Via The News Lens
By Wang Tsu-peng (王祖鵬) – Cover image: Michael Craig-Martin, Interior (with Chaise Longue), 2021. Acrylic on aluminum, 250 × 300 cm. © Michael Craig-Martin. Courtesy of the artist. Photograph by Lucy Dawkins; image courtesy of Gagosian.
The Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts has announced its 2026 exhibition and public programming plan, positioning the museum’s largest international exhibition in recent years alongside a continued focus on southern Taiwan’s cultural identity and public engagement.
The centerpiece of the 2026 program is a major autumn retrospective of British conceptual art pioneer Michael Craig-Martin, marking his first large-scale solo exhibition in Asia. The exhibition, provisionally titled World in Color, will feature more than 70 works, including new pieces, outdoor sculptures, and immersive digital installations. It follows the artist’s 2024 retrospective at London’s Royal Academy of Arts and is expected to be one of the most significant international art exhibitions in Taiwan in recent years.
KMFA described the 2026 curatorial direction as “art driving urban resonance,” emphasizing exhibitions that extend beyond gallery spaces into everyday urban life. Programming across the main museum, the Children’s Art Museum, and the Neiwei Arts Center will focus on dialogue, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and sensory experience, with the aim of positioning Kaohsiung as a southern hub for contemporary artistic thought.
Alongside the international exhibition, the museum will continue its long-running “Southern Dialogue” framework, including The Kaohsiung Award at 30, which revisits three decades of the city’s most influential contemporary art platform. Additional research-based exhibitions will spotlight Taiwanese artists such as Huang Tsai-lang, Lee An-cheng, Lin Sheng-hsiung, and Cheng Chien-chang, examining how art engages with memory, belief, landscape, and modernity.
The museum will also expand public-facing initiatives, including the launch of Resonance Hub, a new research-driven space integrating archives, forums, and guided thematic readings. Outdoor and city-scale projects, such as KMFA: In-Between and the third installment of Aura City, will further blur the boundary between museum and city, reinforcing Kaohsiung’s evolving cultural identity.
KMFA officials said the 2026 program reflects a long-term effort to anchor international artistic dialogue within a distinctly southern Taiwanese perspective, using contemporary art as both a civic and cultural catalyst.
About the Author: 王祖鵬
Victor Wang Tsu-peng (王祖鵬) is an arts editor at The News Lens and runs the Facebook page Underground Cinema. His reporting is published under his real name, while opinion and commentary appear under the byline Wen Wen-kai / Underground Cinema. He continues to believe that cinema is “24 frames per second of lies,” and uses writing to explore the space between illusion and reality, with a particular focus on film and contemporary art.
The News Lens關鍵評論網藝文編輯，現經營臉書粉專「地下電影」。新聞類別文章是「王祖鵬」；評論類別文章是「溫溫凱／地下電影」。目前仍相信電影是每秒24格的謊言，而試圖以文字在謊言與真實間找到樂趣，並於藝術相關領域感受三倍的延長人生。
