Exhibitions in Lisbon
December 2026
December opens Neïl Beloufa's video-game rooms at MAC/CCB on the 3rd and closes Casa Fernando Pessoa's The Eternal Ark on the 6th. MAAT keeps Valentino gowns among Joana Vasconcelos's steam irons all month, and at CAM sixteen dreams play to a carpeted room you can lie down in, a fair answer to Lisbon's December rain. Seven picks across seven museums.
Opening in December
Francisca Carvalho: Kouroi al cora3 DecMAC/CCB – Museum of Contemporary Art and Architecture Centre
Solo show of Francisca Carvalho's vertiginous narratives, built from a blend of many sources into a rich, distinctive visual vocabulary.
Neïl Beloufa3 DecMAC/CCB – Museum of Contemporary Art and Architecture Centre
French-Algerian artist Neïl Beloufa builds a route where visitors interact with objects and play through chapters of a live computer game.
Marisol: When Things Are Just Beginning17 DecMAC/CCB – Museum of Contemporary Art and Architecture Centre
The first retrospective of Marisol Escobar's drawings, bringing together over one hundred works made from the 1950s until her death.
Closing in December
You, Me, Us [O, Hau, Ita; Tu, Eu, Nós]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.
Invoking Silence | Biocultural Harmony in Indonesia13 DecMuseu 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.
The Photographic Impulse: (Un)settling the Colonial Archive31 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)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.
Illustrare – Journeys of Scientific Illustration in Portugal31 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.
Natural Variations – A Journey Through Portugal's Landscapes31 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.
Also on through December
Paradise, Today.to 3 Jan 2027MAC/CCB – Museum of Contemporary Art and Architecture Centre
Portugal's official show from the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale: an interactive digital installation and atlas of images on how the Portuguese landscape is inhabited and imagined.
Japan: Festivities and Ritesto 3 Jan 2027Museu 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.
Natsumi Aoyagi. Sanitary Fablesto 4 Jan 2027Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian (CAM)Free
Natsumi Aoyagi's first solo show in Portugal: a video installation in the Sound Room that follows Lisbon's sewers and public sanitation through the city. Ages 12 and up.
The Eternal Ark – Fernando Pessoa and Posterityto 10 Jan 2027Casa 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.
Rosana Antolí. An Aria for the Mallardto 11 Jan 2027Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian (CAM)Free
A sound installation in the Gulbenkian Garden's south lawn: an opera aria for the mallard duck, sung by Gulbenkian Choir soprano Claire Rocha Santos with the garden's own birds.
Arpad Szenes: Collection Highlights (Third Exhibition Cycle 2026)to 24 Jan 2027Fundação 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.
Amelie von Wulffen: Panic Realismto 24 Jan 2027Culturgest
Paintings, sculptures and drawings by German artist Amelie von Wulffen, mixing pop icons like Heidi and Maya the Bee with the darker undercurrents of German history.
They Were Afraid, Yet They Wentto 31 Jan 2027Museu do Aljube – Resistência e LiberdadeFree
Women political prisoners and resisters under Portugal's dictatorship: who they were, how they endured prison, exile and underground life, and who supported them.
Coexistências: Jewellery and the World's Beautyto 31 Jan 2027MUDE – 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 Collectionto 31 Jan 2027MUDE – 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.
- Echoes from the Collection – Fernando Pessoa's Bedroom, I, II, III, by Manuel Amadoto 7 Feb 2027
Casa Fernando Pessoa
Manuel Amado's 1993 oil triptych of Pessoa's bedroom comes out of the house's art collection, with an essay by art historian Mariana Pinto dos Santos.
Painting Is Easy. Do It Yourself!to 8 Feb 2027Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian (CAM)
João Maria Gusmão draws on the 'la Caixa' Contemporary Art Collection to ask what art is when everyone can create, in 50 years of works on labour, leisure and the art object. Shown in the Foundation's Main Gallery.
Inês Zenha. Murky Watersto 8 Feb 2027Centro 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.
Life is the Game – An immersive experience by Paulo Furtadoto 15 Feb 2027MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology
A mixed-reality headset journey through death and rebirth, directed and scored by Paulo Furtado (The Legendary Tigerman). Sessions last 15 to 18 minutes, for up to 6 people, pre-booked.
Turn Around. A Look at the EDP Foundation Art Collectionto 15 Feb 2027MAAT – 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.
Pedro Cabrita Reis – “without sorrow of heart”to 15 Feb 2027MAAT – 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.
Exhibiting, Publishing: MAAT in Print (2016–2026)to 15 Feb 2027MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology
More than 300 books and catalogues look back on ten years of MAAT's publishing and exhibition programme.
Sei Miguel: Original Copyto 21 Feb 2027CulturgestFree
The hybrid diagrams, between drawing and writing, that jazz and experimental musician Sei Miguel invented to score what musical notation couldn't capture.
"Heaven on Earth Cannot Wait": Works from the CGD Collectionto 21 Feb 2027Culturgest
For Caixa Geral de Depósitos' 150th anniversary, new acquisitions to its art collection enter into dialogue with existing works. Title from poet Adília Lopes.
João Pimenta Gomes – New Ageto 22 Feb 2027MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology
A sound installation of around ten resonant, leaf-like metal objects, made for MAAT's Project Room by the Lisbon musician and visual artist.
The Exhibition of a Dreamto 22 Feb 2027Centro 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.
VENUS – Valentino Garavani through the eyes of Joana Vasconcelosto 22 Feb 2027MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology
Joana Vasconcelos sets her monumental textile sculptures, including Valkyrie Venus and Marilyn, in dialogue with over 30 Valentino haute couture and ready-to-wear creations.
Ângela Ferreira: Here I Standto 28 Feb 2027MAC/CCB – Museum of Contemporary Art and Architecture Centre
Survey of Ângela Ferreira from 1990s pieces to new work, tracing her long research into the facts, figures and architectures linked to colonialism.
Tragedy and Farce: Júlio Pomar and Gabriel Abrantesto 28 Feb 2027Atelier-Museu Júlio Pomar
Gabriel Abrantes answers Pomar's 1940s neo-realist paintings with new work on censorship and resistance, staged as a 1947 salon for Pomar's centenary.
On Drawing Placesto 29 Mar 2027Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian (CAM)
More than fifty artists from the 1950s to today use drawing, painting, sculpture, photography and video to build places between reality and imagination.
Animals of Lisbon – Another History of the Cityto 4 Jun 2027Museu de Lisboa
Dogs, pigs, horses, even elephants and rhinos: the non-human neighbours who shaped Lisbon's streets, markets and stables. At the Pimenta Palace.
ANTROPO(CÉNICO) – In the Time of Humansto 31 Dec 2030Museu 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.
Image credits
35
- Francisca Carvalho: Kouroi al coraAJS 2025
- Neïl BeloufaAgostino Osio
- Marisol: When Things Are Just BeginningMarisol Escobar, Bequest of Marisol 2016
- You, Me, Us [O, Hau, Ita; Tu, Eu, Nós]Courtesy of Museu do Oriente
- Invoking Silence | Biocultural Harmony in IndonesiaCourtesy of Museu do Oriente
- The Photographic Impulse: (Un)settling the Colonial ArchiveCourtesy of Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência
- Zé Povinho's Lisbon (A Lisboa do Zé Povinho)Courtesy of Museu Bordalo Pinheiro
- Illustrare – Journeys of Scientific Illustration in PortugalCourtesy of Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência
- Natural Variations – A Journey Through Portugal's LandscapesCourtesy of Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência
- Paradise, Today.Courtesy of MAC/CCB – Museum of Contemporary Art and Architecture Centre
- Japan: Festivities and RitesCourtesy of Museu do Oriente
- Natsumi Aoyagi. Sanitary FablesCourtesy of Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian (CAM)
- The Eternal Ark – Fernando Pessoa and PosterityGualdimG / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Rosana Antolí. An Aria for the MallardCourtesy of Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian (CAM)
- Arpad Szenes: Collection Highlights (Third Exhibition Cycle 2026)Courtesy of Fundação Arpad Szenes – Vieira da Silva
- Amelie von Wulffen: Panic RealismPhoto: Frank Sperling / Culturgest
- They Were Afraid, Yet They WentCourtesy of Museu do Aljube – Resistência e Liberdade
- Coexistências: Jewellery and the World's BeautyCourtesy of MUDE – Museu do Design
- Contemporary Jewellery: Tereza Seabra CollectionCourtesy of MUDE – Museu do Design
- Painting Is Easy. Do It Yourself!'Pintar Es Facil', 1989 © Antoni Muntadas / SPA, Lisboa, 2026
- Inês Zenha. Murky WatersCourtesy of Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian (CAM)
- Life is the Game – An immersive experience by Paulo FurtadoMAAT, 2026
- Turn Around. A Look at the EDP Foundation Art CollectionPhotos: Bruno Lopes
- Pedro Cabrita Reis – “without sorrow of heart”Photo: João Ferrand, courtesy of the artist
- Exhibiting, Publishing: MAAT in Print (2016–2026)Photograph: Fábio Cunha, courtesy of EDP Foundation
- Sei Miguel: Original CopyCulturgest
- "Heaven on Earth Cannot Wait": Works from the CGD CollectionPhoto: Bruno Lopes / Culturgest
- João Pimenta Gomes – New AgePhoto © tspt. Courtesy of the artist.
- The Exhibition of a DreamCourtesy of Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian (CAM)
- VENUS – Valentino Garavani through the eyes of Joana Vasconcelos© 2026 FVG Services © 2026 Soqquadro
- Ângela Ferreira: Here I StandLaurent Lecat
- Tragedy and Farce: Júlio Pomar and Gabriel AbrantesCourtesy of Atelier-Museu Júlio Pomar
- On Drawing PlacesCourtesy of Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian (CAM)
- Animals of Lisbon – Another History of the CityCourtesy of Museu de Lisboa
- ANTROPO(CÉNICO) – In the Time of HumansCourtesy of Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência
Stay in the loop on Lisbon
A short note now and then when something new opens worth your time.