Venice Art Exhibitions & Museums to Visit During the Film Festival 2026

The Mostra di Venezia may take over the Lido in September, yet across the lagoon, Biennale Arte 2026 is still very much in motion. The Giardini and Arsenale stay open through November, alongside exhibitions scattered through palazzos, foundations and some of Venice’s less expected spaces.

Our Venice Biennale Arte 2026: Your Essential VIP Guide to In Minor Keys covers the must-visit pavilions, major exhibitions and names at this year’s edition. Museum Exhibitions, Private Collections and Contemporary Art Shows on View During the Mostra

Amoako Boafo: It Doesn’t Have to Always Make Sense

📍 Palazzo Grimani, Castello 4858 📅 Through November 22 🌐 Museo di Palazzo Grimani

For his first solo exhibition in Italy, Amoako Boafo presents a series of new works created specifically for Palazzo Grimani. The Artist draws on the Venetian tradition of portraiture and the history of the Palazzo. Then, the dialogue moves to textiles. Venetian damask appears throughout the installation, reinterpreted in the colors of the Ghanaian flag. Produced by Gagosian in collaboration with the Museum, the Exhibition connects Boafo’s Ghanaian heritage with Venice and its historic ties to the East.

Judy Chicago: The Materiality of Judy Chicago

📍 Calle dei Guardiani 📅 Through November 22 🌐 Galleria Alberta Pane

At 87, Judy Chicago is hardly looking backward. The Materiality of Judy Chicago moves through six decades of her practice, from early minimalist works to the experiments in material and craft that shaped her career. Then come the new pieces. Eight glass and bronze sculptures made with Venetian specialists Studio Berengo debut in Venice. That scale makes this one particularly good. Chicago’s work usually arrives through major museum exhibitions. Here, it sits inside an independent Dorsoduro gallery, giving you a much closer encounter with one of the defining feminist artists of the last half century.

Georg Baselitz: Eroi d’Oro

📍 Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore 📅 Through September 27 🌐 Fondazione Giorgio Cini

Cross the water from San Marco and Georg Baselitz is waiting on San Giorgio Maggiore. Eroi d’Oro, or Heroes of Gold, presents the German artist’s latest large-scale paintings against luminous gold grounds. Figures emerge through black lines, heavy brushwork and flashes of color, including new portraits of Baselitz and his wife, Elke.

The location earns the detour on its own. The Fondazione Giorgio Cini sits directly across the lagoon from the Doge’s Palace, removed from the traffic of San Marco but only minutes away by boat.

Erwin Wurm: Dreamers

📍 Museo Fortuny 📅 Through November 22 🌐 Museo Fortuny

Erwin Wurm takes over Museo Fortuny with Dreamers, bringing his sculptures into one of Venice’s most unusual museum interiors. The Austrian Artist has spent decades questioning what sculpture can be, often using the human body and everyday objects as his material. His famous One Minute Sculptures ask visitors to follow instructions and briefly become part of the work themselves.

Elsewhere, bags grow legs, familiar forms swell out of proportion, and ordinary objects become deliberately absurd. Humor comes first, yet Wurm uses it to question consumerism, social pressure and the way we inhabit our bodies.

Aura — AMA Venezia

📍 AMA Venezia 📅 Through November 22 🌐 AMA Venezia

A private collection gives us a different stop. Aura brings together works from the AMA Collection, with Jenny Saville, Ed Ruscha, Richard Serra, Rudolf Stingel, Christopher Wool and Brice Marden among the names on view.

At its center, Saville presents a monumental painting conceived as a single large canvas. Alongside it, a new work by Ed Ruscha plays with Venice and its American namesake, Venezia. This is the address for seeing an important private collection rather than another museum exhibition.

Lydia Ourahmane: 5 Works

📍 Dorsoduro 2829 📅 Through November 22, 2026 🌐 Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation

Lydia Ourahmane spent time in Venice before making 5 Works, and the city became part of the material. She worked with Venetian craftspeople, local organizations, and stories rarely seen from the other side of the lagoon. One work traces the tonnes of Hotel linen washed outside Venice every day. Another grew from Poveglia, the abandoned former quarantine island Venetians have fought to protect from private development. Ourahmane worked with a local cooperative to build a pier there rather than turning the island itself into spectacle.

It is clever, unexpected and deeply connected to Venice. More importantly, it tells you something about the city you will not learn from another afternoon inside a grand museum.

Wallace Chan: MYTHOS

📍 Scala Contarini del Bovolo 📅 Through October 🌐 Wallace Chan

Known for pushing jewelry beyond ornament, Wallace Chan returns to Venice with MYTHOS at the Scala Contarini del Bovolo. His practice moves between sculpture, gemstones, titanium, and highly technical craftsmanship, turning precious materials into works closer to miniature architecture than traditional jewelry.

The Exhibition places his contemporary pieces inside one of Venice’s most distinctive Renaissance buildings, with its famous spiral staircase rising above the city. Chan also presents Vessels of Other Worlds at the Pietà Chapel, giving his work a second Venice address.

Discover more: Venice Biennale Arte 2026: Your Essential VIP Guide · San Clemente Palace Venice: The Art Sanctuary During Biennale