Exhibitions to see in January 2026 in Italy From the masters of photography to contemporary painters
January is not just the month of good resolutions: it is also the ideal time to set your gaze in motion again. Less crowded museums, slower cities, and a surprisingly rich calendar make the beginning of the year one of the best moments to explore the exhibitions to see in Italy in January 2026. From the great return of Italian Liberty to dialogues between ancient and contemporary art, through immersive exhibitions, historic photography, and new voices in contemporary painting, the 2026 exhibition season gets off to a strong start. This selection is not a ranking, but a map: six stops from North to South designed for those who love to discover, deepen, and be surprised.
Exhibitions to see in January 2026 in Italy
Liberty - Brescia
Among the most anticipated art exhibitions of January 2026, the show at Palazzo Martinengo in Brescia brings Italian Liberty back into the spotlight, presenting it as a living, cross-disciplinary, and surprisingly contemporary language. Not only paintings and sculptures, but also advertising graphics, fashion, photography, ceramics, and even early cinema form a path that reconstructs the imagery of an Italy that, between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, looked enthusiastically toward modernity. Works by Vittorio Matteo Corcos, Gaetano Previati, Amedeo Bocchi, Cesare Tallone, and many others engage in dialogue, conveying the idea of a style that goes beyond aesthetics to shape ways of living, communicating, and imagining the future. This exhibition works equally well for art history lovers and for those interested in understanding how a taste emerged that continues to influence design and visual culture today. Perfect for starting the year with a broad and curious perspective.
Title: Liberty. L’arte dell’Italia moderna
When: January 24 – June 14, 2026
Where: Palazzo Martinengo, Brescia
Albrecht Dürer & Maria Lai - Ulassai
In the heart of Sardinia, in Ulassai, an unexpected dialogue unfolds between Renaissance art and contemporary art. Bringing together Albrecht Dürer and Maria Lai might seem daring, yet it works surprisingly well. On one side are the rigorous and visionary engravings of one of the great masters of the European Renaissance; on the other, the symbolic, poetic textile works of one of the most beloved figures in contemporary Italian art. The common thread? The mark, spirituality, time, and above all the journey, understood both as physical movement and as an inner, spiritual quest. The exhibition invites slow looking and the recognition of subtle affinities between sign, gesture, and imagination. The setting of Ulassai, deeply connected to Maria Lai’s legacy, makes the experience even more intense. An ideal stop for those who love exhibitions that provoke thought without ever feeling heavy.
Title: Il respiro di un viaggio
When: through March 15, 202
Where: Museo CaMuC and Stazione dell’Arte, Ulassai
Vittorio Marella - Rovereto
If you are looking for a contemporary art exhibition capable of addressing the present without slogans, Vittorio Marella’s show at the Mart in Rovereto is a spot-on choice. The young Venetian artist uses painting as a tool to investigate the relationship between the body, the environment, and the climate crisis, turning light into an almost physical presence. The large canvases that make up the installation create an oppressive painted ceiling, depicting boys and girls lying under a suffocating light, suspended in an undefined time and a space devoid of reference points. There is no defined context and no explicit narrative—only the perception of a fragile and uncertain present, as if the surrounding world had already evaporated. Marella employs a classical pictorial language to convey a deeply contemporary unease, transforming the sun into a symbol of a silent threat. The viewer is left to confront the sense of vulnerability that runs through his works.
Title: Sotto il sole
When: through March 22, 2026
Where: Mart, Rovereto
Lee Miller - Turin
Torino dedicates a major retrospective to Lee Miller, an extraordinary and still astonishing figure today. Her life is marked by radical turns: model, surrealist photographer, contributor to Vogue, war correspondent. Miller emerges as a multifaceted and unconventional artist, capable of moving naturally between seemingly irreconcilable worlds, from surrealism to fashion, from war reportage to domestic intimacy. The exhibition traces the development of her research from the 1930s to the 1950s, conveying not only stylistic evolution but also the complexity of a personality who experienced photography as a total form of engagement with the world. The images taken during the Second World War, in particular, stand out for their clarity and their ability to retain a human gaze even in the face of horror. The exhibition restores Lee Miller to her rightful role as a leading protagonist, finally freeing her from the label of muse or assistant and recognizing her autonomous, powerful, and profoundly contemporary voice.
Title: Lee Miller. Opere 1930-1955
When: through February 1, 2026
Where: CAMERA – Italian Center for Photography, Turin
Angelo Thomann, Eva Luna Thomann & Laura Maddalena Gerosa - Milan
Among the immersive exhibitions of January 2026, ROOMS stands as a clear example of how art can become a sensory and narrative experience. In the spaces of SLAP in Milan, the installations by Angelo Thomann, Eva Luna Thomann and Laura Maddalena Gerosa create a path made of rooms to move through rather than artworks to simply observe. Light and sound become structural elements, capable of altering the perception of space and time. Each environment invites visitors to slow down, to get lost, and to suspend contact with the outside world. The decision to create all the works by hand introduces an ethical reflection on artistic practice, restoring centrality to gesture and process. ROOMS does not offer a linear narrative, but a series of emotional and symbolic thresholds in which space itself becomes a living, performative organism. ROOMS is not looked at. It is inhabited.
Title: ROOMS
When: January 14–18, 2026
Where: SLAP – Spazio Lambrate per le Arti Performative, Milan
Gavilán Rayna Russom, Hans Schärer, Michel Auder & Sam Porritt - Naples
The group exhibition Rise and Fall at Galleria Fonti in Naples is an intense and highly stimulating show that explores desire as an unstable force, oscillating between attraction and collapse, through works that question gaze, intimacy, and perception. Drawings, videos, and installations alternate along a path that plays on the boundary between what appears authentic and what is constructed. The alleged discovery of erotic drawings attributed to Eisenstein becomes a conceptual pretext to reflect on authenticity and the construction of meaning, opening a short circuit between true and false, attraction and downfall. The works on display stage bodies, gestures, and movements that fluctuate between control and surrender, desire and vulnerability. The result is a dense, almost cinematic journey that invites viewers to question their own position as observers.
Title: Rise and Fall
When: through January 24, 2026
Where: Galleria Fonti, Naples
Cartier - Rome
Among the exhibitions to see in Rome in January 2026, this is one that successfully appeals to lovers of art, design, and visual culture alike. At the Capitoline Museums, Cartier’s creations enter into direct dialogue with the classical world, demonstrating how the imagery of ancient Greece and Rome continues to influence contemporary taste. Jewelry, cameos, and hardstone carvings are set against millennia-old sculptures in a path that shows how myth is reinterpreted, updated, and transformed over time. The highly theatrical exhibition design turns the visit into an immersive journey that blends art, design, and history, enriched by sensory suggestions and technical details that reveal the craftsmanship behind the jewelry. The exhibition makes clear how high jewelry can be read as a true history of art. It will appeal both to lovers of luxury and to those interested in the reinterpretation of the past in the present.
Title: Cartier e il Mito ai Musei Capitolini
When: through March 15, 2026
Where: Capitoline Museums, Rome
Ferdinando Scianna - Saluzzo
The exhibition dedicated to Ferdinando Scianna in Saluzzo is an ideal stop for those who love photography that tells stories rather than constructing polished images. The exhibition explores the relationship between fashion photography and photojournalism, showing how Scianna brought his human and narrative gaze even into a context that might seem distant, such as fashion. The selected images present a lived-in fashion rooted in everyday reality, far removed from artificial poses. Sicily, streets, and spontaneous gestures become the natural setting for photographs that hold together aesthetics and truth. An accessible yet profound exhibition, perfect for understanding how photography can simultaneously be document, narrative, and cultural interpretation.
Title: Ferdinando Scianna. La moda, la vita
When: through March 1, 2026
Where: La Castiglia, Saluzzo
Terry Atkinson - Venice
Ca’ Pesaro in Venice hosts a rigorous and thought-provoking project dedicated to Terry Atkinson, a key figure in British conceptual art. The exhibition spans more than fifty years of work, focusing on the relationship between art, language, politics, and history. Painting, drawing, and text coexist in works that demand time and attention, but reward viewers with a clear-eyed reading of the mechanisms of power and representation. The theme of war runs through the exhibition as a constant—not in an illustrative sense, but an analytical one. This is not an “Instagrammable” exhibition, but one that lingers and continues to resonate long after leaving the museum.
Title: TERRY ATKINSON. L’artista è un motore di significati
When: through May 1, 2026
Where: Ca’ Pesaro, International Gallery of Modern Art, Venice
Giuseppe Veneziano - Sarzana
The retrospective of Giuseppe Veneziano in Sarzana presents over seventy works tracing the career of one of the leading figures of Italian New Pop, known for his direct, ironic, and provocative language. Historical and political figures, pop icons, and masterpieces of art history are reinterpreted in a irreverent key, often confronting viewers with seductive images that conceal uncomfortable content. The exhibition functions as a vast visual archive of our time, intertwining current events, collective memory, and mass culture. It plays on the boundary between attraction and discomfort, without seeking the viewer’s approval. Ideal for those who consider art a space for confrontation rather than mere contemplation.
Title: Giuseppe Veneziano. Anthology
When: through May 3, 2026
Where: Fortezza Firmafede, Sarzana
