With summer glow fading into autumnal gloom, an urge to succumb to seasonal stagnation takes over. Our recipe for avoiding such a feeling? Filling in your calendar for these months with exciting art events, taking you to the vibrant interiors of art galleries that will not only make for a shelter from autumnal weather, but also a space to witness the transformative power of art.
This list takes you across some of the most promising art exhibitions opening this season – across decades, art forms, and countries, through photography, performance, painting, and much more. From iconic retrospectives and international group exhibitions to underrated solo showcases – go out and explore them all.
Tamara Kostianovsky. Moved by Forces.
When: September 6 – October 25, 2025
Where: SLAG&RX, New York City, United States
Argentinian-American artist Tamara Kostianovsky presents her latest works in New York’s SLAG&RX. Spanning textile “carcass” sculptures and installations, Moved by Forces is a poignant exploration of corporeality and natural environment through the ecofeminist lens. In her work, Kostianovsky repurposes her own clothing to comment on consumerism and the climate crisis. The artist urges her viewers to draw parallels between violence towards women and animals.
The dynamic, organic work transcends the spatial boundaries of the exhibition space, asserting an affinity between humans, the natural world, and architecture. Moved by Forces lies at the intersection of horror and beauty, the human and the non-human, transforming fixed ideas of embodiment.
Salt Warehouse. This Planet is Already Inhabited
When: September 12 – November 16, 2025
Where: Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw (MSN), Poland
The minimalist interiors of the Polish capital’s Museum of Modern Art meet the vibrant “floating works of art” in an exhibition celebrating artists’ fight for independent art spaces. MSN invites its visitors to dive into the world of art collectives and NGOs based in Kraków’s Skład Solny (Salt Warehouse) – a 200-year-old storage building transformed into a creative hub in the late 90s. People affiliated with Warehouse bridge the fight for individual, authentic art practice with social engagement across causes and genres: from music to sculpture, from environmental action to aid for Ukraine. Their signature yearly celebration of the Vistula River – Wodna Masa Krytyczna (Aquatic Critical Mass) – marks the showcase’s focal point.
The MSN exhibition presents a chance not only to examine the purpose-made floats and learn about Warehouse’s history, but also to explore the museum’s newly built headquarters before the official opening event in late October. Located on the ground floor’s Gallery A, Salt Warehouse: This Planet is Already Inhabited is accessible to the public free of charge.
Dream Rooms. Environments by Women Artists 1950s–Now
When: September 20, 2025 – January 18, 2026
Where: M+, Hong Kong
Enter multisensory dreamscapes in this exhibit at M+, Hong Kong’s global museum of contemporary visual culture. Dream Rooms envelops twelve full-scale reproductions of environments by women artists, illuminating the contribution of an under-represented demographic to this under-documented art form. Traversing generations and continents, the exhibition offers a transformative experience wherein the viewer becomes one with the artwork. Among the featured environments is Aleksandra Kasuba’s Spectral Passage. Famous for her ecological sensitivity and pursuit of alternative ways of living, the Lithuanian-American artist takes her viewers on a rainbow-tinged journey across the life cycle.
Initially conceived by Haus der Kunst München in 2023, the M+ presentation of the exhibition expands its scope with a selection of environments from Asian women artists. The three specially commissioned installations feature artists from Thailand, South Korea, and Japan, highlighting the global reach of environmental art.
Karol Palczak. Dzisiaj.
When: September 27, 2025 – January 18, 2026
Where: Kunsthalle Zürich, Switzerland
At Kunsthalle Zürich, supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Karol Palczak unveils Dzisiaj (Today) – a brand new series of paintings revolving around his home village of Krzywcza in southeastern Poland. Using film in parallel to painting, Palczak depicts the overlooked elements of his native environment. The artist stands not just as a mere witness, but as an actor in the region’s story. Blending realist tradition with a contemporary, multi-media sensibility, he treats his subjects with real devotion, unveiling a real intimacy to the hometown backdrop of depopulation, militarisation, and economic struggle.
Tilda Swinton. Ongoing.
When: September 28, 2025 – February 8, 2026
Where: Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
This autumn, Eye Filmmuseum devotes an entire exhibition to the Scottish actress-icon Tilda Swinton, exploring her creative collaborations across the years. The exhibit is set to showcase new and existing works by artistic partners and friends alike, starting with star directors like Pedro Almodóvar, through industry professionals, including the fashion historian Oliver Saillard, and ending with childhood friend and filmmaker Joanna Hogg. Highlights include: a specially created short film by Luca Guadagnino, and a peek into Swinton’s personal wardrobe – or her 1980s London flat. The exhibition will likewise examine the performer’s relationship to her native Scotland through a series of photographs from Tim Walker.
Ongoing is a tribute to – as Swinton puts it – “profoundly enriching creative relationships” in- and outside of film, reminding its visitors of the transformative power of human connection in one’s artistic practice: from forebears to friends.
Nguyễn Quốc Thànha & Nhà Sàn Collective. Let’s sleep and we’ll see.
When: October 3, 2025 – December 8, 2025
Where: MS1, Łódź, Poland
Created as part of Łódź of Many Cultures Festival, the multi-media exhibition Let’s sleep and we’ll see weaves a story that intertwines experiences of the Vietnamese diaspora in Poland with the queer experience. The installation transforms the museum space into a templarium (“temple of sleep”), a liminal space between fantasy and reality, past and present, Vietnam and Poland.
Let’s sleep showcases work from Nguyễn Quốc Thành, a Vietnamese artist-curator who spent many years in Poland, serving as – among others – one of the creators behind the beloved Five Flavours Asian Film Festival in Warsaw. The exhibition will likewise delve into his Hanoi-based Nhà Sàn Collective’s merging of art, activism, and everyday existence. In this way, it makes a much-needed effort to highlight the lasting presence of Vietnamese people in Łódź – as well as Poland on the whole – urging to stop the erasure of the diaspora in the country’s cultural spaces.
Zofia Rydet. Sociological Record.
When: October 10, 2025 – February 22, 2026
Where: The Photographers’ Gallery, London, England
Created as part of the UK/Poland Season 2025, the exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery showcases Zofia Rydet’s effort to document Polish domestic life across regions and decades – her monumental Zapis Socjologiczny (Sociological Record) project. Starting from 1978 all the way to her death in 1997, the Polish photographer was welcomed into hundreds of households, photographing the interiors along with their inhabitants.
Rydet’s project resulted in over 20,000 negatives, 100 of which will be featured in the exhibition, along with archival material such as books and personal letters. Standing at the intersection between art and scientific study, the exhibition offers a unique insight into everyday Polish life before, after, and during the socio-political transformation.
Zofia Rydet: Sociological Record is part of the UK/Poland Season 2025. It is produced by The Photographers’ Gallery in partnership with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute (co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage), Poland, and the Zofia Rydet Foundation.
Marina Abramović
When: October 10, 2025 – March 1, 2026
Where: Albertina Modern, Vienna, Austria
Albertina Modern presents a retrospective of Marina Abramović, inviting its visitors to re-live iconic moments from the history of contemporary performance art in the capital of Austria and the Actionism performance art movement. Curated in cooperation with Kunstforum Wien, the exhibit tracks the artist’s oeuvre – from early acts at Belgrade’s Student Cultural Centre (Studentski Kulturni Centar), through collaboration with life partner Ulay, to solo and participation-inviting works like the famous The Artist is Present.
The exhibition sets out to highlight Abramović’s persistence in pushing physical and psychological boundaries. Instead of taking a chronological approach, it organises the artist’s oeuvre by themes like bodily limits, participation, or natural energy. The retrospective is a unique opportunity to witness reenactments of the artist’s historical pieces – performed daily in the exhibition space!
Sana Shahmuradova Tanska. The Rapture.
When: October 25, 2025 – February 15, 2026
Where: MOCAK, Cracow, Poland
Sana Shahmuradova Tanska (b. 1996) is a representative of a new, vibrant generation of Ukrainian artists, whose work exists in a constant state of flux and transformation, oscillating between dream and reality, life and death. The Odessa-born artist mixes organic motifs with depictions of the mythical and biblical to paint personal and shared histories.
In her first solo exhibition, she presents a set of new and older pieces. The museum’s Gallery Alfa will become home to The Rapture, the eponymous frieze smoothly blending into the building’s architecture. Meanwhile, Gallery Beta will allow visitors to track Tanska’s creative development through a display of past work. All throughout, individual experiences and traumas will mingle with those of the national calibre.
Roman Ondak. The Day After Yesterday.
When: November 13, 2025 – March 9, 2026
Where: Kunsthalle Praha, Prague, Czechia
Kunsthalle Praha invites its visitors to reflect on Roman Ondak’s oeuvre in this two-decade overview. This is a chance to see his iconic installations as well as some lesser-known works from the museum’s collection – and experience his signature transformations of the mundane.
This Slovak artist often reaches for found objects in his work, refiguring everyday existence as a valuable creative medium. He works across art forms like sculpture, installation, photography, and performance, marrying different techniques and sensibilities to respond to the Central European reality in global contexts.
