Arts and culture exhibitions to look out for in 2025
From the virtual worlds of Sara Sadik to the ancient artistic heritage of Sudan, we look ahead to some of the most exciting exhibitions over the coming year
–
From the hyper-modern virtual worlds of Sara Sadik to the ancient artistic heritage of Sudan, 2025 has much on offer for those seeking to deepen their understanding of art and culture outside the western mainstream. In a new London exhibition, British Bengali artist Mohammed Z Rahman draws on his childhood in the capital. Meanwhile, Indonesian artist Citra Sasmita takes over the Barbican’s Curve gallery with a sensory exploration of ancestral memory.
Citra Sasmita: Into Eternal Land
As a long, winding corridor instead of the traditional white cube, The Curve at the Barbican is an unusual space to fill. Yet it seems the perfect environment for Indonesian artist Citra Sasmita’s first UK solo exhibition. Her multi-sensory, multidisciplinary show Into Eternal Land spans embroidery, installation, painting and scent, exploring Balinese culture through a feminist lens.
Sasmita takes inspiration from ideas relating to systems of oppression and even the techniques she uses challenge gender roles. Some of the paintings on display engage with the Indonesian Kamasan technique, a Balinese painting style from the 15th century traditionally practised exclusively by men and used to narrate Hindu epics. By adopting it on her own terms, Sasmita reimagines patriarchal narratives associated with the craft.
“Facing the majestic space of The Curve makes my heart tremble, but at the same time it invites me to explore possibilities that I had never imagined before,” Sasmita says of the commission.
Into Eternal Land is at Barbican’s The Curve, London from 30 January to 21 April 2025.
Ancient Sudan: Enduring Heritage
A new touring exhibition gives space to Sudan’s vibrant culture, celebrating and commemorating this rich heritage when so much of the country and its people have been decimated by conflict.
The show, Ancient Sudan: Enduring Heritage, focuses on the Kingdom of Kush, which at its height nearly 3,000 years ago was one of the largest empires of the ancient world. It reveals how Kush — positioned between Central Africa and the Mediterranean — was a thriving epicentre of cultural tradition, developing remarkable architectural achievements and skilled craftsmanship.
The show has been made possible by the British Museum’s Spotlight Loan, whereby items from the institution’s archive are shared with museums across the UK. Nine objects will be on display at sites in Portsmouth and Stirling in 2025. Pieces include a striking bronze figurehead of a goddess dating to the third century CE, and a clay jar decorated with Nile crocodiles between 250 to 300 CE, illustrating how profoundly the Kush culture shaped Africa and beyond.
Both museums will develop their accompanying programmes with local Sudanese community groups. Through its collaboration with organisations like the Sudanese Community In and Around Portsmouth and the Rural Refugee Network, Portsmouth Museum and Art Gallery will highlight the ongoing conservation efforts needed to preserve Sudanese heritage.
The touring exhibition Ancient Sudan is showing at Portsmouth Museum and Art Gallery from 1 February to 19 April 2025 and at Stirling Smith Art Gallery from 9 August to 9 November 2025.
“Beurcore” is at the heart of Sara Sadik’s practice. Sadik invented the word to describe the culture of the Maghrebi diaspora in France, primarily of African descent from Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. The community, which makes up 60% of all African immigrants in France, has often faced racism, social exclusion and Islamophobia in French society.
Sadik seeks to challenge that discrimination through visual art, giving depth to the French-Maghrebi experience. Having witnessed the difficulties her brother and others experienced growing up in France, she creates work inspired by their struggle and resilience. The 30-year-old Marseille-based artist uses the medium of video and performance often inspired by video games, science fiction, anime and French rap.
Her new exhibition, La Potion, at the Annka Kultys gallery, is a video game installation, following an avatar on a journey exploring masculine identity through a computer-generated fantasy world.
La Potion is available to view online now, and in person at the Annka Kultys Gallery, London, from 17 January to 1 March 2025.
A Story of South Asian Art: Mrinalini Mukherjee and Her Circle
Mrinalini Mukherjee was known for her exquisite, otherworldly sculptures crafted using ceramics, bronze and natural fibres. Described by one critic as being “vegetal, sexual, exquisite, and strange”, her work draws influence from nature, South Asian traditions of architecture and craft, and international modernist art and design.
Mukherjee, who died in 2015, grew up between two centres of Indian arts education, Santiniketan and Dehradun, and had a significant influence on her South Asian contemporaries, as shown in the Royal Academy’s new exhibition. Along with works selected from across her 40-year career, there are pieces from her wide network of artists, including parents Benode Behari and Leela Mukherjee, who taught at the influential Kala Bhavana institute of fine arts in Santiniketan.
Both Mukherjee and her mother Leela worked with sculpture almost all their lives, claiming their place in what was a largely male discipline. Other pioneers of modern art are featured, such as KG Subramanyan, known for drawing connections between the often disparate worlds of modern and traditional, western and eastern.
A Story of South Asian Art: Mrinalini Mukherjee and Her Circle is showing at the Royal Academy of Arts, London from 24 October 2025 until 25 January 2026.
Mohammed Z Rahman: Remember to Live
Mohammed Z Rahman’s new exhibition at Peer Gallery is an uplifting exploration of the artist’s relationship with the UK capital. Rahman’s work spans zine-making, poetry, illustration, painting and sculpture, and this multidisciplinary practice reflects a childhood growing up in east London surrounded by creativity. His sisters, aunts and mother made their house feel like home through basketry, weaving, embroidery — all skills learned from living in Bangladesh.
This solo show presents a new body of work based on Rahman’s ongoing research on dreams and memories. Rahman, a self-taught artist, asks us to reimagine what we consider to be our history and who gets to be the main characters in its retelling. Rahman’s BA in social anthropology informs how he approaches his subjects and gives an added richness to the inner worlds he conjures up, offering an antidote to anti-migrant narratives prevalent in mainstream society.
Mohammed Z Rahman’s exhibition is showing at the Peer Gallery, London from 14 February to April 2025.
Topics
Get the Hyphen weekly
Subscribe to Hyphen’s weekly round-up for insightful reportage, commentary and the latest arts and lifestyle coverage, from across the UK and Europe
This form may not be visible due to adblockers, or JavaScript not being enabled.