Must-see Chicago museum openings, exhibitions and events in 2026

In 1941, Henri Matisse made a radical shift in his practice prompted by a surgery for cancer, after which he used a wheelchair and found traditional painting physically taxing. What followed was the birth of his renowned cutouts, culminating in Jazz: Rhythms in Color (1947) — a 50-page, unbound book inspired by memories of his travels, Parisian music halls, folktales and the circus. The cutout form enabled Matisse to ‘draw with colour’ as the artist described. The Art Institute of Chicago acquired Jazz in 1948, but the upcoming exhibition is the first time the museum will present the book in its entirety, alongside 50 other works by Matisse from its permanent collection.

Established in 1987 in Chicago’s predominantly Mexican-American neighbourhood of Pilsen, the National Museum of Mexican Art has been promoting knowledge and appreciation of Mexican art and culture for more nearly four decades. Its latest exhibition brings together photographs, drawings, paintings and historical objects to trace the often-overlooked history of Mexican and Mexican-American railroad workers in the Midwest — who in the mid-19th century helped build the rail infrastructure that shaped Chicago as it's known today.

Following a triumphant debut at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, the most comprehensive exhibition to date of Dominican artist Firelei Báez has arrived in Chicago. Spanning the past two decades of the 45-year-old’s career, the survey brings together drawings, large scale paintings, and installations that explore the legacy of colonialism using themes of folklore and fantasy. In Man Without a Country (aka anthropophagist wading in the Artibonite River), for example, the artist sourced 225 pages from books on the colonial history of Hispaniola from the late 19th century, annotating them with folkloric motifs and illustrations.

At nine years old, Paul Tazewell received a sewing machine and began making clothes for himself and his family. By 16, he designed the costumes for his high school’s production of The Wizard of Oz. Today, Tazewell is one of the most prolific minds in costume design, responsible for the iconic looks in Hamilton on Broadway and recent film adaptations West Side Story (2021) and Wicked (2024). For his work on the latter, he became the first Black man to win the Academy Award for Best Costume Design. The Griffin Museum of Science and Industry is showcasing a selection of Tazewell’s most celebrated costumes, accompanied by original sketches, video footage and narration.

Built for businessman Frederick C. Robie between 1908 and 1910, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House the Chicago suburb of Oak Park is a masterful example of the architect’s Prairie Style, defined by low-pitched roofs, horizontally oriented floor plans and a sophisticated palette of brick, wood and art glass. Visitors can tour the impeccably preserved house Thursday through Monday year-round. Reservations are recommended. On 16 May 2026, the Wright Plus Architectural Housewalk offers rare access to the interiors of eight private Oak Park residences designed by Wright and his contemporaries, including Robie House.

Set at the edge of a historic landscape designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, the Obama Presidential Center will bring an expansive slate of offerings to Chicago’s South Side. The campus comprises four buildings, including a museum, a branch of the Chicago Public Library stocked with books selected by the Obamas, as well as an auditorium, a basketball court, a vegetable garden, a rooftop playground, and a sledding hill — added at Michelle Obama’s request. The museum building is a work of art in its own right: a monumental Brutalist structure nicknamed the ‘Obamalisk’, anchored by an 83-foot-tall installation by Julie Mehretu. Inside, visitors will find a replica of the Oval Office and more objects that tell the story of President and Mrs. Obama and their historic presidency.

Central to the art scene in the Windy City is Expo Chicago, the annual five-day art fair at the Navy Piers Festival Hall. The fair was acquired by Frieze in 2023. This year’s Expo – marking their 13th edition – will gather 130 galleries from across the globe in partnership with the opening of the Obama Presidential Center. Visitors can look forward to two major exhibitions curated in conjunction with the Center, including a selection of archival materials. Expo is broken down into multiple selections. This year includes one dedicated to the Presidential Center, curated by its director. Others include Profile, dedicated to solo artist exhibitions; and Focus, dedicated to exciting emerging galleries.

Known as ‘Ren Ben’ to locals, the Renaissance Society’s annual artist-conceived gala is no ordinary fundraiser. Guests experience a night curated by a designated host artist, who oversees everything from the space to the performance and food. This year’s host is Maurizio Cattelan, who will surely bring his signature wit and conceptual audacity to the assignment. Proceeds from the event will support the non-profit contemporary art museum’s programs, which are free and open to the public. A solo exhibition by Leah Ke Yi Zheng, exploring Chinese philosophy and traditional materialities through a dialogue between Easter and Western thought, is currently on view through 12 April 2026.

Over the course of her six-decade career, 87-year-old Barbara Nessim challenged gender norms with her feminist paintings and drawings, becoming one of the first women artists to gain recognition in the male-dominated field of illustration. This March, Nessim gets her first Chicago solo show, with a comprehensive selection of her paintings, drawings, computer art prints, sketchbooks and a site-specific installation.

Since 1991, the Intuit Art Museum’s mission has been to shed light on historically overlooked artists. The institution’s latest exhibition celebrates the legacy of a beloved Chicago artist with a selection of his paintings and works on paper. The show posits the influence of paper dolls on Darger’s large-scale, mixed-media narratives. Viewers will be able to step inside a reconstruction of his apartment, which doubled as his studio, for more than 40 years.

In 1883, the banker Samuel Nickerson built what was reportedly the most expensive private residence in Chicago, designed by the prominent architecture firm Burling & Whitehouse. A century later, the philanthropist and art collector Richard Driehaus transformed the Gilded Age mansion into one of the city’s most prized jewel-box museums, which features onyx columns and Tiffany stained-glass windows.

Opening in May, Artists and Pirates: Satirical Prints in Georgian London and Dublin will trace the rise of single-sheet caricature in Georgian London and its inventive afterlife in Dublin, where artists and pirates alike transformed political and social satire into a witty, cross-channel artform.