The 2025 World Art Calendar brings together some of the most significant exhibitions taking place in museums and galleries across the globe, serving as your guide throughout the year. In this edition of the 2025 World Art Calendar, you’ll find a selection of exhibitions from around the world.
Installation view of Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Mirror Room – Phalli’s Field, 1965, at Castellane Gallery, New York. Courtesy of YAYOI KUSAMA.Yayoi Kusama Retrospective
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne – Until April 15, 2025
Iconic contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama arrives in Australia with a comprehensive retrospective showcasing her 80-year artistic journey. From December 15, 2024, Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) will exhibit over 200 works, ranging from her earliest pieces to her latest creations. This large-scale event marks the most extensive Kusama exhibition in Australia, featuring the largest collection of her installations ever assembled.
© YAYOI KUSAMA
The exhibition will include Kusama’s famous Infinity Rooms, offering a visual experience, alongside the world premiere of her latest Infinity Mirror Room. Visitors will have the opportunity to trace Kusama’s artistic evolution, exploring how she employs signature polka dots, repetitive patterns, and themes of infinity and self-identity. Additionally, rare archival materials—photographs, films, letters, magazines, and documents—will shed light on Kusama’s radical performance art, fashion designs, and activism in the late 1960s.
Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York – February 8 to May 11, 2025
In the early 19th century, Romanticism emerged as a new artistic movement. One of its pioneers, Caspar David Friedrich, will make a landmark debut in the U.S. with a major retrospective at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, featuring 75 of his works.
This exhibition, organized in collaboration with Europe’s leading institutions, explores how Friedrich transformed nature into a spiritual and emotional experience. His landscapes will take viewers on an introspective journey.
Titled Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature, the exhibition presents some of his most renowned paintings, including Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog and The Lone Tree, alongside drawings and sketches from various stages of his career. This retrospective offers a rare opportunity to grasp Friedrich’s artistic evolution and his contribution to the Romantic movement.
Picasso for Asia: A Conversation
M+ Museum, Hong Kong – Opening March 2025
Western art giant Pablo Picasso meets the artistic traditions of the East in Hong Kong. Co-organized by M+ Museum and the Musée National Picasso-Paris, the exhibition Picasso for Asia: A Conversation brings together over 60 masterpieces, displayed alongside works by contemporary Asian artists, fostering an artistic dialogue.
This exhibition not only provides a perspective on Picasso’s work but also explores his artistic interactions and interest in Asian art. At the same time, it examines how modern Asian artists interpret Picasso’s legacy and draw inspiration from his style. This show is a must-see for those interested in the cultural exchange between East and West.
Kandinsky’s Universe: Geometric Abstraction in the 20th Century
Museum Barberini, Potsdam – February 15 to May 18, 2025
The early 20th century witnessed a shift in art, as artists moved away from representing the visible world and instead sought to create a new visual language using color, lines, and shapes. This movement, known as Geometric Abstraction, transformed the art world.
The exhibition Cosmos Kandinsky: Geometric Abstraction in the 20th Century, hosted by Museum Barberini in Potsdam, centers around the work of Wassily Kandinsky, one of the pioneers of the movement. In addition to Kandinsky’s works, the exhibition features pieces by over 70 artists, including Josef Albers and Sonia Delaunay, offering a comprehensive exploration of geometric abstraction’s evolution and its diverse interpretations.
Edvard Munch: Portraits and the Human Psyche
National Portrait Gallery, London – March 13 to June 15, 2025
Famed for The Scream, Norwegian Expressionist painter Edvard Munch is often perceived as a solitary and introverted figure. However, the exhibition Edvard Munch: Portraits, hosted at London’s National Portrait Gallery, provides a fresh perspective by focusing on Munch’s social circle and interactions with people.
Featuring over 40 works, the exhibition includes portraits of Munch’s family members, friends, colleagues, and patrons, revealing his ability to capture not just physical appearances but also the depths of human emotion. Visitors will also explore the diverse techniques and styles Munch employed in his portraits, from his expressive brushstrokes to his use of color, reflecting his deep interest in human psychology.
Ithell Colquhoun: Between Worlds
Tate Britain, London – January to April 2025
Often overlooked yet immensely influential, Ithell Colquhoun was one of the leading figures of British Surrealism. The exhibition Ithell Colquhoun: Between Worlds, presented at Tate Britain, brings together over 170 works, offering a deep dive into her mystical and magical artistic universe.
The exhibition traces her journey from early student works to her involvement with the Surrealist movement and her lifelong fascination with art, gender, ecology, and the occult. The show culminates in a dedicated room featuring Colquhoun’s tarot card illustrations, considered one of the most profound expressions of her artistic and spiritual practice.
Before arriving at Tate Britain, the exhibition will first be on view at Tate St Ives in February 2025.
Yoshitomo Nara: A Retrospective
Hayward Gallery, London – June 10 to August 31, 2025
Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara is known for his big-headed, wide-eyed childlike figures, often conveying a mix of innocence and rebellion. His works have captivated audiences and commanded high prices in the art market.
This summer, Hayward Gallery in London will host Yoshitomo Nara: A Retrospective, showcasing works spanning 40 years of his career. The exhibition includes paintings, sculptures, installations, and drawings, exploring themes such as childhood memories, Japanese culture, and influences from popular music.
With over 150 works, this retrospective provides a comprehensive insight into Nara’s artistic evolution, making it a must-see, especially since such an extensive Nara exhibition is unlikely to return to Europe for many years.
Brazil! Brazil! The Birth of Modernism
Royal Academy of Arts, London – January 28 to April 21, 2025
At the beginning of the 20th century, Brazilian artists blended European Modernist influences with their own cultural heritage, creating a distinctive artistic style. The exhibition Brazil! Brazil! The Birth of Modernism, at the Royal Academy of Arts, explores this pivotal transformation.
Featuring over 130 works, the show highlights key Brazilian modernists such as Anita Malfatti, Tarsila do Amaral, and Candido Portinari, shedding light on the diverse artistic traditions of Brazil, from Indigenous art to Afro-Brazilian influences.
The World of Tim Burton
Design Museum, London – Until April 21, 2025
Legendary filmmaker Tim Burton, known for his gothic and fantastical worlds, is the focus of this exhibition at London’s Design Museum. The World of Tim Burton features over 600 objects, including drawings, sculptures, costumes, puppets, and film sets, offering a deep dive into his 50-year career.
From Edward Scissorhands to Batman and The Nightmare Before Christmas, the exhibition explores Burton’s unique storytelling, character designs, and visual style, making it a must-see for film, animation, and design enthusiasts.
Nick Cave: Mammoth
Smithsonian American Art Museum – November 21, 2025 – January 3, 2027
Nick Cave invites visitors on a journey through time with his latest installation, Mammoth, at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Transforming the museum’s galleries into a landscape filled with handcrafted mammoth skins and bones, Cave presents these prehistoric giants as powerful symbols of both extinction and survival.
Through this large-scale installation, Cave explores pressing social and personal themes such as race, gender, and identity while simultaneously questioning humanity’s relationship with nature. The exhibition integrates video projections, sculptures, and sound installations, offering an interactive experience that challenges perceptions and encourages reflection.
Mammoth highlights the transformative power of art and its ability to bridge the past and the future, creating a thought-provoking space where history, memory, and imagination converge.
