Walker Art Center Announces Exhibition Highlights Into Summer 2027

Martine Syms

Collection in Focus: Martine Syms 

June 25, 2026–May 23, 2027

This exhibition is part of an ongoing series focused on major works in the Walker’s growing collection and represents the first presentation of Martine Syms’s The Borrowed Lady (2016) since it was acquired in 2019. The installation includes a four-channel video presented in a space with purple window vinyl and wall paint. In the work, artist Diamond Stingily’s voice and image appear across four monitors. Edited to an accelerating cadence, each flick of the wrist or turn of her head moves spatially through the space. These staccato rhythms capture Syms’s interest in gesture as an everyday performance that is taught and learned. Attentive to ways that images of Black women have proliferated across the internet in reaction GIFs and memes, Syms isolates and multiplies Stingily’s presence so that she fills the room. The work speaks to the language of gesture as both feminized and transferred through constant acts of appropriation, or “borrowing.”​

​

Curator: Brandon Eng, Curatorial Assistant, Visual Arts

Olalekan Jeyifous: Hydricosmic Litanies

August 6, 2026–January 3, 2027

Hydricosmic Litanies marks the first museum solo exhibition for artist, architect, and designer Olalekan Jeyifous (US, b. Nigeria, 1977). Jeyifous, who won the prestigious Silver Lion at the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale, is known for creating immersive, speculative environments that explore the entangled relationships between architecture, community, and power. For this presentation, he takes inspiration from the many histories of the Mississippi River and themes from Ben Okri’s novel The Famished Road to explore waterways as complex living archives of ecological transformation, displacement, human labor, spiritual significance, and memory. Hydricosmic Litanies will feature new work, including freestanding and wall-mounted sculptural forms, experimental video, and soundscapes. Together, the range of objects draws visitors into an imagined riverine enclave that reflects on the happenings and impacts of the past as well as the possibilities of the future. 

Curator: Taylor Jasper, Susan and Rob White Associate Curator, Visual Arts

Walker Design Triennial: Beyond Materialism

October 17, 2026–February 14, 2027

The Walker’s design triennial explores the narratives, philosophies, and innovations that define the realm of design, past and present. The first iteration, titled Beyond Materialism, examines the fundamental shift taking place within design toward considerations of the mind, psyche, and spirit. While prior generations of designers have emphasized the functional needs of the body and daily activity, today’s practitioners seek to also embrace more existential human needs and questions. Beyond Materialism features some of the historical contexts for this new current and highlights the work of more than 20 of today’s most captivating designers and collectives from across the globe. The presentation includes contemporary practitioners from more than 10 countries, with seven participants showing in the US for the first time. They are Espace Aygo, Stef Fusani, Shao-Chun Hsu, Jonghoo Jeong, Maximilian Marchesani, Moon Seop Seo, and Christoph Wimmer-Ruelland. Among the featured new works are two major commissions by VESSEL (James Bridle & Navine G. Dossos) and Lucas Muñoz Muñoz. 

Curators: Joseph Grima, Architect, Curator, and Founder of Space Caviar; with Asli Altay, Head of Design, Communication & Content, Walker Art Center; Hanna Babyna, Design Programming Administrator, Design and Editorial; and Laurel Rand-Lewis, Curatorial Fellow, Visual Arts

Abbas Akhavan: Variations on a Garden  

November 12, 2026–April 18, 2027 

Variations on a Garden is artist Abbas Akhavan’s (Canada, b. Tehran, 1977) first US museum survey. Spanning the course of his 20-year practice, the exhibition highlights recurring conceptual concerns, particularly human relations to the natural world, public and private space, and the conservation of heritage sites. Variations on a Garden will feature Akhavan’s work in sculpture and installation, drawing special attention to his use of organic and perishable matter such as soil, water, and plants. In his work, materials become conduits that carry ideas and produce meaning through their selection, manipulation, and contextual framing. The exhibition will emphasize the artist’s careful examinations of how particular historical and geographical conflicts, such as the Syrian and Iraq wars, have shaped cultural sites and impacted the environment. Akhavan’s work raises questions about how we remember the past given the pace of technological change and advancement as well as the ongoing geopolitical control of historical narratives. The exhibition will follow the unveiling of Akhavan’s representation of Canada at the 61st Venice Biennale.

Curators: Pavel Pyś, Curator of Visual Arts and Collections Strategy; with Brandon Eng, Curatorial Assistant, Visual Arts

Douglas R. Ewart: Sound Seeker

February 11–July 4, 2027

Sound Seeker is a focused presentation capturing essential creative anchors from across Minneapolis-based artist Douglas R. Ewart’s four-decade career. Rooted in improvisation and communal exchange, Ewart’s work resists fixed distinctions between music and visual art, object and instrument, and performer and audience. The exhibition—the first to explore the formal qualities of Ewart’s works—will feature sonic sculpture, instruments, handmade clothing, works on paper, and archival materials. Much of the work is constructed from repurposed materials, reflecting economic necessity and a philosophical commitment to the self-determined sonic possibilities outside of mass production. Among the highlights is Rio Negro II (1992/2005/2015), which combines recorded and live acoustic sound and exemplifies the collective spirit central to Ewart’s practice as a key member of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). Works in the exhibition will be activated to reflect the importance of sound to the aesthetic experience. 

Curator: Brandon Eng, Curatorial Assistant, Visual Arts

Suzanne Bocanegra: Valley

April 3–August 22, 2027

This eight-channel video installation by Suzanne Bocanegra reimagines footage from actress Judy Garland’s wardrobe tests for the film Valley of the Dolls (1967). The footage captures rare human moments of Garland as she struggles in front of the camera—and is the only surviving evidence that she was ever cast in the film, having been dismissed from the project shortly thereafter. Bocanegra’s installation features eight women imitating Garland’s unease and self-conscious actions, melding their own personas with that of the Hollywood star. The women include poet Anne Carson; writer, performer, and activist Tanya Selvaratnam; actor Kate Valk; vocalist Alicia Hall Moran; choreographer and dancer Deborah Hay; artist Joan Jonas; ballet dancer Wendy Whelan; and artist Carrie Mae Weems, many of whom have performed or exhibited at the Walker. The large-scale installation offers a poignant and meditative experience, as each performer’s likeness is overlaid with Garland’s, creating a sense of connection and intimacy across time.  

Curator: Henriette Huldisch, Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs

Abdias Nascimento: Interpreter of Brazil

April 3–August 22, 2027

Abdias Nascimento (Brazil, 1914–2011) was an artist, playwright, intellectual, and Pan-African activist whose multidisciplinary work across art and politics articulated a sustained vision of a more just Brazil. Interpreter of Brazil is the first US-based survey to comprehensively examine the full range of his work, positioning him as a key figure in modern and contemporary art global narratives. Working first in Brazil through theater and activism, and later in exile in the US—where his painting practice fully flourished—Nascimento developed a visual language rooted in Afro-Brazilian spiritual traditions and expanded through engagement with Pan-African thought and Black diasporic artistic networks. He mobilized painting as a vehicle for cultural affirmation, historical reclamation, and resistance to racial oppression. Interpreter of Brazil traces this trajectory through a broad selection of paintings—many rarely or never before seen in the US—alongside ephemera, photographs, and works from his Teatro Experimental do Negro (Black Experimental Theater) and Museu de Arte Negra (Black Art Museum), as well as a depth of archival material. The exhibition is accompanied by the first major monograph on Nascimento’s work published in the US.

Abdias Nascimento: Interpreter of Brazil is organized by the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, in partnership with the Abdias Nascimento Afro-Brazilian Studies and Research Institute (IPEAFRO), Rio de Janeiro.

Curators: Rosario Güiraldes, Curator, Visual Arts, Walker Art Center; with Elisa Larkin Nascimento, Julio Menezes Silva, and Clícea Miranda, IPEAFRO; curatorial support by Laurel Rand-Lewis, Curatorial Fellow, Visual Arts, Walker Art Center

Curatorial Consultants: Dr. Molefi Kete Asante, President, Molefi Kete Asante Institute, Philadelphia; Amanda Carneiro, Curator, MASP – Museu de Arte de São Paulo; Keyna Eleison, Director, Bienal das Amazônias, Belém, Brazil; Abigail Lapin Dardashti, Assistant Professor, University of California, Irvine; Marta Moreno Vega, Artist, Filmmaker, Scholar, Puerto Rico and New York

Out of Bounds: American Abstraction at Mid-Century

June 3, 2027–February 13, 2028

Out of Bounds features more than 70 works by artists integral to the radical transformation of art in the US between 1950 and 1975. This period was marked by incredible creative energy and a rejection of artistic conventions, as a broad range of artists embraced abstraction and experimented with new uses of materials, scale, and gesture. The exhibition features predominantly paintings and a select group of sculptures by both well-known and underappreciated practitioners. Among the artists are Lee Bontecou, Willem de Kooning, Beauford Delaney, Helen Frankenthaler, Arshile Gorky, Grace Hartigan, Hans Hofmann, Ellsworth Kelly, Morris Louis, Joan Mitchell, Senga Nengudi, Louise Nevelson, Isamu Noguchi, Mark Rothko, Zilia Sánchez, and Clyfford Still. Drawn primarily from the Walker’s extensive collection, the exhibition offers a unique opportunity to experience major works that are rarely on view due to their immense size, including those by Sam Gilliam, Pat Lipsky, and Frank Stella.

Trisha Brown and Robert Rauschenberg: Glacial Decoy

Through May 24, 2026

In 1979 the Walker premiered Trisha Brown’s (US, 1936–2017) Glacial Decoy, the choreographer and dancer’s first performance for a proscenium stage and thus the first with a set design. The groundbreaking piece included collaborations with Robert Rauschenberg (US, 1925–2008), who designed the costumes and set. The exhibition offers an opportunity to experience this performance through materials recently acquired by the Walker as well as a chance to explore Rauschenberg’s engagement with set design—a less considered aspect of his practice. The presentation is anchored by the immersive projection of 159 unique photographs taken by Rauschenberg, which served as décor and shifted across the stage in dialogue with Brown’s choreography. It also includes performance footage of Glacial Decoy, two sets of Rauschenberg-designed costumes, and related archival materials.  

Curator: Brandon Eng, Curatorial Assistant, Visual Arts 

Rosy Simas: A:gajë:gwah dësa’nigöëwë:nye:’ (i hope it will stir your mind)

Through July 5, 2026

The exhibition Rosy Simas: A:gajë:gwah dësa’nigöëwë:nye:’ (i hope it will stir your mind) is the first of two major commissions that artist Rosy Simas (Seneca Nation of Indians, Heron clan) is creating for the Walker as part of her ongoing two-year residency. Simas is a transdisciplinary artist whose practice embraces choreography and dance, moving image, sound, and object-making to explore her ancestors’ histories through the lens of contemporary experience. For A:gajë:gwah dësa’nigöëwë:nye:’ (i hope it will stir your mind), Simas has created an immersive installation that centers Onöndowa’ga:’ (Seneca Nation) views about family, community, and living in a state of peace, which invites visitors into a space of personal reflection. The exhibition is among the first to center Simas’s object making as a visual arts practice distinct from her performance work. Themes explored in the presentation will be amplified with the premiere of her commissioned, evening-length performance in May 2026 in the Walker’s McGuire Theater. 

Suzanne Jackson: What Is Love

Through August 23, 2026

What Is Love is the first major museum retrospective dedicated to groundbreaking artist Suzanne Jackson. The exhibition traces Jackson’s lifelong devotion to beauty as a political force. She began showing her work in the late 1960s, an era when Black artists in the United States were often pressed to make figurative work with a clear political message. Jackson remained committed to paving her own unique path and to creating on her own terms, producing an extraordinary body of work characterized by abstraction, lyricism, and material experimentation. What Is Love marks the most comprehensive survey of her work to date, featuring more than 50 works and reflecting six decades of artistic innovation. It follows her distinct painting practice, from her early ethereal compositions on canvas that layer luminous washes of paint to her three-dimensional paintings of the past 20 years. Through boundless experimentation with color, light, and materiality across time, Jackson explores the earthly and spiritual dimensions of love.

Curators: Jenny Gheith, Curator and Interim Head of Painting and Sculpture San Francisco Museum of Modern Art at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, with Taylor Jasper, Susan and Rob White Associate Curator, Visual Arts at the Walker Art Center. Curatorial support is provided by Auriel Garza, Curatorial Assistant, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Laurel Rand‐Lewis, Curatorial Fellow, Visual Arts, Walker Art Center.

Christine Sun Kim: All Day All Night

Through August 30, 2026

The exhibition is the artist’s first major museum survey. Co-organized by the Walker and the Whitney Museum of American Art, the exhibition foregrounds how Christine Sun Kim (US, b. 1980) utilizes sound, language, and the complexities of communication in her wide-ranging approach to art-making. All Day All Night brings together works spanning 2011 to the present and features drawings, site-specific murals, paintings, video installations, and sculptures. Using musical notation, infographics, and language—both in her native American Sign Language (ASL) and written English—Kim has produced a body of work that is perceptive, poetic, humorous, and political. Inspired by similarly named works made at different moments in her career, the exhibition’s title points to the energy Kim brings to her artistic practice; she is relentlessly experimental, iterative, and dedicated to sharing her lived experiences.

Curators: Pavel Pyś, Curator of Visual Arts and Collections Strategy, Walker Art Center; Jennie Goldstein, Marion Boulton “Kippy” Stroud Curator of the Collection, Whitney Museum of American Art; and Tom Finkelpearl, independent curator; with Brandon Eng, Curatorial Assistant, Walker Art Center, and Rose Pallone, Curatorial Assistant, Whitney Museum of American Art

Sculpture Court

Through August 30, 2026

Rendering the human form in three dimensions is among the oldest forms of artistic expression. With Sculpture Court, the Walker transforms a gallery into an environment akin to the courtyards that have housed dynamic collections of figurative sculpture—originally outdoors and later inside encyclopedic museums—beginning in the 16th century. The presentation draws on the Walker’s collection and features artists such as Joan Miró, Oliver Laric, Bonnie Collura, Arlene Shechet, Rona Pondick, Mona Hatoum, and Jacques Lipchitz, establishing a continuity of artistic tradition into the present day. Many of the works are on view for the first time since entering the Walker’s collection and create a compelling connection to the expansive outdoor Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.

This Must Be the Place: Inside the Walker’s Collection

Through March 12, 2028

This Must Be the Place is a complete reinstallation of the Walker’s collection, offering new insights into the vision and development of the institution’s holdings through dynamic juxtapositions across media of iconic works, lesser-known objects, and recent acquisitions. The presentation is grounded in the many meanings and permutations of “home” and unfolds over three large galleries, with spotlight sections that give emphasis to beloved works and core ideas. The reinstallation incorporates visitor feedback gathered from a prior collection exhibition, Make Sense of This (2023), with special considerations to how works are presented and described to encourage public understanding and engagement.

Curators: Henriette Huldisch, Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs; with Siri Engberg, Senior Curator and Director, Visual Arts; Taylor Jasper, Susan and Rob White Associate Curator, Visual Arts; and Laurel Rand-Lewis, Curatorial Fellow, Visual Arts