Spanning countries and cultures, this week’s exhibitions ask how art records the world around us.
From Baroque Spain and Pan-African portraiture to Arab modernism, Chinese gardens, and contemporary responses to conflict, these exhibitions explore the ways artists preserve history, construct identity, and transform lived experience into enduring visual language.
Zurbarán
The National Gallery, London
The first major UK exhibition devoted to the Spanish Baroque master Francisco de Zurbarán brings together paintings from leading museums across Europe and the United States. Best known for his striking use of light and shadow, Zurbarán transformed religious subjects, portraits, and still lifes into works of remarkable psychological depth and intensity. Spanning his career from early ecclesiastical commissions to paintings created for private devotion, the exhibition reveals an artist whose extraordinary attention to texture, form, and atmosphere continues to resonate centuries later.
On view until 23 August 2026.
Resolutions: Evolving Realities
Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha
Marking the museum’s 15th anniversary, Resolutions: Evolving Realities reflects on the institution’s role in shaping the study and presentation of modern and contemporary Arab art. Drawing from Mathaf’s permanent collection alongside archival material, the exhibition traces its evolution through landmark exhibitions, research, education, and collecting. It also examines how artists across the Arab world have contributed to evolving ideas of identity, cultural exchange, and decolonisation, while highlighting Mathaf’s lasting influence on the region’s artistic landscape.
On view until 8 August 2026.
Blooming: The Art of Gardens in East and West
Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong
Bringing together 106 paintings and artefacts from leading institutions in China, France, and the United States, Blooming: The Art of Gardens in East and West explores the garden as a place of beauty, reflection, and cultural exchange. Moving between imperial landscapes, scholarly retreats, and artistic interpretations, the exhibition places Chinese and Western garden traditions in dialogue through works by artists including Claude Monet, Zhang Daqian, and Wen Zhengming. Together, the works reveal how gardens have long reflected changing ideas of nature, power, leisure, and the ideal life.
On view until 14 October 2026.
Ideas of Africa: Portraiture and Political Imagination
Museum of Modern Art, New York
This exhibition explores how photographic portraiture became a powerful expression of Pan-African identity and political imagination during the mid-twentieth century. Bringing together historic works by photographers including Seydou Keïta, Malick Sidibé, Jean Depara, and Sanlé Sory, alongside contemporary artists, the exhibition traces how images of everyday life, youth culture, and self-fashioning became intertwined with movements for decolonisation and Black internationalism. Together, the works reveal portraiture as both a personal and political act whose influence continues to resonate today.
On view until 25 July 2026.
Black Cloud, Red Line | Juma Al Haj
Iris Projects, Abu Dhabi
Developed in response to the first missile attacks reported in the UAE in 2026, Interoception marks a deeply personal new body of work by Emirati artist Juma Al Haj. Through layered paint, gestural mark-making, and fragmented text, Al Haj transforms fear, uncertainty, and collective anxiety into abstract visual language. Rooted in the body’s internal experience of crisis, the exhibition considers how moments of instability are absorbed before they are expressed, positioning painting as both a record of emotion and a means of resilience.
On view until 6 August 2026.
Opening dates, times, and ticket information are available on each institution’s website.