A Three-Dot Guide To the Arts, September 2026 Edition

There was a point this summer where I said to myself, “Will this ever end?” I like summer, the sun is nice, but The Unibrow likes the fall. We put out an print issue then, we love the new season of the arts, there is an Armory, a Frieze or two, a Basel or two, a Lucas, something else then something else, you know it. And I was getting overwhelmed with all the screenshots, press packs, emails, etc, so we are starting a list just to get us warmed up for the next month of exhibitions. We might miss a few, we might write about a few more in the Daily Brows, but here is what we are thinking about right now…

Lenworth McIntosh: Come When Mi Call Yu @ OCHI Gallery, Los Angeles
September 12 - October 10, 2026

If you don’t know Lenworth’s work, then catch up; this is some of our favorite paintings being made today. Moody, personal, passionate, almost like a time-traveler with all the wisdom…

Hacer Lugar: Studio Lenca @ LagoAlgo, Mexico City
September 5—November 29, 2026

We have a lot to announce and share with Studio Lenca in the coming weeks, but first why don’t you all go down to Mexico City to see what is fast becoming one of the most exciting careers in contemporary art, okay? From the press: “For his first solo exhibition in Mexico, at LagoAlgo, Studio Lenca presents a monumental site-specific mural that traces both remembered and imagined landscapes from the artist's journey through Mexico.”

Rebecca Ness: Inheritance @ Morgan Presents, New York
September 10th–October 20th, 2026

Good lord, Rebecca Ness is good. Who else has this kind of command right now with a paintbrush? Not many my friends. Love the title, too, lots to unpack but the way Ness tells a story is really top form.

Daniel Gibson: Manzanita @ Nazarian / Curcio, Los Angeles
September 12-October 24, 2026

Gibson just gets at it. We have worked with him a few times now and been to the studio and though he hasn’t had a solo show in LA for a few years, he is always in the making mode with an abundance of care and ideas. A true California painter…

Aryo Toh Djojo: Leap Into The Void @ Perrotin, New York
September 9-October 17, 2026

A magician with the airbrush, Djojo has been building something new over the years that I find interesting, whether it’s sound or music… just something a little otherworldly for an artist that is thinking about the way perception and memory work in a visual…

The Perez Bros. Lookout Weekend @ Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles
September 11 - October 24, 2026

Feels like the Perez Bros. have really taken the baton for depicting car culture and a certain kind of street scene of Los Angeles in recent years, and CJG is really honing in on honoring this aesthetic. The twin brothers, Alejandro and Vicente Perez, “capture the passion, precision, and flair that defines the lowrider car culture…”

Ella Walker @ Courtauld Gallery, London
September 3, 2026-September 1, 2027

We will be spending some time in London this fall, and saw that Pilar Corrias announced this commission, where “Ella Walker has unveiled two new site-specific commissions for the Courtauld Gallery – the second in a series of annual commissions by contemporary artists to create new work for the gallery.”

Julian Pace: Circus Maximus @ Dan Yoshi, New York
September 9-October 18, 2026

Pace is like a pop artist with a twist, a sort of amalgamation of all the things we understand about culture but have not fully investigated it’s visual aesthetic. The artist returns to New York this fall, and there is something we probably need in this work to help explain the maximal speed of the world right now…

Sergey Kononov Mémoires @ Galerie Max Hetzler, Paris
September 5 – 10 October 2026

Between this and the Grace Weaver show in Berlin, Max Hetzler has a good fall lined up, and this show in particular we wanted to focus on because who doesn’t want a little intimacy in 2026?

Mohammed Sami: Hostless @ Fridericianum, Kassel
October 3, 2026 – January 3, 2027

This one is coming in about a month, but we still wanted to highlight it on the list. “On view through January 3, 2027, Hostless presents a new body of work by Sami, focusing predominantly on internal spaces. The paintings become a site for mnemonic processes, mental operations in which abstraction falters and something unsettling begins to seep through…”

Roy DeCarava: the sound i saw @ David Zwirner, Los Angeles
September 19—October 31, 2026

This is such a highly anticipated show for us, so much so we can tell you we have a feature on the works and a conversation with Ebony L Haynes in our Issue 03, out soon. First assembled at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 1983, this show brings the work to life of someone who painted in his printmaking, a Jazz legend who made sound with his camera.

Meghann Stephenson: Queen of the Neighborhood! @ Half Gallery, New York
September 9th-October 8th, 2026

I think everyone knows how much we love Meghann Stephenson at this point, featured in our Issue 02, and this is her first show since that interview. “Queen of the Neighborhood!, Stephenson’s third solo exhibition, continues the artist’s exploration of femininity, morality, and social expectation through the framework of Dante’s Inferno.”

Art of Manga @ Brooklyn Museum
October 3, 2026–January 31, 2027

After seeing the Manga section at the Lucas Museum, it makes our interest in this show even greater. There is so much to learn and to explore on the subject, with so many artists in contemporary art using these motifs and styles in their work. A blockbuster…

Mark Thomas Gibson: Reconstruction @ Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia
Sep 18 — Nov 07, 2026

We love Mark, and when we read the headline of this show, “Fragmented and collaged American flag paintings that point to redemptive possibilities for a polarized country,” we knew this would be one of the shows of the year.

Von Wolfe: Familiars @ Richard Heller Gallery, Santa Monica
September 12-October 24, 2026

Just an old-school meets the future kind of painter. Polarizing, yes, because who doesn’t like to argue about AI, but I’m always fascinated with what he has going on…

Sarah Miska: Happy Trails @ Night Gallery, Los Angeles
September 19-October 31, 2026

I love Miska’s work, love how detailed she approaches these magnificent works of horses. From Night Gallery: “The paintings in Happy Trails draw primarily from photographs Miska took during this time in Wyoming. The sun shines golden on a cow’s ear before an uncomfortable procedure.”

Ibrahim Mahama: The Harvest Season @ Fondation Cartier, Paris
October 22, 2026-February 28, 2027

This might be the show of the season, the year… just a top artist in the top of his form with big ideas and big plans. “The Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain is proud to present The Harvest Season, an exhibition on an unprecedented scale in France of Ghanaian artist Ibrahim Mahama, accompanied by nine associate artists and collectives: Dorothy Akpene Amenuke, Gideon Appah, James Barnor, the Cercle d’Art des Travailleurs de Plantation Congolaise (CATPC), Courage Dzidula Kpodo, Zohra Opoku, Postbox Ghana, Tjaša Rener and Feda Wardak.”