The Most Beautiful Outdoor Sculpture Exhibitions to Visit This Summer

When encountered in public, art resonates with a rather multi-sensorial effect. Exclusive to the medley of natural light, organic sounds, and ever-changing backdrops, the sensation of viewing art outdoors adds another layer to a work’s given qualities. Sunlight’s changing angles, echoes of the surrounding landscape, and a living visual company render public exhibitions adventurous and unpredictable. Therefore, it is no wonder that many organizations benefit from the summer season’s hospitable temperatures and growing crowds.

Europe is particularly abundant with sculpture shows that boast lush gardens and sprawling parks. Escalated visitor numbers, sun-kissed long days, and the legacy of ornate gardens make the list of public art shows grow across the continent. New York City institutions, on the other hand, offer programming for discernible staycation fans.

Here’s a list of five outdoor garden shows to explore this summer.

1. Thomas Houseago “Sculptures” | Banca March Gardens in Madrid

While the countryside attracts organizers of public shows for ample acreage and towering heights, cities can offer unexpected slices of creative stimulation and retreat from urban mayhem. Madrid tops many travelers’ vacation plans to experience storied museums, excellent wine, and palatial architecture. This summer, however, wanderers of the Spanish capital may expect a Thomas Houseago exhibition, not at Reina Sofia or Prado, but inside a secret garden. Tucked in the upscale Salamanca neighborhood, Jardin Banca March hosts seven sculptures by the British-born and Los Angeles-based artist who has recently experienced a meteoric career boom. It is perhaps this preeminence of Houseago’s work across global institutions and galleries that makes the show’s quaint and poetic venue a charmer. The 17,000-square-foot garden sits in the back of local financial institution Banca March’s headquarters. The bank, in fact, invited Houseago to exhibit key works in plaster, metal, and bronze to celebrate its 100th anniversary, following their Lynda Benglis exhibition in 2024.

The show’s Belgian curator Anne Pontégnie sees Houseago’s sculptures as “deeply connected to what surrounds them,” and she tells Galerie that the garden “offers a frame against which each sculpture can be seen in all its dimension.” Large Walking Figure I (Leeds) (2013) sets a fitting example: a 15-foot-tall bronze giant carries its heavy body on its drooping skin, and both gothic and glorious, the sculpture finds a curious narrative within the tall trees that surround its monstrous form, which Pontégnie attributes to “Spanish art from Goya to Picasso.”

2. The Venet Foundation | Le Muy, France

South of France is unsurprisingly a sought-after destination for exploratory art installations outdoors. The romantic flora and lavender-scented fields make the region attractive for meandering excursions. The Venet Foundation in Le Muy spans a seven-hectare sculpture park to display an ambitious collection of Minimalist and Conceptual art. Besides the usual suspects, such as Carl Andre, Robert Morris, and James Turrell, the park promises an exploration of their European peers, such as Arman and Claude Viallat. The park’s seminal founder is none other than French sculptor Bernard Venet, who tells Galerie that the collection has grown out of his friendships with most of the artists on site. The park’s green spaces, he notes, were designed to complement the art. “Some sculptures, conversely, found their natural position in dialogue with trees that were already on the site,” he says and adds: “In this way, a reciprocal relationship emerged between sculpture and landscape, each enhancing the presence of the other.”

3. The Hepworth Wakefield Garden | London

If a garden is a blank canvas, you may think of its plant palette as the painting on its surface. London’s Hepworth Wakefield Garden, therefore, is illustrated by the landscaping of the architect Tom Stuart-Smith, who helped turn a former wasteland into an urban haven. Adjacent to the Hepworth Gallery, the grounds, dedicated to the seminal British sculptor Barbara Hepworth, bloom with countless herbaceous perennials, tens of shrubs, and a generous wealth of spring bulbs. This summer, add to this potpourri the soft sculptures of the late Indian artist Mrinalini Mukherjee and British painter Lewis Hammond. The pathway to the indoor shows promises riveting views of the park’s permanent installations, such as Hepworth’s 1958-dated diamond-shaped Ascending Form (Gloria) sculpture, which arises from the earth with its bronze body in a totemic elegance.

4. Tove Jansson “Summer of Moomin” | The New York Botanical Garden

Play and education can be integral to the experience of a park visit where art is a catalyst for conversation. The New York Botanical Garden dedicates its summer programming to introducing visitors of all ages to Tove Jansson, an illustrator and author who was highly influential in her homelands of Sweden and Finland. Jansson, who passed away in 2001 at age 87, espoused a Scandinavian sense of thoughtful escapism and critical thinking through the wondrous lexicon of myths. Moominvalley was her most celebrated output. A book series at first, the 80-year-old cultural phenomenon has seen the characters appear on a variety of merchandise, television shows, and even decorate Finnish Airlines planes. The botanical garden exhibition carries the book’s legacy into a three-dimensional realm. Large sculptures of the Moominvalley residents pop across the park, either tucked in calm corners for discovery or mounted by the main pathway in large scale. Thomas Zambra, who is a descendant of Jansson’s and a director at the Moomin Characters, says the show “brings the characters to a landscape that inspired them.” He adds that nature was “fundamental” to how the author lived and notes the ways the garden invites visitors to “slow down, and experience the natural world through the same sense of curiosity and wonder as the Moomins themselves.”

5. Phyllida Barlow and Daisy Parris | Wolterton Hall, North Norfolk

Once home to storied families, estates promise layered narratives through personal collections of art, antiques, and furniture, and when they are merged with contemporary voices, the alchemy peels new layers of the existing visual symphonies. And when set amidst 500 acres of grounds—as Wolterton Hall does—the natural wealth becomes the cherry on top. Northern Norfolk’s cherished Palladian estate welcomes the summer with two separate solo presentations dedicated to Phyllida Barlow and Daisy Parris. The intergenerational pairing of two British artists lures visitors both inside the 18th-century grand dwelling and out to the gardens rich with geraniums, poppies, and fig trees. Barlow’s show “disruptor” dances between both indoors and out, starting with her intimate acrylic paintings that play with geometry and obscure storytelling at the soaring galleries. The large-scale outdoor sculptures, such as PRANK: jinx; 2022/23 (2022-23) in steel, lacquer, and fiberglass, translate a similar flirt with the subliminal in massive scale.