Coming up in Madrid
October 2026
October at a glance: 8 exhibitions opening, 16 closing, and 19 more on view across the city.
Permanent guide to October 2026 →
Opening in October
Seba Calfuqueo. Cautin6 OctMuseo Thyssen-Bornemisza
Mapuche artist Seba Calfuqueos first European solo show, exploring the Cautin River through ceramics, video and embroidered paintings.
Mauritshuis Thyssen-Bornemisza: Masterpieces from The Hague9 OctMuseo Thyssen-Bornemisza
The Mauritshuis and the Thyssen exchange 25 Dutch masterpieces, including Vermeers View of Delft, shown across the museums classical rooms.
LAB 5: The Mechanics of Truth (exhibition)15 OctMatadero Madrid
A Medialab Matadero group show in Nave Una: unpublished, site-specific installations by five international artists probing how technology reshapes what counts as real.
- Miguel Ángel Blanco: Amber15 Oct
Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas · Free
Artist Miguel Ángel Blanco closes his trilogy on remarkable materials with amber in its natural state, powder drawings, book-boxes and artistic pieces from Spanish collections.
The Aesthetic Transition: Spain, 1960-202016 OctFundación Juan March · Free
How Spanish audiences encountered modern and contemporary art from the 1960s to today, told through exhibitions, institutions and countercultural spaces.
The Freudian Universe of Dali20 OctMuseo Thyssen-Bornemisza
Explores Salvador Dalis fascination with Sigmund Freud and their 1938 meeting, and how psychoanalysis shaped Dalis surrealist visual language.
- La moda a tus pies29 Oct
Museo del Traje · Free
A dialogue between Spanish fashion history and contemporary footwear: 35 showcases of the permanent collection paired with new shoe designs.
- Helena Rohner: Thirty Years29 Oct
Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas · Free
Retrospective of jewellery designer Helena Rohner, Gold Medal for Fine Arts, spanning three decades of porcelain, wood and ceramic pieces set in precious metals.
Closing in October
I Am Ashurbanipal, King of the World, King of Assyria4 OctCaixaForum Madrid
Assyrian antiquities from the British Museum trace the life and legacy of Ashurbanipal, the 7th-century BCE king of Assyria: warrior, scholar and empire-builder.
Valeriano D. Bécquer (1834–1870): The Genre Paintings4 OctMuseo del Prado
A reassessment of the genre paintings of Valeriano Bécquer, brother of the poet Gustavo Adolfo, chronicling Andalusian daily life and popular customs.
Milk, Snow, Tear, Hand: Blanca Sánchez's Art of Making and Being9 OctMuseo Reina Sofía · Free
An exploration of curator and artist Blanca Sánchez Berciano (1948-2007) through collage, Camp aesthetics and archive materials that trace Madrid's cultural movements.
The Quantum Revolution11 OctEspacio Fundación Telefónica · Free
Over 120 objects, installations and interactive displays trace quantum physics from early 20th-century discoveries to lasers, semiconductors and quantum computing.
Materia viva. A Journey through Botany, Art and Andalusi Memory11 OctMuseo Arqueológico Nacional
An exhibition and historic-garden itinerary tracing botany, art and Andalusi memory, running through the museum's al-Andalus galleries and garden.
Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Sweet Revenge12 OctMuseo Reina Sofía
A major exhibition of Cuban-American artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1957-1996), whose candy spills, paper stacks and light installations addressed loss, love and identity during the AIDS crisis.
Weaving Courtly Life. Textiles and Embroideries from the Royal Collections12 OctGalería de las Colecciones Reales
Exceptional royal textiles and embroideries, many never before displayed, showing the palace workshops behind centuries of courtly furnishings.
Fernando Brambila, Painter of the Royal Sites12 OctGalería de las Colecciones Reales
Ninety-five oil paintings of Spain's Royal Sites commissioned by Ferdinand VII, by topographical landscape painter Fernando Brambila (1763–1834).
- Los Reconocimientos18 Oct
Museo del Traje · Free
An evolving, playful exhibition built around the Museo del Traje's own collections, revealing how the museum catalogues and cares for its holdings.
- New Spain Lacquered Bateas: A Cultural Crossroads18 Oct
Museo de América · Free
An exceptional collection of lacquered wooden bateas from colonial Mexico, tracing production centres from Uruapan to Yucatán and Indigenous-Asian-European artistic exchange.
Vitrina CERO: From Greek Tragedy to Roman Comedy — Classical Theatre18 OctMuseo Arqueológico Nacional
A rotating showcase near the permanent exhibition entrance exploring classical theatre, from Greek tragedy to Roman comedy.
Misterios de la materia. The Science of Heritage in the MAN Collections18 OctMuseo Arqueológico Nacional · Free
Scientific analysis techniques, from metallurgy to imaging, reveal how MAN conservators study and preserve archaeological materials, developed with CSIC's national metallurgical research centre.
The Artist in Italy18 OctMuseo del Romanticismo · Free
Drawings by Federico de Madrazo, Luis de Madrazo and Vicente Palmaroli trace the artistic study trips to Italy that shaped 19th-century Spanish Romantic painters.
Madrid entre épocas. Fotomontajes de Andrés Valentín Pérez Serén18 OctMuseo de Historia de Madrid · Free
Refotography exhibition pairing 40 historical and present-day photographs of the same Madrid street corners, on show in the Patio Dorado.
Un instante atrapado en bronce: patrimonio recuperado25 OctMuseo Arqueológico Nacional
A Roman-era bronze sculptural group recovered by Spain's National Police, displayed intact with its original bases in the Hispania Romana galleries.
- PHotoESPAÑA '26: Disfuncionarias25 Oct
Museo Cerralbo · Free
Tanit Plana's site-specific installation of large-format printed fabrics, a critical look at the museum professionals who research, collect and exhibit heritage, shown in the Ferraz Room.
Also on through October
Robert Frank & The Americansto 1 NovEspacio Fundación Telefónica · Free
The complete 83-image photographic series from Robert Frank's landmark 1958 project documenting inequality, consumerism and racial division in 1950s America.
Unfounded Rumours: Javier and Rafa Fortezato 2 NovCaixaForum Madrid · Free
The first joint show by brothers Javier and Rafa Forteza pairs paintings and sculpture that resist easy recognition, exploring the enigma of the face and the limits of figuration.
Apertura Madrid Gallery Weekend 2026: Entre la retícula y la vidato 15 NovMuseo Lázaro Galdiano · Free
An outdoor sculpture exhibition in the museum gardens, staged with Arte Madrid for the Apertura Madrid Gallery Weekend festival.
Fueron tejidos. Teresa Lancetato 15 NovMuseo Arqueológico Nacional
Contemporary weaver Teresa Lanceta's textile works enter dialogue with the museum's Iberian collection in the Patio Ibérico galleries.
Los Moreno, Art Photographersto 22 NovReal Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando
Twelve works by brothers Mariano and Vicente Moreno, pioneering Spanish art photographers whose Madrid studio left an archive of over 60,000 negatives.
- Trans Nation: A Project by Antonio Lópezto 22 Nov
Museo de América · Free
A photographic project on the colonial roots of discrimination against Indigenous trans women in the Americas, extended through 22 November after strong public interest.
The American Footprint in Madridto 30 DecReal Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando
Marks the 250th anniversary of the United States with a rare 1796 portrait of George Washington by Josef Perovani, shown beside Goya's portrait of Manuel Godoy.
Fardo, by Andrea Canepato 1 JanPalacio de Cristal · Free
A printed tarp wrapping the Palacio de Cristal's glass facade during restoration, inspired by pre-Columbian Paracas funerary textile bundles.
Women Artists: Pathways through Pre-Raphaelitism (1850-1914)to 10 JanFundación MAPFRE – Sala Recoletos
A survey of over forty women artists linked to the Pre-Raphaelite movement, tracing their careers and creative paths through the Victorian era.
The Other Face of the Avant-Gardeto 10 JanFundación MAPFRE – Sala Recoletos
Traces how Hans Prinzhorn's collection of psychiatric-patient artwork influenced Expressionist, Dadaist and Surrealist artists, and its later revival as Art Brut by Jean Dubuffet.
Minor Whiteto 10 JanFundación MAPFRE – Sala Recoletos
The first European retrospective of American photographer Minor White, marking 50 years since his death, covering nature, portraiture and his innovative photographic sequences.
- Works in Passing: Cerralbo and the Women Who Protected Cultural Heritageto 10 Jan
Museo Cerralbo
A portrait of writer Emilia Pardo Bazán, on loan from A Coruña, spotlighting women who championed heritage preservation alongside the Marquis of Cerralbo.
Kenny Scharfto 17 JanMuseo Thyssen-Bornemisza
Retrospective of the East Village artist and urban art pioneer, with paintings, sculptures, installations and murals blending pop culture and surrealism.
Arte Plumario. Naturaleza, Identidad y Poderto 17 JanMuseo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales
An interdisciplinary look at feathers as cultural and symbolic material across world cultures, from historic featherwork to contemporary art by Henar Iglesias.
Bailad, bailad, malditos (Carlos Aires)to 24 JanMatadero Madrid · Free
Carlos Aires transforms Nave 0, the slaughterhouse's fire-scarred former cold room, into a haunted dance floor of shored-up metal supports and some twenty screens, part of the Abierto x Obras site-specific series.
Manolo Millaresto 16 FebMuseo Reina Sofía
A centenary retrospective built around the visceral mixed-media works of Spanish Informalist painter Manolo Millares (1926-1972), exploring repression and human suffering through torn hessian and abstraction.
We Are Nature: An Immersive Audiovisual Experienceto 7 MarCaixaForum Madrid
A 70-minute immersive audiovisual journey through biodiversity, produced with National Geographic and OASIS Immersive Studios, urging action to protect the natural world.
Fernando Sánchez Castillo: The Wayward Pearlto 8 MarPalacio de Velázquez · Free
A retrospective of over 200 works by Fernando Sánchez Castillo dismantling monuments and symbols of power, framed around the legend of a lost royal pearl.
Eli Cortiñas: The Machine Dreams of Smoketo 8 MarMuseo Reina Sofía
Eli Cortiñas revisits her 2016 work on cinema, museums and colonial imagery, adding new AI-generated installations that critique how algorithms and institutions perpetuate power imbalances.
Opening in November 2026
Further ahead
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