We selected a few art events and exhibitions near Zurich and other European hot spots that are well worth a visit this autumn.
I love art all year round, but autumn is an unbridled ‘museum‑time’ for me. The moody season regularly brings new exhibitions, art fairs, auctions, and more. Below is a brief selection of recently opened or soon‑opening events.
‘Michaelina Wautier, Painter’
30 September 2025 – 22 February 2026, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Michaelina Wautier (c. 1614–1689) was an important female painter who followed in the footsteps of Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck.
She was a true trailblazer—as the Royal Academy of Arts describes her. The only daughter among nine siblings, she began her artistic career relatively late, around the age of 39. Despite this delayed start, she continually pushed the limits and possibilities for women artists.
At a time when most female painters were confined to still lifes or genre scenes, Wautier also earned recognition for her portraits and history paintings.
Learn more about her fascinating story here.
‘Michaelina Wautier is one of the most significant rediscoveries in art history. The Kunsthistorisches Museum is showing work that has been overlooked or misattributed to others for centuries’, says Jonathan Fine, Director General of the Kunsthistorisches Museum.
After its premiere in Vienna, the exhibition will be shown in an adapted form at the Royal Academy of Arts in London from 27 March to 21 June 2026.
‘Japan de luxe – The Art of the Surimono Prints’
26 September 2025 – 12 July 2026, Rietberg Museum, Zurich
Museum Rietberg is set in three intriguing buildings within a beautiful park in Zurich, and it houses works of art from Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Oceania. This autumn, it opened a new exhibition showcasing surimono, a distinctive form of Japanese colour woodblock print that emerged between the late 18th and mid‑19th centuries. These pieces were privately commissioned for special occasions and intended as intimate gifts for the urban bourgeoisie.
(The exhibition is divided into two time periods: 26 September 2025 – 5 February 2026 and 19 February 2026 – 12 July 2026. The layout of the gallery and exhibition chapters will remain the same, but all the surimono will be replaced mid-February.)
‘Yayoi Kusama’
12 October – 25 January 2026, Fondation Beyeler, Riehen
Still Japanese art, but contemporary – Yayoi Kusama (born 1929) is a Japanese visual artist who is widely known for her polka dots, “Infinity Rooms,” and collaborations with the luxury brand Louis Vuitton.
Kusama has been represented by David Zwirner gallery since 2013. As they note, ‘her work has transcended two of the most important art movements of the second half of the twentieth century: Pop Art and Minimalism. Her highly influential career spans paintings, performances, room‑size installations, outdoor sculptural works, literary pieces, films, fashion, design, and interventions within existing architectural structures, alluding simultaneously to microscopic and macroscopic universes.’
The Fondation Beyeler will be the first museum in Switzerland to devote a retrospective to her art. The exhibition will offer a comprehensive overview of Kusama’s long career. In addition to many of her iconic works, the show will feature early pieces never before seen in Europe, new productions, and one of the artist’s celebrated Infinity Mirror Rooms.
‘Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show’
18 October 2025 – 15 February 2026, Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein
The Vitra Design Museum is among the world’s leading museums of applied art, dedicated to researching and presenting design and its connections to architecture, art, and everyday culture. Its new exhibition “Catwalk: The Art of the Fashion Show” and the accompanying events discuss the complex phenomenon of fashion shows and introduce the genre as a Gesamtkunstwerk.
The exhibition explores the history and cultural significance of the fashion show from its early forms around 1900 to the present day. It brings together fashion houses such as Azzedine Alaïa, Balenciaga, Chanel, Dior, Gucci, Maison Martin Margiela, Prada, Viktor & Rolf, Louis Vuitton (also a partner of the exhibition), Yohji Yamamoto, and many others.
Divided into four sections — original collection pieces, film and photographic material, stage objects, and show invitations — the exhibition animates more than 100 years of fashion history on the catwalk.
INTERWOVEN, a Homo Faber Capsule
22 October – 23 November 2025, Seville, Spain
In July, Homo Faber announced INTERWOVEN, a Homo Faber Capsule and the first edition of a new exhibition series designed to showcase a curated selection of craft talents from the Homo Faber Guide. The inaugural edition takes place in Seville, a city with a multilayered cultural history and a rich textile heritage. The event celebrates the interconnected nature of craftsmanship, revealing the diverse traditions, techniques, materials, and human stories woven together to create handcrafted objects.
Encompassing 35 objects by artisans and ateliers from 15 countries on four continents and representing 24 crafts, the final selection was chosen by a nine‑member jury of internal and external experts.
Art Basel Paris
24 -26 October, 2025, Grand Palais, Paris
In January 2022, Art Basel and its parent company, the Swiss MCH Group AG (which organises and hosts about 90 exhibitions), announced that it had been awarded a seven‑year contract to stage a new fair at the Grand Palais in Paris – Paris+ par Art Basel. The event initially took place at the Grand Palais’s temporary venue, the Grand Palais Éphémère, but it has now moved to the renovated Grand Palais and is called Art Basel Paris.
Two hundred six galleries from 41 countries—including 29 first‑time participants and 63 galleries operating spaces in France—will present the best of their collections. Public days are 24 – 26 October, VIP days are 22 – 23 October, and there is an additional ultra‑VIP preview on the afternoon of 21 October.
More about the exhibitors and the panels & talks.
Source: press release. Photo credits: Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Rietberg Museum. Fondation Beyeler. Vitra Design Museum. Michelangelo Foundation. Art Basel. Loupiosity.com
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