In conversation: Lio Dubois
Artist, curator, and general chaos agent
coming soon... lio and i are trying to find a time that works. their schedule is impossible. mine too honestly
but you can find more of their work at 1113000.xyz/lio.html
December 2025
Vaginal Davis at Gropius Bau — Berlin's Most Honest Show
Gropius Bau, Berlin | Until September 2025
i finally made it to berlin to see the davis show and it's one of those exhibitions that makes you understand why you love looking at art in the first place. "Fabelhaftes Produkt" is 20 years of her work in one building and it's overwhelming in the best way possible.
installation view, gropius bau
what struck me immediately was how the work refuses to be categorized. paintings next to zines next to video installations next to performance documentation. it all feels necessary together. davis is pulling from punk, from queer nightlife, from black counterculture, from her own family history, and somehow it coheres. it doesn't feel like a mess even though it could easily be one.
the large-scale installations in the main hall are stunning (and i mean that without irony). there's something about seeing work made from genuine aesthetic and political urgency that just hits different. this isn't art for the market. this is someone making work because they have to.
"you can feel the stakes in every piece. nothing here is decorative."
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the films are particularly good. i watched these short pieces from the 90s and they have an energy that honestly makes a lot of contemporary video art feel safe by comparison. davis and her collaborators were genuinely inventing a visual language for lives and experiences that were being completely ignored.
the exhibition is loud and unapologetic and you should absolutely go. even if berlin is far. even if your feet hurt. go.
★★★★★
November 2025
Małgorzata Mirga-Tas at Kunsthaus Bregenz — Textiles as Resistance
Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria | Until September 2025
ok so i haven't been to bregenz yet (train prices are insane rn) but i've been looking at images from the mirga-tas show and i need to talk about it anyway.
if you saw the venice biennale 2022 you already know about her hand-sewn textile collages. they're intricate and heartbreaking—made with her family, addressing romani and sinti marginalization. but this new show adds life-size wax sculptures to the conversation, and apparently it's this whole expanded meditation on community and erasure.
"textiles as a form of resistance is not a new idea, but mirga-tas is doing it with such formal sophistication that it stops being didactic"
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the sculptures are based on figures from her hometown in the tatra mountains. bears, people, animals. rendered in wax so they're simultaneously fragile and monumental. the combination with the textile work creates this really interesting conversation between materials and persistence.
i'm definitely making the trip next month. worth the journey. will update once i've actually seen it in person instead of on my screen.
★★★★☆ (based on images + research)
October 2025
Kandinsky's Universe at Museum Barberini — Too Much of a Good Thing?
Museum Barberini, Potsdam | Through May 2025
massive retrospective about kandinsky and abstract art history. over 100 works. the museum is banking on you caring about abstraction's foundational moment. and like... some of it is genuinely beautiful but also i had museum fatigue by room three lol
the show traces kandinsky's spiritual use of color and geometry and then brings in albers, riley, stella, etc to show his influence. it's smart curation. it's just also *a lot*. my brain was officially done after 90 minutes.
kandinsky room, museum barberini
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that said, if you're genuinely into modernism and abstraction, this is probably the definitive show for this year. seeing early kandinsky next to bridget riley creates this beautiful dialogue. the geometric work hits harder when you see it in conversation with its precursors.
recommendation: go on a weekday morning, take your time, actually sit with pieces instead of rushing through. the audio guide is actually good too (unusual).
★★★★☆
September 2025
Paris is getting a new museum and i'm stressed about it
Fondation Cartier opening October 2025
the new fondation cartier opens next month on place du palais-royal and honestly i've been obsessed with this building for years. jean nouvel completely reworked the interior of the old louvre des antiquaires and apparently there are these moving platforms that adjust for different exhibitions??
which is cool and innovative and also sounds kind of unnecessarily complicated? like why does a gallery need to move. but i'm also extremely here for it. the location is impossible (directly opposite the louvre), the architecture sounds stunning, and hopefully they'll program work that justifies the hype.
the timeline is ambitious: opening in october with an inaugural show. i'll probably be there on opening night standing awkwardly drinking bad white wine. if you're in paris let me know and we can go together and feel uncomfortable about it.
★★★★☆ (ratings tbd...)
August 2025
Sarah Lucas at Kiasma Helsinki — Funny and Devastating
Kiasma, Helsinki | October 2025 – March 2026
finland's first major sarah lucas retrospective opens in october and it's spanning 40 years of work. which seems insane because she doesn't look 40 years old but also yes she definitely has been making art for that long.
her sculptures and photographs have this quality where they're immediately funny and then you keep laughing and then suddenly you're not laughing anymore because she's dismantled your assumptions about bodies and desire and gender.
"lucas refuses sentimentality in a way most artists can't manage"
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the work associated with the young british artists movement (which felt so provocative in the 90s and now looks like... documentation of a specific moment), but lucas transcended that scene. her work has continued to develop and honestly some of her recent pieces are among the best sculpture being made anywhere.
if you're in helsinki in the winter (which is either the best or worst idea depending on your tolerance for cold and darkness), this is essential. the retrospective structure means you can really trace her formal evolution.
★★★★★
July 2025
Paula Rego in Lisbon — A Master Class in Refusal
Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian, Lisbon | Until September 2025
the rego + varejão show in lisbon is still up until september and i'm kicking myself for not writing about it sooner. "Between Your Teeth" brings together two portuguese artists separated by generation but connected by refusal to make comfortable work.
rego's paintings are violent and visceral and funny in this dark way. varejão's work is more formally experimental—collages that deconstruct the surface of the canvas itself. together they create this dialogue about what it means to make art in and from portugal, carrying history, resisting easy narrative.
detail from the gulbenkian
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if lisbon feels far away, the catalog is genuinely good so maybe start there. but also lisbon is beautiful and the museum is perfect and portuguese food is incredible and honestly you should go. the city has been feeling more bearable (less touristy) than paris lately anyway.
rego especially—her ability to combine formal sophistication with genuine emotional and political stakes is unmatched. we all need more rego in our lives.
★★★★★