The best new exhibitions in the regions
Troyes reopens the Derain case with two hundred works and a label of national interest, Dunkirk brings back Evelyne Axell twenty years after her last French retrospective, and Orléans, in collaboration with the BnF (National Library of France), revisits the drawings from the Egyptian expedition. Twenty-two exhibitions have opened in the regions in less than five weeks, from the MUCEM to the Centre Pompidou-Metz and from the Tripostal to the Matisse Museum in Nice.
ANDRÉ DERAIN, ART IS A GAME, AT THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART IN TROYES More than two hundred works, a label of Exhibition of National Interest, and a painter too quickly reduced to his Fauvist period. Troyes takes Derain at his word and follows an artist who changed his style throughout his life without ever apologizing. The exhibition will connect to the Bourdelle Museum in spring 2027.
TROYES MUSEUM OF MODERN ART
From November 14, 2026 to March 7, 2027
EVELYNE AXELL, DON'T STEP ON AN AXELL, AT THE LAAC IN DUNKERQUE
Twenty years after her last major French exhibition, the Belgian pioneer of European Pop Art is back with a retrospective. Paintings, collages, preparatory drawings, Plexiglas pieces, photographs, and archives: the LAAC reconstructs a short body of work, abruptly interrupted in 1972, which has lost none of its audacity.
LAAC, DUNKERQUE
From November 15, 2026 to March 14, 2027
LOUISA GAGLIARDI AT THE MOUGINS ART CENTER The FAMM, the only museum in the world outside the United States entirely dedicated to great women artists, presents the Swiss artist Louisa Gagliardi with her first French monograph. Curated by Simon de Pury for this second winter exhibition, where smooth figures and empty interiors are as much painting as screen.
MOUGINS ART CENTER
From November 6, 2026 to April 4, 2027
ANNE AND PATRICK POIRIER AT THE NICE-CIMIEZ ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM
For sixty years, Anne and Patrick Poirier have been creating ruins that never existed. Placing them amidst real Roman ruins, those of the Cimiez baths, is a delightful way of blurring the lines. The Archaeology Museum is staging "Memories of Ruins" with the MAMAC, where archaeology becomes fiction.
NICE-CIMIEZ ARCHAEOLOGY MUSEUM
From November 7, 2026 to September 5, 2027
YANN KEBBI AT THE CAEN MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS
He draws for The New Yorker and is the first recipient of the Cauvin-Monet Prize: Yann Kebbi concludes the Caen Museum of Fine Arts' residency cycle with monotypes, previously unseen pastels, and monumental works on paper. The line takes center stage, becoming a landscape in itself. Admission is free.
CAEN MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS
From November 7, 2026 to March 7, 2027
EAT THE IMAGES AT THE MUCEM The communion wafer, the waffle branded with an iron, the bread kneaded into the shape of a face, the sugar figurine: all these images were made to be eaten. The Mucem brings together 435 of them, 250 of which are from its reserves, and evokes Ingres, Meret Oppenheim, and Michel Journiac around the Mediterranean.
MUCEM, MARSEILLE
From October 28, 2026 to April 12, 2027
SÉRAPHINE LOUIS AT THE CENTRE POMPIDOU-METZ She signed her work "without rival." Séraphine Louis painted with Ripolin, the industrial lacquer used in construction, her canvases sometimes placed on the floor, sometimes vertically, and tirelessly revisited their cracks. The Centre Pompidou-Metz has brought together more than eighty of her works, including six giant canvases from 1928, and has elevated her work beyond the realm of naive art.
CENTRE POMPIDOU-METZ
From October 31, 2026 to April 12, 2027
THE STRANGE CASE OF MONSIEUR GALLÉ AT THE NANCY MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS One hundred and forty pieces, from 1880 to the 1920s, and the title seems to promise an enigma. Yet there is nothing strange about this son of a potter who remained in Nancy all his life, except for the speed with which he bent glass to his will. The Museum of Fine Arts opens its studios in an exhibition recognized as being of national interest.
MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS OF NANCY
From October 21, 2026 to February 28, 2027
THE BIENNIAL OF DIGITAL IMAGINATIONS, CHRONICLES, IN MARSEILLE, AIX AND AVIGNON Resistance: the watchword serves as both guiding principle and subject matter. Installations, performances, and generative works are spread across Marseille, Aix, and Avignon, questioning the impact of machines on our gestures. The biennial embraces the critical dimension of digital technology rather than its mere technical prowess.
CHRONICLES, BIENNIAL OF DIGITAL IMAGINATIONS
From October 24, 2026 to January 17, 2027
FERNAND LÉGER, BODY IN CELEBRATION, WORLD IN COLOR, AT THE MATISSE MUSEUM IN LE CATEAU-CAMBRÉSIS
The Henri Matisse Departmental Museum is dedicating its very first exhibition to Fernand Léger. Bold color, bodies in motion, a joie de vivre held as a guiding principle, and a dialogue with Nadia Léger, his wife and fellow painter. Two trajectories that resonate with each other, from the Cubism of his early work to the large mural compositions of his mature period.
HENRI MATISSE DEPARTMENTAL MUSEUM, LE CATEAU-CAMBRÉSIS
From October 17, 2026 to January 27, 2027
THE PINK DIAMOND AT CHANTILLY CASTLE
Stolen a century ago and then found hidden inside an apple, the Grand Condé, a pink diamond of over nine carats, is brought out of its vault. The Condé Museum recounts its story, its theft and its reappearance, and places it among the treasures collected by the Duke of Aumale. Rarely has a gemstone had such a romantic tale.
CHANTILLY CASTLE, CONDÉ MUSEUM
From October 17, 2026 to January 3, 2027
CULT ANIMAL AT THE MUSEUM OF CONFLUENCES
Three hundred and thirty objects and specimens for a single question: do we live with animals or at their expense? The Museum of Confluences combines natural sciences, ethnography, and contemporary art, from totems to taxidermied specimens, and carefully avoids taking a definitive stance. An exhibition that confronts visitors with their own contradictions.
MUSÉE DES CONFLUENCES, LYON
From October 16, 2026 to August 15, 2027
SHEILA HICKS, BEYOND, AT THE PALAIS DES BEAUX-ARTS IN LILLE
Linen cables, balls of pure color, soft columns rising to the ceiling: Sheila Hicks treats yarn like an architect's material. The Palais des Beaux-Arts opens its grand halls to her, and the contrast is striking, wool and cotton against the marble and 19th-century moldings.
PALAIS DES BEAUX-ARTS DE LILLE
From October 9, 2026 to March 8, 2027
CHAGALL COUTURE AT THE MARC CHAGALL NATIONAL MUSEUM
Seventy-six costumes and headdresses created by students from the Lycée des Coteaux in Cannes, based on Chagall's paintings and engravings. The dresses interact with the canvases in the Nice galleries, and the painter's blues move from the picture rail to the fabric. A school project that stands comparison with the originals.
MARC CHAGALL NATIONAL MUSEUM, NICE
From October 10, 2026 to May 23, 2027
THE LIVES OF PHOTOGRAPHY AT THE CHÂTEAU D’EAU IN TOULOUSE
The Château d’Eau has partnered with the Paul-Dupuy and Georges-Labit museums to bring together daguerreotypes, vintage prints, and contemporary images in a single room. This exhibition explores the uses of photography rather than focusing on the big names: family portraits, scientific records, and postcards are displayed alongside masterpieces.
THE WATER TOWER, TOULOUSE
From October 16, 2026 to February 21, 2027
AMÉLIE BERTRAND, NEON CLUB, AT THE VALENCE MUSEUM
Nothing she paints exists. Her landscapes are plausible without being true: a swimming pool, a facade, a perspective that vanishes as soon as you follow it. The Valence Museum brings together some thirty canvases, almost all of them new, created specifically for the space, with painted curtains and illuminated display cases as a backdrop.
VALENCE MUSEUM, ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY
From October 10, 2026 to March 21, 2027
LAUGHTER OUT! AT THE TRIPOSTAL The twenty-two Regional Contemporary Art Funds had never before exhibited everything in one place. The Tripostal brings them together around the often-maligned art form, humor: one hundred and fifty-three works, one hundred and four artists, and the building transformed into a comedy club on Thursday evenings. Lille has its most delightful season yet.
LE TRIPOSTAL, LILLE
From October 9, 2026 to January 3, 2027
ÉLÉONORE FALSE AT THE TANNERIES D’AMILLY The second chapter of a diptych begun at the CCC OD in Tours, Sœur de nuit (Night Sister) is experienced like a vigil. Éléonore False assembles collages, textiles, glass, and light sculptures, and the Amilly art center lends itself well to this nocturnal journey, where the cut-out image ultimately stands on its own. Until February.
LES TANNERIES - CONTEMPORARY ART CENTER
From October 17, 2026 to February 28, 2027
CONTACT SHEETS, GENERATIONS, AT LES FRANCISCAINES
Sixteen photographers spent several months in residence in Normandy, and the festival presents this work under the theme Generations. Bruce Gilden, for his part, installs his New York retrospective right on the beach: seeing his faces framed up close against the English Channel is worth the trip to Deauville in itself. Seventeenth edition.
THE FRANCISCAINES, DEAUVILLE
From October 17, 2026 to January 3, 2027
DRAWING EGYPT AT THE ORLÉANS MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS
On May 19, 1798, three hundred ships left Toulon carrying scholars and draftsmen. Orléans has partnered with the National Library of France to showcase the drawings brought back from this expedition, and how an entire country was captured in images before being narrated. Designated an Exhibition of National Interest.
MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS OF ORLÉANS
From November 7, 2026 to March 14, 2027
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SAME AT THE LAMBERT COLLECTION
Bruno Marchand, Deputy Director of MAAT in Lisbon, inaugurates the European curatorial residencies of the Lambert Collection with a six-chapter exhibition. The same, the almost the same, the variation: a way of looking at repetition not as a laziness of contemporary art but as its raw material.
LAMBERT COLLECTION, AVIGNON
From November 6, 2026 to February 28, 2027
HENRI MATISSE AND ALEX KATZ AT THE MATISSE MUSEUM IN NICE
The museum has dedicated all its rooms to Alex Katz, born in Brooklyn in 1927, allowing his large, flat areas of color to resonate with the collection. The American painter designed the exhibition himself, curated by Aymeric Jeudy. Two ways of capturing a figure in a few colors, separated by half a century and an ocean.
MATISSE MUSEUM, NICE
From October 28, 2026 to January 18, 2027
