Tate today announces its programme of exhibitions for 2026 across Tate Modern, Tate Britain and Tate St Ives. Highlights include a survey of Tracey Emin’s astonishing career, an exploration of Frida Kahlo as an unparalleled cultural phenomenon, the biggest European retrospective of James McNeill Whistler in 30 years, and a dive into the raucous and rebellious decade that was the 90s. In addition, Tate will show works by Ana Mendieta that have never been seen in the UK, relocate Duncan Grant’s studio from his Sussex home to Tate Britain, and at Tate St Ives stage the first major exhibition of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham’s eight-decade career.
Maria Balshaw, Director of Tate, said “2026 will be a particularly exciting year for Tate. From three extraordinary women artists spanning the year at Tate Modern to the glorious immersive work of Julio Le Parc, and from the celebration of leading figures of modern British art like Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell, and Wilhemina Barns-Graham to new commissions and contemporary artists, the programme reflects our commitment offering our visitors once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to see great art brought together in Tate’s galleries.”
Tate Members will be able to visit all these exhibitions for free and all 16-25-year-olds can get £5 tickets by joining Tate Collective.
Tate Modern
Tate Modern starts the year with a landmark exhibition tracing 40 years of Tracey Emin’s groundbreaking practice, showcasing career-defining works alongside material never exhibited before. The exhibition will celebrate Emin’s raw and confessional approach in all her forms of art making as she poses profound questions on love, trauma, and autobiography.
The summer will see the opening of three exhilarating shows. The first will be an exhibition celebrating the visionary immersive works of Julio Le Parc, featuring his interactive installations and striking sculptures, grounded in his large-scale op art paintings. This will be followed by an in-depth exploration of how Frida Kahlo became one of the most influential artists of modern times, as well as a cultural phenomenon and internationally recognised icon. The exhibition will stage Kahlo’s best-known paintings, as well as photographs and memorabilia from her archives, in dialogue with artists she inspired from future generations. The season will end with a major exhibition dedicated to Ana Mendieta. The show will explore profound questions about displacement, identity, and relationships to nature, bringing together many of Mendieta’s iconic film and photographic works alongside installations which have never been seen in the UK before.
In the autumn, a group exhibition Light and Magic: The Birth of Art Photography will examine the international movement which first transformed the camera into an artistic tool. It will show how photographers from Shanghai to Sydney, New York to Cape Town, and Brazil to Singapore created beautiful and atmospheric images between the 1880s and 1960s, using experimental techniques to reimagine photography as an art form.
Each season will also be marked by one of Tate Modern’s three annual commissions: the cutting-edge Infinities Commission in the Tanks, the participatory summer commission for UNIQLO Tate Play, and the world-renowned Hyundai Commission in the Turbine Hall in the autumn.
Tate Britain
In the spring, Tate Britain will open Hurvin Anderson’s first major museum show, bringing together more than 60 of his vibrant paintings spanning the artist’s entire career to date. In colour-drenched landscapes and interiors, Anderson’s work meanders back and forth between the UK and the Caribbean, reflecting his own experiences of belonging and diaspora. This will be joined by a retrospective of the work of James McNeill Whistler, the first to be held in Europe in 30 years. It will bring together the artist’s world-famous paintings alongside rarely and never seen works, including exquisite portraits, drawings, prints and designs, from as early as his teens in St. Petersburg to his enigmatic late self-portraits.
Two major shows will open in the autumn, starting with a thrilling journey through a seminal decade in which a groundswell of creativity changed the face of British culture. Guest curated by Edward Enninful OBE, The 90s will bring together iconic images by photographers including Juergen Teller and Corrine Day, alongside the work of artists like Damien Hirst, Gillian Wearing and Yinka Shonibare, and fashion items by decade-defining designers including Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen and Hussein Chalayan. This will be followed by an exploration of the remarkable 50-year relationship and creative partnership between two celebrated modern British artists. Vanessa Bell & Duncan Grant will feature over 250 works, including vivid portraits, still lives, landscapes, decorative works on furniture, ceramics, and a once-in-a-lifetime restaging of Duncan Grant’s studio, specially relocated from his Sussex home, Charleston.
In the Duveen Galleries at the heart of the building, Zineb Sedira will be the next artist to undertake the Tate Britain commission. Sedira is a London-based Franco-Algerian artist who has worked across film, photography and installation to explore interwoven stories of the personal, the social and the geographical. There will also be new exhibitions of contemporary art throughout the year as part of Art Now, Tate Britain’s ongoing series of free shows dedicated to emerging artistic talent.
Tate St Ives
In May, Tate St Ives’ will present the work of visionary Lithuanian American artist, Aleksandra Kasuba. The show will span six decades of work, exploring Kasuba’s artistic journey from her early paintings and mosaics to her later sculptures and architectural designs. Her love of the natural world is palpable throughout her art, which was often inspired by the shapes and forms of nature.
In the autumn, a survey of one of Britain’s most significant 20th century artists, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, will open at Tate St Ives. Featuring over 170 paintings, drawings, prints and archive materials, the exhibition will trace Barns-Graham’s development from her student days at the Edinburgh College of Art and early years in St Ives, where she found her place in a lively community of painters and sculptors, through to her later years working between Cornwall and Scotland.
Tate Liverpool
Tate Liverpool, the UK’s most popular museum of modern and contemporary art outside London, is currently undergoing an ambitious transformation. The project has now completed its first phase, bringing more natural light into the building, providing a stronger connection to its historic character and, crucially, opening up new views over the River Mersey that have never been accessible to the public before. While the gallery undergoes the next phase of construction, Tate Liverpool has taken up residency at RIBA North and will continue its programme of collection displays, family activities and public events.
When the transformed Tate Liverpool opens in 2027, the iconic gallery will be reimagined for the 21st century, opening up the interior to display the incredible variety of Tate’s collection and host world-class exhibitions. New spaces will match the ambition of today's most exciting artists, including a new art hall on the ground floor to display larger-scale contemporary art installations. These galleries will sit alongside new public spaces for play, relaxation and learning with views across the Mersey.