By Karan Singh
January’s quieter galleries are a gift. With holiday chaos behind us and spring’s packed calendars still ahead, this is the rare window when you can actually stand in front of a painting without someone’s backpack in your periphery. It’s the ideal moment to discover emerging voices like Andrea Bergen and YeonKyung Park while also catching up with masters like Léon Spilliaert. From San Francisco to Paris, here are five art spaces worth visiting to kick off 2026.
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Andrea Bergen: ‘Every Varmit Has Its Day’
Restoring balance to nature, Andrea Bergen imagines a world without the planet’s single greatest threat: human beings. Once reduced to “vermin,” her whimsical sculptures and collages depict a diverse lineup of wildlife taking charge of a landscape left in ruin by their predecessors.
- La Luz de Jesus Gallery, 4633 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles
- January 9 – February 1, 2026
Susan Hall: ‘Balance’
There’s a tenderness to Susan Hall’s work that is unique to her touch. Though she doesn’t adhere to a single style or medium, each piece carries the same quiet sense of calm. Using animals as conduits for delicate, peace-inducing patterns, this series of oil paintings invites meditative stillness through sustained attention.
- Kim Storage Gallery, 207 E Buffalo St, Suite 404, Milwaukee
- January 2 – February 14, 2026
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Léon Spilliaert
Best known for his figurative renderings of everyday sights and objects, Léon Spilliaert perfected the craft of capturing moods that transcend language. Following a month-long run at David Zwirner’s New York gallery, a focused selection of the late Belgian artist’s illustrations and paintings will be displayed at the Paris branch.
- David Zwirner, 108 rue Vieille du Temple, Paris
- January 15 – March 21, 2026
YeonKyung Park: ‘Unfading Traces’
YeonKyung Park’s exhibition visualizes an intangible phenomenon: how images of the world fade and shift as they transform into memories. By softening the edges of her painted figures, she explores the mind’s natural tendency to distort and reinterpret glimpses of the past.
- Galerie Shibumi, 261 W 35th St, Suite 1401, New York
- January 17 – February 21, 2026
San Francisco Art Week
From Santa Cruz to Sonoma, galleries and museums across the Bay Area will host exhibitions, talks, and pop-ups throughout the third week of January as part of the third annual San Francisco Art Week. Anchored by the Fog Design + Art FYair, the event spotlights the full extent of Northern California’s creative ecosystem.
- Multiple venues across the San Francisco Bay Area
- January 17 – 25, 2026
Have another minute?
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