Including an acclaimed Martin Puryear survey, rare Basquiat works and Doris Derby civil rights photographs
ATLANTA, Aug. 13, 2026 — For its centennial anniversary year, the High Museum of Art will present a rotating schedule of exhibitions, including a widely acclaimed touring Martin Puryear survey, an exploration of rare Jean-Michel Basquiat works, a behind-the-scenes look at the High’s artwork conservation, and a sweeping presentation of civil rights photographs by Doris Derby. Below is a list of current and upcoming exhibitions as of Aug. 13, 2026. Note: The exhibition schedule is subject to change. Please contact the High’s press office or visit high.org for more information or to confirm details.
Upcoming Exhibitions
“I SPY! Walter Wick’s Hidden Wonders”
Aug. 28, 2026-Jan. 3, 2027
Renowned worldwide for his iconic “I SPY!” and “Can You See What I See?” children’s book series, Walter Wick (American, born 1953) is one of the nation’s most famous photographic illustrators. Over his decades-long career, Wick’s award-winning books have captivated readers across cultures and generations, combining art, craft and technology to inspire discovery and wonder. Through his lens, everyday objects become portals to imagined landscapes and intricate, impossible worlds, inviting viewers of all ages to explore. This fall, the High will present the largest survey of Wick’s work to date that will celebrate his unique approach to storytelling through beloved images, rarely seen works and three-dimensional models. The exhibition will delve into themes that have long fascinated Wick, including miniature worlds, optical illusions, search-and-find games, puzzle challenges and the wonders of science. “I SPY! Walter Wick’s Hidden Wonders” is the latest in the High’s popular exhibition series celebrating the art and authors of children’s books. This exhibition is organized by the New Britain Museum of American Art.
Read the full press release here.
Download high-res images here.
“Martin Puryear: Nexus”
Sept. 25, 2026-Jan. 17, 2027
Since the 1970s, Martin Puryear (American, born 1941) has captivated the public with beautiful and thought-provoking works inspired by global culture, social history and the natural world. This fall, the High will be the exclusive Southeast venue and the final stop for the most comprehensive presentation of his career in more than two decades. This critically acclaimed exhibition features more than 70 works in a rich variety of materials and media, from sculptures in wood, glass, marble and cast bronze to rarely shown drawings and prints. “Nexus” follows Puryear’s explorations of form, material and process since the 1960s, ranging from drawings made in Sierra Leone during the artist’s service in the Peace Corps to sculptures featured in “Liberty/Libertà,” Puryear’s celebrated U.S. Pavilion exhibition at the 2019 Venice Biennale. The exhibition presents a fresh perspective on Puryear’s influential work, illuminating his interest in and involvement with material culture, natural history, craft traditions and African American history. It also powerfully reveals the expressive and interpretive potential of his work, which commands attention and reflection through masterful craft, enigmatic form and quiet poetic beauty. This exhibition is co-organized by The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Read the full press release here.
Download high-res images here.
“Photography as a Way of Life: Minor White, Aaron Siskind, and Harry Callahan”
Oct. 9, 2026-Feb. 7, 2027
The High will be the exclusive Southeast venue for this touring exhibition that examines the overlapping careers of Minor White, Aaron Siskind and Harry Callahan, profoundly influential photographers, teachers and thinkers who redefined photography in the mid-20th century. Amid photography’s increasing recognition as an art form in the 1950s and 60s, these three artists carved out a new role and status for the medium, building a devoted audience for their work and shaping the aspirations of the era. Though they were from distinct backgrounds and visual traditions, they came together around their interests in abstraction and deeply personal expression and a shared belief that photography could sustain a life’s work. Drawing from the rich holdings of the Princeton University Art Museum and its Minor White Archive, the exhibition features iconic and previously unpublished color and black-and-white prints, rarely seen slides, and an array of published and archival materials. The exhibition also traces the artists’ expansive networks through work by both their students and contemporaries, such as Emmet Gowin, Roy DeCarava and Ming Smith, among others. “Photography as a Way of Life: Minor White, Aaron Siskind, and Harry Callahan” is organized by the Princeton University Art Museum and curated by Brendan Fay, associate professor of art history in the School of Art and Design at Eastern Michigan University. The exhibition at Princeton was made possible by leadership support from Jim McKinney and the late Valerie McKinney; Anne Robinson Woods; Sandy and Robin Stuart; the Wyeth Foundation for American Art; and other generous donors.
Read the full press release here.
Download press images here.
“Future Work: Preserving the Legacy of Art”
Feb. 12-June 6, 2027
Museums work to preserve the past for the present and the future. This exhibition presents a selection of case studies from across the High’s collections, showing recent efforts between conservation scientists and other museum professionals that have revealed new information about these works, their materials and ways to conserve them for future generations. From delicate works on paper and light-sensitive photographs to bronze sculpture, each object carries inherent challenges to preservation that museum staff must consider, including the best environments for their presentation and storage as well as regular evaluation and treatment. In this behind-the-scenes look at the work of art conservators, curators and collections staff, visitors will be able to explore the questions asked, the techniques used and the exciting stories behind rarely seen objects and some of the museum’s most iconic works of art, including Mary Cassatt’s pastel “Sketch of a Mother Looking Down at Thomas” (ca. 1893) and Il Guercino’s “Christ and the Samaritan Woman” (ca. 1650). This exhibition is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta and made possible by support from The Sara Giles Moore Foundation.
“Basquiat, the Blue Ribbon Paintings, and the Art of Reproduction”
Feb. 19-May 16, 2027
Conventional narratives around Jean-Michel Basquiat (American, 1960-1988) tend to emphasize his meteoric rise as a self-taught prodigy, often placing him outside the art historical canon rather than in dialogue with postmodern ideas and artistic networks. In contrast, this exhibition reframes Basquiat’s legacy by emphasizing his deep engagement with ideas around appropriation, identity and reproduction. With more than 50 works, this presentation brings to light his rarely studied engagement with printmaking as both central to his practice and a site of innovation and collaboration. It also highlights his relationship to generations of artists from Leonardo da Vinci to Robert Rauschenberg and his connections with pioneering Black printmakers such as Bob Blackburn, revealing and celebrating a lineage of Black experimentation and intergenerational exchange in reproductive media. This exhibition is organized by the Princeton University Art Museum and curated by Jordana Moore Saggese, professor of modern and contemporary art and director of the David C. Driskell Center for the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora, University of Maryland. The exhibition at Princeton was made possible by leadership support from The Richard C. von Hess Foundation and other generous donors.
“Doris Derby: A Civil Rights Journey”
March 19-Aug. 1, 2027
A key figure of the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s, Doris Derby (American, 1939-2022) was a photographer, activist, organizer and educator whose photographs are distinct within the visual record of the movement. Unlike the dramatic images of protests and police brutality that galvanized many Americans in support of racial justice, including Derby, her photographs document the grassroots efforts to improve the lives of Southern Black Americans. At age 23, Derby moved to Mississippi to work within the movement; between 1963 and 1972, she quietly and insightfully photographed cooperatives, crafting and quilting guilds, healthcare programs and adult literacy classes, emphasizing rarely seen aspects of the movement that did not make headlines and giving prominence to the unsung but vital role of women in activism of the era. While many photojournalists documenting the movement were outside observers, often White men from the North, Derby was a true insider: She photographed with deep familiarity the many programs and organizations she founded while working daily within various communities in the South. This exhibition will feature more than 75 of her photographs, as well as archival materials, highlighting her unparalleled archive of the Civil Rights Movement expressing determination, struggle and connection. This exhibition is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.
Currently on View
“New Acquisitions: Photography”
Through Sept. 6, 2026
Since acquiring its first photograph in 1973 and creating its photography department in 1993, the High has continually worked to expand its collection of photographs, transforming it into one that showcases the history of the medium while mirroring the culture and time in which the works were made. Culminating those years of strategic work, and signaling the future direction for the department’s acquisitions, the High presents this exhibition debuting new works on view for the first time. The presentation highlights the extraordinary breadth of photographs the institution owns and celebrates how crafting a collection is an art form in and of itself. Featured photographers include Dawoud Bey, Rahim Fortune, Nikita Gale, Martine Gutierrez, Richard Learoyd, Baldwin Lee, Catherine Opie, Ed Panar, Susan Worsham and more. This exhibition is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.
Read the full press release here.
Download high-res press images here.
“Amy Sherald: American Sublime”
Through Sept. 27, 2026
The High is the final stop for the national tour of “Amy Sherald: American Sublime,” the acclaimed mid-career retrospective for the Georgia native and the largest exhibition of her work to date. Featuring a broad range of paintings made from 2007 to 2024, the presentation includes many of Sherald’s most iconic works, along with rarely seen paintings spanning her career. Born in Columbus, Georgia, Sherald has deep ties to Atlanta and to the High. She trained as a painter in the city and graduated from Clark Atlanta University. In 2018, the High awarded her its annual David C. Driskell Prize in African American Art and Art History, the first national award to recognize the importance of African American art. The museum presented “The Obama Portraits Tour,” featuring her renowned portrait of former First Lady Michelle Obama, in 2022. This exhibition is organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) and curated by Sarah Roberts, former Andrew W. Mellon Curator and Head of Painting and Sculpture at SFMOMA.
Read the full press release here.
Download high-res images here.
“Los Porfiados (The Stubborns)”
Though Nov. 29, 2026
In summer 2026, the High debuted a group of monumental, interactive sculptures by Chilean design studio gt2P in its Carroll Slater Sifly Piazza. The installation is the 10th in the museum’s multiyear series of inclusive and playful projects to activate its outdoor space. Inspired by the classic roly-poly wobbling toy, known in Chile as “mono porfiado,” the 14 inflatable, limber sculptures, some measuring up to 17 feet tall, invite visitors to interact with their pliable surfaces, which come to life and transform the Piazza with collective movement that explores collaboration and the construction of public space. When activated, the sculptures become a living metaphor for resilience, understood not as rigidity but as adaptability: the capacity to move with others, to be displaced and to return to balance. Each sculpture responds to individual action while also becoming part of a larger whole, created by accumulated gestures. This exhibition is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.
Read the full press release here.
Download high-res press images here.
“Paper Trees”
Through Feb. 21, 2027
This exhibition traces the artist’s translation of the natural world across different schools of thought from the 19th century to the present. Featuring a selection of rarely seen prints, drawings and sculptures, the presentation drawn from the High’s collection as well as loans from the Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking and Clark Atlanta University Art Museum. Together, the artworks forefront the tree as the primary visual vehicle for the study of nature, from unfinished sketches made en plein air (drawn from life in nature rather than in a studio environment) to finished works in a variety of media. This exhibition is organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.
Read the full press release here.
Download high-res images here.
About the High Museum of Art
Located in the heart of Atlanta, the High Museum of Art connects with audiences from across the Southeast and around the world through its distinguished collection, dynamic schedule of special exhibitions and engaging community-focused programs. Housed within facilities designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architects Richard Meier and Renzo Piano, the High features a collection of more than 20,000 works of art, including an extensive anthology of 19th- and 20th-century American fine and decorative arts; major holdings of photography and folk and self-taught work, especially that of artists from the American South; burgeoning collections of modern and contemporary art, including paintings, sculpture, new media and design; a growing collection of African art, with work dating from prehistory through the present; and significant holdings of European paintings and works on paper. The High is dedicated to reflecting the diversity of its communities and offering a variety of exhibitions and educational programs that engage visitors with the world of art, the lives of artists and the creative process. For more information about the High, visit www.high.org.
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404-733-4423
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