Exhibitions to see in August 2026 in Italy From Nobuyoshi Araki to Fernando Botero and Agnès Varda, here are the exhibitions worth planning your summer around
August is the month of departures, hastily packed suitcases, cities that look like post-apocalyptic movie sets, and seaside destinations where finding a parking spot requires more luck than winning the lottery. And yet, between a granita and a swim, some people would rather step into an air-conditioned museum than spend another hour under a beach umbrella. And they're absolutely right. Because summer is one of the best times to visit an exhibition. Think about it. There's less rushing around, more time to look closely, and, above all, Italy's cultural calendar continues to offer exhibitions that are just as worth the trip as a hidden beach. From Oristano to Agrigento, via Rome, Milan, Venice, Turin and Bologna, this August brings together photography, contemporary art, comics, sculpture, cinema, great 20th-century masters, and exciting new international voices. If you're planning a summer itinerary, here are the must-see exhibitions in Italy in August 2026.
Exhibitions to see in August 2026 in Italy
Nobuyoshi Araki - Oristano
If you think you know Nobuyoshi Araki only for his provocative photographs, this exhibition might change your mind. Secret Pages, at the Carlo Contini Art Gallery in Oristano, brings together 122 works, including Polaroids and photographs from the Molinas Balata Collection, that reveal the Japanese photographer's most intimate side. Here, desire coexists with melancholy, sensuality with memory, while flowers, bodies and fragments of everyday life become pages from a personal diary. Presented as part of the Dromos Festival, the exhibition reflects on the idea of secrecy not as something to be uncovered, but something to be experienced. It's a photography exhibition that asks visitors to slow down, observe carefully, and accept that some images continue asking questions long after you've left the museum.
Title: Nobuyoshi Araki. Secret Pages
When: Until October 17, 2026
Where: Pinacoteca Carlo Contini, Oristano
Diana Markosian – Turin
How do you move on from a relationship that's over? Diana Markosian doesn't try to answer the question. Instead, she transforms it into one of the most compelling photography exhibitions of the summer. At Gallerie d'Italia in Turin, Replaced explores the end of a relationship by reconstructing shared memories with an actor playing the artist's former partner. The photographs, film and even the exhibition design, which recreates a hotel where the couple actually stayed, become a journey through memory, where nostalgia, grief and irony coexist without ever slipping into melodrama. It's a deeply contemporary reflection on what it means to be "replaced," not only in someone's life but also in places and memories we once believed belonged exclusively to us.
Title: Diana Markosian. Replaced
When: Until September 6, 2026
Where: Gallerie d'Italia, Turin
Davide Toffolo - Bard (AO)
Telling the story of Pier Paolo Pasolini through a comic book might sound like a risky idea. Then Davide Toffolo, graphic novelist and frontman of Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti, comes along and makes it work without turning Pasolini into an untouchable monument. At Forte di Bard, Parola di Pasolini features around one hundred works, including original comic pages, collages, photographs and archival materials related to the graphic novel first published in 2001, now considered a classic of Italian comics. The exhibition explores the poet's places, ideas and obsessions while allowing cinema, politics, poetry and pop culture to constantly interact, reminding us just how relevant Pasolini's thinking remains today. A must-see for comic book enthusiasts (and TARM fans alike), as well as anyone looking for a fresh way to approach one of the greatest intellectuals of the twentieth century
Title: Davide Toffolo. Parola di Pasolini
When: Until November 8, 2026
Where: Forte di Bard, Bard
Diego Rivera – Rome
If the name Diego Rivera only makes you think "Frida Kahlo's husband," this exhibition is here to set the record straight. At the Capitoline Museums, more than 140 works reveal how the Mexican muralist helped shape an entire cultural identity through art. The exhibition retraces his years in Europe, his dialogue with the avant-garde, and his return to Mexico, where Rivera transformed painting into a public, accessible and profoundly political medium. Alongside Rivera's works are masterpieces by Frida Kahlo, José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and many other leading figures of modern Mexican art. It's a major exhibition that tells the story not only of an artist, but of a nation in transformation, without ever losing the spectacular power of color.
Title: Diego Rivera e la costruzione dell’arte moderna in Messico nel XX secolo
When: Until December 13, 2026
Where: Capitoline Museums, Rome
Fernando Botero - Agrigento
There are few things more spectacular than Fernando Botero's sculptures. One of them is seeing those same sculptures displayed among the Valley of the Temples. With The Enchantment of Myth, the Colombian master arrives in Agrigento with an exhibition combining monumental outdoor bronzes with paintings, watercolors and drawings displayed inside Villa Aurea. His unmistakable rounded figures interact with the ancient Greek temples in a surprisingly natural way, as though they had always belonged to that landscape. The exhibition also includes some of Botero's final works, dedicated to themes of family, music, everyday life and the circus. It's the perfect opportunity to experience Botero's unmistakable visual language in dialogue with one of Italy's most iconic archaeological sites.
Title: Fernando Botero – L’incanto del Mito ad Agrigento
When: Until September 20, 2026
Where: Villa Aurea and the outdoor spaces of the Valley of the Temples Archaeological Park, Agrigento
Sanya Kantarovsky – Venice
At Palazzo Loredan, home of the Veneto Institute of Sciences, Letters and Arts, Sanya Kantarovsky creates a universe inhabited by fragile, unsettling and profoundly human figures. Religion, philosophy, mythology and art history coexist throughout the Russian-American artist's paintings without ever becoming an academic exercise. The exhibition features ten paintings, ceramic works and a glass sculpture produced together with Murano master glassmakers, resulting in a compact yet remarkably dense exhibition. Children, animals, centaurs and distorted, melancholic characters seem suspended somewhere between dream and nightmare, exploring vulnerability, alienation and spirituality through a subtle irony that only reveals itself the longer you look. The result is an intimate yet richly layered contemporary art exhibition, perfect for anyone who appreciates emotional storytelling without theatrical spectacle.
Title: Sanya Kantarovsky – Basic Failure
When: Until November 22, 2026
Where: Palazzo Loredan, Venice
The art of quotation - Rovereto
Artists have been borrowing from other artists long before Pinterest and mood boards ever existed. From Painting to Painting: The Art of Quotation, at MART in Rovereto, starts from this very idea, showing how artists have always inspired one another by copying, reinterpreting, paying tribute to, or even playfully mocking, the masterpieces of the past. Featuring around 150 works by nearly 80 artists, the exhibition includes names such as Giorgio de Chirico, Andy Warhol, Giulio Paolini, Luigi Ontani, Francesco Vezzoli, and Ai Weiwei, demonstrating how an image changes meaning every time it is reinterpreted. The best part? Visitors themselves become part of the game: the more references they recognize, the more the exhibition transforms.
Title: Di quadro in quadro. L'arte della citazione
When: Until November 1, 2026
Where: MART, Rovereto
Arnaldo Pomodoro – Milan
Even if the name Arnaldo Pomodoro doesn't immediately ring a bell, you've almost certainly seen one of his iconic bronze spheres. Gallerie d'Italia in Milan presents a major retrospective marking the centenary of the sculptor's birth and one year after his passing. Around forty-five works, photographs, documents and archival materials trace more than sixty years of his career, from his earliest creations to his monumental sculptures. It's an ideal opportunity to understand how Pomodoro transformed seemingly perfect geometric forms into intricate works filled with cuts, hidden mechanisms and surprising complexity. If you're visiting Milan this summer, this is one exhibition you won't want to miss
Title: Arnaldo Pomodoro. Una vita
When: Until October 18, 2026
Where: Gallerie d'Italia, Milan
Agnès Varda - Bologna
In recent years, conversations about women directors, the female gaze and new forms of storytelling have become increasingly common. Agnès Varda, however, was doing all of that long before those labels even existed. Viva Varda! Cinema Is Woman, at Bologna's Galleria Modernissimo, celebrates her career through photographs, film footage, costumes, documents, installations and archival materials. The exhibition explores her relationship with the French New Wave, feminism, photography and cinema, while also highlighting encounters with artists and cultural icons such as Jane Birkin, Catherine Deneuve, Jim Morrison, Marcello Mastroianni, and Jacques Demy. It's a wonderful opportunity to rediscover a filmmaker whose influence on contemporary cinema is far greater than she is often given credit for.
Title: Viva Varda! Il cinema è donna
When: Until January 10, 2027
Where: Galleria Modernissimo, Bologna
Natsuko Uchino – Siena
Who says a contemporary art exhibition has to consist only of paintings? At Palazzo Chigi Zondadari in Siena, Natsuko Uchino creates an immersive journey combining ceramics, textiles, wood, installations and sound, developed in collaboration with local craftspeople. Created specifically for the palace's historic spaces, the project emerges from the meeting point between artistic practice, local traditions and natural materials. Woven structures, monumental textile works and a ceramic sound installation transform the historic interiors without ever overwhelming them. It's the ideal visit for anyone looking for something beyond the traditional museum exhibition and eager to discover one of the most exciting names in today's international contemporary art scene.
Title: Natsuko Uchino – Tessere trame su pieghe increspate
When: Until December 8, 2026
Where: Palazzo Chigi Zondadari, Siena
