Vija Celmins
June 15-September 21
Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, Switzerland
fondationbeyeler.ch
Fondation Beyeler opens the most significant presentation of Latvian-American artist Vija Celmins’ work in Europe in almost 20 years, showcasing her masterful skills in painting, drawing and sculpture. Featuring works from the 1960s to the present, the exhibition covers her early focus on everyday objects and images of violence.
Later she created mesmerizing depictions of spider webs, oceans, deserts and the night sky. Also included is a selection of sculptures, which the artist describes as “three-dimensional paintings.” The show is completed by a new group of works that carry forward her longstanding engagement with surfaces and spatial depth.
"Fondation Beyeler never ceases to amaze me with its program, and choosing Vija Celmins to spearhead the summer season marks no exception. Over 50 years, Celmins, who was born in Latvia but lives in the U.S., has mesmerized us with her depictions of night skies and seascapes. With their simultaneous intimacy and vastness, her works powerfully redescribe what we all know but have perhaps never truly seen. It is great to see such a significant exhibition dedicated to the grande dame of artists." –Caroline Lang
Art Basel
June 19-22
Messe and Congress Center Basel, Switzerland
artbasel.com
More than 250 galleries bring their best modern and contemporary works to Basel each summer. This year sees the launch of a new section titled Premiere, which focuses on recently created works and precisely curated exhibitions including up to three artists. This joins existing sections such as Feature, for historical presentations by 20th-century artists; Statements, for solo projects by emerging artists; and the unmissable Unlimited, for monumental projects.
Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting
June 20-September 7
National Portrait Gallery, London
npg.org.uk
Jenny Saville’s visceral images of faces and bodies are credited with helping to reinvigorate contemporary figurative painting. The National Portrait Gallery has worked closely with the artist to organize what is, remarkably, the U.K.’s first major museum exhibition dedicated to her work. This broadly chronological presentation will display 50 works from across Saville’s career, including her energetic charcoal drawings and monumental oil paintings of the human form. Tracing the development of Saville’s practice from her emergence in the 1990s, the exhibition will also feature recent “portraits,” whose fluorescent tones interrogate the increasingly blurred lines between the physical and virtual.
"'I use my body a lot because it’s there and I don’t mind what I do to myself,' said Jenny Saville in a conversation with Nicolas Cullinan, former director of the National Portrait Gallery. Saville constantly questions how, pictorially, one represents the many concurrent realities of modern life. Her fascinating control of the human form in paint and the conversations she is able to have, on canvas, with the core collection of the gallery will show the importance of art history in her practice and continue a valuable discourse on how, and by whom, human stories are told." –Ottilie Windsor
Rick Owens: Temple of Love
June 28-January 4, 2026
Palais Galliera, Paris
palaisgalliera.paris.fr
Rick Owens has been a transformative force in fashion since he founded his label in 1994, and has cultivated a devoted international following over three decades. He is admired for his “grunge meets glamor” aesthetic, and an approach to formal invention that is complemented by a mania for new materials. For this show, the first comprehensive exhibition of his work, Owens fills the late 19th-century palace that houses the Musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris with temporary installations that will serve as backdrops for his many creations.
The Shakers: A World in the Making
June 6-September 28
Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany
design-museum.de
In the late 18th century, a dissident group of Quakers, known as the Shakers, fled the U.K. to America and established a commune. Their egalitarian movement believed that God was both male and female, and preached gender and racial equality as well as pacifism. They welcomed enslaved African Americans from 1790 and purchased their freedom. The Shakers considered work to be an act of worship, and this fostered a radical design philosophy to reflect their ascetic lifestyles. From chairs to barns, the simple and functional objects they created would shape modern design and inspire many contemporary practitioners. This exhibition displays the fruits of Shaker craft alongside contemporary art and design, revealing the legacy of this disappearing religious community, now reduced to just two members.
"The influence of Shaker furniture is everywhere—Donald Judd’s work comes immediately to mind but also that of George Nakashima, Danish mid-century designers and Isamu Noguchi. This summer’s show “The Shakers: A World in the Making,” at the Vitra Design Museum, looks to be a fascinating deep dive into the religious community’s design philosophy. Created by Formafantasma, the exhibition will also bring in contemporary art and design to sit in conversation with the Shaker pieces." –Jodi Pollack
Banner: Fondation Beyeler.. Courtesy of Fondation Beyeler.
