July 1, 2025
Every month, Berlin Art Link shines a spotlight on international exhibitions and events with our list of Top Worldwide Exhibitions. We want to highlight artists, galleries, museums and new projects touching on a variety of topics, employing multiple media and featuring diverse subjects. Below are some of the stand-outs that we’ve selected for the months of July and August.
Rijksmuseum
Fiona Tan: ‘Monomania’
Exhibition: July 4-Sept. 14, 2025
rijksmuseum.nl
Museumstraat 1, 1071 XX Amsterdam, Netherlands, click here for map
At the Rijksmuseum, contemporary artist Fiona Tan turns curator and storyteller in ‘Monomania,’ an exhibition that mines the museum’s own collections to explore early psychiatry and the imagination of inner worlds. Tan delves into the 19th-century emergence of psychology, asking how patients’ mental struggles were seen by others, in an age of burgeoning scientific inquiry. Historic artworks and artifacts, from Théodore Géricault’s vivid portraits of asylum patients to eerie medical paraphernalia, are woven together with Tan’s own creations to form a provocative narrative. Notably, Tan secured the loan of Géricault’s ‘Portrait of a Kleptomaniac’ (ca. 1820–24) and juxtaposes it with prints by Francisco Goya and Edvard Munch, among others. The artist’s new film installation ‘Janine’s Room’ (2025) adds a personal, poetic counterpoint. By framing artworks as evidence of bygone diagnoses and anxieties, ‘Monomania’ invites reflection on how mental illness has been perceived—then and now—and offers a fresh, humanizing perspective on the Rijksmuseum’s holdings. It’s an erudite yet accessible journey that connects past obsessions with present-day conversations about mental health.
Edvard Munch: ‘The Sin (Standing Nude with Red Hair),’ 1902, Rijksmuseum. inv.no.
RP-P-1953 -888
Guggenheim Bilbao
‘in situ: Mark Leckey’
Exhibition: July 11-Dec. 4, 2025
guggenheim-bilbao.eus
Abandoibarra Etorb., 2, Abando, 48009 Bilbao, Bizkaia, Spain, click here for map
British artist Mark Leckey has built an influential practice around the way technology and pop culture shape our lives, and his upcoming exhibition in Bilbao promises an immersive dive into that eclectic world. Titled ‘in situ,’ the show is poised to fill the Guggenheim’s galleries with Leckey’s signature mix of sound, sculpture and moving images. Leckey, a Turner Prize winner known for cult works like ‘Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore’ (1999), has long explored themes of youth, class and nostalgia through found-object art and video assemblage. Here, he draws on a multiplicity of sources from underground music to internet ephemera, channeling them into a new site-specific installation. Expect an environment that blurs club culture with gallery space, as the artist’s multimedia alchemy probes the magic and mundanity of modern life. Both playful and critical, ‘in situ: Mark Leckey’ looks to capture the fleeting “now” in all its haunted, hyper-mediated glory.
Mark Leckey: ‘GreenScreenRefrigerator,’ 2010, Samsung RFG293HABP Bottom Freezer Refrigerator, LED panel, inflatable nylon fluorescent light, DuPont Freon canister, and video (color, sound), installation view at MoMA, New York, The Jill and Peter Kraus Media and Performance Acquisition Fund // Photo by Pablo Enriquez, courtesy of the artist, Cabinet Gallery London, and MoMA PS1, © Mark Leckey, Bilbao 2025
The Met
Group Show: ‘Casa Susanna’
Exhibition: July 21, 2025-Jan. 25, 2026
metmuseum.org
1000 5th Ave, New York, NY 10028, USA, click here for map
‘Casa Susanna’ at The Met offers an intimate and poignant window into a once-hidden mid-century community. The exhibition brings together a trove of photographs and personal ephemera created by and for a network of cross-dressers who found refuge at two Catskills resorts in the 1960s. In an era of rigid gender norms, Susanna Valenti and Marie Tornell’s country hideaways provided safe haven for guests to adopt their femme identities freely, documenting themselves in playful, proud snapshots. These images, rediscovered at a flea market in 2004, capture moments of joy, camaraderie and self-expression that stood in defiance of societal prejudice. Augmented with related magazines and personal stories, the exhibition grants insight into a significant pre-Stonewall cross-dressing scene, linking that history to today’s transgender experiences. ‘Casa Susanna’s’ sensitive curation balances nostalgia with critical context, celebrating a courageous community who asserted authentic identity through the transformative power of photography.
Andrea Susan: ‘Photo shoot with Lili, Wilma, and friends, Casa Susanna, Hunter, NY,’ 1964–1968, chromogenic print, 8.4 x 10.8 cm // Art Gallery of Ontario, purchased with funds generously donated by Martha LA McCain, 2015, photo © AGO
Mori Art Museum
Christine Sun Kim
Exhibition: July 2-Nov. 9, 2025
mori.art.museum
〒106-6150 Tokyo, Minato City, Roppongi, 6 Chome−10−1 Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, 53階, Japan, click here for map
The Mori Art Museum’s latest ‘MAM Project’ shines a spotlight on Christine Sun Kim, an American-born, Berlin-based artist renowned for expanding how we experience sound. In her practice, Kim treats sound as a multi-sensory and social phenomenon rather than a purely auditory one. Through drawings, video, sculpture and installation, she has long explored the unheard facets of sound and the politics woven into them. Many of her works translate American Sign Language—her first language—into bold visual compositions, using musical notation and graphic scores to convey the movement and emotion of signing. In ‘MAM Project 033,’ Kim presents a new mural and a sound installation titled ‘Community Sigh’ (2025), which together anchor the show. With characteristic wit, her pieces reveal the complex interplay between sound, language and meaning, prompting us to consider how communication resonates beyond spoken words. Kim’s fresh perspective turns the act of “listening” into a visual and intellectual adventure. As part of the museum’s experimental project series, this exhibition not only challenges our sensory assumptions but also reflects on the social dimensions of voice and silence. It’s an engaging, thought-provoking experience that asks: what does sound mean, and who gets to shape that meaning?
Christine Sun Kim: ‘Cues on Point,’ 2023, installation view at Secession, Vienna, Austria // Photo by Oliver Ottenschläger, courtesy of the Artist and Secession and François Ghebaly Gallery
ICA/Boston
Portia Zvavahera
Exhibition: Aug. 28, 2025-Jan. 19, 2026
icaboston.org
25 Harbor Shore Dr, Boston, MA 02210, USA, click here for map
For her first solo museum exhibition in the U.S., presented by ICA/Boston, Portia Zvavahera shows a selection of recent paintings, including three new works on view for the first time. The show is centered on the theme of animals and the symbolic role they play in the artist’s dreams as well as in collective imagination. Across her work, which merges painting and printmaking techniques in layered compositions, the artist engages with Zimbabwean figurative painting as well as the Indigenous Shona and African Pentecostal faith traditions in which she was raised. Her works navigate a broad range of references: from the Shona belief that eagles travel between heaven and earth carrying messages, to the symbolic role of the snake in the biblical story of Adam and Eve, to the flattened pictorial field of modern art.
Portia Zvavahera: ‘Tinosvetuka Rusvingo,’ 2024, oil based printing ink and oil bar on linen, diptych // © Portia Zvavahera, courtesy Stevenson and David Zwirner
HEK Basel
Group Show: ‘Quantum Visions: Encounters with Uncertainty’
Exhibition: Aug. 23-Nov. 16, 2025
hek.ch
Freilager-Platz 9, 4142 Münchenstein, Switzerland, click here for map
Featuring 11 artistic positions, including Libby Heaney, Ryoji Ikeda and Ayoung Kim, HEK’s group exhibition ‘Quantum Visions’ invites audiences to reconsider their understanding of reality by highlighting its shifting and often contradictory nature. Where the universe was once seen as stable and predictable, it is now understood as a dynamic realm shaped by chance and possibility. Conceived as a laboratory for questioning and reinterpreting knowledge, ‘Quantum Visions’ creates a space where art and science intersect to explore the impact of quantum physics on society, philosophy and art. The exhibition is presented in collaboration with the Tabakalera cultural center in San Sebastian and the MU Hybrid Art House in Eindhoven, and is developed with scientific research partners CERN, DIPC, Tekniker and the Department of Quantum Physics at the University of Basel.
Patricia Conde Galería
Juan Rafael Coronel Rivera: ‘Maringuilla’
Exhibition: June 26-Aug. 16, 2025
pcg.photo
Calle Gral. Juan Cano 68, San Miguel Chapultepec I Secc, Miguel Hidalgo, 11850 Mexico City, CDMX, Mexico, click here for map
In ‘Maringuilla,’ Mexican photographer Juan Rafael Coronel Rivera celebrates a flamboyant figure from regional folklore and, in the process, spotlights questions of gender, ritual and cultural tradition. Curated by Michel Blancsubé, this exhibition gathers 30 years worth of black-and-white gelatin silver prints taken by Coronel Rivera at carnival dances across 12 Mexican states (1995–2024). The “maringuilla” is a carnivalesque character: typically a man costumed as a woman, bringing comedic mischief to otherwise sacred festivities. Coronel Rivera’s lens documents the presence and vitality of these cross-dressing personas in diverse local dances, exploring their ritual and erotic dimensions through a vivid visual journey. The photographs capture a world where the sacred and profane converge in revelry. Rather than an anthropological survey, ‘Maringuilla’ is presented as an artistic tribute to this disruptive, joyful spirit in Mexican culture. With 55 striking images on view, the series offers a rare focus on a single folkloric figure and the liberating role of play and parody in communal tradition.
Juan Rafael Coronel Rivera: ‘Maringuilla’ // Courtesy of the artist and Patricia Conde Galería
Kunsthalle Wien
Ibrahim Mahama: ‘Zilijifa’
Exhibition: July 9-Nov. 2, 2025
kunsthallewien.at
Museumsplatz 1, 1070 Wien, Austria, click here for map
In his solo exhibition at Kunsthalle Wien, Ibrahim Mahama explores the material legacies of colonialism, post-colonialism and industrialization in Ghana. Through this new body of work—including sculpture, photography and video—the artist investigates overlooked histories, particularly the British-built Ghanaian railway system. Central to the exhibition is a full-size, hollowed-out diesel locomotive, originally imported to Ghana from Germany in the 1960s and used to export goods to Europe, facilitating economic development through the extraction of Ghana’s natural resources. Supporting the train is an installation of used headpans—ubiquitous in Ghana for carrying goods—symbolizing the physical burden borne by workers. A series of X-ray images documenting spinal deformations caused by years of carrying heavy loads accompanies the installation. Through this show, the railway is framed as a system literally and metaphorically built on the backs of the Ghanaian people.
Courtesy of Redclay, Ibrahim Mahama and White Cube
Christopher Moller Gallery
Group Show: ‘Truths Informed By Our Past’
Exhibition: Aug. 6-Sept. 10, 2025
christophermollerart.co.za
7 Kloof Nek Rd, Gardens, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa, click here for map
Part of Cape Town’s citywide ‘HEAT Winter Festival’ 2025, Christopher Moller Gallery presents ‘Truths Informed by Our Past,’ a group exhibition where contemporary African artists engage with historical legacies and personal memory through painting, sculpture and mixed media. Amid the festival’s creative fervor, this show offers an introspective journey into generational memory and the enduring values and lessons carried forward through time. The works on display are as diverse as the continent itself, yet connected by a common quest to reclaim history and understand how the past shapes identity and truth. The festival includes artists such as Lionel Smit, Blessing Ngobeni, and Yaw Owusu, the exhibition highlights Africa’s vibrant voices reimagining heritage in visually striking ways. Smit’s monumental portraits channel layered Cape identities, while Ngobeni’s dynamic collages confront the ghosts of South Africa’s tumultuous past. In turn, Owusu transforms devalued Ghanaian coins into gleaming sculptures that critique colonial legacies of value. Together, these works reflect broader currents in contemporary African art—a creative reckoning with history and a poetic forging of new cultural narratives for the future.
Chelsea Young: ‘Inner Peace Can Become Your New Home,’ Oil paint and oil pastel on canvas, 126 x 107 cm, 2025 // Courtesy of Christopher Moller Gallery
