Ruth Asawa at Bilbao
The Guggenheim Bilbao is hosting a major Ruth Asawa retrospective — announced March 26 — that foregrounds her suspended sculptures inside Frank Gehry’s iconic building. Meanwhile, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is reported to be nearing completion on Saadiyat Island, signalling a big moment for the UAE’s Cultural District. ( )
The Bilbao presentation runs March 19–September 13, 2026 as the final European leg of the travelling Ruth Asawa retrospective. (guggenheim-bilbao.eus) Organizers brought together roughly 300+ objects for the tour: SFMOMA’s presentation emphasized “more than 300” works and MoMA’s checklist documents 376 items in its New York installation. (sfmoma.org) Curatorial leads on the project are Janet Bishop (Thomas Weisel Family Chief Curator, SFMOMA) and Cara Manes (Associate Curator, MoMA), with Geaninne Gutiérrez‑Guimarães credited as the Guggenheim Bilbao collaborator. (showonshow.com) Bilbao’s hang foregrounds Asawa’s signature suspended looped‑ and tied‑wire sculptures in specific galleries — notably galleries 103 and 105 — deliberately sited to play off the museum’s atrial volumes. (bonart.cat) The Bilbao showing is the exhibition’s first major European retrospective and is timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Ruth Asawa’s birth (1926). (english.elpais.com) In Abu Dhabi, diplomatic adviser Anwar Gargash said in February 2026 that the Frank Gehry–designed Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is “nearing completion” with an opening anticipated later in 2026. (timeoutabudhabi.com) Project briefs list the Abu Dhabi museum at about 42,000 square metres and describe it as the largest institution in the Guggenheim network, while recent photography shows the Saadiyat Island exterior largely finished. (architecturelab.net)
