OCTOBER PLAYLIST
SP LIST: ART EXHIBITIONS & BOOKS
Sarah Lucas: NAKED EYE at Kiasma Museum, Helsinki
from October 10, 2025 to March 8,2026
NAKED EYE marks Lucas’s first extensive solo presentation in the Nordic region, showcasing sculpture, photography and installations from the past four decades – including new and recent works.
The show explores her everyday observations and use of ‘readymade’ materials – furniture, food, cigarettes, and pantyhose – reassembling them in compositions that evoke the human body in all its fragility with desirousness, humour and eroticism. Engaging with unspoken assumptions surrounding gender, sexuality and power dynamics, the exhibition questions societal perceptions of the body, while also probing traditional depictions of class and the complex relationship between art and social hierarchy. Lucas weaves together these socially resonant themes with her signature wit and playful use of language.
Left Self-Portrait with Fried Eggs, 1986, © Sarah Lucas, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London, picture by Angus Fairhurst
Right Au Naturel, 1994, © Sarah Lucas, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London
Left ZEN LOVESONG, 2022, © Sarah Lucas, Bronze, mid steel, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London, picture by Steve Russell
Right Eating a Banana, © Sarah Lucas, courtesy Sadie Coles HQ, London, picture by Gary Hume
Jennie Baptiste: Rhythm & Roots, at Somerset House
from October 17, 2025 to January 4, 2026
This show affirms Baptiste’s rightful place as a defining voice in the canon of British photography. Spanning three decades, there are iconic and previously unseen portraits from her archive, championing the rich cultural influence of Black British communities across music, fashion, and youth identity.
From defining images of Roots Manuva, Estelle, Ms Dynamite and NAS, to street portraits of everyday icons from 1990s Brixton and beyond, to the searing energy of London’s dancehall scene and the rise of hip hop and R&B; Baptiste’s lens traces a record of a generation in motion that shaped a cultural movement — and continue to shape it today.
The show is set to a soundtrack of DJ-curated mixes, a full immersion into sound, style, and stories.
Left Roots Manuva, Fatboss magazine (British Hiphop magazine) commission, 1999
Right Ragga, Taken from the Ragga dancehall series, 1993
Left Basketball cage, Side court viewing, 2003
Right Mental Health & Black men, Fragility, 1999
Glen Luchford: Atlas at 10 Corso Como Gallery, Milan
from September 25 to November 23, 2025
Taking us back to the 90s, not that it seems we’ve ever left, for the constant fascination in the music and fashion of the era; a new solo exhibition dedicated to the work of British fashion photographer and portraitist Glen Luchford, rewinds to that decade, which launched his career. Conceived and designed by Luchford himself, the show takes us on a journey through his imagination, collapsing several decades of his work, from his iconic early shots for The Face, to fashion campaigns including Prada SS 1997, in a never-before-seen installation, curated by Alessio de’ Navasques. The exhibition will seamlessly blend personal memories and outtakes in large-format prints, layered works, collages and fashion films. Often melancholic and cinematic in its aesthetic, Luchford’s focus dismantles conventions of stereotypical beauty, and is constantly in motion, tracing the real and every day with a spontaneous, narrative quality.
Glen Luchford. Atlas collage, Tim Roth for Arena Magazine, 1993, Kate Moss, 1989, Courtesy of © Glen Luchford
Left Glen Luchford. Atlas collage, Malgosia Bela for Self Service Magazine, 2011, Stella Tennant for Mirabella Magazine, 1997, Courtesy of © Glen Luchford
Right Glen Luchford. Atlas collage, Gucci SS17 campaign, Another Magazine, 2011, Courtesy of © Glen Luchford
GIRLS at MoMu, Antwerp
from September 27, 2025 to February 1st, 2026
This show traces the evolving and multifaceted image of girlhood as it is represented and reimagined across art, fashion, and film, and why it remains such a powerful presence in culture. From Degas’ Little Dancer sculpture to Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides, and more recent visual perspectives from Micaiah Carter, Harley Weir and Juergen Teller; for centuries, girl-centred art has been regarded as sentimental or lightweight. Yet, recent interpretations are reframing it as a way of exploring social, political and emotional realities, and navigating the uncertainties and possibilities within the stage between childhood and adulthood. Works by Simone Rocha and Louise Bourgeois are also included, in a mix of style, photography and film, which purposefully sit side by side, in a nod to the shifting nature of the subject itself. Curated by Elisa De Wyngaert, with Claire Marie Healy on film, the exhibition also involves conversations with teenagers today and the importance of LGBTQIA+ representation.
Still from The Virgin Suicides, 1999, directed by Sofia Coppola, © Sofia Coppola
Left up Class of 1998, Veronique Branquinho Autumn-Winter 1998 for Self Service No. 8, © Photo: Anuschka Blommers & Niels Schumm
Left bottom Nigel Shafran, Teenage Precinct Shoppers, 1990, © Photo: Nigel Shafran
Right up Christiane F - Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo, directed by Uli Edel based on the autobiography by Christiane Felscherinow, 1981 © United Archives GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo
Right bottom Fumiko Imano, Yellow bath/Hitachi/Japan, 2007, © Fumiko Imano
Robert Mapplethorpe edited by Denis Curti from Artbook
out October, 28, 2025
Tracing echoes of antiquity in Mapplethorpe's erotic, dramatic and exquisitely balanced black-and-white compositions, this book makes a visual comparison between his sculptural and photographic representation of the human body.
From the most celebrated of Mapplethorpe's photographs of forms of ancient sculpture, with a focus on light, shadow, and form, embodying a timeless beauty and strength, to the fleeting and sensual ones of male and female models that echo similar poses or angles – this book retraces the stages of Mapplethorpe's artistic research, from early experiments with collage to his iconic images of nudes, portraits and floral compositions.
Left Italian Vogue, 1984, Silver Gelatin
Right Patti Smith, 1986, Silver Gelatin
Left Dennis Speight, 1983, Silver Gelatin
Right Ken, Lydia and Tyler, 1985, Silver Gelatin
The Domestic Stage, by Adam Murray, published by Thames & Hudson
This new book by photographer, curator and teacher Adam Murray, explores the shifting role of the home in fashion photography from the 1990s to the present day. Tracing a journey through the past 30 years of contemporary culture and fashion image-making, featuring work by Corinne Day, Carrie Mae Weems, Tina Barney and more, we see how the home serves as not just an intimate space and sanctuary for belonging, but for performance, aspiration and playful exploration. Our homes have become social signifiers within an experimental genre created by interdisciplinary artists, art directors, and photographers, where fashion photography has moved from the studio or the street into a third space – the domestic.
Left by Corinne Day
Right by Clifford Prince King
Left up by Tierney Gearon
Left bottom by Julie Greve
Right by Joyce NG
Blitz: the club that shaped the 80s at the Design Museum, London
from September 20, 2025 to March 29, 2026
Who would’ve thought that in a dimly lit basement in London’s Covent Garden in 1979, The Blitz Club would become the crucible of the New Romantic movement. But, every Tuesday night, with the iconic Steve Strange and DJ Rusty Egan as club hosts, a parade of aspiring pop stars, artists, designers and provocateurs sweated their eyeliner off, in ruffles and sequins, unknowingly becoming the trailblazers who would redefine 1980s British fashion and music.
The Blitz was more than just a nightclub though, it offered a beautiful escape for the post-punk generation — a space to see and be seen, a place for reinvention and totally unapologetic glamour, amid the velvet drapes, synthetic beats of Kraftwerk or Visage and the dry ice. The club was named after the wartime Blitz, championing creativity and defiance under pressure, with a notoriously selective door policy to protect its creative sanctuary, only allowing in the "avant-garde" and barring unstylish folk, like Mick Jagger! Now, for the first time, the club is celebrated in an exhibition highlighting its impact and influence on the cultural scene, featuring never-before-seen personal collections from former “Blitz Kids” who include Boy George and Spandau Ballet.
Left Outside the Blitz club in 1979, picture by Sheila Rock
Right Blitz/ the club that shaped the 80s at the Design Museum, picture by Luke Hayes 19.
Left Vivienne Lynn, Boy George, Chris Sullivan, Kim Bowen, Theresa Thurmer, and a Blitz attendee, 1980. © Derek Ridgers c/o Unravel Productions
Right up Blitz/ the club that shaped the 80s at the Design Museum, picture by Luke Hayes 24
Right bottom Marilyn at Club for Heroes, 1982, picture by Robert Rosen
Tim Walker’s Fairyland at National Portrait Gallery, London
from October 8, 2026 to January 31, 2027
The British photographer is known for his highly imaginative and fantastical photographs inspired by his love of fairy tales, while also championing new talent and unconventional beauty. Over the past five years, he’s been documenting queer trailblazers across the UK, casting them as characters in an alternate world of total freedom. Now, those images of writers, performers, activists, and artists, shot in his idiosyncratic style, will be on display in a new exhibition, curated by Susanna Brown, which explores queer identity, community, and love, all from behind Walker’s looking glass.
Left Harry Keita as Delphinium Fairy, London, 2022 © Tim Walker
Right Ian McKellen, Love, London, 2023 © Tim Walker
Peter Hujar: The Gracie Mansion Show Revisited at Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco
from September 4 to October 25, 2025
In 1986, one year before his death from AIDS, Hujar staged Recent Photographs at Gracie Mansion Gallery in New York, featuring 70 photographs including portraits of friends and fellow artists, nudes, landscapes, and pictures of animals and abandoned buildings. Hung in a long grid two rows high, the exhibition freely mixed genres and subjects, creating a sequence that encouraged multiple associations. Now this new exhibition presents a version of the original 1986 layout, for contemporary audiences to experience the artist’s work just as Hujar imagined it.
Left Trees and Leaves, Caven Point, 1984
Right Lynn Davis, 1981
Left David Wojnarowicz Manhattan Night (III), 1981
Right Fanny, 1978
Virgil Abloh: The Codes at Grand Palais, Paris
from September 30 to October 10, 2025
Bringing together The Virgil Abloh Archive™, in partnership with Nike, this is the first major European exhibition devoted to the late creative’s work, (launching on what would’ve been Abloh's 45th birthday). Exploring nearly two decades of his multidisciplinary output through the lens of his 20,000-object archive, this show brings together hundreds of objects, prototypes, sketches, and images from his career, as well his personal collections and library. Curated by Chloe Sultan & Mahfuz Sultan, the show expands on the 2022 Virgil Abloh: The Codes exhibition, tracing how his signature design principles – his “codes” – thread through and unify his practice that spans multiple disciplines, from fashion and footwear to architecture, music and advertising. The show also highlights Abloh's collective creativity and dialogue in his many collaborations with artists, designers, and athletes.
Virgil Abloh, picture by Tyrone Lebon
Left and right Virgil Abloh, picture by Bogdan Chilldays Plakov
Paul Outerbridge, Photographs at Fahey/Klein Gallery, Los Angeles
from September 25 to November 8, 2025
This landmark exhibition celebrates the visionary work of Paul Outerbridge (1896–1958), as one of the most resourceful and provocative photographers of the twentieth century. Through a selection of rare Carbro prints, Silver Gelatin photographs, and platinum prints, the show traces the evolution of a modernist whose daring vision helped redefine the possibilities of photography through Cubist experimentation and radical abstraction.
Left Girl in Bathing Suit, 1936, © Paul Outerbridge, courtesy of FaheyKlein Gallery, Los Angeles
Right Ide Collar, 1922, © Paul Outerbridge, courtesy of FaheyKlein Gallery, Los Angeles
Left Wine Glass on Checker Board, 1922, © Paul Outerbridge, courtesy of FaheyKlein Gallery, Los Angeles
Right Nude with Mask and Hat, c. 1936, © Paul Outerbridge, courtesy of FaheyKlein Gallery, Los Angeles
Text by Kate Lawson