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
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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 speaks with Tastemaker and Art Patron Giancarlo Giammetti on PM23, Valentino and the Art of Legacy
