The Institut Valencià d’Art Modern, tucked along Calle Guillem de Castro in the heart of Valencia, opened its doors this week to a programme that reflects the museum’s stated direction for 2026, a deeper focus on territory, sustainability, and contemporary female artists, alongside its enduring commitment to the legacy of sculptor Julio González. A walkthrough of the current galleries reveals a museum genuinely in transition, with seven exhibitions running concurrently and another two already announced for July.

The most immediately striking presence on entering is “IVAM’s Collection to Date,” which opened on 17 June and will run for an unusually long stretch through April 2028, effectively functioning as the museum’s new permanent collection display. This long-term reinstallation reflects IVAM’s broader 2026 strategy of offering what the institution describes as a fresh reading of its own holdings, foregrounding works that haven’t always had prominent gallery space and situating the collection within the museum’s renewed curatorial priorities.

Running concurrently is “Cristina de Middel. Apoteosis Now,” on view until 12 October. De Middel, represented by Magnum Photos, has built a body of work that deliberately blurs the line between documentary photography and fiction, and this exhibition continues that interrogation by using staged and constructed imagery to question how power and authority get represented and mythologised in contemporary visual culture. It’s one of the more conceptually demanding shows currently on view, and one that rewards visitors willing to read the accompanying wall text closely.

A markedly different register comes from “Tania Candiani. Radix,” running through 20 September. The Mexican artist’s solo exhibition explores the intersections of technology, language, and memory, putting her work into direct conversation with both historical material and traditional artisanal knowledge. Candiani’s practice has long been concerned with how systems of knowledge get encoded in textiles, in machinery, in language itself, and the exhibition offers a genuinely different texture from the photography driven De Middel show next door.

The museum’s ongoing relationship with its namesake sculptor continues through two parallel exhibitions. “The Woman in the Work of Julio González,” on view until February 2027, examines the role of the female figure throughout González’s sculptural production, positioning her as both subject and symbol of modernity within his work. This exhibition gains additional resonance in 2026, which marks the 150th anniversary of González’s birth, an anniversary IVAM has built much of its annual programming around. Complementing this is “The Aura of a Modern Saga, Ignacio, José, and Marisa Pinazo,” running through February 2027, a tribute to three generations of one of Valencian art’s most significant families, offering visitors a chance to trace an artistic lineage across nearly a century of Valencian painting.

Also currently on view is “Territories in Transit / Solo Duo, Anna Talens and Mar Guerrero,” running until 28 June, meaning visitors have only a narrow window left to catch it. This exhibition is the first instalment of a new IVAM initiative pairing Valencian artists with creators selected by partner institutions, a second iteration, pairing Irene Grau with Marco Giordano, opens 16 July and will run through October, suggesting this paired format is becoming a recurring feature of the museum’s exhibition calendar.

Rounding out the current programme is “Rebrot,” an exhibition with an unusually long run extending through December 2026, situated within IVAM’s “Territory” strand. This reflects the museum’s stated 2026 commitment to exploring ecological themes and the Valencian landscape more broadly, a thread that will continue in July with the opening of “The Albufera,” marking the 40th anniversary of the wetland’s designation as a Natural Park.

Several broader curatorial threads emerge from walking the full museum. Half of this year’s exhibitions are dedicated to women artists, including Cristina de Middel, Tania Candiani, and later this year, Joana Vasconcelos, who will receive a major solo exhibition in November after being awarded the 2026 International Julio González Prize. Director Blanca de la Torre has been explicit about this emphasis, describing it as central to making the museum’s curatorial discourse more inclusive. The museum’s “Museo Anfibio” (Amphibious Museum) programme also continues to develop in the background, weaving contemporary art together with traditional knowledge, ethnographic research, and environmental action, an ambitious framework that several of this year’s exhibitions, including Candiani’s, clearly feed into.

Visually, the museum’s industrial architecture, with the high ceilings, raw concrete, and expansive gallery spaces, continues to suit large scale contemporary work particularly well, and this was especially apparent in how the De Middel and Candiani exhibitions used scale and space differently from one another despite sharing similar gallery footprints.

Overall, the impression is that this is a museum in mid-transformation, clearly building toward its Julio González anniversary year while using 2026 to assert a stronger, more explicitly feminist and ecologically minded curatorial identity. The range across the seven current exhibitions, from De Middel’s conceptual photography to Candiani’s textile and technology installations to the historical Pinazo retrospective, gives genuine breadth to visitors.

Report by Faith Callaway

Article copyright ‘24/7 Valencia’

IVAM, Institut Valencià d’Art Modern
Carrer Guillem de Castro, 118, 46003 València
Telephone, +34 963 176 600
Opening hours, Tuesday to Thursday and Saturday, 9.30 to 19h. Friday, 9.30 to 20h. Sunday and public holidays, 10 to 17h. Monday closed.
General admission, 5 euros. Free entry Friday 19h to 21h, Saturday 15h to 19h, and all day Sunday.
Website: https://ivam.es/