Its 2026. Time to touch grass. Or at the very least press your eyes against a museum vitrine and look at some art. Get curious, inspired, and slightly lost. Maybe even leave with more questions than you came in with.
Also, a reminder for everyone who received their cherished museum card for Christmas and has used it exactly once since. Consider this your nudge.
To help you step back into the real world and momentarily escape the doomscrolling’s, we asked our dear friend, multitalented photographer, and curator Marie Goto to map out the exhibitions worth penciling into your cultural calendar for 2026.
“Whether I go alone to a museum and read every caption, or with friends and debrief afterwards at a café, there’s something so cathartic to me about visiting a good exhibition.
Here’s my guide to some exhibitions to see in the Netherlands this year. From immersive group shows exploring shared themes through different perspectives, to solo presentations by new artists alongside revisited names. Expect abstract art, documentary photography, fashion exhibitions that blur archive and runway, and spatial design that transforms the way stories are told.
If you need somewhere to take shelter on a rainy day, or just a calm place to slow down and reset, consider visiting one of these exhibitions this year :).”
Danh Vo: πνεῦμα (Ἔλισσα)
– August 2nd, 2026 at Stedelijk Museum
Contemporary artist and sculptor Dan Vo will have a solo exhibition at the Stedelijk museum starting this month, featuring objects, texts, and images that come together in Vo’s distinct visual language. His work is inherently political, exploring themes such as displacement, power, global history, and human intimacy.
Nude with Attitude
March 14th – Sept 20th, 2026 at Museum Arnhem
This group exhibition spotlights artists in the last 100 years who have used nudity in their art as a form of protest. Made in response to an observed change in attitudes towards nudity in the museum space, the exhibition will show predominantly female artists, artists of color, and queer makers from the past 100 years who have used the naked body to tackle themes such as freedom, identity, and inequality.
Inez & Vinoodh: Can Love Be A Photograph
March 21st – September 6th, 2026 at Kunstmuseum Den Haag
The Kunstmuseum Den Haag invites Dutch photography duo Inez & Vinoodh for a retrospective exhibition reflecting on their 40 years of collaboration. Through their signature provocative and visually striking style, the exhibition explores themes of seduction, identity, and collaboration. It offers a comprehensive look at their creative partnership and lasting impact on contemporary photography.
Martin Parr
April 3rd – August 3rd, 2026 at Foam
In April, Foam presents a tribute exhibition to the legacy of British photographer Martin Parr. Parr captured the quirks and contradictions of modern daily life, and his instantly recognisable style of bold, humorous yet meaningful photography brought him much love and respect from the photography world and beyond.
Eye(s) Open: New Perspectives on Colonial Film Heritage
April 3rd – September 23rd, 2026 at Eye Film Museum
Eye(s) Open: New Perspectives on Colonial Film Heritage brings together eleven artists who reinterpret colonial-era films from Eye’s archive, creating new works that challenge historical narratives and power structures. Through installations, experimental film, and innovative techniques, the exhibition examines how colonial imagery shaped perceptions and explores alternative perspectives.
Letizia Battaglia: Life, Love and Death in Sicily
April 4th – Aug 23rd, 2026 at Fotomuseum Den Haag
Letizia Battaglia was an Italian photographer, activist, and politician who is most known for her raw depictions of Sicilian life, using her camera as her tool in fighting against organised crime. This retrospective exhibition is the first major one since her death in 2022, and will take the visitor through her most frightening as well as poetic works.
William Forsythe
June 6th – August 23rd 2026 at Museum Voorlinden
American dancer and choreographer William Forsythe brings his Choreographic Objects to Museum Voorlinden, inviting visitors to actively participate as the works take shape through physical engagement. Each object prompts movement, encouraging participants to navigate space through balance, perception, and decision-making. Central to his works is experiencing the relation between object, space, and the body, and how it responds to its surroundings.
Fashion Galore: 75 Years of Fashion Collection
July 4th, 2026 – January 3rd, 2027 at Kunstmuseum Den Haag
Fashion Galore celebrates 75 years of Kunstmuseum Den Haag’s fashion collection, showcasing highlights from its 50,000-piece archive ranging from 17th-century garments to contemporary designs. The exhibition revisits iconic works while offering fresh perspectives on restoration, storytelling, and the evolving value of fashion, including a glimpse behind the scenes into the museum’s open depot.
Yayoi Kusama
September 11th, 2026 – January 17th, 2027 at Stedelijk Museum
To welcome the new artistic season, the Stedelijk opens an expansive retrospective of Yayoi Kusama in September. From Tokyo to New York, Kusama is one of the most pioneering living artists of today, probing the concepts of infinity, repetition, and self-obliteration through her work. This exhibition will cover more than 7 decades of her work, including paintings, sculpture, installations, drawings, fashion, performances, and more.
Hailun Ma
September 18th, 2026 – January 20th, 2027, at Foam
To welcome the new artistic season, the Stedelijk opens an expansive retrospective of Yayoi Kusama in September. From Tokyo to New York, Kusama is one of the most pioneering living artists of today, probing the concepts of infinity, repetition, and self-obliteration through her work. This exhibition will cover more than 7 decades of her work, including paintings, sculpture, installations, drawings, fashion, performances, and more.
Willem de Kooning at work
October 9th, 2026 – January 17th, 2027 at Rijksmuseum
If modern art is your thing, you can look forward to the Rijksmuseum’s Willem de Kooning at Work exhibition. The show will present around 120 works, focusing on his creative process through drawings, paintings, and sculptures. Tracing his journey from Rotterdam to New York and beyond, it highlights his evolution between figuration and abstraction and reveals how his restless experimentation helped redefine modern art and Abstract Expressionism.
David Shrigley: What The Hell Was I Thinking?
December 13th, 2025 – May 3rd, 2026 at Kunsthal Rotterdam
David Shrigley is a multimedia contemporary artist who The Kunsthal Rotterdam invites the multimedia contemporary artist David Shigley to showcase a wide selection of his absurdist works, presented in new forms. An invitation into his peculiar world, the exhibition explores his satire.
