Every single month, local museums refresh and replace dozens of fascinating art exhibits in San Francisco. We’re keeping tabs on the best new temporary displays, including San Francisco Museum of Modern Art exhibitions, fine art at the de Young and the Legion of Honor, and contemporary art exhibits at the Asian Art Museum.
Read on to start planning your next museum visit, and be sure to see our list of free museum days in SF to get the most bang for your buck.
See 130 rare artifacts from Cairo and Luxor at the de Young this August through January.
The U.S. premiere of Treasures of the Pharaohs, an international exhibition of 130 artifacts loaned from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the Luxor Museum, will be on view at San Francisco’s de Young Museum from August 1, 2026 to January 31, 2027, exploring pharaonic government, society, daily life, and funerary practices.
Experience over 400 works and a scale replica of the Grateful Dead’s Wall of Sound — admission is free.
Forever Grateful is a comprehensive exhibition chronicling the Grateful Dead’s history with hundreds of works, including posters, photos, instruments, and rare memorabilia.
- July 3 – Sept 20, 2026: Haight Street Art Center
- Sept 5 – Oct. 25, 2026: SF County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park
Video Craft at the Museum of Craft and Design
The Museum of Craft and Design explores the intersection between film and video with more traditional craft media such as ceramics, textiles, and glass. From brightly colored clay works to a pixelated quilt, the works in this new showcase examine the juxtaposition of the “ephemeral nature of the screen” and the distinctly tangible practices of material craft.
Video Craft is included with general admission to the Museum of Craft and Design
SFMOMA’s new exhibition revisits the moment Henri Matisse shocked the art world with Femme au chapeau in 1905, redefining modern art through bold color and expressive brushwork. The show recreates its controversial debut and traces its lasting influence, from Matisse’s contemporaries to today’s creators and even local Bay Area artists.
This 2026 exhibition at San Francisco’s Legion of Honor marks the first major U.S. exhibition in two decades dedicated to the Etruscans. See nearly 200 artifacts, including rare bronzes, opulent gold jewelry, and the historic “Linen Book of Zagreb,” which highlight the Etruscans’ sophisticated society.
Unbound: Art, Blackness, & the Universe at the Museum of the African Diaspora
After major renovations, the Museum of the African Diaspora reopened in October 2025 with a new exhibition that reimagines Blackness as a cosmic and ever-expanding concept through themes of maps, myth, and technology. See a collection of works by different artists in the realms of painting, sculpture, installation, and video.
Unbound is included with general admission to the MoAD.
Conjuring Power: Roots & Futures of Queer & Trans Movements at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
A collaboration with the GLBT Historical Society, this exhibition showcases the beauty and resistance of local queer and trans communities. Bay Area artists host a “journey through time,” achieved through a multimedia blend of archival material, audio clips, photography, and stunning murals.
Conjuring Power is included with general admission to the YBCA.
This new reinstallation of Indigenous American art presents four refreshed galleries in the de Young Museum, each of which explores part of the theme “Relationship to Place.” See works spanning over a thousand years of Native history, including the opening exhibition, Rooted in Place, which will stay up through Dec. 6th and honors the histories of Northern Californian Native communities.
Fiber artist Sheila Hicks presents her first solo exhibition at SFMOMA, featuring site-specific pieces including towering sculptures. See a range of intricate weavings using natural and synthetic materials, which draw inspiration from her life in Paris and her travels.