This fall and winter, Milan is buzzing with fresh creative energy, as museums and cultural spaces across the city host a vibrant mix of exhibitions. From iconic names like Nan Goldin, Leonora Carrington, and Man Ray to immersive installations at Fondazione Prada and Pirelli HangarBicocca, the city offers a rich season of contemporary experiences.
The long-anticipated opening of Thaddaeus Ropac’s new Milan gallery adds to the momentum—marking a new chapter for the city as a growing hub on the international art scene.
Curated especially for contemporary art lovers, this guide brings together the must-see shows happening from mid-September 2025 through the end of the year—spotlighting bold ideas, new voices, and fresh perspectives in today’s art world.
Pirelli HangarBicocca – Yuko Mohri: Entanglements
- Location: Pirelli HangarBicocca (Shed)
- Duration: September 18, 2025 – January 11, 2026
A contemplative sculptural installation where organic forms and mechanical structures converge to create poetic sensory environments.
Pirelli HangarBicocca – Nan Goldin: This Will Not End Well
- Location: Pirelli HangarBicocca (Navate)
- Duration: October 11, 2025 – February 15, 2026
- Curators: Roberta Tenconi with Lucia Aspesi (presentation by Fredrik Liew)
A powerful retrospective bringing together Nan Goldin’s iconic slideshow films, including The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, The Other Side, Sisters, Saints and Sibyls, Fire Leap, Memory Lost, and Sirens. Two new works and an immersive sound installation expand the narrative, offering an unflinching look into themes of identity, addiction, intimacy, and resistance through Goldin’s deeply personal visual language.
Fondazione Prada – “Sueño Perro: Instalación Celuloide de Alejandro G. Iñárritu”
- Location: Fondazione Prada
- Duration: September 18, 2025 – February 26, 2026
A multisensory installation reconstructing previously unseen Amores Perros footage in analog film, delivering an emotional, immersive cinematic experience.
Fondazione Prada – Hito Steyerl
- Location: Osservatorio, Fondazione Prada
- Duration: December 4, 2025 – October 30, 2026
An immersive video and installation project exploring climate crisis and geopolitical fragility via holographic and audiovisual technologies.
Palazzo Reale – Leonora Carrington: Retrospective
- Location: Palazzo Reale, Milan
- Duration: September 20, 2025 – January 11, 2026
- Curators: Tere Arcq & Carlos Martín
Italy’s first solo show of Carrington, showcasing over 60 works across media—surrealist, mythological, feminist, and imaginative themes.
Palazzo Reale – Man Ray: Shapes of Light
- Location: Palazzo Reale, Milan
- Duration: September 24, 2025 – January 11, 2026
- Curators: PierreYves Butzbach & Robert Rocca
A comprehensive retrospective showcasing the artist’s innovative photographic techniques and wide-ranging work. Featuring surreal and striking images created through experimental methods like rayographs and solarization, the exhibition reveals Man Ray’s creative vision.
MUDEC – M.C. Escher: Between Art and Science
- Location: MUDEC
- Duration: September 25, 2025 – February 8, 2026
- Curators: Claudio Bartocci, Paolo Branca & Claudio Salsi
A visual exploration of Escher’s work, bridging geometry, tessellation, paradox, and perception in art.
GAM – Sara Enrico: Under the Skin, Beyond the Sun
- Location: Galleria d’Arte Moderna (GAM)
- Duration: September 16 – December 14, 2025
A solo exhibition exploring the relationship between body, material, and space through fabric-based sculptural works. Enrico’s hybrid forms blur the lines between architecture, textile, and the human body, inviting reflection on perception and transformation.
GAM – Pellizza da Volpedo: I capolavori
- Location: Galleria d’Arte Moderna (GAM)
- Duration: September 26, 2025 – January 25, 2026
- Curators: Aurora Scotti & Paola Zatti
A focused exhibition centered on Il Quarto Stato and divisionist, socially engaged painting in turnofthecentury Italy.
Thaddaeus Ropac – Georg Baselitz & Lucio Fontana: L’aurora viene
- Location: Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery, Palazzo Belgioioso
- Duration: September 20 – October 30, 2025
A powerful inaugural exhibit juxtaposing Baselitz’s expressive figures and sculpture with Fontana’s spatial concepts (Concetti Spaziali), revealing tension between gesture and void.
Triennale Milano – Alfa Castaldi: Style Dialogues
- Location: Triennale Milano
- Duration: Until November 9, 2025
- Curator: Luca Stoppini
A retrospective celebrating the work of Alfa Castaldi, a prominent Italian photographer known for his collaborations with Anna Piaggi at Vogue and his documentation of Milanese cultural life in the 1950s. The exhibition features a rich selection of his fashion and reportage photography.
Triennale Milano – Inequalities
- Location: Triennale Milano
- Duration: Until November 9, 2025
- Curator: Different curators for each exhibition and project
Since 1923, Triennale has invited designers, architects, and artists from around the world every three years to explore the most pressing issues of our time. The 24th edition, Inequalities, opens its doors with 10 exhibitions, 8 special projects, and 20 international contributions—offering installations and events that share fresh perspectives, urgent questions, and visions for a more inclusive future.
Nilufar Depot – 30th Anniversary Exhibition
- Location: Nilufar Depot, Viale Lancetti 34
- Duration: Starting October 1, 2025
- Curator: Nina Yashar
An immersive celebration of three decades of design curation, featuring archival and contemporary works arranged scenographically.
I Chiostri di Sant’Eustorgio – Dorothea Lange Exhibition
- Location: ll Museo Diocesano Carlo Maria Martini di Milano
- Duration: 15 Mayıs – 19 Ekim 2025
- Curators: W. Guadagnini, M. Poggi
The exhibition honoring Dorothea Lange’s 130th birthday presents the artist’s remarkable career through 140 photographs. Beginning in the 1930s and 40s, Lange shifted from portrait photography to documentary work, capturing major social crises like the Wall Street crash and the Dust Bowl. The iconic “Migrant Mother” was created during this period.
Cover Image: Mudec Agora, photo by Güliz Özbek Collini