must see fall gallery shows new york

The article highlights four must-see fall gallery shows in New York City for September-October 2025. It features Mercedes Matter's first solo show at Berry Campbell, reviving the overlooked Abstract Expressionist; Julio Torres's theatrical debut "Color Stories" at Performance Space New York; Gabrielle Garland's first New York solo exhibition at Miles McEnery Gallery, showcasing surreal suburban paintings; and Omar Ba's exhibition "Promises and Glory" at Templon, presenting fantastical mixed-media works.

rana begum abstractions industrial strength

Rana Begum’s solo exhibition, "Reflection," is currently on view at the Gallery at Windsor in Vero Beach, Florida, following its debut at the SCAD Museum of Art. The exhibition showcases Begum’s signature style, which utilizes industrial materials like metal bars and reflectors to create elegant abstractions influenced by American Minimalism and Islamic architecture. The show traces her journey from a young immigrant in the UK to a Royal Academician, highlighting her ability to manipulate light and color through geometric forms.

qatar launches quadriennial 2026

Qatar has announced the launch of a new quadrennial art event called Rubaiya Qatar, set to debut in November 2026. The inaugural edition will feature a curated exhibition titled “Unruly Waters,” organized by Tom Eccles, Ruba Katrib, Mark Rappolt, and Shabbir Husain Mustafa. The event will take place across Qatar, centered at the Al Riwaq pavilion near the Museum of Islamic Art. A preview performance by artist Rirkrit Tiravanija, titled "untitled 2025 (no bread no ashes)," was unveiled in Doha, involving communal bread baking with diverse bakers. The quadrennial aims to reflect Qatar's cultural diversity and its historical connections to maritime trade routes.

At the Centre Pompidou-Metz, 100 Works to Understand the Double Face of François Morellet

Au Centre Pompidou-Metz, 100 œuvres pour comprendre le double visage de François Morellet

The Centre Pompidou-Metz presents a centenary retrospective of French artist François Morellet (1926–2016), featuring 100 works that explore the dual nature of his practice. Curator Michel Gauthier has divided the exhibition into two mirrored halves—one dedicated to reason and geometric rigor ("the Mondrian side"), the other to disorder and irrationality ("the Picabia side")—reflecting Morellet's own description of himself as the "monstrous son of Mondrian and Picabia." The show traces his evolution from early figurative works and self-taught experiments to his embrace of concrete art, Islamic decorative systems, and systematic absurdity.

Why St. Louis Is A World-Class Art Destination

The Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) is presenting "Anselm Kiefer: Becoming the Sea," a landmark exhibition featuring new, large-scale paintings and sculptures by the renowned German artist. The works, including 30-foot-tall paintings like "Missouri, Mississippi" (2024) and "Lumpeguin, Cigwe, Animiki" (2025), were created specifically for SLAM's soaring Sculpture Hall after Kiefer revisited St. Louis in 2023. The exhibition draws on Kiefer's 1991 visit to the city, where he was deeply impressed by the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, and brings together themes of rivers, borders, memory, and cultural metaphor.

art basel qatar fair report doha

The first-ever Art Basel Qatar opened in Doha with 84 single-artist presentations from 87 galleries, spread across two venues: the Doha Design District and M7. The fair, a partnership between Art Basel, Qatar Sports Investments, and QC+, features a tightly curated schedule of events, including a drone installation by Jenny Holzer at the Museum of Islamic Art and a floating dinner by artist Laila Gohar. Despite the usual fair rhythms, sales have been slow, and the event emphasizes engagement over transaction, as articulated by Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.

art basel qatar arts and culture in doha

Art Basel has launched a new fair in Doha, Qatar, opening across the Msheireb district's M7 building, Design District, and other venues. The event coincides with significant cultural milestones for Qatar, including the 50th anniversary of the National Museum and the 15th anniversary of the Museum of Islamic Art, and represents a long-term commitment with plans to expand to Al Maha Island by 2029.

baku azerbaijan art week

The article recounts the author's experience attending Baku Art Weekend in Azerbaijan, a festival centered at the Zaha Hadid-designed Heydar Aliyev Centre. The event featured a major exhibition of Fernando Botero's work, "The Triumph of Form," alongside kinetic installations by Daniel Wurtzel and sculptures by Jorge Marín. The festival is shaped by Leyla Aliyeva, vice president of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and daughter of Azerbaijan's president, who aims to position Baku as a global cultural capital.

wafa al hamad overlooked artist

The Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha has opened "Wafa al-Hamad: Sites of Imagination," the first solo museum exhibition dedicated to the late Qatari artist Wafa Al-Hamad (1964–2012). Curated by Lina Ramadan, the show runs through August 9 and features over 40 years of Al-Hamad's work across mediums including ink, watercolor, pastel, collage, and digital art. Al-Hamad was one of the first female students at the Qatari Free Atelier in 1981 and later became a professor at Qatar University, exhibiting in group shows across the Gulf such as the Sharjah Biennale 4 (1999) and "6 Gulf Women Artists" in Sharjah (1994).

‘This is an opportunity that will never happen again’: Syrian artist Sara Shamma on rebuilding her country

Syrian artist Sara Shamma has been selected to represent Syria at the 2026 Venice Biennale, marking the country's return to the event with a single-artist national pavilion for the first time. Her immersive installation, 'The Tower Tomb of Palmyra,' curated by Yuko Hasegawa and commissioned by Syria's ministry of culture, combines painting, architecture, light, sound, and scent. It draws on the ancient funerary towers of Palmyra destroyed by Islamic State in 2015, addressing cultural loss and the possibility of reconstruction. Shamma, who returned to Syria in September 2024 after eight years abroad, describes living through the fall of the Assad regime and the country's rebirth as a transformative personal and national moment.

At SLAM, Anselm Kiefer’s Material Transformations

The Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) is presenting "Anselm Kiefer: Becoming the Sea," an exhibition of 40 works by the German artist dating from the 1970s to the present, including 20 recent pieces and five monumental site-specific paintings. Curated by museum director Min Jung Kim, the show features Kiefer's characteristically vast, heavy works built from materials like tar, melted lead, and steel, displayed without stanchions and with minimal labels to encourage immersive viewing. The exhibition was inspired by a conversation between Kim and Kiefer about the confluence of rivers—the Rhine in his native Germany and the Mississippi and Missouri in St. Louis—and makes use of SLAM's grand 1904 World's Fair building.

Saatchi Yates raises a glass to London

Saatchi Yates gallery in London has opened an exhibition titled 'London Rules The World,' running until August 17, which celebrates the city's influence on the global art scene. The show features prominent artists such as Jenny Saville, Grayson Perry, Cecily Brown, Peter Doig, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, alongside ancillary events like afternoon tea at the Royal Academy of Arts, a Paula Rego studio tour, and a tea-towel collaboration with interior designer Nicky Haslam. The gallery is also launching a Friends scheme for £80 per month, which includes entry to gallery parties and a case of wine from their Tuscan vineyard.

Rediscovering Bilgé, the Quiet Master of American Minimalism

Turkish-American artist Bilgé (Bilgé Civelekoğlu Friedlaender), a largely overlooked figure in American Minimalism, is the subject of a new institutional exhibition in New York titled “Torn Time: Bilgé” at the Institute for Arab and Islamic Art (IAIA). The show, curated by IAIA Founding Director Mohammed Rashid Al-Thanion and on view through October, highlights works from the two decades following her 1972 deep-sea dive in the Bahamas, which sparked a period of prodigious creation using delicate paper interventions. Bilgé studied at the Istanbul Academy of Fine Arts and NYU, exhibited at Betty Parsons Gallery and Kornblee Gallery in 1974, and was included in the Smithsonian’s “Paper as Medium” (1978), the International Istanbul Biennial (1989), and the International Biennial of Paper Art (1992). The exhibition draws from her estate, represented by Sapar Contemporary.

dana awartani venice biennale 2026 saudi arabia

Palestinian Saudi artist Dana Awartani has been selected to represent Saudi Arabia at the 2026 Venice Biennale. Her pavilion will be curated by Antonia Carver, director of Art Jameel, with assistance from Hafsa Alkhudairi. Awartani, known for her material interpretations of conflict in the Middle East, draws on Saudi Arabia's craft and cultural legacies, often collaborating with local artisans or displaced craftspeople. Her recent works include a response to heritage site destruction at the 2024 Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale and an archive of recreated stone carvings at the 15th Sharjah Biennial.

Orientalism, Tales and History at the Louvre-Lens

L’orientalisme, contes et histoire au Louvre-Lens

The Louvre-Lens has launched "Beyond the Arabian Nights," an ambitious exhibition exploring the evolution of Orientalism in France. Moving past simple clichés of odalisques and flying carpets, the show features over 300 items, including masterpieces by Delacroix, Ingres, and Gérôme, alongside popular culture objects like porcelain figurines and film clips. The exhibition traces cultural exchanges from medieval trade and the Crusades to the 19th-century obsession with Islamic art, utilizing a scenography that emphasizes the construction of fictional narratives.

“Grammars of Light” at Astrup Fearnley Museet, Oslo

Astrup Fearnley Museet in Oslo presents "Grammars of Light," a major exhibition featuring immersive works by Cerith Wyn Evans, Ann Lislegaard, and P. Staff. The show includes architecturally scaled video projections and luminous sculptures made from repurposed consumer, medical, and industrial lighting, transforming the museum's galleries into sensory environments that challenge perception.

Oklahoma slam dunk: Indigenous artist invites visitors to shoot hoops as part of his latest show

Edgar Heap of Birds, a Cheyenne and Arapaho artist, presents a retrospective at Oklahoma Contemporary titled "Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds: HONOR SONG" (through 20 October). The exhibition features over 100 works, including monoprints, abstract paintings, glassworks, and sculptures, alongside two new public art installations—most notably a pair of basketball courts in Campbell Art Park that are open for public play for at least a year. The courts draw inspiration from his Neuf series and Native Hosts series, incorporating hand-painted murals and a scoreboard recreating a 1982 Times Square project. The indoor portion includes works such as "Most Serene Republics" (2007) from the Venice Biennale and "Surviving Active Shooter Custer" (2018).

Freedom of expression: Tate exhibition offers an overdue showcase of Nigeria’s Modernist artists

Tate Modern's exhibition "Nigerian Modernism" showcases over 300 works by 59 Nigerian modernist artists, curated by Osei Bonsu and Bilal Akkouche. The show follows the 2018 record sale of Ben Enwonwu's portrait "Tutu" at Bonham's for £1.2 million, which highlighted the neglect of modern African artists in art history. It features pioneers like Aina Onabolu, the first African student at an English art school, and Uche Okeke of the Zaria Art Society, whose work blends Western techniques with Nigerian traditions, Islamic aesthetics, and uli mural painting.

SAM Opens Its First Solo Exhibition By a Pakistani-American Artist

Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAM) has opened "Anila Quayyum Agha: Geometry of Light," the institution's first solo exhibition by a Pakistani-American artist. The show, running from August 26, 2025 through April 19, 2026, features Agha's intricate laser-cut steel light sculptures, beadwork, and embroidered pieces that explore cultural identity, gender, and spirituality. Curated by José Carlos Diaz, SAM's Susan Brotman deputy director for art, the exhibition marks Agha's first presentation in the Pacific Northwest and includes works such as the 2021 piece "Liminal Space."

zohran mamdani quran nypl

A late 18th- or early 19th-century Quran from Ottoman Syria, held by the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, was used to swear in Zohran Mamdani as New York City's first mayor to take the oath on the Muslim holy book. The ceremony took place just after midnight on New Year's Day 2026 at the decommissioned City Hall station, administered by New York Attorney General Letitia James. The Quran is now on display at the library's main branch in an exhibition titled "The People's Quran: Making History at City Hall."

art pat steir khajistan hc westermann

Pat Steir's early installation "Mirage 1975" has been restaged at Hauser & Wirth's Soho location, marking the 50th anniversary of her first-ever installation originally at the State University of New York in Oneonta. The exhibition runs through August 15, 2025, and coincides with the publication of the monograph "Pat Steir Paintings 2018–2025." Separately, the exhibition "Spasial Program by Khajistan" is on view at SculptureCenter in Long Island City through July 28, 2025, presenting a vast archive of rare, illicit, and suppressed media artifacts from the Islamicate world, curated by Lahore-born filmmaker Saad Khan.

An Iranian museum holds a rare exhibit of American art, reflecting on war

The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art is hosting a rare exhibition of American art, featuring works from its collection that were acquired before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The show includes pieces by artists such as Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko, and is presented as a reflection on the complex history of U.S.-Iran relations, including themes of war and cultural exchange.

doha museum shows art basel qatar

Art Basel's inaugural edition in Doha has arrived, bringing with it new collectors and galleries seeking institutional interest. The event has prompted Doha's museums to stage significant exhibitions that emphasize historical depth and architectural legacy, rather than catering to fleeting market trends.

As Told By: Slavs and Tatars at Rossi & Rossi

Slavs and Tatars, the research-based art collective, opened their first solo exhibition in Hong Kong titled “胡 ( هو / who) are you?” at Rossi & Rossi, running until May 9, 2026. The show gathers iconic projects and new commissions across various media, playfully probing the philosophical question of identity and belonging. Co-founder Payam Sharifi discusses works such as the handblown glass melon sculptures in "Dark Yelblow" (2025), which explore cultural stereotypes and the figure of the Other, and the "Love Me, Love Me Not" series, which recovers original place names and scripts to reveal the layered complexity of empires.

Art as survival: US artists' anti-war artefacts exhibited in Tehran

An anti-war exhibition titled "Art and War" has opened at a top museum in Tehran, featuring works by American pop artists Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Indiana, and James Rosenquist. The pieces, including Rosenquist's "F-111" and Lichtenstein's "Brattata," were selected for their anti-war themes and come from the museum's major collection of American and European modern art, acquired in the 1970s by former Empress Farah Pahlavi and largely kept from public view since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The exhibition opened amid ongoing tensions and a recent ceasefire in the Middle East, with the museum director stating it was a deliberate response to current events.

From a bakery pop-up to an I.M. Pei survey: the exhibitions to see in Doha during Art Basel Qatar

A series of major exhibitions are on view in Doha, coinciding with the Art Basel Qatar event. These include Rirkrit Tiravanija's interactive bakery installation at MIA Park, two major surveys of architect I.M. Pei's work at AlRiwaq Gallery and the Museum of Islamic Art, and a group show titled "we refuse_d" at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art.

What Can I See and Do at the DAM This Winter and Spring?

The Denver Art Museum (DAM) has announced its winter and spring 2025 programming, including exhibitions, events, and activities from February through April. Highlights include the closing exhibitions "Pissarro's Impressionism" (final day February 8) and "A Constant Sky" by Andrea Carlson (through February 16), the opening of photography show "What We’ve Been Up To: People" on February 8, fashion exhibition "Conversation Pieces: Stories from the Fashion Archives" on February 15, and "Space Is the Place: Art & Design in the Atomic Age" and "'Round the Clock: 24 Hours of Colorado in Prints" on March 1. Special events include Slam Nuba's 5th Annual Poetry Slam on February 21, lectures by Didier William and Zora J. Murff in March, and the major exhibition "The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art" opening April 19. The museum also offers free general admission for members and visitors 18 and under.

Still Glasgow

The article reviews the exhibition 'Still Glasgow' at the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow, running from November 29, 2025, to June 13, 2026. Curated from the Glasgow Life Museums collection, it features around 80 photographic works from the 1940s to the present, including pieces by Bert Hardy, Oscar Marzaroli, Alan Dimmick, Iseult Timmermans, Joseph McKenzie, and Eric Watt. The show documents Glasgow's people and urban change, moving from earlier male documentary photographers to contemporary perspectives, and includes both still and moving images.

German artist Anselm Kiefer featured in new Saint Louis Art Museum exhibit

The Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) unveiled German artist Anselm Kiefer's exhibition "Becoming the Sea" on October 18, 2025, after 2.5 years of development. Spanning nearly 30,000 square feet, the show features enormous paintings shipped from Kiefer's Paris suburb studio, some cut into sections to fit shipping constraints. The exhibition includes works influenced by Kiefer's wife's hospitalization, his studies as a constitutional lawyer, and themes of anti-nationalism and philosophy. Kiefer requested no stanchions in front of artworks and that window shades remain up to encourage visitor immersion and connection with the outdoors.

Home of murdered Pakistani artist Ismail Gulgee becomes a museum

The home and studio of murdered Pakistani Modernist artist Ismail Gulgee has been transformed into a museum by his son, installation artist Amin Gulgee. Opened in February 2025 in central Karachi, the museum preserves the late artist's work, including his Expressionist calligraphic paintings and later abstract canvases, which had been locked away since Gulgee, his wife, and a maid were killed in 2007 by their driver and an accomplice. The building, designed by architect Nayyar Ali Dada, now houses a carefully curated collection that traces Gulgee's evolution from formal calligraphy to vibrant abstraction.