Upcoming Exhibitions

Avant Garde: Remarkable Women in the Permanent Collection

February 26, 2026 – April 4, 2027

The Tampa Museum of Art’s permanent collection of art continues to grow at a feverish pace. Many recent acquisitions highlight art made by women who are celebrated both nationally and locally for their creative achievements. The exhibition Avant Garde: Remarkable Women in the Permanent Collection features recent additions to the collection with works by Selina Román, Ya La’Ford, Nneka Jones, Wendy Babcox, and Lorraine Genovar—all artists with roots in the Tampa Bay area. Avant Garde also features artists new to the museum’s holdings including Tau Lewis, Mika Rottenberg, Hannah van Bart, Kirsten Hassenfeld, and Quisqueya Henriquez alongside artists such as Alma Thomas, Niki de Saint Phalle, Marisol, Mernet Larsen, and Elisabeth Condon. Viewed together, Avant Garde: Remarkable Women in Permanent Collection will highlight the artists’ explorations of home, self, history, and womanhood through figuration and abstraction.

Mysteries of the Nile: Ancient Egypt

April 9, 2026 – April 9, 2028

For thousands of years, the Nile River has carved a green ribbon through the desert of northeastern Africa, nurturing one of the world’s most remarkable civilizations. Known to ancient Egyptians as Kemet, the “black land,” the inhabitants owed their lives to the rich and dark soil, deposited along the riverbanks by the Nile’s annual flooding. The surrounding deserts, by contrast, was called Deshret, or “red land.” The fertile plains of the Nile Valley gave rise to a culture that thrived for over three and a half thousand years. Ancient Egypt remains renowned to this day for its religious beliefs, complex society, monumental architecture, and enduring arts and culture. Mysteries of the Nile is the first exhibition in Tampa dedicated to the art and artifacts of ancient Egypt. The gallery display explores themes related to the power of pharaohs, the worship of gods, aspects of daily life, and beliefs about the afterlife —thus offering insight into this mysterious civilization along the Nile.

Eye of the Beholder 
The William Knight Zewadski Legacy 

May 14, 2026 – January 3, 2027 

Beauty, as the saying goes, is in the eye of the beholder — that is, a matter of personal choice. The same holds true when establishing an art collection. The treasures displayed in this exhibition reflect a very personal passion for ancient Greek and Roman art and archaeology, ancient theater and architecture — as well as their reception in modern prints and photography. Culled from the collection of William Knight (“Bill”) Zewadski, the works on view reflect the zeal of an amateur — in the true sense of the word. In addition, the exhibition is a testament to his immeasurable generosity to the Tampa Museum of Art over a period of four decades. 

Eye of the Beholder is part of a series of exhibitions dedicated to the Museum’s permanent collection that have been on view since the Centennial Celebration. 

Samantha Modder

July 31, 2026 – July 4, 2027

Following the presentations of monumental paintings by Naeem Khan (2023) and Vaughn Spann (2024), the Tampa Museum of Art will feature large-scale wall drawings by artist Samantha Modder (Nigerian, b. 1995). Born in Lagos, Nigeria and raised in Sri Lanka, Modder depicts fantastical worlds of Black female protagonists. Her art, rendered with ball point pen, explores themes of power and resistance, and she creates vignettes imbued with curiosity and playfulness. Based in Tampa, Florida, Modder is Assistant Professor of Art and Design at the University of Tampa.

I Know the Sun Will Shine: Mary Proctor, Ruby Williams, and Purvis Young

Opens November 21, 2026

I Know the Sun Will Shine: Mary Proctor, Ruby Williams, and Purvis Young presents three artists from the Tampa Museum of Art’s (TMA) growing collection of Florida self-taught artists. It builds upon the hallmark installation of TMA’s long-term installation of Purvis Young’s found object paintings and highlights new acquisitions of works by Ruby Williams and Mary Proctor.  The three artists represent the major metropolitan areas within the state of Florida—Miami, Tampa, and Tallahassee—and depict experiences in their lives and communities with found objects from their home and neighborhoods. Viewed together, the three artists capture Florida’s artistic history over decades that span the years post Jim Crow and significant migration waves to the historic election of Barack Obama.