Marina Abramović, Ron Mueck showings listed

This is museum-programming news, but it’s real news — not just a vague “artists are touring” notice. Marina Abramović now has a major Venice exhibition open at the Gallerie dell’Accademia, and Ron Mueck now has a major Tokyo survey open at the Mori Art Museum. Both are big-deal institutions. Both shows are long runs. And both choices tell you something blunt about what museums still want from contemporary art in 2026: scale, recognizability, and work built around the human body. (gallerieaccademia.it) ### What exactly opened? Abramović’s exhibition is “Transforming Energy” at the Gallerie dell’Accademia di Venezia. It opened on May 6, 2026 and runs through October 18, 2026. Mueck’s exhibition at the Mori Art Museum opened on April 29, 2026 and runs through September 23, 2026. So the “showings listed” part is basically true — but the more useful version is that these are not speculative slots anymore. They are active museum presentations. (gallerieaccademia.it) ### Why is the Abramović show a big deal? Because the venue matters as much as the artist. The Accademia says Abramović is the first living woman artist to receive a major exhibition there. That gives the show institutional weight beyond a normal solo presentation. It also lands during the 61st Venice Biennale window, which means Venice is full of the exact international art audience museums care about reaching. The show is framed around her 80th birthday too, so it reads as both celebration and canonization. (gallerieaccademia.it) ### What is the Mueck show really about? Mueck’s Tokyo exhibition is a broad solo survey of his hyperreal, psychologically intense sculptures. Mori describes it as a major presentation of works tracing his development, and partner materials tied to the exhibition highlight eleven works, including the large-scale installation Mass from 2016–17. That matters because Mueck’s power is not just technical realism. It’s scale distortion — tiny bodies, giant bodies, ordinary bodies made uncanny. The sculptures are instantly readable even if you know nothing about contemporary art. (gallerieaccademia.it) ### Why pair these two artists mentally? Because they solve the same museum problem from different directions. Abramović gives you live presence, endurance, ritual, and art-history status. Mueck gives you physical spectacle, emotional legibility, and crowd-friendly sculpture. One works through performance and documentation. The other works through fabricated bodies that feel almost too alive. But both are body artists in the broadest sense — and museums know body-based work travels well across languages and audiences. That last part is an inference, but it fits the way these institutions are presenting them. (ropac.net) ### Why now? Because museums are still balancing scholarship with attendance pressure. A name like Abramović pulls biennale visitors and signals prestige. A name like Mueck pulls broad public curiosity because the work photographs well and lands immediately in person. In a crowded global exhibition calendar, that mix is valuable — serious enough for curators, accessible enough for non-specialists. ### Is this a new trend? Not really — more a confirmation. (gallerieaccademia.it) Big museums have leaned for years toward artists whose work can anchor a season and travel across cities, donors, and social feeds. What’s notable here is the level of institutional endorsement. Venice is folding Abramović into one of Italy’s most symbolic museum settings. Tokyo is giving Mueck a long, headline solo run at one of Asia’s best-known contemporary museums. ### So what should you take from it? (gallerieaccademia.it) The story is not just that two famous artists have exhibitions. It’s that two major museums, in two major art capitals, are using 2026 calendar space on artists whose work turns the human figure into an event. That’s the programming signal. Museums still believe audiences will show up for art that feels immediate, bodily, and unmistakably monumental.