5 Exhibitions to See in February 2025

February 2025 brings a dynamic lineup of must-see exhibitions, showcasing groundbreaking artists across major global institutions. From a participatory installation by Yoko Ono at Park Avenue Armory to Robert Mangold’s exploration of printmaking at Pace Prints, this month’s highlights span conceptual, minimalist, and contemporary practices. Gabriel Orozco’s first major museum show in Mexico since 2006, and Mike Kelley’s Vice Anglais at Hauser & Wirth, London, round out a diverse selection. Here’s your guide to five essential exhibitions this month – each offering a fresh perspective on materiality, memory, and the evolving language of contemporary art.

Gabriel Orozco: Politécnico Nacional

Museo Jumex – Mexico City, Mexico

Feb 01, 2025 - Aug 03, 2025

Gabriel Orozco, Untitled (Airline Ticket), 2001. Courtesy Museo Jumex. Photo: John Berens.

Organized in collaboration with curator Briony Fer, Gabriel Orozco: Politécnico Nacional at Museo Jumex features around 300 works, including sculptures, paintings, drawings, photographs, and installations. It’s a landmark exhibition showcasing one of Mexico’s most influential contemporary artists. Orozco, renowned for his ability to blur the boundaries between art and everyday life, presents a collection that spans three decades of groundbreaking practice.

Orozco’s artistic language thrives on fluidity, embracing found objects, symmetry, rotation, and material experimentation. His approach challenges traditional artistic conventions, incorporating chance and spontaneity into his creations. By weaving together different media – often considered contradictory – this exhibition offers a dynamic perspective on Orozco’s evolution.

Politécnico Nacional is more than a retrospective; it is an exploration of how Orozco continues to redefine artistic possibilities. This exhibition serves as a turning point, inviting  viewers to engage with his ever-evolving practice in new and unexpected ways.

Mike Kelley: Vice Anglais

Hauser & Wirth – London, UK

Feb 04, 2025 - Apr 17, 2025

Mike Kelley, Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction #36 (Vice Anglais), 2011, Lenticular panel, light box, 82.6 x 122.6 x 9.2 cm / 32 1/2 x 48 1/4 x 3 5/8 in. Photo: Genevieve Hanson © Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts. All Rights Reserved/VAGA at ARS, NY Courtesy the Foundation and Hauser & Wirth

Mike Kelley: Vice Anglais at Hauser & Wirth London offers a deep dive into one of the final works by the influential American artist. Known for his provocative explorations of memory, social rituals, and counterculture, Kelley’s work dismantles institutional authority while elevating the discarded and overlooked.

This exhibition centers on Extracurricular Activity Projective Reconstruction #36 (Vice Anglais, 2011), the last installment of Kelley’s ambitious EAPR series, in which he restaged found photographs of high school extracurricular activities. Alongside this video, the show presents never-before-exhibited paintings of its cast, a companion film (Made in England, 2011), a lightbox still, and sculptures made from props used in the video.

Kelley’s practice, spanning performance, sculpture, and film, frequently interrogated themes of repression, adolescence, and class. Vice Anglais is a powerful testament to his lifelong engagement with subcultures and institutional critique, offering a compelling reflection on the intersection of memory, power, and social constructs.

Etel Adnan: On Paper, 1960–2021

Galerie Lelong & Co. – Chelsea, New York

Feb 13, 2025 - Apr 05, 2025

Etel Adnan, Tamalpaïs, Sausalito, 1988, Watercolor and ink on paper, 13 x 15 ¾ in (33 x 40 cm). Courtesy of Galerie Lelong & Co.

Held in honor of the centenary of her birth, Etel Adnan: On Paper, 1960–2021 celebrates Adnan’s enduring vision, revealing how her gestures and perceptions shaped a body of work that is both deeply personal and universally resonant, bridging nature, memory, and artistic expression.

On Paper at Galerie Lelong & Co. presents a profound exploration of the late artist’s works on paper, offering a rare opportunity to witness the depth of her creative practice beyond painting. Spanning six decades, the exhibition features compositions in ink, pencil, pastel, and watercolor, as well as a selection of Adnan’s signature leporello artist books.

A poet, philosopher, and painter, Adnan’s cross-disciplinary approach merges text and image, with drawings that capture the essence of landscapes, celestial bodies, and abstraction. The exhibition traces her evolution from the 1960s – when she created intimate, ink-based works imbued with a Symbolist sensibility – to her later, vibrant explorations of form and color.

Yoko Ono: Wish Tree

Park Avenue Armory – New York, NY

Feb 14, 2025 - Feb 17, 2025 

Courtesy of Park Avenue Armory

Since the 1960s, Yoko Ono has redefined the boundaries of conceptual and participatory art, blending poetic instruction with activism. Yoko Ono: Wish Tree at Park Avenue Armory exemplifies her lifelong commitment to engaging audiences in acts of imagination and transformation. Through this living installation, Ono continues to merge art and social action, reinforcing themes of peace, interconnectedness, and shared aspiration.

Wish Tree presents the largest installation of Ono’s ongoing participatory work in North America, marking a profound celebration of the artist’s 92nd birthday. Within the vast Wade Thompson Drill Hall, a grove of 92 trees will transform the space into a site of collective hope and reflection, inviting visitors to inscribe personal wishes and tie them to the branches.

As the trees gather thousands of wishes, the exhibition becomes both a deeply personal and expansive gesture – one that embodies Ono’s enduring belief in the power of art to inspire change and unity.

Robert Mangold

Pace Prints – Chelsea, New York

Feb 14, 2025 - Mar 15, 2025

Robert Mangold, I, from Plane / Figure Series, Folded, 1992-1993. Courtesy of Pace Prints

Robert Mangold at Pace Prints presents a comprehensive survey of the artist’s engagement with printmaking, spanning works from 1993 to 2017. A central figure in Minimalism since the 1960s, Mangold has continuously explored the interplay of line, shape, and color across diverse formats, using abstraction as a powerful mode of expression.

This exhibition highlights how printmaking has served as a vital extension of Mangold’s practice, allowing him to refine compositional elements through collaboration and technical experimentation. His prints – marked by delicate pencil lines, curvilinear forms, and subtle gradations of color – demonstrate the same precision and meditative quality as his shaped canvases.

By translating his ideas across mediums, Mangold creates a dialogue between drawing, painting, and printmaking. Robert Mangold at Pace Prints offers a rare opportunity to experience the depth of his minimalist vision, revealing how his exploration of structure and color continues to evolve over time.

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