Art On the Road - Palmer PB

This summer, the art world is on the move—and naturally, so are you. From Paris to Menorca and Basel, the summer’s standout exhibitions are as well-traveled as you. Whether it’s Cindy Sherman reframing identity in the Balearics, David Hockney bathing in light at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, or Art Basel anchoring the global circuit, these shows offer more than just visual stimulation—they’re reason enough to book a flight. Here, your guide to the must-see exhibits of the season, where culture and wanderlust go hand in hand.

Rashid Johnson at The Guggenheim Museum in NYC – through January 18, 2026

installation view: Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Photograph by David Heald.

Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers: A major solo exhibition featuring nearly 90 works and dynamic performances in the museum’s rotunda which highlight the artist’s role as a scholar of art history, a mediator of Black pop culture, and as a creative force in contemporary art.

Johnson (b. 1977, Chicago) has cultivated a diverse body of work that draws upon an array of disciplines such as history, philosophy, literature, and music. From black-soap paintings and spray-painted text works to large-scale sculptures, film, and video, his work fills the museum’s rotunda, including Sanguine, a monumental site-specific work on the museum’s top ramp with an embedded piano for musical performances.

As part of this exhibition, the museum is also presenting a series of live performances and public programs. Each month, community partners curate spoken word, music, and live art events that bring to life Johnson’s installations.

Barbara Kruger at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, June 24 – November 9

Barbara Kruger Untitled (FOREVER), 2017 Print on vinyl wallpaper Dimensions variable Installation view, FOREVER, Sprüth Magers, Berlin, September 16, 2017–January 20, 2018 Courtesy the artist and Sprüth Magers Photo: Timo Ohler.

In June, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao will present the first comprehensive survey in Spain of American artist Barbara Kruger, whose bold, thought-provoking work has captivated audiences for over five decades. This expansive exhibition explores how Kruger harnesses the power of words and images to question the structures that shape our daily lives—identity, desire, truth, and control.

Kruger has challenged how language functions in the media, in politics, and in our own inner dialogues. Using concise, declarative phrases set in stark black and white text punctuated by either red or green, she draws from the visual language of advertising—but instead of selling products, her works demand critical thinking. Phrases like “Your body is a battleground” and “I shop therefore I am” have become cultural touchstones, raising questions about gender, consumption, and power.

This exhibition will bring together works from across her career—early paste-ups, large-scale vinyl texts, video installations, audio interventions, and site-specific pieces created especially for the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao. Her work is not just something to look at—it is something to experience, to question, and to confront.

Cindy Sherman at Hauser & Wirth Menorca, June 23 – October 26

Cindy Sherman Untitled #566 2016 Dye sublimation metal print 121.9 x 128.3 cm / 48 x 50 1/2 in 126 x 132.4 cm / 49 5/8 x 52 1/8 in (framed) Photo: CS Studio.

Renowned for her exploration of identity and gender through the performance of meticulously observed personas for the camera, Cindy Sherman: The Women, will feature a selection of the artist’s most iconic bodies of work, dating from the 1970s to 2010s. The exhibition will include the groundbreaking ‘Untitled Films Stills’ (1977 – 1980), through which Sherman came to widespread attention as one of the ‘Pictures Generation’, artists whose work responded to the age of mass media and celebrity. This pivotal series will be juxtaposed with Sherman’s large-format portrayals of film stars, starlets, society women and fashionistas, from various series made over subsequent decades, addressing the layered presentation and public perception of femininity.

The exhibition will be accompanied by an Education Lab that will encompass a range of events, performances and activities in collaboration with the Higher School of Dramatic Art of the Balearic Islands (ESADIB) and Trobades & Premis Mediterranis Albert Camus.

Art Basel in Basel, June 19 – June 22

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, ‘Untitled’ (Go-Go Dancing Platform), 1991. Photo by Aurélien Mole and courtesy Pinault Collection.

Art Basel will bring together 290 leading galleries from 42 countries in Basel this year. Highlights will include 22 Kabinett presentations, the debut of the Art Basel Awards Summit, and a vibrant city-wide program featuring Parcours, Unlimited, and the Messeplatz project. Parcours, curated by Stefanie Hessler, will showcase over 20 site-specific installations from Clarastrasse to the Rhine. Unlimited, curated by Giovanni Carmine, will feature 67 large-scale works. Katharina Grosse will transform the Messeplatz in a major commission curated by Natalia Grabowska. The Awards Summit will honor 36 global Medalists on June 20th. New this year is Premiere, a sector for bold works made in the past five years by 10 cutting-edge galleries.

For Art Basel Unlimited 2025, Hauser & Wirth will present Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ “Untitled” (Go-Go Dancing Platform) (1991). Once daily, at an undisclosed time, a go-go dancer clad in lamé will ascend a light blue platform surrounded by illuminated lightbulbs, dancing for approximately five minutes to music heard only through their headphones. Conceived in 1991 following the deaths of Gonzalez-Torres’s partner, Ross Laycock, and his father, the work reflects a period of profound personal loss amid the broader context of the AIDS crisis and societal homophobia. The installation juxtaposes absence and presence, inviting viewers to contemplate themes of desire, impermanence, and queer resilience through its fleeting performances.

David Hockney at Fondation Louis Vuitton Paris – through August 31

David Hockney, A Bigger Splash, 1967 Acrylic on canvas 242.5 x 243.9 x 3 cm (96 x 96 x 1.181 Inches) © David Hockney Tate, U.K.

One of the most influential artists of the last century, David Hockney takes over the entire Fondation Louis Vuitton with his largest exhibition to date. Featuring more than 400 works spanning 1955 to 2025—including paintings, drawings, digital works, and immersive video installations—the show offers an intimate look at Hockney’s seven-decade career. Personally involved in every detail, the artist, alongside studio manager Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima, focused on the past 25 years while revisiting early iconic works.

A highlight: Hockney’s operatic set designs, reimagined with 59 Studio into a multi-sensory installation in the Fondation’s grandest space. The exhibition concludes with a quieter, more personal finale—recent paintings made in London, where Hockney has lived since 2023, including his latest self-portrait.

Tracey Emin at Palazzo Strozzi, Florence – through July 20

Installation view of Entry to Sex & Solitude at Palazzo Strozzi; Installation view of Tracey Emin, I Followed You to The End , 2024. (Courtesy of the Artist and Photo by Ela Bialkowska.)

Tracey Emin’s Sex and Solitude at Palazzo Strozzi is Emin’s first ever show in an Italian institution. A selection of historical and recent works conveys the controversial and lacerating aesthetic of one of the artists who has most marked the image of women and the relationship between body and existence in contemporary art over the last thirty years. On display is a range of paintings, works on paper, sculptures and installations, illustrating Emin’s oeuvre.

Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely at Hauser & Wirth, Somerset – through February 1, 2026

For the first time in the UK, Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely are reunited in a major site-wide takeover at Hauser & Wirth Somerset, in collaboration with the Niki Charitable Art Foundation, illustrating Saint Phalle and Tinguely’s visionary artistic output and enduring creative collaboration over three decades. Two emblematic figures of contemporary art, both artists defied conventional artmaking and were fuelled with rebellion, in life and art. The exhibition will feature unseen works on paper and art decor by Saint Phalle, alongside shooting paintings and monumental open-air sculptures. Iconic kinetic machines by Tinguely range from the 1950’s to the final year of his life, in addition to multifaceted collaborative works made by the duo throughout the 1980’s.