August 2026 Art Calendar: Opie, Atkins, Panafrica, and More
In August 2026, several significant art events are set to take place. Catherine Opie's exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh will run from 8 August to 1 November. Meanwhile, 'Project a Black Planet' at the Barbican in London, showcasing works by Sanlé Sory and others, will be on display until 6 September. The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam will feature 'Ed van der Elsken: Up Close' until 13 September. In New York, the Museum of Sex will host 'The Life Force' until November. GaHee Park's 'Behind the Curtain' will debut at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco from 7 August to 3 January 2027. Additionally, the Green Man festival is scheduled for 20-23 August, and 'How the Other Half Loves' will be performed at the Old Vic until 19 September.
Key facts
- Catherine Opie's exhibition at Royal Scottish Academy runs 8 August – 1 November 2026.
- Project a Black Planet at Barbican until 6 September 2026.
- Ed van der Elsken: Up Close at Rijksmuseum until 13 September 2026.
- The Life Force at Museum of Sex until November 2026.
- Hepworth in Colour at Courtauld until 6 September 2026.
- Ed Atkins: 1 Day in Space at Gladstone Seoul, 31 August – 31 October 2026.
- GaHee Park: Behind the Curtain at YBCA, 7 August 2026 – 3 January 2027.
- Vantage Point 13 at Sharjah Art Foundation, 8 August – 29 November 2026.
Entities
Artists
- Catherine Opie
- Sanlé Sory
- Samuel Fosso
- Melvin Edwards
- El Anatsui
- Lynette Yiadom-Boakye
- Ed van der Elsken
- Katherine Bernhardt
- Ma Yanhong Baoji
- Oh de Laval
- Sarah Lucas
- David Shrigley
- Barbara Hepworth
- Ed Atkins
- GaHee Park
- Luisa Dörr
- Latifa AlBokhari
- Sathish Kumar
- Adam Rouhana
- Guanyu Xu
- Maheder Haileselassie
- Lois Dodd
- Nicole Eisenman
- Mala Iqbal
- Alex Katz
- Peter Saul
- Peter Williams
- Thuy Tien Nguyen
- Pope L
- Cate Blanchett
- Nina Hoss
- Matthew Bourne
- Rosamund Pike
- Sean Wotherspoon
- Sébastien Tellier
- Samuel Lee
- Anna Cazenave Cambet
- David Robert Mitchell
- Matthew Johnson
- Anthony Bourdain
- Jane Schoenbrun
- Pedro Almodóvar
- Gregg Araki
- Maite Alberdi
- Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese
- Mohammed Ali Naqvi
- Yash Rajpal
- Fariya Sharif
- Sahar Sharif
- Tida Bradshaw
Institutions
- Royal Scottish Academy
- National Portrait Gallery
- Barbican
- Rijksmuseum
- Museum of Sex
- Amparo and Manuel Foundation
- Courtauld
- Gladstone
- Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
- Sharjah Art Foundation
- Huxley-Parlour
- Gasworks
- Drawing Center
- Old Vic
- National Theatre
- Sadler's Wells
- Green Man
- Fari Islands Festival
- Patina Maldives
- The Ritz-Carlton Maldives
- St John
- Cafe Kowloon
- Il Gattopardo
- La Sagra di Shoreditch
- Big Mamma's Gloria
- Museum of the Home
- The Palmerston
- Francis Hotel
- Emberwood
Locations
- Edinburgh
- Scotland
- United Kingdom
- London
- England
- Amsterdam
- Netherlands
- New York
- United States
- Seoul
- South Korea
- San Francisco
- California
- Sharjah
- United Arab Emirates
- Washington DC
- Boston
- Wales
- Bannau Brycheiniog
- Maldives
- Bath
- Neal's Yard
- London Fields
- Mayfair
- Shoreditch
- Glasgow
- Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
- Pakistan