JANUARY PLAYLIST
SP LIST: ART EXHIBITIONS & BOOKS
Tyler Mitchell, Wish This Was Real at La MEP, Paris
from October 10, 2025 to 25 January, 2026
As one of the most compelling photographers of his generation. Mitchell’s photography is driven by dreams of paradise against the backdrop of history. Since his rise to prominence in the worlds of art and fashion, he propels a visual narrative which crosses beauty, style, utopia, and the landscape that expands the vision of Black life and shows how portraiture can be rooted in the past while evoking imagined futures.
This show moves through ten years of his artistic practice in photography, video, and sculpture, demonstrating the influence of the “New Black Vanguard” – the proliferation of images by Black photographers who work across genres of fashion and art. From portraits made in the United States, Europe, and West Africa to his latest prints on fabric and mirrors, he traces photography’s vital role in shaping a visual realm in which refuge and repose are central.
Left New Horizons II, 2022, Courtesy of the artist and Gagosian
Right Untitled (Red Steps), 2016, Courtesy of the artist and Gagosian
Left Untitled (Topanga II), 2017, © Tyler Mitchell, Courtesy of the artist and Gagosian
Right Flotation, 2022, © Tyler Mitchell, Courtesy of the artist and Gagosian
Tony Cragg at Lisson Gallery, London
from November 19, 2025 to January 31, 2026
Having first exhibited at the gallery in 1979, Cragg chose to return to continue a dialogue with his work’s development since his last exhibition, five years ago.
Centred on the latest in his series of 'Incident' sculptures, alongside recent pieces from related, ongoing bodies of work, this solo show revolves around numerous upright forms that resemble standing figures or columnar pillars, but which are abstracted and complicated through Cragg’s rigorous process of hand carving – whether through the act of building up and constructing or through careful erosion and hollowing out.
Alongside an interconnectedness and shared complexity across all Cragg’s output, these works together present an artist who is not only continuing to evolve and enrich the range of thoughts, materials and forms involved in his creations, but also someone constantly pushing at the limits of what is possible to achieve in sculpture.
Left Incident (Vertical), 2022, Corten Steel, 230 x 84 x 94 cm, 90 1/2 x 33 1/8 x 37 in, © Tony Cragg, Courtesy Lisson Gallery, photo by Michael Richter
Right Contradiction, 2024, Bronze, 340 x 117 x 131 cm, 133 7/8 x 46 1/8 x 51 5/8 in, © Tony Cragg, Courtesy Lisson Gallery
Left Incident, 2023, Stainless steel, 185 x 84 x 87 cm, 72 7/8 x 33 1/8 x 34 1/4 in, © Tony Cragg, Courtesy Lisson Gallery
Right Stand, 2025, Bronze, 170 x 160 x 70 cm, 66 7/8 x 63 x 27 1/2 in, © Tony Cragg, Courtesy Lisson Gallery
Konkursas by Francesca Allen, published by Chloé Arts and Steidl
Depicting participants in Lithuania’s 'Konkursas Pasaulio Ilgaplaukės' annual competition for the world’s longest hair, this book visually transports you to the place where hundreds of girls and women with thousands of feet of hair walk the runway and have their lovingly groomed hair measured by gloved judges, before shaking it in a ceremonial finale. Allen’s fascination with ritual and coming-of-age sparked her interest in the contest, one which blends pageantry with folklore and allows the artist to deepen her thoughts on hair within femininity: “Hair influences how we are perceived by others, how professional we appear, our identity, our religion and culture. It plays a huge role in the enactment of self and our discrimination against others.” The resulting photographs—haunting, funny, slightly surreal—explore the dichotomy between modernity and tradition, obsession and aspiration, and ideas of girl- and womanhood.
In collaboration with Chloé Arts, an initiative driven under the creative direction of Chemena Kamali, the book embraces Chloé’s mission to celebrate outstanding female creativity and talent, nurturing emerging artists, and creating unexpected interdisciplinary conversations across different fields of the arts.
All pictures by Francesca Allen from the book Konkursas
All pictures by Francesca Allen from the book Konkursas
Tracey Emin, A Second Life, at Tate Modern, London
from February 27 to August 31, 2026
This will be the largest-ever exhibition of more than 90 works by Emin, including the headline-hitting installation 'My Bed' (1998). Also encompassing neon, sculpture, paintings, videos and textiles, the show will demonstrate “her uncompromising confessional approach to sharing experiences of love, trauma and personal growth”, says Tate. The show begins with works from Emin’s first solo exhibition at White Cube gallery in London, 'My Major Retrospective' 1982-93, which comprised over a hundred objects Emin had collected over the years, a continuing act of almost obsessive assemblage. These items will include small-scale photographs of Emin’s paintings made at art school in the 1980s. The works will also include the autobiographical video 'Why I Never Became a Dancer' (1995), drawing on her adolescence in the UK seaside town of Margate, which features prominently throughout the exhibition. 'Mad Tracey from Margate: Everybody’s Been There 1997', "lays bare her most intimate thoughts through hand stitched phrases, letters and drawings,” says Tate. The wooden sculpture 'It's Not the Way I Want to Die' (2005) is also based on the rollercoaster at Margate’s famous Dreamland funfair. The exhibition will also address the artist’s experience of abortion, in pieces such as 'How It Feels'' (1996), and her iconic 'My Bed' sculpture comprising condoms, pillows and a duvet, forms the centrepiece of the Tate show. Emin’s “second life” is explored in the final section, through the artist’s recent paintings and sculptures, such as 'Ascension' (2024), which reflect her philosophy following major surgeries for bladder cancer. “I feel this show will be a benchmark for me. A moment in my life when I look back and go forward. A true celebration of living,” says Emin in a statement.
Left Tracey Emin, I am The Last of my Kind 2019 © Tracey Emin
Right Tracey Emin, Ascension 2024 © Tracey Emin
Tracey Emin, My Bed 1998 © Tracey Emin, photo credit: Courtesy The Saatchi Gallery, London / Photograph by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd
Davide Sorrenti Journals, Volume 01 1994 – 1995 published by IDEA
This book explores the extraordinary first journals of Davide Sorrenti dated 1994–1995, a period marked by intense creativity at the very beginning of his short but influential career.
It’s the third of three books curated and edited by Francesca Sorrenti, his mother and published by IDEA: the retrospective monograph ArgueSKE 1994–1997 (three sold-out editions between 2019–2022), POLAROIDS (two sold-out editions in 2020 and 2023) and the fashion imagery focused My Beutyfull Lyfe in 2022. These books, together with the documentary See Know Evil (2018) and the Our Beutyfull Future exhibitions in New York (2019) and Milan (2022), continue Davide’s legacy which resonates strongly in contemporary culture.
More than simple notebooks, these are lasting pieces of a restless life and process – collages of photographs, Polaroids, contact sheets, sketches, test prints, flyers and quick notes. Every page captures the way Davide viewed the world: direct, raw and deeply human.
"Opening these journals means stepping into Davide’s universe – fast, beautiful and full of emotion. They show that he wasn’t only documenting a culture. He was documenting his own life, in all its intensity and vulnerability" (Francesca Sorrenti)
All pictures from Davide Sorrenti’s Journals
All pictures from Davide Sorrenti’s Journals
Viktor & Rolf, Fashion Statements, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, USA
from 10 October, 2025 to 8 February, 2026
For more than three decades, Dutch fashion designers Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren have explored the boundaries between haute couture and art with breathtaking virtuosity. This exhibition features more than a hundred of the duo's most daring and avant-garde works, reflecting their passions, obsessions, and singular vision. Included are garments from more than thirty of their collections as well as selections of their “works-in-progress dolls,” inspired by antique porcelain dolls and dressed in miniature versions of the designers’ handmade creations. The works are accompanied by elaborate animated projections designed for the exhibition by visual effects studio Rodeo FX and photographs by artists including Andreas Gursky.
Left Late Stage Capitalism Waltz, Haute Couture collection, Spring/Summer 2023, Look 15, tulle, satin, cotton coutille, and 3D-printed shape, Modeled by Eva Bus, Photographed by Marijke Aerden. © Marijke Aerden
Right AB+DM, Teti Mar, Paris, 2025, pigmented inkjet print, Blacklight, Haute Couture collection, Spring/Summer 1999. Commissioned by the High Museum of Art, Gift of Lauren Amos
Left Mario Sorrenti, Naomi Campbell, NO ready-to-wear collection, A/W 2008–09, V Magazine, 2008. © Mario Sorrenti / Art Partner
Right Ellen von Unwerth, Late Stage Capitalism Waltz, Haute Couture collection, Spring/Summer 2023. Suite Haute Couture, Town & Country, Paris, 2023. © Ellen von Unwerth
Wonderland, Annie Leibovitz at The Marta Ortega Pérez Foundation
from 22 November, 2025 to1 May, 2026
This latest exhibition traverses the American photographer’s extraordinary oeuvre, from her iconic 1975 tour images of The Rolling Stone towards her fashion photography – much of which has not been previously on display. In short, it is a testament to the breadth of Leibovitz’s work, having lensed a star-studded array of celebs, writers and performers – to her later longstanding collaboration with American Vogue and its former editor-in-chief, now global editorial director, Anna Wintour.
As spectacular and diverse as you’d imagine, this show offers never-before-seen prints and video installations, a Wonderland of fantastical fashion in all its glory.
Left Ben Stiller, Jacquetta Wheeler, Ai Tominaga, Karolina Kurkova, Oluchi Onweagba, and Stella Tennant, 'Paris', 2001. © Annie Leibovitz
Right Annie Leibovitz, Self portrait, 2021. ® Annie Leibovitz
The Antwerp Six at MoMu, Antwerp
from March 28, 2026 to January 17, 2027
This will be the first time a major exhibition is dedicated to the six iconic fashion designers, celebrating the unique connection between Dirk Bikkembergs, Ann Demeulemeester, Walter Van Beirendonck, Dries Van Noten, Dirk Van Saene and Marina Yee, (who, sadly, passed away this year), after they first gained international acclaim in 1986 when they presented their avant-garde collections at the British Designer Show in London's Olympia Hall.
The show commemorates the fortieth anniversary of the moment that changed the trajectory of Belgian fashion forever, where their stark, minimalist designs stood in contrast to the colourful excesses of 1980s haute couture and left the international press stunned. Faced with their unfamiliar Flemish names, the British media dubbed them simply ‘The Antwerp Six’.
The Antwerp Six, 1986, photography by Karel Fonteyne
Text by Kate Lawson