The 2026 Winter Olympics are upon us, with the opening ceremony—featuring a performance by Mariah Carey!— taking place at Milan’s San Siro Stadium at 8 PM local time on Friday, February 6.
Events will take place throughout northern Italy, with indoor ice events in Milan and outdoor events in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Livigno, Bormio, Predazzo, and Tesero.
While the Dolomites and Italian Alps are lovely this time of year, winter sports fans who hope to slip in some art viewing while in Italy should probably stick to things like figure skating, speed skating, or hockey. Milan has a lot more to offer in terms of museums and galleries, though only the Museo del Novecento seems to have made an effort to cater to sports fans.
Below are some of Milan’s top museums and galleries, including notes about what will be on view during the three-week run of the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Museums
Fondazione Prada
Miuccia’s Prada’s art foundation opened its outpost in Milan in 2015 in a former distillery building designed by Rem Koolhaas’s firm OMA. A year later, the foundation opened a photography gallery called the Osservatorio on the upper floors of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, a covered shopping arcade. During the Olympics, the Fondazione Prada’s main space has two intriguing exhibitions: “Sueño Perro” brings to light unseen footage from the Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu film Amores Perros (2000), and “Over, under and in between,” made up of three site-specific installations by Mona Hatoum. The Osservatoria will have Hito Steyerl’s video installation The Island.
Pirelli HangarBicocca
This cavernous, industrial exhibition space is housed in former Pirelli tire factory. Over the years, it has hosted exhibitions from artists like Marina Abramović, Christian Boltanski, Mike Kelley, Ragnar Kjartansson, and Rosa Barba. Nan Goldin’s exhibition “This Will Not End Well” comprises several slideshows (including her infamous Ballad of Sexual Dependency) and an accompanying sound installation will close on Feb. 15, midway through the Olympics. Italian artist Benni Bosetto’s show “Rebecca” opens on Feb. 12.
Pinacoteca di Brera
House in the Palazzo Brera, the Pinacoteca di Brera is best known for its collection of Italian masterpieces by artists like Raphael, Andrea Mantegna, Giovanni Bellini, Caravaggio, and Titian. Several shows will be on view during the Winter Olympics: “Beauty and the Ideal” showcases a dozen plaster busts by Antonion Canova; “Pinacoteca viaggiante” presents 99 enamel-on-copper miniatures collected by Count Giovanni Battista Sommariva; and a selection of 120 garments by Giorgio Armani installed throughout the museum (the Italian designer lived and worked in Brera).
Museo del Novecento
Located adjacent to the Piazza del Duomo, one of Milan’s main tourist attractions, the Museo del Novecento opened in 2010 and focuses on artwork from the 20th and 21st centuries. Italian art movements like Futurism and Arte Povera are well represented in the museum’s collection, along with artists like Lucio Fontana, Giorgio de Chirico, and Giorgio Morandi. Sports-themed posters by graphic designer Armando Testa will be on view at the museum.
Galleries
Emanuela Campoli: “Notti Rosa,” Emily Sunblad’s exhibition featuring works as disparate as a nightgown, a painting, and a large-scale tapestry
Monica de Cardenas: “tempo crudo,” new tapestries, sculptures, and works on paper by Claudia Losi, plus drawings and watercolors by Slawomir Elsner
Galleria Raffaella Cortese: “Friends and Family,” text-based works and prints by Alejandro Cesarco
MASSIMODECARLO: “Something Borrowed, Something Plum,” abstract paintings by Austyn Weiner, her first solo show with the gallery
kaufmann repetto: “Back Facing Front,” a site-specific installation by Thea Djordjadze and “Exhale/Inhale,” ceramics and collages by Gaëlle Choisne
Gio Marconi: “Keep thinking nobody does it like you here comes the sunset,” Jonathan Lyndon Chase first solo show in Italy
Thaddaeus Ropac: “Body Sign,” a dialogue between artists Valie Export and Ketty La Rocca
Lia Rumma: “Sharpen Your Philosophy,” drawings, prints, a diorama, aluminum and bronze sculptures, and video installations by South African artist William Kentridge, who has shown with the gallery for three decades.
