Hong Kong’s M+ Marks Its Fifth Anniversary in 2026: A 400-Work “Myths and Monsters” Exhibition and Over 10.4 Million Visitors to Date

M+, the museum in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District, marks five years since it opened to the public on November 12, 2021. On Saturday, October 17, it opened “Myths and Monsters: The Art of Fantasy in Asia,” a special exhibition tracing fantasy in Asian art from the 19th century to the present through more than 400 works. According to the 2025 annual report, the museum has welcomed more than 10.4 million visitors since opening, including 2,601,066 visits in 2025. Based on the annual programs M+ announced in October 2025 and August 2026, its exhibition pages and annual report (as of October 25, 2026), this article covers the 2026 exhibitions, the facade moving-image program, visitor numbers and admission.

The 2026 program includes several exhibitions connected to Japan. From February to July, an installation by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Shiro Takatani was shown free of charge, and since June the museum has been holding the first overseas exhibition of “Design Ah!,” which grew out of an NHK children’s program. “Myths and Monsters” also features works by Utagawa Kunisada, Harue Koga, Taro Okamoto, Osamu Tezuka, Keiko Takemiya, Takashi Murakami and Terunobu Fujimori, among others. The history of art using moving image and sound is introduced in our explainer on media art.

“Myths and Monsters”: More than 400 works in four chapters

“Myths and Monsters” runs in the West Gallery until Sunday, April 4, 2027. More than 400 works spanning contemporary art, architecture, fashion, video games and film are organized in four chapters: “Spirits Among Us,” gathering ukiyo-e, Chinese shadow puppets and Tibetan thangka; “Strange Realities,” on Surrealism and Asian artists; “From Godzilla to Ghost in the Shell,” on Japanese popular culture that spread abroad after the war; and “New Mythologies,” showing contemporary artists’ responses to anime and manga.

Works connected to Japan include a print by Utagawa Kunisada (1857) from the Yumoto Koichi Memorial Japan Yokai Museum (Miyoshi Mononoke Museum), Harue Koga’s “Scene of the Deep Sea” (1933) from the Ohara Museum of Art, and Keiko Takemiya’s “Toward the Terra” (1977–1980) from the Kyoto International Manga Museum (International Manga Research Center, Kyoto Seika University). Osamu Tezuka’s “Astro Boy” (1952), “Godzilla” (1954) and “Ghost in the Shell” (1995) are also featured. Hong Kong artist Oscar Chan Yik Long has created a new mural, and Ho Tzu Nyen and LuYang are among the other participants. The co-curators are Ulanda Blair and Isabella Tam.

When announced in October 2025, the exhibition was titled “Myths, Monsters, and Manga,” and the catalog co-published by M+ and Thames & Hudson uses that title.

Dates: Saturday, October 17, 2026 – Sunday, April 4, 2027
Venue: West Gallery (L2), M+
Admission: Included with M+ admission (adults HK$190, concessions HK$100)
Official website: https://www.mplus.org.hk/en/exhibitions/myths-and-monsters-the-art-of-fantasy-in-asia/

2026 exhibitions: Ryuichi Sakamoto, Lee Bul and Design Ah!

Other major exhibitions in 2026 are as follows (dates from M+ exhibition pages).

• Ryuichi Sakamoto | seeing sound, hearing time (February 14 – July 12, 2026, free): Presented the large-scale installation “async–immersion” (2023) by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Shiro Takatani on the large LED screen and surround sound system of The Studio on B2.

• Lee Bul: From 1998 to Now (March 14 – August 9): A retrospective that began at the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul in September 2025. It travels to M HKA (Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp) from November 2026 to March 2027.

• Two solo exhibitions, of Heri Dono and Wael Shawky (May 30 – Sunday, November 1)

• Design Ah! exhibition (June 27 – Sunday, January 10, 2027): An interactive exhibition based on the NHK program “Design Ah! neo,” consisting of 21 exhibits on 10 everyday actions. Produced by NHK Educational, NHK Promotions and TOKYO NODE, with contributions from Yugo Nakamura and others.

• Janet Cardiff, “The Forty Part Motet” (from August 15, free): A sound work in which the voices of 40 members of the Salisbury Cathedral Choir, each recorded individually, play from 40 speakers. Borrowed from MoMA, it is the first project under the memorandum of understanding M+ and MoMA signed in February 2025.

• Herzog & de Meuron: In Focus (from September 12): A display celebrating the fifth anniversary that presents a donation from Herzog & de Meuron, the Swiss architecture firm that designed the M+ building.

• Xu Bing, “You Inhuman Thing” (October 5 – Sunday, January 3, 2027, free): A video work borrowing the format of online verification that asks users to prove they are human, screened on the Grand Stair.

Among long-term displays, “Nakagin and Kiyotomo” (since November 2, 2024), showing capsule A806 from Kisho Kurokawa’s Nakagin Capsule Tower and the interior of the sushi restaurant Kiyotomo designed by Shiro Kuramata, and “Danh Vo in Situ: Akari by Noguchi” (since October 26, 2024, free), in which Danh Vo arranges Isamu Noguchi’s Akari light sculptures in the Found Space on B2, are also continuing.

December onward and 2027: Lin Tianmiao and Wang Gongxin, Do Ho Suh

From Friday, December 4, “Here and There” by Lin Tianmiao and Wang Gongxin opens (through Sunday, May 9, 2027). It shows in Hong Kong for the first time the pair’s large-scale installation “Here? or There?,” first presented at the 2002 Shanghai Biennale.

Note that the October 2025 announcement had said an exhibition drawn from the Takahashi Ryutaro Collection and M+ holdings, “Fairytales” (working title), would open in the same gallery in December. It was to present works by Makoto Aida, Manabu Ikeda, Tomoko Konoike, Takashi Murakami, Yoshitomo Nara and Miwa Yanagi, among others, but it does not appear in the August 2026 announcement or in the exhibition list as of October 25.

In 2027, Sarah Sze’s “Centrifuge” opens on Friday, February 5, and LuYang’s “DOKU—Māyā Field” (free) on Saturday, February 27. “Hong Kong: Here and Beyond 2027,” featuring more than 50 artists and makers, runs from Saturday, March 13 to Sunday, August 8; “Landmarks,” covering 50 buildings constructed in 17 countries since 2000, opens on Saturday, June 12; and “Do Ho Suh: Belonging,” organized with the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, opens on Saturday, September 25. The Tarek Atoui exhibition opening on Saturday, July 31 will present installations made with musical instruments. Atoui is currently presenting a new work in the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern in London.

M+ Facade: An LED screen 65 m high and 110 m wide

The M+ Facade, on the south side of the building facing Victoria Harbour, is a screen 65 m high and 110 m wide embedded with thousands of LEDs. It is visible from up to 1.5 km away on Hong Kong Island and is switched off after 22:00 every night to reduce light pollution and wasted energy. According to the 2025 annual report, 128 commissioned and collection works were shown on it in 2025.

In spring 2026, as the fifth consecutive co-commission with Art Basel, “3 to 12 Nautical Miles” by Pakistani American artist Shahzia Sikander was shown nightly from March 23 to June 21 (according to an announcement by sponsor UBS). As its autumn work, on September 24 M+ announced “Winds of Hong Kong,” a new work by Turkish American media artist Refik Anadol. Drawing wind and environmental information from Hong Kong’s open data, it depicts the rhythms of the monsoon as an ever-changing “data painting.” It is sponsored by the Swiss wealth management group Julius Baer.

However, as of October 25, the M+ official website did not give the screening period for the work. The work page displays “Coming Soon,” and the facade page says “The programme is currently on hold.” The art magazine ArtAsiaPacific has reported that it will be shown from October 14 to January 7, 2027.

In 2027, Sarah Sze will present a new water-themed work at the start of the year, followed by the sixth consecutive co-commission with Art Basel in spring and a new work by film director Fruit Chan in summer. In addition, 15 works commissioned for the M+ Facade will be screened on the roof of the Centre Pompidou Francilien, the Centre Pompidou’s new site in Massy near Paris.

Visitors and admission: 2.6 million visits in 2025

M+ opened to the public on November 12, 2021, and announced that it had reached 1 million visits on July 8, 2022. According to the 2025 annual report, there were 2,601,066 visits from January 1 to December 31, 2025, and total visits since opening exceeded 10.4 million. Visitors to the West Kowloon Cultural District as a whole, including M+, exceeded 17 million in 2025, it says.

Since July 15, 2025, admission has been consolidated into a single “M+ Ticket” covering all galleries, including special exhibitions. Prices are HK$190 for adults and HK$100 for concessions (full-time students, ages 7–11, those 60 and over, and others). A ticket for one adult and one child costs HK$250, and for two adults and one child HK$400; children 6 and under do not need a ticket.

Name: M+
Address: West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong Kong (38 Museum Drive, Kowloon)
Opened to the public: November 12, 2021
Hours: Tuesday–Thursday, Saturday and Sunday 10:00–18:00; Friday 10:00–22:00 (last entry 30 minutes before closing; closed Mondays)
Admission: Adults HK$190, concessions HK$100, no ticket needed for 6 and under
Official website: https://www.mplus.org.hk/en/

Fifth-anniversary events: Some exhibitions free on November 8

Fifth-anniversary events continue through November. On Friday, November 6, from 19:00 to 24:00, the museum holds “M+ at Night: Five With Us” (HK$320 general), a party for ages 18 and over with live performances and curator-led tours of “Myths and Monsters.” Saturday, November 7 will feature “In-Gallery Encounters,” interactive programs in the galleries, and a performance by The Recycled Orchestra of Cateura, which plays instruments made from discarded materials.

On Sunday, November 8, exhibitions are open free of charge from 10:00 to 20:00 (last entry 19:00), excluding the “Design Ah!” and “Myths and Monsters” exhibitions. The museum is closed on Saturday, October 31, and closes at 17:00 on Thursday, November 5 and at 18:00 on Friday, November 6. M+ Cinema’s autumn program (October 9 – Sunday, December 27) includes the first “M+ Restored Festival,” screening all nine restored Hong Kong New Wave films.

Editor’s perspective

In 2026, M+ featured several exhibitions involving Japanese artists and organizations: the work of Ryuichi Sakamoto and Shiro Takatani, the “Design Ah!” exhibition born from an NHK program, and “Myths and Monsters,” with loans from Japanese museums and a manga research institution, while displays using a Nakagin Capsule Tower capsule and Noguchi’s light sculptures continue. On the other hand, the exhibition with the Takahashi Ryutaro Collection announced in October 2025 does not appear in the exhibition list as of October 25.

M+ links its agreements with other institutions to loans and touring exhibitions. The October 2025 announcement said it had signed memoranda of understanding with 14 museums and cultural institutions since opening, and in the August 2026 announcement the director mentioned partnerships with 15 institutions. It borrowed Cardiff’s work from MoMA, with which it signed an MoU in February 2025, and the Lee Bul exhibition began at the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul and travels to Europe. In 2027 it will hold the Do Ho Suh exhibition with the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, and screen facade works at the Centre Pompidou’s new site.

The facade program can also be compared with how moving images are shown in public spaces in Japan. Whereas “TOKYO Night & Light” on the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (see our article on the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building projection mapping) uses projectors, the M+ Facade is an LED screen built into the building, showing museum-commissioned and collection works every night and switching off at 22:00. Official attendance figures for digital art facilities in Japan are compiled in our roundup of attendance figures.

Frequently asked questions

How much is admission to M+?

Admission is HK$190 for adults and HK$100 for concessions, covering all galleries including special exhibitions. Children 6 and under do not need a ticket. Exhibitions are free on Sunday, November 8, except for “Design Ah!” and “Myths and Monsters.”

When can the facade program be seen?

The M+ Facade is switched off after 22:00 every night. As of October 25, the official website shows the program as on hold and gives no screening period for Anadol’s new work. Please check the official website before visiting.

Can exhibitions related to Japan be seen now?

Works by Utagawa Kunisada, Osamu Tezuka and others can be seen in “Myths and Monsters” (through Sunday, April 4, 2027). The “Design Ah!” exhibition runs through Sunday, January 10, 2027. The displays of the Nakagin Capsule Tower capsule and the Kiyotomo interior, and of Noguchi’s Akari, are also continuing.

*Information as of October 25, 2026. Please check the official website for the latest information.

*Top image: Refik Anadol, “Winds of Hong Kong” (still), 2026. Commissioned by M+, sponsored by Julius Baer (Photo: Courtesy of the artist, from the M+ work page)

*This article was compiled by the TOKYO ART SPHERE editorial team based on M+ official announcements (October 21, 2025; August 31, September 2 and September 24, 2026; and others), exhibition pages and annual report (as of October 25, 2026).

Text: TOKYO ART SPHERE Editorial Team