ARTnews Names "MONUMENTS" Best Thematic Museum Exhibition of 2026

By Elena Vasquez

The ARTnews Awards 2026 jury has named "MONUMENTS" the Best Thematic Museum Exhibition. The show runs at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA and The Brick in Los Angeles from October 23, 2025, to May 3, 2026. Curators Hamza Walker, Kara Walker, and Bennett Simpson organized it, with Hannah Burstein and Paula Kroll.

The exhibition took a decade to realize. That timeline alone sets it apart. According to ARTnews, few exhibitions have the power to be decade-defining, and "MONUMENTS" qualifies.

What made the exhibition the jury's choice?

The curators repositioned decommissioned Confederate monuments inside spaces normally devoted to contemporary art. The statues rested on the gallery floor as sculptural objects — many still bearing graffiti — rather than standing elevated on pedestals as symbols of authority in public settings.

ARTnews wrote that this presentation gave visitors "a sense of what the statues' true legacy means and how objects similar to them continue to shape US society."

The takeaway: the show treated monuments as evidence, not icons.

Which artists appeared alongside the monuments?

The curators placed the statues in dialogue with contemporary artists, among them:

• Bethany Collins
• Julie Dash and Davóne Tines
• Cauleen Smith
• Torkwase Dyson
• Andres Serrano
• Martin Puryear
• Nona Faustine
• Hank Willis Thomas

Their varied approaches engaged questions of monumentality, power, and who gets remembered in public spaces. At The Brick, cocurator Kara Walker presented Unmanned Drone (2023), for which she disassembled a decommissioned equestrian statue of Stonewall Jackson and welded it back together in fragmented form. ARTnews read the work as a metaphor for piecing together the fragments of history to create something new.

The jury's conclusion: contemporary artists are essential to processing the unsettled debates around the toxic histories these monuments embody.

What received the Special Citation?

The jury also issued a Special Citation for the inaugural hang of the David Geffen Galleries at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which opened May 4.

The building, designed by Peter Zumthor, is a single floor spanning Wilshire Boulevard. The museum's at-times controversial project houses the permanent collection across that span. Rather than one chronological narrative of art history, the hang explores how various eras, geographies, and styles create commonalities when exhibited together.

Fifteen curatorial departments collaborated on the installation. The result, per ARTnews, provides new insights into well-known works, spotlights lesser-known ones, and offers elegant juxtapositions.

Who else was nominated?

Four exhibitions joined "MONUMENTS" on the ballot:

• "Into the Time Horizon" — Nevada Museum of Art, Reno (November 15, 2025–January 3, 2027); curator Apsara DiQuinzio, with Kolin Perry
• "If the word we: 59th Carnegie International" — Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (May 2, 2026–January 3, 2027); curators Ryan Inouye, Danielle A. Jackson, and Liz Park
• "Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way" — Buffalo AKG Art Museum (March 6–September 6, 2026), traveling to Des Moines Art Center (October 24, 2026–January 24, 2027); curator Andrea Alvarez
• "Several Eternities in a Day: Form in the Age of Living Materials" — Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (April 5–August 23, 2026); curators Pablo José Ramírez, with Jessi DiTillio

ARTnews called "MONUMENTS" a once-in-a-generation exhibition and a study in what a thematic museum show can do. Visitors have until May 3, 2026, to see the award-winning installation in Los Angeles for themselves.