The Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana (MASI) in Lugano has unveiled its exhibition program for 2026, outlining a season that combines international proposals and insights into the local art scene. The calendar opens in spring with the group show K-NOW! Korean Video Art Today, a project devoted to the new generation of South Korean artists and collectives, and continues with a solo show by Jean-Frédéric Schnyder (1945, Basel, lives in Zug), a major figure in contemporary Swiss painting. The fall season, however, will feature the first Kaari Upson retrospective and the exhibition curated by future director Letizia Ragaglia, Re-imaginings. Mai-Thu Perret and Una Szeemann in Dialogue with the Collections, which explores the relationship between contemporary works and the museum collection.
The K-NOW! Korean Video Art Today exhibition is housed in the LAC’s underground hall and will be on view from March 8 to July 19, 2026. Curated by Francesca Benini and Je Yun Moon, former deputy director of Seoul’s Art Sonje Center, the exhibition offers a journey through the contemporary South Korean art scene. Works by Chan-Kyong Park, Jane Jin Kaisen, Ayoung Kim, 2 Hleobchae, Onejoon Che, Sojung Jun, Sungsil Ryu, and Heecheon Kim address issues related to identity, memory, and social transformation in a country that, in just a few decades, has gone from the devastation of war to global power. The project highlights the use of video art as a tool for analyzing the country’s cultural and social changes.
MASI’s second spring event focuses on painting with Jean-Frédéric Schnyder’s solo exhibition entitled Jean-Frédéric Schnyder. Painting 2024/2025. Curated by Tobia Bezzola and Ludovica Introini, the exhibition will be on view at LAC from March 15 to August 9, 2026. Schnyder, who has been active for more than 60 years, is distinguished by the consistency, independence and eclecticism of his pictorial language, with a particular interest in landscape, a recurring theme in his production. The exhibition presents a new cycle of works created in the past two years, alternating between small en plein air (outdoor) landscapes executed in various Swiss locations and studio canvases with various subjects. Two iconic works by the artist, Billige Bilder(Small Paintings, 2000-2019) and the monumental Stilleben(Still Life, 1970) will also be on display.
The fall season features Kaari Upson. Dollhouse - A Retrospective, the first posthumous exhibition dedicated to the American artist (1970-2021). The exhibition, hosted in LAC’s underground room from Sept. 6, 2026 to Jan. 10, 2027, is curated by Francesca Benini and Taisse Grandi Venturi and is the result of an international collaboration with the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebaek and Kunsthalle Mannheim. Upson has developed a layered artistic journey that moves between sculpture, video, drawing and installation, addressing themes such as identity, the body, relationships, illness and loss. Works on display include series related to the Larry Project and the massive installation THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS OUTSIDE, presented at the Venice Biennale in 2019.
Also in the fall, MASI will open the first exhibition curated by future director Letizia Ragaglia, Re-imaginings. Mai-Thu Perret and Una Szeemann in Dialogue with the Collections. The project brings together solo exhibitions of the two artists, who were invited to interact with the museum’s collection through selected works and reinterpret its holdings. The exhibition, which will also extend into spaces not usually used for exhibitions, will be on view from Nov. 15, 2026 to May 16, 2027. Perret (Geneva, 1976) and Szeemann (Locarno, 1975) share an interest in temporality, matter and the female imaginary, exploring myth, nature and narrative in dialogue with the collections. The project, curated by architect Marco Palmieri, is a first step in the museum’s new path of research as a global institution with local roots.
2026 also continues the focus on Ticino’s art history with the cycle Sentimento e osservazione, which devotes an in-depth look at Umberto Boccioni (1882-1916). The exhibition, curated by Cristina Sonderegger and on view at the LAC from Aug. 9, 2026 to Jan. 24, 2027, focuses on prefuturist paintings donated to the City of Lugano by the heirs of Gabriele Chiattone, the artist’s patron. The exhibition restores the intensity of Boccioni’s research and his attempt to conquer a new language through the pictorial experiments of a decisive phase of his career.
Finally, Palazzo Reali will host from Oct. 17, 2026, a new project by artist Kaspar Ludwig (Nuremberg, 1989), winner of the Manor Ticino Cultural Prize 2026, with an exhibition open until April 4, 2027. Also at the Palazzo Reali, the group exhibition Self-Portraits from the Collection (1928-2021) will remain open until June 21, 2026, completing a program that confirms MASI as a space for confrontation between different artistic languages, with a proposal that ranges from video art to painting, from sculpture to installation, and with an ongoing dialogue between international art and the Ticino context.
 |
| MASI Lugano 2026: Korean video art, Schnyder and Kaari Upson among upcoming exhibitions |
Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.
IT
FR
DE
ES
CN