VALENCIA.- This year IVAM is presenting 13 exhibitions that delve deeper into heritage, sustainability and territory, the museum’s core lines of inquiry. The programme opens with Gently Under the Flame, a group show that explores vernacular knowledge, crafts and traditions tied to the land and rural life, where material and immaterial heritage converge. Other notable exhibitions include those by Tania Candiani, Cristina de Middel, Rosana Antolí, Regina de Miguel, Melanie Smith and Joana Vasconcelos—recipient of the Julio González Prize 2026.
Another milestone is the opening of a gallery dedicated permanently to the museum’s collection. The 150th anniversary of the birth of Julio González will also be celebrated with a major exhibition and a programme of special activities.
And Museo Anfibio will be presented, a museum within the museum, centred on two major axes: Territories–Land and Aquatic Environments. A whole series of activities, publications and projects will be developed within this new framework, including a major exhibition dedicated to the Albufera Natural Park.
Gently Under the Flame
February 18
Curator: Blanca de la Torre
This group show is focused on vernacular knowledge, crafts and traditions tied to the land, featuring proposals that provide room for materials such as ceramics, clay, wool, textiles, embroidery and esparto that were once largely written off as subaltern. A spotlight is also thrown on the voice, recognizing the role of story-telling as a vehicle of memory, much as in filandones, those old night-time gatherings around the hearth. The project comprises four exhibitions, held also at Casal Solleric/Es Baluard, Centro de Arte y Naturaleza (CDAN) and Museu Terra.
Territories in Transit
Solo duo. Anna Talens and Mar Guerrero; Irene Grau and Marco Giordano
February 26 and July 16
Curator: Alicia Ventura
The idea behind this project was to create a platform for dissemination that would lend greater visibility to the contemporary landscape of young emerging and mid-career artists. The exhibition cycle is based on a number of collaborative agreements with other Spanish and international institutions in which the institution in question proposes an artist from its own context to exhibit alongside an artist from the Valencian Community. In this way, each duo of artists will explore different territories in parallel.
The Aura of a Modern Saga. Ignacio, José and Marisa Pinazo
March 3
Curator: Javier Pérez Rojas
Reinforcing the fundamental importance of its collection as the axis around which the renewal of the IVAM revolves, this exhibition presents the work of the Valencian artist Ignacio Pinazo, his son José, and his granddaughter Marisa, a lineage of restless and innovative artists who worked across all genres.
Women in the Work of Julio González
March 27
Curator: Brigitte Leal
To mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of the sculptor Julio González, IVAM is preparing a major exhibition in 2026 devoted to the key phases in his life’s work, forging links between life and creation, intimacy and history, and paying tribute to the three women who always remained faithful to his legacy: his daughter, the abstract artist Roberta González, and her generous heirs, Carmen Martínez and Viviane Grimminger, whose donations were instrumental in expanding the IVAM’s holdings.
Tania Candiani: Radicum
April 29
Curator: Blanca de la Torre
Gallery 3 will be transformed into a dense ecosystem of vegetation and undergrowth, recreating the atmosphere of a living forest inhabited by blown glass sculptures that evoke multicellular organisms, protozoa and imaginary creatures born from biological fiction. Grounded in communal and body-based practices as collective, affective and ritual experiences, Candiani’s work draws from the histories of crafting and making, placing the emphasis on the transmission of knowledge through interwoven traditions, crafts and oral memory.
Cristina de Middel: Apoteosis Now
May 21
Curator: Iván de la Nuez
The photographer Cristina de Middel invites us to reflect on narratives of power and representation in contemporary images through 250 photographs that play with the boundaries between documentary and fiction.
The Collection
May 14
Curators: Marta Arroyo, Ramón Escrivà, Mª Jesús Folch, Yolanda Franco, Teresa Millet, Sandra Moros, Josep Salvador and Blanca de la Torre
IVAM is presenting a new permanent space dedicated to the museum’s collection that combines a historiographic narrative with alternative readings, and opts for a multi-route format structured around four itineraries: the importance of colour and light, ecologies, feminisms, and conflicts.
La Albufera
July 8
Curator: Sandra Moros
On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the declaration of the Albufera as a Natural Park, this exhibition aims to analyse this Valencian landscape through works by artists such as Bleda y Rosa, Teresa Marín, Rosella Biscotti, Lucía Loren and Jorge Ribalta.
Melanie Smith: There Was Only One Strange Thing. Still Thinking Like Before
September 24
Curator: Helena Chávez
The exhibition will bring together the two most recent projects by this British artist: Estudios para ajolote (2025) and Tixinda (2025). Each of the two bodies of work focuses on an endangered animal: on the one hand, the Mexican axolotl, of which only between 500 and 1,000 individuals remain in their natural habitat, and, on the other, the Plicopurpura pansa, or purple sea snail.
Regina de Miguel
October 29
Curator: Rosa Lleó
In her recent work Regina de Miguel explores extractivist violence and geotraumatic thought, first in the Colombian rainforest (Catábasis), and later in the Río Tinto mining basin (Nekya). In her latest project, she seeks to complete a trilogy with a projection of resource exploitation into outer space, raising questions about the motivations behind these initiatives and their ethical implications.
Joana Vasconcelos
November 12
Curator: Blanca de la Torre
The Portuguese artist is the recipient of the Julio González Prize 2026. On the occasion of the award, IVAM is organising an exhibition that will present her ironic monumental installations, in which she explores themes of identity, femininity and cultural heritage.
Rosana Antolí
December 3
In this project, conceived specifically for the IVAM, Antolí furthers her ongoing research into bioacoustics, opera and art, striking up a dialogue with the Valencian context and its memory of water and voice.
