New Photography 2025: Lines of Belonging
September 14-January 17, 2026
Museum of Modern Art, New York
moma.org
The Museum of Modern Art’s celebrated “New Photography” series has featured more than 150 international artists since it first launched in 1985. This year, 13 artists and collectives are taking part in the 40th anniversary edition, each working from four cities that have existed for longer than the nation states in which they are located: Johannesburg, Kathmandu, New Orleans and Mexico City. Presenting their work for the first time in New York, the artists are at various stages in their careers but are all expanding the horizons of photography in the 21st century. The works in “Lines of Belonging” interweave the artists’ personal narratives with environmental and colonial histories to consider how communities are formed.
"'New Photography' at MoMA is the most important annual showcase of emerging and mid-career photographers. It debuted work by today’s most lauded photographers, including Wolfgang Tillmans, Cindy Sherman, Judith Joy Ross, Andreas Gursky, Deana Lawson and Barbara Kruger, who are routinely represented in Sotheby’s auctions now. It expands the definition of photography and challenges the medium’s traditional narratives. Its success has influenced how museums curate photography (see the International Center of Photography’s triennial, which launched in 2003). I cannot wait to see what the curators have discovered this year." –Emily Bierman
The Armory Show
September 5-7
Javits Center, New York
thearmoryshow.com
Galleries from around 30 countries are represented at this year’s Armory Show, with more than 200 participating in total. The modern and contemporary art fair is divided into various sections that focus on curated booths, solo shows, dual-artist presentations, large-scale installations and works from emerging galleries.
Frieze Seoul
September 3-6
COEX, Seoul
frieze.com
The fourth edition of Frieze Seoul features more than 100 galleries from across Asia and beyond, with a primary focus on contemporary art. There is also a Frieze Masters section for art from antiquity to the 20th century, as well as Focus Asia, which showcases the work of artists from galleries that have been operating for 12 years or less.
Kerry James Marshall: The Histories
September 20-January 18, 2026
Royal Academy, London
royalacademy.org.uk
The Royal Academy celebrates Kerry James Marshall’s 70th birthday with his first institutional show in the U.K. for almost 20 years. The Chicago-based artist, who was elected an honorary Royal Academician in 2022, is renowned for his lyrical, frequently large-scale figurative paintings and murals that place Black bodies front and center. He draws on his memories and on the tropes of how Black people have historically been depicted in Western artistic tradition to reinterpret them in the modern day. The exhibition features around 70 works from across Marshall’s career, including a new series of paintings and the sculpture “Wake” (2003-ongoing), which commemorates the first enslaved Africans who landed in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619.
"I am particularly excited about Kerry James Marshall’s major survey exhibition opening at the Royal Academy, which will later travel to the Kunsthaus Zurich and the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris. It has been almost a decade since Marshall’s last retrospective “Mastry” at the Met Breuer, which ranks as one of my favorite solo exhibitions in New York. Marshall’s work has grown in importance since then, positioning him as one of our foremost living painters today. The depth and narrative complexity of his paintings are heightened when presented together—displaying the full range of his power and impact in reinventing Western modes of picture making." –David Galperin
Tokyo Gendai
September 12-14
PACIFICO Yokohama, Tokyo
tokyogendai.com
Tokyo Gendai, now in its third edition, is taking place in September for the first time, moving from its usual slot in July. Galleries from around 20 countries are represented with approximately 70 participating in total. The fair promotes Japanese contemporary art to a global audience and brings international artists and galleries to Japan.
Leonora Carrington
October-February 2026
Palazzo Reale, Milan
palazzorealemilano.it
The British-born artist Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) was a rebellious teenager at a finishing school in Florence when she came under the influence of early Italian Renaissance painting. Now, Milan’s Palazzo Reale is presenting the first solo exhibition of her work in Italy. The show emphasizes Carrington’s lifelong relationship with the country, as well as her affiliation with the Surrealist movement. Key moments in Carrington’s life are illuminated by her paintings, a selection of photographs, books from her personal library and archival material. The exhibition reveals an artist who pursued self-knowledge as a perpetual traveler, as both an exile in Mexico and a creator of fantastical images exploring other worlds.
"As an admirer of Carrington in particular and of Surrealism in general, I am excited to see Carrington in Milan. The show may seem like an oxymoron because the Surrealists wanted a tabula rasa—to break with the art of the past, which is everywhere in Italy. But the Palazzo Reale feels very natural and even organic as a place for a solo show of Carrington. Why? Because her technical virtuosity is echoed in the beauty of the Palazzo and the fabulous Duomo nearby. Having been part of the team that brought Carrington’s market into a new dimension, I feel we are at the dawn of something new. Carrington is now, with Frida Kahlo, a market-leading female artist." –Thomas Bompard
Banner: Sandra Blow, “Allan Balthazar,” 2017. © Sandra Blow.
