Must-See Exhibitions of 2025: A Global Guide to the Art World

From the Heart to the Hand: Dolce & Gabbana

Location: Grand Palais, Paris, France

Dates: January 10 – March 31, 2025

Description: From the Heart to the Hand: Dolce & Gabbana invites visitors to explore the inspirations and craftsmanship behind Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana's iconic designs. Spanning ten rooms, the showcase delves into the duo’s creative process, revealing how their vision transforms into haute couture masterpieces. Through breathtaking installations, the exhibition celebrates Italian culture, drawing on influences from art, architecture, opera, and regional traditions.

American Photography

Location: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Dates: February 7 – June 9, 2025

Description: American Photography offers a sweeping exploration of the rich and multifaceted history of photography in the United States. Featuring over 200 works, this groundbreaking exhibition reveals how photography has shaped American art, news, advertising, and everyday life. Iconic images by masters like Diane Arbus, Nan Goldin, Richard Avedon, and Andy Warhol are displayed alongside powerful works by lesser-known and anonymous photographers, presenting a vivid portrait of American identity.

Leigh Bowery!

Location: Tate Modern, London, UK

Dates: February 27 – September 2, 2025

Description: Leigh Bowery! celebrates the groundbreaking career of the artist, performer, and fashion icon whose work transcended conventions. From his rise in 1980s London nightlife to his boundary-pushing performances and visual art, Bowery redefined fashion, makeup, and the body as artistic mediums. The exhibition showcases his most iconic ‘Looks,’ as well as collaborations with notable artists and cultural figures like Michael Clark, Lucian Freud, and RuPaul. Through immersive installations, the show offers a dynamic exploration of Bowery’s influence on club culture, fashion, and gender norms, revealing how his daring, transformative vision continues to resonate in contemporary art and popular culture.

Tracey Emin: Sex and Solitude

Location: Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy

Dates: March 16 – July 20, 2025

Description: Tracey Emin: Sex and Solitude offers an intimate exploration of the acclaimed British artist’s multifaceted career. This landmark exhibition - the largest dedicated to Emin in Italy - features over sixty works spanning painting, drawing, film, photography, sculpture, embroidery, and neon installations. Highlighting themes of desire and solitude, the exhibition showcases iconic pieces like Exorcism of the Last Painting I Ever Made (1996) alongside new works, including the monumental sculpture I Followed You To The End (2024), displayed in dialogue with the Renaissance architecture of Palazzo Strozzi’s courtyard. Emin’s deeply personal yet universal artistry transforms emotions like passion, grief, and love into powerful creations, inviting visitors into her evocative and vulnerable world.

Art is in the Street

Location: Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France

Dates: March 18 – July 6, 2025

Description: Art is in the Street presents a vibrant exploration of the illustrated poster’s golden age in 19th-century Paris. Featuring nearly 300 works by masters like Toulouse-Lautrec, Mucha, Chéret, and Bonnard, the exhibition reveals how posters transformed the urban landscape into a dynamic canvas for art, advertising, and political expression. Through paintings, photographs, costumes, and decorative objects, visitors are immersed in the bustling streets of the Belle Époque, where visual culture flourished amidst sweeping social changes. Highlighting the poster’s evolution from commercial tool to celebrated art form, the exhibition captures the era’s fantasies and realities, celebrating the street as a space for creativity, activism, and democratic access to art.

David Hockney, 25

Location: Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France

Dates: April 9 – September 1, 2025

Description: David Hockney, 25 celebrates the artist’s seven-decade career with over 400 works, making it his largest showcase to date. Spanning from 1955 to 2025, the exhibition occupies 11 museum rooms, featuring pieces from international institutions, private collections, and Hockney’s own studio. A special focus is placed on Hockney’s works from the past 25 years, reflecting his time in Normandy, Yorkshire, and London. Notable pieces include May Blossom on the Roman Road (2009) and Bigger Trees near Warter (2007), as well as early masterpieces such as A Bigger Splash (1967) and Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) (1972), which sold for $90.3 million at Christie’s in 2018. At 87, Hockney remains active in his Normandy studio, using both traditional and digital techniques.

Five Friends: John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly

Location: Museum Brandhorst, Munich, Germany (travelling to Museum Ludwig, Cologne)

Dates: April 10 – August 17, 2025

Description: Five Friends explores the influential connections between five groundbreaking artists - John Cage, Merce Cunningham, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Cy Twombly - whose collaboration across dance, music, painting, sculpture, and drawing reshaped post-war art. Featuring over 150 works, including paintings, scores, stage props, photographs, and archival materials, this exhibition illuminates the deep artistic exchange that defined their collective creativity. With significant collections of Pop Art and Cy Twombly’s works, the museums offer a unique insight into how these artists shaped the cultural landscape, complemented by live music and dance performances inspired by the works of Cage and Cunningham.

Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers

Location: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA

Dates: April 18, 2025 – January 18, 2026

Description: Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers offers a profound look at the multifaceted work of one of contemporary art’s most influential voices. Spanning nearly 30 years of creativity, the exhibition features close to 90 works, including black-soap paintings, text-based pieces, large-scale sculptures, and video installations. The exhibition reflects Johnson’s engagement with history, philosophy, and Black popular culture, and reaffirms Johnson’s position as a powerful force in contemporary art.

Doll House: A Retrospective

Location: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark

Dates: May 27 – October 26, 2025

Description: Doll House: A Retrospectiveoffers a profound exploration of Kaari Upson’s distinctive artistic vision, showcasing the range and depth of her work since her passing in 2021. The exhibition immerses visitors in Upson’s unsettling yet captivating world, where body parts, objects, and fantastical figures intertwine. This retrospective not only celebrates Upson’s artistic legacy but also prompts reflection on life, memory, and existential themes.

Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting

Location: National Portrait Gallery, London, UK

Dates: June 20 – September 7, 2025

Description: Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting opens as the first major UK retrospective of the acclaimed contemporary artist. With a career spanning from the 1990s to today, Saville is known for her pioneering figurative work that pushes the boundaries of portraiture and the human form. The exhibition will feature 50 works celebrating her raw, visceral approach to painting. Curated in close collaboration with the artist, the show offers a comprehensive view of her evolution and enduring impact on contemporary art.

Barbara Kruger

Location: Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain

Dates: June 24 – November 9, 2025

Description: Barbara Kruger marks the first major exhibition of the acclaimed American artist in Spain, showcasing over forty years of her thought-provoking work. Known for merging bold imagery with impactful phrases, Kruger challenges societal norms around identity, power, and consumerism. Visitors will experience iconic works reimagined with cutting-edge technology, including large-scale LEDs, soundscapes, and video installations, offering a fresh perspective on Kruger’s critical reflections on culture and identity.

Kiefer / Van Gogh

Location: Royal Academy, London, UK

Dates: June 28 – October 26, 2025

Description: Kiefer / Van Gogh explores the profound influence Vincent van Gogh has had on Anselm Kiefer’s work, spanning over six decades. This exhibition juxtaposes Van Gogh’s iconic late paintings with Kiefer’s monumental creations, revealing the ways in which Van Gogh’s Post-Impressionist approach has shaped Kiefer’s explorations of history, mythology, and philosophy. Drawing on their shared themes and techniques, the show also introduces new, previously unseen works by Kiefer. A rare opportunity to witness the artistic connection between these two visionary figures, this exhibition offers insight into the enduring legacy of Van Gogh on contemporary art.

Warhol, Pollock, and Other American Spaces

Location: Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, Madrid, Spain

Dates: October 21, 2025 – January 25, 2026

Description: Warhol, Pollock, and Other American Spaces brings together two of the 20th century’s most influential artists, Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock, alongside works by other contemporaries exploring new spatial concepts. The exhibition delves into the fascinating connections between these two figures, whose work on large formats and the manipulation of space both challenged traditional artistic boundaries. Despite their differences - Warhol’s exploration of popular culture and Pollock’s abstract expressionism - both artists engaged deeply with themes of repetition, seriality, and abstraction, creating works that questioned the very relationship between figure and background.

Turner and Constable

Location: Tate Britain, London, UK

Dates: November 27, 2025 – April 12, 2026

Description: Turner and Constable celebrates the extraordinary careers of two of Britain’s most iconic painters, J.M.W. Turner and John Constable, marking 250 years since their births. This landmark exhibition explores their intertwined lives, revealing how each artist used landscape painting to reflect the changing world around them. Turner’s fiery sunsets and dramatic scenes contrast with Constable’s serene depictions of nature, creating a dynamic rivalry that captivated the art world. Featuring major works and personal items, the exhibition offers a fresh perspective on these two pioneering artists, whose legacy continues to inspire generations of painters today.