CHICAGO, IL.- The Art Institute of Chicago announced its exhibition schedule for the second half of 2025.
Featuring a dynamic collection of paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures, textiles and more from global artists, these exhibitions reflect the museums commitment to showcasing an assortment of artistic talent across time, cultures, geographies, and identities. Iconic works like Edvard Munchs The Scream and Elizabeth Catletts Sharecropper will be on display in addition to lesser-known works by contemporary artists. A major retrospective of American architect Bruce Goff will round out a year of exciting presentations for visitors to experience.
Raqib Shaw: Paradise Lost
June 7, 2025January 19, 2026
Kashmir-raised, London-based artist Raqib Shaw debuts his more-than 100-feet-wide, 21-panel Paradise Lost (200925) at the Art Institute of Chicago, marking the first time all four chapters will be displayed. The magnificent allegorical painting takes viewers on a journey dense with symbolism and detail, exploring themes of identity, transformation, and the redemptive power of beauty.
Pixy Liao: Relationship Material
July 26December 8, 2025
This is Chinese-born artist Pixy Liaos first exhibition in Chicago and features approximately 45 works, many from her ongoing photographic series Experimental Relationship (2007present). This series of humorous self-portraits is made in collaboration with her partner Takahiro Morooka, and celebrates their many ways of being and working together while examining questions of fantasy, desire, and control.
Charles Gaines: Night/Crimes
August 9, 2025February 1, 2026
Charles Gaines: Night/Crimes focuses on a series of works Gaines created in which he paired archival photographs of violent crime scenes, victims, and indicted murderers with images of constellations that could have been seen in the night sky when the crimes occurred. This will be the first museum exhibition of Night/Crimes since it was first shown in 1995, inviting a new consideration of the 50-year arc of history that the 1990s series addresses.
Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That It Implies
August 30, 2025January 4, 2026
As one of the defining artists of the 20th century, Elizabeth Catlett strived to make art for the people and put social justice at the very center of her work. This exhibition traces the artists careerfrom her roots in Washington, D.C., Chicago, and New Yorkto the remarkable body of work she made during some 60 years in Mexico.
On Loss and Absence: Textiles of Mourning and Survival
September 6, 2025March 15, 2026
Organized conceptually around themes of mourning and trauma, healing and repair, transition of realms, and resistance and survival of textile techniques and traditions, On Loss and Absence: Textiles of Mourning and Survival examines how textiles reflect humans relationship with loss and absence across time and place.
Strange Realities: The Symbolist Imagination
October 4, 2025January 5, 2026
Featuring over 85 works on paper by iconic artists including Edvard Munchs The Scream as well as lesser-known figures like Emilie Mediz-Pelikan and Léon Spilliaert, Strange Realities captures the beauty and strangeness of the Symbolism movement and its mysterious generation of artists.
Bruce Goff: Material Worlds
December 21, 2025March 29, 2026
Bruce Goff: Material Worlds is a major retrospective exploring the unbounded creative practice of visionary architect Bruce Goff. This materially-rich exhibition presents a new focus on Goffs multimedia production in architecture, painting, music, and wide-ranging personal collections, making the case for his unique place in twentieth-century American culture.