90 new art exhibitions opening in February 2026

February 2026 brings a wave of fresh energy to museums across Europe, featuring everything from grand historical surveys to bold contemporary projects. This month is defined by a deep look at how we see the world, whether through the “photographic clarity” of Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller’s landscapes in Vienna or the “unapologetic self-expression” of Tracey Emin’s retrospective at Tate Modern. These exhibitions offer a soulful journey through art history, reclaiming hidden stories and celebrating the power of a singular vision.

A major highlight this month is Metamorphoses at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, a monumental collaboration with the Galleria Borghese. The exhibition brings together over 80 masterpieces by legends like Titian, Caravaggio, and Rubens to explore Ovid’s timeless tales of passion and transformation. Meanwhile, the Leopold Museum in Vienna presents Gustave Courbet: Realist and Rebel, the first major solo retrospective in Austria dedicated to this giant of realism. The display traces his defiant career from early self — portraits to revolutionary nudes, balancing his reputation as a political rebel with the quiet, contemplative beauty of his landscapes.

Beyond these highlights, the month is filled with sensory and immersive experiences that challenge our perspective. In Manchester, Delaine Le Bas turns the Whitworth into a staging ground for mythic spirits and political resistance, while the National Gallery of Denmark celebrates the intricate abstract tapestries of Anna Thommesen. From the vast American highways of Ed Ruscha in Liverpool to the “strange beauty” of Gwen John’s portraits in Cardiff, February offers a diverse and vibrant shortcut to the heart of modern and historical art.

🇦🇹 Exhibitions in Austria

Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller: True to Nature

The intimate yearning for the natural world is explored at the Lower Belvedere in Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller: True to Nature. This major exhibition sheds light on the artist’s engagement with landscape, taking viewers from the Prater meadows and the Vienna Woods to the lakes of the Salzkammergut and south to Italy. By placing his works alongside those of trailblazing European contemporaries such as John Constable and Jean — Baptiste Camille Corot, the presentation examines Waldmüller’s meticulously detailed nature studies within a broader international context. The display features around 100 works, highlighting his signature photographic clarity and limpid light.

Honoré Daumier: Mirror of Society

The Albertina Museum presents a fresh look at the timelessly topical art of Honoré Daumier in Mirror of Society. Using a sharp quill and incorruptible humour, the French artist held up a mirror to the social injustices and political abuses of 19th — century Paris. This new exhibition features his famed paintings and sculptures alongside numerous lithographs and drawings, showing how his work remains oddly contemporary. A unique highlight of the display is an animated film based on the artist’s oeuvre, featuring music by Paul and Linda McCartney.

Gustave Courbet: Realist and Rebel

In Gustave Courbet: Realist and Rebel, the Leopold Museum presents Austria’s first major solo retrospective dedicated to the eminent exponent of realism. The display traces his career from iconic early self-portraits to his revolutionary and sensually charged female nudes, highlighting a life spent defying 19th-century artistic conventions. While Courbet was a political rebel involved in the Paris Commune, his landscapes and still lifes reveal a surprisingly quiet, contemplative world. Powerful seascapes and paintings from his Swiss exile are shown alongside views of his native Ornans, offering a complete overview of his painterly and graphic work. This presentation celebrates a creator who successfully balanced a penchant for provocation with a deep commitment to artistic autonomy.

Felix Lenz: Soft Image, Brittle Grounds

Felix Lenz examines the material and political implications of technological image production in the mixed-media installation Soft Image, Brittle Grounds. Set in the salt deserts of Utah and California, the centerpiece essay film Brute Force uncovers the hidden infrastructures and ecological costs of digital data acquisition. By interpreting salt as an archive of resource depletion, Lenz explores how the world’s complexity is reduced by digital rationalities. This exhibition, which served as Austria’s contribution to the 24th Triennale Milano, also addresses the suppression of Indigenous histories by global technology companies.

Vienna 1900 — Everyday. A Total Work of Art

The MAK reimagines its permanent collection in VIENNA 1900 — Everyday. A Total Work of Art, offering a new perspective on this formative epoch. Developed by artist Markus Schinwald in cooperation with museum curators, the reorganisation explores the history of art and culture from the first Secession exhibition in 1898 onwards. The display features treasures from the museum’s own holdings alongside outstanding international loans, focusing on themes such as the women artists of the Wiener Werkstätte. By interpreting objects through contemporary criteria, the presentation reveals how the concept of the “total work of art” permeated everyday life in Vienna.

The World Without Us

Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz explores shifting perspectives on the planet and the universe in the group exhibition The World Without Us. The presentation investigates the relationship between human existence and “deep time” — the vast geological and cosmic periods that span billions of years. By bringing together works from various eras, including pieces by Albrecht Dürer, H.R. Giger, and Anna Jermolaewa, the display examines how art reflects on a world that operates independently of our presence. Curated by Markus Proschek and Hemma Schmutz, the show uses paintings, films, and installations to engage with themes of nature, technology, and the infinite cosmos.

Cemra: Ziamliačka

In the unique, glazed “Needle” viewing platform, Kunsthaus Graz hosts Ziamliačka, an evocative project by the artist and researcher Cemra. The presentation delves into the intricate layers of personal memory and identity, weaving together family history with the specific sense of place. By combining contemporary visual practices with archival fragments, the artist investigates how heritage is preserved and reshaped over time. This immersive dialogue encourages visitors to consider the ways individual narratives fit into a collective cultural fabric. Ultimately, the exhibition serves as a thoughtful reflection on the persistence of memory within our modern urban landscapes.

Michael Gülzow: The Gate to Unreality

Michael Gülzow deconstructs the mechanisms of media manipulation in his immersive video installation, The Gate to Unreality. Centred on a new three-channel video work, the exhibition investigates how indistinguishable news, science fiction, and AI-generated realities have become in our hyper-medialised world. By utilizing a clever montage of found footage and self-filmed material with a glitch and retro aesthetic, the artist reveals the frightening strategies of seduction used to construct truth. This critical display, located in the basement of Kunsthaus Graz, asks if we still possess the competence to form our own image of the world.

🇧🇪 Exhibitions in Belgium

Marie Zolamian: Confabulations

Memory is continuously reactivated and transformed in Confabulations, a major presentation of Marie Zolamian’s work at WIELS. The exhibition brings together painting, moving image, sound, and site-specific pieces to explore the intersections of interior geographies and microhistories. By intertwining fabulated presences with direct observation, Zolamian creates visual worlds that operate on the edge of imagination. These multi-layered constellations offer visitors new routes towards shared imaginaries, highlighting the artist’s unique ability to weave personal and collective narratives into a cohesive, immersive experience.

Marie Zolamian: Confabulations

Memory is continuously reactivated and transformed in Confabulations, a major presentation of Marie Zolamian’s work at WIELS. The exhibition brings together painting, moving image, sound, and site-specific pieces to explore the intersections of interior geographies and microhistories. By intertwining fabulated presences with direct observation, Zolamian creates visual worlds that operate on the edge of imagination. These multi-layered constellations offer visitors new routes towards shared imaginaries, highlighting the artist’s unique ability to weave personal and collective narratives into a cohesive, immersive experience.

The Fall of Alba’s Citadel. Image and Memory in Turbulent Times

Layered stories of power and manipulation unfold at the KMSKA in The Fall of Alba’s Citadel. Image and Memory in Turbulent Times. Centred on a recently restored 17th-century painting, the exhibition reveals how historical images were often used as propaganda to reshape the past. While the demolition of Antwerp’s citadel was once glorified as a spontaneous act of liberation, research suggests it was a tightly controlled operation. By displaying engravings, satirical prints, and commemorative plaques, the presentation examines how art served as a tool for political messaging. This critical study encourages visitors to question who decides which historical truths are remembered or forgotten.

🇩🇰 Exhibitions in Denmark

Anna Thommesen – Weavings

Abstract tapestries and nature-inspired patterns take centre stage at the SMK in Anna Thommesen — Weavings. As the first exhibition to unfold her practice in full, the presentation features over 40 handwoven works alongside meticulous pattern drawings and watercolour sketches. Thommesen, a self-taught artist, used age-old techniques and yarns she dyed herself to create pieces for prestigious public spaces like Roskilde Cathedral. By positioning her work between craft and fine art, the display explores her independent role within modernism and her enduring influence on contemporary textile media.

Palmyra

On 5 February Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek will inaugurate a new permanent exhibition dedicated to Palmyra, the flourishing trading hub of the ancient world. Centred on the museum’s exceptional collection of funerary portraits — the largest of its kind outside Syria — the display explores life, death, and memory in this desert oasis. These remarkable portraits, once part of grand family tombs, offer a rare look at how citizens combined local traditions with cosmopolitan influences from the Roman Empire and trade routes to China. The presentation also examines the city’s enduring fascination for European collectors and the fragility of its cultural heritage during recent conflicts.

Hanna Hirsch Pauli: The Art of Being Free

In the first-ever monographic exhibition dedicated to her work, The Hirschsprung Collection celebrates Swedish artist Hanna Hirsch-Pauli in The Art of Being Free. The presentation follows her six-decade career, from her Jewish upbringing and Parisian student years to her success as a leading portraitist in Stockholm. Visitors can explore landscapes, intimate family scenes, and large-scale group portraits alongside late self-portraits from the 1930s. By juxtaposing her art with Danish masterpieces by Bertha Wegmann and P.S. Krøyer, the museum highlights the shared cultural connections within its founders’ own circle.

Japanese Woodblock Prints: Hokusai

Designmuseum Denmark showcases forty exquisite works by the legendary Katsushika Hokusai in the upcoming exhibition Japanese Woodblock Prints: Hokusai. The display highlights the artist’s mastery during the Edo period’s golden age, particularly his revolutionary use of colour in landscape printing. Visitors can admire pieces from his iconic series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, which dates from the 1830s and features the world-renowned Great Wave off Kanagawa. By presenting these prints alongside works from the series One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets, the museum provides a comprehensive look at Hokusai’s influential career.

Japan Modern Poster

Spanning the era from the post-war period to the present day, Japan Modern Poster at Designmuseum Denmark explores the vibrant evolution of Japanese graphic design. The exhibition features 110 iconic works on loan from the DNP Foundation for Cultural Promotion, beginning with a pioneer generation that adapted Western influences into a unique local aesthetic. While the display highlights designers who achieved international fame during the nation’s economic boom, it also presents experimental digital works and posters addressing social issues. This comprehensive survey offers a rare opportunity to experience the universal power and enduring creativity of Japan’s poster culture.

Rørbye & Bindesbøll: The Journey to Constantinople

Nearly 190 years after their historic departure, the sketches and architectural studies of Martinus Rørbye and Gottlieb Bindesbøll are reunited at The David Collection in Rørbye & Bindesbøll: The Journey to Constantinople. The display follows the 1835 expedition of this artistic duo as they travelled through Italy and Greece to reach the Ottoman capital. While Rørbye used his observations of everyday life to become the first Danish painter to capture Turkey, Bindesbøll integrated Byzantine influences into his later designs for Thorvaldsens Museum. These significant cultural encounters offer a unique glimpse into how this oriental voyage shaped the trajectory of 19th-century Danish art and architecture.

Copenhagen Pieces II: The Council For Visual Art 2022–2025

Over 230 contemporary works acquired by the City of Copenhagen between 2022 and 2025 are brought together in the expansive exhibition Copenhagen Pieces II. Spanning every floor of Nikolaj Kunsthal, the display features pieces by nearly 150 different artists, including Jens Haaning, Apolonia Sokol, and Inuuteq Storch. These artworks, which usually reside in public settings like libraries, schools, and mayoral offices, are presented alongside photographs of their day-to-day environments. By highlighting the Council for Visual Art’s commitment to enriching the lives of citizens outside traditional galleries, the exhibition offers a unique shortcut to the diverse landscape of modern art. Statements from borrowers further illuminate how these pieces interact with and inspire their surroundings.

Rest and Routine — Duet for Sanatorium and Modern Hospital

Exploring the architectural contrast between historic healing spaces and contemporary medical facilities, Nikolaj Kunsthal presents Rest and Routine — Duet for Sanatorium and Modern Hospital. The exhibition, a collaboration between artist Cecilie Penney and architect Lawrence Ebelle, takes the form of an immersive sound installation where a tuberculosis sanatorium and a modern “super-hospital” are personified through song. While opera vocals represent the light-filled, nature-integrated sanatorium, a rhythmic singer embodies the efficiency-driven modern hospital. Set within the gallery’s Platform project space, the display features a linoleum floor engraved with hospital blueprints, physically grounding the dialogue between human-centric healing and technological logistics.

Café Society: Art and Sociability in Belle Époque Paris

In the spectacular spring exhibition Café Society: Art and Sociability in Belle Époque Paris, Ordrupgaard invites visitors to step into the legendary meeting places of the international avant-garde. The display features masterpieces by iconic figures such as Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and Édouard Vuillard, whose works captured the modern city life that replaced traditional historical and mythological motifs. Artists, writers, and musicians — including Scandinavian visitors like Edvard Munch and Anders Zorn — gathered in these venues to nurture new alliances and hatch artistic trends stimulated by café culture. Organized in collaboration with American museums, the presentation explores how legendary locales on both sides of the Seine became the informal heart of the 19th-century art world.

Step Inside

ARoS presents Step Inside, a major group exhibition that invites visitors to engage with the world through immersive and sensory experiences. The display features works by acclaimed international artists Anicka Yi, Philippe Parreno, Laure Prouvost, and Pamela Rosenkranz, who use diverse media to challenge traditional ways of seeing and feeling. By encouraging active participation, the presentation explores how art can alter our perception of our surroundings and ourselves. This ambitious project provides a rare opportunity to experience some of the most innovative voices in contemporary art within a single, cohesive environment.

55.6° North — Arken’s Collection

Taking its name from the latitude of ARKEN, 55.6° North presents a major survey of Nordic contemporary art from the museum’s own collection. The exhibition features works by over twenty artists and collectives — including Olafur Eliasson, Elmgreen & Dragset, and Inuuteq Storch — whose practices explore themes of identity, power, and climate in a rapidly shifting geopolitical landscape. From ritualistic and mythical expressions to raw political commentary, the display highlights an open Nordic art scene that investigates changing community values and global connections. By showcasing how these creators perceive their own cultures from within, the presentation offers a profound reflection on the reality of the present moment.

Sisters Hope & Kunsten

Kunsten Museum of Modern Art Aalborg undergoes a total transformation as the activist performance collective Sisters Hope takes over the museum’s permanent collection. In this immersive project, works from the museum’s holdings are juxtaposed with mysterious objects to create a poetic, reflective alternative to our hectic environment. The exhibition departs from economic rationality, moving instead towards a world of aestheticism and sensuousness where visitors are invited to inhabit the art rather than merely view it. By handing over its foundation to this renowned group, the museum facilitates a renewed and alternative look at our shared cultural heritage.

Jens Juel. Under the Skin

Drawing from major collections across Denmark and abroad, Ribe Kunstmuseum presents approximately 75 works in the significant historical retrospective Jens Juel: Under the Skin. This exhibition, the first dedicated to the virtuoso painter from Funen in three decades, brings one of the most essential figures in Danish art into a modern context. While Juel (1745–1802) was the most sought-after portraitist for the 18th-century elite, his paintings of royalty, revolutionaries, and artists also reveal the human being behind the mask. By exploring themes of freedom of speech, equality, and self-representation, the display demonstrates how the conflicts of our own time trace their roots back to the Enlightenment’s understanding of the individual.

🇫🇷 Exhibitions in France

Northern Light: Scandinavian and Dutch Drawings from the Musée d’Orsay

In a rare showcase of graphic arts, the Musée d’Orsay presents Northern Light: Scandinavian and Dutch Drawings, an exhibition highlighting approximately 100 works from the museum’s own collections. The display explores the specific sensibilities of Northern European artists between 1890 and 1910, a period marked by a profound renewal in the art of drawing. Visitors can discover evocative landscapes, intimate portraits, and symbolic compositions by figures such as Vilhelm Hammershøi, Piet Mondrian, and Jan Toorop. By juxtaposing the melancholic atmospheres of the Nordic countries with the innovative linear styles emerging in the Netherlands, the presentation reveals the shared creative currents that connected these regions at the turn of the 20th century.

The Wild State. The Animal in the Collections of the MAMCS and the Zoological Museum

Celebrating the reopening of the Strasbourg Zoological Museum, The Wild State (L’État sauvage) brings together natural history specimens and modern artworks at the MAMCS. The exhibition explores the complex and often ambiguous relationship between humans and other species, tracing a shift in perspective from viewing animals as mere objects to seeing them as vital parts of a shared ecosystem. By echoing biological specimens with pieces from the museum’s contemporary collection, the display highlights how artists serve as essential witnesses to biodiversity. This interdisciplinary dialogue invites visitors to reflect on fascination, alterity, and dependence within the living world through a wide range of artistic and scientific lenses.

The Collection

Matisse’s creative journey is displayed in its entirety at the Musée Matisse in Nice through the extensive exhibition The Collection. The presentation highlights a vast array of media — including paintings, sculptures, and his famous cut-out gouaches — most of which were donated by the artist and his family. Visitors have the opportunity to explore his aesthetic experimentation alongside personal possessions and preparatory works for the Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence. Set across four levels, this chronological and themed tour offers an intimate look at how “Matisse’s Matisses” continue to influence universal popular culture.

Chagall at work: An exceptional loan to the museum

A rare collection of 141 works recently donated to the national collections is presented at the Marc Chagall National Museum in the two-part exhibition Chagall at Work. The display offers a deep dive into the artist’s creative process, featuring forty-one sketches for the Opéra Garnier ceiling and sixty-four designs for the ballet The Firebird. By showcasing ceramics, sculptures, and innovative paper collages from the 1950s to the 1970s, the presentation highlights Chagall’s relentless curiosity for new materials and monumental forms. This exceptional loan from the Centre Pompidou allows visitors to trace the evolution of a master whose work remains a vibrant tribute to music, dance, and the city of Paris.

A tribute to Gasiorowski

Gérard Gasiorowski’s enigmatic and irreverent legacy is celebrated at the Fondation Maeght in a special tribute marking the 40th anniversary of the artist’s death. The exhibition showcases ten significant works from the permanent collection, including the monumental ten-metre-long painting Hommage à Manet (1983) and pieces from his famous Les Croûtes series. Through smaller-scale works like Les Étendues, which revisits Giacometti’s walking man motif, the display highlights Gasiorowski’s relentless experimentation with both painting and photography. By reuniting these “pranks” and profound artistic inquiries, the foundation honours a painter whom Adrien Maeght described as a brother and a vital force in the 20th-century art world.

🇩🇪 Exhibitions in Germany

Avant-Garde in Dialogue: The Berliner Salon at the Gemäldegalerie

Contemporary fashion and Old Master paintings converge at the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin for the temporary group show Avant-Garde in Dialogue: The Berliner Salon. Curated by Christiane Arp as part of Berlin Fashion Week, the exhibition places the designs of up-and-coming talents directly alongside historical masterpieces to explore the cultural continuum of clothing and self-presentation. These modern creations interact with centuries-old depictions of social status and power, highlighting how artisanal excellence has evolved from the historical avant-garde to the present day. By integrating fashion into the permanent collection, the museum fosters a sensory exchange that invites visitors to view both contemporary design and classical art through a fresh, interconnected lens.

Bosporus Beats: Views of Istanbul from 1500 to 1800

Through a vast assembly of rare drawings, prints, and books, the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin presents Bosporus Beats: Views of Istanbul from 1500 to 1800. This exhibition highlights how legendary artists such as Dürer, Rembrandt, and Liotard engaged with Ottoman culture, reflecting a spectrum of emotions from genuine wonder to deep-seated prejudice. Detailed cityscapes by Antoine Ignace Melling serve as a focal point, offering what Orhan Pamuk describes as an “insider’s eye” that captured the sublime beauty of the metropolis. By integrating contemporary artistic responses into the historical narrative, the display actively challenges viewers to reconsider questions of identity and stereotyping that persist today.

Giulia Andreani: Sabotage

In an evocative opening to the Hamburger Bahnhof’s 30th-anniversary programme, painter Giulia Andreani presents Sabotage, an exhibition that exposes fractures within official histories. Her monochromatic, Payne’s grey paintings — derived from family albums and archives — create a “painting with photographs” aesthetic that addresses collective forgetting and forgotten characters. By displaying these contemporary works alongside artefacts from various Berlin collections, the presentation reinterprets historical narratives through a modern lens. The exhibition architecture further references the museum’s legacy by echoing Sigmar Polke’s 1997 show, bridging the site’s past with its future vision.

Reflexion: Light Mirror Transparency

Marking the 100th anniversary of Die Neue Sammlung, the four museums housed within Munich’s Pinakothek der Moderne have collaborated on the expansive exhibition Reflexion. The presentation explores the concept of reflection through the thematic lenses of light, mirrors, and transparency, bridging the literal optical phenomenon with metaphorical careful consideration. By juxtaposing items from fine arts, architecture, graphics, and design, the display traces these themes from the early 20th-century Modernist movement through to the present day. Purpose-developed architecture further enhances the experience, using a stark black-and-white scheme to symbolise recurring motifs of visibility and shadow across the galleries and various site-specific “satellites”.

Daniel Grüttner: Out of the Web

Through a series of monochromatic works, the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München presents Daniel Grüttner: Out of the Web, an exhibition that investigates the relationship between painting and drawing in the 21st century. The project highlights how Grüttner uses drawing as an “equal partner” to his oil paintings, creating works that reflect on, rethink, and develop his compositions in progress. Eschewing traditional sketches or preliminary studies, these sheets capture the dynamic tension of graphic elements where form becomes indispensable to the creative process. By showcasing these impulsive yet controlled compositions on yellow, blue, and white-grey backgrounds, the display offers an intimate pause for introspection before the artist ventures into new pictorial worlds.

For Your Eyes Only: Miniatures from the Romantic Period

Over 250 intimate portraits are brought together in the first major exhibition dedicated to the art of miniature painting in Hamburg, titled For Your Eyes Only: Miniatures from the Romantic Era. These delicate works, typically painted in watercolour and gouache on ivory, served as highly personal mementos that were often worn close to the heart or kept in private cases. The display features restored treasures from the museum’s own collection alongside rare loans from across Europe, many of which are being presented to the public for the first time. By tracing the era from the heyday of these miniatures around 1800 to their eventual replacement by early photography in the 1840s, the presentation highlights a unique period of artistic and technical mastery in the Hanseatic city.

Thomas Bayrle

A major solo exhibition at the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt pays tribute to the influential Frankfurt-based artist Thomas Bayrle. The presentation primarily focuses on works from the last fifteen years of his career, juxtaposing them with key pieces from the 1960s and 1970s that established his innovative “Superforms”. Through these complex, repetitive compositions, Bayrle explores the relationship between the individual and the masses, as well as the intersection of religion, technology, and consumer culture. By highlighting the evolution of his unique aesthetic, the display offers a profound look at how his pioneering approach to seriality and patterns has shaped contemporary art.

Wüstenrot Foundation’s Documentary Photography Awards 15

Contemporary documentary strategies take centre stage at the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart in the presentation of the Wüstenrot Foundation’s Documentary Photography Awards 15. The exhibition features the work of four prize-winners — Nazanin Hafez, Kristina Lenz & Alex Simon Klug, Malte Uchtmann, and Hannah Wolf — who challenge traditional notions of truth through media ranging from paper collages to AI-generated visual worlds. While some pieces investigate the moral responsibility of spectatorship or the rapid evolution of synthetic imagery, others use the cultural history of ants and the architecture of the arms industry to critique human social structures. By oscillating between fictional narratives and technical archives, these young artists from German academies offer a profound questioning of the present that extends far beyond conventional photography.

L is for Look

Through an interactive journey across the history of photo books for children and teenagers, Museum Folkwang presents L is for Look. The display explores the genre’s evolution from its industrial rise in the 1930s to contemporary examples, revealing how educational philosophies and the social status of young people have shifted over the last century. Visitors can engage with the entire creative process — from initial photographs to original book designs — in a presentation that highlights a unique but often overlooked niche in the publishing world. Produced in collaboration with international institutions like Photo Élysée and the Institut pour la photographie, this co-production offers a rare look at how visual storytelling has shaped the developmental landscape for generations of Western readers.

🇭🇺 Exhibition in Hungary

Orsolya Csilléry: Golden Mud

Meticulous graphic techniques and Hungarian intellectual traditions form the foundation of Golden Mud, a solo exhibition by Orsolya Csilléry at the Műcsarnok Kunsthalle. The display features large-scale landscapes inspired by the Carpathian Basin and the Roman countryside, created using coloured pencil over watercolour underpaintings. By exploring the dual meaning of the archaic Hungarian term sárarany — referring both to pure gold and the living matter of the earth — the artist investigates the collision between the valuable and the transient. Alongside these "mental maps" of nature, the presentation includes a selection of Csilléry’s book illustrations and her rare work in the artists’ book genre, showcasing a holistic approach to contemporary printmaking.

🇱🇮 Exhibition in Liechtenstein

RELAX (chiarenza & hauser & co): What is wealth?

Fundamental questions regarding value, property, and social responsibility are examined at Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein in a solo presentation by the artistic duo RELAX, titled What is wealth?. Comprising Marie-Antoinette Chiarenza and Daniel Hauser, RELAX uses an eponymous installation from the museum’s collection as a catalyst for communal reflection on the social and economic contexts of modern life. By challenging traditional art canons and the pressure of constant productivity, the duo creates a space for visitors to reconsider what truly constitutes happiness and collective memory. This exhibition marks the first time the group’s pieces within the collection have been featured in a dedicated solo format, highlighting their subtle humour and investigative approach to global systems of value.

🇱🇺 Exhibitions in Luxembourg

Igshaan Adams: Between Then and Now

South African artist Igshaan Adams explores collective belonging and resilience through his largest exhibition to date, Between Then and Now, at Mudam Luxembourg. The presentation features over sixty works produced over the last decade, ranging from site-specific suspended sculptures to monumental tapestries woven with beads, rope, and ribbons. Personal memories of apartheid-era South Africa inform a new large-scale installation of dance prints, which highlights the healing potential of movement. By inviting visitors to touch textile swatches from his studio, Adams fosters an interactive environment that reflects the communal values and collaborative spirit central to his artistic practice.

Seven Paintings — Seven Encounters: Highlights from the Mudam Collection

Major works from the Mudam Collection are presented in a unique sequential format in the exhibition Seven Paintings — Seven Encounters. The display features seven significant paintings that inhabit the gallery space one at a time for several weeks, creating a setting for silent contemplation and direct engagement. By showcasing pieces that have largely never been shown at the museum before, the cycle reveals a wide range of artistic practices, from Surrealism to Abstract Expressionism. This approach highlights the diversity of pictorial creation through works by artists such as Berthe Lutgen, Edi Hila, and Anne Imhof, offering visitors a redefined way of seeing and experiencing individual masterpieces.

Catalogue of Fragments

Christian Aschman explores the instability of memory through a visual narrative in the exhibition Catalogue of Fragments at the Centre d’Art Nei Liicht. The display focuses on urban architecture and landscape, with the photographer often stripping locations in Tokyo or Fuerteventura of their context to create abstract, geometric compositions. By revisiting the same routes and camera angles years apart, he employs his archives as a tool to reactivate past experiences and prevent them from fading into uncertainty. These architectural fragments are juxtaposed with spontaneous portraits from India and Japan, forming a meditation on human presence and the irreversible passage of time.

Gare la Minn

A prolific and unclassifiable output is brought together at the Centre d’Art Nei Liicht in Jim Peiffer’s expansive installation, Gare la Minn. The exhibition features a phantasmagoria of hybrid creatures and distorted faces, with works ranging from raw, energetic paintings to intricate blue ballpoint drawings that resemble architectural stained glass. By utilizing diverse mediums — including acrylic, spray paint, and reclaimed materials — Peiffer creates totemic sculptures and masks that navigate the depths of the unconscious. This immersive presentation serves as a cathartic escape from societal disillusionment, offering a powerful, silent cry through a unique blend of the grotesque and the visionary.

🇲🇨 Exhibition in Monaco

Le Sentiment de la Nature: Contemporary Art in the Mirror of Poussin

A dialogue between classical lyricism and contemporary ecological anxiety is staged at the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco in the exhibition Le Sentiment de la Nature. The presentation explores how Nicolas Poussin’s pioneering approach to nature has influenced subsequent generations, juxtaposing his historical paintings with modern works across six thematic sections. From stormy nights and desert volcanoes to gardens and waterfalls, the display features a wide array of media, including photography by Nan Goldin, sculptures by Giuseppe Penone, and video art. By bringing together artists like Thomas Demand and Latifa Echakhch alongside Poussin and Joseph Vernet, the museum examines whether the profound “sense of nature” captured in the 17th century remains possible in our current era.

🇳🇱 Exhibitions in the Netherlands

Metamorphoses

The Rijksmuseum and the Galleria Borghese have partnered to present Metamorphoses, a monumental exhibition featuring over 80 masterpieces that explore Ovid’s enduring influence on the visual arts. Centred on the Roman poet’s tales of passion, lust, and transformation — often described as the “Bible for artists” — the display brings together iconic works by Titian, Caravaggio, and Rubens alongside contemporary contributions from Magritte and Louise Bourgeois. Notable highlights include Titian’s Danaë, Caravaggio’s Narcissus, and a unique first-time pairing of Hubert Gerhardt’s life-size bronze Perseus with its original model. Through a diverse range of media — including precious metalwork, ceramics, and video art — the presentation examines the recurring themes of violence, treachery, and the fluid nature of existence, affirming Ovid’s message that while all things change, nothing truly dies.

FAKE!

In an era where AI-generated content increasingly blurs the lines of reality, the Rijksmuseum presents FAKE!, an exhibition examining the historical roots of image manipulation. The display features 50 photocollages and photomontages from the museum’s collection, proving that visual deception has been a part of photography since its inception. From futuristic urban landscapes to humorous exaggerations and political satire, these works reveal the surprising ease with which historical images were altered. By showcasing these early creative illusions, the presentation invites visitors to question the authenticity of the photographic medium and reflect on the enduring nature of visual artifice.

Yellow. Beyond Van Gogh’s Colour

Exploring the multifaceted significance of the artist’s favourite hue, the Van Gogh Museum presents Yellow: Beyond Van Gogh’s Colour. The exhibition begins with the iconic Sunflowers before tracing how this vibrant shade symbolised courage and renewal across 19th-century art, fashion, and literature. Beyond traditional paintings, the presentation features a sensory light installation by Olafur Eliasson and original musical scores composed by students from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. By investigating the emotional and physical properties of the colour, the display illustrates why contemporaries viewed it as a radiant symbol of light and human warmth.

Danh Vo: πνεῦμα (Ἔλισσα)

In a sensitive choreography of space, Danh Vo interweaves personal experience with global history in the solo exhibition πνεῦμα (Ἔλισσα) at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. The presentation combines the artist’s sculptures with collected objects and religious relics to explore how historical forces like displacement and faith imprint themselves on the human body. By placing classical remnants and monumental fragments in dialogue with materials such as copper and wood, Vo creates a shifting constellation where looking becomes a political act of remembering. This open arrangement invites viewers to navigate emotional undercurrents of tenderness and rupture, revealing how beauty remains deeply entangled with power.

American Identities: David Levinthal & Chicano Prints

H’ART Museum Amsterdam presents American Identities, a major collaboration with the Smithsonian American Art Museum consisting of two overlapping exhibitions. The first, American Myth & Memory, marks the Dutch debut of David Levinthal, whose photography uses miniature scenes to explore how national legends of heroism and power are constructed. Opening in April, the second presentation, Radical Histories, showcases Chicano prints that challenge fixed historical truths and reflect on themes of borders and multicultural identity. Together, these displays provide a dual perspective on the diverse narratives shaping the United States, offering visitors deeper insight into how the nation grapples with its complex history and social landscape.

American Identities: David Levinthal & Chicano Prints

H’ART Museum Amsterdam presents American Identities, a major collaboration with the Smithsonian American Art Museum consisting of two overlapping exhibitions. The first, American Myth & Memory, marks the Dutch debut of David Levinthal, whose photography uses miniature scenes to explore how national legends of heroism and power are constructed. Opening in April, the second presentation, Radical Histories, showcases Chicano prints that challenge fixed historical truths and reflect on themes of borders and multicultural identity. Together, these displays provide a dual perspective on the diverse narratives shaping the United States, offering visitors deeper insight into how the nation grapples with its complex history and social landscape.

Awakening in Blue: An Ode to the Cyanotype

Celebrating the revival of the cyanotype, the Nederlands Fotomuseum presents Awakening in Blue, an exhibition exploring a photographic technique invented in 1842. The display features the work of 15 contemporary artists who use this distinctive deep-blue medium to address modern themes such as ecology, colonialism, and the body. It pays tribute to Anna Atkins, whose 19th-century seaweed blueprints formed the world’s first photobook and established the foundation for this camera-less process. By contrasting these historical origins with current tactile practices, the presentation highlights a sustainable alternative to the speed of digital imagery.

Rotterdam in Focus

Over 300 works from 1843 to the present day are brought together in Rotterdam in Focus, an exhibition at the Nederlands Fotomuseum that examines the city’s evolving identity. The display captures 180 years of urban history, juxtaposing rare early photographs with contemporary drone imagery and panoramic views. While photographers like Cas Oorthuys and Aart Klein documented the bright, orderly promise of post-war reconstruction, later works by Jannes Linders and Gilbert Fastenaekens focus on industrial reality and vacant urban spaces. By combining professional archives with amateur snapshots and site-specific loans, the presentation explores who truly owns the city and how photography continues to shape our collective memory.

BIRDS — Curated by The Goldfinch & Simon Schama

Taking Carel Fabritius’s iconic painting The Goldfinch as its point of departure, the Mauritshuis presents BIRDS, an exhibition guest-curated by acclaimed historian Simon Schama. Rather than a conventional show, the presentation is designed as a “birdhouse full of art”, weaving together historical and contemporary pieces to explore the complex, often derailed relationship between humans and nature. The display features a diverse array of media — from Ancient Egyptian relics and Rembrandt’s raw still lifes to modern haute couture by Iris van Herpen. By examining birds as spiritual messengers, sources of envy, and victims of fashion, the museum highlights our deep-seated fascination with flight and the pressing need to preserve biodiversity.

London Calling

Organised in collaboration with Tate, London Calling at Kunstmuseum Den Haag represents the first major Dutch survey of postwar British figurative painting. The exhibition showcases forty-five masterpieces by fourteen artists — including Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, and Paula Rego — to explore how the human form captured the spirit of a shifting society. By highlighting previously suppressed perspectives from artists like Denzil Forrester and Celia Paul, the presentation expands the traditional “School of London” narrative. These diverse works illustrate a city at a crossroads, where painting served as a vital medium for navigating crumbling social certainties.

Blik op Bloemen (View on Flowers)

Marking the 70th anniversary of the Van Baaren Foundation, the Centraal Museum Utrecht presents Blik op Bloemen, a community-focused exhibition exploring the universal appeal of flowers. The display is featured in the museum’s Column space, where residents from across Utrecht share personal stories and diverse meanings they associate with floral life. Developed alongside De Stadsredactie — a group of advisors from various local neighbourhoods — the project examines how blossoms connect people regardless of age or background. This celebration of the Van Baaren collection’s legacy invites visitors to reflect on the intersection of nature, shared heritage, and the social fabric of the city.

Utrecht Lokaal: Sophie Steengracht & Lydia Radda

A fresh perspective on the Van Baaren collection arrives at Centraal Museum Utrecht through the exhibition Utrecht Lokaal: Sophie Steengracht & Lydia Radda. The display reinterprets a historical archive of 400 French and Dutch artworks amassed by siblings Lambertus and Josephina van Baaren between 1850 and 1950. By engaging with these 20th-century masterpieces, the featured artists examine the enduring legacy of the founders’ obsessive collecting habits. This focal point of the museum’s jubilee programme bridges the city’s private heritage with contemporary creative practice, offering a modern dialogue with the past.

Ketahanan: Stories of Resilience

Developed in close collaboration with the community, Ketahanan: Stories of Resilience at Het Noordbrabants Museum provides a platform for Moluccans to share their history in the Netherlands. The exhibition weaves together artworks, historical objects, and video narratives to explore the diversity and multiple voices within this living history. By highlighting perspectives that have long been underexposed, the display reveals how new generations are actively shaping their future while honouring their heritage. This immersive presentation invites visitors to listen and learn, offering a space where personal and collective endurance meet to reflect a vibrant, evolving identity.

🇪🇸 Exhibitions in Spain

The Prado Multiplied: Photography as Shared Memory

The Museo del Prado examines the historical impact of the photographic medium on its own collection and identity in the exhibition The Prado Multiplied: Photography as Shared Memory. This presentation explores how the reproduction of artworks through photography has shaped the collective memory and international recognition of the museum's masterpieces over time. By tracing the evolution of these visual records, the display highlights the role of photography as a vital tool for both the dissemination of art and the institutional transformation of the museum. This investigation into the “multiplied” image offers a unique perspective on how technology and art intersect to build a shared cultural heritage.

Alberto Greco: Viva el arte vivo

Tracing the radical career of Alberto Greco, the Museo Reina Sofía exhibition Viva el arte vivo documents the experimental avant-garde pioneer’s effort to merge art with daily existence. The presentation spans his work from 1949 to 1965, juxtaposing early Informalist paintings with his later situational “arte vivo” actions, such as the signing of people and urban environments. Key displays include his expansive drawings, self-promotional collages, and the Gran manifiesto-rollo arte Vivo-Dito. These pieces illustrate an artistic philosophy that prioritised unpredictable adventure and immediate experience over traditional aesthetic programmes, reflecting Greco's transformative impact on the international art scene.

Rauschenberg: Express. On the Move

At the heart of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza sits Express (1963), a masterpiece that encapsulates Robert Rauschenberg’s mission to merge the canvas with the vitality of the world. This display marks the centenary of the artist’s birth by examining the friction between disciplines — from the grace of dance to the rigour of science — and how these intersections fuelled his experimental iconography. Beyond technical innovation, the exhibition spotlights his profound belief that art acts as a vehicle for individual and social transformation. It is a focused look at the ethical legacy of a man who broke traditional boundaries to find beauty “on the move”.

Hammershøi: The Eye that Listens

A profound stillness permeates Hammershøi: The Eye that Listens at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, the first retrospective in Spain dedicated to the Danish artist Vilhelm Hammershøi. Featuring around a hundred works, the exhibition explores his signature “cold, silent interiors” and the metaphorical link between his compositions and his interest in music. The display examines the central role of his wife, Ida Ilsted, in his creative process and traces the progressive refinement of his domestic scenes. By contextualising his work with 17th-century Dutch masters and European contemporaries, the presentation reveals the enduring appeal of his unsettling, ambiguous paintings.

Irma Álvarez-Laviada. Inside and outside the Frame

Challenging the physical and conceptual boundaries of the canvas, Inside and outside the Frame at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza features over thirty works by Irma Álvarez-Laviada. The exhibition explores geometric abstraction through a gendered lens, deconstructing creative processes to question traditional masculine and feminine stereotypes. By utilizing industrial materials like foam, the artist reflects on inclusion and exclusion within Western modern art. Juxtaposed with historic paintings from the museum’s collection, these contemporary pieces dismantle hierarchies of matter and redefine the aesthetic experience.

from 6:12 pm to 5:48 pm

The Fundació Joan Miró is holding a special series of exhibitions in its experimental lab for young artists, a space known as Espai 13. This year’s programme, titled from 6:12 pm to 5:48 pm, looks at how architecture and the buildings we live in shape our daily lives. Curated by Alejandro Alonso Díaz, the project treats the museum like a living body that reacts to energy, light, and the way people move through it. The series features new work by four emerging artists, including Huaqian Zhang and Ghislaine Leung, who explore how the hidden structures around us influence our freedom and social interactions.

ARNA (moth)

Artist Huaqian Zhang explores how heat and sound affect our bodies in the exhibition ARNA (moth), located in the museum's experimental space for young talent. The installation features a light sculpture designed to create a feeling of overexposure, making images ripple and energy flow in ways that are hard to pin down. By moving beyond traditional language, the work focuses on how our senses become sharper in the heat. This immersive experience invites visitors to feel their surroundings through physical sensations rather than just looking at objects.

Joaquim Gomis Transatlantic

Before his time as the first president of the Fundació Joan Miró, Joaquim Gomis captured the electric energy of 1920s America. The exhibition Transatlantic showcases his early photography, from the industrial grit of Texas cotton fields to the soaring silhouettes of New York skyscrapers. Armed with a sharp eye and a simple camera, the self-taught artist documented a world in flux, including the sleek mechanical details of the liners that crossed the ocean. These modern, iconic images anticipated major European art movements and highlight the visionary spirit of a man who would become a tireless champion of contemporary culture.

Antoni Tàpies: The Perpetual Movement of the Wall

The 1950s served as a crucible of change for Antoni Tàpies, a period when his artistic language began to echo the textures of the urban world. Through the exhibition The Perpetual Movement of the Wall, the museum investigates four historic displays that redefined his career and his engagement with modern architecture. By revisiting these archival contexts, the presentation reveals a profound dialogue between the artist’s evolving practice and the industrial pulse of mid-century life. It is a study of a creator in constant motion, finding radical new perspectives within the very fabric of the city.

After Hopper. Grabados de José Antonio Azpilikueta

A playful reinterpretation of iconic American imagery arrives at the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum in the exhibition After Hopper: Prints by José Antonio Azpilikueta. The collection features twelve drawings and several print folders inspired by the atmospheric paintings of Edward Hopper, created to accompany stories by editor José Ignacio Olave. By translating Hopper’s solitary world into a personal and suggestive visual language, Azpilikueta offers a fresh, often humorous perspective on these classic scenes. This presentation highlights a decades-long collaboration between artist and editor, celebrating the creative fusion of literature and printmaking.

Denise Scott Brown. City. Street. House

A pioneer of the urban landscape, Denise Scott Brown transformed our understanding of how cities breathe and function through her radical embrace of popular culture. The retrospective City. Street. House serves as a vibrant map of her career, weaving together over a hundred original photographs, models, and drawings that redefined the architectural project. By moving through these three intimate scales, the exhibition captures her visionary spirit and her collaborative journey alongside Robert Venturi. It is a celebration of a legacy that found beauty in the everyday, inviting us to listen to her own voice as she narrates a life built on curiosity and design.

Mariano Fortuny. Dibujos

The delicate mastery of Mariano Fortuny y Marsal is brought into sharp focus at the Museo Carmen Thyssen Málaga through a collection of thirty drawings and etchings. These works, on loan from the Musée Goya in Castres, trace the nomadic journey of a virtuoso whose career spanned Rome, Morocco, and Granada. From early student exercises to intricate Orientalist scenes, the exhibition captures his unparalleled technical versatility and the modern spirit that defined his short life. Each sketch serves as an intimate record of a traveller’s eye, translating everyday moments into timeless observations of light and form.

Half lit

A gentle glow illuminates the traditional and the tactile in Half lit at the IVAM Centre Julio González, where contemporary art meets ancient craftsmanship. The exhibition elevates humble materials like clay, wool, esparto grass, and wicker, reclaiming their place from the margins of the art world. Evoking the spirit of night-time gatherings around a shared fire, the display weaves together manual tasks with the haunting presence of oral traditions and collective memory. It is a slow, rhythmic journey through vernacular knowledge, celebrating the intangible heritage and quiet affections that bind us to the land.

Territories in Transit / Solo Duo: Anna Talens and Mar Guerrero

In this liquid inversion of perspective, the sea ceases to be a mere horizon and emerges as a contemporary territory charged with memory and resonance. The exhibition Territories in Transit / Solo Duo brings together the works of Anna Talens and Mar Guerrero to explore a geography defined not by lines, but by tides and temporal rhythms. While Guerrero breathes new life into eroded ocean debris, Talens pursues the spiritual essence of the unattainable horizon. Together, they inhabit the threshold between the material and the abyssal, inviting the gaze to open toward the unfathomable.

🇨🇭 Exhibitions in Switzerland

Sensations

Inspired by Paul Cézanne’s belief in the “colour sensation” as the foundation of art, the Fondation Beyeler presents a journey through the raw intensity of human perception. The exhibition Sensations translates chromatic impressions and deep-seated emotions into a tangible experience, featuring masterpieces by icons such as Francis Bacon, Louise Bourgeois, and Mark Rothko. These works act as direct conduits for the artists’ inner worlds, bridging the gap between a fleeting sensory moment and a permanent visual legacy. It is a celebration of the museum’s collection, inviting the gaze to linger on the powerful friction between feeling and form.

Dominique White: All Great Powers Collapse from the Centre

A radical reorientation of existence emerges at Kunsthalle Basel through the work of Dominique White, who uses the ship as a symbol of both colonial power and its eventual undoing. In the exhibition All Great Powers Collapse from the Centre, the concept of the “shipwreck” is transformed from a marker of ruin into a site of profound potential. By interweaving maritime mythologies with the hope of self-empowerment, White navigates the suspension between destruction and creation. These works invite a reflection on a future where new forms of being can flourish beyond the shadow of the nation-state.

Kerry James Marshall: The Histories

In a monumental act of reclamation, Kerry James Marshall’s The Histories at Kunsthaus Zürich confronts the traditional absences of the Western canon with an uncompromising, vibrant presence. His large-format canvases weave a rich tapestry where Civil Rights memories, comic book energy, and folklore collide to document the resilience of the Black community. By painting into the “blank spaces” of art history, Marshall transforms the museum into a site of visibility and profound hope. It is a soulful dialogue with the past that creates a new, inclusive future through the sheer power of the brush.

Disobedience Archive (Canopy for Broken Time)

Under the simple shelter of a shamiana — a traditional canopy used for both protests and celebrations — the Migros Museum becomes a place for people to gather. The exhibition Disobedience Archive (Canopy for Broken Time) brings together fifty films from around the world that show people standing up for their rights and protecting the planet. Created with the Raqs Media Collective, the project suggests that instead of just watching the clock, we should measure our lives by how we care for one another. It is a collection of brave voices under one roof, inviting us to fix our broken world by simply standing together.

George Hantz

The Musée d’art et d’histoire invites visitors to rediscover the life and work of Georges Hantz (1846-1920), a man who dedicated his career to the fine skills of Geneva’s famous workshops. As a talented engraver, medal maker, and director of the city’s Decorative Arts Museum, he spent years championing the link between art and industry. This exhibition displays his diverse creations, showing how his expert craftsmanship helped preserve local traditions during a time of great change. It is an intimate look at a scholar who believed that beauty and technical skill should always go hand in hand.

Life in Full. Old Masters from Duccio to Liotard

In a shimmering display of golden altarpieces and majestic Baroque portraits, the Kunstmuseum Bern presents Life in Full, a journey through the evolution of European mastery. The exhibition breathes new life into the museum’s oldest treasures, from the delicate, sacred panels of Duccio and Fra Angelico to the opulent still lifes that defined Bern’s age of affluence. At the heart of the collection stands the defiant figure of Niklaus Manuel — a painter, soldier, and reformer whose work captures the radical spirit of a city in transition. It is a soulful celebration of human creativity that traces the path from the quiet devotion of the Sienese masters to the grand, worldly splendour of the Renaissance.

Marina Xenofontos. Play Life

Marina Xenofontos blurs the threshold between tangible reality and digital shadows in the exhibition Play Life, where objects and memories are constantly mirrored and transformed. At the heart of this immersive project is the video game Twice Upon a While, appearing here in its definitive form to invite visitors into a world of active participation and shifting perspectives. By replicating and reconfiguring everyday forms, Xenofontos explores the friction between the authentic and the replica, drawing on the political history of her native Cyprus. It is a soulful meditation on the traces we leave behind, suggesting that even the most fleeting virtual moments can carry the heavy weight of historical transition.

Art Brut in Switzerland: From the Origins of the Collection to the Present

Tracing a vivid lineage of creative defiance, the exhibition Swiss Art Brut explores the profound inner worlds of artists who have long flourished on the fringes of society. The presentation maps the evolution of this radical practice from the museum’s early foundations to its contemporary pulse, featuring the intricate, obsessive masterpieces of pioneers like Adolf Wölfli and Aloïse Corbaz alongside modern voices. Through a diverse array of unconventional materials and secret symbolic languages, these creators transform the quiet isolation of their lives into a roaring, visual sanctuary. It is a soulful tribute to the power of the unfiltered mind, where art is not a profession but an essential, life-sustaining act of freedom.

Female. Focus. Photo Archives.

In a profound act of rediscovery, Female. Focus. Photo Archives. at the Fotostiftung Schweiz illuminates the long-hidden legacies of women in Swiss photography. For decades, the narrative of the medium remained a male-dominated story, leaving the diverse work of female practitioners in the shadows of their mentors and husbands. This exhibition brings seven distinct archives to light, ranging from early colour landscapes and high-society portraits to stark documentary reportage and the quiet details of family life. It is a soulful journey through a fractured history, inviting us to see the world through the eyes of those who captured it with skill and passion, yet remained on the margins of the archive for too long.

Ester Vonplon — Wingbeat

A haunting, atmospheric vibration takes hold at Fotomuseum Winterthur in Ester Vonplon’s Flügelschlag (Wingbeat), where the fleeting grace of the avian world is captured as a series of spectral impressions. Moving beyond the clinical gaze of traditional nature photography, Vonplon uses a masterclass of shadow and light to translate the "beat of a wing" into a visceral, rhythmic experience. Her images serve as a bridge between the damp forest floor and the vast, invisible currents of the sky, echoing the fragile heartbeat of a species constantly in motion. It is a soulful meditation on the thin line between presence and disappearance, inviting us to witness the profound beauty and desperate vulnerability of a world that is quietly slipping away.

Paul Mpagi Sepuya — Focus. Desire.

The studio becomes a site of fractured intimacy and shifting perspectives in In the Look of Desire, where Paul Mpagi Sepuya deconstructs the traditional mechanics of portraiture. Mirrors, drapes, and the physical presence of the camera itself act as both barriers and bridges, layering the queer gaze into complex compositions that challenge the simple act of looking. By focusing on the texture of skin or the collaborative touch of a hand, the works reveal the vulnerability inherent in being seen while maintaining a radical sense of privacy. Every reflection and fragment serves as a soulful meditation on the power dynamics of the lens, inviting us to find beauty in the shadows between the subject and the photographer.

Moments in Time

Time and memory converge in Moments in Time at the Reinhart am Stadtgarten, where the fragile nature of life is explored through the intimate lens of miniature portraiture. These small-scale works capture a paradox: they freeze a single, fleeting breath into a permanent cultural memory, marking the presence of someone who is no longer there. Symbolism—from fading flowers and dissipating musical notes to the allure of jewels—serves as a constant reminder of our own ephemerality. By linking these traditional miniature portraits with contemporary work, such as Karin Sander’s cinematic reflections on aging, the exhibition traces the enduring human desire to hold onto the beauty of the present before it inevitably slips away.

Simon Starling

A window in Berlin becomes a bridge across time at the Kunst Museum Winterthur, as Simon Starling reinterprets the quiet, snowy courtyard once painted by Adolph Menzel in the 1840s. Using a complex 3D printing process, Starling transforms Menzel’s small oil sketch into a monumental installation, setting a nineteenth-century masterpiece in a direct dialogue with the boxy balconies of modern urban life. The project gained a sudden, haunting relevance during the pandemic, when the simple act of looking out from one’s own home became a universal experience. It is a soulful reflection on how we capture nature and how our relationship with the spaces we inhabit is constantly shifting through the layers of history.

🇬🇧 Exhibitions in the United Kingdom

Tracey Emin: A Second Life

Forty years of raw, unapologetic self-expression come together at Tate Modern in a landmark retrospective of Tracey Emin’s groundbreaking career. The exhibition, A Second Life, explores the blurred boundaries between the personal and the public, showcasing iconic sensations alongside works that have never been seen before. Through the powerful mediums of painting, textiles, and neon, Emin uses the female body as a site for navigating the complexities of passion, trauma, and healing. It is a soulful journey into the heart of an artist who transformed her own autobiography into a universal language of resilience, inviting us to witness the profound evolution of one of the most significant voices of her generation.

Artist Rooms: Ed Ruscha

The vast, open highways of the American West find a temporary home at Tate Liverpool + RIBA North through the iconic lens of Ed Ruscha. Inspired by his long drives from Oklahoma to Los Angeles, Ruscha’s work transforms the mundane architecture of the roadside — gasoline stations, diners, and parking lots — into a soulful exploration of the American landscape. The exhibition features a diverse range of paintings, drawings, and his groundbreaking artist books, including the 1963 classic Twentysix Gasoline Stations. It is a journey into the heart of the ordinary, where bold typography and cinematic horizons invite us to find the spectacular in the everyday geometry of the urban sprawl.

Rose Wylie: The Picture Comes First

The walls of the Royal Academy pulse with the unscripted energy of Rose Wylie’s monumental canvases, where pop-culture fragments and personal memories are transformed into vivid, cinematic spectacles. The exhibition captures her unique ability to filter high culture and daily life — from film stars and football to newspapers and nature — through a lens of joyful, spontaneous subversion. With their thick impasto and deceptively simple forms, Wylie’s works reject traditional polish in favour of a raw, immediate honesty. It is a soulful celebration of a singular vision, proving that the most profound stories are often found in the messy, vibrant fragments of our collective imagination.

Delaine Le Bas: Un-Fair-Ground

The Whitworth becomes a staging ground for mythic spirits and political defiance in Un-Fair-Ground, a major solo presentation by the 2024 Turner Prize nominee Delaine Le Bas. The exhibition anchors itself around her monumental freestanding mural — originally created for the Glastonbury Festival — while weaving together a complex tapestry of embroidery, sculpture, and performance that explores nationhood and belonging. By placing her own vivid works in dialogue with historical pieces by artists like William Blake and Paula Rego, Le Bas creates a space where magic, folklore, and witchcraft intersect with modern struggle. It is a soulful and immersive experience that invites us to step into a realm where ancient traditions are reclaimed as powerful tools for contemporary resistance.

Gwen John: Strange Beauties

In a quiet subversion of the traditional portrait, Strange Beauties at National Museum Cardiff brings together the intimate and atmospheric works of Gwen John. The exhibition explores her unique ability to capture a sense of stillness and interior depth, moving beyond her reputation as a recluse to reveal an artist deeply engaged with the avant-garde circles of Paris. Through her signature palette of chalky, muted tones, the display traces her obsession with repeated subjects — from solitary women in interiors to delicate botanical studies — each rendered with a soulful intensity. It is a powerful re-examination of her legacy, inviting us to find the radical strength within her small-scale canvases and the "strange beauty" of her meticulously observed world.