SFMOMA’s 2026 Exhibition Program Reimagines Art as Connection, Memory, and Global Dialogue

In 2026, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is reshaping how visitors move through art, history, and one another. With a sweeping transformation across all seven floors, SFMOMA’s newly announced exhibition program reflects a museum deeply invested in accessibility, cultural dialogue, and the emotional resonance of contemporary art.

From monumental outdoor sculptures and immersive digital installations to intimate photographic narratives and historic modernist works, the year ahead brings together artists across generations, geographies, and disciplines. The result is a program that feels alive—responsive to the present moment while rooted in memory, identity, and shared humanity.

Christopher Bedford, Helen and Charles Schwab Director of SFMOMA, describe the vision as one centered on relevance and engagement. By spotlighting Bay Area artists, revisiting pivotal moments in art history, and commissioning new site-specific works, the museum’s 2026 exhibitions invite visitors to see art not as something distant, but as something deeply connected to everyday life.

Opening the Year with Presence and Scale

The year begins on January 17 with Rose B. Simpson: Behold, a monumental bronze sculpture commissioned for SFMOMA’s Floor 4 terrace. Standing over 24 feet tall and visible from both inside and outside the museum—including Yerba Buena Gardens—the work immediately establishes the emotional tone of the year.

Created by Santa Clara Pueblo–based artist Rose B. Simpson, Behold depicts a parent and child linked by beaded necklaces and a curved ornamental ladder. The figures’ connection speaks to lineage, care, and continuity, while their outward gazes anchor the work within the Indigenous histories embedded in San Francisco’s land and waters. The sculpture is both vulnerable and resolute, asking viewers to slow down, look outward, and remain human with one another.

Just days later, on January 24, Samia Halaby: Kinetic Paintings brings motion into SFMOMA’s Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Atrium. A pioneering digital artist, Halaby began creating what she calls “kinetic paintings” in the late 1980s by teaching herself how to code. The exhibition presents four newly acquired works from 1987–88 on a monumental digital screen, where shapes, lines, and colors continuously evolve—mirroring natural growth and the ever-changing rhythms of the world.

Reimagining a Landmark Collection

On April 18, SFMOMA unveils Reimagined: The Fisher Collection at 10, a major reinstallation of the Doris and Donald Fisher Collection. Spanning four floors and nearly 60,000 square feet, the presentation includes close to 250 works by 35 artists and emphasizes storytelling that is interactive, accessible, and family-friendly.

Rather than presenting the collection as a fixed canon, this reimagining encourages visitors to form personal connections with the works—through narratives that feel relatable and experiences that invite curiosity. It reflects a broader shift within museums toward openness and inclusivity, where art becomes something to engage with rather than simply observe.

Revisiting Modernism and Movement

May 16 marks the opening of Matisse’s Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal, an exhibition centered on one of the most iconic works in SFMOMA’s collection. When Henri Matisse first presented Femme au chapeau in 1905, its bold colors and loose brushwork shocked audiences and helped define Fauvism as the first major avant-garde movement of the 20th century.

More than 120 years later, the exhibition revisits the painting’s original controversy and lasting influence. By placing Matisse in dialogue with his contemporaries and artists working today, the show examines how rupture, risk, and reinvention continue to shape art history.

Opening the same day, Feel the Beat: Dance in Photographs explores the evolving relationship between photography and dance. Drawing from SFMOMA’s permanent collection, the exhibition traces how movement has been captured and remembered—from Irving Penn’s photographs of Anna Halprin and the San Francisco Dancers’ Workshop to the radical collaboration between Japanese photographer Eikoh Hosoe and Butoh founder Tatsumi Hijikata. The final galleries shift into nightlife scenes from Mali and beyond, revealing dance as both cultural expression and communal release.

Between Worlds, Across Communities

On July 11, Graciela Iturbide: Between Two Worlds opens as an expansive retrospective of the Mexico City–based photographer. Known for her striking black-and-white images, Iturbide approaches photography as a way of understanding the world through relationships. The exhibition marks her return to SFMOMA, which was the first U.S. institution to exhibit her work in 1990, and reflects decades of engagement with Indigenous communities, Chicanx neighborhoods, and global traditions.

That same day, the Bay Area Walls series continues with new commissions by Craig Calderwood and, later in August, Isaac Vazquez Avila. Both murals respond to place—addressing themes of urban change, surveillance, memory, and cultural identity through visual languages rooted in local histories.

Immersive Installations and Global Conversations

In late summer and fall, SFMOMA’s admission-free spaces become sites of large-scale transformation. On August 22, Jacob Hashimoto: Giant Arc opens in the Roberts Family Gallery, featuring more than 75,000 hand-built kite elements suspended into a vast, floating canopy. The installation surrounds visitors completely, blurring the boundaries between sculpture, design, and environment.

October brings one of the most globally anticipated exhibitions of the year: RM x SFMOMA. Featuring 200 works from the personal collection of RM of BTS alongside works from SFMOMA’s collection, the exhibition offers a rare U.S. presentation of modern Korean artworks—many shown publicly for the first time. Positioned within a global context, the exhibition highlights how contemporary Korean art converses with modern and contemporary movements worldwide.

Later that month, Pulitzer Prize–winning composer and artist Raven Chacon debuts a new work in SFMOMA’s long-running New Work series. Through film, drawing, and sound, Chacon addresses Indigenous sovereignty, speculative futures, and the enduring impact of colonial doctrines—offering a powerful meditation timed with the U.S. Semiquincentennial.

Time, Memory, and the Future

The year concludes with Sarah Sze: Forever is Composed of Nows, opening November 21. A multisensory installation of paintings, video projections, and sound, the work transforms the museum’s atrium into a shifting landscape of light and motion. Inspired by Emily Dickinson’s poetry, Sze’s installation reflects on time as a series of present moments—fragile, fleeting, and cumulative.

Closing out the program, the 2026 SECA Art Award Exhibition continues SFMOMA’s decades-long commitment to supporting Bay Area artists at pivotal stages in their careers, reaffirming the museum’s role as both a global institution and a local cultural home.

In 2026, SFMOMA offers more than exhibitions—it offers space. Space to reflect, to feel, to question, and to connect. In a world that often moves too fast, the museum invites us to pause, listen, and witness art as a shared experience unfolding in real time.

Written by: Katherine D