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From Tradition to Form: Mexico’s Design Landscape Today
Mexico has increasingly emerged as a key hub for contemporary design, shaped by a growing network of designers and galleries working across the country. This development reflects a design culture grounded in material research, local production, and a sustained dialogue between tradition and contemporary practice. Designers working in Mexico often engage directly with organic and locally available materials such as wood, clay, stone, textiles, and metal. Many practices draw on regional craft traditions and Indigenous fabrication knowledge, reinterpreting them within contemporary contexts while maintaining close relationships with workshops, artisans, and production sites.
Alongside talented individual designers, design galleries have played a central role in shaping the scene. By commissioning new work, supporting limited-edition production, and presenting design within an exhibition framework, these spaces have contributed to a clearer positioning of Mexican and Mexico-based design.
This article spotlights a selection of leading designers and galleries, showcasing why Mexico’s design scene deserves global attention.
AGO Projects is a design-focused practice and designer representation platform founded by Rudy F. Weissenberg and Rodman Primack. Based in the creative hubs of Mexico City and New York, the platform is committed to nurturing exceptional design voices through experimental approaches, critical dialogue, and cross-cultural perspectives. It also serves as a collaborative environment where artists and designers can realize projects of any scale, encouraging innovation and creative exploration. AGO Projects has become a driving force in the growth of the design scene, fostering a strong sense of community and collaboration. Among the talent they represent are some of the country’s leading designers, including Pol Agustí and Federico Stefanovich, whose work will be discussed in more detail in this article.
Originally from Barcelona, Pol Agustí is a designer based in Mexico City whose practice centres on black ceramic furniture and objects produced in the Mexican countryside. He is represented by Ago Projects. Twelve years ago, Agustí moved to Mexico after working across diverse fields including industrial design, art direction, production design, and photography, a multidisciplinary background that continues to inform his design approach. Working closely with local artisans, Agustí develops each collection through extended periods of shared living and making, using only three tools throughout the entire production process. This highly constrained methodology results in tables, chairs, lamps, and sound objects that have similar voluptuous forms and smooth cold surface texture. The pieces are characterised by black finishes and monolithic shapes that recall incinerated totems. As Agustí has remarked about his designs: “They’re like an excavation on Mars.”
Federico Stefanovich is a Mexico City based designer whose practice centres on lighting, alongside furniture and collectable objects, and who is also represented by Ago Projects. Stefanovich combines digital design processes with artisanal production, collaborating closely with local craftsmen to produce hand-made works in materials such as brass, wood, and bronze. This hybrid approach allows his works to have precise formal compositions while maintaining a strong material and tactile quality. His design practice focuses on light, with many pieces often being inspired by plants, seeds, and fungi. These natural references inform the curves and proportions of his designs, with elements that appear to grow, branch, or unfold. His meticulous study of light and shadow, along with the nuanced interplay between controlled illumination and distinctive organic forms, transforms his lighting fixtures into works of art.
Born in California in 1979, Brian Thoreen is both artist and designer, currently working between Mexico City and Paris. Raised around construction, metal fabrication, and art installation, he developed an early and direct understanding of how materials behave in space. His practice is characterized by an extensive exploration of materials, including rubber, wax, paper, silicone, glass, and metals such as hammered copper, brass, and bronze. Heavy industrial materials are transformed into forms that appear soft, folded, or compressed, often using unexpected materials that provoke curiosity in the audience. Examples include his chairs crafted from Manila paper and his “sofa” constructed from red neoprene rubber. Thoreen’s designs deliberately blur the boundary between functional furniture and nonfunctional sculpture.
Manuel Bañó, born in Valencia, Spain in 1990, is recognized for his design practice that focuses on metalwork. After studying industrial design and completing a master’s in furniture and lighting, Bañó worked in London before relocating to Mexico City in 2013. Employing direct forming and finishing techniques, Bañó responds to how materials bend, age, and bear weight, allowing forms to emerge through the making process rather than being predetermined. This approach produces furniture and objects that are unique and tactile focused. Bañó is also a co-founder of EWE Studio alongside Héctor Esrawe and Age Salajõe, contributing to the studio’s emphasis on material heritage and local production.
Founded in 2017 by gallerist Age Salajõe and designers Manuel Bañó and Héctor Esrawe, EWE Studio operates at the intersection of design, craft, and cultural research. EWE Studio centres on organic materials and forms, allowing texture and weight to guide the design process. Through limited-edition furniture and objects, EWE Studio reinterprets historical references within a contemporary framework, positioning heritage as an active and evolving source of design. Ewe Studio exemplifies the creative force that emerges when talented designers and gallerists collaborate, united by the belief that design extends beyond mere functionality.
Located in a 1910 building in the La Roma neighbourhood of Mexico City, Galería Córdoba is a design gallery dedicated to vintage furniture and objects from the modern movement. The gallery presents original pieces selected for their clarity of form, historical significance, and exceptional craftsmanship. Córdoba’s programme highlights key figures in modern design, including Don Shoemaker, Michael van Beuren, and Clara Porset, situating their work within a broader conversation around the development of modern design in the Americas.
MASA was founded in Mexico City by Age Salajõe, Héctor Esrawe, Brian Thoreen, Isaac Bissu, and Roberto Diaz. Operating at the intersection of art and design, MASA focuses on collectible and experimental practices presented through exhibitions, research, and publishing. MASA operates across physical and conceptual spaces and regularly collaborates with international galleries. These partnerships expand the programme beyond a local context, situating design within a broader global dialogue and highlighting the interplay between art and design, advocating for their more frequent joint presentation.
In February 2026, MASA will open a collaborative exhibition with Modern Art (London/Paris) at their Mexico City space. Running from 3 February to 4 April 2026, the exhibition brings together artworks and collectable design by artists represented by either MASA or Modern Art. Modern Art will show works by artist from their program such as Eva Rothschild, Francesca Mollett, Frida Orupabo, Michael Simpson, and more. MASA will present design items by Charlotte Vander Borght, Atelier Van Lieshout, José Dávila, Brian Thoreen.
Héctor Esrawe is a Mexico City based designer, architect, and academic whose practice spans furniture, interiors, architecture, and collectible design. He is also one of the founders of Ewe Studio. Working across disciplines, Esrawe is known for a rigorous understanding of materials and production processes, developed through decades of both practice and teaching. His designs balance artisanal knowledge with contemporary manufacturing, producing unique, limited-edition works that feel both timeless and architectural. Notable examples include his coffee tables composed of multiple blocks, reminiscent of the Tower of Babel, and his geometric-grid light holders, where the organic drip of wax creates a striking contrast.
Emiliano Godoy is a Mexican industrial designer with over twenty-five years of experience working across furniture design, architecture, product development, and curation. Working internationally, Godoy approaches design as a tool for generating positive social and environmental impact, with applied sustainability at the core of his practice. Godoy frequently works with wood and natural materials, often incorporating woven or interlaced elements that reference textile traditions and handcraft. One of his most recognised works, the Knit Chair, exemplifies this approach. Combining industrial structure with hand-crafted textile elements, the chair explores comfort, flexibility, and material contrast. In 2011, the Knit Chair was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York.
Mexico City Now: Artists, Galleries, and the Pulse of a Global Art Capital
Mexico City has become one of the most active and compelling centres of contemporary art today. Its vitality is visible not only in the scale of events such as Zona Maco, but in the density of its cultural infrastructure: a growing network of galleries, an engaged community of collectors, and a strong institutional framework that supports sustained artistic production.
In recent years, this ecosystem has expanded rapidly. Local galleries operate alongside international programmes, while artists from abroad increasingly choose the city as a place to live, work, and exhibit. These developments have been further accelerated since the pandemic, reinforcing Mexico City’s position as both a site of production and a destination for contemporary art.
The city’s cultural energy extends beyond the visual arts. Film, design, photography, and cuisine intersect closely with artistic practice, contributing to an environment in which experimentation is grounded in everyday cultural life. Mexico City allows creators to experiment boldly while remaining rooted in a rich cultural history, an influence that is often visible in their work and deeply appreciated by audiences. This combination of honouring Mexico’s heritage and pushing creative boundaries fuels a dynamic and thriving arts ecosystem.
In this article, we highlight artists who are shaping the current cultural conversation in Mexico. Whether based in the country, Mexican-born, or presenting significant exhibitions there now, these artists exemplify why Mexico City is the place to engage with cutting-edge ideas and art, and experience the vibrant interplay between tradition and contemporary practice.
Artists
Bosco Sodi
Bosco Sodi (b. 1970, Mexico City) is recognised for large-scale paintings and sculptures grounded in material intensity and physical process. Working with various natural materials such as sawdust and wood pulp, Sodi builds dense surfaces that crack and shift as they dry, allowing chance and material behaviour to shape the final work. Alongside painting, Sodi produces sculptural works using volcanic rock collected in Mexico, which he coats with glaze and precious metals before firing. These objects merge geological transformation with artistic intervention, reinforcing his sustained engagement with materiality, unpredictability, and the elemental forces embedded within the act of making.
Pedro Reyes
Pedro Reyes (b. 1972, Mexico City) places sculpture at the core of his practice, extending it beyond static form into systems, actions, and collective processes. Trained as an architect, he approaches sculpture as a constructed structure, often working with stone, wood, and traditional craft techniques rooted in Mexican and Mesoamerican histories. His sculptures often employ repetition and simplified geometry, emphasising endurance, structure, and collective memory. Through these materially grounded works, Reyes engages with Mexico’s artistic heritage while situating sculpture as a medium capable of addressing broader cultural and historical questions.
Jerónimo Rüedi
Jerónimo Rüedi (b. 1981, Mendoza, Argentina) lives and works in Mexico City. His painting practice centres on material experimentation and carefully controlled processes. He develops his own primers and pigments, applying paint through air-driven techniques that produce soft, layered surfaces with minimal direct touch. The shapes that emerge in Rüedi’s works often resemble fragmented signs or inscriptions, evoking the visual rhythm of ancient scripts or weathered manuscripts. They feel neither fully legible nor entirely abstract, hovering in a space between writing and form. Colour, transparency, and erosion play a central role in his practice, resulting in images that appear unstable or in transition rather than fixed.
Eduardo Terrazas
Eduardo Terrazas (b. 1936, Guadalajara) is a foundational figure in Mexican contemporary art whose practice spans architecture, design, and visual art. Trained as an architect, his work is rooted in modernist geometric abstraction combined with techniques drawn from Mexican folk traditions, most notably through concentric and modular forms. Since the 1970s, Terrazas has developed this visual language through drawings and, later, through works employing Huichol yarn techniques, arranging coloured threads on wax-coated surfaces. By combining modernist geometry with labour-intensive craft processes, his work bridges contemporary abstraction and Indigenous visual traditions.
Stefan Brüggemann
Stefan Brüggemann (b. 1975, Mexico City) works across sculpture, painting, drawing, and installation, frequently using text as a central formal element. His work merges Conceptualism and Minimalism with a rebellious punk aesthetic and the raw energy of street art. Many of his works also critique systems of power, consumerism, and cultural authority, and he often employs irony to challenge norms. Through these strategies, Brüggemann creates work that is simultaneously visually striking and conceptually rigorous.
Francis Alÿs
Francis Alÿs (b. 1959, Antwerp) has lived and worked in Mexico City since 1986. He initially moved there from Belgium to take part in post-earthquake reconstruction efforts and has remained in the city, where he has continued to develop his artistic practice. His work consists of long-term projects across film, drawing, painting, animation, and performance, addressing questions of movement, borders, labour, and collective behaviour. His work often unfolds through simple actions carried out in public space, using repetition and duration to explore everyday life within specific social and political contexts. One of his most famous works is Paradox of Praxis 1 (Sometimes Making Something Leads to Nothing) (1997), in which Alÿs pushed a large block of ice through the streets of Mexico City until it melted. The resulting video weaves together absurdity and sincerity, meditating on the role of ice in the lives of street vendors and on Alÿs’s quiet production of absence, opening the work to poetic interpretation. Though he is perhaps best known for his performance and documentary works, his paintings also preserve this poetic quality.
Abraham Cruzvillegas
Abraham Cruzvillegas (b. 1968, Mexico City) makes sculptures and installations from everyday and found materials such as wood, metal, cardboard, fabric, and household objects. He builds his works without detailed plans, assembling materials intuitively and when they become available. He calls this process autoconstrucción, which is deeply inspired by the ingenious and collaborative building tactics used by the people living in Colonia Ajusco, his childhood neighbourhood in Mexico City. Objects are created from what is available rather than what is ideal, capturing the chaotic and fragmentary nature of life.
Jose Dávila
Jose Dávila (b. 1974, Guadalajara) works primarily in sculpture and installation, exploring balance, weight, and spatial tension. Dávila combines industrial and everyday materials such as steel, glass, concrete blocks, stone, and found objects. His works often appear carefully balanced or on the verge of collapse, with gravity and chance playing an active role in the final form. Referencing twentieth-century modernist art and architecture, Dávila reworks familiar forms into unstable constructions that test the physical and conceptual limits of sculpture.
Gabriel Orozco
Gabriel Orozco (b. 1962, Jalapa; lives and works between Mexico City and Tokyo) makes sculptures, photographs, and paintings using everyday objects and simple physical actions. He often rolls, cuts, or rearranges objects such as balls, stones, furniture, and vehicles, changing their form without disguising their original function. His works usually rely on balance, repetition, and geometry. Through these artistic interventions, Orozco demonstrates how ordinary objects can be reimagined through movement, time, and use, revealing new insights into familiar scenes or everyday objects.
Bárbara Sánchez-Kane
Bárbara Sánchez-Kane (b. 1987, Mérida, Mexico; lives and works in Mexico City) develops works across sculpture, installation, fashion design, painting and performance, often using leather, metal, chains, and industrial fittings as primary materials. Many of her fashion designs function as wall pieces as well, reflecting her desire to blur mediums as much as possible. Her works confront systems of masculinity, power, domination, and the traditional notions of Mexicanidad, frequently staging the body as a site of pressure, control and domination. In 2026, Sánchez-Kane was awarded the Chanel Next Prize.
Gallery Shows
Mariane Ibrahim
Carmen Neely: a trace beyond the life of the body
2 February – 2 May 2026
Mariane Ibrahim Gallery presents Carmen Neely: a trace beyond the life of the body, the artist’s first solo exhibition in Latin America. Neely’s abstract paintings operate as acts of inscription, built through layered marks, interruptions, and controlled erasure. In this exhibition, she introduces masking tape to create negative spaces that recall redaction and censorship. Working on raw, subtly toned grounds, Neely treats painting as a site for examining memory, power, and historical instability.
Galerie Nordenhake
Sarah Crowner: Zigzags & Curves
3 February – 14 March 2026
Galerie Nordenhake is showcasing Sarah Crowner: Zigzags & Curves, an exhibition developed from the artist’s ongoing research into geometry and abstraction. This exhibition spans across two spaces in Mexico City. The Curves exhibition is staged in a pop-up space at Palmas 1535 and centres on Crowner’s new works, where biomorphic forms and sweeping lines introduce softness and rhythm into her formal language. Zigzags is a group exhibition at the gallery’s Roma Norte space, curated by Crowner and Toni Sadurní. The program in both spaces investigates alternative approaches to abstraction, shifting between fluid organic forms and structured geometry.
OMR Gallery
Marcel Dzama. I Am The Sun, I Am The New Year
3 February – 21 April 2026
OMR is showing a solo exhibition by Marcel Dzama titled I Am The Sun, I Am The New Year. Dzama’s paintings and drawings feature masked figures, dancers, and anthropomorphised characters set within recurring symbolic environments such as chessboards, oceans, and lunar landscapes. Drawing equally from folk vernacular, art-historical references, and contemporary culture, his work constructs a universe of childhood fantasies and otherworldly fairy tales. Shaped in part by the long, isolated winters of Winnipeg in Canada, Dzama developed a prolific drawing practice, which he has described as an “exorcism ritual” for political anger and a negotiation between dreamlike subconscious imagery and lived reality. Through a visual language that is both playful and unsettling, Dzama blends humour, surreal imagery, and fragmented narratives to create immersive worlds that offer both a momentary escape from everyday life and a subtle critique of it.
OMR Gallery
Leonora Carrington. ETHIOPS
3 February – 21 April 2026
OMR is also presenting works by Leonora Carrington, the influential British Surrealist artist who spent much of her adult life in Mexico City and became deeply embedded in its vibrant artistic community, alongside works by Remedios Varo, Alice Rahon, Wolfgang Paalen, and others. In recent years, increased scholarship has foregrounded Mexico’s profound influence on Surrealism, a movement long framed as Parisian and male-centric. It was in Mexico during the late 1930s and 1940s that Surrealism significantly expanded and diversified. Inspired by the country’s expansive landscapes, pre-Columbian mythology, traditions of witchcraft, and its relative distance from Europe’s rigid gender norms, artists working there produced some of the movement’s most visionary and radical works. Carrington’s work, in particular, has seen renewed critical and market recognition. Her paintings and writings are characterised by enigmatic female figures, hybrid human and animal forms, alchemical symbolism, and mythological narratives, articulating alternative systems of knowledge that challenge patriarchal and rationalist structures.
Kurimanzutto
Oscar Murillo. el pozo de agua
4 February – 28 March 2026
The acclaimed Colombian artist Oscar Murillo is having a solo exhibition at Kurimanzutto, titled el pozo de agua or “the water well” in English. Murillo works across a wide range of mediums, including painting, drawing, sculpture, video, performance, bookmaking, and collaborative projects with diverse communities. Murillo’s paintings are built from layered and reassembled canvases, often incorporating fragments from earlier works. Dense fields of pigment, printed marks, and gestural traces overlap across the surfaces, creating compositions that feel accumulated rather than composed. His practice is deeply concerned with materials, process, and labour, while also engaging with themes of migration, community, and the flows of exchange and commerce in a globalised world.
Galería de Arte Mexicano (GAM)
Stefan Brüggemann
Opening on 3 February 2026
Galería de Arte Mexicano brings together recent works on paper that extend Stefan Brüggemann’s text-based practice into a more immediate and exposed medium. Working on A4 sheets with graphite, oil stick, and marker, these works were not done as preparatory drawings before paintings, but as conclusions to paintings. These works on paper are where he would go to finish his thoughts and impulses once a painting was finished. The artist completed the works across his studios in London, Ibiza, and Mexico City, and used a range of paper types in different colours and textures. In these works, language is pushed toward abstraction, stretched and fragmented until meaning erodes, shifting from readable text into rhythm and visual noise. Brüggemann describes these drawings as made in “full speed mode,” emphasising feeling over rationalisation.
Travesía Cuatro
Tania Pérez Córdova
Opening on 3 February 2026
The Mexican artist Tania Pérez Córdova is having her first solo exhibition with Travesía Cuatro. Pérez Córdova’s is a Mexico City-based artist whose sculptures and interventions operate as carefully staged situations, bringing together everyday objects, subtle material shifts, and spatial placement. Working with found and industrial materials, she explores duration, absence, and the lifespan of objects. The artist’s interest in everyday events underscores how seemingly insignificant situations can be linked to the infrastructure of our social and economic reality, as well as to the complexity of the contemporary world. The exhibition unfolds quietly, with works that register fragility and change through minimal gesture and restrained form.
Georgina Pounds Gallery
Vanessa Raw. Monsters Paradise: The Becoming of Her Divine Beast
4 February – 22 March 2026
Georgina Pounds Gallery opens in Roma Norte with a solo show of works by Vanessa Raw, Monsters Paradise: The Becoming of Her Divine Beast. In her first solo exhibition in the city Raw presents large-scale paintings that centre on female figures set within lush, imagined landscapes, characteristic of her usual style. Her paintings combine heightened colour, fluid brushwork, and symbolic detail, moving between dream, myth, and interior states.
Museums and Institutions
La Cuadra Barragán
Félix González-Torres
8 February – 5 April 2026
Curated by Pablo León de la Barra, La Cuadra will host an exhibition that proposes a dialogue between the poetic works of Félix González-Torres and the iconic architecture of La Cuadra Barragán.
Designed by one of Mexico’s most celebrated architects, Luis Barragán, La Cuadra is a striking residential complex conceived as a house and horse stables arranged around an enclosed courtyard. La Cuadra Barragán is recognisable for its distinctive coloured walls, bold planes, and integration of water and landscape. Exemplifying Barragán’s poetic modernism, the site blends minimalist architecture with emotional warmth. Today, La Cuadra functions as a cultural site, with the stables preserved as part of the estate’s history, offering regular tours and hosting artist interventions within the space. A total of six works by González-Torres will be displayed throughout La Cuadra Barragán. One of the works included is “Untitled” (Sagitario) (1994–95), which is composed of two large circular reflecting pools set flush with the floor, positioned so closely that water can almost move between them. Responsive to light, sound, and movement within the space, the pools produce delicate visual shifts. The work is quintessential within the artist’s oeuvre, exemplifying his poetic conceptualism through quiet interactions that emphasise proximity and physical presence. The work also calls to mind his legendary “Untitled” (Perfect Lovers), which consists of two identical clocks hung side by side and has become one of the most iconic and widely recognised works of late 20th-century conceptual art. The show will also include “Untitled” (1989), a seminal work often referred to as González-Torres’s “dateline” or “frieze” piece. Comprising text—names, dates, locations, and historical events—painted directly onto the upper part of walls, the work interweaves personal milestones with shared historical moments. The artist did not limit the inscriptions to events between his birth and death; instead, institutions that have shown the works have become co-owners of the work, adding and subtracting events over time. In doing so, the installation and the artist himself are granted a form of renewable life, underscoring the mutable and open-ended nature of human identity.
Bringing González-Torres’s understated, lyrical works into dialogue with Barragán’s architecture, the exhibition offers a deeply poetic encounter in which space, time, and presence resonate in quiet harmony.
Lago Algo
Chapter VIII: Hallucinations. Trevor Paglen and Troika
5 February – 31 May 2026
At Lago Algo, inventive thinking drives every project, from immersive exhibitions to culinary experiences, all set within a striking lakeside venue. They are presenting Chapter VIII: Hallucinations, a group show of works by Trevor Paglen, an American artist and geographer, and Troika, an artist trio formed by Eva Rucki, Conny Freyer and Sebastien Noel. The exhibition explores how perception is shaped by technological systems, moving between machine vision, natural forms, and constructed environments. Troika presents immersive installations where organic and synthetic elements intertwine, suggesting alternative modes of intelligence and sensing. Paglen’s works focus on the visual infrastructures of surveillance and artificial intelligence, using photography and image-based systems to reveal how machines classify, generate, and interpret the world.
Museo Jumex
Gabriel de la Mora: La Petite Mort
25 September 2025 – 8 February 2026
Museo Jumex is a major contemporary art museum in Mexico City, featuring a remarkable collection and vibrant exhibition program housed in a striking building designed by David Chipperfield. Their survey exhibition Gabriel de la Mora: La Petite Mort, explores two decades of the artist’s practice. Born in 1968 in Mexico City, where he currently lives and works, he is best known for constructing visual works from found, discarded, and obsolete objects. Through alchemic processes, he transforms materials such as butterfly wings, eggshells, shoe soles, human hair, and reclaimed architectural surfaces into alluring surfaces, exquisite objects and beautifully tactile works. These meticulous, craft-based methods are often set against processes driven by fire, water, or erosion.
Fundación Casa Wabi
María Naidich
Cristina Umaña
Bosco Sodi
Opening on 3 February
Fundación Casa Wabi, Mexico City presents a group of concurrent exhibitions that centre on material transformation and process. Specular Crystallization by María Naidich explores glass as a medium shaped by heat, tension, and controlled instability. Cristina Umaña’s Coffee Table works with textile and soft structures, translating domestic forms into tactile objects. In Sisyphus, Bosco Sodi continues his engagement with raw, natural materials such as clay, pigment, and volcanic rock, allowing physical processes to determine form. Together, these exhibitions approach materiality through distinct materials, from glass and textile to clay, pigment, and volcanic rock, each shaped by its own physical process.
The LVH Art Guide to Miami Art Week
Once a year, Miami’s art scene comes alive for a week as Art Basel and a host of major cultural events take over the city. Our December guide spotlights the key exhibitions, installations, and happenings to experience during this leading cultural moment, which draws artists, collectors, and art lovers from around the world.
Fairs
Art Basel Miami Beach
Taking place December 5 to 7, 2025, with VIP previews on December 3–4, Art Basel Miami Beach is the premier event of the city’s art calendar. Hosted at the Miami Beach Convention Centre, it features leading galleries from the Americas and beyond. The fair showcases art spanning promising emerging voices to established blue-chip names, creating an experience that appeals to collectors, enthusiasts, and art lovers alike.
NADA Miami
Running from December 3 to 6, 2025, with a VIP preview on December 2, NADA (New Art Dealers Alliance) offers a fresh, experimental edge. It’s the go-to fair for cutting-edge independent galleries and emerging artists who push creative boundaries. NADA is a must-visit for collectors and art enthusiasts seeking fresh talent, innovative works, and underrepresented voices shaping the future of contemporary art.
Design Miami
Design Miami, which runs December 3 to 7, 2025, with an invite-only VIP day on December 2, celebrates collectable and contemporary design. Its selling point lies in its curated, high-end approach that blends craftsmanship, innovation, and collectible design, creating a destination for discerning enthusiasts.
Alcova Miami
Alcova Miami runs from December 2 to 7 at the picturesque Miami River Inn, the city’s oldest hotel, situated in the South River Drive Historic District of East Little Havana. Unlike a typical design fair, Alcova Miami leans toward the experimental, with installations and projects often responding to and interacting with the building itself. Originally founded in Milan, Italy, the platform focuses on design, craftsmanship, innovation, and material experimentation, prioritising conceptual, forward-thinking approaches to “living and making” over purely commercial products.
Untitled Art
Untitled Art takes place from December 3 to 7, with a VIP preview day on the 2nd, in a light-filled beachfront pavilion on Ocean Drive in South Beach. The fair brings together galleries, nonprofits, and emerging artists in a setting that emphasises experimentation and dialogue. Founded in 2012, it has become a key event during Miami Art Week, recognised for its inclusive vision and its support of underrepresented and emerging voices in contemporary art.
Museums and Institutional Shows
Institute of Contemporary Fine Art (ICA), Miami
Richard Hunt: Pressure
2 December 2025 – 29 March 2026
This exhibition is the first major posthumous survey in the United States of sculptor Richard Hunt. Spanning half a century, it reveals how central Hunt was to the development of American modern sculpture and how boldly he redefined the medium. The show presents the full scope of Hunt’s work, from imposing bronze and stainless-steel sculptures to intimate maquettes and smaller pieces, some of which directly engage with the Civil Rights movement.
Hunt was working as an artist during an important moment in modernist sculpture, developing a unique artistic voice by reshaping traditional sculptural conventions. His forms often appear stretched, twisted, or in motion. Drawing inspiration from nature, classical mythology, and his own cultural heritage, Hunt’s sculptures tell both personal and symbolic stories. Although Hunt achieved major recognition at just 35 years old with a landmark 1971 survey at the Museum of Modern Art, he has not been featured in a large-scale institutional exhibition for decades, making this a timely and important survey.
Institute of Contemporary Fine Art (ICA), Miami
Joyce Pensato
2 December 2025 – 15 March 2026
The ICA presents a major retrospective of American painter Joyce Pensato (1941–2019), featuring approximately 65 works spanning five decades. The exhibition includes rarely seen pieces from the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s, offering the most comprehensive museum survey of Pensato’s career to date. Pensato’s work combines the expressive gestures of abstraction with the bold immediacy of pop art, producing pieces that both reference and subvert these traditions and define her distinctive artistic voice.
The exhibition traces the evolution of recurring motifs and characters over five decades of Pensato’s career, from her 1976 Batman drawings and 1980s gestural abstractions to her first enamel paintings in the 1990s and works through 2019. It underscores her engagement with iconic figures from the 20th and 21st centuries, including Felix the Cat, early Disney animations, and South Park, revealing her acute awareness of contemporary culture. Pensato’s works do more than depict comic figures or superheroes; they possess wit, intensity, and layered meaning, capturing the energy of their cultural moment and revealing the depth and complexity of the characters she reimagined.
The Bass, Miami
Sarah Crowner in Dialogue with Etel Adnan
20 August 2025 – 26 July 2026
This small and intimate exhibition brings together new works by contemporary artist Sarah Crowner alongside works by the late Etel Adnan. Sarah Crowner (b. 1974) is an American artist whose practice spans painting, sculpture, and design, exploring abstraction through bold shapes and geometric compositions. Etel Adnan (1925–2021), an American Lebanese poet and artist, is celebrated for her vibrant landscape paintings and abstract drawings filled with luminous fields of colour that evoke both nature and emotion. Crowner’s response to Adnan’s art builds a bridge across generations, weaving shared themes of abstraction, memory, and place into a compelling conversation.
For this exhibition, Crowner not only thoughtfully curated the show, she also created new site-specific works. Firstly, she designed a semicircular carpeted alcove that beautifully frames Adnan’s expansive mural, inviting viewers into an intimate space of reflection. The mural by Adnan that is included in the show is the only one of its kind in the United States, making it an exceptionally unique experience. Alongside this, Crowner presents new highly reflective bronze sculptures cast from enlarged beach stones, displayed next to photographs of the California coastline taken by Adnan in the 1960s. The sculptures’ shimmering yet imperfect surfaces gently distort their surroundings, subtly echoing and refracting the colours of Adnan’s mural, while also connecting to the photographs through their shared reference to beach shores.
The Bass, Miami
Lawrence Lek: NOX Pavilion
19 November 2025 – 26 April 2026
Lawrence Lek (b. 1982) is a London-based artist exploring possible futures through AI-driven works. His computer-generated films, installations, video games, and sound pieces combine into immersive worlds where intelligent machines, such as self-driving cars and robots, are portrayed as complex protagonists with their own desires and memories.
Since 2023, Lek has developed a fictional universe centred on NOX (short for Nonhuman Excellence), a therapy centre for sentient self-driving cars. At this centre, the cars are treated for issues such as mental breakdowns, distractions, or malfunctions that hinder their performance. These cars become patients, but the ultimate goal is to restore their productivity within a system that prioritises corporate efficiency over individual well-being. While Lek’s world is imagined and focused on AI machines, it reflects pressing issues relevant to today’s human society. For this exhibition, Lek presents a comprehensive installation, including long-format films, short videos, and interactive video games. There is also a physical installation of a grey-tiled pavilion that visitors can step on or sit upon. Featured both in the gallery and in Lek’s virtual city, this pavilion bridges the gap between fiction and reality, emphasising how closely the world of NOX is connected to our own. In this exhibition, visitors become witnesses, participants, or even inhabitants of Lek’s imagined worlds.
The Bass, Miami
Jack Pierson: The Miami Years
24 September 2025 – 16 August 2026
Also on view at The Bass is an exhibition that marks the first of its kind to explore the city’s transformative impact on Jack Pierson’s life and work. Born and raised in New England in the 1960s, Pierson is a distinctly American artist whose practice delves into universal themes of desire, memory, loss, and the passage of time. Pierson gained recognition in the early 1990s for his intimate depictions of everyday queer life and bohemian culture across New York, Boston, and Los Angeles. Infused with the aesthetics of punk and advertising and drawing on a dizzying array of visual references, his work often incorporates weathered objects, found furniture, and repurposed commercial signage. Pierson’s commissioned projects for fashion and style magazines frequently mirror his gallery and exhibition work, with the two realms continuously informing each other.
Pierson’s first trip from New York City to Miami Beach in the winter of 1984 sparked a series of return visits that shaped his artistic trajectory. That initial six-month stay became a time of professional experimentation and personal growth. South Beach’s sun-soaked landscape and vibrant queer nightlife offered a reprieve from New York’s pressures, while affordable apartments and thrift-store finds fuelled the wanderlust and escapism evident in Pierson’s work. The exhibition also features ARRAY (MIAMI), a ten-by-fourteen-foot commissioned collage. Combining posters, poems, postcards, photographs and works on paper by the artist, the work explores themes of desire, nostalgia, and transience, reflecting Pierson’s experiences in Miami Beach and the city’s enduring impact on his art.
NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale
Robert Rauschenberg: Real Time
16 November 2025 – 16 April 2026
This exhibition at the NSU Art Museum highlights key moments in Robert Rauschenberg’s career. The show draws on the museum’s extensive holdings of his experimental prints from the 1970s. It will also highlight photographs from the early 1950s and films by Charles Atlas documenting Rauschenberg’s set and costume collaborations with choreographer Merce Cunningham. From the late 1970s until he died in 2008, Rauschenberg made Florida his home, where he continued to develop his art and maintain a significant presence in the national and international art world.
NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale
Permanent Collection Highlights
The Riddle of the Sphinx and Other Mysteries Part II
Opened November 16, 2025
This exhibition showcases NSU Art Museum’s recent acquisitions, featuring incredible new works by El Anatsui, Frida Orupabo, Lonnie Holley, and others. Don’t miss this presentation revealing some of the museum’s most significant additions to its collection.
Shared Dreams
Opened September 21, 2025
A major exhibition celebrating the extraordinary gift of 88 important 20th-century Latin American artworks from renowned collectors Stanley and Pearl Goodman. Highlights include one of Leonora Carrington’s earliest paintings, created after her relocation to Mexico City during World War II, a Frida Kahlo self-portrait drawn from her diary, and works by Remedios Varo, Wifredo Lam, Roberto Matta, and many more.
Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), Miami
Woody De Othello: coming forth by day
13 November 2025 – 28 June 2025
This exhibition presents an entirely new body of work by Miami born artist Woody De Othello. The show features ceramic and wood sculptures, tiled wall pieces, and a monumental bronze, all exploring the elemental connections between body, earth, and spirit. The gallery is transformed into an immersive environment with clay coated walls and subtle herbal scents that create a sensory dialogue with the materials.
Rooted in precolonial and diasporic African traditions, Othello draws on spiritual practices, esoteric philosophies, and cultural artifacts, from nkisi power figures and Dogon ritual objects to the monumental forms of Egyptian pyramids. At just 35 years old, Othello is a remarkably young and accomplished artist. This exhibition marks his first solo museum presentation in Miami and reflects his strong connection to the city as well as his ongoing exploration of ancestral heritage. Through inventive use of materials and expressive sculptural forms, the works explore how objects carry history, convey meaning, and serve as vessels for both spiritual and emotional experience.
Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), Miami
Language and Image: Conceptual and Performance-Based Photography from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection
15 May 2025 – 11 January 2026
The show brings together more than 100 works by over 50 international artists, spanning decades of innovative practice. Celebrated figures such as Marina Abramović, Thomas Ruff, Cindy Sherman, and Thomas Struth are featured alongside artists such as Jonathas de Andrade, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Ana Mendieta, and Vik Muniz, many of whom have been shown at the museum in past exhibitions. This dynamic exhibition highlights the depth and ambition of PAMM’s photography collection, offering a broad survey of conceptual and performance-based approaches to the medium.
The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, Miami
Italian Art, 1970 – 2024
12 November 2025 – 4 April 2026
This exhibition offers a comprehensive overview of works by Italian artists from 1970 to the present, revealing how artists from a single country have significantly shaped the course of contemporary art history. Featured artists include Michelangelo Pistoletto, Gilberto Zorio, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Jannis Kounellis, and Mimmo Paladino.
The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, Miami
Pop Art: Johns, Lichtenstein, Warhol, Wesselmann, Rosenquist, Chamberlain, Segal
12 November 2025 – 4 April 2026
This major exhibition brings together iconic paintings and sculptures spanning four decades, from the early 1960s through the 1990s, to trace the development and lasting influence of Pop Art. Drawn from the renowned Margulies Collection, the show presents important works by Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Tom Wesselmann, James Rosenquist, John Chamberlain, and George Segal.
Rubell Museum, Miami
Thomas Houseago: First Light
1 December 2025 – 27 September 2025
The museum launches its first single-artist survey with Thomas Houseago: First Light, a presentation of over thirty works spanning twenty years and installed throughout seven newly dedicated galleries. Featuring everything from the plaster sculptures made for the Rubells’ 2006 Red Eye exhibition to this fall’s monumental collaged paintings, the exhibition charts Houseago’s expressive range across multiple materials—wood, bronze, paper, found objects, plaster, and painted canvas.
Rubell Museum, Miami
Artist Commission and Solo Presentations
1 December 2025 – Fall 2026
Seung Ah Paik – The museum commissioned four large-scale paintings for Paik’s solo exhibition. Drawing on traditional landscape and self-portraiture, she uses her body as a symbol of transformation and self-discovery, creating works that intertwine personal narrative and symbolic imagery.
Solo Presentations – Featuring works by Lorenzo Amos, Joseph Geagan, Rita Letendre, Yu Nishimura, and Ser Serpas.
The Must-Visit Exhibitions happening in Mumbai during Art Mumbai Week
November in Mumbai marks a vibrant moment for the city’s art scene. Now in its third year, the Art Mumbai Fair will take place from 13 to 16 November 2025 at the Mahalaxmi Racecourse.
Alongside the art fair, galleries unveil new exhibitions and institutions highlight both established and emerging talent. The city comes alive during this week, drawing visitors from across India as well as an ever-growing international audience eager to experience Mumbai’s creative energy. LVH Art presents a curated guide to six unmissable gallery exhibitions on view in Mumbai during the Art Mumbai Fair. These standout exhibitions promise to inspire, engage, and draw you into the dynamic energy of Mumbai’s art scene.
Gallery Rooshad Shroff, Mumbai
Beyond Form
9 November — 15 November 2025
Beyond Form brings together works by sixteen leading international artists including Rita Ackermann, Peppi Bottrop, Salvatore Emblema, Sam Gilliam, Brice Guilbert, Ha Chong-Hyun, Camille Henrot, Donna Huanca, Poppy Jones, Anish Kapoor, Kristy Luck, Kylie Manning, Marina Perez Simão, Sean Scully, Ryan Sullivan, and Stanley Whitney, alongside distinctive contemporary design pieces by Rooshad Shroff. At a time when visual culture is saturated with figurative imagery, the exhibition turns deliberately toward abstraction, focusing on colour, form, process, and materiality rather than fixed narrative. By highlighting artists who stretch the limits of figuration or dissolve it entirely, Beyond Form uncovers new visual languages rooted in perception, gesture, and the material presence of the work itself. Together, these artists reveal how abstraction continues to evolve as a vital means of expression, inviting viewers to look beyond representation and engage with the sensory and emotional depth of form.
Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai
Of Dreaming and Remembering: Ramesh Miro Nithiyendran
11 November — 20 December 2025
Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran’s Of Dreaming and Remembering at Jhaveri Contemporary presents the Sydney-based artist’s most ambitious exhibition in India to date. Bringing together a vivid ensemble of ceramic and bronze sculptures, Nithiyendran merges figuration and vessel-making into dynamic, hybrid forms that pulse with ritual energy and contemporary sensibility. His works reimagine the vessel as a site of transformation, where body and object, myth and material, converge in acts of reinvention. Drawing from South Asian visual traditions, Tamil ritual forms and diasporic narratives, Nithiyendran animates clay, bronze and wood into speculative deities that embody the performative, the spiritual and the queer, situating ancient craft within a bold, contemporary imagination.
Chemould Prescott Road, Mumbai
The Geometry of Ash, Anju Dodiya
31 October — 26 December 2025
In Politics of Pause, Anju Dodiya transforms stillness into an act of quiet defiance. Working from her Ghatkopar studio, she layers fabrics, collages, and painted fragments into restless tableaux that mirror the fractures of our times, social, political, and personal. Figures twist, mourn, and reflect within divided surfaces, their gestures oscillating between tenderness and tension. Inspired by the spectral presence of trees and the myth of Daphne, Dodiya’s new works meditate on transformation, grief, and the fragile pursuit of joy amid chaos. Refusing spectacle, these paintings invite us to linger , to pause, in a world that demands constant motion.
Galerie Isa, Mumbai
Amorphidian, Christian Achenbach
11th November — 22rd December 2025
Christian Achenbach’s Amorphidian at Galerie Isa marks a vibrant continuation of the German artist’s inquiry into colour, rhythm, and abstraction. At the heart of the exhibition lies Kreola, his most ambitious five-metre work to date, inviting viewers into richly layered worlds pulsing with movement and emotion. Drawing from diverse art historical and musical influences, Achenbach’s paintings vibrate with energy, their vivid surfaces revealing a dialogue between structure and spontaneity. Each painting unfolds like a symphony in colour, where landscapes dissolve into rhythm and hue echoes like music.
æquō Gallery, Mumbai
Tidal Fragments, Inderjeet Sandhu
11 November 2025
At æquō, the exhibition India Heritage traces the origins of India’s mother-of-pearl craft to the shores near Puri, where the sea once layered shells along the coast. Dutch designer Inderjeet Sandhu, of Indian heritage, collaborated with artisans Kinkar Ghosh and Souvik Roy to transform this story into form during a residency in central India. Working in Æquō’s workshop surrounded by nature, they created monumental vases through an act of accumulation, joining and polishing fragments until they seem to have grown organically from the material itself. The resulting pieces, both marine and architectural, reflect Æquō’s vision of connecting worlds through craft and allowing material histories to resurface as contemporary design.
Nature Morte, Mumbai
Ashes and Diamonds, Mona Rai
9 October — 8 November 2025
For over five decades, Mona Rai has expanded the language of abstraction through bold material experimentation and intuitive gesture. In Ashes and Diamonds, her first solo exhibition at Nature Morte’s Mumbai gallery, Rai presents new works on canvas and paper that trace a dialogue between texture, light, and emotion. Metallic tones, glitter, and layers of pigment coalesce into surfaces that shimmer and scar, evoking both resilience and fragility. Guided by repetition and rhythm, her compositions invite quiet immersion, transforming materiality into meditation.
Experimenter, Mumbai
No Race, No Colour, Pushpakanthan Pakkiyarajah
11 November — 20 December 2025
Pushpakanthan Pakkiyarajah’s No Race, No Colour at Experimenter Colaba in Mumbai marks the Sri Lankan artist’s first solo exhibition in the city. Bringing together new and recent works spanning drawing, sculpture, sound, and animation, the exhibition delves into the interconnectedness of human and ecological trauma within postwar and postcolonial landscapes. Pakkiyarajah’s practice, rooted in the soil life and climate of his native Batticaloa, intertwines organic materials such as jute, wood dust, and thread to reflect on regeneration, memory, and coexistence. Through works like Diary of Wounded Flowers, Hidden Mycelium in a Wounded Land, and Charred Hyphal Mat, the artist meditates on resilience and renewal amid cycles of violence and environmental devastation, inviting viewers to reimagine the interdependence between the natural world and collective healing.
Our Top Exhibitions to see in New York, Seoul and London this Fall
New York
Harminder Judge – Wherever I went, I went when I was sleeping
Sean Kelly
5 September – 18 October 2025
Sean Kelly presents Harminder Judge’s first exhibition with the gallery, featuring new large-scale plaster-and-pigment panels that merge painting, sculpture, and architecture. Alongside these works are shaped wall pieces that project into space like fragments of geological matter. A major component of the show is a site-responsive floor installation spanning the front gallery, constructed from the same materials as the wall works and altering the way visitors move through the space. Judge, who draws on Indian neo-tantric traditions as well as Western abstraction, refers to his works as portals: objects that hover between the material and immaterial, surface and threshold. Together, the exhibition highlights Judge’s interest in process, materiality, and the interplay between object and environment.
Pedro Reyes
Lisson Gallery
11 September – 1 November 2025
Featuring monumental stone sculptures and, for the first time, a series of wall-based mosaics, the exhibition transforms the gallery into a sculptural forest—blending myth, material, and movement. Rooted in Mesoamerican cosmology, Reyes’ work draws on Mexica and Olmec carving traditions, reimagined through a contemporary lens that echoes Art Deco and modern abstraction. His sculptures become vessels of memory and cultural resilience, bridging ancient and modern worlds. New animal figures—jaguar, coyote, monkey, axolotl—join his abstract, totemic forms, rendered with precision that merges symbolism and modern form. The newly developed stone mosaics offer a rhythmic, intimate counterpoint to the larger works, inviting viewers into a space where myth and matter fluidly converge.
Robert Rauschenberg’s New York: Pictures from the Real World
Museum of the City of New York
12 September 2025 – 19 April 2026
This dynamic exhibition highlights Rauschenberg’s groundbreaking use of photography and found objects, reflecting his deep engagement with everyday life and his complex relationship with New York City. Central to his practice was a drive to incorporate the world around him—transforming found materials, magazine clippings, and street detritus into vibrant works of art. More than just a collector of images, Rauschenberg was a visionary photographer, and this often-overlooked facet of his work is a key focus of the show.
Richard Serra Running Arcs (For John Cage)
Gagosian, West 21st Street
12 September – 20 December 2025
Marking its U.S. debut, Richard Serra’s Running Arcs (For John Cage) (1992) will be on view at Gagosian, 522 West 21st Street, from September 12 through December 20, 2025—exactly thirty-three years after its first and only prior exhibition at Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf. The monumental sculpture consists of three identical conical steel plates, each approximately 52 feet long, 13 feet high, and 2 inches thick, installed in a staggered formation with alternating orientation.
Keith Haring – Liberating the Soul
Gladstone Gallery, 24th Street
18 September – 1 November 2025
For the first time in a decade, Gladstone presents an exhibition dedicated solely to Keith Haring’s late-career canvases and painted tarps. Highlighting Haring’s enduring focus on global unity, healthcare during the AIDS crisis, and the joyful, communal power of art, the show captures a more introspective side of the artist. While best known for his iconic subway drawings and public art, Haring also developed a rich studio practice informed by art history and his peers. His emotionally charged paintings balance humor and joy with sharp critiques of injustice. The exhibition features Haring’s final work, Untitled (DPEP), a jubilant composition of repeating, outstretched figures. The painting evokes unity and celebration, embodying Haring’s vision of art as a tool for community and hope.
Monet and Venice
Brooklyn Museum
11 October 2025 – 1 February 2026
Claude Monet once called Venice “too beautiful to be painted,” yet he met the challenge with a stunning series of late-career works. Monet and Venice is the first exhibition dedicated to these luminous paintings since their 1912 debut—and the largest Monet show in New York in over 25 years, featuring 100+ artworks, books, and ephemera. The exhibition places Monet’s ethereal, unpeopled visions of Venice in dialogue with works by Canaletto, Signac, Sargent, and Renoir, highlighting his focus on light, color, and architecture over the city’s bustling life.
Robert Rauschenberg: Life Can’t Be Stopped
Guggenheim Museum
10 October 2025 – 5 April 2026
Marking the centennial of Robert Rauschenberg’s birth, this exhibition brings together over a dozen key works from the Guggenheim’s collection alongside major loans from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. Together, they showcase the artist’s groundbreaking approach to materials, media, and image-making—celebrating his experimental spirit and enduring influence on contemporary art. At the heart of the show is Barge (1962–63), a monumental 32-foot-long silkscreen painting created largely in a single day. The largest in a series of roughly 80 Silkscreen Paintings made between 1962 and 1964, Barge returns to New York for the first time in nearly 25 years.
Seoul
Mark Bradford, Keep Walking
Amorepacific Museum of Art
through 25 January 2026
This institutional exhibition is Mark Bradford’s first solo exhibition in South Korea and his largest in Asia, presenting over 20 years of his practice. Known for monumental abstract paintings made from urban materials like billboard paper and beauty salon endpapers, Bradford transforms everyday detritus into layered works that merge personal history with broader social issues. Describing his approach as “Social Abstraction,” Bradford addresses race, class, gender, and power through a distinctive visual language. The show features around 40 works, including large-scale paintings, video installations, and new commissions created for the museum’s architecture.
Louise Bourgeois – The Evanescent and the Eternal
Ho-Am Art Museum
through 4 January 2026
This exhibition marks the first major museum showcase of Louise Bourgeois’s work in Korea in 25 years. It features iconic pieces from the Leeum collection, including the monumental Maman (1999) and the haunting Cell XI (Portrait) (2000), along with more than 110 works spanning the artist’s entire career. Visitors will also gain insight into Bourgeois’s inner world through a selection of her personal writings, offering a deeper understanding of her creative process and psychological landscape.
Antony Gormley, Inextricable
White Cube, in collaboration with Thaddaeus Ropac
2 September – 18 October 2025
Titled Inextricable, the exhibition examines the complex ties between the human body and the urban landscape, in a time when more than half the world’s population lives within cities. It considers whether art can meaningfully engage with the freedoms and constraints shaped by urban life. As Antony Gormley states, “the relationship between humanity and the city has become inextricable to the point where this world now builds us.” The works in the show function as diagnostic instruments, offering insight into how the built environment influences our physical and mental states.
Louise Bourgeois, Rocking to Infinity
Kukje Gallery
2 September – 26 October 2025
Lee Bul, From 1998 to Now
Leeum Museum of Art
4 September 2025 – 4 January 2026
Featuring approximately 150 works, this exhibition offers a wide-ranging survey of Lee’s practice from the late 1990s to the present. It opens with early landmark series such as Cyborg, Anagram, and the karaoke installation, and centers on Mon grand récit—a series of large-scale sculptural installations developed since 2005. Also included are works from her recent Willing To Be Vulnerable and Perdu series, alongside drawings and maquettes that reveal her exploratory process. Together, these works reflect Lee’s ongoing investigation into the relationship between humans and technology, utopian ideals, and the persistent tension between progress and its discontents.
London
Mika Tajima – Anthesis
Pace, Hanover Square
3 September – 4 October 2025
On view from September 3 to October 4, Anthesis is Mika Tajima’s first solo exhibition in London since joining the gallery in 2022, debuting a new body of work titled Negentropica. For nearly two decades, Tajima has explored how human agency is shaped by built and virtual environments through painting, sculpture, installation, and performance. Her work engages recurring themes of control, freedom, and performance, translating complex ideas into sensory, material form. Named after the moment a flower reaches full bloom, Anthesis reflects on transformation and impermanence through acts of recording, containment, and resistance to decay.
Theatre Picasso
Tate Modern
17 September 2025 – Spring 2026
Pablo Picasso was fascinated by performers, their power to transform and captivate. Dancers, entertainers and bullfighters not only inspired his art but also helped shape his public image as Picasso the Artist. Marking 100 years since Picasso painted The Three Dancers, this exhibition curated by acclaimed artist Wu Tsang and author and curator Enrique Fuenteblanca offers a new perspective on Picasso’s work. The space becomes a theatrical stage for more than 45 pieces from Tate’s collection, alongside major European loans including paintings, sculpture, textiles and works on paper, some never seen in the UK before. The show explores how Picasso crafted a mythic persona, both celebrated and outsider, through what we now call performativity—the idea that identity is created through words and actions.
Danielle Mckinney – Second Wind
Max Hetzler Gallery
18 September – 1 November 2025
Mckinney’s work captures quiet moments of introspection and intimacy through interior scenes, where Black female figures emerge from darkness in carefully composed chiaroscuro. Lit by a lamp or the glow of a cigarette, her subjects rest in stillness, accented by vivid details like red fingernails. In her latest paintings, Mckinney adopts a looser, more visceral style, embracing silence and in-between spaces as a response to change. Intimate in scale, the works invite viewers to slow down, reflect, and sit with discomfort as a path to growth.
Victor Man
David Zwirner
18 September – 31 October 2025
This marks the artist’s debut exhibition with David Zwirner following the announcement of their representation in 2024. Man’s paintings resist easy categorization, weaving nonlinear references to literature, art, and poetry into vivid explorations of the human condition. Centered on the cycles of life and death, the works feature enigmatic figures rendered with a quiet, contemplative intensity, inviting layered interpretations of existence. The show will also include self-portraits.
Kerry James Marshall: The Histories
Royal Academy of Arts
20 September 2025 – 18 January 2026
Marshall’s vivid, predominantly large-scale paintings place Black figures at the forefront, challenging the Western tradition of history painting by making visible those who were historically excluded. Rich with references spanning art history, civil rights, comics, science fiction, and personal memories, his work reflects on the past, celebrates everyday life, and envisions hopeful futures. This exhibition, the largest of his paintings outside the US, offers many in the UK their first opportunity to experience his powerful work firsthand.
Rachel Jones – Site-specific commissions
for the Entrance Hall, The Courtauld Gallery
Unveiling on 25 September 2025
Rachel Jones is creating two new site-specific commissions for The Courtauld. These paintings extend her ongoing conversation with the institution’s renowned collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art. Jones has described Vincent van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear (1889), part of The Courtauld’s collection, as her favorite and most inspiring work in a London public collection, calling it “the epitome of how to use colour, texture and a sense of self to create an image.”
Peter Doig: House of Music
Serpentine Galleries
3 October 2025 – February 2026
Transforming the gallery into an immersive listening environment, House of Music combines recent paintings with sound for the first time in Doig’s work. The exhibition features two sets of rare, restored analogue speakers—originally made for cinemas and large auditoriums—through which music selected by the artist plays. Drawn from his extensive archive of vinyl records and cassette tapes collected over decades, the soundtrack is delivered via ‘high fidelity’ 1950s wooden Klangfilm Euronor speakers. Each painting explores music differently: some depict spaces where music is heard or played, others capture musicians performing or people dancing. Many of these works were created during Doig’s years in Trinidad (2002–21), a period that enriched his connection to music through sound-system culture and cinema.
Exhibitions not to miss in Europe this Summer
LVH Art has curated a guide to standout institutional exhibitions and gallery shows taking place across Europe this summer. From major museum retrospectives to gallery shows, these are the season’s cultural highlights, selected to inspire, engage, and elevate your summer itinerary.
Spanning a range of locations, including major institutions in the UK and Spain to idyllic settings in France, Greece, Monaco, Italy, and beyond, this guide brings together artists, spaces, and ideas shaping the season’s cultural landscape. Among the standout exhibitions this summer are William Kentridge’s ambitious sculptural presentation at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Cindy Sherman’s comprehensive display at Hauser & Wirth Menorca, Barbara Kruger’s captivating solo show at the Guggenheim Bilbao, and Ha Chong-Hyun’s meditative works at Château La Coste, with many more to discover. We invite you to explore, engage, and enjoy the best of the European art scene this summer.
Goodwood Art Foundation, Goodwood, Chichester, UK
Rachel Whiteread Exhibition
31 May – 2 November 2025
The Goodwood Art Foundation hosts a landmark exhibition by renowned British artist Rachel Whiteread, offering a rare opportunity to experience her work in both indoor and outdoor settings. This is the first major exhibition to present a broad selection of Whiteread’s sculptures alongside her recent photographic work, creating a fascinating dialogue between form, environment, and memory. Through casts of everyday spaces and haunting, minimalist structures, Whiteread invites reflection on the quiet narratives embedded in the objects and architecture that shape our lives. Set within the Foundation’s expansive natural and built landscapes, the exhibition powerfully explores the relationship between nature and form, absence and presence.
Yorkshire Sculpture Park presents the first museum exhibition outside South Africa dedicated to William Kentridge’s sculpture, showcasing over 40 works created between 2007 and 2024. The show spans the Underground Gallery and surrounding gardens, featuring pieces in bronze, steel, paper, and found materials — including the debut of Paper Procession, six monumental coloured sculptures installed outdoors. Deeply rooted in the sociopolitical landscape of South Africa, Kentridge’s work combines dark humour, historical critique, and theatricality to question dominant narratives through a surreal and multi-layered approach.
The Barbican Centre, London, UK
Encounters: Giacometti x Huma Bhabha
8 May – 10 August 2025
At the Barbican Centre, an extraordinary pairing brings together Huma Bhabha and Alberto Giacometti in a dialogue across time and material. Bhabha’s raw, otherworldly sculptures, crafted from cork, clay, and found materials, confront Giacometti’s iconic elongated figures. Together, they form a shared exploration of the human form, alienation, and fragility. The exhibition bridges post-war existentialism and contemporary dystopia, offering a powerful reflection on the body and its enduring symbolism.
The National Portrait Gallery presents Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting, a major exhibition of works by Jenny Saville, renowned for her monumental depictions of the human body. Blending classical technique with visceral intensity, Saville explores flesh, form, and identity in startling, intimate detail. This exhibition reveals her deep engagement with art history and anatomy, offering a powerful meditation on embodiment, beauty, and the expressive potential of paint.
At the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon, Between Your Teeth brings together Paula Rego and Adriana Varejão, two artists from different generations and continents, in a powerful dialogue on gender, power, and storytelling. Rego’s psychologically charged scenes meet Varejão’s visceral explorations of the body and colonial history, revealing shared themes of pain, resistance, and identity.
Hauser & Wirth Menorca, Balearic Islands, Spain
Cindy Sherman. The Women
23 June – 26 October 2025
Cindy Sherman. The Women at Hauser & Wirth Menorca is the artist’s first solo exhibition in Spain in over twenty years, presenting a selection of her most well-known series from the 1970s to the 2010s. The exhibition focuses on Sherman’s use of photography to examine identity and gender through constructed characters. The exhibition highlights Sherman’s influential role in redefining the camera as a tool for both documentation and performance.
The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presents a solo exhibition of works by Barbara Kruger, renowned for her provocative use of text and image. With her signature graphic style featuring striking black, white, and red, Kruger confronts themes of power, consumerism, gender, and control. This major show brings together iconic works and large-scale installations that speak directly to our media-saturated world, challenging viewers to question what they see, believe, and desire.
Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Switzerland
Rose Wylie. Flick and Float
19 July – 5 October 2025
Zentrum Paul Klee presents a solo exhibition of works by British painter Rose Wylie, known for her playful canvases that blend pop culture, memory, and everyday life. With her distinctive, childlike style and sharp wit, Wylie reimagines familiar subjects through loose brushwork and spontaneous compositions. The exhibition includes newly created works made specifically for this presentation in Bern.
Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens, Greece
Marlene Dumas: Cycladic Blues
5 June – 2 November 2025
The Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens presents a comprehensive solo exhibition of works by Marlene Dumas, celebrated for her emotionally charged portraits and figurative works. Blurring the lines between the personal and political, Dumas explores themes of identity, intimacy, and vulnerability with expressive brushstrokes. Set within the museum’s striking neoclassical and contemporary spaces, the show invites a deep, introspective look at the complexities of human emotion and representation.
Charline von Heyl: The Giddy Road to Ruin is the artist’s first survey exhibition in Greece, presented across three floors at The George Economou Collection. Featuring works from 1993 to 2024, the exhibition traces von Heyl’s distinctive approach to painting, where abstraction and figuration coexist in complex, layered compositions.
Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence, France
Cezanne au Jas de Bouffan
28 June – 12 October 2025
At the heart of Cézanne’s artistic journey lies Jas de Bouffan, his family estate in Aix-en-Provence. The Musée Granet’s exhibition Cézanne au Jas de Bouffan offers an intimate look at this formative setting, where the artist painted some of his earliest and most personal works. Through landscapes, studies, and rarely seen pieces, the show reveals how this beloved place shaped Cézanne’s evolving vision.
Château La Coste, Aix-en-Provence, France
Sophie Calle: Chasse Gardée
15 June – 31 August 2025
&
Ha Chong-Hyun: Light Into Color
22 June – 21 September 2025
Sophie Calle: Chasse Gardée at Château La Coste brings together Sophie Calle’s series À l’Affût (2017–2022), exploring the parallels between romantic pursuit and hunting through photographs and found texts. Mining dating ads from magazines and apps, Calle juxtaposes them with haunting images of watchtowers and forest surveillance, turning each piece into a quiet game of observer and observed. This poetic and provocative exhibition deepens her ongoing relationship with the estate.
Ha Chong-Hyun: Light Into Color is a solo exhibition by Ha Chong-Hyun, a key figure in the Korean Dansaekhwa movement, at Château La Coste, marking over fifty years of his exploration into light, material, and gesture. The exhibition presents works from Ha Chong-Hyun’s Conjunction series, where paint is pushed through the back of jute canvas, creating textured surfaces rich with historical and emotional resonance.
Carré d’Art showcases a contemplative exhibition by Brazilian artist Lucas Arruda, known for his luminous, meditative landscapes that blur the line between memory and imagination. His small-scale paintings evoke vast emotional spaces, often hovering between seascape and abstraction. Quiet yet profound, Arruda’s work invites viewers into a deeply personal exploration of light, solitude, and the infinite.
Sigmar Polke: Beneath the Cobblestones, The Earth at Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles is the first retrospective in France since 2014 dedicated to the influential German artist. Blending painting, photography, and unconventional materials, Polke challenged artistic norms with irony, wit, and political edge. Two early Van Gogh works open the show, setting the stage for Polke’s own exploration of historical narrative and cultural critique.
Fondation-Maeght, Saint-Paul de Vence, France
Barbara Hepworth: Art & Life
28 June – 2 November 2025
Barbara Hepworth: Art & Life at Fondation-Maeght traces the evolution of one of the 20th century’s most pioneering sculptors, from her early carvings in Yorkshire to her monumental commissions. The exhibition explores how Hepworth wove together personal experience and modernist ideals with influences from science, dance, politics, and spirituality, creating a deeply felt and innovative body of work.
A Conversation Piece, on view at Lee Ufan Arles, brings together two leading figures in contemporary art: Michelangelo Pistoletto and Lee Ufan. Their pieces engage in a reflective dialogue on presence, space, and balance, offering visitors a compelling encounter between Eastern and Western perspectives.
Fondation Carmignac, Porquerolles, France
VERTIGO
26 April – 2 November 2025
Located on the beautiful island of Porquerolles, VERTIGO exhibition at the Fondation Carmignac explores the sensory and perceptual experience of abstraction through around fifty works by major artists such as Yves Klein, Olafur Eliasson, James Turrell, and Helen Frankenthaler. Curated by Matthieu Poirier, the exhibition draws connections between natural elements, like the sun, wind, sea, and sky, and feelings of vertigo, unfolding across a variety of thematic chapters.
LUMA Arles, Arles, France
Echoes Unbound
1 May – 2 November 2025
Echoes Unbound (formerly Dance with Daemons) is a dynamic exhibition that explores the interplay between art, technology, and reality through immersive, responsive installations. Conceived by Tino Sehgal and presented at LUMA Arles, it brings together over fifty contemporary artists (including Carsten Höller, Pierre Huyghe, Cildo Meireles, Philippe Parreno, and Federico Campagna) in a living, multi-sensory environment where artworks converse and react to one another. The exhibition brings together site-specific installations, sculptures, and immersive technologies to challenge traditional formats.
At Villa Paloma, the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco unveils Les Années Folles de Coco Chanel exhibition, an elegant exploration of Chanel’s groundbreaking influence during the 1920s on the Côte d’Azur. Through fashion, photography, and archival material, the exhibition traces how she redefined style, femininity, and modernity in the vibrant interwar years. Set against the glamour of Monaco and the French Riviera, it offers a compelling tribute to one of the 20th century’s most iconic visionaries.
gres art 671, Bergamo, Italy
de bello. notes on war and peace
16 March – 12 October 2025
de bello. notes on war and peace is the first group exhibition by Gres Art 671, which is an exploration of war as a recurring, universal human experience. Featuring over 30 artists, including Anselm Kiefer, Alberto Burri, Claire Fontaine, Marina Abramović, Joseph Beuys, Cristina Lucas, Boris Mikhailov, and Monira Al Qadiri, and others. The exhibition spans six centuries and brings together installations, paintings, photographs, sculptures, textiles, and videos. It invites reflection on how war shapes emotions, perceptions, and belonging, tracing the arc from false peace to confrontation, resistance, and aftermath.
LVH Art Guide to Art Basel Week
To make the most of your experience during Art Basel week, LVH Art has curated a guide of the best institutional exhibitions and gallery shows taking place this week.
The highlight, and what brings everyone to Basel of course is Art Basel, where you’ll be welcomed at Messeplatz by Katharina Grosse’s vibrant installation (featured on the cover image of this article), which transforms the plaza with bold sprays of colour in her iconic spray paint style. For the Art Basel fair, we have selected our highlights from the gallery previews.
About this commission the artist has said, “It’s the first time that a painter has been invited to take over the 53,800-square-foot Messeplatz. The challenge with that piece is that I have to be up to that scale. My movement determines how the place is being perceived. The spray gun will help me expand my reach. With this tool, I can paint endlessly… Fair-goers are transient. Once they step into the Messeplatz, they will become part of the work. I really want to create a painting that is almost like a threshold between reality and fiction. It is a membrane: you can walk through it, step out of it at any time, or stay in it as much as you want.”
When you are at Art Basel make sure not to miss the Unlimited section. Unlimited is Art Basel’s platform for large-scale projects that defy the limits of standard art fair booths. Spanning 16,000 square meters, it features monumental installations, immersive video works, large sculptures, performances, and site-specific creations. Curated by Giovanni Carmine and selected by the Basel Selection Committee.
We also recommend Liste Art Fair, founded in 1996 as “The Young Art Fair in Basel.” It is a premier international platform for discovering new voices in contemporary art, showcasing emerging galleries and artists at the forefront of current artistic trends.
Julian Charrière : Midnight Zone
At Museum Tinguely
11 June – 2 November 2025
The comprehensive solo exhibition at Museum Tinguely showcases photographs, sculptures, installations, and new video works that explore our relationship with Earth as a watery world—a vast liquidity that envelops much of the planet through seas, lakes, and ice. These waters serve as habitats for countless organisms and sustain circulatory systems essential to climate stability. Spanning three floors, Midnight Zone delves into underwater ecologies, from the locally significant Rhine to distant oceans, examining the intricate dynamics of water as a vital element increasingly impacted by human activity.
“Water is not a landscape—it is the condition of all life, the first skin of the Earth, the medium of our becoming.” – Julian Charrière
Jordan Wolfson : Little Room
At Fondation Beyeler
1 June – 3 August 2025
The Fondation Beyeler is proud to present Little Room, a new virtual reality (VR) installation by American artist Jordan Wolfson, premiering for the first time at the museum. This immersive work invites visitors into an experimental environment where they actively participate in the evolving experience. Upon entering, visitors are paired either with a companion of their choice or a stranger. Following an individual 3D full-body scan, they are transported into a virtual space where each participant perceives themselves through the body of the other, resulting in progressively surreal and disorienting physical and spatial distortions.
Presentation of the Collection
At Fondation Beyeler
25 May – 31 August 2025
Fondation Beyeler will show a presentation of its collection focussing exclusively on painting. Rooms devoted to individual artists feature works that have left a distinct imprint on this traditional medium and opened up new perspectives. A special highlight is the museum debut of Gerhard Richter’s digital projection Moving Picture (946-3), Kyoto Version, 2019–2024. This year’s Daros room at the Fondation Beyeler is devoted to Mark Bradford. The display further features Andy Warhol’s monumental painting Sixty Last Suppers, 1986, on loan from the Nicola Erni Collection. Another focus is placed on Pablo Picasso, with a comprehensive gathering of more than 30 paintings and sculpture.
Vija Celmins
At Fondation Beyeler
15 June – 21 September 2025
The Fondation Beyeler will present a comprehensive solo exhibition dedicated to the artist Vija Celmins. Celmins’ visual language is both nuanced and compelling. Early in her career, she focused on everyday objects as well as scenes depicting disaster and war. Over time, her attention shifted to the intricate surfaces of spider webs, oceans, and deserts, and more recently to the night sky and distant galaxies. Her works resist a fleeting glance, revealing a captivating beauty that balances intimacy with detachment upon closer engagement. This exhibition marks the most significant presentation of Celmins’ work in Europe in nearly two decades.
Steve McQueen : Bass
At Schaulager
15 June – 16 November 2025
At The Laurenz Foundation, Schaulager will present Bass (2024), one of Steve McQueen’s most recent and notably his most abstract work to date. Created in close dialogue with Schaulager’s architecture, Bass draws inspiration from McQueen’s deep exploration of how light, color, and sound influence our physical perception of space and time.
“What I love about light and sound is that they are both created through movement and fluidity. They can be molded into any shape, like vapor or a scent; they can sneak into any nook and cranny. I also love the beginning point where something isn’t a form as much as it is all-encompassing.” – Steve McQueen, 2025
Dala Nasser Xíloma. MCCCLXXXVI
At Kunsthalle Basel
16 May – 10 August 2025
Dala Nasser’s practice explores abstraction and alternative modes of image-making. While integrating sound, performance, and film, she remains fundamentally a painter, engaging deeply with the medium’s essential materials—fabric, pigments, stretcher bars, and lines. Her indexical paintings of land, created through direct contact on site, contrast sharply with the expansive vistas typical of traditional landscape painting. For her debut exhibition in Switzerland at Kunsthalle Basel, Nasser envisions a reconstruction of the Byzantine church of Kabr Hiram in Qana, Lebanon—a site that no longer exists within an inaccessible landscape. As part of this project, she experiments for the first time with cyanotype-treated fabrics, bringing lost spaces into tangible form.
Medardo Rosso : Inventing Modern Sculpture
At Kunstmuseum Basel
20 March – 10 August 2025
Sculptor, photographer, and master of artistic staging, rival to Auguste Rodin and a role model for numerous artists: around 1900, Medardo Rosso (1858 in Turin, Italy–1928 in Milan, Italy) revolutionized sculpture. The exhibition, which was produced in cooperation with the mumok (Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien) and co-curated by Heike Eipeldauer and Elena Filipovic, helps visitors understand Rosso’s radical explorations of form (and its undoing), material, and technique across media. The extraordinary and lasting impact of his œuvre is revealed by encounters with works by over sixty artists from the past one hundred years including Lynda Benglis, Constantin Brâncuși, Edgar Degas, David Hammons, Eva Hesse, Meret Oppenheim, Auguste Rodin, and Alina Szapocznikow.
Meret Oppenheim
At Hauser & Wirth
4 June – 19 July 2025
An artist of powerful originality and singular vision, the German-born Swiss artist Meret Oppenheim (1913 – 1985) remains one of the most dynamic figures of 20th-century art. Despite being affiliated with some of the most influential art movements of the 20th Century, including Surrealism and Dada, Oppenheim defied categorization. Her wide-ranging, boundary-breaking practice will be showcased this June in an exhibition spanning painting, drawing, sculpture and design.
“I simply always did what I felt like doing, anything else wouldn’t agree with the way I work, committing to a particular style would’ve bored me to death.” – Meret Oppenheim
Ella Kruglyanskaya : Backgrounds
At Contemporary Fine Arts
17 June – 2 August 2025
Ella Kruglyanskaya is a contemporary Latvian painter recognized for her bold, stylized portrayals of female figures engaged in dynamic, often theatrical scenes. Her work critically engages with historical tropes of Western painting, particularly the representation of the female form, reinterpreting and updating these conventions through a distinctly contemporary lens. Drawing influence from a range of sources—including Philip Guston as well as mid-20th century fashion and film posters—Kruglyanskaya integrates humor as a central element in her practice.
Humor is really important in my work. Also humor is a very modern feature of art,” Kruglyanskaya has explained. “There is something quite modern in this attitude that we don’t take ourselves so seriously.”
Ian Hamilton Finlay : Fragments
At Stampa Gallery
08 May – 16 August 2025
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of IAN HAMILTON FINLAY’s birth (1925–2006), STAMPA presents FRAGMENTS, an exhibition dedicated to the renowned Scottish artist, poet, and founder of the iconic artists’ garden Little Sparta. A leading figure in British Concrete Poetry, Finlay revitalized classical traditions through a multidisciplinary practice that explored poetry, history, and natural philosophy. His work celebrated the enduring power of language by giving it both artistic dimension and tangible form—poetically embedding words into the fabric of the world.
The original Signale exhibition, held 60 years ago, was dedicated to a form of painting often referred to as “hard-edged”—primarily large-format, geometric abstraction. It brought together works by prominent American artists such as Kenneth Noland, Al Held, Jules Olitski, and Ellsworth Kelly, alongside those of lesser-known European painters like Hansjörg Mattmüller, Georg Karl Pfahler, John Plumb, and William Turnbull. This curatorial strategy—placing celebrated figures in dialogue with less familiar counterparts—was one also employed by Harald Szeemann, the protégé and eventual successor of curator Arnold Rüdlinger in Bern.
Now, in 2025, Galerie Mueller revisits this influential moment in art history with Signals, marking the 60th anniversary of the original exhibition. The new show brings together works by Swiss artists Theodor Bally and Luigi Lurati, German painter Georg Karl Pfahler, and American artists Al Held, Kenneth Noland, and Jules Olitski. Through Signals, Galerie Mueller continues its investigation into the transatlantic dialogue in postwar abstraction, shedding new light on the artistic conversations that shaped modern art.
The exhibition is set within Basel’s private airport, Air Service Basel, and extends throughout the entire facility. Artworks are thoughtfully integrated into the airport’s existing spaces—including hangars, offices, waiting rooms, private lounges, and even the basement—creating a dynamic dialogue between the environment and the art on display.
What Not to Miss in New York City this May
May in New York City brings an almost endless lineup of auctions, fairs, and exhibitions. To help you navigate it all, LVH Art has curated a tailored guide of the must-see galleries, museum exhibitions and art fairs. From solo exhibitions to immersive installations, this list highlights the very best of the city’s art scene!
FAIRS
Frieze New York
May 7–11 | frieze.com
Frieze New York, led by Christine Messineo as director, brings together the world’s leading galleries at The Shed. This year’s Focus section—highlighting solo presentations by emerging galleries—will be curated by Lumi Tan, acclaimed for her work as senior curator at The Kitchen in New York. The fair presents a dynamic opportunity to explore rising talent and engage with influential figures from art history. It’s an expansive experience—and the perfect starting point for inspiration.
TEFAF New York
May 9–13 | tefaf.com
TEFAF New York returns for its tenth edition at the iconic Park Avenue Armory, uniting the world’s premier art dealers to present an extraordinary array of works. While the fair includes a strong focus on modern and contemporary art, it also distinguishes itself with exceptional offerings in jewellery, antiques, and design. TEFAF always offers an exceptional lineup of dealers and galleries specialising in Old Masters and fine antiques. And yes, get ready for an abundance of flower photos.
NADA New York
May 7–11 | newartdealers.org
NADA New York 2025, organised by the New Art Dealers Alliance, will feature 120 galleries, art spaces, and non-profits from across the globe. Renowned for its focus on emerging artists and rising galleries, the fair offers a vibrant, social atmosphere that encourages discovery and dialogue. Highlights include NADA Presents—the organization’s signature series of talks, performances, and events—and the return of the TD Bank Curated Spotlight, which this year will shine a light on artists and galleries from Texas and Mexico.
Independent Art Fair
May 8–11 | independenthq.com
The Independent Art Fair stands apart for its more curated approach. It presents two main events—Independent and Independent 20th Century—alongside a range of editorial projects, exhibitions, and programming. Participation in the fair’s show section is by invitation only, with galleries selected to ensure a high level of curatorial excellence. This year’s edition will be held at Spring Studios in Tribeca.
Esther
May 6–10 | https://esther.ee/
Esther II, the second edition of the alternative art fair founded by Margot Samel and Olga Temnikova, returns to New York’s historic Estonia House. Known for spotlighting galleries with Northern and Eastern European roots, this year’s fair will feature 25 participants and offer a collaborative, community-driven experience with fresh voices, and intimate programming. Unlike traditional art fairs, Esther feels more like an exhibition—the artworks are installed directly onto the venue’s original wood-paneled walls, forgoing high ceilings and temporary structures in favor of warmth and character.
1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair
May 8–11 | 1-54.org
1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair returns to New York, featuring a curated selection of contemporary works by emerging and established artists from Africa and its diaspora, along with tailored programming in collaboration with leading institutions.
INSTITUTIONAL EXHIBITIONS
Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
April 18 – Jan 18, 2026 | Guggenheim.org
This major solo exhibition features nearly 90 works by artist Rashid Johnson. It spans black-soap paintings, spray-painted text, sculptures, and multimedia pieces. Johnson draws from history, philosophy, literature, and music, positioning himself as both a scholar and a creative force in contemporary art.
Hilma af Klint. Luzula campestris (Field Woodrush), Viola hirta (Hairy Violet)…. Sheet 4 from the portfolio Nature Studies. May 9–15, 1919. Watercolor, pencil, and ink on paper, 49.9 × 26.9 cm. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Image Courtesy of The Museum of Modern Art website.
Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind the Flowers, Museum of Modern Art
May 11–Sept. 27, 2025 | MoMA.org
The Museum of Modern Art presents a new exhibition featuring MoMA’s recent acquisition of 46 botanical drawings by Swedish artist Hilma af Klint. The works explore her distinctive blend of abstraction and detailed botanical studies, offering a deeper look at how nature can reveal hidden truths about the human condition.
Amy Sherald: American Sublime, Whitney Museum of American Art
April 9 – Aug 10, 2025 | Whitney.org
This exhibition features a striking billboard across from the Museum’s entrance on Gansevoort Street, showcasing Amy Sherald’s evocative paintings of everyday Black Americans. Through her carefully crafted portraits, Sherald challenges traditional narratives, celebrating the complexity and individuality of her subjects while highlighting the omission of Black figures from art history, offering a new vision of American Realism.
Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective, MoMA
Oct 19 – Feb 7, 2026 | MoMA.org
Ruth Asawa: A Retrospective at MoMA explores over six decades of the artist’s work, featuring approximately 300 pieces across various mediums, including wire sculpture, bronze casts, drawings, and public commissions. This first posthumous survey celebrates Asawa’s innovative approach to materials and forms, highlighting her unique ability to transform simple materials into profound subjects of contemplation, while emphasising her deep commitment to community and arts education.
Sam Moyer: Woman with Holes, Hill art foundation
May 1 – Aug 1, 2025 | Hillartfoundation.org
Woman with Holes, opening May 1, 2025, at the Hill Art Foundation, presents a survey of Sam Moyer’s work alongside pieces from the Hill Collection, exploring abstraction as dream logic through unexpected material pairings and dramatic scale shifts. The exhibition invites viewers to engage with the tension between the familiar and the uncanny, featuring Moyer’s stone paintings, hand-papermaking works, and sculptures, alongside works by artists like Robert Gober, Jasper Johns, and Isamu Noguchi.
Chamberlain Goes Outdoors, in front of The Rockefeller Center
April 16 – May 30, 2025 | Rockerfellercenter.com
Chamberlain Goes Outdoors at Rockefeller Center features three large-scale sculptures by John Chamberlain, including the debut of BALMYWISECRACK (Copper) in the U.S. Presented by Mnuchin Gallery. This installation offers a rare opportunity to experience Chamberlain’s final works in one of New York’s most iconic public spaces, alongside an exhibition of smaller sculptures at Christie’s and a new book release at McNally Jackson.
The Genesis Facade Commission: Lee Bul, Long Tail Halo, The MET
Through June 10, 2025 | Metmuseum.org
South Korean artist Lee Bul transformed the iconic niches of The Met’s Fifth Avenue facade with four new sculptures that blend classical and contemporary elements, exploring themes of history, memory, and the ambiguous relationship between the body, machinery, and architecture. This commission marks Lee’s first major U.S. project in over twenty years, continuing The Met’s series of contemporary works that engage in dialogue with the Museum’s collection, architecture, and audience.
The Frick Collection
Reopened April 17, 2025 | Frick.org
The Frick Collection reopened on April 17, 2025, after a multi-year renovation that enhanced its historic Fifth Avenue home, adding new galleries, special exhibition spaces, and educational facilities, all while preserving the museum’s iconic charm. This comprehensive upgrade marked the first major transformation since the Frick’s opening in 1935, offering visitors a refreshed experience of its renowned collection and a slate of exciting new programs and exhibitions.
Commercial Gallery Exhibitions
Willem de Kooning: Endless Painting at Gagosian
The show delves into the artist’s ongoing engagement with the act of painting as an endless pursuit, highlighting de Kooning’s transformative approach to abstraction and figuration. Featuring a selection of iconic works, the exhibition illuminates his innovative process and his continuous exploration of form, movement, and color.
The show runs from April 15 – June 14, 2025.
Picasso: Tête-à-Tête at Gagosian
Picasso: Tête-à-Tête brings together a selection of works that explore the artist’s intimate relationships and their influence on his creative output. The exhibition delves into Picasso’s personal connections, offering insight into the evolving dynamics of his relationships through his art.
The show runs from April 18 – July 3, 2025.
Jim Shaw: Drawings at Gagosian
Jim Shaw: Drawings showcases a series of the artist’s intricate and thought-provoking drawings. The exhibition explores Shaw’s unique approach to surrealism, blending personal narratives with broader cultural references in a distinctive visual language.
The show runs from May 1 – June 14, 2025.
William Kentridge: A Natural History of the Studio at Hauser & Wirth
This exhibition explores the artist’s creative process through a mix of drawings, films, and sculptures. The exhibition highlights the studio as a site of transformation, where personal and historical narratives intertwine.
The show runs from May 1 – July 25, 2025.
Francis Picabia: Eternal Beginning at Hauser & Wirth
This show explores the artist’s radical approach to abstraction and figuration. The exhibition features key works that reflect Picabia’s ongoing investigation into visual language, identity, and the nature of creativity.
The show runs from May 1 – July 25, 2025.
Leiko Ikemura: Talk to the Sky, Seeking Light at Lisson Gallery
This exhibition features a series of works that reflect the artist’s ongoing exploration of the human form and its connection to the natural world. Through painting and sculpture, Ikemura evokes themes of spirituality, transformation, and the search for light.
The show runs from May 1 – August 1, 2025.
Sam Moyer: Subject to Change at Sean Kelly Gallery
Sam Moyer: Subject to Change features a collection of works that examine materiality, transformation, and the passage of time. Moyer’s practice blends abstraction with a deep engagement in texture and surface, creating pieces that evolve and adapt in response to their surroundings.
The show runs from May 2 – June 14, 2025.
Carmen Herrera: The Paris Years: 1948 – 1953 at Lisson Gallery
Carmen Herrera: The Paris Years: 1948 – 1953 focuses on the artist’s early years in Paris, a formative period that influenced her minimalist approach to abstraction. The exhibition highlights key works from this time, revealing Herrera’s exploration of color, form, and geometry.
The show runs from May 1 – August 1, 2025.
Pierre Huyghe: Spirits at Marian Goodman Gallery
This exhibition presents a thought-provoking exploration of life, consciousness, and the intersection of nature and technology. Through a series of immersive works, Huyghe investigates the presence of unseen forces and the fluidity of reality.
The show runs from May 6 – June 21, 2025.
Pablo Picasso: Still Life at Almine Rech
Pablo Picasso: Still Life showcases a selection of the artist’s iconic still life paintings, exploring his innovative approach to form, perspective, and abstraction. The exhibition highlights Picasso’s mastery in transforming everyday objects into complex visual compositions.
The show runs from May 1 – July 18, 2025.
Yu Nishimura: Clearing Unfolds at David Zwirner
The works in this exhibition explore themes of transformation and space, with Nishimura creating intricate, layered compositions that invite contemplation and engagement.
The show runs from April 24 – June 27, 2025.
Tomma Abts at David Zwirner
This solo show showcases a new series of the artist’s meticulously crafted abstract paintings. Known for her innovative use of color, form, and geometry, Abts continues to push the boundaries of abstraction, creating works that invite close, contemplative engagement.
The show runs from May 1 – June 14, 2025.
Michael Armitage: Crucible at David Zwirner
Michael Armitage: Crucible presents a striking series of paintings that explore the complexities of identity, history, and contemporary life. Armitage’s vibrant works are informed by his Kenyan heritage and delve into issues of politics, social upheaval, and personal reflection.
The show runs from May 8 – June 27, 2025.
Circa 1995: New Figuration in New York at David
The exhibition features eight generation-defining artists who played a central role in the resurgence and expansion of figurative painting during the 1990s: John Currin, Peter Doig, Marlene Dumas, Chris Ofili, Laura Owens, Elizabeth Peyton, Luc Tuymans, and Lisa Yuskavage.
The show runs from May 7 – July 17, 2025.
The Making of Modern Korean Art: The Letters of Kim Tschang-Yeul, Kim Whanki, Lee Ufan, and Park Seo-Bo, 1961–1982 at Tim Kim
This exhibition offers an insightful look into the personal correspondences of these influential Korean artists. Through their letters, the exhibition traces the evolution of modern Korean art, revealing the intellectual and creative exchange that shaped their groundbreaking work.
The show runs from May 5 – June 21, 2025.
Louise Giovanelli at Grimm
At Grimm in New York, Louise Giovanelli presents a captivating series of paintings that explore the intersections of abstraction and figuration. Giovanelli’s works blend traditional techniques with contemporary themes, creating pieces that invite viewers to reconsider the boundaries of representation and perception.
The show runs from May 9 – June 21, 2025.
Malick Sidibé: Regardez-moi at Jack Shainman
At Jack Shainman in New York, Malick Sidibé: Regardez-moi showcases a selection of the renowned Malian photographer’s iconic portraits. Sidibé’s intimate and vibrant images capture the spirit of youth and life in Bamako, reflecting both personal identity and broader social change in post-independence Mali.
The show runs from April 17 – May 31, 2025.
Timothy Lai: Still. Yet. Still. at Jack Barrett, New York
Timothy Lai: Still. Yet. Still. features a series of works that explore the subtle tensions between stasis and movement. Lai’s intricate pieces invite reflection on the passage of time, offering a meditative space where stillness and change coexist.
The show runs from April 4 – May 10, 2025.
Alicja Kwade: Telos Tales at Pace
At Pace in New York, Alicja Kwade: Telos Tales presents an exploration of time, perception, and the universe through a series of sculptural works. Kwade’s intricate installations invite viewers to question the nature of reality, as she delves into philosophical and scientific themes with a unique blend of abstraction and symbolism.
The show runs from May 7 – August 15, 2025.
Olivia Jia: Mirror Stage at Margot Samel
At Margot Samel’s gallery, an exhibition featuring Olivia Jia’s work, titled Mirror Stage, is on view. The exhibition delves into themes of identity, self-reflection, and the intersection of personal and collective experiences through Jia’s thought-provoking visual language.
The show runs from April 30 – May 31, 2025.
Salman Toor: Wish Maker at Luhring Augustine Gallery
The paintings in this explore themes of desire, intimacy, and cultural identity, with Toor’s vibrant and emotive works offering a reflection on personal and societal narratives.
The show runs from May 2 – June 21, 2025.
Art & Apres: Ultimate Winter Scene
For decades, the mountains have been more than just a winter escape for skiers; they have served as sanctuaries for artists, collectors, and cultural visionaries.
Artists have long turned to the peaks for inspiration, Gerhard Richter’s Mountain series captures their grandeur with his signature blurred abstraction, while Basquiat’s Engadin valley mountain paintings transform the raw into poetic symbols of struggle. Few have depicted the quiet beauty of snow-covered landscapes as evocatively as Peter Doig, his dreamlike winter scenes feel both otherworldly and familiar. Nowhere is this interplay between art and the alpine more evident than in St. Moritz, where the legendary Gunter Sachs, an icon of the jet set, once installed a Roy Lichtenstein bathtub in his penthouse at Badrutt’s Palace, a bold statement that art and the alpine were meant to coexist. This seamless blending of high culture and high altitude continues today, as ski destinations around the world evolve into vibrant cultural scenes. From design fairs and exhibitions in St. Moritz and Gstaad, to meditative Turrell skyspaces in Austria, we take a look at this winter’s most compelling art experiences.
St. Moritz has long been a refuge for the artists and collectors. This winter, Hauser & Wirth presented a significant exhibition, “Jean-Michel Basquiat. Engadin,” on view until March 29, 2025. The exhibition explores Basquiat’s connection to the Engadin region, showcasing works inspired by his visits to Switzerland and exploring motifs that intertwine the natural and cultural landscapes of the area with the urban energy of New York.
This year marked the 15th edition of the NOMAD fair, blending design, art, and craft as it took over Klinik Gut, a former construction site in St Moritz. NOMAD brought together 40 galleries presenting an eclectic mix and special projects like a Nilufar’s installation with glass designer Christian Pellizzari and a special room created by Lebanese duo david/nicolas for the Italian maison Buccellati. While NOMAD was happening, MAZE Arts also launched the first edition of the Maze Art Fair in St. Moritz, bringing together contemporary galleries for an exhibition of photography and sculpture.
Beyond the galleries, Muzeum Susch, founded by Grazyna Kulczyk, offers an experience unlike any other. Housed in a renovated medieval monastery dating back to 1157, the original buildings were restored, and underground passageways were added, connecting the site according to designs by architects Chasper Schmidlin and Lukas Voellmy.
Nearby The Stable Gallery, a unique minimalist transformed stable by Klainguti + Rainalater SA, is presenting a winter exhibition of Sophie von Hellermann. Her dreamlike whimsical paintings are inspired by her visit in the Engadin valley. The exhibition runs until 12 April 2025.
Local Swiss artist Not Vital, a native of the Engadin Valley, has also shaped the landscape itself into art. His Snow Castle, a sculptural structure built from ice and snow, is a fleeting work that blurs the line between architecture and nature. More permanently, he has transformed the 12th-century Tarasp Castle, which he acquired in 2016, into a space where contemporary interventions meet medieval architecture. Within its historic walls, visitors encounter works that merge sculpture, conceptual design, and the surrounding alpine environment, including the “House to Watch the Sunset,” a 13-meter-high tower designed for quiet contemplation of the valley below.
Villa Flor, a charming bed and breakfast in S-chanf, is hosting an exhibition dedicated to the friendship between Swiss photographer Ernst Scheidegger and sculptor Alberto Giacometti. This intimate setting allows visitors to experience the profound connection between the two artists, offering a unique glimpse into the electrically curated hotel scattered with works by Gio Ponti and Julian Schnabel.
In Zuoz, the Hotel Castell features an extensive art collection, that includes works by Nicolas Party, Lawrence Weiner, and Tadashi Kawamata. The collection also includes a permanent installation by James Turrell called The Skyspace Piz Uter, a walk-in sculpture that offers visitors an immersive experience of light and space, blending art seamlessly with the surrounding alpine environment.
Gstaad, long known for its luxury, is embracing contemporary art with increasing enthusiasm. Gstaad Art Week has become a highlight of the season, with installations and exhibitions appearing throughout the village. Maze fair had its second year in Gstaad, bringing 25 well known galleries to the mountains. Gagosian is leading the charge, presenting exhibitions of Urs Fischer and Rick Lowe, reinforcing the town’s emergence as a serious art destination.
Aspen has long held a dual identity: an elite ski destination and a flair for good taste. The Aspen Art Museum remains at the heart of its creative pulse, with a major winter exhibition by Ugo Rondinone, whose minimalist, poetic installations echo the surrounding landscape. Baldwin Gallery is presenting a show by Erwin Wurm, known for his humor-infused, thought-provoking sculptures. Galerie Maximillian is featuring works by Charles Gaines, McArthur Binion, Stanley Whitney, and Idris Khan. There is also Valley Fine Arts which specializes in Edward Curtis, an American photographer.
In Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where the rugged beauty of the Tetons dominates every view, art takes on a distinctly regional identity. The National Museum of Wildlife Art, built into the mountainside, holds an extraordinary collection that bridges the past and present, celebrating both the mythology and contemporary interpretations of the American West. Beyond the museum, the town’s galleries continue to bring fresh perspectives to Western themes, blending traditional forms with modern abstraction.
In Lech, Austria nestled in the landscape is Skyspace Lech, a permanent James Turrell installation set high in the mountains. This walk-in light sculpture invites visitors to experience the interplay between sky and colour, shifting with the natural light at sunrise and sunset. The Skyspace, accessed through a tunnel carved into the mountainside, is an extraordinary fusion of art and environment, creating a meditative space where the vastness of the sky feels intimately connected to the land.
While these storied destinations continue to lead the way in merging art and winter culture, the future of ski resorts as creative spaces is being reimagined. A new, highly anticipated ski park in Powder Mountain Utah, backed by Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, is set to become an artistic and architectural landmark, featuring site-specific works by James Turrell and Jenny Holzer. With Turrell’s immersive light installations and Holzer’s conceptual text-based works, this project signals a bold new era where contemporary art and alpine landscapes are seamlessly integrated.
For centuries, the mountains have inspired artists, writers, and collectors, serving as both sanctuary and stage for creative expression. From the Snow Castle of Not Vital to the Lichtenstein bathtub of Gunter Sachs, art in the mountains is embedded within it.
Leading Female Artists with Institutional Solo Shows Ahead
Donna Huanca
B. 1980. Lives and works in Berlin.
ESPEJO QUEMADA
At Marfa Ballroom, Texas, US
Opening June 2021
Curated by Daisy Nam
Donna Huanca will present a series of new work commissioned by Ballroom Marfa in her exhibition ESPEJO QUEMADA. Huanca creates experiential installations that incorporate paintings, sculptures, video, scent and sound. The profound experiences and memories of Huanca’s first visit to Marfa in 2005 inspired the work in the exhibition. The artworks draw on visual, cultural, and mythological cues informed by feminism, decolonialism and the artist’s personal and familial histories, while simultaneously engaging with the biodiversity, geology, and dark skies of Far West Texas. The sky was particularly striking for Huanca–animated with cosmic and extraterrestrial forces while also revealing the natural rhythms of the sun and moon.
ESPEJO QUEMADA, Huanca’s first exhibition since the pandemic, also uses mirrors as formal and metaphorical devices to respond to changing conditions. The title, which translates to “burnt mirror,” alludes to reflections of the current moment; portals to the past and future; and ignitions of combustion and change. Time, touch and embodied experiences are all reconsidered today, especially when viewing artworks, which are now mostly encountered digitally. Huanca further pushes the phenomenological effects in her installations. She works with an amalgam of color, texture, sound, and scent to enliven the senses and create alternative and elongated temporal spaces for contemplation. Shifts in perception are also experienced in Ballroom’s courtyard. The artist displays her first series of outdoor sculptures that use light and temperature sensitive pigment that respond to the climate in Marfa, changing over the course of the exhibition.
Anne Imhof
Born 1978. Lives and works between Paris and Frankfurt.
Carte Blanche: Anne Imhof « Natures Mortes »
At Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
Opening April 2021
Curated by Emma Lavigne and Vittoria Matarrese
Palais de Tokyo invited Anne Imhof to realise an exhibition occupying all its spaces in the autumn of 2020, but due to COVID-19 restrictions, the exhibition is finally scheduled to open in April 2021. This project continues a series of Cartes Blanches, beginning with Philippe Parreno in 2013 and followed by Tino Sehgal (2016), Camille Henrot (2017) and Tomàs Saraceno (2018) thereafter. Anne Imhof, whose international recognition includes the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2017, has exhibited at Palais de Tokyo as early as 2015 with DEAL, presented as part of the festival Do Disturb.
With this Carte Blanche, Palais de Tokyo wishes to highlight the amplour and protean character of her practice. For this first large-scale exhibition in France, she will combine performance, painting, music and installation works. This Spring, she will be stripping bare the spaces of Palais de Tokyo while inviting the public to a topographical experience, a spiral descent into the building’s entrails. Anne Imhof will thus open up new perspectives onto the spaces, but also onto her practice, placing it in a broader aesthetic and conceptual tradition, which connects it to other historical and contemporary artists. Her own works will be put into dialogue with pieces by guest artists which will punctuate the show.
For her Carte blanche, Anne Imhof will create effects of resonance and duplication amid an open architectural space, transformed into a vast sonic body and an inhabited labyrinth. She deconstructs the hierarchical systems it embodies so as to generate new images in which the live, visual arts, music and architecture merge.
Shara Hughes
Born 1981. Lives and works in New York.
At YUZ Museum, Shanghai, CN
Opening in 2021, dates TBA
Born 1981 in Atlanta, Georgia. The New York based artist Shara Hughes describes her lush, vibrantly chromatic images of hills, rivers, trees and shorelines, often framed by abstract patterning, as “invented landscapes.” Full of gestural effect, surface tactility and possessing a fairytale mood of reverie, these paintings, as the New Yorker described them, “use every trick in the book to seduce, but still manage to come off as guileless visions of not-so-far-away worlds.” Bold, clashing colours and shifting perspectives manifest into dream-like landscapes that push and pull the eye across the canvas, challenging conventions of space. Rather than depicting true to life landscapes, Hughes invites us into a fantastical world offered as a portal for psychological discovery and reflection.
Located along the West Bund in Xuhui District, Yuz Museum, Shanghai is a non-profit organisation under the umbrella of the Yuz Foundation. The museum strives to promote the exhibition and development of contemporary art and to enhance the public’s understanding and appreciation of contemporary art. The space of Shanghai Yuz Museum was once the hangar of Longhua Airport.
Claudia Comte
Born 1983. Lives and works in Switzerland and Berlin.
After Nature
At Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain
Opening May 2021
Curated by Guillermo Solana
The Swiss contemporary artist Claudia Comte is known for her interest in ecological conservation. Her works explore the lifecycle of natural materials, juxtaposing wooden sculptures against graphic wall paintings. This exhibition will bring together a series of sculptures carved with a chainsaw that have been specially commissioned for this event. The artist found the wood from endemic species during her residency at the interdisciplinary and collaborative programme offered by TBA21-Academy and Alligator Head Foundation at their space in Port Antonio (Jamaica).
The works are divided into two groups, the first inspired by coral formations and the second by abstract forms. The first group takes its starting point from the damage being inflicted on coral reefs and aims to express the artist’s concern for the preservation of the oceans. The second group is a continuation of Sculpture Objects, a larger and significant project that Comte began in 2012. It comprises vaguely recognisable figures that refer to works from the modern tradition in a random, humorous way. The installation is completed with mural paintings and a selection of sounds compiled by the musician Egon Elliut and the artist in the waters and forests of Jamaica.
Christina Quarles
Born 1985. Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.
Dance by tha Light of tha Moon
At X Museum, Beijing, China
Opening March 2021
Curated by Cyril Kuizhen Rao
Marking the artist’s first solo exhibition at a major museum in Asia, ‘Christina Quarles: Dance by tha Light of tha Moon’ focuses upon the artist’s long-term exploration of the body. Through a number of paintings created since 2015, it unfolds an artistic narrative on gender, race and queerness. The exhibition is to be echoed with two major solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in the US and the South London Gallery in the UK.
Quarles’s paintings depict the universal experiences of residing in the human body through highly abstracted brushworks: her distorted, fluid portraits reveal the unsettling perception of self and social belonging, in the context of multiple identities and roles. Identifying as a multi-racial queer woman, Quarles draws inspiration from her personal experiences, translating the ambiguity of gender and racial identity into vibrant acrylic works with her highly personal approach to painting.
Sarah Sze
Born 1969. Lives and works in New York.
Fallen Sky
At Storm King Art Center, New York, US
Opening May 2021
Curated by Nora Lawrence
To inaugurate the permanent, site-specific sculpture Fallen Sky by artist Sarah Sze (b. 1969, Boston, US), Storm King will present a new exhibition of the same name. The exhibition will flow from two indoor gallery spaces in Storm King’s 1935 Normandy-style Museum Building out into the landscape beyond, leading the visitor from the exhibition towards an overlook to Storm King’s breathtaking south expanse, and to the site of the 36-foot-round Fallen Sky, framed by the mountains beyond. The exhibition will take landscape as its subject—not a depiction of landscape, but rather a consideration of landscape in varying states—from growth to entropy. In the interior exhibition gallery, Sze will consider landscapes’ ability to extend indoor space into the outdoors. In an exploration of painting’s ability to create and expand walls into portals, Sze will install a large-scale series of wall panels that have been painted, printed, and collaged to create a feeling of recession into deep space. Playing with the physical interpretation of landscape itself, the artist will incorporate the plants used in the landscaping of Fallen Sky, as well as materials and debris from making the permanent work, showing the creative process itself as a system of development and demise. To experience this exhibition is to enter another world.
The sculpture Fallen Sky will consist of a delicate and entropic 36-foot-diameter spherical cavity pressed into the earth and sheathed in mirrored stainless steel. The large scale and shimmering surface of the sculpture will allow it to be seen both up close and from far away across Storm King’s rolling fields. Fallen Sky is Storm King’s first permanent commission in more than a decade, since Maya Lin’s Storm King Wavefield was completed in 2008. Fallen Sky joins a historic series of site-specific commissions for Storm King’s permanent collection, which also includes works by Andy Goldsworthy, Isamu Noguchi, and Richard Serra, among others.
Jade Fadojutimi
Born 1993. Lives and works in London.
At Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami
Opening December 2021
This exhibition will mark Fadojutimi’s first solo U.S. museum project. Exploring a complex emotional landscape, Jadé Fadojutimi’s paintings offer an insight into the artist’s quest for identity and self-knowledge. For Fadojutimi, painting is like looking into a windowpane and seeing the reflection of her self, the context in which she lives, and the distorted fusion of these two. Using the canvas as a sounding board, she grapples with memories of everyday experiences, both good and bad. Through this process Fadojutimi examines how her sense of self is constructed so that her paintings communicate forms of emotion which are impossible to convey through language.
In her interrogation of identity, and how it informs and is informed by one’s surroundings, Fadojutimi is fascinated by the ways in which we adorn ourselves with clothes and accessories in order to construct a sense of self. The shapes of patterned stockings and bows, as well as eclectic swatches of fabric, recur in many of her paintings. Outlines of objects that resonate with the artist but often elude the viewer also feature surreptitiously. The artist also reflects on the trauma of feeling displaced or alienated from one’s surroundings. Many of her works depict mysterious landscapes which toe the line between figuration and abstraction, an attempt to create a form of reality which is parallel to but separate from the real world.
