilpa Gupta – “Furla Series”
15 September 2026 – 6 January 2027
Curated by Bruna Roccasalva, the exhibition presents a series of new works by Shilpa Gupta conceived specifically for the museum’s spaces. Exploring language, censorship, mobility, identity and individual freedom, Gupta brings together sculpture, light installations, video, sound and performance, creating dialogues between languages and territories, individuality and collectivity, and intimacy and the public sphere.
Triennale Milano
Viale Emilio Alemagna 6, Milano
Andrea Branzi – “Andrea Branzi by Toyo Ito. Continuous Present”
13 February – 4 October 2026
Japanese architect and Pritzker Prize laureate Toyo Ito’s perspective on Andrea Branzi brings together installations, objects and drawings, highlighting the Italian designer’s explorations of fragility, hybridity and planetary coexistence. The exhibition also revisits Branzi’s relationship with Triennale Milano and presents an installation dedicated to No-Stop City (1969–72), one of his seminal projects.
Soundwalk Collective & Patti Smith – “Correspondences”
26 November 2026 – 7 March 2027
Organised in collaboration with Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, the exhibition focuses on Correspondences, the multidisciplinary project born from the encounter between Patti Smith and Soundwalk Collective. Bringing together field recordings from around the world with Smith’s poetic vision, the project presents immersive audiovisual installations combining sound, video and words.
Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro
Via Vigevano 3, Milano
Arnaldo Pomodoro – “Open Studio #5 | La Collezione di Arnaldo Pomodoro – Vol. I”
3 October 2026 – 30 May 2027
Curated by Federico Giani, the exhibition presents the art collection Arnaldo Pomodoro assembled throughout his life through acquisitions, exchanges and gifts. The first part of a two-part project, it brings together more than 100 largely unseen works from the collection, retracing key moments in Pomodoro’s personal and artistic journey.
Beyond Milan
For a short escape from Milan, autumn brings Artissima in Turin (30 October – 1 November 2026), while winter sees Arte Fiera in Bologna (5 – 7 February 2027) offering good opportunities for art lovers.
Both fairs are worth visiting for those looking to keep up with the vibrant contemporary art scene in the country beyond Milan, discover new artists and get a sense of different collector profiles.
Both cities can be reached from Milan in around an hour by high-speed train.
Güliz Özbek Collini
Cover Image: Sfera grande, 1966-1967. Collezione Luigi e Peppino Agrati – Intesa Sanpaolo, Gallerie d’Italia – Milano. Photo: Andrea Gabbani, Courtesy Intesa Sanpaolo