Exhibitions in Lisbon
May 2026
May 2026 at a glance: 10 exhibitions opened, 0 closed, and 13 more were on view across the city.
Opened in May
Glass Eye – Pedro Barassi9 MayMuseu 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.
Multiple Eyes: Patricia Domínguez, Ines Doujak, Lubaina Himid14 MayMAC/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.
Seeing and Reading: Paulo de Cantos15 MayMUDE – 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 I15 May
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.
Rosa Barba. Drawing Vocabularies16 MayCentro 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.
What Remains21 MayMuseu 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.
Young Design Generation Exhibition27 MayMUDE – 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: Sycorax29 May
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.
- Ultratremor29 May
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.
ANTROPO(CÉNICO) – In the Time of Humans29 MayMuseu 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.
Was on view in May
For the Love of the City – 90 Years of the Grupo Amigos de Lisboato 27 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.
SUPERCREATURES! Powered by Natureto 30 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.
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.
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.
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.
- 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.
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.
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.
Stay in the loop on Lisbon
A short note now and then when something new opens worth your time.