What's on in Lisbon
September 2026
September at a glance: 8 exhibitions opening, 11 closing, and 23 more on view across the city.
Permanent guide to September 2026 →
Opening in September
Mostra Espanha 2026: Guest Works by Maruja Mallo15 SeptMAC/CCB – Museum of Contemporary Art and Architecture Centre
Two paintings by Spanish avant-garde artist Maruja Mallo, Basuras (1930) and Naturaleza viva (1943), span pre-war Madrid's outskirts and her exile on the Chilean coast.
Pedro Cabrita Reis – “without sorrow of heart”16 SeptMAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology
Nearly 200 unseen paintings, drawings and sculptures made for MAAT's Oval Gallery, in which one of Portugal's best-known artists takes on the masters of post-Renaissance art.
Inês Zenha. Murky Waters19 SeptCentro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian (CAM) · Free
Inês Zenha turns the Project Space into a post-human cave of water, clay and bodily fluids, exploring queer identity, desire and transformation.
The Exhibition of a Dream19 SeptCentro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian (CAM)
Curated by Mathieu Copeland, sixteen dreams become songs played along evolving mandalas in the Engawa Space: an exhibition without screens, experienced through sound and space.
Arpad Szenes: Collection Highlights (Third Exhibition Cycle 2026)20 SeptFundação Arpad Szenes – Vieira da Silva
The museum's third exhibition cycle of 2026 turns the spotlight on Arpad Szenes, with a new selection of his work drawn from the foundation's collection.
Invoking Silence | Biocultural Harmony in Indonesia22 SeptMuseu do Oriente
A meditative show on silence as ritual in Indonesia, from Bali's Nyepi New Year and Javanese Tapa Bisu to daily offerings and prayer, with Museu das Convergências.
Coexistências: Jewellery and the World's Beauty25 SeptMUDE – Museu do Design
Core show of the 3rd Lisbon Contemporary Jewellery Biennial: international jewellery exploring ecology, AI and coexistence between humans and other life.
Contemporary Jewellery: Tereza Seabra Collection25 SeptMUDE – Museu do Design
Over 300 pieces by 190+ makers from the newly donated collection of jeweller and gallerist Tereza Seabra, tracing contemporary jewellery from 1970 to 2025.
Last chance
- On Gestures and Forms. A Dialogue Between Collections20 Sept
MNAC – Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea do Chiado
Works from MNAA, MNAC and the Millennium bcp Collection meet across four themes (Flesh, Time, Ingenuity, Material/Immaterial), recalling the two museums' shared 1911 origin.
Young Design Generation Exhibition20 SeptMUDE – Museu do Design
The 20 finalist projects of Lisbon Design Week's 3rd Young Design Generation competition, shown with their creative process and all 122 entries.
- Alice Geirinhas: Sycorax20 Sept
MNAC – Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea do Chiado
An installation of drawings giving body and voice to Sycorax, the unseen witch-mother of Caliban in Shakespeare's The Tempest, drawing on medieval woodcuts of the European witch hunts.
- Ultratremor27 Sept
MNAC – Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea do Chiado
Group show curated by Germano Dushá: sixteen Portuguese and Brazilian artists explore the passage between material and immaterial through apparitions, rituals and states of transformation.
3 Views of Lisbon27 SeptMuseu de Lisboa
Three rarely shown privately owned paintings of Rossio and Terreiro de Belém from the late 18th and early 19th centuries, with open questions of authorship.
For the Love of the City – 90 Years of the Grupo Amigos de Lisboa27 SeptMuseu de Lisboa
In the Backroom at the Pimenta Palace: 90 years of the Friends of Lisbon Group, the civic association that has fought for the city's heritage since 1936.
Perspectives on Bacchus Hour – 10 Years27 SeptMuseu de Lisboa
At the Roman Theatre site: José Alex Gandum's photographs of a decade of Bacchus Hour, the monthly evenings of music and toasts in the ancient theatre.
What Remains27 SeptMuseu de Lisboa
At the Roman Theatre site: Robert Wiley's site-specific installation weaving uncatalogued glass and ceramic fragments from local excavations into a web of craft and history.
Rosa Barba. Drawing Vocabularies28 SeptCentro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian (CAM)
Rosa Barba's first major show in Portugal: a site-specific installation in the Nave where film, sound and performance become sculpture, a 3D film and musical score at once.
Glass Eye – Pedro Barassi30 SeptMuseu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência
Paintings and drawings by Pedro Barassi made while following the museum's taxidermy laboratory in 2025-26, probing the uneasy line between artificial animal and living memory.
SUPERCREATURES! Powered by Nature30 SeptPavilhão do Conhecimento – Ciência Viva
27 interactive exhibits reveal the evolved "superpowers" of Portuguese animals, from the peregrine falcon's 300 km/h dive to the Iberian wolf's howl.
Also on through September
- Loops.Expanded 2026to 3 Oct
MNAC – Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea do Chiado
11th edition of the MNAC and DuplaCena show devoted to the loop as a form of moving image, curated by Irit Batsry, with works by Karim Aïnouz, Marcelo Gomes and open-call artists.
Seeing and Reading: Paulo de Cantosto 4 OctMUDE – Museu do Design
The self-published books, primers and game-books of educator and graphic innovator Paulo de Cantos (1892–1979), including his double-fronted "birostos" books.
- Maria José Oliveira: I Who Once Was Ito 4 Oct
MNAC – Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea do Chiado
Lisbon-born artist Maria José Oliveira (b. 1943) turns humble, worn objects into drawings, sculptures and installations about memory, ritual and metamorphosis. Capelo Norte Gallery.
Margarida Correia – Mais Altoto 5 OctMAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology
Photographs, interviews and archives portraying the Portuguese army's female paratrooper nurses who served in Africa in the 1960s and 1970s.
Diogo Pimentão. Transient Force of Thingsto 5 OctCentro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian (CAM) · Free
New works by Diogo Pimentão in the Drawing Room, some made during a performance with dancer Emmanuel Eggermont, pushing drawing through paper, graphite and the body.
My Dear Saint Anthony – Images from Private Collectionsto 11 OctMuseu de Lisboa
At the Saint Anthony site: statues, candles and devotional prints lent by private collectors, and the personal stories behind each piece.
Terra Cruato 11 OctMAC/CCB – Museum of Contemporary Art and Architecture Centre
Architecture Centre show on raw earth as a building material in Portugal, from soil science and historical know-how to prototypes and contemporary case studies.
- Echoes from the Collection – The Anarchist Banker by Mário Botasto 18 Oct
Casa Fernando Pessoa
A work from the house's art collection leaves storage: Mário Botas's O Banqueiro Anarquista, after Pessoa's story, presented by curator Susana Pomba.
Saving Lives from the Sea – Neutral Portugal in a World at War (1939–1945)to 18 OctMuseu de Marinha
How neutral Portugal's navy, merchant and fishing ships rescued some 6,000 people from 12 nations' vessels in WWII, and the Portuguese seafarers lost to the war.
Multiple Eyes: Patricia Domínguez, Ines Doujak, Lubaina Himidto 25 OctMAC/CCB – Museum of Contemporary Art and Architecture Centre
Three artists from different generations treat storytelling as a collaborative, political practice, fusing the ancestral and spiritual with the carnivalesque, magical and abject.
Variations to Carlos Paredesto 31 OctMuseu do Fado
Centenary show on Carlos Paredes (1925-2004), master of the Portuguese guitar, through his instruments, records, documents and films.
Frida Orupabo: Cloud of Confusionto 1 NovMAC/CCB – Museum of Contemporary Art and Architecture Centre
Frida Orupabo's first solo show in Portugal mines her Instagram image archive of colonial records, ethnographic photos, family portraits and pop icons to probe intimacy and violence.
6th Natural History and Science Photography Exhibitionto 29 NovMuseu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência
The 30 best images, chosen by a jury from about 215 entries by 41 photographers, capturing wildlife and the natural world in the museum's annual photo contest.
- The Eternal Ark – Fernando Pessoa and Posterityto 6 Dec
Casa Fernando Pessoa
How Pessoa's legend grew after 1935 from the famous trunk of unpublished papers. Curated by Antonio Sáez Delgado; visitors assemble their own take-away selection of texts.
You, Me, Us [O, Hau, Ita; Tu, Eu, Nós]to 13 DecMuseu do Oriente
34 paintings, collages and installations by Timorese artist Maria Madeira explore Timorese ancestral beliefs, exile and the cultural ties between Timor-Leste and Portugal.
The Photographic Impulse: (Un)settling the Colonial Archiveto 31 DecMuseu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência
A decolonial reading of photographs and scientific objects from Portuguese geodesy and anthropology expeditions to colonised territories, from the late 19th century to 1974.
Zé Povinho's Lisbon (A Lisboa do Zé Povinho)to 31 DecMuseu Bordalo Pinheiro
Off-site show for Zé Povinho's 150th birthday: Bordalo's everyman in his home city of Lisbon. Held in the foyer of Fórum Lisboa (Av. de Roma 14), not at the museum.
Natural Variations – A Journey Through Portugal's Landscapesto 31 DecMuseu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência
An immersive 1,200m² journey through ten Portuguese ecosystems: climb a mountain, descend into a cave and dive into the ocean among plants, animals and fossils.
Illustrare – Journeys of Scientific Illustration in Portugalto 31 DecMuseu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência
Six centuries of Portuguese natural-history illustration, shown alongside specimens and models, exploring images made both to enchant and to communicate science.
Japan: Festivities and Ritesto 3 JanMuseu do Oriente
More than 1,500 objects, recreated altars and shrines trace Japan's calendar of Shinto and Buddhist festivals, from New Year and the Boys' and Girls' festivals to funeral rites.
They Were Afraid, Yet They Wentto 31 JanMuseu do Aljube – Resistência e Liberdade · Free
Women political prisoners and resisters under Portugal's dictatorship: who they were, how they endured prison, exile and underground life, and who supported them.
Turn Around. A Look at the EDP Foundation Art Collectionto 15 FebMAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology
Around 90 works by 58 leading Portuguese contemporary artists, from Helena Almeida to Julião Sarmento, drawn from a collection of some 2,500 works from the 1960s to today.
ANTROPO(CÉNICO) – In the Time of Humansto 31 DecMuseu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência
Long-term installation on humanity's impact on the planet: 90 mammals from around the globe fill the room, tracing transformation and loss from the fossil record to today.
Stay in the loop on Lisbon
A short note now and then when something new opens worth your time.