Art Events

The 61st International Art Exhibition, titled In Minor Keys, fills the Giardini and the Arsenale until late November.

The Venice Biennale is the oldest exhibition of its kind, held since 1895, and still the one the rest of the art world sets its calendar by. Every two years a central exhibition, shaped by a single curator, is joined by the pavilions of the countries that take part, each showing an artist of its own choosing.

The 2026 exhibition, In Minor Keys, was conceived by Koyo Kouoh. It runs across the two historic sites, the gardens of the Giardini with their national pavilions and the long brick halls of the Arsenale, with more at Forte Marghera on the mainland.

Autumn is the calm season to go: the opening crowds have left and the city is cooler. Allow a full day for each of the two main sites.

Two fairs in two tents at either end of The Regent's Park: contemporary art at Frieze London, and art from antiquity to the twentieth century at Frieze Masters.

Frieze London, founded in 2003, is the week the London art world is built around. Its sister fair, Frieze Masters, sits a short walk across the park and shows older work, from ancient objects and old master paintings to the art of the last century. Seen together, the two cover several thousand years.

Between the two tents, Frieze Sculpture places large works in the park's English Gardens. It is free and needs no ticket.

The fairs are the reason to come, but the galleries of Mayfair and the museums time their best exhibitions for the same week. The National Gallery and Tate Modern are both a short ride away.

Art Basel's Paris fair, under the glass roof of the Grand Palais.

Art Basel came to Paris in 2022 and has made late October the busiest week of the city's art year. The fair is held in the Grand Palais, the great iron and glass hall built for the 1900 World's Fair, a few steps from the Champs-Élysées and the Seine.

The leading galleries of modern and contemporary art take the nave, with younger galleries and single-artist presentations in the upper galleries. Around the fair, a public programme puts works in squares, gardens and institutions across the city, free to see.

It is also the week Paris's museums open their autumn exhibitions. The Louvre and the Musée d'Orsay are within walking distance of the Grand Palais.

Italy's fair for contemporary art, in Turin, with a reputation for younger galleries and new names.

Artissima, held in Turin since 1994, is the Italian fair that curators and collectors go to in order to find artists before everyone else does. It gives much of its floor to emerging galleries and to sections chosen by invited curators.

The fair takes over the Oval, the arena built beside the former Fiat factory at Lingotto for the 2006 Winter Olympics. The same weekend, Turin's museums and foundations open their main shows of the season.

The oldest art fair in the world, founded in 1967, for modern and contemporary art.

Art Cologne began in 1967 as the first fair at which galleries came together to sell modern art under one roof, the model every fair since has followed. It remains the main fair of the German market, strong in post-war and contemporary art.

It is held in the halls of the Koelnmesse, across the Rhine from the cathedral and the old town.

The largest fair devoted to photography, in its twenty-ninth edition, at the Grand Palais.

Paris Photo, founded in 1997, brings together the galleries and publishers of photography from the nineteenth century to the present. It is the one fair where a daguerreotype and this year's prints hang a few stands apart.

The fair is held under the glass roof of the Grand Palais, three weeks after Art Basel Paris. Alongside the galleries there is a large section for photobooks, with signings through the weekend.

The first edition of Frieze in the Gulf, on Saadiyat Island, taking over from Abu Dhabi Art.

Frieze Abu Dhabi is new: 2026 is its first year, succeeding Abu Dhabi Art, the emirate's own fair. It is held at Manarat Al Saadiyat, the arts centre at the entrance to the Saadiyat Cultural District.

The district is the reason to stay longer than the fair. The Louvre Abu Dhabi is a few minutes away, under Jean Nouvel's dome.

The largest art fair in the Americas, and the centre of Miami Art Week each December.

Art Basel has held a fair in Miami Beach since 2002. It is the meeting point of the North and Latin American art worlds, and the largest fair on the continent.

The fair fills the Miami Beach Convention Center, a few blocks from the ocean. Around it, a dozen smaller fairs, museum openings and events along the beach make up what the city calls Miami Art Week.

Southeast Asia's international art fair, at Marina Bay Sands in January.

ART SG is the fair that opens the art year in Asia. It brings international galleries together with those of Southeast Asia, in the convention centre of Marina Bay Sands, on the waterfront.

It falls in Singapore Art Week, when the city's museums and independent spaces open at once.

Art Basel's newest fair, in Doha, in its second year.

Art Basel added Doha to its calendar in 2026, the first of its fairs in the Middle East. The second edition moves to the end of January.

Doha has built one of the densest groups of museums in the region, among them the Museum of Islamic Art on the Corniche.

Spain's international fair for contemporary art, and the main meeting of European and Latin American galleries.

ARCOmadrid, founded in 1982, is the largest art fair in Spain and the one with the closest ties to Latin America. It is held at IFEMA, the fairgrounds on the edge of the city.

The week of the fair is the best of the year for contemporary art in Madrid. The Prado and the Reina Sofía, with Picasso's Guernica, are a short walk from each other in the centre.

The leading fair for fine art, antiques and design, covering seven thousand years of art history.

TEFAF is where museums come to buy. The fair, held in Maastricht since 1988, is known for old master paintings, antiquities, sculpture and the decorative arts, with modern art and design beside them.

Every object is examined by committees of experts before the doors open, which is why the fair is trusted by curators and collectors alike. It is held at the MECC, the congress centre in the south of the city.

Asia's leading art fair, on the harbour in Wan Chai.

Art Basel has held its Asian fair in Hong Kong since 2013. At least half of the galleries taking part have spaces in Asia and the Pacific, which makes it the place to see how the region's art is moving.

The fair fills two floors of the Convention and Exhibition Centre on the waterfront. Across the harbour, in West Kowloon, is M+, the museum of visual culture.

The exhibition of contemporary art held in Kassel every five years, for one hundred days.

documenta has taken place in Kassel since 1955. It comes round only every five years and runs for one hundred days, and each edition is given entirely to one artistic director, which is why it is watched as closely as any exhibition in the world.

The sixteenth edition is directed by Naomi Beckwith, deputy director and chief curator of the Guggenheim Museum in New York. As always, it spreads from the Fridericianum, on the Friedrichsplatz, to museums, parks and buildings across the city.