AUGUST PLAYLIST
SP LIST: ART EXHIBITIONS & BOOKS
Ana Mendieta at Tate Modern, London
from July 15th, 2026 to January 17th, 2027
Born in Havana in 1948 and sent to the US at age 12, Mendieta is known for her groundbreaking explorations of feminine archetypes and the natural world, with her work reflecting a deep sense of displacement and a lifelong search to reconnect with her origins and the landscape. She creates an earth-body connection by blending her own silhouette into nature using mud, sand, grass, rocks, and water, such as with her The Siluetas Series, where she created over 100 temporary body traces in the dirt or grass to show a return to the earth. Her radical use of primordial materials and non-traditional mediums like gunpowder, fire, feathers, and animal blood, fuse a raw and visceral energy into her multidisciplinary approach.
Mendieta died on September 8, 1985, at the age of 36, after falling 34 stories from the window of her Greenwich Village apartment in New York City. Her death remains highly controversial and divided the art world. This major retrospective looks past the tragedy of her life and death to centre firmly on the power, innovation, and physical presence of her art.
Left Imágen de Yágul 1973. © The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC. Licensed by Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York / DACS, 2026 / Courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery and Alison Jacques, London
Right Untitled: Silueta Series 1976. © The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC. Licensed by Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York / DACS, 2026 / Courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery and Alison Jacques, London
Left Bird Run 1974. © The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC. Licensed by Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York / DACS, 2026 / Courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery and Alison Jacques, London
Right Untitled: Silueta Series 1977. © The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC. Licensed by Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York / DACS, 2026 / Courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery and Alison Jacques, London
Rebekka Deubner: La terre amoureuse (se dit de la terre qui colle aux bottes), Les Rencontres de la Photographie, Arles
from July 6th to October 4th, 2026
This is an intimate, slow-tempo visual exploration of daily rural life and the aftermath of the Sainte-Soline mega-reservoir protests. In contrast to the noisy and often violent media coverage, Deubner focuses on the quiet and enduring presence of the landscape and the human relationship with soil through the rhythms of labour and nature. Ordinary, repeated and shared physical tasks of farmers (sowing, weeding, irrigating) ties bodies to time, framed as a tender, grounded portrait of humans, plants, and animals coexisting in a contested territory.
Left Harnessing Lili, that is, fitting her with the necessary equipment for work(Amandine), 2025, series The loving earth (referring to soil that sticks to boots), 2023–2026, Courtesy of the artist
Right Hands of a market gardener and protester in Saint-Soline 2 during sowing, 2023, series The loving earth (referring to soil that sticks to boots), 2023–2026, Courtesy of the artist
Rebekka Deubner, The Cram-Chaban mega-basin or substitute reservoir dismantled during a protest on November 6, 2021, after being ruled illegal by the Bordeaux Court of Appeal, 2023, series The loving earth (referring to soil that sticks to boots), 2023–2026, Courtesy of the artist
Fragile Beauté: Images from the collection of Elton John and David Furnish, at Jeu de Paume, Paris
from June 12th to September 24th, 2026
Featuring over 300 rare modern and contemporary photographs from the private collection of Sir Elton John and David Furnish, this show focuses on the strength and vulnerability of the human condition. There are iconic works on show from legendary artists including Nan Goldin – noted for her powerful, intimate portraits, Robert Mapplethorpe – celebrated for his striking, boundary-pushing compositions, and Diane Arbus and Richard Avedon, both famed for their deeply human and revealing portraiture.
The collection reflects over 30 years of personal taste, curiosity, and emotional connection with the selected images balancing the raw power, resilience, and fragility of people. Major historical and societal moments are also captured such as the 1960s civil rights movement and 1980s AIDS activism.
Left Harley Weir, Boys Don’t Cry, Senegal, 2015, © Harley Weir
Right Ethan Swope, In the Path of Fire, 2025, Associated Press/Alamy/Ethan Swope
Left Ryan McGinley, Dakota Hair, [Coiffure du Dakota], 2004, © Ryan McGinley
Right Pirkle Jones, Black Panthers de Sacramento, rassemblement pour la libération de Huey, Bobby Hutton Memorial Park, Oakland, Californie, 25 août 1968, © The Regents of the University of California. Courtesy Special Collections, University Library, University of California, Santa Cruz. Ruth-Marion Baruch and Pirkle Jones Photographs
Xie Lei, Double, at Musée Denys-Puech, Rodez
from June 12 to October 25, 2026
The oeuvre of Chinese painter Xie Lei, winner of the 2025 Marcel Duchamp Prize, is explored in this show which hinges on the theme of duality: day and night, clarity and obscurity, light and shadow. Dense, mysterious, and ambiguous imagery mesmerises as silhouettes emerge and dissolve behind colourful halos, while the installation itself is designed to engage with the museum's architecture and existing collection – the layout mirrors paintings on canvas and works on paper on opposing sides of the museum's colonnade. Expect a sensory journey where painting becomes a space for metamorphosis and shifting perceptions.
Left Corrosion, 2025, oil on canvas, picture by A. Mole, courtesy of Semiose, Paris
Right Idol I, 2026, oil on canvas, picture by A. Mole, courtesy of Semiose, Paris
Louise Chevallet, Chère Lisa
This is a personal photo book about Chevallet’s mother, combining pages from her mother's childhood diary that she named Lisa. Mapping a journey that they took together to Casablanca where her mother grew up, and images Chevallet shot between 2020-2024, she continues her long-term research around clothing, using photography to explore memory, identity, and intimacy as personal style reflects time, family, and growing up.
All pictures by Louise Chevallet, from the book Chère Lisa
All pictures by Louise Chevallet, from the book Chère Lisa
Charlotte Gainsbourg, 5 Bis – in partnership with Saint Laurent and Maja Hoffmann, at The Cloister Gallery, Les Rencontres d’Arles
from July 6th to September 6th, 2026
This is a deeply personal visual exploration of her father Serge Gainsbourg’s iconic Paris home at 5 bis rue de Verneuil, captured with her Hasselblad camera and a tripod just before it opened as a public museum. Featuring 20 unseen photographs, the exhibition reveals an intimate portrait of a place shaped by memory and legacy, where she steals moments in a quiet, ghost-like dialogue between a daughter and her father's lingering presence, as the raw, unfiltered nature of the shots act as a final private goodbye to her childhood home.
All pictures by Charlotte Gainsbourg
All pictures by Charlotte Gainsbourg
Martine Gutierrez: Wunderkind at Huis Marseille, Amsterdam
from until June 27th to October 18th, 2026
Gutierrez explores identity not as a fixed trait from birth, but as something fluid, imagined, and continuously performed through creative play. In this exhibition, the inner child is revealed as she combines her mother's personal family photo and video archives with new works, exploring where selfhood and artistic consciousness first meet. Her use of childhood toys alongside handmade items and empty dresses (like her recent headless costume portraits), act as self-portraits representing moments of visibility and self-definition.
Gutierrez’s life is perpetual performance, revealing the foundations of an artistic practice rooted in the continuous construction and deconstruction of the self.
Left Dress Up 5, 2026, © Martine Gutierrez
Right Nursery, 2026, from the series Still Life
Left Belle, 2026, © Martine Gutierrez
Right Mom’s Refrigerator, 2026, from the series Still Life
Text by Kate Lawson