SEPTEMBER PLAYLIST
SP LIST: ART EXHIBITIONS & BOOKS
Nan Goldin: Stendhal Syndrome, The Église Saint Blaise in Arles, France
from July 7 to October 5, 2025
This European debut of a new work by Nan Goldin (this year’s winner of the Kering Women in Motion Award), is screened in a tiny, darkened church, as a 30-minute slideshow that pairs Goldin’s candid photographs of her friends and lovers with those of famous classical, Renaissance and baroque artworks, captured by the American artist during her visits to some of the world’s most famous museums.
Goldin provides a voiceover which fuses into a soundtrack by Soundwalk Collective and music by Mica Levi, as tales from Ovid’s Metamorphoses meld the combination of visuals and life mirroring art (or vice versa), with Goldin’s inner-circle presented as mythological beings.
The exhibition and its title pay tribute to profound beauty: a beauty so intensely overwhelming that it can move viewers to the point of fainting, a phenomenon referred to as Stendhal syndrome.
Nan Goldin, Young Love, 2024, courtesy of the artist / Gagosian
Nan Goldin, Death of Orpheus, 2024, courtesy of the artist / Gagosian
This is What You Get: Stanley Donwood, Radiohead, Thom Yorke at Ashmolean Museum, UK
from August 6, 2025 to 11 January 11, 2026
If you love Radiohead, you'll love this major exhibition which explores the visual art of Stanley Donwood and Thom Yorke and the iconic images of the band. More than 180 objects are on display from the artists’ 30-year collaboration, including original paintings for album covers, digital compositions, etchings, unpublished drawings, and lyrics in their sketchbooks. Revealing how the artists experimented with early technology, the show explores the evolution of the images for Radiohead’s legendary albums and Yorke’s later projects.
Artists Thom Yorke and Stanley Donwood, photograph by Julian Broad, courtesy of TIN MAN ART
Left: Thom Yorke, Notebook featuring lyrics for Karma Police, 1995, collection of the artist, © Thom Yorke
Right, Top left: Stanley Donwood and Thom Yorke, Get Out Before Saturday, 2000, acrylic on canvas, private Collection, © Stanley Donwood and Thom Yorke
Top right: Stanley Donwood and Thom Yorke, The Bends, 1995, Album cover, © 1995 XL Recordings Ltd
Bottom left: Thom Yorke and Stanley Donwood, Heavy Snowfall on House, 1995, Lambda print on paper, Schunk Museum, Heerlen, Netherlands, © Thom Yorke and Stanley Donwood
Bottom right: Stanley Donwood and Thom Yorke, The King Of Limbs, 2011, Album cover, © 2011 LLLP LLP under exclusive license to XL Recordings Ltd
Wolfgang Tillmans: Nothing could have prepared us – Everything could have prepared us, at Centre Pompidou in Paris
from June 13 to September 22, 2025
The Centre Pompidou gives carte blanche to Tillmans for a bold project, transforming 6,000 square meters of the Public Information Library, as he reimagines the space as a curatorial experiment, blending his work with the library’s architecture and role in knowledge sharing. Spanning 35 years, the retrospective features portraiture, still life, abstraction, video, sound, music, and contributions from performance artists, defying categorisation.
Left: Flowerhead, 2001, courtesy Galerie Buchholz, Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris, Maureen Paley, London, David Zwirner, New York
Right: Echo Beach, 2017, courtesy Galerie Buchholz, Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris, Maureen Paley, London, David Zwirner, New York
Left: Lüneburg (self), 2020, courtesy Galerie Buchholz, Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris, Maureen Paley, London, David Zwirner, New York
Right: its only love give it away, 2005, courtesy Galerie Buchholz, Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris, Maureen Paley, London, David Zwirner, New York
The State We’re In, A, 2015, courtesy Galerie Buchholz, Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris, Maureen Paley, London, David Zwirner, New York
Kerry James Marshall at Royal Academy of Arts in London
from September 20, 2025 to January 18, 2026
Kerry James Marshall's paintings are rooted in the traditions of Western art he encountered as a child with his lyrically large-scale works drawing on personal memories, art history, civil rights, comics and science fiction. While reflecting on the past, his powerful work celebrates everyday life and envisions brighter futures.
This exhibition is the largest outside of the US, and the first chance for many to experience his works in the UK, including his monumental commission from the Chicago Public Library, Knowledge and Wonder (1995), which has never been loaned before.
Left: De Style, 1993, acrylic and collage on canvas, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by Ruth and Jacob Bloom, © Kerry James Marshall, photo: © Museum Associates/LACMA
Right: Untitled, 2009, acrylic on PVC panel, Yale University Art Gallery, purchased with the Janet and Simeon Braguin Fund and a gift from Jacqueline L. Bradley, B.A. 1979, © Kerry James Marshall
Untitled (Blanket Couple), 2014, acrylic on PVC panel, in artist's frame, Fredriksen Family Art Collection, © Kerry James Marshall. Image courtesy of the artist and David Zwirner, London
Limelight - First Edition by David Koppel, published by PAP ART
Most of us wouldn't imagine an abandoned 1880s Presbyterian church being turned into one of the wildest clubbing venues in the UK, but rewind forty years, and that's exactly what the Limelight was. There among the crowds in what was dubbed as "Britain’s most famous nightspot" by The Times newspaper, was photographer David Koppel, capturing an era of club culture from behind his lens. Now, with an archive that's like a who’s-who of the Eighties, Koppel is releasing a photo book of the iconic celebrities he shot at Limelight, including Boy George, George Michael, Johnny Rotten, Leigh Bowery, Nile Rogers, Iggy Pop, Jeff Beck, Malcolm McLarenn and Billy Idol among others.
To coincide with the book’s release this month, there will be an exhibition of the work at Zebra One Gallery in London, with a book signing on 9 October.
Left: Leigh Bowery and friend by David Koppel
Top right: Untitled by David Koppel
Bottom right: Fat Tony and Boy George by David Koppel
Top left: John Moss birthday cake by David Koppel
Bottom left: Mel Smith kissing by David Koppel
Right: Charlie and friend by David Koppel
Dirty Looks at Barbican Art Gallery in London
from September 25, 2025 to January 25, 2026
Rebelling against conventional luxury fashion ideals, this show looks at the dirty side of fashion, presenting its past, present and potential future.
From ruined romantic evening gowns and faux-stained jeans, to mud-splashed dresses and upcycled outfits, the show explores how dirt and decay is defying beauty standards, particularly in young designers' work, leading us to a new way of thinking about a sustainable fashion future.
The rebellious, playful and regenerative potentials of dirt and decay (wear and tear) have been a catalyst for artistic innovation over the past half-century, as a provocative tool for empowering experimentation with materials and imbuing clothing with deeper spiritual meanings.
Alongside pieces from over 60 designers including Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood and Maison Margiela, the exhibition will also include bespoke installations showcasing the work of visionaries such as Hussein Chalayan and emerging designers pushing the boundaries of fashion practice, such as Elena Velez, Yuima Nakazato and IAMISIGO.
The Barbican Art Gallery will also radically reimagine the way in which fashion is displayed, as Studio Dennis Vanderbroeck – known for its performative and cutting-edge designs for fashion shows and theatre – will transform the space.
Accompanying the exhibition will be a catalogue published by MACK, with essays by internationally acclaimed authors including Fabio Cleto and Stefania Consonni, Lou Stoppard, and curators Karen Van Godtsenhoven and Jon Astbury, featuring original object photography by Ellen Sampson capturing the intimate, tactile and bodily qualities of the garments in the exhibition.
Left: Piero D’Angelo, Physarum Lab, 2019, photograph by Ladislav Kyllar
Right: Paolo Carzana, Spring/Summer 2025, How to Attract Mosquitoes. Headwear and creative consulting by Nasir Mazhar. Styling and creative consulting by Patricia Villirillo. Photograph by Joseph Rigby. Courtesy of Paolo Carzana
Left: Paolo Carzana, Autumn/Winter 2025, Dragons Unwinged at the Butchers Block. Headwear and creative consulting by Nasir Mazhar. Styling and creative consulting by Patricia Villirillo. Photograph by Joseph Rigby. Courtesy of Paolo Carzana
Right: Miguel Adrover wears a look from Out Of My Mind, his Autumn/Winter 2012 collection
Bill Brandt: Beach Nudes at Atlas Gallery in London
from until June 27 to October 25, 2025
This exhibition of the late British photographer and photojournalist looks at Brandt’s ‘Marlborough Collection’, with many images making their public debut. Many of the photographs were taken on the East Sussex coast and shores of southern France, looking at the female form through an intimate lens. Brandt’s photography technique made the subject seem elongated and distorted, taking on a sculptural form which is in matrimony with the surrounding rugged context.
Left: Nude, East Sussex Coast, July, 1977, gelatin Silver Print, © Bill Brandt / Bill Brandt Archive Ltd
Right: Nude, Vasterival Beach, Normandy, May 1957, gelatin Silver Print, © Bill Brandt / Bill Brandt Archive Ltd copy
Left: Nude, East Sussex Coast, April 1953, gelatin Silver Print, © Bill Brandt / Bill Brandt Archive Ltd
Right: Nude Baie des Anges, 1959, gelatin Silver Print, © Bill Brandt / Bill Brandt Archive Ltd
Teenagers in their Bedrooms by Adrienne Salinger, published by D.A.P
I doubt that any photographers today would approach girls queuing in line for the toilet at shopping malls across America and ask to photograph them in their bedrooms. But that's exactly what Salinger did in the '80s and '90s, turning her visual series into a cult photography book with a title that tells you all you need to know.
Now three decades on from its original release, the title has been republished, as an expanded version including additional photographs, and the images evoke the same powerful nostalgia, but with her enduring work also speaking to a new generation and time.
"Bedrooms contain the past, the present and the future; they are sites of continual transformation. Popular culture and fashion continually change and recycle. While specific objects of decor change over time, teenagers' bedrooms are still private sanctuaries: spaces for safely experimenting during a time in life when one is forming and expressing ever-evolving identities."
All pictures by Adrienne Salinger, from Teenagers in their Bedrooms book, published by D.A.P
Text by Kate Lawson